The Divine Infection

Chapter Sixteen: We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

"This giant bloody wall..." Jake gapes. "Is Dundee?" 

"No. The wall is the protection around it." Alaya corrects him. I stare out of the window in front of me, studying the large metal structure in awe. Much like a mountain, what must be iron or steel juts up in a deadly spike, creating a horribly jagged pattern across the top of the structure that continues round the perimeter of the city. "There's a lot of protection around the city, because all the survivors are here." She adds. As Jake drives closer to the wall, I can see three men in black armour that covers their entire bodies, and black helmets covering their heads. I can see a familiar little logo on the side: RedempCorp's logo, in its odd little shape. Holding my breath as one of the men, holding a large gun by his side, holds up his hand to stop us, I watch closely as the figure approaches the van. 

"What business do you have here?" A man asks. His voice is slightly muffled by the helmet he is wearing, but everyone hears him clearly enough. 

"We're survivors. We've travelled from Beccles, and now we're here for safety." Jake tells him. The man nods, before poking his head in through my window, looking around the inside of the van. 

"How many?" 

Jake seems to be counting for a moment as he mutters almost silently to himself. Then, "Ten." 

The man nods, and then turns to look towards the other two armoured figures beside what must be some kind of heavily-protected steel door. Raising his hand and giving a sharp, minute wave, the shorter of the other two raises what I'm assuming is some kind of walkie-talkie to his helmet, muttering something. In just a moment, I hear a deafening clang, and then the area of the wall before us begins to open up, revealing a long steel tunnel. The armour-clad man motions for us to drive on, and so Jake shifts the van into gear and drives forward, nervously biting his lip as the van approaches the large wall. Gears and cogs are upon the wall, turning and shifting as the tunnel-like area is further revealed, until eventually it stops making any kind of noise, and Jake drives through the tunnel in deadly silence. The area around us is dimly lit by paraffin lamps on the walls, the van's shadow creating an eerie illusion of being followed through the dark tunnel. It seems to go on forever, until eventually I see light at the end of the expanse of shadows; then, Jake slows the van as we enter a square-shaped courtyard-like area, surrounded by the same steel walls as the outside of the city. 

"This doesn't look like Dundee. Not the way I remember it." Alex frowns, sleepily looking out of the window. I can see five figures, exactly identical to the armour-clad guards outside, approaching the van, and then each of then open a door of the van. One of them, rather tall and thin, reaches out and grabs my arm, and I rather fearfully look around me at my plain, metallic surroundings. 

"Hey, what're you playing at?!" Barrone protests as one of the guard-like figures pulls him from the van. Holding him back from the rest of us, the guard proceeds to check him over for something, much to Barrone's discomfort. The guard holding me does the same to me, checking me over. 

"It's protocol." One of the guards says, before pulling Pip from the van. After checking me the same way Laurence did back in Beccles, the guard simply discards me to the side, and I dart over to where Barrone is stood, scowling up a storm. 

"I don't like this. Doesn't feel right." He mutters. 

"Because they're from RedempCorp?" He cocks an eyebrow in question. "Their helmets, on the side they have the RedempCorp logo." 

"So they do... Now I know why it felt off." He narrows his eyes, studying the guards around us, and then looks down at me. "No need to be worried. I'm here, nothing'll happen to you whilst I'm here." I nod, smiling gratefully up at him, and he takes my hand gently, squeezing it reassuringly.