"Veronica? Five? Sound off, guys. Where are you?" Sam asks. His voice is tinged with worry, but he's keeping himself stable, calm. It makes me feel calm, knowing that he's not worrying too much, even as we wander around in the dark.
"I'm with Five, Sam," Veronica says in a low whisper. "And the Minister. But... I don't know where we are."
"Down here, fellas. Past this corridor," One of the Deadlocks says. I curse under my breath.
"Okay, okay," Sam breathes out. "So, you're in an underground vault controlled by the Deadlocks. It's dark. The Deadlocks have night vision goggles." He winces as a zombie moans from behind us. "And one of them's turned into a zom. You have to get out of there."
"This way," The Minister says.
"Which way?"
"I think I feel fresh air coming from this direction."
"Take my hand," Veronica says. "You too, Five."
I grab onto her hand, my other one still holding onto the Viking metalwork. I haven't had the time to put it in my bag, not with the zombie and those Deadlocks chasing us. Plus it made a pretty handy weapon against that one guy.
"Oh, thank God. I'm finally into their system," Sam says, and I all but sigh in relief. "There's uh, there's like, emergency lighting. If I can access it... I just need to-oh, come on! Come on, Sam, come on."
"Calm down, Mr. Yao," Janine says. "Take your time."
The zombie moans again. My shoulders tense. It's closer now.
"They haven't got any time!"
"Veronica, my dear, it is vital that you make it out of here," The Minister says. "Your work is too important. You're too important. Now, I've cut myself. That way, I can make sure the wretched zom follows me and not you. Now go!"
"Oh," Janine says, a small gasp in her voice. "That's-"
"We're not leaving you," Veronica insists.
"You most certainly are. Take her arm, Five, and go. Run!"
"Wh-Five, stop! Let go of me!" Veronica cries, wiggling and twisting in attempt to get out of my grasp. I don't let up, and I continue to pull her along as I hear the Minister's retreating footsteps, and the zombie's fading moans.
"Keep your voice down," I say in a harsh whisper. "They may have night vision goggles, but we shouldn't just lead them right to us."
"I don't understand. You don't let people just leave! Not you. Especially you."
"I couldn't force her to stay, and she's right. You're top priority. We need you alive, and I don't think Milo would ever forgive me if I let something happen to you." I wince, knowing I've said too much.
"What does Milo have to do with any of this?"
"Nothing. Nothing. Just forget it. The Minister made her choice. I couldn't stop her even if I tried. She cut herself and I can't see. It would've been impossibly to-ow! Veronica!"
"Sorry," She says, while I adjust the metalwork under my arm so I can rub my face and watering eyes from Veronica's elbow to the face. "I was trying to see just how close you were, and how close you were to the wall."
I huff, thinking maybe she's just saying that, but she sounds sincere enough. "Do you need me to move over?"
"No, I'm okay. I can just feel the wall brushing up against my arm... I don't hear footsteps anymore."
I hum, going silent. The only footsteps I hear are my own and Veronica's. "Let's keep moving, just to be safe."
Thankfully Veronica doesn't argue, and we continue to briskly run down the halls, holding onto each other and using our free hands (well, my sort of free hand since I still have the metalwork) to feel out the walls. I try to keep a keen ear out for any Deadlocks, or that zombie, but there's nothing.
I hope that the Minister is alright. I hate it when I'm right in times like this. I knew it was a bad idea for her to come with us on this mission, even before I knew what this mission was. What happens if she dies? Who takes over then?
Nothing good will come from this if we lose her. While Netrophil is something we've put at the back burner, we still don't want them to get any advantages, which they certainly would get if the Minister dies.
I can only hope that Sigrid is quick enough to lose the zombie. If not, then even if we succeed, we'll have lost a great deal in the process.
Veronica steps forward, and I hear a loud thud and then her pained squeak.
"What's the matter?" Sam asks quickly. "Have you been shot?"
"No, I just ran into a wall. I'm okay."
"Is there anyone following you?" Janine asks.
"Not that we can hear. The zombie's followed Sigrid and the Deadlocks... I think we've just lost them. But we need those lights."
"I'm working on it, Ronnie," Sam says. There's a tinge of frustration in his voice. "I'm nearly-yes! Got it!"
I hiss as the emergency lights all come on, the sudden brightness stinging and causing my already watery eye to water more.
"Thank God," Veronica sighs, letting go of my hand and then cringing when she looks at my face. "Ooh, sorry about that black eye, Five. I didn't realize my elbow was that close to your face."
"I'll survive. I've probably got a knot on my head from that fist fight and a burn on my back from the barrel of the gun. Nothing more than flesh wounds," I say with a shrug, blinking a few times. My eye thankfully isn't swollen, so I can see out of both of them. I quickly use this time to put the metalwork in my backpack so I don't have to worry about losing it.
"Now that you can see, can you tell us where you are, Miss McShell?" Janine asks.
Veronica hums, looking about. "It's hard to say. We must be deeper in the vault, or in whatever layer just below there. There are no display cases here, just a lot of pipes and fiber optic cables."
"Your signal's very faint. Don't go any deeper."
"Alright, we'll-no, wait! Do you see that, Five? Up ahead, behind that grate."
I squint. "Uh, sort of. My eye's still watering pretty bad."
"I think it's Sigrid." She grabs my hand and starts pulling me along again.
"Don't go any further!" Sam shouts. "If you go out of range, I-"
He's cut off by static, but it appears that Veronica couldn't care less. She has a wide grin on as we approach the older woman behind the grate.
"Sigrid!"
Her eyes go wide when she sees us. "Five, Veronica, turn back immediately. The zombie is right behind me."
"We're not deserting you, Sigrid." She looks over at me. "Grab the other side of that grating. It looks rusty to me."
I nod, doing as told.
"Now pull!"
I grit my teeth, pulling hard at the grating, really wishing that super strength would kick in. But even with my heart beating against my rib cage, my strength is only that of a regular human.
"There isn't time," Sigrid presses. "You're much too important, my dear. You might hold the future of the entire human race. No individual life stacks up against that!"
"We can get you out of here. Come on, Five. Pull!"
"That's what I've been doing for the past minute, Veronica," I say through gritted teeth, huffing when the metal creaks and we manage to pull it back so she can get through.
"Now let's go. Run!"
We take off, taking a turn as do so. It's not the same way we went, but we can't go back that way. I know that much. Those Deadlocks will be waiting for us if we try to do that. No, we're going to have to find another way out.
I really wish I'd brought a weapon with me. I understand the reasoning not to. We didn't want to have to kill anyone. This was supposed to be a retrieval mission, but sometimes people have to die in situations like this. That one Deadlock did. He's a zombie now. I can hear him behind us. He doesn't sound too close, but he's here.
I glance down at my hands, and the dried blood that's on them. That Deadlock was going to shoot me in the back for beating up his friends. I think it would've been a sad way to go. Being shot in the back is a representation of cowardice, meaning you ran from a fight.
I don't really think of deaths as good or bad, because either way you're dead, but I think I would not like to die from a shot to the back.
"Sam? Sam!" Veronica calls, frowning when she gets no answer.
"I believe we're still too deep for the signal to penetrate," Sigrid says.
"Do you know where we're going?"
She shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. We're in a level I was never given access to. Some kind of secure network, if these fiber optic cables are anything to go by. A backup in case of an EMP attack." She pauses when the zombie groans from behind us. "Not much use in time of the zombie apocalypse, I'm afraid. Really, the entire history of humanity is the story of people preparing for the wrong disaster."
She slows down when she sees a corridor that turns to our right. "Well, that looks at least a little promising. It appears to be sloping up. Runner Five, do you think you might scout ahead? I hate to talk in terms of relative value, but we really must do whatever we can to get young Veronica out of here."
I nod in understanding, taking point while Sigrid and Veronica trail behind.
"If we're talking in terms of relative value, it's Five you should be more worried about," Veronica says, and my eyes go wide in surprise. "Five has value! She's saved Abel more times than I can count. What have I ever done?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You're our brightest hope for a cure from this dreadful affliction. Perhaps our only hope."
She scoffs. "Yeah. Brilliant Veronica, who knows better than anyone else. I thought that too, I really did. And where has it got me? Where has it got any of us? Stuck in a basement, no closer to a cure than we ever were, and Paula just days away from dying!"
I blink, trying to register her words. I had no idea Veronica felt that way. She never let it show. She truly is amazing at hiding her emotions.
"It's hardly hopeless," The Minister says. "We may have lost the eyeball, but Five still has the metalwork. We have a message from the Vikings that could be translated given time, about how the cure was effected."
"I think it's a myth!" She snaps. "More and more every day, I think it must be a legend. It's fun, but it's a stupid red herring. Stories, not science. Nothing I do works! I can't see it! I-I can't see the solution."
She sounds close to tears now, but I don't bring myself to look back at them. I'm not sure it would be wise. I mean, I know that they know I can hear them, but this isn't a conversation for me to butt into.
"That's quite enough of that. You've made more progress than any of the scientists working at the Ministry. Women and men twice your age don't have the insight you do. Your relentless pursuit-"
"Relentless. Yes, that's a good word for me, isn't it? Do you know what happened at my labs? The labs you set up for me?"
She hesitates in answering. "Yes, I do."
"Do you know that it happened because of how hard I was pushing them? I told them to ignore safety protocols, to keep on going, because what we were doing was so much more important than anything else."
"Yes, Mr. Sissay told me. These things happen," She replies calmly, and Veronica scoffs again.
"I managed to infect an entire laboratory full of your scientists." She pulls forward and grabs my shoulder, forcing me to look back at her. "How many of them were there, Five? Two dozen? Three?"
I cough in discomfort. "I... I don't-"
"She nearly died in there trying to get those results for me," She says to the Minister. "She saw them, what I did to them... I never told anyone this, but I knew that it might happen. I knew they might turn. I suspected that the Viking strain of the virus was more virulent than the modern. I told them to work without safety equipment so that they could get more done more quickly, and when I heard they'd gone zom within ten minutes, do you know what I thought?"
I look at her with curious eyes. There's so much guilt written on her young face.
"I thought, 'Ah, good, that confirms my hypothesis. Now I understand a little more about the virus.'"
"In other words," The Minister says, "you are thinking about the greater good."
"Thinking like Van Ark! I never understood him so well as I did in that moment. His single-mindedness, his relentlessness." She looks horrified as she speaks, and I'm sure I look the same. Her admitting that she was okay with those people dying... she should feel horrified.
"Well, whatever else Van Ark was, he was a brilliant scientist-"
"He was a monster." The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them, and Sigrid raises a brow at the snarl in my voice.
"That doesn't make him any less brilliant than he was." Her eyes go back to Veronica. "And truly, you're being too hard-"
She's cut off by a grow of a zombie-no, not just one zombie. We skid to a halt as a crumpled figure stands before us, snarling, groaning. It stands with another zombie, and I can only guess the one behind us managed to bite a few others in its chase after Sigrid.
"Shit," I murmur, looking around for an escape. "Uh, uh, here! This way, through this door! Come on!"
•
"Well, we appear to have shaken them off for now," Sigrid says, panting slightly. "And I believe I can feel fresh air blowing in down this path. Worth a go, eh, Veronica?"
Veronica's eyes dart up from their previous spot, which was at her feet. "What? Oh, yes." She goes silent for a short moment. "Look, I'm sorry for being so-for losing control, before. It's just been hard-"
"Twenty-one thousand six hundred and fifty three."
There's a pause. "I beg your pardon?"
"Twenty-one thousand six hundred and fifty three," She repeats. "That's how many people I estimate have been killed or seriously injured as a direct result of decisions made by me."
"Oh."
"Perhaps you'd like to know how I live with myself."
Veronica's eyes go wide. "I don't-I mean..."
"I do," I say, my voice flat. I'm shocked at how casually she says things like that, but my face is hard, cold. The Minister simply smiles at me, a look of pity in her eyes.
"I'm sure you would. I've heard things about you, Runner Five-about how high your morals are, or really, how high you're trying to get them to be. I live with myself the way any commanding officer does: with the knowledge that I have done my best. Someone had to make those decisions, and I'm the person who's best equipped. It's my responsibility to make the difficult choices, just as it's yours, Veronica. And I may not know you well, but I know this-there is no one I'd trust more to make those choices than you."
Veronica smiles softly, a small bit of light returning to her eyes. "That's very nice of you, Sigrid."
She laughs. "Goodness me, Five! Veronica's accused me of being nice. And my political opponents say I'm such a bitch."
I snort. "I've been called worse."
"As have I," She replies.
"But what if I don't find the cure? What if I let everyone down?" Veronica asks, and the Minister gives her the same warm look as before.
"Then you try harder. And if you can't do everything, then you do what you can. Do you know the other reason we came here? No? It's because this was where the Ministry kept intel they collected from the Commonwealth post-outbreak. Information from all functioning governments on number and location of survivors. Colonel De Luca hoped we might be able to find out something about Runner Six's mother. That's why she was so ready to agree on this mission."
My eyes go wide. Functioning governments? Meaning America, possibly?
"Oh, well, that doesn't really sound like Janine."
The Minister smirks. "Doesn't it? How many people do you think would be in her list, Veronica? How many people did she turn away from Abel in the early days of the apocalypse, because she knew only a small settlement could survive? How many deaths are on her conscience? A lot, I can assure you. But her position allows her to do things like this, to help those who can be helped. That's the trade-off. Do you understand?"
She nods. "With great power comes great responsibility."
"Yes, that's a good way of putting it."
"It's what Sam would say. He said it to me-"
A loud, rasping moan echoes through the corridor. Sigrid grits her teeth.
"Damn it! Why can't we lose them?"
Veronica grabs Sigrid's hand, noticing the small cut that's just barely bleeding. "The blood. Zombies can smell even small quantities at a great distance."
I run to the door up ahead, grasping the doorknob, only to find it locked.
"No. No, no, no. Why is this the door they lock?" I panic.
"So, it appears I may have to add three more deaths to my tally," Sigrid says.
I curse and pull at the doorknob, but it doesn't budge, not that I really expected it to. I see three zombies heading towards us, mouths open and hungry, eyes glossed over. At least, I think they are. They're still wearing those night vision goggles.
I reach into my backpack, ready to grab the metalwork to use as a weapon.
"If I'm going down, I'm going down fighting," I snarl.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
All three of the zombies drop down, and the three living stare in shock.
"Yeah, I wouldn't start writing those obituaries just yet."
I gasp in delight as the person that shot the zoms in the back of the head steps out of the shadows. The Australian man grins at the rest of us smugly.
"Owen! You lifesaver!"
He laughs. "Call this payback for when you saved me from nearly getting hit by that train."
"Where did you even come from?" Veronica asks.
"Janine sent me down after your signal went dead. I just followed the sound of moans. Come on. The way out's this way. Quickly. I don't know if there are any more, and I don't have a lot of ammo left."
"I'm so glad you weren't an idiot like me," I say, following Owen along another stretch of a corridor. "I was so stupid not to bring a weapon."
"Well, technically, I wasn't supposed to, but I figured it might be a good idea since you tend to bring bad luck with you." He sends me a shy smile. "No offense."
"None taken. Seriously, though, thanks. You saved our asses back there."
He grins, shrugging. "I don't think Sam would be very happy with me if I managed to let you die out here. Plus you're the Head of Runners. We need you."
I frown. "I haven't been Head of Runners since Moonchild."
"Maybe not officially, but we all still look up to you."
He goes quiet after that, quickly and carefully guiding us through the corridors. I guess it's easier to memorize where everything is when the lights are on. Within minutes we've reached a flight of stairs, and Owen makes a grand gesture towards them.
"Here you go. Stairs out of the bloody basement."
I wince at the static that comes through my headset. "Owen! Is that you? Five? Veronica?"
"We're here, Sam," Veronica says as we start up the stairs. "All of us."
"But we've got zoms behind us and Deadlocks ahead," Owen says once we reach the ground floor. We pause, looking at the hallways and doors and stairs, trying to figure out which way to go.
"Yes, we're picking you up on cams now," Janine says. "There are ten hostiles between you and the front door, all heavily armed. Mr. Yao, can you guide them to the back door?"
"Yes, I... uh, yeah. Uh, up those stairs ahead of you, right now."
"But the door's on the ground floor," Veronica says with a frown. I'm already halfway up the stairs.
"So are about ten million Deadlocks. You're going the long way around."
"Look at all these files," The Minister says once we reach the top of the stairs. "It looks like every corridor up here is lined with them. I assumed the spooks cleaned this place out when they left, but they must have been in too much of a hurry. And now a rabble like the Deadlocks have access to all this highly classified material."
"That is why I had Runner Six plant the remainder of Mr. Sissay's explosives around the building," Janine states. "There won't be much left after the go."
Sam gasps. "But the Deadlocks! I mean, I know one almost killed Five, but you did kind of invade their building and beat three of their guys to a pulp. And what would Saeed say if you blew up all his old friends? He really likes you, Five."
"Yes, I know. A lot of people do these days." I sigh. "But you're right. We can't just kill a bunch of people over some paperwork."
Sigrid thinks for a second. "You have access to their systems, Colonel De Luca, do you not?"
"Most of them, yes."
"Then broadcast a message over their coms channels. Tell them they have five minutes to vacate the building or they all die. Give them a fair warning."
Veronica smiles. "Thank you, Sigrid."
"Oh, I didn't do it for you. Just trying not to add to my tally."
"Very well," Janine says. "I'll broadcast a warning. And the Australia files?"
"I believe those are on the second floor. Runner Six, you have five minutes."
"I'll go with you," I say, hoping I don't sound too eager.
He nods. "Then let's do it.
•
"You've got to give it to these guys, Five," Owen chuckles. "Zombie apocalypse happens, the whole world turns to crap, and they still A to Z their filing. Found the A's yet?"
"I'm not looking for the A's," I say as I look continue to rummage through the filing cabinets. "I'm looking for the U's."
He scoffs, looking up from his own rummaging for a split second. "Why? I'm from Australia, not... what's a country that starts with U? Uh, not Uganda."
"I'm not looking through these for you."
He tips his head to the side, before realization flickers across his face. "You sly girl. You're looking for the United States, aren't you?"
I send him a dark look. "You're not the only one who wants to know if their loved ones are alive."
"Well, I just found Australia, so you'd better hurry up."
It doesn't take me long to find the papers I'm looking for. I quickly stuff them into my backpack, doing the same with the Australia papers.
Owen and I both freeze in heading towards the door when we hear footsteps.
"I think they're in here," A voice says in the other side of the door.
There's silence, and I automatically shift behind Owen, who has already pulled out his gun. He gives me a small nod, assurance.
The door suddenly flies open, and Owen fires two shots before the Deadlocks can even step inside the room.
"Silly buggar. Should have listened to Janine's warning," Owen says, pulling me outside of the room, stepping over the bodies in the doorway. We both bolt down the stairs, eager to get out of here as quickly as possible. We're running out of time, and this risk that we're taking is cutting it very very close.
Owen and I rush down the corridors, our footsteps echoing against the now empty halls. Thankfully most of the Deadlocks were smart and decided to leave. Good. Means fewer deaths I have to think about tonight.
When we reach the front entrance, we swing the door open and dart out, going as fast as our legs can carry us, praying that we can get out of range before-
Boom!
Heat sears at my back, and the force of the explosion throws me forward. I slam onto the ground, my ears ringing, barely registering the faint, muffled shouting or the voices coming from my headset.
I groan, trying to push myself up and nearly collapsing back into the dead grass as I do so.
"Runner Six, Runner Five!"
A pale, cool hand grabs my arm, easing me upright into a sitting position. "There you are. It's alright. Just take a moment before you try to stand. The shockwave blew you and Owen halfway across the yard."
My head is pounding and my vision is slightly blurry. I believe it's a mixture of this and the other injures I've acquired on this mission today. Still I take Veronica's hand and stand up, my eyes shifting to the Minister who is helping Owen to his feet.
"Thank goodness you landed on your front. Wouldn't want anything to mess up that metalwork," She says to me. "When we study this in tandem with its other half, we might find something interesting."
"Indeed," Janine says. "You must bring it back to Abel immediately, Five."
"And while you're doing that, I'd like a moment to debrief young Veronica. All in all, a very good day's work, everyone. It was terribly nice netting you all, but now we must go our separate ways. I'm sure we'll meet again."
Owen nods, grabbing my arm. I think it might be to help steady himself, or to steady me. I'm having a bit of trouble keeping my balance after that.
"Yeah, let's go, Five."
We head off, slightly stumbling as we try to regain our balances. Sam's saying something to me, but I don't really catch it. I give him a small 'mm-hmm', but no straight answer, not wanting to sound too injured since I should be okay because of the accelerated healing. At least, I think the accelerated healing should take care of these wounds for the most part, seeing that none of them were fatal. And I didn't hit my head on the fall, so I doubt I have a concussion. Lucky me, I suppose.
I shrug off my backpack as we run and pull out the list of names for Australia and hand them to Owen.
"Here. I'm guessing you don't want to wait to make sure your mom's on there."
He takes them, smiles, but his eyes stay trained on my backpack. "Aren't you gonna...?"
He trails off when I press a finger to my lips, then point at my headset.
'No one needs to know that I took those papers, okay?' I sign, offering a smile that I know doesn't reach my eyes. He nods, and we keep running as he looks at the papers.
But only for a few minutes. Then he starts talking again.
"How are you holding up, Five? The explosion knocked you about."
"I-I'm fine," I stammer, watching him questionably.
"Are you sure?"
"What's wrong?" Sam cuts in. "Is she lying about something?"
"No, I just-you keep twitching, Five, like your ears are hurting you."
I blink, slowing down to a walk. "I haven't been-my ears are fine."
"I think maybe it's your headset. Looks pretty banged up from the fall you took."
"Huh?" Sam asks. "Audio sounds fine to me."
"But there's loose wires hanging out. And I've got this irritating whine in mine, and I think it might be in Five's too. And it's probably not great for her since-well, you know how many times she's gotten a head injury. Why don't we just..." He grabs my headset and pulls it off my head, turning it off and then turning his off too. "That's better."
"Owen, what are you-" I start, reaching for my headset, but he pulls away.
"No. No, don't worry, Five. We'll put Sam back on in a minute. I just wanted a bit of privacy."
"I'm not telling you why I got that list," I say sternly.
"And I'm not going to ask. I just want you to know I really appreciate the risk you took. That was above and beyond. Janine, too! She makes out like she doesn't care, but I reckon she's got a heart of pure marshmallow!" He glances down at his list. "Thing is though, Janine-She likes solid things. Things you can see, and prove. Veronica, too.
"You know, I was chatting with her the other day, happened to mention how much better I've been running in these new Brooks Jody picked up for me, and Veronica said, 'That's interesting. Maybe we can conduct some experiments to see what percentage in your running speed new shoes produce, and how it declines over time.'" He laughs, then pulls out a lighter.
"I found this on a run not too long ago. Never thought I'd use it since I don't, you know, smoke, but it looks like it just might come in handy."
"What are you doing?" I ask cautiously, drawing out the first word.
"Janine, Veronica-they don't like to take anything on faith, but I reckon sometimes you just have to. I know my mum's okay. I just know it. But if I said that to them, Veronica would just go, 'What's the margin of error on your certainty, Owen?' Janine, she'd dig up statistics on survival rates for me. That's them, not me. I don't need a list of names to tell me what happened to her. I don't need to know the probabilities!"
"Owen," I say slowly, carefully, "your mom's name isn't on that list, is it?"
He forces a smile. "It doesn't matter. I know she's okay. I just know it."
He flicks on the lighter, and then sets fire to the paper, dropping it on the ground and then stomping it out once most of it is burned.
"Don't tell anyone that I burned it, Five. Not after all that effort. We'll just tell them my mum was on the list, that she's alive. It's not a lie-I know she is! Now come on. It's time to go home."
A/N: Here you go guys! Bit of a longer chapter today! Oh, well. Anyway, please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!