The basement below St. Paul's Cathedral School was a bleak, dank space that reeked of damp, stale air and the sweat of too many people crammed together in such close quarters. It was bad enough that we had fallen into Levi's clutches and had to stand here with so many guns trained on us, without feeling the claustrophobic crush of being surrounded on all sides by Levi's people with very little space in which to move between us and them.
I was too aware of the menace emanating from the granite stares of his crew. Too aware of the bristling tension that crowded the air like static to the skin. Too aware of Tom's arm pressed against mine as we were hemmed in together, like the runt dogs of the litter about to be savaged in the cruellest of dog fights, our imminent deaths to serve as entertainment for the baying crowd.
Not that they were vocally baying, mind you. Even in your own lair, you'd be mad to raise too much noise. You never knew what was close by, listening. I'd forced us to learn that lesson the hard way.
Strangely, their silence was harder to bear. Waiting for our inevitable fate seemed so much worse when no one was saying a damn word. Not that they really needed to. I felt every last bit of their disdain and hatred in each face I could see and yet, as I stared back at them, my eyes desperate not to miss a thing, I saw something else in their expressions.
Resignation. Exhaustion. A sense of defeat I hadn't seen the last time we'd encroached on Levi's territory.
Although our fracas had been swift and violent – a real shock to the system when all we'd wanted was sanctuary, and instead finding nothing but hostility – I'd been almost knocked sideways by their strength and their will to survive. It had oozed out of their pores, this powerful air of authority that said fuck-you-we're-here-to-stay. And I'd always believed that if any of us survivors were going to say a mighty fuck you to the Greys, it was going to be Levi's people.
But, now? Now they looked like the epitome of a beaten species. Haggard. Weary down to their bones. Skin too sallow; too grey, as if they hadn't seen daylight in months. Their eyes told stories of a thousand hardships; a thousand battles lost.
Of course, back then, the first and last time we'd been through here, we'd never been granted an audience in his base and had only found out the location through one of our first meetings with Lena.
Even I was surprised by the numbers here. There were so many of them, survivors of differing ages from the very young to some who could have rivalled Ivy on the Telegram from the Queen race. It made more sense to me now why the ex-bouncer-turned-survivor-boss had been so insistent on us moving on and not lingering in his Quadrant. When you had this many people to protect and provide for, how could you ever justify allowing even just one more person into your area to steal away whatever dregs were left in the ruins of London?
Maybe that was it. Maybe they were surviving on dregs. Maybe rations were running dry and they were finding it harder to care for so many? God knows, we were finding it hard enough, but we'd been lucky and there wasn't so many of us to provide for as it was for Levi's crew.
Whatever it was that had changed here, I didn't expect it would help us now.
I wasn't sure anything could.
Levi stood, a short distance from us, his thick, muscular arms folded across his broad chest. The New World hadn't withered him as it had some. He still looked like it would take a whole squadron of Greys to bring him to his knees. Even without his huge trunk-like frame, his eyes always held a darkness that would unnerve the strongest-willed person. When I'd first met him, I'd imagined him to be soulless. A vessel devoid of any feeling. Yet, after a while, I'd realised there was so much alive behind those eyes, so much working away inside that head of his. A machine that never slept. I was still dubious about that machine possessing a soul though.
'When I was a kid,' he said, breaking the stone-cold silence. 'My mother used to take me to another St. Paul's, way over in Brixton. Every Sunday, we'd go, dressed up in our finest garb. My mother had a thing about colour. Always wore a lot of colour, and a hat too. The hat was important, you know? She'd change up the decoration on it. Sometimes, she'd pin a huge silk flower to it. Sometimes, she'd attach a bow she made from offcuts of ribbon. She had to look the part. And she was a stickler for time too, my mother. Always had to get there early so she could get a pew right up at the front. She'd be dragging me up Ferndale Road. Me, in my shirt and tie and these damn shoes that always pinched my toes. The Lord was her Shepherd and she had to be on time for him, every Sunday without fail, just as she had to beat the Lord's Prayer into me with one of the same shoes that pinched my toes until they blistered. You know, when learning the Lord's Prayer means you can't sit down for two days because your arse is red raw from the beatings, you don't just learn it. You learn to hate it.'
Levi smiled. A smile that soon turned into something sour and left a bitter imprint on my already-withering hope.
'And I did hate it. All that thankfulness and praise and forgiveness.' He sniffed. 'Never much cared for forgiveness myself. Why you gotta go forgive someone when they have wronged you? They want forgiveness, well, then they never should have wronged you in the first place. You live a good life, you don't need forgiveness. You live a bad life, well then you gotta take what's coming. Which leads us to you.'
Levi hesitated, his lips thinning as he studied us all. His whole body was still, but behind those eyes, his mind was working, moving, shifting.
'So, what do you think, Taj, my man?' he said, turning his hard gaze on Taj. 'You think you lead a good life, or a bad one?' He held up one plate-sized palm. 'No, wait, don't answer that. You don't need to. Everyone in the New World leads a bad life. We all know that, right? Anyone still alive knows what they've had to do to survive and we all know it ain't been nothing good. We've all killed someone. We've all stolen from our neighbour. We've all turned our backs on people who needed us, just so we could live another day. No. You and your people here all live a bad life, which means you gotta take what's coming when it's due to you, yeah?
'Levi,' began Taj, who was on my other side. He swallowed hard. 'Listen, we came here...'
'Trespassed,' Levi said, raising his arms out either side as if petitioning the crowd. 'You trespassed, Taj. That's what you and your people here did. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. I've already told you I'm not much of a forgiving man, so what do you think is going to happen here, eh? Do you think I'm going to forgive your trespass?'
'Maybe you will when we tell you why we're here.'
I flinched and glanced sharply at Tom, who had spoken up, his voice firm and without any of the flicker of nerves I'd heard in Taj's.
Levi's eyes widened; his brow raised. Pursing his lips, he coolly appraised the man by my side. 'Well, now,' he said, taking a step closer. 'You know, I spent a lot of time at the club doors, my man. Watching people go in and come out. Looking out for the troublemakers. The under-age drinkers. The dealers. Turns out, I got an eye for faces. And your face isn't one I recognise from my last eventful meeting with this bunch. Are you a new recruit?'
'You could say that.' Tom shrugged.
'Right. Riiiiight,' Levi replied, nodding his head. 'Then Taj here should have dutifully informed you that I've got zero interest in the whys and wherefores when it comes to trespassing in my Quadrant. I couldn't give a rat's arse why you're here, my man. All I know is that you people have strayed from the path. You've gone somewhere where you are not welcome. You did notstay in your lane. Why you're here is incidental and of no consequence to me, whatsoever.'
He moved over in front of Taj, who despite being tall himself, was completely dwarfed by Levi's bulk.
'What happened to you, Taj?' he said. 'I thought you were one of the smart ones? I thought you got it. I wanted you to get it. Believe it or not, I was rooting for you, my man. I took one look at you and thought, there's a man who's got it up here.' He tapped a thick finger against his forehead. 'A city guy. A smart, business-minded city guy. Intelligent. Knows what's good for him and his people. And not only do you ignore my warning and do the one thing I explicitly asked you not to do, but you don't even tell your new recruit here how it goes. You don't tell him I'm not interested in those whys and wherefores and you don't tell him to keep his goddamn mouth shut when I'm talking.'
Without warning, Levi lashed out, his fist impacting with Tom's face. It was a sharp, sudden punch, definitely not the full force of what Levi was capable of, but enough to make Tom's head snap back on his neck. He staggered, clutching at his face and I was horrified to see the blood gushing liberally from between his fingers.
For a moment, in the relative gloom of the basement, I saw black viscous liquid; alien blood dripping over his knuckles, the pregnant droplets drip-drip-dripping to the floor in dark splatters. When he lifted his hand from his face, the blood wasn't black at all, but red, staining his palm with a colour that should have steadied my nerves, but instead made my insides twisted because it was Tom's blood. Tom was bleeding and I hated to see it and didn't understand why.
Cuffing his injured face with his sleeve, Tom's eyes found mine, holding my gaze for too long for me to bear and I tore my face from his, only to find Levi staring at me, like I was a bug caught in his web. I glared at him. I'd never backed down from Levi before and I wasn't about to start now.
I was angry. Pissed. Scared as Hell, yes, but fuck if I was going to let it all unfold like this. This was his fault. The Grey's. If he hadn't made everyone believe in his insane plan to raid the facility in the Black Zone, if he hadn't given everyone all this desperate hope, we wouldn't have been here, risking everything just to die in this shitty, damp basement under the umbrella of St. Paul's.
Levi lowered his voice to barely more than a low rumble, like distant thunder rolling over faraway hills.
'You got something you want to say to me, Evie? This new recruit here, is he yours? You look like you're just about ready to cave my skull in with those pretty hands of yours. I'm right, aren't I? He's yours, this one.'
Inside, I was reeling. Feeling my heart shrivel in my chest at the thought of it. He wasn't mine.
Tom was mine but Tom was gone.
Not Tom. Not fucking Tom.
'He's my husband,' I said. 'So yeah, he is mine.'
Traitor.
Maybe I was the soulless one?
'Husband?' Levi broke into a grin. 'Hey, we got ourselves the happy couple here, ladies and gents.'
The crowd grinned with him. Hyena grins. Sniggering. Silently baying.
'Then let me express my heartfelt congratulations. Maybe I underestimated you, my man,' he said to Tom, a hint of amusement creeping into his eyes. 'Maybe you ain't the fool I thought you were. I mean, you gotta have something about you to marry this girl. You do know she's a dab hand with a knife, right?'
He raised his hand and rubbed his fingertip along the small silvery scar on his left cheekbone. The scar I had caused when I'd nicked him with my blade. It had been a lucky shot and one I'd regretted almost immediately. Levi had a lot of scars, no doubt each with a story to tell, but it didn't mean mine mattered any less. In fact, right at this point, it seemed to cry out like a beacon on his skin, as if all the other scars were nothing in comparison, dull flames soon to be extinguished.
Tom wiped away a drop of blood that lingered above his lip and smiled. 'Oh, I know everything about her, don't you worry about that.'
Heat rose to my cheeks, unwanted, unbidden.
Levi looked from Tom to me and then back again. 'Then you're either the bravest man I know, or the craziest. Which is it?'
'Why don't you listen to why we've come here and then I'll let you decide.'
Levi chuckled, a deep, throaty laugh that seemed to ignite in his stomach and erupt from his mouth before he could stop it. I waited for the second punch. A harder one this time that broke bone and crushed cartilage. One that would maybe tear away the Grey's disguise.
Instead, the other man inhaled long and hard, his whole face wrinkling up like a bulldog's.
'And what makes you think you have anything I would want to hear?'
'Because Tom has a way to hit the Grey's where it's going to hurt them,' Taj spoke up. 'We're going into the Black Zone and we wanted to see if you all still had balls big enough to join us.'
Levi folded his arms again, his lips curling into an indignant sneer. 'Nobody goes into the Black Zone. At least, not if you want to get out alive.'
'Tom did,' I said, defiantly. 'And I don't know about you, Levi, but he looks more alive than you and the rest of your people. You're all dying down here. You don't even look like you're trying to stay alive anymore. Look at you all.'
I nodded over his shoulder at everyone, who were now watching with wary, fearful expressions as if I'd caught them out in a lie. 'You're not the people we met all those months ago, are you? You look tired, Levi. All of you do. So, you can stand there and issue your threats. You can even kill us for trespassing in your ghost town. But once we've gone, you're all just going to back to dying, because that looks like all you're fit for now. Good job you have a crypt just next door under the Cathedral. I think you're going to need it.'
I felt Tom's fingers brush against my wrist, and I wanted to recoil from his touch, but instead, I stood my ground, letting them curl into my palm as he linked them with mine. I couldn't back down now. I'd strayed too far from the path. I'd veered so far out of my lane that I had no way of finding my way back without ruining everything. I had no choice but to let this all happen.
The Grey's voice was just the right amount of Tom. Just the right amount of charm and beguile.
'There's a harvesting facility in Central Hall,' he said, stepping closer. 'I know how to get in. I've been there. We can hit it hard and they won't be expecting a thing. We can strike back and hurt them. Really hurt them. But we can't do it on our own. Divide and conquer is their masterplan. Unite and resist has to be ours, otherwise we're all going to die in basements like these. We need you, Levi. We need you.'
The tension was a living, breathing thing now. An energy ramped up so high that I could feel goose-bumps raging across my skin. It scratched at my throat. Clawed at my resolve which was threatening to break with every second of Tom's hand linked with mine.
'So, what do you say, Levi, my man?' Taj said. 'Brave? Or crazy?'
Levi Johnson eyed us all with a soulless stare that made me feel like I was drowning in dark, dank waters. I felt it clutch at my ankles, pulling me under, a dead weight dragging me down.
And then.... I saw it. A spark of something. Cogs whirring. A mechanism springing to life inside Levi's head, one that had lain dormant for too long, given over to rust and rot.
'For thine is the Kingdom,' he murmured.
I edged closer to him. Close enough to reach up and trace my finger over the small scar on his cheekbone. The scar Old World Evie would never have dared to make. Levi had been right. We all lived the bad life now. We all had to do things we didn't want to do just to stay alive.
'It's their Kingdom now, Levi,' I whispered. 'But we can get it back. We can get it all back. The power, and the glory, right?'
'The power and the glory,' he repeated, monotone.
'So, what do you think?'
Levi grabbed my wrist and held it there. His grip was tight, painful enough to make me want to wince, but I didn't. Wouldn't.
'What do I think? I think I was right the first time. You've all lost your fucking minds, and yet...' He trailed off.
Hope sparked. Cogs whirred. 'And yet, what? What, Levi?'
'And yet... I find myself saying amen. A-fucking-men, Evie. You just bought yourselves a few extra minutes of my time, so you tell me this great plan of yours and then I'll decide whether I'm going to forgive you your sins.'
'I thought you didn't believe in forgiveness?' Tom said.
Levi levelled his gaze on him. 'The world up there might be their Kingdom, but down here, this here is mine and, in my Kingdom, I'll do whatever the fuck I like. Now, you'd better hurry up and talk, before I decide you're not worthy of my time. Go on. Tell me, new recruit. Tell me all about this power and glory I'm going to get if I help you.'