Children Of The Mountain (Book 2): The Devil You Know (23 page)

‘Oh, frostbite. I guess I got careless.’

‘Does it hurt?’

It does a little, but I shake my head.

‘This is what happens when I’m not there to watch over you. What are you doing here? I thought I…’

There’s a noise from behind me and her eyes dart down the aisle between the cages.

‘Gabe, you need to get out of here.’

Her voice is low, urgent. I look over my shoulder. Hicks is walking towards us carrying a large plastic crate with the number 100 stenciled on it. I turn back to Mags.

‘It’s okay. He’s helping us.’

Hicks sets the crate down on the floor.

‘I thought I told you to stay put.’

He looks at me for a long moment like he’s deciding whether he’s done taking me to task over wandering off, but then he must figure we have more pressing matters to attend to. He squats down next to me and looks at Mags.

‘Now we need to do this my way. Understood?’

She looks at him as if she still doesn’t know what to make of this but in the end she just nods. He turns to me and I realize I’m expected to answer too.

‘Yeah, sure.’

He looks into the cage.

‘You got a blade on you?’

I nod.

‘Well give it to me then.’

I hand him the leatherman and he thumbs out the knife.

‘Alright, now move to the front of the cage and slide your hands through.’

I keep the blade sharp; it doesn’t take him long to cut through the plastic at her wrists. When he’s done he passes it through the bars. While she’s working on the cable ties at her ankles he unsnaps the lid on the crate, pulls out a set of thermals and hands them to her. ‘Change into those. Go on now, nobody’ll look at you.’

She hesitates a moment and starts unsnapping the fasteners on her overalls. I turn away but when I hear her wince I glance back over my shoulder. Mags has always been thin but not like this. Even in the scant light I can see the bones along her side, the play of muscles across her stomach. And before she pulls the thermals down over her head I catch a glimpse of something else: a chain of dark, ugly welts tracking from one hip up her ribcage to her shoulder.

I turn away, but I feel something, also dark and ugly, welling up inside me. The best we can hope for now is that we get away from this place and never see Truck or any of the other soldiers ever again. But I know there may be no limit to the things I would do to the person that has inflicted those marks on her.

When Mags is done changing into her thermals Hicks passes a pair of latex gloves and a roll of duct tape through the bars.

‘Put those on and tape the cuffs to your wrists.’

She snaps on the gloves and then uses her teeth to tear a couple of strips from the roll.

‘Alright. Now I’m going to let you out. But you need to do exactly as I say until we’re outside. Got it?’

Mags looks up from wrapping the tape around her wrists. I can tell she doesn’t care much for the instruction but she agrees. She eyes the leatherman but Hicks just shakes his head and she leaves it behind her on the floor of the cage. He unlatches the door and swings it open. She crawls out and stands, a little unsteadily at first.

‘We ready?’

She nods in the direction of the cage opposite.

‘What about him?’

Hicks looks over. The fury presses itself further back into the shadows.

‘What about him?’

‘We can't leave him here.’

‘We can and we will.’ He turns to me, like this is something I need to pay particular attention to. ‘You think Doc’s just going to let this go? Truck’s probably already figured out you gave him the slip, which means he’ll most likely be back here in a few hours. With a bit of luck it’ll be too late for them to set out after us right away, but even so I reckon we’ll have a day’s head start at most. Boots will slow them down, and that might just be enough if you two can keep the pace. But not if we’re hauling that thing along. It’s been in there so long it probably can't even stand straight.’ He looks into the cage. ‘Besides, it’s about to turn. I reckon it’s got a day or two left at most.’

The fury glances up as he says this but Hicks doesn’t seem to notice. Right now all I care about is getting Mags out of here and back to Eden as quickly as possible, and what he’s saying makes sense.

‘Mags, you sure?’

She nods. ‘I’m not leaving without him Gabe.’

I look down into the cage. Its eyes are still freaking me out but it doesn’t seem like it means us harm. If what Hicks says is true and it’s about to turn I really have no interest in bringing it with us, however. But I also recognize the tone in Mags’ voice. Once she’s set her mind on something there’s little can be done to change it.

‘Hicks, we have to take the kid.’

‘Aw hell Gabriel, it’s not a kid. Might have been once but not anymore, and certainly not in a few days from now when it’s looking at you like you’re a side of prime rib and I have to put a bullet in it.’

The fury shakes its head as it hears this but Hicks isn’t even looking at it now.

‘They don't sleep, you know. Which means you won’t be able to either. How long do you think you’ll be able to keep that up?’

‘Gabe, I’ll watch him.’

Hicks turns to Mags.

‘And who’ll watch you, darlin’? Christ. Here, gimme your flashlight.’ I dig the windup from the pocket of my parka and hand it to him. He points it into the cage and cranks the handle. The dynamo whirs and the bulb glows orange, then yellow, finally casting a faint pool of almost-white light that barely reaches the back of the cage. The fury instinctively presses itself even further back, raising its arms to block the beam. But then it realizes what Hicks is doing and drops them again. Its eyes narrow to slits but it holds its head up and forces itself to squint back.

‘See that? And that’s just something you’d pull from a crackerjack box.’ He tosses the flashlight back to me. ‘In a couple of days it won’t be able to stand the daylight. What do you plan to do then? Cut it loose? Or were you planning on another moonlight stroll, son?’

I look back at Mags, but her expression hasn't changed.

‘We’re taking it, Hicks. You can come with us or let us go.’ I watch him closely as I say it, though. Because there’s a third choice of course. He could just stop us, right now, and make his peace with Gilbey. His fingers don’t stray any closer to the pistol on his hip but I can see him working through the options himself. In the end he shakes his head like he’s trying to figure out just where this all went wrong.

‘Alright, alright.’

He looks at Mags and the cage he’s just sprung her from and then back at me, like he’s deciding which of us is less likely to cause him trouble.

‘Gabriel, you remember that first room we passed as we came in? In there you’ll find a crate with 99 on the side of it. Bring it to me. And come straight back y’hear? No exploring this time.’

I hurry off down the aisle, winding the flashlight as I go. I get to the storage room he meant and step inside. The ceiling’s low and I have to duck my head to avoid hitting it off the bulkhead lamps bolted to the concrete. Rows of shelves line the walls on either side. For as far as I can see with the flashlight they look empty but the beam doesn’t stretch as far as the wall at the end.

As I make my way between the shelves the flashlight lands on a single crate, the number 99 stenciled on the side of it. It looks like it’s been sitting there a while. I drag it down, dislodging a thick layer of dust. Motes drift lazily through the beam and settle on the concrete floor.

I’m about to turn back but something makes me point the flashlight further along the aisle. Up against the back wall I can see stacks of empty crates, just like the one I’m holding. They’re nested inside one another, so only the bottom crate in each stack is visible, but it looks like they each have a number stenciled on the side too.

Spidey’s been keeping up a low-level grumble ever since the camera by the blast door but he takes it up a notch at that, and maybe then I should have paid more attention. But something else catches my eye. I set the crate I’m carrying down and make my way towards it.

All the way back in the darkness there’s one more crate. It looks just like all the others, but as I get closer I can see it’s not. This one doesn’t have a number stenciled on it; it has a name instead.

It says Amanda Gilbey.

*

M
AGS HAS ALREADY
pulled on her ski pants and is lacing up her boots as I return. The fury’s moved closer to the front of its cage. It peers out through the bars, its eyes shifting nervously between me and Hicks.

I set the crate down and unsnap the lid. Inside there’s everything it might need – jacket, gloves, boots, even a small pair of goggles. Spidey really hasn’t been happy since I went back into the storage room and now he grumbles about this too. But I’m still a little distracted by the other crate I saw in there, and mostly just keen to get us out of here, so I hush him.

Hicks unlatches the cage and swings it open. But the fury shuffles toward the back and won’t come out. It keeps staring up at him, its eyes filled with mistrust. Mags looks up from unpacking the crate.

‘Sergeant, why don’t you stand back a little further?’

Hicks squints down at her like he doesn’t believe this is where his orders are coming from now, but in the end he just sighs and does as she says. The fury hesitates a moment longer and then crawls out. It looks around uncertainly. Squatting on all fours like that it looks like a miniature version of the thing that attacked Ortiz. For a second the memory of the fear I felt in the hospital twists my insides and I wonder whether we’re making a terrible mistake.

Mags bends down next to it.

‘Can you stand, Johnny?’

It grips the side of the cage and tries to pull itself upright but all it manages is a chimp-like crouch. She has to help it into the clothes from the crate. When she’s done Hicks tears several strips of duct tape from the roll and hands them to her.

‘Seal the cuffs of the mittens to the arms of the jacket. Last strip’s for its mouth.’

Mags looks like she might be about to argue but Hicks just shakes his head.

‘We’re done discussing this. It’s that or I go fetch the catchpole.’

She turns back to the fury.

‘It’ll be okay Johnny. Just ’till we get out of here.’ She tapes up its mittens. It doesn’t object as she places the last strip of tape over its mouth.

We leave The Greenbrier the way we came in.

Mags holds the fury’s hand as we climb the stairs back to the upper levels. It manages them without too much difficulty; by the time we reach the top I think it might already be standing a little taller. When we enter the plant room it cranes its neck, swiveling around to take in each detail, like it wants to look everywhere at once. Hicks keeps a close eye on it as it steps up onto the metal gangway but it just grips Mags’ hand and follows her across. We leave the plant room and make our way down the long corridor in silence. We pass through the decontamination showers and then we’re back out in the tunnel.

I counted two hundred paces from this point when we were coming in, but somehow it seems longer on the way out. The camera above the entrance door is still blinking as we pass under it. I keep looking back over my shoulder long after the little red light has been swallowed up by the darkness. At last I spot the circular vents and the huge blast door pushed up against the concrete ahead of us. We step through into the small chamber between it and the outer gate. The access door where we came in is still open. Hicks stops and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a small plastic container and hands it to Mags.

‘Take this. It’ll taste like the worst thing imaginable, but I guess you already know that by now.’

She stares at him for a moment, like she’s working something out. Then she unscrews the cap, but instead of raising it to her lips she bends down and hands it to the fury.

‘Drink that Johnny. Quickly now.’

‘Aw, you can’t be serious.’ Hicks looks at me for support but I can’t help him. The fury hesitates, like it’s unsure what it should do.

‘Don’t worry; the sergeant has another one for me.’

After only a moment’s pause it knocks it back. Mags holds her hand out for another of the vials. Hicks looks at her like he’s wondering whether any promise of a cure might be worth this, but in the end he digs into his pocket and hands one over. She unscrews the cap and lifts it to her lips. I watch as her face contorts and she bends over and clutches her stomach like she might have to throw up but after a moment it passes. She wipes her mouth with the back of her glove and reaches for the fury’s mitten.

‘Come on, let’s get you into some snowshoes.’

As soon as she’s gone Hicks grabs my arm and pulls me back into the tunnel. He reaches into his pocket and hands me four more containers like the ones he just gave to Mags.

‘She needs to take one of these a day. Try and give them to her at the same time each morning.’

I slip the vials into the pocket of my parka.

‘Aren’t you coming with us?’

He shakes his head.

‘That’s all of the Doc’s medicine I could lay my hands on. If she insists on sharing it there’s only enough for another two days. I’m guessing that’s not near enough time to get you where you’re going?’

It took us more than six days to get here from Mount Weather and Eden’s further north again. I shake my head.

‘Alright. I’m going to stay here, see if I can’t pick up some more. You plan on going back the way you came down, right?’

I nod.

‘If there’s anything more you remember about the location of this Eden place Gabriel, now’d be a really good time to tell me. Make it a helluva lot easier for me to find you if I knew where you were headed.’

He looks at me hard for a while but I just shake my head.

‘Fair enough. Well, stick to the interstate for as long as you can. If you have to get off it for any reason leave me a sign. I’ll catch up to you soon as I can.’

He steps back over to the wall and hits the switch to start the close sequence. A second later the electric motors kick in, whining under the load as they slowly start to pull the huge blast door back from the wall.