Tube Riders, The (49 page)

Before Paul could answer, there was a crash from the entrance lobby, and a roar from the Free Folk as they rushed out to join the fight. Among the screams they heard a familiar girl’s voice.

‘Outside,’ Ishael said, and headed for the door. ‘Come on!’

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Conflicts

Leo threw the first Huntsman off, reaching for the crossbow at his belt as he turned, using his other hand to push the second Huntsman away. Somewhere nearby, Marta screamed.

Leo kept his crossbow loaded at all times, unlike some other Huntsmen. He pulled it up as the first attacked again, and fired the bolt off into the Huntsman’s face. The creature fell back, shrieking with pain and clutching at the bolt protruding from its cheek. Leo saw Marta rushing forward with a brick, just as the second leapt on him from behind, claws tearing at his face.

He twisted back, slamming the Huntsman into a wall, at the same moment that something hard and metal jabbed into his side.

The Huntsman fell away, and Leo pulled the knife free. The wound was bad, but not serious. He turned and threw the knife at the Huntsman, who was trying to load his crossbow. The Huntsman ducked, and the knife clanged off the wall behind it.

The first Huntsman was dead, its head a bloody pulp. Marta, her face hard, resilient, stood over it, covered in gore and breathing heavily. Leo leapt at the second Huntsman, knocking its crossbow away. It pulled another knife from its belt and slashed at him, but he punched its face and twisted its other arm behind it, bending until he felt the bones snap, the metal insertions breaking through the skin.

The Huntsman screamed. Leo reached for its neck but its teeth snapped at him, tearing open his shoulder. He roared in pain and raked its face, feeling an eye burst under his claws. The Huntsman gave him one last slash across the chest, and then Leo got his hands around its throat and pulled, hot blood and fluid washing over him as it died. He flung the body away.

‘Marta…’

Marta was looking at him, a shell-shocked expression on her face.

‘Safe now … find others … escape.’

‘Leo, look out!’

He started to turn as she screamed, but even before he saw Dreggo’s half-metal face at his shoulder he felt the spear she had thrust into his back. His body jerked upwards as the spear ripped through organs, and he tried to speak but no words would come. He saw Marta rush forward only for Dreggo to knock her away, and then he was on his knees with Dreggo standing over him.

‘You betrayed me, and you betrayed us,’ Dreggo said. ‘It’s a shame you won’t get to watch your sister die.’ She lifted the spear over her head and rammed it deep into Leo’s chest.

Leo saw a million things flash before his eyes as the spear pierced his heart. He saw operating tables and needles, dark cells and strong chains. He saw death, pain, murder, hatred. And then he saw light, the smiles of Marta, his parents, his friends. He felt warmth and love, arms tight around him. He saw beauty and peace.

And then, as he closed his eyes, he saw light again.

#

Marta threw the brick at Dreggo as her brother slumped forward, the spear still protruding from his chest near the shoulder, but it bounced harmlessly off her shoulder. Dreggo turned to her and smiled as she wrenched the spear free.

‘Now it’s time to join your brother,’ she said, moving forward.

#

The Governor stepped into the square. In front of him, the huge Redman was at the front of a counter-attack as a group of Free Folk forced the Wildmen back from the safe house. Several Huntsmen and DCA agents were down, while others fired shots or quarrels from the alleyways.

The Governor lifted his hands. A smile creased his lips.

Summoning all his power, he flung back the Free Folk and Wildmen alike, a wall of kinetic energy smashing into them like an invisible train. He felt his shoulders immediately sag, the power sapping his strength, and he gasped for air as he readied a second attack. Across the square, men, women and beasts lay stunned or dead. As the survivors began to climb wearily back to their feet, he unleashed a second blast, strong enough to break windows and send shards of glass raining down on the people back by the door of the safe house. Others were smashed against the walls, bones cracking, bodies slumping dead.

The Governor smiled. They were no match for him. He possessed a power no one in the world could fight against. A group of misfits and failed experiments had no chance against his strength.

As he felt the power begin to build again, he looked back towards the safe house and the depleted ranks of the defenders, just as the Redman’s massive fist slammed into his smugly grinning face.

#

With a thunderous roar, the Redman lifted the Governor and flung him at the stone monument in the centre of the square. The Governor struck it head first and fell in a crumpled heap at its base. The Redman rushed forward and again lifted the Governor in its massive arms. As the Governor looked up, his eyes groggy, the Redman smote him against the ground, smashing the Governor how a child might beat a hated rag doll.

In his mind, the Redman remembered this milk-white monster, the man at the doorway of the cell where they held him chained, nodding with satisfaction as the scientists ran currents of electricity through the Redman’s body and injected him with substances that made the Redman feel like his eyes were being pierced by needles.

The Redman associated nothing but pain with this man, and as he smote him over and over again, he could think only to destroy this monster, to break him like so many others had been broken.

Then suddenly, the Governor’s arm snaked up, and the Redman felt bones in his wrist snapping as the Governor’s impossibly strong fingers gripped him and twisted his arm away.

The Redman roared in pain.

The Governor, his face stained with a pinky-white blood, smiled.

‘You dare to fight
me? You?
I
created
you!’

The Governor gripped the Redman’s shoulders and flung the monster over his head. The Redman slammed down on his back. He looked up as the Governor came to stand over him, red eyes narrowed. As the Redman tried to rise, an invisible weight pressed down on him, pushing him down. The Redman writhed, trying to get up, but the Governor’s power was too strong.

‘You fought bravely, beast,’ the Governor said. ‘I only wish you could have been fighting for me.’ The Governor closed his eyes. Redman heard a cracking, splintering sound, and roared one final time as the building above him began to collapse, a waterfall of masonry raining down on his head. The Governor jumped aside as bricks and lintels crashed down, burying the Redman under the rock.

#

As the dust settled, nothing remained visible of the Redman. The Governor let his breath come heavy, the exertion of the fight almost too much for him. He would never let be it known, but his power had grown weak through years of neglect, and the Redman, one of a group of mere foot soldiers created under his watchful eye, had come a lot closer to victory than he found it comfortable to admit. It was time to start awakening his power if he hoped to win this battle and make Mega Britain safe again.

He looked around the square, now deserted. Down side streets he could hear the sounds of a battle still raging. He let his mind drift, searching for Dreggo.

When he found her, he frowned. In danger? Surely there were no more surprises these people could conjure up?

He turned and headed off down the nearest side street, his mind searching for her.

#

Marta showed no intention of running away. She jumped at Dreggo even as the half-human former Cross Jumper came for her.

‘I’ll kill you, you evil fucking
bitch!
’ Marta screamed, grappling with Dreggo, trying to get at her eyes.

At first Dreggo was a little taken aback by the ferocity of the assault, but her strength began to tell as she pushed Marta away and punched her in the face, knocking the Tube Rider to the ground. As Marta tried to twist out of range, Dreggo grabbed her from behind, planning to finish it quickly.

Then something happened.

The whole world turned white.

Dreggo screamed as pain surged through her like a phalange of firebrands. She squeezed her good eye shut until she thought it would burst, and she raked her own body with her hands as she rolled across the ground. She felt Marta slipping away from her, and through the agony that wanted to destroy her she screamed the only word that could possibly offer a solution:

‘
Clayton!
’

#

He stepped out of the shadows to stand beside Dreggo’s writhing form, his finger pressed so hard on the button of the stun control that the nail was white. With his other finger he turned a dial on the side up to the highest setting.

‘Tell that bastard downstairs I’ll see him soon,’ Clayton shouted at her.

It was all he could do to stop himself kicking her as she lay at his feet. When finally he relaxed his finger, Dreggo was barely moving. A small groan dribbled from her throat and her body shook with spasms. Clayton looked up and saw Marta, one of the girl Tube Riders, standing a few feet away, staring at him, open-mouthed. She was covered head to toe in blood and gore.

‘Is she dead?’ Marta asked.

‘She will be when I’m done with her. Go now. Take your people and head for the tunnel on the coast.’ He flicked a thumb over his shoulder. ‘The Governor thinks it’s a dead end. He planned to trap you there, but I’ve seen the plans. It’s finished. It goes all the way through. Get across and you’re safe, but you have to go now. The Governor is here, in this village. You do not have much time.’

Marta nodded. ‘Thank you.’ She seemed reluctant to move. She looked down at Leo’s body and pointed. ‘He was my brother,’ she said.

‘I know. And I’m sorry it had to be this way. I’m sorry that any of this had to happen. I’m sorry you had to live in this world, but if I can do just one good thing in my life … just one thing that helps someone … go
now!
’

Marta flashed him a quick smile of thanks then turned and ran. For a few seconds Clayton watched her go. Then he pulled a radio from his belt and switched it to his agents’ common frequency.

‘Agents of the DCA, this is your Commander, Leland Clayton,’ he said. ‘Something has gone wrong with the Huntsmen. The Governor has given the order to kill them all. Shoot on sight.’

He switched the radio off. He put it back on his belt and pulled his gun. Looking down at Dreggo, he said, ‘It ends now, you fucking monster.’

He lifted his gun, but before he could pull the trigger, a voice from behind him said: ‘Do you know the meaning of the word, “treason”, Mr. Clayton?’

Clayton spun as fast as his training would allow. He brought up the gun with which he had dealt countless deaths, and his marksman’s eye pulled the trigger on the man standing in the road behind him. He was quick, but the Governor was no mere human. Another man would have been dead, but the Governor moved just enough to take the bullet low in his shoulder instead of his heart. He grunted and staggered, but not before the gun had been torn from Clayton’s hand by an invisible force Clayton would not have believed possible, leaving his fingers sore and aching.

The Governor took a step forward. He lifted his hands, but this time he didn’t send Clayton tumbling away from him. Clayton jerked forward, and the Governor’s hands closed around his neck.

‘An eye for an eye, Mr. Clayton,’ the Governor said.

Clayton looked up into the Governor’s eyes as the iron grip tightened, and in the seconds before blackness claimed him forever, he stared deep into those crimson eyes, and was sure he could see the face of the devil himself there. The devil appeared to be smiling.

Clayton smiled back.

#

Marta had run down a couple of streets when she heard someone shouting her name. Turning, she saw Ishael running towards her. She fell into his arms, crying.

‘Thank God,’ he gasped. ‘Quickly, you have to go. There’s a car.’

Marta couldn’t speak. Her throat felt dry and cracked, and no words would come. Ishael kissed her forehead and dragged her after him. A couple of minutes later they turned a corner and found a car waiting in front of them, its engine idling. In the back were Carl, Owen and Jess. Paul sat at the wheel. Jin stood beside the open front passenger door, with Lucy next to him.

Ishael didn’t say a word as he pushed her inside and shut the door. The window had been broken, so Ishael leaned down and kissed her quickly on the lips. ‘I love you, Marta Tube Rider,’ he said.

‘They took my brother, don’t you leave me too!’ she cried, finding her voice at last. She tried to hold on to his arm, but Paul pulled her back.

‘Marta, we have to finish this!’

‘You have to go now,’ Jin said. ‘The Huntsmen are all here. The tunnel entrance is clear.’

‘Ishael!’

He pulled her hand off his arm. ‘I’ll see you very soon,’ he said. ‘In a better place.’

Marta felt Jess’s arms around her shoulders as Paul steered the car away. From the back she could hear both Carl and Owen sobbing. Through the window, she saw Ishael standing beside Jin and Lucy, his arm raised. Then they turned out of sight.

She tried to stop herself from crying, but she couldn’t. Tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting little channels in the grime and blood.