Read Online Children of the Cull by Cavan Scott - Free Book Online

said Fenton.
    “The blade snapped,” I retorted, annoyed. “It was old.”
    He looked me up and down. “You’re telling me.”
    It would be so easy to dash his brains out on the concrete.
    I flashed the torch in the direction that we had walked. “There used to be a hardware store, about half a mile that-a-way.”
    “Yeah, we found it,” Beck confirmed. “Cleared out.”
    “I thought I might find a saw lying about,” I admitted. “But no such luck. The ceiling’s come down.”
    Brennan tested the grille. “There’s some give in this. If we could bend it up...”
    Fenton boggled. “You’re joking!”
    “It should be wide enough to climb through.”
    “And then what?” Fenton asked. “Drop to the bottom?”
    Yeah. Hopefully, you’d land on your head.
    Beck grabbed Fenton’s arm to shine his light down the concrete walls of the shaft.
    “There’s a ladder.”
    “Why do you think I cut here?” I said.
    Beck crouched down, Brennan stepping aside to let the larger woman examine the grate. Putting down her gun, Beck grabbed the bars with both hands and heaved, grunting slightly with the effort, and then let go, nodding.
    “Yeah, that’ll come. Garret, you and Curtis, with me.”
    The two meatheads fell in, crouching either side of Beck.
    I stepped around them, shining my light onto the spot where the blade had snapped.
    “On three,” the woman commanded. “One... two... three.”
    They began to pull, the metal squealing in protest. They made little progress at first.
    “Hang on,” Fenton said, passing his torch to Brennan so he could produce a crowbar from his pack.
    Perhaps he wasn’t such a waste of space. I guessed there had to be a reason Brennan kept him around. It certainly wasn’t because of his charm.
    Fenton dropped to his knees beside Garret. “That’s it,” he said, shoving the crowbar into the ever-growing gap. “Almost there.”
    He was right. The metal was beginning to buckle.
    “I’m in,’ said Fenton, pushing down on the lever. “That’s it. That’s it.”
    Then he slipped, the crowbar springing into the air. It landed on top of the crate, upended and then tumbled down the shaft to clatter on the floor below.
    The sound rang out across the night.
    We all froze.
    Nothing. Not even another bloody fox.
    Brennan breathed out. “It’s okay. No one could have heard that, not this far away.”
    I wondered who she was trying to convince.
    “It bloody hurt,” whined Fenton, taking off a glove to rub his aching palm.
    Someone get the boy a tissue.
    “We can do this,” Beck said, and they redoubled their efforts.
    The grille was giving way now, opening as if on a hinge. In theory, we could probably wriggle through already, but it would be a bit tight. Curtis shifted position, pushing from underneath now, Beck pulling from above. The cords of her neck were bunching, looking ready to break, before she slipped and fell back with a cry.
    It didn’t matter. The twisted metal stood proud, pointing up towards the clouds that smothered the stars above.
    “That’ll do,” panted Beck, taking my hand. She hauled herself back to her feet and retrieved her rifle. “We should be able to get through now.”
    Fenton shone his torch over the roughly hacked hole. “You sure?”
    “Who wants to go first?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
    “You can lead the way,” Brennan said simply.
    “No problem,” I said, passing my pack to Beck. “Pass this down to me when I’m through. I don’t want it catching on the sides.”
    Slipping my torch into my pocket, I sat myself on edge of the shaft and swung my legs down, searching for the rungs of the ladder.

 

     
    CHAPTER NINE
    CURE
     
     
    I TURNED IN the chair to find Lam Chen standing in the door, a coffee mug in his podgy hand. Lam headed up the technical department, and could usually be found up to his elbows in fibre optic cables or squinting at a screen.
    Now, his eyes went wide behind thick-rimmed glasses.