Read Online Furnace 4 - Fugitives by Alexander Gordon Smith - Free Book Online

cigarette smoke in the back of my throat.
    ‘Jesus,’ whispered Simon. ‘What happened?’
    ‘Gangs,’ Zee replied. ‘Skulls or the Fifty-Niners. Or maybe they’re all working together now.’
    Zee’s words caused a thought to explode, so powerful and so overwhelming that I almost doubled over. I began to shake my head, trying to deny the revelation, but I couldn’t. The truth was there, right in front of me. I couldn’t quite believe I had never thought of it before, but I can honestly say it hadn’t crossed my mind. I’d been so focused on getting out, on being free, that I’d been blind to the consequences of my actions, blind to the real nightmare.
    We were free, but so was each and every inmate in Furnace, the ones who had survived, anyway. And for every kid like me who’d been framed there were ten, twenty, maybe a hundred who were guilty of their crimes – murder, arson, assault, and worse. They were out, on the streets, the same cold-blooded killers who had been responsible for the Summer of Slaughter, the same brutal gangs that had made the streets run red.
    They were free, and it was my fault.
    ‘This way,’ said Zee, leading us off in the direction of the voices.
    I did my best to ignore the nausea, to shrug off the guilt, following him with a heavy head and a heavier heart. Signposts showed us the way to the Elizabeth Line, and we followed them round a bend, down another vast escalator and along a narrow tunnel lined with bare crimson footprints. At the end of it was a staircase that dropped onto the platform. This one was larger, kiosks embedded in the green tiled walls. Shadows danced andplayed against the empty stalls like a puppet show. We waited, frozen at the top of the stairs, knowing we needed to get down them but unable to take that first step.
    ‘Jesus, when are we gonna catch a break?’ Simon muttered.
    ‘Ignore it,’ I said. ‘Whatever’s down there, whoever it is, we leave them alone and they’ll leave us alone.’
    ‘Or maybe we could just wait,’ Zee said. ‘They’ll be gone soon, surely. We don’t want any trouble.’
    It was a tempting idea, but I knew that no amount of waiting would help. Trouble just had a funny way of finding us.

Ambush
    We descended the steps slowly, every muscle tense, ready to defend ourselves. We didn’t know what was down there, but if experience had taught us anything it was to expect the worst.
    Zee had taken the lead, but when he reached the bottom he stopped and motioned for me to proceed.
    ‘I don’t want to cause them too much damage,’ he whispered with a nervous grin, flexing his non-existent biceps. I wasn’t in the mood to laugh, stepping past him onto the platform. The noises were even louder down here, but the wide staircase blocked our view. Only the strange shadow puppet show on the wall continued, a parade of phantom limbs and elongated torsos.
    ‘Forget it,’ a voice pulled itself out of the cacophony, louder than the rest. ‘You saw those things up there, you wanna die then go ahead, bruv’, but I ain’t wiv you.’
    The shouts rose in pitch, a dozen people arguing. I was surprised to hear a female voice in there too, the sound so alien to me after Furnace that at first I didn’t recognise it. We moved cautiously around the staircase,the other half of the platform sliding into view. The first thing I saw was three inmates in torn overalls, two leaning against the wall and another – a Skull – pacing back and forth, a rifle gripped in his white-knuckled hands. He pointed it across the platform towards something out of sight, his finger wrapped around the trigger.
    ‘I told you to shut the hell up,’ he said, his voice desperate and broken. ‘This ain’t none of your concern.’
    I took a few more steps, lifting my arms into the air and coughing gently. The prisoner with the gun spun round and loosed a shot, the bullet flying up and gouging a chunk of concrete from the ceiling. The sound seemed to startle him as