Read Online Vengeance (Twenty-Five Percent Book 3) by Nerys Wheatley - Free Book Online
Authors: Nerys Wheatley
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as more and more filled the wide aisles around him. Alex stared down at their upturned faces, their vacant expressions gazing at him without any emotion or thought. Every one of their busy, complicated lives reduced to one single desire – to eat.
No love or hate, no fear or joy, no pain or pleasure.
Alex had been like that once, for the four weeks he lay bound to a hospital bed as he was treated and fed, his body fighting off Meir’s disease while he knew nothing.
Hannah was like that now.
Had Boot found her and killed her? Or was she still alive in that room where he’d left her, every part of the beautiful person she’d been as lost as all the people in front of him now? Men, women, children, now nothing more than vessels for the disease that had taken everything they once were.
Leaning out further, he brushed his free hand over the tips of their outstretched fingers like the lead singer at a rock concert. His adoring audience went wild, straining upwards to reach him.
It would be so easy, to just let go and allow them to carry him away...
A sound startled him, jarring him from his reverie. He snatched his hand back.
From across the warehouse he could hear the rattle of the loading door closing. The teenagers had made it. Now he had a job to do.
Without altering at all, the adoring crowd transformed into a baying mob.
How on earth do I get out of this ?
“Time to leave,” he muttered, pulling himself back onto a safer part of the shelving and beginning the long climb to the top.
The top shelf was at least forty feet from the ground and mostly clear. Judging by the layer of dust, it wasn’t used much.
Alex looked down at the horde gathered around him. “Later,” he said, throwing them a sloppy salute.
The line of shelves he stood on extended roughly halfway across the width of the building then stopped, leaving a gap of around ten feet before the next line began. Given sufficient run-up, Alex could easily clear ten feet in a single jump. But that was on the ground, when his life didn’t depend on making it and the leap wasn’t across more than a forty foot drop with eaters close by, ready to swarm onto him if he fell.
He gave it roughly two seconds’ thought before starting the climb down.
Reaching the floor, he peered around the side of the shelves, thinking that maybe he could run the rest of the way. The move turned out to be a mistake. The horde back in the direction he’d come from spotted him immediately and ran towards him. He barely had time to dart to the next unit and haul himself out of their reach before they got to him.
“You lot are fast, aren’t you?” he said, looking down at them.
They moaned their response which, had they been able to vocalise their thoughts, and if they had any thoughts, Alex imagined meant, “Yes we are and you are currently only hanging onto your paddle by your fingertips.”
Reaching the top shelf again, he walked towards the far end where the aisles opened onto the clear area they’d driven the tank through. It was then that he noticed the eaters following him. They were all looking up, tracking his every move. When he got to the end of the shelving run, so did they. He tried retracing his steps. The same thing happened.
Were they learning? It was a disturbing thought, but Alex didn’t have time to mull it over now because he was stuck. After walking rapidly back and forth on the shelves a few times and failing to lose his horde even once, he sat down at the end to think, dangling his feet over the edge. The horde took their place below him and stared up. After a minute or so they stopped moaning. The quiet was unnerving, especially as they were all still staring up at him. For half a minute he stared back, just to make sure they were blinking. They were.
He tried to work out a way to lose his horde shadow. From here, at the very end of the shelves, he could see both ends of the warehouse. Both doors were shut. Micah must have circled round to
No love or hate, no fear or joy, no pain or pleasure.
Alex had been like that once, for the four weeks he lay bound to a hospital bed as he was treated and fed, his body fighting off Meir’s disease while he knew nothing.
Hannah was like that now.
Had Boot found her and killed her? Or was she still alive in that room where he’d left her, every part of the beautiful person she’d been as lost as all the people in front of him now? Men, women, children, now nothing more than vessels for the disease that had taken everything they once were.
Leaning out further, he brushed his free hand over the tips of their outstretched fingers like the lead singer at a rock concert. His adoring audience went wild, straining upwards to reach him.
It would be so easy, to just let go and allow them to carry him away...
A sound startled him, jarring him from his reverie. He snatched his hand back.
From across the warehouse he could hear the rattle of the loading door closing. The teenagers had made it. Now he had a job to do.
Without altering at all, the adoring crowd transformed into a baying mob.
How on earth do I get out of this ?
“Time to leave,” he muttered, pulling himself back onto a safer part of the shelving and beginning the long climb to the top.
The top shelf was at least forty feet from the ground and mostly clear. Judging by the layer of dust, it wasn’t used much.
Alex looked down at the horde gathered around him. “Later,” he said, throwing them a sloppy salute.
The line of shelves he stood on extended roughly halfway across the width of the building then stopped, leaving a gap of around ten feet before the next line began. Given sufficient run-up, Alex could easily clear ten feet in a single jump. But that was on the ground, when his life didn’t depend on making it and the leap wasn’t across more than a forty foot drop with eaters close by, ready to swarm onto him if he fell.
He gave it roughly two seconds’ thought before starting the climb down.
Reaching the floor, he peered around the side of the shelves, thinking that maybe he could run the rest of the way. The move turned out to be a mistake. The horde back in the direction he’d come from spotted him immediately and ran towards him. He barely had time to dart to the next unit and haul himself out of their reach before they got to him.
“You lot are fast, aren’t you?” he said, looking down at them.
They moaned their response which, had they been able to vocalise their thoughts, and if they had any thoughts, Alex imagined meant, “Yes we are and you are currently only hanging onto your paddle by your fingertips.”
Reaching the top shelf again, he walked towards the far end where the aisles opened onto the clear area they’d driven the tank through. It was then that he noticed the eaters following him. They were all looking up, tracking his every move. When he got to the end of the shelving run, so did they. He tried retracing his steps. The same thing happened.
Were they learning? It was a disturbing thought, but Alex didn’t have time to mull it over now because he was stuck. After walking rapidly back and forth on the shelves a few times and failing to lose his horde even once, he sat down at the end to think, dangling his feet over the edge. The horde took their place below him and stared up. After a minute or so they stopped moaning. The quiet was unnerving, especially as they were all still staring up at him. For half a minute he stared back, just to make sure they were blinking. They were.
He tried to work out a way to lose his horde shadow. From here, at the very end of the shelves, he could see both ends of the warehouse. Both doors were shut. Micah must have circled round to
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