Beyond These Walls | Book 8 | Between Fury & Fear by Robertson Michael

Author:Robertson, Michael [Robertson, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Infected
Published: 2020-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

The night sky had turned from black to dark blue with the start of a new day. Damp hung in the air and clung to Olga’s clothes. Hard to tell where her sweat ended and the dew began. Every step clumsy, she fell forwards with her run, Dianna ahead of her, Gracie in the lead.

They passed through the tight alleyways of what Gracie had called the city’s residential district. A residential district minus the residents. They’d left the large tower blocks and stadiums behind. They were now surrounded by houses. Who knew what stared from every paneless window or shadowy doorway? But they could only deal with what stood in their way. They couldn’t go to war with what they couldn’t see.

From a distance, the metal tower stood as a tall skeletal frame. Almost as if it had been abandoned mid-construction. But when Olga broke free from the final alley amongst the dense press of buildings, she finally saw the bottom section of the sixty-foot structure. Four legs spread out wide, one in each corner of its square base. Steel panels between the legs turned the space beneath into a room of sorts. A shelter. A storage area. A prison … She slowed her pace.

The side facing them had a dirty steel door. Like most metal in the city, it wore a rash of orange rust. For all intents and purposes, the tower stood as yet another dead artefact in a city filled with dead artefacts.

Gracie reached the door, checked left and right over each shoulder, and opened it. The hinges offered a cackling protest. She ushered in Dianna and then Olga before entering herself and closing the door, throwing them into complete darkness.

Gracie’s voice echoed, bouncing off the hard walls. “At some point very soon—” she caught her breath “—I need to be heading back to my community. And I need to do it before daylight.”

“That doesn’t give us long,” Olga said.

“No.”

“Why can’t you wait a little longer?”

“Two reasons. One, this city is much busier in the daytime, so our chances of avoiding capture are seriously reduced.”

“And the second?” Dianna said.

“My community is well hidden. Even if we don’t get captured, I can’t risk exposing one of its entrances. Our strength lies in our camouflage. If either Fear or Fury find us, we’ll be overrun.”

“So you’re going to abandon us like I said you would?”

“How am I abandoning you? I’ve done everything within my power to lead you lot to my community. For some reason, William and Matilda decided they knew a better way. And Hawk wants to fight anything he can. They’re the ones who have screwed this up, not me.”

Olga balled her hands into fists. “Don’t you think there’s a reason why they stopped? Maybe they needed our help. But we just carried on, didn’t we?”

“And Hawk,” Gracie said, “are you saying he had a better reason? To me, it looked like he wanted to continue his one-man crusade to defeat every enemy on the planet. I won’t risk my life because of their mistakes.

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