Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith

Author:Alexander Gordon Smith [Smith, Alexander Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-11-29T01:59:00+00:00

Remember, take one side each. If you hear me give the alarm, then we go, no hesitation. Ready?”

No, I almost barked again, but I kept my mouth closed and settled for a nod. Zee returned it, then Simon, and with a col ective sigh of fear shuddering from our lips we pushed our way through the curtain.

To come face-to-face with a wheezer.

I would have cried out, but Zee’s legs crumpled and he fel back, slamming into me and stealing the air from my lungs. I straightened my back, grabbed hold of Zee, kept him standing, desperately trying to repair the shattered pieces of my brain to come up with a plan.

Any second now the filthy creature was going to lurch forward, stick its needles into our necks. The first thing that crossed my mind was that it was a trap, that Simon had set us up, led us to the infirmary. I looked up at him, waiting for the kid to pounce, to pin us down while the wheezer pumped us ful of poison, but to my surprise he simply held one bony finger to his lips and motioned us forward with his head.

I stared back at the wheezer, noticed that its eyes were closed—the lids as scarred as the rest of its hairless, weathered face but merciful y concealing the shriveled-raisin eyes within. It was breathing slowly, rhythmical y, and I traced the pipe of its gas mask to see that it was connected to a socket in the wal . Every now and again it spasmed, jerking wildly, but other than that it was stil .

“It’s asleep?” I whispered as quietly as I was able. Simon nodded as he passed it, his deformed body tensed, ready to pounce if it showed any sign of waking. Zee was stil pressed against me and I pushed him gently forward, navigating around the silent specter.

“Why don’t you just kil it now?” Zee asked.

“Too risky. Blacksuits would know it wasn’t a rat, they’d know we’d been here.”

The wheezer didn’t shift as we entered the room ahead. It was vast, long rather than wide, the flesh-colored wal s rising to a ceiling so high it was lost in shadow. Countless lights hung down on long cords, like spiders, swinging gently even though there was no breeze. The glow emanating from each one was so thick, and so red, that it could have been raining blood. At the far end another door led away into darkness. But our attention was gripped by what was before us.

Lined up along both sides of the room were two seemingly endless rows of screens made up of steel frames and white cloth curtains—the kind you see in hospitals to provide privacy. But a hospital ward usual y contained perhaps a dozen wel -spaced beds; here there must have been a hundred of them, so close to each other they were almost touching. Al the curtains were drawn tight, but I knew that behind each one was a bed occupied by some poor kid who had been stolen from Furnace.

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