Coldbrook

their crossbows pointed at the open doorway.

Vic stood in the doorway and winced, realising his mistake, braced for the impact of a bolt. ‘We’re fine!’ he shouted. No one fired.

‘About fucking time,’ Marc said.

‘Come on!’ Drake waved them down to him, and Vic stood back to let Sean and Jayne pass. He snatched Sean’s gun as he went by, and the older man paused only for a second.

‘Vic?’ Lucy asked. She grabbed Vic’s arm as Olivia tugged at her other hand.

‘Mommy, Daddy, we’ve got to go!’

‘Come on!’ Drake said. He was pushing Marc towards the breach, gesturing for Sean and Jayne to follow. The Gaians withdrew in a tightening circle around the breach.

He heard them pounding against the staircase doors one level up.

‘Holly,’ Vic said.

‘Vic. .’ Lucy gasped.

‘She’s in Secondary. Shutting the breach for a short time. Otherwise the bastards’ll run straight through after us, and we won’t be ready.’

‘No,’ Lucy breathed, her eyes searching Vic’s face. He blinked.

‘I’ve got to help her,’ he said, but they both knew that was only part of the truth. The other part — the greater part — was that he could never leave Holly behind.

‘Damn it, Vic,’ Lucy said. She picked up Olivia and carried her down towards the breach.

‘Daddy!’ Olivia screeched. Vic watched them go. His wife’s hair was dirty but still looked gorgeous, and he wanted to run his hands through it one last time.

‘We’ll be the last ones through!’ he shouted. ‘Three minutes. Don’t shoot us.’

Before he ran, he tried to smile at his wife. But she did not once turn back.

9

Holly watched the group passing into the breach, but Vic remained behind.

‘Shit.’

Her finger hovered over the keyboard.

There were no longer minutes left. Only seconds now. She was closer to God than ever before, and yet Vic stood between them.

Holly grabbed the satphone and dialled.

Vic left Control and she lost sight of him. His phone rang but he did not answer.

‘Okay, then, Vic,’ she whispered. A thrill went through her. Although the truth was painful, right then the fact that Vic was coming for her meant everything.

She watched Control on the lower level, the corridors of the main middle level flooded with zombies, and she flipped the other two views to Secondary’s dedicated staircase. Clear — for now.

But the second she saw them in Control, she would type the code and press enter. Three US states was a huge sacrifice, but it was nothing compared to the cure that Marc might find.

Jonah sat here and watched me going through the breach, Holly thought. She wondered where he was now, if he had succeeded, and whether he was alive or dead. Or neither.

10

Vic could hear the zombies banging and hooting, and he could smell them, their curious dead stench filling Coldbrook and promising a similar fate for him.

His chest burned as he ran, and a deep sense of shame burned inside him.

He passed the staircase they’d just descended and the doors bowed out, creaking. As he raced around the core towards Secondary’s staircase, he held the guns — his M1911 and the one he’d taken from Sean — in both hands, ready to aim them the instant he saw shadows coming at him.

Holly switched off the alarm. Just me and her left, Vic thought, and he ran harder.

The staircase was clear, though the zombies were pressing against the doors on the middle level. Dead eyes followed him as he dashed past, eyes belonging to people he had perhaps once known, and he looked away.

The corridor above was also clear, and moments later he was at Secondary’s door. He tried the handle — locked.

‘Holly!’

The lock snicked open and he shoved at the door, falling into the room, seeing the zombies on the screens, and Control was still clear.

‘Holly, we haven’t got a fucking second so we’ve-’

‘I’m not leaving, Vic.’ She was sitting at the desk again, gaze flickering across the screens, back to Vic, screens again.

‘What?’

Holly was crying. Smiling. ‘You came back for me.’

‘To help. Are you done? Come on, let’s get the fuck-’

‘I lied,’ she said. ‘You never did understand the core. I could adapt it, but that’s a long process, takes days. So I’ve bypassed a load of shit, rigged the containment to shut down instead. And that’s manual.’

‘No,’ Vic breathed.

‘One code away, Vic. Core exposure. And you know what that means.’

‘It means no one ever comes back,’ he said.

‘Back to what?’ Holly nodded at the screens. She could barely look at him.

‘But the cure,’ he said. ‘Everything we’ve been fighting for.’

‘There are other worlds to save.’

No, Vic thought. No, no, this isn’t why I came back, this can’t be-

But when Holly said, ‘You should go back to your family,’ Vic knew that it was. He had come back for a reason, and perhaps there was still time.

He walked to Holly and put his arms around her. She sighed, pressing her face against his. Then he lifted her from the chair and carried her towards the door.

‘Vic!’

He shoved her through, kicking aside her leg as she braced her foot against the frame. She sprawled on the floor, and Vic stood for a moment listening, watching. He could hear them far away, but they weren’t yet in the staircase.

‘Don’t you fucking dare!’ Holly screamed.

Vic lobbed both guns at her as she stood, and as she winced and knocked them aside he stepped back in and closed the door.

Locked it.

Holly was on the other side, crying and raging. ‘You saved your family!’ she shouted. ‘Stupid bastard, saved them and then threw your own life away. What good is that?’

‘But I killed everyone else,’ he said, raising his voice so that she could hear him.

‘Self-fucking-pity?’ Holly looked past him at the screens. Control was still clear.

‘You might still have time!’ he shouted.

‘Let me in.’

‘Not happening, Holly. Tell me what to do.’