“Julia? How did you…?”
“I followed you. We knew you were looking for your kid, and Craven showed me what you found on the system.”
“But what about the plan? The fighting?”
“What about it? Have you seen what’s happening out there? The chain reaction’s started, McCoyne. They’re turning on each other.”
“So you’ve got what you wanted. The city’s falling apart and-”
“I can’t let you take her. Kids like this are the future. We need them more than you can imagine-”
“She’s staying with me.”
“You don’t understand. Sahota and Preston both-”
“No, you don’t understand. Ellis is my daughter, and I’m responsible for-”
“Your only responsibility is to this war.”
“But I’ll take her back to the others. I promised Preston I’d-”
“Do you think I’m stupid? If I let you go you’d disappear and we’d never see either of you again. I can’t take that risk. She’s coming with me, and you should be proud to let her go. We’ll take her, and she’ll help us hunt more of them down until the last one’s dead. Your kid’s already more of a fighter than you’ll ever be, and you should-”
“She’s my little girl. I don’t want her to fight.”
“You dumb bastard, do you think you have a choice? Just let her go.”
I don’t answer. I run forward, trying to find a way past. Julia comes at me, and I drop Ellis to defend myself. Another flash of the light blinds me for an instant, and the sudden tightening of the cord as Ellis darts away pulls me off balance. Julia swings a punch and catches me on the side of the head. I’m knocked back and sent reeling by the unexpected angle of her attack. I trip over something hard and heavy in the dark behind me and find myself on my knees in some kind of oily inspection pit. I feel the cord tighten again, and I immediately grab it and try to pull Ellis back. It gets even tighter, then goes taut, then drops down loose as Julia cuts through it.
“Ellis!” I shout as I scramble out of the pit. Julia drops her flashlight, and for a split second I catch a fleeting glimpse of her shape as she sprints through the office and back outside, barely managing to drag Ellis behind her. I chase after them, over the land at the back of the garage, through the wooden gate, then out along the cobbled passageway. It’s packed with people, far more than before, all of them running to escape the carnage that is steadily consuming the center of town. Can’t see Julia-she’s just one among hundreds now.
I follow the stumbling crowd until we reach the end of the passageway. I look in all directions and shout for Ellis, but my calls go unanswered, most probably unheard. Too many people. I start to wade through them, unable to see anything through the waves of foul, barely human flesh that constantly crash into me. I grab the knife from my belt and start hacking into those nearest to me, not interested in killing, just wanting them out of the way. The sun’s almost up now, but the light’s still poor. Dirty smoke drifts everywhere like horror film fog.
Someone grabs me from behind. I spin around to defend myself, but they’re not attacking, just trying to get through. I’m on my back in the gutter in a puddle of rancid rainwater before I know what’s happening. My wrist cracks against a curb, and I drop the knife. I reach out for it, but it’s kicked away by one of the stampeding crowd. Before I can get up someone plants a boot right in the center of my chest. Suddenly struggling to breathe, I roll over and manage to crawl away through the forest of legs. Other Unchanged trip and stumble over and around me, but I force myself to keep moving until I reach the side of the street where their numbers are fewer. I’m next to a badly decayed body in a deserted shop doorway when my hand rests on a length of metal tubing about a yard long. It looks like it was a fence post or part of a road sign, but it’ll make a decent weapon. I use it to help me get up, then head back into the crowd again, swinging it around like a samurai sword. On a vicious, upward arc, the jagged end of the tube hits an Unchanged woman on the side of the head, tearing her flesh from below her ear up to the corner of her eye. I swing the tube again and more of them go down like I’m cutting down crops, scything a path through the chaos.
There’s an overturned wreck of a car in the middle of the street. The crowd splits to go around either side of it, but I climb onto it. The burned-out skeleton of the car is precariously balanced on its roof, and it quivers and vibrates with my every move. Another helicopter flies overhead, and I instinctively duck and turn around to watch it disappear, looking back toward town.
Then I see her.
I’m surrounded by a sea of heads, but back in the direction from which I’ve just come, there’s a break in the crowd-a small, unexpected bubble of space. I struggle to see through the smoky haze and constant, uncoordinated activity, but then I glimpse a flash of remarkably fast movement. It’s Ellis. Finally free and unrestricted, she’s killing at an incredible rate. I can see her leaping from victim to victim with ferocious speed and intent, using nothing but her hands and teeth to kill. She wraps herself around each one of them, does enough damage to fatally wound them, then gets up and attacks her next victim before the last one’s dead. Even after everything I’ve seen, my daughter’s ruthless, savage brutality is incredible. Awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measure.
There’s Julia. I steady myself as the overturned car rocks again, then watch as she chases after Ellis. Holding on to what’s left of the cord with one hand, she chops at the Unchanged around her with what looks like a meat cleaver held in the other. She’s struggling. Ellis is too strong and too fast for her.
I swing the metal pipe out over the side of the car like a golf club, taking out several more refugees and almost decapitating one of them. I jump down into the space where they were standing, then hold the tube out like a lance and run forward, shoulder dropped, toward where Julia and Ellis are fighting. I follow the trail of bodies, tripping over outstretched limbs and slipping in pools of blood and gore that Ellis has left in her wake. An unusually aggressive Unchanged comes at me with a machete. The downward sweep of the blade glances off my shoulder but does little damage, and I’m gone before he can take a second swipe.
Julia’s dead ahead of me now, being virtually dragged along by Ellis as she’s fighting. Yet another helicopter powers overhead, this one releasing a volley of screaming missiles into the crowd nearer to the center of town. I can feel the heat of the missiles as they scorch through the air above me, the shock wave from the explosions in the distance almost knocking me off my feet. Julia lifts her cleaver and chops it down into the pelvis of a slow- moving Unchanged man before the vibrations knock her off balance, too. She steadies herself and pulls back on Ellis’s leash. The momentary delay is enough for me to catch her. I grab hold of her shoulder and spin her around.
“Let her go, Julia.”
Distracted, she almost lets the cord slip through her fingers. She drops her weapon, snatches back the plastic- covered line with both hands, then tries to wrap it around her wrist. Her face is bruised, her right eye swollen purple and almost completely shut. Did Ellis do that to her?
“Help me with her,” she demands.
“Help you?” I yell back, using the metal pole to shove an unsteady Unchanged out of the way. “Are you serious? Let her go-”
“We have to get her out of here. Help me!”
More missiles explode, vast swollen bulges of intense orange flames rising up from the area around the Prince Hotel, far too close for comfort. What choice do I have? I drop the pole and grab the cord, taking the strain from Julia. Together we begin to reel Ellis in. I catch a glimpse of her through the swarming crowds. We’re dragging her back, but she’s still fighting, still grabbing as many Unchanged as she can, sinking her teeth and claws into their skin, slashing and tearing at their flesh. She’s just a yard away now, still pulling against us but unable to overcome our combined strength. Julia runs around from behind me and grabs Ellis by the waist, lifting her clean off the ground. Ellis drops the body of a young Unchanged kid midkill, then manages to squirm around in Julia’s grip. I try to force myself between them and take my daughter from Julia, but Ellis unintentionally elbows me in the face, her bone catching me full force between the eyes. Blood begins pouring from my nose.
Julia staggers away, trying to keep hold of Ellis and at the same time deflect the constant barrage of kicks and punches coming from her. My girl is like a child possessed, fighting with a savage strength and intensity beyond her years. They disappear into the crowd again for a few heart-stopping seconds until, as I spit out blood from my broken nose, I catch sight of the clothesline on the ground. I drop down and grab hold of it, reeling Ellis in again. I find her sitting on top of Julia, her thumbs sunk deep into the woman’s bloody eye sockets, repeatedly lifting her head up and then smashing the back of her skull down onto the asphalt. Julia thrashes her arms wildly, but there’s no strength left in her, only movement. Ellis squeezes again and Julia stops suddenly, limbs falling heavy. Ellis lifts
