was my only option. Without him we’re all screwed.”
“You should have warned us.”
“You should have warned me,” I say, wincing as the rifle roughly probes my delicate gut.
“I knew,” the gunman tells Parker, clearly enjoying the discomfort he’s causing me.
“I had to keep it quiet in case things didn’t work out,” Sutton continues. “Dean needed to know because I knew it’d be him who opened the door and I didn’t want him panicking and shooting us both. It was the only way. I didn’t want the others to get concerned.”
“Others?” I interrupt, feeling my skin prickling with unease. “There are others?”
Sutton finally manages to get the armed man to lower his rifle. I’m still thinking constantly about killing these evil bastards, but my control is continuing to return. Like Sutton said, it was the shock of finding myself face-to-face with these people that made me react so immediately, so viciously. I’d be stupid to try anything. I’m outnumbered and they’re armed, and at this moment in time I don’t know whether Sutton would fight with me or against me.
“Get rid of him,” Parker says. “You shouldn’t have brought him here, Pete.”
Sutton stands in the very center of the room, separating me from the Unchanged like a referee at a boxing match.
“I had to bring him, you know I did. We talked about this.”
“What the hell are you doing?” I demand, ignoring their inconsequential conversation. “If Hinchcliffe or anyone else finds out what’s down here, they’ll kill you as well as these two.”
“If it wasn’t for Pete we’d be dead anyway,” Dean, the gunman, says. I don’t react. It’s one thing finding myself shut underground with two Unchanged scum; acknowledging either of them is another matter altogether.
“Do you really think I’m that stupid?” Sutton sighs. “Do you think I’d let any of them know about this place?”
“You told me.”
“Yes, but you’re different from the rest of them, I keep telling you. You’re like me. You can help these people. I can’t do this on my own anymore.”
“Do what? I don’t understand. I’m not going to help Unchanged, and neither should you. Just kill them and walk away.”
“I can’t.”
“But they’re just Unchanged, Sutton, probably the last of their kind. Things are hard enough up there without all of this.”
“Looks like he’s going to be a real help,” Parker sighs sarcastically, leaning back against the wall and staring straight at me. “Bad move bringing him here. We should kill him.”
“You couldn’t do it,” I spit at him. “And that’s why you’re down here and I’m up there.”
“I’ll do it,” Dean says menacingly, raising the rifle and taking a step forward. I lunge forward to defend myself, but Sutton blocks me, wedging himself between us again. He now has me on one side and the barrel of the rifle on the other. With surprising calm and self-assurance, he pushes us both away to our respective corners.
“And how will that help anyone?” he asks, his voice terse, clearly not impressed. “It’s that kind of bullshit that got us all into this mess. Like I said, Dean, I didn’t have any choice. You know how hard this is getting. I can’t do everything on my own anymore, and if I can’t do it, we’re all history.”
I grab Sutton’s shoulder and turn him around to face me. “Will you just tell me what’s going on?”
He gestures for Parker to open the door opposite the entrance we came through. Parker’s still hesitant.
“Don’t,” Dean says, the rifle still raised.
“It’s okay,” Sutton calmly replies. “Like I said, Dean, he’d have killed you by now if he was going to. He’s like me. Just give him a little time to get used to the situation.”
“Keep him under control, then,” he orders nervously, “because I’ll shoot you both if I have to.”
Parker rests his hands on the door, then pauses again.
“You’re completely sure about this, Pete?”
Sutton nods again. “We don’t have any choice.”
Parker opens the door. It’s heavy like a safe door, and he needs to use all his weight to push it fully open. He blocks my way forward, still unsure, and I recoil when I accidentally brush against him. Sutton squeezes between us, and Parker reluctantly moves to one side to let him through. I feel the barrel of the rifle resting between my shoulder blades.
“Keep yourself under control, Danny,” Sutton whispers as I follow him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
We enter another room. The lighting’s marginally better in here, but the shape of the space is very different and I’m still not able to see much. I can just about make out enough of the walls and ceiling to see that this looks like some kind of long, sloping access corridor. Sutton slows and grabs my arm again, obviously expecting me to react. As my eyes become used to the light levels I see that there are more Unchanged in here at the farthest end of the corridor. I count another four of them sitting on the floor, leaning up against the walls. I stare at each one of them as I pass. They look like famine victims from old TV news reports, limbs like sticks. Two of them are too weak to even lift their heads. One glares at me, a mix of hate and horror on her face. The fourth scuttles away along the floor, hurriedly moving back in the direction from which we’ve just come to get out of the way. They are broken, empty people. Do they know what I am? I know I should be killing them or at least finding a way to get someone here to do it for me. The fact I’m doing neither is adding to the nausea I’m already feeling. These pathetic fuckers make me feel physically sick.
“I don’t understand,” I say to Sutton, keeping my voice deliberately low, still conscious of the rifle aimed at my back. “Why? Why risk so much for a handful of Unchanged? Why risk so much for any Unchanged? You should have killed them.”
We reach the end of the corridor, just me and Sutton now. I glance back and see that Dean and Parker have stopped following, but they’re still watching closely. A lamp hanging on the wall illuminates another metal door. Sutton sighs and takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes.
“Sometimes you just don’t have any choice. Sometimes decisions are made for you. Things happen, and you just have to deal with them as best you can. The right option isn’t always the easiest one to take.”
I’m still trying to decipher his bullshit when he leans forward and opens the next door. He gently pushes it and it swings open wide, revealing a much larger space that’s filled with light. For a few blissfully ignorant seconds I’m distracted trying to work out why there’s such a vast construction as this buried deep under a farmer’s field in Suffolk, and the full enormity of what I’m seeing doesn’t immediately hit home.
Then it does, and I can hardly stand.
This place is full of people. I can see their faces and hear their voices and smell them and … and Christ, there must be more than twenty Unchanged in here.
23
SUTTON LEADS ME DEEPER into the large room, and I’m struggling to cope with what I’m seeing. For a couple of seconds all I can make out is an unholy mass of people filling the space in front of me. I’ve only managed to take a few steps forward when my dazed and confused brain switches back into gear and the full implication of what’s around us hits home. I take hold of Sutton’s arm, spin him around, and slam him back against the nearest wall. I focus all my attention on him, but I’m aware of terrified Unchanged scattering all around us, fleeing like cockroaches about to be crushed under a boot. Do they know what I am? They’re all watching me, desperately trying not to let me catch them staring. With frightening ease Sutton shifts his balance and reverses our positions, and now I’m the one up against the wall. I feel my strength drain away as a wave of sickness washes over me. Sutton pushes me through another doorway, grabbing a lamp as we disappear into the darkness.
Disoriented, I lose my footing and stumble. Sutton shuts the door and I look up and suddenly I’m aware of figures all around me. I lunge for the nearest one and it simply collapses under my weight. It’s a bloody mannequin. We’re in a room full of fucking store window dummies. None of this makes any sense. I slump down to the floor, pulse pounding, sweat pouring off me, trying to work out how I’m going to get back out and kill those fuckers on the
