The Eternal War

fallen away. The creatures could lose themselves inside those buildings, hide in the gloomy labyrinth of rooms and hallways, but only for a while. They’d be trapped in there.

She heard noises from North Charles Street: soldiers pulling the jam of vehicles roughly aside. The splintering crack of old cartwheel spokes, the groan of stressed rusting metal being dragged to the kerbside. They were busy clearing a way through the traffic jam.

And then she felt it … a cold tickle on her cheek. She felt it again. Moisture.

I’m not crying, am I?

She felt a cold tingle on the back of her hand and looked at Lincoln. A snowflake was fluttering lazily between them, seesawing down.

‘Snowing?’ grunted Lincoln.

It was. More dancing flakes of snow descended around them. She looked up at the narrow strip of daylight above and saw nothing but blue sky. For a moment her mind instinctively queried why, how, it could snow on a sunny September morning … then a dark form obscured the sky. The alleyway dimmed as the blue vanished to be replaced with the smooth dark copper hull of some gigantic vessel.

‘They here now,’ said the ape, looking up, his small eyes wide as pennies.

CHAPTER 58

2001, Dead City

Captain McManus nodded at the message coming in over his earpad. ‘Right you are, we’re on our way over.’

He turned to Liam. ‘Good news, Mr O’Connor. We’ve got a report of a handful of the runaways boxed up in a small alleyway … couple of guests along with them. One girl; one man, quite tall. Sound like your two?’

Liam exhaled a sigh of relief. ‘Are they all right?’

‘Apparently. They’ve both been seen on their feet. That’s obviously a good sign.’ McManus opened up a map of the city. ‘Just nearby the old university on North Charles Street.’ He looked up from his map to the streets around them, taking a moment to get his bearings.

‘Ah … yes, very close indeed.’ He pointed up at the carrier hovering over the city a block away. ‘Just over there, in fact. Right underneath her.’ He tapped a switch on his mouthpiece. ‘All units in the vicinity of the carrier … this is Captain McManus. We have a group of eugenics and their human prisoners bottled up in an alleyway. Nobody is to engage them. Repeat … no firing. Just hold your positions, chaps, until further orders.’

He tapped the switch on the mouthpiece to turn it off. ‘Well, now, gents … shall we?’

A wretched look of belated relief stretched across Liam’s face. ‘Aye.’

‘We go hide,’ said the ape anxiously, pointing up at the fire escapes and the dark open windows of the tenement blocks.

‘No!’ said Sal. ‘No … if you run from them, if you hide in those buildings, they’ll come after you! They’ll kill you all!’

A mewling whimper of fear rippled through the creatures huddled around Samuel.

‘What we do, Sam?’ asked one of them. ‘What we do?’

Sal craned her neck to look out of the alleyway into the wide avenue. She could see dozens of red tunics now hunkered down with guns trained on them. The soldiers had dragged several vehicles and carts aside to create a narrow access way up and down North Charles Street. She turned to look down the far end of their alley. The soldiers and their dogs were settled there, patiently waiting. Above, the sky was still blocked by the air vessel, a searchlight occasionally blinking on and combing up and down the alley.

‘I’ll go out there,’ she said, pointing to the soldiers. ‘Let me talk to them! Let me explain you’re not dangerous … that you’ve not hurt anyone. That you’ll come out peacefully.’

‘They kill us!’ one of them gasped.

‘You have to trust me!’ she said. ‘I think they must’ve come to rescue me and Abraham. If we go out and show them we’re not hurt, they’ll — ’

‘Sodjers kill others. Me saw it!’ said a eugenic from another group. ‘Wuz all hands up … and they does the bangs bangs!’

‘If you try to run, I’m sure they’ll shoot you down!’ snapped Sal. She turned to Samuel. ‘Please, Sam … let me go out and talk to them!’

He scratched his chin, his fingers trembling. His eyes darted from one end of the alley to the other nervously. ‘You think sho? You can make it shafe?’

‘You’re not monsters … you’re not dangerous. I can tell them that.’

He pressed his ragged lips together. ‘You … tell ’em, then. Tell ’em we’re not bad. We didn’t hurt no one.’

She nodded. ‘I will.’

Samuel smiled. ‘I trust.’

‘OK,’ Sal smiled. She got to her feet.

‘A moment, young lady!’ said Lincoln. He tore the bottom half of the sleeve off his dirty shirt. ‘A white flag … well, truth be, it’s brown, but they shall understand it as a flag of truce,’ he said, tying it round a strip of wood. He got up and walked cautiously to the mouth of the avenue. ‘Allow me.’

‘COMING OUT!’ he bellowed loudly. ‘PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT YOUR GUNS!’ He waved his makeshift flag in the open … up and down several times to be sure it was seen.

‘I AM STEPPING OUT!’ Lincoln’s voice boomed again, and then slowly he emerged into the morning sunlight streaming down the broad avenue, both arms raised. ‘I am Abraham Lincoln! I bear no arms!’

‘Step out into the road, if you don’t mind, sir … so we can see you nice and clear!’

‘I have a girl with me! She wishes to parley!’

There was no response to that. Lincoln turned slowly and nodded at Sal to step out beside him. She emerged into the sun, shading her eyes with her raised hands. ‘Please! Don’t shoot!’ she called out.

‘Stand beside the gentleman,’ a voice replied. ‘There’s a good girl!’

She did as she was told. ‘There are some eugenic creatures with us … down the alley! They also want to come out and join us peacefully!’

There was no answer. The morning was still and silent save for the soft hum of idling motors up in the sky. From far away the stillness was broken by an echoing crack of gunfire.

‘Sal? … Is that you?’

CHAPTER 59

2001, Dead City

The voice came from further up the avenue. She couldn’t see anything with the glare of the sun in her eyes, but she recognized the voice. ‘Liam?’

‘Aye! Jay-zus!’ His voice echoed back down the avenue. She heard the slap of his feet on hard tarmac and finally he emerged in front of the soldiers and stood before her. ‘Well, look at you …’ He checked her over. ‘Look a state, so you do.’

She felt a rush of relief so intense her legs felt unsteady beneath her. She noted the bandage on his head. ‘You got hurt?’

‘Knocked out, Sal. Stupid, I should’ve ducked. That’s why I — ’

‘So, this is your sister, is it?’ called out another voice, crisp and commanding.

Sister? She glanced up at him. He nodded slightly. She realized Liam must have told them that for a reason. Out of the bloom of sunlight, she saw a tall wide shape emerging. Unmistakably Bob. Beside him another man, slim, wearing a white pith helmet.