Seth crossed over to the wounded man, looking at him with cold contempt.
The man cringed, he released his leg and held his hands up in surrender. “Please, no—”
“That’s what the people in here say to you fuckers every single day and you bastards just laugh at them—” Seth growled, he brought the mace down on the man’s skull, killing him instantly.
Mercy pulled a face.
Jesus, I’d prefer a bullet any day. But each to their own—
She went to the one remaining intact monitor and leant forwards to examine it.
“It’s a video feed from outside the prison. It’s cycling around different cameras. The horde is… massive, look, they’re still coming through the gates. There’s another view, wait, look… that’s Brody and his horsemen. They’re—” Mercy’s words were cut off by a huge explosion outside the prison.
Mercy ducked instinctively then looked back at the screen.
“The screen’s died. What the fuck was that?” Seth said.
Mercy ran her fingers through her hair, “I saw a fuel truck and an armoured vehicle. I’m guessing Brody’s just taken out the fuel truck. That should draw the horde away from the gates. I’ve got to get back to the others.” She turned to go.
Seth grabbed Mercy by the shoulder. “Wait, it’ll take a few minutes for the horde to move, here… help me out,” he pointed at rows of keys hanging on the wall. “You fried the control desk with the frag so the automated door release system is useless but we’ve got the cell keys. If we release some of the prisoners they can go on to release others. We’ve got to try. My family are in here somewhere—”
Seth grabbed a handful of keys from the wall and shoved them into Mercy’s hand. He took the rest. Mercy stared after him as he left the office, he ran down the corridor towards the cells.
He’s right, he’s right, he’s right—
Mercy gripped the keys and ran after him.
Chapter 32
Freedom
Mercy fumbled with the first set of keys.
Come on, come on, come on—
The cell door opened on the fifth try. Four frightened faces peered out at her.
Two women, two kids—
“I’m here to help you, this is a breakout. Don’t be afraid. Here, take these keys and free the others, release as many as you can—” Mercy said, pressing a set of keys into the nearest women’s hands. Their eyes were sunken, their bodies thin.
Looks like they’ve been through hell—
Mercy moved on to the next cell and repeated the process. She stopped after liberating the prisoners in the third cell. She handed over the remaining keys to the freed prisoners. Seth shouted at her from across the hall, “Go… go help your people. I’ve got this—”
Mercy waved, “Good luck.” She turned and ran down the corridor towards daylight.
A thick pall of smoke rose in the sky outside the prison. The air was tainted with the smell of burning gasoline. Mercy brought her hand to her mouth and coughed.
That’s coming from the north side of the perimeter. That ties in with the fuel truck I saw on the monitor. Here’s hoping—
Mercy ran back to the canteen and through the rows of tables towards the entrance area. She reached the double doors, pushed them open and stared out into the square.
It’s working, the horde is thinning. We can bust open the exercise yard gates. I can’t see the others—
Mercy eased her way out of the canteen into the milling trope horde. She tried to squeeze through their ranks. Despite her best efforts she felt herself being dragged away from the exercise yard by the sheer number of undead.
Go along by the wall, get around them, there’s less of them on the side—
She fought her way back to the canteen wall then worked her way along the edge of the horde, flanking it. She paused, scanning the exercise yard gates.
There they are—
Mercy continued around the horde towards the exercise yard gates.
There’s Annalise and Rose and… Flynn—
The crack of a high velocity round tore through the air. Annalise’s head disappeared from view.
Goddammit, the sniper’s still up there. Annalise… shit—
Mercy swung around and raised her assault rifle, her finger on the trigger.
The tropes might get the wrong idea if I shoot… but there’s no choice. Where is he—?
A crouching figure emerged from behind an air vent, his sniper rifle aimed at the exercise yard gates. Mercy’s finger tensed on her trigger.
The sniper clutched something at his chest and dropped his rifle.
What the—?
He fell forwards, off the canteen roof and into the milling trope crowd below. A feeding frenzy ensued seconds later. Mercy took her finger off the trigger and turned around. Annalise was at the gates, the crossbow in her hands. Mercy shook her head in disbelief.
Boy, can she shoot that thing—
The horde in the square was thinning, as more and more tropes squeezed back through the main prison gates to the burning inferno outside. Mercy pushed her way past the remaining tropes, towards the exercise yard. Seconds later she reached the others. Tawny had the crowbar at the lock again and was pulling it with all her strength.
Rose slapped Annalise on the back, “We have a crack shot here. Ace in one. We couldn’t bust open the gate, that sniper was on our case the whole time. We hid from him, we acted like we were tropes, but once they started to thin out he saw us. I was going to try the shotgun on him but Annalise here beat me to it, a silent kill too. Nice one girl—”
Automatic weapons
