“What concerns me more is why we’re still waiting here.” Matilda pointed down the stairs they’d just climbed. “Can we have this conversation somewhere else?” Her eyes widened. “Anywhere else.”
Olga led them away, their steps far more cautious on the way down than they’d been on the way up. As they got closer to the ground, they quickened their retreat. The scavengers might have lived off scraps in this city, but they preferred their dinner with a pulse.
Their quickened steps turned into a flat-out sprint when they hit the ground. Olga ran around the back of the warehouse and across a road before she took them down another alley, and deeper into the more built-up part of the city.
She ran to escape, but William called ahead, “Olga, you need to slow down.”
“Did you see them back there?”
“Of course, but I don’t think they saw us. We need to keep our heads and make sure we don’t run into more trouble. Maybe we should assume every building is occupied, and every corner crowded with either Fear’s or Fury’s armies. Gracie said this city was a very different place during the day.”
Olga scowled at William’s invocation of Gracie, but she dipped her head in a nod of concession. “I’ve no idea where Max and the others might be, but I’d say we need to get on the roofs to stand a better chance of spotting them and any other danger.”
“Do you think they might have gone to the tower?” Matilda said. “I think we should head back that way now.”
Olga pointed to her right. “The tower’s over there. If we travel towards it across the roofs, we can do a lot from high up. Two birds and all that.”
When neither William nor Matilda responded, Olga climbed the closest fire escape. She moved slower and with more deliberate steps than when they’d climbed up the side of the warehouse. At the first window, she peered in. A few seconds of her scanning the darkness, she gave William a thumbs up and moved on. William followed, throwing only a cursory glance into the empty building as he passed the same window.
Nothing to block the wind on the roof, it rocked William back on his heels, his fatigue robbing him of his stability. Many of the buildings in this part of the city were similar. Small two-storey cubes with flat roofs covered in white pebbles and moss. They were packed so tightly together, to cross from one to the next required only a large step, even for Olga’s small legs. “Gracie was right about this place being built to last.”
“How long do you think it will be before the buildings start collapsing?” Matilda said.
Olga rolled her eyes. “While this is all very interesting”—she pointed at Gracie’s tower—“we need to get back. While we run across these roofs, I recommend you and William run down one side while I run down the other. That way we can scan for danger.” She’d chosen the right side, the side that overlooked the road separating them from the scavengers’ warehouse. “Let’s get moving, yeah?”
Several buildings later, Olga stopped. William grabbed Matilda’s arm, halting her before he pointed at the short girl. “She’s found something.”
The gravel crunched beneath their steps as they joined Olga on the other side. She led their eyes with her pointing finger.
Matilda said it first. “Oh, fuck!”
Max, Hawk, and Artan. They were close to the warehouse.
Matilda hopped up and down on the spot, waving her arms.
Olga pulled them down. “Stop!”
Her hands gripped as tight fists at her side, Matilda stepped closer to Olga. “What did you do that for?”
“Look!”
“Oh, shit!” William said. Ten to fifteen blue soldiers had gathered in the road, close to the boys, but they faced the other way. The boys saw them and retreated into the alley running alongside the warehouse.
“Talk about a rock and a hard place,” William said. “How will we help them get out of this without the scavengers seeing them?”
“We have to warn them.” Matilda took off without consultation, retracing their path back across the rooftops.
But before Matilda reached the fire escape they’d climbed, she halted. William caught up to her and followed her guidance when she pointed. More of Fear’s soldiers. There were now about fifty in total. They split up, most of them closing in on the end of the alley the boys had vanished down. About ten others cut through another path to block off their escape at the other end. Four drones remained with the larger army. They were also trained on the alley’s exit.
“It’s a trap,” Matilda said. “They’re going to send the smaller group around the back to chase them into the larger group. We need to tell them.”
Olga pulled Matilda from the edge of the roof. “And give ourselves away in the process?” She pointed at her temple. “You need to think, Matilda. We let them know we’re up here and none of us are walking away from this.”
“Besides,” William said, “we know Hawk and they don’t.”
“What do you mean?” Olga said.
“Most people would run away from the smaller army and get funnelled into the larger pack. Their best chance of getting out of this is to charge rather than run.”
Placing her hands together as if in prayer, Olga said, “For once, Hawk, please try to be a hero.”
Chapter 25
Max bit his tongue and let Hawk speak. He at least needed to hear him out.
“There was only a handful of them,” Hawk said. “I say we should attack them before they attack us.”
Max rolled his eyes. At least he’d listened. “When has you charging in helped us so far? When you tried to save Olga on the roof of the tower, you nearly got her and yourself killed. When you charged in to fight the diseased—”
“We beat them, didn’t we?”
Max dragged air
