“If she does,” Artan said, “she’d best hurry the fuck up.”
Max nodded, and his frame sagged. “Yeah.” Who was he kidding? Olga and the others had no chance of saving them.
Chapter 28
William still hadn’t explained his plan.
“William, what the hell are we doing back here?” Olga said.
As they approached the large building they’d seen the scavengers sleeping in earlier, William said, “There’s, what, four hundred of them in there?”
The short girl shrugged. “’Bout that.”
“And how many of Fear’s soldiers did we see?”
“Eighty at the most.”
“We saw what they did to that soldier who was strung up. So all we need to do—”
Olga finished the sentence for him. “Is bring them together.”
“Right.”
“I’m worried,” Matilda said.
“Me too.” William raised his index finger on his right hand. “But one thing I know for sure is we don’t have the luxury of time. Who knows what they have planned for the others. They might already be doing whatever it is. So we need to make a decision. Are you both with me?”
Matilda nodded first before Olga shrugged. “Fine, let’s do this. How are we going to get them to chase us?”
“We need to bait them.”
“How?”
“Just be ready to run, okay?”
“Oh.” Olga shook her head. “I don’t like this one bit.”
A pair of double doors dominated the front of the warehouse. They hung slightly ajar. When they’d peered in last, they’d only seen the first floor. Who knew how many more were hidden from sight on the level below. No matter how William tried to control his breathing as he closed in on the building, his heart still beat like it would burst, and his lungs were tight. Hopefully not so tight that he couldn’t outrun the lot of them. He bit down on his bottom lip and pulled the left of the two doors wide. Just wide enough to allow him to slip into the large space.
Windows along two of the four walls let in enough light to show him no one slept on the ground floor. While they were large enough to show him the way, they were too small to encourage a breeze through the place. The reek of dirt, the result of so many unwashed bodies in an enclosed space, caught in the back of his throat. Dirt mixed with the funk of sweat from where the day heated up and slowly stewed the rancid scavengers.
The stairs leading to the first floor reminded William of every fire escape he’d climbed in this city. If it ain’t broke … Metal, they led a zigzag from the ground, bending twice as they worked their way up the back wall.
As a kid, William and Matilda used to play a game called What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? A simple premise, one kid would be the wolf and stand with their back to the rest. They’d try to get the other kids to come as close to them as possible before they decided it was dinner time, turned around, and chased them. The kids would run off screaming, doing their best to avoid capture. At what point would the scavengers call dinner time?
William’s legs shook when he reached the bottom of the stairs. A tight grip on the handrail, he took slow and deliberate steps to the first floor.
What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?
He threw a glance back at the double doors, plotting his exit. Matilda directly behind him, Olga behind her. They both nodded. They were ready. Time to commit to the plan.
Heavy stamps up the final few stairs, William poked his head up into the first floor and clapped his hand to his mouth. “Oh, shit!” Half of the room were already awake. He said it loud enough to make sure he roused the other half. “Uh … I—”
Olga and Matilda ran.
A flash of white light crashed into William’s vision, and fire ran through his sinuses. A scavenger had blindsided him and kicked him in the face. His sight blurred, he rolled back on his heels, grabbed for the railing at his side, and missed. The back of his head struck a lower step, the entire staircase ringing like a misshapen bell. His skull held the note as he came to a halt at the bottom.
He lay on his back on the concrete, his head throbbing, his sinuses stinging. A stream of scavengers descended the stairs, their footsteps playing a thunderous roar.
Back on his feet, his legs wobbly, his nose clogged with blood, William ran. More light flooded into the place when Olga kicked the door wide, Matilda following her out.
But the light vanished when the doors slammed shut. The closing lock rang through the room with a definitive clunk!
“What the …?” Alone in the warehouse, the scavengers charging down the metal stairs. William ground to a halt in front of the closed doors and turned to face the descending wave of fury. “Shit!”
Chapter 29
A complex pulley system ran along the ceiling from the bottom of the stairs to the double doors. It gave the scavengers total control over who entered and who left.
William ran for the wall on his right. The windows were only four feet wide by two feet deep. They were at least six feet from the ground. He dived as if about to enter water, his hands stretched out in front of him. But he hadn’t jumped high enough. He landed on his stomach across the wall. He kicked his legs, catching a scavenger with the backswing of his right boot as he wriggled through. He landed headfirst in the alley to another flash of white light.
“What happened?” Matilda said the second William charged out into the main road.
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Just run!”
Overtaking both Olga and Matilda, the two girls paused for the briefest of moments until the crash of the warehouse’s front doors swung open. The scavengers spilled from the large building like a plague. Their thunderous, collective roar damn near shook the ground. They were the most
