Val pointed the tip of her sword at Olga. The crowd noise trebled, the closed roof amplifying their joy. It made Max’s ears ring and buried Val’s words. Not that it mattered what she said. They’d chosen Olga.
Val nodded at two soldiers on the platform with her. The hairs on the back of Max’s arms rose as if the air held a charge. They didn’t know Olga like he did.
The first one grabbed Olga’s right arm while the second tried to grab her left. But Olga moved fast, catching the second one with a wild hook that sent him stumbling backwards.
Were it not for Val catching the soldier by his lapels, he would have fallen into the pit. The near miss silenced the raucous crowd and invigorated the creatures below.
Val turned the soldier around so he faced the crowd on the other side. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of what not to do. Lower your guard in this city and you’re screwed. She can’t be any taller than five feet—”
“Five feet two!” Olga said through clenched teeth, the first soldier still clinging onto her.
“Well, there we have it.” Val winked at Olga. “I do apologise, sweetheart. Five feet two.” She spun the soldier around, her tone deepening. Her words damn near crackled. “You let a girl of no more than five feet get the better of you.” She shoved the soldier backwards from the platform. He screamed as he went down. He fixed on Val while the diseased caught him and dragged him under.
Mad Max.
Her face puce, Val’s sword shook as an extension of her arm when she pointed down at the spot where the soldier had been. “I will not stand for that level of incompetence.” She spun around, her blade making a whoosh as it cut through the air. “You!”
A woman in blue pointed at herself as if she really didn’t want it to be her.
“Tie her up,” Val said.
Olga’s left hand still free, the woman led with a punch, catching Olga hard enough to stun her. She then grabbed Olga’s left arm before helping the other guard tie her to the pole. They’d leave her there for now. Their offering to the scavengers.
“Now—”
In one move, Max snatched the sword from Val’s hand, ran the length of the plank, and jumped into the diseased crowd.
Chapter 31
While everyone watched Max, William clenched his jaw and kicked Val in the back. Her feet lifted clean off the platform, and she swan-dived into the diseased. One creature drew blood from her shoulder before she vanished from sight. Her scream died as she drowned beneath the writhing fury.
Matilda shoved one soldier and then another from the platform and untied Olga while Hawk took the fight to three more.
Artan, like his sister, opted to clear the platform, ending Hawk’s fight with the three soldiers as soon as it had begun. He shoved two over the side and kicked a third into the pit with the creatures.
More of Fear’s army climbed the platform’s stairs, their batons raised. But the narrow path inhibited their attack, presenting them to the now liberated Olga in a line that made them easy to repel. She yelled as she kicked them away, sending them back into the crowd around the bottom of the stairs.
A soldier waved his baton at her. “You have to come down at some point.”
Now they had control of the platform, Olga and Hawk ready for any attack, William turned to Max. He shoved and barged his way through the diseased crowd.
Many of the soldiers in the spectator area nudged one another and pointed. They had no idea what was coming their way.
Val’s sword in his hand, Max fell against the clear top section of the wall. The slap of his open palm sent several of the soldiers back a pace. He’d reached what had once been a door that must have provided access to the ring. The handles had long since been removed.
“Ah,” William said. And even with chaos around them, he smiled.
The gap around the edge of the door wide enough for Max to slide the blade through, he drove more blue soldiers away when he thrust the sword at them and dragged it down the gap to where the latch kept the door shut. The sword slid straight through and the door opened. He shoved it wide into the space the army had just cleared.
At the head of the charge, Max led the diseased from the rink. His sword out in front of him, he slashed at the soldiers. Many of the crowd had already taken off, heading in the foyer’s direction. But those at the front fell, and they fell fast.
The diseased spread out, attacking anyone close to them. Anyone, save Max.
Screams and cries spread through the crowd. Those behind William at the bottom of the stairs, those still trying to do their duty by getting to their prisoners on the platform, were yet to get the message.
William shouted over the chaos, “Artan, Matilda.” They turned his way, the familial resemblance as clear now as ever.
“We’re going to have a small window to get away from here before every soldier in this place is infected. You need to be ready to run.” And then to Hawk and Olga, his throat sore from shouting, “Did you hear me?”
“Yep!” Olga called back, her features set, her teeth bared as she kicked another soldier down the stairs.
“Hawk?”
William shared a look with Olga. “No more heroics, okay? The second we get the chance, we run. We’ll probably get split up, but we know where the meeting point is. You hear me, Hawk?”
The wildfire panic had reached the soldiers on their side. Many of them had already
