“Safer,” Gracie called back. “Nowhere’s safe in this city. I thought I made that clear?”
“Great! So we’re going to get slaughtered in a tunnel?”
“Not if you listen to me and follow my instructions.”
The string of lights led them out of the train. The end of the massive cylindrical vehicle hung open, the metal peeled back like the shutters on the booths upstairs. About three feet to the ground, Gracie jumped down and landed with a crunch. William landed on the stones next. The train sat on two parallel tracks that ran away from them. Thick concrete sleepers every few feet kept the tracks level. Large grey stones filled the spaces in between.
“And no one comes down here?” William said.
“No.” Gracie shook her head and leaned past him to watch Olga jump from the train last. She set off again. “It’s too unpredictable. Especially at nighttime.”
Their path laid out for them, William turned to look at the others, each of them frowning back at him. “But when the lights are on, surely it’s fair game for anyone down here?”
Gracie dropped into a hunch, pulled several stones away, and killed the lights, throwing them into complete darkness.
Max whimpered.
The lights came back on and Gracie stood up. “We can turn them on and off as we please. The fact they’ve remained for as long as they have shows very few people have an interest in coming down here. But if we need to turn them off, we can. Now come on.”
Max stood rigid. The wet tracks still shone on his cheeks.
William stepped towards him, but halted at the sound of footsteps. They called to them from down the tunnel. They moved fast. Faster than any of them could run. He readied Jezebel.
“Kill the lights, Gracie,” Olga said, her hissed words laced with panic, her sword raised. “Turn the fucking lights off now!”
But Gracie ignored her.
“I told you we shouldn’t trust her.” Olga’s voice grew louder. “She’s a snake. She’s set us up. I knew it!”
Gracie continued to ignore the fiery girl.
William stumbled when Olga shoved him in the back. “This is on you. You said we could trust her. Look where that’s gotten us now. Why did we let you make the choices for us? We’re going to fucking die down here because of her.”
A relaxed frame, Gracie took slow steps towards the sound. The steps of someone meeting an old friend. The steps of someone in control. While the rest of them stood ready for war, she held her spear at her side. Had she sold them out? How could William have been such a terrible judge of character? After all they’d been through, had he just sentenced him and his friends to death? The word sat in his mouth like a spitball. But sorry wouldn’t get them out of there. No matter how well he delivered his apology, it would mean absolutely nothing to dead ears.
Chapter 5
Olga clenched her teeth and growled, “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted her.”
The words turned through William, lifting his shoulders into his neck. He shouldn’t have trusted her. He should have listened to Olga. But what could he say now? “Just shut up for a minute, yeah?”
“I will not be silenced, William. I will not take a slow and censored walk to my death because you can’t see Gracie’s an arsehole. If I have to make my own decisions to save my own life, then I will. But I like you and would prefer it if you came out of this alive too.”
Gracie continued to walk away from them along the tunnel. A hand on the base of his back made William jump. Matilda stood behind him, her face pale in the weak light.
Quicker movement up ahead. Something ran towards Gracie. It slathered and panted, but it didn’t run or sound like a diseased. It didn’t have the clumsy and leaden-footed gait of their foetid predator. A diseased would have tripped and fallen on the uneven ground several times already. This thing moved fast and light of foot. William stepped back a pace. Jezebel already raised, he lifted her a little higher, ready to swing. The heavy weapon’s lack of mobility would give him one chance. He’d have to make it count.
“What the …?” Artan said.
Gracie dropped into a hunch and laid her spear and knife on the large grey stones. She slipped the wrapped deer meat from her back and placed it on the ground.
“A dog?” Matilda said when the creature stepped into the light.
“And not just one,” Dianna said.
More dogs followed. Six, eight, eleven of them, maybe more. Some of them were jet black and blended with the shadows.
Spasms fired up and down the length of William’s legs, daring him to run. If these dogs turned, they wouldn’t walk away from this encounter unscathed.
What appeared to be the biggest dog led the pack. Large enough that it could have stood on its hind legs and looked William in the eye. Covered in thick black fur, it had a white patch on its chest. It had a short nose and a square head. If that thing bit down, he’d have to drive a knife into its skull to detach it. Still six feet from Gracie, it dropped lower, its hackles raised in a stripe of fur along its back. It let out a low growl.
“There, there.” Gracie spoke with a soft voice. “We’re not here to fight you.”
“I am!” Olga lunged forwards with her sword, and Hawk stepped forwards with her.
The lead dog skittered back several paces, retreating into the shadows. Its bared teeth shone in the darkness.
Olga spoke as if the creature and its pack understood her. “If any of those things come near me, they’ll lose their heads.”
“You’re making it worse,” Matilda said. “We’re all scared.”
“I’m not scared, I’m mad.”
“It’s the same thing.”
When Olga settled down, Hawk doing the same a few seconds later, the lead dog returned its focus to Gracie. Its growl softened, but it remained hunched, displaying
