The Inevitable

 

  Not much happened in the hub in the following week, save people rotating round at night to guard the entrance. 

  It was another ordinary night in the facility, especially in the cylindrical room of Varjak’s office. 

  “Okay okay, I can see why you’d kill Ashley,” said Kate, swinging around in a chair opposite the desk. Varjak sat on the other side. “But marry Camille? You’d end up killing each other anyway.”

  “That’s my choices, deal,” snorted Varjak, eyes focused on the laptop screen.

  “Fine. Oh here’s an interesting one - Tristan, Drake, Johnny. Screw, marry, kill.”

  “I’m pretty sure it was kiss marry avoid in my day.”

  “Well this one’s more interesting. Go on, answer.”

  “I’m not gay!”

  “Answer anyway.”

  “Okay fine. Er - screw Tristan, marry Drake, kill Johnny. No wait, marry Johnny, screw Tristan, kill Drake. Well, if I screwed Drake it would just be a one night thing, right?”

  At this moment, Drake and Ashley drifted past the office. 

  There was a silence. 

  They stared at Varjak through the open hole. 

  “Problem, Drake?” said Varjak, still not lifting his eyes from the laptop.

  “…No,” said Drake, and with a glance at Ashley continued through the corridor. 

  Kate was laughing hysterically. 

  “Okay, okay,” she breathed, “Me, Camille - ”

  “Tristan!” Varjak called very loudly, standing up. “Isn’t it time for you and Camille to get off yet?”

  “Probably,” came the muffled response from behind the curtains. 

  They heard the thick push of the curtain and the quiet voices of Camille and Tristan. Rhythmic metallic sounds were heard, then silence fell again.

  “What are they leaving for?” asked Kate, as Varjak sat back down. 

  “They’re going to see if we can get any books on the Necrosis Stone.”

  “Really? Even though you didn’t get anything on the Internet search?”

  “You’re actually more likely to find better information in a book, it just takes longer to find it.” He typed a word viciously into the laptop.

  “You’re a wealth of knowledge, Varjak,” said Kate appreciatively, swinging around again. 

***

  It was another three hours before the entrance boomed shut again. 

  In this time, Varjak had remained in the office, whereas Kate varied her position from the office chair to the common room. 

  By the time the entrance had closed again, she had returned to Varjak’s office.

  Kate was biting the end of a pen she’d found on Varjak’s desk. 

  “Hey, what are you actually writing on that thing?”

  “I’m drumming up a more official version of the rota at the moment,” said Varjak, typing. “Go tell Camille and Tristan they’re on duty for the first night watch.”

  “On it,” said Kate, swinging forty-five degrees and getting up. 

  She crouched in mid air as she spotted Camille and Tristan already in Varjak’s door way. 

  Standing upright, she addressed them. 

  “Oh hi guys, you’re on for the first night watch tonight at eight -ish.”

  Varjak looked up from his laptop. 

  Then, he slammed it down. 

  “Find any books?” he asked, half-rising from his seat. 

  “No, we didn’t find any books on the biology of the undead,” said Camille, staring at Varjak. 

  Both Kate and Varjak gave a start. 

  Why are they both standing in the door way, looking like they’ve seen a ghost? Kate wondered. 

  And why did Camille not say she was looking for the Necrosis Stone? 

  Did she get it wrong or - 

  It clicked. 

  It could have been either option, but a feeling grew in Kate that the other idea was more likely.

  Camille and Tristan were being held at weapon-point by invisible undead. 

  Camille saying the wrong topic of book both told us this and stopped the undead from knowing we’re trying to find the stone, Kate thought. 

  “Well, that’s a shame,” said Varjak. Perhaps it was only audible to Kate who was in the know, but she could hear the quiver in Varjak’s voice. “Maybe tomorrow, huh? As I say, you two pop off and prepare for the next watch.”

  “Good plan,” said Camille stiffly. 

  Then her muscles relaxed, and her eyes rolled.

  “Ah you know what, f**k this.” 

  Her arms went over her shoulders and pulled something with gusto over her head. 

  The undead crashed into Varjak’s desk, smashing the laptop and forcing them to lose invisibility. 

  “Ah crap!” said Varjak, jumping over the remains of the desk and landing on the undead’s head, knocking him out. “We’re under attack!” 

  Tristan elbowed the undead behind him, also knocking him out of invisibility. 

  They began to fight as Varjak pulled Kate past them. 

  Both shimmered straight into invisibility, connected only by their hands. 

  People were filing out of the common room, a mishmash of ‘what’s going on’s. 

  Drake’s throat burst, and he dropped to the floor. 

  Kate screamed. 

  A moment’s silence ensued before more screams filled the underground, and people burst into action. 

  Varjak tried to pull Kate through the people, swarming like a beehive. 

  Faces pushed into theirs, arms crashed into their own, blood splatted onto their bodies as others fell. 

  The ladder was a moment’s push away, but with each step they took forward they were pressed back two more. 

  Their presence became obvious as they were the only space people weren’t passing through. 

  Varjak’s hand broke from Kate’s. He roared somewhere in front of her. 

  “Varjak!” she cried. 

  Her own hand tried to grasp for him, but was pushed back by people running. 

  Varjak and two other undead became visible in front. 

  They had him bent double on the floor, gasping for air. 

  One was straddling his back, pinning him down. 

  The other was reaching for a long knife in his back pocket.

  Kate got there first. 

  She seized the knife just as his fingers began to curl round it’s hilt, and rammed it through the centre of the undead’s back. 

  She stumbled back and let the undead drop to the floor. 

  She started to gasp before the other undead noticed and swivelled round with a right hook. 

  Kate braced herself. 

  Varjak pivoted round and kicked up into the distracted undead’s groin. 

  He howled, tripped over Varjak and landed on the tip of knife sticking out of his comrade’s torso. 

  Kate’s bottom lip trembled furiously. 

  She fell out of invisibility. 

  She stared at the two undead, impaled on each other. 

  The one on top was staring at her with hideous wide eyes. 

  Then, his muscles gave way, and his eyes were glass. 

  She had just killed two people. 

  Two people in ten seconds.

  Varjak was saying something a million miles away. 

  His hand gripped her forearm, and Kate was forced to look at him.

  “Kate, come on! We have to go!”

  She hissed at him. 

  Kate was unable to control her reactions. She passed her arm through his and went to the pile up of bodies. 

  “I killed them,” she said. 

  They couldn’t really be dead - she’d never seen an undead die. 

  She touched the closest one, the one on top.

  She wished she hadn’t killed him. 

  He deserved it, but the blood didn’t need to be on her hands. 

  Kate just took a life. 

  There was a tremendous gasp. 

  Kate half-stood and stumbled back into Varjak, who caught her. 

  The undead was alive. 

  Varjak and Kate stared, bashed from people pushing past but not caring. 

  The undead pushed himself up from the knife which impaled him. He was panting, and his face was blood hunger towards the pair. 

  “Let’s go,” said Varjak, not hesitating to disappear. 

  Kate, who was holding onto him, disappeared also. 

  “Should have done that in the first place,” muttered Varjak. They were on ground level, a stone throw away from the Glastonbury Tor. 

  “Varjak I revived him!” Kate screamed. 

  His hand pushed into her mouth. His face was close. 

  “Shut up Kate!” he hissed. “So we’re decided, we’re going to Verona? Let’s go.”

  “Camille and Tristan,” she whispered, under his palm. 

  He took his hand away. 

  “Nothing we can do just now. Come on, let’s go.”

  Kate’s eyes widened. 

  “Varjak!”  

  Varjak’s arms were pulled back, and a male undead head butted the back of his skull. 

  He crumpled to the ground, the undead slamming a fist into his face.

  Kate jumped on top of the undead without hesitation. 

  He threw her off with ease - she was still numb and nowhere near strong enough at that moment. 

  “Let’s go, now!” said Varjak, blood pumping from his nose.

  “Yes now!” screamed Kate.

  The undead pulled his fist back for another blow on ‘The Betrayer’. 

  Half a second before contact, ‘The Traitor’ disappeared from underneath him, and his fist crashed into solid ground. 

  He growled in pain and turned his attentions to the girl who had attacked him. Only the Tor was in sight.

  Varjak and Kate had escaped. 

Reviews

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LOL, Verona works, too. I love Italy.
You've put the reader into another position "Will the others make it out alright?"
You didn't mention if the recruited undead were aware of Varjaks and Kate's plan to flit away. I hope they didn't leave the "our leader just left us for dead" impression.
Your action sequence was quite thorough; you have my applause.
This was a bit shorter chapter, but nevertheless acceptable-- probably more than acceptable.
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading this series.