Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) (27 page)

They walked to the eastern edge of the roof and looked down.

“No wonder the eaters are all here,” Micah said .

The metal barrier butted up against another, shorter building beyond the one they were on and they could see over the top of it from where they were.  Some sort of low, temporary observation tower stood in the centre of the road about fifty feet on the other side of the barrier.  Beyond that, it seemed as if the entire British army was gathered. 

The whole area bristled with heavy artillery, tanks and combat vehicles. Alex even saw what he was certain was a rocket launcher.  Military helicopters buzzed back and forth while support vehicles of all shapes and sizes wended their way through the streets or were parked by temporary canvas structures dotted around.  Alex had little doubt the entire city was surrounded.

It was as if the whole country had declared war on them. 

Beyond the might of the British army, Alex could make out crowds of people filling the city streets.  More helicopters, these ones civilian, patrolled the skies.  It occurred to him that the military helicopters were there to keep prying eyes out rather than anything in.

He wondered who the crowds of people were.  Journalists and TV and radio news people certainly.  Those who were just rubbernecking, wanting to know what was going on.  Was the Prime Minister was out there somewhere, trying to reassure the country that they had everything under control? 

Alex wondered what the general population had been told.  Did they even know about the eaters?

But he imagined most of those beyond the army were relatives and loved ones of those inside the city. 

Were his parents there?  His brother, sister-in-law and little niece?  He desperately hoped not.  He wished he could contact them, tell them to get away if they were there.

The effect of all those people crammed together in the open in one place was overwhelming.  It was the combined smell of thousands of normals, thousands of potential sources of food, that must have drawn the eaters here and was keeping them from leaving, although Alex couldn’t understand how that would have triggered their bizarre behaviour. 

If anything, he would have expected the eaters to be crawling over each other, clawing at the barrier, desperate to reach those beyond.  Instead they stood in orderly rows, swaying and moaning in unison.  It was unnerving.

“There’s no way they’ll leave with all them out there,” Alex said.  “You might as well hold a barbeque in front of a starving dog and expect it to not drool.”

Micah moved to the edge of the roof facing the street and looked down.  “How strong do you think that barrier is?”

Alex wandered over to join him.

The metal barrier was actually made up of inch thick, four foot deep horizontal segments, a little like a security shutter, but on a much bigger scale.  Every ten feet or so, a metal pole six inches in diameter jutted from the ground.  On each side, these poles had channels in which the barrier rested. 

The segments rattled against the poles with each surge and undulation of the huge crowd of eaters, creating the constant sound of metal grinding against metal.  Even from ten storeys up, the combination of moans and metal was loud.  At ground level, it must have been deafening.

“It must be strong enough,” Alex said.  “I mean, it was designed for this so it must be.”  Even as he said the words, he wasn’t convinced. 

“You think they knew something like this would happen?” Micah said.  “I’ve never heard of eaters behaving like this, have you?  They probably designed it to repel a few dozen eaters at a time.  Maybe a hundred, or two.  But thousands?  And what are they doing down there?”

Alex placed his hands on the wall surrounding the perimeter of the roof and leaned over.  The updraft around the building ruffled his hair as he stared straight down onto the heads of the horde carpeting the ground below.  He could smell the scent of the eaters even more strongly here.  It was at once the same and yet completely different from what he was used to.  He could smell the basic aroma, the one he was familiar with, but overlaying it was the new scent, its slightly sweet, acidic smell curling into his nostrils and coating the back of his throat.  It was so strong he almost felt as if he could see it curling through the air, its tendrils reaching out to grasp him.

He drew his head back.  “Can you smell that?” he said, breathing in some fresh air.

Micah leaned over the wall as he had and breathed in a few times.  “No,” he said.  “What is it?”

“I’m not sure.  It’s something coming from the eaters, really strong.  At least to me.”

Micah smiled.  “Maybe they’re all farting in unison too.”

Alex’s laughter was drowned out by the buzzing of rotor blades as one of the military helicopters approached from the north. 

“Hey,” he yelled, waving his arms, “over here!” 

He removed his police badge from his belt and held it up when they closed in on the rooftop.  He didn’t know if they could see it, but he thought it would be worth a try.

After circling twice, the helicopter lowered, a door sliding open on one side. 

Alex stood at the edge of the roof and waited in an unthreatening manner. 

“Just don’t wave a gun at them this time,” he said to Micah standing beside him.

“I promise nothing,” he replied, his gaze fixed on the helicopter.

When it reached a couple of feet above the surface of the roof, three soldiers jumped down and stalked towards them, weapons raised.  The helicopter lifted away, moving to wait nearby.

“Put your weapons down on the ground,” the woman in the centre shouted.

“I’m Detective Constable...” Alex began.

“I said,
put your weapons on the ground!
” she shouted again, louder this time.

“Screw that,” Micah yelled back, not moving.

“They have a lot more guns than us,” Alex muttered to him.

“I don’t care.  I’m not letting go of the only defence I have.”

“Okay, I get it, but could you at least not swear at the woman?”

Micah huffed and shook his head slightly.

Alex held his hands up, palms out, his badge still in one hand.  He hoped they weren’t trigger happy.

“We’ve been fighting for our lives for four days,” he said, speaking loud enough to be heard over the rotating blades of the chopper.  “So we are, as I’m sure you can understand, reluctant to let go of our only defence.  We only want to talk.  If either of us goes for our pistols, you can shoot us.  Okay?”

The soldier studied him for a few moments.  “You’re police?”

Alex nodded.  “DC Alex MacCallum, Porter Street Station.”

Another short period of perusal followed.  “Alright, as long as you keep your side arms holstered.”  She lowered her rifle, although the two men flanking her kept theirs trained on Alex and Micah.  “I’m Sergeant Louise Traynor.”

Alex relaxed a little and nodded.  “This is Micah Clarke.”

Traynor nodded at Micah.  “I take it by all the arm waving that you want something?”

“Yes,” Micah said immediately, “we want to know why you are sitting on your arses instead of stopping the slaughter of thousands of people.  Do you have any idea how bad it is in here?”

Alex didn’t miss the flash of emotion cross Traynor’s face.

“Yes, we know how bad it is,” she said.

“Do you really?” Micah continued.  “Because it seems to me that if you had seen what we have, you’d be down there helping instead of just watching from the safety of your helicopters.”

“We’re under orders not to engage,” she said.  From the tone of her voice, Alex got the feeling she wasn’t happy about that.

“Why?” he said.

She glanced at her companions out of the corners of her eyes then walked forward until she was only a few feet away.  “Look,” she said, lowering her voice, “we don’t know what’s going on.  Most of us want to help, believe me, but we’ve been ordered to keep out of it.  The CGS
and
the CDS are out there.  The Prime Minister is with them.  Hell, half the government is here, but you know what these things are like.  It takes them a week to decide what colour toilet paper they want.”

“So you just watch people getting killed?” Micah said.

“Some of us have intervened and they’ve been taken off active duty and placed in custody.  They don’t want anyone outside knowing what’s going on here and spreading panic.”

Micah folded his arms and shook his head. 

It was obvious that Sgt. Traynor didn’t have any useful information, so Alex decided to try something else.  “There are fifty-eight people trapped in this building.  They’ve seen their friends and colleagues ripped apart and they’re terrified.  Can you at least get them out?” 

She frowned. 

“Please?  They’ll die if we don’t do something.”

“You’re sure none of them are infected?”

“They’ve been in here from the beginning,” Alex said.  “They’ve had no contact with any eaters.”

She huffed out a breath.  “Give me a minute.”  She turned and walked halfway back to the chopper, then spoke into her radio.

The two other soldiers remained motionless, their rifles still trained on Alex and Micah.  It was unnerving.  Beyond them, Sgt. Traynor was gesticulating angrily as she spoke to whoever was on the other end of the conversation.  It didn’t look like it was going well.

“I can’t believe they’re just leaving us here to die,” Micah said. 

Alex looked to the crowds of people in the distance.  “Maybe they’re scared of it spreading further.”

“So, what?  They just wait until all of us are infected or dead and the eaters have all died of starvation?  Then come and clean up the evidence?”

Alex looked at the helicopter hovering nearby.  Towards the back of the tail, printed on the metal in blue lettering, he could see the Omnav logo.

Traynor walked back to them.  “Can you get them up here in an hour?” she said.

“Yes, no problem,” Alex replied.  “Thank you.  That didn’t look like it was easy.”

She smiled.  “Someone owed me a favour.”

He glanced at the helicopter again.  “Sergeant, is anyone from Omnav here?”

She looked thoughtful.  “You know, I did see a couple of Omnav executive choppers come in on Tuesday.  How did you know?”

“Just a hunch.”  He shrugged and smiled.

“They’re sending a Chinook,” she said.  “Make sure everyone’s here, or they’ll leave without them.”

“We’ll be ready.” 

Alex held out his right hand.  After a moment’s hesitation, Traynor took it.

“Thank you,” he said.

She nodded, smiling.  “It feels good to do something for a change.  It’s been a long four days.”

Alex smiled back.  “Yeah.”

The helicopter had moved back in, hovering close to the roof, and the other two soldiers were already climbing in.  Alex watched the sergeant walk back to join them, squinting against the downdraft from the rotor blades.  She waved as they rose into the air and veered away.  Alex waved back.

“When you’ve finished flirting with the hot soldier, do you think we should go down and get the others up here?” Micah said.

“I wasn’t flirting,” Alex said, turning away to hide his smile.

“Yeah, and I’m Brad Pitt.”

As they made their way back down to the sixth floor, Alex wondered how deep Omnav’s involvement in all this went, if they were involved at all. 

He also couldn’t help but lament the fact that it took an eater outbreak and the destruction of the city to get a woman to look at him twice nowadays.

. . .

An hour later, they were back on the roof, the survivors from the sixth floor huddled in the stairwell behind them.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Cal was saying to them, for what must have been the tenth time.  “When all this is over, give me a call and as long as I’m here, you’ll have free home and car insurance every year.  You have my word on that.”

The pounding of huge twin rotor blades interrupted Alex’s reply and he looked out the door to see the massive Chinook transport helicopter swoop in from the east and manoeuvre into place above the roof, hovering ten feet from the ground as two soldiers abseiled to the ground.  Alex was disappointed to see that Sergeant Louise wasn’t with them.

One of the soldiers ran over to the door.  “Are you Alex MacCallum?” he said, shouting to be heard over the noise of the helicopter behind him.

“That’s me.”

“We can’t land because the roof won’t support the weight, so everyone will be hoisted up.  Send them over two at a time.”

It took a while to get everyone loaded, even with two being raised at once up the ropes to the soldiers waiting inside.  Alex, Micah and Cal sorted everyone into pairs, sending them out each time the soldiers on the ground beckoned for more.  Cal was one of the final two to go, thanking them profusely again.

“What are we going to do?” Micah said as Cal and another man, hair blowing around frantically, ran through the heavy downdraft to the soldiers waiting to strap them into the harnesses.