Underground (24 page)

W
EDNESDAY
, J
ULY
8
36
DAYS

‘We have to at least
try
to ask her,' Jordan whispered as we crept up on Phoenix from the south. ‘If Kara's still giving orders to Mike and the others, we need to know about it.'

‘You really think you're going to get anything out of her?' I asked.

‘My dad might.'

I stared up at the stars glinting down through branches of the trees. Whatever else tonight was about to throw at us, I couldn't complain about having sky above my head again.

‘What else can she want from them?' Jordan asked. ‘She's got Peter. And now she's got us too. Wasn't that the point of all this?'

‘Jordan, seriously, when have we ever come
close
to knowing the point of all this?'

I heard our dads whispering behind us and felt suddenly self-conscious. It was so weird to have our parents tagging along. After so long with just Jordan and me, six people felt like an army.

At the first sign of streetlights, Jordan stopped walking and turned around to shush everyone. ‘All right. When we get there, find something to hide behind and
keep still
.'

She directed the last two words at Mr Weir, who grinned and saluted. It was the first time he'd been outside since he got his legs back, and I swear he would have cartwheeled all the way if there hadn't been too many trees in the way. Mrs Weir rolled her eyes at him.

Earlier that day, I'd heard Mr Weir arguing with her, trying to convince her to stay behind with Peter, but in the end both of them had come with us.

We moved in behind a little cluster of bushes, and I squinted up at the nearest camera pole. I was pretty sure I could still see the lights glinting out from under the little dome.

Jordan pulled her binoculars from her backpack. ‘Nope. Not yet.'

I checked the time on Dad's watch.

8.42 p.m.

‘Look,' said Mrs Weir, somewhere off to my left.

Mr Ketterley, Shackleton's residential liaison, had just walked out of a house across the street, flanked by two security guards. He trotted up the front path, scratching his mutton chops, and then ducked across to the house next door.

‘I thought he lived up behind the Shackleton Building,' said Mr Burke.

‘He does,' Jordan murmured, handing me the binoculars.

I pointed them at Ketterley, watching as he stepped up onto the verandah of the next house. He knocked on the door, waited, and then pulled out a key and let himself in. The two guards filed in after him. A minute later, they re-emerged, moving on to house number three.

‘They must be combing the whole town,' I said, feeling my throat tighten. ‘Making sure no-one's skipping the meeting.'

‘Guess Shackleton wasn't kidding about
compulsory,
' said Jordan grimly.

I passed back the binoculars and she returned her attention to the security cameras.

8.45 p.m. Any minute now. I pushed up from the ground, ready to run.

It was eerily quiet. I mean, sure, it was night, but even at this hour, there were usually a few late-night joggers or people coming back from dinner. It was like the whole town had been deserted.

Ketterley moved along to the next house. And the next.

8.51 p.m.

‘Something's wrong,' I whispered, low enough for only Jordan to hear. ‘Do you think Peter –?'

‘Shh,' said Jordan, eyes still fixed on the cameras, waiting for the light to blink off. ‘Give him time.'

He'd be trying. I knew that much. If there was one thing we could count on from Peter, it was throwing himself into whatever he thought was going to make Jordan happy.

I still didn't know how to feel about that. Peter had been chasing Jordan since before I'd even arrived in Phoenix. And now, after everything that had been happening …

I don't know. Somehow, it felt like we were using him.

8.53 p.m.

We shouldn't have left Peter alone with Kara and Soren. A few days ago, they were trying to kill each other, and now our whole plan rested on –

Another thought resurfaced, something I'd been trying to push aside since Monday night.

‘What about your vision?' I said. ‘The security guards down at the Complex. What if that's tonight? What if we're not supposed to –?'

‘
Not supposed to?
I thought you didn't believe in –' Jordan sprang to her feet. ‘
RUN! Run, run, run!'

I shot after her.

Mr Burke exploded out of the bushes behind me, pickaxe clutched in both hands. The others were right behind us. Adrenalin pumped through me. Now the town seemed anything but quiet. It was all pounding footsteps and ragged breathing and blood thumping in my ears.

Ketterley and his men must've been inside one of the houses, because I couldn't see them anywhere. How much time had passed already? Thirty seconds? More than that?

Peter's mum was right alongside me, jaw clenched. I'd been worried she might not be able to keep up, but I guess you don't last very long as a kindergarten teacher if you don't know how to run.

I heard the
shink-shink-shink
of sprinklers as the park came into view. We bolted across the grass, straight into a wall of cold mist. In front of us, Jordan and her dad veered around the abandoned skate ramp, cutting across in the direction of the medical centre.

The mall stretched out to our left now, strangely dark, restaurants all closed up early for the meeting.

‘This place is – incredible,' panted Dad, eyes sweeping around as he ran.

Yeah,
I thought,
that's one word for it.

We burst out of the park, out from the cover of the mall, and pelted across the main road out of town. For a split second, we had a clear view of the town centre, Shackleton Building punching up into the sky, security guards out front, waving those orange traffic-control lightsaber things to get the last few stragglers inside.

And then we were back out of sight, hidden in the shadows of the medical centre. Jordan led the way across to the door. We crowded in around it, right under the gaze of another security camera. Still offline. What had it been now – ninety seconds?

‘Okay, get back,' whispered Jordan's dad, bringing the pickaxe up level with his shoulder.

I stepped away, scanning the street again, and my stomach plummeted as he sent the pickaxe slamming into the door.

Our school principal, Ms Pryor, was coming out of a house, about four blocks away, tailed by another pair of guards. Going door to door, just like Ketterley.

There was a creaking noise as Mr Burke dislodged the pickaxe.

I looked down the street again. Pryor had stopped in the front yard of the next house. She was silhouetted in the porch light and I couldn't see which way she was facing, but her body language told me she was definitely not happy about
something.

‘Jordan …'

‘I see her!' she said. ‘But what are we supposed to do –?'

Another explosive crack and the deadlock came flying off the door. My eyes shot back to Pryor. She was gone.

There was a thump behind me as Mr Burke threw his weight at the door.

I swept the binoculars out over the empty street, then back across to –

‘Luke!' Dad grabbed my arm, pulling the binoculars away from my face. The door was wide open, and Jordan and her dad were already racing inside.

I checked the security camera. Lights still off.

Dad gave my arm another yank, and we ran in after the others.

Chapter 31

W
EDNESDAY
, J
ULY
8
36
DAYS

‘Did you see where she went?' I asked, rushing over to Jordan.

‘Pryor?' said Jordan, as Mr and Mrs Weir ran in behind us. ‘Into that house, right?'

‘Did you
see
that, or are you just –?'

‘Out of the way, Luke,' grunted Mr Burke, heaving a bookcase over and flipping it on its side to block the door. It wouldn't hold Pryor off for long, but it was something.

I looked around the room. The lights were on, which was kind of disconcerting, but we were alone, for the moment at least.

At first, I thought we were in some kind of storeroom. There were glass cabinets full of medical supplies, and a bunch of file storage boxes piled up on shelves along the wall. But there were a couple of beds too, and they looked like they'd been recently occupied.

‘They probably kept them in here for a while,' said Jordan, running a hand over one of the beds. ‘Sedated them or something before they brought them through the hospital.'

Mr Burke snatched up his pickaxe again. ‘Let's get going.'

I pulled the door open a crack and peered out at the hallway. All clear.

I stepped through, head spinning a bit at the sudden wave of hospital smell. After a week down in that decaying old bunker, I'd almost forgotten how unnaturally
clean
everything was up here.

I tried to get my bearings as the others came out behind me, but I'd never been in this part of the building before.

‘Which way?' I asked Jordan.

She wavered for just a second, then strode out to our left, where a corridor lined with hospital rooms branched off toward the front entrance.

The quiet was starting to get to me now. We passed door after door, all locked shut. Blinds closed over every window. Every room still and dark.

‘This isn't right,' breathed Mrs Weir behind me.

‘This is a
big
facility for a town this size,' said Mr Weir. ‘It would take something major for them to ever need all of these rooms.'

I bit my tongue.
Like the end of the world, maybe?

We rounded another corner, and suddenly we were right out in the open. We'd made it to the reception area at the front of the hospital, opposite the big glass entrance doors that looked out on the town centre.

Right across the street from the Shackleton Building. Jordan walked straight out.

I dropped to the floor at the end of the corridor.
‘Jord–!'

But then my brain registered the darkness. Everything was switched off out here. I rose back up, breathed a nervous sigh, and followed her across to look out the doors.

The guards with the lightsabers were now patrolling around the fountain. They wouldn't be able to see us, though. Not from across the street.

We were safe.
But if we'd walked out here with the
lights on …

‘You realise we could've died just then,' I said.

‘We could've died lots of times,' said Jordan, walking away. ‘C'mon.'

We crossed the reception, into the east wing of the medical centre. A few corridors later, we passed the room where I'd spent the night, all those weeks ago, after Jordan and I had been attacked by Crazy Bill. I pictured myself lying in that bed, getting questioned by Calvin and Pryor. Like we knew
anything
back then.

‘What are they doing sending Pryor out there, anyway?' I asked. ‘Not exactly in her job description to be on patrol with security. Aren't they worried about blowing her cover?'

‘I don't know,' said Jordan. ‘I'm starting to wonder how much longer that's even going to matter.' She froze, holding up an arm to stop the rest of us. There was light shining out from a room, a few doors up.

Jordan tiptoed forward, signalling the rest of us to stay where we were.

I crept up behind her anyway.

There was a narrow pane of glass above the door handle. On the other side, I saw a row of beds, all crammed together, each one occupied by a sleeping person in a hospital gown.

Jordan pushed closer and I leant in behind her.

‘Is it them?' I breathed, through a sudden rush of nerves. ‘Can you see –?'

But then I spotted the mangled body of a security officer. The new recruit that Peter had thrown into the side of his house.

These weren't our guys. They were actual patients, everyone who was too sick or injured to make it to the meeting. They must have put them all together in the one room.

Jordan reeled away from the window, head smacking into my chin.

A face stared back from the other side of the glass.

It was a nurse. She threw the door open, clearly terrified, but standing her ground. ‘Get back! Get away from here!'

‘Sonja?' said Mrs Weir, stepping forward.

The nurse stared down the corridor, mouth falling open. ‘Jessica! What is this? Where have you
been?'

‘That would be a bit complicated to explain right now,' said Mrs Weir, glancing into the room behind her. ‘Are you the only one here?'

‘Yes, everyone else is at the –' The nurse jolted in shock. ‘Wait a minute.
Brian?'
She gaped at Mr Weir's feet as he came over to join us.

‘Will they survive without you for a bit?' he asked, nodding through the door.

‘What?' said the nurse, fixated on his functioning legs. ‘Yes. Yes, they're fine. I'm just here as a precaution.'