Vigo's Lament: A Dystopian Thriller (Age of End Book 3) (2 page)

Ella stared down the sights of her gun. “If we don’t deal with Greene’s men, we’re
all
dead. Just keep her still. We’ll help when we can.”

Alan shook his head, frustrated. He looked to Vince, who was still in a daze. “Damn it, Vince! Now would be a great time for you to snap out of it.”

Charlotte raised her hand again. “Get ready. Fire!”

Three shots echoed in rapid succession. One of Greene’s men screamed in pain and toppled into the water. His body skipped along the surface and sank below the waves. The other men watched their comrade fall and turned around to shout something. The boat slowed to a stop and two more men replaced him, both with very large guns.

“Crap!” Charlotte yelled. “I guess we
don’t
outnumber them.” She looked back at Alan, who was still struggling with Izzy’s tremors. “Keep at it, but stay low.” She whipped around to Ella and Rupert. “You two stay low as well. And don’t stop firing. I’ll be right back.” She dropped her rifle and dove head first into the water.

“What the hell is she doing?” Alan yelled, dropping down to his stomach. His question was muted by the thunderous gunfire. He supposed they did not have an answer for him anyway. He looked to Vince, who was still kneeling upright as bullets whizzed by. “Get down, you idiot! You’re going to get yourself killed!” He reached over to pull him down, but Vince would not budge. “Fine, stay up! But if you get shot, don’t even think about draining me!”

Charlotte popped out of the water behind the boat and grabbed onto the ladder. The men had not noticed that she left the raft. They were completely focused on Ella and Rupert. Charlotte climbed up the ladder and walked along the deck. She crouched low to keep out of sight and hugged the wall as she slid down the corridor. She poked her head up to see through the window above her. There were two more men, both hunched over, arguing over a map on the table. She lowered back down and slowly made her way to the door, peeking around the corner. Another scream of pain came from the front of the boat, followed by a splash. Two down, five to go.

Charlotte pulled her head back just as the men turned around. “What’s going on out there?” one of them said. His voice was low and raspy. “Those idiots really can’t handle a few stragglers?”

Charlotte pressed up against the wall as footsteps approached the door, hoping he wouldn’t see her. He came through the door and turned the other way, towards the front of the boat. She immediately sprung from the wall and followed behind him, drawing a knife from her belt. Once she was close enough, she wrapped her arm around his mouth and pushed the knife into his jugular. She pulled it out, and blood spurted out like a fountain of crimson rain. She held him upright as he fought off death, and laid his body on the ground once he lost. Three down, four to go.

She grabbed the rifle strapped to his chest and turned the corner, shooting the man who was still pondering over the map. His head exploded, splattering chunks of brain against the wall. Four down. She ran across the room and knelt down by his body, keeping her gun pointed at the door.

The gunfire from the front had stopped. There was silence. She waited, finger leaning against the trigger. A man came running into the room, his gun raised up and ready to shoot. Charlotte pulled her finger and watched the bullet push him back towards the railing. He toppled over and fell into the water. Five down. There was another bout of silence, this one tenser than the last. A mirror poked out around the corner. Charlotte shot it immediately. The glass shattered into tiny shards. The man dropped the handle and screamed in agony.

“My eyes!” He stumbled into the room and fell to his knees. Jagged pieces of mirror jutted from his face. He brought his hands up to cover the pain, but only managed to press the glass in further. She put a bullet through his hand and into his skull. Six down. One more.

She waited for the last man to enter, but he remained outside. He had learned from his six other friends. A small metal ball rolled through the door and bumped up against one of the bodies. A thick dark smoke sprayed out from the sides and quickly filled the room. Two more balls rolled in shortly after and did the same. She swung the gun strap across her chest, covered her mouth with her shirt, and quickly made her way towards the door.

Before she reached the door, she stopped at the soldier with glass embedded in his face. She wrapped her arms around his chest and lugged his body up. He was heavy, but not too heavy. She held him up by the straps on his uniform and ran through the door. She felt the force of bullets hit her meat shield. Blood splattered along walls with each shot. She moved forward with surprising speed, closing in on her shooter. With every shot, even more blood sprayed. One bullet went straight through the body and grazed the side of her neck. After the barrage of fire, she finally heard the sound she was waiting for.

Click

She threw the body forward and charged at the soldier, grasping the knife in her hand. With great force and unthinkable speed, she plunged the knife into his forehead. She pulled it out and cleaned off the blood as the body fell to the ground. Seven down.

With the boat cleared out, she took a moment to catch her breath, leaning against the railing and wiping the blood and sweat off her face. Her chest puffed in and out as she sucked in a lungful of air. Once she was calm, she got up and headed to the front of the boat, where she saw her friends on the raft. Ella and Rupert lowered their guns. Fred squawked a cheery screech and hopped up and down. Alan still knelt over Izzy, whose seizure had finally ended. Vince was exactly the same as before. She waved to them. “It’s safe! The boat’s clear! Come on over!”

They paddled over and climbed onboard, walking around and examining the four bodies on the ground. Alan gazed at Charlotte with amazement. “Where did you learn how to fight like that?”

“The same place they did,” she said as she nudged a body with her foot. “I went through Greene’s training program, although that was a good while ago now. It looks like they may have softened up a bit. These guys didn’t put up much of a fight.”

“Or you just put up one hell of a good one,” Alan said, staring down at the blood trickling from the soldier’s neck.

Charlotte pointed to Ella and Rupert. “You two didn’t do half bad. Impressive, considering you have no combat experience.” Her eyes went to Izzy, who was now perfectly fine. “Are you okay?”

Izzy nodded.

“What happened over there? Have you had these seizures before?”

She nodded again. “They’re normal. I have them all the time. Daddy said it’s a condition I have.”

“What kind of condition?”

Izzy shrugged.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Ella said, looking around at the condition of the boat. “Right now, it looks like we have one of those motorized boats you were talking about, Charlotte.”

“Yes we do,” Charlotte said. “I’ll go see if I can get it running. Greene has so many models of these boats, you never know what to expect. This could be a new model I’m not familiar with.”

Alan’s face lit up. “Do you think it has a pantry?”

“Most likely. A pantry is pretty standard for these things.”

“I’m starving!” he said, running off with excitement.

“We should get rid of these bodies,” Rupert said. “Just dump them in the water, I suppose.”

Charlotte nodded. “That’s the easiest way.”

Ella, Rupert, and Charlotte gathered the bodies and threw them overboard. When they were done, they followed Alan’s lead and explored the rest of the boat.

The pantry was on the first floor, just before the staircase, and was smaller than the one on the other boat. It was the size of a small closet, but was still packed with boxes and cans of food, and jugs of drinking water sat on the floor under the shelves. They found Alan crouched in the corner, stuffing his face with salted crackers and drinking directly from one of the jugs. He paused briefly, looking back at them, and held up the box to offer some crackers. They took the box and passed it around. Alan grabbed a fresh one and opened it for himself.

With their stomachs satisfied, they continued exploring the boat. The layout was similar to Barnabus’ boat, but smaller, and had two bedrooms instead of one. Each bedroom held two sets of bunk beds.

“It’s weird,” Ella said as she studied them. “For a boat designed for eight people, this is much smaller than the other one.”

Charlotte nodded. “This must be a newer model. Greene has been pushing for efficiency. In the labs, he emphasized the importance of low cost. I guess that carried over to boat designs too.”

“And the cell room,” Alan added. “Man, those cells were small.”

Ella nodded in agreement. “The test subjects looked miserable behind those bars.”

“
I
was miserable,” Alan said, “and I was only in there for a day.”

“Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Charlotte said. “Now that Simon’s in control of the Spire, I’m pretty sure those cells won’t be used anymore.”

Next, they found the control room. The set up was completely different than the last. Charlotte looked at the control board and smiled. “It looks different, but I can drive this.”

Rupert examined the board with a puzzled face. “Good, because we would never figure this out. It’s far more complicated than the other one.”

“I’ve used this set-up before,” she said. “It looks overwhelming, but it’s really quite easy once you know what you’re doing.”

Alan smirked. “We’ll just leave the driving to you.”

THREE

THEY DROVE THE boat up on the grainy sands of the beach and headed back into the cave. A strong stench filled the air as they walked deeper into the hollow caverns. The scent conjured unpleasant memories. For Rupert, Ella, and Alan, memories of their dear friend Patrick resurfaced, and for Vince, the memory of Saul. The cave had nothing but nightmares to offer, and they were eager to get out as quickly as possible. They turned the corner and saw Barnabus, surrounded by crusted blood and covered in maggots.

“Damn, it stinks in here,” Alan said. He turned his head and saw the cage full of dismembered bodies. The flesh had turned to gelatinous goo, and the blood had curdled at the base. A thick swarm of flies surrounded the pile, buzzing furiously as they zipped through the air. He covered his mouth and almost gagged. “And that would be why.”

“I almost forgot about this,” Ella said.

“Forgot about it? How could you forget about this? I wish I could forget it, but this image is burned into my brain.”

Charlotte covered her mouth as well. “I watched this on the monitors. It’s far worse in person.”

“Of course it is,” Alan said, stepping back. “someone really needs to clean this up.”

They all glanced at each other, waiting for a volunteer.

“Right,” Alan said. “I guess none of us are up to the task. We’re not coming back here anyway. It doesn’t hurt to leave it. We’ll never see it again.”

“Let’s just move on and get home,” Rupert said. “This journey’s been long enough as it is.”

“We could take the cage,” Charlotte said. “It has a motor. We could get to Snow Peak much faster and skip the five-day walk.”

Alan took another long look at the pile of blood and guts. It was even worse than the image that was burned into his brain. The bodies were decomposing into a pink mush. “You want us to clean this thing up? No, thank you. I would much rather walk.”

“Are you sure? We could save a lot of time. It would easily cut the trip down to two days.”

“Do you see what I see? There’s no way I’m touching that mess. We’re in no rush. We have food and supplies from the boat. We could walk
ten
days for all I care.”

Rupert inspected the cage. “If it can really cut down our trip to two days, it may be worth the effort.”

“I plan on returning to the City, too,” Charlotte said. “I can use it on my trip back.”

Ella shrugged. “I just want to be home. If this gets us there faster, I’m all in.”

Alan glared at all of them, shocked. “Seriously? You would all rather clean this mess than walk a few extra days? What about you, Vince? Come on, back me up.”

Vince stared at the cage, but said nothing.

Alan threw his arms up. “Oh right, Vince has gone mute. Well, that’s just great. I guess we’re cleaning it then. You guys are nuts.”

They got to work and started clearing off the cage. They started with the main pile, scooping layers off with their hands and throwing them aside. The overpowering smell was unbearable. Alan glanced at the bone sticking out in his hands. He dropped it, twisted around and hunched over to barf. The sound made the others cringe.

Ella tried to limit her breathing, but the physical work was demanding. She let in a gigantic breath. The wretched fumes climbed up her nose and entered her lungs. She grew lightheaded and fell to the ground, away from the guts and onto dry dirt.

Rupert tossed the gunk in his hands and ran over to help her. He knelt down by her body. “Ella, are you okay?” She was unconscious. He looked over to Alan, who was kneeling in the corner with his hands pressed against his forehead. He looked back to the pile, which they had barely made a dent on. “This isn’t worth it. Let’s walk the rest of the way.”

Alan spun around. “Thank god. I told you it wasn’t worth it, but you wouldn’t listen.”

“I underestimated the work involved. This is dangerous to our health. Walking may take longer, but it will be calm. After everything we’ve been through, we need calm.”

Charlotte turned after scooping another handful. “Are you sure? We’ve already started. We’re already covered in the stuff. You want to give up now?”

“Christ, Charlotte,” Alan said, still hunched over a puddle of his own bile. “Ella’s passed out, and I’m sitting in my own fluids. Yes, we would gladly give up.”

She sighed. “Okay, I guess we can walk.”

Alan stood up. “I’m going back to the beach wash off first.”

“You’re going to the ocean to wash?” Rupert said. “It’s salt water.”

Alan looked up and down his own body. “I’m covered in blood and guts. I think salt water is a bit of an upgrade.” He started walking off and pointed to the cage. “I never want to see that cage again. Ever.”