“She’s right,” I agree, as if they’re going to listen to anything I say. Lizzie glares at me. She’s in an impossible situation-whatever choice she makes, she loses. No matter what she is and how I feel about her now, I’m surprised that it still hurts me so much to see her like this. She’s shaking her head.
“I can’t. I just can’t let her go…”
“You don’t have long,” I tell them. “The city doesn’t have long. I can get her to safety. Get her out of here before it’s too late.”
“You’ve hardly got any medication left for her, Liz. You can’t hold her if she’s not sedated. Have you thought about that?”
“Of course I have,” she sobs, looking back and staring at the pregnant girl. “I just can’t stand the thought of her being out there on her own. She’s only five-”
“But she won’t be on her own,” I interrupt. “She’ll be with me.”
“Come on, Danny,” she sighs, wiping her eyes. “You were hardly the world’s greatest dad at the best of times. What chance has she got with you now?”
“More chance than she’s got without me. Look, you’re not thinking straight. Stay here and you’re all dead. This is the best option for her. The only option…”
The hotel room is momentarily silent, the only noise coming from outside. Vibrations shake the floor and walls. Even the Asian man has finally shut up.
Lizzie holds her head in her hands.
“I just can’t. You don’t understand. She’s not like you, remember,” she says. “She’s-”
Before she’s finished speaking, the pregnant woman moves. She lunges toward me, catching me and everyone else completely off guard. She grabs my head and pulls me forward, then leans down behind me. I try to shake her off, but she’s too heavy and I’m squashed under the bulk of her unborn child. As quickly as she attacked she’s up again. She stands opposite, holding one of my knives in her hand. What has she done? Has she cut me or…?
Wait.
My hands are free.
My legs still tied together, I push myself off the wall and reach out for Lizzie. She manages to scramble back out of the way, but the other woman’s not as quick. I grab her right foot and pull her over. She hits the ground right in front of me. Mark tries to react, but the Unchanged are reassuringly slow, and by the time he’s made a grab for her I’ve already got her held tight. I wrap one arm around her throat and hold the knife to her face. Stupid bitch. At least I’ve temporarily silenced the constant fucking noise coming out of her mouth. I lean forward and cut the ties around my ankles, then slowly stand up. Mark goes to move toward me again, but I prick the woman’s cheek with the tip of the blade, and the sight of her blood and the sound of her half-choked screams is enough to stop him.
I kick the bathroom door open, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the gloom. Lying bastards, it’s empty. She isn’t here. There’s a thin mattress on the floor, some sheets, empty bottles of water, and the remains of medication, food wrappers… but no Ellis. I can smell her scent, but she’s gone.
“Where is she?” I yell, turning back around and holding the blade up to the woman’s eye.
“Safe,” Lizzie answers. “Let Kate go, Danny.”
In desperation Mark tries to run at me again, but, like all of his kind, he thinks too long instead of acting on instinct. I’m far faster than he is, and I see him coming a mile off. Even with the weight of this bitch in my arms he’s no match for me. I kick him in the balls and send him reeling.
“Where?” I yell again.
“Let her go and I’ll take you,” Lizzie says. I stare straight into her face again and tighten the pressure around the other woman’s neck. Is she telling the truth? Do I have any choice? I could be in touching distance of Ellis, but without Lizzie I might as well be miles away. Mark rolls around at my feet, groaning.
“Please…” he whimpers pathetically.
I could kill her, but I don’t. Suddenly all I can think about is Joseph Mallon. I can see his face and can hear his damn voice echoing around my cell, telling me not to fight fire with fire, to break the cycle. Was he right? As the city crumbles around us, can I risk not following my instinct and letting these fuckers live? Could it really be that the more I fight today, the more I stand to lose?
I let the woman go. She falls to her knees and crawls away on all fours, gasping for air. Lizzie walks over to me, stopping only when we’re almost touching.
“I just need to know that you’ll look after her and get her to safety.”
“Where is she?” I shout, struggling to keep control and not attack. “Just tell me where-”
“I need to hear you say it, Danny.”
“I promise you, Liz. I’ll get her as far away from the city as I can. I’ll look after her. She’s all I’ve got left.”
“Then you’ve got more than I have,” she sobs. She looks into my eyes, and I can’t look away. “We moved her last night,” she finally admits. “We couldn’t risk keeping her here any longer.”
“What have you done with her?”
“She’s safe. Mark and I were going to try to get her out of the city. It was the lesser of two evils…”
Mark gets up. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a set of keys, which he throws to Lizzie.
“Take him.”
“I can’t…” she says, beginning to cry again.
“It’s the only option. Listen to what’s happening outside, Liz. It’s all fucked. He’s right, at least she’s got a chance this way.”
“But what if…?”
“I won’t hurt you,” I tell her, meaning every word but still not knowing if she believes me. “All I want is Ellis. Take me to her and you’ll never see me again.”
She nods her head but still doesn’t move.
“Just give him the keys,” the pregnant woman says. “Let him find her for himself. Stay here with us.”
Lizzie shakes her head and wipes her eyes.
“No, I’ll go. I just want to see her again. One last time.”
37
THERE’S A FIRE ESCAPE at the rear of the hotel, a staircase running down the back of the building. Lizzie, watching me like a hawk and carrying a knife I know she won’t dare use, pushes me down the landing and around a corner toward an innocuous-looking gray door. It’s already been forced open. She gestures for me to go through.
“Where is she?” I ask as I step outside, shouting to make myself heard over the sounds of fighting that fill the air. We stand at the top of a zigzagging metal staircase bracketed to the back of the old, run-down building. She points in the general direction of the streets behind the hotel, but I can’t see anything specific. The sun is rising, and below us the city is beginning to burn. A fleet of planes and helicopters is taking off from somewhere far over to our left.
“There’s a garage,” she answers breathlessly. “The front of it has collapsed, so it’s difficult to get in or out. We locked her in the back of a van.”
“If this is a trick, Lizzie-”
“No trick,” she says quickly, and I know she’s telling the truth. We’re wasting precious time. Sensing Ellis is close, I start climbing down.
There’s another parking lot at the back of the hotel, and a small patch of wildly overgrown garden beyond it. Lizzie leads me away from the building down a narrow path that’s barely visible through the long, damp grass. The sky is still filled with heavy gray cloud, but it’s slowly beginning to brighten.
“This way,” she whispers, catching her breath when a series of brilliant white flashes explodes, lighting up the early morning gloom for a fraction of a second at a time. A low-flying helicopter gunship rumbles overhead, heading back toward town.
I follow her to the end of the path, where there’s a tall wrought-iron gate. Lizzie bends down and shifts a broken lump of paving slab that’s keeping it shut, and the gate swings open. She pauses before going through, ducking back into the shadows as a group of people runs past. I watch them as we step out into the open, three figures chasing a fourth down a narrow, cobbled passageway. They corner the lone runner, drag him to the ground, and kick the shit out of him. It’s impossible to tell who’s who-am I watching the Unchanged being hunted down, or is that one of my people cornered? It doesn’t matter anymore.