Mass Extinction Event: The Complete Fourth Series (Days 54 to 61) (22 page)

“Not long now,” Edward says eventually.

Glancing at the clock, I realize that he's right: five minutes to midnight.

“They're gonna storm the place,” Natalie says after a moment. “I give it four minutes and then they'll burst through, screaming their heads off, guns blazing... If by some miracle Eddie here doesn't kill us, we'll probably be taken down by friendly fire.”

“You don't know what you're talking about,” I tell her.

“You don't negotiate with terrorists,” she replies with a smile. “Everybody knows that. And that's what this guy is, you know.”

“They don't want anyone else to die,” I point out.

“There are seven people on the council,” she continues, “when you includes all the auxiliary members. That means seven votes. Your father and my father are only two voices. At best, the vote will be 5-2 in favor of storming in. The other members will just see us as collateral damage, as something to be used so they can manipulate the aftermath.” She smiles. “It's a good thing. Think how sweet it'll be to no longer have to worry about surviving. Give in to the inevitable, and these final few minutes can be real -”

“Shut up,” Edward says suddenly. “I think I hear something.”

Listening, I realize that he's right. There's the faintest scratching sound coming from near the doorway.

Checking his gun, Edward makes his way over to us.

“I hope you're not going to try anything,” he calls out, aiming the gun at Natalie's head. “It'll take me two seconds to get the job done in here. We all know I'm dead either way, but these two can still be saved if you're smart!”

“Do it now,” Natalie whispers to him. “Surprise them!”

“Three minutes!” he shouts. “You're not gonna just go silent on me, are you?”

The scratching sound continues, until suddenly a plump rat scurries into view.

“Oh, just kill me now,” Natalie says with a smile. “I want to get out of this hell.”

“What are they doing?” Edward mutters, looking around at the rest of the room. “They're planning something.”

“Maybe they're just leaving us,” I say after a moment, starting to feel a sense of fear rising in my chest. “Maybe something went wrong out there and there's nothing else they can do for us.”

“Ever the optimist, huh?” Natalie replies, her smile getting broader.

“You can't really want it to end like this,” I tell her. “There has to be something better!”

“So long as I don't ever have to go on one of those helicopters again,” she replies, “I'll be happy. So long as I never have to look down and watch screaming, running people getting mowed down by bullets...” She seems to forget her smile for a moment, allowing it to fade as she stares into the distance. “There's no way we're recovering,” she adds finally. “Even this place, Boston, is just a breather. The human race is done. God speed and all that, but I want to move on to the next place.” She looks up at the ceiling, where the solitary electric light is flickering slightly. “You see them?”

“See what?” I ask.

“The flies.”

Looking up, I realize that there are scores of dead flies trapped in the light's plastic casing, their corpses silhouetted against the buzzing glare of the filament.

“That's us,” Natalie whispers. “That fly that was bugging us earlier... He crawled in there and died. I watched a little while ago as he landed, and then he crawled closer and closer, and I just waited until he made his way in there, and then he couldn't get out. He fried himself against the light. At least he's with his friends now.” She turns to me. “That fly has it better than us. Sucks, doesn't it?”

“One minute,” Edward says, his voice tense as if he's expecting an attack at any moment. He has the gun aimed straight at Natalie's temple now, and his finger's on the trigger.

“Heaven,” Natalie says, smiling at me. “Seeya there.”

“You believe in that stuff?” I ask.

“I do,” she continues, as a tear runs down her cheek. “Maybe not the angels and the fluffy clouds, but I believe there's something, and it has to be better than this. Even hell would be better than this, but I think God'll forgive me for my sins. I was in that helicopter, but I wasn't one of the ones who -”

“Thirty seconds,” Edward says, interrupting us. “I just want you to know that I hoped it wouldn't come to this.”

“You still have time to change your mind,” I tell him, while trying to work out how I can stop him. I figure I can maybe throw myself onto him and knock him away from Natalie, but I'm not sure she'll help me after that. “Please, don't do this...”

“Five,” he replies, staring at Natalie. “Four, three -”

She closes her eyes.

Suddenly a shot rings out and Edward cries out, lurching back as he drops the gun. Seeing blood on Natalie's shoulder, but a look of shock in her terrified eyes, I grab the gun and pick it up, aiming it at Edward as I see more blood flowing from a wound that has blasted his hand apart.

“Are you okay?” I ask, turning to Natalie.

Day 60

(Mass Extinction Event 4.7)

Elizabeth

She reaches up and feels the side of her head, as if she's checking to see that she's still alive.

“Are you okay?” I ask again. “Natalie, say something!”

As voices shout in the distance and several soldiers run into the room, I look up at the clock and watch as the second hand ticks around to midnight and then continues.

“Oh God,” I whisper, as my hands start trembling.

“Secure him!” my father shouts, hurrying into the room and coming straight over to me. He reaches out and takes the gun from my hands, before passing it to one of the soldiers and then putting his arms around me. “It's okay, sweetheart,” he whispers, kissing the top of my head. “We got him.”

“How?” I ask, hearing a cry and turning just in time to see two soldiers hauling Edward to his feet. “What did you do to him?”

“We got a sniper into the air vent,” my father replies. “The guy only had one shot, but he made it count.”

I watch as Doctor Sukan hurries into the room and stops to take a look at Edward's hand, which is dripping blood as two soldiers struggle to restrain him. One of them has his hand over Edward's mouth, keeping him from crying out.

“Leave him!” my father barks. “Let him bleed out for all I care. These girls need you!”

Making his way over to us, Sukan stops next to me first.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “Where are you hurt?”

“Nowhere,” I reply, still shaking with fear. “He hit Natalie, though.”

As Sukan goes to check on Natalie, I watch the soldiers starting to drag Edward to the door.

“What are you going to do with him?” I ask.

“Never mind that,” my father replies. “We need to get you to -”

“What are you going to do with him?” I ask again, turning to him. “I want to know!”

“He'll be dealt with.”

“You can't kill him.”

“Lizzie -”

“Please,” I continue, “promise me you won't kill him. Promise me that whatever you do, it'll be proper justice, not some kind of vigilante execution.”

“What do you think we are?” he asks. “Savages?”

“I know about the helicopters,” I tell him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Lake Erie,” I continue, suddenly feeling a sense of anger rising through my body, pushing aside all the pain and fear. “I know what those helicopters do when they go out. Natalie told me everything.”

“Lizzie, sweetheart, you mustn't worry about -”

“Stop lying to me!” I shout, pushing him back until he stumbles and falls to the ground. “I know what you did to those people at the lake!”

“Lizzie, you're upset -”

“I'm angry!” I continue, taking a step back as I feel tears starting to run down my face. “You've been murdering people.”

“The council has to make difficult decisions every single day,” he replies, getting to his feet. “We have a long-term strategy that's designed to consolidate power and protect the people of
this
city. We don't have the luxury of looking after everyone else, of thinking about the human race as a whole and trying to save everyone. We have to start here, with our own home and our own people, and then maybe, in a few years' time, we can start to think about the rest of the human race.”

“So you're willing to murder people?”

“Don't use that word,” he replies. “Lizzie, never use that word. It's completely childish.”

“Goddamn idiots,” Natalie mutters as Doctor Sukan helps her toward the door. She glances over at me. “It could have been all over by now. All the misery, all the pain... We could be somewhere else by now.”

“Get her out of here,” my father says tersely.

“I just need to give her a check-up,” Sukan replies. “I think she just -”

“Get her out of here!” my father shouts.

Sukan helps Natalie to the door, before looking back at me. “Drop by my office as soon as you can. I want to check you over too.”

As they leave the room, and as the soldiers take Edward away, I'm left alone with my father.

“Lizzie,” he says finally, “you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. You're one of us now. You're a citizen of Boston, and that means that all the people outside the city...” He pauses, as if he's exasperated by my inability or refusal to see things his way. “Your mother and I raised you to respect other people,” he continues after a moment. “We raised you and your brother that way because it was the right approach to the world we lived in back then. The world has changed since then, and now I have to raise you to live in a way that's appropriate to these changed circumstances.”

“And you think Mom would agree with you?”

“Your mother was an intelligent woman,” he replies. “I think she'd understand.”

Staring at him, I try to work out whether there's a chance he might be right. Am I the one who's being unreasonable? Should I just turn my face away from everything I've learned and pretend that I agree with this strange new world? I figure that, after time, I might forget all my concerns, but still... I feel as if, by doing that, I'd be becoming someone else entirely.

“You're right about one thing,” I tell him finally. “The world
has
changed, but not only in the ways you think. You don't need to raise me, Dad. I'm old enough to make my own decisions.”

“You still need guidance.”

“Sure,” I reply, “but I get to make my own decisions.”

“I'm your father.”

“So I'll listen to you,” I continue, “but I won't just accept everything you tell me and assume that there are no alternatives. If I disagree with you -”

“What?” he asks, interrupting me with a hint of irritation. In the distance, voices are shouting, but they sound as if they're a million miles away. “What exactly will you
do
, Lizzie? Leave? There's nowhere to go? Try to persuade other people? We all think the same way, and do you know
why
we all think the same way? Because it's the only logical way to deal with the world as it is now. It's the only way to survive.”

I stare at him, but I know he's not really listening to me. He knows what he thinks and no matter what I say to him, it'll just bounce right off. Feeling a wave of tiredness starting to wash through my body, I realize that there's no point continuing to slam my head against this particular brick wall.

“Don't lie to me anymore,” I say finally.

“Lizzie, I never -”

“Don't lie to me,” I say again, more firmly this time. “I know when you're doing it, so just stop.”

“Fine,” he replies. “I won't -”

Before he can finish, a shot rings out in the distance.

“What was that?” I ask, as a feeling of dread strikes me in the belly.

More voices can be heard shouting near the building.

“I don't know,” my father says, with a hint of concern in his eyes.

“Sir!” a soldier shouts, running into the room. “Sir, the prisoner tried to escape...”

“Lizzie,” my father says firmly, “stay here.”

As he and the soldier hurry back out, I stand alone for a moment, listening to voices in the distance. Finally, realizing that I need to see for myself, I head through the doorway and back out into the trashed store, before picking my way through the debris and stepping out into the alley. In the moonlight, I can see figures up ahead, standing around a dark shape on the ground.

Even though I already know what has happened, I make my way over to join them.

“He tried to make a break for it,” my father says, turning to me. “He grabbed a gun from one of the soldiers.”

Looking down at Edward's body, I see that his dead eyes are wide open, and one side of his head has been completely blown away. There's a gun nearby on the floor, just inches from his outstretched hand, and I watch as one of the soldiers picks it up and slips it back into his holster.

“Don't mourn this man, Lizzie,” my father continues. “Mourn that poor girl who lost her life yesterday when he gunned her down in cold blood.”

I turn to him, and although there's a part of me that wants to ask him whether Edward really tried to grab a gun, or whether this was just a way to get him out of the way, I don't think I can face being lied to again.

“I'm tired,” I reply finally. “I just want to go to sleep.”

***

Several hours later, flat on my back in bed and staring at the ceiling, I find myself reliving the whole experience with Edward Pitt over again.

“You still have time to change your mind,” I remember telling him. “Please, don't do this...”

And then the sound of gunshots, echoing through my mind. I run quickly through the events that led to Edward's death, and then I start again, going back to the very beginning of the memory and the moment when Natalie knocked on my door. I don't want to think about it all, but I can't help myself, it's as if the whole thing is stuck on repeat in my mind, playing over and over again.

“You still have time to change your mind. Please, don't do this...”

Barely even blinking, I continue to stare at the ceiling, even as the sun starts to dip outside and my room grows ever darker.