The Radical (Unity Vol.1) (16 page)

Ryken had the same thought, by the looks of him.

‘Shit,’ he panicked, ‘we’re screwed now.’

We set
off again at speed, not knowing whether it was adrenalin or fight or flight making us work for survival. We just didn’t have any other option but to keep running.

Our
lungs began to burn from the constant stopping and starting, but we still continued on, venturing further toward the edge of Stratford, twisting and turning from one residential street to another.

I
looked over at Ryken to see if he knew where we were going, but his eyes were darting about as if he were madly searching for something. Despair was slowly starting to creep into my mind too, knowing he didn’t have a clue where we were heading.

Then we
hit a dead end.

Ryken
was in complete despair, with more than the fear of death or capture rocking him. He was trying to protect me, I knew.

I felt a drain lid under foot and an idea hit
. I pointed and he knew. He immediately started grabbing at the corners to pull the cover up, and together, combining our strengths, we managed to heave the lid open. Within seconds, we both dropped into the sewer, replacing the entrance as quietly as possible.

S
tood in near darkness, a few moments later we heard the expected voices and footsteps across the drain lid above. Ryken seemed more unnerved than me and I knew we couldn’t afford any knee-jerk reactions.

I held a finger at his lips
to silence and calm him, staring into his eyes. His arms wrapped around my waist while we waited to discover whether this was it.

His head dropped on my shoulder and I hel
d my hands around his neck, an embrace having crept up on us quite unexpectedly.

A
fter the foreign voices up above went away, and heavy footsteps marched into the distance, we caught our breaths against each other’s shoulders.

‘You were right. I am sad, alone, afraid. If I have anyth
ing, I have somethin’ to lose. Somethin’ they can use against me.’

‘I feel exactly the same, trust me,’ he moaned, burying his nose into my hair and growling.
One more move and I had no doubt he would have me, even in that sewer. I felt the need too but my body was crying out for rest more.

I
fell against the sewer wall, watching him when he did the same thing. I was spent. Totally and utterly exhausted.

‘Why did they
speak like that?’

H
e explained in whispers, ‘They have their own language, a secret code that only their kind can decipher. They operate outside of the law, they can navigate their way around the world unchecked, and they are trained, ruthless killers with only one purpose – to prevent secrets leaking out that pose a threat to their employers. Before the flu even, Officium began recruiting the strongest men and women for their own global police force. Experimental drugs and stem cell experiments made them physically superhuman. However, there were side-effects. They became unthinking, amoral creatures of particularly dark habits. They follow orders that might lead them straight to death because they know nothing else. Officium are hell-bent on protecting their secrets because if they were exposed, it would certainly spell catastrophe for the world as we know it. Honestly, you are better off not knowing what I know. I wouldn’t want you burdened with the knowledge I have on these people. Knowing would only endanger you further.’

I glared at Ryken with suspicion.
‘I wonder how you know so much? You talk as if you were one of them. You’re not, are you? It would make sense though, given your background and the way you maintain your physical fitness.’

He l
ooked demonic. I had touched a nerve, obviously.

‘W
hy haven’t I killed you already then?’ He shouted so loud and fierce, the sewer shook with the reverberations of his defiant exclamation.

‘
This was the dumbest idea. Coming to Stratford was a big mistake! I don’t know how I ended up in this situation!’

I grabbed my hair and pulled, shielding my
face with a hand to avert Ryken’s gaze. The adrenalin was wearing off and the severity of the predicament kicking in.

He reached over and put a hand on my
shoulder but I shrugged it off.

‘Look, Seraph, I
apologize. But I’m just as frustrated as you are. We just need to get back home, don’t you think?’

‘Yeah, we do.’

‘Then coming here was not a total loss. We can use this chance to go off grid. We won’t get out of this country any other way now. We have to disappear from their sights.’

‘Yeah,
’ I wearily agreed.

I assessed our surroundings, my mind settling.
Thankfully there was no sewerage at our feet. I reasoned that it must be pumped elsewhere – probably to the poly-tunnel fields. However, the drain still had an awful smell about it, a dank stench, and it was completely dark the further you looked down the tunnel.

‘So how do you suggest we get out of here? Will they be roaming the streets for us
now?’

‘We can’t go back to the car now. I think we need to stay underground for a bit,’ he decided. ‘Let them tire themselves out looking for us. We both need to turn off our
xGens in case they’re watching for user spikes, and any other devices that might drop onto their radar.’

We
both turned off everything and I noticed Ryken’s xGen with admiration – it was a heavy, rectangular slab with a metallic silver coating. Probably had the capability of a supercomputer.

After he turned it off, he popped something
out from a cavity underneath – a small torch. ‘I had this in the Army, if you were wondering.’

He
must have seen me regarding his device. For some, an xGen was the only piece of individuality they could have in this world – me included. Lack of choice, sparse human interaction and fear had crushed us. An xGen was the closest thing to freedom; the thing they might also use to control our every move.

‘Shall we
see where these tunnels lead us?’ I asked.

Ryken nodded, leading the way i
nto the darkness, the light of his emergency torch illuminating our path.

S
ome time later we got out of the sewer, emerging from beneath ground toward the outskirts of Stratford, where we found ourselves in a barren field of dead earth. It was drizzling with rain and the air was highly oxygenized, making us both lightheaded. It was pitch-black and we had no idea where we were, only that the town seemed far away. We could see the dim lights of the town in the distance, glittering against the swelling River Avon, protected by great concrete flood barriers set against the almost indestructible black waters. I nodded when he asked if I was alright and we decided to start walking, neither of us willing to take rest.

We picked our
way between white, unlit poly-tunnels that were just bright enough against the light of the moon to show us the way. The ground underneath was damp and boggy, making it much harder to travel on foot. We were both getting breathless when we left the poly-tunnel field and arrived at what seemed to be an old tractor trail. We followed it, hoping it would lead somewhere. Neither of us had the energy to talk, we simply knew we had to keep going. We couldn’t stop. Stopping would mean certain defeat.

We followed the trail and
ended up at the signpost of a deserted town, Warwick, one of those small settlements that had been completely abandoned in 2023. Everything was in total darkness, thankfully reducing the chances of visual detection. We walked along the tarmac road, full of potholes, mud, grass and bits of rubble. We passed empty houses that were falling into extreme disrepair and then spotted something very sad.

‘Oh, god,’ I heard myself say.

It was the first time I had spoken since leaving the drain. Ryken saw the same thing ‒ the shell of an old castle. The turrets were crumbling, the main tower was moss-covered and the grounds, probably once immaculately kept, were full of weeds, wild animals and rubble. Vast, geometric gapes were visible right along the walls; presumably huge stones of the castle had found a new purpose as flood defenses nearby.

We explored the grounds
somberly, passing through it as though visiting a graveyard. So much was lost, not just life.

We
came to what appeared to be some old stables situated within the grounds, fell on some mossy earth inside and shivered into some semblance of sleep.

Ryken

While she slept almost the minute we hit the ground, I did not. For a long while, I lay beside her, staring at her face. When she began shivering, I removed my jacket and unfolded it over both of us, pulling her into my arms for warmth. In sleep, she huddled against me. It gave me an overwhelming sense of pride and hope. My adrenalin levels refused to go down, despite my own crippling exhaustion, and I drifted in and out of sleep all night.

When we embraced in the sewer, my mouth went dry, my legs weak and my
heart thumped so hard I thought she could probably see it. I knew I was quickly falling in love with this woman, Seraph Maddon. My heart, mind and loins had never agreed more on anything else before.

When we were running, I
noticed the strength in her limbs, the determination on her face. She was a woman to be reckoned with; of spirit, intelligence and breeding, and something that was gradually sending me increasingly crazy.

I dreamed
about the way her mouth moved when she talked, how elegantly her fingers twirled when she played with her hair when deep in thought.

When she jumped me in the car, I thought I
had strayed into a dream. This goddess was sitting on my lap, with such sad, big blue eyes, desperate for rescue from the burden she carried.

I
knew it felt different with her. For the first time I wanted sex to mean more, and I needed intimacy.

In the early hours I woke to find her shaking and covered in sweat. She had caught a fever. I helped her drink some water from a pouch I had in my jacket pocket and I used a cool handkerchief to wipe her brow.

‘I haven’t felt well all we
ek,’ she moaned, more awake than I thought she was. She could barely open her eyes. ‘Broken sleep, nightmares, dizzy spells.’

‘
Is your throat hurting?’ I reached out to feel her glands.

‘No, I just feel so cold.’

‘Your skin is burning, Seraph.’

‘I don’t get ill,’ she complained.

‘They contain viruses so well that now when you travel to other countries, you encounter strains of cold you never have before. You might be suffering the same as a child mingling at Kindergarten.’

‘
Great.’

I tucked my jacket tight around her and urged her to use her shoulder bag as a pillow.

‘I will make a fire,’ I told her. ‘It won’t be visible beyond the castle walls.’

I found s
ome dry twigs and leaves on the shed floor and some bits of old newspaper in a bin nearby. An added bit of hay, my old lighter and we had a roaring fire going in the barn, crackling and popping before our eyes. I moved back toward her and she had settled, staring at the flames.

‘It’s been a while since I
slept like this. I used to do it a lot,’ she began.

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. Come and hold me again, will you? I am still so cold.’

I laid down behind her and lifted the jacket to cover myself too but found her topless.
I hesitated, unsure how to act.

‘You know you have no–’

‘My clothes were soaked through
so I took them off. I have nothing clean.’

I
noticed her t-shirt and bra had been tossed across the room.

‘Hang on.
You can’t lie on a cold floor with nothing on while you aren’t well,’ I asserted, my voice stern.

I grabbed my own shoulder bag and pulled out a white undershirt. ‘Have this.’

She grabbed it quickly and sat up on her elbows to pull it on. I
had
seen a hundred thousand breasts but seeing hers was a new experience. She wasn’t ashamed as they bounced in the firelight before me. I guessed she was ill and just doing what she needed to in order to make herself more comfortable ‒ yet the image was seared into my mind. She lay back down and I joined her under my jacket, wrapping my arms around her waist, using my own shoulder bag as another pillow.

We settled and she shuddered.

‘I just need rest, I’ll be fine,’ she assured me, still shivering. I rubbed my hands over her arms and chest to warm her through.

‘You’
re exhausted, Seraph. I see it in your eyes. If you want me to go for help, I will.’

‘Don’t be dumb
, just stay with me. The fire is so comforting.’

‘I have some painkillers. They might help to bring the fever down?’

‘Yeah, okay,’ she murmured, so I slipped two out of the inside pocket of my coat and helped her sit up and swallow them down with some water. I winced to see her still so cold so I pulled up and yanked my jumper over my head.

‘On my chest, Seraph, take some warmth here,’ I instructed, and to my surprise she didn’t argue.

She rubbed her face in my chest hair and I used the jumper to wrap it around her back, bringing the jacket back on top of us too.

‘Out here, it all seems different,’ she told me.

‘You should sleep, not talk.’

‘Just listen, will you? It might help.’

‘Okay,’ I accepted gently.

‘It all seems pointless now, you know? Like mingling with the hobos, offering my body, chasing and fighting, worming and sneaking and using my contacts is all just… such bullshit.’

She paused and I felt her breath on my skin. She was something worth fighting for more than any other; having her there with me in the sanctuary of a ramshackle old shed was so peaceful. Seeing her naked and female, it took my breath away that she was also so tough.

‘What is your goal, angel? What do you want to do in the long-term? If we weren’t living in these times, if there were no
emissaries or conspiracies to chase…’

Calling her that came naturally. She was an angel, as her name suggested. I peered down and finally, she was sleeping.
I had sent her to sleep with my words. I chuckled lightly, kissed her head and tried to rest but couldn’t completely. It was the thought of her vulnerability that had me grinning and wanting to weep. I wanted to stop her doing this ‒ living without thought for herself ‒ but would she ever listen?

Seraph

Shards of bright light crept through the cracks of the stable’s shell, rousing me from sleep. I woke feeling dehydrated, dizzy and still utterly drained. Every bone in my body ached and I moaned when I tried to move. I was wrapped in Ryken’s arms and for a moment, I savored his embrace. I remembered falling asleep on his chest but we had shifted in the night so that he was angled behind me, his arms criss-cross over my torso, some parts of him directly touching my breasts. The fire had burnt out but smoked still, filling the room with a pleasant replacement covering the stink of shit and mould.

His breath against the back of my neck arrested me, as did his enormous bulk curling around mine. His arms tightened and I knew he was awake too.

‘How do you feel?’ he croaked, clearing his throat.

‘Better. Still awful. I’
m not strong enough to fight today, nor traipse the land again.’

‘I understand but we can’t stay here either.’

‘I need the bathroom.’
How embarrassing
…

‘Okay, right…’ his head popped up, looking around. ‘There are some piles of hay over at the back there. You go. I will walk into the town a little and see what we are dealing with.’

‘Yep. Don’t be long, though,’ I asked, turning to eye him.

‘I won’t, angel.’

I didn’t mind the name he used for me, it was nice actually. He leapt up and shook out his limbs and I marveled at his magnificent body, so heavy and muscular in every sense. I handed him his sweater and he threw it on while I struggled to get myself standing. I wobbled on my feet and tried to get my balance. I held my head and he was there instantly, taking my arms in his hands to steady me.

‘Shit, I feel terrible
.’

‘Hang on, just a moment,’ he insisted. ‘Can you stand alone?’

‘Yeah.’

He knelt and rummaged in his bag, bringing out a dehydration treatment and a packet of some kind of paste.

‘Army supplies,’ he explained, ‘drink the fluid and eat that protein paste. It really tastes like shit but trust me, it works.’

I nodded
and ripped the foils open before downing them together. I would take anything if it made me feel better.

‘Ugh, fuck that
was gross.’ I grimaced, unable to rid myself of the fish oil and salt aftertaste.

‘I know. So, you will be okay?’

I caught him looking at the nipples protruding out of the white undershirt he had given me. Then I remembered I had changed right in front of him last night.
Crap
. I must have been ill.

‘Even taking a dump is no
t somethin’ I think you wanna see me do.’