The Rat Collector: A Dystopian Thriller (Age of End Book 1) (17 page)

Now that they were on a smooth course, Vince looked back towards the bedroom. “Keep an eye on the controls. I’m going to check on Saul and Ella.”

Alan took control. “You got it, boss.”

When Vince entered, Ella waved for him to come over. “Quick,” she whispered. “Get over here. He’s waking up.”

Saul struggled to open his eyes, squinting as Vince came into sight. “Vince?” His voice was weak. “Is that you?”

Vince reached out to hold his hand. “That’s right old friend. I’m here.”

Ella stood up. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

When she was gone, Saul grabbed Vince and pulled him down for a hug. “I missed you.”

“Me too, Saul. It’s been a long time.”

“Where are we? What happened to Barnabus?

“He’s dead. I shot him with his own weapon. We’re on his boat and headed to the City now.”

Saul smiled. “Good riddance. That bastard deserved to die. After all these years it’s finally done.”

“It’s not over yet.”

“You’re right. The City. They have a whole lab of prisoners. And who knows how many
field rats
are out there?”

Vince flinched at his use of the term. “Don’t call us that. We’re not rats.”

“To them we are. We’re nothing more than experiments.”

“That’s why we have to stop them.”

“I know.”

“What else do you know about the City? About the people there?”

“Not much. I know they’ve been watching us from the start. They’ve got those cameras set up all over the place.

“I noticed them too.”

“Barnabus kept talking about Victor Greene. I think he’s in charge of their whole operation, maybe even the leader of the City. Either way, he’s powerful. Dangerous.”

“So he’s the one we go after next.”

Saul nodded. “Whatever he’s up to, it’s no good.” He clutched his stomach and groaned. “You can’t imagine how much this hurts.”

Vince placed his hand on top of Saul’s. “We’ll get you to the City. They’ll fix you up there.”

“What if they don’t? What if Barnabus was right? If there are other subjects like us, they don’t need us. There’s no reason for them to save me.”

“We have to try.”

“Vince, I’m scared.” His eyes began to water. “I’ve been scared my entire life. Afraid of death. And now it’s coming. I can feel it. I’m going to die.”

“No, you’re not. We are going to save you.”

“And then what? We can’t keep this up forever. Somewhere down the road, we’re going to die.”

“That may be true, but death is a part of life. We live. Do what we can. And then we die. Everyone dies.”

“Not us.” Tears ran down Saul’s cheeks. “It was supposed to be different for us. We were promised immortality. But I can see that’s not real now. That draining is wrong. People were not meant to live forever. I keep telling myself that I drain because I have a purpose. To stop thieves. Murderers. The scum of the world. But what if that’s not my purpose? What if it’s just an excuse? I’ve been grasping for life in pursuit of a better world, but when we succeed, when we stop this Victor Greene fellow, will we stop draining? I don’t know if I have the courage.”

Vince smiled. “You’ve changed so much. I can tell by the way you speak. When the time comes, I have no doubt you’ll find the courage you’re looking for.” He stood up and walked to the door. “Now get some rest. I’ll wake you up when we reach the City.”

As he left the room, he thought of Saul’s words. Draining was wrong. They both knew it. And yet they both continued to do it. Vince had never considered that he was afraid of death, but maybe he was. When the time came, would he have the same courage Saul was looking for? He was not sure.

THIRTY-EIGHT

THEY TOOK TURNS watching Saul. It was Alan’s turn. Ella, Rupert, Fred, and Vince stood in the control room, peering out at the ocean. There was nothing but blue waves and blue skies. Two seagulls flew beside the boat as it cruised across the open waters.

Ella gazed at the horizon. “I didn’t know the world could get so beautiful.”

Rupert nodded. “It’s easy on the eyes, that’s for sure.”

Ella pressed her hand against the glass. “I’ve only known a world of cold snow. There’s so much out there I haven’t seen.” She turned around. “What do you think the City is like? It sounds so different from Snow Peak.”

Vince nodded. “It does. It sounds big. They have impressive technology. It will most likely be very different from Snow Peak.”

“What are we going to do when we get there?” She asked.

“We’ll have to wait and see. They might welcome us with open arms. Or they might try to kill us. Either way, they know we’re coming. Of that much I’m certain.”

“What do we do if they fight us off?”

Vince and Rupert answered together. “We fight back.”

Rupert walked forward. “We’ve come this far. There’s no point in running away now. Like you said before, Saul risked his life to save ours. Now it’s our turn. We can’t let Patrick’s death be for nothing.”

“You don’t have to convince me,” she said. “I’m all for fighting back. I just don’t think we should go in blindly. We need a plan.”

“It’s impossible to plan for something like this,” Vince said. “We have no idea what we’re dealing with. The City could be a town of ten or an army of thousands. There are too many variables. For all we know, the City doesn’t even exist.”

“Let’s hope that’s not the case,” Rupert said, “otherwise we’re stranded out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“Stranded?” Ella asked. “This boat will get us back to shore in no time.”

As these words left her mouth, the low hum of whatever propelled the boat went silent. The vessel slowed until only the gentle waves pushed it forward. She covered her mouth, as if her words had caused the malfunction.

Alan entered the room. “What happened? Why did we stop?”

Vince shrugged. “I don’t know. There must be something wrong.”

Alan threw his arms up in the air. “Well, that’s just perfect. Now we’re stranded in the middle of the ocean.”

“We’re not stranded,” Ella said. “We just have to figure out what’s wrong, and fix it.”

“How in the world are we going to do that? This technology is way beyond our understanding. It took us long enough just to get the boat started, and that’s when it was working properly.”

“We still have to try.” She turned to Vince. “Right?”

“We should try. Saul is in critical condition. If we stay out here too long, he’ll die.”

They could hear Saul coughing from the other room. Alan looked back. “Damn it. Okay. I’ll keep an eye on him. You guys get out there and figure out what’s going on.” He trotted out to tend to Saul.

Ella grabbed Vince and pulled him out the door. “Let’s get to it.”

“I’ll stay up here,” Rupert said, “in case Alan needs help.”

Ella and Vince went back through the lounge, down the spiral stairs, and past the pantry. There was a hatch in the floor near the very back of the boat. Ella crouched down and pulled. It did not budge. “It’s locked.”

Vince stood beside her as she struggled with the hatch, but he was too distracted to help. He stared off to the left, out to the water. “Woah…” he muttered.

Ella looked up. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s something over there.”

She looked. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s there. I feel the energy.”

“Energy? You mean someone else is out there? Another boat?”

“It’s a strong energy. Maybe more than one person. But it feels different.”

“Different how?”

“It doesn’t feel like multiple people. It feels like one source.”

“How is that possible?”

“Whatever it is, it lives for a long time. Barnabus lived for as long as I did. Longer even. When we were in that cave, I could feel his strong energy. This feels similar. It may be someone from the City. It may even be the City itself.” He looked back down to the hatch, pulled out his knife, and spun the handle to face her. “Here, use this.”

She took the knife and dug it into the thin cracks along the edge of the hatch. Vince knelt down and grabbed the door handle. He looked to her to see if she was ready. She nodded. He pulled up as she pried open. The door cracked and then popped free. Inside was a mess of metal and wires, twisting in every direction. They stood over the hole, staring down at the machinery.

“No wonder this thing goes so fast,” Ella said. “They’ve got some serious stuff going on here. There’s no way we can figure this out. The camera took all night. This will take days.”

Vince looked over his shoulder, out at the water again. “There’s definitely something out there.”

“Don’t worry about that now. We have to find a way to get this boat moving. Suggestions?”

“I think we should leave the boat behind.”

“You want to ditch the boat?”

He pointed to the deck. “We have all of these wooden planks, and we brought plenty of rope. We can build a raft and paddle the rest of the way.”

Ella’s face was cynical.

“We have to get there somehow, and we don’t have time to fix whatever this is,” he said, pointing to the hatch. “If that energy
is
the City, we’ll have no problem paddling over there.”

“But if it isn’t, we’re stuck in the water with nothing left. We can’t fit our equipment on a raft. We’ll run out of food.”

Saul screamed from the second floor. “Vince!”

He popped up and dashed towards the stairs. “There’s no time to argue about this, Ella. Saul is going to die. Whatever is out there, it could help him. I know there’s a risk, but we have to try.”

Ella ran along his side, climbing up the stairs. “Whatever you decide, I’m with you.”

They ran through the lounge back to the bedroom. Saul was hysterical, screaming and twisting about. Alan and Rupert were trying to restrain him. Vince rushed in to help. “We have to calm him down.”

“How?” Alan asked.

“I don’t know, but he’s going to hurt himself.” Without warning, he passed out again. His body went limp, and he flopped back down onto the bed. Vince hovered his hand over Saul’s chest. “He’s weak. I can just barely feel his energy.”

Ella placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s your call. Stay here or build the raft?”

He looked at Saul’s unconscious face. “Let’s build the raft.”

Alan looked up. “Raft?”

Ella nodded. “There is something or someone out there on the water. Vince can feel its energy. It might be the City. Right now this boat is useless. But there are wooden boards down there on the deck, and we have plenty of rope. We can build a raft and paddle the rest of the way.”

Alan clapped his hands together. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get moving.”

They went out on the deck and started prying up the floorboards, building a pile in the middle. When they had enough, they unpacked the rope and started tying them together. Vince showed them, and they followed his technique. Within an hour, they had a functional raft, big enough to fit all of them.

Vince and Ella went back upstairs for Saul. They moved him back onto the stretcher and carefully carried him down. They tied off the raft and threw it overboard. It began to float away, but the rope yanked it back towards them. Rupert climbed down first to help with Saul. He took the stretcher from Vince, and he gently laid it down near the back. Once Saul was safely on the raft, Ella and Vince climbed down, each holding extra boards for paddling.

Alan looked down to them. “Hold on one second. I’ll be right back.” He left, and when he came back, his arms were filled with food from the pantry. He passed them down one by one. “Might as well take some food, right?”

Rupert grabbed the boxes and placed them in the middle. “Good thinking.”

Alan climbed down and squeezed on with the rest of them. Vince drew his knife. “Ready? Do we have everything?” They all nodded. He swung his arm and chopped the rope. They floated away from the boat, into open waters. Vince pointed ahead. “It’s over there. The energy. We need to go that way.” They each took a board and started paddling.

The sun beat down through the clear sky. They shed their coats as sweat began to drip from their faces. They panted in unison with each stroke of the paddles. Ocean salt splashed up and stained their skin. The cool breeze had stopped, leaving them with stale air. They all struggled. All except Vince.

Alan stopped to rest for a moment. “How do you keep up that pace, Vince? It’s way too hot out here for this.”

“You’re not used to the heat yet. The transition from Snow Peak must be jarring. I’ve seen much worse than this.”

Ella pointed up ahead. “Look.” Emerging in the distance was a small mass of land. “It looks like an island.”

Rupert shaded his eyes. “That’s one small island.”

Vince nodded. “Yes, very small, but the energy I feel is incredibly intense.”

Saul lifted his weak hand and reached towards the island.

“You feel it too, don’t you Saul?”

Saul nodded and tried to speak, but his words came out soft and slurred. “I feel it, Vince. It’s a beautiful feeling, to know that an energy that strong can exist.” He lowered his arm to his side. “The pain is gone, and that terrifies me. I’m not ready to die.”

Vince’s eyes began to water. “We’ll get you help. We’ll save you.”

“It’s okay, Vince. I know you tried, but there’s no one on that island that can help me.”

“Don’t say that. There is someone on that island. They’ll help you. They have to help you. If they don’t, I’ll make them!”

Saul laughed. “You were never the aggressive type, Vince. I know I didn’t show it when we were kids, but that’s something I’ve always admired about you. You care for others. You stand up for the weak. You stick to your principles.” He coughed. Blood dripped from his lips and down his cheek. Vince leaned forward to hear his next words. “You always find hope where there’s none to be found, but I’m afraid for me there is no more hope.” His eyes rolled back, and his breath stopped. Vince still felt a glimmer of life, but it was fading fast.

Ella pointed to the island again. “Vince, look.”

Vince glanced over and saw a giant tortoise crawling onto the shore. Without a thought, he picked up Saul’s body and dove into the water.

He wrapped Saul’s arms over his shoulders he swam towards land, leaving the raft behind. He kicked his legs and paddled his arms, exerting all of his energy. His chest pumped with adrenaline as he raced through the water. There was no time to rest. No time to think. This was his last chance to save Saul.