Contagion (Toxic City)

“No,” Breezer said as if stating the obvious.

Jack was not aware that he was using any particular power. Between blinks he searched inside, but he'd touched no star, and there was no taste of Nomad on his tongue. Perhaps using what she had given him was becoming second nature. But that made him wonder just what he was turning into.

“Rhali,” he said. “You sensed it.”

“I still sense movement to the north,” she said. “And moving closer.”

“But whatever's coming towards us is different,” he said. “Not…human.”

“Oh, dandy,” Jenna said.

Jack looked around at the high buildings, absorbed the silence. “The whole city's holding its breath.”

“We need to move,” Breezer said, eyes wide. “And quickly.”

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“The north. That's where the monsters went after Doomsday. Not many people go up there, and some who do don't come back.”

“Monsters?” Jenna asked.

“Evolve caused physical changes in some people,” Breezer said. He nodded at Fleeter. “You know.”

“I only know the stories,” she said. “Wolf men. Bird people. Flesh eaters.”

“Oh, super,” Sparky said.

“And now they're moving into the city,” Rhali said.

“Oh, even more super.”

Rhali breathed deeply, clasping Jack's hand tighter for support. “There's a small group a mile away,” she said. “Moving…too quickly.”

“Right,” Jack said. “The river. A boat. Let's go. Fleeter?”

Did she looked a little afraid? He wasn't sure. Such a look might have been another version of her smug smile, or a trick of the light. But just before she flipped out with a smack! and went to check their route, she locked eyes with Jack, and he saw something dark staring back.

They headed for the river. Jack wondered why no one had mentioned the north before, and the people and things who lived there. But he supposed there had been no need. London was a vastly changed place, and it could be that the north had become as remote as the outside world. When he had a chance, he would ask Fleeter about it.

They moved as silently and quickly as possible. He saw things that days ago would have traumatised him for life, but which now were merely another part of the landscape. Two withered, dried shapes hung side by side from nooses suspended from second storey windows. A pram sat in the middle of the road, a mess of blankets and clothing inside, mother dead on the road with her skeletal fingers curled around one wheel. A bus had driven into a DVD store, and the silhouettes of its dead passengers were just visible through the dusty windows.

“No one buried them all,” Rhali said. Jack was surprised, and then he remembered that the Choppers had caught her soon after Doomsday. She'd been shut away since then.

“There was no one left to do it,” he said. “London is their mausoleum.”

A clap! and Fleeter reappeared beside the bus. She projected her usual aloof smile, but swayed where she stood, reaching out to the bus for balance. She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing deeply.

“We're clear from here to the river,” she said. “No Choppers. But what's coming from that way isn't safe.” She nodded back the way they'd come.

Both Sparky and Jenna looked at Jack expectantly. He in turn looked at Breezer and raised his eyebrows.

“You know what Guy can do,” Breezer said. Jack nodded. He'd seen the small, thin man in Camp H telling the Choppers to drop their weapons. “Whether his powers of suggestion will work on whatever's coming down from the north…” He shrugged. Beside him Guy remained silent, offering nothing.

“Guess it's all on you, then,” Jenna said to Jack.

“I don't want to kill anyone else,” he said.

“You might not have—” Fleeter began, but Jack cut her off.

Tim Lebbon's books