“It means that we’re surrounded. There’re infected people down there in the hundreds. There’s another few dozen trapped inside Ripley Hall. It’s pretty clear that there’s no rescue out there to be had. If there was, then what are those people down there doing running for their lives?”
It was a grim realisation, made even grimmer when Annaliese spotted another group of survivors running out of the woods below, like ants disturbed from cracks in the mud. This new group of people, running frantically across the car park, contained the two men and the old lady from the café. They were all being chased by two infected people that came out the woods right behind them. The horde from inside the café also spotted them running and had now piled back outside. The group of survivors had nowhere to run. They had no hope.
No hope at all.
But then the group below seemed to have an idea. They altered the angle of their run and began heading for the base of the hill. They seemed to have a destination in mind.
The cable cars.
They sprinted for the station at the foot of the hill and actually seemed like they were going to make it. The only problem was that they were leaving the old woman behind. As they leapt inside two of the cable cars, sliding the doors shut, the old woman fell beneath the tide of infected people and disappeared.
“Jesus!” said Mike. “Poor old girl.”
Annaliese shook her head in horror as she watched the horde of infected surround the two cable cars and begin to rock them violently.
“They’re going to get ripped apart,” Greg said. “Those cable cars won’t hold for long.”
Annaliese glanced around. The upper cable car station was several meters in front of her, adjacent to a large cement platform. The control booth was a small shed, made from concrete and sporting a long glass window. Without telling the others what she was doing, she ran towards it.
Mike was the only one who followed her. All of the others stood, staring down the hill in astonishment at what they were seeing.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked, entering the station behind her. There were two dormant cable cars, the opposite numbers to the ones at the bottom of the hill. There was also a small console set into a steel podium at the far side of the platform. She hurried over to it.
“The park still has power,” she said to Mike. “If we switch on the cable cars then those people will climb to the top of the hill.”
“To safety,” said Mike.
“Exactly.” Annaliese eyed a small silver key that was inserted into the console. Next to it was a green, circular button that said START.
“You said it would be a bad idea to let people up here.”
Annaliese nodded. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
She turned the key and the cable motors came to life. The carriages began to rattle on their moorings.
“You sure about this?” Mike asked her. “These people could be dangerous. They could bring the monsters up here with them.”
Annaliese looked Mike in the eyes. “If we leave them down there to die, then we become the monsters.”
She pressed the green button on the console that said START.
PART THREE: DEATH
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nick craned his neck, trying to get the best look possible at the figure atop the hill. Ominously, the silhouetted stranger stood rooted to the spot, staring down at them as they got closer and closer.
“What do you see?” Jan asked him.
“Not sure. There’s someone waiting at the top for us, but I can’t make them out. The sun is in my eyes.”
“I hope they’re friendly,” Cassie said, staring down at her feet as she sat on the cable car’s bench.
“Me too. But, given what we’ve been through, they can’t be any less friendly than we’re used to. They saved us by turning on the cables.”
The car continued to climb. The one with Dave and the others inside was right behind. Nick suddenly started to feel like a fish on a hook. If the people on the hill meant harm, then there was nothing they could do to escape. They were being reeled in; five hundred feet above the ground and about to encounter a group of strangers in a world that had become very unfamiliar, very dangerous.