Coldbrook(144)

‘Don’t you f*cking dare!’ Holly screamed.

Vic lobbed both guns at her as she stood, and as she winced and knocked them aside he stepped back in and closed the door.

Locked it.

Holly was on the other side, crying and raging. ‘You saved your family!’ she shouted. ‘Stupid bastard, saved them and then threw your own life away. What good is that?’

‘But I killed everyone else,’ he said, raising his voice so that she could hear him.

‘Self-f*cking-pity?’ Holly looked past him at the screens. Control was still clear.

‘You might still have time!’ he shouted.

‘Let me in.’

‘Not happening, Holly. Tell me what to do.’

She stared at him. She knew he was a stubborn bastard, single-minded. She knew that this door was never opening again.

‘Damn you, Vic.’

‘Too late for that.’

‘Your name.’ Holly stooped out of sight and picked up the pistols. ‘Then press enter.’

‘How did you—’

‘I don’t even know if it’ll work!’ she said, laughing and crying at the same time. Then she backed away towards the staircase.

Vic watched her go, hand on the door handle, heart thumping. As she pressed through the doors into the stairwell her expression did not change at all. But she watched him for every last moment she had.

He turned from the door and sat on the chair. It was still warm from Holly. Vic closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, smelling her. I love two women, he thought, but the image that screamed at him was his little girl, shrieking for him to come with her.

Olivia was through the breach now. A whole world away, and in a place he had never seen.

‘Hope you’ve done well, Jonah,’ he said. There was a box on the laptop screen, cursor flashing, and he tapped in his name: Vic Pearson. Holly’s choice of code, the last words she’d thought she would ever see. The name glared at him, bright, accusing.

Two minutes later, on the big wall screens, Holly appeared in Control. She’ll stop and look at the camera, call me on the satphone, one last—

But she ran through the breach without once looking back

Vic had never felt so alone.

‘I’ve lost them,’ he whispered. ‘I’ve lost them all.’

A moment later the zombies flooded into Control, pursuing Holly, darkening that place like fluid from a foul, ruptured wound. The first of them was ten steps from the breach as Vic rested his finger on the enter key.

He relaxed, pressed down.

And then there was light.





Saturday



1


TEN DAYS AFTER helping to forge a path to an alternate version of her Earth, Holly was there again.

She watched dawn break over eastern hills, and the sunrise was a palette of colour. Dust in the air from the nukes, Drake had told her before, but she viewed it simply for its beauty. And she enjoyed the peace.

They’d camped in the small valley where the breach had been formed. The people that Drake had left guarding his side of the breach had brought tents and blankets, and enough food to make a small but satisfying meal for everyone who had come through. They had stood guard through the night while the survivors had slept. The tents had been cramped. Many had chosen to sleep beneath the stars, especially the children, who seemed able to accept this far better than the adults could.

Holly had slept away from the others. Lucy hadn’t once looked at her. Olivia had come to her as darkness had settled yesterday and asked, ‘Where’s my daddy?’ Holly hadn’t been able to find it in her heart to tell the truth, so instead she had said nothing. And now the little girl kept glancing at her, and Holly knew that there would be more questions.

Don’t they feel it? Lucy had asked Marc during the night. He hadn’t been able to sleep, either. Don’t the rest of them feel the distance?

Several small fires burned as Gaia’s people cooked breakfast for the new arrivals. There were dozens of small fish from the stream flowing nearby, and the roots of the three-stemmed plants smelled gorgeous as they were roasted in seed oil. Olivia was playing with several other kids of her own age, jumping over the stream and sometimes slipping in. They were soaked, but happy.

Holly had yet to see Lucy this morning.

‘He’s dead,’ a voice said. Holly jumped and turned, and Lucy sat down beside her. One of the Gaians stood twenty steps behind them, uphill. None of them were allowed to wander off on their own, but the time would come.

‘He’s . . .’ Holly said.

‘I’m not stupid.’ Still Lucy didn’t meet her gaze.

‘He won’t have felt anything,’ Holly said. She found it difficult to speak.

‘He went back to save you.’

‘He didn’t know what I was doing. He came to help. And when I told him he . . . shut me out. Made it so that . . .’

‘After everything else, I’m not sure that he could have lived with you dying as well,’ Lucy said. Her tone suggested this was the first and only time they’d talk about Vic like this. As she mourned, so she was tolerating Holly’s shameful grief as well.

‘Lucy . . .’ Holly began, but she could think of nothing to say.

‘I’ve lost him,’ Lucy said, and she started to sob. ‘Olivia has lost him. It’s all so final.’