Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(107)

Cassie nodded. “Dash just makes me nervous.”

Eve and Pauline placed an arm around the girl and tried to comfort her. Annaliese got the impression there were things they weren’t telling her, but there was no time to demand answers at the moment.

“We need to arm up,” she said. “Let’s get whatever we can.”

“But we can’t fight them off,” said Cassie. “There are more of them than us, and they’re men.”

Annaliese spun around and scowled at Cassie. “Mike was a man. These are just little boys trying to have all the toys. They may have the advantage, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie down and get f*cked. They want to recreate Lord of the Flies, then let’s make sure it’s one of them that ends up being Piggie.”

“I don’t know what that means,” said Cassie.

“Never mind. Let’s just get ready.”

“I’ll go get some things to defend ourselves with,” said Eve, rushing off into the dark corners of the restaurant.

“Okay, make sure mine is something long and sharp. I need something to shove up Shawcross’s arse.”

Pauline stepped up to Annaliese and looked her dead in the eye. The woman seemed anxious, but resolute at the same time. “You think we have any chance of holding them off on our own?”

Annaliese thought for a second and then gave Pauline a smile. An idea had just brewed in her head. “We’re not going to be doing it on our own. We have reinforcements.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going to free Nick and Renee. Nick didn’t kill Dave. It was Shawcross; he admitted it to me. He must have had Dash do it.”

“I knew it,” said Pauline. “I knew Nick wouldn’t do something like that. Let’s get him out of that damn cellar.”

Annaliese nodded and marched across the restaurant. There was a door at the back of the bar which opened to the cellar staircase. She grabbed the brass handle and twisted.

It was stuck. Locked.

“Bollocks. Does anybody know how to get this door open?”

“Shawcross has the key,” Cassie said. “It was in the door when we arrived.”

Annaliese booted the door in its centre, and then again next to its hinges. It wasn’t going to give. There were no weak points.

“We’ll never get it open in time,” said Pauline. “They’ll be here.”

Annaliese leant up against the door and sighed. If they had any chance at all of fighting back against Shawcross’s bloodthirsty cabal, they needed Nick. The other women trusted him. They would crumble without him.

She banged her fists against the door. “Nick!” She banged harder. “Nick, we need to get you out of there.”





Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nick opened his eyes and sat up on the floor. He was hot and threw his itchy, woollen blanket to one side.

Renee was already up. The man seemed hardly to ever sleep. He was standing over Nick patiently, as if he had been waiting for him to awake.

“W-what’s going on?” Nick asked. “Was that banging I just heard?”

Renee nodded and motioned to the door at the top of the stairs. The man had gone back to not speaking after their brief conversation, but he was surprisingly effective at communicating without words.

“Nick, can you hear me?” Someone was shouting from inside the restaurant. It sounded like Annaliese.

He jumped to his feet and hurried to the foot of the stairs. “Anna, is that you? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Shawcross. He’s lost the plot. Mike is dead and there’s some thug called Dash running around doing Shawcross’s dirty work. They set you up over Dave’s murder.”

Nick wondered if he’d just heard her correctly. “Did you say Dash?”

“Yes, Dash. As in the third prisoner you picked up with Jan and Renee.”

Nick looked around at Renee who was staring back at him with wide eyes. He obviously did not believe it either. There was no way Dash could be alive. Not after the fall Nick had seen him take.

Nick climbed the stairs and stood outside the door. “Okay. Open up and I’ll come help you.”

“We can’t. Shawcross has the key.”

Nick grunted and punched his fist against the concrete wall of the cellar. The pain woke him up a little. “Damn it!”

Renee came forward and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Shawcross does not have the only key, my friend.” From within the pocket of his tracksuit, Renee pulled out a long brass key that was attached to several others via a Ripley Heights key ring. “Perhaps he should have checked beneath the bar, too, no?”

Nick stared at Renee with disbelief. “You mean you could have let me out of here at any time?”

Renee tilted his head and wore a sagely expression. “Escaping your cell would not have restored the other’s trust in you. Escaping would have just made things worse for you, my friend. I had this key only for emergencies…such as this.”

Nick shook his head, still not understanding, but glad anyway to have a way out. He took the key from Renee and slotted it into the lock, giving it a solid twist. The lock clicked and the handle released.

God, I can’t wait to get some fresh air.