Wiped by Nicola Claire Read Free Book Online Page B

ability to think clearly, it seemed.
    Base instincts and knee-jerk reactions. That’s what Lena did to me.
    I’d die protecting her. I’d give up everything to keep her safe. But I had no right to take a thing. And by containing Lena, I’d taken that which she prized most dearly.
    Her freedom. Her equality. In a nutshell, her .
    I’d done the exact thing I shouldn’t have.
    No wonder she’d kept the ambush a secret from me.
    I shook my head and came to a halt at an intersection of the tunnel. Tracks went off in two different directions, both ominously dark, neither giving up their secrets. But something stayed me. Something made me pause. There was little noise. The occasional scrape of boots on loose stones, but no more than you’d expect a rodent to make. I knew which way Lena and the Cardinal team had gone, but not why they’d chosen it. Perhaps they’d flipped a credit.
    But still I didn’t follow. Alan crouched down silently beside me, not uttering a word, nor barely breathing. If he questioned my hesitation, he didn’t show it. Just sat patiently waiting for me to proceed.
    The Cardinal team was getting farther and farther away, and by extension so was Lena. Part of me screamed for me to move, to follow, to keep her close.
    Another part remembered how confining I’d recently been.
    But my hesitation wasn’t due to guilt or regret. It wasn’t due to any redeeming quality. I’m not that perfect.
    It was a gut instinct, a primal urge. Or maybe I was just thinking tactically.
    Because if I wanted to ambush an invading army, I’d do it right here. I’d let them pick a route and I’d silently peel out of the shadows and follow. I’d let them think they’d made a choice, when in fact I’d herded them into a trap and was closing the noose behind them.
    They were desperate these Lunnoners. For what, I wasn’t sure. But desperate people do desperate things.
    So we sat and waited. Time stood still and Lena got farther and farther away.
    I started to think that I’d made a mistake. The seconds were ticking by into minutes. I’m not sure how many; I was too frightened to count.
    Even Alan shifted on his knees.
    And then they appeared, more animal like than human. Some crouched, some hobbled, some walked on all fours. In the darkness it was hard to see, but a small amount of illumination spilled down from a break in the tunnel’s ceiling, enough to make out at least a dozen. Small, ragged, filthy, and not just a little horror movie creepy.
    These were what was left of the Lunnoners? It didn’t make sense. Those we’d fought were poorly dressed but in relative good health. These seemed not real.
    I looked across to Alan, he shrugged his shoulders and then nodded towards where the tail end of the underground army had been.
    Fuck! Now we had a bunch of deformed children between us and Lena. I couldn’t see this ending at all well.
    We crept out of our hiding hole, slowly following the creatures as they slowly followed Lena and her team.
    I should have known better. This was Lena. The Zebra of Wánměi. The woman jumped off tall sky-rises, somersaulted through clear air thirty storeys up. I should have known she’d have equally as reckless skills under the ground.
    One minute we were following the followers.
    The next we’d been caught in Lena’s trap. Along with the creepy crawlies.

Eight

They Are Coming
Lena
    L ights flashed . Sounds echoed. The tunnel became a riotous clammer of cries and screams. I shouted a warning to the Cardinals. “Don’t hurt them!” But protecting ourselves from the stones and metal bars and clawed hands meant retaliation of some description was necessary.
    Still, we took a battering. The intermittent illumination made it difficult to identify them, but the stench of their ragged clothing determined we’d finally found what was left of the Lunnoners.
    Or, at least, a portion of them.
    But as the Cardinals got the situation under control, contained those last few who bucked