Page 128 of Monsters within Men
How much time had now passed since Frankie and Noah had bundled him into the van and driven it right up to the barn? One hour? Two? Could the others have all piled into another van, driven off and left him to die? Noah wouldn’t do that to him, right?
He pulled out the wooden fox carving from his bag, stroking the soft wood, the feel of it instantly calming him. He pressed it to his lips. Noah would be here any moment now, and then everything would be okay.
Feeling sorry for himself, he dragged himself up onto his knees to look out the window, thankful again for the spare pair of glasses from his rucksack. The ground was an ever-thickening blanket of white as the blizzard continued its onslaught. He shivered despite his coat that Noah retrieved for him.
His heart twisted in relief as he spotted Wolf standing guard at the bottom of the ladder that led up to the barn’s attic, the dog’s fur now a majestic white. They wouldn’t leave Wolf behind, he could be sure of that. Wolf’s head shot up to the door above the ladder. A lone figure, bundled up in a warm winter coat, climbed down it.
When Noah opened the back of the van and climbed in, Zeke resisted the temptation to snap, “Finally!”at him. Despite his hood, his hair was showered in glistening snowflakes, and the way he looked at Zeke—like he’d been counting the seconds away from him—melted any annoyance away.
“Hey,” said Noah, poking his fingertips through the tiny squares of the cage. “I brought you some food. It’s not much. We need to go get the rest of the vans.”
Noah unlocked the door of the cage to throw him a protein bar. Zeke flinched when he shut and relocked it straight away, causing a deep frown to descend upon Noah’s face.
“I’m sorry,” Noah whispered, poking his fingertips back through.
Zeke swallowed. “It’s fine. I agreed to it.” He brought his hands up to entwine their hands together as best he could through the grating.
“Ready for the sitrep?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Do you want the good, the bad, or the very bad?”
“Let’s start with the good. I don’t think I can take anything else right now.”
“Well, the good news is Meredith patched my leg up and gave me enough pain killers that I’m practically high right now.”
“Sounds like a sensible state to be facing the end of the world in.”
Noah laughed. “Right? Also, more good news: Habib found what was left of Penn and Williams in the woods. Types got them. They’re not going to be contacting Command anytime soon.”
“And the bad news?”
“The bad news is that we can’t go home.”
The air grew heavy with unspoken tension. He locked eyes with Noah. On some level, he understood that it was Captain Murphy who ultimately tried to kill all of them off, but he hadn’t the brain space to process what that meant yet.
“What… what will we do?” he rasped, his throat starting to constrict. “Will we be able to get back into London somehow? Lay low?”
Noah shook his head, his eyes shimmering as he squeezed Zeke’s hand. “I want to promise you that I’ll get you back to Zaya, Zeke, I really do. But I can’t. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. Although I never even wanted to be involved in whatever shit show my uncle, Leonie and Lowenna cooked up. Please know that.”
“It’s okay,” Zeke said, even though he felt like he was dying. For the second time that day. “Go on then, what’s the very bad news?”
Noah ran his hand through his hair. “I’m about to call Leo from Lowenna’s illegal device.” He removed the bulky wristband from his pocket. “Savannah’s not in a good way so Meredith wants some advice from him. Plus, I need to ask him how to safely remove our chips. Krish and Habib are about to go grab another van and attempt to deactivate the trackers on them, but at the moment, the ones inside us are the bigger problem.”
“How is that the very bad news?”
“Because Lowenna could be wrong about this device being unmonitored. Because Leo could run straight to Murphy. But we’ve decided we need to get a snapshot of what’s being said back there, if anything, about our platoon.” Noah regarded the view outside the window. “The only saving grace we’ve got is this damn blizzard, else we’d have drones all over our arses right now. But it’s not going to last forever.”
Noah dangled the wristband between them. “Ready?”
He stared at it with confusion. “What amIdoing?”
“Just emotionally supporting me. Feel free to chip in. I’m not going to mention your bite, by the way.”
“What? Why?” Asking a doctor about it seemed like a rather good idea.
“In case Commandarelistening. The last thing we need is them using all their resources in order to get access to you.”
