The engine room door slides open. My pulse pounds away as I slip inside. The hot space thrums. I flinch at each noise, moving around pipe after pipe and rows of tanks.
Stifled sounds emerge. Groaning and snarling. Struggling. I creep toward them. The brolly won’t hold still; I’ll never take accurate aim if I can’t stop the shaking. There’s somebody ahead. Ari.
My eyes widen. He’s locked in battle with an Anthropoid. His T-shirt’s ripped, and blood and deep scratches cover his chest and shoulders. Groans fill the air as their blows land. Each thump makes my insides lurch. Something on the floor to my right catches my eye. I freeze.
It’s one of them.
It lies spluttering as it tries to move. It’s a he, and it has Ari’s knife plunged into its neck. Oh God. My hand flies to my mouth; I can’t scream. I cower, breathing hard and fast. Think. Except I can’t stop staring at it.
An actual Anthropoid, not several feet from me.
It looks so human. Except it isn’t. I really am this close to one of the most vicious creations to have ever existed on Earth, and still it seems so human.
The beast is unbelievably strong. It refuses to die, despite the knife lodged in its neck. Jojo whines, her ears cocked. Does the puppy know? Does she suspect this is an impostor?
Focus. I turn to pick Jojo up. She isn’t there. Oh please no. A loud clanging and heaving fills the space. Where’s Jojo?
I peek around the corner, my brolly pointed. The struggle continues as punches fly in every direction. They move too fast for me to get a fixed aim on the monster, and even if I did manage it, I can’t use the tase device—it’ll also take out Ari.
He’s on top of the beast when the thing flings him off, sending him sprawling backward.
Jojo barks from somewhere behind.
Ari swings his gaze in our direction and spots me. “No! Get back to the saloon, Leyla!”
It’s too late.
The Anthropoid cranes its neck and sees me. Its sharp blue eyes shine when they catch sight of me. I back away.
It strides in my direction. Oh my God.
I scream.
An exhausted-looking Ari moves toward it once more. But as he passes by the spluttering form on the floor, it reaches out, its bloody hand taking a firm hold of Ari’s ankle. Ari shouts for me to run just as the monstrous figure yanks him down, its eyes enlarged and nostrils flared. They both get up and launch themselves at each other, tumbling together out of the engine room and into the passageway.
I run, cowering behind a huge copper tank, Ari’s bruised and bloodied state seared into my mind.
Where’s the other beast hiding? Where’s Jojo? Should I make a run for it? My whole body trembles now, my hands, arms, legs, everything fails me all at once. I wipe my sweaty palms on my robe; I’ll need a firm grip on the brolly. Movement to my left catches my eye.
The Anthropoid. It walks toward me.
Jojo makes a desperate dash for the other side of the engine room.
“No! Come back, Jojo! Get behind me!” I point my brolly at the thing.
It ducks behind a tank and sprints toward a terrified Jojo. It’s impossibly fast and grabs her, breathing hard and heavy. I scream. The woman is around thirty. A thin, gaunt face with sandy hair. She—it has high, narrow cheekbones and long arms and hands. It’s dripping wet. Its eyes . . . Frosty and bright, they seem familiar now as they bore into mine with such ferocious intensity. Where have I seen those eyes before? It’s such an icy look and yet I feel as if I’m burning alive. So much hatred.
It wraps its hand around Jojo, and I notice the missing fingers. It’s the same Anthropoid that took part in the attack on Brighton Pier—the one caught on camera.
Jojo. She’s visibly trembling in its arms. I swallow to combat the dry throat. It makes it worse. And the dread . . . the dread threatens to rise up and drag me somewhere deep down.
I clutch my abdomen; am I going to be sick? “L-let go of her. Please. Don’t hurt Jojo.”
It shrieks, a long and raging sound, turns to me, and says, “Why isn’t our pain as important to you? Why should we suffer—watch our loved ones blasted to pieces—and not you? WHY?” It’s screaming now.
Freezing nausea sweeps through me. And I can’t look away.
I can’t look away because along with the beast’s brutality, its loathing and raging, the bloodthirst and all the frenzy, there’s something else there, too.
I think it’s pain.
I don’t understand it, but it’s there. And I can’t stop shaking my head at the horror of it all. I scream as it glances at Jojo in its hand, swings its arm back, and hurls her through the air.
No. She flies across the room and hits a round silver valve attached to one of the tanks. A barely audible yelp echoes as she lands. She lies quivering. The white fur on her head reddens at once. No, no, no.
I scream and scream and stumble back as I call out to her. The brolly falls. Jojo just lies there. Before I can regain my balance, the thing closes the distance between us and grabs me. The room spins. And then all I know is pain.
Hands pummel me, agony radiating from my chest, shoulders, back. I gasp, fighting to breathe. My lungs are failing. Nerves explode everywhere. My limbs aren’t mine anymore, refusing to obey me. I crouch into a ball on the floor, begging it to stop.
For a second I think it might.
For just a second, as its face hovers above mine, something unexpected flickers across it. . . . Something like sympathy.
But then rage rides in, sweeping away any hint of compassion, and it grabs my head and hits it against the floor.
A tsunami of pain. Everywhere. Dull pain pulsing inside my skull, a sharp cutting pain speeding down my spine, and hot, burning pain radiating throughout my body. I take short, quick breaths. Don’t black out.
My pulse scares me; my heart will burst out of my chest if it gets any louder, faster. My sweat soaks the robe. The Anthropoid stomps on my hand, and several cricks fill the air. A strange sound leaves my lips, muffled as I bury my face in my arm. It’s too much. My face burns with sweat. I can’t escape its loathsome eyes, no matter where I look. The heady smell of hot metal is suffocating; the room has shrunk.
My fingers hang limp. “I—I’m begging you, please s-stop.”
It shakes its head. “Never,” it says, baring its teeth. “From now on we avenge each and every one of our dead.”
“Y-you can’t—you can’t go around attacking us, and not expect us t-to retaliate. You hurt us. You t-terrorize us. We can’t live like that!” I break into more sobs.
“LIES!” it screams.
Blood trickles down my forehead and cheek. Rust in my mouth; bitter and warm. The brolly . . . I can’t reach it. I gulp for air.
“Oscar.” I whisper it into my armpit as I lie crouched in a ball. I’m not sure what I expect to happen, but I’m desperate. “Oscar.” It’s probably not loud or clear enough.
“You summoned me, my lady?”
I bloody did. A sob rises in my chest, his voice a beam of light in the darkest depths.
The Anthropoid’s eyes bulge, and its face scrunches up at the sudden sound of the Navigator behind it. It turns around to face Oscar.
It’s hard to crawl when every muscle in your body has betrayed you. And I’m finding it near impossible to focus. I can’t take my eyes off the beast’s back as I shuffle the few feet and grab the brolly.