Rage and I head west to County Hall. It used to be the seat of local government years ago. Now it’s home to Dr Oystein and his Angels, a place for us to train and prepare for battle with Mr Dowling and his troops.
We don’t say anything for a while. I don’t like Rage and he’s no fonder of me. We share a room with four other revitaliseds, and manage to be pleasant to one another most of the time, but I can never truly forgive him for what he did in the underground complex, when he abandoned me and the zom heads.
Rage breaks the silence. ‘You looked sharp in training yesterday.’
I squint at him suspiciously.
‘What?’ he asks.
‘You don’t pay compliments for the hell of it,’ I snap. ‘What do you want?’
Rage rolls his eyes. ‘You know your problem, Becky? You’re paranoid.’
‘Only where you’re concerned,’ I snarl.
Rage laughs. ‘Out of all the do-gooders in County Hall, you’re the most like me. It’s a shame you hate my guts. We could have been like Bonnie and Clyde if the circumstances were different.’
‘More like Burke and Hare,’ I mutter.
‘Who were they?’
‘A couple of grave-robbers.’
Rage smiles. ‘You say the sweetest things.’
We walk along in silence a bit more until Rage speaks up again. ‘Seriously, you did look sharp in training, and no, I’m not after anything. I’m just saying. You’ve been on fire since you came back from HMS Belfast.’
I shrug. ‘Yeah, well, when you have to fight as a gladiator several times a day you either toughen up or get ripped to pieces.’
It’s been nearly four months since I was held captive on the old cruiser. I spent several weeks in a Groove Tube when I got back, recovering, my wounds slowly knitting together as much as they were able to. Since then I’ve been working tirelessly with Master Zhang, developing my skills.
‘When do you think the doc will send us on a real mission?’ Rage asks.
‘What am I, a mind-reader?’
‘It had better be soon,’ Rage grumbles. ‘I’m getting bored of this crap. There’s only so much training and scouting that I can take. I’m starting to crack up.’
‘You cracked up long ago,’ I sniff, then cock an eyebrow at him. ‘I don’t think anyone likes being stuck in County Hall, but what can we do? Dr Oystein calls the shots. When he thinks we’re ready, he’ll set us loose. Until then …’
Rage shoots me a dirty look. ‘The others in our team were sent on serious missions before we joined, so he obviously trusts them to do a job for him. It’s you and me he’s unsure of.’
‘Maybe,’ I nod. ‘Or maybe he’s holding us back for something big.’
‘Like what?’ Rage asks. ‘The ultimate confrontation with Mr Dowling and the forces of darkness?’
‘Perhaps.’
Rage snorts. ‘That’s never gonna happen. It’s a load of bull, God, the Devil, all the rest. The doc needs the clown and his mutants to keep the game going. That’s why we haven’t squared up to them. If we faced them and beat them, we’d see that they were just a bunch of dirty rotten creeps. He’ll never pit us against Mr Dowling. The two of them are probably drinking buddies.’
I stop and stare at him. ‘You don’t really believe that.’
‘I do,’ he says. ‘Well, not the drinking buddies bit, but the rest of it, yeah. I’ve been sizing up the mad old geezer. I like the doc, but the whole good versus evil thing bothered me from the start, and the more I’ve seen of him and the way he’s holding us back, the more my opinion has changed.
‘I used to think he was crazy, that he believes everything he preaches. Now I’m not so sure. I think he knows that it’s nonsense. That’s why he doesn’t lead us into battle with the mutants. If he does, and we win, he’ll have to admit the truth once the fighting’s died down, that he’s just a normal zombie, with no more of a role to play in deciding the future of this world than anyone else.’
‘What if everything he’s told us is on the level?’ I ask quietly. ‘If he really is an agent of a higher power? If Mr Dowling really does represent some force of ultimate evil?’
Rage sneers. ‘You’re smarter than that. You know it’s bullshit.’
‘No,’ I whisper. ‘I used to think it was. Now …’
I start walking again, picking up speed. Rage hurries after me.
‘Is this because of the baby?’ he asks. ‘You were sure the doc was psycho before you went to the brewery. When you came back, you were a convert. What went down?’
‘There’s no point telling you. You wouldn’t believe me.’
‘Not in a million years.’ I squint at him. ‘It’s funny. After you pushed me off the London Eye, you told me I had to choose, that I needed to pledge myself to Dr Oystein or get the hell out of London. Now you’re the one caught in two minds.’
‘Caught? Me?’ He laughs at the notion. ‘I’m clear on where I stand. I think the doc’s a hero. He’d sacrifice more than any of us ever would. But I don’t buy into his holy war. I think he’s bigged up the threat of Mr Dowling in order to fool himself into thinking he’s on a mission from God. He should have led us into battle by now and wiped out the mutants, so we could link up with the army and focus on the problem of clearing the city of zombies.
‘But he doesn’t want to do that, not deep down. He says he plans to hand control of the planet back to the living again, but I think secretly he prefers it like this. He can tell himself he’s important this way. If we fight the mutants and eliminate them, but the world rolls on the same as before, what’s he then?’
‘If that’s how you feel, what are you doing here?’ I ask. ‘Why don’t you do us all a favour and bugger off?’
‘I’m thinking about it,’ he says. ‘The main reason I’ve hung around is the promise of an exciting battle—I still think there could be a good old dust-up between the Angels and mutants, and I’ve been hanging on for that. But if he doesn’t give us something to do soon, I’ll look for action elsewhere.’
‘Good riddance,’ I tell him.
Rage’s smile returns. ‘You don’t mean that. You’d miss me if I went.’
‘In your dreams.’
‘No,’ he says. ‘You would. That’s why I’m inviting you to come with me.’
I gawp at him. ‘Are you crazy? I hate you. What makes you think I’d give up County Hall and turn my back on the friends I’ve made, to be your sidekick?’
‘Because you’re itching for action too,’ Rage says. ‘You’re sick of the quiet life. You want to be in the thick of things, like you were on the Belfast. You need action, fighting, killing. Tell me I’m wrong.’
‘You’re wrong,’ I spit back at him immediately.
Rage shakes his head smugly and jogs ahead of me, leaving me to stare after him and seethe. Me and Rage, two of the same? Never in a million years!
At least … I don’t think that we are.
God, I hope we’re not!