Michael Ford - Z

“Come on, man,” Firecracker said.

“What’s wrong with you?” Charlie said. She pulled away from Josh and shoved Firecracker against the wall.

“Hey!” he said.

“This isn’t a stupid game,” Charlie continued. “It never was. We just thought it was. Those meatbags you’re so hot to torch used to be like us.” She looked at Josh and Scrawl. “Some of them were us. And that slimeball out there has made a lot of money from people like you who think it’s a whole lot of fun.”

Firecracker put his hands up in defeat. “Don’t take it out on me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here at all if you hadn’t told Freakula there that I was stalking you.” He looked at Josh. “Which I wasn’t. I was just worried about you.”

Josh nodded. “I know,” he said. “It’s okay. Right now we have to talk about our plan.”

“What field are we playing on?” Charlie asked.

Scrawl shook his head. “We don’t know,” he said. “But my guess is he’ll put us on Location Eleven.”

Charlie’s head whipped up. “Eleven?” she said.

Josh looked from her to Scrawl. “What’s eleven? I don’t remember that from the manual.”

“It’s not in the manual,” Scrawl said. “We’ve never played it before.”

“Where is it?” Josh asked.

Scrawl rubbed his nose. “Feverfew,” he said.

“The insane asylum?” said Firecracker. “That place on the cliffs? It’s been condemned for at least thirty years. It’s totally falling apart.”

“Exactly,” said Scrawl. “We haven’t used it before because it’s too dangerous for the Torchers. That’s why Clatter wants to use it as a field.”

“So the odds are against us,” Charlie said.

“Then we just have to play the best game we’ve ever played,” said Josh. He looked at each of them in turn. “We can do it. We just have to stick together.”

Clatter came for them half an hour later. Seamus and Finnegan were with him. The two of them behaved oddly, not looking at the four captives and rocking back and forth slightly on their feet.

They’re doped up on Z, Josh thought as Clatter unlocked the cell and told them to come out one by one. Josh went first. As he exited, Finnegan took his arm and placed a handcuff around his wrist. Josh tried to pull his hand back, but Finnegan gripped it tightly, then cuffed the other wrist also.

“Just a precaution,” Clatter said. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Five o’clock,” Josh reminded Clatter. “That’s when the message goes out and the cops come.”

“Oh, I think this will be over long before then,” Clatter said.

The three others joined Josh, all of them handcuffed. Clatter ordered them to follow Seamus, who led them in the opposite direction from the elevator. A hundred yards on, the tunnel opened up into a larger tunnel running perpendicular to the first one. A short flight of stone steps led down to a small landing past which a stream of dirty water flowed along sluggishly. An old wooden rowboat was tied to the platform with a rope.

“Couldn’t afford a hoverboat, huh?” Firecracker asked sarcastically.

Seamus pushed him roughly down the steps, with Finnegan urging the others along behind him. “We like it old school,” Seamus said, nodding at the boat. “Get in and shut up.”

Josh stepped in first. The boat rocked beneath him, and with his hands cuffed he couldn’t keep his balance. He fell sideways, hitting one of the boat’s bench seats with a painful thud. Seamus laughed, a dull chuckle that made Josh’s skin crawl. He’d always found the twins a little strange, but now they were totally creeping him out.

Charlie got in next and sat beside Josh. Firecracker and Scrawl followed, squeezing in next to them, then Finnegan and Clatter, who took the seat at the front. Seamus untied the rope tethering the boat to the platform and got in last, taking the middle bench and facing Josh. As the boat floated out into the stream, he took the ends of the two oars attached to the sides of the boat by heavy steel oarlocks and began to row.

The tunnel was lit by a string of electric lights that ran along the ceiling. The ancient bulbs were mostly dead, but a few still worked. As the boat floated along, Josh occasionally caught a glimpse of what was around them.

“This tunnel was once used by the old underground rail system,” Clatter announced from the front of the boat. “Like all the old tunnels, it flooded when Antarctica melted and the seas rose. But what was a tragedy for so many has been a boon for those of us who wish to conduct business unnoticed. The tunnels run nearly everywhere one might wish to go beneath the city.”

Clatter continued to talk, but Josh tuned him out. He didn’t care what Clatter had to say, but remained focused on what lay ahead. Without knowing the layout of where they would be playing, the team of Torchers couldn’t form a real plan. But Scrawl had seen some basic maps of Feverfew, and assuming that that’s where they were going, had used a piece of broken stone to sketch out a rough idea of what it might look like inside on the floor of the cell.

Seamus made several turns, moving into various tunnels until Josh’s sense of direction was completely lost. Sometimes they flowed with the water, and sometimes Seamus had to struggle against it. They passed half a dozen platforms similar to the one from which they’d launched the rowboat, and Josh wondered what part of the city each one led to.

Finally they traversed a very long tunnel where the water flowed more quickly. It’s going out to the ocean, Josh thought. This is where it empties out. We must be somewhere near the cliffs; Scrawl was right.

Seamus muscled the boat to yet another landing, and Finnegan jumped out, tying the rope to a ring set into the stone. Seamus was next, and he and Finnegan helped Clatter out of the boat. No one helped Josh and his friends, who got off as best they could.

They were marched up a series of stone stairs. These were much steeper and longer than the ones they’d come down, and Josh was breathing heavily when they reached the top. His skin was soaked with sweat, and his shirt clung to him in the clammy, cold air.

They walked through a doorway and found themselves in a dimly lit basement. Tall filing cabinets lined the rust-stained walls. The drawers on many of them were open, and sheets of paper spilled out like entrails. Josh noticed that several of the papers had small black-and-white photographs stapled to them. Those are patient records, he noted grimly.

They came to a set of doors. Clatter pulled a handle that protruded from the wall, and machinery in the walls ground to life. The doors opened, revealing an elevator large enough to accommodate them all. As it lurched upward, the elevator shook with the strain.

Josh watched the buttons on the elevator’s control panel light up as they passed each floor. At 4 it shuddered to a stop, and the doors opened.

“Watch your step,” Clatter said as he got out with a strange jumping motion. Then Josh noticed that the elevator had stopped a good six inches below the level of the floor outside. The floor itself seemed to sag, as if the ancient building had given up.

“This is where the game will begin,” Clatter said. He nodded at Finnegan, who produced a key and proceeded to unlock the handcuffs. Josh massaged his wrists, which had been rubbed raw by the metal. He noticed the others doing the same.

“The rules are very simple,” Clatter continued. “There are twelve zombies. Find and kill them all within two hours and you go free.”

“We didn’t agree on a time limit,” Josh objected.

“My customers don’t have all night,” said Clatter. “And neither do you.”