A Collection of Ruins

11. May God Bless and Keep You Always (Ellie)

Elieanora

There was no sound as I entered the tunnels, not so much as the dull thud of my boot hitting the concrete. The thick gurgling blood spilled on the floor and splashed upon the wall too thick for noise to pass through. Bodies, human bodies, littered the floor. And they called us savages.

"Dig the tunnels deeper Blaine, they are goin' to be your home."

"So my people can live like rats?"

I Smiled, "Exactly."

I bit the inside of my cheek, the sharp short pain helping to keep my focus. The thick copper sent invading the air clogged my nose and impaired my senses.

The strong, overpowering scent of the earth surrounded me, a damp blanket against my skin, every inhale wet. My brightly coloured hair was hidden by my hood, the almost white-blonde marking me as my father's daughter. Blood dripped upon my foot from the large gash in my arm, teeth gritted as I lifted another orphan down off the street and into the tunnel.

"It doesn't make sense, Ellie."

Moss was being thrown into the deep end, trained hard and fast, if the plan was carried out my people would need a leader.

"Where are Jev and James? We're trained to fight -- from birth we are trained to fight, trained to think and act in critical situations. This should have been something they could handle."

"It is something they could handle."

"I've seen them handle worse." Ronan added.

"But they didn't Moss. They didn't handle it. So, what did they do?"

His eyes were round as they settled on me. We were used to death, but we didn't believe in pointless carnage.

"They left. They would have taken the escape tunnel back home to ensure the protection of the prisoner." The answer was second nature, even as he question the cruelty of it.

"Would you have done it?"

Resolve stole over his features as he answered, "Yes."

"You would have left all these people to die?"

"Run like a coward, tail tucked between your legs, knowing you could save every single person in this room?" Ronan spoke, turning to stare at Moss.

"Yes. We have a plan. If that makes me a coward well, screw pride. For the first time in years something can be done to stop the disease and the pain and death it causes. So yes I would have left."

"New plans can be made, others ways, with time, can be found."

"But these people will never get the chance to live again."

"In time you won't be here! We've had countless leaders, all who have prolonged our survival as best they could but no one has gotten this close, invested this much. There won't ever be another plan. These people died to save millions more, I'll thank them when the world is free."

Ronan slowly smiled, "Good."

"The right choices are always the hardest ones." Walking over to him, I placed my arm on his shoulder. "What now, Moss? What do we do?"

"Gather the bodies, burn them. Scrub the walls and floor. Remove any and all traces of our involvement and then we walk away. There is nothing for us here anymore." His eyelids fluttered, the only sign that this choice had cost him.

Good. If it didn't, he would be no better than Ronan's father. If I succeeded in at least one thing, it was that my people wouldn't make the same mistakes, wouldn't follow in our ancestors footsteps. We were better than that, made for more than that. The three men I had to kill may haunt me, but if I hadn't twisted the rules Moss wouldn't be here; a bitter stranger would walk in his place. No one should have to make their first kill so young, especially when it's a villager you've grown with. All you had to do was fight, the rules didn't specifically say you had to live to win or die to lose. If I took more ghosts to my dreams than I could bear so be it. There was hope for my people yet.

The next few hours of work were hard and dirty, Moss only threw up once.

* * *

I slept that night down in the tunnels where countless had just lost their lives. The tangy sent of blood in my nose while I rest upon the unforgiving floor. I stared at Ronan, ten metres away. He was so much kinder in his sleep, softer. The lines of his face relaxed revealing his age, he was just a boy. A boy I may have loved. If we had been bred for it. You aren't your father. There was no place for love here, not in this world.

I avoided the grip of sleep that night and instead fell into the icy cold grasp of fear. You aren't your father. My way into the Met was wandering around on the run with the daughter of the police chief who I had taken hostage. Two of my best warriors were lost along with them not to mention Ronan, who was growing angrier by the day. Think, honey. That is always the best thing you can do. Draw in a breath and think. The tunnels hadn't been of great importance, yes they housed the rats but well there were no longer rats to be concerned with. It had allowed our people to eradicate the infected in the outer regions but that was coming to an end now. I needed Matt and the barcode on his arm to get past the second, smaller wall, the one used to divide the rich from the poor, even In the Met. If the evacuation of the outer wall was successful we could sit back and allow the infected population to grow. The authorities didn't know the depth of the problem because we had secretly been taking care of it, my people and I. It was the evacuation that was going to be the hard part.

* * *

There was a blade to my throat. Two goddamn seconds home in my village and there was a goddamn blade to my throat. Everybody froze.

"Darlin', put the knife down." The snarl that came from Ronan may as well have come from a wolf.

I raised one eyebrow, waiting. Her eyes flicked to Jev for a split second and his muscles went taunt, a sheepish expression covering his face not a split second later.

"Meet Tess."