The Killables (16 page)

‘Raffy. Raffy, are you okay?’ she asked, blinking furiously because she was unable to wipe her tears away.

‘I’m fine.’ Raffy sat up and pressed his forehead to Evie’s, then pulled away and looked around. His eyes were flashing, his jaw set in an angry grimace. ‘I nearly had him.’

‘I know,’ Evie said, nodding violently to prove to him that she knew, that she understood. ‘But they’re Evils, Raffy. They’re not human. Not like us.’

Raffy pulled a face. ‘My head,’ he muttered. ‘It hurts. What is this place, anyway?’

They looked around properly; Evie could see that they were in a large, high-ceilinged room with grey walls, a concrete floor and not much else. It was bigger than any room Evie had ever been in, even the Meeting House. Light had begun to filter in through grimy windows, revealing half-crumbling walls, large patches of damp and plants growing through cracks and several broken windows. At either end was a heavy door, which she was fairly sure would both be locked. There was no furniture in the room, just the thin mattresses that they’d slept on and their musty-smelling blankets.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It looks old.’

Raffy shifted slightly, wincing at the pain. ‘Pre-City,’ he concluded. ‘Those men didn’t build this.’ He looked around in awe. ‘Not bad for a bunch of evil people, huh?’ he said.

Evie didn’t know what to say. She knew that humans with amygdalas were capable of great things as well as terrible ones; that humanity had made huge achievements with their amygdalas intact. But it still scared her, still made her uncomfortable that the people who built this hall, the people waiting outside, had evil in their brains which continually looked for ways to corrupt them.

‘What do you think they’re going to do to us?’ she asked, then immediately regretted it when she saw Raffy’s expression darken.

‘I should have seen the trap,’ he said. ‘I should have—’

‘It was my fault we got caught,’ Evie said quickly. ‘It doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is what happens next.’

‘What happens next is that we wait for them to kill us,’ Raffy said bitterly. He looked around the room again. Then his expression brightened slightly. ‘We could climb out of those windows,’ he said. ‘Untie ourselves and I’ll help you up, then—’

‘They’re ten feet up the wall,’ Evie retorted. ‘We’d need a ladder. And they’d probably be waiting for us anyway.’

‘You got any better ideas?’ Raffy asked irritably. ‘Is waiting to die any better?’

Evie didn’t get a chance to respond; as Raffy finished his sentence, the door swung open again. ‘Had some time to come to your senses?’ It was the same man as before; he strode in purposefully and grabbed Raffy by the shoulders. The other, squat man came into the room carrying a wooden chair, onto which he thrust Raffy roughly. Then the squat man grabbed Evie and pulled her upright, then dragged her along the floor until she was standing facing Raffy, just a few feet away.

‘So,’ the original man, the one with the close-cut hair and the balding crown, said, a little smile playing on his lips. ‘You’ – he pointed at Evie – ‘are going to talk, otherwise he’ – he pointed at Raffy – ‘is going to be in quite a lot of pain. My friend here has a good right hook. If you don’t want him making contact with your friend’s face, you’ll tell me who you are and what you’re doing here. Okay?’

Evie started to shake. She didn’t know what a right hook was but she knew that they were going to hurt Raffy and she couldn’t bear it. But worse than that was the realisation that the Brother was right, that the world outside the City was a brutal, disgusting place where humans were savages, where everyone was led by their baser instincts. And this new world was now her world. ‘Tell them nothing,’ Raffy said defiantly; moments later the man next to him delivered a blow to his head so hard that Raffy appeared to lose consciousness for a few seconds. Evie cried out in alarm.

‘Stop. Please stop,’ she begged, trembling.

‘We’ll stop when you talk,’ the man said with a little shrug. ‘So, again?’ he said to his companion, who pulled his fist back.

‘No,’ Evie screamed, and the first man raised his hand to halt the punch. ‘No. You can’t. I know you’re Evils but can’t you see that this is wrong? You have to stop. You have to . . .’ She tried to hobble forward to Raffy but the man stopped her.

‘Evils?’ he asked, his eyebrow arching. ‘You think that we’re Evils?’ He laughed.

‘I know you are,’ Evie said quietly. ‘Only Evils live outside the City. Only Evils would do this.’

The man laughed again. ‘Trust me, Evils couldn’t do this. All right, Angel. Hit the boy again.’

The second man hit Raffy again and blood started to pour from his nose.

‘You . . . evil man,’ Evie shrieked, wishing her vocabulary had more insults in it, more ways to express her hatred.

The man sighed. ‘Evil. Sure. Just tell me what you’re doing here. Is it really that hard? Your friend here won’t thank you for staying silent, I can promise you that.’

Evie looked over at Raffy who spat something onto the floor – it looked like a tooth. His eyes were unfocused but he managed to shake his head. Evie saw the man draw his fist back again; she knew she had to do something, that Raffy couldn’t take any more even if he would never admit it. And she knew that she couldn’t reason with evil; couldn’t appeal to their better natures.

‘Wait,’ she said. ‘Please wait.’

‘You tell me who sent you, and what you’re here to find out,’ the man said. ‘Then we stop. That’s the deal.’

‘No one sent us,’ Evie said angrily. Raffy’s face was covered in blood; she knew that the man would kill him if he carried on hitting him. ‘We escaped from the City.’

‘You escaped.’ The first man sighed. ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough.’ He moved towards Raffy and this time it was he who swung at him.

‘No!’ Evie screamed. ‘You said you’d stop if I told you why we’re here.’

‘You lied,’ the man said. ‘No one escapes from the City. Tell us the truth and then we’ll stop.’

Evie said nothing. The man clicked his fingers and the other man left Raffy’s side, grabbing her instead. ‘Let’s see if your friend will talk to save you,’ he said as the second pulled his fist back yet again. Evie braced herself; she had never been hit before, had never known such acute, physical fear, but she was determined not to show it.

‘No!’ Raffy roared. ‘You get your hands off her. We did escape,’ he thundered. The man’s fist stopped just short of her face; she could smell the dirt on his hands. ‘Out of the East Gate. Her father was a key holder. She took his key.’

‘She took his key, did she?’ the first man asked; the other man’s fist stayed where it was, so close to Evie she had to close her eyes. ‘Okay then. Let’s say you’re telling the truth. Tell me this – why would two nice young people like you want to escape from the City? I mean, it’s not exactly a holiday camp out here, is it now?’

‘Because otherwise they were going to kill me,’ Raffy seethed. Evie was suddenly released from the second man’s grip; disoriented, she sank to the floor before she could find her balance. ‘Because they made me a K.’

‘You? You’re a Killable? Really?’ The man was looking at Raffy incredulously.

Raffy glanced over at Evie, then back at the man. She knew he was thinking the same thing she was, that this man knew that K stood for Killable.

‘Oh, yeah. I know all about Killables,’ said the man, catching their expressions. ‘But what I’d like to know is why a boy like you was made a K. What
could
you have done?’ He peered at Raffy as though inspecting a calf; prodding his shoulder, examining his face.

‘Because I found something on the System and they seemed to think I put it there.’

The man started; his brow furrowed as he turned around and took a few steps, apparently deep in thought. Then he walked back over to Raffy and leant down, his face just centimetres from his. ‘You found something in the System? What? What did you find?’

‘I dunno,’ Raffy said through gritted teeth. ‘Something just wasn’t working properly.’

The man started to pace up and down. ‘You know the System?’

Raffy nodded. ‘Kind of. I was an operator.’

The man breathed out. ‘Trouble is, this still isn’t making sense to me. You say you were made a K. So how come you weren’t taken away and imprisoned? How could you leave?’

‘Because I wasn’t a K when I left. I escaped the night before,’ Raffy said heavily.

The man shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No. And here is how I know you’re lying. This is why my friend Angel here is going to have to hurt that girlfriend of yours unless you start telling me the truth. Because, my friend, what you’re telling me is impossible. No one knows a System change in advance. No one.’

The squat man began to approach Evie threateningly and she shrank back. Raffy noticed the movement. ‘Wait,’ he said immediately, his voice urgent. ‘Wait. My brother told me about the change. He told me I had to escape.’

‘Your brother,’ the man said. ‘And your brother knew because . . . ?’

‘I don’t know,’ Raffy said helplessly. ‘Because he’s high up in the government.’

The squat man stopped moving. ‘So let me get this straight,’ the first man said. ‘You’re made a K because you find something on the System, your brother is high up in the government and he risks his career to help you and your girlfriend escape? Doesn’t sound very City to me. The System can’t be challenged, can it?’

Raffy didn’t say anything; the man shrugged, then swung round to face Evie. ‘And you just left with him? You were happy to leave the City just like that?’

Evie nodded anxiously. ‘I had to leave,’ she said. ‘I’d have been made a K next.’

‘And you know that because?’

‘Because I took the key from my father’s safe.’

‘Because you took the key from your father’s safe,’ the man said, smiling. ‘Of course you did. See, Angel? It all makes sense.’

The squat man grunted and the first man turned back to Raffy. ‘Makes perfect sense for a cock and bull story created by the City. You’re here to spy on us, aren’t you? Aren’t you?’

‘No,’ Raffy scowled. ‘I hate the City. I’d never spy for them. Just let us go.’

‘Go where?’ the man asked. ‘Nowhere to go, son. Not now you’re outside the City.’

‘There is, as it happens,’ Raffy said under his breath.

‘Oh there is, is there?’ The man swooped down so that his face was just inches from Raffy’s. ‘And what is this place?’

‘Another City,’ Evie said suddenly. ‘There’s another City.’

‘Another City, you say?’ The man walked over to her and chuckled. ‘And you’re sure about that, little lady?’

‘Yes,’ Evie said defiantly. ‘Because Raffy’s father discovered it. He was communicating with it. Raffy found the communication device. That’s why he was made a K. That’s why we’re here. So please, just let us go. We’re not spies. We’re not anything.’

The man stared at her for a few seconds. Then he stared at Raffy. ‘Let you go?’ he said eventually. ‘We let you go and you’re dead in a day. No, my friends, we won’t let you go. But don’t worry. We’ll look after you. Won’t we, Angel?’

The man who had hit Raffy nodded silently. Evie could not imagine a more inappropriate name for someone. Angels were beautiful mythical creatures from the Old World; people turned to angels to save them when they were in trouble. Although, as she’d learnt at school, that was the folly of humans; they turned to non-existent creatures to save them instead of realising that they could save themselves. But even so, she couldn’t imagine anyone turning to this angry, violent man to save them.

‘My name’s Linus.’ The first man held out his hand to Raffy, who stared at it dubiously. ‘I’m sorry, I forgot,’ Linus said with a little smile. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a knife. Raffy eyed it cautiously and held his hands out behind him for Linus to cut away the rope. Angel, meanwhile, cut the ropes that tied Evie. Slowly, painfully, she pulled herself up off the floor. Her legs ached. Her whole body was stiff and bruised. Raffy stood too; Angel left briefly then returned with a wet cloth which Raffy used to clean his face. Then Angel nodded at Linus and disappeared again.

‘Welcome to our temporary home,’ announced Linus, holding out his hand to Evie. ‘So temporary we’re leaving today. You’ll need some better clothes. And some food. We’ve got a long way to walk today. You’re going to need your energy.’

‘Why?’ Raffy asked sullenly. ‘Where are you taking us now?’

‘Wait and see,’ Linus answered. ‘You’ll find out soon enough.’

They were led out of the room and through a second, ceilingless room, to what had probably at one time been a road. From the outside Evie could see that the place they’d been in must have been quite wonderful once, with ornate pillars reaching skywards and honey-coloured stonework. She gazed back at it in wonderment; she had never seen anything like it, could not comprehend how a world full of evil could produce something so beautiful. Beyond it lay nothing; a road that stretched into nothingness, scrambled plants weaving through rubble.

‘You like it? Used to be the law courts once,’ Linus said, looking around, his clear blue eyes glistening. ‘Then again you probably don’t know much about the law, do you?’

He was looking at Evie and she reddened awkwardly. ‘No,’ she said eventually. ‘What is it?’

‘Law?’ He chuckled; as his smile broadened lines appeared from his eyes right down to his mouth, deep lines that gave his face such warmth and depth that Evie realised she wasn’t afraid of him any more. ‘Law is what enables civilisation. Law is what stops society descending into a scrum of vengeance and crime.’

Evie frowned. ‘It’s like the New Baptism?’ she asked.

‘The New Baptism?’ Linus froze, the warmth disappearing from his face. ‘You think that protects you?’ He sighed, stopped walking and put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Law is nothing to do with the New Baptism. Law is a system of rules and principles whereby no one can be accused and punished for something without having the opportunity to defend themselves. Its overarching principles are to make society fair and just for all. The law is . . . is . . .’ He seemed to think for a moment. ‘Is something that should never be used in the same sentence as the New Baptism, unless the word ‘against’ is included. Do I make myself clear?’