Twenty-Five Percent (Book 2): Downfall Read Free Page A

torch on an elastic strap, no doubt used during whatever inhuman experiments the Omnav scientists performed on the eaters they brought here. Micah produced a second head torch and pulled the strap onto his head, pressing a button to turn it on. A powerful beam of light shone from the cluster of tiny bulbs.
    “That’s a relief,” he said. “I thought we were going to have to set fire to some more eaters.”
    “Not if we have to feel our way around here in the pitch dark,” Alex said, settling the torch on his forehead and switching it on.
    They made their way past the corpses and continued along the corridor. The torches were very effective, lighting up everything before them. Alex’s nerves uncurled from their hidey holes and pretended they’d been brave all along.
    They followed the hallway round a corner to the left and came to the room where the eaters had been imprisoned. The door was closed.
    Micah grasped the handle. “Ready?”
    Alex nodded, raising his skull-spikers.
    Micah opened the door and stepped back. After nothing happened, he ventured in, Alex following.
    No eaters were loose. The cells were open, which wasn’t a surprise as they’d just killed all the former occupants, although why anyone would let them out, Alex had no idea. And they had undoubtedly been let out. No eater could have forced their way from the ultra strong and secure clear polycarbonate boxes, and there was no evidence of any of the multiple bolts on each door having been damaged. This had been done on purpose.
    “Alex?”
    He turned to Micah who was staring into the far corner of the room. Alex followed his gaze and his stomach dropped.
    “Oh, no,” he whispered.
    Phil Heaton was still in his cell, his pale, vacant eyes locked on them, white coat grubbier than it had been seven days ago. He’d been one of the Omnav scientists. His wife, MI5 agent Carla Heaton, was the first person Alex and Micah met when they came to the facility.
    Beside Phil, Carla stared out at them. Her mouth opened in a hopeless, ravenous moan.
    Alex walked up to the cell. “How could this happen?”
    Micah bent to pick up a piece of paper lying on the ground by the cell door. He read it before handing it to Alex.
     
    Dear Hannah, Pauline, Dave, Larry, and Jim,
    I’m sorry, I can’t go on. Phil was my life. Before him all I had was my career, but when I met him I learned to live. We never had any children and without him I have nothing.
    I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I know that you will be fine without me and that you will fix all this. Phil once told me he’d never worked with anyone as talented as the group of scientists in this lab. I don’t know why he did what he did, why he was a part of the cause of this outbreak, but I know he must have had good reason. He was a loving, good man and a wonderful husband.
    Don’t be sad, this is what I want. Please leave us to die together.
    Yours,
    Carla
     
    Alex dropped the letter, closing his eyes. “She did it on purpose.”
    He knew she was devastated to find her husband turned, but he’d had no idea that she was on the verge of doing something so drastic. Could he have done something to stop her?
    “She must have let him bite her, waited until she was close to turning, then locked herself in there with him,” Micah said, indicating a bite wound visible on her hand. “What should we do?”
    Alex looked at the couple standing side by side. “Leave them, like she wanted.”
    Micah nodded and they left the room, closing the door behind them.
    They were subdued as they made their way through the facility, not saying anything. No more eaters were roaming the corridors and it didn’t take them long to reach the room containing the boiler, backup generator and fuse boxes. When they got there, they discovered the electricity had simply been turned off at the mains. The fluorescent strip lighting hummed into life as soon as Micah switched it back on.
    They made a sweep of the entire