Crawlers Read Online Free PDF Page B

It’s . . .
For God’s sake, someone help me!
’
    Jasmine saw the pale, eager legs emerge at the nape of her teacher’s neck, touching the short hairs there. But Jasmine’s arms were pressed against her sides by the crush. She was powerless.
    Ms Gresham went rigid, then limp. The press of people in the lift was so tight that there was nowhere for her to fall: she just stayed there, head lolling, with the creature clamped to the back of her neck.
    Everyone just stared at her, too horrified to make a sound. For several seconds the silence was broken only by the machine-voice uselessly repeating its message: ‘
Maximum safe weight limit exceeded. Maximum safe weight limit exceeded.
’
    Then the teacher twitched. Her chin lifted from her chest. Her head, still with the creature attached to it, came uprighton her shoulders. Her eyelids trembled, then opened. Slowly, as if with great effort, she turned to face Robert and fixed him with a glassy stare.
    â€˜
Open the door.
’ The voice that came from her mouth sounded harsh, guttural – not at all like it had before.
    â€˜I – I’m sorry?’ stammered Robert.
    A scowl crossed the teacher’s brow. Wrenching one arm free from the surrounding crush of bodies, she reached across and took hold of Robert’s wrist.
    â€˜
Open the door!
’ she roared.
    â€˜She’s . . .’ said Robert, hardly able to believe it. ‘She’s pulling my finger off the door button!’
    â€˜
Doors opening . . .
’ the recorded voice intoned mercilessly as they slid apart again.
    For a frozen moment Jasmine stared out at the scene beyond.
    She saw heads and shoulders of an army of what had been ordinary adults crowding at the door. She saw a forest of hands reaching in. She saw eyes: glassy, mindless, staring, their pupils like bottomless black pits.
    Then:
    â€˜
Gaaaaaaaaaaah!
’
    Jasmine turned and glimpsed a flash of blonde hair as Samantha slammed into Ms Gresham – and shoved her out.
    The forest of hands grasped the teacher and bore her out of sight. The army of staring adults fell back for a moment. Samantha teetered on the grooves that marked the lift’s boundary. Hugo grabbed her. Robert hammered the button.
    â€˜
Doors closing
,’ said the voice again – and then, at last, ‘
Going up.
’
8:09 PM.
    â€˜Less than four hours left now, my Queen.’
    Steadman’s sudden voice from the pit’s wall-mounted speakers almost broke my concentration.
    â€˜Three hours and fifty-one minutes, to be precise,’ he added unnecessarily. ‘What’s your situation?’
    â€˜I now control the Barbican,’ I said aloud, through the young man’s mouth. ‘I took the staff first: I used them to seal the exits, then drove everyone else into the foyer, where—’
    â€˜I know,’ said Steadman.
    â€˜You . . . know?’ In the darkness of my pit I waited, puzzled.
    â€˜You are surprised, my Queen?’ said Steadman. ‘You thought I would let you loose without keeping an eye on you?’ He chuckled drily. ‘What you’ve achieved so far is . . . promising. One begins to see why the Corporation felt driven to do what it did to stop you in sixteen sixty-six. But we arestronger now. I have eyes everywhere.
I am watching you
– never forget it.
    â€˜Besides which,’ he went on, ‘you are mistaken. You do not, in fact, control
everyone
in the Barbican. Right now, at this moment, I can see that eight . . . children’ – he said the word with disgust – ‘are escaping from the foyer in one of the elevators.’
    My turn: ‘I know.’
    There was a short silence, during which my brief satisfaction at giving Steadman a taste of his own medicine was somewhat spoiled by the knowledge that I was still utterly at his mercy. If he chose to end his ‘bet’ now, he could simply leave. The Barbican was a deathtrap,