Into the Dark: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller

by Ryan Casey

  It could be anything like that. He had to be aware.

  He looked around. Saw Alison was sleeping. Everyone else seemed to be out, too. Mike wasn’t tired, though. And again, taking his eyes of Calvin for any extended time wasn’t something that particularly appealed to him.

  Not least when he looked across at him and saw that he wasn’t asleep at all.

  He was staring at Mike. At first, Mike thought he was just imagining things. He thought it was nothing but a trick of the moonlight shining through the window.

  But it wasn’t. Not when he blinked a few times, saw it for definite, for real.

  Calvin was looking right at him.

  “Sleep,” Mike whispered. “But try keeping an eye open, if you can.”

  He expected Calvin to smirk. Expected him to make some kind of wisecrack that just made Mike hate him even more.

  But he didn’t.

  He did something Mike totally wasn’t expecting.

  “I’m sorry for what happened with your daughter,” he whispered. “Truly.”

  Mike wasn’t sure how to react. He felt a whole mixture of emotions. A whole combination of feelings.

  Because this was unexpected.

  It was sincere.

  And that was… problematic.

  Mike shut his eyes. Turned away. “Leave it out.”

  “I mean it, Mike. What I did… it was rash. It was like I was possessed.”

  “Nobody’s possessed,” Mike said. “It’s no excuse. Get some sleep—”

  “I know it’s no excuse,” Calvin said. “I know… I know I can never make right what I did. I know I can never make up for my mistakes. I know you’ll probably just… you’ll probably just kill me as soon as we get to where I’m leading you. But I hope you won’t. I hope you’ll just… I hope you’ll just give me a chance to start again.”

  Mike felt his throat tightening. He felt that combination of emotions getting even more intense. Because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t actually believe that his daughter’s murderer was hoping he’d just let him go.

  “You’re right when you say I want to kill you,” Mike said. “You’re right to assume you’re only alive right now because you have something that these people need. But believe me. I don’t buy your bullshit. I don’t even buy this journey you have us going on, not really. And believe this. As soon as you lose your use to us, you’ll pay for what you did to Holly. Whether you were frigging possessed or not.”

  Mike turned away, then. Closed his eyes again. But there was no sleeping now. There was no drifting off. Not after how far Calvin had taken things.

  And not for another reason, too.

  He felt like he’d just come his closest to telling Calvin he might not actually kill him after all than he ever would.

  But he put that thought to one side.

  He pushed it away.

  The second the memory of Holly came to his mind—of what this man had done to her—the rage returned all over again.

  He opened his eyes. Looked back at Calvin.

  And this time, he thought he saw something different.

  This time, he thought he saw something totally unexpected.

  Something that made him more uncomfortable than anything.

  This time, in the glimmer of the moonlight, Mike swore he saw tears on Calvin’s gaunt cheeks.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ian opened his eyes.

  It was the dreams that were getting to him. The dreams that were waking him up, repeatedly, over and over again.

  Dreams of hanging from that tree.

  Dreams of jumping.

  Dreams of falling.

  But just as he saw Corey and Tommy and Sofia… just as he saw them there, holding out their hands, waiting for him, calling him, telling him to join them, someone got in his way. Someone stopped him.

  And it was that same person who stopped him, every time.

  That same person who probably thought he was saving him but wasn’t.

  All he was doing was denying him the chance to be back with the people he loved. To be back with those closest to him.

  Calvin.

  He felt his fists tighten as he lay there, rain banging against the roof. The moonlight was shining in through the window. He could hear snoring, so he knew that everyone was probably asleep by now.

  And he felt confused. He felt conflicted. Because a part of him wanted the group to make this journey they were on. A part of him wanted them to make it, together. To get out of this mess. To find this supposed extraction point and escape the hell they’d been subjected to for far too long.

  But another part of him…

  Another part of him didn’t care what happened.

  Because he’d lost his children.

  He’d lost his wife.

  And the man who’d taken the last bit of hope from him was right here in this room.

  The man who’d denied him the oblivion he craved was right here.

  And he was still breathing.

  And that was so wrong.

  He thought about the repercussions of what he wanted to do. He thought about the hate it would spawn.

  But what would it matter if Mike turned on him anyway?

  What would it matter if anyone turned on him anyway?

  Mike’s daughter was the one who’d killed his son.

  Alison was the one who was with Holly, all that time.

  And Gina… Kelsie… sure, he felt bad for them. They were young. They had lives ahead of them. But they’d find a way forward. They’d find other opportunities.

  He turned around, feeling the urge, leaning into it rather than pushing it away, and he crept over to Calvin.

  He stood over him. Watched him lying there, sleeping, for a few seconds. And he thought about this. He thought about what the repercussions of this would be.

  But at the same time, he thought about what the advantages would be, too.

  He could end this.

  He could kill Calvin right here in his sleep.

  And then he could take his own life, to boot.

  He crouched down over Calvin. He pressed a hand to his mouth.

  Then he tightened a hand around his throat.

  Calvin opened his eyes right away.

  “You’re going to stay very quiet,” Ian whispered. “And you’re going to come with me. Right this second. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The second Mike opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong.

  First, there was that sudden hit of dread. It was still dark. Had he been asleep? He didn’t think he’d been asleep. But then… he’d dreamt. He’d remembered dreaming.

  How long had he been out for?

  His heart raced. Adrenaline surged through his body. The first person that came to his mind was Kelsie. Then Alison.

  Then…

  He looked over at the door, and he noticed something.

  Something that filled him with even more dread.

  The door was open.

  And then he looked at where Calvin had been lying and all of his worst fears came true.

  He jolted upright. Walked over to the door.

  Alison turned her head, squinted. “Mike?”

  “He’s gone,” Mike said, ignoring the fact that some of his people were still asleep.

  Alison looked confused. “What do you mean he’s gone?”

  “I mean he’s gone. Calvin’s gone. He’s… he’s got away.”

  “Where’s Ian?”

  It was Gina’s voice that caught Mike’s attention. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. Not at first.

  But then when he looked around, he saw what she was talking about.

  Ian.

  Ian was gone too.

  A scenario began to play out in Mike’s mind. It was a scenario he didn’t like to face up to, a scenario he didn’t like to entertain. But a scenario that was revealing itself as the most likely turn of events, moment by moment.

&
nbsp; “What if he’s taken him?” Gina said. “What if—what if Calvin’s taken Ian somewhere?”

  Mike looked at that ajar door, and he felt his fists tightening. “Somehow, I’m not sure that’s how this has played out.”

  Gina frowned. “What—”

  “Stay here,” he said, walking over to the door.

  Alison stepped in his way. “You can’t just go charging out there. You don’t know what’s happened yet. Not for certain.”

  Mike looked into Alison’s eyes. “Trust me,” he said. “I feel what he feels. I know exactly what’s happened.”

  She looked like she was going to say something else. But instead, she just sighed, shook her head. “I want to come with you.”

  “I’d rather you stayed here. I’d rather you all stayed here. I can do this. You just need to…”

  He stopped.

  Because right then, in the distance, he heard something.

  Right then, he heard a cry.

  An agonised cry.

  An agonised male cry.

  “I need to go,” Mike said, turning around and making a break for the door.

  “Mike—”

  “I can’t pretend I care an iota what happens to Calvin. I can’t pretend I care if he suffers. But I do care about one thing. He’s got information. Information that we need. And as long as he’s alive, he’s valuable to us. What happened in the past doesn’t matter. It’s what happens next that’s important. You need to trust me. You need to let me do this.”

  Alison looked like she was going to protest. Gina looked like she was going to protest. And Kelsie, lying there, hair dangling over her eyes with Arya by her side… they both looked so lost. So confused.

  “I won’t be long,” Mike said.

  “Promise?” Kelsie said.

  He wanted to promise. He wanted to tell her he’d definitely come back here.

  But he knew promises were futile in this world.

  “I’ve got to go,” he said.

  He ran out of the door, knife in hand. Ran out into the night. The rain had eased. It was only falling gently now. The air wasn’t as thick and muggy. The wind was just a slight breeze at this point. It felt like the worst of the storm had passed by. The ground was soddened and soaked, though. Moving quickly in it wasn’t easy.

  Which was why Mike was so certain he could track down Calvin and Ian before it was too late.

  He looked at the muddied ground. Looked for a trail. But it seemed like the dampness of it had just covered up any possible track that would’ve been formed.

  He staggered through the mud. Tried to make sense of where the cry had come from. Tried to figure out whether it sounded more like Calvin’s or more like Ian’s.

  But of course it would be Calvin’s. Calvin was malicious, but randomly killing Ian wasn’t his style—logistics of breaking out of his ties aside.

  He knew the rage in Ian. He knew what frame of mind he was in. He should’ve been more aware of it. Should’ve been more in tune.

  They should’ve kept an eye on him. But they’d failed him.

  He went to take a step to the left when he saw something.

  Movement.

  Movement in the woods to his right.

  He heard footsteps.

  Heard running.

  Then nothing.

  He stood there, totally still. The clouds returned, thickening, covering up the moonlight. Mike saw shapes moving in the darkness. He saw figures. He wanted to believe they were just a trick of his imagination. That they weren’t really there.

  But he couldn’t deny what he’d heard.

  He turned away, though. Moved in the direction he’d been heading. He swore he’d heard Calvin’s scream over that way earlier. He had to stay focused. He had to stay on task.

  He remembered how he’d felt when he found Ian lying there, Calvin by his side. He wasn’t sure anything could surprise him that much. He wasn’t sure anything could punch him in the gut in quite a way.

  But this world was full of surprises.

  He kept on moving when he heard it again.

  Footsteps.

  Definite footsteps.

  Right behind him.

  He looked around. Saw nothing. But he became starkly aware that he was a long way from the cabin. He was a long way from Alison, Gina, Kelsie, Arya.

  He was a long way from safety.

  He swallowed a lump in his throat.

  Turned around.

  He had to keep moving.

  He had to—

  He heard them before he saw them.

  But by that point, it was already too late.

  A smack against the back of his head.

  A cloth over his eyes.

  Darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The more time passed, the more silence that followed outside, the more Alison started to grow concerned about Ian. About Mike.

  And to her regret, even about Calvin.

  It was still dark outside, but a little blueness was starting to appear in the sky as morning closed in. Alison wasn’t sure how long Mike had been out there, not exactly, but it felt like forever.

  Of course it always felt like forever when someone was out there.

  Especially someone as close as Mike.

  “What should we do?” Gina asked.

  Alison looked at her. She looked concerned. She hadn’t really spoken to Gina much lately. Hadn’t really an idea of just how strongly she felt about this situation with Calvin.

  She’d gone along with things. But she wasn’t sure just how behind it she was.

  “As far as I see it,” Alison said, “we’ve got two choices. We stay here. We trust Mike. We wait. Or we go out there. We try to find him and the others. But there’s a danger with that, of course. A danger that we might be walking out into a trap. Into something we really don’t want to head towards.”

  Gina’s head tilted like she was really considering the opposing options. She rubbed her hair, scratched her head. Alison felt the same. On the one hand, she wanted to know Mike and the others were okay. On the other… Kelsie. Arya. She had to look out for them. She had to protect them.

  And as far as she was concerned, the safest place was still right here.

  “I think we should wait a little longer,” Alison said. “Mike… Mike might be hard work sometimes. But I trust him. He wants Calvin back here just as much as everyone else.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “I wasn’t sure at first. But now… now I think he gets it. I think he sees the bigger picture.”

  “And what about after?”

  “After what?”

  Gina rubbed her hands against her legs. “Let’s assume this whole story Calvin has is real. Let’s assume he really is leading us to some kind of sacred land. You really think Mike’s just going to let him live? If he’s… if he’s still alive at all?”

  Alison sighed. She scratched her arms. “What happens after doesn’t concern me. Let’s just focus on getting there for now. And right now, the best chance of that is if we don’t do anything stupid. Anything rash. We stay here. We wait. But anyway. It sounds like… it sounds like you have a few reservations about what Calvin’s promising.”

  Gina rolled her eyes. “I learned not to believe in this shit a long time ago.”

  “Then why are you going along with it?”

  Gina shrugged. It was like she was genuinely not sure why she was going along with this at all. Then after a moment of considering, she half-smiled. “Because it gives us hope, I guess. And without hope, what’s left at all?”

  Alison thought about what Gina had said. And she had to ask the question. Did she really believe that there was some sacred future out there waiting for them? Did she really believe that there was some supposed safe haven? An extraction point?

  A little. Perhaps. But Gina had a point. It was the hope that was carrying her.

  But was it deluding her?

  Was it blinding her?

  She did
n’t know. She wasn’t sure.

  “Whatever happens,” Alison said. “Whatever we go through. Whatever we find. This time, we’re going to stay together. This time, we’re not going to let anything get between us. Not again.”

  “Once is enough,” Gina said, agreeing. Then she sighed. Like she was lost in thought. Lost somewhere.

  “Something else bothering you?” Alison asked.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “It’s okay. If you want to talk about it.”

  “I just… Sometimes I think about what we had. Back at the Safe Zone. I think about what we had and how we lost it. How it slipped through our fingers.”

  Alison nodded. “It must’ve been especially hard on you. You were there longer than the rest of us.”

  “It wasn’t easy. But there’s a lot of things that haven’t been easy. My parents…”

  Alison sensed Gina was close to opening up on a topic she’d never really opened up on before.

  “You miss them, I’m sure. I miss my mum, too.”

  “That’s the thing,” Gina said. “I… I feel guilty. But in a way, I don’t miss them. I mean, I miss having them around. I miss the security blanket of having them close. But sometimes… sometimes I wonder if I’d be even half the person I am now if I was still with them. They suffocated me. Made me feel like a child when I was just begging to burst out of my shell. Mum especially. And it feels so bad to say I don’t miss them. It feels so bad to say that if they were around… I’m not sure I’d still be alive. But it’s only without them that I’ve developed. It’s only without them that I’ve really grown.”

  Alison nodded. She knew what Gina was saying. She knew where she was coming from. She knew what it was like to have repressive parents and families.

  But this… this was different. This was something else.

  “It’s okay to have mixed emotions about things like this,” Alison said. “But I’ll tell you one thing for sure. Sometimes, when they’re mollycoddling you, when it seems like they’re suffocating you, it isn’t because they don’t want you to grow. It’s because they don’t want you to change. They love you. They love you right as you are, and they don’t want the world to poison that.”