by Ryan Casey
He could only watch as Calvin walked over to him. As he crouched over him. As he looked right down into his eyes.
“We’ve had a wild old ride haven’t we, buddy? Destroying your home. All that nonsense between us. Your daughter. Your chance to finish me off. Now… this. Here we are. Quite poetic, in a way, isn’t it? But hey. At least you aren’t drinking anymore. At least you’ve given me a headache or two along the way. But I dunno. If you make it out of this, maybe you’ll turn to drink again after all.”
Mike shook his head. Forced his breathing. Tried to speak, but he couldn’t. He was too exhausted. Struggling too much—far too much.
“But you need to remember who is boss,” Calvin said. “You need to remember your superiors. You need to learn to respect them. Always was a struggle for you, wasn’t it? Always did find it hard work knowing your place?”
He put a hand on Mike’s stomach. Right where he’d stabbed him. Right where the blood was pooling out. Right where it made him wince with agony.
“It’s almost time now, Mike. Almost time to watch us walk off into the horizon together. Me. Your surrogate daughter. Some twisted shit, that. And your loyal pooch, who seems to like all the fuss I give her anyway. And hey. Maybe I will see Gina again. Maybe I’ll see Ian and Alison again. But I’ll just tell them how hard I worked to save you. And Kelsie… she’ll comply. You’ll comply, Kelsie. Won’t you?”
He flashed his knife at her. And Mike was under no illusions about just how far this man might go now.
He stood up, then. One final slap on Mike’s wounded stomach, which made him wince, agonised.
He stepped up and walked away.
Mike took a deep breath in, battled through the pain. “Wait.”
Calvin stopped. Frowned. “What was that, Mikey? Did you say something?”
“I… I…”
Calvin leaned down. Right down towards his mouth. “I can’t hear you. You’re going to have to speak up.”
“I told you,” Mike said.
Calvin turned around. So close to him now. Eyes fixed with his. “Told me what?”
Mike took as deep a breath as his broken body could manage.
“That I’d kill you.”
Calvin frowned.
And then Mike threw himself up and wrapped his teeth around Calvin’s neck.
He dug right in. Dug as hard as he could. Dug with all the strength and energy he had.
He dug down and dug down and then he tasted blood.
And then as Calvin started to struggle away, he didn’t let loose. As Calvin punched and kicked and gouged, he didn’t let go.
He just kept on clamping.
Kept on tearing.
Kept on biting.
“Mike!”
And then Mike did it.
Mike made his move.
He yanked Calvin’s throat to one side.
Split the skin, the flesh, the remains of his veins away.
And then Calvin looked down at him, shaking, bleeding.
His neck was savaged. Blood oozing out of it. Veins spitting out blood.
He reached for it, hands covered with blood. Confusion on his face.
And Mike felt weak.
Mike felt tired.
Mike felt… ready.
He looked up at Calvin, and he managed to do something, as he staggered back, as the blood kept on pooling out.
“I told you I’d kill you,” Mike said. “I told you I’d make you pay for what you did.”
Calvin tried to speak back. He tried to say something.
But blood just pooled out of his mouth.
He looked at Mike with those wide eyes. Fear on his pale face.
And then he stumbled back and landed on the ground.
Smacked his head against a rock.
He tried to shake.
Tried to move himself back to his feet.
Tried to struggle against his blood, choking him slowly, surely.
But he was stuck.
He wasn’t getting back up.
Mike dragged himself up. He clutched his bleeding torso. He stepped over Calvin who lay there, wide-eyed, fearful.
And then he crouched right down on top of him and took the knife from his shaking fingers.
He pressed it to his neck. Looked into his eyes. Right into his eyes as he continued to bleed out.
And he saw the desperation. He saw that look of begging. “Pl—please, Mike. Please. I’m sor… I’m…”
Mike nodded. “That’s the most sincere apology I’ve heard from you. Thank you.”
He looked away.
“But this is for Holly.”
And then he sliced his neck open completely and threw the knife to one side.
Calvin’s eyes widened. He held his neck. Spluttered. He was trying to say things. Trying to squirm his way out of this.
But he’d squirmed one step too far.
He fell back. And in his final look, Mike saw sadness. He saw a man who had lost everything. A man who might’ve been decent, deep down, once upon a time.
But a man who had fallen into the darkness.
And he realised he didn’t feel any relief at killing him.
He didn’t feel like his revenge had been satiated.
But still… he just felt like what he had done was right.
Mike fell back, then. His head hit the ground. He looked up at the trees. Looked at the light peeking through them. And he thought it looked so nice. So beautiful. So… peaceful.
“Mike!”
Mike heard Kelsie’s voice. He heard her rustling towards him, rustling towards his side.
And then he saw her, and he saw her beautiful angelic face, and he smiled.
“Kelsie,” he said. “You okay? Are you—”
“Your stomach,” Kelsie said. “We need to… we need to get you away from here. We need to get you somewhere safe.”
Mike grabbed Kelsie’s arms. Squeezed them, affectionately, lovingly. “I can’t… I can’t go anywhere, dear. I can’t go anywhere.”
Kelsie’s tears dropped down her cheeks, down onto Mike’s face. Arya was by his side now, too. “But we can’t lose you. We can’t… we can’t let you go.”
“You’ve got to… you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to be strong. Because you are strong. You’re strong enough to make it in this world. Strong enough to keep on fighting.”
“But I love you, Mike.”
Mike felt a lump in his throat, then. Tears building in his eyes. Because those words. Those words from a girl he’d tried so hard to keep safe. A girl he’d tried so hard to protect. Especially after what he’d done to her father… those words meant everything.
“I love you too, angel,” Mike said. “But it’s… it’s time for me to go now.”
“No, please,” Kelsie begged.
She wrapped her arms around Mike. And Mike felt pain. He felt pain in his stomach as the blood kept on pooling out. He felt pain right through the full length of his body.
But he didn’t care.
He didn’t care because he was happy now.
He didn’t care because he was with everyone he wanted to be with right now.
He felt Arya tuck herself under his right arm. Felt her licking his face. Heard her whining.
And he held her.
He cuddled her.
Felt her warmth spreading through to him.
He hugged Kelsie back. Hugged her as the breeze picked up. Hugged her as the coldness spread down his body. Hugged her as the minutes passed by, as they grew more and more silent.
He hugged her as his mind started drifting. As lights started appearing in his eyes.
As pictures. Images. Images of happy people. Happier times. All of them filling his vision. All of them taking over.
He held on to Kelsie.
He held on to Arya.
And then he took a deep breath.
“You’re so strong,” he said. “And you’re going to survive. You’re going… you’re going to beat this world.�
��
Kelsie said something back.
Mike saw her lips moving.
But he couldn’t hear her.
Nothing but ringing. Not anymore.
He let go of that final breath.
And then the warmth of Kelsie and Arya and everyone he’d ever cared about spread through him.
And his body drifted off into the light above the trees.
Chapter Forty-Six
Gina looked at the extraction point in the distance and felt a knot building in her stomach.
It was late afternoon. The sun seemed like it was setting already, which probably made it evening, actually. It was easy to lose track. Especially when you’d had a day like Gina had.
The wind was gentle. The sun was warm. And there was peacefulness to this whole environment. Peacefulness that made Gina want to really believe that there was a future ahead. That made her really want to believe that this was the end. But at the same time, it was the beginning.
The beginning of her new future.
The beginning of her new world.
“What do you think?”
Gina turned around. She saw Alison standing beside her. And seeing her standing there sparked two emotions inside her. One of relief that she was still here.
And another.
Another emotion entirely.
Because the fact that Alison was here meant that her mum was gone.
She smiled at Alison, though. She smiled at her because even though it was going to be tough, even though she was going to miss her mum, even though it wasn’t going to be something she’d ever get over… she knew she’d done the right thing.
Not for herself. Not for Alison.
She’d done the right thing for Mum, too.
She’d put her out of her misery. Once and for all.
She just wished she’d been able to do it in some other way.
Some more respectful way.
She thought about the people. The people who had been with her mum. She thought about the way they’d let them go. How she didn’t get it. Didn’t understand it.
She thought about how that moment of killing her mum had lifted something from them. A cloud. And it made her feel so sad. So sad that her mum had sunk that low. And so sad that other people had actually stooped to believing in her.
She thought about what her mum said about the extraction point, too. The things she’d told her about it. How it wasn’t safe. How it wasn’t to be trusted. Part of her worried because of it. Part of her feared that those words were true.
But then hadn’t Mum wanted that all along?
Wasn’t that just ideal for Mum? Falling back into her arms, finding her the only one she could trust—the only one that could look after her—all over again?
So she took a deep breath.
She held a hand out, then. And Alison looked at it for a second. Looked at it nervously.
“We get to the extraction point,” Gina said. “We end this. We—”
She stopped right away because she heard the movement behind them.
She turned around, lifted the knife, half expecting it to be the people who had been with her mum; the people who she’d been with all along.
But it wasn’t.
It was someone else.
Someone else completely.
“Arya,” Gina said.
Arya ran up to her. But she didn’t jump up. She didn’t lick her. She just panted. Panted like something was wrong. Like… she’d been through something. Like something had happened, and she knew about it. She understood it.
She ruffled Arya’s fur. The last time she’d seen her was back in the woods with Kelsie. “What’s wrong, girl?”
And then she looked up, and she saw her.
“Kelsie,” Alison said.
Kelsie was walking towards them.
But she didn’t look happy to see them.
She didn’t look relieved.
She looked… mortified.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was sniffing. Trying to stop herself from crying. Walking so rigidly. So solidly.
“Kelsie?” Gina said, standing up, walking towards her. “What is it?”
She looked up at Gina. Then at Alison. Then she wiped her eyes and took a few breaths. “It’s—It’s Mike,” she said.
“What’s happened to him? What’s happened, Kelsie?”
And then she told them.
She told them everything.
She told them everything.
Every last bit.
Chapter Forty-Seven
“But… but he was here. He was definitely here.”
Kelsie looked around. She looked at the spot where Mike had lay.
And she couldn’t understand it. She didn’t get it.
Mike was here.
She remembered the spot.
She remembered the exact location.
But now…
“Are you sure, Kelsie?” Alison asked.
Kelsie nodded. And she looked at Arya. Looked at where Arya was sniffing at the ground. Sniffing like she knew who had been here. Like she knew the scent.
“Then if you’re telling the truth,” Gina said. “Where is he now?”
Kelsie swallowed a lump in her sore throat as she looked around. And she wondered. Because there was no way he could’ve got away. There was no way he could’ve got up and walked away. Not in the state he’d been in.
“We should go now,” Kelsie said.
Alison took her hand. “Yeah. Yeah we should.”
They walked away from the patches. They walked away from the spot where Kelsie was sure Mike had been. Where Calvin’s dead body rested. That sad look still across his face.
They walked towards the setting sun, towards the helicopters, towards the new world and whatever it held for them.
When they got there, Alison held her breath.
She saw the helicopters. She saw the tents.
And she saw the people.
Lots of them. Civilians. And people in military gear, too.
It looked like there was order.
It looked like there was organisation.
It looked like there was… life.
She stopped right in front of the gates, Gina, Kelsie, and Arya by her side.
“Are you ready?” Alison asked, looking down at Kelsie.
Kelsie took a deep breath, and she nodded.
And then the four of them walked towards these gates, towards the light, towards a new beginning.
Towards the unknown.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Somewhere far away, Mike opened his eyes and took in a sharp gasp of air.
“You don’t have to worry anymore, sir,” a man’s voice said, his face hidden by the bright light shining above. “You’re safe now.”
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2018 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Damonza
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Published by Higher Bank Books