by Ryan Casey
He threw himself towards it. Clamped his fingers around it.
And then he lifted it and pointed it at the guy standing over him.
“You let us leave,” he barked, his head aching, his body shaking. Ella’s hand still in his. “You let us leave. Right this second.”
The lad looked at him. Just a scared kid now. No hardness about him, not now their leader was twitching away on the floor. Not while he was bleeding so badly from the back of his head.
It was like the severity of this whole situation had caught up with them, and it was Martin who had delivered the news.
“Back off,” Martin said. “Right now.”
The lad stepped towards him. Just momentarily.
And then he backed away to his friend’s side.
Martin looked at the lads standing around their mate. He saw their shocked expressions.
And then he saw the lad he’d head-butted lying there, rolling around, writhing.
He didn’t have time to stick around.
He moved over to the bike lying by his side. Lifted one, sat on it, then nodded to Ella.
“Come on,” he said.
Ella frowned. “What?”
“Jump on. We’ll get around quicker by bike like you said.”
Ella looked back at the twitching, spluttering thug.
Then she looked at Martin. Nodded, somewhat reluctantly.
Then she climbed onto his back and held on.
Martin looked back at those lads as he sat there on that bike. He needed to get away while they were still in shock. Didn’t want to face their wrath when they came round and got all vengeful.
“He’ll be okay,” Martin said. “Just use some dental floss to stitch up the wound on his head. Let him rest. Keep him hydrated.”
Two of the lads looked around. Frowned. Like they couldn’t understand why he was offering them this advice after all that’d happened.
And then Martin turned away, tightened his grip on the handlebars, rucksack on shoulder, and he cycled.
He could still hear that lad writhing away as he got closer to the supermarket doors...
Chapter Twenty-Six
Martin and Ella didn’t stop running until they were absolutely sure they were well away from the supermarket.
The bike had screwed up almost immediately after they’d cycled away. Its tires got all caught up in the mud, and the chains went to shit. So they were on foot again. Nice idea while it lasted, at least. Got to prove to Ella that the whole bike idea was a write off from the off, though, so that was something.
They were alongside Lake Windermere now. When they’d approached it, they’d seen the usual sights—roads packed with stationary cars, most of them abandoned at this point. Truth be told, it didn’t look much different than usual for this side of the Lakes. Martin loved the Lakes, but he bloody hated how touristy it’d become in places. Ambleside was a part of that—again, nice as it was, it had the misfortune of being one of the most popular areas around the Lakes. A tourist trap for selfie sticks and Instagram influencers, whatever the hell they were.
But they were outside of Ambleside now. Walking alongside the lake, which shimmered in the moonlight.
Ella walked alongside him. Every now and then, she laughed. Shook her head.
It was pretty clear they were both gonna struggle to sleep after the adrenaline rush of what’d happened at the supermarket.
Martin made sure he kept as low a profile as possible. The bug out bag, stuffed with supplies, weighed down on his shoulder. Probably put a little too much in there, in all truth.
But tomorrow was the third day without power, so it was important not to underestimate just how out of control people were going to get. A third day without food deliveries. A third day without any kind of official information as to what was going on.
Martin remembered reading a load of studies about what would happen in this kind of apocalyptic scenario; how long things would take to spiral out of control. That was just the problem: you always hoped society would be able to hold itself together in disaster.
But really, the truth was a lot harder to swallow.
People needed people above them to tell them what to buy, what to wear, what to eat, and what to drink.
They needed to be told how to live.
Without all that, the very foundations of modern life were torn apart.
“That was amazing,” Ella said. “I… I’ve never felt like that before. Like, I know it was wrong. I know it was bad. But… but did you see the look on his face when we bolted?”
Martin turned around and frowned. “You shouldn’t gloat about it. The kid was just trying to find his own supplies. He might’ve seriously hurt himself.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “If you felt so strongly about him, you shouldn’t have stolen from him and knocked him over. Maybe you should’ve helped.”
Martin turned away. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy he’d managed to gather some decent equipment that would hopefully take him far. It’s just he was still struggling with the reality that this was the world they were in now. He’d acted violently. Knocked that kid down and left him in a precarious state.
But on the other hand… he knew he’d done the right thing. The only thing.
Those in the know had to take advantage of the situation while they could.
“There’s a difference between being grateful and boastful,” Martin said as he squelched through the muddy ground alongside the still, peaceful lake.
“Is this one of your fatherly lessons I missed out on?”
“You can’t keep turning that back on me,” Martin said. “I just want you to be more cautious. Besides. After what I’ve heard about some of your friends and what they get up to in their spare time, I would’ve thought you’d have a different attitude to it all.”
He heard Ella stop walking, and he regretted his words right away.
He didn’t look back. He just kept walking like he hadn’t even noticed her.
“And you can’t keep turning my friends back on me,” Ella said. “You don’t even know them, for one. And besides. Like I said. It doesn’t matter what you think of them. It doesn’t matter whether you think they’re a bad influence or whatever. At least they’ve been there for me.”
Those words stung Martin again. But he was tired, and he wasn’t in the mood to go through all that again. “And I haven’t. I get it.”
“You know, you’re not the only one who didn’t think they could look after me.”
Martin stopped, then. Turned around. Looked at Ella standing there, so pale in the light of the stars. “What do you mean?”
Ella’s bottom lip quivered. She covered her body with her arms, twiddling with the material of her jacket sleeve. “Mum. She didn’t think she was capable either. She didn’t think she was strong enough. She’d just... she used to say something. ‘Everyone’s in the deep end. We’re all just trying our best to float.’”
“Ella,” Martin said. The hairs on his arms stood on end when she said those words. He’d heard Sarah say them so many times.
But Ella went on. “But she tried. She tried even though she was going through hell. She did everything she could. Because she knew if she didn’t… well. She did everything for me. But in the end… in the end, things were just too hard for her. But she tried. She tried.”
Martin felt like he was being swallowed up by a dark cloud. Hearing his daughter talk this way, it made him well up. Made a lump swell in his throat and chest.
Because he heard what she was saying.
He read through the lines.
She blamed herself for her mother’s death.
He took a deep breath. Then he walked over to Ella, who stood there, staring at the ground. Tears glistening in the moonlight.
“Ella,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She looked up at him. So lost. So sad.
There were so many things he wanted to say to her.
So many ways he wanted to help he
r.
But in the end, the only thing he could do was wipe the tears from her face and then squeeze her shoulder gently.
She leaned in towards him, just slightly.
They stood there together for what felt like forever. Stared at the water. Watched the moonlight reflect against it. Little firelights sparked in the distance, surrounding the lake. Some of them from boats on the lake, too.
He looked down by the side of the lake. Saw a little hut where an excursions company used to do water activities. A few kayaks by that lake.
He tightened his grip on her shoulder and smiled.
“Let’s go onto the water and across to the other side. I know a place. It’ll be safer there.”
He looked around into her eyes. Waited for her to say something else. Anything else.
But then she just wiped her tears away and smiled back at him.
They headed down to the water together.
Hand in hand.
And as he made his way further towards that water, Martin realised the truth, clearer than ever, for the very first time.
Getting Ella back to her grandma was dangerous.
Travelling to anywhere more densely populated was a risk.
He was at a crossroads. But he knew one thing for sure.
As long as Ella was in his company, he’d look after her.
He’d protect her.
He owed her that much.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Martin woke, he knew something was wrong right away.
The sun shone down brightly, made him squint. The front of his head ached. He felt dehydrated, his throat was dry, and his stomach felt iffy.
He guessed that was just one of the unfortunate side effects of this new world.
He sat up. Looked around. He’d slept on a bank at the side of the lake. It was one of the more sheltered parts of the lake. Didn’t look like many people had been around this way. They’d gone out onto the water in the dark in the kayaks and made their way over here.
It reminded Martin of when he’d made the same trip with Sarah all those years ago. Finding that secluded little cove, almost impossible to access by the land. Getting out of the kayak and spending hours just sitting there, watching the boats pass by, the birds drift down. He’d lost track of time. Only realised when the owners of the rental company came over in a big motorised boat saying they were worried about them, and that they’d be fined for staying out on the waterway beyond their allotted hour.
They just laughed about it. Paid the difference. It didn’t matter to them. It was a special moment. A memory Martin would never forget.
He looked at the little area to his side where Ella had slept, and his heart sank.
There was nobody there.
He stood up right away. His head spun. His heart raced. His body shook with adrenaline almost immediately.
“Ella?” he said.
But he knew his vague hope was in vain. Ella wasn’t here.
He stumbled down towards the water, to the kayaks. Both of them were still here, which meant wherever she’d gone, she’d gone by foot. He spun back around. Started to climb the hill. Then stopped. Looked over to the foliage on the right. Still nobody there. Nobody in sight.
He stood there, heart pounding, genuinely unsure of what to do, where to go.
You’ve failed. You’ve failed again. You had her right by your side, and you’ve let her slip away. You’re useless. You can’t look after her. You—
“Ella!” Martin shouted.
His voice echoed across the water. No response at all. He was alone. He’d lost her. He’d actually felt like he was growing close to her again, and he’d lost her.
He turned around. Lowered his head. What now? Take his supplies back to the cabin? Start again, alone, exactly how he deserved?
No. Screw that.
He had a responsibility to look for Ella. She was his daughter. He cared about her so much.
He had to find her.
She wasn’t safe out here.
He went to wade his way through the foliage to his right, just past the six-foot Viking statue sitting at the edge of the water. Looked for a trace of footprints in the mud. A trace of any sign of Ella at all.
But there was nothing here that indicated anyone had walked here any time recently.
He wanted to keep on pressing, but he worried what might happen if Ella made her way back to the place they’d slept and found he was missing. The panic she’d feel. She could head off in any direction. Take a kayak onto the water.
He dreaded to think.
He went to turn around, his head spinning with all kinds of worries, when he heard movement to his left.
He froze. Moved the foliage out of the way.
Ella was standing at the edge of a little pool of water. She was holding some kind of long stick with dental floss dangling flimsily from the end of it.
“What the hell are you doing?” Martin said.
Ella spun around straight away. She was wearing the same bomber jacket as yesterday. Her Stan Smith trainers were completely brown with mud.
She looked at Martin and smiled. “I’m fishing. Well. Trying to fish. I saw some fish in here. But it’s harder than I thought it would be.”
Martin couldn’t hold in his anger. He darted towards Ella. Grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the waterside.
“Hey!” she shouted.
“You shouldn’t run away.”
“I was just—”
“I thought I’d lost you,” he shouted.
She looked at him. He looked back at her. Heart racing. Chest tightening.
She yanked her arm away. Rubbed it. “I was just trying to help.”
Martin felt guilty right away. He stood there, looked around the woods. “I... I know. I’m sorry I snapped. But anyway. You won’t catch anything with that.”
Ella frowned. She looked down at the attempt at a fishing rod. “What?”
“The rod. Here. I’ll show you.”
Martin gathered what he needed. First, he grabbed a branch from a tree around six-foot long and not too thick. He cut away the side branches and leaves with his pocketknife, then strung the pole with some of the sewing thread he’d gathered from the supermarket. He tied the line halfway down the rod, wrapped it around it towards the tip a few times, then tied the end of the line around its tip. He didn’t have a hook with him, so he carved a hook from a smaller piece of stick, then tied it to the end. He grabbed some worms from the ground, stuck them to the makeshift hook, and then handed the rod to Ella.
They watched the line dangle in the water, totally still. Time stretched on. None of them spoke.
Eventually, Ella glanced over at Martin. “You sure about this?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure? I thought you were a hundred per cent sure?”
“I’m quite sure we’re probably going to catch something. Okay?”
Ella laughed. She shook her head. “You’re backtracking.”
“I know what I’m doing, okay? In theory, this should...”
He felt something, then.
A tug at the end of the line.
Ella’s eyes widened. “Is that...”
Martin wanted to pull it out of the water. But then he saw his daughter’s interest, too. He saw what this meant to her.
So he handed her the line. “Go on. Your first catch.”
She looked at the rod with wide eyes.
Then she took it and pulled it out of the water.
A little fish dangled on the end of it.
Ella laughed. Martin laughed too. It didn’t matter if it was a small fish. It didn’t matter if it wouldn’t be enough to feed a bigger fish, let alone a person.
It didn’t matter at all.
What mattered was the happiness on Ella’s face.
The pride in her eyes.
He looked back at her as she held on to that fish, and he smiled.
He felt himself getting closer and closer.
Felt himself believing.
But at the same time, he felt that urgency to get Ella to safety growing ever stronger by the moment...
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Garrett walked alongside the edge of Lake Windermere and smiled.
It was a truly beautiful morning. The water was still. There were no tourist-stuffed boats on there cutting through the water, ruining the serenity. The loudest sound came from the birds flying above.
It was beautiful. It was serene.
And he could still feel blood crusting under his nails.
He’d taken someone else out last night. He hadn’t intended to. Hell, he hadn’t even felt that urge. He just figured he might as well. He supposed he got a bit bored and didn’t have something to read with him so he might as well just kill someone. Why not? Nobody was coming for him. Nobody would catch up with him. Might as well just do something to pass the time.
It was a man. Older guy, in his forties. To be honest, when he heard him walking past at first, he was going to just let him go. Smile at him, and the bloke wouldn’t even know how lucky he was that he’d actually got away.
But then the bloke came up to him and started demanding things. He started demanding food and water and a whole host of stuff Garrett didn’t have.
And that pissed Garrett off. It made him angry.
He’d made it quick. Just a crack over the head with a hammer. A moment of confusion and puzzlement on the poor bastard’s face.
Then spluttering, gasping, and silence.
He felt weird after it, though. He’d never killed when he wasn’t possessed by the urge before. And for the first time, he didn’t feel an adrenaline rush. He felt a kind of emptiness. A hole opening up inside.
A desire for something bigger.
Something more.
He walked along by the side of the water. Saw a family of ducks wandering down to the water. They were kicking up a fuss. One of the ducklings looked trapped in the reeds.
Garrett smiled.
He reached down for the little duckling.
Lifted it up.
Felt its soft feathers in his hand as its mother went mad behind her.