Into the Light: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Into the Dark Book 10)

by Ryan Casey

  And she just wished they’d get it done with. Just wished that it could be over as quickly as it had started.

  Even though deep down she knew it hadn’t even started yet. Not really.

  She felt her mind keep wandering to Emilia, to Romesh, to those she’d lost and how close she’d come to ending it all. But even that felt pathetic now. Even that felt like she was moping in something she had no control of, not anymore. It felt like she’d rung the sympathy card dry, even for herself.

  All she could think about, comfortably, was blankness. Emptiness.

  All she could think about was nothing.

  She went to close her eyes again when she heard a door open.

  Her stomach crawled with fear. Pure fear that took her back to the girl she used to be—the girl she’d always been deep down, really. The fear when she stepped out of line with her mum. When she did something her mum didn’t approve of.

  The fear that had controlled her for so many years.

  Still there in the back of her mind. Still haunting her. Still waiting in the darkest recesses of her psyche, waiting to strike.

  She peered at the person walking towards her, and she knew who it was immediately.

  “You’re awake,” Tony said. “Good. There’s something I want to discuss with you. Something important.”

  He reached Gina, and that’s when she saw them. The wire cutters. She thought of all the things he could do with them. All the ways he could make her suffer. The way he was swirling them around in his palm, teasing what was to come, what was to follow.

  He looked into her eyes, and she could smell the slight acidic tang to his breath. She could see that look of hatred still glistening in his eyes. A look she didn’t want to push. Because she feared him. Even though she had nothing left to live for… she still feared what he might take from her in her final moments.

  In all of their final moments.

  He cut down one of her wrists that she was hanging from. Held her hand tight, though. As if she wasn’t totally out of the woods.

  “You said something,” he said. “About… about some kind of way out. About time running out for us. What was that all about?”

  Gina narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t expecting him to bring that up. Wasn’t expecting him to show any interest in what she had to say about the extraction point at all.

  But he didn’t seem like he was faking. He seemed genuinely interested. Genuinely intrigued.

  Which made her wonder if she maybe had an opportunity after all.

  “There’s—there’s a way out of this country. A group. They… they’re taking people out of here before it’s too late.”

  “Before it’s too late? What does that mean?”

  Gina swallowed a lump in her dry throat. “It means there isn’t much time left. If we… if we don’t find a way to get away from here somehow, then the clock’s going to stop ticking. It’s going to run down eventually. And we’re going to be out of time completely. That’s… that’s all I know, really.”

  Tony clicked his tongue like he was thinking about what Gina was saying. Like he was contemplating it. “And I’m supposing you can tell us exactly how we get out of this mess, can you?”

  Gina felt at a crossroads. On the one hand, she didn’t want to lie. She didn’t want to double cross.

  But at the same time… it might be the only chance she had to get away.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah. I can… I can help you. We can help each other.”

  Tony looked at her then. Glimmering eyes. And he smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, we can.”

  He lifted the wire cutters and wrapped them around the tip of Gina’s little finger on the left hand.

  “You’re going to tell us exactly where we go,” he said, tightening the wire cutters. “And you’re going to tell us the truth.”

  The wire cutters grew tighter.

  “And then when I’m absolutely sure I’ve broken you down to nothing… only then am I going to take you there.”

  Gina’s heart racing. Tension building.

  “And if you’re telling the truth… I’ll make sure you die comfortably.”

  Those wire cutters getting tighter.

  “But if it turns out you’ve been tricking me and my people, well…”

  He smiled.

  “Let this be a taster of what is to come.”

  He snapped the wire cutters together.

  Gina felt sharp, red hot pain.

  She looked at the floor and saw the tip of her finger falling down below.

  Felt the pain, the agony.

  Then she saw Tony move the wire cutters further up her finger.

  “That hurt?” he said. “Good. On to the next one.”

  He snapped the wire cutters together again.

  Gina screamed.

  Chapter Twelve

  Thirty-Nine Hours to Go…

  The night was at its suffocating peak, and Kelsie was all alone with just baby Holly and Arya Jr for company.

  She had been walking for an hour, almost exactly. She knew because she’d counted every second, every minute. It was one way of focusing on the present; of stopping the thoughts and the memories of everything that had happened to her these last few days from totally swallowing and engulfing her. She couldn’t believe how quickly everything had deteriorated; how rapidly everything had fallen apart.

  She’d grown complacent, in a sense. Too used to stability. Too attached to the safety net that was cast over everyday life.

  And as much as she always knew she should’ve expressed caution in her waking life, just in case… she had grown used to the comforts of Wright Green. Just like she’d grown used to the comforts of the old world. Everyone had.

  She’d always promised herself never to get too comfortable again. That was always Mike’s motto. But the changing circumstances seemed to even take him by surprise.

  And now he was gone, and everyone was gone, and…

  No. Back to counting steps. Back to counting the seconds. Back to focusing on the path ahead.

  She was exhausted. And it didn’t help that baby Holly had been wailing like mad for the last thirty minutes. She knew it couldn’t be helped. She wanted feeding, after all. But Kelsie couldn’t help her because she didn’t have anything for her.

  She looked down at baby Holly as she wailed up at her, and she felt the tension of the moment splitting through. Because as much as she needed to power on, she needed to solve this situation. Nobody else was going to solve it for her. She was lucky nobody had heard already. Just fortunate that the country was a wasteland for the most part nowadays.

  But she wasn’t going to be in luck for long.

  Not when there were animals out there. Animals she’d seen. Bears and the like.

  And there were the Outsiders, too.

  She didn’t know how many of them there were. Nobody did.

  Only that they were out there, and they were surely sweeping through the country after other communities, too.

  It still didn’t make sense to her, on the whole. Why was this group hand-culling groups when there was supposedly some kind of cataclysm on the horizon? Was it the same bunch? Was there some kind of reason they were doing what they were doing?

  Regardless. She only had one thing to go on, and that’s where she had to go.

  She kept walking. Kept counting. Kept—

  Baby Holly let out another wail.

  “Oh can you just shut up!”

  She shouted. Louder than she’d intended. And she hated it. She hated how it made her feel inside. She hated that it made her feel so guilty that she could snap at such an innocent little soul like this.

  Because baby Holly was exactly who she was doing all of this for.

  Baby Holly was her future.

  She crouched down, then, as baby Holly continued to wail. Rocked her from side to side. Whispered to her. Sang to her, her voice cracking. Told her stories of her mother.

  And in the end, she quieted again.


  But Kelsie knew it was only temporary. She needed feeding. She needed feeding fast. She could only keep her quiet for so long.

  She stood up again, and she saw movement.

  She froze. Hairs on her arms standing on end. Skin pricking on the back of her neck. She’d seen something ahead. Something or someone. She didn’t know what it was. Who it was.

  Only there was something there.

  She looked to her left, over at the woodlands running alongside the road. And as much as she wanted to go in there and lay low, go in there and hide, she felt resistance, too. Because it felt like there was something in there as well. Something watching. Something waiting to reach out for her and strike.

  To take her baby away.

  She looked at Arya Jr. Saw the way her head was tilting. Like she’d heard something too. Which put Kelsie even more on edge.

  If Arya Jr had heard something too, then that meant it wasn’t just Kelsie.

  It wasn’t just a figment of her imagination.

  There was something out there.

  She took the only decision that seemed to make sense in the moment, and she carried on walking. She couldn’t see that movement up ahead anymore, but she’d remain cautious, just in case.

  Baby Holly in one arm.

  And Mike’s knife in her other hand.

  Ready to attack, ready to protect herself and her baby if that’s what it came to.

  She heard movement again, this time behind. And she didn’t want to look back. She didn’t want to see if there was anything or anyone there.

  But when she looked, she saw movement again, and this time she became certain that she wasn’t alone.

  She was definitely being followed.

  She took another step when she heard a growl.

  She stopped. Looked ahead.

  And when she saw what was approaching her, every muscle in her body went numb.

  There was an animal in front of her.

  Jet black as the night.

  Some kind of big cat.

  Glistening white teeth.

  Another escaped zoo animal that had made this country its own, no doubt.

  And it was closing in on her.

  Closing in on her crying baby.

  Fast.

  She turned around to stumble away.

  That’s when she saw another approaching from behind.

  Then another, emerging from the woods.

  She stood there and watched as these beasts got closer, as they closed in, one by one.

  Hungry.

  Growling.

  Getting ready to pounce.

  She held onto her knife with her shaking hand and tried to take deep breaths.

  But it was no use.

  She was surrounded.

  The jaguars were surrounding her.

  Time was running out.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gina waited for the wire cutters to snap her little finger off completely when she heard the bang.

  It was light and unfocused. Something she could barely pinpoint. And as she hung there from her right wrist, part of her wondered if it was just the pain playing tricks on her. Whether the explosion of agony she was going through had sparked a different kind of explosion of her senses.

  But then she saw something. A few things, actually.

  First the look on Tony’s face as he stood opposite her in the darkness.

  Then something outside. A flash.

  And as she saw it, she couldn’t help smiling. Even though she knew what it was, even though she knew who was coming… she had to smile.

  Tony looked over his shoulder. “What the hell’s that?”

  And through the agony, through the pain, Gina could only do one thing, now.

  She could only hang there by her right wrist and laugh.

  Tony looked back at her. “What’s so funny?”

  “I warned you,” she said.

  He frowned. The bullets picking up. Getting closer. And then shouts. Shouts from nearby. Shouts from Tony’s people.

  “What—”

  “I’m sorry,” Gina said. “For what I did. But a lot’s happened since. A lot’s changed. I just… I just wish we’d been able to put things aside before it came to this.”

  “Before it came to what?”

  Gina smiled.

  She felt a crack, then. More teeth splitting. It was only when she lifted her head that she realised she’d been on the receiving end of one of Tony’s punches.

  But he’d turned around, now. He was making his way to the door.

  And as he did, once again, Gina couldn’t help smiling. Even though blood was pouring from her mouth now, she couldn’t help grinning.

  Because she knew he wouldn’t be punching her again. Not after this.

  She closed her eyes then, and she waited. Let the darkness surround her. Listened as blood dripped from her left hand, which dangled by her side. As it trailed from her mouth.

  She listened to the silence. And she wondered for a moment whether the armed group had passed. Whether they’d moved on. Or whether this really was just some kind of misunderstanding after all.

  And then she heard the shout and the blast of rifles.

  And she knew deep down that Tony was gone.

  She couldn’t smile. She couldn’t feel happy. After all, Tony was well within his rights to despise her for what she’d done. She’d wanted supplies at the end of the day. And sure, she’d treated outsiders like cattle. But then at the time, she just thought that was the only way to survive. The only way to thrive.

  She knew different now.

  She opened her eyes. Lifted her head. Looked over at the door. Because she’d dodged a bullet—for now. But she knew that she wasn’t going to have long here. She had to make this moment count. She had to get out of here.

  Because she knew for a fact that if the armed group found her, she wouldn’t be dodging any of their bullets.

  She looked up, up at her right arm. It was strained and weak, tied tightly up there with chains.

  But she had an advantage now. Tony had set her left arm free to get to work torturing her. She had an extra hand. An extra chance to get out of here. To at least try setting herself free.

  She reached up. Her hand crippled with agony. Pain split through her sliced finger. She looked at it; saw there was just a stump where it had been.

  But it wasn’t just that. Her chest, too. Her chest where she’d been stabbed. It was starting to burn—badly.

  She knew it needed proper medical attention. And she knew the only way she was going to get any kind of attention was by finding some way out of this place. Getting some supplies of her own.

  She reached the chains around her wrist. Started to pull at them. Yank at them. Even though the pain was intense and crippling.

  She felt them loosening.

  Felt them coming free.

  Then she heard the footsteps.

  They were outside the door. Right outside.

  She went still all of a sudden. Totally still, totally limp out of instinct.

  And she closed her eyes and held her breath.

  The door opened.

  She listened as the footsteps creaked inside. Her heart raced, and she wanted to shake, but she couldn’t. Her instincts took over. Playing dead.

  Because if she didn’t play dead, she would be dead, very soon.

  She heard those footsteps creak around. And she knew someone was in here watching her. Examining her situation.

  It was only when she heard the voice speak that it really struck home.

  “Shit,” a woman said.

  Silence, then. Silence where Gina wanted to open her eyes. Where she wanted to look. Where she wanted to investigate.

  But then she knew it was too much of a risk. Too much of a gamble.

  She had to be patient.

  She had to bide her time.

  She heard more footsteps. The movement of a gun. And she pictured what was going to happen next. The woman wou
ld lift her gun and put Gina out of her misery. Or she’d shoot her anyway, just to make sure.

  All Gina could do was keep still.

  All she could do was hold her breath, longer, longer, longer.

  She waited until she absolutely couldn’t hold it anymore when she heard the crackling of a radio.

  “Rival group at the Empress Ballroom. Trying to extract civilians. Need you over there ASAP. Over.”

  She heard the woman tut. Rustle around with her radio. “Got that. Over.”

  She turned around.

  Left the room.

  Closed the door behind her.

  Gina waited until she was absolutely sure she was alone before moving a muscle.

  And then she opened her eyes.

  She knew where the extraction point was.

  She knew where she had to go.

  And she knew she had to get there fast if she wanted to stand any chance of escape.

  She reached for the chains again, pulled at them, and after an effort, she dropped to her knees with a crack.

  She stood up. Brushed herself down. Took a deep breath.

  It was time to find her way out of this hellhole.

  It was time for her final journey to begin.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Thirty-Eight Hours to Go…

  Kelsie held her baby close as the jaguars surrounded and waited for their first strike.

  The night sky was clear, the stars and the moon illuminating the darkness. Everywhere Kelsie looked, she saw a jaguar approaching out of the jet black of night. She saw their teeth glowing. Hungry teeth. Growls cutting through the silence.

  And she felt so vulnerable, right in that moment.

  Not just for herself. But for the baby in her arms. Because she was her biggest source of protection right now. She was the one she was looking out for. And she’d do everything she had to in order to make sure she was safe.

  Arya Jr was by her side, growling too. But looking at her, she didn’t look all that threatening. She knew the gravity of the situation she was in, too. She was in danger. Big danger. All of them were.

  If they didn’t find a way to act fast, they were going to live up to their name of prey.