by Ryan Casey
The sensation of something tearing. Splitting. Like a water balloon getting to bursting point.
This was it.
This was the moment her eyes imploded.
This was the moment it ended…
And then she realised something else.
Heather had let go.
The pressure wasn’t from her thumbs anymore. It was just the pain of what’d happened itself.
She sat up. Looked around, her vision totally bright, colours flashing in them, but the darkness returning. The pressure receding.
She heard crying at the other side of the room.
“Heather?”
She walked over to her. Sat beside her. Heard her crying, sobbing her heart out.
“Stay away from me,” she gasped. But there was no fight to her voice anymore. No strength at all.
“Heather,” Aoife said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’m—I’m so sorry. But what happened. That was on Robert. Don’t do what he wants us to do. Don’t… don’t let him convince us we’re each other’s enemy.”
“I never—I never wanted to come along,” Heather said. “He wanted to. Vince wanted to. And now he’s gone, and—and everyone’s gone.”
“And that’s on Robert,” Aoife said. “I’m so sorry for what happened. For my part in it. If I could take it back, I would. But don’t forget the real enemy here. Don’t forget who both our enemy is. Because… because we’re both in here now. And we’ve both got each other.”
“What does it matter anyway? We’re trapped. We’re fucked. We’re going to die here. I’m not—I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”
Aoife took a deep breath of the cold, damp air. “Maybe we don’t take much more of it, then.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked up at that door.
Heart thumping.
And for the first time in God knows how long, Aoife felt a strength inside her resurfacing, all over again.
“We can’t give up,” Aoife said. “We’re going to get out of this place. We’re going to fight our way out. We’re going to get Kayleigh. And we’re going to get Rex. And we’re going to get Thomas, too. And you know what else we’re going to do?”
Heather was silent. But listening.
“We’re going to kill that fucker Robert,” she said. “Or we’re going to die trying.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Finn walked towards the cells and had the craziest feeling something wasn’t going to be all that well when he got there.
It was a dark, dark night. The old cliche, wasn’t it? Shit always went down on the darkest of nights. The moon hid behind the clouds now. The community was asleep. Fast asleep. They always slept well here. Slept well knowing they were safe. Slept well knowing they were living under Robert’s rule, knowing he had their best interests at heart.
Because he did. He truly did.
That’s what Finn kept on telling himself, anyway.
Because deep down, he knew he didn’t totally believe it. Like, at the end of the day, Robert was just a leader like any other. Power crazy. Did things to tickle his own ego rather than actually for the good of man. Wasn’t that how leadership always worked? Ain’t that how it’d always been, right throughout history?
But at the end of the day, what Robert had going here was good. Even if Finn didn’t fully buy into his bullshit, he’d created a safe community. He’d created something worth fighting for. Even if the whole prophecy business was a load of old gobbledygook, it didn’t really matter at the end of the day.
What mattered was it worked very much like religion. The whole prophecy business was just a metaphor, really.
A metaphor for what really mattered.
And hey. Finn knew full well it might not always be the best place to live here. After all, when was anywhere ever good forever?
But for now… it was good. And when the time came for him to move on, he would do.
And he wouldn’t feel any pity.
He wouldn’t feel any shame.
He was a survivor, after all.
Someone called him a cockroach once upon a time. Well, cockroaches were the greatest damned survivors in history. He took it as a compliment.
He walked down the street towards the cells. He looked at the one on the right first. The one where they were keeping Thomas. He looked around, all over. It’d been a long time since Thomas got here now. Over a week. And really, it felt unfair that Robert was still keeping him prisoner. But everyone was forbidden to talk with him. Nobody could hear what he had to say.
Finn wondered whether he’d said something threatening to Robert. Something that threatened to send this community spiralling. Something that threatened to tear it apart completely.
Because Robert had secrets. Of course, he had secrets.
He looked at that door, the door only he was trusted with a key for, and he wanted so bad to go in there and find out what this Thomas dude was all about.
’Cause at the end of the day… he came from a place where they had helicopters.
Which meant he came from a place where somehow, there was power.
And that meant he had far more to offer than Robert’s community did.
He held the key in his hand.
Thought about putting it in the door.
And then he heard a moan from the next cells.
He looked up. Over at the metal door to the next room. They were just outhouses, really. Brick outhouses, not actual cells. But they served their purpose well.
He looked at that cell, at that moan, and thought it sounded like Aoife. Whoever it was, he needed to see to ’em. He’d been grilled for throwing them in together. Robert was pretty certain Heather was the stronger of the pair, even after all the shit he’d put ’em both through, and he didn’t want either of them killing each other. It was meant to just screw with them both for a bit. But it wasn’t meant to be deadly. He’d be in deep shit if anything happened to either of them.
He rushed over there to that cell. Put the key in the lock. Turned it. Opened the door.
When he looked on the floor, his stomach sank.
The pair of them were nowhere to be seen.
He frowned. Where the hell had they gone? There was nowhere they could go in here. Absolutely nowhere they could go.
There was no way they could escape.
He looked over to the left.
No one.
And then over to the right.
That’s when he saw her out of nowhere.
Aoife.
Flying towards him.
Slamming a brick against his head.
Knocking him to the floor.
He tried to shout, but the next thing he knew, he had a hand over his mouth.
He tried to kick himself free, but the pair of them were on top of him.
Aoife looking down at him as she straddled him.
Brick in hand.
“Please,” Finn muttered. “I can—I can help you. I can help you out of here.”
“You can start by telling us where Thomas is.”
“He’s—he’s in one of the cells just down the road. You can—you can get to him. I have a key. Just… just don’t kill me. Keep me alive. Please. I can help you. I can help all of you.”
“I made the mistake of not killing you last time,” Aoife said. “I made the mistake trusting you last time. And Heather’s brother died because of it. Not again.”
Then she handed the brick over to Heather.
Heather looked down at him, an animalistic snarl to her face.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit,” she said.
And then she slammed the brick against his head.
Hard.
And then again.
And again.
Finn wasn’t sure how long Heather beat the shit out of him.
But he heard his own skull crack.
And it was still a while after that, as he lost all his faculties completely, that he finally lost consciousness,
and everything faded to black.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“You done there?” Aoife said.
Heather looked up. Her arms and hands were covered in blood. On the floor, the bloodied, bony mess that was Finn’s head marked the floor. His body twitched. There was a rusty smell in the air. A taste of sweat and death.
“Just about,” Heather said.
Aoife rushed over to Finn’s body. Grabbed his knife. “We need to find Thomas. He must be here near us. And if Finn’s here, then he’ll have the key.”
“This key?” Heather said, lifting it in the air.
“Bingo,” Aoife said.
She looked at Heather, and her heart raced. She felt weak. Far less strong than she used to feel. Far less energy.
But at the same time. For the first time in God knows how long, Aoife felt hope.
“We can get out of this,” Aoife said. “We can escape this.”
“As long as I get to pluck Robert’s eyes out before we leave, it works for me.”
Aoife nodded. As much as she was hesitant about revenge after everything that happened with Grace all those months ago, she saw and understood Heather’s lust for blood right now. And she felt it, too. She wanted that revenge too. Because she’d been put through hell by Robert. So many people had been put through hell by this spectre-like figure who hid in the shadows.
And she was fucking done with it.
“Kayleigh’s my priority,” Aoife said. “Saving her is my priority. I understand… I understand your feelings towards Robert. But if it’s a choice between saving Kayleigh and Robert surviving and the alternative—”
“You just do what you need to do, and I’ll do what I need to do,” Heather said. “At the end of the day, we’re both going the same direction.”
Aoife nodded. “Which is the apartment.”
Heather walked over to the door. Aoife joined her. “It won’t be easy getting up there. He has guards patrolling.”
“Might be time for the old uniform to come in handy.”
“Huh?”
“We get to two of them. Dress like them. It might buy us some time.”
Heather shook her head. “They won’t even let us get close. Best thing we can do is watch their movement. Wait for an opening. And then—”
“Let’s just focus on getting Thomas out of this cell first, wherever it is. Find him. Then we focus on the next step. Okay?”
Heather didn’t look convinced. But she nodded anyway. “It just worries me.”
“What does?”
“That this is going surprisingly well. It shouldn’t be this easy. Not with… not with Robert.”
Aoife felt that, too. There was something off about this whole thing. And it made her wonder if things were going on behind the scenes that she didn’t know about.
But she didn’t have time to speculate.
Neither of them did.
“Let’s just get Thomas out of there. Find him. Then we do whatever we have to do.”
They stepped out of the cells, out into the night. Aoife breathed in the cool air. Felt it against her skin. Fresh air that made her realise just how grim it’d been locked in that damp building for so long. She didn’t have time to savour it too much, though. Had to stay focused. Couldn’t get distracted. Had to keep her wits about her.
Especially while the pair of them were still vulnerable. Still weak.
They looked in the building next to them. Nobody in there.
And then they tried the key in the next one, but again, nobody in there.
“Must be this one,” Aoife said.
They went to walk towards it, Aoife’s heart racing, adrenaline building, when suddenly a man stepped around the corner out of nowhere.
Aoife yanked Heather back, around the side of the outhouse.
Someone was here.
They weren’t alone.
“Keep quiet,” Aoife whispered.
They stood there in the darkness. Still. Totally still. Listened to those footsteps move towards them. And then it dawned on Aoife that they were going to find Finn. They were going to find Finn, and they were going to sound an alarm, and they were going to be in the shit. Deep shit.
They had to do something about her.
Aoife clutched onto Finn’s knife.
She waited for the perfect moment.
Watched as that woman emerged from the corner of her eyes.
Realised she was holding a dog. Some kind of guard dog…
Wait.
No.
Not just any dog.
Rex.
In an instant, Rex turned around, barked, and then wagged his tail.
The woman looked around.
Looked right at Aoife and Heather.
“What…”
Aoife didn’t hold back.
She didn’t hesitate.
She threw herself at the woman.
Tackled her to the ground.
Lifted her knife.
Went to slam it into her throat.
The woman pushed back. She was strong. Far stronger than Aoife.
She clutched on to Aoife’s knife. Rex trying to lick Aoife this whole time, clearly confused.
Aoife tried to push. Tried to maintain her ground.
Growing worried this woman was about to scream.
And then the woman’s hands slipped.
Aoife buried the knife into her neck.
Covered her mouth.
Felt her hot blood trickling over her hands.
She held her mouth until she was absolutely sure she was gone.
And then she stood up.
Walked over to Rex. Hugged him. Tight.
“It’s good to see you, lad. It’s so good to see you.”
She wanted to stay here. Wanted this moment of reunion to last forever.
But then she heard Heather clear her throat.
“Hurry,” she said. “We don’t have much time. Second they find this, we’re in the shit.”
Aoife nodded. Stood up. Ushered Rex along.
Ran over to the cell door.
Put the key into it and braced herself for it not to turn.
But it turned.
It turned, and then the door unlocked.
And when Aoife looked inside, in the darkness, she saw him.
A man.
A man sitting there.
A familiar man.
He looked up at Aoife, at Heather, with wide, confused eyes.
“Hello, Thomas,” Aoife said. “We’re here to get you out of here.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Robert heard the bang outside and opened his eyes.
It was late. He’d left a candle on, over by the window. Didn’t like sleeping in total darkness—when he could sleep at all. He wanted the rest of his community to know that he had something of an open door policy too. That if they needed him for anything at any time of night, he was here for them.
Of course, he didn’t mean that in practice. He’d be royally fucked if anyone came knocking in the middle of the night.
But it was all about gesture, and it was all about creating an illusion in this place.
He looked out at the moon, which shone in brightly. It was especially bright lately. Reminded him of childhood. Sneaking off in the night to avoid Dad when he came home drunk, the stench of booze clinging to his breath. No matter how good an idea it seemed at the time, Dad would always find him. And he’d get an even worse beating for running away.
He could just never get it into his head. The fear of those beatings was so strong that it always seemed worth delaying it, postponing it somehow.
His heart fluttered a little just thinking of it now.
He turned around and saw Kayleigh lying there beside him.
“Awake again,” he muttered.
Kayleigh stared up at the ceiling. It’d been ten days since he’d been reunited with her, and he had to admit those ten days hadn’t exactly been plain sailing. He’d tried to ween her off her sedation. But wh
enever she grew more able, she stood up to him. She told him she didn’t want to be here. To let her go. To let her run away.
She had too much fight about her. And while he valued fight in some people… he didn’t value it in Kayleigh when she was fighting against him.
So he had to tone her sedation back up a little. Just enough that she was compliant. Just enough that she was… well. On board.
But that dead-eyed stare up at the ceiling. That emptiness behind her eyes.
Part of why he hadn’t been able to sleep with her yet.
He wasn’t going to fuck her against her will. That much was certain. He thought he might be able to at first, and he’d tried, but then his morals just got the better of him. It was just too creepy. Too inappropriate. Especially when she’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want to be here.
But that said… he didn’t have to fuck her to continue holding power over her.
And eventually, in time, she’d come round. She’d see his way.
He reached over. Stroked the hair off her forehead. Soft. So soft and yet slightly… damp. And there was something about its dampness that disgusted Robert. Something about that smell of sweat from her. She used to be so pristine for someone surviving in this world. Not anymore. That was gone now.
And he had to admit it was turning him off.
Maybe there’d be someone else for him.
Someone to replace her.
He thought about Aoife. Thought about her screaming. It was his idea to let Heather in there with her. Just rough each other up a little bit.
He just hoped Aoife was okay. Because she was an attractive girl. And he might just have an opening available very soon.
“It’ll be okay,” Robert said. “I’m going to look after you as much as I can. I’m trying to look after you as much as I can. We all need to look after each other now. Especially… especially after what Thomas told me.”
He remembered Thomas’ words, and a shiver crept up his spine.
His jaw tensed instinctively.
He remembered what he said about what was coming.
About what was out there.
And then he pushed it to one side.
He’d tell the community about it when the time was right.
He’d tell them exactly what he’d learned.