After the Darkness: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (Survive the Darkness Book 5)

by Ryan Casey

  But for now, the best thing he could do was keep his mouth shut.

  He thought back to that speech he’d given the night of the discovery. How he’d stood there and told of a conversation he’d had with Thomas. How Thomas had promised he was here to help. That he came from a place with power. A place where eventually, they would come here and rescue all of them.

  He saw the hope in the eyes of so many of his people. Saw them looking at him with such faith. And it was addictive. It was a totally addictive feeling.

  He felt bad for lying to them.

  He felt bad for a lot of things.

  But at least only he knew the truth.

  He knew what was best for his people.

  He looked around at Kayleigh when he noticed she was sitting upright and staring right at him.

  She swung a pair of scissors right at his throat.

  He caught her hand, mid-air.

  Tightened his grip around her wrist.

  “Bitch.”

  And then he punched her across the face, back onto the bed.

  He pinned her down. Wrapped his hands around her throat.

  “How dare you,” he said. “After everything I’ve done for you.”

  “You did nothing for me,” Kayleigh said, saliva drooling down the sides of her mouth. “Nothing but ruin my life.”

  Robert tightened his grip on her throat. His heart racing. His hands shaking. And he realised he didn’t give a fuck what he did to Kayleigh now. He didn’t give a fuck about morals or anything like that.

  Kayleigh was his.

  She was his, and how fucking dare she stand up to him.

  How fucking dare she treat him this way, after everything he’d done for her.

  “You’re going to regret that,” Robert said, tightening his fists. Feeling his erection bulge against his boxer shorts. “You’re really, really going to regret that.”

  He punched her again.

  Then he went to pull his boxers aside when he heard something behind him.

  Sensed a presence.

  Heard footsteps.

  Then a growl.

  He looked around.

  Aoife stood there in the darkness, covered in blood.

  Heather by her side.

  Thomas by her side.

  Dog by her side.

  Knife in her hand.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  Aoife stood opposite Robert, knife in hand, and saw fear in his eyes.

  It was pitch black other than the moonlight, shining in through that bay window. Outside, the air was humid, but it was cool in here. Cold, even.

  She saw this perfect, pristine apartment before her.

  Saw Robert perched there, over Kayleigh.

  And Kayleigh lying there, too. Nose bleeding. Face bruised.

  Underneath him.

  “Get off her,” Aoife said. Lifting her knife higher. “Get off her right this second.”

  Robert sighed. Lowered his head. “You know, I’m impressed. Impressed you managed to work your way out of the cells. And impressed you all managed to make it here. Together—”

  “Cut the bullshit, Robert,” Aoife said. “We’re here for Kayleigh. Then we’re getting out of here. Whether you like it or not, that’s how it’s going to be.”

  Robert nodded. A half-smile crept up his face. “I get it. Really. I would’ve done the same in your shoes. I would’ve tried to escape. I would’ve found a way. And you know what? The second I found my way out, I would’ve run. But coming here… coming right here, directly to me, directly for your friend… now that’s a loyalty that impresses me. A stupid loyalty, some would say.”

  Heather stepped forward. Lifting her knife in the process. “You killed my sister, and you killed my brother. You really expected me to just walk away, you bastard?”

  “Not you, perhaps,” Robert said. Never turning his gaze from Aoife. “But this one… she’s made of something different. I can see it in her eyes. I kind of like it.”

  Aoife felt the hairs on her arms stand on end. He gave her the creeps.

  “Look,” Robert said. “You can come over here. You can stab me to death if that’s how this is going to go. But I wouldn’t advise that. Because the second you make any sort of move on me… let’s just say I’ve got something up my sleeve that’ll ensure you never leave this place. None of you. Ever.”

  “Bullshit,” Aoife said.

  Robert’s smile crept up his face again. He looked like he was getting his confidence back, and Aoife didn’t like it. “You really want to try me?”

  Aoife gritted her teeth. Looked over at Kayleigh, who looked a shadow of the confident, self-sufficient woman she’d looked when they last crossed paths. “What do you want, Robert?”

  Robert chuckled. “Glad you asked, really. Never thought you were going to. People tend to overcomplicate things. But really, sometimes, the answers are quite simple. I want my people. I want this community. What we’ve got here, it’s good.”

  “What you’ve got here is built on a lie,” Aoife spat.

  Robert shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps there have been some… stretches of truth. But it’s not for a bad reason. It’s to keep people together. And to keep them in line, too. Because without hope, what good is living? And without a little sense of order and discipline… life is just chaos. Right?”

  “What gives you the right to dictate?” Aoife said. “To decide? And if you’re so bothered about hope… why haven’t you told your people about what Thomas is offering?”

  She thought about what Thomas told her on the way up here. The place he came from. The place with power. With more helicopters. With more people. And how, eventually, they would come here, and the people of this nation would be saved.

  Or at least that was the plan.

  Robert sighed. Looked over at Thomas, half-smiled. “What Thomas offered was… appealing. But you and me both know one thing, Aoife, if we’ve survived long enough in this world.”

  “And what’s that supposed to be?”

  “Not to trust false idols.”

  “Then what does that make you?”

  Robert smiled. “Fair point. But at least I’m honest. And when I say the world can never go back to a world with power… when I say that it’s all just a new way of control, a new way of imposing order, a new way of getting people to step in line… you know it’s true. We all know it’s true.”

  A shiver crept up Aoife’s spine. Because as much as she wanted the hope of a new community, as much as she wanted to believe there were other people out there—as much as she wanted to buy into this world of power—in a warped kind of way, she could see a logic to what Robert was saying.

  “Then if you’re so reluctant to tell your people the truth about Thomas and his people… why have you even kept him alive this long?”

  Robert smiled. Looked at Thomas. “I’m still trying to figure that next part out. But maybe this is how it’s supposed to go. Maybe this here is what we’ve been building to, all along.”

  A pause. A sense that time was standing still, as Robert decided his next step.

  And then he grabbed Kayleigh.

  Lifted her up.

  Put some sharp scissors to her throat.

  “Let her go,” Aoife shouted, edging forward. Rex growled.

  “Hand Thomas over right now, and you can leave with Kayleigh. Don’t, and I’ll kill her.”

  “Not a chance—”

  “Very soon, I’m going to press a button. It’s an alarm button that means my life is in imminent danger. We managed to fix it up using solar power, some old parts kept in a Faraday cage, a very simple system, really. But the second I hit this button here… everyone will hear it. And everyone will swarm over here. And when they get here, when they see you trying to take Thomas away… they’ll tear you to pieces.”

  “Not if—not if I tell them the truth,” Thomas said.

  Aoife looked around. Saw him standing there, staring
at Robert.

  “And you expect them to believe you?” Robert said. “Over me?”

  “I’d be willing to try,” he said.

  Robert shook his head, sighed. “Fact of the matter is, you have a choice here. You can hand Thomas over right this second, and you can go your own way and take your chances, Kayleigh included. Or you can watch your friend die and watch my people swarm this place.”

  Aoife looked at Kayleigh. Rex barked now. She shook her head. Because as much as she could hear Robert’s proposal… something about it didn’t seem right. Something just didn’t add up.

  “What’s it going to be?” Robert shouted.

  She looked around at Thomas. Looked at Heather.

  Then she looked at Kayleigh as she stared back at her, tears in her bloodshot eyes. More like the girl she remembered now. Broken and weakened by the hell she’d been through at the hands of this monster.

  “What’ll it be?” Robert shouted.

  And then Aoife took a deep breath.

  “Take me,” she said.

  Robert frowned. “What?”

  Aoife stepped forward. “Take me. Let the others go. But if it’s power you want, if it’s some token you want… take me.”

  She walked right up to Robert. Saw his eyes twitching as he stood there, Kayleigh right before him.

  “Let Kayleigh go. And let Thomas go. But take—”

  “No.”

  A voice.

  A voice right behind. A man’s voice.

  Thomas.

  He stepped forward. Walked past Heather, past Aoife, right over to Robert.

  “Thomas?” Aoife said.

  “My job is to protect people. To save as many lives as I can and bring them back home. If I have to die to do that… if I have to die to do that, then I’ll die to do that. But these people don’t deserve to die. They deserve to live. All of you deserve to live.”

  Robert frowned. And then his face lit up, just a little.

  “Thomas,” Aoife said.

  He turned. Looked at her. Smiled. “When they arrive, you’ll know exactly where to go. And if you have any issues… just tell them I love Kirsty and Brett and that I’ll see them on the other side.”

  He turned back around.

  Right in front of Robert.

  Right in front of Kayleigh.

  Time standing still.

  Everything in stasis.

  “Let her go,” Thomas said. “Just… just let her go.”

  Robert looked at Thomas.

  Then at Aoife.

  Then, his smile widened.

  “Nah.”

  He lifted his knife and went to cut her throat.

  “No!” Aoife shouted.

  It all happened so fast.

  Thomas threw himself at Robert.

  Yanked the knife out of Kayleigh’s direction.

  And then the knife pierced through him as Kayleigh fell to one side.

  Buried into him, time and time again.

  “Thomas!” Aoife shouted.

  She lunged forward with her knife.

  Lifted it, right above her head, as Robert lay there on the floor.

  A smile on his face.

  “Do what you have to do—”

  “Aoife!” Kayleigh shouted.

  She held her knife there. Right above Robert.

  Kept her cool. Kept her calm.

  And then she lowered it.

  Because she knew it was what Robert wanted.

  She knew—

  And then, out of nowhere, the sound of gasping.

  Gargling.

  Heather.

  Heather burying her knife into Robert’s throat repeatedly.

  “Heather—”

  “You murdering bastard,” she shouted. “You murdering fuck. I hope you rot. I hope you rot in hell.”

  She kept on going and going until Aoife finally managed to pull her back away from him.

  And then she fell down, collapsed. Rex barking.

  Kayleigh right there with them both, looking down at Robert’s body.

  At Thomas, as he coughed. Spluttered.

  “Thomas,” Aoife said.

  She rushed over to him. Held his hand. Tried to prop him up.

  “Tell them… tell Kirsty and Brett I love them,” Thomas said. “And tell them I…”

  “You’re not going anywhere, Thomas. We’re going to get you out of this. We’re going to get you… Thomas?”

  But it was too late.

  Thomas was already still.

  She crouched there. Heather sat at the back of the room. Kayleigh stood over Robert, rubbing her arms, twitching nervously.

  “What’s that noise?” Heather said.

  It was then that Aoife saw it.

  The button in Robert’s hand.

  The howling alarm sound like a world war siren.

  And then, outside, the sound of footsteps.

  The smirk on Robert’s face.

  Thomas lying dead by his side.

  “This is what he wanted,” Aoife said. “This… this was his nuclear option.”

  She listened to those footsteps and that shouting getting closer.

  His people were coming.

  His people were going to find him and his “light from the sky” dead.

  They were trapped.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Aoife heard the people approaching outside, and she knew she was in deep shit.

  Kayleigh stood over Robert and Thomas’s dead bodies, staring down at them both, scratching her arms. Heather walked back over to the door, pacing around the room. The sound of those footsteps outside was getting louder. Nearer.

  Time was running out.

  “What the hell are we going to do now?” Heather said.

  Aoife was tempted to grill her for killing Robert. For falling into his trap. But then could she blame her really? She knew how strong a lust for revenge was. She hadn’t lost both her siblings to a monster like Robert, so she couldn’t exactly judge her. She didn’t know what state of mind she was in, but she knew it was a dark one, and God did she know Robert deserved it from the thankfully few interactions she’d had with him.

  But it’d put them in a real shitty situation right now. One they needed to get the hell out of. Fast.

  “The window?” Heather said.

  Aoife nodded. Rushed past Kayleigh, putting a hand on her shoulder as she did. She didn’t want to ignore her right now, but there wasn’t time for any sentimental reunion.

  She ran to the window as Rex trailed along with her and looked outside.

  When she looked out, her stomach sank.

  People were coming. Lots of them. Lots of them racing this way. Twenty that she could see, maybe even more.

  Some of them had knives.

  Some of them had guns.

  All dressed in white.

  And all getting closer.

  “I don’t… I don’t think the window’s a good idea,” Aoife said.

  “The doors, then?” Heather said, opening it up.

  Aoife wasn’t sure where the hell they were going to go when everyone was swarming towards this place. But she figured there was only one way out and only one thing they could try.

  “Out the door,” Aoife said. “It’s all we’ve got.”

  She looked down at Thomas as she ran past him. Felt the sadness deep inside at losing him. He was their beacon of hope. He was supposed to be their saviour.

  And here he lay.

  But she gritted her teeth. Took a deep breath.

  “We’ll get out of this,” she whispered. “I’ll tell your family what a hero you are.”

  And then she rushed over to the door.

  Then realised something.

  Kayleigh.

  Kayleigh wasn’t moving.

  She was completely still.

  Totally transfixed.

  “Kayleigh?” Aoife said.

  She stared down at Robert’s body.

  “Kayleigh!”

  Kayleigh
looked up at her, then. Nodded. “Sorry. I just…”

  “You don’t have to explain a thing,” Aoife said. “I know. I know what it’s like to be lied to. I know what it’s like to be a victim. But you’re a survivor. You’re still here. And we’re going to keep it that way.”

  Kayleigh took a deep breath.

  Nodded.

  Then, she followed Aoife to the door, out of the room.

  When the three of them and Rex stepped outside, she saw people swarming up the stairs immediately.

  “Shit,” Heather said.

  “Back in the room,” Aoife said.

  It was their only option, their only choice.

  They backed up.

  Heather slammed the door shut and backed against it. “What the hell now?”

  Aoife stood there. Heart racing. Shaking. She wished she knew what to do. Wished she knew what to suggest.

  She took a deep breath and thought of what Max might suggest.

  The window.

  They couldn’t give up on the window.

  She ran back. Over to that window. Looked outside, down at the ground below.

  Still people out there. But the bulk of them inside now.

  “Aoife?” Heather said. “We need to make our minds up. Right fucking now.”

  Aoife knew there was only one option. Only one choice. “We’re going to have to jump.”

  A bang on the door.

  She looked around. Saw Heather backed right against it, her feet on the edge of the bed to stop it opening. Tensing with whatever strength she had.

  “We’re… we’re going to have to jump.”

  She turned around again. Lifted the window with her shaking hands. Stepped out of it, Rex putting his paws on the edge, looking out.

  “It’s too far,” Kayleigh said.

  “It can’t be.”

  “But—”

  “It’s our only choice.”

  Another bang on the door. More banging. Heather somehow holding them off. Stopping them entering as they shouted, as they demanded the door be opened.

  “Do it,” Heather said. “Do it. Now.”

  Aoife turned. She lifted Rex up, edged him out.

  And in a painful moment, she watched as he leaped out.

  As he landed.

  Landed perfectly, then looked right back up.

  “One down,” Aoife said. “Kayleigh. Your turn.”

  Kayleigh shook her head. Opened her mouth like she was going to protest again.