by Ryan Casey
And then the door banged again. Sounded like it split this time.
And with that, Kayleigh knew there was no choice.
“If I break a leg,” Kayleigh said, “I’ll personally hold it against you.”
And Aoife laughed. Despite the horror of the drama, she laughed.
And then she watched as Kayleigh propped herself on the edge of the windowsill, then jumped out to the ground below.
Landed with a gasp.
Stood up. Stumbled.
“My fucking leg,” she said. Limping, but alive. Okay. “My fucking leg.”
Aoife nodded. At least she was out.
Then she looked back.
“Heather?”
But looking at Heather, looking at that door, watching them kick against it and punch through it, she could see the look on Heather’s eyes, and she knew already what was going to happen.
“Heather,” Aoife said.
“I’ve got what I came here for,” Heather said. “You know what you’ve got to do.”
Aoife shook her head. But she knew already there was no other way around this.
“Go,” Heather shouted. “Don’t be an idiot. Go!”
Another bang on the door.
Aoife wanted to rush to help her.
She wanted to save her.
But in the end, all she could do was shake her head as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Thank you,” Aoife said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t make me die for nothing,” Heather said.
“I won’t,” Aoife said. “I… I won’t.”
The door bashed open.
Aoife turned around and jumped.
Pain in her legs. But she was okay. She wasn’t injured. She was fine.
“Kayleigh,” Aoife said.
She saw Kayleigh struggling to run. Walking, limping, but on her feet. Rex the same. Nobody around.
Aoife took a deep breath. “Let’s get the hell away from here, right now.”
She put an arm around Kayleigh. Helped her along. Focused only on the road. Only on the gates up ahead.
The empty, unwatched gates, ’cause everyone was in the flat.
A shout upstairs. A series of cries. Heather, and some of Robert’s people.
She thought then of how much of a fighter Heather was. And she wanted to believe she wouldn’t be going out without a fight.
“Hang in there,” Aoife said. “We’ve got this, Kayleigh. We’ve got this.”
She saw the exit gates getting closer. Saw their escape route. She didn’t know what their future held. She didn’t know what was ahead.
But she knew it wasn’t here.
And she knew she wasn’t alone.
She had Rex.
She had Kayleigh.
And more than that… she had herself.
She had people around her. People were always willing to help. People were inherently social.
And there were good people out there.
There were heroes out there.
There was light out there.
She kept on running as quickly as she could, as quickly as Kayleigh could manage. Saw all sorts of horrible shit. Crosses erected on the left, bodies dangling from them, nailed at the palms. Three of them up there. Was that the fate Robert had in mind for her when he got bored of her?
“Almost there,” Aoife said as the voices grew further away. “Almost made it.”
She looked at the exit gates, out up the road towards the trees and the hills, and then she heard a voice.
“Not another move!”
She stopped. Her stomach sank.
Looked around.
A woman stood there.
Pistol in hand.
Eyes wide.
Dressed in white.
“Not another move,” she said.
And Aoife thought about going up to her. About finding a way to fight her.
But in the end, her stomach just dropped, and her shoulders slumped, and a sense of defeat crept into her.
“You don’t have to do this,” Aoife said. “We’re just… we’re just trying to escape. We’re just trying to survive. We’ve no issue with you. With your people.”
The woman shook her head. Looked over her shoulder. Towards the shouts, the voices. “But Robert. The alarm—”
“Robert’s gone,” Aoife said. “I won’t lie to you. He’s gone. And if there’s any part of you that thinks there might be a chance for something better… I’d run too. Just let us go. We’re no use to you now. No use to any of you. Please.”
The woman looked back again.
Pistol pointed.
Hand shaking.
And it looked like time was running out.
Especially when, behind her, people started appearing.
Approaching.
“Aoife…” Kayleigh said.
“Please,” Aoife said. “Please.”
The woman held eye contact with her.
And then she turned the pistol on herself.
Shot herself in the head.
Blood spurted out the top, and her body fell to the ground.
Aoife looked at her lying there.
Then she saw people approaching in the distance.
Firing arrows towards them both.
“Come on,” Aoife said, unable to turn her gaze from these people. “We need to get out of here.”
She ran. Ran and held on to Kayleigh, who wasn’t moving well.
Ran as those voices seemed to get closer.
As those footsteps seemed to get closer.
Not looking back once.
But no matter what happened… they were together.
They were together, and they weren’t going down without a fight.
Because that’s what it was all about in this world.
Fighting for connection.
The most important connections of all.
Those voices got nearer.
Gunshots started whizzing past.
Time was running out.
Energy was—
Kayleigh stumbled to the ground.
“Kayleigh?”
She clutched her leg. “I can’t go further.”
“You have to. You—”
“I can’t. You go.”
Aoife looked down at her. She felt that instinct inside. That instinct to run. An instinct she’d always had.
She felt it, and then she shook her head.
Not this time.
She walked over to Kayleigh.
Held her. Tight.
“Aoife?”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“But—”
“I’m not leaving you. Not again.”
She crouched there. And she felt Kayleigh’s arms around her. She heard her crying. And she didn’t feel sad. She felt… happiness.
Because she’d got what she wanted.
She was with somebody.
She wasn’t alone.
And she wasn’t abandoning her.
She took a deep breath as those footsteps and shouting approached and braced herself for whatever happened next.
Ready.
Prepared.
She took another deep breath.
That’s when she heard it.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Aoife heard the sound and looked up.
When she saw what was ahead of her, she could hardly believe what she was looking at.
In the night sky, there was light.
Amidst the silence of the darkness, there was a sound.
The sound of engines.
The sound of rotors.
The sound of helicopters.
Up ahead, there were six helicopters that Aoife could see, all flying this way. All making their way over here. The sound was getting louder and louder. And she could see them getting ready to land, right near them. Not too close. Not so close that they didn’t know what they were getting into.
But close enough.
“It’s them,” Kayleigh said. “It
’s… it’s really them.”
Aoife felt something roll down her cheek and realised she was crying. The helicopters. They’d made it. Thomas’ people, they’d made it.
The lights in the sky.
She looked ahead and watched these helicopters start to land, start to descend. And then a sudden knot hit her chest.
Robert’s people.
She looked back.
Looked around and saw them all standing there. All staring. They didn’t look angry anymore. They’d dropped their weapons. Some of them were still waving their guns. Others were wrestling them to the ground.
But one thing was clear.
Their faith in their prophet had been replaced by their faith in the very reality right before them.
The helicopters were here.
And regardless of what they’d once believed… they were now here.
They were going to survive.
They were going to be saved.
“It’s really them,” Kayleigh said.
Aoife looked around at her. Saw she was crying now. Saw the steely exterior had broken, and the Kayleigh of old was back… but no. Not the Kayleigh of old. That was hard on her.
A new Kayleigh.
Because none of them were the same. Not anymore. They were all different now. All changed by this world.
She heard footsteps behind as the helicopters descended, and she wondered where things were going to go with Robert’s people.
She stood up. Turned around. Faced them as they stood there. All in white. All staring at her.
And she could see anger in the eyes of some. She could see hatred in the eyes of others.
She could see it, and she knew there was nothing she could say to them that could wake them up.
But she had to try.
“I don’t blame you for standing with Robert,” Aoife said. “And I don’t doubt he had your best interests at heart. But he didn’t have the best interests of others at heart. The people who didn’t kneel. People like me. Surely you see that. Surely you have to see that.”
Aoife looked at these faces, all staring at her. She thought they might just come over to her. That they might just attack her and Kayleigh still, for what they’d done. For their role.
“She’s right,” Kayleigh said.
They turned to her. A little more receptive to her, clearly.
“Only… only she’s wrong about one thing. Robert didn’t have the best interests of all of us at heart. He had the best interests of himself at heart. Take that from someone who stood beside him. Take it from… from someone who slept with him.”
She looked down at the ground in shame.
“I fell for Robert. I fell for his ways. And maybe once upon a time, what he wanted was noble. Was good. But it’s time for something different now. It’s time for a change now. For a new beginning.”
She looked around at Aoife.
Then half-smiled.
“We made it,” she said. “You saved me. You saved us. We made it.”
Aoife looked back at the people applauding. Lowering their arms. And for the first time in her life, she felt like she was a leader.
She felt the allure of power.
But also the allure of hope.
She looked at all these people, and then she took a deep breath.
“Let’s go see what these helicopter people have to offer,” she said.
She turned around.
Looked at the lights in the distance.
Then she held out a hand to Kayleigh.
Kayleigh looked at it with wide eyes.
Then at Aoife.
Then, she nodded.
“Together,” Aoife said.
Kayleigh smiled. “Together.”
She held her hand, and then, with Rex by her side, she took a deep breath.
Walked towards the helicopters.
Towards whatever the future held.
Towards the light.
END OF BOOK 5
Light After Darkness, the sixth and final book in the Survive the Darkness series, is now available to pre-order on Amazon.
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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 © 2021 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Miblart
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Higher Bank Books