Hell

by G G Garcia

  “Time for some shuteye,” Henry announced. Although it was still light outside, nobody protested.

  “Lisa takes the couch,” Paul said. “Demi takes the chair, and the rest of us will hit the floor.”

  No one responded. Every one seemed content with the idea, although Mel was dreading the night. His wife snored like a pig, and he had no idea what Demi and the other two guys would be like.

  Twenty minutes later, everybody had settled down to go to sleep.

  *

  Paul was unsure how long he had slept, but when he opened his eyes, it was dark inside the room and outside. He sat up and could feel his back stiff already. He had no idea of the time because it was too dark for his eyes to look at the hands on his silver Raymond Weil watch, but he guessed that it was before midnight and a new day hadn’t started yet. He could hear heavy snoring coming from the couch, from Lisa Leslie, and managed a light chuckle to himself. Jesus. Mel wasn’t exaggerating.

  Fully dressed, apart from his shoes, he slowly got to his feet, wincing with the smarting in his back, and crept his way over to the living room window that looked out onto the country road. He peeked from behind the curtain, but could hardly see anything. The area was eerily quiet, as it probably would have been before the tragedy had occurred, but because of what was going on, the quiet and the dark made it creepier.

  He could hear movement behind him, amongst the sound of heavy snoring, but didn’t turn around. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He knew it was Demi.

  “Can’t sleep?” she asked him in a whisper.

  “I nodded off, but woke up.”

  “Is it Lisa’s snoring?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “They’re quite a couple, aren’t they?” She sniggered once she finished the sentence.

  “Ya could say that.” Paul smiled.

  “Have you noticed that tattoo on Mel’s wrist?”

  Paul nodded.

  “I wonder who Jacob is.”

  Paul hunched his shoulders.

  “Any other reason why you can’t sleep?”

  Paul looked to the side of him, at Demi, and groaned, “It’s probably everything that’s happened that’s keeping me awake. My parents missing, losing Tony and Craig, me killing people ... it’s everything.”

  “We’ll get through this.”

  “Will we?”

  “Paul.” Demi was taken aback by Paul’s comment and could hear the emotion in his voice. “It’s not like you to be so negative. You’re the warrior of the group ... well ... you and Henry now.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “You’re a heartless killing machine,” Demi joked and gave Paul a gentle nudge in his side. “No one is safe when Paul Newbold is on the warpath. Move out of the way or die.”

  “Stop it, Demi.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Paul was silent and didn’t respond. He lowered his head and then looked over his shoulder. He had no idea why he did this. He couldn’t see anything or anyone.

  “God, I hate this fuckin’ month, even without all of this shit happening.”

  “Why?” Demi asked.

  “I did somethin’. Three years ago.” Paul bit his bottom lip and could feel his throat stiffening. “I did somethin’ terrible.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Forget it.”

  Paul was close to crying and shook his head. He fought back the tears and cleared his throat loudly to remove the swelling there. It seemed to have worked.

  “Paul?” Demi wasn’t letting up. “I have a secret of my own. You tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine.”

  “Forget I said anything,” he said. “I’m being stupid.”

  Demi was suspicious and knew Paul had a secret he wanted to get off his chest, but she decided not to push him and upset the man. She knew he had split up from his partner three years ago, but it appeared something bigger had affected Paul Newbold during that time. Something that was tormenting the young man.

  The sound of planes could be heard in the distance and it was clear that it wasn’t coming from a commercial flight. The noise grew louder and Paul could just about see along the dark blue sky two Typhoons or Tornados, he wasn’t quite sure, going by. The sound was like a large trowel being dragged through wet concrete, and it made Paul wince as his ears were assaulted with the noise. Within seconds the planes and the sound had gone, but it never stirred the sleepers in the room.

  He cleared his throat and said, “I don’t think I’ve seen a single passenger jet in the sky since this thing has happened.”

  “To be fair, we have been indoors for most of it.”

  “I know. But if this thing was airborne, the flight paths must have been closed off as well.”

  “I wonder where those planes were going.”

  Paul hunched his shoulders and didn’t respond verbally. He coughed gently, trying to stifle it with his hand, so he didn’t wake anybody up, and then thought about the whereabouts of his parents again. He never got to tell Tony that his parents had died, and was glad that he didn’t.

  “I think we’re okay,” Paul spoke softly. “I mean towns and villages. But I bet they’ve bombed the cities, though.”

  “You reckon?” Demi smiled. “You’re as bad as that John Jameson.”

  Paul smiled on hearing that name. He had never met the man, but the name popped up many times. “I’d like to meet him. He sounds like a character.”

  “Paul, have you ever come across any houses with a red X sprayed on the front doors?”

  “Wit kind of a question is that?” Paul was baffled by Demi’s query.

  “It’s something that Henry and I have seen once or twice.”

  “Wait a minute.” Paul scratched his head. “I did see somethin’ like that when I went back to my street.”

  “What do you think it means?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Demi never said a word after Paul’s sentence and both continued to look out.

  “Shall we try and get some sleep?” Demi removed her hand off his shoulder and went back to the armchair. It was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as bad as sleeping on the floor.

  Paul nodded and decided to try once more.

  Paul released the curtain and went back to part of the floor where he was sleeping. He put the quilt over him and doubled the cushion he had been given to make it more comfortable, and went onto his side and curled up.

  He was asleep thirteen minutes later.

  THE END

  If you enjoyed reading the second book in the August series, feel free to share your thoughts on my facebook page or mail me, or leave a review where you've downloaded the book.

  Thank you for downloading this book.

  Very kind regards,

  G.G.