The World After (Book 3)

by Ryan Casey

  When she spoke those words, my stomach sank right away. It was a possibility that was, sure, entirely possible. But it was also something I didn’t want to consider. We’d put our eggs all in one basket where this was concerned. If the helicopters weren’t there, or if we couldn’t find this “extraction point”—which, remember, was still just a thing of rumour—then I knew what the alternative was. Death. No doubt about it.

  We’d left ourselves in a very precarious position and situation. If this final push failed, then everything failed.

  That’s why I couldn’t allow myself to even indulge in the horrifying idea that this might not be a journey that was leading to the outcome we wanted it to. It was just too dangerous an idea to let myself entertain.

  “They’ll be there,” I said.

  “But what if they aren’t?”

  I looked down at Holly. I didn’t want her to see the fear on my face, but I knew she was having doubts too. Those doubts were just natural, sure. It was an entirely normal state of mind to be in, especially when we just didn’t know what was ahead.

  “Don’t lose faith. Don’t lose hope. Not after how far we’ve come.”

  We walked further down this empty road. And then it struck me. This road was empty. Which was weird, because it was a dual-carriageway.

  There was no reason a road like this should be empty. When the blackout occurred, cars would’ve broken down and crashed into one another right here, just as they had everywhere else.

  I slowed down. Holly did too.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  I looked around at the road, trying to add everything up. And I had to answer entirely honestly. “I don’t… I don’t know,” I said. “Just…”

  I saw it, then.

  It was in the distance. Way in the distance. And at first I wondered if maybe I was just seeing things. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. And I was in a much weaker state now than when I’d first seen things.

  But when I blinked and walked on, it was still there.

  I could still see it.

  “Scott? What is it?”

  “Don’t you see it?” I asked.

  Holly narrowed her eyes. “See what?”

  My heart raced. I started to lose hope. Maybe it was just a trick of the mind or the light. Maybe it was just my over-optimistic state playing tricks on me all over again.

  “Wait,” Holly said. “I see it.”

  When she said those words, I looked at her. And she was looking right at where I’d been looking, no doubt about that.

  “The helicopters. And…”

  I looked around and right at the place in the distance. I couldn’t feel any other emotions. I couldn’t experience any other thoughts.

  All I could do was take in my surroundings, a tear dripping from my chin.

  There were helicopters.

  Some of them were hovering up into the sky and departing.

  Others were landing.

  But there was no doubt about what this place was.

  “We did it,” I said.

  I looked at Holly. She smiled back at me, crying too.

  “We did it!”

  I picked her up, forgetting just how weak and hurt I was. I swirled her around, laughing, crying, Lionel bouncing around us.

  And as I held Holly, as I listened to her laughing, I’d never felt more of a sense of accomplishment in my life.

  I’d made her a promise. Now I was going to get her there. Now I was going to do what I had to do. I wasn’t going to let her down.

  “Come on,” I said, dropping her back to her feet. I held out my hand. “Let’s go.”

  She took my hand and smiled.

  I smiled back at her, and went to walk.

  “Not so fast,” a voice said.

  My body went still. My skin went cold.

  I didn’t want to turn around and see who’d spoken, but I didn’t have a choice.

  I looked. Hoped to God it wasn’t who I thought it was. Prayed that they weren’t here. Because they couldn’t be. It was too far a journey. It was too much. It was…

  When I saw them standing there, knife in hand, my stomach dropped.

  It was the leader of the rival group, maskless.

  He was alone.

  But he was looking right at me, anger in his eyes.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  I looked at the man who called himself B as he stood opposite me, and I knew there was no walking away from this fight.

  The sun shone down brightly, illuminating the melting snow so much that it made me squint. Overhead, I could hear birds singing. Further away still, I heard the faint hum of the helicopters, and I knew just how close Holly, Lionel and I were to finally escaping this hell and transporting ourselves to a new world.

  But there was still someone in our way.

  He wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

  “It’s a shame it had to come to this,” B said, staggering towards me. I noticed he seemed weak, too. Shaky. Like he was struggling just as much as I was, and Holly was. It was strange seeing him alone, without his literal mask—or his figurative mask of children around him. I didn’t know what had happened for him to reach this state. Just that I had no doubts that he was alone. And that he’d lost his aurora of mystery now that he was on his own.

  “You can put your knife down and we can walk to that extraction point together,” I said. I wasn’t sure whether I believed myself. I didn’t know whether I’d really be able to do that. But I’d have to try, for the sake of Holly and Lionel. “We can forget everything that’s happened. Because that’s just part of this mad world. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. We can put those aside and move on.”

  I saw B’s face start to turn. He was smiling. And then before I knew it, he was laughing. “You think I’m not proud of what I did? You honestly think I’m not proud of how I brought people together? Of the force I created?”

  “Look where it got you,” I said. “Alone. Weak.”

  “And look where your approach got you,” he said, instantly snapping out of his delirious trance. “You’re alone. But you’ve no weapons. You’ve nothing.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not true.”

  I looked at Holly. Then I looked at Lionel. I smiled at both of them.

  “I’ve got far more than you’ve ever had.”

  B snorted. He shook his head. “I’ll just have to make sure I do my best to take them away from you then, won’t I?”

  He started to walk towards Holly and Lionel.

  I stepped in front of them.

  “You won’t get to them. No matter what, you won’t lay a finger on them. That’s the only thing I can promise you.”

  B’s face turned, amused. “You gonna stop me with your bare hands?”

  “If I have to.”

  He shook his head. “It’s sweet, in a way. I know she’s not your daughter. And I know he’s probably not your actual dog, either. So what’s the problem? What’s holding you back so much, hmm?”

  I looked at Holly again. And despite the horror of the situation that was rapidly deteriorating, I always felt better when I looked into her eyes, and in a strange way, deep down, I knew she would feel better too.

  I looked back at B. “Because you’re wrong. They are my family. Haven’t always been, sure. And… and it’s taken time. It’s taken a lot of hurdles for me to cross. But I can see who they are now. I can see how important they are to me. I can see how important we all are to each other, and how we’re not going to get anywhere if we keep on fighting. So please. Just put the knife down and forget this. We can still walk away. Together.”

  For a moment, I thought B was actually considering what I’d proposed to him. His face softened. His eyes widened. His knife lowered. “You know, I was like you once. So full of ideals. So insistent that everything could be okay. And then I saw what happened to my family. I saw what bad men—real bad men—did to them, one by one. So after that, I realised I couldn’t
just allow children to grow up in a world like that. They needed order. Structure. And that meant not trusting other people. That meant hunting other people. Because other people—older people—they are the problem. The youth are naive. They don’t understand how bad people can get. So the way I saw it, it was the only way they could survive.

  “The masks, they were all just a part of the illusion of strength. Because kids prefer fantasy and things like that, right? But it wasn’t about us. It was about them. It was about making them stronger.”

  “So killing the people they cared about? Forcing them to murder other people? That’s what constitutes making them stronger?”

  B shook his head. “Yeah. Because it was their parents’ generation that let these people down. It was our generation that created the conflict in this world. It was our generation that destroyed ourselves with greed. It was us who did this. And they deserve better than us.”

  “And hey,” I said. “You just figured you were the holier than thou bastard to deliver this fucked up manifesto.”

  B smiled. “When you put it that way, I can see your cynicism.”

  He looked down at his knife, then beyond me, over at the helicopters. “It’s a nice ideal. Leaving this world. Moving into a new one. But it’s not right. Because we should pay for our wrongs. And the people cleaning up this mess, taking people away from here… they’re the same people who messed our world up in the first place. It’ll only collapse again. If it hasn’t already. It’ll only go down the drain all over again.”

  He was silent. He was looking right in my eyes now.

  “So I’ll propose an offer, of sorts. You can leave. You and the dog can walk off into this new world of yours, and you can go back to whatever self-destructive ways you used to entrench yourselves in. You can watch yourself get greedy again. You can watch the world build up again. And then you can watch it fall again. I’ll let you walk. But the girl stays with us, in our new world.”

  I wanted to laugh. I wanted to shake my head and tell this man how insane he sounded. But I was just sad, because I knew how deadly serious he was. He really believed he was some kind of saviour. “‘Us’?” I said.

  He looked around. As if he was only just realising how alone he was. Then he looked back at me. “I can rebuild again. You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an ideology. I’ve learned from my mistakes. Maybe I’ll soften my approach. But it starts with her.”

  He pointed at Holly.

  “Let her come with me and you can walk away, your life intact. Don’t, and…”

  He looked at his knife, sadness in his eyes.

  “Well. That would be a shame. Especially after all the progress we’ve made.”

  We stood in silence for a while. The seconds ticked by. But there wasn’t anything to think about. There wasn’t anything to consider.

  Defeated, I leaned down and put my hands on Holly’s shoulders.

  Her eyes widened, fear in them. “Don’t leave me. Please.”

  “I have to do something,” he said.

  “No,” she said. “You promised. You promised.”

  “And I’m not giving up on that promise,” I said. “I’m going to keep you safe. I’m going to do what I have to do to keep you safe.”

  I kissed her on the head.

  I reached into my pocket and put the necklace of hers I’d found on the road back over her neck.

  And then I whispered in her ear.

  When I’d finished whispering, I stood up. I looked back at B.

  He smiled at me, victory on his face.

  “So what’ll it be?” he said.

  I tensed my fists. “I’m going to do what I can to keep this girl safe.”

  He raised his knife. “And how are you going to do that?”

  I looked down at Holly and I smiled, trying to hold back the tears.

  “Now,” I said.

  She stalled. Just for a few seconds, she stalled.

  “Go,” I said. “Now.”

  I could see she didn’t want to move. I could see how rooted to the ground she was.

  But in the end, Lionel by her side, she ran as quickly as she could.

  Both of them disappeared in the direction of the extraction point.

  Both of them made their final push to safety.

  I turned around and I faced off B.

  He looked at me. Half angered. Half… excited. Like he was looking forward to this outcome all along.

  “Bad move,” he said, lifting his knife and walking towards me. “Now I’m going to kill you. And then I’m going to go after that bitch and kill her and the dog.”

  He took a lunge towards me.

  Then he pulled back his knife and swung it at me.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  B swung the knife at me and I knew I was just inches away from death.

  I dodged it, staggering to my right. And then I pulled back my right fist and punched him in the kidney.

  He winced when I hit him, like he hadn’t expected me to sidestep him like that. But then after a few seconds of gasping, he refocused on me and pulled back that knife once more.

  “You’ve made a big mistake. You’re going to suffer. Your girl’s going to suffer. You’re going to die a miserable man.”

  I punched his arm when the knife came towards me, knocking it off course and stopping it puncturing my body once again.

  This time, I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed B’s arm with both hands and kicked at it, trying my best to snap it, knowing damn well that I had to fight dirty if I wanted to survive.

  But B was already one step ahead of me. He grabbed me with his free hand and threw me down onto the ground.

  I felt my remaining teeth dislodge as blood filled my mouth. All the aches and pains that had been forced upon my body reared their ugly heads once more.

  But I couldn’t give in.

  I had to keep fighting.

  Holly depended on it. Lionel depended on it.

  I turned around and got ready to get back up.

  B was right above me, the knife flying towards my neck.

  Instinctively, I held out my hands and kicked out at once.

  Two things happened.

  The first I noticed was that I’d kicked B square in the balls. He winced, tightening his legs together, wide-eyed pain covering his face.

  But there was something else, too.

  Something I couldn’t even comprehend, not at first.

  The knife had pierced through my right hand.

  Blood was pooling down onto me. I could see the knife poking through the back of my hand. The pain was strange. It was dull rather than sharp, and honestly underwhelming compared to some of the pains I’d experienced already.

  B’s full weight was on top of me now. He kept on pushing that knife further through my hand, more blood pouring down onto my face, the knife getting further through my flesh. “Give up,” he said. “Give up and I’ll make it easier on you. “Give up and maybe I’ll go easy on the bitch. Maybe.”

  I pulled my hand to the right and cracked B across his face with my left hand.

  When he slipped, the knife slipped to the right and opened up the wound in my hand. I let out a cry when it did, the pain sharp and hot. I knew I wasn’t going to be much of a fighter for long. I knew B had the upper ground in so many ways, especially now I was injured.

  But if I could just hold him off…

  If I could just give Holly and Lionel the best chance of getting away…

  Well. It would all be worth it.

  I went to throw a punch and a kick back at him. But something happened.

  He twisted the knife to the right.

  He yanked it out of my hand.

  Then he stepped over to me as I clutched onto my hand, agony filling my body now, and he pulled back his foot and booted me in my temple.

  Ringing, hot pain split through my skull as my head cracked back. I heard something snap, and I didn’t even want to think about what it might be. My jaw. My neck. I didn’t kno
w. I just knew that I was a broken man. However this played out, I wasn’t going to be getting far from here.

  I just had to make sure I got further than B.

  I just had to hold him off for as long as I could, to keep Holly and Lionel safe.

  I lifted my hand when he brought back his foot again, tried to grab it.

  But then B stopped in an instant.

  And while my focus was distracted, he slammed the knife down into my left shoulder.

  I felt the blade cut through my skin and muscle and I cried out.

  Then B pulled the knife out of me and slammed it into my other shoulder.

  And then he pulled it out, crouched opposite me, and burrowed it into my belly, right at the belly button.

  He stared into my eyes as he crouched there, knife in my gut. His eyes were wide and feral. He actually looked like he was enjoying this. But there was also a weird look of defeat on his face, too. Like he understood that time was running out for him, and that his “new world” ideal really was just a fantasy that wasn’t going to be sustainable.

  I looked down at my belly. Blood was seeping out around the sides of the blade. The blade was right the way in, full length. I felt like I had crippling indigestion. But I knew it was worse. Far worse.

  Everything was getting blurry.

  Breaths were getting harder to take.

  “This is the last face you’ll look at,” B said, twisting the knife deeper into my gut. “This is the last face you’ll ever see. And you’ll know that you failed. You’ll know that you are alone, too. Because there’s no one here to help you. There’s no one here that believed in you. And there’s no one here to live for you.”

  He pulled the knife out in a harsh yank, and a pool of blood left my body.

  I watched it all pour out of me. And in my agonised, pained state, I thought something along the lines of surprise. Wow. More blood inside me than I expected.

  Then I looked up at B.

  “Any last words?” he said. “Anything you want me to tell your bitch? Or should I just take your head and let you say something for yourself?”

  I opened my mouth to say something. I wasn’t sure what. Just something. Anything to stop him getting the last word.

  But then I heard a voice behind him.