The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Artinian, Christopher

  “I think you mean utopia.”

  “I think I mean shut your big flapping gob for two minutes. Stop all this crap. All this looking on the bright side, things aren’t so bad, we might find someone to trade with? Are you living in the same world as me? We’ve just had all our worldly possessions stolen, we narrowly avoided getting used as sex toys by these three dead pricks, and if we’re not long gone from here in a couple of hours, an army’s gonna come looking for us. So tell me what the hell there is to stay positive about. Tell me why I shouldn’t be angry and pissed off. Tell me.”

  Wren remained calm but looked her sister in the eyes. “Because we’re still here. You’re right, something horrible could have happened to us, but it didn’t, because we dealt with it. That’s one. All our stuff was taken, but we’ve still got our weapons, water and food, so we’re not going to starve while we plan our next move, that’s two. An army might come back here looking for us, but we will be long gone, that’s three.”

  “Don’t talk to me anymore. You’re doing my head in,” Robyn said, turning and walking out of the door.

  Wren stood in the kitchen for a moment longer before setting off after her sister. “How long do you intend not talking to me?”

  Robyn glared at Wren. “I’m warning you; don’t start.”

  Wren turned her head back to the direction of travel, and as soon as they rounded the first bend, they came across a white transit van pulled into a siding. “This must have been theirs,” Wren said, running towards it and climbing in. She looked under the seat and found a crowbar, which she placed into her rucksack. She opened the glove box. “Result!” she said, but Robyn just kept on walking. She was not interested in what small treasures may or may not be in the van; she just wanted to get to where they were going. Wren grabbed all the chocolate bars that had been stuffed into the compartment on top of maps and user manuals. There must have been twenty, and her face lit up as she shovelled them into her bag. If nothing else, this would be a surefire way of getting Robyn back on side. She paused for a second, then decided to take a couple of the maps too. She had no idea how far they were going to have to travel.

  She found a straight-edge screwdriver and two pens in the side pocket and procured those as well as a foldable roadmap. Anything was better than the nothing that they had at the moment. When she was sure she had collected everything of use, she jumped down from the cab to find she had already lost sight of her sister. Wren started jogging down the windy lane and after the second bend, caught sight of Robyn’s black leather jacket.

  She drew up alongside her with a smile on her face. “Oh god!” exclaimed Robyn.

  “You’ll never guess what I found.”

  “You’re right, I won’t,” Robyn continued marching ahead; the last thing she was interested in was her little sister’s games.

  Wren tucked the javelin underneath her armpit while she reached around to rifle through her rucksack. She pulled out a Star Bar, peeled the wrapper and took a bite. “Oh god! That is divine,” she said to the back of her sister’s head.

  Curiosity, got the better of Robyn and she turned. “What have you got?”

  “Star Bar.”

  In an instant, Robyn started salivating. “Was there just the one?”

  “No.”

  “Can I have one?”

  “You going to stop being mean to me?”

  “Can’t promise...but I’ll try.”

  Wren looked at her sister long and hard, then stopped walking and opened her rucksack. “Go on, pick one. But I’m keeping hold of them. If you had these, they’d all be gone inside ten minutes.”

  Robyn’s eyes lit up. “For once, I’m in complete agreement with you.” She searched through the bag. “Oh my god! A Lion Bar. In my life, I thought I’d never see a Lion Bar again.” She tore the wrapper open and took a big bite, filling her mouth. A chocolate rush smile lit up her face as the familiar taste cloaked her in happy memories.

  “Good?” Wren asked.

  “Vug,” Robyn replied with a full mouth.

  The sisters carried on walking, and for the moment, it was not the uncomfortable silence that it had been, but a practical silence where they enjoyed their chocolate bars and minimised the risk of any morsel dropping from their mouths.

  “That was the best chocolate bar I have ever tasted,” Wren said grinning.

  “Yep. Best Lion Bar ever. Thank you.”

  “Don’t be silly. We share everything.”

  Robyn let out a long sigh. “You’re a really sweet person, y’know that? Even after I’m such a bitch, you share your find with me.”

  “You’d have done the same.”

  “Not a chance. I’d have just waited until you’d gone to sleep and then scoffed the lot.”

  “No you wouldn’t.”

  “Well, maybe not the lot, but I might have made you beg a little before I handed one over.” The two girls laughed.

  “See, not everything is as bad as it—”

  “Max, this is TJ, over,” came the crackly transmission over the radio. Both girls stopped dead, and Wren adjusted the volume control. “Max, this is TJ, over.” Wren and Robyn looked at each other as TJ repeated his message several more times. “Max, we attracted way too much unwanted attention at the last place, so we’re heading straight to the caravan park. I need you to meet us there, over.”

  “Shit,” Robyn said. “We need to get a move on.

  “I swear, Max, if you and those two fuckwits are pissing about and have switched the radio off, I am not going to be happy. I’m sending one of the bikes to check on you. For your own sake, you’d better have a good excuse for not picking up. Over and out.”

  chapter 4

  The two siblings had been running for ten minutes when Robyn finally tapped Wren’s arm. “I need to catch my breath,” she said.

  “We can’t stop for too long.”

  “I know, Wren, I just need a breather. Give me a minute. How long do you think it will take them to get to the farm?”

  “How do I know? We don’t know where they were,” Wren replied.

  “Should we go cross-country?”

  “The only reason we did that before was to avoid running into any of those things. It’s more direct by road.” Wren took her water bottle out and had a drink before handing it to her sister. Robyn took a long drink before screwing the top on and handing it back. “You ready?”

  “No, but I don’t suppose I have many options,” Robyn replied.

  The two girls began running again, and after a few minutes slowed down as they reached a cattle grid. They opened the side gate to walk around it, and as soon as they did, they caught sight of a roof beyond some trees. “C’mon, let’s go check it out,” Wren said, starting to run again.

  Robyn watched for a moment before reluctantly setting off after her. The road veered around a corner, and it wasn’t long until they saw a driveway. “What do you think?” Robyn asked as the two girls looked beyond the gate to the grand, two-storey house.

  “Looks nice.”

  “No, I mean, do you think it’s far enough away to hide out?”

  “It’s the first place we’ve come to, but I doubt if they’re going to be sending any search parties out for us. I just wanted to make sure we were off the road.”

  Robyn opened the long gate, and the pair of them walked through. Wren gripped her javelin instinctively. This was how it was now. Whenever they went anywhere different, their senses went on high alert. As they approached the house, their eyes shot into every corner, looking for anything out of place; a movement, a shadow, something not quite right. Wren tried the handle, but the door was locked.

  “Let’s head to the back,” Robyn said.

  They walked around the house and looked at the surrounding hedge that bordered the slightly overgrown garden. “Don’t suppose mowing the lawn has been a priority lately.”

  The back door was of white, UPVC construction with two panes of frosted glass. Robyn tried the handle this time
to find it was also locked. “What should we do?”

  Wren banged on the door. “Find out if anyone’s at home,” she said.

  “Nice...subtle. Well done.”

  They waited...and waited, but no one came to greet them. “I’ll be back in a minute,” Wren said, disappearing around the side of the house once more. Robyn put down her bow, moved over to the large dining room window and cupped her hands around her eyes to peer through.

  “It looks like a really nice—” The sound of breaking glass jolted Robyn, and her hand immediately shot up to her heart in an attempt to steady the frantic beating. “Jesus Christ, Wren!” she yelled as her sister stood there with a large rock in her hand and glass still falling around her feet.

  Wren reached through the broken window, lifted the handle and turned the key. “Come on then, let’s go explore,” she said, picking up her javelin once again and stepping inside. The designer kitchen alone would have cost more than her mum had earned in a year. “Yeah,” she called behind her. “These people definitely had money.”

  “A little warning next time, maybe?” Robyn said, appearing in the doorway with her bow in one hand while the other still clutched her chest.

  “You startle way too easily,” Wren said, smiling.

  “God, you are such a little pissant sometimes.”

  “Remember who’s got the chocolate.”

  “I did say sometimes,” Robyn replied, walking into the kitchen and beginning to look around. She opened one of the cupboards. “Hey, there’s food,” she said as a wide grin appeared on her face.

  “Seriously, that is all you think about.”

  “Seriously...shut up!”

  “Before you start stuffing your pie hole like Homer Simpson, do you think we should, oh, I don’t know, maybe check to make sure this place is safe first?”

  “Whatever.” Robyn closed the cupboard and the two girls headed into the open-plan dining room and living room. “Wow…look at that TV. It’s huge.”

  “Seriously?” Wren said, turning to her sister. “You’re like some slow-witted four-year-old who starts clapping and laughing when she sees a shiny object.”

  “Screw you, Professor No Mates.”

  “Touché.”

  “Huh?”

  “Exactly.”

  They looked through the lace curtains of the large bay window. There was a garage at a ninety-degree angle to the house; they would explore that later, but right now, Wren just wanted to make sure there were no nasty surprises waiting for them anywhere. They went to the bottom of the stairs, and both looked up towards the shadowy landing. There was one small window and no other light, suggesting all the doors were closed.

  The pair of them shuffled the rucksacks from their backs and placed them on the sofa, then began their ascent. Wren took the lead, holding her javelin out in front of her; Robyn brought up the rear, drawing an arrow from one of the quivers and lining it up with the nocking point in readiness. They moved slowly and deliberately, and as they approached the top of the staircase, a foul, sickly sweet smell made them both gag. They looked at each other, both knowing it was the smell of death, a smell they had become only too familiar with.

  Robyn continued onto the landing before raising her bow and pointing it towards the end door, which Wren was getting ready to open. She nodded, and her younger sister crouched down and pushed the handle. The door swung inwards, revealing a beautifully decorated and very empty bathroom. Robyn walked back across to stand at the top of the stairs while her sister repeated the same process with the next door. It swung open, revealing an empty bedroom belonging to a child.

  The hallway was too narrow for Robyn to get a good angle with the bow for the rest of the rooms, so they swapped positions. Wren held her javelin tight as her sister released the handle. The room was a very neat home office with nothing out of place.

  “This is like Russian roulette,” Robyn said.

  “Yeah, one of them’s going to be a full chamber.”

  Robyn pushed the next door open, and the smell became overpowering. There were flies and bluebottles flying wildly around the room, and Wren stood there covering her mouth and nose with her t-shirt. In the king-sized bed was a woman and a young child, or at least, what used to be a woman and a young child. Now they writhed and pulled against ropes and restraints as their growls bubbled against layers of duct tape that were wrapped around their mouths. They both glared towards the doorway, their malevolent pupils shape-shifting like ghoulish kaleidoscopes. Wren and Robyn stared aghast at the sight as they watched the creatures struggle to break free with murderous intent.

  Then something else caught the sisters’ gaze. A figure was slumped forward in a chair. An empty tablet container and half a bottle of brandy sat on the carpet next to him.

  “I think I’m going to hurl,” Robyn said.

  Wren ignored the comment and walked up to the bed. The beasts were more agitated than ever now. She raised her javelin and stabbed the mother in the temple. Her struggling stopped immediately, but the child, a little boy no older than ten, continued to growl and contort his hate-filled face. Wren angled the javelin, closed her eyes and thrust, feeling the soft tissue of the eye present a minimal amount of resistance against her spear. She pulled it back out and wiped it clean on the quilt cover without looking directly at her victim.

  She walked back out of the room, closing the door behind her. Wren didn’t even wait for her sister to gather herself but instead walked straight into the fourth bedroom. There was nothing waiting for them in there. When she turned back around, tears had filled her eyes and were rolling down her face.

  “What’s wrong?” Robyn asked, still feeling a little sick due to the smell.

  “It’s all so horrible,” she said, crossing the landing and running down the stairs.

  When Robyn caught up with her. Wren had thrown herself onto the sofa and buried her head into one of the expensive cushions. “I don’t understand,” she said, sitting down and gently rubbing her little sister’s back. “What’s wrong?”

  Eventually, the crying stopped, and Wren lifted her head, revealing red eyes. “His wife and son. One bit the other, and then he went to the trouble of tying them to that bed before he took a load of tablets and washed it down with a bottle of brandy. You don’t find that the least bit sad?”

  “Hello? Welcome to this week, Wren. Everything’s sad. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Life is horrible now. I mean a bad day used to be getting detention, or mum saying I couldn’t go out, I had to study. But now, a bad day is every day. Every day you wake up and realise that virtually everyone you knew, everyone you were once friends with, everyone you loved is dead. That’s just life now.”

  Wren sat up and started wiping away her tears. “If you really think like that, has it…crossed your mind?”

  “Has what crossed my mind?”

  “Committing suicide.”

  Robyn fell silent and looked away from her sister. “You’ll only get upset if we start talking about this, so let’s just change the subject.”

  “No, I want to know.”

  “Yes, sure, I thought about it. That day when I was in my room listening to Queen songs in a loop and you were on your mission to make things secure and gather supplies for us. I thought about it then.”

  “What stopped you?”

  “You did.”

  “I don’t understand. All I did was annoy you.”

  “Yeah, and you are seriously good at that; you’re a natural.”

  “But how did I stop you?”

  “Because you were so sure. You were so sure that we would be okay, the two of us.”

  “We’re still here.”

  “I know. You were right. And just for the record, I haven’t thought about it again since, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think life is pretty shitty right now.”

  “I’m sorry for crying.”

  “Don’t be stupid. I’ve had like, five hundred breakdowns since all this began. You�
�ve had one. You were due.”

  “It was pretty horrible.”

  “Grief affects different people in different ways.”

  “Like Norman?” Wren said, remembering back to the man who’d held them captive the first time they’d visited the village of Tolsta, shortly after the outbreak had started.

  “No. I’m pretty certain that Norman was already a fully certifiable, howl at the moon whack job before all this started. I mean, like that man upstairs. By the look of this house, he probably had a good job, lived a good life, then when...it happened, something just flipped inside him. I’m happy to say you wouldn’t understand, because you’re not like that.”

  “Are you saying you are?”

  Robyn took a deep breath. “I’m saying I see good and bad. Most of the time, you just look on the bright side of everything.”

  “Not doing a good job today, am I?”

  “Like I said. This is your freebie. Come here,” Robyn said, and the two sisters embraced tightly. “Now remember whatever crap your coach told you and get happy again. You being on a downer really freaks me out.”

  Wren laughed. “Okay.”

  “So what do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “Shall we stay here for the night or move on to the next place?”

  Wren stood up and walked to the window. “We don’t know how far the next house might be and we don’t want to get stuck out in the dark. I think we should bed down here for the night.”

  “I’m starving. Can I have another choccy bar?”

  “No. I’ll make us some dinner.”

  “Yes, Mum.”

  Wren walked into the kitchen and turned on the hot water tap. To her delight, water started coming out, and she washed her hands using the antibacterial soap. “Hey Bobbi, there’s still some water in the tank.” There was no response, so Wren turned off the tap. “Bobbi?” she said again, wiping her hands on a tea towel and walking back into the living room. Robyn had her ear up to the Walkie Talkie. “What is it?”

  “Shhh,” Robyn replied. “A few seconds passed, and she put the radio down. “The battery’s practically gone; I was trying to catch everything. That TJ guy thinks we were rescued by the rest of the family. Anyway, he told his men to get back to them straight away.”