If she could get them to Jo’s, they should be able to fit in that bunker. Katya would have to get extra supplies, but it was certainly doable.
“What about the others?” Lily’s sweet high voice cracked through the plan Katya was making internally. Blue eyes turning to the concerned eyes of the child.
“Others?”
“Yeah, the monster picked me from the room full of other kids.”
More were alive?
“Same here, I was in a room of only men” The early greying male croaked as he massaged his sore throat, his quaffed hair flopped down over his features but making his brown eyes no less caring behind thick glasses. Katya turned to look at the women who nodded to say they had the same situation.
That many people couldn’t get in the bunker.
But if there were enough people who could be armed, they might be able to defend a building… so long as the Nerushi airships didn’t come back.
Logically though if they wanted humans dead, there wouldn’t be rooms full of live people. So maybe they wouldn’t destroy a building with an entire community in.
“Miss?”
Katya glanced at the people clearly waiting for her decision. The weight of their reliance on her brought the urgency back. She could attempt to figure out alien logic later.
“Right, show me the way. Men first.” She decided, on the outside, it may have seemed odd in terms of common evacuation in dangerous situation saw women and children saved first. Katya had her reasons, and thankfully no one questioned her as she headed to the doorway to scout the corridor.
When she saw nor heard any sign of danger, she nodded to those behind her. “Which way?”
“Left, all the way down the corridor and it’s on the right” The gentleman’s voice was a little stronger now, his slightly aged face focused while his calloused hands kept the children from venturing out from the middle of the group.
Katya found herself comforted by his calm demeanour and willingness to help. Compared to the other male, probably in his early twenties who seemed more worried about the fact, he had no clothes, and the women who were acting like they were in a horror house and neither was going to play hero… yeah, the grey-haired male with shaved back and sides was a blessing at that moment. Lily took a moment to speak out to let her know that the children were the other way, which, while Katya didn’t respond, she most definitely was paying attention.
Following the man’s directions, Katya came to a stop in front of the door which jailed the men.
“How many are in there?”
“I don’t know, a couple of hundred?”
How in the heck was she meant to communicate and keep that many people calm?! With no solution to this, she let out a sigh and searched the wall for one of those tell-tale switches.
Chapter 4
The smell of humans packed into one place could not be called a pleasant one. Even in a tense situation like this, Katya had to pause to adjust to the scent that exuded from the room as the door opened.
“I need you all to calm down!” Katya called over the men trying to scramble out of the cramped room.
Naturally, the fear was running high and people wanted to bolt the first chance they got… but right now, Katya couldn’t help but think that reaction would just lead to death.
“Unless you want to get picked off one by one, shut up and listen!” she yelled with impatience in her voice. “I’m trying to get you all out, but I don’t know how many of those monsters are out there!”
“Katya?” A deep authoritative voice rumbled across the unsure chatter. Even without looking, the red-head knew what figure her eyes were going to find when she turned around. The shaved head and friendly smile of a local cop met her.
“Sensei!” It was the man who ran the martial arts classes that Katya attended. Immediately a feeling of security washed over her, if her sensei was here then she might have a hope of getting these people out.
“How did you get here?”
“They can be killed, they have weak points!”
“What? How did you…”
“I’ll explain later, but right now we need to get everyone out of here. Women and children are here too” Her mind had never moved so fast to come up with solutions “I don’t know where to go yet, but we can’t stay here”
“My kids are here?!”
“Where’s my wife?!”
Her words had created yet more unrest, thankfully she wasn’t the only one trying to keep the calm.
“Ok! Enough! We can get everyone out, but you need to shut it and stick to the plan!” The grey-haired male called out, his naked body causing more of a stunned silence that rippled back into the crowd. “This girl has just saved us from being drained to death! I know she will get us all out if we cooperate!”
No one was more stunned than Katya at the man and his declaration. How could a stranger put that much faith in her? A flash of fear ran through her at the thought of so many relying on her while she had no clue what she was doing. But the gentle smile of the stranger and the knowing smirk of Alister-sensei pushed that fear down into her gut.
She’d just have to figure this out one step at a time.
“First off, can anyone spare jackets and socks to give two men, two women and a child some cover?” The confusion of the comment kept the rabble quiet, obviously uninformed of the fact there were more naked people than just the one male who stood there in all his glory.
“Yeah, right here Kitty-Kat”
Oh. The joy and relief that spread through her were undeniable as she looked to the male pushing his way through the crowd while pulling off his oversized band shirt. He wasn’t tall but as that shirt removed it could be seen he was a toned male even after being cooped up in here.
“Olli!” Within seconds her aura changed from the leader to an excitable child as she flung her arms around her best friend’s shoulders, soothed to the core but the beat of his heart in his warm chest. It was all she could do right then not to cry. “I was so scared you might not be here” she whispered softer, just to him, allowing her vulnerability to show raw to the one she trusted most in the world.
“Like something as vile as those monsters could take me away from the world” Oliver Kingsley had always been a loudly confident guy, always bringing laughs to Katya’s face. This time it just increased the tears of relief that prickled her eyes as she felt one of his arms wrap around her and hug her tight to him. That hug told her that he was probably just as relieved as she was, tight and lingering as though he didn’t want to let her go.
They had been best friends too long to face losing one another.
Reluctantly, Katya pulled back and took the shirt from the dark-haired male. “I shouldn’t have doubted” she retorted with a small chuckle while her eyes lingered on him for a moment longer. His usual well-groomed face was scruffy with a beard, but it took nothing away from the glint in his dark-rimmed blue eyes.
Oliver’s offer of his own shirt, spurred on a few others to hand over their jackets and thick socks, passing them to the grey-haired male who proceeded out the door to give them to the others.
“So, what’s the plan, Batman?” Oliver chimed. Though Katya wasn’t sure that was the best question at that moment as she still had no plan, heck she didn’t even have a plan to make a plan. The weight of the eyes looking on her for a decision was heavier than she could have ever explained, confident a person as she was, she had never had this many people rely on her before.
“Well, there are two other rooms with women and children, we’ll need to make sure all children are paired up with able-bodied adults to make sure they are safe” She started with a small sigh of defeat. “We’ll take it slow, but we need to be careful. These things can be killed; the humanoid ones at either side of the neck and the cat-like ones through the back of the neck or through the joints that are the equivalent to their armpits. We need to find somewhere we can fortify, and we need to go to stores which have sharp tools or knives which everyone can be armed wi
th”
“Where are we going to fortify?”
Katya turned to look at the greying male who finally had himself covered. She paused for a moment before shrugging softly.
“I have no idea… but we’ll find somewhere, they are keeping everyone alive for a reason so that gives us a chance to defend a place”
“I know of a place” A new voice, piping up before any sounds of protest as a middle-aged male with the look of a construction worker about his build.
“Daddy!”
The tension was broken by the sound of Lily’s exclamation and the sight of her running into the room and launching herself into the man's arms, both crying softly with joy of finding one another.
“Oh, Lily. My dear girl. Lily… I thought… “
“Sorry, I know it’s not the best time, but you said you know of a place?” Katya pried softly, not wanting to break the moment but knowing they couldn’t just linger. Her words were well received thankfully.
“Sorry. Yes.” The man sniffled slightly “There’s a bunker under York. I mean a huge one, designed for a city populace to live within. The government commissioned them to be made a while back when the threats of climate and war got too much. They are meant to be able to sustain a population through a nuclear winter… so we could start there”
“A bunker? How the hell did they build that without anyone knowing?” Oliver asked with a bemused look.
“Tax money and it’s underground – no one needed to know at the time, it was only meant to be utilised in emergency situations. There’s one under every city in England” Lily’s father insisted, gaining a few disbelieving looks.
“How do we get in?” Katya asked, why would the man lie in this kind of situation?
“Inside the town hall, there’s an entrance hidden within there…”
“Ok. Then we’ll head there after passing by a place to arm ourselves.” Katya decided as she turned to look at her Sensei. “Alister, can you take the lead? Everyone collects a woman and two children, then we make our way to the town hall. No detours unless a Nerushi or Hiko are seen…”
“A what?”
Oh. Yeah, her names for them were her own. Shrugging a little in embarrassment she looked at Oliver with his eyebrow raised knowing her imagination had come up with these words. “Humanoid ones I’ve names Nerushi, feline ones are Hiko… helps differentiate…”
“You and your need to name things”
“Shut it Olli” She sent him a small glare which was anything but annoyed before continuing “We get everyone to safety and then we can work on getting families back together with the right people. But we need to do that somewhere safe otherwise the confusion will leave us extremely vulnerable”
“Good plan. Let’s do this” Alister agreed, reaching to pat Katya heavily on the shoulder before turning back to the group of men, clearly stepping in to take over with his booming voice able to reach all ears. “You heard the girl, you wanna live; you follow the plan! No running, no thinking you’ll be fine on your own – if you leave the group, no one is coming after you and you will be left out alone”
It was obvious that he was a man who was used to emergency and dangerous situations. His demand for attention never wavering in those moments even though he, like others in the room, was still unaware if his family was alive in those other rooms.
Turning to Katya with a nod of confirmation, “We’re going to need to explain this to the others as well…”
“Yes, but not as a huge group like this. All the guys here know the deal, so they can inform the women on the move and then they can be armed as well” Katya decided on the spot as she moved to back out of the room. “We need to make a move”
Turning back to leave the room she paused for a moment before looking at the greying male who had already shown faith in her. Perhaps she should return the gesture.
“You… erm…”
“Zen. Zen Koromiko”
“Really? Sounds like an anime character” Oliver piped in gaining a gentle laugh from the man in question.
“It does. I get that a lot… how can I help?”
“Can you and Olli come with me? I’ll open the doors to the other rooms, then I need you guys to keep the order while we get everyone out”
“Of course.”
“Let’s do it”
Her smile grew more confident at both her best friends and Zen’s agreement to help. With a small nod of her head, she moved out of the room completely and headed to the other door on that corridor. “This should be the women” She mumbled softly as she motioned to the section of wall she knew was the opening switch. Her eyes turned to Oliver as she pulled out the ornamental blade from its sheath and held it out to him. “Can you take this room?”
“Sure thing, Kitty-Kat” He nodded without hesitation as he reached out to take the blade handed to him. “Side of the neck for Nerushi, and back of the neck or armpits for Hiko, right?”
“Yeah…” Katya didn’t really want to leave him, but out of anyone around, she trusted Oliver most. With one last smile sent to him, she nodded to Zen as a sign that he was coming with her.
As she walked away, she heard the door clank open and Oliver immediately jumped into calming down and trying to get an order from the females inside. Passing the male's room, she gave a small nod and held out the flip knife to Alister as a sign that the plan was rolling before she headed down the corridor to find the last room.
“Ok, I’m going to go ahead in order to try and stop any dangers while we get to places that we can arm the others” Katya spoke softly as she came to a halt in front of another switch at the far opposite side of the corridor. “Are you ok to organise the kids and then come along last with Oliver? I know this is probably not what you want when you are only wearing some thick socks and a very long coat…”
“It’s more than ok, Katya. I am happy to be able to help” The man smiled gently to her and placed his hand on her shoulder in a supportive gesture.
“Thank you” She whispered gently before heading back to the stairway, drawing the katana from the back sheath that it remained in.
All the pieces were in place, she just had to hope there was a minimum level of order at least. The sound of Alister’s deep voice giving orders washed over her as she headed down the stairs to scout ahead for a Nerushi or Hiko, thanking all that was powerful that her martial arts included weapons work.
Chapter 5
It was difficult to keep that many people in order, but the leadership seemed to fall naturally to Alister while Katya took up the role as defender quite happily. She couldn’t focus on looking after the group as well as trying to guide them. Thankfully, it seemed that her Sensei had roped in plenty of his colleagues and police contacts to help keep people moving together and carefully.
They reached the armoury with ease, no threat heard around while Katya stood sentry outside the shop. As people were being armed, she did not feel the need to stay at the front of the group that filtered out of the armoury and down the street following Alister and Lily’s father to the place they all hoped was a haven.
“Kat!” Finally, Oliver and Zen caught up with her “Everything going ok?”
“Yeah, no signs of any danger yet; seems like there aren’t many of them patrolling York.”
“Probably thought we wouldn’t escape so they didn’t need many” Oliver chuckled softly as Zen headed inside the armoury to find a weapon that hadn’t already been claimed.
“Either that or they’ve spread out further to raid more of the smaller village” Katya mumbled lightly.
“Oh gee, you’re a ray of sunshine” Oliver gave Katya a gentle nudge as he took the holster for the small blade and attached it to his belt. And then taking another short sword, which Katya had saved for him.
Once he was geared up, he glanced over Katya, noting just how many blades she had kitted herself out with. The katana on her back now had a pair in a cross sheath, two small daggers were slotted nicely into the tops of their
boots, and on either hip sat an ulak from the popular film Riddick.
“You look like you’re ready for war?” He pried softly, though Zen emerged causing Katya to avoid the question and look to the greying haired male who had picked out a couple of light-weight daggers for easy use.
“All good?” She asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Zen said with a slightly uncomfortable smile as he glanced up and down the destroyed main road.
Oliver reached out to clap the man on the shoulder with a comforting smile “Its ok dearie, we’ve got this far. Ain’t nothing stopping us now”
Oliver couldn’t have been more right in that statement, the three of them were the last to reach the town-sized bunker but they arrived there just as safe as anyone and clanked the door shut behind them, descending into the earth's crust to this completely unknown safe space.
Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Page 4