“They are just weapons. I killed a Hiko and the same pink liquid was there too. So, the mouth probably isn’t connected to anything”
“That’s terrifying!” Oliver exclaimed with disgust “They are built just to be even more vicious when they get nothing from it?”
“Looks like it…”
Again, silence fell, each member of the trio turning over the information in their heads. They already knew that what they were up against was going to be hard to handle, but the knowledge that they didn’t eat, likely didn’t mate and, knowing the humans’ luck lately, probably didn’t even sleep, just made it feel like they were taking on the impossible.
Katya was the first one to break the silence. “If you guys want to go back to the bunker, you probably should.” She couldn’t rightly push them into coming with her with these growing odds against them. She still had to go through, she couldn’t leave the state of her family as a mystery to her. The growing need to know if her baby sister was still ok was becoming painfully scary.
“Don’t be daft Kat, I’m coming. I want to see my family and I’m not leaving you alone. What if you have a crisis and you’re on your own?!” Oliver said firmly with his arms folding over his chest and his eyes narrowing in a stern expression.
“A crisis?” Zen asked in confusion.
“She’s got Addison’s disease. If she puts too much stress on her body and doesn’t have her medicine daily she can have a crisis that can get quite serious” Oliver explained, his stare still boring into Katya who was beginning to look sheepish. It was only Oliver who could act protective over her weakness, it was only him who she was comfortable with knowing how bad it could be.
“Don’t stress that Oliver; I don’t want people coming because they think I can’t take care of myself” Katya grumbled.
“They won’t. Heck, I’m not. I know you can take care of yourself, but I also know how damned self-sacrificial you can be. You’ll put yourself through a crisis if it’s the only consequence of saving someone else.” Oliver argued back, finally glancing over to Zen with an exasperated look. “Which is basically what she’s doing now? She’ll go through a crisis willingly if it’s our choice to go back now”
“Oliver! Don’t pressure him into staying!”
“I’m not!”
“You are! Enough. I get it alright, I’m not telling you to leave, I just don’t want you to be obligated to stay because of my condition” Katya snapped with an emotional stake in her voice.
Zen appeared to have heard enough of this, shown by the way he placed a hand on both the youngsters, shoulder. “Guys, you need to calm down. I don’t think anyone is staying because of your condition Katya. Oliver is insisting on staying because he cares about you with or without the condition. And I’m going to insist on staying because it’s very clear you are both good people and if that’s not a reason to stay and fight I don’t know what is,” It was amazing how calming a person’s voice could be. It was like a gentle and sheepish reality washed over the two he spoke to. “Yes, these aliens are bloody terrifying, but to me, that just gives even more reason to fight for the goodness of humanity”
Sighing softly Oliver nodded his head in agreement as his eyes scanned over the stubborn face of his best friend, watching the wall of independent strength wane slightly. “He’s right Kat, it’s not just about us now…”
“I know. Sorry” Katya mumbled softly before finding herself pulled into a hug from Oliver.
“It’s us til the end, right?”
“Right…”
“We’ve just picked up another one to that pact though” Oliver smirked over at Zen, sending him a wink before grinning “You just sold your soul to us, dearie, I hope you don’t come to regret it”
All the previous tension was broken at the sound of Oliver’s jest and the subsequent laughter before the older male.
“Hopefully. Though I might start regretting it if we don’t move away from the carcass and find something to eat instead” Zen chortled prompting the two best friends to part and start collecting their things.
“You have a point; all this excitement has worked up an appetite” Oliver patted his stomach once he had armed himself properly with his weapons.
“Hungry enough for more cans of cold beans then?” Katya chuckled as she tossed over the cans they had left from the night before. “Oh. We still have a tin of tuna too… anyone?”
“Dibs!” Zen called, catching the small tin smoothly as it was thrown his way.
“No fair! I wanted that” Oliver grumbled before a tin of sardines hit him in the shoulder.
“Have those instead” Katya commented as she headed into the dining room of the house away from the corpse and sat down to pry open her ration of beans grabbing a spoon she had stashed yesterday when they had arrived. “Better get used to eating what we can find. Unless we start lighting fires, it’s cold canned food for a while. I doubt any fresh stuff is still good these many weeks down the line”
“Worst part of the alien apocalypse… no more roast dinners” Oliver whined, holding a hand over his heart as he seated himself acting like he was completely broken-hearted “How I’m going to miss a good steak!”
Laughter and humour continued to keep the spirits up through the rest of the morning. Doing this alone would have been torturous but having good-natured people there might just make this bearable from Katya.
That good nature made the walk through the fields outside of York a little better as well, it was a clear day, but the sight of vehicles abandoned on the main roads was heavy. The belongings that were strewn in cars and littering the floor as though their owners had held on for as long as possible was saddening.
After discussing the route, they should take, it had come to light that none of them could consciously leave people in cities and towns to their doom if they were close enough to do something to help.
It was a very difficult decision. The longer they took to get to Cambridgeshire, the higher the chance that they would be too late to save the people they were going there for.
But none of them could face condemning hundreds, even thousands of innocents to the fate in those factories just because they wanted to see their own families. Perhaps it wouldn’t make sense to some, but if someone else had the same idea as this trio and were passing Cambridge…. Well, Katya would certainly give anything for them to detour into the city and save her family.
So, they had agreed that they would do just that. They had a map of the bunkers in England, so they could get people to safety. They could make an effort against the hell humanity was facing.
The invaders that they saw were few and far between thankfully, usually spotted roaming through the outer areas of the towns and the countryside villages looking for any escaped survivors. Based on what they saw, when there was a Nerushi, there was a Hiko nearby as well. They hunted in pairs, but another pair was not close by, the number of them was probably smaller than the first few weeks of the invasion.
Though that did pose the question: where was the bulk of them now?
They certainly weren’t in the factories as once more there was only a few within the walls of the one in Harrogate and then in the centre of Leeds which the trio infiltrated and helped the innocents’ escape. Each evening was spent with Katya showing Zen ways of using the weapons he had picked out, finding that he had excellent precision though couldn’t keep a tight grip for too long. Still, the man killed two of the Nerushi within the factory while Oliver dealt with getting the people out of the building and Katya scouted the other rooms to get rid of any threats in them. A plan which Katya came up with so neither Oliver nor Zen learned what was the main ingredient of that pink liquid.
“We might just make it you know” Oliver mumbled sleepily as they settled down in the bunker they had taken everyone to. “We can really kick alien butt!”
“Shut up and sleep you idiot” Katya grumbled at him, glad to be in a place to sleep where they didn’t have to take it in turns to ke
ep watch, even if the ground was still hard. For the first time in around five days of careful movements, she was able to sleep without fear.
Chapter 7
Wakefield, Barnsley, and Rotherham all were the same story. Though the three did have to direct the people in all of them back up to the bunker in Leeds as the map they had didn’t show any closer and taking them to Sheffield where they had not been yet, was not a great plan.
Things became rocky when they reached Sheffield however, the number of aliens lingering around seemed vastly higher than the other towns.
“What the heck is with this town?!” Oliver had demanded one night as they boarded up the windows and doors of a house they had deemed abandoned. For two days, they had been in Sheffield, having to duck out of sight, hide and fight while trying to find the factory.
“It’s wasting our damn time” Katya grumbled, having become grouchier as the days went by. She had been very torn ever since making the decision to go to all the factories on the way. The red-head knew it was the right thing and she wasn’t about to change her mind, but it was having a serious knock-on effect on her stress, her worries and in turn her mood.
What if this extra day was the difference between her finding her family dead instead of alive?
Zen seemed to be the one who kept being able to soothe that mood though, sure Olli was a help, but he was just as worried about his own family. So, it appeared that Zen was already proving to be a blessing on this trip – he listened to everything, acknowledged every bubbling emotion before it could get out of hand and then gave encouraging and supportive comments that made both the younger beings let out sighs and nod, letting the subject go for that moment.
It wasn’t until they got to the factory in the centre of Sheffield that they realised just how many more Nerushi and Hiko were here. They had not seen any on guard duty when they were in the other towns… but here there were three pairs standing outside the door to the black chasm.
“Why are they facing the door?” Oliver queried with utter confusion in his voice.
“I don’t know… guards normally stop people going in, but they look like they are there to stop anyone getting out” Zen commented.
“But who would be able to get out of there? No one is left with any weapons” Katya added with a bemused face.
All sat back under the window they had been using to spy on the scene and glanced to one another. “Maybe they’ve got some real threats in there?” Oliver asked, “Maybe someone in there managed to kill some just like we did, and they aren’t taking chances?”
“If there is, they might be able to help us on the way back out” Zen concluded, “However, that doesn’t help us on the way in.” He said it so calmly, as though it was just a case of a small detour, and not as though they had only ever had to take down two previously and had barely managed to get out of that scot-free. To take on six?! Well, that sounded like suicide.
“What if I lure them out?” Oliver chimed in.
“What?!” Katya and Zen exclaimed at the same time, the very concept seemed insane.
“Think about it, we pick a couple of spots were you guys can give a surprise attack; then I’ll show myself and lead them there – at least with parkour I can basically go in a straight line” He continued with determination in his voice.
“There’s six of them; we can’t take them all out like that” Katya sighed with a shake of her head.
“They won’t all give chase at once” The new female voice caused a yelp from the trio as they spun around to find an ashen-haired female in a black tank top. “Sorry, I heard you talking while I was scavenging the other room. Why the hell would you guys want to go into that thing?” Despite the shadow that her cap cast over her face, you could still see the shine of her hazel eyes concerned she had run into a bunch of insane people. Her ashen bangs contrasted nicely with her olive-hued skin while the rest was pulled up into a ponytail through the back of her cap.
“Because there are people in there…” Zen started, once more taking up the role of being the spokesperson as he had been at every factory so far. Oliver was too blunt about it and Katya got a little flustered when trying to explain their situation. “We’ve discovered that people are being kept alive, so they can be farmed individually over time. So, we intend to go in, free them and get them to a safe space underground”
“They are alive…?” The female seemed stunned and almost ashamed of that knowledge. “Oh god. I didn’t know…”
“I know, no one would have thought it – but believe me; Katya here saved me from being farmed and we’ve been in four of those factories already” Without any hesitation, the greying male turned to pull his shirt up so the woman could see the six healing wounds where he had been hooked up to the machine.
“Let me help.” The female stated immediately, her back straightening as though standing to attention and ready for a fight. “Some from my barracks were dragged away so they might still be alive in there”
“Barracks?” Oliver questioned, raising an eyebrow “You’re a soldier?”
“Army engineer actually; back from the war as I lost my leg. Name’s Leonora Gunner, a pleasure to meet you” It was as she held her hand out to them that the sun glinted off the army tags around her neck which all of them had missed. As her hand was shaking she continued “I’ve been upgrading my leg to withstand a war again so don’t worry about me holding you back… let me help.”
The offer brought a smile to Katya’s lips as she felt the confident grip of Leonora’s handshake. It would definitely help to have someone around who could stay calmer than all of those already there – someone who had lost a limb and still had the drive to go back to war would surely be a great advantage to them.
“We’d be glad to have help; thank you” Katya chimed with that smile verging a little onto a lopsided grin. “I’m Katya, this is Oliver and Zen. You said they won’t give chase all together?”
Leonora nodded as she pulled her hand back, moving carefully and silently to the window that they had been watching the invader through. “They hunt in pairs, but there’s been a lot of commotion in that building so they seem to have come up with a strict guard system. If they only see one person, it’s likely only one pair will give chase… though how you intend to distract six while someone gets inside is a mystery to me.”
“You haven’t killed any yet then?” Oliver smirked slightly as he folded his arms across his chest.
“Kill them?”
“Yeah. They have weaknesses; so, we didn’t plan on distracting them, we plan on killing them”
“Seriously?” Leonora looked like she couldn’t believe her ears. If her barracks had no luck killing any in the fight they had given on that first day through to the end of the first week, she didn’t know how these three civilians had managed to do such a thing.
“Yeah; I got lucky a couple of times, but since then I’ve taken them apart, discovered weaknesses in that armour they wear and figured out the best way to kill them” Katya launched into an explanation of that first day and that first factory; explaining what she had found when she searched the armour, and what she had learned when she had removed the armour as well. In the previous days, she had also seen under a Hiko’s armour, the leathery skin had been supple, and Katya had been right about the jaw; it was solely a weapon.
“Wow…” Leonora breathed as Katya reached the end of her story “Suddenly the number of blades you guys are carrying makes sense”
A small ripple of laughter moved across the group as they all glanced at their arsenal has not even given it a second thought over the prior series of days.
“Do you need some?” Zen queried.
“I’ve got three army knives and a couple of flip knives on me, along with a built-in blade in my knee, heel and ball of my foot” Leonora smirked back, clearly proud of her handy work.
“Impressive; and I assume your aim is good?” Oliver looked like he was thinking at a hundred miles an hour as the ashen-haired
female nodded in confirmation. “Fabulous. Well, in that case, I’ll get them to chase me and you guys can take them out. We’ll find a narrow place for me to aim for that you can use to your advantage.” Leonora moved to argue, however, Oliver raised his hand to prevent her. “I’m a free-runner, me taking a route regardless of obstacles is going to be fairer than someone else doing it.”
Oliver was serious in his tone despite his cocky smirk and his sassy hand of his hip. He knew he was right, and it wasn’t something that anyone else there could argue against. So, his plan was the one they went with. They scouted out a narrow alley with plenty of last garbage bins which the three could hide behind; the agreement that Katya would take out the alien that came second after the first had passed, then Leonora would take out the second. Zen would be a backup, in case either of the females missed their target.
Once in position, Oliver moved through the streets to begin the plan. It took a little time, longer than Katya felt comfortable with, fears of Oliver being caught without them being there to help lingered in the back of her mind. The amount she had worried about people these days made this whole experience seem to last a decade. Soon enough though, the sound of footsteps rang through their ears. It was clear that Oliver was moving, but only by listening extremely carefully could they hear the much softer sounds of the beings which chased him.
Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Page 6