“Seth?” Leonora breathed softly, met only with a silent and deathly glare from the man. He reminded Katya of an animal who had been abused one too many times and would bite anyone that came close. “What happened?”
“Too much. Too many dead, and there’s been nothing that we could do to help… no matter how much he tried. So, he’s emotionally shutting everyone off; think he’s trying to stop any more of us being reasons for him to hurt.” Axel explained with a small sigh.
“Well, hopefully, he’ll come out of that shell again once you guys are all safe” Katya commented, finally gaining the attention from Axel and the rest of those whom the red-head could only assume was from the same barracks as Leonora.
“Safe? Nowhere out there is safe” One of the soldiers scoffed as though he thought she was a little girl living in a fantasy.
“Yes, there is actually. There’s a bunker under the city designed for apocalyptic times and I think an alien invasion comes under that kind of category. It’s got stores, water, the ability to grow food to an extent, and it’s undetectable by these aliens as far as we can tell. They can’t sense people that are that far below ground.” Katya’s voice was blunt, stating facts without any care for being argued back against.
Leonora took over the explanation as the man made to speak out in doubt against the red-head. Soldier loyalty must have been strong with how quickly they accepted and trusted the plan when it came from Leonora’s mouth. It meant they were on board though, and this time they would have a higher number of trained people walking with the crowd to the safe zone.
As they filtered out, guided by Leonora and Zen, Axel waited by Katya who had taken the opportunity to learn herself against the wall to rest her leg.
“You gonna be alright there, kid?” He asked in a kind voice, he wasn’t looking down on her, but aware of the damage that these invaders could inflict.
“Yeah. I won’t let a Hiko hold me back”
“Hiko?”
Once more, Katya had to explain the names she had given the invaders. Her names were met with a deep laugh from the grey-eyed male.
“Certainly, more family-friendly than what we’d been calling them, eh Seth?” He called over his shoulder to the man who still had not moved from that corner. “You coming or what grumps?” he added as Seth refused to look up at him. All he got in response was a shrug and a grunt from the ivory skinned man filled with angst. “Ok, I’ll rephrase that. We’ve just been told how to kill them, and you are too damn skilful to not be a part of this. So, move your butt, dude.”
Still nothing from the male.
Axel frowned for a moment before looking at Katya and smirking a little as an idea clearly came to him. Before she could protest, the chirpy male had hoisted her up and thrown her at the grumpy male in the corner. Katya expected Seth to drop her there and then, possibly through a defensive punch at Axel. But instead, he just let his dark eyes move to look at the female’s injured leg.
“Yeah, she’s injured. So, if you won’t fight, you can carry her and keep her safe while I give you cover” Axel’s voice held more command this time, but it was obvious that he knew this Seth well as the man simply adjusted Katya and threw her over his right shoulder, hooking his arm around her hips to keep her in place.
“Good lad. Let’s go” The chirpiness of Axel’s voice was back, triumphant of getting Seth to at least do something other than glare at people.
It looked like Katya was getting a ride back to the bunker.
Despite her usual strong nature, Katya didn’t protest to being carried out of the factory. One, she wasn’t sure this Seth guy wouldn’t knock her out to shut her up, but mostly it was because the relief she had felt when the weight was taken off her wound had been enough to make her head spin.
That didn’t stop her from grumbling a protest to Oliver who smirked at her as they reached the entrance.
“Getting into big strong arms already?” He had chimed with a small chuckle despite the raspberry that the red-head blew at him and the way the dark-haired soldier ignored him as he passed, keeping close in his long strides to Axel.
As they walked, Axel and Oliver hit it off with quick wit and clever jibs over their situation. The personalities shone through these dark times, Axel’s was brightest with the way he laughed and toyed around despite the danger they could be in out in the open. Even after Seth had glared him down for playing around, it didn’t bring down the atmosphere that Axel held, shown clearly by how he broke out into jolly humming.
“Is that from ‘Oliver’?” Oliver laughed a little as he picked out the song as being from the popular play.
“Yeah, can’t help it. Your name triggered it apparently” Axel laughed lightly as he paused in his humming to grin cheekily at the relatively slender male who walked behind Seth and Katya.
“Ax…” Seth growled lightly while adjusting Katya on his shoulder.
“I’m keeping an eye out, grumpy guts” Axel sighed softly, mockingly saluting the male with his hand that didn’t hold the ulak that he had borrowed from Katya.
“What’s got his panties in a bunch?” Oliver asked with a raised eyebrow at Katya who remained flopped over the strong shoulder that supported her.
Before anyone could comment, Seth spoke again. “We’re in a god-damned apocalypse, take a bloody guess.” He was clearly not a fan of the positive attitude that was being expressed by people around them.
“Alright, calm down darling,” Oliver grumbled back as he shared a shrug with Katya who had twisted a little to look up at him.
Despite Seth’s growls of displeasure and his never-changing stern features, Axel and Oliver didn’t stop their conversation. Axel was intrigued by the fact that these people had been out in this kind of apocalypse while Oliver was only too happy to fill him in with everything they had found, seen and decided to do along the way.
By the time they reached the bunker, and Katya was set down on a small marble wall that lined the stairway down into the housing, Axel and Seth had heard everything that had occurred. They had been told about the liquids they had found, about the weaknesses they now knew of and Oliver’s new theory that the invaders were deaf of hearing.
“So, you’re going to be heading back out there again?” Axel questioned looking around the bunker in mild awe.
“Yeah, just got to patch Katya’s leg up and then we’ll go” Zen had joined them now and was inspecting the wound in the redhead's thigh. It was more than the scrapes and bruises he had patched up on them so far.
“Give me that” Leonora stated, reaching down to take the medical kit from Zen and focusing the metal wire to thread it through the needle Zen had been sterilising with a lighter. “This is going to hurt” She warned Katya who gave her a small smirk.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious, I would never have guessed… ouch!” She hissed as Leonora wiped the wound with alcohol wipes and then pushed the needle through good skin to begin to stitch the wound together.
“Told you…” Leonora chuckled softly.
Silence fell for a moment, the atmosphere around their new friends had become contemplating; Katya suspected that, for the most part, they were probably feeling awkward thinking about the three going back out there as though this was just part of their day job.
“I’m coming with you” The words caused Katya’s head to snap to Axel as he spoke.
“What?”
“I’m coming with you, and so is Seth” He repeated with a smile on his lips while his arms crossed over his chest. It was amazing how easily the man ignored the glare from his dark-haired friend.
“Seriously? Did you not understand all the horrors I explained to you?” Oliver asked with amused disbelief.
“I did. And that is exactly why I am going with you” Axel explained “When I joined the army, I joined to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, to save those who were in over their heads. If I ignored the factories that you say are littered around this country and abandon those people, I will hav
e failed my purpose”
His face had turned serious while he glanced to Seth as though checking that the man was agreeing with him.
No debate from him.
“I can’t just ignore what is out there” Axel finished, he wasn’t offering to join them, he was telling them he was coming along for the ride.
“Axel’s right” Leonora added as she finished off the stitches in Katya’s thigh “So you guys can count me in; plus having a medic and engineer on your side might be useful” Bandaging the thigh tight, Leonora finally stood up and held her hand out to Katya to help her to her feet.
“Alright…” Katya sighed softly “Looks like our numbers just doubled, we’ll have to find somewhere to stock up on more food”
“How about we sleep first though eh?” Oliver chuckled softly as he moved forward to support Katya as she limped slightly, putting her weight on her leg was uncomfortable but not unbearable.
Hopefully, tomorrow with painkillers would be better.
Chapter 9
Tomorrow was not less painful.
In fact, it was probably worse as there was a stiffness in her leg that she had to contend with as she moved and climbed the stairs out of the bunker. They had all agreed that she was ok to move, but they would have to just take it slower until her wound healed to some extent.
So, for the next couple of weeks, they walked to and searched the small villages around Sheffield. Katya couldn’t fight easily but she was determined not to be useless; she took on the calming and informing the public members that they found. They found a few people still hiding out in the tiny villages, they were sceptical of the promised safety, but everyone seemed desperate enough to give in to hope.
The villages were so much safer than the towns, no factories but people seemed to have been hunted down relatively effectively still.
“These damned aliens have really done a number on this country” Axel grumbled one night as they settled themselves in the basement of a large country house.
“Let’s hope it’s only this country” Leonora interjected as she pulled up the leg of her trousers to tinker with her metallic leg; making sure all was in good nick, moving properly and held together securely.
“Think it’s worldwide?”
“Probably if they are farming human beings” Zen commented as he and Katya came down carrying books and materials they could make a fire with to warm up food.
“It is just humans, right?” Leonora questioned “I haven’t seen any animals in weeks now”
This seemed to send a wave of worry through the group, something which Katya addressed quickly.
“Animals are still around. They are likely developing much more cautious strategies of hiding, scavenging food from an empty place like we are… but there’s plenty of signs of them around” She explained, placing the books down onto the floor before moving over to one side of the basement, pushing a dust-covered shelving unit out of the way. Her leg was mostly healed now, it was just causing a very slight limp in her movements.
“See, recent sawdust from burrowing mice” She motioned to a small scattering on the floor, next to which a small hole behind the wooden beams could be seen. “It’s likely that whatever those liquids were, is in a higher number in humans… or humans were just the easiest and most numerous targets, to begin with”
“Damn…” Axel whispered with a shake of his head. “I mean I suppose it makes sense when you put it that way, but there are tonne more things like insects and small animals right?”
Katya rubbed the back of her head in thought as she sat herself down onto the floor, watching Zen build and stoke a fire in the centre of the basement for them all to keep warm by. “Maybe… but I’ve been thinking about that; those liquids, maybe they don’t exist in things like insects. And humans are far easier to catch than small animals that can burrow into the ground”
“Do you have an idea of what those liquids were?” Oliver asked curiously as he fought his way into a four pack of beans.
“I have a few, but I don’t know for sure” She paused for a moment, but upon realising everyone was looking at her, expecting detail to be given she sighed “I was thinking that they could be hormones… I’ve seen enough blood, plasma, and spinal fluid in my time to know it’s not any of them; so maybe some kind of hormones in high amounts. It would explain why they went for draining people alive for it, they would be able to produce more over time rather than trying to get it from dead bodies”
The expressions that met her eyes were ones of disgust, surprise, offence, and Seth’s blank cold expression that had barely ever changed in the two weeks since they met him.
“It’s just a guess. And I’ve no idea what the hell they would want it for… but at least it means the animals are still about so the ecosystem won’t be destroyed, and it means that enough humans should still be around to be saved while we move.” She added.
“True… better than instant world annihilation in the first day” Oliver chimed, receiving an agreeable ‘here-here’ from Axel as he poured the beans Oliver had got open into a pan to hold over the fire.
“We have some time to fight… and maybe even survive in small numbers in the long run” Leonora seemed confident in her statement, though Katya found herself feeling rather unsure. Would these aliens destroy the ecosystem by going for animals next when they ran out of humans? If they did, the people they had saved would likely have to become an underground race and attempt to survive while the ecosystem rebuilt itself from the ground.
With three people joining them, they could have taken less time in their watches and more time resting. However, they had decided that it would be more effective for them to just double up the manpower awake at any one time. Meaning that they took on staying up in pairs. To prevent awkwardness and to make sure they all knew and trusted each other, they all decided that they would switch pairs every night.
This night, Katya was paired with Seth. The last time this had happened, he didn’t speak to her for the entire watch, merely sat at the edge of the room, watching the darkness and waiting for any kind of noise that might be a threat. The dark-haired male was the only one who wasn’t connecting with the others, he still barely spoke unless it was to Axel and absolutely needed, he also still couldn’t face carrying weapons or being one of the ones to scout ahead for one of the aliens.
Honestly, Katya figured that Axel had suggested this pairing idea because he wasn’t sure Seth wouldn’t freeze if they were faced with a problem. Sure, this wasn’t ideal… but the haunted look in Seth’s dark eyes every time he heard a crack of movement in the house above played on the side of her that wanted to make those around her feel better.
“Here, it’ll help” The red-head held out a bottle of cheap beer which they had found in the basement, stored to keep cold, they had guessed.
Those eyes glanced up to her as Seth’s lips tightened a little as though judging her choices at that moment.
Katya merely chuckled “Come on, one won’t hurt. I promise” She kept the bottle held in front of his face until he took it, most likely in the hope it would shut her up. Of course, he would be disappointed if that was his hope. Instead, she sat herself down beside him, back against the wall, and pried the cap off the bottle she had taken for herself. “So, you regret coming with us yet?”
Seth didn’t respond, but he didn’t move away either. He kept his eyes on the darkness of the basement entry as he took a swig from his beer.
“I wouldn’t blame you. The world’s insane right now and you’re walking out in the open with a bunch of nutters who think they can make a difference” Katya laughed lightly at the thought of it. Still, Seth said nothing. “My original plan of just trying to find my family escalated a hell of a lot, and I’m still mostly running on luck and theories that aren’t proven.”
“Your family?” His gruff voice seemed to growl through the shadows, his eyes flicking to Katya’s face before immediately moving back to the darkness.
A respo
nse!
“Yeah, they live down on the south coast. My parents and my baby sister; I can’t just sit still without knowing whether they are still out there. I have to keep moving, to see if they can be saved” A pause was taken for Katya to take a swig of her own beer while her right hand played with her flip-knife.
“But…”
“I know, why not make a beeline straight to them and shorten the time I leave it unknown?” She saw the same thing reflected on the man’s face that haunted her thoughts every single day. These horrors she was coming to know more and more were things that her family could be experiencing right this very second. And yet, she was going around the houses on the way down looking for other people who may have survived. “To my sister, I was always the one who saved others; you know, stood up to the bullies in school even if I didn’t know the kid being bullied. The one who argued against rules because they hindered people other than me. The one who would help anyone no matter how much strain it put on me… if I ignored all these other people that I walked past; I’m not sure I could look her in the face when I got there.”
Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Page 8