Mishka sat close to her leg as Katya waited, having seen the last of the civilians enter the church which this safe-town was situated. Sure enough, soon came Axel, carrying a gentleman who looked unconscious, and Seth carrying a second, slimmer male over his shoulder.
Katya nodded to them quietly as they passed, showing that the coast was clear.
Next was Leonora, with two children in tow, both crying and stumbling but moving fast enough. Oliver and Zen were lagging a little; perhaps there had been someone who couldn’t be saved? That would make them delayed compared to the others.
A deep growl began to rumble from Mishka’s throat as she pointedly stood, looking the way Oliver and Zen should have been heading towards her. Cursing, Katya pulled out one of her katanas and edged down the alley she had been lingering in.
About two streets away she saw what had alerted Mishka; a whole group of Nerushi!
Panic flooded her. They had never seen that many enter a town so quickly after they had cleared it. Why now? Were they beginning to realise the factories were being hit in a clear moving order? Were these creatures that intelligent? Sure, they were built to be the most efficient human farmers, but they didn’t seem to do much individual thinking.
Peeking around the edge of the building she spotted a messy of ginger frizz over behind some bushes in a front garden. Shifting slightly, Katya caught sight of the grey hair of Zen and the black hair of Oliver. They were all soaked. Katya thought they had probably poured the bottles of perfume they had onto themselves when they realised how many Nerushi were around, hoping to give them a little protection from them.
Which was great, but they were boxed in. If they moved, they would be seen and easily pounced upon.
Head reeling, Katya leaned against the wall. What could she do? She couldn’t fight that many. If she went for help, they could have found the people by the time she got back.
Damn… There was only one option…
“Mishka, stay.” She commanded to the dog before taking a deep breath and darting out from the shadows she hid in, sheathing her katana and picking a large piece of litter up to throw at the closest Nerushi. “Oi! Over here! Come and get me, you foul nightmares!” Of course, she knew they couldn’t hear her, but it felt better to her to vocalise her provocation.
That was all it took for them to turn to cast their gaze on her, all deep red wine colours flashing as they locked onto her.
“Kat, no!” Oliver’s voice sounded, having heard her and her stupid decision.
“Run! Get them safe!!” Katya yelled back as she turned on her heels and began to hightail it out of there. She didn’t know this city, she didn’t know where she was going. All she knew was she was running in the opposite direction to that church where so many innocents now resided.
She could feel the burn in her body as she ran through the streets, ducking through shops and houses in an attempt to slow down what was following her. She couldn’t outrun them. She knew that much. They were faster than she was, and they had so much more stamina. Katya could already feel her body wish to stop, her medicine couldn’t deal with the level of stress she was placing on her body right now.
Just a bit more.
A little more and she would have given the others plenty of time to get to safety.
Hissing in pain as her abdomen cramped a little in protest, she turned sharply into a car park. Using the scattered cars as ways to block and slow the aliens down she didn’t even think about where she was going any more.
Her eyes were blurring a little, maybe because of her Addison’s disease, maybe through tears brought on by the fear of how this was going to end.
Through a door, she clattered into a high up walkway to the shopping centre in the town.
Crashes behind her told her that none of the Nerushi had given up yet and they were happy to smash through the small human doors in order to get at her.
Katya found amusement in a delirious thought that one person could cause enough of a chase that six of these great beasts all seemed to be intent on continuing rather than leaving it down to just one of them.
Up the floors, she ran. The Nerushi bounding up the levels, just seconds behind her.
Glass shop windows smashed as the Nerushi carelessly ran into them, trying to turn as sharply as Katya had done. If this was all about the sharp turns, the red-head might have had a chance.
But her breathing was laboured now.
Her body was unable to cope and was on the verge of an adrenal crisis.
It felt like a countdown to the death.
But at least, if Katya pushed herself to the absolute limit, her body would give out before these creatures could rip her apart… or worse.
On the third floor of the shopping centre, as Katya ran past the shops and made to turn sharply to dash to the other side, it seemed the Nerushi had finally caught on. One jumped up from the floor before, smashing the glass railings on one side of the crossing while its arm reached out to crash into Katya.
If it had wanted to stop her, it put too much strength behind that strike. Instead of stopping or falling to the ground, Katya felt her whole body lifted from the floor and thrown to the side.
She felt the bottom of her back collide with the other railing, and then the feeling of being turned upside down as the impact had her roll over the top of it and drop off the side.
Well, this would be quick.
That was the last thought Katya had before the darkness fell over her mind and she passed out while her body plummeting to the dusty white stone floor.
Chapter 14
“Let me go! We have to go find her!” Oliver yelled as he fought with the strong dark arms of Axel which held him firmly around the waist.
“Dude calm down! We’re no help to her by running out there and getting ourselves killed” Axel spoke, slightly strained from holding the squirming male.
They had waited an hour, thinking that Katya might lose them and make her way back to this place. But still nothing, no red-head had walked through that door no matter how much they wanted her too.
“You don’t understand! Moving that much will give her a crisis! If she passed out near them, they might have just dragged her to the factory!” Oliver half yelled desperately “We have to go get her!” There was clearly no doubt in Oliver’s mind that his best friend was still out there somewhere. Blind hope. Denial maybe.
“Oliver please, calm down” Zen spoke, as gentle as ever “Of course, we are going to find Katya. But we can’t do it without working together and carefully.”
Seconds ticked by as Oliver glared slightly before finally sighing in defeat. “Alright fine!” He shrugged Axel off but didn’t make to run anywhere. “So, plan?!” he demanded.
“We’ll go back and check the factory first, then we’ll do a sweep of the direction she ran in.” Axel started.
“I’ll also call for Mishka, she might be able to smell Katya out,” Kit said softly as he placed a supportive hand on Oliver’s shoulder. The second dog hadn’t followed Oliver and Zen back and she was trained to keep away from the Nerushi. So, she might have some luck tracking a scent.
That was what they had hoped. But there was no sign of Katya back in the factory; even in the usual storage room which had big tanks inside didn’t have anything that told them where Katya could be.
Mishka didn’t respond to the calls that Kit gave as they split into two groups to scout the area, looking for anything that might help.
After around three hours of searching the two groups came back together with nothing to show for it except for Mishka’s collar and harness, speckled with blood. Oliver was beginning to get incredibly agitated. He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t have lost Katya. There was no way he knew how to cope with something like that. They had been best friends since they were beginning to walk. They had been neighbours and born within months of each other. Oliver was an only child, but he never felt like one when he was always able to go around next door and play. He remembered the
food fights he and Katya had started one, only for Katya’s mother to join in until they were all disgustingly messy but deliriously happy.
Oliver remembered how he and Katya had been the ones to take her little sister out shopping for a fancy-dress party and how he had been the one to do her hair. He remembered when Katya and he went to their prom together just because they couldn’t fathom going with someone other than their best friend. They took stupid photos and danced in the most ridiculous ways that they could.
They went to the same university for different subjects and both had different hobbies, but they were never apart for long. They talked all the time, gossiped about everything, and if Oliver hadn’t needed to live on campus for his particular studies, they sure as hell would have been living together as well.
Shaking slightly, he shook his head and focused on the ground “We have to keep looking” He growled, “She has to be alive and we have to find her.”
The others glanced to one another, not sure what to say. None wanted to tell him that they probably were not going to be able to find her, that it was likely a worst-case scenario. To everyone’s surprise, it was Seth who spoke before anyone else, his cool silver eyes looking confidently at Oliver.
“Think about it. It’s been hours, Katya isn’t stupid, and she knows the route we are taking to the next town. She wouldn’t stick around here waiting to see if we looked for her, she’ll have moved on to that town and if we don’t as well, she’ll keep going alone hoping to catch us” It was strangely logical, though obviously he was playing into Oliver hope that the girl was still alive and functioning. If Katya was still out there, she either would have come to the vault or moved on. Seth didn’t stop looking at Oliver as the male eyed him looking for a lie “Come on, you know I’m right. From what I can tell, she’s stubborn as a mule, and focused enough to lead her into the most insane paths”
Oliver chuckled in spite of himself and nodded. “You have a point” His frustration had reduced a little at Seth’s words, his mind playing over just how many sticky situations Katya had got herself out of over the years while trying to help other people out.
“Ok, so we get moving after a night in the safe town?” Leonora asked, making sure that Oliver was the one making the final call right now as it’s the only thing keeping him at least mildly calm.
He agreed. They would set out in the morning.
Oliver was hesitating the next morning, he still didn’t want to leave the town in case Katya was there. And the entire time they walked he would look over his shoulder every few minutes, hoping to see Katya coming over the horizon.
But nothing.
Nothing in the first town with the first factory; and still no sign when they went back to Leicester of her.
By the fifth day of walking back and forth and doing the usual of saving people; it was beginning to become a real scare that Katya was no longer going to be able to join them. It was after one factory when Oliver broke down at night; leaning his forehead on Kit’s back while tears streamed down his cheeks.
That day he had seen the tanks in the storage and he too had been faced with the truth of what was in them. Oliver realised just what truth Katya had been protecting them all from, he had figured out that the liquid was made with humans, and that it was that which had fed them when they were caged. The people had been forced to consume liquified human just to survive the hunger of the factories.
His best friend had taken that on herself, just like she had taken on the killing of those who couldn’t be saved. Katya had always been the strong one and she had always taken on extra weight for other people. But this… this was too much!
And he couldn’t even save her!!
Katya…
“Come here…” Kit mumbled, reaching around to force Oliver around so he could hug him while he cried. Various stammers and mumbles fell from Oliver’s lips as he tried to say something. Turi whined a little as he nuzzled into Oliver lap, his nose having tears dripped down onto him.
For a while they sat in silence, Kit just letting Oliver cry on him until he was hiccupping to take normal breaths. “Talk to me Olli.” Kit was the only other one other than Katya who had been given permission to call him Olli since they had met.
“I just… I hate myself for not being there! She had to come and save me… I should have been able to figure out a way past those things, and everyone would be fine” He spoke fast, angry at himself. He took it on himself, he should have been there to help protect her. “What the hell am I going to tell her family when we find them? Oh sorry, I think your daughter didn’t make it because I wasn’t able to save myself?”
Kit sighed softly, holding Oliver tight. “That’s not what happened Oliver. It’s not your fault. And we couldn’t find her or Mishka, for all we know they are moving – or they are hidden away somewhere. You can’t lose hope”
“But… what if she…”
“Katya is incredibly strong, you know that. It takes a special kind of person to realise what’s currently happening in this world and decide to walk to and from places saving people while walking to find out if her family are still alive. That is honestly, so brave.” Kit comforted “You and her, you’ll get through hell and you both will come out of the other side I’m sure.”
Oliver didn’t know where the long-haired male was getting his faith from in those moments. Logic was ebbing away at Oliver’s and he found it difficult to believe the man. But the warmth of the hug and the softness of the voice that kept reassuring him allowed him to be lulled into sleep.
They would just have to go on without Katya for now, carry on doing everything she would have wanted them to do.
They had been joined by the ginger-haired girl they had saved that day they had lost Katya. She was only fourteen, but she was orphaned and had been protected and supported by Zen; and so, she came along, adopted and defended by them all. Her name was Laelia Foxblade; she was freckled and pale, with blue-green eyes, wide and innocent behind large round glasses with thin frames.
Like the dogs, she brought innocence to the group, she helped to keep in sight what they were fighting for even with the grief of their missing friend hanging on their shoulders. She was the reminder of all the people they had managed to save, the reminder that no matter how many towns they had been to, they couldn’t stop. Not when there were more people out there in those horrible situations.
Plus, they all made a vow not to stop until they had at least tracked down Katya’s family for her.
Chapter 15
A low groan left her lips and seemed to echo a little around her. Through mostly closed eyes she could make out the damp concrete of a low ceiling above her. The smell of rotting food coaxed her to consciousness and made her stomach turn. She could remember falling and then everything had gone black. But she had been falling from such a height, how the hell was she opening her eyes now?
Katya moved to sit back up, but pain shot through her body and she yelped, her right arm moving to hold her ribs as she slumped back down. She noticed that her left arm wouldn’t move.
“Hey, easy now” came a very soft voice, almost angelic. Katya’s eyes squinted in the dark room and spotted the one who spoke. She was a young woman, around nineteen years in age with a bob type haircut but no way near as neat. She was incredibly pale and, from what Katya could see in the pale light, the girl had purple eyes?
“Am I dead?” She mumbled.
The girl laughed kindly while shaking her head. “No, I feel that would be too easy. You are very broken though so take it easy, we patched up your ribs, and I think your leg is mostly a torn muscle, but your left arm is definitely broken” she explained, picking up a bottle of water and bringing it to Katya, holding her head as she helped her gulp down water.
“Thanks” Katya mumbled, “Who are you?”
“My name is Orion, your dog is here too, Colt just took her out for a walk” The girl introduced with a friendly smile. “We heard the commotion, and we saw you fall… your do
g was trying to protect you as you only fell two floors but there was no way it was going to take on that many Nerushi.” She continued at the confusion on Katya’s face that told her names weren’t enough right now “We found that a mixture of smoke and stink bombs at least give us enough time to get away, and by hiding in here, a hollowed out, hand-made basement, allowed us some safety.”
Well, that explained the smell and the rough, damp feel of the walls. Yet, this girl seemed content with her situation right now.
“But… why go out there when there were so many, and I’d fallen so far?” Katya asked in confusion.
“Because we had to try and save you, right?” Orion smiled, not realising the words she used struck home incredibly hard. That was the view she had back then when she tried to save that woman from the machine. It was why Katya had started the whole damned journey in the first place. She had to try.
Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Page 12