Laughing a little to cover the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes, Katya shook her head a little. “You realise that’s crazy, right?”
Orion grinned, her heart-shaped face lighting up while her long eyelashes could be seen flicking a little in the low light. “Yeah, I know. But people have said I’m crazy all my life, befriending a delinquent when I’m so slim and delicate, being happy in a foster home where the adults were always away, for dancing in the rain and for sitting alone in woods just to see the wildlife.” Orion shifted herself to sit beside Katya who had resigned herself to laying there a little longer. “But I can’t imagine being anything else, so I’m ok with being crazy.”
There was something very soothing about this girl. It was different to everyone else that Katya had met on the travels so far, there wasn’t shyness or compassion, no careful choices of their words to keep Katya from spinning out of control. The girl was just like light personified. Though maybe that came from the part of Katya that was still convinced she was dying or dead.
Though, surely it wouldn’t be this painful if she was actually dead. Breathing was painful on her ribs, and she could feel the bruising on her face and back. She probably looked like a sight.
“How long was I out for?” She asked.
“A week” Came a deep, growling voice from behind her making her jump and then whine in pain. Katya was immediately greeted, however, with a large slobbery lick from the dog she knew only too well. Lifting her good arm, she gave the dog affectionate attention while also trying to keep her from standing on anything painful.
“A week?” She repeated, assuming it was Colt who had spoken though he didn’t walk into her view just yet. With all the injuries and then the fact she had barely slept for a while before that, and the fact she had driven herself to have an adrenal crisis… yeah, maybe a week wasn’t so insane.
“Yeah, a week. We’ve been having to makeshift IV drips to give you fluids and your medication…” Colt finally moved into view, he looked wild. This must have been the delinquent that Orion had been talking about. His sandy blonde hair was messy and stuck out awkwardly, his face covered in an unkempt facial hair while his deep brown eyes seemed to glare harshly. If Orion was the beauty, then this guy was certainly the beast. “Also, who the hell carries a bloody stuffed toy around in the middle of an apocalypse?!”
Katya sat bolt upright, ignoring the sheer pain that shot through her as she did. “You better not have got rid of that!” She snapped up at him, returning the glare just as viciously despite her condition.
“Tch. Orion wouldn’t let me burn it… stupid thing to carry”
“Why I have it, is none of your damned business!” Katya told him with angry bubbling within her. This was the same reason why she had been so defensive of her backpack when Seth had taken it from her. Glancing to Orion who looked concerned but held out the old ragged brown teddy, Katya huffed and took the toy with her good hand while Mishka lay behind her providing a warm backrest. “It was mine, then I gave it to my sister. She told me to take him to University as he would bring me luck and then I could bring him home to her” she mumbled awkwardly as the bear was pulled towards her chest.
Before either of them could make any more comments, she moved on back to the previous subject. “If I’ve been here a week already, I really need to go.” She explained about the group she had been travelling with and even if they thought she was alive they would have moved on by now. She had to catch them up; make sure they were ok, let them know that she was ok. Katya had no doubt that Oliver would be climbing the walls with frustration if he hadn’t been able to find any sign of her.
“You can’t go anywhere just yet; you’d never get far with those ribs and that leg. And you’d only have the one arm to fight against them with” Orion commented.
Katya moved to protest but received something thrown at her head by Colt. “Don’t be stupid, go back to damned sleep. Go after them when you aren’t a liability that will get yourself and others killed.” Katya rubbed the bruise which he had hit while glaring his way as he bit down on a chocolate bar.
“You’re an ass, you know that?” she spat back at him.
He shrugged “So?”
“Sorry about him, he has a good heart deep down under there,” Orion said jovially.
“Only you think so, you crazy sod” Colt growled, though it just made Orion chuckle.
“Get some more sleep. It’s ok, you’ll find your friends” Orion said, ushering the dog out from behind Katya so she could lie down. Mishka, it seemed, didn’t want to be away from Katya as she moved a small amount and then lay down beside the redhead’s good arm, leaning her head ever so softly on the woman’s shoulder.
“Good girl Mishka” Katya whispered, kissing the pup’s nose gently, comforted by her enough to let sleep wash away the pain for the time being.
As the days rolled past, Katya could feel the strength of her leg coming back to her and it became easier and easier to move. It turned out that due to the amount of fights Colt had got himself into over the years, Orion had learned a hell of a lot about treating wounds and it felt like she was doing a stand-up job with Katya’s wounds. Before this had all started, she had started a college degree in nursing in her home town, so she didn’t leave Colt alone.
Colt was defensive and quick-tempered, he picked fights over everything just to get Katya to stop talking. He even picked fights with Orion who never seemed to pick up on that, instead she just answered and joked with him honestly. It was like she saw something behind the angst on the outside. He wasn’t cruel though, Katya could give him that, he hadn’t once mentioned the bear which had been stowed away. He also growled at her to eat and drink regularly… And while she had sworn, she only had a couple of weeks’ worth of meds when she had passed out, she now had two months’ worth.
Somehow, she didn’t think it was Orion who had gone out to get those. For the most part, Katya tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt.
By the time she was up on her feet again, moving awkwardly, she had told them everything that happened. There was something about them being strangers and not knowing the rest of the group that just let it flow. The things she had found out about the aliens; linked well to why she now thought the smoke and stink bombs were an incredibly effective technique. It conquered both the aliens’ main senses. She explained the things she had seen in those factories, the underground safe towns, the tanks, the machines, the fact she had put people ‘out of their misery’. She told them about the other members of the group, the family she was trying to get to.
Katya even admitted the fear and the wish to no go on with it any more. Maybe almost dying had made her wish she had admitted it all along, maybe it wouldn’t have given her insane. The guilt that she couldn’t get rid of, the fear that she would have to do that to one of her family members, to one of her friends if she carried on down this road.
By the time she was able to move enough for travelling to be safe, it had been almost three weeks since she had seen her best friend. But she felt a hell of a lot better than she had done then. Getting everything off her chest had helped, even being berated by Colt had helped. He had gone on at her for being stupid enough to take on that guilt in the first place and for being a reckless prat for having those Nerushi chase her just because she was suicidal and too stupid at the time to put together another plan.
He was right. As much as it pained her to admit it; she could have come up with something else. Anything else. But she had had such little sleep, and she was in a state of wishing it was over that sacrificing herself seemed a great plan.
Katya had been so selfish. She realised that now after watching Orion selflessly look after her despite the amount of liquids and medicines that they were having to give up from their stash just to get Katya back in action.
“I’ll take you guys to the safe town, it’ll be much nicer than this place,” Katya said as she packed up her bag, making sure she had all the weapons which th
ey had removed from her while she was being treated. All but her stiletto; damn. Well, she wouldn’t need to be going into any factories on the route, the gang should have already done them.
With the back and forth of their movements as well, Katya would be able to catch up without much trouble.
“But I thought we were coming with you?” Orion commented as she tilted her head curiously while pausing in packing her own bag with smoke and stink bombs. “We’ve got some good technique against them and now you’ve told us how to kill them. Plus, those wounds of yours aren’t completely healed, what kind of person would I be if I let you walk around with one good arm”
“A sensible one” Katya replied at the exact moment Colt growl at the same thing.
The pair glanced at each other awkwardly before both looking back at Orion who was settling her shoulder bag to hang across her body and at hand height for easy bomb retrieval.
“Well as you both have said to me, I’m crazy so I’m going with you” She laughed brightly, as though she was merely saying she’d go to the shops in the rain with them.
Katya looked at her for a moment before shrugging lightly. “Well, it’s not like I can force you not to follow me,” she said, after everyone else that had joined, Katya had learned to simply be grateful for the company rather than shun it. Despite the danger, without other people, she would be dead three times over already.
Orion looked over at Colt with a grin, even though he was looking at her as though wondering if it would just be easier to kill her here and go find a nice hole to stay in.
“Coming?” She chimed.
“Tch. You are damned impossible, brat” he grumbled at her, though Katya figured that in Colt language that meant that he was coming along for the ride.
Nodding lightly, Katya worked out a quick plan to stop off at a place to get the other two knives of some kind, and then to find a map. Because while she knew which order the towns, they had planned out down to her home town were… she currently had no idea which way the next town was, and without knowing that, her compass was useless.
Colt, it turned out, was a pretty good hunter. Orion said that it was because his father used to take him hunting and that was the only thing the man did with him. Of course, they had used guns and Katya had saddled him with a bow and its arrows. But he made good use of their resting times to practice with it. He was a good shot.
They only spotted some lone Nerushi and Hiko as they moved, they seemed to be heading the same way as them though. Another ambush like the one they had tried in Leicester? Katya grew concerned about her friends and wondered about how far they would get to before they had way too many on their hands.
The aliens seemed to be growing wise to the group. Though they obviously didn’t expect three people to be a fair way behind them, happy to pick off a Nerushi or Hiko if it crossed their path. More than once, Colt had shown his natural skill and shot down one of them from a distance. One arrow, perfect shot, and the nightmares fell to the ground still.
Of course, that only worked when there was only one of them. As soon as they saw a pair, there was more of a need for a plan.
“Right, Orion and I will move closer. We reek of mud, stink bombs and god-knows what else, so we shouldn’t be sensed for a bit. Orion will launch one of the stink bombs over to them to confuse them. Then when we are closer, Colt, you take out the Hiko and I’ll go in for the Nerushi.” It was scary how this was becoming like second nature to her. Even the pair she was with cast her a look as though surprised she had thought through all that so quickly. Noticing this look she gave a weak smile “You get used to this kind of stuff.”
The plan went smoothly, the stink bomb was able to disorientate the Nerushi enough that it didn’t matter that Katya only had one good arm, she sliced the back of the knee to bring it down in height before plummeting the short sword into the weakness at the neck.
That felt good. To be back in control of her mind and to be able to bring one of these down yet again. Her eyes danced over the blue blood on the blade before putting it back into the sheath.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you had killed a lot of them” Colt spoke, for once, in a not aggressive manner. Maybe he was impressed at what he had seen, perhaps a flicker of respect he had lost when he found the teddy reignited in him. “Not bad.”
“Not bad?” Katya laughed a little, mockingly acting offended “Sure you can shoot them down from afar, but I just did that with one good arm and still bruised ribs, and all I get is a ‘not bad’?”
Colt merely grumbled at her while she laughed a little in disbelief, what would impress this guy? If she killed one while holding the blade in her mouth? It wasn’t that she was bothered, she had just never met anyone so blocked off. Well, Seth was pretty blocked off, but he had warmed up and he made his snide comments now and then. But he also had kept trying to comfort her in his own clueless manner, ruffling her hair despite never having done it before. He was quiet, but there was a growing air of supportiveness around him. Quiet and reliable he was after taking down that Hiko with a nail gun.
Katya found herself smiling at that memory that night as she cleaned off her blade and sharpened it. While Colt and Orion slept, Katya recalled the number of times she ended up on watch duty with Seth. He didn’t seem to mind her company, she wasn’t one to talk his ear off, but she would make her jests and check he was doing ok after facing his fear. Katya didn’t mind his company either she had found.
Rubbing behind Mishka’s ears as the dog slept by her feet, she remembered her as a puppy bounding around at night and Seth attempting to catch her before she woke up the people who were sleeping. He hadn’t realised Katya had seen that as she had gone to relieve herself; but it was such an amusing image she couldn’t help but wait until he had caught the pup and she was struggling in his grip and licking his face to come back into the room properly.
It was strange, despite everything, when she thought about the journey so far, she smiled. Yes, the nightmare was real and everything before were feelings she still had. But she missed her little group; the singing Axel regularly did, the cheekiness from Oliver, the clumsy shyness of Kit, the powerful yet fantastic care from Leonora, Zen’s amazing talent of mixing cold, tinned foods with spices to actually make something that tasted fabulous, and finally, the quiet but sharp personality of Seth.
Katya wanted to get back to them as soon as possible. Looking at the stars through a small gap in the boarded-up window she sat by, she sighed softly.
“I’m on my way guys…” she mumbled to the air around her. As though if she said it to the stars, the message might somehow get passed on.
They’d all better be there when she caught up.
Chapter 16
It had been at least a month since they had seen Katya, no matter how many times they backtracked to the previous safe place, they never bumped into her. Turi was a very clear sign of how much time was passing with the size he was growing to, looking big for a dog already but still not full sized as he was probably only four months old now.
Oliver had grieved many times as his hope for his best friend waned; and by this time, even Zen and Kit’s words of hope seemed more and more like a fantasy. The dark-haired male couldn’t accept it still though, he was more driven than ever to keep moving, zigzagging from town to town between Leicester and London. It made their journey slower, but they were able to save more people.
A part of Oliver still fully expected to find Katya in one of the factories, blade in a Nerushi, looking at him with a lopsided smile asking what took him so long. As it kept it going, none of the others argued with him about it.
Nearing London though, being able to see the once great city on the horizon, Seth halted with a curse which made everyone else glance up.
Reaching into the sky was a pitch-black building. Like the factories, it reflected no light and looked ominous. Unlike the factories, it was about ten times the height and three times the square footage in width.
&n
bsp; “What the hell?” Axel whispered under his breath as the group stood stunned.
“One factory for the whole of London?” Zen suggested hopefully as Laelia moved closer behind him, taking hold of the hem of his shirt in fear. None of them believed that for a minute.
“Too large” Leonora shook her head.
“Maybe it’s the main storage, you know, the canisters we kept destroying – maybe they get brought here before going elsewhere?” Oliver shrugged lightly.
“So, this is the main head office as it were? Warehouse and shipping?” Axel asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Either that, or it’s the central control centre…” Seth spoke, his eyes piercing through the air while he stared at the building, it was impossible to tell how many floors it had as there were no such thing as windows in the alien architecture. “Which means there’s going to be more here that we’ve ever had to deal with.” As he spoke, he glanced back to Laelia, if that was the case, then this girl sure as hell wasn’t safe with them in this situation.
Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Page 13