Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home

by K T Valentine

  Oliver would catch them up though! Both friends were adamant about it!

  Chapter 19

  The following day was a late start compared to usual, but perhaps that was expected when they were heading out without four of their members. Orion had debated over staying with Kit, but there was plenty with medical skills in the safe town now, and Zen was able to do most of what was needed. So, she had promised him that she would help Leonora in looking after everyone else as they travelled.

  The travel was still energetic even with less of them. Orion made up for the usual chattiness of Oliver that was missing; it was less sassy and more gleeful, but it was still uplifting to everyone. Her and Axel would chat about all sorts as they walked, getting snarky comments from Colt, sarcastic ones from Seth and all sorts of input from Katya and Leonora.

  It took around another week for Katya to be able to use her arm, though it was now considerably weaker than the rest of her having had nothing to keep it strong the whole time it was bandaged up tight against her body.

  “You’ll still have to take it easy on this arm while you build up strength again…” Seth had said to her one evening as he helped stretch out and massage her arm to help its rehabilitation. He had kept a rather close watch on Katya since they had left London, maybe he knew already that the two who used to keep her calmest were now left behind for the time being.

  Colt had been helping with her strength training, using his bow as a good way for her to build steady strength in her left arm while not making it obvious where they were to anything that might be following. It was odd at first, trying to take up archery with her non-dominant arm; she had always done everything right-handed before. But over the days of practice and the stretching that Seth never failed to help her with, her left arm began to feel stronger again.

  Knowing the picture was going to get a hell of a lot bigger, the evenings they spent together while travelling from town to town were quieter and more focused. Leonora picked up more stuff to upgrade her leg with and then she helped trained up Orion; the Alexandria’s Genesis made it difficult for the brunette to put on muscle, but she was never any less motivated to do her best. Often, she was joined by Axel when her and Leonora decided to go for jogs when they stopped in little villages.

  Mostly though, Axel had taken it on himself to whip Colt into shape. Colt, with his tall and agile frame, had such potential for going up against a Nerushi or Hiko. His slightly narrowed eyes picked up on the slightest of movements that were made by everything; it was what made him a great playmate for Mishka, and someone who Axel and Seth could spar with to keep up their speed and strength.

  The main issue was Colt’s temper. He was impulsive and defensive, which when faced with Seth’s cynical sarcasm had led to many arguments which Axel had to break up. In those times, usually, either Seth or Colt would storm off and find their way to whatever Katya was doing.

  Unlike the rest of them, Katya could not do as heavy exercise because of her medication. Ever since Leicester, she had been taking her limits very seriously. She knew that if Colt and Orion hadn’t saved her back then, she would have been dead.

  There was no way she wouldn’t have been.

  She couldn’t risk something like that happening again? Colt and Orion had been at risk because of her that day, and so had Mishka who was growing like a weed. The dog had reached a height where her fur covered shoulders were on the same level as Katya’s hip. She was a great beast now; sharp to the smells of the Nerushi and the Hiko, obedient but playful. And, as ever, completely attached to Katya.

  Their group seemed to be ever changing, or at least, to Katya it did. But she felt no less secure in their task as they moved. Especially as the towns they visited, upon growing closer to her home town, were all the normal factories they had perfected up until now. Colt was involved in getting inside and helping there, Orion oversaw patching those on the machines up so that Leonora could be a part of the leading team.

  Katya still took on the soul-destroying part. Seth tried to argue it, and sometimes he won out and did it for her, but mostly it was Katya whose stiletto dagger ended the life of the people who couldn’t be saved from the machines.

  “Hey, you did what you had to…” Orion half-whispered to the red-brown haired female as they left the extractor room one time. None of them had been saveable… not one single person. It was most heart wrenching when it was a child whose life she had to fully end. They were so small, and they had probably never done anything to deserve such an ending.

  Katya glanced to Orion who had taken hold of her blood covered hand and begun to clean it off as they walked. The brunette wasn’t one to say things without need and so it was clear she was trying to at least take a little bit of weight off Katya’s shoulders with her words.

  It made the act she had done no less horrid, and it made her heart sting no less, but Orion had an amazing way of making Katya feel like she really wasn’t alone in this.

  Smiling weakly, Katya tilted her head slightly “Yeah I know… and I know it’s better than either leaving them or putting them through the torture of trying to get them down only to fail. It just; I dunno, feels like I’ve failed?”

  Orion paused in her movements, causing Katya to turn and look at her in confusion. The brunette was simply surveying her for that moment.

  “The fact that you are even fighting in this apocalypse means you could never fail anyone…” She started “If you hadn’t started this journey, there’s no guarantee anyone else would have; so, the fact you tried, and you gave them the most humane ending possible means you definitely have not failed!” Her purple eyes bored into Katya’s blue ones as she drove home that point with her sudden intensity. Orion wasn’t just being nice… she truly meant those words.

  Katya couldn’t help but laugh weakly and raise her hand to adjust the small ponytail she had pulled her hair back into. “Well, you have a point there… Even the head army people had no intention of going out until they heard everything we knew.”

  “Exactly! But you did! Not only did you realise how to kill these things, but you also decided that you couldn’t leave all those who were in trouble!” Orion’s excitement was back now, mirrored by Mishka as the dog bounded over to them as they walked down the streets following the trail back to the sub-terrain safe town. “You’re amazing Katya! Honestly, you’re just a regular person and you’ve done all this!”

  Katya couldn’t help but laugh now, mostly out of embarrassment at being told such things so bluntly to her face. Though the words did make her feel better in those moments.

  “Katya?!”

  A new voice made them stop as they passed the local hospital. Wait… that wasn’t a new voice to Katya.

  Spinning around on the spot, Katya looked around desperately. Could that voice really be….?

  “Up here, dimbat!”

  Her eyes flicked upwards to see a very familiar grinning face.

  “Clara?!” Katya yelled with pure relieved joy in her voice. The one she was looking up at was her cousin.

  “Get inside!” Clara called before disappearing from the window she had been poking her head out of.

  Turning to Orion, it was clear that Katya was delirious with happiness at that moment, she couldn’t stop grinning despite what had happened in the factory. “Can you go ahead, tell the others that I’ve found my cousin; we’ll be along soon?” She didn’t really like the idea of Orion moving alone, but the entrance to the safe town was only a couple of streets away, and honestly, Katya wanted some time to properly reunite with the first family member she had found since this started.

  Orion glanced from Katya to the hospital building and back again before grinning.

  “Sure, be careful on your way” Orion smiled and waved before heading off.

  Katya’s heart felt like it was suddenly running a million beats per minute as she walked through the main doors of the hospital and looked around. Like everywhere else, it was chaos with everything scattered around from the
first time the aliens had come to invade. Still, something was within her was what she hadn’t felt even when she found Oliver… pure, and utter joy.

  As her cousin came running down the stairs and around the corner, Katya found herself breaking into a run and flinging herself into the arms of her cousin.

  Both had broken into happy tears at the same time as they clung to each other desperately.

  “I can’t…”

  “I thought…”

  Both tried to speak but sobs choked them both and they simply stood there for a few minutes, occasionally pulling back to look at each other as though checking they were really there, but then hugging each other tight once more.

  It took a while, but eventually, they pulled apart and wiped their eyes, Clara laughing softly.

  “You’ve always been such an ugly crier”

  “You’re not much better! You still go red, I see?” Katya commented back, laughing.

  Unlike Katya, Clara had inherited a glorious olive skin from their gipsy descent. Katya’s aunt had married into their community, whereas her mother had married a Russian, hence the difference in their appearance.

  But the way they looked at each other… they were family.

  Taking a few deep breathes, they laughed together while calming their tears.

  “How the hell are you here, Kat? You were in York?” Clara asked with a disbelieving look moving onto her face.

  “You’re not going to believe this… but I’ll catch you up when we get safe, I know a place which is better than this place”

  “What?”

  “Sounds mad, but there is an underground town build beneath this city built for some kind of apocalypse”

  “Is that true, dear?” Katya jumped at the sound of another voice, looking past Clara to realise that they were not alone. Following the brunette down the stairs were a dozen elderly people, the majority of those women… and…

  “Nan!” Katya yelped, darting past her cousin and hugging her grandmother tight. She was a kindly looking old lady with soft blue eyes of the same colour of Katya’s. The female hugged her granddaughter tight, even though the elderly lady only came up to the redhead’s chest.

  “Oh, Kat! My dear, I’m so glad you are ok” Her nan whimpered out as she pulled back to reach up and pat the young woman’s cheeks happily.

  “You too… how did you survive?”

  “Clara, she has been looking after as all!”

  Katya glanced over to Clara with a stunned look on her face; she would forever be impressed by her cousin. Though Clara merely shrugged “None of those things ever seemed interested in anyone by me. So, all I had to do was go in the opposite direction and escape”

  “Only!” Katya laughed while shaking her head. Clara was a paramedic previously, so Katya supposed it was no wonder she had been doing such things to aid other people – but it was still awe-inspiring to realise that she was giving so much effort to these elderly when there was no sign of her family.

  “Well, we couldn’t travel back home, even if it’s only the next town… so…” Clara paused softly before shaking her head of whatever thoughts had been invading. “You said there’s a safe place?”

  Katya nodded. With this many here to protect, it wasn’t a good idea to linger longer than necessary.

  “Yeah… I’ll show you the way, then I’ll fill you in.” She commented before turning to the gang of elderly to double check they had everything they needed and explained the situation. The red-brown haired girl explained that there was this safe place and where the entrance was, she explained that she could protect them as she knew ways to kill these aliens, and she finished with explaining that there would be many people already there and people who could help look out for them.

  She couldn’t believe that Clara had been able to help so many who couldn’t fight for themselves. It made sense with the hormone theory that Katya had come up with, of course, Clara would be the biggest target out of all of them in that situation. She was just lucky and skilled when it came to escape, as she was stunned that Katya had found ways of killing them.

  They kept the group tight together as Katya showed them the way to the safe sub-terrain entrance; Katya making sure she could keep track of every member of the elderly group until the moment they were in the entrance and she could pull the door closed night behind her.

  “Oh… my god!” Clara gasped as she looked around the marble-built town under the ground, already lit by lanterns in the streets much like the streetlights of older times. “These places were under here?”

  “Yeah” Katya nodded “Seems that the elite had a rather nice place for the end of the world”

  “That they didn’t tell us about” Her cousin retorted with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well… are we really surprised?” Katya shrugged “But since we found out about them, I and my group have got people into them in numbers at about a five-hundred-average per town”

  “Five hundred? Is that all?”

  The red-brown haired female sighed and nodded slowly “Yeah… the death toll was too much to even fathom.”

  Clara placed a hand on her cousin’s shoulder with a small smile on her lips. “But you’ve saved more than the damned first responses did; wouldn’t expect any less of my stubborn-as-an-ass cousin!”

  They laughed as Katya waved over to Orion, calling her over and asking her to get the information off Clara about the older people they had brought in so that they could keep them up to date on the records she had already started creating.

  “Kat?” She glanced around as her grandmother came over to her with a concerned smile on her face “You’ve really been out there walking through this?”

  “Yes”

  “Oh, sweetie! You always were so brave, but you need to be careful too!” She fussed, patting the young female on the arm.

  “I am Nan, but I couldn’t not come and see if my family survived.”

  “Your aunt and uncle didn’t…”

  Katya blinked, shocked to silence as she looked into the teary eyes of the elderly lady she loved. Quickly, she moved to pull her grandmother into a tight hug as tears prickled her eyes. Oh god. She knew she was expecting to have lost people, but the reality of it clenched her heart horribly and made her feel sick to the stomach.

  “I’m sorry” she whimpered out, trying to keep it together, the urgency to move increasing within her rapidly. “And… my parents? Anya?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie. We were in this city, so we don’t know what happened at home” The kindly face of her grandmother was looking up at her now with a knowing look. “At least get some rest before you go running off there!”

  Katya chuckled softly through the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks. Was it that obvious that she wanted to march back out of those doors and sprint to the next town to have her one biggest question finally answered?

  Was her family still alive?

  But she nodded slowly “Yeah, I’ll at least have some food. Ok?”

  Her grandmother patted her lightly on the cheek before heading over to Clara who was calling her over to make sure which medicines were required for fetching at some point.

  “So, your sister’s called Anya?” Katya yelped in surprise at the deep voice that sounded behind her, whirling around on her heels to look up at the dark-haired soldier. Seth was smirking a little at the yelping noise she had made “Nice noise there”

  “Shut up” Katya grumbled, folding her arms across her chest and looking away from him in embarrassment.

  “Sorry” He chuckled.

  Katya decided not to linger on that and focus on his first question. She realised that she had never actually said her sisters name in their entire travels… she couldn’t say why though – maybe she had thought that by saying her name instead of ‘my sister’ it would make Anya sound somehow less important and vital to her little quest than she was? Katya didn’t know. But she nodded slowly.

  “Yeah, Anya is my baby sister… that th
ere is my cousin Clara, and my nan. Apparently, my aunt and uncle didn’t survive” She motioned to the brunette over with Orion, her voice weak for a moment. Seth perhaps noticed that and placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to him. Awkward, but supportive. Katya felt her head tilt a little to lean against the man’s shoulder as she watched her cousin get to work quickly.

  “I’m scared” she whispered, though Seth didn’t interrupt “The next town is my home town… what if they aren’t there…?” Seth had seen her crack under the pressure of all those factories before, but this was different. This was in a different level where the idea of not being able to find her family was something Katya wasn’t sure she could live through.