by Ryan Casey
Looked at her closed eyes.
Looked at the way her body seemed… different.
The way it looked like, for the first time, it was lacking something.
Lacking a spark.
Lacking life.
He looked at his girl, and he wanted to wake up from this nightmare as the tears clouded his eyes. He wanted to wake up from this hell.
He wanted to be anywhere but here.
Because when he looked at her, he didn’t just see Holly.
He saw Caitlin.
The same look she’d had.
The same look she’d had when she’d died.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. A tight squeeze.
He looked up. Saw a tear-drenched Alison staring down at him.
“Mike,” she said. “Mike.”
He stood up. Went to fall into her arms. Because he needed someone. He needed their strength. He needed them right now.
But when he went to hold them, he noticed something.
Alison wasn’t just crying.
She was shaking.
He saw it.
Saw the way her eyes widened.
Saw the way the blood started to trickle from her nostrils.
Saw the way she started to shake and slaver.
“No,” he said.
But then Alison fell.
She lost her balance, and she fell to Holly’s side, cracking her head on the ground.
Mike stood there. Heart pounding. Body shaking.
He stood there and listened to the screams, gradually dying out.
He stood there and listened to the silence.
He stood there, and he listened to everything.
Holly was gone.
Alison was gone.
He was alone.
His home had fallen.
Everything had fallen.
Chapter Fourteen
Mike couldn’t turn away from Holly and Alison’s bodies as they lay there, stationary, on the ground beneath him.
The storm was attacking in full force now. Rain pelted down from above. Thunder rattled. Lightning sparked, striking nearby.
And Mike didn’t believe that the weather could reflect the mood or any nonsense like that. He didn’t believe in anything beyond the power of pure coincidence.
But right now, this storm just felt like the only way things could be.
It felt like the emotions he was going through inside.
Because he’d lost everything.
He felt his jaw begin to shake. He felt his throat wobble. He wanted to break down. He wanted to fall to his knees and disappear to wherever Holly and Alison had both gone. He wanted to be with them, even if being with them meant oblivion.
He wanted an end to this pain.
But he felt numb. Totally numb. Because he still hadn’t truly understood. He still didn’t totally believe.
They weren’t gone. They couldn’t be gone.
He went to step towards them, to try to check them once more.
But then he remembered something.
He looked up. Looked ahead at the road, which was filled with fallen people; some of them old friends. He looked into the distance, over at the flats. He looked around, saw the guards lying there, clutching their necks. Others disappeared, fleeing this place at the first opportunity. Everything had gone quiet. Everything had gone so silent.
And part of him didn’t want to go back to the flats. Part of him didn’t want to go there because he feared what he might find. He feared the painful discoveries he might make. More people, fallen. More friends, fallen.
More people he cared about… fallen.
But he remembered someone. Someone who was back there. Someone he couldn’t just leave here. Someone he cared about, very much.
Kelsie.
He felt his stomach sink when he thought of Kelsie. The thought that she might have fallen too… he couldn’t even bear to think of it.
He looked down at Holly, then at Alison. He was still in shock. He couldn’t process any of this. He couldn’t even cry.
He knew the grief would hit.
He knew, in time, it would hit, and it would hit hard.
But right now, there was somebody else depending on him.
Right now, there was a chance to get to someone—to save someone—before they fell too.
If even he survived long enough not to fall.
He looked at Holly’s body once more and felt totally cold, the pain of grief teetering over the horizon.
He tightened his fists.
Took a deep breath.
Then he started to run through the streets and towards the flat where Kelsie would be staying.
He tried not to look at the fallen bodies surrounding him as he made his way through the streets. Not everyone was dead. Some people were locked inside, fear on their faces, trying to understand what was going on. Others were like him, outside, studying their surroundings, trying to make sense of all this chaos, all this tragedy.
Some people were saying things to him. Calling out to him.
And he wanted to stop.
He wanted to be with them in their moment of need, or hear them out, or whatever the hell they wanted him to do.
But he couldn’t.
He was alive.
He hadn’t reacted to the Novichok.
Which meant he had to get to Kelsie right now.
He had to know she was okay.
He raced through the streets, further towards the entrance to the flats. There were a few of the guards standing around, guns in hand, looking just as puzzled and distraught as the rest of the survivors. Some of them had fallen, too. It seemed like this place had teetered into chaos with the smallest nudge. And it scared Mike. It scared him because it made him realise just how unsafe this place was. Seeing peacekeepers around this place from day to day created that illusion that things were under control.
But now…
Now he saw the reality.
And the reality was that all it had taken was a little girl and a Novichok bomb to bring this place to its knees.
And it really felt like it was never going to come back from this. Not anymore.
He reached the entrance to the flats, and he stopped.
He saw something. The dog pen.
Some of the dogs were lying flat.
Mike’s heart skipped a beat as he scanned the dogs, as he looked through them. Someone must’ve fled this way already, carried the nerve agent over here. He kept on searching the dogs regardless. Because as painful as it was seeing all these fallen dogs, he found himself searching for one dog. One dog in particular.
Then he saw her.
She was standing up. Staring through the grating. Eyes wide.
Looking right at him.
“Arya,” he said.
He stumbled away from the door of the flats, headed over towards her. But as he did, it pained him. It pained him because Arya and Alison were so close. Arya and Holly were so close.
He thought about the moment he’d found Arya right at the beginning of all this chaos, all this tragedy, and how much of a rock she’d been in the moments he’d been fortunate enough to be with her since.
He remembered how close he’d been to leaving her behind, and how much had changed.
He ran over to her. Opened the gate.
The second he let her out, she jumped up at him, pawing him, whining.
Like she knew something was wrong.
“I know,” Mike said, ruffling Arya’s fur. “I—I know, sweet. I’m here. It’s okay. It’s okay.”
He cuddled Arya for a while. And as he stood there in all this chaos and held her, feeling her sodden warmth spread to his body, he realised he couldn’t waste any more time.
He had to go with Arya to go get Kelsie.
He had to be sure she was okay.
He turned around, went to head back to the flats.
Then he saw them.
They were at the edge of the road. Some of them near the entrance to the Safe Zone
, in what looked like a double-decker bus. A working double-decker bus.
Others were already within the confines of the Safe Zone. Spraying something. Something which explained the quick spread of the chemical.
They were wearing gas masks.
But in their blackened eyes, it looked like they were looking right at him.
He saw what some of them were doing to the bodies. Saw the way they went over to them, dragged them to the front of the Safe Zone.
Saw the way they gathered them, collected them in a pile.
He thought about Alison. He thought about his daughter.
And the thought of them being a part of that pile…
His body tensed.
He went to throw himself in their direction.
But then he stopped.
He stopped because he heard something.
A scream.
And it was coming from Kelsie’s flat.
Chapter Fifteen
Mike didn’t have time to think about his losses.
He didn’t have time to think about the people stepping inside the camp, gas masks covering their mouths.
He didn’t have time to dwell on anything right now.
He just had to get to Kelsie.
He just had to find out why she’d screamed.
He just had to make sure she was okay.
He raced across the slushy grass. The rain was pelting down heavier than ever. The thunder kept on raging above as dark clouds thickened overhead. He could barely hear anything for the lashing of the water against the ground.
But he didn’t need to hear anything. He just had to get into the flats. He just had to get to Kelsie.
He just had to make sure he didn’t lose anyone else in all this madness.
As he launched himself across the grass, getting closer and closer to the entrance of the flats, he found himself looking up and over at those intruders in their gas masks. He had to resist the urge to go over to them as they dragged more bodies over to the pile. Some of them were picking out the peacekeepers. It looked like they were targeting the strongest first specifically—or at least those who looked like they were under control.
There were a lot of these masked people. He had no idea who they were, no idea where they’d come from.
They were doing something else, too. Gathering women. Younger women. Which made the hairs on Mike’s arms stand on end.
He didn’t want to know what they were doing.
He didn’t want to know what they were playing at.
He could only assume that they were the group who had abducted Emma. They were the group who had forced her to carry out this devastating plan.
He saw a couple of this group look up and over at him. He saw them watch him as he moved across the grass, Arya by his side.
He looked into their glass-covered eyes, and he felt like they were observing him closely, analysing his every move.
Then he saw one of them raise a hand, and three of these people started walking quickly in his direction.
He rushed inside the flat, slamming the door shut behind him. His heart raced. Sweat and rain dripped from his body. His mouth was dry. His mind raced. He still couldn’t wrap his head around any of the events that had happened; still couldn’t process anything.
Just had to get to Kelsie.
Just had to get out of here.
He raced down the corridor. There were people in here. Some of them alive, some of them dead. Which made Mike’s stomach sink because it confirmed that the Novichok agent had got in here, too.
Someone must’ve run in here with it.
Someone must’ve infected others.
There was no hope for this place. Not anymore.
As much as it pained him to consider it, Mike knew the truth.
The clean-up job was going to be too difficult.
The time living in this near-idyll was over.
He steadied his focus, ran further down the corridor. He looked at the door on the right where he knew Kelsie was staying. He pictured all kinds of terrors inside there. The fact she’d only screamed once was a worry in itself.
One scream of pain?
One scream of agony?
Or was it a scream about… something else?
He reached Kelsie’s door. Listened to the rain hammering down on the roof. He stood there, mind racing, heart thumping.
He stood there, and he found himself saying the only words he knew how to say in this situation right now.
“Please,” he said. “Not you too. Not you too. Please.”
He lowered the handle to the door.
And then he heard the door at the end of the flat entrance open.
He looked around.
Two of those goons were inside the flats.
They were looking at Mike.
And then they were heading in his direction.
He wanted to stand up to them. He wanted to fight them. He wanted to end them for what they’d done to his Holly.
But he had to show composure right now.
He had to show restraint right now.
Any wrong move and he was dead—and so too was Kelsie.
He turned away. Lowered the handle to the door. Pushed it open.
Then he stepped inside Kelsie’s room, and he saw her.
Kelsie was on the floor. Her eyes were wide. She was still.
But she was alive.
There was someone else on the floor. Mark, one of the guys who worked on the farm.
He was lying dead on the ground.
Blood pooled out of his mouth.
“Kelsie,” Mike said.
He walked over to her as she sat there in a daze. He went to grab her hand, to help her to her feet.
She didn’t move.
He heard the footsteps getting closer to the room. Heard them closing in. And he knew time was running out.
“Come on, honey. We—we need to move. We need to get out of here.”
But Kelsie still looked in a daze. She still looked completely lost.
This couldn’t happen right now.
It couldn’t go down this way.
He grabbed under Kelsie’s arms. Lifted her up, put her over his shoulder. Then he headed over to the window, opened the curtains.
He went to open the window.
It was shut solid.
“Shit,” he said.
He looked around. Looked for something sharp or something heavy; something he could use.
He looked around as the footsteps got closer, but he knew time was running out.
Then he saw it.
A jewellery box.
A heavy looking jewellery box that he could use on the window.
“Almost there,” he said. “Almost there.”
He lifted the jewellery box. Walked over to the window. Went to throw it.
But then he heard something.
The door.
The door clicking open.
He stopped.
Turned around.
The people in the masks were standing there.
Three of them now.
They were looking at him.
And one of them had something in their hand.
A small bottle.
Small enough to be a perfume bottle.
But Mike knew exactly what it was.
They lifted it.
Went to spray it.
Mike held his breath. Closed his eyes.
And…
Chapter Sixteen
Holly coughed.
Then, she opened her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was the darkness. Jet black darkness all around her.
Then she noticed the crushing sensation in her chest.
At first, she thought it was something to do with… well, she wasn’t sure. Her last memory, it was blurry, muddled somewhat. She had a sense of what had happened without truly knowing.
She just saw the darkness.
She just felt the crushing sensation.
She realis
ed something then, though. The crushing sensation, it wasn’t just in her chest. It was in her whole body. Her legs. Her torso. Her arms and her head.
And she realised at that moment that this wasn’t because of… the event. The event that had happened but was still just out of reach for Holly.
She was trapped.
She tried to shuffle free. Tried to break free of the weight she was under. She wasn’t sure what it was. She was in a daze.
Just that it was intense. Suffocating.
And she needed to get out of this.
Fast.
She tried to stretch out her arms, but she couldn’t move them. She tried to kick out her legs, but with no luck.
She tried to get out of this mess, but there was nothing she could do.
She was stuck.
She couldn’t breathe.
She was trapped. She was—
And then she saw her.
She saw the body of the woman, Mary, who worked with the animals.
She was lying on top of her.
And then it hit her. All of it hit her. The reason she couldn’t move. The reason she was stuck.
This wasn’t just any old arbitrary weight pressing her down.
This wasn’t just one body pressing her down.
She was trapped under the weight of a pile of bodies.
She tried to scream again, but again she failed. She started shaking as the memory of what had happened filled her mind.
Emma.
She’d seen Emma out in the distance.
She’d gone to her. Held her hand. Led her back inside.
She’d walked her through the middle of the safe zone, told her it was her home now.
But then something had happened.
Emma.
She’d looked at Holly, and she’d told her she was sorry.
She’d looked at her with such sorrow. Such regret.
And then she’d triggered that explosion of… of whatever it was.
The next thing Holly knew, the people around her were coughing. They were falling to the ground.
She’d felt dizzy. Light-headed. Then she’d found herself falling, too.
At that moment, she’d been convinced she wasn’t going to open her eyes again. She’d been convinced that she’d taken her last breath.
She’d been convinced.
But now here she was.
She had a second chance.
She had to fight.
She held her body firm. Gritted her teeth. Because she wasn’t going to get anywhere by sitting back here. She wasn’t going to get anywhere by lying under this mass. The only place she’d get was the same place as everyone else currently crushing her.