by Ryan Casey
He tried to pull against the ties around his legs, too. But something didn’t seem right. Something seemed… wrong. He was struggling. Finding it too difficult. Was it his lack of strength? His lack of energy? Or was he really just trapped?
He thought about Sofia. Thought about where she might be. Whether she’d faced the same fate. Because he’d heard the rumours. He’d heard what Sofia had told him about this place.
But if she was too old to conceive now… then what fate had she met?
What fate had caught up with her?
He was about to yank against the ties around his wrists once more when he heard a door open.
He went still. Listened to the footsteps. They were getting closer and closer. He didn’t know who it was. Didn’t know what to expect. Only he’d seen the people who had destroyed his home. He’d seen the people who instigated the chemical attack. He knew how ruthless they were already.
Silence. Silence, stretching on. He started to wonder if maybe the person who’d stepped in here had gone. He started to wonder if maybe he was just dehydrated and was imagining things. He started to wonder all kinds of things.
And then somebody yanked at his head, and he saw light.
His vision was blurred at first. He couldn’t make anything out, just light shining into his eyes.
But as he blinked, as his vision adjusted, he saw the man standing over him.
He had curly hair. Green eyes. A scar across his face.
He looked familiar.
And that’s when it struck Mike.
“Oh, shit,” Mike said. And it was that absurd that he could barely even contain a laugh. “Calvin Etheridge. What a pleasure to see you.”
“Mike Callaghan,” Calvin said, equally bemused. “Of all damned people. Fancy seeing you here.”
Calvin yanked the tape free from his mouth. He felt himself bleeding straight away as the tape pulled away at his dry, dehydrated skin.
“I mean, they say it’s a small world. And we always said we’d catch up after Stagecoach some time. But this… this. Well. Circumstances are different these days, aren’t they?”
Mike still couldn’t believe what he was looking at—who he was looking at. Calvin was an old work colleague. He worked in management, so travelled around the region from time to time, moving from post to post. But Mike always thought he was a bit of a dick. He had a malicious streak. A malevolent streak. He seemed to revel in making people struggle.
He was the guy who’d reported Mike for drinking on the job, what felt like a lifetime ago.
“You’re looking healthier, I have to say. Much healthier than when I last saw you. Staying on the straight and narrow, I hope?”
“My daughter,” Mike said. “My… my daughter.”
Calvin frowned. Then his eyes widened. He laughed a little. “Of course. Of bloody course. Holly! I should’ve known. One look into her eyes, and she’s a bloody spit of you.”
“What’ve you done to her?”
“What’ve I done to her? Mike, I haven’t done a thing to her. You know what I’m trying to do here, don’t you? You know the world I’m trying to work towards. And it isn’t personal. Seriously. It’s just—”
“I don’t give a shit what it is. You’re shitting insane. You always have been a sick nutter. I just didn’t think you were this insane.”
Calvin shook his head. “And you’ve always had a naive streak. An aggressive streak. A streak of not listening to what you’re being told. The drink driving. You gave that up before it killed you, at least. Hey. That’s progress, as far as I’m concerned. That’s evolution.”
“Where’s my daughter, Calvin? This isn’t work anymore. This is life. Where is she?”
Calvin sighed. He looked around. “You know, I wish I could tell you that.”
Mike frowned. “No bullshit. I know she’s here.”
“She was here. But she went out there. She got away.”
“Bullshit.”
“I have no reason to lie, Mike. She’s out there. But fortunately for us, now we’ve got you… I know exactly how to bring her back.”
He stood up, smile on his face. Walked over to the door.
“Why are you doing this?” Mike asked.
“It’s nothing personal,” Calvin said. “Truly. Goodbye, Mike.”
“Wait—”
“Oh,” he said, stopping, turning around. “I’m guessing you’re wondering what we’ve done with your friend.”
Mike frowned. “Sofia. What—”
“You don’t have to worry about her. We’ve taken good care of her.”
He smiled.
“What? Wait!”
And then the door slammed shut.
Mike was engulfed in darkness again.
Chapter Forty-One
Holly wasn’t sure how long she’d been hobbling into the unknown when she finally fell to her knees.
It was late, and it was dark. She didn’t know where she was. To be honest, she hadn’t had any real goal in mind; any real direction. She’d just wanted to get to safety. To find her dad, to find her family. The only place she could think to go was back to the Safe Zone. But then she knew that place must’ve fallen. She knew Dad and everyone else would’ve left that place by now—if they were still alive.
She rested there on the ground. She was cold, a chill covering her body. Walking with a broken leg had been nigh on impossible, balancing away on the cast. She was on crutches, of course, but that didn’t make things easier in the long run. If anything, it made things even harder. More use of her muscles. More exertion of energy.
And now she was knackered. She’d been travelling for so long. She wasn’t sure she could go much further.
She rolled over onto her back. Looked up at the stars. She remembered what it’d been like when she’d been out in the wilderness with Alison. The times they’d had together. They were dark times. Times when she felt like she lost a sense of herself.
But in a sense, there were good moments, too. Moments when she felt togetherness with Alison. Togetherness she couldn’t describe.
She just wasn’t sure she was ever going to come across anyone like that again.
She felt tears building in her eyes when she thought about Emma. She remembered coming across her in the wild when she was at her lowest, loneliest point. She remembered the way she’d made her feel. The way she’d turned her around. Given her somebody to care about. Somebody other than herself.
She remembered the way she’d made her feel, and how she’d allowed herself to get naively drawn back towards her because of that bond.
She’d made a mistake.
She’d made a mistake letting Emma come back to the Safe Zone.
She’d made a mistake bonding with Emma in the first place.
If she’d just kept her cold, calculated attitude, then maybe things wouldn’t have played out the way they had.
If she’d just kept her ruthless streak, kept her emotions dulled, then maybe things would be totally different.
She went to pull herself back to her feet when she saw something.
There was a kid. A girl. A girl just like Emma, about her age, illuminated in the moonlight.
She was looking at Holly from the side of the buildings.
But the difference with this girl?
She was dead.
She was skinny. Her face looked narrow. Her eyes were the worst. There was a look of defeat in them. A look of acceptance.
And it was a look that no child should have to have in their eyes. It was a look that nobody should have to have.
This girl had fought, and she’d died alone.
Nobody deserved that.
And Holly felt herself welling up even more. As much as she tried to fight it, as much as she tried to resist it, she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
She felt her throat bobbling, her chest tightening, and she cried.
She cried because there was no going back to the Holly she used to be. She cried because as much as sh
e tried to force herself to be that cold, emotionless husk of a person all over again, there was no turning back. She’d been through too much. Experienced too much. She’d stepped too far into the darkness then back out into the light to do anything about it.
She put a hand on this girl’s head. Then she moved closer towards her and closed her eyes.
She didn’t deserve to be looking out at the world with that expression.
She didn’t deserve anything like this.
Holly forced herself back to her feet, crutches in hand. She took a deep breath, pulled herself together, and then looked down the road. She didn’t know if she was heading in the right direction. She didn’t know where her family was. Where her people were.
But she was going to find them.
Or maybe… maybe she wasn’t going to find them. Maybe this time, luck wasn’t going to be on her side. Maybe she’d run out of fortune. Maybe fate was going to stop rooting for her, once and for all.
But she took a deep breath.
She had to be okay with that. She had to deal with that.
She had to grow up and be adult about it.
It wasn’t about being detached.
It wasn’t about being cold.
It was about being rational.
She went to take a step down the road.
And then she saw something.
A light.
A light in the sky.
She felt her stomach do a somersault. She found herself blinking, trying to adjust her sight. Because she’d hallucinated in the past. That’s what this had to be. A hallucination. Nothing more than a figment of her imagination.
She went to rub her eyes when she heard it.
And then she opened her eyes.
It was still there.
Surging through the sky.
Light cutting through the darkness.
She felt a tear roll down her face as she realised, well and truly, what it was.
When she realised what it meant.
It was a helicopter.
A helicopter.
Which meant somewhere out there… there had to be someone helping.
There had to be another extraction.
She watched it fly overhead. Watched which direction it went in.
Then she stood there, silent, for just a while.
She looked down the road. Looked back towards her old home.
Then she looked over her shoulder, over to where the helicopter was heading towards.
She thought about the state that place had been in, back home. How going back there would be suicide.
She thought about that helicopter, and what it could offer; what it might mean.
She thought about it all, and then she took a deep breath.
It was time to go somewhere new.
It was time to go after this helicopter.
If only she’d seen him watching her from the shadows…
Chapter Forty-Two
Mike opened his eyes, and for a moment, he convinced himself he wasn’t still trapped in this room.
He didn’t know what time it was. But he couldn’t see light shining under the doorway anymore. He could hear rain pelting down heavily. He tried to strain to listen to see if he could hear anything. He just wanted something from Sofia. A sign that she was still alive. A sign that he wasn’t alone in here.
But there was nothing.
He looked down at the ties around his wrists. It was rope, tightly tied. He knew he could break out of here if he had a lot of time. He could work his way out of it, with a lot of patience.
But he wasn’t sure how much time he had left. He wasn’t sure how long Sofia had left, or where the rest of his people were.
He wasn’t sure about any of it.
So he had to make the most of this moment.
He had to make the most of this opportunity.
He pulled. Pulled against the rope. Pulled against that around his ankles, too.
But it was no good.
He was stuck.
He was trapped.
He took a few deep breaths. In his mind, he pictured the people he cared about. He pictured Holly and Alison and Kelsie and all of them out there.
He pictured them, and he tried to feel a connection with them. He tried to feel close to them. To channel the way he felt about them to help him break free.
He pulled again. Pulled against the ties. Pulled against those around his ankles and those around his wrists.
But still with no success.
He didn’t want to grow impatient. He didn’t want to get frustrated. He didn’t want to give up. Not after surviving this long. Not after getting this far.
He’d glimpsed drama. He’d glimpsed despair.
He’d glimpsed the loss of Alison and Holly, and he didn’t want to live with those feelings. Not again.
He had to keep on trying here.
He had to keep on going.
He had to—
A rattle.
A rattle and a bang on the door.
He held himself still. Whoever this was, they couldn’t have good plans for him. They couldn’t have good ideas in mind. He knew Calvin. He knew what he was like. Manipulative. And totally believing of the bad things he was doing; of the evils he was carrying out.
This could be it. This could be the moment it all ended. This could be the moment things changed again, once and for all.
When the door opened, and he saw who was standing there… it wasn’t who he expected.
But he’d never been more relieved.
“Sofia?” he said.
She looked bloodied. Beaten. Bruised.
But she was here.
She was alive.
She was standing.
And she had a bloodied knife in her hand. “We don’t have much time,” she said. She rushed over to him. Cut the rope, freed Mike’s hands, and then his legs.
“What did you—”
“I got out. I did what I had to do. But we can’t stay here for long. They’re planning something, Mike. The leader of this place. Calvin. I heard him saying something. Something about how he was going out there. Something about Holly. I think… I think he has plans for her. Seriously sinister plans.”
Mike felt the hairs on his arms stand on end when Sofia said those words. Because as much as he knew Calvin had a sick streak… and as much as he knew his plans for this place were twisted… it was hearing that he had seriously sinister plans for Holly that got to him.
“He—he isn’t happy that she got away. He wants to make an example of her. And now he’s got you…”
Mike walked past Sofia, over to the door. He looked outside, over the junkyard, over the skips. It was quiet. There wasn’t anyone around that he could see.
Something didn’t seem… right.
“We need to get out of here,” Sofia said. “We—we need to get over to the caravans over there. There’s a fence. It’s smaller than the rest. Should be easier to climb than…”
She stopped. And Mike wasn’t sure why at first. He didn’t get it, didn’t understand it.
But then he heard the noise in the sky, and he stopped.
He didn’t know what it was. Not at first.
But then it clicked.
“The helicopter,” he said.
He watched it go overhead, Sofia by his side. Was it the same one he’d seen the other day? Or was it another? He wasn’t sure.
But he knew one thing.
One thing for certain.
He needed to get to Holly.
He needed to get to the rest of his group.
And then, together, they needed to get to that helicopter and see what the hell it led to.
“We need to—”
He stopped.
He stopped because he heard the voices.
Then the footsteps.
He looked back. Saw a small group of people running their way.
“Don’t let them get away!” someone shouted.
Mike looked into Sofia
’s wide eyes.
She looked back into his.
“Run,” he said.
They ran. The pair of them pelted through the junkyard, past the skips. And Mike saw people now. He saw people in those skips. Saw them in all sorts of conditions. He saw them in all kinds of states, all kinds of traits. And he felt mad. Because at first, he just thought Calvin had a twisted streak.
But this went beyond twisted.
This was psychotic.
This was torture.
He heard the footsteps behind getting closer.
“Just don’t look back,” Mike said.
“If I don’t—if I don’t make it—”
“You will make it.”
“But if I don’t,” Sofia said. “Just… just make sure Ian knows how much I love him. Just make sure he knows how strong he is. And how much he’s kept me going through all the hell we’ve been through.”
Mike looked at Sofia. He looked into her brown eyes. He looked at her as they ran along together.
Then they reached the fence, together.
“You’re going to—”
A whooshing sound.
Out of nowhere.
Mike didn’t understand. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Not at first.
Not until he saw the blood on Sofia’s neck.
Not until he saw the arrow poking out of her throat.
Not until he saw her falling to her knees.
And in the distance…
Calvin.
He looked at Mike, and he smiled. And Mike wanted to go over there. He wanted to kill him. He wanted to stay by Sofia’s side. He wanted to get her out of here and make sure she was okay, and he wanted to change everything.
He wanted to begin again.
But he saw Sofia fall to the ground.
He saw her splutter as blood spewed out of her neck.
He saw her cough, then shake and writhe.
And he saw Calvin holding that crossbow, pointing it at Mike.
He looked back at Sofia. Jaw shaking. Tears building. And he wanted to stay here. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to stand by her side.
But in the end, there was only one thing he could do.
One thing, for the good of everyone.