by Thomas Hall
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Free Book
Swift Creek
Are you a Survivor?
About the Author
Swift Creek
Copyright © 2017 by Thomas Hall
The rights of Thomas Hall to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are ficticious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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THE LAST MAN ON EARTH HAS COMPANY
He has been alone since she died. Since they all died.
He wants to believe that there are other people out there, but the evidence suggests that isn't the case. He comes to accept that he is the only one left, until the morning when he wakes up to find that it has snowed and there are footprints outside his window.
He follows them in the hope of finally finding other people like him, but the longer the chase goes on, the more he questions what he is seeing and his own sanity.
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CHAPTER 1
KADE REACHED UP TO ADJUST HIS HAT SO that the brim covered his neck. The sun beat down on him and he sweltered in the saddle. Heck shifted uneasily beneath him. She needed water, they both did, but they were still a few hours from the nearest township.
The ground was like sand. It covered everything, but if you knew where to look then it was possible to see the shape of what had been there before. A small bump might be what was once called a car, a bigger bump might be one of their houses. It wasn’t sand, but it was easier to think of it that way. It was better than dwelling on what the grey dust was actually made from.
He raised his head and looked into the distance. The town of Swift Creek wasn’t visible yet, but he could see the twisted metal structures of an old city. The light reflected in the glass and almost seemed to be a second sun. At least there was no wind: on windy days, the ghosts in the ancient cities seemed to sing.
“Whoa girl,” he said and pulled gently on the reigns. “There’s no need to hurry, take your time now.”
The horse slowed. She was impatient to get where they were going, but it was a false economy in this heat. Better to take their time and arrive late, than to keel over and die in the desert.
Ahead the path fell away, the slope so steep that he could feel Heck hesitate. It was years since he’d been this way and everything was unfamiliar. He brought the horse up to the edge and stopped.
Kade jumped down and his feet sank to his ankles in the dust. With some effort, he pulled them out and walked to the edge.
It was a sheer drop and below fog had settled, as if the road had only recently collapsed. He felt uneasy on the high ground and wondered what had happened here. Had there been people on the path when it caved in?
Next to him Heck began to whinny. He reached out and stroked her neck, reassuring her with a humming sound.
“We’ll go back,” he said. “There’s more than one way to get there.”
The horse snorted and shook her head. He took the reins and led her around until they were facing into the sun. He didn’t like changing his plans but there wasn’t much choice. There was a chance they could make it down, but if they didn’t then there was no one to come looking for them. Falling and getting stuck down there meant death.
Once they were away from the pit Kade mounted Heck. They were alone in the desert and no one was waiting for them at the other end. For a while there was a guttural humming sound and he wondered whether he had been right to leave Silent Rock.
They could have stayed there a while and been content, but the only true happiness he knew was in the saddle. The people of Silent Rock would have been happy to have him. If he ever changed his mind there would be a life there waiting for him, but he knew himself. If he ever did return it would be years from now, when he could be sure they had forgotten him. Until then, there were other places to go and the horizon was always out of reach.
CHAPTER 2
THE VALLEY WAS A SCAR ACROSS THE DESERT. It stretched for miles. By the time they found the end of it, the sun had begun to set and Kade was no longer concerned by the heat. They still needed water, but the cold was likely to become a bigger problem once night fell.
“Won’t make it tonight,” he said.
Once, he had known this land well, but over the years the sand had shifted and the old routes disappeared beneath it. Every time he returned to a familiar path it felt new. Kade wasn’t a man for introspection, but knew this was one of the things that kept him going.
In his years, he had travelled from coast to coast; north, south, east and west. He had the feeling that it wasn’t a big island, but no one could say what size it was anymore. The few old maps that he’d found were of no use to him now. There were no landmarks left for him to even work out which island he was on.
If they didn’t find somewhere to stop soon then they would have to spend a night in the desert. It wasn’t a death sentence, but he preferred not to do it. The ground was uncomfortable. Although he had nothing worth stealing, there was always the danger of bandits slitting his throat while he slept.
He could feel Heck tiring. They had been on the go since sunrise. They needed to stop soon.
A light appeared. It wasn’t bright and it made no noise. Kade waited for it to flicker like fire, but it only hung in the distance and glowed.
He brought Heck to a stop and stared at it. There was darkness all around.
“What do you think girl?” he said and jumped off her back, landing in the dust but not sinking. The ground was firmer here, which only added to his sense of unease. He patted the horse and took a step towards the light, they were still too far to see what was making it. “Worth checking out? Or will we spend the night here?”
Spending the night there didn’t feel like an option. Whatever was creating the light worried him, he wouldn’t be able to rest until he knew what it was.
“I’ll look see” he said. Another step and he felt a sense of vertigo, as if he was back on the edge of the scar and teetering, on the verge of going over.
He stopped.
One way or another he’d spent years in the desert. He knew better than to take stupid risks, but was this one of those times? What was the other option? They could go back the way they came, but they couldn’t stay where they were, not until he knew where the light came from.
“We’ll take a look,” he said, returning to Heck and climbing on her back. He touched the gun on his leg and felt a little reassurance, a little confidence creeping back in. Regardless of what the old timers said, there were no ghosts in the desert. He could deal with anything that was looking to cause trouble if his aim was true.
The light continued to hover in the distance and they didn’t seem to get any closer to it. The thought that it could be a trap was a constant refrain, but he didn’t seem able to stop. His blood felt like ice in his veins. More than once he had drawn his revolver and found himself aiming at the night.
He no longer spoke to Heck. She moved to a steady beat. She trusted him and wouldn’t back down out of fear. He could rely on her, but he was beginning t
o doubt whether he could trust his own judgement.
Still he went on.
The town appeared around him. The grey buildings climbed out of the dust and stood around him before he’d had a chance to realise that he had arrived.
It wasn’t the township he had been aiming for, but it was somewhere. The light floated above it like a fallen star pressed into service as a beacon. He stopped Heck in the middle of the road.
Across the street there was a pump and the water was dripping into a stone bowl beneath it.
Kade looked around. It was the middle of the night and there were no people around. The place looked safe and he was thirsty enough to take the risk.
He dismounted and pulled his water bottle off the saddle with him. Heck shifted, but there was nothing in it. He’d known men who took the warnings from their animals more seriously than their own guts, he wasn’t one of them. More than likely she was reacting to his own caution.
The water was cold and clear. He cupped a hand and filled it, lifted it to his mouth and drank. It tasted good. There was no reason to think there was anything wrong with it. It was paranoia to think that a town would go to the effort of building a pump only to fill it with poison. But, some wells went bad, despite a towns best effort. He filled his bottle but drank sparingly, before carrying it back to Heck and letting her wet her tongue.
He had dried meat and tobacco in the saddle. He chewed on a piece of jerky while filling a leaf. He didn’t smoke often, but his unease increased the longer they waited in the road. He needed the relaxing effect of the smoke to calm him.
He watched the distant shapes of the town come into focus. The buildings looked solid enough, but he didn’t recognise any of it. He walked around Heck while he smoked and waited for someone to come out and meet him.
There had to be a watchman, he thought, there always was. How else was a town supposed to protect itself, and if it couldn’t, then what was the point of it? There was little reason for a man to pin himself down if he didn’t get at least that in return. Even then, some chose the risks and rewards of life on the drift.
“Let’s take a walk,” he said once he’d finished his smoke. He walked on and Heck followed close behind.
The town had no name that he could see. It had no boarders and resembled nothing more than a few buildings which happened to be in the same place. Kade walked from one end to the other. By the time he returned to the pump he had concluded that there was nobody living there.
Kade was reluctant to believe that he had stumbled upon a ghost town. But he was not one to shun good fortune on those rare occasions when it found him.
A ghost town was a lucky thing.
Legend had it that they appeared to weary travellers when they were most in need. Food and water and a comfortable bed for the night. A place to rest and recover.
Kade stood in the middle of the town and waited, but nothing moved. He and the horse were the only things alive there.
“I guess we bed down old friend,” he said. His voice was loud but there was no response. He walked on.
A hand against a building. It felt solid enough, but then it would. If this wasn’t a ghost town then what else could it be?
He left Heck tied to a post outside the dark tavern. The door wasn’t locked but there was no one inside.
“Hello?” he called.
There was no reply, his voice didn’t even echo. He walked to the bar. It was clean, no sign of spillage, not even damage from brawls, which were a common thing in any town.
He walked to the back of the bar and found bottles of unmarked liquor stacked together. He opened one and raised it to his nose. The smell was strong, but not one he recognised. He put it back down and went to see whether there was food in the kitchen.
The warmth of a recently fired oven surprised him. Instinctively he reached for his gun. He tried to remember ghost town legends, but the question had never occurred to him: should there be heat?
If the oven had been in use recently then it meant people had been here. The place disconcerted him. Something didn’t seem right.
Kade turned, expecting to find somebody standing in the doorway, but there was no one there. Despite the heat from the oven, the place seemed as deserted as it always had done. He walked back to the bar with his gun still in hand.
Heck was where he’d left her. He untied her and she brayed with appreciation.
“Let’s find somewhere to bed down,” he said, leading her away from the bar. “We’ll be out of here as soon as it’s light.”
They went back to the water pump and saw no one as they walked through the township. He couldn’t tell why he felt so uncomfortable in the place, but he did. Something about it wasn’t right, but he needed to rest and there was no better option available to him.
He supposed he could have gone into any of the buildings and spent the night there, but doing so seemed wrong.
He bedded down on the soft dust with Heck standing a few feet away.
After a supper of jerky and water, he lay out his bedroll. The cold came in from the desert but the buildings protected them from the worst of it. He closed his eyes and thought that sleep wouldn’t come. But a day in the saddle had worn through him and he was more tired than he’d thought. He fell into a deep and dreamless sleep and didn’t wake until they came for him.
There were six of them and they would have caught him if it hadn’t been for Heck. She nudged his shoulder hard enough to wake him. As soon as Kade heard the footsteps, he was out from under the sheets and his revolver was in his hand.
He scanned the street but there was no sign of them. He could hear their footsteps, but not tell which direction they were coming from. There were four streets spiralling out from the water pump, the men’s voices echoed.
Kade ducked behind Heck, patting her, rubbing some comfort into himself and her.
The men started to laugh.
“Shit,” he swore under his breath. He should have trusted his instincts; he’d been doing this for long enough to know when a place was trouble. He should have taken his chances in the desert.
“What’s the story Preach?” a man’s voice said, impossible to tell which direction it was coming from. Other voices replied with laughter that made the windows shake. “You feeling nice and rested?”
The adrenaline pumped through his veins and he felt alive and alert. If he couldn’t see them in the street, then there had to be some other sign of where they were. He looked at the buildings that surrounded him, looked at the dust on the ground, but there was nothing. He might have been alone, hearing the voices of the dead.
“Oh don’t worry,” the voice said, this time it seemed to come from his left, or was it another person speaking? “We just want some fun. We ain’t gonna hurt you…”
“Which way! Which way?” he muttered. Turning to look along the streets, cocking his revolver and wondering whether they could make a run for it.
Kade turned in the direction he’d come from, the path that led back to the desert where he would be safe. He couldn’t see where the men were, but he could make an educated guess, and this was it: the men were blocking his exit.
“Well done old man,” the voice called out and he could tell that he’d been right. He kept behind Heck, trusting that they weren’t there to shoot his horse. “You get an A-Star.”
The others laughed.
“Who are you?” Kade shouted. “What do you want?”
“So many questions!” the first replied.
“Could ask you the same thing!” said a second voice, one that he hadn’t heard before.
“I’m not here to cause trouble,” Kade said.
“Just to steal out water and break into our homes?”
“No!” he said, startled into a response that made him sound more worried than he was. If they thought him weak, they would be more likely to shoot. “I didn’t break into anywhere.”
“The tavern?”
“The door was open. I didn’t take anything.�
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“Oh well, now ain’t that a shame. Least you could’a died with a full stomach.”
“Still, means there’ll be less to clean up. You ever shot a guy with a full gut?”
The others laughed. Kade looked for a way out of the situation, he was beginning to think that talking wasn’t it. These men weren’t here to negotiate; they weren’t there to steal from him. They were bored killers and he was their chosen victim.
“I don’t want to fight,” Kade said. Truth was, he was sure they were past the point where he had an option, but it was a play for time. He needed to see them before he started shooting.
“Takes all the fun out of it if you don’t Preach.”
“What do you want from me? If it’s food, you’re welcome to it. You can even take my horse.”
“We don’t want your food and you can keep your stupid animal. Fact, why don’t you get on it now and we’ll chase ya? Make it a bit more interesting.”
He watched the road and at last the men came into view. He counted them off in his head. Six killers. They weren’t wearing uniform, but they were all wearing long jackets and heavy boots. They had weapons strapped across them which looked as if they’d come straight from the war.
“So what’s it gonna be Preach?” the man in the middle said. His voice was familiar, either the first or second to have spoken. A little taller than the others, his long hair hung in greasy streaks over his shoulders. “You gonna make ‘dis interestin’?”
“Why are you doing this?” Kade said, using his voice to cover the movement of his hand as raised the gun. “I don’t want trouble.”
“See that’s the thing, we do. You wanna head start?”
Kade paused, his gun aimed at the man’s head. “A what?”