Apocalypse

by Ryan Casey

  You’ve got this, Eddie. It’s not cross country anymore. You’ve got this.

  He looked ahead into the darkness, towards the old farmhouse up ahead in the distance. If they could just get there, maybe they could lay low. Maybe they could close those doors and hide.

  Maybe they’d be lucky.

  Or maybe not.

  “Eddie, come on!” Harold shouted.

  Eddie ran as fast as he could. But it wasn’t fast enough.

  His heart pumped harder than it’d ever pumped.

  His legs wouldn’t move any faster, no matter how hard he tried to lift them.

  His chest felt like it was being crushed.

  Squeezed.

  A vice grip tightening around it.

  But still he had to keep moving.

  Still he had to keep pushing.

  Those footsteps and voices getting nearer.

  His hearing growing muffled.

  His surroundings all shimmering away.

  “Eddie,” Harold said. “Not far now. We can do this. We can…”

  Eddie wasn’t sure if Harold said another word.

  Because one moment, he was on his feet.

  The next, he was falling to the ground.

  Hitting it. Face first.

  He tried to push himself.

  Tried to clamber back to his feet.

  Tried to stand.

  But it was no use.

  His body had packed in.

  Given up.

  “Eddie!”

  He heard that voice up ahead and heard the footsteps behind, and he smiled.

  And then he closed his eyes, thought of cheese puffs, thought of Kelly, and took a deep breath as everything faded…

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to help us escape this place. You’re going to lead us to the exit, and you’re going to let us go. No ifs. No buts. That’s how it has to be. Do you understand?”

  Noah held the pistol to Paul’s head. Paul lay on the floor of Kelly’s cell, shaking his head. “You don’t understand—”

  “I don’t give a shit whether I don’t understand a thing. You know what we want. We want to get out of this place. And right now, the way I see it, you’ve got two options. Either you help us get out of here and maybe survive. Or you don’t, and you’ll definitely die.”

  “They’ll kill me if they find out.”

  “And I’ll kill you if you don’t help us. Just a risk you’re going to have to take, isn’t it?”

  Paul closed his eyes. Kept on shaking his head. “You don’t—”

  “Do not dare tell me I don’t understand. Not again. I’ve watched friends die. I’ve watched… I’ve watched people I love die. And then you captured us. You locked us up here. You do tests on us. You tell us it’s for the greater good, or whatever bullshit it is you peddle. But you can’t give us a straight answer. You can’t tell us why we’re so needed here. Why we’re so important here. You can’t tell us—”

  “If you get out of here, you have no idea what kind of danger you are putting people in.”

  Noah paused. Just for a moment. Those words. He didn’t like the sound of them. He didn’t understand what Paul was saying. It sounded like he was saying he was a danger. He was a threat.

  And yet Dr Watson told him he was important. Told him he was valuable in some way.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Paul just lay there and shook his head. “Please. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. If you leave this place… you jeopardise things. Not just for yourself. But for all of us. You’re that important to us. That valuable to us. Without you, we…”

  Footsteps.

  Footsteps right outside the cell.

  Someone whistling.

  The door, still ajar.

  Noah looked up.

  Then back down into Paul’s eyes.

  He shook his head. “Don’t.”

  Paul looked like he was going to scream. To cry out. To do anything to get the attention of whoever was out there.

  Noah looked around. Nodded at Kelly. She got up. Crept across the cell to the door. Closed it. Gently.

  The footsteps continued.

  The whistling continued.

  And then the footsteps and the whistling stopped.

  Right outside the door.

  A pause.

  “All okay in there, Paul?”

  Noah looked down into Paul’s eyes. Pushed that pistol further against his visor.

  “Tell him,” Noah whispered.

  “Paul? You in there?”

  “Tell him. Now.”

  Paul closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. “Clear as day, John. Clear as day. Not a thing to worry about. Clear as day.”

  A pause. Hesitation. Not a sound.

  And then the bloke—John—spoke again. “As long as you say so. Hang on in there. Shift’ll be over in no time.”

  And then he walked away.

  Noah sighed a breath of relief. To be honest, as he crouched here, he started to think about an alternative way out of this. Maybe he could strip Paul. Take his quarantine gear for Kelly. The pair of them could get out of here without his help. Maybe that was their best option now. Their only option.

  “You need to seriously think about how you want to go about this,” Noah said. “You can help us. Or we can figure out another way out of here.”

  Paul seemed more relaxed, somehow. Looked more cooperative. Like he was willing to entertain talking with Noah and Kelly at least. “Just move that damned gun from my face, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  Noah looked at Kelly. She shrugged.

  And then he looked back at Paul. Nodded. Moved his pistol away, just slightly.

  Paul sat up. “What do you want to know then?”

  Questions circled Noah’s mind. “Eddie. My friend. And our dog. He was with us when you captured us—”

  “He got away.”

  “What?”

  “He got away. I was there. He got away. The dog got away. Don’t know where they went or how far they got, but they’re gone.”

  Noah breathed his biggest sigh of relief since getting to this place. Eddie had got away. He’d made it. And sure, he couldn’t know his fate since. Couldn’t know how far he’d got. Couldn’t know if he was still alive out there.

  But he wasn’t in this place.

  That was something.

  “The dead,” Noah said. “There’s something with the dead. Isn’t there?”

  Paul smirked, just a little. “Now you’re really venturing into uncharted territory. Sure that’s a road you want to go down?”

  “Just level with us.”

  “Look,” Paul said. “I can’t pretend to understand everything there is to understand about this virus. But I can tell you one thing. It’s unpredictable. It acts in remarkable ways from one person to the next. And yes. We have seen cases of… reanimation. We don’t know how it works. Figure it taps into dead neutral networks, somehow. Reactivates motor functions and uses the body as a vessel for its own spread. But our research is still in its early stages. We can’t know anything for definite. Now do you want to try getting out of this place, or what?”

  Noah frowned. A sudden shift in perspective from Paul. “You’re going to help us?”

  Paul puffed out his lips. “Figure you haven’t left me with much of a choice, right?”

  Noah looked around at Kelly. She shrugged again. Still didn’t seem certain about any of this.

  He looked back at Paul. “Come with us.”

  “What?”

  “Come with us. Get out of this place. It might save your life.”

  A wide smile stretched across Paul’s face. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

  Noah frowned. “What?”

  “Just how cursed we all are.”

  A shiver crept up Noah’s spine.

  He watched Paul walk to the cell door. Start to open it.

  “W
e can pretend we’re escorting Kelly somewhere. I’ll take you to where you need to go. But once we’re there, believe me when I say you’re on your own. And whatever happens to you is on you. Not me.”

  Noah took a deep breath.

  Nodded.

  And then Paul went to open the door.

  “Clear as day,” Kelly said.

  Noah looked at her. Wide-eyed. “What?”

  Horror suddenly covered Kelly’s face. “‘Clear as day.’ What he said to the guy. I’ve… I’ve heard that before. Noah… don’t let him open that door. Don’t let him—!”

  But it was already too late.

  Paul opened the cell door.

  Two armed guards stood on the other side of it.

  Paul looked back at Noah as he stood there, pistol in hand, and half-smiled.

  “Sorry, partner. Looks like you should’ve killed me when you had the chance. Now that is clear as day…”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eddie opened his eyes and let out a gasp of air.

  “It’s okay, matey. It’s okay. You’re safe. We’re all safe. Just about, anyway.”

  Eddie spun around, looked either side. It was dark. He was in some kind of building. Looked like a barn of some sort. He could smell manure in the air. Dried shit surrounded him. Somewhere in the distance, the smell of rot and the sound of flies from a dead cow.

  And in front of him, standing over him, Harold.

  “What happened?” Eddie asked.

  Harold rubbed his hands through his hair. Barney sat at his side. “You collapsed. Me and Tim had to drag you to your feet and pull you into this farm. The runners, they missed us by a hair. But they’re still out there. Still hearing footsteps from time to time. Not as many now, but still a few.”

  Eddie sighed a breath of relief. His heart still pounded, and his lungs were still gasping for air, like he’d been running just moments ago. He shuffled upright, sat back against the wall. “Thanks. I guess.”

  Tim tutted. Rolled his eyes. “Don’t mention it. Not like we saved your life or anything.”

  Harold looked around at Tim and sighed. “What happened to Simon wasn’t Eddie here’s fault. It’s… it’s gonna take some time. To adjust to. And the grief’s gonna hit us, and it’s gonna hit us hard. But we need to stay rational. Can’t go tearing ourselves or each other apart. Got to keep our clarity. Only damned thing we’ve got left.”

  Tim looked at Eddie with a snarl and shook his head. He muttered something under his breath, walked away. Eddie just sat there, looking up at Harold. Still in disbelief that he’d actually made it. That they’d actually managed to save him. Thank God he’d lost some weight. No way they’d have dragged him here if he was fat as he used to be.

  “Tim’ll come round,” Harold said. “You’ve got to understand the guy’s just lost his brother. His twin brother. They weren’t the closest always, but that don’t matter when it’s blood. You know how it is.”

  Eddie nodded. He didn’t like Tim from first impressions. But Harold seemed a decent guy. Even if he had messed things up for Kelly’s place. “When you were on the road. When you wandered into my garden. What did you want?”

  Harold’s eyes lit up. A slight smile crept across his face like he’d just remembered his whole damned purpose. “Ah yeah. Shit. I’m sorry. Simon. He was so positive about it. So enthusiastic about it.”

  “About what?” Eddie asked.

  “There’s a place, apparently. Over towards Lancaster. A safe zone.”

  “Sounds suspect.”

  “You might say so. Truth is, we’ve seen these people. They had vehicles, and they were out gathering supplies. And we met one of their people, too. Spent a little time with um. Enough time to know, anyway. It’s a good place. The kind of place we can trust.”

  “How do you know that for certain?”

  “Because if we can’t trust this place, then what else do we have left?”

  Eddie looked away. He wanted to tell this guy he was naive. He wanted to tell him he was wrong for trusting in the outside world. That it was all about self-sufficiency, now. It was all about the individuals. It was all about survival.

  But then there was that other voice in his head. The one that told him not to discount hope. The one that told him not to just give up.

  And that voice wanted to believe.

  It didn’t want to be alone.

  “This place,” Eddie said. “How much do you know about it? And why are you so adamant on me coming with you?”

  Harold’s smile widened, then. He looked like a changed man, distracted from the death of his nephew, and grateful for that distraction. “We can’t pretend to know a thing about this virus, if it even is a bloody virus at all. We’ve seen the weirdest shit. We can’t play by the rules of the old world. Not anymore. Seen enough to know that’s a fool’s errand. But there’s one thing we do know. If we’re gonna get through this, it’s together. And—”

  “Yeah. Yeah, so you keep saying. Community spirit and all that. But what do you actually know about this place? And you say you saw someone on the road. One of the members of this group. Why didn’t you just join them?”

  Harold looked around at Tim.

  Tim shook his head, then sighed. “Simon met someone. A woman. Maria. She was a member of this group. Got caught up in a fight with the infected on the road. Two of her friends died. She told us about this place. About how good it was. Orderly. A place like no other. And we believed her.”

  “What happened to her?” Eddie asked.

  “Vanished. Simon went out looking for her. Found her with a noose around her neck. A note by her feet. ‘I’m sorry. I’m infected. Find my home. You’ll be safe there.’”

  A shiver crept up Eddie’s spine. This story, it sounded legit. It added up.

  And as much as Eddie didn’t want to blindly agree to anything, as much as he didn’t want to buy into this guy’s words…

  He had to.

  “So what’s the plan?”

  Harold took a deep breath. “The plan is, we head to Lancaster. We check this place out.”

  “And if it’s not what you’re looking for?”

  Harold smiled. “Then at least we’ll know.”

  Eddie sat there. Nodded.

  “So what do you say?” Harold asked.

  Eddie swallowed a lump in his throat. Kelly’s place. Still that connection. Still that attachment.

  But it was broken into. It was in a state.

  It was pointless.

  “I guess… I guess I’ve got no choice.”

  “Really,” Tim said. “You do.”

  Eddie stood up. Looked at Harold. Then at Tim.

  And as hard as it was, he took a deep breath, and he nodded.

  “I’ll come with you,” he said.

  Harold smiled back at him.

  Held out a hand.

  Eddie took it. Shook it. Hard.

  “Glad to have you join us—”

  He heard movement at the other side of the barn.

  Then, a raspy, throaty snarl.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Noah knew right away he and Kelly were screwed.

  They were trapped. The two of those guards standing there, dressed in quarantine gear by that cell door, rifles in hand. All of them staring right across at Noah and Kelly.

  And Paul.

  That smug look on his face.

  Noah should’ve known he’d rat him out somehow.

  He should’ve killed him while he had the chance.

  “So here’s how things are gonna go now,” Paul said, walking close towards them. “You’re going to drop that pistol. You’re going to sit down on your knees. You’re going to put your hands behind your heads. Both of you. And you’re going to wait right there while we report this to high command. They aren’t going to be happy with your behaviour. The luxuries you’ve enjoyed here, you can kiss goodbye to them.”

  Noah’s hairs stood on end when Paul said that word. Luxuries. Like they’d been li
ving the high life so far.

  If that was a life of luxury they’d been living, then fuck, they were in for a shocker with whatever came next.

  “Drop that pistol and on your knees,” Paul said. “Now!”

  Noah dropped the pistol and sat down. Kelly beside him. A look of frustration on her face. Like she was pissed at Noah in a way for coming in here and screwing things up for her. Classic Kelly. Acting like things were all rosy before he came in here. Like she wasn’t tied up to a goddamned chair.

  Paul walked over to them. Those two guards with their rifles right behind. He looked down at them both. Smiled. “Now you’re going to take that gear off. You’re going to stop disrespecting the dead, and you’re going to take that gear off. Right this second.”

  Noah looked across at Kelly.

  She raised her eyebrows. Shrugged.

  “Now!” Paul shouted.

  Noah sighed. He started pulling that quarantine gear off, bit by bit, until he was down to the underwear he’d been wearing beneath.

  Paul smirked. “Don’t look so big and tough now, do we?”

  “You having fun there?” Noah asked.

  “More than you realise. Now take the rest off. Both of you.”

  Noah frowned.

  “The fuck?” Kelly said.

  “Take them off. Everything you’re wearing. You’ve lost your right to dignity. You’ve lost your right to self-respect. Take it all off. Now.”

  Noah glanced around at Kelly again.

  Saw her scan his body, a little disgusted.

  “Whatever you do,” Kelly said. “If we get out of this, don’t ever tell anyone I was naked with you. It’s really not a memory I want to have locked away up here.”

  “Good to see you’ve got your priorities straight,” Noah said.

  He started taking his underwear off, looking up at Paul standing there, smirking, loving this.

  And then he heard something.

  Something outside.

  Something loud.

  Something that sounded like an alarm.

  A red light flashing. A siren.

  Paul’s face dropped.

  He glanced around.

  The two guards looked around. Lowered their rifles.

  “What is that?” Noah asked, scrambling his underwear back on.