Emile laughed disbelievingly, “You really think you’ll be able to live with lying to your little sister? Come on, Adela! It’s eating you up inside lying about who this baby’s father really is!”
“What other choice do we have?” She rebutted. “Like you said, it’ll break Tia if she finds out. And Alek, believe it or not, I care about him. He’s been a good friend to me and a fantastic teacher to Tia.” She strictly declared, “You can’t tell him, Emile. Ever.”
Emile was distraught. “I’m marrying that man in a couple of weeks’ time.” He knelt down at Adela’s side and glared firmly into her eyes, “How am I supposed to start a new life with the man I love when I’ve got a secret child?”
Adela glared back at him, “We’re part of the same group. You’ll still get to see the child every day. It’s not like you’re running from the truth, is it?”
“…You clearly don’t understand how love works.” Emile berated her.
This remark caused something within Adela to snap, “And clearly, neither do you. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?”
Emile passed her off, “We were drunk, Adela. Both of us. If we were sober, it never would’ve happened. I was only drunk because of my argument with Alek, that’s all. That’s not cheating, it’s just a mistake.”
“From where I’m standing,” Adela further countered, “They’re one and the same…”
Later that day, in the hotel restaurant, Elliot and Annabelle were having a late lunch.
“So, Cora came back?” Elliot asked once more.
“Yep.” Equally, Annabelle clarified this point once again. “She gave up looking for Beth and came back to the only place where she knew she’d have at least some chance of finding her mother again: Here.”
“Hmm!” Elliot grunted, now understanding the situation. “Looks like that little theory paid off quite well for her, didn’t it?” He referred to the fact that the group had indeed come back to London.
As Annabelle watched her brother tuck into his food, there was a question that she now felt obliged to ask him. “How are you holding up? Being back here.”
Elliot spent several seconds chewing and then swallowing the heap of food in his mouth before answering. “I’m okay.”
A weakness that had come with Elliot’s blindness was that, when he was feeling down, he struggled to hide the emotions in his eyes. As such, Annabelle could tell that he was thinking of Olivia.
“Glad to see you two are doing alright.” The man who had helped Tina the previous night came over to the siblings.
“Oh,” Annabelle was surprised by this random spur of conversation, “Yeah, we’re okay. Thank you.” She nodded respectfully to him, nonetheless.
“The name’s Mac, by the way.” He introduced himself.
Annabelle offered her hand out for a shake, “I’m Annabelle.” She declared as Mac shook her hand in kind. “This here is my brother Elliot.” She nodded over to him.
“How do you do?” Elliot waved his hand out to make contact with Mac’s as he greeted him.
“It’s um… It’s nice to meet you.” Mac informed Elliot, slightly confused by his grey pupils.
“I’m blind, by the way.” Elliot announced, having a sneaky suspicion that Mac was indeed confused by his eyes.
“Oh!” Mac’s own eyes widened as he realised this, “Oh, goodness! I’m so sorry!” Mac apologised sincerely.
Elliot laughed, “It’s alright. I get it, you wouldn’t expect a blind man to still be alive at this point, would you?”
“No, I guess not.” Mac scratched the back of his head as he tried to return the small talk. “Well, I’ll catch you guys later!” Mac quickly scurried away, feeling awkward about himself.
Elliot was still grinning to himself.
“What? What is it?” Annabelle asked, herself smiling.
“I just love how nervous people get when they realise it.” Elliot revealed as he pointed to the scar across his eyes; he had managed to turn a tragic event into comedic mileage.
Chapter 8: It’s Oh, So Quiet
The thunder rumbled out across the dark, gloomy sky over London as lightning forks struck the highest points.
The strong and mighty winds ravaged the streets, throwing litter, corpses, and even vehicles, around in an erratic manner; this was no ordinary storm, it was a hurricane.
Rajan hugged the lamppost for dear life. Never in a million years did it cross his mind that he’d find himself at the mercy of Mother Nature after the world had already ended.
“Raj!” Michelle cried out to him, leaning out of a nearby doorway. “What the hell are you doing man?!” She yelled over the torrential rain. “Get back in here!”
“There’s someone out there, Michelle!” Rajan yelled back as lightning struck a nearby building. “You heard the voice on the radio! I have to save him!” It was clear that Rajan was willing to put his own life on the line if it meant saving others.
“If that man has any sense, he’ll have taken shelter already!” Michelle tried to explain, “If not, then he may already be dead! Please, Raj, just get back here!” She pleaded with him, having to scream so loudly over the foreboding hurricane that it physically hurt her lungs.
The building in question was an old performing arts theatre. Currently, the small group were warming themselves up in one of the large, empty, and echoey performing halls.
“What the hell kind of a storm even is that?” Rob distressfully remarked as he listened to the wind outside pounding against the roof.
Maylene shrugged, “I couldn’t possibly to tell you. I’ve been all around the world, and never, not once, have I been caught up in a storm quite as bad this.” She asserted with terror. “There were entire vehicles being blown across the roads out there. If we were none the wiser, we could’ve been taken right out by one of them!”
Maylene’s distress was drawing uneasy stares from the dozen-or-so other survivors in the hall with her.
Sensing this tension, Rob tried to make the situation feel less harrowing, “I took a three-month holiday to Thailand once. It was monsoon season the entire time I was there. Let me tell you, that was far worse than this.”
But nobody shared this positive attitude.
‘SLAM!’
As she marched into the hall, Michelle heavily pulled the door shut behind her.
“Where’s Rajan?” Rob asked in an instant, not even thinking to ask Michelle how she was before doing so.
Michelle shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance, “The idiot’s gone after that man we heard on the radio.”
Maylene sighed in turn, “He’s always trying to save someone.” She facetiously remarked.
“And that’s all fine and dandy,” Michelle professed as she sat down at Rob and Maylene’s side, “Until it gets him killed.”
Rob shuddered at this thought.
“He’ll be fine.” Maylene had no concerns about her friend’s survival.
But Rob protested, “We have to go after him!”
Michelle shook her head in the negative, “It’s too dangerous. You saw it yourself; the wind out there was blowing vehicles over.” She unknowingly echoed Maylene’s earlier observation. “But I promise, as soon as the weather dies down, I’ll go after him myself.”
Rob understood why they had to wait, but was unwilling to sit back and wait, “How many times has Rajan saved our lives, though? If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even be in this group.” He nodded to Maylene, “Neither would you, in fact!”
Maylene nodded, accepting of this fact, “I don’t disagree, but that’s all the more reason to stay here. Rajan didn’t just save us so we could end up dead anyway.”
“She’s right.” Michelle backed her up, “If you get yourself killed going after him, then what was the point in Rajan sticking his neck out to save you anyway?”
Rob grunted, trying to hide the fact that he agreed with the ladies’ point.
Outside, as Rajan waded through t
he adverse weather, the storm showed no signs of dying down.
‘CRACK!’
A lightning bolt struck a nearby pillar, causing it to emit bold and fiery sparks.
‘RUMBLE!’
The lightning was deafeningly loud.
Rajan struggled to maintain his footing; the ferociousness of the wind was continuously blowing him off balance.
The rain was so thick and heavy that it created a light gloomy sheet, preventing Rajan from seeing anything more than a couple of metres ahead of him.
Eventually, Rajan found himself staggering towards a junction.
From out of the boundless and endless gloom, an empty wheelie bin suddenly came breezing past. It was perhaps seven or eight feet up from the ground, travelling at well over ten miles-per-hour. The lid had already been torn off by the intense gale, leaving it a lidless container that propelled past upside down.
The only support Rajan had were the crevices between the brickwork of the building next to the pavement. As Rajan watched the wheelie bin fly down the street, he lamented to himself that, had the wind had suddenly changed direction, it may very well have squashed him against the wall which he was clinging onto for dear life, and effectively killed him.
‘CRASH!’
The lightning struck again causing the nearby vicinity to momentarily illuminate in an electrifying blue; it would have been so pretty and magical if it weren’t so terrifying and life-threatening.
Eventually, by still clinging on to fixed structures, Rajan had made his way to the outskirts of the city.
‘Help!’
A desperate voice cried out faintly, barely audible over the torrential downpour.
Rajan strained momentarily in an attempt to better listen out for the distressed cry. “Hello?!” He yelled out in return.
‘Hello?!’
The desperate voice, with a wisp of confusion, shouted back in kind.
“Are you Garry?!” Rajan cupped his mouth to boost the distance of his voice as he yelled this, still over the relentless rain.
At first, the voice did not respond.
“Are you Garry?!” Rajan called out once more, only with more intensity this time.
‘Yes! Yes, I am!’
There was a hint of joy in this cry.
Rajan too exhaled a jovial sigh of relief; the man that he had heard on the radio had indeed identified himself as ‘Garry.’
The wind made a sharp and sudden change in direction, buffeting Rajan has it pounded against his cheeks.
“Hold on, Garry!!” Cupping his mouth once again and leaning against a wall for support, Rajan called out to the man he knew he had to save, “I’m coming!! You’re gonna be alright!!”
As Rajan prepared to make a run for it across the street, a large object blew past him, just mere centimetres in front of his eyeline. Immediately, he turned his head to trace the direction which this object was headed…
…It was a large and extremely moist wooden beam. It was perhaps ten feet across, with both of its’ ends completely jagged and rough from where the wind had presumably forced it out of place.
“Holy shit.” Rajan mumbled to himself under the boisterous storm, reflecting on his near-death experience.
The wind had become so fierce that now, on the opposite side of the street to Rajan, the wooden beam was being held firmly in place against the wall without shimmering or swaying in the slightest.
Then, as the wind momentarily died down, the object finally dropped to the ground. But just as quickly as it had stopped, the wind picked up again, this time blowing in a new direction, but with the same intensity.
Still in shock at how close he had come to death, Rajan watched in reverence as the wooden beam blew down the street from which he had just staggered up; it was travelling at possibly fifteen-miles-per-hour now, as Rajan himself was beginning to lose both his balance and his grip.
Objects were relentlessly pounding on the roof above the hall.
“My God! Will it ever stop?” Rob cried out in anguish, feeling more annoyed by the unrelenting banging than scared.
Michelle shrugged, “It will do eventually. We just don’t know when.”
Unscrewing the lid from her flask, Maylene poured herself a hot drink.
“How can you be that comfortable?” Rob asked her in complete astonishment.
Due to how relaxed she was, it took Maylene several seconds to acknowledge that she had even been asked a question. “Oh!” She began as she screwed the lid back onto the flask, “It’s simple, really. I’ve accepted that there’s nothing we can do against Mother Nature, and now I’m just trying to make a good thing out of a bad situation.” She explained calmly.
“She’s right.” Michelle sympathetically addressed Rob. “There’s nothing we can do for Rajan right now,” She knew that Rob was still concerned about his friend, “But we do know that he can look after himself. We just have to trust in him, okay?”
Rob continued to stare at the floor in dismay, however.
As the endless banging continued on the roof above, Michelle gazed upwards, concerned that it would cave in at any given moment.
Scuttling up the dual carriageway, Rajan could just about make out a large pile of rubble and debris on the side of the road through the thick, watery sheet of deluge that was severely impacting his vision.
Thunder loudly rumbled out in all directions across the gloomy and sinister sky.
“Garry!!” Rajan cried out through the storm, once again cupping his mouth to amplify the volume of his speech.
‘I’m here!’
The distressed and timed voice cried out in return, though it was much closer now; it was coming from the mass of rubble offside from the carriageway.
“I’m coming!!” Rajan loudly asserted as he tumbled over the railing along the roadside; the direction of the wind had played in his favour this time, as it was blowing in the right way to assist him with rolling over the barrier.
A deathly silence had come over the group in the hall.
‘CRASH!’
A large hole opened up in the ceiling followed by a massive metal object plummeting through it.
“Fuck!” Rob cried out in a panic, as Michelle grab him and Maylene, ferrying them away from the danger zone.
As things settled down, the three of them turned around to witness something rather grave indeed: the metallic object in question was a helicopter blade.
“Oh my God!” Maylene covered her mouth in shock; now, she was finally unable to bring herself to sip her hot drink.
As the rain came pouring through the fresh gap in the ceiling, it drizzled down the rusty and large helicopter blade.
“Indeed…” Michelle affirmed Maylene’s exclamation.
The bottom end of the blade had, not only impaled the tough hall floor, but had also cut clean through one of the survivors and decapitated him.
Just inches away from the blade stood a rather panicked woman. As her eyes followed the trickling water down the blade, she noticed the headless corpse at her feet, still pinned to the ground by the sharpest point, and let out a grating scream.
“I take it back,” Rob retracted a statement which he had made earlier, “This is very much worse than my holiday in Thailand now… I don’t recall anybody being decapitated by loose helicopter blades back there!” He asserted.
“Not only that,” Maylene’s expression went from shock to dismay rather quickly upon realising something else which this sight meant, “But if that’s a helicopter blade there, then surely, that means that these winds are powerful enough to take down entire aircraft? Guys… What kind of a storm are we dealing with here?”
Rob and Michelle shuddered at Maylene’s assertion and looked to the ground in fear and hopelessness.
Crawling along the grass to avoid being blown away by the hurricane, Rajan had finally reached the rubble.
“Hello? Is someone there?” Garry called out distressfully.
“I’m here.” Rajan replied.
> Due to being a lot closer now, they did not need to shout as severely, though they did have to speak loudly, as the rain was still drowning their voices out a noticeable amount.
“I see you!” Garry called out, though Rajan could still not see him. “I’m over here! Hey!” He continued to call out, though for some reason, was unable to wave or give any kind of a visual signal.
“Oh!” Rajan eventually noticed a head bobbing amidst the debris.
‘CRASH!’
Lightning struck once more, giving both of the men a great fright.
Once he had crawled all the way to where Garry was, Rajan pulled off his own jacket and threw it over their heads. “There we go!” He explained, “I know it’s hardly soundproof, but we should at least be able to hear each other a little better now!”
Though, in the truth, the pattering of the rain on Rajan’s jacket had actually, if anything, made hearing each other a little worse.
“Are you—Did you hear my transmission?” Garry asked, coughing in pain as he did so.
“Yes, yes we did. I’m here to rescue you!” Rajan jovially proclaimed.
Garry idly shook his head, “That’s not why I made that call—” He wheezed as he drew a deep breath, “I needed to warn somebody about them.”
Rajan was at a loss, “What are you talking about? You mean don’t want to be rescued?” Due to his sincere resolve of being a saviour, Rajan had completely ignored what Garry was trying to tell him.
“Listen-- Ugh!” Garry winced out in pain as he tried to elaborate on his warning.
Then, Rajan noticed what was causing him so much pain; aside from all the rubble on top of him, a sharp wooden beam had impaled Garry directly above his heart. Though he was no medical expert, it didn’t take Rajan long to realise that this meant the man in front of him was dying.
“I—I built this cabin—Myself…” Garry explained.
“Cabin?” Rajan lamented on what he had seen earlier, “That’ll explain the wooden beam then.”
Garry wheezed intensely as it became harder for him to breath.
Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV Page 7