Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV

by Borthwick, Finlay

  “Who is it?” Elliot queried.

  “I can’t quite tell.” Gwen squinted to try and make out the silhouettes through the thick and relentless rainy shit that hindered her vision. “With a haircut like that, the one in the middle is definitely Petra.” She was correct.

  “The middle? Mum, I’m gonna need some more detail than that, please.” Elliot, once again, made an off-hand remark about his blindness.

  “Oh right, sorry!” Gwen elaborated on the commotion, “There’s three of them, they’re all struggling to maintain the balance, and I have absolutely no idea what the hell they’re doing out there in a freak storm.”

  “I think the one at the back is Rubin.” Annabelle presumed correctly as well. “Wherever Petra is, Rubin’s never far behind. Besides, I don’t know of any other living person who is that short and muscular.” She laughed at her own remark.

  But the humorous nature of this sight quickly became harrowing.

  “Christ!” Gwen exclaimed in disbelief as a glass bottle narrowly breezed past Rubin’s head. “If the wind was blowing even just a centimetre to the right—”

  “He’d be dead.” Annabelle finished her mother’s observation, equally in disbelief over what she had just seen.

  “I’m going out there.” Gwen nodded bravely.

  “Uh, no you’re not.” Annabelle was confused by how her mother had thought this to be a logical move.

  “Look, Annie, you can see how thick the rain out there is! They probably don’t even know where inside the safe zone they are. I’ll just lean out the door and invite them into the hotel, okay?” Gwen explained.

  When her mother put it like that, the plan seemed far less dangerous to Annabelle. “Alright… But be quick, okay?”

  Acknowledging her daughter’s instructions, Gwen nodded, and quickly ran out of the room, headed for the front doors.

  In the basement beneath the semi-detached house, the water was quickly rising. Already, a shallow layer now covered the majority of the floor.

  “How is it building up so quickly?” Cora was bemused at how the leaky streams were causing such a sudden flood.

  “There must be other gaps somewhere.” Mac hypothesised. “Maybe in the wall, maybe in the floor. Maybe somewhere out of sight like behind one of those dusty bookshelves.”

  But this hypothesis gave Cora another idea, “Other holes could mean other ways out, right?”

  Instantly, Mac shook his head to shut her theory down. “If there were a hole big enough for us to squeeze through, we would’ve noticed it by now. Not to mention, the water would at least be up to our waists.” Mac commented heartlessly. His tone suggested that he had lost all hope.

  But Cora was the polar opposite, for she still did not believe that either of them would die on this dreary day.

  Over in the cottage, Emile and Adela were still watching as the nearby solar farm was engulfed in flames.

  “It feels so wrong for us to just sit here and watch!” Emile proclaimed.

  “Alek’s right,” Adela refuted, taking his side partially out of a guilty conscience, “There’s nothing that we can do.”

  “Five of the panels have been destroyed. Can’t we salvage the last three at least?” Emile felt guilty about doing nothing, as this was his first time in England, so he felt wrong for not doing anything to defend his new home.

  “Just—Leave it.” Adela did not want to talk anymore.

  “You’re regretting your choices now, aren’t you?” Emile opted to continue berating her regardless.

  Adela swallowed her anger down.

  Then, there was a loud thumping sound against the wall next to the window outside.

  As they turned to see what the origin of the noise was, Emile and Adela both gasped in unison; a tree branch had been thrown against the side of the cottage. It had been thrown with such force that it had even spawned a minute crack on the wall inside.

  “Still wanna go out there?” Adela taunted Emile.

  Erica, much like her daughter, was also holding in a semi-detached house. However, unlike Cora, she had opted to take shelter in the kitchen at the back, rather than descend into the basement beneath.

  Also in the kitchen with her were her wife, Tina, and the pilot of the plane, Anna.

  With her hearing improving by the day, every couple of minutes, Erica would activate her walkie-talkie in attempt to reach her daughter. “Cora? Can you hear me? Cora, are you there?”

  Tina and Anna both looked each other with sorrow, feeling sorry for how desperate Erica was to be back at her daughter’s side after being separated from her for such a long time.

  “She’s alright, Erica.” Tina comforted her wife, lightly massaging her shoulders as she did so. “Cora’s made it this far using her own discretion. I think she’s more than capable of making it through a little thunderstorm.” Tina deliberately belittled the situation in an attempt to keep Erica calm.

  “She used to be so scared of thunder.” Erica unknowingly verified the story which Cora had earlier told Mac. “If there was a storm in the middle of the night, she’d wake up crying and I’d have to cradle her back to sleep… God, I never thought I’d say this, but I miss those days.” She lamented on just how much times had changed.

  “If Cora’s still the girl I knew the first time we were here,” Tina referred back to the first time they had lived in the London safe zone, “Then she’s probably doing better than the three of us. She’s probably so confident in fact that she’s got her radio switched off.” Although this made no sense, it was clear that Tina meant well.

  Anna moved around to the other side of the kitchen and rested against the edge of the sink basin. With a great interest, she stared at the windowpane, watching as the rain droplets bombarded it.

  “It’ll clear up soon enough.” Tina continued to comfort Erica, still massaging her shoulders as she did so.

  “We’d best enjoy it whilst it lasts.” Anna intervened, giving her own support whilst still looking outside. “That’s all we can do right now. Heck, Cora’s probably doing the same.” Despite not knowing a thing about Cora, Anna still wanted to be of whatever help that she possibly could.

  Gwen pushed the front doors of the hotel open and hung out of them, “Petra! Get in here!” She yelled out distressfully.

  But evidently, the trio had not heard Gwen’s loud offer, as they continued to venture away from her and further into the relentless downpour.

  “Dammit!” Gwen cursed to herself upon realising that she would have to break her promise to Annabelle in order to get her allies off of the street. Then, without a second thought, she stepped out onto the streets and right into the hurricane, slamming the hotel doors shut behind her as she did so.

  ‘CRASH!’

  Peculiarly, there was a flash of lightning as well as a grumble of thunder in the exact same moment.

  “Petra! Wait!” Gwen yelled out over the bellowing storm, completely unthreatened by how adverse it had become.

  “I’m beginning to think there’s nobody out here!” Rubin shouted over the rain to Petra and Richard.

  “We can’t go back yet!” Richard noted, “There could be somebody around the next corner! Would you ever forgive yourself if one your friends died because you gave up a little too early?”

  “At this rate, I won’t be alive to forgive myself!” Rubin stated, desperate to get out of the hurricane’s warpath.

  “Petra!” Gwen bellowed out as she came running towards the trio through the storm. “What the hell are you guys doing?!”

  “Gwen! Are you alright?” Rubin called out to her, blinking hard as raindrops blew directly into his eyes.

  “What? Of course I’m alright!” Gwen exclaimed, not understanding why the trio were out here, “I came to save you lot!”

  “We heard a voice!” Petra referred to what Valorie believed she had overheard on her walkie-talkie. “We think a person is in danger!”

  “There’s nobody out here!” Gwen refuted, shaking her long
and dripping wet hair out of her face as she did so. “You need to get inside right now! The hotel’s not far back! Come with me!” She insisted.

  “No!” Petra stood her ground. “We must find the person!” She upheld her belief that there was indeed somebody in danger out here.

  Whilst Gwen continued to argue with Petra and Rubin, Richard’s attention had been diverted elsewhere.

  Further up the street, through the gloomy thick rain, Richard noticed a rather large and irregularly shaped object flying towards him.

  Then, all of a sudden, the speed of the hurricane intensified even more.

  Richard began to sway and wobble about, unable to maintain his balance against the oncoming winds.

  “Richard!” Rubin cried out, directing Richard’s attention towards him. “Look out!” Rubin noticed the large object hurtling towards Richard at an alarming rate.

  As Richard turned back around to face the oncoming debris, his eyes widened in shock and horror, for it was too late to step out of its’ path.

  ‘CLUMP!’

  The fierce gale had smashed the large object directly into and then over Richard’s head. Instantly, a large gash broke out on his brow, followed by galloons of blood seeping from it.

  Narrowly dodging out of the way, Rubin glared at the object as it breezed past him as well now; it was the detached door of an old sports coupe…

  Having turned around slowly, Richard now stumbled through the merciless thunderstorm towards Gwen and Petra. “Help—Help me…” He requested of them in a low tone, due to his shock and concussion. Then, seconds later, his eyes rolled back as he collapsed.

  “Richard! Oh God!” Gwen ran to Richard’s side, catching him as he fell. “Richard! Wake up!”

  Petra and Rubin looked over at each other with expressions of fear on their face; though they were not as afraid of the horrors of the storm as they were of how Valorie would react to what had just happened.

  Gwen firmly placed two fingers against Richard’s neck. “Shit, shit!” She cursed in urgency before then placing her fingers against his wrist; but no matter where she checked, the result was the same.

  “How is he?! Gwen?!” Rubin yelled down at her, exasperating his lungs in order to be heard over the storm.

  Ruefully, Gwen turned around and looked up at Petra and Rubin. Sombrely shaking her head, she announced, “He’s gone…”

  There was erratic knocking at the door.

  Still warming themselves up by the fireplace, Nikola and Valorie looked to each other in unease.

  The erratic knocking occurred a second time.

  Without a second thought, Nikola rose from the fireplace and ran towards the door. But before she had even completely turned the handle, it was forced open from the outside.

  With a flurry of torrential rain behind them, Petra and Rubin came rushing in; though Rubin was carrying ‘something’ wrapped in a blanket in his arms.

  “What happened?” Nikola asked, shocked to see how large the ‘object’ which Rubin was carrying was.

  “We had to make a detour to the hotel on the way back.” Rubin revealed. “Gwen gave us a blanket.” He gestured to what he was carrying his arms.

  “A blanket?” Nikola was confused. “What would you need a blanket--?” And then, as she realised that Richard was not standing with Petra and Rubin, it became clear to her what had happened.

  “Yeah.” Rubin nodded remorsefully upon noticing the expression of shock and realisation fall upon Nikola’s face.

  “May I?” Nikola politely asked as she hovered her hand over the blanket.

  Permitting Nikola to do so, Rubin faced away.

  Cautiously, she unwrapped the top layer of the blanket.

  Inside, it was indeed the corpse of Richard, still sporting the large and fatal gash on his forehead, with crusty blood having dried up in the crevice.

  Nikola sighed and looked to the ground in remorse. Then, she gazed over towards the fireplace; Valorie was none the wiser to what had happened. She was still innocently warming her hands up in front of the flame.

  “Who will say it to her?” Petra asked.

  Nikola raised her hand in affirmation, still facing towards the fireplace. “I’ll tell her.”

  Petra and Rubin watched dismayingly as Nikola took those slow and sorrowful steps towards the late Richard’s next of kin.

  Down in the basement, the water level had now risen above Cora and Mac’s shin.

  “Come on! Just a little more effort!” Mac clenched his teeth as he and Cora put all their strength into shifting the crate that blocked the gaping hole.

  But then, Cora noticed something. “Wait—Listen!”

  “What?” Mac queried.

  “Just listen!”

  And so, the duo took several seconds to listen to their surroundings. Much to their surprise, everything was now still. The rain was no longer beating down outside, nor was the wind rapidly blowing against the basement door.

  “Look!” Cora proclaimed excitedly as she pointed up towards the crate; water was no longer trickling down from around the edges.

  “Yes!” Mac punched the air jovially.

  “You see! I told you we’d be okay!” Cora was so excitable that she wrapped her arms around Mac and embraced him tightly.

  “You were right indeed, Cora.” Mac affirmed with a smile as he rested his chin on top of her head; their difference in height was perfect for cheerful hugs such as these.

  Then, the good news quickly became even better.

  “Hello? Is anybody in here?” A muffled voice called out from the house above.

  Requiring verification that what they had just heard was real, Mac and Cora both broke from their embrace and looked each other in the eyes.

  “You heard it too?” Mac asked.

  Cora nodded blithely.

  “Yes! Yes, there is!” Mac cried out. “We’re down here! Oh God, we’re here!”

  “…Mac? Is that you?” The muffled voice queried.

  Mac scurried up the basement stairs and flattened himself against the door, “Yes! Yes, it is! Who’s that?”

  “It’s Kieran!”

  Never had Mac been so happy to hear Kieran’s voice.

  “Hang on! I’m gonna get you out of there, okay? Just sit tight! The storm’s over now!” Kieran informed them with all the good news that they needed to hear.

  But things weren’t universally happy across the safe zone.

  “It was my fault!” Valorie wailed, blaming herself for Richard’s demise. “He only went out there because I thought I’d heard something! I—It’s—It’s not fair!” She broke down into a flurry of tears, resting her head on Nikola’s shoulder as she did so.

  “He was a good man, Val.” Nikola espoused. “He went out there so that you wouldn’t have to. You’re right, it’s not fair. But he gave up his life trying to do something good.”

  Petra swallowed guilty; she had backed Valorie’s notion that somebody was in danger outside, when in truth, everybody seemed to be safe and alright.

  “He died for nothing, Petra.” Rubin mumbled to her quietly, so as not to be overheard by Valorie.

  “I know…” Petra herself was tearful.

  “Why are you crying?” Rubin tittered. “If you’d have taken his side in the first place, he’d still be alive. Tears of guilt, perhaps?”

  Petra shook her head dismayingly. Although she knew she was to blame, she still felt as though she had done the right thing.

  Valorie’s wailing echoed out through the house.

  Back in the hotel, Gwen and Annabelle were listening in on the transmissions from all over the safe zone on the open frequency.

  “The solar farm’s out.” Adela revealed over the channel. “It got struck by lightning… The fire’s destroyed the whole thing. Alek and Emile are out there right now trying to get it under control, but I think they’re gonna need help out here.”

  “Copy that.” Kieran acknowledged. “I’ve just found Cora and Mac. They’re alright
, but—”

  “Cora?! She’s with you?” Erica hijacked the frequency.

  “…I’m here, mum.” Cora affirmed over Kieran’s radio. “I’m absolutely fine, don’t worry.”

  “I don’t know who that man with you is,” Erica referred to Kieran, “But I am eternally grateful to him.”

  “The name’s Kieran.” He revealed to her. “I wouldn’t say no to a few beers if you’re up for it.” Although he knew that Erica was very much a married woman, Kieran simply wanted to make friends with the survivors who had, quite literally, dropped out of the sky.

  Interlude

  The following morning, at long last, everything was quiet. The horrendous hurricane had finally died out, leaving behind flooding and wrecked debris in the streets.

  But inside the walls of the safe zone, the world had, quite literally, changed forever. One of the two solar farms had been completely ravaged by flames, abandoned vehicles had been swept away by the fierce gale and left on their roofs, and so the list of storm damage, just like the storm itself, was seemingly endless.

  But also, on a more figurative level, the survivors’ world would never be the same again. Never before in the end times had they been surfing the waves of grief like this; for this time, they had nobody to take revenge against. How could they wage war against Mother Nature herself even if they wanted to?

  But little do the safe zone residents know, however, that another pressing threat is on its’ way. For some of them, their next tribulation would be rather personal and harken back to a past which they have tried to come to terms with…

  Chapter 11: Journey To The Centre Of The City

  As soon as the hurricane had died down, Rajan and Michelle had taken the unfortunate soul who had been decapitated by the helicopter blade outside to bury him.

  With them was the woman who had screamed upon witnessing such a horrible fate, Yelena.