The silence was deafening in the house. Megan let out a loud sob and Jake sank to his knees, exhausted by the whole ordeal. He felt Aby wrap her arms around him and they held each other for a long time, shaking. He breathed her in, feeling so lucky to be alive that he couldn’t allow himself to let go of her.
They had no idea who was left alive out there, but the gunfire seemed to have ceased. It was quiet and cold in the room. Jake felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Perry holding a bottle of whiskey out to him.
“Here...take a swig of that. It’ll calm your nerves.”
Jake didn’t need to be told twice. With shaking hands, he gripped the bottle like a lifeline and took a swig from it. The liquid felt like it was scalding his throat, but he felt so grateful to still be alive to feel it that he took another swig.
The battle was over.
For now.
Thirteen
Aby
Aby knew she should be using this time to breathe, to regain her strength, to make sense of what had just happened, but she just sat very still, staring into space, unable to process anything. She felt dead inside after the things she’d done. She’d taken so many lives without even thinking it through. She’d watched people on her side die. And over what? Over land? Resources?
She felt someone lift her hands and wrap them around a lukewarm mug. When her eyes came into focus, she saw that Abigail had brought her a cup of tea. She offered Aby a sad smile.
“Drink up. It’ll make you feel a bit better.”
“Will it?” Aby croaked. She thought it was a stupid sentiment. She knew that British people lived by the idea that a cup of tea solved everything, but she wasn’t buying into the idea. How could a cup of tea make her feel better about the things she’d seen?
Still, she’d try anything. She took a sip of the watery liquid and felt her stomach gurgle uncomfortably. Even the warmth of the liquid did nothing to shift the icy coldness inside her. She wondered if she’d ever feel right again. The world had turned upside down and it was finally hitting her that things might never be okay again.
Suddenly, she felt so nauseous that she had to stumble to her feet and run outside. There, she threw up the little food she’d eaten. Kneeling on the ground and retching miserably, she turned her back on the corpses in the street. No one came to see her. They were all dealing with the horror of it all in their own way.
She was alone.
She couldn’t even rely on Jake to make her feel better. As much as she loved him, she could see how easily he was transitioning into the new world. She felt like she was getting left behind. Still, she needed to catch up fast. They wouldn’t have long to rest before something else happened, she was sure of it. She needed to snap out of her feelings and fast.
Things were starting to get real. She was suddenly realizing that there was no turning back now. At the beginning, some people were still acting calm, half expecting the lights to come back on and everything to go back to normal. Now, reality was sinking in for people. They were getting scared, panicking. They were all acting on impulse, doing things they’d never have dreamed of doing in civilized society. But civilization was a thing of the past. Communities like this one needed protecting, and yet with so many people lying dead on the street, Aby couldn’t see how all the fighting had been worth it.
She sat on the ground and closed her eyes. Her chest heaved as she gasped for air to fill her lungs. She felt as though she was dying. It occurred to her that she was likely having a panic attack, but even as she gasped for air, it felt like she couldn’t get enough oxygen in her lungs. She felt hot tears streaming down her face. There was so much blood on her hands, so much to regret, so much to make her feel guilty for the rest of her life...how was anyone staying calm? She thought of the cup of tea left on the floor inside the house. How was that meant to fix anything?
She felt comforting arms around her shoulder and knew that Jake had come out to see her. She leant into him, but her body was still trembling, her lungs still gasping for air that they couldn’t seem to find. He stroked her hair.
“Shh...it’s okay. It’s okay.”
No it’s not! She wanted to scream. Why did people say things like that? Nothing would be okay again. She didn’t want to open her eyes, knowing that the death and destruction around her was enough to make her throw up again. She didn’t want to see the dead bodies that were now gathering flies on their corpses. She didn’t want to see the shock and pain on their faces, frozen in time from their last moments on Earth. It was so much more horrifying than she could’ve anticipated.
Aby had once been a fan of horror and action movies. Her face would remain blank when people on the screen were horrifically slaughtered or shot down. Jake would often say she was heartless in that sense. But those things weren’t realistic. The real thing was so much worse. Now she couldn’t understand how she found so much entertainment in watching films about pain and suffering. It had only been a few days since the world ripped itself apart and she was already on the verge of giving up.
“It’s over,” Jake whispered to her. “You’ve got some time to grieve. And then we need to figure out our next step...and this time we’ll do it together. Okay?”
Aby couldn’t even find the strength to nod. She knew he was right. They needed to look after themselves. They had friends now, people worth protecting and fighting alongside. But Aby had felt all of the fight leaving her body. She just wanted to sleep and forget everything. She wanted to wake up and realize it was all a bad dream.
But the nightmare of her life was stuck on repeat. She was the one in a horror movie now.
Aby heard footsteps and stood instinctively, grabbing her gun, but it was just Perry and Abigail. They quietly surveyed the damage out on the streets. They didn’t seem as shell-shocked as Aby did. Maybe they’d managed to prepare for it all somehow.
“What a mess,” Perry muttered under his breath. His eyes drifted over someone and he winced. An old friend, Aby supposed. In Perry’s town, everyone knew each other well. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to lose so many people in one go. If she was upset by what happened then they had a right to go mad with grief.
But neither of them did. Abigail placed a comforting hand on her father’s elbow for a moment, and then they began to move around. It took Aby a minute to realize what they were doing as they kept ducking down beside corpses, but then, she saw that they were taking their belongings.
“What are you doing?” she said in horror. The whole thing seemed so disrespectful to her. How could they go rooting through the bodies of their friends and enemies alike, acting like their deaths were just an opportunity to gain some possessions?
“If we want to survive, we have to take what we can,” Perry muttered gruffly. “They’ve got things we can trade, things we can use, weapons we can shoot. Do you want to live, Aby? Because if you do, I suggest you follow our lead. We’ve been waiting for something like this to happen and yet we’re still unprepared. Half our friends are dead. We need everyone on high alert.”
Aby knew he was right. She knew he had to try and whip everyone into shape for the sake of their collective survival, but all she wanted was to scream at him to shut up. There was no way he should be so calm. There was no way he should be so comfortable doing the things he was doing.
But still, she followed his lead. She and Jake stuck close together. He moved the bodies aside to help her collect items from the bodies and she tried not to think about what she was doing. They collected so many weapons that she felt like she could have her own armoury. They took things they had no business taking, like wedding rings and pairs of shoes, things that could be used for trading with other communities. They won’t need those things, Aby told herself. It didn’t make her feel any better though.
By the time they’d picked through all of the bodies, Aby was sweating and feeling even more nauseous than before. She once again turned her back on the scene as they all reconvened at the house to discuss what to
do next. Perry sighed, rubbing his head.
“Well, we need to do something about the bodies...usually we’d bury our own in the community graveyard, but there might not be time...and there are so many…”
Aby closed her eyes. “You don’t need to remind us.”
“We should really bury them if we can,” Abigail said. Jake shook his head.
“We can’t afford the time it’ll take. If there’s another attack and we’re using all of our energy burying the dead then we’ll be joining them in no time. I’m sorry, Abigail, I know I sound harsh right now...but it’s just not worth the risk.”
She sighs. “Alright then, what else can we do? Burn the bodies?”
“A bonfire will attract attention in our direction,” Perry pointed out. “Now that we’re low on manpower, a bonfire is going to be difficult too.”
“So what do we do then? It seems like there aren't any options...we can’t just leave them here...they’ll start...smelling.”
Aby retched again. She wasn’t handling this conversation well at all. She just wanted to go back inside and try to forget everything. She guessed Megan was doing something similar since she hadn’t shown up. She sighed. She thought that maybe it might be easier to be Megan than herself right in that moment. Megan always seemed sheltered from the worst of everything, easily ducking out of the chaos at the right moments. Aby had wanted to be included, to be in the middle of everything that Jake got himself into, but by that point, she was unable to understand why she’d felt the pull of the battle so badly. Now, all she wanted was for the memories of what she’d done to be left in the past.
“Maybe we should-”
Jake never finished thinking aloud because there was a blood-curdling scream from the end of the road. Aby watched in horror as a disheveled young boy ran through the street, his face contorted with fear as he made his way toward them. Aby clutched Jake’s arm as they watched the boy running.
“Do you know that kid?” Jake asked. Perry shook his head.
“Never seen him before...must be from out of town.”
“Shouldn’t we help him?”
“Stand your ground,” Perry said coldly. “Let’s see what he’s here for.”
The kid managed to stop screaming for long enough to gasp for air. Aby resisted the urge to give him a comforting hug and instead kept her distance.
“Who are you, and why are you here?” Perry asked. The boy gasped for air desperately.
“I...I’ve been running for ages...I don’t know what the hell happened here...why is everyone dead? Did they make it here too?”
“Who?” Aby asked. Somehow, she didn’t think he was talking about the city folk. The boy sucked in air, his face red with the effort of trying to breathe.
“The men from the prison...the ones who got out. They’re coming...they’re going to kill everyone…”
Aby’s heart sank in her chest. How was it possible that even more bad luck was already coming their way? She’d known that they wouldn’t have much peace, but a whole new enemy to face? That was almost more than she could handle. She felt like she was about to sink through the ground and be overwhelmed by the world around her.
“The prison…” Perry said, shaking his head. “God, we should’ve known...there’s a high security prison around miles from here...I guess they must’ve got out at the start and they’re making their way here now.”
“They’ve killed so many already,” the teenage boy sobbed, trying to wipe his face. “I lost my family...we have to go...they’re going to kill everyone here too…”
Aby finally stepped forward to comfort the boy. “It’s okay...we’ll keep you safe…”
“Don’t make promises we can’t keep,” Abigail said darkly. “What are we going to do? That prison is full of the scum of the Earth...or was, at least. Murderers, rapists, gang members...you name it. People like that have nothing to lose. If they’ve found a way to break out then their freedom is theirs...”
“And now the world has fallen apart, they can get away with whatever they want,” Jake finished for Abigail. For the first time, he looked completely lost. “What now?”
Fourteen
Jake
For the first time in days, Jake let someone else take over some responsibility. While Perry and Abigail discussed what to do next, he followed Aby and the young boy inside, where they found him something to eat and drink. Perry had decided that the kid was clearly not a threat so they’d take him under their wing for now. He also murmured under his breath that he’d be one extra person to help in case of a fight.
“What’s your name?” Aby asked the boy gently as she sat him down at the kitchen table. His cheeks were only just returning to a normal color after all his running around.
“Aaron,” he said timidly. He looked younger than his age with brown curls clinging to his impish face with sweat. He cleared his throat as Aby handed him a warm glass of water. “Thank you...I’m sorry for freaking out back there...I’ve...I’ve seen a lot.”
“We understand,” Aby said quietly. Jake looked at his fiance with a frown. She’d seemed okay before, but since the end of the fight, she was like a different person. He’d never seen her in such a state of shock, though he guessed that made sense. It wasn’t like they’d ever been in a huge gunfight in an unfamiliar town before. The things they were going through were enough to ruin anyone for life.
“I was in school when it all happened,” Aaron sniffed. “The lights went out...the electricity wouldn’t come back on...all the automatic doors to get inside got stuck and we couldn’t get out. So we all started to panic. There was chaos...fights broke up with the students...the teachers couldn’t control it...so we smashed the windows and managed to get out. I went home to my parents and I...I stupidly thought I’d be safe there. For the past couple of days it’s been relatively quiet...but now the prison gangs are out...and I’m scared of what they will do.”
“Aaron...tell us everything you know. We need to be prepared...how many escaped the prison?”
Aaron shook his head in fear. “Too many to count...I think a lot of others ran off on their own, but a large group of them have clumped together. I suppose there were at least a hundred of them. They came to our town in the middle of the night...they had a lot of weapons. I guess maybe they stole them from the prison guards. Our town is a few miles from the prison...we didn’t know they were coming until it was too late.”
“How do you know they’re all from the prison?”
“Well, they’ve still got their uniforms on...and they were all violent. Each and every one of them,” Aaron said. He swallowed. “They came into the town on foot...they started kicking down people’s doors. There were so many of them that we didn’t stand a chance...they killed...they killed my parents. They killed so many people...children too.” Aaron sniffed, wiping his eyes. Jake felt sorry for him. At least he still had Aby by his side. He touched her shoulder gently and she managed the smallest of smiles for him.
“How did you get out of there?”
Aaron wiped his face. “I hopped the fence at the back of my house...and I just kept running. I stopped for a while, but not long. I could hear people screaming, but I didn’t look back...I knew if I did I’d die.”
Aby put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe some others managed to get away too...but you did the right thing. If you’d stayed you would’ve died too. You’ve given us a chance at survival by coming here and telling us.”
Aaron still looked upset, but he nodded and sipped his water gratefully. He seemed to feel a little better knowing he’d been useful to the cause. Aby turned to Jake.
“We need to get the barricades back up...they might have been traveling on foot before, but if they’ve ransacked a town, they’ll have vehicles now. We can’t predict what they’ll do...they’re greedy people. Maybe they’ll try and take everything we have here too.”
“We barely have anything left now,” Jake murmured. He wished the kid wasn’t listening to the conversat
ion - he didn’t want to scare him even more - but he had to be frank. “We don’t know whether we’ve been ransacked by the survivors of the battle...we don’t know how much was damaged by the gunfire. And now, we’re open to attack too...soon there won’t be anything to fight for.”
“We can’t think that way,” Aby said, tears clouding her eyes. “We have to hold on to the hope that we’re going to be alright.”
“I know. I’m just saying that maybe they’ll see what happened here and leave us alone. Maybe they’ll see that there was a fight here and assume that everything has been taken already. Maybe this whole thing could work in our favour.”
“We can’t rely on that, though. We still don’t even know if they’ll come our way…”
“They won’t stop,” Aaron whispered. “They’re just going to keep going, keep hurting people, keep making people scared...they’ll be here. I know it.”
“How long did it take you to get here? How much time will we have if they’re still on foot.”
Aaron chewed his lip. “A few hours, maybe? I ran a lot of the way but I had to stop when I was out of breath...it depends how fast they are. They’re older and less fit...I’d say we have a little time. You could rebuild the barricade, definitely…”
“It’s a place to start,” Aby said. “Do you think you can help out, Aaron?”
He chewed his lip. “I don’t know if I want to stay...not if they’re coming. I want to stay ahead of them…”
“You can’t run forever,” Jake said. “There’s always going to be someone somewhere trying to cause chaos...if you stay with us, we have a getaway vehicle as a last resort. And if we beat these guys...well, maybe you can stay here anyway. We’ll keep you safe if we can...you shouldn’t be out there alone.”
Aaron hung his head, but after a minute, he nodded. “Okay. I can help.”
The End of the World Series | Book 2 | Survive The Onslaught Page 8