by Ryan Casey
He passed out twice. And when he woke up the third time, the mask still wasn’t completely gone.
He lay back in the grass, his vision blurred. When the mask finally yanked away from his face, the trap around his ankle so intense that it made him want to puke, he saw a man above him. A man with dark hair. Maskless.
But it was what he had in his free hand that made Danilo finally vomit.
He was holding on to Mart’s cheetah mask.
Mart’s mask was dripping blood.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
I saw Selly Oak in the distance and I adjusted the cheetah mask.
The afternoon was powering on. Night would be here in no time. The air was getting cooler, but to be honest that was the least of my concerns right now.
I was more interested in the station up ahead.
The two men in animal masks standing in front of a massive pile of water bottles.
And oh. The pain on my face.
I’d been shocked as I’d pulled the cheetah mask away from the first guy. The masks were full of razors and staples. Things that were designed to make removing the masks as painful as possible.
Of course, I’d done what I could to clear the mask out as well as I could. I hardly wanted to catch anything from the dirty razors and staples.
But it was just one of those things you did for family.
I swallowed a lump in my dry throat, eager for a taste of that water. In my hand, I held my knife, and in my pocket, a gun that I’d found on the guy with the frog mask. There were only four bullets left. I had to make them count.
I’d left my bug-out bag a few hundred metres back. I didn’t like parting with it, but I had to do everything I could to make myself blend in.
I had to make these people believe I was Mart.
I didn’t know how it was going to go, but that was why I had the knife.
I stepped forward and felt like I was walking into the middle of a busy motorway.
They looked around at me straight away. A man in an elephant mask. Another in a… Batman? Come on. Batman hardly counted as an animal.
I thought they were looking at me like I was unfamiliar. I waited for them to turn around and attack me.
So I lifted Danilo’s ram mask and held it in the air. “He’s done a runner! The bastard’s done a runner!”
The two men looked at each other. Again, I was convinced they couldn’t be falling for this.
But then I heard the one in the Batman mask. “Fucking hell. I knew he was trouble.” He looked back at me. “How far’s he gone?”
“Not far. Just here, see. I took him down but I need a hand getting him up the telegraph pole.”
The two men reached my side. They stepped ahead of me. They squinted into the distance.
“I don’t see—”
I stabbed the man in the Batman mask, slammed the knife into his back.
Then I swung the knife at the man in the elephant mask.
He dodged it. I saw the alarm in his bloodshot eyes. “You bastard. You’re not Mart. You’re a frigging faker!”
He swung his blade at me. It caught me on my arm. It hurt, but I couldn’t get distracted. There was only thing I was after right now.
“Back off,” I said, raising the gun and pointing it at Elephant. “Or I’ll shoot. I swear.”
Elephant held still for a few seconds. Then he started to laugh. “And risk alerting every damn person in this camp? I don’t think s—”
I pulled the trigger.
I saw the surprise on Elephant’s face. I saw the uncertainty, as he stumbled back holding his chest.
I watched him as he fell down onto the railway tracks, cracking his neck on impact.
As the gunshot echoed around the station, I knew I needed to move fast.
I ran past the water bottles. Three bullets left. Up ahead, I saw steps leading to the walkway above the platform.
A guy in some kind of weird insect costume powered down the steps.
“Someone’s attacking!” I shouted, alarming him, pointing outside.
He looked outside, confused. “What—”
I slammed the blade into his neck.
I didn’t wait to check if he was dead. I just kept on going, running up the steps. The further I got, the more convinced I grew that I was heading somewhere important. That I was getting closer to what I wanted to find. To who I wanted to find.
I reached the top of the steps.
Three men were opposite me.
All of them were blocking my way.
Then, running at me with knives in the air.
I lifted my gun in my shaking hand. Three bullets. I wasn’t a great shot. Never had been. I was a Brit, after all.
But I was better than most.
I aimed at the head of the guy furthest to the left.
I squeezed the trigger.
The bullet missed and smashed the glass beside him.
Shit.
I aimed at him again.
And once again, the bullet missed.
Just one bullet left.
I went to point it. I had to pick the strongest looking one. The guy in the middle? Maybe if I took him down I could handle the rest.
But they all had longer knives than mine.
They all looked mad as hell.
Taking one of them down wouldn’t be enough.
Taking one of them down wouldn’t…
I was about to make a break outside when I saw the loose piece of metal right above.
It was part of the foundations of the walkway. And I knew I had to be careful because if I took that metal down, I could bring this whole walkway down.
“Screw it,” I said, holding my breath and pointing my gun at the metal, waiting for the perfect moment. “Screw it.”
I imagined Olivia and how close to her I was.
I saw her little gap-toothed smile and felt my heart warm with love.
And then I pulled the trigger.
The bullet smacked into the loose screw at the side of the metal.
At first, I didn’t think anything was happening.
But then the metal creaked and went tumbling down below.
Right onto the heads of the men below it.
I saw two of them look up, but they were too late. The sound of bones breaking, of grunting, filled the tunnel.
But one of them was still standing.
I lowered the gun. Pulled out my knife.
“You’re gonna regret that,” the guy said. “I’m gonna make you pay for—”
He didn’t finish speaking.
I threw the knife at his neck.
It was a clean shot. Another trick Dad taught me well that I never thought I’d have to use.
He reached for his throat, staggered side to side, but there was nothing he could do.
He fell to his knees, landed beside the still bodies of his friends.
I didn’t stick around to make his death any less painful.
I walked over the bodies of those I’d killed. My hands shook, and my legs were weak. My stomach lurched as I got closer to the end of the walkway. What if I was wrong? What if my family weren’t here? What if they were already dead?
No. Don’t think that way. Don’t think that way at all.
I climbed down the steps, slowly. I made my way to the side of the train, being careful to check I was totally alone.
When I got to the train doors, the first thing that hit me was the smell.
And then I saw them.
The train was filled with people. Women and children, mostly. They were tied up by their wrists and ankles to the seats. They were gaunt. Their eyes looked dead. It seemed like they’d been in here a long time.
I yanked off the mask and I walked through the train, over the patches of piss and vomit that were staining the floor. I walked further and further through, heart racing, not bearing the idea of finding my family in here, but at the same time wanting to save them from whatever they were involved in.
I searched t
he train. I searched the entire train. I looked at every single seat. Every single starving face.
I didn’t see Olivia or Kerry.
I felt tears building in my eyes. All this way. All this way and still I hadn’t found them.
But I had to keep going. I had to keep searching.
I couldn’t give up until I—
“Dad?”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
“Dad?”
When I heard that sweet little voice, I wasn’t sure it was real. I’d been living in a crazy world for a long time. I’d done some horrible things. If I were going mad, hearing voices, then that wouldn’t be totally surprising.
“Dad?”
I heard the voice again, and the hairs on my arms stood on end.
When I turned around, I couldn’t find the source of the voice. I looked everywhere, my eyes tearful, my cheeks sore from where the staples on the mask had dug in just moments ago.
I looked along all the seats.
I looked for the source of the voice.
And then…
When I saw where the voice was coming from, I wasn’t sure what to say at first. How to react. How to think.
There was a little girl sitting upright in one of the seats.
She had long, dark hair.
She was thin. Thin as a rake.
But her eyes. Her beautiful eyes.
There was no doubt.
The girl was Olivia.
“Olivia.”
I staggered over to her, everyone and everything else blurring into the background, out of my consciousness.
I felt my tears building as I got closer. I felt my chest tightening. My heart wrenching. I had to keep going. I had to get to her. I hadn’t made it yet.
But I was so close.
I was so close.
“Dad,” Olivia said.
She was crying now too. She was crying, but I was so close.
“It’s okay,” I said, struggling to hold back my own tears as my lips shook. “I’m here. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
I wrapped my arms around Olivia and something happened.
Inside, I felt all my pain recede. I felt all the stress of the last month disappear. I felt all the heartache and all the worry I’d felt just vanish, disappear in a puff of smoke.
Because my daughter’s warm body was in my arms.
Olivia was here.
I pulled back and looked at her, smiling, laughing, crying. I had to keep blinking just to make sure it was really her, and that my mind wasn’t tricking me.
“It’s you,” I said. “It’s really you.”
“I was scared, Dad. This place. It’s not nice.”
“Did they hurt you?” I asked, holding my daughter’s bony hands and scanning her body. “Did they—did they touch you?”
She looked me in the eye and shook her head. “Not me. But… but others.”
I felt bad about the relief that hit me then. It was horrible what’d happened to everyone in this train. And I was going to make amends no matter what. I was going to get revenge.
But my daughter was okay.
She was alive. She was okay.
And they hadn’t put a finger on her.
I’d make sure it stayed that way.
I struggled at the ties around her wrists, cutting at them as gently as I could so not to catch her.
“Why are you all covered in blood, Dad?”
I looked into Olivia’s eyes. I didn’t want to tell her the truth. But at the same time, I didn’t want to lie to her either. This was a dangerous world. She needed to realise that. I was sure she had already. “I’ve done what I’ve had to do,” I said. “To get to you. And your…”
I looked around. Looked beside Olivia. Looked at some of the people nearby.
“Your mum,” I said. “Where is she?”
Olivia’s eyes drifted downwards and I felt my heart sink.
“Oh no,” I said. “Oh, Olivia, no. They can’t have. She—”
“She got away,” Olivia said.
I frowned. “She what?”
“Last night. A few people got free. And she was trying to find me but she couldn’t. And when the Animals woke up they were going to kill her so she had to run. But she shouted. She shouted that she was coming back for me. That she wouldn’t leave me. Then I heard the bullets. Then… Mum’s not come back.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiped my eyes. I would grieve. I had to grieve. We might’ve split, but I loved Kerry, and she was a good mother to Olivia.
But right now I had to be strong for our daughter. I had to make good on her promise and I had to get Olivia out of here.
“Come on,” I said, breaking Olivia free of the ties and lifting her frail body to her feet.
“What about everyone else?”
“Yeah,” a woman nearby said. She had dark hair that looked like it’d only started turning grey in the last few days. “What about us?”
More of the prisoners started picking up then. Causing commotion. And I knew I was going to have to do something to stop it.
“I’ll get you out of here,” I said. “I’ll come back for you when my daughter’s—”
“Liar,” someone shouted. “That’s what they all say.”
The shouting picked up again.
“I know a place,” I said. “A place far away. A long, long journey away. It’s a good place. There’s good people there. And there’s food. Water. Safe places to sleep. It’s… it’s a trip that nearly killed me, though. So I can’t promise everyone will survive. But as soon as I get my daughter somewhere safe, I promise to God I’ll come back for you.”
Everyone was silent now. I thought it was because they were believing what I was saying.
Then I heard the floor of the train creaking.
I turned around.
There was a man walking slowly along the carriage.
He was wearing thick body armour.
He was holding a baton with a spiked metal ball attached to it.
And he was wearing a rhino mask.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
I stared back at the man in the rhino mask and something told me that this guy wouldn’t be letting me go anywhere without a fight.
He was bulky. Every inch of his body was covered in some kind of armour, like riot gear, and bits of heavy looking metal. It was like a patchwork quilt of protection, making him look twice his actual size.
Although as I said, he was big enough to begin with.
“Don’t let him hurt me, Dad,” Olivia whispered. She tightened her grip around my hand. “Please don’t let him hurt me.”
Rhino walked towards me, his feet thumping on the floor beneath. I heard the mumbles of the prisoners go silent, shocked into fear by the presence of this man-beast. I couldn’t help feeling apprehensive myself. After all, I’d come so close to getting my daughter out of this place. I’d promised her I’d come back for the rest of the people here. I didn’t want to leave these prisoners to be prisoners for any longer.
I just wasn’t sure I had what it took to fight this guy.
He stopped. Completely stopped just a couple of metres away from me. That spiked ball on a chain rested by his side. I waited for him to say something. To ask who I was. What I was doing here.
But then he just pulled back that ball on the chain and swung it at me.
I fell back. The spikes didn’t hit me, but falling back onto my daughter caused just as much pain.
I struggled free of Olivia. I grabbed her hands, looked into her eyes. “You get outside. You—you just run.”
“But Dad, I’m scared—”
“I know, angel. I know. But this is our only shot. This is—”
“Dad!”
I saw Olivia’s eyes widen in horror and it didn’t take me long to realise why.
I spun around just in time to see the ball on the chain flying towards my head.
I rolled to the side of it. Clambered away as it split through the floor of the tra
in. With every hit of that ball, I heard gasps from the prisoners. I knew how close I’d come to having my skull split open several times already. I didn’t want to take many more chances.
I climbed to my feet and dragged Olivia along towards the door. Behind, I heard Rhino’s footsteps getting closer, faster. Instinct kicked in as my heart raced. I needed to escape. I needed to get away from here. I needed to take Olivia as far away from here as possible.
But then I saw the horror and the pain in the eyes of the prisoners, all of their hope lost, and something inside me told me I couldn’t just turn away and run.
Not this time.
I stopped by the door. I turned around and faced Rhino.
When he saw I’d stopped, he stopped too.
I reached into my pocket. Pulled out my knife. It was small. Minuscule in comparison to Rhino’s weapon.
So much so that for the first time, I heard him actually make a sound.
Something like a grunted laugh.
“Yeah you won’t be laughing long,” I said.
“Dad?” Olivia called.
I turned around and faced her. Tears filled my eyes. Part of me felt like I was turning my back on my daughter I’d fought so hard to find. The other part felt like I was doing the right thing by her. Doing what would make her proud. “We’ll be okay,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I—I love you.”
And then I turned to Rhino and I ran at him.
I wasn’t sure what possessed me to run at him. Seemed a bit dramatic.
But with no armour to his masses of armour, I knew I had speed on my side.
I just had to find a weakness in his armour.
Rhino lifted his ball on a chain and started swirling it around his head. I watched it move as if in slow motion. I knew I had to time this right. If I didn’t, I’d be on the end of that ball.
No. That wasn’t going to happen.
I had to fight.
I had to save everyone here.
I couldn’t—
Smack.
I felt a sharp pain fly through the left side of my chest.
I felt the air wheeze from my body, and the side of my head went crashing into a couple of vacant chairs on the train seat.