by Ryan Casey
“You’re doing good,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need you to tell me I’m doing—”
“I know this is hard for you, Alex. Really. But just… just keep trying. Keep persevering. You’ll get there. And it’ll all be worth it.”
We kept on going, stopping to gather some fresh water and lay some makeshift traps along the way. We knew a few trapping methods by now—a few variations on snares, a couple of deadfalls, and even a few tension traps. Sure, the latter were harder to construct and put together, but they were certainly effective. We even knew how to put together a bird trap. Simply sharpen the end of a long pole, make a hole near the end of it and stick it into the ground. Then, thread a smaller stick loosely into the hole using some kind of cord, dangling a rock from the other side of it and making a little noose. One tied, when the bird flies down and lands, the stick falls away, as does the rock, and its feet gets trapped.
It was grim. But that was just the way survival went these days.
We’d caught a few birds that way in our time.
And I had to admit, magpie was delicious.
Just had to hope one for sorrow didn’t apply when eating one, anyway…
It was all going well. All going nicely.
Until Suzy stopped and pointed up ahead.
I looked in the distance.
It was a town. Bigger than the village we’d been in before.
Only it looked… derelict. Totally empty.
Which was even eerier when it was a larger town and not just a smaller village.
“Well, it looks like it’ll take a while to get around it,” Ellie said. “And it does look pretty quiet through it.”
“We’ve made that mistake before,” Suzy said. “Alex?”
I looked ahead at the town. It wasn’t a long stretch through it. And Ellie was right. It did look empty.
Part of me wanted to go around it. But the other part of me couldn’t help thinking of what Ian had said, and how every second mattered now.
“We go through it,” I said, leading the way. “It shouldn’t take us too long.”
Suzy frowned. “Alex? Are you sure?”
I looked at her. Then at the rest of my people. I took a deep breath in. “I’m sure.”
We walked down into the town. The further we got inside it, the more the hairs on my arms started to stand on end, the more creeped out I grew.
There were the usual signs of a town gone to ruin: broken down cars, smashed windows. Emptied shops. Streets filled with glass and litter.
But there was something else about this town that gave me the creeps even more.
The smearing of red blood against the walls of the buildings.
It looked like words or symbols had been attempted to be smeared. But I couldn’t make out what they were, couldn’t see them properly. All I knew was that we had to keep going and that we had to be quick because I didn’t want to bump into the people who had made those smears.
And in front of some of the smears, I saw the worst thing of all.
A body. A body surrounded by flies. It looked like it’d been there for quite some time. Smelled like it, too.
“Looks like whoever’s been living here isn’t the most welcoming,” Suzy said.
I picked up my pace. I could see the end of the street where the town centre ended. I walked even quicker, my hand in Sarah’s, my people not far behind me. I wanted to get out of here. The blood. The body. All of it was making my heart pound, all of it was making my skin turn hot…
“Come on,” I said. “We’re almost there.”
We kept on going, all moving faster. And I thought I saw things, then. Movement in the corner of my eyes. Eyes watching us. Figures in the shadows, down the alleyways.
So I just kept my focus straight ahead, on the road ahead of us, on the exit of the town.
We were just a matter of metres away now and I knew we’d made it. I knew we were so close.
But that was when I heard the footsteps behind us.
I froze. Froze, totally solid. Heart racing faster. Stomach turning.
I turned around.
Nobody there.
We all looked back.
“Don’t tell me it was just me who heard that?” Ellie said.
I cleared my throat. Scanned the town. No sign of life. No sign of anyone. “Come on,” I said. “We’d better…”
It was when I turned back around that I froze for a second time.
Only this time, my freezing was justified.
There was a group of people ahead of me.
All of them covered in dirt.
All of them with long, greasy hair.
And their mouths covered with dried blood.
One of them stepped forward, in his worn down biker jacket, and he grinned. “We’re in luck, team. Looks like dinner’s landed right on our doorstep.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I looked at the savage expressions of the people surrounding us and I knew that we were in trouble.
The light was fading. The warm air of earlier today had been replaced by a bitter cold breeze, which made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
Or maybe the hairs on my arms were standing on end for another reason entirely.
Maybe they were standing on end because of the people standing opposite.
I stood totally still as this sinister group moved closer towards me and my people. They were all so filthy, all wearing torn clothes. They were skinny, with sores all over their faces and greasy hair. Their beards were filled with bald patches, as were the sores on their scalp. On one of those sores, I swore I saw a maggot clinging to a bit of flesh, eating its way around it.
I could smell the filth coming off them and it hit me then that these were the people who were responsible for the dead body and the bloodied symbols etched across the walls of the buildings in the town behind us. A crow cawed overhead, made me flinch, added to the terror of the situation.
“Come on,” the man at the front of the group said, axe in hand. “Just come along with us and we’ll make it nice and easy for you.”
He licked his lips. Licked at the dried blood in the corner of his mouth.
He took a step towards me, as did the rest of his people. I looked over my shoulder. There was no way we could go other than through the town again; no way we could run but the way we’d come from. And that brought perils of its own. What if Ian was waiting at the other end of the town? What if he’d been following all this time from a distance, watching closely, just like he had when he’d shot Harvey?
I heard the footsteps of the savages get closer. A knot tightened in my chest. I saw Kaileigh and Will stepping closer to one another, fear in their eyes. I didn’t want them to have to go through this. I didn’t want this to get out of hand. They’d seen and been through enough already. I couldn’t let them go through anything else.
“Of course, you could choose not to comply,” the leader of the group said. A smile stretched across his face then, and I saw his worn-down, rotting teeth. “But that’ll make it less bearable for you, my friend. It’ll make it less bearable for all of you.”
He turned over his axe in his hand.
“So come on. Hands above your heads. On your knees. And we’ll get this done as quickly as possible.”
I looked into the man’s eyes, then at the people alongside him.
Then I looked back at Sarah, at Suzy, at Ellie and Ibrahim and the kids.
I swallowed a sickly, nauseous lump in my throat. Cursed myself for losing the gun all those miles back. But one thing was for certain. There was no way I could give up. There was no way any of us could give up. Not after how far we’d come.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
I turned around and looked at the leader once again.
“But that’s not going to happen. Run!”
I turned and ran right away.
I hoped the rest of my people would realise what I was doing immediately.
But
not all of them did.
Suzy. Will.
They stalled.
The rest of us ran and the pair of them stalled.
“Suzy!”
I saw then that she was running, Will’s hand in hers. She had to be running; the group of savages was chasing us, axes and knives raised, waving them in the air.
I sprinted as quickly as I could—or as Sarah could allow me to. I looked to the left, looked to the right. I wanted to get out of this town. But at the same time, I knew that wasn’t going to be possible. These savages were going to keep on following us, keep on chasing us.
We had to do something else. We had to at least try something else.
“Over there,” I said.
I turned and ran down an alleyway to the left.
Immediately I regretted it.
The alleyway was narrow.
And there was a metal fence at the other end of it.
Barbed wire atop that metal fence.
“A dead end,” Ellie said, panting.
I turned back to step out of the alleyway.
But it was already too late.
The savages were upon us.
“What’re we gonna do?” Ibrahim asked.
I looked at him, then down the alleyway. “We’re going to get out of this, one way or another. Keep moving. Now!”
I ran further down the alleyway. I tried every handle to every door, all of them locked.
“One of them has to be open,” Sarah said. “I mean, one of them has to be unlocked. Right?”
I didn’t want to answer Sarah. Because the closer we got to that dead end, the more doors we passed by. And the more doors we passed by, the more we realised were locked. Time was running out.
I heard a shout from behind. A scream. When I looked back, I saw it was Will. He’d tripped over. Suzy was pulling him back to his feet. The savages were in the alleyway with us now, just a matter of metres behind.
“Come on,” I said.
I tried the next door. And when I looked ahead I realised there were only two doors left. Two doors and then the fence. We could try climbing the fence; attempt to scale it. But I knew damn well that it wasn’t going to be a happy ending for us if we tried that.
Two doors to go.
I had to hope.
I had to pray.
I tried the next door.
The handle was jammed.
“Shit,” I said.
So it was the next door. The final door. All our hopes resting on that door. Time running out.
I ran over to it. Stopped in front of it. I held my breath, prayed to whoever out there was listening.
Then I turned the handle.
At first, when I turned it, the door didn’t budge. My body felt like it was sinking into the ground.
But when I applied more pressure, something remarkable happened.
The door opened.
I stood there for a second, staring at the dust as it rose from behind the door, in disbelief about my luck.
“Come on!” Sarah shouted.
I ushered her inside. Then Ellie. Then Ibrahim. Then Kaileigh. And then it was just Suzy and Will, the savages just behind. They were so close. They were within touching distance. They…
That’s when it happened.
Will slipped.
The leader of the savages grabbed him.
Suzy spun around, terror in her eyes.
“No!” she shouted.
“Suzy!” I said.
I went to step outside. Went to go back to her. But the rest of the savages were still coming. And Suzy hadn’t heard me. She hadn’t heard what I was saying. Not while they had her Will. Not while they had her boy.
The savages flew towards the door. And I knew right then, as I watched Suzy disappear into the group of people, screaming for her son, that there was only one way this was going to go—only one thing I could do.
I felt tears building in my eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
The savages were just metres away.
There was only one thing I could do.
I watched Suzy disappear into the mass of people.
Then, with the savages within touching distance, I slammed the door shut and locked it from the inside.
For a moment, I heard Suzy crying out for her boy.
And after that, I heard nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I sat staring at the locked door and I felt myself shaking.
It was dark in here. There were metal shutters on the windows from the inside. It could be dark outside too for all I knew. Honestly, I didn’t know what time it was. I didn’t much care, either.
All I could think about was the sight of Suzy turning around and running into that crowd.
The sight of fear on her face as she realised her son, Will, had been taken by those savages.
And then slamming the door and leaving her out there, screaming for her son.
And then…
I shook my head and shuddered. I closed my eyes, which were tired and heavy. I didn’t want to think about what’d happened. I didn’t want to imagine it playing out. Because it was getting too much to cope with.
Another person—two people—I cared about.
More people lost.
I tasted vomit at the back of my throat as the memory of Suzy’s anguish filled my mind. The fear on Will’s poor face as he tripped and fell down. The pain they both must’ve felt. The terror they’d both gone through.
They didn’t deserve that. None of them deserved that.
It’d gone quiet outside now. It was silent in this room, too. None of us had uttered a word since we’d got in here. I couldn’t make out anyone’s face in the darkness, but I could hazard a guess that everyone was in a similar state of shock to me.
And all this time there was a nagging thought. A thought bothering me, threatening to surface. A thought I had to vocalise…
“She wanted to avoid the town,” I said.
When I said the words, it made it all the more real. That conversation Suzy and the rest of us had before we’d made our way into the town. The decision we’d made to go through the town rather than around it.
And that caution Suzy had shown towards that decision.
“She’d… she’d wanted to avoid the town,” I repeated. “She wanted to go around it. To find another way. And now she’s… now they’re both…”
I heard a sigh and I knew it was Ellie. Ellie would be guilty too. She’d been on side with me earlier. The only one to vocalise approval for the decision I’d made.
But there was nothing else we could say, nothing else that could be done. There was certainly no way to change things, no way to go back.
All I knew was that I’d heard the sound of flesh being sliced into.
I’d heard shouts and I’d heard bloodshed.
And now there was silence.
Wherever those savages had gone, they weren’t here anymore.
So no matter what had happened or what may happen, there was only one thing that could be done.
“We have to get out of here,” I said. “We have to leave.”
I stood up. Walked over to the door, my knees as weak as jelly. I stopped right before it, pressed my ear to it, just to make sure the silence was for definite.
And as I stood there, it struck me as weird that those savages would just disappear like that. They’d been pretty clear about what they wanted—they wanted to eat us. Unless they thought we were surrounded. Unless they’d closed off the end of the alleyway. Or perhaps they were somewhere in this complex of buildings, working their way through it, finding their way towards us…
“What if Will’s hurt?”
I heard Kaileigh’s voice and my stomach sank.
I turned to her. Took a few deep breaths to try and keep my shit together. “I’m sorry, Kaileigh. I really am.”
Then I grabbed the handle—to hell with it—and I opened the door.
When I stepped
outside, the first thing that hit me was that it wasn’t dark yet after all. Which meant we hadn’t been inside as long as I’d thought.
The next thing that struck me…
I staggered outside. A mixture of confusion and nausea hit me.
Some of the savages were still in the alleyway.
Only they weren’t standing. Not anymore.
They’d been killed. Arrows sticking inside their bodies, holes pierced right through their throats. Their blood filled the cracks in the road. Their terrified eyes stared up, blank and glassy.
“What…” Ellie said. “What the hell happened out here?”
I made my way slowly through this bed of destruction and I asked myself the same question. What had happened here?
But as I walked further, looking at the bodies, I found myself searching for two people. Two people in particular.
It was right at the end of the alleyway that I found them.
Only they weren’t dead.
They were standing right in front of me.
Suzy was looking at me, covered in blood. Will was by her side.
She looked at me with glassy eyes, like she was struggling to comprehend whatever had happened here herself.
“Suzy?” I said. “What…”
When I stepped out, I realised then she wasn’t alone.
There was a group of people beside her. A bigger group than the savages. Neater. Many of them were holding bows and arrows. There were women and men. A mixture of ages.
But the remarkable thing about these people?
They were smiling at me.
I felt my hackles turn up. Felt myself growing defensive and protective. I walked over to Suzy, stood in front of her, in front of Will.
“Who are you?” I asked.
A blonde woman with glasses stepped forward. “I’m Hailey,” she said. “And we’ve got something to tell you. Something very important.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ian stared at the safe haven from a distance and he wanted nothing more than to go over there and get inside.
The sun was setting, casting a beautiful orange hue over the landscape. The air was cool, but that was nice, in a way, as a breeze brushed over his skin. Reminded him of days spent beside the sea when he was a kid. The fresh air, the smell of salt and vinegar from the local fish and chip place. Happy memories. Memories of a better time, back before he had the worries and concerns that growing older brought along with it.