When Darkness Falls, Book 3

by Ryan Casey

  “It should be me,” Suzy said, holding the hands of Kaileigh and her son, Will.

  I stopped her when she reached me. Put a hand on her shoulder. “Be careful. Please.”

  She nodded. “I always am.”

  Suzy began her walk over the bridge. And I realised then that, as much as the whole single file idea was the safest, we weren’t going to have enough time to make it. We were going to have to start shuffling our way over that bridge. Right now.

  “Ibrahim, you should start walking.”

  Ibrahim rubbed the back of his neck. “Man, I don’t know if I can—”

  “If you don’t, you’ll die. And I’d wager a bet you don’t want to die. Okay?”

  He sighed and nodded. Took a few deep breaths.

  I patted him on the shoulder. “Good. Now go. Sarah and I will be right behind you.”

  He started walking and my stomach sank right then, as I watched Suzy and the kids get closer to their safety on the other side of the bridge. Because I knew what was next. It was Sarah’s turn. Sarah and our baby’s turn.

  I put my hands on her waist, the revving of the vehicles getting closer. I wanted to be able to give her a longer talk, to tell her everything was going to be okay.

  But then I heard gunfire and I knew we didn’t have much time left.

  I looked over my shoulder. Gunshots were peppering Hailey’s people. They were firing their bows and arrows, but they were falling already. Falling, one by one.

  “Go,” I said. “Now.”

  “Alex—”

  “Just go!”

  She started her walk across the bridge. Ian’s people were so close now, the gunshots rattling against the structure of the bridge above, taking down more of Hailey’s people. I followed shortly after, not wanting to look over my shoulder, only at what was in front of me, only at what was ahead.

  Ibrahim reached the end of the bridge and then it was just Sarah, me, and our baby. I tried not to look down, but I couldn’t help myself as I shuffled along this narrow, rough section of concrete. I could see the water right beneath me. A massive drop. One slip and I was down there, and I’d know everything about it.

  But I kept on breathing, and I kept on walking. And as much as I was aware of the engines revving behind me, I couldn’t let my focus slip. I had to take it one step at a time. Any other way, and I knew I risked giving it all up—losing everything.

  Sarah was just metres from the edge of the other side of the bridge. The others were standing there, holding out their hands, waiting for her.

  She reached out. And at that moment, my stomach sank as I saw her foot coming down on a loose piece of concrete. As I imagined her slipping away—everything I cared about falling away—into the abyss below.

  But that didn’t happen.

  She reached the other side.

  I stood there for a few seconds, smile on my face.

  Sarah turned around, a wide grin covering her face in spite of the horrific circumstances.

  Then her grin dropped.

  I wanted to ask why. I wanted to know exactly why.

  But I didn’t have time to speculate.

  Not when the ground beneath my feet caved away.

  Not when I slipped.

  Not when I felt myself falling into the abyss below.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  One inch to the left and I’d be dead right now.

  I clutched on to the edge of the broken concrete with all the strength I had. And admittedly, that wasn’t as much as I’d have liked. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to cling on forever.

  But dangling from a bridge knowing that certain death waited for you if you plummeted below… yeah, that had a funny way of motivating you to just hold on a little longer.

  The weather was kicking up, which didn’t help. Winds blasted against me, made me wave from side to side. Every time a gust of wind hit me, I felt my stomach turn. Because it felt like this was my time. This was the time I was going to fall. This was the end of the road for me.

  But then the wind dropped, and still I was holding on.

  Just.

  I didn’t want to look down, as a splitting pain seared through my fingers. I knew I shouldn’t because it’d only strike even more fear into me. But again, it was one of those reactionary things that I wasn’t sure I had much control over, to be completely honest.

  I found myself looking down.

  Instantly regretted it.

  There was a huge body of water below. But it certainly didn’t look tempting to fall into. I knew what’d happen if I slipped and fell down into that water. Every bone in my body would break upon contact with its surface. If I weren’t already unconscious or dead, I’d sink to the bottom of that body of water and drown, with not a thing I could do about it.

  I shivered, clutched tighter on the edge of the broken bridge. “Shit,” I said. “Shit shit shit.”

  It was then that I heard the footsteps and the engines. My stomach turned. Crap. It was only now that I remembered Ian and his people were closing in on our position; that the gunshots were still firing out. If I didn’t get away from here fast, it might not matter whether I got out of this situation I was in or not—he’d find a way to kill me anyway.

  I tried to pull myself up, pulled with every single muscle in my upper body.

  But I didn’t budge.

  It was just too far to go.

  I closed my eyes and swallowed a lump in my throat.

  Then I tried again.

  This time, I heard the concrete under my left hand begin to crumble.

  I stopped applying pressure as my hand slipped away. And before I knew it I was only clinging on with my right hand. My right hand the only thing keeping me propped up, keeping me alive.

  I watched the crumbled concrete fall down, right down into the abyss below. And I felt my muscles weaken everywhere, pure fear taking over. This was it now. There was no bargaining. There was no other way around it. This was where I died. And there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop it.

  “Alex!”

  I heard the voice from above and looked up immediately.

  Ibrahim was there.

  He was holding out a hand, glancing up to check the progress of Ian’s people. The shots were still firing. Hailey’s people were clearly still standing—at least some of them. “Come on, mate,” he said. “Grab my hand. We have to get out of here.”

  I felt my hackles rising. I felt like I was trapped—trapped between two decisions, both of which I knew could and probably would end my life. I didn’t grab Ibrahim’s hand and I almost certainly fell to my death. Or I grabbed it, and I… well, almost certainly fell to my death.

  I shook my head. “I—I can’t.”

  “You have to,” he said. “If you don’t… if you don’t, you’re going to die, man. You’re going to die. And if we don’t get away soon, Ian’s people are gonna be onto us. We need this, fella.”

  My body shook as I looked back down into the abyss below. Then I looked back up at Ibrahim, at his outstretched hand.

  “Come on!” he shouted. “Just trust me, pal. Just trust me.”

  I felt my insides twist when he asked me to trust him. Because I couldn’t. How could I trust anybody?

  But then I thought about Sarah. I thought about our baby. I thought about everything we’d worked for. This couldn’t be the end. It just couldn’t.

  Could it?

  I took a few sharp breaths in, my heart racing at a million miles an hour.

  “Alex, we don’t have long lef—”

  “Okay!” I shouted. “Okay.”

  I looked down into the abyss below.

  Then I thought about Bobby, about Sarah, about the good times we’d had and how much I wanted a future with her.

  I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said. “If this doesn’t work, I’m sorry.”

  Then I made a lunge for Ibrahim’s hand.

  I felt his hand wrap around mine. And at first, as he dragged me up, I wasn’t
sure if I was going to make it. I wasn’t sure if he was strong enough, or how we were going to get out of this situation.

  But then I felt him pull me up to the side.

  And as he dragged me up, I felt myself trusting him.

  I was on the side then. Gasping for air. Lungs seizing as the adrenaline took hold.

  A pat on my shoulder. “We have to go. We can’t stick around. Come on!”

  I was barely able to process thoughts. But I looked over my shoulder and I saw why.

  Ian and his people were close.

  Hailey’s people had fallen. Every single one of them.

  Every one of them except Hailey, who was on her knees.

  “Go,” she muttered, covered in blood, broken bow in hand. “Just go.”

  I dragged myself to my feet and ran as the bullets peppered around me. I ducked to the left, ducked to the right, kept on moving, knowing that any second now a bullet could fire through me and end me once and for all.

  It was only when I looked over my shoulder I saw the concrete I’d been clinging onto start to crumble away and fall into the water below.

  I was seconds away.

  Just seconds away.

  I saw the rest of my people in the distance, right on the other side of the bridge.

  I ran towards them, ducked behind a trailer, Ibrahim by my side.

  I took deep breaths. Tried to calm myself. The bullets were still firing, but not as rapidly now. And we had ground between ourselves and Ian’s people. Or rather, a large gap in the ground.

  There was no holding back anymore.

  We had to get away from Ian.

  We had to use this opportunity to get some ground on them.

  We had to…

  When I regained my composure and looked at my people, I knew right away something was wrong.

  It was when I saw that Suzy and Ellie were the two people standing, worried expressions on their faces, that I feared the worst.

  I walked over towards them. “What’s wrong?”

  They didn’t have to answer.

  Sarah was on the ground.

  She was gritting her teeth together. Clenching her eyes closed. Tears rolling down her face.

  But the worst part?

  She was holding her stomach.

  Holding the baby bump.

  Like she was in agony.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  When I saw Sarah lying there on the ground, hands wrapped over the baby bump, I did the only thing I could.

  I ran over to her.

  I could hear Ian’s people’s voices echoing somewhere behind. I had to hope the bridge was even more unstable now, impossible to cross. I had a feeling we’d crossed at just the right time. And that we were all so damned lucky that we’d made it across alive.

  But somehow, as much danger as I knew Ian could bring over here, as much of a threat as he obviously was, he was the least of my concerns right now.

  My only concern was Sarah.

  She was lying back against the concrete. Her teeth were gritted together. Her eyes were closed. And her hands… they were wrapped so tightly around her belly.

  I felt my heart sink seeing her like this and feeling like there was nothing I could do to help her. After all, I should be the one who was there for her. I should be the one who was able to get her out of this. I should be the one who could hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay.

  But in the end, all I could do was sit by her side and put my hand on the back of her head.

  “Sarah,” I said.

  She didn’t even acknowledge my presence. She just kept on gritting her teeth together. She was rocking back and forth now. And seeing her like this, blood vessels bursting in her face, tears rolling down her cheeks, in so much pain that she wasn’t even screaming… it made me feel so helpless.

  “We’re going to have to help her,” I said.

  I looked around. Ellie, Suzy, Ibrahim. All of them looked down at me, all of them with wide eyes.

  Agitation crept up inside me. “Come on,” I said. “We’re going to have to help her somehow.”

  “Alex,” Ellie said. “I… I wish I could. I wish I knew how to. But—”

  “We can’t just leave her like this. We can’t just let her go through this. We… we have to help her. We have to do something.”

  I looked down at Sarah. Her tears were in full flow now. She was gasping a little. I could tell from the sharp breaths she was taking that she was in total agony.

  I did the only thing I could. I kept on stroking the back of her head. “You’re going to be okay, honey. I’m here for you. I’m here for you and you’re going to be okay. I promise.”

  “Maybe there’s something I can try.”

  I turned. It was Ibrahim who had spoken.

  And as much as I’d wanted someone to offer help, I couldn’t help shaking that sense of inherent distrust that still resided in the pit of my gut.

  But this was no time to let that take hold of things.

  “What’re you suggesting?” I asked.

  Ibrahim walked over to mine and Sarah’s side. He had a sincere expression across his face. A seriousness about him which I both liked and disliked, mostly because I didn’t want to believe deep down that there was anything serious about this; that there was any immediate danger to Sarah.

  “When I was younger, I had a motorcycle accident,” he said. “Nothing too serious. But I’ve ended up with a lot of recurring pain in my left leg ever since. I took a pain management course. And while… while it’s not perfect and it won’t work straight away, it’ll help in the long run. I hope.”

  “A pain management course?” I said. “Really?”

  “Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.”

  I resisted the urge to slam my fist into Ibrahim’s face, the tension of the situation taking a hold. I took a few deep breaths, steadying myself. “I can’t see how a pain management course is going to help if she stays like this. And if Ian and his people somehow manage to cross the bridge. Or if they fire at us. Or if…”

  I stopped. Mostly because I noticed something. Something different.

  Sarah’s eyes were open.

  She was staring right up at me. Her eyes were totally bloodshot, which made my skin crawl. It horrified me, seeing my wife in this way. Sent shivers up my spine.

  “Sarah?” I said. “Are you with us?”

  She opened her mouth, wide. It looked like she was going to say something.

  Then she spat out deep, thick red blood.

  It rolled down the sides of her cheeks. And her eyes went blank. And at that moment, at that awful moment, I thought this was it. I thought she was going. It was over.

  Then she leaned forward, blood still drooling down her chin, sat up, took a few deep breaths.

  “Sarah?”

  “I’m… I’m okay now.”

  My body tingled with adrenaline, with all kinds of emotions. “You—you just—”

  “The pain,” she said, wiping her mouth, getting the blood away but only unintentionally smearing it across the rest of her chin. “It’s gone now. I’m okay. I’m okay.”

  I leaned over and held my wife. I knew Ian was coming. I knew his people were coming. But I crouched there and I held her. “I thought I’d lost you both,” I said.

  She tightened her grip on me. “I’m not going anywhere. And neither is our baby.”

  I wanted to believe her. I wanted to buy into her words, accept the certainty of which she spoke them.

  But I felt the blood from Sarah’s mouth transferring onto my face, smelled its rusty metallic tang, and a knot tied my insides together.

  Because there was a question in my mind.

  A question circling my thoughts like vultures over fallen carrion.

  A question that was going to haunt me for a long, long time. Perhaps even the rest of my life.

  She was alive.

  She was okay.

  But for how much longer?

 
Chapter Thirty-Five

  A day passed and I knew we were on the final stretch of our journey.

  The morning sun hung low over the landscape. There was stillness in the air, teasing either peace on the horizon or a storm yet to come. I wasn’t sure which. I just had to hope for the first option; hope that Ian’s people were well behind us; hope that Sarah was going to be okay.

  Sarah was walking alongside me. Since she’d coughed up blood and had her strange turn yesterday, she hadn’t spoken so much. She hadn’t had any other incidents like that—none of which I knew about, anyway. She just seemed focused on the road ahead. Determined to make it through.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  She turned to me. Looked at me with glassy eyes. I saw it just for a second, that look. The look like she wasn’t okay at all.

  But then she smiled—a forced smile. “Yeah,” she said. “You?”

  I nodded. But honestly, deep down, I wanted to say something. Seeing Sarah so muted, so worn down… it depressed me. She was always my rock. The one who held me together. It felt like for the first time in our lives, it was me who was going to have to be strong for her.

  I tightened my grip on her hand. Squeezed it, tight. “I’m okay as long as you are,” I said.

  She didn’t say anything in response. Just kept on looking ahead. Just kept on smiling. Because we knew what we were getting close to.

  It was a shame that we’d lost Hailey and her people. She’d helped us on our journey. Hell, she’d sacrificed herself for all of us. And at that moment I’d seen something amazing. Something remarkable.

  Someone who was willing to put themselves on the line to protect someone else.

  Someone who she barely even knew.

  I looked back at our people. I looked at Suzy, at Ibrahim, at Ellie. At young Will and Kaileigh. We’d made it so far together. And we were going to make it all the way.

  I looked ahead, a few grey clouds forming above.

  Nothing was going to get in our way.

  Nothing was going to stop us.

  Just a pity that only an hour later, the worst storm I’d ever seen crashed upon us out of nowhere.