He turned away from me sighing then in defeat he let his arms go limp letting her bite down on him tearing his throat out, there was so much blood I could have swam in it. He didn’t even scream as the pain must have been unbearable. Then once he was on the floor dying she turned to me, I raised my rifle, “I’m so sorry Tanya, I really thought I could have saved you. Guess I was wrong. I love you and I will find your son and I will look after him. Sisters together…Holding hands forever”, I sobbed as the words my mum always used to say hit home, then I shot her down.
The pain that filled my chest was immense as I ran out of the apartment, I had shot him too just to make sure he didn’t come back as one of them to torment me even more he didn’t deserve to become a creature to hurt more innocent people, he deserved to die.
A small shower had set in over the holiday camp soaking me in minutes, I slowly made my way to big top to find Chantelle and Cain, I hoped they were safe because I just wanted to get them and to go, go to the truck and leave this place behind.
“Stacie”, I heard a voice behind me, I lifted my rifle to the voice to find Callum standing in front of me, “Hey it’s me”. He looked alarmed by the gun in his face, “Where’s your Tanya?”
“Dead!” was all I said before turning and strolling into the large tent. I felt numb like the pain of her death hadn’t quite hit me yet and maybe it hadn’t. A few creatures had gotten inside and walked for me as they picked up my scent from the damp air. I walked right up to them and bashed them with the butt of the gun imploding their heads in all over the floor.
Callum was beside me in heartbeat, “Slow down your get yourself killed”.
“I’m fine”, I snapped. I left the bodies of the creatures and walked over past some restaurants and over to the stage area, “Chantelle it’s me Stacie”, I shouted out.
“Over here”, I heard her call out, she had hidden inside a small toyshop she had forced the shutter open and crawled inside with the young child. I helped lift the gate up to find she had hidden some other people. The young woman and child I had given the gun to were inside along with what I presumed to be the husband and father of the girl, another young woman with long blond hair was also inside along with a few others, “I said they can come with us”, she said.
I looked at Callum, “Can they?”
He nodded, “Yeah they can sit in the back of the truck”.
We heard a lot of exhausted but happy sighs of relief before the blonde girl spoke up, “Will they come after us? Will Danny and Bee come and hurt us?”
“No they are both dead and so are most of their henchmen, you will be safe with us”, I replied.
Chantelle looked at me, “She’s gone?”
I nodded but said nothing.
“Come on we have to go”, Callum said.
We all started for the main entrance a small crowd of at least eight adults and five children, how we would fit them all in the truck I had no idea but we had to try. I didn’t look back as we all walked up the road to where we had left the truck, we could hear the screams of some of the people that had been left behind but we couldn’t help them now. The place had been completely surrounded by the creatures on the outside there was still an army of them that we had to fight with to get past but me and Callum quickly took some of them out, just enough so we could escape.
Reaching the truck I quickly helped load the children into the inside of the cab, whilst Callum loaded the adults into the bed of the truck. Then screams ripped through the air, slamming the door shut I ran out to find one of the adults had been bitten and not told us meaning they had turned, Callum had fought the creature out the bed of the truck but in the process it had bitten him on the arm.
Using Callum’s blade which I pulled from his grasp I stabbed the creature off of him, he jumped up and into the truck me a few seconds behind then he spun off into the breaking dawn racing back towards the safety of our camp.
“You ok you’ve been bitten?” I asked him, I heard some of the children gasp along with Chantelle who was holding on tightly to Cain.
“I’m fine”, he said but his voice gave away that he wasn’t, I spied the bite wound on his arm and it looked a raw bloody mess.
“No you’re not let me drive, pull over”, I said leaning over to him.
Pushing me away he snapped, “I’m fine I can drive”.
I didn’t ask again as he drove on, we didn’t speak either I think he was just concentrating so much on driving to try and forget the pain. A few miles shy of the camp I noticed his driving was getting sloppy and a little erratic, then as he took a turn he passed out falling limp onto the steering wheel.
“SHIT!” I cried out as the truck span out of control, I knew I couldn’t move him he was too big for me so I sat on his lap slamming my foot on the brake and trying to get control of the large vehicle, I could hear the petrified screams from the passengers in the bed of the truck, I just had to hope they were good at holding on. Gripping the steering wheel I tried to remember what he told me, the truck had turned slightly and was still going wild then it hit me, turn into it. So I done just that I turned the beast of a machine into the spin feeling the panic rise in my chest as I spotted the incoming tree. Holding my breath I again slammed my foot to the brake again and prayed.
Then I let out the breath I had been holding as the truck stopped with its nose pretty much on the tree trunk, I then leant out the window to see if everyone else was ok, once seeing they were if not a little scared I reassured them and turned round heading back towards the camp. Luckily for us we had known the route back so it didn’t take the whole day to get to the camp but it did take a long time in its self and I could tell that the bite was slowly turning Callum into one of the creatures, even when I got him back I had no idea what to do as the cure was gone. Probably taken by Danny just to spite me, he knew he had it, he just didn’t want me to have it back to have hope that I could save her…Tanya!
I cut the thought short as I knew I couldn’t break down now, I needed to get these people to the safety of the camp and to hopefully make Callum’s last few hours as comfortable as possible. Then I thought about Amanda, she had warned me not to return if anything happened to her brother and here I was bringing him back bitten and turning. She was either going to kill me right away or send me out of the camp and into the arms of a different creature which now I had nothing to live for seemed an ok option.
I spotted the gate to the camp coming in view and I slowed up a little and lent on the horn to alert them to our arrival, the gate was open in seconds and Amanda was standing near the entrance. She saw me driving and I could see in her eyes she knew I had failed her, I kept going till I hit the garage, if she was going to kill me she could at least let the others out first then wait till we were alone.
Killing the engine I opened the door and jumped out, she came running over but I dashed to the other side to let all the children and Chantelle out letting the adults get down from the bed on their own.
“What happened to him Stacie?” she shouted coming round to the other side.
“One of the adults we saved was bitten and turned, to save the others he got in the way and it bit him”, I replied.
“No…” she sounded deflated, “Help me get him to the side room”.
I done as I was told and helped lift him down, between us we managed to drag him into a small office like room with a wooden desk, we laid him down on it.
“How long ago was he bitten?” she asked.
“A few hours ago”, I replied, “Look I’m so sorry I never meant for him to get hurt and I did have a cure but …they stole it, the big guns and now it’s gone”.
“How do you know they took it?” she asked.
“Doesn’t matter”, I shook my head I didn’t want to talk about her right now.
“Um did you find your sister?” she asked me, her tone a little less Amanda ish and a little weird seen as she should have had her full focus on her brother.
I looked up at her, �
��Yes, why are you worrying about me, you should be worrying about him?”
“So you found her, she’s ok, that’s great then you won’t mind”, she smiled half relief and half restrain from hope and excitement.
“Mind what?” I asked.
“This”, she replied opening a drawer and revealing the box that held the cure!
“You took it!” I said my breath leaving me too quickly making me feel light headed and faint.
“Yeah, sorry”, she said not bothering to look at me now as she prepared a syringe and administered the cure into her brothers bloodstream.
“You took the cure from my bag?” I said but more to myself than her.
“Yeah didn’t you hear me?” she laughed.
“Oh I heard you, you’re the one who stole the cure and killed my sister!” I screamed.
She turned round so fast that she couldn’t avoid my fist to her face, they collided hard making her stumble back against an old filing cabinet.
“No you said you found your sister, she’s fine right? She’s alive?” she said stunned.
“No. You just assumed, yes I found her, yes she was alive, then she got bitten and I opened my bag to look for the cure but it was gone”, I shoved her as she tried to approach me with sympathetic arms, “I just assumed that the big guns took it because Danny lied and said he did but I didn’t believe him when he told me the truth that he didn’t have it. And all this time it was you, you took it from me and now she is DEAD!” I felt the heat of the tears fall down my cheeks, “She’s dead, she’s gone because of you”.
I felt my whole world crumble around me as the realisation that it wasn’t the big guns that took the cure and sentenced her to death it was her, Amanda. The sister of the guy I liked, could like, had liked. And now I knew these siblings had been sent from hell to rip me and my family apart because since day one of laying eyes on them that was all they had done. First my dad, Linda, Arnold and Terrance and all the others, now Tanya the one person that had kept me alive and kicking ass all this time, as I had known deep down she was alive and that I would find her but now she was gone and I had nothing. I had accomplished nothing by coming this far to find her. She had been so close within my reach and now she was gone for certain this time.
I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t handle this.
So I ran out of the office room, out of the garage, raising my gun to the people on the gate I made them open it so I could run from this place. They didn’t question my motives they just unlocked it and let me go on my way. My legs carried me so fast through the overgrown mass of grasses and trees, I didn’t follow the tire track marks from the truck I just ran making my own path, hopefully to the middle of nowhere and nothing. All I wanted now was nothing.
I ran through a thick covering of bushes that opened back out at a part of the stream further down heading nearer to the town, splashing through it I didn’t feel the cool wetness hit my skin and envelope me in a chill. I rushed passed a small group of creatures I didn’t stop to kill them as I didn’t care to kill them now, I would leave them to whoever came this way next. As I jumped over a large tree root I spotted a large hilly mound that could give me a view over this place, I needed to sit and rest as all my adrenaline had gone and left me shaking. I was far enough away now that I could cry and scream for my loss.
Scrambling up the grassy and dried muddy mound I hit the top and fell to my knees, the view didn’t move me, didn’t make me feel at peace, it angered me that I couldn’t share something like this with my sister who should have been here with me now, The view was over the town but I could see the raging sea just a few miles away, a storm was heading in but I had no intention of going back. I had been in and embraced enough storms on the outside now that I wasn’t afraid. Maybe it was foolishness or selfishness but I wanted the storm to come in and sweep me away from here, if a lone elder creature found me now and ripped me limb from limb I would succumb to it to be with her again.
A thought was nagging at me in my brain but I didn’t want to register it, I didn’t want to feel those feelings because they would make me stay. Ollie, Monique, Baby Cain, Chantelle and in a way Callum that was if he survived and the cure worked, all those people depended on me in some way, Ollie needed me after losing Sian, Monique needed me as a friend after losing Darren, Baby Cain needed me as an auntie after losing his real mother and Chantelle would need me as a route to Tanya to get my opinion on how to help raise Cain as he knew her as his surrogate mother. Then there was Callum. I knew he liked me and that a part of me had liked him but after this I think his sister had killed whatever it was I felt for him. She had bulldozed a massive hole in my heart one huge hit for Tanya and a smaller hit for him. But he still might need me if he survived but I couldn’t think like that I couldn’t let these people in my head I needed to think for me now, to think about Stacie and how I am going to get through this and if I can’t then how I can end it all quickly.
The pain that struck me as I thought of Tanya was so immense it knocked me for six and I fell to the ground in a mess. My heart was shattering into a thousand pieces and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to fix it. I cried and cried for what must have been hours, soon enough there were no more tears to come out and my throat was so raw from the screaming that my voice had nearly left me.
Then I felt them the tiny droplets of rain spitting on me from the heavens, talk about kick a girl whilst she’s down. Soon the small shower became almost torrential rain and I was soaked through, I could see the storm dawning on me but it didn’t scare me I just wanted to sit here alone, cold and wet until the nothingness took over.
“Stacie?” a small voice said from behind me just audible over the large splutters of rain.
Turning I saw Ollie with his shotgun and a large blade, the blade was covered in blood and I knew he took out the creatures that I had left on my way here, “Ollie what are you doing here it’s not safe?” my voice croaked from the dryness of all the crying.
“I came to find you, it’s not safe for you either”, he said plonking himself down on the wet ground next to me.
“Go back to camp Ollie, I said to Sian I would look after you. You being here puts you in danger”, I said.
“You being here and not being at camp with me puts me in danger”, he replied.
“What?” I said not understanding what his meaning was.
“You promised Sian that you would look after me but killing yourself out here puts me at risk as I won’t have you to watch over me”, he said.
“Ollie I can’t do this anymore”, I sobbed.
He hugged me, “You can Stacie you can do this. You can carry on, look at me I’m fine”.
“Are you though? Really?” I asked.
He nodded, “Yes because I have you”.
“How do I do this Ollie? My whole life’s mission was to find her so we could be together again but now she’s gone, what do I have to live for?” I said.
“You have me, you have Monique and your nephew he needs you”, he replied, so word had gotten out about my sisters baby.
“He doesn’t even know me Ollie, Chantelle is like his second mum he doesn’t need me”, I said.
“Oh but he does. Only you can tell him stories about his mum, good stories not the ones Chantelle will know from their life together but from you, from you to tell him about you two as children growing up and having fun. He will want to know about his real mum”, he replied.
“But how do I cope without my sister?” I cried out.
“You have to shut it away and not let it out”, he said which startled me, I had been blocking things for ages so why couldn’t I just build one of my walls and shut it in so it couldn’t come out. But I had so many walls built up was there even any room for anymore?
“You are so grown up for your age Ollie, you are growing into such a good young man”, I smiled how could he know what to say to me? To get me thinking to shut everything away. It might not work for everyone but for me and him we man
aged things similarly, it worked for us. I couldn’t tackle this head on at the moment. Like Ollie had said I should be the one there for my nephew to tell him and show him my sister, his mother, I still had the photo in my bag of me, Tanya and our parents. I could hand it down to him so he could see her and know her.
“Stacie I know you feel you lost a sister but you’ve gained a little brother too”, he smiled.
That smile melted my heart but it worked his words put some glue to my shattered heart and although I knew it would never heal, it would temporarily fix me until I found something to permanently fix the mess I knew I could become.
“Ollie I would never want to replace Sian in any way but you’re right, I gained a little brother when I first me you and if you don’t mind I will happily be your biggest sister as Sian will always be your big sister”, I said.
He nodded, “You can be the biggest sister”, and with that he hugged me again, I held him close to me. He was the only person who understood how I felt at this moment in time and I guess it would bring us closer together like a small family. Yes the others had all lost family members and friends but mine was new and raw and so was Ollie’s pain so this meant we knew how each other was feeling and coping.
A flash of lightning stuck the skies lighting up the gloomy and dark ghost town that wasn’t too far away, “We need to go”, I said standing my clothes clung to me like a wet sponge soaking up all the rain water. Now I had agreed to be his makeshift family I needed to make sure I kept my family safe, even if I had failed in the past I wasn’t going to fail now, Ollie and Cain were my priority now and I was going to make them the strongest and best survivors the world has ever seen.
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