She tossed the paperwork into the air, like you see people do in movies with piles of money. It fluttered down around her, covering the floor.
The release felt amazing.
Tears flowed as she cried loud and hard, mixed in with screams of exertion as she tossed objects around, smashing them up. She released the inner pent-up animal of rage.
She moved into the hallway, kicking over fire extinguishers, and ripping more picture frames off the walls.
Inside the toilet, she kicked the seat off, and used it to smash the mirror. After kicking the bin around, and pulling a few more pictures off the walls, and putting her foot through a door panel, she entered the warehouse.
Nicola ran along the narrow aisles, pushing items off the shelves. Then, at the far end of the aisle, she put her back against the shelving and braced her feet, and with all her strength, she managed to tip a whole section of shelving over, which was accompanied by a mighty crash.
On the main shop floor, she ran at the cash register, pushing it off the counter – it made a loud ringing sound. She flung her arms around, ripping things off hooks, tossing them to the floor as she trampled on them. She pushed display cases over – glass shattered, spilling out like a tossed bucket of diamonds. Objects hit the floor and rolled, or lay in a pile until it was booted across the room. She picked up the boots one at a time and tossed them as hard as she could – her arms swinging like a windmill.
Nicola’s arms and legs ached, but she kept going, throwing things with all her might, while screaming at the top of her lungs. Tears soaked her face, and her throat was raw.
She almost fell down the steps in the hurry to start on a new, unaffected area.
The streetlights flooded in as she ran around like the Tasmanian devil from the cartoon, reaping destruction everywhere.
Nicola didn’t know how long she spent smashing the place up – pulling things off the shelves and kicking things around. She lay in the corner, behind the counter, next to the sleeping bag section.
She pulled at the sleeping bags with the last of her strength, as she cried hard sobbing jolts, that wracked her body.
She had screamed her mothers and sister’s names repeatedly, screaming she was sorry, screaming for forgiveness, and screaming just for the sake of screaming.
Nicola lay down on a pile of sleeping bags in the back corner of the store, and cried herself to sleep.
18
Wednesday 26th December 2012
Boxing Day
Day 12
Nicola woke up, aching all over. It hurt to move.
Something was covering her face. She tossed it to one side. It turned out to be a sleeping bag. She was nestled in a pile of them.
Realization dawned. Her actions during the night flooded back.
She felt no remorse. The release was helping her healing process.
She slowly got to her feet.
With the dull light of dawn streaming through the large windows, Nicola could see how much damaged she had caused.
The place was completely ransacked.
She had no idea how long she had spent trashing the place, but it must have been hours.
In the staff room, her things were where she left them. She pulled them on and left by the back door.
Her feet thudded on the pavement as she ambled along. She had no idea where to go, or which general direction to head off in.
She picked a random street and headed up King Street.
She was tired and needed a good long sleep. She realized she must have only slept a few hours all night, what with being attacked, then smashing up the shop; she had been busy.
She walked down next to the side of Wetherspoons. There was a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the road.
Nicola scanned side streets and buildings for somewhere safe to hide.
A few buildings along there was a large mortgage company three-story office. It was the tallest building on the road, and had no adjacent structures to either side. To the right was a walled in, private car park. To the left was another, larger car park, shared with the Paint Center.
Nicola wandered down the side through the large car park.
Around the back was a thin alley with a squat, one-story, high-pitched roofed building.
There was no alarm, and the flimsy door was easy to break into.
Inside was a large break room. A pool table with a pinball machine filled one end. A few chairs and a large couch filled the other. Halfway was a small kitchen counter with a sink, kettle, and microwave oven. There were two large snack vending machines against one wall, near a small TV on a bracket. There was one door leading into the large building.
Perfect, she thought.
19
Thursday 27th December 2012
Day 13
Nicola was wide awake at 5 AM.
After arriving yesterday she had fixed the door lock, securing the entrance, and quickly checked the three-story building. Everything was as she expected, dull and quiet. It was just what she was looking for.
She then made a bed down behind the couch, hiding her away from sight in case anyone barged in. She rested her knife next to her head, besides her bow and arrow that was resting ready to be snatched up. She then settled down to a day of sleep, snoozing, and snacking.
Her new sleeping bag was much more comfortable than the last.
In the first hour of getting up, she had rewired the large vending machines to dispense free food, after breaking the front lock, and disconnecting the lights, and then turning off the alarm.
Now she was sat on the couch munching on a Twix and a packet of sour cream Nik-Naks, while sipping on a can of orange Tango.
The TV was on. A boring government emergency advert popped on every thirty minutes. The man in military uniform announced, “Do not leave your home. Do not try to leave the cities and towns. Stay put. Keep calm. The government is doing all it can to sort the situation out. Keep your families together and seal all windows and doors. Do not go outside! Do not approach anyone who looks infected!”
After listening to it the first time, Nicola turned the volume down every time it flicked on. For some reason, the emergency announcement upset her.
By 10 AM, with the sound turned down on another announcement, she could hear people on the road outside. She remembered the other message, stating people had only so many hours to collect everything they needed.
That must be today? She mused.
She had an urge to wander the streets with other people. See someone normal, not someone trying to attack her.
She hid her things in a large cupboard. She just kept the large knife on her belt, underneath her coat.
By 10:30, she was walking along the road.
Her coat had a hood, which was pulled up over her flaming red hair, which was also tucked under a beanie.
She was shocked at the amount of people around. They jostled for space on the crowed streets. Some had obviously been out for a while, because they carried objects in their arms.
Nicola wondered why, at the end of the world; people would need a large flat-screen TV, or a microwave?
She realized they were all looting. Mobs smashed windows and rushed into shops. It was complete mayhem.
It reminded her of the riots on the news back in August 2011. They started in some London boroughs, then quickly spread to other cities and towns across the country.
She remembered having to do an essay on it in Social Media Studies.
It started after Mark Duggan was shot by police. Then a sixteen-year-old girl was violently restrained by officers. At first, people simply protested, then, via their mobile phones and social media sites – which ended up giving the riots the nickname The BlackBerry Riots – they became more organized. Soon, it turned from peaceful protests to rioting, looting, and arson.
In ten days, emergency 999 calls went up three hundred percent. Over three thousand people were arrested, with over a thousand charged. Five people died, and sixteen were h
ospitalized with serious injuries, with an estimated two hundred million in damages.
She stated in her closing chapter of her essay that people just needed an excuse to misbehave, act up against the authorities – Retaliate Against the Machine.
It doesn’t take much to push the average person over the edge, to bring out their true nature; she thought, as she witnessed it firsthand all around her.
People were shouting and screaming at one another. They also pushed and shoved each other around. There were even a few punch-ups.
Everyone’s gone crazy; she thought, as she was elbowed against the window of Superdrug.
So this is what people are like once they know no one is around to punish them. This is the true side of human nature.
And if this is now, what’s it going to be like when things become much worse? Will we be openly killing each other in the streets?
There was not one single police officer anywhere too be seen.
Where was the army the government promised, who would walk our streets, protecting us? Or is that only in the main cities, where the real money is?
A man pushed another much older man to the ground, then kicked him once in the stomach, and then grabbed his iPhone out of his hand, before running off into the crowd.
Rape and pillage. I’m watching the devolution of the human race.
Nicola just wanted to get back to the solitude of the break room and leave everyone behind.
She didn’t realize a couple of men were watching her, waiting to follow her back.
20
Nicola sensed she was being followed. With a quick glance, she noticed two older men tailing her. They weren’t very subtle about it either.
Fucking men, is that all they wanna do, rape us? The world is ending and they just wanna stick their rancid dicks in any female who takes their fancy!
She remembered being disgusted at the news after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and reports started pouring in of hundreds of rapes being committed.
Men return to their most primeval instincts – to breed.
As people bustled around her, Nicola kept her hands in her pockets, with her head down, shoving people aside with her shoulders if she needed to.
She headed away from Kings Street, down Queen Street, around the corner and up Union Street.
Every now and then, she would catch a glimpse of her pursuers in the reflection of a shop, or parked car window.
They looked like they were in their mid-forties, and overweight.
She had a plan.
In Union Street, there was some kind of fight going on. A man was kicking someone on the ground. People moved away rather than help. Nicola crossed over and kept to the pavements. She had her own problems to contend with.
Soon she was on Torquay Road, a road that dissected a long section of Newton Abbot. Streets packed with houses on one side, and long roads leading down to the main shopping precincts on the other.
There were a few cars shooting down Torquay Road, but not many. The petrol stations were closed, and petrol was in short supply. There were cars abandoned on the sides of the roads already. A few were burnt-out shells.
There were a few people milling around; carrying their stolen goods home, but it was much quieter than the town center.
She reached the top end of King Street. The mortgage company building was at the other end of the road.
The two men were maybe forty feet behind her, casually keeping their distance. They only needed to see what house she entered – they didn’t need to be too close.
As Nicola turned the corner, she would have possibly twenty seconds or so before the two men turned the corner and saw what she was doing.
As she disappeared from view, Nicola ran as fast as her legs would carry her, pumping them like pistons. She was relying on the fact that the two men were overweight and unhealthy. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be able to run as fast, giving her a good head start.
On either side, the houses shot past at a blur. Her heart pounded, and she could hear the blood rushing in her ears.
She was a good hundred feet down the road when the men realized what she was doing. They gave chase.
Nicola was pouring everything she had into her legs. Her chest ached from the heavy breathing, and her head was going dizzy. But still she ran. Ran, as if her life depended on it. And in many ways, it did.
Some people carrying items up the road gave her scant attention. It wasn’t their problem. It was now everyone for themselves.
She didn’t want to risk looking behind. She could hear shouting and thudding of boots on the tarmac.
Then she reached the car park next to the break room. Without stopping, she rammed the door open, flying in. She rushed to the cupboard and removed her bow and arrows, and in a flash muscle memory movement; she notched the arrow.
With the bow held up, she walked out the door, along the small alley, and into the car park.
Nicola reached the road just as the men reached the car park. They were red-faced and breathing hard.
Without a second’s hesitation, she released the arrow. It went straight through one mans leg. He tumbled over, crashing to the ground.
Nicola grabbed another arrow from off its resting place along the side of the bow, next to three other arrows, and renotched the bow.
She had slid on her leather wrist strap, with the little hook that gripped the string notch. She could hold the string back for much longer periods with the strap on. And with one simple push of a clip, the arrow would fly towards her intended target.
The other man was helping his screaming friend to his feet.
The injured man had a thirty-two-inch arrow sticking through his left calf muscle. Blood drenched his jeans.
“Carry him away now, or I will put an arrow through your heads next time.”
“Crazy bitch!” the injured man shouted through clenched teeth.
The other man looked at her with pure contempt. Hatred radiated off him; it was almost palatable.
She considered killing him there and then. He looked the sort not to give in. He would be back.
He looked like he would make her look into his eyes while he raped her. He would enjoy her pain as much as the carnal satisfaction.
However, even with everything she had done over the last two weeks, killing someone in cold blood, while he walked away, was not something she wanted to add to the list.
“If I see you again, I promise I will kill you in a heartbeat,” she shouted as one man helped the other limp up the road with his arm around his shoulders. Neither looked back.
Nicola stood there until the men could no longer be seen.
A few passers by gave her a sideways glance and walked back the way they had come.
They didn’t see where I come from. Even if they come back they would have to find me, she reasoned. She decided it was safe to stay in the break room.
Back inside she was to pent up with adrenalin to sit still, so she kept busy.
Nicola walked through the whole three floors, checking each room, while unplugging every electronic device. Most of the computers were still turned on, with the screens glowing around the offices.
There were toilets on every floor. However, on the second floor, next to the toilet there was a shower.
Maybe some people worked late or early and didn’t have time to shower at home? She reasoned.
Whatever the reason, she was glad to find it.
After securing the break room door, and hiding her belongings down behind the couch again, she went for a long, refreshing shower. She took the hunting knife with her.
Just as she stripped naked, and was about to jump into the shower, the power flicked off.
Shit!
Her first thought was the man was back. However, he wouldn’t cut the power. He was the heavy-handed sort, not the thinking kind.
Naked, and gripping the knife in one hand, she stood looking out the window. It was hard to tell if the power was off everywher
e, because it was only midday.
She was just contemplating grabbing her clothes, when the power flicked back on.
A power cut.
She waited for ten minutes. The power stayed on.
She rushed the shower, not wanting to be caught covered in soap and shampoo.
Refreshed, and in clean jeans and a black top, she sat on the couch, with the TV on and the sound off – just for company – she ate a Drifter and sipped a can of cherry coke.
The bow rested against the side of the couch, with the knife unsheathed on the cushion next to her.
Her new motto was, Always be Prepared.
She looked round the break room. It was comfortable enough. It had food, drink, and a safe place to sleep and sit. There was a pool table and a game, if she wasn’t afraid to make a noise.
I could’ve done much worse; she reasoned.
She brought down a clock from off the wall in one of the offices. It rested on a chair to one side. It was 1:59 PM.
Nicola decided it was time to take a nap, due to the fact she knew she would be up as soon as it got dark. She had seen the look in the man’s eyes that carried his friend away. She knew it wasn’t over yet.
21
Friday 28th December 2012
Day 14
It was 4:18 AM and Nicola was on the second floor, looking down onto the street. She spotted him casually walking down the road.
The man came to stand in the exact spot where Nicola had shot his friend.
It was raining hard; the pouring rain bounced off his motionless body. He had something in his hand – a baseball bat.
Slowly, the man turned around in a full circle, staring at all the houses and buildings. He scanned the Paint Center and the Chinese Restaurant. He looked over the car park and the outbuildings. He stopped on the three-story mortgage company.
Nicola dropped down out of view. She could have shot him there and then, but she was hoping he wouldn’t be able to find her. She was tired of killing – even though they deserved it.
The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The Squads First Three Weeks Omnibus [Books 1-10] Page 34