Sanctuary 1 (The Foliage Series Book 3)

by Aline Riva

  As he hit the ground, Flynn rolled into earth and grass and torn up dirt, then as the glowing substance oozed from the mouth of a Howler and it clamped a clawed hand about his leg, he pulled himself up, looked down his rifle sights and let off shot after shot as the creature screeched and the shots punched a bigger and bigger hole in its throat until it loosened its grip and this time he aimed for the wrist, blowing off the hand that grabbed him in a single shot.

  Then as another grenade went off and the ground shook and the remains of the van caught alight, he saw in that hellish glow the figure of his surviving companion, who had got free of the vehicle, but was now being torn apart by Howlers.

  Flynn scrambled to his feet, gun in hand as he heard the hillside fill with the sound of high pitched screaming. Then his former travelling companion was divided in two, as a Howler dragged off his upper body, his guts were hanging out like ribbons in darkness as fire lit the scene, those guts bumped over the hillside, shiny and raw and glistening until finally, the remains were dragged below ground as the earth shook beneath his feet.

  Howlers were still in the van and screeching as the fire claimed them – the hillside was full of body parts and many Howlers were now dead, but the survivors were fighting over the lower half of Fritz's body, snapping and biting at the remains, crunching on bone and clawing at each other to keep clear as they snacked on their fresh kill.

  Then he felt breath on the back of his neck, and something rose up behind him, and the Howler stench filled the air as inside the van, the burning ones were still screaming...

  Flynn swung around and cracked its head with the butt of his rifle, then turned and ran uphill, away from the carnage as the door of the motor home flew open and Lynch stood there clad in his leather coat with machine gun in hand.

  As Flynn ran ducking low clutching his weapon, Lynch let fly a volley of shots, hitting the pursuing Howlers as from above, Spike and Ruby manned the big guns, shot after shot rang out as Howlers were cut in two and heads exploded on impact with the rounds.

  “GET INSIDE!” Lynch yelled as Flynn reached the step to the open door of the mid section of the vehicle.

  Just then there was a jarring blow to the motor home and Elise yelled his name and Lynch heard her but as she jumped down from the driver's side armed with a grenade, there was no time as the Howler that had come up behind made a lunge for Lynch. Flynn swung his weapon around, letting off shot after shot and Lynch turned and did the same, as Elise came around the side of the vehicle she saw by the light of the burning van that Flynn and Lynch were filling the Howler with lead, shot after shot until its head exploded. Lynch kicked at the body and it rolled down the hillside.

  In the distance far below, more Howlers were charging up towards them.

  “Get inside Flynn,” Lynch said again, “Elise, start her up,” he ordered, and as they dashed past him inside, Lynch kicked up the step to the midsection, leaned against the open door, as he used one hand to hold on as he raised the grenade and pulled out the pin with his teeth.

  As the motor home engine fired up and the vehicle began to move out, smashing through the protective fencing now left behind, he spat out the pin and launched the grenade far down into the hillside below. Then Lynch clung to the open door way with both hands, looking away from the glare of the blast as the boom shook the hillside and the vehicle picked up speed, carrying them far from the scene of the carnage.

  As the motor home hurtled along and Lynch closed the door to shut out the night and the last of the stench of death and burning that carried for miles on the wind, he put down his weapon and Flynn did likewise and then the Irishman looked to Lynch with sadness in his eyes as he thought of his fallen companions.

  “Thanks for saving me,” Lynch said, thinking of the split second at the doorway when Flynn had swung his weapon and fired just in time.

  “No problem,” Said Flynn, “That's for Belfast and the day you didn't shoot a young fella on the run.”

  Lynch stared at him as the pieces fell into place and his foggy memory was confirmed.

  “Thanks for that day,” Flynn added, and extended the hand of friendship for the second time.

  Lynch nodded.

  “Thanks for this day,” he replied, and the two men who had once been on opposite sides shook hands again, this time with the promise of the start of a friendship.

  As Elise drove on into the night, they left the hillside behind and hit a long, straight road that was smooth beneath the wheels of the motor home, an exhausted Flynn had turned up the table and folded down a bed, where he rested fully clothed, still smelling the burning and the carnage in his nostrils as he grabbed much needed rest.

  Lynch sat beside Elise as she drove and she glanced at him and saw a look in his eyes that she had often seen before – he was battle weary, exhausted, too.

  “Get some sleep,”she said, “I may be pregnant but I was built for that and much more besides. You're human, Felix and tonight it shows.”

  For once Lynch didn't feel like quarrelling. He nodded in agreement, got up again and went behind the curtain to their living area, where he fell gratefully on to the bed, aching and exhausted from the Howler attack.

  Further down the vehicle, as Spike and Ruby turned out their light, locked away nearby in his room, Jekel sat on the edge of the bed as he ran his fingers through his hair and blinked away tears as he looked up at Joy.

  “I was useless tonight!” he said tearfully, “I stayed in here and -”

  “And you let the former General deal with the Howlers, good plan,” she replied, “Ash, you're not a soldier. This was a military job. A military man dealt with it, okay?”

  Jekel looked down at the floor as he shook his head.

  “I feel bloody useless!”

  Joy stepped closer.

  “It was my idea to keep you in here. Your cable is compromised and if that crack got worse, I'm not qualified to operate to fix it! I wouldn't even know where to being on that! I had to keep you safe, Ash.”

  “But you know what happened with me five years back...all those Howlers...you know how much I hate them...you must think I'm a right coward!”

  He raised his head, met her gaze and saw no ill judgement in her gaze.

  “I'm glad you stayed here,” Joy admitted, and she placed her hands on the shoulders of his jacket as he looked up at her, “You're compromised and battle would be too risky, besides I love you, so shut up about it, okay?”

  He managed a smile on hearing her say that, then as the motor home went on its way he wrapped his arms about her and hugged her as she stood over him, her arm around him as her free hand stroked his hair and the gentle former stage magician who would never belong in this violent world held on to her, thankful for her comfort.

  By the time the sun rose on a new day, Lynch returned to the drivers seat, changing place with Elise as she kissed him fondly and ran her fingers through his hair, tidying it with a sweep of her hand because he looked as if he had just got up from his bed and come straight out to take over. He blinked tired eyes.

  “Good morning...I think....”

  He pressed the button under the radar, for once instantly remembering how to do it and thanking a deep sleep for his poor memory function being that little bit better today, and then as the radar showed all clear, he breathed a relieved sigh.

  “No more of those bastards so far...looks like we left them behind us last night...” He glanced up and kept the vehicle moving straight on the empty road, saw sheep grazing in fields and looked ahead, noticing more houses, some simply abandoned and showing little sign of damage.

  “I think we've left the worst behind us,” he concluded, “And take a look what I see in the distance.”

  Elise looked down the long, straight road and smiled as in the distance, the sea sparkled as morning sunlight kissed the waves.

  “We've reached the coast!” she said as hope shone in her eyes.

  “Now let's hope Jekel's right about Sanctuary,”Lynch added,
“We'll stick to the coast line from now on – as far it takes us - and hope for the best.”

  Many miles from the Welsh Coast, in the City of Freedom, the sun was rising on a morning with an unusually clear sky given the levels of pollution that still hung in the air five years on from the conflicts. And Captain Kaden Silk would rather have been in his living quarters, sleeping off his night of special duties he gave out to the Premier's wife, but instead, he was on the outskirts of the rebuilt city, standing between a new building and the rubble of the old fallen capital that was yet to be reconstructed as he waited for Captain Bracken, who said he had something important to give to him.

  Meet me in secret, had been the strange instruction- and knowing Bracken only as the boring, sullen sod who worked with him, Kade had turned up out of pure curiosity, guessing what ever Bracken wanted to hand him certainly wouldn't be as intriguing as he had first thought...

  Bracken looked nervous as he crossed a wide empty road and hurried over to join him. He had expected him to be carrying something, but he seemed to have brought nothing with him at all...

  “What's this about?” said Silk.

  Bracken joined him at the mouth of the open tunnel that wound downwards as part of the old underground tube system, and then he stepped inside and gestured him to follow.

  “This had better be good,” he remarked, and followed him into the darkness.

  “Keep going,” Bracken murmured, then he looked back, as if afraid they were being followed, saw no one and carried on walking. The daylight at the entrance was getting further away now, and the darkness beckoned deep in the old tunnel where the white tiles were cracked and old ticket barriers smashed.

  “This way,” whispered Bracken.

  There was something about the way his voice echoed in the stillness of the shadowy place that sent a chill down Kade's spine as he realised Bracken was leading him around a corner, that would in turn lead to a stairway that led down to an old abandoned platform. He stopped walking just before the turn, while he could still see the daylight in the distance as he wondered why he had ever felt afraid of Bracken...it was only boring Captain Bracken, after all...

  “No,” he said, and Bracken turned back and walked over to him, and in the dim light that had escaped in from far off daylight that just about reached into this place, he saw that he was sweating now.

  “I'm not going any further until you tell me what's going on,”Kade said sharply.

  Bracken shifted nervously, avoiding his gaze as he looked into the darkness thinking about the stairway that was broken. If he didn't push him, he wouldn't fall, and he wasn't sure he had the guts to shoot him in the face while he was looking him in the eye...there was only one thing for it, he would have to kill him. The Premier had wanted to punish him, but Bracken was damned if he was going to let Kade Silk live and name his attacker....

  “It's about the Premier,” Bracken stammered, “He...he...said....there's a plot to kill him...and the evidence is down here. I need to show you...it's this way...”

  He gestured again into the darkness.

  Suddenly every instinct in Kade's body was screaming No.

  “He would have told me too,” he replied, as his hand lowered to his holstered weapon, “What's really going on?”

  “Maybe we should leave,” Bracken said, losing his nerve, “Let's just talk about this outside – I can show you later -”

  Kade's hand connected with his uniform, catching his shoulder and spinning him around. Bracken drew his gun, butting Kade in the face hard as their heads connected with a crack and Kade, taken by surprise, was slammed against the tiled wall by the force of being knocked off balance.

  As pain swam around his head and the light at the end of the tunnel seemed misty as he tasted blood in his mouth, he wondered why he was not sliding down the wall as his body went limp, but then he knew as he was grabbed by the throat that Bracken was holding him up. Something cold was pressed to his cheek, too – Bracken was holding a gun to his face.

  “The Premier asked me to do this. You should have left his wife alone!” he hissed, feeling bolder now that Kade was stunned by the blow.

  As his finger slipped to the trigger, Kade summoned the strength to struggle, and the two men briefly fought as their shadows lit by the daylight far off leapt up the tiled walls like ghosts. Then there was a sharp bang and a flash and Kade Silk slumped to the ground.

  For a moment all Bracken could hear was the sound of his own breathing, it seemed to echo about the vast tunnel and fill every part of it. Then he heard shouts coming from the tunnel, and to his horror saw two construction workers making their way up. If he could see them, they could see him...the thought panicked him as Bracken activated his helmet and then looked down at Kade:

  His face was still intact. His eyes were closed and worst of all, he was still breathing despite the chunk of skull missing on the right side of his head where brain tissue was exposed... Maybe he was dying. Maybe not. Maybe he would remember everything... He wasn't about to stick around and find out...

  As the men ran closer, Bracken ran out, running at top speed as he raced past the men who hurried in, and as they found the badly wounded Captain Silk in a pool of his own blood with a chunk of his skull missing, all they had seen of his fleeing attacker was the brief glimpse of the uniform of the City Guard...

  Many miles away from the City, where the air was clear and the morning mist had been burned away by sunlight, the motor home was parked up a short distance from the deserted beach. Spike and Ruby were up on the hillside sitting where tall sea grass grew, and Lynch and Elise were having breakfast with Flynn, who still looked weary from the terrible events of the night before.

  Joy had been on the beach for an hour, kneeling in the sand in dark underwear that easily would have passed as a bikini back in the old days. She listened to the roll of the tide sighing in and out as she thought how far they had come, how much they had been through – and how much her life had changed since the old world had ended. If she thought about it too much she was sure the pain of so much loss would cut her to the bone, and so she instead let her thoughts wander to Murdock, he was safe, he was with Sasha, they were happy.... The last time she had been in a sandy place she had been with Murdock – although a romantic stroll along the beach had not been possible. Instead she had been fishing a bullet out of the head of a stinking corpse...

  Her finger moved in the smooth damp sand as she traced his name in neat writing: Murdock. Then the tide rushed in cold and sudden and erased the lettering just as she looked up to see the tall, willowy man in the dark suit standing over her. He didn't seem to mind the sand on his scuffed and once expensive shoes as he looked down at her and smiled.

  “Morning Joy,” said Jekel, and she looked back at him and smiled, feeling a rush of love through her heart that seemed to match the way the tide rushed to shore on that quiet beach.

  “I left you to sleep,” Joy said as she stood up and brushed sand from her fingertips, “You looked so peaceful.”

  “I feel peaceful here,” he said as he looked about the beach and took in the sight of the water and the waves that caught the sunlight, “I'm from a seaside town, remember?”

  Joy linked arms with him as they began to stroll along the beach together, Jekel now leading her away from the waters edge to ensure the water didn't touch his precious suit.

  “I've come along way since those days,” he said reflectively, “Not in the way I'd choose to, though. I often wonder what my life would have been like if the world hadn't changed the way it did. I would have been married to Margo by now, probably had a couple of kids...I would have been doing my act and making money and I would have been a big star. I could have had it all. I was getting there, life was getting wonderful and then...it all ended.”

  “I know the feeling,” Joy replied as she looked to the sunlight on the water, “You get to this point where you stop worrying and start living and life kicks you in the face.”

  They stop
ped walking and Joy turned to face him as they stood together, framed by the sunlight on water as waves rolled to shore.

  “Good thing we have each other now,” Jekel said to her as he took hold of her hands and looked into her eyes, “I'm so glad we found each other again, Joy.”

  “So am I,” she replied, knowing in a heartbeat that she would never regret this choice she had made. They kissed briefly, then turned and started to walk back towards the place where the motor home was parked.

  Around the campfire, as they sat together, Elise and Lynch finished their meal of freshly caught and fried fish as Flynn set down his plate, leaving some unfinished.

  “Thanks for sharing the food,” he said, “I'm not much into fish but thanks all the same.”

  “We used to have eggs,”Elise remarked, “Then someone decided on roast chicken...”

  As she looked to Lynch he smirked.

  “And what a fine roast it was too.”

  Then laughter broke through the sea breeze, and they looked up to see Spike and Ruby side by side on the hill above them, sitting surrounded by tall sea grass. Spike was pointing to the horizon as she smiled and said something that was lost on the wind as they looked out to waves catching sunlight. Then a crack cut through the peaceful morning as Ruby fell forward and Spike caught her.

  “What the fuck?” he said in a frightened voice, and flipped her back in his arms as she slumped like a rag doll. Her mechanical eye was frozen half rotated, her human eye was bulging and as he realised blood and brain matter was oozing from a hole in the back of her head that stained her blonde hair crimson and ran like a river over the arm of his jacket, he started to scream as he cradled her body.

  Down on the sand below, the others scrambled for the motor home as more shots rang out from above, Spike was still up there, clutching his dead love as he held her close to the ground weeping as if to protect her lifeless body from further harm.