Fractured Refuge

by Annabelle McInnes

  Kira curled her lithe body into his. Her breath puffed against his bare chest. Fine-boned fingers speared through the dusting of blond hair under his navel. ‘The garage.’

  He cocked his jaw and took the single step needed to move towards the small portal. He reached out with his free hand and attempted to manoeuvre the lever to open the circular hatch. It took effort before the mechanism groaned. A reassuring thud resonated around them. Unused hinges squealed as they protested the movement outwards.

  Nick attempted to suppress his relief, but the sag of his body could not be mistaken. Kira tightened her hold at his hips. Together they relished the smell of damp concrete and rusting iron. ‘Anything else I should know about?’

  When she hesitated before shaking her head, he gave her slim body a squeeze. A small smile teased the corners of her mouth and a grin stretched across his face in response. When Kira’s eyes began to sparkle mischievously, Nick dug his fingers into her ribs with a threat to tickle her unless she told him what he wanted to know.

  Her body tightened under his grip. ‘All right,’ she gasped. ‘There is some chocolate hidden in the back.’

  Nick chuckled. ‘I know about that. So does Euan. You’re lucky we love you, or else that would have been the first thing to go.’

  At the reminder of Euan, and the pain that struck with the fear that surrounded his loss, Kira’s face twisted. ‘Are we going to go after him?’

  Nick huffed, forced her fully into his embrace, and kissed the tip of her nose. As he stared at the hatch, he realised that rather being a curse, this was an opportunity. When everything else was stripped away, Nick faced two options.

  Stay.

  Leave.

  Both held significant risk. Both could see them hurt, ruined, killed. Nick had always allowed Euan to take charge, to drive their direction, to initiate their plans and see them completed. Nick had played the supporting role, never the lead. He’d been happy to shadow the sun.

  But now, their sun was gone. The night would consume them, engulf them. Only the brave, the determined, the bold could follow the shards of limited light through the darkness and pull them all to safety.

  It was time Nick became the white knight. Their liberator, the man who brokered the peace rather than reinforced it.

  He attempted to pull back from Kira. But both of her hands shot into his hair. She forced his lips to hers. His chest loosened further at her aggression. She deepened the kiss. Nick revelled in the strength that held that tiny body together. The courage and resilience that would see her survive.

  When their kiss broke, she said, ‘And don’t you dare say I have to stay here.’

  Nick exhaled. Euan would never forgive him. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. ‘Okay.’

  Kira blinked. Blue eyes searched his face. Her fingers paused in their exploration of his scalp. ‘Okay?’

  Nick swallowed the fear that crawled up his throat. He was going to do this. He was going to see it through. They’d save Euan. They’d save Smith, and then they’d all live happily ever after.

  ‘Okay, you and Lily can come.’ He pulled from their embrace, held her shoulders in his palms. Tried to ignore the fragility of her bones. ‘But we go doing everything I say.’

  Her reply was given to him through an innocent smile. It blinded him. It was a smile Nick knew if anything happened, he’d never see again.

  ***

  It had taken time for them to finalise the preparations for departure. Their hearts were heavy and the final glance towards their home had lingered before they’d wiggled one by one through the damp and dark escape route. When they emerged in the garage, the clean, crisp chill of unfiltered air kissed their cheeks. It was late afternoon. Euan and Smith were almost twenty-four hours ahead of them.

  Nick tightened the straps that held Kira’s bulletproof vest in place. He stood with Kira and Lily inside the garage as they prepared themselves for the journey. Nick forced himself to channel Euan. To be calm, stoic, a powerhouse of indestructible muscle and willpower that could pull even the will of God to do his bidding.

  But it wasn’t working.

  His breathing was shallow as he contemplated what they attempted to achieve. Finding Euan and Smith would be the simplest part of their plan. The struggle would be to convince them that their attempts eradicate the earth of monsters was moot. It would be in the attempt to keep both Kira and Lily’s identities hidden and the truth of their sex concealed. It was the knowledge that he would kill, maim, dismember and torture to ensure that they both remained healthy and whole. It was the thought of being forced to commit the ultimate sacrifice to guarantee their ongoing safety.

  He managed this all in conjunction with the anger that simmered and swirled within his chest. Euan’s fucking recklessness. His selfishness and stupidity. Together, it made the sickness in his belly ferment.

  Once aboveground, Nick had been able to fully comprehend how Euan had dismantled the locking mechanism from the outside of the main exit to the bunker. The destruction was irrevocable and he cursed the big bastard. Kira had told him to bank the anger and use it to beat on Euan’s ass when they caught up to him. Nick narrowed his eyes and grumbled.

  He’d been silent since.

  Kira’s body jerked as Nick made the final alterations in her armour. ‘Is this really all necessary?’ she asked.

  He eyed the dark tactical clothing that covered almost every inch of both Kira and Lily’s exposed skin. The riot helmets that concealed their features. The thick, bulletproof vests strapped to their chests and the black combat boots that encased their feet. He didn’t need to consider his answer. ‘Yes.’

  ‘They’ll know something is up just by looking at us,’ she retorted, her voice muffled from the full-faced helmet.

  Nick moved from Kira to do the same final preparations to Lily’s outer-wear. ‘Don’t give a shit, Kira. If you leave this bunker with me, this is what you’re wearing,’ he paused as he buckled the chinstrap for Lily’s helmet. ‘Both of you.’

  Lily shifted her body until she faced Kira. Her voice was barely a whisper. ‘The longer it takes for them to remove your clothes, the more time you have to escape.’ She swung her hand over her body. ‘This is good.’

  Nick’s features tightened. ‘Maybe—’ he started.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Kira interjected quickly. It gave Nick no time to change his mind. ‘I’ll wear the protective gear. It will be okay.’

  He took a deep breath, held it for long moments in his lungs. He should leave them in here. Go by himself. But Kira would follow. So, unlike Euan, it was best to have her at his side, rather than alone and unprotected.

  Another surge of anger bolted through him as he turned to the readied backpacks. Supplies that would see them fed and cosseted for weeks. Supplies, he hoped, they wouldn’t need.

  ‘Hey.’ A soft hand rested on the weatherproof fabric of his jacket. Kira’s voice was soothing as she petted his shoulder. ‘We’ll be together. We’ll get Euan and then we’ll work out what to do next. I have your back, and you have ours.’

  Nick stood and flicked up the visor on her helmet. Blue eyes stared out from a pale face. Sharp cheekbones were rosy with the cold. Her lips were pink as her tongue darted out to wet them. Despite the layers, the helmet, the gloves and boots, one look under the tinted visor and it was obvious who and what she was. Hell, one look at her tiny body in contrast to his would portray her femininity as though it were a beacon of light that pointed towards the heavens. He should forget the whole thing and wait out Euan’s return. But he needed them, Smith needed them. So he bent, tilted his face until he could kiss her exposed nose and then carefully touched her lips with the tips of his fingers. She smiled a confident smile at his gentle show of affection.

  His heart sank.

  He straightened and turned to meet the golden-brown eyes of Lily. In her defeated gaze, he saw the true reality of what they faced. It was a mirror to the banked terror that resided in his chest. In
Lily, their experiences of this new world were shared. She understood the genuine terror. She was united in the knowledge of the consequences. The loss of choice, of violation and what the frontier of brutality and anarchy accurately portrayed.

  She jerked her chin once. In understanding, in solidarity, in silent agreement to their plan.

  Despite it all, he returned the gesture. Euan’s loss was akin to a missing limb, a soul, a fundamental part of their hearts and minds. Without him, they were incapacitated and useless. Nick would fight to protect the third rod of their tripod, even if it meant he’d suffer terrible scars to do it.

  ***

  In the late afternoon they found two sets of footprints that had trudged through the forest.

  At dusk, they found the evidence of five more.

  As the sun’s light bled from the horizon, they discovered the traces of a struggle in the bottom of a shallow ravine.

  Nick’s heart pounded. There had been a brawl. There was blood. There were two sets of old decaying boots left lying in the crumpled grass. As they stared at the ugly face of what they truly confronted in this journey, not even Kira could hide her fear.

  Nick ran his fingers over the crushed pasture where a bulky body had thrashed. He touched the indentations with reverence. In the earth, there were clear marks made with the heels of large boots. Boots that had kicked, battered, writhed. Kira’s face was pale through her the visor of her helmet as she eyed the small smears of blood that marred the greenery. Lily stood a silent vigil. She kept her eyes, and her rifle, aimed at their surroundings.

  This changed everything.

  Lily was the first to speak. Her voice hoarse. ‘We need a new plan.’

  Nick could only nod. Even as he did, his head remained frustratingly empty of epiphanies. ‘I’m all ears.’

  Lily turned to meet his gaze. Nick had the strange sense of finality, of the conclusion of all phenomena as he knew them. Of the beginning of the earth, and the end of everything.

  ‘You have to trust me,’ she rasped.

  Nick’s focus shifted and lingered on Kira. A woman clothed in a mixture of riot and military gear. An innocent, a treasure. When he didn’t respond to Lily, Kira looked up from where she hunched over the disturbed earth and their eyes locked. They had everything to fight for, and everything to lose. Whatever had brought Euan down had done so effectively and violently. They were now his only hope.

  He nodded.

  ‘Follow me,’ Lily ordered.

  Without another word, Nick took Kira’s hand in his. They followed a skinny woman up over the edge of the ravine, and into oblivion.

  Chapter 22

  Euan concentrated on the breath that drew in and out of his lungs. He focused on the air that travelled through his nose, down his throat and into his chest. He centred on the way his ribs expanded and his stomach hollowed with each inhalation.

  He did it to distract himself from the agony of the aftermath after he had travelled for miles without footwear. To draw his attention away from the colour and numbness of his fingers due to the bonds that bit into his wrists. He didn’t reflect on the taste of the rag in his mouth, of how it had stifled his desperate pants for air as he’d been marched west. The dull throb in his head and muscles from the taser were not even a consideration.

  He didn’t contemplate what his capture might mean for Nick and Kira, who he had effectively locked underground. Who would never know what happened to him. Who would likely starve, hidden under layers of steel and earth, months from now as they cursed his name, their love for him long lost.

  He had refused to recognise the location of the steel box they’d been locked in. A storage container that was only one of the many derelict hovels that amassed in the clearing of conifer trees. It was a cell that had triggered Smith’s screams as he rampaged through his gag. He had begged men with muffled pleas not to lock him inside, again. Not to hurt him again, that he couldn’t endure it, again.

  Those last few miles had been cruellest. They knew their intended destination. Smith’s panic as he’d been dragged along by thugs was a cause of malicious laughter, until Euan had snapped the neck of the man who held the boy’s rope. Then the spiteful laugher had died, but afterward, Euan was forced to spit blood and limp, his mind foggy with electricity, as he wheezed through broken ribs until they reached their goal.

  He’d suffered the horrific jolts of the taser twice more, until he was utterly spent, unable to fight, unable to walk. He’d been dragged until they’d ordered him stripped so the bite of the winter chill could penetrate his consciousness, and the jagged surface of the degraded highway could tear at his exposed skin.

  He’d fought them then, and managed to stay upright as they forced him to continue.

  There were no words to describe the absolute sorrow and utter wretchedness that tore at his insides. The cruelty of his own conscious and self-loathing was more brutal than any strike, laceration or blast of voltage. The sound of Smith’s torment was torturous; it ate at his heart, gnawed on bones, fed on his soul. He’d never forgive himself for this. That was if they survived what was to come.

  The air was tainted with the musky stink of stale piss. He tasted blood and his parched tongue worried the loose teeth where his attempts to escape had been answered with violence.

  It was dark in their makeshift cell. Ominous clouds had rolled and grumbled overhead as they’d travelled. Thunder had greeted them as the morning had lengthened and Euan knew that with the rain, all traces of their journey from the bunker to capture would be lost to any that might follow. They were alone, without aid and very little hope of escape.

  Euan tried to wiggle his bound fingers, but they were sluggish and unresponsive. Alone, he was finally able to attempt to loosen the bonds at face until, eventually, he forced the rag from his mouth.

  He spat, coughed and gulped as he took in the much-needed oxygen down into his lungs.

  Smith’s sobs had subsided, but the panicked pants had not. He was a desperate shadow of gasping breaths. After his screams, he’d lost any strength he’d harboured. Their captors had hauled the boy as he shuddered into the crate behind Euan and locked the door with a bang. Smith had simply curled into a ball where he lay, and cried into the silence that followed.

  As the tainted oxygen fed his lethargic muscles and cleared his mind, Euan was able to calm himself, focus, think logically. He knew two things. Two things that were to his advantage.

  As much as he feared it, he knew where they were.

  He also knew who they had brought him to see.

  ‘Smith,’ Euan rasped into the darkness.

  A hitched breath was his reply. Euan shuffled on his knees to avoid using his damaged feet to where Smith lay.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘But have faith in me, lad. I’ll get us out. Swear it.’

  The wordless pause between them was punctured by the patter of rain that began to fall from the angry sky.

  Finally, Smith’s ominous reply was uttered through his gag. ‘They all said the same thing.’

  Silence lapsed between them. Euan had no words to contradict the prediction, and as the rain began to hammer the steel above them, Smith allowed him to remove the gag and together they untied their final bindings.

  Euan pulled him close. Smith’s body was listless, his strength consumed. His injuries, the blood loss and every damn thing he’d suffered finally overwhelmed a stubborn, defiant will. In Euan’s arms, he slept fitfully. As the rain continued and the light grew in strength, Euan vowed he’d save him, and get back to Nick and Kira.

  Euan waited for the cold kiss of demise to attempt to freeze his cheek. He wrapped the solitude around him like a shield. He created a layer of protection that would fortify his soul and nourish his body. He ignored the emaciated shadow of death that lurked in the corner of their cell like he ignored the cancerous growth that bloomed inside of his heart. Time was his saviour; time was his enemy. Ruin and anarchy were his comrades in arms. His body was wounded,
but his mind was clear. Survive, escape, remember.

  Love. Love would triumph. He’d make it so. It was a mantra he stitched into his skin until there were no other alternatives.

  The weak daylight slowly filtered into night. When no one came for them, Euan used the opportunity to explore their prison. He bashed the steel walls with his fists, in an attempt to find a weakness in the hull. He used his strength to ram his shoulder into the doorway. It rattled and clanged, and the iron bar that held them inside squealed with the pressure, but it remained stubbornly steadfast.

  There was no escape. Euan’s stamina waned. Water was abundant with the rain but food was not. Smith had not moved from his position. The darkness stretched on.

  Euan dozed. He dreamt of Nick and Kira, of their light, their smell, their beauty. He tried not to let the fear take hold.

  He woke with a jerk when a whisper came to him through the darkness. The last words from a dying boy. ‘My name is Benjamin David Wright. And I loved my mother.’

  Euan spoke no words to comfort. He swallowed the emotion and blinked back the sting of tears. There were no lyrics to truly express the remorse laced with rage that Euan harboured. He held Smith, now Ben, closer. He wrapped arms made strong with mature muscle around the slim body of a young man still fighting boyhood. The shoulders that needed age to broaden, a chest that needed food to expand. Arms that needed nothing more than time to grow strong and defined.

  Time, time, time.

  He needed more time.

  ***

  The scrape and thunk of the metal door pulled Euan out of his furious musings. He squinted into the light as the leader of their ambush forced his way through the doorway. Euan’s stolen boots echoed around the small cell. ‘You’ll get up, or you’ll be dragged up.’

  Ben stiffened to stone against him. Euan carefully loosened his hold under the keen leer of their captor. They stood on lacerated feet. Before the last of their connection was lost, Euan whispered, ‘Trust me,’ and held the icy gaze of the boy who nodded, and despite everything, did.