“She needs to help me. Not you.”
I started backing away until I hit the fence of another building. They swarmed around me, yelling for help I could not give them. They just wanted so much, there were too many of them. It was impossible.
Lilia appeared in front of them all. She looked up at me with her sad little face and deep green eyes. “There are so many of them, Everly.”
“I know,” I replied. If I focused on her, they dulled a little. She was my lifeline in the sudden ocean.
“What are you going to do?” Her voice was so innocent, laced with genuine curiosity.
I wished I had an answer for her.
I closed my eyes and tried to push them all away, reminding myself they couldn’t physically harm me. I needed to go with Oliver, then we could leave the hopeless street. It wouldn’t get rid of the spirits but he would give me the strength I needed.
Pushing past the spirits, coldness shuddered down my spine. Oliver was nowhere in sight. That only left me one option.
I ran.
My feet pounded on the cement, stumbling over the debris from the building. I rounded every corner I could find until the stench of acrid smoke no longer filled my lungs. The smell lingered on my clothes, but it wasn’t invading me like it had been.
The thought of entering a building that could explode at any time was impossible. Instead, I found an underpass and curled up in front of a drain grate. Pulling my legs to my chest, I tried to erase everything I had seen.
The burned little boy refused to leave my mind. He should not have had to die such a horrific death. The world was no longer the gentle place it once was. Left in the Event’s wake was nothing but pain and suffering.
“Everly? Are you okay?” Oliver’s soft voice carried into my thoughts, shaking me from the darkness.
“Are any of us okay?” I asked as he settled himself on the ground next to me. He was always just out of reach, making it impossible for me to fall into his arms like I would have liked at times.
He stared at me intimately with his dark green eyes, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.
I couldn’t take his silence. “Go on, say it. I know there is something you are holding onto.”
Oliver let out a long sigh. “You don’t have to save them all. It’s not up to you.”
“Then why can I see them and no-one else can?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lilia was there, she was scared,” I said before I could stop myself. “She wanted to know what I was going to do about them all.”
Oliver shook his head. It was the slightest movement but it conveyed so much. “Do nothing. Just survive.”
“But you said-”
“I was wrong. Everly, I was wrong. Go back to your house on the hill if you want to. Just do whatever you have to so you don’t end up like them.”
The pain in his eyes hurt me too. I had known Oliver so long, I thought I knew everything about him. But this? This resignation was something new.
And it felt like a thousand daggers pierced into my heart.
“What about you?” I asked. “If I hide away, what will you do?”
“I will be fine.”
“So it’s just me that can’t look after themselves, then?”
He moved closer. Just for a second, I thought he might reach for me. I pictured myself curled up in his lap, holding onto his muscled chest like he was an anchor that would ground me forever.
In the next second, it was gone. He crossed his arms, holding them tight against his body. Whatever he was going to do would never be known. Especially not to me.
“I know you can look after yourself,” he finally muttered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You could come to the house with me? We could live there together with nobody to bother us.”
“That house is your refuge, not mine.”
I didn’t know what else I could say and I didn’t have answers for any of our problems. The weight of the day was bearing down on me like a heavy boulder resting on my shoulders. I tilted my head against the wall, closing my eyes.
Before I knew it, I was asleep.
Ghosts didn’t plague my dreams that night, but the smell did. In the thick fog of my nightmares, I was choking on the dense smoke. No matter how many times I gasped for breath and fresh air, it wouldn’t come.
I woke up gasping equally as hard. It took a few moments for the nightmare to dissipate around me as reality sunk in. I was in an underpass.
Safe, but alone.
Oliver was gone.
I pushed myself to my feet, feeling every ache in my bones from the night before. My stomach was the part of me demanding the most attention. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. All I knew was that it had been a while.
Wandering the streets, I went in the opposite direction of the exploded building. I didn’t need to see that boy’s body still lying on the sidewalk. There was no doubt nobody had moved him or given him a proper burial. That kind of thing didn’t happen anymore.
Not without adults around.
I found myself back at the shelter, lining up for a portion of food like the rest of the desolate. Oliver was nowhere in sight, no matter how many times I tried to find him. I didn’t know what he had done with my supplies. He always disappeared on me, only to emerge later on. Hopefully he would do that magic trick again soon.
A girl of about seventeen gave me some bread and soup when I reached the front of the line. I took it gratefully and found a corner to sit and eat.
“The sky is blue today, have you noticed? It’s not grey like it was yesterday.” The voice startled me. I looked up to see a girl staring down at me with the same portions of food as I had. I wondered if she was real or a spirit. It was so difficult to tell anymore.
“I didn’t notice, no,” I replied.
She sat down on the floor next to me without an invitation. “Remember rainbows? They were always so pretty. I haven’t seen one in a very long time. Have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
I wanted to touch her, see if my hand would actually feel anything or whether I would only experience the cold sensation of a spirit. If she wasn’t real, I didn’t want to risk being exposed to all the other spirits in the area by holding a conversation with her.
“Food’s good, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“I haven’t seen you around here much,” she continued. “I stay close to this place. There’s safety in numbers, right?”
“Right. It’s important to stay safe,” I replied.
She repositioned herself, moving her feet from under her to sit cross-legged. As she did, her boot grazed my leg. I felt it. She was real. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Now I knew she was alive, I could think more clearly. “How old are you?”
“Eleven. How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
She nodded, like she should have guessed it already. “Do you know what they’re going to do once the food runs out? I mean, it’s gonna happen soon.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“I’ve heard of a few people that live in the countryside. They have a garden so they will never run out.” She stared into space, lost in a memory. “Gardens used to be so pretty, didn’t they? My mama kept a garden. Roses, daisies, so many pretty things. Now all we have are pretty ghosts.”
She wasn’t the first kid I’d seen driven mad by the Event. Nor would she be the last. “Maybe you should go and join them? You could plant your own garden.”
Her eyes drifted back to mine but they were still a world away. “Will you come with me?”
“Sorry, I can’t. I have to stay.”
She nodded, her disappointment not even lasting for a second. She had probably asked a dozen people to go with her and none of them said yes. What was a bit more hurt when you had a constant ache?
I finished my meal and said goodbye to the girl. By the end of our time, I wasn’t sure if she s
till realized I was there. I hoped someone would go to the countryside with her one day.
With some food in my stomach, I could think again. I wanted to find Oliver so we could figure out what we were going to do. I missed him when he wasn’t around and I always held the fear I wouldn’t see him again. He was my only friend in a world full of enemies.
I did a thorough sweep of the shelter but only saw the faces of the haunted. No-one even resembled the gentle and kind features of Oliver. We had known each other for so long that I had every part of him memorized. The crook of his nose, the shade of his lips, the tinges of gold in his green eyes. They were as familiar to me as my own face.
Leaving the shelter, I followed the main road that would have led away from our apartments if we still lived there. I had no clue where Oliver went when I wasn’t around so there was nothing to indicate where he could have gone now.
I ended up wandering aimlessly, keeping my eyes open for any signs of him. As the sun set high in the sky, I realized I had been walking for a few hours, at least. Not a trace of Oliver anywhere.
Which wasn’t like him.
I was also lost in the maze of back streets around the city. I thought I knew where I was going. Clearly I was wrong. The landscape of the city I once loved had changed so dramatically since the Event that it was easy to think I was in a whole different country.
Rubble, debris, and death. That’s what surrounded me now. Definitely not the familiarity that used to fill my senses and bring the city to life.
I tried not to panic, pushing thoughts of the last time I had truly been lost from my mind. It had been different then, I had been chasing after Faith and not paying any attention to where I was.
This time I had clarity. Surely if I just followed the path I had come in on, I would be able to return to the shelter? It sounded reasonable enough.
But then I remembered, reason didn’t live here anymore.
All the streets looked the same, all the kids just a blur of faces. Nothing looked familiar, little even looked real anymore. The roads stretched on forever and were all paved in hopelessness.
I stumbled down a few stairs before I realized they were there. I had to hold onto the cold metal fence to stop myself going down completely.
For only a moment, my head spun with disorientation. I lost all sense of where I was, whether it was night or day, and which way was up.
That’s when I saw them.
At first I thought they were a figment of my imagination, or spirits that had run out of patience waiting for me to help them. But these people were real.
I spun around, there had to be at least twenty of them. All surrounding me, ensuring there was no way out. They all faced me, staring with blank eyes and hard faces. I would not find a friend amongst them, of that I was certain.
My mouth opened but no sound would come out. I didn’t know what I could possibly say for them to let me walk away. I wasn’t even sure my legs would be able to do it.
I was in their territory. For whatever reason, they were a group, united to ensure the safety of their members. I doubted their membership was still open for new joiners.
They didn’t speak either. Their glares told me everything I needed to know.
They wanted to kill me.
I had to find a way out. Oliver wouldn’t be able to save me a second time. I didn’t know where he was and he certainly wouldn’t be able to find me. Not unless he got terribly lost, too.
“I’m sorry. I’ll leave,” I said with as much authority as I could muster.
They didn’t move.
My eyes scanned past the individual faces, trying to find a common thread amongst them. Some were older, some were much younger. As always, there was nobody over the age of eighteen.
No race was predominant, no gender greater represented. There didn’t seem to be anything that would unite these people into a hunting tribe.
Absolutely nothing.
I had no idea how to fight them. They wouldn’t tolerate my presence for much longer. I needed to make the first move, at least end the painful standoff.
I took a step in the direction I had come, the theory of retracing my path still the only valid one in my mind. If I could remain calm and simply walk away, perhaps they would let me. I wasn’t a threat to them if I merely left. I couldn’t be.
That one step was all it took to provoke them into an attack.
Chapter Ten
Before the Event, the thought of raising my hand to someone was sickening. Even if provoked, I never imagined it was possible for me to inflict pain on another human being.
That was before.
This was after.
As hands grabbed me from all directions, I pushed back. I used everything in my weak arsenal to hurt them. I kicked, I punched, I even bit down hard on an arm that strayed too close to my mouth. My fight for survival against them was a one woman campaign that was neither organized nor effective.
Two men had me in their hold. I kicked the one to my right’s shin so hard the sound of impact echoed off the barren concrete walls surrounding us. He relaxed his grip to grab at his injury, cursing me the entire time.
Using all the strength I had, I moved my now-free hand to slap the boy on my left. It stung like hell, probably doing more damage to me than to him.
He grabbed my stray hand and held it tight. Now he had both, but he didn’t have my legs. I kneed him in the groin, desperately trying to remember the self defense classes that had been mandatory at school for a semester.
Eyes.
They were the most vulnerable part of the body.
As the guy released my hands to cradle his tender genitals, my fingers went for his eye sockets. I closed my eyelids, not wanting to see the impact when we finally collided.
I never got my chance.
A woman younger than me grabbed my wrist, holding it mid-hit. She roughly twisted it around, sending bolts of shooting agony through my arm right up to my shoulder.
I squealed with the sudden pain. She didn’t relax her grip, instead twisting my arm further until I almost blacked out. A boy no taller than I was stepped up to hold onto my other arm. He held it in place calmly, like this was nothing but an ordinary day for him.
It probably was.
I used my foot to stamp on the girl’s foot, finding nothing but heavy boots there. She wouldn’t have felt a thing but it did remind her that my legs were free.
“Grab her ankles,” she smoothly ordered.
Before I had a chance to do anything further, two hands clamped down on my legs from behind. Looking down, a pair of male hands were firmly affixed to my ankles. They were as big as any man’s and stronger than the others had been.
“We’ll take her back,” the girl said.
I found my voice. “No, please. Just let go. I didn’t mean to enter your territory. I was lost. I’m so, so sorry. I promise I’ll leave and never come back.”
Whatever I said brought a smile to her lips. She gave my arm another twist, again making me cry out in pain. “There is a special kind of hell for intruders. You’ll go there soon enough.”
My feet suddenly left the ground as I was picked up from behind. The strong hands held my lower half while another two of the group had grips under my shoulders. There was no way for me to escape, they could do whatever they wanted with me now.
Still, I struggled.
I would not go down without a fight.
I lashed out, squirming as best as I could to get out of their hold. All I managed to do was make it a little more difficult for them to carry me. My impact was minimal.
When they took me down into the storm water drain, that’s when the panic really started to set in.
Daylight disappeared, replaced by the stench of the dirt and stagnant water. Like everywhere in the city, death was mixed into the fray. My nose was assaulted with the smell, making breathing even more difficult.
“Please, let me go,” I begged. All my protests and pleading fell on deaf ears.
There wasn’t a part of my body not in constant pain. With each step they took, a new ache erupted somewhere I didn’t know could hurt so much.
The worst was my arm. It felt like it had been wrenched right out of its socket. The hand gripping underneath my shoulder was digging in, causing new bolts of pain to shoot out with each inadvertent jolt. I wished I could pass out now. At least then I would have a momentary reprieve.
The tunnel had a gradual decline. The further they walked, the further underground we went. I lost track of the bends and turns we took. The darkness was almost absolute, interspersed only occasionally with a ray of light from a tunnel pointing directly upwards.
We were in a maze of tunnels that lay underneath the city. Probably the subway maintenance system if my nose was anything to go by. I could barely see anything, yet my captors walked without any lights.
They strode with confidence, making each turn deliberately and assuredly. They obviously knew the tunnels intimately, had stalked them for some time. I wondered how long it would take to make them familiar. A month? A year? Two?
They suddenly stopped walking. The hands that held me turned me upright to stand on my own feet. They had largely lost feeling, I fought to stay upright.
It was complete darkness surrounding me. I wasn’t entirely sure if my eyes were open or closed. It took several seconds of blinking for me to believe they were indeed open.
Those that had held me shuffled aside. I felt like I was alone, except an eerie feeling told me there were many eyes on me. They would not have left me alone after going to all the trouble of kidnapping me. They wouldn’t waste the energy.
I thought about running. But where would I go? I wasn’t even sure what direction I had entered and I certainly couldn’t see where I was going now.
The darkness hid many things, I knew that with certainty. I just wasn’t sure what it was now hiding from me.
A burst of light suddenly blinded me. I held my better arm up to shield my eyes.
I was right.
I wasn’t alone.
We were in a cavern, a torch of fire making shadows on the low roof and walls. There had to be at least fifty people creating a circle around me. No matter which way I turned, they were there. All wore the same hollow look as the others I had fought above ground.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 283