The Carnage Trilogy (Book 1): The Carnage [Unbending, Unyielding, Unforgiving]

by Birch, Matthew

  "I'm sorry, but it has to be done" Patrick finishes, looking between us all one by one, a look of sorrow on his face. He's a decent guy. He doesn't want this any more than us. Someone has to go to the radio tower or else we're not getting anywhere in this place. Patrick makes the stakes clear, if we don't get the broadcast out before the power shuts off, then that's it. We are stuck in the north. Questions start floating around, people whispering among themselves.

  "The bridge to the south is gone..." He fades out, eyes darkening. Patrick slumps back, not wanting to face the reality. We all gasp in our own way, the news sinking in. There is no way out now. That bridge is the only way out. This is it. We are stuck here...

  No one protests - we only accept our fate. Gloom hanging over all of us. Patrick steps back up though, saying, "Four people should be fine. We are taking the last police car available and driving as far as the road will take us. The other teams never reported back-" He pauses. Patrick must've had friends, maybe even family here. Might even go as far to say a lover perhaps? Whatever it is, his pause is reason enough for us all. He's hurting inside just as much as the rest of us. Only, he hides it, sheltering away what breaks him to be strong for the rest of us. "We need to warn the rest of the island.”If anything, we can at least send out an SOS signal..." His voice weakens with each word, becoming a mumble towards the end. His eyes sinking into his skull like the Black Death has come upon him.

  We all sit there in the end, debating what to do. Mostly being, who goes? There's barely anyone left. Plus, just because we made it here does not make us capable of this. Maya is the only person to step up amidst the arguing. She seems confident, making herself a reliable ally when all I see is cannon fodder for Patrick. We are going to die.

  Maya's courage inspires Ben, who holds his rifle out and offers a hearty smile. "I'll try my best Captain" Not the right rank, but hey. Patrick grins all the same, thankful to have another person on his team. Silence falls over the rest of us for a moment.

  Marcus, Cody, Chloe and me. Who will go?

  Dropping my head, I stare at the floor; fingers fidgeting nervously.

  "Count me in" Cody finally says with a sigh. Standing up, he asks, "Could I have a shotgun? Double barrel is fine"

  Patrick seems unsure at first, both men meeting the other's eyes for a moment. Eyes twitching, Cody asks again. Saying he worked on a farm for most his life and was also a private contractor. Did engineering and construction, although, only the farmer part was relevant really. Having used his shotgun to protect his live stock from local foxes, Cody boasts that he had apparently won several local clay pigeon shooting contests. There's no evidence or proof, yet he shows he certainly knows how to wield such a powerful weapon in his rough hands. It was enough for Patrick who welcomes him to the team.

  One more person now...

  Marcus is still in shock. Chloe looks like she has been holding her breath. Face paling by the second.

  Maya's words and insults slither through my mind. I... I need to man up. Fight and die or run and live - warrior way or the cowards path. Do I have it in my heart to give my life if something goes wrong? Can I do this...?

  I look up from my hands which dance around the other. Patrick sighs, telling us one more person would unquestionably make the chances of success more optimal. Where he is getting his percentages from, I don't know. When I look at Maya, and the way she looks at me. She seems disappointed. It hurts. I don't know why I care, but I do. She's so strong, being the first to rise to the occasion, always there to challenge the danger. She's tough, and I love that. I always thought I was strong you know? Here I am, put to the test and I sit here like a fool.

  Marcus shifts next to me, slowing starting to rise.

  Deep breath.

  "I will go," I say instantly. Those three words were barely audible, but my voluntary is clear.

  Exhale.

  All eyes in the room are on me. Blood rushes to my face. No one was expecting me to do it. No one actually believed I would put myself forward. I don't even believe it!

  "You sure?" Marcus speaks to me for the first time that day. He didn't believe in me either. Nodding, I stand up, ignoring all the red flags in my mind that outcry at me to back out.

  "Then it's decided. We haven't got time to waste" Patrick gleams at me. I give him a shallow nod. He knows how scared I am. They all know. As we disperse, I catch another glance at Maya's doubtful face.

  "Alright, with me" Patrick orders us. Before we leave, Marcus grabs me, spinning me around to face him. Before I can protest, the light in the room reflects off the steel in his hand, glinting in my eyes. His father's machete...

  "No, Marcus, I couldn't-" I try, but he persists, putting it in my hands. "Please, stay alive," He says warmly, his eyes glossy.

  For the first time today, I smile. He's cheered me up in seconds, and I think I have cheered him up. He knows I took his place. I would never let him go back out there the way he is. I'd rather die than see him dead. For the first time in my life, I have put my life on the line for someone. The feeling it gives; a sense of pride. Adrenaline hooks me. Marcus sees it too. "Thank you, now go" He pesters, closing my hand around the machetes hilt before shoving me towards the reception.

  Once outside, Patrick gives us the rundown. He formulates a plan, telling us what we're doing and how we are doing it. He and Cody will stay up front, both of them being the first line of defence with the heavy duty equipment. Cody has been prepped with SWAT armour, weirdly; he looks like he is carrying it easily. This is making Patrick look weaker than he actually is. Though I pet Patrick’s got the biggest muscles going underneath all that blackened armour.

  Maya, travelling light, keeps on what she wore yesterday, except she has a new belt with various ammo pouches. Her hatchet still clipped to her side and her rifle in hand. Ben is the same as Maya, both of them being kept at the back of the formation as supporting fire.

  I, on the other hand, am handed a handgun by Patrick. He sends a funny look my way, perplexed as to where I got the machete from. “It’s Marcus’s. His father brought it for him so he had something to gut fish with” I explain to the confused man. Laughing, Patrick says, “Marcus's father literally brought him an army knife” He moves back after coming in closer for inspection. “What you have there will serve you well today and in future” ‘In future, does he expect me to survive?’

  The 'police car' as was stated, is actually a van. Patrick and Cody climbing in the front while Ben, Maya and I climb in the back. We take our seats along the sides, a small window between the wall that separates us and the driver. The window opens, allowing Patrick to call back to see if we're alright. We give him the thumbs up, and once the tick list has been checked, the engine is started and we slowly pull out of the car park. My heart hammers in my chest as I look at the two weapons in my hands...

  We never really saw the outside world from where we were. From the little window, we could catch glimpses of the destruction that had ensued in a little over a day now. Crashed cars, blood stains, dead bodies, ransacked houses, more dead bodies, destruction of local property and surroundings, and more dead bodies. Death is everywhere. The north is gone. We find no survivors as we drive, Cody being tasked with keeping an eye out just in case. One peculiar detail pops up, that being that there has been no sign of any creatures? I forgot the universal rule now is to call them creatures after a group vote that I swear I did not dose off in. Either that or I was too zoned out to care.

  There's a bump in the road, causing me to jump a little as I faze in and out of reality. I need to stay strong.

  "Ed?"

  Jumping out of my skin like a little bitch gives Maya a little smug look. "Whatdoyouwant," I say, a little flustered. "I just wanted to talk about what you did back at the ranger station" Straight to the point as normal. This girl does not joke around.

  "Okay?" I lean back against the wall of the van, resting my neck up straight since I had been in a crooked, slouched position for so long. Ben sits
a little distance away from us on the other end of the van, spreading his legs wide open and slouched down where he sits. If he went any further, he'd flop onto the floor. Ben's looking sick, I wonder if he has motion sickness. Surely he would've brought it up. Oh well. Ignoring the purple-faced man, I focus on Maya.

  I suspect an argument, which creates another fight. More insults. More, words. Nothing of the sort happens. We are, talking? Like a proper conversation. "I noticed what you did... Taking Marcus's place" She blinks. "It was... Brave" She gives a half-smile. Whoa? She actually complimented me. Well, this is new. Suppressing the giddy feeling, I go to reply, my tongue barely moving to form the words. Of course, she ruins it. Her deceitful tongue cuts me off with a well placed, "Extremely foolish of you though. You thinking you are able to actually do this" Her forehead puckers.

  Screwing up my face, I regret ever thinking we could actually work things out and get along. The colour drains from my face and I swear I feel a vein pop in my neck. Already, she has me riled up. Instead of fighting back, I can only muster the strength of a poor stutter. "W-what makes y-you say, that?"

  "You only did it to prove me wrong, right?" She simpers, leaning back in her seat and feeling proud of herself.

  No, I swear I did this for Marcus. I volunteered in his place so that he wouldn't have to.

  She continues, "at least, half the reason has to be because of what I said" Her expression closes up, and her words leave me in a shallow darkness.

  "No, I did this for Marcus" I force a smile, a part of me wishing that I really did this for Marcus. Reality is, it really is only half the reason. The other half knew I had to learn from my mistakes and the first step was facing the danger so that I may overcome it. Though now I replay those words in my head, I realise the real reason is that I wanted to be strong. That's all. If anything, her words helped. Her harshness drove me to understand. Maya was a total bitch, don't get me wrong. What she said had left me wondering my thoughts for hours without end. Sucking it up, I accepted it, thought about it, and now... Here I am.

  Maya is the reason I am out here. But I am also here for myself and Marcus. I have both shown courage and selflessness for Marcus in the space of an hour. She's to thank for it... Did she mastermind this? No, she's not that good at well-planned deception. How do you deceitfully help another? I never thought that'd be possible. I think she's done something unintentionally. Regardless, I am thankful to her in a way...

  Wow, I've never put this much thought into something before. I like this change of perspective!

  "Really?" Her expression dulls. Not entirely believing me even though I offer the cold, hard truth. I am not lying. There is no fakery in this. I did what I did for all the right reasons and she pushed me in the right direction, I just did the walking. "Yes" I express faith in myself for the first time and damn does it feel good.

  Her pupils flare. "Then you're gonna need to learn to use these-" She reaches out, wrapping her slender fingers delicately around my gun and machete. I fluster, watching her closely as she takes them into her hold. Our eyes meet and like many other first-time moments today. We finally get along, I think.

  "The guns gonna be more complicated so it could take some time but I am happy to teach you if you're willing to learn and not gonna chicken out last moment" She leers at me. I take the hit head-on, leaning forward and giving her an unyielding nod. She presses her lips together, placing the gun on her thigh while focusing on the machete. She observes it for a second.

  "Machete’s simple, right?" I ask, acting like a student while she takes the role of a teacher. She shakes her head, “No, I am not too keen on the use of knifes in a combat situation” She is admitting this to me because...? “In my opinion, a hatchet is far simpler. Swing, slash, and kill. Depends on the situation for both weapons really” She suddenly starts bringing out the smarts like she is a professional in this. What sort of past would she have had to have to have knowledge in things such as this? “But the machete could take some practice for several reasons. One of them being that if you steer the pointed edge wrong and get it stuck in the skull, for example, you’re screwed” Maya shrugs the machete aside, dropping it back into my palm. “Patrick would be better suited to teach you how to properly handle the knife. Besides, using the machete against a creature and a human is completely different” She finally finishes. It’s about time! So, let me process this for a moment. Her advice is to learn how to use the machete in a situation that would entail either of the two foes?

  To fight a creature or a human, why would I ever turn on my own kind?

  Then, the car comes to a halt, sending us sliding along the van. We both keep our ground, staying balanced. Ben isn't as lucky as he is slammed into the floor with a grunt. When he gets up, his first words are, "Much better now that we’re still" Yeah, dude has got motion sickness.

  Patrick opens the small window that has been fitted between us and the drivers seat and simply says, "We have a problem"

  Maya shoots me a look of worry, alarm in her eyes. "Sorry, maybe later-" She says, tossing the gun back at me. My reaction time fails me as it hits my chest. I grunt, letting it fall into my lap. That's gonna leave a bruise...

  Two doors slam outside and seconds later the back of the van opens, revealing the reason we stopped...

  Chapter 9 - Off Road

  Ed

  “When I travelled from the north, I didn’t remember it being like this” Our friendly neighbourhood farmer with tons of other professions gawks his view over the tremendously, fiery crash that is the mayhem of one large pile of scorched junk metal. Heaps of metal pile up one after another, all of them were once full of people who only wanted to escape the blood lusting creatures. Now, they are either one of them, or were burned away to dust in the ensuing blaze.

  “And I think that’s the culprit” Cody directs our attention towards the course. A huge truck that had to be transporting flammable liquids was what started this madness. It had skidded off road for whatever reason, hitting several small trees into nothing before meeting its match. A half scorched tree that sits like the tower of Pisa, only it is half way to the ground with a toppled over truck on top of it.

  “Looks it stopped every last son of a bitch for miles” Cody finally turns away, shaking his head as he avoids the numerous amounts of deaths that had been caused because of this. As a hushed chatter spreads between everyone except me and Patrick, I watch as our leader inspects the wreckage closer. Starting right at the front and looking over the horizon.

  I join him, and we stand side by side as we stare down all the creatures who were sprawled all over the place, some in bits and pieces; some have burned in the intense blaze we missed. We see their remains as charred corpses. The worst part being that these roasted, rotten human kebab sticks are still alive.

  “We are holding a vote” Patrick suddenly says, spinning on his heel and facing the group. We fall into both silence and order as he looks at us all. “A vote on where we are going next. There is no way to navigate past this point correctly. Besides, we don’t know what dangers lurk beyond the wreckage, so I’d rather not risk walking around”

  Of course, walking around was the easiest way, but Patrick clearly had something else in mind.

  “And why not just walk around it? Why navigate through it?” Ben makes a good point. We all kinda nod and make our own sounds of agreement as we accept Ben’s opinion as fact. It’s not that difficult to walk around, even if it is a lot more of a walk.

  Patrick shakes his head. “No, we go through the forest. Besides, the other teams we sent out left on foot, and knowing them, they would definitely go through the forest”

  “But-“ Cody begins.

  “No, trust me, I know what’s best” Someone, not Patrick, is VERY confident in their abilities. I think this, though I’d never take the piss out of him out loud. Cody just sulks.

  And so it ends with Patrick’s swift remarks on how he knows what is best.

  Birds, animals and more flou
rish like nothing happened. The greenery and life around me are distracting. It is so breathtaking, better than anything back home in England. Almost makes you forget all the tragic events that have destroyed this once homey resort. It is peaceful; the escapism helps you forget all the problems you have. It is perfect, the last place for ending this vacation and going back home.