by Ryan Casey
He couldn’t help the dread that built up inside.
A little life, lost.
The plan had changed. They were taking a route that Nina thought would be better on foot. When they were in the car, they took a slightly longer but quieter route. This was more direct. Which of course had its risks—they were going through old communities. There was the chance of bumping into people on the road; into groups of survivors.
But Mike couldn’t get over just how empty this place felt. Like a ghost town.
He hadn’t asked how long the journey would take on foot. But based on how long the journey was supposed to take by car, he could harbour a guess that they were going to be walking ’til tomorrow—unless they were lucky. Mike wasn’t sure how he felt about that, in all truth. He just wanted to get there. He just wanted to know they were going to be okay.
He just wanted to find Kelsie, Alison, the rest of his people, and then end this journey once and for all.
“What’re you going to do when we get there, then?” Mike asked.
Nina shrugged. “Like I told you. I’ll just head back.”
“Even by foot?”
“Even by foot,” Nina said. “Doesn’t really look like I’ve got another choice, does it?”
But Mike sensed something about Nina. Maybe it was the fact that his mistrust was in overdrive. Or perhaps it was for legitimate, genuine reasons. But he sensed something about her. And he’d be doing himself a disservice if he didn’t investigate.
“I get the sense you’re not being totally straight with me,” Mike said.
Nina looked at him and frowned. But it was there. That slight glance away. That momentary look of uncertainty, like the story was slipping.
And then the look back at Mike with defeat, like there was no point covering anything up.
“I have a friend at that extraction point,” Nina said.
“Now the truth’s coming out.”
“Look,” Nina said. “Sarah… she means a lot to me. And I guess… I guess that’s partly why I came with you. I needed to find her. I needed to know she was okay. Because—because as far as I can tell, she’ll still be living there. And if she isn’t… well, I guess that’s it. I guess that’s the closure I need. But if she is… if there’s that small chance that she is…”
Mike nodded. He could understand why Nina had come along after all. He knew how powerful that desire for closure could be. He’d felt it himself, time and time again. Hell, it was driving his own journey, in a sense.
“Why haven’t you been back already?” Mike asked. “Why leave it until now to see if she’s okay?”
Nina half-smiled. “The hospital is good. Vincent’s good. Everyone there’s good. But… well. They aren’t keen on people leaving either. Not without a good reason.”
“So you’re trapped there?”
“Not trapped,” Nina said. “We’re out here, after all, right? But like Vincent said. That place values people. It values people being there to work towards the future of the place. So people just walking away… that goes against what those people are working towards.”
Mike nodded. Again, he could see what Nina was saying. He was just playing devil’s advocate. Seeing just how that hospital ran.
They walked further down the silent street. Past more houses, past more abandoned cars. “When we get back there—if you’re still sure about this crazy mission—you’ll see how good it is. You’ll see what we’ve got is precious. And hopefully, you’ll have people beside you to see, too.”
Mike looked at Nina. Smiled, as she smiled back at him. For the first time, he got the sense that she was behind his journey, as dangerous as it was. She understood why he was doing what he was doing, and she had his back.
He couldn’t think about the possibility that he might not even find the rest of his people at that extraction point. That this could just be a wild goose chase to nowhere, after all. And that thought prompted a pain in his stomach that didn’t come from his wound.
“I hope so,” Mike said, feeling his trust growing, feeling his bond increasing with this woman. And feeling the danger of that too. Because any bond was a bad thing. Getting attached to anyone was problematic. He’d seen it. He’d seen it time and time again.
He turned around and went to walk ahead when he saw it.
Lying in the road.
His stomach sank as he approached. His hands went sweaty. Because at first, he thought he recognised her. He thought she was familiar.
Arya.
But it wasn’t Arya. It was a Siberian Husky. Foot in a trap. Looked like it’d tried to gnaw its leg away before dying. Pretty recently, too.
Mike felt the sadness fill his body at the thought of that poor creature struggling away in its final moments.
And then he took a deep breath and half-smiled at Nina.
“Let’s keep going,” he said. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back.”
Nina nodded. Looked at the dog again, then nodded.
Then together, they kept on walking.
Walking into the unknown.
Walking towards whatever was ahead…
Chapter Seventeen
“But I just don’t understand,” Alison said. “You’ve got people guarding this place. You’ve got people watching the gates at all times. How can she just… disappear?”
Alison stared into Richard’s eyes. They were in his office at the top of the hill right in the middle of the extraction point. It was cool in his office. The smell of air fresheners strong in the air. A minty aroma cutting through everything, making her feel nauseous.
Not helped by that frown of concern on Richard’s face. Like this was unprecedented. Like it was wrong.
“Alison,” he said, glass of water permanently in hand. “I… I really don’t know what to say.”
“Well you’d better get thinking. We haven’t even been here a week, and Kelsie’s gone missing. You know how that looks to me?”
“I can assure you we have people outside searching for her. I mean, I find it hard to understand how she might’ve got away. How she might’ve slipped through the cracks. And… and indeed why she would do such a thing. But we’re doing everything we can. I assure you.”
Alison listened to Richard’s soothing tones, and she tried to take deep breaths. She tried to keep her shit together even though it felt like her world was collapsing. Kelsie was a huge part of why they’d come to this place, why they’d decided to stay at this place. And now she was gone. She was gone, and nobody seemed to know where she was. Just that they were “searching for her” and “doing everything they could.”
But all of this just felt wrong. She was right about that. That feeling right from when she’d woken up that something just wasn’t okay.
The same feeling that Kelsie had told her she was feeling all along.
And now that feeling had been justified.
“Is there any reason why she’d go out there?” Richard asked, standing up and walking around his desk. “Any reason why she might not be… well, totally settled here?”
Alison wanted to deny that this had anything to do with Kelsie herself. But she knew that would be lying. “There was a… a man with us. A man called Mike. He and Kelsie were close. I mean, we were all close to him. But something happened to him. He got killed. But when we went back there, his body was gone. As if he’d moved. I know how it is. I know someone else probably moved it, something like that. But Kelsie couldn’t believe that. She couldn’t accept it. So if there’s any reason why she might’ve gone out there, that might be where you want to be looking.”
Richard half-smiled, nodded. For some reason, he seemed to be calmer now. More at ease. Which struck Alison as a little weird, in all truth.
Then he stepped up to her and put a hand on her back. “All I can say is that my people are working diligently on making sure Kelsie gets back here safely. We’re here for you. All of us are here for you. I can only apologise that you’re going through this,
especially so soon after you arrived here.”
Alison nodded. There wasn’t a lot else she could say to Richard, after all. Just that he seemed sincere. He didn’t seem like he was covering anything up.
She wouldn’t go as far as saying she trusted him, but she sensed he knew what he was saying. And that he meant it.
“In the meantime, you’re welcome to—”
The door slammed open. Two men were there. One of them was an armed guard Alison recognised. Aiden, she thought he was called.
He looked tired. Exhausted. Like he’d been out all night. And it was just that way he looked at her that made Alison wonder. That way he looked at her like she was the last person he wanted to see, like he hadn’t been expecting her, that just threw her. That made her wonder.
“Can I have a word, sir?” Aiden asked.
His voice cracked. He sounded uncertain.
Richard looked at Aiden, frown on his forehead, then at Alison, then back at Aiden again. “Is there a problem—”
“I just want to talk. That’s all. Please.”
Richard looked at Alison again, and Alison knew what was coming before it arrived.
“Do you mind if we take a moment, please?” Richard asked, smile on his face.
Alison wanted to stand her ground. She wanted to object. Because something didn’t feel right about this. Something felt totally off.
But at the same time… she knew if she kicked up a fuss, she’d only be getting herself into trouble.
If she didn’t kick up a fuss, if she at least tried to make it look like she was co-operating, then at least she might have a chance. A chance to find out what this was all about.
So she resisted all the instincts inside her telling her to stand her ground, and she nodded. “I’ll be outside,” she said.
She walked towards the door of Richard’s office, past Aiden.
And she saw it. She saw the way he looked at her. Just for a second.
With a look of fear.
A look of guilt.
She fought those impulses again, took a breath, and stepped out of the portacabin.
When she was outside, she closed the door. But she didn’t walk away. She stayed there, just for a few seconds. Just long enough so she could hear.
And when she heard, the goosepimples spread across her skin, and her muscles tightened.
“We’ve got a problem, Richard,” Aiden said.
And then something else. Something that she could just about hear before she walked. Before she took a step. Just to avoid suspicion. Just so she avoided questioning.
Those words that changed everything.
“It’s the girl,” Aiden said. “She’s gone. We tried, but she’s gone.”
Alison swallowed a lump in her tightening throat. She looked over her shoulder, right through the window.
When she looked, she saw Richard staring out at her, wide-eyed, a look of sheer terror on his face.
Chapter Eighteen
Kelsie took another step into the woods, and she felt her stomach lurching with sickness.
It was afternoon. The sun was beaming down. She felt awful. Sweating but shivering. A clanging headache. Sickness and nausea cutting right through her. She thought at first that it was just a reaction to the events of yesterday… but she could tell by now that it was more than that. Way worse.
She was ill. She couldn’t get any fluids or food down her. And in all truth, she hadn’t even had the effort or energy to try and catch any food at all. She didn’t even know how to properly anyway. She’d shot a deer when she was with Mike. That seemed so long ago now, even if it was only days ago.
She wished she was back with Mike.
She wished she was with someone who could look after her.
She was weak. Cold.
She wanted to be back at her home with Mum and Dad curled up on the sofa with a film on the television and a hot drink.
And it had only been a matter of hours that she’d been travelling, all things considered.
She’d collapsed soon after breaking out of the extraction point. Ran her way into the woods, got deeper and deeper into its thick expanses. It had taken her a while to get to sleep under a tree, staring up at the stars. But it was when she’d woken up that she’d felt rotten. Totally rotten.
It just added to the awfulness of this whole situation.
She looked around. Looked at the bright sun, felt her eyes covering over and herself squinting right away. She could taste vomit right at the back of her throat and an acidity laced across her tongue. All she could keep thinking of was what she’d seen. That woman, Lana. The woman who’d been dumped by the people at the extraction point. Who’d somehow found her way back.
And what Aiden and the other guard, Dom, did to her.
She thought about Alison, Gina, Arya. Thought about how they’d be reacting right now. She knew they’d be worried about her. And she didn’t want them to be worried, of course. She didn’t want them to be concerned.
But at the same time… she knew that the fact that she was missing would be getting them asking questions. It would be making them wonder what had happened, why she’d disappeared.
And that could only work in her favour.
She swallowed a lump in her dry throat. She needed water. She just needed something to help her get by. She tried to pull herself up, but she fell down right away, her legs weak and shaky. She started to panic because she worried that this might be something to do with her diabetes. It hadn’t made her feel this way before, so she wasn’t sure. But what if she was just having a really bad reaction? What if she was at a far worse stage than she’d ever been before?
She took in a sharp breath. Because she didn’t have a choice. She had to get up. She had to keep moving. She had to get herself well.
And then she had to find a way to get back to the extraction point. A way to get there and to save Alison, Gina, Arya, and her new friends Tom and Siobhan.
She knew it was going to be difficult. She couldn’t see how she was going to do it, not at this stage.
But she was going to have to try.
She grabbed the tree beside her. Dragged herself up to her feet. When she’d made it, she kept holding on, her knees shaking, her legs like wobbly custard.
She took a few deep breaths. Looked around through her squinted eyes. She wanted to lie down. To give up. And she knew that was bad. She knew it wasn’t a good sign at all. She wanted her mum and dad so much. She’d had to grow up so much. More than anyone her age should, she knew that. People said it all the time.
It was only now that she was really starting to realise it.
But she took a deep breath.
She couldn’t give in to it.
She had to stand up to it.
She had to fight it.
She had to—
She felt the sickness overwhelm her, and she leaned over to one side and threw up.
She spat it out. Felt better, just for a moment, as it plummeted out. That momentary sense of relief. That sense that things were going to get better, that things were going to be okay. That all she needed was to just get it out of her body.
But then she opened her eyes, and she felt the worry cover her stronger than ever.
There was blood. Blood in her sick. Bright red blood staring back up at her.
Her heart began to pound. Her chest tightened. The nausea surrounded her once again. Because this was the proof. This was the proof that things weren’t good. They were bad. Very bad.
She needed help.
She took a few more of those deep breaths as her head spun, as her ears rang. And again, she found herself at those crossroads. On the one hand, she wanted to just lie down and give up and wait for someone to come and help her. And on the other, she knew she had to go out there. She had to help herself.
She had to find a way to get better.
And only then could she do what she needed to do.
She stood upright. Wiped her mouth.
And then she started to walk back into the trees, back into the unknown.
She made it a few steps when she heard something.
Something behind her.
She turned around. Looked back.
That’s when she saw them.
There were two of them.
Unmistakable.
Armed guards.
Aiden.
And the other guard whose name she’d heard Aiden say when she’d been running away. Dom.
They were out here.
All this walking, and they were on her tail after all.
And they were heading right in her direction.
They were coming for her.
She had to get away.
She had to hide.
Fast.
Chapter Nineteen
It was another hour of walking before Nina admitted she was lost.
They were in a town, now. They’d drifted out of a residential area and into the countryside briefly, which had Nina confident they were on the right track. But then they must’ve taken a wrong turn because the area they were in started to grow increasingly built up.
Mike couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a town like this. It really was quite eerie, now a year had passed since the EMP. The foliage was out of control. It had spread from its designated areas to the sides of the buildings, stretching up its walls. The windows were cracked and smashed. There was a smell to the air. Flies buzzing around the bins. Shops with the shutters down right the way down the street. Tons of cars at a standstill, the vast majority of them smashed up and vandalised.
And even though it was quiet—eerily so—Mike still got the feeling like there was somebody close by. There was somebody watching. Watching his every move…
But he kept on walking, as too did Nina. It was afternoon now. A warm one at that. It struck Mike just how remarkable it was that they hadn’t bumped into anyone so far. It was something he thought about a lot.
“How many people do you think are left?” he asked. Making conversation more than anything.
Nina shrugged as she kept on walking on. “Not many,” she said. “But you’ve got to assume the people who are left know what they’re doing. I mean, the weak would’ve died in the early days. Then the lucky ones who managed to find themselves in communities… they would’ve survived until those communities inevitably fell. All the time, the weak dying, the food chain changing. I wouldn’t like to put a number on it. But we’re always just one disaster away from another mass-exodus.”