by David Tyne
“No offence,” Ian waved awkwardly. “We've got some stuff to finish up, but we'll definitely keep it in mind when we're done. Thank you for telling us.”
The woman nodded firmly, understanding our situation and respecting our reservations. “No problem! To be honest, we've only found one of those... monsters, since leaving the centre. I grabbed this as a weapon from my lecture hall, when it all started. It’s mostly for show, but you guys could use it way more.”
She handed me her giant metre stick, which easily towered over Ian's beloved cricket bat. Who's got the bigger one now, I smirked to myself. Following that thought, I handed Beth my trusty window-smashing mallet, warning her not to use it unless she has no other choice.
She was still pouting at the fact that we almost turned her over to another group. At least now, she could try to defend herself in case we got separated somewhere down the road.
To thank the woman for her kindness, I forked over a little more than half of the supplies I'd nicked from the newsagents. If nothing else, it'd help to ease the tension for all of those people holed up in that improvised evacuation zone.
Saying our goodbyes, we continued down the tracks as our new friends disappeared over the opposing fence from whence they came. “...So, we find our parents, then we try our luck at the community centre?” I ventured, moving briskly onwards.
Ian slung his cricket bat over his shoulder. “Yeah, sounds like a plan. Good to have one laid out, finally.”
Strolling behind us, the happy little girl felt the weight of the blood-stained mallet against her palm. “Okay! I'm gonna find my mummy too, and then we'll all go live there together. I can't wait!”
11 | Blackout
The mid-day sun was once again high above our heads, signalling that it was around twelve o'clock. A full day had passed since our lives were shattered in that university's interview room... Somehow the disaster felt like a whole other lifetime ago, as though it happened to a much more innocent version of the man I’d become in the past 24 hours.
The train station at Newcraighall was finally coming into view; the patchy dull-grey platform was actually a pleasant sight for once. Only a hop, skip and a jump across the nearby grassy field until we were home free.
“Beth, why don't you look around for a bit, see if there's a place where we can sit down and have lunch? Stay where we can see you, okay?” I asked with the intent of stalling time, to which she gave a determined nod.
While the small girl skipped around the littered platform, Ian and I stopped under the rain shelter for some privacy. He already seemed to know what was on my mind, scoffing at my transparency. “...Go on, say it then.”
“...We have to tell her that she isn't going to find her parents... It can't go on like this, man.”
My mind had been consumed with dread ever since we lied to her, even though we did so with good intentions. There was just no easy way to have that conversation, to say that Ian was the one who killed her mum... that Leo was one of the Lost, and there was no known way of bringing him back.
The boy with the cricket bat turned defiantly away from me, as though I wasn't taking his feelings into account. “I don't like it any more than you do, I'm not a monster... But we both know exactly what’s going to happen, the second that we tell her. She'll run off to look for the old train again, and all she's going to find there is her mum's dead body."
That was what he said, but we both knew that even surviving the trip back to that wreckage would be a miracle in itself. The distant look in his eyes confirmed it; Ian wasn't willing to take any chances after what we'd just narrowly escaped from. "This is all in her best interests, and she's damn lucky that it was us who saved her instead of no one at all. Do you get that?”
I didn't have to tell Ian about how immoral his plan was, but I could at least sense how conflicted he felt about deceiving an orphaned child. In all fairness, I was the one who forced him to put Beth's mum down. He had to look his victim’s daughter in the eyes all the time and hide that knowledge, so I decided to let it go.
It seemed that our discussion had ended not a moment too soon, as we heard a high-pitched scream coming from the nearby ticket office. I'd seen Beth wandering past only moments ago, assuming she was smart enough to not go inside.
“Oh, you gotta be kidding me...”
Flying towards the automatic door, the first thing we saw was a tuft of blonde hair shaking violently behind the ticket cashier's glass wall. Beth slapped her hands wildly at the grey-eyed cashier, trying to gain some distance in the small cubicle. Luckily, his chest strap seemed to be snagged on his chair, stopping him from grabbing the child.
I tried the doorknob to the see-through office, but it was jammed shut... I noticed that the metallic shelf behind her had been knocked over, wedging the handle firmly in place. Beth wasn't strong enough to dislodge it, no matter how much she kicked at the blockade.
“Beth, stay calm...” I tried to say in a calm tone, but it came out more like a panicked whimper. “Do you still have the mallet? Pass it through to me, now.”
With one hand feebly forcing the Lost cashier away, she threw the mallet into the blood-covered ticket slot. Bumping against what looked like a lump of the cashier's own flesh, both items collided and slid through with a wet squelch.
I grabbed the emergency tool with my free hand, and brought it crashing into the side of the reinforced glass. Nothing but a small white mark was left where I’d struck.
“Beth, hang in there!” Ian screamed, impatient as he charged against the office door several times.
I kept banging on the glass with all of my might; with each strike doing visibly more damage, I managed to create a small chip. “Stand clear!” I said aloud as I went in for one final smack with both hands.
The glass didn't shatter entirely, but a hole large enough for Beth to crawl through was punctured. Grabbing my new weapon, I inserted the metre stick between her and the Lost, manipulating his thrusts back towards the wall and restrained him against it.
“Now, come through!” As Beth hopped up onto the desk, the small lamp in the back of the office fizzled and blew out, making her yelp as the room became partially darker. Pulling her through, we all ran straight for the door... and planted our faces nose-first into the glass.
“It was automatic before... Don't tell me...” Ian glanced back at the lamp, and towards the door again. He held up his hand in silence, listening intently. From all directions, we could hear a peculiar whirring sound descending in pitch, until there was only the wind. “It's finally happened... The National Grid."
"W-What?" I whispered, anxious with the snarling Lost behind us.
"I read about this online, some kind of government protocol. Scotland's power is being re-routed from the lesser-populated areas, and being given to the emergency services. No more electricity for us.”
I was glad we had Ian to think about these things; I hadn't considered our power consumption at all, not even when we were using a high-powered train to escape from the city. However, the revelation was short-lived as the Lost cashier scraped his way through the hole in the glass, hungry for our attention.
Ian made short work of his spinal cord using his cricket bat, while I took more swings than I'd care to admit in order to break through the automatic glass door. Handing Beth back her trusty mallet, we stepped into the sunlight and gasped for air.
“So...” I breathed heavily, “...Anyone for lunch?”
----
Not far from the ticket office, we found a large grassy field which separated us from the old neighbourhood. Around halfway across, we discovered this lovely mound with a quaint little tree, holding enough room for us all to rest in the shade.
Beth was still a little shaken up, so I divided three oranges and three apples from the bottom of my rucksack in the hopes that fresh food would bring her around. While she ate and collected herself once more, my stomach was twisted with the guilt coursing through me.
“Listen, Beth..
. I'm really sorry that we weren't watching you properly, but you can't just run off like that. Must have been pretty scary—” I realised that the girl had ignored me, occupied with demolishing her fruity snacks in record time.
Glancing up at me with a face covered in apple bits, she seemed to have caught wind of my apology as she shook her head dismissively. “No, I'm sorry, Mister. I thought that I could save us time by looking around... That meanie came out of nowhere, but I wasn't scared!! I'm tough, just like my mum!"
I couldn't help but stifle a short laugh, nudging her down the hill. "Oh, you weren't scared? So we must have imagined you shrieking for help, eh? Don’t be a hero kid, just stay close to us next time. It’s our job to keep you safe, okay?"
Somehow the little minx drove me off-topic, bartering more sweets out of my increasingly-light rucksack. After disposing of the wrappers, we were on our way across the emerald-green field once again.
I was starting to grow fond of our little group — Beth, an innocent little girl who had no one else left in the entire world. Of course I felt horrible about misleading her, but it was the only way to stop her from heading backwards. Once we had gone far enough, I could tell her the truth... and she could hate me all she wanted, but at least she'd be alive.
Frankly, I didn't even know how we were going to convince her to enter the community centre without her mum at her side... The prospect of 'once you get in, you can't get out' was starting to sound better by the minute, though.
As for Ian, I still had no idea what he was thinking half of the time. He was already Beth's best buddy, and a natural Lost killer. Perhaps a little more than a stone's throw from the boy I'd met at the interview, so nervous that he could barely speak without stammering.
Of course, the juxtaposition of his two personalities only made me more curious as to what happened between him and his family, the day before the interview. Ever since we'd formed our strange team, they had both really come out of their shells.
Shame that the world had to end for it to happen.
12 | Tension
“Well, this is my stop.” Ian ushered us into a grey-toned residential area, indicating that this was the street where he lived. Or where he used to live, at the very least.
I'd driven past there several times on my driving lessons, so I had only seen it a couple of times. Even so, the lifeless atmosphere that the neighbourhood now exerted left something to be desired.
“Wait, that's—” Ian began, then dashed up to what I assumed was his house... one of the unlucky few that had their front door wide open. Keeping Beth safely in my sights, we obediently followed in his footsteps.
It felt kind of rude, just walking straight into another person’s house and searching their possessions for any clues. The situation was unique though, and I assured myself that he and his parents would’ve forgiven the circumstances.
While Ian slammed through doors upstairs, Beth and I sat mutedly in the living room, staring into the blank TV as though something would eventually come on, even without electricity.
“...Nobody's home, are they…?” Beth uttered to herself, concerned for Ian's feelings.
I shook my head after a moment, too busy scanning the oddities that surrounded us. A single empty suitcase lay at the bottom of the stairs, ripped-up family photographs littered the hallway and around seven bottles of beer clinked together at my feet around the armchair. Probably his father’s seat, judging from the lingering stench of sweat.
Ian wasn't exaggerating, something big was definitely going down the night before our fateful interview. To think that he came into the city centre anyway... His day couldn’t have gotten any worse, until it did.
The man of the hour returned downstairs with an unreadable air about him, sighing vacantly. Then he saw the remains of the photographs, glanced awkwardly at me and realised that I'd already noticed them. “...Oh. So that's all settled, then.”
I was unsure of what he meant, but I guessed he wasn't just referring to his parents’ absence. I tried to think of something comforting to say. “It does look like they left in a hurry. There's every possibility that they were taken to the community cen—”
“Fine. We'll take what we can grab from here, and then head for your house, Daniel. Make sure to clear out the fridge and the bread cupboard, there'll be some good stuff to take before it goes out of date.” He slumped back up the stairs again, leaving an ice-cold trail behind him.
Beth tilted her head after him, obviously worried. “...I should go cheer Mister Ian up. I miss my mummy and daddy too, but that doesn't mean we won't see them again, right?”
I froze for a second, then nodded sheepishly. It was one thing talking about her mum like that, but the way she included Leo, it gave me the chills.
Making sure that Beth and Ian were safely upstairs, I brushed up the pieces of the centre-most family photograph from the floor. I checked that they still slotted together before nicking a roll of adhesive tape from a nearby drawer.
It wasn’t my place to fix their private business, but I just couldn’t accept that Ian’s family would disown him a second time, not after the world turned itself upside-down. Things may have been rough in the past, but good memories should never be erased. Love is much harder to rip into shreds than a glossy piece of paper.
Once I’d swiped everything from Ian's kitchen, I took two pairs of clothes from the tumble dryer for good measure. Ian's clothes weren't exactly a fit for me with his small stature, but I knew that idiot would forget to pack some.
All we needed was something to dress wounds with, or keep us going if we got injured. The only place I could think of was a medicine cabinet, hopefully stocked in Ian’s bathroom.
It was really starting to feel immoral, searching and looting his house with him still inside, albeit with his permission. Climbing up the somewhat-centralised staircase in the foyer, the blue-tiled bathroom was right there at the top of the landing, beside Ian's room.
There wasn't much in there — only a bottle of aspirin, tweezers and around three tiny plasters. After lifting some empty bottles around, I was lucky enough to find a small package of anti-septic wipes, so it wasn't a total bust.
Coming through the door, I overheard vague mumbling from the other room, between Beth and Ian... He sounded irritable, more so than usual. “Just leave me alone. I said I'm fine, go find Daniel and help him out.”
“...But Mister, I want to make sure you're not upset! We all promised that we were going to find our parents. You'd do the same for my mum and dad, right? I can help as well, so please don't be sad!”
I could sense Ian's head about to burst through the wall, and sure enough—
“Just forget your damn parents already!! They're both dead, okay?! You fucking saw your dad back there, he’s Lost... and I killed your mum. I stabbed her in the face, and now I'm stuck with a dumb little baby. I hate looking at you, I can't stand it anymore... Just go with Daniel... and leave. You're both better off without me, I'm... fucked up...”
Ian burst into a hybrid wail of sobs and angered roars. He knocked over his furniture and punched the wall forcefully, while Beth rushed straight past me with tears filling her eyes. She never stopped, shooting down the staircase and slamming the front door in a panicked escape.
I walked slowly into the bedroom, where Ian was pressing his face into his pillow, crying. Even when he thought that his family didn't give a toss about him, it still hit him this hard not knowing whether they were safe.
It took him a couple of seconds to notice my presence, then he wobbled to his feet and bawled at me. “What?! I don't care... Just go and get that damn idiot before she hurts herself! She's... She's too good for any of this shit.”
I wanted to say how much we needed him with us, but I couldn't waste any time... I doubt he'd have listened to me in his current condition, anyway.
Before I knew it, I was tumbling down the stairs and skipping four at a time with growing haste. In the next moment, I was frantically scanning th
e breezy street outside for any sign of Beth. Nothing seemed to have changed since we'd entered the house, although the evening was steadily approaching.
The Lost had started appearing in the windows of various houses, the occasional one finding its way through an open window or gate and crawling out into the barren street.
“Beth!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, not caring how many Lost heard me. I ran the full length of the street until I noticed it. A dim, red glare coming from one of the ground-floor windows.
Her flare...! I threw my body against the house’s front door, immediately regretting that my weaponised metre stick was left behind in Ian's living room. I’d have to cross my fingers, and hope that no one inside was hungry.
I kicked my way into this stranger's house, flailing my arms wildly around each corner to stave off any attackers. My eyes caught wind of Beth in the darkened living room, curled up behind a plastic plant as she shimmed herself away from an unknown figure hidden by the couch.
She dove towards me as soon as I called her name, hugging me tight and swivelling around my leg to distance herself. Whatever happened in here, she seemed traumatised by one particular spot — the place where the flare was emitting its burning light from.
Edging myself closer, I was both relieved and shocked to piece it together. The red stick was upside-down, buried into the top of a Lost woman's skull. I glared at the small girl in disbelief, speechless as she continued hyperventilating.
The tears streamed down her blood-covered face, unrelenting as she fidgeted with the mallet she'd used to penetrate the flare through her assailant's head. “Don't worry, Mister.... I killed it. Now she's with mummy and daddy, right?”
13 | Nights Like This
Thankfully the water was still running in the kitchen, as I cleaned the blood from Beth's cheeks and hands. Relieved that it wasn't her own, I sat her down at the kitchen table while I searched the house for any useful items the previous occupant may have procured.