After Tomorrow: A CHBB Anthology

by Samantha Ketteman

  All of their effort was wasted. Some of the shadows were already upon the man and girl, and stopped to drag the pair back, kicking and fighting, towards the tree-line, but the rest of the pack kept moving onwards. Nolan watched in horror as the remaining creatures bounded gleefully towards the men by the door.

  Next to him, Mellissa sobbed and tore her eyes from the scene, burying her head in his chest. Looking away himself, Nolan tried to fight his own body betraying him as it shook, stroking her hair and holding her close. When he mustered the courage and looked back down, the outside was clear, dark bloodstains and broken glass the only evidence that anything had happened at all. Severed at the elbow, the first man’s arm dangled out of the open front door.

  Mellissa asked something, her voice muffled. The fingers of Nolan’s left hand gently stroked her cheek as they reached around to the back of her neck and he carefully lifted her face. Her eyes were wild, puffy pink, and unashamedly broken and panicked. Nolan leaned in and kissed her gently, his thumb trailing downwards over the cheekbone. He hoped that Mellissa didn’t sense how close he was to her same state of mind. She kissed him back, their lips meeting, and he felt how soft and fragile she was beneath his touch.

  “Are they inside the building?” It was a murmur through their kiss, but her words were no less potent for it.

  “Yes.”

  Their foreheads touching, they shared a moment in the following silence.

  Nolan was the first to break it.

  He looked around the room, reaching for clothes. He rationalized that the most important thing would probably be to barricade the front door whilst they decided what to do next. Mind racing, two options occurred to him. Either wait there or try to escape. Neither seemed immediately superior to the other.

  What are we waiting for by staying? Rescue? By whom? If we leave, where will we go? Where would be safe enough to escape from whatever those things are?

  His phone’s face had cracked on the floor when he had dropped it, and jagged lines outlined dead spots that blocked half of the screen. Struggling to navigate the on-screen menu, he tried to call his parents. There was a dead tone on the line. The same flat beeping greeted every other number he tried.

  It would be of no use to him in finding any answers or contacting the world, it seemed.

  By the time he came back to the bedroom, Mellissa had turned the television on. She sat transfixed to one of the news channels, as a frightened reporter tried to remain calm and talk into a camera. With no time for makeup and his composure lost, he looked very human indeed, frail and bewildered and not like any confident, flashy newsmen ever had before.

  Whatever was happening had become global. There were images of city streets from capitals all over the world, grainy smartphone pictures and shaky videos of the devastation, of people running and tripping over each other in their terror to get away from the creatures that hunted them.

  In one decisive moment, man had been replaced as the alpha being on the planet, no longer in control of his destiny. There would be nowhere to run.

  “We need to get out of here.” Mellissa’s voice was quiet and subdued, still shaky.

  “And go where?” Nolan tried to keep irritation out of his voice and failed.

  “Anywhere! Don’t you understand? They’re here, in the building! We need to get out of here and away to somewhere that they won’t find us!” On her knees on the bed, she wrung his shirt in her hands, pleading with him. Nolan saw then that she wouldn’t be recovering her senses any time soon. He couldn’t blame her. None of them would be able to easily return to a calm state of mind after the night’s developments.

  He tried to pry Mellissa’s white knuckled fingers away from him. “I’m not sure that we have much of a choice. There isn’t a guarantee that anywhere out there is any safer than we are here.”

  “Please.” Tears ran freely down her pretty skin. He kissed one away, tasting salt.

  “Liste—“

  There was a loud thump from the floor below, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood and a scream, a piercing cry that cut abruptly short a few seconds later.

  Their minds were made up for them.

  III. The Descent

  The Aftermath in the Ruined City, Date Unknown

  Only lit by the moon overhead, the subway promised more of a thinly veiled threat lurking within its depths than any sense of sanctuary. Ordinarily, Nolan wouldn’t have been able to justify passing through it. Since the sundering, underground areas had become dangerous places, dark voids lost to the living.

  He looked around at the desolate streets. Here, the earthquakes that followed the end of the world had hit the city hard. None of the buildings were whole and significant structural damage was evident in the angles that they leaned against each other. Several had simply collapsed completely, leaving immense piles of brickwork, steel girders and detritus in their wake.

  The debris covered the streets, and where the concrete below was visible, great cracks in the earth left treacherous traps for the unwary, each a gaping crevasse that was a tear in the world down to its core. He couldn’t see any way through from where he was, other than the subway. There was a high probability that was even blocked, most likely suffering more than one cave-in given the destruction wrought above ground.

  At least it would provide him with shelter. He had spent the day walking, one weary foot after another, and for the last several hours, his eyes had been blurry at the edges. Mechanically his body still functioned, but Nolan knew that he would have to stop soon and sleep.

  The girl agreed with him. Together, they descended into the depths below the city.

  The steps were covered in a layer of grime and fine dirt, making them slippery. Nolan took them one at a time in the fading light, carefully testing the next one with an outstretched toe as he went. Twice, the brickwork broke away as soon as he put weight on it and loudly clattered downwards, bouncing from step to step, tumbling ever down until it hit the bottom with a brittle crack that made him wince.

  Eventually, the treacherous descent ended as he reached the base of the steps, joining the dislodged bricks.

  The lights were on down there, as they had been with the bar. Set into the wall, they struggled to hold back the darkness, each one casting a small oasis of illumination that was quickly lost in the surrounding gloom. What little light existed was still better than nothing, and Nolan had lost his earlier sense of disbelief at the sight of them. As he had travelled through the city, sporadic streetlights had still blinked in and out, defying logic. It had fast become just another of the city’s mysteries that he couldn’t hope to ever solve.

  Nolan could see the floor before him clearly, as well as the crude graffiti painted on the tiled cream walls. Urban decay sat alongside natural deterioration, tiles having fallen free from their places to shatter into ceramic spikes, leaving old dried dirt behind them in their space on the wall.

  There was a ticket office over by the turnstiles, its door smashed from its hinges, and the inside clearly gutted by looters. As Nolan approached, he detected a smell emanating from within, and he knew that he would find a corpse inside. He didn’t stop to look.

  Lifting heavy legs over the cold metallic bars of the turnstiles, Nolan continued through the mezzanine and past the large maps on the walls. He was at the 18th Street Station. Stopping to cast an eye over the stops, he saw that his destination was about eight stations away, on the Eastern line. Most of the signs were grubby but still legible, leaving him to easily find his way to the correct staircase leading down to the platform level.

  

  It seemed colder down on the platform, a subtle drop in the temperature that nonetheless left him pulling his coat tighter to his body. More evidence of what had afflicted the city above was apparent. Across the way, on the opposite side of two sets of tracks, Nolan could see that the ceiling had collapsed in and blocked the stairwell down, as well as spilling out lumps of earth and broken stone onto the platform. Post
ers and their frames had fallen from the walls, the backs of them strange white squares that looked out of place. He couldn’t make out much more, but thought he might have seen a shoe poking out from the rubble.

  On his side of the tracks, it was thankfully far less ravaged. As above, tiles had fallen down and broken on the gritty floor, and two of the light fixings in the row along the platform had burnt out. One of those that remained flickered, more off than on. Somewhere within the depths of the tunnel, an amber light shone out of the inky blackness, small and almost lost. The area smelled of earthy, dank mold.

  The lonely platform was clear otherwise, undisturbed. Nolan walked along it, looking at the posters on the walls. Where once they had been gaudy, they now adopted a sepia tinge at their edges, the bright colours washed out. In the low light, some of the happy faces and cartoons seemed sinister, perhaps because he had long since forgotten what real smiles looked like. Nothing was sincere, unless it was the rictus grin on a skull. Mankind didn’t have anything much to smile about.

  He stopped to look at one poster, a vista of a beach, with gentle waves lapping at the shore. A happy couple looked back at him from the picture, damp staining over the woman’s face discolouring her and making the paper crinkle. Somewhere it read about paradise, but Nolan stared at the woman. Something at the edge of his mind whispered to him, a feeling that he couldn’t quite place.

  It was not quite a memory. Akin to that, but different. He wondered if the distorted face looked familiar to him.

  “What the hell?”

  The voice startled Nolan from his reverie, shocking him back to the world. After so much silence from the world above and the darkened subway station, the sudden sound left him shivering, back straightened and a flash of adrenaline coursing through him to heighten his senses.

  “How did you get here?”

  The owner of the voice was a disheveled man that had crept out from under the stairwell where Nolan had entered. He had thought the man a bundle of rags initially, as he was wrapped up in a heavy knee length coat and woolen jumper with dirty stained trousers cut off around the ankles. He stank of sweat and excrement, making Nolan’s nose pinch involuntarily, even more so as the disgusting scent of the man’s breath washed over him. The man was furious, his expression hard and eyes flashing with dangerous rage.

  “This is my place!” He was shouting, his voice echoing along the platform, and he produced a knife from the recesses of his coat, waving it in Nolan’s direction. It looked dull, not at all shiny in the light, but wicked sharp nonetheless and no less deadly.

  “Wait!” Nolan held his hands up in a placatory gesture, stepping backwards. “Wait, please. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

  “Then why did you come here?” Spittle ran down the man’s chin.

  “I don’t understand. I just walked in.” Nolan nodded at the stairs. “Just down the steps, looking for the best way to Nation Park.”

  “Nation Park?” The man seemed confused. His words were softer. “I don’t know any Nation Park.” His eyes darted from side to side as if thinking the words through, over and over. “Did you come from… there?” The knife was pointed above them.

  Nolan followed the path of the blade, a metallic pointer in the darkness. “The city? Yes.”

  “How is it now?” Calmer, the man slowly lowered the knife to point at the floor. Nolan tried not to agitate him again by forcing himself to look at the man’s face and not follow the knife.

  “It’s a ruin. Everything lost.” Nolan spoke with the resigned sigh that all humanity used, dreaming of their yesterdays.

  “Hmm. And what about them?” There was something new in the man’s eyes. A cold, dead levity and little else.

  “Them?”

  “The devils. Them that rose out of the floor during the sundering.”

  Nolan shuddered, involuntarily remembering it. “I haven’t seen any. I was warned that they’re still here though.” He assumed that had to be what the other stranger had meant.

  “You bet they are. Bastards never left any place until they got everyone that they could and turned us all to ashes.” The man’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. He walked off along the platform past Nolan, who stared at his back.

  “But they never found me, oh no. Hid down here away from them, from everyone, from everything. This is my place now.” Suddenly, the man turned around to face Nolan again. “Are you going to stay here? I don’t think that’s wise.”

  “I couldn’t possibly. I have to get to Nation Park.”

  “Good. There isn’t any space for two of us, and you’re not supposed to be here.”

  Everyone kept telling Nolan that. He wondered why they all ignored his silent companion.

  “No, I don’t think so either, any more than you do.” Far off, Nolan thought he could hear a faint rumbling noise.

  “Good. You’re not, I am.”

  The new sound was growing louder, hard, alien, mechanical clattering accompanied by a whistling wind that ran straight down Nolan’s shoulders towards the base of his spine. He knew that it would be a train, even before the lights appeared.

  “What is this?” Even after everything else, it seemed too unreal.

  “What do you mean?” The man just pulled his coat around himself, as if it were perfectly normal. “What did you expect to find on the tracks but a train?”

  The first carriage came into view, muted grey and dull blue, and caked in black grime. One headlight shone brightly through the darkness, the other vacant. Nolan couldn’t see a driver in the cab, the brightness of the solitary headlight forcing him to shield his eyes with his hand until it passed. The carriages flashed past the pair as they stood on the platform, separated from each other by just a few feet. The light from inside of the cars cast slashes of bright white colour over the man’s face, lending him a sinister look, his features seeming to bend and elongate as his mouth grew into a lopsided, manic, joker smile, and shadows pooled under his eyes.

  “How did this come to be? It doesn’t make sense!” Nolan had to shout to hear himself over the noise of the shrieking wind and the carriages as they passed him.

  “I’ll give you, I haven’t seen one for a fair time.” The man pursed his lips, staring right away from the light. “They used to come through here for me a long time ago. Reckon this one is for you.”

  Nolan wasn’t sure that he liked that idea. The train was grinding to a halt, breaks making harsh atonal noises as they skidded over the rusted rails beneath, the wind dying down. No more was said as the men both watched in silence. Finally, it ceased moving completely and a pair of doors opened, in front of where Nolan stood.

  He stepped one foot in hesitantly, looking to either side of him. The girl followed without mention.

  The inside looked as Nolan expected, the same as any subway car had, with faded old posters and seats with cigarette stub marks in them from years past. It was deserted, bare even of lost possessions. Overhead, the strip lighting seemed steady, harsh and artificial pale blue. In one of the windows Nolan could see his own distorted reflection staring back at him, lit unflatteringly. His other foot left the platform and stepped onto the car.

  “Well then.” The man remained on the platform behind him. “That’s done. I don’t know who you are or how you got here, but best be on your way. Good luck finding your Nation Park. This is my place.”

  Nolan didn’t reply. The doors hissed and shut between them, rolling together and closing with a quiet bump. The train began to pull away slowly but soon gathered speed, and the man disappeared from sight.

  

  The man watched the train depart, turning his body to follow its passage through the tunnel. “This is my place.” He whispered to no one but himself, repeating the phrase like a broken machine.

  He began to walk back to his den that he had made for himself under the stairs, thinking about the stranger that had found his way down, and what it might have meant. He stopped dead as something occurred to him.


  “Wait!” Even though he said the word out loud, he knew that it was too late. The train was long gone, not even the lights visible within the tunnel, just the same black void that was always there.

  The man slumped heavily against one of the pillars, sighing. He stamped a foot in anger before closing his eyes and massaging his temples with his fingertips, creasing the skin.

  Behind him, cracks began to appear along the pillar’s white tiles, out from the centre, fast spreading silently across the whole surface, before fracturing and splitting into several trails. Each widened as they ran, thicker and thicker, until the space on the pillar was entirely black and shadowed. Thin strings that dripped darkness snaked out, coiling themselves gently around the man, until it was impossible for him not to notice.

  His eyes snapped wide open. “You led them here to me!” He struggled, frantically writhing and snatching at the threads as he tried to pull them from his limbs. Despite his efforts, more shadows wrapped tightly around him, clasping against his clothes. For each he broke, another would already have ensnared him elsewhere on his person.

  It was a hopelessly one-sided battle that he could never win.

  Slowly, as he screamed curses that became a strangled gargle, on the empty platform with no one to witness his demise, he was dragged into the darkness.

  IV. Last Escape

  The Apartments, the Night of the Great Sundering

  Nolan looked at Mellissa questioningly. Gulping, failing to fight how her body trembled so, she nodded her head a fraction. Nolan drew her close, smelling her at once, her scent the remaining vestiges of her perfume and shampoo, sweet in his nostrils.

  “I love you.” It was the quietest whisper he could manage, only an almost incoherent rumble, really.

  Mellissa mouthed it back to him, and he felt a tiny burst of warmth spread before the horror of the moment dragged him back again. Cautiously, he opened the door to their apartment a crack and glanced outside onto the landing.