“Where is he?” Stacie demanded.
“What, who?” Kaley said confused.
“Cain!”
Kaley turned to where he had been standing moments before but he was gone.
“Where is he?” she screamed.
“I don’t know, I…Had a vision…I didn’t see him…I don’t know where…You need to know this…”
“Fuck you, I need to know nothing you tell me anymore, you said he would be safe”, she hissed at her, “I want my son”.
“Your son?” Kaley asked, “But he’s Tanya’s not yours”.
Stacie’s face changed, she snapped her jaws and snarled at the girl, “Where is he, my son…He is my blood, my family, therefore that makes him my son whether I gave birth to him or not”.
“He is Tanya’s”, she stated and pulled her hair around her face, trying to get my eyes to focus into hers, to make me see her, to make me see Tanya, “He is mine”.
“Don’t you mind fuck me!” She howled slapping her and she flew in the air and fell back down to the floor with a sharp thud, “Don’t mess with my head Kaley to get what you want, you take me to him and I might listen to your fucking bull crap again”.
“Bull crap”, she hissed, “My so called bull crap will repair and save this god forsaken world”.
“Not unless I take you there”, Stacie snarled.
“No, not unless I take ‘you’ there”, Kaley repeated.
Stacie grabbed her by the throat, “Tell me, or get yourself there”.
“I don’t know, can’t you sense him?”
Stacie stepped back, in all her fury she had forgotten to look and search with her own abilities. She sent out her feelers and Kaley could feel them, a strange almost electrical current buzzed from the ground into her veins as she scanned the world around them, it reminded Kaley of her own abilities, similar but different. Stacie stopped and turned her head, “This way, he’s alive and he better stay that way”.
“He will, I’m sure of it”, Kaley smiled.
Stacie just looked at her like she had seen or tasted something vile, “He better be Kaley, because it was you who said it was ok to bring him. I would have left him at home otherwise…If he’s hurt or dies this is on you”.
Chapter Fourteen…
My rage was so intense that I didn’t care that I was hurting her feelings but at this moment in time I needed to find him.
Kicking the last few stragglers off Kian and Ruth and kicking myself for not using my feelers quicker I ran, my energy levels were now soaring sky high and I could feel him close by, his panicked heartbeat, his pulse beating wildly in his young veins, the fear as a lone animalistic figure stood by him as he tried to run through the building and hide. Tears welling up as he thought of dying and being alone, all he wanted was her, for her to come and rescue him. I shook my head and had to stop myself from stopping and pausing, had I just entered his mind? Or had I just imagined it? I looked at Kaley but she wasn’t looking at me, she just kept running. No I must have picked up something from her, I couldn’t look into people’s minds, not like she could!
We rounded a corner and came to a street with a large building, to me it looked like a city hall and for all I knew it could have been once but now it was a quiet building with its windows all boarded up and signs spray painted all over the boards in German so I couldn’t read it but I had an idea what they meant to say, I had seen warning signs of the infected inside buildings back home.
The street in front of us was bleak, the sewers had burst, and water had filled the roads, I couldn’t tell how deep as of yet but I was about to find out. Stepping into the first shallow area it barely reached my ankles but as I soon made my way in deeper it flooded to my knees and then to my waist.
“Which way?” Kian asked me worry in his eyes, I looked at him in wonderment, he hardly knew me or Cain but yet he had grown fond of us, wanting to keep Cain safe. Maybe it was just because of Cain’s age or maybe… It was because of me? I instantly shut that thought down, I didn’t need that right now, to be stupid, to feel stupid feelings once again. Stupid feelings get you killed, or worse… Infected. I thought back to me going to the hospital in Eastbourne, trying to find the antibiotics for Callum. Amanda being a royal cow-bag and causing me to become infected, all because of her stupid feelings for Callum and my own stupid feelings for him.
I looked away, “This way”, I pointed to the large city hall type building.
“He’s in there?” Ruth asked.
I nodded, “Yes”.
“Well then he’s dead”, Ruth snapped at me, “We need to go, there could be hundreds in there, we will all be dead and then Damien would have died in vain”.
I lashed out and grabbed her by the throat and plunged her head first into the water, her hands gripped mine, her nails tearing at my skin. Kian’s hands were upon mine pulling her back up. I shoved him away and gripped her throat again, “He is…my”
“He is not your son…cough…wheeze…He was your sisters I get it, you see him like your own…but I’m sorry but…we can’t all die for him…for you! We joined in because Kaley needs to get somewhere, and Damien died for that cause and I won’t let it be for nothing”, Ruth wheezed.
“Bitch”, I hissed and let her drop back into the water.
“Stacie wait”, Kian called as I walked through the cold and dirty water to the front steps, “She’s right…”
I turned so fast he stumbled back.
“Not about Cain…About there being hundreds in there, we need to think about this and do this carefully if we are to get Cain out”.
“I don’t need none of your help…I’ll tell you what, why don’t you all go and take Kaley to Svalbard and I will stay here with my…With my…”
“Say it”, a woman’s voice called out behind me.
I turned to see Tanya wavering in the gloom, her apparition glistening over the water’s edge by the steps.
“Tell them the truth, he is yours now…Your son…You love him like your own, he is your bloodline…They cannot understand because so much has been taken from them”.
“And me”, I whispered.
“And you”, she smiled and it reached her eyes.
“Why are you here again?” I whispered in a so soft voice I knew only she could hear.
“To tell you that when the time comes, you will know what to do”.
“To do what?”
But she vanished…A void of nothing stood in her place… Only a whisper of her in the wind, “Tell them…”
I came back to all of them, their faces puzzled by my sudden zooming out, “Son…He is my son and I don’t care what you all think I see him as mine. So, screw you if you laugh at me behind my back because he was born by my sister not me. And because she isn’t here now and I am, and that means he is my son until I can breathe no more”. And with that I ran through the water and up the steps, I ignored all their plea’s to come back, to work a way out to save him without getting them all hurt but I was gone. I was beyond caring for anyone else but him.
My feelers flushed the building and I could feel him on the second floor, he seemed to have locked himself in a room with a group of ten figures howling and whining for him at a closed door. I didn’t bother with knocking, I just kicked the front doors in, the wood splintered and shattered the hinges and they collapsed in front of me. I crunched over them as I walked in and found a small group of what were once upon a time monkeys most probably escaped from a zoo all huddled by the stairs, their eyes glowed in the gloom from outside and they charged. The one closest to me was still what I would call fresh, it’s hair was long and black and swayed with grease as it moved, its teeth broken but sharp, its fingers caked with old blood. The monkey howled and I swung out my claws and sliced its leg clean off, it tumbled down to my feet and I smashed my foot over the skull until it was nothing more than jellied brains. The next few came and I snapped ones neck, ripped ones throat out and tore another limb from limb.
BANG! A doo
r behind the staircase flew open and around twenty all charged out, I readied my body even though I knew I didn’t have time for this but I couldn’t let them all out to the others, I just wasn’t that cold hearted.
Bend, snap…Kaley’s power flared but it was weaker than I had felt it before, the front two dropped down like flies but the others kept coming. Kian let off a few rounds and Ruth too came in fighting swinging a blade into the crowd.
Kaley stepped in through the door and gave another small blast. “Go we can hold them”, she huffed holding the side of her head, she was worn out already, I could see it in her, she was going to collapse soon.
“Kaley?”
“Just go”.
I done as she said and raced up the grand staircase and again to the second floor. The hallways up here were not so packed as downstairs but there was a few to contend with.
“Help me!” I heard Cain cry out from a few rooms down.
I charged, my heart pumping fast to keep my legs going, rounding the doorframe I came face to face with a snarling monkey man whose teeth I made quick work off, chopping his lower jaw clean off and kicking him into the others.
“Cain!”
“Stacie…I’m in here”, I looked to see his small fingers curled around the door of a closet, trying his hardest to keep them from getting in but they were stronger than him and winning as the door opened more and he stumbled out. I grabbed the one to my left and launched it out the window, the glass trickled down like rain, but it didn’t hit the floor before another one followed it out. I slashed the last few just as the one holding the door let go and launched for Cain, but he lifted his arm and greeted it with a gunshot to the head.
He looked pale and was shaking, I moved the body and helped him out, “You ok? Did you get bitten?”
He shook his head, “No, your blood…it worked for a while but I went in the water and it wore off but it worked. Your smell hid me”.
I smiled, “That’s great”.
I felt a small sharp whiz of power and then screams.
“Come on, time to go”. We ran down the stairs and came to a blood bath, Kian had Kaley over his shoulder still trying to shoot them off and Ruth was slashing her blade at the monsters cradling a bloodied arm. The scene played out in slow motion as the creatures closed in on them, backing them into a corner. I felt so angry deep inside, I couldn’t let this happen.
I felt it escape from my lips, a roar so loud everyone looked at me, my friends below me and the creatures too. Charging down with Cain in my hands I howled again and bared my teeth, putting him down I showed my claws and howled the loudest yet, so loud the whole place fell into silence. A few of the creatures hissed at me but most began to back off, edging back to the hell hole door that they came from. I roared again just for effect and they all screeched and scurried off. I marched over to the door lifting it back up and then pulling a large cabinet and placing it in front of it. It wouldn’t hold them for long but maybe enough for us to run.
I turned to see all their eyes on me, “What the hell was that?” Ruth stammered, her face paling.
“I’m in charge now, that’s what happened”, I stated, “What happened to you and to Kaley?”
“I got bit, one of the fuckers launched at me but I guess…you know…shit happens… and I’ll be seeing Damien sooner than I thought”.
“I’m sorry”.
“Don’t lie, you and that kid planned all this, you needed us to join you so we could take the brunt and be the ones who got killed and bitten”.
“If it’s any consolation I’m already…”
She cut me off, “I already fucking know, you’re infected. Whoopti-flipping-do”. Her face contorted with pain as she held her bleeding arm, “And what I don’t get is that you can’t ‘die’, so why the hell didn’t she send you not him and why was she so freaked out about you when you fell back there?”
“I don’t know, but I will ask her when she wakes. What happened to her?”
“Passed out after using her power, but look at this”, Kian said motioning to me to come and look at her, “Here”. He lifted her collar to her jacket and I gasped in surprise.
She was infected…Which wasn’t a surprise I knew she was but…it was happening like it did to all the creatures, the infection was spreading through her veins like an inky poison and her flesh was decaying with it, with other infections getting in and breaking down her muscles and eventually her organs. I lifted her eye lids and sure enough her eyes were jaundice, a pale yellow now but I knew it would get darker with time.
“How?” I whispered.
He shrugged, “She’s been getting weaker, when we split up we had to stop for her, she pretty much collapsed and couldn’t use her power, when the people at Rue De Leff got us she tried but there was nothing, no juice in the tank”.
“But she got stronger, so much so that she could use it without…Without this…without collapsing”
“I guess we will have to wait till she wakes up to ask her” Kian stated.
I nodded, “Yeah but now we need to get out of here”.
“Look”, Cain said from the front door.
We all walked over and saw what he was looking at, a boat, tied up to some old railings. Not a big one but big enough to carry us all and since the rest of this part of town looked flooded it was a god send.
I left Cain with Kian and waded through the cold murky water to reach the boat. It was a small one but had a petrol powered engine to power it and steer it and after checking the tank I saw it was full. It was strange how the streets here had become more like Venice than Hamburg but the boat would be a welcomed transport. As I untied it from the railings I felt a prickle of something wash over my skin, a feeling of something…Watching me.
Something then spiked my senses, other nasties were coming this way. Making my hands work harder I untied it as quickly as possible just as I was about to take my fingers away from the railings I could feel hot putrid breath on my cheek. Looking up slowly I came face to face with a wolf, an infected wolf which had lumps covering its fur and chunks missing from its decaying torso. Letting my claws out I stood my ground and watched it, for a moment it studied me, snapping and snarling its teeth.
“AHWOOOOOOO”, another howl sounded out behind it, a command and the wolf lunged. I lifted my hand up as it pounced over the railings and sliced its belly open which caused its insides to plop out all in the cold murky water. As it landed in the water I drove my claws home and severed its spinal column. Just as it’s body began to sink in the water more howls sounded and the sound of rushing clawed feet.
Jumping in the boat I pulled the cord to start the engine but nothing happened. “AHWOOOOO”, my now trembling fingers pulled at the cord again, and again and again until finally it boomed to life.
“GET IN THE BOAT!” I screamed out as I steered it towards them. They didn’t need to be told twice as Kian launched Kaley in then Cain, followed by him giving Ruth an leg up and then he finally jumped in just as the loud crashing of water as the wolves jumped in to get at us.
“What the hell our wolves doing this far down?” Ruth spluttered as I steered us away from them.
“Their infected, their hungry and they could once probably smell the alive humans that lived here, just now they’re all dead and they could only smell us”.
“But the snowy mountains are miles away!”
“Animals hunt to survive, they just broadened their hunting radius”, Kian added.
“So where to now?” She asked, her face pale and her lips shivering as she watched the wolves sink in the distance. Howling in frustration at their meal floating away.
“Kian take this”, I said making him steer, “First we clean you up and then we somehow get back on track”.
Night time soon came and we decided it would be wiser just to stay on the boat, me and Kian took it in turns to keep lookout until the sun rose up revealing another day. By midmorning we had made it to a road which was no longer covered in water which
made the boat become redundant. We all climbed off and carried Kaley who still hadn’t woken up yet, this was strange and making me worried, why wasn’t she awake yet, normally she had a sleep and recovered fine but this? This was different.
As we walked through another part of Hamburg we came across an old car park and Kian along with Ruth set about checking some of the cars. It seemed like over here they had more fuel than they had let on, many of the cars still had petrol or diesel in the tanks and after a while of tweaking with one they got a Volkswagen van started and loaded everyone inside. Kian drove out of Hamburg and through many towns, stopping only for the odd toilet break, supply run or if an obstacle needed to be moved out of the road. We were making good time and within two days we had made it to the boarder of Sweden.
There was still the sign of winter here, snow still covered the ground and Kian nearly lost the van on two occasions due to black ice until it finally gave up just by Norway’s boarder. As he cursed the van and kicked it I just sat in the bed of the van watching Kaley, she was still breathing strong, her heart was beating in her chest and the infection didn’t seem to be getting any worse, but she still wouldn’t wake up. It had been three days now.
“Stacie, I don’t know how much longer we can go on”, Kian said as he climbed into the van, his breath curled into the cold air making steam shapes around me, “Ruth is bad, she hasn’t got long she looks awful I’m surprised she hasn’t turned yet and Cain is freezing”.
“Ruth has a high resistance to it her body is working so hard to fight it. I think she will last a little longer. Plus, like you said the virus over here was different, maybe it takes longer to infect fully, or the cold has slowed it down?”
“Maybe?” He shrugged, “Look I guess I’m trying to say is, that I don’t know how we are going to get Kaley there. She still isn’t awake and…Well she is meant to be the one to fix all this”.
One (Alone Book 3) Page 20