The Last Fight: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Surviving the EMP Book 3)

by Ryan Casey

  Candice wasn’t much better.

  And Jack… Jack was putting on a brave face, but Emma could tell from the look in his eyes that what had happened had changed him deeply.

  It had broken him. And it wasn’t going to be an easy fix.

  “Anyway,” Jack said, clearing his throat. “Yuri has put some supplies together for us. Some bug out bags for on the road. Should be enough to last us a few—”

  “Are you sure about this?”

  It was Bella who spoke. She had been similarly affected by what’d happened these last few days. She went through phases of being really talkative, and others where she was deathly quiet and barely showed her face.

  Right now, she seemed edgy.

  “Sure about what?” Jack asked.

  “Leaving this place,” Bella said. “Giving it up. After—after everything. Are you sure?”

  Jack looked around at the fields. Emma knew what he was worried about. The people out there. The ones who had set the fire, the ones who had made the shout what seemed like forever ago. Yuri warned them about those people.

  But then he looked at the barns. He looked back at the farmhouse and he sighed. “No,” he said. “But I think we all need a fresh start right now. We all need a chance to begin again. Even if it’s in a place nowhere near as nice as this. Right?”

  Bella looked like she was going to say something else. Then she stopped. Nodded.

  “And Yuri made it perfectly clear. You can stay here. Any number of you can stay here, if that’s what you want.”

  There was a pause. A moment where Emma felt like people might turn on Jack. Because it was a big thing to just give up. It was a huge gamble. A large part of her wanted Jack to fight for it.

  But in the end, nobody spoke.

  “We’re with you,” Candice said. “We’ve got your back.”

  She smiled at Jack, and Jack smiled back.

  Hazel still barely looked at Jack.

  He looked around at Emma, then. He hadn’t spoken to her much. But she sensed there were conversations to be had. There were things they would talk about. That he was guilty for how things had turned out.

  But then the time would come.

  Just not now.

  “What happened with Logan and us,” Jack said. “What we… what I did. And what we lost. We can’t take that back. We have wounds that’ll never heal. But we can’t let it ruin us. We can’t let it destroy us.”

  Hazel looked around at him.

  Before she could speak, Jack continued, “I’ll never forgive myself for some of the decisions I’ve made. But… but I can’t regret them. Logan made his choice. He was mixed up. He was human, just like the rest of us. But he had to go. I can see that now.”

  Emma felt knotting in her stomach.

  “I’ve learned my lesson,” Jack said. “And I think all of us should. And that’s this. We should trust other people. We should give other people the benefit of the doubt. That doesn’t mean condoning their sins. It doesn’t mean lacking ruthlessness when it’s needed. That’s never a recipe for success. But… but it does mean being willing to communicate. Being willing to reach out. I can see now. I’m—I’m sorry it’s taken so much division and so much loss for me to see, but I can.”

  Emma’s heart raced in her chest. She could see Jack looking at her when he said these words.

  “Wayne made me promise something,” he said. “To do the right thing by everyone. And to look after you as well as I can. All of you.”

  Hazel looked down. Wiped her eyes. Smiled.

  Jack continued: “And Logan made me promise something, too. He made me promise to trust in other people. He made me promise not to give up. And if I can learn anything from any of this… it’s that trust is more important than anything. That there’s no good side. No bad side.” He looked over at Bella. “Everyone is someone else’s villain. But it also means that there’s a chance for everyone to be someone else’s ally, too.”

  They all looked around at him as he stood there. Nobody objected. Nobody stepped in. Nobody intervened.

  “So if you’re all with me… today’s the day we start again. Today’s the day we move forward. Together.”

  There was a pause for a few seconds where nobody moved.

  And then Candice walked up to Jack’s side.

  She nodded. “Count me in.”

  Bella followed shortly after, Mrs Fuzzles in her arms.

  And then it was just Hazel and Emma standing there, together, waiting.

  “You can always say no,” Jack said. “This isn’t a dictatorship. Remember that.”

  Emma looked at Hazel.

  Hazel looked back at her.

  And then together, right on cue, they walked over to Jack’s side.

  They stood there, all of them, watching the sun rise over this beautiful farm.

  And Emma felt sadness for them at saying goodbye to it.

  But also she felt an optimism.

  Because this was their chance for a fresh start.

  This was their chance for a new beginning.

  This was their chance to start again.

  “Come on then,” Jack said. “Let’s get packed up. There’s somewhere I want to go first.”

  Jack stood over the graves and took a deep breath.

  It was a beautiful morning. The sun had risen. They’d set off an hour ago.

  But there was something he wanted to do, first.

  Somewhere he wanted to be, with everybody.

  And that was right here.

  He looked down at Wayne’s grave, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.

  “I’ll never forgive myself for what I did,” he said. “But I’ll never forget the last words you said to me. And I’ll do that. I’ll do that. For you.”

  He stepped back from the grave. Back to Hazel’s side.

  She took his hand.

  And then he turned to another grave.

  A grave he’d dug beside Wayne’s.

  Something he wasn’t comfortable doing. Something that tore him in two.

  But something he knew he had to do.

  “And I’ll never forgive you for what you did,” Jack said, looking at this second grave. “But… but I know we were at war. I know it was as much on me as it was on you. And I’m sorry you got caught on the wrong path. Logan.”

  Hazel loosened her grip, just a little.

  But he saw Emma nodding at him, a few tears in her eyes, as all of them stood there together.

  He stepped over to the third cross then. It wasn’t Jean’s grave, but it was her memorial. It was important she was remembered here. It was because of her that they were here in the first place.

  “I’m sorry for what I did,” Jack said, struggling to say the words. “But I want you to know we’re together now. After everything. We’re together. Two sides. All of us.”

  He wiped his eyes.

  “And we always will be,” he said.

  He looked around at his people. Hazel. Candice. Bella. Emma.

  Then he looked at the animals. Villain. Mrs Fuzzles.

  And then he looked back in the direction of the farm, over towards Yuri and his people, and then at the trees ahead.

  He took a deep breath of the warm, late spring air.

  “Come on,” he said.

  It was time for a new start.

  It was time for a new beginning.

  It was time for the next journey.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The woman waited until she was absolutely sure the group of five disappeared from view before moving.

  She stood up. Looked over at the direction they’d come from.

  Heart racing.

  Hunger pangs gnawing at her stomach.

  She looked around, over at where He would be, and she felt emptiness inside.

  She turned away. Swallowed a lump in her throat. Wiped her eyes.

  She didn’t want to think about that.

  Not right now.

  Not again.

&
nbsp; She looked down at the hunting knife in her hand.

  Then at the direction the group headed in.

  She’d watch them.

  She’d monitor them.

  And then when the moment struck, she’d do whatever she had to do.

  Because this was survival now.

  She looked into the reflection of the knife and saw a face staring back.

  A face that scared her.

  Because it was her own.

  And she didn’t recognise herself anymore.

  She put the knife into her pocket.

  Brushed her long, greasy hair from her eyes.

  And then she set off walking into the woods, slowly in pursuit of the group of five people and two animals.

  She had work to do.

  Want More from Ryan Casey?

  Surviving the Blackout, the fourth book in the Surviving the EMP series, is now available to pre-order on Amazon: http://smarturl.it/SurvivingBlackout

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  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.

  Copyright © 2019 by Ryan Casey

  Cover design by Damonza

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Published by Higher Bank Books