by Casey, Ryan
He wanted to stand by her side.
But then he felt that rival urge, even stronger than before.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the perimeter.
That’s when he heard her voice.
“Noah?”
He looked around.
Saw Iqrah lying there. Eyes open. A sadness to her face. Tiredness to her voice.
She tried to stand, then reached for her ankle and winced.
He tightened his fists. Heart racing. Every instinct in his body telling him to get away, screaming at him to flee.
And then he shook his head.
Walked over to her side.
Lifted her over his shoulder.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
He looked back towards his caravan, towards his place of solitude, towards his home.
Towards Edward’s grave. Barney’s grave.
And then he took a deep breath, and he walked off into the distance.
It was time for a new journey, whether he liked it or not.
Chapter Eighteen
Noah walked into the woods with Iqrah over his shoulder, and he felt worried about the few signs of life he’d actually seen, especially so close to the main perimeter between them and No Man’s Land.
The rain was torrential. Mud climbed right up his jeans, cold and wet. There was a greyness to the sky, like it was late in the day, even if it was only afternoon. The sound of thunder rumbled overhead. Somewhere in the trees, Noah heard birds singing. The occasional shuffling of animals. But no humans. No infected. Nobody.
He held on to Iqrah. She was awake now. She kept on trying to talk, something he was keen to hold back on, keen to resist engaging in. He didn’t want to open up to her. Didn’t want her to see inside his soul. Truth was if she hadn’t woken up under that tree where he’d left her, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go on this journey with her. He was on the verge of going his own way. Just him and Bruno, together on the road, in search of a new start. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he craved. Especially so soon after Barney’s death, which he’d still not yet been able to process properly.
He just needed space to think. Space to breathe.
But he didn’t have the luxury of space right now.
“You were going to leave me when I passed out. Weren’t you?”
Noah looked down at Iqrah. Her wide eyes stared up at him. Her voice sounded so child-like, so vulnerable. “Get some rest. You look exhausted. The sooner we get to Blackpool, the better. But we’re going to have to find a way to sort this ankle along the way.”
“You would’ve left me. Even with everything you knew. Wouldn’t you?”
Noah stopped. He didn’t want to have this conversation. But he figured it was a conversation he needed to have.
He rested Iqrah by a tree. She stood a few times. Walked a little better on that ankle, but still too slow for Noah’s liking.
He watched her wade through the thick, slushy mud, and he wanted to ask so much about her. There were so many questions. So many things he didn’t understand.
But everything came back to one question.
“What Alfie said. The guard back there. About you being more dangerous than I think. What did he mean by that?”
Iqrah looked at him, then. Wide-eyed. And it suddenly struck Noah that of course this kid was going to be distant and a bit fucking weird, to put it lightly. She’d been locked away for God knows how long. Experimented on. She’d been through hell. Hardly going to be a warm bundle of joy from the off. And he didn’t want that anyway, did he?
“What do you think he meant by that?” Iqrah asked.
“Well I saw what happened with the infected. The strength you have. The power. Much… much stronger than mine, anyway.”
“Wait. You have it too?”
“That’s not what we’re talking about here.”
“But—”
“The guards. Alfie. You made them turn, didn’t you? You did that. You had control of that. You had the power to do that.”
Iqrah stood there. And then she swallowed a lump in her throat, quite visibly. “I don’t know how I do it. Just… in moments where I’m scared. Or when I don’t have any control. Sometimes it just… happens. But you’ll know. If you can do it too, you’ll know.”
Noah looked away. He didn’t know if he could actively infect anyone. But the more he thought back, the more he wondered if maybe it was possible.
Moments of fear. Like when the cannibals gnawed at his arm.
And then the incident at the quarry, back at Warton Crag. He told himself at the time he’d brought the infected there, so naturally, they’d done the infecting.
But what if that wasn’t entirely true?
What if he’d played a large role in all that, too?
“They’ve tested on me for ages,” Iqrah said. “They’ve tried all kinds of things. But they never work. And when they get bored of me, they’ll just kill me like the rest of the kids.”
Noah nodded. He didn’t want to be a cynic, but he’d seen how these groups worked. Especially back at the compound, all those years ago. Anything in the name of controlling the virus, no matter how ruthless or brutal it might be.
“How did you get here, anyway?”
Noah frowned. “Huh?”
“Here. How did you get here? What’s your story?”
Noah thought back to his past. He played his story in his mind, right from losing his brother as a kid. Falling in love with Jasmine. The anxiety. Everything that followed.
He thought of all the hurt in his life, and the reason for it.
Attachment.
Connection.
Always leading to loss. Always.
Maybe some people were just meant to be alone.
“Doesn’t matter how I got here,” Noah said. “What matters is getting you walking again. Then getting on the road.”
“Does that mean you’re coming to Blackpool with me?”
He looked into Iqrah’s eyes, and he wanted to say “yes.” He wanted to commit. He wanted to face up to his fears and join her on this journey. Because it was a dangerous world out here. And there were going to be many people after her. People, and infected.
He looked over into the distance. He knew the perimeter was close. The second perimeter of the day. A more guarded one, too. More populated. And he knew there was still a chance he could survive in these woods here. Lay low. Hunt. Camp. Fish. People did it. They survived—for a while, anyway. He could be like them.
But then he looked at Iqrah, and he took a deep breath.
“I can’t promise I’ll come all the way with you. But I’ll help you. ’Cause, like you, I don’t care much for these Society fuckers. And if I can get one over on them, that’s motivation enough for me.”
Iqrah smiled up at him. “Good to know your motives are in the right place.”
He lifted her to her feet. Pointed ahead. “Go on. Try walking. Let’s see if we can get you moving again.”
She took a few deep breaths. Winced, as she put one foot in front of the next. A little ropey. But better. Improved.
And the more she walked, the more she smiled.
She looked back at Noah. Big brown eyes stared back towards him. “I feel a lot better already.”
Noah smiled at her. “Looks like you were making me carry you for no reason. Now come on. Let’s get heading towards that perimeter. It’s not gonna be easy.”
“But we’ll make it.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll make it. Won’t we?”
Noah looked at Iqrah. Then into the woods.
Tensed his fists and took a deep lungful of air.
“We’ll make it,” he said.
He stood by Iqrah’s side, Bruno standing on the other side, and a ray of sunshine beamed through the thick grey clouds above.
And then, together, they walked.
Chapter Nineteen
Shelley Carter stepped inside the caravan
on the outskirts of District 42 and sighed when she saw the dead body of her colleague lying across the bed.
It was a torrentially bad day. The rain didn’t seem to be letting up. The heavens opened first thing this morning, and it hadn’t stopped pouring down since. Thunder rumbled overhead. Occasional bolts of lightning snapped through the air, flashing like flash photography.
Shelley Carter saw the body on the bed of this dark, dingy caravan and shook her head. His name was Elijah, apparently. She’d never met him personally, but he was one of the guards from District 43, and he came with high recommendations.
The caravan he was inside looked like it belonged to some swampy tramp. Flies buzzed around everywhere. The air reeked of BO. The hatch on the caravan roof was wide open, and the plastic flooring was loose and squelchy with trapped water.
But the main thing that caught Shelley’s attention was Elijah’s body.
His face had been blasted to pieces. Looked like he’d been shot with a rifle, probably much like his own. The mask covering his mouth had shattered, sharp fragments wedging into his skull. His one good eye stared up at her, dangling slightly from the socket. It looked like there was still life in there. Like he was still shocked, even in death, staring up at an unexpected fate.
She closed his eye as well as she could without bursting the eyeball, then turned around and walked out of the caravan.
Outside, she saw three of her people. Navy, Blake, and Gerschwin. All good troops. All very committed and dedicated to the cause. Served the Society well over the years.
But this was different. A whole different level of case.
The girl they were after. Iqrah Shah.
She was a bit of a mystery. But one thing was for sure. This kid was special. And she was dangerous. And that was something the powers that be were very keen to reiterate.
“The guy who lived here’s called Noah,” Navy said, walking up to her as she stood at the side of the caravan, staring off at the footprints leading around the back. “Reclusive type. Real loner. Keeps out of trouble, although there are a few records of him stepping outside the confines of the district. No major breaches. Certainly nothing like this.”
Shelley followed the footprints around the back of the caravan. Held on to her rifle. “This Noah chap. Any family?”
“Just two dogs, apparently. Nobody really knows his past. Like I say, not a talker.”
“Nothing to suggest he might make a rebellious move to kidnap a girl like this?”
Navy sighed. “Gotta see it from his perspective, Shelley. We’ve no idea what the girl’s told him. But there’s no denying she’s special. Maybe he’s seen that, too. Maybe he wants her for herself. Stranger things have happened, you know? But anyway. We’re doing more digging on him. Trying to figure this guy out. See if there’s any historical records. You never know.”
Shelley nodded. She looked down at the tracker in front of her. Iqrah was a way ahead of them. But she wasn’t uncatchable. Not for a hunter like her.
“The guy is irrelevant,” Shelley said. “We find Iqrah. We get her back. And we make this Noah dude regret ever crossing us.”
Navy nodded.
“Now come on,” Shelley said. “It’s getting late. No better time to hunt than in the dark.”
She turned around and walked through the squelchy mud, alongside the footprints in the dirt.
She thought of capturing Noah and Iqrah unawares, and she smiled.
There was nothing more thrilling in life than a good old fashioned hunt.
Chapter Twenty
Noah stared through the trees at the perimeter and wondered why the hell everything was so quiet.
It was late. Him, Iqrah, and Bruno had been walking for the best part of a day. They were still deep in the woods, well away from the towns and cities that formed new societies. Better to stay out of the way. It had its disadvantages, of course: there was no knowing just when you were going to stumble upon a smaller community.
But so far, so good. Too good, in fact. It creeped Noah out. Especially when he knew someone would be closing in on them both. Pursuing them. Chasing them down.
The rain had stopped a while back. The air was cool, not humid in the slightest. There was a strange sourness to the air. Smelled like something rotting. He didn’t know what. Didn’t like to think about it. Usually, that was a smell he associated with the infected, so it didn’t exactly fill him with confidence.
He crouched in the mud, Iqrah by his side. Bruno panting between them. Looked ahead at the perimeter and wondered whether this was something he really wanted to do.
The perimeter was far better formed than the initial warning one right near his caravan. That was just a few markings of yellow paint on trees, a “soft border” as they referred to it.
But this was different. A tall metal fence. Usually manned by guards, who always watched it . The districts were split up into several sub-districts. There were around eight that Noah knew of around the country. This was one of them.
Which meant it would be far more difficult to cross.
Theoretically, anyway.
“Aren’t these places supposed to have people on them?” Iqrah asked.
Noah looked around at her. Felt like she was reading his mind. “Yeah. I thought that too.”
“Then where are they?”
Noah looked over his shoulder. Saw the trees staring back at him, totally still. The woods were too quiet. Too silent. And yet he couldn’t shake the feeling there was someone in there. Someone close behind. Watching. Just waiting for their perfect opportunity to strike.
“We can’t get hung up on why there’s no one here,” Noah said, trying to convince himself over anyone. “Fact is, there isn’t a soul in sight. We’ve got to take advantage of that. Might not get a better chance. You coming?”
Iqrah glared at the fence. Looked up at it with those big, wide eyes.
“Iqrah? Are you coming?”
She looked around at Noah. And for a moment, for just a split second, he swore he saw something else in her eyes. Something he hadn’t seen, not throughout any of their sagas so far.
Something like pure fear.
Like he was looking at Iqrah’s real face, underneath some kind of mask she wore.
But then she stood up. Walked over to his side, moving a lot better on that twisted ankle now.
“I guess we’ve got no choice,” she said.
Noah thought about that. No choice? He had a choice. He could hand Iqrah over. He could end this madness. This wasn’t his duty. It wasn’t his responsibility.
But then he thought about Alfie, and that Elijah dude lying dead on his bed, and the other guard in the woods.
He took a deep breath. Sighed.
He was in way too deep to turn back now.
He went to take Iqrah’s hand, then he stopped.
Lowered his hand. That resistance so strong inside him. That urge not to reach out, not to touch her, not to make any form of contact.
Because contact was the shortcut to connection.
He lowered his arm. Felt his cheeks flushing and knew damn well Iqrah would see it, too.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. Just… let’s get on with this, okay? No time to waste standing around here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, okay? Now… just shut up. Seriously. I’m gonna get you where you need to go. I don’t know whether that’s on the road or to Blackpool yet.”
“But you said—”
“I said what I said. This is what I’m saying now. Are you coming? Or am I going to have to drag you over that fence? ’Cause we don’t have time to waste here.”
She looked up at him, and in her eyes, he saw his own coldness, distance, and detachment reflecting back at him.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
And then she walked alongside him, over towards that fence.
Noah held his breath as he stepped up and towards the fence. He kept on checking ov
er his shoulder for a sign of someone watching. Scanned the perimeter for signs of life.
But it was empty. Totally vacant. Abandoned.
And he didn’t like it.
“So how are we supposed to get past this thing?” Iqrah asked.
Noah looked up at the fence. No chance he could climb it. Not with one hand. Besides, Bruno wasn’t going to climb it himself, either. “Probably should’ve thought about that before we got here. We’re gonna need something sharp. Something to cut through.”
“And where are we going to find something sharp in the middle of the woods?” Iqrah asked.
“It’s a fair point.”
He looked down the length of the perimeter and wondered if it was too late to turn back. He could leave Iqrah here. Let her climb it herself. And then she could go her own way, and he could lay low again, and—
“Wait. You see that?”
Noah squinted. “What?”
“Through the fence there,” Iqrah said, pointing. “Is that what I think it is?”
Noah didn’t know where Iqrah was pointing at first.
But when he saw it, his eyes lit up.
A man lay dead in the long grass. Flies buzzed around his bloated corpse. He looked like he’d been there some time.
And in a way, it just added to the eeriness of this whole situation. Noah hadn’t been into the No Man’s Land before. You went there, you weren’t supposed to step back within the walls of a district because you were deemed too much of a danger. If you wanted to transfer between districts, you followed a very strict path.
But that path was an impossible one for them to take towards Blackpool because it would be so well-armed.
But this man. Lying there in the grass. The smell from his bloated corpse filling the air.
He was dressed in green, and he had a pair of hedge cutters in his grip.
“Well talk about lucky,” Noah said.
“I think we deserved a bit of luck,” Iqrah said, smiling.
“I mean, I wouldn’t get too excited. Unless you’ve got some telekinetic powers you’re hiding from me too.”
Iqrah stepped up to the fence. “Unless…”
