Wren slid the bag from her shoulders and rushed forward, keeping far enough away from the swordswoman so that she had room to work but making sure to grab the attention of the next attackers. The two creatures stormed towards Wren as another pair emerged onto the roof. “There are too many of them,” Wren screamed.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than an arrow glided past her ear to the top of the staircase and yet another monster vanished. For now, that didn’t matter. What mattered for Wren were the two beasts bearing down on her. She looked at the duct-taped spear-headed mop handle in her hands. This is madness. The monsters would reach her at the same time. She couldn’t afford to bury the spear into one of them so it became irretrievable in the time she had to deal with the other. Still more beasts hit the roof and began to charge. We’re screwed. We’re totally screwed.
Wren twirled the spear, forcing the rounded butt against the chest of the smaller creature, then skipped to the side to avoid the stretching fingers of the second beast. The first monster jolted backwards but did not topple as she had hoped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mila kick out hard as three creatures converged on her at once. Another arrow split through the air as still more rampaging monsters charged onto the roof. Wren drew her attention back to her own situation and twirled the makeshift spear once more, this time thrusting the point into the reaching creature’s temple. It flopped to the ground, and Wren withdrew the weapon and immediately harpooned the second creature before it had the chance to gather itself fully from her initial move.
Mila felt like her entire body was coated in sweat. A seemingly never-ending army of monsters continued to appear, and while they were managing to hold them for the time being, she could feel that the tipping point was fast approaching. She thrust her foot into the stomach of another attacker as a second continued towards her, but then what she feared all along happened. One creature she felt sure was heading towards Wren changed direction and lunged at her. She swept the blade in her left hand around sharply, and it sliced off the monster’s arm, but the sword lodged in its ribcage. Such a strike would render any living, breathing human useless, but not so with these things. It continued, as did the first attacker. “Aaarrrggghhh!” She fell back as they converged at the same time.
Mila landed heavily on the ground, and the beasts stumbled on top of her. She could smell their foulness. The rotting, putrid stench coated the inner lining of her nose and clung to the back of her throat. It brought stinging tears to her eyes as she realised this was the last thing she would ever smell.
chapter 27
Everything was unfolding like one of those speeded-up black-and-white movies. Robyn could barely process what she was seeing as the whole situation descended into utter chaos. Her arrogant words, Let’s do this, echoed in her head as she saw her sister fending off another attack and one of her friend’s swords spinning out of her hand and across the rooftop while still more monsters stormed from the fire escape. She fired another arrow, and one of the creatures collapsed, causing another to stumble.
As good and as fast an archer as Robyn was, arrows were not going to win this battle. She slid the rucksack and quivers from her back, dropped the bow, and sprinted forward, booting the head of one of Mila’s attackers then ducking down and grabbing the sword. In one swift, balletic movement, Robyn twirled, bringing her arm up deliberately and powerfully. The blade cut a diagonal chunk from one beast’s head, and she immediately brought it back down at an angle, slicing through the ear of another. Both ghoulish figures dropped like stones, and Robyn thrust out her foot hard, sending a third beast then the one directly behind it crashing to the ground.
She leapt forward, chopping through the skull of the first downed creature, then felt a presence by her side. The duct-taped spear came into view, spiking the next attacker and then her sister’s foot swept around fast, knocking the feet from another.
Robyn brought her blade up once more, a lightning-fast vertical strike; the blade disappeared through the creature’s open mouth and burst through its skull. So fast, so vicious was the movement that she felt barely any resistance to the razor-sharp metal.
✽ ✽ ✽
Mila continued to grapple with the second beast. She could not get her one remaining sword around, so she dropped it, instead relying on her brute force and anger, the latter of which was mounting by the second. The pallid face hovered over her as she tried to force it back. Its yellow teeth and dark, grey, sickening gums flashed nightmares as it opened and closed its mouth. Mila blocked the creature’s arms as it tried to hook her with its fingernails. “AAAGGGHHH!” The volume of her shout surprised even her as she grasped the monster’s clothes tightly and rolled. The beast slumped onto its side. Its head banged against the surface of the roof, dazing it momentarily, before it began to writhe and flop like a beached shark.
It was all the respite Mila needed. She sprang to her feet, grabbing the katana blade as she rose. The creature began to scramble, but Mila swiped down, and the struggle was over. She turned to the other creature that Robyn had booted in the head. It lay still on the floor. Mila could not be sure if it was dead or merely stunned, but she stabbed it through the temple just in case. She was about to take a breath when a chilling scream made the blood in her veins turn to ice.
“Bobbiii!”
Mila shot around to see Robyn taking on three creatures barely two metres back from the fire escape and more continued to appear, but it was Wren who was in the most trouble.
✽ ✽ ✽
Wren’s spear lodged in the chest of a six-foot-four behemoth. She had aimed for his head, but as he launched towards her, she needed to adjust her angle, and as two further creatures closed in too, it felt like her heart was about to explode.
The cry of help to her sister went unheard as she had her own problems to deal with. There was no time to turn and run. The massive figure carried on, forcing her back as she frantically tried to free the spear from its broad chest. The other two pounced, and all Wren could do was watch in horror as six grey, grabbing hands closed in on her. She opened her mouth to scream again, but all that came out was a frightened gasp.
✽ ✽ ✽
Robyn wanted to help Wren more than anything. The frantic plea she had heard just seconds before stoked a fresh fire of determination inside her, but all she could do at that moment was deal with the three zombies heading straight for her. She swooshed the blade to the right, carving through one creature’s temple, making it collapse in a heap, and was about to leap back to give herself time but caught sight of still more would-be attackers. She clutched the grip of the sword with both hands. “Aaaggghhh!” She brought it back around with the force of a juggernaut. The shining blade sliced through the neck of one creature, causing the body to drop and the head to go spinning in the air like a rugby ball; then it continued, lodging momentarily in the skull of the other. Without hesitation, Robyn heaved the sword out again, hearing the bone crack further as she did.
She brought it back up just in time to deal with the next group of beasts. She was little more than a metre away from the metal platform at the top of the fire escape as she swished the blade up and to the left while simultaneously kicking out with her right foot. It was an ugly series of movements, and she stumbled forward before she could right herself, but the effect was more than she could have hoped for. The blade rendered its target still in an instant, but the kick sent the second creature hurtling backwards. She brought the blade back around again and this time skewered the third monster through its right eye before watching the fruit of her efforts unfold.
✽ ✽ ✽
Wren felt a hand grab the scruff of her neck. A second later, she was flying backwards while Mila charged in front of her. The katana blade blurred as she mercilessly cut down the pair of beasts on the flanks before dealing with the behemoth. She was the sole target of its attention now as Wren landed heavily on her buttocks, skidding back across the roof.
The spear still protruded from the
monster’s chest, but it continued forward toward the swordswoman. Then, with a flash of her blade, the massive beast thudded to the floor, making the whole roof tremble.
✽ ✽ ✽
Two creatures flew back over the safety railing while still more toppled down the stairs. It was the first time since the three girls had reached the roof that there was not a constant barrage of undead attackers charging towards them. Robyn risked a glance behind her and saw Mila in battle pose having just chopped down a giant zombie, while Wren was hurrying to her feet. Robyn ran to the platform at the top of the fire escape. The creatures were still tumbling. “My bow and quivers, quickly,” she shouted.
Wren snatched the weapon and arrows off the floor and sprinted across to where her sister was standing, just as the fallen beasts started to gather themselves. “I really wish I had my crossbows.”
Mila came across to join them, and Robyn handed her the other sword then nocked her first arrow. The creatures began to run up the staircase once more. Robyn waited until there were a few then fired at the first, making them all topple again. Each time they tried to do the same thing, Robyn would fire until there were so many obstacles she was no longer firing under pressure. Within two minutes, it was all over, and Robyn stood there looking down at the slain beasts. Wren and Mila joined her at the top of the staircase, and all three stood in silence for a few moments. The sounds of the horde a few streets over and the growing inferno continued like white noise in the background. The smell of smoke drifted on the air, threatening a wave of ferocious, fiery fury to come, but right now the three girls just needed to catch a breath.
Eventually, it was Wren who moved down the staircase while the other two watched. She carefully and methodically collected the arrows, wiped each one off on whatever clean swatch of cloth she could find, and then headed back up the fire escape.
“Thanks,” Robyn said as she took the arrows and placed them back in the quivers. They moved from the fire escape onto the roof and looked at the lifeless bodies around them. The fear had numbed their senses to everything, but as the adrenaline gradually began to wear off, the pungent stench of death assaulted them.
Robyn slid her rucksack onto her shoulders. Mila cleaned her blades and placed the swords back in their scabbards, and, finally, Wren went across to collect her spear. The pointed end was stained red, and no amount of wiping would clean it off, but it would suffice until she got back to Safe Haven and could find a new weapon. She looked inside the bag. There was virtually nothing left inside. She placed the straight-edged screwdriver in her belt and handed the remainder to Robyn to place in the rucksack. From here on this rooftop, the journey out of the city would be quick and relatively danger-free. She longed to throw her arms around Wolf, she longed to see her grandad and friends once again, and now she knew that she could do it with her sister by her side.
The world would never be perfect, but her little part of it was as perfect as it could be. There was still a big fight to come when they got back to the coast, but there was optimism and a feeling of happiness inside Wren that she had not felt for the longest time. There was so much she wanted to show her sister. There was so much she wanted to say to her, but that would come later. They would have time when they were back home. They would have time for everything. She snapped out of her daydreams and surveyed the devastation on the roof. “Well, that was … an experience,” she said, looking towards Robyn then Mila with half a smile on her face.
“Yeah. We should totally do this again sometime,” Robyn replied.
Mila was silent for a few seconds then said in a hushed voice, “I thought I was going to die.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to that feeling,” Robyn replied.
“I’m serious,” she snapped.
Robyn let out a long sigh. “So am I. Listen, there were like a hundred different times Wren and me could have been screwed today. It’s just life out here. If you head into harm’s way, then harm is probably going to find you at some point.”
“So, this is what we have to look forward to from here. A life of doing nothing but avoiding death. It does not sound like a good way to live, Robyn.”
“It isn’t.” It was Wren who spoke this time. “It was the way I lived for a long, long time, Mila. I made the best of it, but every day was a battle. Every day I hoped I wouldn’t get spotted by one of those things or, worse still, people. There are a lot of types out there who, even after all this, are only interested in themselves. Then, one day, I met someone. Then I met some of his family and friends, and they took me to their home by the sea, and I found that there are still good people out there, that there is still hope for a future.”
“A place like this exists?” asked Mila.
“Yes … well, kind of. They had their own battle and, to be honest, I think they’ve got an even bigger one to come, but it will be worth it. Because in the months I’ve lived there, I’ve never felt threatened or scared in the same way that I do out here. I’ve never been belittled or undervalued. I’ve never felt like there was danger lurking around every corner and I’ve never felt like there was no hope. Life’s not perfect, not even close. But it’s good, and it’s worth living.”
Mila looked at her, and the despondency was gone from her eyes and from her tone now. “I would like to live in a place like this.”
“Good because I’m going to take you there. It’s called Safe Haven, and with a bit of luck, it’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives.”
The End
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Acknowledgements
A massive thank you to my other half, Tina. A better wife and friend I could never wish for. Without her there would be no books; there would barely be a sentence.
Thank you to the members of the fan club across on Facebook. A friendlier and more supportive bunch I could never wish for.
Huge thanks to my editor, Ken, and a very, very big thank you to the wonderful, Christian Bentulan for another brilliant cover.
Finally, a great big thank you to you for buying this book. I will never take a reader for granted. As much as I hope people will continue to read my work, I will never expect it, and I will always be grateful.
A note from the author
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The End of Everything | Book 8 | The End of Everything Page 22
