“You deserve better.”
“She’s my mother,” Tom replied sharply.
What were they talking about? Chris scratched her head. Her thoughts were jumbled, in the wrong order, disconnected. Her hand found a tender lump on the back of her head. Had she been hurt?
Was that why she’d lost her memories?
She touched her cheek and winced. An image flashed through her head. A pharmacy with a broken shopfront window.
She’d been attacked. They’d been hurt. She and Maggie.
Maggie.
“But you promised,” James said, his lower lip poking out.
“I’m sorry. But James, please listen to me?” Tom waited until the other boy met his eyes. “Your mum knows where the farm is. If she had been able to, she’d have come here.”
“What are you saying?”
“Just stay with your dad, James.”
James wrapped his arms around Tom and buried his face in Tom’s shoulder. Chris watched his shoulders shake. “I miss her so much.”
Tom held him for a long moment, then patted his back. “Take care of yourself. Perhaps I’ll come back one day.”
“I can’t believe you’re actually leaving.”
“I can’t stay.” Tom shook his head sadly. “Not with her.”
“I understand. It’s just…” James sighed. “Never mind. Take care.” He whistled for the dog to follow him and together they trotted back in the direction of the farm.
It was sad that they were leaving, but Chris didn’t know why. She swallowed. “Where are we going?”
Tom didn’t reply. He set off towards the main road.
James is Tom’s friend. Why were they leaving? Had something happened? Chris dug through the confusion raging in her mind. Something floated up. A name.
Adam.
Her insides twisted at the name, but why? “I saved Adam,” she whispered, and Tom slowed, almost as if considering stopping, then quickened his pace again.
“I saved Adam,” she repeated, more confident this time.
Tom shifted his backpack, adjusting the straps and waited for her to catch up with him. Chris reached for his arm, but he pulled it away as if the thought of touching her nauseated him.
“I saved Adam,” she told herself.
“Adam’s—” He stopped, turned to her and sighed. “Adam is fine.”
Something was very wrong, but she didn’t know what it was, couldn’t find it in the chaos of her mind. Something had happened, something significant, but she couldn’t remember. Her head throbbed painfully, a constant pounding that destroyed thoughts before they could make sense.
She pulled at her memories hidden behind the curtain in her brain, tried to establish what was real and what wasn’t. “Where is Dad?”
“He’s waiting for us at home,” Tom replied after a brief silence.
Why are we out here?
A pensive, almost sad look had fallen over Tom’s face. She wondered if it was something that she’d said. So much had happened, her mind was nothing but a cacophony of thoughts. A fleeting shred of a memory flickered at the edge of her mind. She reached out and it dissolved. “And Adam is fine?”
Tom smiled. “Adam is fine.”
Good, Chris thought. She’d at least done one thing right. “Are we going home now?”
“Yes, Mum. We’re going home.”
End
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Thank you for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
If you’d like to check out more of my work, have a look at my first completed series, The End We Saw. If you like your apocalypse with supernatural powers, and your characters driven by guilt and redemption, you’ll enjoy this fast-paced series set in London. Check it out now!
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Darkness Ahead of Us | Book 2 | Darkness Falling Page 17
