by Ryan Casey
“I’m not giving up,” Gina said. “That’s not what this is. This is doing what’s right to make sure you get out of here. The exact opposite of giving up. And if you don’t get out of here, you’re going to sink, too. So you’ve got to go. While you can.”
“But it’s not fair.”
“Life’s never been fair. Not before the EMP, and certainly not now. You know that by now. But we’ve got to be rational here. We’ve got to accept what’s in front of us. You’ve got to go, Kelsie. You’ve got to get the hell out of here. And you’ve got to let me help you, too.”
Kelsie wasn’t sure what Gina was referring to there. But there was a smile on her face. A smile like she had a plan. Had an idea.
That look in her eyes that used to be there.
The human look.
“Save your dog,” she said. “Save your baby. Get yourselves out of here, all of you. I know what I have to do now.”
Kelsie stood up. She looked to her right. The tide still approaching from afar.
Then to the left. The Outsiders racing their way. Closer. Closer.
Then she looked down at Gina as she sank gradually further into the sand, and she threw herself towards her and wrapped her arms around her.
“I’m sorry we lost our way,” she said.
“Kelsie, you don’t have to—”
“I’m sorry we fell apart so easily. But we’re here now. Here like we were, right at the start. This… this is who we are. This is what makes us strong. This is why we’ve made it all this time. Not violence. Not fear. This.”
She felt Gina hug her, just a little.
Then she patted her arms and pushed Kelsie back as tears flowed down her cheeks.
“Go on,” she said. “Do what you need to do. And I’ll do what I need to do.”
She stood up again, then. She looked at Arya Jr. At baby Holly.
And then she looked back at Gina through tear-filled eyes, and she forced a smile.
“I’ll never forget this,” she said. “I’ll never forget what you did. For me. For my… for my family.”
And then Gina looked back at her like she was going to argue she didn’t deserve it, something like that.
But she just nodded her head and forced a smile in return.
“Good luck, Kelsie. You stay safe.”
Kelsie didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to walk away. She didn’t want to leave her here. She wanted to keep fighting. She wanted to keep trying. Like Gina had told her—she was a fighter. She never gave up.
But this was fighting, now.
She saw that.
This was the only option.
She looked into Gina’s eyes and saw a lifetime of mixed experiences flash between them
“Goodbye, Gina,” she said.
And then she turned around, Baby Holly in arms, Arya Jr by her side, tears rolling down her face, and she ran.
Chapter Forty-One
Gina watched the tide close in from one direction, the Outsiders closing in from another direction, and she knew what she had to do now.
She was at peace with what she had to do now.
The morning sun was bright. Beautiful, in fact. For all the places Gina thought she might die, she never imagined a place so beautiful.
Not that anywhere was ideal. But she was at a point of acceptance now. She was in a position of ease now. At peace with what she was doing. About what was coming. About what was going to unfold.
She took a deep breath and looked down at her body. The entirety of her legs had been engulfed by the sinking mud now. She knew that moving was only going to make things quicker, make things worse. Better to stay here. To stay here until the Outsiders got here.
And keep an eye on Kelsie, Arya Jr, and baby Holly disappearing off into the distance, too.
She had hope now. Hope, as they closed in on those boats. Hope that they could find a way out of this mess, out of this chaos, before it was too late. But at the same time… she knew a lot of the success was riding on her. She knew a lot of the hopes and the expectations of Kelsie were riding on her.
She’d failed her too many times already. She’d failed herself too many times already.
It was too late to let that happen again.
She thought back to Emilia. To how innocent she was despite the world she’d grown up in. And Gina was partly responsible for that world she’d grown up in. She was responsible for the violence of her home. For the ruthlessness of the things she had to witness.
And there was Romesh, too.
Her grief over her daughter had hardly given her time to even mourn her husband. And she felt guilty for that, too. So much guilt over so many things.
He was her rock.
He was her moral compass.
He was the one who could break through to her even when she didn’t think her mind could be changed; that she could be remotely swayed.
She saw the Outsiders approaching, and she realised something. They were approaching faster than the oncoming tide, which made her wonder just how quickly the tide was approaching at all, or whether it was just some kind of illusion. It wasn’t as close as it had first appeared. But it would still be here soon.
She just had to hope she’d timed this right.
She just had to hope she was on the right track.
She closed her eyes. Felt tears building as she thought about the world she was leaving behind. The world she wasn’t going to witness. But then at least she could go out on an act of kindness. For all the loss she’d caused… at least she could go out with an act of selflessness. An act of generosity.
An act without ulterior motive.
She opened her eyes again, and she felt her stomach sink.
Because she felt something else.
Her legs.
They were sinking.
Sinking even further.
She was going to be gone before the Outsiders even got here.
She wasn’t going to be able to act.
She tried to hold strong as the sinking mud tightened around her. That’s one thing they never told you about sinking mud. It wasn’t smooth. It wasn’t something that swallowed you with ease.
It was suffocating.
It was tight.
It was brutally, bone-crushingly intense.
She tried to hold on, but there was nothing she could grab hold of.
She was losing her grip.
She felt something else as she sank deeper, then. Something that alarmed her more perhaps than anything else.
Because as she sank further below… she swore she felt a cold jet of water.
Water from the oncoming tide.
She lifted her head as the sand swallowed her stomach, and then her chest, and then her neck. She spat it free as its grittiness started to fill her mouth. Every breath made her choke, and every choke made her struggle, and every struggle made her sink further and further down.
She tried to keep her eyes on The Outsiders. They were so close now. So near to her.
And they were getting closer.
But not close enough.
Not quick enough.
She took one final push above before her head sank under. One final attempt.
And then she felt something.
She lifted. She raised. Just a little, but enough.
And when she did, she saw the Outsiders were right near her after all.
Right before her.
She went to sink down, and she felt something.
Someone grabbed her by her hair.
Someone dragged her out of the sand. Hard.
They looked at her. Looked down at her with those goggle-covered eyes. All eight of them.
“Your friend,” the man said. “Where did your friend go?”
Gina took as deep a breath as she could, the sun blinding her eyes, and as the tears rolled down her face, she smiled.
“Somewhere you won’t be,” she said.
She spat a mouthful of sand at him.
Then sh
e looked to her right.
It was only then that the Outsiders started to lift their heads.
That they started to look towards the oncoming water.
Oncoming water only she was aware was approaching because of her experience on this coastal walk in the past.
“Oh sh—”
The water slammed against Gina with a force unlike any she’d felt before.
She felt it cover her. Surround her. Drag her down into the mushy sands below.
But before she closed her eyes, she saw something. The Outsiders. Being dragged down too. Being washed away too.
And in that moment of total devastation for these people… in that moment which Gina knew full well would be one of her last… she couldn’t help smiling.
She saw Emilia in her mind’s eye.
She saw Romesh standing by her side.
Waving.
She saw Kelsie and baby Holly in a new home, somewhere far away, happy.
Her real family.
Not the one she was born into. The one she’d grown into.
She smiled.
At least I could do one thing.
And then she closed her eyes, and she let the water slip into her lungs.
Chapter Forty-Two
Four Hours to Go…
Kelsie looked back at the sea behind her, and when she didn’t see anyone there in the water, she felt safe at last.
But at the same time, there was bitterness.
Because she knew that as well as the Outsiders, Gina was gone too.
The morning was rolling on, baby Holly in her arms, Arya Jr by her side. The last ones left. Another warm day. Another beautiful day. A day that she knew full well could be her last. Just like Gina.
Because there was no predicting what might happen. There was no knowing how things might progress.
There was no knowing when your time was up.
This wasn’t a story. This wasn’t a case of the closer she got to the boats, the more of a chance of survival there actually was.
Because she could get to the boats, and something could happen. There could be people there. There could be a problem starting the boats. There could be any number of problems, all mounting, all building.
But there was no way of knowing. So she had to do what she could to get to those boats and then just take things from there. To do what she could from there.
She looked over her shoulder again. She was reaching the final section of her journey. She’d done well to make it this far. The sinking mud was mostly behind her, and the sudden burst of a tide had missed her. She was walking in water, though. Enough water to be concerned about. But also enough water that she’d be able to ride a boat on it, too.
If that’s what it came to.
If that’s how close she got.
She kept on going because she knew there was hardly any time left now. A matter of hours, of which she was losing track. Besides, there was always a chance that the timings were wrong. That they weren’t exact. So she wanted to be there with plenty of time remaining, plenty of time to go.
She walked closer to the shore when she saw movement by the side of the boats.
She stopped. Came to a halt. There was no hiding here, not in the wide open.
She just had to wait. Baby Holly in arms.
She just had to bide her time.
She just had to hope.
She saw that movement out there. Saw them lift their head, whoever they were. Look out at her. And even though she was too far away to properly make out who or what it was, she felt like there was eye contact made. That the pair of them looked at one another.
And then she saw the figure disappear towards the boats.
She froze, still. Wasn’t sure where to go. Wasn’t sure where to look.
And then she realised she was going to have to make a move. Because next time, she might not be so lucky.
So she made a dash as quick as she could towards the shore.
It took her about an hour to get there. An exhausted hour. A tired hour. An hour of wondering who had got into that first boat. Of where they were heading.
Because the closer she got, the more it looked like there was nobody around the boats.
It looked like they were deserted.
And it didn’t look like there was anybody else around, either.
She made a move for the edge of the shore. Looked up at those boats. There was nobody on land. Which meant she had an opportunity here. She had a chance.
And she had to take it.
No matter what, she had to take it.
She took a deep breath, and then she made a break for the first of the boats.
It wasn’t anything large, anything major. A little black boat powered by a single motor. She’d never driven a boat before, so she didn’t know exactly what to do. But then she lived in a world that involved a lot of fast learning. This was just another element of that.
She jumped inside it. Made sure baby Holly and Arya Jr were okay. And then she went over to the motor. It looked like some kind of pull string that started it.
She puzzled over it for a few moments before pulling the string.
Nothing happened.
She cursed. Looked around at the other boats. There were plenty of others, so she’d have an opportunity to try them of course.
But still. She didn’t want to gamble with time. She didn’t want to take any risks. She wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.
She tried the string again. But again, nothing happened. Again, nothing worked. She wondered whether she was messing up somehow. Getting something wrong.
But then she wondered how much else was there to it?
There must be something wrong with this boat.
She’d have to try another one. It was her only option right now.
She took a deep breath and brushed her hands through her hair.
Then she went to climb out of the boat.
But as she did, she heard something.
Something that filled her body with fear.
Footsteps.
Footsteps from behind, approaching the boats.
She backed up against the boat. Held her breath. Held baby Holly in her arms. Chest tightening. Heart racing.
Then she looked around the side of the boat.
When she saw what was there, she wanted to disappear into a hole in the ground immediately.
There were Outsiders. Six of them that she could count.
She moved back behind the boat. Closed her eyes. Took a few deep breaths. Time really was of the essence now. It was really running out.
She held still. Held quiet. Because she had to keep calm. She had to get to the bottom of this. She had to figure something out.
But most of all, she couldn’t let those people know she was here.
She was about to shuffle to the left when she heard something that made her heart sink even more.
A noise.
Except it wasn’t just any noise.
It was noise from her.
From baby Holly.
At the top of her lungs… baby Holly let out a cry.
The footsteps came to a sudden halt.
The voices came to a sudden halt.
She was out of time.
They were onto her.
Chapter Forty-Three
Three Hours to Go…
Kelsie heard Baby Holly cry and felt like everything was falling apart.
The sun beamed down as she crouched there beside that stationary boat. The footsteps that had echoed towards her just moments ago had stopped. So too had the talking.
And she knew why it was.
The Outsiders.
They’d heard her.
They were onto her.
There was no getting away.
There was no escape.
She looked at the boat in front of her, and she realised she had two choices. Either she could stay put and face whatever wrath lay ahead, or she could climb into that boat. She could la
y low. She could hide.
She wasn’t sure it was really a choice. Not in all truth.
In the end, there was no way she could simply stay put.
She had to get away.
She went to throw herself towards the boat in front of her.
Threw herself over its side. Baby Holly in her arms. Hand loosely covering her mouth.
And then she heard Arya Jr land by her side. Lay low, just like she did.
There was no sound.
Just silence.
She lay there. Heart racing. Sweat dripping down her forehead. She was so close now. So close to escape. It would be especially cruel to see everything snatched from her at this late moment.
But then that was the world she lived in, wasn’t it?
It wasn’t a world that considered morals or ethics. It wasn’t a world that rewarded the people who made the right decisions.
It was an unpredictable world, and the only actions it rewarded were acts of pure survival. Take all the emotion out of it.
And even then, sometimes it wasn’t enough.
She lay there, baby Holly on her chest, still struggling to cry. Arya Jr by her side, panting, ears raised. And she could only listen to that silence. Listen to that deafening silence that by any account had to be filled at any given moment.
And then she heard the footsteps march towards the boat she was in, and she went totally numb again.
She tried to think. Tried to consider what to do. Tried to plan her next step. Because this was it. She was cornered. There was no way out.
All she had was her voice now.
And she was pretty sure these people didn’t forgive people based on voice.
She held her breath, her mind spinning, as the first of the Outsiders appeared over the side of the boat.
They looked down at her. Rifle in hand.
Then another appeared.
And another.
And all she could do was look back up at this masked person.
All she could do was stare up at them, and hope.
And all she wanted to do was say the words that came naturally to her.
To beg for her life.
But then something else emerged.
Out of nowhere… something else surfaced.
