by E S Richards
Cain was kneeling beside her, his own knife still in his hand. Zahyra noticed his knuckles turning white from his grip and wondered how experienced he was in hand-to-hand combat. He still had his gun of course, but using that would alert more mutants to their presence and reduce their chances of escape.
Cain looked at Zahyra, a steely look of confidence mixed with apprehension in his eyes. Giving her a nod he started to move slowly out of their hiding place and further down the street towards where the mutants now stood on the corner. Taking a deep breath Zahyra followed, unsure of how the next couple hours of their lives would pan out.
They used cars for cover as they moved, creeping from one to the next as quickly as they dared. Twice Zahyra kicked a bit of rubble on the ground whilst out in the open and both times she froze, her eyes locked on where the mutants stood. Luckily neither of them looked her way, the sound thankfully not reaching them. Definitely not advanced hearing she thought, sighing to herself. When the two of them reached a car no more than ten feet away from where both mutants still stood Cain pulled Zahyra in close and whispered into her ear.
“Stay here. Watch. Let me know if anyone else comes.”
Zahyra’s eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open. She had no idea what Cain was about to do but as he moved off from where she crouched she realised he was going to confront them. Both of the mutants had their backs slightly to the pair of them, but there didn’t seem to be a clear way to approach without one of them noticing.
She watched as Cain skilfully crept ever closer to them, his knife glistening in his right hand. Then all of a sudden he burst into a sprint and ran straight towards the two mutants, still making close to no sound as he ran. Zahyra watched spellbound as he jumped in between them and slashed his knife clean across one of their throats.
Her legs trembled beneath her and her own blade clattered to the ground as she watched the mutant fall to the floor clutching his throat.
Zahyra sunk down below the back of the car when she witnessed this, images flashing through her mind of the dead girls she had found surrounding the bus after the crash. The horrifying look on the little girl’s face whose eyes had stared straight into Zahyra’s soul when she found her blinded her vision and she gasped for air as she hunched up against the car in front of her.
The way Cain had just killed that mutant without even giving him a chance had truly shocked her. She had expected it to happen of course, but she didn’t expect the first time she had witnessed death up close to be so impersonal and calculated.
Cain had killed like a trained assassin, knowing exactly where to stand and exactly where to pounce. The mutant hadn’t stood a chance. Hearing the sound of a struggle Zahyra managed to right herself behind the car and look again at the scene Cain had initiated. He was on the ground now, the first mutant’s lifeless body lying a few feet away from him. The second mutant was between Cain’s legs kicking his own legs in horror. Cain’s arms were around his neck cutting off his oxygen. Even in the dim moonlight Zahyra could see the mutants face turning pale, the energy leaving his legs and his body eventually becoming still.
Tears formed in Zahyra’s eyes at the murders she had just witnessed. She tried desperately to rationalise them to herself; they had been advanced mutants; they would have killed her if Cain hadn’t killed them first. But the truth couldn’t escape her that neither of these mutants had attacked them. Neither of them had shown any sign of violence or even that they were on a hunt. No, Cain had just crept up and murdered them mid-conversation and now they were lying dead on the ground because of her. All because of her quest to rescue her brother.
Full sobs began to shake through her body, causing her to hunch over and hug her knees to her chest. How many lives were going to be lost as a result of her brother being taken from her? When would she reach the point where the ends no longer justified the means?
With tears blurring her vision and hysteria causing her body to shake Zahyra didn’t notice Cain return to where she now sat. She did however feel him pull her to her feet and help her walk down the rest of the street, around the corner past the two dead mutants and into a building on the next street over. As he led her she continued to cry and shake her head, willing for what she had just seen to be a dream or something she had just imagined. Once they were safely inside the next building Cain sat her down on the floor with her back to the wall. He then sat cross-legged in front of her and took both of her hands in his.
“Hey, he said softly squeezing her hands, “it’s okay.”
Sobs still shook through Zahyra’s body and she refused to lift her head to look at him. Instead she kept her eyes focused on his feet until she noticed a blood splatter on his right shoe and then simply snapped her eyes shut instead. Cain stayed holding her hands for a couple more minutes then let go with one of them and instead took hold of her chin to raise her face up to his. Slowly Zahyra opened her eyes and looked at Cain, a mixture of hatred and thankfulness jousting for position in her head.
“They were part of the hunting party,” Cain said confidently and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a red armband, which he handed to Zahyra.
“If you see any mutants wearing one of these,” he looked softly at her, “they’re in a hunting party. Those mutants will kill on sight if they have to, okay? Those mutants are not safe.”
Zahyra nodded and sniffed back her tears wanting desperately to believe what he was saying.
“I wouldn’t have killed them if not. I promise.”
Again Zahyra nodded as she ran her fingers over the taught red armband. What Cain was saying to her made a lot of sense, and he did seem genuinely sincere.
“Promise?” She asked between sniffs.
“I promise.” Cain said staring into her eyes. He then took the red armband from Zahyra and slid it over his hand and up over his right bicep. “This should at least help us to get out easier now,” he said in reply to her questioning gaze, “are you ready to get moving? It’ll be sunrise pretty soon.”
For a third time Zahyra moved her head gently up and down, her ability to speak escaping her for the time being. Cain stood and then helped her to her feet.
“We need to get out of the centre before sunrise,” he said, “so we have to move fast okay?” He didn’t wait for Zahyra to respond but instead withdrew her knife from one of his boots, having salvaged it from the ground where she’d dropped it. He went to hand it back but Zahyra shook her head in response so instead Cain returned it to his boot with a reassuring nod. He then took her hand again and led her to the door of the building, peaking around it before walking out onto the street.
They ran in the opposite direction to the bodies, which Zahyra was eternally thankful for, not wanting to see those lifeless eyes peering up at her. Knowing that they had been part of a hunting squad made her feel a little bit better about Cain killing them, although she still wasn’t happy about it.
As they ran she admitted to herself that she was going to have to deal with her fear of death fairly quickly. She’d seen enough of it over the past week to come to terms with it, it was just the up close and personal killing that had shocked her. Her confidence that she could kill someone like that if she ever needed to was officially broken. However she resolved that if she couldn’t kill herself she was at least going to have to become okay with other people killing for her – although that thought didn’t bring her much peace either.
As they continued to run Zahyra tried to put all these thoughts to the back of her mind and focus on Asher. If they were on schedule like Cain had originally said then they should reach his camp tomorrow. Then she figured maybe another day or two to figure out how to break him out and implement that plan. In reality it really wasn’t long until they’d be together again.
Knowing this Zahyra decided that if a few more mutants had to die in order for her to get to her brother before his Turning Age Ceremony that was okay with her. Ideally she wouldn’t have to kill any of them herself, but now that her mind was fo
cused on Asher she knew she’d kill a thousand mutants if it meant it would save his life.
She picked up the pace a little until she was jogging alongside Cain. She knew that she shouldn’t really to avoid them being seen but with this new determination inside her she wanted to reassure Cain that she was feeling okay.
“Hey,” she said as she fell into sync with his jogging pattern. He slowed down a little so they could run more easily, allowing for Zahyra’s smaller stride and smiled at her. He didn’t say anything however and Zahyra wasn’t really sure what she had to say to make up for what had just happened so instead they just ran beside each other for a while longer.
“Better?” Cain asked her eventually through his ragged breathing. He was limping slightly which Zahyra hadn’t noticed before, probably something he picked up from his fight earlier.
“Yeah, thanks.” Zahyra replied, “You okay?” She then asked, indicating to his limp.
“S’nothing,” Cain winked at her, then turned back to look where he was going, knowing they had to concentrate in order to get out of the city.
Zahyra didn’t add anything else to the conversation and let herself fall back a few paces so she was running behind Cain again. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk to him, but it was hard work maintaining a conversation whilst running and they also shouldn’t draw any more attention to themselves than they already had.
Sooner or later she knew someone would find the bodies of those two dead mutants and then every mutant in the city would be on high alert looking for them. Although thankfully no one knew what or who they were looking for. The mutants had only seen their fire and Zahyra assumed they didn’t know whether it was one man, a group of people or even a bunch of children. The fact that Cain was wearing one of the hunting party’s armbands made matters much easier as well, as it meant he could blend in. Zahyra only wished he’d removed another armband for her, although she’d not yet seen any female advanced mutants on her travels.
“Hey!” A voice suddenly called out in the distance. Zahyra saw Cain’s feet skid to a halt in front of her in response and then he turned and grabbed her arm, pulling her left down a different street to the one they’d been jogging down.
“This way! Two unknown mutants on foot!”
Zahyra heard the cry coming from the street they’d just veered off and realised someone had spotted them. She looked over at Cain who had managed to draw her knife from his boot as he ran which he was now holding out to her by the blade. She grabbed the handle and then Cain withdrew his gun from his waistband and continued running with that in his right hand. No use trying to be quiet now Zahyra agreed in her head.
“Down there,” Cain abruptly spoke, pointing to a small alleyway about twenty meters further down the street. They reached it in a matter of seconds and Zahyra sprinted right into it first, taking the corner before Cain could. Once in the alleyway she stopped for a moment and looked in panic at Cain as he appeared next to her.
“What are we gunna do?” She asked feverishly, adjusting her knife in her hand as she spoke.
“Keep running,” Cain panted, “fight if we have to.”
Zahyra didn’t like the sound of that but muttered an agreement. Cain then stepped past her and led the way at a slight jog down the alleyway, which ended quickly on the street opposite to the one they’d just been running down. He paused for a moment trying to get his bearings and then took off again at a jog, Zahyra close on his heels. They ran in resolute silence for about sixty seconds until they heard angry voices once again.
“Got ’em! North Campbell Road!” Zahyra heard one of the mutants shout. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone, then to her horror saw a man flying in the sky in front of her, about fifteen metres above her head.
Cain pulled at her arm and they weaved through several more streets trying to get away but all the while the man flew above them shouting out each new route they took. Gradually Cain’s pace slowed beside her and he leaned across to try and whisper something to her, although with the ragged breathing from the two of them and the sound of their feet pounding on the ground Zahyra struggled to hear him and it took several attempts for her to understand what he was saying.
When they rounded the next corner a line of about six mutants were waiting in the middle of the street. Zahyra looked at Cain who nodded to her and began to sprint directly towards them. Zahyra herself faked a trip and fell to the ground, rolling underneath the shells of one of the cars beside her. As Cain had predicted the man who had been in the sky came down to land and joined the other mutants who Cain was running directly towards. They were all focused on him so Zahyra used this opportunity to sneak out from underneath the car and edge her way into a building that Cain had pointed out to her. Once she was there she was supposed to keep running and hide but she couldn’t help but watch the scene that was unfolding at the other end of the street.
Cain had killed two of the mutants on arrival but was now locked in close combat with a third. They looked equally matched on strength but Cain somehow managed to trip the mutant up with his foot and he fell backwards onto the ground, his head making an almighty thud as he landed. Then something seemed to snap in Cain; his breathing became noticeably heavier and he began to clench and unclench his fists. A fourth mutant approached him and Cain picked him up like a rag doll and threw him against the side of a building. It was almost as if his strength had multiplied and his reasoning had disappeared with it. He looked insane. Like he’d overdosed on some drug and was now high with aggression and anger.
Zahyra grew more frightened as she watched Cain. Before when he’d killed he’d been precise and patient about it and looked like he was well trained. Now he just looked violent and was going crazy attacking the other mutants with no skill or care for whether he got injured in the process. In minutes he’d murdered them all, most with only his bare hands. His gun was on the floor where it’d been struck from him early in the battle.
With all of them dead Zahyra stepped out of the building where she’d been hiding and waited for Cain to turn around and notice her. When he did Zahyra saw the anger still visible in his eyes. His chest heaved as he squinted into the distance looking right at her. Zahyra took a step forward, moving closer to him but then stopped in her tracks as Cain let out an ear-splitting roar and began to charge towards her.
Terror blanketed her very being at that moment and Zahyra’s instincts took over as she turned on her heels and started sprinting as fast as she could away from Cain.
Chapter 12
Pain continuously stabbed through her still healing ribs as Zahyra ran, every thud of her feet on the ground feeling like someone had hit her in the chest. Although her injuries had been improving, they were not up to the standard of running around all day, especially when she was physically running for her life. Zahyra could hear Cain behind her, his pace matching if not beating hers and gaining on her. Unsure what had happened to him Zahyra knew at this moment in time she just had to escape. Questions could come later.
There seemed to be something raw and animalistic about him now, like something had snapped inside him during that fight meaning he could no longer identify friend from foe. Knowing she couldn’t out run him for much longer Zahyra’s eyes scanned her surroundings for somewhere she could hide. There was an alleyway just ahead of her on the left so she quickly changed direction and ran as fast as her legs could take her. One side of the alleyway appeared to be the back of buildings, but on the other side there was a wall about double her height. Zahyra knew if she could get over this wall before Cain rounded the corner she would likely manage to escape him.
Still keeping her pace she looked around for something she could climb onto, unable to make the jump from the ground. In a stroke of sheer luck she noticed an overturned bin a few meters ahead of her and she skidded to a halt beside it. She righted the bin as quickly as she could and climbed up, both her legs and the bin wobbling unsteadily beneath her as she went. Cain was only seconds away from round
ing the corner from his footsteps so gritting her teeth and trying to work through the pain in her ribs Zahyra hauled herself up on top of the wall and dropped down over the other side.
Cain reached the corner just as she was on the top but thankfully she didn’t think he spotted her. Once on the other side she stilled her entire body and held her breath, listening for what Cain would do next. His footsteps drew closer to her position but then continued past her and down the rest of the alleyway. Zahyra breathed a sigh of relief as her plan worked, Cain unsuspecting of her manoeuvre over the wall.
As soon as he was definitely out of earshot Zahyra sank back against the wall trying to catch her breath. She kept one hand on her chest pressing slightly against her bruised ribs in an attempt to ease the pain. The sun was now rising which illuminated the area she had jumped into – it appeared to be some sort of old children’s playground.
There was a rusted swing set in one corner with weeds wrapped around it, a jungle gym that had been completely devoured by the wrath of nature and several other small playing apparatus. Zahyra mused at how this place must have once been filled with countless laughing children, chasing each other from one obstacle to the next. For a moment she imagined playing there with the other children from her old camp, pushing Asher on the swings or racing him to the top of the jungle gym. A smile crept over the face at the thought and she wondered if she would ever be able to bring her little brother back to this place one day.
To do that though she had to first find him, and sadly she could not manage that without Cain.
Whatever had happened to him had done so in a split second. One moment he was defending her from the mutants, the next he had become one himself. Realising this must be a result of his mutation Zahyra wondered what it was exactly and why he couldn’t control it.
