The World After (Book 3)

by Ryan Casey

  My axe.

  I frowned. I didn’t understand it. Why was it here? What was…

  Then I heard Lionel growling.

  Then, whining.

  I pulled my head out of the bush. “What—”

  I saw a child standing beside me.

  But I didn’t have time to act on what I saw.

  The next thing I knew, the child swung a knife at me.

  I felt a sharp pain stab into my right side.

  And although it was dark, I could see what had just happened in the light of the stars.

  I was bleeding.

  I’d been stabbed.

  They were onto us.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  When Holly opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong right away.

  She always felt a bit scared when she awoke in the middle of nowhere. Even though she had been out here surviving for months now, it still scared her.

  She was cold. Shaking.

  And she was on her own.

  That was what scared her the most. She couldn’t see Scott and she couldn’t see Lionel. No, wait. She could hear Lionel. He was whining and barking about something.

  She knew something wasn’t right.

  She wanted to get up and see what was wrong right away, but she just couldn’t. She was frozen. She was too scared. She remembered the promise that Scott had made her. The promise that he’d protect her, no matter what. But she remembered what else they’d talked about too. How Scott had told her there might be a time when she was on her own. When she had to head north to Carlisle because it might just be her, all alone.

  She hoped that time wasn’t now.

  She wasn’t strong enough.

  She wasn’t ready.

  So she got up. And when she rose, she realised just how cold it was. Their fire had gone out a long time ago. She wanted to light it again just to give herself a bit of warmth. Plus she felt comfortable when the fire was lit, too. Like everything was going to be okay.

  There was no warmth now.

  There was no fire now.

  She walked over to where Lionel was. She wanted to tell him to be quiet, but she was too scared to talk. She didn’t realise just how scared she was until she heard her teeth chattering. Maybe it was just the cold. Yeah. She’d tell herself that it was just the cold making her teeth chatter. She was okay really. She was strong enough to deal with this. To see what was going on.

  The closer she got to Lionel, the more her heart started to race. Because deep down, she knew that Scott would never leave her. So something must be wrong. Something big.

  As she got closer to Lionel, she realised Lionel wasn’t alone.

  He was sitting by the side of something. She couldn’t see it properly because of how dark it was.

  But she knew what it was already.

  She knew from the way Lionel was sitting over it, whining.

  She knew who it was.

  “Scott?” she said.

  Scott didn’t turn over. He didn’t move. She remembered the bit in the Lion King where Simba came across Mufasa and she felt like she did when she’d watched that. She wanted to go over to him. She wanted to see that he was okay.

  But at the same time, she didn’t, because she already knew he wasn’t okay.

  She felt the tears running down her face. Mum. Dad. Aiden. Haz. Hannah. Jenny. Remy. She’d lost so many people. All her family. All her friends. She couldn’t lose another person. She couldn’t bear to lose anyone else.

  “Please, Scott. Don’t be dead. Please.”

  She watched him as he lay there, totally still.

  She was about to turn away when she heard a raspy breath escape his body, and saw him turn onto his side.

  “Scott,” she said. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks, but they met a smile now. Relief filled her body. He was going to be okay. She wasn’t going to be on her own. Scott was going to be fine, and…

  She stopped in her tracks when she saw the movement to her left.

  She looked, slowly. Lionel was growling, which meant this was bad. Because whatever the movement was, he didn’t trust it.

  When she turned around and saw who it was, she felt herself wee a little bit.

  It was the boy.

  The boy who Scott had pinned down back at the camp with the people who held them prisoner for a while. It was dark, but she would never forget his short brown hair, his skinny body, and his eyes, like how Jenny’s had looked when she’d died.

  He looked at Holly, bloody knife in hand.

  “Run, Holly.” A voice. Scott’s voice.

  She looked at him.

  He was staring right at her.

  “Run.”

  She turned to look at the boy but he was already running towards her.

  Holly wanted to stay and help Scott but she knew she couldn’t. She turned and ran, right away, as fast as she could.

  She felt the branches snapping under her feet. She felt the ground going uneven, and she knew she might fall at any time.

  But she couldn’t.

  She couldn’t, because she could hear that boy coming for her, right behind her.

  She saw a hedge right ahead. She knew she had to turn around this corner on the left if she wanted to escape the bridle path. But instead, she ran to the right and snuck into the hedge. She pushed past branches, keeping as quiet as she could, hoping the boy hadn’t seen where she’d gone.

  She couldn’t hear any footsteps.

  Maybe she was safe.

  She pushed her way right through to the other side. And when she was in there, she found a rock. She grabbed it. It was pretty heavy. She could use it as a weapon, if she had to.

  She sat there for a few minutes, maybe longer, listening to the wind, shivering away. She couldn’t move. She wanted to but she just couldn’t.

  All she could think about was the boy.

  All she could think about was Lionel, whining as he sat beside Scott.

  And Scott…

  He was alive, but he was hurt. No doubt about that.

  She wanted to help him even though he’d told her to run away. Because he’d helped her so much. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t be alive.

  She had to go back. She had to help him.

  She took a few deep breaths.

  Then, she stepped towards the edge of the hedge where she’d hidden inside.

  She looked right, and then straight ahead to where Scott and Lionel were. She couldn’t see anything.

  She crept slowly out of the hedge, keeping a tight grip of the boulder. She would use it if she had to. That’s what Scott told her. Sometimes they had to do things they didn’t want to do. But those things would keep them alive.

  She moved quicker as she stepped out of the hedge. Even though the path they were on was quiet, she felt exposed, like someone was watching her.

  She just had to get back.

  She just had to get to Scott.

  She just had to…

  She was so close to reaching Scott when she felt something tickle the back of her neck.

  And that tickle felt like it was from somebody.

  She froze still. She held onto the boulder. She would use it if she had to.

  She turned around, suddenly.

  A man was standing over her.

  On his face, a Venetian mask.

  Behind him, the boy.

  “Sc—”

  She didn’t manage another word.

  The man grabbed her and put a bag over her head.

  The boulder fell to her feet.

  And the man dragged her away as she screamed and screamed but no sounds came out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  I felt the pain splitting through my right side but none of that seemed to matter.

  Not when I didn’t know if Holly was okay.

  It was pitch black, even blacker than I’d remembered. I was cold, too, and I seemed to be getting colder, even though warm blood was trickling between my fingers.

&nbs
p; I’d heard something. Over by where we were sleeping. There’d been some commotion. A struggle.

  But I’d just been too in shock to do anything about it.

  I’d felt too weak to do anything about it.

  I hoped I wasn’t going to pay for my lack of action. The thought that something might have happened to Holly—something I could’ve prevented—haunted me as I lay on my back.

  I heard Lionel panting by my side. He hadn’t stopped staring at me, and he hadn’t once budged from my side since I was attacked by the kid.

  The child who’d attacked me wasn’t just any old kid, mind. I knew that much. It was the same kid I’d put on his back in the camp where we’d been held captive.

  He’d got his revenge. He’d plunged that knife into me.

  But I was still alive.

  Against all the odds, I was still alive.

  I lifted my head up slowly and took a look at the wound on my right side. I couldn’t see properly, just that my fingers were covered with blood. Seeing the blood made me feel somewhat queasy. I’d never been good with blood. Other people’s blood, it didn’t bother me so much, which sounded like a ridiculously serial killer-esque remark to come out with. But my own… it made the hairs on my arms and neck stand right on end.

  But I couldn’t mope about a bit of blood right now.

  I needed to get myself up and find Holly.

  I winced as I tried to get to my feet, but the pain in my side was too intense. It felt like a muscle had been torn, and by trying to stand, I was just aggravating it further.

  But of course it felt like a muscle had been torn. A muscle had been torn. Only it had been torn by a knife. And if I didn’t see to it and stitch it up sometime soon, this was a muscle tear that was going to kill me.

  I found my way to my feet. I stood there for a few seconds, gasping. I could barely walk a few steps. How I was going to even come close to finding Holly was unimaginable.

  Hell. It was nigh on impossible.

  But I pushed on because that’s what I had to do. I had made Holly a promise, and I was going to keep that promise.

  I’d told her to run away. To hide. I just had to hope she’d found a good enough hiding place. And that our Venetian friends weren’t still around. Because somehow, even though that kid hadn’t killed me, I got the feeling the rest of his posse wouldn’t show quite the same level of mercy where I was concerned.

  I stumbled forward a few steps. Doing so wasn’t easy. I tried to regulate my breathing and keep my cool. I didn’t want to get too het up, or I knew I’d just fall again.

  Find Holly.

  Get myself stitched up.

  I could do this. I was going to be okay.

  Lionel walked slowly beside me. And as I looked down at him, I wondered if he knew. I wondered if he saw what state I was in, and that was why he was sticking around so close to me, stumbling along. I wanted to apologise to him. I wanted to tell him I was sorry for being injured, and that he should go and find his own way too.

  But the thought of being alone scared me too much.

  No. I wasn’t going to be alone. Holly was going to be here. She was going to be here, somewhere.

  When I got closer to where we’d been sleeping, I saw her.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  She was sitting right in the cove in the hedge where we’d settled in last night. And when I saw her, every muscle in my body loosened. Everything inside me that had been so afraid just flipped on its head because she was here. Holly was here and she was okay.

  I’d made her a promise.

  I was going to keep it…

  I stopped, then.

  I stopped because I saw something.

  Holly wasn’t here after all.

  The mound that I’d seen from a distance was from our rucksack.

  My body tensed up again. Dread filled it. I stumbled past the rucksack, down the pathway, towards where she’d run.

  “Holly!” I shouted. I didn’t care about drawing attention to myself. I didn’t care about anything anymore. Just finding Holly. Just holding my promise to her.

  Just making sure she was okay.

  But the more I searched, the more my heart started to race. And the more my heart started to race, the more the blood seeped through my fingers, and the more my head spun.

  Because the more I searched, the more I realised the truth.

  The devastating truth.

  I fell down when I’d searched the entire pathway, part through grief, part through exhaustion. I pulled my knees to my chest, lying on the rough ground, and let the cold take over me, as Lionel pressed up to my side.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and waited to pass out.

  Because Holly was gone.

  She had been taken.

  And there was no way I was getting her back.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  I looked down the street in the distance at the rising sun and I knew I had a choice.

  It was colder than ever this morning. I didn’t think that was even possible with just how cold it had got lately, but clearly there was worse to come. I could see that now.

  But it didn’t bother me.

  I knew I had to stand up and face what was ahead.

  And I knew what that meant.

  I looked down the road and I felt the cold against my skin. I took shallow breaths of the icy air. I would’ve taken deeper breaths, but the pain in my side was still bad.

  I looked down at it. I’d done a decent enough job of covering it up. I’d used a method Jenny had taught me. There were a few ways to deal with the need for emergency stitching. There was a tourniquet made out of clothes, there was superglue—so effective that it’s the method recommended by the US military. There’s stitching with dental floss, which is a perfect alternative to thread. And there’s stapling.

  But there was another method, too. Taping.

  It wasn’t ideal. There were no guarantees that it wouldn’t get infected. I’d pinched my skin together, as much as that had hurt, and put some of the tape from the rucksack over my wound. It wasn’t going to be a long-term solution, especially when moisture got inside it.

  But it would do for now.

  As long as it stayed together, it would do.

  Because I only had one goal in mind.

  I heard an impatient whine. When I looked to my right, I saw Lionel sitting there patiently. He looked up at me, like he was waiting for me to give the call to walk on.

  I was waiting to make that call myself.

  I saw two forks in the road, metaphorically speaking. I had two choices.

  Choice one was that I gave up on Holly. My chances of finding her were slim. I had no clue where she had gone to. Presumably, she’d been taken by that mad masked group. What their plans were for her, I couldn’t be sure. I just knew that they couldn’t be great, especially not after what I’d seen the other children in their company doing.

  Besides, I wasn’t in a good condition. My stab wound might’ve been staved temporarily, but that wouldn’t last. I felt sick. I was weak. I didn’t have a lot of energy in me. I’d probably lost more blood than I thought. Chances of my finding Holly were even slimmer.

  But then there was the other choice.

  It was the hard choice. But deep down, I knew it was the right choice.

  I had to go after Holly.

  Even if it killed me, I had to go after her.

  I’d made her a promise. And sure, I’d told her that I might not be around forever, and that something might happen. But I was here now. And I wasn’t going to fail my end of the bargain.

  And if I did fail, I was going to fail trying my damnedest to get her back.

  I swallowed a lump in my throat and smiled at Lionel.

  I knew what I had to do.

  I didn’t know where I had to go.

  I didn’t know where this journey was going to take me.

  But I didn’t want Holly anywhere near those lunatics. So I was going to do whatever I could to g
et her back.

  “You ready, boy?” I asked.

  Lionel wagged his tail and stood up, then starting walking on.

  “Good,” I said.

  Then, I took a few breaths and I walked.

  The time of reacting was over.

  The time to attack had just begun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  I pushed on down the road but I could feel myself losing more and more energy by the second.

  It was some time in the late morning, I thought. I was just going off the position of the sun more than anything. The weather was cold, and the ground was slippery underfoot. I had to really focus on every footstep to make sure I didn’t fall, concentrating on my every move.

  One foot in front of the next.

  One foot in front of the next…

  But I could feel myself getting weaker the further I walked.

  The road was long and stretched on. I was heading north, thereabouts. I had no real reason for going in the direction I was heading in. I’d taken a punt based on a few light footprints when I’d stepped out of the bridle path that pointed me in that direction.

  But really, I had nothing.

  I just had my faith.

  My faith that I had to attack the problem now.

  That I couldn’t run away from things anymore.

  I had to press on if I wanted to get Holly back.

  I had to press on if I wanted to get her to safety.

  I had to press on, whether I survived or not.

  I listened to Lionel panting beside me. I felt bad for him. He’d started off enjoying our journeys so much, but even he—a dog—was clearly tiring of our constant movement. What he’d give for a fireplace in a cottage, chin resting on my feet, having his head tickled.

  Hell. What I’d give for that.

  Every step I took, I felt a shooting pain down my right side and I knew what it was. The stab wound. I’d taped it up as well as I could, but it wasn’t ideal. I was no medical expert. Sure, I’d been around trained medical people like Jenny, but when push came to shove, that really wasn’t enough.

  I’d done what I could, for the time being. It would last… for now.

  I just wasn’t sure how much longer that “for now” would elapse.

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. My lips were drying again, my throat getting raspy. It hadn’t rained overnight, so we hadn’t been able to collect any more water. And sure, I’d gone longer periods of time without water.