The World After (Book 3)

by Ryan Casey

  “Come on, Lionel,” she said.

  Lionel looked at her with uncertainty. Probably after how she’d gone mad at him before. But she was only trying to save him. She didn’t want him to get hurt.

  “Lionel, come on!”

  He wormed his way under the fence. The children, all three of them, came flying towards it too.

  Holly didn’t want to hurt them.

  She didn’t want to hurt any of them.

  But when the ginger boy pushed his way through, she did something she didn’t think she was capable of.

  She slammed the knife through his hand.

  He let out a scream right away. It was weird hearing him scream. This kid never seemed to be upset by anything.

  But she didn’t have time to feel sorry for him. She didn’t have time to stick around.

  Together, with Lionel, she ran.

  She was in a narrow alleyway between a few of the houses. She hoped that wherever it ended up, it wasn’t right back where she’d started. She kept on going, right towards the end of the alleyway. The kids still weren’t on to her. They were obviously checking on the one she’d stabbed.

  She thought about going through the end of the alleyway, but then she knew that’s exactly what they’d expect her to do.

  So she did something else.

  She climbed up, onto the fence.

  And when she was on top of it, she reached down for Lionel, tried to yank him up too.

  But he was just too heavy. She couldn’t do it.

  She dropped down into the garden, which had long unkempt grass like Patty, her old neighbour. Mum used to say she was a bit mad, but Holly liked her because she smiled at her and told her how pretty she was.

  She struggled with the fence, trying to break it. She stuck the knife into it, trying to yank it free. She pulled with all her might, knowing the people would be coming soon, and if they found Lionel then they’d find her soon, and…

  She saw movement to her right.

  She went totally still.

  But when she turned, she saw exactly who it was.

  Lionel.

  “Good boy,” she said, patting his head. She didn’t know how he’d got in here, but he was here. That was the only thing that mattered.

  She held him tightly as she sat there in the long grass. She listened to the footsteps of the children running by. She squeezed her eyes together, pretended she was invisible, like if she tried hard enough no one would see her.

  But then she heard the footsteps pass by. And part of her wanted to go back for Scott even though she knew Scott was…

  No. Don’t think about that.

  Scott will be okay.

  He had to be okay.

  She waited a while. Long enough to be sure nobody was around. But then she worried that they might take a second look, so she’d better get out of here.

  When she stood, she saw someone standing right at the other end of the garden.

  It was the kid. The one with the short black hair, whose eyes had changed before. He didn’t look as scary as usual.

  But he was looking right at her.

  And he had his knife.

  Holly was totally still. Lionel was by her side. She held her bloodied knife too, but she wasn’t sure if she could use it again. She was sick of all the killing. She didn’t want to hurt anyone else. She just wanted everything to be okay again.

  But she knew this kid would kill her.

  She knew that if he didn’t kill her that he’d take her back and that she’d face that “fate worse than death” that she’d been told about.

  She held her breath and waited. She had to be ready to do what she had to do.

  Then something weird happened.

  The kid opened his mouth and he spoke.

  “Take a right when you get out of the alleyway. Run as far as you can and don’t look back. And I’m… I’m sorry. For everything.”

  Then, he turned around, as if he hadn’t seen Holly at all, and he disappeared.

  Holly stayed there for a while. She kept on clutching onto the knife. She didn’t know what to think. Didn’t know what to believe.

  But she’d seen the changed look in the kid’s eyes and something told her to believe him.

  So she got up. She sneaked out of the garden. She walked out the end of the alleyway. And when she got to the end of it, she thought about looking back.

  She wanted to know what was there.

  She wanted to know what might be coming for her.

  But in the end, she just turned to the right, and she did the only thing she knew how to do.

  She took a deep breath, Lionel by her side.

  “Just me and you now. Good boy. Just me and you.”

  Then, she looked out of the suburbs, and she ran.

  She didn’t look back.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  I was still on my knees, but I knew what was coming now.

  I’d seen Holly stab the leader of the group in the belly. I’d seen him fall, bleeding out, as other members of his group scooted him away. I’d seen the looks of panic on the faces of this bunch of bastards.

  But better than anything, I’d seen Holly get away. And I’d heard one of the children come back and rather loudly tell the older constituents of the group that they hadn’t been able to find “the girl” or “the dog.”

  And for that… even though my own personal situation was dire—at its direst ever, perhaps—I was happy. Because Holly had done exactly what I’d asked of her.

  She’d taken the action that she thought would keep her alive.

  She’d stabbed her captor in the stomach, and then she’d run for her life.

  She’d taken a gamble. A gamble that must’ve been nigh-on impossible to take. And I had to hope that gamble paid off.

  It seemed like it had.

  I took a deep breath of the bitter-cold air and looked the man above me through the eye slots of his Venetian mask. And even though he stared down at me, I couldn’t help smiling. And then that smile turned into laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked. He’d clearly broken free of the silent treatment.

  “You,” I said. “All of you. You have no idea how ridiculous you look. You have no idea how ridiculous you are.”

  I laughed some more, unable to hold it back now, tears streaming down my face.

  I didn’t even stop when the man kicked me on the chin and sent me flying back onto the ground.

  I struggled to pull myself back up. Pain split through my skull. I could feel a loose tooth in my mouth. But despite the agony, I perched back up again, and despite blood freely flowing from my mouth, I smiled and laughed at the man. “Beating a man while he’s down. Very strong of you. Just as long as you remember that this man defeated you. He defeated you, and a little girl and a dog defeated you. I want you to remember that for the rest of your—”

  Another kick. Only this one was harder. I felt more loose teeth in my mouth, a momentary lapse in consciousness. I knew that if this was a sign of things to come, then things were going to get worse for me before they got better.

  I felt another kick in my ribcage. Then one right in my stomach. And before I knew it, I was being kicked repeatedly, all over, everywhere, before I even had a chance to protect myself.

  So I did the strangest thing, as this man kicked the shit out of me.

  I let go of even trying to defend myself.

  I let go of everything.

  And I let him kick me, while I laughed.

  He kept on going. I was sore all over. My head was on fire. I felt like I’d lost every tooth.

  But whenever I could, I stared up at the man through blurred vision, smile on my face.

  “You’ll never win,” I said. “You’ll never win.”

  He pulled back his foot. “We’ll see about that.”

  I felt the crack against my temple and my vision blackened.

  But as I faded away, I saw Holly in my mind. I saw Aiden, and Sue, and Hannah, and eve
ryone I’d lost.

  Then, I saw Harriet.

  I walked towards her. I didn’t want to leave her. Not again.

  So I kept on going, through the pain.

  I kept on going, leaving all the hurt behind.

  I kept on going, through kick after kick after kick.

  My hand landed in hers, and she looked right at me and smiled.

  “It’s okay now,” she said. “We’re together again.”

  I leaned in to kiss her.

  I felt the warmth of her lips.

  Then, I felt nothing at all.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Holly wasn’t sure how long she’d been walking through the snow, just that she was tired, and she was hungry, and she was thirsty, and she didn’t know what to do.

  It was the middle of the night, which made everything worse. The night scared her, because she’d seen what kind of people were around in the day and she worried they’d still be out at night, too. She never used to be scared of the dark. But now she was on her own, she realised just how scary it was. She understood why so many kids hated it, even if they pretended they didn’t.

  She understood it now.

  It was snowing lightly. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it, cold on her face. The snow made it much harder to walk. Every now and then, she’d slip over, hurting herself in different places.

  She cried when she fell, sometimes. She told herself she’d be better off back with the weirdos. That she’d made the wrong decision because she wasn’t strong enough on her own.

  But then she just had to take a deep breath and get back up again, because it was the only thing she could do.

  She kept on walking in the darkness. She was heading north. She’d seen a sign for Carlisle a while back so she’d just kept on going, but that was when it was light so she didn’t know whether she was still on the right track.

  She hoped so. She just wanted everything to be okay. She just wanted to be safe.

  She knew life was never going to be normal again. Especially not now Scott was gone, too.

  But she’d have to try and survive. Not just for her, but for Lionel, too.

  And then she slipped and tasted the metal tang of blood.

  She punched the ground, the icy cold snow bouncing back at her.

  “Why? Why do I have to be on my own? Why? Why? Why?”

  She curled up and covered her face with her hands and she started to cry.

  Then she felt something licking her face.

  She looked up. Lionel was there. He’d been with her all along, but she realised she hadn’t really been seeing him, not truly. She loved Lionel a lot. But she just didn’t think she could look after him because she couldn’t even look after herself.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked. And she meant it. She meant it more than any other time she’d asked that question in her life. “What are we going to do, boy?”

  Lionel didn’t respond. Of course he didn’t. He was a dog. He just tucked his ears back and licked her face again, which made her feel a bit better, she had to admit.

  As she crouched there in the snow, cold and hungry, she let Lionel lick her face and she remembered what Scott had told her. She might have to do things she didn’t want to do. She might have to become someone she might even think was bad at times in order to survive.

  But she would survive, if she just kept the faith.

  She would make it, if she just believed.

  So she lifted up her head. She looked into the darkness.

  “It isn’t gonna be easy,” she said, stroking Lionel. “But we’re going to try, you and me. We’re going to try. Aren’t we?”

  Lionel licked her face again.

  She took that as a yes.

  She brushed back her hair and stood.

  And as tired, hungry and thirsty as she felt, she knew she had to keep going on.

  “I’m going to make it, Scott,” she muttered. “I’m going to make it.”

  Then, she started walking again.

  Directionless.

  Weak.

  Alone.

  But determined.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Somehow, I was still awake.

  Granted, I had no idea what sort of a state I was in. My entire body felt heavy. Even the slightest turn made me wince with pain.

  But I was able to feel pain. Which meant I was still here.

  Somehow, I was still here.

  I tried to open my eyes, but to no avail. They were swollen and it felt like the lids had covered over, swallowing my eyeballs underneath. My mouth was thick with the bitter taste of blood. Not that weak metallic taste that you might usually associate with blood. A deeper taste. A richer taste. A taste like someone who’d had the shit beaten out of them.

  Which was true of me.

  I tried to take a deep breath but my nose was completely blocked, too. I knew I was missing a lot of teeth. And as I struggled to rise, I wondered just what made me me anymore. I was different. Different to how I had been. I’d been changed by my experiences. I wasn’t even sure I’d recognise myself anymore, the pain was that bad.

  But I was going to have to try, while I was alive.

  Holly was still out there somewhere. Lionel was still out there somewhere.

  And for as long as there was breath in my lungs, I wasn’t giving up on either of them.

  I pressed my hands into the concrete beneath me. I could feel dampness there, and I knew it must be my blood.

  The further I pushed myself on my weakened arms, the more my eyes started to open, just gradually. I could see the concrete. I could hear stuff, too. Voices. Muffled voices. And that’s when I realised that the people who had beaten me were still here. Which meant I was still in danger.

  Or… or maybe it wasn’t them. Maybe it was someone else. Maybe someone had come to my aid.

  I lived in hope until the moment I raised my stiff neck and I saw the people with the Venetian masks still standing around.

  Only they weren’t looking at me. Not anymore.

  They were looking up into the sky.

  I didn’t know why at first. I couldn’t understand why they would be so focused on the sky when I was lying on the ground. They hadn’t noticed that I was awake or conscious, as far as I was aware.

  But the more I lifted myself up, the more I felt the strength returning to my body. It was adrenaline, no doubt about it. But people were capable of amazing things when adrenaline kicked in.

  I had a window. A window of opportunity. A chance to escape.

  I had to make the most of it.

  I had to…

  I heard it, then. Just like last time, I heard it before I saw it.

  It started as a humming noise. Then it became a rumbling. Then, I identified it for what it was. An engine. Definitely an engine.

  No.

  Not just one engine.

  Multiple engines.

  I saw them then, through the clouds.

  There were helicopters. Lots of helicopters.

  I wondered at first if perhaps my beating was playing havoc with my mind. Maybe I was just seeing double, or triple, or whatever.

  But no.

  My eyesight was rapidly improving.

  It was rapidly improving and I could see exactly what was above me.

  A whole line of helicopters, all heading in the same direction.

  “The extraction point,” I muttered.

  Nobody turned around. Nobody looked. Instead, this group all just looked on in amazement and awe. I wondered how they must be feeling at the knowledge their world of the last few months was about to come crashing down. That things were never going to be the same for them again. That, slowly but surely, order was going to be restored.

  But I didn’t have time to dwell. I knew that now. I saw it, for definite.

  I had to get to the extraction point.

  I had to follow those helicopters and I had to get there.

  And I had to hope to God I came across
Holly and Lionel on my way.

  I clenched my fists and pushed myself up to my feet. But I didn’t last long. I fell back down right away.

  I tried again, trying to return the strength to my legs. I had to get away, and fast. There was no more time for delays. There was no time for messing around. Not anymore.

  I started to turn when I saw one of the children looking right at me.

  He had short dark hair. And the second his eyes met mine, I knew my time was up.

  But he wasn’t saying anything, as I began to creep away.

  He wasn’t saying a word. He was just watching.

  “North,” he whispered, under his breath. “Out of Brabiner Street. Right. Head north.”

  I didn’t know what he was telling me at first.

  Then it clicked.

  He was helping me.

  He was telling me to go that way because—

  “She’s gone that way,” he said. “They’ve both gone that way.”

  I felt warmth inside. I wanted to go over to this boy, who was tearful now. I wanted to thank him.

  But I didn’t have the time.

  So instead, with all the energy in my body that was left, and while the group were still awestruck and distracted by the cavalry passing overhead, I battled my way to the end of the street.

  I reached Brabiner Street. I looked to the right, like the boy had told me.

  A long, snow-lined road stretched ahead.

  I took a deep, painful breath, my teeth chattering against one another.

  “I’ll be with you again soon,” I muttered.

  Then, without looking back, I walked.

  It was time to find Holly and Lionel.

  It was time to get to the extraction point.

  It was time to escape this hell once and for all.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Holly watched the helicopters fly overhead and she didn’t know what to think.

  She thought maybe she was dreaming at first. She’d heard about what could happen to people when they were cold and hadn’t eaten or drank for a while. They saw things.

  Maybe that’s what this was. Maybe she was just seeing things.

  She looked at Lionel, who was in the snow beside her. He was staring up at the sky too, like there was something there.

  She might not be able to trust herself with what she was seeing. But she trusted Lionel.