by Ryan Casey
Avenge the Darkness
A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller
Ryan Casey
Contents
Bonus Content
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
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Chapter One
Aoife looked at the blood on her hands, dripping through her fingers.
She felt hot. So hot. Her teeth chattered. Her whole body felt weak, shaky. It was cold. Bitter cold, so cold it hurt to breathe. Her lips were chapped, and her fingers were numb.
But she didn’t feel cold.
Before her, grass.
Grass that she didn’t want to look at.
A patch of grass up ahead that she knew wasn’t frozen, like the rest of the ground. Far from frozen.
But in her mind, she could already see the scene before her. Even if she didn’t want to look at it. Even if she didn’t want to admit it. Accept it.
Above, she heard crows cawing. The sound of death. She could hear something else, too. Panting. Heavy panting. Someone crying. Someone begging.
Maybe it was her. She wasn’t sure.
It felt like she was outside her body, and this wasn’t really happening.
Like she was witnessing everything from someplace outside.
She could smell something. Something strong. Something familiar.
Burning.
And that smell of burning made her sick. Because of what it reminded her of. What it took her back to.
That charred smell.
That taste of…
No.
She didn’t want to go back there.
She didn’t want to think about that.
She just stared at the icy ground beside her.
Tried to ignore the smell of smoke.
Tried to ignore the cloud appearing overhead.
The warmth.
The sound of flickering.
Of shouting.
Crying.
Screaming.
She didn’t want to look.
She couldn’t look.
She couldn’t face it. She couldn’t accept it.
It couldn’t be real.
She heard whining over to the left. Looked around, instinctively. Because she knew that whine. She’d heard it so many times before.
When she looked around, she saw Rex standing there.
Tail between his legs.
Ears lowered.
Barely even looking at her.
Shaking.
She wanted to go over to him. To cuddle him. To comfort him.
She wanted to feel comfort from him.
But she felt frozen.
Frozen here on this patch of grass.
The ice beneath her bloodied fingers melting.
The air growing warmer as that flickering sound grew louder.
“It’s okay,” she muttered. Voice shaking. “Everything… everything’s going to be okay.”
She looked into Rex’s eyes.
Saw the orange glow flickering in those deep black sockets.
Saw it reflecting the whole scene back to her.
And at that moment, she felt herself being transported back.
Back to that day six months ago.
Back to that moment.
Back to that decision.
She tensed her fists. Her fingers dug right into her palms. The heat from behind grew stronger. So hot now that her back felt like it was burning. If she stayed here much longer, it might just swallow her whole. Burn her alive.
And maybe that would be better.
Maybe that’s what she wanted.
Maybe that’s what would be best for everyone.
She saw Rex standing there. Panting. Tongue dangling out. Whining. Backing up. Looking at her, then looking around, like he was begging her to come after him. Begging her to follow.
And she wanted to.
She wanted to, so badly.
But she couldn’t move.
She couldn’t leave this place.
She couldn’t walk away.
She looked down at her hands. Saw the blood on her palms. Deep red, burrowing right into the crevices.
She heard more screams behind her. Agonised cries. The kind of cry a human being shouldn’t physically be able to make.
She heard it, and she closed her burning, stinging eyes.
The heat growing more intense.
Her lungs filling with smoke, making her cough and gag.
It was so close to swallowing her up now.
So close to engulfing her.
She heard barking. Looked around. Already, the smoke was thick. Black. So black she could barely even see through it.
But she could see Rex still standing there.
Barking at her.
Kicking back.
“Go,” she muttered. “It’s okay, boy. It’s okay. Go.”
He barked some more. Kept on looking around, like there was a way to get to her. Like there was a way he could help.
But that help never did come.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She saw him step into the smoke, and just for a moment, she thought he might come running towards her.
But then he stepped back.
He disappeared.
Into the smoke.
Into the black.
Gone.
She crouched there, head spinning. A minor sense of relief that Rex had run. That he’d saved himself.
But then that relief turned into fear again.
Into shame again.
Because the patch on the grass…
She closed her eyes. Squeezed them shut. Tight.
She didn’t want to look.
She didn’t want to see.
But how could she not?
She owed it to them.
She owed it to all of them.
She felt her teeth chattering, her head getting dizzier, her muscles getting weaker.
<
br /> Don’t look, Aoife. Don’t look. Just let the smoke take you. Let the heat take you. Let…
And then, against all logic, she turned.
She couldn’t see much through the thick black smoke. So thick that particles felt like they were wedging into her eyes, stinging them with their heat.
Turning around, she felt like she was in a sauna. A sauna that was getting hotter and hotter and wasn’t cooling down for anything.
Her chest was tight.
She couldn’t breathe.
But she could see.
Not just the flames.
Not just the chaos before her.
But she could see it.
The mound on the ground, up ahead.
She looked at it, and she felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach.
Because even though she already knew what she was going to see here… just seeing it again brought the reality crashing back.
She stared ahead. Stared as the smoke got thicker. Tears streaming. Body shaking. Breathing getting even tougher, more strained.
And as she looked at that mound on the patch of grass ahead, she could only stare.
“I’m sorry. I’m… I’m so sorry.”
She watched as the mound disappeared behind smoke.
Felt the heat get more intense.
Felt the burning smoke seep even further into her lungs.
And then she felt nothing.
Chapter Two
Aoife knew she’d fucked up the second she saw Hailey handing Max a present.
Fuck. It was his birthday. It was his frigging birthday, and she’d totally forgotten. What kind of a friend was she? He was the most important damned person in her life, and she’d gone and forgotten.
It was early, and the streets were filled with the usual bustle of morning. She could hear laughter and conversation. The sound of metal being banged up ahead as construction on the south wall continued. It’d been damaged by a nasty storm a couple of weeks back. A real blow because the first wall took a hell of a while to put together.
But did they mope about it? Let it get them down? Did they hell.
They just got right back up and cracked on with it.
Everybody got up early these days. The malaise of summer had lifted, and now winter was here, it seemed like everybody was on board with pulling their weight in this community.
The ground was icy, slippery. The air was cold. Aoife’s face felt freezing. Her lips felt numb.
But you know what?
It was nice.
Nice, because despite the lack of power, there was a growing air of hope. Not about power returning, or about anyone coming to save them, or anything far-fetched like that. They’d all pretty much given up on hope of salvation a long time ago. And life had been better for it, in all truth.
No, it was nice for a few simple reasons.
Christmas was on its way.
As too was New Year.
Okay, so the thought of New Year approaching so rapidly was a weird one. It marked a year since the day the blackout struck, after all. So many people lost their lives on that day and the days that followed. And for that reason, it would likely be a very sombre occasion. Not the typical New Year’s Eve blow-out, that was for sure.
But Aoife didn’t mind that. Nobody here seemed to mind that.
They were going to have as nice a Christmas as they possibly could, and they were going to see in the New Year whatever way seemed appropriate when the time came.
But right now, Aoife had bigger fish to fry.
She could see Hailey and Max smiling. Laughing together. Hailey flicking back her hair. Max smirking back at her. Fuckers. Hailey was a bitch, and she didn’t like her. How much of that was down to the blatant flirting between her and Max, she wasn’t sure…
No.
Grow the hell up, Aoife.
Max is older than you. Okay, he might only be in his late forties, and she might only be like, a decade younger than him. But there’s still a big enough gap that he’s out of bounds.
Besides. He’s practically a father figure. Anything happening with Max… it’d just be weird.
She thought back to that moment six months ago.
When he was on his knees.
Christopher’s blade in her hands.
What she told him.
What he told her.
I love you.
She thought about how many times she’d wanted to act on that feeling since.
But she hadn’t. Neither of them had.
And now here was Hailey, similar age to Max, flirting the hell away with him…
It wasn’t about jealousy. Really, it wasn’t.
But she’d be damned if Hailey got him a present and she didn’t.
She went to turn around, confident he hadn’t seen her yet. If she could get away, she could go find something for him. What? Oh, fuck, she didn’t have a clue.
But she’d think of something. They had history, after all. They went back a long way.
Maybe tell him you love him.
That thought. Out of nowhere. Making her cheeks burn.
Could she?
Could she actually go there?
A knot in her stomach.
She suddenly felt very, very sick at the thought.
No.
She couldn’t go there.
But she still had to get the hell away and find him a present. It was his birthday, after all. And she was supposed to be… well. His friend?
She saw him laughing, smiling, as he stood on the corner of the street just before the newly constructed south wall. Wasn’t exactly the biggest construction. Twenty feet high, solid steel, with a watch platform erected along the edge of it. Not that they had visitors to worry about. Didn’t seem like there was anybody about these days, apart from the odd straggler.
She went to turn around so she could head back when she saw his eyes meet her.
She kept on turning. Turning through the awkwardness. Turning like she hadn’t seen him.
And then she heard his voice.
“Aoife.”
She stopped. Shit. She was really in deep shit now. She couldn’t exactly pretend she hadn’t seen him or heard him. That’d just look weird. Especially on his birthday.
But she stayed standing there. Looking ahead. Feeling like a frigging weirdo.
“Aoife?”
She turned around. Smiled. Maybe a little too enthusiastically, especially since Hailey was looking at her, scanning her head to toe in that judgemental way she always did.
Like Aoife was a fucking child or something.
“Hey,” Aoife said. Her voice cracking a bit. “Happy birthday!”
Max smiled. He looked well. A lot greyer than when they’d first met, and thinner too. But then everybody was thinner these days. Not that food was scarce—actually, things were really good on that front. Plenty of hunting teams. Scavenging missions, which were always fruitful. More than enough to feed the fifty-one residents of the estate.
“Thanks,” Max said. “Hailey here got me something.”
“Oh,” Aoife said. “I—I got you something too.”
“Ah, really? Lucky me, huh?”
Aoife nodded. Shitting hell. Why didn’t she just tell the truth?
Instead, she stood there really awkwardly while Max opened the present Hailey got him, with nothing in her hands. Like an awkward bloody kid.
“I got the wrapping paper myself from an old shop in Leyland,” Hailey said, with that high-pitched nasally whine of hers. “Tried a few other places. But nothing seemed… right.”
Bitch.
She nodded, smiled, watched as Max opened the gift.
And when he finally opened it… Aoife saw his eyes light up.
“Oh hell,” Max said. “That’s… that’s actually really good.”
“You sound surprised,” Hailey said.
“Look at this, Aoife. Hailey draws. Hasn’t she done a good job?”
Aoife didn’t want to appear too pr
aising. But looking at this pencil drawing of a dog, presumably Rex… Aoife had to admit it was actually pretty good.
“What’s it supposed to be?” Aoife asked.
“Rex,” Max said. “At least I’m assuming so, right?”
“Of course,” Hailey said. “What else would it be?”
“I don’t know,” Aoife said. “Sort of looks like a cow to me. But good effort!”
Hailey narrowed her eyes.
Yeah, well, I can narrow my eyes too, you stupid bitch.
“Thanks, Hailey,” Max said, going in for a hug.
And then something else happened.
Something that took Aoife by surprise.
The hug became a kiss.
On the lips.
And they held each other for just a little longer than was comfortable.
Aoife looked at the ground. Her face felt hotter than ever. She was roasting under this thick parka.
And silly as it sounded, she knew she had to get away.
“Anyway,” Aoife said, turning around and walking away. “I… I’ll see you later.”
“What about my present?” Max asked.
You can fuck your present.
“I’ll bring it you later. I—shit!”
She slipped.
Almost lost her footing on the ice.
She prayed they hadn’t seen her.
But then she heard their laughs.
Max.
And Hailey, too.
That annoying frigging laugh grating right on her.
“Watch yourself,” Max said. “It’s a bit slippery.”
Aoife gritted her teeth. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
She got her balance back, and then she walked away from Max and Hailey with her head down.
