The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Artinian, Christopher

  “That’s my guess. On the upside though, hopefully, a lot of the creatures will head towards the noise and when it’s light, they should be able to see the smoke from miles around.”

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  “Same as yesterday, but hopefully we’ll have a bit more success this time. It’s not like we can call this place home if things go bad, is it?”

  “I suppose not.”

  “Try and get a little bit of sleep.”

  “There’s not exactly a lot of room to stretch out.”

  The two sisters slid down the wall as far as they could and Wren wedged the holdall underneath their heads to act as a pillow.

  “Better?” Wren asked.

  “Oh yeah, much.”

  “Sarky cow.”

  “Eat my farts.” The two sisters chuckled before falling silent and gradually drifting into irregular snatches of sleep.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Robyn was the first one to open her eyes, and for a while she could not remember the events of the previous evening, or why she was squashed up like a jack-in-the-box, waiting to be freed. Then as she heard her sister’s breathing beside her and looked around the cramped interior of the little children’s playhouse, it all came flooding back to her. Her neck felt stiff, and she tried to move a little without waking Wren, but it was impossible.

  “What time is it?”

  “You’re the one with the watch,” Robyn replied.

  Wren wiped her eyes before bringing the watch up to her face. “It’s just before five.”

  “That was a lovely night’s sleep.”

  “Yeah, I feel much better.” Wren shuffled up and reached around to the holdall. She unzipped it and pulled out a bottle of water, offering it to her sister first. Robyn took it gratefully and gulped the water thirstily before handing it back to Wren, who did the same. “You want something to eat?”

  “Too early,” Robyn replied.

  Wren climbed to her feet, making sure not to bang her head on the javelins suspended above them through the windows. She stepped out onto the platform of the slide and looked around the park. In the early morning light, she could see towers of grey and black smoke drifting into the sky from the direction of their neighbourhood.

  “Well, doesn’t look like the fire’s going out anytime soon.”

  Robyn shuffled up to join her and the pair of them slowly woke up, watching the last remnants of where they used to live drifting into the atmosphere.

  “There’s no going back now, but it’s going to be a long haul getting up to Inverness.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Wren replied.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, maybe it was a bit unrealistic of me.”

  “You were confident we could do it.”

  “Yeah, that’s back when I thought I had superpowers. Then the first time I came into contact with one of those things, I realised just how unprepared I was.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, I’d hoped I would have had more time to get prepared, mentally and physically. I knew it couldn’t last, but I’d hoped we were safe for the time being. But this whole thing happened so suddenly and…”

  “And what?”

  “Look. We need to get out of the city, that’s a given. It’s way too dangerous. But maybe we can find somewhere. Maybe you and I can find a place in the country, where we can stay for a while, where we can get to grips with what we’re doing. We might even find a car and be able to teach ourselves to drive.”

  “Where did all this come from, Wren? You were as sure as anything that we’d be fine. That we could make it up to Inverness, no problem. And what about Grandad? You said that if anyone could get through this thing, it would be him. Don’t you believe that?”

  “Yeah, but that’s just the point, isn’t it?”

  “You’ve lost me.”

  “Grandad will do what we’re trying to do. Get to a less built-up area. Yes, he’s in a place that’s tiny compared to Edinburgh, but it’s still pretty big. He’ll be heading somewhere further out. He’ll assume we’re gone; why wouldn’t he? So, we could travel all the way up there and find out it was a fool’s errand. We could get there and find we are no better off than we are here.”

  “I...I don’t know what to say.”

  “There’s nothing to say. These thoughts must have been going around in your head yesterday, too.”

  “They were,” Robyn replied, still watching the smoke in the distance, “But you seemed so sure.”

  “I was sure, until I had to deal with a murderous corpse head-on.”

  “You’re scaring me now. We’re out here. We have no home anymore. We’re going to have to deal with those things; there’s nothing surer.”

  “I know,” Wren said turning towards her sister, “but the fewer, the better. That’s what I’m saying. We might not need to travel half-way to the North Pole to find safety. We might be able to find a cottage or something that we can settle in, just until things calm down. Until we can figure things out.”

  “Calm down? Do you think things will ever calm down again? I don’t know if you got the newsflash, but zombies have taken over.”

  “That fact hadn’t escaped me.”

  Robyn was about to say something else, but just went quiet. The two of them kept watching the smoke for a while before she began to climb down from the small enclosure. “C’mon then,” she said, gesturing for her sister to pass the javelins down to her.

  Wren passed down the weapons, then the holdall, before finally climbing out of the cramped enclosure herself. She threw the strap to the holdall over her shoulder and the two of them set off towards the far wall of the park. Their heads swivelled every step of the way, looking for any sign of the creatures. Their ears tuned into the sounds of the morning, the wet brush of their feet on the dewy grass, making sure nothing invaded it, making sure no inhuman growls accompanied it.

  When they reached the wall, Wren put her hands up against it. They were in the same spot they had climbed over during their first escape. It was the most convenient part of the wall to scale. There were no spiny branches or thorny shrubs to cut themselves on, but there was a part of both girls that wondered and dreaded the prospect of the creatures they had evaded still being on the other side of it. The two sisters looked at each other before gently placing their ears against the cold surface. They stayed that way for more than a minute, desperate to hear nothing but waiting to hear something. When no sound came, Wren tapped gently against the wall, then harder, and then harder still. Still no sound came, so she slid the holdall from her back, leaned the javelin up against the cold black stone and hoisted herself up to peek over the top.

  “It’s all clear,” she whispered, turning her head back round to look at her sister. She climbed onto the ridge properly, straddling it. “Pass me the javelins.” Robyn did as she was asked, and Wren took them, leaning them against the other side. “Okay, pass me the holdall.” Wren took the holdall, but before dropping it to the floor, removed the carry strap. “Here,” she said, lowering one end, “grab onto this, I’ll help you up.” Robyn wrapped the strap around her wrist and forearm before reaching up to the top of the wall with her other hand. Wren pulled and in no time, Robyn joined her. She released the strap from her hand and smiled, handing it to her sister.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “No biggie,” Wren replied, before swivelling and jumping down the other side. Her sister did the same. Wren reattached the carry handle, picked up her javelin, and the pair of them headed down the embankment. The dense woodland blocked out some of the morning light, but there was enough for both girls to see the felled creature from the other day, still lying there. Robyn and Wren both put hands up to their noses to try and block out the foul stench of decay. They were a few metres past it before the air began to smell like woodland again.

  “So where are we heading exactly?” whispered Robyn, conscious of the fact creatures could s
till be lurking somewhere.

  “West. But we need to go north first.”

  “So, the trading estate again?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Great.”

  “It shouldn’t be as bad. Hopefully, most of them were flushed out when they chased us, and the sound of the bike.”

  “Yeah, hopefully.”

  “We’ll be able to pick up our rucksacks too. They were well stocked.”

  “Oh great. I was wondering what was missing from the journey, and that was it, a two-tonne bag strapped to my shoulders.”

  Wren smiled. “Look, you’ll be grateful for those supplies when—”

  The creature was already at full tilt shooting towards them through the shadows of the woods before either of them saw it. Wren’s breath left her. She stopped dead in her tracks as the gurgling growls took the place of her own words, shattering the otherwise serene calm. She dumped the holdall off her shoulder and locked eyes with the demonic whirlwind.

  “Aaarrrggghhh!” Robyn screamed, as her eyes followed her sister’s. They both raised their javelins simultaneously, as the beast came at them. At two metres back it launched through the air like a pouncing cheetah. Robyn thrust the javelin in its general direction, spiking it through the shoulder, slowing it for the briefest of moments as its body absorbed the impact. Right away the beast tried to regain its footing.

  Wren swept her javelin round hard and fast, knocking the creature from its feet and onto its back. Robyn released her javelin. It was buried deep and it whipped out of her hands as the monster fell backwards. The creature immediately began to struggle to its feet, but Wren swiped her javelin hard against its head, dazing it for not much more than a second, but that second was all she needed as she thrust the spear diagonally through the creature’s eye.

  The struggling stopped instantly and the beast laid there, still, on the forest floor. Wren looked up to see if Robyn’s scream had alerted any other monsters to their whereabouts, but for the time being, they were alone.

  Wren looked towards Robyn, and her sister returned the gaze as the two of them started breathing again. Robyn pulled her weapon from the slain beast’s shoulder. It came out with a slooping sound, which made her feel a little queasy, but there was lots in this new world that made her feel queasy, and she was just going to have to learn to live with it.

  “Are you okay?” Wren asked. “It didn’t touch you?”

  “No. I...I think I’m okay,” she said, beginning to examine her clothes and her body. A smile formed on Wren’s face. “What are you smiling at?”

  “We did it. We killed one...together...as a team.”

  “I was useless. You killed it.”

  “What? You weren’t useless! You slowed it down, put it off balance. That gave me the chance to knock it off its feet and finish it. We did it together, Bobbi. We’ll have to take on more of them, but this is a beginning. We stood our ground and we fought.”

  “I suppose we did,” Robyn replied, wiping the end of the javelin on the clothes of the fallen beast.

  “We can do this Bobbi. You and me. We can do this,” Wren said before collecting the holdall and setting off once again.

  chapter 13

  They crouched down in the same spot they had two days before. They stayed there a few minutes surveilling the area carefully. It all seemed clear, but then again, it had the last time. It was only when the motorbike had sped by that they got noticed.

  “Are you ready?” Wren asked, turning to look at her sister.

  “Erm, no.”

  Wren smiled. “We’ll be fine. Come on,” she said and left the concealment of the shrubbery, stepping. out onto the verge.

  Robyn let out a long sigh and ran to catch up with her sister. They walked across the dual carriageway, looking in all directions as they went. When they reached the other side of the road, they took the same narrow path they had previously, minimising the risk of them being seen. Then they saw them, untouched as if they had been placed down just a few minutes before…the two rucksacks.

  “I was worried these might have been taken,” Wren said.

  “By who?”

  “I dunno, I just worried. I can’t believe we’re the only people who have been in this area over the last couple of days.”

  “Maybe not, but, y’know, how many people would have been paying attention to what was stuffed under the bushes?”

  “Good point.”

  “Oh no!” A look of sadness adorned Robyn’s face.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I left my phone and the solar charger.”

  “You expecting a booty call or something?”

  “Funny. It had all my music on. It had dad’s...it doesn’t matter. It’s stupid.”

  “What’s stupid?”

  “I was listening to it the other day. I had a load of Queen on there. It made me feel closer to him, that’s all.”

  “I know what you mean,” Wren replied. “Music can be funny like that. It can make you think about happy times, sad times…. It can even stop you thinking completely.”

  “Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m so angry with myself.”

  Wren saw her sister was about to cry. She unzipped the end compartment of the holdall. “Good job one of us thinks more than two minutes ahead, isn’t it?” she said, handing Robyn her phone and charger.

  Robyn’s mouth fell open and then tears did come, but they were tears of happiness. She looked at the phone and charger in her hands as if she’d just been given a huge diamond ring looped around Chris Hemsworth’s hotel room key. “Wren!” was all she could manage as she threw her arms around her sister and kissed her on the cheek. “You’ve no idea what this means to me.”

  “You’re my sister, of course I know.” Robyn embraced her again, before squeezing the phone and solar charger into her rucksack and putting it on her shoulders.

  She picked her javelin up and the two of them walked side by side up that narrow path, each of them taking a handle of the holdall to distribute the weight. They came to the end of the building and ducked down again. Wren peeked around the corner then quickly pulled her head back.

  “Is there one of them there?” Robyn asked, seeing the concerned look on Wren’s face.

  Wren gave a short, sharp shake of her head. “I wish.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There are about five of them.”

  “Then we have to go back.”

  “Go back where, Bobbi?”

  “To the woods.”

  “And do what?”

  “Wait.”

  “We can’t just wait in the woods until more of those things stumble across us.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  “Look, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s running. I can get them to chase me, so you can make a break for it.”

  “That’s mad. Don’t be stupid.”

  “No listen, these things aren’t bright. They’re a bit like Carl and his brothers,” she said, trying to make her sister smile, but to no avail. “Okay, maybe they’re not that bad, but they won’t be too hard to outwit.”

  “I won’t let you. It’s a mad idea.”

  “Staying here is a mad idea. Going back to wait it out in the woods is a mad idea. We need to get to the other side of this trading estate, and then we’re through to agricultural land, then things get easier.”

  “I won’t let you do anything so foolish.”

  “So, what’s your plan?”

  The two of them crouched down with their backs against the wall, wracking their brains. Then Robyn had an epiphany. “Come with me,” she said, and they retraced their steps, then crossed the road to a large showroom on the other side of the trading estate causeway. They kept low and skirted the front of the building, before turning left up the side. There was a narrow ginnel which led to the road the zombies were on. “Okay. Get to the end of here and I’ll join you in a minute.”

  “What? Where the hell do you think you’re going?”<
br />
  “Trust me,” Robyn replied. “I won’t take any risks.”

  Her sister disappeared, leaving Wren to struggle with her own rucksack and the holdall, up the narrow passageway. She ducked down again at the end of the building and edged her head out. There was a shallow bank up to some bushes. The road where the zombies were laid just beyond. She shuffled the straps to the rucksack off her back, put the holdall down, and leaned the javelin against the wall before edging up the embankment, ducking down lower and sneaking a look up the causeway towards the five creatures.

  They seemed transfixed by reflections of themselves in the dull metal siding of one of the other buildings. Wren had no clue what Robyn’s plan was, but the more time that dragged by, the more concerned she became. She looked at her watch. Four minutes had passed since she left.

  “What the hell are you up to,” she hissed. Another minute passed and Wren belly crawled back down the embankment, picked up her javelin and began to jog back down the narrow ginnel in the direction that her sister had gone.

  She was about ten metres from the end when Robyn came running around the corner. “Move…move,” she whispered, waving her hands and ushering her sister to change direction. Suddenly, the distinctive opening to Queen’s The Show Must Go On, began rising into the morning air.

  “What the hell?”

  “Just get ready to run,” Robyn said, as Wren put the rucksack back on her shoulders and the two of them each picked up a handle of the holdall.

  They edged up the embankment, but the creatures were already heading down the main causeway towards the sound of the music. Robyn and Wren began to run as fast as they could carrying their rucksacks, javelins and holding a holdall between the two of them. They each threw looks to the left as they passed the road the beasts had run down. The five creatures were chasing down the source of the sound, their backs to the girls.

  “What did you do?”

  “Never mind,” Robyn replied.

  They turned right onto the next long causeway that was lined with a mixture of office buildings, showrooms, and storage space.

  Wren looked back. “We’re still clear,” she said.