Stay Out of the Shadows: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

by A. P. Madden

  “We’re not with them,” Luke said quickly.

  Caelan gave a small grunt that Luke knew meant, “They won’t believe us.”

  Luke ignored him and held his hands up. “We’re not with them,” he repeated.

  The man who appeared to be in charge gave him a thin smile. “Yes, you are.”

  “No, we’re not.”

  “If that’s true, why did the girl run away from you?”

  “She was scared,” Luke said.

  “Convenient,” the man said.

  “Not really,” Luke said. “If she was here, she could vouch for us.”

  “We’re taking you into custody,” he said. “Our leaders will choose a fair punishment for your crimes.”

  “Leaders?”

  They ignored Luke’s question and moved forward with handcuffs. The gunmen kept their sights on Luke and Caelan the entire time, and they had no choice but to comply. They were stripped of their weapons and supplies and manhandled into the backseat of one of the cars.

  Cuffed, weaponless and completely in the control of strangers who thought they were bandits.

  Caelan was watching the streets as they drove through them, and Luke knew he was memorising the route they took, so it would be easier to find their way back when - if - they escaped.

  Caelan glanced at him. “For the record, I told you so.”

  “You just had to say it, didn’t you?”

  “Of course,” Caelan grinned. “How else would you know that I was right?”

  ***

  Chapter 3 - You Wouldn’t Have

  There were noises from the end of the hallway, so they quickly stopped searching the makeshift prison cell and tried to look innocent. They had only arrived a few minutes ago, and they were combing through the small room for anything they could use as a weapon. The doorway had been fitted with metal bars, and a heavy padlock kept it securely locked.

  The sound of footsteps came closer, and they moved away from the door and did their best to appear bored and disinterested.

  Caelan leaned against the wall of the cell with his arms crossed. His hair was messy and his stubble was starting to become a beard. It had been almost a week since they found anywhere safe enough to relax, and neither of them had time for more than the most basic attempts at hygiene. The beginning of a beard added to Caelan’s rough, rugged look. Luke decided that he looked exactly like a survivor should.

  Luke couldn’t grow a beard. Not yet, anyway. He thought it would make him look older and stop people from underestimating him. Often, people would avoid starting fights if they thought someone was intimidating. People rarely started fights with Caelan. Luke, on the other hand, was a magnet for anyone stupid enough to mistake him for an easy target.

  A tall man in a suit appeared at the barred door. He appeared to be in his sixties, and he had a thin black beard peppered with silver. There were two armed men behind him, and they both watched Luke and Caelan with hard, suspicious eyes.

  “My name is John.”

  They didn’t say anything.

  “Are either of you injured? We can have our doctor take a look at you. She’s incredibly talented. Skilled doctors are like gold dust these days, aren’t they?” He phrased it like a question, but he didn’t give them a chance to reply. “Some of our people didn’t want me to offer her skills to men like yourselves, but I insisted. We are still civilised people, after all, no matter what might have happened during the last few years.”

  He smiled, obviously expecting them to be grateful for his intervention. When neither of them spoke, he continued.

  “You are here because we are rebuilding society, and men like you have no place in the new world.”

  Caelan looked like he was about to say something sarcastic, so Luke cut in. “We weren’t part of that group. We were trying to help the girl.”

  John smiled thinly. “I’m sure.”

  “I’m telling the truth.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  Caelan stepped closer to the bars, and John quickly took a step back so that he was out of reach.

  “What happens to us now?” Caelan asked.

  “You stay here until your punishment has been decided.”

  “When do-”

  John raised a hand and Luke stopped talking. “I’m a very busy man. I came to inform you about the process that will decide your fate, but I’m afraid I must go. I have other things to do.”

  John turned and walked down the corridor.

  “What an asshole,” Luke muttered.

  “He’s not done,” Caelan said.

  “What?”

  “He’s walking away for dramatic effect.”

  “How do you-”

  John turned around. “Oh, there was one other thing.”

  Luke glanced at Caelan. His friend smirked but didn’t explain how he knew.

  “What is it?” Luke asked John.

  John approached the bars. “It’s Luke, right?”

  Luke nodded.

  “You seem quite young. How old are you?”

  Luke didn’t reply.

  “I’d say seventeen, maybe eighteen. Is that correct?”

  Luke shrugged.

  John sighed. “I can’t help you unless you talk to me. If this man is coercing you into working with him-”

  “He’s not.”

  “Let me finish. If he’s forcing you into this and you’re too scared to try and get away from him, you can tell us.”

  Luke was silent.

  “You’re young, Luke. It’s a scary world out there. We can understand if you thought you would be safer with them, with someone like him,” he glanced pointedly at Caelan, “and now you’re in too deep to get out. We can help you.”

  Luke glanced at Caelan. If he agreed to it, he would be confirming everything they believed about Caelan, and these people would throw the book at him. Or more likely, give him a bullet.

  “How can you help me?” Luke asked.

  “We could put you in a different cell, for now, and you could serve a shortened sentence before we put you on probation. If you don’t cause any trouble, you could be completely free within the next few months.”

  “No.”

  John blinked. “What?”

  “No,” Luke said. “First of all, you’re making a very big assumption that this group will still be here in a few months. You’re in the middle of a dead city and there are gangs everywhere. It’s a miracle you haven’t been raided already.”

  “We have defences,” John said sharply.

  “And secondly,” Luke said. “He’s not forcing me to do anything. We’re not bandits. We were helping that girl.”

  John sighed. “That’s unfortunate. I wish you would let me help you, Luke, but you’ve given me no choice.”

  As soon as John walked away, Caelan stepped right up to the bars and watched them leave. “He’s taking the guards with him,” he said quietly. “They didn’t post anyone else in here with us. That means they don’t have enough people to watch us.”

  “Or they’re careless,” Luke said. “Some people aren’t as paranoid as you.”

  “Some people are stupid.”

  Luke chuckled and stepped onto the metal bench at the back of the room to peer through the small, reinforced window at the top of the wall. They were underground, and the tiny window was almost at ground level for the street outside.

  “Why did you hesitate?” Caelan asked.

  Luke turned to him. “When?”

  “They offered you a way out. You hesitated. I thought you were considering taking the deal.”

  Luke grinned. “I wanted to mess with you. And I wanted to know what they were willing to offer me in case it was anything we could use to escape. You seriously believed I was thinking about saying yes?”

  “You’re an idiot,” Caelan said, rolling his eyes.

  Luke kept grinning. “You were worried.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “Sure.”

  “
I’m serious.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Then stop grinning.”

  Luke tried to control his face. “I’m not grinning.”

  Caelan glowered at him and shook his head, but he couldn’t hide his quick smile. “You should have taken the deal.”

  “You wouldn’t have,” Luke said.

  “Yes, I would. If it was me, I would have said whatever I needed to say to get out of here, even if it meant leaving you behind.”

  “That’s not true,” Luke said. “You’re trying to convince yourself that you’re cold and heartless, and you’re hoping that you can make me change my mind and take the deal.”

  “You seem pretty sure of yourself.”

  “I am. You wouldn’t have left me.”

  Caelan just grunted and watched one of the guards walk past the opening at the end of the corridor. “You still should have said yes. You don’t deserve to be in here.”

  “Neither do you. And if I said yes, we would have been separated, and it would be harder to escape.”

  “Why do you think we can escape?”

  “You’ve got that look in your eyes.”

  Caelan raised an eyebrow. “What look?”

  “Watching, assessing, calculating the angles. You’re working on a plan.”

  Caelan shrugged.

  “So I’m right.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Give me some time to work it out, and then I’ll tell you.”

  Luke patted him on the shoulder and walked over to the flat bench at the back of the cell. “I’ll get some shut eye in the meantime. Wake me up if anything happens.”

  There was no way out of the cell. Not without help. They would have to wait until someone came inside. With any luck, they would be willing to take a bribe or trade something in exchange for their freedom. Luke and Caelan had hidden some weapons and supplies a few blocks away. They always kept a stash somewhere, just in case, but neither of them expected to be using it to barter for their freedom.

  Luke wondered if Caelan was planning to incorporate any of those things into his escape plan.

  ***

  Someone nudged him, and Luke opened his eyes to find a shadow looming over him in the dark.

  “Just me,” Caelan whispered quickly.

  Luke relaxed slightly, but the spike of adrenaline was already flooding his system and dragging him out into the waking world. “Why are we whispering?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Luke rolled into a sitting position, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

  Footsteps approached the cell, and Luke watched Caelan move closer to the door. It almost looked casual, except for the deliberate, predatory way his body moved.

  “Hi, there,” Caelan said with a friendly smile.

  The footsteps stopped. “Hello. I, uh, I brought some blankets.”

  The voice was young and reedy, and Luke leaned to the side, trying to see the speaker. A teenager stepped into view, nervously holding out a pile of blankets. It was a boy, probably only a year or two younger than Luke. He had messy hair and the kind of soft complexion that meant he had been sheltered for most of the apocalypse.

  “They told us you were coming,” Caelan said. “Thanks, we appreciate it.”

  The teenager stepped closer, but Caelan didn’t reach through the bars to take them, and the boy hesitated.

  “What’s wrong?” Caelan asked. His voice was deceptively friendly, and Luke wondered if the teenager could hear the danger brimming just beneath the surface.

  “Nothing,” he said. He squared his shoulders and stepped closer. “Here you go-”

  Caelan grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward. The boy cried out and slammed against the bars, struggling and flailing wildly. Caelan ignored his panicked blows and searched his pockets.

  “Caelan,” Luke snapped.

  “What? Damn, he doesn’t have the keys.”

  “Caelan, let him go.”

  “No way, he’s-”

  “He’s innocent,” Luke said. “Let him go.”

  Caelan looked back at him. With a frown, he released the teenager.

  The boy scrambled to get away from the door. His face was white and his eyes were huge on his face.

  “Was that really necessary?” Luke demanded. “They already think we’re the bad guys. How is this going to make us look?”

  “They’re never going to let us go,” Caelan said. “It doesn’t matter what they think of us.”

  Luke sighed and looked back at the teenager. “Thanks for the blankets,” he said. “Are you hurt?”

  He shook his head quickly and then backed out of the room without saying anything else.

  “The boy would have been fine,” Caelan said, recognising the look on Luke’s face. “We didn’t need to actually hurt him, just make his friends think that we would.”

  “It’s not right.”

  Caelan sighed. “When are you going to figure it out? Right and wrong are gone, Luke. It’s over. They died when the world ended.”

  “We’ve talked about this before. We’re not going to agree, so let’s just drop it, okay?”

  Caelan ignored him. “We put ourselves at a disadvantage every time we refuse to get our hands dirty. The longer it takes you to figure that out, the more danger we’re going to be in. Playing nice is going to get us killed.”

  “I’m not playing nice, I’m just showing a little humanity.”

  “Same thing,” Caelan shrugged.

  “Great,” Luke muttered. “Fantastic. Congratulations, Caelan. Now we’ll never make them believe the truth. We could have talked to them, convinced them that we’re innocent. Hell, maybe they could have joined us.”

  “Why would we want them to join us?”

  “We have a good thing back in the valley. The factory is strong and well-hidden and it’s easy to defend, but we need people if we want it to keep growing. Besides, it’s been a while since we’ve had any new blood. If we don’t find more people, we won’t be able to sustain it. Don’t you want somewhere safe?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then stop scaring these people. They could be good for us.”

  “Not these ones.”

  “What?”

  “Not these ones,” Caelan said. “We’ll find more people, but it won’t be this group.”

  “Why not?”

  Caelan shrugged. “Gut feeling.”

  Luke was too tired to try to drag answers out of him, so he returned to his spot at the back wall and sat down.

  They were quiet for a while, both of them waiting to hear the sound of guards approaching their cell after the teenager told someone what happened. They didn’t hear anything, and the silence began to stretch between them.

  “I could have killed the boy,” Caelan said. “Or used him as a hostage. If I did that, we would probably be free by now.”

  “So why didn’t you?” Luke demanded.

  “I knew you wouldn’t like it,” Caelan said simply.

  Luke stared at him for a moment, but Caelan didn’t offer up any further explanation, so he closed his eyes and tried to get some rest.

  ***

  Chapter 4 - Naomi

  Two days later, the whole building shook.

  Luke jumped to his feet as the floor stopped shaking. “What was that?”

  “Explosion, probably,” Caelan said. He was standing by the bars, watching the door. He had been in that position almost constantly for the past two days, except for when he allowed himself brief periods of sleep. “If we’re lucky, they’re being attacked. We might get out of here.”

  Luke didn’t like the idea of all these people dying, but Caelan was right.

  Distant gunfire reached them, and Caelan smiled. “We got lucky.”

  The floor shuddered again as a muffled explosion shook the building. It felt like a small earthquake. Shouts and more gunfire came from somewhere nearby, and then the door burst open.

  An unarmed
man ran inside. His face was white, there was blood on his hands, and his eyes were wide with fear. He stopped in front of the cell and just stood there.

  Luke and Caelan shared a look. The man must have been in shock, but there were a bunch of keys on his belt. One of them could be the key to the cell door. They needed him to snap out of it right now.

  “Hey, look at me,” Luke said, moving closer to the bars. “What’s your name?”

  The man was trembling all over, but he managed to whisper, “Ronnie.”

  “Listen to me, Ronnie. It’s okay. You’re safe. Don’t think about what’s happening out there. Just look at me. Focus on me, okay?”

  Ronnie nodded.

  “Did you come in here to let us out?” Luke asked. He glanced at the open doorway behind Ronnie. The gunfire was louder now. Closer.

  “John said not to, but... Maria...”

  Luke wanted to yell at him to hurry, but he couldn’t scare him away. “Give me the key, Ronnie.” He tried to make his voice as soothing as possible, and he gave him a warm smile. “It’s okay, Ronnie. We can help. Just give me the key.”

  Ronnie finally took a step forward and fumbled for his keys. He was close enough for Luke to reach out and grab the keys from his belt. Luke flicked through the keys, but none of them had an obvious sign that it was the cell door key.

  “That one,” Ronnie said, and Luke stopped on a small steel key.

  Seconds later, the padlock snapped open, and they were free.

  “Don’t kill him,” Luke said quickly. He moved towards the door and peered outside.

  “I wasn’t going to,” Caelan said. “Killing him wouldn’t help us.”

  “The coast is clear,” Luke said. “Ronnie, you stay here.”

  “What? I should come with you,” Ronnie said, but he was obviously terrified.

  Caelan smirked. “You don’t sound very eager.”

  “Ignore him,” Luke told Ronnie. “Stay here. If we find anyone, we’ll send them here. You can keep them safe.”