by A. P. Madden
He sat up and rubbed his face. “What I wouldn’t give for another hour of sleep,” he muttered, but he stood up and checked his weapons while his brain continued waking up.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Addison said. “I haven’t got a good night’s sleep since the bombs fell.”
“Me neither,” Naomi said.
The area seemed clear, but they kept their eyes on the road.
“I’m tired,” Clara said, pulling at her mother’s sleeve.
“I know,” she said. “Just keep going a bit longer, okay? We’re almost there.”
“But Mom-”
Luke rearranged his weapons and crouched down beside Clara. “Hey, how about a piggyback ride?”
Her eyes widened and she looked hopefully at her mother.
“Alright,” Addison said after a moment. “But only for a while.”
Luke lifted her onto his shoulders, and Clara gasped and laughed when he straightened up.
“Thanks,” Addison said to him.
They kept walking, and they passed a few abandoned cars, but none of them would start. Clara was thrilled that she didn’t have to walk, and she talked constantly, telling Luke all about her friends and the little school they had back at Morgan’s camp.
“And sometimes Uncle Trent would come and visit,” Clara said. “That was cool because all the other kids and their parents knew who he was. He’s really important,” she told Luke. “Not as important as Uncle Morgan, but-”
“Clara,” Addison said sharply.
“Sorry, I forgot,” Clara said.
Luke stopped walking.
Addison stopped, too, and she tried to smile at him. “Why did you stop, Luke? Are you okay? You’re probably sick of carrying her, you can put her-”
“Uncle Morgan,” Luke said. “Uncle. Who are you?”
Addison’s smile faltered for a moment, and she did a good job of pretending to be confused. “Excuse me? You must have misheard, Luke. She didn’t say Morgan.”
“She did,” Naomi said. Her hand had moved to the holster on her belt, but she didn’t draw the gun.
“I can see it,” Luke said, scanning Addison’s face. “You look like him. How didn’t I notice it before?”
“I don’t know what you mean-”
“Tell me.”
Dean had pulled Ben away from their little group, and Addison glanced nervously up at Clara, still on Luke’s shoulders.
Luke gently lowered Clara to the ground and waited until the girl went to her mother.
“Morgan is your brother.”
***
Chapter 29 - Family
Addison lifted her chin, and her hand moved to her own gun. “Yes, he’s my brother. What are you going to do about it?”
Luke glanced at Naomi. “I don’t know,” he said honestly.
“If you want revenge against Morgan for something he did-”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Luke said. “But I will defend myself if you decide to use that.”
Addison hesitated, but she didn’t drop her hand. “Why not?”
“We don’t hurt kids, and I don’t know you. He’s your brother, but you’re clearly trying to get away from him.”
“Why are you here?” Naomi asked. “His camp must be a lot safer than being out here.”
She hesitated, but apparently, she was tired of keeping things to herself. “I didn't like what he was doing.”
“Explain,” Luke said.
Addison glanced at Dean and nodded to the empty road ahead of them. “Take Ben and Clara. Not too far, stay in sight, okay?”
Dean nodded and led the twins away.
“A year ago,” Addison said, “when we first started the group, it was supposed to be something different. It began as a refuge for people who needed help. There were children, families, people who needed shelter.” Addison looked at Dean, Clara and Ben. “Like us.”
“That’s not what it became,” Luke said, trying to reconcile this version of Morgan with the man he knew.
“No, it’s not,” Addison agreed. “But that was how it started. Morgan, Trent and I, we wanted to build something new. My husband died when the bombs were dropped on our city, but we got out, and Morgan and Trent helped me keep them safe. We all agreed that we needed somewhere permanent, and we should try to offer the same safety to other people.”
“Trent is your brother, too?” Luke asked.
She nodded. “Three of us. We don’t have any other family, it was always just the three of us. Until I made a family of my own,” she added.
“So what happened?” Naomi asked.
“Maybe Morgan got drunk on power, maybe he couldn’t handle losing people, probably a mixture of both. He put the blame on himself every time someone from our group died. I think it was too much for him. He changed. It was gradual, slow, and by the time I realised what was happening, it was too late.”
“What about Trent?”
“He’s always had trouble saying no to Morgan. He would follow him anywhere.”
Luke wanted to believe that she was lying. He had always envisioned Morgan as a two-dimensional monster because that was all he saw. That was all he wanted to see.
“So why are you out here alone?” Luke asked. “I’m sure Morgan could have given you an escort to bring you to this military camp.”
“He didn’t want us to leave,” Addison said.
“He would have forced you to stay?” Naomi asked.
“Yes. He thought we were safer with him.” She glanced at her children again. “He loves them more than anything else, and he would have done anything to keep them safe. Even forcing them to stay behind his walls.”
“You escaped.”
“We did. The things he was doing, the things we saw... I couldn’t raise my children in a place like that. Those twisted science experiments were bad enough, but-” She broke off and cleared her throat. “Nevermind. The point is that we couldn’t stay. I think they suspected I was planning to take the kids and leave. They had guards posted outside my door and others who followed me everywhere I went.”
“That sounds extreme,” Naomi said. “Even for Morgan.”
“I’m sure he justified it by saying it was our own safety. He got used to making hard decisions, and I think he stopped being able to tell the difference between what was necessary and what wasn’t. He saw everything in black and white. Us and them. Keeping the group together and thriving was all that mattered.”
Addison took a deep breath and continued. “So I left. My friends and allies had either died or fled, and the rest were completely loyal to Morgan, or too afraid of him to help me. The group has been struggling since the scientists took most of our supplies and weapons. Oh, you probably don’t know what I mean. There were these scientists, Warren and Donna, who-”
“We know,” Luke said.
She blinked. “You do?”
“We’ll explain later,” Naomi said quickly, glancing at Luke. “You were saying that Morgan’s group is struggling.”
“Yes. Well, people have started to leave and there’s been a lot of infighting between different groups within the camp. The food and weapons we still have are barely enough to scrape by. I took advantage of the chaos to slip out. If it wasn’t for Eddy and his men, we would have made it to the soldiers’ camp already.”
“Eddy knew who you are,” Luke said. “Did he want revenge against Morgan?”
“Yes. Morgan wiped out half of their group. They tried to backstab him after trading some supplies, and he responded with extreme force. He thought he got them all, but apparently, he was wrong. Eddy had a few trackers with him, and they followed us all the way from the camp. I don’t think they knew who was in the car at first, but they recognised me as soon as they caught up with us.”
“Why did you burn the car?”
“A distraction. It didn’t work. They were gaining on us, and I thought we could use it to sneak around them, but they tracked us down easily.”
“Wel
l,” Luke said, glancing at Naomi. “I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we’ll help you get to the camp. Or close to it if you don’t want to show us the exact location.”
Addison looked between them with obvious surprise. “Really?”
Naomi nodded. “Of course.”
***
Chapter 30 - The Forest
“This is where we part ways,” Addison said.
They were standing at a crossroads. Right would take them towards the factory, but Addison was looking to the left.
“Good luck,” Naomi said.
“Thank you for everything,” Addison said. “I have a feeling we’ll see each other again.”
They said goodbye to the kids and turned to head for home. They had a lot of important information to tell Caelan about Morgan and his camp.
“Be careful,” Addison called out. “I’m sure Morgan will send people to look for us. If they track the car down, they might be searching the area. Watch your back.”
“You, too,” Luke said.
They waved until they lost sight of each other, and Luke and Naomi continued their journey alone.
“I hope they don’t run into any other trouble,” Naomi said.
“So do I, but we can’t do anything about it now. Addison didn’t want us to know where the camp was.”
“I know.”
They kept walking, finally reaching the road that curved around the edge of the forest that hid the factory. The building was still a few miles away, so they had to loop around the edge of the woods until they reached the small dirt road that would bring them home.
Luke caught a glimpse of movement up ahead, and he cursed. “I knew this was going too smoothly.”
“What?”
He took Naomi’s hand and pulled her behind a dip in the road. “There are men up ahead.”
“Are they ours? We’re not far from the factory. It could be a patrol.”
He risked another quick look. “I recognise some of them. They’re Morgan’s men.
Naomi sighed. “Of course they are. Why is it never easy?”
“They’re probably looking for Addison,” Luke said.
“What do we do?” Naomi said. “There’s nowhere to hide. We could... We could try hiding behind one of the cars we passed half a mile back.”
“It’s too risky. They might search the cars.”
“We could talk to them and say-”
“They know my face,” Luke said. He glanced at the trees beside them. They were on the edge of the forest. The trees were packed close together and the foliage above was thick and impenetrable, and no sunlight reached the ground inside.
“We go in there,” he said.
Naomi looked at him like he was crazy. “What? No way. We have a better chance with Morgan’s men than mutants. At least we can reason with people.”
“We’ll stay on the edge,” Luke said. “Just use the trees at the edge for cover. When they pass, we’ll come back out.”
Naomi hesitated, but the men were getting closer. Their voices had started to reach Luke and Naomi. “Let’s do it,” she said.
They stayed close to the ground and ran to the trees. Luke didn’t see any mutants in the immediate area, but he was careful not to get too close to the shadows.
The men’s voices got closer and louder, and Luke hid behind the thickest tree trunk he could find. Naomi chose one nearby. It wasn’t thinner, but she was smaller, and both of them were hidden from the road.
“Stupid bitch and her stupid kids,” one of them was complaining. “Why the hell did we get stuck with trying to track her down?”
“Stop whining. You’re giving me a headache.”
“Whatever, man. I need to take a leak.”
Luke tensed, and Naomi’s expression mirrored his own panic.
Go to the other side, Luke urged him, but he heard the man’s boots as he approached the trees where they were hiding.
The man walked right up to them and unzipped. He sighed and started to relieve himself, and then he glanced up. His eyes landed on Naomi and he froze.
Naomi was frozen, and she looked helplessly at Luke.
Luke slid his knife from its sheath as the man turned to follow her gaze.
“You,” he gasped, and his eyes widened in recognition. “I know you.”
Luke leaped towards him, but it was too late. The man yelled out and stumbled backwards, trying to zip up, and his friends came running. Shouts rang out all around them and guns fired. Bullets shot through the air all around them, slamming into trees and cracking bark and branches.
Luke and Naomi grabbed their guns, but they were completely outnumbered. A bullet hit the tree trunk near Naomi’s head and she cried out and ducked, firing blindly back at them. They scattered, but it was only a matter of time before Luke or Naomi was hit.
There were just too many of them.
Luke fired at the men and grabbed Naomi and pulled her away from the men trying to kill them.
They ran straight into the forest.
***
They made it surprisingly far before they heard the first mutant.
The forest was dark and eerie. They had enough light to see, but it was far too dim to stop the monsters from coming out to play. Something growled behind them and Naomi stumbled. Luke pulled her up and they kept running, jumping over bushes and fallen logs and tripping on roots that were hidden in the shadows.
One growl became many, and Luke swapped his gun for his knife. Adrenaline coursed through him, clearing his head of everything but survival. He couldn’t use his gun. The noise would draw more.
“Something ahead,” Naomi gasped, pointing to something in the distance. It was bright and open - their only chance to get out of this with their lives.
Pounding footsteps raced around them and behind them. Something nipped at Luke’s legs, and he kicked out at it and swiped wildly with the knife. He almost tripped, but Naomi was suddenly beside him and she grabbed his hand.
Growls and howls and screams filled the darkness. Plants were crushed and branches broke as the mutant horde grew bigger and bigger.
Finally, one of them leaped out in front of them. Naomi screamed and swerved around it, pushing herself off a tree to get her momentum back onto the path. The mutant slashed at Luke but he ducked and stabbed at it with his knife. The creature hissed and snarled at him.
He heard its teeth snap together, just inches from his face, and then he was running again.
They were almost at the bright spot ahead when their path was cut off. A trio of twisted mutants standing on four unnaturally long legs loomed over them. They looked like they were horses, once, but now their heads were elongated and bent with huge jaws and serrated teeth.
Luke raised his gun to fire, but suddenly, everything stopped. The forest went still. The mutants froze.
Luke was so shocked that he didn’t pull the trigger. Naomi stepped closer, aiming her gun at the smaller wolf-like creatures behind them.
Neither of them spoke. They couldn’t break that horrible silence. If they did, it might have brought everything back into motion, and they would be ripped to shreds by teeth and claws.
It was just for a moment, really, but it seemed to last forever, and Luke knew it would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life, if he lived long enough to dream again.
As one, the creatures scattered. They screamed and howled and ran - but they ran away.
“What are they doing?” Naomi said. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Luke said, but his heart was in his throat. “Something’s wrong. Very wrong.”
It came to him in a flash of understanding. “Something’s coming.”
Naomi looked at him, and they both finally snapped out of the fear that had frozen their feet to the ground. They ran for the light, and then they heard it.
Something was sprinting towards them. The footsteps shook the ground and the trees. Branches whipped at their faces and the forest floor seemed
to heave and throw them off balance, but they kept running.
Just like the tunnels, Luke thought. The only thing mutants are afraid of is something more dangerous than they are.
It screamed as it rushed at them from the dark. Luke didn’t want to look, but he couldn’t stop himself. He glanced over his shoulder, and he felt his body go cold. His feet kept running, but he couldn’t look away from it. Naomi’s hand pulled him forward.
It was taller than a full-grown man and twice as wide. Long arms curled at its sides and it sucked more air into its barrel chest before it opened its deformed mouth and screamed again. The scream shook the entire forest and almost knocked Luke and Naomi to the ground.
Its legs bunched with muscle and powerful feet tore the ground and propelled it forward. Its eyes were blood-red and glowing, and they were filled with pure rage and insatiable hunger. Its face twisted into malicious pleasure when their eyes met, and it sprinted towards him. It was so fast that it crashed through trees and branches and plants, sending explosions of splinters in every direction. The collision should have winded it or cut through its skin, but the glistening black skin was unmarked. It screamed again and pounded its powerful chest with its fists and gnashed its jaws together eagerly.
We’re going to die here.
Luke tore his eyes off it and kept running. He could hear it behind them, closer and closer and closer. The vibrations from its pounding feet shook his bones and he felt its hot breath on the back of his neck. He imagined it lifting its arm towards him and swooping down to grab him by the neck and tear him open.
Sweat blurred his vision, but he heard Naomi’s gasp and then they hurled themselves into the open air, into the glorious sunlight, out of the forest, and Luke waited for the monster to grab them and pull them back into the darkness.
It didn’t.
Luke was gasping for air and lying on his back, staring at the sky. The sun shone brightly above them. He never thought he could love anything as much as he loved the sun right at that moment.
A scream pierced the air and shook him to his core. An angry, furious, enraged shriek of fury. He had to look. He raised his head and looked into the trees.
