by Stevens, GJ
Now here I was, and I glanced to my hand, still blotched red despite the stains covering the dark mottled cloth.
Each face of the square room had a small window set in the centre of a much larger stone wall. Taking slow steps, I looked to the wall, not wanting to see anything until I was ready to process.
I chose the window furthest away, hoping it would face from the hospital despite the climb disorienting my sense of direction.
I’d chosen right. The remains of the hospital were not in the view; instead, I was greeted by familiar columns of rising smoke in the distance which varied in thickness and colour, spewing into the air. Trees spread across the ground with the dark green of those that didn’t change with the season.
With a slow clatter of feet on the metal steps rising, about to move, I saw a crater of what I could only guess used to be a house. In the garden, a trampoline sat covered with rubble and brick scattered across its black surface.
I shouldn’t have focused on that space. I shouldn’t have looked around its perimeter. I shouldn’t have stared at the bodies. The remaining parts, at least.
Movement caught my eye, and I peered closer, seeking detail, but I should have known the regret I would feel when what remained of the small body moved. I closed my eyes before my brain could tell me if they were still alive.
Footsteps climbed the stairs, and I turned, knowing these days I couldn’t trust those we’d just met.
17
JESSICA
Logan turned from the window as I arrived.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
He closed his eyes, shaking his head as he moved to the next window. He still hadn’t spoken, instead turning his head from side to side as he peered across the view.
“What are you looking for?”
“A vehicle. Something big enough for us all,” he replied without looking back, his gaze intent on the horizon. “I didn’t see anything drivable on the way here. Did you?”
“No,” I said as I stepped to the nearest window, the columns of smoke more numerous than when I’d filmed this morning.
Looking out, I couldn’t help but think of the people in their homes in hope by now they were watching my message. In hope they were taking note.
I tried to ignore the occasional body on the floor and didn’t care to peer over the edge of the sill to see the crowd I could hear still surrounding the building.
My gaze ran across the horizon and caught on bright colours painted on the washed-out grey of the tarmac. The playground empty of kids. Neither alive or dead, or anywhere in between. I was thankful of the timing. Thankful it had happened in the holidays when families would have been together and evacuated as one unit.
Those that made it, at least.
“Did you get left behind?” I said without thought. The words seemed to echo in the compact room.
After a moment he huffed a distracted reply.
“Why didn’t you evacuate?”
In the pause, I heard him turn as new footsteps rose from below. Logan stood beside me, but with his focus still beyond the window.
“We missed the evacuation. We were out in the sticks.” He scanned the horizon. “Even more isolated than here.”
I nodded, but he wouldn’t have seen. He pulled in a sharp breath and I knew he’d found what he’d been looking for.
“There,” he said, pushing the window wide on the creaking hinges to let the smoke-filled air in as if he needed to check he wasn’t seeing an image projected to the glass. I followed his finger to the back third of a white minibus just visible as it protruded out from a stone building. The School.
He thought we were going with him.
Logan rushed out of sight as I lingered on the view, only turning around when I heard his steps falling with a great weight as if he were taking two at a time.
He wasn’t my problem. No one was. I’d done my bit.
I only owed Alex safety. Perhaps she should go with them.
I turned back to stare through the window, peering to the minibus. It was one of the few vehicles around and seemed undamaged, from the part I could see at least, protected by the canopy above. All others sat on their roofs or otherwise abandoned.
I couldn’t fault his plan, other than he had to leave the safety of the church to get it.
I had a decision to make.
When the crowd died back, they could run to the school and hopefully find the keys, or maybe hot-wire it.
I looked again to see if I could make out the registration plate and therefore the age, but I couldn’t.
Stepping closer, I peered over the edge and saw enough to know the creatures weren’t going anywhere in a hurry.
I listened to the mis-step as Logan lost his footing, catching himself before regaining a rhythm a little slower than before.
I’d decided.
I’d get Alex to the minibus, then when she was safe, I’d slip away to make sure I could no longer be a danger to anyone and start my search for Toni.
It must have been a good few minutes later when the raised voices downstairs pulled me back from my gaze.
A woman. A deep voice, too, and I thought of the hammer in Mandy’s hand.
I waited for Shadow to join in, the crowd outside taking note with the beat at the door punctuated by a shrill call in the distance which made me pull the window up tight.
18
LOGAN
The raised voices lowered as I slowed to drift down the tower and hush my pace, knowing with every quiet moment one of those things outside would lose interest until they were all gone and I could get the minibus to continue our journey to safety.
With each step down I tried to turn away from scenes which had become all too familiar. The destruction. The death spread across the sleepy village and beyond.
I tried not to think about the places we’d travelled on our journey so far. I tried not to imagine the villages we hadn’t seen, or the towns, the cities. All those people affected. How far did this reach?
A short flurry of footsteps rose from below, bringing with them an orange glow and the odour of grease and sweat until they stopped and I laid eyes on the figure waiting in the stairwell’s curve.
Paul smiled up toward me, unable to meet my gaze as he held a candle. He moved back down, but stopped when I hadn’t followed.
“They have questions,” he said.
I nodded. I would too in their situation.
“They’re scared. I’m sure you can understand.”
I nodded again.
“Is she bitten?”
Taking the last few steps, the lobby seemed so dark now I’d witnessed the sun again, but I still made out each of the four gathered around the foot of the stairs with Alex nowhere to be seen.
“Let’s go somewhere we can talk,” I said, making eye contact with each of the group, then looking across to the doors rattling in reply to the slightest sound.
Paul nodded, leaning toward me as he held his hand open to the main hall.
Moving to the wide space, our footsteps echoed as the procession followed past the pews. Shadow raised his head, lying at Cassie’s side as we passed. Alex sat on the pew a few rows back, then stood, heading the opposite way to where we headed.
Eventually we gathered in a compact room at the back, lined with white, black and purple robes hanging from hooks buried deep in the stone.
“She’s cured,” I said, moving to the wall, my gaze catching Jess as she joined the back of the huddle.
A collective gasp ran through the room. Stacey’s hand flashed back to her cheek, Harry kept his finger on the bridge of his glasses to hold them in place as the other two swapped looks. Paul raised a single brow, but otherwise didn’t react, and I noticed Alex hadn’t followed us into the room.
Mandy met my gaze as Beth to her left said something under her breath.
“She’s fine now,” I said. “They were working on a cure. In the hospital.”
“She’s bitten?” Beth asked, glancing b
ack as if she could see Cassie through the stone walls.
I nodded. “But she’s cured,” I said, looking to each of them.
They swapped looks as if trying to come to a consensus about how they should feel. Paul’s expression dropped as Mandy spoke again.
“She doesn’t look fine. How do you know she’s cured?”
I took a hard swallow, my gaze flitting to each again. Fixing on Jess’s raised brow, I spoke. “She’s tired. That’s all. Maybe a little fever. But we’ve been through a lot.”
“Did you meet her?” Jess cut in. Everyone in the room turned and for the first time, I saw an interest in Jess’s expression.
“Who?” I asked, shaking my head as they looked back in my direction.
“My height and build. Brunette. Wore lots of makeup. She left in the helicopter.”
I stared for a moment, pushing down the annoyance of the question until the image of the woman she’d described became clear. I nodded, forcing away the memories of the glass cell and the purple liquid.
“Briefly.”
Jess’s face lit up as if she’d woken for the first time.
“How did she seem?”
Mandy stepped forward, holding her palm in the air.
“Hang on. Never mind that. How do you know that woman?” she said, almost spitting the words as she pointed past the closed door at her back. “Isn’t she putting us in danger?”
I turned away from Jess and looked Mandy in the eye, trying to remind myself I would be the same in her situation. I would want to know. I would want to be sure.
Taking a deep breath, I told them everything.
I told them about New Year’s Eve. The party. The lights going out. The music stopping.
I told them how we didn’t leave until the next day. I told them about the roadblocks, watching Jess nod as I spoke. I saw their eyes widen, and hands cover their mouths. I told them of the first sighting in the dark. How Chloe had been bitten, remembering each of my friend’s faces.
With a smile rising, I spoke of finding Cassie and her sister, my lips faltering as I re-lived how I’d almost killed them both.
Fixing my gaze on Jess, my smile fell away as I spoke of the fire and the moment Chloe turned, taking two more of my friends.
I told of the helicopter. How we’d thought they’d saved us. How we waved our arms not to be missed. I told them of the gunfire. The utter destruction.
My voice broke as I spoke of Andrew saving the day with fireworks.
I told them of Commander Lane. How he turned out to be an exceptional friend.
I told them of Shadow and then Toby and his sister. I told them how Toby was bitten the day before, or one before that. I was no longer sure.
I watched Jess’s reaction as I spoke the boy’s name. A rise of her brow as she turned away, then back to me. She was looking for Alex.
Wiping my forehead on my sleeve, I told them about Naomi laying in the bed, then going with Cassie to the next village. I spoke of hiding away, the fear of looters and then finding the hospital. I told them of Doctor Lytham, Jess not able to hide the flicker of her eyelids as I spoke.
My voice caught when I talked of the doctor’s interest in the boy and how I wasn’t sure if telling them was the right thing, but now I knew I’d made the right decision.
I told them of the group of soldiers who tried to protect us. I told of how they hadn’t known about the powerful creatures we all came to fear so much. By the wide-eyed looks between them, the once-human I’d shot outside was the only one they’d seen.
I spoke of how the fast creatures overwhelmed us, forcing us from the Land Rovers. I told them how we got back to the village, only able to find my friends because of Shadow.
Fighting to keep my voice level, I told them all but the children were now dead.
Paul stepped to my side, gripping my arm as I patted the top of his hand, not able to thank him with my cracking voice whilst I marvelled at the kindness of someone I’d only just met.
I told them how McCole turned in the back of the Land Rover as we escaped. I told them how I had to put down one of my oldest friends. And then to find Andrew bitten. And Cassie. Shadow with the wound to his side and how he’d saved the day for the second time.
I spoke of the hospital, finding the place overwhelmed. I spoke about surviving against the odds to find the doctor still alive. Gritting my teeth, I told of how she’d killed Andrew.
Jess kept her gaze fixed my way and I turned back to the group to find each looking back, slowly nodding.
Then I spoke of waking in the glass room, Shadow stitched up, lucky the wound was only superficial, then Cassie arriving back to sleep at my side.
“That woman was there,” I said directly to Jess. “They offered medicine.”
I laughed gently as I told them how Cassie wouldn’t take it unless I had some too. My words slowed as I spoke of waking in the morning. This morning. Waking to the sound of the helicopter on the roof, then finding everyone piling in. Of seeing the children being led into the helicopter and off to safety.
I spoke of the joy of knowing the children were safe. I watched Jess’s reaction as I spoke of the kids, but my mind was on not telling them about how they’d shot Lane.
I told them how we would move on as soon as Cassie was well enough; as soon as the creatures outside had moved away. We would find where they’d taken the children so we could reunite.
“So, yes,” I said. “Cassie will be fine.”
We stood in silence for a long moment.
“How do you know it’s worked?” Mandy said in a quiet voice, the other four turned to glare at her as I cursed the run of feet echoing and the clatter of metal beyond the main hall.
“Because she just has to,” I said, and took a seat, closing my eyes to slow the welling of emotion rising to my voice. It felt such a relief to share what we’d been through. I’d been strong for so long, knowing I had to lead the way.
“I don’t think we should take the chance,” Mandy said, looking between each of the people who were in the church when we’d arrived.
I tried not to let the disappointment tell in my voice.
“What are you going to do?” I said in a slow voice. “Kick us out there?”
Paul stepped forward and pushed his arms out. “No one’s getting kicked out. Let’s take a breath.”
I looked up to see Mandy shooting a venomous glance in my direction as she turned to Paul.
It was Jess’s voice that broke the silence, stepping toward me.
“I’m afraid the children are not as safe as you think.”
I lifted my head, my vision swaying with the rush of blood.
“What?” I said, the only word I could get out. I felt the anger flushing away with her words, but before she could speak, the door flung open and Alex stood with wide-eyed alarm as she fought to calm her breath enough to speak.
“Helicopters. And lots of them.”
19
JESSICA
Alex’s appearance at the door jarred my thoughts, shaking away the questions building up at Logan’s extraordinary account. If the tale hadn’t been so much like my own, I don’t know how I could have believed him. But could the helicopters mean she’d come back? Had Toni seen my transmission and turned around now she knew I was still alive?
Alex disappeared and to the pounding of rotor blades, they each ran. Logan and I followed in procession to the hallway whilst ignoring their flurry of questions about what their appearance could mean.
I looked to Logan, both of us turning to watch with disbelief as they headed to the door as if to lift the great metal bar and let the creatures in. They’d not listened to a word he’d said.
Logan raised his voice. “What are you doing?” he called, running past them then turning to stop their flow to the main doors as the thumping rhythm of the helicopter grew near. He let the rifle dangle by the strap over his shoulder. He slapped his hands to the top of the heavy bar spread across the door, then pushed his ba
ck against the wood, holding his hands out to keep Mandy away. A flurry of feet clattered up the steps to the insistent shouts for Logan to get out of her way.
“They’re still the other side,” he pleaded with his eyebrows low, not hiding his confusion at their need to die horribly. “Haven’t you heard what I said back there? Those helicopters are not here to save us.”
Paul stepped to Logan’s side, his eyes widening as if he’d woken from a trance. Turning, he pushed his hands out to match Logan’s gesture.
“No,” he said in his gruff voice. “He’s right.” But only Beth seemed to take notice. “No,” he snapped, raising his volume.
Out of the corner of my eye, a renewed surge from the other side of the door jolted both the men forward.
With the boom of Paul’s voice, the three slowed their frenzy, standing still to look up as if seeing Logan and Paul for the first time. None of them could look my way as their breath settled.
“They’re not here to save us,” Logan said. The wood at his back rattled with a renewed vigour as he took a slow step from the door.
I turned away in the lull, listening to the heavy sound above our heads. The helicopters hovered close by and I shared an unsure look with Logan.
“I’ve got to see,” I said. He nodded back and we split from the group to race up the steps, trusting Paul could handle them on his own.
With Logan out of breath, we found Alex staring out of the window facing the hospital, her gaze fixed on the two Apache gunships I recognised from my time in Afghanistan as they swarmed low over its remains. A third helicopter came into view from the right, thumping at the air with its twin blades, the Chinook circling down from a great height.
“It’s coming in to land,” I mumbled.
We leaned forward as if to get a better view, shoulder to shoulder, watching as the gunships widened their circles until one rose high in the spiral.
