In The End | Book 3 | After The End

by Stevens, GJ

  Other than the scratches across its front, it had no visible injuries, but its long blonde hair was the only part untouched with blood.

  My thoughts took little time, two steps of our charge with Alex still by my side and Shadow in the lead. He stopped as if he knew what we were about to do and instead barked out a call, whilst Alex and I lunged at the same moment with the chair legs jabbing against its torso, our strength holding it from its leap. Our force sent it backwards with its mouth snapping and hands clawing out.

  Cassie jumped to her feet, her face set in a snarl with the knife in her hand rising high above her head as we kept on pushing it backwards. Cassie let out a great call, releasing her rage as the blade slipped in through the skull and she pulled back, the knife coming out dark, matted red. The creature’s movements slowed as Cassie jabbed again from high to its shoulder.

  Still holding the chairs at our front, we jumped back, and the figure fell to the floor in a heap, its mouth half open as its head hit the floor.

  With the knife back high above her head, Cassie dropped to her knees and forced the knife down, arcing with such force I heard bone cracking as the metal slipped into its chest. With her eyes closed, Cassie pulled back again, before plunging the blade back in.

  “It’s gone,” I called, quietly at first, but still Cassie drove the knife, thick blood flying out as she jabbed. “It’s gone,” I said, louder this time as I stepped toward her, then mindful of the blade, held back.

  The knife snapped, the blade separating from the handle with a great crunch and I stepped away, watching Cassie drop what remained with her teeth gritted as she rested her arms at her side, left only with the frantic rise and fall of her chest.

  Alex turned away to look out at the creatures lining the windows, but I closed my eyes, not wanting to take in the horrific scene.

  “There’s another one,” Mandy called out, and we turned to see her pointing to the floor.

  49

  I didn’t rush to Mandy’s side; instead, snaking through the fallen tables and chairs, I followed Shadow leaping the debris whilst staring at a body in a dinner jacket laid on the floor. Leaning as I ran, I tried to peer around a fallen table but saw nothing more than the figure’s white shirt mottled with red.

  Slowing from the initial scare, no longer in a hurry to see another dead body, I caught movement of his chest. Taking long strides over the debris, I glanced back to Alex as she caught my eye.

  Alex arrived by Mandy only moments before I came around the table and stopped beside Shadow, stroking his head, more as a reflex than for his sake when I saw the mask of blood, the open mouth and scarlet-stained clothes detracting from what could have otherwise been any viewing in a funeral home.

  Plus his shallow breath.

  Middle-aged, perhaps in his fifties with weathered, dark skin and grey hair, for a fleeting moment I imagined grandchildren on his knees as he sat in a comfy armchair passing around the hard candies.

  “He’s alive,” I said under my breath, whilst not moving my gaze from his chest, concentrating on its rise and fall to the sound of Alex rushing over.

  “Shit,” Alex said at my side, taking in the horror of the bloodied mask which before the clotting agents had taken hold, had dripped down his face to make a great blot in the dark carpet. “We’ve seen this before.”

  Her words were enough to grab my attention, but she wouldn’t take hers from the guy laid out so neatly at our feet.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jess saw it. He’s alive, but it’s one of those creatures,” Alex said, looking in the abomination’s direction. “It made him.”

  “Made him?” I said, standing straight.

  “The ones that are still alive,” she said. “They can reproduce.”

  I pulled back, unable to process her words and my foot knocked against a fallen table.

  “We have to kill it,” Alex said, and before I could think, I felt a shove to the side and a table leg dived between us and into the man’s torso, his eyes flashing open before his chest fell.

  Rearing back, I stared at Cassie standing tall between us with blood splashed across her front, resembling the blonde we’d just killed.

  With my mouth hanging wide, I checked my footing, stumbling away from the body, from Cassie, to look around the room, trying my best to look between the debris and searching out any more unwelcome surprises. I soon realised the space was a mirror image of the other end of the building, including the bar beside the door.

  We each stayed still for what felt like such a long time; Mandy moved first, walking to lean against the bar and mumbling to herself.

  “It just gets worse,” I heard her say.

  Cassie stared at the body as the blood running down her front stopped its journey.

  I stepped back as she turned my way, her face devoid of emotion and clutching the chair leg dripping with blood I hadn’t noticed her pull from the fatal wound.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. Her vacant nod sent a chill along my spine and I couldn’t help but question what the hell had happened to her since she’d woken this morning. I’d only known her for a few days, but still we’d gone through so much in such a brief time. We’d grown so close, but now she seemed like a different person.

  Mandy stood, moving to the furthest corner of the room and, sliding her back down the glass, she sat on the carpet.

  “Take a breath,” I said to Cassie as she gazed at the creatures staring from the other side of the windows, clawing at the glass, their hands smearing blood and who knows what else over its surface.

  “We need to move the bodies,” Cassie said, her tone flat. I nodded in agreement.

  Somehow keeping the contents of my stomach in place, I took one arm of the blonde as Cassie took the other and with Alex holding the doors open, together we dragged it along the carpet whilst I looked anywhere but its skin, or the dark blood oozing from the wounds to mark out our route. After doing the same with the guy in the tuxedo, I hoped I wasn’t getting used to a new normal.

  I couldn’t stop my mind wandering to the moment the creature burst through the skylight. Had it smashed the glass or had something else sealed their fate? Was the dining room full when the creature jumped from the roof and were the remains those that hadn’t got away?

  With no way to know the answers and back in the other dining room, now clear of anything dead, I pulled a fallen chair upright and sat with Shadow resting his head on my knee.

  Stroking along the length of his back, I felt as if I could calm if it weren’t for Cassie not able to keep still, continually walking the perimeter of the room with the chair leg she’d at least wiped of blood. I couldn’t watch her any longer and I moved around to behind the bar, finding Alex sitting up against the wall with the rucksack still on her back. Shadow didn’t follow.

  No one spoke for what seemed like an age as if we each took the time to process what had just happened.

  After a while, the quiet, punctuated with Cassie’s steps and the slow drum of hands at the windows, became too oppressive.

  Cassie’s steps. The crunch of glass. The percussion at the glass in an irregular beat.

  “Where did Jess go last night?” Despite my whisper, I felt Alex pull herself up straight and pause her breath.

  “To the offices. Like I said. She brought back the cameras.” She couldn’t hide her high, defensive tone, and I paused to diffuse the moment.

  “I thought I saw her early this morning.” When Alex didn’t reply I spoke again. “But the light was bad.”

  I held my breath at the sound of the door opening, but relaxed at the thought of Cassie extending her patrol.

  “What happened to Cassie?” Alex asked, and it was my turn to be surprised at the question, jolting me back to what seemed like a lifetime ago. About to remind her I’d already told them everything in the church, I remembered she was the only one not in the small room when I’d poured my heart out.

  “We were in a car heading back to that hosp
ital. There was a soldier with us. He’d been bitten, but we stopped the bleeding. We thought he’d be okay. That’s what she said we had to do. But...” I held my breath as I tried to force away from the direction my mind was taking. “But he wasn’t.”

  “Who told you about the bleeding?”

  “Doctor Lytham. He turned as I drove. I lost so many.” A dull thud banged at the glass in my pause.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said, her voice low.

  “Everyone’s lost someone now. I’m sorry for everyone.” I stared at the row of glasses behind the bar, reminding me of a time long ago when the world had been straightforward.

  “My people were already dead,” Alex said.

  I nodded. “I’m sorry for that too.”

  “I’m not. They didn’t have to go through this.”

  “I guess,” I replied, and shook my head as my thoughts veered towards my parents and the image of them watching the TV cuddled up on the sofa.

  “So this doctor fixed her up?” Alex asked, catching my look.

  “There were seven of us left, and Shadow. He saved our lives. Well, some of us.”

  “It helps to talk about it,” she said, and I guessed she was right.

  “Andrew was my best friend.” I paused on the words. “Bitten, but he was too far gone.” I stopped talking as I heard the gunshot in my head, biting down on my bottom lip. I still hadn’t decided whether Doctor Lytham had been his saviour for putting him out before he turned or if she should have tried harder, tried anything to help him. “Lane. Commander Lane. A pilot from the helicopter.”

  Alex frowned back.

  “A story for another time.”

  Her cheeks bunched and she raised an eyebrow. “Was he infected too?”

  “No. But he’s dead. They’re all heroes. They’ve all done something selfless to get us where we are today.”

  She gave another slow nod.

  “I don’t know what that makes me,” I said. I didn’t need to turn to see her shaking her head.

  “You’ve helped Cassie and us.”

  I tried to hold my thoughts from racing off. “They gave Cassie medicine. A drink. It stopped her from dying.”

  “What was it?”

  I shrugged. “We had little choice and no time to ask. She was going downhill quickly. She drank it and fell asleep. She’d been drowsy ever since. You saw how she was. But today she’s like...” I stopped myself from saying the words out loud.

  “Like what?” Alex said, forcing her voice lower. “She’s different, isn’t she?”

  I nodded, but didn’t speak when I heard the door rest gently against its jamb. After listening to footsteps, Cassie appeared around the corner of the bar and stared at us, still covered in blood but I concentrated on the three tins of fruit in syrup in her hands.

  “I found these,” she said in a low voice. “There’s a kitchen. You want them?”

  I smiled back and nodded whilst taking the tins. “Thanks, Cass. You got some?”

  She moved out of sight without reply and moments later the door settled back to the jamb again as I rested the tins on the floor.

  “What was she like before?” Alex asked, and I turned to her as the memories flooded in. The time we’d spent scared for our lives in the wardrobe. When we’d walked alone to the village. When we’d almost kissed. The night she’d lain at my side.

  “When did Cassie have the medicine?” Alex asked when the door swung closed, its hit against the jamb sending renewed slaps to the windows. “She’s different now. Isn’t she?”

  “She’s been through a lot. We all have.”

  Alex nodded.

  “Yesterday. No, the evening before that. She drank it a little under two days ago,” I said and watched as her expression hardened. “What is it?”

  Alex swallowed as if trying to make a tough decision. Eventually she shook her head and spoke, “Jess was bitten, too.”

  I let the moment hang, my eyebrow raising as I spoke. “I think I knew,” I said, nodding.

  Alex turned her head to the side, eyeing me cautiously as she waited.

  “What did they give her?”

  “I only know what Jess told me. They gave her something, then infected her.”

  I reared back, sitting up straight, but didn’t say a word as Alex spoke again.

  “They infected her and then gave her more of the stuff. She was supposed to keep getting doses, but the place they were keeping her got overrun and she escaped.”

  “So many questions. Did it work?” I said, as Alex paused for breath.

  “Only in part. She’s not unscathed.”

  “What do you mean?” I added and then stopped as I heard the door opening. Before Alex could answer I spoke again. “Do you think they gave them the same thing?”

  She shrugged, speaking in a whisper. “I think what they gave Cassie must have been better. A newer mix, perhaps? Plus, they gave it to Cassie after she was infected. Is that right?”

  Mandy came around the bar and she stared at the tins.

  “Help yourself,” I said and turned back to Alex as Mandy sat by her side and pulled the ring up to get at the fruit.

  I wanted to ask so many questions. I had to know if we were safe around her. I had to know if it was Jess feeding on people. I had to know what she’d meant by not being unscathed. Would the same happen to Cassie? Was she safe to be around?

  I stared at Mandy, willing her to finish slurping down the fruit and go back to where she’d been sitting on her own, but when I heard the door again, I gave up on answers for the moment; Jess had been fine around us, as had Cassie. So far, at least.

  “What about you?” I asked, looking at Alex. “What’s your story?”

  Alex spoke after a moment, collecting her thoughts. “I was heading home from a job. I’m a locksmith,” she said. “I saw those creatures in the road. Scared the life out of me. Then I literally bumped into Jess. I nearly ran her over.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Funny that.”

  Alex replied with a frown. “How’s that funny?”

  “I almost shot Cassie when I first met her.” For a moment a grin pulled at the corner of my mouth, until I remembered the depth of my fear for what might have been.

  Alex raised her eyebrows and gave a shallow nod. “That’s why you seemed so okay when Jess nearly shot you in the tunnel.”

  I nodded.

  “I assumed you’d known each other for ages. I assumed you were...” I stopped myself as I saw Mandy leaning into the conversation, her features rising with alarm.

  “No,” Alex said. “I met her like the night after new year’s night. I think. How long has it been? I...”

  “It’s just the way you are together...” I said, but stopped myself again. “Never mind,” I added when I realised it was something she didn’t want to talk about.

  “And you and Cassie?” she said, turning the questioning back to me.

  I paused, trying not to listen to the slap of hands against the glass.

  “I don’t know,” I said, then turned, looking to the fast-flowing river rushing over the top of the bridge deck. “It was early days.”

  “It is early days,” Alex corrected, and I twisted around with a smile.

  A shot rang off somewhere in the distance, followed by the crack of glass. A second resounded in the air and Alex and I struggled up, rushing to our feet as a third shot came.

  Coming over the top of the bar, we watched the creatures still on the other side, but they’d each turned away. I didn’t follow to where they looked; instead, I peered to the two glass panels spidering with cracks as a plume of plaster flew from the adjacent wall.

  Baring her teeth in our direction, Cassie stood in the opposite corner as the windows seemed to flex from the downdraft of a helicopter as if directly above us.

  50

  JESSICA

  “Jessica Carmichael,” the woman in the orange dress said with her eyebrows raised and breath heavy as she sat opposite me in the baker’s shop.


  In her lap, a blonde-haired doll rested, its white dress spoilt with a splash of dried blood.

  Giving a shallow nod, I leaned with my back to the glass door, watching her on the tall stool at a breakfast bar amongst the discarded plates and half-eaten remains of what looked like lunch.

  With the buttery smell of stale pastries in the air, I couldn’t help but think how Alex might like to visit this place, despite the food being a few days old.

  “Your leg?” I said, narrowing my eyes as I looked below the hem of her dress and the end of a bandage on her right thigh. Tall and curvy and with perfect proportions, despite her scowl constantly questioning in my direction, she looked cute enough that in another life I would have taken note.

  “Just a scratch,” she replied with her knuckles white as they wrapped around the handle of a long knife angled down to the floor.

  I knew if I moved, she’d walk right out of the door. I could see it in her eyes. She had a score to settle.

  “What’s your story?” I asked, nodding toward the doll.

  She stared back, blinking each time I spoke, and rearranged the hair of the doll in her lap as if it were a child.

  Still she didn’t reply, looking to the window each time a shadow moved across. I didn’t look. I knew what ambled down the street. With each shadow I watched her brow furrow and her eyes narrow as if unsure why the creatures didn’t stand to the plate-glass windows, scratching to tear at my skin.

  “You have kids?” I said, knowing the minefield the question presented.

  She pulled her gaze from beyond the glass to meet mine. “A little girl. Five in May.”