The End of Everything (Book 7): The End of Everything

by Artinian, Christopher

  Robyn turned to look at him. “I’ve killed a lot more of these things than I want to remember.”

  Cathy appeared in the doorway with a tray piled high with sandwiches and a pitcher of water. They all ate, drank, and watched the fire. There was not much conversation, both parties knew what they needed to know. This would not be some long-lasting friendship, it was a business deal and the sooner it was out of the way, the sooner they could all get on with their lives.

  Eventually, Patrick showed Robyn and Mila to a room with two single beds. He bid them goodnight, and shortly after, the house fell quiet, save for the occasional crackle as a piece of wood burst on the fire.

  “Do you think we should offer to take them with us?” Mila asked.

  “God no,” Robyn replied.

  “But if those men come, they will kill them.”

  “They don’t have to stay here. We’ve got enough problems without giving ourselves any more.”

  “I suppose you are right.”

  “Trust me. Me and Wren have done the whole bleeding heart thing, letting people who wouldn’t make it by themselves tag along with us. It’s a good way to increase your chances of dying faster.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The next morning, Robyn and Mila were already awake when the quiet knock at the door came. “Breakfast’s on the table,” called Patrick through the thick wood.

  “Thank you,” Mila replied then listened to the sound of feet shuffling back down the hallway.” She looked towards the door and saw a chair wedged up against the handle. “What is that?”

  “We don’t know these people. I wasn’t going to take any risks.”

  Robyn and Mila threw on their clothes and followed the smell of fresh toast down the hallway. They entered the small kitchen to see doorstep slices waiting for them on serving plates and jars of homemade jam sitting on a tray in the centre. “Help yourselves,” Cathy said with a warm but distant look on her face.

  Robyn and Mila ate well. When they were offered seconds, both accepted and finally they washed the whole meal down with warm tea. Cathy tidied away the dishes and the two younger women retired to their room briefly to gather their weapons. Within five minutes, they were back outside, and Patrick was waiting for them with a nervous look on his face. “Okay,” he said, handing Robyn two sets of keys. “I’m going to keep Cathy busy. There’s a part of her that knows this has to happen, but…”

  “What do you want us to do with the bodies?” Robyn asked.

  “I’d like to bury them. Maybe in their back gardens. Give them a proper send-off. If you could just cover them and get them out of sight, for the time being, I’d be grateful,” Patrick said, on the verge of tears again.

  “And how many are we looking at?”

  “Three in each,” he replied and then the tears did come.

  “For what it’s worth, those things in there are about as far removed from your family as you can get. The day they changed was the day your family died, not today.” He nodded and headed back into the house.

  “How do you want to do this?” Mila asked.

  Robyn walked up to the first door and listened carefully. “I can’t hear them at the moment. One of us opens the door then gets out of the way as quickly as possible while the other acts as bait.”

  “Okay. Which job do you want?”

  “Rock, paper, scissors?”

  “Nein. I will open the door.”

  The pair of them looked at each other. “This is when I really miss my bow.”

  “We could borrow his shotgun.”

  “Oh yeah, that would work. I’m sure Cathy wouldn’t notice if we suddenly started firing a bloody shotgun in the yard. Plus, have you ever used one?”

  “No, but how difficult could it be?”

  “Do you really think this is the time to find out?”

  “No.”

  “Right then. Let’s do this.”

  “Good luck.”

  Mila walked over to the door and, as quietly as she could, placed the key in the lock; she turned it slowly, and it disengaged with a loud click. She held her breath and looked towards Robyn.

  Robyn stared towards her and whispered, “Three, two, one. Now!”

  chapter 14

  Mila pushed hard against the door then ran to the right, expecting three creatures to come barging out. Robyn stood there, peering down the dark hallway but seeing nothing. Mila rushed across to join her – any second – any second.

  “I don’t understand,” Mila said.

  “Well, they’ve got to be in there somewhere, and it’s not like these things are too interested in lie-ins.”

  “What should we do?”

  Robyn slowly walked to the entrance, withdrew one of her swords and tapped on the door. There was a pause then thundering feet made the air around her vibrate as three shadowy figures emerged at the bottom of the hallway then charged towards her.

  “Oh crap!” She ran back to join Mila and as she turned around once more, the first of the creatures burst through the entrance. Fevered growls filled the morning air as the other two joined it. Robyn and Mila stood a few feet apart, waiting. The first beast launched towards Mila and Robyn stepped forward to gain the attention of the others. There was a loud crack, followed by a thud. The second monster pounced at Robyn. In life, it had been Patrick and Cathy’s daughter-in-law. She would have been a pretty woman, nice face, thick black hair, but now she was nothing but a walking nightmare. The smooth grey skin of her arms was punctuated only by parallel scratch lines, and a large chunk of flesh was missing from her neck.

  The beast’s mouth opened revealing an animalistic snarl, its cavernous black pupils locked on Robyn’s face, and that second it spent in the air seemed to last an age. Robyn held her breath then swung her sword up and round. At the exact same moment, the third creature, a child in life, lunged at Robyn, its arms reaching out.

  Her second blade blurred and the small beast’s head dislodged from its neck just as her other sword entered the side of her first attacker’s skull. Both creatures collapsed to the ground, skidding to a gory stop on the concrete. Robyn and Mila looked at one another. There were no victorious smiles on their faces. This had once been a family and if Patrick and Cathy were anything to judge by, quite a nice family. They wiped off their weapons then one by one dragged the bodies around to the back of the house.

  “I think I prefer it when I don’t know who these people are,” Mila said as they placed the final body down next to the wall.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Robyn replied, pulling the other set of keys out of her pocket. “I’ll get the door this time. It’s only fair that we split the duties,” she said as they walked back around to the courtyard.

  They approached the other house and were greeted with excited growls and thuds as the beasts hurled themselves against the thick wood. “Should we go around the back? Try to lure them away from the front?”

  “Yeah. You stay here.” Robyn disappeared, and a moment later Mila heard loud banging. The thuds immediately stopped at the front door. Robyn reappeared within a few seconds and placed the key in the lock. “You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Robyn opened the door, and it creaked inwards. She could hear the creatures still at the rear of the house so withdrew one of her swords and knocked hard against the oak panels. She rejoined Mila as dark figures bundled through the doorway at the end of the hall and began storming towards the light.

  “Jarod!” screamed a voice from behind them. Robyn and Mila whipped their heads around to see Cathy.

  “Brilliant!” Robyn whispered.

  Cathy was already halfway across the yard when Patrick ran out after her. Robyn and Mila turned back to the doorway of Jarod’s house to see the beasts hurtling towards them. “Oh, my beautiful boy!” Cathy cried.

  “Concentrate,” Robyn said, her fingers tightening around the grips of her swords.

  The three creatures were level with each other as they reached Roby
n and Mila. “I’ll take two,” Mila cried as her blades whistled.

  Robyn was left with Jarod, a man who’d grown up working fields and was nearly a full foot taller than her. His arms stretched, his fingers grabbed, his jaw moved up and down as if he was anticipating feasting on Robyn’s fresh pink flesh. “Jarod,” came the pathetic cry from behind them once more.

  God, can you make this any more difficult than it already is? Robyn stepped forward, thrusting one of her swords upwards. It disappeared beneath Jarod’s chin reappearing through the top of his skull. Robyn saw animated movement to her side as the other two monsters were swiftly put down, but her attention was on the Jarod thing. It stayed there for a moment, looking towards her with shrinking pupils. Cathy continued to call her son’s name with ever-growing desperation, but it was all over now.

  The body slumped to the ground. “Cathy, please, come back inside,” Patrick pleaded, but to no avail.

  The heartbroken mother fell to her knees by Jarod’s side and started to cradle him. “Oh, my poor boy. My poor, poor boy.”

  Patrick placed his hands gently on her shoulders. “Cathy, please, come back inside.”

  Robyn and Mila looked at one another. They both knew these things were no longer the people they once had been, but they understood Cathy’s grief as well. It was a full ten minutes before Patrick finally managed to coax Cathy to her feet. Dark patches of red decorated her jeans, and her face was awash with tears. When both grieving parents were back inside, Robyn and Mila cleaned their blades and began to remove the bodies.

  “Well, that’s a good way to lift your spirits first thing in the morning, isn’t it?” Robyn said.

  “I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her. Maybe she has closure now. Maybe things will start to get back to normal.”

  “Oh yeah. She looked like she was well on the way to recovery.”

  They finished shifting the final body and headed back into the house. Patrick was in the kitchen alone. The kettle was on the stove, and there was an old washing up bowl with steaming water sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. “I thought you might want to wash up.”

  “Thank you,” Mila said.

  “I packed you a loaf and some jam for your journey.”

  “That’s kind of you,” Robyn replied. “How’s Cathy?”

  Patrick looked towards Robyn and exhaled deeply. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he replied, disappearing out of the front door. Robyn and Mila washed their hands as the sound of Cathy’s sobs drifted down the hallway. They had done nothing wrong; they had done what needed doing, but both of them felt guilty.

  Patrick reappeared and placed a set of car keys next to the bowl. “It’s got about half a tank. Thank you both for what you did here. It’s not something I could have done. Now, I hope you don’t mind seeing yourselves out, I need to go and be with Cathy.” He nodded gratefully and headed down the hallway then entered the master bedroom and closed the door behind him.

  “I’m guessing that’s our cue to leave,” Robyn said.

  “Ah well, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can prepare for our journey north.”

  “Sounds good to me.” They both tiptoed down the hallway and collected the rucksacks from the room then returned to the kitchen. The bread had been wrapped in a clean tea towel and was still warm to the touch. The jam was the homemade stuff that they had enjoyed so much at breakfast. Robyn packed them into her rucksack; for once, she didn’t have an appetite. They exited the house, closing the front door firmly behind them, and headed across to the car.

  They placed their rucksacks and weapons into the back then climbed in. Mila sat behind the wheel for a moment, and a small smile appeared on her face. “This was my father’s car.”

  “Let’s hope it still runs after all of this.”

  “It is German, very reliable. Of course it will run.” Mila placed the key in the ignition and turned it, lighting up the dashboard display. Patrick had mentioned it was a diesel, so she waited for the warning light to go off then flicked it the rest of the way. The engine coughed for several seconds before finally bursting into song.

  There was a juddering clunk as the wheels began to turn. “What the hell was that?” Robyn asked.

  “Nothing to worry about. It has been standing for a long time, that is all. It is not uncommon.” Mila brought the car to a stop at the mouth of the farmyard, carefully checked both ways and then turned right onto the narrow country lane.

  “Well, if nothing else, we’ve achieved what we set out to do, we got a car,” Robyn said, opening the glove compartment to see if there was anything interesting inside.

  “Yes. I may be old fashioned, but I would have much preferred to have gone down to the dealership and signed a finance agreement.”

  Robyn laughed. “Yeah, can’t say I blame you.”

  “Maybe I can teach you to drive, yes?”

  “I’d like that. While there’s still a bit of fuel around for me to learn. But I think our priority is getting as far north as fast as we can for the time being.”

  “Agreed.”

  “So, we’re heading back to your place, then what?”

  “The day has only just begun. We will pack the car with what we need and begin our adventure.”

  “Adventure?”

  “Do you have a better word?”

  “I told you, English isn’t my strong suit, but I wouldn’t call driving into a zombie-filled wasteland doing our best to avoid a bunch of psychos straight out of a Mad Max reboot an adventure.”

  “I suppose you make a good point. Well, we will start our journey, regardless of whether it turns into an adventure or not,” Mila replied, smiling.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “I’m telling you, I saw something,” Harker said.

  “Give me them here,” Jefferson growled, plucking the binoculars from his companion’s hands. He brought them up to his eyes and surveyed the area Harker had been pointing them towards. “I don’t see a thing. Now, listen, I volunteered for this, ’cause it was the easy option. All we have to do is sit up here and radio in occasionally. Don’t go making this more work than it has to be.” He shoved the field glasses back into Harker’s hands, who immediately raised the lenses to his eyes once again.

  “There … there!” he said, pointing and handing the binoculars back.

  “Oh, you’re really starting to piss me off, boy. If we’re going to be up here for another two hours together, you’d better—”

  “See. See, I told you.”

  “Well, don’t just sit there crowing, hand me the bloody radio,” Jefferson ordered. Harker gave him the handset, and Jefferson immediately hit the talk button. “Dalton, this is Jefferson. Over.”

  “Jefferson, Dalton, go ahead. Over.”

  “There’s a car heading south about two miles east of here. You should be able to cut it off if you get down to the junction by the old petrol station. Over.”

  “Not exactly what we’re looking for, but it’d be a shame to miss an opportunity. Okay, Jefferson. I’m on this. Keep your eyes peeled for those two bitches, they’re the priority. Over and out.”

  Jefferson looked at the handset. “Yeah, don’t mention it. Ignorant bastard.” He handed Harker the binoculars back. “Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see anything,” he said, climbing to his feet.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Since when do I answer to you?”

  “You don’t, but if there’s an emergency or something, where will you be?”

  “If there’s an emergency, just shout. I’m off to take a dump.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “I know we were travelling most of the day yesterday, but we’re in a car today. Shouldn’t we have been back home by now?” Robyn asked.

  “I think I took a wrong turn. I was hoping to avoid going back anywhere near the way we came, but without heading further east and using a lot of fuel, I can’t really avoid it.”

  “I’d be surprised
if they were still in the area. These guys tend to be smash and grab types. They take everything useful then move straight on to the next place. They might have got some help looking for us yesterday if they had another team close by, but I seriously doubt they’ll still be around.”

  “When we get home, I will draw up a proper route that will steer us as far away from Loch Uig as possible.”

  “Yeah, no argument from me. The farther we can stay away from that place, the better.”

  “Who knows, maybe—”

  “What is it?”

  Mila jammed the brakes on. Robyn looked to see the white van from the previous day parked at a diagonal blocking the narrow road.

  chapter 15

  The van was about a quarter of a mile away, but it was clear there was no path to get through. “Oh, crap!” Robyn cried. “What do we do?”

  Mila started to reverse the car to a passing place. “We’ll head the other way. They can’t catch us in that thing.” She was halfway through the three-point turn manoeuvre when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked across the field to see a minibus hurtling along a farm track. “Scheisse!”

  “Can we make it?” Robyn asked.

  The van was no longer stationary. It was heading towards them and picking up speed. Mila completed the turn and put her foot down. “We have to.”

  The minibus was accelerating too. Dry dirt flew up behind it, creating brown clouds as it tore a path once driven by cumbersome farm vehicles.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Robyn screamed.

  Mila checked the mirror then looked across to the minibus once more. Robyn was right. There was no way she could get past the open gate of the field before the minibus reached the road. “There!” she shouted, flooring the brake, and the car skidded to a screeching stop outside the entrance to a field on their right. She did not need to say anything else; Robyn knew exactly what she was thinking. She jumped out, unlatched the galvanised steel five-bar gate and pushed it open.

  The tyres to the Audi screeched as Mila set off again and passed through the opening. Robyn pushed the gate hard, and the locking mechanism clunked loudly as the gate rattled back into the closed position.