by Stevens, GJ
Alex turned her head down, wrapping the bandage around her leg and drawing in sharp air through her teeth.
“I may have left the keys in the ignition last night,” she said, her voice quiet.
I raised my eyebrows, biting my tongue, but my joy at her return held back my outpouring.
“I told you, you’ll be fine,” I said. “I thought you’d left,” I added, regretting as soon as I heard the words.
Alex looked up, her head turning at an angle. I could see her forcing the smile not to grow.
I held back a frown, but couldn’t as I twisted to the shutters when they clattered with a heavy bang. We knew what it meant and together turned to the corridor, but stopped as the sack of clothes jumped to the air with the coat unfurling and the long triangle of a kitchen knife glinted in the sun pouring from the skylights.
Her bright-blue eyes fixed wide in my direction, dirt smothered cheeks that went taught as her mouth gaped, staring towards me with her feet frozen to the spot.
The chain rattled as I moved my arm and she turned as if woken from a trance. Features bunching with rage, she twisted to Alex with her shining white teeth bared and knife rising above her head with each bound.
92
“No,” I screamed, watching as Alex stood tall with her brow lowered as she tried to tense for the attack. Pain etched across Alex’s face as she steadied herself on her injured leg.
I grabbed for a thick candle resting on the floor, the heaviest object in reach, and hurled it in the rising woman’s direction as I screamed for her to stop. In that moment I couldn’t tell if she was human or something else.
The bulk of the candle thumped against her shoulder. The stranger flashed a glare toward me, her eyes wide and nose screwed up. By the time she’d turned back, Alex had surged forward and slapped the knife from her hand, sending it skittering across the floor and wrapped the stranger in a bear hug, squeezing hard against her convulsions.
Hurrying, I bent at the knees, snatching up the simple key I’d dropped as she’d leapt, swapping it to my ballooned hand, which looked like I wore five pairs of skin-coloured gloves. Clenching my teeth against the pain, I fumbled it into the lock to the sound of angry calls to be freed.
Relief flooded as the lock snapped open and I could let go of the key, freeing the stars from my view as the pain subsided. I drew a deep breath before leaping the few paces to Alex and the woman, still flailing in her arms, screaming vulgarities on the edge of making even me blush.
“It’s okay,” I said, being careful not to get too close as she kicked out. “It’s okay,” I said again. “We’re not going to hurt you.” I tried the softest voice I could manage, but each word seemed to just amplify her distress. The rattle of the shutters and the rise in the ferocity of their beat did nothing to help her calm.
Trying again to normalise my tone, I looked up to Alex to see her face bunched with the effort.
“Did you lock the door?”
“Shit,” Alex said from somewhere in the tangle.
“It’s okay, we’re leaving anyway,” I said, then pushed my good hand out to the stranger’s shoulder. I drew back as her eyes locked onto my fingers and she surged her head forward, snapping teeth together. “You can come with us,” I said, ignoring Alex’s shaking head and the noise I guessed was another protest.
“Let her go,” I said, looking back to the knife, making sure I knew exactly where it was. “You can’t stay like that forever. We’ve got to go.”
Despite Alex’s protests, I leant in closer.
“It’s okay. I’m from the telly,” I said, looking up to Alex with a shrug of my shoulders.
The stranger’s eyes opened and she held my gaze, her motions slowing as she let her legs take her weight. I didn’t see that moment of recognition as she examined my face, even when I pushed on my full white-tooth TV smile and nodded up to Alex.
Alex spread her arms and jumped to the side, but I could see she was ready to leap between us if the stranger tried anything.
Taking a step forward, I held my hand out to keep Alex back, despite the shake of her head.
“It’s okay,” I said again as she continued to stare in my direction. “What’s your name? When did you last eat?”
There was silence between us, but the clatter of the shutters didn’t let up as her glare stayed fixed in my direction. Eventually I moved away; we didn’t have time for this.
“We’re going,” I said. “Grab food and go on your way, but you’re much safer with us than you are alone out there.”
The rattle of the shutters stopped and I scooped up the knife, wrapping it in my red jacket still damp at the edges. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Alex move away from the girl, the woman. I couldn’t quite decide her age as she stood, her head bent low as she peered around the room through a tangled mop of brown hair.
“You thought I’d left you?” Alex said as she picked up one of the cases in one hand and lifting the camera still connected to the tripod in the other.
I looked sideways at her, but didn’t answer.
“I would have left you the key,” she said, flinching her survey back to the stranger.
Guilt at my thoughts when I’d woken with her missing kept my words from coming. All I could manage was a grateful smile in her direction.
“Just friends,” she said, shooting me a grin, the smile falling as she turned back to the stranger.
I followed her look as she stood with the hair brushed from her face, her gaze roving over the rows of shelves, but flinching to me every other moment.
“Take what you need,” I said. “It’s yours.”
The stranger didn’t reply, instead turning on the spot with her hair trailing behind as she twisted to face the corridor, wide-eyed.
We knew what she saw and swapping the bundle of clothes to rest on my other arm, I walked beside the young stranger and pulled the knife from between my clothes to offer the handle out with Alex shouting at my back.
“No.”
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The young woman’s eyes were wider than I imagined Alex’s were at my back. The stranger’s surprise greater than Alex’s when I returned the long knife. Although the pause between us felt like an age, the creatures moving through the doorway had barely taken a step before she'd made her decision.
Surging toward the opening, the stranger blocked my view with her wide coat. Her arms dove up and down, the movement silent except for the slash of the knife as it connected to bone and the heavy fall of the bodies as they went down in quick succession.
Alex stood at my side and we shared the view. She’d had no time to put the equipment down. No time to grab the gun from the bed before it was over and watched with me as the stranger stood, beckoning us through the corridor as thick blood dripped from the knife.
This wasn’t the first time she’d had to defend herself from those things.
With the gun in my hand, I followed with Alex laden behind. We found the stranger outside, scouring the side of the building for threats. She nodded towards the van and my gaze fell on the dark blood dripping down the side by the driver’s door and the wide hole in the metal.
I climbed in the back, Alex insisting I go first as she took the driver’s seat. She didn’t start the engine, instead looking to me for the answer as we watched the stranger, the girl who we still didn’t know, slip back in through the open door of the building.
“Wait,” I said, when I saw Alex go to turn the key.
In silence, my gaze drifted to the skyline. Columns of smoke lined the horizon.
As my heart slowed, I could taste the thickness in the air while watching the rainbow of depressing colour flowing from black to white across the spectrum. The green fields were void of life as they rolled out to disappear where they met the dirty, cloudless sky. The road seemed to sleep, empty of traffic as it travelled relentless left and right.
The image had a certain perfection and I looked towards Alex, about to prompt her to set up the camera,
but the girl, the woman, rushed from the building, her arms laden with bags bulging at the edges. She stopped as she spotted us in the van, surprise turning her head to the side, her smile dropping from the corners of her mouth.
She’d thought we would have left her and with the raise of her eyebrows, I was sure I could see her eyes glinting with hope as she stared in our direction. The sight broke my heart. Had it only taken a few days, a week at the most, to strip this girl, this woman, of her faith in humanity?
Her features hardened and she let her hair drop back to cover her face while she moved past the van, striding away. I ran through the back, regretting my enthusiasm as I jumped out of the doors, jarring my hand, but sucked down the pain as I called after her, not holding back my voice.
“Come with us.”
She turned with her lips curled down. What I could see of her face had twisted feral, but she didn’t linger on mine for long, snapping her head around the view.
I shouted again and watched the anger rise in her stride. I forced down a smile as I saw movement from around the front of the building, but instead of focusing on the chef whose uniform no one could call whites, I shouted again and jumped back in the van, not lingering on the crowd gathering at the chef’s back.
“Start the engine,” I said, and Alex did as I asked, the grumble of the mechanics coming to life only spurred on the middle-aged man with a rend in his great belly and his followers not wanting to be late to the feast.
The girl, the woman, scowled at me through the glass, but she ran to the back and slammed the doors closed after she jumped in, her reluctance obvious in her scowl.
Alex pulled us in a wide arc away from the chef.
“You’re safer with us,” I said, joining her as she stood in the back. “We’re safer with you,” I added, pushing my hand out with a wide smile on my lips.
She stood in the corner, clutching the bags to her stomach as her gaze flitted around the shelves and the stains on the floor
“Sit. Eat. We can talk when you’re ready.”
We drove for five minutes before she let the bags drop, before she sat on the floor and pulled out a can of corned beef, turning the key to release the meat.
I tried not to watch her. I tried to stop my mouth from wanting the food. Instead, I asked her name again, looking away when she didn’t answer and the van slowed.
“What is it?” I called out, and stood when Alex didn’t answer.
Arriving between the seats, I felt the blood drain from my face as I stared on at the white coach wedged side on with an olive-drab truck and a thick stone wall either side. Together they blocked the narrow road and despite the dark interior, I fixed on the writhing masses inside.
My heart jumped as a delicate voice spoke from behind, almost fainting as I processed the words.
“We’re going the wrong way. We’re supposed to be getting away from the doctors.”
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“What did you say?” I said, spinning around to find her standing to peer past me to the block in the road, the knife scraping around inside the tin.
“You need to go the other way,” she said, dropping the can to the thin table mounted to the side of the van, her voice high and adolescent, like you would expect narrating a Christmas tale.
“No,” I said, stepping forward. “What did you say about the doctors? Who are you talking about?”
She raised her left eyebrow, her gaze meeting mine for the first time as she licked the meat from the tip of the knife, letting her right-hand drop and with it the knife as her left swept hair from her face one side, then the next. Tilting her head, she looked past me to the windscreen and, nodding forward, she spoke.
“You know who I mean. They know you,” she said, with both her brows raised. “That’s where they were going,” she said. “That’s where I don’t want to be.”
“Who?”
She narrowed her brow as I spoke.
“The doctors,” she replied with a force behind her words.
I took a step toward her, a beat pulsing in my ears. “What do you know about the doctors?” I said, raising my voice.
She lifted her brow, pulling herself up to full height, which was only just a little shorter than my five foot ten.
“Speak, for goodness' sake,” I shouted when she didn’t reply.
Her chest thrust forward as she filled her lungs, her hand tensed around the knife as she studied my features.
“I’m sorry,” I added, pushing out my palms despite the pain. “They did things to me, the doctors,” I said, softening my tone as I watched her slowly nod. “I need to find them. Make them pay.” Her brow fell; the nodding stopped. “Did they do things to you?”
She squinted and her forehead creased as her fingers tightened further around the knife handle.
I took another step towards her. “You don’t have to say if they did, just tell me what you know. Tell me where they are.”
The van rolled, but in the wrong direction. I turned back to see the coach and the truck receding in the view.
“No,” I shouted, jumping the few steps back between the seats. “We have to find a way. What if this is our only way of getting through? It could take hours to find another.”
The van rocked to a stop with Alex remaining silent, only her frown showing her discontent. When light came from behind and the lock clicked, I span around.
Racing through the open doors and jumping to the tarmac, breath pulled as I tried to follow the woman running down the road. She’d dropped one bag already and soon dropped the last as I called after her.
I stopped giving chase. “Please, I need to know.”
I watched as she slowed, her head turning over her shoulder. Her gaze fell from me to the bag and its contents spilt on the floor at my feet.
She kept walking.
Drawing a deep breath to hold back frustrated tears, I turned back to make sure Alex had done nothing stupid, like getting out of the van and following.
Picking up the bag, my eyelids batted together whilst a single tear fell to the tarmac as I lifted the tins of food and pushed them back into the bag.
As two dirty trainers arrived at the top of my vision, I stood up straight, wincing with the pain, but offered out the full bag as I drew a breath.
She stood at my front with a crisp white handkerchief offered in her hand. I set the bag down between us and I took the folded square from her dirt-clogged hand, dabbing at the moisture on my cheek.
“Thank you,” I replied, her gaze fixed on me as I wiped my face.
“Why do you want to find them?” she said, her soft voice lost in the wide-open space. “They’re terrible people. The worst.”
“I should know.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“Tell me then. I’m a reporter.”
“I know.”
“They did bad things to me,” I said.
She nodded and spoke.
“They did bad things to many people.”
“They did this,” I said, sweeping my hands across the view, taking in the columns of smoke.
“I know,” she replied. “But what are you trying to achieve?”
“I want the world to know what they did. I want the world to know what they’re doing so we can stop them and people can prepare. I want to destroy them and make them pay.”
She nodded, but kept quiet.
“Tell me,” I said, knowing the answer before I asked the question. “How do you know all this?”
“I’ve seen your picture in her office. I’ve seen the grand plan spread across her wall.”
“How?” I replied.
She took a deep breath and swallowed down hard. “I used to be one of them, before the place was lost,” she said, cutting herself off to draw the knife up high, but my head was too fogged to give any reply.
Eventually I spoke. “Come with us. You can help. We’ll keep you safe.”
The woman burst out laughing. “You don’t know anything,” she sa
id, stepping back as she bit her lip. “Who’s going to keep me safe from you?”
“Me?” I replied. “I won’t hurt you.”
Then the realisation hit. She knew. She knew what I was; what I’d become. What they’d done to me.
“Please, you have to tell me everything you know.” I saw her chest filling out; fear stopped her words from flowing.
Anger grew inside me. “Tell me,” I shouted.
She didn’t reply; instead took a step back, shaking her head.
“Stay away from me.” Her voice was high.
“What is she doing at the hospital?” I said, ignoring the glint of the knife raised above her head, with her whole body shaking as she moved backwards.
I scooped up the bag at my feet and took a step towards her.
“You shouldn’t have come,” she said, the words muffled.
“I had to. Toni needed me.”
I watched as a smile bloomed on the stranger’s face.
“She did, but not how you thought.”
“What are they doing at the hospital?” I repeated, but then a thought flashed into my head. “She was imprisoned in that place. I helped her escape.”
The stranger smiled again and shook her head.
“She wanted you out of here. She wanted you willing. She knew she wouldn’t get to see if it worked if they kept you locked up.”
I thought on her words but they didn’t make sense. I stopped moving. Instead, my gaze fixed to the ground, looking at Toni’s eyes staring back.
“She engineered the escape of the creatures?”
“No,” the stranger said. “That was an accident. Not part of the plan, I’m guessing. But when they knew the place was lost, was it easy to get out?”
“No. No way. You’re wrong. We almost died so many times. If it hadn’t been for the sniper who took out those…” My words stopped as breath left my lungs.
The sniper, the soldiers. They’d been protecting us. The soldier had saved us.
I tried to speak but I couldn’t think of the words to come back with, the words that would prove the stranger was wrong.
