In The End Box Set | Books 1-3

by Stevens, GJ

  Doctor Lytham smiled as if Cassie had asked her to check a mole. “There is a way to save her,” she said. “You hold the key. Your blood can help her. Do you understand?”

  Rising up from my hands, my vision blurred when Cassie looked to me, her eyes darting between myself and Doctor Lytham.

  “Cured?” she seemed to say but with no volume.

  The soldiers strode back through the door, holding their rifles again. Cassie turned to the doctor and nodded.

  Doctor Lytham smiled and Toni moved around to a cupboard, pulling bandages before working on wrapping Ellie’s arm.

  To the snap of zip-ties, I watched through blurred vision as Cassie wept, but didn’t put up a fight when the soldiers pushed her further into the room with her hands behind her back.

  After hurriedly wrapping the bandages tight against Ellie’s arm, Toni rushed past the metal table in the centre, grabbing another syringe as she passed. Pulling a rubber tourniquet from her lab coat pocket, she moved around Cassie’s back and wrapped the rubber around her arm. I watched Cassie wince through gritted teeth as the needle plunged, her gaze fixed on Ellie.

  With beaming wide eyes, Toni came from around Cassie’s back, heading to the second table and opening up a round machine which looked like a pressure cooker. She removed the lid and decanted half the blood from the syringe, splitting it between two glass vials. Pulling up a second syringe and the blood from Jess, she did the same, writing their initials on each of the glasses. I watched, transfixed as she took one of each of the vials and put them inside the machine before pressing a button on the side.

  The machine whirred, and I felt a slight vibration through the floor. The timer pinged after a brief moment and she pulled both glass vials out. The blood had separated to a yellow and red liquid sharing the vial equally. Toni drew out the yellow from the top of each, before pouring the remaining deep red contents into another which was already half full and changing the settings on the machine and replacing the vials. The rumble it made was a little different to the last.

  With another ping and rather than take the vial out, she grabbed a new syringe, drawing up the deep red.

  “No,” I called again, but my voice came out so feeble. “No,” I shouted. “They’re not making a cure, they’re mixing the two together. Save Ellie, you fucking bastards.”

  Doctor Lytham looked over her shoulder at Ellie, but waved her hand in the air.

  I rose again, fighting against the pains across my head and back.

  As Toni headed to Jess with the syringe pointed out, I looked to Alex, then Cassie, my heart melting at her despair. I turned away to Jess who barely reacted as the needle jabbed into her arm and Toni pushed down the plunger.

  “No,” Cassie called as she tried to pull her arms out from the binds and grip of the soldier standing unmoved by the situation. “Save Ellie. You said you would.”

  Jess closed her eyes, screwing up as if in pain, then shook, her body convulsing against the bounds as Toni pulled the syringe from her arm. Twisting around with her brow furrowed, Toni looked towards Doctor Lytham, who raised her eyebrows as if in surprise at the way Jess’s body reacted.

  “Interesting,” Toni called out.

  Doctor Lytham nodded as Toni turned away, setting the syringe to the side before looking back again.

  With pink foam pouring from her mouth, Jess contorted with her eyes sealed shut, then as if at the flick of a switch, she opened her eyes and stared at the wall across the room.

  “Jess?” Toni said, furrowing her brow as we all waited for the answer.

  “I told you it wouldn’t work.” Doctor Lytham’s voice was almost sing-song. “We need someone fresh.”

  Toni’s hands dropped from her face and she shook her head. “That is bloody annoying,” she said, as if having already moved on from whatever relationship they’d had in the past. Toni’s mouth bunched and she glanced back to Jess and for a moment I thought she would stride over and release her from her binds, but she turned away, pointing toward Jack and Tish still laid in bed.

  “What about those two?” she asked with renewed interest.

  “They have natural immunity,” Doctor Lytham said and Toni nodded. Then she turned my way. “Him?”

  “She made him take the drink, remember?” Toni replied, then turned to Alex with narrowed eyes. “Her then,” she said. “What’s your name?”

  “Alex,” she replied, and I looked to Jess without moving my head when I thought I saw the first sign of movement since she’d been out cold.

  Toni raised a smile, showing off her white teeth, beaming at Alex as if she’d spotted her across a bar and wanted to talk. As she walked in Alex’s direction, she grabbed the syringe left on the table.

  “No,” I called out, but I didn’t know where to look when this time I was sure Jess moved. Her whole body had tensed against the bounds.

  The soldier gripped Alex tight with her arms around her back as Cassie stared on at Ellie, shaking her head with tears rolling down her cheeks. I heard the distant continuous tap of something echoing in the background.

  One of the unnamed soldiers strode across the room, overtaking Toni and took an arm from the other at Alex’s back to keep her still. Toni pulled up Alex’s sleeve to expose her pale flesh as the soldiers let go of Alex from behind to instead grip the top of her exposed arm and around her wrist.

  Toni stepped closer, raising the syringe, tapping it with a finger then lowering it needle first. Just as the needle was about to puncture the skin, a darkness flashed across the view.

  Shadow bounded high in the air, gripping tight with Toni’s hand in his mouth, sending the syringe shattering to the floor and spilling the scarlet liquid. With a great crack of bone as he pulled her to the floor, he shook his head as if her flesh were a toy with a primal look that was anything but playful.

  Shouts filled the room and the soldiers rushed from their posts; Thompson left my back and rushed to Toni on the floor, still grappling with Shadow. His rifle swayed with the motion of the dog’s head.

  I knew this was just the last flurry of rebellion before the pain of defeat came back.

  But instead of gunfire, there was a great snap from somewhere in the room and looking up to Jess, she wasn’t there. The leather restraints hung loose from their mounts.

  A great blur filled my view and I closed my eyes, hoping to clear the effect of so many blows. In the hurry of noise that followed, I heard the rush of boots resounding from the corridors all around us.

  Opening my eyes, I looked to Jess in the centre of the room with blood dripping from her mouth and Toni at her feet, her neck ripped out. Thompson and the other soldiers were down too, slumped to the floor, their blood leaking to the concrete.

  I followed her blood-soaked stare to behind where Alex stood with her mouth agape and to Sherlock, soaking wet like Thompson had been, poised with his rifle out in front and more soldiers at his back.

  Turning around, I stared at the death and destruction in the room; Doctor Lytham lying face down and Shadow with a red dripping mouth, standing over a pool of blood with one front paw raised off the floor. I waited for when Jess would pounce and destroy the rest of us.

  When nothing happened, I looked back to the corridor as Sherlock nodded, letting the rifle drop and raising his hand to the air.

  “Stand down,” he said, and looked to me as the soldiers behind him lowered their aims. “I’m sorry, Logan. I have to hope you’re right. I have three kids and a wife.”

  “We tried to kill you,” I said, regretting the words as if he might change his mind.

  “You got balls and you clearly believe what you’re saying,” he replied.

  Before I could say anything else, Alex jumped up, rushing towards Jess.

  “No,” I called, but she took no notice. “Stay away from her,” I said. “She’s changed. What they gave her, she’s not Jess anymore,” I shouted, but as she closed the gap, Jess relaxed her bloodied glare, her clawed hands flattening and her arms o
pening to take the hug as her eyes closed.

  Cassie bounded to Ellie, despite her hands being tied to her back, slipping and sliding in the blood in her path.

  I rushed over, grabbing a knife from the table and freed her from the plastic ties, then took the syringe of her blood from the side and handed it to her open hands.

  88

  Standing on the roof of the fort, I peered out across the horizon as the sun peeked over the rolling land. With Jess along the way, cleaned and changed into army fatigues, the only clothes available, she told all to the camera Alex pointed her way whilst I contemplated the look on Sherlock’s face as he arrived in the room.

  It was obvious from his attitude right from the start; he’d rallied against the idea of bringing Jess to the doctors, despite his orders. Unlike the others, who I now knew had been acting on the journey from Exeter, when we explained the doctor’s plan it should have been clear he was the one who could help us to stop them.

  I still couldn’t get over how they’d swum ashore, a feat of strength like I’d never witnessed in anyone still living.

  In such a short space of time he’d rallied the remaining soldiers to our idea, along with their detachment doctor to take care of the injured. Only Ellie, Jack and Tish needed their help; the others were past saving after Jess had finished in those few moments.

  I’d left the round room, leaving the doctor to tend to Ellie with Cassie watching as they injected her with what we all hoped would be the cure. Once I was told Jack and Tish were okay, I didn’t want to be a spare part as Cassie leaned to the bed and held Ellie’s hand tight.

  Staring off into the distance, the crowd filling my view answered my question of hope as I only half listened to Jess’s well-pronounced words while she told the truth to the nation so they might prepare for what would come their way, if it wasn’t too late already.

  With footsteps climbing the steps, I turned to a fresh light brightening Cassie’s face as she raised her brow in my direction. Shadow followed behind with his tongue hanging out, panting.

  Taking slow steps, she walked toward me and I couldn’t tell by her expression if she would hit me or deliver terrible news about Ellie. Perhaps she’d push me over the edge to the concrete below for giving the children to that awful woman. Could I let her have the moment and dish out the punishment she saw fit?

  As she drew closer, her mouth turned to a smile, and she opened her arms, beckoning me into a hug. Despite the confusion, I took the step and ignored the ache across my body as I gripped her tight with my arms around her back.

  After a long moment she relaxed her embrace so I could breathe again.

  “Ellie?” I said, and felt her nod as she spoke.

  “She’s doing well, so far at least.”

  “So you’re the cure?” I said, but she didn’t reply; instead, I heard her sniff as she spoke.

  “I thought I would turn. Every time I felt my emotions rise, I thought I’d burst open and lose control, taking you with me. That’s why.... That’s why...”

  “You’ve been so withdrawn,” I said, finishing the sentence she couldn’t. As I struggled to stop the rise of my emotion, she spoke again.

  “I thought I would turn and so I stayed back. I was ready to leave when I felt any urges. Like Jess.”

  She pulled me in tight again.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “It’s all my fault. I don’t know how you can stand to be near me.”

  Cassie let go, pulling back and looking me in the eye. “What do you mean?”

  “I brought the kids to her. It was my decision.”

  She shook her head. “No,” she said. “I was in that room, too. She’d given us hope. We didn’t know what she could have meant to do. I urged you on, but it’s not either of our faults.”

  She grabbed me again and pulled me in close. Then when I could no longer hear Jess speaking to the camera, we separated, turning across the roof to see Alex and Jess holding hands and walking towards us.

  Drawing closer, Alex spoke.

  “Is this the end?” she asked, looking to me, then Cassie before turning back to Jess.

  I twisted around, gazing across the grass to the horizon. I didn’t speak, instead lingering on the massing crowd in army fatigues who were jumping high into the air, the others stumbling our way as a waft of that foul stench blew across from their direction. Our future was inevitable.

  “Of sorts,” I said. “But not in the way we would want.”

  Jess spoke. “It is for me. Logan, you were right. What Toni put in my arm changed me and although it gave me the strength to break free, I can’t... I won’t live as one of her experiments for the rest of my life.”

  Turning back to face the three of them, I expected to see Alex complain and fight for her to see the life she could have. Instead, I watched tears roll down her cheeks, and she nodded in my direction.

  “But I can give you each a chance,” Jess said, pulling Alex in close before taking Cassie in an embrace.

  Patting Shadow on the head, Jess opened her arms and as I drew near she spoke again. “Thank you all.”

  “What for?” I asked as she let go.

  “For making me feel human again,” she said, walking to the edge of the roof and peering down to the ground below.

  “No,” I shouted, not hiding my alarm as I realised she would jump to stop herself from attacking us if she lost control.

  Before I could reach out, she stepped over the edge and disappeared. I closed my eyes, pushing my hands to my face at the thump of flesh hitting the concrete.

  Despite knowing what we would see, pulling my hands from my face, I stepped with the others to peer over the edge. Rather than seeing a crumpled heap of flesh, Jess stood looking up with a solemn smile.

  “Get to the boat,” she called up, then didn’t linger before turning away and rushing to a blur toward the massing crowds heading our way.

  “I can’t believe she’d do that for us,” Cassie said. “It’s suicide.”

  I shook my head, and Alex did the same as I spoke.

  “Don’t be so sure. Now let’s get the kids and run.”

  The End.

  For now, at least...

  Liked what you read?

  Please leave a review on the platform you used for the purchase or Goodreads.com. Honest reviews are difficult to come by and are so important to indie authors like me.

  Visit gjstevens.com for news about new releases and sign up to the mailing list to receive free electronic copied of other publications including SURVIVOR – Your Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse!

  gjstevens.com