Broken Arrow
Page 29
Tanek had carried De Falaise's daughter up to the bedroom, placing her on the comfortable bed that was still untouched. Then he'd looked after her, continuing to give her the antibiotics until they ran out, mopping her brow as she sweated out the pain, and willing her to wake.
She opened her eyes only twice. The first time she asked for water, which he gave her. Tanek had been feeding her intravenously with a drip he'd found back at King's Mill, while he'd been surviving on what he could hunt in the nearby meadows: small animals mainly, some birds which he killed with crossbow bolts. He'd lived on less.
Adele told him she'd seen her father, that he'd talked to her.
Tanek nodded. She'd had the dream as well.
"He said I had to get better, had to... because..." She began to cough, and he gave her another sip of water.
"Take it slow."
"No, I must... must tell you... We have to... have to save..." That was all she could manage, then Adele lost her tenuous grip on consciousness. There was something wrong with her, any idiot could see that. Even in sleep, her face was a rictus of agony. Maybe he'd missed something internally, some fragment from the bullet that he hadn't spotted? Although he knew about the human body he was no doctor and hadn't had the best of facilities in which to work.
Whatever the case, it was too late to do anything but sit and wait.
The second time she woke, three days later, was the last. Tanek sat up when he saw her stir, especially when she'd grabbed his hand, gripping it tight. Adele looked at him, eyes wide, staring with an expression that only came when a person knew they were close to the end.
"He made me promise," she spluttered. "My father."
"Promise what?" Tanek leaned in. Maybe if he hadn't been able to keep his own pledge to De Falaise, he could fulfil Adele's. Would that make up for his mistakes?
"Save-"
"You said that before. Save who?"
The grip tightened again. "His child."
Tanek shook his head. He'd tried, he'd really tried.
Then Adele said her final words: "My brother. My little brother..."
She fell back on the pillow, letting Tanek's hand go. Tanek felt her neck; she was gone. It had taken this long but Mary had finally killed Adele with that bullet. He shed no tears, though. Not because it wasn't in his nature - he was just too preoccupied with what she'd imparted.
A brother, a younger sibling. But where? In France, over here? A sudden thought struck Tanek. Perhaps the child De Falaise had been talking about in his dreams hadn't been Adele at all. What if it never had been?
Perhaps he was meant to save someone else? Meant to keep someone else safe?
It was a thought that would plague him even as he buried Adele in an unmarked grave. Even as he left Cynthia's house and drove on up the road again.
It was a thought that would continue to plague him for some time to come.
Gwen finished feeding Clive Jr, spooning the food into his mouth and wiping it.
She sat back and looked at her son, and not for the first time she wondered just how and why they'd been spared.
He must be kept safe...
That's what the cultist had said. A man she'd been led to believe was evil - who painted a skull on his face and had the mark of a sinner on him - and yet had actually saved her from Jace, smuggled her out of the castle when she was about to be used as bait, when Christ alone knew what was going to happen to her son.
What had he meant? She didn't have a clue, and hadn't had a chance to ask again. Because after they'd dropped her off near to New Hope, they'd all disappeared: Skullface and the rest.
Gwen had ditched the robes before walking into the village, Andy and Graham rushing over when they saw her. They'd bombarded her with a flurry of questions she either couldn't or didn't want to answer. But once she was safe again inside her own home, once she was sure she wouldn't be spotted or followed, she took Clive Jr and headed out to retrieve those robes.
They hung, even now, in her wardrobe upstairs. Gwen didn't know why she was keeping them. A souvenir of her escape? She doubted it, she wasn't the sentimental type anymore. Not since Clive...
Then why?
That wasn't all. Ever since she'd got back, every time she left the house to visit Clive's grave, or walk through New Hope, or attend meetings about the best way forward for the village - by which she and the others meant the best way to get hold of more weapons - she'd had the uneasy feeling she was being watched. Gwen would turn around quickly in the hopes of catching a glimpse of what was in the periphery of her vision. But it would always be gone.
Now, as she rose and walked to the window, hugging herself in spite of the fire that she'd made in the hearth, keeping out the dying breaths of winter, she thought she saw something out there in the dark. Just a quick flash, a figure perhaps, amongst the trees, wearing a hood. But not him: not the person she'd sent away when he'd brought Tate back to plead forgiveness.
No.
This was a different kind of Hooded Man altogether...
His presence heralding a different kind of future.
THE END
Acknowledgements
Once again, a huge thank you to Trevor Preston for all his help with the weapons and military stuff - and for even knowing what thickness the metal should be for the Ranger shields! Cheers mate. A big thank you to Sue Pacey for the medical and drugs advice, who didn't bat an eyelid at my strange questions. My thanks once more to the staff at Nottingham Castle for that trip around the caves, and to Pete Barnsdale who gave us a private tour of the Castle itself. A thank you to Sherwood Forest Visitors Centre, and especially Mark for the archery lesson. To the staff at The Britannia - where Marie and I hosted our first FantasyCon as co-chairs, and the seeds were planted. Thank you to Simon Clark and Lee Harris for looking over the Robin Hood's Bay and York sections. A massive thank you to Richard Carpenter, one of my heroes, who let me use the quote from Robin of Sherwood at the front (for my money the best adaptation of Hood there's ever been). Thanks to Scott Andrews for the conflabs about where we're taking this future vision of Britain, and how we can cross over our characters. Thanks to my support mechanism of fantastic friends and loving family. To Jon Oliver for his great edits, Mark Harrison for the excellent cover artwork (I was a fan even before he started bringing Robert to life), and to my darling wife Marie, who was - as always - the first to read this and give me such insightful feedback. Love you more than words can say, sweetheart; you're the best.
About the Author
Paul Kane has been writing professionally for twelve years. His genre journalism has appeared in such magazines as The Dark Side, Death Ray, Fangoria, SFX, Dreamwatch and Rue Morgue, and his first non-fiction book was the critically acclaimed The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, introduced by Doug 'Pinhead' Bradley. His short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, in all kinds of formats (as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 2), and have been collected in Alone (In the Dark), Touching the Flame and FunnyBones. His novella Signs of Life reached the shortlist of the British Fantasy Awards 2006 and The Lazarus Condition was introduced by Mick Garris, creator of Masters of Horror. In his capacity as Special Publications Editor of the British Fantasy Society he worked with authors like Brian Aldiss, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray, Graham Masterton, Robert Silverberg and many more. In 2008 his zombie story 'Dead Time' was turned into an episode of the Lionsgate/NBC TV series Fear Itself, adapted by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (SAW II-IV). Paul's website, which has featured guest writers such as Stephen King, James Herbert, Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, can be found at www.shadow-writer.co.uk He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife - the author Marie O'Regan - his family, and a black cat called Mina.
As the world dies screaming a legend is reborn!
In the years following The Cull England has reverted back to the Middle Ages, ripe for invasion by the Frenchman De Falaise and his group of mercenaries
. They enter through the Channel Tunnel and work their way up the country. Ex-policeman Robert Stokes lost everything to the virus that ravaged these isles. Along with his wife and his son, it took Robert's whole reason for living. Retreating into the woods and forests near Nottingham, he has become a hunter, living off the land and avoiding any form of human contact -until now. Pockets of survivors are attempting to build up small communities in the region, bartering at makeshift markets and forming tentative connections. But when De Falaise arrives at Nottingham - proclaiming himself the new 'Sheriff' - Robert finds himself drawn reluctantly into the fight, using the famous legend of a Hooded Man as his guide!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
He made a stand against the end of the world...
The Blight arose from nowhere. It swept across the bickering nations like the End of Times and spared only those with a single fortuitous blood type.
Hot-headed religion and territorial savagery rule the cities now. Somewhere amidst the chaos a damaged man receives a signal, and with it the tiniest flicker of hope. The chance to rediscover the humanity he lost, long ago, in the blood and filth and horror of The Cull.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
We all go a little crazy sometimes...
Jasmine has spent five years underground, locked in a secret government bunker. Outside, the world has gone to hell, a mysterious virus killing all but 1 in 20 of the world's population.
It's enough to drive anyone mad - but Jasmine's crazier than most. The cure she was working on had an unexpected side effect, psychotic symptoms which only powerful drugs can suppress. Jasmine's rescuers, the pirate rulers of the New Caribbean, don't care. They need Jasmine's help to discover what it is that has turned the inhabitants of Cuba into rabid killers. Jasmine's quest to find a cure for this new plague, as well as for her own madness, draws her across the fractured continent of America and into the darkest recesses of her own past.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
ONE MAN AGAINST A CITY OF MANIACS!
This ain't a complicated story, but then Cade wasn't a complicated man. He didn't exactly care about people, did Cade, but if one of the people he almost cared about was in trouble, he'd help out if he could. If that meant heading down to San Francisco - even though nobody ever came back from there alive - well, fi ne. If that meant taking on whole armies of religious maniacs, coupon-clipping cannibals and helter-skelter hippies who dealt out free love and fast death in equal measure, armed with nothing but his two fi sts and a decent hunting knife... well, I'm kind of runnin' my mouth here. This ain't a peaceful story, is what I'm tryin' to say. And Cade... Cade wasn't a peaceful man.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
A War is Coming!
As America lies bleeding, Native American Chief Hiamovi seeks to unite his people into a single nation capable of reclaiming the US from the white man. His growing army is on a collision course with cult leader Samuel Colt, who intends to put the country back in the iron grip of the once mighty Neo-Clergy. The two men are set for a showdown at Little Bighorn, once site of Custer’s legendary last stand, now a twisted, nuclear landscape. The fate of the battle may just be decided by Anna Bontraeger, rescued from a brothel by rogue scientist Matthew Greaves and taken on a perilous road trip across a devastated continent. Greaves and his small band have to get Anna to Little Bighorn before Colt or Hiamovi, so she can unlock the secrets which will save what remains of humanity and bring about a new dawn over Doomsday!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
“After the world died we all sort of drifted back to school. After all, where else was there for us to go?”
It's never easy being fifteen, but when your teachers are killing each other, the prefect who loves to bully you is experimenting with crucifixion, and the rival gang from across town have decided that ritualistic cannibalism is the way to go, spots and BO don't seem like such big problems after all.
These are the final days of St Marks' School For Boys, and the punishment for disobedience is death!
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
"I celebrated my sixteenth birthday by crashing a plane, fighting for my life and facing execution, again."
Lee Keegan travels to Iraq on the trail of his missing father, only to find himself caught between desperate rebels and a general who wants to strap him into an electric chair.
In England, Jane Crowther, one time matron of St Mark's School for Boys, attracts the wrong kind of attention and has to fight to protect her new school from unlikely enemies.
And in a bunker underneath Washington, a madman issues orders that will tip two devastated countries into total war.
The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high-action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.
www.abaddonbooks.com
Extract
Indicia
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Acknowledgements
About the Author
'Arrowhead' by Paul Kane
'The Culled' by Simon Spurrier
'Kill or Cure' by Rebecca Levene
'Death Got No Mercy' by Al Ewing
'Dawn Over Doomsday' by Jaspre Bark
'School's Out' by Scott Andrews
'Operation Motherland' by Scott Andrews
Table of Contents
Indicia
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Acknowledgements
About the Author
'Arrowhead' by Paul Kane
'The Culled' by Simon Spurrier
'Kill or Cure' by Rebecca Levene
'Death Got No Mercy' by Al Ewing
'Dawn Over Doomsday' by Jaspre Bark
'School's Out' by Scott Andrews
'Operation Moth
erland' by Scott Andrews