Surviving The EMP (Book 6): Final Stand

by Casey, Ryan

  As much as she thought about drifting off into the world on her own, she felt strong now. She felt like the people she was with needed her. Like she could bring something to this whole journey.

  She wanted to know they were okay before she made her next choice.

  She thought about Jade a lot. She wished there was more she could’ve done for her. But at the same time, she knew she’d done as much as she could. She’d given Jade hope. And even though it had been snatched away from her, at least she’d felt that hope. At least her final moments contained some kind of happiness. Some kind of optimism.

  She looked down to her side. Saw Villain panting as he walked through the snow. Tongue dangling out. Tail wagging. She was glad he was here. He was Emma’s final link to the very beginning. A reminder of all the good people she’d lived with over these last few months.

  And a reminder of how far she’d go to protect them.

  She wouldn’t have believed this was where she’d end up when she was with Logan’s group. But then she could see now that Logan would never have made it in this world. He didn’t trust other people enough. He wasn’t willing to work with other people. And maybe that was something to do with how people saw him.

  But Emma knew Jack was a good person, deep down. He’d made bad calls. But he always had the best interests of the group at heart.

  “What do you reckon the first thing you’ll do will be?” Hannah asked.

  Emma looked around. Frowned. “What?”

  “When we get to this safe haven. What do you reckon you’ll do first? Have a nice hot shower? Watch a little trashy television?”

  Emma shook her head. “We don’t even know if they have power.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “No. We don’t know. But what’s so wrong with hoping?”

  Emma looked at Trent. He shrugged his shoulders as they kept on walking down this long, endless road. The place with the helicopters had to be so close now. They’d come at it from a slightly different direction. They’d had to after Emma went back for Renae. But they’d got here quicker than Emma thought they would.

  “I know what I’ll do,” Trent said.

  Emma didn’t want to humour him. But she was curious. “What?”

  He puffed out his lips and grinned. “Sit on a nice, proper toilet with working water, grab a good old newspaper, and take a hell of a dump.”

  Emma snorted at that. She couldn’t help herself. Hannah started laughing too. The thought that of all the things he had to look forward to in a world where things were just a little bit more normal, the thing he was looking forward to most was sitting on a toilet and having a poo.

  “Really?” Hannah said. “That’s what you’re looking forward to more than any fucking thing in the world? Emptying your bowels?”

  “Hey,” Trent said, still grinning away. “I like my private, warm dump times, okay?”

  Emma laughed again. And she heard herself laughing, sounding like a kid again. The most like a kid she’d felt since the very start of all this. Maybe even longer.

  And maybe that’s who she could be again.

  Maybe there was still a chance.

  She walked along, all of them laughing, when she heard something up ahead.

  Something that jolted her right out of the moment.

  A helicopter.

  She looked up.

  A helicopter drifted right overhead.

  Off into the distance.

  Right towards the place where it came from.

  Emma looked up at it and smiled. So too did Hannah, and Trent. Even Villain wagged his tail. All this time without as much of a trace of power, and seeing a helicopter still had the power to make her drop everything, right in that moment.

  She watched as it descended just up ahead, and she took a deep breath.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  She ran. She ran and Hannah ran and Trent ran, too. And as Villain raced alongside her, she thought of childhood again. She thought of the adventures she’d make up in her mind, the worlds she’d create and play in. Because childhood was a playground. Life itself was a playground.

  And even though she could never be that little girl again... there were still moments where she could remember.

  She reached the end of the road and saw it.

  The helicopter landed right in front of the tall gates of the place.

  Inside there, she saw more helicopters.

  She saw people.

  She saw...

  Her mouth went dry.

  Her fists tightened.

  People.

  People were lined up.

  People on their knees.

  Darren and Paul were amongst those people.

  People with guns standing opposite.

  She looked away when she heard the blasts. She had to. Didn’t have any other choice.

  Because she didn’t want to see.

  She didn’t want to accept she’d allowed herself to hope.

  She felt a hand hold on to her, then. Looked around. Saw Hannah.

  Then as the gunfire rattled further inside that place—that place she’d allowed herself to believe in, that place she’d put her hopes in—she could only look into Trent’s eyes as he stared at it, watched every moment.

  His face dropping more and more by the second.

  She didn’t want to accept it.

  She didn’t want to face it.

  But she had to.

  They all had to.

  The safe haven wasn’t a safe haven.

  The place with the helicopters wasn’t a place of hope.

  Their new world wasn’t a new world at all.

  They were stuck in this hell.

  Forever.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Jack held on to Susan’s limp body and stared at Jefe and his people right up ahead.

  The day was growing darker. Night grew closer. He almost wished it was dark, so he couldn’t see the fear on Hazel’s face. A cold wind rushed through the street, making him shiver. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the rotors of a helicopter flying over. Usually it would be enough to stop him right in his tracks. To make him drop everything and look up at the sky.

  But there was nowhere else he could look right now.

  There was nothing else he could focus on.

  Only Hazel.

  Candice.

  Mary.

  And Mrs Fuzzles.

  “I had a feeling we were going to meet again,” Jefe said. “I mean, it just felt to me like there was a lot of unfinished business between us.” He glanced at Susan. “Sorry to see your friend is in such a bad way. Really. Perhaps if she’d taken a different path rather than slaughtering my people, she’d be okay.”

  The hairs on Jack’s neck stood on end. All he could focus on was Hazel. That knife to her neck. And the rest of his people, too. All of them held captive. He’d seen situations like this before. His people had managed to battle their way out of them. They’d found the strength to step up when it really mattered.

  But right now, it really felt like he was out of time.

  It felt like he was out of strength.

  He wasn’t sure how much more he could fight.

  “You’re supposed to be a pragmatist,” Jack said. He didn’t even bother to point the pistol anymore. It was no use. “You captured me and my people. You didn’t think there was a chance someone might come for you?”

  Jefe’s smile twitched. Hazel struggled beneath his grip, his hand to her mouth. “You’re not a pragmatist, Jack. A pragmatist would’ve escaped while causing as little chaos as possible. What you and your people did, Jack, that was emotional. It was revenge. That’s a weakness, Jack. And it’s catching up with you.”

  Jack gritted his teeth. His heart raced. He couldn’t hold back anymore. “And this isn’t emotional?”

  Jefe’s face twitched once more. He couldn’t say a word.

  “Don’t you see it?” Jack shouted, looking at all of Jefe’s people. “Don’t
you see the hypocrisy? He talks about detachment. He talks about abandoning emotions and all that crap. But this is emotional. This is nothing more than revenge.”

  “You destroyed our home,” Jefe shouted. “You took the only thing we had away from us. You forced us to start again.”

  “And that’s a risk you took, Jefe,” Jack said. “You lost your home because of your actions. You kicked a wasp’s nest harder than you should have. It was always going to sting the fuck out of you eventually.”

  Jefe’s face dropped. The smile was long gone. There weren’t even any attempts to maintain it anymore. “You’re not really selling your case, Jack.”

  “Fuck my case. Fuck all of it. I’m tired of playing games. You’re not going to let me go. You’re not going to let my people live. You’re here to punish me. To make me watch while everything I care about falls. And you know what? I hate you for it. I’ll always hate you for it. But... but if it happens, then it happens. If my people fall, then they fall. Because we are a group. We’re together. We live together. And we die together.”

  He took a few steps towards Jefe.

  “That’s one thing you’ll never understand. You can’t force people to work together. It only works for so long. But now you see it. You see you’ve lost. You see everything you worked towards was nothing more than a sham. And you’re lashing out. Because that’s just what you are. A scared little man. A weak little man. And if killing us makes you feel better about yourself to your weak little pathetic bunch of cultist followers then so be it.”

  A different look to Jefe’s face, now. A look of surprise. Like he was taken aback by Jack’s words. Like he genuinely didn’t know how to respond to them.

  He let go of Hazel, then. Threw her to the ground. He walked towards Jack slowly. Squared right up to him.

  And then he looked into his eyes, and he smiled.

  “There’s something I want you to understand, too.”

  He pulled back his knife.

  “I’m not going to kill you or your people. That would be far too good for you.”

  Jack held his ground. Heart racing. Susan in his arms.

  “I’m going to keep you alive. All of you. And I’m going to put you all through so much hell that you’ll wish you were dead. And when you’re completely broken, when you don’t have any will to live left in your body, you’ll serve me. You’ll serve us all. And you’ll be a reminder. You’ll be a reminder of what happens when someone stands against me. Of what happens to people who let emotion drive them. And maybe when you’re a good servant... maybe when you’re licking the shit from my boots without me having to even ask... maybe then I’ll finally let you die.”

  He lifted the knife. Pressed it to Jack’s neck.

  “Now come on. Come on, like a good dog.”

  Jack stood there. Susan in his arms.

  He looked into Jefe’s eyes.

  Then over his shoulder at Hazel.

  At Mary.

  At Candice, and Mrs Fuzzles.

  He looked at them all, and he smiled back at Jefe.

  “Not without a fight,” he said.

  Jefe opened his mouth to say something, and Jack cracked his head against his nose.

  He sent him stumbling back. Dropped Susan to the ground.

  And then he walked over to him. Pulled back a fist and cracked him right across the face.

  He saw it, then. He didn’t even have to say anything. Candice fighting back. Hazel fighting back. And even Mary fighting back, too.

  He saw it all as he stood there over Jefe, and he felt so proud.

  Because it didn’t matter what the future held.

  It didn’t matter if it didn’t hold anything at all.

  They lived together.

  They died together.

  Even if it—

  A pain.

  A sharp pain, right in the middle of Jack’s body.

  He tasted metal in his mouth. Felt confused for a second. His head starting spinning. His heart pounding, racing in his skull.

  He looked over at Hazel and Candice, and he saw something as they stood there, fighting for their lives.

  He saw the way they looked at him. The way their eyes widened. Like they knew something he didn’t.

  And then he looked down.

  Jefe lay there.

  Holding something.

  Pressing something right into the middle of his chest.

  He looked down further, and he saw it, and he knew.

  A knife.

  A knife pressed right into the middle of his stomach.

  Deep.

  Jefe looked up at him as blood dripped down Jack’s body, and he smiled.

  “Looks like your luck’s out, Jack.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Emma didn’t look back at the place with the helicopters once.

  It was almost dark. The wind had picked up again, making her feel really cold. She couldn’t stop shaking. But sometimes when she was nervous and worried, she shook too.

  Maybe that’s what this was.

  She looked at the buildings around her. The smashed windows. The posters clinging to the walls of bedrooms. Children’s bedrooms. Children who were like her, once.

  She wondered how many people were still out there like her.

  She wondered how many had fallen. How many weren’t strong enough.

  She hadn’t seen many people her age alive in this world. Especially not ones like her.

  And part of her wished she wasn’t even here at all to see it anymore.

  Trent was quiet. So too was Hannah. Villain walked with his tail down, head lowered. It was like he realised they were out of luck too. Like there was no safe zone or extraction point or whatever people called it.

  They weren’t even going there to find out.

  Emma thought about what she’d seen. The helicopter lowering towards those gates. The people kneeling there, armed forces opposite.

  She remembered seeing Darren and Paul in that row of people. Innocent people. Good people.

  And she remembered hearing the gunfire and knowing right away that nothing was different there.

  It was just the same brutal world, as much as they dreamed of something better.

  There was nothing better.

  Just this.

  Moving from place to place.

  Drifting. Surviving.

  Summer after winter. Summer after winter.

  She stopped walking right then.

  Trent and Hannah both turned around. “Emma?” Trent said.

  But Emma could only stand there. Shoulders slumped. She could only stare ahead. Because she was lost now. She thought about how she’d been thinking of not going to this place with the helicopters at all in the first place. But now she’d seen there was no hope there, that there was nothing different or positive there, or no future there... she felt so sad.

  Because at least it was a sign that there was some good out there.

  Even if she wasn’t ready for it yet.

  “Emma?” Trent said again. “Come on. We’ve got to get moving. We—”

  “I’m not coming with you,” Emma said.

  Trent’s face turned. He shook his head. “Come on, Emma. We need to stick together. Now more than ever. We need to—”

  “I’ve fought so much already. I... I’ve tried to keep fighting. And I want to. I really do. But I think... I think it’s time I went my own way. I think it’s time I tried to find my family. Time I started again.”

  Trent walked towards Emma. Hannah stayed back.

  He stopped right in front of her.

  “I didn’t go wading through the woods just to leave you behind again. I didn’t risk everything just to throw it all away. Come on, Emma. I know you’re upset. I know you’re hurt. We all are. But now’s not the time to go making rash decisions.”

  “It’s not a rash decision,” Emma said. “It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time. So long. I... I’ve tried fitting in. I’ve tried proving myself. I’ve tri
ed being myself. But I think... I think I need to go find myself. I need to find what matters to me. And maybe then... maybe only then I’ll be ready.”

  Trent shook his head. Rubbed his nose. Then he looked back at Emma. “You’re a tough woman, you know? You’re mature. Mature way beyond your years. You’re a role model. You know that? A role model. And I want someone like that on my team for when the shit hits the fan.”

  Emma smiled at that. “Thank you. That means a lot. Really.”

  Trent smiled now. “If I ever find Jack again, he’s gonna kill me for letting you slip through my damned fingers.”

  Emma nodded. “He will. But you can tell him why I did what I did. And you can tell him something else, too.”

  Trent frowned. “Go on.”

  She took a deep breath and remembered what Jack told her, all that time ago. “He is a good leader. I never... I never properly got the chance to tell him. He’s a better leader than he was.”

  Trent smiled at that. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. Another stroke to his damned ego.”

  Emma nodded. Wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She didn’t want to get emotional. She wanted to be far away before the tears got to her. “I’ll miss you. All of you.”

  Villain walked up to her then. Right on cue. Just when she wanted to keep a grip of herself.

  She didn’t want to fuss him. Didn’t want to make herself more upset.

  But she couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.

  He looked up at her, tilting his head, waiting for some kind of attention.

  She hugged him. Felt his soft fur against her.

  And as his warmth pressed against her face, she thought she heard him cry.

  She stood up, then. Tears streaming down her cheeks. Hannah came over. Looked at her and smiled. “You know, you’re a brave girl. Far, far stronger than I could ever hope to be.”

  Emma smiled back at her. “That’s not true. We’re all strong. We just have to believe it...”

  She stopped talking.

  Because as she stood there in the setting sun, getting ready to walk, she heard something.

  A shout in the distance.

  Struggling.

  Fighting.