by Ryan Casey
I climbed to my feet and dragged Olivia along towards the door. Behind, I heard Rhino’s footsteps getting closer, faster. Instinct kicked in as my heart raced. I needed to escape. I needed to get away from here. I needed to take Olivia as far away from here as possible.
But then I saw the horror and the pain in the eyes of the prisoners, all of their hope lost, and something inside me told me I couldn’t just turn away and run.
Not this time.
I stopped by the door. I turned around and faced Rhino.
When he saw I’d stopped, he stopped too.
I reached into my pocket. Pulled out my knife. It was small. Minuscule in comparison to Rhino’s weapon.
So much so that for the first time, I heard him actually make a sound.
Something like a grunted laugh.
“Yeah you won’t be laughing long,” I said.
“Dad?” Olivia called.
I turned around and faced her. Tears filled my eyes. Part of me felt like I was turning my back on my daughter I’d fought so hard to find. The other part felt like I was doing the right thing by her. Doing what would make her proud. “We’ll be okay,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I—I love you.”
And then I turned to Rhino and I ran at him.
I wasn’t sure what possessed me to run at him. Seemed a bit dramatic.
But with no armour to his masses of armour, I knew I had speed on my side.
I just had to find a weakness in his armour.
Rhino lifted his ball on a chain and started swirling it around his head. I watched it move as if in slow motion. I knew I had to time this right. If I didn’t, I’d be on the end of that ball.
No. That wasn’t going to happen.
I had to fight.
I had to save everyone here.
I couldn’t—
Smack.
I felt a sharp pain fly through the left side of my chest.
I felt the air wheeze from my body, and the side of my head went crashing into a couple of vacant chairs on the train seat.
My eyes were blurred. My hearing was fuzzy. I lifted my weakened neck and I saw blood on my chest, and felt pain whenever I tried to breathe.
I saw Rhino standing over me, that ball dripping with blood.
I lifted my knife with a shaking hand as he turned to face me.
I wanted to beg him to let me go.
But I didn’t. I didn’t because I was still standing up to him. I was still fighting.
He swung the ball around his head a few times as I tried to lunge towards him, struggling to find the strength in my body.
I held my breath as I tried to rediscover the strength deep down I knew I had.
The strength that the love for my daughter had given me this entire journey.
I tried, but then he released the ball on the chain.
And at that moment, I knew it was over.
Chapter Forty-Nine
I waited for the spiked metal ball to pierce my skull and splatter the insides of my head all over the train floor.
My last thought before the ball made contact with my head? Olivia. I’d fought so hard to find her. I’d found her. And she’d made it this far, which meant she was strong. Way, way stronger than I’d even given her credit for.
She could make it in this world.
She was my little fighter.
Right from the day she was born prematurely, she’d been my little fighter.
I didn’t know where Kerry was. I didn’t want to accept the inevitable truth of what had happened to her.
I just believed in that moment—that awful, violent moment—that all things would be well where Olivia was concerned. That somehow, she’d be okay.
I realised I’d been thinking for a lot longer than a second.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that Rhino had something in his chest.
It was an arrow. No doubt about it, an arrow.
Before I could act on my thoughts, I stepped back from the chair, blood still oozing from my side. I gasped as I threw myself onto Rhino, as I wrapped my left hand around his neck and then pulled the knife back and stabbed.
I stabbed against his body armour, to no avail. I tried to push the arrow further into the gap in his body, but he was pressing back now, resisting my assault.
Somewhere behind me, just outside of my conscious awareness, I swore I heard barking.
I lifted the knife and I pressed it into Rhino’s face.
I felt the mask cracking under the forced of the knife. I pushed down harder, right into Rhino’s eye-slit, as he kicked back and tried to fight.
I looked away as I pushed the knife down further. I didn’t want to look at what I was doing. I didn’t want that to become me. To define me.
But I knew what I was doing was the right thing.
This man had hurt those I loved.
He’d hurt me.
So I didn’t run away from the people who hurt me and my family anymore.
I dealt with them.
Rhino struggled a little longer. I felt cold and shaky from the blood loss.
But gradually, his fightbacks receded.
His fighting got less enthusiastic.
And eventually, he gave up completely.
I heard a whimper. The first thing I’d heard Rhino say this whole time.
“Please. My—my mum. My mum.”
And then he just went still.
I sat there with the knife pressed into Rhino for a while longer. I wasn’t sure whether I was feeling grief at what I’d had to do. I wasn’t sure if I was just hazy from the blood loss. Whatever it was, I felt like this was a big moment. A moment where things changed. Not just for me. But for everyone.
I felt a hand on my back.
When I turned around, I saw Kesha standing there.
She was holding a crossbow and smiling. She looked bruised, like she’d been through some shit. But she was here. She was okay.
“How did you…”
“Ssh,” she said, patting my shoulder some more. “We can catch up properly later. Right now, we need to get that wound seen to. Come on.”
I let Kesha help me to my feet, still in disbelief as to why she was here, how she’d made it this far.
But what I saw next ahead of me made my heart melt.
Olivia was standing by the train door.
She was holding someone, with a smile on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks.
That someone was Bouncer.
“Bouncer…”
I said his name and I couldn’t hold back my own tears.
Bouncer turned around from Olivia and came running up to me, jumping up at me, licking my face.
I was in pain. I was in so much pain.
But none of that mattered now Bouncer was here.
None of that mattered now Olivia was here.
And… and none of that mattered now Kesha was here.
I wrapped my hands around my daughter, my dog, and my friend, and I held them tightly.
And then I let my tears go completely, not afraid of holding them back anymore.
We cried together.
And it was the most perfect moment I’d had in a long time.
Chapter Fifty
Day Forty
The sun rose over Selly Oak station, and I opened my eyes knowing that today was the day.
The temperature was rapidly cooling as autumn stretched on. I saw brown leaves falling from the trees. They were somewhat soothing to walk over, crunching my feet through them.
It was nice to have Olivia and Bouncer by my side while I walked through them too. It really created that illusion of normality.
I looked out at the people gathered on the platform. They had bags of their own. Supplies, some of which we’d taken from the Animals, others that we’d found in the last few days. There were twenty of us. Twenty survivors. Sadly some had passed away in the days since I’d taken this place, with help from Kesha and Bouncer of course. But twenty was good. It was progres
s.
And it was enough to guarantee that at least some of us would make the crazy journey we were planning on starting.
I put my hands together and closed my eyes. I thought about Kerry. Wherever she was, I hoped she was okay. I hoped she was still out there alive somewhere. I’d searched Selly Oak station and the surrounding areas for traces of her. Of her body, whether living or dead.
“Look out for her,” I whispered, my hands together. I realised then that I was praying.
“You ready to… Oh. Sorry.”
I turned around. Kesha was standing at the door leading into the driving area of the train.
“It’s okay,” I said, smiling. “I was just—”
“No. I’ll leave you to…”
Kesha smiled and stepped out of the room.
I stood up, took a deep breath, and walked towards her.
“So how you feeling about everything?” I asked, as the pair of us walked down the train towards the door out onto the platform. There was still a taste of vomit and faeces in the air, but we’d cleaned it out the best we could.
“Honest answer or answer you’ll want to hear?”
“A combination?”
“Well, a part of me says what we’re doing is mad. That the journey down here nearly killed us, so we’re never going to make it all the way back up to Scotland.”
“And the other part of you?”
“I dunno,” Kesha said. “I guess… I guess it’s hopeful. Because despite everything, we did make it this far. As mad as it is, we made it.”
I put a hand on Kesha’s shoulder. “Then that’s the part you listen to.”
I walked ahead of Kesha and towards the door.
“Don’t you worry?”
I turned around. “Worry about what?”
“Your daughter. Your dog. And even… even your wife, wherever she is. Don’t you worry?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I worry. But I don’t run away from responsibilities anymore. I spent too long running away from responsibilities. And although it might make things seem better in the short run, in the long term, it’s a fool’s game.”
“You’re a good m… A good dad.”
“And you’re a good person too.”
We smiled at each other, and I felt that electricity from the blue of her eyes.
“When are you going to kiss?”
I turned around and saw Olivia standing on the platform. She’d shaven away her brown hair, which I was reluctant to let her do at first, but she insisted she wanted it this way because it looked cooler.
I rustled my fingers against the hair where it was growing back. “Don’t be daft, you little munchkin.”
“Yeah,” Kesha said, standing by my side. “Kiss him? Ew!”
Olivia laughed. The pair of them laughed together. Outside, on the platform. I saw two women and a man—Alison, Natasha, and Kunal—fussing over Bouncer.
“He’s gonna get fat if you keep feeding him pepperoni,” I said.
“Well I’m sure as shit not eating pepperoni,” Natasha said. “Figured the dog would appreciate it more.”
“Cruel on Bouncer,” I said.
I looked down the platform at the people waiting. The people I’d saved. Some didn’t look healthy. Some looked totally exhausted, on the verge of just breaking completely.
But they were here. They were out of the grips of the Animals.
That counted for something.
“This journey isn’t going to be easy,” I said, realising everyone was getting anxious to go. Talking still hurt my side a little. Good job Kesha got here when she did. Turned out she’d been chased outside my street, found herself and Bouncer hiding in captivity. When they escaped, the first thing she’d done was to go back to my house and find the train ticket crumpled up. She put two and two together and… well, she can’t have set off much later than me.
Coincidence? Perhaps.
An act of God? I was starting to believe.
“There’s going to be times where it doesn’t seem like we’re going to make it. I know it, because I’ve been on that journey.”
I looked at Kesha. She smiled back at me.
“But the thing that gets you through is the belief that things can get better. The belief that… that we can make this work. And if you believe that—if you really believe we can tackle these problems head on together instead of turning our backs on what we have to do—then the things we can achieve really are limitless.”
I looked at Olivia. Then at Bouncer.
“We’re going to find our new home,” I said. “And if that home isn’t still standing, we’ll find another home. We’ll build a new home. We’ll create a community. Somewhere people want to be a part of. We’ll make the world realise that if it does come together, there can be order. There can be security. And there can be peace.”
“You really believe that?” Kunal asked.
I looked right into Kunal’s eyes and without any hesitation or shred of doubt, I nodded. “I do.”
I looked at the train that these people had been captive inside.
Then I looked at the bikes that the Animals used to ride, their masks discarded and burned in a pile; a reminder of everything me and this new group had overcome.
“We can find this new home if we really believe in ourselves. Are you ready to believe in yourselves?”
I expected silence. I expected no reaction.
Instead, I got nods. I got cheers. I got applause.
I stood there and I felt Kesha’s fingers tickle the tips of mine.
I felt Olivia tighten her arms around me.
I heard Bouncer panting, whining in anticipation of an upcoming walk.
“Then there’s no point sticking around,” I said, as the sun glared down on a perfect autumn day. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Day Three Hundred & Sixty Five
A year has passed and I am still alive.
Somehow, in spite of everything, I am still alive.
But how things have changed…
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2016 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Damonza
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Higher Bank Books
