“Aagh!” Sergei screams as the door slams shut on his arm.
Sergei’s grip loosens from Rick’s bicep and he falls away, the car door flinging open again as the car swerves. Cassie groans again.
“Sorry!” he rasps changing to third and swinging the car towards the exit. As he checks back in the rear-view mirror, Sergei rolls across the tarmac, escaping Dan’s wheels by a hair’s breadth. Rick’s eyes dart to the open space that leads out of the carpark and into the town and he steers the car up the gentle slope. Dan follows close behind—too close. If this had been a typical day he’d have ranted about tailgating. Today, he’d forgive him.
Chapter Fifteen
Finn jumps over the long branch as Lina throws it down, her breath coming hard as she runs after the girl.
“Hey! Wait.”
“Got to catch them. They’re leaving!” Lina pants as she runs along the tree line, oblivious to the huge blond pulling himself up from the tarmac.
Finn pushes harder as Kyle runs beside her. The girl is quick! Her breath rasps in her throat and her thighs burn as she watches the escaping cars screech to a halt, the second one narrowly missing crunching into the boot of the first. The driver’s door opens and the soldier jumps out, looking back down to the carpark, and, as another man gets out of the second car, the small figures of several children appear from the bushes. So, that’s where the kids went—out of the way whilst the driver rammed his car at Sergei!
The younger, dark-bearded man walks to the children and ushers them back into the car, casting an anxious glance back at the carpark as Lina reaches the soldier. She throws her arms around him. He takes a step back then accepts her embrace, pulling her round to check the scene below. Finn follows their gaze and watches as Sergei limps across to an angry and staring Saskia.
“She’s not going to give up!” Lina exclaims incredulous as Finn steps next to her.
“She’s relentless,” agrees Kyle hand on hip as he catches his breath.
Lina turns to the soldier, her voice low, and he looks over at Finn then to Kyle.
“Lina doesn’t want us to leave you here!” the soldier says as he catches Finn’s gaze. “She’s worried you’ll get hurt by that lot,” he continues with a nod back to the supermarket.
“They’re monsters, Rick,” Lina blurts. “They were dead set on killing you and Cassie.” She turns to Finn. “Will you come with us?” she asks, her eyes connecting with Kyle’s. “It’s not safe to stay in this town with them. Rick says you can.”
Finn shakes her head and puts her arm on Kyle’s as he steps forward. He turns and frowns.
“What?” he asks.
“Do you want to go?” she responds.
“With them?” Kyle looks down at her. “I … I don’t know. This is my home.”
“Yes, it is and-”
“Rick!” the younger man calls from behind. “Looks like she’s going for it again!”
With a frown Finn follows Rick’s gaze and sees that Saskia is holding the crossbow again.
“It’s empty, Dan. She’s doesn’t have any ammo,” Rick replies, then turns back to Finn, his face serious, his voice gentle. “Are you coming?” he asks.
“Where?”
“We’re going up nor-”
“Rick!” Dan calls, his voice urgent. “She’s got bolts!”
Rick twists away from Finn and stares back at Saskia. “Move it!” he says, taking control. “Get in the car and mind the lady. She’s in a lot of pain.”
Without hesitation, Finn grabs the car door and slides onto the back seat. A pained growl sounds beside her. She stops, one leg still outside the car, and looks at the injured woman. A slight, very pretty blonde, pale beneath her fake tan, clutches at her arm, the painted and broken fingernails stark against the blood-soaked fabric.
“Sorry,” Finn apologises as the woman pushes herself further to the side to make room as the car’s engine revs.
She manages a wan smile. “It’s ok. Please, get in,” she says through gritted teeth as she gives a final push against the car floor and hitches across the seat. She seems wrongly dressed somehow—the gold jewellery, fake tan and highlighted blonde hair don’t match with the woman’s rugged and newly scuffed boots, blood-stained khaki top and camouflage trousers.
“Hitch over!” Kyle says, his voice urgent. “I don’t want that bolt in my backside!” he grunts as he sits down and pulls the door to. It closes with a bang as the car lurches forward and Cassie groans.
“Sorry! Sorry!” he repeats with regret.
The car powers forward and screeches out of the entrance and into the safety of the road.
“She’s crazy!” Finn says unable to disguise the strain breaking into her voice as relief washes over her.
Kyle turns to look out of the rear window. “Her and Sergei are both nutters,” he says with certainty as the car pulls out of the exit. A thud and screech of metal assault the car and Saskia’s bolt spears the door, the metal tip protruding through the fabric, narrowly missing Cassie’s leg.
“Hell! Put your foot down,” Kyle blurts. “She got us!”
The car powers forward and screeches onto the road, narrowly missing the raised curb of the roundabout. As the car straightens and heads down the road out of Saskia’s range, Rick slows. “You all OK? Did she hit anyone?”
“No, we’re fine, but the lady nearly got hit.”
“Cassie! You OK, Cassie?”
“Yes,” she replies with a weak voice, her face tight with pain, “but please slow down or something—every jolt is excruciating.”
The soldier looks back at the woman, and Finn watches the tender concern in his eyes and wonders if they’re a couple, though she’d have thought he’d want someone a little less flighty-looking. She settles back against the seat, head resting on the soft upholstery and sighs. Relief smooths over her as the houses flash by, the windows blank squares and rectangles against the darkening sky without the streetlights to give relief.
“We’re going to have to find somewhere to stay tonight, Cassie needs help,” Rick says looking at her again through the rear-view mirror. “Do you know of anywhere we can all sleep for the night?”
Finn looks back into his eyes. She could fall into those baby blues herself. She takes a deep breath as her cheeks tingle and breaks her gaze to look out at the passing street.
“There’s Riverside Lodge on Barrow Hill,” Kyle suggests. “It’s a Bed & Breakfast place. Should have plenty of rooms.”
“And bodies!” Finn retorts.
“Ugh!” Lina adds, disgust etched on her face as she turns to look at Finn in the back seat. “That’s so gross! Rick, what’ll we do if it’s full of bodies?”
“Hopefully, it won’t be,” Rick says as he clicks the lever to indicate and slows the car. “But if there are, we’ll have to deal with them. The bodies are everywhere. We’ll just have to make a clean space for ourselves,” he finishes as the car pulls to a stop. He opens the door and steps out. “Wait here. I need to talk to Dan.” Finn watches as Dan leans out of the car window and the two men talk.
“Will you move them … the bodies?” Lina asks as she turns again to Finn.
Finn swallows, pushing down the horror surging up again in her belly, and looks hard at Lina. “I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again. Like Rick said, you need a clean space to stay in.”
“Sure,” Kyle interrupts. “We can help you at the B&B before we go back.”
“Go back?” Lina exclaims. “You mean you want to stay here? With Saskia and Sergei?”
“Well,” he replies looking at Finn, “it’s our home. I hadn’t thought of leaving.”
“Me neither,” Finn adds. “Since everyone died I wanted to escape the town, but finding you here … well … that just means everywhere else is screwed too. We’d be escaping to more of the same—another town like this one.”
“But, we’re going up north—to a farm. Rick says we can live up there away from the stink of the cities. You’d be s
afe up there.”
Finn closes her eyes again and leans back on the seat. Safe. It sounds good, but now she thinks about it she doesn’t want to leave. This is her home. It’s all she’s ever known. “I’ll think about it,” she says as the driver’s door is pulled open.
“OK,” Rick says as he drops back down into the seat. “Show me where the B&B is.”
Kyle leans forward and, as he gives Rick the directions to the small hotel, Finn looks at the blonde woman crumpled in the corner. Blood is seeping from the wound and spreading out across her chest.
“Rick”, she says as he pulls the car away from the kerb. “Cassie, she’s still bleeding. I think she’s losing too much blood.”
He looks back in the rear-view mirror, real concern in his eyes, but his voice remains calm. “We’ll be there soon. I’ll take a look then. It doesn’t look too bad to me, flesh wounds bleed. If the bolt had hit an artery there’d be a lot more blood.”
“You don’t seem too worried,” Finn says, wondering how he could stay so calm when his friend was bleeding to death.
“Experience,” he says and stares out of the window.
“Next left,” Kyle pipes up as a junction comes into view.
“Experience?” Finn prods. “Are you a paramedic then?”
“No, but I’ve seen a lot of wounds,” he says quietly.
“Right, at the bottom.”
“Oh,” says Finn quietly.
“Do you mean in the war?” asks Kyle.
“Yes, son. I mean in the war,” he returns, his voice matter of fact.
Chapter Sixteen
“What do you say we check out the hotel before we let the kids in?” Rick asks as Dan opens his car door and steps out onto the road. Dan looks over Rick’s shoulder to the row of imposing Victorian houses that line the street.
“Is that it?” he asks, nodding.
“Yeah. Kyle and Finn—they said this would have plenty of rooms and it’s certainly big enough—there’ll probably be a bedroom apiece. But,” he continues, “it could already be full,” his voice has an ominous undertone.
“The sign says ‘Vacancies’,” Dan replies.
“No, I mean the guests, some of them may still be inside—we’d have to remove them.”
“Oh,” Dan says quietly his nose wrinkling. “Yeah—that’s going to be rough.”
“Think it’s something we’re going to have to get used to. Can’t expect the bodies to clear themselves away, and when most of the people in the world die suddenly there’s going to be a lot of clearing to do,” he says, his eyes boring into Dan’s. He holds his gaze for an uncomfortable second then breaks away to look at the children staring expectantly from the back seat.
“You’re right. We should go ahead. The kids will be alright out here until we’ve made sure inside is safe. Lina, Zak and those older ones can keep an eye on the younger ones.” Dan walks to the boot of the car and clicks it open as Rick turns to walk back to the car.
“I’ve got one,” he calls across the road as Rick pulls at the door handle. Rick looks across as Dan waves a large black torch in his hand, the light bright against the darkening night. His belly clenches, he hadn’t considered searching through the hotel for bodies without light, but looking at the house with its black windows and the street a haze in the twilight, he’s thankful for the strong light of the torch. He looks up at the street lights. They’re dead. Nothing. No light, not even a flicker.
“We’ll have to do a quick reccy before the light completely goes.”
“Yeah,” Dan returns. “Quick,” he finishes, his face dour.
“Ready?”
Dan nods his head in confirmation and Rick steps over to the hotel’s black gate of iron tendrils and leaves. The latch opens with a metallic clack and the gate creaks as it swings back. Like some sort of horror film! He allows a smile to reach his lips then takes a deep breath as he walks up the stone-flagged path to the huge front door. Baskets hang either side, their gaudy flowers bright in the twilight, unaware of the death that surrounds them. Rick ignores the heavy knocker in the middle of the door, reaches for the large brass knob and twists. It turns easily and the door swings open to reveal a hallway of black and white patterned tiles. To the side is a hall table topped by a huge, ornate mirror. Beneath the table sits a basket full of shoes. A staircase, covered in hessian, leads up to the first floor and the patterned, hallway tiles lead further into the house to a glass-panelled door. The kitchen Rick presumes, a typical Victorian terrace. He’s been in them before in London and at Scarborough. Memories of days spent on the beach with Sam then back to the B&B before they’d get changed and go out on the town for the evening surge unexpected, and mixes with the stench of death that wafts over him as he steps up and into the hallway.
“I’ll check the first floor. You check the rooms down here,” he instructs. “We’ll do a body count, then get them shifted,” he says turning to Dan as he steps up into the house. His face looks ashen in the light.
“I … can we look together? I feel like a kid, but hell … this is creepy.”
“It’s just a house.”
“It’s dark. There’s no light. And there are bodies.”
“We haven’t found any yet.”
“I don’t need to see them to know. It stinks in here.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to open the windows.”
“Poor kids,” Dan returns as he looks back out to the cars.
“Yep,” Rick agrees, his chest tightening. “We’ll make it a safe space for them,” he says with determination. “Come on. Check downstairs first.”
***
The woman groans again and jolts as her eyes flicker open to see Finn looking down at her.
“It’s OK. You’re safe,” she soothes seeing the confusion in the woman’s eyes. “Rick and Dan have gone inside to check … to make sure the rooms are nice and clean.”
“Oh?” the woman returns shifting in her seat, she winces again as the bolt scrapes the upholstery of the car’s back seat.
“Best not to move,” Finn suggests. “There’s a bolt stuck right through your shoulder. We haven’t had time to get it out yet. If you move it’ll catch on the seat again.”
She groans, sits forward, and looks down at the steel rod sticking out of her right shoulder. “I’m bleeding. There’s blood.”
“Yes, but Rick said it looks worse than it is. It hasn’t hit a main artery so you’re OK.”
“We’ll sort it, Cassie,” Lina adds turning in her seat to look at the woman. “Are you in pain?”
“Uhuh!” she groans, “but I’ll be fine. Like Rick said, it looks worse than it is.”
“She needs painkillers,” Kyle adds.
“And something to drink. My mum always says if you’re ill you need to keep hydrated.”
“She’s not ill.”
“No, but she’s wounded and in shock, she needs water.”
“She needs an operation! It’s always nil by mouth if you need an operation.”
“I don’t think that applies here, Kyle.”
“Oh. Well, she needs painkillers at least,” he adds as Cassie groans again. “I’ll go get some,” he continues as he reaches for the door handle.
“Go get some? Kyle, where are you going?”
“To the chemist. They’ll have painkillers there. There’s one on the High Street. It’s just around the corner.”
Finn hesitates for a moment as Kyle steps out of the car then looks back to Cassie; the steel rod protrudes from her shoulder and skews to the car’s roof as she bends forward, her right arm limp on her knee, head held in her other hand, her face hidden by straggling white-blonde hair.
“Wait! I’m coming too,” she calls as she slides across the seat. “We won’t be long,” she says as she looks back to Lina. She ignores the girl’s anxious look and nods. “Just wait here.”
“Where else would we be?” Lina says sitting back in her seat.
“Kyle,” she hisses, “wait up!”
“I know it’s just … I guess the dark is creeping me out a bit.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. C’mon, if we run, we’ll be quicker.”
Finn picks up her pace, determined to keep up with Kyle. The setting sun behind, they run into the gathering gloom where houses sit dark and foreboding either side of the street. Cars are parked neatly in their driveways as though everyone is home from work and getting ready for bed. As they turn the corner onto Hungate, a dog howls.
“That’s close!”
“It’s just a dog.”
“Yes, I know but-”
“We’re nearly there. The chemist’s is about halfway down the High Street.”
“Yeah, I know where it is. I’m not an incomer you know!”
Another dog howls in return. A shiver runs down Finn’s spine.
“What is it with those dogs? Sounds like there’s wolves out there or something,” she says pushing harder, keeping her shoulders level with Kyle’s. Her breath comes hard now as her chest tightens, fear rising.
“Maybe they are wolves.”
The Savage Road: A post-apocalyptic survival series (A World Torn Down Book 2) Page 7
