The End: An Apocalyptic Novel

by Matt Shaw

  “Don’t shoot! I’m just doing my job!”

  David didn’t say anything. He offered the guard no reassurance. Instead he pictured Helen. She was smiling that beautiful smile that helped attract her to him in the first place. That sparkle in her eyes. Her soft voice. Her giggle. A naughty little giggle at that. The feel of her skin against his skin, the touch of their hands. Still no adrenaline. Still no fear. Still no raised heartbeat.

  Peace.

  David turned the gun on himself and put the barrel in his mouth. The guard screamed for him not to do it. Other people came running to help. Some turned away, scared of what they were going to see. David’s finger slowly started to put pressure on the trigger, nervous about what lay ahead of him.

  Would it hurt?

  A moment of pain and his wife would be with him once more.

  A moment of pain.

  He suddenly pulled the gun from his mouth and threw it to the ground, dropping to his knees unable to do what he had been so desperate to do. The closest guards wasted no time in rushing over and wrestled him to the ground with another guard kicking the handgun further away from David’s twitchy grasp; a worry he might make a grab for it.

  “Please just kill me!” David was calling out again and again hoping that one of the guards would do what was being asked and just put a bullet through his head to put him out of his misery. “Please just kill me! I have nothing! There’s no point anymore! Just do it!”

  As the guards continued to hold him down, another hurried over with handcuffs. With the help of the two guards on top of him, David was soon restrained - still calling out for someone to kill him.

  There’d be no executions. There’d be no trial and there’d be no prison. There’d just be another exile and - sure enough - David found himself on the next bus with a one way ticket back to England. The only consolation being that he would see his brother once more.

  I I

  The two brothers didn’t talk. They were just standing there, embraced in a brotherly hug. More tears from all that they had lost since being evacuated and tears for what they had found once more.

  The scissors were on the table next to the letters. David had had a quick read of what they said - enough to get the gist and he had explained to Luke what had happened at the camp. Luke was on one boat back to England and - always - David was just a few hours behind him, desperate to catch up with his brother.

  “I went by the funeral home,” David said. “I take it that it was you who moved Helen?”

  Luke wiped his eyes dry once again, “I did.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I promised.”

  “So…” David looked around at his surroundings. Empty, out of date food packets lying here and there and a general mess from where Jane had been too ill to look after the house properly. “… What happens now?” he asked.

  “We start again,” Luke said. It was easier to say knowing that he hadn’t completely lost everything and that which he had lost would never be forgotten. His mind was already fixed on what would happen next. He continued with what he had hoped for him and his family; a small community somewhere where they could all look out for one another, a land of hope for any survivors they found - all pulling together as opposed to being scattered throughout the country. A community that did food runs, medical runs, had a hospital of sorts and a strong sense of love and friendship - something positive in a land left to ruin. In Luke’s head it all sounded perfect. More than perfect. Yet he knew - deep down - it wouldn’t be plain sailing. He knew there would be people out there who wanted to ruin what they had or take it for their own - trying to make themselves King or Queen of whatever community they founded together. He had seen enough survivors on his trek across the country to know that not everyone was good and that people had spoiled as they were left to their own devices. Rotten through to their cores just as the soil of the land was also rotten. But it didn’t matter… They’d get back to Morgan and Elise’s street - a good starting place that hadn’t been hit too hard by harshness of the weather breaking down the buildings. And - once back there - they’d begin to slowly rebuild.

  David looked around at where they were. Like Luke, he had seen the ugly side of human nature on his way from the boat. In fact, he had seen it before he even got off the boat because the latest people being tossed back onto the radioactive wastelands had turned on the boat’s crew, trying to take control in order to take it elsewhere. Another country for them to enjoy a real fresh start instead of being left to get ill in this God forsaken land. It had been a plan discussed as soon as the boat left America and one they had tried to convince David to help with. He had refused. He didn’t want to be a part of it. He just wanted to get back to his brother and find some kind of hope for whatever remained of his future. “So where do we start with that then?” he asked.

  “I know just the place but…” he stopped himself.

  “What is it?”

  “I can’t leave them here.” Luke was referring to his wife and his son. Just as David had struggled to leave his family behind - so did he. The thought of them rotting, alone - without a proper goodbye was horrendous and more than he wished to think about.

  “We don’t have to,” David said. “I have a van. Been syphoning diesel for it and we have a full tank. We can take them with us to… Where did you bury Helen?” he asked, realising it was a question left unanswered.

  Luke smiled, “I picked her a beautiful spot.”

  O N E Y E A R L A T E R

  Chapter Seventeen

  A year had passed by. The water of the lake was calm and still. The sound of a few cars going backwards and forwards filled the otherwise silent landscape. David and Luke were standing next to each other. In front of them a long line of crosses marking the graves of individuals that had come to be buried here - the community’s graveyard. It wasn’t hallowed grounds but it didn’t matter. Only the beauty mattered; a picturesque setting that no matter how many people came to be buried here, there would always be beauty in the world. There was always something to look forward to and fight for.

  The last year had been spent finding survivors and moving them all into one area. Those who could be saved were saved. Those deemed broken by acts they had committed were either banished with the threat of death or killed in self-defence. Not everything could have a happy ending for the people still living in the country, whether by choice or because they had been sent back from the States. To protect the people living in the community though, to protect the human race on these lands, it was a necessary sacrifice and one the people took seriously.

  Everyone played their part for as long as they were able. With vehicles fixed up, people were able to do supply runs. With doctors recruited, people were able to help one another. With builders found, decaying buildings were given a new lease of life. And with this land - stretching out before the two brothers - people were given a proper burial. People such as Talitha Ricketts, Heather Kay, Corey Ashmore, Beth Owen, Erin Jacobs, James Setterfield, Becky Thompson, Alysia Mercieca, Janet Cloak, Hazel Lennon and Lauriette Hutzler - the names of the first settlers who were brought to the new community from various locations across the country. The founders of the community who’d worked day and night to help turn it to what it was today. All of whom had passed away from battles with radiation poisoning or by choosing to end their own life with the help of the community doctors - a choice everyone had the right to make for themselves should the pain become too unbearable.

  Luke bent down and put a new teddy bear on the grave of his son, replacing the tatty old bear that his brother had given him back in the States. David didn’t say anything. He just stood behind his brother with two bouquets of flowers in his arms.

  “I love you, son.” Luke kissed his hand and then pressed the palm of his hand against the grave before standing up and taking one of the bouquets from David.

  Luke smiled at his brother who smiled back. The two brothers sharing their grief and acting as support f
or one another. Together, they placed the flowers on the graves of their wives before standing once more in silence.

  Life here might not have been as long as it was in other countries - and when it got to the end of your life it might have been more painful than it could have been but the community helped show those living here that right here, right now… This wasn’t the end. This was just the beginning.

  T H E S T A R T

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