She nodded, “Yes but that was months ago they should have moved on by now”.
“What about scavengers?” the girl asked.
Monique shrugged, “Just a chance I’ve got to take, I should be back by nightfall”.
With that she stood and strode over to the one man she knew would love to be in charge, Dwayne, he was a stocky ex-gang member from London, tattoo’s lined his whole body most of them designated to the gang he once ran. She reached the home he shared with his girlfriend and young daughter, she knocked twice and he answered naked from the waist up, his brown skin glistened with sweat as he had been working out. He was a cocky and arrogant guy with a serious chip on his shoulder but with his ruthless background she knew he would look over the group and keep them safe but hopefully for not too long as rumour had it he wanted to overthrow herself and Callum as leaders but he had yet to make the pass.
“Yup wad up?” he said wiping the sweat from his chin.
“I need you to man the gate, Ollie and Callum have gone to see what the smoke is about and I need to do a supply run, you up for it?”
“Yup I’m up for it bitch”, he smiled showing chipped teeth, he might have called her a bitch but in his own world that was a compliment.
“Cheers, the others should be back soon”.
“You going alone?”
I nodded, “It’s an emergency trip”.
“Surely someone will go with ya”.
I shrugged, “Everyone is busy and I know I can be in and out in a flash, anyhow don’t worry about me just look after the camp”.
“Wad ever you say crazy lady”.
Ten minutes later Monique had the truck ready to leave with food and water in her bag, Dwayne was at the gate ready to let her go. She turned to Kady-Lee, “Does Charlie need anything else as after today I might not be able to go there for a while?”
“Bottles and nappies maybe”, she said shyly.
Monique nodded placing a hand on the sleeping baby in her arms wrapped up in a sling type thing, just as she did she had a flash back, Feet rampaging and stamping all over the woman’s lifeless body, the small bundle in her arms under the sling not moving, broken…Shaking the image away she climbed into the truck and started the engine roaring it to life, “Open the gate”, she called up and Dwayne done as she said, taking one last look at her home she sped off into the early morning air as another lone snow flake hit the windscreen, she just hoped she would be back before the blizzard hit.
~
I had expected them to be in and out, a rough job looking around the mansion before moving on but instead they took to searching the whole property smashing up everything in their path. They were indeed looking for me as I heard them calling out for me to stop hiding but they could not find me as I sat on the roof planning a way to take them out one by one. It wasn’t the first time I would have to take out multiple enemies and I knew I could do it but it was just the hassle, the blood, the sneaking around to be stealthy and to take them all down.
I sent out my feelers and tried to trace them all throughout the mansion, there were two in a room just below where I sat, two more in the hallway just outside that and more as the floors got lower to the ground floor. I had to plan a course of action and I think I had an idea in place, edging towards the chimney I looked down to see that although it had been badly weathered and partly broken at the top, it wasn’t blocked and was old enough and big enough for me to squeeze down. Using my feet and hands to steady myself I slowly shuffled down trying not make any noise although it didn’t really matter with all the noise the idiots were making tearing the room below me apart, I just about neared the bottom when I heard them speaking, “So what do you think Lucas will do once we find the girl?”
“Take her back to camp and chain her up so she can’t escape again”, the other bloke replied no remorse or any emotion in his voice.
“What do you think happened to the man she was with?”
“How the hell should I know, let’s just find her and take her back”.
As I listened I wondered whether this happened to be the girl I had seen those few weeks ago, with the man who drowned in the water that flooded the flats. If it was where was she now? These guys must have had reason to think she had come this way and why was she so important, why come after her, why not just let her go?
Not waiting another moment I snuck out from the chimney breast and sat in the fireplace, lucky for me it was gloomy in the room and they were too busy smashing up boxes and furniture with dusty white cloths strewn over them to notice me. Taking one step out I went to the closest one who had his back to me and drew out my penknife I slithered up to him with the strange ability that was mine to control and sliced his neck with such precision he made no noise as the blade tore through his voice box, I gently laid him down his eyes staring up wide at me, confused at how a small woman like me could take him out. The other guy was none the wiser until he began asking questions again, “So do you think chains will really keep her there, she managed to escape from the handcuffs with no keys and out of the locked cell”….”Dave?”
Before he found Dave I pounced and took him out rendering him useless and leaving him for dead on the floor, his lips moving silently trying to shout out to his mates that stood only metres away outside the door. What was with this girl? I slowly edged out into the hallway and spotted the first of the two men out here, he was standing by some stairs that led up to a small attic space and by the looks of things he had heard something. He alerted the other guy who walked past my door frame not noticing me hiding in the shadows, they both headed up the small stairs and now I was intrigued by what they had heard, I sent out my feelers and felt nothing only them, no one else. Following close behind them I snuck up the stairs not even making the wood of the steps creak with my own movement, I reached the door and poked my head round to find both the men searching the room one was looking under the bed the other in a wardrobe, suddenly a squeal broke through the room, a girls cry out for help.
“Get the fuck off me you asshole”, all I saw was a leg swipe out at the man looking under the bed, the foot connected with his nose and split it open.
“You silly little shit, you think Lucas would just let you leave just like that”.
“I hate Lucas and I hate you”, the girl spat as she was dragged out from under the bed, the girl was around thirteen maybe fourteen, she looked street wise and held a small dagger at her side which she lashed out with slicing the man’s cheek.
“Why you little…” he thumped her round the head sending her flying into the old wardrobe which crumpled under force alerting the others downstairs to some commotion going on up here.
“We need her alive dimwit”, the other guy hissed before glancing me at the door, “Who the hell are you?”
“Your worst nightmare”, and before he could answer I flung out my penknife which collided with his throat sending him to the floor gulping and gasping clawing at his throat. The other guy turned to me and pulled up a gun but I kicked him in the gut and smashed the gun from his grip, he threw a punch in my direction and I jumped back but he was fast and grabbed me by the throat lifting me off the ground he smiled at me before the girl jumped him with my penknife in her hands, she stabbed him repeatedly in the back until he too dropped to the floor.
“Why didn’t you just claw him?” the girl said turning her dark brown eyes to me with an angry accusation in them, “Their worst nightmare, maybe if they knew what you really were”.
“Wait how do you know…?”
She brushed some of her long chocolate brown hair out of her eyes and quickly tied it back into a long pony, “I’ve been following you”, she replied.
“Why?”
“Why? You were there when he died, my friend…Dale…In the flat with the water he drowned but I saw you, you were like a creature fighting for his flesh but then you turned and you brought him to me after killing all the creatures. I knew you were different, different like me”.
/> “Like you?” But before I could find out I heard the footsteps come bounding up the stairs.
“Like me”, she said and stared at the door, she flicked out her hand, I felt a static like charge before I then watched as it slammed shut in the faces of the men behind it, they kicked at the door and she flung her hand again moving the wardrobe and smashing it down by the door.
“What the?”
“We don’t have time they will be in here in a minute”, she said grabbing her bag, the man’s gun and opening the window.
“Why don’t you just throw them out the window?” I asked stopping her from climbing out.
“Because I can only do it in small bursts before I’m drained and then I cannot move”, she replied, “That’s how they caught me the first time round”.
Before I said anything else she flung herself out the window and clambered up onto the roof, I was about to follow her when the door flew open knocking the wardrobe out of the way, I turned to greet the man I presumed was Lucas, his mask showed only his eyes and they looked at me confused.
“Where’s the girl?”
“There is no girl only me”.
“I know she’s here I felt her use her gift on my men”, he looked down at the two dead men on the floor, “Although this”, he pointed to the one with his throat slit, “Is not her handy work”. He spoke so calmly and softly, he didn’t sound like a dangerous man, maybe this was how he lured the girl in before.
“No your right that’s mine”, I smiled.
He drew up his gun but in those few seconds I had managed to move fast enough to aim my rifle at him, not bothering to look through the scope.
He looked at me puzzled, “You move fast for a puny girl and not bothering to use the scope to aim? Tut tut silly girl”.
“I don’t need to use the scope anymore, I know my weapon well”.
“Maybe so still foolish of you, leave now and I’ll spare you, I just want the girl”.
“I’m afraid you cannot have the girl”, I said feeling a protectiveness flow out from me, I hardly knew her but I knew she needed help.
“Then I’m afraid that you need to die”, and he let a shot ring out in the room but I wasn’t where he expected me to be standing, I moved to the bed and sat down in a formal pose and clapped my hands, placing my rifle back over my shoulder.
“Very good I suppose if you actually hit me”, I smiled again winding him up.
He looked me up and down, “Try and move from this then bitch”, and he threw out a small round grenade, they all fled down the stairs but the grenade was between me and the door the only way out was the window, it started hissing as I made the jump and the noise followed closely behind me, I felt the heat of the blast push me harder in the air as parts of glass, wood and brick all burst out around me. The blast threw me to the ground at speed and I huffed as I collided with the ground, I wasn’t hurt, not like a normal human would be but I would bruise for a while.
Standing up I then heard the girls shouts as one of them found her, dragging her down from the roof, she screamed and shouted all through the house until I knew they had taken her from the mansion. I staggered as I made my way towards the noise, I watched as one of them knocked her unconscious and threw her over his shoulder then they all set off towards the main road, back the way they had come. Feeling a little battered but still able to walk I decided to follow them, I would gather my strength and find out their strong hold and take them all down, especially since they thought I was dead and then I would help the girl, I knew for some reason she really needed it, maybe it was the strange gift she had or maybe it was something else?
~
Monique slowed the truck to a stop outside of the old shopping centre ‘Royal Victoria Place’. It was dead silent and the snow was trickling down in small flurries, not quite a blizzard but she knew it was on the cards, she had to work quickly and get back to camp. She thought back to the last time she had gone to a large shopping centre, the thought twisted her stomach and the feeling of dread filled her insides, yes there were lots of shops for her to explore but they held lots of hiding places and shadows. She knew all too well about those, she had a flash back of the shadows down in the water works where the Creatures all congregated, even now she had nightmares about that place. Coming back to reality and the shopping centre in front of her she remembered the one in Brighton all those years ago, it was where she had last seen Darren before a demented doctor had sent one of his playmates in to kill them, luckily they had at first all escaped Monique down a storm drain which the monster had smashed them into and Stacie and Darren had gone down into a tunnel before it had collapsed and the doctor had taken them away to the local hospital to experiment on them. Darren had been a good friend, could have been more, the thought of another shopping centre scared the crap out of her but she had no choice they needed supplies and Charlie needed milk.
There had been a large multi-storey car park to the back but the shutters had been locked down which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Stepping out of the truck and killing the engine she then locked the doors and pocketed the keys, she couldn’t be too careful, if there were scavengers in the area they might like the look of the working truck and steal it for themselves so taking the keys might slow her down if she needed to make a fast run to it but in the long run could save her. She approached the front of the building, the glass fronted doors had been smashed but a large metal gate that had been pulled down to prevent thieves getting in was still down, taking her torch and flashing the light around inside she couldn’t see any immediate dangers, making sure to be extra cautious she smashed her blade against the metal in the hope it would attract any creatures nearby and then at least she would know what she was up against. Again nothing so she leant down placing her fingers at the base of the gate and slowly lifted it up, one bonus with having no electricity was when you needed to break into somewhere it was a hell of a lot easier, the metal screamed against metal as over time rust had set in, she ducked under still keeping hold of the gate and once on the other side she lowered it back down, a loud chink sounded as the gate hit the tiled floor.
She kept her blade in one hand and her torch in the other as the old shopping centre was extremely quiet and gloomy, parts of the building had fallen in giving her some light and the odd trickle of snow pouring in, she hissed to herself as she watched the flakes get bigger and heavier, she really needed to hurry if she was to get back before it fully set in. Passing a large chunk of caved in wall she ducked under it and became lost in the darker gloom, further inside the light was lesser only the bounce of her torch light showing her a path. Old shops decorated with rubbish and the occasional skeletal corpse where either side of her, some still had window displays but most had at some point been looted, glass lined the floor cracking and crunching under foot, strange mannequins looked out at her as she passed the old clothing shops by. She had thought this place hadn’t been looted as when they had passed through before the place had been overrun by hordes of creatures which of course looked to have moved on but now with all the shop fronts smashed and broken she hoped she hadn’t come on a wasted journey and that this place still held some supplies.
She came across an old child’s clothing store, nipping under the half open gate she explored inside. To her dismay there wasn’t any baby milk which wasn’t that much of a surprise seen as this was a clothes shop but she had hoped to not need to go so deep inside the centre. She did find some clothes that Charlie might need and some fabric nappies so she packed them all inside her bag, she was about to leave the shop she was hidden inside when she heard the voices, a male and a female one.
“So when do you think Lucas will be back? They’ve been gone for days”, the male voice asked.
“Beats me, as soon as they get the girl and bring her back”, the female answered, Monique ducked down behind the old window display as they passed the shop by, the torches glinting in the shadows.
“I don’t get what’s so special abo
ut her”, the male said with a certain distaste in his voice, “She’s just a snotty teenager”.
“Lucas says it’s all about that power she has, he loves it”, she replied, “Something that could help him win over the other clans that are around and take their supplies”.
“Power ha we’ll I’ve never seen it”, he snivelled.
“Neither have I but then he kept her locked up for so long no one has”.
“Other than him?”
“Well a few say they have, they hold those weird sessions once a month, you know when they need a sacrifice”.
“Yeah, ha a sacrifice, well if he tries it on with me I know what I will think of that and where he can shove it”.
“Ha as if Lucas will give you the chance, no one knows who until the last minute and then they are gone”.
“Well why don’t we stand up to him then?”
“Do you want to?”
“Well, yeah if others will”.
“Whatever”.
As they wondered off into the unknown Monique wondered how many of them were hiding in here and who this Lucas and girl were and power? Like Stacie’s old power maybe?
She ducked out of the shop and went the opposite direction of the scavengers, deeper into the depths of the darkness. Keeping low and only using her torch when needed she made her way into the heart of it, she came to the main centre where escalators, lifts and a wide open space to view the upper and lower levels. Looking up she spotted an old ‘BabyCare’ store which she knew would be the one place that would hold all of what she needed. Checking all around her that it was safe she made her way up the old unmoving escalator and made a dash for the half open store, once inside she checked the lower part of the store which housed pushchairs, highchairs, clothes and toys, she made her way to a small set of stairs that would lead to the upper mezzanine level. Once up there she began flashing her torch around making her heart shout for joy in her chest as she found the shelves with the milk, bottles, dummies and other essentials, opening her bag she rammed in as many boxes and jars as she could, thinking it might be worth getting more she moved to another shelf and took a baby bag and filled that up too, she knew it would weigh her down but the more she took now the less likely she would have to come back here especially with scavengers ruling the roost.
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 4
