“Lucas”, was all I had to say.
He vanished to go and stir Kaley whilst I tried and failed again to shoot one of them down. Knowing I would have to leave them for now and try and find a way out of here I grabbed my bag and my bow and arrow and headed to the door where a panicked Kaley and pissed of Albi stood waiting. I opened the door and grabbed the plank of wood and placed it over the gap, the fire was rising fast and was already raging at the floor below, I heard a loud smashing noise as part of my flats floor crashed into the flat below setting off some of my traps. Ushering them across I then ran into the flat opposite mine which was where I normally stashed the plank, in here it was a little worse for wear compared to my flat, the ceiling had caved in and water had leaked all over the old carpets and kitchen units as we hurried past, damp and moss smothered almost everything. A large hole in the floor showed us that the fire was too raging down below us from here. We made it to the window and I shoved the plank of wood out balancing it on the window sill and connecting it to the building opposite.
“Go I’ll hold it steady then you can do the same for me on the other side”.
Albi wasted no time and climbed up pulling Kaley up with him, they rushed over to the other building just jumping through the window as the rain of bullets sprayed up shattering and splintering the plank of wood to pieces, I was trapped!
“Stacie”, Kaley called only to be grabbed back by Albi as bullets smashed into their side of the building.
“Go, go I’ll catch up, just keep her safe”, I commanded to him, he nodded and took her, she shouted to stop to help me but he threw her over his shoulder and took off.
It was just me and Lucas and his small army now. Looking around the burning, flaming flat I saw a gap in between the flames on the lower level that I might be able to run through if I was fast enough. Taking my chance I dropped down to the floor below, the charred wood creaking and groaning, the floor began to collapse around me but I was already running, dodging falling bits of building and diving out of the patio style doors, falling a story down to the garden and landing in my vegetable patch. The sleeve of my coat had caught alight and I rolled in the grass to put it out. With my coat smouldering I sat up and took hold of my bow and arrow and ran to a small spy hole I had made in the fence, I couldn’t see them out on the street but maybe they had thought I had pegged it and had gone after Kaley and Albi seen as Kaley was the one Lucas wanted.
I jumped over the fence keeping a low profile and rounded the corner of my block of flats which was emitting so much heat it was making me sweat buckets and making the snow all around me melt and run into small rivers washing away embers down the street, I looked out trying to see any movement but there was nothing, only the dancing shadows from the flames that licked around me.
I took to the street ducking behind an old bin which had rusted to the tarmac, then I felt the presence behind me and swung my bow hitting someone in the stomach, they offed as it connected and fell back, it was one of the women from Lucas’s group and she spat at me as she stood back up.
“Too bad about your friends, but I guess as you are all infected none of you are really alive anymore anyway”, she snarled.
I punched her in the face crushing her nose into her brain and she fell to the floor lifeless, “My friends are more alive than you are now bitch”, I spat and took off in the direction I thought they might have gone. Albi wasn’t stupid or careless he would look after her and get her to the castle and I would just catch up sooner or later and hopefully take out Lucas on my way.
~
Monique stared at the parcel that Callum had left on the doormat, a note was attached to it from Stacie and she felt sick to her stomach. She had banned Callum from their home and had made him and Ollie take refuge in what had been Stacie’s house. She eyed up the parcel but with pure anger she picked it up and launched it across the bedroom, the fabric unfolded and fell off causing what was inside to clatter to the floor.Walking over to it she bent down and lifted the fabric placing it on the bed but she cried out as she saw what was inside, it was a pen with the letter M for Monique but that wasn’t what caught her throat, at some point in her life Stacie had gone back to Brighton and had gone down into the basement of the old hotel, she had retrieve from Darren’s box a picture of him and his family all happy and smiling, along with his penknife that Monique had asked Stacie too keep safe until she wanted it. Turning the picture over she found a small note,‘To Monique, Merry Christmas. I hope you don’t mind the picture but I know he meant a lot to you, I just wanted to make it so you can remember him. Stacie .x.’
Staring at the picture at Darren she knew he would be ashamed of her, falling to her knee’s she cried her heart out, “Darren I’m so sorry of what I’ve become but I know what I need to do to make it right”.
She put her coat on and rushed down the stairs and opened the front door nearly colliding with Callum. She froze and looked at him, “What are you doing here?”
“The town is on fire again, do you think THEY are in trouble?” He really pronounced they, Monique knew Callum had been a little put off but what she had told him about Stacie but somehow deep in his heart he didn’t care what she had become because she had kept them safe for years, all alone.
“We need to go and look, we need to find them and bring them back”, she gasped.
“Why the sudden change in tune?” he asked.
“Because Stacie is my friend and I need her here”, she told him, she didn’t tell him it was because she could feel the turn coming on quicker every minute and that she knew Stacie would be the only one who would willingly put her out of her misery and she knew it’s what Darren would want. She turned fast grabbing her blade from the by the door but without warning her head swam and she collapsed to the floor, her legs buckled from underneath her and she vomited all over the front steps.
“Monique? Come on let’s get you inside”, Callum said lifting her up and carrying her into the front room and onto the sofa.
“No I’m fine let’s go”, she tried to use her legs but they had no strength left in them.
“Ollie and I will go check the town out again ok. You obviously have a bug or something or maybe your suffering from the cold, you were at that mansion for a long time yesterday, just sit tight and don’t do anything stupid ok”.
She nodded and smiled, “Bring her home Callum”.
“I will all of them”, and he left but as he did a book dropped from the side as he rushed past, using all her strength she stood and bent down to pick it up, the spinning and dizziness hit again and she threw up on the floor sobbing but with no energy to clean it up she heaved herself onto the sofa and fell asleep clutching the pink note book.
~
The sun was rising slowly in the skies, a mixture of watercolours as the oranges melted into pinks and blues. There had been no trace of Kaley or Albi or Lucas and his team, so I decided to try and get to Hever Castle in the hope that they were already on their way there.
A chilly breeze was sweeping through the town as I reached the outskirts, I knew roughly where to go and how to get there as I had been there many a time when I was a child with my parents as my mum had been obsessed with Queens, Kings, Royalty and Henry the eighth. But the way I knew was a bit of a personal problem as it meant having to go through my home town, I knew the way from there so to make it so I wouldn’t get lost I would have to follow that route.
I followed my heart and within the hour I was standing not a foot away from the sign that welcomed me home, ‘Welcome to Bidborough, Please Drive Carefully’ not that driving like a maniac had been a problem in our town, we were one of the only families that still owned a car and even then it had been on a rare occasion it had been used.
I spotted my old school in the distance standing still, gloomy and spooky with just the echoes in my mind of all the children that used to play there. Even when the war began and teachers began to lose pay as the government cut funding to provide more money for the armies
and hospitals they still kept the school open, the teachers believed the children should still have an education and a routine. I just hoped when the acid rain hit most of the kids were safe inside it. I could remember a time when I had been happy, I’d had friends we had hung out and had done normal teenage things, like worry about what clothes to wear, what boy fancied who, whether to wear makeup or to cut your hair short or to keep your hair long, things had been so much simpler then.
Sighing I went to walk past it and to keep going towards the road that would lead back out and take me on the path of where I needed to go but something was calling to me, in my mind and I knew I couldn’t come here and not go there. My feet began walking on their own accord taking no notice of my brain and what I wanted to do, they just led the way. Passing the school I could see rusting bikes, the old tables and chairs, mouldy and soggy suitcases were all littered outside and a huge barricade set up behind the large glass doors. I felt a tug of a cry pull at my throat as I spotted some old bloody handprints at the classroom windows, maybe my hope of them all being in there was wrong. Maybe they should have been at home, or maybe none of this crap should have happened in the first place.
Before I knew it I was down my old road and I felt a pang of guilt at still being alive, my old home came into view and my chest hammered like crazy, sweat circled my palms, my mind blurred with flashbacks at the last time I had been here, the last time I had seen all my family together. The red brick terraced houses had changed over time, a house near mine had the back end of a car sticking out of it, a blue Corsa which had a roof full of crushed bricks and now a blanket of snow tucking it in, the whole road looked asleep with not a soul or animal in sight. I couldn’t sense any creature’s nearby which made my heart calm down a notch as I didn’t want this to be ruined by fighting creatures and spilling more blood on such sacred ground to me. The house right next to mine was still upright and intact but a flow of green moss and other plant life had grown up the front, the windows and doors were all smashed and hanging off their hinges, rags of curtains blew out from the breeze also covered in green moss and mould. My home was where it had always been, sitting on the end of the terrace, most of the windows had also been broken, the old top hallway curtains too swung in the breeze, the brick work was cracked and the snow covered up most of the long grass that had become the front garden.
Crunching over the white soft snow I made it to the front door and with trembling hands I pushed on it, the door creaked with years of weathering and with a snap the rusted hinges gave way and the whole thing collapsed to the floor merging the now damp and water logged carpet and the snowy pathway outside. I walked softly over the door and took in the sight of my old home, the wallpaper had peeled off the living room walls which was the first room to greet me, water was running down the wall that connect our house to the next one probably a leak in the roof, some parts of it had frozen solid causing icicles. The old fire place was blackened and green from the mould, inside it someone had placed a load of books and other flammable things, someone had been here and had used my home but I couldn’t complain, how many homes of others had I stayed in and used over the years to stay safe and keep warm? The old couch was covered in a damp slime and a musty smell from years of neglect, it didn’t smell like home anymore.
I looked at all the pictures that were still in their frames and on the walls, there was one of me and Tanya at school, our uniforms clean and crisp, our hair done expertly by our mum to look presentable for the photograph, another one hung close by of our parents wedding this one was just of them two forever stuck in a pose of laughter and smiles and they looked lovingly into one another’s eyes. Other pictures were of me and Tanya growing up as kids, my grandparents and cousins, people which I had never got to see again due to this miserable world. I reached my fingers out and took down the picture of my mum and dad, I traced my finger down their happy faces, I missed them so much. My mum in her white gown with her flowing brown hair decorated with curls and flowers, my dad in his suit with his blond hair and pale features. I took it out the frame and placed it in my bag along with the picture of me and Tanya. Leaving the front room behind I walked into the kitchen and jumped as my feet crunched over broken glass, someone had raided the cupboards for food and it looked like in anger had thrown the glasses and cups across the room as the cupboards of course had been bare like so many others.
Reaching the back door I paused, the whole thing was on the floor and I remembered back to when the creatures had crashed through the fence and had eventually forced their way through the back door to try to get at us all. The grass here was visible even through the snow due to it now looking like a jungle out there, I didn’t put my foot past the fresh hold due to the knowledge that her skeleton might still be out there, hiding away in the garden beneath all that greenery and pure white frozen water. Turning away I couldn’t look or thing about her in that way, I had to lie to myself and think that she wasn’t there, that she was somewhere happy and that one day I would be with her, happy again.
I made my way back into the living room and towards the old staircase that led up to the bedrooms and the only bathroom, the stairs creaked with stress as I made my way up them and the first thing I saw was the bathroom ceiling had caved in, the door next to it was open wide and revealed mine and Tanya’s old bedroom, the once fuchsia pink paint was now a faded mottled dusty pink, the old metal bunk beds we had shared had rust spots over them as rain had poured in through a hole in the ceiling which had connected with the bathroom one, revealing the attic and a gaping hole in the tiles where a storm most probably blew them off. I scanned the room and it felt foreign to me now, none of it felt like this had been my home, it looked, smelt and felt too different. The old wardrobe we had shared was full of all our moth eaten and damp old clothes, nothing would be of any use to me now. Looking through the piles of stuff that had once been our prized possessions I found nothing that was deemed that special now, a few teenage vampire novels, some mouldy old makeup and a pile of washing that had sort of mulched together. Lastly I turned back into the small hallway and leant against the door of my parent’s bedroom, my head resting against the moist wood. I swallowed hard before opening the door and walking in, the room was a little more preserved than mine and Tanya’s had been, it was a little damp and had some mould and the wall paper was peeling some but deep in the thick of it their smell was kind of there, locked into their clothes that lined the wardrobe behind the door. I opened to reveal mostly moth eaten clothes here to but there were a few pieces that were worth taking, one of my mum’s old jumpers which had a few holes but nothing like the rest, it was maroon and grey striped, she had worn it a lot the last winter I had seen her. There was also something of my dad’s that was worth taking, it was a black leather jacket. It had been from his skinnier youth and had hardly a mark on it, the leather smell caught the back of my throat along with a faint hint of their smell, just so faint I could hardly pick it up but with my empowered sense of smell I could find it. Feeling the leather I knew it would be more waterproof than my jacket now, whipping off my coat I pulled the leather one on, it was slightly chilled at first and although a little on the big side it wasn’t exceptionally huge.
I changed over everything from my pockets and stuffed them into my dad’s coat, then I placed my mum’s jumper into my bag, just as I did I felt a flash of something or someone outside, I could sense them. I made my way steadily to the window and pulled the old blinds aside, I spotted them not too far from my house, a small group of them and in the middle of them was Lucas a sigh of relief told me by looking that he didn’t have Kaley or Albi but what were they doing here? Keeping my breathing steady and silent I listened to their conversation.
“How do you know she went this way?”
Lucas grinned, “Her footprints lead this way”, he paused for a moment, “Look they lead to that house over there”.
I cursed my foolishness they had traced me in the snow but why me, I thought they had gone after
Kaley? But that must have been it, they hadn’t gone after them at all, they waited for me to get moving in the hope I would lead them to her!
They made their way slowly to my house, I suddenly felt so enraged that they had brought this fight to my home of all places. Taking out my bow and arrow I held my breath and aimed at the one who was furthest away from my front door and with a snap of the string I sent the arrow plummeting into the idiot’s brain and he fell to the floor with a crunching sound. The other’s all turned to look, “Scatter, she’s seen us”, I heard Lucas command and I watched as the small group split up and hid behind cars and other things. He had somehow managed to get hold of some more men on the way here but I had been sure we took most of them out at the shopping centre, he must have had some hidden away in the deep, dark underworld of what was left of Kent.
Feeling around me I could sense that two of them had snuck in downstairs, this I wasn’t happy about but they could wait I needed to try and take out as many as possible from outside so more couldn’t sneak in. Keeping low and then springing up at random I took aim and shot out near an old car but it merely dented the paintwork as the man ducked back down. A shot rang out from a different hiding place a small alley between two houses taking a chunk of brick out from near the window, grabbing another bow I shot up and took aim letting the arrow zoom off in the direction of the person hiding in the alley way, I heard an oofing sound as the arrow hit home and I ducked down to load up another arrow whilst keeping an eye on the two people down the stairs one of which who was getting brave and edging towards the stairs to come and take me out but not before the other one shouted out to Lucas, “The girl ain’t downstairs”.
“We’ll check upstairs, we know her friend is here”.
Knowing I would have to leave the outside people for a moment I took off towards the door and brought out my knife, keeping low I hid behind the banister rail. I watched as a woman this time came creeping up to find me, she had a filthy appearance and the smell that followed her up was just as rancid, she had a small pistol which she kept aimed out in front of her not once looking up towards the banister, taking my chance I used my liquid motion to climb upon the banister then coiling like I snake I waited just until she turned and her eyes locked onto mine but it was already too late I had sprung out and rammed my knife deep into her throat. She fell to the floor spluttering and hissing before I stamped on her face taking the life from her. Kneeling down I snatched up her pistol and checked her pockets for any more ammo, I found some and shoved it into my coat pocket before checking the gun and finding a whole clip. Sensing out I could feel the second one coming up to see if the woman had found anything yet, “Shit they killed Lizzy”, the man shouted but before he could hear the answer from Lucas I shot him between the eyes and he fell back down the stairs.
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 16
