Dark New Beginnings (Into the Dark Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller Book 7)

by Ryan Casey

  There was a little space underneath the cabin. Another floor.

  It looked like some kind of tool shed.

  She felt her mind start to swirl then. All kinds of ideas darted through her mind. If she could get down there somehow, then she could get hold of a tool. A sharp tool.

  She could use it to get herself and Gina out of this mess.

  And then she could use it to help herself out of here.

  She looked over at Gina. And then she let out a little mumble; a little groan. Just something to get her attention.

  Gina looked around. That same look of defeat that Alison knew she’d have in her eyes very much present.

  Alison knew she couldn’t speak. She knew she couldn’t say anything that would get her to understand what she was getting at.

  But she just kept turning to that gap by the right; that gap where the stairs were.

  Tilting her head towards it. Trying to get her to see; trying to get her to understand.

  But Gina just shook her head. She clearly didn’t get what Alison was getting at.

  Which meant it was all on her now.

  The ball was in her court.

  She took a deep breath. Gripped onto the sides of her chair as hard as she could.

  And then she jolted herself to the right.

  She felt the chair shifting underneath the force of movement. It wasn’t a lot, but it was something.

  So she did it again.

  Shifted a little further to the right.

  Then a little further.

  And when she looked around now, she saw how Gina was looking at her. Like she got it. Like she understood.

  So Alison kept on pushing herself to the right.

  She kept on going.

  She shuffled. Shuffled further and further towards the opening; towards the top of those steps.

  And when she got within an inch… she knew this was going to be the hard bit.

  The bit that took a real leap of faith.

  So once again, she took another of those deep breaths.

  Once again, she steadied herself.

  And then she shifted herself over the edge of those steps.

  At first, she felt the chair wobbling. And she wanted to stay on her side. Fall on her side. At least then there’d be that element of control.

  But then she felt the chair shifting backwards; she felt herself twirling over.

  And then she felt the chair tumble over and crash down the steps.

  She fell. Smacked her head on the stairs. Smacked her ribs. Felt herself being winded, over and over again.

  The fall felt like forever. It dragged on. Stretched out. And Alison feared it was never going to end. She feared she was never going to stop falling.

  She kept on going, battered, bruised, bloody, on and on with this descent.

  And then she stopped.

  She stopped. Totally still.

  It took a few seconds to realise where she was exactly, her head spinning with dizziness.

  But she could tell one thing for sure.

  She wasn’t going to need to use the tools to break out of the chair.

  Because the chair had broken up in the fall.

  She staggered to her feet. Her back ached. Her head throbbed. Her nose seeped blood. A metallic tang, strong at the back of her throat.

  But she was on her feet.

  Shaky. Beaten. Bruised.

  But on her feet.

  She looked at the tools ahead of her. Went to walk towards them.

  That’s when she heard it.

  She heard it, and her body turned to stone.

  The door to the cabin opening up.

  Someone was here.

  Someone was inside.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Mike heard the commotion, and he stepped to his feet, right away.

  The pain was still bad. A crippling, knotting feeling, right in his stomach. But he could stand now, at least. He could move again.

  And he couldn’t stop thinking about what Harvey had said to him before he’d gone into the distance.

  He couldn’t get the memory of what he’d seen out of his mind.

  Kelsie.

  Kelsie with those people.

  One of them the man who Harvey insisted kicked him off that helicopter.

  One of the people Harvey was trying to get his revenge on, all this time.

  He took a few steps into the woods. He could hear some shouting. Some whimpering. It didn’t sound like Harvey doing the crying, so he had to take that as a bonus.

  But he just wanted to get to Kelsie.

  He just wanted to know she was okay.

  He’d come so far.

  He wasn’t going to give up now.

  “Hey.”

  He felt a hand on his arm. Then, when he turned around, he saw Nina looking at him.

  “You should hold back,” Nina said. “You don’t know what you might be walking into over there.”

  Mike shook his head. He knew Nina was just looking out for him.

  But at the same time, he knew what he wanted.

  He knew what he had to do.

  “I can’t hold back,” he said. “I saw Kelsie down there. I need to get to her. I need to make sure she’s okay.”

  And then he turned around, and he walked. Walked through the trees. Walked towards the struggling, towards the voices.

  And a part of him didn’t want to keep moving. A part of him didn’t want to see what was down there. Because of the fear. The fear of what he might come across. The fear of what he might find.

  He dreaded finding Kelsie suffering. Or dead. Or whatever.

  But he was going to have to face it.

  For some reason, she was out here. Not at the extraction point, but out here.

  He needed to get to her.

  He needed to—

  He stopped.

  He stopped because he saw her.

  He saw all of them.

  There were bodies on the ground.

  One of them was the man who’d been right by Kelsie’s side.

  Aiden.

  Harvey was standing over him. Poking a rifle into his bullet wound.

  There were others on the ground. They looked like they were dressed in the same way as this Aiden. His people.

  Harvey and his two friends had clearly dealt with them.

  And then in the darkness, standing by the side of a tree… he saw Kelsie.

  “Mike?” she said.

  He didn’t take any notice of the rest of his surroundings. He didn’t take any notice of anything. Whether he was in danger, whether someone had a gun on him, anything like that.

  He just raced towards Kelsie.

  She staggered towards him.

  And then she fell into his arms.

  She cried. “I thought—I knew—I didn’t want to think you were dead but—”

  “I know,” he said, lump in his throat. “I know sweetie. But I’m not dead. I’m right here. I’m right here.”

  “I went—I went back. With Alison. With Gina. With Arya. I saw you were gone and I… I knew you’d be out here. I knew you’d still be alive, somewhere.”

  Mike held on. He wanted to tell her he knew the same about her, too. He wanted to tell her he’d never lost faith. But he’d be lying. Because he’d been worried. He’d been so, so worried.

  But he had confirmation, now. Alison. Gina. Arya.

  They’d made it to the extraction point.

  Which meant they’d at least made it that far.

  But then there was something else.

  Someone else.

  “What about Ian?” Mike asked.

  Kelsie shook her head.

  That was all Mike needed to know the truth.

  As bitter a pill to swallow as it was, he’d say a prayer for that man, and for everything he did to help his people.

  He leaned back. Looked at her pale face. “You don’t look so well, Kelsie.”

  “It’s… it’s nothing.”

&
nbsp; “What are you doing out here? And Alison. Gina. Arya. Where are they now?”

  Kelsie looked like she couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “They—the extraction point. Only it’s not an extraction point. It’s a trap. It’s—”

  “I know,” Mike said. “I know.”

  “Alison and Gina are there. I got away. But—but Aiden here. He chased me, but then he helped me. He was taking me back there to get meds and food and supplies and… and we were going to run away. We were going to escape.”

  Mike felt a twinge of confusion. He turned around. Saw Harvey standing over Aiden. Saying things to him. Taunting him.

  “This man helped you?”

  “He helped me,” Kelsie said. “He—he wasn’t always good. But I don’t want him to die, Mike. I don’t want him to die because—because he can help us all.”

  Mike felt caught in a web. Because on the one hand, he knew Harvey wanted his revenge, and he didn’t exactly seem like the kind of guy who could be bargained with.

  And on the other… he saw what Kelsie was saying. And he believed her.

  “Kelsie, I don’t think—”

  “He’s the only one who can help,” Kelsie said. “The only one who—who can help Alison and Gina and Arya and—and so many others. He needs to live. Please. Please.”

  Mike turned around, taking a deep breath.

  Then he walked over to Harvey.

  Stopped, right behind him.

  “Let him live,” he said.

  Harvey frowned. Turned around. Rifle in hands. “What?”

  “Kelsie says this man was helping her. That he was heading back to the extraction point to save the rest of my people. My dog.”

  “And you believe her?”

  “Yeah,” Mike said. “Yeah, I do.”

  He saw a new look in Harvey’s eyes. A look he hadn’t seen before.

  A look of sincere disappointment.

  “This man kicked me out of a helicopter and left me for dead. He did the same to so many others.”

  “Maybe so,” Mike said. “But right now, I need him alive—”

  “And since when has any of this been about what you need?”

  Mike realised something, then. The rifle. The rifle in Harvey’s hands. It was pointed at him.

  And he knew there was no going back, now.

  He knew that a bridge had been crossed.

  This whole scenario had shifted, completely.

  “Lower your gun,” Mike said. “We’re all on the same side here.”

  “Are we?” Harvey said. “Are we really?”

  “We all want the same thing. We want to save people we care about. We’re better if we’re together. Strength in numbers. But I trust Kelsie. And if this man is dead… I can’t help. None of us can.”

  “Mike?” Nina said.

  “None of us can,” he repeated.

  He felt the tension building up as the silence dragged on. He heard Aiden panting, struggling with the pain in his shoulder.

  And Mike knew they needed to get him some kind of makeshift treatment. Fast.

  “Lower your gun,” Mike said. “Now.”

  Harvey sighed.

  He shook his head.

  “You’re fighting for the wrong side, Mike,” he said.

  Then he lowered his rifle.

  For a moment, Mike felt relief. A weight off his shoulders. Progress.

  But then he saw Harvey turn the rifle.

  Saw him point it at Aiden’s head.

  “But you’re wrong about this,” he said.

  Then, before Mike could do a thing, he pulled the trigger.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The second Alison heard the door to the cabin open, every muscle in her body turned to stone.

  The darkness down here was growing suffocating and intense. She could hear the wind rushing through the open door, shaking the rickety foundations of this cabin. The room she was in was filled with tools. Tools she’d have to get hold of. Tools she’d have to use.

  Because one thing was for sure.

  She was down here now. Which meant they would be onto her in no time.

  If she didn’t act fast, she was going to get hunted down.

  And Gina. Gina, up there, still tied to that chair…

  She was in danger.

  Big danger.

  She listened as the footsteps creaked against the floor above. She hadn’t heard any voices. Not yet. But she could just imagine the cogs turning in Richard’s mind. She could just imagine him trying to come to terms with the fact that something wasn’t quite right here. And that something was the lack of Alison.

  But she had no time to waste.

  So she rushed across the floor—every inch of her body in pain from the fall; her movement limited with the broken pieces of chair still dangling from her body—and she grabbed a heavy spanner from the wall.

  And she grabbed some sharp shears, too.

  “Alison?”

  The second Alison heard the voice, her body went numb all over again. Because it wasn’t Richard’s voice. It was somebody else’s voice.

  One of the guards.

  She turned around, slowly. Looked up. Right up at the floor above.

  She couldn’t see much in the darkness, even if light was coming through the open door, now.

  But she could make out the bottom of that guy’s boots.

  And she could make out the rifle in his hand, too.

  She saw him. Saw he was just inches away from Gina, sitting there in her chair, tied up. And she knew that if she didn’t get up there some time soon, Gina was going to be in trouble.

  “You’d better show your face,” the man said. “You’d better show it right this damned second. Or I’m going to put a bullet right through your friend’s skull.”

  She didn’t believe him. Hoped he was bluffing.

  But then she saw the way his silhouette walked over to where Gina was seated, and she saw the way he lifted the gun.

  And right then, she knew she only had one choice.

  She had to go back up there. She had to give herself up. Or at least go up there and try something.

  She’d given it a shot. A damned good shot.

  But Gina shouldn’t be the one who was punished for what she’d done.

  Gina shouldn’t be the one who had to suffer for Alison’s actions.

  She cleared her throat. Went to say something.

  And that’s when the man’s shoes stopped right above her.

  “I’m not gonna wait much longer,” he said. “If you don’t come back up here, I’ll put a bullet through your friend’s head. Then I’ll come right down there and finish you off, too. And don’t think I’m bluffing. Don’t for one second think I’m bluffing.”

  It was the way he said those final words that made Alison wonder. Don’t for one second think I’m bluffing. Because they had a reverse effect.

  They made Alison wonder whether he was bluffing.

  Richard pulled the strings here, after all. He was the one who made the decisions.

  And sure. There was a chance he’d sent this guard in here to kill them. There was a chance he wanted someone else to do his dirty work.

  But at the same time… Alison just wondered.

  “I’m not gonna give you much longer,” the man said, rifle still to Gina’s head. “You’re going to show yourself. Or it’s over for her. It’s over for both of you.”

  Alison looked at the long, sharp shears in her hands.

  Then she looked up at the guard’s boots.

  And she wondered…

  She wondered if she could do it quickly enough. If she could sneak those shears up between the cracks in the floorboards. If she could ram them right into the bottom of his foot. Or if she could snap his Achilles before he knew a thing about it.

  But it was too dangerous.

  It was too risky.

  That rifle to Gina’s head. It was a problem.

  So Alison lowered those shears.

&nbs
p; She lowered them, and she took a deep breath.

  Because there was no other way out of this.

  There was no other way to go.

  “Right,” he said. “That’s it. I—”

  “I’m coming,” Alison said.

  She saw the man’s rifle turn away from Gina’s head.

  Saw it tilt right in her direction, point right at her, down through the floorboards.

  And then she saw the man smile.

  “Good,” he said. “You’d better get a move on. We don’t have all day.”

  Alison dropped the shears. But she kept hold of the spanner. Kept it behind her back. She walked slowly along the cold, hard floor. Walked over to the steps, past the broken bits of chair, some of the wood of which was still tied to her.

  She reached the bottom of the steps, and she took another deep breath.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing down there? Get a frigging move on!”

  Alison wanted to fight back.

  But she knew she didn’t have the upper ground right now.

  Far from it.

  So she walked up those steps.

  Walked up to that top floor.

  And as she walked, she thought about Gina. About Arya. About Kelsie, about the people she cared about.

  She thought about how she’d found her place in this world. How she’d found people who cared about her, and people who she cared about, too.

  She thought about how she really didn’t want that to end when she emerged from these steps.

  But at the same time… this could be it. This could be her final ascent.

  She took a few calming breaths, and then she emerged from the stairs.

  The bullets didn’t hit. The guard didn’t fire.

  She just looked at him and saw that rifle was pointed right at her.

  He smiled at her. Scanned her body. “Wow,” he said. “Looks like you took quite a tumble. Did you have to go and cause a right old mess on your way down, though? Really? I mean, I hear they were top quality chairs.”

  Then his face turned.

  “Now come over here right this goddamned second or it’s over, woman.”

  Alison walked towards him. She kept the spanner behind her back. She looked at Gina, sitting there, sweat pouring down her forehead. And she thought of all the times she’d walked away from people. All the times she’d abandoned people. All the times she’d had opportunities to help people but been forced to walk away.