Kristina tried to nod, but only an agonising wince escaped her windpipe.
“Do you like my nails, Kris?” Sonia asked in a low and sinister tone.
Again, Kristina’s only response was a painful wince.
“What’s that? Say it a little bit louder please.” She slowly turned her head, leaning her ear against Kristina’s mouth.
Kristina took a deep breath, and realised that something had to be done, “Say hello to Roger for me…”
Sonia jolted her head back, confused for a moment. Kristina then drew her knife on Sonia, lunging at her, pressing it against her throat.
Instead of feeling threatened, Sonia merely laughed, gazing down at her bloody nails – While gripping Kristina’s wrist, she had been digging her sharp nails into her ‘friend’. She then gazed back up at Kristina’s wrist, noticing how shaky it was from the four piercings on her wrist.
“Nice try,” Sonia mocked her. She whacked her elbow up in a rather irregular movement, hitting Kristina’s bloody wrist directly. Grabbing the knife and turning around, she threw Kristina to the ground.
“There’s no room for the deluded in this world…” Sonia ironically scolded Kristina, before slowly moving the knife down towards her wrist.
But then, everything was still. There was one rather ‘blunt’ noise, and Sonia swayed gently with the breeze passing by. Kristina looked up at her in awe.
Sonia’s eyes rolled back, as she fell to her side, collapsing onto the gravel-covered road side.
There Bertie stood, holding a large rock, completely unmoving in the position where he had just slammed the back of Sonia’s head. His legs were jittery, but his face was stern. He was startled by the touch of a hand on his shoulder; but relaxed himself again, upon turning to see it was just the friendly palm of Kristina.
Bertie looked down at Kristina’s other arm, specifically her wrist, “We need to get something for that…” He said with a slight smile.
“Yeah,” she smiled back, “We do.”
They both looked down at the unconscious Sonia. “What should we do with her?” Bertie pondered. “Leave her to the wild dogs. The bitch deserves it,” Kristina was unforgiving.
“But…” Bertie shook his head, stuck in his own memory, “It’s Sonia… Without her, Kris, neither you nor I would have gotten off the Gemini alive. I know she’s changed, but… Look at her, it’s still our friend, we can’t leave her to die out here.”
Kristina took a deep breath, and waited several moments. She then reminded Bertie of the second-side to Sonia’s seemingly ‘good person’ trait, “Roger would still be here if it wasn’t for her as well, Bert’. Think about Wells and Rosie too… If we could have saved just one of them instead of Sonia, she’d never have become this… villain. I’m sorry, that’s really the only way to describe her.”
Bertie nodded, understandingly, “I guess you’re right…”
In a weird kind of synchronisation, both Bertie and Kristina turned away from Sonia, to continue trekking down the road; in complete silence.
Several miles up, the two had spotted a small town.
“You think there might be a pharmacy ahead?” Kristina asked, as they encroached nearer to the town.
“I hope so… Could also do with a takeaway to be honest, but… You know, the apocalypse and all that.” Bertie’s sense of humour clearly hadn’t escaped him despite everything which had happened.
They finally reached the town. Rather than splitting up, they both moved closer together, in a seemingly subconscious bid for safety.
“Poor sod,” Bertie nodded to a rotting skeletal corpse, leant back on a rocking chair on a house porch, with a shotgun pointed up to his skull.
“Yeah but Bertie, a gun…” Kristina pointed out the unorthodox positive side of the corpse – a shotgun for protection.
They looked to each other, before slowly moving up the steps onto the porch.
“Oh good God,” Kristina seemed grossed out, as she struggled to rip the shotgun from the corpse’s cold rock-hard bony fingers. “Sorry old man,” she pulled a little harder, resulting in the corpse’s entire hand ripping off, still gripped around the trigger.
“That is just disgusting!” Bertie stepped back slightly; clearly his subconscious was more worried about a dead hand than any potential danger around it.
“Got it!” Kristina finally ripped the finger off the trigger, resulting in the entire hand falling off with it.
“It’s like… sherbet,” Bertie remarked about how the bones seemed to disintegrate slightly.
In the distance, the sound of a vehicle approaching echoed out.
“Bertie!” Kristina grabbed his arm and whispered to him; she winced slightly, due to using her bloodied-arm to tap him.
Bertie pointed to the front door, and raised his eyebrows, looking for confirmation of what the two were to do next.
Kristina nodded silently, as she moved to the door, fiddling with the handle.
“Dammit! It’s stuck! You try, you’ve got both hands available!” Kristina asked Bertie, before turning back around, listening carefully for which direction the vehicle was approaching from.
“Something’s jamming it from the other side!” Bertie put all his strength into the door, but it just wouldn’t budge unfortunately. “Sonia, we have to hide somewhere… Now.” He was firm.
Kristina once again nodded silently. This time, Bertie grabbed her arm instead of the other way around. The two paced round to the side of the house, and ducked down.
They took several seconds to steady their breath.
Then, Kristina’s breathing increased heavily again, “Look!” Her eyes widened as she pointed out a scout SUV approaching from the road they had just walked up.
“Come on! This way!” Bertie, again, grabbed Kristina’s arm, taking her all the way around to the back of the house – the gate had already been busted down.
They peered around the corner. But Bertie had noticed a problem. “Shit!” He noticed that Kristina had left the shotgun around the side of the house. As he raised himself up to move out and get it, Kristina grabbed his leg, pulling her back – With the worst timing possible, this caused her to wince loudly, but the SUV had already stopped, the engine was off completely.
Kristina’s wince was the only noise which now echoed out…
Chapter 13: People
Kristina could hear muffled voices in the distance; clearly, it was the passengers of the scout SUV.
“Can you see anyone?” Bertie asked; for he himself was too scared to peer around the corner.
“Not yet, no…” She lightly informed him, but kept her eyes peeled, ready for anything. With her ‘good’ hand, she gripped her knife handle.
“Kris…” Bertie had now noticed their second problem, “Your arm, there’s pus seeping from it; the wounds are infected…”
Kristina sighed, “Great. That’s just great!” She tried to keep her voice low, but was clearly angry.
Bertie drew breath to make a suggestion, but Kristina jumped back all of a sudden, knocking them both to the grass. She covered his mouth, “There’s someone there!” She whispered into his ear. She also used this downtime to gaze upon her arm, realising there was indeed pus seeping out of it.
“Guys…” The voice of a man spoke boldly from around the corner of the house. “Guys!” He shouted back again. Bertie and Kristina had no idea what was happening; had they been spotted?
Footsteps crunched on the grass, the man approached nearer.
“Guys! There’s a shotgun!” They could hear him pick it up, and pump it. “It’s empty, but there’s several shells on the side rail. Could be used as salvage, maybe the Butcher will take it?” The footsteps grew quieter, as it seemed like the man was walking away.
Kristina and Bertie breathed a sigh of relief, giving themselves a few moments to recover. “Come on, let’s move,” Kristina suggested, as they made their way around to the other side of the house.
They had hopped over seve
ral fences, making their way across several back gardens. Eventually, they reached the supermarket, it was at the edge of the town. They snuck their way in through the smashed front glass window; they had used complete stealth; the other group had not heard a thing.
“This doesn’t look good,” Bertie’s tendency to point out the negative things was evident; this was the third problem he had noticed.
“We don’t need medical bandages, anything will do… Heck, I’ll settle for toilet paper, anything to wrap it up.” Kristina was so desperate that she had forgotten the key part of sealing up a wound.
“What about cleansing it? I doubt we’re gonna find any hydrogen peroxide in a damn supermarket,” This was now the fourth problem pointed out by Bertie.
“Christ Bertie, do you wanna stop being so negative?” She was half-joking, half-serious.
The two raided through the supermarket for several minutes. They were still aware that the other group could be making their way around to the supermarket any minute now, therefore they sped up.
While they hadn’t gathered any medical supplies – or toilet paper – they had found several canned foods, and one large bottle of water; more or less everything else had been raided however.
“Well look at that, two packets of painkillers… Fat lot of good that’ll do.” Kristina threw them back onto the shelf.
Bertie, being in the wiser frame of mind, took them, and put them in his bag regardless.
Kristina turned around, but before she could speak, Bertie’s eyes widened, as he jolted his neck back, “Whoa…”
“What? What is it?” Sonia looked up and down herself.
“Your face, it’s turning a little bit grey. You look really ill.” He didn’t want to word it in such a blunt way, but had no other choice.
“The infection’s spreading? Ah, shit…” Kristina pulled out her knife, and pressed the blade against the side of her neck.
“Kris! What the heck are you doing?” Bertie jumped forward in a heartbeat to grab the knife, but Kristina jumped further back.
“I don’t wanna die a long and painful death of infection… And I’ll be damned if I die by Sonia’s actions. If I’m going down, it’s of my own decree. Please Bertie, there’s no hope,” her nose became snotty, “I’m dying…”
Bertie was frozen to the spot, “Kristina don’t do this… please,” he stuttered, as his eyes watered, “You’re my best mate. You’re my only mate! Even back on the Gemini, you were one of the few crew members who was actually kind to me. I’m glad I ended up surviving this thing with you. So, if you want to leave this world, again, then let’s do it the same way we did the first time around: together…” Bertie produced his hammer, sliding his hand down the handle, and pressed it against his temple.
“Bertie… I’m not sure what to say. A hammer? How can you kill yourself with a hammer of all things?” Even this close to death, the two could share their comedic chemistry.
“Oh, right,” Bertie twisted the hammer the other way around; the claw side was now pressed against his temple, “I’ll claw my own damn brains out if you do this Kristina!” He threatened himself, and her, at the same time.
Despite how serious the situation was; Kristina couldn’t help but laugh. She put her knife back on her side.
“Funny…” She smiled extremely at him, “You really are, and that’s more than enough to keep me alive.”
In a similar movement, Bertie put his hammer back on his side.
Kristina’s smile faded slowly, as she swayed back and forth.
“Kris?” Bertie’s smile faded slowly, also in a similar movement.
“I’m… fine…” her eyes watered and flickered. Then, everything was still… She fell forward, collapsing against the cold-tiled floor.
“Kristina!” Bertie dived down to help her. “Kris! Wake up! Kris!” Bertie’s voice echoed out, then everything faded into silence; she became unconscious…
Having debated in his own head what to do now, Bertie had carelessly run outside again. He ran around the corner, all the way back to the scout SUV, noticing it was still there; the driver was firmly seated in the vehicle still. It was a young woman who appeared to be in her mid-20s, slouched back.
Bertie gulped hard, then made a decision from which there was no going back from.
“Hey! Over here!” He called out, waving his arms carelessly about. He drew as much attention to himself as he possibly could.
The driver looked up at him, but she seemed completely unfazed.
Bertie squinted at the driver, confused by how she was not bothered at all.
“Uh… Hey!” He tried shouting out again, “Please help me! My friend is dying! Ok? This isn’t a trick! Look!” He pulled out his knife and dropped it on the ground, “I know you have at least one other friend here – I heard the man’s voice earlier! Please, help my friend! I’m begging you!”
Despite this plea, the driver still didn’t care.
Bertie began walking towards the scout SUV. He jumped back instantly, as the sand on the rocky path beneath his feet suddenly blew against him – although he hadn’t heard gunfire, it was clearly a warning shot, evident by the bullet rolling in a circle in front of him.
“Don’t move!” The same male voice from earlier called out. “Don’t even turn around! Stand perfectly still!”
“Ok, ok!” Bertie was submissive; he was desperate to get help for Kristina.
Nothing happened for a minute or two.
“Can I turn around now?” Bertie tried again. A second warning shot was fired in front of his feet again, “Ok! That’s a sufficing answer!” He knew where he stood; both literally and figuratively speaking.
Chapter 14: Just in Case
“Well, well, well…” A male voice taunted, as footsteps approached Bertie from behind; though this was clearly a different man. The footsteps grew extremely close, as the man circled around to stand in front of Bertie. He looked to be in his late 20s, or early 30s perhaps; in truth he was 28-years-old.
“Crikey, you really look like you’ve been through the shit…” He looked Bertie up and down, referring to his ragged and torn-up clothes.
“My um… My friend… S-she needs help?” Bertie was still unsure if this man was friend or foe.
“Friend?” The man’s eyes widened, “How many of you are there?” He sombrely asked, producing an ice axe from his side, pressing it over Bertie’s chest.
“If you don’t answer, I’ll rip your heart out where you stand…” Bertie couldn’t believe his luck; he had just made this same threat to himself, except with a hammer.
“It… It’s just… Just us two! Ok! I promise! Please, you must help her! Do you maybe have… a camp?” Bertie tried his best not to push his luck.
The man took a step closer to Bertie; meaning he was now directly in Bertie’s face. He looked into Bertie’s eyes for a moment, and then nodded.
“He’s safe!” The man called out, looking over at whoever had been firing the warning shots. He then turned around, and nodded at the driver.
“So um… What’s your name?” Bertie felt more at ease to be informal now.
“I’m Elliot…” He gestured to Bertie to turn around, “That’s my friend Reed.”
Reed was now walking towards them, slinging his sniper rifle around to rest against his back instead of his front; he had a clean shaven face, the polar opposite of Elliot’s goatee, and slightly trimmed-back beard.
“And what about her?” Bertie nodded at the scout SUV. “Oh, she’s your worst nightmare.” Elliot smiled evilly. Bertie wasn’t sure how serious Elliot was being.
“That’s my sister; Annabelle.” He turned back to face Bertie, “And who might you be?”
Bertie cleared his throat; he had no reason to be afraid anymore. “Bertie… I’m err… I guess I’m happy to meet you? Shame it’s the apocalypse. I’d take you for drinks otherwise.” His humour shone through, such positivity caused Elliot and Reed to exchange a look of confusion with each other.<
br />
“You said you had a friend? Where is she?” Elliot asked the pressing question.
As Bertie drew breath to answer his question, the timing became perfect.
“Elliot!” Another woman called out, carrying Kristina, with the assistance of another woman.
“Kristina!” Bertie ran over to them. He ran at such a pace that sound clouds formed and blew behind his trails.
Elliot turned back to Annabelle and raised his hand; he gestured for her to bring the scout SUV closer to them.
Reed handed Elliot the shotgun. Taking one shell from the rail, Elliot loaded it into the chamber. He pumped it, “Just in case,” He winked at Reed, and gestured to the pistol on Reed’s side.
“Got it,” Reed nodded in affirmation, turning off his handgun’s safety, priming the slider. “Just in case…” He repeated Elliot’s words.
“Kristina!” Bertie patted her cheeks slightly, desperate for her to wake up.
“She’s unconscious, I’m afraid. But it’s ok, I was a nurse back in the day,” one of the women reassured him. Bertie breathed a sigh of relief.
The scout SUV pulled up alongside them. Elliot was sitting in the passenger seat, with Reed in the back.
“Please, take her! Please, I’m begging you! Please!” Bertie reasoned with them.
“I’ll see what I can do,” the former nurse reassured him, as she and the other woman carried on moving her to the SUV.
“Thank you, thank you so much.” Bertie brought his hands together in a prayer of gratitude gesture. He then nodded, as the woman took their seats in the back of the SUV, laying Kristina across their laps.
“I see you guys have met,” Elliot called out from the passenger’s seat. “Bertie, this is Tina,” he nodded at the former nurse, “And this is our French comrade Celeste.” This had become Elliot’s new way of introducing her.
Human Nature (Book 2): Human Nature II Page 7
