The Curse: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (After the End Trilogy Book 1)

by Mark Gillespie

  “I can’t remember what it’s like out there,” Eda said to the sleeping dog. “I’ve been here so long, you know? What’s it like now?”

  The dog lifted its head and sniffed eagerly at Eda’s fingers. It lapped up whatever meager traces of food lingered there.

  “I told you,” she said. “I’m all out, but I’m going to bring something back tomorrow. No potato salad though, I promise.”

  Eda sighed and climbed back to her feet. It was a long walk back to Grand Central.

  The dog stood up and looked up at her with bright, friendly eyes.

  “You’ll wait for me?” she asked, shaking some of the water off her rain cloak. “Don’t let me down now, I’m coming back.”

  She patted the dog gently one more time. Then she turned around and began walking east towards the Complex.

  Eda heard the sound of light footsteps at her back.

  She stopped and glanced over her shoulder. The dog was following her but when it saw her stop, it sat down again.

  “What are you up to?” Eda asked. “Are you playing games?”

  With a smile, she gestured towards their destination.

  “Are you trying to say you want to come back with me?” she asked. “Back there? Back to the Complex?”

  The dog got up and strolled over beside Eda. When it stopped, it leaned its muscular body up tight against her legs, as if signaling her to stroke its back again. Despite the fact that the dog was soaking wet, it felt warm pushed up against her. Eda knelt down and stroked its back gently, wondering how long this creature had been out there, wandering across the city on its own.

  “Alright then,” she said, standing up straight. There was a big smile on her face as she secured the backpack on her shoulder.

  “C’mon dog. Let’s go home.”

  7

  “A dog for God’s sake!”

  Eda heard their voices from afar. Despite this, she kept walking towards Grand Central like it was just another day. The dog had other ideas. When it heard the disturbance pouring out of the station entrance it stopped dead and its ears pointed upright and forward. The tail was stiff and horizontal.

  A small group of about eight or nine women was making its way towards Eda. There was a collective look of puzzled horror on all their faces as they approached tentatively.

  “Easy,” Eda said, kneeling down beside the dog. “I’ll take care of this I promise. Please don’t run away and please don’t bite anyone.”

  The dog jerked backwards. It looked up at Eda, as if waiting to see what she was going to do in the face of this incoming threat.

  “Stay,” Eda said, stroking the back of his head. “That’s a good boy. I’ll go talk to them – just don’t run off. Okay?”

  She walked ahead to intervene with the mob.

  “Slow down,” she said, holding both hands up in the air. “You’re scaring the poor thing.”

  A woman called Mia stood at the head of the protestors. Mia was a gardener, roughly in her mid-sixties, with a ridiculously long pencil-shaped neck. Every time Eda looked at Mia, she saw a two-legged giraffe in a yellow rain cloak. There was something about the old woman that Eda couldn’t stand. She was a cold, stuck-up bitch and a sense of bitterness followed her around like a bad smell. Eda suspected that Mia had come from a privileged background and that she’d had it good once – very good.

  “What’s that thing?” Mia said, pointing at the dog.

  Eda was waiting for the old woman to make the sign of the cross with her fingers.

  “That thing’s a dog,” she said in a flat voice. She was tired – it had been a long walk back to Grand Central and all she wanted to do was go back to the Fitzpatrick and disappear into her room. An argument was the last thing she needed although it wasn’t surprising considering what she’d brought back to the Complex with her.

  Mia looked like she’d been poked with a sharp stick.

  “Don’t act stupid with me girl,” she said. “Why is that thing here? Why did you bring a dog back to the Complex? Are you out of your mind? It’s probably got rabies and ringworm and God knows what else it’s carrying.”

  Eda glanced over her shoulder at her new friend. The dog was hanging back, watching events unfold with cautious eyes.

  “He looks fine to me,” Eda said. “In fact, he looks cleaner than some of the people around here.”

  Another woman, short and stumpy in contrast to Mia, stormed over. She took a closer look at the dog and her face creased up with repulsion.

  “Oh this is bad!” she yelped. “What goes on in that head of yours Eda? I think all that solitude you’ve endured has finally driven you mad.”

  “Who’d notice around around here?” Eda said.

  “You brought a dog back!” Mia said, stabbing a needle-like finger at the dog from a safe distance. “And now you need to get rid of it. RIGHT NOW! You’ll need to kill it or it’ll come back. I don’t care how you do it – drag it down a back alley and suffocate it, stab it in the neck with that dagger of yours, but whatever you do, get it out of here before it destroys our crops and spreads its disease.”

  Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the hunger that made Eda feel strangely lightheaded. But as she stood there listening to Mia go on, she felt a strong desire to burst out laughing. It would be worth it, just to see the look on Mia’s face.

  “I’m taking it to the hotel,” Eda said. “He’s staying with me from now on. And you can’t stop me.”

  The two women at the head of the mob rolled their eyes. Eda watched as Mia’s claw-like fingers curled into tightly clenched fists.

  “Have you forgotten what happened here recently?” the shorter woman said. “We lost two ambassadors and eight warriors when the bandits attacked. Remember that? Everything we’ve worked so hard for was almost destroyed in the blink of an eye! And now you want to bring a disease-ridden animal into our home? Whose side are you on Eda?”

  Eda felt her patience wearing thin.

  “We need to be extra cautious from now on,” the stumpy gardener said. “Everything you see here is hanging on by the slimmest of threads. We can’t take any chances and now you want to bring something in here that will steal and destroy our crops and spread disease? What if those germs get to Helen somehow? What if she gets infected and can’t have children because of you and your dog? You’ll ruin everything!”

  “I’m not sending it back,” Eda said. Her tone was firm. “And I’m not killing it either. He’s staying with me.”

  “This is not open for discussion young lady,” Mia said. “As gardeners we have an important…”

  Mia was cut off by a noise from behind.

  Eda heard it too – it sounded like footsteps on the road. She glanced over the angry woman’s shoulder to see what was coming.

  It was Shay. She was walking towards the huddle of women, along with two companions on either side of her. Eda recognized Linda, Helen’s chef, on Shay’s left. And there was no mistaking the towering figure of Lex on the other side. Along with all her other roles in the Complex, Lex was Shay’s personal bodyguard, and Eda couldn’t imagine anyone more suited to the position.

  There was a smug smirk on Mia’s face when she saw Shay approach the crowd of women. That didn’t bother Eda as much as the look on Shay’s face. The leader’s eyes were grim and serious. She looked pissed off about something and Eda hoped that somebody hadn’t already ran off and told her about the dog.

  Eda couldn’t bear the thought of Shay sending the dog away. Or worse – what if she ordered Lex to draw her sword and…?

  “What’s going on here?” Shay asked. Her eyes lingered on the dog for a brief second before returning to Eda and the pack of gardeners. “I could hear raised voices from halfway up Lexington.”

  Mia and the others stood slightly aside, opening up a narrow gap in the crowd that allowed Shay a better view of Eda and her newfound companion.

  “Eda has brought a dog back with her,” Mia said. “A mangy street mutt. Can you believe it
Shay? She’s supposed to be out there working, looking for danger and what’s she doing instead? She’s running around like a silly little child, finding pets to bring back to the Complex.”

  The woman’s condescending tone tipped Eda over the edge.

  “Shut up you old bag,” Eda yelled. “What do you know about what I do on lookout duty? You wouldn’t last five minutes out there. You’d probably cry if somebody pulled you away from your precious plants.”

  Mia gasped.

  “Those precious plants give life to this community,” she hissed. “I don’t see you refusing the food we grow do I? If not for our crops you’d probably have eaten that dog the minute you captured him.”

  Eda and Mia exchanged tense looks. If Shay hadn’t been there, Eda might have punched the old bat in the face.

  Shay sighed and stepped in between Eda and Mia, pushing them both backwards a little to create space.

  “Everyone just calm down,” she said. “Can we do that please?”

  Shay looked at Eda and then at the dog. There was a hint of a smile forming on her lips. That gray, serious expression that Eda had noticed just moments earlier was gone.

  “There are worse things to fear in this world,” Shay said, spinning around to face Mia and the other gardeners.

  Mia’s jaw dropped. Her face turned a ghastly shade of pale.

  “What?” she said.

  “It’s just a dog,” Shay said. “And it looks like it’s in good condition.”

  “But it’s filthy,” Mia said, pointing at the dog once again. “Just look at it. Shay, you can’t be serious about keeping that thing around here. What about our gardens? It’ll be the ruin of us.”

  Shay looked at the dog again.

  “I used to have three dogs,” she said. “One of them looked just like that – a big German Shepherd male called Alfie. We used to take him and the other dogs to the beach with us on family vacations. Oh, Alfie loved the ocean. Didn’t we all? My kids, they’d run into the water, splash around and make all sorts of noise. Sometimes they’d scream just like kids do when they’re overexcited. But Alfie didn’t understand that they were playing – he’d run down the beach, kicking up sand, and charge into the shallow water after them. He’d bite down on the arm of their t-shirt and pull on the sleeve. Or if they weren’t wearing a t-shirt he’d gently lock his jaws around their arm. He thought they were drowning you see. All he wanted to do was protect them, to pull them back onto the beach. Alfie was a good boy.”

  There was a sad smile on Shay’s face.

  “But Shay,” Mia said. Her hands were clasped together like she was praying. “Please, I appreciate your memories – we all have nice memories to hold onto but this isn’t a…”

  “Eda,” Shay said, turning her back on Mia. “Will you make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near the crops? Or the gardeners for that matter?”

  “Of course,” Eda said, nodding. “No problem.”

  “Consider the matter settled,” Shay said. “The dog can stay. I’m sure he’ll be a valuable member of our community.”

  Mia and the other women stood in stunned silence. But one look at Shay’s resolute expression must have told them that an appeal was useless. With a violent snort of disgust, Mia turned around and stormed back towards the entrance of Grand Central. Her companions were close behind her.

  Eda looked at Shay and smiled.

  “So it’s a boy?” she asked.

  “He’s a boy,” Shay said. “I’ve never liked people referring to an animal as ‘it’. They’re every bit as female or male as we are.”

  “Right,” Eda said.

  Shay walked over to the dog and crouched down beside him. There was a joyful and effortless smile on her face and Eda couldn’t remember ever seeing her look like that before.

  The dog stared back at Shay, its dark brown eyes both curious and unwavering.

  “Definitely a male,” she said, glancing up at Eda. “Have ever seen a female with balls that big?”

  Eda knelt down and had a look underneath. She giggled – she hadn’t even thought to check down there. Up until now the dog had been an ‘it’, probably because she hadn’t wanted to get too attached, just in case…

  “They’re massive,” Eda said. “How could I have missed those?”

  Shay got back to her feet. She nodded briefly at Linda and Lex who were silent spectators, lurking in the background. The expression on Shay’s face darkened, as if she’d been reminded of something unpleasant.

  Eda saw the veil close over the older woman’s eyes again.

  “I know you must be tired Eda,” Shay said. “But there’s something I need to talk to you about and it can’t wait. Do you mind coming with us to the Waldorf for a little talk?”

  Eda hesitated. All she wanted to do was take the dog back to the hotel. With any luck she’d sleep for a day or two without waking up in between. That was all she really wanted but after Shay had just spoken up for her in front of Mia, Eda felt like she was in no position to refuse the request.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  Shay nodded. “C’mon. This won’t take long.”

  They walked back along 42nd Street, heading east on the familiar route towards the Waldorf. Linda and Lex kept a few paces behind Shay and Eda who led the way, maintaining an uncomfortable silence as they walked. The dog stayed close to Eda.

  It was late afternoon; the air was cool and the weather dry, at least for now.

  They reached the Waldorf and began the long, arduous journey upstairs to the thirty-fifth floor. Eda felt a strange tingling sensation in her body as she climbed the stairs and it was only now that she dared to enquire about the nature of this unexpected visit to the hotel.

  “So what is this anyway?” Eda asked, looking at Shay who was a few steps ahead of her. “What’s going on? This is kind of freaking me out to be honest.”

  “Nothing to worry about Eda,” Shay said, without stopping or turning around. “Nearly there.”

  By the time they reached the thirty-fifth floor Eda’s legs were numb with exhaustion. After the long walk back to the station, combined with the hike up the Waldorf stairs, she was in desperate need of a rest.

  Shay led the way down the corridor to the Presidential Suite. Lex and Linda took up the rear while Eda and the dog walked in between.

  “Have you ever been in here before?” Shay asked. She paused, her fingers resting on the door handle.

  “No,” Eda said. She was pretty sure that Shay knew fine well she’d never been in that fancy apartment before. Few people in the Complex had ever set foot inside the Waldorf, let alone Helen of Troy’s living space.

  Eda looked at the dog.

  “His feet are kind of wet,” she said. “So are mine.”

  Shay nodded. “Of course,” she said. “Don’t worry about any of that. I’ve yet to encounter a mess in my life that couldn’t be cleaned up somehow.”

  They walked into the Presidential Suite and Eda took a look around.

  It was a grand sight, especially in comparison to her meager living quarters back in the run-down Fitzpatrick. This was something else altogether – a three-bedroom, three-bath den of luxury that looked as if it had bypassed both the war and the wild years and remained blissfully trapped in the world before. There was a foyer, a living room with a large fireplace, kitchen, dining room and a master marble bathroom that was impeccably clean.

  “This is incredible,” Eda said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  She peered into the main bedroom – there was a massive king’s size bed tucked into the far corner with fresh, cream-colored sheets that didn’t have a wrinkle on them. Blue drapes hung from a large window beside the bed. The walls and ceiling were pale and spotless. This was Helen’s bedroom and Eda was well aware that it was here that the grinning man and all the others discovered that the curse was real. That thought alone was enough to make Eda turn around and step back into the hallway.

  “Where’s Helen?” she said
, turning towards Shay who was standing in the hallway with the other two women. “Is she out exercising?”

  “Come back into the living room,” Shay said. “We’ll sit down and talk.”

  Eda felt a growing sense of unease stirring inside her. She followed Shay down the hallway and into a large room with a cream-colored couch with three fat cushions propped up on the backrest.

  “Sit down,” Shay said. “Please.”

  Eda didn’t like the tone of Shay’s voice. It was too formal, too polite.

  At Shay’s request, Linda and Lex left the room. They walked towards the kitchen, their long, lingering silence going with them like a shadow.

  The dog lay down on a flowery rug near the couch. He was soaking wet, his paws and legs especially, but Shay didn’t seem to care. Eda could only imagine what Mia would think if she could see the dog now, lying in the lap of luxury in the Waldorf Astoria.

  The old bitch’s head would explode.

  “What’s going on Shay?” Eda said. “Why did you bring me here?”

  The older woman sighed.

  “She’s gone,” Shay said.

  Eda frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Helen’s gone.”

  “Gone?” Eda said. “I don’t understand. Gone where?”

  Shay walked over and sat down on the couch beside Eda.

  “She ran away,” she said. “She was out in the park exercising with Lex and some of the warriors yesterday morning. She told them she had to pee and she went somewhere private. It’s happened before many times only this time she didn’t come back. And despite our best efforts we couldn’t find her. God knows we’ve tried but it’s obvious by now that she doesn’t want to be found. New York is big and empty – it’s an easy place to get lost in.”

  Eda leaned back in the couch. Now she knew why they’d brought her to the Waldorf.

  “I didn’t see her while I was out there,” she said. “You’re right, it’s empty out there. I didn’t see anyone apart from the dog.”

  “I know,” Shay said. “I’m sure you would have told me by now if you’d seen a young woman on your travels.”