The Last Fight: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Surviving the EMP Book 3)

by Ryan Casey

  Bella let out a little cough of pain.

  And then she took a few breaths, blood trickling down her chin.

  “It’s okay,” Emma said. “Now just to get you untied from this tree.”

  She crept to the back of the tree and looked at the ties. They were too tight for her to do a thing with.

  She knew she needed something sharp. Something to cut through them.

  She reached for her knife and her stomach sank.

  Her knife.

  It was over by where she’d slept.

  Over by Logan.

  She gulped. “I need… I need to go over there a sec. Just wait here. Please.”

  “Where am I gonna go?” Bella asked, her voice raspy.

  “Fair point.”

  She took a few deep breaths, and then she made her way over towards her knife.

  Over towards Logan.

  She walked slowly when she reached him. She didn’t want to risk waking him. Not that she was… afraid of him. She knew he’d understand what she was trying to do.

  She just wanted to do this without him.

  To get it done with before he had a chance to even question her.

  She reached his side. Saw her knife right beside where he was sleeping.

  Her heart pounded.

  She climbed over him and crouched down and picked up the knife.

  She went to turn around.

  Went to climb over him again.

  She heard a shuffling.

  She froze. Her stomach plummeted. She felt like the world was opening up underneath her.

  She looked over her shoulder, prepared herself for the inevitable, braced herself for the worst.

  Logan was still sleeping.

  He had turned over.

  She moved again, over to Bella, skin buzzing with fear and excitement.

  She reached Bella’s side. Cut the ties away from her, being careful not to catch her with the knife.

  And then when she was free, Bella stood, as too did Emma.

  “So what now?” Bella asked.

  Emma looked back at Logan. He was still. She hoped he’d understand. She hoped he’d forgive her.

  And then she looked around at the woods ahead of her and Bella.

  “We’re going to end all this,” she said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jack woke with a sudden jolt, and not for the first time that night.

  It was dark. He had no idea how long he’d been sleeping. He felt tired and groggy, like he hadn’t got any rest at all.

  He knew why. Logan could be out there. He couldn’t allow himself to rest for too long. Not with that lurking threat.

  He turned around and looked outside. It was the first thing he did, always so instinctive. There was always a paranoia that he was going to wake up and find his home burning or under some kind of attack. Those worries hadn’t eased these last few days, not with the new threat on the horizon.

  But there was no movement outside. There was nothing.

  He closed his eyes again, rubbed his fingers against them. His heart pounded, and his muscles twitched through lack of sleep. He wondered if he was the only one struggling like this, or if the others were all the same. He wanted nothing more than to stay up and talk with them. That was the worst thing about these sleep struggles. Just how lonely they made him feel as he lay there in the early hours.

  The only thing he could do was lie back and try his best to let his mind drift; let it carry him off into that world of darkness.

  Then he heard it.

  First, he thought it was a trick of the mind. Something and nothing.

  But that couldn’t be the case.

  Because he heard it again.

  It was a knock.

  A knock on the door.

  He stood up immediately. Walked across the bedroom, grabbed his rifle. He was beginning to regret not doing guard shifts. He knew Villain would bark if anyone were approaching, but Villain didn’t seem all that concerned as he stood beside him right now.

  He walked over to the window, tried to see what was outside, whether he could see anyone.

  There was nobody in sight.

  He turned away from the window and made his way to the hallway when he heard the knock again.

  Fear flooded his body. As much as he wanted to believe that it could be anyone—just a passerby, just someone seeking help—he feared exactly who it was, deep down.

  There was only one thing for it.

  He walked out of his bedroom, across the hallway, towards the front door.

  He thought about waking the others up, but at the same time he could see the downsides of that, too. It would mean more conflict. More debate.

  That wasn’t what they needed right now.

  What they needed were bold, hard choices.

  He was the one who could make those choices.

  He didn’t need any objecting voices making decisions more difficult than they had to be.

  Better to just get this done, swiftly and cleanly.

  He looked at the lounge, saw Mrs Fuzzles sitting on the back of the sofa, staring at him as creepily as ever. Damned cat. She knew how to make him feel uncomfortable, that was for sure.

  He moved slowly towards the front door. He had to be ready for anything. He had to brace himself for the worst. He had to—

  Another knock on the door.

  He stopped, right by the door. Rifle raised.

  He looked through the peephole.

  When he saw who was standing there, he froze.

  It was Bella.

  She looked… alone.

  Jack stepped away. On the one hand, he wanted to go right out there and save her. But on the other, there was something wrong about this. It felt like a trap. How could she be here? How had she escaped? It didn’t add up. It didn’t feel right. He had to be careful.

  But when he leaned back towards the door, he noticed something else.

  Someone else.

  Bella wasn’t alone.

  She was with that young girl. Emma.

  “What are you doing here?” Jack asked.

  “Open the door,” Emma said, her voice shaky. “Please.”

  “I’m not opening the door.”

  “We need to talk,” Emma said. “About… about Candice. About everything. Logan doesn’t know I’m here. I don’t want him to wake up and find out we’re gone before I have a chance to explain this to him. But please. Just open the door.”

  Jack hesitated. On the one hand, he wanted to come to some kind of resolution, and if this were legit, resolution was possible. On the other hand, there was a dark dissenting voice in his head telling him he had an opportunity. Another of Logan’s people. The final one, as far as he knew. A chance to leave him all alone. Nullify the threat completely. Draw him towards them then… do what he had to do to finish him off.

  He shook his head. He had to give them a chance.

  He opened the door.

  Emma and Bella both stood there. Bella’s lips were chapped and bloody, and her hair was greasy. She looked like she’d been through a rough time.

  “Bella—”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Bella said.

  Jack paused. “What?”

  “About Logan. About her doing this of her own accord. She… she just wants to find a resolution to this, Jack. To try and find a way to end it all.”

  “And what does she propose?”

  “An exchange,” Emma said.

  Jack frowned. “An exchange?”

  “Bella for Candice,” Emma said. “Then we go our own way. I think… I think that’s the only thing Logan will consider.”

  Jack shook his head, brushed his hands through his hair. “I wish it was that simple.”

  “It could be,” Emma said.

  “Candice… she’s important to my son. He isn’t just going to let her go without a fight.”

  Emma took a few seconds. Unlike most kids he’d ever known, she really took time to consider her words.
“I don’t know what happened with Jean. I don’t know why you did it. And I—I can’t promise Logan will just give up. I know… I know what kind of a man he is. But if we can make a trade… if we can show some kind of progress, this can work.”

  Jack gritted his teeth. “I still don’t see how this changes anything.”

  “You let Candice come back with me right now. I leave Bella with you. It ends. Right here.”

  Jack shook his head. “If we give up Candice, we give up our power.”

  Emma’s face turned. “There’s more to this than power.”

  “There is,” Jack said. “But Logan. He’s a threat. If I let Candice go, my own son will never forgive me, either. He’ll never give up on her. Logan will be the one with the power. I can’t let that happen. She… she has to stay here.”

  Emma’s face dropped. She looked at the ground. “Then there’s no other way.”

  She looked back up at Jack.

  “Logan won’t stop. Not unless we sort this.”

  Jack went to reach for Bella’s hand but something happened, then.

  Bella took a step back.

  Jack frowned. “Bella?”

  She stared at him, tears glistening in her moonlit eyes.

  “This exchange,” Bella said. “I want to come home. Really, I do. But it has to happen. It… it has to happen, Jack.”

  “You can come home right now.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. Not if we want to end this. Not if we want to put a stop to the conflict. If I come home right now, I fear what Logan will do to Emma. How he’ll lash out.”

  “Then Emma can join too.”

  Emma shook her head.

  Jack frowned. “Emma? He’s… he’s a dangerous man.”

  “He’s made mistakes,” she said. “But he doesn’t deserve to be betrayed. Not like this. We need to do an exchange. And maybe then… maybe then he’ll think about letting Candice and Bella stay. Maybe if he knows Bella came back with me because she wanted to solve this, too… maybe he’ll see what he has to do. But not if we do it like this.”

  Jack stood there, then. Villain whined by his side. Mrs Fuzzles just stared outside at Emma and Bella.

  And as Jack stood there, watching Bella, he thought of Candice. And he thought of Wayne.

  Wayne was the problem here.

  Wayne was the one who was going to stand in the way of getting Candice back to Logan—and ending this.

  But as much as he wanted to make some kind of move behind Wayne’s back… as much as he wanted to resolve things right now… he couldn’t do that to him.

  But he could at least do something.

  “We’ll do an exchange,” Jack said.

  Emma’s eyes lit up.

  “But,” Jack said. “We set the terms. It happens in two days. Or tomorrow, technically, seeing as we’re in the early hours right now. Midday. When the sun reaches its highest point. We meet in neutral territory. The fields just beyond my farm. All of our people are present. All cards on the table. You… you bring Bella. We bring Candice. No weapons.”

  Emma’s face soured. She shook her head. “But Logan—”

  “Those are my terms,” he said. “If you want a chance of getting Candice back, I need to speak with Wayne about everything. I need time to make him see what we’re doing here. If you want this to end, those are my terms.”

  He stared at Emma, this brave little girl, and she stared back at him. His heart pounded. The night powered on. It felt like nobody was going to speak again.

  And then Emma nodded. “Okay,” she said.

  “Two days. Midday?”

  “Two days. Midday.”

  “Good,” Jack said.

  He looked into Bella’s eyes and he opened his mouth to say something; to apologise.

  But in the end he could only nod.

  “Be there,” Jack said. “And we end this. Together.”

  He watched Emma nod back at him.

  Then, she turned away with Bella by her side and walked into the night.

  “And mind your way,” Jack said. “There’s—there’s bad people out there.”

  Emma looked back at him. Smiled. And in the moment, he supposed he saw the irony.

  To her, he was the bad people.

  He watched her disappear into the darkness and he headed back to his bedroom.

  He lay back on his bed, eyes wide open.

  Two days.

  Midday.

  He had to talk to Wayne.

  As much as this exchange offered promise… he knew exactly what he had to do.

  Emma was a good kid.

  Logan was the only one who needed to be taken out of the equation.

  So that was exactly what he was going to do.

  That was exactly how it had to end.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The second Logan woke, he knew something was wrong.

  He had a sense that he’d heard something amidst his dreams. He felt like he’d seen movement. And he’d tried to fight himself awake, tried to discover the source of that movement. But he’d only drifted further into the world of sleep, unable to shake himself from his nocturnal paralysis.

  But he was awake now. He was on his back, staring up at the stars.

  And the sense he was alone was still strong.

  He turned over, and the first thing that struck him was that Emma was nowhere to be seen.

  He jolted upright. “Emma?”

  He looked around, scanned his immediate surroundings for her, his worst fears coming true. She might’ve just gone to the toilet. She could’ve just gone for a walk in the night.

  He tried to convince himself that everything was okay, that all was under control.

  And then he looked over at where Bella was tied up and he realised right away something else was happening here.

  Bella was gone.

  She had been cut free of her ties.

  She was nowhere to be seen.

  Logan’s first response was anger. Because he knew what this looked like. He knew what this was. Emma. She’d let this happen. Because the fact they were both gone told him all he needed to know.

  She’d helped Bella escape.

  She’d set her free.

  But then he looked at the other possibilities. What if Jack had been here? What if he’d taken Bella—and Emma too?

  Or what if those other people out there had finally struck? The people who had started the fire in the woods? The people who the shout had come from when they’d been approaching the farm for the first time?

  No. There was something about this that felt different.

  He needed to find Emma and Bella and he needed to bring them back here.

  He rushed off into the trees, towards the farm. Held his hunting rifle. That was another reason he knew this had to be Emma. If it were Jack who had done this, he’d have killed him. Put him down on sight.

  The fact he was still alive and that he still had his weapon told him everything he needed to know.

  Every step he took, he pictured finding Emma out here, wounded, hurt. He thought about what he’d told her. The confession about his past he’d made to her. The truth he’d been hiding for so many years—even from himself.

  His guilt. The way revenge had taken control of him, and what he’d done in its service.

  Was this what had done it?

  Had he misjudged Emma?

  Had he told her too much?

  He shrugged aside those thoughts. He’d been honest with her, that was the main thing. And he’d started to be honest with himself. That had to be the beginning of something. It had to be the start of a new life.

  And it didn’t change anything.

  The need to get Emma back.

  The need to find Bella.

  The need to make sure they were—

  He slammed into someone, knocked them to the ground.

  He fumbled for his rifle, pointed it ahead. It could be Jack. It could be…

  He saw her lying there, sa
w the person standing next to her, and lowered his rifle.

  “Emma?”

  Emma was on the ground. Bella was by her side.

  “What… what the hell are you doing out here?”

  Emma stood up, brushed the mud off her clothes. “I let Bella go. We went to Jack’s farm.”

  Logan could barely believe what he was hearing. “What the hell did you do that for? And why are you here now?”

  “It’s a long story,” Emma said. “But we spoke with them.”

  “You have no idea how dangerous those people are. You’re stupid for going out there. You shouldn’t have done it. You—”

  “I offered an exchange. Bella for Candice.”

  “You did what?”

  “I offered an exchange. Jack accepted. Well. Sort of.”

  Logan looked at Bella. He wanted to explode with anger at this whole situation. But he still had questions that needed answering. “The fact that she’s still here. That she’s with you. I’m guessing… how did it go?”

  “Jack didn’t want to give Candice up because of his son. He needs to speak with him. They need to come to an agreement.”

  “Then we’re back to square one.”

  “No,” Emma said. “Jack… Jack made a proposal.”

  The hairs on Logan’s arms stood on end when he heard those words. “A proposal?”

  “He said he’d do an exchange. That he needed time to speak with Wayne to convince him it’s the right thing. But it has to be the day after tomorrow. Or, well. Tomorrow, seeing as it’s the early hours. Midday. On neutral grounds, he said. The fields between the farm and us. And… and we all have to be there. Unarmed.”

  Logan swallowed a thick lump in his throat. “Emma, this can’t work. Think about it.”

  “I spoke with him,” she said. “I told him what I want. What we want. And Bella. She… she could’ve walked back to him. But she came here with us. She came here because she wants this to work. And she wants it to work properly. So why can’t we just try?”

  “Because I don’t trust him,” Logan said.

  “And he doesn’t trust you. Let’s face it. Nothing’s going to change that. But we can still fix this. We can still make it right.”

  Logan looked away. He was lost for words. “He killed Jean.”

  “Jean was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We all were.”

  “So you trust him?”