After The End Page 18

  But I’ve found some animals.

  Flies.

  Millions of them.

  Chapter 19

  It takes me a few moments to realize the flies are swarming on a large mass. It takes a few more moments to realize that mass is actually a pile of bodies.

  Human bodies.

  There has to be dozens, maybe even more than a hundred, dead bodies sprawled out over the courtyard. They are all in the same state of decay with blood absolutely everywhere.

  It’s impossible to hold onto my last meal now. My knees go weak as I collapse onto the ground. I vomit as my stomach heaves. It’s not just the smell now but the sight of the dead bodies too. There are so many of them.

  I throw up until there is nothing but bile left in my stomach. I wipe my mouth and turn away from the horrible scene before me. I can’t see it anymore. It’s bad enough the image is now seared into my memory.

  My legs are still weak but I force myself to stand and go back down the alleyway. I lean against the wall at the front of the store and take big, gasping breaths.

  Those people didn’t die a natural death. They have slashes of gaping wounds over their entire bodies. Some were missing limbs, torn from their torso with parts of bones and muscle still left behind.

  Every time I blink, I see them.

  The pictures I took with my brain are going to last a lifetime. They will haunt my nightmares and consciousness until I take my last breath. It’s never going to leave me alone.

  I can’t let Sarah see it too.

  For her sake, I need to pretend I never saw a thing and get the hell out of here. If she thinks I’m acting strange, I’ll just say the smell got to me. That’s all I have to do. I can keep this a secret from her. She should never have to see anything like what I just saw.

  An even worse thought occurs to me. What if Garlind was amongst the dead?

  Dread pits in my stomach and makes it churn again. I didn’t get a good look at the faces of the bodies. Perhaps my friends were amongst them? It’s possible. Anything is possible.

  I have to go back there.

  I really don’t want to.

  But if I don’t, I’ll always wonder. I’ll lie awake at night and picture his face on a mangled body covered in blood and gore. He will form the basis for my nightmares and I’ll never know if it’s true or not.

  It takes me a few minutes to steel myself. I check on Sarah and make sure she’s not going to follow me. She’s leaning against a post and still sipping on her water. Good. She won’t notice I’m gone for a few more minutes.

  I take a shaky step back down the alley and cover my mouth and nose with my hand. It doesn’t really keep the smell away but it makes me feel better. I’ve never smelled anything this horrible before.

  The bodies are still here. They haven’t disappeared because they were only hallucinations, brought on by the dizzying stench. The flies make such a buzzing sound that they infest my brain. They grow louder as I get closer.

  I force myself to look at each and every face of the bodies sprawled across the ground. There are both men and women. Sickeningly, there are children too. I’ve never seen this many people in my life, let alone all dead.

  Whoever—or whatever animal—did this, they killed indiscriminately. Young, old, black, white, male, female, they are all represented here. I knew the world outside my bunker was a dangerous one but I didn’t think anyone capable of committing mass murder like this.

  I have to clench my jaw so I don’t throw up. Every new face makes me want to run away and hide but I force myself onwards. I hope I don’t recognize any of these people but I won’t know until I’ve seen them all.

  Being this close to the bodies makes the smell as strong as it will ever be. I can imagine the stench clinging to my hair and clothes for a long time after I leave. I’m never going to be able to un-smell this.

  I slip on some blood and almost fall onto the next body. I manage to catch myself at the last minute and remain on my feet. My shoes though, they’re red. These bodies can’t have been dead for very long. Not if their blood is still sticky on the ground.

  It had to be an animal that killed all these souls. No human—or gang of humans—could be this savage. Barely anybody is complete with two legs and two arms. Only an animal could tear them limb from limb.

  It has to be the herd that passed our car last night. There were certainly enough of them to cause this much damage. Perhaps there was a community of people living in this town when they crossed paths. The humans would have had no chance. Not with the animals’ sheer numbers.

  I can easily imagine how it could have happened. The animals came through here last night and ambushed the people. The humans might have stuck together for protection but all that did was make their mass slaughter easier for the beasts.

  They wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  Sarah and I were extremely lucky to be in that vehicle when they passed us. If we’d slept on the road or beside it like we did most nights, we would have suffered the same fate. It’s nothing but sheer chance that we are alive right now.

  A new thought pops into my head. The animals could still be around. They might just be sleeping somewhere, their bellies too full to continue eating for now. They might come back to finish the job and gobble up what’s left of their prey.

  I race around the bodies now. I search every face and hope I don’t recognize them. Every male with dark skin could be Garlind, every white female could be Clare. I have to check every one of them before I’m satisfied they aren’t here.

  There is no time to be relieved when I’ve seen each of their faces. My friends might not be here among the dead but their killers could be back at any moment. We need to be a long way from here, otherwise we could be next.

  I run back to Sarah. “We need to go. Now.”

  She looks up at me with her face scrunched against the sunlight. “I still don’t feel well.”

  “You’re not going to get any better staying here. We need to be away from the smell, that’s what’s making you sick.” It might not be a lie, and it sounds plausible. I’m not going to tell her about the bodies and the animals.

  I help her to stand and practically push her down the road. I’m jumpy and nervous and don’t cover it as well as I’d like to. I’m never a good actress at the best of times and this town has me shaken and unable to think straight.

  “What’s wrong?” Sarah asks. She attempts to lean away from my grip on her wrist but I’m not going to let her go. I’m never letting this girl out of my sight again. She doesn’t realize how dangerous this world is now.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t like this smell. I want to be away from here and get some fresh air,” I reply tersely. “The only way to do that is to hurry.”

  She mutters under her breath but I’m not listening to her complaints. I’m doing this to keep her alive and I won’t apologize for that. She’ll never know what I saw and how close we came to being one of the victims.

  I’ll protect her with everything I have.

  And right now, protecting her means I have to push her to move faster and farther. I step up my pace and don’t relent until I can no longer smell the scent of death.

  It’s difficult to know if the smell has gone or not. Am I actually smelling it, or is it just my memory of the stench? I don’t know the difference.

  The air does feel fresher, however, once we’ve gone a couple of miles from the town. I allow our pace to slow slightly but I don’t let us stop. I’m hungry now my stomach is empty but the thought of eating turns it again.

  Another couple of miles and Sarah stops completely. “I need to sit for a minute. My legs hurt.”

  The urge to hurry her along sits on the tip of my tongue but I hold it. We’ve put that town in the distance with miles between us. I suppose that’s enough to allow for a break. A short break.

  I sit alongside Sarah and try to eat something. If we’re going to be walking for another few hours, we need some fuel. Bot
h of us haven’t had a thing since we vomited.

  Sarah grabs a packet of chips and munches on them. I do the same and force them down. The images of the dead bodies keep flashing in my mind. Every time I blink I see them lying before me, mutilated and desecrated. They had friends, they were loved too. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.

  At least Garlind wasn’t amongst them. I have to hold on to the one little piece of good news. Once my hope has evaporated, I won’t have anything left. Right now, I will cling to the belief that I will see him again soon.

  “What’s wrong?” Sarah asks.

  “Nothing’s wrong. Just eat your chips.”

  “You’re not normally like this. I don’t like it. Why are we in such a hurry all of a sudden?” Her eyes pierce me right through the chest. They’re sad and tired. Perhaps I’m not nearly as good at hiding my thoughts as I thought I might be.

  Still, I can’t tell her the truth. I’m not going to tell an eight-year-old that there are wild animals roaming nearby that can tear a human apart, limb by limb. If I can do anything good in this world, it’s hiding that knowledge from her.

  What I need is a believable lie. Only one comes to mind. “We have to get to the ships before they leave. I think there is a time limit on them. If they don’t see anyone on the shore to pick up, they’ll move on to another coast.”

  “So, we can just get to the other coast,” she offers.

  “We can’t walk as quick as they can fly. We can’t chase them. Charleston is our only shot.”

  She tries really hard to argue the point, I can see all the cogs whirling in her brain. She must come up empty, though, as she doesn’t say a thing.

  We eat and then we walk.

  The next seven days are all the same. There is never enough distance between us and the animals. The time for finding Garlind winds down. I can’t help but think we would have crossed paths by now if he’s on his way to Charleston too.

  On the sixth day, I’m weary and tired. My hope is now the size of an ant and I’m certain I’ve brought Sarah all this way for nothing. She’s going to be so angry when she finds out I started this journey just so I could see the beach. If Garlind didn’t promise me that, I would have closed the door to the bunker and never come out.

  I’m a fraud and I’m going to let her down so badly. She trusts me and all I’ve done is lead her on a wild goose chase. Even if the ships are real, there is no way to get their attention so they’ll pick us up.

  I’ve lied about everything. To myself and to Sarah.

  It’s mid-morning when we approach a large billboard. This one doesn’t look as faded as most of the others we’ve passed along the way. I keep staring at it until I’m close enough to read it.

  WELCOME TO CHARLESTON, SC.

  Charleston.

  We made it.

  I want to cry and laugh at the same time. I’ve been waiting to get here, I’ve made it my obsession since losing Garlind, and here it is. The magic city that is supposed to change our lives for the better.

  Garlind should be here to see it with me. He promised he would protect me and now he’s gone. I never got to say goodbye and I’ll never know for sure what happened to him. I’m not going to let my imagination fill in the blanks. His fate is way too awful that way.

  I come to a standstill at the bottom of the billboard. It towers over me and blocks out some of the sun. People probably came here for vacations before the meteorite. They’d leave their nice houses and drive down here so they can stay in a nicer house by the ocean. They probably didn’t come here to be rescued.

  “We’re here!” Sarah squeals.

  She jumps around in a circle. I don’t know where the kid gets all her energy from. I have to admit, a little bit of her enthusiasm rubs off on me. I may be a liar and about to disappoint her, but I’m also about to see the beach with my very own eyes. My mother talked about it being the prettiest place on this planet. I can’t wait to see what she was talking about.

  “Let’s get moving then,” I reply and start heading down the road. Sarah quickly catches up to me. We’re both walking faster than we have in days.

  The air feels lighter here. It smells like salt and I can’t help wondering if that’s what the ocean smells like. It’s refreshing and so much better than the heavy humidity we’d been feeling day after day.

  The road turns in a bend and I expect the city to be laid out before me once we’re past the trees and staring down the straight part of the road again.

  But it’s not.

  We’re confronted by a tall and solid concrete wall.

  Chapter 20

  “What’s that doing here?” Sarah asks. She places her hands on the wall, as if she could just push it away.

  The road goes straight underneath the wall. It couldn’t have been here while they were still driving, before the meteorite struck the earth. Who builds a wall in the middle of a road?

  It looks newer too. The concrete still resembles gray and hasn’t been given over to the moss and foliage that seems to cover everything else on this planet now. Why would they build a wall after the vast number of population has been killed?

  I have no answers to my questions or Sarah’s as she continues to ask them. “I have no idea,” I admit, even if just to shut her up. The girl can be relentless when she wants to be.

  We need to get through this wall.

  There is no point in coming all this way and letting a concrete structure block our path. Turning back isn’t an option—where would we go? There is no other choice for us. We can’t wander around the country aimlessly, it’s too dangerous. And pointless.

  Garlind said we had to get to Charleston and that is exactly what we’re going to do. I’m not going to let him down and let anything stand in my way.

  “We’ll walk the wall and find a door. There has to be one somewhere,” I say. This time, I’m not a liar. Every wall has to have a weakness. They wouldn’t build a concrete barrier and not have some kind of entry and exit point. It wouldn’t make any sense.

  The smart thing would be to split up. Sarah could then search one side of the wall and I would do the other. We could call out if we find what we’re looking for. But I have no intention of going separate ways. That’s how I lost Garlind, Clare, and River. I’m not going to lose Sarah too.

  “We’ll start with the right side,” I decide.

  Sarah doesn’t argue, just follows me along as I step off the road and into the shrubs and bushes. Whoever built the wall cleared a corridor between the thick trees. Only low-lying foliage remain but they are enough to slow us down significantly.

  Rustling in the distance tells me there are animals around. Probably snakes or alligators. Both creatures that will bite us if they feel threatened. Or are hungry. Or bored. I doubt my knife will do any damage to either of those species if they choose to strike.

  The wall is completely uniform all the way around. We keep walking, expecting things to change, but it doesn’t. We are faced with concrete that seems to be one continuous solid structure. Why is there no door?

  “This is useless,” Sarah complains as she throws up her hands and leans against the wall. She crosses her arms over her chest and I know that means she has no intention of moving any time soon.

  The girl has a point. We’ve easily walked for more than an hour and there hasn’t been any change in scenery in all that time. If there is a door to this wall, they’ve hidden it well. I have no idea why it’s here but they obviously didn’t want anyone to pass through it.

  Maybe it was for protection? Perhaps the city of Charleston is alive and well on the other side. It might still be functioning as a proper town. Like before. Hope flickers alive inside me. Charleston might have much more to offer than a glimpse of the ocean.

  There is no doubt now that we have to get to the other side. I have to know what the wall is hiding. If it’s a real town, then I want in. I want to join them so we don’t have to merely survive anymore. We can actually start to live.
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br />   “We’ll have to go over it,” I declare. Excitement buzzes in my veins. We’re going to get to the other side of this wall one way or another. We can do this.

  “Give me a boost. I think I can reach.” Sarah looks tiny compared to the height of the structure. Even if she were to stand on my head, she’s not going to reach the top.

  “That’s not going to work. Help me find some long vines and a big rock. We’ll make a rope.”

  She hesitates, ready to argue, for a moment before giving up and searching in the bushes like I am. After all the thick vines we’ve seen over the last few weeks, they now seem to have evaporated. There has to be some here somewhere.

  I venture out of the clearing and into the dense forest of trees. This is where nature has really gone wild. Everything is lush green and growing thick. One of the large oak trees is covered in vines. It’s wearing them like a gown with the thick cords hanging from each and every limb.

  “Sarah, over here.”

  I take out the strongest of my knives and start hacking away at the nearest vine. It will need to be long and sturdy if we are going to use it to climb over the wall. I pull at it with Sarah’s help until it extricates itself from the tree.

  It’s too short.

  The vine comes away after a few tugs. It’s only about ten feet long. Not long enough to make it over the wall and find purchase on the other side.

  We move onto the next vine and repeat the process. It takes us a few attempts before we find one that could work. I coil it around my arm until I can carry the thick cord. It’s heavy, which I hope is a good sign.

  Next, I find a rotten piece of log that is light enough to be thrown but heavy enough to still be sturdy. It would be nice to have River or Garlind’s strength right now. I’m not exactly equipped for heavy lifting.

  Returning to the wall, there is no place in particular that looks like it will be easier than any other. So, we head in a straight line and choose that spot for our first attempt.

  I tie one end of the vine around the log and test it a few times. It seems to stay tied. I uncoil the rest of the vine and lay it out so it won’t become tangled. There is nothing left to do now except give it a try.