After The End Page 29

  They are a few paces ahead when I finally start moving. I don’t really feel like catching up with them. As long as they are in sight, I’ll stay at my own pace.

  I’ve never argued with Garlind before. I’ve never seen this side of him. He was so angry with me and all because he didn’t want me doing anything dangerous? He doesn’t get to decide that for me. I certainly don’t get to make his decisions for him.

  He has no right. At all.

  But then I remember how hurt he looked when he said it. There was genuine pain in his eyes. And I caused it. I care about Garlind more than anyone else in this terrible world. I don’t want to be the reason he’s upset. I only want to make him happy.

  The only explanation for what he said is that he cares about me. Perhaps more than just a friend should. I know I care for him more. Way more. I’ve felt like this for a long time. I just didn’t know he reciprocated those feelings.

  Garlind may not have said the words directly, but I think I understand them anyway. He cares about me. Maybe he even loves me.

  I’m pretty certain I love him.

  But feeling this way doesn’t change anything. I still have no idea what to do with the emotions. I loved my parents and that was a simple relationship. Everything I know about other kinds of relationships is what I read about in books. Or what I observed between my parents. Nobody prepared me to feel this way about another person.

  The easiest thing I can do is nothing. Garlind and I can continue our friendship without needing to get all those messy emotions involved. I would hate it if I said something and things changed. If I’m completely wrong about his feelings, then it would ruin everything.

  The risk is too high.

  I’d rather have Garlind as my friend than nothing. When he’s calmed down, I will apologize again. I will promise to think more before I act in the future. In my mind, I will switch places with him to know the answers.

  It becomes easier being around him with that decided. I briskly walk the few paces needed to catch up with him and Sarah. They don’t talk and neither do I. Sometimes I feel him look over at me and I give him a smile. Hopefully that helps melt the iceberg between us.

  The town seems very far as we walk in darkness but we do eventually reach its limits. There’s no more time to dwell on ourselves as we search for Rhys. He’s got to be here somewhere so we just need to find him.

  Like with most of the small towns we’ve gone through, residential houses are the first buildings we pass. I search for any clues or signs that Rhys was here and could be hiding within the wooden walls.

  We probably should have agreed on a signal before we parted ways. Hindsight is always perfect. I make a mental note for next time, if we ever have to be separated again.

  There doesn’t seem to be any signs of someone being in the area. Rhys hasn’t left a candle burning for us or scrawled a big message on the side of a wall. It’s smart that he didn’t—you never know who else might see it. But that doesn’t help us at all right now.

  “Should we split up and search the houses?” I ask, breaking our long-running silence. After all the quiet, I sound too loud. I may as well be yelling for the noise I make.

  “It’s too dark to split up,” Garlind replies quickly. So he’s still angry. Good to know.

  “Rhys would go somewhere obvious,” Sarah says. The only logical voice we have right now. “He’d know not to hide too well or we won’t find him.”

  “So we keep walking,” I suggest.

  Garlind doesn’t offer anything further.

  We slow our pace while we look at each of the houses in turn. They all look like they haven’t seen a person in a very long time. Doors hang off hinges, windows are broken, and the wilderness is trying to overtake them all. If humans are ever to reclaim this earth, it’s the foliage we’ll have to battle after the aliens.

  The town is only a small one so we find ourselves in the main square in no time. We stand in the middle and scan all the small shops surrounding it. Some ancient chairs and tables still sit outside a café. Vines plant them in place as the metal rusts and decays.

  Movement of a curtain in one window catches my eye. I point to the shop in question—a gift store. “I think he’s in there. I saw something move.”

  We approach cautiously because it might not be Rhys that caught my eye. I’m still highly aware of all the animals roaming this earth with a hungry belly.

  The door of the shop is closed but not locked. Garlind insists on going in first as he carefully pushes on the wooden door. It swings open with a creak.

  Footsteps pad inside.

  I’m ready to grab Sarah and run if I need to. There is no guarantee it’s a friend and not a foe. Nothing is guaranteed in this world anymore. Except pain and hurt, that’s a given.

  The person steps out of the shadows and I can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s Rhys. He’s okay and just as cautious at seeing us as we were coming inside the store.

  “You’re okay,” he says.

  “Yeah. It’s good to see you.” I give him a brief hug. “I’m glad you made it here safely.”

  He leads us through to a backroom where he’s cleared a table and set up chairs around it. The metal of the furniture is almost rusted through but it doesn’t stop us sitting down. It’s nice not to have to sit on the floor.

  “Tell me what happened,” Rhys urges.

  I can’t help but notice how tired he looks. He can tell us he’s feeling okay until he’s blue in the face but his body betrays his real status. Even though it’s been almost a week since he was shot, he still needs to rest and take it easy.

  I don’t have the guts to tell him we failed.

  Sarah does. “The ship took off with the people inside. It was a huge waste of time.”

  His expression falls into a frown. “At least you tried. I’m sorry I couldn’t of been any help.”

  “It wouldn’t have made any difference,” I assure him. I desperately need to change the subject in case it sparks another argument with Garlind. “Did you get a chance to look around town and search for supplies?”

  His face brightens. “I checked all the stores and some of the houses before it got too dark. I got some cans of food that look half decent. A couple of blankets too. The moths haven’t got to them yet.”

  “That’s more than we achieved,” I say.

  “I had to hide for a while,” Rhys continues. “This group of people came through. I think there was about three of them—all around our age. They went through town like a bunch of maniacs.”

  “How so?” Garlind asks. At least he doesn’t sound so angry anymore.

  “They were filthy dirty. I smelled them before I saw them. They walked around like animals hunting in a pack. Their eyes were wild and they…growled to each other. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  A shiver runs down my spine at the thought. “Were they looking for supplies?”

  “I honestly have no idea. They smashed a few windows and tore some vines from the trees but then kept going. They didn’t go inside any of the buildings.”

  Mutant humans, perhaps? I wonder if the radiation left over from the meteorite could make a person’s mind go wild. I wish my father was here to ask. He would be able to answer my question off the top of his head.

  Rhys continues. “If they found me, I think they would have torn me apart. They seemed the type to fight first and ask questions later. I was lucky to hide so quickly.”

  I place a hand on his arm. “At least you’re okay. I’m glad we caught up with you.”

  “Me too.”

  I hate the thought of feral people walking around. We have enough trouble on our hands with the aliens and animals. The last thing we need to do is be afraid of one another. At times like this, we need to stick together.

  Garlind’s eyes scan over the room. “I think we should be safe here tonight. I can barricade the front and back door. As long as nobody throws a rock through the windows, we’ll be okay.” He immediately gets
up and goes to work.

  “I’ll do the back door,” I offer. At least this is something I can’t stuff up.

  I go to the very back of the room and check the lock. It still holds, even though it’s rusty. To be on the safe side, I slide a chair underneath the handle and wedge it securely. There is a small window next to the door that is vulnerable but there is nothing I can do about that.

  It’s too dark to do much else so we settle in for the night. For the first time in ages, I don’t make a bed next to Garlind. I don’t feel welcome to. He hasn’t said a word to me which I take to mean that he hasn’t forgiven me.

  The room grows cold very fast without his warmth at my back. I know I’m surrounded by people but I still feel very alone. All in all, it hasn’t been a good day. I hope tomorrow is better.

  I fall asleep purely from exhaustion. My brain does all it can to keep me awake but it eventually gives in. I dream of people in danger, screaming at me to help them but I’m unable to. Their screams are so loud but there is something stopping me from getting to them.

  My unconsciousness feels as guilty as my conscious mind.

  The dream drifts into another one, this one about Garlind shunning me. In my nightmare, he’s yelling at me and says he hates me. He didn’t really say that to me, did he? Again, my mind is playing tricks on me. Taking everything bad about the day and trying to sort through it in my sleeping brain.

  I wish it wouldn’t.

  Waking in the morning is almost a relief. There’s a moment when I first wake up when I don’t remember all the bad stuff that happened yesterday. It’s a sweet few seconds before it all comes flooding back in.

  Garlind is already up and has opened one of the cans Rhys found in his scavenge yesterday. It’s baby potatoes which he has heated with a small fire he’s made next to the window at the back door. He’s cracked it slightly so the smoke can escape.

  “Morning,” I say cautiously. I’m half expecting him to snap at me.

  “Hey,” he replies. I can’t tell how his mood is from that one word. He’s not giving me any hints about whether he’s still angry with me or not.

  “Can I do anything to help?”

  “They’re almost ready. Maybe wake Rhys and Sarah so we can eat and get started for the morning.”

  That is something I can do and not fail miserably at. I check on Sarah but she’s already awake. Rhys is sleeping peacefully. It’s a shame to wake him but it needs to be done. If we can cover some ground this morning, he can rest in the afternoon. I give him a shake and let him know it’s time to get up.

  We eat the ancient potatoes and they actually don’t taste too bad. I have no idea what fresh vegetables taste like so can’t compare them to the real thing—which is probably a good thing. Maybe one day the earth will be recovered enough to plant an edible garden. It would be wonderful eating fresh food.

  It doesn’t take us long to pack our bags and be off. There is no sign of any feral humans roaming around so we walk in the middle of the road and leave the town behind us.

  It’s a beautiful day with few clouds in the sky. Every day I check for signs of impending rain. I’ve gotten quite good at predicting it but the occasional storm still takes me by surprise. Today, I think it will be a dry day.

  Let’s hope I’m right.

  As noon approaches, the view up ahead changes. I see the first dead body sprawled on the road before I notice all the blood. We stop on the edge of the scene and take it all in.

  And there’s a lot to take in.

  Eight bodies in total. All bloated as they start to decompose. I have to cover my mouth and nose with my hand so I can breathe through the stench. It makes me want to vomit.

  They have all been slaughtered mercilessly. Limbs are missing, large gashes etch out their skin. They stood no chance against whatever it was that killed them.

  I’ve seen this kind of carnage before. It’s something only the aliens can do. No human can do this much damage to one of their own. Humans don’t take limbs and tear them from the bodies of their victims.

  “Oh my god,” Sarah gasps.

  My body runs cold as all the possibilities for what caused her to gasp run through my head at a million miles an hour. Nothing prepares me for seeing what it actually is.

  Chapter 9

  We have to step over the bodies to reach it. The blood on the road has long dried but I can imagine it sticking to my shoes anyway. Once tainted, it’s difficult to shake the feeling of being contaminated by all the death.

  Sarah reaches it first. The rest of us join her only a few seconds behind.

  I’m ready to run, just in case I need to. What we are seeing seems impossible. I’ve never seen it before and I never thought I would. I mean, I dreamed about it, but a part of me always doubted that it would be a reality.

  A dead alien.

  It’s lying on its side in the middle of all the human bodies. It’s completely still and unmoving. There is a stain underneath its arm that could be blood—or whatever runs through their veins. It’s dried on its black armor so I can’t tell what color it would have been.

  Sarah gives the alien a poke. Sometimes I think she is truly the bravest of us all. The eight-year-old constantly surprises me. There is no way to reign her in and I doubt I would want to anyway.

  The alien doesn’t move or respond. She kicks him and gets the same result. Ever since I saw the first alien, I thought they were impossible to kill. Their entire bodies are covered in armor, they stand so much taller than us, their weapons are too dangerous for anyone to get close to.

  Seeing this alien lifeless, it makes something swell inside me. Something like hope.

  If this alien really is dead, then it means they can be killed. I doubt another alien would have done this to him. From the amount of bodies littering the street and their positions, I would swear it was a showdown between the humans and this alien. And yet nobody won. They somehow all ended up dead.

  But there could have been more. There is no telling who the survivors of this fight were. There could have been dozens of aliens against these humans. There could have been more humans that managed to get away. We’ll never know.

  Garlind crouches down and gets close to the alien’s face. He studies it before poking its cheek. Its face has the same bone structure as we do, but it looks like a mask that covers it. Its skin is more like rubber and smooth—so smooth. Eyelids cover its eyes and when Garlind pulls them back, they are milky white underneath. It’s not breathing and not moving. It has to be dead.

  The alien doesn’t have hair. Spikes like I’ve seen an echidna have in books cover the back and top of its head. They are black and pointed, probably painful to the touch. Its lips are a dark gray color, along with its shiny skin.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s dead,” Garlind declares.

  Sarah gives the alien a good kick, just to make sure. “Yeah, it’s not waking up anytime soon.”

  I kneel down and run my hand over its armor. It feels like rubber and is cold. It’s so smooth which a slight sheen under the sun’s rays. I’m still expecting it to sit up and start attacking us at any moment.

  “We should get out of here,” Rhys says. He stands a few paces away from us, shifting from foot to foot. “Its friends might come back.”

  He probably has a point but I can’t tear myself away right now. None of us have ever been this close to one of the aliens. It might be the only chance we get to examine them without being killed first.

  “He might have died from that wound,” I point out. Garlind’s hand goes to the dark stain underneath its armpit. His fingers come away clean, the blood has dried, just like I thought.

  I don’t know the difference between a male alien and a female one. I’m not even sure if they have genders like we do. I can only describe it as an it. All their facial features are the same, as are their bodies. Either we’ve only seen one gender or there is no physical difference between the two.

  We all watch Garlind as he examines the bo
dy. He lifts the thing’s arm to reveal a gash that looks like jelly. It’s darker than the rest of him.

  “This wound doesn’t look like it would be fatal,” he comments.

  “Maybe they have an Achille’s heel and this is it,” I venture. If we could work out how to kill them, we might have more luck saving any more humans they might kidnap and destroy.

  He continues around the body until we are certain there are no other obvious injuries. It still feels weird to touch its skin but I’m so curious I can’t help it. I need to know everything I can about these creatures. I have to work out how to kill them.

  Garlind bends its limbs and checks for any broken bones. “I have no idea what is normal for these things. There’s no way to know if anything else is wrong. It looks like it’s just that one wound.”

  “Next alien we see,” Sarah starts, excited now. “We stab them in the armpit and see if they die.”

  Most people would be joking. I know Sarah is not. She would totally run into a battle like that and expect the alien to go down with one blow.

  “We find a gun and shoot them in the armpit. From a distance,” I correct. “Nobody is getting close enough to an alien to stab them. Not until we know what can kill them for sure.”

  She pouts but she knows I’m right. I just hope she remembers that when we do see an alien. Otherwise I’ll have to hold her back so she doesn’t charge at it.

  Rhys is very quiet and pale. “Are you okay?” I ask softly.

  He looks like he’s about to vomit. “I just don’t like being this close to one of them. Even if it is dead.”

  I nod because I know what he means. My instincts are screaming at me to get away from the alien. My logic brain says it can’t hurt me anymore but the rest of me doesn’t believe it.

  Garlind stands and so do we. “We should get out of here in case his buddies come back. I’m not sure what they do with their dead and if they have enough feelings to retrieve the body. Best not to sit here and wait.”

  “Can we burn it?” Sarah asks eagerly.

  He shakes his head. “We can’t risk the time. We’ve already stayed here long enough. You can burn the first one we kill.”