In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

it to charity, so she’d said, telling me it meant nothing the first time we split. The only time we’d split. The only time we thought we knew what we were doing, a time when we thought we could see into the future.

But she’d kept it. She had it near.

As the confusion welled up in my chest, warmth radiating from my heart, I watched as if viewing CCTV images.

She went straight to a floor cupboard, pulling a heavy weight from the bottom shelf and then a roll of surgical tape from another. Placing the ring on the worktop she let the weight drop from her hands before I could squeal in disbelief. I turned back from a renewed shove at the desk and saw Toni at the window, pulling the diamond from the mangled golden setting, glancing back, sorrow in her eyes, before taping the stone.

Yes, it was real.

I didn’t see the glass crack as she raised the weight and hit it over and again. I didn’t see it splinter before I had to turn, putting my hands at the edge of the desk to renew my effort.

Shrill screams radiated from the corridor, the wood moving towards me despite my weight’s insistence. I turned to see her bending down and saw a great slice along the fabric of her jeans, felt the rush of the breeze in the room, the floor littered with finger-thick clumps of glass.

I turned back despite her urges, saw three black vein-ridden arms at the door. I saw the door bending at the top. Saw what I thought was the wall swaying inward.

“Come on,” she said, but I couldn’t move knowing the desk would give. They'd overrun us in seconds.

With Toni back at my side, I gave all my effort to push against the pressure. She shrugged the rifle off her shoulder and pushed the muzzle through the gap, unleashing fury with a sharp pull of the trigger.

The first explosion numbed my ears. The second and the third left them ringing, but the tide relented and I could release.

A great breath pulled into my lungs; for the first time I smelt the stench, the soiled soup of sewerage from the corridor.

Toni dragged me away, pushing me towards the window. I had to skip over the body, had to steady myself as I landed on the glass, hoping to stop my bare feet from cutting to ribbons.

With her hands at my back, Toni helped me climb. The door creaked against the wood, but I couldn’t look; I couldn’t do anything but keep my eyes set on the horizon.

I was soon up and on the ledge, looking along the side of the building at the decorative bricks protruding just enough to give texture at a glance, but were surely not enough for me to balance my weight. Not enough to get me to the metal drainpipe and relative safety just out of arms reach.

“Go,” she said, her voice frantic.

I had no choice, the door opening wide, pushing the desk to the side.

“Go,” she said, and I saw her rucksack being pushed along the floor with the desk.

“Go,” she shouted. As she ran behind me, the first of the creatures came through on the top of the desk, limbs at its back already following.

“Go,” she screamed and I took the step, my weight holding as I gripped the thin of the brick below. With my arms almost at their full extent to reach, my fingers scraped for a grip at the edge of the flat roof.

With her following at my side, my foot slipped, scraping toes, but my grip felt strong, fingernails digging into the soft bitumen skin of the roof. I held on, waiting for my breath to recover.

“Shit. The bag,” I heard her say.

“Leave it,” I shouted, but as I turned I saw her disappear back through the window, a deafening scream howling from inside.

19

With my concentration on where she’d stood, I felt my feet slipping. My fingers ached as they pinched into the roof, my once-long nails already sheared flat. I turned, lunging for the drainpipe, giving my trust it wouldn’t fall away; hoping it wouldn’t release from the wall as I gripped around its surface and dug my toes hard as they came to rest on each side of the metal bracket.

The round metal pipe moved, but didn’t give out all the way. At least not by the time my weight settled. The wind had picked up and with every movement as I clung on, the metal rubbed against itself. Creaking, Shifting. Complaining as if it could go at any moment.

My hands numb with effort, I knew I couldn’t last long like this, but I wouldn’t look down; couldn’t let myself head that way.

I refused to acknowledge what had made the soldier give up and take the easy way out, despite the constant pull of my thoughts in that direction.

I turned back to the space where Toni had been not so long before, but she hadn’t returned. I had to help, but I knew I couldn’t cling on for much longer to the metal rattling with the slightest of movements. I’d be no help if I fell to the ground.

Somehow I climbed, letting the stack take my weight as I gripped around its girth with each hand, pushing my feet flat against the brick. I could see no other way and somehow I rose, at least at first, getting three paces up the wall before I was high enough for my hands to scrabble at the roof and find the ledge on the other side, just as the stack collapsed. My feet fell from under me as they fought for traction in the air and my grip tested to the limit on the coarse brick roofline.

It held. I heaved myself up by my arms, scraping