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

“You’re safer with us,” I said, joining her as she stood in the back. “We’re safer with you,” I added, pushing my hand out with a wide smile on my lips.

She stood in the corner, clutching the bags to her stomach as her gaze flitted around the shelves and the stains on the floor

“Sit. Eat. We can talk when you’re ready.”

We drove for five minutes before she let the bags drop, before she sat on the floor and pulled out a can of corned beef, turning the key to release the meat.

I tried not to watch her. I tried to stop my mouth from wanting the food. Instead, I asked her name again, looking away when she didn’t answer and the van slowed.

“What is it?” I called out, and stood when Alex didn’t answer.

Arriving between the seats, I felt the blood drain from my face as I stared on at the white coach wedged side on with an olive-drab truck and a thick stone wall either side. Together they blocked the narrow road and despite the dark interior, I fixed on the writhing masses inside.

My heart jumped as a delicate voice spoke from behind, almost fainting as I processed the words.

“We’re going the wrong way. We’re supposed to be getting away from the doctors.”

94

“What did you say?” I said, spinning around to find her standing to peer past me to the block in the road, the knife scraping around inside the tin.

“You need to go the other way,” she said, dropping the can to the thin table mounted to the side of the van, her voice high and adolescent, like you would expect narrating a Christmas tale.

“No,” I said, stepping forward. “What did you say about the doctors? Who are you talking about?”

She raised her left eyebrow, her gaze meeting mine for the first time as she licked the meat from the tip of the knife, letting her right-hand drop and with it the knife as her left swept hair from her face one side, then the next. Tilting her head, she looked past me to the windscreen and, nodding forward, she spoke.

“You know who I mean. They know you,” she said, with both her brows raised. “That’s where they were going,” she said. “That’s where I don’t want to be.”

“Who?”

She narrowed her brow as I spoke.

“The doctors,” she replied with a force behind her words.

I took a step toward her, a beat pulsing in my ears. “What do you know about the doctors?” I said, raising my voice.

She lifted her brow, pulling herself up to full height, which was only just a little shorter than my five foot ten.

“Speak, for goodness' sake,” I shouted when she didn’t reply.

Her chest thrust forward as she filled her lungs, her hand tensed around the knife as she studied my features.

“I’m sorry,” I added, pushing out my palms despite the pain. “They did things to me, the doctors,” I said, softening my tone as I watched her slowly nod. “I need to find them. Make them pay.” Her brow fell; the nodding stopped. “Did they do things to you?”

She squinted and her forehead creased as her fingers tightened further around the knife handle.

I took another step towards her. “You don’t have to say if they did, just tell me what you know. Tell me where they are.”

The van rolled, but in the wrong direction. I turned back to see the coach and the truck receding in the view.

“No,” I shouted, jumping the few steps back between the seats. “We have to find a way. What if this is our only way of getting through? It could take hours to find another.”

The van rocked to a stop with Alex remaining silent, only her frown showing her discontent. When light came from behind and the lock clicked, I span around.

Racing through the open doors and jumping to the tarmac, breath pulled as I tried to follow the woman running down the road. She’d dropped one bag already and soon dropped the last as I called after her.

I stopped giving chase. “Please, I need to know.”

I watched as she slowed, her head turning over her shoulder. Her gaze fell from me to the bag and its contents spilt on the floor at my feet.

She kept walking.

Drawing a deep breath to hold back frustrated tears, I turned back to make sure Alex had done nothing stupid, like getting out of the van and following.

Picking up the bag, my eyelids batted together whilst a single tear fell to the tarmac as I lifted the tins of food and pushed them back into the bag.

As two dirty trainers arrived at the top of my vision, I stood up straight, wincing with the pain, but offered out the full bag as I drew a breath.

She stood at my front with a crisp white handkerchief offered in her hand. I set the bag down between us and I took the folded square from her dirt-clogged hand, dabbing at the moisture on my cheek.

“Thank you,” I replied, her gaze fixed on me as I wiped my face.

“Why do you want to find them?” she said, her soft voice lost in the wide-open space. “They’re terrible people. The worst.”

“I should know.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“Tell me then. I’m a reporter.”

“I know.”

“They did bad things to me,” I said.

She nodded and spoke.

“They did bad things to many people.”

“They did this,” I said, sweeping my hands across the view, taking in the columns of smoke.

“I know,” she replied. “But what are you trying to achieve?”

“I want the world to know what they did. I want the world to know what they’re doing so we can stop them and people can prepare. I