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

“So we need to get to Exeter. We have an office there with all the kit I need. Cameras and generators and batteries,” she said, turning to the guy. “I don’t care who knows where I am. They have to see I’m still alive, then the people will have no choice but to believe and it won’t matter what the government says. They can protect themselves by keeping their doors locked.”

I swapped a glance with Alex who hadn’t reacted in the same way, her brow fixed low.

“We can’t stay here,” she said, breaking the look.

I turned away, peering through the window to Cassie, watching her sitting up but with her head tilted back and mouth open as if asleep.

I nodded. “Alex is right. We have to get going. Jump in the back,” I said, turning to the guy. “No room up front.”

He shook his head as I was about to pull open the pickup door.

“No thanks,” he said with his smile fixed.

I looked at the van again, reminding myself it faced the opposite way to where we headed.

“Where are you going?” I asked, furrowing my brow. “Why did you come here?” I added, when at first all I got was a widening of his smile.

Pulling the pick from his belt, I took a step back as he did the same, raising it over his head with the pointed end in my general direction. “I’m going hunting.”

“Have you seen any of these things?” I said, dumbfounded and flashing a look at Alex and then Jess still at my side.

Nodding, somehow his smile had grown even wider. “There were loads heading the way you’re going. It’s like they’re lining up for dinner. The slow ones and the crazy motherfuckers, too. My guess is going south will be the best place to wait this thing out. Once I clear out the last of them, I get to do my own I am Legend thing on the Lizard Peninsula. Cool or what?”

I ignored the question and the flash of his eyebrows, forcing down the feelings of anger at the flippancy of the words, but the anger soon drained as I realised he didn’t know who we’d lost since this started. Instead, raising an eyebrow, I shook my head.

About to turn away and wish him luck, I stopped.

“How did you get in? Isn’t there a front line?”

Alex leaned forward.

The guy nodded as he pulled his pack from the road, shuffling his shoulders to settle its weight on his back.

“There’re loads of soldiers moving around, but no real restrictions, until you get to Salisbury. But it’s only the roads that are closed.”

“How did you get through?”

“I just moved the cones to the side and drove in. It wasn’t until a few miles out of Yeovil that I had to leave the car. I couldn’t have gone much further even if it wasn’t for the blocks of concrete. I’ve done a bit of walking. This thing’s only got me twenty miles,” he said, tapping the roof of the van, then thinking better of the bass report.

“So you’ve walked most of the way from Yeovil?”

He laughed, and I remembered Jess only made the broadcast this morning. How early had it been when we’d seen her from the roof of the hospital?

“No. I borrowed cars from the back of the roadblocks. Most still had keys in the ignition.”

“You should head north,” Jess said. As she spoke, I heard less of an edge to her voice. “Get as far away as possible.”

“Many people in the community did just that, but no. I’m true to my convictions. The others were full of shit. Posting memes on Facebook from their comfy armchairs, telling everyone how great they’d be when the shit hit the fan. But when it came to it, they just ran away like little children.”

“There’s a community?” I said, unable to turn myself away, despite knowing we should run too.

He grinned.

“Hell yeah. All over the world there are people who love this shit. Or say they do, at least.”

I looked at Jess, raising my brow, but she shrugged back, showing no surprise.

“Sorry. I can’t stand around gassing all day,” the guy said. Raising his hand to his forehead, he nodded then walked in the opposite direction.

I looked back to Jess and then to Alex. Maybe he was right. If those things were going north to the population centres, perhaps the safest place to go would be back down south. But we couldn’t do that. I had to get Cassie to her sister. To Jack and Tish before that woman could do anything to them.

And I agreed with Jess. She had to make it known she was alive to stop the lies that would get people killed.

Tapping my thigh, Shadow came to heel. Pride rushed through me, taking me by surprise when he jumped through the open passenger door as everyone settled back into their places.

No. I couldn’t take the painless way out and hide away. We had to head on, no matter the danger. No matter how much the thought scared me shitless.

Without looking back, we drove in the opposite direction of the stranger.

As the miles passed the window, we watched the settlements gradually lose their picture postcard appeal, with the outskirts of a town called Newlyn coming into view and its spread of buildings marked by smoke rising high to a great cloud.

Slowing, despite the deserted roads, I took care, checking along each empty driveway to the wide-open front doors for any sign of what might linger.

When nothing made itself known, I let the pickup stop at the crest of a hill and took in the town, with its buildings bunched together to fill the view right to the edge of the expanse of blue water.

With Jess and Mandy leaning