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

He was right. We had to keep towards Exeter and no one should leave me alone with these people. Or anyone. There was enough of me left to understand.

When I’d seen the person on the roof, the surge of hunger had taken me by surprise. A blood lust. The only way I could describe it, growing with every step towards the building, blinkering me from anything else but finding them. My senses enhanced. I could smell where they hid, and I knew what I would have done if Logan hadn’t burst in.

I had no idea why, but with his arrival it had been like the hunger shattered, or someone had pulled the plug and it washed away. I soon felt as if I was nearly back to myself, or the parts of myself I could at least get back to.

Could it be that I had some level of control over my new feelings?

“There’s a safe where I think they keep the keys. But it’s locked.” The guy spoke with a quiver in his voice as he ran his hand over his tight wavy hair.

His words stirred me from my contemplation. I couldn’t look him in the eye. He wouldn’t look in my direction.

“In the office next door,” he added, when neither of us had moved.

Rushing out faster than Logan could follow, I used the last of my draining energy to pull the thin metal cabinet open, the lock popping as if made of plastic.

Handing bunches of keys to Logan, I led him outside and away from the damage and his questions.

Back in the frigid air, I thought of staying behind, but as I saw Alex walking down from the road with her arm around Cassie and carrying the baskets, the thought vanished and I took a seat in the white pickup as the engine came to life.

42

LOGAN

With a tank full of syphoned fuel and the light not yet fading, we made steady progress along the A30, despite having to make our way around roadblocks, or back-tracking to find another route. Cassie slept, alternating her lean between Alex and Mandy’s shoulders whilst they stared, searching out of the windows.

Jess sat quietly in the passenger seat as if asleep, with her face to the steady stream of wind from the gap in the lowered window. Shadow sat next to Alex with his nose at the same crack.

Jess moved for the first time, shuffling in her seat as we passed the sign for Bodmin, growing more animated as we diverted from the A30 to pass The Jamaica Inn, a famous smuggler’s museum my friends had pointed out as we made the drive down here. A growing guilt nagged at my thoughts when I couldn’t remember who had said the words. Was I already forgetting my friends?

Jess dropped the window further, leaning closer to the gap as her hand went to her face, nodding when I asked if she was okay.

Soon after, the roadblocks were shorter and easier to skirt around with walls and hedges already badly damaged.

On the journey, my mind would drift back to the day the New Year’s celebrations had ended. The last day the whole group were together and we’d tried to sleep on the supermarket floor before we had to run again; the group growing smaller so quickly. I thought of how Andrew, his name catching, had saved us later that day.

As the fuel gauge dropped, I expected to see fewer signs of the chaos, but each mile continued to mirror the debris of before, the rising columns of smoke, the decay and destruction wrought across the land. But the one thing we didn’t see, at least up close, were people, those who were still human and those who were arguably not any more.

I felt the tension in the car lower when we saw the first signs for the M5 motorway ahead and the road to the left leading to Exeter.

“Exeter,” Jess said, pointing to the sign, speaking for the first time since we’d left the car lot.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Alex asked from the back.

I listened out for a reply because I was in no place to make any guesses.

Jess didn’t reply either. Our silence must have been enough of an answer because no one repeated the question; it was only when we saw the first of a long line of cars blocking the road to the motorway that we knew we might have little choice in the direction we took.

I made the turn to Exeter at speed, aiming alongside the cars facing our way filling the slip road, when without warning Jess turned to me.

“Stop,” she said, and I slammed on the brakes, staring forward, scouring to see what I’d missed in our path.

“What is it?” I asked when I couldn’t see any reason for the call, but she didn’t speak, letting the heavy thump of the twin rotor blades over the idling engine do the talking.

Twisting the ignition off, I looked to the dashboard to make sure the headlights were off.

“Oh my god,” Mandy called out, and wide-eyed I turned to the passenger door behind me before slamming my hand to the central locking. The locks clicked at each door just in time for her to pull at the lever.

“Are you nuts?” I said, raising my voice. “They’re not here to save us.” By now I was shouting, fighting with the din of the rotors so close.

Cassie woke, lurching forward with her eyes wide and bloodshot as if shocked with a defibrillator. She turned, stopping as she stared at Mandy pulling the handle back and forward.

“Let me out,” Mandy said, her voice rising.

“They’re not here to save us,” I called out. “You heard what I said back in the church. Did you see the roads? It was soldiers in helicopters like this