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

have sprayed the crowd with bullets as it came to our rescue, but I hadn’t heard the whine of the weapons.

Cassie stopped halfway to the gap with a chair leg in her right hand hanging loose at her side as she peered forward, stepping sideways toward where I stood.

With footsteps at my back, Alex guided Mandy at her side. Shadow halted his bark. Coming alongside, I looked left then right, convinced we all had the same question in our minds, but before I could give it voice, the room darkened and we each turned to the bloodied figure at the space where the window had fallen in, standing motionless.

Jess.

I should have felt an overwhelming fear, and I did, but only that Cassie’s fate would be the same as Jess standing in front of us. A fear she’d soon be drenched in the blood of her victims, her hair matted to her face and barely able to make out her features as she stared at a group of humans not knowing if they would be next. Could she control herself as Jess seemed to? Could she stop her unfamiliar urges from ripping those around her apart?

We stood for what seemed like an age, but when the deafening call from the helicopter blades came back into focus, I realised we had to do something.

Jess’s voice cut through the turmoil. “They did this to me. So we have to get the children back before they can do the same, or worse.”

Dropping the chair leg to the floor, Cassie stepped forward, working her way around the glass panel and stepping outside as if ready to take on the world.

Cassie said something, but I didn’t catch the detail, instead looking to movement beyond the glass at the far end of the room. A piercing call cut through the air, but to the sound of a muffled gunshot, the shadow slumped to the ground.

“We’ve got to go,” Jess said, turning back from the same direction.

Alex didn’t wait, seeming unafraid as she walked to Jess, motioning for Mandy to follow.

I stayed fixed to the spot. “We can’t run away from the helicopters.”

Jess turned back. “It’s not the soldiers I’m worried about. Their noise is drawing more creatures from all around.”

Picking a cloth napkin from one of the few tables still upright, I followed the others rushing through the gap and into the daylight which seemed so bright, bringing such vivid colour to the mess covering Jess.

As I stepped from the building, everywhere I looked the creatures who had lined the windows of our sanctuary lay torn, ripped beyond recognition and discarded all around, the ground slick with a sticky blood sucking at my trainers with every step.

I didn’t have to avoid the putrid scene for long. As I looked around, I saw soldiers dressed in black, counting nine coming from where we’d run. Each turned, twisting around to look with their long rifles. I caught sight of a figure on a roof overlooking the carpark, beside him another crouched with the length of a long barrel aimed in our direction.

The helicopter buzzed over where we stood, then vanished after taking a steep turn away just as quickly as it arrived.

Glancing at Alex taking in the scene as I had, but with a hard-faced look as if ready to go down fighting, I turned back to the soldiers as a group of three in the centre separated from the others, walking ahead of the rest holding their positions.

Each of the three looked to my side, two through their weapon’s sight, and I knew it was Jess they targeted. Who could blame them? I couldn’t help but follow their look to the woman so far removed from the preened image we were used to from the TV.

I stepped in the path between the three and Jess with my heart pounding in my chest, not understanding why I did it, other than it felt like the right thing to do. I glared at the three, not adjusting their stride towards us.

Staring at the small group, I couldn’t see any difference in their appearance, barely able to see anything apart from between the lip of the black ballistic helmets and dark scarves covering their mouths.

Within two car lengths, the soldier in the centre held his gloved hand to the air, and I flinched back as he swung his rifle from his grip, slinging it over his shoulder to rest on the strap.

I couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t gunned us down yet. If I had a gun and looked on at Jess for the first time, wouldn’t I?

The middle soldier held his hands to the side, motioning to the ground. Without pause, each of those flanking him let their weapons down.

The centre man raised his hand to his mouth and pulled down the dark covering to reveal a clean-shaven face.

“I’m Major Thompson,” he called out with a measured volume. He leaned to the side as if trying to get a better look at Jess. “We don’t have time.”

I stepped from her path, knowing they could have just shot me out of the way.

“Don’t do anything,” I said, and Thompson looked my way, his eyes narrowing but losing focus as if distracted.

“Hold position,” he said, but not to us as he reached to a pocket at the front of his black jacket, pulling out a white envelope.

52

JESSICA

I read the writing as he drew it out, pushing it towards me. It was from Toni.

Proof she was still alive.

It was her writing, unless her mother had the same beautiful curl to the letters I’d always marvelled at.

The middle soldier, Thompson, stepped forward and I licked my dry lips, regretting the dried covering of rancid blood. I couldn’t wipe my mouth on my sleeve, there was no area of my