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

look at Naomi. I had to turn away from Cassie's red eyes. Instead, I concentrated on the dog's long face, the pink of its mouth as it panted, watching it sat at my heels; its wagging tail stopping only when from behind the door came a muffled, high-pitched scream.

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A dark shape arrived behind the thin rectangles of leaded glass. Fingers rattled the handle and scrabbled across the locks. The dog barked and the figure stopped. The top latch had clicked off but he had no success with the solid mortice. The figure wasn't moving.

I kicked myself for not getting his name.

“Kid, find the long key,” I shouted.

The figure moved, jolting forward at my voice.

“Oh my god,” came Cassie's call.

I span around and saw five of the slow creatures ambling over the hill, spotting another group, double in number, rising over the crest before I turned.

Cassie stepped back, almost tripping over Naomi's motionless form.

“Find the long key,” I shouted again, trying to think how we could get everyone else through the small window.

“Got it,” came the call from inside, but something was wrong. The sound was much quieter.

The lock rattled and the boy pulled open the door. A girl stood further into the darkness. They must have swapped places when she realised the boy with the gun was with us. Still, she screamed as she saw my bloodied appearance; her eyes wide open, hands at her mouth.

“Ellie,” I heard Cassie gasp as I picked up Naomi. The call came again, but this time she screamed with excitement.

With my hands sliding with her sticky blood, the putrid stench caught in the wind as I followed behind Cassie’s forward charge and slammed the door behind me with my foot.

Placing Naomi’s limp body on the couch in the first room to the left, the boy had his arms around his sister, nodding to the gun high on a wall unit shelf.

Cassie knelt to the floor, fussing over her sister, pulling up her clothes and examining every exposed patch of skin for injury before hugging her through heavy, joyful sobs, despite Ellie’s annoyed insistence she’d not been near any of the creatures.

The dog had disappeared, racing room to room, his nose switching from high in the air to hovering just above the carpet.

“Cassie,” I shouted, sharp and clear. “Pressure,” I said, pointing my hands to Naomi's face.

After a double take in my direction, she took in the room as if for the first time. Cassie dragged her sister over by the arm, not letting her out of touching distance as she pressed her hands hard onto the wound.

I shot out of the room, heading straight to the kitchen, ignoring the other closed doors. I rifled through the cupboards and drawers searching for a first aid kit or anything else I could use, but only finding clean dishcloths. The cupboards were bare, cleared in a hurry.

I scrambled up the stairs to find the bedrooms rifled and disorganised. The people who had lived here had been lucky. They'd had warning, were given at least a few moments to collect up treasured things before their evacuation.

I found the bathroom with ease, but the medicine cabinet above the sink stood empty.

I ran down the stairs, passing the dog on the way and was kneeling to Naomi's side when a great thump hit the front door.

We all looked at each other in disbelief, even though we knew those things had followed us. Still, we gave a collective jump as a dark shape thudded against the living room window, its shadow looming across the room.

I looked to Cassie, holding out the cloths.

“Can you?” I said.

She nodded and I raced up the stairs, the dog joining my side at the window of the front bedroom. Swiping the net curtains to the side, I saw nothing unusual until I opened the window, the stench rising as the seal creaked. I peered down into the cold air and watched the group of fifteen gathered around the front door, their number spreading out either side to surround the building.

Watching in awe, I made myself calm, taking deep breaths through my mouth. Staring out to the hills, I tried to picture what normality had been. With the stench and the low rumbling moan, all I could think of was the others still out there. There was little we could do in here, but I had an idea.

Listening to Cassie's voice still high and hearing her gratitude at the realisation her sister was safe, I found a child's bedroom and, after a short search, located bold markers in a drawer.

Back in the front bedroom, I shoved aside the bed covers and, with dried blood flaking to the white surface, I scrawled my missing friend's names in big, bold letters.

“What happened to the others?” I heard Cassie say, her voice rising up the stairs.

I could barely hear the reply, just making out they'd separated. Ellie hadn't seen what had happened to Naomi, Zoe or Andrew. The sound of each name came like an electric shock. The pilot, as she called him, had been with her when they walked into another group of those creatures.

He'd distracted them, drawing them towards him, making them follow as he ran in the opposite direction from her. They'd both seen the house and, as he ran, he pointed her towards it.

I had the sheet off the bed and out one side of the window. Tying off the end, I tried to throw the corner across and catch it from the other opening. On my fourth try I'd grabbed it in my fingertips and tried to tie it down.

“But how did you get in?” Cassie said.

My fingers stopped working the knot, my breath held in the long pause. I moved my hands from the sheet, not noticing if it