One (Alone Book 3) Page 13

  “Kaley Ollie will be fine he’s with Kian”.

  “No, no somethings coming he won’t be fine”.

  “Kaley, you need to tell me what the hell is going on, I don’t understand any of this”.

  “I can’t save him Stacie, I can’t, but I at least want to be there to be able to say goodbye”.

  I could see the urgency in her eyes, I took her hand, “Come on”.

  We ran through the crumbling hotel which was now so warped and wonky that it made it hard to keep on the right path, suddenly the floor opened up under our feet, a huge hole ripping through the floor boards. Kaley screamed as we plummeted down, floors whipping past us.

  “Kaley water, I see water, legs straight”.

  I just hoped she knew what I meant. I hit the water using my feet to break the surface first so it wouldn’t rip me apart, I just had to pray there was nothing sharp that would hurt me or kill her on impact.

  The water filled my ears and the world plunged into a weird noise of rushing and gushing. Kicking my legs I broke the surface of the murky liquid and breathed hard, searching around the grimy, algae covered water that used to be the hotels swimming pool I called out Kaley’s name. I knew how she felt about water but before I called out again she too broke the surface.

  “Ollie, I need to get to Ollie”, she screamed, her fear of water seemingly non-existent now.

  Making my way to her I then helped her swim over to the old ladder, just as the floor above us caved in sending a wave over us and forcing us up and onto the pool floor before we even had time to climb the rungs. Panting and wheezing with the aftershock I could hear the building above us give.

  “Move Kaley, Move”, I said pulling her up and running and slipping on the wet, damp, and moss covered tiled floor.

  We reached a small doorway and thundered through just as the rest of the ceiling fell through, we came out into another room with a smaller pool, once a children’s pool but it was blocked, the ceiling had already caved in here cutting off the exit and leaning unsteadily over the small pool.

  “What now?” Kaley panicked.

  “That window over there”, I said pointing, “We get to it you can smash it”.

  “How?” she asked, “The way is blocked”.

  “We swim, under the ceiling, it’s only covering part of the pool”.

  She nodded but I could see she didn’t like this idea but it was going to be the quickest and easiest way out. Taking the plunge we jumped back into the cold green slimed water together, taking Kaley’s hand I led the way and took a breath before ducking under and swimming under the debris. I could hear my heart pounding loudly in my ears, what the hell was going on? What was going to happen to Ollie? Reaching the other side we gasped for clean air, Kaley wasted no time in smashing the window and climbing out, she didn’t even notice that she leant on a shard of glass and cutting her hand. She just took off to find him, the one she loved and that she somehow knew she was going to lose.

  Racing after her we came out onto the street, looking up at the hotel I could make out through the damp dust and rubble where it had fallen onto the building opposite, most of it merging together as one, some of it crumbling to the floor in a large pile of debris. Kaley stormed ahead in the rain, her already wet clothing being washed away of the green algae from the pool. She reached the other hotel that we had left the others waiting in, her hands reaching for the handles on the main doors but before she could pull to open them the doors burst open with such force that she flew back into the air, she fell to the curb cracking her skull with such a sickeningly loud thwack causing her to fall unconscious.

  “Kaley”, I shouted running towards her, a flash of movement breezed from the main doors and landed on top of her, too fast to be human and too fast to be just a normal creature. The thing placed its hands around her neck to strangle her, trying to finish the job of killing her whilst she lay sleeping. I moved, my legs moving for me, my brain not even registering that I was moving towards them, my claws already out and ready for the kill. The things arms were covered in a thick grey fabric coat, the dark hood up covering the things face. The hood turned to me and hissed but I didn’t stop, my own arms out stretched as I rammed into the hidden faced person. They weren’t as easy as I had anticipated to push over but they moved away from Kaley, as we tumbled they moved using their legs to flip me over their body and I landed harshly on my side.

  Swinging my legs so I could get up quickly I watched as the masked person came at me.

  BANG! A gun shot rang out and a bullet hit the shoulder of the hooded person. Kian stood at the door his gunned still aimed at the perpetrator. Ollie came out behind him with Cain, “Kaley”, he cried out seeing her unconscious on the floor, running to her he knelt by her side checking her over.

  Before my eyes the hooded person moved but not at me but at Ollie, I knew then this was what Kaley had been dreading, even as I moved I wasn’t quick enough, I was just those few steps to far behind.

  “OLLIE”, I called out. He turned but it wasn’t enough, the thing protruded claws from under the coat and stabbed them through Ollie’s chest pinning him to the ground next to Kaley.

  “NOOOO!” I screamed and jumped and landed on the things back, digging my own claws down into the things core and pulling, tearing the bastard thing apart. The body rolled to the floor and the hood fell down… “No…no…I killed you”.

  The thing wasn’t dead, even though its back had now been ripped off by my fury, but I had felt him die before back in the tunnel, I had killed him.

  He looked up at me with amused eyes, “I’m like you remember, we don’t have the pleasure of dying, do we?”

  I screamed loud and angry, I sliced the monsters face over and over and over until under me was just a raw bloody mess. Cain was screaming in the background behind me, Kian was trying to shield his eyes from the attack that I blasted onto what had become Ollie’s killer but what made me more angry was that Kaley was now unconscious and might never get to say goodbye to the one she loved.

  Strong arms tried to pull me off but I continued on pushing the person away, a kick to my skull dazed me for a second and I paused to see Kian had left Cain with Lara and he was trying to pull me off, to stop me giving in to the angry madness inside me.

  “Stop it, he’s seen enough, stop it!” Kian ordered me, holding me down.

  “Stop it? How can I stop it? He’s killed Ollie”, I stammered.

  “It’s dead”, he whispered so that only I could hear.

  I turned back to the monster before me, I sent out my feelers and found that its heart was still beating weakly inside, “No it’s not dead yet but it will be”.

  Kian went to stop me but Ollie coughed and spluttered, “Leave her to it, she needs to kill him or he will keep coming back”.

  “But the boy?” Kian asked looking to Cain whose tear stained face was full of shock.

  “He will only kill him and all of you if she doesn’t kill him first”, Ollie motioned to the raw mess of a man.

  Kian just looked into my eyes but I knew all he could see was the monster inside myself and the blood lust that was taking me over, “Fine, at least let me take him back inside the hotel”.

  “You do that”, the creature croaked below me, “It will only prolong the torture more”, it even tried to laugh, its face just a tangled mash of tissue, flesh, blood and teeth, its heart flaring more with life, trying to heal him from the inside out to fix the mess I had made him.

  “ARGH”, I cried out and without warning I slashed my claws down through his neck, cutting through arteries, bones, veins and muscle tissue. His head lolloped to one side, his face frozen with the demented words he wished to speak.

  Kian hadn’t been able to move a few inches towards Cain, his clothes now flecked with the creatures blood. Cain was sobbing but I had to keep him safe, he knew the horrors of the world, including me. Ollie had been right, I couldn’t protect him from them forever, just like I hadn’t been able to protect Ol
lie from them all those years ago.

  Turning to the monster I grabbed his hair, I pulled the head away from the body so any strange reattachment couldn’t take place. I took it to a small car which was rusted to the road, the tires and wheels mere remnants of what they used to be, smashing a window I then threw the head inside. Marching to the now fallen hotel I grabbed wood and anything flammable and threw them in next to the severed head then pulled out my lighter from my pocket, lit it and threw it in. The seats were damp and didn’t light straight away but the heat of the flame soon dried parts out and the car set alight burning the infected flesh and sending out a signal, that he was not coming back from this one.

  Marching over to the body I dragged it away from the car and hotel, I pulled it to another car and threw it inside and set that alight too. Two smoke signals filled the street around me, the rain hitting both the hot cars and hissing around us like coiled snakes.

  Turning back to Kaley and Ollie I could see the amount of blood that had been spilled not only by my own hand but by the hand of the creature, and now Ollie was bleeding out, his skin deathly pale, his lips ice blue, his eyes fluttering at the world around him. I leant down to him and lifted his head so it lay in my lap, I stroked his hair and spoke to him, “I’m so sorry I let you down”.

  “You didn’t let me down Stacie, you saved me, on many occasions. If it wasn’t for you I would never have lived to this age”.

  “I failed you Ollie, I thought I killed that thing but I should have known better than that, me and him we are the same…type of monster, I should have known he would heal and come back”.

  “How were you to know, you have never met anyone else who can heal like you can. I know you thought the only reason was the cocktail of drugs Demetri and Toni gave you but I guess it shows there could be more like you out there. Maybe like Toni thought, it’s your blood type? You have to be careful, all…of…you”, he coughed and blood dripped from his lips, he arched his back in pain and cried out.

  “Take it easy”, I sobbed, my hand trailing his face.

  “Sian…Sian said something to me last night that I don’t understand. She’s whispering it to me now”, his eyes glossing over.

  “What is it?” I asked my lips trembling, I had promised them both I would look after him. What would Sian think of me now?

  “Meet her at the beginning…But where? Where is the beginning…?”

  I thought for a moment, he couldn’t meet her at the very beginning of all of this as he wouldn’t make it to Svalbard but… “The beginning Ollie…Where you and Sian were together when this all started, meet her back there”.

  “At home?” he asked confused, “At home, in Brighton…She hated home, she hated Helena”.

  “Helena? Your mother?”

  He nodded then hissed with the pain, “Why would she want to meet back there?”

  “To start again maybe?”

  “Maybe…”

  I looked at Kaley who was still on the floor, “Try and wake her up”, I said to Dwayne who had just arrived to the bloodbath and was standing by the door of the hotel where Kian held Cain. I could sense Ollie didn’t have long left.

  He marched over, not sure whether to touch the sleeping telekinetic creature. He nudged Kaley but got no response, opening his bag he pulled out his water and splashed some on her face and put some to her lips. Kaley’s eyes fluttered before opening slowly.

  “Kaley”, I whispered.

  Her head snapped to me where Ollie lay dying.

  “No, no, no, no…” she said sitting up and crawling over still dazed, “No, no, no, no, no”.

  “It’s ok Kaley, it doesn’t hurt that bad”, Ollie lied.

  She took his face in her hands and kissed him, “I’m so sorry I tried to stop it…I tried”.

  “But whichever way it went I was always going to die Kaley, you couldn’t change that however much you tried. It must have to happen for a reason, to…make…you stronger or something”, he tried to see a positive.

  “Stronger?” Kaley wailed, “How can I go on without you?”

  “Because you have them”, he said pointing to us all which made me bow my head but movement caught my eye. Damien and Ruth walked out from the other side of the street, through the rubble of the old hotel, somehow they too made it out, their eyes adjusting to the smoke filled street and the blood covered ground that surrounded Ollie. Kirsty appeared with them covered in dust and dried blood, she looked haunted and scared. Where was Mac?

  Dwayne left us and went to Kirsty, he asked what had happened and she sobbed about a floor, a sharp plank of wood and his body slamming onto it. She fell to the floor in a flood of tears. Dwayne cradled her and looked at me, “Is this it? What’s meant to happen to us all?”

  I shrugged, “I…I don’t know”.

  “We all knew what we were getting ourselves into”, Lara said from beside me, “We knew we might not live to see another time at the camp”.

  Dwayne’s eyes suddenly looked haunted and I knew what he was thinking, his daughter, he might never see her again. He had fooled himself into thinking he would, fooled himself into thinking he was going to be her hero and go home to win back the love of Jaz too.

  “You can go back Dwayne but we cannot help you get there”, I told him.

  “No I said I wanted to come and help save the world for her…” he stammered, “I just hope there is enough of us to do it”.

  “Ollie…Ollie…No don’t go”, I spun round to Kaley who was leaning over his now lifeless body. His chest had stopped moving and his heart had given in. Kaley closed his eyes and felt myself go numb inside.

  I went to take Kaley’s hand but she pulled away and lay her head on top of his chest. Her angry and sobbing cries screaming out until she could speak no more.

  Chapter Ten…

  Sian smiled, gentle tears cascading down her face like a soothing waterfall, “Come with me little brother, now we can be together again, back at the beginning”.

  Kaley walked in a daze listening to Sian’s voice over and over. She had never met her, only from the memories she had witnessed in Ollie’s mind. She felt jealousy slither through her body at how Sian now had Ollie back and she no longer had him. She tried to be rational and reasonable but she was heartbroken and her mind wasn’t acting how it normally did. It felt…Tired, raw…Infected.

  She held onto Ollie’s shotgun like it was the only thing left in the world that could connect them together, the gun had been used by Ollie daily, it had his soul attached to it, he hunted and saved their lives with it. Now it would be the connection she needed to stay with him, for him to stay with her.

  “We need to get some supplies”, Kian said as they came over the brow of a small hill. She could see what he had spotted, a small shopping centre.

  “Those places are best left alone”, she told him. Ollie and Stacie had both told her that but it was also common sense, plus what had happened at the one in Tunbridge Wells…It all seemed like so long ago to her now.

  “We need food and water”, he said turning to her, “Do you have another idea?”

  She knew what he meant, had she seen anything bad there? Had she seen somewhere else to look? She shrugged, “No”.

  “Kaley we do need food, you haven’t eaten anything today and Cain needs more food too”, Stacie said. Kaley looked at her and could see deep down she was trying to stay strong but she could also see something else in her eyes, the fall. Stacie was beginning to fall, just like she was meant to, inside she was caving in, Kaley just hoped that she did indeed have the strength to come back from it this time.

  “Fine we look”, Kaley said, “But I think you two should take a look first make sure it’s safe”.

  Stacie looked at her, “Have you not seen this place?”

  She shook her head, “No I haven’t. Which means if we are not careful we could change things that shouldn’t change”.

  “Change?” Stacie looked lost.

  “Just be careful”.
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  Stacie nodded, “Ok but keep him safe”.

  Kaley agreed, “Of course”.

  She then watched as Stacie and Kian took off to the shopping centre. She watched as Stacie spied back to Cain, Kaley pulled him close as if to say ‘I have his back’, then they both vanished inside the crumbling building.

  ~

  Dr Aksel sat in his own personal chambers flicking through the notes of the late doctor. Aksel was a little saddened that his daughter had decided to run off with a rebel into the night, she had been pretty, his type but he had been way above her, she was below his league and he knew his uncle would never have approved of their…Romance.

  Her father on the other hand, was a rambling idiot. He had left her notes about the C.U.R.E in his office in a place he knew only she would look but he was stupid because Aksel knew that would be the place she would find it and leave it, not wanting it on her person in case she was caught with it, after all stealing the CCTV footage wasn’t rocket science. The late doctor knew he wasn’t going to live and wanted to try and tell the rebels about what was going on but it didn’t matter because the one rebel who knew had gone…but Aksel knew he would soon be returning, with the girl…The girl!

  Aksel knew nothing about her other than she could communicate from long distances and she had some sort of mental powers beyond that of the normal human mind. He knew it had to be the infection inside her veins, making her like this, whatever it was she could do.

  He knew from previous experiments on the infected that the infection actually opened up parts of their brains that could not normally be accessed by a normal human being although it also had an adverse reaction to their bodies causing them to decay whilst still alive. The beautiful virus was a miraculous thing. He had concluded that what happened to the girl was indeed the mind opening up, the brain accessing more. Of course he wouldn’t know until she was here and he could do tests and scans to assure this idea but he was a good scientist and he knew it was the only plausible idea.