Red Lord, where are you?
16
HANNAH
Hannah couldn’t believe what was going on around her. For the last two hours, she’d been warming herself beside a campfire while watching people rush around like headless chickens. It was as though she’d made a wish, and it’d come true. She’d been alone for almost two weeks, her sanity cracking, and unsure if she would ever see another human being again. Then she had bumped into Ted and found this place. It was like stumbling upon a ruby in the desert.
The chaos had settled, and now she and Ted were receiving suspicious glances from the strangers whose camp they’d invaded. Did they suspect she and Ted had something to do with the dees attacking?
They should be thanking us. If me and Ted had arrived any later, there’d be nothing left but bodies. We saved these people’s arses.
Ted had been an animal during the battle, rushing from the trees with that hammer of his like a balding action hero with a beer gut. Something had come over the guy, the kind of bloodlust she’d heard stories about from guys who’d fought in Afghanistan. It happened to a person when all that remained was rage. Even now, while Ted sat staring into the fire, he wasn’t right. His shoulders rode too high beneath his ears, and he went minutes at a time without blinking. “You okay?” she asked him cautiously.
Ted half-glanced in her direction. “Just another day in paradise.”
“This place is paradise, Ted. Aren’t you glad to catch your breath?”
“You don’t know what I’ve been through,” he said evenly. “Or what I deem to be paradise.”
Hannah sighed. “Fair enough, but still… can you believe this place? They must have been hiding here the whole time, surviving off the land. They have fishing poles and nets. There’s even a castle up there on the hill. A freaking castle!”
“Pity it ain’t filled with an army of swordsmen.” He picked up a clump of grass and threw it into the fire, watching it burn. “These idiots have been making camp while the world was ending. If we didn’t get here when we did they’d be demon food. They weren’t even fighting back.”
Hannah had witnessed the same thing. The people here had been screaming in terror instead of trying to defend themselves. It reminded her of the very first days of the invasion. People had given into panic back then, too, falling back on their faith that somehow things would be okay—that reality would suddenly tilt back into place and the powers that be would save them. There was no such thing as monsters, they had told themselves as monsters devoured their families. Those days of denial soon ended as people learned you either fought back with everything you had, or you died. “These must be the Duke of Edinburgh kids from the coach,” she said. “You reckon those dees on the road found the coach and guessed people would be out here?”
Ted huffed. “No. Demons don’t investigate or plan. They move in straight lines, eating up the world piece by piece.”
“Then how did they find this place?”
“Because I led them here,” said a voice from behind them. Hannah looked up and saw a slender young man with thick black hair and mildly East-Asian features. He smiled at them but looked weighed down by invisible anchors. “I think the demons followed me from the road.”
“You what?” Another man emerged from the shadows and approached the fire. He was older, with wild greying hair. Tears streaked his cheeks behind broken spectacles as he glared at the other man. “Y-You led those monsters here?”
The doctor became anxious. “I-I… Yes, I think I might have. They chased me from a house I was searching. I escaped into the forest. They must have followed me. I’m so sorry, Philip.”
The older man looked shocked. He kept moving his lips, but it took a while for him to get his words out. “My boy,” he uttered. “Bray died alone because of you!”
The younger man didn’t see the punch coming, and it clocked him right in the jaw. His lights went out, and he belly-flopped to the ground. His left arm landed right inside the campfire, and if it wasn’t for Ted dragging him back and smothering the flames with his sleeve, he might have gone up like a match.
Hannah leapt to her feet and put her hands out to the violent man. “Back off, mate!”
“Who are you people?” he demanded. “We were fine here. We were fine until all of you turned up!”
Hannah kept her hand in his face. One thing she hated was a bully, and this man had just sucker-punched someone. “Just calm down. Philip, right? No one needs to get hurt here, okay?”
Philip glared at the man he’d punched and shook his head. “Too late.”
A woman appeared and ushered Philip away before he could do more damage. Hannah joined Ted on the ground and tried to stir the unconscious man whose eyes fluttered open and shut. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.
Hannah frowned. “Sorry for what? You’re the one who got punched, pet.”
He sat up gingerly, rubbing his chin and groaning. “I deserved it.”
“No, you didn’t.” She patted his back. “I’m Hannah. This is Ted.”
“Christopher Kamiyo. Doctor.” He pulled up his charred sleeve and checked his arm. The skin there was unharmed, but it could have easily been different. His hand, however, was red and sore.
“You’re a doctor?” Hannah raised her eyebrows. “Wow.”
He sighed. “I was a doctor, with modern medicine and equipment. Not sure what I am now. I couldn’t help Philip’s son. He had Typhoid.”
Ted blanched. “Typhoid? How on earth did he catch that?”
“Drinking from the lake, or maybe someone was carrying the illness when things all started. Illness will increasingly become a problem. Even if these people let me stay here, there isn’t much I can do without medicine and proper sanitation.”
“Why wouldn’t
