But he’d long ignored the fact these people said they’d be there for him. That they’d go the hell down with him if that’s what it took.
It was time he started listening to those voices. It was time he stopped thinking he had to go through everything alone.
It was time he found Kelly—and this time, stayed with her.
Just like Bruno had found him, out of nowhere, against all odds.
He had to embrace that same resolve. That same strength.
It was time he stopped pushing people away.
He walked further down the road when he heard Bruno whine.
He stopped. Looked around. At first, he thought it might be pain. Bruno looked hungry and a lot weaker than he remembered for one.
But that whine. The way he looked around. Scanned the area. It was like he was bothered about something too. Like he sensed something too.
“Hey,” Noah said, walking over to his side. “It’s alright, lad. Nothing to worry about.”
But Bruno didn’t seem reassured. Still seemed unsettled, as he sat there, tongue dangling out, panting, scanning from left to right, then up at the sky.
Noah found himself looking up, too. Staring up into the grey clouds. Listening to the wind. He didn’t know why, but he felt there was something up there. Something watching. Something closing in.
They kept on walking for another hour, found themselves in an abandoned little village. No sign of life, much like everywhere else. But still that sense that eyes were on them. That something was coming. Noah thought about stopping and taking a rest at first, but he was done with that idea. He just wanted to get there. If he walked at a decent pace, he could be there before nightfall. That was the goal. That’s what he needed.
The clouds thickened over. Cold rain pelted down from above. The wind picked up. Somewhere overhead, in the distance, he swore he heard thunder cracking and rumbling away. It felt like they were on the brink of something. Like something major was on the verge of unfolding, and yet he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
Perhaps most alarming—more alarming than anything else—was the lack of life itself Noah that encountered. Infected. Society. Reds. None of them had hunted him down in recent days. It’s like they’d stopped looking for him.
Maybe Iqrah really was the more important one after all. Maybe they’d moved on to someone else.
He reached an old junction towards a motorway. Still blocked with cars. A few dead bodies lay beside it, prune-like grey skin tight around their starved faces. Graffiti written in blood across the side of a lorry: SAVE US.
And it all brought the horrors of the early days crashing back. It brought back reminders of the old world, and how good they had it, without truly realising it. People complained about jobs and the government and climate change and all that crap. But now? It all seemed so irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It all seemed so false. Like humanity itself were living a lie.
He turned to the road ahead as the clouds thickened and the rain fell heavier when he heard something above.
He thought he was imagining things at first. Thought it was in his head.
But there was no denying it, the closer he listened.
An engine.
No. Rotors.
Something above.
Something…
He looked up, and he saw it in the clouds.
No. Not it.
Them.
Helicopters.
Two of them that he could see. Lined up alongside one another. All traversing their way across the sky.
He stood there and stared up as the rain pelted down onto him. Bruno barked a little, whined, uncertain.
And as he stood there and looked up—unable to shift his gaze, unable to look anywhere else—all he could think about was that weird feeling in his gut.
That sense that something wasn’t right.
That this was wrong.
He watched the helicopters pass by when he heard something else behind him.
Engines.
Car engines.
He spun around.
Saw four vans driving down the road towards him.
He jumped out of the way. Dragged Bruno to the side. Hid beneath an old Jeep.
And he watched as those vans passed by.
Not four. More than four. Far more than four. Double figures.
And as he watched them pass by, a tension swelled in his gut.
Because inside those vans, he could see Society guards.
Not Reds. Proper Society guards.
Armed to the hilt.
Like they were going somewhere.
Like they were preparing for something.
A conflict.
That’s when he heard some of the doors open up. A few of them stepped out. Noah heard voices. Arguing. Debating. He couldn’t make sense of the words. Not at first.
Not until something caught his ear.
“He’s at the industrial estate. Has to be. And we’ll shoot every one of those fuckers to get to him if we have to.”
Noah watched them pass by, and the only sense he got was that they were going to the industrial estate where Kelly was—and that he was the one they were looking for. That something was happening there.
Fear built inside him.
Adrenaline surged through his body.
They were going to the industrial estate.
They were going to where Kelly was.
He waited for the vans to pass by.
And then he did something he knew was risky.
Something he knew might be the goddamned death of him.
He ran across the street, over to that open door of the van.
Threw himself and Bruno inside, into the darkness of the ammunition and weapons store.
And then he hid behind a box, and he waited.
Silence for a while. Silence but for the rain. For the wind.
And then the whistling and the footsteps of the Society guard.
He walked over to the van door. Stood at it for a moment. Glanced inside and looked around.
And then he slammed the door shut, and the room filled with darkness.
Noah sat there. Held on to Bruno. Heart racing.
A few minutes later, the van kicked into life.
He didn’t know what was ahead, but he knew one thing for sure.
They were going to the industrial estate.
But as they moved, all Noah could think about
