“You gonna stand there gawking all day, Col?” Jessica asked. “Or are we actually gonna get investigating here?”
Colin snapped out of the moment. Looked around and saw Jessica glaring at him through her visor. She was a tough old cookie. Real mean type, always went with the logical and the pragmatic over the emotional.
And Colin got that. He liked that.
But there was something cruel about it. Something mean about it that scared him too.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s get investigating this place. Seeing what we can find.”
He walked along the promenade. Over towards these old trams, rusting away, left derelict for years. The smell was even worse here. If these masks were supposed to keep the stench out, then they weren’t doing a damned good job of that, that was for sure.
“Shit,” Jessica said. “Look at the state of their heads.”
Colin looked down at the bodies on the road. The flies buzzing around them. The blood staining the promenade, smeared across it. He’d heard about what happened at those creepy old labs. The folks there, skulls burst open. Didn’t believe in spooky shit like that, not really.
But now, looking right at it, staring back at him, he started to wonder whether the Society had a point about this Noah and Iqrah duo.
“Shitting hell,” Jessica said.
Colin looked up. Expected her to be staring at the bodies, just like him.
But she was looking somewhere else.
Inside one of the tram carriages.
He walked over to her. Half-expected her to be looking at a similar scene to the one out here.
But when Colin got there, he realised this was something very different altogether.
“What the hell?” he said.
The tram carriage was filled with bodies.
Some of them sat down. Others looked like they’d just slumped to the floor.
A sourness filled the air. Almost like a chemical sourness. Not something he was used to.
He looked at these bodies, and he just got a bad feeling about them.
There was this shininess to them. This brightness to their skin.
Something felt off.
Something felt rotten.
He looked at these bodies, and a shiver went right up his spine. It was their faces. The way their eyes boggled out their skulls like they’d seen something awful before they died. Something truly horrible.
“Well, lookie here,” Jessica said.
Colin frowned. She was standing by the far opening to the carriage.
When he walked over there, he saw bloodied footprints.
Two pairs of bloodied footprints.
And a dog’s paw prints, too.
A lightbulb flashed in his head. Apparently, the kid and the bloke travelled with a dog.
And there was this other set of prints, too. A third one. Small. Woman or kid.
Another one to focus on.
He followed those prints out of the carriage, back out onto the promenade, and saw them fade away up the nearest high street, outside of Blackpool.
Jessica looked at Colin. He could tell from her eyes she was smiling.
“Looks like they’re not gonna be so hard to follow after all,” she said.
Colin smiled back at her.
Nodded.
Tightened his grip on his rifle.
It was time to close in on Iqrah and Noah.
It was time to end this, once and for goddamned all.
But he couldn’t get the bodies in the tram out of his mind.
Chapter Twelve
Noah barely said anything on the road towards Morecambe.
The afternoon was growing late. Those thick grey clouds had cleared, and the impending, looming storm seemed to have settled. But darkness was approaching. Night was setting in. And the thought of spending the night out here—in the company of a woman he barely knew, and with Iqrah still in her state of blindness… it scared him.
He didn’t trust Kirsty. As much as Iqrah insisted she was good when she lived back at the Blackpool community. As much as she seemed a reasonable enough woman.
There was just something about her that set Noah’s insecurities on edge. He didn’t feel at ease. Not one bit.
But what could he do?
She’d promised a new home. A place where Iqrah’s parents had headed. Somewhere safe.
Did they really have a better option, especially now Iqrah desperately needed an extra level of care—a level of care he wasn’t sure even he could provide anymore?
They walked along the coast. Waves crashed against the shore. The sea looked uninviting, gunmetal grey and cold. Seagulls called overhead, swooping down into the water. A cold breeze cut through the summer air, making his teeth chatter.
“You sure you’re okay carrying her?”
Noah looked around. Saw Kirsty looking at him. She had these big blue eyes that pierced right through him, that felt like they could see right into his soul.
He nodded as Bruno panted alongside. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?” Kirsty said. “If you want a rest, I can—”
“I’m fine. Really.”
“I can hear you two, you know?” Iqrah said.
Noah rolled his eyes and sighed. Truth be told, it was easy to forget Iqrah was still present in any conversation, mostly because she couldn’t see a thing. He didn’t know how long that blindness was going to last. Didn’t know whether it was a temporary thing, a permanent thing. Didn’t know anything right now.
Only that the longer she was out here, the more danger she was in.
The more danger they were all in.
“I’m fine,” Noah said. “Seriously. But I… Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Kirsty nodded, then turned around slowly. “Any time.”
Kirsty wasn’t a woman of many words. Noah appreciated that. He was hardly interested in any major conversations himself. His sole focus was just reaching the Morecambe community, regardless of his doubts. He didn’t need to make friends along the way. He just needed to get there.
And when he did get there… what then?
A bitter taste filled his mouth. He was beginning to realise it was dangerous for him and Iqrah to be together. Together, they were just one target. Sitting ducks for the Society. They had everything they needed once they had both of them.
But if they separated, if they were distant… maybe it’d make things more difficult for the Society. Maybe things would be different.
But that closeness and that attachment to Iqrah
