After The Lights Went Out

After the Lights Went Out

Frost nipped at the heels of our group as we wondered through the dead grass. It was thawing slowly at the bases of the pyres. A haunting scent of burnt hair filled area. People were beginning to slow again. Night would set in in a few hours. We wouldn’t eat tonight, we hadn’t reached the checkpoint.

Something in the distance growled. Everyone’s heads turned, searching for the source of the droning bellow. Behind me a child shrieked, I cringed as I heard the guttural shouting of the soldiers. Most of us didn’t understand their language. Unfortunately, most of us didn’t need to, they made sure not to pass on their threats. Cooper hung around my feet, whining at the noise. His fur was long and matted but it kept both him and I warm at night. We didn’t usually get blankets. I crouched down and patted him slowly, whispering a lullaby to calm him down. If he barked I would be in trouble, too much noise tended to attract the beasts.

People claimed they weren’t real. They were like the story of the boogieman. I had seen the beasts though; when it was dark, I had seen their monstrous forms lurking in the fog of the swamps. Soon the conversation grew quiet, aided by curses and threats spat by the soldiers. Our feet had blistered by the time we reached the outskirts of the city proper. The once grand high rising buildings stood erect like haunted cinder blocks. Winds howled through their empty insides, passing through the broken windows.

We stopped to rest in some of the smaller homes on the outskirts. Our group was just under fifty people comprised of all sorts of broken families. Everyone’s lives had completely uprooted when the lights went out. I was born over a decade after it happened, when the world went quiet. No one had heard from some nations, some people believed there was no one else out there. There had been an accident years ago. Humanity almost went extinct. I don’t know everything about what happened, there are few who do. Rumours say that weapons of mass destruction had launched. All that’s known for certain is that all world communication was annihilated.

Cooper trotted over to me. Luckily, I had found a spot to keep out of the rain, a room with only two walls standing and a roof close to completely collapsing. I snuggled into the corner, gripping my pack tightly. Things would go missing if you didn’t keep an eye on them. Before long my eyes closed and I began to drift to sleep.

‘Excuse me, miss?’ Someone had spoken. My eyes opened, an older man stood in front of me as well as I boy around my age. He spoke with a thick accent, similar to my own. The man gestured to where I was sleeping, ‘Would it be alright it we could stay with you tonight? My grandson and I are new to this group’

He smiled and his bright blue eyes winked like stars. There was a sadness in them, framed by the wrinkles on his worn skin. I nodded and gestured to my right, shifting to the left to give them more room. The older man limped to the corner and sat down, his nephew sat beside me and smiled awkwardly. He had a mop of shaggy curled hair on his hair, the same brown colour as his eyes. Wiry spectacles hung asymmetrically on his face.

‘My name is Heinrich, my grandson is Patrick.’ He nodded and tipped his flat cap. His plaid clothing looked worn and covered in dust. Like his grandson, he also wore glasses.

‘My name is Anya.’ I said quietly, smiling at him. I had never spoken to anyone in the group before; my mother had told me to keep to myself when we separated. I shivered at the memory of that day. Patrick waved his hands and gestured at me.

‘He said you have a very pretty name.’ said Heinrich, ‘Patrick is mute. He hasn’t said a word since…his parents died.’

Patrick grew a solemn look on his face and pulled his knees to his chest. I put my hand on his knee and produced the heart shaped locket I kept secure around my neck.

‘I know what it’s like to lose someone’ I said. The locket flipped open revealing the faded picture of my mother within. Patrick put his hand on mine and then tapped it his chest, he gestured and spoke again with his hands.

‘The hardest thing is knowing they can’t come back.’ Heinrich translated for me.

‘My mother is coming back.’ I gripped the locket tightly, my voice terse, ‘She promised me.’

‘I hope that is so, Anya. Grief is not meant for souls so young.’ Heinrich took a pipe from his pocket and lit it. ‘I pray you meet her when we reach the Promised Site.’

I nodded my thanks; Cooper whined quietly at my side and rested his head in Patricks lap. Patrick smiled and began to pet him. A howl pierced the night.

‘Moor Beasts.’ I shuddered.

‘I remember I was no older than a man when they came.’ Said Heinrich ‘A failed experiment, designed to see how life could adapt to its new toxic environment in the swamps.’

Patrick and I shuddered in unison. A few dozen feet away a conversation between three soldiers got louder. They were laughing and pointing at us. Patrick glared at them.

‘What are they saying?’ I asked Heinrich.

‘They joke about eating your dog. They say they are hungry and deserve the food the most.’ Heinrich looked sick as he said it. Anger boiled in my blood, I clenched my fist and cursed the soldiers under my breath. They began to walk to towards us. At the head of them was a grizzled tall man. He had a large scar running from his temple to his cheek. He barked at us in a language I couldn’t understand.

‘They are demanding we give them payment to make up for the food we missed out on by walking too slow today.’ Heinrich translated. That wasn’t fair, I thought. They couldn’t do this. The soldier in the front gestured to the locket on my neck. As he reached for it, Patrick stood up and slapped his hand away. The soldier cursed and pushed Patrick back into the wall, then kneed him in the stomach, he fell to the ground with a thud. I screamed in protest but the soldier was too strong, he ripped the locket from my neck and pushed me into the mud. His friends laughed as he spat at us and walked away.

Feverishly I began to look over Patrick, he didn’t appear to be bleeding but he was coughing up discharge. I shouted curses at the soldiers back.

‘Do not anger him!’ Heinrich told me sternly, ‘We are close to the Promised Site, we do not want to ruin our chances now.’

Reluctantly I listened to him and stopped my stream of insults. Together we helped Patrick sit up and made sure he was well. I gave him the last of my water rations. He smiled a thank you. Heinrich told us to get some sleep, as it would be a long journey tomorrow. Patrick and I agreed and sleep came quickly to both of us listening to the sound of the rain.

I awoke to something shaking me. At first, I thought it was Cooper but when I opened my eyes, I saw Patrick kneeling by my side. His glasses were fogged by the rain. He smiled as I got up.

‘What is it?’ I asked. I went to go wake Heinrich so he could translate but Patrick shook his head. Something in the darkness moved. Light flooded across us. A few dozen feet away a group of soldiers shone their flashlights in our direction. They pointed with their weapons and yelled at us. Patrick was as pale as a ghost. Surely, they weren’t here to hurt him again, he had only tried to protect me. The soldiers charged.

We ran. Through the winding indistinct maze of concrete we bolted, scared of what would happen if we were caught. Patrick stopped in his tracks. I almost ran into him, I shouted at him to keep running. Then I saw what he was staring at. Thick overgrowth flooded the area around us, dark sickly green foliage had taken over this side of the city like a tumour. If we ran any further we would run into the swamp proper. Into where the beasts dwelled. We didn’t have time to think, soldiers were little more than a hundred feet away.

I grabbed Patrick’s hand and we ran into the swamp. It became warmer almost immediately; the plant life throbbed with toxicity. There was no light in here to show us a way out. So we ran, we ran until our breath was long gone. Patrick stopped at the base of a hollow tree after a good half hour of running. He looked sick.

‘Why are they chasing us, Patrick? What did you do?’ I asked, gripping at his shoulders. A shrieking roar echoed from nearby. Cooper whimpered and hid in the hollow tree trunk. I helped Patrick climb inside the crevice. Something was close the ground was shaking. I searched the tree line. Something large loomed in the distance. From the trees two specs of green lit up. The beast emerged from the viridian. It was as large as a house. Two massive tusks protruded from its swollen jaw. It’s skin was thick like hide. I wasn’t sure what animal to even compare it to.

Cooper jumped out from behind us and barked at it. The beast lowered its head and opened its jaw. It flared it’s nostrils out and growled back at Cooper. He sat and yapped again at the monster. My heart caught in my throat, the thing was uncomfortably close. Then it brought it’s head up and glared at Patrick and I in the tree. After a few agonising moments it simply walked away, destroying the vegetation in its path. In the distance I could see the sun rising from the trees. Black specs were moving in front of the light. They were people, they were a group.

I chased towards them through the swamp, Patrick and Cooper raced behind me. We emerged from the trees with haste. On the hill in front of us, the group stopped moving. They had reached the Promised Site. There was still hope for us in the wasteland. Overcome with joy I ran through the crowd, pushing my way to the front.

Below the hill, there was only ruin. Walls of marble and stone were cracked like eggshells. Fire raged in the abandoned complex.

‘Anya?’ Heinrich limped up beside me. ‘Where did you kids disappear to?’

‘This isn’t it? It can’t be it.’ I fell to my knees, gazing over the field of destruction. My mother said she would wait for me at the Promised Site. But it was gone, it had been obliterated. Soldiers shouted and pushed past the weeping crowd. They pointed at me and at Patrick. The one with the scar grabbed him by the arm and dragged Patrick to the edge of the hill. I screamed at him to stop, Heinrich used the last of his aging strength to keep me back. People began to shout in panic. The boom of the gunshot left them quiet. Patrick’s body fell.

I broke free from Heinrich, tears streaming from my eyes. I knelt by his side, praying. This had happened to fast for me to comprehend. He reached for my face; with his other hand he offered something. It was my locket, the silver now stained red. He had taken back my locket. He had died to return it to me.

The life behind his broken spectacles faded before I could thank him.