Escape Artist (End of the World Book 3)

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Escape Artist

  About the Author

  ESCAPE ARTIST

  THE END OF THE WORLD: BOOK THREE

  BY

  THOMAS HALL

  Escape Artist

  Copyright © 2018 by Thomas Hall

  https://www.facebook.com/teajampublishing/

  The rights of Thomas Hall to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are ficticious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  CHAPTER 1

  THREE FACES STARE AT US THROUGH THE CHAIN link fence. They don’t say anything. Cassie takes a step towards them and they do not move.

  My heart is racing. I need to take the lead because I am the only one of us who knows what these things are capable of. Instead I let Cassie take another step towards them, and another.

  “Cassie stop!” I hiss.

  To my surprise she does as I say but then I hear a shiver of metal. When I look further down the fence I see that more faces have appeared. From a distance, you wouldn’t even know they were sick. Unfortunately, we are close enough to smell the stink of death on them. And see pulsing red veins running through their skin.

  “What’s going on?” Cassie says.

  “They’re dangerous,” I say.

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. “What do you mean dangerous? They’re sick, we can help them.”

  I turn to Michelle and Harriet for support, but neither of them knows the truth either.

  “Come away from the fence,” I say. “We’ll talk about it. I’ll explain.”

  She shakes her head.

  The Infected are watching our conversation with lazy interest. How much of it do they understand? How much of it is only noise to them?

  The fence starts to shake again but I don’t look around. They have surrounded us.

  “Cassie please…” I say.

  I expect her to argue again, but seeing so many of them together in one place has made her nervous. She nods and turns away, walks back towards us and stops beside Harriet.

  The fence begins to shake again. When I turn I see them holding onto it. There are so many of them that they could pull it down if they tried. After what I saw them do in the forest, I know they have the strength.

  “What’s going on?” Harriet says.

  Cassie takes her hand but doesn’t look away from me. I am the man with the answers and they want what I’ve got.

  How do you even begin to tell someone something like this?

  “It’s okay,” Michelle says. She takes my hand. “Whatever it is, you can tell us.”

  I nod, but I’m not sure it’s true. When they know what I know, the sight of so many Infected will terrify them.

  I shake my head. “Later. We need to get away from here first.”

  “Now Evan,” Cassie says. “Tell us now.”

  I look around and see the Infected shaking the fence. How many are there? A hundred? Two hundred? Cassie is right; I should tell them now because there might not be a later.

  “Fine,” I say. I take a deep breath and try to calm down, but in the present circumstances, it is close to impossible. “The Infected killed Phillip and Bushe.”

  They look at me but don’t say anything. I realise that, until now, they’d thought I had killed them. I am not sure whether this will come as a relief to them or not. None of them speak and I know I could leave it at that, but there was more and they deserve to know it as well.

  “They killed them and ate them,” I say.

  “Ate them?” Michelle says.

  I nod.

  She shakes her head. “That can’t be right.”

  “I saw them,” I say, wondering why I am fighting so hard for them to believe me. It would be better if they didn’t.

  “But… are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  The rattling seems to intensify. How long will it be before they break the fence down? What will we do then? There is the building in the middle of the camp. It might be strong enough to keep them out, but we are low on food and water and won’t be able to stay in for long.

  “It can’t be,” Cassie says.

  I shrug. Either she believes me or she doesn’t. There’s nothing I can do now to prove it.

  “They’re sick,” she says.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” I say. “I saw them do it.”

  “But why?”

  I shrug again. We could spend hours speculating, but none of us is a doctor. Even if we come up with the right answer, we won’t know it.

  She shakes her head and turns away from me to look at the Infected on the other side of the fence. “They don’t look dangerous,” she says.

  I don’t understand how she can come to that conclusion. To me they look like a pack of hungry animals.

  “We have to go,” I say.

  “Where to?” Michelle says.

  “Into the house, for now. We’ll figure out something once we’re inside.”

  None of them argues with me. Even if they don’t believe what I’ve said, it has scared them and don’t want to be around the Infected anymore.

  The building is less than a hundred metres away. We walk slowly towards it, as if we are afraid that there are more of the Infected inside.

  I expect to find the door locked, but it opens. I lead the others inside and then close it behind me. The only hope we have now is that the Infected will forget they have seen us and leave the area. Once they are gone we can make a run for it, although I have no idea where we will go.

  CHAPTER 2

  WHOEVER WAS LIVING IN THE BUILDING LEFT IT in a hurry.

  We split up and search the whole house but, hasty or not, they didn’t leave anything behind. Not even bed sheets.

  We meet again in the front room. Cassie and Michelle have picked up the furniture and are standing in the middle of the room.

  I can hear the fence rattling outside and try to think of it as a good thing. If they are still rattling the fence, then they aren’t coming to get us. Yet.

  “There’s nothing here,” Michelle says.

  “What are we going to do?” Cassie says.

  I turn to Harriet who shakes her head. She hasn’t spoken since we arrived and that worries me, but I don’t have the time to deal with it now.

  “We’ll stay here,” I say.

  “How can we stay here?” Cassie says.

  “We’ve got food and water for a couple of days. We’ve got sleeping bags. If we stay in the house they’ll forget about us.” I am not sure how likely that is, but I don’t have any other ideas. And, it turns out, none of them do either.

  “Then what?” Cassie says.

  I shrug. “We get out of the area.”

  “Run?”

  I nod.

  “Where?”

  I try to think of something reassuring, a place where we can go and be safe, but I am no longer sure that such a place exists. When we were in London, we thought that other countries were safe, but that turned out to be wrong. When we were in France we thought that Germany would be safe but now we’re here and that’s not t
he case. So what can I say to them? Where can we go that we will be safe?

  “I don’t know,” I say. “We’ll find somewhere.”

  “And keep running until we do?”

  “Unless you’ve got a better idea?”

  “We can’t keep running forever,” she says.

  I sigh and look at the floor. The wood is still scuffed with the bootprints of whoever was here before us. I hope they made it out okay. I hope that they aren’t now surrounding the fence wanting to kill and eat us.

  “She’s right Evan,” Michelle says.

  I look at her and for a moment I see the same look in her eyes as I do in Cassie’s. It feels as if they are teaming up against me and I don’t like it.

  “We have to think of something,” Cassie says.

  What she means is; I have to think of something. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t know what else we can do. You want to fight them? Is that it?”

  “No one said anything about fighting,” Cassie says.

  “So what then? What do you think we can do except run?”

  Neither of them answers but it feels like a hollow victory. They’re scared, I am scared. Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to help that.

  I swallow my resentment. “I’m sorry. But I don’t know what else we can do. We need to get away from them and then we’ll think of something.”

  They seem to satisfied with this, but I am not.

  “We should eat,” Harriet says.

  I look at my daughter, grateful that she has finally said something. More grateful that it has come at a time when it will distract us from the future, both immediate and distant.

  “Good idea,” Michelle says. She walks over to our bags and starts opening them, taking out the tins and packets that we have picked up along the way. I know that we should talk about rationing them, but that can wait. The last thing any of us needs now is to go to bed with an empty stomach.

  CHAPTER 3

  WE GATHER EVERYTHING THAT ISN’T NAILED TO THE floor and pile it in front of windows and doors. I try not to think that we are keeping ourselves in as much as we are keeping the Infected out. I can still hear the fence rattling outside.

  It is dark in the house by the time we have finished, although it is still early. I am hungry but, more than that, I am tired.

  “Where’s Harriet?” I say to Cassie.

  Cassie shrugs as if it doesn’t concern her.

  “When did you see her last?” I say.

  “I don’t know. Don’t get so worked up Evan. She’ll be fine.”

  It is the pressure of the situation. It is the fact that I have spent the better part of a month in the company of a woman who abandoned me with a toddler. I don’t want to be angry with her, but I am losing my cool. “Where is she?” I say again, through gritted teeth.

  “I told you Evan, I haven’t—“

  “It’s okay,” Michelle says.

  I spin around, about to take out my anger on the last person who deserves it.

  Michelle raises her hands as if I am pointing a gun at her. “Calm down Evan, she’s fine.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s upstairs, asleep. I checked on her.”

  I turn back to Cassie and see her grinning at me, as if this proves that I am wrong and she is right. I don’t see it like that. Anything could have happened to Harriet. We are her parents, it’s our job to know where she is. Especially when we are in a house, surrounded by people who want to kill and eat us.

  “Let it go Evan,” Michelle whispers to me. “It’s not worth it.”

  I know she’s right, but that doesn’t make it any easier to control myself. I look at Cassie and wish that she could read my mind, but sometimes I doubt she can even read her own. In the end, Michelle’s words keep me from saying anything, but I turn and stomp out of the room like a moody child.

  “Where are you going?” Cassie calls after me.

  “I’m going to make sure she’s alright,” I call back.

  She says something else, but I am too far away to hear it.

  I get to the end of the hall and stop. I don’t know which room Harriet is in. I put my head against the wall, not knowing how I should feel.

  “Go easy on her,” Michelle says.

  I don’t turn to look at her. “I know.”

  “You’re on the same side.”

  “I know.”

  She puts a hand on my shoulder. I still don’t look at her.

  I can hear the fence shaking outside. A constant reminder that they are out there, waiting for us. I don’t want to think about them. “What are we going to do?” I say.

  “We’ll think of something.”

  “We’re trapped. We’ve got two, three days’ worth of food. Then what?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t want us to die here,” I say.

  She starts to rub my back, but I can tell that she’s worried as well. Neither of us wants it to end here, but our backs are against the wall. We’re trapped.

  “Come upstairs with me,” I say.

  “Now?”

  “Unless you’ve got something better to do?”

  She shakes her head.

  If this is the end for us, then I want to have some happy memories. I take her hand and lead her up the stairs.

  When it is over we lay on the floor looking up at the ceiling. A spider’s web of cracks run through it. Even broken it will outlast us.

  Michelle takes my hand. We fall asleep that way.

  When I wake up, no more than a couple of hours have passed. It is dark outside and cold on the wooden floor. Michelle is standing with her back to me, looking out the window. I can still hear the fence.

  “I don’t think they’re going away,” she says.

  I walk over to her and put a hand on her back.

  “There’s more of them than before,” she says.

  We stand and listen to the distant disturbance. The Infected are people like me and her, but dangerous. I know what I saw them do and I don’t want them to do that to my family. There are too many to fight, but that doesn’t mean we should give up.

  CHAPTER 4

  THE AIR VIBRATES WITH A VIOLENCE THAT I have rarely felt and I wake with the sensation of falling.

  It is light again.

  Michelle wakes up at the same time I do.

  “What’s going on?” she says.

  I can hardly hear her voice over the thundering vibrations.

  I try to stand up but the ground is moving as well.

  Earthquake?

  I put my hand against the wall and fight to get to my feet. When I am standing, and somewhat stable, I reach for Michelle and help her up.

  I can no longer hear the rattle of the chain link fence, but that seems like a minor victory right now.

  “Come on!” I shout.

  I have to get to Harriet.

  Whatever is happening can’t be good, and I want my daughter with me.

  We make it out of the bedroom and onto the landing. I’m not sure whether the vibrations are less powerful here, or if I am getting used to them.

  I tug on Michelle’s arm but can’t get her to move any quicker.

  We make it along the corridor to the room where Harriet was sleeping. I push open the door and don’t see her. The room is empty, there is nowhere for her to hide.

  “She’s not there,” I say.

  Michelle pulls my hand and we make out way back along the corridor. We check each room we pass until we find her in a bathroom with Cassie.

  “Get in here and close the door!” Cassie says.

  “What are you doing?” I say. I can hear my own voice now, whatever is making the noise is getting further away, or less severe.

  “It’s an earthquake,” Cassie says.

  I shake my head, not dismissing her guess, but still not understanding. “Why are you in the bathroom?”

  “It’s the safest place to be,” she says.

  I look at
the heavy bath, sink and toilet. The rest of the rooms are empty. “If it’s an earthquake then we need to get out.”

  Cassie shakes her head.

  I am prepared to argue, but then I realise that I don’t need to. She is doing the best she can. She might even trying to prove that she can look after Harriet. If I come up with a better plan then she will be happy to go along with it.

  “Let’s go out,” I say.

  “Those things are still out there,” she says.

  “They aren’t things. They’re people.”

  “I don’t want to go out there.”

  “I know you don’t, but you can’t stay here. Come on.” I offer her my hand and for the first time in years she takes it. I help her stand and then we all leave the bathroom.

  The vibrations have almost stopped by the time we get to the front door. I don’t know what I expect to find when I open it and look out, but, whatever it is, can’t be worse than the Infected.

  Which turns out not to be true at all.

  “Wait here a second,” I say.

  All three of them shake their heads. They are standing so close that I can feel them breathing.

  I shrug. It was only a gesture of leadership, I don’t believe it is more dangerous outside than in.

  I lead them out.

  The first thing I see is that there are fewer Infected. Whatever is making the noise seems to have scared some of them away.

  Then I see why.

  Dark shapes on a clear blue sky, moving away from the house but already circling back. Even from here I can see that they are big two rotar helicopters. I count seven of them. There might be more.

  “Everyone back inside,” I say.

  They don’t argue. I push them to move and then close the door behind us.

  We stand in the hallway.

  “Do you think…” Michelle starts to say but then trails off as if she can’t bring herself to say the words aloud.

  Is it Bushe’s people? I’m not sure. Whoever it is, they are military. After what happened, I am unwilling to trust anyone who wears a patch.