Great.
Two shots left at most.
Trying to stay calm, I realize that I need to find some way to draw him out.
“You should be careful firing that thing, Asher!” he shouts suddenly. “You might miss and accidentally hit one of these lovely ladies! Why don’t you put the gun down instead and we can talk? You and I have so much to discuss!”
Suddenly there’s the sound of a shot, and I hear a cry of pain. Looking around the side of the tree, I see that he’s blasted Elizabeth, leaving a smoldering wound in her chest. He takes aim at Iris, but I quickly raise my gun and fire, hitting him in the shoulder and sending him crashing back to the ground with an agonized grunt. Before I can fire again, however, he shoots back at me and I’m forced to take cover.
Checking the gun, I see that there’s just enough charge left for one shot.
I wait, my mind racing as I try to work out what to do next. I’m sure I was in worse spots during the war and somehow I managed to get through them, but maybe that was down to pure luck. Even if it wasn’t, I don’t remember enough of my training to make a move.
“He’s gone!” a voice calls out suddenly.
I freeze.
This could be a trap.
“Asher, he’s gone!” the voice shouts, and I realize it’s Natalie.
“He ran!” Miranda adds. “Asher, help!”
Peering around the side of the tree again, I spot Harold in the distance, stumbling away while clutching his injured shoulder. I raise my gun to fire, but I know I won’t be able to hit him from this range so, instead, I hurry over to where the others are pinned to the ground. When I reach them, I see that metal spikes have been driven through their hands.
“Everyone’s dead!” Natalie stammers, with tears flowing from her eyes. “I think a few people got away, but he burned the rest!”
“I know,” I mutter, shuffling over to check on Elizabeth but quickly seeing that she’s dead. Turning to Iris, I feel a rush of relief when I realize that although she’s badly hurt, she’s conscious. “This is going to hurt,” I tell her, crawling over and immediately pulling the spikes from her palms. She gasps, but then she sits up and helps me as I do the same for Natalie and Miranda.
Finally, once they’re all free, I turn and look toward the spot where I last saw Harold. He’s clearly wounded and he chose to run rather than fight, but I have no idea where he might have gone.
“They were screaming,” Miranda sobs, as if her mind is shattered. “He burned them to death!”
“Get the survivors back to Steadfall,” I tell Iris, turning to her. “Fix up your wounds and wait for me there. We’ll work out what to do when I get back.”
She tries to tell me something, but her lips are moving too fast for me to understand.
“Iris,” I continue, “I don’t have time. We’ll do this later!”
I turn to go after Harold, but she grabs my arm.
“Iris!” I hiss, looking back at her.
“I don’t think he’s running,” she mouths. “I think it’s a trap. He’s trying to lure you away.”
“He’s hurt,” I reply. “He’s getting desperate. Please, Iris, I can handle myself. Right now, I need you to get back to town. Put out the fires, see if there are any more survivors. Ben’s dead and I saw Leanne’s body, so we only have to worry about Harold now.” I wait for her to reply, but I can see the fear in her eyes. “I’m going to go and make sure Harold can’t cause any more trouble.”
She taps herself on the chest.
“You can’t come,” I tell her. “Please, Iris, I’ll be fine, but you have to take Natalie and Miranda back to town. Do you understand?”
She pauses, before nodding.
“I’ll be back soon,” I add, turning to follow Harold. “I can deal with this asshole.” Stopping suddenly, I turn back to her. “I didn’t think you were coming back. Deckard said you’d make it, but I…” My voice trails off for a moment as I realize that I should never have doubted her. “Did you find that other town?”
She nods, but I can see from the expression in her eyes that something’s wrong.
“Get back to Steadfall!” I tell her. “I’ll find Harold.”
With that, I turn and make my way between the trees. I might only have one shot left in this gun, but one shot is all I need and, besides, I’ve got my knife and my bare hands. If I let him go, there’ll always be a risk that he might come back, so I have no choice.
I have to finish this.
Chapter Forty-six
“They’re dead,” Natalie says, her eyes filled with shock as she looks into another of the smoldering huts. “They’re all…”
Her voice trails off for a moment, before she turns and vomits. Dropping to her knees, she lets out a series of sobs. I make my way over and reach down, putting a hand on her shoulder, but I know there’s nothing I can do.
Glancing into the hut, I see a pile of burned corpses, and I spot one skeletal face in particular before finally turning away.
I’ve seen enough death and pain for one day.
Nearby, Miranda is sitting on the muddy ground with her head in her hands. Whereas Natalie is crying loudly, Miranda seems to have gone the other way, disappearing into her own sense of shock. Again, there’s nothing I can do to help, so I simply make my way across the clearing, tramping through ankle-deep mud until I get to the spot where Asher’s old Steadfall sign has somehow managed to survive, high up on one of the posts.
Hearing movement nearby, I turn and see a couple of figures approaching cautiously through the forest. My first instinct is fear, in case somehow Harold had more people with him, but after a moment I realize that it’s just a few survivors from Steadfall heading back to see if it’s safe to return now. They look lost and bewildered, but at least they’re alive. I guess Harold was wrong when he thought he’d managed to round everyone up.
“Are they…” George asks cautiously as he gets closer. Clearly shocked, he looks around at the devastation. “Did everyone get away?”
I pause, before shaking my head.
“Is it just us?”
I nod.
“What about Asher?”
I want to answer him, but I can’t. Instead, I turn and look back over at Natalie, who’s still sobbing on the ground.
“Are those bodies?” George asks, heading to one of the nearby huts before stopping and turning back to me. “Are we really the only ones who survived?”
“I heard them screaming,” Olivia adds, coming closer. “I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid.”
Looking out at the forest, I wait for a moment, hoping that I might spot more people wandering back this way. There’s no sign of anyone, however, so I guess any other survivors have probably just kept running, trying to get as far from here as possible. I don’t blame them for that. Steadfall is in ruins, and it’s hard to believe the town can ever recover. At the same time, we built it up from nothing before and we can do it again. Looking up at Asher’s hand-carved sign, I see that the edge has been singed by flames, but that the main part is still intact.
Just as I’m starting to wonder where to begin the recovery work, however, I hear a faint thumping sound in the distance. We all turn, and a moment later we spot a helicopter heading for the island.
Chapter Forty-seven
There’s still no sign of Harold, but after a few minutes I spot a familiar tree and realize that this is the spot where I saw Ben using some kind of communication device.
Heading over to the side of the tree-root, I reach in and pull out the device. I don’t specifically remember using anything like this before, but at the same time I seem to have some kind of instinctive understanding of how it works. I guess there are still plenty of buried memories in my mind, memories that I can’t recall right now, but maybe in some way I’m able to remember a few things. There’s a blinking red light on one side of casing, which I think means an emergency call was sent. I guess Harold came by this way and sent for help. It only takes a moment before I’m able to get a channel open on the device, and I hear a brief burst of static followed by a buzzing sound and then a faint hiss, which can only mean one thing.