A man tore through the tree line beside the road. He was an older man with a bright red hiking backpack. It was too dark and cloudy to see any more of his appearance. He threw himself over the metal fence that split him from the road. He was a dot in the distance but he was moving fast and so were the clouds above. Courtney pulled herself forward using Nate and Drew's chairs as leverage. She wanted to help him, she truly did. She and the others watched as he staggered towards them, screaming for their help.
"Help me! Please! Help me!" His begging voice rang out. He waved his hands in the air and looked frightfully between the cars and the sky. The rain was only seconds away, everyone knew it.
"Oh, shit," Nate mumbled, a troubled look on his face. Drew turned his head away, he couldn't watch another death. Courtney watched, thinking of all the ways that they could save him but they'd never make it in time. Her eyes pulled from the terrified man and widened at the sight of the Audi speeding towards him. Ross. Courtney scrambled for the walkie-talkie and slammed down on the button.
"No, Ross, don't. You'll never make it. Turn around!" She screamed causing the boys in the front to jump at her pleading voice. "Ross, stop! You'll die too if you open the door. You're not going to make it!" She watched and ran a hand across her head, patting down the unflattened hairs.
The car sped up and was about a two metres from the man who was now on his hands and knees. Nate sped up after them, slamming his foot down on the accelerator. Ross pulled up beside the man and just as he opened his door, only an inch. The rain thundered down in thick ice sheets obscuring her vision, she couldn't tell if Ross was okay or not.
She blocked out the man's screams of pain, the rain burning his skin. The torture lasted only a second before it fell quiet. The rain pattered at the window with the strength of stones. The red lights on the back of the Audi lit up, catching everyone's attention. Courtney raised the walkie-talkie to her mouth with a shaky hand.
"Ross..?" Her voice was laced with worry, tears were stinging at her eyes. She sealed them shut and let out a shaky breath. Nate and Drew were staring straight ahead, they felt uncomfortable seeing Courtney so scared, so weak. Courtney swallowed and lifted it again. The silence on the other end was horrifying, terrorising her.
"Courtney?" Jane's voice broke through. She sounded relieved like she was hearing someone's voice for the first time in years. "It's okay....He's okay. Just...shaken." She assured. They all sighed in solace. Courtney gasped and pulled the walkie-talkie away from her mouth.
"Oh, thank God." She let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding in.
"What now?" Jane's crackled voice asked. The smile fell from Courtney's face as she wondered herself. That was another person dead and it didn't matter that they didn't know him. They still witnessed his death and it would haunt them along with the other horrors they'd seen. His backpack was bright against the concrete and bold through the rain. His bones blended in with the dark grey road, that made Courtney feel a little better, not being able to see the remains of the man she couldn't save.
"We keep going. Wait till the rain stops." She confidently replied, pushing all the fear that filled her voice away. She dropped the walkie-talkie into Drew's lap and waited in her position between the two until the car ahead started moving. When it did, she lay back down, closing her eyes and pulling her knees to her chest. "Don't wake me up unless it's an emergency." She grumbled as she drifted off into a void sleep.
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YOU ARE READING
The Rain (Book 1 - The Unprotected)
Action**DISCONTINUED** Rain in the UK is common, an everyday thing. So, when it rains one afternoon, no one is shocked or surprised. But when that rain burns the skin off peoples bones and causes their flesh to dissolve, it's no longer looked at the same...
