Blackout • NH

Chapter 39

Niall's POV

We took off after the incident with Elliot. We stopped at a few abandoned shops a few miles down the road as far away from them as we could get and we quickly foraged for whatever we could find. Food, medicine, clothes, blankets, knives, anything.

I was able to find a survival knife kit with a flint rock, some fishing line, and a big fuzzy blanket. I'll definitely need it since Autumn is right around the corner.

We foraged for about an hour and we basically said 'fuck it' and got out of the city. We went straight for the swamplands.

We followed a hiking trail through the thick forest for miles and miles, not stopping. We eventually come to an opening where the trail ends. A river a couple yards away from us. We all get off our horses and stare at each other.

"What the fuck was that back there?" Liam spoke up.

"We needed to get those guys off of our asses." I said.

"It sounded pretty legit to me." Louis said, a bit upset.

"Woah guys, calm down." Ellen shouted.

"Jodie isn't dead. She left."

"What do you mean she left?" Harry said, shocked.

Me and Ellen decided to tell them everything. From the pregnancy to the reason for her leaving.

"That girl is a damn fool." Marion spoke up.

"She's going to get herself killed out here. Not by a glazer but by a group of other survivors. We need to find her." She sighed. Rubbing in between her eyes.

"Why would she think that the baby is a danger? Before we all met, me, Louis, Aiden and Marion were in a larger group and a few women had babies." Harry said.

"That's Jodie, she's always putting others before herself." Ellen said.

"The good news, is that Elliot now thinks she's dead so he's off our backs hopefully!" Liam said.

"Well we need to find some shelter. Being out in the open at night isn't the best idea. Let's see where this river takes us." Aiden spoke up.

We all got on our horses and began to trot down the river.

The river was shallow so we could easily get through it without having to deal with the vines and thorns hanging on the sides of the shore. Soon enough, the river began to get too deep to go through, not knowing what could be lurking in there.

It's getting dark and there's no place safe enough for us to stop now. We had to go up onto the rivers edge and continue following it.

We follow it for about another hour when suddenly we see something off in the distance.

"Everybody halt." Aiden says strongly.

"What is it honey?" Marion asked.

"Shh. Listen." He said once more.

We all sat there and listened in silence. We all looked at each other confused.

"What is that noise?" Louis asked.

"It's a loud hum. Almost like a swarm of bees but it's not." Marion spoke up again.

"Let's go closer and check it out. Everyone stay on my heels and don't make a sound." Aiden said strongly. Pretending to zip his lips shut.

We all ride closer and closer to the sound. The humming becomes a paused sound. We would hear a hum and then a faint sound similar to a cannon going off. It would repeat over and over.

We continued to follow the rivers edge when the trees began to start swaying to the sound of the cannon shot. They would stay still, then when you hear the slight boom, they'll shake and sway. Almost like an explosion went off.

It's getting darker and nobody knows what could be out here. I'm surprised to see it so empty. Usually a loud sound like this would attract glazers but I haven't seen any for days.

We ride closer and closer to the sound when a few of the horses began to stop and neigh and pull back. Like there was something out there spooking them.

"Alright, stay here, I'm going to move a couple yards forward to see what's behind this tree line." Aiden whispers.

Aiden gave his horse a good kick to proceed forward but he would continue backing up. After a few tries, Aiden finally got his horse to move forward a few more feet to the tree line where it opened up when we heard the cannon sound again. Aiden looked back at us when suddenly he flew off the horse and landed onto some logs and his horse came tumbling down onto him.