They say the end of the world started in a military lab.
Some poor bastard who'd agreed to take part in one of those experiments-for-cash programs, signing his body and blood away, all the in the name of science, just so he could afford to buy food...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Silence.
No rumble of traffic. No shouts. No screaming. Just the sound of her breathing. In and out. Inhale and exhale.
I'd laid by her side and watched her sleeping for a few hours now, tucked away in a new hideout at the back of a derelict, boarded-up building, close to the canal. The doorway had been bricked up, leaving barely much shelter overhead, but there was enough room for us, and, more importantly, it was deserted. I didn't care that it smelt of mould and decay and of the stinking waters that flowed sluggish and treacle-thick in the canal. I didn't care that my stomach was aching from hunger or that I hadn't slept. I just wanted to keep her safe. From Sniper. From everyone. I wanted us to slip into the cracks of the city and never resurface.
Since Sniper had fled and her mood had calmed, Alice had reverted to the almost catatonic state she'd been in after she'd finished with Gilly. She hadn't spoken or given me any indication that she understood what she had done to either of them. She could hear me, I knew she could, because when I asked her to take my hand so I could gather our things and find us somewhere else to hide, she did. When I took her into the public restroom to get her cleaned up, she'd let me undress her, wash her, dress her again. She'd stood in the corner, as I'd tried to rinse the blood and dirt out of the basin, the whole time looking down at her feet as I'd glanced in the cracked mirror to make sure she was okay.
To make sure she wasn't looking at me the way she'd looked at him.
I should have been glad she was asleep, she needed to rest after all, but her sleep didn't look anything close to restful to me. She moaned, fingers constantly twitching and legs jerking, as if somewhere in her dreams, she was running, fleeing some dark entity that was chasing her, tormenting her every step. I'd tried to soothe her by stroking her hair, caressing her face – all the things I used to do to try and help her sleep when we'd first arrived in the city and every sound had terrified her - but nothing worked. She didn't stop twitching, or groaning, but I suppose I had to thank heavens for small mercies. At least she wasn't awake and hungry. A least she wasn't thinking about where the next meal would come from, or who it might be.
The whistle cut through the silence, not because it was particularly loud, but because it was the only human sound I'd heard, other than Alice, for quite some time. I froze as Alice stilled in her sleep, only to exhale deeply a second later when she returned to whatever dream haunted her.
Getting up slowly, I made sure the sleeping bag was wrapped around her and made my way along the narrow walkway between the back of the old building and the canal edge. I whistled in response as I drew closer, only for Seamus to pop his dishevelled head around the corner. Wafts of cheap beer engulfed me as I reached him, and that ever-present stench of roll-ups and sweat. Seamus wasn't one for washing much, based on the fact he would just get dirty again sleeping rough and he wasn't trying to impress no lady, so what's the blasted point. His bloodshot, bleary eyes looked more alert than usual and he constantly glanced around as if expecting an ambush.
