Dark Sky

22 - Reluctant Saviors

Chapter Twenty Two

Leila was jolted awake.

She had been having a bad dream about the bombs and she felt short of breath as the panic she had been experiencing had followed her into consciousness. Her heart was pounding against her rib cage as she sat bolt upright on the sofa in the main living room. She could feel the blood pulsing around her body with every beat as she breathed deep trying to calm herself down.

The dream was still vivid in Leila's mind as if she had really witnessed the events that had played out in it and she could remember every detail.

She had been walking down a crowded street when the bombs came and the blinding flash that in real life would have blinded her, highlighted the horrors etched into peoples faces as they ran for cover.

Leila had remained glued to the spot, watching as the people scattered silently. They all appeared to be screaming for their lives but Leila heard nothing like watching a movie with the sound muted.

Nuclear fire reached her dream first setting people on fire where they stood. Everyone except her, burning in an intense fireball as the sounds of their screaming started to become audible. The volume got louder and louder as the people began to turn to ash before her, until the screaming faded away the people wiped from existence.

It was at that moment she had heard the blood curdling scream of a man and out of all the horrors of Leila's dream, it had been that sound that had jolted her awake.

Slowly she got up from the sofa and lit a candle she had left on the mantle. The orange flame flickered as she carried the candle to the kitchen casting dancing shadows across the walls as she walked.

She headed straight for the cupboard next to the long redundant refrigerator and removed a bottle of water. Removing the lid clumsily she took a long gulp of the life giving fluid before banging the bottle back down onto the work top.

Placing the lid back onto the bottle the man screamed out again.

Leila almost jumped out of her skin knocking the bottle from the work top to the floor, spilling the contents as the bottle landed with a thud.

How could she still hear the man screaming?

She was awake now, yet it was the same scream she had heard in her dream.

Frozen to the spot and not daring to move Leila tried to rationalise what she had just heard. It was true she had had several nights of poor sleep and it was possible she was experiencing auditory hallucinations brought on by tiredness. It was scary all the same and it was a good minute or two before she summoned the courage to turn around.

There it was again.

There definitely was a man wincing in pain and she was not dreaming. It sounded distant but it was definitely real. Leila became instantly terrified as she realised someone was outside the house and the memories of the farmhouse came flooding back in an instant.

"Floyd!" She screamed out at the top of her voice running back to the living room leaving the candle behind in her hast.

Diving behind the sofa she screamed again. "Floyd!"

She called out twice more before she heard movement upstairs and the rumble of feet as Floyd rushed down the stairs followed by the others who had also been alerted by Leila's call for help.

Floyd almost crashed through the living room door scanning the room for Leila.

"Leila! What is it?" He shouted but could not see her. "Where are you."