The End

A Third Of The Way

The road crunched as we stepped on it, me supporting Hannah as she limped next to me. We were a third of the way on our journey and progress had slowed to a crawl as Hannah began to slow down, her limp becoming more pronounced as we trudged on.

The padding around her neck had been stained through red with her blood and she was pale and clammy, her breathing getting shallower. "How you holding up?" I asked her and she looked at me "not too well Jason" she answered, "I'm getting a little worn". I looked up as she said this and also noticed that the sky was also starting to bleed into a reddish colour. I frowned with worry, we needed to stop somewhere and camp for the night or Hannah would collapse or the Malakists would get us.

"Alright" I said reaching a decision, "lets find somewhere to hole up for the night". Hannah looked relieved at the thought that she could stop, and nodded looking beleaguered. I looked at the various buildings around us and to our right was a fairly intact office building with a broken glass front but not too much other damage. We headed for that and with some effort I managed to haul Hannah into the building and to the stairs inside. "How far up do you want to go?" I asked and she looked at the list of floors on the wall, "let's just go to the top" she said slowly "we might as well go to the lounge there".

So with that I lifted Hannah into my arms and then carried her laboriously up the stairs to the fifth floor. As I reached the top floor I pushed the door open with my foot to reveal a long dark corridor ending in a turn off to the left. "Hey Hannah" I said and she looked up at me, "do you have a torch?" She nodded, "could you give me some light?" I asked and she pulled out her small helmet torch and clicked it on, releasing a concentrated beam of whiteness that blinded me suddenly as she pointed the light into my face.

I yelped slightly and I nearly dropped Hannah who despite being injured grabbed onto me sharply with a small squeal, pulling herself closer to my chest. As I stood there blinking whiteness from my burned retinas Hannah giggled, "sorry!" She said weakly and I couldn't help but laugh slightly as she looked up at me anxiously while I blinked away the last of the spots from my vision.

"Don't do that again!" I said jokingly and I set off down the corridor again, Hannah still giggling at my misfortune. As I reached the end of the corridor I turned round the corner to see a small decrepit but rather homely looking lounge. It was long but rather narrow and all the sofas had been smashed up, but it was evident that this had been used as a refuge before by the leftover remains of a makeshift camp placed cluttered in the far side of the room.

"Perfect!" I said as Hannah shined her torch down the room, "this'll make life so much easier". With that I carried Hannah down to the camp area to find a small impromptu stove, a sleeping bag and blankets strewn around. Carefully I lowered Hannah who was even weaker than before onto the floor next to the sleeping bag. "Could you wait here for a bit?" I asked her softly and she replied somewhat sarcastically "I was planning to go to the bar though!". I grinned at her and then turned to the stove that was next to the sheltered area. It was small but the person before was considerate enough to have left a decent bit of wood to burn next to it. Relieved that I wouldn't have to look for fuel I chucked a few decent sized chunks into the stove before pulling out a bullet from a spare ammunition box in my bag. I placed the bullet on the floor before turning to my bag and fishing around for anything that might help me to pry it open.

"What're you looking for?" Muttered Hannah and I turned to her, "something like pliers, I need to open this bullet so I can get this fire started quickly". Nodding Hannah patted her breast pocket on her jumpsuit, "I have some stuff like that in here for electronics" she said quietly. I leant forward and then gently pulled open her pocket to try to find a set of pliers, after digging around various tweezers tape and electronic components I came across a rusty pair of pliers. "Thanks!" I said to her before quickly going to the bullet on the ground and then carefully wriggling the bullet out of its casing.