The Burning Tree: Book 3: Infinity by Christopher Artinian

Author:Christopher Artinian [Artinian, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Susan and Penny stopped dead. “What is it, Callie? Have you seen something?” Susan asked.

It was still early, and the light wasn’t great, but Callie stared intensely towards the spot where she had thought she’d seen movement. “I’m not sure. I think so.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Penny asked, bringing the rifle up to her shoulder.

A movement—a colour or shape somehow alien to the rest of their apocalyptic surroundings. “MUM!” Callie shoulder barged her mother out of the way, and less than a heartbeat later, an arrow cut through the air where she had been standing.

Silence shrouded the entire street for the briefest moment before Penny, Susan and finally Doyle caught sight of what Callie had witnessed. From one of the shattered ground floor windows of the next building along, a figure disappeared as quickly as it had appeared; a second and third popped into view, each aiming their own strange bows in the direction of the small group. Two more arrows flew, and Callie, Susan, Penny and Doyle, scattered, ducking low as they ran to the largely intact office front on the opposite side of the road.

None of them knew where the arrows landed. The only thing they could be sure of was they didn’t reach their targets. As Callie bolted through the open doorway of what had once been an accountant’s office, a booming eruption of gunfire exploded in the street behind her. She glanced back to see her mother, Penny and Doyle firing with only the vaguest hint of aim towards the windows of the buildings from which the archers had materialised.

Callie stopped in the doorway. “Come on. Hurry!” No sooner had the words left her mouth than another arrow blurred into view. This one materialised from up above, a rooftop, possibly, if there were any of those still intact in this Godforsaken place. The echoing gunfire suddenly diminished a little as the missile entered Doyle’s chest, knocking him down and back. His head smashed against the cracked pavement with a loud thud and Callie knew in that instant that he was dead. “MUUUM. HURRY!”

Penny panned her rifle up and around, and despite the lack of aim, the threat of a bullet somehow miraculously finding its target was enough to pause the attack for long enough for her and Susan to scurry into the building like mice seeking safety from an army of cats.

Once inside, they ran along the short corridor. The plasterboard had long since disintegrated, but the charred girders and breezeblocks remained. They ducked into the doorway of an internal office. There were no windows in there, but there was plenty of light as the floors above had caved in some time ago and the sky itself had become their ceiling.

“We’re trapped,” Susan said as all three of them desperately tried to get their breath back.

“Oh my God. I’m guessing this is what happened to the others. I’ve known Des since we first moved into Salvation,” Penny blurted as tears welled in her eyes.

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