A Place Beyond the Storm: Terror in the Caves (AFTER: A POST-APOCALYPTIC SURVIVOR SERIES) by David Green & Eerie River Publishing

Author:David Green & Eerie River Publishing [Green, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eerie River Publishing
Published: 2021-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR: TOPSIDE

We creep through the darkness, rats clinging to the shadows, as the Raiders rip our home away from us.

Mika moves with silent determination, resolute and following my lead whenever I pause, turn or hide. For years, as children, we played in the dark, without straying far from the Kin’s main caverns. We became experts at blending with the shadows down here.

Or so we thought. This is our first real test.

They have infested our tunnels. Some carry devices that shine faint light through the gloom, while others brandish crude torches. They pass us, and each second drags like a year. I’m certain they’ll discover us at any moment as we make our way Topside, but so far, we’ve gone unnoticed.

Blood covers the tunnel floor. The sound of gunfire has grown seldom, as have the cries from the Scavengers. I don’t know what that means. I fear Mika and I are the only ones left.

We’re moving uphill, and I notice that change in the air.

“How much further?” Mika whispers, her voice low and husky. The horrors she’s seen today, the mutilated corpses of her family. Her Kin. Their screams echoing through her home.

“We’re close,” I mutter, seeing a light up ahead. But it isn’t the cave mouth. It’s a Raider. “Wait, there’s a side room here, somewhere. We can hide in there until it’s safe.”

Their voices are indistinct, but I recognise one: Klaus.

I inch closer, Mika silent behind me.

“... found the water yet?” Klaus is saying. The firelight the other Raider holds makes his shadow dance against the wall. I see the opening, the one with the hazmat suits. I think we can make it there unseen.

“No,” the other growls. “You sure there’s water here? Only place in these parts I know of is that settlement built out of the caves east of here, and there’s no chance we’re getting in there. Too organised, too many weapons. Scouted it myself before you found this place. It ain’t far, but I wouldn’t rate our chances of taking it.”

“There’s water,” Klaus replies, as we edge closer. I turn to Mika, a finger across my lips before pointing at the shadowy entrance. She nods. “So many people wouldn’t survive down here without a large, clean source. Reckon these folks have lived down here since The Change. Seen the rat-pelts they wear? Still, they adapted in their own way, and they survived this long.”

“Until us.”

Klaus just laughs.

We duck into the tunnel and I let the breath I’ve held hiss out of me. Mika sinks to the floor, staring with unblinking eyes into the tunnel.

“Still,” the other Raider says, his voice clear from our hiding place, “even if there ain’t no water, plenty of meat, eh?”

Klaus grunts in agreement. “I can never get used to being underground. Men aren’t meant to live like rodents. There’s a girl I want you to look for. Dark hair cut like a boy’s. Teenage, I reckon, but those eyes make her look older. I want to thank her.”

The other Raider laughs as Mika looks at me.

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