16

***

When she found Chris, he was holding the body of Dianne. It took a few seconds for Avril to realize just how bad it was, but when she saw the amount of blood, she knew it was bad. When she saw her face, she had to look away immediately, but he tried to get close to Chris. He wasn’t moving, he wasn’t even trying, he was just looking to the closed door with his eyes completely open. They looked like they were going to jump out of his face. She knelt beside him, but he didn’t move.

“Go away,” he said. “Don’t touch me, don’t touch her.”

She hesitated, but moved away. He had a feral look in his eyes, a rage so profound that she couldn’t even begin to understand it. She walked down the stairs slowly, looking back every few minutes, to watch him, still as a statue.

The rest of the evening passed by in a blur. The people in the bunker were silent, strangers with nothing to say to her, and the men and women in black were not helpful at all. It took a couple of hours until they let them go back to their rooms. She saw Chris walking with the aid of two black dressed men, one of them the one from the helicopter.

When she walked up the stairs, she saw they had been cleaned. The walls of the hallway were being repaired as she returned to her room, and she saw several moving gadgets and robots, cleaning everything and leaving no trace of what had happened.

When she reached her room, she turned on the TV on instinct, but she couldn’t tune into the news channel. There were several sitcoms, comedy channels and movies being broadcast, but no word on the events of the day, or what had happened.

She couldn’t deal with it anyway, so she took the longest bath she had taken until then, and drunk until she feel asleep.

***

Arthur removed the bandages slowly, and washed his hands afterwards. Father Lucas was twitching in his sleep, and all his sudden movements meant that his wounds were closing badly. He wondered if he should ask for him to be sedated again, but they had told him that he was already under some of the strongest in the market.

He wiped the blood, and applied the clean bandages, making sure to be extremely careful to avoid any further injuries. He saw his mouth moving, and leaned close to try to make out the words.

“... need to kill him … no time … must do it …”

He frowned. The doctors had said that he would spend at least two weeks in recovery. With four days to go until the 12th, Arthur only hoped that he wouldn’t wake up until everything was over.

If it was really the end of the world, let someone else deal with it.

***

She had no idea what time it was or much she had slept when she woke up, but Avril immediately turned to the TV. As soon as she realized that, just like last time, all news channels were being censored, her mind became clearer through the hangover induced migraine.

“Chat, asshole, now.”

The Man In Black replied almost immediately. He was sitting on a different chair to the one he usually used, but his smug face hadn’t changed.

“How may I help you, Ms. Smith?”

“You’re censoring the news. What has happened?”

“We are not censoring, we are screening.”

“You are censoring.”

“I assure you, Ms. Smith, that we are doing our best to create a transparent society. As soon as our rules and regulations are in place, and as soon as the UN backs us, there will be no form of censorship or any mediatic control.”

“But there is at the moment, and I can’t watch the news.”

“As I said, we’re screening. Trying to determine what caused this attack, and avoid further incidents.”

She wanted to scream. She could mention twenty different reasons why someone would have performed this attack, but she needed a clear head.

“OK, so what’s the news?”

“We were attacked by hostiles trying to kill Mr. Barnett. It seems it was an independent force, going against direct orders, and they have already submitted an apology. This doesn’t hide the fact that we’ve had our first death of a supporter in our soil.”

“So, she was the only one to die?”

“The only one of our supporters. I believe the attackers weren’t as lucky.”

She frowned, he continued. “This is going to be presented as an act of terrorism to avoid further diplomatic repercussions. We are negotiating the extradition of the main leaders of the attack, so they can be judged by us.”

“And that is going to work?”

“We hope so.”

She turned off the screen. She lied on her bed, clutching her head and her stomach, and fell asleep once more. She could swear she was hearing soothing music, somewhere far away.

***

“The reporter is becoming suspicious,” said the man in black.

“That was to be expected, it’s in her job description.” The CEO was standing over a pile of rubble, overseeing the reconstruction process. The tanks had been abandoned and would probably rust under the rain soon. The fence was being repaired, and most of the Seekers had been repelled. Many of them were asking for citizenship, and they would deal with them when the time was right.

“My wife is too,” said the man in black. The CEO finally turned to look at him.

“Does she want to leave?”

“I’m not sure, she’s not talking to me.”

“Then how do you know she’s suspicious?”

“She emailed her mother. She said I have changed in the last three years.”

“We all have,” said the CEO. Since the first event, most of us in General Dynamics have been... affected.”

“It never happened to you, sir.”

The CEO smiled.

“That’s right, I was the lucky one, wasn’t I?”

The man in black said nothing, but only smiled.

“The reporter will play her part,” said the CEO. “And the second event will bring hope and glory to all of us.” He turned to a couple of the construction robots. “The woman who died, find her name and create a statue of her. She is going to be the new world’s first martyr.”

The man in black walked behind, saying nothing.

***

He wouldn’t answer the door. He didn’t leave the room when they offered her a memorial. He stayed in his room, still in shock. She would knock every day a couple of times, but he never replied. She couldn’t even begin to think about his anguish or pain, but it frustrated her again to be left out.

And then, the day came. She kept calling but his phone was disconnected, she had even begged the Man In Black to let her see him, she knocked and knocked to no avail.

And when she had lost all hope and was simply waiting for the end of the world, it was he who knocked on her door.

Avril was shocked to see Chris standing there when she opened the door. He looked dirty and tired, and stunk of alcohol.

“I tried to do it, but couldn’t,” he said. Avril then noted the marks on one of his wrists. It had been an uneven cut but would heal. It let only a trickle of blood fall through his hand and onto the floor. She fought the nausea, and the hate she felt, and guided him into the room. He walked straight towards the bed, and sat, dripping blood into the pristine white floor. He looked straight down.

“I need you to do it,” he said, not looking up.

“No.” She felt her stomach turn. There was no way he could ask that of her. They didn’t even know themselves that much.

“What if it’s true?”, he said finally looking up. “What if we wake up tomorrow and see this world in ruins?”

“I heard something different.”

“I don’t care about what you heard, I care about the possibility of everybody dying, and that being on my conscience.”

“There it goes, that’s just a possibility. If I did it, I would most definitely not be able to live with myself, even if the sun came up tomorrow.”

“And what if it happens?” he asked with tears in his eyes.

“Then, I will learn how to live myself. If I’m even alive. But I really don’t think that the world is going to end. The people here seem to be quite certain of it.”

“What if they’re wrong? Or even worse, what if that was their plan all along? That damn guy that was with you in the helicopter doesn’t even seem human.”

“They are protecting us, at least.”

“I’m not sure of that...” Chris raised his hands to his head, messing his hair with blood. Avril stood up and tapped the button for the first aid kit. She got the bandages and sat beside him in the bed. She hold his arm, and he didn’t resist. “Here, let me,” she said, and started dressing his wound.

“I wish the killer had got me instead of her.”

She couldn’t give an answer to that, so she concentrated on the wound. When it was done, he moved his fingers, slowly, grimacing.

“I saw the killer’s face. He was savage, fierce, and I could see hate and lust in his eyes. There were so many things in there that I was sure I was going to die, and I didn’t even care.” She listened carefully as he carried on. “And then, the guy in the suit came from behind him and killed him, and he just smiled, with that dead smile of his. Yes, the killer was going to kill me, but he was happy about it, he showed some emotion. The other guy simply stood there, like it was his duty to take a life. What kind of monster do you have to be to kill someone and not even care? For fuck sake, we don’t even know his name yet.”

Avril nodded. They stood for a while without saying a word, just listening to the silence. It was him who spoke again after a while.

“I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and see that something bad has happened. I don’t think I could handle it.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“And yet, somehow it is.”

She sat back. She didn’t like where this was going.

“I need you to do it, Avril.”

“I can’t...”

“Even if it’s not my fault, if I can somehow stop it I need to do it, but I can’t,” he raised his bandaged hand to show it. She shivered. There was a pleading in his eyes, and she suddenly felt scared. Maybe she was wrong, or maybe she had heard things wrongly. And if she was wrong and he needed to die...

“I know it’s too much to ask of you, I know be barely know each other, but I have no one else. I’ve been alone my whole life, even when I wasn’t, and yet I can’t bear the thought of dying alone.”

She took him in her arms. She had started crying, and couldn’t bear to look at him.

“I’ll do it,” she said softly. He raised his arms then and hugged her.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She moved away. She walked to the wall and asked for whisky, hoping it would give her strength.

“I have one condition, though, I want you to be asleep when I do it. I don’t think I could bare anything else.”

He smiled with sadness. “I’m going to need some of that whisky to be able to sleep.”

And so they drunk in silence. They tried to speak a couple of times, but it never worked. They choked on words and tears. She watched him downing glass after glass, until he crawled into a fetal position. She moved to him, and cradled his head on her lap. She run her fingers through his hair, that was crusty and dirty with blood. She needed to be ready for it, and then, in a swift movement, he grabbed her trousers and started crying into her legs.

“I can’t... I don’t want to die...”

And right then she knew that no matter what, she wasn’t going to be able to do it.

Epilogue 1:

Like the poem said, it was never a bang.

Arthur woke up realizing that something was wrong. The clock said it was midnight, but he didn’t feel the need to sleep anymore. He walked to the window, listening to the sounds coming from outside, and saw two cars crashed in the middle of the street. The drivers had left the cars, and were walking slowly along the street, not speaking a word. He saw lights turning on, and lights turning off, but something was off somehow. He had a deep feeling of loss, but couldn’t understand what it was. He sat on the bed, looking towards the window.

Far away, the seekers on the desert were walking, each of them back to his own home, all of them wondering what they had lost and why they didn’t feel the need to sleep.

And thus, step by step, and day after day, the world ended.