The Charred Lands: City of Ash Read online

  “Think it’s worth a shot?” Azaria asked from behind me.

  “I think so.” Wayne said, and with that he withdrew a small handgun from his waistline, before turning to his female companion, “Here take this.”

  She stared at it for a few seconds, with a look on her face which seemed to suggest she was extremely unfamiliar with weapons, before accepting it.

  “Why?” She asked, with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

  “We don’t know what’s up there, and I don’t want to risk bringing you with us. I think it’s best that you stand guard here whilst Zach and I scope it out.” He explained. I didn’t quite like the idea of leaving Azaria alone on the motorway, or the prospect of wandering off into the woods with Wayne, but I bit my tongue and said nothing; his reasons seemed legitimate enough, so I decided to trust his judgement.

  At first, we didn’t speak much as we made our way up the dirt road with thick trees and bushes on either side, I felt a little awkward around Wayne, but it didn’t worry me too much.

  “How much further are you willing to go?” I asked, beginning to fear that this ranger’s cabin might be a mile or two up this dirt road.

  “As far as it takes.” He simply said. Still, he didn’t look at me. Since heading off the motorway he hadn’t once looked at me, his eyes always seemed to be focused on something else, as though ever cautious of any potential signs of danger. Of course, being vigilant was always a good thing, but the fact that he apparently seemed to refuse to look at me made me feel a little uneasy.

  “What about Azaria though?”

  “Don’t you worry about her.” He quickly snapped in response, suddenly stopping dead in his tracks, he turned to face me for the first time since we set off on our little search party. Instantly, I wished he had continued to focus his eyes on elsewhere. His face was full of rage, and his eyes were thin slits that seemed to shoot in my direction like daggers.

  “Excuse me?” I replied, a little baffled.

  “I saw you two talking on the motorway. I saw the way you looked at her this morning too, when she was taking a piss.” He said. I stepped back and took a moment to compose myself, to ensure that I said the right things. As I did so, I scanned his entire body, taking note of any specific body language. He seemed tense and angry, but the most alarming thing was that his fists were clenched.

  “No, you’ve got it all wrong.” I said, holding my hands up.

  “I don’t want you talking to her, not when I’m not around, okay?”

  “That sounds a little unreasonable.” I said, instantly regretting it. I knew arguing with him would do me no good, but the words had left my mouth before I had even the time to consider them.

  “No it’s not. It’s my rules, and what I say goes.” He seethed through gritted teeth, taking a step closer towards me. I decided against dignifying that with a response, instead I stood in silence, returning his stare. I subtly positioned myself so that I could easily dodge any attack, but I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

  “So, let’s continue.” He finished, and with that, he took off walking once more, his eyes returning to our surroundings as though the whole thing hadn’t happened.

  As we continued on in search of the cabin, I refused to let my eyes leave Wayne, even for a second. I spent the entire time trying to work out what he was thinking, or how he could justify his outburst. I began to feel that he had brought me out here specifically to have a private word with me, it certainly explained why he was willing to leave Azaria by the side of the road on her own, especially since she clearly didn’t seem accustomed to guns, leaving her fairly vulnerable. Which of course, made this little attack of words even sicker.

  The prospect of having to spend the rest of my journey walking on egg shells worried me deeply. Wayne seemed like a good survivor, but a terrible person. I already knew I didn’t want someone like that coming along with me, it was a risky move. Then if I was to ditch him, I would in turn be leaving Azaria too. The idea of abandoning her didn’t thrill me either, especially since she would be left with Wayne. I didn’t understand their relationship at all. He was clearly protective and jealous over her, as though she belonged to him; it almost seemed that Wayne had freed her from being a slave to Anarchy’s Children, only to make her his property – and of course, she accepted this, she knew no different.

  “Here it is.” Wayne whispered from in front, disrupting my train of thought. His harsh, grumbly voice seemed to drag my mind back to reality, as though I had been up in the clouds the whole time. He leant down and snuck off the path to seek cover behind the trees, so I did so too.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, scanning the cabin. Appearance wise, it was almost identical to the ranger’s cabin near Haven that I had stayed in after the dragon had destroyed my home. It had two windows facing us, with a single wooden door. Just like the cabin that I had stayed in, the windows were boarded up.

  “We can’t just waltz right up to the front door.” He sighed, making me feel a little foolish.

  “Good call.” I instantly said.

  “Wait here, I’m going to do a quick recon of the perimeter, you’ll just slow me down.” He spat, withdrawing another gun. Without waiting for my response, he began to creep through the bushes to the side of the cabin, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more.

  I pulled my own weapon from my waistline and made sure it was action ready whilst I watched Wayne scout out the cabin. He took his time about it, completing a full circle around the building before returning to me.

  “I didn’t see anything of note, but that doesn’t mean there’s nobody inside.”

  “So we still can’t waltz up?” I half joked. Of course, it didn’t go down well with Wayne, with a tut, he began making his way up to the front door, gun in hand.

  Before I had even managed to begin following him, someone called out. A frail, old voice seemed to echo around the woods, “Stop right where you are.”

  Wayne instantly did as instructed, stopping dead in his tracks. Only then did I notice the barrel of a rifle sticking through a gap in one of the boards of the cabin’s windows. I didn’t dare move, crouched behind the bushes was where I was safest, whilst Wayne was left in the middle of an opening at the front of the cabin, like a sitting duck.

  I was a poor aim, but even the best shooter wouldn’t have stood a chance at taking down whoever was inside that cabin, and Wayne knew that too.

  “We’re not looking for any trouble.” Wayne called out to the armed stranger inside.

  “Then what the hell are you doin’, circling my home like that?” He sharply responded. I could tell by the man’s voice that he wasn’t afraid, something told me that he had been warding off strangers for a very long time.

  “We’re just two travellers sir, we’re tired and hungry, we’re just looking for food.” Wayne replied; I had half hoped that the man in the cabin wasn’t aware of my presence, but if he wasn’t, then he sure was now.

  “Well I ain’t giving any away, so get gone.”

  “Wouldn’t you be willing to trade?” Wayne said, raising his hands into the air in surrender, but keeping a firm grip on his gun.

  There was a few moments silence, as though the stranger was considering something.

  “What might you have that would interest me?” He yelled back.

  “We have ammo, and that’s just about the most valuable thing there is these days.”

  “How much ammo?”

  “Plenty, we just need food, sir.” Wayne said.

  Once again, a few moments passed, before the barrel of the gun disappeared back into the cabin.

  Wayne peered back at me, before the sounds of a hatch being unlocked rang out, the door to the cabin soon slowly opened.

  “Don’t move a muscle.” The skinny old man warned, as he stepped out of the cabin.

  It was hard to make out many specifics about the man from my distance away, but I could tell he was old. If I had to guess, I would say late sixties. This was a man tha
t had been alive long before the Rise. He wore old, dirty clothes that looked as though they hadn’t been cleaned since society fell apart, and had a long, knotted chest length grey beard that almost looked like a birds nest.

  He walked with a hunched back and took painfully slow strides as he approached Wayne, gun aimed directly at him. He seemed to shake with every step, as though even walking was causing this man difficulty. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what this man had gone through in his long life in order to still be alive today. I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness, and pity for this man.

  “I’ve got a little food I would be willing to trade for ammo, but it ain’t much. I’ve been struggling to…” He began to explain, before Wayne snapped into action.

  Without a single warning sign, he dropped to the floor and aimed his handgun at the old man, firing a single shot off before I had even the time to register what he was doing.

  The bullet hit with terrifying accuracy, striking the old man right between the eyes. I could only stand in numbed silence as I watched the poor man’s rigid corpse collapse to the ground like a cut down tree, spilling the contents of his brains out of the bullets exit wound.

  As though Wayne had just completed the most basic of mundane tasks, he stood to his feet, completely unfazed. He calmly approached, keeping his gun aimed at the old man’s body, despite Wayne knowing full well that he had killed this man.

  “What the fuck did you do that for!?” I spat, charging out of my relative cover in the woods.

  “He had what we needed.” Wayne smirked, still standing over the man’s body. He stood over it like a poacher that had just killed a wild boar, as though he was expecting me to take a picture of him with his prize.

  “He was willing to trade!” I spat, still storming over to him.

  “Well I wasn’t.” He chuckled to himself, before leaning down to check the old man’s pockets. He continued to rummage through his clothes in search of anything of use as I reached him.

  I was angry, I wanted so badly to return the favour and put a bullet in Wayne’s head, but I knew I wouldn’t, and truth be told, Wayne knew I wouldn’t either.

  “Check that cabin out, and make it quick, we need to get back to Azaria, that gunshot might have worried her.” Wayne ordered, still not looking up from the corpse.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I was happy to see Azaria waiting for us at the motorway upon our return, but it didn’t last long – I soon reminded myself of how careful I had to be around her now, to ensure that Wayne doesn’t throw a fit.

  “Took your time, I heard a gunshot too; was everything alright?” She asked, sitting up from the car on which she had been resting.

  “Yeah, there wasn’t anything in the cabin, just this rifle. Don’t worry about the gunshot either, that was just me shooting at a wild animal, trying to catch us some dinner. I’m a terrible hunter.” Wayne laughed with a tangle of lies as he approached his girlfriend, she smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and embraced her in a warm hug.

  His statement had only been half of a lie though, truth be told there wasn’t anything of worth in the cabin, aside from the rifle and a scarce amount of ammo. We didn’t even find any food in there, which confused me a little. The old timer was trying to trade us some of his seemingly none existent food for ammo, Wayne figured that he may have been trying to trick us – but I put that down to Wayne simply trying to clear his conscience.

  “Isn’t that right?” Wayne asked, turning to me to support his lies.

  I wanted to badly to tell the truth, but instead I simply replied, “Yeah.”

  “Did you see anything whilst you were waiting here?” He asked his girlfriend.

  “Nope, it was all quiet. I think I saw a dragon in the distance, but it was a good few miles away.” She explained.

  “Alright, keep your wits about you then, let’s get a move on.” He said, and with that – we carried on up the motorway.

  The outskirts of Manchester were looming large ahead of us now, and with each passing step, I could feel myself begin to grow more uneasy. I scanned the dark, grey city - it looked like concrete woodlands of large, looming buildings, taller than anything I had ever seen before. It was almost impossible to believe that these structures were man made, the amount of time and resources that must have gone into creating them was astonishing.

  As I found myself admiring the city ahead, I found myself falling behind my two companions, they chatted amongst themselves in low, hushed tones, as though I wasn’t even there. If it wasn’t for the fact that Wayne still had my backpack, I might have been half tempted to quietly slip away and leave Wayne’s shit behind me, the knowledge that I couldn’t talk to Azaria again without having to face the wrath of her boyfriend wound me up like crazy.

  I watched the pair as they spoke to each other with intrigue, not once did Azaria seem to break a smile. Wayne seemed to be going on and on about something, whilst she simply nodded her head and agreed from time to time. At that moment, it became clear to me. She didn’t even like this guy, at all, but she owed her life to him, and like the good slave she had grown up to be, she didn’t dare disobey him or speak up for herself, instead she was going along with absolutely anything he said without question, because after all, this was a girl that probably didn’t understand the concept of free will. For her entire life, she lived in a world where you either owned someone, or were owned.

  As we continued on, I began to lag further and further behind, I did my best to try and match his speed, but with the wound on the bottom of my foot from the other night, it was tough. Every footstep brought a reminder of the shard of glass that had embedded itself in my foot. So as much as I tried, Wayne sure was storming ahead, even to the point where he had begun to leave Azaria in his trail, until something stopped him dead in his tracks. “Guys!” I heard him shout from up ahead, his voice was thick with concern. I couldn’t see what had startled him, so I took off in a light jog to catch up as quickly as possible.

  “Holy shit.” I exclaimed when I laid my eyes on what he was facing.

  The motorway gave way to a large bridge, and on the other side the road entered Manchester – but it was the bridge that concerned us; or rather, what was left of it.

  I stepped right up to the point where the road turned to nothingness, ahead of me the ground had collapsed into the river below. It was a long, sharp fall. I peered over the edge – the river was riddled with crushed cars and broken blocks of road and concrete. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what had caused the base of the bridge to collapse, but it looked as though the valley was unpassable.

  There was no easy way down, it was a sheer drop and a good fall that no man would survive. As far as the eye could see, there weren’t any other bridges within the area too. This was our only hope of getting into Manchester, without taking a massive detour of course.

  With a grin on his face, Wayne boldly said, “We can get across, don’t worry.”

  I shot him a look of pure confusion, he returned the stare with a smirk.

  “The handrails.” He simply said, almost laughing.

  I couldn’t believe my sore eyes – the handrails of the bridge remained in place and stretched across the entire length of the now bottomless bridge. The blue, metal railings didn’t look secure at all, they were attached to both ends of the bridge, with no other support to hold them in place. I couldn’t tell how secure they were, or how much weight they could take, but Wayne was right. This was definitely our only opportunity to cross here.

  I slowly stepped up to them to give them a quick inspection. The blue paint was faint and rusty, but the metal seemed fairly secure. I scanned across the bridge, on the left side, there was a portion of railing in the middle that had snapped and twisted, but on the right side, the railings seemed to pass from one side to the other uninterrupted.

  “That’s fucking insane.” Azaria protested.

  “Yeah, but it’s our only shot.” Wayne said, stepping up to the railings. As much as
it pained me to say it, I had to agree. “Pass me your gun.” He ordered, placing his hands on the metal bars, testing their durability with a pull.

  For a few seconds I stood there, staring at him.

  “In case there’s something on the other side. I’ll be the first over there, I don’t want to be unprotected.”

  Reluctantly, I handed him the weapon. I didn’t like being without protection over here, but I couldn’t argue with his logic. Wayne accepted the weapon and tucked it in the back of his pants. With that. Wayne placed his foot onto the metal railings.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The railings seemed to sway in the wind, but as Wayne stepped onto them, they held firm.

  “You’re fucking mad!” I laughed to Wayne as he slowly shifted across the bars. After a good five minutes he had managed to make it about ten feet across. He was taking it slow. With every step across, the railings creaked and swayed under his weight.

  “It’s going to take too long if we do it one by one. It’s a long fucking bridge.” Azaria sighed from beside me. I was happy to wait on the road whilst Wayne tested the waters.

  “Right, you wait here – I’ll get on first to make sure it can hold the extra weight first.” I said, managing to sound brave. Truth be told, my entire body was trembling. I felt lightheaded even looking down the sheer drop onto the concrete laden river below from the safety of the road.

  Slowly, I gripped the railings and placed my feet between the metal bars. They swayed a little with the added weight, but held strong. I gritted my teeth and began to climb across. I took it slow, perhaps even slower than Wayne, placing one foot between the next set of bars, giving it a few seconds to make sure it was secure, before shuffling across a little. Before I knew it, the ground below had been replaced by a straight drop. One slip, one miscalculation and it would all be over. I’d fall straight to my death – smashing against the sharp shards of concrete and metal some thirty meters blow.