Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

later!” Mac quickly scurried away, feeling awkward about himself.

Elliot was still grinning to himself.

“What? What is it?” Annabelle asked, herself smiling.

“I just love how nervous people get when they realise it.” Elliot revealed as he pointed to the scar across his eyes; he had managed to turn a tragic event into comedic mileage.

Chapter 8: It’s Oh, So Quiet

The thunder rumbled out across the dark, gloomy sky over London as lightning forks struck the highest points.

The strong and mighty winds ravaged the streets, throwing litter, corpses, and even vehicles, around in an erratic manner; this was no ordinary storm, it was a hurricane.

Rajan hugged the lamppost for dear life. Never in a million years did it cross his mind that he’d find himself at the mercy of Mother Nature after the world had already ended.

“Raj!” Michelle cried out to him, leaning out of a nearby doorway. “What the hell are you doing man?!” She yelled over the torrential rain. “Get back in here!”

“There’s someone out there, Michelle!” Rajan yelled back as lightning struck a nearby building. “You heard the voice on the radio! I have to save him!” It was clear that Rajan was willing to put his own life on the line if it meant saving others.

“If that man has any sense, he’ll have taken shelter already!” Michelle tried to explain, “If not, then he may already be dead! Please, Raj, just get back here!” She pleaded with him, having to scream so loudly over the foreboding hurricane that it physically hurt her lungs.

The building in question was an old performing arts theatre. Currently, the small group were warming themselves up in one of the large, empty, and echoey performing halls.

“What the hell kind of a storm even is that?” Rob distressfully remarked as he listened to the wind outside pounding against the roof.

Maylene shrugged, “I couldn’t possibly to tell you. I’ve been all around the world, and never, not once, have I been caught up in a storm quite as bad this.” She asserted with terror. “There were entire vehicles being blown across the roads out there. If we were none the wiser, we could’ve been taken right out by one of them!”

Maylene’s distress was drawing uneasy stares from the dozen-or-so other survivors in the hall with her.

Sensing this tension, Rob tried to make the situation feel less harrowing, “I took a three-month holiday to Thailand once. It was monsoon season the entire time I was there. Let me tell you, that was far worse than this.”

But nobody shared this positive attitude.

‘SLAM!’

As she marched into the hall, Michelle heavily pulled the door shut behind her.

“Where’s Rajan?” Rob asked in an instant, not even thinking to ask Michelle how she was before doing so.

Michelle shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance, “The idiot’s gone after that man we heard on the radio.”

Maylene sighed in turn, “He’s always trying to save someone.” She facetiously remarked.

“And that’s all fine and dandy,” Michelle professed as she sat down at Rob and Maylene’s side, “Until it gets him killed.”

Rob shuddered at this thought.

“He’ll be fine.” Maylene had no concerns about her friend’s survival.

But Rob protested, “We have to go after him!”

Michelle shook her head in the negative, “It’s too dangerous. You saw it yourself; the wind out there was blowing vehicles over.” She unknowingly echoed Maylene’s earlier observation. “But I promise, as soon as the weather dies down, I’ll go after him myself.”

Rob understood why they had to wait, but was unwilling to sit back and wait, “How many times has Rajan saved our lives, though? If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even be in this group.” He nodded to Maylene, “Neither would you, in fact!”

Maylene nodded, accepting of this fact, “I don’t disagree, but that’s all the more reason to stay here. Rajan didn’t just save us so we could end up dead anyway.”

“She’s right.” Michelle backed her up, “If you get yourself killed going after him, then what was the point in Rajan sticking his neck out to save you anyway?”

Rob grunted, trying to hide the fact that he agreed with the ladies’ point.

Outside, as Rajan waded through the adverse weather, the storm showed no signs of dying down.

‘CRACK!’

A lightning bolt struck a nearby pillar, causing it to emit bold and fiery sparks.

‘RUMBLE!’

The lightning was deafeningly loud.

Rajan struggled to maintain his footing; the ferociousness of the wind was continuously blowing him off balance.

The rain was so thick and heavy that it created a light gloomy sheet, preventing Rajan from seeing anything more than a couple of metres ahead of him.

Eventually, Rajan found himself staggering towards a junction.

From out of the boundless and endless gloom, an empty wheelie bin suddenly came breezing past. It was perhaps seven or eight feet up from the ground, travelling at well over ten miles-per-hour. The lid had already been torn off by the intense gale, leaving it a lidless container that propelled past upside down.

The only support Rajan had were the crevices between the brickwork of the building next to the pavement. As Rajan watched the wheelie bin fly down the street, he lamented to himself that, had the wind had suddenly changed direction, it may very well have squashed him against the wall which he was clinging onto for dear life, and effectively killed him.

‘CRASH!’

The lightning struck again causing the nearby vicinity to momentarily illuminate in an electrifying blue; it would have been so pretty and magical if it weren’t so terrifying and life-threatening.

Eventually, by still clinging on to fixed structures, Rajan had made his way to the outskirts of the city.

‘Help!’

A desperate voice cried out faintly, barely audible over the torrential downpour.

Rajan strained momentarily in an attempt to better listen out for the distressed cry.