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

Petra swallowed guilty; she had backed Valorie’s notion that somebody was in danger outside, when in truth, everybody seemed to be safe and alright.

“He died for nothing, Petra.” Rubin mumbled to her quietly, so as not to be overheard by Valorie.

“I know…” Petra herself was tearful.

“Why are you crying?” Rubin tittered. “If you’d have taken his side in the first place, he’d still be alive. Tears of guilt, perhaps?”

 Petra shook her head dismayingly. Although she knew she was to blame, she still felt as though she had done the right thing.

Valorie’s wailing echoed out through the house.

Back in the hotel, Gwen and Annabelle were listening in on the transmissions from all over the safe zone on the open frequency.

“The solar farm’s out.” Adela revealed over the channel. “It got struck by lightning… The fire’s destroyed the whole thing. Alek and Emile are out there right now trying to get it under control, but I think they’re gonna need help out here.”

“Copy that.” Kieran acknowledged. “I’ve just found Cora and Mac. They’re alright, but—”

“Cora?! She’s with you?” Erica hijacked the frequency.

“…I’m here, mum.” Cora affirmed over Kieran’s radio. “I’m absolutely fine, don’t worry.”

“I don’t know who that man with you is,” Erica referred to Kieran, “But I am eternally grateful to him.”

“The name’s Kieran.” He revealed to her. “I wouldn’t say no to a few beers if you’re up for it.” Although he knew that Erica was very much a married woman, Kieran simply wanted to make friends with the survivors who had, quite literally, dropped out of the sky.

Interlude

The following morning, at long last, everything was quiet. The horrendous hurricane had finally died out, leaving behind flooding and wrecked debris in the streets.

But inside the walls of the safe zone, the world had, quite literally, changed forever. One of the two solar farms had been completely ravaged by flames, abandoned vehicles had been swept away by the fierce gale and left on their roofs, and so the list of storm damage, just like the storm itself, was seemingly endless.

But also, on a more figurative level, the survivors’ world would never be the same again. Never before in the end times had they been surfing the waves of grief like this; for this time, they had nobody to take revenge against. How could they wage war against Mother Nature herself even if they wanted to?

But little do the safe zone residents know, however, that another pressing threat is on its’ way. For some of them, their next tribulation would be rather personal and harken back to a past which they have tried to come to terms with…

Chapter 11: Journey To The Centre Of The City

As soon as the hurricane had died down, Rajan and Michelle had taken the unfortunate soul who had been decapitated by the helicopter blade outside to bury him.

With them was the woman who had screamed upon witnessing such a horrible fate, Yelena.

Whilst Michelle was taking her time with shovelling the unearthed dirt back over the corpse, Rajan appeared to be hurrying. Noticing this, Michelle informed him, “You can slow down, you know. Rushing this isn’t going to change anything.”

But Rajan ignored her and continued to shovel the dirt at an increasing pace.

“He didn’t deserve this.” Yelena affirmed, shaking her head in disgust. “He was so kind… He didn’t deserve this at all.” She repeated in utter dismay.

“Yelena.” Michelle gently lowered her shovel to the ground; for the oak tree that was once there had been blown away and decimated by the hurricane. “Look,” she rubbed Yelena’s back, “This is just how things are these days… It’s sad, yes. But we have to get over it or we’ll be consumed by the grief. Okay?”

The tender moment was completely overshadowed by Rajan’s rapid shovelling.

“It shouldn’t—It shouldn’t have been him.” Yelena said disbelievingly.

“It shouldn’t have been anyone.” Michelle added as Yelena rested her head on her shoulder.

In Rajan’s sombre eyes, it was clear why he was in such a hurry; his toxic trait of needing to save everyone had taken a great toll on him, as two people that he could have saved were now dead. He wanted to get his late ally buried and move on from it because, just as Michelle had said, Rajan knew he couldn’t let the grief consume him, otherwise, more lives may be lost…

The previous night, the rest of the group had shimmied into an adjacent performing hall, for none of them wanted to be sleeping in the same room where a large piece of debris had fallen.

Striding up onto the stage, Rajan prepared to address the survivors who were left, “Excuse me, everybody. May I have your attention?”

The few murmurs that had already been going on abruptly stopped, as everybody did indeed give Rajan the audience that he had requested.

“Now—Um,” Rajan hadn’t prepared what he was going to say, “We’ve taken a bit of a hit, there’s no two ways around that.”

“Is that supposed to be a pun?” Vivi, a relatively young yet surprisingly resourceful survivor, heckled.

“I’m—What?” Rajan didn’t understand what she was referring to.

“The helicopter blade! You know, the massive object that killed one of our friends?”

Rajan sighed, “No—No, that wasn’t a pun by any stretch of the imagination.” He replied, completely bewildered by her jeering. “Anyway,” he resumed his address, “The man who I found out there yesterday gave me some rather useful information: There’s a safe zone in the heart of the city.”

The murmurs amongst the crowd rose up again.

“I know, I know, you’re all thinking it’s probably not operational…” Rajan tried to put himself on the same level as his allies, “But that doesn’t matter. We’ll be far safer in those four still-standing walls than we will be hopping around out here on the streets.”

“Safer