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

that?!” A panicked resident asked in distress, upon noticing the craft’s rather triangular shape.

“Oh no…” Erica mumbled, having realised that she had seen this craft before. “It’s a stealth bomber.” She asserted.

“Bomber?!” Adela panicked, as did most of the other survivors.

“Erica,” the same man who first noticed the craft’s shape now addressed his de-facto leader, “What do we do?”

Erica hesitated for a moment upon noticing four turrets descending from the bomber’s wings, “…Run… Everybody, run!” She ordered them in a panic as she ran for her life, followed by all of the others.

As the aircraft came inbound, Erica’s assumption turned out to be correct. She kept glancing back at it every couple of seconds.

“Wait!” A man cried out, stopping dead in his tracks. “What’s that coming off of it?” He pointed to several objects falling from the craft’s wings, prompting Erica to stop and glance back as well.

Erica’s eyes widened into sheer horror, “Oh my God! Fucking hell, go! Everyone, keep going and don’t stop!” She had never been in a more dire situation in her life; and that said quite a lot.

As the bomber passed over the town, the objects falling from it reached the ground with great speed.

From the outskirts, Erica looked back.

‘BOOM! BAM! BOOM!’

The explosions were so bright and intense that they were reflected off of Erica’s pupils.

“Fuck…” She cursed to herself as the fallout came speeding towards her and the panicked survivors who were still pointlessly running…

“Corporal Ulysses,” the pilot of the bomber radioed, “Operation Libra was a success; the town has been destroyed.” As the woman declared this, she was actually smiling.

“Excellent news, Naomi.” Corporal Ulysses congratulated her. “Return to base immediately. I’ve got a little present for you.”

“With pleasure, sir.” Naomi declared as she tuned out of the frequency, still smiling at the fact that she had just obliterated a town which was home to countless innocent men, women, and children; the thought didn’t even cross her mind that Worm would be turning in his grave if he could see what his old friend had become…

Chapter 25: Mayday

LONDON, NOVEMBER 2034

EIGHT YEARS INTO THE GLOBAL APOCALYPSE…

 

32-year-old Elliot was lying down his bed, looking up at the ceiling of his hotel room. Though due to his impaired vision, he was trapped within his thoughts, rather than freed by the pretty patterns on the ceilings.

Being back in London after so long was taking its’ toll on him; this much was undeniable. But in all the quiet and the downtime, mixed with the fact that he was unable to make any new memories, Elliot was stuck reliving the past every time he stopped to catch so much as a breather…

 

 

LONDON, AUGUST 2018

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE THE GLOBAL APOCALYPSE…

 

16-year-old Elliot was riding in the back of a taxi with his best friend, Lucy, whom he not-so-secretly had a crushed on, and Olivia, who was Lucy’s best friend.

It was a rather special day, for it was Lucy’s sweet sixteenth. As such, Elliot and Olivia had agreed in secret to give Lucy a shared experience for her birthday.

“You’re not just gonna tie me up and leave on the side of the road, are you?” Lucy asked jokingly; she had a great sense of humour about her.

“Of course not!” Elliot rebutted, “That’s for your seventeenth.” In his younger years, his sense of humour was slightly dark, to say the least.

Olivia was looking at her friend with an enthusiastic smirk.

“Okay, I give in, what is it?” Lucy asked upon noticing just how hard Olivia was trying to contain her excitement.

“Wait and see!” Olivia foxed her.

Lucy looked back over at Elliot, who was also smiling at her, though he was simply appreciating the moment as it happened.

“I won’t lie,” Lucy professed, “I’m actually expecting the Crown Jewels now… If it’s anything less, I’ll be severely disappointed.” Once again, she was only kidding.

Upon arriving at their destination, Elliot paid the taxi driver as Olivia covered Lucy’s eyes with her hand.

“Cheers mate.” Elliot thanked the driver as he joined Olivia at Lucy’s side.

“You ready?” Olivia asked her.

“Oh, what the hell, might as well be!” Lucy jovially declared.

Smirking at each other, Elliot and Olivia guided Lucy onwards towards her present.

“And three, two, one!” Elliot quickly counted down, prompting Olivia to remove her hand from Lucy’s eyes as he reached zero.

“Oh, no way!” Lucy gasped, covering her mouth in awe as she did so.

“You told me you wanted to stand on top of the world and look down at it,” Elliot harkened back to a deep conversation that the two had recently had, “Well, I know it’s not quite the same thing, but I hope it’s good enough.”

“Good enough? Elliot, this is amazing!” She proclaimed heartfully, embracing her ‘best friend’ as she did so.

And there, in the middle of the small field which the three friends were stood in, there was a helicopter. The pilot cockily leant against the front passenger’s door with sunglasses on, seemingly in an attempt to impress the youngsters.

“The pilot’s agreed to give us a tour over the whole of London,” Olivia revealed, “It should take about an hour to get there, go round, and get back in total.”

Lucy nodded with a happy tear in her eye; never before in her life had she had friends who pulled out all the stops for her quite like this.

After performing all of the safety checks, the pilot prepared to lift the chopper off of the ground. He was in full control of the aircraft, as there was no co-pilot on this tour.

As part of her birthday treat, Lucy had been allowed to sit in the co-pilot’s seat in order to get the best view.

Elliot and Olivia sat at the far left and the far right, respectively,