Silence of the Apocalypse- Journey Home Read online

  Prologue

  It was a day like any other. The news focused on the latest celebrity gossip, local events of terror, and of course the ever-debated catastrophe causer; climate change. People moved through busy streets and got stuck in seemingly endless traffic jams. The same daily nightmares of the species becoming blinded by money and technology.

  If only that technology had been able to prevent the actual nightmare that became a painful reality that day.

  The first anyone knew of the threat was the sudden onslaught of noise, like thunder from the heavens. The next, explosions occurred too fast for anyone to react to. Every military outpost and warehouse were taken out within the first ten minutes of the attack. It wasn’t like the movies where an invasion lingers in the line of sight before attacking. Instead, the first sight anyone got of the metallic ships descending was through smoke laced air, screams of those around drowning out the sound of engines drawing closer to the ground.

  Humanity wasn’t ready for the swiftness of the attack, nor the accuracy of the strategy and the level of impenetrable defence that faced them. One week was all it took for the human race to fall, for, after the military, the invaders had wiped out the global fuel reserves.

  The world was plunged into fear, darkness, and death.

  Chapter 1

  Her hands were shaking fearfully as she stared down at them. Gripped painfully in her right hand was a blade, one designed for ornamental purposes. It was just meant to be for decoration, and yet it was now within her hand dripping with a deep blue liquid while the stench of fear slowly dawned on her.

  Frozen, she seemed, for a couple of moments until her bright blue eyes filled with shock flickered to where the blue liquid had come from. It was one of them. Those horrors that had descended from the sky that day and ruined the world and life the young woman was trying to build around her. She had named them Nerushimyy after her ancestors’ home tongue, meaning ‘indestructible’. Nerushi was the shortened version, and til this very moment, she had never seen one out of her window be stopped, and yet the one that lay before her was lifeless.

  “Kat?”

  The girl named Katya Devaroux finally tore her eyes away from the creature on the floor and settled them on the shock-stricken face of her housemate, Svetlina. It was the sight of her friend’s fearful brown eyes that pushed back all fear in Katya’s mind and drew forth a need to act.

  “It’s ok, I think it’s dead”

  “Yeah, but how?!”

  “I don’t know… hang on”

  The theory of fight or flight remained in humans beneath the logic and the emotion. For Katya, her instinct was to fight. Perhaps one could expect that from a girl with chin length messy hair that was dyed a vivid fiery red. The locks swayed as she dropped down to her knees beside the Nerushi, her right hand placing her blade onto the ground before tentatively exploring the area her blade had pierced. The deep blue liquid that still dripped from the wound stuck to her fingers as they came into contact.

  It wasn’t warm, that was the first thing she noticed. The second was that it had the consistency of jam that was yet to set, and it had a silky texture. The bodily fluid wasn’t what Katya’s attention most though. It was the feeling of the substance that had been punctured.

  It wasn’t attached to the body.

  “It’s armour…” she muttered partially to herself. “Get me a small knife, Lina.”

  Svetlina cast her a look as though she was insane. Maybe she was still too in shock, or maybe she was just used to Katya not always speaking her full train of thought. Either way, she quickly moved out of the hallway of their shared home. They were the only two there, the day everything went to hell their other housemates had been out. Neither girl had heard anything from them since. Then again, with the technology going out soon after that first week, the only thing anyone heard while they were hiding was the screams and cries from those who had been located by the Nerushi.

  “Here you go”

  Svetlina was back with a small kitchen knife. After handing it to the redhead the blonde-haired Russian knelt down beside Katya as though her legs were unable to keep her upright at this point in time.

  “What are you doing?” Curiosity always won out when it came to Svetlina, at least when the immediate surroundings were safe.

  “Finding out just how indestructible these guys actually are” Katya responded as she followed the point of weakness around the neck. If she could figure out where their vulnerability was, maybe she would be able to survive once more. Her knife clinked every time it encountered the impenetrable material, which allowed her to see that the weakness was wider at the sides of the neck area while almost non-existent at the front and the back.

  “What kind of metal even is this?” Svetlina asked as her own hand braved to touch the armour on the body, her fingers tapping against the rough matt black material.

  Katya allowed her eyes to move from the area she was inspecting to fully register the armour and the shape of what she had killed. The armour was rough enough that no light from the window glinted off it, designed by the look of it to be well hidden in shadow. It hugged the form of the creature almost flawlessly, showing clearly the concave shape of the back that arched off the floor. The legs were long, thick and bent much like the digitigrade structure of pawed animals seen around the world. Katya noticed that because of this bend, there was yet another gap in the armour behind the knee joint equivalent and around the ankle joint.

  It was no wonder these creatures instilled terror though, with those legs straightened they likely stood at around nine feet high and they only had these three tiny areas of weakness. Katya still knew nothing about the group that was more feline than humanoid. These Nerushi carried weapons, but the four-footed version could rip you apart in a matter of seconds.

  Oh, she didn’t want to think of that.

  “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen” Katya finally gave an answer to the question posed to her. The fingers on her free hand brushed over the facial area of the armour. There were no gaps in it. It moulded around the head perfectly with no features to show. The only change in the surface was the two small indents where the glow of full-bodied red wine pierced eerily through the black. The colour was dulled now though, like the light of life had literally vanished at the moment of death.

  “At least we know they can die”

  “Yeah, these ones. What happens if it’s the hellcat type?”

  “I don’t know. Pray, I get lucky a second time?”

  The disapproving scowl that Svetlina gave her red-headed friend could have chilled a soul, but Katya met it with an out of place stupid grin. It was a lifelong habit for her to make jokes in bad times to try and lighten the mood of those around her. Inside her own head though, she was already concerned about the very same thing. On top of that, just because she had managed to kill one, it didn’t mean she was going to be able to kill another if it faced her.

  For the first time since this nightmare started though, there was a glimmer of hope growing in her heart. The days had been ticking by with her watching her medication packets slowly empty.

  Katya suffered from Addison’s disease, a condition which required daily medication to keep her hormones in balance, so she could live life normally. Without the medication, she would face getting thinner and weaker and more susceptible to a medical crisis. Knowing that the monsters outside had weaknesses meant that maybe, just maybe…

  “I could make it to the pharmacy” she muttered softly to herself. Ah, hope was a terrifying emotion. Whenever it welled up within it allowed for a reckless level of courage to see something done. This probably explained the shocked and bem
used expression that Svetlina turned to face her with.

  “Please tell me you are joking!”

  “No Lina, listen…”

  “Katya, seriously; you got lucky with that one sure, but you don’t know how many are out there!”

  “I know. Think about it though, we’ve been hiding here for a few weeks now, and we are almost out of food we can eat without cooking. I only have a week’s worth of medication left. On top of that, what if they communicate and realise this one isn’t responding and suddenly we have to deal with more while low on food and medication?”

  Silence fell over the blonde as the logic and terrible truth sunk in.

  “I don’t want to wait around here just to die in one of those three ways… you don’t have to come with me, but I think you should go hide in a safer place.” Katya continued, her hand wiping the blue gloop onto the carpet beside the body before placing it supportively on Svetlana’s shoulder. “If we are careful and we can protect ourselves, we can get somewhere safer.”

  The silence continued as Svetlina’s brown eyes slowly moved to the blade that Katya had killed it with. There was no doubt she would be safer with Katya, the girl was logical, cautious, as well as incredibly protective. Alone, Svetlina would probably end up in a panic.

  “Damn Katya, why can I never argue with you?” She said with an exasperated sigh.

  “Because you know I’m nothing but logical in a crisis?”

  “Yeah, our gap year proved that much. But I still don’t want to go out there”

  “I know.” Katya’s hand pressed smoothly onto the cheek of her friend to get her to look away from the Nerushi on the floor. “Joanne lives by the pharmacy, and they have one of those new bunkers. We’ll grab medication then go there? It’ll be safer than here”

  Joanne was a mutual friend from university, one of Svetlina’s course and one of the blonde’s best friends. Perhaps it made it easier for the blonde to give a nervous nod of her head, maybe in her, there was some hope her best friend would still be alive.

  “Ok, I hope you know what you are doing”

  “Never” again, the stupid grin pulled on the edges of Katya’s lips, causing the blonde to chuckle in dismay. At least that hadn’t changed, Katya wasn’t losing her sense of humour any time soon.

  Chapter 2

  Even though she had agreed, it still took a while for Katya to actually get her housemate to be ready to leave the house. Katya had been ready in under fifteen minutes; changing into flexible clothes for easy and quiet movement. A simple long-sleeved grey shirt which kept to her body, as did the black shorts and leggings she had picked out. If she had to run, she didn’t want to get caught of anything.

  The only things that stuck out were the blade she had killed the intruder with; it came with a sheath with a belt loop and a small backpack. It was only a small bag to carry the essentials.

  After pulling on her shin-high Doc Martins, Katya stood in the kitchen by the back door.

  “Come on Lina…” She mumbled as her eyes glanced about their concrete garden. For the first time she was glad there was no foliage out there, she could definitely say there was no immediate threat in the vicinity.

  In her right hand, she held a decent sized functioning flip knife from the recent war styled games. It flipped shut safely and the blade was currently being sharpened by the knife block in her left hand.

  “You going to take them on with two hands?”

  Ah, Svetlina had finally come down with a bag Katya deemed possibly too full. But then, Svetlina did have many things she was too sentimental to leave behind. Instead of commenting on how much the blonde had, Katya simply flipped the knife shut and held it out to her friend.

  “Nope, this one is for you… just in case”

  Svetlina looked at the knife that was extended to her, a flicker of hesitation moved through those brown hues. It was obvious that she didn’t like the idea of her possibly having to kill something. Would she be able to? Would she freeze up and fail?

  “Lina, please take it. I’d rather you had it and didn’t need it.”

  Katya wasn’t putting pressure on her friend to fight, it was very plain by the softness of her facial expression and the concern in her eyes that she was just hoping to keep Svetlina as safe as possible while they were moving.

  That, thankfully, was enough to convince the blonde not to argue, reaching out to take the knife and push it down into the right pocket of her jeans.

  “I don’t want…”

  “You won’t have to, we’ll be clever and not get caught” Katya reassured with that oh-so-gentle smile. “Joanne’s isn’t that far, and we’ll be safer there.”

  Well, she hoped they would be safer. Clearing her through as though to distract her own mind from that train of thought she turned to the back door.

  They could do this…

  Pushing open the back door, they were met with an ominous silence. They lived in a city! Granted it wasn’t one of those industrialised and built up cities where skyscrapers blocked out the sun, but it was still meant to be a busy place full of moving vehicles and chattering people. To hear nothing was at all was unnerving. As they came to the back street, the sight was even more unsettling. The once well-walked street was still. Cars laid abandoned, some looking like the families had never had a chance to hear them out of the drives. Others were more worrisome, dented with doors ripped off, some having run off the road into the front of shops or front gardens.

  What was probably the most daunting was that there was not even any sign of animals moving. Even in the dead of night, you would hear the rustling of critters searching for food or the cry of cats protecting their territory.

  Katya had never heard such deafening silence.

  Thankfully that logical voice in her head pointed out that if there was silence they should be able to hear anything approaching them… theoretically.

  “Come on, we can use the cars as blocks to hide behind as we move” That was the only option in her view, keep pushing forward and don’t stop.

  The idea worked well as the females ventured deeper into the city. They took some routes through houses whose doors hung open, through gardens for more cover. When they couldn’t avoid the main streets, they advanced carefully, hopping from one shielded position to the next as quietly as they could.

  Both females were forced to stop as they turned onto the main street where the pharmacy was located. On that oil-smelling street past broken cars stood one of the bipedal aliens. It was searching the street. The way it moved was not graceful, as though it did not have a fear of attracting attention and facing death as a consequence. Humans and their technology were laughable in the face of these great creatures.

  There were no other sounds of movement as Katya and Svetlina hid behind a scraped and leaking blue van, but the sound of the Nerushi smashing windows echoed in their ears. Shop by shop the terror drew closer to them, causing the need for Katya to raise one hand and place it over the blonde’s mouth as she let out a frightened whimper.

  Thankfully, for whatever reason, Svetlina’s whimper wasn’t heard. Perhaps she had been overshadowed by the sound of glass glittering to the floor, or it could have been that the Nerushi was distracted by something that only became notable to the girls a few seconds later.

  A male human, when scared for his life, could cry out at a higher pitch than the norm. It was concerning that Katya knew the sound well from that first week of invasion while she had hidden. What she hadn’t picked up on though through the multiple screams back then, was that the sound of scuffle did not end with the silence of death.

  Instead, the air was filled with the useless pleas of the man. A man begging for mercy, for release from the horrors he might endure. Curiosity pushed past the fear within Katya, or maybe she was hoping for a sign that she may have a chance to help. Lifting herself up slightly to take a glance over the bonnet of the van.

  She would not get the chance to help though, as at the end of the street there st
ood one of the feline looking beasts. Its short-armoured muzzle was parted slightly showing serrated medallion yellow fangs. Katya had barely glanced over the bonnet before the sight of the beast caused her to drop back down while suppression a sickened shudder.

  Cries and pleas from the man continued as he was dragged away by his leg. Any time he attempted to grab onto something in protest, the beast would snap at his hands to stop him. Neither biped or quadruped alien made any effort to kill the man though.

  “That’s weird” Katya’s voice could just be heard over the fading screams. She spoke to herself more than to her companion, the need for answers on her mind, unable to figure out what was going on. “Why didn’t either kill him?”

  Carefully she lifted herself to glance over to the end of the street, her blue eyes scanning the area before she could say the coast was clear. Sounds of that faded cry of desperation spurred the red-head to move from behind the van.