Lachlan Walter - The Rain Never Came

Even I knew that his mistake was a stupid one.

‘Get down!’ I yelled.

Tobe spun on the spot, trying to hide his caught-by-surprise expression behind a viscous smile.

I could see faint dots of white light behind the Creep; they bobbed, dipped, but didn’t flicker. Not firelight, not candlelight, but torchlight. More Creeps…

‘Over here!’ the Creep who had stumbled upon us yelled.

He reached for his pistol, but he never stood a chance. Tobe, his gun already in his hand, was too fast—without dropping his smile, he shot the Creep down. Jude immediately started barking, trying to scare away the man-made thunder. The Creep began twitching. Tobe shot him a second time, this time in the head.

My stomach heaved again. I tasted bile again.

‘Come on!’ Tobe screamed.

He had seen the torches as well, but was clearheaded enough to know they were heading our way.

‘Go! Go! Go!’

He ushered us into the nearest alley that intersected ours. Shots rang out, gouging chunks of wood from the buildings around us. We ran on, before anyone could take better aim. I had no idea where we were going; we seemed to be heading down alleys at random. More shots rang out; more wood exploded around us.

And still we ran, taking a left, entering yet another alley, joining a mob of holdouts who were all running in the same direction we were, frenzied now that the Creeps were out on the streets.

Tobe kept looking over his shoulder, making sure that we hadn’t lost him. Whenever he caught my eye, he winked at me.

‘Bastard,’ I muttered.

He somehow heard me. He looked back; despite everything that was happening, he smiled a cheeky smile. He ran straight into someone, bowling them over. I watched as he simply stepped over them.

‘Come on.’

‘Tobe, wait.’

‘There’s no time.’

I stopped anyway—fuck him. Whoever he had bowled over was already pushing themselves off the ground.

‘Dickhead,’ a woman said.

Her voice was soft, but nonetheless it sounded like she took no shit. I thought I recognised it. It couldn’t be…

‘You should watch where you’re bloody going,’ the woman said, looking up at us.

Louise’s mouth literally dropped open. Mine did the same. So did Ruby’s.

‘G’day,’ was all that Tobe said. He didn’t seem at all surprised.

‘Lou!’ Ruby called happily.

Louise reached out and ruffled her hair. Ruby forgot where she was, forgot what was happening—she dropped her gun, wrapped her arms around Louise’s legs.

‘I don’t ever want to wake up,’ I said, finding my voice, properly smiling for the first time in a long time.

‘Nice to see you too, Bill,’ Louise said.

A shiver ran down my spine. ‘How long have you been here?’

‘I got in today, would you believe it?’

We both laughed. What else could we do? Even though our world had gone to hell, there was still something to smile about.

More shots rang out; our tiny moment of happiness was ruined. It was the sound of automatic gunfire, rat-a-tat-tat. Once again, I couldn’t see who was shooting, couldn’t see who was being shot. Louise flinched, pulling Ruby with her to the ground.

As the gunfire petered out, Ruby slowly and deliberately wormed free.

‘I’m okay.’

Ruby picked up her gun, trying hard to look determined. I reached down, took Louise’s hand, helped her to her feet.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

I nodded at Tobe. ‘What do you think?’

I had never seen hate in Louise’s eyes before.

‘I knew it. Bill, I don’t want to say I told you so, but…’

More gunfire cut off her words. It was closer this time, louder. Louise flinched again as screams answered the gunfire. Over her shoulder, at the far end of the alley, I saw the shadows start to stir. I stared at them, slack-jawed, confused. Tobe caught me staring. Whatever was stirring made him gape as well.

‘Go! Go! Go!’ he shouted again, shining his torch into the darkness.

It was too late. The shadows turned out to be another mob of panicked holdouts, heading straight for us. There were thirty of them, maybe forty, maybe more. Running blindly, the flash of gunfire lighting up the night behind them, they moved like a stampeding herd.

‘Shit,’ was all Tobe managed to say.

The mob hit us like a living, breathing wall. I couldn’t help letting go of Louise’s hand.

‘No!’

It seemed like such a small word. How could something so small hold so much regret? And then I was being trampled and had bigger things to worry about. Jude howled. People screamed. Gunfire echoed around us. Rolled up in a foetal ball, I caught glimpses of holdouts running, of Creeps chasing them, of people falling. It felt like everyone managed to kick me in my barely healed ribs. But all in all, it was actually less painful than I had expected and was over before it really began.

However, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt and didn’t feel like it lasted forever.

‘Kill me now,’ I moaned.

I slowly got to my feet. A dozen bodies crowded the alley floor: dead Creeps and dead holdouts. One of them groaned, tried to sit up. When it looked up at me and smiled a bloody smile, I discovered it was Tobe. The remainder of his teeth had been kicked in, but he seemed otherwise okay. He scooped up his weapons, stood straight and easy. Ruby made it to her feet, her elbow bent backward at a hideous angle. I couldn’t see Jacko or Jude anywhere.

What was worse was that I couldn’t find Louise.

‘Lou!’ I cried.

‘Keep it down, Bill. You don’t want to bring the Creeps back. Now, come on, let’s go.’

‘Give me a sec.’

‘There’s no time.’

I saw torches bobbing ahead of us, in the direction the panicked mob had been heading. Creeps coming back to either rake the bodies or tend to the wounded, I guessed. It didn’t make any difference; it was trouble all the same.

‘What about Lou?’ I asked nonetheless. ‘What about Jacko?’

‘Forget them.’

Tobe took my arm, dragged me behind him, made sure Ruby was following. Shots rang out, close behind us. I fought against Tobe but he was too strong. My feet caught on something; I stumbled, tripped. Tobe hauled me back up and kept dragging me, until I was forced to run along with him.

‘Tobe!’ I screamed.

‘Give it a rest.’

‘Let me go!’

‘Drop it, Bill. Lou wouldn’t come with us anyway.’

That was yet another reason to go back, maybe the most important one.

‘But…’

We ran into the empty square and came to a halt, exposed on open ground. I hadn’t even caught on that the alley had ended. Someone flicked on a spotlight, shone it in our eyes. I heard the metallic click of guns being cocked. Tobe let me go. I threw my hands above my head.

‘Dickhead,’ he smirked.

The light dipped.

‘You lot, get out of here, now!’ the holdout manning the spotlight yelled.

Three or four other holdouts stood alongside him, all armed, waiting for the Creeps who were hot on our collective tail.

We had walked into an ambush…

‘Shoot straight, you bastards!’ one of the holdouts yelled.

I dropped, hugged the ground. Tobe and Ruby did the same.

The holdouts shot straight. The Creeps behind us replied in kind, bullets whizzing above our heads. I gritted my teeth, managed to turn my head, looked at Tobe, looked at Ruby. She was crying, had given in to it. He craned his neck, looked left and right as well.

‘Keep low and follow me!’ he yelled, pointing to an alley leading away from the square.

The body of a Creep fell on me, drenching me in blood, giving me no chance to reply. I heaved it off. Disgusted, I almost jumped to my feet before it clicked that doing so was an exceptionally bad idea.