James Loscombe - The Bitter End

They ran through the streets because her daddy said it would be pointless to try and take the car. She saw that he was right. There must have been a crash or something because there were broken cars everywhere. But she couldn’t see anybody in them. That was good. She didn’t want to see anyone hurt.

Cora Thompson held her mummy’s hand tightly. Her mummy looked scared and she didn’t want her to be scared. When her mummy was scared she remembered the time daddy had gone to hospital and she didn’t want to remember that.

Her daddy and Ben were a few metres in front. Pushing broken pieces of metal from the cars out of the way. It was the middle of the day and the sun was bright, it reflected on the metal like mirrors and she had to look away from things that were too bright.

There should have been other people, she realised. There should have been ambulances and police officers. There should have been a fire engine because one of the buildings was filling the air with poisonous smoke and heat. She wondered if there had been a terrorist attack. At school they had been told all about September 11th.

She could hear her mummy breathing as they ran. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes open wide but she didn’t turn her head, she kept her eyes focused on Ben and daddy ahead.

They ran for nearly an hour before they stopped to rest. She was tired but her daddy had a big bag on his back and carried another one in front of him. She had her My Little Pony backpack on, filled with her most precious things. They all had bags so there was no one who could carry her.

“How much further?” said her mummy.

Her daddy shook his head, “not much. We’ll be there before dark.”

They rested beneath a tree that grew out of the pavement. The shops around them were dark and empty. She realised that everyone had gone.

“Okay,” said her daddy, still panting and his face was red. “Are you ready?”

Her mummy nodded and then they were running again.

They ran along dirty alleyways that smelled funny and she could tell that they were going down hill. She heard some bells playing in a church and for a moment thought they were going there but they ran straight past. If there were any people inside she didn’t see them.

They ran until she was exhausted. She couldn’t pick her feet up anymore and she was getting more scared. No one had told her what they were doing. She started to cry.

“What is it sweat heart?” said her mummy. They stopped running but she was too scared to look around and see where they were.

She shook her head and the tears ran down her cheeks.

“Dennis,” called her mum and then she crouched down in front of Cora. “Come on honey, tell me what’s wrong.”

She said some things but most of it was muffled by the choking cry in her throat so that only “…scared…” came out.

Her mummy put her arms around her and squeezed. When she let go again Cora saw that her daddy and Ben were standing behind her. She didn’t look at Ben because he would be making some stupid face at her but she didn’t care. The fear was paralysing. She didn’t feel like she was running away from whatever was wrong but towards it.

“She’s scared,” said her mummy standing up but still keeping a hand on her shoulder. Her mummy was taller than her daddy which Cora hadn’t realised was unusual until just last year.

Her daddy bent down in front of her. “There’s nothing to be scared about Cora,” he said.

Then why, she tried to say, “…are we running?”

“It’s a game,” said her daddy. “You like games, don’t you?”

She didn’t like this game. This was a mean game and she didn’t want to play it anymore. She wanted to go back home and crawl under her bed sheets until the monsters went away. She shook her head.

Her daddy turned to look at her mummy who shrugged. Then he turned back to her and she could see that he was trying to relax but he still looked scared and that was even scarier. “We’re going on holiday,” he said.

She knew that they weren’t going on holiday. When you went on holiday you packed up all of your clothes the day before and you had them waiting by the front door for when the taxi came to take you to the airport. When you went on holiday you didn’t get woken up by your mummy shaking your shoulder and telling you in a panic to put your most important things in a bag and to hurry up. You didn’t run through the streets for hours not knowing where you were going.

“Come on,” said her daddy offering her his hand. “We’re almost there now.”

She took his hand but there was reluctance there. It was starting to get dark and that was another thing; the summer holidays were over now and they hadn’t been to buy her new things for school. Normally at the end of the summer holidays she got new pencils and a new bag but this year they hadn’t even talked about going shopping.

They walked now. She could see that it worried her mummy and daddy not to be running but she couldn’t run anymore. Her arms and legs were tired.

“What time is it?” said her mummy.

Her daddy looked at his watch. “Almost eight.”

Then her mummy looked up in the sky. Heavy looking clouds were blocking what was left of the suns light creating an artificial twilight. “We need to hurry up,” said her mummy.

Cora didn’t know why they had to hurry up but she soon found out.

A door swung open behind them and crashed against the wall. She turned around while still walking forwards.

A man stumbled out. He was dressed in rags and shielded his eyes against the weak sun. He had long arms and legs and he looked as if he had just woken up. He looked up the street and then down where he saw them.

The man smiled. She saw two sharp fangs at each corner of his mouth and she screamed.

Then her daddy turned and saw the man. “Oh shit!” he said.

Normally she would have laughed, because it was funny hearing her daddy swear, but not this time. He dropped the bag that he was carrying and she heard something inside it break. Then he picked her up and started to run.

Her mummy and Ben were running as well.

She could see the man behind them, running jerkily towards them as if his legs were too long for his body. A long tongue came out of his mouth and licked his lips. Cora screamed again.

At the bottom of the hill was the canal. She could see the little boats bobbing up and down on the water as the last of the sunlight started to fade. More men like the first were behind them now. They didn’t so much run as throw themselves through the air. They reminded her of new born animals she had seen on television, animals that weren’t quite sure yet how their bodies worked.

They ran down the steps and she thought that her daddy might drop her but he held tight.

“Which one?” said her mummy. She had stopped running and let Cora and her daddy overtake them.

“This way.”

They ran along the bank. She could see more men like the others, and some of them she thought were women, coming over the bridge towards them. Her daddy stopped beside one of the boats and they climbed onto it.

She didn’t like this. She was crying and she wasn’t even sure why. The men were so strange and there were so many of them.

Her mummy and Ben climbed on and her daddy started the engine. The boat moved away from the bank as the first man arrived. He lunged towards them but they were too far away.

He screamed as he hit the water and she was sure that she saw smoke rising from the surface.

The boat moved slowly towards the middle of the river and more of the men gathered around the bank, reaching out as if they could grab them and pull them back. She thought for sure that they would jump in the water and start following them but they didn’t.