The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire (13 page)

Suddenly a
gunshot echoed from within the cave.

“
Can you see anything yet?” Lizzie worried, growing more and
more frantic by the minute. Though I didn’t know this Conrad
person, I owed my safety, and no doubt my life to him. He had
risked everything to save me and Amy, for apparently no reason what
so ever; other than the kindness of his heart.

“
Nothing.” I said, through gritted teeth. I wanted to badly to
make my way over there and inspect the place, or even try and help
out Conrad in the cave, but Conrad had given me clear instructions
to stay and guard Lizzie, I wouldn’t betray my word.

“
Go and help him!” Lizzie urged, as though she had read my
thoughts.

“
I can’t. I told him I would stay here and guard
you.”

“
I’d be safer without you.” She almost laughed. For a paralysed
girl, she was pretty high on self-confidence.

Finally,
something moved at the mouth of the cave. I pressed my finger
against the trigger, fearing for the worst. I couldn’t help but let
out a sigh of relief when I saw Conrad charge from the cave,
running as fast as his meaty legs would allow him to. Then I
realised he was alone. He didn’t have Amy draped over his shoulder
– to me, that meant only one thing.

“
Keep me covered!” Conrad bellowed as he charged in my
direction, his breathing heavy and short. That also confirmed
something to me – Oliver was alive.

Luckily,
Conrad reached the bushes before Oliver emerged from the cave. He
grabbed his small companion, threw her over his shoulders and took
off running, without so much as saying a single word. I took one
last look at the cave, before following in his footsteps.

Chapter
Fifteen

We ran for a
good ten minutes, turning off in all directions in a bid to prevent
Oliver from being able to chase us. My lungs were burning by the
time we finally stopped in a small opening, I placed down my
backpack and leant against a rock whilst I struggled to catch my
breath. Despite it being a cold night, my shirt was stuck to my
back with sweat.

I turned to
face Conrad. Despite carrying Lizzie on his shoulder the entire
time, he had hardly broke a sweat.

“
Are we safe to stop here?” I managed between deep
inhales.

“
We should be, but only for a moment whilst we catch our
breath. There people who kidnapped you will no doubt have some
tracking capabilities. Everyone who survives out in the wild knows
how to track. Our stuff is stored about five minutes away; we can
make camp for the night there. And your friend, she’s dead. I
couldn’t save her.” He explained, confirming my suspicions. I stood
in silence for a moment, thinking about Amy Olsen.

“
He won’t follow us.” Lizzie eventually said, as though fact,
before she continued, “He’s not going to leave his companion to
bleed out. But I do suspect that sooner or later, they may come
looking.” I couldn’t help but be a little infuriated by her
confidence. This girl was likely two or three years younger than
me, but she was so much tougher, so much smarter. It annoyed me to
no end.

“
Who are you people anyway?” I asked.

“
Like I said before, there will be a time for formalities
later. Once again, this isn’t the time. We can get to know each
other when camp’s been made.” Conrad said without so much as
looking at me; his eyes still focused on the woods surrounding our
little clearing.

“
Are you ready to carry on yet?” Lizzie asked. I was close to
tutting at that statement. It was easy for her to want to carry on;
she wasn’t the one doing the running.

“
Sure.” Conrad said, much to my dismay. I stared at him, wide
eyed.

“
Already?” I gasped, my lungs still burning from our
escape.

“
You’re more than welcome to stay and wait for your captors to
catch up.” Lizzie sarcastically mocked as Conrad picked her back up
and placed her over his shoulder again.

“
No you’re not. I didn’t risk all this for nothing. You’re
coming with us, even if I have to carry you too.” He said, shooting
down Lizzie’s sarcastic tone.

He carried on
in the direction that we had been heading when we stumbled across
the opening. I took a final look around us, content that Oliver
still wasn’t pursuing before I threw my backpack over my shoulders
once again and took off in a light jog after the pair.

Within less
than five minutes of a solid, steady jog we reached another
clearing – this one being where Conrad and Lizzie appeared to be
have been staying. It wasn’t anything fancy, nothing more than two
tents.

“
Is this where you’ve been staying?” I asked, surprised at its
simplicity. Oliver and Phil’s camp had much more to it, but this
was literally just two tents and nothing more, no fire, no washing
lines or anything of the type.

“
We made camp here today, but we’re not staying here. We don’t
have a permanent home.” Lizzie explained as Conrad placed her down
on the floor. He then disappeared inside one of the tents before
returning with a small foldout chair, he quickly placed it down and
helped her into the seat before checking all of their supplies to
ensure that their little camp hadn’t been raided whilst they were
out.

“
We were heading east, just hoping to bump into something or
anything where we could make a life for ourselves. Then we saw
smoke rising into the sky, so we thought it might be a good idea to
scout it out. When I reached the origin of the smoke, I saw what
was causing it. It was them burning your friend. I watched what
they did to you. I wanted to help, but I knew the time wasn’t
right. So I spent a while making a plan to rescue you, and well… it
worked.” Conrad told me.

“
So you’re just travelling around?” I asked, feeling a little
awkward without anywhere to sit.

“
We
were
living up in Warrington.” Lizzie said, with Conrad being too
busy preparing defences to chat.

“
Were?” I asked as Conrad placed a trip wire around the camp. A
long piece of string with countless empty, rusty tin cans tied at
various points. He circled the camp, wrapping it around trees.
Should anyone nudge the wire then we would be made well aware of
their presence. A simple, yet brilliant idea.

“
It’s not safe there anymore. A war broke out just before we
left.” She explained.

“
I heard it was always unsafe anyway?”

“
That’s correct. Warrington’s never had a ruler, or rules and
laws; people have always been free to do as they please. However,
The Saviour of Man recently decided to set up shop in the town.
They began attacking civilians and wiping out anyone who refused to
give up their homes. It was horrible. I watched them slay woman and
children in the streets.”

“
Why would they do that?” I asked, gobsmacked.

“
Warrington has a rare trait. Despite its size, it’s almost
completely void of any creatures. I’m sure you’re aware that larger
cities are riddled with Fiders and Phymantis. But Warrington isn’t
– we don’t know why.”

“
Phymantis?” I asked, sounding confused. I was aware of several
of The Charred Lands creatures, none more so than Fiders – but
Phymantis was a new one. Fiders were similar to every day spiders,
but these creatures were spawned from the dragon birthing volcanos.
In physical appearance, they were the same as regular spiders, only
a thousand times the size. Though I had never seen either of the
two, my Grandpa compared them to the size of a car, and capable of
travelling just as fast. I’ve been told outrunning one of the
creatures is impossible. Another similarity they share with the
common spider is their ability to make webs, only Fider’s webs are
different. Instead of a fine silk, Fiders make their homes out of a
lava like substance. Men would burn and melt at the slightest of
contact with them. They were the material of nightmares – I hoped
never to see one of the creatures as long as I lived. I had been
told that they were the most common creatures in The Charred Lands,
especially in well-constructed areas. The cities were nothing more
than Fider ridden nests and graveyards for a once buzzing
civilization.

“
They’re like praying mantis, only a lot more messed up.”
Lizzie simply explained, deciding not to go into detail about
them.

For a few
moments the camp fell into silence as I tried to imagine the
Phymantis, and Conrad continued to busy himself setting up the trip
wire.

“
Am I okay to stay with you guys for a while?” I tentatively
asked, sounding like a child asking to play with older
children.

“
How old are you?” Lizzie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“
Sixteen.”

“
Really?” She almost laughed.

“
Yes!” I replied, a little offended at her snigger.

“
Thought you were younger.”

“
Well how old are you, like twelve?” I snapped.

“
Seventeen, kiddo.” She winked. I instantly felt my face turn a
bright red. I had been looking down on her like she was a child,
but no! She was a year older than me, and a hell of a lot tougher
too. I stood for a moment, looking at her. She had a pretty face,
despite a scar stretching from the side of her eye all the way down
to her mouth on the left side of her face. She had short, curly
blonde hair and blue eyes. There was something about the way she
stared at me that I liked – she was cute.

“
And what’s your name?”

“
Zachary Jefford.”

“
Funny name.” She sniggered. I was about to burst into a
barrage of expletives to defend my name, but Conrad interrupted
me.

“
Do you have any sleeping stuff in that bag of yours?” Conrad
asked as he returned to the small campsite.

“
No…” I sighed.

“
You’re welcome to my tent then. I’ll stay on watch for
tonight, just in case your kidnappers find us.”

“
Are you sure?” I said, feeling guilty.

“
I’m not using it, so you may as well.”

“
Thank you… and thank you for everything else too; I’m pretty
sure they were going to kill me.” I said I as I made my way towards
the tent. Inside was another foldout chair, I decided to take this
out and hand it to Conrad, he would be needing it throughout the
night I imagined.

“
It’s alright, I like to think that any other decent human
beings would do the same, too.”

“
It depends how many decent people there are anymore.” I
sighed.

“
There’s plenty of nice people about – it’s just a shame that
for every decent fellow there seems to be ten maniacs.” He
laughed.

“
I heard that The Charred Lands has a shoot first, ask
questions later policy?”

“
Oh it does. But if you keep someone from killing you for long
enough to get to know them, you’ll often find them very
nice.”

I couldn’t
help but laugh at that. I figured this wasn’t too bad – I had a
safe place to sleep for the night, a stark contrast to how I was
expecting the night to play out just over an hour ago. By now my
eyes had grown heavy, even keeping them open was a struggle.

I thanked
Conrad and Lizzie one last time before retreating to my tent. I
fell asleep within moments.

Chapter
Sixteen

I slept like a
baby, not once during the night did I wake, or even have so much as
a single nightmare. I felt a little guilty when I woke up, annoyed
at myself that my loved ones hadn’t plagued my dreams. I was fully
expecting to think about them every single night for the rest of my
life, yet already, after two nights, they were absent from my
dreams. Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember a single dream
from the night. Perhaps I did dream of them, but my memory
repressed them. I guess I’ll never know – still, I couldn’t shake
the feeling of guilt.

I joined
Lizzie and Conrad outside, who were already having breakfast. They
told me that I had slept in – they had been waiting around for me
to wake up before having their breakfast, but finally they grew
tired and gave in. I didn’t really mind.

After I
finished my breakfast Conrad quickly packed away the tents, ready
to move on.

“
Where are we going now?” I asked.

“
After we left Warrington, we’ve just kind of been travelling
around from place to place, I guess ultimately, we want somewhere
permanent to stay.” Conrad explained.

“
I can’t come with you… But I would really appreciate it if you
would come with me.” I said, after taking in a deep
breath.

“
Excuse me?” Conrad said, raising an eyebrow.

“
There’s something that I must do. I don’t know if I’m capable,
brave enough, or even smart enough to do it alone, but I will die
trying, if I must.” I said – doing my best to sound as assured as I
could.

“
Well, what is it?” Conrad asked, growing ever more
interested.

Without saying
anything, I reached into my backpack and pulled out the dragons
egg, I held it out for them both to see. For a few moments, we
stood in silence as they stared at it, wide eyes and open
mouthed.