Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

I snap upright as a tremendous roar
shatters the silence. My heart starts pounding.
God, I’m an idiot.

I should have known. The house was only abandoned recently, and there could have been only one of two reasons for that. One, the energy blast scared them away. But this house and the people who lived here have survived two years of explosions and horrors. Which leads to the second possibility.

Fiends.

My throat closes. The noise came from right over the roof. They’ve found me already. They’ll have followed my trail. Like sharks can smell a drop of blood in water, the fiends can sniff out if a human’s so much as tip-toed through a place. The blasts draw them like flies, and I haven’t walked far enough away.

Another roar joins the first.
Great, there’s more than one of them.

I tread softly back into the landing, like it’ll make a difference. I’m going to die, there’s no doubt of it—I’m unarmed, not that any ordinary weapon can harm the fiends anyway. I brace myself against the wall as the first tremor shakes the house. My bones jar against each other, my teeth rattling in my skull.

The splintering sound of glass breaking. One of them has thrown itself against a window. The bedroom window. Gripping the wall so hard my fingers leave dents in the plaster, I start to make my way downstairs. Slowly. I feel every time one of the fiends slams into the side of the house, rattling the floorboards beneath my feet. I want to be on the ground, not that it’ll do any good once they get in the house.

My heart pounds in my chest, as if it knows each beat might be the last. My palms are slippery, my throat dry. By the way the walls move, I can tell there are at least two fiends close to the house. My legs tremble and I nearly fall, two steps from the bottom of the stairs.

Wood splinters fly everywhere as the fiend bursts through the front door. Taller than the doorway, wider and more muscular than a human man on steroids, it squeezes into the hallway, directly across from me. Its scarred russet-brown skin is like hardened lava. Teeth as long as my arms protrude from its jaw. Its eyes are sunken in its head, but its senses are already trained on me.

I panic and run past, into the living room, even though it’s too late to hide. The fiend lumbers after me, kicking furniture aside. Its feet are the size of small boulders, long nails ripping up the carpet. Heart in my mouth, I back away, searching desperately for something to grab. A last-ditch effort to defend myself.

The window shatters. Glass rains over my head, and a second fiend wrenches its way into the room. A screech tears through its throat, and it closes in on me. Its partner moves closer, head scraping plaster from the ceiling.

Nowhere to run.

My heart pounds. I grab wildly for the nearest object—a telephone sitting on the table, which surely couldn’t have been in use—and hold it out in front of me. My muscles lock, arms trembling as I raise my pathetic weapon.

Tears sting my eyes. No one will find me here. No one will even know I’m gone. But I’ll fight to the last second.

With a final screech, the fiends leap at me.

CHAPTER TWO

The first blow sends me sprawling, the useless phone slipping from my hand. I can’t breathe. The fiend knocked the wind out of me, and my eyesight blurs my attackers into one gigantic being. They’re toying with me. Their hands can rip me limb from limb, but instead they’re going to drag this out until I’m begging for death.

A bright light fills my vision, and before I can register what’s happening, my body moves by itself. I clench my hand, and as another fist swings at my head, my skin ignites. The fiend’s still moving, but it’s like the world’s shifted into slow motion. I easily dodge the fiend’s attack, my hand forming a fist.

The light’s coming from me. From my own hand. On instinct, I take a swing at the fiend.

My fist blazes with light, the colour of fire. The punch to the fiend’s ugly face actually knocks the monster back.

It’s like I’m watching someone else.
That didn’t happen. That didn’t just happen.
For a moment, I just stare at my fist as the light fades away. It was a trick. Surely. Adrenaline, or panic, or hallucination…

The fiend shakes its head as though stunned, and I’m slammed back into the present moment.
Something
happened, and instinct wins out against logic. I push myself up, trying to get my breath back before the fiend can get another blow in.

But I’ve overlooked its companion. The second fiend roars, its breath harsh, like heat from a furnace. This time, no sudden bright light saves me, and I’m forced to duck its swinging fists. Though I avoid the brunt of the hit, half the wall collapses and I throw my arms over my head to protect myself. A ringing erupts in my ears as plaster cracks, bricks crumble, pieces of the ceiling fall down. I brace myself for the final blow, but it never comes. After a couple of seconds, I lift my head.

I’m crouched in a bed of plaster and brick dust, but I’m not dead, and the fiends have turned their backs on me.

Two figures stand outside the wrecked window, slightly blurred, though I can see they’re wearing long, red coats with the hoods pulled down over their faces. If they’re speaking, I can’t hear a word over the roaring in my ears. But they’ve drawn the fiends’ attention away from me. I struggle upright, legs unsteady but working. A long piece of splintered wood—a piece of a floorboard—catches my eye, and I snatch it up. If I can just get past the fiends while they’re distracted…

My feet slide in the wreckage of the floor and the two fiends turn back to face me, fists clenching, muscled bodies coiled. I tense, gripping the wooden weapon tightly. My hearing’s coming back, and the growl of the fiend raises the hairs on my arms.

Then the two figures in red leap in through the broken window. One of them delivers a blow to the fiend that actually sends it flying back, like a rag doll. The second fiend lets out a screech as its brother flies across the room, and hits the opposite wall. A picture frame crashes to the ground. The fiend rises, but it’s hurt. Its partner lunges at the red-coated stranger, but a blade flashes and bright red blood sprays into the air. The stranger’s holding a long knife—or that’s what it looks like. It moves too fast for me to be sure, its wielder slicing at the fiend with a ferocity that leaves me shaking, convinced it’s a trick. Convinced my brain’s finally tripped out on me and I’m going to spend my last few seconds of life watching these images play out like a movie back in the old world.

The fiend has had enough. Limping after its partner, it stumbles through the window and out into the night.

The second red-coated stranger shakes his head at his partner, and his hood slips, revealing a mop of fair hair. He’s human, not much older than I am by the look of things—twenty at most. Normal-looking, apart from the long red coat.

Pyro.

“Really, Cas,” he says. “What did I say about minimising damage?”

“You said minimise the
casualties,”
says the other. He pushes his hood back, too, revealing buzzed-short dark brown hair. His eyes rove around the room as though checking for hidden enemies. I try to get a look at the knife, but he slips it back inside his coat.

“You ruined a perfectly good picture frame,” said the first guy.

His partner says nothing, but walks through the room, searching out every corner.

“Cas, for God’s sake. I think it’d be obvious if there were any more of those things here,” says the blond guy.

“They were all over this place a few minutes ago. Something drew them away.”

“Enough.” The first guy finally turns towards me. Ordinarily, I’d have made a move by now—either taken my chances out in the night, or announced my presence, but this is the second impossible thing that’s happened tonight and my brain’s decided it’s had enough. I’m half-convinced the energy explosion knocked my mind out of whack—that, or I’m having a really vivid dream.

I say the first words that come to mind: “Who are you? What the hell is going on?”

The second guy—Cas, I guess his name is—looks at me. I freeze a little inside. His eyes are like a predator’s, cold and intense and calculating.

“I could ask you the same question,” he says, softly. “You should be dead.”

I’ve been thinking the same thing for hours. But I won’t say it aloud. I meet his stare with one of my own. Getting intimidated won’t do me any favours.

“Come on, leave the kid alone,” says the first guy. “Are you okay?” he says to me.

I nod. “Yeah. I think. Who are you?”

He laughs. “You’re all right. I’m Nolan. That jerk-ass is Cas. And you are…?”

“Leah,” I say.

“Bit of a mundane name for a survivor like you,” says Nolan. “Wow.” He flashes a glance at his partner. “You want to explain to the boss?”

“She’s not coming with us,” Cas says flatly.

I shrink inside, but I won’t let it show. “I never said I was,” I retort.

“You…” Nolan sighs, shaking his head at Cas. “The first thing you need to do is ignore everything Cas says. Everything.”

“We’re wasting time,” says Cas. “More of those things will be on the way, if they aren’t already here. How the hell did you survive out here all alone?” He uses an accusing tone, as though my survival is a trick.

I narrow my eyes at him. “I didn’t. I found this place like this. I don’t know who lived here.”

“Well, they’ll be pissed at you, Cas,” says Nolan. “You destroyed their living room.” He surveys the damage to the wall. I was lucky. If that fiend had hit me, I’d have been knocked right through the brick to the other side.

“Whatever,” said Cas. “Let’s get out of here.”

Wait!
I want to say. I want to ask how they fought the fiends. I want to ask how I can possibly be alive. I want to curl up and cry for my friends and beg for answers. But I can’t do any of those things. Whatever freakish power just exploded from me, the world isn’t the same as it was before, and depending on strangers is a good way to end up dead.

“Hold up,” said Nolan. “You okay to walk?” he asks me.

Cas makes an impatient noise. “I told you, she’s not coming.”

“She’s one of us,” says Nolan.

One of us.
“One of you?” I ask, uncomprehending. “You’re—what
are
you? How—?” I cut myself off before all the questions start spilling out. Admitting my ignorance will put me at their mercy. I’m already indebted to them for saving my life.

“Sweet hells, she doesn’t know,” said Nolan. “Where did you come from?”

I decide to chance it. “Over that way.” I point in a vague direction. “My camp got caught in an energy blast.”

The house suddenly seems very quiet. Nolan sucks in a breath. Even Cas turns back to face me, his eyes narrow slits.

“You’re lying,” he says.

“I’m not.”

“You survived an energy blast?” says Nolan.

I nod.

“Wow. You’re like one in a million, girl.”

I don’t know what he means. I try to look aloof, but I’m aware that my cap has slipped, and my bald head is in danger of being exposed. The idea of Cas seeing is somehow unappealing.

Ridiculous. Like I should give a crap, really.
I have more important things to wonder about—like what in the hell just happened.

“Come on,” says Nolan. “You’ll be safe with us.”

Cas starts to speak, but Nolan cuts him off. “You won’t survive alone, not with those things out there. We’re heading to a town just down the road.”

So there was a settlement, after all. That’s where I intended to go anyway, so I just nod.

“Not very talkative, are you?” says Nolan. “No matter. Let’s get out of here.”

Cas has already jumped through the hole in the wall. Nolan shakes his head after him.

“He has no manners. We’ll go out the door. Less broken glass that way.”

A few slivers have already embedded in my skin, but the pain’s only starting to register now. Tiny bits of glass caused more damage than being thrown at a brick wall. Ridiculous.

I say nothing as I follow Nolan into the hallway. His remark about not being talkative hit a nerve. I used to chat as much as the next girl, but that was when raising your voice wasn’t risking your life. With Randy and the gang, survival meant keeping your mouth shut and your ears open.

I miss him. Who’d have thought it? The grumpy old guy was only looking out for us. Cas reminds me of him in a way, except if anyone was left behind, I’ll bet Cas would just leave them to rot.

I’ll just stick with them till we reach town,
I tell myself.

To my astonishment, the fiends really have gone. Nothing waits outside but the road ahead and the burning sky. Cas is already far ahead, his boots kicking up dust and rocks on the path. I glance at Nolan. With those strange red cloaks, they look more like members of a cult than ever. Then again, it’s not the strangest thing that’s happened tonight.

I’m more tired than I thought, because I can barely keep up. Nolan slows his pace to walk beside me. Unexpectedly thoughtful, unless he thinks I’m valuable in some way. I concentrate on not tripping over my own feet in the too-big shoes I took from the house, wondering where the couple who lived there are now. I hope the fiends didn’t catch them.