The Final Winter: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(32)

“He’ll be okay,” said Jerry, coming over and placing an arm around her. “We just need to keep him warm.”

Harry watched the two of them walk back to where Peter lay and it dawned on him that his entire body was becoming numb from the cold. The only place in the pub left with any warmth at all was by the fireplace, and that was now taken up by their causality. Harry decided to move over to the bar and joined the others that had gathered there on the stools. Steph was busy handing out fresh beers.

“Got one for me?” he asked her.

Steph smiled. “Sure, Harry, here you go.”

Harry thanked her and took the stool beside Nigel, who himself was sitting next to Lucas, then asked the question that was on his mind: “Say, is anybody else wondering what we’re going to do for warmth now that Peter is taking up the fire?”

Steph winked at him. “Already on it. Damien and Old Graham are down in the cellar looking for anything we could start a fire with. I’m pretty sure I saw a steel barrel down there once, so I was thinking we could stab some holes in it and use it as a furnace.”

Lucas laughed. “This gal is something else, don’t you reckon?”


Harry looked at Steph for a moment and their eyes met. “Yes, Lucas, she most definitely is.”

“You think the kid’s going to snuff it?”

The comment came from Nigel and Harry was taken aback by the man’s harsh wording. “What?”

“I overheard you talking to the girl,” said Nigel. “I could tell by your voice that you don’t hold out much hope.”

The negativity irritated Harry, but he assumed it was only natural in the situation they were all in. “I can’t say for sure – I’m not a doctor – but I know enough to see that the poor lad’s suffered more than anyone ever should.”

“You ever seen anyone in such a state before?” Lucas asked.

Harry conjured up images from his memory but quickly stopped himself. “No, I haven’t,” he lied. “I’ve never seen injuries like it before, which is why I’m not sure if he’ll last the night.”

“Well then,” Lucas replied, “perhaps we should be worrying more about whom – or what – did this to the lad. There’s someone out there looking to do us all harm, and we’ve got enough on our plates with just the weather.”

“I agree,” said Steph from the other side of the bar, still assuming her job role was valid (in a way it probably still was). “I don’t like any of this. I feel like we’re cut off from civilisation. The phones are dead, the electric’s off, we’re freezing our tits off, and we can’t go outside because some madman is knifing people up. I don’t even want to think what the rest of the country is like. I’m starting to get really freaked out.”

“We don’t know there’s a madman outside,” said Harry. “Perhaps Peter made an enemy and they’ve got what they wanted just by hurting him.”

Nigel posed a question that made Harry’s logic falter. “Why throw him through the window?”

“Yeah,” said Steph. “If they wanted to kill Peter they would have been better leaving him to freeze outside in the snow. Throwing him through the window makes it pretty obvious they were trying to frighten everyone in the pub.”

Lucas put his beer down on the bar with a clink! “Maybe it was a message for the sinner,” he said.

“More talk about this bloody sinner,” said Nigel, banging down his own beer on the bar. “Why are we buying into this bullshit? If someone is crazy enough to carve words into someone’s chest then I think it’s fair to say they’ve lost a certain amount of marbles – probably an entire play set.”

“You’re probably right,” Harry admitted. “How would we even know who’s a sinner and who isn’t, anyway?”

“Exactly,” said Nigel, seemingly satisfied.

Steph pushed another recently-thawed beer over to Lucas, who was about to finish his current one. “We already spoke about that,” she mentioned. “Nigel seems to think that it’s all about drugs, and that Damien is the one they want.”

“Well, well, well. Is that right, now?” Damien entered the bar area from a room in the back. Old Graham was stood behind him and seemed to be cringing. Harry cringed too when he realised that Damien had just heard the accusation.

Damien stepped through the hatch at the side of the bar and ambled over to Nigel. “So you think I caused all this, do you?”

Nigel shifted on his stool. “I didn’t say that. I…I was just talking to Steph about who could be out there and…and…”

“…and you thought you’d blame everything on me? Why’s that then? Is it because you think you’re better than me? That I’m just some f*ckin’ mug?”

“No, I just thought…”

“You thought shit!” Damien snarled, tensing up like a wild animal. “You’re a dead man.”

Nigel got off his stool and backed away. Lucas leapt up too and stood between the two. “I had your word,” he said to Damien.

Damien stopped his pursuit of Nigel and looked at Lucas. “What are you talking about, you stupid Mick?”

Lucas put a hand on Damien’s neck and pulled him in close. “I had your word that you’d behave – at least for tonight. The only reason Nigel is looking to blame people is because he’s afraid.”