The Final Winter: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(49)
“No,” said Jerry. He was holding the fire poker down by his thigh and shaking his head. “I’m coming with you.”
Before Harry had time to object, he found that Jess had beaten him to it. “Are you insane?” she asked her friend.
Jerry was still shaking his head. “No, I’m not. Just tired of being useless. That’s all I ever was when Ben was around and I’ll be damned if I’m going to carry on being like it now he’s gone.”
“That’s very noble,” said Harry, “and we all understand you wanting to honour your friend, Jerry – but there’s no need to take the risk. We’ve got it covered.”
“Dude, I don’t really know you and you sure as hell don’t know me, but one thing you’ll learn real soon is that all of the shit me and Jess told you about is real. None of you have seen the dude in the hood up close, but I have.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that I am more qualified than you to go out there and face the crazy, so what right do you have to tell me anything?”
Harry shrugged and started to wonder if he actually had the energy for this. “We don’t have time to argue,” he said wearily, “so I guess you’ll be coming along too.”
Harry watched Jess put a hand on Jerry’s shoulder and turn him to face her. He couldn’t hear their conversation so he decided to take the remaining time to check up on Steph. She stood behind the bar, relighting any candles that had gone out.
“You okay?” he asked her. “You’ve been through a lot tonight.”
She smiled at him, her features so delicate and faded that she almost seemed like a shivering ghost in the candlelight. “No more than normal,” she said. “This place was never exactly Disneyland to start with.”
Harry took her hand and felt a jolt run through his skin when he felt her squeeze back. The room was freezing, but her palm throbbed out heat. He smiled at her. “You don’t have to pretend, you know?”
Steph’s eyes welled up as though a tap had been turned loose somewhere inside of her. “You mean I should just be honest and say that I think we’re all going to die tonight?”
Her words hit Harry like a haymaker to the kidneys. Just when he’d started to find some strength and positivity inside of himself, Steph had lost hers. It was tragic because he knew that his strength had, in part, come from being around her positivity. He’d taken advantage of Steph’s emotional strength and now the poor girl was drained. He squeezed her hand tighter. “No one is going to hurt you, Steph. I promise. I agree that some weird business has been going down tonight, but things only seem bad because we’re all afraid.”
Steph laughed and wiped at her nose and face. The skin of her wrist glistened as she pulled it away. “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself, huh?”
Harry smiled. “Something like that.”
“You just get back here in one piece, okay! Then I’ll stop crying.”
“Okay, deal!”
Steph let go of Harry’s hand and pushed him away. “Well, get going then.”
Harry turned around. The others were waiting; Jerry, Kath, and Lucas forming an orderly queue by the door. Lucas still seemed reluctant to go outside and Harry wished he had more time to find out why. But time was something none of them had while temperature continued to drop. Crisp layers of frost had started to form on the wooden surfaces of the tables and a pile of snow had formed at the foot of the exit door. The weather was coming in to get them.
Harry moved to the front of the queue and placed a hand against the lock, ready to unbolt it and push open the door. For one quick moment, Harry lost the nerve he needed to continue, but he took a breath, swallowed, and managed to continue. “Let’s go,” he said, pushing open the door and stepping out into the snow.
###
Outside, the landscape was featureless and blank like an unused canvass. Harry looked about himself but could see nothing but whiteness, so pure that its gleaming intensity made his eyeballs ache. But despite the blankness, there was movement everywhere; shifting, dancing specks of snow fluttering in the air; each flake individual but also part of the same never-ending whole. Harry thought about rushing back inside the pub, regretting the whole idea, but when he looked over his shoulder he could no longer see it.
Lost already!
Lucas, Jerry, and Kath were following closely behind, linking arms to form a human chain. All of them seemed worried by what they were seeing; they we’re looking for Harry to lead them.
But lead them where exactly? These people’s safety is in my hands and I don’t even know what to expect.
“You alright there, Harry Boy?”
Harry turned to Lucas. “I’m just…thinking.”
“Well, perhaps you’d like to do your wonderings some place a bit warmer. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s a tad cold out here this evening.”
Harry nodded and got moving, the others shadowing him tightly. The snow enveloped each of them past their knees, which led to them almost wading rather than walking. It wouldn’t be long before the snow was deep enough to swallow them all whole. The effort of every step left them panting. They moved in silence, too laboured to speak.
Several minutes passed.
The snow went on forever.