In The End | Novella | Beginning of the End

before the man had stepped out. I ducked back when I thought I saw a soldier glance my way, holding my breath until I heard the call and I knew what would come next.
“Get ready,” I said, tensing.
Boom.
The pressure wave rattled the windows and I ran, hunched over, out of the door with my arm trailing behind me as I dragged Tommy from the house. He kept up and I didn’t glance left, instead aiming straight for the front garden gate, still wide open.
We were out so quickly, slowing only enough for the turn right, then speeding again as I gripped Tommy tight. Together we rushed to get around the path’s curve and put us out of sight of the soldiers before they left the house they’d rushed into just after the explosion.
I soon saw my house and I kept running, but slowing just a little to put myself between Tommy and the house in hope he wouldn’t see the corpse crumpled in our front garden.
I looked to the cars still embedded in each other, the mark where my brother had fought the stranger. Strange, because I hadn’t seen him before Steve had attacked.
The dark mark hadn’t been water and I was glad when it went out of sight as we came level with the house.
With Tommy’s pull on my hand, I glanced back, but I couldn’t see the soldiers. The optimism soon fell away when another blast filled the air, chased by a single gunshot.
I sped, but had to slow when Tommy couldn’t keep up.
Above the tops of the houses opposite, I saw the first signs of the trees rising higher than the roofs. With adrenaline rushing and a desperation to pick Tommy up and run faster, I slowed at the sight of my friend’s house and their little white Ford in the driveway. The front door of the house stood wide with what looked like blood splattered up the cream walls inside.
They must have come home from their trip early.
What choice did I have other than to run to the building splattered in blood where my best friend could lie dead or maimed by someone caught up with the madness? Or where he could be alive?
If I raced in would there still be someone inside who would attack me? What would I do with Tommy? The soldiers were on their way and I already knew they wouldn’t hold back their explosives and guns for someone my age. I didn’t want to test if they would for someone of Tommy’s.
But could I run past his house and risk leaving my friend to die?
Glancing back, I still couldn’t see soldiers around the curve, but I heard what sounded like the hammering of something heavy against wood, taking me back to the many police programmes I loved to watch and the Big Red Key the police used to knock down front doors.
But that was all about crime, drugs or wanted people, not breaking into their homes to kill them in case a disease from the water or in the air had overcome them.
If I was well and I felt fine, Tommy too, then there would be other people. Cowithick had a population of around three hundred. The same fate couldn’t have overcome them all. I just couldn’t believe we were the only two left.
Rushing across the road, still holding Tommy’s hand, I glanced to the right to make sure we didn’t put ourselves in the sight of the soldiers making their way toward us. Avoiding the view of the blood along the white of the wall, I couldn’t help but stare at the trail as it climbed the single step to lead to the dark carpet inside.
My stomach tightened and it felt as if my breakfast would empty to join the blood. I tried to lift my legs and rise to enter the house.
I couldn’t bring myself to. Instead, and to the sound of hammering at a stubborn door down the road, I called out with the paltry amount of breath I dared to spend.
“Paul?”
The sound came out so light and I tried again, but it wouldn’t rise any louder. I felt so afraid of everything around me and I just wanted to run.
I closed my eyes, trying to build up the courage to call out again, this time with volume.
His name stopped halfway when I saw a Nike Air trainer with a foot inside on the floor at the end of the hall, the ankle leading out of sight.
I knew it was Paul’s trainer and when I heard a noise coming from inside the house, I could do nothing more than turn and run away, dragging Tommy behind.
As I ran, the guilt made me feel so heavy and the thoughts pulled me down. I couldn’t help but think I’d not seen what I thought I had. Perhaps someone had borrowed Paul’s shoes and the noise was from him trying to signal me.
Already regretting not going into the house to check, I knew it was too late. If it wasn’t him on the floor, then I’d sealed his fate. I could have been his last chance, but I was running off to save myself and Tommy.
Between the next house and the one after that, a significant gap of grass waited with a dirt track beyond. It was one of the many routes dog walkers would take to get to the woods or the green belt surrounding the village.
As we arrived, we headed down between the houses, but I pulled up sharply, coming to a stop when I saw the normal view of the ploughed fields or rising corn was blocked with a line of battered metal fence panels. Looking closer, in the small gap between each I saw the large square lumps coming up to waist height to weigh down each support