Jason woke up with the bright sunlight coming in through the window, splashing across his face. Claire was already up. He could hear her making herself some breakfast in the kitchen. Slowly he got up, picked up his gun and made his way to the kitchen.
‘We need to move’ he said as he walked in. Claire was standing over the stove.‘Not until we’ve eaten’ Claire replied.
‘The longer we stay here, the more time it gives them to find us. Is that what you want?’ Jason asked.
‘Jason there really is no point in arguing about this’ Claire said as she continued to direct her attention at the stove.
‘Fine, let’s just be fast about it ok?’ Jason said. Together they ate the breakfast in silence. The moment they’d finished Jason was heading for the door, his bag slung over his shoulder, gun in the opposite hand and Claire reluctantly followed behind him. The Tallentiri from last night had gone. Jason suspected they’d widened the search area. They both walked to the end of the street and then turned left to head down the hill to the main road at the bottom.
‘Jason, do you see that?’ Claire asked pointing in the direction of a small hill just past the main road.
‘Yeah I see it. It looks like someone’s torched it’ Jason answered as he moved down the hill. Claire ran after him. As they got closer they saw that it was a car, and it had, like Jason said, been torched. Jason aimed the barrel of the Aug at the car and moved cautiously around it.
‘It’s empty’ he announced as he reached the windows and looked inside. Jason turned around and looked at Claire.
‘So where did they go?’ Claire asked.
‘Tallentiri probably carried them off after they killed them,’ Jason said bitterly. ‘Let’s keep moving’
‘Wait. I think I saw something. Just around that corner’ Claire said pointing in the in the direction of the hill from where they’d come. Jason held the Aug steady and slowly moved to the corner, but someone beat him there.
‘Don’t shoot,’ said a girl who stepped around the corner raising her hands above her head. Her blonde hair was now very dirty and she covered from head to toe in dust. She was wearing a now grey t-shirt and short denim shorts. Her blue eyes stared directly into Jason’s eyes, who lowered his weapon. She was probably no older than sixteen.
‘Who are you?’ Jason asked.
‘I’m Celeste. Celeste Hargrove, you have to help me. My sister she has a broken leg…’
‘Where is she?’ Claire said.
‘This way’ Celeste said as she turned and walked away. Jason and Claire followed her.
‘I’m Jason by the way. Jason Blake’ Jason said.
‘And I’m Claire Walker’ Claire also said.
‘Nice to meet other people’ Celeste said.
‘That was you’re car, back there, wasn’t it?’ Jason asked.
‘They were chasing us, about three of them. When we reached the bottom of the hill, they were a fair distance away, so we got out and torched the car. They were never going to give up on finding us. And that wasn’t my car. I stole slash borrowed it’ Celeste replied. Jason chuckled to himself.
‘Where did you go after that?’ Claire answered.
‘After that we spent the night here,’ Celeste said stopping outside a construction site. All the other houses around it were destroyed. ‘The Tallentiri appear to hate light, possibly nocturnal. They didn’t come near us after the fire started’ she added as she led them through the structure and under scaffolding. Eventually they reached her sister who was on the floor and whose leg was clearly broken in, as far as Jason could tell, at least two places.
‘Please help us’ she cried.
‘This is my sister, Sarah. Sarah, this is Jason and Claire’ Celeste said. Jason stepped forward.
‘Let me take a look at it’ he said and he crouched down.
‘I’m going to need you to hold very still’ he told Sarah who nodded. He pulled on her broken leg and as she screamed he saw the bones straighten.
‘Claire, I need you to hold her ankle so that her leg is straight’ Jason said, Claire did as she was told as Jason hurried off and returned with three pieces of broken wood. He also pulled some masking tape out of his bag and pulled off a length. He gently lifted up the leg and placed the first piece under it and then taped it around the leg. He then did the same thing on the left and right side, using the tape to apply pressure on the front of the leg.
‘Pull her up’ Jason said and Claire, with Celeste’s help, pulled Sarah up off the floor.
‘Try to stand on it’ Celeste told her sister.
‘I wouldn’t do that. The bones need time to heal. What I’ve done should keep in them in place until we can find an actual medic’ Jason told them. Then they heard a low rumbling from above.
‘What was that?’ Celeste asked.
‘It’s not Tallentiri, definitely not Tallentiri’ Claire said. Jason stuck his head out of the frame of a window.
‘It’s a military helicopter. They’re probably looking for survivors’ Jason said pulling his head back in.
‘Then we need to go’ Claire said.
‘Agreed. At the top of the hill there’s a school, you know what I’m talking about?’ Jason said. Claire nodded. ‘Good. Take Celeste and Sarah and wait for me there, find an open space and stay under cover on the way there’
‘What about you?’ Celeste asked.
‘I’ll be fine. I need some things though, I’ll meet you there’ Jason replied.
‘And the Tallentiri?’ Claire asked. Jason smiled.
‘Hopefully they’re nocturnal’ he said.
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