The Bitter End Read Online Free

closing the door behind him.
    Finding weapons would be easy. There were thousands of guns just laying in the street where the army had been overrun. Getting to them would be more difficult but, she supposed, if they set off early enough they could be there and back before sunset.
    "Is there a city on your map?" she said.
    He took it out of his pocket and peered at it. He wouldn't be able to see anything in the dark, frankly she was surprised he could see anything in the light. His glasses had broken when he tripped over, while they were travelling to the boat. There hadn't been time to find another pair.
    "We can't be too far from Reading," he said.
    It was on the tip of her tongue to say that her sister lived in Reading but, of course, she didn't. Probably no one lived there anymore.
    Dennis sat with her until she started to yawn. "Go and get some sleep," he said.
    "I'm alright," she said. But a few minutes later her eyes were starting to feel heavy and she couldn't keep them open. The fear of the creatures stalking along the bank remained but it wasn't enough to keep her awake anymore.
    "At least let me steer, before you run us into a bridge or something." He didn't need to say what 'something' might be.
    "Maybe I'll just go and check on the kids," she said and let him take the tiller. She saw him smile but kissed him anyway and then went back inside.
    It was warm and she knew she wouldn't be able to stay awake for long. She also couldn't look at the faces of the sleeping children who, just a few hours earlier, she had killed.
    Without getting undressed she climbed into bed, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

    3

    That night she dreamed. She dreamed that they were back at home. They had a nice home, a nice life. They lived in a new apartment block near the city centre. Dennis was in stocks, 'not a stockbroker' he'd told her but she could never remember what he actually did. She had been in marketing before Ben had come along. She hadn't worked since.
    They were in their mid-thirties and their friends were all settled down having children as well. They had a good social life. A good life. Then she dreamed that the creatures came and it wasn't a dream but a memory.
    She was laying in bed and she could hear Dennis beside her, breathing heavily, his throat making that irritating irregular rasping sound. He had been drinking the night before. But she could also hear something else, a scratching noise that sounded like hissing.
    She didn't know what it was, no one knew what it was back then. The population just exploded overnight. One day they were nowhere, the next day they were everywhere. And that was the night.
    The night that they swarmed all over the building. Climbed up the outside of the sleek glass and steel tower. They could constrict their bodies, stretch them out, to get in through air vents that would have been impossible for a human.
    And there they were now, crawling through the pipes above their heads, scratching and hissing from behind hollow walls. She could hear them and she knew they were there but she couldn't move. She was paralysed. In the dark of the night she was the only one who knew what was coming and she was the only one who couldn't move.
    She tried to scream but nothing came out except a soundless gasp. It was like spiders crawling up her spine. If she couldn't save herself then she wanted to warn her family but she couldn't even do that. She was trapped, they were trapped, there was nothing she could do and they were all going to die.
    It hadn't happened like that.
    No one had known they were coming but it hadn't happened over night. It took weeks rather than days for it to become an epidemic. It was true that no one seemed to be able to stop them but it was also true that no one even seemed to try until it was too late.
    She woke in a cold sweat to find sunlight streaming through the thin white curtains behind her. She was panting, out of breath. Hannah jumped up and ran out of the bedroom to find