Ferine Apocalypse (Novella): 4 Hours Read Online Free PDF Page A

infuriating.
    Almost unwatchable and impossible to turn off.
    The stopping and looking back.
    Then twitching around and looking ahead.
    Then beginning the run again.
    Faded black tee shirt emblazoned with a stark red and white design.
    Dull black jeans that clung to her like a second skin.
    Greyed in places with dust and dirt.
    There was something beautiful in her graceless advance. Something powerful and at the same time powerless.
     
    When she ran, her Converse pumps hit the pavement in flapping slaps.
    Her arms, of course, were awkward.
    Ungainly additions to her movement.
    As if placed there to impede her progress rather than assist it. For all that, Angela Gacek moved with an impressive speed when speed was required.
    In one hand, she held a kitchen knife.
    In the other, she grasped the strap of a shoulder bag. The knife glistened red along the blade and the bag had seen better days.
    Angela had been running for quite a while.
    Far too long as far as she was concerned. She didn’t like running, detested it in fact.
    Still, needs must when the devil drives.
    She would have liked that phrase, it would have appealed to her gothic sensibilities. Not that she had time, at that moment, for idle musings on language and its usage. She was far too busy staying alive.
    It was amazing what you could embrace when your life depended on it.
    She wasn’t one for exercise.
    You’d never have seen her at the gym or taking part in a Zumba class.
    Despite that aversion, she wasn’t out of breath. A virtue of her genes, eating habits and youth, as opposed to any effort at physical fitness.
    Athleticism born of an accidental nurture and nature combination.
    She didn’t know where she was going, where she was running to.
    She was running away, rather than running towards something. That was an issue that she’d have to address soon.
    A destination.
    Blind luck and blinder panic would only take you so far.
    Angela had never felt like her luck was very good. She suspected that she’d eaten through more than her usual allotment in the last few hours.
    She needed somewhere to go.
    Needed that as badly as she’d ever needed anything in her whole life.
    <><><>
    Angela Gacek believed that she had a dark soul.
    She liked listening to dark, sombre music.
    Found pleasure in reading dark, bleak literature.
    Enjoyed gazing at dark, disturbing artwork.
    Her clothing was inevitably black.
    Whenever she gave in to whim and purchased garments in brighter colours, they invariably sat unworn in her wardrobe.
    On the rare occasions when she tried them on, she’d consider herself in the mirror on the back of the wardrobe door and feel uncomfortable.
    Her lips would form a small moue of disapproval and she’d shake her head.
    Change into something more acceptable. Something darker.
    Ideally, something black.
    When she considered it, Angie guessed that she’d stop wearing black when they invented a darker colour.
    She had very few friends.
    Real friends. Most of those she did have were virtual. Online acquaintances that shared interests.
    And outlook.
    It had been the same at school. There were friends of a sort, but not true friends that understood the darkness in her head. She’d been grateful to leave that rat hole behind.
    Happy to go to college and study art and design.
    Some years later, she’d left Camberwell with aspirations of being a professional artist.
    And three years after that, she’d achieved a less than giddy height.
    A temporary office job, the latest in a long line of dead end, desperate for the money jobs.
    Still living with her parents. A mother she disliked despite loving, and a stepfather that she simply disliked.
    Quite possibly hated.
    <><><>
    When they collapsed, she did her best.
    It wasn’t pleasant. Both of them throwing up. The mess, the smell.
    There was no help.
    It was everywhere. The infection. The flu, the sickness. It seemed to be affecting everyone.
    Except her.
    The services not responding. Television and