The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire (7 page)

I heard
several screams erupt from around Haven – not from fear of the
dragon this time, but from the horror of what it had caused. I
turned to see Florence almost collapse to the ground as she wailed
out in emotional agony at the sight of her sisters twisted corpse,
I quickly sprinted across the farm yard, heading towards Florence.
I knew there was absolutely no chance that Antonia had survived the
fall, the living were my only concern.

“
Get inside!” I screamed as I ran to the girl that I cared for
so deeply. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if it had been her
falling from the skies, rather than her sister. There was no
telling how long it would be before the dragon returned to claim
another victim, every second we spent outside was another second
that our lives were in danger. Even the house would be no match for
the dragon, the creature could tear it apart with the slightest of
ease, but I wanted Florence out of the beasts immediate sights. It
would kill me inside to see her swept up and carried off into the
dark clouds above.

Behind me I
noticed Dexter Payne finally reach the harpoon, he jumped on the
small chair and spun the weapon around, like a turret, and began
scan the skies. Though he was too far away to understand, but I
could hear him frantically screaming and cursing the beast, having
just seen it murder his wife. Antonia’s death would send shockwaves
throughout the entire community. She was a much loved, kind, caring
friend to all of us. As well as a wife to Dexter, and a sister and
carer for Florence.

I practically
had to drag Florence back to the farm house, just a few moments ago
she had been determined to help defend Haven, but seeing her
sister’s twisted, broken corpse had destroyed her. She was like a
zombie, saying little over a word as I dragged her towards the farm
house. Another roar echoed out from above.

“
It’s come back!” I heard Dexter scream as I pushed Florence
back inside of the farm house.

“
Be careful, I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” I said to
Florence, before wrapping my hands around her. Though I didn’t
believe what I had said, I felt it better to at least say something
to her, even if it was a lie. She didn’t hug me back, but I didn’t
mind. She was as safe as she could be for the time
being.

I quickly took
off running once again, this time towards the barn to equip myself
with something to help defend Haven, despite how futile our weapons
really were. Andrea Olsen and my mother had since ran to Antonia’s
side. After only a few seconds of looking at her corpse, the middle
aged women recoiled in disgust. Antonia’s body had landed right in
front of the barn door, I dreaded having to step over it – I
couldn’t imagine my reaction being much different from of the two
women.

“
She’s dead!” Andrea said to me, as though she assumed I was
heading over to check on Antonia. I didn’t bother replying, instead
I charged straight for the barn door. I slowed my pace a little as
I neared Antonia’s corpse, already I could see how mangled her
corpse had become. Both of her legs, and both of her arms were
twisted horribly out of place, her left leg was bent behind her
back, whilst both her arms were cocked at an impossible left angle,
shards of bones protruded from almost everywhere, she was hardly
even recognisable. Though I only glanced at her corpse for a brief
second, the image implanted itself into my mind as I charged into
the barn to get my supplies. Though I was disgusted by the sight, I
held my stomach. The adrenaline coursing through my veins wouldn’t
allow me to be sickened by the sight, not yet anyway.

Outside I
heard a hail of bullets from several different weapons, instantly I
knew the dragon was returning. I frantically looked around,
spotting my handgun straight away. I picked up the piece and didn’t
even bother to holster it. I saw several other, more powerful
weapons lying around, but I hadn’t been trained with them. I felt
more comfortable with the handgun. I quickly made sure it was
loaded before running back outside.

“
Look out!” Andrea screamed as I exited the barn, I turned
around just in time to see the dragon swooping back down once
again. Without so much as thinking I dove to the ground in a heap,
less than a few seconds later the dragon soared over me. I felt the
wind run over my body as it swept past, leaving the smell of
burning and fire behind it. I glanced up from the grass, just in
time to see it heading towards my Grandpa. Every inch of my body
seemed to fall ice cold.

My Grandpa, at
the age of eighty-four years old wasn’t capable of out running the
monster, though nobody was for that matter. He turned around and
spotted the creature gliding above the ground, its eyes fixed on
him. Without so much as a hint of panic, he pushed his child
companions aside. Toby, Amber and William were sent flying as
Grandpa threw them out of harm’s way. He seemed to turn to the
beast, ready to meet his fate. Moments before the creature would
have been upon him, it slowed down somewhat before rapidly veering
up into the sky at the last possible second.

It felt as
though my heart hadn’t hit a single beat the whole time that I had
been watching the dragon heading towards my Grandpa, finally I
began to feel it bounce in my chest as the creature disappeared
back into the clouds. But I knew I couldn’t relax just yet, it
would no doubt be coming back soon. We had to act quickly.

“
Zachary, get the children out of here!” My mother screamed, I
turned to face her – in the distance I spotted the dragon turn
around and begin double back towards haven.

“
It’s heading back!” I heard Dexter Payne roar from the harpoon
turret, he desperately followed the creature with his weapon,
hysterically trying to get a true shot. He only had one bullet – he
couldn’t afford to miss.

Once again I
found myself frozen in fear, I could only watch as the creature of
epic proportions returned for a third time, I didn’t know if it was
just my paranoia, but it seemed as though, once again, it’s eyes
were focused on my little old grandpa.

“
Look after the children!” My Grandpa frail voice screamed to
me, from across the yard, echoing his daughter in law’s earlier
orders. The dragon flew in his direction, only this time it didn’t
stoop as low, remaining high above Haven.

Without
warning, fire erupted from its mouth. A hail of flames were sent
hurtling in my Grandpa’s direction. One second he was stood there,
his arms flat by his side in a manner of utter defeat, the next, he
was consumed by the flames. The fire seemed to disappear as quickly
as it had appeared, leaving only a charred skeleton with a few
scraps of sizzling skin remaining where my Grandpa had stood just a
brief moment ago.

I instantly
grew lightheaded as I watched my Grandpa’s charred corpse collapse
in a cindering, smoking heap in the middle of the burning grass,
ending his eighty-four year long life so abruptly.

I felt my
knees go weak and my stomach flip ten times over as I watched the
murderous dragon disappear into the clouds above once again. For a
few seconds I could hear only white noise, then suddenly another
sound began to fade in – it was the sound of screaming. As the
screaming grew louder I realised that the sounds were coming from
me. Other screams began to fade into my consciousness, these coming
from my younger brother and sister. Grandpa was gone now, he was
dead. Just like Antonia, there would be a time for mourning later –
assuming anybody survived this attack – right now I had to focus on
the living. I had to focus on Amber, Tony and my mother. They were
still out in the open, and in the creature’s sights.

“
Stay back from him!” I screamed, tears dripping down my face
as I took off running for my younger siblings. I don’t know if Toby
hadn’t heard me, or if he simply opted to ignore me, but he didn’t
stop, instead he continued to slowly edge his way closer to my
grandpa’s body as tears streamed down his face like a river of
sadness. He was almost right besides my Grandpa’s black, charred
bones when I reached him. In a single motion I swooped my eleven
year old brother in my arms and dragged him away from my Grandpa.
The smell of burning flesh seeped into my nostrils, threatening to
send the contents of my stomach hurling out.

Ignoring the
hideous smell and the overwhelming heat from the still burning
grass, I placed Toby down besides Amber and wrapped my arms around
them both. They were both sobbing relentlessly. All I could do for
a moment was lock them in a tight embrace and kiss each one of
them. There were no words adequate for this moment.

“
Here he is again!” Dexter screamed out from the other side of
the farm yard, his voice nothing more than a distant
echo.

“
Get to the barn, don’t come out until someone tells you to,
okay?” I whispered to my quivering siblings. I gave them a final
squeeze before releasing them, without question they took off
running towards the barn, hand in hand with seven year old William
Payne by their side. I gave my Grandpa’s burnt, charred corpse a
final glance before turning my attentions to the dragon that so
savagely murdered him.

Already the
beast was circling back towards Haven, this time flying directly
over Dexter and his harpoon turret. I know it was now, it had to be
now. Dexter had to fire that thing, and his aim had to be true, or
else we were all doomed. There was no running from this beast, no
hiding, this was an Elder Dragon, one of eleven responsibly for the
destruction of humanity.

I charged
hopelessly towards Dexter, feeling utterly useless. All I had was
this one handgun, with a single clip of ammunition. Even if I
loaded every bullet into the Dragon’s exposed underside, I doubted
it would even cause enough damage to make it so much as flinch, yet
I continued on anyway.

“
Fuck you, mother fucker!” Dexter screamed, sounding like an
utter madman before squeezing down hard on the turrets trigger. The
harpoon was sent launching out of the handmade weapon, at precisely
the same second the dragon unleashed a second wave of flames from
the depths of its stomach.

The flames
were sent flying right in Dexter’s direction, travelling at a much
greater speed than the large, wooden harpoon. The spear passed
through the flames, catching fire as it did so. I could only watch
and stare as the dragons flames engulfed yet another member of
Haven. A moment later, the fire soaked harpoon hit its target.

The weapon
sunk deep into the soft underside of the dragon, causing it to let
out a monumental scream which seemed to echo for miles around the
baron countryside. It seemed to have a greater effect on the
monster than any of us ever could have imagined. It almost
instantly fell limp and dropped to the sky. Like a meteor it fell
towards earth, heading right towards Haven.

“
Everyone get down!” I screamed aloud, though only my mother
was actually still outside, everyone else was either hiding away
inside, or dead. I jumped to the ground as the limp dragon fell
down from above. All I could do was hold my head down and watch as
it fell directly on to the farm house. The old building was no
match for the humongous weight of the beast. I watched the house
that I had grown up in crumble and collapse under the weight of the
best. Bricks, glass and wood exploded outwards, covering me in
debris, I clenched my eyes shut and prayed that nothing would hit
me. The ground seemed to shake beneath my feet at the impact of the
creature crashing down to earth, as though the entire planet had
been shifted by the impact. Noise, louder than anything I had ever
heard threatened to burst my ear drums as the buildings support
beams snapped, its walls crumbled and the glass
shattered.

That’s when I
felt a brick strike my skull, everything turned black.

Chapter
Nine

I dreamt of my
Grandpa. I was right back in my youth, when the world was just that
little bit more innocent and carefree. He was telling me one of his
stories, my favourite one. I felt his soft, warm voice caress me as
I sunk back into my bed, drifting off to sleep. My eyes grew heavy
and slowly closed shut, I slowly began to feel weightless as I
seemed to drift off to sleep – then suddenly my Grandpa abruptly
stopped, mid-sentence. I opened my eyes to what could only have
been a nightmare. My Grandpa was gone; all that remained was a
cindering pile of human bones. I tried to let out a scream, but
nothing would come out.

Then I woke
up, face down with a clump of grass in my mouth. My head hurt like
a son of a bitch, I felt as though someone had stomped on my skull
a thousand times over. I could feel dried blood down the side of my
face. Slowly, I raised my head and looked around. My broken glasses
slipped off my face and landed in two pieces in the grass
below.

Fire, fire
everywhere. Smoke rose high up into the sky, thickening the ever
lingering black clouds above. Haven was no more. The dragon had
killed, or destroyed everything. The farm house was nothing more
than a pile of rubble, under the lifeless corpse of the Dragon that
had rained hell down on our peaceful little community. A tear came
to my eye as I remembered that I had told Florence to hide inside
the farm house. I told her to stay in there. I said I’d look after
her. The building was practically flat – there was no way she would
have survived that. If falling debris from the house didn’t crush
her, the dragon’s humongous body most likely did.

The walls
cracked and fell as fire ravaged them. Any defence that Haven had
was now nothing more than burning rubble. The flames that had
consumed Dexter Payne had ignited the walls. I didn’t know how long
I had been unconscious for, in that time the fire had spread around
pretty much all of the perimeter. There was nothing I could do now,
any attempts to stem the spread of the fire would be useless, the
damage had already been done.