Free Tar: An apocalyptic horror novella by Iain Rob Wright Page B

I gather.”
    The offending sister doubled over now, panting. She held a bloody, trembling arm out in front of her as protection. “She’s… she’s crazy.”
    Finn lowered his gun more, but was still ready to use in a split-second. “How do you know she slept with your man?”
    The mad woman laughed. “Because the stupid bitch told me! Said she wanted to unburden herself before the end came. It might have unburdened her, but it didn’t do me any good, did it? Huh?” She waved the knife at her cowering sister. “Whore!”
    “I’m sorry, Tracey. I’m so sorry. Please…”
    “So, I’m sure you understand,” the mad woman continued, “but I need to take care of this.”
    Finn nodded. Vengeance wasn't something he had a problem with. “Yeah, I get it. Makes perfect sense.”
    The woman nodded her thanks and lunged towards her sister with the knife.
    Katie cried out beside him. “Stop her, Finn!”
    Finn raised his gun and fired.
    Tracey tumbled sideways to the ground and ended up on her face with the knife still in her hand. The back of her skull was missing where the bullet exited.
    Katie and Minty stood next to Finn, their mouths wide open. Finn lowered the smoking pistol to his side.
    Tracey's sister screamed. “W-why did you do that? Why did you kill…? Why did you kill my sister?”
    Finn raised the gun and fired again. Tracey’s sister hit the ground beside her, their blood ran into a single, growing pool. Both Minty and Katie staggered backwards.
    Katie shook her head at him. “W-What? Why?”
    “It was a kindness,” he explained. “Look!”
    He gave them a few moments to see what he had seen. Minty and Katie crept towards the woman’s body and peered down at it. It didn’t take them long to see the bulge of her dissected bowel hanging out of the space where her belly button used to be. Wonder Mutt sniffed at the viscera, seeming to decide whether it was worth eating.
    “She was dead anyway,” said Katie as it dawned on her.
    “Yeah,” said Finn. “I’d say she had about an hour or two of the worst agony imaginable, and then that would be it. I did the best thing I could for her. Her sister gutted her like a pig.”
    “Then why not let her sister finish her off?” asked Minty.
    Finn thought about it but could only shrug. “Just didn’t seem right.”
    “I can’t believe she was sleeping with her sister’s husband.”
    Finn looked at Katie and raised an eyebrow. “If that shocks you, then I have no idea how you made it this long.”
    “Because I had a husband too.”
    Finn didn’t ask her to elaborate. It was easy enough to assume Katie's husband had taken care of her for as long as he'd been able—until someone took his life or illness did. Cholera and dysentery returned to the 1st World with vigour, and pestilence took as many lives as violence. When Finn fled Northern Ireland to escape the wrath of Chris Adams, he made for the docks. There he found sweaty, vomiting families crushed together on ships, intending to head for the Welsh coast to eke out a few more weeks of life. Many would be dead before they made the trip. It was seeing those sick and jaundiced children that led Finn to murder the owner of a yacht and eject his snotty wife from its decks. He held no remorse at the time and would probably have done it over again if asked. It was survival of the fittest.
    What a time to be alive.
    They walked onwards, leaving the dead sisters in their wake. Least their differences were now forgotten. When the tar claimed their bodies, they would be at each other's side for eternity. Maybe that would be Hell for them.
    Less than five minutes later, just as they passed a ransacked petrol station, Minty pointed ahead.
    Finn nodded. He saw it.
    Latif’s.
    The warehouse was gone, and all that stood where it once did was a single slither of a brick wall and a bright blue sign reading: LATIF’S WHOLESALE.
    Wherever Dominic was, it wasn’t here.

10

Sweat
    F inn strode amongst the rubble