Sounds of Oblivion- 1

The houses along Shrewsbury Road were like red-brick ghosts, their windows and doors gaping like the eyes and mouths of the dead. The lawns were all overgrown and wild, the street was silent.

Apart from the sound of Aifric’s feet slapping hard against the ground as she sprinted down the middle of the tarmac.

Her old tattered Chuck Taylors offered her little protection. Each step she took reverberated through her whole body. Her breath was ragged. Her lungs cried for more oxygen from the black and dirty air. But she couldn’t stop running. She had to keep going.

Holding tight to the old red rucksack with her left hand, she kept her eyes ahead. The deserted mansions of Shrewsbury Road sailed past in her peripheral vision. The people here were among the first to evacuate when things got bad. Then things got worse, and everybody who was left behind stayed behind.

She swung around the corner onto Ailesbury Road, sparing herself one second to look behind her. The Stalker was catching up.

She gasped and ran headlong away from it.

Stupid, stupid. She shouldn’t have come out this far. She knew all too well how risky it was. She hadn’t meant to go so far from Terenure, she thought the crate had fallen closer. Eoin had given her strict instructions not to go looking for it. But her little brother needed antibiotics. And now she had them. All Aifric had to do was make it back to Terenure alive.

Easier said than done.

The Stalker moved so quietly she couldn’t tell if it was catching up. It had six legs instead of two, that definitely gave it an advantage. Aifric decided that it was best not to wonder and to just keep running. She had to get back. She had to.

She reached the N11, the four empty lanes, the black boxes that had once been traffic lights now grey and cobwebbed.

Which way? She had forgotten, and hesitated.

Then she felt the Stalkers acrid breath behind her.

Without a second thought she turned left and ran as fast as she could down the dual carriageway, adrenaline driven. But it was too close. She could see its front legs as it took closer to her. She willed her legs to keep going, to keep pumping, to just get a metre further- Ferdy needed the drugs, she needed to get home.

The Stalker’s front leg clipped her back. All the will in the world didn’t stop her from falling. She tumbled, pain hitting every spot in her body as she did so, and tried to shuffle backwards, to roll away from the creature. But that front leg had her pinned down.

It smelt like death, its black body gleaming in the darkness of a dull night. Its mouth dripped with saliva as it surveyed its new meal.

Aifric tried to kick at its second pair of legs. They were like stiletto heels, surely if one went the creature would fall- but she couldn’t reach-

There was a scream. It wasn’t Aifric. It wasn’t human. It sounded more like a Stalker than anything else. Damn it. Two? She couldn’t believe how unlucky this was.

But it made the giant beetle-like monster relax. It straightened and turned its huge sticky eyes in the direction of the sound.

Aifric took her chance. She kicked at its middle leg, then pushed its foreleg off her, rolled away and got to her feet. For a millisecond she stood there, surveying the creature, not being able to believe what had just happened. Then she began to run.

The Stalker ran in the other direction.

Aifric took a shuddering sigh but did not stop, did not slow down.

It was a long run back to Terenure. But she was going to make it.

--

She finally reached the housing estate they were staying in, found her way through the barricade of old furniture and unlocked the front door. The trapdoor down was in the cupboard under the stairs. She opened this as quickly as she could to stop the hinges squealing and giving her away and slowly descended a couple of rungs on the rusted wooden ladder before pulling the trapdoor shut above her, plunging her into darkness. Thankfully she knew her way around here better than she knew the N11, and crept down the rest of the ladder onto the uneven paving. She would get back to her and Ferdy’s room, she would tell Eoin in the morning-

“Aifric!”

She froze as Eoin roared her name and her back was bathed in torchlight. She closed her eyes and counted to ten.

She turned and gave Eoin a curtsey. “Illustrious leader. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“What the hell do you think you were doing?”

“I went out for a walk.”

“It’s four am. You’ve been gone five hours.”

“I needed to clear my head.” She turned to keep walking down the corridor.

“Aifric!” he shouted again.

She sighed. “Eoin, my head’s wrecking me, and if you’re not quiet, you’re going to wake Ferdia and then we’ll have to deal with him being cranky all day tomorrow. Not to mention me being cranky if I don’t get to bed straight away. So goodnight.”

He grabbed the handle off the rucksack and jerked her backwards. She held onto the straps with both hands but he used the handle to turn her around and face him. His face was contorted with rage, blue eyes narrowed under his dark brows. “Who the hell do you think you are?” he growled. His breath came hot out of his nose and onto her face.

She slapped his hand off the rucksack and took a step backwards, back into her comfort zone. “I’m Aifric Ní Mhurchú, and I saved your sorry arse from a Stalker and if I hadn’t done that you’d be dead and we’d never have found this place and don’t forget it.”

“I’m the leader here-“

“Self-proclaimed, I believe?” Aifric rolled her eyes. “There are ten people down here better suited to leading than you, Eoin McIntyre.”

“Yourself included?”

“Myself included.” She put her hands on her hips to show she meant business. Eoin’s rage was calming.

“I assume you went to find the crate.”

“I did. I was right. Medicine. From the Yanks. I have enough to last us through to the end of the year if we’re careful.” She shook the rucksack off and pulled the zip open, rummaging until she found a little orange bottle labelled amoxicillin, and another of paracetamol. Then she threw the rest at Eoin’s feet. “Don’t bother thanking me or anything.”

“Aifric,” he said again, quieter. This time, she did not look back.

She went to their room, where Ferdy was sitting up in bed. “I didn’t know where you were,” he whispered.

“I’m here now,” she whispered back, sitting on the bed and kissing his head. “Sh. I’m here now. And I brought you something for your ears.”

“Affie, they’re not that bad,” he insisted, as he had for the past three weeks.

“I know, I know.” She popped the lid on the paracetamol and put one in his hand. “I’ll get you some water, then you can sleep.”

She ducked out of their makeshift room beneath the pipes of No 28 and went down to the tap at the end of the passageway. There were a few mismatched glasses and mugs on the brick wall next to the tap. She chose one with Homer Simpson on it, Ferdy would like that, and filled it with cool and mostly clear water. There was a mirror above the tap. Aifric knew she looked tired, that thin white face and the brown hair on either side. The ends were still dyed yellow blonde like they had been when she had been a normal schoolgirl talking to guidance counsellors and sneaking into clubs. Her hair had been a non-descript fitting-in shoulder length. Now it was down to her waist, the hair of a wild girl.

Ferdy took his medicine and went straight to sleep. Exhausted, Aifric climbed onto the tiny camp bed beside him. She always wanted him to have more room. But Ferdy was eight. He always took up less, and Aifric had to take the rest for her long limbs. She put an arm over her brother’s torso, feeling it rise and fall with his breath.

She thanked God for letting her live another day.

Then she slept.

--

I don't really know what this is to be honest. An experiment. I just wanted to note before you say- "those names are unpronounceable"- they're all common names in Ireland- the story's set in Dublin. And I hate stories that have to have pronunciation guides and it would really be much better if I just changed the names for the sake of you Americans but my head's being stubbon. So Aifric is the first two syllables of "Africa" and Eoin is Owen.