Ryan’s eyes snapped open. The noise was very familiar, yet extremely foreign. He climbed from bed and approached the window then just as quickly ducked as he did and made his way back over to the bed.

“George! George! Wake up,” he whispered whilst gently shaking her.

She stirred and shot him a disapproving look through tired eyes. “What are you doing?”

“There are people outside.”

That was enough for her to wake fully. “What?!”

“A car just turned up outside and a bunch of people carrying guns got out.”

“Shut up Ryan! You aren’t funny!”

“George, I’m telling you!”

She could sense the seriousness in his tone and got out of bed to take a look herself. He wasn’t joking. She looked at him with concern etched on her face. “What do we do?”

“I’d say getting dressed would be a good place to start.” He was only half-joking; they were both still completely naked.

They quickly got their clothes on. By the time they were dressed, the men had entered the house and were shouting at those who were asleep downstairs. Georgina looked panic stricken.

Ryan approached her and put a gentle hand against her face. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.” He kissed her lovingly and then placed a pistol in her hand.

She looked down at the pistol and then back up at his face.

“Don’t be afraid to use it.”

“Ryan, I… I’m not sure I can kill ano—”

“You can and you must! It’s us or them.”

They looked at each other for a few lingering seconds and Georgina broke out into an uncertain smile. A noise from downstairs suggested somebody had just been hurt, although no shots had been fired. The sound of stomping was the giveaway to say that someone was coming upstairs. Ryan pointed his SA-80 towards the door and Georgina did the same with her pistol. They held the firearms steady and awaited the door flying open.

It took a minute or so before it did. The man who opened it stood still with his rifle held up. He didn’t know how to react upon seeing the two people pointing their weapons at him.

“Another step and I’ll blow your head clean off your shoulders, bitch!” Ryan spat.

“And I’ll shoot off your cock and balls!” Georgina chimed in to an oblique glance from Ryan, who attempted to stifle laughter.

The man didn’t move. He also didn’t lower his gun. Someone else appeared behind him at the door.

Ryan shot a few bullets into the wall behind them. “Stay the fuck back and drop your weapons. Do it now or I’ll kill every cunt who walks through that door!”

“You’ll kill all twenty of us, will you?”

“Just fucking try me!”

“You need to garner a sense of perspective here, cocker. Be sensible like all your other mates and give it up. There’s no sense in riskin’ the lives of yourself and your girlfriend just to come across as macho.”

The comment got under Ryan’s skin and he momentarily considered gunning the man down until common sense took a grip. What had been said made sense. He knew he couldn’t take down everyone and that it would only lead to his death. He wasn’t ready to die. Giving up his guns didn’t appeal to him; it was, however, preferable to being killed. Not now; not like this! “Promise you won’t hurt the girl?”

“None of your mates have been harmed. You have my word: neither of you will be either if you drop your guns now.”

Ryan looked to Georgina, who nodded with sad eyes. He blew a frustrated sigh as he lowered his SA-80 and threw it to the ground. Georgina mirrored his actions with her pistol.

The men quickly moved in, retrieved the guns, and then ushered the pair downstairs. Nobody spoke. There was nothing to say.

As they were guided into what was a dining room downstairs, Ryan looked dejectedly on at his people, all of whom were sat down with solemn expressions on their faces. He couldn’t help a sense of aggravation that this put a massive stopper on his takeover plans. They were at the mercy of whoever this group were.

“Sit down,” one of the men ordered.

Georgina took a seat next to Kas. Ryan stayed standing and eyed the man evilly.

“I said sit down! I won’t tell you again!”

“Ryan, please,” Georgina said with pleading eyes.

Ryan exhaled and shook his head. He was annoyed that everyone had given up without even attempting to fight. He slowly lowered himself down next to Georgina, who moved in close to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Ryan,” Jay muttered bashfully.

“It’s not your fault. You weren’t to know this place was gonna be a den for this set of dickheads!”

“Another slur out of your mouth, pretty boy, and I’ll use the butt of this gun to smash your teeth out, you hear me?” asked another of the men rhetorically.

Ryan grinned sarcastically. He wasn’t scared. Pain, torture, death; it was all the same to him. He’d been fighting them all off since day one of the apocalypse. If the fight was going to end tonight then he’d make sure he went out swinging.

“We’ve no idea who you lot are,” the man who’d just warned Ryan began, “and we frankly don’t care. You’re trespassing on our property. That pisses us off!”

Jay went to stand. “We didn’t know—”

“Shut the fuck up you lanky prick! You can talk when I say so and not a moment before!”

Jay sank immediately back down, his jaw trembling furiously. This wasn’t a position he was used to being in at all.

“For now, you can sit here and wait until Sharkey arrives to decide what to do with you. What it’ll be will depend entirely on his mood. You might get lucky!” He laughed hard as he walked out of the room and closed the door.

Kas waited until he was sure the man was out of earshot before speaking. “Sharkey? Sounds like a two-bit gangster.”

“Sounds like a complete cunt!” Ryan added.

“Whoever he is, he’s the man in charge of this lot and we’re gonna have to keep him sweet if they’re gonna let us go,” Jay warned.

Dylan, one of Jay’s men, shook his head irascibly. “Let us go for what? They’ve got our weapons and they’ll take our truck. We’ll be left with nothin’!”

“We’re resourceful enough to get by.”

Ryan chuckled. “Jay, give it a rest. If we’re cast out into the wilderness with no weapons or vehicle we’re lurcher food. Our best bet is talking to this Sharkey and seeing what happens from there.”

Jay nodded. “I guess all we can do is wait for him to arrive and then we’ll see what our future holds.”

At this moment in time, Ryan didn’t want to hazard a guess either way. Once again, the apocalypse was about to take another unexpected twist and each one seemed to be more unpredictable than the last!

A SURVIVOR’S APOCALYPSE STORY WILL RETURN SOON!