X - Josh
Leading felt good. Josh wasn’t sure why exactly, or how he had
come to be in such a position in the first place, but it felt right, it felt
good. In a strange way it actually took
a bit of the edge off the night, like he could face it better if he was
performing some sort of role. As long
as he was the ‘fearless leader’ he really could be fearless, or as close to it
as was possible in such circumstances.
In reality, of course, that was
pretty far from actually being fearless.
If he were to speak about how he felt as they made they way back through
the streets of granite tenements, trying to find a way around past the
blockage, he would have to have admitted that he was terrified. How else could you feel in the fog, when you
know that any building might contain monsters, rivers of blood or flashbacks to
an horrific past? How else could you
feel when you had no idea where you were going, how you were going to get there
or when the nightmare might end?
Yes, Real Josh was terrified,
but Leader Josh was stable, self assured and able to keep a clear head despite
all he had seen, ignoring the whimpers in the back of his mind.
He led their small party back
they way they had come initially, trying to distance them from the horrible
sculpture of metal and flesh which had barred their passage towards the city
centre. Eventually, however, he had
taken a turning to the right and began to lead them around the course of a few
blocks back in the same direction, towards where the orange glow of the city
would have been waiting, had this been any other night.
The first street he had tried
had been much like the first, blocked by a wall of rusted appliances and gently
pulsating meat. The sight of it,
somehow worse than the first one, almost made him sick, but he held himself
together for the sake of Paige and Charlie, who looked to him for
security. Only when he was looking away
from them, leading them once more back the way they had come, did he allow
himself to show any of what he was really feeling, the pale, hollow revulsion
of it all; the terror.
The next street they tried
turned out to be the same, and the next and the next one after that. Josh grew increasingly frustrated as he
backtracked, trying to find other ways around, utilising all his knowledge of
back alleys and side-streets gained from a misspent youth he ought still to be
living, rather than playing the starring role in a game of follow the
leader. Eventually, after leaving the
sixth wall he came to a halt in the middle of the street and ran his fingers
through his short, messy hair, tugging slightly as he went.
“I’m running out of ideas,” he
admitted as the others stopped beside him, “I’m not sure where to go next.
“There are a million ways to
the city centre,” Paige said. It
sounded like she was trying to be soothing, but there was an edge to her voice
that told too much of what she was really feeling for it to be effective. “Surely one of them must be open.”
“You would think that, but… I
don’t know. Something doesn’t want us
to get any further,”
“Or maybe it just wants us to
go a certain way?” Charlie suggested.
“And what way would that be?”
Josh asked, looking down at the odd little boy.
Charlie turned around, almost
seemed to sniff the air, then pointed down a narrow side street running along
the edge of a deserted factory. The red
brick of an enormous chimney was still visible through the fog a little way
further along.
“Why that way?”
“I don’t know,” the boy
replied, “but I’m pretty sure that’s the way to go.”
Josh stared into the swirling
fog, trying in vain to see past it to whatever awaited them in that
claustrophobic street. He shook his
head for a moment, then stopped, closed his eyes and nodded.
“It’s the only plan we have,”
he said.
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