The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire Read Free Page B

chunks of this morning breakfasts out of my
mouth, I didn’t really care. There was nothing wrong with being
repulsed by such a sight; I would be more concerned for somebody
who didn’t feel
nauseous at looking at it. I took a deep breath before reluctantly
turning back to face the horrors.
    “ Can we identify it?” My father asked, leaning over the
cindering pile of human remains, with hardly a grimace on his face.
Nothing more than a chalk black skeletal structure remained. They
lay face up, all of their clothes and possessions had been burnt to
a crisp the second they had been engulfed. My Grandpa told me that
he believed the pain only lasted for a few moments, but during
those agonising seconds you felt the most unimaginable, horrific
pain possible.
    For a few
movements nobody spoke, instead we all stood in absolute silence,
surveying the bones in front of us. I tentatively took a few steps
towards the corpse to get a better look. I didn’t want to look at
it, but I knew seeing such things would do me some good, I had to
get used to them if I was ever going to be tough. The bones had
definitely once belonged to an adult, and were most likely male. It
was hard to imagine that one moment somebody had been alive and
breathing, with clothes on their back and hair on their head, then
a few brief, agonising moments later they were nothing more than a
pile of bones. A fate shared by millions all around The Charred
Lands since the Rise.
    I suspected
that if these bones didn’t belong to Barry Deer, then they were
more than likely Tony Olsen’s. He was a big bloke, far bigger than
his two children, I couldn’t see this skeleton structure belonging
to either of them.
    “ It’s Tony.” Timothy eventually said as he reached for his back
pack and quickly pulled out a pair of gardening gloves. Hearing
Timothy say that with such certainty sent chills down my spine. Not
only had I known Tony for my entire life, but I knew his family as
well. I couldn’t imagine how we were going to go home and tell his
wife and one remaining daughter that he had passed. Though of
course, such duties wouldn’t be placed on my shoulders, but the
point remains.
    “ What makes you so certain?” My father asked, as his brother
leant down and started to fumble around with the cindering bones,
the gardening gloves protecting his fingers from the
heat.
    “ This.” Timothy simply replied, standing up with something in
his hand. I leant forward to get a good look at the item as he held
it out for my father and brother to see. I instantly recognised it.
A small, charred metal pendant. Tony never went anywhere without
it. The only time he ever took the thing off was of a night. There
was no doubt in my mind now that this was Tony. He was dead, and
Barry’s home had been destroyed.
    “ What do we do with his remains?” Brandon sighed, pacing away
from Tony’s resting place.
    “ They’re too hot to take back with us.”
    “ And it’s too risky to wait around here whilst we dig a grave.”
My dad replied, scanning the surrounding forests for friend or
foe.
    The tension
was almost unbearable. I couldn’t help but noticed that everyone
had the safety on their weapons switched off. They were expecting
something here. I quickly readied my own weapon as I scanned our
surroundings.
    “ This is bad.” My brother mumbled to my father, just to my
left. From his tone I suspected that he was trying to keep the
conversation private. I did my best to listen to their mumbled
conversation.
    “ We’ve never had an incident this close to Haven.” He
added.
    “ Take Zachary back with you and alert the others. We need to be
on immediate standby. Your uncle and I will continue to search for
Amy and Kyle.”
    “ Think you’ll find them… alive?”
    “ No.” My father simply replied after a few seconds of
silence.
    With that I
realised their conversation was over, so I quickly turned to face
the other direction as to not make it too obvious that I had