by Casey, Ryan
But eventually, when they’d been crouched there a while, Kelly did break the silence. Not in a rude way. Not in a way that was impolite or anything. Just in the way it probably needed breaking.
“Don’t mean to pry,” she said, gently. “It’s just... we should really get moving soon. We can get there. Then we can figure out what we’re gonna do next.”
Jasmine nodded. She looked back around at Noah. Saw him crouched there. Eyes closed. She’d seen him like this twice before. One was the day he confessed to her about his past. The secret and the guilt gnawing at him for all those years.
Another was the day they’d broken up. The clear pain he’d felt. Pain she’d felt, too, but didn’t express in the same way. Couldn’t express in the same way.
Because admitting it hurt her just as much was the most painful thing of all.
“Noah?” she said.
He looked up at her. Peered at her from those tear-drenched eyes.
“We’re gonna have to get moving,” she said. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not going to be easy. It’s painful for all of us. You more than anyone. But we’re... we’re gonna have to get moving. It’s not safe being out here. The sooner we get to Kelly’s place, the better.”
Noah looked off over the fields. For a moment, she thought he was going to start blaming himself again. Start beating himself up for the past. For his losses. For his sense of guilt and blame in each of those key moments.
But then he took a deep breath, and he said something Jasmine wasn’t expecting.
“I was a good friend to Eddie,” he said. “And he... he was a good friend to me. He was tough. Far tougher than anyone gave him credit for. He went through shit none of us should have to go through. And he wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws. But he was loyal. And he was brave. Right... right to the end.”
Jasmine looked at Noah as he stood there. Eyes bloodshot, but more confident now. More assertive. His presence commanding more respect.
Kelly looked on, too. Stroking Barney’s head. For a second, Jasmine swore she saw her wipe a tear from her face.
“It’s not going to be easy. Moving on. And I... I’ll never shake that guilt. That sense I could’ve done more. Because that’s just a part of who I am. But I can’t keep letting it hold me back. I can’t keep letting it drag me down. I have to... I have to use it. I have to start stepping up. Standing on my own two feet instead of hiding away every time the shit hits the fan. Because if I don’t, I’ll lose everything. We’ll all lose everything. And we can’t let that happen.”
Jasmine wiped a tear from her eyes now.
Noah stepped forward.
Right up to Kelly.
Looked right into her eyes in a way Jasmine didn’t think she’d ever seen him look at her.
“We keep moving,” he said. “We get to your place. We do whatever we can to stay safe. But we make a promise. We’ll never turn our backs on each other. We’ll stick together. No matter what.”
Kelly nodded. Half-smiled. “Wow, man. I... I didn’t know you had it in you.” Voice cracking. Clearly affected.
Noah looked over at Jasmine then. And as they stood there in the middle of the fields, the whole world falling to pieces around them, he nodded at her.
“Let’s go get to safety,” he said. “Together.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Colin waited until the commotion in the street died down before he stepped out from behind the Toyota Yaris he’d been hiding under for God knows how long.
It was later in the afternoon. What started off as a gorgeous, sunny day had descended into cloud and grey. It pissed him off. He didn’t like the grey. It reminded him of being locked up. Even on the sunniest of days, that suffocating dullness of the walls always choked the life and the light out of everything.
But he was still out here. He was still free. That had to count for something.
He saw people twitching their curtains as he stepped into the street. People hiding in their homes. It was sweet, in a way. The faith they were showing in the authorities to come to their aid. How long would it last? How long would people go before they decided they needed to feed themselves, only to realise the bulk of the supermarkets had already been looted? How long until things got violent between non-infected people?
And was there any hope at all of any kind of order being restored?
Colin thought back to a riot at prison, once. The sense of order the guards tried to maintain, even as they quite clearly lost control of everything. Colin found it exhilarating, and he found it scary. Because everyone needed some kind of order. Even inmates.
He walked across the road, towards that army vehicle, tilted onto its side. The masked, armed people who were with it had abandoned it a short while ago. He didn’t know how far away they were. Whether they were going to come back. It didn’t make sense to.
Because this vehicle was burning.
He stood by the side of the burning vehicle. Smelled the charred flesh, the petrol clinging to the back of his nostrils. He saw the bodies in there. Men. Women. Most of them older. Some of their faces covered in blood. Some clearly infected by whatever the hell this was. Others, less clear to tell.
But all of them dead. Clearly dead.
On their way to safety, then snuffed out. Just like that.
Colin stepped back. He knew he was daft standing by a burning mass of potentially infected people. But hell, he’d been out here long enough and ran into enough bodies and bleeding people to worry about that. He felt fine. For now, anyway. And as long as that was the case, he’d keep on going. Keep on moving forward.
He walked around the side of the army vehicle when he noticed something.
There was a piece of laminated paper, right by the side of the vehicle, by the driver’s seat. Just in the midst of the flames. He didn’t know why it caught his eye. Didn’t know what it was about it that captured his attention.
But Colin reached in there, the flames licking at his arms, and he dragged that laminated sheet of paper out.
He wiped it down. Brushed aside a few of the burned bits. Squinted at it, tried to make sense of it.
It was a simple typed up note. And it was clear in its instructions.
RULES OF OUTBREAK MANAGEMENT:
1.) DO NOT DISCUSS WITH THE QUARANTINED
2.) DO NOT PHYSICALLY ENGAGE WITH THE QUARANTINED
3.) IF A QUARANTINED DISPLAYS SIGNS, CONSIDER ALL MEASURES TO STEM SPREAD IMMEDIATELY
There were other things. Notes on getting people from communal living areas together, making them priority. Not for their own safety but for the safety of everyone else. Because if there was any chance they might spread this virus, that the fact they’d come into contact with others might spread it even further, it had to be stopped at all costs.
There was something else, too.
Something that really did alarm Colin.
Incubation period unknown. Time to start displaying symptoms radically variable. Infection rate unknown but strong. Origins: unknown.
It was that last line that did it. All of it was so vague. All of it was so unclear. But one thing that was clear. These people in the truck had been briefed on what to do with these people. They’d been told to take them somewhere. Not for their own safety or protection, but for the protection of everyone else—for the protection of people who might not be infected.
He stood there, holding that piece of laminated paper in hand, and looked out at the quiet suburban street.
What the hell was happening here?
He stuffed the laminated sheet into his pocket. Walked around the side of the army vehicle. Wandered down the alleyway where he’d seen his new friends disappear earlier.
When he reached the fence, he saw blood. He saw bullets. Signs of a struggle.
He sighed.
He hoped his new friends were okay, wherever they were.
He climbed the fence. Landed on the other side. Walked his way through the trees, then out into the fields.
He wa
sn’t sure how long he’d been walking when he saw them in the distance.
Three of them standing together. Standing tall. Confident. Prepared.
The dog beside them.
Colin watched them turn and walk, and a smile crept up his face.
And then he tasted something.
It was only momentary. Only a flicker.
But it was there.
Blood.
His arms started shaking.
His jaw tightened.
And as devastated as he knew he should be, he only felt slight disappointment that he hadn’t had longer to enjoy his freedom.
He sniffed up the blood.
Cleared his throat.
If this really was the end, one thing was for sure.
He was going to make these people pay for turning him away.
Even if it was the last damned thing he did.
Chapter Forty-Three
When they reached the top of Kelly’s road, Noah felt a renewed sense of optimism. A renewed sense of hope.
Sun peeked through the clouds again. A gentle breeze brushed its way down the country lane. It was the kind of road that didn’t have any pavements or anything like that. It was totally quiet, too, not a car in sight. All around, Noah saw fields. He saw farms in the distance. He saw sheep. He saw cows. He saw peace.
But he couldn’t let his guard drop. None of them could.
“It’s just up ahead on the right,” Kelly said.
“Will your butler be there to greet us?” Noah asked.
Kelly turned to him. Frowned. “I’m gonna let you have that one. Just because of everything that’s happened. But just this once.”
She half-smiled, then. Not exactly beaming, but reassuring.
“Good to have you back, mate. We’re here for you.”
And then she turned around just as quickly as she’d looked at him and walked ahead, Barney by her side.
“See,” Jasmine said.
Noah looked at her. “What?”
“Kelly. I told you she liked you.”
Noah nodded. “Not sure how I feel about that.”
“Be grateful,” she said. “She doesn’t call many people ‘mate’.”
They walked further down this long, empty road. Truth was, Noah was heartbroken about Eddie. Of course he was. His death was still so fresh, so recent, the wounds so raw. And maybe it was the shock that was getting him through for now. Maybe it was the exhaustion. It would hit him in stages. He’d felt grief before. He knew how it worked.
But there was clarity to his emotions now.
A sense of knowing exactly what he had to do.
The world around him scared him. He worried things might not get back to normal. He worried about the things he’d seen and how it made him doubt whether this virus could be contained. He worried about coming out here, and whether it was the right decision at all, or if they should’ve stayed in the city and waited for real help to find them.
But they were together.
The four of them—Noah, Jasmine, Kelly, Barney—were together.
And Eddie was here with them in spirit.
“What do you think’s actually going to happen?” Jasmine asked.
Noah glanced at her. Still felt weird talking to her after all this time. “Honest answer? Or hopeful answer?”
Jasmine puffed out her lips. “Give me the hopeful answer. Think I could do with a little optimism right now.”
“Alright,” Noah said. “We get to Kelly’s. Kelly’s butler has plenty of food stocked in an underground shelter, which is also fully kitted out to stop any nutters getting inside and breaking in. The virus burns itself out. The authorities deal with it all. And then they come swinging in to our rescue, and we go back to living our normal, ordinary lives, all over again.”
“Is that what you want?”
“What?”
“Going back. To your normal, ordinary life. Is that what you want?”
He looked into her eyes, and he wanted to tell her he’d never stopped loving her.
But he knew how ridiculous that was.
He knew the exhaustion and the pain were just playing havoc with his emotions and his feelings right now.
He knew now wasn’t the time.
He looked ahead.
Saw Kelly standing at the top of a driveway.
She was totally still.
“Kelly?” Jasmine asked.
She stepped forward, as did Noah.
It was only when he got closer that he saw what she was looking at.
There was a ginger cat lying right in front of this middle cottage in the middle of nowhere.
It didn’t look like it’d been hit by a car. No signs of any kind of accident, anything like that.
But it was clearly dead.
“Is that...” Noah started.
“Yuri,” Kelly said, her voice cracking. “Neighbour’s cat. Never really liked it. But... Shit. Come on. Let’s get inside.”
She walked past the cat. And for a second, Noah swore he caught Kelly wiping her eyes.
Noah walked past the cat, too. His instinct was to lift it up, to move it from the road, flies buzzing around it. But then he remembered the talks of infectivity. What Jasmine told him about dogs, as she ushered Barney away from it. Just how many animals could catch this virus?
He reached the door. Kelly stood there. Glared at him.
“I know you’ve been through a shitty time. But I run a strict no-shoes policy, here.”
Noah sighed. He pulled his black Dr Martens off. Truth be told, he was relieved to have the opportunity to take them off. His feet were sore and blistered. Felt like he’d run a marathon.
But he wasn’t telling Kelly that. Didn’t want to give her the satisfaction.
He stepped inside, then. Saw the lounge, white leather sofas, wood floor, an old, ornate fireplace, and a large television in the corner. Paintings of the countryside lining the walls.
“Wow,” he said.
Kelly frowned. “Huh?”
Noah walked into the large, open kitchen. Saw the long garden outside. The cute little shed. And in the kitchen, he saw its brightness, its airiness, its spaciousness.
“Just figuring out how someone who’s technically unemployed affords a place like this.”
Kelly sighed. “I won the lottery, okay?”
“Right. Sure. Nice try.”
“I’m being serious,” she said.
Jasmine frowned. “Kelly?”
“It was a year back. Bought one of those weekly millionaire tickets on a whim. Never actually expected to win.”
“You’re being serious,” Jasmine said. “You’re actually being serious. Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to judge me. And I didn’t want you to find any reason to fire me, either. I... I really liked working at our place. ’Cause I might’ve had money all of a sudden, but I felt like I needed value, too. Work gave me value. That’s why I took it so bad. I felt like suddenly I was just this spoiled rich kid everyone thought I was, and it opened up a whole load of old wounds.”
Noah looked from Kelly to Jasmine, while Barney sniffed around the kitchen. The place was so nice. So peaceful. Not the kind of place he expected Kelly to live, at least not off her own finances.
“I wanted to be normal. I wanted to fit in. I didn’t want to be this person people made me out to be. So I didn’t tell a soul. Just pretended it was all my hard work that did it. Because without that, what was I? Just a lucky bitch who kept on getting lucky in life.”
Noah looked around the kitchen. The fruit. The cupboards filled with tins and dried food. And outside, the open surroundings. Good visibility. But also good protection, too. The perfect place to lie low, as long as they needed to.
And then he looked back at Kelly again. “Well at least we know we aren’t gonna have to pay rent.”
Kelly rolled her eyes. She walked past Noah. Looked like she was about to say something.
And then somet
hing else happened.
Kelly froze.
She stopped, totally dead.
Eyes wide.
Staring beyond Noah.
Noah looked over his shoulder, out of the front window.
Nothing but fields.
When he looked back at Kelly, he saw something that made every muscle in his body turn to stone.
A trickle of blood creeping down over her lips.
And then Kelly’s eyes rolled back into her skull, and she fell to the solid wooden floor.
Chapter Forty-Four
Jasmine watched Kelly fall to the floor, and her whole world stopped dead.
She hit the hard wooden floor with a crack. Blood trickled down from her nostrils, covered her lips. It’d all happened so quickly. One moment, she was standing there, totally fine, totally herself.
And now she was lying on the floor of her own house.
Click of a finger and gone.
Jasmine instinctively rushed over to her side.
But then she felt Noah’s hand grab her arm.
He looked at her. Shook her head. “You can’t.”
And Jasmine didn’t understand what Noah meant at first. She didn’t know what he was talking about.
But then it dawned on her.
Kelly.
She was infected.
She had the virus.
If Jasmine went anywhere near her—nearer than she’d already gone—she’d catch it.
She looked at her friend lying there on the floor. Totally still. Blood trickling from her nostrils even more. And she felt so bad for just leaving her there. So guilty.
“It’s already too late,” Noah said, his voice shaking. “I’m sorry.”
Jasmine felt tears stream down her face. They’d hedged all their bets on this. Reaching Kelly’s place. Figuring out where they were going to go from here.
But all of those plans involved Kelly, too. She was an integral part of their plans. Of their future.