by Ryan Casey
He looked right into her eyes. Tilted his head like he always did when he was asking her something.
She looked over at the body of the man. Looked at the people dragging him towards their walls.
Then she looked at what she had hidden under her clothes. The special chemical. The thing that would change everything.
The thing that would send her to the LAND OF HAPPINESS.
She looked back at him, and she nodded.
It was time to do what she had to do.
It was time to do what she was here to do.
It was time for THE GRAND PLAN.
Chapter Nine
Mike stared down at Billy’s body.
The wind brushed against his dark hair. A chill spread down the back of Mike’s neck. Possibly from the breeze, but more likely because of what he was looking at.
The way Billy’s body had been left.
The state he was in.
There was one thing that couldn’t be doubted, as Mike stood there, Ian, Alison, Gina, and Holly by his side. Billy hadn’t been killed when he’d been with whoever his captors were. He’d escaped. The way his fingernails were torn and worn down—and the way his fingers were split and bloodied at the tips—proved that.
He’d dragged himself along. Desperately tried to get away from whoever his captors were.
And he’d made it this far, only to die right at the last hurdle.
Mike crouched down beside him. Granted, he felt nervous about being out here, out in the unknown. He knew somebody could be watching. He knew that no matter how this looked, it was a warning sign.
A warning that they weren’t alone.
Billy’s legs had been cut away. It looked like they’d been cauterised and stitched up afterwards too, which concerned Mike. It bothered Mike. The professional job Billy’s captor had made of this.
It suggested they knew what they were doing.
Exactly what they were doing.
“I… I can’t just sit back.”
Mike looked up.
Ian was shaking his head. His eyes were wide. He looked panicked. Filled with fear.
“Ian,” Mike said.
“No,” Ian said, holding out a hand. “Don’t. Don’t—don’t even try to stop me. My wife. If she’s… if she’s—”
“We don’t know what happened here.”
“We know enough!” Ian said. His voice echoed around the empty surroundings. It sent a shiver up Mike’s spine.
Because he had a point.
If this was how they’d found Billy—if this was the state he was in—then what about the rest of that group?
What about Sofia?
“They went out there looking for someone,” Ian said. “Some… sign of life. They headed towards Longton village. We have to go that way. We have to find them.”
Mike looked at Alison, who shrugged in turn. He didn’t know what to say to console Ian. To be honest, there was probably nothing he could say. He knew he’d be the same if anything like this happened to someone close to him. He couldn’t begrudge Ian wanting to get to his wife.
“We should get a group together,” Mike said. “If we’re going out there, it’s not something we should do on our own.”
“So now it’s okay to go out there?”
Mike wasn’t sure where the voice of dissent came from. Not at first.
Not until he looked at Holly.
He frowned. “What?”
“You spend all this time telling me I can’t go out there. That Emma’s lost. That… that we can’t go find her.”
“Holly—”
“You spend all this time insisting she’s a lost cause. That she’s too far away. That it’s not safe. But now Sofia’s missing, it’s suddenly okay to drop all our usual procedure and just go wandering out there?”
“It’s not ideal,” Mike said. “I know it’s not ideal. All of us know that. But right now, we have a chance. We have an opportunity. A group of our people… they’re out there. We have an idea of where they might be. We have to get to them. We have to make sure we bring them home. But we have to be patient about it. We have to be sensible.”
Holly’s head dropped. She shook it. Muttered something under her breath. Mike didn’t ask her what it was. He understood her disappointment.
“Well, I’m coming along,” Alison said.
Mike turned around. Saw Alison standing by Ian’s side.
“Sorry,” she said. “But I don’t think there’s any time to be patient. There’s no time to wait for the okay from anyone else. Time’s of the essence. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
Mike swallowed a lump in his throat. Took a deep breath. Because the thought of going on a journey beyond the walls scared him. He had to admit it. It wasn’t a weak thing to own up to.
He’d just got so used to the comforts of the place he called home that he wasn’t ready to give them up yet, not even temporarily.
But he had a duty.
“I’m coming too,” he said.
He stepped forward.
And when he did, he saw Holly’s eyes widen.
“I—I’m coming too,” she said.
“No,” Mike said.
“But—”
“We need you at home right now, Hol. The people, they need you there. Kelsie needs you there.”
“But I’m better out here—”
“You’re better inside those walls. Making sure things are under control. Making sure everything’s in order.”
Her eyes started to redden and water. The fight was drifting from her as if it was transforming into disappointment and defeat.
Mike walked over to her. Put a hand on her shoulder. Lifted her chin with his other finger.
“You’re my girl,” he said. “You’re my soldier. You’ll always be my soldier, no matter what. Nothing can change that. But I want you to stay at home right now. You and Gina. I want you to look after Kelsie and everyone else here. Okay?”
She looked up at Mike. Opened her mouth as if she was planning on protesting.
Then she closed her mouth and nodded. “Okay.”
He patted her on the shoulder. Kissed her head. “That’s my girl.”
He stood up, then. Looked down at Billy’s body, then up at Alison, at Ian. “It’s not going to be easy. We might… we might see some things we’re not happy about seeing. But we’re going to go out there with one mission and one mission only. And nothing’s going to get in our way.”
Ian nodded. Alison nodded.
Mike looked out into the distance, over towards the abandoned town, and the trees even further beyond.
“We’re going to find our people,” he said. “And we’re going to bring them home. No matter what.”
He didn’t see the small figure standing in the distance, watching…
Chapter Ten
Mike started to have his first real doubts about the journey they were on the second he reached the village of Longton.
It was the silence that did it. The silence was something he’d grown used to when he’d been surviving out in the wilds. In a sense, he’d adapted to it.
But things had changed after the last few months at the Safe Zone, and the previous months at the Grey Lodge mental health facility. He’d grown used to environments that were filled with people. He’d grown used to that gentle buzz of community. About not having to worry about being so cut off from society.
But that had changed.
Just stepping out of the walls of the safe haven had changed everything.
“I don’t like this.”
Mike heard Alison’s words loudly and clearly. He heard them as he looked around at the derelict streets. He heard them as he looked around at the boarded-up windows. He heard them as he felt the breeze brushing against him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
He heard them, loud and clear, and he felt them.
Because he felt it too.
He felt like as lonely as this place was… he wasn’
t alone.
“Me neither.”
He knew the significance of this place. It was the village where the activity had been sighted. The activity that Sofia and the rest of the group had gone out to explore. The group that they were supposed to be vetting to see whether they’d be compatible with the Safe Zone or not.
If anything went down—and clearly after seeing the state of Billy’s body, it had—then surely it stemmed right back to this place.
“We keep our guard up,” Mike said, raising the rifle he’d brought from their camp. They weren’t exactly inundated with them, but they had enough. Enough to defend themselves. Enough to fight with.
But then Billy had one of those rifles, too. What had happened to him?
“We keep moving,” Ian said, walking on.
Mike was growing concerned about Ian. It felt like the longer the search for his wife went on, the more irrational he was becoming. The more urgent he was becoming.
And when you were dealing with people who had been surviving in the wilderness for this long… it was safe to say they weren’t still here because of sheer luck.
They’d survived this long because they’d learned to adapt.
They weren’t going to be careless.
Mike and his people couldn’t afford to be careless either.
“Ian, wait,” Mike said.
He jogged after him. Reached him. And when he did, he realised Ian was panting. He was sweating. He was struggling, quite clearly.
“I need to—”
“We all do,” Mike said. “That’s not in doubt. But just…”
He stopped.
He stopped because he’d seen something.
He didn’t know if Ian had seen it too. He didn’t know who had seen it.
He just knew what he was looking at.
He stepped away from Ian, walked over to the middle of the road.
It wasn’t long before Alison was by his side.
“What is it?” she asked.
First, Mike saw the body.
He walked over to it and felt his stomach sink.
“Serge,” he said.
Serge had been shot. It looked like he’d died right by Billy’s side.
And there was something distinctive about Serge, too.
He’d had his legs and arms removed, as well as some of his flesh.
As the sickness and nausea built up, Mike saw something else.
A hole in the road.
Mike looked down at that hole in the road.
He looked at the bloodstains around the collapsed tarmac.
And underneath it, he saw the space.
He leaned towards it, heart racing.
“Be careful,” Alison said.
Mike heard her.
But he couldn’t help leaning closer towards it.
Because there could be no doubting what this was.
And when he realised, he felt the dread inside multiplying.
“Someone’s been hiding down here.”
The space was wide open. It looked like it’d been a sewer entrance once upon a time.
But floorboards had been placed down.
It’d been converted into some kind of hideout.
There was something else that stuck out to Mike about this place.
One of Billy’s legs was lying there.
The other one was nowhere to be seen.
“Looks like some kind of trap,” Alison said. “This must’ve… must’ve been how they got Billy.”
“This proves it,” Ian said, stepping back looking around. “They have to be around here somewhere. Sofia, she—she has to be around here.”
Mike looked around. He couldn’t deny it. He could feel the urgency of the situation rising, too. He could feel the sense that someone was close by growing; the sense that somebody was watching.
He looked around, heart pounding, when he saw something.
Movement.
Movement in one of the buildings right beside them.
He stopped. Froze. Right in the middle of the road. Tightened his grip on his rifle.
“There’s someone up there.”
Alison looked at him. Surprise on her face. “What—”
“I saw movement. There’s someone up there.”
He should’ve seen it coming. He should’ve predicted it.
But it was already too late.
Ian was running towards the building.
“Ian!” Mike called.
But nothing was stopping him. Not now.
Mike looked at Alison, and then he let out a sigh. Because if Ian wasn’t going to stop of his own accord, he was going to have to go the hell after him, stop him.
“Ian!”
Mike raced after Ian. Ran towards the building. Ian was pretty much through the door now, pretty much inside.
“Shit,” he said, raising his gun. “Shit, shit, shit.”
He rushed over to the door. All the time, he felt that fear. The fear that he might hear something at any moment. The fear that he’d hear a shout. A scream. A few shots. Anything.
He felt that fear, and he ran and listened and waited.
But he didn’t hear anything.
“Screw it,” he said. “Screw it.”
Then he pushed open the door and ran inside.
The first thing that struck him about this building was just how… well… lived-in it looked.
But there was no time to wait around.
He heard the stairs creaking.
Saw Ian up there.
“Ian!”
He raced after him. Flew up the stairs.
When he got up there, he saw Ian pushing open the door; the one where he’d seen the movement.
He saw him pushing it open.
He waited for the shout. For the cry.
But again, he heard something very different.
He heard nothing.
He stopped. Froze. Heart racing. Chest tight.
He didn’t know what he was going to see. He didn’t know what to expect.
But he knew he had to go in there after Ian.
He knew he had to find out what he’d seen.
He swallowed a lump in his throat. Moved slowly towards the door. With every step, his heart thumped faster. His chest tightening more.
The possibilities all circled around his mind.
But he just had to keep on going.
He couldn’t stall.
“Ian?”
He reached the door. Still no sounds. Still just silence.
He was going to have to go in there.
He was going to have to find out for himself.
“Ian?”
He pushed against the door. Lifted his gun.
Braced himself for everything.
“Ia…”
He stopped.
He stopped because he saw it.
First, Ian. Sitting there. Tears streaming down his cheeks. Mouth wide.
And then he saw her.
Sofia was sitting back against the window.
Her mouth was taped.
Her eyes were closed.
She looked dead.
“Sofi…” Mike started.
But he stopped.
He stopped again.
Because he saw something else.
He saw what Sofia was surrounded by.
The boxes.
The bags.
Novichok.
He knew what Novichok was. He knew from his time in the military and from an incident that happened in the UK a bit back.
He knew, and it made him worry.
Because Novichok was one of the most lethal chemical weapons in existence.
Just touching it was enough to lead to a cardiac arrest.
“Ian,” Mike said.
“Sofia,” Ian said, staggering forward.
Mike saw his pain. He saw his grief.
But he couldn’t let him get closer.
Not with how lethal Novichok was.
“Sofia,” he said, staggering
further forward.
Mike knew he had to act.
So he did the thing he knew Ian might just hate him for.
He grabbed him.
“No!” Ian shouted, trying to struggle free.
“Ian, don’t—”
“Not without Sofia! Not without Sofia!”
So Mike did something else. Something he knew Ian would hate him for.
But they couldn’t afford to lose anyone else.
So it was what he had to do.
He tightened his grip around Ian’s neck.
Tightened it as he struggled.
Tightened it as he writhed.
And when he finally went still, when Ian fainted, Mike let go.
He looked at Sofia. Heart racing. He wanted to give her a proper send off. He wanted that so much for Ian and for her.
He went to turn away; Ian’s body slumped before him.
But he stopped.
He stopped because he saw something else.
Something pinned to Sofia’s chest.
A photograph.
A Polaroid photograph.
He didn’t want to come into contact with Sofia. He didn’t want to risk it.
But he could see closely what was on that photograph.
It was Emma.
Blank-eyed stare.
Bags of Novichok strapped to her body.
“No,” Mike said.
And behind her, in the distance… the worst thing of all.
It was the Safe Zone.
It was his home.
Chapter Eleven
When Holly saw the figure in the distance, she didn’t know how to react.
She’d been stuck back at camp for quite some time. She didn’t know how long exactly, just that it was driving her mad. Part of her was annoyed that they’d chosen Sofia as the one to go pursue after all these months of not letting her go search for Emma.
But then another part of her wanted to be out there. It wanted her to be helping Ian get Sofia back. Because she still felt like she owed so much to that family, especially after what had happened to Tommy—what she’d done to Tommy.
It still haunted her. It would always haunt her.
But she could be a better person because of it.
She could evolve because of it.
But she’d gone out for a walk. She’d gone to the edge of the wall to see if she could see her dad out there.