Surviving The Virus (Book 5): Extermination

by Casey, Ryan

  He shrugged. Shook his head.

  “But I guess you’re gonna make sure that doesn’t happen now.”

  Zelda shook her head. She didn’t know how to feel, only that she was raging at Eddie. Raging at the monster he’d become.

  But yet… was the monster he became not just an inevitability in a world where violence trumped everything?

  “What are you going to do with me?” Eddie said.

  Zelda stood there for a few seconds. Meat cleaver in hand.

  She looked at him as he lay there, pitiful. How easy it would be to get one-third of her revenge right now. How easy it would be to take her anger and pain out on this traitor, this weasel, this worm.

  “Kelly,” she said. “You say that place is where you were heading? Where you were being sent to spy?”

  Eddie wiped some of the blood from his face. “Yes. Well. I guess. That’s what it looks like.”

  “And when you got there. What were you planning, Eddie? Really?”

  He looked down at the ground before him.

  “At first, before I knew… I guess my plan was to spy. ’Cause Curtis. He promised he’d… he promised he’d help Noah if I got back and brought info with me. But now I know Kelly’s there… I guess I know what I need to do.”

  “And what’s that?”

  He looked up at Zelda. “I wanted them to think I’d escaped Curtis’ place. I wanted to—to warn them about what Curtis might have planned. And I wanted to be the one to stand by Kelly’s side. To stand by my son’s side. The one chance I had. The final chance I had.”

  Zelda scanned Eddie’s eyes.

  And then she walked over to him and raised the meat cleaver.

  Eddie seized his eyes shut and winced away.

  “On your feet,” Zelda said.

  Eddie frowned. “What?”

  “On your feet. We need to get that wound seen to.”

  Eddie looked at her. Right into her eyes. “You’re… you’re letting me live?”

  Zelda put the meat cleaver to his throat.

  “We’re going to get you stitched up. And then we’re going to take a trip to Kelly’s place. But when we get there, Kelly is going to find out the truth. The whole truth. Understand? And when she does… well. That’s for her people to decide what to do with you. But for what you’ve done. For what you’ve stood by and allowed. I know what I’ll be recommending.”

  She pulled that meat cleaver away from Eddie’s throat, and then grabbed the pistol from the ground, pointed it at him.

  “Now come on,” she said. “You’d better get walking. Before I get bored with you and change my mind.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Eddie felt the pistol press against his back, and slowly, surely, he felt his world collapsing all around him all over again.

  It was the thick of day. He was hot. Sweaty. Felt like he’d felt back when he was useless, back before all this. Back in those days waiting for his child to be born, back with Kelly.

  Out of control. Lost.

  None of the assurance he felt when he was in Curtis’ place.

  None of that sense that maybe, just maybe, he might be a survivor.

  He looked at the long, empty road ahead. Saw a few crows swooping down, feasting on a dead dog somewhere up ahead. A different dog to the one he’d seen before. Not the collie. A Yorkshire terrier. Emaciated. Hounded by flies.

  But just another sign of mortality in this world.

  His shoulder ached like mad from the gunshot. He swore he could taste a mixture of blood and vomit right at the back of his throat. His legs were shaky and weak. Wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk much further.

  But he had to.

  Keep walking.

  Keep on crawling.

  Fat boy.

  He looked down at this dog. The dog reminded him of Jane.

  It reminded him of Marky. And of Sunil, now.

  And the crippling pain across his shoulder, the hot blood creeping through his fingers… it reminded him of himself.

  Because he was a dead man.

  He was going to die.

  And worse than that. Far, far worse than that.

  Kelly was going to see the true him.

  Zelda was going to expose him. Just when he thought he was free. Just when he thought he’d found a chance to start again.

  He kept on walking. Heart racing. He felt ashamed. Ashamed of his actions. Why had he killed Sunil, really? He’d done it because he saw a chance. A chance of hope. A chance that if he could get back to Kelly, he could be the hero arriving over the hill. He could lie. He could pretend he’d been through hell. Through so much torture.

  He could pretend he’d fought his way to get back to her and his child.

  He wouldn’t ever have to think about the horrible things he’d done again because everyone linked to those actions was dead.

  And then he had another thought.

  He slowed a little as they approached the dog. The crows feasting on it flew off, and he saw something else.

  Worms.

  Maggots.

  Feasting away.

  Surviving.

  He looked into that abyss of flesh, and he felt a recognition. Those maggots. Those worms. They disgusted him. They disgusted so many people.

  But they were survivors.

  They found their way.

  They did what they had to do.

  He did what he had to do.

  “Keep moving,” Zelda said. “If you want to live.”

  Eddie looked at those worms, those maggots, and he smiled.

  He hated himself.

  He felt ashamed of himself.

  He’d live with guilt for the rest of his life.

  But he wasn’t giving up on what he knew he had to do.

  He liked Zelda.

  He’d spared her life once already.

  But if he had to kill her to make sure he started his new life with Kelly again—with his son again—then that’s what he would do.

  That’s what any good father would do.

  He took a deep breath, and he walked.

  He just had to wait for the right moment.

  And then he’d do what he had to do.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Noah walked for a full day and actually started to feel like his strength was coming back.

  It was late afternoon. Blisteringly hot. Barely any breeze. Humid and still. But to be honest, Noah was just relieved to have any kind of fresh air on his face. Anything was better than the stale, clammy air inside that shipping container, inside that cell. Suffocating. Tasted like vomit and decay.

  It’d be a long time until he ever felt anything near clean again. The kind of dirty he felt was ingrained right into his skin, right through his body, even in his mind.

  But just being out of that place was better. He felt stronger already. More confident. More assured about what he had to do.

  He’d stopped at a few houses along the way. Gathered a few extra supplies. Not a lot, just enough for the journey ahead. Tinned food. A few items he could use as weapons, like knives. He didn’t have a lot to choose from anymore.

  He knew reaching Kelly’s place at Westfield was going to take time. A day or so.

  And he knew as much as the virus wasn’t ravaging the streets anymore, there were other threats out there. Animals. People.

  And Curtis.

  He looked over his shoulder, back down the road. Curtis wasn’t just going to give up trying to track him down. Because as long as Noah was out here, he was a threat. A threat to Curtis’ plans of taking Kelly’s home.

  He had to get there, and he had to warn them before Curtis could launch any kind of attack.

  Unless it was already too late. Unless Curtis had stepped up his attack in fear of losing his grip on the situation.

  He tensed his fists and thought of Eddie. Michael told Noah Eddie was being sent to spy on an unknown group out there. How would he react when he found it was Kelly’s group? His son’s group? />
  He wanted to believe he’d do the right thing. He wanted to believe he’d put the best interests of the girl he loved and his child at the forefront of what he did.

  But he didn’t know about Eddie. Not anymore.

  He didn’t know how poisoned he’d been by Curtis.

  He just knew one thing.

  One thing he’d tried to hide from and tried to deny for a long, long time.

  Eddie would do anything to survive.

  He would do whatever it took to keep himself alive.

  But then as he walked down this empty road, Noah realised that hadn’t always been the case. In the early days, he’d sacrificed himself. He’d shown acts of bravery he didn’t know he was capable of.

  But that was a different Eddie. Best to assume that Eddie was gone now.

  Only that way could he keep on pressing forward, keep on pushing on.

  He checked another few houses and went to keep on walking when he heard something over the road.

  It was a detached house. Pretty nice. New build kind of place.

  He could hear something inside there.

  Something like whimpering.

  He felt a lump in his throat. Wanted to keep walking. Keep pushing on. He needed to focus on the road ahead. Couldn’t go getting sidetracked or distracted.

  But that whimpering.

  It sounded like an animal crying.

  A dog in pain.

  Noah walked across the road. No chance could he leave it. He kept thinking of Barney. He wanted to check on him while he was out here. See if he was still around that house, still alive, as much as he knew he’d either be dead or far, far away.

  But that attachment to dogs Barney had sparked in him made him want to make sure whatever was inside this house wasn’t suffering in any way, or in any kind of pain.

  He pushed the front door open. A dusty hallway with cream carpet. A few specks of blood leading towards the lounge. An ominous silence in the air, like something was watching, waiting.

  He held his breath and his knife. Listened for a sound, for any kind of creak of movement.

  Nothing but that whimpering in the back, cutting through the silence, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

  He crept further through the house. Towards the back door. Unsure of what he might find. Unsure if he even wanted to find it at all.

  He reached the door. Froze. Heart pounding.

  He didn’t want to go in there.

  He didn’t want to see.

  But he pushed the door open.

  And he saw it.

  There was a black Labrador in this kitchen. Wagging its little tail.

  And it had a litter of puppies.

  The puppies were all dead.

  All except one.

  The lab was emaciated. Clearly suffering. He had no idea how it’d got itself trapped in here. Probably through one of the broken windows and hadn’t been able to get out.

  But it was on its last legs.

  He crouched down beside it, a lump swelling in his throat. He wanted to care for the dog, to look after it.

  But the dog. It looked tired. Weak.

  And as Noah stepped closer, he saw exactly why.

  The dog had a nasty wound, all across the right side of its body.

  Blood. Pus. Flies and maggots hovering around. A sour smell in the air like off milk.

  Noah shook his head and sighed. He wanted to help this dog. But it looked beyond help.

  He reached over. Stroked its head. Felt the dog lick his hand a little.

  And then he looked down at that puppy.

  He might not be able to help the old dog.

  He might not be able to do a thing about the dead pups.

  But he could help the surviving pup as best as he could.

  He looked away and lifted the knife.

  “Sorry, girl,” he said. “Sorry you had to go this way. But you’ll be okay now. You won’t suffer. And I’ll look after your little lad. Promise.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut.

  Kept a hand on that poor dog’s head.

  And then he buried the knife into the back of her neck.

  A moment’s struggle.

  A moment’s tensing up.

  And then she went still, and it was over.

  He wiped the knife on a kitchen towel. Looked down at that whimpering, needy little black pup before him.

  “Come on,” he said, picking him up, tucking him under his arm. “Better get you out of here and get you some food or something. You’ll be okay with me.”

  He stroked the dog’s soft little head.

  He wasn’t letting this one down.

  He walked across the room. Out through the corridor.

  And then he turned and left the house.

  It was time to find Kelly.

  It was time to warn her people.

  No matter what it took.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Come on. Keep still. No fucking about.”

  Eddie let out a cry as Zelda dabbed the alcohol against his gunshot shoulder. The wound didn’t seem too bad, annoyingly. Not for a gunshot, anyway. Eddie was lucky it hadn’t hit him anywhere else; caught any major arteries or anything like that. Or maybe Zelda would feel better about that. At least that way, this filthy leach would be out of her hands.

  She was looking forward to washing her hands of him. She felt filthy, just being around him.

  And yet she wanted to take him to Kelly. She wanted to put him on his knees and make him squirm about what he’d done. About the awful things he’d stood by and watched. The awful things he’d been a part of.

  But right now, she just had to enjoy making him as uncomfortable as she could, given the circumstances.

  “Shit,” Eddie gasped. “Can’t you go a little easier?”

  Zelda took a deep breath and smelled the sharp odour of paint. They were in an old school classroom. Whiteboards covered the walls. Notepads sat abandoned at the desks, specks of blood covering the pages. She could almost hear the laughing and the whispering of students, the creaking of doors, the clicking of buttons on pens. It reminded her of childhood. The bullying. The crippling anxiety and dread.

  That was the past now.

  That was gone now.

  “You know me,” Zelda said, snatching a bandage around his shoulder. “I don’t do easy.”

  Eddie tutted. “Right about that.”

  She finished applying the bandage. Tucked it tight around his shoulder. She walked over to the window. Squinted outside, past the wells they’d walked past on the way over here. It was getting dark. They still had a way to go.

  “Come on,” she said. “On your feet?”

  Eddie frowned. “What?”

  “On your feet. We need to keep moving.”

  “Can’t I have a rest?”

  “No.”

  “I mean, I’ve been shot. I could really do with a rest. It’d be good for my strength, and all that.”

  “You didn’t think about my fucking strength when you were pumping me with heroin and making me fight to the death, did you?”

  Eddie’s eyes widened. He looked like he was about to say something else. Then he just closed his mouth. Nodded. “I guess that’s a fair point.”

  Zelda walked over to him. Went to yank him to his feet.

  “You know, what was happening at Curtis’. It was never going to be forever. I had plans. To help you. To help Noah. To get you out of there. Even if it meant me dying.”

  Zelda looked away. “Whatever self-pitying story you’re trying to cook up here, I don’t believe your bullshit. Come on—”

  “I wanted to die,” Eddie said. “Tried to kill myself a number of times. But you know what? I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t pull the trigger. Couldn’t kick the stool. ’Cause I’m too much of a coward. That’s what I’ve realised, all the way through this. I’ve done things a brave person might do. But at my core, deep down, I’m still the coward I was before the world ended. I don�
��t think I’ve changed so much after all. I don’t think any of us have. Not really.”

  Zelda thought about her old life. Her introversion. Her isolation. Her disdain for those around her.

  Her unwillingness to make attachments.

  Her fear of other people.

  Her guilt.

  Was she so different, really?

  Or did Eddie have a point?

  “You killed a lot of people, Zelda,” Eddie said.

  “Thanks for reminding me. Now quit gabbing and—”

  “Before you even got to Curtis’. You killed a lot of people.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What point are you getting at here?”

  “I’m just saying. You act like you were forced into doing something totally unnatural. Totally against what you stood for. What you believed in. But if we have one thing in common, it’s that we’re survivors. Both of us. We do what we have to do. To survive. And for those closest to us, too.”

  Zelda shook her head. “You’re not a survivor. You’re a—”

  “Worm. A parasite. A cockroach. Heard it all. But those things are survivors, too. They just survive in… different ways.”

  She shook her head. Really didn’t know where Eddie was going with this.

  “Have you ever loved anyone?” Eddie asked.

  A tightening of her throat.

  Flashes of Elissa.

  A memory she wanted to push back, that she wanted to fight.

  “On your feet.”

  “Yeah,” Eddie said, smiling a little now. “You have, haven’t you? Then you’ll know what it’s like. You’ll know exactly what it’s like.”

  Zelda’s heart pounded. Her hands shook. She couldn’t speak.

  “I love Kelly. You know it. And when you left the group, it was so nice for a time. I didn’t realise it at the time. Far too busy wondering whether I was going about shit the right way and whatever. But what we had in those weeks and months. It was nice. It was special. It was going somewhere.

  “And then Sunil came along, and it changed. He was a threat, you know? A threat to what we had. But I wasn’t strong enough to take him on myself. I was too weak to do anything about him. That was then, anyway. This is now.”