by Ryan Casey
Riley smiled. And deep down, as much as he wanted to contest what Ricky was saying, he knew he was right. He was right about backing off. He was right about secrets staying secrets. It was just an itch he’d wanted to scratch. At least that itch was satisfied now.
“Anyway,” Riley said, standing. “I should head back. In trouble by pretty much everyone at the moment.”
“Oh yeah?” Melissa said.
“Job trouble,” Riley said. “The idiots running this place who we trust so dearly told me I should be a scout. I told them nobody in their right fucking minds would want to be a scout. But anyway. I should…”
Riley saw it, then. And he thought Ricky must have too, from the way he was smiling and agreeing one second, then the next, just looking at Melissa.
Because Melissa’s face had dropped.
“Melissa?” Ricky said. “What is it?”
She shook her head. Smiled. “It’s nothing.”
“No, it’s not nothing—”
“Can we not do this now?”
Riley rubbed the back of his neck. “I should, erm, leave—”
“Melissa? I can see there’s something. You haven’t… Oh, God, you haven’t. That’s not where you’ve been. Please tell me that’s not where you’ve been going these last few months.”
Riley saw the way Melissa looked at the floor.
He saw the way Ricky’s face dropped.
And right then, he knew.
He just knew.
“I didn’t want to tell you like this,” Melissa said as Ricky turned away, walked over to the window. “I didn’t want you to find out this way. But I got it. I got it today.”
He looked back at her. Then at Riley.
“Congratulations, Melissa,” Ricky said, tears in his eyes. “Our new scout. Hope the old world is good to you.”
CHAPTER NINE
Carly listened to the gossiping of the girls around her, and she wished for some more… well, purpose.
It was night. She knew what Melissa always said about hanging out late at night—that one way or another she’d end up getting herself into trouble. But she was eighteen now. She had to stop being baby-sat, especially by a woman who wasn’t even her mum.
She knew that was harsh. After all, Melissa, Ricky, Riley, and Anna had been there for her. They’d helped her after everyone else around her had died. And she’d enjoyed the last year of her life, where she’d been able to watch Kesha grow up from a baby into a toddler.
But still. That desire for independence was strong.
But she wanted something more than what she had right now; than the life she was living.
She looked around at the buildings in the distance. Then she looked at the darkness beyond. In the sky, there were specks of light, no doubt from the helicopters out there on their various missions. Sometimes she wondered what it’d be like to go back to England. To see just how much it had changed in the last year. She knew, of course. It would’ve only got worse. There would be more undead. The people left standing would’ve had a whole other year’s opportunity to do bad things. She dreaded to think what she would’ve become if she’d stayed there, if she’d stayed on that path…
“Carly? You even listening?”
She turned around and saw Chelsea glaring at her.
Chelsea was a bitch. Make no mistake about it. She was sixteen, but she acted older than her years. Some of the others said to cut her some slack because she’d been through some major shit back over on the mainland—something to do with her mum and her being locked away in some nutter with a moustache’s crate for ages. But Carly had to hold her tongue. If only she knew what she’d been through. If only she knew what she’d lost…
“You never listen,” Chelsea said.
“Sorry,” Carly said, not wanting any trouble. “Pretty tired.”
“Yeah, well take a sleeping pill. They help, really. I was just asking. We’re going out to the coast tonight to meet the guys from the next district. Wanna come?”
The next district was essentially the town next to the one they were living in. This island was big; far bigger than they’d given it credit for when they’d arrived here. It really was a world of its own. And that was both comforting and a little bit frightening.
The thing was, Carly wasn’t interested in heading to meet boys from another district. She looked over through the group of girls she was with, over to Marie. She caught her blue eyes, just for a moment, before Marie smirked and looked at the grass in front of her.
“What you glaring at?” Chelsea said.
Carly looked away, smirk still on her face, and shook her head. “Nothing.”
“It didn’t look like nothing to me.”
Carly had to be careful. Nobody knew about her and Marie. And she wanted to keep it that way. Not because she was ashamed of who she was, of the fact she liked women. Not at all. This new world, it was pretty tolerant. Much more tolerant than the awful world they’d left behind.
Carly just enjoyed it as her and Marie’s secret. Just for now.
“Well, are you coming or what?” Chelsea asked.
Carly shook her head. “Sorry. I’m… I’m a bit rough. Not gonna bother.”
Chelsea rolled her eyes. “You never bother. You lot are all coming, right?”
The rest of the girls nodded. The rest of them, except Marie.
“I think I’ll give it a miss, too,” she said.
Chelsea looked from Carly to Marie, then back again. “You two. Serial flakers. What’re you like? Anyway. Suit yourselves. But you know what they say. You snooze, you lose.”
As the group got up to leave, Carly stayed put. Marie stayed put.
It was only when they were gone that Marie got on all fours like an animal, crawled over towards her, curling her fingers between the grass.
Then she reached her. Climbed on top of her. Pinned her down, the moonlight shining against her blonde hair from above.
“Hello, princess,” she whispered before wrapping her lips around the side of Carly’s neck, biting another hickie into her skin.
And as much as Carly knew she should avoid hickies for the unwanted attention and questions they would bring, she couldn’t resist allowing Marie to move even further down her neck… to move her hands down her body as she held on to the back of her head… to unbutton her shirt, then move her lips down further, further…
“We shouldn’t do it here,” Carly said as Marie pulled her trousers down part way, leaving just her underwear on show.
“Oh, we shouldn’t?” she said, slipping her fingers down the front of them, pulling them away, then moving her mouth between her legs.
Carly leaned back and stared up at the moonlight, twisting her fingers into the grass below as Marie’s tongue explored her.
At that moment, she didn’t give a damn about anything in the world.
All that was about to change.
CHAPTER TEN
Riley lay in bed and thought about Melissa’s decision and the strain it was going to bring.
Moonlight shone in through the wooden blinds in his and Anna’s bedroom. He often stayed awake and just stared out through those blinds, marvelling at the silence, the solitude. One year on, and it was still a lot to take in. It was still something to marvel at, the fact that it was so quiet out there, so peaceful. To the point that sometimes when he woke up in the middle of the night, Riley was convinced that he was back home, back in the world before, when Ted was alive, when his ex-Alison was around, and when everything was okay.
But the amazing thing?
The remarkable thing that blew his mind every single day?
Life now—with Anna beside him—was better than it had ever been.
“You can’t beat yourself up over what Melissa wants to do. Over what decisions she wants to make. She’s her own person, after all.”
Anna’s voice made Riley jump a little, not least because he already thought she’d fallen to sleep. But when he heard her words and heard what she was
saying, he knew that she was right. “I just worry about her. I worry about everyone we came here with. Because going back there… going back to the mainland. That’s not the kind of decision you make lightly.”
“And who are we to say she’s made it lightly?” Anna said, rolling over so she was looking into Riley’s eyes. “Look. Melissa’s a tough cookie. Tougher than me, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Trust me, okay? I’ve seen how she is. She’s… she’s got her issues. But there’s something about her. Something that keeps her going. Keeps her fighting.”
Riley turned back over, stared up at the ceiling. “Her issues are what worry me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Riley swallowed a lump in his throat. “I just… I just hope this isn’t a way of her delving back into her issues. Of… of exploring them again. If you know what I mean.”
He heard Anna’s sigh, and he knew right then she understood what he was implying. “She’s over that. She got over it a long time ago.”
“You don’t ever get over it,” Riley said. He wasn’t sure where those words came from; wasn’t sure from where that sentiment emerged. But it was there, and it was in the open.
Anna’s hand squeezed around his. “Hey. What do you mean by that?”
Riley closed his eyes, which were burning. He wished he’d never said anything, wished he’d never brought it up. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” she said. “‘You don’t ever get over it.’ What do you mean?”
Riley realised then, knowing Anna as well as he did, that he was cornered. He was going to have to tell her the truth, one way or another, or she’d beat the shitting truth out of him at some stage. He turned over, looked her in the eyes. “I just… That darkness. That grey cloud hanging over. It’s always there. Some of us are born with it. Others are lucky enough to be able to see the blue sky at all times. But most of us, we have a few clouds. In people like Melissa… people like me… those grey clouds are thick. They’re almost jet black. And they’re always there. We don’t cut through them. We just find our ways to manage them. Find our ways to remember that the blue sky is always there above them too, no matter what. But it’s hard. It’s hard.”
Anna looked into Riley’s eyes, pity and sympathy there.
Then she moved towards him, kissed him. “Melissa is going to be okay. All of us are going to be okay. And whatever happens… it’s going to lead to a better world.”
She kissed him again.
“We’ve got this, you and me. We’ve got it. As has the little one.”
Riley frowned. “Kesha? I lose track of where she even is these days.”
Anna looked down. She took Riley’s hands, pressed them onto her belly. “Not Kesha.”
He didn’t understand. Not at first.
But then the reality kicked in.
The emotional mixture that he remembered so well from when Alison told him, all those years ago.
Only this time it was different.
This time there was no trepidation.
This time, there was only joy.
“No,” Riley said, his voice cracking with emotion.
Anna’s eyes widened, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Yes, Riley. Yes.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and he cried and he laughed as Anna cried and laughed with him.
“We’re going to be parents,” Anna said, the elation clear to hear in her voice. “You’re going to be a dad again.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Marie walked home, smile on her face, and she couldn’t get Carly out of her mind.
It’d been this way since around three months ago now. At first, the pair of them hadn’t spoken with each other much. Carly wasn’t too keen on speaking with anyone, it seemed. She’d been through shit. Marie got that. They all had.
But there’d always been an interest there, let’s say. An interest that Marie felt for Carly, right from the beginning. She was still coming to terms with who she was. Her parents—gone now—weren’t approving of anything “different,” so accepting her identity in this new world was just one of many hurdles she had to face.
But Carly made her feel like everything was okay.
Carly made her feel like she could be herself, no matter what.
The moonlight shone down, a reddish glow to it. It looked big. Bigger than usual. Really beautiful.
As Marie kept on walking, the taste of Carly still on her lips, she felt her smile widen. Chelsea. How damned dumb she was that she hadn’t realised what was going on between her and Carly. How damned dumb all of them were.
Of course, she shouldn’t be so critical of them. They were friends at the end of the day. They’d all had their own crap to deal with; their own issues to manage.
But nobody came close to Carly.
As she walked further down the quiet streets, the ice cream van locked up now, the chatter and celebration of the kids long gone, a few stray pieces of litter around, she thought about the life ahead with Carly. She was only twenty, sure. But it really felt like there was something special between the pair of them. A connection, the likes of which she’d never felt for anyone—perhaps in her life.
She loved Carly. She hadn’t told her yet. She was planning on telling her tomorrow when the pair of them went out to sea in a little boat she’d managed to hire for the day.
It was going to be beautiful.
And wet, probably.
Likely.
She looked ahead at the flats all around her. She looked at the lights in the government buildings. She thought about the incident she’d heard about earlier—the gunshot. The cleaner, shot down for stealing something, apparently. She didn’t know what it was. And of course, anyone being shot always got the alarm bells ringing.
But she trusted in this place. She believed in this place. Everyone did. Because they looked out for the citizens. It didn’t matter where you’d come from. It didn’t matter what you’d been through. Right here, on Island 47, you were an individual, and you were important for the future.
It was then that she heard the noise to her left.
She couldn’t describe the noise. Not at first. It seemed… familiar. And yet she couldn’t understand what it was. Not truly.
She turned to where she’d heard the noise and saw an alleyway.
It was blocked off. There was yellow tape, “Do Not Enter.” And as much as Marie knew she shouldn’t; as much as she knew she should just keep on heading home, keep her nose out of business like this… she’d always been a curious person ever since she was a kid.
She looked to her left. Looked to her right.
Nothing but emptiness. Nothing but silence.
Then she heard it again.
She turned around, and she realised what it was, this time.
Scratching.
Nails against metal.
Like someone was trying to get into something.
Or get out of something.
She felt her body turn to stone as she stared at that “Do Not Enter” tape. She knew she should just turn around. Walk away.
But that scratching.
She was curious.
Curious to know the truth.
So she took a deep breath.
Then, fighting all the resistance in her body, she stepped towards the alleyway.
She climbed over the tape. And once she was past that, she knew she was in too deep already. She couldn’t turn around. She couldn’t walk away.
She was going to have to see what the source of this scratching was.
She crept further down the alleyway, the redness of the moon shining down from the starless sky. She felt a cool breeze brush over her, thought she saw movement down the alleyway, but she kept on going, kept on walking…
She heard the scratching getting louder. And there was something else, too. Talking. Loud talking.
“…Then what do we do?”
“Nothing we can fucking
do. We’re gonna have to just end it—”
“I’m not dying for this. Not fucking dying for this.”
It was the fear in the voice of that second speaker that got Marie more than anything. The sheer, undiluted terror in his voice.
And it was that terror that made her have to know what was waiting ahead of her. What these people were talking about.
She walked further and further, keeping her footsteps as silent and as quaint as she could.
She reached the alcove—the one where the voices were coming from.
When she turned, she saw a metal door.
It was partly open. But there had been chain locks wrapped around the handles.
Whatever was in this place, someone had wanted to keep it secret.
She looked either side again, making sure no one was around.
Nothing but her.
Nothing but her and the moon.
Then she stepped down the steps towards this heavy metal door.
She crept through it, squeezed through the gap, not wanting to make a sound by making it creak in any way.
Inside, she found something she didn’t expect at all.
It was a laboratory type place. Like somewhere medical. Flickering lights. Buzzing electricity.
She walked down the corridor, slowly. On the right, she saw a room with loads of drawers.
The room where the scratching was coming from.
The room next to the one with the voices.
She took a deep breath and walked past that room. Then she poked her head around the ajar door where the voices were coming from.
When she saw it, her stomach turned.
There were two men standing. And there was another on the ground. He was shaking, sweat pouring down his head.
There was something on his lips.
Blood.
“Please,” the man was saying, trying to break free. “I—I didn’t mean to. You don’t have to do this.”
The men beside him—both armed—lifted their guns. “We do. We’re sorry. We… we do.”
They went to pull the trigger as the man cried out.
Marie heard something hit the floor beside her.