by Ryan Casey
I looked down at Steve, Simon crouched beside him, grieving, and I didn’t want to give up.
But I knew I hadn’t given up. I’d tried my best.
“We’ll find somewhere to bury him,” I said. “Somewhere close to—”
I didn’t finish what I was saying.
Steve coughed and spluttered.
He was awake.
He was alive.
I’d saved him.
Chapter Forty-Two
Stu looked inside the window at Kerry and Olivia, and he felt an unusual, alien feeling building up.
He could see the panic on Kerry’s face. He could see the way she was holding Olivia’s shoulders like she was reassuring her about something. Telling her everything was going to be okay? Telling her not to worry because they weren’t going to be here long?
Yes. That’s what this was. That’s what things had come to now.
Kerry was escaping. She was trying to get away from this place. Trying to leave him.
And that hurt Stu so, so bad.
He’d been left before, of course. Most men and women had, at some stage, had their heart broken by someone they thought they loved. But this had a particularly bitter taste to it because everything between Kerry and Will had been great, right up until the moment that shit returned to his life.
He’d taken out one of the dogs. Killed it, flat out. He hadn’t enjoyed doing it. But he would’ve done it to the other one—Bouncer—too, if he’d had the chance.
Sadly, he hadn’t. And by that stage, it was already too late to do anything about it.
Kerry was already onto what was happening. Will the god-damned white knight was back.
And even though he’d gone and wouldn’t be returning if he had any sense, Stu could tell that Will was still at the forefront of Kerry’s attention.
He stepped away from the window before they could see him looking. He didn’t want to make himself out to be a villain or anything. He wasn’t the bad guy here. He was just a man trying to make something work with a woman who he loved very much.
But she wasn’t acting… normal.
And because of that, Stu had to be realistic. He had to be bold.
She was trying to leave him. She was trying to get away from this place.
He couldn’t have her putting herself or her daughter in danger like that.
He had to act for them. They’d thank him for him later, at some stage.
He walked over to the door of their new home, and he looked down at the keyhole.
He lifted the key and wondered whether he was really going to do this. If he was really going to take this step.
Sure, it might cause arguments between them in the short run. It might make Kerry dislike him and Olivia the same.
But in the long run, they’d understand.
They’d see why he’d done it.
They’d applaud him.
He took a deep breath.
Then he put the key in the door and turned the lock.
He didn’t have to worry about the spare key as he already had that with him. He’d been prepared.
He listened to the key rattle in the door. He heard the silence inside.
Then he heard the banging on the door. The shouting. The cries.
He turned away, took a deep breath, and walked away from the house.
They were mad now, but they’d thank him later.
He really, truly believed that.
But just as Stu thought things were getting back in order, he saw something.
Something down by the gates.
Someone.
No. Not just someone.
Many people.
His people, from over at the industrial unit.
But it wasn’t so much those people that scared him.
It was the man leading them.
Will.
“We’re going to talk,” Will shouted looking right up at Stu. “We’re going to talk about how things are going to work around here.”
Chapter Forty-Three
I looked up at Stu, standing inside the barracks—inside my home—and he looked down at me.
The morning sun was just about rising, and with it, another nice day was clearly brewing. There was stillness in the air and silence around the place that made everything that was happening here appear even more… significant. It added weight to every word spoken. Created a meaning.
I saw Stu standing there at the top of the barracks steps. Beside him, in the little cabin outside the main hall, I saw Kerry and Olivia pressed up against the window, banging against it, clearly trapped. I saw Stu’s people—those he’d taken with him—pointing their guns and various weapons towards me.
I saw the rest of Stu’s people, those around me, looking back alongside me.
“What’s this about?” Stu asked, breaking the silence as he walked slowly down the steps, towards me.
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I looked at Kesha. She half-smiled at me, her cue for me to proceed.
“I’m not here to take away anything you have. I’m here because I belong here. With my daughter. You have to understand that.”
Stu stopped. He looked like he was considering the words.
Then he started walking again. “And what makes you think I wouldn’t let you see your daughter?”
“Let’s cut the bullshit here, Stu. Seriously. You’ve got my wife—your partner—and Olivia locked in a room back there.”
“For their own protection.”
“Play it however you want to play it. Still, know the truth. All of you know the truth. The only reason I went away is because Stu told me he’d kill every one of you if I didn’t.”
I saw the uncertainty on Martin’s face like he wasn’t sure whether to believe me, having never really liked me, or trust the new self-appointed leader who had wandered up here offering no doubt tons of hope and promises.
Stu shook his head. “That’s what he’s been telling you?” he said, addressing his people. “That’s what he’s been feeding you? Lies?”
“I believe him.”
I looked around. I saw Hailey step forward.
Stu narrowed his eyes. “Hailey?”
“You made us do things back home. Awful things that at the time we didn’t even recognise were awful. But now we look back, we see. You put a gun in my hand. You made me shoot… you made me shoot people so you didn’t have to.”
Stu didn’t look like he knew what to say. He simply raised his shoulders in the end, and I felt like I was seeing his facade collapsing. “You pulled the trigger,” he said.
“That’s beyond the point,” I said, interrupting. “We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of. We’ve all acted in ways that perhaps we would change if we could. That was the same before the collapse, and it’s the same now. It’s how it always will be. But we can make a choice, right here. We can change the course of our own history.”
Stu smiled, seemingly bemused. “And how are we going to do that, Will.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “By pulling together.”
It pained me to say that, especially to a clear loon like Stu. But I meant it. I was sincere. Totally sincere.
“If I’ve learned one thing lately, it’s that we can’t survive in this world if we don’t pull together. We can’t evolve as a species if we don’t come together. Sure, we can fight. We can scrap over territory or people or whatever. But as long as we do that, we’re turning back all the progress we made as a species over so many years. We’re repeating the mistakes of the people in the old war. Getting mixed up in wars, in chaos. Instead, we should be using the blackout for good. We should be pulling together.”
I saw the puzzled glances all around me, and part of me didn’t know whether they were a good or a bad thing.
“Stu, I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry for walking into your life. I’ve no doubt… I’ve no doubt you’re a good person, deep down, because you are with Kerry, and she’d never date an idiot. Honest.”
“But we have to put things behind us. Because at the end of the day, my daughter’s inside this barracks. And I’m not going to walk away. Even if you have to kill me. I’m not walking away.”
The tension returned. The standoff stretched out. Stu’s people. My people. All of us, people.
“Please,” I said, looking directly at Stu. “See where I’m coming from. See what I’m offering.”
Stu looked up at me again then. And I saw something in his face. A glimmer of his humanity. Of hope, perhaps? Hope that we could put all this behind us?
“Please.”
Stu nodded. He lowered his head.
Then he lifted his gun and pointed it right at me.
“Never,” he said.
He pulled the trigger.
Chapter Forty-Four
I saw Stu pull the trigger.
I heard the blast as the bullet left the gun.
I waited for the bullet to hit me. To pierce its way through my chest, taking me out.
But it didn’t.
I heard a few gasps. I saw shocked faces all around me. I couldn’t understand why, not at first. Had I been shot but just hadn’t registered it yet?
Then I looked to my right—directly to my right—and I saw what the shock was all about.
Hailey was staggering forward. She was holding her stomach.
Blood was pooling between her fingers.
I saw her drop to her knees. She looked up at Stu, then at me, surprise on her face.
“Don’t… don’t give up,” she said. “Don’t give up.”
Then before I could do anything to help her, she fell flat on the ground.
“Get her inside!” I shouted, breaking through the silence.
But my shout didn’t matter. It was in vain.
Because Stu and his people behind the walls started firing at us.
I dropped down to my knees. Right away, I saw two people on our side fall. Simon and Kel. A bullet blasted through Riz’s forehead. Steve took one to the neck, which made him splutter, gargle, and finally fall along with the rest of our people.
We were losing people. But they were losing ammo.
“Out of the way of the gate!” I shouted.
I grabbed Kesha’s hand with my right, Bouncer already tugging me along by my left hand. I fell just in front of the gates, right beside it, and saw more bullets popping past us.
“They’re losing ammo,” Kesha said.
I nodded. “I know.”
“Will, he’s destroyed it.”
“Destroyed what?”
“Everything.”
I didn’t know what Kesha was referring to, not initially. But then when I looked around and saw the people who had fallen—people on both sides—I got it.
Stu had ruined his legitimacy as leader. I’d reached out to him. Extended a hand to him. And even though some of his people had fired at us, I had to believe that the people inside wanted to believe there could be a truce here, too.
“Shit,” I said, my stomach tensing. I made a lunge towards the gate.
“Will, you can’t go through there.”
“Our people,” I said, pushing Kesha aside. “He said he’d kill our people if I came back here. He…”
I stopped speaking when I heard a blast. The blast was followed by long, drawn out footsteps traipsing out of the gate, towards us.
I let go of Kesha’s hand and pulled out my gun, getting ready to fire.
When the man stepped out—or fell out, rather—I realised I wouldn’t need my gun at all.
It was Martin. He looked at me with a pained, bloodied expression. He had been shot, several times by the looks of things.
“Martin.”
I went over to his side and pulled him out of the way of the gate. I put my hands on both of his shoulders, raised his head upright a little to comfort him.
“Will, I’m sorry,” he coughed.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s okay.”
“I should’ve… should’ve believed you. Your wife.”
I shook my head. “You were right to be cautious.”
“Don’t let him win, Will. Please. Don’t… don’t let him win.”
I realised then the gunshots had stopped. Everything had gone quiet, except for the pained cries, the shrill screams. And I knew that Martin was right. We hadn’t agreed on much over the time we’d known each other, but I could agree with him on one thing.
I couldn’t let Stu win. No matter what, I had to take a stand.
“You rest,” I said. “You’re—you’re going to be okay.”
Martin smiled. “I’m not, am I? I’m not gonna be okay.”
I took Martin’s hand and pushed some of his sweaty, blood-soaked hair from his forehead as more shouts rang out around me, the air thick with the smell of bullets fired. “Course you are. You’re way tougher than me, remember?”
“Don’t lie,” he said, laughing. “You’ve always… you’ve always been such a shit liar.”
“No, it’s true. You had to be tough to keep things together when I… when I wasn’t together. And I have to thank you for that. Truly.”
Martin nodded and swallowed noisily. He was shivering now. “You know… I never told you how much…”
Martin never did tell me how much.
He passed out and died, right there, in my arms.
When he’d died, I let go of Bouncer’s lead and handed it to Kesha.
“Where are you going?”
“Where I have to go,” I said.
“You can’t just—”
I kissed Kesha on the lips. Then I pulled back and turned to the gate. “I can. I have to.”
I climbed over the bodies of the fallen. People I’d brought here. People who’d trusted me. People who’d sacrificed everything for me.
I climbed over them, and I felt grateful for each and every one of them.
I felt pain.
I’d make sure they hadn’t died in vain.
I’d do everything I could to ensure we found a way to band together, to bring communities together, to trust one another.
I looked back at Kesha, who was standing with Bouncer.
I smiled at her, and she smiled back.
I wanted to tell her how much I loved her.
Then I heard the scream.
I stepped out in front of the open gate of the barracks.
I half-expected to be peppered with bullets.
Instead, I was met with something way more horrifying.
Stu was standing at the top of the steps.
He had my daughter’s hair in one hand.
In the other, he had a gun.
It was pointed to her head.
Chapter Forty-Five
“Walk away, Will. Walk away, or I’ll shoot. I swear I’ll shoot.”
It was kind of tragic if it wasn’t so terrifying. Here was a man who thought he had everything. Here was a man who was convinced he had the heart of my ex-wife, and that he could be a surrogate father for my daughter. Here was a man who was sure he could lead a community, not just of his own people, but of my people.
Here was a man who’d thrown it all away in the name of selfishness and control.
But like I said. It would’ve been nothing more than “kind of tragic” if he didn’t have a gun to my daughter’s head.
“Put the gun down, Stu.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Stu spat. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not ever.”
“Okay,” I said, raising my hands. “Just… just here me out.”
“I’ve heard enough.”
He pulled the gun from Olivia’s head and fired into the air. Olivia flinched with the deafening sound, and I felt her fear and her pain.
He pointed the gun back to her head. “You leave. Right now. Or I shoot her.”
I knew the best thing to do would just be to walk away. That would be the most risk-free solution. But it wasn’t really a solution, was it
? If I walked away, then he might decide to just kill everyone anyway when he realised he’d lost everything. He might just shoot Olivia and Kerry, and where would I or anyone be to stop him then?
No. I couldn’t take the easy option. I couldn’t take the least risky route.
I had to face this problem head on.
It had to be me.
Instead of walking back, I took a few steps closer to Stu.
Stu’s eyes widened. He looked stunned by my uncooperative behaviour.
“What—what do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
I took a few short breaths, right in through my nose and back out of my mouth. I prepared myself for what I had to do, for what I had to say. “Stu, you’ve killed people. Your people have been killed. There’s—there’s not a lot of us left.”
“And I’ll kill your daughter if you don’t walk away.”
“See, I don’t believe you.”
Stu narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“I don’t believe you’ll kill Olivia. Because despite everything you’ve said and everything you’ve done… I still don’t believe you’re a bad person.”
I walked a bit closer.
Stu still hadn’t pulled the trigger.
“We all do bad things. We make the wrong decisions. But we… we can still fix things. We can work on putting things right.”
“Easy for you to say with a gun in your hand.”
I looked at the gun.
I took a deep breath.
Then, I dropped it to the ground.
I kicked it away, and I knew Stu was watching my every move.
I made a few steps closer to him now I had the chance, and I kept my hands raised.
“I don’t have a gun. You’re the one with the gun. You’re the one with… you’re the one with the gun to my daughter’s head. And I’m begging you. We can still make things work if you just lower that gun. We can still rebuild. We can work together. It doesn’t have to go any further than it’s already gone. Please.”
I looked into Stu’s eyes, and I saw something unexpected then. A flicker of that rabbit in the headlights style confusion over what to do, what to say, how to react.
“I don’t believe you,” he said.