But God, if we could just kill him—again with the whole killing thing being second nature to me—and get the others to listen to what I had to say, things could work out. Mikey had said that a lot of the Forgotten didn’t agree with the way things were being done, but did it because they wanted to live. Surely if we took out the threat to their lives, or at least the major one, they would be willing?
I had to believe that there were some good people left in the world. I had to, or I would just curl up and die right then. Emily couldn’t have been the last good person in the world. I looked over at Adam, his face pressed against the window as he watched the world pass by, and I knew then that there was at least one other good person in the world.
We rounded the corner and the mall loomed in front of us. It seemed just the same as the last time I was there, and yet so much had changed. Deaders loitered in the parking lot, surrounded by their murdered brethren. Same old, same old, I thought with a heavy heart.
They turned at the sound of the truck, and began their slow shamble toward us. Mikey and Nova steered between the rotting bodies as best they could, but some hits were inevitable. Adam curled up in the footwell of the truck with his hands over his ears, blocking out the destruction, and I kind of wanted to join him. I didn’t want to see that, the bodies breaking apart as our trucks hit them, their flesh splitting open and releasing dead maggots and rotten guts. We zipped passed a female deader, her coat whipping up around her as the air briskly moved. She spun and almost fell, and then her feet must have got confused with which was doing what because she collapsed to her knees, and even with the noise from our engine, I heard her kneecaps crunch.
We pulled around the back of the mall, Mikey jumped out to open the service entrance, and I slipped into his seat and eased the truck inside. When the gate was secure in place, I cut the engine and climbed out. Adam followed me out, his hand slipping easily into mine.
The air smelled stale, with not even a breeze to move the smell along. Everything seemed quiet, yet we could see several of our trucks from base camp, and so knew that our group—or what little of it remained—was here, and we collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you okay?” I asked Mikey as we walked to the small employee door.
He looked down at Adam and then back at me. “I think your plan is stupid.”
“It’s not a plan, it’s a vague concept,” I replied with a smirk, hoping to win him over with my wit and charm. It didn’t work.
“We’ll all be killed,” he said, his words heavy with worry.
“They’ll listen to you.”
“No, they won’t.” He looked away from me, as if the very sight of me annoyed him. “And you’ll die, and it will be my fault.” His words were somber and painful.
Maybe it was a stupid idea that would get us all killed. And maybe I should just have just left it and been on my way, but at that point it felt like I’d been running for years, and I didn’t want to run anymore. I wanted to stand and fight. I want to protect and I want to survive, not just live day to day. And currently, my nightmares were filled with the threat of the Forgotten and the horror of life behind the walls. Living with those horrors was no way to live, and the only way I knew to make them go away was to destroy them.
“No, it will be my fault. Now get a fucking grip, Mikey. We can do this.”
At my words he jerked his face back to mine, a small curve starting on his lips. “I love it when you talk dirty.”
“Shut up.” I laughed lightly and pushed his shoulder.
“You two bitches done?” Nova said, pushing past me. She scowled down at Adam, who closed his mouth before he said anything about her swearing.
The hallway was like I remembered, though now it felt used—as if I could hear the movement of feet echoing along it. We hurried along, eager to see everyone, our friends, our family, or what little was left of them. I wondered how they were all settling in; it was, after all, their new home. At the end of the corridor, Nova pushed the door wide open, stepping into the bright hub of the mall. A loud crack rang out and she stumbled backwards with a cry of pain.
I looked at her flailing body stumbling backwards, trying to work out what the hell had just happened, and then I looked to Mikey, confused. Another crack sounded out, and Joan yelped and quickly slammed the door shut and we were plunged back into semi-darkness again.
“Nova!” I yelled, before Mikey’s hand clasped tightly over my mouth.
“I’m here,” Nova panted out. “I’m alive. Fuck, that hurts,” she gasped, and I felt the air shifting around us.
I followed the sound of her voice, watched for the subtle shadow of her body on the floor, and I knelt down at her side. “What happened?” I asked, still confused.
“Gunshot,” Mikey said, his ear pressed to the door.
I looked at the place where Nova was clutching her stomach, noticing the dark patch seeping around her hands, and realization finally hit me.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” I tore off my blouse and pressed it against the wound.
Nova hissed but clutched at the blouse, stemming her own blood flow. “I’m okay, I’m a tough bitch,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Who’s in there, Mikey?” I asked. My voice sounded too loud and panicky, and I knew that any second, whoever was in there was going to come out and kill us all. In theory we should have been running, dragging Nova, Adam, and Joan out of the danger. Yet there we were, frozen to the spot in fear.
“Fallon,” he said, turning to face me. “It’s Fallon in there, I’d know his voice anywhere.”
“Shut the fuck up!” both Nova and I said in total disbelief at the same time.
“What are the fuckin’ chances of that?” Nova looked over at me, her jaw hanging slack from both the revelation and the pain.
Tears of anger and frustration burned my eyes. Why wouldn’t he just let us go—let Mikey go? How could one person be so intent on slaughtering so many innocent people? It was then that I realized that Fallon would never let Mikey go, or me.
“They came to end this, end all of you.” Mikey pulled out his gun.
I could hardly see him in the dark, but I heard him—heard his gun. I heard the safety click off, and I heard the thump of his heart, heavy and foreboding in the dark.
“Nina, take Adam and Joan, and you and Nova get the hell out of here.”
I watched his shadow turn away from me and I stood up abruptly. “No, don’t you dare go in there, Mikey. Don’t you fucking dare!”
Adam had begun to whimper next to me, and his little hands were tight around my leg, his small fingers digging into to my skin. Joan was off whimpering somewhere else in the dark, but God knew where because I couldn’t see her.
I dragged Mikey back away from the door, knowing we only had seconds before they came to find us. The only reason they were hesitating was because they didn’t know how many of us there were out here. Clearly, we had taken them by surprise, and they were taking it cautiously because of that. They hadn’t expected someone to just walk right in like that, but we wouldn’t be so lucky a second time. We needed to go. Now.
Mikey pulled out of my grip. “He’ll kill you, Nina, and it will all have been for nothing. I can’t let him get you again—I can’t watch what he did…”
“We’ll do this together, we’ll take him together,” I pleaded, gripping his arms roughly.
“And the kid? What happens to him if you die?” Mikey said flatly, stepping backwards.
“I can barely keep myself alive. What are the chances he’ll be safe with me?” I bit out angrily.
“It’s better this way. I’ll kill myself before he makes me hurt anyone else, I promise, but I can’t do that if he has you.” His voice was tinged with deep desperation, and I felt sorrow and loss like I hadn’t experienced before. It cut worse than Emily-Rose, and worse than Ben. Because I had let him in, I had let him have my heart. I wouldn’t ever get this chance again; our time was over. “I love you, Nina.�
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A shadow moved behind Mikey, and I realized that Nova had stood up and was limping back toward the door. My heart froze when I thought of her life-threatening injuries, and what would happen to her when she died from them.
“Nova?” I whispered, almost too scared to say her name in case she growled in response and lunged for us. Because if she were dead and had just turned, then she was about to take a bite out of one of us unless we took her out first.
“Take care, darlin’. It was worth the crazy ride, I promise you that… now fuckin’ run, all of you!”
I saw the space around us light up as she lit a cigarette and then, holding it between her lips, she turned and charged at the door.
She shoulder-barged it open, and as the light flooded in I saw her two guns in her hands. I saw the flash of them as she fired them over and over, and I saw firsthand as her body shook while bullet after bullet pounded into her flesh. She fired back at the threat beyond those doors, her body blocking any bullets that tried to make it past her. And whoever was there continued to shoot back at her, riddling her already-damaged body with bullets. She dropped to her knees and her guns rang empty, and then she fell face forward just short of the door.
The door swung back closed, and we were embraced back into the darkness, trapped with the sounds of crying and whimpering from Joan and Adam. Yells and shouts rang out loudly from behind the closed door, and I realized that I was gasping for air. I was panting, the room going dizzy and spinning as I struggled to suck the oxygen into my lungs. Because it was all too much, too goddamn much. How could it be happening now, after what we had done to get back there, to save Jessica, to give Adam some sort of peace?
“Nina?” Mikey whispered, his voice close to my ear. “We need to go. She’s bought us time, she may even have killed him, but we can’t risk sticking around to find out.”
“What about everyone else?” I whispered back, warm tears bleeding from my eyes. “All the people from the base?” But I was already moving, already backing out of the hallway as quietly as I could while still staring at the place that Nova had just been.
“They’re dead. Fallon wouldn’t let them live if he knew they were with us,” Mikey replied darkly, and I knew he was right.
The shock of that simple statement broke me, and fresh misery erupted within my warring mind. Because of me all of my friends were now dead. Because of me. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t carry on. I couldn’t live with the guilt.
Adam clung to my leg tighter, his cries sounding muffled as he buried his face in my pants. And I realized that I had to carry on. I had no choice. Because I had Adam to look after now, and somewhere else in that godforsaken corridor, I had Joan.
“We need to go,” Mikey said again, his words more urgent.
He gripped my hand and began tugging at me, pulling me along the hallway until we were back outside and the sunlight was blinding me. I turned to see Joan stumbling out of the darkness too, her face crippled in pain and sadness. She avoided things like this, she hid, and so to see it, to be a part of it, was soul-destroying for her. Even her alter ego couldn’t take this much stress.
Mikey pulled us toward the truck, and I pushed Adam and Joan inside while Mikey dragged open the gate. I looked back toward the staff entrance one last time, thinking how only moments ago Nova had walked in there with us, alive and looking forward to seeing her brother and her friends. Of how she had bought us precious moments by going back through that door and hopefully killing some of Fallon’s men.
I thought of how I had wanted to go after Fallon and kill him, how I had wanted to use the Forgotten to take down the people of the walled cities. To help free those people trapped in misery behind their walls.
Now it all seemed so ridiculous. Pointless, and so impossible. Yet beyond that, I felt angry and frustrated. Because for every step forward, there seemed to be so many more backwards. And I couldn’t do it anymore. Because men like Fallon needed to die, they needed to be ended—finished—if there was ever going to be hope for anyone again.
“Nina!” Mikey urged, climbing inside the truck. “Come on, quickly, they’ll be coming.”
I looked in at him—seeing him, and Adam, and Joan, and knowing I would never see Emily or Nova or so many other people that I held dear to me, ever again. My mouth tightened into a thin line. Because I knew what I had to do—what I wanted to do to protect the people I cared about. Because I couldn’t lose another person I loved. I couldn’t let another innocent person go through the suffering that those men were subjecting people to.
I understood Nova’s actions now. It wasn’t just about giving in and sacrificing yourself. It was about protecting those you cared about. No matter what. That little boy needed someone to look after him, and it couldn’t be me, because I only ever got people killed.
“Don’t.” Mikey breathed out the words, his eyes filling with terror, like he’d read my mind. Adam began to cry, his quiet sobs turning to wails.
“I’m sorry,” I said to both of them. “Look after him, Mikey.” And then I slammed the door of the truck shut. I mouthed I love you as Mikey reached for his door handle, and then I turned and ran.
I ran away from Mikey, away from our truck, and away from my freedom. I ran back through the employee entrance, ignoring the sound of Mikey shouting and begging me to come back, knowing that he wouldn’t—couldn’t—come after me because he had to look after Adam. Adam who was wailing loudly.
I ran back down the dark and death-filled hallway toward the main mall entrance. I pushed open the door, stepping over Nova’s bloody body with my gun raised high, hoping to take them by surprise, hoping I wouldn’t die, but knowing I possibly would. But it would be worth it. Because no matter what, Fallon would continue to kill innocent people that didn’t deserve his judgment, and someone had to stop him—someone had to try. Because it wasn’t fair, it was cruel and wrong, and life was hard enough as it was.
So I stood up for every innocent person that he had harmed, because I wasn’t running from it anymore. I wasn’t running and hiding, I was facing up to him, and be damned the consequences. Because those innocents didn’t have a voice, and like Mikey had said, I did. So let my voice ring out nice and clear that I wouldn’t stand by anymore, that I wouldn’t let those people die for nothing.
And if I died? So be it. Like Mikey had said, ‘your loved ones are worth both living and dying for.’ And Mikey was worth every beat of my heart and every drop of my blood. I’d protect him, the way I failed Emily, the way I failed Ben. They all died, and though it was illogical, I blamed myself. So I would protect Mikey the only way I knew how.
Because I knew I’d see him again one day, in this life or the next.
ODIUM IV
The Dead Saga
COMING WINTER 2015
(Read on for a sneak peak)
Sneak Peak of ‘Odium IV The Dead Saga’, Coming Winter 2015
ONE.
MIKEY.
The truck rumbles along with as much gusto as it had previously, yet now it feels empty. Everything feels empty. Nina went back inside. She left me with Adam and Joan, knowing I wouldn’t be able to leave them. She had wanted her vengeance no matter what the cost to herself or anyone else.
I hate her.
My shoulders shake as I try to contain my sadness, as I try to ignore the ache of despair that bubbles away in my stomach. Adam cried himself to sleep at some point in the last hour, and Joan is still staring numbly out the window like she has been for several hours. It’s the quietest she’s been since I met her, and I wonder how much of her so-called craziness is actually real. Because the look on her face makes it clear that she fully understands the importance of what just happened.
We won’t get much further before the gas runs out. We’ll need to stop soon, find somewhere safe to spend the night. But nowhere is safe. I can’t run away from my past anymore. It’s all caught up with me, and now I’ve lost everything and everyone. How many more times can I do this? Run from it and
them? Hide and hope that I can escape the memories of friends and family that have died because of my selfishness and stupidity? I slow the truck, wanting to turn around—and not for the first time—but then I think of Adam and Joan, and how they rely on me now, how Nina has put their safety in my hands.
I hate her.
Rubbing away the tears that have trailed down my dirty cheeks, I grit my teeth. My anger will be my fuel—my anger at her and at them, but mostly at myself. I look in my rearview mirror, seeing the setting sun behind me, slipping below the tree line and buildings that we’re passing, and I panic again.
We’ll need to stop. They need to eat, and I’m pretty sure one or both of them has pissed themselves. I can’t care for them; I can barely care for myself. Damn her! My hands grip the steering wheel tighter, my calloused knuckles going white.
I hate her.
All she had wanted was to help people. Even in her bitchiest moments, that was all she had wanted. She covered her kindness with attitude, but she wanted the world back to how it was, when we helped one another, when we cared, and felt, and loved, and we survived as a human race and not as selfish individuals.
I have never regretted anything in life, not until this moment. Even my fucked up past I haven’t regretted, because to regret it was to change it, and if I changed one damn thing, I may never have met her. And to never have met her would have been my biggest regret yet.
I love her.
And now she’s gone. She went back to do what I had been running from—what I had been hiding from. She went back to end this fight. And it cost her everything, it cost me everything. She was brave and beautiful, and I lost her.
What the hell am I going to do now?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire C. Riley is a bestselling British horror writer whose work is best described as the modernization of classic, old-school horror. She fuses multi-genre elements to develop storylines that pay homage to cult classics while still feeling fresh and cutting edge. She writes characters that are realistic, and kills them without mercy. Claire lives in the United Kingdom with her husband, three daughters, and one scruffy dog.
The Dead Saga (Book 3): Odium III Page 30