Dead Days Zombie Apocalypse Series (Season 8)

by Ryan Casey

  He remembered—

  “Riley!”

  He gasped, and jolted upright.

  It was pitch black. He was in bed, totally alone. Caked in sweat.

  He covered his face with his hands and fell back onto the sheets. Just a dream. Just another dream.

  The longer he lay there though, the more certain Riley was that he’d heard someone shout his name and wake him up. It didn’t feel like that’d happened in dream world. It felt like it’d happened in reality. It felt like…

  He saw it, then.

  The door to his cabin was ajar.

  Tapping in the wind.

  Riley’s stomach turned. All kinds of possibilities and scenarios ran through his mind. Maybe someone had been here. Maybe the camp had been compromised. Or maybe this was just another torturous dream.

  He cleared his dry throat and stood, still a little woozy from the sudden waking up. He walked over to the door, checking his room to make sure it was completely clear.

  When he reached the door, he peeked outside into the darkness.

  There was something eerie about this place at night. It was just a camp in the middle of the woods at the end of the day. It had fences and gates and people defending them, sure. But it still felt so exposed.

  He squinted into the moonlit darkness and didn’t see a thing.

  He was about to head back into his room when he saw that the door to the cell area was open.

  Riley gritted his teeth together. As an instinct reaction, he reached for his knife.

  If he’d been thinking straight, he might’ve sounded an alarm right there and then.

  If he’d been in his right mind and hadn’t just woken up, he might have let someone know before walking slowly towards that cell area.

  But walk towards it he did.

  He crept slowly through the fallen leaves. His breath frosted in the cold air. The more he walked, the more convinced he grew that someone was watching him. Following him, even. Waiting to strike.

  He got to the door and he walked even slower, then. He strained and tried to listen for a sound. Again, the possibilities spiralled in his mind. Bob had escaped. He’d got out of here. Someone had let him go.

  He eased open the door, taking a final look over his shoulder.

  Then he went inside.

  He walked slowly into the cell area. It was so dark in here, but he was used to the darkness. His eyes had adapted. One of the perks of the new world.

  He walked right towards that last door on the right.

  The one where Bob was.

  Because that door was completely open.

  Riley lifted his knife and held his breath. If he had to defend himself, he would. He wanted Bob alive, sure. But he wanted to survive to save Kesha and get his revenge on Mattius more than anything. That was the most important thing to him.

  So he waited a few seconds. Counted down from three.

  Then he stepped out and looked into Bob’s cell.

  Bob was still there. That was the surprising thing.

  But in the moonlight peeking through the window, Riley knew Bob wasn’t really here.

  His intestines had been cut out of his body and left in a bloody sack on his lap. One of his eyes had been punctured. It looked like his throat had been cut, but Riley couldn’t be too certain.

  The hairs on Riley’s arms stood on end. He took a step back. He had to leave this place. He had to get out. He had to—

  Then he felt something press against his back and felt the breathing on the back of his neck.

  His body went cold. Cold with the realisation of who it was, and of what’d happened.

  “He was delicious,” Kane said. “But he was just the starter. And now it’s time for my main course.”

  Riley swung around, trying to struggle free of Kane.

  But Kane smacked him over the head with something heavy.

  Riley fell to the floor.

  Darkness closed in.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “You have to get your revenge, Riley…”

  Riley heard the voice. Jordanna’s, Chloë’s, even Anna’s, he wasn’t certain. But this time, he didn’t linger in unconsciousness. He didn’t stay submerged in the blackness that had surrounded him last time.

  This time, he opened his eyes.

  It was still dark, sure. But not the kind of darkness he saw in his dreams. It looked like sunrise was approaching, the sky turning that weird shade of blue that Riley had seen one too many times since the fall of the world—and he saw it enough times before the dead walked, in all truth. He was outside, in the woods. He was sitting upright against a tree. His head ached, and he could taste blood on his lips. He tried to move his hands, but they were in cuffs.

  What had happened?

  What had…

  He saw the silhouette in the corner of his eye.

  It was walking towards him. No; hobbling towards him. He heard the groan. Smelled the stench of death.

  He struggled against the cuffs. Tried to break free.

  He had to get out of them.

  He had to get out of this situation.

  He had to—

  He remembered it, then.

  Finding Bob’s body, brutalised and mutilated.

  Then hearing Kane’s voice.

  And then a smack over his head, now… this.

  He drifted back to the present moment. He felt the creature’s hand dig right into his shoulder. Its nails were sharp, as were its bones.

  It gripped down and groaned as it leaned in to take a bite—

  Then Riley felt blood splatter across his face.

  Someone had pressed a knife through the creature’s skull.

  When the creature fell to the ground, the person behind it grabbed that knife and pulled it away. Riley realised then that it was his knife.

  “Does a decent job. Not my preferred murder weapon, though. Oh. Rise and shine, by the way. Fancy some porridge?”

  Riley leaned back against the tree. Kane stood over him, holding on to Riley’s knife. In a sense, Riley always expected it to come to this, somehow. He wasn’t sure how this moment was going to be reached. He didn’t know how it was all going to play out or how the chess pieces were going to fall just in the right place to create the circumstances where this chance showdown became possible.

  But here it was.

  And here Riley was, cuffs around his hands, Kane standing over him like so many people had stood over Kane.

  “How’s it feel now the boot’s on the other foot?” Kane asked. “It must be hard.”

  “Kane, stop this bullshit.”

  “See, this is what I don’t like about your attitude. You’re so cavalier about what I want. What I desire.”

  “Because you’re a fucking nut.”

  Kane laughed. “You know, you’ve seen what I can do. You’ve seen what I’m capable of. And still you don’t take me seriously.”

  “You had an opportunity to kill me,” Riley said. “Back when you found me at the camp. You had an opportunity, but I told you to go after Kesha and make sure she was safe.”

  “That was before you decided to slice away half of my hand.”

  “You deserved it.”

  “I probably did.”

  The pair of them were quiet for a few seconds. Kane was still. Riley didn’t have any desire to know Kane, not really. He had no longing to understand him.

  But there was curiosity. How he’d ended up this way. What drove him to do the things he did.

  “You know, while you had me as your prisoner, I thought about this moment a lot of times. It always played out in different ways, but it always ended in the exact same way.”

  “Let me guess. Me being butchered.”

  Kane smiled. “Something like that. Sometimes you flee. Sometimes you struggle. Sometimes you take it like a man. But it always ends in the same, inevitable way. But of course, there’s something I have to do first, before I kill you. I have to stay true to my word of taking everything fro
m you. And you know what that means. Who that means.”

  Riley lunged towards Kane, but he just knocked him back down and pressed the knife to his neck.

  “Woah,” he said, seeming excited by the turn of events. “Woah, now. We’ll have none of that shit. When I say I’d rather keep you alive, believe me, I mean it. But I won’t hesitate if I have to kill you right here. Understand that.”

  “You leave Kesha alone.”

  “She really does mean something to you, doesn’t she?”

  “You’ll never find her. Even if you kill me, you’ll never find her.”

  “Oh, really?” Kane asked. “So before I killed Bob. When I’d taken a portion of his insides out. When he told me exactly where Mattius’ camp was. I’m supposed to just ignore that kind of information, am I?”

  Riley felt his body turn to mush. “Liar.”

  Kane laughed some more. “Not a word of a lie.”

  “You’re bluffing.”

  “I am, am I? Maybe I am. Maybe. I guess we’ll just have to see while we’re on the journey now, won’t we?”

  He pressed the knife right up to Riley’s face. He moved the knife around slowly, like he was tracing a drawing.

  “You know, I always think us post-apocalyptic warriors look a lot better with battle-scars. Don’t you?”

  Riley clenched his teeth together. His heart raced.

  “I mean, it sure as sugar makes you look more rebellious. It makes you look pretty intimidating. But Christ. Think of all the fun we could have in this world with scars. I mean, I could just trace a nice big dick on your head right now. I could carve “I LOVE COCK” onto your forehead and see how you cope then. See how seriously anyone takes you then. See how much of a role model to Kesha you’ll be then.”

  Again, Riley lunged for Kane. But the lunge only made the knife scratch into his forehead, blood immediately trickling down his face.

  “Oh, look,” Kane said. He dipped his mangled hand stump into the blood and sucked some of it up. His eyes sparked the second the blood touched his lips. “Looks like you’ve got the drawing started for me.”

  He pressed the knife down harder.

  Riley closed his eyes and held his breath.

  And then he heard the footsteps.

  He opened his eyes. Kane had stopped carving.

  When he looked around, he saw why.

  Creatures were coming.

  Ten of them. Maybe more.

  And they were closing in.

  Fast.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Riley saw the creatures closing in and he knew how near to death he was all over again.

  There were ten of them, possibly more. It was hard to tell because the trees were in the way. But their groaning was loud and echoey; a groaning that still made the hairs on the back of Riley’s neck stand on end to this day. The smell was intense. The air even tasted of rot.

  And Riley was still sat up against a tree, Kane standing over him with a knife to his head, cuffs around his wrists.

  He saw that Kane was distracted. He saw him looking the other way at the oncoming undead, here to spoil whatever sick, sadistic plans he had for Riley.

  Part of Riley wanted to kill Kane right here. To find an opportunity to put him down. He’d let him live once, and look how that’d turned out.

  But he remembered what Kane said.

  Bob had spoken to him. He’d told him where Mattius’ camp was.

  Riley wasn’t sure whether Kane was lying, whether he was telling the truth.

  But just that mere uncertainty about everything made Riley want to keep Kane alive after all.

  Well.

  Just a small part.

  He booted Kane in his stomach as he rose to his feet. His hands were cuffed behind his back, so he lifted his foot again and kicked Kane towards the crowd of oncoming undead.

  He didn’t stop to see what happened to Kane.

  He just turned around and ran into the woods.

  The more he ran, the more disoriented Riley grew. He had no idea which direction Kane had brought him, or which direction to head. It sounded like the creatures were all around, closing in from every direction.

  And as he ran, he saw Jordanna, Chloë, Anna, all of them in his mind, all of them screaming at him.

  “You’ve made a mistake!”

  “Get back for Kane. He knows where Mattius is.”

  “Don’t leave him to die or Mattius will win.”

  Riley stopped, then. He turned around.

  He squinted into the distance.

  He couldn’t see Kane. He could still hear the creatures groaning, though.

  He thought about running back there. Thought about going and checking Kane was alive. He needed to know where that location was. He needed—

  He felt a smack across his face and he collapsed to the ground.

  His head spun. His hearing went echoey. He wasn’t sure what’d happened.

  Not until he looked up and saw Kane standing over him.

  He had the knife to Riley’s face again. He didn’t look best pleased.

  “That’s not the way to co-operate with me,” Kane said. “That’s a very, very unappreciative thing to—”

  Riley booted Kane, right in his balls.

  He stood up and he kicked Kane down, right into the earth. Behind, he heard the creatures marching closer. He knew it wouldn’t be long before they were onto their position.

  He pressed his foot down onto Kane’s chest. He pushed down, really hard.

  “Mattius’ camp,” he said.

  Kane smiled, blood building between the cracks of his teeth.

  Riley pressed down harder on his chest. “Where is it?”

  Kane laughed. He was practically in hysterics. “Like I’d tell you.”

  Riley booted Kane in the chin out of sheer frustration more than anything.

  The creatures were just metres away.

  “So go on,” Kane said. “Leave me to the dead. Leave me to die. And watch my secret die with me. I dare you. Go on. I dare you.”

  Riley wanted to. He wanted to watch Kane get torn apart. He’d take a kind of sinister pleasure out of it, and in a way he wished he’d killed Kane when he’d first had the chance.

  “Go on!”

  But now Kane knew something. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was just bluffing.

  “Go—”

  But still, Riley couldn’t take the risk.

  “Shut up,” Riley said.

  He ran into the trees again. He left Kane behind, lying on his arse. He’d left Kane’s fate to Kane. If he got away, he’d still be here to help Riley find Mattius, and find Kesha—even if he intended to do great harm to Kesha, Riley would find a way of dealing with Kane before he got that opportunity.

  Or maybe Kane really would die now. Maybe that secret he claimed he had would die with him.

  Riley left it all to fate.

  He looked over his shoulder. Again, it was too dark and too full of trees to see whether Kane had made it. He hadn’t screamed, so he supposed that counted for something.

  Then he looked back in front.

  Someone was standing there.

  Jordanna.

  He collided with her and fell to the ground.

  He blinked a few times and realised it wasn’t Jordanna at all.

  It was a woman. Mousey blonde hair. Green eyes. Skinny.

  He’d seen her somewhere before.

  Then it clicked…

  “I know you,” the woman said.

  And Riley knew her too.

  He remembered her standing there, alongside Bob, as Mattius killed Chloë and Jordanna.

  He remembered her looking on as Mattius’ people took Kesha away.

  “Riley,” she said. “You’re Riley.”

  Riley tried to struggle free.

  But the woman pulled out a pistol and pressed it to his head.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, a wry smile on her face. “Oh, I don’t think so at all. You’re a prize find,
my friend. And a prize find that Mattius is looking forward to having in his possession. He let you slip once. Won’t happen again. Oh no.”

  Riley tried to swing at the woman, but his hands were still cuffed. She blocked him and started to squeeze the trigger. Behind, the echoey groans of the creatures got closer.

  “No, you’re all ours now,” she said. “You’re all ours. And you’re coming with me.”

  Riley waited for her to stand.

  But she didn’t.

  Her face dropped.

  Blood ran down from the top of her skull.

  Her eyes went bloodshot.

  “He’s not yours at all,” a voice behind her said.

  She fell to the floor when Kane pulled the knife from her skull.

  Then he reached down and grabbed her gun.

  He smiled at Riley.

  “You’re all mine to kill. Now on your feet, prick. It’s time we finished up this little journey of ours.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Amy looked inside the prison cell where they’d been keeping Bob and right away, she knew what’d happened.

  It was early. Earlier than she usually woke up and that was saying something. She liked to be awake for the sunrise. A habit she’d always enjoyed, even before the world fell apart. She found she was more productive in the early hours. In her old life, when she wasn’t at work, she spent a lot of her time blogging. The real goal was to eventually be making enough money from freelance blogging and writing work that she could quit her job. But honestly, she was barely making ends meet. Turned out nobody wanted to hire her to freelance. That bubble, once possible to make gains in, had been burst.

  Shit. She’d always been late to jump on trends.

  Outside, the weather was cool and breezy, the sun barely peeking over the horizon just yet. But in here, aided by her torchlight, she was kind of relieved that it wasn’t fully light.

  She could build enough of an image of what had gone down simply through the glimmers of red in the torchlight.

  Dark red.

  Blood red.

  There were the smells, too. You might think you know what a bad smell is. And sure, there were plenty of bad smells in this world. But one of the worst, most distinctive smells was the smell of someone who had been disembowelled.

  All that partly-digested food dangling there in slimy tubes.