by Ryan Casey
Amy was silent. She mulled over Melissa’s words. Beneath her, on the ground, she could hear people pressing things up against the walls, covering all the cracks. Some were still practising firing arrows, which meant they weren’t so convinced this was going to be a simple hide-out job after all.
“You were careless,” Amy said. “To let an arrow slip while you were in there with him.”
“And that’s why I have to go out there before the dead reach our position. While there’s still a chance. To get him and get Riley and—”
“Out of the question.”
“You still don’t trust me, do you?”
“Melissa, this isn’t about trust. This is about the fine line between safety and suicide.”
“You still think I want to kill myself. Don’t you?”
“Well, I’ve had to stop you doing it enough fucking times already.”
There was silence after that. Silence where Amy regretted what she’d said, right away.
“Sorry.”
“No,” Melissa said, shaking her head. She was smiling slightly, like she hadn’t totally digested what Amy just said to her. “It’s good to hear you being totally honest with me.”
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
Melissa rolled up her sleeves. “But you did. You did, and that’s fair enough for you to have those concerns.”
Melissa stepped up to Amy. Looked right into her eyes. Amy couldn’t help glancing down at her exposed arms.
“No fresh cuts there,” Melissa said. “You’ll be pleased to know all’s happy in happy land.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. This is just an intense time. You understand that.”
“And you need to understand that I’m coping. I’m managing. And honestly, I’m not surprised you just blurted out what you did. I’ve seen the way you look at me. The way you all look at me.”
“We don’t look at you in any way.”
“You do. Don’t lie. I don’t belong here. Which… I guess in a weird way, that’s why I liked visiting Kane. As detestable as he is, at least he was honest. Even when he was lying, he was honest.”
There was a pause. An awkward silence. Then Amy just had to pose the question.
“Melissa, did you know you’d dropped the arrow for Kane?”
Melissa smiled. It was a shaky, uncertain smile. And instants later, Amy saw the tears building in Melissa’s bloodshot eyes. “The fact you’d even ask me that question says it all, I think.”
She turned around and started walking down the ladders.
“Melissa?” Amy called. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving,” she said.
“No. No, you—”
“It’s my fault Kane got away from this place. It’s my fault Riley’s out there. And truly, I think I can draw some of the undead away from this direction.”
“You won’t make it.”
“Maybe not,” Melissa said, walking right up to the gate. “But it’s what I have to do. And like you said. You run a transparent leadership, right?” She turned to Stef and Carly, who were at the sides of the gate. “Open up.”
“Don’t!” Amy called.
Melissa turned back and looked up at Amy. “Let me fix this problem. Let me help. Trust me, just this damned once.”
Amy looked down into Melissa’s eyes and she remembered her when she’d first found her. Curled up in a ball in her bed, the body of a dead partner by her side.
She remembered the way she’d forced Melissa to lift her chin up and break out of that stupor she was in. She remembered the times she’d barged her way into locked doors to stop Melissa from overdosing.
She remembered sitting beside Melissa and holding her hand as she used a clean blade to cut, just to release a little of the pain, before giving up the cutting completely.
And she looked at her now—so confident, so sure of what she wanted to do—and she couldn’t help feeling a twinge of pride.
“Go,” Amy said.
Stef frowned. “You sure?”
“Open the gates,” Amy said. “Let her go.”
Melissa looked just as surprised by Amy’s verdict as the people around her. She gathered her bow, plenty of arrows, and a long blade. Then she walked up to the open gate.
She kept on looking back up at Amy, though. Waiting for her to say something else.
“You stay safe,” Amy managed eventually, her lips quivering. It was all she could manage.
“You too,” Melissa said.
Then, as the dead kept on moving in their direction, a dark spectre looming on the horizon, Melissa looked back at Amy one final time before disappearing into the trees.
When she’d gone, Amy climbed down the ladder. She heard people saying things to her. She heard people asking her for things. But she just waded through them, and went into the bathroom area.
She barricaded herself in that room and she couldn’t stop herself.
The tears fell down her face.
Her tough exterior that she had to maintain for everyone around her cracked.
Because Melissa wasn’t just anyone.
Melissa wasn’t just a stranger she happened to find in the early days of the outbreak.
Melissa was her biological sister.
Her baby sister, the pair of them separated by adoption.
And as Amy thought about her sister out there, all on her own, the guilt overwhelmed her.
If only she’d told her the truth before she disappeared.
If only she’d found the strength to tell her that she was her big, biological sister, maybe things would’ve been different.
She thought about going out there and chasing after Melissa. She had to. It was her duty. Her responsibility.
But when she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw the glum, resigned faces of the people around her.
She climbed the ladder. Annabelle was up there now.
“What is it?” Amy asked.
Annabelle pointed into the distance.
Amy didn’t see what she was pointing at right away.
Then she saw the trees less than a quarter of a mile rustling.
She heard the footsteps.
She saw grey flesh…
Lots and lots and lots of grey flesh.
“They’re here,” she said.
CHAPTER THREE
Riley watched the creatures surround him and Kane from every direction and he knew his days were numbered this time.
He’d thought that a lot, in truth. It was hard not to when he was who he was, and when he’d gone through the experiences he’d gone through. When he’d seen everyone around him—literally everyone—fall.
It was surely just a matter of time until he was next.
“So sure about running straight ahead now, genius?” Kane said, holding the gun shakily in his hand. Riley could tell that he was trying to maintain a sense of composure; hold up the illusion of control. But just the fear in his voice was enough to convince Riley that he was losing his grip, gradually. If it wasn’t a life or death situation, it might’ve been funny.
Riley backed towards Kane. The deafening sounds of the groans surrounded him in every direction. Everywhere he saw a gap, it was soon filled. “We have to make a move soon one way or another. Or we aren’t getting out of this.”
“Good observation,” Kane said. “Any more genius input?”
“You could start by uncuffing me.”
Riley looked into Kane’s eyes when he said this. He looked at him because he wanted to create that connection between them. He wanted to forge a kind of trust.
“And why would I do that?” Kane asked.
“Because two of us against them is better than one. One man with one hand, for that matter.”
“Don’t pretend this is about me. Don’t pretend this is about anyone but yourself.”
“Believe what you want,” Riley said. “The truth is, the odds of either of us getting out of this are better if there’s two of us to fight. So even if I
do decide to kill you when we’re out of this mess, or run away, at least you’ll be alive. Probably.”
The deafening cries of the creatures intensified even louder. More of those gaps were closing. Whatever they did, wherever they went, they had to make a decision about what they were going to do next. Fast.
“Come on,” Riley said. “Swallow your pride before they swallow you.”
Kane didn’t react. Not for a few moments.
Then he suddenly stepped behind Riley and stuck the key into his cuffs.
He yanked at them, hard. And then when they were free he tossed the cuffs aside, the closest group of creatures just a matter of feet away now.
“You can have your hands,” Kane said. “But if you think you’re getting a weapon, you can get stuffed.”
“My hands are all I need,” Riley said.
They stood together, then. Riley scanned the area. There were still gaps, but not many.
“There,” Kane said.
Riley looked ahead at where Kane was looking.
There was a gap. But it was risky. There were creatures either side of that gap, all of them closing in. It was like a passageway, and soon that passageway was going to close.
“I’m not sure,” Riley said.
“Hey,” Kane said. “You were the one who said you wanted to do this. Are you ready?”
“I—”
“Good,” Kane said.
He pushed Riley down so he was lying flat on his face.
When Riley got up, he saw what Kane had really done. He’d made it so Riley and himself had no option but to go in the direction Kane had decided.
Towards the passageway of death.
“Hurry up,” Kane said, waving Riley towards him. “Better keep up if you don’t want them to close in on you!”
Riley scrambled to his feet and ran after Kane. He had to stay as close as possible to him. It was the only way he could stand any chance of surviving. If he lingered behind Kane, the creatures would already have walked into one another, making that passageway of death impenetrable.
So all Riley could do was run.
He saw a Kane swinging his knife at a few stray creatures that got too close. Riley knew he was going to have to fight off a few himself. He could do with a weapon. But shit, he didn’t exactly have the luxury of options right now.
All he could do was keep on running.
All he could do was hope.
He held his breath as he got inches from that passageway. In his mind, he could hear Jordanna and Chloë screaming at him.
It’s not too late to turn back.
It’s not too late to head back for Mattius…
Riley looked over his shoulder. Truth was, it was too late to head back. There were no other options now. No other routes.
He faced forward and prepared to plunge himself into that passageway of the dead.
There was a creature right in front of him.
Riley collided with it. He fell right on top of it. By his sides, he could hear the footsteps lurching towards him, hear the teeth snapping as he got closer.
He pushed the creature with long, stringy blonde hair down into the dirt. He kept on pushing it further as it gripped on to his wrist. It was digging down so deep into his skin that he felt like his bony fingers were going to pierce through.
The creatures were in front of him.
The creatures were behind him.
The creatures were everywhere.
He felt like everything was slipping away. Hope. Chance of survival. Everything. He remembered what Kane said. He wanted to kill him, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to make sure that happened if it caused too much trouble.
He tried to keep on pushing down but he got flashes again.
Anna.
Chloë.
Jordanna.
How it played out.
How it happened.
And he prepared for the moment to arrive.
The fateful moment where it all—
He heard the gunshots, then.
The creature underneath him went still.
And the ones around him fell, too. The ones immediately close to him.
He felt something hit and bounce off his head, then.
When he looked to his side, he saw it was the knife. His knife. The one Kane had taken away from him.
Kane was just ahead of him, in a larger patch of open ground. He smiled and winked at Riley. “That’s on loan. I expect a return very soon, or you’ll be fined significantly. Good luck.”
Riley saw the creatures just to his right rapidly getting closer.
The knife was just out of reach. Just.
He had to be quick. He had to act fast.
He lunged for the knife.
He stood up.
Creatures in front.
Creatures behind.
He gripped tightly onto that knife as the gaps around him closed up, and he held his breath.
He felt the rage slip into his body. The rage at everything that happened.
He saw Mattius’ face on every one of these creatures.
Then, as the creatures closed in, Riley did the only thing he could do.
He fought back.
CHAPTER FOUR
Melissa felt more at ease as she ran beyond the walls of the camp than she ever did when she was inside.
The sky had gone grey and visibility was being reduced, not least by the thickening of the trees all around her. It was cool, but running was more than making up for that. She kept on looking around, scanning her immediate surroundings, making sure she was still all clear. The plan was to get to the edge of this crowd of undead and then draw a few towards her position. That way, it’d take the strain off the camp and make it easier for them to weather the storm.
She also wanted to find Kane, too. Because she’d been the one who’d let him go. And therefore whatever he did to Riley was on her.
She tasted bitterness as she ran through the crippling stitch that gnawed at her body. She couldn’t remember how old she was when she started hurting herself. Probably very young, in truth. But back when she was younger, it was more moments of recklessness or gutsiness. Jumping off rooftops. Running away from home in the middle of the night.
Melissa didn’t remember the first time she hurt herself, but she remembered the first time she cut herself.
She looked down at her wrist at the scars, which, although faded, would always be there. A reminder of the things she’d been through. A reminder of who she was, really, no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise.
Was this what she was doing right now?
Was Amy right? Was this just another act of self-sabotage?
And was that why she’d left the arrow with Kane after all?
She felt a wave of guilt take over her when she remembered what she’d done. She wasn’t sure why she’d dropped that arrow, sharp enough for Kane to figure a way to unlock his cuffs and get out of that cell. Part of her felt sympathy for him at that moment. He wasn’t offering anything to the group but tension, so why should he stick around?
But Melissa knew there was another part to her actions, too. Another layer, underneath the narrative she told herself.
She’d let Kane go because in the deepest recesses of her mind, Melissa knew what it probably meant.
Kane would kill her.
And a dark part of her—that echoing voice in her mind—wanted that to happen.
She heard a shuffling noise to her right. She stopped and hid behind some trees. When she looked to her right, Melissa saw movement.
Zombies.
She stepped further behind the trees, being sure to lay low. She gripped her bow and arrow in hand, her knife close to her just in case she needed to deal with any close quarters combat. If she could draw just a few of the zombies from the main crowd, then that’d ease the strain on her camp, and that’d be a start. But she couldn’t do that just yet. First, she had to search for Kane and Riley.
She’d made a
mistake leaving that arrow with Kane. And in a way, Melissa knew she’d been manipulated by him. He knew a part of Melissa wanted him to kill her. He’d pushed the right buttons, even though he was making himself seem obvious.
He really was good at reading people. He really was good at scheming.
But Melissa wasn’t just going to lie down and let him get to her.
She was going to find him.
She was going to kill him.
She held her breath as she crouched behind the trees. She listened to the footsteps of the undead pass by. She knew this was a perfect opportunity to start luring them in another direction. Risky, but perfect.
But then, what did Melissa really want?
What did she want more?
Did she want to die in action out here?
Or did she want to do what she had to do?
She heard the footsteps stop right at the other side of the tree, and she wasn’t sure she’d have much choice anymore.
She kept still. She pulled the long knife slowly out. She was better with a bow and arrow than close-range combat, but if she had to use it, she would.
She listened to the footsteps start again.
She heard a groan right behind the tree.
And then she heard the zombie hit the ground, landing on its knees.
After a moment’s silence, she heard the tearing.
She heard more of the undead joining the first one. They all walked over to the other side of this tree and started joining in the feast.
And as Melissa listened to this feast, as disgusting and putrid as the smells were, she wanted to turn around and look.
Not for any self-sabotage reasons.
But because she had a bad, bad feeling that it might be someone she knew they were feasting on.
She edged slowly towards the left side of the tree. She didn’t want to make a scene. Just a look. A quick look, then away.
She glanced at the scars down her arms.
Then she took a deep breath and peeked around the edge of the tree.
When she saw the man lying there, she nearly let out a sound.
She pulled herself back around the tree. Her heart raced, her chest tightened.
The man had dark hair, just like Riley. He was built just like Riley. Wearing a black jacket, just like Riley.
But this man wasn’t Riley.