by Ryan Casey
“Rosa, Annabelle, Natasha—you head down to the front just as we head to the back. It’s a risk. So you don’t have to—”
“We’ve lost everything as it is,” Natasha said, shaking her head and sighing. “If we go down fighting for a good cause then so be it.”
Riley nodded at her and half-smiled. “I’m grateful for your help. Truly.”
Natasha smiled back. “Not planning on dying anytime soon, though.”
He looked back at Siobhan and Carly. “You two position yourselves to pick off as many of their people as you can. Cover us. Cover Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha. Be vigilant. If it looks like a threat, it probably is.”
Carly and Siobhan looked at one another then nodded. “These people killed Chloë,” Carly said. “I won’t show any mercy, don’t worry.”
Riley nodded, and then looked back at Amy and Melissa. “You ready?”
Amy’s eyes were glazed, like she still wasn’t so certain about taking the next step. Melissa looked more certain though, more focused, as she gripped into a replacement bow and arrow she’d been given after snapping the string of her last one. “I’m not totally sure,” Amy said. “But I appreciate why you want to do this. Just… just stay on track, Riley. Stay focused. For Kesha’s sake. Please.”
Riley knew what Amy was referring to. She was worried about his lust for revenge. She feared he’d get sidetracked the moment he saw Mattius. And you know, she might just be right to have those concerns.
He smiled at her, tried to put her at ease. “We’ve got this. All of us. We can do this.”
She hesitated a few seconds. Then she nodded back at him. “Okay. Let’s go.”
She looked at Melissa and half-smiled. Riley could see the care in her eyes. The love.
“You ready for this?” Amy asked her.
Melissa’s eyelids twitched. “One-hundred percent.” She looked like she had a bone to pick of her own.
Riley looked at all of them. Then he looked down towards Mattius’ camp.
He took a deep breath, his skin tingling.
“Then we go,” he said.
They made their way down the hill in their separate directions, all towards the same ultimate end-goal.
A FEW HUNDRED FEET AWAY, in the blanket of trees, Ricky watched the group walking down the hill.
He lowered his rifle and lifted his walkie-talkie. He pressed the button.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s me. We’ve got a problem.”
CHAPTER TWO
When Riley got close to Mattius’ camp, he was honestly surprised at just how poorly guarded it was.
The cloud was thickening above, bringing back that ominous feeling he’d experienced just a week ago when the mass of creatures had descended upon him and Kane, then advanced onto the rest of Amy’s group. Their remnants were still around Mattius’ place, too. He could smell their flesh and feel it squelching beneath his feet.
He hadn’t heard any gunshots or any action at the front of the camp. So Riley had to take that as Mattius’ people still didn’t know he was here. He got that sense he was being watched, though. That someone was looking at him from afar, just waiting to see what his first step was going to be before launching an attack.
“So we’re supposed to just jump over this wall and hope nobody notices?”
Riley heard the hesitation in Melissa’s voice. He knew how ridiculous his plan sounded. It wasn’t the tallest of walls—not compared to how the Manchester Living Zone used to be. But it was still tall enough. Twenty feet high.
There were protrusions coming from the edge of the wall where screws stuck out, providing them with a handy climbing frame.
“And don’t ask me to volunteer first,” Melissa said. “Don’t even think about it.”
Riley took a deep breath and looked over his shoulder again. He swore someone was watching him from the trees. He could feel their eyes on him, like this was all just a test. A test of how stupid they were.
But then he ignored his better judgement and looked back at the wall. “I’ll go first.”
“Are you s—”
“I’m sure.”
He didn’t stick around to listen to any more of Amy’s protestations. Instead, he put his hand on one of those protruding screws and lifted his weight onto it.
It creaked as he shifted his body weight upwards. And for a moment, Riley expected the whole wall to come crumbling down. It wasn’t going to be the smoothest climb.
But still, he had no choice. He had to keep on going.
He lifted himself further up the side of the wall, constantly aware that time was limited, and that his ascent wasn’t the steadiest.
“You might want to get a move on,” Melissa called.
“You might want to keep as quiet as you fucking can,” Riley said, growing irritable. He needed his total focus right now. His absolute composure. And besides, he didn’t want to let any of Mattius’ people know that he was right here.
He climbed a little higher and he heard something, then. Voices, behind the wall. They didn’t sound far away. Right at the other side, perhaps.
And then a sickening doubt filled his body that maybe he wouldn’t be able to drop down the other side. That maybe the screws wouldn’t be as readily accessible from the other side.
He’d be stuck up here like a sitting duck.
But then the wall creaked and moved a little and suddenly being stuck up here was the least of his concerns.
“Did you hear that?”
He heard the voice behind the fence and it made his stomach sink. He looked down at Amy and Melissa. Nodded at them to lift their bows and arrows, to ready themselves for whatever they had to do. Shit. He could do with a distraction right now. Wherever Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha were, they weren’t doing an excellent job of distracting Mattius’ people.
Riley felt harsh asking them to act as bait. But they’d seemed ready. They’d seemed willing.
As hard as it was to take all this, no doubt nigh-on impossible for Amy, this was life now, and life was full of impossible decisions.
The voices subsided. He heard the footsteps heading further away, like interest in whatever Mattius’ people had seen was waning. Riley kept holding on regardless, kept as steady as he could. Amy looked up at him, as did Melissa.
When enough time had passed—a minute, maybe less considering how torturous a minute it was—Riley started climbing again.
He eased higher up. He was so close to the top now. Just a few more screws to grab on to. Just a few more to—
He grabbed onto the next screw.
It slipped from his hand.
He fell back, felt his back shifting out away from the wall. He clung on with his right hand, swinging his left hand to try and regain his balance.
He made a push for the next screw. This one wobbled too. He was certain he was going to fall.
And then his grip steadied and he was holding on.
His heart pounded. His breathing was rapid. If one thing was for certain, it was that Amy and Melissa weren’t going to get up here easily.
But Riley knew that. He’d suspected it all along.
This was his mission.
As long as they defended themselves, that was the main thing.
Riley clutched for the top of the wall, the rusty metal cutting into his skin. Now would be a good time for a tetanus jab. He dragged himself higher up, so close to the top.
When he poked his head over, he saw Mattius’ camp.
It was empty, mostly.
But the thing that caught his eye was over by the gate.
Rosa, Annabelle, Natasha.
All of them were on their knees.
All of their bows were in front of them, snapped.
They were surrounded by a group of people. Twenty, by Riley’s immediate estimations.
All of those people were pointing guns at Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha’s heads.
“Riley!” Mattius called. He was speaking through a megaphone. “What a deli
ght to finally see you again, face to face.”
Riley felt the hate filling his system. He felt the rage building up.
So much so that he didn’t even notice the small group of creatures approaching Amy and Melissa from the woods behind.
“Anyway,” Mattius said, looking at Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha. “Nice of you to get yourself the best possible view. That’s practically IMAX-level shit.”
“Don’t,” Riley muttered.
Mattius squinted. “What? What’s that? I can’t hear you from all the way up there.”
“I said don’t!”
Mattius smiled. “You see, Riley, I’ve always had problems with my hearing. And that’s just got a lot worse since the burns. The burns you gave me.
“But hey. I think I heard you then. I think I heard you loud and clear. ‘Don’t,’ right?”
Riley’s teeth gritted against one another. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t do anything but dangle there and pray. “Please.”
“That’s what I like to see,” Mattius said. “I like to see emotional attachment. ’Cause that just gives me more to take away!”
He tilted his head at the three people standing behind Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha.
One moment, they were on their knees.
The next, a bang.
They were lying flat on what was left of their faces.
A mist of blood hovered above them.
“Now,” Mattius said pointing over at Riley. “Get him. And this time, don’t let him slip away.”
CHAPTER THREE
Ricky had always had difficulty killing people, as hard as that may be to believe.
In the early days of the infection, he’d struggled to adapt to the new ways of the world. He’d failed to face up to the reality of the things he was going to have to do if he wanted to further his own existence. It was a harsh world, to say the least. And sure, it’d always been a harsh world to some extent. But now, it was extreme.
Dispatching the zombies was never easy. He’d been convinced since day one that he could see something in them. See the humans behind their eyes. But the fact that they were so base-level in terms of their actions—so predatory, and in a way, so innocent because of being totally honest about what they wanted, what they craved—it made them more like animals. Ricky found dispatching animals even more difficult than people. He’d always loved animals. Which was why he’d struggled even more when his Alsatian, Stevie, had dropped dead of starvation a few weeks into the outbreak.
That was a long time ago now, though. A lot of time had passed. A lot of things had happened. He’d spent a lot of those early days drifting, sure. Drifting from place to place, from group to group.
Mattius’ group was different.
He’d been there a long time now.
He held on to his rifle and watched the man called Riley struggle to fight his way back down the side of that wall. He saw him struggling to descend. He saw the people—the two women—below, fighting off the zombies surrounding them. And behind the walls, he knew that Mattius’ people would be approaching. Not to take out Riley. Because Mattius didn’t want to take out Riley. Not yet.
But for another reason.
To capture him. To make him his.
Ricky knew what his orders were. He had eyes on Riley. He could go down there and stop him from moving anywhere else right now.
He could shut this nonsense down.
But something pulled back at Ricky.
Something told him not to go after Riley.
He wasn’t sure what it was. Mostly just a feeling. A feeling that’d been growing over the last few weeks. Hell, the last few months, in all truth.
He’d seen the change in Mattius. He used to be a good leader. A strong man who listened to his people. But gradually, as his grip on power got tighter, he started using more and more ruthless methods. He started growing paranoid. He started killing more freely, and a part of him looked like he actually enjoyed it.
He knew what’d caused the major shift in Mattius. The attack by Riley’s people on their own camp, and Riley’s slaughtering of their people before then. And don’t make any mistake, Ricky felt a whole lot of venom towards Riley and his people for what they’d done, and for the people he’d taken away.
And when Mattius had taken Kesha, he’d understood it. He really thought it was the right call. Kesha was safer with them. They were a stronger group, and they could look after her better. He’d seen the miracles Kesha was capable of. Her ability to cure. He knew the power and the influence she held.
He hadn’t liked what Mattius did to the girl, Chloë, and the woman, Jordanna. That was a turning point for him. But he’d got on board with the taking of Kesha.
Then Kane came along.
Kane had only been prisoner a week but already, Ricky was growing concerned about the time Mattius was spending with him. Kane was supposed to be a prisoner, but he was getting special treatment.
Ricky had seen Kane, though. The true Kane. He’d seen the look in his eyes. And in them, he’d seen nothing but a dark, gaping void. A longing for destruction. A contentment with the world as it was; the new world order.
Ricky had seen that. But he wasn’t sure Mattius had.
And he’d grown especially worried when he heard Kane talking about Kesha to Mattius.
About the best way to get back at Riley.
Ricky watched Riley descend even more, the small group of zombies still proving a tough nut to crack. He’d been convinced Mattius wouldn’t listen to Kane. After all, the suggestions were bullshit.
But he’d seen the look on Mattius’ face changing. He’d seen him standing over Kesha’s cot as she lay there crying. He’d seen that connection they’d formed break. A distance wedged between them.
He’d seen it, and it scared him.
Ricky's walkie-talkie buzzed. He looked down at it, broken from his trance.
“Ricky? You got eyes on Riley?”
Part of Ricky wanted to tell Bob, one of Mattius’ most gullible goons, to fuck off. Another part of him wanted to just leave that walkie-talkie and disappear into the woods.
But he couldn’t, because he knew the hold Mattius had on him.
He had a hold on him, just like he had a hold on everyone.
And the thing holding Ricky to this place was his mum, Barb.
She was old, and she wasn’t getting any better. Her confusion was getting worse by the day. She was locked in one of the rooms on the eighth floor. Which meant that if Ricky wanted to get away, he had to get to his mum and he had to leave with her.
“Ricky? I asked you a question. You got eyes on Riley?”
Ricky looked at Riley as his feet landed on the ground, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.
Then he looked back up at the hotel building, onto the eighth, where he swore he saw his mother ballroom dancing, not a care in the world.
“Ricky, I won’t—”
“I’ve got eyes on Riley,” he said.
He lowered the walkie-talkie and lifted his gun.
“I’m bringing him in.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Riley landed on the ground below and saw the creatures approaching.
They were heading down the slope just in front of him. Not as many as they’d had to deal with a week ago—those kinds of numbers were unimaginable now. But still enough to cause problems. Enough to provide an obstacle.
Amy was to his left. Melissa, to his right.
“What happened over there?” Amy asked.
Riley felt his skin crawl in the moment’s respite from the creature attack. Behind, he could hear footsteps and shouts as Mattius’ people headed outside, towards their position. In his mind’s eye, he kept on seeing Rosa, Annabelle, and Natasha’s heads explode.
“Riley,” Amy said, grabbing his arm. “Rosa. The others. Did he—”
“Yes,” Riley said. “Yes, he did.”
He saw Amy’s face change colour in the space of a second. He s
aw it age, somewhat, and turn grey. More people lost. More of her group ripped apart. Just four of them left now, including her and not including Riley.
“We mourn later,” Melissa said. Riley looked at her and saw she had her bow lifted. “Right now, we fight.”
She fired a couple of arrows at the creatures closest. There weren’t many, but they were approaching from different directions, which made dealing with them more difficult.
Shaking free of his urge to get on with intercepting Mattius’ camp, Riley swung his knife at the creature approaching him. He split its skull, then yanked the knife out and drove it through the temple of the next creature.
He kept on going, kept on fighting through them, but he knew they didn’t have much time. Soon, Mattius’ people would be onto them. They had to be quick.
“What about Carly and Siobhan?” Amy asked.
Riley diverted his attention to those trees at the top of the slope, where Carly and Siobhan were stationed. He couldn’t see them up there. He couldn’t see anyone up there. “They weren’t inside. So that’s something.”
Amy fired an arrow right between the eyes of a creature just inches from her. Blood spurted out of its head, and it fell to its knees, then to the ground. “It’s something,” she said. “But it’s not enough. Not until we find them alive.”
“Hey!”
Riley heard the voice to his left and his skin crawled.
Three of Mattius’ people had turned the corner. One of them was holding a gun. He was pointing it in Riley, Amy, and Melissa’s direction.
“What do we—”
“Lower your weapons,” the man shouted. He had long, dark hair and a thick black beard. “Put ’em down. Or we’ll shoot. I swear we’ll shoot.”
Part of Riley wanted to lower his knife. He wanted to take the bow off his back and put it down.
But he had an idea.
“Don’t drop your bows,” Riley whispered.
“What?” Amy asked.
“Your bows. Don’t drop them. When I nod, fire.”
“But—”
“Just trust me,” Riley said.
The man shook his pistol, tightening his grip. “I won’t ask you again. Put the weapons down and walk this way with your hands above your head.”