by Ryan Casey
“Okay,” Riley said.
He dropped his knife. He looked at the other two, raised his eyebrows.
They dropped their melee weapons.
“Good,” the man said, nodding and smiling. “And now the bows.”
Riley took a deep breath. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy. He knew it was going to be a full-blown gamble. But still, he reached for the bow on his back, which he hadn’t taken to like the others. After all, he didn’t have the kind of training they had.
“Good,” the man echoed. He was totally fixated on Riley. “Very good. Now just drop them right on the ground there, and we can…”
Those might’ve been the last words the man spoke.
Riley couldn’t be sure.
He nodded and muttered “now” under his breath.
Right on cue, with all three of Mattius’ people still looking right at him, Amy and Melissa pulled back their arrows and fired in their direction.
It happened in the space of a second.
Three throats, all of them pierced by these custom-made metal arrows.
He saw the men clutching their necks. He saw the blood spurting out of the gunman’s Adam’s apple.
He saw them falling, and then he turned away from the wall and back towards the trees, as much as he wanted to stay here, as much as he wanted to fight for Kesha.
“Run,” he shouted.
They ran up the hill and back towards the woods. Riley couldn’t be certain, but he was sure that more of Mattius’ people were onto him, closing in behind him. Maybe that was just paranoia, though. But it wouldn’t be paranoia for long. Soon, it would be a certainty. He had to be quick. He had to act fast.
He ran faster and faster back towards those trees where he’d come from. He still couldn’t see Siobhan or Carly. He worried for them then, as he remembered the feeling he’d got when he first got here, like someone was watching him.
Everything was going okay until Melissa toppled over and fell to the ground.
Riley looked around. She was lying there, clutching her ankle. She grimaced as she gripped onto it. Behind, Riley saw more of Mattius’ people coming.
“My ankle,” she said. “Fucking thing. I knackered it the other week. Must’ve—” She yelped again when she tried to move it.
Riley tensed his jaw. He wanted to go back there. He wanted to help drag Melissa away. “Amy. You get her left. I’ll get her right. We can get out of this.”
He didn’t hear a response from Amy.
“Amy!” he shouted. “If we don’t help Melissa, Mattius’ people are going to…”
He stopped speaking when he turned around.
The first things he noticed were Siobhan and Carly. They had gags around their mouths and cuffs around their hands and legs.
Then he saw Amy.
She had a hand around her mouth. A man’s hand.
Riley remembered this man, with his jet black, curly hair and his piercing blue eyes.
He remembered him being right by Mattius’ side when he’d killed Chloë and Jordanna.
Static crackled through a walkie-talkie. The man lifted it. “Ricky?” the voice on the other end said. “You got ’em?”
Ricky paused for a few seconds. He hesitated, looking right into Riley’s eyes.
Then he clicked the button on the walkie-talkie and tightened his grip around Amy’s mouth.
“Got them,” Ricky said.
CHAPTER FIVE
Riley had no idea how long he’d been locked up in total darkness.
But when the light finally arrived, he kind of wished he could return to that darkness again.
He had no idea what time of day it was up until that point. There wasn’t even a minuscule crack under the door that let in any light. Part of him wanted to believe he’d been in here a few hours. But he was thirsty. Really thirsty. His throat was so dry; dry enough for him to wonder if he’d been in here longer, unfed, unnourished.
And as he lay there, strapped to the table by the ankles and the wrists, he started to believe that he was just being left to die in here.
It didn’t take long for the voices to set in.
First, there was Jordanna’s voice. He thought he saw her sitting on the other side of the room, one leg over the other. Her face was blackened, but Riley knew it was Jordanna.
“Are you happy now?” she asked.
Riley heard the disappointment in her voice, and that in turn disappointed him. He felt like he’d let her down, somehow. And in a way, he supposed he had. He’d allowed himself to be too driven by revenge. He’d been careless in his attack on Mattius’ place, if he could even refer to it as an attack.
He’d allowed emotion to get in the way, and allowing emotion to get in the way got people killed.
All over again, people had got killed.
Something had to change.
“Things change when you get your revenge on Mattius,” Chloë said. “For what he did to us. For what he did to you.”
Riley tasted bitterness in his mouth. He knew no matter how much he fought the demons of his own consciousness, he was always going to end up reaching the same conclusions; cornered by the same hurdles.
He’d try to distance himself from that need for revenge, and the memories of Chloë and Jordanna falling would surround and suffocate him all over again.
He allowed himself to get too close—too absorbed—to that need for revenge and… well. He ended up strapped to a table and left in the darkness to die of thirst.
Then the door opened.
The sound made Riley jump. The light wasn’t much more welcoming, either. He heard footsteps, then. Footsteps walking closer towards him. In the air, he smelled sweat cutting through the damp mustiness of this room.
He lifted his head to get a look at who was coming.
When he saw, his muscles tightened.
Mattius was in the room. He was walking towards him. In one hand, he held a plastic flask of water.
In the other arm… Kesha.
“Let go of her,” Riley begged, rabidly struggling against the cuffs. “Let the fuck go of her!”
“Whoa, now,” Mattius said, standing by Riley’s side. “Language. And calm yourself, man. She’s relaxed at the moment. Wouldn’t want to get her into a state. You know how much effort it takes to calm her down when she’s in a state? Oh, wait. Yeah. You’ll remember very well, won’t you?”
“If you hurt her. If you hurt her in any way, I’ll—”
“What? You’ll what, Riley? See, from where I’m standing, you’re the one pinned down right now. And besides. Why the hell would I want to hurt her? Not just because of the cure in her bloodstream, which is very handy, by the way. But why would I want to hurt such a ray of sunlight like her?”
Adrenaline sped through Riley’s bloodstream at full throttle. He wanted to fight. But he was just too mixed in his emotions. Just too weak.
“Anyway,” Mattius said. He poked the flask of water into Riley’s mouth and squeezed so hard that Riley coughed up some of the water, regardless of how much he wanted to drink it. “I thought I’d pop down here just to see how you were getting on. Figured you could do with a drink. And, y’know. A morale boost. Seeing Kesha’s okay. Something like that.”
“My friends,” Riley said, still choking a little. If there was any goodness to be had from that water, it was gone now. “You didn’t…”
Mattius sighed and tilted his head. “Riley, contrary to what you might think, I’m not a monster. I told you. If you cooperate, I’ll cooperate back. Now we’ve had a few occasions where you haven’t cooperated. And for that reason, unfortunate things have happened. But hey. Look at all the damage you’ve done to my group. Think about the heads you severed from innocent people. Fathers. Think about the bodies you left to burn. Mothers. Think very hard about all those. When you think about it, you’ll realise how lenient I’ve been. You are not the good guy, Riley. Not like you think you are.”
Riley didn’t know what else to do. H
e didn’t know what else to say. He was trapped. Mattius, as much as he wanted to get his revenge on him, had spared Kesha’s life. That was something. It had to be. “What now?” he asked.
A sinister smile crept around the edges of Mattius’ face then. “See, I’m done. I’ve forgiven you. I’ve let revenge go, and I’ve let go of my demons. You should try it some time. But there’s someone else who I believe still hasn’t quite finished with you yet.”
Riley felt his stomach turn.
He could only think of one person.
He saw a shadow by the door, then. A dark silhouette.
When he looked at him, his heart started to race even harder, and his stomach began to turn.
It was Kane.
“Hello again, Riles. You don’t mind if I call you that, do you?”
Riley’s teeth started to chatter.
Kane walked into the room. He stood beside Mattius.
He was holding a small satchel in his right hand.
He was smiling from cheek to cheek.
“Oh, hey there, Kesh,” he said, leaning over her. He stroked her head.
“Get your filthy hands off her—”
Kane made a mock surprised face. “Off Kesha? Why, Kesha and I are friends now. She saved me. After those bites. Those bites I got, all thanks to you.”
He turned away from Kesha and stood over Riley. He felt taller, more intimidating, now that Riley was on his back staring up at him.
“Do you want some time alone with him?” Mattius asked.
Kane smiled again. “I think that’d be a good idea. I’d hate for Kesha to be traumatised by his screams.”
Mattius nodded, and then he turned away, Kesha in his arms. He stopped when he reached the door and looked back. “When you’re feeling sorry for yourself, I want you to remember that you did this, Riley. You.”
He walked out of the door and left Kane alone with Riley.
A tied down Riley.
They were silent for a few seconds. Silent, as Kane lifted into that satchel and pulled out some sharp ended pliers.
“Now,” he said, snapping the pliers together. “Where shall we start?”
CHAPTER SIX
Ricky sneaked back into his mum’s room and slammed the door behind him.
It was a bright morning, but Ricky couldn’t escape the cloud of darkness that had surrounded him and surrounded this place. His heart raced as he walked across the floor of this room, right up on the eighth floor. Outside, he couldn’t hear much noise. It was mostly silent.
But Ricky had made his decision.
He was leaving this place.
He was taking his mother and he was leaving while they still had the chance.
“Mum?” he called.
A sense of dread filled his body when she didn’t respond. Usually, her not responding meant that she was having some kind of episode. Her mental health wasn’t in the best state right now. She’d been getting seriously confused three months before the infection gripped the country. In all honesty, Ricky hadn’t noticed many signs of her descent in the early days. But since the beginning of the infection, his mother’s condition had been rapidly deteriorating.
It was as if she was turning into a zombie without any bites.
He looked around the room. Looked at the paperback novels that’d been slung across the hard floor. He looked at the smashed plates in the kitchen area. He saw the newspaper covered with spirals of thick black pen. And as he made the way to the bedroom and smelled the strong stench of urine, he was certain his mum had had one of her episodes.
“Mum?”
He walked slowly towards her bedroom. Her episodes were getting more frequent. He wasn’t an Alzheimer’s or dementia expert, but her behaviour struck him as particularly erratic. In those moments of sheer confusion, she regressed to a childlike state. It was the main reason he kept her locked away in here. Mostly because he didn’t want her wandering around and accidentally leaving this place of her own accord. Or staggering into the zombie pit.
But even more than that, Ricky didn’t want his mum coming face to face with any of Mattius’ people, either.
He didn’t trust them with her.
“Mum?”
When he stepped inside the bedroom, he saw that the covers had been pulled from the mattress. They were on the floor now, in a heap.
And underneath that heap, Ricky knew what was waiting for him. Who was waiting for him.
“It’s okay, Mum,” he said, resignation in his voice. “It’s Ricky. Your son. It’s me.”
He saw those covers shaking, and he knew she was afraid. She was trying to stay as still as possible. He walked over to them as slowly as he could, but made noise as he walked, too. He didn’t want to alarm her.
“Mum,” he said. “It’s…”
He saw her, then.
She wasn’t under the covers.
She was standing by the window.
Her grey hair was thinning. Her skin looked yellower by the day. Dark circles were right under her eyes, cutting through her wrinkles.
She was thin. So thin that her nighty barely hung on her.
Ricky frowned. He could see that she was looking right over to the other side of the room. Looking right over at that mound.
If his mum wasn’t underneath it, then who was?
Who…
When he looked around, he saw that Mattius was sitting there, the covers wrapped around his back.
“In a hurry, Ricky?” he asked.
Ricky felt his mouth go totally dry. His muscles loosened so much that he felt his guts might just fall from his body. “I was worried,” he said. “About… about Mum.”
Mattius stood up and threw the covers back on the bed. “Really? You know, that’s weird. I’ve been worried about old Barb, too. Isn’t that right, Barb?”
Mum didn’t even look like she’d heard her name. She just stared over at Mattius, total fear in her eyes.
“What’s this about?” Ricky asked.
Mattius walked up to him. So close that he could smell the sourness of his breath. “I’ve been thinking. Thinking maybe we should move Barb to somewhere more… secure.”
“I can look after her.”
“I don’t doubt that. I just worry your focus is slipping. Worry your heart’s not totally in our cause. Not anymore.”
Ricky knew what this was. He could read right through Mattius’ bullshit. Mattius suspected him. He suspected that he was going to try and leave this place with his mum. But he knew that he wouldn’t leave if his mum were still here. If she were forced to stay here.
“There’s a nice room down in the cellar. No windows, sure. And the bed’s pretty basic. But we can throw a few magazines down there for her, and it’ll be as good as it gets.”
“Don’t,” Ricky said.
Mattius’ smile turned to a frown. “Then give me your gun.”
Ricky was thrown by Mattius’ order. “My gun?”
“These are tense times, my friend. Precarious times. And truth be told, I’m not sure I’m happy with you wandering around with a gun anymore.”
Ricky could barely speak. “After all this time. All this time and you stop trusting me?”
“The gun. Hand it over. If you’ve nothing to hide, you’ll trust in me.”
“This isn’t really about me, is it?”
“Huh?”
“It’s him. Kane. He’s getting in your head and fucking with you.”
Mattius shook his head. “Let’s not have this discussion again. Kane’s here for one reason—”
“He wants to kill Kesha. He wants to do anything that’ll get to Riley. He’s for destruction and collapse and nothing else. Even if that means bringing everything down. Don’t you see that?”
Mattius looked over at Barb and smiled. Then he put his hands on his hips and looked back at Ricky. “What Kane wants is for us to start thinking about the now instead of some hopeful, far off future.”
“And you think killing Kesha is thinking a
bout the—”
“I’m not killing Kesha. Stop talking about killing Kesha.”
“You’re changing, Mattius. You’ve been changing for weeks now.”
“And?”
“And if you’ve ever had a shred of respect for me, I want you to let me leave this place. Let my mum come with me. We won’t cause you any problems. I can go quietly. Hell, you can say you killed me if you think it’ll keep the peace here. But I just can’t be here anymore. I can’t be responsible for the direction we’re going in. I can’t stand by your side. I’m sorry.”
There was silence. Total silence between the two men. The only sound was Mum’s shuffling feet at the opposite side of the room.
“Funny how the truth comes out in times of great stress, isn’t it?” Mattius asked.
Ricky couldn’t look him in the eye anymore. “I’m just asking you to—”
“And I’m asking you for my gun back.”
Ricky swallowed a lump in his throat. He didn’t want to hand his pistol over. But God knew what Mattius might do to his mum if he didn’t.
He reached into his pocket and he put the pistol in Mattius’ hand.
Mattius smiled at him. “Good. That was the right choice.”
He walked up to Ricky and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You go downstairs, collect a few supplies, and you leave. You leave to the west. You walk that way, and you stay in the eyeline of this place. I want to know where you’re going. I want to be able to watch you leave.”
Ricky nodded. “Okay. Okay.”
Mattius patted him. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “For how things have worked out.”
Ricky didn’t respond to that. He just held his nerve and looked over at his mum.
She was smiling at him. Like she was proud.
TEN MINUTES LATER, Ricky held out a hand to his mum.
“You ready, Mum?” he asked.
Mum took a deep breath of the fresh breeze. She looked around, her eyes tearful at the sight of the trees. At the smells of the outside. It looked like, after everything, she was coming to her senses again.
She put her rough, shaky hand in his. “I’m ready, Ricky.”