by Ryan Casey
He leaned beside him and put a hand on his bloody face.
“I told you I’d have the last laugh,” he said, staring into those piercing eyes. “I told you I’d win.”
He closed Kane’s eyes and he stood up.
Then, with Melissa by his side, the pair of them left the room, and left Kane on the floor, as alone in death as he had been in life.
They stopped when they reached the door. Riley could hear footsteps walking in their direction. Melissa still had a pistol, but he wasn’t sure how much ammo she had left. He was holding a knife now, though, that she’d given him.
They waited as the footsteps passed. They slowed down, right by their door.
“Swear it came from down here,” a man’s gruff voice said.
“Nah. It was further down. We’re not to go in there anyway. That’s where Kane’s dealing with Riley.”
“Kane?”
“That nutter. The one Mattius likes.”
“Oh. Shit. Yeah, he gives me the creeps.”
Melissa turned the handle of the door slowly. Riley figured she didn’t want to risk these people reaching the rooms where Amy, Siobhan, and Carly were being kept.
She stepped around the door slowly but surely. She lifted her gun, pointed it at the back of one of the two men.
Riley touched her arm, lowered it, and then nodded.
He crept towards the men. Kept his movement as swift and as fluid as he possibly could.
He picked up his pace as he got closer.
He stopped, then. He stopped because he thought the man had seen him. He thought he’d heard him. And at that point, there was nothing he could do but stay as silent and still as possible.
The man carried on walking.
Riley exhaled.
Then he lunged at the man on the left and stabbed him right in the back of his neck.
He heard him gargling as he fell to the floor. To his right, his friend turned around and frowned. “What—”
Two bullets fired right through his head.
He fell, too.
“We need to be quick,” Melissa said, arriving at Riley’s side. She joined Riley in searching the bodies for keys. “They’ll definitely be onto us now.”
“How did you even get out in the first place?”
Melissa’s eyes narrowed, and they seemed to glaze over, like she was being transported someplace else. “Trust me. It’s a long story.” She lifted some keys out of the pocket of the man on the right. “This should do it.”
They ran over to the first door on their right. Riley could hear footsteps and shouts outside. He knew they needed to be quick.
“Here,” he said, grabbing the keys. “You watch. Hold off any that come our way. I’ll try with this.”
“You sure—”
“Just do it,” he said.
He put the first key in. That didn’t work, so he tried the next one. Then the next. All the time, he could hear the footsteps getting clearer, the movement getting closer.
He tried the next one, and when that didn’t work, he started to lose hope.
Then the next one turned, and the door opened.
He rushed inside.
Amy and Carly were there. They were sitting up against the wall, cuffs around their wrists.
But Siobhan was dead.
“Shit,” Riley said. “Shit.”
He rushed over to Amy first and uncuffed her, and then he let Carly free. He didn’t want to ask what had happened to Siobhan. He could tell from the stab wound in the side of her head, the blood trickling down onto her jacket, that she was gone.
“We need to move,” Riley said.
“But Siobhan,” Amy started.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But there’s no time. We have to get out of here. And we have to get Kesha. While Mattius’ people are distracted.”
Amy looked at him and Riley realised something then, right at that moment.
He was sincere.
He wanted to get Kesha and he wanted to leave this place.
His lust for revenge was gone.
He just wanted to survive, and he just wanted Kesha to survive.
“Come on,” he said.
Together, Amy, Carly, Melissa, and Riley made their way out of that room, up the stairs and out of the door at the back of this cell area.
When they got outside, Riley saw the hotel in the distance right opposite him.
He saw the fifth floor, where he’d seen Mattius standing with Kesha that day a week ago.
He felt a little flicker of an urge for revenge deep inside.
Then that flicker faded, and he refocused on the task at hand.
Get Kesha.
Get her out of here.
Simple as that.
If only he knew what was looming on the horizon, over to the west…
CHAPTER TEN
When Mattius walked down the steps towards the basement area where he’d been holding his prisoners, he got a bad feeling right away.
The first thing that struck him was the blood. It caught his eyes and made his stomach turn. Because the sight of blood meant one thing was for certain: something had gone down. Something bad.
And he couldn’t help wondering if that something had happened to his own people.
When he got further down the steps, his legs getting weak, like jelly, he saw the bodies.
There were two of them. They were lying face flat on the floor. Both of them were bleeding badly.
They were his people.
No doubt about that.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the room where he’d been holding Siobhan, Amy, and Carly. He didn’t want to face heading into Riley’s prison yet. Because just the sheer thought of losing Riley—of failing to contain him—made his skin crawl.
He stepped over the bodies of the dead and pushed open that door.
The smell of the room hit him first. That putrid smell of sweat that always filled a room that had been stuffed with one too many people.
Then he smelled the death.
He looked over to the left side of the room and saw Siobhan was still locked up there. She was dead.
But Amy and Carly weren’t here anymore.
He gritted his teeth and stepped out of the room. He looked back at the bodies on the floor, his stomach tensing up, then he walked towards Riley’s room.
The reality of what had happened was striking him. The unpredictability of everything was getting dizzying.
And the intensity of the situation was growing. Fast.
He stopped outside Riley’s cell. He lifted his hand to knock, just to check Kane wasn’t still working on Riley.
Then he decided to push open the door anyway.
It took Mattius a few moments to understand what he was looking at. To truly understand.
But the main thing he needed to know was that Riley wasn’t here anymore.
There was blood on the bench he’d been tied down to. On the floor, Mattius saw small lumps of meat, which he soon realised were fingers.
But beside those lumps of meat, he saw someone lying there, a bullet through his head.
A wry little smile on his face, even in death.
Kane.
“Bastard,” Mattius said.
He lifted his boot and he crunched it down against Kane’s head.
He kept on kicking, kept on stamping, kept on beating as he let all his anger out on this defenceless, inanimate body.
And it was because of what he’d seen.
He’d been keeping Melissa locked upstairs, away from the others.
Before he’d let Kane join Riley, he’d given him a few minutes with Melissa. Kane seemed particularly keen on her. He said there was history between the pair of them, and that he had to settle some kind of score.
When he’d come out of that room with blood on his hands, Mattius didn’t think anything of it. He thought the job was done.
He kept on kicking down, kept on stamping.
He remembered what
’d happened when he’d first heard the gunshots. He’d gone past Melissa’s cell first. And something told him to go in there. To look inside. Something wasn’t right.
When he’d gone in there, he’d found the cell empty.
But the thing that struck him more than anything was the broken bit of arrow wedged in Melissa’s cuffs.
An arrow that Kane must’ve given her.
When he felt Kane’s skull make way for the floor, Mattius stopped kicking. Adrenaline surged through his body. He was shaking all over. He’d allowed Riley to get the better of him—of his people—once again. He’d allowed that. No one else. It was on him.
“Mattius?”
“Shit.” Mattius jumped. There was someone at the door beside him. “Carter, what’ve I told you about making me jump like that.”
Carter looked at the floor, unable to make eye contact with Mattius. “I’m sorry. It’s—it’s just—”
“What is it? What’s happening?”
“It’s the hotel,” Carter said.
Mattius narrowed his eyes. The hotel. Any mention of the hotel meant one thing to him. Just one thing. “What’re you trying to tell me?”
Again, Carter’s eyes shifted out of the way. “I—I think you’d better see for yourself.”
Part of Mattius wanted to kill Carter, right here. But his wife’s voice replayed in his mind. She told him to keep his calm. Keep his composure. He couldn’t lose his grip.
He pushed past Carter, climbed the steps and headed outside. He walked over towards the hotel.
At first, he didn’t know what he was looking at.
And then he saw the undead walking around the grounds, right in front of the hotel.
And beside some of the undead, dead bodies.
Dead bodies of his people.
“The undead from the pit,” Carter said. “They—I don’t know how they got out—”
“You were supposed to be on guard, weren’t you?”
Carter’s eyes shifted away again. “Mattius, I tried—”
“Well you didn’t try hard enough.”
He looked Carter in the eye.
He smiled a regretful, pained smile.
Then he lifted his knife out of his pocket and stabbed him in the stomach.
He walked away from Carter as he struggled for the last moments of his life.
And as he walked towards the small group of undead that had killed yet more of his people, he looked up at the hotel.
If there was one place he was certain Riley had gone, it was for Kesha.
But Riley wasn’t going to get Kesha.
No one was going to get Kesha.
If Kesha wasn’t going to be his, she was going to be nobody’s.
He pulled back his knife and went to slam it into the skull of the first undead walking his way.
He had work to do.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Riley made his way up the stairs of Mattius’ hotel.
He knew exactly which floor he was heading to.
It was dark and gloomy inside this hotel. But the main bizarreness came from how quiet this place was. Riley had always had an image that Mattius’ group was big. It had seemed big that day when Mattius had killed Chloë and Jordanna.
But time had passed. And they’d killed people. A lot of those people.
It was amazing how rapidly something could fall apart when just one piece of the jigsaw was pulled away.
Still, though, something didn’t seem quite right about all this.
“Hold up.”
Riley turned around. Amy, Melissa, and Carly were following closely behind. It was Carly who’d stopped. She was a tough kid, a little older than Chloë was, around seventeen. Riley didn’t know her all that well, but she seemed like she’d taken a lot of shit in this world and come out of the other side of it.
She was still here. That counted for something.
“What’s up?” Riley asked.
“Heard something,” Carly said.
“That’s likely. There’s bound to be more of—”
Footsteps, then. Footsteps entering the hotel.
They looked at one another.
Then they all rushed onto the third floor, out of view of the people reaching the bottom of the steps.
Riley held his breath. He knew where he’d seen Mattius with Kesha that day. Standing there, holding her in his arms. The fifth floor. How could he forget?
He just had to hope she was still there.
He just had to pray he wasn’t making a massive leap of faith.
He heard the footsteps getting further up the stairs. It sounded like there were two people. Well, there might be two of Mattius’ people, but there were four of his.
He looked at Melissa, who was standing opposite him.
He nodded.
Then, when the footsteps stepped right past the door to the third floor, Melissa bashed the door open and leaped on the first of the men, shooting him in the back.
The second man turned and fired a few shots at Riley and the others. One of them singed the hair from his left arm.
But still he pushed forward.
Still, he pulled back his own knife and went to stab him.
He didn’t get the chance to.
Carly stepped in before him, wrapped some chains around his neck and pulled.
Tight.
He kicked. He fought. He cried out.
But then Amy grabbed the other end of that chain.
The pair of them held on, the man’s eyes popping, his mouth frothing, the life seeping from his body.
Then the light went from his eyes and he was gone.
“Come on,” Riley said. “No more time to waste.”
He heard more voices, then. He knew they didn’t have long. They had to find a way to get to the fifth floor, get Kesha and get out of here. And all that was based on Kesha being on the fifth floor in the first place.
Then there was Mattius, too.
Riley’s skin burned when he thought of Mattius. When he thought of all the things he wanted to do for him for what he’d done to Chloë and Jordanna.
He wanted to. Of course he wanted to.
But he might not get the chance to.
He had to be brave enough to accept that.
“You know, Kane let me go.”
Riley turned to Melissa as they approached the final steps to the fifth floor. “What?”
“He came into my cell. I thought he was going to hurt me, like he’d promised. But in the end he just got up and left. I realised he’d dropped an arrow. Just like… just like I did for him.”
Riley’s focus intensified, then. “You let him go from your camp?”
“I let him go because I wanted to believe he could leave. I wanted to believe he could redeem himself, somehow. And in a way… in a way I guess he did.”
Riley lifted his hand. “He took two of my fingers.”
“And then he died,” Melissa said. “I killed him. And… I dunno. Part of me wonders if that’s what he wanted, all along.”
Riley took a few seconds to digest what he’d just heard. If Kane had let Melissa go—if he had repaid her for letting him go in the past—then maybe there was some good in him after all. Hell. Maybe he’d even expected Melissa to step in and take his life, just before he could do any more serious damage to Riley.
But he was gone now.
He was gone, and he’d served his purpose.
The circle was complete.
“Fifth floor,” Amy said. “We want to be careful here.”
Riley looked down the corridor of the fifth floor. The memory of seeing Mattius was so vivid that he could remember exactly which room he’d seen him standing by. He’d imagined coming up here so many times, only in his mind’s eye, it was Jordanna and Chloë by his sides, not Amy, Carly, and Melissa.
But they were here.
They were here, and they were getting Kesha.
Then, whatever happened, happened.
Riley walked down
the corridor. His heart pounded. Every muscle in his body tensed.
He walked to the third door on the right. He gritted his teeth as he reached for the handle. He held his breath.
When he turned the handle, it didn’t budge.
He sighed.
“What?” Melissa said, walking up to the door. “Don’t tell me you actually expected Mattius to leave the door unlocked?”
Riley tilted his head. “I guess not.”
Melissa pulled a card out of her pocket. “Just a good thing I’m good at picking locks of hotel doors then, right?”
She messed around with the card, sticking it between the door and the lock.
“What’re you…”
“Just trust me,” Melissa said. “I know a thing or two.”
Riley looked at Amy. Amy raised her eyebrows, as if gesturing Riley to show some trust.
The footsteps got closer.
The shouts got nearer.
And then the lock clicked.
The door opened up.
And as it opened, initially, Riley expected to be blasted with a round of bullets. He expected to be stabbed in the chest or to taste the blood of someone else standing beside him, just like he had everyone else’s.
But all of that fear and apprehension faded away when he saw the cot right in the middle of this room.
He felt his eyes building up with pressure as he approached. He felt his jaw shaking. His heart raced, and his throat wobbled.
Beside the cot, he saw their outlines. Their smiling outlines. And even though he’d seen Jordanna and Chloë in the past, this time, it really felt like they were here in the room with him.
It really felt like they were real.
He walked over to the cot and a whole host of horrible thoughts crossed his mind. What if Kesha was dead? What if she wasn’t here? What if Mattius or Kane had done something to her?
But again, all those questions and apprehensions disappeared when he saw her looking up at him.
Her eyes were big and bright. She was wriggling her hands and toes.
When she saw him, she made a little chuckling sound and smiled.
“Kesha,” Riley said. He reached into the cot and lifted her. Some of the blood from his chopped fingers spread to her, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was they were together.
He held her softly, like the precious thing she was, and her warmth transferred right through to him. And as that warmth passed into him, the lust for revenge faded away. The urge to punish Mattius for what he’d done to Jordanna and Chloë disappeared. Because he’d done what he had to do. He’d succeeded at Chloë’s final, dying wish.