Dead Days [Season 11]

by Casey, Ryan

  Riley lifted his rifle. “We take them out. But we keep our guard up. Alison? You okay?”

  He looked at Alison.

  Saw the way her body was shaking from side to side.

  Saw the way her gaze was focused on Rhubi.

  And he tightened his grip on his rifle.

  He had to stay aware of what Alison was. Of the threat she posed.

  “Alison?”

  “Yeah,” she said, snapping back to the present.

  “You think you can try what you tried on the island with the flower crew?”

  Alison didn’t look sure. Her head jolting, snapping from side to side. The battle for her body unfolding. Narcissus taking over.

  “I’ll do my best,” she said.

  He smiled at her. Nodded. “Come on then. Let’s take these bastards out.”

  He turned and ran towards the creatures. Lifted his rifle, pointed it at them, and picked them off, one by one.

  He fired one after the other. Felt sympathy, sure. Because he knew there were people behind those eyes. He knew there were living humans staring back at him.

  But it was for the greater good.

  The survivors amongst the dead were going to be thankful in the long run when he ended this.

  And then there was Alison, too. Alison running alongside him. He knew what she was capable of. What the virus running through her bloodstream had gifted her with. He’d seen it for himself, back on the island.

  But it wasn’t working.

  The creatures.

  They were still groaning.

  Still staggering towards them.

  One by one.

  He took out more of the creatures as they closed in. Picked more off as they surrounded. One by one. Step by step. A path opening up. The smell of rotting flesh filling his nostrils.

  But reminding him of something.

  Life before.

  The simpler life.

  The life of surviving.

  The life when surviving the dead was the only thing on his mind.

  He felt the undead surrounding, and he held his breath. Saw the path fading. Saw his chance to escape diminishing.

  And then he looked at Alison. “Alison?”

  She looked back at him. “Riley, it’s…”

  She stopped. Dropped to her knees.

  Something was wrong.

  The creatures.

  They were still coming.

  Still pouring towards them.

  Riley looked at her. “Alison?”

  She looked back at him as she kneeled there on the road. And Riley saw something now. Saw something in her wide eyes.

  Fear.

  “I—I can’t resist it. I can’t hold it off. Not anymore. Not…”

  He didn’t hear what followed next.

  Because the groans of the creatures grew too loud as they closed in.

  As they surrounded him.

  He backed up, losing sight of Alison, of Anna, of Rhubi. Lifted his rifle and fired up at the mass of the undead closing in. He was on his own now. He could hear gunfire from Anna, from Rhubi. He had to trust it. Had to believe they were okay.

  But Alison.

  She was in trouble.

  Big trouble.

  She was losing her battle.

  He fired at more and more of these creatures, blood splattering over him, its rusty taste hitting his lips.

  And then he fell to the ground.

  His head smacked against the road. The creatures filled the corners of his eyes. He lay there on his back as this mound of dead flesh closed in.

  As snapping teeth surrounded him.

  And all he could do in that moment was lie there and brace himself, rifle in hand.

  All he could do was breathe deeply.

  Focus on one creature at a time.

  Time running out.

  “I’m sorry, Kesha,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  He went to pull the trigger.

  Then, there was silence.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Melissa held Kesha in her arm and smiled.

  She felt a whole array of emotions. Fear. Excitement. Joy. Pain.

  But mostly a sense that she was doing the right thing.

  Mostly a sense that this was the moment her whole life had led towards.

  The moment everything had built towards.

  Even if everything outside of her was screaming at her to stop this because she was about to do something she’d regret for the rest of her life—however long or short that may be.

  She looked around at the creatures. Looked at them passing by her. Walking by like she wasn’t even there. Occasionally, when Kesha stirred, they looked up, glanced over.

  But she only had to hold her close to trick them.

  To make them think it was just a trick of their mind.

  Just something they’d got wrong.

  Some kind of illusion.

  But it did make Melissa realise she had to get her job done fast.

  The helicopter pilot was gone, now. The others who had accompanied her here were gone too. They had served their purpose. And she’d needed all her strength to get here. All her strength to reach this moment.

  And she was going to need even more strength to carry out her next step.

  She looked at the syringes in hand. The syringe of Riley’s blood. The syringe of Rhubi’s blood.

  And then she looked at Kesha. The most important piece of the puzzle. The one which everything—everything—boiled down to.

  And then herself. Another large piece of the puzzle. But nothing more, in the grand scheme of things.

  She looked at those syringes and felt an urge to smash them. To crush them in her grip, then to run away with Kesha in her arm.

  But the voices in her head were too strong.

  The light peering over the horizon was far too bright to resist now.

  She lifted the first of the syringes—Rhubi’s blood—and she buried it into her neck.

  She felt a momentary twinge of pain. Only a twinge.

  But then as she pushed that needle deep within, pushed that blood inside her, she felt it going away. Felt it easing.

  Step one.

  She looked at the creatures again, then. Looked at them glancing around. Glancing at a crying Kesha. Starting to snarl, teeth beginning to snap.

  And as much as she wanted to hold off, as much as she wanted to resist… she lifted the second syringe, now.

  Riley’s blood.

  She thought of Riley. How he’d always been there for her. How they’d had that bond from the first time they’d met.

  She thought of him and she felt sadness over what his life had ultimately come to; the role he was going to play.

  But then she buried that syringe of his blood into her neck and pressed again.

  This time, she started to feel a little dizzy. Started to feel like she wasn’t going to be able to stay on her feet much longer.

  But then that strength filled her body.

  That flash of strength, exploding in her mind, convincing her of what she was doing, convincing her she was on the right path.

  She felt their blood coursing through her brain, and she saw light everywhere.

  She felt pure pleasure.

  She knew she was on the right track. Doing the right thing.

  She looked at Kesha, then. Looked right into her eyes.

  And as she looked down into her eyes, she felt her greatest conflict of all.

  Her biggest struggle.

  Because she knew what she had to do with Kesha.

  She knew what she had to do to her.

  The best way of combining their blood.

  The best and quickest way of bringing about the combination.

  She felt a tear drop down her cheek as she stood there, so certain about what she was doing, so convinced of what she had to do.

  And yet that human voice in her head still screaming at her to stop.

  Stop this mess.

  To end it a
ll.

  She felt her jaw tighten as she glanced up at the sky.

  She heard the voices in her head screaming at her.

  DO IT FINISH IT EAT HER EAT HER DRINK HER BLOOD EAT—

  She closed her eyes.

  Listened to Kesha’s wailing.

  Listened to the groaning of the creatures.

  Time was running out.

  It was now or never.

  It was now or—

  No. She couldn’t do this.

  Kesha was family Kesha was a friend Kesha was—

  DO IT DO IT DO IT

  She heard a screaming in her ears.

  Felt her skin burning all over her body.

  Agonising pain splitting right through her, making every inch of her writhe.

  With only one solution.

  Only one option.

  DRINKDRINKDRINK—

  She let out a cry.

  Let her tears flow.

  And then she wrapped her teeth around Kesha’s neck.

  Chapter Fourteen

  One moment, the creatures were surrounding Riley.

  Jaws snapping.

  Teeth getting closer and closer to digging in.

  The next moment… everything was still.

  He kept his eyes closed. Partly because he didn’t want to open them. He didn’t want to see what had changed. Because something had changed. That much couldn’t be denied. Something radical had shifted, and he couldn’t even put his finger on it.

  But he was going to have to look.

  He was going to have to see.

  When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the sun shining brightly above him.

  He squinted. Squinted up at the creatures. They were stationary. Totally still.

  A circle of the dead, all around him.

  And Riley’s first instinct was one of relief. Alison’s ability to fight off the virus. It’d kicked in. It’d worked. She’d done it. She’d frozen them, and they were going to get their chance to get away, now.

  A chance to race through them.

  A chance to get to Melissa. To get to Kesha.

  To stop Melissa activating the virus.

  But then one of the creatures leaned down towards him with its rotting, decaying face, and it smiled.

  And Riley knew.

  He lay there on the road, and he knew.

  “It’s happened,” a voice said.

  He turned around then and saw Alison beside him. And not with relief. Not with any kind of joy.

  She was looking at him with total, complete fear.

  Fear across her grey face.

  “It’s happened, Riley,” she said. “It’s… it’s too late. It’s already happened—”

  One of the creatures stepped up behind Alison.

  Grabbed her throat.

  “You’re a disgrace to our kind,” the creature said.

  And then she stabbed Alison in her throat, over and over again.

  All Riley could do was lie there.

  All he could do was watch.

  The light in Alison’s eyes lit up, just for a moment.

  And then she fell to the road and bled out in front of him.

  His first love.

  The mother of his child.

  Gone.

  Riley lay there. Rifle in hand. Frozen. Totally still. He wanted to race his way out of here. He wanted to fight.

  But then he saw more things around him.

  First, Anna.

  She looked over at Riley, and blood trickled down her face. “I… Riley, I don’t feel good. I…”

  She dropped to her knees.

  Riley tried to get up, but one of the creatures held him back.

  “Anna!”

  Her head snapped back.

  Riley heard a crack.

  The next time Anna looked at him there was something different about her.

  A different look to her face.

  Like she wasn’t the same Anna anymore.

  But there wasn’t a bite on her body.

  He saw the way her eye rolled into the back of her skull.

  The way she shook violently.

  Blood spurting from her nostrils.

  Body contorting in impossibly painful ways.

  “Anna,” he said. “No. No.”

  And then he saw it.

  Saw how she stopped.

  Went still.

  And then how she opened her eye and looked at him in that haunting way.

  Like Anna wasn’t here anymore.

  Like she was dead, and something else was alive within her.

  The same way the rest of these creatures looked at him.

  He stood there, held back by the creature behind him, as the dark truth of his situation emerged.

  The virus.

  Narcissus.

  Melissa had activated the virus.

  Which meant he was too late.

  Too late to save Kesha.

  Too late to save anyone.

  He tried to drag himself free; to launch himself out of this crowd.

  But then one of the creatures, with its decaying features but those life-like eyes, now, pushed him back down to the road and pressed a knife to his belly.

  “I don’t think so,” he said.

  Then he stabbed Riley in the stomach.

  Riley writhed back as agony split through his body.

  As the knife yanked out of him, his torso on fire, everything hurting.

  He stared up at the sun.

  Watched as the light brightened for a moment.

  And then as it faded.

  And as he lay there in the fading light, bleeding from his stomach, all he could think about was Kesha.

  All he could think about was Anna.

  All he could think about was everything that had happened to him, everything he’d done, every battle he’d fought to get to this point.

  And the horrifying reality that this was what it all came down to.

  There was no great narrative.

  There was no fairy tale ending.

  He was dying in the middle of a road.

  And it was his fault.

  He took a deep breath as the taste of blood began to creep up the back of his throat.

  He closed his eyes.

  But he couldn’t shake the final vision from his mind.

  Alison lying dead on the road beside him.

  Anna standing above him.

  But not Anna anymore.

  He swallowed blood, and everything went black.

  The new world was here.

  And he’d helped create it.

  Hamartia.

  Episode Sixty

  Daffodils

  (FINAL EPISODE OF DEAD DAYS)

  Prologue

  Riley opened his eyes and saw the burning light above.

  He wasn’t sure where he was. Wasn’t sure what time of day it was. That light, it definitely wasn’t that bright when it shone through his window in the morning. It’d been a bone of contention for months. How unlucky he was that his flat just happened to fall on the wrong side of the block; the block that never got any sun.

  But there was something about this light that he wanted to push against. Something he wanted to resist.

  He sensed that allowing the light to take over him was admitting defeat, somehow.

  He just didn’t know what the defeat was yet.

  He opened his eyes some more. Tried to move. That’s when he realised it—the pain. The pain, right the way through his body. Through every single inch from head to toe.

  And he wondered if that was why he was resisting the light. He wanted sleep. He wanted unconsciousness.

  But there was a sense of something else, too.

  A sense of—

  The pain in his stomach.

  The stab wound.

  The creatures surrounding him.

  Alison on the road.

  Anna standing above him.

  Rhubi nowhere to be seen.

  All of them standing
around him and looking down at him as he bled out on the ground.

  As the pain in his—

  stomach.

  Sickness.

  Because he remembered, as he lay there in this bed.

  As he lay there on these soft pillows, far too fluffy to get comfortable on them.

  He remembered his pain.

  The pain of losing Alison.

  The pain of her taking Riley Junior away.

  The pain of his life collapsing.

  Revving up that car.

  Driving into that wall.

  Feeling the contorted metal twist and bend and—

  ram into his stomach.

  He lay back. He wanted to close his eyes. He wanted to resist the light. Because he could feel it flashing before him, now. He could feel all his memories playing in front of his eyes. And there were memories he didn’t want to witness. Things he didn’t want to revisit.

  Good memories. Which were even more painful when he saw them as they were.

  But bad memories, too.

  Raw memories.

  Painful memories.

  He squeezed his eyes shut as the realisation of everything that had happened kept on welling up inside.

  Kesha.

  It was too late.

  Melissa had activated the virus.

  People had turned.

  They’d…

  Back in that hospital bed now.

  Except…

  This wasn’t a memory.

  This was now.

  He was upright. Those broken springs digging into his pained back. Some flowers beside him. Daffodils. Only they were withering.

  Above him, a light flickering.

  He heard footsteps, then. Footsteps heading down a corridor. Heading towards him. And he knew it was somebody visiting him. Someone heading towards his bed.

  He could see the shadow underneath the doorway.

  He could see their silhouette edging closer and closer and—

  Back to the present.

  Eyes open.

  Creatures surrounding him.

  Only they were backing off, now.

  Something had happened.

  Something was happening.

  It was Alison.

  She had a hand to his shoulder.

  Tears rolling down her cheeks.