by Casey, Ryan
He heard those words—felt those words.
And then he disappeared into the distance and drifted back into the present.
“Riley?” Rhubi said.
He looked at her. Then all around. At the creatures he’d taken out. At the blood on the walls of the buildings in this alleyway.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “Almost at the helicopter landing site. We’re almost at Melissa. At Kesha.”
Riley felt a resistance to going there. Because he dreaded what he might find.
And he based that dread on the things he’d experienced in the past. The chaos. The trauma.
But then… that was the past.
Jordanna had said it herself.
He couldn’t change the past.
Couldn’t affect it.
But what if this was different?
What if this wasn’t going to be based on the past at all?
Because he’d seen changes. Radical changes. Things he never even thought were possible in just a matter of days.
What if there was more?
What if things really weren’t what he expected?
“Come on,” Rhubi said, tugging Riley’s arm.
But he didn’t need her support anymore.
He could stand on his feet, stand upright, stand tall.
Despite the blood loss.
Despite the pain.
He took a deep breath and looked at the road ahead.
And then as he went to step around the alleyway, he heard footsteps.
Footsteps behind him.
He looked over his shoulder.
And for a moment, he saw Jordanna there.
He saw her there.
Except she was holding something in her arm.
Chloë’s head.
Chloë’s rotting head, her dead eyes staring back at her.
He closed his eyes, shook his head. Felt his throat tightening. Felt that light-headedness returning, all over again.
When he opened his eyes, he saw something different.
Something he didn’t expect.
Jordanna wasn’t standing there.
Melissa was standing there.
Eyes wide.
Blood rolling down her face.
And there was something else, too.
Something that made his eyes open wide.
Melissa wasn’t alone.
She was holding Kesha.
Kesha was still.
Chapter Three
Riley watched Melissa walk towards him, Kesha in her arm, and he wasn’t sure what was real anymore.
The sun shone down on her, illuminating her as she walked through the bodies, through the dead. He could hear her muttering something. Breathing heavily. He could see the look in her bloodshot eyes. A look of struggle.
And he could see the way she staggered towards him, Kesha totally still in her arm.
And then he heard Rhubi step to his side, lift her rifle. “Stay back.”
He realised then that this wasn’t his imagination. This was real. Totally real.
Melissa was walking towards them.
Every step looked like a struggle.
A battle.
Kesha in her arm.
He felt his stomach turn as Kesha got closer and closer to him. He wanted to resist. He wanted to push her back. He didn’t want to see Kesha because he didn’t want to accept the inevitable.
“What have you done?” he said, his voice shaking. “What—what have you done?”
“Riley,” Rhubi said, standing her ground. “Don’t make a move. We’ve been lucky before, we aren’t gonna be lucky again. It’s over. I’m… I’m so sorry, but it’s over. Kesha’s gone. And this isn’t Melissa. It’s—”
“I’ve tried to find you,” Melissa said. Her voice was forced. A struggle in itself. And as she got closer, Riley could see the blood dripping from her eyes. From her ears. From every orifice. She looked weak. She looked… starving. “I’ve… I’ve been looking for you. Because I can see it now, Riley. I can see the truth.”
He didn’t want to believe her. Didn’t want to fall for her lies.
But as he stood there, pain in his stomach still searing, he had to admit that Melissa didn’t look good.
She didn’t look strong.
Something had changed.
“Kesha,” Riley said, his lips shaking. “You swore to protect her. You swore not to harm her—”
“And I didn’t,” Melissa said.
Riley frowned. He didn’t understand. “What…”
And then he saw something.
Kesha.
She turned her head.
Looked right at him.
And she smiled. “Ri-eeh!”
Riley dropped to his knees and cried. He stayed there, stared as Melissa got closer. As the battle to get Kesha to him raged ever more.
Rhubi stood there, too. Clearly in shock.
“What…” Riley said. “How…”
Melissa reached him. She held out Kesha.
And he stood back up, and he took her.
Took her from her resistant arm.
And then he lifted her up and held her close and cried.
He opened his eyes then. Looked at Melissa. Broken down. Weary.
“What happened?” he asked.
Melissa opened her mouth. Then closed it. Meanness to her eyes, just for a moment.
Then Melissa.
Normal Melissa, all over again.
“I couldn’t do it,” she said.
Riley frowned. “What?”
“I injected… I injected the blood. Your blood. Rhubi’s blood. I… I got so close to Kesha. So close to biting her. To taking in her blood. I had my lips around her neck, and everything inside me was screaming at me to do it. But then something stopped me. Something stopped me doing it, Riley. A voice. A voice, quieter than the other, but still there. Still strong enough.”
Riley frowned. Shook his head. “But the creatures. The people. They… they turned. I’ve seen them. Fought them. The transformation. It happened.”
“But not completely,” Melissa said. “Not—not enough. I know I’m a beacon. I know what I need. I know Kesha’s blood would be enough to make the irreversible change. The change that stops the hunger once and for all. And even though mixing your blood and Rhubi’s blood changed many of them… so many of them… they need Kesha’s blood to finish the process. Because this is it, Riley. It’s not a singular event. It’s a series of events. And Kesha… Kesha’s safe. She’s alive, and she’s safe. She’s the last one we need. This is what—what it all comes down to.”
He held Kesha in his arms as the revelations sank in.
Melissa had resisted her base impulses.
She’d resisted finishing the job.
And even though starting the job had caused a shift… it wasn’t the complete shift.
It wasn’t a permanent shift.
“They need Kesha,” he said, as he stood there, shaking, cold. “If they don’t get Kesha… they die?”
Melissa nodded. Then, she put a hand on her belly. “I don’t know how it happens. I don’t know how I know what I know. I just know that I understand this hunger. This base, instinctive hunger. I know I can resist it… but not forever. And I know they’re never going to give up searching. Never going to stop searching for what they need to survive. And if they don’t get it—if we don’t get Kesha—then it’s the end for us. It’s the end for Narcissus. It’s the end of the Dead Days, Riley.”
Riley stood there, stunned. Unable to say a word. Unable to speak.
Melissa’s face shifted again.
She took a step forward.
Then she bit her lip, blood dripping down her chin.
A bloody, diluted tear from her eyes.
“You need to kill me,” Melissa said.
Riley shook his head. “No. I can’t—”
“I’m not… I’m a threat,” Melissa said. “And as long as I’m like this… as long as Kesha is alive… I’ll be a threat. All of
us will be a threat. Because we need… we need her. We need her. If we don’t have her…”
She didn’t finish what she was saying, but Riley knew the implications.
He knew what she was saying.
“If there is no Kesha, there is no spread,” he said. “It ends. You… you regress. Then you die. Then you fall.”
Melissa nodded. “I don’t know how I know this. But the—the virus. That’s what it tells me.”
“And what about me?” Riley asked.
Melissa frowned. “What?”
“Me. And Rhubi. We—we haven’t turned. Why?”
Melissa tilted her head, and she smiled.
“Because you’re a part of the puzzle,” she said. “You’re the same as Kesha. And you aren’t the only ones out there. There are others like you. Others who haven’t been infected. Not many, but enough. Enough to restart this world. Enough to build again. But right now, as long as you’re alive… you’re in danger. But you know what you have to do.”
He flicked out of the moment, just for a second.
Flicked back to that hospital bed.
Someone else there, now.
Someone he recognised very well.
Chloë.
Long hair.
That innocence to her, like when he’d first seen her, before all the pain, all the loss, everything she’d been through.
A smile on her face.
“Keep Kesha safe,” she said.
And he said it too.
He said it right at the same time.
Melissa nodded.
Cried and nodded.
Riley took a deep breath and sighed.
Then, he handed Kesha over to Rhubi.
He lifted his rifle. Pointed it to Melissa’s head with his shaking hands.
And then he swallowed a lump in his throat.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” he said. “But I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget what you did. How you fought.”
He saw her nod.
Saw her nod and smile.
Then, for a split second, he saw her new form breaking through.
Fear in its eyes.
Desperation.
He felt her push against the rifle.
He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
He held it.
Held it as she fell back to the ground.
And he made sure she was silent before he turned around and looked at her.
She lay back against the road.
Still, now.
At rest, now.
Smiling, now.
Hand on her belly.
“Come on,” Riley said, turning to Rhubi and to Kesha. Tears covering his cheeks. “We need to go.”
“Go where?” Rhubi asked.
Riley took a deep breath and looked at the road ahead.
“Anywhere we can,” he said. “Because we’re the hunted now. We’re the monsters now. But we keep each other safe. We keep Kesha safe. No matter what.”
Rhubi took a deep breath too and sighed.
Then she put a hand on Riley’s arm.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Riley stood upright, battling through the pain still crippling his stomach.
And then, together, they walked.
Chapter Four
Riley wasn’t sure how far he walked before he fell to his knees.
It was late afternoon, he knew that much. And the thing that got to him most? The thing that struck him more than anything else? The silence.
The silence surrounding him.
He’d never known Britain to be this silent before he left. The creatures, they were always there, always waiting around every corner.
And Riley figured that if the virus had evolved even more after Melissa’s combining of his and Rhubi’s blood, it stood to reason they’d be hunting him down. Pursuing him. Desperate to find Kesha. Desperate for the final piece of this puzzle.
He held her in his arms as he kneeled there on the road, blood still seeping from his body, skin as cold as ice, and he noticed something.
Up ahead.
There were creatures by the side of the road.
Three of them in total.
The first one was dead.
The second one was stretching its hand out. Desperate to reach Riley, Rhubi, Kesha. Desperate to feed.
It looked like it was starving.
As Riley watched it elongating its fingers, trying to reach out, he understood the ramifications. If the creatures were starving, it meant that the virus would die out. He was one of the lucky ones. One of the ones who seemed immune to its spread—airborne or however else.
He knew the creatures getting their hands on Kesha could change that.
But it was the third creature that really caught his attention.
At first, he thought he was imagining things.
But then he blinked a few times, saw the way Rhubi was looking over, too, and realised this was very much reality.
There was a woman.
Long, red hair.
She didn’t look like she’d been infected for long.
Didn’t look like she’d been bitten.
Just like she’d been turned. Just like Anna.
She was dragging herself across the road.
Digging her nails into the concrete.
Crying.
“We… we need her,” she said. “We need her, to be strong. You understand? We need her to evolve. We need… We…”
She tried to keep on dragging herself across the concrete.
But before she could get anywhere, her words changed to groans.
Her awareness changed to those primal, base instincts that were so common in the earlier stage creatures.
And then before Riley knew it, she wasn’t even moving at all anymore.
Wasn’t groaning.
Teeth weren’t snapping.
She was dead.
Rhubi looked at Riley as he kneeled there in the road. “Is this what I think it is?”
Riley smiled.
“The virus,” he said. “It’s… it’s not trying to evolve because it can. It’s trying to evolve because it needs to. The creatures. They’re dying out. They can’t survive without the final piece of the puzzle.”
He looked up at Rhubi. Saw her eyes widening.
Then down at Kesha as she rested there in his arms.
“Everyone who turned,” Riley said, a slight bitterness to his words, now. “Everyone who… everyone who this phase of the virus affected. They’re dying. But if they get Kesha. If they get her then they can complete it. They can stave off their hunger. It’s the flaw of the virus. The hamartia.”
“Hamartia?”
“A fatal flaw. A tragic flaw. The virus used humanity against itself in order to spread. But it underestimated something about humanity. Something about all of us.”
“What?”
He smiled. “Just how much we’ll do for others. Just how far we’ll go to fight for other people. Just how strong our individual resistance really is, and just how strong that makes us as a collective.”
He saw Pedro in his mind’s eye; saw Jordanna in his mind’s eye.
And he knew that’s what they’d visited him for, now.
He knew that’s what they were trying to show him.
This virus. It wasn’t going to be defeated by any one person. That was never how it ended.
Humanity’s greatest weakness was its greatest strength.
“And that’s why we’re going to win,” Riley said.
Rhubi looked around again. Narrowed her eyes. “What?”
But Riley could barely speak again, now.
He could feel that coldness creeping up his spine.
He could feel unconsciousness returning.
Feel his grip on Kesha loosening, loosening.
“Riley?” Rhubi said.
“Keep Kesha safe,” he said.
And then he saw it.
Saw them up ahead in his blurring eyes.
The creatures.
The line of them.
Standing still.
Looking over at him and at Rhubi.
Over at Kesha.
And then the way they walked in their direction.
“Keep K…”
“Riley!”
His vision faded.
His body flopped to one side.
His head cracked against the road.
When it did, he saw light.
He was back in that hospital bed.
Someone else was by his side.
Someone new.
He felt a smile creep up his face.
“I wondered when you’d be visiting,” he said.
Chloë put a hand on Riley’s aching stomach.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” she said.
Somewhere in the background of Riley’s consciousness, he knew the creatures were closing in…
Chapter Five
Chloë smiled at Riley as she stood by the side of his bed, hand on his chest. “How you keeping, Riles?”
He grinned the second he heard her voice. It put him at ease. Reassured him. Because his final memory of her was cruel. Her final moments, they weren’t the Chloë he knew. The Chloë he’d helped raise.
They were somebody else.
So to hear her again so clearly, so real… that was something else entirely.
“Well,” he said, looking around at the room he was in. “I’m stuck in a hospital bed. Couldn’t move if I wanted to. And this damned pain in my stomach’s getting worse and worse. Besides. I think things are getting pretty shitty outside. So yeah. I’m not at my best, Chloë.”
She tilted her head, then. Stroked his stomach. And her touch eased him a little. Made the pain drift away, ever so slightly. “You always were a joker. Always making light of every situation. Even the bad ones. Cheered me up.”
Riley shrugged, smile still etched across his face. “It’s all I’ve ever known. Guess you could say it’s my way of coping, in a weird kind of way. Got Ted to thank for that.”
“I can understand that,” Chloë said. “We all have our own coping mechanisms. We all have our own ways.”
Riley felt the questions piling up. He felt them building, getting ready to burst from his body and explode out.
So many things he could ask.
But so many things he needed to say, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For what happened to you. For how it ended for you. I’m—”