Dead Days [Season 11]

by Casey, Ryan

  Finding her again.

  And now this.

  He saw those people around his hospital bed again.

  He took a deep breath.

  And then he smiled.

  “I love you,” he said.

  She smiled back. “You too, Riley. More than you’ll ever know.”

  She pulled her blade from the man’s neck.

  She stepped past Riley.

  Faced the crowd of creatures.

  “Now go,” she said. “Go!”

  Riley gritted his teeth and cried.

  He didn’t want to run.

  He didn’t want to leave.

  He didn’t want this to end.

  But he knew what he had to do.

  He knew there was no negotiating. Not anymore.

  He held Kesha.

  Then he looked at Rhubi, and he nodded.

  “Come on,” he said. “Time to go.”

  He ran.

  Ran away from the creatures.

  Ran away from Ted.

  Ran away from Anna.

  He looked back over his shoulder, as the sound of the creatures dampened momentarily. As they gained ground on them. Got further away from them.

  He looked over his shoulder to where he knew Anna had stood just moments before.

  She wasn’t there anymore.

  The crowd had engulfed her.

  Anna was gone.

  Chapter Seven

  Riley climbed into the sewers with Rhubi and Kesha and let the darkness surround him.

  The late afternoon sun disappeared the moment the sewer door slammed shut. Darkness surrounded. It was rancid down here. Imagine years of sewerage rotting away without any kind of maintenance and yeah, you’ve got the idea.

  He knew it was disease ridden. He knew he was hardly in the best state to be wandering through waste and filth right now.

  But the creatures didn’t know he was down here.

  They didn’t know Kesha was down here.

  They had to keep it that way for as long as possible.

  He sat back against the sewer wall and closed his eyes as Rhubi investigated his wound. She was dabbling alcohol she’d grabbed from a building on the way down here onto it. Cleaning it as well as she could before stitching it up and bandaging it.

  It hurt. Make no mistake about that. It fucking wrecked.

  But no physical pain could match what Riley had just been through.

  What he’d just witnessed.

  The creatures closing in.

  Anna approaching from the other side.

  Infected.

  That infected man stepping towards him. Getting ready to take Kesha from him.

  Anna stabbing him. Finishing him off, once and for all. A blade through the neck.

  And then Anna telling him to run.

  Resisting the urges the virus was spurring inside her and telling him to run.

  He remembered the final time he looked into her eye.

  The final time she smiled at him.

  He remembered running away.

  Looking back.

  And seeing she had been engulfed by the crowd.

  He knew it was over.

  He knew there was no coming back this time.

  He knew there was no dramatic return. No fairytale reunion.

  Anna had sacrificed herself so Riley could survive.

  She’d sacrificed her baby.

  So he could keep Kesha safe.

  That was the end goal.

  And now here they were.

  In a sewer.

  In the dark.

  With the shit and the rats.

  With a woman he barely knew.

  With no end goal in sight.

  Rhubi backed away from him. Shone the torch in his face. “I can’t promise it’ll do the trick,” she said. “You’re not in a good way. But it should at least stop any more serious bleeding. For now, anyway. You’re lucky, actually. The stab wound, it wasn’t as deep as it looked. Doesn’t look like it hit any organs or major arteries. You should be okay. But… Yeah. I don’t know, Riley. I just don’t know.”

  He swallowed a thick lump in his throat, and he smiled. “I appreciate you doing what you have for me. After everything you’ve been through. After all the ways your world has changed in the last few days. The fact that you’re here right now. The fact you’re on board. That’s what matters.”

  Rhubi nodded and sighed. “I mean, you haven’t exactly given me much of a choice, have you?”

  She smiled a little. And Riley could only smile back. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been caught up in.”

  “Sorry? You’ve given me the chance to be part of saving the goddamned world. A matter of hours ago I was hiding from walking sunflowers in a room I’d not stepped out of for days. It’s been a ride. Whatever happens from here… well, it’s an upgrade, let’s put it that way.”

  Riley nodded. “I just… I guess I wish the journey was a smoother ride, sometimes.”

  Rhubi put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot. Lost a lot. If you need to take time, you take that time. But just remember. We need to figure out what we’re going to do here. Figure out the next step. Because that little girl right there… she’s the one keeping this virus from evolving. But you have to remember what I said. The undead. They aren’t going to stop looking for her. They aren’t ever going to stop hunting her down. And as long as she’s here… as long as there’s a possibility of them bringing in their new order… they’re never going to give up. But if she’s gone…”

  Riley saw a changed look in Rhubi’s eyes, then. He saw her looking at Kesha with more detachment. Like she was really thinking of grabbing her. Of putting her down. It would probably be the right thing to do. That was the painful thing to admit. It would probably be the right thing to do—for the good of humanity. To end the virus. To give the remaining survivors a chance.

  But Kesha was a little girl.

  Kesha was his little girl.

  Her survival was more important to him than anything.

  So he’d do everything he could to protect her.

  No matter what that meant.

  No matter what it took.

  “If you so much as threaten her,” Riley said, trying to keep his cool, “then I want you to know that I’ll kill you. I’ll kill anyone who comes near her. Who even tries to take her away from me. That’s the lengths I’ll go to. Know that. Okay? Know that. If that’s what it’ll take, that’s what I’ll do.”

  Rhubi rubbed a hand through her sweaty hair, and she half-smiled. “No need to be so serious,” she said. “Now are we going to get out of these sewers, or what?”

  Riley looked down the sewers. Looked into the darkness. He didn’t know the road that lay ahead. He didn’t know what secrets it held.

  But he knew his life was a waiting game now.

  His life was one in hiding now.

  He had to get out of here.

  He had to get far, far away.

  He had to make sure he kept as far away from the creatures as possible.

  And he had to wait as they died out.

  Because they would die out.

  It was just a matter of time.

  A long time, maybe.

  But a commitment he was willing to make.

  He looked at Kesha. And at Rhubi.

  Then at the dark tunnels of the sewers ahead, leading to whatever road they led towards.

  “It’s time to get out of the city,” he said. “It’s… it’s time to start our new life.”

  Chapter Eight

  Six months later…

  Riley sat in his house with a shotgun on his lap and waited for the creatures to arrive.

  Again.

  It was late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set. Winter was in full flow. Every morning, Riley woke up to see his cold breath in front of him; specks of frost on his face.

  It was no place for Kesha to be raised.

  But it was the only place he trusted.


  He looked out of the window, across the open fields, over towards the trees. He knew they were coming. It was always the same time of day. First, it used to be once a month or so. Then, once every fortnight, then once every week.

  For the last couple of weeks, the creatures had made their way past his house every single day.

  It was only a matter of time before they were here permanently.

  Riley looked at the trees from his detached house in the middle of nowhere. There weren’t many houses around here. Just a few, like this. He waited for the noises. For the signs that the creatures were here. He didn’t know why they passed by. Only that it was the same every time—they ran across the fields. Searched the surroundings.

  And recently, they’d begun searching his house.

  Well, he said he didn’t know why they passed by. But deep down, he knew. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Kesha. They were still searching for Kesha. Still searching for the one they needed to progress their virus.

  No. More than that, now.

  They were searching for the one person who could keep their virus alive.

  Which was even more reason to protect Kesha.

  He saw the shuffling of the trees, and he backed away from the windows immediately. He closed the curtains. Rushed across the empty lounge area of the house. He checked the window, every window. Every door. Made sure everything was all in place. Made sure it was exactly like yesterday.

  He checked the lounge. The kitchen. Made sure the dishes were still stacked on the side, unwashed. Made sure the oven glove dangled from the back of the dining chairs.

  He made sure it was all in order as the creatures got closer, and then he made his way to the hallway.

  Rhubi was already standing there.

  She had her shotgun in hand. She was thinner than when they’d first met. Far thinner. Her face was gaunt. Her eyes protruded from her skull.

  But she was still here. Still alive. They’d been surviving off grid for some time now, and naturally that meant food could be hard to come by. For Rhubi, it couldn’t be much different. She’d been holed up in District 63 for months.

  Riley on the other hand had grown used to luxuries. It was easy to sink into complacency when that happened. Easy to grow too comfortable with the abundance of supplies.

  It made the sudden shift back to poverty tough to take.

  But again.

  They were still here.

  All of them were still here.

  “That time again?” Rhubi said, raising her eyebrows.

  Riley nodded. “’Fraid so.”

  Then he opened the trap door.

  The trap door was a thing of beauty. It was so hidden, so flush with the floor. Riley had only discovered it because Kesha had caught her little dress in it one day. He’d plucked it out from the floor, noticed the gap… and then realised there was a little slot for a key.

  He’d searched the house a lot after that. Searched it for three days straight in hope of finding a key.

  Eventually, he’d found it.

  And when he’d opened that trap door, he knew he had the hiding place they needed.

  The basement was open and spacious. There were all kinds of things down here. Weapons. Food. Some kind of prepper cellar that had clearly never been used. It looked like whoever had owned this house had been away when the apocalypse struck. Cruel irony, really. But Riley was certainly making the most of it.

  They made their way down the steps when Kesha stopped at the top and shook her head.

  Riley looked around at her. Saw her holding her dress to her mouth, chewing at it. She was walking freely now. Long curly brown locks dangling by the side of her head. She looked at Riley with uncertainty.

  “Kesha, we’ve been through this.”

  She shook her head.

  He climbed back up the stairs, sighing. “I know you don’t like it down here. I know you’d rather stay above ground. But it’s for our safety, okay? It’s for everyone’s safety. And you know how important that is.”

  She looked at him with those confused little eyes, glistening on the brink of tears. “But I don’t want,” she said.

  He put a hand on her arm. Half-smiled. “Sometimes we’ve just got to do things we don’t want to do.”

  “But that’s not fair.”

  “Life’s not fair sometimes, Kesha. Now come on. You need to come down here. There’s no two ways about it I’m afraid. Okay?”

  She looked over her shoulder, back towards the door.

  Outside, Riley could hear the footsteps getting closer.

  “Kesha?” he said.

  She looked back at him, sighing and rolling her eyes. “Okay then.”

  She climbed down the stairs. And as Riley let Rhubi take her down there, he perched by the trap door and went to close it. But he couldn’t get the way Kesha rolled her eyes just then out of his head. It reminded him so much of Anna. So much of the way she used to look at him when he was winding her up.

  He thought of Anna. The sacrifice she’d made. The sacrifice so many had made.

  He thought of those closest to him—those he’d lost—when he was in his darkest moments. When none of this seemed worth it.

  Because it was all for Kesha.

  It was all for her.

  Every single bit of it.

  He closed the trap door, and he disappeared down into the darkness.

  He pulled the stairs away from the trap door when he’d reached the bottom.

  Then he did the hardest thing of all.

  He lifted Kesha. Lowered her into that box; a box that was barely wide enough to fit her in.

  She looked up at him with those scared puppy-dog eyes.

  “Won’t be long, chick. I promise.”

  She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, as a spider crawled across the covers at the bottom of the box.

  And then she nodded.

  He closed the lid.

  Locked the box.

  Turned away.

  Then he backed up to the wall. Rhubi by his side. And Kesha hiding in the box behind them.

  He held on to the shotgun with his sweaty hands.

  Heart racing.

  Breathing intensifying.

  Rhubi’s warmth beside him.

  He looked up at the trap door.

  Looked at where the tiniest bit of light from outside crept through.

  He held his breath.

  Waited for—

  The front door smashed open.

  Riley’s body went tense. He felt that adrenaline rush. The same kind of kick as when a plane was taking off, lifting into the sky.

  His heart raced.

  His chest tightened more and more.

  Those footsteps racing above him.

  The light shimmering as one went through the house.

  As another went through the house.

  And another.

  He stayed still. Held his rifle. Felt the fear fill his body as more of them passed through the house, as he sat there in the darkness, with the spiders, the cobwebs, the damp.

  He listened as more of them searched. As more of them tore the house upside down.

  His hands shaking.

  His breathing laboured.

  And then he heard them screaming.

  He could hear it in their voices. The pain. The agony. The torture of trying to seek Kesha out, of trying to find what they needed, what they clearly felt they knew was here, and not finding it. Again and again and again.

  It was killing them.

  Slowly, it was killing them.

  But Riley wasn’t sure there was enough time left.

  He didn’t move an inch.

  Even though he was used to this situation.

  Even though he knew how it always went, and how it was going to go.

  He couldn’t shake the fear.

  The fear that one day, something would be different.

  That one day, something was going to happen here.


  He clenched his jaw as those footsteps kept on coming and coming.

  Rifle in hand.

  Finger shaking on the trigger.

  This was life now.

  This was his purpose now.

  And this was the life he had to live.

  For as long as it took.

  Chapter Nine

  One year later…

  Riley walked through the snow and into the woods, hoping to whatever god was out there that his worst fears couldn’t be true.

  Eighteen months had passed since they’d first found the house in the middle of nowhere. The winter was intense. The worst one he’d been through since the downfall. Snow storms every single day and every single night. The house barely habitable anymore. Just the basement. The basement below the trapdoor.

  The basement they still searched for. Four times a day. Six. Twelve. Six. Twelve. Like clockwork.

  The basement they still hadn’t found.

  Thank God.

  He held his shotgun in his freezing hands. He knew he shouldn’t really be venturing out alone like this. He had all the supplies he needed for a couple of weeks back at the house. A deer he’d shot a few weeks ago. Preserved squirrels. Jerky he’d made. Old tins of beans and rice pudding from the stockpile in the basement. All the supplies he needed. All the supplies Kesha needed.

  But he had a reason for being out here in the snow.

  A reason for being so worried.

  He clambered further through the snow, deeper into the woods. He looked up at the sun. Three in the afternoon, thereabouts. Plenty of time yet.

  But he knew he had to risk it, still. He knew he had to be careful and show caution. The creatures upped their searches every now and then. Ramped up their visits. He had no idea when those escalations were going to happen.

  He just had to hope today wasn’t the day.

  But he was worried.

  Because somebody was out here.

  He climbed further and further through the thick snow. Walking in the snow made the exhaustion quadruple. Didn’t help that every moment of every day, stress hung over him. Worry permeated his every move.

  He had to keep telling himself that Kesha was okay.

  That she was back at the house, and she was beneath the trapdoor, in the basement.

  And as much as he convinced her that he kept the trapdoor open in case she wanted to go for a wander… that was a lie, of course.