by Ryan Casey
And he couldn’t argue. His identity was out in the open. He was the man who’d killed their group. He was the man who’d slaughtered their people.
He wasn’t welcome here anymore.
Another punch split across his face from the hard knuckles of a man called Jai. He’d punched Riley a good hundred times now. Sometimes in the face. Others, in the ribs. Others, in his stomach. He’d even stamped on his ankles a few times.
But there was nothing Riley could do to fight. He was tied at the wrists. Tied at the feet.
All he could do was sit here and take his beating.
Brace himself for the next—
Crack.
Every time a punch smashed into Riley’s skull, the smell of the sweat from Jai’s knuckles engrained on his mind, Riley felt more and more of an urge building inside his stomach. An urge to break out. To fight these people. To kill them, each and every one.
He wanted to murder them all. He wanted to make them pay for—
Crack.
—For what they were doing right now.
He imagined what they might do with Jordanna. With Chloë. With Kesha.
And just the thought of it was painful.
But at the same time, for the good of his people, he didn’t want to cause any more trouble inside this group. He just wanted to convince them to let him and his people leave. Allow them to leave and move on to somewhere else. Somewhere safer. Somewhere they could start fresh.
He just wanted to convince the group that he’d done what he’d felt he had to do back at the cabin. That he’d done what he thought was the right thing.
Jai’s fist pulled back.
Went in for another hit.
And then the door at the back of the room opened.
Riley squinted. Light poured in through that door. His head throbbed the moment he looked into it.
There was a silhouette at the door. A silhouette he recognised. Mattius, the man with long ginger hair who’d rescued him in the first place.
“That’ll be enough, Jai,” he said, standing by the side of the door.
Jai looked around at Riley, snarling. “Shame,” he said, rubbing his palm against his knuckles. “Just gettin’ started.”
Jai walked past Mattius and left the room, out into the light.
Mattius stared at Riley for a few seconds. Riley caught his breath. Spat a globule of bloody phlegm out. He couldn’t breathe through his nose. It felt completely mashed up like he’d never be able to breathe out of it again.
“There’s no need for violence like this,” Mattius said, walking closer to Riley. “I’ve never been a fan of this kind of methodology.”
“Coulda fooled me,” Riley gasped.
“I’m not proud. Of any of this. But if what Kayleigh told me is true, then you shouldn’t be proud of a thing either.”
“I just did what I could to protect my people. None of it was their fault.”
“So it’s true, then? You butchered my people?”
Riley opened his mouth. He wanted to lie. He wanted to say Kayleigh had got this wrong.
But he knew lying wasn’t going to get him anywhere right now. “Your people. They came to my home with guns. They… they took the first shot.”
A lie, sure. But a white one, and one Riley hoped Mattius would lap up. One he hoped he’d accept as a legitimate reason for Riley’s aggression.
Mattius studied Riley’s face. He didn’t even flinch. “I ask you a simple question. You answer with a simple answer. Is it true that you butchered my people?”
Again, Riley wanted to lie. He wanted to find a way of answering that question without putting himself in what he knew was certain danger.
But lying? That’d only put him in even more danger.
There was only one thing he could do right now.
“I killed your people,” he said. “Every one of those people that were dead was my doing.”
Mattius’ eyelids twitched for the very first time. He sighed like he was disappointed by Riley’s admission—like he didn’t want to hear that was the truth.
“I did what I had to do. To protect myself. To protect the people I love.”
Mattius nodded. Half-smiled. “The things we do for those we love.”
He reached around Riley’s back and for a moment, Riley was convinced Mattius was going to stab him from behind.
But then he felt the cuffs around his wrists come free. And then his ankles. And before he knew it, Mattius was pulling him to his feet.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Riley stood and stared as Mattius walked towards the door. Something was off. Something didn’t feel right, not at all.
But he couldn’t exactly stay in here, could he? He couldn’t wait around in this prison and hope for the best.
He took a deep breath—as deep a breath as his blocked airways would allow—and he followed Mattius out of the door.
When Riley stepped outside, he realised he was on the roof of the multi-storey car park. The sky was thick with clouds. It was windy as hell up here. He could see trees in the distance and a small town by their side, where creatures wandered aimlessly, unaware of the potential treats that awaited in this car park community.
There were people all around him.
People, watching.
Mattius pressed a gun to Riley’s back. “Come on. Walk.”
Riley looked at the people standing around him. There was only around fifty total in this community, but it looked like so much more when they blocked him in on the left, on the right. Not many of them were armed. Just a few. Most of all, they were civilians.
Up ahead, he saw Jai standing by the edge of the multi-storey car park roof, staring out into the distance. By his side, in the crowd, towards the front, Riley saw Jordanna. Chloë. Kesha.
He saw the horror on their faces as he made his walk towards the edge of the multi-storey car park roof. Towards whatever fate lay ahead.
Their eyes were wide. They didn’t say anything to Riley. They just looked on in fear.
And Riley looked back at them in fear.
“See, there’s some things I can understand,” Mattius said, as the edge of the car park roof drew closer. “I can understand you defending yourself. I can understand you looking out for your people. But what I find strange is, my people have a code. We do not fire first. No matter what, we do not fire first. And yet you insist my people fired first?”
“Liar,” a voice called. Riley realised it was Kayleigh, bandage around her leg.
“The heads on stakes, too,” Mattius said. “The ones near your nice little cabin. I suppose they were you, too?”
Riley felt total shame at someone pulling him up for the heads on stakes. The people he’d killed as deterrents. It was like someone was revealing a part of him he didn’t like to admit existed. A part he was desperate not to see.
“Because funnily enough, another of our people was found on those stakes, too. A man called Larry.”
“Please,” Riley said.
“Do you know he had a kid on the way? That’s his wife over there, see. Deanna.” Mattius grabbed the sides of Riley’s head and made him look.
Riley saw a woman staring at him. A woman with fear in her eyes and total detestation on her narrow face.
“See you lied to me, Riley. You know damned well my people didn’t pull the trigger first. And that unsettles me. That unsettles me a lot.”
Riley looked back around at Jordanna, Chloë, and Kesha, standing amongst the other people in this crowd.
“They didn’t pull the trigger first, did they?” Mattius asked.
Riley knew what he had to do. What he had to say.
“No,” he said. “I did. But Jordanna, Chloë, Kesha. They didn’t do a thing. I’m alone in this. Don’t hurt them. Punish me, not them. Please.”
Mattius nodded. A little half-smile of disappointment stretched across his face. He put a hand on Riley’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We understand yo
ur friends played no part in this. We understand that completely.”
Then Mattius pushed Riley over to the edge of the multi-storey car park.
Riley wobbled. He struggled for his footing as he stared down at the massive drop below, the drop towards perfect concrete.
There was an X at the bottom. An X directly beneath him, blood smeared all around it.
There were things moving down there, too. Some of them the mashed remains of people being tucked into by creatures. And some of them creatures now, too, staring up and stretching their hands out, their mashed-up bodies too broken to move any further.
Jai grabbed the back of Riley’s coat. Pushed him right up to the edge, the wind blowing into his face. Riley had no way of stepping back. Nowhere to go.
“You have to pay the price,” Mattius said. “When you wrong people—when you betray the trust and the goodwill of others—you have to pay the price. And you will. You will.”
Riley looked down at the drop below. His heart raced. His head spun.
“Go on, Jai,” Mattius said. “Get it done with.”
Riley tried to struggle free. Tried to push back.
But he felt the massive weight of Jai lift him from his feet.
Hold him over the edge.
Loosen his grip…
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Q uick! We need to keep moving!”
Cody heard Steve shouting at him from up ahead. He was working his way through the spikes that had been laid out along the road; the spikes that so many people before them had impaled themselves on.
But all he could focus on was the chaos behind.
The Orion, running riot in the middle of their group.
The Orion that had slaughtered Maryam right in front of them.
“There’s no time to fuck around anymore, Cody. We have to leave. We just have to leave.”
Cody looked over his shoulder. He saw the Orion ploughing through more of his people. He saw the Orion hold Will up and rip him in two like he was nothing but soggy paper. On the road, he saw the blood, guts and broken bones of people that’d fallen. His people.
Maryam. She’d trusted him. She’d put all her faith into him, so much that she dragged her group out of their relative safety at the fort, all because she’d seen the world outside.
And now everything was falling apart.
“Cody!” Steve shouted.
Cody turned back to Steve. He saw specks of blood on Steve’s face, where the sharp spikes of metal had scratched him. He knew how it was. One slip and it was over.
“You need to tell me where the extraction point is,” Cody said.
“You know I can’t—”
“I’m not going to hurt you. You know me now. You know I’ve only got good intentions.”
“I don’t know jack shit.”
“You need to trust me. You need to tell me where the extraction point is. In case… in case you don’t make it. Because there’s some things we can’t protect you from.”
A scream sounded out from behind, making Steve flinch. When Cody looked back, he saw the Orion stomping down on the head of another of his fallen comrades.
“Please, Steve,” he said, shuffling closer to him. “Those people back there—my people—they’re dying. I owe my life to them. And they might not seem like the warmest of people, but they’ve got good intentions. I led them out here. I can’t fail them. Not after taking them this far.”
Steve shook his head. “I’m sorry, Cody. I just can’t—”
“Help!”
Cody heard the cry and recognised it right away.
He saw Gav sitting inside a car. The Orion was standing right opposite it, staring in through the glass. It looked distracted, like a cat toying with an injured mouse.
It pulled back its clawed fist and rammed it through the window.
Gav flinched out of the way. Fell onto the back seat. He called out for help again. But the Orion didn’t end its fascination with him. Even though other members of the group were on their feet around the Orion, it still kept its attention on Gav and the car.
It climbed onto the bonnet, bending the metal under its weight.
It was going to crush him.
“Come on, Cody. This is our chance.”
“No,” Cody said.
“You… you what?”
“I can’t just leave them to die. I can’t leave Gav to die.”
“He beat the fuck out of you—”
“And he was probably right to,” Cody said. He shuffled back towards the road, towards Gav, towards the Orion.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The Orion smashed the windscreen.
It leaned in and looked at Gav as he lay there on the back seat.
“What I should’ve done all along,” Cody said.
He made his way back through the spikes, using the impaled bodies to cushion his journey, and towards Gav.
He saw Gav in the back of the car. Saw him trying to squeeze in the boot from the inside. He was trying to find any way to get out of the Orion’s stare. He looked desperate.
The Orion ripped the roof off the car. Peeled it away like it was nothing more than banana skin.
Gav sat there, exposed, staring up into the eyes of the monster.
Cody watched as they stared at one another. As that look of understanding crossed each other’s faces.
He saw Gav prepare for certain death.
He saw the Orion prepare for another kill.
The Orion pulled back its fist.
Gav closed his eyes.
“Hey!” Cody called.
The Orion stopped. Turned around. Looked right at Cody.
At that moment, Gav opened his eyes. Climbed out of the car and ran out of sight.
Cody lifted his arms. Stepped back, back towards the spikes, shaking all over. “Come on then.”
The Orion growled and climbed off the front of the car like it was disappointed Cody had interrupted its fun. Its long, sharp fingernails were dripping blood.
“Come on then,” Cody said, still walking back. He had to believe in himself, as he squelched through the innards of his peers, luring the Orion to the spikes. “Come on!”
He picked up his pace but the Orion was getting quicker, too.
Good. Just what Cody needed.
He kept on running back, getting ready to jump out of the way the moment the Orion made a lunge for him, impaling itself on the spikes.
“Come—”
Then, Cody slipped.
He fell back. Smacked the back of his head against the road.
He tried to move back under the spikes. He had to get out of here. Had to get away—
The Orion grabbed his legs.
Pulled him out like he was weightless.
Cody felt totally defenceless as the Orion lifted him into the air.
He looked into its dark eyes. Looked at its piercing teeth, dripping with blood.
As its hands tightened around him, Cody knew that it was over. Everything was over.
The Orion pulled on either side of Cody’s stomach.
Cody waited for his organs to rain down beneath him.
Then he heard something.
A squelch. A massive squelch breaking its way through him, somewhere below.
He looked down. Saw blood dripping from his stomach.
But then he realised there was no pain.
The blood wasn’t his.
The blood was the Orion’s.
The Orion let out a cry. It dropped Cody to the ground, where he cracked his head once again.
Cody rolled onto his back. He looked up as the Orion struggled to keep its footing.
Steve was holding one of the long, sharp spikes.
He was standing in front of Cody and he’d rammed the spike right through the Orion’s stomach.
“Feast on that, you ugly fucker,” Steve said.
He pressed the spike in harder. The Orion battled to push its way down it, impaling itself more and more
to just get closer to Steve.
And for a second, Cody thought it was going to make it. He thought it was going to reach Steve.
Then it went still, the weight of its body slipped away, and it slipped back onto the road.
Cody stood and stared at the fallen Orion. He looked around and saw all the blood, all the chaos, all the loss. He saw the remains of Maryam’s skull and tasted pure death in the air. He knew it was on him. He’d caused all of this. All because he’d trusted Steve.
He looked at Steve as he approached the Orion. Some of the people on the ground, many of them torn to pieces, were still alive. One of them, a lad in his early twenties called Jake, had been ripped in two, his intestines dangling out of his torso.
But he was still staring up, still struggling for breath, total terror on his face.
He was still alive.
Cody tasted sickness in his mouth as he looked around at the chaos.
So many people fallen. So many people dead.
But Steve was still standing. And so too were other members of the group. Ten of them at least.
Their journey wasn’t over.
Their hope wasn’t over.
None of it was…
Cody looked around and saw Gav standing right opposite him.
He felt a moment of relief. He’d made it. He’d saved his life. He’d…
Then Gav pulled back that crowbar of his.
Cracked it across Cody’s head.
This time, Cody didn’t manage to grip onto consciousness.
He slipped away into the darkness, and in his fading moments, he saw Maryam’s terrified eyes looking back at him.
“Why did you trust him?” she asked. “Why did you trust him?”
Then her head exploded again and total darkness surrounded Cody.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kane listened to the falling rain and waited for his chance to strike.
He lingered in the trees at the side of the road opposite the hot dog stall where Spud and the two crossbow-wielding fuckers were. He listened to the silence of the night. The rain fell down on the road. His left hand, where he’d taken a crossbow bolt, still throbbed. But it was a lot better now. Felt a lot less sore than it had earlier. Maybe he was lucky after all.