by Ryan Casey
All around them, in the darkness, there were wide expanses of fields. Blocking their view back to the motorway embankment, trees. But Jordanna didn’t have to see back through those trees to know that the zombies were still there. She could hear them. Smell them. She could even taste them in the air.
She heard shouting. She heard the contact of metal against the decaying flesh, and she knew Riley was through those trees, fighting off the undead.
“Jordanna?”
Jordanna snapped out of her thoughts. She looked down at Kesha in her arms. She was whining a little, which was understandable considering all the running they’d just done. By her side, Chloë.
“We can’t just leave him,” Chloë said.
Jordanna felt her skin turn cold as she heard the fighting kicking off behind them once more. Riley, standing there and taking down the undead, one by one. “We don’t have a choice—”
“We do have a choice. We always have a choice.”
“We have to find somewhere safe. Somewhere to take Kesha.”
“I know. But we just…” Chloë’s voice went weak. “We can’t just leave Riley.”
Jordanna felt more and more guilty every time she heard Chloë mention leaving Riley. After all, that was exactly what Riley had done to her on the very first day of the outbreak. They were supposed to be through that. Completely past it. They’d supposed to have grown since then.
And here they were, a year later, the roles reversed completely.
Only there was a difference. A key difference.
Riley had told them to run. To find somewhere safe for Kesha.
“I’m sorry, Chlo. But we… we need to move.”
Chloë shook her head. And Jordanna couldn’t actually believe she was saying these words. She loved Riley. She’d do anything for him. But she knew he was doing what he believed was right for them.
“If we walk away now,” Chloë said, standing her ground, “then we never get to see him again. We never go back. And we’ll always wonder what we could’ve done. You’ll always wonder how things might’ve been different if you’d just gone back.”
More sickliness filled Jordanna’s throat. More guilt for what she was doing, for the situation she’d been forced into. “He’s doing it to protect us.”
“And he has protected us. Now we have to protect him.”
Jordanna looked at Chloë, and Chloë looked back at her. She was an even tougher kid than she remembered. Just what horrors had she witnessed on her own to make her this way?
“Then… then you’re right,” Jordanna said.
Chloë nodded. She started to walk back towards the trees. “I know I am.”
What happened next made Jordanna’s mind freeze.
It made her scream.
A hybrid stepped out of nowhere and punched Chloë right in her face.
Chloë fell back onto the ground. She looked out stone cold.
Jordanna stood there, caught in two minds about what to do, how to react. She could try and fight for Chloë. Or she could get away with Kesha and get her to safety.
“I’m not leaving your side. Even if it kills me.”
She remembered those words well. The words she’d said to Chloë just minutes ago. Words she’d meant with all her heart.
And as much as she loved Kesha, as much as she wanted to protect Kesha, she wasn’t letting Chloë down.
The hybrid descended on Chloë’s fallen body.
Jordanna put Kesha down in the grass.
Then she pulled out her knife and stabbed the hybrid right on the back of the neck before it could reach Chloë.
Only there was something different about this hybrid.
Its head, although it looked fleshy, was firmer than the others.
The knife hadn’t pierced it completely.
Its little mouths still closed in on Chloë’s stomach.
Jordanna threw herself onto the hybrid’s back. She pressed all her weight down onto it, making sure it was clear of Chloë. She crouched over it and stabbed it in its chest, stabbed it in its neck, stabbed it through its head repeatedly. In the distance, Jordanna heard a shout. Someone that sounded like Riley. Calling for her? Calling for help? She wasn’t sure.
She just kept on ramming that blade into the hybrid’s skull.
Kept on trying to crack it, trying to destroy it.
Then the hybrid knocked the knife from her hand.
It pushed Jordanna back.
Then it crouched over her. It pressed her arms down as she tried to reach for the knife. It moved its mouths towards her body.
As Jordanna closed her eyes and braced for the worst, she saw the new infected’s head splatter from its neck.
She shuffled away from under the weight of its body. She didn’t understand what’d happened at first. It was only when she caught her breath that she saw Chloë standing beside it, with a long, heavy piece of metal in her arm.
She looked at Jordanna. Nodded.
Jordanna nodded back at her.
And then Jordanna crawled across the grass for Kesha.
She had a horrible fear building up that something had happened to Kesha. That something horrible had gone wrong.
But Kesha was okay.
She was lying there in the grass, kicking out her little hands and legs.
Jordanna leaned over her. “Come on,” she said, lifting her. “One of us is going to have to watch her while the other goes back for Riley. I’ll go back for him, Chlo. You okay watching her? Chloë?”
When Jordanna turned around, she was puzzled as to why Chloë wasn’t answering her.
She was still standing there. Staring back into the woods, trancelike, just as she had earlier.
“Chloë?”
It was only when Jordanna stepped closer to Chloë that she realised why she was so silent.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Riley felt the creatures pressing him down to the ground.
But the thing that scared him most was the memory of that scream he’d heard through the trees just moments ago.
He couldn’t see through the bodies piling down onto him. There were three of them on top of him now. If he weren’t careful, there’d soon be way more than he could cope with. His ears filled with the deafening groans; the feel of slushy skin rubbing against his body made him want to puke as the smells and tastes of wretched death filled his senses.
He looked the creature in the eye. The first one, on top of him, pressing him right down. It was a man with grey hair and brown eyes. He looked like someone Riley had killed back at the cabin. One of the people whose heads he’d stuck on a stake.
And as he lay there, the world around him moving in slow motion, he felt the guilt returning.
The guilt for killing people.
The guilt for not trusting people.
Because he saw the truth now. He saw the reality of the world he lived in.
You had to trust. Otherwise, what was the point at all?
Riley looked over at the crowbar, which had fallen from his grip. He knew it was a stretch. He knew he didn’t have long.
But he had to act. Fast.
He punched the first of the creatures right in its face. Smacked it back.
Then he wriggled free of the next one, its skin and flesh slipping away and falling off as he made his way closer to the crowbar.
He saw the crowbar getting closer. His fingers closed in on it, and he knew he’d be able to fight back soon. He’d be able to make sure Jordanna and Chloë were okay. He was going to be able to get them to some new safe place—a place where they could trust people, together.
Because he was strong.
He could do this.
He got within inches of the crowbar when he felt a hand wrap around his ankle.
He looked back. Another of the creatures moved down towards his foot, seconds from sinking its teeth in.
He was going to be bitten. He was going to die. Everything was going to come to an end.
But no.
He’d fought back before.
He’d survived situations like this before.
He wasn’t ready to die yet.
He booted the creature away with his other foot. Then he booted it again, right in its face, time and time again as its skull started to fall away, as its brains pooled out all over Riley’s foot.
He lunged for the crowbar.
Swung over and whacked it into the side of the closest creature’s head.
He backed away from the mass of creatures. There were so many of them. Too many to handle.
He knew what he was going to have to do.
He was going to have to run. Risk leading them towards Jordanna and Chloë, even though the whole point of him being here in the first place was to make sure they survived, to make sure they got away.
He didn’t have a choice after he’d heard the scream. Not anymore.
He ran away from the crying, droning voices of the creatures and into the trees. He knew he didn’t have long. He had to get to Jordanna and Chloë. He had to make sure they were okay, no matter what.
They were precious to him. Both of them. Even though he’d had differences with each of them—even though they’d had their controversies—they meant something to him. Something more than he could describe.
He’d known them both since the first day. In this new world, he supposed they were the closest thing to a family he had. They’d lost people. So many people. But through everything, Chloë and Jordanna had survived.
He wasn’t ready to run away from them. He wasn’t ready to leave them.
He had to—
He fell forward. Fell flat on his face.
When he looked back, he saw exactly why.
Another creature. One that’d been split in two at the waist.
As it pulled Riley’s ankle closer, he realised then that it felt like there was someone watching him. Someone close by, keeping an eye on him.
He heard noises in the trees.
Saw movement in the corners of his eyes.
He couldn’t think. He didn’t know what to do.
All he could do was crack the crowbar into the head of the creature.
He pulled his foot away and stood. Behind the trees, he heard the mass of approaching creatures getting closer.
He turned around and ran in the direction Chloë and Jordanna had gone. He knew they had to be here. He knew they had to be somewhere close. They couldn’t have got too far away. They had to be here. They had to be…
He saw someone standing in the distance.
It wasn’t clear who it was. Riley was only going off the limited vision he had from the moonlight.
But it looked like a boy.
He walked slowly towards the boy. Gripped tightly onto his crowbar.
As the moon peeked out some more from behind the clouds, Riley saw Jordanna and Chloë standing opposite the boy and staring at him.
They stood there and watched this boy as he watched them back. Riley walked up to Jordanna and Chloë’s sides. He nodded at them, then checked Kesha was still okay.
Then he joined the staring contest.
“Who are you?” Riley asked.
The boy didn’t say anything. Just stood there and looked at them as the sounds of the approaching infected grew louder.
“I asked you a question,” Riley said, feeling the urge—the niggling sensation—to put this boy down before he could betray their trust—before he could screw them over like everyone screwed them over. “Who the hell are you?”
The boy looked at Jordanna. Then at Chloë. Then Kesha.
Then he looked right into Riley’s eyes and he smiled.
“I’m Spud,” he said. “And I can take you someplace safe.”
CHAPTER NINE
Gav kept his eyes on Steve every step of their journey towards his supposed “extraction point,” bullshit or no bullshit.
It was morning. Another nice one, by the looks of things. They’d spent the night in a cabin just outside one of the many little villages and towns they’d been through. Gav had seen the names of these villages. He’d recognised them. But he didn’t know where he was, not really. Didn’t have a fucking clue.
All he knew was that he wanted to find this supposed extraction point Steve was leading them to.
Even if he thought it was bullshit.
“We stopping for summat to eat?” Matt asked.
Gav felt the skin on his arms pricking up. He felt agitation growing inside. “Is there a reason you’re so fucking obsessed with food?”
“It’s ages since we ate,” Matt said. “Fucking ages. Don’t wanna starve out here.”
“Don’t you fucking worry about starving. You’ve got enough blubber on you to get you by. Anyway. Don’t ask me whether we’re gonna be eating soon. Ask our guest. Stevey-boy? How far to go?”
Steve stopped and turned around. Gav could tell from the way he looked at him that he hated him, hated all his people. After all, Gav was one of the remaining people from Maryam’s group that trusted him the least. His little bum boy Cody had been left for dead a few miles away. He wouldn’t be getting out of there. No fucking chance.
So now they weren’t playing nice with Steve. They weren’t being unreasonable, sure, but weren’t being fucking nice either.
They were going to find Steve’s extraction point.
And if they didn’t find it, they were going to kill Steve.
And if they did find it… well. Might just kill Steve anyway. Just for being an all round prick.
“Lips sealed as ever,” Gav said, grinning. “Y’know, you don’t have to worry about me. About my people. We ain’t bad eggs.”
“You left Cody behind.”
“Cody was a troublemaker—”
“Cody saved my life.”
Gav tasted sickliness in his mouth. He stormed up the road towards Steve. Grabbed him by his throat. Around him, the remaining other seven group members looked at one another, wincing.
“I could kill you right now,” Gav said. “I could end your fucking life right here and right now. But I won’t. I won’t because believe it or not, I actually like you. I think you’re a decent guy just trying to do the right thing by his family. That’s sweet. Fucking admirable, really.”
Steve winced. “You know, every time you wrap your hands around my throat, I get less and less tempted to take you to the extraction point. Just remember that.”
Gav smiled. He tightened his grip even more. “You see, that’d be a bad idea. A really fucking bad idea.”
Steve smiled back at Gav. “And yet it’s keeping me alive. It’s keeping me—”
Gav kicked Steve right in his balls. Hard.
A few of the group standing around pulled back and winced.
Gav walked around Steve as he lay there writhing on the ground. “You see, you think you’re fucking safe ’cause you’ve got some knowledge. ’Cause you’ve got some fucking special knowledge about some fucking bullshit place.”
Gav pulled back his boot and kicked Steve between his legs again.
“But the truth is, I don’t believe you. I think you’re lying. I think you’ve got secrets. Major secrets that you ain’t keen on sharing for whatever reason.”
Gav went to kick Steve between his legs once again.
“Maybe I do,” he winced.
Gav held his foot. “What did you say?”
Steve rolled around on the road. A smile broke out across his face. He started laughing. The fucker actually started laughing. “Maybe I do have secrets. Maybe I’m not leading you on the right path after all. Maybe when you left Cody behind, I lost all purpose. Ever stopped to think about where I might be leading you if I’m not leading you to the extraction point?”
As Gav looked down at Steve as he lay there laughing on the road, he felt the anger building up inside. Anger that always welled up inside, right from when he used to be a little fat kid who was bullied for his size at school. He’d lost weight. Got an eating disorder at the age of twelve an
d become a scrawny little runt. He got picked on for that at high school, but anything was better than the bullshit he got directed at him for being a fat shit. Anything.
Steve wasn’t supposed to be laughing at him.
It wasn’t supposed to fucking work like that.
Gav pulled out his knife. He leaned down towards Steve. Pressed the knife against his neck.
“I’m gonna cut your throat and I’m gonna fucking enjoy it—”
“No. No, you aren’t.”
The voice came from behind Gav. Somewhere right behind him. It was a voice he recognised.
When he turned around, he saw Matt holding his iron bar out at him.
Gav smirked. He shook his head and looked around at the rest of his group. “So this is what we’ve come to, is it? So done with trust that we don’t even trust each other?”
“He knows where the extraction point is,” Matt said.
“Does he fuck.”
“Well I believe him. And I know other people here believe him too. And you know, I’m starting to wonder if maybe he is leading us off the tracks.”
“Then why are you still following him?”
“I’ll follow him to the end. But I’m not sure he wants you around anymore.”
The rest of the group lifted their weapons. Gav saw their faces turning. All over again, he felt like that kid. That bullied kid on the playground. The kid that got teased—got the piss taken out of him, for his size.
He stood there. Raised his hands. Gripped onto his knife. “Then do it,” he said. “Kill me.”
“We don’t want to kill you.”
“Well you’re gonna have to. Or I’ll slit this fucker’s throat right here. Then we’ll see how lenient you are. Then we’ll see just how well you cope on your own.”
Matt shook his head. Lifted the iron bar.
Gav stared back into his eyes and for a moment, just a moment, as Matt tightened his grip on the bar, he felt afraid. He actually felt afraid.
“Wait.”
This voice didn’t come from any of his people. It came from behind them. From up the road.
It was, however, a voice he recognised.
A voice he didn’t think was possible, but one he recognised.