by Ryan Casey
“But the truth is, we still only did those things because they seemed right in the moment we did them. They seemed like the best way of surviving. And now we’ve got Kesha with us—Kesha, who don’t forget, is fucking important—we’re going to have to do even more things we hate.”
Jordanna put her other hand on Riley’s shoulder. Looked right into his eyes.
“Believe me, Riley. I’m not happy. Nobody’s happy in this world. But right now we have a goal. We have a place to reach. A place to get Kesha to. And as hard as it might be to trust anyone else, it’s just what we’re going to have to do. ’Cause not everyone in the world is bad. After all, we trusted each other, didn’t we?”
Riley heard Jordanna’s words loud and clear. “I just find it hard. Hard to know how we’ll ever… how we’ll ever come back from this.”
“We won’t,” Chloë said. She walked up to Riley, to Jordanna’s side. In her arms, Kesha giggled at something. Always in high spirits. Always so cheerful. “We’ll never come back from this. But that’s just life now. Just got to—to make the best of it. I got Kesha to you. That’s the main thing. That's all that matters.”
Hearing Chloë say those things to Riley—admit that they had to accept there was nothing more than “making the best of it”—was hardly inspiring. But it was true. It was a hard truth Riley had to face, and everyone had to face.
“We’re nearly there,” Chloë said. “And the people there are… they’re difficult but they’re good. They’ll help look after Kesha. And when she’s old enough and strong enough… then we can think about using her to help other people.”
“You’re really serious, aren’t you?” Riley asked.
Chloë narrowed her eyes. “What about?”
“In your arms you’ve got a key that could save the world. But you don’t want to lose her in the process. You don’t want her to go through any pain. To you, she’s more important than bringing people back. Than stopping people turning. Isn’t she?”
Chloë looked down at Kesha. She didn’t speak initially like she was weighing up how to answer Riley.
Then eventually she looked back at him and nodded. “She’s just a baby. We can’t let people stick needles in her or hurt her. Not unless we know they’re definitely good people who let her live too.”
Riley stood, then. He stood and walked over to Chloë. To Kesha.
“One day, you’re going to have to trust other people enough to let her go. You see that. Don’t you?”
Chloë didn’t answer. She just looked into Riley’s eyes. And in Chloë’s eyes, Riley saw sadness like he’d never seen before.
“One day,” she said. “But I’ve done everything to get her somewhere safe. To get her with you and Jordanna. Now I’ve got to get her somewhere even safer. It’s all that matters anymore. Once I’ve done that, I’ll be happy.”
Riley nodded. “Then let’s keep going. Let’s make sure that day comes. Let’s—”
A groan.
And then another groan.
Creatures stepped out from the trees in front. Eight, nine, ten of them, all stumbling towards Riley, towards the group.
He lifted his machete and moved Chloë and Kesha behind him. Jordanna lifted her knife. “Shall we take ’em…”
He didn’t finish.
Behind the creatures, Riley saw some of the hybrids emerge. They sprinted towards the crowd of creatures, desperate to be the first there.
“Think we’re going to have to,” Jordanna said.
Riley stood there and held his breath. He watched as the creatures and the hybrids all flew in his direction. He prepared to hold his ground, to take them down, one by one.
But they didn’t reach his position.
None of them reached his position.
Something emerged from the trees. Something ripped the first three creatures to pieces. And then it slammed through the hybrids too, severing them in the space of a second.
“No,” Riley muttered. “Seriously? Does it get any fucking worse than an…”
He was about to say “an Orion,” as he watched the Orion decimate the crowd of creatures.
“Looks like it,” Jordanna said.
There wasn’t just one Orion.
There were three Orions.
And they were all looking at Riley.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cody felt the blood dripping down his face and he knew everything was over.
It was going dark outside. Wherever outside was, anyway. He’d had a bag wrapped around his head a while back. He got pushed away from the woods towards some metal container of some sort. He couldn’t explain it in any other way—he only knew it was metal because his face had been kicked against it so much since being thrown in here that he couldn’t get its metallic echo out of his mind.
He felt cold. The bag wasn’t on his head anymore, but he could barely see anyway. His eyes were swollen over. He could see a glimmer of the setting sun through the bars of this metal container—this cell he was inside. Beyond it, he saw a fire burning. He saw people walking past.
And as if from outside his own body, he saw himself in here, trapped, like a caged animal in a zoo.
He would be an animal soon. Very soon.
He moved his stiff neck and looked down at his hands. Seeing them all swollen and turning blue sent a sickly taste to his mouth. He’d been bitten by the Ugly a while back now. He had no idea when he was going to turn.
But he knew his time was coming. He didn’t know when and he didn’t know what it’d feel like.
But it was coming.
Fast.
He leaned back against the wall. The smell of his own sweat filled this metal container. Outside, it was quiet. A rare moment of quiet, as the group—around twenty-strong—all disappeared from around the fire. He knew Steve was around here somewhere too. And just thinking of Steve made him angry. Furious.
He tensed his fists and thought back to that moment in the woods. The moment after his entire group except for him and Steve had been massacred. After Gav’s death and Matt’s death.
Steve wasn’t called Steve. He was called Michael. That was the first big revelation.
But the second big revelation, the one Cody didn’t want to accept as truth, was that Michael wasn’t leading him to an extraction point at all.
There was no extraction point.
He remembered the anger he’d felt when Michael said those words and he felt it all over again. He’d trusted Michael. He’d put all his faith in Michael, and so too had Maryam, so too had her people.
Now Cody was the only one left.
The sucker who’d actually been stupid enough to believe in Michael was the only one left.
What did that say about trust in this world?
What did it say about anything in this world?
He closed his eyes. There was nothing left for him now. He knew that damned well. He was probably going to die in here. Maybe during the night. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day after, or the day after that. And he couldn’t complain. After all, he should be dead. He should be dead for being fucking stupid enough to believe in Michael. For being fucking stupid enough to believe in anyone.
He remembered Gav’s words back at the fort. “I’m just trying to keep my people safe.” Ironic, of course, because his behaviour hadn’t got Cody killed, not yet, but it’d got Gav and everyone around him killed.
All because he’d believed. All because he’d actually believed in what Michael told him. Why? Hope. Naive hope. Michael’s story seemed to add up. Not to mention the fact that Maryam claimed she crashed on Britain on a plane heading from Dubai to Reykjavik months into the infection, and that the world outside Britain was still rolling along as normal.
Was that true? Or was that just another lie to get someone else on side?
Cody didn’t know anymore. And he didn’t care, either.
He’d fucked up. Big time.
And now he was going to die with no trust, no faith, in anyone.
&nbs
p; Michael’s last expression replayed around Cody’s mind as he closed his eyes tighter and prayed for sleep.
“I just—Please. I just wanted to get back to my family.”
The total helplessness in his voice. The weakness. It was almost pitiful.
“I just wanted to get back to my family…”
But then something flashed inside Cody. An unfamiliar emotion. An attachment with what Michael said.
Michael had screwed Cody over. He’d screwed everyone over. He’d lied. He’d used them for his own gain.
But for what end?
To get back to his family.
Cody saw his own family in his tired mind, then. And he imagined if he was out in the wide world, completely alone. He put himself in Michael’s shoes. Would he have walked up to a group and asked for help back to his family? Possibly, but it wouldn’t have done much good.
But saying he knew the location of an extraction point?
Promising hope? Dangling it in front of the group and using it as a tool to make it back to the people you care about?
Cody could see where Michael was coming from.
And sure, he hated what Michael had done. He imagined Michael probably hadn’t intended any of the other group members making it to his family with him at all. Or maybe he had, and he just hoped they’d forgive him by the end of the journey.
Whatever he’d done, he’d done it for his family.
And now Michael was locked up somewhere in here and his family was out there… well, wherever they were.
Cody opened his eyes. His arms shook with adrenaline. Suddenly, as if by magic, he felt his body filling with purpose. He felt the apathy slipping away.
Michael had fucked him over, yes. He’d got people killed, yes.
But he’d done it because he was just trying to get back to people he cared about.
He didn’t really know why Michael had beef with these people in this group. Everyone had beef with someone. Frankly, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was Cody wasn’t going to sit back in his final days on earth and allow everything he stood for in life to just slip away.
He wasn’t going to give up his trust.
He was going to make himself count.
He got up and moved towards the opening of the cell he was inside. The metal was tough, but so was he. He’d got out of situations like this before. Situations worse than this before.
At the end of the day, it was just another hurdle. Just another obstacle.
But one he could conquer.
His final challenge.
He leaned closer to the metal bars and he felt the pain in his body begging him to just sit back and die; he felt the voices in his head screaming that he was being an idiot; that Michael didn’t deserve his help, and even if he did deserve his help, there was nothing Cody could do about it now.
But Cody didn’t believe that.
He truly didn’t believe that.
He put his hands on the metal bars and looked out at the quietened camp. He looked at the burning embers of the fire. He looked at the silhouettes of guards, the silhouettes of people.
And then, over at the other side of the fire, he saw a young man.
He was only in his mid-twenties. But he was looking at Cody like he wanted to talk to him. Like he didn’t speak to many people, so this was his only chance.
Cody tightened his grip on the metal bars.
He nodded at the man and smiled.
He was getting out of here. He was getting Michael out of here and back to his family.
He knew what he had to do.
CHAPTER NINE
Riley looked into the dark eyes of the three Orions and they looked back into his.
In front of the Orions, the hybrids powered towards them. And in front of them, the classic creatures still waddled in their direction, unaware of anything that was going on around them; unaware of their slaughtered comrades, of their imminent death.
“What do we do?” Jordanna whispered.
“We run,” Riley said.
He spun around and sprinted to the left, into the trees. The second he ran, he heard screeches from the Orions. Screeches that made the hairs on his arms stand on end. The air was thick with the taste of blood, the smell of death. In front of them, thick trees which could hide any secrets, any enemy.
“How far ’til we make it?” Riley asked.
Chloë clung on to Kesha and kept on running.
“Chloë, how far ’til we—”
“It’s close to here,” Chloë said. “But we… we can’t go there.”
Riley felt himself slow down even though he knew slowing down was risking his life. The hybrids, the Orions, they were pre-occupied right now. But soon they’d be onto them. Soon, they’d kill them. “What the hell do you mean we can’t go there?”
Chloë glanced back through the trees. “The Orions. We can’t take them where we’re going. It’s not fair.”
“Chloë, if we don’t get there, we’re going to die out here.”
“I can’t put them in danger. Not after they helped me.”
Riley heard the sincerity in Chloë’s words, and he knew he wasn’t going to win this argument. Everything around them was falling apart. Soon, the creatures, the hybrids, the Orions would all be here too to heap more misery upon them.
“Then do you have any other suggestions?” Riley asked.
“We can fight,” Jordanna said.
“Jordanna, we can’t—”
“Chloë said that we can’t lead the Orions to the people she knows because it’ll put those people in danger.” The screeches of the Orions, the thunderous footsteps, all of them got closer.
“It’s just a risk we’re gonna have to—”
“No,” Jordanna said. She pulled out the crowbar she’d found. “We stand our ground and we fight. Chloë, get Kesha far away from here right now.”
“But—” Riley started.
“You don’t have to stay here and fight if you don’t want to, Riley. But you know as well as I do that Chloë and Kesha are the future. And I swore I’d do everything I could to protect her. And that includes dying for her.”
It wasn’t that Riley didn’t want to stay and fight. He’d do anything to keep Chloë and Kesha safe. It’s just that he wasn’t ready to let go of his fantasy just yet. His fantasy of a normal life. A happy future with Jordanna, Chloë and Kesha as a part of it.
A family life that he’d been denied in the past.
“Both of you go,” Riley said, looking from Jordanna to Chloë. “I’ll stay here and—”
“There might be another way,” Chloë said.
Riley looked at her. The trees ahead rustled. The Orions must’ve been close, and hopefully by now they’d dealt with enough hybrids that at least the hybrids wouldn’t be a problem. “There’s no other way.”
“When I was on the road,” Chloë said, holding Kesha out. “The Orions. They didn’t attack Kesha. They… they treated her differently. I think it’s something to do with the—”
Chloë didn’t finish speaking.
An Orion stepped out of the trees.
Behind it, another.
And then another.
Riley, Jordanna, and Chloë were still. Completely still. The Orions looked at them all, but their eyes were drawn mostly to the baby in Chloë’s arm.
“Step to the side,” Chloë whispered. “Then when they get close… you know what to do.”
Riley didn’t want to move a muscle. The Orions’ heavy breathing disturbed him. They were big, even bigger than he remembered. Their skin was oily, and their teeth were sharp and filled with flesh and blood.
He’d thought they were mostly gone at this stage. That Mr Fletch’s experiment was limited in number. He thought they’d all died out when the MLZ fell for the first time.
But he knew now that Mr Fletch’s experiment must’ve gone much wider than he’d first thought.
He saw the first Orion step towards Chloë, towards Kesha
.
He felt an urge to lunge in front of Chloë and he knew Jordanna would too. An urge to protect her, to defend her.
But by the way the three Orions all moved towards Chloë, towards Kesha, one after the other, Riley started to wonder about what Chloë said. About whether it was true after all.
He held his breath.
Then he risked a step back.
He kept his eyes on Jordanna, who was the other side of Chloë. She stared back at him, her lips quivering.
He nodded at her. Then the pair of them took another step.
The silence was deafening and intense. The only sounds were Riley’s racing heartbeat, the low hum of the Orions’ growls. He’d seen what they could do. He’d seen what they’d done to Ivan. Ripped him to pieces. And he could picture what they’d done to Hassan too, after the way he’d screamed when he’d sacrificed himself to protect Riley.
But there weren’t the same sinister mannerisms to the way they approached Kesha. There was something about them. Something gentle. Something sensitive.
Chloë lifted Kesha closer towards them and they were paralysed, they were transfixed.
Riley kept on moving back. He lifted his machete. He knew it was a risk. A machete to the side of an Orion’s head was a dangerous game and wasn’t even a guaranteed kill.
But Jordanna had her crowbar raised. They were going to take down two of these things—or at least try.
And they had to do it while they were distract—
Riley heard a branch snap under his foot.
The Orions flinched and all looked around at him.
He went still. Completely still. Beads of sweat poured down his head.
Please. Please. Please…
The Orions all turned back to Kesha, all crouched down to sniff at her as she stared up in awe of surroundings she didn’t understand—at a world she must just believe was normal.
Riley let go of his breath then. He saw Jordanna exhale almost visibly, too.