by Ryan Casey
“You’ll need this.” Ted handed Riley the unopened rope ladder. “Never did learn how to use it, mind.”
Riley glared at Ted. “You’re saying you never tested this thing?”
“Hey — I’m a big-boned man, okay? I hardly wanted to risk snapping it or anything like that, unless I really had to. But you should be okay, you little runt.” He jabbed Riley between his protruding ribs. “I, er… I guess I should call that elevator.”
Riley nodded as Ted’s eyes diverted to the floor. “Yeah. I guess.”
Ted let out a sharp breath and attempted a shaky smile at Riley. “And, um. In case this doesn’t work. In case anything happens. I—”
“Hey.” Riley hit Ted back in his flabby stomach. “This is going to work. Okay?”
Ted turned away and walked over to the flat door as Riley hooked the rope ladder over the edge of the window. “I hope so, mate. I really hope so. I still need to get my own back for that FIFA defeat, after all.”
Riley smiled. “That’s the only thing I’m certain is not going to happen. Good luck, Ted.”
“You too. You too.” He turned the handle of the flat door and disappeared into the corridor.
A sickness welled in Riley’s stomach. For the first time since he’d become aware that something was desperately wrong, he felt alone. Completely alone.
It was the same feeling he’d felt when he’d walked away from that interview room, coffee stain spread across his crotch.
“We’re coming for you, Grandma. We’re coming.”
He unraveled the rope ladder and watched as it fell to the ground below. Some of the creatures in the distance arched their heads to see what the movement was, but turned away again and continued to stagger around aimlessly. There was a deathly silence in the air. He’d never before thought it possible for everything to collapse within such a short space of time, but now he’d seen just how fragile the world really was. Society was just one big ant’s nest, built on weak foundations, waiting for somebody to stuff their foot inside and kick it into oblivion.
Only difference was that humans had a weaker bite. Alive ones, anyway.
“Better hurry, mate.”
Riley jumped and swung around. Ted peeked his head through the flat door.
“I called the elevator. If you want to avoid a date with the hungry Poles, you’d better hurry.” He disappeared out of sight again.
Riley stared down at the rope ladder. The floor looked like it was miles away, growing further and further into the distance the longer he stared at it. He blinked his eyes rapidly and straightened his neck, then placed his foot onto the first of the unstable metal steps.
Deep breaths. You can do this.
Descending the rope ladder was like climbing an attraction in a children’s playground. He’d always been awful at climbing frames and rope swings as a child. Even the stairs of some slides sent him a bit dizzy. A coin flip. Fucking ‘Queen’s Head’. Perhaps she’d heard his rant against the monarch in the pub a few weeks ago.
Then again, he trusted himself on a rickety rope ladder more than he trusted Ted’s weight.
The further he got down, the closer the groans and the tapping of the fence grew. He glanced at the floor quickly and immediately realised his mistake. Elevated three stories into the air by an untested piece of rope. He could fall to the ground. Break his legs. They’d find him trying to struggle away. Surround him. Sink their teeth into his stomach and into his neck, piercing his jugular, and there’s nothing he’d be able to do about it.
No. Keep calm. You can do this. You can fucking do this.
He took another few steps, and he noticed that something was different. Something in the air. The sounds.
And then he realised what it was. The rattling of the gate. It had stopped.
He bit his lip and turned his neck slowly to his right hand side. He was elevated about a storey above the pavement, high enough to stay out of reach but hardly comfortable. A breeze whistled through the street as the scattered creatures in the distance looked on at nothing in particular, glassy-eyed and dazed.
But at the gate, he saw one of them starting to turn around. Starting to edge towards him. It was a woman. The bottom half of her jaw was missing. Tears of blood dripped down her cheeks. She stepped up from beside the half-eaten man wearing a quarantine suit and pottered in Riley’s direction.
Riley tightened his grip on the rope ladder and held his breath. This was it. If one came, surely the others would follow. He’d have to shout for them just to be sure. He didn’t know how they worked, or if they communicated in any way. That’s just something they’d have to learn over time.
If they ever got the chance to.
He started to open his mouth to shout when the creature woman let out a pained moan.
When she did, the other ten or so gathered over the body looked around. Creatures across the street started to twitch and arch their necks in the direction of the continuous moaning. The woman got closer and closer to Riley as he dangled above the street. She reached her arm out when she was directly underneath him, stretching it so hard that it looked like it might fall out of its already torn socket.
“He—Hey,” Riley shouted. His jaw and hands shook as the woman’s moans turned into manic screeches beneath him. The other creatures were all walking in his direction now — creatures from down the street that he hadn’t seen before. Creatures from empty cars, from behind hidden corners. One by one, they started crying out, and others followed.
“Hey!” Riley shouted again. He kept tight hold of the rope ladder. A crowd of twenty or thirty were gathered underneath his feet, all of them reaching up for him, trying to wrap their fingers around the rope ladder, which didn’t quite reach as far down as them. The fence was clear. If Ted hurried, they could make it out. But there was no telling how Ted was getting on. He could’ve just started luring them out, or he could’ve finished minutes ago. The Polish family could be waiting for Riley to return to his flat, biding their time…
But no. He had to think about the task at hand. He had to wait for Ted to tug on the rope ladder. He’d come good. He glanced below. The creatures were all reaching up towards him, falling over one another and gnashing at thin air with their broken teeth. Worse than the sound was the smell. A group of twenty to thirty recently deceased bodies, flesh exposed, breath pungent from their raw meat feast. Riley tried not to breathe in too deeply and gripped hold of the metal pole of the rope ladder, which swung side to side.
It could snap. It could drop at any moment, and he’d be food. Food for all of them.
No. Keep calm. Stay fucking calm.
He clenched his eyes shut and waited. Waited for a sudden shift in the weight of the ladder. Weighted for Ted’s voice above him. He counted the seconds. The seconds turned to one minute. Then two minutes. The rope ladder still swung lightly from side to side. The ravenous cries continued beneath him, attempting to nip at his ankles just metres away.
Then, he felt a tugging. A slight shift in the weight above him. He looked up. Panted rapidly. A hand was holding the rope ladder. He couldn’t see their face.
“Ted?” Riley called. “We ready to go, Ted?”
The hand disappeared back into the flat. Nobody responded.
The cries of the creatures intensified beneath him as he shouted out. More of them started to approach from the distance. Why wouldn’t Ted show himself? If everything had gone okay, then why wouldn’t he respond?
Fuck it. The creatures were probably close. Ted was probably trying not to attract the Poles’ attention. He clambered up the rope ladder, and the shouting below him grew gradually further away.
He kept on staring upwards. Watched the rope ladder swing from side to side as he clambered up it. His hands shook. He had to be quick. The creatures — they had to keep focused on him. They had to stay put, or it would all be for nothing.
The window was getting closer now. He was more than half way up. The fourth storey. He could make this. He could
do this.
Something snapped beneath his feet.
His body fell downwards. He gripped the sides of the rope ladder as he plunged back in the direction of the creatures. The groans got louder again. He closed his eyes and screamed out. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Then, he stopped.
He opened his eyes. He was holding tightly onto the bottom of the rope ladder, swinging above the creatures. There was barely any ladder left to hold onto as the bloody fingernails of the dead scratched at his shoes. He pulled himself back up. Calmed and steadied his frantic breathing. Fuck. You’re okay. You’re okay.
He climbed up the rope ladder again, watching closely as he placed his jittery foot on the steps. When he got to the fourth floor, he saw one of the metal steps dangling out of the rope, torn on the left side. Good job Ted hadn’t been the one to test it after all. He’d been close. Too close.
“Here, Ted.” He sighed as he reached their flat window. The creatures were still gathered in a crowd beneath him, stretching and stretching as if they expected him to fall by magic, or grow wings and fly up to him. Fuck. That didn’t bear thinking about.
He dragged himself over the window ledge and tumbled to the floor, staring up at the ceiling. But there was no time to mope. No time to calm himself down. He had to get to the elevator. Ted must be there. He had to hurry.
As he turned over, he realised he wasn’t as alone as he had first thought.
A woman was holding a gun to Ted’s head. Her hands were shaking, and her dark mascara ran down her pale, gaunt cheeks. “Give me the keys to the car, or I’ll shoot. I swear, I’ll shoot.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Ted winced as the gun smacked against his face. He spat blood out onto the floor. A bruise was forming underneath his eye.
Riley stepped back with his hands raised. Seeing a gun in the UK wasn’t the most common of events. Sure — they were all over television, videogames, films, books. But seeing one — staring into the barrel of one — the gun seemed different. It wasn’t quite as taken for granted as it was in those movies. It was real. So real.
The woman snivelled. Her long, greasy dark hair dangled down onto her shoulders. Snot ran from her nostrils, mixing with tears. She had a cut above her lip. Riley thought she looked familiar. Probably seen her around the flat block at some point.
“Just give me the car keys and I’ll go. That’s all you need to do.”
Riley’s heart raced. Ted had the car keys. He must’ve told her Riley had them, seeking his help or something. If he could get her to lower the gun — talk her out of it — they’d have a shot at walking out of here. All of them. “You don’t have to do this. We should be fighting them, not each other.”
“Do you know what I… I had to do? What I had to watch?” Tears poured from the woman’s eyes. The gun shook in her hand.
Riley took a step forward. He had to try something.
“No.” The woman raised her gun and pointed it at Ted’s head. “Don’t come another step closer. Don’t.”
Riley stopped and raised his hands. Deep breaths. Keep calm. “We aren’t your enemies. And I’m sorry for what might have happened to you. But that isn’t between you and us. Come on. Let’s… let’s all leave this room. Let’s get out of here. We need to stick tog—”
“Shut up. Shut. Up. Try telling my boyfriend to stick together when they… they attacked him. Just try.”
A weight welled up in Riley’s stomach. His eyes met Ted’s as the woman scratched her wrist. “Your… Your boyfriend. Where is he?”
The woman lowered her gun slightly. Her bottom lip was trembling. “He… He’s sick. But I have to get him out. I have to get him to a hospital. I need the keys to that car. Now.” She turned her gun to Ted again and smacked him across the face.
Riley winced and stepped backwards. He could still hear the creatures groaning outside. But Ted’s side of the deal. Distracting the Poles. They’d be coming. If he’d carried it out, they’d be approaching them, slowly but surely climbing the stairs. They had to get to the elevator.
“Ted — did you do it?” Riley asked.
The woman frowned and looked between them. Ted nodded. “Yes. I did it. We need to be quick.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?”
“Please,” Riley said. He started to walk to the woman, his hands raised. “You need to listen to me. Right now, we have one chance to get out of this building. That’s why I was outside and he was in here. We found a way out and past these creatures.”
“Then tell me. Tell me the way out and we can get this over with and I—I can get my boyfriend seen to.”
Riley shook his head and carried on walking towards the woman. Every step he took, her gun raised, but faltered soon after and lowered. “We can help you. We can help your boyfriend. We can all get out of here. But you need to lower your gun and come with us, quickly. We only have one shot at this. One shot. What do you say?”
Riley and the woman stared one another in the eye. Ted looked between them, still on his knees, waiting for their verdict.
The woman dropped her gun and covered her eyes. “Okay. Let’s… Okay. But we have to help him. Please.”
A weight lifted from Riley’s shoulders. He smiled at Ted. Ted didn’t return the smile as he rose to his feet.
“Quick. We’ll get your boyfriend and we’ll go to the elevator. Where’s your flat?”
Ted grabbed a rucksack of supplies and the three of them rushed out of the flat. “Down there.” The woman pointed to the flat opposite the staircase entrance. “I… I can get my boyfriend and then we can go. We can get out of here.”
“Okay. I’ll help you get your boyfriend. And then we—”
“It’s okay,” Ted interrupted. He stepped up to the woman and half-smiled. “We’ll both help you. But we have to be quick.”
“Oh… Okay.” The woman sniffed and nodded. “Okay. Sorry about… about before.”
“Don’t mention it.” Ted smiled at the woman. “On one condition — you give me the gun. I know how to use it. Videogames and stuff.”
The woman shook the gun in her hand. “Well, I… Okay. If you say so.”
Ted grabbed the gun. Eyed it up like it was a prized possession — treasure from the bottom of the ocean. “I had the keys all along, you know. Now come on — we don’t have long.”
Riley always considered his and Ted’s flat a tip. Empty takeaway boxes. Half-finished bottles of flat Coke. Ted’s underpants coated with a number of questionable stains.
But the woman’s flat made him realise he hadn’t had things quite so bad after all.
There were syringes lined along the windowsill, filled with a brick-grey fluid. Spoons covered with a brown film. A wall of sweat hit you as you walked inside.
And on the sofa, underneath a bloodstained blanket, a man lay.
A belt was tied around his neck and attached to a lamp on the wall. Another around his arms and another around his legs.
His eyes were grey. Distant.
Gone.
“Stuey, are you okay? I’ve got us some help, see. We can get out of here.”
The man, whose cheekbones were even more protruding than his girlfriends, snapped out at her, tugging at the belt around his neck as she crouched beside him. “Oh… Okay. Quick. You have to help me lift him. He’s sick and he needs help.”
Riley and Ted were completely silent. They turned to look at one another, slowly. A knowing look in both of their eyes. “What’s… Your name. What is it?”
The woman shrugged and shook her head. “Jordanna. It doesn’t matter now. Please. We need to help him.”
“Jordanna.” Riley approached her as her boyfriend continued to snap, tugging to pull himself free from the ties. “We… Your boyfriend. He isn’t who he once was. I’m sorry.”
Jordanna’s watery eyes searched Riley’s face. “But you said you’d help. You said we didn’t have long and we had to get out of here.”
“And we do.” Riley rested his hand on
Jordanna’s shoulder. She flinched back, looking at her boyfriend’s twisted neck and shaking body. “But he can’t come with us. He’s gone. I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”
A tear rolled down Jordanna’s grimy face. “I promised him I’d help him. When he got sick — he made me promise I’d get him better. I can’t just leave him. I can’t.”
A banging against the stairway door cut through the atmosphere of the room. Ted flinched and poked his head around the flat door. “Shit. We need to hurry up in here.”
Riley turned back to Jordanna as the banging continued. He lifted her chin. “Jordanna — you need to be tough here. We need to go. If we leave him here, maybe… maybe he’ll be safe. We can lock the door and… and maybe when this whole thing dies down, he’ll be okay.”
Jordanna’s chin quivered. The banging grew more frequent. They had to go. Soon. “And you say… You say we can come back for him? You promise?”
Riley tried to smile at Jordanna, but he couldn’t think past the sound of the approaching creatures. “Yes. Yes we can. Now come on. Let’s get to the elevator. Quick.”
Jordanna laid a hand on her shaking boyfriend’s body and kissed him on the side of his chest. “I’m sorry, honey. I’ll be back for you. I promise.” She stepped to her feet then walked to the door. Riley followed.
But Ted didn’t move. He stared at the man’s body, retching and struggling like a seizure sufferer. His eyes were narrow. Focused.
“Ted? You coming?”
Ted twiddled his finger around the trigger of the gun. Started to lift it out of his pocket. “These things. We’re going to have to… to learn to kill them soon.”
Riley grabbed Ted’s hand as he raised the gun. “Not now,” he whispered. “There will be plenty of time for that. But think about the noise. They seem to react to noise. So not now.” He pushed Ted’s hand back into his pocket. Ted pushed back against him. “We need to stic—”