Dead Days: Season 3 (Books 13-18)

by Casey, Ryan

  “You really think it’s just a cold?” Tamara said.

  Pedro thought about lying. He thought about smiling and nodding, saying everything was gonna be fine.

  Instead, he shook his head. “I don’t know. Not a clue. But we didn’t come this far to fail now. We’re getting your boy to the Living Zone. He doesn’t get there, none of us get there, that’s the way I see it.”

  Tamara half-smiled. She moved her stringy blonde hair out from her eyes. “That’s…‌that’s half the problem,” she whispered.

  “What is?”

  Tamara paused. Looked beyond Pedro. Barry was still moaning in the background about his suit, and Josh was bouncing around on one foot singing All I Want for Christmas.

  “It’s…‌Well when we get to this Living Zone. When we get there. What am I supposed to do? Just‌—‌just hand my boy over? I mean don’t get me wrong, I want him to be okay. I want him to‌—‌to help make everyone else okay, if that’s what he can do. But the closer we’re getting, the more I…‌I don’t want my boy to become a lab rat, Pedro.”

  This time, as Tamara lowered her head, Pedro really did put his hand on her shoulder. Felt mechanical as he moved it, but it just seemed the right thing to do.

  He inched closer to her. Leaned down. “Nobody’s getting your son until you give the word. I promise you that. And you’ve seen what I can do when people get in my way.”

  Tamara raised her eyebrows. “Walking evidence all over Barry’s face of that, yeah.”

  “Exactly,” Pedro said. “And I don’t mind Barry. He’s decent, like. Imagine someone I don’t like.”

  The slight hint of a smile crept up Tamara’s cheeks. Made Pedro feel even more tingly inside.

  “What do you think about…‌about Elaine?” Tamara whispered.

  Pedro had almost forgotten about Elaine, she was that quiet. He looked over his shoulder. She was by the side of the tent, cut off from the rest of them once again, Sammy helping her into her gear. She looked a state. That look on her face‌—‌that look of sheer defeat‌—‌it didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

  “I don’t think much about her,” Pedro said. “I…‌She’s been through somethin’ horrible. Hopefully she can find some happiness in Manchester. If that’s possible.”

  “Hmm,” Tamara said.

  She sounded like she wanted to elaborate. Pedro wanted to ask her why. Wanted to ask her what was with the “questioning” nature of the noise.

  “All suited and booted?”

  The voice cut through his thoughts. He turned around and saw Jason. In his black riot gear, he looked more action hero than football manager again. He wasn’t bulky, not by any stretch of the imagination. But hell‌—‌Pedro was hardly ripped himself and he was the toughest person he’d ever known.

  “Just about,” Pedro said.

  Jason nodded. Looked at Tamara, smiled, nodded. “Good. Everyone by the opening.”

  Pedro and Tamara looked at one another, raised their eyebrows in turn, then followed robotic Jason over towards the curtain.

  Everyone circled around Jason, stood in front of the curtain. There was nothing more than a black zip separating them from the outside world.

  “Now I don’t know a lot about any of you. But what I have gathered is that you’re decent individuals. Believe it or not, that’s a good trait. I don’t know your past, I don’t know your stories, and I don’t know what pain it took for you to get here.”

  He looked at Barry‌—‌at his swollen face‌—‌quite obviously.

  Then his eyes drifted to Elaine, spaced-out and speechless as ever.

  “What I do know is that you have an idea about the infected. You have your own interpretations on how they work, how they function. Interpretations you’ve built up based on two months of experiences since the outbreak.” He paused. Looked at each and everyone. God, this man was seriously a robot. “I want you to forget everything you think you know about the infected. The rules change the moment you step through these curtains.”

  The rules change. What the hell was he talking about? Pedro thought back to those weird quiet creatures that’d taken down Chris. Was it something to do with that? Had they all gone shtum all of a sudden?

  “The walk should take just under two hours,” Jason said. “We stay close. We stay alert. Myself, Sammy and Dom are armed, and we’re good in combat. So trust in us. And respect that we don’t want to go handing guns to people we’re unfamiliar with, not yet. Understood?”

  Pedro thought about protesting. Heard Barry mumble and grumble something. But Jason had a point. Pedro wouldn’t trust a fat guy and a glassy-eyed girl with a gun if he were in charge, that was for sure. Probably wouldn’t trust himself, in truth.

  “Good,” Jason said, taking the lack of response as a “yes.” “Then we’re just about ready to go.” He lifted one of five small black Nike rucksacks off the ground beside him. “Refreshments. Water, food, things like that to get you by as comfortable as possible. But don’t be too greedy‌—‌these supplies are not infinite.”

  Jesus, never mind the action hero‌—‌this guy was a frigging member of a flight cabin crew with all his instructions. What next? Was he gonna start indicating the main exit points? Offer a cheeky suckjob in the bathroom?

  He reached up for the top of the curtain. Nodded at each and every one in the room. Sammy and Dom went up to stand behind him, large L85A2 rifles in hand. Damn, what he’d give to hold one of those again. But beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  Jason lowered the zipped opening to the tent. Light started to peek through, the cool breeze getting gradually stronger.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  Pedro took a deep breath in.

  Two hours ‘til safety.

  Two hours to survive.

  Two hours to protect Josh.

  “Then let’s get home safely,” Jason said.

  He lowered the zip completely, and they were out in the dangerous wild again.

  Chapter Three: Chloë

  They walked down the path for what felt like forever even though it probably wasn’t that long.

  “Does this path ever end?” Chloë asked Jordanna.

  Jordanna looked around. Looked at the trees, which were getting taller, shaking in the wind. They were like monsters watching over them, but nicer monsters than the ones that bit people. Friendly monsters‌—‌that’s what the world needed.

  “It’ll end at some point,” Jordanna said. The dead rabbit swayed from her hand. Chloë wondered how long it took for meat to go bad, but she couldn’t really smell it yet so she guessed it must be okay. “Every path comes to an end at some point.”

  Chloë looked ahead. Looked down this narrow, twig-covered path. Looked at the wall of trees either side of it. She wanted to believe Jordanna. “I went down a path in Spain once that didn’t end. It just stopped in the middle of a field.”

  “Then it came to an end,” Jordanna said. “Just because it ended in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean it…‌”

  Her voice trailed off. She stopped walking all of a sudden. It took Chloë a few seconds to stop too, noticing that Jordanna’s footsteps were no longer cracking the frozen twigs.

  She looked at Jordanna. Saw that Jordanna was staring right ahead, wide-eyed.

  “What’s wrong?” Chloë asked.

  When she looked herself, she saw exactly what was wrong.

  Just in the distance, down the path, she could see moving figures. Six of them, shuffling from side to side. Staggering down the path like they were trying to find an ending themselves. They all had blood covering them in one place or another. They all were walking in that weird, stiff way that they always did, like they’d been dipped in ice and left to thaw.

  Monsters.

  “This way,” Jordanna whispered. She crouched down and moved to her left, back into the trees. Chloë followed.

  “But we have to follow the path‌—‌”

  “We’ll go around them,” Jordanna said
. “Just…‌Just keep low. And keep quiet.”

  Chloë followed Jordanna through the trees. There were so many trees that she could only see through to the path every few seconds, and even then she couldn’t see the monsters properly. She got a glimpse of them every now and then, and they were still moving slowly, still walking down the path.

  “Quick,” Jordanna said. She grabbed Chloë’s hand, and Chloë noticed how cold and dry and bony it was. “Over here. Look.”

  Chloë could barely take her eyes off the blur of the monsters wandering down the path, but when she did, she saw what Jordanna was talking about.

  It was a cave. A wall of reddish rocks, with a hole just big enough to fit inside. Through the hole, it looked dark. Pitch black.

  “Inside there,” Jordanna whispered. “We wait until they pass.”

  She moved forward without even consulting Chloë.

  Chloë stared at the dark cave entrance. “But what if they‌—‌what if there’s monsters?” she asked, pulling back on Jordanna’s arm.

  Jordanna shook her head. “Chlo, I think you’ve been watching too many horror films. Why would monsters hide in a dark cave when they can live in plain sight?”

  Chloë sort of got what Jordanna was saying, but it didn’t make her feel much better about the cave. But still, she followed. They couldn’t risk the monsters catching them, and they couldn’t run back down the path. They were in the middle of nowhere. They were following a path to find somewhere to cook the rabbit. It’s all they had left. Then, they could go on to Manchester.

  Chloë followed Jordanna to the entrance of the cave. When they stood outside it, Chloë noticed it smelled damp in there, and just standing in front of it made her colder than she was in the already-cold outside.

  “Guess I’ll lead the way then,” Jordanna said.

  She got down on her hands and knees and pulled herself inside. It’s a good job she was skinny or there’s no way she’d have fit through the hole.

  Chloë watched as she disappeared into the dark hole. She peeked back over a tuft of grass sprouting from the top of the cave entrance, looked for the monsters, but she couldn’t see them. She could just hear their shuffling. Hear them getting closer and closer. They’d smell her soon. Smell her or sense her or whatever it was they did.

  Chloë looked back at the cave. She hadn’t heard anything for a bit. She wanted to shout Jordanna, but she knew she couldn’t because then the creatures might hear her. She wanted to go inside. Check Jordanna was okay. But then if Jordanna wasn’t okay she shouldn’t go inside. What should she do? What should she‌—‌

  “It’s fine,” Jordanna whispered, her voice echoing against the cave walls. “Come in. Plenty of room for the two of us.”

  Chloë gulped and got down on her hands and knees. She pulled herself into the darkness, scratching her tummy against the sharp rocks at the entrance. When she got inside, the damp smell surrounded her. She could hear dripping water somewhere over her head. As she moved herself further into this dark hole, she felt something tickle her neck, and tried not to think about what creepy crawly it might be.

  She hit something spongy.

  “Ow.”

  Phew. Jordanna. Just Jordanna.

  “What do we do now?” Chloë asked. It was cramped in the tunnel. She tried to lift her head as far as she could, but there wasn’t enough room. She looked over her shoulder, her stomach tight. She was glad she could still see outside. When she was younger, her cousin, Holly, trapped her in the car boot. Slammed down the boot and walked away from the car as a joke. Chloë banged her hands against the inside of the car boot. Banged her hands and screamed for what felt like forever in that complete darkness.

  She gulped. Tried not to think about that feeling again.

  “We wait for them to pass,” Jordanna said. “Keep quiet. Keep still.”

  Chloë shuffled a bit closer to Jordanna. Felt her warmth, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.

  And then she held her breath as she saw the first of the shuffling monsters walk along the path up ahead.

  She felt a tingle down her neck when she saw the second. And then the third, and the fourth. Even though she saw the monsters all the time, she didn’t usually take the time to actually look at them. To watch them. They were weird. How they moved along, how their necks were twisted in all kinds of ways. They were dead, but they didn’t look dead. They looked like waxwork models, or actors from fake haunted houses. She wondered whether one day, they’d all just stand up straight and start laughing and tell her it’s all been a big joke, and the whole world would laugh about it.

  She’d wondered that right up until the moment her mum’s head exploded.

  The monsters all passed by. All wandered down this path. Chloë could hear Jordanna breathing shakily. She wondered how scared Jordanna was. She never seemed scared. She wished she was like Jordanna. Pretty and unique like her. Maybe she would be one day. Maybe if she stuck with her long enough, she would be.

  She heard a groan.

  At first, she thought it must just be the monsters outside.

  But then it happened again. It echoed around the cave.

  And again.

  From somewhere inside the cave.

  Jordanna looked around. Chloë could only just see her in the darkness, the light outside not doing much to light up the cave. She looked over her shoulder. Chloë tried to look too, but she couldn’t turn properly.

  The boot slamming shut.

  The darkness.

  Her breathing got trickier.

  Just look at the light. Look at the…‌

  She looked outside the cave into the light, and what she saw didn’t put her at any ease.

  The six monsters from the path were all walking towards the entrance of the cave. They’d walked off the path, and they were all walking towards her and Jordanna, as the groan echoed inside the cave once again.

  Chloë tried to hold her breath. Her heart pounded. She’d be trapped soon. She’d be stuck in here. Stuck in here like she was in the boot. Stuck in here in the darkness with nowhere to go, only this time she wasn’t allowed to scream either.

  Chloë tried to launch herself forward. Tried to get out of the cave before the monsters trapped her in. Tried not to scream.

  Then she felt a hand grip tight hold of her leg, heard the groaning right behind her, and she couldn’t help but yelp.

  Chloë knew screaming was a bad idea, knew she shouldn’t do it, especially when the monsters were coming towards her and Jordanna inside the cave.

  But when she felt the hand squeeze into the bottom of her right leg, she couldn’t help but squeal out a gasp of air.

  She kicked out. Kicked out and rolled around in the darkness, the grip on her leg not getting any looser. She banged her head on the hard rock ceiling of the cave. Thumped and kicked, desperate not to let the monster get her, desperate to get away.

  Jordanna was saying things. Saying things and thumping at the groaning, gripping monster too, but her words didn’t calm Chloë down. She didn’t want to be one of those monsters. She didn’t want to become one of them on Christmas Day. Christmas Day was meant to be a happy day.

  As she continued to kick out, her foot connected with something solid, and the grip of the hand on her right leg came loose.

  She lifted herself up. Lifted herself up even though there wasn’t much room, squinted into the darkness that her eyes had just about adjusted to.

  There was a monster in the cave with them. Only it wasn’t a full monster‌—‌it was just half of a monster. A man wearing a black T-shirt and missing the bottom part of his body. He was reaching out with his long-nailed fingers, his dark face covered with little specks of ice. Chloë thought he looked so cold, but she didn’t feel sorry for him. Not at all.

  “Shit,” Jordanna said. She shuffled away from the opening of the cave. “Shit.”

  Chloë looked around. The monster in the cave was far enough away now to make a run for it.

  But
when she looked outside, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

  The six monsters were right outside the cave. All of them were getting closer. The one at the front, who looked like she used to be an old lady with long silver hair, started to crouch down as she reached the cave.

  Chloë’s heart pounded. She was trapped. Trapped, just like she was in that boot when she was younger. Completely stuck.

  “Watch yourself!” Jordanna shouted.

  Chloë only realised at the last second that the monster inside the cave was getting ready to bite her again. But it didn’t get to her. Jordanna squeezed herself towards it, then grabbed it at the sides of its head. She pushed it back. Pushed it back through the darkness of the cave as the gooey insides from the middle of its body spilled out onto the rocks below. She pushed it, struggled with it, then disappeared out of sight and into the darkness.

  Chloë looked back around. The monsters were coming inside the cave now. They’d get her soon. There was no way out.

  Panting, she grabbed hold of Mum’s necklace. Squeezed it tighter than she’d ever squeezed it.

  “Please Mum. Please help. Please.”

  From the darkness behind her, Chloë heard a thud.

  And then she heard another and another. And with each thud, she could hear rocks crumbling.

  And then she could…‌Wait. Was the cave getting lighter?

  She turned back around. Turned back to where Jordanna had gone.

  The good tingles jittered around her tummy.

  There was a light at the other side of the cave. It was coming from higher up, a little hole shining through the rocks. Jordanna was bashing the monster’s head up against the rocks. Blood was spilling down all over her, covering her hands. But whenever she hit the rocks above with the monster’s head‌—‌getting a weirder shape by the second‌—‌more of the red rocks crumbled away.

  “Quick, Chloë!” Jordanna shouted. “Through‌—‌through here!”

  Chloë looked around. The creatures were all in the front of the cave now, all clambering around for her, the stench of death filling up the small space.