by Ryan Casey
Or maybe it’d go to Pedro. Or Anna.
Either way, it was coming.
“Whatever Rodrigo…whatever you think he did, we weren’t a part of it. You know when we arrived. We were just—just outsiders. Just people looking for a place to stay.”
“And that makes it better, does it? More weight on the community. More mouths to feed. He’s rubbin’ it in our faces, that’s what Rodrigo’s doing. Rubbing it right in our faces after giving us the fucking boot. He’s…”
Dave’s voice trailed off. He stared right at the creature, which was heading in the direction of the metal fence.
He stared at it. Stared at it with those vacant eyes.
Then, he smiled.
“Looks like I might get to witness the feeding myself,” Dave said, a big grin on his face.
“Please,” Riley begged, his heart pounding. The creature was just the other side of the road. “We can leave. You can let us walk away. You don’t have to—”
He smacked Riley’s head against the fence again, only this time, he did it extra loud so that the lone creature could hear.
Riley watched it closing in on him. Watched its once-female head perking up when it heard the shuffling and the noises behind the fence. He watched, and he realised that no, the living weren’t going to be the death of him after all. It would be the fucking dead. Which was worse?
As he moved his face away, Dave pushing him up against the railing, he noticed something.
On one of the panels of the metal fence, a sharp piece of metal was loose. Still attached, of course, but bent over and loose. It was sharp. Very sharp. If only his hands were free, he could get hold of it and use it as a weapon.
But his hands weren’t free.
“That’s right,” Dave said, pushing Riley’s head further against the metal. He applied so much force that Riley felt like his head was going to burst. Riley went with the pushes now, getting closer and closer to the loose, sharp piece of metal. He could hear movement beside him. Anna and Pedro no doubt realising what was heading in their direction. The creaking of the metal fencing. A desperate, last ditch attempt to break free.
“That’s right,” Dave said. “Go with it. Feed it your fuckin’ scalp, lad. Let it have a nibble.”
Riley opened his mouth and brought his teeth—one of them freshly chipped—down on the metal. The creature was about ten metres away, but it wasn’t moving fast. Come on, Riley. Remember the calming techniques you learned. Deep breaths. Focus. Focus. Ignore the outside world. Ignore it.
He pulled back on the metal, but it was stuck.
Fuck. Another pull. Another pull.
He tried again.
Still, it barely moved.
“Almost home,” Dave said, as the creature groaned, picking up in speed as it approached Riley’s head. “Almost home.”
One final push. Come on, Riley. One final fucking push…
The metal snapped free.
Riley’s stomach leapt. He could’ve frozen on the spot right there and laughed in celebration, but he couldn’t. He had to continue. He had to take the next step.
“This is gonna be a joy to watch,” Dave said. “Real life, HD entertainment—”
Riley pushed back at Dave with all his strength. He brought the sharp piece of metal clamped between his teeth right around onto the side of his neck, where a big, juicy vein was housed.
Dave didn’t fall back. He slumped down on Riley, panic in his eyes as blood sprayed out of him. In the panic, he came down head first on top of Riley, struggling to grab his knife as the sharp shard of metal stayed wedged in his neck.
He dropped the knife. Dropped it right out of the railings and out onto the ground, right by Riley’s hands.
Usually, a normal person in normal circumstances, when they saw a creature coming, would leave that knife and wait until the creature went away.
But with blood spewing out of his neck, panic washed across his face, Dave wasn’t in any normal circumstances.
He lunged his arm through the railings towards the knife. The creature was just feet away now. He lunged his arm through and grasped his knife with his shaking fingers.
Only when he tried to pull his arm back, Riley’s tied hand had a hold of it.
As the creature crouched down to bite on one of their arms—Russian Roulette, that’s what it was—the pair of them watched each other in silence for a split second. The whole world disappeared around them. Whoever had the best odds—the luck of the day—would avoid being bitten.
For now.
Riley waited for the teeth. Waited for the pain on his arm as Dave tried to tug his arm and the knife away.
But it was Dave, right on top of Riley, with a piece of metal still wedged in his neck, that screamed.
Riley turned around as the knife dropped from Dave’s hand. The creature outside the railings had its teeth right into Dave’s arm. Keep calm, Riley. No sudden movements. Not safe yet. He curled his fingers around the top of the knife—the only part he could grab—and brought it up through the plastic ties on his wrists. He kept his hands as calm as possible, but he couldn’t stop himself shaking. He clenched his teeth as the knife cut his hand and his wrists, but it was cutting the ties too. It was cutting them, cutting them as the creature chomped and chomped onto Dave’s dying arm…
And then they were free.
Riley’s hands were free.
Resisting the urge to yank them back as quickly as possible, Riley moved his bleeding hands back through the railings steadily. The creature kept its focus on Dave’s arm. Dave had slumped to the ground now after Riley had pushed him away. If he wasn’t already dead from the wound in his neck, he would be dead very soon.
Riley went to Anna first and reached through the railings and cut her hands free. She brought them back and yanked the gag from her mouth. Sweat dripped down her face as she panted and panted for breath and for relief.
Riley moved onto Pedro next. Pedro looked a lot cooler, but to say he was completely cool would be lying. He kept his hands steady as Riley cut them free, then eased them through the gap in the railings, removing his gag with much less urgency.
The three of them stepped back. The creature had moved on to Dave’s balding scalp now, which was wedged between the railings. It looked perfectly content. As content as a creature was going to be with a dead man, anyway.
“We should…we should kill him,” Anna said, her voice shaky. “Stop him coming back.”
Riley looked at Dave. Then, he looked at Aaron’s body, limp, blood staining his white hoodie.
“No. We should leave him to come back. At least we have him locked up for questioning, that way.” An attempt at a joke, but probably the wrong time for one.
“Kill him with what, anyway?” Pedro said, searching his pocket. “Dunno about you, but my gun’s gone AWOL.”
Anna nodded in acknowledgement.
Riley turned around and checked the generator. It rumbled with life.
“Well, that was simple enough,” Pedro said.
Anna tutted. “For us, it’s never simple.”
Riley looked out of the railings and into the street.
Anna was right.
More creatures were heading through the Dumping Ground in their direction.
Chapter Six
“Quick!” Riley shouted.
He pulled himself up onto the metal fence and threw himself over onto the other side, avoiding the creature feasting on Dave’s exposed scalp. Riley’s head still ached, and he could taste the tang of blood in his mouth, sharp and bitter.
On their left hand side, a group of creatures wandered in their direction from the Dumping Ground.
“They’ll follow us, bruv,” Pedro said as he and Anna climbed over the fence and back onto the road. “They’ll follow us back to the main caravan park. Rodrigo’s gonna burst a fuckin’ blood vessel.”
“And they’ll burst our fucking
blood vessels if we don’t get a move on.”
Pedro and Anna lowered themselves down onto the ground. The creatures were heading in their direction pretty quickly. Not just that, but the creature that was having a bite or two out of Dave’s twitching body had caught onto their presence, it too joining its fellow creatures in groaning.
Anna smacked it over the head with a stone from the side of the road. Its skull cracked upon contact, and it fell down at the side of the fence.
“Come on,” Riley said. “The generator’s running. We’ve got to get back to Heathwaite’s. We’ve got to get back and activate that loudspeaker before it’s too late—”
“I think it’s already too fuckin’ late,” Pedro said, shaking his head as he stared back at the wave of creatures wandering in their direction.
“We have to try,” Anna said. “What other choice do we have?”
The three of them ran back over towards the field that led out of the back of the Dumping Ground and towards the side gate of Heathwaite’s. Riley hopped the wooden fence carefully. Now wasn’t the time to go getting any more stupid injuries. Not with a few dozen creatures nipping at their heels. There wasn’t any room for mistakes, not anymore.
“They’re gonna follow us across the field,” Pedro said, panting as the three of them jogged back towards the trees that lined Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. “The…the place is gonna be…it’s gonna be surrounded from both sides—”
Riley didn’t respond. He kept his focus on his breathing. He didn’t want to go tiring himself out any more than he had to, not with the echoing chorus of groans right behind them. Not with the sound of the wooden fence crumbling under the weight of the approaching creatures. No time for mistakes. No time for looking back.
“Dave,” Anna said, she too struggling for breath as the side entrance to Heathwaite’s got gradually closer. “He…he was one of Mike’s men…which means—do you think Mike did this? Drew the creatures here somehow?”
Again, Riley didn’t respond. He just focused ahead. Focused on the approaching side gate. Get in, activate the loudspeaker in the Dumping Ground, pray.
But Anna had a point. Dave’s plan, it certainly didn’t seem like his alone.
Poor Aaron. He was a good kid. A genuinely decent lad trying his best to get by in this horrible, judgemental new world.
“Mike had to be involved wi’this,” Pedro said, shortening his words so he could get more out in a single breath. “He’ad to be—”
A huge splat hit the muddy ground. The way Pedro’s voice cut out right as it did signalled to Riley exactly what that splat was—Pedro had fallen.
Riley slowed his run. He didn’t want to look back. His heart raced. He could still hear the groans. The groans, getting closer and closer and closer. The group’s rules—save yourself first, save others afterwards. That was their motto, wasn’t it?
Fuck.
Riley turned around as Anna kept on jogging ahead.
Pedro was on his front. He’d splatted right into the ground, mud kicking up and covering his sweaty red face.
“Riley, come on,” Anna called. “He’s okay. He’ll be okay.”
Behind Pedro, a few hundred feet into the distance, the creatures got closer and closer.
“You heard her, bruv,” Pedro said, pulling himself to his feet. “Go. I’m fine. I’m on my feet again.”
Pedro was on his feet again. In fact, he was running. But he hadn’t once looked back. He hadn’t looked back at what was coming, like Riley had. What was following them in the direction of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park’s side gate. If he saw the creatures making their approach, he’d just about lose all faith too.
“Come on,” Pedro said, grabbing Riley’s upper arm as he ran past him. Riley snapped out of his trance and turned away. “There’s nothing we can do about ‘em,” Pedro said. “Only run back. That’s all we got now.”
The pair of them soon caught Anna up, who had slowed her run slightly.
“You okay?” she called.
Pedro stuck a thumb up. “Just a little slip.”
Anna smiled and nodded. Even though Pedro had answered, it was Riley she was looking at.
“Okay, not so far now,” Anna said.
The three of them got into the area surrounded by leafless trees and shrubs and got closer to the gate. Somebody was supposed to be at the other side to lift them up. There was no ladder on this side. Without that somebody to pull them up, they were screwed.
“Fuckin’ ‘ell,” Pedro said as they got closer to the fence. He’d clearly noticed the no-show, just like Riley. “What the hell do we do now?”
Anna approached the metal fencing of the side gate. Still, she didn’t look around at the oncoming creatures, like sheep running across a field. “It’s okay. We—we can lift one another up. We can…we can bang on the fence. Get their attention on the other side.”
“No,” Riley said. “Doing that will only draw the creatures from the front. We…Fuck. Where are they? Where are they?”
“We could use a tree or summat,” Pedro said, pointing at one of the flailing branches.
“Use a tree?” Riley said. Anna too was frowning.
“Yeah, like…like climb up it. Or summat.”
Riley didn’t give Pedro the courtesy of a response. Sometimes, plans just weren’t worthy of consideration.
“Well at least I’m thinkin’,” Pedro said. “Least I’m not just standin’ around like a lemon. The fuck we gonna do ‘ere? The way I see it, bruv—”
“For once in your fucking life, can you stop calling Riley your ‘bruv’?”
Pedro was stunned to silence by Anna. He clenched his jaw and turned around for the first time, looking at the sea of creatures swarming in their direction. Riley joined him. As did Anna.
Riley’s heart raced as he stared at the creatures. All this effort—all this hard work—and nobody was at the other side of the gate to let them in. “There’s…there’s always a contingency plan.”
“A contingency plan?” Anna said. “Now might be a good time to start telling us about this contingency plan of yours.”
Riley remembered Rodrigo’s words. Over the Arnside Knott—the hill on the horizon—and straight towards Grange. A military bunker of some sort. A last resort. “There’s—”
“Holy fuck, what kept you so long?”
The voice came from behind the group. Behind and above, actually. All of them spun around.
From that distinct American accent, they knew who it was anyway.
Rodrigo tossed down a rope ladder. Anna climbed up it first, Pedro followed, and Riley propped up the rear. As Riley ascended, Rodrigo put a hand on his chest. “Aaron?”
Riley looked back at the Dumping Ground as the new crowd of creatures stumbled in their direction.
“He’s…he didn’t make it. Dave, he—”
“We know,” Rodrigo said, nodding. “A witness says they saw him luring the dog towards his caravan with biscuits. Didn’t see the dog leave the caravan, though. Shit. You look like you took a beating.”
Riley nodded. “That’s how it is.”
“Indeed. Now we’d better go try this loudspeaker before the gates come crumbling down completely. Seems like you’ve brought a problem back with you.” His eyes looked out at the creatures wandering in their direction.
“We brought back a few dozen problems,” Pedro said. “And all of them are very fucking hungry.”
Riley followed Rodrigo through to the main road of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. Even though it was never bustling with life at this lower end, it was particularly silent today. Faces watched on from the large, glass windows of the leisure centre as the front gate creaked and creaked. The gate guards had all moved around to the front gate, doubling the numbers, stepping back and waiting for the inevitable fall of the gates.
“Did you activate the generator?” Rodr
igo asked.
Riley nodded. Activating the generator had seemed like a moderate achievement when compared to all the other things they’d managed to do when they were out in the Dumping Ground. Surviving, for one. That was a fucking a-grade achievement, right there.
“We’ve got Dean Hutchins over in the control room working on splitting the loudspeaker signals. Hit and miss, he says, but that’s the best we’ve got.”
“It better bloody be worth it,” Pedro said as the trio followed Rodrigo towards the small control room to the right of the reception area. The sound of metal screeching against metal reminded Riley of Scar’s claws against the concrete in The Lion King. He hated the sound, all his life, and he blamed that bastard Scar for all of it.
“Are there enough people to watch all the gates?” Anna asked. “Just with the creatures coming from the—”
“No. No, there aren’t,” Rodrigo said. “Which is why we have to hope to God this thing works.”
Riley entered the control room. Dean Hutchins, a short man with a belly that was out of proportion with the rest of his slim body, bit his nails as he clicked around on the screen in front of him.
“How’s it looking, Dean?” Rodrigo asked.
Dean sighed and tilted his head from side to side. “Loudspeaker down at the Dumping Ground ain’t showin’ up just yet,” he said, in his thick Lancashire twang. “Could be a delay, or summat like that. S’hunt take too long.”
“We don’t have too long,” Riley said.
“He’s right,” Rodrigo added. “Those fences are screeching with the weight of the creatures on the outside. We’ve got more creatures coming from the Dumping Ground. We’ve got one shot at this. One shot at making it work. You ready?”
Dean sighed and scratched at his stubble. “I’ll give it a shot,” he said. “Best get prayin’, I say.”
“Hasn’t got me anywhere in the past,” Pedro said.
Riley stepped over to the open window at the side of the control room as Dean hit a button. He held his breath. Waited for the faint sound of a loudspeaker in the distance. Waited for it to cut through the landscape. Waited for it to catch the attention of the creatures—if that even fucking happened, which judging by their luck today wasn’t likely. Waited for the creatures to drift off away from the fences.