by Ryan Casey
Voices picked up behind them. Frightened voices became angry voices. Words like “intruders” and “plants” were being bandied around. Riley could feel the situation growing more hostile, more out of control, by the minute.
“Come to think of it, I’m starting to wonder about the lot of you,” Rodrigo said, turning to look at Riley and Pedro. “Went off on a little trip with two of my men and none of them came back. Even the whole trip out to Morecambe with Stevie. Starting to wonder if that was a part of the plan, or something.”
“Rodrigo, listen to yourself,” Riley said as the surrounding voices of the mob picked up again. “It doesn’t make sense. If—if we were with Mike, then why would we—why would we kill Stevie? His son? Why would we do that?”
Rodrigo looked Riley right in the eye. Riley wasn’t even sure he recognised this man anymore. And yet at the same time, in a morbid kind of way, he understood. Rodrigo didn’t want his people feeling they were at risk. And right now, it seemed to him that he’d been compromised, and he had to do anything to alleviate those concerns. Riley got that.
But it didn’t make the situation any better for him.
“Maybe you didn’t know then,” Rodrigo said. “Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. But these two…the woman and her daughter. They’re Mike through and through. After—after what they’ve done to James. Say, did they force you, Anna? Or are you in on this shit too?”
“We tried to help them escape,” Anna shouted. “We were trying to let them go because no matter what shit they’ve gone and got themselves into, it’s not our shit. It’s your shit. So we were going to let them go and we were going to walk away, all of us, and we weren’t going to cause any harm.”
Rodrigo burst out laughing. He pointed at James’s body. “No harm? Hate to break it, sweet, but there’s a body of one of my guards right here on the—”
“Well maybe he should’ve thought about that before he tried to rape me.”
More gasps from the crowd. More silence from Claudia, Riley, Pedro, Anna.
Donald walked out from the bedrooms. He looked at Rodrigo and shook his head. “She’s not in there.”
“Then get outside and find her,” Rodrigo shouted at three of the guards surrounding the caravan. “Young woman like that who doesn’t know her way around here can’t have got far.”
Rodrigo turned around and looked at Pedro like he was a bit of filth on his shoe. Then, he looked right at Riley. “So you defend them now, do you? After all the damage they’ve done, right in front of you, you defend them now?”
“Claudia can’t have done this,” Riley said, his voice cracking with desperation. “She’s still cuffed up—”
“But the girl and Anna aren’t, are they?”
“I’m sure they were only acting in—”
“Your bullshit is getting more infuriating by the second,” Rodrigo barked. Riley smelt his breath as he squared up to him, over-minty. “There’s too much shit gone on. Too many nasty little coincidences. They have to pay for this. Mike has to pay.”
Riley tried to respond, but the crowd behind him cheered with fury.
“Don’t do this,” Riley said. He stared Rodrigo right in his eyes. Behind all the confusion and all the fury, he could still see that welcoming man. The man who just wanted to lead a care-free life at this community. But a man who was desperate to prove his leadership worth.
“We find the girl, then we decide the next step. One step at a time, as always. Paddy, take care of these two.”
Riley felt himself being dragged back. Pedro too was struggling with the guard holding him, as he snapped some handcuffs around his wrists and covered his mouth so that all he could do was mumble.
Riley felt the cuffs around his wrists, then. He felt himself being taken further and further away from Rodrigo. He could feel everything falling apart as he passed the faces of the angry women, the angry men, the angry knitting pensioners. He could feel their fury because he wasn’t one of them, not anymore. In a war of sides, you picked a side, or you died.
Fuck. The realisation came crashing into Riley like a car at full speed.
He was going to die.
It was a strange sensation, being dragged away from that caravan towards the fences. Because unlike when he’d pressed his foot on the gas all those months ago and gone crashing into that wall, he actually wanted to survive. When all the problems of a commercial, materialist world came crashing down, all of a sudden, survival became important.
He just wanted to make it until Christmas.
“Throw them into the Dumping Ground,” Rodrigo said. There was reluctance in his croaky voice. Pain. But the words were said, and that was that.
The crowd cheered.
“I don’t want to hear another fucking word from them.”
And they wouldn’t, because now, Riley and Pedro were gagged.
The walk towards the fences was shorter and quicker than Riley expected it to be. A few kids threw stones at them as they passed, but there was a surprising calm around the place considering he was about to be tossed into a horde of creatures and into near-certain death. It had a kind of poetic justice about it, that he’d washed up on Silverdale shores without a voice, alone. And it didn’t matter if Pedro was beside him—the pair of them were very much alone in death.
He felt the sharp knock of gun barrels against his shoulders and his back and even on his head. The fences were just inches away now. Soon, he’d be outside, and the Dumping Ground creatures would have their next meal to feast on. Everything Rodrigo had been working so hard to prevent—every bit of humanity he’d been trying and fighting to preserve—had imploded, and it wasn’t because of creatures. It was because of humans.
“Take a final look around,” the guard called Paddy said, in his strong Northern accent. “Take a last breath too or summat. Cos the next time you’ll be breathin’ this air is when you’re back ‘ere as a creature and I’m putting a fucking blade through yer temple.”
Paddy lifted his hand. Hit the code on the gate.
6-5-7-4-3.
Riley started laughing. He wasn’t sure if Pedro had seen it—Pedro had tears in his usually hard eyes—but Riley was laughing at the typicality of it all. 6-5-7-4-3. Pedro had told Riley it was a 2 and not a 3 at the end. So they were wrong after all. Their plan—if it could even be called that—was fucked from the start.
As the security system at the gate dropped, the guards started to open the gates. Riley did take a final look around. A look at the leisure centre and its big glass windows, where he’d spent so many afternoons in the chlorine-reeking pool. The mini golf over on the left—something he’d never tried, but had a lot of fun laughing at Anna and Pedro as they misfired shots. The caravans in the distance…it was like saying goodbye to a home. In fact, he probably felt more emotional than he had when he’d left that bloody flat with Ted.
But in the Dead Days, you had to leave everywhere eventually.
Riley looked at Pedro. Pedro was looking right at him, black gag around his mouth. He nodded once at Riley, like he had so many times to show his approval, or his support, or just his respect.
Riley nodded back at him. Once and hard.
“Get the fuck back!”
The sounds came from Riley’s left, from the gates. At first, as he swung around and threw himself back, he thought that maybe a lone creature or two was waiting on the other side—it was a realistic possibility.
But then he realised it wasn’t a creature.
And Paddy hadn’t even been shouting at Riley and Pedro to get back.
He was shouting at the man—the three men—that were standing just outside the gates of Heathwaite’s. One of them had a glassy, grey stare. The other was drooling right down his face and his beard.
And the other…he was big. Bulky. Had a confident smile and a crinkled forehead that suggested smiling was something he did quite a lot.
&nb
sp; And with them, on the back of the truck they were driving, was Chloë.
Riley didn’t need Paddy to say his name to know who the greying man at the front of the van was.
“Get the fuck away, Mike,” Paddy said. “Now’s not the time.”
“Now is the time,” Mike said. He looked down the road towards the Dumping Ground. “In fact, if we don’t get this done within the next five minutes, we’ll all have another more immediate problem on our hands.”
Riley listened. He could hear footsteps. Footsteps and groans. Footsteps and groans that he’d heard wandering, staggering in the other direction just earlier that day.
Except they weren’t going away, not anymore. They were wandering in their direction. They were coming from the Dumping Ground.
Donald held fire. So too did the other two gate guards.
“Rodrigo has something of ours,” Mike said. “So is he going to get his skinny arse down here for an amicable conversation, or are we going to have to escalate things?”
Chapter Seven
Riley saw Rodrigo walking towards the front gate a few minutes later. Or maybe it was less than a few minutes, or longer. Standing here, cuffs around your hands, gag around your mouth, with an enemy right in front of you and creatures getting gradually nearer, time was a difficult one to decipher.
Rodrigo, who had his arm around Claudia, stumbled when he first saw that it was Mike at the gates. Stumbled and widened his eyes. Behind him, there were the two remaining volunteer guards from around Claudia and Chloë’s caravan. Behind them, a small crowd of civilians followed, wide-eyed, confused. Anna was amongst the crowd.
Mike raised his arm. He waved in Rodrigo’s direction. “Roger,” he shouted. “Get over here, quick. We’ve got stuff to discuss.”
Rodrigo’s walk slowed even more when Mike spoke. Riley could see the fear in his face. The misunderstanding. Rodrigo looked like he’d just woken up from some dream he didn’t really understand or want to understand for that matter.
Except this nightmare hadn’t even begun. Not yet.
“You’re gonna wanna hurry,” Mike said. He pointed towards the Dumping Ground. “Took the locks off those gates of the Dumping Ground. Very nifty extension, by the way. Place is bustling with zombies now, isn’t it? Hope you’re keeping them well fed.”
Rodrigo stopped just beside Riley, Claudia stumbling to her knees. The guards stopped behind Rodrigo, and the crowd of civilians lingered further behind. Anna wasn’t one of those who held back.
“What’s this about, Mike? I thought we agreed—”
“We agreed a lot of things,” Mike said, nodding his head. The two men with him—the drooler and the dead-eye—kept their guns pointed at Donald and Paddy, who kept their guns pointed back in return. Chloë kept herself crouched behind the side of the truck. Riley could see her looking at her mum. Reaching out for her. Trying to send some sort of childish telepathic signal.
“If this is about Stevie, he died fighting for us. Died trying to save two of those men you butchered. You sick fucks.”
The two men with Mike snorted and grinned. Mike raised his hand to stop them before they could go on. “It was about Stevie. Originally. But now you’ve got something else of mine. Something else that I won’t have you taking away. You okay, Claudia? Don’t worry. He won’t hurt you. He’s a fucking pussy like that.”
More sniggers and laughs from the two men with Mike. Another raise of the hand from Mike, as if he actually respected Rodrigo.
“So that’s it?” Rodrigo asked. He tightened his grip around Claudia’s neck, a handcuff dangling from her wrist. “You just expect me to give this bitch back to you and we call it quits?”
Mike looked at the two men and nodded. “That’d be good, wouldn’t it, lads? Walk on out of here together. Drive off for a nice frosty Christmas together. That’d be ideal.”
The silence that followed these words spoke more than the words themselves. Except it wasn’t silence. The groans were heading their way. The thousand strong army of creatures that they’d worked so hard to keep contained to the Dumping Ground were heading right back. The gates were open. Riley and Pedro were in cuffs. This wasn’t good.
“Those zombies are gonna get here in a good few minutes,” Mike said. “In fact, give that horn a honk, Seth. Give it a good ol’ honk so they know we’re still here.”
“Wait—” Rodrigo said, edging forward. His cheeks flushed. Claudia tripped and fell to her knees again as he moved.
Mike nodded at Seth, the drooling guy who was holding his hand over the horn of the car. “Give the man his say.”
Rodrigo took a deep breath in. He looked at Riley, and at Pedro, and while he did this, Riley saw something in his eyes. An apology. Regret. A wish to restore things to the way they were.
But there was also a look of knowledge. That things would never be the same again.
Then, he took another deep breath in and stood tall.
“We’re going to give you back this bitch of yours and we’re going to shut these gates. Then that’s it. You stay away. You stay away or—”
“Or what?” Mike said. Impatience replaced the calm in his voice. “What leverage do you have if you give her back to me, eh?”
“Then what the fuck is it you want?” Rodrigo asked.
Mike nodded behind Rodrigo. At first, Riley thought he was nodding at a person in particular, when in fact he was nodding at the whole place.
“This place,” Mike said.
Rodrigo shook his head. Tightened his grip around Claudia’s neck. “That’s not gonna happen. We aren’t going anywhere.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Mike said, smiling. “We can live together. Like the old times. Only we do things my way instead. I like Christmas turkey, you like Christmas ham. But we can work together to put things right.”
Riley sensed a glimmer of hope. Mike was offering Rodrigo a handshake. He was actually suggesting they laid down their guns and put the past behind them.
“Why—why would I let you back?” Rodrigo spat. He lifted his gun out of his pocket. It dangled from his shaking hand.
Mike shrugged. “The way I see it, you don’t have much of a choice. Those zombies are gonna get here in…” He squinted up the road towards the sound of the rising groans. “Two, three minutes. And we aren’t going anywhere. Nowhere but inside this caravan site.”
Rodrigo paused for a few minutes. Then he lifted his gun. Pointed it directly at Mike.
“What’s stopping me from shootin’ you and your men right here?”
Mike shrugged again. Raised his hand. “My men are better shots than yours. The way I see it, it’s three against six. Well, three against six and a shitload of civilians. I don’t think you’d put all your people at risk like that, Roger. Unless you’ve completely changed, I just don’t think you’d do it.”
Rodrigo’s gun began to falter. It started to drop back down to his side. His eyes were bloodshot. His jaw was tensed. He looked every bit the man who was on the brink of losing everything he’d worked so hard for. Honour. Integrity. Respect. Everything the army could no longer provide him with.
“That’s right,” Mike said. The groans of the creatures were so loud, so close now. “Put it down. Put it down and let us—”
Rodrigo lifted the gun. He pressed the barrel against Claudia’s head. She mumbled behind her gag. Tears ran down her bruised cheeks.
“Mum!” Chloë shouted. Seth stopped her from jumping up out of the back of the truck. Mike tensed. Everyone tensed.
“What’s stopping me puttin’ a bullet in this bitch’s head?” Rodrigo spat. “Because—because I will. I swear I will if you don’t walk away. I’ll shoot her. Right here in front of you.”
Mike’s calm smile had turned into a narrow-eyed frown. “You really have changed haven’t you Roger? You’d really kill an innocent woman in front of her early teen daughter? You’d really kill a woman who had nothing to do with any o
f this? That just got caught in the middle?”
The voices of the civilian crowd picked up. The same crowd who had been calling for Claudia and Chloë’s execution now looked more shocked, more uncertain, now the reality was staring them in the face. Now they could see that Claudia and Chloë really were just mother and child.
Rodrigo held his gun to Claudia’s head. The bloodshot worms in his eyes had almost completely drowned out the whites. “I’ll—I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll kill her. I’ll—”
“Then do it,” Mike said. He shrugged. Brought back that calm smile. “See if it makes me move.”
Seth had to hold Chloë back again. She was kicking and screaming. The creatures were so close now. They would turn the corner any minute. Walk right on through the gates.
Rodrigo looked at Riley. He looked at him with those unrecognisable eyes, his bottom lip shaking. He looked at him as if he was asking him what to do, even though Riley was his prisoner too. He looked at him as if to ask why everything had gone so wrong.
“Just lower the gun and—”
A gunshot rattled through the air.
It took Riley a moment to realise just where it had come from, the noise of it so close, blasting in his left ear.
Then he saw the blood. He saw the blood from Claudia’s head, saw the fragments of brain and skull cracking and spraying out towards the floor as she tumbled away from the barrel of Rodrigo’s gun, smacking the hard concrete.
“No!”
Another gunshot rattled from the other side. Another series of gunshots. Gunshots from Mike. Gunshots from Donald. Gunshots from Seth and gunshots from the other man.
Rodrigo was first to be hit. Square in the neck, just a second after he’d pulled the trigger on Claudia.
Then the man with the dead-eyes fell.
Then Donald.
Then the creatures started to turn the corner.
Riley stared at Claudia on the ground as the bullets flew past him, over his head and around him. He stared at her, a heart-shaped necklace around her neck covered in blood. He stared like he still didn’t understand what had happened, how it had happened.