by Ryan Casey
“She’ll be okay,” she said. “They both will.”
Riley half-smiled. He wanted to believe she was right. But there was only one way to find out.
He turned the handle and he stepped inside.
The hallway was left much as he’d remembered. The doors were open all the same. It sounded silent upstairs. And that just brought a whole new level of ominous to the whole environment.
The silence could mean they were dead.
Or that they’d been kidnapped.
Or that they’d run away, and Riley would never know where they’d got to, what had happened to them, or whether they were safe.
But there was one thing he did know.
He had to investigate the house.
He started walking towards the stairs. Something drew him there. An urge to go up there, to check if Carly was in her bedroom with Kesha. He wanted to call out her name and to get a response… but he was scared of the thought of not getting a response.
Or alerting anyone who was already in here.
He was about to take a step onto the first of the stairs when he saw something in the corner of his eye.
The door to the cupboard under the stairs. It was partly open.
Riley was sure he hadn’t left it partly open.
“Someone’s in there,” he said.
He walked quicker then, Anna and Cody not far behind. He got to the cupboard door. He lifted his axe, held his breath. If there was someone in there, they were going to get a rude awakening when he opened it.
“Watch my back,” Riley said.
“Riley—”
Anna started, but she didn’t finish.
Riley opened the door.
And when he looked inside the cupboard under the stairs, he saw Carly sitting there, Kesha in her arms.
Riley frowned. “Carly. What…”
He stopped when she put her finger over her lips.
When he saw the fear in her wide eyes.
And when she pointed right above her.
It was then that Riley heard the creaking of the stairs above him.
It was then that he realised Anna and Cody were looking up the stairs at something, horrified.
And it was then that he saw it, and his body froze completely.
There was someone else in the house.
It was an Orion.
And it was coming down the stairs towards them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Riley held his breath and listened to the heavy footsteps of the Orion creaking down the stairs right above them.
They were all under the stairs now. Riley, Cody, Anna, Carly and Kesha. And in a way it felt good to be reunited; to all be back together. It felt good that they hadn’t lost each other, as Riley had been fearing all along.
But at the same time, it made Riley feel empty, too. Because here they all were, trapped in the place they’d come close to believing was safe for so long.
Here they were, with an absolute beast coming down the stairs towards them.
Here they were, death staring them in the face.
Riley peered at the darkness of the door in front of him. All he could hear were those footsteps getting further down the stairs, and the racing of his heart battering against his rib cage. He could taste sweat in the air—the fearful sweat that always accompanied situations like these. By his side, he could feel Carly shaking. He knew she was afraid. Truth was, they were all afraid. They’d be mad not to be afraid.
Riley had seen what these monsters were capable of.
Being afraid was a very natural and ordinary response to them.
It was the correct response.
“Keep still,” Riley whispered, directing it at everyone. “Keep quiet. And whatever you do, don’t let it see you. Don’t let it know you’re here.”
The Orion’s footsteps stopped.
It had reached the bottom of the stairs.
Riley held his breath. He knew this was it. The Orion was going to come walking past them. It might even look inside the door under the stairs.
But no. That couldn’t happen.
They had to stay quiet.
They had to just… pray.
He heard the Orion’s footsteps pacing its way down the hallway and he knew their time was running out.
He clenched his eyes shut and clutched Carly’s hand. He found himself holding it tighter and tighter, and soon realised he was the one squeezing hardest. But it wasn’t because he feared death himself anymore. Sure, death wouldn’t be great. He wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as he used to be.
He feared it because he dreaded the thought of all the people he would leave behind.
He feared them losing their lives.
He feared it all.
He saw the figure moving past the crack in the doorway and his stomach dropped completely.
There was something about the presence of an Orion that was… well, different. You saw the undead most days of your life. In a way, you got used to their stench, to their sounds.
But the Orion… being close to one again, it all came back to Riley. The musky smell. Its shiny, oily skin.
And those teeth.
Long, daggerlike teeth, clicking together in hypnotic rhythm.
Carly squeezed back on Riley’s hand.
Riley squeezed back twice as hard.
They stayed there for a while, not moving, completely still. But the Orion stayed there too. And Riley wondered whether the Orion was on to them. Whether it was getting ready to tear this door down and rip them to pieces.
Then he remembered the children.
There was something about the children. Some weird way in which the Orions reacted, mother like. He remembered when Tamara had been able to draw them all towards her somehow when she’d had her poor baby inside her. He remembered how an Orion had been transfixed with Kesha , when he’d been travelling with Jordanna and Chloë by his side.
But no. He couldn’t do anything with Kesha. He couldn’t risk it. After all, there was no knowing whatsoever whether this Orion would react in the exact same way.
But at least they had a safety net, just in case.
He kept on holding his breath then he felt Carly loosen her grip on his hand.
He turned. And right away he worried he’d jolted and moved too quickly, that it was going to catch the attention of the Orion.
But then he saw why Carly had moved her hand and a whole new fear started to build.
Kesha was crying. Really crying. Crying unlike Riley had ever seen.
Her eyes were wide. Almost popping out of her skull.
She was writhing herself either side, violently, stretching her hands out in the direction of the Orion.
She would’ve been noisy… if Carly didn’t have a hand over her mouth.
Riley heard the Orion start to pace around outside. He looked back at Kesha. Please calm down, kid. For your own good, please calm down.
He looked up at the door. Heard the Orion’s teeth start to chatter even louder.
He waited for a fist to smack through the door, to wrap itself around his neck.
And then something weird happened.
The Orion stormed back down the hallway and raced up the stairs.
Riley didn’t understand what was happening at first. Everything was a little blurry, a little unclear.
But the Orion was upstairs.
They had an opportunity.
“We need to go,” Riley said.
Anna frowned. “But—”
“The back door. Right now.”
Riley opened the door and waved everyone out. They all headed out before him. Upstairs, he could still hear the Orion. It was so close. He could sense just how near it was.
But he didn’t have time to be afraid.
Just time to keep on trying to get everyone out.
When everyone was out, he looked at the front door. No. Too dangerous. Too in the eye line of the Orion.
So he ran to the back door. He grabbed the handle
and opened it slowly.
When he saw what was there, he almost fell right back.
The back yard was filled with creatures. All of them were pouring out, pushing them back into the cottage, trying to work their way inside.
Riley pushed back as hard as he could. He rammed the door against them. One of the creatures’ arms wedged its way inside the crack.
So Riley slammed the door against it. Hard. Repeatedly.
He kept on going, no thought for how loud he was being anymore. Just as long as he closed this door.
He slammed it again.
The arm was still there.
So he slammed it again, and again, harder and harder.
It was only on the eighth slam that the creature’s decomposed arm fell away from its body and the door finally closed.
Riley staggered back, trying to regain his composure. There were still lots of creatures outside. The door wasn’t going to hold forever.
“How…” Anna started.
“It doesn’t matter,” Riley said. “We need to get to the front door. Now!”
He turned around and went to run to the front door.
But then he heard something.
The stairs beside him creaked.
The Orion was coming down the stairs.
And this time, there was nowhere for them to hide.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Riley looked at the back door where the creatures were crowding around, banging their wretched hands against the kitchen glass.
And then he looked at the front door, where there was a window of opportunity. A chance to get away.
But that chance was being hindered by the Orion.
That chance was running out with every passing second.
Outside, Riley could hear the rain crashing down. The smell of Orion was strong in the air, but that was mixing with the oncoming rot of the undead now. Riley’s heart pounded. He didn’t want to be inactive. He knew he had to make a move.
He just needed to make sure he made the right move.
The Orion was coming down the stairs.
He turned around to face Carly. “I need you to stay in here with Kesha.”
Carly frowned. So too did Anna and Cody. “But—”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “We’ll go out the front door while we can. We’ll clear the back door. But there’s not enough time for us all to get out.”
“Riley, I—I—”
“Just get under the stairs and hide in there. The Orion won’t hurt you. Not as long as you’ve got Kesha.”
He did something then. Something he really, really didn’t want to have to do.
He turned away from Kesha without saying a word.
And then he rushed to the front door, opened it, and escorted the rest of his people outside.
Only Anna didn’t join them.
“Anna,” he said.
She backed away, Carly holding Kesha by her side. “I can’t leave her on her own in here.”
The shadow of the Orion got closer to the top of the stairs.
Riley wanted to argue. He wanted to tell Anna that he trusted his intuitions; that he’d seen how the Orions were with children.
But he knew what Anna was doing was the right thing.
Carly, as strong as she was, didn’t deserve to be left in this house on her own.
So he nodded.
Then he slammed the door shut and he walked away.
And as he rushed around to the back of the house, axe in hand, there was nothing he could do but feel guilt.
Immense guilt.
Because he'd turned his back on Carly, on Kesha, on Anna.
He’d left them in there, all alone with that monster.
As he raced towards the crowd of the undead, axe raised above his head, Cody by his side, he hoped he’d made the right call.
He hoped his intuitions were right.
He hoped…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Carly held Kesha in her arms and raced towards the cupboard under the stairs.
She could already hear the heavy footsteps of the Orion coming down the stairs towards them and she was scared. She trusted Riley. She thought he was a good person and she believed in him. He cared about her and he cared about Kesha.
But she wasn’t sure how she felt about being left in this house with just Anna while one of those Orions was in here.
She closed the door and her and Anna moved to the back of the cupboard under the stairs. This time, she tried to hold her breath but she couldn’t. She tried to slow down her racing heart, but she couldn’t. She tried to stop herself from clumsily moving around in here, and to stop Kesha from crying, but she couldn’t do any of that either.
And all the while the Orion was getting further and further down the stairs.
All the while, the undead’s pressing against the back door was getting more intense, cracks starting to sound, the weight of their bodies getting stronger against the door.
Carly squeezed her eyes shut as the Orion paced its way down the corridor.
“It’s okay,” Anna said, as Carly listened to the Orion’s footsteps move faster down the corridor; as the sound of slashing and grunting outside marked Riley and Cody’s assault on the undead. “It’s going to be okay, Carly. I promise.”
But Carly heard the shakiness in Anna’s voice and she knew she was only saying what she wanted to hear.
And then she knew she was in trouble when the Orion’s footsteps stopped.
It didn’t thrash about outside the door this time. It didn’t stand there clicking its teeth, uncertain of what to do, of where to go.
Carly could hear its breathing as it leaned towards the door.
She could hear it grunting and growling as its face pressed up against the wood.
There was silence. Just for a moment. And Carly wondered whether she was off the hook again; whether the Orion wasn’t as clever as its kind were made out to be.
And then she heard its hands grab the door.
The next thing she knew, the Orion pulled the door off its hinges and tossed it across the hallway.
Carly wanted to squeeze her eyes shut out of sheer instinct more than anything. She wanted to believe that if she shut her eyes, the Orion wouldn’t see her as clearly, or that she’d be hidden some more.
But all she could do was stare up into the dark eyes of the Orion.
All she could do was watch as its thick saliva dropped down its luminous white teeth.
All she could do was wait for it to do whatever it was going to do, Kesha in her arms.
There was silence. And in that silence, Carly didn’t know how much time had passed. She didn’t know how long she’d been staring at that Orion, how long it had been staring back at her.
She just knew what Riley had told her about the Orions. About how the Orions were better with the children. How they could be trusted, somehow.
And then she saw something that threw her completely.
Kesha was looking up at the Orion with wide, fascinated eyes.
She was stretching her hands out in its direction, like she wanted it to take her away.
And Carly couldn’t understand why she felt this way, but suddenly calmness filled her body. Even though this monster was standing opposite her—a monster that could end her life in the flick of a second—Carly didn’t feel afraid of it anymore. She’d heard rumours of how they’d been made. She’d heard about how they were people experimented on to become the perfect undead hunters.
And there was something still there behind this Orion’s scary eyes.
There was something motherly about them.
The Orion leaned towards Kesha, totally transfixed by her, and reached out its long-nailed hands.
“Don’t, Carly,” Anna whispered. “Don’t let it take her.”
And Carly knew that Anna was right. She knew it was dangerous to let Kesha go. She knew she couldn’t trust an Orion with this precious girl.
But she felt safe in doing so.<
br />
She felt like it was a genuine option.
That scared her. It made her feel weird.
But she let the Orion wrap its hands around Kesha, and start to take her away so gently, so softly.
Carly looked up at the Orion and she felt like she was speaking to it. Not using words, but just by looking into its eyes. She felt like she was connecting with it.
Then, as tears rolled down her cheeks—tears she couldn’t comprehend, that went beyond her normal levels of understanding—something else happened.
One second, the Orion’s head was there.
The next second, it exploded.
Carly squeezed her eyes shut as cold brown goo covered her face. She felt it drool down her skin, then wiped her eyes, gasping, still not quite able to understand what had happened.
When she could see clearly, she saw exactly what had happened.
The Orion was lying dead on the floor. There was an axe wedged in its cracked skull. Kesha was in front of it. She was looking at the Orion with confusion. Like she’d just had a toy she really liked taken away from her.
When she looked up, she saw exactly who had killed the Orion.
It was Ricky and Melissa. They were back.
“Carly? Anna?” Ricky said. “Are you guys…”
They were interrupted when the back door opened. It was Riley and Cody. They both stepped in, covered in blood.
“You made it back,” Riley said. “I’ve got some news. Good news. This is Cody. He’s…”
Riley didn’t finish, but it all seemed to happen so slowly.
Carly saw the confusion in Melissa and Ricky’s eyes when they saw Cody.
Then she saw Melissa raise her axe and point it at Cody.
“Don’t move another muscle,” she said.
There was a delayed confusion. A moment where Riley looked at Cody, then back at Melissa. “This… this is Cody. I knew him. We were friends back at the—”
“I don’t give a damn how you knew each other. And I don’t give a damn how much you think he’s your friend. He’s wearing the gear.”
Riley frowned. “The gear?”
Cody looked down at his black outfit. Then he looked around at Riley, and at Anna, and at Carly, then back at Melissa and Ricky.
“Cody?” Riley said. “What’s this about? What’s the gear?”