Dead Days Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 9)

by Ryan Casey

  “It’s a station between a tunnel system,” Riley said.

  Ricky frowned. “A tunnel system?”

  Riley walked into the main area. There were bright luminous lights shining from above. A metallic kitchen area on his right. A recreational area on his left, television and board games looking ominously tempting. All of it so bright, so medicinal… and yet so familiar.

  “Governments suspected something cataclysmic was going to happen to the world. They just didn’t know what exactly. So they built stations. Government stations, with tunnel systems linking up to the nearest living zones.”

  Melissa shook her head. “This… none of this makes any sense.”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in. But it’s legit. I’ve seen these places from the inside. I… I escorted a very good man from one of these bunkers to the Manchester Living Zone. He didn’t make it. But make no mistake about it. If I hadn’t trusted him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

  Riley walked right up to the large, oval metal door. He knew where it would lead. Right out into a tunnel.

  And there would be ways to get out of the tunnel. There would be openings; manhole covers and the like. There would be an opportunity to get back to Anna, Carly, everyone else. Sadly, it didn’t seem like the tunnel system travelled towards Carlisle, so they weren’t going to be able to take the underground route. But at least it was going to be of some use, for now.

  “This tunnel system,” Ricky said. “You sure it’s safe?”

  Riley felt a knot in his stomach when Ricky asked that question. He looked down at his leg, remembered the bite that he thought would end his life, and how he’d got it in the tunnel system. “Not necessarily. But better than up there? Has to be.”

  He turned around, then. Because something was bothering him. This place, for all the lights that were on and for all its similarity to Alan’s old bunker… there was no sign of life in here. There was no sign that anyone had lived here at all.

  “What’s bothering you?” Melissa asked.

  Riley looked around. “There should be someone in here.”

  “What?”

  “There’s someone stationed at every bunker. Which means whoever was here either left. Or they…”

  Riley stopped, then.

  He stopped because he saw what was at the other side of the free-standing kitchen unit.

  There was a puddle of blood creeping and pooling out around the side of it.

  And sitting in that pool of blood, there was a woman.

  She was middle-aged. Greying hair. Her eyes were open, and she looked like she had a smile on her face.

  Her wrists had been cut deeply with a large shard of glass.

  “Shit,” Ricky said. “That’s fucked up.”

  Riley felt sympathy for the woman. If Alan was anything to go by then these people were good people. And the worst part was, this woman didn’t look like she’d been dead for long.

  She’d washed the dishes. She’d broken a glass. Then she’d used it to open up her forearms.

  There were perfectly good guns around, and still she’d chosen this way of all ways.

  “Shame,” Melissa said. “Seeing her like this. It just…”

  Riley put a hand on Melissa’s shoulder. And he felt like there was a connection between them. Like they both understood that this was what they’d tried to do to themselves. But seeing it like this in someone else… it was just horrible. A real reminder that living was always better. Always.

  “I know,” Riley said. “I know.”

  They made their way to the oval door, then. And with a little struggle, they managed to open it up.

  When Ricky and Melissa saw the gaping tunnel right ahead of them, Riley couldn’t help smiling at their faces, totally in awe.

  Not to mention the fact that, apart from some dripping, everything seemed pretty silent. All clear.

  “You guys ready?” he asked.

  Ricky looked at Riley and nodded. Melissa looked, and she smiled.

  Then, together, they began their walk through the tunnel system.

  They wouldn’t be going far right now. Just far enough to get to the others.

  This was their new direction.

  This was a part of their new journey.

  And they were going to succeed.

  AFTER ABOUT FIFTEEN minutes of walking, they finally reached a manhole cover.

  Riley wasn’t sure if it’d bring them out exactly where he wanted it to. But he had to give it a shot. If there was a mass of creatures walking over it… then so be it. At least they had guns, now.

  He had to be quick about it. They all did. Didn’t want all the hard work trying to divert the creatures going to waste.

  “You sure about this?” Melissa asked, as Riley went to open the manhole cover.

  Riley looked down at her and he smiled. “No. Not even fucking nearly sure. But hey. That’s all part of the fun, right?”

  Melissa laughed a little, and so too did Ricky.

  Riley enjoyed that vibe. Just for a moment, he allowed himself to enjoy it.

  Then he pushed open the manhole cover.

  There weren’t any creatures walking over it.

  In fact, there weren’t any creatures anywhere.

  Riley pulled himself out of the manhole, followed by Melissa and Ricky. He looked around, tried to get his bearings.

  “She’s over there,” Melissa said.

  He turned around and he saw exactly what Melissa had been referring to.

  They were in the middle of the road where the mass of the undead had been walking down not long ago. The undead had all drifted off towards the cabin, their direction changed.

  But up the road, Anna was still standing there.

  Riley smiled. He ran towards her. He started to wave. He was so relieved. So happy. He couldn’t wait to share the news and tell her they’d done it. They were going to be okay. They were all going to be okay.

  But the closer he got, the more his uncertainty grew. And that uncertainty was because of the fact that Anna was on her own. There was no sign of Cody. No sign of Carly. No sign of Kesha.

  “Anna?” Riley said.

  Anna was staring at her right. She looked lost. Totally lost. And Riley saw something else, then.

  He saw that she was crying.

  “Anna?” he said. “What is it? What’s…”

  He stopped, then.

  He stopped, and his stomach sank completely.

  There was a hole in the road. It looked like there’d been some kind of sinkhole.

  But it was what was in that sinkhole that really floored him.

  There were loads of dead hands scraping out against the rubble. Some faces, too, which had been crushed and mangled, their skulls barely holding themselves in place.

  But there was someone else there.

  He was looking up at Riley and he was snarling. His eyes had gone glassy. His neck and back were dripping blood. Loose strings of flesh dangled down from his chest as he tried and tried to climb his way up that wall, tried desperately to get to Riley, but kept on failing.

  It was Cody.

  Cody had turned.

  Riley felt the tears building then. He saw the way Cody was looking at him and he knew beneath his infection that this man was still alive. He knew he could see him. And he knew how terrible this existence must be.

  “I’m sorry, Cody,” he said, lifting the rifle he’d brought back from the bunker. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked away.

  Then he pulled the trigger.

  He didn’t look again. He didn’t have to. Cody had stopped snarling.

  He looked at Anna then, and he saw the redness in her eye. And he knew there was something else. Something else to this horror that he didn’t yet understand, and that he didn’t even dare ask.

  But he had to.

  “Where’s Carly?” he asked. “Where’s Kesha?”

  And Anna didn’t even have to say a word.

  Her expression said i
t all.

  They were gone.

  Carly and Kesha were gone.

  And Anna couldn’t find them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Riley couldn’t think. He couldn’t feel. He couldn’t hear, smell or anything.

  All he could do was run.

  He ran through the trees. Branches and leaves scratched against his face. He knew there was a chance that there was something or someone sinister around. He knew he was being reckless, and recklessness was what got people in the shit. It was what got people killed in this world.

  But he didn’t care.

  Carly was out there.

  Kesha was out there.

  He had to find them. He couldn’t lose them.

  Their safety and survival were everything he was fighting for.

  He could faintly hear voices behind him. Anna shouting for her, telling him to come back. Or maybe it was Melissa. Or hell, maybe it was Ricky.

  All of it blurred together.

  All he knew was that he had to keep on searching. Carly and Kesha’s lives might depend on it.

  As he ran, the memories all came flooding back to him. The horrible thoughts of the people he’d lost. The people he was supposed to protect. Chloë. Jordanna. So many people, all of them fallen. All of them gone.

  He stopped, then. He put his hands on his knees. He gasped as the breath drifted from his body. He couldn’t breathe at all. He couldn’t swallow. He couldn’t do a thing.

  All he could do was stare at the earth as the whole world collapsed from underneath him all over again.

  He wasn’t sure how much time passed before he felt the hand on his shoulder and he didn’t even flinch.

  “Breathe, Riley.” Anna.

  He tried to breathe but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

  “Riley, breathe. We aren’t going to get Carly or Kesha back if you aren’t breathing.”

  Slowly but surely, Riley regained some of his composure. He took slow deep breaths in through his nostrils, just like his therapist once told him, and he felt calmness building. An impartiality. He could see the world playing out in front of him, and he realised there was no good in getting lost in emotion here. There was no good to be gained or achieved by recklessly running into the woods in search and in hope of finding them.

  They were gone.

  “The people in the black outfits,” Melissa said. “The people who we saw experimenting. They… they wore those.”

  Riley didn’t know what Melissa was talking about until he saw her pointing at the ground to his left.

  There were boot prints. Looked like heavy duty boots. Recent.

  But it was what was beside those prints that took most of his interest.

  The black cotton material.

  The same material that Cody had worn.

  Riley looked at the material and he regained his composure, dragging himself back into the present moment. “We’re going to find them.”

  He stood up, turned around, started walking past the rest of his people.

  Ricky put a hand on his chest. “If they’re with them… they could already be dead, Riley.”

  Riley held his nerve and resisted exploding at Ricky.

  “They aren’t dead. They’ve taken them. For some reason, they’ve taken them.”

  He walked to the edge of the road, and looked down it. The path was still clear. The creatures were well and truly on a different route. For now.

  “Carly’s a smart girl. She knows what she’s doing. And if she’s got her wits about her, she’ll have kept Kesha safe. She’d have kept both of them alive. And she’ll keep on doing that.”

  Anna stepped up beside him. Then Melissa, then Ricky. The four of them were all that was left. There was no Cody now. They were on their own.

  “So what do you suggest we do?” Melissa asked.

  Riley looked around at all of them, one by one. He wanted to lose his shit. He wanted to scream.

  But he looked at Anna and he remembered that calmness. That importance of composure. “We keep on going to the extraction point,” he said. “We find Carly and Kesha. And if we have to kill to get them back—if we have to jeopardise every chance of getting off this island to get them back—then so be it.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Carly walked along the road and tried to keep on pretending she was all sweet and innocent in the company of the men in black.

  It was getting later in the afternoon. There were specks of rain falling now. Carly never liked the rain. She didn’t like the way it made her feel damp and dirty all over, even though a bit of rain was always good for them in this world. She’d been getting a sore head for a while now, probably because she hadn’t had any real warm showers in years. But the rain didn’t ease it. It didn’t make her feel better. It just stung it even more.

  She looked at the road ahead, and then back around at the men she was with. There were six of them. They were all dressed in black. All holding guns. They didn’t say much. They’d just pointed the gun at Carly when they first came across her and asked her whether she’d been bitten, or whether she’d come into contact with anyone who’d been bitten.

  She’d lied. Of course she’d lied. She’d let them scan her skin for bite marks, then scan Kesha’s. And her chest had tightened when they’d done that. She knew Kesha was bitten, and she’d heard what Cody had said about these people, and what they’d do to Kesha if they found out the truth. But in the end, they hadn’t seen anything. They hadn’t noticed the scars.

  She’d dodged a bullet.

  For now.

  Her feet were sore and Kesha’s crying was getting worse. She walked further down the road and in the breeze, she could smell rot and decay. She knew the undead were close. She’d seen just how many of them there were. That sort of mass wasn’t going to disappear any time soon.

  But weirdly, she felt safe from the undead within this circle of people.

  She just didn’t feel safe from them.

  “You’ve been travelling on your own with the girl for how long?”

  Carly flinched and turned. It was the first time any of these people had addressed her for a long time. She cleared her throat, tried to regain her composure. “I, erm… I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “How am I supposed to know when there’s no phones or calendars anymore?”

  The man, who was masked, tilted his head to one side. “Fair point.”

  They walked on further. But still Carly felt like she was under scrutiny from these people. She knew that eventually, she was going to have to make some kind of move. She wanted to get back with Riley and the others. She’d seen what’d happened to Cody. And she didn’t know what’d happened to Anna or to any of them.

  But she just knew she couldn’t trust these people with Kesha or with her.

  She had to get away from them, even if it meant not going to the extraction point at all.

  Because what good was an extraction point if the people that were being extracted and doing the extracting weren’t good people?

  “And what brought you together, the pair of you?”

  That voice, again. The man on the right. He was suspicious of her, there was no doubt about that. She had to be careful. She had to make sure she had her story straight. She couldn’t slip up. Not now.

  “I… I found her.”

  “You found her?”

  “She was all on her own. Her—her mum was dead and she was all on her own. I couldn’t just leave her there.”

  The man slowed for a second, and Carly wondered if she’d said something wrong. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone as far as saying that she’d found Kesha with her dead mum. Maybe that’d make them suspicious about how her mum had died, whether she was infected. “And what led to you being on your own?”

  Carly swallowed a lump in her throat. “I told you. My mum and dad. They… they died. I tried to help them but I couldn’t. They were already gone.”

  The man slowed even more. And it
was right then that Carly realised the error of her ways.

  All of the people had stopped. All of them were staring at her.

  And the next thing she knew they were pointing their rifles at her.

  “How did they die?”

  “Please,” Carly said. “I mean—I didn’t—”

  “You’ve been lying to us.”

  “Please don’t hurt us. Please. Don’t hurt Kesha.”

  “Tell us the truth and nobody has to get hurt. Where have you come from? Where has the girl come from?”

  “Please. You can’t hurt her. You can’t.”

  The man who had been grilling Carly walked forward. Carly tried to back away, tried to run, but she slipped onto her back.

  Kesha was crying louder than ever.

  The man stepped over her. He pointed the gun right at her. “I’ll give you one more chance, girl. Where are you from? And where did you find this girl?”

  Carly wanted to fight back. She wanted to get herself out of this mess.

  But all she could do was cry.

  The man shrugged. He looked at the people around him, and they all looked back at him.

  Then he looked down to Carly once more. “Then I’ll just have to take her to be certain.”

  The man lunged down and pulled Kesha from Carly’s arms.

  “No!” Carly screamed. “No! You can’t! You can’t!”

  She tried to get to her feet. She kicked and she screamed and she fought as hard as she could to get to Kesha, but more of those people were surrounding her now, more of them blocking her way.

  “You can’t!” she screamed.

  And as the man walked off into the distance, he turned and glanced at Carly. It was just a brief, customary glance, but it was a glance all the same. And it was a glance that made Carly realise she had to make a decision. “And why can’t I?” he asked.

  Carly lowered her head.

  She took a deep breath.

  And she tried the only thing that might keep them alive, even though she’d been convinced for so long that it was the wrong thing to do.