by Ryan Casey
“She’s… she’s the cure,” Carly said.
“What?”
“Kesha. She’s the cure. She can cure other people.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
A day later and Riley, Anna, Melissa and Ricky were still no closer to their destination.
The weather was torrential. The storm seemed to have come out of nowhere at all. That smell of earthiness filled Riley’s lungs every time he took a deep breath, reminding him of better times; calmer times. He allowed that calmness to fill his body and energise him. After all, he knew he had to keep on going. He knew there was no time to stop. Not anymore.
He felt the rain lashing down on him and he shivered. It wasn’t cold, but rain had a way of doing that, especially when you’d been drenched in it for so long. He thought of the days he used to go out with his dad to walk their old dog, Buster. The times they’d be caught in the storms, so end up taking shelter under trees and waiting for the rain to subside. He’d got cold. He’d be shivering.
But those times were beautiful times.
Those times defined his childhood.
Just such a pity everything had to go to shit after that.
He looked beside him at Melissa, and Ricky, and then at Anna. They were all struggling along, all of them quiet. All of them focused and determined to reach their destination.
It was sad that they’d lost Cody. He was a good person, no doubt about that. But in a way, Riley felt numb. He felt totally numb to the loss, and that made him feel guilty. It made him realise just how sick of this world he really was.
He was tired of being numb towards death. Being numb to it wasn’t a normal, healthy reaction.
Things had to change.
He pushed on, feet sore and blistered, not to mention damp. And as he pressed on through the rain, he knew this would all be worth it, soon. Not only because they were going to get to the extraction point and get the hell away from here—whether he was bitten or not. But they were going to get to Carly and Kesha, too, and they were going to save them both.
“What if they don’t let us in?”
Riley heard Melissa’s words and his stomach sank. After all, that was a fear he’d had all along. And he had no doubt that others had those fears, too.
What if they didn’t let them into the extraction point?
What then?
Riley stopped. He looked at Melissa, took a deep breath, and he smiled.
“They can try their damnedest not to let us in,” he said. “We’ll just knock the fucking doors down.”
Melissa smiled. So too did Ricky, and Anna. And right at that moment, Riley realised that he didn’t have to long for those old times anymore. He didn’t have to wish things were different, back to how they were.
Because right now he was surrounded by family.
He’d always been surrounded by family.
They walked further, unsure of whether they were heading exactly in the right direction, just following Cody’s instructions, hoping for the best.
And just when hope was waning, just when Ricky crouched down, took off his shoes and revealed an absolute cacophony of blisters… just when Riley and Anna and Melissa didn’t think they could go any further, he saw it.
There was a gate. A tall, metal gate. It reminded Riley of the Manchester Living Zone, which made his stomach turn.
But more than anything it excited him.
“It’s… it’s real,” Anna said. “It’s actually real.”
Riley looked ahead, Anna, Melissa and Ricky by his side.
All of them looked on, tears in their eyes.
“We’ve made it,” Riley said. “We’re… we’re here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gareth Bowen looked at the mass of people standing in the camp beneath him and he felt a smile cross his face.
It wasn’t the nicest day, that was for sure. There was a storm overhead, the crash of thunder and lightning illuminating the sky. But it wasn’t a bad day. It was a very beautiful day, in fact.
Because today was the day they moved away from this place once and for all.
Today was the day they moved on.
Forever.
He saw the people with the smiles on their faces as they stood underneath their shelter. Women holding children in their arms. Children playing with one another, fathers looking on. All of it was so beautiful, so perfect. All of it was the future of the world.
If only these people knew the beauty that lay ahead for them…
He heard the thunder rumble even stronger. And when he listened to it, it reminded him of when he was out there on his own when this infection first struck. He’d been on holiday in the middle of Crete when he’d seen the news. Immediately, he knew what it was. After all, the government had been planning and making contingency plans for a long, long time. Preparing for the worst case scenario. Because the worst case scenario really, really was coming.
But he’d of course been one of the few in the know. So he’d flown back to the Outer Hebrides, where he was stationed, and landed in the most devastating of storms. He’d heard what the plan was: to repopulate these islands, but strictly with infection-free people.
Eventually, some of those people would be able to move on. They’d be able to forge new lives for themselves. Beautiful lives in the world outside.
There was reluctance from native residents of those countries, of course. The unaffected countries didn’t want people stepping onto their shores that’d previously been surrounded by such a deadly virus.
But Gareth was confident. He was certain that within the next fifty years, not only could people affected by the virus be living in the new world. They could also begin to move back to Britain.
The second phase of that journey ended today.
He heard a knock on his door, and he turned around right away. He looked across his office and saw James standing there. He was wearing some tan chinos that were worn down and torn at the knees, and a navy blue oxford shirt. He had dark circles under his eyes, but he was smiling. He was a good man. His main adviser. Well, he wondered just what his adviser would have for him today…
“The boats are ready to go. The helicopters are ready to go. And the planes are ready to go.”
Gareth nodded. He could sense there was something else to be said. Something… unspoken. “But?”
James lowered his head. “There’s still no sign of the parties that went out there. The retrieval parties.”
Gareth feigned a sigh. Then he nodded. “That’s just unfortunate. But they knew the rules. They knew the plan. And they knew exactly when they were due back.”
A pause from James. A moment of hesitation. “So you’re saying we leave without them?”
Gareth walked over to him slowly, his feet tapping against the solid floor of his office. “I’m saying we honour them by continuing with the initial plan. Now you get yourself on that first plane and get the hell out of here.”
James shook his head. “I—I can’t do that—”
“Yes you can. You’ve worked so hard over these last couple of years. You’ve been so loyal. It’s only right that you’re the first one to depart of the last of us. Right?”
James looked like he wanted to hesitate. Then, he sighed. “Thank you, sir. Sincerely.”
Gareth put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t mention it.”
He watched then as James turned and walked away. And there was a sadness to it, actually. A sense deep down that this was the ending of something rather than the beginning of something.
But he’d see James again soon.
They’d continue their work together, soon.
But for now…
Gareth turned around to the window and he felt sickness building up. He felt guilt building up.
The group he’d sent out there. The groups he’d sent to research. To retrieve.
He hadn’t sent them out there to research. Not really. Because he already knew everything there was to know about the virus.
He hadn’t sent them out there to retrieve any final people.
They were infected. All of them had been touched by the infection at some stage.
So they had to stay behind in this world.
They had to die.
He poured himself a small glass of Vodka and he sipped it back, the taste of it burning his lips.
He watched as the first of the planes filled up. He saw James, right at the back of it. James looked up at him. For a moment, Gareth thought he saw suspicion in his eyes.
But then James walked onto the plane. The doors shut. And the engines rolled up, ready to depart.
For this was the final day.
This was the day of the great emigration.
And after this day… Britain was on its own.
Everyone left here was on their own with only the infection for company.
Forever.
EPISODE FIFTY
HOME SWEET…
(FOURTH EPISODE OF SEASON NINE)
PROLOGUE
James held his breath as the plane’s engines rumbled to life.
He looked out of the window at the rain falling down heavily and he couldn’t help feeling like it was some ominous kind of sign. Of course, he didn’t really believe in “signs” or anything like that. He was a man of logic. Logic had got him this far, and it would get him further still.
And yet, something was telling him that he should feel better about this moment. He should feel amazing about the fact that he was leaving Britain for good and heading out into a bold new world.
Maybe that was exactly the problem.
Was he really heading into a new world?
Or was he flying direct to a prison; to a false dawn, nothing more than a way of pulling the wool over his eyes?
James swallowed a lump in his throat and tasted sick. He couldn’t act dumb any longer. He knew what Gareth’s endgame was. He wanted to eradicate the infection. And that was a moral cause, of course it was.
But he’d lied to Cody and the rest of the people he’d sent out on the final retrieval mission. He’d sent them on a wild goose chase that they weren’t ever going to return from.
Something about that just didn’t sit right with James, even though he knew the danger the infection posed to the rest of the world.
He looked down the length of the plane. He was sitting right at the back, seatbelt tightly fastened. He didn’t like flying. Nerves always struck him before flying anywhere. There were boats on offer, there were helicopters on offer, and he’d ended up in the plane all along. Thanks, Gareth. One final turn of the knife.
He looked at the people sitting upright in their chairs. He heard children crying with fear of flying, especially in a storm like this. He saw the hostesses demonstrating safety procedures, and all of it just felt so alien. Such normal acts in the old word now felt so absurd and performed in the new one.
And as he watched this hostess demonstrate the safety procedures, James wondered if this was what the new world was going to be like all the time. People picking up their old traditions, hoping to resuscitate them, convincing themselves that nothing had changed, not really.
But of course the world couldn’t just go on.
Things had changed. They had changed significantly.
The world couldn’t just go on as normal. Because nobody who had survived in this world for so long was normal.
The seatbelt light came on and it made James jump. But of course he already had his belt on. Safety first. They’d deactivate that light when they were high enough, but there was no way James was getting up. There was no way he was going anywhere.
Anywhere but the new world.
Anywhere but that new reality lying ahead of them.
The hostesses walked past him and took their seats. The plane began to move. And as it shifted, a strange silence came over the plane. Like a doubting. A disbelief over whether this was really happening; whether people really were being taken to safety after all.
And James had to wonder too, as he looked out of the window, through the specks of rain, up at Gareth’s window. Because he’d sent Cody and the others out to die. He’d left them out there, all because they’d been touched by the infection.
What if he was just doing the same to him?
What if there was something else—something secret—that James didn’t know?
He went to unbuckle his belt as his chest tightened, as his mind began to spin. All of a sudden, everything was adding up, everything was making sense. He should’ve seen it. He shouldn’t have been so stupid. He shouldn’t have fallen for it all along.
But his seatbelt wouldn’t unbuckle.
He tried even harder as the plane moved faster. And when he started to lift himself out of the belt, he saw a security guard—one he hadn’t seen earlier—appear at the bottom of the aisle. He was holding a gun and walking right towards James. And that just increased the terror in James’ body. That just increased the fear. The uncertainty.
Or rather, the certainty.
Oh God what had he done?
“It’s a trick!” James shouted. “There’s—there is no—”
The security guard pressed down hard on his shoulder, pushing him back into his seat. “Sit down, sir!”
But James saw that the security guard had failed. Because people were looking around with suspicion, with concern.
What if James was right?
What if he was right all along?
He looked up at the security guard holding the gun and he knew he was on thin ice. But he couldn’t just give up. He couldn’t allow this to happen.
“Are you calm now, sir?” the security guard asked. “Because we can give you a sedative to calm you if you aren’t.”
James took a deep breath. He looked at the needle in the hostess’ hand beside him. And he nodded.
Then, he shouted: “Stop the plane! Do everything you can to get off it! It’s not what—”
He didn’t see anything else.
He didn’t hear anything else.
Just a blast, and then blackness.
AS THE PLANE DEPARTED, Riley watched, and a tear rolled down his cheek.
“This is it,” he said, holding Anna’s hand, Melissa and Ricky close beside them. “This is our escape. This is where we go to our new world.”
CHAPTER ONE
Anna stared in awe at the extraction point in the distance and in spite of how relieved and hopeful she felt, she couldn’t deny the apprehension that was building within her too.
It was afternoon and it was getting late. They’d been walking for so long that honestly, Anna had lost track. The clouds were thickening, and the storm didn’t seem to be letting up. Maybe that’s what was making things feel so ominous. Or maybe it was the sense that it had been so long without such a major optimistic offer of hope like this… it just didn’t seem real or legitimate, somehow.
In fact, it might well be the most hopeful offer that the group had ever had. Certainly the most hopeful offer Anna had had, anyway.
She just didn’t want all that hope to be for nothing.
She watched the plane disappear into the distance and she knew now that they had to be more urgent than ever. What if that was the final plane? What if nobody after that point was going to leave at all? She didn’t know, of course. She couldn’t. It was all just speculation.
But speculation was sometimes a positive thing. Speculation had kept them all alive for so, so long.
Preparing themselves for the worst had kept them alive for so, so long.
Anna listened to the falling rain lashing down harder, the thunder building, and she felt a sense of unease inside. It went right back to her childhood, back to when she used to hide under the bed whenever thunderstorms reared their ugly heads. She remembered what her mum used to tell her. That the thunder was just the sound of the good gods defeating the bad.
And sure, that was a nice idea in theory.
But in practice, it didn’t make any fucking difference. She was s
till terrified of the thunder, right to this day.
“We need to keep moving,” Ricky said. “We… we can’t take any chances. Not anymore. Not after that crowd we dodged back there.”
And Anna agreed. She agreed wholeheartedly. But in spite of that, something still bothered her. Something made her reluctant to proceed. It made her not want to keep moving at all.
“Anna?” Riley asked. “What is it?”
Anna swallowed a thick lump in her throat and then took a few sharp breaths. She looked up at Riley, smiled. Then looked to Melissa and Ricky. “It’s just… all this. It all seems too good to be true. Don’t you think?”
There was a pause, then. Anna knew Riley and the others were considering it. It wasn’t an easy thing, having hope on the table and someone basically dampening it, suggesting throwing it all away.
“I trusted Cody,” Riley said. “I still do trust Cody. I saw what kind of a person he was, back at the Living Zone. I saw the kinds of things he was capable of. What he’d do for people. And I don’t believe he’s the kind of person who’d trick us like this, or lead us down a road he didn’t think we could come out of.”
“But you heard what he said,” Melissa interrupted. And Anna sensed the nerves and the apprehension were spreading to her now, too. “What he said about why he was really out here. What those people had been sent to do. And why they were really sent out there after all.”
Riley nodded. “He also told us that not everyone was cool with that viewpoint. And he also told us that it was worth a try. That Kesha was different, somehow.”
“But if they have Kesha. And sure, they might. But if they have her and they have Carly… what’s going to convince them to suddenly let us go along with them? Even if Kesha really is different?”
Riley couldn’t respond to that. And Anna felt bad about contributing to such deterioration in his hope. It was good to see him optimistic. It was good to see him hopeful. She didn’t want to destroy all of that.
But she had to be realistic.