by Ryan Casey
“Anna,” he said.
“Melissa,” Ricky said.
They hesitated for a moment. Looked at one another. And Adam sighed.
“What?” he said. “Am I seriously gonna be third wheel here?”
Riley didn’t even think about responding to Adam.
Neither did Ricky.
They just both looked ahead at Anna and at Melissa, and then they ran.
As they ran, Riley felt that dread building up. The dread that something bad was going to happen. That something was going to stop them.
He kept going, Anna getting closer.
And then before he knew it, she was in his arms, and Melissa was in Ricky's arms.
He held her tightly, and she squeezed him closely.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Anna said.
“Me too,” Riley said. “Me too.”
Beside him, he saw Melissa and Ricky look at one another, then lock lips, and Riley couldn’t help smiling.
Adam stood just behind them, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. This definitely isn’t awkward.”
They held each other for a little while longer. Then they introduced Adam to the rest of the group.
And before they knew it, they were standing together staring down an open road once again.
“We don’t have long left,” Adam said. “The last extraction happens today. We’re going to have to make these final few miles count.”
Riley looked at the crowd of creatures as they started to turn the corner, hot on their heels.
Then he looked ahead at the open road, and he took Anna’s hand.
“Only one way to make them count,” he said.
And everyone smiled and nodded in agreement.
Then, they started running, the sun cutting through the rainclouds and filling them with warmth.
A warmth that Riley desperately hoped would last…
CHAPTER TEN
Riley walked down the final stretch of the road, the extraction point looming in the distance, and he couldn’t shake the nerves he felt building in his body.
The weather had improved. The sun had completely broken through the clouds. The only sign that there had been a storm at all was the dampness of the ground underfoot.
The road so far had been quiet, but for the groaning mass of creatures following far behind. Riley knew this was risky. He was essentially drawing the undead to the extraction point.
But shit. Time was running out to get to that extraction point.
It might be a pretty shitty way of trying to bargain his way inside and to safety, but it was something.
He looked around at his people. Anna. Melissa. Ricky. And now Adam. Adam seemed like a good man. He’d just been lost in the propaganda of his leader’s cause. He’d believed that things were going to be okay because it seemed like that was the only way to maintain hope.
But now he was fast seeing the truth.
“I just… I can’t believe Gareth would do this to us,” he said. “He’s so optimistic about the future. He cares about people. Really, he does. I just don’t understand why he’d send us out to die.”
Riley walked alongside Adam, taking deep breaths of the muggy air. He couldn’t take his eyes off the walls of the extraction point, which loomed dangerously close. “Sometimes people take extreme measures when they think it’ll keep their people safe. Sometimes… sometimes they do things that might hurt the people they once cared about. But they do it because the greater good demands it. It sucks. Really, it does. But I can see why this Gareth is paranoid. I can see why he’s worried about taking a load of people who’ve been bitten or infected along into this new world of his. But he’s just doing what he thinks is right. And if he really is such a good guy then… well. I guess it’s up to you to convince him otherwise, right?”
Adam smirked, traipsing alongside Riley. “I hope he’ll listen to me. But really, I’m nobody to him, am I?”
“You don’t know that’s true.” Riley kind of wanted to say “I bloody hope not” instead but that didn’t exactly come across as the most thoughtful thing to say to a guy who was only just coming to terms with such a radical shift in circumstances.
“You’re good people,” Adam said. “Understanding people. I can see why Cody liked you guys so much.”
“He talked about us?”
“Not directly,” he said. “But he said he’d come from a community that was strong. From a group that was worth fighting for. I guess he was right.”
Adam smiled. And Riley wanted to tell him that he was a good person too. He wanted to apologise that he’d lost his people, and for all the mess they’d faced together.
But the fact of the matter was that they really were together, now.
And they had to stand shoulder to shoulder in order to truly get what they wanted.
But he couldn’t, because he heard the rattling of bullets against the road.
Riley stopped. The rest of the group stopped.
All of them looked ahead.
There was an armed crowd of men in black standing in front of the extraction point entrance.
All of them were holding rifles.
And all of them were pointing them at Riley and his group.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Riley stared back at the line of people dressed in black all standing there pointing guns in their direction.
The afternoon light was fast deteriorating. The extraction point had gone all but silent. Riley was certain he knew what that meant. They’d missed it. The final extraction. They’d missed it and they weren’t going to get away from here.
But then… these people guarding the extraction point. They were still here. And the very fact that they were still here surely meant that the people of this extraction point hadn’t all left. That could mean a few things. Either they hadn’t left yet… or that they weren’t leaving at all.
Riley couldn’t know for sure anymore.
“Don’t take another step.”
The voice rattled over a speaker system. And there was something about how detached it sounded that really gave Riley the creeps. He felt like he was being spoken to as if he was some kind of alien. Some unwanted guest. Something… less than human.
But in a way, he was. That’s how they saw him and his people.
They were outsiders. And outsiders were bad.
Gareth’s paranoia had well and truly got the better of him.
“We need to be careful here,” Ricky said. “We shouldn’t—”
“You turn around and you walk away,” the voice called down the speaker. That’s the only route there is here.”
Riley looked over his shoulders. He could see something in the distance. Dust. Not to mention a lightning-led storm cracking down from above. He knew what the dust was from. It was the undead, no doubt about it. The group had expanded and grown, and it was coming right for them.
“There’s no way we can go back,” Anna said. “Not a chance.”
Riley looked at her then, and he sensed the desperation in her voice.
She thought it was over. She thought their number was up.
Riley wasn’t going to stand here and accept that.
He took a deep breath and he started walking.
“Riley!” Melissa called.
But Riley kept on going.
And before he knew it, the others were walking with him, too.
Anna.
Ricky.
Melissa.
And Adam.
All of them walking together.
The people guarding the extraction point loaded up their guns. “We’ll repeat ourselves, but only one more time. One more step, and we shoot all of you. Don’t make us do that.”
“Tell Gareth Adam’s here to see him.”
There was silence, then. Total silence. And Riley sensed that the people guarding the wall were mulling things over in their mind.
But it was the man with the speaker who spoke first. “Adam. I… I can’t do that.”
/> “I’ve been out there doing what he wanted me to do. Or at least what he told us he wanted us to do.”
“We have strict orders, Adam.”
“And think about that. Really think about that. Why has he given you those orders? Why has he sent us out here? He sent us out here under the guise of another rescue mission when in fact he was sending us to die.”
A pause. Nothing else said.
“And where is Gareth right now?”
Another pause.
“Where is he?”
“He’s here.”
The voice came from the top of the wall. Riley had to crane his neck to see him.
But when he finally did see him, he wasn’t exactly what he expected.
There was something about evil that you could just tell when someone was bad, right off the bat. People like Mr Fletch, like Kane. It was clear what they were just looking at them.
But there were other people who weren’t evil. They were just people who were messed up in their morals and their motives.
Gareth looked like one of those guys.
“I’m sorry, Adam,” Gareth said. “Truly. But you know as well as I do that I can’t take any risks where the infection is concerned.”
“Then why don’t you be honest with your people?” Adam shouted. “Why don’t you tell these people the truth about the infection?”
“You heard them,” Gareth said, ignoring Adam. “One more step, and we shoot.”
“You can’t do this,” Riley shouted.
All attention turned away from Adam to him, now. And Riley knew this was it. His moment to appeal to their better nature. To change their opinion, once and for all, as the massive wave of creatures closed in.
“We’ve spent our lives fighting only to find ourselves fighting when the world collapses, too. I’ve been on the road for so long. I’ve met people. Amazing people. And yes. Yes. I have been bitten.”
Some gasps. Some shrieks.
“But that was long ago. And I know for a fact that many of your people had been bitten too. Only difference was, you conveniently believed that the cure was permanent when it didn’t seem like you were getting out of here; when extraction was an abstract concept. But now… now the big extraction really is happening, your leader’s started to worry. That’s what’s happening.”
“Enough of this bullshit,” Gareth said. “Fire.”
But they didn’t fire. And Riley didn’t stop talking, either.
“Before you pull that trigger, I want you to think about what I’m about to tell you. I was bitten over a year ago, and I was cured. I was bitten again not long ago, and again, I was cured. But this second time… This second time was different. I was cured by a little girl called Kesha. A girl who is so special to me. A girl who has been taken away from me and my people, we believe by your people.”
“Enough of this nonsense. Fire!”
Riley got onto his knees. “So shoot me. Shoot me if you have to. But just know that you’re making a grave mistake. Question why you’re still here. And question the changing pattern of thought of your leader. Why is he telling you that boosters are needed to stay alive when I’ve seen with my own damned eyes that isn’t true? Why is he suddenly telling you that nobody else can be saved? Is it true fear? Or is it just paranoia?”
“Fire!” Gareth shouted.
“No.”
Another voice. Riley wasn’t sure whose at first.
But when he looked up beside Gareth, he saw another man standing there.
“James,” Adam muttered.
The rest of the people looked up, lowering their guns. All of them stared up at James.
“James?” Gareth said.
“I… I hate to tell you this because I was just as involved,” he said.
“You were…”
“I was on a plane, yes. But I decided flying wasn’t for me. Nor was it for anyone else. Not when I told them the truth. You should be careful who you trust. More people doubt you than you realise.”
Riley didn’t totally understand what he was witnessing but he could see from the shift on Gareth’s face that it was something in their favour. Something big.
“Don’t do this,” Gareth said. “Don’t put the rest of the world in jeopardy—”
“But Adam is right. And so too is his friend. There is no need for the boosters. One dose of the cure is perfectly effective in all our experience. Gareth… Gareth ordered this because he’s worried about contamination in the new world. He wanted everyone in contact with the infection—anyone even born with the cure—to be left behind. He said he was sending our friends to help clear Britain out of the dangerous people. Instead… instead he was sending them all to die. All of them. And he didn’t care who went down with them just as long as they didn’t come back.”
There was a mumbling of discontent, then. A murmur that suggested to Riley that he’d just witnessed something special; something big.
But all he could focus on were those two men at the top of the wall.
One of them staring at the other with regret.
The other with total loss.
He couldn’t hear what was being said.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine.
But then he saw James begin to turn around, and Gareth grabbed him, and started to push him over the edge.
“No!” Adam shouted.
But it was already too late.
James was falling.
Riley watched him fall as if in slow motion. Everyone else watched him fall, like in slow motion.
It was only when he hit the ground, his bones cracking in every place, that Riley sensed the mood well and truly shifting.
He saw the people in black staring at James’ body.
He saw Gareth looking down with regret, like he realised what he’d just done.
Then he got to his feet, snatched the gun off Adam, and pointed it at Gareth.
“Riley, don’t,” Adam said.
He held his breath.
“We still have a chance to put things right. We still have—”
“Not while he’s breathing,” Riley said.
He got Gareth in his sights.
It was only at the last second that Gareth’s eyes met with his.
He started to turn.
But it was already too late.
Riley pulled the trigger.
Gareth was no more.
Silence followed. Silence that was filled with uncertainty.
But Riley was eager to end that silence.
He dropped his gun and walked towards the people in black as they stood guard by the extraction point entrance, clearly still reeling with what they’d just witnessed.
“You have a choice. And really, the choice is with you. You let us die in this world, or you give us a chance in the next world. All of us.”
A few of the people’s guns were still pointing at Riley. But some of them seemed more uncertain than before.
“You have to believe me when I say we’re okay. You have to believe me when I tell you there’s another option. So please. Please. Just…”
It was then that Riley realised something peculiar.
These people guarding the wall. They weren’t looking at him. Not anymore.
They were looking beyond him.
He looked over his shoulder and to where they were looking.
The undead were still coming, sure. They were closer than ever. And soon, they’d swallow this whole place up.
But there were three people in front of the undead.
And Riley knew who two of them were.
He stumbled in their direction, in disbelief at first.
And even though the creatures were coming, even though all of their hope was in the other direction, all he could do was throw away every other focus and run towards these people.
He didn’t care who the person in black with them was.
He only cared about the two others.
Carly.
Kesha.
W
hen Carly saw him, she started running too. And he started crying. Because no matter what happened, this was what extraction was. This was what hope was.
This was the world he wanted to live in, whether he was outside this infection-zone or inside it all along.
He wrapped his arms around Carly, tears rolling down both of their faces.
“My God. You’re okay. You’re okay.”
Then he saw Kesha smiling and stretching out her hands towards him, like she wanted to be picked up.
“Hello, you. Hello angel.” He picked her up. Held her close. And her warmth meant everything to him. Everything.
“She told us the truth,” the woman said. “She told us everything about Kesha. And everything about Cody too, and Gareth’s lies. Not gonna lie, we suspected as much. But now we’re here. Now we’re home. And look.”
Riley didn’t want to turn away as he held onto Kesha, the onslaught of creatures nearing. He didn’t want to turn away from this moment, ever.
But he found himself looking around.
And when he did, he saw something remarkable.
The gates were open.
The armed guards had stood aside.
Carly took Riley’s hand. She smiled at him. “Come on,” she said.
And as Riley held onto Kesha, he walked together with Carly towards the rest of his people, the people he loved, and then with them, he walked into the extraction zone… and towards whatever future lay ahead for them, as the rain subsided and the light of the late afternoon sun peeked down.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“So. You and I just can’t seem to get enough of boats, can we?”
Riley smiled when he heard Anna’s voice. But he couldn’t shake the nerves and the trepidation inside. How could he? This was a big deal. The biggest thing they’d ever done, in fact. Against all odds, all adversaries, they’d managed to find their way here of all places.
And he was expected not to be apprehensive?
It was a beautiful, mild morning. The sun shone against the water, which rippled in the light breeze. Riley looked right across the sea, right into the distance, and tried to see their destination. He didn’t know where it was, exactly. He didn’t even know what it was called, just that there were three island settlements where the survivors of Britain were going to move forward and start a new life.