by Ryan Casey
There were still concerns. Of course there were.
But every concern Riley had was washed away by the precious thing in his arms.
He looked down and he saw Kesha smirking up at him.
“What you lookin’ at, hmm?”
She giggled, then grabbed his nose.
“Yeah you might grab my nose. But I can smell what you’ve dropped from here. Carly…”
Carly rolled her eyes. “Do I have to?”
“Hey. You said yourself. You love looking after Kesha.”
“I didn’t mean I always liked changing her nappies.”
“Well, that’s kind of how I took it.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed, clearly frustrated. But there was something beautiful and wonderful to the way she complained. There was no malice to it. It was like the old bickering people used to have back in the old world, before things were so serious and life-threatening every damned day.
The very fact that they were having these normal little arguments… it had to mean something.
As Carly took Kesha away to change her, Riley saw Melissa and Ricky sitting at the edge of the boat, hand in hand. They were deep in conversation. But when they saw Riley was looking, they smiled back at him, and they nodded.
Riley nodded in turn. He was happy for them. So happy. It seemed like happiness was in abundance nowadays.
And then when he looked around, taking a deep breath of the fresh sea air, he saw Anna standing there on her own. She was staring out to sea. Riley could sense concern on her face. A furrowing of her eyebrows. Like she was optimistic but still… cautious. Cautious about believing. Especially after everything they’d been through.
“Do you really believe in it?” she asked.
Riley put an arm around her shoulder, and she leaned into him. “Believe in what?”
“This… this new world. This happy new existence. Do you really believe?”
Riley thought about Anna’s words for a few seconds, as birds swooped overhead, as the water splashed up against the side of the boat, as Melissa and Ricky held hands, and as Carly and Kesha giggled at one another.
He felt Anna’s warmth beside him, and he pulled her closer to him.
“I have to,” he said. “Because I’m already living in it.”
He turned around then, and something remarkable happened.
He kissed Anna, quite naturally, and she kissed him back.
He allowed all his reservations to sink away; all his attachments to the past to disintegrate. All that mattered right now was his family. And even in the new world, whatever it held for them, he’d do everything in his power to protect them.
“Get a room, you two. We’re about to set off.”
Riley pulled away from Anna and smiled at her. He didn’t know what the future held for them. But he knew that right now, what they had was good.
He listened with nervous anticipation as the boat kicked to life, the engines rattling loudly. He hoped everything was okay with them. In his mind, he ran through every possibility that could go wrong. But in the end, he just had to hope. He just had to believe.
And then the boat started moving.
“Look,” Anna said.
Riley turned around when Anna told him to and looked back at where they were departing. The extraction point, all high and mighty in its glory, now abandoned as the last of them left.
And further down the coast, as they got further away, Riley saw the little moving figures, and he knew what they were. Creatures. Some of them wading into the water, never to rise. Others standing there, lost in their eternal locked-in syndrome.
He felt sympathy for them. And he hoped that somehow, the world would be able to find a way to bring them back, one day. Because they weren’t the enemy. They were just… lost souls.
And lost souls would always be found again, someday.
He turned around to face the front of the boat, and watched as the sun rose higher over the horizon. And at that moment, Anna by his side, Carly by his side, Kesha in her arms, he found himself smiling, as the boat rapidly sped across the water, the foam splashing up at his face.
Because this was the new world.
This was the new reality.
And he was ready for whatever it had to throw at him.
IF ONLY HE knew what it was going to throw at him…
WANT MORE DEAD DAYS?
If you want to be notified when Ryan Casey’s next novel is released (and receive exclusive goodies), please sign up for the Readers’ Group newsletter by going to: http://ryancaseybooks.com/ryan-casey-readers-group Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Word-of-mouth and reviews are crucial to any author’s success. If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review at the store you purchased it from. Even just a couple of lines sharing your thoughts on the story would be a fantastic help for other readers.
For a full up to date list of all the author’s books, head over to this link: http://ryancaseybooks.com/books
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2017 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Cormar Creative
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Higher Bank Books
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Bonus Content
DEAD DAYS: SEASON NINE
I. EPISODE FORTY-SEVEN
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
II. EPISODE FORTY-EIGHT
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
III. EPISODE FORTY-NINE
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
IV. EPISODE FIFTY
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Want More Dead Days?
Copyright
moz-filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share