by Ryan Casey
I was stopped in my thoughts when I saw the red lead and collar dangling down from a tree branch just in front of me.
Right away, I thought that was weird. Sometimes Bouncer slipped his lead. But he must’ve caught his neck against the tree and wormed his way out of it.
I grabbed the lead and stood at the mouth of the forest. It seemed so vast, so dark. So full of secrets that I wasn’t sure I wanted to uncover.
I breathed in deeply, cupped my mouth. “Bouncer!”
My voice echoed around the forest.
Birds flew out of trees, their wings echoing too.
Other than that, nothing but silence.
I looked back at Heathlock. I couldn’t just give up. Bouncer was my friend. My best friend. I couldn’t just leave him out here all on his own. He wouldn’t survive.
“Bouncer!” I shouted again.
I took a few steps into the woods.
“Bounce…”
When I saw his panting little face just ahead of me, I couldn’t help but fall to my knees.
“Bouncer,” I said, grinning. “Come here, boy.”
He picked something up in his mouth.
Then he jogged over towards me.
It was only when he reached me that I realised what the thing in his mouth was.
I fell back. A little vomit sneaked up my oesophagus.
Because on the ground in front of me was an arm.
Gnawed at. Some of the flesh pulled away from it. Two fingertips missing.
But definitely a human arm.
“Come on, boy,” I said, wrapping Bouncer’s collar around his neck. “Leave that. You don’t want to—”
I heard a branch snap right behind me.
I turned around, immediately aware that I wasn’t alone.
Then something hard cracked against my forehead, and everything went black.
Chapter Eight
I opened my eyes and immediately felt the urgency of my situation.
It was light. Even lighter than it was when I’d… wait. I’d been in the woods chasing after Bouncer. I’d taken a hit to the head, and I’d passed out.
So wherever I was now, whoever I was with now, they were the ones who’d attacked me.
I was sat upright, up against a tree, I realised. I was deeper into the woods than I was when I’d passed out. I could tell from the mass of trees all around me in every direction. Whoever had attacked me had dragged me out here. Left me to…
When I tried to move, I realised I couldn’t. I was tied up. Tied around the waist by a thick rope. I tried to move some more, but again, I couldn’t. There was no breaking through that rope. No snapping it.
It was then that I realised there was something else tied around me, too.
Bouncer’s lead.
I felt sick when I thought of Bouncer. Wherever he was, I hoped he was okay. But the people out here, in the wider world. There was no knowing what they’d do anymore. No knowing what they were capable of.
I just had to hope they liked dogs.
And if they didn’t, I’d make damned sure they paid for hurting Bouncer.
I heard movement.
Rustling movement right behind me. And as I tried to turn around and see, I worried that maybe it was some kind of wild animal. I’d often wondered about what happened when the power went at the zoos and the safari parks. The animals would probably be so used to those places that they’d stick around for a while. But when they got hungry and thirsty, they’d be forced to escape. Not all of them would be able to. No doubt lots of them were penned in by locked fences.
But some of those locks would’ve been affected by the EMP strike. Some of the electrical fences would be rendered useless.
Predators would be walking the country in search of prey.
But when I felt the sharp blade touch my throat, I realised it was the most dangerous predator of all. Another human.
“What’re you doing out here?”
It was a man. His voice sounded raspy, like he could do with some cough sweets. I could smell the sour sweat and faeces coming from him, which told me all I needed to know about his living conditions.
“I—My dog—”
“Speak up!”
“My dog did a runner. I went after him. Then you hit me over the head and tied me up.”
The man kept the blade to my neck. He didn’t speak. Not for a while. “You’re in good condition. Which worries me.”
“I’m with a group,” I said. I immediately regretted it. I didn’t want to give up Heathlock to someone who was willing to hit me over the head and put a knife to my neck. Heathlock didn’t need people like that behind its walls.
“A group? What kind of group?”
“Listen. I just want my dog—”
“’Cause I’ve seen what groups are capable of. I’ve seen what people in groups do to each other. And I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
“Look,” I said, my eyes watering. I could feel the fear at being beyond the fences welling up inside me all over again. I wondered where Sam was, and why nobody had come to my rescue. But then I realised I’d chosen this. I’d come out of here. So this was on me. “I just came out here for my dog. Whatever you have to do to me… you do it. But leave my dog alone. Please.”
I felt the knife loosening from around my neck then, as I tasted salty tears. I wasn’t sure why that knife had loosened. What I’d said to earn that.
But the man walked around to my front, one hand behind his back, the knife still pointed out.
He was quite bulky, considering the world had fallen. He had dark hair, and was wearing a blue denim jacket over a once-white T-shirt. His face was covered in abrasions, and his lips were really chapped. One of his eyes was red, seeping puss from the corner. Some kind of nasty infection. I could see from the patch on his beige trousers that he’d soiled them.
He pointed the knife at me. “Takes a real desperate man to give up everything in the name of his dog.”
I kept my focus on him. My fear was sky high, but my fight was slipping. “Just do what you have to do.”
“And what makes you so sure there’s anything I want to do to you?”
I looked around. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Because you’ve got me tied up and you’re holding a knife to my face.”
He pulled the knife away. “I just wanted to see who you were. Who you really were. And now I know you’re not with them, well. All’s good.”
“‘Them’?”
The man smiled. “You’ve not met them yet? Well you will. And when you meet them, you’ll know about it.”
He stepped around me and stuck the knife into the rope. He untied my dog’s lead, and let me free.
I stayed sat down, in disbelief that I was free. “You’re letting me go?”
“I’m loosening you a bit ’cause weirdly, I believe you. But I need your help with something.”
“Tie me up. Hold a knife to me. Take my dog away. And you expect my help?”
“Your dog’s fine,” the man said. He walked over to the right, behind a tree, and unclipped something. Bouncer tumbled down and came running over to me, licking my face. “He’s a good lad. Loyal. Bit bitey with me, but hey. Dogs are dogs.”
I fussed over Bouncer, ruffling up his fur and rubbing his back. He seemed just as happy to see me again as I did him.
“Then what do you want?” I asked.
For the first time, I saw darkness to the man’s face. A real darkness, like a shadow had been cast over him. “Some help getting back to my camp. A camp full of supplies. I reckon you could use it. We’re braced for the future. But also, I want your help getting some revenge.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “For what?”
“Two months ago, a group of savages attacked a group I was in. We have a camp, and they got four of us when we were out on a supply run. I was the only one who made it out alive.”
“They killed your people?”
“Oh yeah, they killed us,” the man sai
d. Then he removed his hand from behind his back. The one he’d been hiding there. “And they ate us.”
I saw the stump midway down his right arm. It’d quite cleanly healed over, like someone had taken real care to make sure to protect the wound. And that reminded me. Reminded me of the arm Bouncer had been eating when I’d found him. It probably wasn’t the same arm, but it convinced me that something wrong was happening. Something very wrong.
“They ate us, and they made us eat each other, too. Fattened us up. Treated us like pigs. They killed my friends. I was just lucky I got away when I did.”
My head spun and my stomach turned as the horrors of this world became very real. “They eat people?”
“Not a bad idea, really. But when you’re a savage like them, you’ve got to be prepared for a bit of savagery in return. Which is where I think you can help me. If I’m right.”
I frowned. “If you’re right about what?”
The man looked all around, as if he feared someone was watching.
Then he pulled a necklace from out of his pocket and threw it into the dirt before me.
“I’m Andy. And this belongs to someone back at camp. Someone I…”
I didn’t hear the rest of what Andy had to say.
I didn’t hear it, because I was on my knees rooting the silver, heart-shaped locket out of the dirt.
It couldn’t be true.
No. Coincidences like this didn’t happen. Fate didn’t bring people together like this.
But when I opened up the locket, I saw the picture. The tiny little photograph.
I looked up at Andy and my body tensed completely. “Where did you get this?”
Andy scratched his head. “I believe you must be Will,” he said. He put his knife in his pocket and held out his one hand. “Your ex and I were kind of an item. Before I got kidnapped.”
I stood up. The locket in my hand. The image in my mind.
Then I pulled back a fist and slammed it across Andy’s face.
He fell to the ground, wincing with the pain. When he looked up at me, blood trickling from his nose, he half-smiled. “I probably deserved that.”
I looked at the locket again to check it was real. To make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
When I saw it, I knew once again that it was very real.
On the locket, a photo of me, Kerry, Olivia, and Bouncer.
This wasn’t just any locket.
It was Kerry’s locket.
My wife’s locket.
Chapter Nine
If you’d told me I’d be outside the gates yesterday, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
If you’d told me I’d not only be outside the gates, but I’d end up tied up by a man who openly admitted he’d been having a fling with my wife… or technically, my ex-wife. Well, yeah. Needless to say I’d be calling you crazy.
But here we were. I’d brought Andy back behind the walls, inside Heathlock. A day had passed since I’d been outside. Andy was in a cell of his own, which really was a cell. One of the ones that hadn’t been converted into a living space, a bedroom. After all, this was a functioning society. People needed a place to go when they hadn’t behaved. A place where they were away from other people, segregated from the rest of the community.
I looked through the window at Andy, who sat upright in his chair, not shifting his focus left or right. I’d hit him, and there was a nasty little cut above his eye. But my knuckles were killing me so I was probably worse off.
I wasn’t sure why I’d hit him. Instinct. Gut reaction to him saying he’d had a fling with my wife.
My wife, Kerry, who was still alive.
Who was still out there, somewhere.
“You sure you trust this guy?”
I looked to my left and saw Kesha standing there, hands on her hips. Telling the truth—the total truth—to Kesha, was admittedly a little awkward. Here I was admitting I might just be considering going out in search of my wife to the woman I was pretty much in a relationship with. I say pretty much because it’s the end of the world. It’s not like you can go out on dates, or do normal couple things.
But still. We were an item. For now.
Again, pretty much.
I think we both had a strict understanding that our relationship had a finite lifespan. Besides, Kesha was a friend. A good friend. One I’d treasure for the rest of my life.
“I don’t trust him,” I said. “Like I’d trust anybody.”
“Fair point.”
I looked down at the necklace with the locket on it that was draped around my hands. I hadn’t let go of it since I’d found it. I was still in disbelief about it. Every time I looked at it, I expected the photographs of my family to have disappeared, and for it to be empty.
But it was real.
It was very real.
And the only way this guy, Andy, could’ve got hold of it—the only way he could’ve known my name was Will without me telling him—was if he’d come into contact with my wife.
“The help he talks about. The… exchange of favours.”
“The revenge mission,” I said, knowing that was a sticking point, and a big one. “Against the cannibals. Right.”
“We can’t go engaging this community in any kind of war without understanding what we’re getting into. Who we’re up against.”
“And I understand that.”
“And knowing you like I do, the last thing you’d want to get involved in is some kind of senseless violence that might put Olivia at risk.”
“And you’re right. It’s just…”
Kesha put a hand on my shoulder. It made me flinch, but I let it rest there. “It’s your wife. I know. I get that. I just think you’re being rash. We don’t know how big this group is. How powerful they are. We don’t know what kind of damage they could do to us.” She glanced through the window at Andy. “Or even if he’s one of them.”
I looked at his arm and I wondered. Or at least, the stump where his right arm once was. “I believe him. I don’t trust him, but I believe him.”
“So what do you want to do?”
I opened my mouth and at that point I realised what a position I was in. I needed to find my wife. There was no doubt about that. As awful as I felt going beyond the walls, no matter how much fear and horror it instilled in me, it was my responsibility to go out there looking for her.
I could help Andy get back to his camp.
But the trade-off?
Andy wanted revenge against the group who’d killed his people.
Engaging in any kind of violence drew us into a war we didn’t want to fight.
And the thought of engaging in any kind of violence made the hairs on my neck stand on end…
I was supposed to be done with that. Through with that. I couldn’t be both a savage and a father.
“Any plans? Or are you just gonna stand here in silence for the week, mulling it over?”
I licked my dry, chapped lips, and took a deep breath. “As much as I don’t want to go outside—as much as I don’t want to get into any kind of conflict—I owe it to Kerry to find her.”
“I understand that.”
“I’ll speak with Andy. See if we can get around the whole engaging in war thing. If we can take him back home, that’s enough, surely?”
“It’s funny how different a person can transform when someone they love’s at stake, isn’t it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kesha smiled and shrugged. “A few days ago, you wouldn’t even consider walking outside these fences, let alone trying to find some new kind of camp. Now, you find a locket belonging to your wife and you’re a changed man.”
“I’m not changed,” I said. “I’m scared. Terrified. But… but it’s what I have to do.”
“Then you go in there and you talk to him. Figure something out. For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing. I’m just not sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Be careful.”
Ke
sha walked away, leaving me alone in the corridor for a while.
You’re doing the right thing. Just not for the right reasons. Be careful.
I would be.
I had to be.
I walked to the door, taking a deep breath as I approached.
When I stepped inside, Andy glanced up at me with an apologetic look. “Hey,” he said.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. About the—”
“It’s fine. Totally understandable.”
“My wife. You say you… know her.”
Andy shuffled in his seat. “Yeah. Kerry and I met in Warwick. I’d been separated from my group, she from hers. We made our way up the country together, picking up new folk as we went. Then we found a place.”
“What kind of place?”
“A safe haven,” Andy said.
I didn’t want to give too much away, expression-wise. I perched on the edge of the table. Meeting Kerry in Warwick added up if her last known location, to me, was the Midlands. So far, I couldn’t find any significant flaws in Andy’s story. “Kerry. Did she ever…”
I stopped, but Andy knew what I was about to ask him.
“She spoke about you, yeah. She said you went through a rough breakup, but you’d last seen each other on good terms before she got some train down south. She spoke about Bouncer. Olivia. How she missed them both. She…”
He wiped his eyes. I only then realised he was welling up.
“She loved you, mate. Me and her had… have something, sure. But she loves you.”
I felt a warmth swelling in my chest. There were things Andy knew that he couldn’t possibly know if he hadn’t met my wife. “Where is she, Andy?”
He sniffed, then faced me directly again, allowing his emotions to shift to discussing the next steps. “I’ll take you there if you make sure I’m protected. And the only way to make sure I’m protected is to take out those savages who butchered my friends. In exchange, we can merge our communities. This place is good—damned good—but not as good as we have it.”
I shook my head. “See, I can offer protection. I can offer company getting you to your camp. But we don’t engage in conflicts.”
Andy leaned back and started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”