by Ryan Casey
Chloë knew what Alice was referring to. Finally, she was confronting her for hiding news of the transmission. “I did what I thought was right,” Chloë said.
“Yes. That’s exactly it. You did what you thought was right. But it wasn’t your decision to make. Not solely.”
“I know what I did. I made a mistake.”
“And that mistake killed Harriet and Ainsley yesterday,” Alice said.
The words made Chloë’s throat tighten, made her eyes sting. She looked ahead at the fields. At the oncoming bridge stacked with cars. She couldn’t see any movement except for someone—or something—struggling around in a passenger seat. A silhouette of another dead, trapped, forgotten.
“We’ve all made mistakes.”
Alice tutted. Nodded. “You’re right. We have. But you can’t pretend you want to be a responsible leader in one breath and then act out of pure self-interest in the next.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I think you kept the transmission a secret because you wanted a backup. For yourself. In case everything fell apart.”
Chloë couldn’t look at Alice. Not anymore. She was supposed to be her friend. She turned. Looked at her dad. Saw him walking alongside Dan. He didn’t look back at Chloë. “You need to learn to fight your own battles, angel.”
He was right. She did need to learn to fight her own battles.
And this was just the start of the fight.
Chloë stopped. Turned to face the rest of the group.
“I want you to listen to me,” she said.
Heads lifted. A few cynical glances in her direction from Hassan, Anisha, Colin.
“I’m sorry. For what I did back at Hopeforth. I’ve said it a few times. But I really mean it. And—and if you’ve got a problem, now’s the time to tell me. Now’s the time to open up. Because we need to be strong. We need to be together. And… and my mum used to tell me, if we can’t be together, we can’t be strong.”
She saw Harvey half-smiling. Saw Jackson nodding.
“We need to be honest,” Chloë said. “Starting—starting now. Okay?”
She saw Dave nod. “The girl’s right.”
Chloë saw more of the group nod. Heard the chatter erupting. The positivity building.
She saw her dad smile.
Then she heard something splat into the ground behind her with an immense thud.
She saw the group’s faces turn.
Swung around.
A monster lay on the ground. At least, something resembling a monster. Its arms were missing. Its back had snapped in an impossible angle that Chloë swore she’d learned the name of in Maths once.
But it looked up at her. Cracked its teeth together.
“How… Where did…”
She heard another splat.
Saw a monster crash into the grass beside it.
And then another.
And another.
“They’re coming from up there!” Anisha shouted.
Chloë lifted her neck.
Saw the monsters tumbling down from the side of the motorway bridge.
Six, seven, eight of them, all crashing down to the ground, all their dead weight hurtling from above.
“Run!” Chloë shouted.
The group ran away from the falling monsters. Chloë stabbed the monsters in their cracked skulls as she passed. She could still hear them splatting down into the grass. Could hear their bones cracking on contact with the ground.
She rushed under the motorway bridge. Turned, panting.
Saw Harvey at the back of the group.
Limping along.
Fallen monsters clutching out at him with broken fingers.
“Wait here,” Chloë said.
“Chloë!” Dad shouted.
Chloë ran from under the bridge. Jumped over the monsters.
“Harvey!” she shouted. “Grab my hand!”
She instinctively stuck her right hand out… then realised it wasn’t there. Of course. Shit.
She heard another zombie crash into the ground to her right.
Then another just behind her.
Cold blood splattering onto her legs.
She put her one arm around Harvey. Tried to help him limp along. He was too heavy. Way too heavy for her to support.
But she could do this.
She wasn’t losing him.
No way was she losing anyone else.
She dodged the monsters on the grass. There were so many of them now. So many, and still more tumbling down.
Harvey panted. Sweat poured down his cheeks. “I… You go.”
“No,” Chloë said. “I’ve got you.”
“You’re younger than me. I’ve had my innings.”
“No!” Chloë said.
She pulled Harvey as hard as she could away from the minefield of monsters. So many guts and cracked bones were splayed out along the grass.
She got within feet of the motorway bridge. Saw the others edging towards her. Dad and Alice running to try and help.
And then she heard the creaking noise.
The creaking from above.
She looked up.
Saw three more monsters tumbling down through the sky.
And then she saw the car.
It was edging off the side of the motorway bridge. A big car. Land Rover type thing. Dad called them Mountain cars.
“Chloë!” Dad shouted.
She saw the car turning over the edge of the motorway.
Saw it right above her.
Ready to fall on her.
Ready to fall on Harvey.
“Chloë, just—”
And then she heard the metal above snap.
Heard the creaking noise give in.
Looked up.
Saw the Land Rover pummelling towards her.
Seconds away from crushing her.
From crushing Harvey.
“You go,” Harvey muttered.
“I’m not leaving—”
“You go!”
He pushed Chloë forward.
She hit the grass, face first.
“Harvey!”
She swung around.
Saw Harvey standing there in the middle of the fallen monsters.
He smiled at her. Opened his mouth to say something.
And then the Land Rover landed on top of him and crushed him.
Chloë heard his old bones crack. Heard them echo against the inside of the motorway wall.
As much as she didn’t want to cry, as much as she didn’t want to show her weakness, she felt tears rolling down her cheeks. Tears, as she stared at the pool of blood growing from under the Land Rover. Harvey was good to her. Harvey believed in her.
Harvey was one of the good ones.
And now he was gone.
Now, there were just thirteen left.
Chloë crouched in the grass. Listened to the monsters groaning, unable to slurp their way towards the group with their snapped bones and broken bodies. She clenched her eyes together. She wanted the darkness to swallow her up. She wanted to go back to two days ago and just tell the group the truth. Or to be awake. Awake enough to fight for Hopeforth. Awake enough to stop the bandits.
“Chloë.”
She heard Jackson’s voice. Lifted her head. Sniffed up.
The bloody puddle was still in front of her.
The smashed Land Rover was still on top of it.
Through the back seat, perched on a bumper seat, she saw a little baby.
Growling.
Groaning.
Trying to get out.
She swallowed a sickly taste. Took a deep breath of the sweaty air.
“Chloë,” Jackson said. “I—I think you’re gonna wanna see this.”
She looked at him. Saw the frown on his head.
“What…”
And then she saw the rest of the group. All standing by the back of the motorway bridge. All looking at something in the distance.
She got up. Walked over
to them with wobbly, jelly-like legs.
“What is…”
She didn’t see it at first.
But when she did, fear filled her body.
More fear than the monsters could ever create.
10
TEN
“That’s really them?”
“It’s really them.”
“Then what’re they—”
“I don’t know what they’re doing. Just that’s definitely the bandits. Definitely the ones who took our stuff. I’d recognise ‘um from miles away. So what we gonna do?”
Chloë looked down the hill at the bottom of the motorway bridge. Although the fallen monsters were still groaning behind her, and although the rest of her group were whispering to one another, she couldn’t take her focus away from the gates in the distance.
The metal gates with barbed wire on top surrounding a spacious area.
Inside the spacious area, tents. Parasols.
People.
Jackson cleared his throat. Pointed at the long-haired man lying back on the checkered deck chair. “He’s the one who shot Suzy.”
“But I thought Suzy—”
“Saw him shoot her in the stomach. Left her for the dead. Bleeding out. Screaming.”
Chloë looked at the man on the deck chair. He was topless. Hairy. And he was smiling. He didn’t look like the kind of man who’d murder somebody. He didn’t look like the kind of man who’d lead his group into Hopeforth, take everything they could.
But then she thought back to some of the other people she’d encountered. Some of the other faces she’d thought were friendly. Didn’t matter how anyone looked. Not anymore.
All that mattered was what you were willing to do to keep yourself alive.
And these people had destroyed Hopeforth.
“I say we go down there. Take one of ‘em hostage.”
Chloë shook her head. “We don’t have any guns.”
“They don’t know that. Besides, if they see a little girl with one arm just wander up to their gates, they’re hardly gonna just open fire are they?”
Chloë thought about what Jackson was saying. He wanted her to go down there. He wanted her to take one of them hostage, somehow. “How do you know they won’t just kill me?”
Jackson smiled. Shook his head. “Trust me. Last thing they’re gonna do to a little girl is kill her. Rare game in this world. Believe me.”
Chloë didn’t know exactly what Jackson meant. But she could tell from his smile that it wasn’t something nice.
“I’m not sure,” Chloë said.
“Just think about it. You get to go on down there. Take some of our weapons. Then drag one of ‘em up here. Bargaining chip.”
“Can’t we just… just walk past them?”
“What? Through there?”
Jackson pointed to the left. Chloë saw the trees. Thick, green trees. She knew what Jackson was saying. The last place she wanted to be right now was in the middle of a woods. She didn’t like the woods. She’d lost so much in the woods.
And she didn’t like becoming the person she used to be.
The lonely wanderer.
The girl of the woods.
“They’ll respect you. This lot. Especially after what just happened to Harvey.”
Chloë glanced at Jackson. Saw him scratching his neck, his smile wavering. “I… I couldn’t do anything for—”
“Oh I know that,” Jackson whispered. “But those people back there. They’re not as strong as you and me. Just look at them.”
Chloë glanced back. Saw Hassan and Anisha whispering to one another. Saw Dan tilting his head away from her right as she looked, arms folded. She didn’t see sadness at losing Harvey. She saw blame. And it made her stomach tingle. Made her wish she could go back and change things.
Made her wish she had someone else to talk to other than her dad.
Other than Jackson.
“If you want to win the respect of this group, you go down there and you intercept that group. It won’t be easy. But you do what you have to do. And we’ll be watching. We’ll be watching at all times. In case things go… awry.”
Chloë pushed her hair out of her face. “I just… My dad. He won’t—”
“Who’s in charge again? You or your dad?”
Chloë thought about what Jackson was saying. Felt herself growing more and more trapped. Her thirst increased. “I… I guess.”
“You go down there. You be the leader this group wants you to be. Then see how they look at you. See how they respect you.”
Chloë looked down at the metal fences. Cleared her throat.
“Get the weapons. Get one of them. And then we do what we have to. Cause you know we have to do what we—”
“Everything okay?”
Chloë’s muscles weakened when she heard her dad’s voice. She looked up at him. Couldn’t help but smile. A cloud lifted. A cloud of tension weighing down on her, wrapping around her.
She could see clearer now.
Jackson’s cheeks flushed. “Chloë and I were just—”
“We move around them,” Chloë said.
Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
Chloë turned. Looked at the rest of her group. “I know these people attacked us. But they’re here now. They’re not moving on to Pwllheli. Not yet. So we move around them.”
Muttering amongst the group. Hassan stepped forward. “They killed Suzy. They killed Andre and Lorna—”
“We’ve no real weapons,” Chloë said. “And they have guns. Lots of guns. But we do have something they don’t have. We have a head start. A chance to push on to Pwllheli. So we’ve got to take that. Now we know we’re ahead of them, we’ve got to take it.”
She saw Alice rubbing her lips. Dave staring at nothing in particular.
“I know we lost people. But we don’t have what it takes to fight them. Not now. But when we do, we’ll be back here. When we have what we need, we’ll make sure we punish them. For what they did.”
She turned around. Looked down the hill.
“So which way?” Anisha asked.
Chloë took a deep breath. Licked her lips. “Into the woods, I guess.”
She led the way down the hillside of the motorway bridge.
Made her way to the woods.
She saw the look in Jackson’s eyes as she descended.
Saw them protruding out of his face as the rest of the group followed.
The hair on her arms lifted.
And then his eyes were normal again and everything was okay.
There’s nothing wrong. Everything’s okay. He understands.
But as she descended, as the group followed, she couldn’t shake the feeling Jackson was watching her.
Closely.
11
ELEVEN
Jackson felt his face flushing even more with every step he took.
The baking mid-afternoon sun hid behind a thick layer of cloud now. But he felt warmer and stuffier than ever. His body was tense. He could taste sweat on his lips.
All because of that bitch.
That little bitch.
He looked ahead. Looked at Chloë. Looked at her, leading the rest of the gullible fucks, all high and mighty. And worst of all, he looked at the group itself. Looked at the way they were actually readily following her.
Did they really believe in her bullshit? Did they really think she could lead the group to Pwllheli?
No. Course they fucking didn’t. Who could?
“What’s the plan?”
He heard the whisper. Heard it from his left. Turned, saw Colin walking beside him. Colin. Fucking Colin. He was supposed to back him up. He was supposed to help him get Chloë out of the way.
And what had he done? Stood there, gawping.
Just like Arnold.
Just like the others.
“I dunno what the fucking plan is,” Jackson said. “Why don’t you tell me the fucking plan?”
Colin rubbed the back of his f
at neck. “I… I just thought—”
“Good. You better fucking think. We need a bit of thinking round here.”
“We can… I guess we can use the guns.”
Jackson looked around. Held a finger to his mouth. “Don’t fucking mention the guns, okay?”
“Well I don’t see why you can’t just kill her. If you really want to get her out of the way.”
“And you expect everyone to just allow me to lead them, then? You expect them to just follow me… us, when we’ve killed a kid? Fucking hell, Colin. Fucking hell.”
Jackson’s entire body was tight. He saw the trees approaching but his head was fuzzy, aching. He remembered something his wife used to tell him. Something she told him soothed the pain of frustration before the world collapsed—before she died and his world collapsed.
“Deep breaths. Focus on your breathing. Nothing else matters. Nothing matters but you in the moment, simply being.”
He’d dismissed his wife at the time. Didn’t buy into any of that meditation mumbo-jumbo. Obviously, plenty did. Sammy was a qualified hypnotherapist and homeopathic nurse. Earned enough to pay the bills. Twice.
Jackson still went out and worked of course. Couldn’t have people thinking he was the house husband. Even though he technically was the inferior one.
He looked over his shoulder. Saw the motorway bridge in the distance. The sun was descending, the days getting gradually shorter. That place. The gated place with the tents and the people. That was the perfect opportunity to get rid of Chloë. He didn’t know that group. They didn’t look bad. But if they saw somebody wandering in trying to steal their equipment… well, Jackson knew how he’d react.
It was the perfect plan to get Chloë out of the way.
Then begin the recruitment drive.
“I don’t see why you can’t just… y’know. Follow. Like the rest of us.”
Jackson swung around. Felt his heart pounding. “You’re saying she’s a better leader than me?”
“No,” Colin said. His head lowered. “I didn’t—”
“Then maybe you should think about returning that gun. Hmm? Maybe if you think she’s a better leader than me, you should think about passing that weapon of yours on to someone else.”
“Jackson, I didn’t—”
Jackson stepped right up to Colin. Leaned into his face.