by Ryan Casey
“If something happens to one of us—” Eddie started.
“Nothing’s going to happen, idiot,” Kelly said.
“But if it does…”
He didn’t finish what he was starting.
Those people. The ones Kelly heard walking down the street just moments ago.
They were walking through the woods.
Walking right towards them.
“Shit,” Kelly muttered. She lunged to the nearest tree on the left. Hid behind it. She didn’t know what these people were like. But after Bruce, she wasn’t in any mood to take any chances.
She stood against that tree. Heart racing. She didn’t know where Eddie was. He hadn’t followed her. She just had to hope that big lumbering idiot had got himself out of the spotlight.
Damn you. Damn you for falling for that idiot. Damn you for…
She flushed.
Falling for him?
Did she actually just have that thought?
She closed her eyes. Shook her head.
Focus. Focus on frigging surviving right now. Not your fucked up emotional state. Not your crushing on weird dudes. Not that fucking curse.
She held her breath. Listened to those footsteps get closer. Heard them pass by. Heard their voices. Their laughter.
No sign of surprise.
No comment about Eddie. Nothing like that.
She just kept her back to that tree and prayed she didn’t have to explain herself.
And then she heard one of the women speak.
“Looks like someone’s got a barbecue going. Fancy some breakfast before we shoot?”
They walked off into the distance, over towards that barbecue, towards that tennis club hut. Kelly’s heart pounded. Her head spun. Now was the time to get away. Now was the time to do a runner.
But Eddie.
She looked around the tree.
She didn’t see him.
Not at first.
Then she spotted him. Right on the other side of those trees. Holding out a hand. Waving.
She nodded at him. “Come on. Let’s…”
Then she noticed something.
His eyes widened in terror.
Not at her.
But at something behind her.
She suddenly became conscious of a presence.
Right behind her.
Breathing on the back of her neck.
When she looked around, she saw Bruce.
Just for a moment.
And then the next thing she knew, before she could do a thing about him, she felt a crack against the side of her head and saw nothing but darkness.
Chapter Forty-Four
Noah heard the snarl over his shoulder, and every muscle in his body turned to stone.
The pitch darkness of the sewer grew even darker in that split second. His torch seemed to fizzle out, to lose its brightness. The smell of piss and shit clung to his nostrils. His body shook. His head spun. Up above, on the road, he swore he could hear footsteps.
But it was that snarl that got to him more than anything else.
Because he recognised the source of it.
He heard a growl, right by his side. Looked around. Saw Barney staring at something. His eyes wide. His hackles raised. Staring at something familiar.
And it broke Noah. Just seeing that look of distrust. That look of uncertainty.
Because he knew exactly what Barney was so uncertain about.
Noah thought back to that wall where Jasmine was leaning against so recently.
The way her leg was twisted, broken, contorted.
The way she’d begged him to put her down. To stop her losing her mind. She didn’t want that. She trusted him. She put all her hopes in him.
The way he’d turned around with that knife and readied himself to take her out, as much as it went against every instinct in his body.
And then she was gone.
He heard that snarl again.
But there was something else there to it, now.
A gasp.
A wheezy gasp.
Reminded him of when she was ill, once. When she had a nasty cold that progressed to pneumonia. Put her in hospital. Worried him for days. He hated hospitals, but he’d sat by her side and held her hand and prayed to whatever god was up there that she’d pull through. That she’d be okay.
That wheeze, all the time.
He turned around and shone his fading torch at the source of the wheeze.
Jasmine stood over him.
She was propped up on one leg. The other was still broken, but she leaned on it like it was just a support frame for her body.
Her hair looked black and greasy. There was a tinge of red to it like she was sweating blood from her scalp.
Her eyes were totally red.
Her face was smeared with blood.
And she looked at him with total hatred.
Teeth clenched together.
Covered in blood.
“I trusted you,” she said. “I—I trusted you!”
“Jasmine—”
But it was already too late, and Noah knew it.
She threw herself at Noah.
Noah clambered back, jumped to his feet. Barney kicked back and barked beside him.
“Barney, come on,” he shouted.
He wanted to get away.
He didn’t want to have to face Jasmine.
He didn’t want to do what he knew he had to do.
“Barney, come on!”
But Barney stayed put.
Kept on kicking back.
Kept on standing up to his old owner. Terrified of her.
But also wanting to protect her, in a twisted kind of way.
Not wanting to leave her side.
Jasmine writhed around on the floor of the sewer. She cried. Agonised cries. Pained cries.
“Let me go,” she muttered, digging her fingers into the solid ground. “Let me go let me go let me go!”
And then she smacked her head against the concrete.
Then again.
Hard.
The blood not just caused by the virus now.
But caused from that repeated slamming.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Echoing through the silence.
Noah wanted to help Jasmine. Even though he knew she wasn’t Jasmine anymore. Even though he knew there was no hope for her.
He didn’t want to see her hurt herself.
He didn’t want to see her suffer.
He didn’t want to betray her final wishes.
So he stood by Barney’s side, and as much as he wanted to run away, as much as he didn’t want to face up to his responsibilities, to what he knew deep down he had to do… he walked back towards Jasmine.
Knife shaking in his hand.
Barney barked even more when he got close to her. He was just feet from her now. So close that he could do it if he had the strength. He could put her down. He could put her out of her misery.
Jasmine kept on smacking her head against the floor. Smacking it so much he could barely even make out the features of her face anymore. Her nose was broken and twisted. One of her eyes was completely swollen over. Teeth were scattered around the floor.
“I still love you,” he said. “I’ll never stop loving you. You’re… you’re still beautiful to me, Jasmine.”
And then at that moment, something shifted.
A look.
A look across her contorted face.
Like recognition.
Like she was waking up from a nightmare.
“What have I done?” she whimpered through swollen, bloodied lips. “What… what have I done?”
Noah frowned. “Jasmine?”
And then Jasmine reached out.
Grabbed his leg.
And with immense strength, she dragged him to the floor.
Noah tried to shake free of her without punching her, stabbing her, hurting her.
“Jasmine, back off. It’s
me. It’s Noah!”
Because he’d seen something.
He’d seen recognition on her face.
He’d got through to her, and he knew it.
And maybe that was it.
Maybe getting through to someone could help them.
Maybe helping them see could—
But then he felt Jasmine’s hands around his throat.
His torch. He’d dropped his torch.
But he still had his knife.
Jasmine pressed down on his waist. She straddled him like she had the first time they’d made love. The first time they’d fucked in her parents’ house, quietly so her dad didn’t hear.
She tightened her grip around his throat, and as Barney barked and howled, he thought about just letting her choke him.
Letting her take his life.
Because what reason was there to go on without Jasmine?
What reason was there to…
And then he saw it.
In a flash.
Barney.
His parents.
People out there.
People who cared for him.
And his own will to live.
His own desire to keep on fighting.
His own inner strength.
“I loved you,” Jasmine said. “I loved you, and I’m sorry.”
Noah’s neck felt like it was going to explode.
He lifted that knife as his vision blurred, as the blackness above got even darker, even more suffocating.
And he looked up at where he knew the girl he loved stared down at him.
But it wasn’t her anymore.
She was gone now.
She was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Noah said. “But I’m doing this for you. Like you asked. Like you made me promise.”
She said something. Something so quiet he barely heard. But something he’d think about for a long time after that point. Something he’d try to decipher. Something that would keep him awake at night, right into the early hours.
Because it was the last thing Jasmine would ever say.
He swung that knife around.
Felt it hit flesh.
Felt it tear through skin.
Felt a sudden rush of warm blood, right down his arm.
Her hands tightened, just for a moment.
And then they shook.
Loosened.
Gargling.
Struggling.
Jasmine landed on top of Noah.
He wrapped his hands around her soft hair as she lay on top of him, and he stroked it and cried as she shrugged.
“It’s okay now,” he said, as Barney kept on barking behind. “It’s… everything’s going to be okay now.”
Jasmine gargled.
She spluttered.
She bled.
And then in the darkness of that sewer, the girl Noah loved went still.
Jasmine saw lights.
Then she saw Noah.
She smiled.
Held him.
“Everything’s going to be okay now.”
She took as deep a breath as she could and felt the warmth of his body.
I know. I know.
And then she felt everything slip away.
Drift into darkness.
Disappear into warmth.
She smiled.
At least she was in his arms.
At least she was…
“I love you,” Noah said.
And everything faded into darkness.
Chapter Forty-Five
Eddie raced down the road as quick as his fat arse would allow.
The morning heat was intense. He dripped with sweat, even more than usual. His heart beat so fast it felt like it was going to burst right out of his chest. He kept getting pains in his chest, too. In his legs. In his ankles. He felt dizzy, and he felt weak.
But he had to keep running.
Because he couldn’t just let Kelly go.
He ran down this street. Ignored the people in their houses glancing out at him, windows boarded up with wood. He ignored the voices from the distance. He ignored the bodies in the street and the intense odour that filled his lungs and always made him want to vomit. He ignored the hunger pangs that always gnawed at his stupid, fat belly.
He had to keep running.
He had to keep going.
He couldn’t leave Kelly with Bruce.
He gritted his teeth. This was his fault. His own stupid fault. He’d been the one to invite Bruce along in the first place. He was the one who’d tried to welcome him to their group. To save his damned life. Kelly wasn’t sure about him from the start. And as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Eddie was wrong about this one.
He was useless. So fucking useless.
And it’d caught up with him, all over again.
He stumbled further down the street. So quick, he could barely breathe anymore. It reminded him of cross country races back at school. Other kids laughing at him, taking the piss out of his “man boobs”. He’d hide in the bathrooms or skive whenever P.E was on, which in turn just made him fatter. Especially ’cause he was eating half the time he was hiding.
And the vicious cycle just carried on.
He tripped over a flag in the road. Fell down, face first. Smacked against the ground. Tasted blood. Grazed knees stung. Ears ringing.
And he wanted to stay lying there. He wanted to stay on the ground, just like the playground at school. The kids all laughing at him. Teasing him. Circling him. Some of them even kicking and spitting at him.
Get back up, fatty!
And every time he tried, they just kicked him down again.
Get back up!
Again and again, until the teacher came, broke things up.
But even the teacher looked at him with disgust.
Like it was a problem he could deal with if he just had the strength or the willpower or the courage.
He had no allies. No one on side.
And then he thought of Kelly.
She’d saved his life yesterday. She’d opened up to him. This damned gorgeous girl who no way would have any level of interest in him, sure… but he’d seen another side to her. A side he never knew was there.
He wanted to help her. He’d always wanted to help people.
Difference now was that he was going to find her.
And he was going to help her.
He wasn’t going to let anyone stand in his way.
And he wasn’t gonna let this fat belly of his stand in his way, either.
“You’ve got this, man,” he said, pushing himself to his feet with his bloody hands. “You’ve got this.”
He started running again. Head still spinning. Body aching after the fall. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to slow down, to stop. This wasn’t good for him. It wasn’t healthy. He was gonna have a heart attack.
But no.
He couldn’t listen to that voice.
He couldn’t let the voice in his head hold him back again.
It’d held him back too many damned times in his life.
He kept on running, even though that voice told him he might be heading the wrong way, that Bruce and Kelly might’ve gone another direction.
Or that Bruce might’ve done something awful to her already.
No!
He clenched his fists together when he reached a blockade at the end of the street.
Heavy-looking concrete bollards sealed off the road. A few cars were stranded beside it, abandoned. Up ahead, behind the bollards, an empty-looking street.
Eddie stood there. Stared up it. Looked for a sign of movement as he gasped for breath. Searched for a sign of life he knew wasn’t there.
And then he lowered his head.
“You fuck up,” he shouted. “You absolute fuck up!”
He kicked the concrete bollard. Hard.
“You should’ve helped her. You should’ve gone after her and helped her the second you saw Bruce. This is on you, you fat fuck.
This is on you like it’s always on you, you fat…”
He went to kick the bollard again when he saw something.
It was so small he barely noticed it.
And he knew he might even be way off track.
He crouched down. Picked it up.
There was no denying it.
This was Kelly’s phone.
Kelly held on to her phone even though the battery was dead, and even though the signal had weirdly cut out days ago. It had this little pink elephant case on it.
The only reason it’d be here?
If she’d come this way.
If Bruce had come this way.
He held that phone in hand. Stuck it into his pocket.
Then he stood back up again.
Renewed.
Recharged.
“I’m not giving up on you,” he said. “I’m gonna find you. And I’m gonna save you. If it’s the last damned thing this fat bastard does, I’m gonna—”
“Hey, Eddie.”
Eddie spun around.
His body froze.
Bruce stood behind him.
Knife to Kelly’s neck.
Kelly propped up before him, eyes drifting, a big bloody bruise right across her forehead.
Bruce glared at Eddie with those bloodshot, exhausted eyes, tears smearing his cheeks.
“We’re going to have to talk,” he said. “About you guys. And about your friends. Noah and Jasmine. And about what they did to my daughter. And about what has to happen next.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Noah held Jasmine in his arms and walked towards nowhere.
It was a stifling hot afternoon. So bright, he had to squint. Reminded him of summer days when he was younger. Trips out with the family to the beach. Cycling with his friends, directionless but happy. And walks with Jasmine.
He tried carrying her once. She always teased him that he was weak. Judging by the way he struggled holding her, she was right.
But right now, he had no trouble carrying her.
He held her still body in his arms. The taste of her blood on his lips. The smell of her greasy hair cutting through that familiar scent of her sweat.
The girl he’d loved.
In his arms.
Gone.
He kept his focus ahead. He was on a road. He didn’t know which road. Didn’t know where he was heading to. The last few hours, if that’s how long had even passed, were a total blur. He’d found his way out of that sewer. He’d got back above ground. The infected were nowhere to be seen. Not that he cared anymore. Not that it mattered. Not that any of it mattered.
