Surviving The Virus (Book 5): Extermination

by Casey, Ryan

  Only that it felt natural.

  It felt right.

  Eddie looked around. Frowned. “Noah?”

  Noah swallowed a lump in his throat. “It started with us. It ends with us. Live together. Die together. Ain’t that right?”

  Eddie opened his mouth. Like he was going to say something. Like he was going to protest.

  But then he just closed it again.

  Defiance in his eyes.

  Back to that fighting pit, Noah on his knees, Eddie with the pistol in hand.

  Knowing damned well what the right thing was to do, this time.

  The only thing to do.

  “Live together, die together,” Eddie said.

  And Noah saw something, then.

  More rifles lowering.

  More people dropping their weapons.

  A few of them still pointing them at Noah, at Eddie, at Kelly.

  But those people had rifles pointing at them now.

  A revolt.

  A turnaround.

  Curtis looked around at these people. The baby had gone quiet in his arms.

  And as he looked around, Noah swore he saw something he didn’t recognise in this man’s eyes.

  Fear.

  “So that’s it?” he shouted. “That’s it? Everything we worked for and these two nut jobs win you around?”

  “You’re finished, Curtis.”

  One of the men to his right.

  One Noah swore had shot dead a few people in this community already.

  And then another spoke up.

  “It’s over for you. Let the kid go, fella.”

  Curtis stood there with the baby in his arms. Noah’s heart raced. The gamble. The gamble they’d taken to try and save Eddie’s son. The gamble that’d been so, so risky.

  But the only one they could have taken.

  “It’s over, Curtis,” someone shouted.

  “Why don’t you get on your knees?” Another.

  Curtis just stood there and looked closely at everyone around him. Less fear to his face now. More resignation.

  “How things fall apart,” he said.

  He looked at Noah, right in his eyes.

  “Catch.”

  And then he threw the baby up into the air.

  Slung it up there like it was nothing but trash.

  Gasps.

  Cries.

  Time stood still.

  And then Curtis pointed his rifle at where the baby was going to land and started firing his pistol repeatedly.

  It all happened in slow motion.

  Eddie threw himself towards the spot his son looked like he was landing.

  Threw himself right into the line of Curtis’ gunfire.

  The bullets peppered against his body.

  Blood spurted out of his chest, his back, his neck.

  Nobody daring fire at Curtis for fear of hitting the baby.

  But Eddie stayed standing there.

  Bullets splitting through him.

  Again, again, again…

  But Eddie still standing.

  Shaky.

  But on his feet.

  And that’s when Noah stood.

  Rushed over to Eddie.

  Rushed into the line of fire too.

  He put a hand around his best friend, and he held his shaky body tight.

  “I’ve got you. I’ve…”

  And then the baby landed into Eddie’s arms.

  Eddie fell to his knees.

  He curled up on top of the baby.

  Bleeding.

  Maybe dead already.

  “Eddie?” Noah gasped.

  Everyone standing around. Shocked. Horrified.

  Waiting to find out.

  Noah pulled Eddie to one side. He didn’t want to see the baby. He didn’t want something else to feel guilty about. To be haunted by.

  But when he pulled Eddie aside, he saw something else.

  The baby lay there. Covered in blood.

  But crying.

  Untouched.

  And Eddie…

  Eddie lay on his back. Blood spurting out of his mouth. Spilling from holes all over his body.

  “Did I—did I do enough, Noah?” he asked.

  Noah grabbed his cold, shaky hand. “You did. You saved him. You saved your boy, Eddie.”

  Eddie closed his eyes. Cried tears of blood. “I just wanted… I just wanted… to help them. Not for me. But for them. I’m sorry. I—”

  “Ssh, Eddie. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

  Noah held on to Eddie’s shaking hand. He looked around. Saw Curtis sitting on his knees now. Gun to his head. Smile on his face. A prisoner. Toppled by a combination of his own people and the strength of his enemies. Something he took for granted. The strength of the human spirit when it was really pushed to its extremes.

  And then there was Kelly.

  She walked over to Eddie’s side.

  Tears streaming her cheeks.

  She put a hand on his shoulder, lifting Baby Edward with her other arm.

  Eddie looked up at her, and he spluttered, “I’m—Kelly. I’m so sorry.”

  “Ssh, Eddie. Please.”

  “I walked away, and I shouldn’t. I—I was afraid. I was so scared. But I—I only ever wanted… I only ever wanted what was right. For you. And for… for the baby.”

  Kelly looked down into his eyes.

  She leaned over.

  Kissed him right on his bloody lips.

  And then she curled up beside him, their baby between them.

  “He’s your baby,” she said. “And he’s called Edward. And… and we both love you. So, so much.”

  Noah sat by their sides as they cried.

  He held on to Eddie’s hand as it got colder. Weaker.

  As Eddie’s eyes drifted, and his struggles got less frequent, his consciousness cloudier, blurrier.

  And just when Noah thought he was gone, Eddie opened his mouth and said something else.

  “You never did tell me,” he said.

  Noah frowned. “Tell you what, buddy?”

  Eddie smiled. “That job. The… the job at the coffee shop. Did you… did you keep it?”

  Noah thought back to that day right before the outbreak when he’d got sacked for being late—but mostly because Eddie sent a derogatory text about his boss in the middle of the meeting—and he smiled.

  “Yeah,” he lied. “Yeah, I did.”

  Eddie smiled. Puffed out his lips, a little blood trickling out. “Oh, good. ’Cause if you hadn’t… our rent. We’d never… never afford it…”

  “Oh, I’m sure we’d afford his ‘perfectly reasonable’ rent increases.”

  Eddie laughed. Coughed. “Perfectly reasonable…”

  They sat there together a little longer. Eddie didn’t speak for a long time. All around, the people began to clean up. Take the non-compliant to the holding cells. Clean up the bodies. But mostly just recover from the shock of their changed situation.

  “It’s funny,” Eddie said. Once again, out of nowhere. Right on the cusp of death.

  Noah looked at Kelly and Baby Edward, silent by his side.

  “What is?” he asked.

  Eddie opened his eyes and looked right up into the sky above.

  “They called me fat boy. But I… I won the race this time. I won…”

  His eyes went blank.

  His hand went limp.

  Blood trickled down his mouth as he let out a gargled, wheezy breath.

  Noah looked at Kelly. Tears clouding his eyes. A lump swelling in his throat.

  Sun peeking through the clouds above, beaming down onto them.

  And then he nodded at Kelly.

  It was over.

  Eddie was gone.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Noah took a deep breath before stepping inside the shipping container.

  It was a bright day. Summer had really come along in the week since the massacre at the community. It’d been a peaceful week. But a weird week, too. A strange se
nse of limbo hung over the place while the bereaved buried their dead, while the residents tried to pick up the pieces, while adequate judgement of Curtis’ loyalists was decided.

  It was this shipping container that Noah felt more anxious about.

  The rusty metal walls.

  The creaking, heavy door.

  He’d been delaying visiting here until he knew exactly what he was going to do with the person inside.

  He took another deep breath, then opened the door.

  The first thing that hit him was the smell. Shit. Piss. So strong, it clung to his nostrils.

  And it triggered him. It reminded him of when he’d been locked up in this container, just a week ago.

  But this wasn’t his cell anymore.

  He stepped into the darkness. It was quiet in here. No sounds at all. You could be forgiven for thinking it was totally unoccupied.

  But there was someone in here.

  “Wondered when you’d turn up.”

  The hairs on Noah’s arms stood on end the second he heard the voice.

  He ignored them. Walked across the echoey steel floor.

  Pistol in hand.

  “I mean, I appreciate the visits from your pals. Really. Some of ’em are really quite nice. But you. I didn’t realise it at the time, no sir. But you’re the main man, ain’t you? You’re the big man? Which means you and me have a lot in common when you really think about it.”

  Noah stopped inches away from him. Feet sticking to the piss-wet floor. The smell ghastly, the closer he got.

  Curtis looked worse for wear. It’d only been a week in here, and already his imposing, muscular figure looked like it was beginning to waste away. A messy, uneven ginger beard covered his pockmarked chin. His hair was plastered to his forehead.

  And his bright, piercing eyes shone out of that gaunt, narrow face.

  “Funny how things work out, ain’t it?” he said. “I mean, I bet you thought I was some kind of monster when I had you locked in here. But the second the boot’s on the other foot, well… ain’t it funny?”

  He smiled, and it sent shivers up Noah’s arms.

  Because even though Curtis was his prisoner now, he still feared he had some kind of upper hand. Some kind of advantage over Noah that he still didn’t know about.

  “So why are you here, big man?” he asked. “You here to kill me?”

  Noah twirled the pistol around in his hand. “I’m not quite sure yet.”

  Curtis’ face dropped, just for a moment. Like that wasn’t the answer he was expecting. “Well if you ain’t here to kill me, what in the name of hell are you here for, hmm?”

  Noah looked around at the dark shipping container. Remembered the pain he’d felt in here. The guilt he’d felt in here.

  And then he looked into Curtis’ eyes.

  “Just over a week ago, I made you a promise.”

  “You did?”

  “I promised I’d kill you. I promised one day, we’d be sitting right here, like this. Me looking into your eyes. And I promised I’d make you pay. For the things you’ve done. Not just to my people. Not just to Eddie. To Jane. To Zelda. Not just to countless people at our community. And not just to those women and children you captured and used and abused, too. People who’re going to have trauma for the rest of their lives. But to your own people, too. Because there are good people amongst them. There are decent people amongst them. Most of them are just… lost.”

  Curtis chuckled. Coughed a little. “Well, ain’t that sweet? If I can tell you one thing, though, buddy, it’d be to trust no one. I made that mistake. I’m a big softie at heart, and look where it put me? In a cell. Don’t make the same mistakes I made, friend. They’ll come back to haunt you.”

  Noah nodded. Kept on moving that pistol around his hands. “Maybe so. But I guess I’ll have to own that decision.”

  Again, Curtis’ face dropped. Just for a moment. He was clearly trying to get to Noah. Clearly trying to work on him.

  But Noah wasn’t taking it.

  Not anymore.

  “I thought about killing you a lot when I was in confinement.”

  “Well, now the true Noah shows his face—”

  “I thought about torturing you. I thought about tearing you limb by limb. I thought about making you suffer. And I’m still thinking about it, right this second.”

  He moved closer to Curtis. So close, he could smell his sour breath.

  “But then I looked myself in the mirror, and I realised something. Killing you. Judging you. It’s not my job to do. Because you’ve made me suffer. Sure, you’ve made me suffer. But then there’s so many others who have suffered so much more because of you. So many people you’ve had raped—”

  “Wait a second, there. I never condoned—”

  “So many people you’ve had tortured. And I believe it’s their job to decide what to do with you. To decide how to judge you. Like you did with them.”

  He stepped back, then. Lifted the pistol. Pointed it at Curtis.

  “Don’t get me wrong. I would love nothing more than to be the one to tear you apart right now. But that would be selfish. Especially when there’s a crowd outside, who all want the same thing.”

  He lowered his pistol.

  And for the first time, for the first goddamned time, he saw fear across Curtis’ face.

  A look like he wasn’t expecting this.

  Like this wasn’t a twist he’d planned for.

  Noah turned around. Walked over to the door of the shipping container.

  And then he opened it wide, so Curtis could see.

  Curtis’ eyes widened when he saw the crowd of women outside.

  Women holding knives.

  Holding spanners.

  Hammers.

  The women he’d tortured.

  The women he’d abused.

  The women he’d put through hell.

  All angry.

  All mad as fuck.

  And all ready for their reckoning.

  “Men like you had their time in the old world,” Noah said. “They used and abused women for their own personal gain. But that moment died out in the old world. And this is the moment it dies in this world, too. It’s time to meet your maker, Curtis. Goodbye. I don’t think we’ll be seeing each other again.”

  He looked Curtis in his terrified eyes, and he did something that felt so warm, so honest, so true.

  He smiled.

  And then he stepped outside the shipping container, nodded at the women, and walked away, past them.

  He kept walking as he listened to the banging.

  As he listened to the screaming.

  As he listened to the begging.

  And he took a deep breath and smiled.

  He felt no guilt.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Three weeks later…

  Noah walked towards the middle of town and couldn’t deny the nerves building in his body.

  It was a gorgeous late spring, early summer’s day. “A real zinger,” as Eddie might’ve said, once upon a time. He smiled when he thought of Eddie. Because as much badness had grown between them in the last months, as many awful things Eddie had been responsible for towards the end, there was no denying the goodness at his core. There was no denying that he wanted things to work out for everyone. For himself, sure, but for everyone too.

  He’d just got… lost.

  Lost along the way.

  And in this fucking world, that wasn’t such a hard thing to do.

  It was morning. He hadn’t slept last night. Kept on thinking about today. Because today was a big day for the community of Westfield. It was the day they looked back on what happened. Truly stared it in the face.

  It was the day they reminded themselves never to let themselves fall down that road again.

  He walked down the street. It was busy. There were a few people around. They all looked happy. But nervous, too. Like him.

  Every now and then, you’d see a patch of blood on the road. Or splatter
ed across the walls. And it would remind you of the massacre that had befallen this community, just four short weeks ago.

  But it would also remind you of the solidarity of people.

  Good people who had risen up.

  Good people who had stood together.

  Good people who had risked everything to protect this place.

  Noah heard a whine and turned to his left.

  Kelly was walking towards him. Baby Edward rested in her arms.

  She looked sick, Kelly. Pale. And had this constant haunted look to her face. A shadow of the carefree, fuck-the-world girl she’d once been.

  But fuck. They’d all changed. No point pretending otherwise.

  She walked over to him, the big lump that was Baby Edward in her arms.

  “Jeez,” Noah said. “He gets bigger every time I see him.”

  “Clearly takes after his dad and not me.”

  “You can say that again. Wonder if he’s just as enthusiastic about cheese puffs?”

  Kelly shrugged. “I’m sure if there’s one thing in this guy’s DNA, it’ll be an admiration for all things cheese-puffy.”

  He smiled at Baby Edward. Watched as he reached out a hand to Noah, let out a little excited noise. He held out a finger to him. Let him grab it. Tight.

  “How are you feeling about today?” Noah asked.

  Kelly shrugged. “I guess it’s closure. You?”

  Noah looked at the street ahead. At the people gathering, waiting.

  “To me, I think it’s more like a new beginning.”

  “You really are good at the cheesy stuff, aren’t you?”

  Noah laughed a little. “What?”

  “Eddie. He always said you had these cheesy phrases, like you’d read them from a fucking motivational manual. He was right.”

  Noah smiled. “Well. I guess we could all do with a little more cheese in this world.”

  They walked down the road together. As they walked, they passed by the prison block. The area they’d designated for those of Curtis’ people who didn’t want to comply with their rule. Not many of them. Fifteen, total. A lot had done a runner. Most had bent the knee.

  “What are we going to do with them?”

  Noah gulped. He always felt uneasy walking past here. A too-recent reminder of the fact there were still bad people in this world. “We let them serve their time.”

  “And then?”