by Ryan Casey
Another gunshot. Trevor shouted out. “Back up! I can kick them down but… you have to back up.”
Adrenaline raced through Riley’s body as he stared at the ladder atop the van. If he could get to it, he could bring it over to the window and they could all climb down.
But the groans. The throaty, raspy cries of the creatures. He could hear them to his right, around the corner of the wall. He had to be careful.
He slowly crept towards the corner of the wall as the struggling and firing continued above. He held his breath and poked his head around the corner.
A crowd of creatures all made their way through the smashed glass of the front door. They were all coming from down the road, all stumbling in the direction of the Chinese restaurant entrance. Why the fuck were they coming this way? What had attracted them? Could it be the horde from the dairy farm? Had they followed him back?
“Get the kids in the bathroom,” Trevor shouted. “Quick!”
Riley looked down at his hands and gulped. The dried blood of too many people. People he’d abandoned. Let down.
He could come back from this. He couldn’t just run away.
He moved from the cover of the side wall. He remained crouched, keeping his focus on the white van up ahead. He didn’t turn to his right to look at them. If there was one on his left and it ambushed him then so be it. But he had to get there quickly. He had to stay focused.
An intense fear gripped hold of him as he reached the middle of the road. His right ear was deafened by the sounds of their groans. Were they getting nearer to him? Approaching him? No. Keep calm. Keep focused.
The van was just metres away now. The commotion of the Chinese restaurant seemed further and further away every step he took. He just had to get the ladder then get back to the restaurant. He could do this. He could save them.
When he reached the van, he stopped and took in a couple of deep breaths before rising slowly to his feet. Almost automatically, he looked to his right, and regretted it immediately. The crowd of dark silhouettes and figures pouring in through the door, their blood-drenched clothes illuminating in the moonlight. He turned back to the van and rushed around to the other side of it where he would be protected from view. The upstairs light of the takeaway shadowed as shots continued to fire and voices muffled.
Riley reached and grabbed the top corner of the ladder, wrestling with the holder to set it free. The creatures weren’t approaching him. The gap between the Chinese restaurant and the van was still clear. He could do this. He had to.
As he unclipped the fourth corner of the ladder from the holder, he felt something grip hold of his leg.
He looked down and almost tumbled over.
A creature’s hand pushed through the glass of the van window. It pressed itself up against the cracking glass, sticking its tongue out at full stretch, the glass severing and slicing it.
Riley kicked out and shook his leg free. His foot clanked against the side of the van. He looked up at the crowd of creatures — still focused on the restaurant. Fuck. He kicked at the gripping hand again and struggled free of it, climbing on top of the minivan, exposed in the bright moonlight.
The van shuffled from side to side as the creature tried to pull itself out.
Please don’t notice. Please don’t…
In the distance, near the back of the long, winding queue of creatures, one of them strayed from its Lemming-esque path and started to stagger in the direction of the minivan.
Another followed.
And another.
“Shit.” Riley gripped hold of the ladder and jumped off the side of the van as the creatures heading towards him started to groan. More of them changed their course of direction as he sprinted across the road and towards the window. They were screwed. What use were ladders if they had no escape?
“Get yourselves ready!” Riley shouted. He knew the creatures had already noticed him, so he could shout as much as he liked. They’d be surrounded. The creatures inside the Chinese restaurant. The creatures outside, all gathering around the ladder. They were trapped.
But perhaps they didn’t have to climb out after all.
Riley crouched down in the alley at the side of the restaurant and extended the ladder with his shaky hands. “Coming up. Keep them back.”
“They’re not stopping, man!” Ted shouted. “They—they’re not stopping.”
Riley rested the ladder against the wall, where it fell just short of the window ledge, and put his foot on the first step.
As he did, a small crowd of creatures stepped around the corner and walked in his direction.
He rushed up the ladder, which shook from side to side the further he ascended. His heart raced. His palms dripped with sweat. He could do this. They could do this.
The creatures were so close. Hungry. Noisy. Unforgiving. They were coming for the ladder. They’d crash into it and they’d knock it down — knock him down.
He took another step and felt the ladder start to fall to the right.
He jumped up and gripped the window ledge. The ladder disappeared beneath his feet as he dug his nails into the window ledge, crying out as his clammy fingers slid away.
The ladder clattered to the ground. Something gripped his hand.
He looked up. It was Claudia. She nodded at Riley and pulled him through the window with all of her strength, back in to the corridor and back to where they’d started.
Trevor and Ted were at the other end of the corridor, knocking the creatures down the stairs. Anna was assisting them, gun raised.
“What the hell was that about?”
Riley watched Ted as he smacked the shrinking crowd of creatures to the ground, the groans building outside the window.
“Saving this place,” Riley said.
Riley rushed down the corridor towards Ted, Anna, and Trevor.
“Be careful,” Claudia called. “It’s… it’s no use. They’re coming. They’re—”
“Those creatures are all outside the window I just climbed through. I want you to keep them there.”
Claudia’s eyes watered. “And… and how am I supposed to do that?”
Riley shrugged. “Improvise.” He carried on walking to the others as they battled with the creatures, pushing them further and further back down the stairs.
“Mate, you—you’re okay.” Ted hit a creature over the head with a spanner and sent its limp body tumbling down the steps, joining a pile outside the door. There were only three more creatures. The numbers were diminishing.
“You need to back up,” Riley said.
“Back up?” Anna frowned. She smacked the butt of her gun against the chin of a creature and knocked it back. “But they’re coming. They’re—”
“They’re by the window,” Riley said. He pointed at where he’d come from. Claudia leaned out of it, waving and shouting at the creatures below. “I… I drew them to the window. Claudia’s keeping them there. We have to back up while we still have a chance to fortify the front.”
“Fortify it?” Trevor said. He shook his head. “The front door — it’s gone. Smashed in. They might have moved for now, but they’re coming back. You’ve seen how they are.”
Riley looked down at the pile of bodies built at the bottom of the steps. “Maybe so. But if we act fast, we can do this. Trevor—you come with me to the front door. We’ll cover it up as well as we can. Stay upstairs if we have to.”
“And the bodies?” Anna said. “We can’t live here with—with all these dead things lying around.”
“We’ll burn them. Throw them out of the window and burn them.”
Ted nodded. Sweat dripped down his face. “We can save this place. We can do it.”
Anna shook her head. “We need to move on while we still can.”
“And go where?” Ted asked.
“Anywhere we can. The creatures — they’re coming from the city. We can head further into the country. Towards… towards the canal. We can get a barge and—and sail up to Lancaster. Rile
y?”
Riley stared at the bodies on the floor. The door to the reception area, half open, battered by the force of the creatures that had piled through it. Claudia’s voice, shouting at the creatures to distract them, rang around his skull.
He took a step down the stairway.
“Where do you think you’re—?”
“Trevor and I will close up the doorway as well as we can. The shelves in the kitchen—we can move them. If Claudia keeps those things outside distracted, we can do this. There might be one or two loose, but we can handle those. Right?”
Trevor paused, then offered a single nod back at Riley. “If you say so. Lead the way.”
As Riley began to descend the stairway, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Ted.
“Let me… let me help. Please.”
Anna rolled her eyes and sighed. “You? Help? Don’t think I’d trust you to.”
Ted’s eyes were bloodshot. He had that desperate look on his face, like when he’d begged Riley to let him stay in his flat with him. Like when his benefits had been cut and Riley was forced to contribute more towards the flat rent. Except he wasn’t the one asking for help this time. Ted was the one asking to help.
“You give Anna a hand clearing up the bodies,” Riley said. “But keep it quiet. And make sure Claudia keeps their attention. Okay?”
Anna shot a disgusted glance at Ted. The bruise on her face was growing purpler. “And why should we work together?”
“Because we have to,” Riley said. “We’re a group. We help each other out.”
A creature groaned in the reception area. It was wandering through on its own. A woman with a deathly pale face, dressed in her pajamas. Teeth-marks all over her forehead, hair torn from her head and her scalp gnawed at.
Riley and Trevor exchanged a glance. Trevor lifted his spanner, ready to approach the creature.
“Take this.” Anna held the gun out to Riley. She bit her lip and avoided looking him directly in the eye.
Riley took the gun. “How many bullets left?”
Anna shrugged. “A few. But you’ll need it more than I do. Good… Good luck.”
Riley nodded at Anna, then at Ted.
“Ready?” Trevor asked him.
Riley took a deep breath. “Ready.”
The pair of them clambered over the mound of rancid dead bodies and into the reception area as Claudia’s cries of distraction continued to sound.
Trevor swung his spanner at the head of the oncoming creature.
The spanner smacked against it and sent fragments of skull inward towards its brain. Trevor yanked the spanner back, blood pouring out of the creature’s head, and the creature dropped to the floor in a lifeless heap. Trevor stepped away from the creature, turned to Riley, and nodded.
Riley followed Trevor’s lead and entered the reception area. He held his gun up and scanned the room. Bloody footprints were spread across the floor from the smashed glass of the main door, like mud on a rainy day. His shoes squelched through the slippery dampness of water and blood as he stepped closer to Trevor. There were no groans inside anymore. No sign of creatures by the door.
“We need to grab what we can from the kitchen,” Riley said. “As many counters as we can push up against that door.”
Trevor moved over to the kitchen door. “And how do you propose we get out of this place? For food? Supplies?”
Riley shrugged. “We’ll find a way. We… This place. We’re not going to find anywhere better than this. We need to hold on to what we’ve got. Ted’s right.”
Trevor tilted his head. “And this has nothing to do with you throwing yourself out of a window, hmm?”
The question caught Riley off-guard. He had acted quickly. He’d put his own life on the line. But it turned out he’d done the right thing. He’d given them a chance. A chance to do something. “The plan was to get out of here. But we might not have to.”
Trevor shook his head and grabbed the handle of the kitchen door. He reached into his pocket with his free hand and shook a pack of cigarettes. “If we make it out, we’re smoking one of these. Think we’ve earned it after today.”
Riley nodded and aimed the gun at the door. Still no sign of any creatures at the main entrance. “I… I would. But, I quit smoking a while ago.”
“Well you’re going to un-quit smoking, just for me.” He smiled at Riley then pulled the door open.
At first, Riley couldn’t quite process what it was he was seeing.
Trevor tumbled back, covering his mouth with his sleeve, coughing.
A thick black cloud of smoke drifted out of the kitchen door. The smell of burning strengthened in Riley’s nostrils.
The kitchen door slammed shut and Trevor struggled to his feet, still coughing up the smoke he’d inhaled. He pointed at Riley, his eyes watering. “Need to… need to get upstairs. Need to leave.”
Riley frowned. “What… What—”
“Fire. Fire.” Trevor staggered past Riley and towards the stairs. “Need to leave. Now.”
Riley shook his head and rushed back over to the kitchen door. Dread built up inside of him. “We can put it out,” he said, grabbing the handle. “We can deal with it. We can…”
As he opened the kitchen door, his stomach sank.
The fire was spreading around the kitchen worktop. Climbing up the walls and across the ceiling. A flaming frying pan sizzled in the middle of the black smoke.
A groan emerged at the side of Riley. He turned around and saw a creature at the main door, stumbling in the direction of the smoke and the burning.
“They’re coming back!” Claudia shouted. “Riley, Trevor — they’re coming back to the front!”
Riley closed the kitchen door.
“We’ve got to leave,” Trevor said, shaking his head. “Sorry, but we’ve got to leave.”
CHAPTER TWO
Riley and Trevor ran back up the stairs. The smoke was beginning to work its way out from underneath the kitchen door now. The groans of the creatures were returning to the front of the Chinese takeaway restaurant. They had no choice. They had to go — or at least try to go.
“Claudia — get the girls and keep them close. Anna — find a weapon.”
“What’s going on?” Claudia asked. Chloë and Elizabeth appeared from the bathroom.
“We’re going to have to leave. There’s a fire in the kitchen.”
Claudia’s face dropped. “The… the pan. I left the pan on… Oh god. I—”
“No time for tears,” Trevor interrupted. “We’ve gotta leave.”
Riley heard a groaning by the door again. One of the creatures waded through the smoke, which filled the entire downstairs area now. They needed to get out while they still could.
“Claudia — the creatures. How many of them have moved?”
Claudia shook her head and looked back out of the window. “I—Ten. Twenty. We can deal with them. Most are staying put. But… but not if we don’t hurry.”
“Right,” Riley said. “We leave. Now.”
Anna stepped up to Riley. She had a pipe in her hand, presumably yanked from the bathroom somewhere. “I thought we were defending this place?”
“The rules have changed. Soon, there’ll be nothing left to defend. We have to go.”
Anna nodded. Gripped hold of the metal pipe. “Got it.”
“Good. Ted? Foot okay?”
Ted spun the fire safety axe around in his hands. His jaw was visibly shaking. “Yeah. I… It better be.”
Riley nodded. The smoke and the lone creature were making their way up the steps. “Right. Then we go. I’ll take this first creature and lead the way. Claudia and the girls go in the middle. We need those kids to be the hardest ones to get to.”
“No,” Trevor said. He placed a hand on Riley’s chest. “I’ll deal with this one. Save the ammo for when you need it. Okay?”
Riley half-smiled at Trevor and nodded. “Okay. Cover your mouths. Let’s… let’s get out of here.”
Trevor z
ipped his hoodie over his mouth and rushed past Riley. He knocked the creature down with his spanner, splitting its fragile skull. Then, he turned around to the rest of the group and waved them down, clouded by the murky smoke.
Riley covered his mouth and raised his gun as he jogged down the stairs. The smoke was rising to the upper floors. In a matter of minutes, the place would be too toxic to survive in. They could attempt to extinguish the fire if they had the luxury of time, but unfortunately they didn’t have that luxury in this world.
“Keep your—” Riley coughed as he stepped into the reception area. “Keep your wits about you. Run for the door and cross the road and—” He coughed again. “And do not turn back.”
Ted appeared beside him. He patted Riley on the shoulder, coughing and spluttering. His eyes were dripping with tears from the smoke.
They ran into the reception area and moved around the counter. Four creatures were visible ahead of them, but it was hard to say given how thick the smoke was. They snapped their cracked teeth as they moved through the darkness of the smoke. Riley raised his gun at a chubby one that waddled in his direction.
But before he had the chance to fire, a thick pole smacked into its head and sent it falling to the floor. Anna nodded at Riley, covering her mouth with the top of her jumper.
Riley nodded back in approval. Conserving their bullets was a wise move.
The group jogged through the smoke and towards the door. A small creature — possibly teenage — threw itself at Ted, but he reacted fast, swinging the axe at its head and sending its jaw out of the opposite side of its face. Riley turned around. Chloë was trying to drag herself free of her mother, who wrapped her arm around a crying Elizabeth. Trevor was beside them, acting as their personal bodyguard. After they’d cleared the area, he rushed ahead to the door, knocking down another two creatures with his spanner in the process.
“Everybody make their way to the other side of the cars,” Trevor said. “Just stay low. Keep going and going. Come on — Anna, Ted, you go first. Then Claudia and the girls. Riley and me, we’ve got this.”
