by Ryan Casey
“We’ve got to go,” Riley said. He turned away from the barracks and moved through the gates.
But through the gates, he saw what it was that Pedro was so fixated on.
Another horde of creatures were heading in their direction, wandering across the grass outside the barracks. Singing their deathly song at the top of their voices. Twenty. Thirty. Maybe more of them were invisible in the darkness.
“It’s over,” Pedro said, as he looked around at the oncoming hordes of creatures. “It’s over.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Riley and Pedro backed in to one another. Creatures were approaching them from both directions. They were trapped. This was the end. There was no getting away.
Pedro raised his gun with his shaky hand and pointed at the creatures spilling out of the barracks.
“No,” Riley said. He tilted his head at the creatures emerging from the darkness up ahead. “Save the bullets for our way out.”
“Way out?” Pedro shouted. “We’ve got a better chance staying in here now we’ve seen what it’s like out there. We… Out there, we don’t know what to expect. And we can find a gun around the grounds. One of our soldiers — they must have dropped one. Or up on the wall. There must be something.”
Riley squinted into the darkness. He tried to picture his surroundings as they had looked the many times Pedro and he sat atop that wall on watch. The tree-lined road. The terraced houses opposite. And the milk van.
“Riley, we need to make a decision.”
“The milk van,” Riley said.
“What?”
Riley pulled the spanner out of his pocket and approached the oncoming group of creatures. They were scattered around. Enough time to deal with them individually. For now.
“You what?”
“The milk van,” Riley shouted. “Somebody… somebody told me something once. About drivers and their spare sets of keys.” He thought back to Jordanna as she reversed the tanker. The delight on her face at helping Ted and him out. “If we can get to that van, we might have a chance of driving out of here.”
Pedro shook his head and cursed as he looked back at the creatures approaching the spotlight. He stepped out of the light and joined Riley in the darkness, flicking on his torch. He was like a child taking their first leap into the swimming pool, submerging himself into the discomfort that was being underwater. Something Riley never liked.
“Come on,” Riley said. He steadied himself as a creature stepped up to him. Then, he swung the spanner at its head and knocked it to the ground, cracking its skull in the process. He was getting better at this.
“I’m sick of bloody keys, bruv,” Pedro grumbled, then raised his gun, aiming the light at the creatures in the distance. The pair of them jogged down the road away from the barracks, Pedro firing at creatures as they approached and Riley continuing to knock them down as they threw themselves at him. He was out of breath already. His knees were weak. They had to cross the road and get to the milk van. Fast.
They pushed past another few creatures. Fear gripped hold of Riley as he held his breath, sweat running down his forehead. He had to keep his cool. He had to stay focused.
He swung his spanner at another creature. He must have taken down about six or seven now. So this was what courage felt like. This was what feeling the fear and doing it anyway was about. Only the writers of all those self-help books probably weren’t doing this sort of activity right now.
“There’s too many,” Pedro called. He fired at three of them as they sneaked up on him from both sides. Their path to the milk van was blocked. The terraced houses were on the left. “We need to get to shelter. Just anywhere that isn’t the road.”
“Let’s—” Riley didn’t finish his sentence because something smacked into his right hand side. He fell to the ground, smacking his head on the cold concrete as something pushed down on him from the side, dribbling into his ear.
The spanner fell from his grip.
He turned over and saw that a creature was on top of him. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The creature pulled in to bite his neck. Riley’s arm was too low down to stop it. He held his breath. Braced himself for the contact.
A gunshot cracked through the air. The weight of the creature fell on top of him. Pedro stood with his gun in his hand, pointed at the creature.
Pedro held his hand out and Riley grabbed it. As Pedro lifted him up, Riley felt a splitting sensation down his chest. He looked down at the bandage that covered the cut from Ivan’s blade and saw that fresh blood was building up underneath.
“That doesn’t look good,” Pedro said. “But quick — we need to—”
“Riley!”
He knew the voice. He’d heard it so many times before. “Did you hear that?”
Pedro shot at another creature as it closed in on Riley. The pair of them stood in the middle of the road like animals waiting for the slaughter. “What? Jesus, Riley.”
“Riley! Over here!”
He’d definitely heard it this time. It wasn’t a trick of his imagination. “Shine your torch at the house.”
Pedro shook his head and looked over his shoulder. Creatures were stumbling out of the front gates of the barracks now, backing away from Ivan’s safe haven.
“Just quick,” Riley said.
Ivan shone his torch over at the terraced houses.
Tension built up in Riley’s body.
Anna was at the window. Beside her, he saw Claudia. They’d made it out. They’d done it.
He waved back at them then nodded at Pedro. “Lower your light. The creatures — they can’t see us.”
Pedro sighed again then flicked off the torch. “Hope you’re right about that.”
Riley inhaled a deep breath. “Me too. Now come on — let’s get to the house.”
The pair of them ran around the remaining individual creatures, knocking them down where necessary, and up to the front door of the middle terraced house. The second they arrived, the door opened. Claudia stood there.
“Quick,” she said, waving Riley in. She narrowed her eyes when Pedro approached the door.
“He’s okay,” Riley said. “He’s with us.”
Claudia tensed her jaw. Kept her focus on Pedro. “I sure as hell hope so.”
Pedro nodded at Claudia and stepped through the front door of the terraced house.
The door slammed shut. The groans outside were drowned out.
For the first time all night, Riley felt a brief hint of safety again.
Ivan watched as they made their way into the terraced house. Riley and Pedro, the pair of them fighting side by side. Flames of anger burned in his stomach. He clamped his teeth together to resist shouting out at them. Because he wanted to lash out. And he could. He would. Just not yet.
The creatures stumbled past the gun-mounted vehicle without paying any attention. Ivan was completely still, and he kept the headlights off. He watched as the door of the terraced house closed, the grieving bitch of a mother welcoming Riley and Pedro into her home. Naive. Foolish of her to fall for the bait. Foolish of all of them, in fact.
He cracked open a can of Coca Cola that was wedged into the drinks holder beside the steering wheel. The drink fizzed and spilled all over Ivan’s lap. He swore under his breath, being careful not to be too loud. He couldn’t risk alerting the attention of the creatures, not now. Not after all this hard work. That would just be fucking foolish. Death by spilt drink. Just the luck he needed.
He looked around at the barracks. It was lit up again, the grey bricked walls bathing in the intense white spotlights. The courtyard was filled with creatures. They stumbled around aimlessly as they searched for movement, trying their hardest to hear something in the deadly silence of the night. The barracks didn’t look good. But he could lead again. He hadn’t lost everything, not yet. He could start again.
Only, with a few minor alterations to his leadership style.
“What’s the plan, boss?”
Ivan had been
concentrating so much that he barely remembered the two soldiers who were in the gun-mounted vehicle with him. He’d been fortunate to bump into them in the first place. But it hadn’t been a night of good fortune, so these things had to even themselves out one way or another.
“Are we going in?” the other soldier asked. He shuffled his gun in his hands. Pedro and Riley must have just assumed everyone dead. Disappointing, really. He always expected better of them.
“Why can’t we just—”
“We’re going to make them wait,” Ivan said. His throat was tender and the words felt forced. “We’re going to make them wait and we’re going to make them think they’ve got away. We’re going to make them believe that they are safe. And then we’re going to kill Riley in front of the women.”
The soldiers were silent. More shuffling in the seats. Ivan stared out at the terraced house. A small candlelight was visible behind the upstairs window.
“What—what about Pedro?”
Ivan smiled. “Like I said. We’re going to kill Riley in front of the others. Pedro’s a very big part of this plan. Now get some rest. You’re going to need it.”
“But I don’t get why we can’t just go in there. They killed Barney. Why doesn’t Pedro just deal with them?”
Ivan took a final gulp from his can of Coke. “Sometimes, boys, the cruelest method of murder is tearing out the heart. Building up a bond then tearing it away.” He pulled down the shutter on the front window.
Now, they just had to sit and wait. Wait for Pedro to carry out his part of the plan.
Wait for the screams.
CHAPTER FIVE
Riley followed Claudia upstairs. Pedro was close behind. The staircase was dark and dusty. There was a strong putrid smell in the air, like bananas that had been left to rot well past their ripest stage. But it was shelter nevertheless, and that’s all they needed right now. His chest was beginning to sting again. Hopefully nothing too serious. They didn’t need another setback, not now.
Claudia grabbed the handle at the top of the staircase. The door was painted with blood. Toys were scattered across the floor. Teddy bears cast aside, never again to be used. A ghostly reminder of what life was like when it was normal. A reminder of what was lost.
“Ted,” Claudia said. Her eyes were watery as she stared back at Riley. “Is he—?”
“Yes,” Riley said. “He’s gone.”
Claudia shook her head and sniffed back some tears before pushing open the door. “Make yourself comfortable. This place will have to suffice until it’s safe to move on.”
Riley stepped into the room. Pedro followed closely behind.
“I’m sorry,” Pedro said. He couldn’t quite look Claudia in the eye. “About your little girl. I’m sorry.”
Claudia disregarded Pedro and held the door open. He joined Riley in the room.
Anna and Chloë were by the window peeking out of the hole-laden curtains. A candle burned on the circular dining table in the middle of the room. A bed was propped up beside the window. Cans of food were stacked atop a dressing table, mostly empty. It looked like this room had been a bedroom once upon a time. But things changed when the Dead Days arrived. Bedrooms, kitchens, sitting rooms — none of those were relevant anymore. It was all about what was the most suitable room for safety. The room with the best possible escape route. The room that was hardest for the creatures to invade.
“Glad to have you back,” Anna said. She went to hug Riley but backed off and cleared her throat.
“Glad to be back, wherever back is.”
“Is Ted okay?” Chloë asked.
Claudia stepped past Pedro. “Chloë, Riley’s tired. You should let him rest.”
Riley swallowed the lump in his throat as Anna and Chloë waited for him to give them the inevitable piece of news. “Ted… He’s gone.”
Anna lowered her head. Chloë’s relieved smile at Riley’s return dropped.
“I’m sorry,” Anna said. “Did he—”
“Ivan murdered him. Slit his throat.”
Anna’s mouth dangled open. Chloë didn’t even flinch. “That bastard,” Anna said. “That fucking bastard.” She peered over Riley’s shoulder at Pedro, as if she noticed him for the first time since his entrance. “Do you have nothing to say about that? Nothing to say about your fucked up leader?”
Pedro stared at his feet. He didn’t react to Anna’s words. He took them, like he deserved them.
“Nothing at all to say about those—those bodies? About what you did to us in that canteen?” She stepped up to Pedro. “Nothing at all to say about—about how you held Riley back while Ivan sliced his chest?”
“Anna,” Riley interrupted. “Pedro’s okay. He’s with us.”
Anna shook her head. “No. I don’t accept that. I don’t—”
“I’m sorry.” Pedro raised his head and stared Anna directly in her eyes. “That’s all I can say. I’m sorry. I was doing what I thought I needed to do to survive.”
Anna watched him intently, with the same level of intensity that she’d stared at everybody she’d had suspicions about. She pointed to his gun. “Then give us that. If you want to start proving your loyalty, you hand that gun over. It’s our gun now.”
Pedro looked down at his gun then back at Riley.
Riley shrugged. “Do as she says.”
Pedro sighed and handed the rifle over to Anna. She grabbed it from him with a weighty tug and inspected it. “Good move. Now sit down. There’s some canned shit over here.” She reached for a tin of dusty, ancient looking soup and tossed it over to Pedro. “No can openers so you’re just going to have to bite your way in or something.”
Pedro examined the can in his hand. There was no way he was cutting through the solid metal lid any time soon. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
Correct answer, Riley thought.
“How did you end up here?” Riley asked.
“We had no choice, really,” Claudia said. “When we got out of the… the underground passage, this area was swamped with those creatures. So we just had to go to the closest place we could. Figured we’d keep an eye out for you and Ted in case… Yeah.”
Riley nodded. Every time somebody said Ted’s name, he couldn’t get that final image of him out of his head. The fear and sense of knowledge in his eyes as the blade sliced through his neck. Gargling blood on the floor. That wasn’t the Ted he used to play Xbox with. The Ted who used to eat nachos and laze around.
“He did a good thing for us,” Claudia said. “Ted did. He gave us a chance. I dread to think what might have happened if he hadn’t interfered with that generator.” Her gaze wandered over Riley’s shoulder and at Pedro.
“Yeah,” Anna said. “He was a good guy. I thought he was an absolute idiot at first, but he was good.” She raised a half-open can of soup into the air. “To Ted.”
Everybody else nodded in acknowledgement as Anna took a sip of the cold soup. She gasped as the thick tomato sauce made its way down her throat. “So I guess this is the point where we work out our next step.”
“It has to be the MOD bunker,” Claudia said. “The one we were heading to before…” Her vision diverted to Pedro again. “Before we found safety.” It sounded like she had corrected herself out of politeness more than anything.
“Wait — you mean the bunker down in Goosnargh?” Pedro asked.
“What is it to you?” Anna said.
“It’s no use. Passed by that way before we found your group. It might have been good before the countryside fell, but there’s a horde of zombies over that way now. Drifting out of the cities, looking for food, y’know?”
Riley frowned. “So you’re suggesting we head into the city?”
“Not into the city, necessarily. But I think there’s better places to go than a rickety old bunker right now.”
“Like?” Anna asked.
Pedro looked around at the group. His momentary pause said more than words could manage. He wasn’t being totally open.
&nb
sp; “Oh, come on,” Riley said. “We’re in this together now. Or you can go it alone. That’s your call.”
“Okay,” Pedro said. “Okay. There’s a place I know of. Down by the docks. And my… my gran kept an old canal narrowboat there.”
Anna tutted and broke into a smile. “A narrowboat? Seriously? And you never thought to just float the fuck away on it?”
“Hey,” Pedro said. He pointed at Riley. “You’re in a room with a man who broke out of his high-rise flat in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. That place was perfect. No offence, Riley.”
Riley shrugged. Funny thing for Pedro to make the ‘no offence’ remark about, especially after some of the more offensive things he’d revealed himself to be involved in within the last few hours.
“And what about this narrowboat?” Claudia asked. “What do you suggest?”
“Well, I… If we can get to it — which is a big ‘if’ — I’m pretty certain nobody will have found it. All the other boats at the docks, they’ll be long gone. But not this. My grandma had it stashed away in a fuckin’ dire old shed. Can’t imagine anyone’s gone in there.”
“And say we get this narrowboat,” Anna said. “What then? Where do we go on it?”
Pedro cleared his throat then crouched down onto the floor. The candlelight lit up his face. “I know how to sail this thing. And it held a fair load of fuel. And it can move manually too. So I say we float up the coast. Out of the docks, then down the Ribble and up the coast.”
Anna glanced at Riley. She didn’t respond straight away, which was a positive sign from her. If she didn’t agree with something, she’d typically snap right away. But Pedro’s idea wasn’t so bad. They could go out to sea. Work their way up towards the Lake District, where it was nothing but countryside. Or head over to one of the small islands between them and Ireland. Not a bad idea at all.
“There’s only one problem,” Pedro said.
Riley held his breath. Braced himself for whatever disappointment Pedro was about to deliver. “Go on.”
He nodded at the window. The groans had died down, but the staggering feet against the road were as loud as ever as the creatures shuffled from side to side.
