I didn’t know what to say, what to do. I just stared at an aghast Cass, unable to speak.
“We can’t stop it.”
Then it hadn’t mattered. It had made no difference, none of it. So many people had died for nothing. Their sacrifice! For nothing at all, just a little time.
I felt sick.
“I-is Gregg…?” Cass asked.
“Yeah, I’m here, sis,” Gregg’s voice came through, unmistakable. “We have a plan.”
“What plan?” She asked.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said, taking over once more. “It has to be this way.”
“What does? What do you mean? Please! Tell me what’s going on.”
“Charlie has access to their systems,” Ryan said. “Smythe… eventually… helped with that.”
“But what does that matter if you can’t stop it?”
“We don’t need to stop it,” Ryan said. “Just redirect it.”
A moment of hope, a brief surge of feeling, of belief that it might work out, that I would see him again.
“I’ve given Charlie the coordinates for this base.”
“No!” I said, eyes widening as what he’d said sunk in. “I refuse. I won’t let her do it!”
“You have to.” There was so much pain in his voice, so much hurt and sorrow. I didn’t even try to stop my tears. “Please, don’t do this.”
“As soon as the missile is aimed at this base, all other Genpact bases will automatically launch their own… at each other. It will end them.”
“There has to be another way.”
I knew I was pleading. I knew how I sounded, and I didn’t care. My tears wouldn’t stop falling and my body shook. I had to grab hold of the desk to stop myself from collapsing.
“Should have done this before,” Ryan said. “Angelina and Gabriel.”
“W-what?”
“My choice of names for our children. I guess I owe my brother. I did kill him after all.”
His laughter cut off as he coughed, a groan escaping him, and I bit down on my hand to stop myself from screaming.
“It will make my family happy and that should be important to me,” he said, voice fading. “I love you, Lily.”
I dropped the mic, staggering back with both hands pressed to my mouth. Great sobs wracked my body as I collapsed to the floor. It was one sacrifice too many.
****
“Think it will work?” Gregg asked.
There were the streaks of tears down his cheek and I raised my shoulders in a shrug, wincing at the pain. Blood coated my hands and I glanced over at the remnant of the man that had once been Smythe.
“I don’t think it will matter to us.”
He let out a sigh. “You’re probably right. I almost wish it would be quick.”
I could have laughed at that. Nothing would ever be that easy, not for us. Smythe could have been lying but I didn’t think so. The nuke would detonate in an airburst about the city.
A great many buildings would be obliterated instantly as a wall of fire swept outwards, causing more devastation.
The upper three or four floors would be destroyed utterly and the next four or five crushed by the shock wave. The bottom ones, those where we lingered? They would be cut off from the world and buried under a mountain of dirt and rubble.
It would be no quick death for my friend. Just slow suffocation as the air began to run out. I, fortunately, would be dead long before then.
“What you laughing at?” he asked, somewhat suspiciously.
“Just thinking I’m glad you’re here with me, my friend.”
He had to think about that for a moment and then he scowled.
“Nice. If I wasn’t, I’d survive.”
“If it means anything,” I said as a fresh wave of pain hit me. “I wish you could survive.”
“That means a lot.” He turned to look at the screens. “At least Briony will be killed by the blast.”
I would have answered if I could, but the darkness was closing in and my last thought was of my children, my Lily, my love.
Epilogue.
“Tell us another!” the little boy demanded, but the older woman merely smiled sadly and shook her head, shoulder length blonde hair blowing across her face.
“No. That’s enough for today. You should go and play with your sister.”
The little boy pulled a face, but he pushed himself up, brushing the dried grass from his trousers. He hesitated, then took a step towards the woman and wrapped his short arms around her. She smiled, not showing the pain that brought her, and returned his embrace.
“Thank you for the story, mama.”
“You’re welcome, Gabriel. Now, you go play with your sister.”
“She’s not fun,” he complained. “She’s hurting the frogs again.”
Lily let out a soft sigh as she raised a hand to shade her eyes. Staring across the wide lawn towards the pond where she spied her dark-haired daughter kneeling in the reeds. Beside her, a black-garbed acolyte stood ready to protect her from anything but her own dark impulses.
“Too much like her father,” Lily said, feeling once more the pain of even that much of a reference to him.
Even after so many years, she still felt that pang of pain at hearing his name, of thinking of him. She looked at her son and thought, of seeing how much his son looked like him.
Angelina had her father’s strange impulses, but it was Gabriel who looked so very much like him. Enough that it broke her heart anew every time she looked at his face.
The little boy sighed and stomped off towards the pond, another acolyte following along behind him. The bodyguards were not just a necessity in those strange times, but yet another constant reminder of her beloved.
After the bombs had fallen, lengthening the long winter and bringing with it a whole host of problems. She had searched that place, in London. There was nothing there to find of course. Just the rot and ruin of a decaying civilisation.
All sign of her lover and their friend was lost to her. Still, she had searched, but had found nothing but renewed grief. The radiation was too much, and soon enough, even with protective suits, they had to abandon the search.
His faithful lieutenant, Samuel, had spoken highly of his sacrifice and in so doing, raised him to demi-godlike status. What had once been a death cult was a full-blown religion, complete with a legend of the promised return when his people needed him most.
And, oh, how often Lily had need of him. The nights she had spent weeping for her loss, for the man her children would never know. For the lives that he had saved by being the one thing she had never truly expected him to be.
Selfless.
She watched her children play, mood darkening along with the late afternoon sky. Soon enough it would be time to return to the council chamber. A delegation from the remnants of Genpact had arrived the day before on a ship laden with tribute.
With their main bases gone, those few smaller satellite bases had little choice but to seek help for they could not survive on their own. Even in the midst of her grief, Lily had seen the benefit of serving all of the survivors in the world.
Peace had been made, but at such a cost.
“You must return,” Cass said as she approached.
Lily didn’t look at her but nodded slowly. “Trouble?”
“Is it ever anything else?”
“What is it this time? Raiders or zombies?”
The Shamblers were all gone, as were most of the Ferals. In the six years since the peace had been forged in nuclear fire, much had changed. Small settlements had been established and were beginning to grow and prosper.
Farming, trade, even music was being re-learnt as the world slowly began to heal. With that, of course, had come those who felt they could take what others had toiled so hard for. Which was where Lily came in.
She had taken on the role of protector, of all people, whether they wanted it or not. Never again would she allow such a loss to happen. Determined to rebuild the
world into a place that was worthy of the sacrifice so many had made, she had become an enemy to those who sought dominion over others.
“Reapers broached the walls at Perth,” Cass said, and Lily did look then.
“Reapers? as in more than one?”
“Yes. Four of them working together.”
“That is… strange.”
Which was an understatement. It was unheard of. The only thing Reapers hated more than the living was another Reaper.
“There’s weirder.”
“Oh?”
“Some raiders attacked a small settlement in Wales.”
“Have Samuel send some acolytes to hunt them down. That’s not so weird.”
“The weird part is that we did that. When the acolytes found the raiders, they had been slaughtered.”
Lily stared at the other woman, unsure of what to make of that. “A Reaper, maybe?”
“Maybe. Still some of those Genpact creations out there. But even weirder is another group of bandits were killed to the north of that, and a trio of hunters further north still, found a Reaper, torn apart.”
“Mama!” her son squealed excitedly as he came running back. “Angelina’s gone!”
Lily was on her feet in an instant, eyes narrowing and fists clenching as she turned to the pond and the acolyte who was beating the reeds in a panic. If one of her enemies had taken her daughter, they would know such fury that their whole world would shake.
“Find her! Someone find her for the love of-“
She cut off as the little dark-haired girl came skipping out of the small copse of trees that stood beside the rear wall of the estate where Lily had been forced to make her home.
Fear warring with anger, Lily stalked across the dry grass towards her daughter, more than ready to scold her for running away from her bodyguard. A game that she was far too good at.
“Mama, look!” the little girl cried excitedly as she held something in her hand.
“If it’s another dead frog, I’m out,” Cass muttered with a smile.
“What is it, little Angel?” Lily asked, crouching down so that she could look her daughter in the face.
“It’s a knife! Can I keep it?”
She held up the small knife in a plain black sheath, a wide smile on her face. Lily looked at it and then at her daughter, brow furrowed.
“Where did you find that?”
“The man gave it to me,” she said, turning to point.
Lily looked up, shading her eyes against the glare of the setting sun. Sure enough, there were two men standing just inside the treeline.
Their clothes were soiled from travel and their bodies were lean and very pale, their faces covered with a thick growth of beard. Still, though, her breath caught for there was no mistaking those eyes that stared right back at her.
“Who is it?” Cass asked, peering at the shaded area beneath the trees.
“My heart,” Lily whispered as she reached down to take her daughter's hand.
She looked up at her friend, tears falling down her cheeks as she smiled, widely and said to her children, “Come on, I want you to meet your father and your uncle Gregg.”
Note from the Author.
Season 3 is done, and what a season! I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. As it is, that is the end for the moment. Things have clearly moved on apace, and there is a great deal of potential for a fourth season but first I need to finish a few other projects.
Yes, Ryan and Gregg did survive, and I know how. It isn’t just some hand waving reason, there’s actually a fully fleshed out explanation that you will get at some point in the future. Of course, it took them a while, a good few years in fact and in that time, the world has moved on.
It will be difficult to fit back into that, but I am sure our heroes will find a way to make it interesting.
As always, I love to hear what you think and am easiest to contact on the Facebook page.
Richard.
Killing The Dead (Book 18): Sacrifice Page 17
