by Ryan Casey
And when she’d left, she didn’t honestly think anything could tempt her back. She had everything she wanted here. She had her son, Riley Junior. She had Stuart. She had a nice home, a nice job. It felt like the right thing to do was just to stay here. To wait.
Because she knew bad things were happening in the world. Europe, namely. She knew the issues it had been going through. She knew the problems it had been suffering.
The virus. The infection.
The way that part of the world had been cordoned off from the rest.
But then the news came that they were making breakthroughs with the infection. That they were looking for volunteers. Volunteers to station themselves at offshore camps. Places where survivors of what was a rapidly transforming infection could be monitored.
But these volunteer posts were high risk. There was a very good chance that when you went on one, you didn’t come back. That was just part of the parcel of the position.
And naturally, Alison knew she shouldn’t even consider volunteering. Because volunteers were usually people without families. People without responsibilities. More importantly, people without comforts that she had.
But someone was drawing her back.
She thought about Riley as she looked into her son’s eyes. Did she still love him? That was hard to answer. She hadn’t wanted to leave him. He was the love of her life, of course. He just had… issues. And it didn’t seem like he’d been able to fight off those issues.
But she thought of Riley and what he might be going through out there. She thought of what other people like him were going through. And even though it was completely mad that she was thinking about going back because of Riley—even though she knew the chances were high that he was dead, and even if he wasn’t, the chances of finding him were slim as fuck—that curiosity was still there. That itch, demanding to be scratched.
She had to know for certain.
She had to find out.
It was her duty to her son.
It was her duty to her husband.
It was her duty to the world.
“You don’t have to do this, Alison.”
She stood up after hugging her son as tightly as she possibly could, holding back the tears so this didn’t seem too intense, too confusing, for him.
She looked Stuart in his tearful eyes.
“You don’t have to go,” he said. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
She felt sorry for him. Total sympathy.
Then she leaned in. Held him. Kissed him.
“I have to go,” she said. “I just have to.”
She held him longer, her loyal, trusting husband. She felt her love for him growing even stronger at that moment, and the urge to just stay put niggling at her, demanding her.
Then she looked back down at her son.
She thought about his dad. His biological dad, who was out there somewhere.
She reached down, held him tight.
“I’ll be back, sunshine,” she said. “You just look up at the stars when you’re missing me. Look up at the stars and know I’m out there.”
She kissed her son, trying her best to stop the emotions fully flowing, but that was impossible now.
Then she stepped back, looked at her husband, her son, in their eyes.
“You stay safe, love,” Stuart said, his voice cracking. “You stay safe.”
She took a deep breath. There was so much she wanted to say.
But in the end, there was only one thing she could manage.
“I will.”
Then she turned around and walked.
She didn’t look back.
She couldn’t look back.
As she looked at the plane ahead of her, she could only look forward.
She was going back home.
She was going to a new world.
And she was going to do her bit—do whatever she could—to make things right, once and for all.
THE PLANE LIFTED off the runway.
She got her second thoughts. Wanted to get off. Wanted to leave. Started to stand.
But it was already too late.
The ground was beneath her.
The plane was ascending.
She was heading into the Dead Days.
She was about to see life as it really was in this new world.
And as she rose, the only thing that brought her any comfort was the idea of a person.
The idea of Riley.
The idea that he maybe, just maybe, was still out there.
Still okay.
Still alive.
Still in the light.
EPISODE FIFTY-SIX
THE LIVING
(SIXTH EPISODE OF SEASON TEN)
“Ted?”
When he heard the voice—when he heard his name—he wasn’t sure whether he was really here. He wasn’t sure whether he was really alive.
Because it wasn’t possible.
It wasn’t possible that he was still here.
And it wasn’t possible that somebody was saying his name.
But they were.
They were.
He stood there in the cool breeze of the late afternoon. The sun shone down brightly from above. He could taste blood in his mouth. That metallic, coppery taste that always merged with the taste of vomit, always present, always there. Just something that he’d learned to deal with. Something he’d been dealing with for a long, long time.
“Ted?”
The woman opposite. The woman standing in front of the military vehicle—the vehicle that had bailed him and Melissa out.
The way she said it. The way she said his name. The first person to say his name for… how long? He didn’t know. He couldn’t know. He’d been down and out for a long time, that’s all he knew. Surviving however he could. Wanting to die some of the time. Because the world outside the barracks was a scary place. The world outside the barracks wasn’t his world. It was a nightmare world.
A world he wasn’t ready for.
He felt himself being transported back to the moment everything changed—that everything truly changed.
The blade against his neck. Staring at Riley opposite him. Ivan behind him, holding him.
The blade severing his neck.
Falling to the floor.
Blood spewing out everywhere.
He thought he was choking. Thought he was dying. He passed out, no doubt about that.
It was when he woke up that he realised not only that he was still alive, but just how much danger he was in.
There was one of those undead fuckers opposite him. Standing in the doorway. Pacing towards him.
He could hear gunfire downstairs in the barracks. Hear shouts. He could even smell smoke.
And he wanted to call out Riley’s name. He wanted to shout for Anna, for Claudia. He wanted someone to help him.
But he knew they were gone.
Wherever they were, they were gone, and they weren’t coming back.
But this creature.
It staggered closer towards him.
Stretched out its long, sinewy arms, staggered further and further in his direction.
And all he wanted to do was cry. All he wanted to do was give up, curl up in a ball and beg for his mum or something ridiculous like that.
He blacked out again, the blood still spewing from his neck, not quite a deep enough cut to leave him choking on it, but enough to make him worry about the blood he was losing.
When he woke up, there was someone above him.
He lashed out. Tried to punch at this unknown assailant.
“Hey, hey,” the voice said. And it was then that Ted realised it wasn’t a creature. It was a human. A living human.
The man above him had circular, thin-rimmed glasses. Thin grey hair. He was wearing a medic band around his arm. And he realised he recognised this guy. He’d seen him before, somewhere.
And then it clicked.
The army medic.
One of the medics.
One of the good ones.
He realised then that the medic was doing something with his neck. Outside the room, everything had gone silent. It was dark. Deathly cold.
“What…” Ted started.
“Stay quiet. No sudden movements. Not while I finish this off.”
So Ted let him. He didn’t want to trust him. He wanted to get back to his friends. He wanted them to know he was okay. That he’d made it.
“You’re lucky you’re still alive,” the medic said. “Any deeper and that blade woulda severed your carotid artery. Whoever sliced it… well, let’s just say they did a damn good job, but not a good enough job.”
Ted looked around. He was still on the floor of the office he’d been attacked. “My people. Where are…”
“They’re gone,” the medic interrupted, still stitching his neck. “Left earlier today. But you don’t have to worry about this place anymore. You don’t have to worry about Ivan. He’s… Let’s just say he’s been dealt with.”
Ted’s mind spun as this man stitched at his neck. The panic started to grow. Because he couldn’t be without his friends. He couldn’t survive without his friends, especially not without Riley. Riley was his best friend. Riley had always been there for him. Sure, he’d been there for Riley too.
But he relied on Riley.
He needed Riley.
He started to move, to climb up to his feet. Because he had to get out of here. He had to get to his friends, no matter what this medic said, no matter how much he might’ve helped him.
“Hey,” the medic said, pressing a hand down heavily on his shoulder.
“I need to—”
“What you need to do right now is sit. Sit and wait. Because if I don’t get this wound stitched up properly, you’re going to die. Maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow. But it’ll kill you. Okay?”
Ted leaned back. He wanted to resist. He wanted to fight.
But he knew if he did that, his life would be over.
Maybe not today.
Maybe not even tomorrow.
TED STOOD OPPOSITE the woman he recognised—the woman who recognised him—and it all came flooding back.
“You,” he muttered. “You.”
CHAPTER ONE
Melissa looked at the recognition in “Ted’s” eyes—and in this new woman’s eyes—and she wondered who in the hell this “Ted” actually was after all.
The sky was bright, but the afternoon was racing on. They’d have to get a move on if they wanted to get away from here and go somewhere safe for dark. As far as Melissa was concerned, she was happy to continue with the rescue mission, happy to continue with the mission that Wilson had been leading before he had died.
But this woman. The military vehicles around her. The ammunition they had. They looked like they were doing a rescue and extraction mission of their own. Like they were cut from the same cloth, so to speak.
All around there were reminders of how close they’d been to falling. The Smart car, overrun by the dead. The mass of bodies around them. The straggling infected still walking, most of whom were shot down by gunners when they got too close to the military vehicles for comfort.
And this woman.
This woman who looked so calm. Who looked so composed.
But who looked like they’d just seen a ghost.
And that ghost was the man who’d been with Melissa. The man who’d saved Melissa’s life. Who she’d saved the life of, in turn.
“What’s the deal with you two?” Melissa asked.
She knew it was to the point. She knew there were more urgent matters at stake. But the woman looked at her, broken from her trance. The professional demeanour returned to her face. “We… A long time ago. We knew each other.”
She looked back at Ted.
“What happened? What happened to you? To—to everyone?”
Ted opened his mouth. His eyes were filled with tears. He looked like there was so much he wanted to say. Like there were so many things he wanted to make known.
But he was silent. Like he’d been stunned into silence by the arrival of this woman; a reminder of a fragment of his past, coming back from nowhere.
Someone he’d never expected to see again.
“It doesn’t matter now, I guess,” the woman said. She turned. Looked back at Melissa. “You’re lucky we ran into you. Your place wasn’t on our list of extractions. But it sure looks like you ran into some shit here.”
Melissa nodded. “Yeah. I… We ran into some trouble. I found him—found Ted—holed up at the barracks. We lost people on our way out. All our people.”
“And I’m sorry to hear that,” the woman said.
She looked at Ted again like she still couldn’t accept that she was seeing this person at all; like she still couldn’t believe it was him.
“I’m Harrington,” she said.
“Melissa,” she said, taking her hand.
“Good to meet you, Melissa. Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s some shit gone down. We’ve lost comms with our safe zone. Looks like whatever went down, it’s serious. So we get these vehicles back to our drop-off, then we get in our helicopters and get out of here.”
“I’m from a safe zone too,” Melissa said. “Island 47. One of the districts over there.”
Harrington’s eyes widened. “Hell. Then I’m sorry to say this but… Wait. You really haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“About Island 47. The whole place has fallen.”
When Harrington said those words, Melissa felt like she was being punched. She felt like her whole world was falling apart. She thought of Ricky. Of Kesha. Of Carly and Riley and Anna and—
“It can’t be,” she said. “It’s… it’s safe there.”
“Sorry to say that’s not entirely true,” Harrington said. “Some rogue strain of the virus broke out. Airborne, we’re hearing. Hell, you’ve lived long enough to know what a bitch the virus can be. Always morphing, always fucking transforming. Looks like it’s finally gone mainstream.”
The news made Melissa feel lightheaded. An urgency sparked inside her as Harrington turned back to the vehicles, started to walk away. “So you come with us to the helicopters,” she said. “We get there, and we wait for some kind of signal from our people.”
“But my home,” Melissa said.
Harrington turned around. “I’m sorry, Melissa. Really, I am. But your home is gone.”
Melissa shook her head. She wanted to fight back. She didn’t want to accept what Harrington was saying. How could she?
“There’s people there,” Melissa said. “My—my partner, Ricky. We’re… I haven’t told him, but we’re having a child together. There’s a little girl there, Kesha. She’s—she’s special. So precious and… and there’s Riley, too. Riley and Anna, who are such leaders. Who fought so hard to get us to safety. There’s Carly and there’s Marie and there’s...”
She saw Harrington was looking at her now. And then she saw her look to Ted, frown on her face. A curiosity. A real sense of curiosity, about something.
“These people of yours,” Harrington said. “Just how tough are they?”
“Tough enough to fight against anything. I’ve seen how strong they are. I’ve seen what they’re capable of. We can’t just give up on them. We’re scouts, aren’t we? We’re supposed to save people. So why don’t we go and save them?”
Harrington opened her mouth like she was going to respond.
Then she closed it. Sighed.
“There’s something about you,” she said. “I’m not sure what it is. Not entirely. But something intrigues me about you. Something makes me believe in what you’re saying. And… and hey. Maybe going across to the island isn’t such a bad idea after all. I hear there’s still districts standing over there. Maybe it’ll give us a chance to find out what’s actually going on.”
She held out a hand to Melissa.
And this time when Melissa took it, she saw vulnerabili
ty in Harrington’s eyes.
“What did you say your people were called?” she asked.
Melissa frowned. “Ricky. Carly. Anna—”
“Whatever,” Harrington said, glancing over at Ted now. “We’re going to get back there. We’re going to check it out. But first, we’re going to have to get to the choppers. But I have to warn you, Melissa. The stories we heard. The stories about the island. They didn’t sound good.”
Melissa nodded. She took a deep breath.
Because as terrified as she was about what she might find back home, she still had hope.
She had to have hope.
She looked at Ted and saw him gazing at Harrington like a spectre from the past.
“Now give us a second,” she said. “I need to talk with Ted. Alone.”
CHAPTER TWO
Riley walked through the abandoned, derelict streets of the district, Kesha in his arms, Anna by his side, and he tried to figure out exactly what happened next; exactly how they were supposed to progress from here.
It was afternoon. The day felt like it had dragged on forever. And yet at the same time, it was still hard to believe the events of the day had actually unfolded at all. It was hard to believe how much they’d been through. It was hard to believe how much they’d faced up to. It was hard to believe how much they’d lost.
But they were still here.
Anna was still here.
Kesha was still here.
He looked at the empty stall where the marketplace used to be. He remembered Carly going there quite a lot in the early days. Remembered the smile on her face at the sheer normality of it.
How things had changed.
How things had fallen apart.
He looked at the smashed windows in the buildings beside the street. The fallen bodies that they hadn’t had the chance to clear up yet. In the windows above, he saw movement, people too afraid to leave their homes, too scared to step outside. Or maybe infected, now. Maybe turned.
There was one thing for certain.
This might have been their home. This might have been their idyllic paradise.
But it wasn’t that place anymore.
And it was never going to be that way ever again.
