by Casey, Ryan
Riley looked away. He couldn’t accept that, as much as he appreciated Anna’s commitment to making the most of every moment they had.
There was something else.
“Unless they’re wrong,” he said.
Anna frowned. “What?”
“What Alison told me. About the world fearing us because of our exposure. Maybe… maybe there’s still hope for us. Maybe there’s a way of proving we aren’t a threat. Because there’s so many of us. So many of us who have survived for so long—together. What if we don’t have to stay here and accept our fate? What if this isn’t the end of the road for us?”
Anna sat up, then. She held Riley’s hands. Frowned. “So what are you suggesting we do?”
All of a sudden, the path opened up in front of Riley. It couldn’t be clearer.
“I’m suggesting we don’t just lie down. That we don’t just give up. I’m suggesting we get to that helicopter and get the hell out of here, one way or another.”
He saw Anna’s face flicker with optimism. Flicker with hope. “And how are we supposed to do that?”
Riley smiled. “My ex. She flies helicopters now, I’ll have you know. I’m sure we can figure out some kind of agreement.”
Anna shook her head. “You heard what she told us. She can go back. But then she has to go through rigorous decontamination. She has to be studied in isolation for weeks. And only then will she be allowed back into society. Gradually. You really think they’ll go to those lengths for us?”
Riley took a deep breath and swallowed a lump in his throat.
“I’m saying we try,” he said.
Anna leaned over to him. Kissed him.
“Whatever happens,” she said. “We’ve got each other. We’ve got Kesha. We’ve got our new baby. That’s more important than anything. That’s—”
And then he heard it.
The shout.
Chapter Five
The second Riley heard the shout, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He threw himself out of bed. Rushed over to the window. When he looked outside, he couldn’t see anything. Just the darkness. Just the cluster of birds fluttering around.
And for a moment he thought maybe he’d imagined it. Maybe it’d been a figment of his imagination. But then… no. Anna was out of bed, by his side, too.
She put a hand around the side of his body. “What was that?”
Riley swallowed and felt a familiar twinge of dread deep within. His throat was dry. That shout. A sense that something was going to be out there. Waiting for them. Getting ready to strike.
“I don’t know,” Riley said.
And he knew it could be from anyone. Could be someone waking up from a goddamned nightmare for all he knew.
But then there were the other possibilities, too. The chance that this was serious. That something had happened to Alison or Ted or Melissa.
He looked around. Saw Kesha sitting up on her bed, looking over, and concern on her little face, too.
And Riley knew he couldn’t just sit back.
“I need to go out there.”
He went to walk away.
Anna grabbed his arm.
“Anna?”
She looked at him. “You don’t just walk away without me.” He saw her other hand was on her belly.
He went over to her. Kissed her on the head. Then he pulled back. “I’ll come back.”
“That’s what Melissa said to Ricky. That’s what so many people have said over the years. But they don’t always.”
He stroked her hair from her face. “You did, didn’t you? Ted did, right?”
“But that’s—”
“I’ll be back,” he said. “I need to go out there. I need to make sure nothing serious is happening.”
He stepped away. Grabbed a rifle from the side of the door. A wrench too, for good measure.
“And if it is serious?” Anna said.
Riley looked at her. Kesha beside her. Their child in her belly.
He looked at them, and he saw everything he had fought so hard for.
And everything he could lose.
And then he turned around without saying anything else, and he walked outside, into the thick of night.
He heard the shout again not long after he’d stepped outside.
It was coming from the centre of the island. From an area that was closed off from the rest of the place. They hadn’t fully cleared it up yet. They’d made sure whatever was in there couldn’t get out, though.
The area where the Main Building was.
He looked up at the Main Building that towered from the middle of this area. Unoccupied. Dead. The last time he’d been in there, he’d fought his way out of Peter Hillson’s office. Battled his way free.
He wasn’t too keen on going back there anytime soon.
But someone was shouting from over there. So he couldn’t just leave them.
He took a few steps. All around him, he felt eyes looking at him. The eyes of the other remaining residents of Island 47. But they didn’t want him to see them. They didn’t want to help. Didn’t want to get caught up in something that might threaten their lives, after all. Not after everything they’d already been through. Not after they’d come so close to losing it all.
Riley kept on going. And he realised something, as he moved. His mouth and his nose. They were uncovered. If the virus was airborne, he needed to make sure he covered up before he went running into a place that might be rife with it.
He’d survived in there once before. He wasn’t sure he wanted to run that risk again.
He pulled off his jacket. Wrapped it around his face. He knew it wasn’t a lot. Probably wouldn’t make much difference. But it was all he had right now.
Besides. He was still here. If the virus was going to affect him in its airborne form, surely he’d have fallen by now already.
Right?
Still. It paid to be on the cautious side.
He went to walk towards the cordoned off gates leading towards the Main Building when he heard footsteps behind him.
He looked around.
Nobody was there.
Just the bright light from the moon shining down.
He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and turned around again. Probably just his imagination. Probably just a trick of the mind.
He went to climb over the cordoned off area, making sure it was clear, and then he felt it.
A hand on his arm.
He swung around with his wrench out of instinct more than anything.
“Whoa!”
And then he stopped himself right at the death.
“Ted? What the hell are you doing out here?”
Ted was standing beside him. He was shaking a little. Still dressed in the pyjamas he’d been given, which dangled off his ridiculously skinny frame—a frame that was hard to believe.
“I just—I heard the shout and I thought—”
“You don’t have to worry about it,” Riley said. “I’m checking on it.”
“I want to help.”
“You’re better if you go back.”
“Why aren’t you even talking to me?”
Riley looked at him. Scanned those familiar eyes, the rest of his body different, not as he remembered.
“That’s not true.”
“We found each other. We found each other and everything seemed okay. But now you won’t even look at me. And you want me to go away. Why?”
Riley didn’t want to accept Ted’s judgement. But he couldn’t exactly argue with the truth.
“I just don’t want to lose you again, Ted. I don’t… I don’t want to be responsible for what happened last time repeating itself all over again.”
Ted did something, then. Something Riley hadn’t been expecting.
He reached over and put a hand on his face.
“Erm, Ted?” Riley said. It felt weird. They were old mates. This definitely wasn’t something that happened regularly back in the da
y.
“Made it this far, didn’t I?” Ted said. “Not ready to give up just yet.”
Riley smiled, nodded.
Then he pushed Ted’s hand away.
“You can come with me. Just… just don’t do any over-friendly stuff like touch my face again. Might be four years older, and you might’ve shed a load of weight, but I’m not into you in that way.”
He saw something, then. For the first time, that cheeky smile on Ted’s face. The face he always used to pull when he was winding Riley up about something or other. That tormenting look.
He dangled a hand closer to his face again. Made a whirring sound.
Riley whacked it away. “Bugger off.” But he couldn’t help laughing.
That’s when he heard the shout again, and it pulled him back to reality.
He turned around. Looked into these closed off grounds.
“Just keep your guard up,” Riley said. “There’s creatures in here. And God knows what else.”
“Eyes wide open,” Ted said.
Riley nodded. Dropped down onto the ground below.
Ted followed.
“Oh. And one more thing.”
“What?”
“Take your shirt off and cover your mouth with it.”
“Want me to show off how good the diet’s been on me these—these last few years, hmm?”
Riley chuckled. “Once a fatty, always a fatty. Just wait til we get you on the food we’ve got here again. You’ll be back to your chubby self in no time.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Ted said.
When he lifted his shirt, Riley couldn’t help sympathising. He was bony as hell. A ghost compared to the man he used to be. Tiny arms and ribs on show, as well as a load of loose skin.
He covered his mouth.
And then the pair of them headed off towards the shouting.
Riley kept his guard up with every step. It was quiet. Scarily so. All around, Riley saw memories of the chaos. Of the destruction. Of the onslaught of the undead that they’d had to deal with so recently.
“Didn’t you say there’s supposed to be loads of creatures around here?” Ted whispered.
Riley nodded. Heart racing. Scanning the area continually for a sign of life—or death. “Just keep going. We can’t be—”
The shout, then.
But it was from inside the building.
Riley stopped when he reached it. Peered in through the glass. He couldn’t see anything in there. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“It’s not safe in there,” Riley said. “Besides. There’s no way of us getting in. Not while it’s still in lockdown. Not while—”
A bang.
A bang on the glass, making Riley jump out of his skin.
A face to the window.
A man.
Tears rolling down his face.
Fear in his eyes.
“Help!” he shouted.
Riley realised something, then. Two things, in fact.
The first?
“Peter?” he said.
The guy who ran this place.
The guy in charge of Island 47.
He was still alive.
“You—you need to help me. I have something, Riley. Something important. I have…”
And then he realised something else, too.
The shuffling behind him.
The movement.
The whispers in the air.
He looked over his shoulder and he saw the glimmers of movement in the darkness.
Heard the patter of footsteps closing in.
Peter was trapped in the Main Building.
And the creatures were closing in.
Chapter Six
Riley looked into Peter Hillson’s terrified eyes and listened to the sound of the creatures shuffling towards them from behind.
The morning light was emerging. Another clear day was on the horizon, by the looks of things. The moon shone brightly from above like a torch beaming down on them.
And Riley knew time was of the essence.
He knew that he had to get Peter Hillson out of this mess.
And that they all had to get out of this.
As much as he didn’t trust Peter.
As much as he couldn’t ever forgive him for revealing the secrets of Island 47—of what all the different districts were for.
“Is this the dude you thought was dead?”
Riley nodded. “Bingo.”
Ted whistled. “Looks like you have an awkward habit of assuming people are dead without fully knowing, huh?”
Riley glared at him. “Don’t you start.”
Then he looked back at Peter.
“You’re going to have to calm down,” Riley said.
But he could see Peter was in a panicked frenzy. And he couldn’t blame him. He had no idea what was waiting inside that building for them, after all. He must’ve been in there for ages. Ever since he’d last seen him.
Surviving.
But why now?
Why had he chosen now to beg for his escape?
And there was another fear, too, as he looked into Peter’s eyes. Trying to properly get a read on him, but struggling with the darkness.
What if he was already infected?
What if this was another example of the infected playing normal as well as they could?
“Um, Riley,” Ted said. “Don’t mean to alarm you, but…”
He looked around at where Ted was pointing. And he saw them. Felt that reactivity kicking in again. That fear.
Because the dead.
The dead who they hadn’t managed to clear out.
They were coming.
Closing in.
“Creepers at least,” Riley said.
Ted frowned. “Creepers? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means they don’t run,” he said.
“Wait. You’re telling me some of these monsters run?”
Riley rolled his eyes. “Ted, you’ve got a lot to learn.”
He turned back to Peter. “Is there any way you can trigger the door?”
“The—the power. The power’s out. Please. You need to help me. The information I have. It’s important. It could change everything.”
“We’re trying, Peter. We’re trying.”
He looked around. Looked for something they could use.
Then he realised what he was looking for was in his hand after all.
The rifle.
“Step back,” he said. “You’re going to want to be out of the way when I fire.”
Peter shook his head. “Don’t leave me.”
“It’s either you get out of the damned way or you risk being peppered with bullets. We’ve not got a lot of time. What’s it going to be?”
He saw Peter curse. Watched him hobble back, back into the darkness.
And then he lifted his rifle and pointed it at the glass. The reflection of the oncoming crowd of creatures illuminating in the window.
“Here goes nothing,” he said, trying to keep as calm as he possibly could.
He pulled the trigger.
The bullets hit the glass.
But they didn’t do a thing.
Just bounced off.
The glass was totally bulletproof.
Riley lowered the rifle, not wanting to waste any more ammo. “Shit.”
“Riley?” Peter called. “I… I need help. I’m not—”
“I know, Peter,” Riley said, frustration clear in his voice. He looked around. Looked at those creatures closing in. Looked at his route back to the fence. Considered just running back there while there was still an opportunity. While there was still a chance.
“What about the fire escapes?” Ted said.
“This place is all automated,” Riley said. “I find it unlikely.”
He looked back at Peter, then. “Peter, there has to be some kind of other way out, right?”
“I’ve… I’ve been trapped in here for God knows how long living off whate
ver I can find. Everyone else in here is dead, as far as I can tell.” His cool American composure had well and truly dropped now. “If there was a way out, I think I’d have found it.”
Riley nodded. He didn’t particularly like Peter, but he had no real reason to doubt him about this.
So he found himself doing something different.
Looking up.
Up towards that high window he’d worked his way down from all that time ago with Anna.
“Maybe there is a way,” he said.
He saw the look on Peter’s face.
Then in Ted’s eyes.
And he could tell from the way Ted was looking at him that he wasn’t exactly backing this situation.
“What’re you thinking, mate?” Ted asked.
Riley looked at the undead herd closing in.
He looked back up and around to the side of the building, where he knew—or at least hoped—the rope would be waiting.
And then he looked at Ted, and he smiled. “What do you say to a little climbing? For old time’s sakes?”
Chapter Seven
Anna wasn’t sure how long passed before she decided it was time to go out and investigate.
Machete in her hands.
She knew she shouldn’t. Riley would go mad, especially in her pregnant state. It was bad enough just leaving Kesha behind.
But at the end of the day… she was her own person. She was her own woman.
And whether he thought he was looking out for her or protecting her or whatever, she was worried about him.
Because he’d been gone far too long.
She walked over to Kesha’s bed. Saw the way she looked up at Anna with those wide eyes.
She leaned down to her. Stroked her hair out of her face.
“I’m not going to be gone long. I promise. Okay? I promise.”
She leaned in. Kissed her. Listened as Kesha mumbled a few words. And she felt so bad for doing what she was doing. So guilty for leaving this girl behind.
But she couldn’t just sit idly by while Riley fell into whatever fate he was heading towards.
