by Ryan Casey
A gunshot blasted through his head. Splattered fragments of his skull all over the grass.
“Run!” Cody shouted.
He fired into the chests of two more of the people. He heard Michael firing into their chests too, making the most of the pandemonium. The air reeked of hot blood. All around him, he watched people fall.
“There’s more of them,” Michael said. “Over by the tents.”
Cody squinted. He saw figures moving in their direction. Flashlights looked all around, scanning the area. Dogs barked ravenously.
“Time we got out of here.”
He went to run when he saw blood pouring from Michael’s shoulder.
“You’re hit,” Cody said.
Michael shook his head. “I’m fine—”
“You’re hit. Put your arm over my shoulder.”
“I’ll slow you down.”
“I’m getting you out of here. We’re both getting out of here.”
“I lied to you, Cody. I lied about everything.”
Cody looked right into Michael’s eyes. “And I hate that you did that. But you still have a family out there to get back to. Now I don’t understand everything. I won’t pretend to understand why you led this group here as well as mine.”
“I did it because—”
Shouts from behind.
Then, bullets.
“Come on,” Cody said.
Reluctantly, Michael put his arm around Cody’s shoulder. The pair of them ran together towards the gates of this darkened camp, away from the flames, away from the torch lights.
“I don’t think we’re gonna make it,” Michael said.
“We’re gonna make it.”
“But what if...”
A pain. A searing pain, right in Cody’s right leg.
He felt the pain getting hotter. Felt it growing.
When he looked down, he saw blood trickling down his leg.
He fell to the ground. Hobbled right over.
“No,” Michael said. He used all his strength to lift Cody back up.
“You… You go,” Cody whimpered.
“I’m not going.”
“Your family. They need you. You go. Now.”
Michael sighed. Stepped away from Cody.
And then he reached down and yanked Cody to his feet. “You saved my life. You brought me this far, and you’re keeping on taking me further even when you know I’ve lied to you. I’m not leaving you behind, Cody. I’m getting you away from here. And I’m getting you to safety. Now you’re just going to have to cooperate.”
Cody winced as he struggled to his feet. The pain in his leg was hot, agonising. As he hobbled along, Michael supporting him and him supporting Michael, he saw visions of his family. Visions of his beautiful wife. Of his loving daughter.
As the gates of the camp approached, he got the feeling he was close to seeing them again. Close to seeing them, all over again.
“Stay with me, Cody. Stay with me.”
And Cody did.
He kept on fighting. Kept on battling. Kept on going.
Because he was fulfilling his duty. He was getting Michael to his family.
“Stop.”
He reached the gates. But when he looked at them, there was someone there.
A girl. A young girl holding a pistol. It shook in her hand.
Cody felt pain welling in his chest. A pain of inevitability. She looked like his daughter. She reminded him of her so much.
“Don’t move,” the girl said. Her hands shook even more. Behind, Cody heard the shouts and the footsteps getting louder. He saw the lights emerging all around them.
“Please, kid,” Cody said. “Just let us go. You don’t have to do this.”
“Don’t move,” she said. He saw tears on her face now. Heard her teeth chattering. “Don’t move. Please.”
Cody knew he’d lost. He knew this girl wasn’t going to cave. She’d been trained to be this way. Brought up to fight off people she was taught were enemies in this awful world.
“I’m sorry,” Cody said.
He lifted his pistol.
Closed his eyes.
Fired.
He heard Michael gasp. He didn’t feel any bullets hit him. Nothing like that.
When he opened his eyes, the girl was lying back on the grass.
There was a bullet right between her wide eyes.
He looked at Michael shaking. He saw Michael looking at him in a different way. Like he didn’t recognise him anymore.
“I did what I had to do,” Cody said.
Michael snapped from his trance. Looked at Cody. Nodded.
“Now come on,” Cody said. “Let’s get out of here.”
As he hobbled out of the gate, over the dead body of the girl who’d looked just like his daughter, Cody felt the transformation inside himself completing.
He felt himself becoming one with this world. One with this awful, terrifying world.
“It’s just what we have to do.”
He saw that now. He saw the truth in Gav’s words. That sometimes, morals couldn’t win. Sometimes, you had to do the ugly things for the greater good.
It was an idea Cody struggled with. An idea he couldn’t live with.
And as he limped along, blood dripping from his leg, his bitten fingers stinging as the infection built up in his body, he felt a tear roll down his face.
It was a world he couldn’t live in.
And that’s why he was dying.
But by saving Michael, by getting Michael to his family, he’d make sure his final act was one of good.
Sally looked down at her daughter’s fallen body and felt her whole world fall apart.
She fell down to her knees. Tasted vomit. All around her, she heard her people saying things. Some of them were crying. Some of them tried to reassure her.
But all Sally could do was look into Pearl’s gorgeous brown eyes and feel her world fall apart all around her.
“We’ll get them,” Sally said, as she looked through the gates towards the trees. “We’ll make them suffer. For everything.”
Chapter Ten
Riley closed his eyes as Kane swung the machete at his neck.
He waited for the contact. Waited for it to split his neck apart. Soon, he’d be with Jordanna, Chloë, and everyone he cared about. Soon, he’d be out of this world of pain.
And he didn’t know whether telling Kane about what Kesha was capable of was such a good idea. Kane was on the verge of killing him, after all.
But he’d seemed interested. Riley had seen the spark in his eyes.
He’d seen something in what Riley had told him, and he had a feeling he was going to do everything he could to make sure Kesha wasn’t stuck with Mattius and his group for the rest of her life.
The machete still hadn’t made contact with his neck.
Riley opened his eyes.
Kane wasn’t even looking at Riley anymore.
He was looking over at the gate.
It took Riley a few seconds to click, but when it did, it clicked hard.
Creatures were walking in through the gates of the camp. Lots of them, at least fifty.
All of them were heading in Riley and Kane’s direction.
“Get out of here,” Riley said. “Get to Kesha. While you can.”
Kane kept his focus on the approaching creatures. He didn’t budge.
“Kane!”
“I won’t fight my way through these things alone.”
He looked back at Riley. And for a horrified moment, Riley thought he understood what Kane was saying. He was going to use him as bait. Use him as a shield to get through the creatures.
But then Kane snapped the ties from Riley’s wrists with the machete.
He handed Riley the machete, then lifted out the knife of his own.
“We’re going to fight through these things. Together. And then I’ll deal with you.”
Riley still couldn’t believe what’d just happened. He couldn’t believe that
Kane, someone who seemed so ruthless, had just handed him a machete and told him to help him out of here.
A part of him wanted to stab Kane in the back while he had the chance.
But another part of him saw hope in him. Hope that, even though he didn’t like Kane, he’d pull through. Fight for Kesha.
He found himself trusting a man he wanted so desperately to hate.
Riley pulled back the machete as the first of the creatures approached. They were so dark, so silhouetted, as the motion disappeared behind the clouds.
He swung at its neck. Then he pulled the machete away and smacked the next of the creatures on the side of its head, and then the next. With every hit, he felt the anger building up inside him. The anger at what happened to Jordanna and Chloë. At what Mattius had done to them, and at him taking Kesha away.
He wasn’t going to let Mattius win.
He wasn’t fucking going to let Mattius live.
If it were the last thing he did, he’d gut the fucking pig for what he’d done to the people Riley loved.
Riley felt a hand grip onto his right arm.
He looked and saw a creature tugging at it. Opening its mouth and getting ready to bite.
And then another creature tugged at his left arm. And another at his neck. He was surrounded. They were going to devour him. His life was ending right here—
He felt the grip of the creature on his right loosen.
Then so too did the one on his left, and the one behind him.
It took him a few seconds to realise what’d happened.
Then he saw Kane staring at him, bloodied knife in his hand.
“I asked you to help me get out of this place.”
“I’m doing my fucking best.”
Kane narrowed his eyes. “Really? That was your b—”
A creature knocked Kane down.
Hit the knife from his hand.
Riley looked down at Kane and the creature on top of him. He looked up and saw a path out of the camp. A clear path. He could be free of this place. He could be free of Kane. He could make his move.
But then he remembered Jordanna’s words.
“We push on. Together. But you have to see the damage you’re doing to yourself. You have to see the damage you’re doing to the world around you. And you have to see it before… before it leaves you more alone than you’ve ever been in your entire life. Not trusting people is a domino effect, Riley. Once you start toppling the dominos, you just don’t know where it’s going to end. Only that it’ll end badly.”
After what’d happened to her all because of past actions, he wasn’t making the same mistake again.
He swung the machete down through the creature’s skull.
Then he kicked it away from Kane’s body and held out a hand.
“Come on,” Riley said.
Kane looked up at him, a little smile on his face. “You should be cautious who you trust, Riley.”
“Trust me,” Riley said. “I am.”
He dragged Kane to his feet. The pair of them stood together. Up ahead, Riley noticed the pathway out of this place was still there, but thinning rapidly.
“When we get out of here,” Kane said. “How do you think things will go?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You think I’ll just let you live? You think I’ll let you survive when we find Kesha? You think I’ll do anything you even want me to? Or do you think I’m just toying with you right now? Building up your trust? Making you hope?”
Riley looked past Kane. He held his breath. “Something tells me you’ll want someone to get you to Kesha as quickly as possible.”
Kane frowned. “What—”
Riley watched the creature grab Kane’s hand.
He watched it sink its teeth into his palm, blood spurting out, the colour disappearing from Kane’s face in an instant.
Riley pushed the creature back then. Took it down.
“You shit,” Kane whimpered. “You—you shit!”
Riley grabbed Kane’s arm. “Hold still.”
“No wait please don—ARGH!”
Riley chopped the top half of Kane’s hand away. He felt blood pour out of it instantly.
He pulled Kane close. Pressed the machete to his neck. “I don’t fucking trust you. I don’t fucking trust anyone. But right now, you slimy piece of shit, you’re going to need to trust me. Because you’ve been bitten. And sure, I took your hand off. But you and I have both seen how this infection works. Sometimes the infection’s already in your system. Maybe you’ll turn tomorrow. Or maybe ’cause I took the hand away, you’ll only turn in a month. Fuck, maybe you won’t turn at all.”
He pushed the machete further into Kane’s gasping neck.
“But you’re going to want me around. You’re going to help me get to Kesha. And then she’s going to save your life.”
“You fucker. You—you fucker.”
“Yeah. I’m a fucker. It takes one to know one.”
There was a bang. A massive bang over by the gate.
Riley turned around and looked at the route they needed to take to get out of this place.
More creatures. Twenty more of them, joining those that were still standing from before.
“So what’s the plan now, genius?” Kane whimpered, agonised. “What’s the fucking plan now?”
Riley didn’t know what to say. They could back up, but that would only trap them more. Kane would bleed out if he didn’t cauterise his hand soon. They were surrounded. They were trapped. They were—
He saw a few of the creatures fall.
Saw them fall, out of nowhere, like they’d just passed away on the spot.
And as they continued to fall, one by one, Riley soon realised that they weren’t just passing away.
They were being hit.
Hit by arrows.
He saw the flames by the gates. Saw the crowd emerging. A crowd of women. Many of them armed with bows and arrows. Some of them holding knives.
All of them so adept at killing, so adept at taking these monsters down.
Riley watched as these women took down the creatures, one by one. He watched as they all fell, all around him.
And then when they were all down, he saw the women, illuminated by the flames, all staring at him.
The main woman had long, dark hair. She walked slowly towards Riley, towards Kane. Kept her bow and arrow pointed at them.
“Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck are you doing in our camp?”
Chapter Eleven
Cody felt his footsteps getting more painful with every one he took.
It was pitch black. He was icy cold. He knew it was probably a combination of the blood loss and the frigging infection running through his body. He wondered how long he had left. Which would kill him first.
As long as he reached Michael’s family, it didn’t really matter. Not anymore.
He couldn’t see a thing up ahead, or behind him. He knew he was surrounded by trees and that Michael was by his side. He could feel him holding onto him, and Cody held onto him in turn. Every footstep they took, one of them let out a cry of agony. They were slowing down. Cody wasn’t sure how much further they could go.
“You should keep going. Seriously.”
Michael tutted. “I’ve told you already. I’m not leaving you behind.”
Cody staggered over and lost his footing.
He fell face flat in the dirt.
The fall hurt him more than the bite or the gunshot. It made him realise just how tired he was. How exhausted he was.
He rolled over onto his back and looked up through squinted eyes at where he thought Michael was.
“Tell me one thing,” Cody said. “Just… just one thing.”
Michael grabbed Cody’s arm. He struggled to pull him back to his feet, despite being in pain too. “Anything.”
“Why were you out there around our camp, really? And why did… why did the ginger guy say you led his group to nowhere, too?”
Cody heard Michael let out a little laugh. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
“But—”
“We’ve just got to keep going a little further.”
Cody staggered further through the woods. If the blood loss or the infection didn’t kill him, he was certain there’d be something in these trees. Something waiting to pounce.
“Do you believe what that guy said?” Cody asked.
“About what?”
“About the infected. About… about how people don’t properly turn. Not really.”
Again, Michael let out a little laugh. These little laughs were starting to irritate Cody a bit now.
“Like I said. You’ll have all your answers, soon enough.”
Cody wanted to ask more. But he’d made it this far on a leap of faith. He just had to keep going. Just had to push a little further.
“Now I have a question for you,” Michael asked, as a cold breeze blew through the trees.
“Anything.”
“Why did you come back for me, after everything? Why not just leave me in there to die? Run away while you had the chance?”
Cody thought about Michael’s question. “Because when I said we have to do what we have to do, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“We do what we have to do for our friends. For our… for our family. You’re getting back to your family. That’s the important thing.”
They moved a few more steps when they heard something behind.
A rustling in the bushes.
Cody looked back into the darkness. “Did you hear that?”
“It’s probably just—”
“Ssh. I heard it again just then.”
Cody held onto the pistol with his shaky hand. Michael still had the rifle draped over his good shoulder, although how he planned on using it with a bullet wound through his other shoulder, Cody had no idea.
“We keep pushing,” Michael said. “Not far to go now. Not far to—”
A groan.
A skin-crawling groan in the darkness behind them.
And then another.
And another.
They were still. Frozen to the spot.
“Can you see them?” Michael asked.
Cody gulped. “No. But they’re here. So we move.”
