by Ryan Casey
He gasped as he stopped, catching his breath.
“Everything… okay there?” Riley asked.
Aaron shook his head. “I’ve always wanted to do that. Always. Goodbye, bro.” He stepped over his brother’s body and walked towards the covered up hens.
“Okay,” Riley said, staring down at the dead body. “Looks like you’ll be sleeping alone, Sam, old pal. Look after the place. And thanks for the weapons.”
He followed Aaron through past the caged hens and into the room with the cows.
Stan lifted a large bottle of milk. Dried blood was still trailing down his face where Sam had hit him. He patted a cow on its head. “Good girl. Good girl.”
“Ready to move?” Riley threw the rifle to Stan.
Stan grunted, catching the rifle in his free hand.
“These your guns?”
“No, they’re ours,” Aaron said. “Mine.”
“Was going to say. Dairy. Guns. Anything else you’re keeping from the group, Stan?”
Stan turned and shook his head at Riley, refraining from reacting. “We take the milk and eggs back to our place.” He poured some food into the metal trough where one of the cows was. “I’ll leave the cows with enough food and drink and they should be okay. Might have to head down here to clean them every couple of days, but that’s manageable.”
“Manageable? What if more people decide to take this place for themselves?”
Stan shook the gun from side to side. “We’re armed. The stakes are different. Say, kid — where do you get your ammo?”
Aaron looked from Riley to Stan with apprehension. He lowered his head.
Riley sighed. “You’re going to have to tell us if you want to save your own neck. You’re one of us now. Start acting like one.”
“Okay, okay. There’s… there’s an old bunker. Couple of miles from here in Goosnargh. Sam bought it a few years ago to stash his old equipment in. That’s where we… where we were trying to stay. But we got stuck on the road, ran into the field and found this place. Spent the night here. But you… you came. For our animals.”
Riley shook his head. “I killed that cow because it was suffering. It was in pain.”
“Suffering?” Stan interrupted. “One of my cows?”
“I’m not just talking about the cow. That was just the proof. But Trudy. The way she…” His voice quivered. “The state she was in when she showed up in the field this morning. Why did you have to do that?”
Trudy. The golden Labrador retriever Sam had mentioned earlier. The one that was outside the Chinese restaurant, its leg chewed down to the bone.
“That wasn’t us,” Riley said. “We found her, but one of our group — they took her away. So her body didn’t start, y’know. Smelling, or anything.”
Aaron inhaled sharply and nodded. “I thought… After seeing Trudy’s body and then the squirrels and then you with the cow… Sam was mad and I thought the same as he did.”
“Well you’re…” Riley froze. “Wait a second. Squirrels?”
Aaron nodded. “Yeah. The dead squirrels around the farm first thing this morning. But I figure you were just trying to take the dairy farm back. Right?”
Riley and Stan looked at one another. “No. That wasn’t us.”
“Okay,” Stan said. He lifted another bottle of milk up and started to walk towards the main entrance. “All this squirrel murder talk is starting to creep me out. It’s time we left. Riley — you grab the box of eggs. Kid — you—”
The bottles of milk tumbled to the floor.
Stan fell backwards onto the ground.
At first, Riley couldn’t quite process what was happening. Everything seemed to be unfolding in slow motion.
But then, when he saw the teeth gnashing, getting closer and closer to Stan, he understood.
“Stan!” He ran towards him and raised his gun. Stan pushed the creature back, his flabby muscles tensing as much as they could.
Riley took a deep breath. Raised the gun.
One, two, three…
He pulled the trigger. The gun knocked him off balance. The bullet went flying past the creature’s head and out through the wide doorway into the open.
Riley rushed towards Stan as he wrestled with the creature. “Stan, just—”
“No, Riley!” It was Aaron. His voice sounded desperate. Pleading.
When Riley looked up at the main door, he realised why.
A crowd of creatures were staggering towards the main door. All of them were focused. All of them were walking in their direction. And all of them were groaning.
“Arggggh!”
Riley looked back down at Stan. The creature was still on top of him, wrestling away.
But blood was squirting out of Stan’s shoulder. His face had turned pale in a matter of seconds.
Stan was bitten.
CHAPTER SIX
“Get to the doors!” Riley shouted.
Aaron stumbled towards the double doors. The creatures outside were getting close. Tonnes of them — ten, twenty, maybe more. They’d found the countryside. At last, they’d found the countryside.
Riley aimed his gun at the creature’s head, which gnawed at Stan’s shoulder and neck. His gun hand was shaking. He had to keep cool. Keep cool, stay grounded, and do this.
He pulled the trigger. The creature slammed forward into the floor, bits of brain and muscle splattering over Stan’s already-bloody white shirt. Stan winced. Cried and blabbered like a baby, gripping his shoulder as blood continued to fountain out of it.
Riley looked up at the doorway. Aaron was struggling to pull the shutters across. The few creatures that weren’t already staggering in the direction of the farmhouse all were now, groaning and reaching out as Riley pulled Stan from underneath the rigid body of the creature.
“They won’t fucking close!” Aaron shouted. He stepped back from the doorway and turned to Riley. A look of desperation was washed over his face. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
Riley’s heart pounded. He grabbed the rifle that had dropped from Stan’s hand and slid it across the floor to Aaron. “Hold them off. Just keep them away.”
Aaron’s eyes widened. “But I can’t. I—”
“Just do it.”
Aaron lifted the rifle and messed around with it before aiming at the crowd of oncoming creatures. A shot rattled through the air. One of the creatures tumbled to the floor.
“Please… Please…” Blood dribbled from Stan’s mouth. Riley wiped his sleeve against it, but he spluttered and coughed up some more bubbles of thick blood. The bites were deep — right into Stan’s neck and shoulder blade. Even if infection didn’t spread, he’d die through blood loss.
He was a lost cause.
Another shot sounded through the air. Riley looked up and saw that two of the creatures had fallen to the floor. Aaron was gradually stepping backwards as the creatures got closer to the entrance of the farmhouse, picking them off one by one. But ammo would run out. Soon, it’d be all gone. They had to get out of here. Somehow, they had to leave.
“Kill me. Please… Please. Kill me.”
Riley swallowed the lump in his throat and placed his hand on Stan’s head. He was burning up. “You… I’m sorry this happened to you, Stan. I’m so sorry.”
Another shot blasted. “Running low on ammo!” The creatures stepped across the entrance. They were inside.
Dread took a hold of Riley as he looked down at Stan’s dying body, then at the cows, cowering in their pens. He knew what he had to do. Just like in the supermarket, moments before he’d thrown the wrench through the glass, he knew exactly what he had to do.
But his morals. Their humanity. They had to hold on to that.
“Please…” Stan spluttered. More colour diminished from his cheeks. “I… I don’t want to turn… Please…”
Riley wiped a tear from his eye and raised his gun. “You won’t know a thing. I promise you won’t know a thing.”
“Need the fucking pistol!�
� Aaron stepped further back as five creatures walked into the farm entrance, all focused on him, all groaning.
Riley patted Stan on the shoulder and smiled. “You’ll be with Jill soon. I promise.”
He jumped to his feet and pulled open the gate where one of the cows was.
The cow let out a loud moan and sprinted out of its pen. This had to work. It had to.
As Riley reached for the gate of the next pen, he heard a scream.
When he turned around, he saw that Aaron was on the floor.
The cow sauntered past the creatures, who scratched their fingers into its sides half-heartedly. It ran into the distance, knocking a bunch of creatures to the floor. Some of them paid attention to it, but their focus was elsewhere. Their focus was on Aaron and his screaming. Riley’s Plan A had failed.
“Please!” Aaron shouted. Another creature pressed against the back of the one already on top of him, sinking him further into the ground. “Shoot them! Please!”
Riley looked at the creatures, all walking towards Aaron, who shouted and screamed. He looked at Stan on the floor, pulling himself onto his side, dragging his body weight over to the opposite side of the room.
And then he saw the gap in the main entrance. A gap that wouldn’t be there for long. A gap that the runaway cow had formed.
“Please!” Aaron screamed as another creature appeared beside him. “Pleaaaaase!”
Riley held his breath. Let the fear and the tingling sensation and the nausea in the pit of his stomach take over him.
And, with his gun raised, he ran.
He reached the door. A couple of the creatures turned and looked at him. He couldn’t shoot. He had to save the bullets for when he absolutely needed them. He pushed past one and rammed into the stomach of another, knocking them both to the floor.
Most of them were still staggering in the direction of Aaron’s screams, and their fellow creatures’ groans.
Riley sprinted and sprinted until he reached the fence. He didn’t look back until he was over the fence, until he was out of the main crowd and half way up the field. He didn’t look back, but he could still hear Aaron, screaming away.
He fell into the long grass. Sweat dripped from his head. His body crumbled to the ground, and he started spluttering. He looked at his hands—drenched with blood. Stan’s blood. Aaron’s blood. Pete and his wife’s blood. Jordanna’s blood. He could have saved them. He could have tried to save them. But he’d run. He was a coward. A failure. Not fit to lead anybody.
Something tickled his back. He jumped and jolted forward. The cow that had escaped the dairy farm was sniffing him, a curious look on its face. Riley sank his head into his knees and let out a sigh of relief before standing to his feet, the cow watching his every move very closely.
“Least… Least you’re okay, eh? Least you’re okay. And I’m speaking to a cow.”
Riley stared in the direction of the dairy farm. The screams had stopped. The creatures were all pretty much inside now bar one or two lone stragglers. They’d feed on Aaron’s body, then they’d move on to Stan, and then when they realised there was no more human meat, they’d feed on the cows, and the chickens, and then Sam’s dead corpse, head cracked as he lay on the floor. A pointless death.
He looked down at his hands. The blood was beginning to dry. So much of it that it looked like it would never wash off.
“When you hear them coming, you know it’s already too late to do anything about them.”
Stan was right. Except this time, they hadn’t even heard them coming.
It was always too late to do anything about them.
Riley patted the cow on its side. “You go find some… some grass to feed on. Or something.” He waved his hand at the cow. “Go on.”
The cow crept away, still focused on Riley. A witness to his crimes. A witness to his guilt and his grief.
Riley took one last look at the overrun dairy farm, the sun making its final descent behind it. He took a deep breath, and walked back in the direction of the Chinese restaurant as the cow wandered off in the other direction.
“We can’t just give up on them.”
Anna smacked her hand against the wall. “Then what do you suggest, Ted? Going out there yourself with your foot in the fucking state it’s in?”
“Anna,” Claudia said. She pointed at her daughters.
“Oh shut up, Claudia,” Anna said. “Just shut up. Your daughters are going to see horrible things. Horrible things worse than any fucking swear word. Grow up.”
Claudia’s mouth dangled open as her daughters, Elizabeth and Chloë, sniggered behind her.
Ted loosened the bandage and pressed his foot against the ground, wincing and hobbling slightly, but managing to walk at a steady pace.
“Trevor — please, tell him,” Anna pleaded. “We have to stick together. Stan and Riley — they made their choice. But we need to stick together. What we’ve got here — it’s good. We can’t just let all that go to waste.”
Trevor shrugged as Ted approached the door. “I can’t stand in anyone’s way. People make their own choices.”
Anna dropped her head into her hands. When she moved them away, tears were covering her cheeks. “It’s been a—a long day. We’re all tired. The sun’s setting, so let’s just… let’s just eat, sleep, and think about it.”
Ted stopped by the door. “Eat, sleep and think about it?” He stepped closer to Anna. “Eat. Sleep. And think about it?”
Anna looked him in the eye. Nodded her head. “Yes.”
Ted swung a hand across her face. “Eat? Sleep? Think about it? My fucking friend is out there.” He felt arms grab him from behind as Trevor pulled him back. Claudia covered her mouth with her hands and grabbed her daughters.
“My only fucking friend is out there looking for Stan all because you went and fucking killed his wife.”
Anna was turned to one side, soaking up the impact of the slap. She lifted a hand to her face and moved her sweaty hair out of her teary eyes. When she lowered her hand, a cut was visible on her left cheek. “You think I killed Jill? You really think I—”
“Yes,” Ted spat. Trevor continued to pull him back. “Who else? Who the fuck else? Because it wasn’t Riley. I swear it wasn’t Riley.”
“Ted, come on, man,” Trevor said.
Ted swung around and pushed Trevor up to the wall. He pressed his forehead up to Trevor’s. Stared into his eyes. “What about you then? You were unaccounted for, weren’t you? Did you do it? Slip a knife in the old lady’s neck when she wasn’t looking?”
Trevor took calm, collected breaths. “No. I didn’t.”
“Well it was either you or her,” he said, pointing at Anna. “One of you did it. Riley insisted to me he hadn’t, and I believe that dude ‘cause he’s my mate and he’d never lie to me. I believe that dude because he’s—”
“Ted, please,” Claudia called. She gripped her girls close to her chest. “You’re scaring the girls. Please.”
“He doesn’t care,” Anna said. Her face twitched and her jaw clenched. “He just wanted to use us. Get his foot sorted out, and use us.”
“Fuck off,” Ted said. He tossed Trevor back against the wall and turned around to face Anna, head on.
“What single productive thing have you done for this group since yesterday, hmm? Played the clown with the girls? Sat on your arse and let your best friend make all the tough decisions?”
“Stop it,” Ted said. He squared up to Anna.
“Ted, please!” Claudia shouted. Elizabeth started to cry.
“Or what?” Anna said, moving closer and closer to Ted. “You gonna hit me again? Let everybody witness what a pathetic, weak man you really are? Does your best friend know you hit women? I bet he has no idea. I bet if he knew, he’d throw your fat little ass to the biters too.”
“But he won’t. Because he isn’t here. Because he’s cleaning up your mess. Cleaning up after your killing.”
“Go on,” Anna said. She pressed right up to
Ted, her sickly sweet breath blowing into his face. “Do what you have to do. Hit me again. You weak, pathetic piece of shit.”
“I’m going to go out there and I’m going to find my mate. And if he’s dead — if he’s dead or if he’s turned — I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you because if you hadn’t started this fucking chain of events, this wouldn’t have happened. I’m going to—”
“Stop!”
The voice was initially unrecognisable. Ted thought it was Claudia at first, but it was too high-pitched even though it came from her direction. He looked over, as did Anna and Trevor.
Chloë was standing in the middle of the room. Tears streamed down her cheeks, tumbling down onto her furry slippers. Her bottom lip wobbled as she held her hands behind her back and sobbed. “It was me.”
Ted frowned. Claudia’s eyes widened.
Claudia reached a hand out for her daughter. “You… What was you? Darling?”
“It-it was me,” Chloë said, stuttering her way through the tears. “Jill… she came at me, and I… She was one of those things. But it was me. I killed her.”
A bang rattled through the silence of the room. It came from the door. Ted swung around.
“Holy shit,” Anna said, as Trevor rushed over to the door and opened it.
Riley staggered in. His hands and arms were drenched in blood. His hair was coated in sweat. He gasped and sniffed and shook his head.
“Riley… you’re… you’re alive,” Ted said.
Riley dropped to his knees and collapsed on the floor.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A sharp pain clawed through Riley’s head. Visions danced in his mind. The dairy farm. Aaron’s screams. The creature sinking its teeth into Stan’s neck and tearing away his flesh. Running, running, running away. Not stopping for anyone. Not stopping for anything.
He knew where he was. There was no confusion about the situation he was waking up to anymore. No confusion about the state of affairs outside. The creatures were out there. They were coming. And eventually, they’d find them, and they’d kill them. Trevor. Ted. Anna. Claudia. The children. All of them.
He opened his eyes. The dim light pierced through his blurred vision. He was on Ted’s bed, elevated off the ground. Ted was sat on the edge of the bed, head in hands.
