by Casey, Ryan
This time, Hayden couldn’t tell the truth, as much as he wanted to. He knew the damage telling the truth could cause. “She was infected. One hundred percent.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. Nodded. “Funny.”
“What’s so funny?”
“I found her dead with her gun wrapped in her palm, that’s all.”
Hayden went to speak. But he didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know what he could say to absolve himself. “There’s—”
“There’s what?”
“It might not mean—”
“It means she was alive when you shot her, Hayden.”
“No. That’s not possible. She was infected. She was—”
“She was alive when you shot her. You could’ve shot those infected. You could’ve kept that damned girl alive. But you were the one who put a bullet through her eyes. Who fucking ended her life. And you fucking knew it. Didn’t you?”
Hayden’s head spun. He felt his face heat up. The tang of the beer got more acidic on his tongue. He needed to leave. Needed to get out of here. He didn’t want trouble. He hadn’t come to New Britain in the first place for trouble. He was here to get away from it. To escape it.
He climbed off his barstool. Headed towards the door. He wasn’t having this conversation. He needed time to think—
He felt a hand pull him back. A strong hand. It spun him round. Then pulled him closer.
Gary stared into his eyes. And he looked manic. Feral. Like a rabid dog let off its leash.
“You admit it. You admit it to me, right here, right now. ’Cause I don’t care whether you’re some cure. I don’t care whether you’re the fucking Holy Grail. The way I see it, we’re safe in these walls whether we’re fucking immunised or not. And some of us don’t want your dirty blood in us. So you aren’t as important as you think, you skinny runt. Now tell me. Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing—”
“Tell me what the fuck you did to her!”
Hayden was sure Gary was about to punch him. He was getting ready for a scrap. Bracing for the impact of a fist, or a knee, or skull against skull.
But none of that happened.
None of that.
Because, outside, down by the wall, Hayden heard a blood-curdling scream.
Chapter Seven
Hayden knew the scream was bad news the second he heard it.
He stepped out of the pub. Turned in its general direction, over at the wall by the gates. The sun was bright and blocked his vision down past the terraced houses and towards that entrance area. There were people outside their houses. People looking to see what was going on, what was wrong.
A scream outside the walls? That wasn’t exactly normal anymore, not since they’d rolled out the immunisation.
But a scream inside the walls?
That was unthinkable.
Hayden could hear muttering. He heard the door of the pub creak open behind him, and he knew Gary was following him. They’d had their row in there, their confrontation. But it didn’t matter. Not anymore.
The only thing that mattered was that scream.
Hayden walked down the road. Walked towards where he’d heard the scream. He could see someone standing right inside the wall. Right in front of the main gates. He wasn’t sure who it was. Wasn’t sure he recognised them.
But the closer he got, the more realisation built inside Hayden.
Whoever it was, they were covered in blood.
More people gathered in the streets. Some of them kept their distance from this mysterious figure. Others went up to them, tried to talk to them.
As a cloud covered the sun, sending an autumnal chill through Hayden’s body, he saw who it was. He saw exactly who this person was. Where the scream had come from.
It was Colin. The missing survivor of Amanda’s group.
The group that were attacked by the infected.
A mixture of emotions came over Hayden. Colin stood there, wide-eyed. He was covered in blood from head to toe. He looked terrified. His lips were moving but no sounds were coming out. It didn’t look like he’d been bitten, not from this distance, but it was hard to tell under all the blood.
Part of Hayden was relieved to see one of his people alive. He was relieved that Colin had survived out there, and regardless of what’d happened, he’d made his way back home.
But another part of Hayden made him put his hand in his back pocket. Reach for the knife that he always kept in there.
If Colin had been outside, then something could’ve happened to him.
The infected were changing, again. So Colin could be a risk.
Hayden thought back to little Tim back at Riversford the closer he got to Colin. He never found out what happened to Tim. Never found out why he’d died, how the infection had passed on to Karen. Why she’d turned without any bites. As much of an invention Terrence Schumer’s “airborne virus” was, Hayden couldn’t pretend to understand all the mysteries of the infected. It would be naïve to assume that the virus didn’t have different ways of transmission; that people were susceptible to infection by various means.
But Colin. He was supposed to be immune. He wasn’t supposed to even be recognisable to the infected.
And yet his group had been hunted down.
Hayden couldn’t run the risk of this man just walking back inside New Britain like everything was normal.
“What’s he saying?” someone to the right of Hayden asked.
“Something’s not right,” another voice said.
Hayden just kept his focus on Colin. Kept his hand on his knife. If he had to kill him, he would, because his main priority was keeping New Britain safe, keeping the people he cared about safe.
If he had to put him down, just like he’d put Amanda down, he would have no hesitations.
The future of humanity was more important than the future of one, two humans.
He never used to believe that. Used to be against everything that ideal stood for.
But now he was in a position to say it, he believed it was true.
Hayden stepped even closer to Colin. And the nearer he got to him, as more people drifted back, as calls for a doctor broke out, Hayden swore he could hear words coming out of Colin’s mouth. He was mumbling something. Saying something.
Hayden needed to know what.
He kept his hand on the knife. Got within metres of Colin.
Colin’s eyes hadn’t connected with Hayden’s once. They hadn’t connected with anyone.
They’d just stared ahead, transfixed, terrified.
“Colin?” Hayden said.
Colin didn’t lift his head. He didn’t make eye contact with Hayden. He just held that stare into nothingness. A stare that gave Hayden shivers—made him want to turn around and get back to his home. To tell Miriam and everyone in here to lay low, not to worry.
But he knew there was no running away. Not now. Not while Colin was like this.
“Colin?” Hayden repeated. And as he got closer to Colin, just inches away, he made out some of the muffled words he was muttering.
“They… they… they are…”
“Colin, it’s me,” Hayden said. His heart raced. He could smell metal emanating from Colin’s body, the rustiness of blood piercing the air. “It’s Hayden. I… I saw what happened to you out there. What’s going on?”
“They… they’re… they’re…”
Colin just kept on repeating those words under his breath. Like he was trying to spit something out but couldn’t quite bring himself to.
Hayden stood right in front of Colin. Just inches away. He could hear his breathing cracking. See him shaking.
“What’s happening, Colin? What’s going on with you?”
Colin did something he hadn’t done in the entire exchange.
He lifted his head. Looked right into Hayden’s eyes.
“They’re coming. They’re coming.”
And then a light in his eyes dropped.
A snarl covered hi
s face.
He threw himself at Hayden.
Hayden heard the cries from behind as he fell back on the ground. The back of his head cracked against the concrete, making his hearing muffled. He felt the full force of Colin’s body on top of him, pressing down, opening his mouth and readying to wrap his teeth around Hayden’s neck.
Hayden pulled out the knife. Lifted it. And even though he saw horror in the eyes of the New Britain residents, he knew what he had to do.
He rammed the knife into the back of Colin’s neck.
Twisted it. Felt warm blood trickling down between his fingers. Heard something crack under the pressure.
After a few seconds, Colin’s body went still.
Hayden rolled Colin away. He wiped some of the blood from his forehead. He still couldn’t hear properly. He could tell people were talking to him, trying to ask if he was okay, but he couldn’t make out their words, not properly.
All he could make out was the fear in their eyes.
Something had happened to Colin. Something terrible had happened to Colin.
“They’re coming. They’re coming.”
Hayden looked at the crowd of people. He looked at the horror in Gary’s eyes. At the shock on the faces of people he knew, like Martha, Amy, Shelley. He looked at them all looking at him like he was the monster.
He was about to tell them what Colin had said when he heard another scream.
This time, Hayden couldn’t quite comprehend it. Because the screams were coming from the people in front of him. The horrified stares lifted from Hayden and up towards the wall. Up at the top of the wall. People started to turn around, started to run. Panic, chaos, it all set in during that one split second.
Hayden turned around. Looked up at the top of the wall.
He saw something moving down the side of the wall. Several things, all powering down it, gripping onto it and hurtling towards the inside of New Britain.
“They’re coming. They’re coming.”
They weren’t just infected. They weren’t just an army of infected.
They were an army of the new breed of infected that Hayden had seen just days ago.
And they were hurtling towards New Britain.
Hurtling towards Hayden’s home.
Fast.
Chapter Eight
Hayden couldn’t do anything as the infected hurtled down the side of the wall.
He could only stand and stare.
He heard the chaos growing around him. Heard the cries, the screams, the shouts. But all of them drifted into the background. All of them, just like the sickliness in his throat. Just like the growing smell of blood in the air. Just like the feel of the light rain falling from a cloud above.
They were coming.
Just like Colin said, they were coming.
And they’d tear apart everything Hayden cared about if he didn’t act fast.
“Hayden!”
He heard a shout. It was someone ahead of him. Someone over by the gate. He recognised their voice, but it took him a few seconds to realise it was Gary.
He was standing right by the gate. Trying to close it up.
Hayden didn’t register why. Not at first.
Not until he saw the silhouettes drifting down the tunnel leading to the main gate, hurtling in their direction.
“Need a fucking hand!” Gary shouted.
Hayden started to run towards Gary. He had to help solidify this place. Had to help keep the infected away.
They could still defend this place. He knew it might be misguided or blind faith, but he truly believed it. They could defend it. He could defend it.
He just had to help close up that gate.
He just had to—
An infected landed to the right. Dropped down from the walls. It looked just like every other infected human.
Only it was hurtling towards a man just inches to Hayden’s right.
Hayden dodged out of its way. Fell onto his ass.
The infected threw itself at the man.
Dragged him to the ground.
Ripped the white T-shirt off his back and sunk its teeth into him, tearing away at his flesh with ferocious speed and intensity as the man lay there screaming, begging, pleading.
And then two more of the infected joined it and silenced the man at last.
“Need a fucking hand, Hayden!”
Hayden’s head spun. His legs were weak. Everything moved in slow motion. He saw more infected falling down the side of the wall. Saw them jumping on people he knew. Ripping chunks out of their necks. Bashing their skulls into the ground.
But these weren’t just normal people they were attacking. They weren’t just the people Hayden knew were uninfected.
They were attacking the people who’d been immunised, too.
Hayden felt vomit creeping up his throat. He knew he couldn’t just stand there while the people around him were butchered. He knew he couldn’t just stand around while people died. Because he was at risk by standing here, too. He might’ve been the source of the immunisation, but to these new infected, he was nothing.
He was just food.
And to Hayden, that was terrifying.
He looked over his shoulder. Looked back on the main streets of New Britain. Saw people fleeing down there. Behind them, fast in pursuit, the infected. Chasing them down. Hunting them.
And he wanted to go back and tell Miriam to lock her doors. To stay safe.
But then he heard Gary’s voice shouting for help again and he knew he couldn’t just run away.
He ran towards the gates. Stopped at Gary’s side.
“Fuck’s sake, man. What fucking took you so long?”
Hayden didn’t answer him. He just grabbed the edge of the metal barrier that covered up the gates completely. “I thought these were supposed to be easy to close.”
“If they were easy to close, they’d be goddamned easy to break into. Now come on. Help me pull.”
Hayden heard another shout behind him. He flinched, spun around. Just metres away, an infected was ripping open the guts of a teenage girl. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She cried for it to stop, to let her go, as blood splattered onto her face from her own guts.
The infected didn’t stop. It didn’t discriminate. They never did.
Man. Woman. Child. All of them were fair game to the infected. Hayden had lived long enough in this world to know that was the case.
“No time for fucking around anymore, Hayden!” Gary shouted. “On my count of three, you pull this fucking gate with me, understand? Hey, you understand?”
Hayden looked back at Gary. None of this seemed real. It was like he’d just been woken up from a dream that’d stretched on for months. Or thrown in a bath of cold water, his body still yet to adjust to the changing temperature.
He grabbed the handle of the gate. With Gary by his side, he waited for his call.
“One, two… three!”
Hayden pulled. He pulled as hard as he could. He felt the gate moving, edging slowly closer.
But in the corner of his eye, he couldn’t escape the oncoming crowd of infected. They were getting further and further down the tunnel. Soon, there’d be nothing but the weaker, mesh gating between them.
They’d be through that in seconds.
“Again!” Gary shouted. “One, two… three!”
Hayden pulled again. And this time, he felt the gate moving steadier. He felt it easing along. Soon, it’d lock into place. Soon, there’d be no way in for the infected.
Just over the top of the wall.
He went to make the final pull when he felt something smack into his right side.
Something bashed against the mesh gate. And then something else. And before he knew it, Hayden was stepping away from the gate, backing off from it.
“Don’t you fucking walk away, Hayden,” Gary shouted.
Hayden stood there. He stared at Gary. The infected were all piled up against the mesh gate. He could see the metal already splitting
. There was no way they’d be able to close the main gate in time. No way they’d be able to hold them off.
They’d just find another way anyway.
Hayden looked around. Although he could still hear Gary shouting at him, although he could hear the gate splitting more and more, he couldn’t do anything but look back up the road towards where Miriam was. There’d be so many people locked up in their houses that needed safety. So many people who needed help right now.
And Hayden was here trying to close a gate. A gate that was splitting while the infected continued to pile down the wall.
“Hayden, what the fuck are you doing?”
Hayden didn’t look back at Gary. He didn’t look back at the gate. He knew what he had to do now.
He had to get back to Miriam.
He had to keep her safe.
And then they had to defend this place from within.
There was no saving the gate now. There was no stopping the flow inside the walls.
But there was stopping the death of a person he cared about.
That was his priority.
He ran away from the gate. Ran away from the wall. He didn’t look back. Didn’t look at the gate, which cracked, split away. He didn’t look back at the mass of infected that he knew would be joining their companions. He tried not to even look at the butchered bodies at his feet, the faces of people he recognised, of people he cared about.
He just kept on running.
He saw Miriam’s house in his sights. Saw it, just about half a mile away. He wasn’t the fastest runner, but he knew the side streets of this place. He knew he could get to her if he were quick. He could get to her and then they could lock down and defend themselves and—
He felt something crash into his right.
Knock him off his feet.
It took him a few seconds to realise that an infected was on top of him.
And it was getting ready to rip him open.
Chapter Nine
Hayden felt the infected sink its long fingernails into his stomach and he swore he felt his skin splitting away.
He tried to move. Tried to shake free of the infected holding him down. He could smell blood on its breath and taste vomit that’d seeped into his mouth. He couldn’t move. He was pinned down. All around him, he heard people gasping for life. Gunshots. Footsteps.
