by Ryan Casey
Kesha had taken over the driver’s seat. She said she didn’t trust me with a vehicle as valuable as this. And something about me driving like a granddad, which was obviously nonsense. The afternoon was rapidly progressing, and I worried that soon it would be dark, although I figured we had a good few hours to go in the light yet.
“You need to get that panic off your face,” Kesha said.
“Panic? I’m not panicking.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been biting your nails and glaring out of that window at the sky ever since I took over driving duty. Well, since before that, actually. Part of why I took over. What’s got into you?”
I stared at the abandoned cars on the road. We were travelling through a more built up suburban area, which had me on edge. I could see houses. An old football stadium, more abandoned than it was on non-matchdays, an eerie silence about it. In the streets, I saw dogs and cats running wild. Litter was stacked up to the point that bins were overflowing. It wasn’t a nice scene. And if this was what it was like here, then I dreaded to think what it might be like back home in Preston. “Just don’t like being in a residential area like this.”
“Well there’s nothing we can do,” Kesha said. “Rather here than the motorway, which is totally clogged up with cars.”
Kesha was right. The motorway would be filled with vehicles that’d just dropped dead. “To be honest, these roads aren’t much better.”
“Yeah. They are. And you know it.”
Again, Kesha was probably right.
We carried on for another ten minutes. I got an eerie crawling feeling up my arms. I felt like I was being watched.
“How long have we been actually driving?” I asked.
Kesha puffed out her lips. “I dunno. An hour?”
“An hour?”
“What?”
“I thought it’d been longer, that’s all.”
“Well I’m sorry, but like I said, the roads are clogged up with cars.”
“It’s going to take forever to get back to Preston.”
“Yeah,” Kesha said. “But at least you’re getting a head start. You’d probably be dead now if it weren’t for me.”
“What’s up with you?”
“What’s up with me?” Kesha asked.
“Yeah. You’re having a go.”
“I’m always having a go.”
“Well, more than usual.”
Kesha glanced down at her knees and tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “I just worry about you. That’s all.”
Her concern touched me. So I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to be okay.”
“Not now,” she said. “Not even on your journey. But I just… It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does. Tell me.”
“I just worry about what’ll happen to you if you don’t find what you’re looking for.”
The thought made me freeze. I didn’t know what to make of it. It wasn’t something I’d considered. I was trying not to face up to the very possible—and likely—reality that I’d never see my daughter again.
“Then I’ll just have to make sure I find them, won’t I?”
Kesha half-smiled and returned her attention to the road. She didn’t look totally convinced.
We drove a little further when I realised Kesha was slowing down.
“What’s up?”
“Hospital.”
“What?”
“There’s a hospital right there. They could have things we need. Supplies. We’re short on meds.”
“Is now really the time to—”
“I’ve brought you this far, Will. Now you’ve got to let me find something to take back to my people. Are you coming with me or what?”
I wasn’t sure. But it didn’t look like I had a choice.
We got out of the car. It felt weird, stretching our legs after a journey. Wasn’t something I’d done in a while. Three weeks, in fact. As we walked towards the hospital, making sure the car was hidden in plain sight and checking that no one was watching, I heard my footsteps echo against the car park.
“It’ll be rinsed out already,” I said.
“Maybe so. But we have to try.”
“This place,” I said. “It can’t be so quiet. Like… where is everyone?”
I looked down at Bouncer. He was as curious as I was.
We forced our way through the automatic doors, which had already been smashed in, confirming my suspicions that this place had been compromised. The entrance area of accident and emergency was even more eerie now it was empty, without those bright, medicinal lights that always illuminated the place lighter than was natural.
There was a smell, too. A sour smell that no doubt the disinfectant usually covered up and masked perfectly.
I didn’t want to ask what that sour smell was. I had a feeling I knew what it was already.
Kesha looked all around the pharmacy. She kept on calling out meds she’d found, some of which she was sure would come in handy. I waited in the entrance area with Bouncer. As much as I knew searching this place was essential, I couldn’t escape how uncomfortable I felt about everything.
Then I saw someone.
In the corner of my eye. They made me jump, and I almost tripped.
But there was a boy.
He was young. He was dressed in a hospital gown. His head was completely bald, and he was strapped to a drip.
He looked emaciated.
But he was motionless.
Because he was lying dead on the floor.
I felt sick creep up my throat as I saw the flies buzzing around his wide open eyes. I felt total sympathy and pity for that kid, and however many others there must’ve been not just in this hospital, but across the country, across the world.
People reliant on meds to survive that couldn’t get them anymore because they were just too weak.
A society unable to support them, because it had collapsed.
“Will?”
I felt Kesha nudge my arm. Then she saw what I was looking at.
I heard her sigh. “Shit,” she said.
“This is the world we live in now.”
“Come on,” she said. “We’d better leave.”
“We have a choice to leave. But this guy. This guy didn’t.”
Kesha nodded. Her eyes were glazing over. “It sucks. Truly sucks. But there’s nothing we can do. Not now. Come on. I’ve got everything we need. Better get out of here before we pick anything up.”
She turned around and walked away. As she did, I got a flash of Olivia, as if she was the one lying there on the floor, abandoned, hopeless.
Then I blinked and the image of Olivia was gone.
I couldn’t believe that.
I couldn’t face that.
I followed Kesha out of the hospital, Bouncer by my side.
“Car’s still there,” Kesha said, struggling to hold on to all the medicinal supplies she had. “That’s a bonus.”
I hurried to the car. Still got that feeling someone was around. Like it was all too quiet. All too eerie. “Yeah,” I said. “But I don’t want to take any…”
I trailed off when someone popped up from the other side of the car.
Then someone else walked out from behind another of the cars.
Then another from another car.
And another.
And another.
We stood still. Bouncer growled. Everyone was silent. Both sides stared at one another. Some of them were on rusty old bicycles. Some of them looked like they were wearing prison gear.
All of them were smiling.
All of them were holding knives.
Chapter Thirty-One
I looked around at the group surrounding me and I wondered how many more times I was going to be faced with situations like this.
Judging by the looks on this group’s faces, and the knives in their hands, this might just be my last.
They were everywhere, and there was a lot of them. Ten, at least. The larg
est group I’d seen since the fall, our own aside. Beside me, I could hear Bouncer growling, but I knew that wasn’t going to get us anywhere far right now.
“So? Are you going to co-operate and give us what we want?”
I felt my stomach sink. The car. They knew about the car and they wanted it. That meant Kesha would be stranded out here with me.
She looked at me and I sensed the disappointment in her eyes. She was frustrated by how things had played out. If she hadn’t brought me out here, she wouldn’t have been in this predicament.
“Kesha, I—”
“It’s fine.”
“But it’s not fine. This shouldn’t be happening. You shouldn’t be here.”
“There was always a risk.”
“It’s—”
“Um, excuse me,” the main guy with the long, chocolate brown hair said. He stepped forward. I could smell the sweat coming from him. Behind, I saw that many of his companions were gaunt and emaciated. They certainly looked like they could do with a hot meal more than they could an engine.
The man lifted his knife and pointed it at me. “I appreciate you two have a little conversation going on here. But that’s not how we’re going to do things anymore. You don’t just get to have conversations.”
“We’re trying to figure things out.”
“Figure things out?” The man smiled. A few of his companions chuckled. They were all men, except for one. She had a cold, hard stare. Damn, she looked meaner than the rest of her companions. “Well isn’t that nice? Figuring things out. See, there’s nothing for you to figure out. There’s two ways we can go about this.”
“Take the car,” Kesha said.
The man narrowed his eyes. “The car?”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said.
“Just take it,” Kesha said. “It’s… it’s got fuel and it should last a while.”
I couldn’t accept this. “But—”
“Will, they have to take the car. Or they’ll kill us. You know how it is.”
I shook my head. “You won’t get home.”
“I’ll find a way.”
I saw the glimmer of hope and fear in her eyes and I knew I’d let her down.
“Hate to break your little moment again, folks, but we don’t want just the car. Not just yet, anyway.”
I turned around. “What?”
All of the group were smiling, like they had something on Kesha and I. Some kind of advance knowledge. The main guy cleared his throat and stepped further forward. “See, we don’t just want your car. We’ve been watching you.”
The realisation built up inside my body. And the more it did, the more I felt myself deflating.
“Your place,” the guy said. “Everything you’ve got. The farm. The gardens. The shelter. The food. It’s nice. Real nice.”
“We’ll die before we hand it over to you,” Kesha spat.
The man chuckled. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. Because that prison is filled with our people. A sleeper cell. Call it whatever you want, but there’s people in there who if they don’t hear from us soon, will kill every single person in that prison.”
“That’s not—”
“It’s possible. Hell, it’s how we found out you guys were going to be leaving. A friend of ours, Cameron. He got his hands on some of your plans. Your roadmap. When we saw the cross on the hospital, we figured it’d be a good place to finally meet. So we’ve waited here for three days. And voila.”
He cleared his throat and stepped further forward. “I’m Darren, by the way. Darren Hart.” He held out his right hand, as if he was offering to shake it, but his knife was in that hand.
“Please,” Kesha said. “Just… just don’t.”
“I never thought I’d hear you beg after what Simon said about you,” Darren said. “Hell, I thought it’d take a lot more to make you crack.”
“There’s good people in there.”
“And what the hell does that matter anymore?”
“These people. They’re tough. You won’t necessarily win.”
“Well we’re tougher. So we might ‘necessarily’ win. Besides. Do you really want to take your chances?”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. My head throbbed. I knew this wasn’t my call.
“What do you want?” Kesha asked. The resignation in her voice was unrecognisable.
“I want you to take us to that place you call home. I want you to take us in. And then I want you to hand over control.”
“You’ll run it into the ground.”
“We won’t, because you’ll be working for us. And if you work really well, maybe we’ll go easy on your people. If you don’t, well… leadership changes can be rough.”
Kesha looked at me. I could see the tears building in her eyes. She didn’t want to give up everything she’d worked for. But she didn’t want to call this man’s bluff either. “What do we do?” she asked.
Part of me thought about just agreeing to this guy’s plans. To keep the peace.
Another part of me wanted to fight back.
Not just because I didn’t want Kesha to give up what she’d worked so hard for, but because of my family, too.
I was through with running away from problems.
I was ready to face them, head on.
“So what’s it going to be?” Darren asked.
I cleared my throat. Then I stepped up to him. Held out a hand.
“Will?” Kesha said.
“You can have it. We’ll take you back there. But nobody gets hurt. Okay?”
Darren’s eyes narrowed. He looked like he’d been caught off guard. “You don’t make the arrangements here.”
“Take it. Or leave it. Those terms. Are you good with them?”
Darren glanced at my hand like it was something disgusting.
Then he put his knife into his other hand and grasped my hand, hard.
“Be careful who you make deals with,” I said.
Then I pulled my knife out of my back pocket and stabbed Darren in the guts.
I backed away before his companions could realise what had happened. I grabbed Kesha’s arm, as Darren choked blood, as he fell to his knees. I made sure Bouncer was beside me, then I turned to the hospital as Darren’s people’s faces started to turn, and finally they realised.
Kesha looked just as stunned as everyone else. “What are you—”
“Just run!”
Chapter Thirty-Two
I ran as quickly as I could towards the hospital and wondered what the hell I’d just gone and done.
Light rain fell down as I sprinted towards the door. Kesha was by my side, and so too was Bouncer. Kesha looked panicked, but Bouncer looked like he was enjoying all this excitement more than anything. I just hoped he’d be able to keep on enjoying it, and that this plan, if I could call it a plan, paid off.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kesha asked.
Behind, I could hear the angry mob running after us.
“Keeping us alive.”
“Keeping us alive? You killed that guy. And then we’re gonna lose the car anyway. Which means we’re gonna lose the prison, too.”
“That doesn’t have to be how it plays out.”
“It doesn’t? Because I think Darren made himself pretty clear. If the group inside the prison don’t hear from him, everyone dies.”
“You really believe that?”
“What?”
“You really think he’s telling the truth?”
“I don’t want to take my chances.”
“He’s bluffing. Sure, he might have people inside our camp. But not as many as he claims. His group’s not as strong as he pretends it is. If it were, he’d have overthrown it ages ago.”
We stepped back inside the eerie entrance area of the hospital. Once again, I smelled that rot, and heard the flies buzzing around the boy’s corpse lying just a few feet away in the corridor.
“So what now?” Kesha asked.
“I,
um, didn’t think that far ahead.”
She looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “Mate, you’re seriously pushing it. Seriously.”
We ran through the hospital into the uncharted areas we hadn’t uncovered yet. I saw broken glass on the floor. The corridor towards the main wards was long and didn’t seem to turn for ages.
“Shit. They’re inside.”
I looked over my shoulder. In the distance, I could see Darren’s people flooding into the hospital. It made the hairs stand on my arms as they ran along, knives in hand. I had a moment. Like an out of body experience, where suddenly I became aware—very frigging aware—that I was Will Stuartson and I was running away from a load of people who desperately wanted to kill me. This wasn’t one of my novels. This was my life now.
“Will!”
I turned around and saw someone ahead of me.
It was a woman. She was wearing a dressing gown. Her eyes were wide, and her face gaunt.
“I just want to know where my Derek is,” the old woman said. Her dressing gown was torn, revealing her bony body, and she was pissing all down her leg, the smell strong and toxic. “Have you seen my Derek?”
I wanted to tell this poor old thing that she’d be okay. That I was here for her.
But I knew for a fact there was nothing I could do to help her right now.
She was already lost.
We took a left and ran down another long, extended corridor. Eventually, we reached some stairs, and headed through the double doors. The further down the steps we got, the more the smell of decay grew.
It was only when we reached the bottom floor that I realised exactly why.
We were in the middle of critical care.
Critical care was usually pretty quiet. There was a peacefulness about the place.
But this was different.
This was total absence of sound and life.
Total silence.
The beds were all still filled with bodies. They’d just been left there, still hooked up to their life support machines.
On a few of the bodies, I saw that flowers had been planted, but they had died now. I saw notes.
Always in my heart. D. x
Messages from past loves.
But all of them kept here, in an open tomb, surrounded by people they didn’t know.
