by Ryan Casey
Then, he heard footsteps.
Slow, heavy footsteps.
They stopped.
Stopped, for a good ten seconds. Maybe longer.
Then the cell door handle started to turn…
Chapter Fifteen
I saw the door handle turning and there was only one thing I could do in response.
I grabbed the handle. Grabbed and held onto it with all of the strength I had. I knew the man on the other side was stronger than me, and had fought through more than me. Those burn marks on his face and those muscles… he looked like someone who I didn’t want to pick a fight with, before or after the collapse of the world. Someone I’d avoid at all costs.
“You don’t want to fight back,” he shouted, as he kept on turning the handle. “You don’t want to see what happens to people who resist.”
Damn. He had that right.
I could feel the skin on my palm tearing away. But still, I bit my tongue and resisted. I could taste blood, my heart racing as the reality of our situation welled up.
“You let me inside or I’m gonna blast my way inside. And God help you if I have to do that.”
I saw the long hunting rifle dangling over the man’s opposite shoulder. He could lift that gun and fire through the glass. He could hit me. Or he could hit Bouncer. Or Olivia.
“Olivia, you’re gonna have to run.”
“I’m gonna give you ten seconds,” the man barked. “Ten seconds to open this door so we can have a conversation here. A little chat about the way we’re gonna do things now.”
“Daddy, I’m scared.”
“Nine.”
I kept on holding on to the handle and leaned towards Olivia. “You don’t have to be scared. You—you just take Bouncer and run.”
“But where do I run?”
“Eight. Seven.”
I wanted to respond to Olivia. I wanted to tell her where to run. But the truth was, I didn’t know. I really didn’t know.
We were trapped in here.
“Six.”
“Olivia, listen to me.”
“Dad don’t leave me.”
“Just go back to your room. Take Bouncer there. And… and Jesus, just hide. Hide and pray.”
“Five.”
“But Dad I—”
“No arguments,” I said, my voice quivering. “You have to do this, Olivia. You have to do this for me. You understand?”
“Four. Three.”
It was only a momentary glance, but it felt like it lasted forever.
And at that moment, I saw Olivia understanding.
She had to go back to her room.
She had to take Bouncer with her.
And I had to stay here and fight for her.
Not for her life, so much. I wasn’t sure I could save her life, not with the position we were both in.
But more, to prolong her safety for as long as I possibly could.
What a bitter thing for a parent to have to accept.
“Two.”
“Run!”
Olivia ran. She took Bouncer with her. As she ran along, Bouncer looked back at me, confused, like he didn’t understand why we were being torn apart.
I felt tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat.
And then I heard the man on the other side of the door say “One,” and I let go of the handle.
The man opened the door. He stepped inside and squared right up to me. He looked even bigger now we were standing opposite one another. More muscular, well-built. Other than the burns on his face, he looked fairly presentable for someone from the outside. His hair was cut, patchy in places admittedly, but he’d clearly taken efforts to make sure he was somewhat presentable. He was wearing indigo jeans, worn at the pockets but not torn. Stan Smith trainers. A slim fit burgundy jumper, which exaggerated his muscles even more.
He lifted the gun in the air and rested it on his shoulder. He smiled. “Now, now. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I tensed my fists. I wasn’t in a mood to shit around. “My daughter. My dog. You don’t lay a finger on them.”
“Whoa. I’m the man with the gun. I think I should be the one putting the demands across.”
“I’m serious. You can screw with me but you will not screw with my family.”
The man laughed a little. “You know, I respect you, in a way. Respect your attitude. Standing up to a man with a gun who’s got you cornered. You’re either very brave or very stupid. Probably both. I’m Danny, by the way. And you are?”
“My name doesn’t matter. But it’s nice to know yours, Danny.”
He shook his head again, lowered his gun. Behind him, there was an eerie silence. A silence that had been formed after the screams and the pain outside. A silence that suggested someone had won the battle for Heathlock. And I’d wager a bet that someone was probably not our people.
“That looks like one of my men over there. You do that?”
“I did. And I enjoyed it.”
Danny shook his head. “Arthur was a good man.”
“Good men don’t do the things you’re doing.”
“I’m gonna lay things out for you, real clear, my friend. We’ve got a lot of your people rounded up. A lot of… supplies, for the future. And this place, it’s nice. So I tell you what. I’ll give you an olive branch, let’s call it. You give up, surrender, and I’ll let your daughter and your little puppy live as long as I possibly can.”
“Doesn’t sound like a great deal for me.”
“There’s always the other option,” Danny said.
He pointed the gun right at me. I didn’t know where Olivia was, but I prayed to God she wouldn’t witness what was about to happen. She’d already lost her mother—at least she thought. She couldn’t witness losing a father too.
Shit. I could’ve told her. I could’ve told her that her mum was still out there, somewhere. That she wasn’t all alone in this world.
All the things I wished I’d been able to say to her. All the things I wished I’d told her.
An opportunity, gone.
“So what’s it gonna be?” Danny asked.
I looked into his eyes and prepared to give myself up. Because what choice did I have? If I didn’t give myself up, I’d die and so would my daughter and my dog.
If I gave myself up… sure, I’d die.
But at least it gave my family some hope—a glimmer of hope.
An opportunity to get away, however slim.
I swallowed a lump in my throat and didn’t think too much about the next words I had to say.
“Do it,” I said.
Danny’s brow twitched. “Do what?”
“Take me. But not them. Not them. Please.”
Danny’s smile stretched.
He lifted his gun higher.
“Thanks for the permission,” he said.
He went to pull the trigger.
Something happened before the bullets fired out the end of the gun. There was movement. Movement right behind Danny.
And then the next thing I knew, Danny was holding his head as he fell to the floor.
His body went still, right away. The rifle fell from his hands.
Behind him, someone stood.
Someone familiar.
“Nice to see you again,” Kesha said, holding a hammer in her hand. Beside her, Andy. “Now come on. We don’t have much time.”
I nodded, still amazed I was still alive, by some miracle.
Then I turned and ran over towards Olivia’s room.
When I got there, I felt that déjà vu hit me again. Something inside me told me she wouldn’t be there. That she’d be missing, again.
But she was there.
Right by the door, holding on to Bouncer.
“It’s okay now,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m here, Olivia. I’m here.”
She rushed over to me and hugged me around the waist.
“I missed you, Dad.”
“I missed you too.”
We stood there then, the five of us—
me, Olivia, Kesha, Andy and Bouncer—and we looked at the body of the man Olivia had killed, and the still, unconscious body of the man with the burned face called Danny.
Kesha lifted the hunting rifle from Danny’s static hands. “Know how to use one of these?”
“I was always crap on the shooting range.”
She pointed the rifle down the corridor. “All the more reason for me to hold it. Now come on. We’ve got to get the hell out of this place while we still can.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You ready?”
I looked out of the door to the cells at our escape route. It wasn’t going to be easy. We had about five hundred metres ground to make, and all of it was downhill. We were going to be exposed. Especially seeing as the rival group—the cannibals—had taken the other cell block.
“I don’t see how we can just run away from our people,” I said.
It felt awful abandoning our people, turning our backs on them, essentially. But what could we do? We were outnumbered. We didn’t have much ammo left in our one rifle. We hadn’t had the chance to get any more guns or weapons from the armoury.
But we had an opportunity.
We had a chance to get out of this place. And now we had Andy with us, we had a chance to leave Heathlock and find my wife. Andy was the key, after all. Without him, we weren’t going to get back to his camp. Without him, we weren’t going to get to our new home.
I wasn’t going to reunite Olivia with her mum.
“Trust me,” Kesha said, defeat in her voice. “The last thing I want to do is turn my back on my people.”
“Our people,” I said.
Kesha nodded. “But what choice do we have?”
I turned to Andy. He was keeping awfully quiet in this whole exchange. Apparently he’d been locked in his cell, then Kesha had broken him out before the cannibals could take that cell block.
“What?” he asked.
“You can’t just tell us?”
“Tell you what?
“Your camp. Where is it?”
Andy sighed and shook his head. “Look, I—”
“I get why you don’t want to just hand over that information. I get why you’re scared. Really, I do. But you’ve seen we’re on the same side here. We aren’t gonna just kill you. Besides, what if something happens to you while we’re on the road? Where do we go then?”
Andy didn’t say anything. He just looked between everyone, and then shrugged. “I guess that gives you more reason to keep me safe.”
Out of nowhere, Kesha lunged at him. She pressed the rifle to his chest.
“Listen,” she said. “This might be a game to you, but I swear it isn’t a game to us.”
“Please—” Andy choked.
“You’re playing games with lives here. You might think you’re innocent in all this, but that’s the truth. Will’s wife is out there. She’s at your camp. So you don’t get to screw around with that knowledge. Where is she?”
Andy grabbed the edge of the rifle. “Please.”
Kesha loosened it, gradually. Andy coughed a little, regained some of his breath and his composure, then he rubbed at his neck.
“I want to tell you,” Andy said. “Really, I do. But you have to see things from my perspective.”
“And you have to see things from ours,” Kesha said.
Andy looked into my eyes. “At least let’s get out of this place, first.”
“Dad?” Olivia mumbled.
“At least let us escape here before we start worrying about what’s waiting for us out of the walls.
“Dad?”
“One sec, Olivia.”
“But—”
“Please. I’ll tell you. I swear I’ll tell you. I just need more time. I just… I need more—”
“Dad!”
Olivia’s shout cut through our conversation.
It was only when I looked down the hill that I saw the people in front of the main gate, looking our way.
“What do we do?” Andy said. “What the hell do we do?”
I looked at Kesha.
She looked back at me.
“We run,” she said.
We ran together down the hill towards that gate. It felt like we were running into the belly of the beast.
But Kesha was armed. She had a hunting rifle. Which was something the three people in front of the gate didn’t have.
She fired in their direction. I heard commotion to our left, over at the cell block they were holding down. I knew we’d drawn attention to ourselves. But suddenly that didn’t seem to matter anymore.
What mattered was getting out of this place as quickly as we could.
All of us.
I held on to Olivia’s hand tightly, onto Bouncer’s lead tightly, as we ran down the hill. I held harder as we got closer to those people. Behind, I heard voices, and I knew we were being chased.
“Close the gates!” someone shouted. “Don’t let ’em leave!”
I saw one of the three men run over to the handle and start closing the gates. Shit. The gates weren’t all that hard to open from the inside, but it took time. And we didn’t have time right now.
Kesha kept on firing in their direction. Bullets bounced off the fences, off the gate.
“Are you trying to shoot them?” I asked.
“Do you want a shitting go?”
I thought about that for a second. Considered it, then realised what kind of horrors I was letting myself in for if I took the gun, if I fired. Right in front of my daughter, too.
“I don’t think that’s a great idea,” I said.
“Then shut up and leave me to it.”
We were close, now. A matter of metres. Only one of the men was down.
Kesha was putting her focus on the one closing the gate.
The opening seemed to be getting narrower and narrower the closer we got.
As she continued firing at him, I saw the other standing man had a long knife in his hands. He was looking right at me, licking his lips.
Or rather, at Olivia.
I thought about all the hell I wanted to put him through for looking at my daughter that way.
Then an arrow flew past me and pierced his neck.
I didn’t understand what was happening at first. Then I saw and felt more of those arrows whoosh past me, and I realised we were being shot at by the bow and arrows.
We were so close to the gate. The guy closing it was looking over his shoulder.
Kesha had a clean shot.
She went to fire.
Nothing came from the gun.
“Shit.”
The man looked at her, and she looked back at him.
He started to turn around, knife in hand, but Kesha cracked him over the head before he could do anything.
He fell to the muddy ground. The gate was still partly open.
“Come on.”
She looked back at the approaching crowd. So too did I. All of them inside Heathlock.
But not only that.
There were other people still inside Heathlock. People we cared about. People we’d been friends with.
As I walked around the fallen dead, I felt my chest tightening as I held on harder to Olivia’s hand.
“We’ll be back for you,” I whispered. “We’ll be back.”
I took a deep breath and turned around from my home, my safe haven.
Then, I carried on running again, towards the woods, away from this place, into the unknown.
Chapter Seventeen
Danny bit his lip as the agony pierced through his skull.
It was going dark, getting late. Which made him feel calmer, especially since he was in new surroundings. It felt comforting in this place they called Heathlock. Felt comforting to have actual walls around him, cows and hens, everything they could possibly need to survive.
And judging by the sound of struggling, of crying, they had people too.
But he couldn’t stay here long.
Not him, personally
.
Danny walked towards the open gate and looked out into the darkness. Three of his people were on guard. He tried to ignore the sounds of the cries from the cell blocks. He needed to relax, in all truth.
Especially after he’d been cracked over the head.
Especially since he’d lost consciousness.
Danny stopped right by the gate. He took a deep breath of the cool air. Autumn was tightening its grip. Part of him was glad he had a base for the cooler weather. Another base. Not that he wasn’t adept at surviving outside these walls—he’d spent enough time outside to learn a trick or two.
But taking this territory meant that his group’s influence had spread even further. The few who had escaped would spread that word, and then Danny wouldn’t even have to be near them to cause terror.
But as he tasted blood on his lips from where he’d bit them before being knocked unconscious, he kept on going back to that moment.
The moment he’d been stood up to.
The moment someone had stood against him and defied him.
“You okay, boss?”
Danny looked to his right. Alan was standing there. Alan was a good soldier, but he was weak when it came to emotions. Far too often, he let those emotions get the better of him. And just by looking at him, Danny knew Alan had a problem with how they were going about their business.
“What is it, Alan?”
Alan scratched the back of his head and sighed. “It’s just… we’ve got stuff. Stuff here. Food. Supplies. Do we still need to… you know.”
Danny did know. He knew exactly what Alan meant. What he was referring to. The consumption of other people. And truth be told, Alan had a point. They had enough to live on at this place, for the time being. They had supplies to get them through. Another base.
But it was that urge he couldn’t understand. That hunger, like an addiction. He felt like a dog that’d got a taste for meat, or a bear for blood.
A large part of Danny wanted to carry on hunting people because hunting people gave him power.
Besides, the guilty, honest truth was the way his stomach churned in anticipation when he thought about one of those succulent, delicious pieces of steak…
“Perhaps one day, we can stop,” Danny said, putting a hand on Alan’s shoulder. Beside them, Bobbi and Sarah looked on, keeping their thoughts to themselves. Probably the wise option.
