by Ryan Casey
But more than anything, she heard those growls.
She heard the growls that accompanied the splitting apart of insides.
The choking on blood.
The snapping of skulls.
She wasn’t sure how she got to the top of the tree so promptly. She wasn’t sure how she’d got to the top of it at all. She was on autopilot. Gripped by the fear, by the confusion.
An Orion.
She thought back to the last time she’d seen an Orion. A long time ago when she was with her old group, back when a bad man called Mr Fletch—who did something weird to people to make them into become monster-hunters, launched his Orions on her old home. Only those Orions were trained to attack people, not monsters.
From the sound of the chaos below, so too was this Orion.
She held on to Kesha. Closed her eyes. She could hear people still screaming down below. Could smell blood in the air. Kesha started to cry, so Chloë just held on to her even closer. “It’s okay,” she whispered, her voice shaking as the Orion sunk its teeth into one of the men’s torsos, ravaged his guts while he was still alive.
“It’ll—it’ll be okay,” she whispered again.
She stroked Kesha’s head and sensed her calming down. So she kept on doing that, kept on stroking her head. She was going to be okay. Both of them were going to be okay.
Chloë didn’t believe that. Not really.
But she had to keep on telling herself that or she’d lose her mind.
She couldn’t think of much, but one thing she did think about was her old group. Riley, Jordanna, the people she’d been with at the Manchester Living Zone; the people she’d spent the first months of the end of the world surviving with before she went her own way. If a human-hunting Orion was here, then what did it mean for them? She didn’t think about Riley or Jordanna much. Thinking about them brought back too many painful memories.
But it was hard to imagine a world where they were gone.
She heard shuffling. Heard shuffling, right down below. She looked at the bottom of the tree. A man was dragging himself along. He was covered in guts, seemingly the guts of someone else. His right leg had been snapped in two and was flooding blood. A bone stuck through his flesh.
The Orion had its back to him.
Chloë watched him shuffle along. Watched him struggle. And as much as she didn’t like Laura or her group for trying to take Kesha away, for trying to kill her, and for killing those other children, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for this man. She wanted him to get away. Because nobody deserved to die the way the Orions killed you. Nobody.
She held her breath.
The man winced as he dragged his weight further through the grass.
The Orion turned around.
Looked to the bottom of the tree.
Chloë didn’t want to watch the next thing. She didn’t want to watch anything at all.
But she saw the Orion stomp over to that man.
Saw it stamp down on his snapped leg.
Stamp it right into the ground, the man screaming, wailing, begging for his life.
Then the Orion spun the man around onto his back.
Picked him up with one hand, by the neck.
It lifted the man into the air. Lifted him so the Orion’s dark eyes were pointed right in Chloë’s direction, in Kesha’s direction.
Chloë made herself smaller. Shuffled along the edge of the high branch. Kept on stroking Kesha’s head. Kept on whispering to her, telling her everything was going to be okay.
The man kept on screaming as the Orion held him by the neck.
And then the Orion tightened its grip and cut off the man’s air supply.
The man struggled. Kicked out his leg and his snapped leg. His face turned red, and then purple. Foam bubbled out of the side of his mouth. His eyes grew bigger, whiter.
Chloë heard something burst.
And then she saw the man’s neck cave in.
The Orion scrunched its fingers together. Ground down on the man’s spinal cord until it was nothing but powder.
The man’s lower body fell to the ground.
His head stayed in the Orion’s hand.
The light in his eyes was gone.
Chloë’s teeth chattered. She could see that the Orion was looking right up here, right in her direction. She wanted to close her eyes, as if that’d make her less visible somehow.
She wanted to just close her eyes and pretend she was back on Bardsey Island, back with her dad, back when everything was okay.
But she wasn’t.
She was up a tree with a baby staring down at an Orion.
The Orion stared back at her.
She waited. Waited for it to make its move. To snap the tree in half. To send the pair of them tumbling down towards the ground.
She heard it sniff the air. Sniff at the air like a dog around food.
She kept her focus.
Held her stare.
Kesha kept quiet.
Chloë wasn’t sure how to explain what happened next. Even weirder than the fact an Orion was alive out here itself.
But something happened. Something very strange.
The Orion lowered its head.
Looked around at the mess of dark blood, torn body parts, cracked bones.
It looked around at the dead beneath, and then it disappeared into the trees.
Vanished, like it had never even been here in the first place.
Chloë didn’t take her eyes off the spot the Orion disappeared into.
She didn’t stop stroking Kesha’s head.
She didn’t stop telling her everything was going to be okay.
TWENTY-FIVE
Kyle pulled back his aching fist and rubbed it between his fingers.
The High Lord’s palace was at the brightest it’d been all day. The sun was setting towards the west, which always brought a beam of light into here. It was a clear evening, too. It’d been a beautiful day all round.
Beautiful enough for Kyle to forget about the things he’d done. The things he’d had to do.
He looked at the High Lord. His nose was bloody. His eyes were blackened. He was an old man, but Kyle never really saw him that way. Not until now. He really looked down and out. Like the world had stamped on him repeatedly.
Well now he knew what it felt like. Now he understood how it really felt to have the world turn its back on him.
To the left of the chambers, the High Lord’s Rottweiler, Brutus, barked as it saw its owner being beaten up. It was in a cage though. Standing on its back legs, doing all it could to break out and savage the High Lord’s attackers, sure. But in a cage.
The bark was worse than the bite.
Not in this case.
But it wasn’t getting a chance to bite anytime soon. Nobody in here was.
By the door, three armed guards—Kyle’s people—looked out down the hill. Bardsey Island was a lot quieter now. Lot less riffraff since yesterday’s purge. Fewer babies wailing, fewer sounds of camaraderie in the markets, things like that.
But that was just the thing. The place wasn’t supposed to be some faux-cheery hotbed for the world to co-exist. It wasn’t some holiday camp.
It was special.
“How does it feel?”
Kyle turned around. Looked back at the High Lord. He wasn’t expecting to hear him speak. Not so soon after he’d been beating him up. “What?”
The High Lord spat away some blood. He was tied to the posts of his bed by both of his old, chicken-skin arms. He was naked. Completely naked. Smaller cock than Kyle thought he’d have. No wonder he sat up here like some kind of prophetic leader. Over-compensating, that’s all it was.
He looked up at Kyle through his bruised eyes. And Kyle saw nothing in those eyes but hate. Detestation. Just like Dad used to look at him and Laura when he was about to lock them under the stairs. Just like he looked at them before he stuffed them into the washing machine, together. Switched it on.
“Taking this place
. Winning… winning people over. How does it feel?”
Kyle tutted. Shook his head. “You know that’s not the endgame here.”
“You wanted power. You always wanted power. But there’s a difference between being the one in power and… and leading.”
Kyle nodded. “Enlighten me.”
“When you’re in power, it’s through fear. When you lead, it’s… it’s through trust.”
“Well, funny thing,” Kyle said, feeling his face heat up. He crouched right beside the High Lord. “I never trusted you. Not really. And neither did everyone who revolted against you. So what does that make your leadership?”
The High Lord looked like he wanted to answer.
He couldn’t even open his lips.
Kyle stepped away from the bed. He put a hand on the gun in his pocket. Stretched his fingers around it. Brutus kept on barking. Barking so loud it was giving Kyle a headache. “Can’t you shut that fucking thing up?”
“That fucking thing is my dog. My pet. And it hasn’t done a thing to deserve being locked away like that.”
“I don’t give a shit whether it’s done a thing to deserve it or not,” Kyle said. “I just want it to shut the hell up.”
Kyle glared back across the room at the High Lord. The High Lord didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look at Brutus. Didn’t do a thing to stop the barking.
He was testing him. Testing his patience so much.
But Kyle couldn’t kill him. Not yet. Not until he knew. For sure.
“How can you pretend you’re so high and mighty yet keep a secret like the one you kept from all of us?” Kyle asked.
The High Lord’s already tired eyes narrowed. “What are you talking ab—”
“Don’t bullshit me. Not now. Now… now really isn’t the time for bullshit. People are still dying out there. People are turning. And not just into the zombies. Turning into… into other things, too.”
“The parasites,” the High Lord said.
“And you knew. You knew, all along, that we might be able to stop it.”
“None of us know that—”
“You knew that kids were dying. That people were tearing each other apart. That my brother was…”
Kyle stopped speaking. He turned away. He didn’t want the High Lord to pick up on his weakness. He didn’t want him to know this was all about his brother.
But his evasion was to no avail.
“That’s what all of this is about?” the High Lord said. “Your brother? All of this… this chaos and this mayhem, all because your brother was bitten?”
“He didn’t have to be bitten,” Kyle snapped. He could feel his grip on the situation slipping. Feel himself losing control. “He didn’t have to. Because of what you knew. Because of her.”
The High Lord just stared back into Kyle’s eyes. “I don’t know what you think you’re talking about. But nothing’s bringing Alex back from the dead. Nothing.”
Brutus kept on barking.
Kyle tightened his grip on the gun.
The High Lord was testing his patience. Really pushing him to the edge.
Well, it was time for him to learn that two could play that game.
He started walking over to Brutus’ cage.
“Kyle!”
He stopped. Looked back at the entrance to the High Lord’s palace.
A man stood there. Kevin. He was covered in blood.
Kyle walked back over to him. “What’s… what have you…”
It was only when Kyle got closer that he realised Kevin wasn’t just covered in blood. He was holding something, too. Holding something in his arms.
A few more steps and Kyle realised exactly what it was.
There was a human torso in Kevin’s arms. A body slashed in two around the waist. Just the top half of it. The stomach had been ripped in half. Intestines and innards dangled out onto the tiles.
It was disgusting enough in itself.
But when Kyle saw the face, he threw up, right there and then.
His sister.
His Laura.
“Kyle I’m so sorry,” Kevin said. “We—we found all the search group messed up. In this same condition. Looks like something attacked them—”
“And the girl?” Kyle spat. He still couldn’t process what he was looking at. Still couldn’t accept that his sister was gone. That she was dead.
Kevin shook his head. “Gone. But we did find this.”
He threw a shoe across the High Lord’s chambers. It landed just before Kyle’s feet.
“The other shoe. Same one that Chloë kid left behind.”
When Kyle heard the name “Chloë,” something shifted inside of him. He wasn’t sure what it was. Wasn’t sure why it was. Only he felt a need to do something. A need to do something about that little brat for defying him. For taking the baby away. For taking Kesha away.
Right now, there was only one thing Kyle could do.
He smiled at Kevin. Wiped a tear from his eye as he saw his sister’s dead corpse once more. “Thank you. Have her buried.”
It was time for him to step up.
Time for him to be the man his sister always told him he was too weak to become.
He turned around.
Lifted the gun from his pocket.
Walked over to the yelping, barking Brutus.
Put the gun right up to its head.
“Woah!” The High Lord’s eyes widened. The look of fear on his face stretched.
“Cute,” Kyle said. “We spend hours beating the shit out of you and all this time, we’ve been trying to get to you through the wrong channels.”
“Please,” the High Lord said. Kyle could hear the fear in his voice now. “Brutus. He hasn’t done a thing. There’s no need to hurt him. There’s no—”
“I’ll be the judge of that. But I want to hear it. I want to hear the truth about the girl. Right from your mouth.”
The High Lord shook his head. “Please. Not Brutus. He’s all I’ve got. Please.”
“All you’ve got? Take a look at me. What do you think I have?”
“I never meant for—”
Kyle cocked the pistol.
Pushed the gun right against Brutus’ skull.
“Her mother was bitten!” The High Lord said.
Hearing those words out loud lifted a weight from Kyle’s shoulders. Because he’d suspected it. He’d suspected it all along. The rumours. The rumours about finding Kesha in her mother’s arms, her mother bitten having just given birth to her.
It was true.
It was all true.
But there was something else too.
“All of it,” Kyle said. “The full truth. Say it. Just say it out loud.”
Tears streamed down the High Lord’s face now. He looked weak. Pitiful. The very opposite of a leader. And that’s because he was weak and pitiful, Kyle supposed. That’s because he really was the opposite of a leader.
Kyle lowered the gun. Walked away from Brutus’ side. Brutus didn’t stop barking, but Kyle didn’t care. Not anymore.
He put a hand on the High Lord’s wrinkly old shoulder. “Hey. Hey. I have the best interest of everyone at heart here. You know I do. So please. Just tell me the truth. Tell me how it is.”
Brutus barked.
The High Lord shook his head.
“Tell me how it—”
“She was bitten too.”
“What? Louder.”
“She was bitten too.”
“Who was bitten too? Say her name. Say her—”
“Kesha was bitten too!”
The weight lifted fully from Kyle’s shoulders. The whole world seemed lighter. His sister’s death seemed irrelevant. Because it was true. All the rumours he’d heard, all the rumours he’d fought for, they were all true.
“I suppose that’s the difference between you and me,” Kyle said, walking away from the High Lord’s bed. “You wanted to keep Kesha your little secret. Your little insurance policy. Just in case things fell apart on
this island. Then you’d have a reason to stay alive. Knowledge. Knowledge enough to stay alive.”
“That’s never what I—”
“But I see people dying in this world and I see the reality. The reality of what this kid means. Of what we have to do to her. Of how we have to use her.”
“You’re talking crazy.”
“Born of a bitten mother, but alive. Bitten herself, but still alive. Immune. Totally immune. And you kept that from us while people fell.”
“But what the hell do you expect us to do?” the High Lord asked. “What the hell do you expect us to do with a little girl, even if she is imm…”
He stopped speaking. He stopped because Kyle rolled his sleeve up.
“I was bitten six weeks ago. Just two days earlier, I injected myself with some of Kesha’s blood. Just a pinch.”
He rolled his sleeve back down. Smiled at the High Lord.
“I’m not the only one who tested it either.”
The High Lord stared back at him, incredulous.
“So now you know what we need Kesha for. Now you know exactly what we have to take from her.”
“Humans matter more than humanity, Kyle. Don’t you forget that. Humans matter more than—”
“No,” Kyle said. “I’m not sure that’s true anymore.”
He lifted his gun.
Pointed it at Brutus.
Shot the yappy mutt three times in its head.
“Brutus!”
The High Lord kicked around on his bed. Cried out.
And as Kyle walked towards him, his dog still whimpering in that cage as it tried to cling on to its final moments, he saw the pain in the High Lord’s eyes. The pain of loss.
“I hope you understand why I’m doing what I’m doing,” he said.
He pressed the gun to the High Lord’s head.
“Any last words?”
The High Lord looked up at Kyle. His eyes streamed. His lips shook. “You’re nothing but an inbred scumbag. I hope you rot in hell with that whore sister of yours.”
He spat a blood blob into Kyle’s face.
Then, he closed his eyes.
Kyle was tempted to pull the trigger. Tempted to silence this fucker once and for all, right there and then.
Instead, he took a few deep breaths.
Lowered his gun.
He kept on taking those deep breaths as he uncuffed the High Lord from the bed.
