Into the Dark (Book 8): The Next World

by Casey, Ryan

  Pure serenity. Pure bliss.

  But snow meant something different now the power had gone.

  Snow meant that winter was well and truly here.

  And as Mike knew from the winters he’d already lived through… winter was always a valid cause for alarm.

  He was sitting under a tent he’d created in the woods a couple of months ago. It wasn’t exactly a luxury, but it would do. It was a roof over his head at the end of the day—of sorts.

  And while he missed the warmth and the peace of the hospital… he knew he couldn’t ever go back there.

  Not after what had happened three months ago.

  Not after what Graham had taken away from him.

  He clambered out of his tent, yawning. He reached for his pan of water where he’d melted some snow.

  He saw it had been toppled over.

  Animal droppings around it.

  “Shit,” he said.

  Animals stealing food and water wasn’t a new development. And it was hard to hold too much disdain for them. After all, they were just finding their own ways of surviving. They didn’t know the difference between a pan of water and a brook at the end of the day.

  But it was still a setback. It meant he’d have to go out and get some water from the stream.

  And going to the stream meant going closer to Graham’s hospital.

  He still tasted bitterness in his mouth every time he thought of the hospital. His last memory of that place. Of what Graham had done to Alison.

  The way he’d looked into Alison’s eyes—and the way she’d looked back into his.

  And then the way she’d fallen.

  The pain was still raw. And it mixed with the pain of all his other losses. Holly. Caitlin. So many people that he’d seen fall.

  And that merged with something else, too. His PTSD. His memories of being in the military. The conflicts he was involved in.

  The people he saw die, weighing on his psyche, imprinted on his mind.

  He could never shake the things that had happened to him.

  So he knew he only had one choice.

  Be alone.

  Stay away from other people.

  He wasn’t going to bond with anyone else.

  Because he didn’t want to lose anyone else.

  He walked around the perimeter of his tent. But right away, he got the sense that something wasn’t quite right. He knew when someone had been snooping around. There was a change in the air. A feeling around the place that someone had been in his territory.

  He looked around the woods, and he saw something.

  His coat. It had been taken from hanging in front of his tent and tossed outside, off in the distance. He could see it dangling over a branch up ahead.

  And part of Mike didn’t want to go over towards it. Because he sensed this was some kind of trap. Someone was toying with him.

  He knew there were people out here he had to be careful of. Dangerous people.

  He leaned back in his tent and grabbed his knife.

  Always by his side.

  He walked slowly, then. His feet crunched through the frosty ground. All around him, he swore he heard movements. Footsteps. Whispering.

  He kept his guard up at all times. He had to.

  He never knew where the threat might be coming from.

  As he got closer and closer to his coat, he saw something else. Something up ahead, off in the distance.

  And it sent shivers up his spine.

  He reached his coat. Grabbed it.

  Then he took a step towards the other thing he’d seen.

  A ring.

  The ring that belonged to Holly.

  The one that he’d given to Kelsie.

  It was there, dangling from a tree branch.

  He staggered towards it, heart racing, throat tight.

  And the closer he got to it, the more the dark possibilities spiralled around his mind.

  Had something happened to Kelsie?

  Because she was out there. She was surviving. She had to be. He believed that.

  She’d been outside the hospital. Alison and Romesh had made sure of that.

  So she was still out here.

  But what if?

  He grabbed the ring on its chain. Looked at it in his shaky hand. And as he held it, he felt the memories flash in front of his eyes again.

  The memory of Caitlin wearing that ring.

  The memory of giving it to Holly.

  Then giving it to Kelsie.

  A curse?

  Was that what it was after all?

  He went to turn around when he heard footsteps up ahead.

  He looked up, and his heart almost skipped a beat.

  She was holding a bow and arrow. Arya was by her side.

  And she wasn’t alone.

  Siobhan.

  And Kelsie.

  “Hello, stranger,” Gina said. “Long time no see. We need to talk. Right now.”

  Chapter Forty

  “So. This is where you’ve been sleeping the last few months? Really?”

  Mike felt a twinge of embarrassment when Gina said those words. Felt his cheeks flush a little. Especially when he looked behind her and saw Kelsie turning her nose up. Because he realised his home wasn’t exactly ideal. It was probably a bit of a tip, in all truth.

  He was just glad she was okay. Because her illness meant the chances of her being out here was slim. A struggle.

  She must’ve found a way. Found hope.

  “It’s fine,” Mike said. “Does the job.”

  “Not exactly a room though, is it?” Gina said. “A bed? A home?”

  “Well I can’t imagine you’re exactly staying at the Ritz yourselves, are you?”

  “No,” Gina said, smiling. “You’re right about that. We’ve found a little house on the edge of the woods. Semi-detached. Needs a lot of renovating. But it’s not like we’ve got the estate agents coming around to value it any time soon, right?”

  Mike nodded. Scratched his arms at the mere mention of a house. “I’m glad you’re doing okay.”

  “You can always come to visit, you know?” Gina said. “We miss you. I mean, you were a big part of our lives for a long, long time. So I’d like to feel like the feeling’s mutual.”

  “It is,” Mike said. “It’s—it’s just—”

  “You’re scared. That’s what it is. Right?

  Mike looked at her. His jaw shook. “No. I’m not scared. I’m just—”

  “You can’t face it, can you? You can’t face being with anyone anymore—with your friends or anyone—because you can’t bear the thought that you might lose them, can you?”

  Hearing it like that made it all the more real for Mike. Because he knew Gina was right. She was spot on.

  But just hearing it… it wasn’t something he wanted to admit.

  “It’s not as simple as that—”

  “I told you I forgave you for what happened to Harrison,” Gina said, annoyance spiking in her voice. “And for all that time, you told us we were together. That we were together, no matter what. And then when you decide you don’t want to be responsible for anyone anymore, you just ditch us?”

  “I didn’t ditch you.”

  “You ran away, Mike. You watched what happened to Alison, and then you ran away.”

  “I want you to leave.”

  Gina ignored him. “And I know it’s tough to take. I know it’s the worst possible thing that could’ve happened. I know you loved her, and I know you’ll never, ever get over what you witnessed. But you ran away, and you left us, Mike. You left me.”

  Mike felt the guilt rearing its head as he looked at Gina, then at Kelsie, Arya, Siobhan.

  Because in the back of his mind, he heard another voice.

  And he felt something else.

  “Romesh,” he said. “What… what happened to him? Did you ever find out?”

  “Good to know you care,” Gina said.

  Mike cleared his throat. “If you haven’t see
n him. If none of us have seen him—”

  “It means there’s a chance he’s dead, yeah. A good chance at that. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last three months.”

  Mike waited. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”

  “We bumped into some people a few days ago. People who had made it out of the hospital. Fleeing the place and taking their chances on the road. They said that Graham’s leadership is running it into the ground. That it was going okay at first… but people are beginning to defect. To revolt. And he’s ruling with an iron grip. Public executions. Pushing people off buildings. Hangings. Crucifixions. And the people that are left there—the women, the children—they are penned in from the outside world. He says it’s to protect them, but really, it’s just to hold on to power. And his goons are letting it just happen.”

  Mike heard Gina’s words, and he felt so sad for what had happened. For the fate of that place. Because it had been so perfect. It had been home.

  And now it was falling into disarray.

  “And there’s something else,” Gina said. “These people… they told us Graham’s keeping prisoners. Mostly the outsiders. But they told us something else.”

  Mike waited. Heart racing. Tension filling his gut.

  “Romesh,” Gina said. “He’s still alive.”

  Hearing it made Mike feel two things. On the one hand… he felt a sense of increased fear. Because he could feel that hospital drawing him back. He could feel its energy luring him towards it.

  And on the other hand… he felt hope.

  And he felt duty.

  Because if there was a chance he was still alive, then Mike owed it to him to go back there.

  He owed it to him to rescue him.

  But then the fear was strong…

  Mike turned around. Walked back towards his tent. “If you’re going for him then good luck. But I can’t be there.”

  “What?” Gina said.

  “I can’t be there,” Mike said, turning to her, glancing at the ground in front of her. “It’s… I just can’t.”

  Gina went to say something else.

  But it wasn’t her that spoke.

  It was Kelsie.

  “You can’t even look at me,” she said, moving towards him.

  Mike felt a lump swelling in his throat. “Kelsie, I’m doing this for you.”

  “You always said we were together. Always. No matter what.”

  “I’m trying to stop you getting killed.”

  Kelsie stopped right in front of him. “You have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to other people. Because it happened while they were following you. But you didn’t force them to follow you. You didn’t make us follow you. They chose. We chose. And we still choose.”

  Mike looked up at Kelsie, then.

  And at that moment, he felt something, as he stared into her big, beautiful eyes.

  He felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

  He felt what she was saying, and he felt like his demons were being exorcised, right in that second.

  “We chose to follow you,” Kelsie said, putting a hand on his shoulder and sounding so many years above her age. “Nobody else. And we still want you. We want you back, Mike. And if—if something bad happens… then it was worth it. Because we were together. All of us. Right?”

  Mike looked at Kelsie. Then at Siobhan. Then at Gina as she stood there, looking at the pair of them.

  And then at Arya, panting, wagging her tail.

  He looked at Kelsie, his eyes clouding with tears, and he took in a sharp breath as the tears began to flow again. “I just don’t want anything to happen to any of you. Not again.”

  “It might,” Kelsie said. “But it’s not just you who hurts when they lose people. But you don’t have to hurt on your own. None of us do.”

  He looked at Kelsie then, and he felt the tears flowing, dripping from his chin.

  And he saw her crying, too.

  Crying, but smiling.

  He leaned in. Held her tight. Held her close.

  “I’m with you,” he said.

  She pulled back. Looked at him. Smiled. “What?”

  Mike looked at her, then at the others. “I’m with you,” he said. “All of you. I’m… I’m with you. I always have been. I see that now.”

  He saw Gina smile as they stood there together, the emotion of the moment bursting through.

  And then, looking back at his tent, which looked so grim now he’d seen the light, he stood.

  “It’s time to go save Romesh,” Gina said. “And it’s time to go get our home back.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Romesh opened his eyes, and he felt a sense of disappointment that he was still alive.

  Because being alive meant another day of hell.

  The room he was in was dark. It was home, now, and it had been for the past… well. He had no idea how long. Only that he’d been in here for what felt like a long, long time. Years, even though he knew that wasn’t likely.

  Going through hell had a funny way of dragging time out.

  His beard was long and fuzzy, scratching against his cold, bare chest. His vision was constantly blurred, his glasses taken, broken a long time ago. His hair had grown quite a lot, too, and he didn’t have as many teeth as he used to.

  All just a part of the procedure.

  All just the way things worked, now.

  The new order.

  His new existence.

  He could taste something metallic in the back of his throat, and he knew it was blood. It always was. He’d grown used to the taste of it. It was one of the most common things he tasted nowadays.

  Well. He’d tasted dirty water a few times. Vomit—sometimes his own, sometimes other people’s.

  He’d been forced to eat… questionable substances a few times, too. And when he refused, it just sparked the cycle of being punched until he tasted blood and then vomited when he’d eaten it all over again, then dirty water to wash it down—sometimes with a horribly familiar twang of urine.

  But for the most part… it was just scraps of meat and water. Enough to keep him alive, but only barely.

  He was hanging on by a thread.

  And he got the sense that that’s exactly what the people here wanted.

  He heard shuffling to his side. Heard the sound of something trickling, and he knew what it was right away. Someone taking a leak. He tried to lift his feet, cuffs attached to the wall behind, but it was no use. Its warmth just trickled against his cold, bare toes.

  The eight of them that were left, anyway.

  He wasn’t sure why he was still so conscious about staying clean. At the end of the day, he was filthy, and it would take a lifetime to scrape the grime from his body.

  He sat there, let the piss surround him. The ripe stench filling his nostrils. He thought about his people. Alison. Kelsie. Siobhan. The last people he’d been with before he was captured, before all of this.

  He knew what had happened to Alison. He saw Mike and Gina run.

  He hadn’t seen any of them in here. He wasn’t sure how to interpret that, at least not for a while.

  And then one day they’d blindfolded him and stripped him down and made him put his cock into someone’s cold, dry mouth.

  It was only when they removed the blindfold—when the laughter erupted—that he saw it was Alison’s decapitated head.

  He shook his head. Tried to remove the image from his psyche. But it always came back to haunt him; always returned when he was at his lowest.

  And he’d been at some pretty damn awful lows in here. That was for certain.

  He thought about Mike. Whether he knew. And in a sense, he felt a duty to tell Mike what had happened; what these people had made him do.

  But on the other hand… he didn’t think he could ever look Mike in the eye and tell him what had happened to the body of the woman he’d loved.

  He went to close his bruised eyes when he heard the door open.

&nb
sp; His eyes opened right away. Light shone into the room. His body tensed. His heart started to race.

  Because this wasn’t meal time.

  This was something else entirely.

  Romesh squinted at the man silhouetted in front of him. And he knew right away it was Graham. Outside, in the light, there was an eerie silence. Not the liveliness that used to permeate this place. Not the buzz that used to fill this place, even in its most silent moment.

  Graham stepped inside. He looked around. Looked at each and every one of them.

  And Romesh felt the fear.

  Because as much as he wanted to pass out in this room and never wake up again… he didn’t want to face whatever fate lay outside.

  Because there was a sense of the unknown that came with the outside.

  Because when Graham came for you… you never came back.

  Not to this place.

  Graham walked around the room, slowly. Paced from side to side.

  And Romesh could only hold his breath as he stopped. As he looked at one of the nameless people to Romesh’s right.

  Then as Romesh prepared to hear those awful words, something else happened.

  Graham kept on walking.

  Then he stopped in front of Romesh.

  Crouched opposite him.

  Looked into his eyes and smiled.

  “It’s your time, Romesh,” he said. “You’re ready.”

  Romesh tried to shout out, but the manky tape around his mouth suppressed his cries.

  He tried to kick back, but his body was light and weak.

  He tried to fight, but there was no fight left inside him.

  All he could do was move as Graham and his two associates lifted him.

  All he could do was try to dig his sore heels in as they dragged him—naked—out of the darkened door, and out towards the light.

  All he could do was hold his breath as he braced himself for whatever was next.

  “Welcome back,” Graham said as the bright light from above seared against Romesh’s eyes; as the icy snow scraped against his bare feet. “Have a good look at your old home, my friend. Because it’s the last look you’re going to get.”

  Then the door slammed shut on the terrified faces of the prisoners.

  And as hellish as it was in there… there was nothing Romesh wanted more than to be back in there with them right now.