Everyone else that made up this thriving community-this strong community-was dead.
Chapter Nine.
Riley stood with Amy and looked at the fallen dead.
A few hours had pa.s.sed and they were doing their best job of burning the bodies, salvaging whatever they could of this place. The afternoon sun was bright, but it couldn"t do much to cut through the sheer coldness around right now. The smell of burning filled the air, combined with the undeniable taste of cooking meat. Riley tried not to think about what that meaty taste was. The less he thought about it, the better.
He"d tasted the dead in the burning air so many times already since the world had fallen. He didn"t need another reminder of even more loss.
Amy was beside him. She hadn"t said a lot since Riley had come across her a few hours ago. He knew how she must feel. He"d lost enough as it was. He"d lost everything, in fact. He knew the power loss had to cast a long-lasting darkness and depression over someone.
But Riley had never lost in the way Amy had lost right now. So many of her people, all of them taken out in a matter of minutes.
Barely any left.
Riley heard footsteps. He looked up and saw Carly walking towards them. Behind Carly, he could see a few of the remaining group members cleaning out the remaining undead.
"That the last of them?" Riley muttered.
Amy didn"t answer. She just shrugged. Making small-or large-talk with her wasn"t going to be easy. But he knew from his own experiences that he was going to have to drag her out of this dark cloud eventually.
"We need to talk about the next step," Riley said.
"There"s no next step," Amy said.
Riley turned to her and frowned. "What"s that supposed to mean?"
"The walls have collapsed. We"ve lost people. Lost more people than we"ve got left. Everything we built. Everything we worked for. It"s gone."
Riley shook his head. "You know, you"re wrong."
"Tell me why I"m wrong. I dare you to tell me why I"m wrong."
Riley looked around at the devastation, the destruction. He saw the collapsed sections of the wall. He saw how the gate had been torn apart. He saw the cabins, overrun by the dead, the tents ripped to shreds, and the shooting ranges and stoves completely toppled. "Because I"ve thought the same before."
In the smoky mist, he saw the silhouettes of Jordanna, Chlo, and Anna. All of them were looking at him. All of them were staring. But they weren"t right in the forefront of his consciousness anymore. They weren"t a source of obsession. Riley couldn"t let them be.
"When the world first fell, we found a place. A Chinese restaurant. It seemed safe. Like there was a sense of, I dunno, permanence about it. Like we could really make it our home. Perhaps we were living in a fantasy. It was still early days, and I guess we were all scared and clinging on to that hope that things were going to be fixed in no time. But anyway, it didn"t take long for it to get overrun, and we lost people, and it felt to me right then like everything was falling apart.
"But that wasn"t even the worst one. There were other homes after there. Places we stayed for longer. And there was a place... a Living Zone. A place that was built solely for people like us to survive the end of the world. It was perfect. Honestly, it was the only place where you could go into an actual pub and then go to the doctor or dentist or whatever and worry about trivial problems. It was the place where you could forget about the outside world."
"Must"ve been hard re-adjusting to reality when that fell," Amy said.
"It was," Riley said. "It wasn"t an easy transition to make. I did things. Bad things. I killed people. And part of me knows that killing those people led to the situation we"re in right now."
Amy frowned. "How?"
"I killed some of Mattius" people. He took out his revenge."
"On Chlo and Jordanna?"
"Yeah," Riley said, nodding.
They were quiet for a few seconds. Riley wanted to speak, but at the same time, he wanted Amy to really take in what he"d said.
"I thought I"d lost my home," Riley said. "So many times, I thought I"d lost everything. But I haven"t. Because I"m still here. And that"s what we all fought for. Not for me, but for each other. As long as one of us... two of us... however many of us are alive, we"re still winning. We"re still home."
Amy glanced at Riley, then. There were tears in her eyes. For the first time since meeting her, Riley thought she looked on the verge of breaking down. Like the pressures of leadership were getting to her.
"Melissa," she said.
Riley swallowed a lump in his throat. He"d seen how much Melissa meant to Amy. She was close to her. Closer than she was to the others. "I"m sorry-"
"She"s still out there," Amy said.
Riley hesitated. "What?"
"She left. To try and draw some of the dead away from this place. And to go after Kane."
"Kane?"
"What happened with him?" Amy asked.
Riley thought back to the moment he was bitten. The moment he"d pushed Kane into the creatures. "Something tells me Kane"s not coming back from his current state anytime soon."
Amy nodded. "And Melissa?"
"What about her?"
"You were out there. Is there any... is there any chance for her?"
Riley didn"t want to say what he thought. He didn"t think there was much hope for Melissa, in truth. He"d been lucky to get back. It"d taken all his strength and a whole lot of luck. But he wasn"t in a mood to let Amy down anymore, to damage her resolve. "I made it back here. If I can, I"m sure Melissa can."
A twinge of a smile flashed across Amy"s face. The first look of hope for a long time. "Good," she said.
Amy stood then and walked over to Carly. She hugged her, as Carly let her emotions out. All around, Riley saw the rest of Amy"s people cleaning up the last of the dead, burning the bodies. The crowd of undead had attacked here and then it had moved right on. It could come back at any time. But at least they had a moment of respite. Just a moment.
He thought about Kane. Then he thought about Mattius. He thought about Kesha.
He might"ve softened after what had happened.
But there was something still burning inside his system.
A fire, still raging away.
When they"d regrouped and recovered, they were going to go after Mattius" place.
If they didn"t back him, then Riley would go there himself.
Like he said: he might"ve softened, but one thing still drove him. One l.u.s.t still carried him.
He was going to rescue Kesha and he was going to kill Mattius.
Nothing was getting in his way.
At least, that"s what he thought.
Chapter Ten.
If Melissa wasn"t expecting one thing, it was that she"d end up being bailed out by Kane, of all people.
The pair of them walked through the autumn leaves, which crunched underfoot. The zombies that had been so close behind not long ago were gone, now. Kane had helped her up, and he"d dragged her away from there.
She was still pretty gobsmacked about it all, to be honest. She thought-knew-Kane wanted to kill her. She knew he wanted to see her dead.
And yet here they were, her arm around Kane"s shoulders, him carrying her as she stumbled along, her ankle knackered.
He hadn"t even come close to killing her.
But she could tell he was struggling, too.
"Why?" she asked.
Kane looked at her, narrowed his eyes. Melissa could smell his sweat, and what seemed to be vomit on his breath. "Why what?"
"You had the chance to kill me when you got out of the cell. You didn"t. And you had a chance to kill me right here. To leave me to the undead. You didn"t. Why?"
Kane smiled. He chuckled a little, like this whole situation was amusing to him.
"Something funny?"
"I guess. I don"t know. We have a different sense of humour."
"You"re probably right about that."
"Melissa, why on earth would I want to kill you? You saved me."
Melissa felt uneasy about Kane"s praise. She had to stay coy. "I dropped an arrow. I didn"t mean to."
"Don"t lie to me. I"ve seen how organised you are. How methodical you are. You meant to leave me that arrow so I could get away. The real question is, why are you out here right now, all on your own?"
Melissa thought about her current predicament. She might not be being chased by a ma.s.s of undead anymore, but she was still in pretty hot water. "I tried to draw the zombies away from camp. Someone had to do it."
"I bet you leaped at the opportunity."
Melissa frowned. "What"s that supposed to mean?"
Kane slowed down, took a few deep breaths. "I"ve seen you, like I said already. I"ve seen the way you are with the others. I"ve seen that... that disconnect. And I know you enjoy the outside just as much as I do."
"You can keep on trying to flatter me," Melissa said. "You can keep on trying to win me over with your words. But I see through them, Kane. I see right through what you"re doing."
"And that"s what I like about you."
There was a pause. A moment where Melissa looked into Kane"s eyes and she felt a kind of connection.
Then she blinked, looked away, and that moment was gone.
"What happened to Riley?" Melissa asked.
"You really care about Riley?"
"Of course I care about Riley. He"s-"
"Don"t say he"s "one of us" because both of us know that"s not true. Riley brought chaos to your camp. He brought destruction."
"Did you kill him?"
"What?"
"Did you kill Riley?"
Kane sighed. He let go of Melissa and lowered her against a tree, then perched up against the tree beside her.
"I wanted to," he said. "That"s the truth. The G.o.d"s honest truth. I"ve wanted to kill Riley for a long, long time."
"You had your chance. Then why didn"t you?"
"Waiting for the perfect circ.u.mstances, mostly."
"Which are?"
He looked into Melissa"s eyes and she saw that his face lit up. "I wanted to take away the last real person he cares about."