There were two of them. They were lying face flat on the floor. Both of them were bleeding badly.
They were his people.
No doubt about that.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the room where he"d been holding Siobhan, Amy, and Carly. He didn"t want to face heading into Riley"s prison yet. Because just the sheer thought of losing Riley-of failing to contain him-made his skin crawl.
He stepped over the bodies of the dead and pushed open that door.
The smell of the room hit him first. That putrid smell of sweat that always filled a room that had been stuffed with one too many people.
Then he smelled the death.
He looked over to the left side of the room and saw Siobhan was still locked up there. She was dead.
But Amy and Carly weren"t here anymore.
He gritted his teeth and stepped out of the room. He looked back at the bodies on the floor, his stomach tensing up, then he walked towards Riley"s room.
The reality of what had happened was striking him. The unpredictability of everything was getting dizzying.
And the intensity of the situation was growing. Fast.
He stopped outside Riley"s cell. He lifted his hand to knock, just to check Kane wasn"t still working on Riley.
Then he decided to push open the door anyway.
It took Mattius a few moments to understand what he was looking at. To truly understand.
But the main thing he needed to know was that Riley wasn"t here anymore.
There was blood on the bench he"d been tied down to. On the floor, Mattius saw small lumps of meat, which he soon realised were fingers.
But beside those lumps of meat, he saw someone lying there, a bullet through his head.
A wry little smile on his face, even in death.
Kane.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Mattius said.
He lifted his boot and he crunched it down against Kane"s head.
He kept on kicking, kept on stamping, kept on beating as he let all his anger out on this defenceless, inanimate body.
And it was because of what he"d seen.
He"d been keeping Melissa locked upstairs, away from the others.
Before he"d let Kane join Riley, he"d given him a few minutes with Melissa. Kane seemed particularly keen on her. He said there was history between the pair of them, and that he had to settle some kind of score.
When he"d come out of that room with blood on his hands, Mattius didn"t think anything of it. He thought the job was done.
He kept on kicking down, kept on stamping.
He remembered what"d happened when he"d first heard the gunshots. He"d gone past Melissa"s cell first. And something told him to go in there. To look inside. Something wasn"t right.
When he"d gone in there, he"d found the cell empty.
But the thing that struck him more than anything was the broken bit of arrow wedged in Melissa"s cuffs.
An arrow that Kane must"ve given her.
When he felt Kane"s skull make way for the floor, Mattius stopped kicking. Adrenaline surged through his body. He was shaking all over. He"d allowed Riley to get the better of him-of his people-once again. He"d allowed that. No one else. It was on him.
"Mattius?"
"s.h.i.t." Mattius jumped. There was someone at the door beside him. "Carter, what"ve I told you about making me jump like that."
Carter looked at the floor, unable to make eye contact with Mattius. "I"m sorry. It"s-it"s just-"
"What is it? What"s happening?"
"It"s the hotel," Carter said.
Mattius narrowed his eyes. The hotel. Any mention of the hotel meant one thing to him. Just one thing. "What"re you trying to tell me?"
Again, Carter"s eyes shifted out of the way. "I-I think you"d better see for yourself."
Part of Mattius wanted to kill Carter, right here. But his wife"s voice replayed in his mind. She told him to keep his calm. Keep his composure. He couldn"t lose his grip.
He pushed past Carter, climbed the steps and headed outside. He walked over towards the hotel.
At first, he didn"t know what he was looking at.
And then he saw the undead walking around the grounds, right in front of the hotel.
And beside some of the undead, dead bodies.
Dead bodies of his people.
"The undead from the pit," Carter said. "They-I don"t know how they got out-"
"You were supposed to be on guard, weren"t you?"
Carter"s eyes shifted away again. "Mattius, I tried-"
"Well you didn"t try hard enough."
He looked Carter in the eye.
He smiled a regretful, pained smile.
Then he lifted his knife out of his pocket and stabbed him in the stomach.
He walked away from Carter as he struggled for the last moments of his life.
And as he walked towards the small group of undead that had killed yet more of his people, he looked up at the hotel.
If there was one place he was certain Riley had gone, it was for Kesha.
But Riley wasn"t going to get Kesha.
No one was going to get Kesha.
If Kesha wasn"t going to be his, she was going to be n.o.body"s.
He pulled back his knife and went to slam it into the skull of the first undead walking his way.
He had work to do.
Chapter Eleven.
Riley made his way up the stairs of Mattius" hotel.
He knew exactly which floor he was heading to.
It was dark and gloomy inside this hotel. But the main bizarreness came from how quiet this place was. Riley had always had an image that Mattius" group was big. It had seemed big that day when Mattius had killed Chlo and Jordanna.
But time had pa.s.sed. And they"d killed people. A lot of those people.
It was amazing how rapidly something could fall apart when just one piece of the jigsaw was pulled away.
Still, though, something didn"t seem quite right about all this.
"Hold up."
Riley turned around. Amy, Melissa, and Carly were following closely behind. It was Carly who"d stopped. She was a tough kid, a little older than Chlo was, around seventeen. Riley didn"t know her all that well, but she seemed like she"d taken a lot of s.h.i.t in this world and come out of the other side of it.
She was still here. That counted for something.
"What"s up?" Riley asked.
"Heard something," Carly said.
"That"s likely. There"s bound to be more of-"
Footsteps, then. Footsteps entering the hotel.
They looked at one another.
Then they all rushed onto the third floor, out of view of the people reaching the bottom of the steps.
Riley held his breath. He knew where he"d seen Mattius with Kesha that day. Standing there, holding her in his arms. The fifth floor. How could he forget?
He just had to hope she was still there.
He just had to pray he wasn"t making a ma.s.sive leap of faith.
He heard the footsteps getting further up the stairs. It sounded like there were two people. Well, there might be two of Mattius" people, but there were four of his.
He looked at Melissa, who was standing opposite him.
He nodded.
Then, when the footsteps stepped right past the door to the third floor, Melissa bashed the door open and leaped on the first of the men, shooting him in the back.
The second man turned and fired a few shots at Riley and the others. One of them singed the hair from his left arm.
But still he pushed forward.
Still, he pulled back his own knife and went to stab him.
He didn"t get the chance to.
Carly stepped in before him, wrapped some chains around his neck and pulled.
Tight.
He kicked. He fought. He cried out.
But then Amy grabbed the other end of that chain.
The pair of them held on, the man"s eyes popping, his mouth frothing, the life seeping from his body.
Then the light went from his eyes and he was gone.
"Come on," Riley said. "No more time to waste."
He heard more voices, then. He knew they didn"t have long. They had to find a way to get to the fifth floor, get Kesha and get out of here. And all that was based on Kesha being on the fifth floor in the first place.