Kane lay back against the wall in the cellar cell.
He"d seen the look in Mattius" eyes.
He"d planted the seeds in Mattius" mind. Now he just had to watch the fireworks explode.
And it started with Riley falling right into their trap.
He felt a smile stretch across his face.
Melissa, Amy and Riley stared into the crackling fire.
"Where do we go from here?" Amy asked.
Riley looked at Melissa. Melissa looked back at him. And then the pair of them looked at Amy.
"There"s a place we could go," Riley said.
And with that momentary, still partly revenge driven decision, the cogs that Kane had created started turning.
Fast.
EPISODE FORTY-FIVE.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLa.s.s.
(THIRD EPISODE OF SEASON EIGHT).
Prologue.
She tasted the blood on her lips, and she knew she"d had a close call.
Another close call.
The day was drawing to a close, and she couldn"t help feeling a little relieved about that. Even though the nights were dangerous, she"d be glad to put her head down on the spongy earth somewhere and get some rest. Sure, a shelter would be better. But when you were surviving alone in a post-apocalyptic landscape, shelter wasn"t always an option. It depended what the elements decided. You didn"t have much control over what you might or might not come across, not anymore.
A cool breeze blew through the air, carrying with it drizzly specks of light rain. She was relieved for that, too. She was soaked in blood. It"d been that way since she"d come across the enormous crowd of undead a few miles back. In a way, the drizzle freshened her up, acting as a micro-shower, and one that she was totally grateful for.
She walked down the long, narrow country lane. She tried to keep her focus on the tall hedges to her left, and to the occasional buildings on her right, which gave her hope of finding shelter tonight after all. In the fields beside her, she saw carcases everywhere. The skeletons of dead sheep and cows, which crows still picked at in hope they"d find something other than bone.
It was beautifully silent on this road. She"d been walking down it a long time now, and she knew it would be wise to find a place to rest somewhere around here.
She felt the sores on her feet getting worse. Another reason to stop. She"d been wearing the same shoes since... since... well, she didn"t like to think about that day very much. Thinking about it just brought back too many reminders of the life she"d lived, and how everything changed on that winter"s day.
Thinking about it made her stomach turn. Because it just made her speculate what might"ve happened to the people she"d cared about back at that place.
Back at that home.
She took a deep breath of the cool air, which was mostly fresh-a remarkable feat in a world where rot was so common. She felt warmth spreading up her body as she visualised a calming light filling up every single muscle inside her.
The more she thought about that light, the more at ease she felt. The calmer she felt.
And then she heard a groan on her right.
She stopped. There was a big house beside her, with a ma.s.sive black gate guarding its entrance. Behind it, the torn up remains of a dog, which remarkably didn"t look like it"d been dead too long.
By its side, there were three creatures. All of them were looking at her, now, pressing their faces up to the gate, snapping their teeth against the metal.
She pulled out her axe as she walked towards that gate. She got close to the first one, then rammed the axe into its skull, some of the cold blood falling back onto her arm.
She moved on to the next one, then. A woman. Couldn"t have been older than university years. Another tragic loss of this brutal world.
She pressed the axe in between her eyes and listened to her skull crack, then watched her fall against the bars.
When she moved on to the next one, she saw something different.
She couldn"t explain what it was. This person was a man, once. Muscular. Dark, curly hair. Blue eyes. He was well dressed, even though his clothes were torn.
But it was his eyes that got to her, mostly.
That tearful look in his eyes, like he was fighting.
Fighting back against what he was doing.
He wasn"t snapping his teeth, either. And that"s when she wondered. As she looked into the eyes of the undead and he looked back at her, she wondered whether there could be a light inside some of these monsters. Whether there could be some semblance of how things used to be.
She was so focused on the undead"s eyes that she didn"t hear the footsteps behind her.
She felt the hands wrap around the tops of her arms. She tried to swing around and slash the creature, but her movement was restricted. And as much as she tried to push back against the creature behind her, she was being pressed closer and closer towards the one remaining zombie behind the gate.
She looked into its eyes and saw an eagerness not to attack. A determination not to do any harm. Because it didn"t want to. That wasn"t what it wanted to do. It was clear in its eyes and yet she couldn"t explain it. Even trying to explain it would make her sound insane.
She pressed her feet up against the gate. She pushed back against the undead holding on to her.
Then she kicked back, with all the force she had.
She felt the undead behind her losing its grip. She felt it slipping.
But the one behind the gate had a hold on her shoe now.
It brought its teeth down towards her shoe. She couldn"t see it properly. Her vision was blackened on one side.
So she just let it hold on.
She let it bite the sides of her shoe.
And then with all the energy she had, she pushed back even harder.
She felt the undead"s teeth ripping from its mouth, wedged into the sides of her shoe.
The undead holding onto her fell, and she landed on top of it with force.
Enough force to make some of its rotted body splat.
She broke free of its grip. Pulled back her axe.
Then she slammed that axe right through its head.
The silence returned. The peace returned. No sensations other than her heart pounding, racing.
She heard a pitiful groan then. Almost sounded like a whimper.
When she turned to the gate, she saw the final undead still standing behind it.
She walked over to it, slowly. Its jaw had decayed so much that the force she"d pulled away with had ripped it clean off. Again though, it looked like there were tears in its eyes. Like there was a human underneath.
It punched and pressed its face up against the gaps in the gate. There didn"t seem to be any efforts to stop itself anymore; any attempts to resist.
She walked over to it and stopped just inches away.
She"d seen some weird things since the world fell. Things she thought were beyond possibility.
So what if there was a fragment of humanity left in these things?
What if there were some cogs ticking behind those pitiful eyes.
"I"m sorry you ended up this way," she said. "However it happened... I"m sorry. I really am."
The undead man didn"t break eye contact with her.
She turned away, took a deep breath, and felt that calming visualisation running through her body once more.
Then she pulled back the axe and cracked it through his skull.
Ben Hughes felt the axe crack through the centre of his skull and finally-finally-he felt peace.
If he could thank this woman, he would.
Instead, he dropped down to his knees and, his consciousness finally faded.
Chapter One.
"Are you ready?"
"Ready."
Riley rushed through the trees towards Mattius" camp. Behind him, Amy followed, Melissa not much further behind her. There were others here, too. Carly, Annabelle, Natasha, Siobhan, and Rosa. n.o.body had stayed behind at camp. They were all heading out of their comfort zone and through the looking gla.s.s, now.
The sun hadn"t long ago risen. They figured they"d use the first opportunity they could to attack Mattius" camp. Well, not so much attack. The plan was to intercept their way inside the place. Three of the group members would distract Mattius" people while Riley, Amy, and Melissa made their way inside Mattius" base. The remaining group members would hold back and pick off as many of his people as possible.
They might be outnumbered. But they had the advantage of covert action on their side.
They rushed through even more of those trees, getting closer to Mattius" camp. Riley could feel the adrenaline and the fear building in his system. Part of him dreaded coming across another obstacle in the form of a ton of creatures. After all, that large group was still out here, somewhere. Who was to say it wasn"t just going to come back at any time, stronger and bigger-if that was even possible?
Who was to say that something wasn"t going to get in their way, just like it always seemed to?
Riley"s thoughts stopped when he saw the hotel block where he"d seen Mattius holding Kesha.
He looked at it, right in through the window. He expected to see Mattius there again, standing in exactly the same place he"d stood last time, Kesha in his arms. He could imagine them there. Picture them, in his mind"s eye.
But he could picture a lot in his mind"s eye these days.
Jordanna.
Anna.
Chlo.
He felt a hand on his arm and he flinched.
Amy was by his side.
"We should talk," she said.
Riley shook his head. "It"s been a week since the siege. We"ve talked enough as it is."
"I mean we should really talk. About the things we"ve been avoiding talking about. The two things."
Riley wasn"t sure he wanted Amy to continue, but he couldn"t exactly stop her. "Which are?"