She was thin. So thin that her nighty barely hung on her.
Ricky frowned. He could see that she was looking right over to the other side of the room. Looking right over at that mound.
If his mum wasn"t underneath it, then who was?
Who...
When he looked around, he saw that Mattius was sitting there, the covers wrapped around his back.
"In a hurry, Ricky?" he asked.
Ricky felt his mouth go totally dry. His muscles loosened so much that he felt his guts might just fall from his body. "I was worried," he said. "About... about Mum."
Mattius stood up and threw the covers back on the bed. "Really? You know, that"s weird. I"ve been worried about old Barb, too. Isn"t that right, Barb?"
Mum didn"t even look like she"d heard her name. She just stared over at Mattius, total fear in her eyes.
"What"s this about?" Ricky asked.
Mattius walked up to him. So close that he could smell the sourness of his breath. "I"ve been thinking. Thinking maybe we should move Barb to somewhere more... secure."
"I can look after her."
"I don"t doubt that. I just worry your focus is slipping. Worry your heart"s not totally in our cause. Not anymore."
Ricky knew what this was. He could read right through Mattius" bulls.h.i.t. Mattius suspected him. He suspected that he was going to try and leave this place with his mum. But he knew that he wouldn"t leave if his mum were still here. If she were forced to stay here.
"There"s a nice room down in the cellar. No windows, sure. And the bed"s pretty basic. But we can throw a few magazines down there for her, and it"ll be as good as it gets."
"Don"t," Ricky said.
Mattius" smile turned to a frown. "Then give me your gun."
Ricky was thrown by Mattius" order. "My gun?"
"These are tense times, my friend. Precarious times. And truth be told, I"m not sure I"m happy with you wandering around with a gun anymore."
Ricky could barely speak. "After all this time. All this time and you stop trusting me?"
"The gun. Hand it over. If you"ve nothing to hide, you"ll trust in me."
"This isn"t really about me, is it?"
"Huh?"
"It"s him. Kane. He"s getting in your head and f.u.c.king with you."
Mattius shook his head. "Let"s not have this discussion again. Kane"s here for one reason-"
"He wants to kill Kesha. He wants to do anything that"ll get to Riley. He"s for destruction and collapse and nothing else. Even if that means bringing everything down. Don"t you see that?"
Mattius looked over at Barb and smiled. Then he put his hands on his hips and looked back at Ricky. "What Kane wants is for us to start thinking about the now instead of some hopeful, far off future."
"And you think killing Kesha is thinking about the-"
"I"m not killing Kesha. Stop talking about killing Kesha."
"You"re changing, Mattius. You"ve been changing for weeks now."
"And?"
"And if you"ve ever had a shred of respect for me, I want you to let me leave this place. Let my mum come with me. We won"t cause you any problems. I can go quietly. h.e.l.l, you can say you killed me if you think it"ll keep the peace here. But I just can"t be here anymore. I can"t be responsible for the direction we"re going in. I can"t stand by your side. I"m sorry."
There was silence. Total silence between the two men. The only sound was Mum"s shuffling feet at the opposite side of the room.
"Funny how the truth comes out in times of great stress, isn"t it?" Mattius asked.
Ricky couldn"t look him in the eye anymore. "I"m just asking you to-"
"And I"m asking you for my gun back."
Ricky swallowed a lump in his throat. He didn"t want to hand his pistol over. But G.o.d knew what Mattius might do to his mum if he didn"t.
He reached into his pocket and he put the pistol in Mattius" hand.
Mattius smiled at him. "Good. That was the right choice."
He walked up to Ricky and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You go downstairs, collect a few supplies, and you leave. You leave to the west. You walk that way, and you stay in the eyeline of this place. I want to know where you"re going. I want to be able to watch you leave."
Ricky nodded. "Okay. Okay."
Mattius patted him. "I"m sorry," he said, his voice cracking a little. "For how things have worked out."
Ricky didn"t respond to that. He just held his nerve and looked over at his mum.
She was smiling at him. Like she was proud.
Ten minutes later, Ricky held out a hand to his mum.
"You ready, Mum?" he asked.
Mum took a deep breath of the fresh breeze. She looked around, her eyes tearful at the sight of the trees. At the smells of the outside. It looked like, after everything, she was coming to her senses again.
She put her rough, shaky hand in his. "I"m ready, Ricky."
He smiled back at her and wiped away his tears.
Then, together, they walked off into the distance.
"Losing sight of them in a few seconds. You sure you want to do this, boss?"
Mattius stood alongside Sonny, one of his prime snipers, on the roof of the hotel.
He looked out into the distance.
Out towards the west.
Out at the disappearing figures getting smaller and smaller.
He felt bad about what he had to do. He could hear his wife, Ca.s.sandra, whispering in his ear on her deathbed, telling him not to lose his humanity.
"Never lose your faith in life. Never lose your faith in life."
But this was the new world, now.
"Do it," he said. "Got to teach him a lesson somehow."
Sonny sighed.
He adjusted his rifle.
And then he pulled the trigger.
Mattius flinched when the blast echoed across the landscape.
In the distance, under the glow of the sun, Mattius saw two people become one.
Then he turned around and headed back inside.
He swore he heard a cry of grief way off in the distance...
Chapter Seven.
Riley couldn"t think. He couldn"t focus. In the darkness within the confines of Mattius" camp, he might as well have been anywhere in the world.
There was only one thing he could focus on.
The pain.
Kane leaned in towards him. And as he got close to him, Riley felt total fear fill his body. He didn"t feel vengeful anymore. He didn"t feel mad.
He just felt afraid.
Totally afraid.
Kane smiled at him. He laughed, like he"d got what he wanted all along. Like this was his plan, his intention.
"That"s what I wanted to see," Kane said. He put a hand on the side of Riley"s face. "You. Broken down. In pain. But h.e.l.l. I"m not finished yet. I"m not even started."
"Please," Riley begged.
And it was that moment, where Riley begged Kane to show mercy, that he realised how far the stakes had flipped. How much things had changed.
Kane tilted his head and sighed. "I appreciate you"re in pain right now. Really, I do. But you don"t get to decide when I"m done. You don"t get to call the shots. Not anymore."
"Pl-"
Kane lifted the sharp pliers and wrapped them around the ring finger on Riley"s left hand.
"This little piggy stayed at home..."
There was a moment. A moment where time stood still. Where Riley was dragged right out of his thoughts and into the present.
Then Riley heard a crack.
He felt something sharp crunching through his finger. It wasn"t painful. It just didn"t feel right.
But the pain soon set in.
That agonising pain he"d already felt.
When he looked down, he saw that his little finger on his left hand was missing. It would"ve been bleeding out, if Kane hadn"t cauterised it already.
And the cauterisation was the most painful part.
He crunched those pliers down and Riley saw his mangled ring finger twisting away as Kane pulled at it, dragged it. Riley felt sick. Sick, right to the stomach. He tensed all over. Did everything he could to block out the pain and the nausea.
But he couldn"t go anywhere.
He couldn"t hide.
"Please," he said.
Kane stopped applying pressure. Riley wasn"t sure whether that made the pain better or worse, though. He was beyond comprehending most of these sensations by now.
"See, you just don"t get it, do you? When you beg, you make me want to do these things even more. When you ask me for forgiveness, it just makes me all the more determined to put you through more pain. Speaking of which."
Without a care in the world, Kane snapped the pliers together and severed Riley"s ring finger.