Part 3 (1/2)

”So you're telling me you would act if you did know where it was?”

”Of course I would.”

”So you'd get into a war?”

Amy shook her head. ”There are better ways to go about this confrontation without involving ourselves in war.”

”Really?” Riley asked. ”'Cause I don't see it.”

Amy lifted a hand and patted Riley on his shoulder. ”You know, when I was in my early twenties, I was depressed. My dog died. My life was in tatters. I didn't have anything left. So I kept on going out really late and partying.”

”Is this going somewhere?”

Amy ignored Riley. ”I went out and partied right into the night. And then despite how mad it was, I'd always walk home. Alone. A young woman walking home alone in central Manchester. Do you know how dangerous that is?”

”Again, is this going somewhere?”

”What I'm trying to say is... subconsciously, I think a part of me wanted something to happen to me. A part of me wanted to accidentally wander out into the road and get hit by a pa.s.sing car. A part of me wanted to get hypothermia and freeze to death. It was like I was putting myself in those dangerous situations with too much alcohol in my body and not enough clothes on my flesh because I wanted to justify something bad happening.”

Riley felt his throat tightening. He could see where this was going there. But he feigned dumb, anyway. ”And how's that supposed to relate to me?”

”Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you're so focused on getting revenge that you don't really care if you die doing it. In a way, I think you kind of want to die doing it. And that's why I'm holding you back.”

Riley smiled. He shook his head. ”You're off the mark. Way, way off the mark.”

Amy tilted her head to one side. ”Just a thought. Like you say, I'm probably way off.”

She patted Riley on the shoulder and stood, then walked over towards the women practising their targets.

As she walked off, Riley held on to that smile.

He tried to keep calm. Tried to keep his composure.

But the demon inside kept on telling him that Amy was right.

He did want to die in battle.

And he'd be totally content with that.

Chapter Four.

Mattius looked out of his fifth storey window and he felt grateful to still be alive in this world.

The sun was setting as the day reached its close. It'd been a nice day. A frosty, crispy day, the kind of day that Mattius always enjoyed. It took him back to the days before his wife Ca.s.sandra pa.s.sed away. The winter walks the pair of them would take together. The sheer absorption in the present moment as they crunched their feet through the fallen leaves, their breath frosting up in front of each other.

Ca.s.sandra was so good for him. She kept him level-headed. She brought out the positive in him. The optimistic.

When she'd died, things had changed.

He still missed her to this very day.

But in a way, he was thankful she'd never known this harsh, cruel world.

Below him, he saw movement. His people. Their community was strong, now. Forty people, many of them armed. Besides, they had thick, tall walls, too, rendering it nigh on impossible for anyone to sneak inside. They had people watching the fences at all times. They had people beyond the walls, keeping track of the one-mile perimeter. This place was a fortress, which was exactly what it needed to be.

They had something important here. Something very important that they had to keep safe.

And although he never used to think he would, Mattius was sure that he would die for that certain something now.

He heard footsteps clattering up the stairs, heading up to his floor. His stomach turned, and he sighed. He enjoyed his moments of peace, his moments of tranquillity. He didn't like it when those moments were broken. But for certain, he knew someone was coming his way with news right now.

Good news?

Bad news?

It didn't matter. All of it was just news now.

He took a deep breath of the cool air and in the distance, he could smell the dead. They weren't a problem. His people had them covered. There was always the threat of them surrounding the walls, sure. Every now and then, they'd face a siege-like scenario, where they were trapped inside without the ability to go hunting or scouting for days.

But they pulled together, as a community. They pulled together, as people. And they'd never had to go longer than three days, so these situations were certainly manageable.

They pulled together, because that's what people did.

”Mattius?”

His tranquil respite was broken completely when he heard Ricky's voice.

He turned around and looked at Ricky. He was short and skinny, with dark curly hair. He had beaming blue eyes. He didn't look all that tough. But make no doubt about it, Ricky was one of Mattius' most trusted allies.

Any news of dissent within the community, Ricky would find out.

Mattius would find out.

That dissent would soon be snuffed out.

Harsh, but the only way to run a place like this.

”What've you got for me, Ricky? Something good? Something bad?”

”A little of both,” Ricky said, walking up to Mattius' side and staring out of the window.

”Give me the bad, first. Warm me up.”

”The bad news is that we've got another wave of undead coming. A big one.”

”s.h.i.+t.”