Part 26 (1/2)

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 s.h.i.+fted 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 s.h.i.+fted away again. ”Mattius, I tried-”