Dead Days: The Complete Season Two Collection (14 page)

The car was silent. Riley stared out at the pier. It looked clear, bar a few bloody footprints along the damp wooden floor. In the rear view mirror, Riley could just about make out the blockade. The creatures that they’d escaped from were nothing but a blot on the horizon. Something to deal with if and when they had to.

“All I know is that what was right and what was wrong back in the old world has changed a lot,” Pedro said. He opened the side door of the Smart Car. “Now we’ll have plenty of time to sit around a campfire and sing about how unfortunate we are when the time comes. But the time isn’t now. We’d better move. What’s the plan here? Bruv?”

Riley squeezed his way out of the car. He realised how chilly it was right by the sea the second he got out and the damp breeze kissed his cheeks. In front of the pier, he could see several damaged bollards blocking the entrance of any vehicle.

“The Smart Car’s out of bounds,” Riley said, pointing at the bollards. “Looks like we’ll have to go on foot.”

“Or we could always lift the fucking Smart Car over the bollards,” Aaron said.

Riley swung around and glared at Aaron’s skinny, gaunt face. Anna was smirking. Even Pedro had a little bemused grin on his face.

“No. We move in. All of us. We stay close. We move as quickly and as quietly as we can down the pier. We find Dominic and Peter, do what we can for them, then we find these…‌‌the bodies.” Riley still couldn’t quite bring himself to accept that Claudia and Chloë were gone, although seeing the wreckage so close to the pier…‌‌that was too much of a coincidence. But at least being here, they’d be able to identify their bodies. At least by being here, they’d get some kind of closure.

“I say a couple of us stay back at the car,” Aaron said. “That way, if anything happens, we‌—‌”

“You mean
you
can drive away if we’re taking too long? Or if a bunch of creatures wander down the road?”

Aaron’s forehead wrinkled up. He stared Riley right in his eyes. “You take the fucking piss out of how much of a damn I give about my friends. And after what happened to Stevie, Rodrigo, he’s…‌‌it doesn’t matter.”

He lowered his head. Stared at the damp ground.

“What about Rodrigo‌—‌”

“He’s right,” Pedro said, smacking Riley on his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter right now. What matters is we get in there as quickly and swiftly as we can and do what we have to do. Like you said, bruv.” He walked up ahead.

Close behind, head down, Aaron followed.

“Looks like you’ve been out-leadered,” Anna said. She had a cheeky smile on her face, even though the scab on her head had come loose and blood was trickling down her forehead again, slowly this time.

“Yeah, well,” Riley said. “Pedro’s probably more suited to it than me anyway. Makes the right calls, it seems.”

“I don’t know,” Anna said. “Maybe we’ll have to put it up to a vote.”

Anna walked past Riley and followed Pedro and Aaron onto the creaky floorboards of the pier.

“Oh, Anna,” Riley said. He rustled in his pocket. He’d forgotten it. So much had happened in the last day that he’d completely forgotten to give her her locket and necklace back.

“I believe this is yours,” Riley said. He pulled out the necklace with the silver heart locket and held it out in front of her.

Anna took a step back. Her eyes widened. Immediately, they started to go bloodshot. She stood there as if somebody had hit the pause button on her life.

“I…‌‌I found it. At the‌—‌the wreckage. The wreckage that I followed to find you‌—‌”

“Thanks.” Anna snatched the necklace from Riley and thumbed over it, a miniature bloodstain on the heart. She stared at it for a few seconds. Stared at it, then looked back at Riley, her hair blowing in the wind. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.

Then, she stuffed the necklace in the pocket of her blue jeans and walked in the direction of the pier.

The four of them moved down the rickety old wooden floorboards of the Morecambe Bay pier. The late afternoon sun was drowned out by thick clouds. Seagulls that usually drifted overhead, squawking and swooping down for any scrap of food they could find were nowhere in sight. The rides‌—‌the dodgems, the carousel‌—‌were empty and unused, rusting in the rain. The hot dog stalls, usually so strong and deliciously greasy in their smell, were all boarded up.

The place was dead.

Riley took the lead and walked down the pier towards the amusement centre at the end. Every few footsteps, he heard something creaking at the side of him‌—‌a groan. Except no, it wasn’t a groan. It was just the floorboards. Or the wind blowing the various fast food signs from side to side. Or a partly open door of a ride booth creaking in the breeze. Everything but creatures.

How long was that going to last?

Riley caught a glimpse of Anna, Pedro and Aaron. All of them were focused on the distracting little noises, too, all of them frowning, squinting, waiting. Waiting for the inevitable. Waiting for what they knew would eventually arrive.

“Better get a move on,” Anna whispered. “The creatures at the blockade. Don’t want them to catch up with us.”

Riley nodded. Those creatures at the blockade were a long way away on foot. They wouldn’t be an issue for a good while as long as they were swift about this. If they were lucky enough, perhaps the creatures at the blockade had been distracted by some other panicked humans on their way down to the pier.

Lucky enough.
Wow. How things had changed.

The amusement centre at the end of Morecambe Bay Pier was like any old end-of-pier amusement centre: dated and on its last legs. It looked like it had been painted a light shade of blue once, but now that was drowned out by a sea of bird shit. Above the building, a sign with the letters, “TERTAINMENT” was written in red, the “E” and the “N” etched off by bored kids no doubt. Which meant that the amusement centre wasn’t really doing its job.

“They were around the front door,” Aaron said. “The creatures. They were right up to the front door. We need to be ready to fire.”

Riley lifted his gun. So too did Pedro and Anna. He moved slowly towards the brown double doors of the amusement centre. Inside, it looked dark, the side windows boarded up. One of the circular glass windows of the brown door was cracked. From it, Riley could hear no groans. No shouts. No nothing.

“Dominic and Peter were down on the lower floor. Hiding under a fucking air hockey table the last I saw ‘em. If they stayed put, they should be okay. They should be, but…‌‌yeah. You know how it is.”

“We go in there and we take a look. Make it swift. We don’t want to fire any unnecessary bullets here.”

Aaron nodded in acknowledgement.

Riley stopped right beside the wooden doors. He lifted his gun towards the smashed glass and peeked around it. He still couldn’t hear anybody in there. Anything.

“You said this place was full of creatures?” Pedro asked.

Aaron nodded. Blinked rapidly. “That’s…‌‌that’s how it was. Barely got out myself. Don’t know what’s happened since we’ve been gone, though. Been a good couple of hours.”

Riley nodded, took in a deep breath, then grabbed the silver metal handle of the door. “We’d better get this done with.”

He held his breath, gripped even tighter on the handle, and yanked the door open.

As he did, the weight of two creatures crumbled to the ground at his feet.

Aaron pointed his gun with his shaking hand.

“Wait,” Riley said.

He lowered down beside the creatures. One had a huge bite mark on its shoulder. Its matted hair was filled with blood and sand. Fragments of its skull were visible, poking through the softened, putrid flesh.

“Don’t get too close, bruv,” Pedro said. “Don’t want to have to put a cap in you myself.”

Riley turned one of the creatures over. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. He pointed at the round, bloody hole on its temple. “These things are already dead.”

A momentary silence. Riley looked back up at the door where the rotting, deathly stench emitted from. Blood covered the dark tiles of the amusement centre floor. Still nothing but silence. Complete silence.

“If…‌‌if they’re dead, then does that mean‌—‌” Anna started.

“It means they must’ve made it,” Aaron said, joy perking up in his face. “They must’ve made it.” He lunged forward over the shot creatures and towards the darkness of the building.

“Wait,” Riley said. “You don’t know it means they’re alive. We have to be sensible here.”

Aaron stopped by the door. He turned around and looked at the rest of the group. “Well, come on then. Let’s take a look.”

Riley, Pedro and Anna walked through into the darkness of the boarded-up amusement centre. Aaron led the way. The place looked like it might once upon a time have been quite grand. Posh, art deco staircases leading down to a ballroom floor that was now filled with arcade cabinets. Screens were smashed. Money machines were filled with pennies. A claw game had been smashed open and looted, but not for the free iPhone that was nigh on impossible to win. Instead, the claw had been torn free of the machine. A handy survival weapon. After all, what value did an iPhone have in a world where survival was the main reward?

Aaron moved slowly down the steps which echoed through the building. Underneath their feet, Riley realised the source of the stench. Bodies. Some of them creatures, with the same familiar bullet wounds in their heads. Some of them humans, clearly. Men. Women. Children. Discarded bottles of pills. Hanging from the ceiling like decorations, bodies from nooses. This place was death. Pure and simple death.

“Keep your guard up,” Riley said as he followed Aaron down the steps.

“I don’t fucking like this, bruv,” Pedro said. “Not one bit.”

“There weren’t this many bodies before,” Aaron said, climbing over a static, charred body on the staircase. “I mean, there were bodies. But these creatures, there weren’t this many before. Or there were, just…‌‌well. They were alive. Or undead. Or whatever.”

“I don’t like this either,” Anna whispered. Water‌—‌or blood‌—‌dripped from the ceiling somewhere in the room. Probably blood. Blood from the hanging bodies above. “Two men killing an entire flock of this many creatures? I don’t buy it.”

When they reached the bottom of the steps, Aaron rushed over to a pair of air hockey tables, tripping over the mass of rotting bodies. A couple of them on the floor had nooses round their necks, their heads caved in and sticking to a bloody spot on the floor. Poor bastards. Attempted to hang themselves‌—‌attempted to die on their own terms‌—‌and couldn’t even manage that.

“This is it. Peter? Dominic? You still there?” He crouched down and lifted the tarp that was covering the bottom of the air hockey tables. “Peter? D‌—‌”

His speech trailed off. He dropped the tarpaulin. Staggered back a few steps. Riley couldn’t see what Aaron was looking at, but he’d seen something. Something on the air hockey tables, hiding in the darkness.

“What is it?” Anna whispered.

Riley stepped forward towards Aaron. He was transfixed. Muttering under his breath. Whatever he’d seen, it had him rattled. His fists were clenched. His body was rigid.

“Aaron, what is it?” Riley asked.

But Aaron didn’t need to answer him because that’s when Riley’s vision adjusted and he saw what it was.

On the first air hockey table, there was a man. His hands and feet were tied down to the corners with barbed wire, so tight that blood had pooled from them, pooled the air hockey table, dripping down the sides and onto the floor.

On the next table, there was another man. He had dark hair. His glassy eyes were wide open, staring up at something above him‌—‌a ghost, long gone.

He too was tied down with barbed wire.

The one thing in common with the men was that they were completely naked.

And, in between their legs, something was missing.

“Dominic…‌‌Peter…‌‌they…‌‌you can’t be…‌‌you…‌”

“Unless they’ve radically changed their modus operandi, I don’t think creatures did this,” Pedro said, looking around the room.

Riley stared at the two dead men on the air hockey tables, tied down with barbed wire, blood and flesh drying around their wrists and ankles.

Between their legs, both of them had a bloody, fleshy stump.

A stump where their cocks once were.

“Fuck. Who would do this?” Anna said. “Who would do this?”

Underneath the bloodbath that had waterfalled from between the first man’s legs, Riley’s eyes focused on a note, pinned to the front of the first air hockey table.

He lifted it from the table, plucking it away, and held it in his shaky hand.

“Whoever wrote this,” Riley said, turning the note around and showing it to the rest of the group.

“But what does…‌‌what does it mean?” Pedro asked, frowning.

Riley looked at the note again.

We’re Coming.
Blood red ink.

Then, he looked at Aaron, whose shifty, tearful eyes stared down at the floor beneath him.

“I have a feeling our friend here might have a thing or two to tell us.”

Chapter Seven

Riley peered at Aaron’s face. His eyes were trailing around the ground. He was shaking. Pedro was silent. Anna was silent. All of them were silent.

“What the fuck does this mean?” Riley asked.

He lifted the blood-soaked note and pointed it further into Aaron’s face.
We’re Coming
, it said. “Don’t give me any bullshit about not knowing who’s coming. This whole bringing us three out here with you thing. Bringing along Rodrigo’s little mouthpiece, Stevie. You know something about this, don’t you? You know something.”

Aaron whimpered. Tears streamed down his cheeks, the disfigured bodies of his two old friends strapped down to the bloody air hockey tables behind them. “I‌—‌I swear. I don’t have a fucking clue. Not a fucking‌—‌”

“Quit the bullshit, kid,” Pedro said. He kicked at a loose hand of a fallen creature below. His voice echoed around the clammy, musty smelling amusement centre room. “Quit the bullshit. Something’s been wrong about this whole trip of ours and you know it.”

“Guys, whether he does or doesn’t know, don’t you think the issue is elsewhere right now?” Anna said. She blinked rapidly, looked from Riley to Pedro and back again. “Like, getting out of here. Surely that’s a priority right now.”