He kept on tilting his head back until he was staring at Riley. Cal’s eyes were red. Completely red. Streaming blood.

  But his hands were still wrapped around James’ neck.

  James’ face was still losing colour.

  Cal started to laugh.

  As he laughed, blood dribbled out of his mouth. More blood fell from his nostrils, his eyes, his ears. And eventually, his upside-down head was nothing more than a fountain. A fountain of blood pouring out. A fountain of blood hurtling towards the floor. A fountain of—

  A blast.

  A blast, from nowhere.

  Riley felt something splash on his face. Tasted metal on his lips.

  The sweet smell that filled the room was even stronger, even more pungent.

  When Riley blinked away whatever was in his eyes, he saw exactly what’d happened.

  He understood, right away.

  Cal wasn’t on top of James. Not anymore.

  He was lying at James’ feet.

  Body rigid.

  Twitching.

  There was a gaping, bloody hole where his head once sat on his neck.

  James coughed. Coughed and choked, dragging himself away from Cal, staring at the fallen MLZ citizen with wide eyes. He clutched at his bruising neck. But his focus was only truly in one place. How could it be in any other place?

  Riley untied Jordanna. Untied Hassan. And he knew there should’ve been happiness to their reunion. He knew there should’ve been a touch of sentimentality.

  But there was nothing.

  And it was completely understandable.

  The four of them just stood and stared at the fallen body of Cal.

  The headless body of Cal.

  They stood and stared at Cal as the groans echoed on outside.

  As occasional screams erupted inside the apartment block.

  As the horde of creatures continued their ascent.

  Continued their siege.

  “So,” Riley said, wiping the blood from his lips. “Do you believe me now?”

  EPISODE THIRTY-THREE

  INSIDE

  (THIRD EPISODE OF SEASON SIX)

  Cody crouched by the door and listened to the sounds of the undead outside.

  He was in the shop down on Dean Street. He’d nipped out in the middle of the night because of that age old drama—he was out of loo roll. He’d have waited, personally. Waited it out ’til morning.

  But it wasn’t just him to worry about in his household.

  There was Sasha, too.

  His daughter, Kelly.

  Unfortunately for Cody, the shop was just across the road, which meant he had little argument when it came to loo roll trips.

  And now he was crouched by the door of the shop, which was more of a corner shop type place that stocked general goods than one of the supermarkets of the old days. There was always someone working here, in case of emergency, much like Cody’s loo roll saga.

  Well, there was technically always someone here working through the night, anyway.

  But tonight, the door had been open.

  Nobody inside.

  Cody had taken a few minutes to consider the weirdness of the situation. He’d picked up his loo roll, walked over to the counter, unsure of whether to leave some tokens there or whether to just take it. He’d heard rumours about CCTV, but he suspected those rumours were just there to keep everyone in order.

  He hadn’t even got to the till when he heard the groans outside.

  They stopped him cold. Froze him in his tracks.

  He wanted to go outside. Wanted to get away. Get back to his family.

  But he’d missed his window.

  He’d missed so many windows.

  And now he was surrounded.

  Now he was alone.

  He held his eyes shut. He’d had them closed for a good while now. He could hear the footsteps wandering just outside the door. He could smell the many smells, some good, some bad, but all made terrifying simply by their juxtaposition.

  Expensive cologne and rotting flesh.

  Joop and decay.

  A part of him just wanted to stay there. To ride this out. He’d been of that attitude when the infection first arrived. His family home was in Salford, so not too far away from here.

  When he heard about the infection on the news after another morning at the council offices, he’d dismissed it. Another mass hysteria constructed by the government as an excuse for them to do something. He wasn’t alone in those thoughts. He overheard someone mutter, “Wonder how they’re gonna drain some oil outta this?” on the other side of the work cafe he sat in.

  And then it arrived.

  He’d gone home. Kelly was off sick, thank God, so Sasha was home with her. His first instinct had been to board up the windows and doors. To lay low. To stay quiet.

  But he’d seen what happened to the other people on his street that reacted in that way.

  One by one, they collapsed.

  Starved.

  Forced out.

  In the safest place of all, safety was hard to come by.

  He listened to the footsteps of the undead. He wasn’t sure how many of them were out there, within the walls of the MLZ, within the walls of his home. He just knew there were hundreds. Thousands, even.

  And he knew what the response would be. He knew exactly what it would be. People would board themselves in. Hide away. Bury their heads in the sand and pretend everything was okay as they waited behind their locked doors.

  But the undead would find their way inside. They always did. They always would.

  Which was why he had to get out of this place.

  Get to his family.

  Even if it meant…

  No.

  He didn’t want to think about the risks. He didn’t want to think about the consequences.

  He just had to act.

  He took a few deep breaths and opened his eyes. There was a yellow haze to the shop, which was dimly lit by a flickering bulb. He turned. Stood up. Grabbed a cricket bat from beside the counter. Didn’t leave any tokens.

  He faced the door.

  And as he put his hand on the handle, heart racing, sweat pouring down his face, he hoped to God he’d be okay. Not for him. He didn’t give a fuck about himself. Not anymore. He was irrelevant. He was small in the grand scheme of things.

  But his wife.

  His daughter.

  He needed to be okay for them.

  He turned the handle.

  Turned it, even though he could hear the mass of undead outside.

  Even though he could see them through the door in his mind’s eye, just walking along, metres away.

  “I love you, Sasha,” he muttered.

  He felt pressure building up behind his eyes. Tears rolling down his cheeks.

  “I love you, Kelly. My little darling.”

  He thought about them. Thought about their happy faces. Thought about their smiles.

  And then he banished that thought from his mind.

  Banished all thoughts from his mind.

  Pulled open the door.

  When he opened the door, he expected to see the undead filling the streets. ’Cause that’s what it sounded like. That’s what it smelled like.

  He couldn’t believe the reality of what was in front of him.

  There were undead in the streets. There were a lot of them.

  But there were gaps.

  Gaps in the masses.

  Gaps leading right across the street.

  Right towards his apartment block.

  Right towards his home.

  He felt tingling in his chest. Felt his muscles tighten.

  He could do this.

  He could make it across the road.

  He could survive.

  He regretted his over-confidence when he saw a larger crowd of undead on his left.

  He stepped out of the shop regardless. Raised his cricket bat. Prepared to swing it at whatever stood in his way, whoever stood in his way.

  ’Cause he was getting to his wife.

  He was getting to his daughter.

  Nothing was stopping him.

  Not even a million bites.

  Not even if the flesh was torn off his bones.

  Nothing.

  He ran across the street. The first undead came from his right. Tall, skinny fella. Missing an eye. Didn’t look the friendliest of guys in the first place.

  Cody tried to dodge him. Tried to avoid using his cricket bat, because using any weapon led to an inevitable slowdown.

  But he couldn’t.

  So he smacked it into the temple of the undead.

  Heard a splitting crack as the bat ruptured the softened bone.

  He pulled the bat back. Pulled it back as the creature fell to the road.

  He took a few deep breaths, the nerves spinning around his body, the fear setting in.

  You can’t do this you can’t do this—

  No!

  He could do this.

  He was doing this.

  He had to do this.

  He ran further across the street. Reached the lines in the middle of the road.

  Another two undead came at him.

  Younger. Nimbler. Not as decayed.

  Again, he tried to dodge them. But he saw more of them were approaching. More of them were drifting towards him, filling the gap he’d run through.

  But he just focused on his breathing.

  Kept his cool.

  Swung the cricket back into the chin of the first undead, sent it flying back onto the road.

  Broke the neck of the next one.

  When he saw another gap forming between his current location and the entrance to his apartment block, he ran. Ran towards it; ran as quickly as possible. It’s all he could do. It was the one thing he had to do.

  Reach his family.

  Make sure they were safe.

  Make sure they were okay.

  When he got to the apartment door, a few distracted undead hot on his tail, he had a horrible image.

  An image of trying to get inside but the doors being blocked.

  An image of banging his hands against the glass.

  Of little Kelly standing there at the other side, confusion on her face as she watched her daddy get torn to pieces.

  But the door opened.

  Cody was inside.

  He closed the door. Looked out at the mass of undead. A few still seemed interested in him, but most of them had wandered away now, in the pursuit of something else, walking in line in the fucking creepiest of ways.

  He turned around. Rushed up the stairs of his apartment complex. Towards the second floor, where his apartment was. He heard muffled talking from inside the rooms. Heard cries. The whole place was pitch black. Someone had obviously switched off the lights in here. Wise.

  Wise, but terrifying.

  Cody was convinced he was being watched. He was convinced he’d encounter something. Someone.

  But there was nothing.

  Nobody.

  It all seemed too easy.

  It all seemed too… calm.

  He reached his apartment door. Tapped on it, four times, in a way that his family had agreed was code.

  He listened for a response. Listened for a shuffling inside the door. For a sign of life. For anything.

  Nothing.

  He hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.

  He put his key in the door. Turned the handle. Stepped inside.

  The first thing he noticed in the dark, curtained room of his was the smell.

  It wasn’t a bad smell, necessarily. It wasn’t even remotely unpleasant. It was just… surreal. Like a sweetness to the air. A sweetness he’d never experienced before. Certainly not in this context.

  The next thing he noticed was the figure in the middle of the main room.

  He stopped. Froze. There was someone there. Someone standing or sitting there. Someone looking right at him.

  They were still. Completely still. And it was too dark to figure out who it was. Too dark to figure out whether it was Kelly, or Sasha, or someone else entirely, or—

  “Daddy?”

  Kelly’s voice made the hairs on Cody’s arms stand on end.

  “Kelly? Are you… are you okay?”

  Kelly didn’t respond. And the further Cody got into his room, the stronger this smell got. The more pungent it got.

  “Kelly? What’s that smell? Is Mummy okay?”

  He didn’t want to switch a light on. Didn’t want to draw any attention to this place.

  But he wanted to know what was going on.

  He wanted to…

  He felt something under his shoes.

  Something sticky.

  He looked down. Looked down at the carpet.

  He could see something. A second figure. Could just about make it out in the dim light.

  Only there was something different about it to Kelly.

  Kelly, who sat silently by its side.

  Kelly and the sweet smell.

  Cody couldn’t wait any more. He couldn’t wait in tension. Wait in fear.

  So he walked back a few steps.

  Reached for the light switch.

  He didn’t need to see for long. He just needed to know.

  He needed to know what was in his room.

  What was happening in his room.

  So he flicked the switch.

  It took his eyes a few moments to adjust.

  But when they did, Cody wished he’d kept the lights off.

  Kelly crouched by her mother’s side.

  Blood drooled from her nostrils. The bottom of her eyes. It even looked like she was covered in a sweaty film of blood.

  Her long, dark hair was curly. Mangled. Her white pyjamas were pasted in blood.

  “Mummy’s not well, Daddy,” she said, staring at Cody with glazed eyes.

  With eyes Cody didn’t recognise.

  Eyes that definitely were not his daughter’s.

  But he couldn’t look at those eyes for long.

  Not with the scene in front of him.

  Not with the body on the carpet.

  Sasha.

  His wife.

  His fucking life and joy.

  She lay in the middle of the apartment room.

  Lay there, tape covering her mouth.

  Her arms had been sliced away.

  Her legs had been sliced away.

  But she was still struggling.

  Still breathing.

  “Mummy’s not well, Daddy,” Kelly repeated, in that same monotone voice as before.

  She stood.

  And this time, Cody saw the glimmer of the blade in his daughter’s hand.

  “And you’re not well either.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  Riley wasn’t sure how long the group stood in silence and stared at the bloodied remains of Cal Jenkins’ body.

  It was still dark outside. So that was something. There were still sounds outside Hassan’s apartment complex. Still groans. Still footsteps. Still the occasional blast of gunfire, the occasional explosion.

  And there were still sounds inside the apartment complex, too. The sounds of the creatures traipsing along the bottom floor. The sound of them penning the group in. Penning everyone in.

  As Riley stood there and stared at Cal’s body, the taste of blood on his lips from Cal’s exploded head, he got a sense that there was more understanding in the room now. More acceptance. About what happened.

  Acceptance that something wasn’t right.

  He saw it in the glazed eyes of Hassan.

  Saw it in the defeated gaze of Jordanna.

  In James…

  No. He didn’t see it in James’ eyes.

  He just saw anger.

  Eventually, James made an audible sigh. He turned. Walked over to the door.

  “Where you going?” Jordanna asked.

  “Where am I going? We need to get the hell out of here at some stage.”

  “We should talk.”

  “No time to talk. Need to get out.”

  “James, I’m sorry. About what happened. To—”

  “Don’t say her name,” James said.

  Silence followed. And in that silence, Riley heard everything he needed to hear.

  The pain in the air.

  The pain of another loss.

  “Jordanna’s right,” Hassan said.

  Hearing Hassan speak made Riley’s skin crawl. Last time he’d heard that voice, he’d been inside an interview room being accused of Tamara’s murder.

  But he was out now. He’d found his way out and he was here.

  Hassan was just going to have to deal with that.

  “You would say that,” James said, still standing by the door. “You’re fucking her.”

  A glance. A glance towards Riley from both Jordanna and Hassan. A glance between one another.

  “It’s okay,” Riley said, doing all he could to numb himself from the truth. “I’m not an idiot.”

  “Riley I’m—”

  “Don’t,” he said, unwilling—unable—to hear what Jordanna had to say. “Just… just don’t.”

  Another awkward silence.

  Another regretful silence.

  Filled only with the groans.

  The footsteps.

  The screams.

  “James is right,” Riley said, the feeling of taking the lead unfamiliar. Like he hadn’t ridden a bike for years, one of those things that were rusty to pick back up but easy to drift back into. “What’s happened… everything that’s happened is awful. But right now we need to get out of here.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Jordanna asked.

  “What? Getting out of here?”

  “Where do we go?”

  “I dunno. I was going to ask you two seeing as you’re King and Queen.”

  Jordanna lowered her head. Hassan’s cheeks burned red.

  Riley took a moment to enjoy that reaction.

  “Look. We can’t stay in here. That much is obvious, surely.”

  “Then where do we go?” Hassan asked.

  “We get the fuck out of here,” James said. “Out of the MLZ. Away from this place. As fucking far away as we can get, for all I’m concerned.”

  Hassan scratched the side of his head. “I… I think that’s getting ahead of things, maybe.”

  “Ahead of things?” Riley said. “There’s thousands of creatures walking the streets. I saw the directions they were coming from. Must be tons of breaches in the walls. Just face it. This place is finished.”