Cody went along with it at first. Uncle Francis had a point. And he always did seem cool to a young Cody. Certainly cooler than Dad, anyway.

  Cody could never forget the moment he tucked himself under those sheets and stared up at the dark ceiling of the cellar. He could never forget the little smile on his face. The smile of rebellion.

  But most of all, Cody could never forget the tickling feeling when he’d woken up in the middle of the night.

  He could never forget the feel of those spiders crawling all over him. Making their webs on his face, on his arms and legs and everywhere.

  He could never forget the feel of their frail bodies squishing under his bare feet as he ran across the cold floor towards the cellar door.

  He’d had a vague memory of Uncle Francis saying something about a dodgy step on the way up the cellar stairs. But Young Cody hadn’t really thought about that. All he’d thought about was getting the fuck away. Getting the fuck out of that cellar and getting to safety. Bear in mind it was still pitch black—he still at that point couldn’t be certain what was crawling on him, or how many were crawling on him.

  Not until his leg tumbled through a hole in the middle step.

  Stuck through into a webbed world.

  Immediately covered in angry, puzzled spiders.

  He’d screamed. He’d bashed at the remaining stairs and he’d screamed all night long. Right until his throat was sore.

  But Uncle Francis never came down for him. Uncle Francis was deaf. Of course he was.

  So he’d stayed there. Stayed there ’til morning, crying, screaming, convinced they were his last moments.

  And only when morning came did Cody see the scene around him. The spiders creeping about the cellar. The crowd below his right leg.

  Uncle Francis opened the door not long after sunlight. He frowned at Cody. Narrowed those beady eyes of his. “Sleep well?” he asked.

  Cody didn’t return to Uncle Francis’ after that.

  He didn’t tell his school friends about it either.

  He blinked. Tried to shuffle free of the solid earth again. His hands were bound behind his back. His feet were tied together. There was no hope. No point even trying to escape. He was trapped. Stuck here ’til Hassan saw to his end of the bargain.

  Only Hassan wouldn’t be fulfilling his end of the bargain. ’Cause Hassan was bullshitting about the MLZ.

  Cody thought about Hassan’s words to the CoY people as he stared into the darkened trees. He’d told the guy with the tache he’d take his people to the MLZ. That he’d smuggle them inside somehow. Only Cody knew that wasn’t possible, because nobody was getting back inside the MLZ. Not any time soon.

  Which meant Hassan would die. Probably after another bucket load of torture.

  Then Cody would die out here too.

  A fuck up. A royal fuck up.

  But what other option did Hassan have?

  Cody tried to shift his body some more. He kept on trying every few minutes. He had to be careful. He didn’t want to kick the earth in a way that’d make his neck and mouth fall beneath the soil. Last thing he wanted was to suffocate here.

  No. Maybe not the last thing he wanted.

  He didn’t want to even consider the last thing. The inevitable fate that faced everyone who stood upright in a pile of dirt with their fucking fleshy necks on show.

  He tried to pull his arms back. He’d dislocated his left shoulder as a teen, and it’d made it a lot more flexible. But it wasn’t much use right now. Not with his arms tied together. Even if he did manage to get free of the soil somehow, he’d only be able to twist one arm over his head. At a push.

  His thoughts were interrupted when he heard footsteps.

  His skin tingled. He went numb, completely still.

  He stared into the darkness where the footsteps were coming from. Maybe he’d imagined them. Maybe they were a fabrication of his mind. Maybe it was just his head playing tricks again. Maybe…

  He heard the footsteps patting against the earth.

  And then he saw a dark figure approaching in the drifting moonlight.

  He kept still. Kept completely still. Felt his guts descend in an instant.

  The moon was on display now. Cody saw someone. A man with grey and pockmarked skin. He was topless, and he looked cold.

  Cold and covered in bites.

  Although Cody was relieved in a sense to be able to see his assailant, the moon wasn’t a good thing. ’Cause it meant he was exposed too.

  He couldn’t move. He had to be completely still.

  He had to avoid even looking that fucker in its glassy eyes.

  He had to…

  The zombie edged towards him.

  Cody swallowed a lump in his dry throat. He knew his number was up now. The zombie was coming. He had to try something. Try to get away. Or he’d be eaten alive.

  That’s exactly what they wanted. The CoY people who’d buried him here. They’d put him here as bait.

  He was going to die.

  Hassan was going to die.

  But Cody couldn’t move a muscle.

  The zombie stepped closer. Cody found his thoughts drifting back to Sasha and Kelly. Back to that day on the beach. The smile on Kelly’s face. The warmth of Sasha’s skin. It’d been a nice day. Too nice a day.

  And sure, Kelly wasn’t his real daughter. Not biologically. But that didn’t matter. That was irrelevant right now. He loved them and they loved him.

  He loved them and…

  The zombie descended.

  Cody closed his eyes.

  He heard a crack. Heard chewing.

  But he didn’t feel anything.

  He kept his eyes closed a little longer. Couldn’t bear to look. He hoped the cloud cover had returned so the moonlight was visible no more.

  Eventually, he did look. He had to look.

  He saw the zombie eating something. Chomping down on something.

  But it wasn’t himself.

  The zombie was tucking into Hassan’s severed fingers. It bit right down on the flesh and ripped it from the bone. Chomped on it like it was nothing more than a fucking chicken drumstick.

  The cloud edged towards the moon.

  Cody kept still.

  He felt something beneath. Felt a shuffle of the earth. And then his body dropped.

  It was instant. All happened in a flash.

  But Cody was a few feet lower.

  The soil filled his mouth.

  He couldn’t breathe.

  But he could still see.

  The zombie turned. Arched its neck. Looked right at Cody with its glassy eyes.

  And then the cloud covered the moon and darkness completely engulfed him.

  He tried to break free. Tried to squint at the same time to see where the zombie was at. He had to know. He had to know exactly where it was. But he couldn’t hear anything. Not a thing but the pounding of his heart.

  The cloud stayed over the moon.

  The zombie was coming for him. He just didn’t know exactly when.

  He tried to fight free of the earth some more. Tried to shake himself from side to side. But he knew how pathetic it was. He knew his life was over. Knew he was fucked.

  Might as well just give in. Might as well just throw life away.

  He felt a hand on his head. A cold, icy hand.

  He clenched his eyes together. Waited for the teeth to split through his scalp. To crack through his skull.

  And then he felt cold blood splatter all over him.

  He kept his eyes clenched. His head spun as he suffocated on the soil. He wondered if that was it. If it was all over. If it’d ended with the click of a finger and he was dead now.

  But no. Nothing bit him. Nothing bit him and he was—

  He felt something drag him out of the soil.

  Gasped for air as whatever it was pulled him out of the earth. Coughed up soil that’d seeped into his lungs.

  He crouched there and spluttered for a while. No real sense of his surroundings. No real understanding of his predicament. Only that he was alive. He was still here. Someone had saved him.

  He spat the soil from his lips. Looked up.

  Somebody was standing above him.

  Standing above him in the glow of the moon.

  Cody couldn’t see their face. But he could see they were bald. Only their figure was slight. They were wearing some kind of thick cloak. They smelled of rot.

  “Your name,” the voice said. And Cody was stunned to hear it was a woman speaking.

  He spat more soil away. Coughed up more debris. “It’s—Who are—”

  “I’ve just saved your life. You owe me your name.”

  Cody didn’t say a word. Just collected his breath. Stared up at this woman.

  She sighed. “Very well.”

  And before Cody could figure out what was happening, something cracked against the back of his skull and darkness closed in completely.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Jordanna didn’t have much time to stand and stare at the Orion.

  It opened its mouth. Growled. Thick drool rolled down its long, sharp teeth, which illuminated in the glowing moonlight. The stench emanating from its tar-like skin filled her nostrils. Her mouth went dry, the taste of fear prevalent.

  “Run!”

  James’ voice was like a spark of life in the dead of night. And Jordanna did what he said. She turned around. Ran into the trees. Ran towards nowhere.

  She felt her heart racing. Her chest tightening with every uneven step over the uneven ground. She felt loose branches snap underfoot, twigs scratch at her face. She even felt pain.

  But she couldn’t focus on it.

  All she could focus on was running.

  Getting the hell away from the Orion before it got to her.

  She listened to its footsteps. Listened to it pant as it pounded through the trees behind her. She didn’t have time to contemplate where it’d come from. Mr Fletch claimed he’d brought his whole army along. He’d claimed he had them all under wraps and under control.

  Was he lying?

  Or was this something he was unaware of?

  And if so, how long had this Orion been out here?

  How many more of them were out here?

  She felt something slice against her back. She let out a little scream as a piece of her shirt fell away. Sharp pains spread down her back. She knew she was bleeding. The Orion had got her.

  But again, she didn’t have time to stand and think.

  She drifted off to the left. Headed into the trees. The moon was behind clouds now, so the darkness was richer than ever. A part of her wanted to get out of this woods. Out into the open. But another part of her knew she was safest in here. Safest in the darkness.

  The torch. Fuck. Did James still have the torch? Was he even still close by?

  She chanced a glance to her right.

  Nothing but darkness.

  She turned back ahead.

  A zombie stood right in front of her.

  She jumped to the right. Dodged the oncoming undead. The zombies from the road. Fuck. They were here. They’d made it into the woods. An Orion and zombies. She could barely handle one at a time, let alone both.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  She turned to the right. Ran back out of the thicker mound of trees. She wanted to shout out for James. But she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself.

  She was alone in these woods. She was so alone.

  And above anything else, in the most ironic twist of fate, she wanted nothing more than to discover the man who’d brought her out here to execute her.

  She wanted to know he was safe.

  She looked back. Looked at where she thought the Orion was chasing her. There was no noise now. The occasional rustling, nothing else. Her ears rung. She listened for gunfire. James had a gun. He could use to it fight off the zombies, to fight off the Orion.

  But Jordanna hadn’t heard a thing.

  She started to jog ahead when she saw the Orion in front of her.

  It punched her. Smacked her right in the gut with its huge, distorted fist.

  She fell back, winded. Smacked her head into the dirt.

  She tried to struggle as she gasped for breath, as she waited for the dull ache in her stomach to subside.

  But then she felt a crack against the side of her head.

  And then another.

  And another.

  Beating her down into the earth.

  Melding her face with the ground.

  She turned around. Looked up. She could taste blood on her lips. Smell that stench of death that always followed the Orions.

  The beast stood above her. The moonlight was right behind it, casting a superhuman glow around it. Fuck. Superhuman. That’s what it was. Nothing ironic about it. A hunting machine genetically modified to hunt down zombies. Only this one, like so many others of Mr Fletch’s wild experiments, had gone rogue.

  It crouched down above Jordanna and pressed the sides of her head.

  She felt the pressure building up inside her skull and she knew what the Orion was doing. It was crushing her. Crushing her head under the weight of its unstoppable hands.

  And when it’d finished crushing her skull, it’d play with her insides. Rip her to shreds with those dagger-like teeth. She’d seen it. She’d witnessed what the Orions did to people first hand.

  She just thought it was a horror that died out months ago.

  She kicked back at the Orion. The pressure in her head built. She grew dizzier with every squeeze. The pressing seemed to tighten every time she fought back.

  As she stared into the blackened eyes of this monster, she couldn’t help but marvel at what a fucking bat shit world she was dying in. If Mum had been around to see this, what would she say? She’d probably sit there with a cigarette and a Bailey’s and roll her eyes. “The world’s always been mad, Jor. Mad just gets different over the years.”

  Mad just gets different.

  But this fucking different? Really?

  She waited for her skull to implode when she saw movement behind the Orion.

  When she saw an explosion crack above it.

  Gunfire filled the silent but panicked night.

  The Orion fell fast. Jordanna had to roll to her right to dodge its fall. Couldn’t suffocate underneath it. Not the most glamorous way to die.

  It let out a whimper when it fell. And although Jordanna was on her feet, she’d still barely processed what had happened.

  Not until she saw the flash again.

  Saw the blast of the gun.

  James’ gun.

  He fired. Fired repeatedly into the Orion’s skull. Shone the light at its body. And between every gunshot, Jordanna heard the echoing groans of the zombies closing in.

  James went to pull the trigger a final time.

  And then he stopped. Lowered the gun. Looked at Jordanna.

  “Come on,” he said.

  He started walking off into the darkness, away from the fallen Orion, away from the mounting crowds of zombies.

  “You could’ve killed me,” Jordanna said.

  James stopped. Turned. “What?”

  “You could’ve left me to die. If you really wanted me dead, you could’ve left me to die.”

  Jordanna didn’t see James’ face. He was the one holding the torch, shining it at her, lighting her up like she was on stage.

  “I saved a bullet,” James said. “Now come on.”

  Jordanna’s stomach sank when James turned and walked. Gun still in hand.

  He’d saved a bullet.

  She knew exactly what that meant.

  She looked at the fallen Orion’s body. The Orion she’d still yet to process.

  And then she looked back at the deafening cries of the undead.

  He’d saved a bullet for her.

  But there was only one way she could go.

  She took a deep, shaky breath, and then she followed James into the night.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Hassan couldn’t hide his fear when he saw the walls of the Manchester Living Zone looming in the distance.

  The sun was just about rising. The weather was still cold. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was warm as anything. But Hassan didn’t feel it.

  All he felt was the pain throbbing through his right hand.

  The pain of his severed fingers.

  The agony of their cauterisation.

  Someone pushed him in the back. He hobbled forward across the cracked road on weakened, jelly-like legs.

  “Keep moving,” the voice said.

  Hassan wanted to argue. He wanted to tell these people there wasn’t much further he could walk. Not because he was being awkward. But because he was just so exhausted. His mouth was dry. His stomach churned with hunger.

  And the knowledge of what awaited when they reached the Manchester Living Zone gnawed away at him from the inside, like a parasite.

  “You should know something,” the long-haired, moustached man said. He didn’t turn around to look at Hassan. He just kept on walking. Kept on leading the group. “We have no intention of going back for your friend, y’know?”

  Hassan’s stomach sank. His legs went even weaker. Because he did know. He knew the moment these people buried Cody in dirt from his neck down that they weren’t the kind of people to release prisoners. He’d seen evidence of what they did outside the MLZ already. Seen the burned bodies. Seen dismembered corpses with their CoY logo etched into them.

  Cody was just another pawn in their game of fear.

  So too was Hassan.

  “I mean we’d love to but… well. It ain’t safe back there. Darkness in those woods. Y’know?”

  Hassan didn’t like the spark in the moustached man’s eyes when he mentioned the darkness in the woods. He spoke about darkness like it was an actual tangible thing. A literal threat.

  Hassan hadn’t heard anyone’s voice croak with so much fear at such an abstract concept.

  “And I am sorry, by the way,” the moustached man continued. “I get you don’t wanna cause no one any harm. I was like you once. Yada yada. But it’s just the way the world works now. Our place got trashed. We had a good place but it got trashed. Little bitch messed it up. Took out our leader. So we just gotta deal with it in our own way, y’know? We just gotta find somewhere new. Somewhere safe.”