They were the end.

  They were the apocalypse.

  They were—

  The mouth came down on Cody’s chest.

  He thought he felt the teeth sink in. Bury themselves in his flesh.

  But then he heard a snap.

  The snapping of…

  Shit.

  Chains.

  He looked down.

  The Ugly had its mouth wrapped around the metal chain. Its teeth were all caught up in the links.

  The chain that had snapped.

  Cody swung to the right. Dragged his right hand against the cuff, desperately trying to weaken it. He hopped up. Tried to balance.

  And then he turned back to the pipe he was cuffed to and he punched it with his free hand.

  Hard.

  He kept on going and going. Ignored the Ugly as it reached for him with one of its deflated balloon hands again. Its teeth were still trapped. All tangled up.

  So he punched the pipe.

  Punched it hard.

  Channelled his anger.

  Channelled his pain.

  Channelled his loss.

  He kept on going as his knuckles bled. He felt them crack. Felt them go numb.

  But he had to go on.

  He had to keep on punching.

  He had to—

  The pipe snapped.

  Cody paused for a moment. Stunned that he’d actually punched his way out of this predicament.

  And then he lifted his right hand off the pipe.

  Pulled the cuff away.

  He looked down at the pitiful creature crouching below him. Looked at its ripped dinner suit. At that fucking orb of a head, which resembled a Chinese lantern.

  It reached out for him.

  He stepped back.

  Swung the cuffs into its head.

  The head burst on contact.

  Cody turned. He hopped over to the door. It was still ajar. There were still gunshots spraying outside. Still shouts. And some screams. He didn’t want to encounter anything on the way out of here. Didn’t want to come face to face with another of those fuckers.

  He reached the door. Squinted to the left, his eyes still adjusting to the light.

  He couldn’t make out what was ahead properly. But he could see bodies flooding over a grassy hill. Bodies with those same fleshy heads. With limbs growing in impossible places. With extra mouths and legs sprouting from chests. With teeth covering torsos.

  He went to turn and run when he felt something grab his neck.

  Drag him to the ground.

  Pull him off into the unknown.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  It was only when they reached the cottage that Riley realised just how exhausted he was.

  The sun hung in the sky. Late afternoon already. The day was rapidly passing by. Good job it was summer or it’d be dark by now.

  The dark wasn’t something Riley wanted to be engulfed by. Not after the feeling he’d got in the woods.

  He looked out of the dusty window. It was cold in here. Cool, anyway. Sheltered from the glow of the sun.

  Though to listen to Hassan’s chattering teeth, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the middle of winter.

  “See anything?” Hassan asked.

  Riley didn’t say anything in response. He just peered outside. Truth was, he wanted to move. Wanted to keep going. He’d found the car James stole abandoned by the bridge. He and Jordanna could be anywhere.

  But as Riley watched the crowd of creatures well in the distance, as he squinted at them, he was looking for two faces in particular.

  He hadn’t seen them.

  Not yet.

  Jordanna and James were alive for now, as far as he was concerned.

  For now.

  “How’s the bite wounds?” Riley asked. He turned around. Looked at Hassan.

  Hassan was perched up on a leather sofa. Fuck, he looked bad. His skin had gone from pale to a blue-ish colour. Looked like he was dead already. “Still bite wounds. If that’s what you’re wondering.”

  Riley saw the blood still seeping out of those marks. There wasn’t a lot he could say to reassure Hassan. Not anymore.

  He walked around the side of the leather sofa. The lounge was void of life. There were pictures and photos up. Photos of a family. Man. Wife. Two kids, a boy and a girl. But there was just a sense this place hadn’t been occupied in ages. A sense that no life had existed inside these walls.

  “Find anything?” Riley asked.

  Hassan leaned over the side of the sofa. Pointed to a black rucksack. “Oh, y’know. Mouldy bread. Half-empty toothpaste tubes. Seven hand grenades.”

  Riley stopped walking when he heard Hassan mutter those final words. “Seven… What?”

  “Downstairs. By the cellar. Seven hand grenades inside an old freezer box.”

  “Just lying around there?”

  Hassan shrugged. Half-smiled. “I guess we have a guardian angel.”

  Riley wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  He paced around the worn down carpet.

  “I know you’re eager to go. I’ll be with you soon.”

  “It’s just we have to—”

  “I know, Riley. I know. But I told you I’m coming with you. I told you I—”

  Hassan winced. He squeezed his eyes shut. A pain as he sat upright. Another crippling pain in his shoulder.

  “Hassan I don’t know how to say this but you’re… you’re staying here.”

  Hassan shook his head. “I’m… I’m helping you.”

  “You would be helping me. By staying back.”

  “Need to find Jor… argh.”

  Another wince as the pain spread even further through his body.

  Hassan chanced a look at Riley. They held eye contact for a few seconds. A few seconds, but long enough for Riley to understand that look. A look of realisation. A look of defeat.

  “You’ve come all this way,” Riley said.

  “And that’s why I—why I don’t want to give up. Not now.”

  “You wouldn’t be giving up. Hassan, you’ve… I have to be straight with you. I’ve never liked you.”

  Hassan laughed. “Why am I not surprised by that?”

  “But… but I’ve learned. I’ve learned a lot of things. The reason I didn’t like you is ’cause… well, I guess I was envious. Envious of the person you were turning into back at the MLZ. Envious of how you were. With Jordanna. Because you were turning into the person I was supposed to be. The person I used to be.”

  Hassan leaned back against the sofa. Nodded his shaking head. His eyes were completely bloodshot. “Well isn’t that sweet?”

  “Hassan, I’m not asking you to give up. I’m asking you to stay here because… because this is the end of the road for you, friend. You’ve done everything you can do. And I think you see that now.”

  Hassan closed his eyes. But Riley could spot the trails of tears seeping out and rolling down his cheeks. “I just… All my life I’ve felt like there’s something else. Something left. Something I haven’t done. Is that just normal? Is it just normal to feel like… like things are unfinished?”

  Riley wiped his eyes. Nodded. “I guess so. But you’ve done some amazing things. You… you saved my life. You stole my girlfriend in the process, sure, but…”

  Hassan laughed. And Riley found himself laughing, too. Smiling. Laughing.

  “You’re a good man, Riley.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “You let me in. After the battle with Mr Fletch. You let me in.”

  Riley shook his head. “I was unconscious. I didn’t have a say in that.”

  Hassan smiled. “You did. Your people. They were in your image, Riley. All of them. So you had the biggest say of all.”

  Riley let Hassan’s words sink in. Then he put a hand on Hassan’s shoulder. Smiled. “It’s been good knowing you.”

  “Pity we couldn’t fucking get along for longer, hmm?”

  Riley laughed again. And so too did Hassan. “It is,” Riley said. “It—”

  A sound split through the air. High pitched. Ear-screeching.

  “What the fuck was that?” Hassan asked.

  Riley’s skin went cold. He heard footsteps outside. Heard movement.

  A part of him knew what it was.

  A part of him knew exactly what made a sound like that.

  “It’s not possible,” Riley said, walking over to the window.

  “What’s not possible?” Hassan asked. “Riley, what’s not—”

  That sound again. Only this time from another direction. This time, from the left.

  Riley crouched. Crept over to the window. Sat in front of it for a few seconds, hands shaking, neck itching.

  It couldn’t be true.

  It couldn’t be possible.

  The sound. It couldn’t be what he thought it was.

  He lifted himself slowly. Peeked over the edge of the windowsill. Looked outside.

  He saw the trees. Saw the sunlight peeking through the branches.

  And then he saw it.

  His skin went cold. His chest tightened. Every muscle in his body froze.

  “Riley?” Hassan whispered. “What is it?”

  Riley swallowed a lump in his dry throat. He didn’t want to tell Hassan what it was. He didn’t want to accept what it was.

  But he couldn’t deny what was right in front of him.

  He couldn’t deny the two things right in front of the cottage, stepping closer.

  “Two Orions,” Riley said. “Two… No. Three Orions.”

  A silence from Hassan. “But that’s not—”

  “Be quiet. They’re coming our… they’re coming our way.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It was dark when the blindfold was finally torn from Cody’s eyes.

  He squinted. Looked around. Definitely dark. Definitely not just his eyes playing tricks on him. He could see the moon above. Feel the breeze on his face. His stomach churned with hunger, his dry mouth crying out for water.

  “Sorry for the scare. But we couldn’t have you wandering out and blowing our cover.”

  Cody turned. He saw the woman they called M crouched beside him. She was in front of a fire that Cody had only just noticed. It gave off heat as it crackled away.

  There were more people around the fire.

  They were of various ages, of both genders. There were at least ten of them. Probably more. Cody was too tired to even count properly. Too disoriented to process a thing.

  “You could’ve at least told me it was you,” Cody said.

  M smiled. The scarred half of her face was hidden in the darkness. To look at the other side, she was actually quite beautiful. Gorgeous green eyes glistening in the fire. But a dark shadow that hid something. Pain? Obviously. Some kind of loss? Who hadn’t suffered some kind of loss?

  “We acted on instinct. You were a threat.”

  “That why you left me chained up in that cell while—while whatever the fuck those Ugly things are attacked?”

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  “Right,” Cody said. “Right I’m sure it wasn’t.”

  He shot a glare over at the guy called Gav. He was perched by the fire warming his hands. Eating some damned food while Cody watched, his stomach rumbling like mad.

  M leaned forward. Cody smelled rich perfume on her neck. The closer she got, the more he noticed her scarred face. “Burns,” she said. “In case you’re wondering. And yes. I felt every second of the agony. I visited Hell.”

  “Still haven’t left as far as I can see it,” Cody said.

  M pursed her lips. Only one side of them moved. “Indeed.”

  Cody sat up a little more. The back of his neck split with pain after being pressed up to that cell wall earlier. He looked around. They were in some kind of greenhouse. Thick plants and vines covered the glass around the exterior. The view of the moon was through the roof. The breeze blew through an opened pane of glass somewhere, fuelling the fire.

  “Sure it’s safe in here?”

  “No. It isn’t safe. But it’s—”

  “Safer than it is out there.”

  M nodded. “We all know how the world is now.”

  She looked around at her people. Cody noticed them staring at him. But they diverted their gaze every time he made eye contact with them. All of them but Gav.

  “Don’t you have questions?” M asked.

  “I’m not used to getting straight answers.”

  “Try me.”

  “What is this place?”

  M opened her mouth. Closed it. Smiled.

  “See,” Cody said.

  “Your scepticism is well-placed. But you do not need to know intricacies. You just need to know that we are survivors of this world. Like you. Like every other.”

  Cody nodded. “The things. The things you call ‘Uglies’. What are they?”

  He realised what a stupid question it was the moment he spoke it. She wouldn’t know. Who knew the answer to anything like that?

  But she responded.

  “When the blood moon started to surface, it awoke something in the virus.”

  “The virus?”

  “The infection. The foreign body that makes the dead walk. It’s more than just an infection. It’s parasitic. Surely you’ve seen evidence of that much by now.”

  Cody nodded. He thought back to the way the MLZ had fallen. The events that led to the death of Kelly. “They turned. Normal people just turned. How do they just turn?”

  M eyed him for a few seconds. Behind, someone reached for her arm. A man with thick curly hair, Spanish features.

  M batted his hand away. Smiled at Cody. “Research currently being conducted suggests that there’s more to the virus than first thought. Not only is it influenza with the capability of transformation, it also has the ability to change its very form. Making it the safest deterrent. Or the deadliest weapon. Depending on whose hands it falls into.”

  Cody shook his head. “Wait. Research? What research?”

  “That is something I’d be better off showing you rather than telling you. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  She stood. Cody didn’t move a muscle though. He couldn’t. He was baffled. Research? What the hell was she on about?

  “The Uglies. They… they’re zombies?”

  “In a sense, yes. But the parasite thrives much more comfortably in a living host. A human host.”

  Cody shook his head. “I’m sorry but you’ve lost me. I don’t—”

  “Imagine a parasite with the power to invade every living, breathing person. Imagine if it managed to hone itself after months of exposure, of rapid evolution, to exist inside that person. To embody their very traits. Imagine the chaos if somehow, we were unable to tell the difference between the infected and the uninfected. A ghost infection.”

  Cody kind of got what M was saying. But it was still so blurry. Still so… unbelievable.

  “The Uglies. They’re the ones who the parasites failed to turn. They’re the first models. The attempts at taking on the human form. We do not believe they have been able to fully embody a human yet. Not just yet. But they’re getting there. They’re getting closer.”

  Cody felt his gut turn.

  “No. I think… The place I came from. Things… things happened.”

  “Things happened everywhere—”

  “My daughter. She stabbed my wife. She… she murdered my wife. I… I put her down. And one of those… one of those parasites. It came out of her body.” Recalling the memory made Cody shake.

  M stared at Cody with narrowed eyes. The rest of the group chattered amongst themselves, fear and tension rising.

  “Your daughter didn’t turn ugly?”

  Cody frowned. “No. No she… she didn’t—”

  “Then it’s already happening,” M said.

  She shook her head. Walked over to her people. Said something to Gav, and then to the other people. They started getting to their feet. Some of them walked over to the open pane of glass. Some of them shook their heads. Protested.

  “What’s happening?” Cody asked.

  M turned back to face him. This time, he only saw the burned half of her face in the light of the moon. “The evolution of the infection. The… the end of everything.”

  She walked back over to where she’d been sitting. Picked up her coat.

  “How can you know all this?” Cody asked. He stepped in front of her in the hope that he’d stop her walking away. “The research. The—the stuff. About the parasites. About the virus evolving. Taking on its own form. How can you possibly know all this?”

  M peered into his eyes. He saw both sides of her face now. Two sides of a coin. “That’s what I’m about to show you for yourself.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Riley and Hassan didn’t move a muscle as the Orions scouted the cottage.

  The curtains were closed. The late afternoon sunlight peeked through the smallest of cracks. It was a crack that made Riley paranoid. Because if he could see light through that crack, then an Orion would be able to peek through that crack too.

  An Orion would be able to see him. See Hassan.

  End everything.

  Riley crouched behind the leather sofa. He held the axe tightly. He knew it wasn’t much use against three Orions. Wasn’t effective at all. But fuck. It was all he had.

  That and a bunch of grenades. But now wasn’t the time for grenades. Grenades were just reckless. Antagonising. They’d make the situation worse before it got better.

  No. They needed to lay low. They needed to wait.

  Riley saw the shadow of one of the Orions pass by the window. He bit down on his lip. His mouth was sour with the taste of regurgitated stomach acid. Beside him, Hassan shook. He’d been shaking before they’d discovered the Orions. But he was worse now.

  Fear.

  Undeniable, unarguable fear.

  Because the Orions were supposed to be dead. Mr Fletch’s Orions were supposed to be long gone.

  But no.

  They were here.

  He heard the long fingernails of an Orion screech against the outside of the cottage. He was disoriented. Lost with all sense of where the Orions actually were. And as he sat there, out of sight of every window, Riley felt like a kid again. A kid hiding from the weird neighbour, for a joke more than anything.