Except this was no joke.

  There was nothing but pure terror right now.

  Pure terror as they waited for the Orions to pass by.

  Riley looked at Hassan. Saw his eyes were closed. And in spite of his shaking, he was smiling. A small smile on his lips. A smile of acceptance.

  And then Riley heard the bang.

  He wasn’t sure where it came from exactly. It sounded like it was below them. Underneath them. In the…

  “The cellar door,” Hassan whispered.

  Hassan’s words made the hairs on Riley’s arms stand on end.

  The cellar door. The fucking cellar door. They’d locked all the doors. Not that he thought it’d make much of a difference against the might of an Orion anyway. But still. It was important to keep this place as secure as possible.

  He heard the latch of the cellar door creak away.

  Heard it swing open.

  Heard footsteps inside the cottage.

  Beneath them.

  Riley’s heart raced. He knew they had to move now. Had to get well away from this place. If the Orions were coming inside, they had a chance. An opportunity. Even if it meant running and hiding behind a few trees for a while, at least it was something.

  They couldn’t stick around here. They couldn’t die in here.

  They had to try something.

  Riley held his breath.

  And then he stood.

  He could still see the afternoon sun peeking through that crack in the curtains. There was nothing behind those curtains now. Nothing standing there, waiting.

  “Riley, what’re you—”

  “We’re leaving,” Riley said.

  He crept across the loose floorboards. The footsteps continued to pound beneath them. All it took was one of them to walk up the cellar stairs and…

  He didn’t want to think about it.

  “Come on,” he said. He walked across the floorboards towards the kitchen door. Outside, he couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t see any more Orions. The three of them must’ve gone in through the cellar. They must be right beneath them right now.

  They had to move. They had to get away.

  Hassan reached Riley’s side. Riley put a hand on the key. Gently turned it, doing all he could not to make a sound as the chilling growls and heavy footsteps continued down in the cellar.

  He kept on turning it. Just had to stay quiet. Had to stay calm. Had to…

  The key clicked out of the lock.

  Fell towards the floorboards.

  Riley watched it fall in slow motion. He pictured it hitting the wood. The sound resonating right through the cottage, down the stairs, into the cellar.

  But something made him move.

  Something inside him made him react.

  He stuck his leather boot out.

  The key bounced off it.

  Tumbled onto the wooden floorboards.

  It made a tiny sound. A tiny noise as it hit the wood.

  But the sounds went on just as they had before downstairs.

  They were okay. They were clear.

  He lifted the key. Stuck it back in the lock. Tried to ease his shaking. He turned the key, took it easier and steadier this time.

  Just had to breathe.

  Just had to stay calm.

  Just had to focus.

  The key clicked again.

  Only this time, it clicked with the unlocking of the door.

  Relief washed over Riley. He grabbed the handle. Lowered it.

  Hassan grabbed his hand.

  Riley wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. Wasn’t sure what to think.

  But then he saw Hassan peering out the kitchen window at something. Wide-eyed.

  Riley squinted out into the distance.

  It wasn’t long before he saw it.

  In the trees up ahead, there were four Orions.

  Four more Orions.

  They were all walking towards the cottage.

  And to the left, there were another three.

  All of them heading in the same direction.

  All of them making a beeline for this cottage.

  Riley and Hassan crouched. The handle made a rattling noise as Riley let go of it. He heard grunts down in the cellar. Pacing. They’d heard him. The Orions had heard him.

  He sat beneath the window in the kitchen door and looked across the room.

  In the painting above the fireplace of a wintery scene, he saw the faintest outline of an Orion.

  Standing right at the window just inches above them.

  The pair of them waited there. Pinned down. Stuck. Trapped. Riley’s mind spun for all sorts of answers. All sorts of ways out of this mess. But he couldn’t think of a thing. Couldn’t settle on anything. He just watched the outline of the Orion move away. Towards the cellar door.

  Waited for death.

  “You were wrong,” Hassan said.

  Riley turned. Looked at him. He’d spoken louder than Riley would’ve liked.

  Hassan looked back at Riley. Half-smiled. His eyes were completely bloodshot now. “I’ve not done everything I can do. Not yet. But I think I know what I can do to help you get to Jordanna now.”

  “What do you…”

  Then, Hassan did something Riley couldn’t even comprehend.

  He stood up.

  Walked over to the middle of the lounge.

  “What’re you—”

  “Go upstairs,” Hassan said.

  More restlessness in the cellar as Hassan spoke.

  “Why would I—”

  “Go upstairs and find a way out of one of the windows. And do it quick.”

  Riley stared slack-jawed at Hassan. He heard the footsteps pick up in the cellar. Heard the grunts turn into gasps.

  Feral gasps.

  “Hassan,” Riley said. “I don’t… I don’t understand.”

  Hassan stood tall. Tears covered his cheeks. Blood oozed out of the wounds on his shoulder, his chest. “Tell Jordanna I… Look after her. And look after your child. Please. For me.”

  He smiled at Riley.

  And then he picked up the freezer box of grenades.

  In that instant, Riley understood.

  He didn’t like it, but he understood.

  He was about to stand when he heard a blast against the door leading down to the cellar.

  They were here.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Hassan closed his eyes as the Orions bashed against the door between the cellar and the cottage.

  He could feel the warmth from the sun outside against his skin. It reassured him somewhat. Calmed him. He’d always loved the sunshine. I mean, everyone loved the sunshine. But Hassan had been particularly obsessed with it. Right from being a kid, he’d go out and play in it even if it was the thick of winter. There was a draw to it. A magnetism.

  Just a pity he had to die on such a beautiful day.

  Or was it a blessing?

  He felt the house shake as the Orions bashed their way through the cellar door. He felt sick. His mouth was sore and he could smell nothing but the sweat from his own body. He had no idea whether Riley had moved. Whether he’d gone upstairs just like he’d told him to. He hoped so. Genuinely. Because more than anything, he wanted Jordanna to be happy. He wanted her to look after that child of hers. He wanted her to be a mother.

  It’s a pity he couldn’t be by her side to raise that child. A pity he couldn’t be the one to spend the rest of their days together, however long that may be.

  But at least he knew a good man would be by her side.

  At least he hoped he would.

  He heard another bang against the door. At first, they’d made him jump. A realisation of what was coming his way. An acceptance of his fate building with every single thump on that door.

  But now, he didn’t feel too bad about it. He felt at peace, almost. Because he’d accepted his fate. He’d been bitten. Not by a zombie, but by one of those “hybrids.”

  And if he knew one thing for certain, it’s that he absolutely did not want to come back as one of those pitiful beings.

  Bang.

  Another crack against the door. The sound of the frenzy building up. He didn’t know where they’d come from. Mr Fletch always maintained that he had every Orion under control. Hassan had been under the illusion that all of the Orions died in the explosion back at the Manchester Living Zone. That Mr Fletch led an army of everything he had to defeat the people of the MLZ, and lost.

  But it couldn’t be true.

  Was he really surprised? Was he really shocked?

  At the end of the day, it was just another one of Fletch’s great deceptions.

  “Prick,” Hassan muttered.

  It was just as he said that word that he heard the door crack off its hinges.

  That the screeching sounds from beneath suddenly intensified, became pure.

  He breathed in deeply through his nostrils, out through his mouth. Something Riley taught him, funnily enough. Something that man he insisted he despised shared with him.

  They had more in common than Hassan used to like to admit.

  But he wasn’t ashamed or fearful of admitting it anymore.

  Not now he knew what a good man Riley was.

  He opened his eyes. Opened them, just a peek.

  An Orion stood in front of him.

  Stared at him with that knowing gaze. A gaze that transcended the zombies in intelligence.

  Knowing, but pitiful.

  Because they were just genetically modified humans.

  They were just lost souls.

  He saw more Orions emerge from the right. Saw them step around, circle him. Their teeth were sharp. Their lips had decayed somewhat, giving Hassan the impression they’d been locked away for quite some time. Older models, perhaps?

  No. They’d been trained to hunt humans, not zombies. Mr Fletch insisted that only the last model were modified to attack the MLZ’s citizens.

  But perhaps Mr Fletch lied about something else.

  Was that too far a stretch of the imagination?

  Hassan opened his eyes fully now. He looked around at these dark masses. Looked at their sharp fingernails. Their towering physiques. Some of them were bony. Malnourished. Starved.

  Ready for a meal.

  Waiting to tuck in.

  “What’re you waiting for?” Hassan asked.

  He looked from the first Orion to the next, then to another, until eventually he’d done a full circle.

  “Well?” he shouted. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”

  An Orion on the right stepped forward. Snarled.

  And then another closed in.

  And another, and another.

  The circle wrapping its way around Hassan.

  Preparing to tear him apart.

  He smelled their skin as they got closer. Heard their snapping teeth fill his ears. They were so close he could almost feel what it’d be like if they ripped away his flesh. If they tore him to pieces.

  But no.

  That wasn’t happening.

  Not today.

  He opened his eyes again. He felt dampness on his face and realised he was crying.

  “Fuck you,” he said.

  He thought about his family. His sister. All the people he’d loved. All the people he’d lost.

  “Fuck—you.”

  He pulled the bundle of seven grenades out of the freezer box.

  Held his breath.

  Snapped away a pin with his teeth.

  He waited. Stood there and waited. Clutched the grenades to his chest. Waited for them to explode. For them to destroy him. To destroy the army of Orions.

  But nothing happened.

  He opened his eyes. Looked down at the grenades.

  The Orions were just inches away now.

  Drooling black fluid all over him.

  Towering over him.

  He pulled the pin of another grenade. And then another. He kept on going. Kept on waiting. Hoping. Praying.

  This wasn’t how it ended.

  This couldn’t be how it ended.

  He had something to finish. He hadn’t done what he was supposed to do.

  This was his purpose.

  This was his last stand.

  This was his—

  An Orion grabbed his left arm.

  Sunk its teeth into the flesh of his forearm.

  Ripped it away.

  And then another Orion grabbed him by the right leg.

  Pulled against it, the two of them playing tug of war with his body.

  He didn’t want to scream. He didn’t want to die in a moment of terror. A moment of weakness.

  But when he felt the muscles of his right thigh split away, his skin rip apart, the bone crack out of the socket, he couldn’t help but cry.

  The Orions slammed him against the wooden floorboards. One of them sat on his chest. Stuck their long fingernails into his pectorals. Ripped away the skin, the muscle.

  And then they punched at the bones of his ribcage repeatedly.

  Hassan waited for his vision to blur. Waited for the pain to numb. The burning agony of being torn apart. Of being ripped to shreds. It was supposed to numb. It was supposed to get easier.

  It didn’t.

  If there’s one final lesson he learned from life, that was it.

  He screamed and cried as the Orions twisted his right arm. As they pulled at his ears. As they pierced his eyeballs with their fingernails, sucked up the juices.

  He screamed as they twisted his body 180 degrees, cracked his spine, ripped open his ass and burst his testicles with their teeth.

  He kept on screaming when they pressed his head against the floorboards.

  When they pushed down. Slowly. Slowly.

  Kept on screaming as his skull changed shape.

  As it elongated.

  Slowly.

  Slowly…

  Slow—

  His skull split open.

  Blood and brains oozed down the cracks in the floorboards.

  Hassan stopped screaming.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Riley heard Hassan’s screams and knew something had gone wrong.

  He ran as fast as he could through the forest. The sun was low, just about visible through the thick, green leaves of the canopy of trees. The air was warm, another gorgeous summer evening on the cards.

  But none of that mattered.

  All that mattered was getting away from the cottage.

  Getting to Jordanna. To James.

  Reaching them once and for all and finishing this.

  Riley’s legs ached. His left leg in particular. He’d landed badly on it when he threw himself out of the cottage window. Sprained it. Maybe even broke it.

  But he bit his lip until he tasted blood and he ran on through the pain.

  Hassan’s screams filled the woods. He’d been expecting to hear a detonation. To hear an explosion. After all, that’s what Hassan’s plan was. He’d seen that much in Hassan’s final words. He wanted to draw the Orions close. To pull the pin. To detonate himself, take down the Orions with him.

  Something had gone wrong.

  As happened far too often in this world, something had gone drastically wrong.

  Riley kept on moving as quickly as he could. He smelled rot. Saw figures in the corners of his eyes. Creatures. Maybe more Orions. Or maybe even the hybrids. Fuck. He was losing track. There was so much out to kill him that he wasn’t sure he could keep up. Wasn’t sure he could cope. Not for much longer.

  No. He had to fucking cope. He had to fucking cope because Jordanna was pregnant. And he fucking loved Jordanna.

  He had to fucking cope because it’s what he had to do.

  Hassan wasn’t dying for nothing.

  He kept on moving. Ran up a muddy hill. Slipped, hurt his ankle even more.

  Every time he fell, that voice inside his head told him to give up. To throw in the towel. That the Orions would catch up with him. Everything would be over soon. Everything.

  But still, he fought on through the pain, through the fear.

  He got to his feet.

  Kept on going.

  He thought about Hassan as he ran. Thought about the sacrifice he’d made for Riley. Not just for Jordanna, but for Riley. He cared. He was a friend. And he felt such guilt for never truly honouring that friendship. For never spending more time with him.

  He was a good person. He’d helped Riley make it this far.

  He owed him, one way or another.

  He wondered if the Orions were just after creatures, or whether they were some of Fletch’s modified breed. After all, Hassan had been bitten. Bitten by one of those parasitic hybrids, sure, but bitten nonetheless.

  He wasn’t sure how it worked. And he definitely wasn’t planning on finding out anytime soon.

  He saw the trees thinning up ahead. Saw an empty road. He had no idea where he was. No clue where he’d ended up. He’d been heading in the general direction of the reservoir earlier, even when they reached the cottage. But since he’d jumped out the window, he wasn’t sure. Couldn’t be sure of anything.

  He ran up towards the road. Every step was a struggle. If the Orions didn’t get him, or the creatures, or the hybrids, or some nutty rival group, then exhaustion would.

  But that’s just the world they lived in now. The post-MLZ world they had to adapt to.

  No. Not they. He.

  There was no group anymore.

  There was nothing left.

  Nothing but him.

  No.

  There was Jordanna, too.

  His child.

  They could be the start of something new.

  A glimmer of hope in a terrifying new world.

  He reached the road. Put his hands on his knees. His chest crippled with a stitch. He spat out some phlegm. Panted.

  The road was completely empty. He didn’t recognise it. Not one bit.

  He’d gone the wrong way. He’d got lost. He’d got fucking lost.

  He fell to his knees. Punched the ground. He wanted to shout. Wanted to scream. He knew it’d just draw the horrors of these woods to his position, but fuck it. He didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care about anything.

  He just needed to know where he was. He just needed to know he was on track. He just needed to…

  He heard it. Quiet at first, but noticeable. Definitely there.

  Across the road.