Chloe Zombie Apocalypse series (Book 3): Chloe (A New World) (16 page)

C
hloë stared
into the dark eyes of the Orion and the Orion stared right back at her.

There was stillness between them. Such stillness that even the sounds of the approaching monsters seemed to drift away. Nothing else mattered but Chloë, Kesha, the Orion.

Nothing else mattered at all.

She smelled its damp flesh as it moved its face close towards her, close towards Kesha.

Chloë gripped on to her gun. She didn’t want to have to fire at the Orion. She knew that firing at it would probably not even kill it, only end up annoying it even more.

But she knew she might have to anyway. It might be the only option she had.

So she kept hold of it. Tight.

The Orion leaned right towards her neck. Chloë closed her eyes and winced as it sniffed at her. Its hot breath tickled the side of her neck. Kesha continued to cry.

Chloë felt a speck of saliva hit her lips. She tasted it, all salty and fishy. She wanted to wipe it away. Wanted to get the Orion’s spit off her.

But she couldn’t move. She just kept still. Completely still.

The Orion lowered its head down towards Chloë’s body. Moved it just past Kesha, then back up again. And Chloë thought back to what she’d seen earlier. The way the Orion in the woods attacked—butchered—Laura and her group of islanders. The way it looked up the tree at Chloë and Kesha. It could’ve killed them. It could’ve finished them both off right then.

But it didn’t.

It let them live.

For some reason, it let them live.

Chloë’s grip on the gun got tighter as the Orion pressed its face right up to Kesha’s belly. It sniffed at her, like a dog sniffing out another dog’s territory. Like it was trying to figure out whether Chloë and Kesha were friends or foes.

That was the terrifying thing about the Orions. Nobody knew where they stood with them. Mr Fletch designed them to hunt down monsters, but then he’d designed a few others that attacked humans, too.

Chloë didn’t know how many of those others he’d made. Only that she had to hope the MLZ group had already destroyed every one of them.

The Orion pulled its head back. Chloë’s eyes had adjusted better to the dark now. She could see the Orion’s face. She could see how awful, ruthless, monstrous it was.

But she could see something else too.

Recognition in its eyes.

And then it lifted its sharp-nailed hand and swung it right down towards Chloë’s head.

Chloë rolled away. She kept Kesha close, holding on and not letting her go for anything. The Orion pressed its claws into Chloë’s right side, scratching her in the process. And Chloë didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know how to get away.

She just knew that she needed to use the gun. Right now.

She lifted it. Pointed it at the Orion. Went to pull the trigger—

The Orion knocked it out of Chloë’s hand. Swatted it away, like it was nothing more than an annoying fly. It disappeared into the darkness.

The Orion’s breathing grew heavier, more intense. Just metres away, the monsters approached. She was going to be killed. She and Kesha, they were both going to be killed.

The Orion lifted its fist again. And this time, Chloë knew what was going to happen. She knew the end was close.

She squeezed her eyes shut and did something she hadn’t been expecting, that came from nowhere.

She lifted Kesha with her left hand.

Held her up.

“Kill me,” she said. “Kill—kill me if you have to. But not her. Please not her. Take—take her. Take her away and take her somewhere safe. Just don’t kill her. Please. Please don’t kill her.”

In the darkness of closed eyes, Chloë realised how ridiculous she sounded. She was speaking to an Orion. They were modified humans, sure, but the humans in them were gone. Long gone.

But something strange happened as time dragged on.

The hit from the Orion’s fist didn’t come. In fact, nothing came. Nothing at all.

Chloë opened her eyes again, peeked out of them.

The Orion was gone.

Sickness filled Chloë’s stomach. She wasn’t sure what to make of the Orion’s disappearance. It could be hiding. Hiding in the woods and waiting to attack her. It could be stalking her. Toying with her.

It could be…

Kesha was still in her arms.

And the monsters. They’d…

Wait.

Chloë heard the sound of squelching. She heard the groans of the monsters, only there were far less of them. They’d dropped in number. They should be on her by now. They should be sticking their hands into her guts and ripping them out.

But they weren’t.

They weren’t because the Orion was slaughtering them.

Chloë stood. She stood and stared into the darkness.

The Orion ripped apart the throats of the oncoming monsters.

It crushed the heads of those at the front of the crowd.

Stamped on the squelchy skulls of others, taking all of them down with crazy speed.

Chloë looked on. She held Chloë in her arm, not really understanding what was happening, why this was happening, and she looked on.

If the Orion hunted monsters, then shouldn’t it have attacked Kesha? Because she had bite marks. Might’ve been from a long time ago, but she’d been bitten all the same.

Chloë didn’t know the answer. She wasn’t sure she’d ever know the answer.

All she knew was that the Orion was protecting her.

All she knew was that it was taking the monsters down, one by one.

Clearing a path.

She wanted to thank the Orion. She wanted to say something else to it.

But she knew that thought was ridiculous.

So she crept to the side of the road. Crept around the mass of fallen undead, the Orion still taking them down.

And then she disappeared into the trees, following the road to the MLZ once again.

She didn’t look back. Not for a long time.

But when she finally looked over her shoulder, the Orion was gone.

Chloë didn’t see someone else watching her from the side of the road.

B
y the time
the sun rose again, Chloë had lost count of how many days she’d been walking.

The sky was grey. The rain had eased, but there was still the sense that a storm could break out at any moment. There was a chill in the air, too. Or maybe that was just because Chloë was so hungry. She didn’t know. And part of her didn’t even care.

She just had to keep moving.

She stared ahead at the hills in the distance. She saw Rivington Pike towering above. The thought of climbing that hill made her both happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because it meant she was getting closer to Manchester. But sad, because deep down, Chloë wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it much further.

But she knew she had to try.

The surroundings were silent. Chloë hadn’t seen a big group of monsters for a long time. And when she had seen monsters, she’d been sure to dodge them. To sneak around them. Not just because she didn’t have a proper weapon—just some loose sharp metal. But mainly because she didn’t have the energy left to fight anymore.

There was only one thing she had the energy to fight for, and she was holding on to Chloë’s arm.

Chloë looked down at Kesha and felt her stomach turn. She felt like such a weight on Chloë’s arm, but the truth was, she looked like a bag of bones. She was pale. Still. And Chloë wasn’t sure if Kesha was even alive still. She could feel her little heart beating every now and then, but she wasn’t sure if she was really, truly there.

And she wasn’t sure about herself, either. She felt lost. She felt exhausted.

But no matter what, she had to protect Kesha.

She found her thoughts wandering back to Dad as the wind brushed against her, the road opening up some more. She missed him, sure. She wanted to see him again, of course. But she also didn’t. Because she knew she wouldn’t want him to see her like this. She was skinny, too. Skinny and on the verge of breaking. And even though being skinny meant less meat on her for the monsters to tuck into, it meant getting tired more quickly, and it meant she was getting weaker.

She wanted to keep on fighting. She wanted to keep on going. And she would. She would, no matter what. Because Kesha was all that mattered now. Kesha was the only thing alive that mattered to her. She was the most important person in her life.

But she wasn’t sure her own body was in for the journey.

She reached the foot of Rivington hill. Stared up it. Just a slight slope made vomit fill her mouth, made her hurl right down into the grass. When she’d finished puking, she took a few seconds to pace herself. To catch a few breaths.

She was close. She was so close.

She tried not to think about what she’d do if Jordanna, Riley, Tamara and everyone else had already left the MLZ. She couldn’t let herself think that way right now. She’d only planned that far ahead, but how could she do anything else?

People didn’t make plans in this world anymore. She knew that now. When she imagined meeting her dad again, she always saw it in a different way. Him turning up at the MLZ gates. Chloë introducing him to Jordanna, to all the people she’d travelled with.

But life always had different plans. She understood what Dad meant when he used to always say that now.

She heard something. Up ahead. When she lifted her stiff neck, the taste of sick still strong on her lips, she saw a monster standing behind the closed gate of a garden. It was a woman. She pressed herself up against that gate, pushed herself against it, desperate to get out. She’d been bitten right on her throat.

But she was trapped. She couldn’t escape. The gate was just too strong for her to break through. And Chloë felt a sense of pity for that woman. Trapped, all alone, with only one goal in sight but no way of reaching it.

Just like Chloë. Exactly the same as Chloë.

No.

No, that wasn’t true.

Chloë could reach her goal.

If she kept on pushing, she could reach her goal.

She coughed. Spat out some loose sick. Kesha wriggled in her arm, started whimpering again.

“Don’t you worry,” Chloë said. “We’ll be home soon. Well, not home. But a new home. A place I think you’ll like.”

She thought about the MLZ. She’d walked away from that place. It was a life she knew she could never go back to.

But in a sense, she knew she’d return one day. One way or another, something would take her back.

She was right. The Chloë that used to be—the scared little kid—could never go back to the MLZ.

But she wasn’t that same Chloë anymore.

She looked up the hill. Took a deep breath in, as far as her withered lungs would allow. And then she started to walk.

Every step was difficult. Every step wracked her with pain. But that pain just made her more determined to push on. More eager to reach her destination.

She put one shaky foot in front of the other.

Then the other in front of the other.

And the more she climbed, the stronger she felt.

The more she climbed, the more certain she became.

She was going to get Kesha to safety.

She was going to reach the MLZ.

She was going to—

A pain.

A sharp pain splitting right through her left side.

She fell forward. Started to drop Kesha, then held on to her to make sure she didn’t hit the ground. She couldn’t understand the pain she’d felt. Was it a bite? No. Definitely not a bite.

She’d felt something hit her. Something sharp. Something…

She saw blood coming from a wound where she’d felt the pain.

When she looked over her shoulder, Chloë saw exactly what it was, and all of her thoughts disappeared.

Kyle was standing at the bottom of the hill. He looked exhausted. Skinny. Completely gaunt.

He was pointing a gun at her with his shaky hand.

Chloë knew right then that she’d been shot. A bullet had grazed her left side.

But she couldn’t think about it.

She couldn’t think about it no matter how sharp the pain was.

Because by Kyle’s side, something else caught Chloë’s attention.

“This ends,” Kyle said. “Right this second.”

He turned the gun to the person kneeling in front of him.

That person, bruised, battered and bleeding, was Chloë’s dad.

Dad was still alive.

Just.

C
hloë watched
as Kyle dragged her dad through the dirt.

The afternoon breeze brushed against her, made her shiver all over. The clouds were thick overhead, holding a whole new bout of rain. Behind her, Rivington stood tall. She knew she had to get to the top of it. Get over it and get down to the MLZ, which wouldn’t be far over the other side.

But she couldn’t. Because Kyle had her dad.

She felt the sharp pain on her left side. It was burning. It wasn’t bleeding too badly, but she knew it’d need seeing to, especially when she was out here getting covered in mud. The bullet must’ve just missed her. Just fired past her.

She wasn’t sure whether Kyle meant to shoot her after all. If he’d meant to fire a better shot.

Or if he had something else in mind for Chloë.

She looked down the slope at her dad. He looked awful, in even worse shape than he was before. His eyes had blackened. There were cuts and bruises all over his body.

But he was here. He was alive. That was the main thing.

There was still a chance for him.

“I didn’t want it to come to this, kid,” Kyle said. He didn’t exactly look great either. “Didn’t want it to be like this. Just me and you. Your dad. Kesha.”

“Then leave us alone,” Chloë said.

Kyle smiled. But it was the most uncertain smile he’d ever had. “You know, I wish I could. I seriously fucking wish I could. This whole thing wasn’t even my idea in the first place. It was Laura’s idea.” He paused a few seconds after saying her name. His eyes drifted. “But now Laura’s gone, and I’ve got to finish what she started.”

“We—we can work out another way,” Chloë said. “A way where we both get what we want.”

Kyle shook his head. He kept the gun loosely pointed in Chloë’s direction. “I don’t think that’s gonna be possible, do you?”

In truth, she didn’t.

She was just saying whatever she could to try and win Kyle over.

And then she was going to rip his throat out.

“You have a choice,” Kyle said. A few specks of rain fell from above. Dad still hadn’t said a word. Looking at the swollen state his lips were in, and the blood drooling down his chin, that didn’t surprise Chloë. Seeing him in this way hurt her. It hurt her, deep down.

“I’m not going to leave you,” she whispered.

He looked into her eyes. Stared back at her. Beaten. Broken.

“I promise I’m not going to leave you.”

“You can have your dad,” Kyle said. He pushed Dad down into the dirt. Dad just flopped down into the mud, all the fight slipping from his body. “You can leave here. The two of you. Go on and do whatever it is you want to do.”

Chloë waited. She waited for Kyle to say more. She knew there was another option coming.

“But you can’t have Kesha. I’m sorry kid, but you just can’t. She isn’t… she isn’t yours to have.”

Chloë looked at Kesha. She was sleeping still. She knew she’d be starving. She knew she couldn’t possibly survive out here much longer. Maybe the right thing to do would be to hand her over after all.

“How do I know you’re not gonna do what you did last time?” Chloë asked.

Kyle tutted. Shook his head. “We made a stupid move. An idiot move. But that wasn’t my call.” He lowered his gun. Stepped a little closer to Chloë. Raised his hands. “But right now, we’re all struggling. We’re all in danger. And we’ve got a long road ahead. The road you’re going, it isn’t fit for a baby girl—”

“And going all the way back to Bardsey Island from here is?”

Kyle’s mouth hung ajar for a few seconds. And then he closed it. Licked at his lips. “Look, you want the truth. I can give you the truth.”

“I know she’s been bitten.”

Kyle smiled. “She’s not just been bitten, Chloë. Her blood. I… I used some of it. When I was bitten. And it cured me.”

Chloë’s eyes watered. She wasn’t sure what to say or think.

The smile stretched further across Kyle’s face. He put his gun in his pocket. “You need to understand why we’ve done the things we’ve done. Why we’ve gone to such… such lengths to get Kesha back to Bardsey Island. She’s the future. She’s the frigging Holy Grail. And without her, we can’t keep the people of the island safe. We can’t keep anyone safe.”

Chloë looked at Kesha. She just looked like a normal baby. An innocent baby. “She—she really cured you?”

“Not just me,” Kyle said. “There were others, too. We were testing in secret for weeks.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell the High Lord?”

“He knew,” Kyle said. “He knew exactly what Kesha was capable of. What was inside her. But he chose not to use it.”

“Why wouldn’t he use it?”

Kyle shrugged. “Some bullshit about Kesha’s life being more important than so many damned other lives. I know. It sounds mad to me too. I mean, yeah. We need top ups of her blood to keep the fever away. So she’s hardly gonna be living an ideal life. But don’t you see now? Don’t you see why we’ve done what we’ve had to do?”

Chloë froze in the moment. She could see where Kyle was coming from. And that was the hardest thing about all this. He wasn’t just an evil man chasing after Kesha because he wanted her back. He wasn’t that at all.

He just wanted to keep people safe.

But then Chloë looked into her dad’s eyes and she felt another emotion.

“You can come back,” Kyle said. “Both of you. This… this whole thing. It’s been fucked up. But you’re tough. You’re strong. And you know how to look after that girl.”

Chloë’s heart raced as she stared into her dad’s eyes, as he stared back at her. She saw the pain he’d been through. The blood all over him. The cuts and scratches. Kyle had done that. Kyle’s people had done that.

He might have a point. But he’d beaten her dad. He’d murdered children.

Were all those lives really worth it?

Did he really need to take over the island if this wasn’t all about himself?

“Think about it,” Kyle said. He stood between Dad and Chloë. A kindness to his face, a softness to his voice. “There’s no great rush. But we need to be heading off soon if we—”

“You can’t have her,” Chloë said.

Kyle frowned. His eyes narrowed. “I can’t… I can’t what?”

“Kesha,” Chloë said. “You can’t have her. I don’t trust you with her. And I don’t think she should have to go through a life of hell to make everyone else happy.”

Kyle scoffed. He looked bemused. “So, what, you’re saying you don’t want to cure this thing?”

“I want to. But not this way. Not your way.”

The pair stared at one another for a few seconds. Both of them waited for the other to crack. Chloë gritted her teeth through the pain in her left side. Clenched her jaw. She didn’t know what her next move was going to be.

Only that it wasn’t going to involve handing Kesha over.

He lifted his gun and pointed it at Chloë.

“You wouldn’t,” Chloë said.

“Don’t test me.”

“You wouldn’t while I’m holding on to Kesha. You wouldn’t risk it. I know you wouldn’t.”

“I could just shoot you.”

“You’re not a good enough shot.”

Kyle smiled again. Held his gun, which got shakier by the second.

And then he lowered it. Nodded. “You’re right, kid. You’re absolutely right.”

And then he turned around.

Walked over to Dad.

Pointed the gun right at the back of his head.

Chloë tensed up inside. Every inch of her body turned to stone.

Flashbacks.

Flashbacks of what happened to Mum. The way she’d died.

Just like this.

Just like right now.

“One last chance,” Kyle said. “To be honest, I think you’ve exhausted your last chances, but I’ll give you one anyway. But whatever happens here, you’re not coming with Kesha and me. I don’t want to see you within a hundred miles of Bardsey Island ever again. So what’s it gonna be? Are you gonna kill your daddy? Or is that baby really worth that much to you?”

Chloë felt warm tears roll down her cheeks. She tasted them, salty on her lips. She looked at her dad. Looked into his eyes. And as much as she wanted to go over there, to give him a hug, to give everything up and hand Kesha over, she knew she couldn’t.

Because of what he’d said.

What he’d said about humans.

Of what he’d told her to do.

Keep Kesha safe, no matter what.

“Make your mind up, kid.”

Chloë looked at Dad through tear-soaked eyes and Dad looked back at her. His bottom lip started to shake. Tears flowed down his bruised cheeks, too. But beyond that pained look, Chloë saw something else. She saw happiness. She saw pride, just like he’d always looked at her when she did well at school, when she got good grades on her homework.

He was proud of her.

He loved her.

“I’m sorry,” Chloë said. But the words barely came out as a whisper.

Dad opened his swollen lips. “I love… I love you
,
angel.”

Kyle tutted. Sighed. “Silly girl,” he said. “Silly, silly girl. But oh well. You made your call.”

“I love you—”

A gunshot cracked through the silence.

Chloë stared on.

Blood splattered out of her dad’s head.

His body, weak, broken, shattered, finally hit the ground.

Finally at rest.

Finally gone.