Dead Days: The Complete Season Two Collection by Ryan Casey Page B

understand, see. You won’t understand until you get off your arse and see this place for yourself. But there’s something else you’ll want to see first. Something else to…‌‌to convince you this place isn’t all that bad.”
    Pedro moved away from Riley and walked back towards the glass door.
    Riley jumped to his feet. His leg ached and his muscles throbbed as he put his weight on them, holding on to the side of the bed for balance. “Where are you going? Fuck, Pedro. See this from my perspective. See this the way I see it. I see a group. I see supplies running low. I see‌—‌”
    His speech stopped dead in its tracks as Pedro opened the door.
    He did see something. Or somebody, rather.
    Somebody familiar.
    Somebody very familiar.
    “Hello, you,” she said.
    Her dark hair. Her brown eyes.
    It was Anna.
    “Anna…‌What…‌‌How…?”
    He didn’t finish speaking because she had her arms wrapped around his neck and her soft hair was dangling in his face.
    He held himself rigid for a few seconds. What did he do in this sort of situation? Did he hug her back? Tell her some cheesy movie shit like, “everything’s okay, I’m here now”? Fuck that.
    He wrapped his weak arm around her and hugged her back.
    “I thought I’d lost you. Lost the group,” she said. She moved away slightly. Riley could see she had several cuts on her face, and a bandage wrapped around her head. She smiled at Riley with her heavy, tearful eyes and gripped his hands.
    “I’ll, erm…‌‌I’ll give you two a moment,” Pedro said.
    He lowered his head and walked back outside, out towards the singing birds, out into the winter breeze.
    Perfect silence descended on the caravan living room. Riley and Anna just stared at one another awkwardly for God knows how long. Or was it awkward? How was he supposed to know?
    “I…‌‌How did you end up here?” Riley asked. His words were shaky, like an excited kid’s on Christmas morning.
    Anna cleared her throat and pointed outside the curtained window. “The boat. It‌—‌it crashed on a beach. My section crashed on a beach. I was bleeding and I…‌‌I looked; I swear I looked for you and for Pedro, but you were gone. And I walked some more and eventually these…‌‌these people brought me in. Rodrigo and Stevie.”
    Riley nodded. The blood trail covering the pebbles back on the beach. They must’ve been Anna’s after all. And the footsteps that started again after they’d left the beach must’ve been someone else’s.
    The body. The woman’s body Riley had seen lying in the middle of that road, being feasted on by creatures. It wasn’t Anna. Anna was here. Anna was alive.
    “Pedro told me. About how you found your way here.”
    Riley waited for Anna to elaborate. He could never be totally certain how much Pedro had told her. Whether he’d told her about little Thomas, and what had happened in that caravan.
    Somehow, Riley suspected that would be a secret that lived with Pedro and him for a long time.
    “You did good,” Anna said, tapping his leg. “Lucky you didn’t bleed out. Or get infected. Or something.”
    Riley pointed at Anna’s bandaged head. “I could say the same about you.”
    “Oh, this?” Anna said. “This is nothing. Just a bump. Sophia, she’s good with this whole medical thing. Works absolute wonders here. And y’know. It might be a few weeks I’ve been away from the doctor’s surgery but I still know a thing or two about head wounds.”
    “I’m sure you do,” Riley said. “You gave me a good enough one back when we first met.”
    Anna smiled. Chuckled. Moved her hair out of her eyes and behind her ears. A reminiscent, reflective laugh.
    “Look at us,” Riley said. “Reminiscing about the start of the Dead Days. With all the shit and all the pain that we’ve gone through, still we focus on a minor little moment of happiness to look back on.”
    Anna shrugged. “It’s what we’ve always done, isn’t it? Humans, I