Our Life (Sequel to "Remnants")

Crimson Earth

-Carl-

Riley just hit me...

Damn, did he really just hit me?....

The metallic tang of blood at the corner of my mouth confirmed it, but I was still in utter disbelief. I was only trying to help him – stopping him from doing something reckless that would get him killed, and leave Alexandria's fate in Michael's hands.

My jaw ached from the unexpected punch, but I briefly forgot about the pain when I looked up to witness another Alexandrian household smouldering in the distance.

Being too far away to know whose residence it was, I could only pray that no members of Riley and I's group were involved.

Michael grinned at the plume of ash that rose ominously in the distance, clearly satisfied by his work, not to mention our reaction to it.

"I can keep this up all day," he smirked menacingly, motioning to his controller.

I could only imagine the turmoil and distress occurring inside the walls of Alexandria, with hundreds of families – children, men and women – not knowing if their house would be the next to erupt in flame, taking their lives with it.

And only Riley and I could stop that from happening.

I turned to look at Riley, who was glaring spitefully at Michael, but upon noticing that I was looking at him, faced me with an apologetic look.

Of course, Michael noticed this, and just like his cousin he appeared to take pleasure from our emotional and physical pain.

I'm gonna kill this son of a bitch...

Just gotta figure out how.

"You know, Riley," Simon let out a deep sigh after laughing, as though he was contemplating something, "now I know I got your parents killed, I sorta feel bad about myself. I mean, you're a worthless son of a bitch, but I guess bringing a herd of walkers over to eat your parents was a pretty dick move, huh?"

"You wanna make it up to me?" Riley sneered darkly, "then let me smash your head against a cupboard like I did with Simon."

It was rare that Riley ever talked about what he did to Simon, let alone begin to glorify it, but this was a desperate situation, and whilst antagonizing Michael was risky, a man blinded my anger was more likely to make a mistake.

"You watch your mouth you stupid, worthless, screw-up kid!" Michael yelled, taking a step closer to Riley with his pistol outstretched, aiming directly between his eyes.

Riley simply stood, unfazed – or at least acting unfazed – by Michael's threats, smirking in an almost victorious way.

"Oh, so you think you're clever, huh?" Michael retorted, clearly enraged by Riley's expression, "well you're wrong, kid! You're so wrong! And now you're gonna pay the price!"

With that, Michael threw the detonator to Riley.

Riley extended his hand and clutched the detonator, his once confident, victorious smirk wiped off in the knowledge of what he was about to have to do.

"Press the trigger," our sadistic captor demanded, and Riley shifted his gaze from the detonator to Michael with a 'no way in hell' sort of expression.

"Or," Michael added, pointing the gun toward me, "I kill your buddy over here."

I flinched at the sight of the metal barrel, extended in my direction with the capability of wiping my life away in the split-second.

This added a new level of pressure on Riley, who would not forgive himself regardless of the outcome; he hated killing other people – that had certainly been made clear in the past few years – but letting me die would be far more traumatizing for him.

He now faced a horrifying choice, but his facial expression did not emphasise this horror. Instead, I noticed Riley pressing several buttons on the controller, which I could not see from this angle.

"Don't screw around with that thing!" Michael instructed with a bellowing yell, "just press the button, or you'll be wearing your friend's blood in a few seconds!"

Carl turned to me with a broken, traumatized expression, before whispering: "Carl... I... I'm so sorry..."

With that, he threw the controller back to Michael, and I stood in utter disbelief and denial.

"I'm not killing any more people!" Riley justified himself, his voice cracking in sadness and remorse as he knew he had just sacrificed my life.

No...

This isn't happening...

I couldn't be angry at Riley – he had made it perfectly clear that he was disgusted by the killing of other survivors – but I couldn't believe that he'd...

My thoughts trailed off, as Michael grinned wickedly at the sight he was bearing witness to.

"Wow," he chuckled menacingly, "I honestly didn't expect it to end that way. You've failed, Riley – you've failed miserably. Just like your parents did at protecting you all those years ago. Now, before I blow Carl's brains out, I'd like you to watch one more building in Alexandria go up in flames!"

He emphasised his brutal point by clicking the detonator one final time, but both me and Michael were surprised to see that the previously un-primed explosive which Michael had in his pocket was now rapidly beeping.

"You've failed, Michael," Riley spat, as Simon's only surviving relative frantically struggled to take the compact explosive out of his pocket, "say hello to your cousins!"

My boyfriend gripped my hand tightly, and threw himself, along with me, to the ground.

"No, no!" Michael yelled in desperation, unable to remove the explosive from his pocket in time.

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, and an awesome detonation erupted just a few feet away.

An ear-splitting blast followed, accompanied with a blinding white light and a searing surge of air and heat. When this rush of energy impacted against Riley and I, I found myself barely able to comprehend my vision spinning radically as the two us were launched violently several feet back, collapsing atop one of the ruined tents.

I lay there for several minutes, vision blurred and ear ringing loudly as I struggled to recover from disorientation following the leviathan blast.

My eyes, stunned by the searing light of the explosion, were only able to distinguish a large plume of grey rising into the sky – a sky which appeared white instead of blue.

"R – Ri..." I croaked, but as the adrenaline drained away, it was replaced by a sensation of pain in my back.

Whether I was burnt by the scorching heat of the blast, or if shards of metal had cut my back, I couldn't determine, but whatever it was, it hurt.

I looked over to see a small crater where Michael once stood. All that remained of Simon's sadistic cousin was a stain of crimson Earth

My eyes were seeing only black and white, but these colours began to merge, with my vision becoming only a huge blur. I was barely able to comprehend the sight of Riley laying a few meters away, silent and motionless, before everything faded to white...

 —-

Well, there you have it!

How did Riley kill Michael exactly???

You'll find out in the next chapter (hopefully), which brings me onto the fact that this story is not far from finishing :'(

I don't really want it to end, but Riley and Carl have been going on for a long time now, and I think they need to settle down before too long.

Don't worry though, there's more to come yet - some you'll like, whilst some you won't ;)