Dead Days: The Complete Season Two Collection Read Online Free Page B

He eased himself forward and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at the person again. Checked to see he hadn’t been imagining things. Checked to see he wasn’t going completely insane.
    He was still there.
    “Pedro?” Riley said.
    Pedro smiled. “Well who were you expectin’? St. Peter at the Gates of Heaven? If he is the…‌‌well. The dude who lets people in heaven. Not that we’ll be finding out any time soon with the shit we’ve done.”
    Riley looked around. He was in a kind of ridge. At the side of him, he could see tree roots shooting out of a wall of dirt. He looked up. Daylight. Daylight in the forest. Birds were singing. The wind was blowing, but not as strong as last night. Gentle. Pleasant.
    “How did you…‌‌What has‌—‌”
    A sharp pain in his leg as he tried to move. He looked down at it and saw that it was bandaged with what must’ve been the piece of material missing from Pedro’s jacket. There was no sign of blood on the makeshift bandage, but he could still feel the foreign object in his leg.
    “Yeah, I’d be careful with that leg,” Pedro said. “Did my best to close the wound for now, but…‌‌Well. The shrapnel. There’s not a lot I can do with the limited tools we have on offer, you know? Anyway, you should drink.” He handed Riley a small metal whisky flask. “Good job I keep that thing in my pocket at all times. And good job I only had water in it.”
    Riley opened the lid of the whisky flask and poured some of it down his throat.
    “Woah, woah, mate.” Pedro yanked the flask away from Riley, frowning. “Save some for me.” He drank some of the water and let out a satisfying gasp after he’d finished. “Don’t know how long we’re going to have to make it last for.”
    Riley eased further forward and looked around. He was definitely in some sort of ditch. “Where…‌‌Where am I? And how did you…‌?”
    “Front cabin of the boat crashed in to the south,” Pedro said, pointing to his left. “I was lucky, really. The whole thing came apart and for a while, it was just me. But I just rode the waves and then rode the tide and‌—‌bam. Here we are. Oi, want any help there?”
    Riley gripped the root of a tree that poked from the dirt wall of the ridge and pulled himself upright. His right leg was weak and shaky, but he wanted to walk. He never thought he’d walk again, not after how it ended in the darkness when he’d last been awake. He needed to walk again.
    “Anyway, I got hassled by a few goons down by the coast, but I managed to shake them. Made my way into the woods. Figured I’d make my way to higher ground. Luckily I always carry a little torch around with me for when I need…‌‌needed to piss on the boat. So yeah. At least I could see my way.”
    The light. The light that Riley had seen in the woods. It was Pedro. All along, it was Pedro.
    “And then I hear a little whimper behind me as I’m wandering through the woods and…‌‌well, here we are. In the very ditch you stumbled into last night. But fair play for calling out to me. You’d be dead now if it wasn’t for me. And, well. I hate to scare you, but…‌‌that leg. It isn’t going to get any better in that condition. You need to seriously start thinking about, well, options.”
    “Options?” Riley said. “What option do I have?”
    Pedro opened his mouth to respond then shrugged. “I dunno. I guess what I’m trying to say is you aren’t going to survive with a wound like that forever. Far from forever. So just…‌‌well. Go easy and be prepared, y’know?”
    Riley nodded. Pedro was right. He wasn’t going to survive a wound like this out here. Not without a doctor.
    Anna was a doctor.
    “Have you seen any of the others?” Riley asked as Pedro and he made his way slowly out of the ridge and in the direction of the beach.
    Pedro lowered his head and coughed. He looked at Riley for a split second, then turned away again. “I er…‌‌I didn’t think I was