Ten times our number, with no real ways to funnel them into a kill zone. We would be at risk of being swarmed and that was unacceptable. The admiral was working on a plan of attack that would minimize the loss of life, or so he claimed.
I didn’t care how many of our people died, so long as we killed all of the undead. A plan that relied on minimal losses was doomed to failure. We couldn’t truly commit ourselves if we weren’t willing to stand our ground and fight to the death.
A problem I would need to work on.
“Looks like trouble,” Gregg said with a nod of his head towards a running figure headed back to us.
The minion skidded to a stop just ahead of us and slammed his fist against his breast in salute. I cocked an eyebrow and waited for him to speak.
“A number of houses ahead, My Lord Death.”
“And?”
“No Scourge to be seen.”
I could feel my brow furrow at that. To say it was unexpected would be an understatement. I had assumed the admiral had sent drones ahead to check out the villages first.
“There are spikes.”
It took a moment to register what the minion had said and then I understood. “Empty?”
“No, My Lord Death. There are Scourge impaled upon them.”
“You just said there were no zombies,” Gregg pointed out.
“He meant none active,” I replied absently before the minion could. I reached for the radio on my belt and flicked it on. “Hello?”
“Yo, dude. What’s up?”
“Have your drones scouted the villages ahead of us?”
“What villages?”
That would be a no then. Charlie was in charge of any and all drone activity and if there had been any scouting out the way ahead of us, she would have known.
“The villages I am supposed to be clearing out.”
“No. Why would we? There’s nothing to them and you guys can handle yourselves. I have a hundred other places to scout and only so much time.”
We were barely a kilometre from Ramsay and it would be a simple matter to head back. Pointless wasting our time with empty villages. But, at the same time, I was curious as to who was mounting zombies on stakes.
I thumbed the button on the radio, turning it off, and slipped it back onto my belt. I looked at my companions and grinned.
“Let’s go see if we can find out who is doing this then.”
I ignored Greggs groan and carried on towards the village. As soon as we crossed the old railway tracks and came in sight of the first houses, I saw them. One at either side of the road, pointed tips stained black with old blood.
On the left-hand side, a torso and legs had sunk to the ground and was almost hidden in the grass and weeds. The head, which I assumed had fallen off when the decay had reached a certain point, lay a few feet away.
It must have been impaled some time ago for its weight to push it down the wooden stake. The body had a lot of bone visible through the flesh, what flesh remained at least. I walked past the body and crouched down beside the head.
The jaw moved as it became aware of me. It’s eye sockets were empty and much of the skin of the face was missing making it unrecognisable. Carrion birds was my guess. I slammed my blade into the top of the skull with a grimace of disgust for the pitiful creature.
“Is the other the same?”
“Yes, My Lord Death.”
“Then put it out of its misery and let’s keep going.”
The minion dashed away to do as commanded and I moved on, following the road. There were few houses alongside the road and those that were there were dark and empty. The salt leaden air had wreaked havoc on them with no people left to take care of the maintenance and they were in poor states of repair.
Further on, the village proper came into view. Those few houses became more, with several roads branching off of the one on which we walked. Wildflowers and weeds grew everywhere. The bushes and trees, overgrown with the ground covered in old leaves and seeds.
No zombies walked those streets and most of the houses were clearly empty of life. I sent my minions off anyway, moving in small groups to check each and every house as I stared at the long row of stakes that I guessed marked the village boundary.
Each and every one of those stakes had a zombie impaled upon it. While once they might have been able to make sound, that was no longer the case. Some could still move their limbs, but whatever energy they had was faded and almost gone.
Without the flesh they needed to remain animated, they were slowly dying. Like most of the zombies the world over, I would have thought. It was an immutable law of life. Nothing could exist without some form of energy to fuel it.
Humans ate vegetables and the flesh of animals, our bodies working to turn that into what we needed to live. A zombie, and the parasite that controlled it required less, but they still needed some. They decayed slowly, and if they didn’t move around or use their energy, they could live for quite some time.
But eventually, without something to keep them alive, they would die, like all things do. The zombies impaled on the stakes had clearly survived a long time because they weren’t using any of their stored reserves.
Still, many had succumbed and those that remained were in pitiful condition. Birds had fed on their eyes and picked at their flesh. Probably rats too, judging by how much of their flesh had been taken.
“Nothing, My Lord Death.”
I looked up at the minion as he saluted with fist to breast and realised I’d been staring at the impaled zombies for quite some time.
“No sign of the ones who did this?” I asked with a gesture at the stakes.
The minion shook his head, the movement almost lost beneath the black hood he wore. I waved him away and tapped at my chin with one finger.
“What you thinking?” Gregg asked.
“That this island isn’t as empty of the living as we thought.”
“This could have been done a year ago,” Isaac said. “Nothing to say there’s been anyone here recently.”
“Why else would they do it?” I asked quietly. “Unless they wanted to remain here and needed something to hide them from the other zombies.”
“Or they did it as a warning to others,” Isaac added. “Keep away, this is ours, kind of thing.”
That was always a possibility but I couldn’t quite believe that either of those were right. I approached the impaled zombies and slowly walked along the line.
They were all in various stages of undress when they had been impaled and since then, their bodies had been picked at by carrion feeders. It was hard to make out faces and even gender in some cases.
But not all, I realised as I reached one zombie. It had once been a woman and a young, physically fit one too judging by what remained of the body. It wasn’t entirely naked. One foot still had a pale yellow sock on.
The legs were bare and there was no underwear. A t-shirt still covered the upper body, stained and torn where the stake had been pushed through the chest. Strands of dark hair hung down from the head, it’s mouth working though there was no tongue and the eyes and nose had been eaten long since.
I stared at it for a long time, gaze moving over the body. It was hard to be a hundred per cent certain considering the age and condition of the body, but I was sure enough. No promises would be broken.
“You want us to give you some privacy, lad?” Isaac asked with a raucous bark of laughter. “You’ve been staring at her nether regions for a good long time now.”
“No,” I said, hearing the coldness in my voice. His eyes widened slightly as I turned to look directly at him and I knew that he saw the killer and not the man. My lips turned up in a smile. “I know what happened.”
“What, mate?” Gregg asked, taking a short step forward, hand half-outstretched towards me as though he were approaching a wild animal.
“She was taken and raped,” I said, inclining my head towards the half-naked zombie. “Then impaled while still alive.”
Gregg shared a look with Isaac and Erin and then glanced at the zombie impaled beside me.
“You can’t know that, mate. Not really.”
“No,” Isaac said. “I can see it. That’s why she’s naked from the waist down.”
“I would hazard a guess that each of these zombies were still living people when they were impaled. They were a warning after all. Telling someone to keep away or it would happen to them too.”
“Fuck,” Gregg breathed. “Who?”
I ignored him and lifted the radio from my belt, thumbing the switch and speaking into it, my voice so very cold as the darkness spread through me.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
There was silence in reply and I waited with more patience than he deserved until he finally answered.
“I suspected,” Admiral Stuart said when he finally responded.
“All three villages?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you sent me.”
He didn’t need to answer that. I knew. He sent me because of what I would find. Because he believed the people who did this were still in the area. He sent me because he knew I would do what was needed to punish them in a way that he couldn’t.
But still, I wanted to hear him say it. To admit that he needed the killer that I was and not the man.
“Yes.”
“Consider it done.”
I switched off the radio and replaced it on my belt, my smile growing. There was a living enemy on the island and one that had committed an atrocity. They were a threat to Lily, to my children. I wouldn’t rest until I had found them.
Until I’d killed them.
Chapter 18
“Can we talk?” Evelyn asked as she entered the room.
I looked up from the stack of reports on my desk and managed to offer her a weak smile. I waved her in and then realised she had nowhere to sit but the bed and Jinx had taken over that.
“Here, take my seat,” I said as I rose but she waved me back.
“No. It’s fine, I won’t be long.”
That sounded ominous but my sleep-deprived brain wasn’t going to be able to figure it out so I just waited for her to begin.
Ryan’s sister chewed on her lip and paced in a small circle, rubbing her hands together before her over and over again. She was clearly upset and struggling with something, but I wasn’t sure what that would be.
“Have they caught that woman yet?”
I held back a sigh as I realised it wasn’t going to be a quick and easy conversation after all.
“No. Not yet. We think she’s still in the town somewhere but hiding.”
“Getting dark outside. Do you think she’s been waiting for that?”
“Probably. Might be scared of what will happen to her. She did bite one man and killed several others. The part of her mind that is still her will know there’ll be consequences.”
“There’s always consequences,” Evie said and I noted the emphasis on the word.
Ah. It was about Ryan then.
“Can I offer you a drink?” I pushed myself up and moved over to the small cabinet that sat beside the bed and opened the door. “We have cola and lemonade.”
“I’m fine, thanks.”
“You sure? They were a gift from Samuel.”
“Ah, okay, thanks.”
I passed her over a can of coke and took the lemonade for myself. One of the perks of being with Ryan was that since his people were doing all the scavenging, they had first pick of anything they found.
Mostly everything was given over to the navy quartermasters who were overseeing the distribution of food and supplies, but some small items were kept back. Mainly because Samuel thought that I needed them.
Normally I would have argued against it and passed them on to the quartermasters myself, but I was pregnant and craving things I couldn’t possibly have. So I wasn’t going to feel too guilty about a few cans of pop.
And maybe a chocolate bar or two.
I settled onto the edge of the bed and waited patiently as she opened her coke and took a long sip.
“Christ! I’d forgotten what that tasted like.”
“Yeah. Weird isn’t it. We don’t get nearly enough of this stuff now which is probably good as I think we have fewer dentists than we do doctors.”
“I hadn’t even considered that. Great. Now I’m going to be worrying about cavities.”
Her smile widened and she even laughed, her body losing the tenseness and her pacing stopping. She seated herself on the end of the bed and took another sip before looking directly at me. I knew she was ready to speak.
“My… my, brother. Ryan.”
“I know him.” I smiled at that and opened my own can of lemonade.
“Yeah. I guess you do. Probably better than anyone else.”
“He’s not easy to get to know.”
“Yah, tell me about it. I spent years trying.”
There was pain in her voice and perhaps regret too.
“You know, I suspected what he was years before he probably did anything.” She turned her head away, a blush heating her cheeks. “I could have stopped him. Got him help, maybe.”
“I don’t think anyone would have been able to help.”
“No. But I could have tried and then I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt of Gabe’s death.”
So that was it, I thought. There was no reason to feel guilty about that since the only person to blame was Gabriel. I’d thought long and hard about it after Ryan had left me, when Pat had died, and I’d realised something. He deserved to die.
When the zombies had been attacking the pub, Gabriel and the others had blockaded themselves in the upstairs apartments. The rest of us had been left in the bar with a wounded Gregg and no way out.
Too late we had found the doors to the beer cellar and Pat had lost his life keeping the undead at bay while we escaped down there. I’d had to watch him die and for that, I could never forgive Gabriel.
But then, I wasn’t his sister.
“If you’d succeeded back then,” I said softly. “He’d have what? Changed or been imprisoned? If that had happened then I would be dead.”
She turned back to me and her eyes glimmered with tears. She was in pain and needed someone to talk to as much as everyone else. The problem was, they could talk to her but there was no other therapist for her to talk to.
I guessed that I’d have to do.
“Not only me. Gregg, Cass, Charlie, Samuel and hundreds of others. Whatever dark deeds he has done, he’s done a lot of good too.”
“Yah, I know that. But I also know that Gabe was my brother. Despite everything I knew about Ryan, I still loved him. But Gabe, we’d been close ever since we were little.”
“I can’t say how I’d feel in your place. I really can’t. But, what would you like me to do? Imprison him? Banish him? Is it justice or revenge you are wanting?”
She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and her head bowed, shoulders shaking as the tears came. When she spoke, the words were drawn from her in a wail.
“I just want my brother back.”
Which brother I wasn’t sure and to be honest, I didn’t think she did either. I reached out, slipping one arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, letting her cry. She buried her head in my shoulder and I held her close.
It was some time before the tears stopped and she pulled back, wiping at her eyes, cheeks red from embarrassment.
“I’m sorry. Really I am.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry about. Honestly. I’ve done my share of crying on a friends shoulder.”
“Thank you.”
She looked down again, slowly turning the can in her hand as she thought for a moment. I let her take the time she needed and avoided looking at the stack of reports that I was neglecting.
“Will you tell me something?”
“What do you want to know?”
“Has he really changed?”
“
Yes.” That didn’t even require any thinking about. “When we first met. I was running from some zombies and banged on a door. He opened it.”
I smiled at the memory. Those first days had been utterly terrifying and life-changing.
“He was confused about what was going on. Apparently, he didn’t watch the news so it was a bit of a surprise. Even more so for me when I ran down to his cellar and found a zombie.”
“In his cellar! How?”
“Apparently he’d just killed this man when I started banging on his door. The man reanimated and I found myself stuck in the basement of what I immediately realised was a murderer, with a zombie trying to eat me.”
“How did you go from that to… well, this?” She nodded at my growing stomach and I grinned.
“He killed the zombie and then explained that he would need allies to stay alive if the world was going to hell. I think he realised he wouldn’t be able to really blend in with survivors. He needed someone to help him. I was the closest person.”
“For me, I realised at the same time that the world really was ending and I had no chance of surviving without someone to protect me.”
“And you thought the man with a zombie in his cellar was that protector?” Evie’s laughter filled the room and my smile grew.
“Yes. Don’t get me wrong. I figured I could let him keep me alive at least until I found some other people but as soon as I could, I’d ditch him.” My terror back then had been overwhelming and I’d have agreed to anything if it meant I wouldn’t be eaten or murdered. “I made him make me a promise though.”
“A promise?”
“That he wouldn’t kill anyone though that changed later to anyone innocent.”
“You believed he’d keep that promise?”
“Yeah, I did. There was something even back then that made me believe he would. It helped that a few minutes later he stabbed someone in the leg.”
“He didn’t?”
“Oh yeah. I remember snapping at him. I was terrified of him back then but when he stabbed this poor guy in the leg, I just asked him why. You know what he said?”
“What?”
“I didn’t kill him! Just like that. As if I should be pleased that he’d kept his promise to me.” I shook my head. “I think that’s when the fear of him vanished. Just one simple thing. Showing that he’d keep his promise.”
Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18 Page 62
