I was stuck. Life on one side and death on the other. I could go and kill them all anyway. It wouldn’t take long and then I could go and see to her. But that wasn’t enough, I knew that. She was hurt and that meant our children could be in danger too.
For the first time in my life, I had a decision to make that I had once thought impossible. Which meant more to me. Lily and my children or unleashing the murder and mayhem that I craved so badly.
It was a question that I had long suspected would come, but I’d expected it to be Lily to give me the ultimatum. Choose her or my life as a killer. In my mind, I’d never had any doubts. The killer was who I was.
There was no one else without the serial killer. It was very much like I was two people. The killer and the man. Often, the killer was there, beneath the surface, waiting. But on occasion, he would rise up fully and seize control and wouldn’t leave until sated.
I needed to kill those people. Needed them to die for what they had done, but mostly, because I really, really, just wanted to kill them. I wanted to feel their blood run over my skin, to watch the life fade from their eyes.
It was a drug. One that I could not ever truly give up. It was a part of me. But, so was Lily.
“Go and kill them all,” I told the closest minion. “Once you’re done, return to the main force and wait for instruction.”
Her fist slammed against her breast and she scurried off down the tunnel, the rest of my minions following behind. Gregg stared at me, eyebrows rising in surprise.
“Don’t say anything and just let’s get out of here,” I said, with a rumble of anger in my throat. “I’m going to need a boat.”
“Charlie said one’s already on the way. Can meet us off the coast in ten minutes.”
I nodded brusquely and pushed past him, closing my ears to the distant startled cries as my minions set about slaying those people. They had damned themselves with rape and murder, long before they had tasted the flesh of the children.
There was no remorse for their deaths but a part of me longed to be the one killing them.
Isaac grabbed my arm and helped pull me from the hole. Both he and Erin had the same look of surprise that Gregg wore.
“If anyone says anything, I’m not sure what I’ll do. Just give me space.”
“Whatever you need, mate. C’mon, boat will be here soon.”
I walked ahead of them, through the field of tall grass and weeds, swallowing back my disappointment and stuffing the darkness back down where it belonged.
Whatever had happened to Lily, I was sure I would find an appropriate way to vent my anger and assuage my desire for death.
At least I hoped so.
Chapter 23
The boat glided in towards the docks and before the crew even had time to tie it off, I jumped over the railing to the wooden boards of the dock. A black-garbed minion was there to meet me and saluted with fist to the breast.
“Where is she?”
“Hospital, My Lord Death.”
There was fear in his voice, which I could understand. I had given them all one very explicit order and that was to protect her. They’d failed.
Gregg and the two mercenaries ran alongside me as I jogged to the small hospital centre to the east. The streets were unnaturally quiet with few people out on them and those mainly CDF or the Dead.
Drones flew overhead in a searching pattern and my mood darkened even further. Something had clearly gone badly wrong and I would make someone pay for it. Lily was hurt!
The entire ride over I had been unnaturally pensive and far more irritable than usual. I’d been left thankfully alone by the others and had waited with little patience for the boat to make its way back to the Isle of Lewis.
A journey that had not been made any more pleasant by the rain and wind that still persisted, souring my mood even further.
There were a handful of CDF troopers outside the hospital entrance, their faces set and eyes alert as they watched over those people within. A fist of my own minions crouched nearby, looking to most like they were lounging around.
I knew differently. They were just as alert as the troopers, if not more so. They would also stand and die before any enemy entered that building. They saluted as they saw me but didn’t move from their posts as I walked straight past the guards without challenge.
The hospital was much as before. Overcrowded and smelling of the antiseptic they were using everywhere in a poor attempt at keeping it somewhat sanitized. Nurses ran this way and that, on some errand or other and medics tended to the waiting patients
One of the nurses stopped as she saw me and simply pointed down a corridor. I nodded my thanks and ran that way. It didn’t take long to find the room Lily was in. The two minions standing guard by her door was indication enough.
I didn’t even look at them as I pushed past and into the room. There she was, in a bed, eyes closed and unnaturally pale with a bandage wrapped tightly around her head. I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of her as I stepped forward, towards her.
Her hand was cold as I wrapped my own fingers around hers. Jinx, whined softly as she looked up at me from where she lay on the other side of Lily, furry body pressed up against hers. I managed something close to a smile for her.
“She’ll be okay,” Evelyn said softly and I looked up, somewhat startled to see her sitting opposite where I stood.
“Sister.” I licked suddenly dry lips and my gaze returned to Lily. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
A single word but enough to make me exhale a soft sigh of what I could only imagine was relief. The idea that she could have been hurt was surprisingly painful to me. I couldn’t understand it.
“The babies?”
“They’re fine too,” Cass said and I turned to look at her. She was seated beside the door with my mother next to her. Which was a surprise.
“Mother,” I said by way of greeting and nodded towards Cass, who smiled gently in response.
“She was hypothermic when they found her,” Evelyn said, voice soft and calming. “If not for this beautiful creature, howling fit to raise the dead, she might not have been found in time.”
Evie smiled at her own choice of words, absurd as they were in a world where the dead did, in fact, walk amongst us. I nodded thanks for her explanation and looked into the large, brown, eyes of Jinx. It seemed that I owed her a great deal and I would be sure to reward her appropriately when given the chance. Just then, all I could do was offer my thanks to her, which I suspected she understood by the way she was looking at me.
“What happened?” There was a return of the coldness to my voice as I said that. She would be fine. Our children were safe. That allowed me to regain my anger and I needed a target. “Where is Samuel?”
“He’s next door,” Cass said and rose from her seat, approaching me slowly, cautiously, like I were some wild animal. “It wasn’t his fault.”
“I gave him one command.”
“Yes.” She gripped my arm in hers and stepped in closer, voice dropping for me alone. “This was not his fault though. Lily left in the middle of the night, without telling anyone and taking only a few guards.”
“Where was he?”
“Hunting the infected.”
The what?
She caught my look of confusion and smiled tightly. “Go. Go talk to Samuel and he’ll fill you in on what’s been happening. We’ll wait with her.”
I stared at her a moment and then turned to look at Lily, lying there so frail and vulnerable. I didn’t want to leave her side, I realised with some surprise. I wanted to be there with her to make sure she woke up.
“Ryan,” Evelyn said with that same soothing voice she used with her patients. She was looking at me with something like puzzlement as though seeing something unexpected. “We’re here for her now, but while the infected are still running around, she’s in danger.”
“They attacked her once,” Cass agreed. “If they aren’t stopped…”
&nb
sp; She didn’t need to say any more than that and I tightened my hands into fists, a cold darkness rising up inside of me. It seemed like I could be there for Lily and still get to fulfil my need for murder after all.
I stalked from the room, body tense and the need to kill something almost overwhelming me. Into the next room, where a single figure was seated beside the bed of a young woman that I vaguely recognised.
She was as pale as Lily but conscious. Her eyes met mine and widened as she struggled to push herself up. The side of her face was swollen and bruised and her hands were bandaged. Samuel reached out and gently pushed her back down before rising himself.
He turned to me and bowed low, then pulled his knife from his sheath and tossed it in his hand, catching it by the blade. He offered it to me, hilt first and looked directly at me.
“I failed you, My Lord Death. My life is yours.”
My urge to take the knife was almost overpowering. I wanted to do it, I realised. I wanted to take it and carve out his eyes. To cut out his heart and scream my rage for all the world to see. Lily was hurt and I wanted someone to hurt as much as I did.
That realisation rocked me. I was experiencing emotional pain! That was a new and unpleasant thing to me and one that I did not appreciate.
“Put it away,” I snapped. “And tell me what happened.”
Samuel stared at me for a long minute before lowering his hand and bowing his head. Then he began to speak, telling me of Briony’s escape and the effect her bite had on others. Leaving them not quite dead, but not alive and definitely dangerous.
They maintained their intellect but couldn’t seem to overcome the need to feed. When the hunger became too much, they lost control and would do anything they could to get the meat they craved.
He nodded to the young woman beside him as he explained that Lily had gone out to see the researchers in the middle of the night and what had happened after.
“It was my failure, My Lord Death,” Lisa said softly. “I should have insisted she stay.”
“Like that would have mattered,” I muttered as I gave her an appraising glance. “You were in the river with her?”
Her cheeks heated but she nodded, looking away, ashamed.
“What happened?”
She explained in a wooden voice. The car going off the bridge, the killing of Alec and fight with the infected under the water as Lily escaped to the surface.
“I should have sent for a truck and more guards.”
“No. You couldn’t have foreseen that and without your actions in the water, Lily would be dead. You have my thanks for that.”
Lisa blinked at that, surprised. Which was understandable. My gratitude was rare and not something I gave out for little reason. Still, she deserved it. Without her actions, I was sure that Lily would have died. I could forgive much for that.
“You killed the infected?”
“Yes, My Lord Death.”
“Good. You are not infected yourself?”
“No.”
“Then rest. I want you to heal and then remain at Lily’s side. Do you understand?”
The young woman nodded, and I turned back to Samuel gesturing for him to follow me from the room.
“Tell me about this search.”
There was an enemy to face after all. One that was even more challenging than the Reapers by the sounds of it. One that I could take out all of my anger and frustration on. I smiled as Samuel began to talk.
“Oy, Clever Bastard!”
Isaac pushed himself away from the wall where he had been leaning and came towards me. Samuel readied the knife he still carried but I waved him back. There was no danger from the mercenary.
“You hunting the bastards that hurt her?”
“Yes, why?”
“We’ll help.” He gestured with a jerk of his chin towards the ever silent Erin.
“Why?”
“I like that lady of yours. More than I like you, anyway.”
“As you wish. Keep up with us.”
“I’m in too,” Gregg called as he stepped out of Lily’s room. “Cass and the others can watch over her. I need to be doing something.”
“Good.”
“Any idea how we can find them?” Isaac asked and I smiled.
“They’re smart enough to hide from us. But the streets have been cleared and people are remaining in their locked houses. They won’t open their doors to strangers so we are going to give them something to eat.”
I looked at my companions and my smile widened. It would be more than that. We would be laying a trap and you didn’t lure your prey into a trap without some bait. So I was going to get some.
Chapter 24
“Why do I have to be the bait?” Gregg asked for perhaps the second time in as many minutes.
“Because you’re obviously looking quite tasty,” Isaac said with a laugh.
He grumbled a bit but didn’t reply which was good, since I was in no mood to be questioned. I stared across at the bridge that Lily had been forced off of and just felt a slow, burning anger that needed to be answered.
“Why are we even here, anyway?” he asked. “Why not further south?”
“Because this is as close to a middle as we will get,” I said quietly.
It was true. When I looked at the map of the town, it was clear to make out a rough hourglass-like shape. Homes and small, local businesses to the north of where we were, spread out to east and west.
While to the south, it was much the same. Due to the way the river to west curved around, the town had grown around that. Hugging the river on one side and being forced to spread outwards rather than just building more on the other side of the river.
As a result. There was a small part of the town that was like a natural bottleneck between north and south, and that’s where we were. A large shopping complex was just off the road to the east of us and we stood in the centre of a small roundabout where we could be clearly seen by anyone travelling north or south.
“Is Erin in place?”
“Aye, she’s up there,” Isaac said with a nod towards the shopping complex roof.
I was counting on her and the sniper rifle of hers, to give us an edge. My plan wasn’t without risk after all.
Samuel and the every available CDF trooper and minion had gone to the very north of the town. Drones flew in constant search patterns overhead, covering as much of it as possible. My idea, simple as it was, would see any infected driven south.
Right towards the three of us.
The sun was dipping below the horizon and night was not far away. Word had gone out. Any home that was unlocked would be searched. Anyone out on the street would be at risk of being mistaken for infected and killed.
They had hurt Lily. I wouldn’t let them live through the night.
“Should be starting now,” I said.
Sure enough, in the distance, we could hear it. Spread out in a long line, to cover as much of the town as they could, the soldiers and minions would be moving from house to house, building to building.
If there was an unlocked door anywhere, they would open it and search inside. There would be no place for the infected to hide.
And, since they weren’t zombies, any door that was locked would require someone living to show themselves at a window and reassure the soldiers that there were no infected in the house. They could work a lock as well as any living person, after all.
It would be a house to house search that would take time, but time we had. No one would be sleeping until we had been through every single house and building in the town. I didn’t care how long it might take.
As they walked, they would each be playing a recorded message out loud. Simple as it was, I expected it to work. After all, the message proclaimed loudly for any hungry infected to hear, that there was food waiting unarmed, on a roundabout in the road.
I would see just how much of their reasoning ability they lost when hungry.
Even expecting it as I was, I was a lit
tle surprised when the first two infected people came running down the road. Blood still coated their clothing from where they had been bitten and there was a wildness to their movements that spoke of a lack of control.
“Should I..?” Isaac asked, half raising his hand and I nodded.
He clenched his fist and raised it high. Immediately, a shot rang out and the first infected fell. The second moments later to Erin’s next shot.
“She’s really good,” Gregg muttered as he stared at the bodies.
“Aye, was top of her class in training.”
I glanced at him but he pressed his lips firmly together and didn’t say any more. He was remarkably reticent about their time before Genpact. Which was fair enough. It wasn’t like I shouted out my past to anyone who would listen.
The next one was smarter. I almost didn’t see it until it was almost on us as it took its time, sneaking through the bushes and trees on the river banking. It moved slowly, watching and waiting for the right moment to pounce.
When it did, I had a bare moment to register its leap before Isaac stepped forward and smacked it right in the jaw. It flew backwards from the force of his powerful blow and without wasting any time, I had my knife out and in its skull before it could recover.
“Thanks,” I said as I wiped my blade clean on the corpse.
“No Problem.”
“Bet that felt weird,” Gregg said with a giggle. “You spent all that time hunting him and abducting him. Now you’re helping save him.”
“Yeah, a little weird.”
I ignored them as I stared at the body. Three of them had fallen for the bait and three of them had died. According to Samuel, they had killed a handful while searching for Briony. How many then, was she turning?
People had been reported missing but with everyone locked up in their houses, it was hard to know if some infected had broken in and killed everyone. Sure, the neighbours should hear and raise the alarm but in the middle of the night, if done right, it could be quite silent.
Whatever she was doing, it was clearly with a purpose. The question was what that was. According to the little Samuel had learned from Lily after her talk with Vanessa. Briony was still the same person she had always been.
Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18 Page 66
