Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18

by Murray, Richard

  "Won't happen," I replied with a grin as I allowed a hint of the killer to enter my eyes.

  Samuel stared hard into my eyes, searching them for a long moment before he nodded abruptly and spun on his heel. He strode towards the door, the minions there pulling it open and allowing a blast of icy wind to blow snow inside.

  I watched him go for a moment before turning back to the gathered minions. One passed me my other baton and I nodded as I hefted it in my hand.

  "Begin!"

  Chapter 2

  “This is ridiculous!” Evie snapped as she stared out of the window at the falling snow.

  “It is what it is,” I said, calmly as I leant back, a steaming cup of tea in one hand and a careful eye on the twin bassinets beside the soft fabric sofa. “One could almost imagine that you were concerned for him.”

  She turned to glare at me which only made me smile. In the past half a year, I had become close with Ryan’s sister and since having the twins, had appreciated her desire to be in their lives. Her son, Lucas, was with his grandparents for the night and that had allowed her the opportunity to visit her niece and nephew.

  Which I couldn’t blame her for. They were, after all, adorable. Admittedly as their mother, I was biased, but it was fair to say that I wasn’t the only one that considered them to be so.

  “How many nights will you sit here while he is out there getting beaten half to death in some toxic need to assert his manhood!”

  I cocked an eyebrow and tilted my head as I gave her a wry smile. She knew him better than most and couldn’t possibly believe that was what he was doing.

  “Fine,” she muttered, giving up. “I know why, but it’s not healthy. He should be here helping you.”

  She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and pouted in a way that actually made her look prettier than she already was. I could understand her frustration and I had more than a little of my own about Ryan’s activities, but I was realistic about them at least.

  “Do you really think I need help?”

  Her lips twisted at that and then she laughed as she shook her head, dark hair falling loosely around her face.

  “No. I guess not.”

  Between my boyfriend’s mother, father and sister, I would have been covered for help. When you added in Cass, Gregg, Samuel and any number of black-garbed death cultists who had allowed a little of their reverence for Ryan to cross over to his children; well, I was pretty well taken care of.

  Since moving to the town of Douglas on the Isle of Man, things had been good. No, better than good. They were pretty great. In just over two months, we had managed to get people settled in and the last of the undead cleaned out.

  The CDF had taken over policing the island along with the distribution of supplies, while the Royal Navy engineers had done an incredible job with getting the water and power on. Still no gas, but they were working on that too.

  When we had arrived, my preference had been for a small home where I would be able to live with Ryan and our children. It had soon become readily apparent that that wouldn’t work. Since I was in charge of the government and he had his death cult, we both needed extra levels of security.

  After the first couple of attempts on your life, you soon figured out that good security was essential.

  As a result, we had taken over an entire block of flats. At any other time, I would have been wowed by them. The one we had taken for ourselves on the top floor was a four-bedroom spacious apartment with a view of the sea which happened to be just across the road from us.

  I’d have been surprised if it had been any less than a half a million pounds per unit back before the fall of the world. The floor directly below us had been taken by Gregg and Cass and below them, Evelyn and her parents.

  The lowest floor was entirely filled by Samuel and a strong cadre of acolytes. A perimeter had been set up around the building with CDF guards too. It was, essentially, a small yet luxurious fortress.

  “You think they’ll ask us to leave?” I asked as the thought occurred. “I mean, when whoever gets elected takes over?”

  “They can try, I suppose,” Evie said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “Depends who gets in.”

  “Who did you vote for?”

  “I can’t tell you that!” She laughed and then looked directly at me, one eyebrow cocked. “Who did you vote for?”

  “Cass.”

  “Good choice.”

  It was. She was level headed, intelligent and she cared about the people as much as I did. She was also my best friend, which made voting for her easier.

  “I hope Mason doesn’t get in.”

  Miss Mason. The leader of the small religious faction that had formed on the Isle of Lewis. Some of her policy suggestions were not for the faint of heart. I highly suspected that she wouldn’t get more than a handful of votes from some of the extreme members of her own faction.

  I hoped not, anyway.

  “Why did you do it?”

  It was an honest question and I smiled as I gave her the same, honest, answer that I had given everyone who had asked.

  “I made a promise. When I executed Minister Shahid I told the people watching that I would step down when we were safe. We are.”

  “Here on the island, sure. But there’s still danger out in the world.”

  More than she knew, I thought with a sad smile. Briony, the infected woman that had wreaked havoc before escaping in a boat, was still out there somewhere. We had lost her trail months ago and not heard anything since. My one hope was that the zombies had killed her.

  Then there was Genpact. Ryan had wiped out one of their bases but they had one more in England and others spread around the world. They’d been quiet since he had escaped from them but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we would see them again.

  Somewhere off the coast of Spain was a pirate fleet. They had been raiding survivor enclaves and capturing boats. There was no doubt that they were moving northwards towards us and we didn’t have the capacity to defeat them at sea.

  We’d not managed to find the source of the broadcast that was supposedly from a legitimate government in hiding somewhere in the UK. Ryan was convinced it was a fake meant to sow discord but I wasn’t sure.

  And, of course, there were still millions of zombies out there. The summer hadn’t been kind to them and a good number of the Shamblers had died off. Ferals and Reapers had simply grown in number by feasting on those corpses.

  Our ships were out there constantly, gathering up survivors and offering aid to those who wanted to remain in their own enclaves. Not to mention gathering supplies to supplement our own stocks which were running low.

  On the plus side, we had cattle. Also, sheep and chickens. Not many, just a few traded from the small group of survivors outside of Perth. But it was a start and while we had to keep them under pretty constant guard as they were more precious than gold, we had them.

  It gave me hope for the future. While the winter had begun harshly and was only going to get worse, we had a chance. Something I hadn’t expected to ever be able to say again.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Evie said, and I smiled a little sadly at her.

  “Just thinking of all my problems and worries that will be someone else’s tomorrow.”

  “You’ll miss being in charge. You’re a natural at it.”

  “Maybe.” My gaze went to the two sleeping babies and I shook my head. “Maybe not.”

  “Well, the first of my students held their own sessions today.”

  “Oh? How did it go?”

  “I snuck a peek in on them without them knowing. It was a crash course in grief counselling that I gave them, but they picked it up quickly.”

  “Will free up some time for you then.”

  “Not really. I will just fill my days with all those people who need a bit more than group therapy.”

  It seemed that everyone on the island was suffering at least mild mental health issues. Many of them with more than mild. Evi
e had been run off her feet every day trying to help people and had still found time to train others to hold group sessions.

  She was impressive as hell and in my old life, I’d have been intimidated by her. Intelligent, beautiful and successful in her field. Who wouldn’t have been intimidated?

  “How’s your dad?”

  “His health’s improving. Like everyone else, he needs more fresh food.”

  “Thomas thinks his grow-houses will work.”

  An engineer from Admiral Stuart's fleet, he had designed hydroponic systems that would help us grow plants indoors, despite the weather outside. With the aid of Ryan’s acolytes who had risked their lives to gather the gear they needed, they were almost ready.

  “I hope so.”

  As did I. The temperature during the summer had been low and we had seen the sun rarely. Apparently, when several countries had tried to use nuclear weapons to solve their zombie problem, they had thrown a lot of crap up into the air.

  Later, as nuclear powerplants had melted down, the resulting explosions and fires had just made it worse. We’d experienced a full degree drop in temperature across the board and dark clouds obscured the sky for much of the year.

  If it continued in the spring, we would have trouble growing the crops we planned to plant. I had twenty odd thousand people to feed and if we couldn’t grow our own, we would starve.

  Still, that was a problem for later, or for someone else at least.

  I took a sip of my tea and smiled as Jinx padded into the room. She huffed as she looked over the sides of the bassinets and settled down on the carpet beside them. The dark-haired Alsatian had taken it upon herself to be the guardian of the twins and rarely left their side.

  A banging on the door interrupted my thoughts and Lisa opened it before stepping inside. My bodyguard nodded her head, grimacing before she swept loose hair from her face. She had stopped wearing her hood while in the block of flats, something which I took to mean she was comfortable with me.

  “Forgive me, Lily.” I smiled at that. It had taken time to break her from the habit of trying to give me a title and just use my name. “There is a boat.”

  Any humour I had disappeared at that and I felt the frown forming as I glanced at my babies. “Boat?”

  “Yes, approaching through the storm.”

  That was beyond dangerous and I could see no reason why they would do so. Standing order was not to risk lives.

  “Has the Admiral been made aware?”

  “Yes. He’s on his way but has requested your presence.”

  I glanced helplessly at the babies and Evie reached out, patting my knee.

  “Go. I’ll watch them. You’re still in charge for the moment.”

  “There is a full fist guarding this floor and more down below,” Lisa said with a reverent bow of her head to the children. “They shall not come to harm.”

  “It’s fine,” Evie said. “Go. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

  “There’s milk in the fridge,” I said as I rose to my feet. “There’s a bottle heater on the counter and-“

  “I’ve done this before! It will be fine.” She laughed as she made a shooing motion with her hands. “Go, do your duty.”

  My heart was heavy at the thought of leaving my babies but I couldn’t deny my duty. If they were asking for me then there must be a problem. I headed for the door.

  Whatever it was, I just hoped it wasn’t the cause of the feeling of unease that had been cloaking me of late.

  Chapter 3

  The last of the minions dropped and Isaac stepped forward, his bat swinging and a satisfied smirk on his face. I was beaten and bruised with blood dripping into my eyes. It was entirely likely that he would get his revenge for my earlier blow.

  “My Lord Death!”

  I turned, wiping the blood from my eyes and focused on the snow-covered minion that had just barged into the gym.

  “What is it?”

  “Your presence is requested at the Command Centre.”

  “No fucking way,” Isaac growled. “Not till we’re done.”

  “Sorry.” I flashed him a grin as he scowled back at me. “Must be important.”

  “Screw important! We’ll finish this.”

  I could have ignored him and just left but with all of my minions watching, I felt it was probably a good idea to show them that I wouldn’t back down. I rolled my eyes and fast as a striking snake, I launched one of the wooden batons straight at Isaac’s head.

  He ducked to the side, batting it away and I was moving. His eyes widened and his scowl turned to a grimace as I slammed my other baton into his stomach, spinning away and around, my right leg rising to hit him square in the centre of his back.

  As he dropped to his knees, it was simplicity itself to wrap one arm around his neck and pull it tight as I grabbed my wrist with my other hand and put as much pressure as I could on the carotid artery as I did my best to choke him out.

  His fingers clawed at my arm for several seconds before he growled, low in his throat which came out as more of a gurgle. Then he reached up and patted my arm, surrendering. I had to grit my teeth and force myself to release my hold on him before stepping back as he gasped for air.

  “Fair play,” Isaac said between sucking in breaths. “I let my guard down.”

  “A bad thing to do in any fight,” I agreed. “Now. It’s been fun but I better go. Tomorrow?”

  “Aye. I’ll be here and you better bring your ‘A’ game because I will.”

  I flashed another grin at the back of his head and spun on my heel, heading for the door. Gregg caught up with me after just a few steps and passed me the thick coat Lily had insisted I wear.

  “Thanks.”

  He didn’t say anything as I pulled it on, just zipped up his own, wincing at the chill wind blowing in through the open door. Behind us, the minions returned to their own sparring sessions.

  Outside, the wind pulled at our clothes and snow soon settled on us, dissolving against the heat of our bodies. We lowered our heads and pushed against the wind as we headed to the waiting car.

  There were few such vehicles on the island that were in working order and all of them had been put to use for official business only. That they had sent one, even with the weather, was a telling point.

  I climbed into the back of the car, Gregg beside me, and we shared a look as the soldier glanced back at us.

  “Anyone else, sir?”

  “No.”

  He nodded and set off, driving slowly through the snow-choked streets, the four-wheeled drive the only thing allowing him to make any progress. It was slow going and I settled back in for the journey, staring out at the darkness and the falling snow.

  There were few lights visible in windows, just the occasional thin crack of light as someone brushed past a curtain. It was a sensible order that Lily had given, making sure all lights were covered on a night.

  No need to let the mainland see us. That would just make us a target.

  Those lights that were in use, were low powered and turned inwards as much as possible. They were few and far between, just enough for the patrols to see by as they walked their rounds.

  “What’s the fuss all about?” Gregg asked, leaning forward towards the driver.

  “No idea, sir.”

  Gregg looked back at me and lifted his shoulders in a shrug before settling back. The soldiers were generally a chatty lot and most of them knew Gregg well enough to at least exchange a few words.

  He’d fought beside them and in his role with the government, had spent a lot of his time at their training grounds. Most would know him by sight and many of them would have spoken to him at some point.

  It was one of his most irksome qualities, his need to be a social butterfly, chatting happily away with anyone and everyone.

  The command centre was an old brick building that had more wall than window. Three storeys high, not too far from the docks, the lower floor had been sealed up entirely. The Admiral took se
curity seriously and as tightly wound as he was, I hadn’t been surprised when he had introduced ID cards for everyone that would be checked by the soldiers on duty.

  I grinned as the car practically slid to a stop on the icy snow. I pushed open the door and stepped out, the snow crunching beneath my boots. Gregg went first, pulling out his badge and showing it to the soldiers before they let him in.

  As I approached, hand going into my pocket, they just waved me through, the younger of the two on guard not meeting my eyes. I shrugged at that. It seemed that I had garnered quite the reputation on the island and there were few it seemed that didn’t know me.

  Before I had made it through the door, four of my minions came trotting up through the snow. They’d trailed us from the gym, running through the snow behind the car. The soldiers waved them through too and I frowned at that.

  No matter what they thought of my minions, they needed to check they were actually my minions. Isaac had made his way onto the island dressed in the garb of my death cultists and abducted me, after all.

  It would be something to raise with Samuel. Security needed to be tightened up or there could be a risk to Lily or my children. Should anything happen to them, I would kill everyone.

  We climbed the two flights of stairs in silence, grim-faced soldiers standing guard at every door. Each of them made Gregg show his badge before allowing him through while only one tried to do that to me. His companion stopped him with a shake of his head and waved me through.

  The main command centre was full of desks and computer screens showing all manner of information. The people in that room controlled the drones that flew patrol around the island as well as the fleet of ships.

  They kept track of the small boats that were out looking for supplies and survivors and kept a track of all supplies and inventory at all the various stations around the island. They had a complete database of each and every person on the island, their skills, their address and the job they had been assigned to.

  It was the central point for all information that came in and out. Troop locations, potential dangers, even the waste disposal situation. It was all handled by the people in that room.