Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure

by Petrova, Katerina

  'Get lost you little shit,' I spat as I walked away.

  'Alright you two give it a rest, we have work to do,' Frankie said in her commanding voice.

  I walked ahead with Frankie and Jensen while Kyle stayed at the back, Frankie looked at me as if to say 'yeah I know he's a dick.'

  We arrived at the back of the old parlour to find that the electric gates had been barred from the other side, there were tables and chairs blocking the way.

  'Don't think we can get through this lot,' Frankie told us.

  'I bet there's a way to get over the top,' the sound of Kyle's smug voice was really starting to get on my nerves. I could see Frankie biting her lip in frustration, she turned to Kyle and gave him a look that I had not seen her give anyone before. She was pissed at him but I think it was more than that, when my mum wasn't here Frankie was in charge and Kyle was basically belittling her in front of everyone.

  'Suit yourself, just thought some one should do something,' his voice was so pretentious that I wanted give him a swift kick in the jewels.

  'The wall adjacent to the gate looks like its going to crumble, could we knock it down?' Asked Finn trying to lighten the mood.

  Frankie inspected the wall and pushed on it, the wall seemed to move with the slightest touch.

  'I think you might be onto something, but it might make noise and we don't want to attract any corpses. Right lets split up and check the area before doing anything,' she commanded politely.

  It was strange how both Frankie and my mum could boss people around but still sound so polite and caring at the same time. We split up into small groups I was thankful that Frankie wanted me with her and didn't put me with Kyle, I think she knew that I was close to throttling him. We took the road to the right of the parlour, as we walked down the street Frankie stopped for a moment.

  'Look I know that Kyle is an arse and believe me I could quite easily punch him, but we can't be fighting each other or we won't make it back,' she said as gently as she could, I could tell she didn't like having to talk to people like this.

  'I know and I'm sorry, he just gets under my skin you know,' I replied apologetically.

  'Don't worry I get it, I just want everyone to make it back in one piece,' she smiled at me as if letting me know she knew it wasn't my fault. I wondered whether Frankie had always been like this or if it was my mum's influence, I had not known many people of my age to be so incredibly wise or compassionate. She had a way of dealing with people just like my mum, though I suspected that she also had a fiery temper not to be messed with. I smiled to myself thinking that I'd like to see that side of her, she was always so poised and calm I'd love to see her lose it. Right now I'd like to see her lose it on Kyle, I thought bitterly.

  We searched the nearby area but found no dead heads, so we headed back to the back of the parlour to see if the others were back. Everyone was back except for Dom and Kyle, we sat down and waited for them and fortunately it wasn't too long before they arrived back. They were covered in blood, and Dom looked like he was going to pass out.

  'You alright Dom?' Asked Lex handing Dom some of his water.

  'Yeah I'm alright lad, just need a minute,' he replied sounding out of breath.

  He took Lex's water and took a large swig from it before handing it him back. Dom sat down for a minute while Frankie asked him again if he was up for this or whether he wanted to sit this one out.

  'I may be old but I'm not useless dear, I'll be fine in a minute,' he said in his rough yet slightly worn out voice. Frankie and Jensen worked on getting the wall down while the rest of us kept watch. I had the misfortune of standing next to Kyle, ugh I swear if he opened his mouth one more time I was going to whack him right across that smarmy face.

  He went to speak but I stopped him.

  'I don't care what you have to say just zip it,' I barked at him.

  'Fine, whatever princess,' he grumbled in annoyance. We heard the wall crumble and we turned to see the dust going everywhere, for a moment I was blind I couldn't see through it. Once the dust had cleared we could see right through into the small patio garden, aside from the furniture that was used to barricade the gate there was nothing else in the garden.

  'Lets go,' said Kyle charging on ahead.

  'God damn it, just wait,' called Frankie irritably. He ignored her and went on, Dom, Lex and Jensen ran in after him. I saw Jensen grab Kyle and drag him back, though Kyle was stronger than he looked and was putting up a fight. Somehow Jensen managed to pull him back, the others stood near the black door looking frustrated. They went to take a step and clearly it was the wrong one, I can barely remember what happened next. There was a massive explosion and the ground shook as if there was an earthquake, I fell to the floor and then it all went black.

  I woke up back at camp with my mum sat next to me looking as if she had been crying, I tried to sit up but the sharp pain in my ribs stopped me.

  'Rowena, thank the Goddess your alive,' she hugged me tightly and I let out a rather loud 'ouch.'

  'Sorry sweetheart, I'm just so relieved that your alive. You had me worried,' she said tears welling in her eyes.

  'Where's everyone else?' I asked feeling afraid of the answer.

  'Frankie is alright she's with Jensen, he's in pretty bad shape. Finn is fine and so is Kyle. Dom, Lex and Tessa didn't make it,' her voice shook as she uttered the words.

  'I'm so sorry,' was all I could say. How could they be gone? I remembered Dom and Lex being next the door, but Tessa had been stood not far from me. She was nowhere near the door, oh my God, Violet! Dom had been like her father, how was she going to cope losing him? She was still just a child, albeit a strong, smart child but still, and Marcel he'd lost his brother.

  All thanks to that fucking ass hole Kyle, it was not often that I found myself hating another person to this extent but all I wanted to do at that moment was hit him until he stopped moving. My blood was boiling, my hands were shaking, it took so much self restraint for me not act upon my anger, though I think the severe pain in my ribs had something to do with it.

  It was a whole damn day before I was able to get up and walk, the first thing I did was go and check on Frankie and Jensen. He was laying in his tent unconscious with Frankie constantly watching him. I could see that she too had been crying a lot, I sat down next to her not knowing what to say. At first she didn't even notice that I was there, it wasn't till I asked if she was alright and she practically jumped out of her skin.

  'Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you,' I said in a low voice.

  'It's okay, I'm glad your alright I was worried,' she replied wiping her nose.

  'What happened, I can't really remember?' I asked carefully not wanting to upset her. 'It was that fucking twat Kyle he charged towards the building without checking to make sure it was safe, the stone tiles in front of the door were booby trapped. The whole building exploded, you fell down when the ground started shaking then a piece of wall hit you on the head. You were out for hours, Jensen still hasn't woken up and Jade said we can't move him in case it makes his condition worse,' she started crying again, all I could do was hold her while she wept.

  'What about Dom, Tessa and Lex?' I asked needing to know. 'Dom and Lex were next to the wall when it exploded, Tessa was near you but the piece of the wall that hit her was too big. She just went down and never came back up, we checked to make sure but there was no pulse,' her tears were staining her top, but she couldn't stop.

  I sat with her for a while until she fell asleep next to Jensen, I got up and went to find Marcel after all it was his brother that had died. I wondered if he knew that it was Kyle's fault that Lex was dead, somehow I doubted it otherwise Kyle would be six feet under.

  Then again Marcel was a gentle giant, he looked mean but he was a softy. He didn't like getting angry, when I spoke to Ester about the people that were coming with us, she said that we were lucky to have Marcel along. She told me how kind and caring he was, but also how strong he could be.

  While
I would understand if he went after Kyle I also didn't want anything to make him do something he'd regret. He had been blessed with the strength to fight, but he was cursed with feeling guilt to the extent where if he hurt someone, he also hurt himself. Ester had asked that I not share this with the others, I swore to her that I wouldn't but I wanted to make sure that he was alright.

  'How you feeling?' Delilah asked disturbing my thoughts.

  'Tired and a little achy, but I'll be alright,' I replied.

  'We were all worried about you,' she smiled weakly.

  'Thanks, but I'm more concerned about Jensen,' I told her sadly.

  'So am I, I just hope he makes it. Frankie and Jade have already lost too much, I don't know if they could handle losing Jensen,' she confessed.

  'I know what you mean.'

  She went to sit outside Frankie and Jensen's tent, the look of grief on her face made me want to hug her. I found Marcel sitting by himself a good distance from camp, I went to sit next to him and could see the tear stains on his face. I honestly couldn't think of what to say all I knew was that I wanted to help him, if my mum died I would want those closest to me around but then everyone deals with death in different ways.

  'Hey,' was all that came out of my mouth.

  'You feeling better?' He asked kindly. It was hard to imagine that a man of his size could be so kind, he was a gentle giant and I knew that since the outbreak he had protected his brother. It had been the two of them for so long that I knew it would be damn near impossible for Marcel to live without him. Another bout of information Ester had shared with me, seeing his face now, all I wanted to do was throw my arms around him and never let him go.

  'Yeah a bit, still hurts though. I'm sorry about Lex, I really liked him. He was a right comedian,' I tried to lighten his mood by reminding him of his brother's best qualities.

  'I know he certainly thought that,' he smiled at me, even in the midst of sorrow he still had a smile that made you go weak at the knees.

  I sat with him until the sun went down, then we headed back to camp to eat with the rest of them. I sat near my mum who had Violet curled up in her lap, poor Violet; Dom had truly been a father to her. I wondered how she would get over this loss, then I remembered my mum told me how children were so resilient although she was only seven, she had many years left to grieve and move on, I wondered how my mum was doing.

  I knew that she cared for Dom but more than that we had lost Tessa as well, we had lost two members of our family. It was a loss that would take some time to move on from, I looked around at everyone they all looked beat down and full of sadness. Even Delilah who always had a smile on his could not bring himself to make a joke, Audrey and Trudy were sat together not talking. The only one to make a sound was Kyle, that smug, egotistical bastard that had got our people killed had the nerve to ask when we were going to move on.

  Frankie who was just coming out of her tent at the time of his inappropriately timed question just flew at him. None of us were quick enough to react, not even Delilah. She had him pinned down on the floor with one hand while she pounded him with the other. I personally thought he deserved it but clearly the older members of our group thought different, it took both Marcel and Eli to get her off him.

  'That bitch is crazy,' shouted Kyle clutching his blood soaked face.

  'Let me go damn it, I'm going to kill him,' Frankie screamed hysterically. My mum had told Violet to go to her tent, she and Delilah walked up to Frankie and wrapped her arms round her. Frankie fell to pieces in their arms, I had not lived through their losses but my mum told me how close they had come to losing Jensen once before. Jensen was the one that held Frankie together, he was her rock and I honestly didn't want to see what she would become if she lost him especially when the person responsible was sat in the same camp as her.

  Eli handed Kyle a bandage to put over his face while Marcel kept a safe distance from him. I had feeling that there was a part of him that got a great deal of satisfaction from watching Frankie pound on Kyle. In all honesty so did I, I almost shouted at the others to leave Frankie to it, but I knew that in her rage she would not have stopped. While Kyle deserved it, I didn't want Frankie to have to live with the guilt of unnecessarily killing someone. I was starting to wish that we'd never agreed for those at the hospital to come with us, we should have just stayed the way we were, I thought sadly.

  'That girl needs locking up, she's freaking nuts,' he said while clutching his face.

  Marcel stormed right up to Kyle and got right in his face, for a moment I thought he was going to start beating him.

  'Listen you little shit, your damn lucky we didn't just let her kill you. You deserve it,' he growled.

  'Whatever man, I didn't ask anyone to come after me. It ain't my fault they were stupid,' he got up and stormed off towards the woods. My mum took Frankie back to her tent to watch over Jensen and clean up Frankie's hands. I would think that like Kyle's face they were in need of cleaning.

  I decided to go and check on Violet, she must be scared as hell. I found her trying to hide under her sleeping bag, I gently pulled the covers back and asked her if she was alright.

  'Why did Frankie hurt Kyle?' She asked innocently. I took a deep breath while trying to think of what to say to her, if Dom were her he would tell her the truth. So that's just what I did, it was hard for her to understand and I tried to tell her without being blunt or harsh. By the end she was really angry with Kyle, I guess the truth would have that effect.

  'I hate him,' she said, with no emotion in her voice.

  'I know, but we still need all the help we can get,' this was the hard part, trying make her understand why we had to keep a killer in the group. Though to be honest he hadn't actually killed anyone, I didn't think he meant for anyone to get hurt he just didn't think. If my mum was in her right mind I know what she would say, she would say that everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves. She believed that everyone had a role to play and that the universe would show us our path, she thought we couldn't control our destiny that whatever happened was out of our hands.

  While I wanted believe it, I could neither completely blame Kyle nor pardon him for what happened. If this was the work of the universe then we were certainly being tested, if we were of a different moral standing we might kill him for being so stupid.

  I knew that no matter how much I hated him at that moment, neither me nor anyone in the group was a murderer so for now Kyle was safe. For how long we would remain that way, was another question that only time would answer.

  I retreated back to my tent, I was glad that I shared it with no one. My head and my ribs still hurt, though thanks to the painkillers my mum gave me it wasn't that bad. I told her not to give me the strong painkillers as I didn't want to waste them, she tried to insist but I told her no. I laid down thinking how much of a mess things were, and how we were going to fix things. I wasn't sure how long Kyle would be around for, if he knew what was good for him he would leave, but somehow I doubted he would. He'd been so lucky that we'd dragged Frankie off him, more lucky for the fact that Marcel hadn't given him a good beating, I doubted that anyone could've pulled him off Kyle.

  'You alright?' My mum asked as she peeked in my tent.

  There was something in her face, sadness, sorrow, I thought there was more to what she was feeling.

  'Yeah I'm fine, you look beat,' I replied sadly.

  'I'm just thinking about Violet, she already lost her mother now she's lost Dom.'

  'I know what you mean, but I'm guessing his death has hit you hard as well,' I told her.

  'Have I been that obvious?' She laughed.

  As she sat down beside me, I could see the tears behind her eyes. 'No, I just know how to read you.'

  'I cared about him, I mean I was starting to, you know,' she smiled softly. 'He was a good guy,' was all I could think of to say.

  'Yeah he was, he came into my life when I needed to laugh. After we lost Maggie and Tamara I was a wreck, it was like los
ing you, Amber and Daniel all over again, but Dom made me smile, made me laugh. He made me feel human again,' she confessed.

  'I know he cared about you as well, that much I could tell,' I replied.

  'Even I could tell that, he wasn't great at hiding his feelings,' she laughed.

  'What are you going to do about Violet?' I wondered.

  'I'll take care of her, I know Dom would want me to. More than that, she needs someone she knows to be there for her,' she answered softly.

  'You're right, but just do me a favour. Don't close yourself off, I know you were starting to really care about Dom and his death will affect us all. But don't let his death make you cold,' I told her.

  'It would be a dishonour to his memory if I did,' she smiled but in a sad way.

  We hugged for a moment and I tried not to wince, I could read my mum about as well as anyone and I knew Dom's death was harder for her than she was letting on.

  'You need some sleep.'

  'Yeah, I do. I'll see you in the morning mum.'

  She nodded then left me alone, I found that my eyelids were getting heavy. Even the vast array of thoughts could not keep me awake that night, the moment my head hit the pillow I was gone. I woke the next morning to find that most of the others were still asleep, I saw Marcel sitting by the water, my mum was making Frankie take a breather from sitting with Jensen, Frankie went to sit with Marcel and I decided to join them.

  'Morning,' I said wincing in pain.

  'How are you feeling?' Asked Marcel concernedly.

  'I'm alright, just a few tender bits. How's Jensen?' I asked Frankie worryingly.

  'He still hasn't woke up, the longer he's out the more chance of damage,' she replied trying not to cry.

  'He'll be alright, your all incredibly strong and have made it through worse,' Marcel told her comfortingly.

  'Thanks, I just hope your right.' Marcel put his arm round her and squeezed her gently, he really was a gentle giant.

  'I have to say though, you're one scary woman,' he joked. 'Yeah, remind me not to get on your bad side,' Delilah agreed smiling, as she came to join us. 'Sorry about that, I don't like getting that way but he just wound me up. Our people were injured and killed, and he wants to know when we're moving on. Ugh my blood boils just thinking about it,' she answered trying not to get angry.