Ted sighed. “Fine, you do things how you want, but I’m telling you—that the castle is the place you want to be.”
“Okay, I’ll discuss it with the others. I’m sure they’ll be interested to hear your suggestions.”
Ted shook his head. “Talk to Hannah. She’s the one who wants to stay here and help. I have to get back on the road.”
“Oh!” Jackie turned back to the pile of weapons and resumed her work. With her back to him, she said, “You’ll probably laugh, but I feel much safer with you here. Last night you didn’t show an ounce of fear. It’s been a while since I’ve been around a man who knows how to look after himself.”
“There are other men here.”
“Ha! Philip might know his way around a sandwich knife, and Steven can butcher a rabbit, but none of us here has any experience when it comes to fighting.”
“And you need a little bit of rough like me around the place to help you sleep at night, huh?”
Jackie didn’t allow his offence to penetrate her. Instead, she smirked. “I suppose you could say something like that. Perhaps you might just stay a while and help us get set up.”
Ted grimaced. “I really have to—”
“Just spend one more night before you go and make any silly decisions, Ted. You don’t know us yet. Allow people to at least give you their thanks. If you still want to leave tomorrow morning, I’ll pack a bag full of supplies and see you on your way. Deal?”
Ted was still grimacing. Yet, as he wilted under the woman’s pleading stare, he found himself nodding. Sighing in defeat, he said, “Fine, I’ll spend one more night here, so I can at least help you people learn your arses from your elbows. After that, I’m back on the road and you people are on your own.”
Jackie offered out her hand. “Thank you, Ted.”
Ted shook the woman’s hand reluctantly. He had a bad feeling things were turning south.
20
TED
Ted was amazed by the workshop he found. A single story, flat-roofed building made of green-painted steel siding, it was located directly behind the log cabin. The smell in the area was foul, and he realised the camp’s latrine was also nearby. Pulling his shirt over his nose, he stepped inside the workshop. He found a workbench and all manner of tools. A petrol-powered ride-on lawn mower sat in the corner, and a pair of chainsaws hung on hooks. Best of all, he found a set of wood axes and a two-man saw. While the chainsaws would have been the easiest way to bring down trees, they would attract too much attention—and were of better use as weapons. Therefore, the two-man saw and the wood axes were the tools about which he was most excited. He took them out of the workshop in a wheelbarrow.
“Oi! Where yow think yow going with that stuff?”
Ted stopped and lowered the wheelbarrow to the ground. Before him stood a short, stocky man with a pudgy face. Ted was taken aback. “I-I was hoping to get some of the older kids cutting down trees.”
“Why?”
Ted cleared his throat and tried to stand tall before this strange fellow who unnerved him so. “Well, for one thing, we could build a fishing weir, which would prevent the need to spend all day casting lines over the lake. You could move up behind the castle walls and come down each morning to check the traps. Cut down enough trees and you could even fashion a pike wall and booby traps to protect the perimeter. Skies the limit. Wood is a marvellous thing.”
“How yow know all that?
“I was a builder. And I read an SAS survival guide once that I guess must have stayed with me.”
The other man squinted like it hurt him to think. Everything about him was suspecting and accusatory. “Where did yow and that soldier come from last night? How did yow find us?”
“We were hiding in the forest and smelt smoke. Then we heard a bell ringing, so we came to help.”
The combative little man folded his arms and looked cross. The words out of his mouth were begrudging. “We would ‘ave been stuck in the mud without yow, I admit it. These are good people, but they’ve been living in cloud cuckoo land. I dread ta think what woulda ‘appened if yow hadn’t saved us.”
“Oh,” said Ted, surprised to hear sense, and what almost sounded like a thank you. “Well, yeah, you’re welcome. I told Jackie I would stay a day to help make this place more defensible, but then I’m heading off. I’m Ted.”
“I’m Frank. Was me what rang the castle bell last night. I didn’t see the ugly blighters until they were right on top of me. It was dark, and the grass is long. Hey, yow know what would make sense? Cutting back the trees outside the castle walls so we have a better view.”
“I agree,” said Ted, finding himself nodding in absolute agreement. “You should do that, Frank. Move the camp into the castle and entrench yourselves behind those walls. Next time the demons attack, they’ll have to get past three-feet of stone to get at you.”
Frank let his cynical expression drop and allowed himself to smile. It made such a difference to the man’s face that he transformed into a warm and friendly person. “Ted, yow am a man after me own heart. No bleeder listens to me though. Until last night, I don’t even think they believed what had happened to the rest of the world.”
“They’ll listen now,” said Ted. “You need to make them listen, Frank. You’re the first person I’ve spoken to that understands—”
Frank cut him off. “That we’re at war. And that the best place to be during a war is inside a blinkin’ castle.”
Ted nodded. “The workshop is full of tools. There’s plenty that could be done to make this place a tough nut to crack.”
“I know it. We’ve raided the workshop already for shovels and weapons. In fact, the shovels are in use right now. We’re burying our dead.” He folded his arms and tapped his foot angrily. “Two kids and poor Carrie-Anne, can yow believe it? If only we’d been better prepared…” He shook his head and sighed. “Anyway, I was trying to scrounge up some petrol. There are other bodies which won’t be getting a burial.”
“Demons?” Ted had never seen enough of them dead to require petrol.
“I could use yow help, if yow don’t mind. It’s a grim task.”
Frank was straightforward, which was a trait Ted admired, but agreeing to help the man would feel too… familiar. But how could he refuse? The man was asking for help to bury dead children. “I’ll bring the petrol,” said Ted. “I’ll meet you round front in a few minutes.”
“Bostin! Thank yow, Ted. It’s really great to have yow here. I’ll admit, I was concerned by all yow newcomers, but I suppose I was wrong. We should stick together.”
Ted nodded. “I’ll catch you up.”
He watched Frank disappear around the front of the cabin which, with the man’s short legs, took a while. Ted leant back against the side of the cabin and took a moment to think. The more he stayed in this place, the more he felt tugged in a dozen different directions.
But there was only one direction in which he wanted to go.
Ted revisited the workshop and scavenged a canister of petrol, adding it to his wheelbarrow. He rolled the whole lot around to the front of the cabin where he spotted an assembly of people in the clearing beside the lake. Frank was now talking to Jackie, while the other adults stabbed at the ground with shovels. At the edge of the activity, several children watched in solemn silence. The younger ones were weeping.
A little girl with blonde curls sat away from it all, sobbing into her lap by herself. Ted tried to walk right by her on his way to the main group, but her whimpers jabbed at his heart. He had to stop and ask if she was okay.
She’d been so lost in her grief that she hadn’t seen him arrive. A yelp escaped her lips, then she looked up at him. Her eyes and cheeks glistened. “I’m okay,” she said softly. “Sorry.”
Ted knelt so he wasn’t looking down on her. “Sorry for what, sweetheart?”
“For crying. Reece said only cry-babies cry.”
“Who’s Reece?” Ted felt the name was vaguely familiar.
The girl pointed off at the assembly of adults. “My brother. The monsters hurt him last night. We have to bury him now.”
“Oh…” Ted didn’t know what to say. His mouth turned dry. How could you console a child who witnessed a monster eating her sibling? Every day, this world made him hate it more. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Milly.”
“I’m sorry about Reece, Milly, but it’s okay to cry. Crying shows Reece how much you care about him.”
She looked up at him, wet eyes hopeful. “He can see me?”
“Sure he can. He’ll know everything you do, and he’ll see how brave you are.”
“I’m not brave. I’m scared.”
“You have to be scared to be brave. It’s okay, I get scared too.”
“Really? You don’t look scared to me.”
He ruffled her soft, blonde hair and smiled. “That’s because you don’t know my secret.”
“What secret?”
“Wasps terrify the pants off me. Seriously, I leap ten-feet in the air and scream my lungs out every time I hear buzzing. I was at a supermarket once and I fell right over a Pot Noodle display. They went all over the floor.”
Milly erupted in giggles. She wiped the tears from her eyes and gave him a warm smile that struck him hard in the guts. “You’re funny,” she said. “Wasps won’t sting you if you stay perfectly still, don’t you know that?”
“Wow, thanks for the tip, Milly. I’ll try that next time. You going to be okay?”
“I’m scared of the monsters.”
“I know you are, sweetheart. Things will be okay though. The adults are going to put a plan together and keep everyone safe.”
“You promise?”
Ted hesitated, but not long enough to alarm the girl. “I promise.”
He left Milly to her thoughts, but took his time reaching the others. He wasn’t relishing being around so many emotional people at once. It was all for nothing because Jackie saw him and came rushing over immediately. “Ted! I see you’ve already got stuck in helping us. Thank you so much.”
Ted’s eyes fell upon a dead woman lying on the ground, and then three dead children. Dried blood covered only two of them. “I thought you said there were two children that...”
Jackie knew what he was asking, and in a quiet voice she said, “We lost Bray to sickness last night. That’s his father, Philip, over there.”
Ted recognised the man with greying hair as the one who’d struck the doctor last night. His cold, empty stare was familiar to Ted, a consuming grief he knew all too well. There would be little of Philip left by the time his pain was done.
Ted searched for Dr Kamiyo but couldn’t find the man. Doctor or not, he obviously chose not to surround himself with death. Perhaps he was avoiding Philip.
Frank came and shook Ted’s hand like they hadn’t just been talking five minutes ago. “There am two crews,” he explained. “Which one yow want to join?”
Ted studied the two huddles of people, one larger than the other. The larger group tended to the three dead children and adult, digging a line of neat graves. The smaller group, a short black man and two teenagers, were gathering demon corpses into a pile. It was the worse job, but one which was being done in grim silence. Ted cleared his throat. “I’ll help burn the monsters.”
Frank nodded solemnly. “Not afraid to get your hands dirty, am yow?”
“My hands are beyond washing.”
“Yeah, I imagine they might be. Thanks for helping us, Ted.
Jackie placed a hand on Ted’s shoulder, a gesture he found at once repulsive and electrifying. He shuddered and stepped back, but she behaved as if she didn’t notice and smiled at him. “Dr Kamiyo said we need to burn the bodies in case they make us sick. Sooner the better.”
“I’ll get to it then.” Ted grabbed a shovel from Frank and trudged over to the demon disposal crew. Rather than touch the monstrous corpses, the workers were using their shovels to roll them into a pile. The adult male nodded at Ted, but the teenaged boys didn’t even make eye-contact. Ted recognised one as Nathan. Had the boy volunteered for corpse duty?
Ted shoved his shovel underneath a demon with a hole in its forehead—Hannah’s aim was impressive—and rolled it towards the pile. Some of the demons were in worse shape, victims of his hammer rather than Hannah’s precise rifle shots. He looked back now to check his hammer was still in the wheelbarrow where he’d left it. He felt dismembered without it. His unease was multiplied when he saw Hannah heading towards him. She waved a hand. “Hey, Ted. You sleep okay down there in the boat shed?”
“I’ve had worse nights.” He remembered how tired he was and let out a yawn. “Not many though.”
Hannah grabbed a shovel and got to work beside him, rolling over that same corpse with a bullet wound in its forehead. “I remember this one,” she said. “It was attacking the doctor.”
“You remember it from a bullet wound?”
She smirked. “Believe me, you don’t forget a perfect headshot. I hit the other three in the chest.”
“You took out four all together?”
She nodded. “What about you? How many did you take out?”
“He took out three,” chirped a voice. It was Nathan’s. He pointed at the line of bodies. “You can tell because they’re all mashed up. That hammer is so brutal.”
Hannah huffed. “Shit, kid! You sound like his biggest fan.”
Ted nudged her. “Don’t encourage him.”
“Nathan’s a weirdo,” said the other teenaged boy. He pulled a face and sneered at Nathan. “He’s always been into sick shit. No one ever went near him at school. A mate of mine found him in the toilets, masturbating over animal porn.”
Nathan growled. “That was a bunch of bullshit, and you know it!”
The adult looking after the boys barked at them to get back to work, then approached Ted and Hannah. He looked embarrassed. “Sorry. There’s not a lot to entertain kids nowadays. This has all been a bit too much excitement for them.”
“We understand,” said Hannah. “I’m Hannah, and this is Ted.”
“I’m Eric.” They all shook hands. “It’s nice to have some new faces around here, if only to show us we’re not alone. Thank you for helping last night.”
“You’re welcome. You, um, don’t have the same accent as the others.”
Eric gave a titter. “No, I’m not blessed with their Black Country twang. I’m from a village about ten miles from here. I used to volunteer at the activity centre. My colleagues left to find their families when everything started, but I… well, I never had anyone to get home to. I wanted to stay here with the kids.”
Ted wondered what choices a middle-aged man had to make not to have anyone calling him back home. “You never had kids of your own?”
He shook his head with enough sadness to show it was a regret. “I probably spent too much of my time stuck in the past to ever interest a woman. I volunteered here for fourteen years, when I should have been getting a social life.” He stopped to have a little smile to himself. “Even with all of the horror that’s gone on, I still love it here—the nature, the memories, the sense of history. That empty castle up there reminds me that things never stay the same. I hope that one day what we’re going through will be just another chapter in mankind’s history.” Ted frowned, which caused Eric to laugh. “What, you never met a black historian before?”
“Not an optimistic one.”
Eric looked at the demon corpses scattered at their feet. “I suppose I was always a nerd. Ask me anything about Kothal castle, and I can tell you.”
“Um, yeah, okay, how old is it?”
Eric grinned. “The castle was built by Stanley Godlaw in 1045, and it saw extensive use during the Norman conquest of England. Godlaw died in the castle during a siege in 1068, leaving the castle to his nephew, William Fulford. William went on to—”
“We should probably get on with this important work,” said Ted, motioning with his shovel.
Eric gave another small titter. “Now do you see why I never found a woman willing to marry me? Thanks for the chat—it actually distracted me from all this misery for a moment.”
Ted couldn’t help but smile at the man’s self-desecration, but he hoped it wasn’t cruel to do so. To move things along, he planted his shovel under the demon corpse and got back to work. But moving the corpse that way was cumbersome, so he quickly decided to just sod it and use his hands. He heard the others gasp, but Nathan watched him the entire time with interest.
“Wow, you’re not a squeamish one, are you?” Eric winced, and crow’s feet crept from the corners of his eyes.
“They’re just flesh and bone.” He dragged the corpse over to the pile and tossed it on top. “Doesn’t six of their corpses prove that to you?”
“I suppose so,” said Eric with an awkward shrug.
Hannah marched over to the corpse pile and kicked at it. “Wait! What?”
Eric looked worried. “Something the matter?”
“Yeah! Ted just said six corpses, but that can’t be right. I shot four and Ted hammered three—that’s seven. Where is the seventh corpse?”
Ted inspected the corpse pile. Three demons with their head bashed in and three more with red, ragged gunshot wounds. He then turned to Hannah. “You’re sure you shot four of them?”
“Positive. One headshot, three body. I watched every one of them drop.”
Eric had his arms folded. “So, what does that mean?”
Ted scanned the tree line, wishing he had his hammer already in his hands.
“It means one of ‘em got away.”
Part II
21
DEMON
The demon was named David. After centuries burning in Hell, that was the only thing he remembered. Every flap of skin had seared from his bones long ago, his soul torn to pieces until all he felt was pain, but he still had a name. The agony only stopped when he served his masters. The current orders imprinted on his mind were clear: Kill and devour. Tear flesh. Rip muscle. Crush bone. Mutilate humanity in all its forms.
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 94
