Rough brick ovens were built, and wood gathered. The workers moved across from where they had set up camp at the docks and into those houses and I stood back with some small amount of pride at the effort we had put in.
For the first time in a long while, it felt like I had accomplished something. It was a good feeling and one that I wanted to ensure that all of my people would feel. They needed a purpose, and I could honestly say I hadn’t seen them happier than when we were all working together.
I watched as a group of workers, headed by our engineers and escorted by Isaac’s people, set off towards the sawmill and didn’t hide my smile. Soon they would have the wood we needed to begin building more fishing craft and barges for transport to and from the island.
It was a start and a damned good one.
“You look especially cheerful today,” Cass said, wiping sweat from her brow as she joined me by the side of the road. “It’s nice to see.”
“I’ve got a lot to be happy about.”
The sea air was cool, but the day itself was warm and the surrounding area was utterly beautiful. With fewer people in the world, nature had found a resurgence and while we had cleared just enough for us to have access to those house’s we needed, we were still surrounded by living things.
After so many years with the undead stalking the world, it felt damned good to be in that place.
“Isaac told me you were sending out patrols soon.”
“Yes, we need to know the area.”
“Charlie’s drones could show us.”
To some extent they could, but a bird’s eye view wasn’t the same as boots on the ground and she knew that. I eyed her askance as I wondered at her point.
“If there are people around, they need to be dealt with appropriately.”
Ah, there it was.
“Samuel has never been one to encourage recruitment, you know this.”
“But he isn’t shy about who his group is either, is he?”
“I’ll make sure to speak with him.”
“We know there’s groups here,” Cass pressed. “Good and bad. We already have one war to fight, we don’t need another.”
There it was. She had not been shy about her desire to find some other solution rather than yet more death and war. The last one had taken so much from all of us, but she had lost a brother while I had lost a partner, and we all had so little left to lose as it was.
Sebastian had killed our people, both on the island and in London. There couldn’t be any peace with him, not while he believed he was on some manifest destiny bullshit about finding the next ‘Lord of bloody Death.’
“He needs to be stopped.”
“I’m not arguing that.” Which was exactly what she was doing. “I’m just saying, not right now.”
She blew out her cheeks, shaking her head as she wiped more sweat from her brow. The day was more than pleasant, and we were likely in for a scorching summer. Which would be a nice change after the past few years.
“Look, it’s just that there’s the Parasite and these raider groups. We need to figure out how to stop both before we spread ourselves even thinner trying to hunt down Sebastian and his cultists.”
My day was rapidly becoming less pleasant and I kept my face blank as I looked at my oldest friend. She had been with me almost since the very beginning and I loved her dearly, but in this, she was wrong.
“We will deal with the raiders, and the parasites too. We can’t do either if we are constantly looking over our shoulders waiting for one of Sebastian’s followers to stick a knife in our backs.”
“If we knew where they were I might agree…”
“I know.” A soft sigh escaped me, and I pressed my balled fists against my back massaging the ache that was there. “But I need to be doing something about him. I can’t just ignore him.”
“Then don’t! But we need to prioritise and there are people who need us more.”
“He’s killing people, you know this. Convert or die.”
“Yes, and we are sending warnings over the radio,” Cass said. “We’re telling every group we speak to that they need to avoid any groups of people dressed in black. He doesn’t know where the survivor groups are, so we have time.”
“Not enough.”
“Never enough,” she agreed. “But we’ve had contact with a few groups to the south who live in fear of this band of raiders. We can help them!”
“I thought we didn’t need another war?”
“Our primary purpose was to protect people,” she chided softly. “That war never ended.”
“I’ll think on it.”
“Please, that’s all I ask.”
I knew that I had some issues to work out when it came to Sebastian, but I also knew my friend was intelligent and wouldn’t shy away from a fight. If she genuinely thought this raider group to the south was the more dangerous and pressing issue, I would be a fool to ignore her.
“Begin gathering the locations of these groups,” I said and she interrupted with a wide smile.
“Already done.”
“Of course.” My own smile was wry as I shook my head. “What do we know about the raiders?”
“Not much. They come in, rape, pillage and kill as they please and then ride away.”
“Ride?”
“Yes, on horses. Call themselves, Riders.”
Idiotic name, but a dangerous group. I gave a curt nod.
“Okay, let’s go see Charlie and see what we can do.”
Chapter 5
The City of Worcester had fared poorly during the apocalypse. When things had reached that critical mass and become almost unstoppable, the military had retreated to the city. It was where several thousand soldiers with tanks and heavy artillery had made their last stand.
They hadn’t had a chance.
With the River Severn at their backs, they had faced off against the hundreds of thousands of undead that had travelled down the M5 from Birmingham. In what I could only imagine had been an impressive display, they had unleashed everything in their arsenal.
It hadn’t been enough.
The undead had swarmed over them and, deterred by the river, had spread out to the north and south in search of ever more food. In their wake, they had left a city in ruins.
Which is where I found myself, leaning against the crumbling and blackened wall that was all that remained of the city’s cathedral, as I watched the river. A hundred or so feet, further along, a bored raider sat on the broken concrete that was all that remained of the Worcester Bridge, with a fishing pole in hand.
“He doesn’t seem worried,” Gregg observed dryly.
“Which is a problem.” I scratched at the thick hair that covered my lower face before waving away a fly that was buzzing around my head. “Either they haven’t missed the patrol we killed back on the road or they did, and this is a trap.”
It had been a week and the raiders hadn’t been carrying much in the way of supplies. It was doubtful that they had been expected to be gone for more than a few days at most. Which led me to believe that someone had decided to leave out a tempting target or two for me to find.
The only way across the river was by boat unless you swam. All of the bridges had been destroyed in that final battle that had littered the city with old bones and rusting equipment. That meant that any ambush would be sprung from the ruined buildings on either side of the road behind the lone fisherman.
“So, what we going to do?”
A good question and one that I wasn’t entirely sure that I had the answer to right then. I’d been in the city entirely too long already and I was eager to murder the raiders before moving on to the next group at their main base in Birmingham.
The problem was, it wouldn’t be that simple a task.
A base had been established at the Worcester Racecourse to the north. With the river along one side and an open grassy area for the horses that had a fence already surrounding it, the approach was already going to be difficult.
>
It was made more so because rising up above the southern end was the viaduct that ended abruptly over the river. A train sat on the tracks that ran along its length, which was the perfect vantage point for a sentry to be posted.
Which is what they did.
As a result, an assault on the raiders camp would be unlikely to succeed. At the very best, it would work but at such a cost as to make it impossible to make an attempt on what I imagined would be a highly fortified base in Birmingham.
I was left with the hope of picking off a few raiders here and there as they patrolled through the city, but to do that, I needed to spend more of my time watching and waiting. Which was not something I was especially fond of doing.
“We could leave him.”
I didn’t even need to glance back at Abigail to show my disdain for that suggestion, though I did look back at the women who stood keeping a watchful eye on the approaches to the cathedral ruins. I flashed Abigail a quick grin as an idea presented itself.
“Do I want to know?” Gregg muttered as I pushed away from the wall and headed across the rubble to where the majority of my Furies waited.
“Who wants to play pretend?” My smile only widened at their confused looks and I quickly relayed my plan to them. Behind me, Gregg groaned.
One and Two both grabbed a backpack each and removed their knives from their belts. One put hers into the side pocket of her coat while Two slipped hers into the sleeve. Then, with a nod to me, they set off.
They had to go slowly as the military had established roadblocks of cars, trucks and anything else they could get their hands on all in an attempt to slow the advance of the undead. When the raiders had picked over the remains of the city, they hadn’t bothered moving them, or the piles of bones that covered the roads.
As the two women moved towards the road that led to the bridge and the, seemingly oblivious, fisherman. I gave the signal and the rest of my Furies followed me.
I stuck to the heavily overgrown areas and soon reached the gardens behind Worcestershire college. The grass was waist high and the bushes created a screen that would hide us from the buildings ahead where I suspected any ambushers would be waiting.
While I waited for the two women to make their slow way around, I crouched down in the grass and inched forward, just enough that I could study the building ahead.
A terraced row of red brick that formed a rough horseshoe shape with parking in the centre courtyard. All of those buildings closest to where I waited were just piled rubble, while the longer terrace that ran alongside the road leading to the bridge, had shattered windows and collapsed roofs.
The fight had been intense there at the end and it showed in the state of the buildings and the pockmarked road that had been torn up by explosives. A veritable carpet of bones littered the road and around the buildings.
“Movement?”
I didn’t need to glance back at my friend to know he was close, so his whispered voice did not cause more than a raised eyebrow when I heard it. He was a good friend and no matter what he might think of my plans, he wouldn’t let me face an enemy alone.
“Where?”
He raised his arm and pointed up to the left and I narrowed my gaze as I followed his direction, but saw no movement.
“You sure you saw it?”
“As sure as I can be.”
Likely someone watching for anyone approaching the rear of the building over the rubble. One person watching from the back and another from the front would ensure all approaches were covered and they could prepare accordingly.
Definitely a trap then.
“What do we do?”
“We wait.” I didn’t move my gaze from the window he had indicated. “Ah, there it is.”
A slight movement, barely anything at all and easily confused by the tattered curtains that were blowing through the empty window frame. It was there though, a hand moving aside the edge of the curtain so that whoever was inside could better see.
Their base could have anything up to thirty raiders inside, but they wouldn’t send everyone on just one trap. Not in a city the size of Worcester, no matter how ruined it may be. No, they would have to place the same sort of trap in several places around the city.
At most, I would suspect four or five people, hoping that the element of surprise would be enough to tip the odds in their favour. That would be a number I could deal with.
“Pass the word that I want some alive,” I whispered back to my friend. “I have questions.”
I didn’t need to see him to know he shivered in response and I grinned as I settled in to wait for the fun to begin. It wouldn’t be long.
One and Two turned into Bridge Street, acting for all the world like two weary travellers. They carefully navigated the barrier of parked cars, faces twisted with distaste at the carpet of bones. Each of them moved slowly, as cautiously as any traveller would in a strange city.
They kept their eyes on the buildings around them and stuck to the centre of the street wherever possible. When the fisherman came into view, they paused and pointed while putting their heads together and whispering furiously.
I watched them through the open space created by the damage to the buildings and was impressed with their acting skills. If I had not known the truth, I would have believed them to be two wary travellers.
After they passed the half-way mark, movement began in the buildings ahead of me. They’d gained the attention of the ambushers who moved through those ruined brick shells to ensure they were both behind and in front of the two women.
“Move,” I ordered as I rose and set off running.
I clambered over the rubble, slowing just enough to ensure I didn’t misstep on the loose bricks and wood. Then I was over it and at the empty doorway to the building as six raiders armed with swords and axe stepped out into the street to surround One and Two.
Whatever the leader was about to say to the women was cut off as I ran past behind him, my axe cutting deep into his neck. His eyes opened wide as he dropped his sword and clamped both hands to his throat before falling to his knees.
All hell broke loose as my Furies joined the fray, leaping at those raiders with their knives drawn. One woman went down screaming as a raider spun on his heel, slashing his blade across her belly. Another raider died next, Two’s knife buried to the hilt in his throat.
“Get him!” I snapped at Gregg who nodded and turned, running off after the fisherman who had turned at the commotion and bolted.
I ducked a hasty slash and slammed my shoulder into the raiders breastplate covered torso. He went down as I lost all feeling in my shoulder, but I spun and kicked, booted foot connecting with his head and sending him into the blessed darkness of unconsciousness.
Another raider was down, blood pooling beneath him as the women turned their rage on those that remained. In moments, it was done, and I sucked down a deep breath of air and closed my eyes as I allowed the joy that came with murder to wash through me.
“Should we stop them rising?” Two asked, head tilted and eyes narrowed as she stared intently at me.
“No, leave them.”
“Why?”
“Because it will be a mess they can clean up themselves.”
The women exchanged confused looks as I flashed a smile. It didn’t matter if they understood, just that they obeyed. I waved down at the unconscious raider.
“Get him up and tie him to the lamppost over there.”
Without a murmur of complaint, they did as instructed, lifting the man between them and half-carrying, half-dragging him across to the lamppost. There, they put his back against the metal and pulled his arms as far back as they could before tying them tightly with the rope carried in our packs.
I kept a careful eye on the dead raiders and paused only briefly to kneel beside the downed woman. Her eyes were full of pain as she struggled to keep her insides from spilling out of the wound in her abdomen.
“You failed me,” I muttered, shaking my head
.
With a single thrust of my knife, her pain was ended, and I smoothed my brow as I looked at the other women beside the captured raider. “Strip him. Cut away his armour and clothes.”
No comment as they turned and set to my orders. Footsteps behind me caused me to look back and Gregg raised his hands as he shook his head.
“Got away.”
“No matter.”
It would actually be of benefit. He would rush back to his base and tell them what had happened. They would then, in turn, hurry over to try and catch me and instead find the present I would leave them.
I crossed to the naked man, his cut clothes piled at his feet and slapped him, hard. He blinked and raised his head, looking around owlishly as he began to babble in fear. I silenced him with one raised finger and looked directly into his eyes.
“If you survive until they come, tell them something.”
“W-what?”
“Tell them that I am coming for them all.”
Without another word I stabbed my knife deep into his stomach, twisting the blade to cut through his intestines, allowing their foul contents to spill out into his abdomen. It would be an immensely painful death and one that could take days.
As I glanced at the bodies of the dead raiders, I knew he wouldn’t have those days of pain, but he would instead likely be a nice fresh meal for the newly risen undead. I patted his cheek gently, ignoring the tears streaming down his face and his cries of pain, and I laughed.
Gregg was watching me as I turned away and I cocked my head to the side as I raised one brow in question. He didn’t speak, just looked away.
“Into the buildings,” I said, smile widening. “When they come running in, we’ll be waiting.”
“You’re going to ambush them!”
I glanced over at Abigail, standing in the doorway of the ruins.
Killing The Dead | Book 22 | Fury Page 3
