I pushed open the shop door and gestured for them to head inside before taking one last look along the street. No sign of danger, so we had some time at least. I let the door close behind me as I joined the women in the dim interior.
“How will this work?” Abigail asked, gesturing at the racks of bicycles that filled the shop floor. “He can’t ride!”
“Doesn’t have to.” My smile was mocking, and I couldn’t hide the anger that flashed in my eyes. “They have trailers that can be attached to the bike frames. We put him in one of them and he will be fine.”
“All the tires are flat,” Emma pointed out and I shrugged.
“Deflated over time. There are ample repair kits and spare inner-tubes here, all we need to do is get them pumped up. There’s oil for the chains and tools enough we can make them rideable.”
“Smart idea,” Two admitted, nodding to herself. “We can move much faster this way.”
“I agree.” I lifted my arms and waved towards the racked bikes. “Pick a bike and let’s get started.”
We didn’t waste any time getting to work. As Gregg was laid on the floor behind the counter, a rucksack making a poor pillow, the rest of us gathered what we would need. Two and Five went into the back rooms, returning a short time later with repair kits and pumps.
The rest of us each pulled mountain bikes from the racks. They were built for rough terrain and would be invaluable to us. While we could travel by road a great deal of the way, there could be times when we would need to head off the beaten path.
WD-40 was used on the chains and the tires were pumped up. The shop had everything one might need for bike repair and we made use of all of it as we adjusted the bikes to fit each rider as best we could.
“Why is all this stuff still here?” Emma asked, adjusting the saddle to fit her long legs. “Would have thought someone would’ve nicked it ages ago.”
“Not much use when the zombies were everywhere,” I said, not looking up from my work. “It was safer to use your feet and if you found yourself in trouble, you could climb or go places a bike couldn’t.”
“Yeah, makes sense I guess.”
Once finished, I led the group outside, paying careful attention to the road to ensure no one was near. Two and Five brought out the trailers, a simple frame with a large, sixteen-inch, wheel at either side and an adjustable hitch that could be fastened to the rear of the bike.
It was five and a half foot in length and two wide. While the bed of the trailer was just the steel frame, it was a simple task to make a bed of sorts with the blankets we carried. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable ride, but he would be stable and not walking, which was what mattered.
Another trailer was brought out and hitched to the rear of Two’s bike and the women loaded their bags onto it. Gregg’s trailer was attached to Emma’s bike and he was laid gently onto it. I made a point of gathering his rucksack and placing it securely beneath his head as a pillow.
Emma would keep him safe and the vaccine along with him. I could trust her enough to do that at least.
“Okay,” I said as the group mounted their bikes. “We go north to the end of this road and then left. That will take us all the way to the reservoir. Keep travelling west until we reach Kidderminster and then travel up the A442 to Telford.”
“Why are you telling us now?” Abigail asked.
“If we get separated, we need to know the places to meet up.” I gave them each a stern look, one after the other. “From Telford, head west to Shrewsbury, then North-west to Wrexham. From there it’s a short distance to Chester and then Liverpool.”
I scratched at my beard, all too aware of how tangled it was becoming with each passing day. It had been a long time since I’d had the luxury of a shave or even a bath. No one had mentioned my odour since they all knew they smelled the same way.
“From Liverpool, we can make it to the island.”
To Lily, to where I will ruin whatever happy life she had made for herself.
“What about-“
Two cut off as her eyes widened and I glanced back over my shoulder towards the southern end of the road. Four horsemen had turned into it and they saw us immediately. I held back the curse I wanted to unleash as I looked over at my friend, unconscious and vulnerable.
“Go!” I ordered, curtly as I climbed off of my bike and pulled free my axe. “I’ll catch up.”
“You can’t be serious!”
The horsemen were getting closer and it wouldn’t be long, I needed to buy them time. I stepped out into the centre of the road, axe in one hand and knife in the other as I looked back at Emma.
“Go, keep him safe.”
“As you command… My Lord Death.”
With that, she set off pedalling and the rest followed with only Two looking back at me. The thunder of the hooves filled my ears and I inhaled deeply as I prepared to buy them some time.
I raised my axe, knowing that it was foolish, that I couldn’t win. That my friend was right. It seemed I would do anything to avoid my responsibilities.
Even die.
Chapter 19
Samuel took a step closer to me as my bodyguards drew their blades. The white panelled van slowed its approach as I raised a hand to cover my eyes, squinting against the bright morning light. One of the few days we hadn’t had any rain and even so, I felt a chill run down my spine as that van came to a stop.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the door opened and Isaac climbed out. My relief lasted only a moment as I caught the look on his face and the blood that spattered his grey fatigues. His squad climbed out of the rear of the van and I sucked in a breath.
“Medics!”
The medical staff rushed forward at my call and I shared a quick look with Cass before I stepped forward to meet the returning personnel. As I did, I couldn’t help but count their number and fall short of the twelve that had set out.
“It was bad?” I asked, voice low as I joined Isaac.
He snapped out a quick order for his people to fall in and looked me in the eyes, his face drawn and eyes full of pain.
“As bad as it can get.”
“You should rest,” Cass suggested, joining us with Samuel beside her.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Well, let’s at least go somewhere you can sit down instead of talking here on the road.”
We’d walked a short distance from the village and stood waiting on the main road for the van to drive up. Samuel had two dozen of his cultists along, armed and ready to protect me from any danger that might be headed up the road.
It seemed that they would not be needed, at least not right then. From the looks of Isaac and his people, it was more than likely that Samuel would be sending out his cultists in the very near future.
He took a moment to ensure his people were being properly tended to before turning and following me along the road and back to the village. Samuel and Cass, along with my bodyguards, all came with us.
I moved straight towards my home figuring it would be the best place to speak in privacy. There was a small tech station set up there so that I could contact Charlie should the need arise, and more importantly, I had some tea bags that had been found in a village to the west.
Inside the house, I directed Isaac, Samuel and Cass to sit at the dining room table while I went to prepare the tea. I glanced back into the dining room as I waited for the kettle to boil, noting the drawn look and unusual silence from Isaac.
Cass hurried in to help me as I loaded the tray with cups and poured the boiling water over the teabags. The rich aroma was almost heavenly as it was a rare treat to have it in the end times. When the tray was on the table and everyone had gathered a cup, I sat down opposite Isaac and looked him straight in the eye.
“Tell us what happened.”
The usually gruff and confident former mercenary took a moment to form his words before taking a deep breath and speaking.
“Drive down went fine and we stopped a half-mile from the v
illage to get out and walk. We didn’t want to alert anyone that might still be there.” He paused and absently turned the teacup on the table in front of him. “It didn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know if they were told that a call for help had been sent or were just hanging around anyway, but they were still there.”
“The Silures?”
“Yeah.” A soft sigh and then he ran one hand through his hair, not seeming to notice the blood there. “They came out of the trees and before we even knew what was happening, two of my lads were down.”
“What did they look like?” I asked, glancing at the others. We’d yet to find a survivor who could tell us much about them.
“They stank of death,” he said. “That’s what I first noticed, and I thought it was the village but it wasn’t, it was them.”
I shared a concerned look with Cass. Isaac seemed radically different than the man who had headed south just two days before. Whether it was lack of sleep or trauma, it was concerning. I couldn’t help but wish that Evie had come across from the island with us so that she could weigh in with her perspective.
“They wore entrails wrapped around their bodies, from shoulder to waist and wrapped around them like armour. At their hip hung a head, the teeth removed but still very much alive.” His smile was mirthless. “Or undead, at least.”
“Why would they-“
“It masked them from the undead,” he said, troubled voice dropping low. “They came from behind us, and more of my people died.”
“What came from behind?” I asked, that chill from earlier returning as my stomach churned with a sudden rush of fear. “What was it?”
“Not an ‘it,’ a ‘they,’” he said. “Reapers.”
I blinked owlishly at that, Cass mirroring my surprise as I tried to digest what he had just said. The notion of the living and the undead working together was laughable. It just couldn’t happen.
“How?” I asked, finding my voice. “That’s not possible.”
“There’s seven dead men that tell you it is,” Isaac said. “If I’d not seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“But… how?”
“Symbiosis,” Cass said. “The parasite is symbiotic in nature. With so little food around, maybe they’ve realised that they can feed better if they work with this group of raiders.”
“Perhaps.”
“More likely they had little choice,” Isaac added. “Each of them had a chain around their necks. My best guess is they are led to where there’s people and allowed to kill and feed as much as they like.”
“Which would explain why they would wear body parts,” Samuel added. “If they stink like the undead then they will be ignored.”
It made sense, more so than the idea that the Reapers had made a pact with the raiders to work together. Even so, it troubled me. Whenever Reapers had come close to one another they had fought, even ignoring the living to reach one another.
For several of them to fight together, even with chains around their necks, meant they were smart enough to know that food was so scarce that they needed each other to find it.
That was a huge problem that I had not foreseen.
“We were outnumbered and we ran,” Isaac continued. “With my people’s screams following us, we ran for our lives.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Cass said, reaching across the table to grip his hand in hers. “You couldn’t have won.”
Isaac pulled his hand back, looking away and I realised his uncharacteristic behaviour was due to shame. He was ashamed of running, of losing his people, and perhaps because he didn’t see the trap.
Once upon a time, I might have agreed but I couldn’t help think of how it would have been different if Ryan had been leading them. He wouldn’t have run, he’d have fought them all and most likely won too.
I couldn’t ask for someone to be him, because there could never really be another him. He was unique and the only man I had ever known who would throw himself at death laughing and win nearly every time.
Nearly.
That one word held so much pain and loss for me and I couldn’t fight it. Even after all these years, I still loved him and a part of me always would. As much as I hated to admit it, Sebastian Cho had been right about one thing.
Ryan and me, we were two parts of the same whole and without him, I was floundering. I knew that and I knew that some of the mistakes I had made were because of the loss I felt. But that would change, I would love him until the day I died, but I could no longer compare everyone around me to him.
“Samuel.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
“How many of your people can you have ready by tomorrow morning?”
“One hundred will be ready to leave within the hour.”
“Fantastic.” Isaac wouldn’t look my way and I knew that I should offer some salve for his wounded pride, but I had an entire people to protect and they came before his ego. “Have them armed and provisioned and send them south.”
“Your orders?”
I knew what he was asking. Cass looked at me, big brown eyes searching for compassion, for empathy, but tempered with the knowledge that some people were simply too dangerous to be allowed to live.
We had a people to protect, a world to restore and our children, for them we needed safety. They needed a world without monsters and the Silure raiders were definitely that.
“Kill them all,” I said, voice cold. “Wipe them out.”
Chapter 20
Ribs aching, I sucked down a deep breath of humid air as I sank back against the trunk of the old oak tree. Sweat ran down the side of my face as I counted slowly, every second that passed, one more moment of rest.
His sword cut deep into the rough bark as I spun away, moving adroitly over the gnarled old roots and coming fully around the tree as he pulled back his sword. My axe cleaved his skull and blessed silence fell once more.
I waited, chest heaving as I listened, head cocked to one side as I strained to filter out the sound of the nearby river water as it moved swiftly across the jagged rock, and the myriad background sounds of the forest.
There was nothing there and that meant I had some time. I quickly dropped the axe through the loop on my belt and squatted beside the body of the dead raider. I kept alert, my gaze flicking up to the undergrowth around me as I searched through his pockets.
Nothing worth taking which was a shame since my rucksack had been lost with my bike when the raiders had ambushed me. That meant all of my food and water along with the various tools and equipment I had stashed away, were lost to me.
I’d not eaten for a full day and my neck ached from sleeping awkwardly in the rain, huddled beneath a tree. I rose, taking a moment to steady myself against the tree, before taking stock.
While I had distracted the raiders back in Birmingham for long enough to allow my Furies and my friend to escape, two of those raiders had broken away and given chase. I’d been left to dispatch the other two before setting off at speed to catch up to the others.
Somewhere along the way, I had lost both the raiders and my group and without a map had set off in a generally westerly direction, hoping to find some signpost that had survived the fall. But all I had actually found was an ambush.
Two days out, a group had laid in wait and I had walked right into their trap. I’d been incredibly lucky to get away with my hide intact, though with a few bruises and my rucksack and bike lost to me.
Another day of being chased and I was thoroughly lost and without any kind of provisions. While I could have taken that as a sign that it was time to let Gregg and the others think me dead, allowing me to avoid the need to confront Lily, I couldn’t do it.
There was far too much anger inside of me to allow the raiders to continue on after my friend. No, I needed to find a way to catch up with them and kill the raiders at the same time. Not an easy task considering my circumstances but it was one I was willing to take on.
>
More raiders would be on their way. I’d lost them for a while, forcing them to split up to search for me but I was running on too little sleep and food to be effective for too much longer. Which meant I needed to put some distance between us.
I set off walking, avoiding the road and cutting across the river, chill water souring my mood more than it already was. The raiders knew the area better than I did which meant they were likely ahead of me as well as behind.
While it would make travel difficult, it wouldn’t be impossible. One great thing about the end of the world was that the green and pleasant land had experienced a huge amount of wild growth which provided a great deal of cover.
So I moved through the smaller woods and forests, staying low below the stone-built walls as I crept through the fields, and avoiding any roads that the raiders could travel on far faster than I could.
By the time it began to get dark, my pace had slowed and I realised that I was losing focus as I stepped out onto a, thankfully deserted road. I looked both ways along its tree-lined length before ducking back into the trees and continuing on, keeping a watchful eye out for any place to rest.
Of course, that was not likely to be easy as most places that might have food or a safe place to sleep would be near the roads. As tired and hungry as I was, I needed rest before I could risk one of those buildings, so onwards I went.
I spent the night curled up beneath a pine tree, its fallen needles a surprisingly comfortable bed in my exhausted state and the wide lower branches shielding me from view.
With the dawn came an awakening along with stomach cramps and a feeling of hunger that I had not experienced for quite some time. I pushed myself up, wiping sleep from my eyes, and smiled wryly at the universe's reminder of why I had originally formed my death cult.
It had been the need for protection, rather than companionship, that had led me to it. After leaving Lily and my friends it had become quickly apparent that no matter how skilled I was at killing the undead, I still had to sleep and scavenge for food.
Killing The Dead | Book 22 | Fury Page 12
