God, I loved her for that. She was more than just my best friend, more like a sister.
“Point taken,” I said with a smile of my own, that may have been a little strained. “But my decision remains the same.”
“Then we’ll stand here together and face whatever comes.”
“As we always do.”
A quick hug was all I could allow else I might breakdown right there in the middle of the command centre. Even so, my eyes shimmered as I marched from the room, arms stiff at my sides.
I acknowledged my bodyguards with a brief nod before heading out into the morning light. Whatever came next, I would make sure we were prepared for it. We would stand together and face it as one people like we had done for years.
There was no threat we couldn’t defeat, no matter the personal cost. That was something I had learned the hard way, almost six years before. It wasn’t a lesson that I would bear repeating.
With determination fuelling my every step, I went to speak with Isaac and prepare for what may be the end of all hope.
C
hapter 25
The horse reared and bucked beneath me as the crossbow bolt grazed its flank. Had I been a better rider, I might have kept my seat. As it was, I hit the cold, dark, waters of the River Dee with a resounding splash.
I surged up and out of the water, almost diving into the bushes and tall grass that covered the banking, as more bolts hit the ground around me. Once obscured by the bushes, I sucked down a breath of air as my heart thundered in my chest, and I pulled free my weapons.
My axe slammed into the thigh of the first rider as his mount climbed the steep bank and he dropped his crossbow as he screamed in pain. I didn’t wait a moment as I leapt from the bank and straight at the charging horse, hitting the rider with all of my body weight and sending us both crashing down into the water together.
Pain blossomed as my skull connected with a rock and then again as the oafs flailing leg sent a booted foot into my jaw. I replied with a vicious slash of my knife and more screams filled the air.
He collided with me, his armour dragging us both beneath the dark waters as I stabbed frenziedly with my knife. Blood filled the water around us as his hand squeezed tight around my throat. I had the peculiar sensation that I might actually die, there beneath the waters, before my knife dug deep into his side and his hands loosened their grip.
Water splashed around me as I pushed myself upright in the fast-moving stream, sucking down great gulps of air as I came face to face with the loaded crossbow of the first raider. He’d tried to bandage his leg, but blood was flowing freely and I grinned at him.
“The hell are you grinning for?” he snapped, waving the crossbow. “I’m gonna fuck you up for this.”
“No, you won’t.”
Seven hit him from behind, leaping from the back of the horse she had shared with Eight, and I dropped back beneath the water as he released the crossbow bolt in my general direction.
I came back up, shivering and thoroughly done with being in the water. Seven was stabbing her blade into the man’s neck with a ferocity that I could almost admire, as the horse bucked beneath her.
She dropped off nimbly as the beast ran, the dead man stuck in the saddle, and I spat river water from my mouth and waded across to the banking.
My back ached and there was the taste of copper in my mouth that mixed rather unpleasantly with the brackish river water. Flies swarmed me and stuck to my wet skin as the earthen smell of the plants growing alongside the river almost overwhelmed me.
The way my luck had been going the river was probably full of leeches too.
“You good?” Eight asked, pulling on her horse's reins to quiet the foul-tempered beast.
“Does it really look like I am?”
The twitch of her lips was unmistakable as she tried to hide her smile and even Seven seemed almost like she was about to have an emotion of some kind. I cocked my head and watched her from the corner of my eye, but the moment passed and she returned to her stoic, silent, self.
“We should go.” Eight bit down on her bottom lip as she gazed into the distance. “There’ll be more coming.”
Like I wasn’t fully aware of that. It seemed that I had been a little too successful in my attempts to provoke fear in the leader of the raiders. At least that is what I assumed as he sent what seemed to be a small army after me.
They were coming from every damned direction and that pair had come the closest to killing me. The others could follow us easily enough by the trail of blood I had left in my wake. Unfortunately, few deaths but plenty of wounded and running scared raiders.
I jerked my chin towards the open field as I tried to brush as much water out of my clothes as I could. “We go that way.”
“Okay, I’ll go round up a horse-“
“Don’t bother.” My nostrils flared as I glanced at the beast she rode. “They seem to dislike me as much as I do them.”
“They’re just sensitive,” Eight said, grinning impishly as she patted the mud-brown mare’s neck. “They have a good feel for people is all.”
“Aye, well they clearly can sense that I am someone they dislike. I’ll walk.”
She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and climbed down from the great beasts back. She took a moment to uncinch the saddle before pulling it off to land with a heavy thud against the floor. Reins were next and then she turned back to me.
“If you’re walking, we all will. We’re in this together.”
Oh, good grief! There was only so much good cheer and positivity that I could stomach, and she was rapidly pushing past that tolerance. She was more irritatingly cheerful than Gregg, which was hard to believe, but there it was.
I didn’t speak as I turned and walked over towards the road on the other side of the overgrown field. The grass was probably full of ticks too.
My mood was sour as I clambered over the drystone wall and approached a metal sign fixed to a pole on the side of the road. I reached up to brush away the accumulated dirt and gave a short grunt as I read it.
“Wrexham, two miles.” I glanced up at the grey cloud-filled sky, trying to gauge the time. “We might make it before dark.”
“What happens when we get there?”
Knowing Gregg, if he had survived, he would be keeping an eye on the roads leading into town from the south. He knew me well enough to know that I would take the main road through because that was the easiest way to find any trouble.
With luck, he would be healthy and pleased to see me. If he had food that would be a bonus. If he wasn’t there, well, I would have to move on to Chester and hope to catch them there.
If the raiders didn’t catch up to us first.
“We will have to see,” I said, and left it at that.
My boots squelching with every step, we made our way along the road, keeping a swift pace to try and reach our destination before it was dark. Or before the raiders caught us.
Eight and Seven looked back often, but I kept my head down, my thoughts dark and troubled. Every step I took would bring me closer to Lily and my children. She would be happy, perhaps in love with another, and my children wouldn’t know me.
No matter what happened, I could not see the reunion being a pleasant one. That thought plagued me and wouldn’t leave, all along that long quiet walk to Wrexham.
Empty fields and endless rows of trees became houses as we entered the outskirts of the town. Once neat little homes that nestled up against the road for as far as I could see. Between them were rusted and occasionally burnt-out cars and the occasional bus, the occupants long dead.
I spun at the touch against my shoulder, and barely caught myself before my blade sliced into Seven’s neck. She stared at me impassively, with neither emotion nor reaction to my action.
“What?”
She didn’t respond to my snappish tone, other than to hike her thumb up to point back over her shoulder. I followed the direction and cursed.
“Looks like they
’re catching up,” I muttered as I pulled back my blade. “We can lose them in the town.”
The two women looked sceptical, but I didn’t give them the chance to reply as I set off at a brisker pace, headed towards the town centre. A group of riders, too distant to make out details, were headed our way and if we could see them, it was a fair assumption that they had seen us too.
It had been a decent-sized town, perhaps seventy thousand people living there before the fall, and we’d had little food or rest for a good while, so it took us nearly half an hour before we passed a larger supermarket, turning right towards the very centre of town.
That was where I saw him, standing with the aid of Abigail. He’d just pushed himself up from the bench they had been sitting on and his face broke out into a wide smile as he saw me approaching. That smile didn’t waver as I came closer.
“Damn man, I almost gave up hope.”
His sudden lunge took me by surprise and before I knew it, I was engulfed in a somewhat suffocating embrace. He clung on tight as I desperately searched my mind for something to say that would make him let go of me.
“Who are your friends?” he asked, pulling back, still grinning like a fool.
“Seven and Eight,” I muttered, unsure of whether I should continue letting him hold onto my arms of whether I should pull away. Of course, to do that would likely cause him to fall so it was best I let him keep hold rather than be the source of another injury to him. “Where’s Two, Three and Five?”
“With, Emma.” His smile faltered as he glanced back over his shoulder. “You arrived just in time, mate. We’ve been holding on as long as we could but it’s getting too dangerous here.”
“What do you mean?”
“He means that a bunch of psychos who seem to be worse than you just slaughtered an entire community of people. The sick bastards didn’t even wait to finish raping them before they started eating.”
I blinked, unsure of how to respond to that as I looked from her back to my friend, who nodded somberly, his smile of earlier gone.
“They’re crazy, mate. Worse than those cannibals we encountered years back. Those poor fuckers were doing it because they had to. These sickos are doing it for fun.”
“Okay.” That was quite a bit to take in. “Well, not to add to your concerns but we might want to go and get my Furies.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a small army of raiders headed up the road towards us right now.”
He groaned softly, closing his eyes as I began to laugh.
Chapter 24
“Goddamnit!”
Both Angelina and Gabriel looked over at me and I winced, before offering them both a smile of apology.
“Sorry, kids.”
“That was a bad word,” Angelina said, wagging her finger at me in exactly the same manner as I had to her after catching her with the pen-knife and yet another frog. “That’s not nice.”
“Sorry, little darling,” Isaac said. “It was my fault.”
“Naughty.”
“Right you are.” He winked at her and then turned back to me, face losing any signs of humour. “It’s bad.”
“How bad are we talking here?”
“Look, the balance of power in this whole area is pretty screwed up right now.” He scratched at his beard as he sighed. “The Riders were large enough to keep the Silures from going too crazy. When they moved their people from their borders, the Silures decided it was a ripe time to hit a few of the communities in Rider territory.”
“The Riders were the main reason the Jackals skulked around the edges too.”
“Jackals?” I asked, arching one brow.
“Ah, yeah. That’s what we’re calling the smaller group near Northwich. They’re like Jackals, see, lurking on the edges and taking targets of opportunity. Too small to be a threat with the Riders near them to keep them in check.”
“But now the Riders have sent over a hundred of their people straight towards Wrexham. Why?”
“No idea. Perhaps they finally dealt with whatever problem caused them to leave their borders open and have decided to crush the Silures.” He lifted his hands as if to say, ‘who knows,’ and shook his head. “But the Jackals are headed that way too apparently.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling that familiar pain in my temples that preceded a headache of epic proportions.
“Why would they be going there?”
“Probably hoping that whoever wins will be weak enough that they can finish them off.”
The entire area was becoming a warzone and I had no idea why. What on earth could have started it? What could have caused such a threat to the Riders that they pulled their people back from the borders of their own territory?
A parasite, perhaps, but if it were then they would still be there fighting and dying. Unless they had a way to kill one, which was a frightening thought all of its own.
Whatever the reason, Samuel was leading eighty of his cultists straight towards Wrexham and what looked to be a four-way fight between three raider groups, with the community of people who lived there possibly joining in.
It was a mess, to be sure, and entirely likely to mean that unless we won out, they would be coming for us next and I wasn’t sure we would be able to stop them.
“Can you contact Samuel to warn him?”
“No.”
Crap!
“Why not?”
“We’ve no idea who’s listening in and figured that if anyone would be okay, it would be those death-cult weirdos.”
“Fantastic.”
Yes, I was definitely getting a headache. With the majority of Samuel’s people headed towards what was likely to be a fight to the death, and us with no way to warn them, that left a handful of cultists playing bodyguard and the sixty security personnel that Isaac had trained.
No where near enough.
“What are our defences looking like?”
He looked uncomfortable with the question which didn’t exactly inspire confidence and I resisted the urge to swear again.
“We’ve used some of the trees we felled to build spiked barricades and we have the wire mesh fence, but-“
“That won’t stop them.” I breathed a soft sigh as I looked out of the window and at the garden beyond.
We didn’t have enough people and we certainly didn’t have enough fighters. Sure, those who were here would stand and fight the zombies if they had to, but cannibalistic raiders who had slaughtered the death cult that had been protecting us for years?
No, they would run, and they would die. But, if we retreated, we wouldn’t return. The raiders would rape and pillage with impunity while the parasites grew larger, stronger and covered the world.
Our species, our planet, would die.
“It’s imperative that we hold here.” He didn’t reply and I pushed on. “Not just for us, but for everyone. There’s a whole new level of hell out there and if we die here, everything is lost.”
“We’ll fight to the end; I promise you that.”
“I would rather we fight and win.”
“That is my preference.” A smile touched his lips before his eyes grew distant once more. “We can move everyone into the dockyards, and barricade the warehouses there. I’ll have my people set up on the hill, hidden in the trees. If anyone tries to enter the village, we’ll let loose.”
I brushed a strand of hair from my face, reminding myself once again that I needed to get it cut, and shifted from one foot to the other as I chewed my lower lip. It wouldn’t be enough, not with so many of them headed our way.
Once those raiders knew where we were, they would come. Armed and hungry for what we had. If we were lucky it would be the Riders. They at least could be reasoned with, but most likely it would be the Silures.
How many of them there remained I was unsure, but I knew that from sheer ferocity alone coupled with their pet Reapers, they would be hard to kill. Men and women who wanted nothing more than to kill and maim
with little care for themselves.
We couldn’t fight that, not really. Zombies were one thing, we understood them, but humans who behaved the same way? No, who were worse than the undead for they defiled their victims before consuming them.
No, we would be lucky if it was the Riders that were the first to reach us. I glanced at my children, playing quietly before the fire, and I wondered what I would do should those Silures make their way to us first.
“Have Charlie send out every drone she has. I don’t care if they don’t have enough power to make it back, I want eyes on the road.”
“Aye, lass. I will.”
“Set up traps, barricades and ambushes. Do whatever it takes to ensure they do not reach this village. Am I clear?”
He gave me a hard look, face impassive as his eyes studied mine. He knew what I was asking and what I was needing from him. Was I right in thinking he was the type of man who would do what I needed him to do?
“I’ll leave some to guard you-“
“No, I have Samuel’s people. They will be enough.”
“Then I shall leave immediately.”
“Take whatever you need.” I reached out and lightly touched his arm as he turned away and he looked back at me. “Come back safe.”
If you can.
He gave a curt nod and marched from the room, back straight and head high. He understood his duty and he understood sacrifice as well as any of us. It was on the minds of all of us as the day of sacrifice approached for the sixth time. That day where we would stand together and honour those who gave their lives to protect us.
This year, I wondered how many more names I would add to that list and if Isaac’s would be one of them.
Chapter 27
On the south-western edge of the town, a group of houses sat atop a steep banking overlooking the railway line that ran beside them. On the opposite side of that track was another, equally steep, banking with a supermarket and varied other shops nearby.
To cross those railway tracks, bridges had been built and two of them sat, one on either side of those houses. At some point, likely early on, one or more people had the smart idea to build a wall around their community.
Killing The Dead | Book 22 | Fury Page 16
