Killing The Dead | Book 22 | Fury

by Murray, Richard

  Chapter 31

  I tucked my shoulder and rolled across the blood slick ground, rising to my feet and spinning, arm shooting out to drive the muzzle of the bolt gun against the side of the Reaper before me. I squeezed the release mechanism and the point shot out, depositing the viral load into the foul creature’s parasitic guest.

  The effect was immediate as the creature twitched, limbs flailing before collapsing and I grinned as I slipped another viral load into the chamber.

  Blackened claw-like fingers barely missed me as I jumped back out of reach. The creature lunged and I twisted aside, only just blocking the attack before I slipped past it and pressed the bolt gun against its back.

  I didn’t watch it die for the final time as the last of the Reaper’s leapt at me, only to be knocked aside when Seven and Two hit it together. I let out a bark of laughter as the three of them scrambled to their feet and watched for a moment as the two Furies squared off against the most dangerous of the zombies.

  A cry of anger rose from beyond the gate and I looked up, straight into the twisted visage of one of the raiders. I smiled at him and readied my axe. My eyes flicked to the two women and I gave a slight grunt of acknowledgement of their skill as they ducked and weaved around the creature, slashing and cutting with their blades.

  The rest of the Furies formed up behind me, scowling at the black-hooded cultists who tried to come too close. Samuel, eyes wide and still to utter a single word, stared at me with something close to reverence on his face.

  “Stop playing and kill it!” I snapped at the women.

  “Give us the bloody thing then,” Two retorted, ducking a swing of a clawed hand.

  With a roll of my eyes, I tossed the reloaded weapon towards her and Seven caught it in mid-air, spinning and slamming it down against the creature’s chest before pressing the release.

  My smile widened as it died and I glanced back at Samuel, cocking one eyebrow. “If you so much as look like you are going to bow, I will cut you down,” I said, before looking back at the others and raising my voice. “That goes for the rest of you.”

  In response thirty or so clenched fists hit their chests in unison, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes again as I turned back to the gates and the raiders waiting inside the compound.

  A bizarre-looking lot with twisted shapes carved into their flesh. Many of them wore zombie heads on their belts, the eyes and jaw still moving, while entrails were wrapped around their torsos. They stank of death, an odour that had become less than familiar of late and I found myself almost pleased to encounter it once more.

  “My Lord Death,” Samuel said, finally finding his voice. “You are-“

  “Yes, yes. We will discuss that later. For now, we have a more pressing issue.”

  “Why aren’t they attacking?” Eight asked, tremble in her voice.

  I glanced back at her. She, like the rest of my Furies, was covered almost head to toe in blood. It was smeared on their faces and dripped from their weapons. I could well imagine that I looked much the same, which was no doubt a grisly and fearsome sight. Especially when they had just seen four Reapers dispatched without the loss of a single life.

  “Who is in charge of your group?” I called out.

  There was some chatter then, in a language I didn’t recognise that seemed to have entirely too many vowels. I waited patiently and was rewarded when a slight looking woman stepped forward.

  Her hair was a tangled mess, slicked down with blood and mud by the looks of it. Her cheeks and forehead bore the same etchings as the rest which likely had a meaning, not that I cared enough to ask what it was.

  She clutched a spear that was at least four feet in length, giving her a bit of extra reach when facing zombies or people armed with knives, I had no doubt. Her eyes were the most interesting part about her for they were deep pools of madness in an otherwise unremarkable visage… aside from the scars, of course.

  “I lead the tribe.” Her accent was definitely Welsh, and she spoke haltingly as though not having spoken in English for some time, which was entirely possible. “Who are you?

  “He is the manifestation of death on this earthly plane!” Samuel snapped back at her. “Abase yourself and beg forgiveness for your sins.”

  I frowned back at him and he fell silent. The man had clearly fallen deep into the rabbit warren of mysticism in my absence. I would have to ensure he lost some of that belief because I was not in the mood to have to deal with all of that again.

  “Whatever,” I said, looking back at the woman. “Are there any people left alive in there?”

  “Just our tribe.”

  I gave a slight nod as I considered.

  “Why do you kill everyone and eat them? Surely you can see that is not quite sustainable in the long term.”

  She gave me a blank stare and I let out a soft sigh before looking back at Samuel once more. He gazed back at me with rapt attention and I sighed once more.

  “Just kill them all.”

  “What!” she shrieked, raising her spear. “No!”

  “As you command, My Lord Death,” Samuel said.

  Chapter 32

  “Tell them to bring the drone back and head home,” I said to Charlie as the Dead charged through the gates to clash against the massed spears of the Silures.

  I did not need to witness the slaughter, and slaughter it would be. I knew that. The way those Reapers had been dispatched was nothing short of incredible and my stomach churned as I sensed something had changed.

  What that was, I didn’t know, but it had changed. I couldn’t understand what we had all just witnessed but it was familiar in a way that I couldn’t explain.

  “You okay?” Cass whispered, and I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “Come on, let’s head home.”

  “Call back Isaac,” I said to Charlie. “Let everyone know they can go back to their homes.”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  There seemed little else to stay and as troubled as I was, a weariness had settled over me. Too much adrenaline and fear had taken its toll and all I wanted to do was sleep.

  We walked back to the house in silence and after first checking the children were sleeping safely, I dismissed the guards and settled down on the sofa. Cass joined me, a steaming cup of tea in each hand and together, we sat in silence and drank our tea in the candlelight, both lost in our own thoughts.

  “That was strange, wasn’t it?” I said, finally.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just… everything.”

  “The Riders are still out there though I think the Silures will no longer be a problem,” she said. “I would say tonight was a win.”

  “I want to meet those strangers. Something about them seemed… odd.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The way they slaughtered the Riders, for a start.”

  “Yeah, but they took them by surprise. Coming up behind and catching them in the same trap they had Samuel in.”

  “Okay, fair enough. What about the Reapers?”

  “What about them.”

  “They killed them way too fast. Have you ever seen a Reaper taken down like that before?”

  She scrunched up her nose as she shook her head and then shrugged.

  “Maybe they got lucky.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” I didn’t believe that though. There was something else bothering me too. “Samuel.”

  “What about him?”

  “It was hard to see because of the distance but it looked like he was waiting for orders.”

  “The new group just saved him and his cult members. Maybe he was just asking questions.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  I still wasn’t convinced but there wasn’t much I could do about it right then. With any luck, the newcomers would travel back with Samuel and I would be able to get some answers.

  “Crap!” I said, suddenly, smacking my forehead with my hand.

  “What?”

  “It’s the day of sacrifice
tomorrow. I need to prepare.”

  “What’s to prepare? It’s the sixth one, you know all the names by heart. I know you do.”

  “Not the point.”

  “Look, it will be fine. Get some sleep and tomorrow we will have the ceremony. Afterwards, you can come back here and spend some time with the kids. Just relax a bit, you deserve it.”

  “Maybe.”

  Not sure how relaxed I could be with having to watch Angelina. Her fascination with the frogs was becoming more and more disturbing and I wasn’t at all sure how to handle it.

  My thoughts that night, as I tried to sleep were plagued with questions I could not answer. I tossed and turned, restless and filled with sorrow. The day of sacrifice was a day that I had come to loathe for it was a reminder of just what I had lost, of what we had all lost, to ensure we could survive.

  When morning arrived, I was tired and grumpy, with little mood for anything. Duty compelled me to rise from my bed and for a short time, I could forget my woes as I breakfasted with my children. All too soon though, I bade them farewell and headed to the command centre.

  There, Charlie had a microphone waiting and with an ache in my heart, I began to speak the list of names so that all on the island and mainland could hear.

  Chapter 33

  I could hear the pain in her voice. It filled the air as it was broadcast to all who could listen. A list of names, some of which I knew, and as she moved down that list, her voice began to tremble, to break.

  Gregg was silent beside me as the car pulled up outside a large house. Black-garbed cultists stood guard at the entrance and I waited for a moment longer in the car as she continued to speak. It had been so long since I had heard her voice and I savoured every single word I heard.

  “Christ,” he muttered as his own name was read out, followed by a soft sob. Then she spoke my name in such a manner that I looked to my friend. There was something in his expression that I couldn’t understand but he clasped my shoulder and said, “she is upset.”

  At having to say my name? I had no idea if that was a good or a bad thing but I could only trust that my friend would tell me if it was the latter. I turned back to Samuel who was seated in the passenger seat.

  “Inform them that no word of our presence can be uttered,” I said, and he nodded.

  “As you command.”

  “You sure about this, mate? We’re so close.”

  “I just need to see them,” was all I said.

  I didn’t know why I needed to, but something compelled me. More so that I needed to be unseen. I could not bear to destroy their happiness. Even so, I had to see my children, I had to see my Lily.

  “You could just ask him, you know,” Gregg said with a nod towards Samuel who was speaking with the guards by the house. “He could tell you what-“

  “No.” I had no desire to know she had found new love. “I just want to see her then I will go and you can make your return.”

  “Whatever you say, mate.”

  Samuel turned and gestured and together, we climbed from the car and hurried up the path towards the house. He didn’t speak, though I knew he had question’s a plenty, as he led us around the side of the house and into the rear garden.

  There was a pond there and a copse of trees beside the rear wall. “There,” I said, pointing at the trees. “We will wait in there.”

  Samuel looked as though he wanted to speak but instead just bowed his head and touched his fist to his breast before turning and walking away. He had to await the return of his cultists and likely had a million other things to do.

  We secured ourselves in the trees, far enough back that we couldn’t be seen but close enough that we could see out through the bushes. We didn’t have to wait long.

  The rain that had plagued us had finally stilled and sunlight lit up the garden as she came into view. There was a sadness that clung to her, a sorrow that she wore like a cloak as she led two small children towards the lawn.

  Like light and dark, the children were the spitting image of Lily though Angelina had a slightly sullen expression while Gabriel was all beaming smiles and happy chatter. They settled on the faded plastic garden chairs and Lily opened a book then began to read.

  I watched them, something stirring inside of me that I couldn’t hope to understand even if it was explained. They were my family that I was watching. My children, my partner, the woman I loved. Something I had never expected that I would be able to do, but there it was.

  My children, so small, such little people. That there were people out in the world who would cause them harm filled me with such an indescribable fury that I wanted to run from the garden and bring death to all who might hurt them.

  They were my children! My family!

  A word that had never truly had any meaning for me other than to denote people who seemed to think that I needed to spend time with them. People I would visit for the holidays and buy presents for on their birthdays.

  I would suffer through their inane chatter and do as was necessary to maintain my façade of normality while they tolerate my presence, uncomfortable and too polite to ask me to stop visiting.

  They had meant nothing to me, but those two small people sitting with Lily, they meant something. I felt a tremble run through me and a pain in my chest as I found in myself a longing to step out into the sunlight and sit with them. To take Lily into my arms and hold those two children close, to hear their laughter and to say their names.

  I could not do that though. I had no place in the sunlight for I carried the darkness with me wherever I went. I was a blight on the world, I was death to all I met and all I could do with my presence was cause them pain.

  “It’s time for me to go,” I said, voice barely a whisper. “I have to go.”

  “Mate…”

  “Please. If you are my friend, then please, tell them that I died. Tell them that my last thoughts were of them because that is a truth that will not change.”

  A tear ran down his cheek and I looked away, not sure of how I felt. The ache in my chest was unpleasant and I needed to go far away, to a place where I could try to forget the life I could never truly have.

  “You can’t go, mate. Please! They’re your family.”

  “Take care of them for me,” I said, clasping his arm before I pushed past him, heading towards the back wall.

  Gregg followed me, and I swallowed back my desire to stop, to say that I would stay! That I could be any kind of a father to those children. That I could do anything other than destroy their innocence and drag them into the darkness that surrounded me.

  I stopped, legs heavy and throat dry as I swallowed past the pain there. I had been shot, I had been stabbed, I had spent days being tortured and none of that compared to the deep pain that I felt inside of me, a pain that I could not push aside.

  He reached out to me, an open palm, offering me the chance to stop, to at least try. I ached to take it, but I couldn’t. I was a killer, a destroyer of lives.

  “How many people have I killed,” I asked, voice a whisper that he had to strain to hear.

  “More than I could count.”

  “If I stay, I would add them to that number.”

  “You’d never hurt them.”

  “My presence alone would hurt them!” I snapped back. “It would corrupt them and destroy who they are. I am a killer and I do not know how to be anything else. I could not be anything else for that is a part of myself that I cannot change.”

  “She loved you, mate. You didn’t destroy who she was, and you certainly didn’t corrupt her. If anything, she corrupted you.” His laugh was low and short. “I’ve seen who you are with her and without her and I have to tell you, mate. You’re a better man when you’re with her.”

  His words hit hard and a part of me desperately wanted to believe him in a way that I had never wanted anything before. I’d never imagined that I could even feel something so strongly, let alone find myself struggling to fight it.

  “Who ar
e you?”

  The high-pitched voice broke into my thoughts and I spun, hand instinctively going to the axe on my belt. The little girl just cocked her head and looked at me, unafraid, but curious. She held a frog in one hand and a heavy rock in the other.

  “Why do you have a frog?” I asked, unsure of what else to say.

  “I want to see what’s inside.”

  Okay…

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to.”

  “If you open it up it will die,” Gregg said, single eye showing confusion. “You don’t want to hurt it do you?”

  “I don’t mind.”

  He blinked at that and looked from her to me, mouth open but no words coming out. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked down at her.

  “A knife would be better than a rock.”

  “Mama won’t let me have a knife.”

  “Mate! You can’t let her-“

  I waved him away as I pressed a hand against the pocket of my coat, feeling the shape inside. I reached in and pulled out the small knife in its sheath. Not one that I had used before but one that I liked to keep just in case I lost my others.

  “Tell you what, how about I swap you the frog for this knife?”

  Her little face scrunched up as she looked down at the frog she held and then up at the knife in my outstretched hand.

  “But then I won’t have a frog to open up.”

  “True, but you will have the knife for next time you find a frog.”

  She dropped the rock and it landed with a thud on the leaf-covered ground. She gave one last look at the frog before offering it up to me. I took it solemnly and passed her the knife in return.

  “You should go and show that to your mum,” Gregg said.

  “Okay.” She smiled happily and turned to go calling out, “bye”, as she ran off through the bushes.

  I followed after her, watchful to make sure that she did indeed take the knife to Lily who would know what to do with it.

  Lily and Cass were standing not so far away as Angelina approached them and anger crossed her face as she looked up, eyes narrowed as she stared into the trees. I met her gaze with my own and her eye’s widened then shimmered before tears began to fall.