Killing The Dead (Book 18): Sacrifice

by Murray, Richard

  “There’s no way to get you back home, you know that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’ve given up on your vaccine and helping our people?”

  “No. This will help them, and I had to make sure it was done right.”

  My eyes flicked to the syringe she held, and I swallowed back my anger. I knew what it contained, and I knew what Shepherd and the others had volunteered to face. I couldn’t truly fault her for wanting to make sure their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

  “You children finished bitching?” Shepherd barked.

  I looked at the older woman with the greying hair that looked greasy no matter how often she washed it. Her face was all hard planes and sharp angles and she looked as though there were nothing soft about her. I knew the truth though.

  “There’s still time to back out?”

  Her expression softened and she even managed a smile, something that the other women seated around the table didn’t seem quite capable of.

  “You know that I won’t.”

  “I know, but I had to offer.” I looked at those other, brave, women. “The same applies to you.”

  “We are ready for this.”

  No, I thought sadly, no one was ever ready for what they were about to face. I blinked away the dampness in my eyes and looked once more at Vanessa.

  “Swear to me that this will work.”

  “I swear it,” Vanessa said. “Once injected, it will be anything from one to two hours.”

  “Then inject now because the fleet is in sight.”

  “No,” Shepherd said in a voice firmer than mine could have been in the same circumstances. “We will inject when we are in the boat. We’ve all agreed.”

  The crossing wouldn’t take long. Ten minutes perhaps at most. That would leave them in the company of the raiders for two hours and I couldn’t imagine the will it would take to willingly do such a thing.

  “As you wish,” was all I said though. I wouldn’t demean their sacrifice by trying to stop them.

  Still, it was with a heavy heart that I led the way out into the snowstorm. The win pulled at our clothing and the ship rose and fell in nauseating manner, but those women walked with heads held high and backs straight.

  In silence, I stood beside the boat as they climbed in and under the watchful gaze of the marine sergeant, I watched them speed across the water to the slowing pirate fleet. As I headed back towards the control tower, my mood was dark and thoughts grim.

  As I reached the door, the doctor's hand caught my arm and I looked back at her, the snow swirling around her face and her eyes full of deep sorrow.

  “They won’t feel anything,” she said. “I made sure of that. They’re as numb as they can be and still walking.”

  It didn’t help, not nearly enough, but I gave one sharp nod of thanks anyway for her attempt. No matter what drugs she had injected, no matter how numb they would be to what was to happen, they wouldn’t be able to shield themselves from the humiliation, the degradation.

  I tapped the gun that was holstered on my belt, just to reassure myself that it was there. Soon enough we would be committing ourselves to battle and I would use it to put down as many of those mad bastards that I could.

  The Admiral held up a hand as I approached where he sat, listening to a voice coming through the speakers set into the console. It was rough, and deep, definitely male with a strong accent that I suspected was South African.

  “Who you sending over?”

  “A delegation,” Admiral Stuart said. “To negotiate a ceasefire.”

  “Bugger all to negotiate, friend. You either surrender, or we kill ya.“

  “Then allow them aboard to discuss our terms of surrender,” the Admiral said, voice not showing the distaste evident on his face. “We just want to save as many of our people as we can.”

  Laughter was the only reply and I turned to stare out the window, searching for the speck of colour that was the little boat taking our people across the water. A sailor reached over and handed me a pair of binoculars which I took with a smile of thanks.

  “The fleets stopped, at least,” Admiral Stuart said as he joined me.

  “What do you think our chances are?”

  “The cruiser is the biggest danger.” He pointed at the largest of the ships in the centre of the flotilla. “Each side of that are the destroyers. Even if this plan works and the cruiser is out of action, we will face both of those at the same time.”

  “Besides them are the rest of the fleet. Over a hundred ships in all shapes and sizes with what looks to be a great deal of weaponry fixed to their decks.”

  “Weapons?”

  “Mounted machine-guns and the occasional cannon. It’s hard to see for certain with the snow.”

  “As we suspected then.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I held back a sigh as I waited for the small boat to come alongside the cruiser. We didn’t have anything like the weapons that they had. A few assault rifles and the guns of the destroyer I was on. Instead, we had a fleet of fishing craft and a lot of people willing to die for what they believed in.

  “It begins,” I said as the first of our delegates climbed aboard the ship.

  Chapter 21.

  Briony was down, the zombie tearing at her shoulders as she did all she could to hold it at bay. Behind it, her infected minions came running and I eyed the door.

  As the pile of struggling bodies before the window grew, I edged around the desk and slipped out the door. While I may have ensured my own death-cultists swear to not retreat before the enemy, I had better sense.

  I was at the end of the corridor when a hand grabbed my arm, spinning me around and sending me sprawling. The air rushed from my lungs as I hit the ground hard, and I had a moment’s warning before Steven lifted me as easily as a mother would a child and slammed me back against the wall.

  There was death in his eyes and with it, a little too much excitement for my liking. I thrust up with my knife only for him to block it with almost embarrassing ease.

  “I should thank you,” he said, voice little more than a hiss.

  “No thanks necessary,” I grunted as I strained to move in his grip.

  “Oh, but there is. Because of you, I am immortal. I will have an eternity of pain to gift people with.”

  “Maybe,” I grunted as I wrapped my legs around his right leg and twisted my hips.

  His eyes widened for just a moment as something tore in his knee, sending us both to the floor in a tangle of limbs. My knife flashed and blood sprayed up and across the wall as I stabbed blindly while trying to untangle myself.

  Then I was free and on my feet as the Infected Steven, blood soaking his chest, rose up behind me. I flashed him a grin, ducking beneath a frustrated grab and slipping past him. He turned, just in time for me to miss his skull, my blade sliding past and taking some skin with it.

  I grunted as his fist caught my rib but smiled as my blade went up beneath his chin, all the way through the mouth and into the brain. He dropped like a stone and I was pleased to note that it took more than a day to grow the bony plates over the vulnerable areas.

  With no intention of waiting for the others to catch up, I set off running down the stairs, taking them several at a time and not stopping until I reached the bottom. Then I was across the lobby and out the doors before I even considered stopping.

  Either Briony would kill the zombie or it would kill her. No matter what, I would have something coming after me and I suspected that would be the Infected. They retained enough of themselves to follow my footprints in the snow, which meant there was no point trying to be discreet.

  I set off at a fast pace, the cold numbing my exposed skin and the wind seeming to blow the snow directly at my face. I put my head down, pushing on towards the tallest of the buildings across the wide waterway.

  There was a four-lane road up ahead and as I neared it, I began to slow. It rose up as it crossed the waterway and it was the only way across fro
m where I was. There were more bridges on the western side of the district, but to reach them I would need to go on a long walk through the city.

  That complicated things as it was most likely guarded and there was little chance of crossing it without being noticed. I hunkered down in the snow, watching the road as I chewed my lip, considering the options.

  Apparently, there weren’t many.

  There were no boats sitting in the Blackwall Basin, that larger body of water to the east of the bridge and to my south. While there were cars sitting on the road, the snow had long since covered them and I couldn’t expect them to be of use as anything but cover.

  Which was probably what I would have to use them as. I glanced up at the slate grey sky and held back a sigh. It would be a long time until dark and I couldn’t last out in the snow for so long. Besides, I fully expected Briony and the others to be on my trail which limited my time.

  The falling snow would help, but anyone keeping watch could still notice my approach. I gave a mental shrug and rose to my feet before setting off towards the road.

  As soon as I reached the edge of the road, I dashed forward and ducked down behind a car. Visibility was poor but I could still make out the colossal shapes of the buildings up ahead, all steel and glass.

  At the far end of the bridge was a small booth where parking attendants would sit all day to check tickets and allow or deny entry and exit. It was too small for any real security presence, but to get to the tallest building, I would have to go between the two nearest.

  I fully expected them to have some sort of presence, even if just a camera to keep an eye on the streets. If they weren’t already aware, then by the time I was across the bridge, Genpact would know I was coming.

  With a mental shrug at that thought, I dashed around the side of the car and onto the next snow-covered mound. Then to the next, and the one after that. I moved from car to car, keeping hunched over low, breath coming in short gasps with the exertion of cutting a path through the thick snow.

  Soon enough I was at the end of the bridge and I stopped to stare at the lowered barriers. Clearly, they would have been to stop a car and not a person, as they were simple painted bars that raised and lowered.

  The attendant's booth, as expected was empty and it appeared as though I had a clear run all the way to the two buildings that I needed to slip past.

  That disturbed me. It shouldn’t be so easy, which meant I either had the wrong place entirely and the helicopter was a remnant of the last world, or they had an ambush set up. Either way, I was screwed, so there was little else to do.

  I stood up straight, heedless of anyone who may be watching and headed straight for the gap between the buildings. A quick look back over my shoulder was enough to tell me that I wasn’t being followed, so I had a little more time.

  Turns out, I would need it.

  A wooden board had been fixed over one of the lower windows of the building to my right. As I approached, it fell away and I stopped, heart racing as I hefted both blades in my hand, knowing I would need them.

  The first of the new zombies came out slowly, clawed hands grasping the window frame as it pulled itself through. Like the other, steel plates covered its torso and eyes, while its claws had been extended with razor-sharp steel blades.

  It lifted its head to the sky, sniffing at the air and searching for a scent, while behind it, another stepped out into the snow.

  I was pretty much screwed.

  They were both naked, though it was impossible to tell their original gender. Whatever genitalia they had once had, had long since been torn away by their own claws leaving nothing but scar tissue in its place.

  Both were slim and bald, greying skin crisscrossed with dark veins on any skin not covered by steel plates or bone growth. They moved slowly as their heads turned this way and that, searching for the reason they’d been released.

  I couldn’t move without making a noise, any step I were to take would result in the frozen snow crunching beneath my boots. Twenty metres behind me I would find myself with more space but nowhere to go but back to the bridge and I doubted that I’d make it in time.

  There was always the river, but the cold will kill me quickly. The building to my left was secured with little access to the interior that I had seen and the only gap in the building to the right, was the one the zombies had stepped through.

  I left out a sigh and brushed the snow from my face. I’d lived my life knowing that when you had nothing but bad choices, you choose one and you stuck it out to the end. I grinned to myself as I let out a sharp whistle.

  They set off running, no hesitation, hunched over with clawed hands extended. I sucked in a deep breath, preparing myself as I reversed my grip on the knives in my hands, blades pointing down at the blindingly white snow.

  The clink of steel plates rubbing against one another, the low growl that I could feel in my bones, and the foul odour that clung to them, was all I could focus on as they crossed the distance. I stood my ground, fighting the adrenaline rushing through my body.

  Snow was kicked into the air with each step they took, the distance narrowed. Ten metres, eight, five, three, one, and then I moved. Dropping low and spinning on my heel, away from the charging monsters.

  My knives flashed, steel blades catching the weak light and blood spilt as the first zombie crashed down into the snow. The second collided with me, a wicked blow sending me flying across the snow with blood seeping through the deep lacerations in my chest.

  I hit the snow and rolled, not stopping to check my wounds, not noticing the pain. The first zombie wouldn’t be down long. The severed tendons may well heal together, and the creature would have use of its leg again, but even if it didn’t, it would still be a threat.

  The other had turned, head tilted as it listened, As I rose to my feet, it ran straight for me again. I readied my knives, knuckles white as I blinked away the falling snow that was blown into my face.

  I ducked beneath a clawed hand, blade moving up to slice through the skin at the unprotected joints of its elbow. Minor damage, but enough to make it howl, spinning and lunging wildly with clawed hands extended.

  My knife bit deeply into its hand, but the steel blades were fixed in place and even losing the fingers wouldn’t be enough. All I could do was block the blows, parrying with my own long-bladed knife, using my speed and skill to offset its brute strength.

  Even so, I was pressed back as it kept at me, tirelessly. My chest was heaving, limbs numb with exertion and cold as the growing dampness of my chest warned me that I needed to end the fight and fast.

  Steel clinked as my blade skittered across its side and the creature lunged to the left, towards the sound I had just made. A fresh grin and another strike to its left ribs as I made sure to drag the blade across the steel scales.

  Confused for just a moment, the creature lashed out to the left, finding only empty air as I slipped to the right, letting the blade spin in my hand so that the point was aimed right at that sweet spot where spine met skull.

  The blade slipped in as I hit it with all the force I could muster, and the zombie fell to the snow. I had a bare moment to suck in a deep breath before the other was on me. Crawling across the snow, I narrowly avoided having its claws do to my leg what I had done to it.

  It moaned and I laughed as I pushed through the snow, moving around it, forcing it to turn with me. Down but not out, it was still dangerous and not something I could leave behind me. Even as I watched, its leg began to twitch, whatever damage had been done, healing.

  Not fully. It rose to its feet and took a step with a stiff-legged gait. Whatever tendrils of the parasite resided within the body had forced itself down the leg, forming a splint of sorts. It had lost the ability to bend at the knee but could stand and walk again.

  A problem, to be sure.

  Pain was starting to register from my chest and my hands shook. I stepped in close, left blade parrying the first slash of a clawed hand, my right missing, t
he blade catching on the bony plates around the forearm and bouncing away.

  It was a mistake that cost me dearly as steel blades on the end of its fingers sank deep into my shoulder. It pushed down on that hand and I was forced to my knees else it would have sliced down through my torso.

  A black tongue protruded from a foul-smelling mouth, drool running down over its chin as it moved in to bite at my flesh. My left blade smashed through its cheekbone and into the mouth. It couldn’t penetrate the brain, but it could pin the jaws shut.

  It reared back, pulling its claws from my flesh as it reached for the knife piercing its face with both clawed hands, slicing its own flesh in an effort to pull it free.

  I forced myself to my feet, darkness on the edge of my vision. Black blood was flowing freely from the creature’s face as its own claws cut away much of the skin and flesh, revealing the bone of the jaw.

  Weariness settling around my shoulders, I stepped behind it and slammed my blade into the back of its skull with all the strength I could muster. Then it was done.

  I staggered a little, adrenaline leaving me and weariness overtaking my body. My hand shook as I reached for the knife still embedded in the creature’s face. I almost blacked out as I bent over to grab it, but hands steadied me.

  “Easy, mate,” Gregg said as he gripped my shoulders. “Christ, we need to get you patched up.”

  “What are you doing here?” I managed as he helped me upright.

  His chin had a wide bruise on it, and he didn’t look best pleased as he scowled at me, but he was there. My friend.

  “You don’t get to decide my path for me,” he said. “I’m in it till the end. We need to finish this.”

  I nodded, finding it a little hard to find the energy to voice the words. He cast a critical eye over the wounds and grunted.

  “Chest is messy but not too deep. Needs stitching though and the ones in your shoulder are gonna hurt like a bitch whenever you move your arm.”