“They always bloody do,” Gregg muttered as he sorted through out belongings. “Thing is, you can’t trust anyone you don’t know. Not anymore.”
“But…” She seemed lost for words as she looked first at Gregg and then at me. “Surely we need to trust someone. They have a radio! I saw the antenna. We can contact your friends.”
“No,” I said, voice cold. “Don’t even mention the island to them. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“You know what William told us,” I said, anger edging my voice. “We don’t know who we would be contacting or who we could trust. Anything we say, could create more problems there.”
“That’s why you lied about our names.”
“Yes.”
“There’s so much I don’t understand. It’s all so… different.”
“The world you knew is gone.” There was no sympathy in my voice. The new world was a harsh place and she needed to understand that. “You can’t trust anyone, not until you know them. As it is, we have a few days of rest to do that and then we will go.”
“And if you realise you can trust them in those few days?”
“We can discuss that then. Until such a thing happens, we keep quiet and if you aren’t sure of what to say, you say nothing.”
She nodded, clearly upset, even I could see that. I didn’t think she would say or do anything foolish, but if she did… I touched the handle of my axe, a smile forming unbidden on my face. If she did, I would ensure no one survived to tell.
Chapter 12
A chill rain had swept over the island some time during the night and it was with some reluctance that I left my babies with Evie while I went about my day to day business. So, as I approached the sports centre, I was cold, wet, and very much missing my children as I worried over their safety.
“My Lady,” Samuel said, bowing low before me as I approached. “A joy as always.”
“Nice to see you too,” I said, smiling amiably.
His eyes barely seemed to flicker as he swept his gaze over my bodyguards and whatever he saw in them, it displeased him for a crease appeared on his forehead.
“Is everything okay?”
“No.” Just that one word but it was as cold as any I had ever heard from my beloved as he readied to kill. “Joshua, speak.”
I turned as one of my bodyguards stepped forward. He wore the black of the cultists with the white armband that bore the black fang of the Dead. The other cult bodyguard shifted his weight as the two security personnel that Isaac had assigned to me shared a confused look.
“What’s going on?”
“Forgive me, Holy One.”
The cultist dropped to his knees right beside us on the road. I gaped down at him before looking up at Samuel, whose face was one of disappointment mixed with anger. Those black-clad cultists manning the position behind him didn’t so much as turn from watching the sports centre while the security personnel had the same looks of confusion that I was sure was on my face.
“What are you supposed to forgive? What’s going on?”
“An internal matter, My Lady. It neither concerns you nor the duties he was to perform for you.”
“No! That’s not good enough. Tell me what is happening here.”
Samuel, his black hair standing straight up from his head no matter what he did with it, and as stick thin as the day I had first met him, turned his wild-eyed stare on me as he tilted his head, considering his response. Finally, he smiled.
“Joshua was given a task, one which he has failed.”
“What task?”
“Would you like to speak of your crime?” Samuel turned those crazed eyes on the kneeling cultist who bowed his head in shame. “Come now, Joshua. Recount for us, what you have done.”
“I cannot.”
“Then I shall,” Samuel said, before looking back at me. “Joshua began a relationship with one of the Living.”
Crap. One of their biggest rules was that once they were part of the cult, they were to give up all ties to the world of the living. That meant no speaking to those not of the cult unless otherwise permitted, no family, no friends, no relationships.
“He was given a clear directive to choose and since that choice was not made, a punishment is required.”
“Forgive me, Holy One, I could not forsake her.”
“Then your choice is made, and you will remove your hood.”
“P-please!”
“Remove it yourself or it shall be removed.”
I couldn’t help the shiver that ran down my spine at the cold menace in those words and it was with trembling hands that the kneeling cultist reached up and pulled free his hood. His too young face was red, and tear streaked as he kept downcast eyes on the ground.
“There is a price to be paid,” Samuel continued, watching my face as he spoke. “There has to be a price and one willingly given.”
A sob wracked the young man’s body and he shuddered as he pulled free his knife from the sheath on his belt. I opened my mouth to demand he stop, but my voice failed me under those eyes that stared deep into my very soul.
In them was a reminder. I was not part of their cult and had no say in how or why they did what they did. More than that though, I couldn’t help but remember the first time I had seen the man I loved demand the very same price to be paid.
I remained silent.
He didn’t cry as he placed his hand flat on the roads surface, nor did he scream as the blade cut deep. He gagged, as the blade bit into bone and only barely kept the contents of his stomach from spilling to the ground as he forced that blade through.
When it was done, he left the knife, there on the road beside the ring finger of his left hand and rose to his feet. His tears had not stopped and as he clutched his right hand around his ruined left, he could not meet my gaze.
“The price is paid, in blood and flesh,” Samuel said, voice still and sombre. “You are no longer dead, my son. Go forth, back out amongst the living and know a life filled with beauty and joy. We shall stand in your stead, holding back the darkness that you may bathe every day in the light.”
With that, Samuel turned away and the young man sniffed, before he lifted his head and spun on his heel. Back straight and head high, the young man left the cult and the family he had found within.
“A harsh price,” I said.
“But a necessary one.”
That was debateable but I realised that my main concern was for the loss of a potential soldier in the war that we were fighting. Sebastian was out there, causing untold chaos as he searched for his new messiah, and in the past month since we’d been reaching out to communities, things were beyond bad.
I swallowed back the questions I had that I knew he wouldn’t answer and instead turned my attention back to the matter at hand. The Sports centre.
“What’s happening here?”
“No movement, My Lady.”
“You’ve tried reaching out to them?”
“We have.”
“No requests for food or water? They can’t have that much in there can they?”
“Their stores were extensive, enough for six months or more if the building were besieged by the Scourge.”
The zombies. He could have just said, the zombies, but no, he had to use the Scourge. He was the most ardent believer in the legend and religion he had created around my beloved. Not a problem, ordinarily, but despite what they had said in the meeting chamber, the people of the island were restless with the cults presence and I needed the sports centre resolving.
Which, admittedly, left me with few options and the first one was to simply storm the place. That would be suicide though as we would be outnumbered and facing a fatalistic enemy with nowhere to retreat to. They would fight to the very end.
I could not accept that much bloodshed, and I wished that I thought that because I cared about the potential loss of life, but realistically, I needed every willing fighter I could get.
“One week,” I
said, voice soft. “You have one week to find a way to make peaceful contact and then I will need to act.”
“As you command, My Lady.” He paused for just a moment, barely noticeable but there. “Any news of the mainland?”
I squeezed shut my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose as I contemplated an answer that would satisfy him. I knew what he wanted to hear, of course I did, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything that he would be happy with.
“We don’t know what killed the parasite,” I said, opening my eyes to look at him. “The boats are returning, and we have more than enough fuel for the plane, so as soon as we have all the boats back, I will send the plane to look for potential landing zones.”
“You will need those willing to protect the people you send.”
“And you will be the first I speak to.” I glanced back at the sports centre. “After we are done here.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
We’d been making contact with more and more places, small communities and large and found them to be reluctant to speak with us. Most of the east coast especially were polite but restrained and that worried me.
On a map in my office I had noted the locations of almost a hundred small settlements. Not all of them had radios, but were known by those that did, and they varied in size from a single family to several hundred people.
There were still more to be located though and it worried me that so many of them were not talking to us. I wanted to help them, to provide protection and aid, but when offered, they went silent.
It wasn’t just our withdrawal during Sebastian’s reign, it was something else, I was sure of it. Those that did speak talked of raiders and monsters that stalked the countryside. They kept their doors locked at night and didn’t like to give details of their location too often.
Which made it a miracle that we had found so many of them.
“Strange things are happening on the mainland,” I said, voice quiet and thoughtful. “A week ago, there was a small settlement asking for help. Some creature was attacking their animals and any people it could reach.”
“Scourge?”
“Most likely. Thing is, we were preparing a way to get there and when we spoke to them, they said they no longer needed help.”
“Then they killed the creature,” Samuel said as he shrugged his shoulders, losing interest once he knew the monster in the night was dead. “Or it moved on, looking for easier prey.”
“Perhaps.”
I couldn’t shake the thought that there was something odd about it though. The conversation with the survivor group had been brief, but I had the sense they weren’t telling us everything and that concerned me.
We needed to be able to share information freely and the level of distrust towards us was a sign that we would have trouble building any kind of sustainable future. We needed to come together as a species if we wanted to survive and prosper.
I just didn’t see that happening right then.
“Is there anything else, My Lady?”
For a moment, I watched him as I chewed on my lower lip. I had wanted to ask a question for some time but was unsure of whether I wanted to hear his response or not. Since there was never going to be a good time to ask, I figured I might as well just do it.
“Why didn’t you side with Sebastian?”
His eyebrows rose up at that and he smiled with what seemed to be genuine humour.
“Why? Because he was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“Yes, My Lady. He thought that our Lord Death was a title that could be bestowed on another like the crown of a king, passing from parent to child. He was a fool.”
“You don’t believe that, so what do you believe?”
“Our Lord Death was the personification of death itself.” He cocked one brow as he laughed at my expression. “Do you not understand?”
“No.”
“You cannot kill death! The human form was destroyed but our Lord Death is out there, still, waiting until such a time as he is needed and then he will return. Much as he was before.”
My heart beat heavy in my chest as my eyes welled with tears. It was a fantasy, and one that I could not believe in, no matter how much I would have loved for it to be true. He was a man, nothing more, and he had died five years before in a nuclear fire.
“Putting your children upon a throne of bone and calling them lord death would not mean they were him. They could not be, for there is only one such being, much as there is only one of you, My Lady.”
“Me?”
“You are life, as he was death. Sebastian did not understand this, at least not until he received the news that a parasite had been killed. He thought that if you died, one of your children would rise in your place but that would not have happened.”
“It wouldn’t?”
“No. For you would have existed, back in the great darkness beyond this world. There, reunited with the other half of your being, you would have been whole once more.”
It was utterly batshit crazy and the way he looked at me as one would at some holy figure, was more than a little disturbing, but he meant well. I was sure of that. If his odd beliefs meant he would fight for me, then I could accept them, no matter how much they hurt my heart.
“Sebastian understands now though,” Samuel continued. “It is why he fled with the others. He tried to harm you and he knows that death will come for him.”
There was a moment between hearing his words and understanding and I was rocked back on my heels as I stared, wide-eyed at that kindly old man who read stories to my children. A friend who had been there with advice and a shoulder when I badly needed it.
He watched me with something close to reverence and I understood why. Finally, I understood what my beloved had unleashed upon the world with the idiotic death cult he had created. It had grown and evolved into a true religion complete with a legend of death and rebirth that would only come back to bite me in the ass.
“You believe he’s back, don’t you?” I said, voice choking with emotion. “Ryan.”
“Yes, of course, My Lady.” His eyes shone with fanatical belief. “The unkillable has been slain and a fresh darkness covers the land. The living have a need of him now more than ever before and he has returned to us, he walks once more upon this earth.”
It was why he didn’t need to rush off to find him like Sebastian had. In his mind, Ryan had been reborn and would be coming straight to the island. His beloved lord of death had already returned and when he failed to turn up, I could only imagine how he would react.
“Ah, damn,” was all I could think to say.
Chapter 13
I found my recovery to be more than a little dull, and while the people of the village were pleasant, they kept themselves distant from the three of us. Ordinarily that would have been how I preferred it, but the way they watched me set my teeth on edge and my hand reaching towards my blade.
Still, the house we were given to rest and recover in, was clean and quiet. Every few days some women would come to the house and replace the bedding and towels, before taking the ones removed out for cleaning.
They didn’t speak much, though they watched us with side eyed glances and pursed lips. If asked a question, they would simply respond with, “go ask, Alice.”
Despite the cleaning of the wound on my back, infection set in and for the first few days I remained in one of the bedrooms with Abigail nursing me as Gregg explored the village, and each night he would return to tell us of what he had learnt.
Most of it was interesting enough but not that useful. Like, finding out that the collected waste of the village was composted at a farm a short distance away, eventually to become fertilizer to help feed their crops.
Or that the main source of water was an old well that had first been dug some two hundred years before. Their secondary source was the collection of rainwater, along with river water that they boiled and used for cleaning.
Gregg continued to bring back such us
eless information for three days and on the fourth, as I levered myself into a sitting position, grunting at the pain from my shoulder, he staggered into the room.
“Mate!” His mood was cheery, and his words slurred as he rebounded from the wall and stopped, pressing one hand against it to hold himself steady as he focused one bleary eye on me. “Mate!”
“What?” I made no attempt to keep my irritation from my voice.
“You have to try their mead!”
“Mead?” Abigail said, brow creasing. “What’s mead?”
“Alcohol!” Gregg paused, holding up one hand and sucking down a deep breath before continuing. “Made from honey.”
“They have honey?”
“Lots of it, and bees too,” he said, quite happily. “It’s bloody cool! They grow all kinds of vegetables and wheat to grind their own flour too!”
“Self-sufficient,” I muttered.
“Aye, they have sheep for wool and a lot of ducks and chickens. That’s why those scrambled eggs taste so nice.”
A village, of perhaps forty people, mostly families. They were entirely self-sufficient with plenty of water, their own grown food and animal produce to allow them to thrive. Why then, I had to ask myself, had no one taken it from them?
“What else did you learn as you were drinking their mead?” I asked, irritated that he ignored my glower.
“This house.” He lifted his hands, gesturing at the walls of the bedroom. “It’s where people stay when they come to trade.”
“Trade what?”
“Huh?”
His remaining eye was growing ever more unfocused and he was swaying alarmingly as he tried to retain an upright position. I glanced at Abigail and gestured with a jerk of my chin towards him.
“Get him to bed.”
She didn’t reply as she rose, just giving me a look that I guessed was supposed to be anger, and went over to grab my friend by the arm. Speaking softly, she slowly guided him from the room and down the short hall to his own room.
I dismissed him from my thoughts, a worm of suspicion that had first taken root when we arrived, was slowly growing into something far more. A village that had need of little but traded with others. What they traded I could not tell for as far as I had seen they had everything they needed.
Killing The Dead | Book 21 | The Journey Home Page 9
