Killing The Dead 9 (Season 2 | Book 3): Family Matters

by Richard Murray

  “And when you survive this because others die for you, how will that make you feel?” I snapped.

  “We will pray for their souls to find peace and thank them for their sacrifice,” he said.

  “You sanctimonious prick,” I said and he smiled indulgently as though he understood something that I didn’t. “My friends, your son, will stand out there and die trying to make sure you all survive and you’ll sit in here doing nothing but wait for death.”

  “We cannot fight our natures,” Bryan said. “My son doesn’t understand that. He has always struggled with the concept and I have always feared he would lose his way.”

  “Your son is a better man than you will ever be,” I said quietly. “If you survive this, we will leave her without looking back and someday, sooner or later, they will come.”

  “Who?”

  “People. The kind who will hurt you, abuse you, steal what you have and even kill you for the pleasure of it. They will come and you won’t have us to protect you.”

  “Then we will run from them and if we can’t run, we will pray to our Lord and accept our fate.”

  “The undead aren’t people,” I said. A change was needed, another way to get through to him and it was perhaps my last chance to convince him. Besides, if he continued on as he was I would end up losing my temper.

  “They walk amongst us,” Bryan said. “They must be part of Gods plan.”

  “Why would they be?” I asked. “They are monsters that feed on the living.”

  “But they died and came back. That has precedent.”

  “Oh for goodness sake,” I said. “This isn’t a religious event, it’s something else.”

  “Then what?”

  “A virus, a parasite, an alien bug! I don’t know what it is but it isn’t your god.”

  “I very much like you young lady,” Bryan said and I blinked, taken aback. “I think you’ll be a good influence on my son but in this you’re wrong. We won’t fight and we won’t kill.”

  “Then we will all die, a miserable end that is wholly unnecessary.”

  “We will gather here,” Bryan said as he patted my leg gently and rose to his feet. “When the gates open, we will be here, minds and hearts joined together in prayer. I would very much like you to join us.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” I said.

  He nodded, his smile gentle and kind. Then he walked away and just like that I was alone by the door, watching the preparations for the end.

  I pushed myself to my feet, wincing at the pain from my wound as a sudden need to see Ryan came to me. I was in no state to fight and when they came for me, I wouldn’t be able to die with him and that brought more sorrow than anything else.

  We’d both die alone, surrounded by the dead, separated from each other at the end. I wanted to weep.

  Chapter 22 – Ryan

  Preparations were almost complete and the people of the sanctuary that were willing to fight to survive gathered around. I looked at each of them, meeting their eyes and wondering what they expected from me.

  They’d get no speeches, no impassioned words to get them ready to fight. Just silence that would match that of the grave, which is what most, if not all of us would find that day.

  The cool day had turned cold as the breeze came to life, rising in strength and tugging at our hair and clothes. Carrying with it the first drops of rain, the vanguard of the storm that approached us. Dark skies above us and firm stone beneath our feet, it seemed fitting weather for what would come next.

  A warm hand found my own, fingers interlocking with mine and I turned my head, just enough to see her, knowing it might well be the last time.

  “I’ll be on the watch tower with Charlie,” she said and smiled at my expression. It was tight lipped and strained, but still had genuine humour behind it. “Oh, I knew what you and Pat were up to, but it won’t work.”

  “We wanted you both to live,” I said. No apologies and no need to skirt the truth.

  “Because you don’t think you will?”

  “It seems rather unlikely,” I admitted.

  “We’ll stay,” she said. “Cass agrees. We started this journey together and that’s how we’ll end it.”

  “Seems a little pointless,” I said and she laughed. A rich and warm sound, full of life and joy.

  “We wouldn’t get far on our own anyway. She couldn’t carry me and I’m in no state to walk for more than a few minutes at a time.”

  “Fair enough,” I said but squeezed her hand in mine. For some reason, my mood was lighter knowing that she’d be near. I didn’t want to see her die but if this all went to hell, then I’d be dead long before that happened anyway. “Still no chance you’ve changed your mind and want to run for it?”

  She shook her head and pulled an errant strand of damp hair from her face. No way would she leave these fools without trying to save them and I wouldn’t leave her. Seemed such a waste of my life though to die for someone else.

  “Charlie’s in place?” I asked.

  “Everything’s set.”

  I eyed the gates. The great piece of wood that served as the locking bar was bowed outwards and had already started to break with great splinters of wood sticking out. A noticeable gap had appeared between those gates with blood and mangled flesh pushed through by the weight of numbers behind.

  The sky above was covered in grey clouds that were darkening further with each passing moment. The winds blew steadily as the rain grew heavier.

  “Screw waiting,” I muttered before I raised my voice and shouted, “Get into position.”

  All around the people scurried into their places. Faces pale with fear but set in determination. I turned to Lily and in a rare moment of weakness, leaned in to place my lips firmly against her own. For several long moments, I let my control slip, gave in to my need for her, a need that I had begun to acknowledge was as great as that to kill. She responded in kind.

  “To your tower,” I said, my voice cold as I pulled away from her. Recognition dawned on her face as she realised that I’d just said goodbye and with damp eyes she walked away, Cass moving in to help hold her steady.

  Jinx, looked up at me. She’d spent most of the day resting and seemed to sense the battle to come. She’d not left my side since I’d gathered my weapons. I nodded towards Lily’s retreating back but the dog ignored me, choosing instead to stay beside me.

  I surveyed the defences rather than watch her leave, focusing on what I hoped would happen and all the things that could go wrong.

  In the great hall behind us, barricaded inside the tea room, were the fifty odd people who either were unable to fight or outright refused. When the time had come, nine of them had decided to fight which bolstered our numbers a little, but nowhere near enough.

  We had nearly thirty people and a natural bottleneck with the gate. I intended to use that to our advantage.

  Tables, chairs and anything else we could find had been laid out in the courtyard, forming the two sides of a corridor leading from the gates almost to the main building. The majority of our people would line the sides of the barrier with their weapons in hand and smash the skulls of any zombies that came close.

  At the end of that corridor, three of the larger men stood with shields and nothing else. They would hold those centuries old shields and use them to keep back any undead while Gregg and Reece would use the two spears to hopefully good effect. Using the length to strike over the shoulders of the shield bearers.

  On the right-hand side, Caleb and one of his trusted people would watch their side of the barrier and deal with any places that seemed to be struggling while I would do the same with Pat on the left.

  My hope was that the pressure of the undead behind pushing forwards, would mean that the first zombies through the door wouldn’t be able to linger in one place but if they did, that’s when the four of us would dash forward and thin the herd.

  I was fairly confident that tactic would work with the Shamblers, but the Ferals would
be a problem which is why I wanted to be able to stay close to the gates and strike at any that tried to break through the barrier. It certainly wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one we had.

  Caleb glared at me from across the barrier, the majority of his people were on his side since I had no intention of fighting anywhere near them. Other faces, Gabriel, Becky even the deaf girl Emily and more people I didn’t know, turned to look at me as I passed. Hope warred with terror there as they clutched their weapons in sweaty palms. I ignored them, many if not all would be dead soon enough.

  Pat nodded as I joined him and raised his mace. A spike studded iron ball on the end of a solid wooden handle about two feet long. With his strength, he’d put it to good use. I had my combat knife in my left hand, claw bladed knife in a pocket and an axe in my right hand. A borrowed jacket that was too large for me was my only armour.

  The axe, apparently, was a replica of a horseman's axe. It was short hafted, two feet in length with a curved head of blackened steel. A spike stood out four inches from the opposite side of the head and a thin strip of steel was bolted along either side of the handle to protect against cuts to the wood. Not really a problem I expected, but it felt good to have a little bit of reach and stopping power.

  A crack reverberated around the courtyard and the timber locking bar split further, the gates pushed open wider by the massed zombies. Their stink seemed to seep through that gap and assault our senses, while their moans set one's teeth on edge.

  “Get ready,” I said to my friend as a second crack cut the air. “Here they come.”

  The wood burst apart, the doors swinging wide and they were through, death, riding a wave of walking corpses.

  Chapter 23 – Lily

  Pain tore through me and my legs trembled as I gripped the parapet to hold myself upright, determined to see, to witness what would unfold.

  Those great wooden gates, thick and old, swung inwards as they came through. Grey skin, stumbling and pushing against one another, mindless in their hunger, their need to feed on the flesh of the defenders in the courtyard.

  The first few fell, the force of all those behind pushing them over and trampling them beneath their feet. A minor stumbling block for those behind, they rushed at the closest people, arms stretched out, reaching for them.

  “Stay calm!” Ryan snapped as his axe crashed down on the head of a zombie that reached for a tall, slim man in his thirties who stepped back at its approach.

  He pushed the man back into place with one hand as he yanked free the axe head with the other and battle was joined.

  Six, ten, fourteen zombies fell to our weapons as they were pushed along from behind, along the corridor we’d set up. I stopped counting as the mass of limbs and bodies became too thick to clearly see details of what was happening.

  All along the corridor, on both sides, men and women were striking with their weapons. Blood sprayed and zombies died. Falling to the paving stones, forming a new uneven floor for their kind to scramble over to reach the living.

  “Come on,” I murmured as Pat leapt forward, his spiked mace smashing down on first one, then another skull. Clearing a gap where the undead had pushed against the barrier. The tide of undead moved ever onwards.

  In minutes, they’d reached the end and with terror writ clear on their faces, the three men raised their shields. Rounded on the top and tapered to the bottom, they were large enough that the men could duck their heads and raise the wooden shields to shoulder height.

  The first zombies hit them with an almost perceptible force, the three men with legs braced for impact, were still pushed back, their feet scraping across the paving stones as cries of terror came from their throats.

  Then spears thrust over them, long wooden poles with leaf-shaped iron blades on the end, wielded by Gregg and Reece. They stabbed at heads, aiming for eyes, mouths, any way that they could get through to the brain to end their faux lives.

  It wasn’t enough. There were too many pressing forward, pushing from behind. The corridor was full of heaving bodies, too many to count and as each one fell another was there to take its place.

  Minutes had passed and already arms were getting weary. The frenzied pummelling of our people was slowing and the line had begun to bow outwards in places.

  Caleb ran forward, a steel bar in one hand and a butcher's knife in the other. He clubbed and hacked at the zombies as he cursed his people to push back. Hesitant at first then with growing confidence, they began to push back.

  On the other side of the courtyard, Ryan and Pat were in constant movement. From one place on the line to the next, darting in to kill one zombie here, two there, they held the people in place through sheer force of will. None seeming to want to step back, to turn in fear while they were with them.

  “It’s not enough,” I whispered. There were just too many of them and too few of us. I turned to Charlie who sat with her back against the parapet, the drone on her lap. “Do it now!”

  “Not time yet,” she replied as she fiddled with the equipment. Her tongue stuck between her lips as she squinted down at what she was doing.

  “You need to…” I began as a scream sounded from below and I looked down into the courtyard to see one of Caleb's people, stumbling back from the line, their hand held before their face. Several fingers were missing and blood ran freely. “Do it now!” I screamed at the girl.

  She glared at me but lifted the drone and set it on the smooth floor of the watchtower beside her and picked up the controls. The whir of its four rotors spinning was almost louder than the shouting and moans of the fight below.

  It shot up into the air and I followed its flight with my eyes. Charlie kept hers on the display screen on the controller she held, seeing through the drone's camera. It hovered over the courtyard before dropping low, raucous music blaring from the MP3 player she’d somehow managed to connect to it.

  Undead faces raised towards the music as the drone swooped down to fly over the crowd. Not many, too much live flesh for most to take their attention from but enough to provide a moment's respite for the people at either side of the corridor.

  Ryan and Pat leapt forward. Mace, axe, and knife falling amongst the undead and killing without pause as the combination of rain, music, and drone proved too much of a distraction for some of those zombies.

  “It’s working!” I said as it zipped through the gates to hover over the bridge.

  I crossed the watch tower to almost collapse against the opposite side, leaning against the rough stone parapet and watching the zombies slow their pace. The drone hovered just above them, out of reach.

  LED lights beneath each of the arms that held the rotors began to flash almost in time with the music and I looked down at Charlie who grinned.

  “They’ve slowed,” I said and she nodded as I turned back to watch the undead on the bridge.

  Arms raised towards the noise and light, they weren’t pushing forwards as much as they had been and towards the gate, a gap appeared. It would give those in the courtyard space to breathe, to pause in their killing.

  Another scream sounded and I winced. It was a woman's voice, high-pitched and full of fear. It cut off sharply and a roar of anger came from the other men and women around her. I didn’t need to see, to know how she’d just died.

  I did need to keep watch on the courtyard though. I pushed away from the parapet and crossed the short distance back to the other side. Pain radiating from the wound in my stomach, but I refused to give in. Not when those I cared about were fighting for their lives.

  The crowd of zombies had definitely thinned out. Small clusters of them were attacking various sections of the barrier, stumbling over the bodies of the dead as they tried to reach the living. Jinx was running along beside Ryan but had little to do as she couldn’t get through the barrier.

  Occasionally an arm would reach through, past the people fighting there and she would leap to catch it in her powerful jaws, landing and pulling the zombie half over the bar
rier and holding it there until someone would crush its skull. Then she’d release the arm and race back to Ryan, eyes watching for the next opportunity.

  A man yelled and I turned my face towards the sound to see one of Caleb's people. He’d overreached when he struck at a zombie and one of them had grasped hold of his arm, its head darting forward to sink its teeth into the flesh.

  He screamed as another grabbed his shoulder and pulled him forward, the man and woman on either side of him, stopping their fight to grab him and try to pull him back.

  “Fools,” I muttered. It was too late for him and I hated how easily that realisation came to me.

  Caleb seemed to come to the same conclusion and was there in moments, haranguing his people until they released their hold on the dead man and returned to swinging their weapons.

  “You can let more through,” I said to Charlie without turning.

  “Will do,” she said and the music ceased as the drone shot up into the air.

  The zombies below it, freed from its distracting presence, turned back towards the castle and pushed inwards. Joining the few remaining undead in the corridor and it began again.

  “Tell me when to drop back down,” Charlie said as the first of the second wave of zombies fell at the leading edge of the corridor.

  I nodded though she wasn’t watching me, and I kept my gaze fixed on the courtyard. The people there were flagging, their arms wearying from the fight. Ryan and Pat had slowed their pace, conserving energy.

  How many have they killed? I wondered as I looked down on them. The paving stones that formed the floor of the corridor we’d made were no longer visible between the piled bodies. A hundred? More?

  Not enough was the answer that came to me. It would never be enough, even if we killed all of these, then there would be more. An almost endless supply across the world.

  I shook my head to clear it from the dark thoughts. That way led despair and that was something I refused to give in to. Instead, I called to Charlie, “Again!”