The Death in a Northern Town Trilogy (Books 1-3): Welcome To Dead Town

by Peter Mckeirnon

  He grabbed the first of the undead by its hair, pulling it away from the remains of Joni. Forcefully he rammed the zombie’s head into the road over and over until its skull cracked and grey rotting brains spilled on to the cold tarmac.

  Moving to the other zombie he swung a well-placed kick to its face, sending it flying backwards. Lost in a rage he dove on top of it, laying punch after punch into its face, breaking first the nose, then the jaw, then its eyes became bloodied and slowly the thin dead face of the zombie started to break apart until like the first, it was no more.

  With the zombies now destroyed he rose to his feet and let out an almighty scream. Part in anger and part in triumph. He looked down upon what remained of his cousin. The dead had devoured almost every inch of his body, leaving only his open sore and puss covered head intact.

  It would appear even zombies had limits.

  Ed, followed by a nervous and cowering Tom, joined their boss to look over the remains of Joni. "This is perfect," Ed thought to himself. The zombies had done him a favour and there was no way Ged could tell if his cousin had been shot or not. Any pot holes in his lies had now been covered. If he played this right both he and Tom would be safe and closer than ever to their boss who, with Joni gone, had nobody else to rely on.

  "This is the exact spot where they shot him. The van was parked here and the guy with the lamp shade around his neck was over there. It was him that pulled the trigger but not at first. At first he gave Joni the chance to run but he refused. I watched discreetly from the shop window as he stood his ground and tried to rush the guy with the gun. He knew what he was doing, boss. He could have easily run away and given me and Tom up but he didn't. He knew that if he was to do that then we would all be dead. He gave his life so that we could live. The other guy, the one wearing sunglasses, looted the van and loaded up their vehicle, the old 80s Thunderbird I told you about. They filled that car with as much of our stash as they could. Then they drove away, heading towards Weston Road. Once they had gone, Tom and I left the shop and hurried to help Joni but it was too late boss, he was already dead. The noise of the gun shot had alerted a few zombies to our location so we decided to get the hell out of there and we drove straight to you," Ed explained nervously.

  "And these men, they were dressed funny?" Ged asked without taking his eyes from the head of his dead cousin.

  “That’s right Boss they, they were dressed real strange,” Tom informed, grasping his chance to confirm the only bit of truth in Ed’s story.

  “What are you thinking boss? These are dangerous men,” Ed said.

  “I am a dangerous man! Now Joni has been taken from me I have nothing to lose and there is nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose!” Ged scowled.

  He placed his right foot over the torn remains of Joni’s neck and pulled his head free, taking it in his hands. He then lifted the head so it was face to face with his own.

  “What was that Joni? Yes I agree. Men like that can’t be too hard to find. Go after them you say? Make them pay for what they did to you? Well if you insist Cousin, if you insist," Ged snarled, offering a menacing stare along Russell Road in the direction Ed had said Joni's killers had driven.

  "He does know Joni is dead doesn't he?" Tom whispered in Ed's ear.

  Ed shushed Tom, placing a hand gently over his mouth. Luckily for them both, Ged had not heard a thing and was deep in thought, formulating their next move.

  Ged, with Joni's head in hand, turned quickly and marched back to the van, signalling for Ed and Tom to follow. He opened the rear van doors and inspected the content.

  Amongst the remaining bottles of booze and tinned food stuffs he found a rucksack full with the deceased Andy's clothes. He emptied the rucksack, littered the road with the content then, finding an old rag, he wiped Joni's head in an attempt to remove the blood and puss that covered the scabby pale skin. This did little to reduce the gloop that coated his cousin's head, serving only as a way of smearing it more. Ged was satisfied though and he placed Joni's head inside the rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. Turning his attention back to the content of the van he inspected a large metal cage containing blankets and a chewed plastic steak toy.

  "Andy would put his dog in that whenever he needed to take him anywhere," Ed informed.

  "Thank you Andy!” Ged said with an evil smile, “Who would have thought that the only time he would be of any use to me was when he was dead? I have plans for that cage. Come with me.”

  Ed and Tom followed their boss as he marched towards a pair of shuffling zombies that were heading in the direction of Sandy Lane and ultimately, The Pavilions.

  “Here zombies, zombies, lots of lovely flesh for you, come on, come on now, follow me for a tasty snack!” he said, attempting to lure the undead back to the van but they showed little interest, sniffing at him briefly but preferring to continue their journey rather than take the bait.

  “It’s the bag, it’s masking your scent, they can smell Joni. They won’t come near you whilst you’re carrying his head.” Ed said, the words struggling to leave his mouth.

  Ged removed the rucksack from his shoulder and tossed the bag over to Ed who caught it then instantly puked as he felt Joni’s head below the fabric. His boss offered a disapproving look, as if nausea was a sign of weakness, so he lowered his head apologetically but he didn’t mean it. After all he had never handled a corpse’s head before, let alone one as disgusting as Joni’s.

  Now free of his cousin’s rotting head, Ged tried again to get the undead’s attention. This time they paid more of an interest in him but the lure of The Pavilions was still too much for them to ignore.

  “Argh! What the fuck does a man need to do to make a zombie want to eat you in this town?” he screamed before removing his jacket and biting deeply into his own arm.

  With blood dripping from the fresh wound he pushed his arm in front of the zombie’s faces. This did the trick and they finally took the bait, following Ged to the van.

  Ed jumped into the van and opened the cage doors before exiting again. Ged was next to climb inside followed closely by his two hungry suitors. Once in the van, Ed climbed in behind and pushed them both into the cage, locking its door quickly.

  “Now we need to find the men that killed Joni and I'll search every house in every street if I have to. Let’s go, head towards Weston Road, there can't be many Ford Thunderbirds on the roads," Ged said.

  They drove away, covering most of the estate before moving onto Weston Road. They only saw the dead, both shuffling and torn apart. The van’s suspension was thoroughly tested as it bounced over body after body. The once smooth tarmac now felt like off road driving under the ageing frame of the Citroen transit.

  They moved onto Weston Road and the dead became sparse, only the many feathered corpses remained. It was then, in the lessoning daylight, Ged spotted the Ford Thunderbird parked up ahead. He motioned for Ed to bring the van to a halt and he sat, silently staring at the vehicle for several minutes.

  Ed was nervous. He had not expected they would come across the vehicle so soon. In fact, he was hoping they would not find it at all. He questioned how far he was willing to go to protect his and Tom’s life. Could he see his lie through knowing all too well what the consequences could be? What Ged was capable of? He had to, he had no choice. If the boss was to discover the truth about Joni, that his death was due to his own stupidity and clumsiness, he would definitely lay blame with Tom and him. No, he had to see this through, no matter the cost. Tom was as good as a brother and he would do anything to protect him.

  “Wait in the van, me and Joni have got this,” Ged said, exiting the vehicle with his cousin’s head in the rucksack.

  Whilst Ged slowly moved towards the Ford Thunderbird, Tom broke down, unable to contain his upset any longer.

  “We’ve done bad Ed, we’ve done a bad thing. Now Ged is going to kill those guys and they didn’t do anything. They didn’t do what we said they did. They are gonna die because we
told lies!” Tom cried.

  “Hey, hey, Tom it’s OK. Yes we told a lie but those guys are not entirely innocent. It’s true they didn’t kill Joni but they did take all of our stuff. They took our drinks, our smokes and they took our food. That was your food too. We made a great sacrifice to get that loot. You remember what happened to Andy don’t you? We deserve that loot, not them. If Joni hadn’t been so stupid and knocked himself out then maybe we would still have it. You know what? I bet that’s all Ged is doing. I bet he’s going to see where they stashed our stuff so we can take it back. I bet nobody has to get hurt at all,” said Ed, trying to ease Tom’s concern.

  “Ed, he was talking to Joni’s head like he was still alive. He’s gone cuckoo. He’s not all there. If he sees those guys there’s no telling what he could do. I don’t want to be part of killing no-one. With the bad men it’s different but with normal people, people like us? I can’t do that Ed, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…” Tom again cried.

  Ed put his arm around his friend to comfort him. Tom’s large frame meant it barely reached past the big guy’s shoulder. Seeing his friend so upset was difficult and again he questioned if he had done the right thing. “Too late to turn back now” he thought to himself, watching as Ged approached the Ford Thunderbird.

  Ged slowly walked alongside the Ford Thunderbird, running his hand against the cold body of the vehicle. He tried every door handle. Locked. On the floor in front of the driver’s seat he saw a cassette tape snapped in two, “The greatest hits of Curtis Steiger” and ejected from the cassette player was “Dare” by the Human League. He surmised from this that the car did not originally belong to its current owners and that, like the loot in the van, they had taken this car for themselves, probably killing the original owner in doing so. His thinking was that the broken Curtis Steiger tape belonged to the original owner and had been broken and replaced with the Human League by one of the thieves that took it. He was right, but not in the way he imagined.

  On the front passenger seat rested a modified lamp shade. He remembered what Ed had told him and how he described the attire of the man that pulled the trigger and shot Joni.

  “The van was parked here and the guy with the lamp shade around his neck was over there. It was him that pulled the trigger…” he recalled.

  He was now in no doubt that this was the vehicle they had been searching for and he reasoned that his cousin’s killers were probably residing in a house close by but which one? It didn’t take him long to find out. The smell of decaying flesh first drew him to the large detached house, hidden behind thick overgrowth. He looked back to Ed and Tom who were watching from inside the van and he offered them an evil smile, pulled out a flick knife and stabbed every tyre of the Thunderbird then motioned for them to come over. He did not wait for them before investigating further, he was too eager to see the faces of the men responsible for his pain.

  “I wanna stay in the van Ed. Please don’t make me go with Ged. He’s gone cuckoo and has evil in his eyes. More evil than the bad men that are everywhere. He’s gonna do something bad I just know it and I don’t want any part of it,” Tom blubbed, tears running down his chubby food stained cheeks.

  “Believe me, if you stay here in the van and go against Ged, you’ll see how evil he is. Just keep close to me and here, take these,” Ed said, handing Tom a hand full of chocolate bars and a tin of corned beef, “when you feel yourself getting upset or afraid, just eat. It will make you better OK?”

  Ed had barely given his advice when Tom was almost finished with his second bar of chocolate. So he reached into the glove compartment and retrieved another three chocolate bars, handing them to his friend.

  They both exited the van and quickly moved towards the Thunderbird. When they got there Ged was nowhere to be seen but to their right in the stone wall that ran along the pavement of the Road, they saw an open gate, leading down into thick overgrowth. They carefully took to the steps, Ed first with Tom following closely. It was a treacherous climb, made difficult by the dusk sky and the thick branches and brambles obscuring the steps below their feet.

  Ed walked with his arms stretched forward, pushing the overgrowth to the sides. At one point he felt his hand touch the tip of a sharp wooden spike. The people that lived here had taken steps to keep unwanted guests out. He gulped and took a long breath to steady his nerves. What other traps lay in waiting he wondered.

  Finally they reached the bottom of the steps, walking out into an open clearing. There stood Ged, inspecting a row of 5 frost covered decapitated zombie heads on spikes, protecting a doorway to a large detached house completely covered in limbs.

  "Beautiful, absolutely stunning. You know, if I didn’t need to hurt these guys I think we could have been friends. I mean just look at what they've done with this place. And the smell! No zombie would look at this place twice. Inspiring," Ged whispered.

  Tom did not share Ged's view of the property's external décor and the combination of fear mixed with the terrible smell of rotting flesh and the large amount of chocolate he had guzzled resulted in brown, acidy chunks of part digested confectionery projecting from his mouth.

  "I'm, I'm sorry but it's the smell, I can't help it," Tom spluttered then vomited again, "Make the smell go away!"

  “Ed shut him up will you?” Ged demanded.

  Ed fumbled around in his pockets whilst Tom continued to vomit, his retching getting louder with each hurl. Finally he found what he was looking for, a packet of mints. Opening them he took two of the mints and quickly shoved them up Tom’s nose and he collapsed to the floor, breathing in deeply through his nose then out through his mouth over and over. The cool minty freshness blocked the rancid stink of the undead and quickly he calmed down and his stomach stopped churning.

  “Are you OK now?” Ed asked of his friend.

  “Uh huh” Tom replied. He would have said yes but he had already shoved another chocolate bar in his mouth and Ed had always told him to never speak with his mouth full.

  Hearing a noise from inside the house, Ged signalled for Ed and Tom to be quiet. Looking to the boarded up window above he heard laughter and a loud Scouse voice bellowed…

  "Beer made with cheese? Fuck that lar, I’d rather drink my own piss and that smells like beef noodles so God only knows what it tastes like…"

  Laughter again could be heard from inside and Ged surmised that there was definitely more than two people in the house such was the fullness and mixed tone of the merriment. He looked to Ed and smiled again. Now he knew there were more of them, the game was on and he was revelling in the challenge of making these people pay for Joni's death. But first he had to find a way in without arousing suspicion.

  Ged, followed closely by Ed and Tom, moved from the front of the house and quietly they made their way to the back, using the external side wall of the house as a guide.

  The putrid smell of decaying bodies intensified with every step and sensing that Tom was again about to hurl, Ed shoved another two polo mints up the big guy's nostrils.

  Ged was the first to turn the corner, entering the large back garden. His eyes widened in amazement at the sight of the deathly heap of slayed zombies that greeted him. Ed was not so much amazed but petrified. What had his lies taken them to?

  "There must be over a hundred corpses. It would have taken more than two people to kill this many. I think we should put the brakes on and plan exactly what it is you want to do before we go any further. Who knows how many are inside," Ed said, trying to talk Ged out of doing something that could get them all killed.

  "Maybe it took more than two or maybe the two were just very organised. Are you saying that we couldn’t do the same? With my brains, Tom's strength and your… erm… ability to follow orders, we could build a mountain of zombies bigger than this, no problem. The whole purpose of this is to mask their scent and to scare people away. Just look at you, you’re petrified! For God’s sake man, pull yourself together. I don’t care how many are inside that house. There could
be a small army for all I care but one way or another I’m going inside and I will make them pay for what they did. Now help me find a way in," Ged demanded.

  Ed swallowed his fear and helped Ged look for a way inside, pulling on the handle of the locked rear door. Every window had been boarded shut. Without tools and the use of force, there appeared to be no way of gaining entry. Then he heard a large wooden crack followed by glass shattering.

  “Oops,” Tom said, his right foot pushed through a broken wooden plank covering a window in the floor at the base of the house.

  “Tom if you weren’t so fat and ugly I could kiss you. You’ve just found our way in!” Ged said excitedly.

  Tom in his clumsiness had stepped through a wooden board nailed over a small narrow window belonging to the cellar of the house. Neither Ed nor Tom were small enough to fit through such a small gap but Ged, despite his strength and stature, was a slight man and would fit through easily.

  Without hesitation, he pulled the broken wood from the broken window and slid himself through the opening, leaving the rucksack containing Joni’s head outside. Inside the cellar it was dark, the only light provided coming from the twilight sky shining through the window. He strained his eyes in an effort to adjust quickly to the change but it was so dark he could only make out shapes. Two large objects were to his immediate left. He touched their cool metal exterior and his nose filled with the strong smell of petrol. He wasn't sure but he guessed by their size and feel that they were generators.

  Feeling his way around the cellar, he moved forward till his foot pushed into a large stack of something, bringing it clattering to the ground. He stood still, like a statue in his pose, concerned that his error would alert the residents of the house to his presence. At first there was silence then laughter again came from the house above. He was safe and carefully he moved back to the window.

  "I'm going to wait till it calms down upstairs. By the sounds of things the fuckers are enjoying our loot. It shouldn't be too long before they turn in for the night. You two go back to the van and wait for me. Take Joni with you and be ready to leave in a hurry when I get back," he whispered.