Star Drawn Saga (Book 2): Lost Among The Dead

by Stephen Charlick

  ‘Fuckers!’ she heard suddenly Tom shout from the balcony behind her and instantly the horrific thought that he had finally been bitten rushed through her mind.

  ‘No, please… not that!’ she begged to a God she doubted listened to their prayers anymore; let alone answered them.

  As unimaginably horrific as it was to be torn apart by the Dead, at least it was quick. To survive an attack only to suffer for the next few hours or days, depending on your genetic makeup, burdened with the knowledge you were fated to turn; surely that was worse.

  Running back to the base of the tree she looked hopefully up at the balcony where she could see Tom still fought the Dead as they crowded dangerously around him.

  ‘Come on, Tom,’ she muttered, nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot, apprehensive about calling up to him just in case she distract him and give the Dead that one window of opportunity they sought, ‘come on, come on…’

  ‘I know… yes… all of them… I will,’ she heard him saying to himself as he slashed out with his blades, rendering Dead flesh to lumps of lifeless meat.

  Even as she watched, desperate for him to give up the fight and flee, a decaying severed hand suddenly spiralled over the balcony; briefly thudding against the tree trunk as it ricocheted from one branch to the next on its journey down through the canopy.

  ‘Christ, Tom, we haven’t got time for this,’ she continued, barely sparing the detached hand a second glance as it landed with a soft thump amid the long grass to her left.

  Tom’s mind was shrouded in his grief-induced fantasy once again, that was clear, but how long he could keep the Dead at bay like this was anybody’s guess. So Fran made a decision. She would have to take a chance and try to break through his mania to get his attention. She was about to call up to him when his movements seemed to become even more manic and frantic than usual, almost as if he knew his time to complete this task was running out. Then without warning Tom disappeared from view; wildly shoving the hungry corpses away from him as he stepped into the room.

  ‘Tom!’ Fran cried, fearful his delusions had finally got the better of him.

  All of sudden there was a crashing sound from above her and after stepping back to get a better view, Fran could just about make out that Tom had violently pulled down the heavy curtains, ripping the pole from the wall in the process.

  ‘Chew on this, you fuckers!’ he shouted, throwing the curtains at the Dead horde in front of him.

  As if a light bulb of realisation had turned on in her mind, Fran understood what Tom had planned and even as she thanked God that he had managed to claw his way back to reality, Tom leapt over the balcony; only just managing to grab a hand hold of the rope at the last moment.

  ‘Tom!’ she gasped, as he slammed against the wall beneath the balcony, grunting while the air was painfully knocked out of him.

  ‘Shit,’ he spat, fumbling to keep his grip on the rope.

  Above him the first of the Dead, a cadaverous black man whose sallow skin had taken on a sickly ashen hue in death, had freed itself from the tangle of curtain fabric and at first it seemed at a loss as to what had happened to the living flesh so recently within arm’s reach that was until Tom cried out that and the creature slowly tilted its head down to look over the side of the balcony.

  ‘Tom, we need to hurry!’ warned Fran, looking anxiously over his shoulder just as the Dead black man was joined at the railing by more of the hungry corpses now free of Tom’s inspired but very temporary trap.

  Thankfully the very height of the balcony rail was keeping the Dead from simply toppling over but Fran could tell with enough pressure from behind and with no sense of pain, their skin would soon tear and organs would spill free; literally splitting them in two to send the starving cadavers plummeting to the garden below. Already multiple arms reached imploringly down towards them, many of them ending in dark bloodied stumps; a calling card of Tom’s handiwork.

  ‘Where’s… Kai?’ panted Tom, finally dropping to ground beside her.

  ‘Getting the cart out front,’ she began to reply, pulling on his arm to get him moving, ‘and if we don’t get out of here soon the shit’s really going to hit the fan.’

  ‘Arrgghh,’ Tom winced, gripping the side where he had collided with the wall. ‘Fuck!’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, concern flitting across her face, wondering if perhaps he had been bitten after all. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘Oh, it’s…. nothing,’ he replied, waving off her concern even as his gaze drifted back up to the moaning Dead above them; a ghostly whisper already trying to command his attention once again, ‘it’s just… just…’

  Fran looked at Tom, his eyes already starting to glaze over as he lost himself to the voices only he could hear.

  ‘Tom!’ she barked, snapping him back to reality. ‘Have you been bitten?’ she continued cutting straight to the point. ‘Did they get you?’

  ‘What?’ he answered, the confusion on his face telling her he didn’t understand why she had jumped to that conclusion. ‘No… no, it’s just my ribs. I’ll be black and blue by…’

  ‘Good,’ she interrupted; deciding as long as he hadn’t been bitten everything else didn’t matter. ‘Come on, we need to get out of here.’

  As if to prove her point, there was suddenly a snapping sound from above them as one of the Dead on the balcony, a woman from the length of its matted and bedraggled hair, was crushed against the rail; shattering its lower ribcage and causing the upper torso to lean over the rail at an alarming unnatural angle.

  ‘Time to go,’ muttered Tom, watching as the Dead woman looking down at them frantically squirmed to get closer.

  With the singing of metal against metal, Tom’s curved blades brushed against each other as he retrieved them from the harness on his back; their handles spinning in his fists as he prepared himself to deal with more of the Dead.

  ‘Now, let’s go find that man of yours,’ he continued, briefly nodding to Fran as he strode past her; a look of determination on his face.

  ‘No arguments here,’ thought Fran, briefly glancing back up at the crowded balcony before adjusting the crowbar in her grip and following him.

  ***

  Kai had only just managed to pull the cart’s side hatch closed after him, sealing himself from sight, when four more corpses ambled around the overgrown garden hedge; drawn to the house by the cries of the Dead already there. Moving through the cart’s dark interior, he silently pushed aside some of the spyhole covers as he went, piercing the darkness with crisscrossing beams of golden light. Then, once at the front, he maneuverer himself into the driver’s seat and reached for Star’s reins. Thankfully the previous evening Tom had left them fed through the horizontal slit cut into the front wall, so he took the leather straps, gathered up the slack and then with a sharp flick, encouraged Star onward.

  With a lurch the cart started to move and as Star began to pull it along the driveway Kai noticed that three of the cadavers were dragging themselves through the garden gate; while the fourth, a Dead man with much of the flesh stripped from one arm, that had come from the other direction and was now shambling its way down the weed-choked driveway towards him.

  ‘Hurry up, you two,’ thought Kai, looking from the three corpses stumbling up the garden path and over to the large Rhododendron bush where Fran and Tom would likely emerge from.

  With the creaking of wheels turning and the rhythmic clip-clop of Star’s hooves on the driveway, he continued to watch the large expanse of leaves along the side of the house for movement; that was until a sudden thud against the right-hand wall of the cart jolted his attention back to what he was supposed to be doing.

  ‘Crap...’ he silently berated himself, straining his neck to look through one of the nearest spy holes. ‘Idiot!’

  Seeing nothing, it was only as he looked back through the viewing slit in front of him that he noticed the Dead man that had previously been coming towards him had now vanished. It to
ok a moment for him to realise that Star must have simply barged her way past the cadaver, clipping its rotting carcass with the corner of the moving cart as she went. Dismissing the now absent corpse as dealt with, Kai gave a gentle tug on the reins and edged Star finally back out onto the road to wait for Fran and Tom to appear.

  ‘Come on, w…where are you?’ he stammered to himself as the seconds ticked by, finally moving to the side of the cart facing the house to look through one of the spyholes.

  With his hand resting anxiously on the bolt of the hatch next to him, Kai followed the progress of the three corpses as they slowly made their way to the open front door, all the while keeping an eye on the large bush for any sign of Tom and Fran’s appearance.

  ‘About time,’ he murmured, just as Tom pushed through the foliage with Fran following closely on his heels.

  Tom was a few metres ahead of Fran, his blades out and ready for action as he strode forward to meet the three turning corpses, when Kai saw that behind him Fran had paused to look back. Whatever she saw he knew it couldn’t be good and as she broke into a run, grabbing Tom’s sleeve as she passed him, Kai could just about hear her over the moaning Dead telling him to move.

  ***

  Fran had heard the crash of masonry and the thud of falling bodies behind her, clearly the balcony, not built to withstand such pressure, had finally come away from the wall; depositing the Dead horde in the garden below.

  ‘Leave them!’ she warned, giving Tom’s arm a tug before he could veer off to confront the three corpses leaving the garden path, their arm’s outstretched, eagerly stumbling though overgrown flower beds towards them. ‘Just get to the cart…. Tom! Just get to the cart!’ she repeated, realising he had slowed his pace and seemed almost transfixed by the sight of the three rotting cadavers. ‘Tom!’

  Pulling him more forcefully this time, he stumbled slightly, breaking eye contact with the approaching corpses just long enough to focus on Fran’s voice.

  ‘Kai’s ready,’ she panted as she ran to her right, giving the three corpses a wide berth. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’

  Despite silently nodding his agreement, Tom continued to purposefully stride toward the approaching Dead, his blades held out wide and welcoming.

  ‘Tom… leave them!’ she called back, forcing aside a bush so she could climb over the low garden wall and out onto lane beyond. ‘Tom!’

  Even as she called to him again, he was meeting the first of the Dead head on; his curved blades already slashing though the air to meet its grey rotting flesh. Yet as Fran darted back to where Kai was waiting with the cart she could see there was something different about Tom this time; his movements were slower, somehow more controlled and purposeful, as if he was holding himself in check.

  ‘And why can’t you be like that all the time,’ she grumbled as she approached the cart, transfixed as he calmly moved on from one now headless cadaver to calmly meet the next.

  Her fingers had barely touched the lip of the hatchway that Kai was opening from the inside, when something cold and clammy latched onto her.

  ‘Jesus!’ she yelped, her head spinning back to see a filthy claw-like hand now encircling the wrist of the hand in which she held the crowbar.

  Caught off guard by the unexpected appearance of the Dead man, Fran inadvertently stumbled backwards, pulling the one armed cadaver that had emerged from behind the cart with her.

  ‘Fran!’ she heard Kai call as the hatch fell open with a bang.

  The creature seeing an opportunity to feed, would not let the living flesh it craved escape so easily and even as Fran twisted her wrist to free herself, she watched in horror as a gaping mouth full of blackened teeth darted forward to take its first bite. Just then something small and fast suddenly rushed past her feet; growling fiercely as it collided with the Dead man’s legs. It was one of the dogs she had seen feeding earlier and mercifully it had just knocked the Dead man off balance. With a stomach twisting ‘click’, rotting teeth abruptly snapped shut, the Dead man’s bite only just missing the flesh of her wrist. Seeing the opportunity to free herself, Fran deftly spun in the Dead man’s grip and kicked out with her right leg; aiming her forceful blow at its upper chest. With the sound of skin and flesh tearing, her blow yanked her wrist free of its grasp; the force disconnecting the creature’s remaining withered arm at the shoulder.

  ‘Out the way, mutt,’ Fran warned the filthy Terrier that growled as it pulled angrily at the Dead man’s tattered trouser leg; threatening to topple the unsteady cadaver completely.

  As if understanding her, the small dog immediately released the corpse’s leg, gave a sharp bark and then darted away. Spinning to a stop a few feet away, a snarl still contorting its lips, the small dog crouched down watching the moving corpse; its whole body poised to attack it again if need be. But Fran had no need of the animal’s assistance a second time. For now that she had overcome her initial surprise and there was some distance between them, she was in her element.

  ‘Watch and learn,’ she muttered almost playfully to the dog that continued to growl whilst keeping the lurching cadaver in its sights.

  ‘Need some help?’ asked Tom, suddenly jogging over, his blades dripping gore and surely leaving three headless corpses in his wake back in the front garden.

  ‘No,’ said Fran, repositioning the crowbar in her grip to side-step the Dead man, ‘this one just caught me off guard, that’s all… Get in the cart, Tom,’ she continued, nodding behind her, almost wanting to prove to herself that it had been a fluke that this Dead man had managed to sneak up on her. ‘I’ve got this.’

  ‘Okay,’ he replied, glancing warily at the small feral dog and wondering if it was part of a nearby pack before moving round her, ‘whatever you say.’

  Torn by the appearance of a second source of living flesh, the cadaver seemed to be momentarily flustered as to which way to turn. But then as Fran gave it a sharp jab with her crowbar to focus its attention back on her again, its choice was made.

  ‘Fran,’ she heard Kai calling from the cart behind her, ‘there’s m…more coming... hurry.’

  ‘No time for any finesse, I’m afraid,’ she mumbled to the corpse, placing her feet apart as the cadaver lurched towards her, the one arm stripped to the bone reaching out to her.

  As soon as it was within striking range, Fran let the crossbar fly, clipping the creature under its chin and snapping its head violent back. Such was the force of her blow that not only did the Dead man’s corpse stumble away from her again but also the skull became dislodged from the top of the spine, tilting it back at an unnatural angle.

  ‘And now the finisher,’ she thought to herself, quickly moving so that she now stood directly behind the hungry cadaver; it’s milky eyes rolling back in its head as it tried to follow her.

  With the crowbar now held back over her head, Fran grunted as her weapon came crashing down on the creature’s temple, at last gifting it a lasting death. With little more than a spray of dark blood and a sickening sucking sound as she pulled the bar free from the now caved in forehead, the Dead man collapsed to the ground in a heap.

  ‘Like puppet with its strings cut,’ realised Fran, glancing at the lifeless body before giving the crowbar a sharp flick to remove a stubborn fragment of the corpse’s skin from the end.

  No sooner had the offending shred of flesh fallen to the ground with a ‘splat’ than Fran heard the sound of leaves rustling, twigs snapping and branches breaking. Clearly the Dead from the back garden had recovered from their fall and now were advancing through the wall of Rhododendron bushes in pursuit of the living prey that had escaped them.

  ‘Time to go,’ Fran muttered, watching as the first wave of grey Dead limbs began to push their way through the glossy foliage.

  Stepping over the prone body at her feet, she tossed her crowbar through the open hatchway and began to climb in.

  ‘And now do you understand why we don’t bring everything in with us at night?’ Tom was saying to Kai, manoeuvr
ing himself in the cart’s cramped interior so that he could replace the curved blades back into their harness on his back without poking out someone’s eye in the process.

  ‘We need to go left,’ interrupted Fran, pushing aside a sack of apples to make room for herself. ‘There’s an overturned cart and a half eaten horse carcass the other way… we must have missed it last night in the storm.’

  ‘Recent?’ asked Tom, a thousand causes and repercussions playing out in his head.

  ‘Recent enough,’ she replied, turning to close the hatch behind her; the large cart wheels already starting to turn. ‘Looked like there was some fire damage, so…’

  She was about to continue when she noticed the small Terrier still sat by the ruined corpse looking up after her. For a moment she paused, simply watching the animal and then, hoping she wasn’t making a decision she’d regret, she pushed the hatch all the way open once again.