Dead Beat

by Remy Porter

  DEAD BEAT

  Remy Porter

  A Wild Wolf Publication

  Published by Wild Wolf Publishing in 2010

  Copyright © 2010 Matthew Bridgeman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed by a newspaper, magazine or journal.

  First print

  All Characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-0-9563733-6-6

  www.wildwolfpublishing.com

  To my wife Karen for her unending love and support. And to my Mum for believing there was still a writer in there somewhere.

  FOREWORD

  Most police officers I know don’t advertise the fact. It’s not because they’re ashamed of their chosen profession; they take pride in a difficult job. It’s not out of fear; they regularly place themselves in danger to protect the general public. No, the police officers I know are courageous and admirable people. I think the reason they don’t advertise their professions is that they want to be treated the same as the rest of us.

  It’s amazing how quickly attitudes can change when we find out someone is in law enforcement. It’s often a subtle shift. There’s a certain reticence to be natural around them. Maybe we’re scared we’ll blurt out some past misdemeanour. Maybe we need to polarise things into them and us. Whatever the reasons, our attitude towards the person changes. And yet, for all their training and professional standards, they are no different from us. They have the same drives, they live the same lives and they make the same mistakes.

  In Dead Beat, Remy Porter has given us an all too human hero in PC Johnny Silverman. At first, he may not appear to be an everyman character. As a police officer, he is a paragon of justice, a pillar of society, a manifest representation of integrity. However, behind this façade is a flawed human being just like you and me.

  When the zombies start to bite, like the rest of the world, Johnny is thrown out of his depth. As the survivors coalesce round the sleepy community of Haven, fending off the putrid attacks of the undead, Johnny finds himself on uneasy ground. The old rules of law and order are thrown into disarray. Johnny wants to carry on with his vocation of helping people, but ultimately what sanction does he have? When the moral compass of a society is suborned for the need to survive, what mandate does Johnny have?

  Dead Beat kept me off kilter the whole way through with a stream of well integrated themes and characters. The early chapters of the book are reminiscent of a crime novel with the protagonist’s routine as a cop on the beat in a rural village. But as the plot develops, we find ourselves immersed in a western style morality play with the sheriff pitted alone against the powerful clan who ride roughshod over the town’s folk. Then we’re thrown into an action movie climax. While all the time from the first page to the last we are given the unadulterated terror of the undead.

  Remy Porter gives us a flurry of the tiniest details that bring the reality of the undead to life. His writing is replete with throwaway glimpses of the apocalypse. And for me it’s these details that support the believability of the world he has created.

  In the same mould as Romero, the zombies here are the slow shambling unremitting monsters we have all come to fear. But the real horror in Dead Beat isn’t so much the walking dead or the gruesome descriptions, unsettling though they are. The true horror is the sick and warped personalities of some of the characters and the utterly believable perversions, vendettas and murderous natures Remy exposes. The downfall of society may allow some to forget their past and strive boldly into the future, but this is not always a positive act. The small degrees by which the characters justify or rebuff their vile actions and how those transgressions fester and turn people more rotten than the besieging zombies is all too credible. This is not a redemptive story; it does not preach a moral. It left me feeling haunted and saddened.

  It is a tribute to Remy’s writing style that ultimately what disturbed me most was not the revulsion at the soulless zombies, but the dismay at man’s inhumanity.

  This zombie novel is on a par with David Moody. It is fast paced, engaging and will repulse and disturb you like a good horror should.

  Iain McKinnon, June 2010

  PROLOGUE

  Trevor had finished his checks on the top of the red diesel tank, and climbed down the narrow, steel ladder to the base. He adjusted his fluorescent yellow security tabard and rooted in his pockets for smokes.

  ‘It’s not a bad job we do,’ he said to himself, looking up at a starry sky. The near full moon gave the fields surrounding the water treatment plant almost a daylight glow.

  ‘Check completed at tank four, Richard,’ he said into his walkie-talkie.

  ‘Roger that. Another quiet one hey Trevor? Come back in and let me beat you at cards.’

  ‘Good idea, Richard. I owe you a shoeing from the last time you fleeced me.’

  The radio crackled silent again. Trevor wondered if he had put his foot in it again with the little man. Richard could be so sensitive. He shoved the radio back into his pocket.

  He walked over to the fence and the dry stone wall below it. Trevor liked the night view down over the empty fields and the rolling hills on the horizon. There wasn’t another house for miles; it was refreshing. The bosses still hadn’t replaced the barbed wire in this section, he thought, accompanied with an audible tut. Red diesel had been taken last month, not that anybody really cared. It wasn’t his problem to worry about such things. Trevor drew in a long drag of smoke, his sallow cheeks pinching inward.

  ‘Yes, not a bad job we do,’ he mumbled again. After twenty years as a postman, this was infinitely preferable; a lazy job working as a night security officer in a sleepy water treatment plant. Nothing happened at night; the machines all ran themselves. The money wasn’t stellar, but with his postman’s pension he did well enough. There were certainly far worse ways to spend forty hours a week.

  Stamping out his cigarette butt under his boot heel, he mashed it down with all the others he’d left. Nobody would complain. Turning to leave, something caught his eye, and Trevor turned back to the fields. Peeping over the dry stone wall was a woman’s face, pale in the moon light.

  ‘What are you …’ he began to say, but a flash of light stopped him.

  Trevor felt pain in the centre of his chest, and wondered for a second if this was a heart attack. His knees gave way and he fell down onto the grassy earth.

  ‘Finish him now,’ a man said, an American twang.

  Trevor heard the fence jangle as others climbed over. He found himself staring up at the night sky, and at all the stars he wished he could name. His head felt too heavy to turn. Something bad was happening.

  There was the woman’s face again, leaning in, offering him something. There was that flash again…

  CHAPTER 1

  Old people smell like mould, was Tracey’s overriding impression of her time at the residential home, Sanctuary Retreat. It could only get worse. Today was all about making tea and washing dirty linen, but bed baths and adult nappies bobbed ominously on the horizon. It was a terrible job, a stopgap, she told herself, until she figured out what the hell to do with her life.

  She pulled the brown plastic dish out of the microwave and made room on the tray. If she never had to eat such a sorry mixture of watery potato, peas and dried meat in her lifetime it would be all too soon. The radio news babbled on about a riot at a university in Manchester, students protesting the war in Afghanistan again no doubt. Bag o’ shite.

  Tracey rooted through drawers looking for the plastic kn
ife and forks, still unsure where everything was after four weeks. She found them next to the sink and caught a look at herself in the grimy mirror. The kitchen humidity made her face look pale and greasy. Must knock those takeaways on the head, she said to herself. The cheap yellow nylon uniform stuck to her in the wrong places, short sleeves riding up to show a hint of a sparrow tattoo on her shoulder.

  Tracey lifted the tray and pushed through the swing door. Mrs. Barnicott’s room was upstairs somewhere in the maze of corridors of the old Victorian house. The décor was nasty, worn crimson carpets and too many pictures of laughing cavaliers. The corridors were narrow and claustrophobic, fanning out in a crazy rabbit warren. Room numbers appeared placed at random and she felt she spent half her time at Sanctuary Retreat taking wrong turns.

  She spotted Mercy, the woman from the Dominican Republic who had been working there for forever. She was in a room making a bed while a ninety year old guy stood waiting, one leg trembling to an unheard beat. Mercy had been asked by the boss to show her the ropes but had quickly abandoned Tracey in the kitchen as soon as he’d left for the day.

  ‘Lost again, Mercy? I’m taking this up to Mrs. Barnicott. I think I may have to re-heat this shit.’

  Mercy looked over from the bed. ‘Nah, screw that, Trace. Agnes Barnicott don’t care what the fuck she puts in her mouth. Caught that bitch eating sticky shit off her slipper just the other day. Dump the slop and we’ll watch Loose Women.’

  Mercy pointed her in the right direction and Tracey found the door she wanted. She knocked out of politeness and walked in.

  Fuck.

  Mrs. Barnicott had gone.

  Tracey pushed the tray onto a dresser, dislodging black and white photographs with a clatter. Checking the far side of the bed and then the wardrobe, there was nothing to see but old dresses smelling of rot.

  Tracey ran out and back tracked. ‘Mercy, we have a problem!’

  ‘Okay you do downstairs and I’ll go through bedrooms. Fucker’s playing hide, go seek.’

  Tracey checked the outside doors. It wasn’t unknown for oldies to take a wander into the village. Her boss would be incandescent, that she knew.

  The doors were locked.

  The lounge had old people in but no Mrs. Barnicott, likewise the dining room. Nowhere left, she thought, and went to phone the police. Standing with the receiver in her hands, she cupped it to her ear. No dial tone. Worried, she noticed the cellar door. In her time at Sanctuary Retreat she’d walked past the heavy white door dozens of times. She had even tried it once out of curiosity and found the handle seized up and immovable. Now it was open an inch.

  ‘Mercy,’ she called upstairs, feeling a sudden case of heebie jeebies. No reply.

  She opened the door and peered down. The dust rose up and invaded her nose. Tracey let go with a flurry of sneezes. Always she had this reaction to dusty rooms.

  ‘You down there Mrs. Barnicott?’

  She took a step onto the creaking wooden steps, her left hand fumbling for the cobwebbed light switch. A low watt bulb fizzed into life below. Tracey was surprised at how far down the steps went.

  ‘Mrs. Barnicott,’ she shouted.

  One slow, creaking foot after another. Her hands reached out to steady herself, touching more old spider webs on the rickety banister rail. Halfway down she saw the boxes stacked on the shelves against the cellar wall. One of the boxes was for an old Spectrum 48 computer, the 80’s computer with rubber keys. She knew it because her older brother had owned one.

  She was below the ceiling height of the cellar room now. There was a figure there standing still, facing away. She was in a nightdress and had bare feet. Tracey saw the grey skin and put it down to the poor light. White hair clumped and matted.

  ‘Mrs. Barnicott?’

  Tracey saw her turn and bare her teeth. The hanging bulb shattered as the old woman’s head cracked through it. Everything went black bar the burned print of the light on her retinas. Tracey turned on her heels and went to run up the stairs, but one foot missed a step and instead she fell onto her knees. She clawed at the stairs determined to climb.

  Mrs. Barnicott was biting into her leg; white hot pain shot through her body. She flailed her legs wildly but couldn’t shake her off.

  She screamed up to the door but it was already closing.

  CHAPTER 2

  I checked the fuel gauge.

  Bastard.

  The last one in had left it quarter full. I’d need a trip out of the town now to fill up before the end of my shift. Now where was that fuel card hiding? I thought to myself, reaching around and making the police 4x4 swerve.

  Over the crest of the hill, I left the village behind me. The country road arced down giving a fine view of a crumbling Pele tower. Built in the 14 century, it was the oldest building in the parish. There was an estate car parked in the lay-by nearby. A tourist couple in matching red Berghaus looked ready for the walk up.

  I passed them by and the road cut through the green fields leading to the coast. Rain spray washed over the windscreen.

  The airwave radio set in the vehicle hissed with static. The mast down with an unknown fault, it had been hours since I last heard from the control room. Stretching over the wide seats, I took another bite out of my diet bar. I was bored and unmotivated, the stubble on my face itched for a shave. Turning right off the main drag the Freelander hissed onto the gravel lane that led to the beach. I passed two old cottages on either side but didn’t see any people. The rain was starting to lash down and the sky appeared grey and cold, like a tramp’s dirty blanket.

  ‘Zulu alpha two six at scene,’ I said into the terminal clipped to my fluorescent stab vest.

  Silence.

  Parking, I pulled my heavy waterproof off my kit bag on the back seat. The horseshoe bay sat in the distance, and I could already hear the fizz of the surf on the rough shale. The path disappeared into the woods and I stepped carefully around exposed roots and smooth limestone. Mud splashed over my heavy boots, another job for later.

  The incline became steeper and opened out onto a cliff path. Picking my way down I stepped onto the beach, White Creek.

  In the surf line, I could see the body.

  Walking closer, I saw the thin pelt was wet and shimmering and its round shape rolled sideways with each wave break. There was a thin foam of bloody bubbles poised in its lips. I jumped back when it gave a rasping snort. Looking back towards the shoreline, I wondered which crazy person had left this note for me at the police station. All I saw was the dark forest stretching back from the cliff wall far up the hill.

  The seal coughed again. The clotted sound was louder than before and more blood bubbled out of its mouth. I nudged a large rock with my boot and considered using it but when I looked down again the creature had already died. The council needed to collect the body. I wondered how I would tell them.

  Something else was there in the water. A green glaze, like a chemical spill pooling around the carcass.

  Fumbling in my coat pocket, I pulled out an assortment of dirty tissues and crumpled fixed penalty tickets. In the detritus was a small white strip of bio-chemical paper left over from some half-forgotten training exercise months ago. I dipped one end into the day-glo water. It turned purple. Probably this was bad, but I couldn’t remember what it meant. I made a mental note to look it up later.

  Straightening up I sighed. The village beat in Haven was painful. Why I’d ever agreed to transfer here from the local town I didn’t know. Neighbourhood policing was a slow death.

  Squinting back at the tree line, it felt like somebody was watching. Too far to make a person out, it was all trees and shadows.

  I was pacing back towards the cliff when the airwave finally spoke.

  ‘… response to Tomlinson’s,’ Control crackled.

  ‘Repeat?’ I shouted, breaking into a jog.

  The 4x4 wasn’t great for blue light runs. It was heavy and unstable, like putting a breeze block onto roller skates. Pushing it wild and
reckless, this was really the only perk of the job for me these days.

  Hammering back up the track, I went onto the main road to the village. In my peripheral vision I could make out the tower again, and a flash of red clothing from the two tourists who were almost there.

  The drop into the village was equally fast.

  Haven was home to two thousand people. It was, to all intents and purposes, a retirement village with a very aged population. Large Victorian houses in the main, scattered haphazardly over a green hillside. Two pubs, five shops and a newsagent just about summed it up. Add to the mix one crumbling station house.

  Tomlinson’s was the smaller of the two supermarkets in the village and had been a Spar, a Co-op and many other incarnations over the decades whilst always selling exactly the same corner shop tat.

  Two old women milled about outside. ‘The shop is closed up and it’s 8.50. It should be open at 8.00 and there’s mess all on the floor. Look at the floor, Officer. Look at the mess,’ one said.

  Cupping my hands against the front door window, I looked into the gloom. The place looked ransacked; I could see broken bottles and cans all over the aisles. No sign of Mrs. Tomlinson, the owner who lived in the flat above.

  No back up to call, I rammed my shoulder into the door and felt it give easily. The two biddies moved as if to follow me inside.

  ‘Wait please ladies. It could be a burglary, it could be anything.’

  Further inside, broken glass and spilled dry pasta crunching under my boots. I looked at the till for the signs of a break in, but the area was untouched.

  ‘HELLO, IT’S THE POLICE,’ I yelled.

  A shuffling sound came out of the stock room at the back. Moving closer I drew my extendable baton.

  CHAPTER 3

  Alison Henderson put her hands on the cold steel lever and pulled open the field gate. Underfoot, the path was clogged with mud and animal waste moistened by rain. She buttoned up her red coat another notch and waited for her husband Derek to catch up. He was a slow man at the best of times.