“Got it. Volunteers to help out at the medical centres are top of my list.”
Which had likely just knocked something else off of the top place on that damned list. It seemed that every hour we changed what our top priority was and something that had been life-changing important a few hours before was now number eight on a long list of important things.
I ran one hand through my matted hair and tried to think of the last time I’d had a shower or even more than a few hours sleep.
“We’re keeping on the search but people are scared.”
“Of what?”
“That you’ll abandon them or kick them off the island. There’s a rumour going around that this sickness is your way of easing the burden on our food resources.”
“Oh for goodness sake!” I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. I was pretty sure there was a headache coming on. “Do they not realise they could die without treatment?”
“People believe crazy things,” Cass said. “That’s why conspiracy theories used to be so popular.”
“And,” Lou added. “Most of these people have little to do but sit around and come up with crazy ideas and gossip.”
“Great.”
People were dying for no good reason and when they died, they turned and began to kill. Eighty-seven goddamned people had died for no good reason.
“Burn the bodies with the others,” I said softly. “And find Shepherd. She promised me that bloody census yesterday.”
One of the black-garbed bodyguards ran off without a word at a nod from Lisa. Since Samuel had insisted I had so many of them around me, I had decided to put them to use. It was working quite well for the most part.
“How are the smaller settlements doing?”
“Better, for the most part.” Lou scratched at the side of his head and glanced down at the ground, a habit of his when he was thinking. “At least no reports yet, anyway.”
I held back a sigh and watched the last of the bodies loaded. It was inevitable, really. So many people crammed together on an island that had held a population half as large as the number of refugees we had.
Even with the water and sewage works operational, there was only so much we could do. Add to that, a lot of people didn’t have anything but the most rudimentary of cooking facilities and I was surprised we hadn’t had this problem crop up sooner.
A wail rose from nearby and I looked over to see an older woman holding a small body in her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. I ached to go to her, to hold her and weep with her, but I couldn’t. I had to be hard, strong, for the people I had sworn to save.
The CDF soldiers moved in, one wrapping his arms around her and just holding her as she shook. Another prising the small body from her arms and taking it to be placed with the others on the truck. They would all be burnt together, more ash and smoke to fill our already overcast skies.
I shivered and not just from the cold.
It felt, sometimes, like the world was dying. First the people and the animals, next would be the plants, deprived of the sunlight they needed. And it was all out fault, humanity. We had done this to the world and I couldn’t help but wonder if I should bother saving anyone.
“They brought up zombies in their nets,” Lou was saying and I gave him a questioning look. “The fishing boats. We’ve had to send them further out.”
“Leftovers from the attack?”
“Yes, ma’am. Not all of the undead that entered the sea made it out.”
“I don’t like to think of us eating fish that’s been feeding on them,” Cass said with a shudder.
“We don’t have much choice,” I muttered and turned away from the wailing mother who had lost a child. I couldn’t help but think of my own unborn children. “We need to stop off at the hospital.”
“Check-up?” Cass asked and I nodded. “Right. You heard the lady. Let’s go.”
My little entourage moved off through the crowded street. The Dead didn’t need to do much for the crowd to part before them but I couldn’t help but notice the resentful looks cast my way. I’d sent out word of a reduction in the daily rations just that morning and word had spread.
It wasn’t like we had much choice. The situation was fast becoming dire and with the knowledge that we were entering a period of global cooling due to all of the crap thrown into the air by those idiots who had set off nukes and not managed to shut down their nuclear power plants, I expected it was only going to get worse.
The people on the island had lost everything. Not just their homes, their jobs, their sports, their families. Their loved ones. They, we, were barely surviving and with nothing else to do but sit around and wait, the only nice thing that some of them had was a meal each day.
And I’d just cut the size of that meal in half.
I understood their resentment, their anger. I was actively working on improving the situation but it wouldn’t be quick and it wouldn’t be easy. Worse than that, it wouldn’t be without some loss.
“What’s the admiral doing?” Cass asked. “Wasn’t he supposed to be here with us?”
“In the command centre poring over his maps and battle plans,” I replied absently.
The crowd around us was growing thicker and while the Dead were making their way through without much hassle. Something caused the hairs on the back of my head to stand on end.
A bottle sailed above the crowd and the world lurched as I fell to the ground, dazed. Jinx was there in an instant, standing over me with teeth bared as she watched for danger.
The roar of the crowd rose as the acolytes drew their blades. They wouldn’t hurt the living but anyone who attacked another, was considered damned and they would do what they needed to do.
Another bottle crashed against the back of an acolytes head and he went down to his knees as the other closed ranks around him. Lou crouched low, putting his body over mine as stones and bottles rained down on us.
I could feel the anger rolling off of the crowd. Not even the Dead could keep them at bay and though my bodyguards were doing their best to avoid hurting anyone. If someone came close, they used their knives to good effect.
Cass had her arms around me and helped me up, her face full of fear. Blood trickled from a cut above her eye and she lowered her head to shield it from the thrown stones.
“Get us out of here!” she screamed to my guards.
Lisa, took a moment to look back, and with a nod turned and began to push through the surging crowd.
It was slow going and more rocks and bottles were thrown. I reached to the holster on my belt and gripped my side-arm. If I drew it and fired, it would only make things worse. I was sure of that. But, I placed a hand on my stomach, I wouldn’t allow any risk to my babies.
“Ma’am,” Lou said as he stepped in close, trying his best to shield me with his own body. “We need to get you to the…”
His face took on an odd expression and then he dropped as though his legs had been cut out from under him. I stared at him in shock for a moment before reaching down.
There was blood on the back of his skull and something else. I checked for a pulse, alarm rising as I couldn’t find one. A short distance away, covered in his blood, was the fist-sized half a brick that had killed him.
I drew my gun.
Cass grabbed my arm, eyes full of fear as she stared at me. Her head shook from side to side, a warning to not do what I was about to do and I grimaced. My arm shook with the urge to use my gun, to hurt the ones that had just killed my friend.
I thrust my arm up into the air, breaking free of Cass’s grip and fired twice. Screams sounded around us and the surging crowd began to turn, pushing against each other as they tried to get away from us. I fired again.
Another warning shot and more of the people ran as panic seized them. My bodyguards drew close and I tried not to look at the blood on their clothes or the wailing men and women that lay on the ground around them, bearing wounds that I guessed were far from fatal.
/> Anger burned in me and Jinx whined. I reached down to pat her and hesitated. I didn’t want to be comforted, I realised. I wanted to feel my anger, to hold it close. To feel something other than the despair that had been building in me for weeks.
I wanted to scream and shout, to weep and wail. I wanted to lay into those foolish people who had tried to take out their fear and anger on me and had ended up killing someone I called friend.
Most of all, I just wanted to crawl into bed and never come out of it. To hide away from everything.
Without even realising it, I had slumped down beside Lou and I reached out a trembling hand to touch his body. He was a good man and he had spent his time trying to save people when the world fell apart around him.
He deserved better than to die from a rock to the back of the head.
“Lily,” Cass said, voice soft but full of grief. “We need to get you to safety.”
I looked up at my friend, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears and face full of worry, and I laughed.
There was no such place.
Chapter 22
Much to my surprise, I was not dead. I blinked up at the ceiling a couple of times as I digested that fact. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t dead because of the amount of pain I was feeling. Though, admittedly, if I had been wrong all my life and there was an afterlife, the pain may be part of my punishment.
“He’s awake,” Gregg said. He leant over me, his eye red-rimmed with dark smudges beneath. “Ryan, you good, mate?”
“What happened?”
“Don’t bloody move you idiot,” he snapped as I tried to push myself up. His hands pressed against my shoulders and I stopped trying to move. “It’s fine, mate. You’re safe.”
He looked over his shoulder and a shudder ran through him.
“Kind of.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant and while I wouldn’t let me rise, there was nothing stopping me from looking around. Except for the pain, I realised, as I turned my head and hissed through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, you might want to be careful. You took a beating.”
“What happened?” I asked again, allowing a little of my exasperation to enter my voice.
“You killed a Reaper! Which, to be fair, is pretty impressive. But it tore your back up a bit. Your leather jacket’s shredded but it saved you from the worst of it, at least.”
“Good to know.”
“Your friend found you,” a new voice said and I turned my head to the other side, grimacing all the while.
She had darker skin than Gregg and thick dreadlocks that hung down her back. She was pretty and, I assumed from the lab coat, one of the scientists we had been sent to find. That marked her as intelligent.
I had nothing against intelligent people, but I preferred the stupid. It was easier to manipulate them after all.
“You are?”
“Doctor Cassidy, but you can call me, Vanessa.”
“I have you to thank for my not bleeding out?” I could feel the pull of the stitches when I shifted beneath Greggs' hands and she nodded.
“Yes. I stitched you together but it’s your friend who went looking for you and carried you back to us.”
“A thank you wouldn’t go amiss, mate.”
I raised an eyebrow in his direction and he grinned at my expression.
“Thank you.”
“Any time.”
“Will you let me up now?”
“No.”
“You need to stay still,” Vanessa said. “I don’t want you opening your wounds up.”
“I’ll be careful.”
She looked at Gregg who shrugged. “He’ll not let up.”
“Fine,” she acquiesced. “But if you tear your stitches don’t expect me to re-do them.”
Gregg removed his hands and I gently levered myself upright, moving slowly and very much aware of how those stitches pulled at my skin. I exhaled softly and gripped the edge of the polished metal table upon which I had been laid.
It didn’t take much to realise I was inside the secret part of the building and that meant Gregg had opened the door. I glared at him and he just grinned, knowing exactly why I was annoyed.
The room was quite spacious and filled with medical equipment that I recognised but couldn’t put names to. Polished metal surfaces were everywhere and even the cabinets that filled most of the wall space were of the same material.
“Any left alive out there?”
“Yeah but you ain’t gonna do much about them,” Gregg said. ”If you can stand I’d be surprised.”
I gripped the edge of the table and swung my legs over the side, eyes never leaving his as I set my jaw and levered myself off of the table. My legs trembled but held beneath me though it seemed that my body was an endless well of agony.
“Yeah, now take a step,” Gregg mocked. “No! Don’t try you muppet!”
He gripped my shoulders and gently pushed me back until I was half-seated on the table again. I allowed it because to be fair, I didn’t think I could actually make that step just then.
“I’ll ask once more. What happened?”
Gregg shared a look with the doctor and I gritted my teeth as I realised I wasn’t going to get any easy answers. Just once I would have liked for a simple explanation.
“Well, mate. After you left, I was hiding there with the girls and the door began to open. I’m not gonna lie, I was shitting myself a little. Thought it was that other one coming for us. Anyway, there I was with my knife in my hand and all the girls bunched up behind me and…”
“And what?”
“I came out,” Vanessa said. “I’d seen you on the cameras and rushed up to meet you. By the time I got there you’d gone.”
“Who was that… thing, in the hall?”
“She was a brilliant researcher and a friend.” There was a prim anger to her tone and I frowned over at her as she came around the table to stand beside Gregg. “She was the first to take our vaccine.”
“Guess it didn’t work.”
“No.” She hesitated, about to say something but decided against it then shaking her head. “It didn’t work quite right.”
“What did it do to her?”
“You’d need to understand how the vaccine works and I’m not sure I’m ready to share that with you. I barely know you and I don’t trust you.”
“We had the code to the door. Clearly, we were sent here.”
“But by whom? The world has fallen. We know that much.”
“We?” That was an interesting word usage as I had only seen her and the weird woman out in the corridor. “Who is we?”
“The rest of the research staff.”
“How many?”
She hesitated again and my brows drew down as I glared at her.
“If I wanted to harm you then, believe me, I wouldn’t be asking these questions. The only reason I am doing so is because I have been asked to find you and bring you back to the island.”
“So your friend said, but he was a little sparse on details.”
“Really?” I said with a look at him. He shrugged again.
“Was a little distracted with saving your ass, mate.” Then he grinned. “Again.”
“What do you mean, again?”
“At the bunker.”
“I saved myself.”
“What about when…”
“If you boys are finished?”
Gregg sniffed and looked away, a smile playing on his lips as I turned back to the doctor.
“There’s supposed to be a speech but I’m not in the mood. We were sent by the New Government of Great Britain. We currently live on the Isle of Lewis and have around twenty-five thousand survivors.”
Her eyes widened at that and her mouth opened as I continued.
“The military stuff is handled by a guy who was an Admiral before the world went to crap and I gather some people who knew about you told them, who then asked us to come and get you.”
“That’s quite something to
hear. We thought that almost everyone was gone.”
“Not quite. People are like cockroaches and just as hard to eradicate fully.”
“A bleak perspective,” she said. “But I won’t argue since this is probably the best news we’ve had. Can I assume the government was voted in?”
Gregg snickered.
“The original one was but they were corrupt. My… friend took over. She is ensuring things progress with a little less corruption until such a time arrives when people can vote.”
“Oh. I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“It’s really not bad,” Gregg offered. “Lily really is just interested in helping as many people survive as possible.”
“I’m sure.” She bit her lower lip as she considered that and gave a small shake of her head. “I guess we don’t have much choice.”
“You can always stay in your bunker with some raiders living above you, killing people and raping captive women,” I said and smiled as she flinched at that.
“We’re not fighters.”
Sure, that was likely true, I thought, but there would have been nothing stopping them taking a pair of scissors and walking through the building on a night killing each and every one of them.
“How many are there here?” I asked, not really interested in a drawn-out argument.
“The nine women you brought down and four other researchers and… and, Briony.”
“She is the one from the corridor?”
“Yes.”
“What’s up with her? Is she a threat?”
“No. She’s caught partway between zombie and human. Not quite dead but not undead either. She feeds on the rats that find their way down here.”
“You can bring her but you will need to keep her bound and gagged or I’ll kill her.”
Vanessa stared, open-mouthed, at me for a moment before she looked at Gregg who nodded to indicate I wasn’t joking.
“Very well.”
“Now. How many of the raiders survived?”
“Best we can tell, four.”
Four. That would be easily doable for me in good health, as I was then, well it would be a great deal harder. I needed rest, food and time to prepare.
Killing The Dead (Book 15): The Gathering Storm Page 14
