Dark and Deadly Land

by Richard Murray

  Each of my friends nodded agreement and I smiled as I stabbed down on the map with my finger. “This is the M6 motorway. It passes right past the city and meets up with several large roads. If, and it is rather a large if, the undead haven’t spilt out into the surrounding area around the city, then we still have a motorway full of them that we will need to cross.”

  “We can’t swim the bay since at its narrowest we’re looking at about a kilometre in width and the river Eden is anything from fifty to a hundred metres.”

  “What’s your point?” Lily asked.

  I looked down at the map and touched a point on the coast just to the north-west of where we were on the island.

  “My point is that it would be better to try going this way,” I said. “Work our way up the coast and around. It will add some time on to the journey but we will meet less of the undead than if we head straight towards Carlisle.”

  “There’re villages all the way up the coast though, that’s a lot of places with dead people that will be trying to eat us,” Gregg said.

  “We can avoid them fairly easily compared to the hundred thousand in a city,” I said. “Also, we have the chance of finding supplies, a boat or a village that has managed to survive the initial wave of zombies.”

  “Like Coniston,” Lily said thoughtfully. She pored over the map as though she could already see the possible survivors. “A small village with plenty of rifles and perhaps even boats to escape the first zombies… they could be surviving by fishing the sea and using the local farms.”

  “Anything is possible,” I agreed.

  “I don’t know,” Becky said. “It’s a long way around.”

  “We will move quicker on the beaches and cliff tops than we would through the hills further inland,” Pat pointed out. “We’ve seen how the zombies hate moving water. They avoid the lake so I doubt any will be wandering along the beaches.”

  “Perhaps,” she said. Her gaze was distant as she considered the options. I decided that perhaps it was time to provide a little extra incentive. Since Lily was so determined to go this route, I might as well make it as easy as possible.

  “There’s also an airfield just about here,” I said as I pointed to a spot on the map midway between the coast and the city. “If we can’t find a boat by the time we get this far north, we can always head inland and check that out.”

  Her eyes lit up as her mouth widened into a true smile and she beamed at me. “Really?”

  “Sure, just because you crashed your last plane, there’s no reason not to let you try again if we can find another,” I said.

  “No need to be an ass about it darling,” she said too sweetly with malice in her eyes. I grinned.

  “Alright,” Lily said before anyone else could reply. “So that’s the route decided, what about supplies?”

  “Backpack each,” Pat said. “Two-litre bottle of water, enough food for a few days, change of socks at the very least, torch, basic first aid kit for each of us, map if possible, compass and our weapons.”

  “I think I’d like us to have a number of set places to meet up if we get separated,” Cass said. “That way if anything happens we know that everyone will meet at the same place.”

  “Makes sense,” Lily said. “We have one map and a pretty crappy one but we have spare paper so we can do a rough copy for each of us. We’ll figure out a number of places to use as rendezvous points.”

  “Pencil and paper,” I added. “May as well take them with us. I don’t want to have to open a vein if I need to write a message.”

  I remembered all too well how frustrating it was back at the beginning when I was separated from the group. It was as much luck as anything else that had me find everyone again.

  “We’ll need some basic utensils for eating,” Gregg said. “Some bin liners will be useful for any number of things. Matches, batteries, hand sanitizer if we have any.”

  “Anything else?” Lily asked as she looked at each of us in turn.

  “A little salt, bleach and maybe some duct tape,” I said.

  “Bleach?”

  “To help purify water.”

  “These bags are going to be heavy,” Pat said. “With weapons too, it will be a lot to carry.”

  “Necessary though,” Lily said with a sigh. She looked around at each of us and nodded to herself. “Right then, we have a route and idea of supplies. Let’s get everything together, we leave at first light.”

  Chapter 4 - Lily

  At the top of Lake Windermere, there sat a town. Like many of those we’d had to trek through on our desperate search for safety all those months ago, it had fallen to the undead. Its houses were empty, the streets and open spaces devoid of life. All that remained there now were the zombies.

  We’d often discussed whether or not to try and scavenge from its lifeless shops and homes but had, in the end, decided against it. Too risky. It sounds strange to say that since we had often visited Windermere, a town overflowing with the undead. But there it was, Ambleside was off limits.

  What it did have in its favour was the wide river that passed through it. In fact, most of the great lakes that made up the Lake District were connected by a series of wide rivers. Toby, a man who had lived in Windermere all his life was confident that he could get us a good distance through the district via those rivers. Which was a good thing since the roads were fairly packed with roaming undead.

  As the sun rose above the horizon we gathered on the docks and said goodbye to our friends, our community. Each of us had been allowed our pick of the jackets and coats which meant that we all wore something waterproof and warm.

  The backpack was already digging into my shoulders as I leant forward and wrapped my arms around Gabby. She would be in charge of my people while I was away and though I had a great deal of faith in the former veterinarian, I still worried.

  “It’ll be fine,” she whispered. “Go and find help for us.”

  I smiled and brushed away the tear before it could fully form in my eye. Foolish I know but goodbyes always make me cry. I could see that I wasn’t the only one either. Cass had red-rimmed eyes and gave a quick wave before allowing Pat to help her into the boat.

  Gregg was already sat in the bow beside Becky, distracting himself with asking her questions while she answered in a distracted manner as she waited impatiently for us to be off. She was the one who had been pushing for this since Ryan had pulled her from the wreckage of her plane months ago.

  That man himself, the sometimes distant man who I cared so much for, stood on the edge of the dock staring across the lake. I very much doubted he had anything other than a dry eye but I walked over to join him anyway.

  “You ok?”

  “Hmm?” he asked with a quick glance back to me and then away across the lake again.

  “Are you okay I said?”

  “Fine,” he replied and I reached out to gently turn him towards me.

  “What’s so distracting?”

  “There’s a zombie over there,” he said with a slight tilt of the head back the way he’d been looking. “I can’t be sure from this distance but I think it’s watching us.”

  I stared past him and felt the frown form on my brow for a moment before I quickly smoothed it away. He was right, there at the water’s edge, almost in the water, was a lone zombie. Unlike those others that we would often see wandering along the road, this one was off in some way that I couldn’t place.

  “That’s weird.”

  “Obviously I cannot be sure, but I am fairly certain that is the one-eyed zombie from the cellar,” Ryan said. I glanced at him and saw the corners of his mouth turn up in the slightest smile.

  “You’re happy about that?”

  “It’s different and different is… interesting.”

  “Oh for god’s sake,” I said. “Don’t think I don’t know exactly what you mean by that.”

  “You do?” he asked as he turned to look fully at me, one
eyebrow raised quizzically.

  “I do, so get in the boat,” I said in little more than a whisper. “We don’t need the distraction right now.”

  He stared at me for several long seconds, his eyes seeming to pierce me. Eventually, he shrugged and climbed down into the boat without as much as a glance back at the gathered crowd of people. I sighed and followed him.

  As boats go, it wasn’t a bad one. A flat stern and varnished wooden sides that curved forward to form a point at the prow. It had a sizeable engine that was mounted at the rear and Toby sat on the seat beside it. Pat and Cass were on the next seat, then Ryan and myself while Becky and Gregg sat towards the front.

  Ryan continued to watch the lone zombie while the rest of us waved and Toby started the engine. It spluttered to life with an unhealthy sounding growl as smoke issued forth. The noise was much louder than I’d expected and after so long without the sound of an engine, it was almost unpleasant to hear.

  We pulled away from the dock and I settled in to watch the land speed by as the boat moved across the open waters at a fair pace. My hand reached for Ryan’s and a smile came to me as he held mine firmly rather than pull away.

  I settled back to enjoy the journey. Toby was confident the diesel he had for the motor would last long enough to get us where we were going and then bring him back. The idea being that we would all bail out while he led any zombies away with the sound of the engine.

  With the faint spray of water cool on my face and the bright warming sun in the blue sky above us. I could almost imagine the world hadn’t gone to hell. I even allowed myself a brief fantasy of just being out on a boat with friends, enjoying the spring sunshine and blowing away the winter blues.

  Ryan finally gave up on watching the zombie as we moved further away from the island and settled onto his seat with a slightly bored expression on his face as he watched the land move by. He really needed to learn how to enjoy the small things.

  “Tell me about your family,” I said and he glanced at me in surprise.

  “Why?”

  “I want to know,” I told him as I let my free hand trail in the water, enjoying the feeling of it moving around my fingers. Gregg and Becky both looked back, their interest piqued.

  “Not much to tell,” he said. “I had a mother and father, brother and sister.”

  “Your parents weren’t divorced?”

  “No, they were still married when last I spoke to them.”

  “When was that?” Cass asked and he turned to look at her, seemingly surprised by everyone’s interest.

  “A few years ago.”

  “Do you not get on with them?” she asked with a quick flick of the eyes to her own brother. They had long since fallen out of touch with their parents who had reacted badly to the news their son was gay.

  “I get on fine with them,” Ryan said. “I just haven’t had anything to say for a while.”

  “That’s so sad,” Cass said and he shrugged.

  “What about your brother and sister?” I asked.

  “Brother was younger, sister older. Both married I think.”

  “You think?”

  “Well my sister married a few years ago and my parents insisted I attend. That was… unpleasant for all of us. My brother was probably married but he didn’t like me so I was spared attending that.”

  “I wonder why?” Becky said and he flashed her a smile. I squeezed his hand to bring his attention back to me. I’d need to have a word with her, those little jibes needed to stop before he took offence and reacted.

  “What did they do for a living?”

  “Parents retired, sister was a psychiatrist and brother was an architect.”

  “Both had good careers then,” Cass said. “What was it you did?”

  “A bit of office work, nothing exciting,” he said. “I had other interests more important to me than a career.”

  Cass swallowed what she was about to say and just nodded. We all knew what his other interests were and while our friends had accepted it, they weren’t exactly comfortable discussing it.

  “Hush now, keep watch,” Toby called. He pointed ahead and I followed the direction to see the town filling the horizon.

  Like most of the towns around the lakes, Ambleside had a marina. Or at least it had a marina once, now all it contained was blackened rubble that had once been the boating shops and cafes. Most of the boats that had been tied up at the docks were capsized or submerged and the ones that were upright had zombies on their decks.

  Two hundred metres to the west of the marina, past a wide open field of wild grass, was the mouth of the river Rothay. Fifteen feet wide and more than deep enough for our little boat to pass, Toby directed us straight towards it.

  “We’ll attract the dead ones,” Toby said. “Most’ll be stopped by the water, some’ll be too stupid though and might come for us. Round the bend the river narrows as we pass through the town, that’s when we’re most at risk.”

  I swallowed hard past a suddenly dry mouth and throat. My palms felt clammy and I reached for my club with my free hand. It wasn’t much to look at, just a piece of timber taken from a boatyard. One end had been cut down until it was narrow enough to be gripped and string was wrapped tightly around to make a handle. The other end was thick and bore several notches and dents. Each of us had a club and Ryan, of course, had his combat knife on his belt.

  His hand tightened on mine and I glanced over to see him watching me. He was utterly calm and at peace, no nerves for him at the thought of the danger ahead. He smiled at me, a small smile for me alone and I knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to us. Calm washed over me and I managed a smile of my own for him.

  The journey along the river started well enough. I could see a few Shamblers making their way towards us from the edge of the town but they would never catch us. The water was calm and flowing steadily towards the lake we were leaving but that posed no problem to the motorised boat we were in.

  We rounded the first bend and a short distance after, turned another in the opposite direction. At that point, the river split. One wide channel off to our left headed west to a smaller lake and the other almost straight north. We went north towards the edge of the town.

  “This is where it’ll get rough,” Toby called. He needn’t have raised his voice, our attention was fixed firmly on the task at hand and no one was willing to risk distracting another.

  Ryan squeezed my hand and when I glanced his way he nodded towards the west bank of the river on our left. I looked over to see the steep grass covered slope of the banking and through the thin veil of trees an open grass covered space and then the road; that was teeming with the undead.

  My eyes were round as I saw them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands following the road barely thirty metres from where we were. Heads turned as the sound of our engine carried to them over their own incessant moans. I’d barely noticed the stench, so used to it had I become.

  “There’s a wall alongside the road,” I whispered and he nodded. I saw no fear in his eyes but as he mentally measured the distance from the river bank, I saw doubt surface and his hand left mine to draw his blade.

  His unease was easy to understand. As fearful of moving water as they were, that many of them rushing towards us would end up with a great deal of them being pushed into the river by those behind. It wouldn’t take long for them to form a blockage in the water we couldn’t get through.

  “Bridge ahead,” Gregg called.

  All eyes turned from the zombies to the looming structure we were headed towards. Houses had appeared through the trees, darkened windows empty and forlorn. We were at the edge of the town and a tall, wide bridge crossed the river, a grey stone wall the only barrier between us and the zombies crowded upon it.

  I silently cursed myself for leaving the guns back at the island. We’d not had many, and few bullets, and at the time I’d considered them better used to protect the people on the island. The way I fig
ured it, any gun shots would just draw more zombies to us. At that moment though, as we neared the edge of town I could have done with having one to hand.

  Sycamore trees lined the banks at either side, towering above us and bursting to life with new growth. An almost grotesque counterpoint to those undead monsters that pushed through the shrubs at their base.

  Fear filled me and any pretence of calm was gone as their awful cacophony drowned out even the sounds of the engine. Ruined faces bearing the hideous tale of their demise watched us as withered limbs reached for us.

  The first zombie fell from the banking into the water, pushed from behind by its decayed brethren in their eagerness to reach us. Then another, and another. In moments, it was dozens and more were being pushed forward to stand ankle deep in the river, then it was up to their knees.

  Someone cried out and I very much feared it was me as the river narrowed to pass beneath the bridge. A hand grasped the rim of the boat next to me and a face rose beside it. Dead eyes watched us hungrily and its mouth opened in anticipation of tearing at our flesh. I sat paralysed, overwhelmed by so many of them around us, surrounding us, so eager to devour us.

  An arm stabbed out, silvered blade piercing an eye socket and the zombie died a second time. His free hand touched my cheek, almost tenderly as he turned my face towards him. His eyes found mine and I read the question there.

  “I’m fine,” I said as I drew in a deep breath and raised my club. The next hand that grasped the side felt its weight as I slammed it down and shattered its bones. Ryan turned back to his own side and his blade flashed again as he put it to good use.

  The river water was churning as the undead scrambled below the surface, desperately reaching for any handhold as the moving water robbed them of their balance. I cracked a skull as darkness covered us and we were beneath the bridge. Calm returned for a moment and then we were out the other side.

  Toby yelled and the boat rocked precariously as a falling zombie collided with the corner of the vessel and I looked up to see another topple over the wall. It missed the boat by a good foot and sank beneath the water.