Dark and Deadly Land

by Richard Murray

  A hundred other horrors that we’d not seen on our quick sprint through the plastic strips on our way to the offices. The rage I’d felt was still with me and a small part of me marvelled at that. A year ago, those horrors wouldn’t have even registered. Now, they had me enraged. That was no doubt Lily’s doing.

  The van halted and Pat climbed out as I pulled open the back door. All around us were bales of material so once the bomb went off there would be plenty to burn.

  I climbed into the back and picked up the black box that was attached to a large metal drum by a couple of wires. It had a switch and an electronic display on the front. Pat joined me and I glanced at him.

  “Doesn’t look like much mate,” he said. His voice bore traces of the earlier anger and I guessed it would be slow to fade. If what we had seen had affected even me, then it must have been overwhelming for him.

  “Well, Bess said flick the switch and run,” I said as I did just that.

  The black box beeped once and the display lit up to show a timer set to five minutes. As I watched it began counting down and I placed the device back on top of the drum and jumped down.

  “Time to go,” I said as I jogged to the front entrance only to skid to a stop as I saw the mass of undead almost through it.

  “Oh hell,” Pat said as he saw them too.

  “Out the back,” was my reply as the undead began to raise their voices in ravenous hunger at the sight of us.

  In the back of my mind, I was counting down the seconds along with the timer as I ran. It wasn’t a lot of time and I cursed the idiots who had chosen five minutes to be the time allowed to escape the blast. Why the hell couldn’t they have made it twenty minutes!

  Past the pallets, across the dead bodies that hadn’t been cleared away before we attacked and straight to the back door. It swung open as soon as I pressed on the release lever and we were through and running.

  Across the muddy stretch of land and through the storage sheds. I had a good idea what had been taken to that locked shed and just hoped it was destroyed in the blast. It was new to me but apparently I drew the line at cannibalism and abusing the bodies of the dead.

  Once past the storage sheds we could see our friends waiting a short distance away and made for them. I skidded to a stop on the grass beside Lily and doubled over as I sought to catch my breath.

  “You alright?” Gregg asked and I waved away his question.

  “Undead arrived,” I managed to say.

  Anything else that might have been said was silenced as an explosion ripped through the factory, the sound painfully loud. I glanced back at the factory to see it looked unchanged.

  “Did it work?” Becky asked.

  “It was supposed to make a lot of noise, which it did,” Lily said. “From the smoke, I’d say the fires already started burning so all being well the whole place will go up in flames soon enough.”

  “We need to leave then,” Cass said as she hugged Pat heedless of the blood on his clothes. “This place will be swarming with the undead soon.”

  A few moments to get our breath back was all we could risk before we set off back towards the town. The idea was that we’d swing north and around the mass of undead that should hopefully have been drawn away by the sound and the subsequent fire.

  So we set off, following the road that Lily had driven down. The rain had stopped and while the sun hadn’t come out from behind the grey clouds, I was in a reasonably good mood. I’d got to kill a whole load of people, I’d avenged some innocents and set off a bomb for the first time. Things would have been almost perfect if not for the person Lily had picked up.

  I glanced at him through the corner of my eye and held back a sigh. I’d known it was a bad idea to give in to them when they said I should look for my family as we passed. Now I had him to deal with. I patted the pocket of my coat where I still had the final syringe full of infected blood and wondered if I could get away with using it.

  “You two not going to say anything to each other?” Lily asked after a lengthy silence. I looked at her and frowned.

  “What?”

  “You’ve just found out your brother is alive and well, he’s here with you and you’ve nothing to say?” she demanded as I shrugged.

  “No.”

  “Are you not even going to ask about mum and dad or even Evie?” Gabriel asked. “You might have disliked her as much as the rest of us but at least you got on with her.”

  “I don’t dislike you,” I said.

  “Nah, but you just don’t give a damn about us do ya?”

  “Should I?”

  “Now see, this is why I didn’t have you come to my wedding,” he snapped.

  “You’re married?” Becky asked.

  “Was married wee lass, it didn’t stick.”

  She seemed inordinately pleased about that and I wondered why. Lily looked at me expectantly and frowned at her. What?

  “Ask about your parents,” she hissed.

  I resisted the urge to sigh and turned to my brother. “Are mother and father alive?”

  “Aye, mam and dad are fine and well,” he said. “Which you’d have known if you’d come to visit them last year with the rest of us.”

  “Why would I visit them?” I asked. “Why did you visit them?”

  “Mum’s birthday,” he snapped. “She turned sixty. I left you a message on your answer machine.”

  “I had an answering machine?” I asked with some surprise. That was news to me.

  “Aye everyone has one on their phone,” he said. “Or had one anyway before this nonsense began.”

  “Is Evie your sister?” Lily asked as Becky placed a calming hand on Gabriel’s arm.

  “That she is,” Gabe said. “Older than the both of us, she came up to visit with her kid.”

  “She has a child?”

  “Holy crap man, do you even know anything about your family?” Becky asked with a snort of laughter.

  “Are they at this sanctuary you mentioned?” Lily asked.

  “They are lass. That they are.”

  “Then we’ll definitely have to drop by on our way north so you can see them,” Lily said to me.

  “Why?” I asked as Gabriel snorted.

  “Not a chance,” my brother said.

  “What do you mean why?” Lily asked me.

  “He’s just said they’re alive, what do I need to visit them for now we know?”

  “You can’t. I’m not taking you to see them,” Gabriel said.

  “Hold on,” Lily snapped as she stopped in the middle of the road. “You,” she said as she pointed at me. “Will go and see your family and let them know you’re alive because you have a chance that the rest of us will never have.”

  She spun to Gabriel and pointed one finger at him accusingly as he flinched back from her anger. “And you,” she said. “You will take him there or give me one good reason why not.”

  “Have you seen him?” Gabriel asked with a gesture to my blood-drenched clothes. “I’ve just seen him poke out a man’s eyes and then kill him. From the looks of the both of them, they just killed a lot of people back there.”

  He looked at me with such a look of disgust that I almost felt a little self-conscious. Almost.

  “I don’t know what you’ve all been doing since this started, but you’re killing people,” he said. His eyes softened and a look of sorrow crossed his face. “We were raised better than that. Respect and care for others, brother, remember that? All life is precious. We were always taught that. If I took you back to mum and dad, had to explain what I’ve seen you do… it’ll hurt them too much.”

  Gabriel looked so earnest, so hurt and full of sorrow that I couldn’t help myself. I burst into laughter.

  “Ryan!” Lily snapped as my brother pushed away from Becky and marched along the road in a fury. His earlier slow walk that indicated pain had been forgotten in his anger.

  “Sorry,” I said. Not reall
y. “He was always so sanctimonious. If he knew the truth he’d have a fit. I should tell him.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” she snapped before looking at the others. “Any of you.”

  “Not cool mate,” Gregg said as Lily stormed off after Gabriel. I wiped at my eyes and grinned at him.

  “Come on,” I said. “You can’t agree with that nonsense.”

  “I agree with respecting other people’s opinions mate,” he said. “Whether I think that’s even possible in this hellish world or not is immaterial. It should be possible.”

  “He’s right,” Pat said as Cass murmured agreement.

  “Really?” I said.

  “You’re an ass darling,” Becky said as she followed the others.

  I was left standing in the road as my friends walked away. I knew it was my fault and for once I could even pinpoint what I’d done to upset them, but it was still baffling. It was also incredibly irksome that I’d need to figure out some way of making things better.

  Chapter 26 - Lily

  “He’s an ass,” Becky said for perhaps the hundredth time. I tended to agree but held back on saying so.

  I glanced back to see him walking along behind us, hands in pockets and watching the world around us as though he hadn’t a care. It was infuriating and coming so soon after what we’d just seen him do at the factory, well, it was a little much. Even I could see that. Show at least a little remorse at slaughtering everyone.

  Cass gripped my hand and I looked at her as she smiled. She nudged me with her shoulder in a way that said everything would be fine and I smiled back. It wouldn’t though, I thought. This was my life now.

  “Has he always been like this?” Gregg asked and received a slap on the back of his head from his sister. “Hey!”

  “None of our business,” she snapped back at him.

  “Oh it’s fine lass,” Gabe said. “He was always a bit of an odd duck, even as a kid.”

  “I can’t imagine him as a child,” I said.

  “How is it you all know him?” Gabe asked and I felt everyone seem to look at me at the same time.

  “We met right at the beginning,” I said. “I was running from zombies and he let me into his house. We stuck together and found ourselves at a refugee centre.”

  “Which is where they met me,” Pat said. “I was there with some other friends and when the undead broke in, he led us to safety.”

  “What about you two?” Gabe asked Cass and Gregg.

  “Tied up and being beaten by some bastards on a farm,” Cass said. “Baby brother was unconscious and I thought I was done for. Ryan found us and saved us.”

  Gabriel looked thoughtful as his eyes moved from one to the next of us. Finally, they settled on Becky. “He save you too pretty lady?”

  “Yes,” she said with a slight blush colouring her cheeks. “Pulled me and someone I thought was a friend from the wreckage of a plane.”

  “Seems like he’s saved all of you,” he said with an unreadable expression as he looked back at his brother.

  “More than once,” I said. “You know I never really thought about it, but yeah, it’s weird that each of us is only here because of him.”

  “That so,” Gabe said. “May be some hope for him after all.”

  “I keep saying so,” I said and he smiled at me.

  “You and he are something more than friends then?” he asked.

  “Well, you could say that,” I said and it was my turn to blush as Gregg let out a laugh.

  “Oh they’re definitely more than friends,” he said and ducked before his sister could clout him again.

  “Perhaps you should meet the family then,” Gabe said. “I know mum never thought she’d see him with someone, let alone happy.”

  I smiled at him and Cass changed the subject to inconsequential things as we neared the coast and turned south, back towards Silloth. I half listened and kept glancing back to Ryan before finally falling back to join him.

  He looked up as I approached and his grin was fixed firmly in place though I noticed some tightening around his eyes that spoke of apprehension.

  “Hello Ryan,” I said. The first part of our little ritual that was just for us alone.

  “Hello Lily,” he replied and I smiled as he took hold of my hand.

  “Your brother seems nice,” I said and his grin slipped a little.

  “They’re all nice,” he said bitterly. “My whole family is nice.”

  “That’s a bad thing to you?”

  He snorted and looked away before back to me.

  “Imagine growing up in a family that are all really nice. They do things for others, they work hard and contribute to their community. They are respected and liked by everyone.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then there’s me,” he said and his smile faded. “The strange boy who doesn’t understand the emotions he sees them taking such delight in. A boy filled with darkness rather than the light they all share.”

  He let out a sigh and I squeezed his hand to let him know I understood.

  “I was different to everyone, but more so to them. They couldn’t understand it, couldn’t understand me and they tried, oh so very hard.”

  His eyes showed pain and I held my breath, afraid to say something that would take away this rare moment of understanding he was showing me.

  “Part of me still resents them,” he said. “For having that basic understanding of life that I couldn’t… can’t, share.”

  “You’re changing though,” I said and he looked at me, eyes of blue staring into mine. “I’ve seen those changes. Back there, at the factory…”

  I held my gaze on his and paused as the darkness surged up behind his eyes. It wasn’t a real darkness, I couldn’t even explain it fully, but it was there. A change in him that I could see, when that cold killer came to the forefront.

  “It affected you,” I said carefully. Afraid to make him retreat even further into himself. “That anger I saw… well, I’ve never seen you display that much. There was a reason for that, a good reason.”

  “There was?”

  “Yes,” I said. Quietly insistent. “You saw something in there, something that upset you badly. It could only have done so if you care.”

  “You think?” he asked. The darkness was fading but it was still there.

  “Honestly, I believe you have those emotions that you think you don’t. It’s just that they are buried way down deep, just waiting for you to dig down to reach them.”

  “Maybe,” he said but his lips turned upwards into a smile and the man I knew returned to me.

  “It was bad in there then?” I asked and he nodded. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”

  “Oh I had some fun in the end,” he said with a wolfish grin that sent a shiver down my spine.

  ****

  We arrived back at Silloth before dark and I was relieved to see that many of the undead had indeed left the area.

  With cautious steps, we moved through the edges of the town and met no problems before we reached the gate. It was opened for us and we entered to find Ethan and Bess already making their way towards us, alerted by the sentries on the container wall.

  “You did it,” Ethan said as he approached, arms spread wide as though to take us all in.

  “It worked then,” Cass said and he nodded.

  “We heard the blast from here and all those nasties outside the wall did too,” he said. “We kept quiet and hidden and a few started moving that way, then a few more and finally all of them went.”

  “Any problems?” Bess asked as she took in Pat and Ryan’s blood-soaked clothing.

  “Nothing we couldn’t handle,” I said.

  “Excellent,” Ethan crowed. “You did a splendid job.”

  “Now it’s time for your part,” Ryan said. “Passage across the bay.”

  “Of course,” he said though his smile faltered a little. “First thing in the mo
rning when the tide goes out, you’ll be on the first boat that goes with it.”

  “Then if you don’t mind letting us stay the night, we could use the rest,” I said. “It’s been a long day.”

  “I’ll take you to your tents,” Bess said.

  “But don’t you want to celebrate with us?” Ethan asked.

  “Thank you but no,” I told him. “Sleep is needed right now.”

  “As you will,” he replied with a dismissive wave. “Be off with you then, I’ll arrange for your boat.”

  He stalked away and Bess snorted. “He’s a prick but he means well.”

  “I’m sorry we don’t want to celebrate, it’s just been a really long day.”

  “I bet,” she said with another look at Ryan and Pat. “Come on then.”

  She led the way through the compound towards the warehouse where we’d stayed the night before. Jinx was sitting beside the door and rose to her feet as we approached. She trotted over to nuzzle Ryan and I saw Gabe watching with bemusement.

  You’ll see, I thought, he’s a better man that any of you think.

  “How’s the girl?” Cass asked. “Emily.”

  “Been crying a lot, seems to understand why you did it,” Bess said. “She’s sleeping in your tents.”

  “I thought we’d have been the last people she wanted to be around,” I said and the older woman shrugged.

  “None of our business, she can’t stay here anyway.”

  “Why not?”

  “Not much use to us,” Bess said and I felt the sudden urge to slap her. “Deaf kid won’t be much use as a guard.”

  “Yeah but you can’t toss her out,” I said.

  “We aren’t. She came with you and she’ll leave with you.”

  I sighed as we entered the warehouse. The poor girl had been traumatised and they expected her to leave with the people who had killed her brother. It was idiotic.

  Emily was in one of the tents and I ducked inside the flap and gestured her out when her eyes met mine. She came out and saw the rest of us. Her flinch when she saw Ryan and Pat was enough for me to shoo everyone away.