Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis

by Watts, Russ

  “But...my husband...my daughter’s out there. Please, can’t you let me go? I promise I won’t tell anyone where you are or anything. I don’t even remember how I got here.” Glenda touched her head as the pain grew.

  Norm chuckled. “Look, darling, just sit tight. You’re going to get some visitors soon. I suggest you relax and get some sleep while you can, eh?”

  He left her alone and Glenda wondered how she had ended up here. They had been running toward the petrol station and Daniel had been killed. God, how she wanted Daniel with her now. And Heidi was out there alone now, without her mother or father. Glenda felt sick.

  She lay on the mattress and began to sob. Daniel was a stubborn man, an old-fashioned man, but he always put his family first. She loved him so very much. What would Heidi say when she found out her father was dead, eaten by zombies.

  Glenda lay there for a while, occasionally slipping off to sleep, only to awaken with a fright, her vivid nightmares shocking her mind. There was a tiny window high in the wall, too high for her to see out. There was sunlight coming through it and she could see the edge of a blue sky. She remembered her home, back in Austria before she had moved here. There, it had always been sunny and bright. In the mountains it seemed like the sky was perpetually blue. Oh, if only she were there now. Glenda fell asleep again and dreamt of the mountains, the fresh, clear river water and the green grass.

  Her dream was cut short with the sound of the keys jangling again. She looked up. Seeing the light was dimmer, she assumed a few hours must have passed at least. She turned over and saw Norm opening the door. A man walked in and stared at her as Norm shut the door and left. Although she was already pressed up against the wall, she tried to move further back, away from this man. He was sweaty and covered in dirt. It looked like he had been doing some physically demanding work and his face was streaked with grime. He wiped his hands on his tartan shirt and then whisked it off over his head.

  “Couldn’t find anything younger, eh, Norm?” the man shouted.

  “Who are you?” said Glenda.

  The man just smiled and unzipped his trousers. Glenda stifled a scream as she realised what was about to happen. She finally realised why Norm had told her to get some rest and why she was being kept prisoner down here. As the man came closer, she shut her eyes. She could smell his foul breath on her face. Please protect Heidi for me, please protect my daughter, she thought as his hands grabbed her.

  * * * *

  Rosa spat once more at Lazarus. “Fuck you, we won’t tell you anything.” Rosa thought about Jessica, wishing she was back with her now. Who were these monsters?

  He wiped the spit from his cheek and merely smiled. “I’m not going to waste time asking you questions, my dear. I can think of something far more fun to do with you.”

  “Let her go, you animal,” ordered Laurent. “Let us all go! We’re no good to you. I’m not going to tell you anything, or where our friends are.”

  “Walker, bring the girl over here by the cart please. Rosa, wasn’t it? Honok, Shane, bring Mr Laurent over here.”

  Lazarus went over to a corner of the room and came back with a club. It was made of steel and the end of it was rusty. Lazarus leant over the cart where Leonard was sitting. He was hunched over, his hands shaking and his eyes shut tight.

  “Who was this again, Honok?”

  “Leonard, sir. I think his mind’s gone, stupid old fucker.”

  “How...disappointing. Leonard open your eyes, please. I want to talk to you,” said Lazarus.

  Leonard slowly opened them and looked up at the scary strange man staring back at him. They had hurt Glenda and he was scared. Laurent and Rosa were there too, but they looked frightened of this man.

  “I want to go home. I want to see Billy,” said Leonard. “Carol will be wondering where I am if I don’t go back soon.”

  “Let me help you, said Lazarus offering Leonard a hand. He helped Leonard out of the cart and then pushed it away as the old man stood in the centre of the room. He was clearly bewildered.

  “It’s okay, Lenny, ignore him, don’t talk to him,” said Laurent.

  “Shut up,” said Shane, punching Laurent hard in the face, breaking his nose.

  Honok grinned and held him up as Laurent reeled. Laurent refused to cry out, defiantly looking at Lazarus as blood poured from his nose.

  Leonard wet himself and Lazarus could literally smell the man’s fear as it spread through his pyjamas and puddled on the stone floor.

  “Laurent, Rosa, Lenny, let me tell you something. This is my place. What you want is irrelevant to me. Anyone on this island is either with me, or against me. Now I am quite sure that you are not going to work for me, which means you are my enemies, my prisoners. Mr Laurent, you have information which I want, so Walker is going to ask you some questions. How painful the answers are is up to you. In the meantime, I shall take your friend Rosa someplace else. She looks tired if you ask me. I think we should find a nice comfortable bed for her, don’t you agree?”

  “Who are you?” said Laurent. “You’re no better than those things out there.”

  “We men are wretched things. I do not expect you to understand. But I do expect you to do as I say. My name is Lazarus. Welcome to the Mount.” Lazarus smiled.

  Laurent and Rosa screamed as Lazarus took the club and raised it in the air, smashing it against the side of Leonard’s head, instantly splitting his fragile skull. Leonard roared as Lazarus brought the club down again. He smashed Leonard’s hands and arms, shattering the bones with each blow as the old man tried to get out of the way. Lazarus continued to rain blows upon Leonard’s old body as Honok and Shane dragged Laurent away.

  Blood and bone flecked Lazarus’ face as he bludgeoned Leonard to death. When the old man stopped moving, Lazarus threw the club aside. Leonard was hardly recognisable anymore. His body had been smashed and battered, and he lay in a crumpled bloody heap.

  Walker laughed as Rosa struggled, unable to escape the man’s strong hold. He watched as Shane and Honok took Laurent away up the stairs and deeper into the castle. The man was fighting, but Walker would get what he needed to know out of him. Today was going to be a good day.

  Lazarus exhaled and ran bloody fingers through his thick black hair. He pointed at Walker. “Take that girl to my room and tie her up. Then clear this shit up. Tell Honok not to waste anymore of my time bringing me old rubbish like this. He would’ve been nothing but a drain on our resources. When they have Laurent locked up, I want him and Shane back out there right away.”

  Lazarus turned and went upstairs as Walker pushed Rosa ahead of him. She was bawling her eyes out, praying her death would be quicker and less painful than Lenny’s had.

  * * * *

  Lazarus rolled his head and stretched his neck. He grabbed a towel and ran it across his back, the rough texture of the dry towel absorbing the sweat from his muscular body. He reached down to the floor, discarding the towel and began to dress. “Now where was I? Oh yes, your friends.”

  Rosa was naked, tied to his bed. Her ankles and wrists began to bleed from the tight binding and she turned her face away from him. She had lost track of time since he had brought her up here and tied her up. It must have been an hour or two, she thought. They had gone through a long underground tunnel to this place, and every passing minute was another minute closer to death and further away from Jess. Lazarus had spent a considerable amount of time in fucking her. He hadn’t said anything to her, just grunted and ground away on top of her, ignoring her pleas for him to stop. Eventually, she had given up and blocked him out. She tried to think about Jessica, Tom, home; anything but here and the pain she was feeling.

  “You might as well tell me, Rosa, your French friend has probably spilled his guts to Walker already,” Lazarus chortled. “If not, then no matter. You’ll tell me, won’t you?”

  She didn’t answer him. Rosa was thinking about Jessica and the last time she’d seen her. It had been in the house in Longrock on the morning be
fore they’d split up. She had gone with Laurent because she wanted to prove a point. She wanted to prove to Jessica that she wasn’t a pushover or a flake, and that she could handle herself. Now look where she was; tied up and raped, her life at the mercy of a madman.

  “Still not talking to me? Shame.” Lazarus walked around the bed to face her. He held her head with one large bony hand so she could not turn away. “Fine, have it your way. I’m going to send you downstairs to your friend. Gwen or whatever her name was. Do you know what my men are going to do to you?”

  Rosa stared back at him, refusing to speak. She was scared of what was going to happen to her, but was more scared what would happen if she told him where Jess and the others were.

  Lazarus let go of her and pulled a shirt on over his head. He put on his boots, his long black coat, and picked up a small sword from the drawers beneath a window. He bent over Rosa and she braced herself, waiting for the cool steel blade to slice through her skin. Instead, Lazarus cut her ties and freed her. He grabbed her arms and she felt the sword pressing against her back.

  “We’re going on a little walk, my dear. If you try anything, I will cut off your tits and let you bleed to death.”

  Lazarus frogmarched her out of his bedroom and down the stairway. He kept a strong hold of her all the way down to the cells where he passed Christopher coming out. “Christopher, wait there please.”

  Lazarus threw her down the steps into the cell and barked at Norm to lock her up in the spare cell. Once he had seen Norm close the door on her, he went back upstairs to find Christopher obediently waiting for him.

  “Christopher. I want you to go and tell everyone there is to be a meeting tonight at six. Until then, everyone can relax, stop work and have a break. Tell the men we have new entertainment for them and they don’t need to wait for my permission. Tell them to come right away, in fact. Think of it as a little present from me.”

  “Yes, sir, right away.” He didn’t think twice about what the meeting was about. He had finished with the older woman, but now that the young one was available, he intended to go back for her. She was slim and pretty. “The boys are going to have a lot of fun, thanks sir.” Christopher gleefully left the castle to inform his colleagues and friends of the good news.

  Lazarus made his way down the hillside to the village and entered one of the houses as Christopher spread the word.

  “Ed, anything?”

  “Perfect timing, sir, they’ve just started talking again. I was about to fetch you.”

  Ed held out the headphones and Lazarus sat down at the radio.

  “Ed, we’ve some visitors. Go and see if Walker needs a hand will you?”

  Ed left to go find Walker whilst Lazarus reached for the volume button and turned the dial clockwise. Through the static, he began to hear the voices, one British, one American.

  “...luck with it McCulloch. Seriously, I hope you find some people. I’m starting to feel like we’re the last ones alive on Earth,” said the American voice.

  “Thanks, Samson, I‘ll let you know how we get on, of course. We’re not going to take any risks, but we can’t call it off now. We’ve been sending the message out and we’re just hoping someone heard it. We’ll know by 0730 tomorrow one way or another. Penzance is our last hope.”

  Lazarus recognised the second voice as being British and guessed it was that of McCulloch, the British naval Admiral.

  “I’ve been in discussion with Blaine on the USS Gerald Ford, and he’s in agreement with me. He thinks we should get together too. We’ve been unsuccessful in reaching anyone on the mainland and we’re better prepared for this thing with you than without you. Are you still in agreement?” said Samson.

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait to meet you face to face, Samson. I’ve told some of my men and they’re keen to get going. We can put our heads together and come up with a plan. I’m sure of it. Things are pretty hairy down here. We’ve seen some strange shit.”

  “You mean worse than the zombies?” asked Samson.

  Admiral McCulloch coughed before answering. Lazarus wondered if he were hurt, or just being very British and polite.

  “In the ocean. Marine life around here isn’t usually very exciting, but...some of my men reported seeing things in the last couple of days. There are things floating on the surface of the sea. They look like harmless lumps of seaweed, but if you look closer, they’re alive. A couple of my men got hurt. It sounds crazy, but these long tentacles reached up out of the water and stung them.”

  “McCulloch, I hope you put them in quarantine.”

  “Oh, yes, of course. They’ve been sedated, but they’re not doing well. We even saw dolphins yesterday, but…”

  “Go on.”

  There was static and Lazarus wondered if he had lost the frequency for a moment before the British voice resumed.

  “The dolphins tried attacking the ship. They rammed themselves into us. God knows what they thought they were trying to achieve. It was hard to see clearly, but they didn’t look well. I’m thinking that this infection thing isn’t contained to humans. The dolphins were covered with blisters and cuts. They looked terrible. After a while, they must have figured out they couldn’t get at us and gave up. We fired a few warning shots, not that they took much notice of them.”

  “Well, the dolphins are much friendlier over in the Caribbean,” said Samson. “The USS Gerald Ford is sitting tight there. They’re going to wait for you and me to join them. I told you there’s something we wanted to share with you yesterday and I mean that, McCulloch.”

  “Tell me, Samson, what have you found. You said you picked it up near Texas right?”

  “Yeah, you’re not going to believe it when you see it. What we’ve got here is nothing short of a miracle. It’s one of them. It’s a goddamn alien.”

  Lazarus took off the headphones. So the Americans had captured an alien? Was that how this infection had started? He was amazed. He hadn’t been naïve enough to believe man was alone in the cosmos, but an alien here on Earth, alive? He put the headphones back on just in time to hear the two ship’s captains saying their goodbyes. No wonder there hadn’t been a cure for the disease and no wonder it had spread so quickly.

  Lazarus got up. He needed to go see Walker. If this infection could spread to animal life, then it wasn’t just zombies they were dealing with. They were going to need a large arsenal and Rosa’s friends could help them. Lazarus left the stone house, slamming the door behind him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “We need another distraction,” said Harry. “He’ll never get past all those things to the fence. Quick, go tell the others.”

  Moira sprinted into the garden centre whilst Harry kept a watch on Jackson. Jackson wouldn’t exactly know their whereabouts of course, and Harry could see the confusion on his face. Jackson was looking at the shopping mall, the supermarket, trying to figure out where to go. He also couldn’t keep still as the zombies had noticed him and were gathering around him, getting closer all the time.

  Tom and Jessica came sprinting back with Heidi and stopped behind Harry.

  “It’s him? What’s he doing here?” said Tom.

  “I don’t know, but we need to do something fast or he won’t be here for long,” said Harry.

  “Over there. We have to go the front of the centre and shout and scream, get the zombies to follow us. Harry, Jess, you come with me. Moira, stay here and hide. When the coast is clear, open the fence door, get out there and wave for Jackson to follow you. We’ll keep them away from you as long as we can.”

  Tom didn’t wait for an answer and rushed through the bushes into the open, heading for the opposite corner. There were a hundred zombies in the car park and he began hollering and whooping. Harry and Jess followed suit and began jumping up and down, trying to make as much noise as possible. Slowly, the zombies headed in the direction of all the noise. Tom and Harry kept a safe distance from the fence so no prying fingers or hands could reach them. Jessica stood behind them
with half an eye on the sky. She hadn’t forgotten the strange creature that had nearly decapitated her only five minutes earlier.

  When the majority of zombies had moved away, Moira slipped the door open quietly and jogged down the side of the building. She waved her arms over her head and Jackson spotted her. He ran toward her, a line of zombies following his path. They looked like they had formed a bizarre conga line. Only ten feet away from salvation and a dead shopper emerged from the supermarket between Moira and Jackson.

  Jackson stopped in his tracks and Moira did not hesitate. She swung the bow saw at the zombie and lopped its head off. Jackson raced past the falling body and Moira led him back through the door into the garden centre. She locked the door behind her and dragged a bush over it. Some of the zombies had seen where they had gone through the fence and the whole centre was now surrounded.

  Exhausted, Jackson sank to his knees. He was panting, out of breath, and Tom and Harry helped him to his feet. Together, they carried him inside.

  “Get him some water!” shouted Tom when they reached the restroom.

  They laid him down on the sofa and Mac brought a bottle of water out to him. Jackson took a sip and looked around the room. All eyes were staring at him expectantly.

  “What the hell, Jackson? We thought you were going to wait at the petrol station for us?” said Harry. “What happened?”

  “Oh, my God, Rosa, is she..?” Jessica brought a hand to her mouth.

  “She’s alive,” said Jackson, draining the water from the plastic bottle.

  “My parents? Where are they?!” Heidi clutched Tom’s arm.

  “Okay, hang on, everyone. Give him some room.” Tom ushered everyone away. They waited for Jackson to respond. Heidi was holding her breath and gripping Tom’s arm.

  “It went wrong. Jesus, it’s all fucked up.” Jackson face was bright red and he let out a sigh. “Heidi, I’m sorry but your dad...”