“Some houses nearby that we were thinking of breaking into,” Jeremy added. “Just, y’know…” he nodded to the little girl who was happily eating her share and part of her parents.
“It’s a risk,” Mark agreed. “Too risky to go it alone. You should come with us.”
“Where to?”
I wasn’t the only one who stopped eating long enough to glance at our fearless leader. We’d done little more than push on ahead of the horde for so long now that I doubted any of us had a clue where to go once out of danger.
“To be honest, that sounds as good a place as any.” He scooped the last of his meal from his tin bowl and chewed absently as he thought. “Can’t go west or we’ll just meet that horde. We can rest up there and see if we can scavenge some nearby towns.”
“If there are any,” Nathan said. “We’re in middle of nowhere as it is.”
“There’s a few farms and the like,” Jeremy said. “Some small hamlets, just a few houses, but little else for miles.”
“It’s why we wanted to try it,” Marie said. “Less chance of being found.”
“Need some food though,” Johnny said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. “If it’s just you two and the wee one, you won’t be able to get out and scavenge.”
“As good a plan as any I suppose,” Mark said and then paused before looking directly at Jeremy and Marie. “I’m sorry. Just kind of took over there and invited ourselves. What do you think? We can get you set up in a house and supplied while we figure out just what we’re doing.”
Jeremy looked across at his wife who shrugged and wouldn’t meet his eyes as she tightened her grip on the girl. She was worried, that was clear even to one as dense about such things as I, but didn’t want to object too strongly.
“Yeah, can do that,” he said.
“Good,” Mark said as he glanced at the sky. “It’ll be dark in a few hours, we should settle in for the night.”
“I’ll take first watch,” I volunteered and ignored the surprised looks. It was the first time I’d volunteered for anything in the time I’d been with them.
“Sounds fine pal,” Johnny said.
“Wake me for second,” Georgia said with a sly smile when she met my gaze.
“I suppose I can do third,” Nathan said.
“Right then, that’s tonight sorted and the rest of us will do tomorrow night’s watch.”
With that decided I stood and crossed to the stream. A handful of grass and the cold running water was the best I could hope for when it came to cleaning my bowl but it was better than nothing. It was somewhat concerning to think about all the things we’d lost since the world fell apart just the last autumn.
If lucky, you could still find some cleaning products left over when people panicked and fled their homes but they were getting few and far between. As for hygiene products, you could forget it. When people left their homes, they tended to take items with sentimental value, some clothing, food and their toothpaste and deodorant. Which meant those of us who survived had to do without.
Oh, I’m sure that the majority of those people who died and reanimated had little use for the items they’d fled with. It was just that those items were usually inaccessible to us. They were packed into cars that were left on the roads and motorways which just so happened to be the main routes for the zombies.
The smaller towns and villages were the best source for supplies and even then, it tended to be a fight to get in and out. My journey to the hospital on the edge of Dumfries was a good testament to that. Not the largest town by any stretch of the imagination, I’d almost died and had returned home with several hundred of the damned things hot on my heels. I had no doubts that the cities would be worse.
Which led to another problem. Survivors. There were more of us out there than I’d expected and it seemed that the more accessible places had been looted, making it harder than ever to find anything. I fully expected it to be the same wherever my current group ended up.
No matter how far out we were, no matter how isolated, we would have to head to a town or village to find supplies. Those places would have either been picked clean already or be so infested with the undead as to make any attempt at looting a suicide mission.
As I glanced back at my new companions, I had very little doubt that they’d be much use on any but the simplest of looting attempts. Which just meant that I’d have to take what I could and leave them when the time was right. And if I was going to do that, then why was I so perturbed by Georgia’s desire to kill the new people?
They were simple and unassuming from what I could tell from the little time I’d spent with them. They were certainly no threat to me or anyone but themselves. If she were here then they would have clearly fallen into the ‘innocent’ category. I wouldn’t be able to kill them as per our bargain and the promise I’d made.
But that promise had been broken, and broken quite spectacularly at that, when I’d killed my brother and those others at the sanctuary. The bargain was undone and I’d left knowing that she wouldn’t come after me. So why then, was I so reluctant to commit murder?
I mean, sure, there was Alison but that had been more of a reaction than a conscious decision. A spur of the moment act and I’d felt nothing from it. No pleasure but no guilt either. And that was the problem. There was no desire to kill those people.
No matter how I looked at it, there was something wrong. I’d lost something in my time with the other group, with those people I called friends and with the woman I actually had some feelings for.
I exhaled a soft sigh and smiled at that. Even to myself, I found it hard to admit that it had been more than just ‘some feelings’ for her. It was hard to admit that the darkness inside of me had been quietened by her and I had been changed.
With a shake of my head, I shook the excess water from my bowl before rising to my feet and stretching. I should have been planning on how I was going to kill them rather than on why I didn’t want to.
And there it was. I’d finally admitted it to myself. I didn’t want to kill them which is why I would kill them and try to regain some of that old joy.
With that decided, I waited as patiently as I could for the group to settle down for the night which wasn’t for quite some time. With the summer sun setting later and later, the nights were short and with no cover, we were forced to wait out the rest of the day as best we could.
I climbed the hill out of the valley as I waited for the darkness to come. It was the best chance I’d have to get one last look around to make sure we weren’t being approached by anyone before it became too dark to see. I wasn’t at all pleased with being stuck down in the valley where anyone could come on us unawares. Pretty much as we had to the family that were already there when we’d arrived.
There was nothing much to see when I reached the top. Grass hills and more grass. A fairly bleak looking landscape which suited my mood somewhat. The sun was dropping low towards the western horizon, its warmth felt on my right cheek as I looked to the south, watching the grass move in the gentle breeze.
Which was odd since there wasn’t any real breeze. A frown formed on my brow as I squinted my eyes, raising one hand to shade them as I stared hard at the southern horizon. Then, with a curse, I turned and ran down the hill as fast as I dared without risking breaking an ankle.
“Get up,” I snapped as I reached the camp and a half dozen faces turned to me with blank looks.
“Wha…” Johnny as eloquent as ever.
“You okay mate?” Nathan asked before looking back at the mirror he held.
“Gather the gear, we need to move,” I said as I reached for the damned heavy rucksack. There was no way I would let one of the others carry our few remaining supplies with what I’d just seen coming.
“What’s happening Ryan?” Georgia asked as she rose to her feet in one fluid movement. Her eyes turned up towards the hill I’d just descended and her brows knit together as realisation came.
“We’ll hav
e to put off tonight’s activities,” I said and she nodded, her hand moving to the hilt of her Hori Hori.
“Seriously man, what’s going on?” Johnny asked, a hint of fear edging his voice.
“The zombies decided to climb the damned hill,” I said simply.
****
It took far too long for the panicked people to gather their belongings and while they did, I waded across the stream, heedless of the cold water that soaked my jeans and boots, then climbed the opposite hillside.
I reached the top, panting a little from carrying the heavy weight of our supplies and turned to look back to the south.
They filled the horizon for as far as I could see. Hundreds, thousands of zombies. Moving forwards, slowly, but without pause. Like a plague of locusts, they covered the land with their darkness and I knew we’d get no rest that night.
“Damn…” I said to myself as I noted the scattered zombies that moved ahead of the others, as often on all fours as upright and with a great deal more agility than the main horde.
“You look like someone just pissed in your cornflakes,” Johnny said as he reached the top of the hill, just a little out of breath himself.
“Ferals,” I said. Just that one word but it was all that was needed to make his jaw drop as his face paled. He turned to stare back to the south and moved a step closer to me, an unconscious need to be close to someone. I held back my sneer as I stepped away.
They were distant enough that we had time to get away but, as I quickly realised, we were in the middle of a long range of hills with nowhere to take shelter or rest. Which was fine for the zombies, but for us, it meant we were in trouble.
“You know this area, right?” I said to Johnny then had to repeat myself when I saw that he wasn’t listening, just staring at the approaching mass of undead.
“Er, yeah. Why?”
“Looks like we’ll be heading north or north-east. How far to the nearest town or village?”
He thought for a moment, chewing on his lip and rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. He wasn’t really a thinker, more of an act first, think later sort of guy.
“Maybe, twenty miles or so.”
“Great,” I said with a soft sigh.
At best, we could make four or five miles a day. Not much admittedly, but laden down with our supplies and with far too little food for some time now, we had to marshal our energy. Add to that the zombies we needed to avoid, the time taken to search any car or house we came across in the hopes of finding some morsel of food or an item we could use and then needing time to find somewhere to safely spend the night… well, it meant our pace was slow.
The zombies had no such problems, which meant that despite their generally slower speed, they would catch us well before we made it across the hills. The only edge I could see that we had was that much of the journey would be up and down hills and valleys which we were better suited at. Though if the Ferals caught our scent, things would get messy.
As near as I could tell, a huge part of the horde had climbed and continued to climb, the hill. Many more would be spilling out to the east and west, following the roads. One such road, was maybe a half a mile or so to the west and moved straight north past the hills.
It would have been pointless us taking it since we’d considered that to be the most likely route the undead would take. Our only real defence lay in taking the harder routes that the zombies typically ignored and if we’d been really lucky, by the time we reached the end of the hills, the tail end of the horde would have been passing us by.
That, it seemed, was not to be. It was appearing ever more likely that we would be chased across the hills and when we finally reached the other side, find a whole host of undead moving just ahead of us. We were pretty much surrounded.
I became aware of a low litany of curses spilling from the mouth of Johnny as he stared at the horde aghast. A look on his face of unrivalled fear that was mirrored on many of my companions as they reached the top of the hill.
“Jesus…” from Nathan.
“Oh God!” said Abi.
“Holy mother of God!” Lisa said, continuing the religious theme for some bizarre reason. I’d not realised so many of my new companions had such leanings.
“We should get moving,” I said before anyone else could utter some meaningless exclamation.
Marie, the little girl in her arms, looked fearfully at the approaching horde and tightened her grip on the child, who, despite the tense atmosphere surrounding her, seemed remarkably relaxed. She smiled at me innocently and waved.
“You’re smiling?” Georgia said as she came up beside me. “Makes a change I suppose. What’s got you so happy?”
“Nothing,” I said as I recalled her words from earlier. I’d never enjoyed the idea of killing children and when I’d had to, had ensured there was little other choice. She, it seemed, had no such reservations. “Nothing at all.”
She shrugged and headed off after the rest of the group as they began their weary trek across the bleak hillside. I stayed for a moment longer, watching the zombies, trying to get a rough estimate of their numbers and how fast they were moving.
They were far enough away that I was fairly comfortable with the idea that they’d not reach us for at least another day. Perhaps longer if the terrain worsened.
My own group were currently moving away at a reasonable pace, spurred on by fear wrought adrenaline. That wouldn’t last though and all too soon they’d begin to flag as lack of food and sleep caught up with them.
Some, or all of them would die on those hills and I was quietly confident that I wouldn’t. Even if it meant sacrificing the slower members to distract the horde for that little bit of extra time, I would survive. Whether I really wanted to or not was another matter.
Chapter 5
We kept moving through the night and into the next day. Beyond weary, the worried chatter died down sometime during the darker hours of the night and the group concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as we pushed onwards.
With the arrival of the dawn and the rising of the sun, the heat immediately began to increase, banishing the cooler night air that had helped keep us alert and moving.
I waved away Johnny’s offer of help with the bag and ignored the ache in my back as I wiped at the sweat that formed on my brow. I didn’t need the morning's heat to bring that out, the heavy load was enough for that.
As we reached the crest of a hill, we paused long enough to look back the way we had come. Curses were uttered as faces paled and Abi began to quietly cry. Georgia rolled her eyes at that and I nodded agreement before I focused on the approaching horde.
For as far as the eye could see, they covered the land. Moving ever forwards. Most walking, slowly enough that I recognised them as Shamblers, some crawling, their decayed legs no longer able to support them. And at the forefront, the Ferals.
I’d once watched some old film about killer ants. It had, of course, appealed to me and I’d been rooting for the ants as they decimated the town. Watching the zombies march, reminded me of a scene from the film where the ants marched on the town. There were so many that you could no longer see the ground and just the sight of them brought a visceral fear to the townsfolk. Judging from my companions, they felt much the same as they stared at the horde.
When I searched within myself, that fear just wasn’t there. I could appreciate the awe-inspiring threat the horde posed, but my only reaction was one of eagerness. Death held no fear for me and if I were honest, I would welcome it at that moment, but I would not go easily. I would fight to the last and kill as many of them as I could at the same time.
“Are they gaining on us?” Lisa asked.
“Yeah,” Johnny said. “Think so.”
“So, we’re slower than them now?” she asked, seemingly surprised at that.
“We’ve hardly had an ideal diet for some time,” Mark said in the tone of a man who considered it his duty to educate his lessers. “Lack of adequate sus
tenance, sleep and being burdened with…”
Lisa looked over to him, a frown forming at his trailing off while the others of the group looked away uncomfortably.
“Burdened with what?” she asked but no one answered. “Guys?”
“He means with the child,” I said with a grim smile and her face fell.
The child in question, I’d not bothered to learn her name, was fast asleep in her father’s arms. She was too young to be able to keep up with us on our long walk even if we’d been able to stop. With the undead following us, the need to carry her slowed her parents and as a consequence, us.
Her parents shared a look of mixed fear and concern and I didn’t need her to explain to me why. For once, I understood. They were scared we would leave them to the zombies to save ourselves. As I looked at the faces of my new group, I was fairly certain that when the time came, the undead coming closer and the family falling farther behind, that is exactly what they’d do.
“We should get moving,” Georgia said with laughter in her eyes. She’d realised the same as I had and while the others wouldn’t admit it, even to themselves, she knew what they’d do when it came down to it.
I didn’t hesitate and was moving even before the others. While they hadn’t yet seemed to realise it, I knew that if those leading Ferals caught our scent then they’d go into a frenzy. Their pursuit would increase its pace and we would be caught. Or at least my group would be.
We descended two hundred metres down into the next valley and then up another three hundred metres to get out of it, just to repeat the same steep climb down and then up when we came to the next dip in the land.
By midday, my arms trembled and my legs were weak as I practically pulled myself up the steep slope of a hill, hands gripping hold of the thick grasses to help me make my way up. We were half-way up when Nathan lost his grip, legs giving way beneath him and the weight of the rucksack he carried overbalancing him, sending him sliding and tumbling down the hill.
“Dammit!” Mark snapped. “Someone go help him.”
“You help him!” Johnny said between gasps for air. His face was flushed, cheeks red with sweat streaming down them.
March of the Dead (Killing the Dead Book 11) Page 4
