Something crunched and a heavy weight fell against my legs, then Cole turned back to me as I felt the heat of the flames against my hand, fingers wrapping around a sturdy branch.
“Where were we?” Cole asked and once again, the crowd laughed along on cue.
I didn’t answer, just swung the burning branch up against his head. There wasn’t enough room to get a lot of force but it hard enough that the burned end burst apart, burning embers engulfing the side of his head.
He swore as he blinked rapidly and reached up to wipe them clear of his eyes then squealed as my second swing sent the jagged end that remained, into and then through his cheek, tearing a wide and ragged gash that bled profusely.
My laughter enraged him and he brushed aside my arm, pulling the branch from my hand and tossing it far from my reach.
“Fucker,” he snarled and I just laughed again as the blind zombie came into view behind him.
The roar of the crowd was enough to warn him, but not before it fell against his back, teeth seeking his flesh. He twisted, arms coming up to ward it off, releasing his hold on me. I struck in an instant.
My blade swept across his waist and he screamed in pain and terror as he looked down to see his entrails spill out over my chest. I gagged at the stench as he fell away from me, taking the zombie with him and I pushed myself away just as the dead man sank its teeth into his shoulder.
The silent crowd watched all that unfold and while some of them may have shouted warnings, none had stepped in to help. They knew the rules of the fight apparently. I wiped as much of the blood and bile from my clothes as best I could but had little luck.
“It’s to the death,” someone shouted and I looked up to see the crowd watching expectantly. At least that’s what I thought they were doing, my left eye had swollen shut and the right was a little blurry.
“Finish him!” another shouted and I waved them to silence.
With painful steps, I hobbled over to where the zombie was feasting and to my surprise, found that Cole was still alive and conscious. His eyes met mine as he struggled and I gave a short nod of respect. He was a tough bastard that was for sure.
The zombie died with a single blow from my knife. So intent on its feast that it didn’t even notice me. Not that it could have seen my approach anyway and the piteous sounds coming from Cole masked my approach.
“P-please…” was all Cole said before I stabbed my blade down through his eye. I was in no mood for him to come back as a zombie for me to kill a second time.
Once again though, that powerful surge of almost pure joy swept through me as he died. The world around me, so dark and dull, full of pain and misery, brightened a little. The colours sharper, the sounds clearer and a shiver ran through me.
I turned to the crowd and found a sea of hostile faces looking back at me. I gave them my best grin.
Chapter 19
“What’re your orders boss man?” a moustachioed man who looked like he’s stepped out of a seventies porno, asked.
“Gather your stuff,” I said as I wiped off my knife on the dead man’s jeans. “And get me a change of clothes.”
“What about those?” the same man asked and I frowned in his general direction before I followed his gaze.
The woman had been thrown back to sit with the other captives when I’d walked up and aside from a bruise on her cheek and some torn clothing, she appeared unharmed. The other woman hadn’t moved from where she’d been left and all of them looked terrified.
“Leave them to me,” I said with a sigh. “Get ready to move out.”
My legs felt like lead weights had been attached and every step was fresh agony from my knee, but I kept my back straight and head high as I pushed through the crowd. Weakness would get me killed then and there.
A sharp scream sounded behind me and I didn’t bother to turn as I heard Georgia say, “keep your hands where I can see them.”
She had my back then, that was something. I’d likely have to pay a price for that but just then, I didn’t care. A couple of days, that was all I needed from her. Then it would all be over.
I knelt down beside the naked woman, her eyes staring sightlessly up at the blue sky and I contented myself that it would at least be a release for the horror she had suffered. I pulled free my knife and the other captives pulled away from me, pushing back into the corner where they’d been dumped.
As the naked girl died, I felt an emptiness that confused me. Where was the joy? The adrenaline rush or the rising excitement? There was nothing, just a void and I stared down at her unseeing eyes and wondered why.
“You gonna kill the rest?” Georgia asked from behind me, shaking me from my reverie.
“Huh?”
“You’re just staring at that one. You want me to do the others?”
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “Go make sure everyone gets ready. I want to leave as soon as possible.”
Her footsteps receded as she walked away to do my bidding with a surprising lack of complaint and I turned my attention to the captives.
“What’s your name?” I asked the girl. She stared at me with defiance as she answered.
“Megan.”
“You came from Lou’s place?” Confusion clouded her features as she nodded and it was clear, even to my dull comprehension, that she was wondering how I knew him. “You want to live?”
“Yes.”
She was brave. Eyes bright, their fire undimmed by the darkness she had witnessed. Her hair was a muddy blonde, that hung lank around her face and I guessed that she was perhaps sixteen at most.
“I did her a favour,” I said with a nod to the girl. “They’d been too rough and something inside of her broke. She wouldn’t have recovered.”
“You murdered her!”
“Yes. No doubt a blessing compared to what she had faced already,” I said. “You can live though.”
“How? By joining you and being your fuck-toy?”
“No,” I said, a small smile on my lips. She reminded me so very much of her. That same defiant spirit.
“Then what do you want?”
“To redeem myself,” I said, the raw truth of those words surprising even me. “To make myself worthy of someone I care very much about.” Before the end.
She seemed confused and the men with her, those other scared captives that had no doubt led boring and violence-free lives before the fall of the world, they watched me warily like one would a rabid dog.
“Go to Lou,” I said as I reached for her bound hands. She flinched away and I gestured impatiently until she slowly reached out her arms. “Tell him I will be bringing him some help.”
My knife cut through the thin rope bonds with little effort. Something I was deeply thankful for as I had little energy left to spare.
“He won’t want these fuckers!” she snapped. “Not after I tell him what they did. What you did to Elise.”
I held back my smile and nodded solemnly as I gestured for the first of the men to hold out his hands. When she got back, when she saw what they faced, she would understand.
“Do as I bid,” I said as I cut the bonds of the second male captive. He glanced behind me and I looked back to see Kareem standing there, club in hand as he watched over me protectively.
“Or what?”
“When we arrive,” I said as I released the final man. “One of two things will happen.”
I settled back on my heels and looked at her directly.
“One. We will be met with resistance. Since Lou is already fighting an undead horde that is larger than any I’ve seen so far, we will overrun your forces easily and take what we can before the zombies break in.”
“What’s the other option?” she asked as I paused and I did smile at her defiant tone.
“Two. We are met cordially and we will join in the defence of your home. Harming no one and taking nothing that we are not freely given. At the end of the fight, when your place is safe, we will be paid in food and water then leav
e.”
She looked sceptical but nodded, her lips pressed tightly together as though to stop her from saying something that she knew would get her killed.
“We’ll be there tomorrow sometime,” I said. “Go now and prepare him for our arrival.”
The captives rose to their feet and climbed the wall behind them, not trusting me enough that they would risk the walk through the courtyard to the gate. After the behaviour I’d seen from the raiders, I could understand why.
As the last one reached the top of the wall and set off running without a backwards glance, Kareem spoke.
“That really what we’re gonna do? Risk ourselves for some food?”
“No,” I said with a smile that he seemed to take as reassuring. “We’re going to kill all the zombies then take over the fortress and keep it all for ourselves. Go and tell the others that.”
With a happy nod, he turned and jogged back across the courtyard to spread the word. I kept my smile in place as I watched him go and wondered, of the two, Kareem and the girl, which I’d actually lied to.
“Hey yoo!” a thickly accented voice called out, breaking into my thoughts most annoyingly.
I glanced round to see a heavy-set fellow with a goatee and shaven head approaching. He walked with a swagger and while I suspected he was half-cut, I was in no mood or shape to take him on.
“Yes?” I asked politely.
“Wa shood ye leid us?” he asked and it took me a moment to realise he asked why should I lead them.
“The rules were clear, I won, I lead.”
“Well, let’s barnie en’,” he said and I held back a sigh.
It was, of course, understandable that I would have some challenge to my leadership. After all, what self-respecting wasteland raider would willingly submit to any old fellow that came along. Especially an Englishman, of all things.
The problem was that I had no time to waste on taking care of such matters. I stood upright and wiped my hands on my jeans. It didn’t help with the tacky blood that still coated them or the absolutely horrendous stench that covered me.
I raised my voice to be heard over the hubbub, though I didn’t need to get their attention. Nearly all of them were watching to see how I responded to the challenge.
“Georgia is my second in command. Kill her and then I’ll fight you.”
Thirty odd sets of eyes turned towards her and she shot a glare my way. I knew she preferred to keep her real self hidden since it made it much easier to kill people when they didn’t suspect you could do such a thing. But it solved a couple of issues for me.
It stopped people bothering me and used up any spare energy she had, which would in turn, stop her from bothering me.
“Fine,” she snapped. “Make it quick.”
“I’ll no fight a wee lassie,” the man said.
“Just don’t kill him,” I told her as I ignored him. “Wound only.”
“You take all the fun out of things,” she said as she stalked towards him.
He looked from me to her and raised his weapon, a wooden club that had once been a cricket bat but was now studded with bent nails. I was sure it would hurt if it connected.
She moved with a speed that surprised him, drawing her Hori Hori and severing three of the fingers on his hand that held the bat. He yelled his outrage and swung a meaty fist at her head. She, in turn, ducked that swing, pirouetted like a professional dancer and cheerfully hamstrung him.
The big man dropped to the ground with blood gushing from his ankles and the stumps where his fingers had been. The fight had lasted all of five seconds and I couldn’t help but admire her skill. She should have fought Cole and saved me a beating.
“Anyone else?” she asked but no one would meet her eyes let alone challenge her.
“Good job,” I said as I approached slowly. She didn’t glance round but nodded acknowledgement.
“Easy enough I suppose. What do you want to do with him?”
I didn’t answer but knelt down beside him. I wanted to test a theory I had. I hammered my knife into the back of his skull and he fell silent as I shivered at the small rush of pleasure. A sigh escaped me.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Nothing at all.”
But there was something wrong. My time with her and the others. My time following her damned rules and that promise I’d kept for so long. It had changed me.
The people I’d killed. Mark, Lisa and the others. I’d felt nothing at their deaths, much as I’d felt nothing when I’d killed my brother or the others back at the Sanctuary. I couldn’t feel anything because I’d known they weren’t really at fault. I’d known they hadn’t fitted into the ‘not innocent’ category.
She’d changed me. I’d become so used to killing for a purpose. No, not even that. To killing for her purpose. I’d become so used to it that I couldn’t truly find any joy in the senseless slaughter of innocents anymore.
I, the unchangeable serial killer. The man with no friends, no loved ones and no reason to care for anyone, had changed. The old me was gone and the new me was… different.
There was still no guilt. I didn’t care that I’d killed those people. Didn’t care that I’d killed my brother. But at the same time, I hadn’t enjoyed it. The only killings I would enjoy, it seemed, would be the deaths of those who wouldn’t be considered innocent or perhaps if I killed to protect others.
“Well that’s bloody depressing,” I said to myself. No wonder I’d been so moody of late.
That realisation just meant that I was right. My course was set and my time was done. I had burned all my bridges with my friends and family. There was no going back and nothing for me in the future. I had one last thing I could do. One last death that I could truly enjoy. After all, if I could only enjoy the deaths of killers and I was the greatest killer of them all… then my death would be a blast.
Chapter 20
Since I needed some time to rest, eat and replenish my energies as well as heal a little, we settled into a primary school not too far from the edge of town.
It had the advantage of being spacious enough to keep all of my new group in one place so that I could watch them and ensure they kept out of trouble. While at the same time, we could climb up to the roof and have a reasonably unobstructed view to the Fortress.
I left Georgia in charge of settling everyone in, which wasn’t too hard for her. After her little show with the man back at the compound, there were very few who were willing to say anything out of line to her.
Admittedly, once they sobered up and thought about the fact that there were a great many more of them than us, that might change but I was sure it would be a few days at least before any serious challenge came, and that was more than enough time for me.
Kareem, a pleasant and pliable young fellow without Amos’s influence, brought up a moulded plastic chair for me to sit on and then left to find me some food. So long as he stayed silent and did whatever I asked, we’d get on fine.
“Here,” Georgia said from somewhere behind me.
I glanced back at her and after a moment’s hesitation accepted the bottle she held. The seal was intact so I reasoned it was safe to drink.
“Better than paracetamol,” she said with a nod towards the bottle of cheap whisky she’d given me.
“Well, since we have no paracetamol, it’ll have to do,” I agreed.
The beating I had taken had left me with ample bruises and swelling. While my tongue had finally stopped bleeding, it hurt like hell and I still couldn’t see out of my left eye. Every step I took was agony and my left knee, which had been kicked by Cole, had swollen grotesquely.
“Share,” she said as I took the first swig and with just the tiniest hesitation, I passed the bottle to her.
She grinned, knowing why I’d been hesitant and said, “don’t worry. All my poisons are gone now.”
“Forgive me for not taking your word on that.”
Her laughter seemed genuine and I w
as fairly sure she wouldn’t be trying to kill me just yet. However, I’d seen how easily she’d dealt with the last fellow and I had no misconceptions about my ability to do much of anything just then. I considered it prudent to keep on her good side.
“Smoke’s dying down,” she said and I nodded.
“I noticed.”
The smoke had been rising for most of the day. Thick, black and oily, it rose high into the sky with only a slight breeze to shift its direction. From my vantage point, I could see that it came from just beyond the southern wall of the fortress.
“Fairly sure they’re burning the undead.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Makes sense.”
It certainly did considering the numbers they were facing. Another advantage of my position on the school’s roof was that I had a fairly clear view of the surrounding area. It was not a great sight.
The hill we had walked down just the day before was hidden beneath a mass of undead. They moved slowly, the ones at the back pushing forward against those at the front. When they reached the swift flowing, wide and no doubt deep river, they split. Some to the west and away from us, but many more to the east to follow the road directly to the fortress.
More than that, they had spilt out over the scrubland and found the motorway beyond. Which, considering that too was full of the undead, had just swelled their numbers. It was safe to say that there was no way South through that mass of rotting flesh and as far as I could tell, their numbers stretched east to west for miles.
“There’s rumblings down there,” Georgia said as she took another swallow of the whisky and then passed the bottle back to me.
“What rumblings?”
“Some of them aren’t stupid. They know what’s coming this way and they want to run.”
“If any try, kill them.”
“Easy for you to say,” she replied testily. “We’ve herded them into the assembly hall and dished out all the booze we could find. Only two exits, so we’re covered there but we’ll need to sleep and can’t watch them all night. Some will run.”
March of the Dead (Killing the Dead Book 11) Page 15
