The boat was moving along at a reasonable pace and the lake itself was empty of the usual boats that would have filled it before the end of the world. Through the trees that filled the eastern edge of the lake I could see holiday cottages and docks all seemingly devoid of boats.
“Where are all the pleasure craft?” I mused quietly and was surprised when Matthew answered.
“Most of the people would have taken them in for the winter. If this had happened in summer the lake would still be full of them.” He said and I nodded once to show I had heard.
Towards the north the southernmost part of the town of Windermere could be seen in the form of a ferry port and general marina. Just beyond them a large island sat in the centre of the lake. A quick glance to the opposite side of the lake revealed the twin ferry terminal and I filed its location away as somewhere worth investigating.
For the first time I could see boats in the water with people sat in them as they fished. The marina docks behind them had figures moving with the purposeful gait of the living rather than the stumbling aimlessness of the dead.
“There’s still people there.” Lily said happily and a low murmur rose behind us as her words were overheard.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I cautioned. “They weren’t exactly willing to offer much help before.”
“They can’t turn us away now though.” Lily said with confidence that I didn’t share. “We have a boat load of hungry refugees and a good number of them are children.”
I shrugged and kept watch on the boats as we came abreast of them. The men and women who were fishing did their best to ignore us with only the occasional dark glance thrown our way when we passed too close.
Matthew cut the power on the engine and let the boat glide silently towards the dock. He seemed to know what he was doing and I thought that we would avoid crashing into the wooden dock supports at least. While we moved slowly forward I inspected the marina.
A narrow strip of land that jutted out into the lake was just wide enough for a couple of lanes of traffic and ended with the ferry terminal. The rest of the marina was made up of a series of connected wharfs with several piers that stuck out over the water.
Several shops filled the waterfront area and it was plain to see that some form of looting had taken place. Few of the windows were unbroken and several doors had been ripped from their hinges. Loose scraps of paper and general refuse were blowing around the feet of the small group of soldiers who stood wearily on the timber planks, their guns held firmly before them as they watched our approach.
Our boat glided to a stop several feet short of the closest pier and with a sigh Matthew climbed from the driver’s seat and pushed open the hatch, letting in a strong gust of freezing wind that made our already wet and cold clothing even colder.
The soldiers marched down the pier their gazes wary and alert. They stopped at the end of the pier and the leader called out to us, “What do you want?”
“Our camp was attacked” Matthew called back, “We barely escaped and have no food or supplies. We could use some help.”
“We have nothing to share.” The lead soldier called. He was unshaven and looked exhausted.
“You must have something? We have children here.”
“We have children here too and can barely feed them.”
“How is that possible?” Matthew called, “You have the entire town to draw on.”
“Most of the town is full of the undead. We hold a small part of the southern end and are barely holding back the zombies.” The soldier said with a grimace. “Especially these last few days, we seem to have had an almost non-stop torrent of them from further south.”
I glanced back at Pat who looked away as he no doubt remembered the large groups he had directed north towards the town to divert them from us. I grinned as I remembered the first time I had done the same and the small pleasure of watching the soldiers cut them down.
“Where the hell do you expect us to go?” Matthew yelled with growing anger.
“I’m sorry, I really am but we just haven’t the resources.” He said with a look to his companions, “we have orders to let no one else into the secure area.”
“I want to speak to whoever’s in charge.” Matthew demanded and started to pull himself through the hatch.
“Sir you have to stop.” The soldier said in alarm, “We will shoot.”
“Stop him” Lily hissed as she stepped forward and reached out to grasp the back of Matthew’s jacket.
I had a momentary glimpse of the soldiers raising their weapons and the immediate realisation that if they fired I could possibly be hit and Lily, in her attempt to pull Matthew back, would almost certainly be hit as she was just by the open hatchway. With a snarl I reached for him myself.
The soldiers had their weapons raised as I took a firm hold of Matthew and helped Lily pull him back into the cabin. Pat had pushed forward and also helped hold him back as Lily took his place at the hatch with her arms raised.
“We won’t try and leave, don’t shoot.” she called, and I saw the leader wave an arm at his troops before lowering his own weapon.
“I can’t help you. I’m sorry.” The leader said with what seemed to be sincerity.
“It’s ok, I understand.” Lily said as she lowered her arms, “Can you at least tell us what things are like further north? We haven’t been this far before now.”
“We haven’t been out of the town for a while now.” The soldier said, “There’s a town at the top end of the lake and last I heard it was overrun completely. Some hotels and holiday places along the shoreline all the way there but we stripped them weeks ago when we could still get out of the town.”
“What about that island?” Lily asked with a gesture towards the centre of the lake.
“Don’t forget the other side of the lake.” I said quietly for Lily alone and she nodded and asked the soldier.
“Don’t go to the island.” The soldier said with a dark look and muttering rose from his companions. “Some of our lads deserted and made it over there. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”
“What about the other side of the lake?” Lily asked her tone unchanged even though I could tell she was disappointed.
“We haven’t been across. The few boats we have are being used for fishing constantly just to feed everyone and to be honest we can’t drive around to that side because of the damn zombies. So your guess is as good as mine.”
Lily nodded and said farewell before pulling shut the hatch. The soldiers didn’t move away and kept their hands on their guns.
“What now?” Matthew asked with the flush of anger still evidenced on his cheeks.
“We need to move away from the docks at least. Those soldiers could decide to just shoot if we linger too long.”
“But where do we go?” Matthew asked.
“Head across to the ferry terminal at the other side of the lake,” I suggested after a moment’s thought. “We can dock there and if it’s safe, we can take a bit of time to assess our situation.”
Matthew climbed back into the driver’s seat and soon had the boat moving. I stayed close to Lily and watched the soldiers. I had no intention of letting her be hurt if they decided to start shooting.
“We need to find out what weapons we have here.” Lily said to Pat who nodded and called Gregg over to help as he moved through the cabin, asking people what they had brought with them.
“Anything I can do?” Cass asked as she joined us.
“Keep an eye on Howard please.” Lily said, “We know you’re immune so if he does turn, you have the least risk of being infected by him.”
“Sure thing, it’ll still hurt if he bites me though... just so you know.” Cass said with a laugh before she headed towards the back of the boat.
“No instructions for me?” I asked as Lily turned back to stare out of the window.
“Oh I think you know what to do anyway.” She said,
“Besides you will need to be ready to go ashore. Someone needs to check out the ferry place.”
“Happy to help with that,” I said with a smile as my hand touched the knife at my belt. It wouldn’t be the type of kill I craved but any kill would improve my mood.
I couldn’t help but imagine what fun I would be able to have if we could find a secure place to stay. Perhaps I could even take the time to set up a proper kill. With a smile that I didn’t try to hide I watched out of the window as the boat moved through the dark waters of the lake towards what I hoped would be an entertaining distraction if nothing else.
Chapter 3
The ferry terminal sat on a piece of raised island that was approximately sixty metres in width and connected to the main shore by a narrow strip of earth wide enough to just about hold a two lane road that curved to the north, creating a small bay.
A large building of grey stone sat at the end of the island and was surrounded by what would have been well tended gardens and trees that had shed their leaves for the winter.
It didn’t have the usual type of dock, instead the road just ended rather abruptly at the water’s edge. From what I had seen of ferries in the past, I imagined that the ferry would back up to the edge of the road to allow the cars to drive straight onboard. This didn’t help us.
With little land to spare the road curved around the strip of land right at the water’s edge with just a low iron rail between it and the water. With a little trial and error Matthew was able to manoeuvre the boat close enough to the roadway to allow Gregg and me to leap across to the road and secure the boat to the railing.
Lily, Pat and Matthew soon joined us along with two of the refugees who no doubt had names, but I didn’t know or care to ask what they were. We stood in a small cluster as we surveyed the scene before us.
The ferry house was huge, much bigger than I had imagined. One of the men with us – introduced as Andrew – mentioned that it was once a Victorian era hotel that had since been converted into apartments. The gardens sloped gently down towards the road on the side we were on and the water’s edge on the opposite side.
I could see two dozen windows just from where we stood and the thought of going through the whole place with just a knife or two was daunting yet incredibly exciting too. I could see little movement and the only sound was that of the wind as it blew a light spattering of rain around us.
“We could find plenty of things in there to help us.” Pat said quietly beside me.
“It could also be full of zombies mate.” Gregg said with a wide smile that showed an impressive amount of white teeth. “I reckon we let you go first.”
“You wish.” Pat muttered.
“We all go together but first we need some weapons.” Lily said firmly.
“There’s an office and storage shed just around the side of the building for the ferry.” Andrew said, “We could find something useful there.”
“Ok, let’s go and have a look. I’ll tell Cass what we’re doing.” Lily said.
“Tell Rachel to get her backside out here and help too.” Gregg called after her as she headed to the hatch.
A quick glance at my companions saw them clustered together talking quietly as they waited for Lily to return. No one seemed to be paying much attention to me as I stood quietly at the edge of the group and as I moved away, no one called out.
I was almost at the front door before I heard the slap of feet hitting the paved pathway behind me. I turned as an irritated Lily reached me with Gregg and Pat close behind.
“What the hell are you doing?” She said through clenched teeth.
“I’m going to have a look inside.” I replied calmly.
“You can’t go in there alone.”
“I see no reason why not.” I said, “I have my knife.”
“Come on mate, it’s not safe to go in alone.” Gregg said and Pat nodded his agreement.
I gave a questioning look to Lily and allowed a slight smile to form on my lips. She swore loudly and turned to the others.
“Take everyone to the storage shed and office, see what you can find and then come back here.” She instructed, “We’ll leave the doors open on any rooms we clear.”
“You sure?” Gregg asked
“Yeah, he’s going to go in either way so I may as well go and keep an eye on him.”
“We’ll be quick.” Pat said, “You two be careful.”
“We will, I’ll make sure of it.” Lily said as Gregg and Pat jogged back to the others.
I waited until they were out of earshot before speaking quietly to Lily. “You don’t need to come in with me.”
“It seems like the best way to keep you from getting yourself killed.”
“Lily, I need to do this. It might be better if I did it alone.” I tried to stress the need of it.
“Even with all the deaths yesterday?” she asked with a frown forming on her brow.
“Yes, even with them. It’s hard to explain but I need this release right now.” I told her, “If I don’t get it out of my system then I could be in danger of breaking my promise to you.”
That seemed to stun her and she stood quietly lost in thought for several long minutes. I knew that she would be working through what I had said in her mind. She would no doubt be remembering our past conversations about my desire for killing and deciding on whether or not I was becoming a threat to her group.
“Why now?” She asked finally. “Why the sudden need? You killed at least two people yesterday I’m guessing and god knows how many zombies.”
“I honestly don’t know. Back before this all began I could sometimes go weeks or months without needing to do this and other times it would be days.” I said and paused a moment as I tried to put my thoughts in some kind of coherent sentence that would make sense to her.
“The need I have is different. This killing of the zombies can be a great deal of fun but it doesn’t come close to the pleasure that part of me craves. It is the same with the violent life or death kills. They are necessary and I can find a large amount of joy from them but those kills are like a match beside a furnace.”
I finished and dared to glance at her. She was looking concerned and that was not a good sign.
“When I made that promise to you, I meant it. I still mean it and if this reaches a point where I feel that the promise will be broken then I will leave.”
“Were you hoping to find some live people in there?” She asked with a gesture at the building we stood beside.
“Not really, I was just hoping for something that I could kill. A fresh surge of violence that would clear my head and maybe push back that need a little bit.”
I expected her face to turn away with disgust or a demand for me to leave immediately. Instead she surprised me by reaching our and taking my hand in hers. It was cold and bore fresh marks from the harsh life we had been living.
“You were alone before.” She said, “I won’t abandon you because of this. We can figure it out. Just be honest with me.”
“Of course.” I said with surprise.
“Then let’s see what’s in this place.” She said with a smile.
I nodded and reluctantly let go of her hand before pulling my combat knife from its sheath. Lily had no weapon to hand and I decided that the first thing to do would be to find her something suitable, though I suspected she had already planned on doing that.
With a smile that I didn’t feel the need to hide I reached out and pushed on the front door. It swung open soundlessly and I heard Lily gasp beside me.
Chapter 4
The front door opened into a foyer. The large open space had a double staircase at the far end that led up to the next floor and four doors, two in either side of the foyer that led into individual apartments.
The hardwood floors were varnished and polished and had been well cared for. Paintings hung on the wall and potted plants provided some much needed greenery against the white paint
ed walls. A brightly coloured rug lay in the centre of the floor and dark crimson blood seemed to cover everything.
I stepped into the foyer, my knife held ready before me. I was careful to avoid touching the bloody smears that ran along the walls but had little choice about walking across the blood covered floor.
“What the hell happened?” Lily asked in a whisper.
“Looks like someone had a feast.” I said with a nod of the head towards a few scattered bones that seemed to have been brushed to one side of the foyer.
“What would do that?” Lily asked, “The zombies bite but don’t eat all of the flesh.”
“The ones we’ve seen didn’t, but that’s because they were always trying to bite every damn person around.” I said, “Perhaps this is what happens when they are stuck in a room with no one else to bite?”
“So what do we do?”
“Leave the doors that are closed for now and let’s check out the open ones.” I said and moved carefully across the floor towards the one open door of the four on the ground floor.
The doorway opened onto a short hallway that had a closed door and a sharp turn to the right at one end. A door directly opposite was open and looked to lead into a living room which suggested that the hallway led towards the bedrooms.
Whoever had lived in the apartment had chosen a cream carpet for the hallway and living room. It hadn’t been the best choice considering the bloody footprints that led across it. I followed the footprints and cautiously poked my head into the living room.
A tiny kitchen was off to the left and a solid wood dining table with four chairs of the same wood were opposite. A two seater sofa and two armchairs all in some white fabric were at the opposite end of the room and a large double window was set into the far wall. Standing before the window was a blood spattered zombie.
It looked to be in reasonable condition. The pyjamas it wore were soiled and covered quite liberally in blood. Tufts of white hair stood up on the creatures head leaving a bald crown, and a black stain led from its mouth and down the pyjama jacket. It watched me as I walked slowly around the table, head cocked to one side as though trying to decide what to do.
Killing the Dead (Books 4-6) Page 2
