When all was said and done though it came down to a rather simple choice and one that involved emotions I wasn’t in any way familiar with. Did I want to stay with Lily or not.
“Fine but if we are threatened I will act as I need to.” I said with poor grace.
“Good to know.” Lily said with no trace of triumph or gloating in her voice, either of which would have enraged me in my current mood. “We don’t have any real food we can take with us, but we can get a bite to eat before we leave so get yourself ready and I’ll meet you by the barbecue.”
I heard her walk across the soft carpet and then the apartment door opened and closed with a soft thud. I couldn’t help but be annoyed with myself for giving in and agreeing to let her go with me.
When we had first met, she had been a means to an end, a useful tool to help keep me alive amidst the chaos of the apocalypse. Somewhere along the way, that had changed. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it had, but it had.
Lily was worthy of my admiration, I could at least admit that. She was resourceful and intelligent. She could keep herself alive and keep her head during the worst of the end times. Of course she had some bad points too.
She was too willing to help everybody she came across. She seemed to care about people and while starting to lose her hesitance over killing the undead I doubted she would be quite ready to kill a living person and when she did finally have to do that... she would likely be emotional and weepy and I really wasn’t sure I could cope with more of that. Even though I knew I would try.
Somewhere in and amongst the good and bad, I had decided that I cared about her. I hadn’t even considered her as one of my potential victims and I wasn’t repulsed by her touch the way I was with anyone else.
I shook my head as though to banish the thoughts that were crowding my thinking and pushed the covers away from myself. The burst of cold hitting me was incentive to start moving and stop thinking for the moment.
It took surprisingly little time for me to gather my few belongings and use the bathroom facilities to relieve myself. With nothing to do to put it off any longer, I headed out of the apartment and down the stairs.
By the time I was at the back door to the building I could clearly hear movement and voices from the apartments around me as people were stirring. I pulled open the door with one hand while my other was on my knife. If nothing else it paid to be cautious in the end times.
The temperature had plummeted during the night and a frosting of white covered the lawn. The sky was mercifully clear of clouds and I took that to be a sign that I would avoid being drenched during my explorations. Half a dozen dark shapes were gathered around the barbecue and I strolled over to join them.
“Hey Ryan.” Julie said with a wide smile that exposed her teeth.
“Hey.”
“Cold out this morning, you want some breakfast?” She asked eagerly and I shook my head.
“No thanks. I just want to get going.”
“Where you going?” she asked and I resisted the urge to snap at her.
“Just taking a look around the area.”
“By yourself?” Julie asked with a look of surprise that I could just about see in the reflected light from the barbecue.
“No.” I said curtly before pushing past her.
I knew I was being rude but I had no desire to spend the morning talking. I pushed past the other people and tapped Lily on the shoulder. She looked up from the conversation she was having with Matthew and frowned.
“Time to go.” I said.
“What about breakfast?”
“Stay for that if you want, I am heading out now.”
“Ok, hold on then.” She said with a roll of the eyes that she probably thought I wouldn’t be able to see.
She turned back to Matthew and said a few more quiet words before turning and taking hold of my arm before gently steering me away from the group.
“You’re really going to deny me breakfast and head out into possible zombie infested lands during the dark?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“Oh dear,” she said and I could swear I heard amusement in her tone but away from the light of the barbecue I couldn’t see clearly enough to tell for sure. “You really are in a mood aren’t you?” She said and this time did let out a laugh.
“Do you have a weapon?” I asked annoyed at her good humour.
“The meat tenderizer but that’s all.” she said and raised it in her hand as though to prove its existence. “One of the things I would like to find is weapons.”
I grunted rather than reply and she lapsed into silence as we walked along the road away from the lake.
The converted apartments were soon lost in the darkness and we walked along the quiet road, the only sound our footsteps on the tarmac.
“Which way?” Lily asked as we approached the junction where our road met the main road that ran from north to south alongside the lake.
“South,” I said without hesitation. “North is that town the soldiers mentioned, full of the undead.”
Lily nodded and linked her arm with mine as we started walking along the main road. I was too startled by the causal way she did it to complain or pull away.
As the sun slowly rose above the horizon I gained a clear view of the countryside around us and realised how foolish I had been by wandering around in the dark.
On the left hand side of the road was a low stone wall that was the only thing preventing us stepping off of the road into the water. On the opposite side of the road, the land rose sharply.
Dark grey rock topped with a greenish brown moss rose above us before tapering off with scraggly yellow grass and trees bereft of leaves.
All along the lake the ground rose and fell, covered in the same yellowing grass and fallen leaves. Further along the trees changed to evergreens presenting a barrier that restricted our view.
After ten minutes of walking we found a car park beside the road. It was a relatively flat space surrounded by trees and several signposted trails led off between the trees and bushes and into the hills. Loose gravel covered the ground, darkened by the rain of the night before. A single car was the only occupant.
“Let’s check it out.” Lily said eagerly and I nodded agreement while keeping a watchful eye for anyone living or dead who may try to ambush us.
Lily showed caution as she approached the car, her weapon held ready and she appeared alert for danger. I followed along my knife in my hand.
“It looks to have been here a while.” She said with a gesture to the leaves and dirt that covered the bonnet and roof of the car.
“You think it will work?” I asked.
“No idea,” she said as she pulled on the door handle. “Doors are locked and I can’t see the keys so I bet it was left by someone who came out here to walk their dogs.”
“You think?”
“Either that or just some rambler. Whoever it was, they didn’t return so something must have happened to them.”
“Well since I very much doubt we will be bothered by the police I suggest we smash a window and find out.” I said.
“Sounds like a plan to me.” She said as she turned her face away from the car and swung the meat tenderizer at the passenger side window.
The sound of glass shattering echoed from the hills and seemed far too loud for comfort and I kept a wary eye out for any potential threats as Lily did her thing with the car.
“How’s it going?” I asked after several minutes of low cursing from within the car.
“I think the batteries dead.” She said.
“Well the car would have been useful but we can always come back for it later if we find another car that does work.” I pointed out, “Have a look and see if there’s anything useful and let’s be on our way.”
“Found a torch in the glove compartment,” she said as she climbed out of the car and joined me. She had a small mag-lite torch in her hand and clicked the po
wer button a couple of times to check it would work. Satisfied that the torch worked she slipped it into her jacket pocket and pouted.
“Not the best start to our search.” She said and I had to agree.
“Let’s keep going then.” I said and set off walking along the road again.
Lily linked her arm in mine once again and we walked in companionable silence. The morning air was still and crisp while the sky seemed determined to remain cloud free. It would have been easy to imagine that we were just taking a morning walk before the apocalypse began.
“Shouldn’t we have seen some undead by now?” I asked Lily.
“Maybe the worst of them are stuck on the other side of the lake.” She replied, “Too stupid to realise that they have to walk around.”
“Perhaps.” I said, though I was unconvinced.
The road veered away from the lakeshore and we were soon walking along the road with hills on either side of the road though that soon gave way to open fields bordered with moss covered walls of stone.
“I can see a house.” Lily said excitedly and pointed ahead.
“What do you think, Farmhouse?”
“Possibly, but could be just a house.” Lily said. “One way to find out. Come on.”
She set off at a jog and glanced back over her shoulder and laughed at my expression before speeding up.
I had no idea where she managed to find the energy to run but I found myself setting off after her. I couldn’t match her speed and she was soon far ahead of me and I cursed and tried to increase my own speed.
Pumping my arms and breathing heavily I arrived at a gate set into the wall to find a grinning Lily waiting, leant against the fence and seemingly unaffected by the run.
“That was foolish.” I said between pants. My face felt warm and flushed from the exertion.
“I know, but you needed to get a bit of exercise.” She said with a laugh. “Clear the cobwebs a bit.”
“So what do we have?” I asked with a shake of my head at her foolishness.
“We were both wrong, it’s a bed and breakfast.” Lily said with a tilt of her head towards a sign beside the gate that read ‘Jane’s Bed and Breakfast’ in large black font on a white background.
“Let’s see if anyone’s home then.” I said with less huffing and puffing as I slowly regained my breath.
The bed and breakfast had a still green lawn covered with a light frost and a flower bed at opposite sides. A path made to look like stepping stones led across the lawn and up three steps to a terrace that held a wooden bench and a canopied swinging seat.
“If we can get a van or truck we should take those,” I said and pointed to the furniture. “I’m sure we can find a use for them. Heck, we should take everything that isn’t nailed down as it will all be useful for us.”
“Yeah I know it’s a hell of an adjustment to make though.” Lily said.
A second terrace raised above the first and set to one side of the house was covered in loose gravel and obviously used for car parking. A silver car of some make I couldn’t identify was parked before the garage.
The building itself had two floors with a pointed roof that was comprised of stone tiles, which would no doubt have been hideously expensive when the building was built. The window frames and fake Tudor trim were painted a garish red.
“We should knock first.” Lily said as we approached the front door.
“I suppose so.” I said, “If no one’s living in there though we should check the car first.”
“Yeah it would be nice to be able to drive for a bit.” She said with a smile.
Lily raised her arm and rapped on the door once which caused it to swing open silently. I glanced at her in surprise and pulled my knife free of its sheath. I gestured Lily to stay behind me as I stepped over the threshold.
Chapter 8
It didn’t take long to find the bodies. They lay on the sitting room floor, a portly male lay on his back with sightless eyes staring at the ceiling. An older man and what I presumed to be his wife were sat on a sofa. She was slumped against his thin frame. Each of them had at least one bullet hole in their body.
“What the hell happened here?” Lily asked in a shocked whisper as she covered her nose and mouth against the stench of death that filled the building.
“I could guess,” I said equally quietly. I was fairly certain we wouldn’t find anyone alive or undead but it paid to be cautious. “Let’s clear the house. Stay close.”
We moved through the ground floor room by room to be confronted with the same scene throughout. Overturned furniture with cupboards and drawers pulled open, their contents dropped to the floorboards. Someone had thoroughly looted the place and it would seem, killed the occupants.
I stopped Lily before she entered the attached garage and quietly closed the door before she could see inside. She gave me a quizzical look and I shook my head to indicate that she didn’t want to see what was behind the door and her face fell.
“It should be safe down here. Do you want to stay while I check upstairs?” I asked and she shook her head no.
“We stick together.”
“Follow me then.” I said and led the way through the house towards the stairs. Lily looked once at the closed door before following.
The second floor of the building contained just five rooms, each with a small en-suite bathroom. They were all empty but whoever had looted the place had left most of the clothing, blankets and toiletries.
I found a blue holdall in one of the rooms and together, without feeling the need to speak, gathered up anything we felt our own group could use.
“Check the car and if it works we can take the blankets and head back to the apartments.” I said, “It would probably be a good idea to warn them about this.”
“Sure.” Lily said, subdued.
We left the house without another word and I set the holdall down beside the car as Lily broke through the window. We hadn’t found any car keys as we searched the building and it wasn’t worth checking the garage.
The car’s engine roared to life thanks to whatever magic Lily worked to hotwire it and I put the holdall in the back seat before heading back inside to gather whatever blankets I could. By the time we had most of the blankets into the car it was full so we decided that we would come back for the clothing later.
“If someone looted this place, why leave the car?” Lily asked as I sat in the passenger seat beside her.
“They probably had their own car and didn’t need this one.” I suggested, “Perhaps they left it here so they would know where to find a working vehicle if they needed one.”
“I suppose.” She said as she put the car in gear and reversed out of the driveway.
We drove back towards the group slowly and mostly silent. It was a short journey but I was bored and irritable anyway so I spent the journey fiddling with the car radio in the hopes that it would pick up some kind of signal. I had no luck.
Lily brought the car to a stop on the road beside the apartments and climbed out of the car.
“Wait here a minute.” She said before dashing across the garden towards the few people who had noticed our arrival and come out of the front door to see who we were.
As I watched the people mill around, I reminded myself to speak to Lily about getting everyone organised with a roadblock and sentries so people couldn’t just drive up to the front door.
Lily came back with a number of people following her and when they arrived at the car she directed them to start removing blankets and take them inside. When they had removed everything from the car she climbed back in and glanced across at me.
“I’ve told them what we found. They were suitably alarmed and will let Matthew know.” She said.
“Ok, so what now?”
“Now, we go back out and see what else we can find. We still need food and it’s even more important to find some weapons now.” Lily said firmly as she started the engi
ne.
We followed the road south until we reached the bed and breakfast where Lily pulled up on the road outside.
“We should bury them.” She said.
“No. We have neither the time nor the tools.” I told her, “There’s nothing we can do for the dead and plenty to do for the living. Focus on them.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. It seems so disrespectful though.”
“The world has changed, we can’t act the same way as we used to. It’s all about survival now.” I said and wisely leaving out the part about not wanting to waste my energy burying rotting meat when I could be finding someone to kill.
If nothing else, the chance that we may have some dangerous looters in the area meant that I may be able to feed my craving.
Lily continued to drive us slowly south. The land flattened out as we drove through a wooded area. The road was littered with the brown leaves and broken twigs of the trees that crowded the side of the road.
I couldn’t help but feel a little tension as we drove. The woods would be a perfect place for an ambush and something we would have to watch out for. The absence of zombies on this side of the lake was also becoming a concern.
As we left the trees we passed another small house and Lily slowed to a crawl as we passed and looked over at me.
“Do we stop?” she asked.
“We may as well.” I said and reached for my knife.
Once again at Lily’s insistence we knocked before attempting to enter. With no response to our knocking the door swung open with little effort and we entered the house.
Its occupant was an elderly lady who had been beaten quite savagely and left to die in the hallway as the looters had ransacked the property. We spent only a little time searching the property but all the foodstuffs had been taken and aside from some cleaning products and toiletries which would always be useful, we found little of use.
“Is this all we’re going to find?” Lily demanded in frustration as we left the house with the few items we had found.
“No idea. We may have to consider that someone has cleared out most of the properties in this area.”
“Why would they just kill everyone?”
Killing the Dead (Books 4-6) Page 5
