“The big, bad killer afraid of being close to someone.” She whispered with laughter.
“This is a bit of a surprise.” I said defensively, “I’d left you back at the apartments for a reason. You’d be safe there, you could have lived.”
“Perhaps that isn’t a life worth living, with those people and without you.” Lily said and I turned my head on the pillow to look at her.
She was lying on her side watching me and for once I sensed some doubt and nervousness from her.
“You mean that?” I asked with more than a little confusion, I couldn’t understand why.
“I do.” She whispered, “More to the point, I’m done with worrying about scaring you away. I don’t know how long we’ll have in this messed up apocalypse but I do know that I want to spend whatever time I have left with you.”
It had never occurred to me that she was worried about my reaction and if anything, her concern for me was oddly comforting.
“I want the same.” I said and she placed her arm over me and scooted closer until she was pressed up against me, her face barely centimetres from my own. “So what now.” I asked.
“Shh. We’ll talk more later.” She said as she leaned forward and her lips met mine with a heat and passion that burnt away the cloud of darkness that had been shrouding me.
****
When I woke, light was streaming through a gap in the curtains and the howling wind buffeted the window and rustled the branches of the trees outside. Lily lay peacefully against me holding tight to the arm that I had draped over her side.
The last fleeting memories of the passionate pleasures of the night spent with her lingered enticingly around us and I was content to lie there, Lily held tightly in my arms as the world went about its business without us.
A soft knock at the door roused her and I glared at an un-apologetic looking Cass who grinned as she saw us.
“Breakfast’s ready guys.” She said, “Though we can hold it for another ten minutes or so if you’re busy.”
“Get out.” I snapped that only caused her to giggle.
“Seriously, we’ll wait.” Cass offered and then burst into laughter as I threw a pillow at her.
“We should get up.” Lily said sleepily as a laughing Cass retreated.
“Do we really have to?”
“It would be a good idea to get something to eat and decide what we’re going to do I suppose.” Lily said as she stifled a yawn, the movement causing her to press back against me in a delightfully appealing manner.
“We could always go and kill Rachel and the others.” I muttered distractedly.
“No we can’t.” Lily said as she turned to look at me with a frown.
“Well if you’re determined about that, our next options to find food and a boat.” I said hoping to avoid an argument.
“Why a boat?”
“To leave this place and find a nice little island somewhere where we can build a home that won’t be torn down by zombies.” I said with a sigh as she climbed from beneath the covers with a shiver and padded across the room to gather her jeans.
“That’d be nice.” Lily said as she pulled on her jeans and realising that she wasn’t going to be coming back to bed, I pushed back the covers and looked for my own clothing.
“The problem is that I don’t think we’ll find any sea going boats still around.” I said, “Most of them will have been used for people to flee when all this happened.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” She said with a smile directed at me.
We finished dressing and took turns at the facilities before heading down to what appeared to be a large dining room full of our friends and our host.
Greetings were offered around as Cass shared a secretive smile with Lily and we took our place at the dark polished wooden dining table.
Pat was busily drawing and colouring with the little girl as Gregg watched with amusement. Cass leaned in to speak quietly with Lily as Phillip came from the kitchen with a large pan of scrambled eggs.
“Oh my god it’s so long since we had eggs.” Cass said as he placed the pan down on a mat in the centre of the table.
“We have hens.” Laura said without looking up and her grandfather gave her a fond look before heading back into the kitchen and returning a moment later with several plates and cutlery piled on top. Gregg quickly stood to take them from him.
“This is really very good of you.” Lily said to him as he spooned eggs on to plates and handed them out.
“There’s very little else I’m afraid, but what we do have we’re happy to share.” Phillip said cheerfully.
Once everyone had a plate before them, Laura put aside her crayons and looked to her grandfather expectantly with her hands clasped together.
“We have a tendency to offer thanks before we eat.” Phillip said quietly, “I hope no one will mind.”
“Of course not.” Lily said and the others murmured agreement before placing their hands together and bowing their heads.
I saw no reason to join them but at the same time I was in a pleasant enough mood to merely sit patiently while Phillip spoke, fortunately a short and to the point prayer of thanks. Once he had finished we set to the food with gusto.
“So you two had fun last night I take it?” Gregg grinned over his eggs.
“Hush yourself brother.” Cass snapped with a meaningful look at the little girl.
“Sorry.” He muttered to Phillip who waved it away.
“Nothing to apologise for.” He said, “I take it you had a falling out of sorts which is why you arrived here separately.”
“Something like that.” Lily said with a smile for me.
“The question is, what do we do now?” Cass asked.
“We need some food and somewhere to stay.” Lily said.
“Yeah since those pricks stole our food...” Gregg trailed off at his sisters glare and quickly turned to Phillip, “Sorry again.”
“I’ve heard worse in my time.” He said, “And Laura is old enough to know that she shouldn’t repeat those words.”
“Did they object to you leaving to follow after me?” I asked Lily.
“No. Matthew didn’t seem too unhappy and Rachel was positively gleeful about it, but I told Gabby and the others to stay.” She replied, “No point them wandering around in the wilds with us. They’ve lost enough of their group already.”
I wasn’t going to mention that at least one of that group had died at my hand, but the other two had died trapped in their van as the zombies overtook them. It was a shame though, I had been getting used to Toby at least.
“So that brings us back to what do we do now?” Cass said.
“If I may be so bold.” Phillip said and Lily nodded for him to continue as he paused, “My son and his wife went in search of food and other supplies, perhaps you could find them at the same time as gathering some items for yourself.”
“The least we can do is see if we can find out what happened to them after your hospitality.” Lily added before anyone else could speak and the others quickly offered their agreement.
“We can?” I said quietly and she just nodded before addressing Phillip.
“Where did they go looking for supplies and how long ago?”
“It’s been two days and they went to a village called Coniston, just over the other side of Coniston water. The next lake over.” Phillip said. “I have a map somewhere I can show you.”
“Are you going to find my mum and dad?” Laura asked with such wide eyed innocence that I groaned.
“We’ll do our best.” Lily promised and I was pleased that she had enough sense not to say that we would.
“Sounds like a plan then.” Gregg said as Phillip left in search of his map.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked Lily, “The next lake over is right along the road those zombies I killed yesterday came from.”
“Unless you have any other id
eas, this is the only one we have at the moment.” Lily said with an apologetic smile, “It’ll give you that chance to kill some zombies at least.” She said.
I settled back in the dining room chair as I felt that old familiar rush of excitement at the thought of the violence to come. The despondent brooding of yesterday was gone and now that I once again had Lily by my side, I could once more feel the thrill at merely the chance to kill something.
The smile that came to my face was one of genuine pleasure and as Lily glanced across and smiled back at me in return, I knew that at least part of the joy was to do with her being with me.
Chapter 4
We crouched amongst a thick stand of beech trees on a hill above the village of Coniston and stared down at the clustered buildings, each lost in our own thoughts as our breath misted the cold still morning air.
The journey along the road had been uneventful if somewhat arduous and time consuming as we pushed through piled snow, the frozen crust crunching beneath our feet. We had encountered no undead and I was beginning to think that the ones I had encountered had been an aberration.
As we had neared the village, following the road around the northernmost point of Coniston lake, we had begun to see ever more evidence of movement. Whether those tracks in the snow had been made by the living or the undead we couldn’t say.
Lily had been the first to agree to my suggestion that we leave the road and travel up into the heavily wooded hills. While it made travel a great deal slower, it provided ample cover that I felt we would need. I was gratified to see that I was right as we approached the village.
It seemed that Coniston sat at the mouth of a large valley and according to Phillip, had historically been the location of ore and slate mining and while it still had a couple of quarries in use, it was primarily a farming village and tourist hotspot. Host to a museum, several hotels and youth hostels and for a number of years, been benefiting from a hydro-electric scheme that powered a good many of the homes. All in all, I could understand why Phillips son and daughter in law had considered it to be a place where they might find aid.
With winter well and truly in season, the hotels and hostels would likely be empty along with many holiday homes. The farms and local villagers would be fairly self-sufficient; more so than many other places at least. Unfortunately it seemed those villagers were in no mood to share their resources.
In the months since the apocalypse had begun, the people of Coniston had been busy. With the aid of several heavy construction vehicles that were currently sat at the edge of the village and no doubt a great deal of hard work, a barrier of raised earth had been raised around the main body of homes in a great circle.
Wooden stakes had been set into the side of the raised earth at an angle to prevent the undead climbing up I guessed and fence posts were set into the top with what looked to be barbed wire strung between. The whole village had the look of a medieval armed encampment complete with armed guards patrolling along the top of the defences.
“Look over there.” Lily said as she pointed towards the southern end the village.
“What is it?” Cass asked as she shaded her eyes with one hand.
“Trapped on the stakes there or between them anyway, a handful of bodies that haven’t been moved.”
“This place is unbelievable.”Gregg muttered, “Can you imagine how much easier we’d have had it if we’d been somewhere like this?”
“It certainly looks formidable.” I agreed.
“Something’s happening.” Lily said and directed our attention to what looked to be a gate set into the barrier where the main road that we had been following passed through it.
Three people riding on horses came through the gate, each of them dressed in thick and warm looking clothing and one and all carrying a rifle of some sort. It was too great a distance to see the type but I guessed shotguns to be the most likely before my attention was drawn to the small pack of dogs that followed them out.
“Looks like a patrol.” I said into the silence.
“Are they looking for people or zombies?” Cass wondered.
“Does it matter?” Gregg asked, “I’m bloody cold so I vote for going down and saying hi.”
“Maybe we should watch a bit longer?” Lily said as she chewed on her lip thoughtfully.
“Why?” Gregg asked with a look of annoyance.
“If Phillip’s family came here looking for help and the village is here but they aren’t... well I think we need to be careful.” Lily said and the others nodded thoughtfully.
“There was a barn about five minutes away, back the way we came.” I said quietly as I watched the riders pass by along the road below us, “You guys head there and try to keep warm.”
“What will you be doing?” Lily asked.
“I’m going to do a circuit of the village to see what I can find and then when it gets dark, I’ll head in and get the lay of the land. Tomorrow, we can decide whether or not to make our presence known.”
“You guys go back.” Lily said to the others, “I’ll stick with him.”
I opened my mouth to argue but decided that it wouldn’t accomplish anything and if I was honest, I didn’t mind her company.
Lily looked across at me as though waiting for my argument but I just gave her my most innocent smile and she laughed quietly.
“That’s settled then.” She said, “We’ll meet you at the barn. Stay safe.”
“You too.” Cass told her with a quick hug before the three of them left.
I watched them walk away and frowned at the tracks they left in the thick snow.
“That could be a problem.” I said with a nod to the disturbed snow.
“Nothing we can do about it.” Lily said with a frown of her own. “Won’t we just leave a trail in the snow ourselves?”
“We stick to the trees and if we need to cross a field, stay at the edge in the shadow of the wall. That should hopefully be enough.”
“Hopefully.” Lily echoed doubtfully.
We’d barely made it through the woods when barking and shouts of surprise erupted behind us. Lily looked back with concern writ plainly upon her face.
I drew my knife and she lifted the claw hammer that she carried as a weapon and we backtracked the way we had come. I gestured for her to move as slowly and carefully as possible, though my own passage was noisy. The woods were not my favoured hunting place.
By the time we reached the opposite ends of the woods, all we found was a large area of trampled snow and our friends were missing.
“Do you think they went willingly?” She asked.
“If they did, they’d have sent someone back for us.” I pointed out, “The fact that they didn’t would indicate that they didn’t think it was safe to do so.”
“How did they know we were here?” Lily asked plaintively before answering her own question. “The bloody snow, they found our tracks on the road and followed them.”
“More than likely.”
“I can’t wait for this stuff to melt.” She said with a shake of her head, “So now what?”
“Now we go back and keep a watch on the village, tonight we’ll go in and find them.”
She nodded once with a look of determination as she gripped her hammer tightly before following me as I led the way back through the snow covered trees.
We paused once at our previous vantage point and caught sight of a group of people moving between the houses. Lily seemed convinced that she had seen Pat in a gap between the houses so we settled in to watch and wait.
The villagers would have no real need to harm our friends and I was fairly confident that they were merely questioning them to find out what their intentions were. If they had any sense they’d soon send them on their way, rather than keep them around as a burden to be fed, guarded and so on.
Lily had lapsed into a worried silence as she crouched in the snow and chewed on her lower lip as she kept a careful watch on the
clustered houses below.
“What will you do if they do harm our friends?” Lily asked quietly.
“I will descend on that village and slaughter every one of them.” I replied simply and she nodded.
“That’s what I thought. Come on.” She said as she rose to her feet and set off walking towards the village.
“What are you doing?” I called after her as I hastened to catch up.
“Trying to keep everyone alive.”
I shook my head, partly in annoyance but also in admiration. Even now, she was concerned about the lives of others with no real thought for herself. It was such an alien concept to me.
Cries of alarm had been raised by several of the watching people on top of the barricade as we descended the hill and by the time we had reached the closed gate, a sizeable group had gathered above us.
“Who are you?” A grey haired man called down.
“We’re looking for our friends?” Lily replied calmly, “You seem to have taken them inside your walls.”
The grey haired gent spoke rapidly to a portly woman beside him, too low for me to hear and she nodded once before disappearing from view. I kept a firm grip on the handle of my knife, though I knew it would do little against the clustered weapons aimed at us.
“You better come in.” Grey hair called and the gate opened outwards to admit us.
“That was easy.” Lily said quietly as she grasped my hand firmly in hers.
We were escorted through the village streets by two imposing men in their forties with thick weatherproof clothing and rubber wellington boots. They carried their shotguns easily and I envied them their dry and comfortable outfits.
It occurred to me that the country villages and towns would likely be better prepared for an event such like the one we had experienced. The people who lived on and around the farms would be equipped for poor conditions and with the farms in such close proximity they wouldn’t be as dependent upon the shops as the more urban populace.
The way that they were using horses to patrol, which would give them an edge over both zombies and humans in the wintery conditions, was something that the rest of us couldn’t do.
Killing the Dead (Books 4-6) Page 30
