Killing the Dead (Books 4-6)

by Murray, Richard

  “Get everyone across and settled in.” Lily told Cass who looked at her blankly.

  “Where will you be?”

  “We’re going to the apartments” Lily said with a nod towards me, “I need to speak with Matthew.”

  “You can’t go alone, just the two of you.” Cass said.

  “Well you need to check on Pat and he obviously can’t go.” Lily said.

  “I’ll go with you.” Gregg said, “I know I’m not quite as handy as Pat but I can handle myself.”

  “If this goes badly you’ll need to possibly fight living people.” Lily said, “Would you be ok with that?”

  Gregg nodded and though his sister looked at him with concern, she soon acquiesced.

  “Ok, I’ll get everyone settled. When you’re done, come back here and the boat will be waiting.” Cass said before adding with a mischievous grin. “I do think you just don’t want to have to clean out the dead bodies your boyfriend left.”

  Lily laughed and embraced her friend while I watched Gregg carefully. He had been more than capable when it came to the undead but I wasn’t sure that he had it in him to kill a living person. It would be interesting to find out.

  We left Cass busily organising the group and headed back to the main road and the apartments. I found myself eager and more than ready to kill.

  I loosened the knife in its sheath, no doubt it would be needed before the day was out since I couldn’t believe that Matthew would listen to reason. I smiled as I pictured how he would look when he denied everything and then how he would look when I sank my knife into his guts.

  Lily led the way as we turned off the main north-south road and followed the one that led along the tiny peninsula with the apartments at the end.

  Through the trees I could see the top of the building and there across the road was the newly repaired fence. The scent of smoke filled the air along with the sickly sweet smell that came with roasting human flesh. I guessed that if they finally burnt all of the zombie corpses, then it wasn’t long ago.

  Voices raised in alarm came from behind the barrier and we stopped in a rough triangular formation on the road with Lily at the point, as we waited for someone to approach us.

  “What do you want?” A male voice called and I vaguely recognised it.

  “We need to speak with Matthew.” Lily called back.

  “Stay there.” The voice replied and I grinned at the thought of them stopping us if we wanted to get in.

  It didn’t take long for the gates to open and a group of people to spill out. Matthew in the lead followed by Rachel and four people I recognised from when they stole from us the day before.

  Matthew looked older than I remembered as though he had aged in just the few days since I had last seen him. I guessed that the burden of leadership was weighing him down.

  “What do you want?” he demanded as he stopped a short distance from us, Rachel behind his shoulder as though ready to whisper in his ear.

  “We need to talk Matthew, privately.” Lily said and Rachel smirked.

  “I have nothing to say to you in private.” Matthew said, “You’re lucky we don’t run you off right now.”

  “Why would you do that?” Lily asked in surprise. “We helped you when you were attacked.”

  “That piece of scum with you.” Matthew said with a finger pointed unsurprisingly at me. “I expected it from him but not from you.”

  “What are you on about?” Lily asked, surprise turning to confusion.

  “You know what I’m talking about, don’t deny it.” Matthew said, voice raised in righteous indignation. “One of my people’s still recovering from the last time I tried to send you a message.”

  Lily looked at me in confusion and I shrugged though from Rachel’s widening smirk I was fairly certain she was way ahead of us all.

  “I sent Toby to you in good faith with a genuine offer.” Matthew yelled, “Only to have him return, beaten and bloodied. That monster tried to rip his throat out with his teeth.”

  “Toby came to kill him.” Lily said with rising anger of her own. “He brought no message, just attacked. Ryan defended himself.”

  “Don’t you dare lie to me about him.” Matthew yelled.

  I couldn’t take my eyes from Rachel who was staring back with a mixture of gloating and pleasure. I should have known that she would need an explanation for Toby’s injuries when he returned.

  “We came here to warn you about her.” Lily snapped back at Matthew as she pointed at Rachel, “You need to know what she’s done.”

  “She’s done nothing but work hard to protect us and gather food.” Matthew sputtered, “She wasn’t the one to kill the pilot of the crashed plane.”

  Lily looked towards me with one eyebrow arched and I shrugged apologetically.

  “He was infected and screaming, I stopped him rising and attracting more zombies before I could get the others out.” I said.

  “Lies.” Matthew screamed. “Rachel was there, she saw only the one body and he had been tortured first.”

  “I suggest you don’t take everything she says as truth without verifying it.” Lily said, “We saw what she did in Hawkswood and that was the work of a sick mind.”

  Rachel’s smirk widened even further at the mention of Hawkswood and if anything she seemed aroused. She had certainly changed a great deal from that person I had first met at the refugee centre.

  “We found no one alive at Hawkswood.” Rachel lied, “We just got some food and stuff and came back, these guys can confirm that.”

  She gestured to the men gathered behind her who I noticed were starting to spread out. I glanced at Gregg who nodded back, just the slightest bob of the head to indicate he’d noticed too.

  “Matthew, you need to listen to me. She’s dangerous. Candice robbed us of all our supplies just yesterday.” Lily said, trying as best she could to remain calm.

  “Ridiculous.” Matthew said, “They got that food from Hawkswood.”

  “It came from there originally,” I said agreeably, “But we were the ones who had it.”

  “Don’t you speak to me.” Matthew spat and I rolled my eyes in a way that seemed to infuriate him even more.

  “Ryan,” Lily said warningly and I grinned an apology at her, “I can tell you nearly everything that was taken from us. If it matches what they had then that will prove it, won’t it?”

  “I suppose...” Matthew said with the first hint of doubt. Rachel looked pissed.

  “And if we’re right about that then you’ll have to listen to us about the other things.” Lily pressed.

  Matthew looked troubled as he glanced back at Rachel and the others, the seed of doubt had been planted and it seemed that we may have a chance of getting him on our side, despite his apparent hatred of me. Rachel saw it too.

  “You think you’re so bloody clever.” she spat and I opened my mouth to say something no doubt witty and cutting.

  I was stopped as she raised her arm and sliced quickly and cleanly across Matthew’s throat. He burbled amusingly as he fell to his knees, hands scrabbling at his throat to stop the bleeding, not that he had any chance of that.

  “What the hell?” Lily said in shock.

  “He was a useless prick anyway.” Rachel said with a sneer, “He’ll be more useful like this when I tell everyone you killed him.”

  “Why the hell would they believe you?” Lily snapped back.

  “Your boyfriend is the one who likes to kill with a knife and has a history of it.” Rachel said, “They’ll all hear how we tried to stop you but in the end had to kill you all before you could kill us.”

  Lily glanced back at me in shocked alarm as Rachel turned to her companions.

  “Kill them.” Was all she said and they advanced.

  Chapter 24

  As Lily and Gregg reacted with alarm I grinned with true anticipation. No more aiming for a killing blow to the head, no more having to avoid possible in
fection from their bites or blood. I could let loose and just enjoy myself. I went to meet them head on.

  Each of the men we faced had a heavy wooden club which no doubt made them feel extremely confident when facing my knife. We were outnumbered and I had no desire for Lily or Gregg to be injured or killed so I would need to move fast.

  I ducked beneath the swing of a club and swiped out with my knife cutting across the first man’s leg, a deep gash that spurted blood and raised a scream from him. I slashed upwards and opened a cut on his face between his ear and eye and he recoiled. I was immensely pleased that I had taken the time to hone my knife edge before setting off this morning.

  A whoosh of displaced air blew past my face as I narrowly avoided the swing of a second man’s club. I leapt back and he followed as I risked a quick glance to see Lily and Gregg standing together and trading swings of their weapons for their enemies.

  My immediate threat roared and rushed at me, club raised overhead. I stepped in beneath his swing which threw off his aim and rammed my knife into his chest, turning it to slide through the ribcage without catching. He screamed delightfully as he fell.

  The first man’s club caught my shoulder and I did a short hop to the right as I swore at the burst of pain as I assessed the threat he posed.

  Blood was leaking from the slashes on his face and leg and he definitely winced whenever he tried to put weight on the injured limb. I feinted a kick and when he jerked back, I leapt forward. A quick slash against his side and then another across his back as I went past. I left him bleeding on the ground as I dashed across to help Lily and Gregg.

  Lily’s assailant didn’t even see me as I kicked out at the back of his legs and he went down on one knee allowing me to stab my knife blade down into his neck. I glanced once at Lily to make sure she was ok as I retrieved my knife.

  She was pale but otherwise unhurt so I turned to help Gregg in time to see him club his opponent to the head with the metal bar he held. The man fell to the ground dazed, releasing his grip on his club and clutching at the bloody welt on his skull. Rachel had disappeared.

  “Well that was fun.” I said.

  “I feel sick.” Gregg muttered as he looked at the man he’d injured.

  “You need to finish him off.” I said, “An enemy you let live will just come back at you when you least expect it.”

  “We can’t just execute him.” Gregg said with a look of alarm to Lily.

  “You know we have to.” I said to her and she shook her head.

  “I know, but I can’t. Not when they’re like this.” she said with a gesture to the two injured men.

  “Good job I can then.” I said as I reached down and grabbed the dazed man’s hair to pull back his head and expose his throat to my blade.

  “Ryan, don’t.” Lily said, “Please.”

  “What do you expect to do with them?” I said, “Imprison them? Exile them? With no food or weapons they will be forced to try to take them from us. Give them food and weapons and they will leave and find others before coming back and trying to take what we have.”

  “I understand that but not like this.” Lily pleaded.

  “These are the ones who stole from us, condemning us to a slow death unless we find more food.” I said, “These are likely the ones with Rachel who abused that girl and strung her up as bait for zombies.”

  “Tie them up, restrain them.” Lily said, “We’ll have to let everyone decide. I can’t do it; I can’t just execute them because I think they’re bad people. We need to have a trial, provide evidence and have some kind of order.”

  I stared at her in dismay for several long seconds, I ached to kill the men and I knew it was the best thing to do to protect Lily and my friends. It was then that I realised that part of protecting them was making sure that they didn’t need to lose those parts I admired by becoming like me.

  “Fine.” I said, “Take their weapons and if they’re still here when we’re done then you can have your trial.”

  “Thank you.” Lily said with a gentle touch on my arm. “Now what?”

  “Now we go after Rachel and the others.” I said, “If any resist we kill them but if they surrender I suppose we can take them captive.”

  Lily smiled and I knew that I had made the right decision. I’d just have to ensure that I killed as many of them outright as I could. With a grin for Lily I led the way to the fence.

  Rachel had nowhere to go except back to the apartments to get reinforcements and she hadn’t bothered to lock the gate behind her in her haste. I pushed it open expecting attack and was mildly surprised and disappointed when none came.

  I followed the path around to the main entrance and stopped twenty feet away from the doors as Jason and Candice came out with two other men and the junkie lookalike from the day before.

  “You ready?” I asked and received murmurs of assent from my companions.

  Jason looked much the same as the last time I’d seen him, six feet tall and ridiculously handsome which had garnered him much attention from the women of the apartments. He’d obviously been seduced by the wrong ones when he fell for Candice and Rachel. His usual look of cheer was absent as he brandished his club.

  Candice still wore her leather jacket and had her hair in a bun. I looked forward to killing her though she wasn’t my primary goal. She and the junkie held clubs and moved straight towards Lily, perhaps seeing her as the lesser threat.

  Jason chose to attack Gregg which left me with the two thugs bedecked in tattoos and piercings. They looked for all the world so much like the stereotypical thug that I briefly wondered if they had purposefully chosen their look for that reason. Not that it mattered.

  The first died with my knife in his throat before he could even swing but the second cracked me in the ribs with his club before a left hook across my face sent me reeling. I staggered back as he leapt at me and knocked me sprawling to the ground.

  I rolled to the right as his club connected with the frozen earth where my head had been moments before and kicked out against his legs. He didn’t fall but he hopped back out of reach which gave me the precious seconds I needed to scramble to my feet.

  We faced each other and I shook my head to clear it as he stared balefully at me and pulled his arm back for another strike. I was ready this time and as he swung I stepped aside and sank my knife between his ribs.

  As he fell to the ground gasping in pain and dying from the damage I had just done his internal organs, I looked to my friends.

  The junkie was on the ground either unconscious or dead and Lily was swinging her hammer towards Candice while Gregg was backing away from the stronger swings of his opponent Jason.

  I ran lightly over to Jason and Gregg, the pain in my ribs a distant ache as every part of my being sang with the joy that came from killing living people. My feet slid on the snow covered grass and I collided with Jason just as he swung.

  With a great deal of cursing he managed to pull himself off of me but not before I sliced open his right arm. He dropped his club and unleashed a torrent of swear words, some of which I had never heard. I grinned in amusement and his head shot forward and collided with my nose which broke noisily.

  I fought to see through the burst of pain that clouded my vision and I felt his weight fall off of me. My head and vision cleared in time to see a sick looking Gregg holding his metal bar in both hands and staring in revulsion at the bit of hair and skin stuck to the end. Jason was unmoving on the ground with a thick puddle of blood rapidly staining the surrounding snow.

  A final cry of pain caught my attention and I turned to see a triumphant Lily standing over the bodies of her two opponents. She smiled widely at me and I nodded in return, every movement of my head sending fresh waves of pain through me.

  “Is she dead?” I asked with a flick of my eyes towards Candice.

  “I think so.” Lily said as she tried to find a pulse, her smile fading.

  “Good.” I said
as I allowed Gregg to help me to my feet. “Just Rachel left then.”

  “What about Toby?” Gregg asked and I shrugged.

  “If he wants to try and kill me again he can try but if not, I’ll survive not killing him.”

  I pushed open the apartment doors and walked through to face a crowd of people huddled together fearfully. I could imagine what I looked like, drenched in my own blood and my enemies. I grinned and saw several flinch away.

  “What’s going on?” Gabby demanded and Lily stepped forward with arms held to her sides to be as unthreatening as possible.

  “Rachel killed Matthew and others.” Lily said, “We’ll explain later but for now, where is she?”

  “She ran upstairs.” Gabby said with a look of suspicion, “What’re you going to do with us?”

  “Nothing.” Lily said. “We can talk about that later, for now we need to stop her.”

  “We’ll come with you.” Gabby said, “The kids are up there.”

  I had no objection to them seeing me end her life so I led the way, up the first flight of stairs to the second floor. We moved to swiftly check through each room and not finding her, moved up the next flight of stairs to the very top.

  A scream sounded, young and high pitched from the furthest room and Gabby looked to Lily in alarm. I smiled grimly as I reached the door and stepped through.

  Rachel stood almost casually in the centre of the living room, one arm holding a small girl close to her and the other with a knife pressed to the little girl’s cheek.

  “What’re you doing?” Gabby demanded as she crowded in behind us.

  “Let her go.” Lily said with a great deal more threat in her tone than I expected.

  “Fuck you both.” Rachel said as she eyed me warily.

  “You harm the child and your death will be excruciating.” I said quietly and she grimaced.

  “You’re the child killer here not me.”

  “For that, I’ll kill you slowly.” I promised.

  “Enough of this.” Lily snapped, “No one needs to die.”