Killing the Dead (Book 14): Enemies Unknown

by Murray, Richard

  “Reaper?”

  “Class three specimen, sir,” Isaac said and the old man nodded.

  “How quaint. Yes, a Reaper is leading the charge so to speak.”

  I had no doubt that there would be a considerable number of them for those people to think they would overrun the island, but I also knew Lily and my own people. I suspected they would surprise everyone by surviving.

  Which meant it wouldn’t do any harm to listen to what they had to say as it would potentially give me the advantage I needed to kill them all.

  “What’s your proposal.”

  “Ah, a pragmatic man. Obstinate enough to defy our questions but smart enough to know when there is no further point doing so.”

  I shrugged and grinned around a mouthful of apricot that I chewed noisily, heedless of the juices soaking my beard. The old man didn’t seem to notice or care, he just pushed his glasses up his nose and sucked on his teeth as he thought.

  “My… organisation, for want of a better word, has a problem.”

  “Oh?”

  “Like all organisations, we have a hierarchy. Each of us here has a place in that hierarchy and while I may be at the pinnacle, I am still quite low in the larger hierarchy. Do you understand?”

  “You have a boss, who has a boss, who has a boss and so on.” I wiped my sticky hands on my already blood-spattered clothing and reached for the bottle. “You’re the big man here but there are other bases.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Several of them spread around the world. Of the two that were located within the UK, this is the smaller.”

  Now that was interesting news. It implied that the organisation he spoke of had more than just considerable power before the end of the world, but a massive amount of power and wealth. How many bases could they have built without people knowing about it? How much money would it have taken and just how many people had survived?

  “We are, for the most part, scientists and thinkers. We have our soldiers and workers of course, but for the most, we are not the type to spring to action.”

  “And what is your problem then?”

  “My immediate superior has had a change of heart. He no longer wishes to continue with the Plan and has, in fact, begun to take steps to derail it. Since we here.” He gestured with one hand to the base we sat in. “Are the closest to him, the task has fallen to me to bring him to heel.”

  “And you need me, why? You have your mercenaries to do your dirty work.”

  “They are soldiers.”

  The old man’s lips twisted into what I could only assume was meant to be a friendly smile, but was distinctly creepy, even to me, and I was the thing that went bump in the night.

  “We need a killer. A serial killer, to be exact.”

  “Where is the other base?”

  “That is not your concern. You would be escorted there and under the guise of being one of our staff members here, you would enter their facility and kill a number of people.”

  “How many?” I asked, genuinely curious and more than a little excited by the idea.

  “No less than seven.”

  “But more than that?”

  “If the base cannot be salvaged, then all of them, so yes, a great deal more.”

  “How many exactly does the base hold?”

  “Staff, guards, their families, perhaps seven hundred.”

  Not insignificant then and when he said families, that meant children. I would certainly not be murdering any of them, but he didn’t have to know that.

  “What do I get out of it?”

  “A place here, with us, so long as you can confine your… murderous impulses to those I direct you to. Even my mercenaries are a tad squeamish about some tasks.”

  His eyes flicked towards Isaac as he said that and the larger man glowered at the back of his head. I did note that he did so with his back to the camera so that he wouldn’t be seen.

  Interesting indeed.

  “If I don’t want to stay here?”

  “Then you will be given provisions, weapons and transport to any part of the world you choose.”

  I scratched at the matted hair on my cheeks and pretended to consider his words as I worked at suppressing a smile. In the old movies and TV shows, the hero of the piece would be offered a chance to do something nefarious or face death and each and every one of them refused the offer.

  It had always amused me that they would do such a thing since agreeing to do it would allow you the chance to escape and kill your captors. Something that I very much intended to do, but, I had to be careful.

  There was the matter of the other bases. If there were more of them out there then they were a threat to Lily and my child. That could not be allowed to stand. I needed their location and then I could ensure any threat was dealt with.

  I nodded slowly and said, “Sure, let’s do it.”

  Chapter 16

  The narrow patch of land was less than two hundred meters wide, which wasn’t much but was still a not inconsiderable length when you only had around three hundred of Samuels people to defend it. Not that it helped that the land that made up the peninsula was pretty flat compared to the rest of the island.

  I held back my dismay as the small army of men and women went about their work building the barricade. Since it seemed foolish not to take advantage of the engineers that the admiral had on staff, I had ‘borrowed’ them to ensure the barrier to the undead was as formidable as possible.

  The base was a long line of cars two deep, that covered the entire width of what we hoped would be a bottleneck. Built just on the outskirts of the town, we had plenty of cars to use at least and as much as I hated to do so, a small army of people were dismantling fences and anything else they could to help provide materials.

  At the north end of town, the first column of CDF troops was making its way north. They would begin lining the coast and waiting for any undead to emerge from the sea. My hope was that they would be disoriented and in poor shape leaving little real danger for those soldiers.

  I paused in my walk and lifted a hand to shade my eyes as I looked back at the harbour. I could just about make out the lines of refugees burdened once more with their meagre belongings as they waited to board the ships.

  Even if we still had the twenty ships that the admiral had sent south there were just far more people than we had boats for and a great many would be left on the island. Children would be the first to board then the old and infirm. After that, it would be a tough choice to make.

  “My Lady,” Lisa said, her tone quiet yet insistent as she sought my attention.

  I glanced back at her and she tilted her head towards the right, eyes unreadable behind the cloth hood she wore. I followed the direction she had gestured and fought down a sigh.

  The former first minister of the island was a rotund man who had taken advantage of his position to ensure that he received more than his fair share of the limited supplies we had. Clean shaven with a receding hairline he was exactly what you would imagine a bitter middle manager to look like. The sort of man who would never go any further and would take it out on his subordinates.

  He approached with a small crowd of people following close behind and my four bodyguards drew closer and placed their hands on their weapons. I absently wondered why I’d not had him thrown in a cell the day I took over but reminded myself that I’d not had much real evidence of malfeasance.

  “You there, woman!” he called and I cocked an eyebrow at his tone.

  “Mr Wells,” I said, holding back my smile at the way his face tightened at that. “What can I do for you?”

  “What’s this nonsense about the damned undead invading? We’re on an island and those creatures have no interest in entering the water.”

  “That may have been the case once, but no longer.”

  His already red face deepened in colour as he was stopped short by the bodyguards Samuel had assigned me. They formed an effective barrier between the former minister and me.

/>   “Where is your proof of this? What evidence do you have that has you scaring the good people of this island?”

  “That is no longer your concern,” I said, quite coldly. “As a private citizen, you have the option to take up whatever arms are available and help the fight or head south and wait for evacuation.”

  “If that ever comes!” he declared hotly, looking around at his small group of followers. “And even if it did, where would we be evacuated to?”

  “Again, that is not for you to concern yourself with. Plans have been drawn up and we will notify people as and when we have the time opportunity to do so.”

  “No! I demand…”

  “Enough!” I snapped, interrupting him. “I have business to be about and your presence here is hindering me. When I have more information to give, I shall let everyone know. Until then, you know your options.”

  He gave me his most disapproving glare and I simply stared back, unwilling to be cowed by the impotent little man. I’d had to take more than enough crap from men like him before and I was determined that would not happen again.

  I turned away from him, dismissing him and Lisa made a curt gesture sent two of my bodyguards to usher them away. A slight smile played around my mouth as I realised just how effective they were at intimidation when it was required.

  My attention returned to the people building the barricade, swarming around it like ants carrying lumber and tools, following the directions of the engineers. A shiver ran through me as I looked beyond the growing barricade and imagined the larger swarm of the undead that would be appearing at any time.

  A drone flew past overhead, its path taking it towards the coast. If all went well it would give us the first sightings of the undead as soon as they made landfall. More of them would be headed up the coast with the troops who were carrying portable charging units for them.

  I ignored the noise of the former first minister as he protested and moved away from the construction site. Nearly three hundred men and women would line that barricade and defend it with everything they had. I very much feared that most, if not all of them, would lose their lives.

  The people working at the airfield were all dressed in the royal naval fatigues and I stopped at the side of the road that went straight past it and watched them for a moment. The two single-engine planes were being worked on by a small group of people and the larger twin-engine plane sat at one side, modifications made.

  It was hard to tell anything from where I stood so I resolved to speak to the admiral when I had the chance and get a progress report.

  A truck drove up and rolled to a stop near the planes. The driver climbed out and called for a few of the nearby navy personnel to come and help. They began unloading heavy steel drums of what I assumed was either the petrol they would be using to make the napalm or the actual napalm itself.

  “My Lady,” Lisa said softly and I nodded absently.

  “I know.”

  My day was full of appointments and Lisa had taken it upon herself to ensure I was reminded of each and every one of the damned things. It was nice that she cared but irritating as it reminded me just how much I needed to do and how little time I had to do, well, anything.

  The ministers I had appointed were doing what they could but even so, there were only so many hours in a day and it seemed that each hour brought a dozen new crises that needed to be resolved. Everything from rats getting into the few remaining sacks of flour we had to an outbreak of dysentery in one of the outlying villages.

  Then, of course, there was the appointment I had with the medical team. Any pregnancy could have complications and with the amount of stress and pressure I was under, they wanted to make sure mine went off without a problem.

  Since any child conceived was soon infected with the same bio-engineered parasite we all had, a miscarriage or problem with the pregnancy could enter a whole new realm of horror for the mother and those around her.

  I shuddered at that thought.

  So, as much as I might have a million things and more to do, the one appointment I could not in good conscience refuse was the medical one. If something went wrong because of my avoiding the medics, I could be putting the people I cared about in danger. That just couldn’t be allowed and more than anything I believed in leading by example. If I didn’t do something then I couldn’t expect the others on the island to do it either.

  It was a short walk to the medical centre which had been set up by more of the admiral’s people and despite the early hour, a long line of people waiting outside the doors to be seen. More than one of them glanced my way as I moved past them, cheeks burning at jumping the queue.

  Normally I would have waited but there was too much to do for me to spend an hour or more waiting in line and while logically I could understand that, it didn’t mean I liked it.

  Despite my own discomfort, none of those waiting people uttered a complaint. Whether it was out of respect for my office or, more likely, the four black-garbed acolytes of Ryan’s death cult that were playing bodyguard, I couldn’t say. Not that it really mattered I supposed.

  Almost the moment I stepped through the door, Dr Reed hurried over to meet me. A slim young woman barely out of medical school when the world fell, she had more than risen to the challenge of being one of the few doctors we had on the island. Not that it hadn’t left its mark.

  Her auburn hair was unwashed and tied in a tight bun and the lines of stress around her eyes and mouth had appeared almost overnight. There were dark bags beneath her eyes that no amount of makeup would hide, though she tried in an effort to hide her weariness from her patients.

  Despite her weariness when she smiled it was full of genuine warmth and care. Just moments after meeting you she had you at ease and comfortable enough to discuss any problems you might be having. I’d no doubt that if the world had remained as it was she would have made a great doctor. As one of the few we had, she was irreplaceable.

  She ushered me into a curtained-off cubicle and gestured for me to climb up onto the ‘bed.’ Since we didn’t actually have much in the way of medical equipment we had been forced to improvise. I seated myself on the thin rubber mat that had been attached to the old dining table and waited patiently as Dr Reed pulled out my file.

  My bodyguards remained outside, ensuring that no one came close enough to overhear anything and I was more than a little grateful for that. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to overhear my fears. I had to be strong for them all.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Her voice was soothing and full of care. I gave her a smile in return and a little half-shrug of my shoulders.

  “No nausea. Is that normal? I thought everyone had morning sickness. Does it mean there’s something wrong?”

  “Not at all,” she said with a smile of assurance. “Any tenderness of your breasts or back pain?”

  “Ah, not that I’ve noticed.” I couldn’t help the blush that heated my cheeks. “Been a little busy.”

  “Okay, how about bleeding?”

  “A little spotting, but you said that was okay, yeah?”

  “It’s normal, but considering our situation here we need to just keep a close eye on everything.”

  “I understand.”

  “Clearly you’re going to be struggling to get all the nutrition you need but you need to try. Green leafy vegetables if you can get them, seafood in moderation.”

  She seated herself on the small stool beside the bed and gestured for me to open my shirt. I did so and sucked in a breath as she placed the cold stethoscope against my skin. She listened intently and nodded slowly to herself, lips moving as she counted.

  “Okay,” she said. “You’ve been taking those vitamins I gave you?”

  “Every morning.”

  “Our supply is limited but I’ll authorise some more for you.”

  She leant back and pressed one hand against her lower back, unable for a moment to hide her exhaustion. Then, like a curtain falling, it disappeared a
nd she smiled brightly.

  “The good news is that you’re about twelve weeks along. Just leaving the first trimester and about to enter the second.”

  “Which means?”

  “You’re going to start showing soon. Don’t be alarmed by how large of a bump you might have. As thin as you are it’s going to be more pronounced and with two babies in there, well, as they grow your stomach will too.”

  Twins. I sucked in a breath and blinked away the tears. Ryan should have been with me, should have been there to hear about the two babies he was going to have, we were going to have. Despite what I told the others, I worried sometimes that he wouldn’t be returning.

  “I’d tell you to rest and take care of yourself but I know you won’t do that.”

  “Can’t do that,” I said and sniffed before wiping my nose. “But if we survive the next few days I will try.”

  “I know there are better times, but…”

  “What is it?”

  “We need medical supplies and equipment,” she said, looking away to avoid my eyes. “I know it’s a really shitty time but we have thirty-seven pregnant women at the moment and that number is growing daily.”

  “People felt safe and when they’re safe they go back to doing things like having sex,” she said. “We need healthy food, vitamins, all manner of drugs and equipment. I can’t stress how urgent it is.”

  “Everything is urgent. I’ll add it to the list of things we need…”

  “No! You don’t understand. I’ve seen what happens when something goes wrong. It was bad enough before but now… now, I never want to see a woman torn open from the inside as the child she wanted nothing more than to be born safely pulls itself free of her body.”

  I swallowed back the urge to vomit at the image that conjured up and nodded slowly.

  “Really, I’ll do everything I can to get you what you need. My one goal is to preserve life here.”

  “I want to believe you,” she said and I couldn’t help but notice the way her voice shook and the glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. “I really do, but I’m running out of faith in anyone.”

  “We will get you whatever we can,” I assured her. “Let me get past these next few days and we will be sending out scavenging parties again.”