Killing the Dead (Book 14): Enemies Unknown

by Murray, Richard

  Sealed canisters dropped from the plane, so small, so fragile, they fell in a line as the plane flew over the crowded road. Then the first canister hit the ground.

  Fire blossomed upwards and out, roiling black smoke mixed with the furious red, orange and yellow of the flame. The blast shook the trees that lined the hills and even the drone shook from the waves of heat that rose from the blast.

  All along the road, one after another, those canisters exploded with fire and fury and the undead burned in their thousands. A cheer rose from the gathered techs and even the admiral gave a satisfied smile.

  “Better than I’d hoped,” he said, voice so low only I could hear him. “But now for the main horde.”

  Our attention turned to the growing mass of undead before the barricade and I held my breath, knuckles turning white as I gripped the back of the chair I was leaning on. The first plane flew overhead, releasing its precious load.

  I watched with something akin to glee as fire engulfed a long swathe of the undead, many torn apart by the blast and so very many more doused in the fiery gel that clung to them and wouldn’t stop burning.

  Then the second plane came in, flying low and dropping even more of the canisters. The resulting explosions filled the screens and the cheering erupted once more. The admiral though, he stared intently at the monitor, muttering softly beneath his breath so low that even I, stood beside him, couldn’t hear.

  As the smoke began to clear, the drones circled the flame, moving as close as they could to the raging inferno and the cheers died down.

  “How many?” I asked, voice catching. “How many survived?”

  “Too many,” the admiral whispered.

  I clutched at the back of the chair, holding on for dear life heedless of the tears that ran down my cheeks. Thousands had died, caught up in the fury of those explosions, and thousands more were burning as they marched into the blaze but it wasn’t enough.

  Behind them was a seemingly endless mass of the undead and there was no way we could stop them all, no way we could win a fight against so many with the few people we had.

  “Order every possible soldier back to the town,” Admiral Stuart snapped. “Leave only enough to hold off whatever remains on the northern road but I want everyone else back here, NOW!”

  The staff reached for their controls, speaking into their headsets and relaying the order. I looked at his face though and saw that it wouldn’t be enough. They would be through the barricade before they could get back to us.

  No matter how fast they moved, by the time they reached the town they would be fighting the undead in amongst the buildings and there was no way they could win.

  “I’ve failed,” I whispered and felt Cass’s hand on my shoulder, pulling me close to her.

  “The fuck’s that?” Charlie asked and all eyes turned to her.

  “What?” I asked and she pointed at a screen.

  I watched in stunned silence as a line of bright sparks fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a thunderous roar that rattled the building we were standing in. One after another, they struck the mass of undead, dust and debris thrown into the air by the force of the blasts.

  “Tomahawks!” Admiral Stuart said. “Those are Tomahawk missiles!”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means…”

  He cut off as the radio burst to life and a strong voice could be heard, his message simple and to the point.

  “This is the HMS Triumph, we’re here to help.”

  I stared at the radio in shock, unable to think of a way to respond. I looked, wide-eyed, at the admiral and saw they he too seemed unable to think of a response.

  “What the hell just happened?” Charlie asked.

  “The submarine just told us they are friends,” I said and burst into delighted laughter.

  Chapter 25

  I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips as I watched the monitors. All across the bunker, men and women were clutching their chests and falling to the floor, only to rise again moments later.

  There were some on the base, though, that didn’t seem to have the discs attached to themselves. They would have been the ones in charge, the scientists, the thinkers, the architects of the world’s end. I laughed as they were torn apart by the very people they thought they controlled.

  “You’re fucking insane,” Isaac said and I turned to look at him and shrugged.

  “What else can you access from here?”

  “Most of the main systems.”

  “Research data?”

  “Fuck no! That stuff is stored separately. The workers weren’t allowed anywhere near that.”

  “Shame. I would have liked to be able to download it all. No matter, I can always send people back for it.”

  “Why?”

  “The people here made the zombies, I’m pretty sure they would have a whole lot of information that would be useful to the people back home who are trying to figure out a way to wipe them out.”

  He stared at me, unblinking and then turned to the keyboard. He tapped out a number of commands and then waited as something was transferred to the flash drive. He pulled it out and tossed it over to me.

  I caught it neatly and asked, “What’s this?”

  “Location and methods of contact for the other base located in England.”

  “The one that old guy wanted me to wipe out?”

  “Yeah. Whoever’s in charge there is having a change of heart. They don’t want to follow the plan anymore. That’s why you were supposed to kill them. They broke the pact.”

  “What pact?”

  He grinned wolfishly and nodded to the name of the company that was emblazoned on the wall, Genpact.

  “Genesis Pact,” he said. “A solemn vow made by some of the greatest minds the company, hell, the world, had. A pact made in secret to remake the world, to cleanse it of the old and bring a new enlightened age.”

  “Sounds nuts.”

  “Hardly,” the old man said and I turned to the monitors in surprise.

  “You’re still alive, I must admit I’m surprised.”

  “Smarter men than you have tried to kill me, boy,” he snapped.

  “So, that’s why you killed everyone?” I said. “To play god and remake the world in your image.”

  “Don’t be so foolish. God had nothing to do with this. In fact, religion will not exist in the world when we are finished. There will be no more wars, no more famine or squabbling for resources. The people that will leave the bunkers when the last of the living and the undead are gone, will be a people who put science and critical thought before all else.”

  “They will be a people who will work for the betterment of humanity rather than creating the latest gadget to keep the ignorant amused and docile.”

  He sneered at the camera and I shook my head, unable to hide my amusement.

  “Considering that you were willing to have me wipe out a load of your own people, I don’t think you’re as enlightened as you think you are.”

  “We shall see, boy, we shall see.”

  “Where are you?” I asked. “I’ll come and finish you personally. Save you from being devoured by your own creations.”

  “Do you really think there wouldn’t be a contingency?” he scoffed. “No, I will survive and I will see an end to you and your ragged little band of survivors.”

  “Good luck with that,” I told him. “Because I know you’re out there and I’m coming for you.”

  The display went dark and I grinned at my own reflected image in it before I swung round to face Isaac and the two worried looking men beside him.

  “Well then, it’s been fun but I think I need to head home.”

  “You realise you need to fight your way through hundreds of the undead?”

  “Screw that. There’s no reason not to take the elevator. That means we'll only have to fight them on the top floor.”

  “What’s this, ‘we’ nonsense?”

  “Do you thin
k your small group will have a chance out there alone? No food, enemies all around you and burdened down with your families?”

  “You have a better option? Because I’m pretty sure I want to be as far away from you as I can be.”

  “The people back home, on the island, they aren’t like me,” I said with a shrug. “They want to survive and build a world where people like me aren’t needed. You could help them do that.”

  “I abducted you, they won’t forgive that.”

  “Ah, it’s fine.”

  He looked confused for a moment and I actually thought he was considering it but he shook his head slowly.

  “No, I don’t think we should.”

  “Fair enough. Head to the Lake District then. There’s an island in the middle of Lake Windermere. We left some people there and they should take you in.”

  “I might do that,” he said in a tone that indicated he wouldn’t do anything of the sort. I flashed him a grin and lifted the gun.

  “How about we get out of here?”

  The doors opened slowly and I raised my gun, firing before it had even opened a quarter of the way. The fresh-made zombies pushed at the door as they tried to get in and both Isaac and I emptied our guns into them.

  As the last one fell, he turned to me and gave me an appraising look.

  “You’re not a bad shot.”

  “I don’t like to use guns, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use them.”

  He smiled at that and pulled a spare clip from his pocket and tossed it to me. I ejected the empty one and slid the new one in.

  “Come on then.”

  We moved through the empty corridors with as much speed as we could, though I were hampered a little by my injured foot, we still made good time. I stood back as the elevator doors opened, gun raised, just in case but it was empty.

  Once we were all inside, Isaac hit the button for the first floor and we waited in silence as we slowly ascended. My thoughts turned to Lily and my child. I would see her again, soon, and once I was with her, I had no intention of leaving her. For a day or so at least.

  The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened and once again, we closed ranks and fired into the swarming bodies of the undead. I’d like to say every shot was a head-shot, but alas, more than a few missed.

  A zombie came close and I struck out with the knife, straight through the top of its head and it dropped like a stone. I fired at the next as it approached and blew a hole through its skull. I grinned like a child on Christmas morning, glorying in the death I had wrought.

  I wondered if that was how the architects of the pact had felt as they watched the world die at their command. It was an unsettling thought that there could be a group of people out there who had the will to pull off such a thing.

  One of the men from the control centre fired point blank and still missed a zombies’ skull. He screamed as it tore open his throat and died gurgling and thrashing. I ended the zombie’s life and then the man’s, ensuring he wouldn’t rise again.

  “That’s the last of them,” Isaac said with a look of sorrow for his fallen friend. “Once that doors open we go our separate ways.”

  “I’d say it’s been fun, but what with the torture and everything, it’s not been great,” I said and he managed to raise a smile.

  “I do like you, clever bastard. If you weren’t such a psycho we could even be friends.”

  “We still can,” I said with a shrug. “The safest people around me are my friends. I would kill for them, perhaps even die for them.”

  He gave me a long, gauging look and nodded.

  “Maybe you would, I hope so. It would mean you aren’t a total monster.”

  I just shrugged, not sure how to answer that and stood patiently as his friend opened the doors. A blast of cold air hit me and I felt a shiver as I realised that I wasn’t exactly dressed for travel.

  “Be seeing you,” Isaac said and raised his hand in a wave before setting off at a jog through the trees. He was soon lost to sight.

  I sucked in a deep breath of air and pondered my choices. It was a long walk back to the coast and a dangerous one. With no food or water and no suitable clothing, it would be a difficult journey. But potentially a bit exciting.

  “Ryan?” A voice called and I turned to see Gregg step from the trees, several minions of mine following behind him.

  They clasped their hands to their breasts as Gregg stared, slack-jawed at me.

  “You took your time,” I said with a grin. “You missed all the fun.”

  Epilogue.

  I stared out over the water, watching quietly as the boats ferried people back to shore. There was much hugging, tears and laughter as people were reunited on the docks. I couldn’t begrudge them their happiness, they’d survived, again.

  Some of Ryan’s followers walked through the crowd and it parted before them. There was no fear on those faces though, but respect and perhaps, a little awe. The knew how the Dead had stood fast against the undead hordes, laying down their lives for those people who just days ago had feared and hated them.

  It was pleasing, to see that shift, though no doubt it would change again once the memory began to fade. People were funny like that.

  “They’re on their way,” Cass said as she stared out of the window, down at the busy street below. “It will be an interesting meeting.”

  “We have a lot of thanks to give them but plenty more questions too,” I replied absently.

  As curious as I was to meet the captain of the sub, I was a little wary. They had watched and waited while many of our people died and I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to forgive that.

  “Any sign of Wells?”

  “That fat fucker is long gone,” Charlie said from across the room. “A few of his people have disappeared too.”

  “They can’t have gone far, this is an island after all.”

  “We’ll find them,” Cass said. “And weed everyone else that was involved in that plot against you.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I sighed and pressed a hand against my stomach. I was pretty sure it was starting to show a bump. “We can’t change everyone’s mind overnight. We have to do it by showing our intentions. That will take time.”

  “We’ll get there,” Cass agreed. “And he’ll be back safe, I’m sure of it.”

  “I’m starting to lose hope,” I admitted.

  “You can lose hope but keep your faith,” she said with a smile. “That man is harder to kill than anyone I’ve ever known and he’s devoted to you.”

  “Maybe, I don’t…”

  “Hey, shut up!” Charlie yelled as she fiddled with a dial on the radio.

  “What? Why?”

  “Shhh,” she insisted as she turned the dial this way and that, slowly as she tried to zero in on a signal. “I’m sure I heard…”

  The radio crackled and then I heard it! A voice I knew, a voice I loved, coming through faint but it was there.

  “Is this thing on?” he asked, irritation clear in his voice.

  “Turn the dial,” Gregg replied.

  “What dial?”

  “That one, no that one… of for God’s sake man! Give it here.”

  I looked at Cass and saw tears reflected in her eyes as a smile lit up her face.

  “Hey,” Gregg said. “Anyone out there? Seriously! C’mon now, stop messing around and answer me. I found your missing lover boy!”

  “You didn’t find me! I did all the hard work.”

  “We did! We tracked you all the way here!”

  “I left you a bloody mile wide trail! Hardly tracking when you’re following signs I left.”

  “You can’t let me have anything can you?”

  “Anyone gonna answer?” Charlie asked and I burst into laughter.

  I practically ran across the room to the radio and lifted the headset that Charlie handed me. I slipped it over my head and sucked in a deep breath, barely able to hear over the beating of my heart.

  “He
llo! Hello, Ryan?”

  “Hello, Lily,” my love replied. “I’m coming home.”

  Note from the Author.

  Well! That was a little exciting I think. The island survived an attack and perhaps made some new friends along the way. Ryan, being a little like his old self, managed to kill a great many people and feels a great deal better for doing so. Now, all he has to do is make his way to the coast and back to the woman he loves. No doubt there’ll be some adventures along the way.

  This felt like the right place to end the episode. Much has been revealed and Ryan and Lily are not yet reunited, but a great many things can happen on the journey home.

  An enemy has been revealed and the reasons, and the architects of the end of the world. Their story is not yet done and there will be more of them in the next few books as we head towards the end of the season.

  I hope you all enjoyed the story, (and finally learning Ryan’s last name after thirteen books,) and will continue on the journey with Ryan, Lily and their companions for the rest of the season. As always, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your continued reading of this story and you can visit www.facebook.com/KillingtheDead for updates on book releases and progress of the various series I am working on.

  Richard.