by Russ Watts
“Where are we?” said Josef. “What are we going to do now, Kelly?” His hands were shaking with fear and he tried to hide the tremble in his voice.
“I think that’s up for debate,” said Rasmus. “Ideally, I would say we need medical attention. I’m worried about all of us. I’ve strapped up Claire’s arm as best I can, but I’m no doctor. I’m pretty sure the wrist is broken. And look at Wilfred; he’s as white as a ghost.”
Wilfred tried to speak. “I’ll be fine,” he rasped. He tried to speak again, but he began coughing and Tricia took his hand. Wilfred tried to hide it, but they all saw the blood he coughed up on the kitchen table. What they couldn’t see was the punctured lung beneath his broken rib cage.
“Hang in there, Wilfred,” said Josef. “Tug, do you think we can find a hospital or something around here? Maybe even a doctor’s surgery that might have some supplies we could use?”
“It’s not likely,” said Tug frowning at Wilfred. “By the looks of it, we are in a very small town and even if there was a hospital around, any supplies would’ve been cleaned out years back along with the inhabitants of this poxy hole.”
“So what, we sit here and wait? For what? For how long?” asked Tricia.
“Actually, no,” said Tug. “I was looking for some matches so we could start a fire and try to dry out our damp clothes. I haven’t found any so we should look in the rest of the house. Once we get some warmth in us, we can decide what we want to do. If we stay like this we’ll all end up with hypothermia.”
Josef got up and headed for the doorway. He wanted to help and Wilfred looked terrible. “I’ll go look. There was another door in the hallway. Old houses like this used to have wooden fires so there may be some in there.”
“I’ll go upstairs and look,” said Kelly.
“Me too,” said Suzy. “I’ll check out the bathroom too. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some medicine or bandages, you never know.”
Rasmus got up too. “I’ll come with you, Josef. It does seem safe here, Will.”
“Good man, Rasmus,” said Tug. “Right then, let’s...”
“Hang on, hang on, I think you’re all forgetting something,” said Will exasperated. “I don’t know if you’re all trying to ignore what’s just happened, but we have landed, crash-landed, on a land without humans. There is no electricity, water, power, no phone lines or radio. We don’t know if rescue is even coming. This is The Grave. The Grave. There is a reason nobody is allowed on or off this island. We don’t know what is out there. We should not be running around now or splitting up. Hell, for all we know, they could be right outside.”
“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Claire shoved her chair back and it flew into the sideboard. “Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just want to go home.” She began crying and Suzy pulled her into her body. Claire’s sobs were stifled by Suzy’s shoulder.
There was silence in the room for a moment before everyone started talking at once. Will and Tug began arguing about whether to stay or run. Rasmus was trying to talk to Claire whilst Suzy tried to protect her and was telling Rasmus in no uncertain terms to leave her alone. Tricia and Mark were trying to get Will and Tug to calm down whilst Wilfred slowly sank into unconsciousness.
Nobody saw Josef sneak out into the hallway that they had just come through. He wanted to leave the arguing to the others, and went to find matches. By the time they were through, he could have started a fire and then they would all be feeling a lot better. He couldn’t just stand by idly whilst Wilfred was suffering.
“All right, all right, enough,” shouted Kelly. “Enough!”
Silence descended upon the room once more and Kelly held her hands to her head. “Listen, we are all tired and scared, I know. My head is killing me. But arguing amongst ourselves is solving nothing. I’m not one to put my foot down very often, but I’m doing it right now. I am in charge. I am responsible for all of you. I know you all have your own ideas and thoughts, and yes, Tug, we do need to get warm and safe. And yes, Will, I agree, it’s probably not safe to stay here. But ultimately, whatever happens I will have the final say. If anything happens to any of you, then I will be the once facing the music when we get home. More than that, if anything happens to any of you, it will be on my conscience. I don’t want that. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wishing we had been trying to help each other when all we did was argue and stuff things up.”
Kelly lowered her voice. She had gotten everyone’s attention. She hated playing the authority card, but she had to get control of the situation before it spun away from her and someone got into trouble.
“Will, no more talk of not being rescued, okay? Planes do not disappear. This is not the Bermuda Triangle. Someone, somewhere, will already be looking for us. Tug, calm down. I appreciate what you are doing, but the truth is that nobody knows for sure where we are or what is on this island. Maybe the Deathless are all gone, I hope so. But maybe they aren’t. I’m sorry, Claire, but they are not pleasant people and we need to avoid them at all costs. So for now, we must be extra careful. Rasmus, can you please go with Josef, I don’t want him going off on his own and...shit, where is he?”
“Josef?” Rasmus peered down the hallway, but there was no sign of him. “Josef?” he called out again, louder. A chill ran down Rasmus’ spine.
Kelly stiffened up. Josef should have answered by now. “Mark, would you mind going with Rasmus to get Josef back. We can’t afford for anyone to go wandering off on their own.”
Mark followed Rasmus into the hallway. The front door was still open and the rain was still pouring down. If anything, it had gotten stronger. The secondary door they had seen was ajar, and Rasmus guessed Josef had just gone ahead without them once the arguing had started.
“Josef?” Rasmus pushed the door open and entered the room. The living room was deserted. The air smelled foul and the leather suite was covered in a grey fungus. Mould adorned the ceiling in huge patches, brown and yellow clouds mushrooming out in all directions. The wallpaper was peeling off and in places, it exposed the crumbling plaster underneath. Rasmus didn’t want to spend any more time in this house than he had to, but he felt compelled to go on. Josef had still not answered him and Rasmus was getting worried now. He walked across the room to another door. This one was ajar too and Rasmus pulled it open with Mark behind him.
The room beyond was similar to the one they had just crossed, except the floor had caved in. The old floorboards that had stood for decades had finally given way, succumbing to the weather and old age. The wet evening’s dull light trickled in through a square window and Rasmus looked down through the decayed floorboards. He could see the faint outline of Josef’s body lying in the cellar below. The air was still and Rasmus gasped. Judging from the angle at which they now lay, Josef’s legs must have broken and he had probably been knocked out instantly. He had not even had time to call out for help. Rasmus and Mark had been going slowly in their search for him, but Josef had walked straight into the dark room without thinking to check first and had fallen.
Mark could not see past Rasmus in the doorway and wondered why they had stopped. “What’s going on? What is it?” he hissed.
Rasmus was about to break the news to him when he saw movement in the cellar. It was so dark he hadn’t noticed at first, but a figure was crouching over Josef. At the sound of Mark’s voice, the figure turned around and looked directly up at Rasmus. Suddenly Rasmus forgot the bump on his head, the crash and the expedition. Sheer panic overcame him and he froze.
“Mark,” he whispered, “do you have a light on your camera?”
“No, but Tug probably has one. What is it?”
“Can you go get it please? Keep your voice down and for God’s sake, don’t let anyone else come back here. Just you, okay?”
Mark left Rasmus alone as he went to find a light, puzzled as to why Rasmus was acting so oddly.
Rasmus’ eyes were slowly getting accustomed to the gloom an
d he could make out that the figure was quite small. It was hunched over Josef, obscuring his face. Rasmus could hear faint crunching sounds and slopping noises as if the figure was eating something. Rasmus suspected what it was, but couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. He didn’t want to think about it, but he had to know for sure. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Here,” said Mark handing him a small pocket torch. “It’s all Tug had. Now tell me, what can you see? Is it Josef?” Mark gently squeezed into the doorway beside Rasmus so he could see too.
Rasmus flicked the torch on and shone the beam down into the hole. The weak light illuminated Josef’s feet and legs. Rasmus moved the torch slowly upward exposing Josef’s chest. A thin, bare arm lay on his chest and the hand was covered in blood. It was obvious that the arm was not Josef’s.
Rasmus’ hands were shaking so much that the light was unsteady and flickering as he moved it further up Josef’s body. The dead child looked up suddenly as the light fell upon his face. Dead, pale eyes looked up at Rasmus and Mark. The child must have been about eight or nine when it had died. It wore loose ragged clothes over its thin body and it snarled into the torch light. The child’s face was covered in blood and as it stood up, they could see Josef’s neck had been torn open. His eyes were glazed over and it was clear he was dead.
After falling down into the cellar, the child, who had been trapped down there, pounced immediately, ripping Josef’s throat out before he had time to regain consciousness or shout for help.
Moving the torch up further, Rasmus could see Josef’s head had cracked open when he had fallen. His brains lay pooled out over the floor in a sickening creamy white puddle looking like curdled milk. Small bloody handprints covered Josef’s face, and Rasmus guessed the child had eaten some of the brains, pulling them from Josef’s broken skull. Perhaps that was why Josef still lay dead on the ground and had not reanimated; he had cracked his skull and broken at least one of his legs when he had fallen into the deadly cellar.
“Oh fuck,” said Mark backing away. “Oh fuck,” he said again.
The child in the cellar reached up toward Mark and Rasmus, bloody hands straining for them, but he was too far away. Rasmus watched as the child’s teeth snapped uselessly, pieces of Josef’s stringy neck still caught in the child’s jaws. A gooey grey lump fell from the child’s mouth and plopped onto the dusty ground. Rasmus recognised it; it was unmistakably a piece of Josef’s brain tissue and he gagged.
Rasmus swallowed down the bile that was threatening to erupt from his churning stomach. He flicked the torch off and turned to face Mark.
“We need to leave. Now.”
In the kitchen, Suzy and Will were trying to wake Wilfred who had fallen unconscious. Kelly was still holding onto Claire whilst Tug and Tricia were searching for anything useful in the pantry.
Mark burst into the room, swiftly followed by Rasmus. “Time to go,” said Mark urgently.
“What’s happened? Where’s Josef?” said Will. He could tell from the wild look in Mark’s eyes that it was bad. Rasmus was avoiding eye contact with anyone and looking down at the ground.
Mark shook his head. “He’s...he’s not...we need to leave. Just listen to me, everyone, this house is not safe. There’s no time to...”
He stopped as a crashing sound came from above them. Something, or someone, had fallen to the floor and there were loud scrabbling sounds above them, as if a thousand rats were trying to claw their way through the ceiling to get down to the kitchen.
“Fuck this, I’m outta here,” said Mark.
Without further discussion, everyone poured out of the house, racing after Mark and Rasmus.
Tug and Will were last as they carried Wilfred between them. He was still unconscious and they hadn’t been able to raise him. Everyone had congregated on the pathway to the house, unsure of where to go.
“Rasmus, where’s Josef?” asked Kelly.
Rasmus had turned almost as white as his beard. “He’s dead. They’re here. The Deathless. They’re in the house. I saw one. A child was...it had killed him and...”
“They’re not just in the house,” said Suzy. “Look.”
Suzy pointed down the road, past the wreckage of the plane. There were a dozen figures on the road, heading straight for them. More were joining them, ambling into the street from the trees and hedges at the roadside. There were men and women of all shapes and sizes. Some were naked, some were clothed, but all of them were dead. They made a yearning, moaning sound as they approached and some were faster than others were. The fastest of the pack, a stout woman with her belly slit open, had already made it to the plane and was advancing upon the group rapidly.
Tug dropped Wilfred and Will just managed to catch him before he hit the tarmac.
“This way,” shouted Tug, running away from the dead and not waiting for anyone else.
The others ran after him, not knowing where he was heading, just knowing it was away from the throng of the dead. Will tried to pick up Wilfred on his own, but he was struggling. Suzy stopped and ran back to help him.
“Will, hurry up please, they’re getting close,” she said, trying to help him lift Wilfred.
“I’m trying, but...” Will and Suzy together managed to get Wilfred between them and began after the others who were by now far ahead.
Suzy cast a look over her shoulder and screamed, “Will, we’re not going to make it.”
Will looked back and saw that the dead woman at the front had almost caught up with them. There was no way they were going to outrun the Deathless while carrying Wilfred as well.
Will lowered Wilfred to the floor and knelt over him. “We’re going to have to leave him, Suzy.” He was furious with himself for letting his guard drop. He should have forced Tug to listen. Maybe they would have found somewhere safe instead of wasting time in that house. He was right. The Deathless had found them, drawn by the plane and the noise. Now he had to choose. Stay here and fight to protect Wilfred, or run and get Suzy away.
“But...but...” Suzy looked at Will and then back at the woman who was only ten feet away now. Suzy could smell the rotting stench of decayed flesh and stepped back.
“Oh, Will.” Sheer terror gripped Suzy and the dead body was almost upon her.
Will stood, took Suzy’s hand, and they ran. Will looked back to see if they were getting further away from the woman and was relieved to see they were. However, it was only because the woman had stopped at Wilfred’s prostrate body. Will had hoped that if Wilfred stayed unconscious the Deathless might not notice him. He’d hoped they would run past and perhaps they would be able to circle back around and get Wilfred when the road was clear. However, the dead had found him and there would be no going back for him.
The stout woman fell upon Wilfred and took a chunk out of his arm. Wilfred’s eyes shot open and he let out a deep roar as another of the dead fell upon him. An old man, bald and sallow-skinned, collapsed on top of Wilfred and began biting at his face. Another and another fell upon him and soon Wilfred’s cries were stopped. Will turned away, unable to watch, knowing he couldn’t save his friend. With Wilfred’s body hidden under a pile of writhing corpses, many of the dead ignored him and continued giving chase to Suzy and Will.
“Over here!”
Will saw Kelly waving frantically at them from around a corner and he led Suzy to where Kelly stood waiting for them.
“Where are the others?” said Will out of breath.
“Over there, come on. I wanted to make sure you’d find us. Wilfred?”
Will shook his head and Kelly nodded in understanding. Then she took off, running up the winding hill that led out of the town centre. Will and Suzy were hot on her heels as they ran, occasionally looking back to see that the dead were slowly getting left behind. The road twisted and turned as it meandered uphill and Will saw a signpost beneath a large oak tree.
‘Thank you for visiting Judgeford.
Please drive safely.
Haere ra
.’
As they rounded a corner, they stopped running. The others were all on the roadside, exhausted, waiting for Kelly, Will and Suzy to catch up. The evening was rapidly turning into night and the only light in the countryside came from the moon above. Rainclouds still darted about the sky and the pale half-moon jumped in and out of view skittishly, disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.
“We have to keep moving,” said Tug leaning over a gatepost. “They won’t stop.”
Rasmus tried to answer, but was shattered and couldn’t summon the energy to talk back.
“What about over there?” said Mark. “That post you’re leaning on is part of a fence. It looks like the start of a driveway. It must lead somewhere, maybe someone’s home. There are so many trees though I can’t see the house and that means they won’t see it either. If we’re quick enough, maybe we can hide out there for a while?”
“You want to go back inside another house?” said Suzy doubled over. She was fit and healthy, but running up hill was not something she had planned to do tonight. Her knees felt like jelly and she could only imagine how bad Rasmus felt. Not only was he over sixty, he had just seen his two old friends killed.
“We can’t stay out here,” said Will. “He’s right. They won’t stop.”
“If they don’t get us, the cold and the rain will. We won’t make it ‘til morning,” Tug said, pushing open the gate. He realised that Mark was right. There was a rough, dirt track leading into a secluded copse. If they were lucky, there might be shelter somewhere on the other side. If not, it was going to be a very long night.
“Everyone, move it,” said Kelly. “Down the path, now. Tug, shut that gate behind you. Everyone keep quiet. If we’re lucky we might just get out of sight before they catch up.”
Nobody spoke another word as they marched down the driveway. It was little more than a mud track littered with leaves and fallen branches. Twigs cracked sharply underfoot and all of them kept their senses alert, listening out for the dead that were somewhere behind them. The trees on either side of the track became thicker and hid them from the road as they walked on. They turned a bend and the driveway opened out into a large gravel yard. Tall hedges stood staunchly around it and an enormous farmhouse confronted them.
