Mindless Trilogy (Book 3): Brutal Truths

by Oldham, S. P.

  Then the Thinker stopped and fell to its knees. A glimmer of hope found its way into Lavender’s heart. It was behaving much as the Thinker in the yard had, and the one in the fairground. She sat up on her knees, watching keenly, praying fervently that she was right about what was about to happen.

  The Thinker clutched its hands to its head, a grotesque parody of a man wracked with grief and pain. It twisted this way and that, strangulated sounds of torment squeezed from its desiccated throat. The mindless zombies shuffled past it, stupidly unaware, their focus only on their living prey.

  The Thinker suddenly dropped its hands to its sides, its shoulders sagging in a gesture of hopelessness. Then it raised its hands up, almost as if imploring some invisible body for mercy.

  She knew what was coming next; she was sure of it then. This time she had the foresight to turn away, sparing herself the carnage the Thinker was about to wreak upon itself. She neglected to cover her ears though. Across the frigid air, she heard the ghost of a word, uttered hoarsely, forlornly; a simple word, yet one that would stay with her forever and chill her to the bone whenever she recalled its utterance.

  ‘Help…’

  Across from her on the roof, the others all reacted to the horror of the sight. Naomi twisted her head away, catching Lavender’s eye. The girl crossed to her and nestled close to her, whether seeking to find reassurance or to offer it, Lavender wasn’t sure. Joel was first to turn his head away from the sight of the zombie tearing itself to pieces. He looked across at the women huddled together, a sly smile on his face. Lavender wrapped a protective arm about Naomi and glared at him. His smile vanished.

  When the sounds of flesh on flesh, tearing and ripping, finally stopped, Lavender turned back to the landscape below. She forced herself to ignore the bloody mass that had been the Thinker, looking out for the shuffling pack of zombies and, more importantly, for Carson and Drums. There was no sign of them now. Lavender could only hope they had made it to the rows of caravans and found some form of safety there.

  The men had pulled the ladder back up onto the roof. They were massaging aching muscles, panting after their efforts. Yasmin had moved in close to Corcoran, leaving Joel, fittingly, sitting alone some distance away.

  “What did you do that for?” the older of the two men asked, when he had his breath back. His question was aimed at Joel.

  “What do you think I did it for?” Joel sneered, “Survival, that’s what,”

  “You could have let the boy up first. There would have been time for you to climb up after him,”

  “Oh, I don’t think so! Didn’t you see how fast those zombies came up on them afterwards? I don’t think I had much time to spare at all,”

  “You shoved him out of the way like the coward you are,” Lavender snarled. The men turned to her in surprise.

  “You think you’ve got something to say about it, you treacherous little bitch? You run off with my property and then think to preach to me?”

  “I am not your property,” Naomi chipped in. Lavender could feel her trembling under her embrace. She squeezed the girl tight.

  “Well, that’s debatable, but it wasn’t you I was talking about sweetheart. I was talking about my food, my supplies,” It was only half a lie, Lavender knew.

  “That wasn’t her, it was me,” Naomi stood up to him bravely.

  “Wait, you know each other?” the older man again.

  “Oh, we’re old friends,” Joel said sarcastically, “not that it’s any of your damned business.”

  “You lousy piece of shit, your damn right it’s our business, since we just saved your life!” the man retorted, taking a step towards Joel.

  “Dad, wait! Wait!” the younger man, the one who had freed Lavender’s wrist before she passed out, had his hand on what Lavender now knew was his father’s chest, “We don’t know these people, right? We don’t know anything about them or what’s gone on between them,”

  “I know she’s right when she calls him a coward for what he did,” his father replied, gesturing first to Lavender and then to Joel.

  “Agreed,” the son said, throwing a black look at Joel, “but now’s not the time, okay? There are people out there fighting for their lives and we have to find a way to help them. Okay?”

  The man relented, visibly relaxing, “Okay son, you’re right as always. But you,” he turned to Joel, his voice low and steady, “you mind your manners, or I might just show you the quick way down off this roof.”

  Solar Power

  “If we’re going to help them, we better make it quick!” Lavender said, standing unsteadily, massaging her wrist, “Your son’s right,” she added, talking to the father, “this is our business, not yours. You’ve already helped us enough,”

  “Like I already told Prince Charming over there, I think it is our business since we saved your lives. I don’t want any thanks or fuss,” he said, raising a hand, “but there’s no way we’re going to stand back and watch you die after that, not if we can help it,”

  “Okay,” Lavender conceded, “so can you help it?”

  There was a brief pause as father and son exchanged a meaningful look. Finally, the older man nodded and said, “As long as you can run, there’s something we can try. Since we don’t have much time to explain, you’re going to have to just trust us. Right Bailey?”

  Bailey, the son, nodded agreement, “Right,” he said, making for the gap in the ceiling where Lavender had nearly fallen to her death, towing the ladder along with him, “follow me,”

  They all stood, ready to do as he suggested. Lavender put a restraining hand on Naomi’s shoulder, “Not you,” she said, kindly but firmly.

  Naomi looked hurt, “Why not me?” she asked, her voice plaintive.

  Lavender’s eyes flicked to her belly, then back to her face. Naomi’s features screwed up in protest, but Lavender stopped her before she started.

  “You’ve been through enough. You need to rest, that’s all there is to it. You’ve got someone to take care of you now, and I’m telling you no. You stay here, end of,”

  “Why does she need to rest?” Joel had sidled up behind them, unheard. Lavender spun at his approach, her fists bunched at her sides. She saw Naomi shake her head ‘no’ but she was too angry to keep quiet.

  “Because she’s pregnant, that’s why!” she spat the words into Joel’s face, her eyes flashing dangerously.

  Joel’s expression changed instantly. First shock, then a sickening look of achievement; a horrible pride that had nothing to do with affection for the girl.

  “Well I’ll be damned!” he muttered softly.

  “Let’s hope so,” Lavender retorted.

  Joel sniggered, stepping back. Lavender was acutely aware of the morning star the man was brandishing. She held her breath, ready to shove Naomi out of range should he attempt a strike where they stood.

  Instead, Joel turned away from them, “Change of plan,” he announced, “I am staying here with Naomi, to keep her safe,”

  “You are not!” Lavender asserted.

  “I am,” he said, turning back to her, deadly serious, “It could be my baby after all,”

  “Jesus!” Yasmin muttered, raising her hands to her mouth, “Naomi, God, I never knew…”

  “Yes, you did,” Corcoran sighed wearily, “we all did, don’t pretend otherwise,” he sounded exhausted, tired to the bone; too weary for a boy of his age.

  “I meant I didn’t know she was pregnant,” Yasmin clarified, her voice full of apology, “God Naomi, I’m so sorry,”

  “What for?” Naomi asked, a trace of defiance in her stance, “You didn’t rape me; he did!” She pointed an accusing finger at Joel.

  “Raped you! Ha! You were begging for it, you desperate little bitch! Christ, you wanted it so much one man wasn’t enough for you, you had to have Evan too! Both of us at the same time on occasion!”

  The punch came from nowhere. Belatedly, Lavender remembered her injured w
rist. It was all she could do to stop herself crying out in pain, shaking her hand in attempt to lessen the fresh waves of agony washing over it. With some satisfaction, she saw that whilst Joel was still standing, she had at least succeeded in rocking his head back, drawing blood from his upper lip. She watched that lip draw back into a snarl as the man raised the morning star, allowing the chain to fall loose, the spiked ball to swivel menacingly in the space between them.

  From behind Joel, a hand grasped the smooth handle of the weapon, an arm sliding around his neck in a firm headlock.

  “I don’t think so, Casanova. You let me take that little toy out of your hands right now, or I’m going to show you how to play with it properly,”

  Joel’s eyes glinted evilly. He attempted to struggle, quickly realising the man behind him was far stronger. At increased pressure on his windpipe, Joel relinquished the weapon with something like a dry growl.

  Bailey’s father spun Joel around until they both had their backs turned to the women. Then he let him go, sending him staggering, to fall to his knees. From his prone position, Joel looked back at him with a glare of pure malevolence.

  “You are coming with us, like it or not,” he said, “and I am keeping this little treasure all to myself. You step one foot out of line and you’ll find out first hand just what it feels like to get a face full of spikes. Now get up,”

  “You stay too, Yasmin,” Lavender instructed, relieved that Joel would not be alone with either of them any time soon, “keep her company. Why not take a look through Joel’s bag of goodies over there? We all know how he likes his home comforts.”

  Yasmin nodded, approaching Naomi with uncertainty. Naomi gave her a wan smile.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” was all Lavender could offer by way of promise.

  “Be careful,” Naomi said, sincerely.

  “I’m coming too,” Corcoran said, checking he still had his weapon of choice, a mean looking stiletto with a makeshift cover, tucked into the band of his jeans, “Don’t even try to stop me Lavender. Drums and I, we were friends long before all this went down. There’s no way I’m just leaving him to die,”

  “Of course not,” Lavender agreed. She sent up a silent prayer of gratitude. She never had any intention of stopping him joining them. With the girls out of the game, they needed all the help they could get.

  Looking down through the gap Lavender had almost fallen through earlier did not fill her with confidence. To her disgust, the zombie with the caved in face was still on its knees, shuffling around on all fours in the filth, apparently in search of more of her blood.

  “We’re going to have to do something about him,” Lavender said.

  “We are,” Bailey agreed, looking around for inspiration. They all followed suit, desperate to find some means of despatching the zombie without getting up close and personal, “What we need is something heavy enough to drop on its head and keep it there,”

  “Or better still, to slice its head off altogether,” Corcoran added. They all turned to look at him, expectant.

  “It’s just an idea, it probably won’t even work,” the boy was suddenly self-conscious.

  “Just tell us,” Lavender prompted, “What?”

  “Well it’s just that, it looks like this place was trying to be environmentally friendly or something. Over in that corner there, there’s a row of solar panels. At least, I think they’re solar panels. They’ve got to be quite heavy, haven’t they? If we could work one loose, it’s just a case of waiting until the zombie is right below us, and dropping the thing on it,” he shrugged modestly, as if sure the idea wouldn’t work.

  “Brilliant!” Bailey’s father said appreciatively, “What’s your name boy?”

  “Corcoran,” he sounded almost defensive, “what’s yours?”

  The older man laughed, “Fair question. My name’s Harris. But enough of the niceties, let’s get to work.”

  The solar panel came loose far easier than Lavender had expected, leaving her in doubt as to the integrity of the roof as a whole. She had no time to worry about it though. Between them, Harris and Bailey had carried the thing to the gap. With the exception of Joel, who stood aside watching them, brooding, they all helped suspend it in as best an upright position as they could manage.

  Now that she wasn’t in immediate danger of her life, Lavender could see that below there was a tall filing cabinet to one side, flanked by a slowly rotting desk and chair. They would have to wait until the zombie had crawled into the space alongside it before they dropped the panel. Timing was going to be crucial if their plan was going to work.

  Just as she began to doubt if she could hold the panel much longer, the zombie came into view. On all fours, it shuffled clumsily along, its ruined nose to the ground.

  “Wait,” Bailey cautioned, the tension rising, “just wait,”

  The zombie turned, almost disappearing from view into the darkness beyond the gap. Then it came back again, shuffling backwards this time, its bony spine obvious beneath the tattered grey clothing still clinging to its back.

  “Now!” Bailey ordered. As one, they let go of the panel.

  Lavender dreaded the thing spinning in thin air, to do nothing more than dent the creature’s already deformed skull. She hadn’t reckoned on the weight of it. It plummeted straight and true, barely wavering in its descent, to land with beautiful precision on the back of the zombie’s neck.

  There was a squelching sound. The zombie convulsed madly for a few grim seconds, then, mercifully, the panel toppled over, hiding the mangled head beneath it.

  “Nice going,” Harris said, clapping Corcoran on the shoulder, “now let’s get down there and get after your friends.”

  They rested the ladder on the filing cabinet, those on the roof holding it as steady as possible whilst Bailey and then Harris descended. The rest followed, the ladder this time being held in place by those already below. Once they were all down, Harris let the ladder rest flat on top of the cabinet.

  “Our way back up,” he explained, catching Lavender’s look, “those two girls aren’t strong enough to haul anyone up a ladder hanging down the front, like we did for you,”

  Lavender nodded, seeing immediately that he was right. She just prayed that if they did make it back in one piece, nothing followed them in here, because they would be as good as cornered if it did.

  She wanted to ask where next, but Harris urged them all to silence. They moved through the crumbling, decaying space as quietly as they were able, Lavender’s heart in her mouth the whole time, expecting another zombie to show itself at any moment. They made it to the front of the building uneventfully, pausing in the doorway.

  “The minute we set foot outside, I vote we run after your friends. Just bear in mind we might run into that little horde of zombies before we find them. Anyone else got weapons?”

  The answer to that was no. Of the five of them, only two were armed; Harris and Corcoran. Lavender didn’t much rate their prospects, though she kept the thought to herself.

  “Maybe we’d better make a little diversion first?” Bailey said, questioning his father.

  “I think maybe we’d better. Okay, the rest of you are just going to have to trust us, all right. You,” Harris said, pointing at Joel, “you better stay right at my side, because if you’ve got any ideas about coming back for those girls, if you should slip away unnoticed when you think I’ve stopped looking, I’m going to come looking for you, if you get my meaning?”

  Joel rolled his eyes in exaggerated fashion, affecting a bored tone when he replied, “I hear you,” but Lavender could see a frisson of doubt clouding his features

  “All right then, as soon as we see the coast is clear outside, we run, yes?”

  Lavender nodded yes in return. She didn’t see what choice she had.

  Down There for Dancing

  Harris and Bailey set a fair pace from the off, in spite of the snow. Lavender kept up, adrenaline for the
moment on her side. They turned in the opposite direction to that which Carson and Drums had taken. With some misgivings, Lavender stumbled on, horribly aware the whole time that Carson could be fighting for his life at this very moment and here she was, effectively running away.

  After what felt like an eternity, a building finally loomed ahead; taller than the low, flat reception building where the girls currently shivered on the roof. Closer, Lavender could see it was once the holiday park’s nightclub. Steps lead up to the entrance in a wide, welcoming arc, the twin set of double doors now missing all its glass, the interior dark and forbidding beyond.

  They stopped as one at the foot of the steps, instinct kicking in.

  “This must have been the place to be when the zombies painted the town red!” Joel said sardonically, “You sure you want to go in there? Seems like undead heaven to me,”

  “It was the most secure place we could find, ironically,” Harris answered Joel’s question, but he was directing his answer at Lavender and Corcoran, “You’ll see when we get inside. He’s right though, we always stop and do a recce before we go in,”

  “Isn’t this just wasting time?” Lavender couldn’t hold back her impatience.

  “I promise you it’s not,” Bailey said, “When you see what we’ve got in there, you’ll be glad we bothered. Just a few minutes and we’ll be after your friends, I swear to you,”

  Lavender nodded sullenly, a growing unease settling on her. She wanted to talk to Corcoran alone, to say ‘what if this is just another pair of Joel’s we’ve got here?’ Except Corcoran seemed unperturbed.

  Bailey and Harris, knowing the lie of the land, went first, stepping slowly and cautiously up the steps at the entrance and through the shattered doors. Large notices on the walls, printed in fading blue and white, cautioned Adult Only and Over 18’s.

  Once inside, Lavender saw that it had once been a spacious, modern building with plenty of room for tables, a long chrome and wooden bar to one side, a stage the other, with a sizeable dancefloor in between. Something caught her eye. Looking up, she saw there were two cages suspended over the floor, doubtless where once some inebriated, half-dressed young holiday makers had strutted their stuff for all to see. They were a sad and empty sight now.