Killing the Dead (Book 10): Feral

by Murray, Richard

  Lily quickly filled them in on what we’d found as I inspected the dead Ferals. None of them were missing an eye and I was fairly certain the two in the tower were the same. That meant that this one odd Feral the girl had mentioned, was still out there.

  More to the point. It had trapped her up at the top of the tower and then wandered away. Perhaps it had become bored or frustrated at not being able to reach her, or perhaps it had realised it was pointless to waste its energies waiting for her to die and gone in search of fresh prey while leaving some of its pack to stop them escaping. If the latter, then we had some serious problems from it.

  “Silloth?” Pat said. “You’re sure?”

  “That’s what she said,” Lily confirmed.

  “Crap. I knew we didn’t leave on the best of terms with them but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

  “We need to get back to the others,” Lily said. “Gather everyone up and get the hell out of here.”

  The others needed little encouragement and while they readied themselves, I retrieved my axe and had one last look around. Which is when I saw it.

  A brief flash of movement by the far corner of a building. The barest impression of a face that had been watching me before it disappeared. I set off at a run and was at the corner in seconds, axe raised as the others looked on in confusion.

  Nothing there. Just an empty street stretching away to the north. The usual cars and assorted detritus mixed with bones and scraps of clothing. So many places to hide that whoever had been watching could be anywhere. A hand touched my arm and I whirled, axe raised as Lily stepped back, eyes wide and arms raised before her.

  “It’s me!”

  “Sorry,” I said as I lowered the axe.

  “What did you see?”

  “Something. Someone. I don’t know.”

  “You think it was the same guy that was watching Cass earlier?”

  “I’ve no idea,” I replied absently. I wasn’t quite ready to say what I thought though a nasty suspicion had formed. “We’d better get back to the pub and warn the others.”

  We moved as a group back along the street, re-joining the main road and heading back to the bridge. Weapons were held ready and each of us kept a constant watch on our surroundings. It was fair to say that my friends were more than a little unnerved.

  The rain had barely let up in the time we’d been out which wasn’t a bad thing as far as the undead were concerned. We’d managed to get so close to those Ferals because of the rain masking our movements and even though Gregg was hurt, it could have been much worse.

  “Looks like someone else is headed back,” Cass said and pointed along the road to where a lone person had left a side street and was crossing the road.

  “Just one?” Lily said with a frown marring her face. “We need to hurry. I have a bad feeling.”

  With Pat helping Gregg, we hurried our pace and arrived at the pub just minutes after the girl. She was already talking rapidly when we entered and Gabriel bore a sick look on his face as though he’d eaten something that disagreed with him.

  “What’s going on?” Lily asked. “Where’s Nat?”

  “I don’t know!” Jess said. “She was with me one minute and the next, gone.”

  “What the fuck happened to Gregg?” Charlie asked when she noticed him.

  “Ferals,” Cass said. She moved to help Pat lay her brother down on one of the long upholstered seats that were fitted against the exterior walls of the bar. Georgia joined them, her face set as she checked his bandages.

  “What!” Gabriel said. “Are we in danger?”

  “No more than normal,” Lily replied with a weary sigh. “We killed them but we need to tell you what we found out. First though,” she said as she looked to Jess. “Tell us what happened.”

  The girl had a look of panic on her face and Becky poured a generous measure out of a bottle she pulled from under the bar.

  “Bourbon,” she said when the girl hesitated to take the proffered drink. “It’ll help.”

  “Thanks,” Jess said as she took the glass and pulled a face after taking a tentative sip.

  “Take a breath and tell us what happened,” Lily said, ignoring the face my brother pulled at her usurping his leadership once again.

  “We were checking houses and shops to the south. Everything was going fine. We’d seen no undead at all.” She took another sip of her drink and continued. “We were in this big store and Nat was looking at…”

  Jess looked at each of us and a blush ran up her cheeks. She raised the glass and downed another swallow before she coughed and continued.

  “She was sick of wearing the same shit every day, alright?” Jess said. “There was all these clothes and underwear on the racks, all clean.”

  “We get it,” Cass said. “I’d quite literally kill for a new bra just now. Not really had the chance to find any for a little while.”

  “Yeah,” the girl said with a little more confidence. “We figured we had time. There’d not been any undead around all day. So she took some stuff to try on.”

  “Then what?” Gabriel asked. His expression was stern and the girl looked away as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted back his head so that he could stare down his nose at her disapprovingly.

  “This shop hadn’t been looted,” she said weakly. “It was all still there so I went to look for some things myself.”

  “It wouldn’t have been,” Lily mused. “By the time this town fell, everyone would have taken cash and electronics, maybe food, before clothes and shoes.”

  “So you left your friend alone while you went shopping,” my brother said with a sneer. I could understand that at least and for once I was in agreement. Such a pointless thing to do.

  “Give her a break,” Lily said.

  To my surprise, she actually seemed to disagree with him which meant that she understood something once again, that I didn’t. I wondered if she’d elaborate.

  “Thank you,” Jess said softly. There were tears in her eyes and I held back a sigh. It was going to be one of those weepy moments and everyone would probably end up hugging or something equally ridiculous and all the while, the Ferals were out there somewhere.

  “What happened next?” I asked impatiently. The girl looked at me and then quickly away.

  “It’s okay,” Lily said. “What happened?”

  “I finished up and went to check on her but she was gone,” Jess said.

  “Was there blood? Signs of struggle?” I asked and was immediately hushed by Lily. She waved her hand in a shooing gesture and I clamped my mouth shut.

  “There wasn’t anything!” Jess said. “The clothes were where she’d left them on the floor and she was just gone. I spent the last two hours looking for her before coming back here.”

  “What clothes?” Lily asked. Why would that matter?

  “Huh?”

  “The clothes she’d taken to try on or her clothes?” Lily pressed gently. “Think back.”

  Jess sat quietly as several long seconds ticked by and I began to understand why Lily had asked that question. Finally, she answered.

  “Both!”

  “Oh hell,” Pat muttered behind me. He’d understood it too.

  “What does that matter?” Gabriel asked.

  “It means that she didn’t just wander off,” Lily said. “No one would just walk away and leave the clothes they’d been wearing and those they’d taken to try on.”

  “Someone took her?” Jess asked before she began to cry. “Oh god, it’s my fault.”

  “Hush,” Lily said gently. “We’ll find her.”

  “What if she’s dead?”

  The girl rocked back and forth, her hand shaking so bad that she had to put her glass down and hug her chest as she cried. Understandable really. The other girl was very likely dead and gone if she was lucky.

  “You think it was the guy I saw earlier?” Cass asked.

  “No id
ea, but we’re going to find out,” she declared.

  “Hold on!” Gabriel said hotly. “Remember who’s in charge here.”

  He paused and looked around the room, trying to meet everyone’s eyes. No doubt some pathetic attempt at asserting his dominance and I doubted he’d have much luck with my friends.

  “Grow up!” Lily said. See. “It doesn’t matter right now. We need to find her.”

  “It’ll be dark soon,” Becky said.

  “Every moment we waste could be disastrous,” Lily said. “We need to find her.”

  I stepped forward and laid one hand against her shoulder as I looked directly at my brother. His eyes met mine and he looked away.

  “You need to tell them what we found,” I said, my voice barely a whisper, the words for her alone. “I’ll go and find her.”

  “We should all go,” she protested and I shook my head.

  “Becky’s right. It’ll be dark soon and you know what’s out there. With everyone blundering around in the dark, we’ll be noticed and we’ll lose more people.”

  “You can’t go out alone,” she said and a smile formed on my lips as I looked directly at her.

  “I’m used to hunting in the dark,” I whispered. “Even before this, I could find prey in a town during the darkest nights. Let me try. If I don’t find anything, then tomorrow we can all search.”

  The others were watching us and I’d no doubt they’d been straining to hear what I said to her. Not that it mattered to me, but I really wasn’t interested in answering questions from people who didn’t know how I’d used to spend my time.

  “Okay,” she said and though she smiled, I could hear the concern in her voice. “Be careful and come back to me.”

  “Always,” I replied as I turned to the door. “Secure this place while I’m gone. Keep a watch.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Pat said and I shook my head.

  “Sorry my friend, this will be best done alone.” I leant in close to him and lowered my voice. “Make sure nothing gets in here.”

  “Sure mate. Of course.”

  Jinx looked at me with those big dark eyes of hers and I had the distinct impression that she wanted to come with me. I inclined my head towards Lily, confident that the dog would understand. She settled back down on the pub floor and rested her head on her paws, eyes on Lily, so it seemed that she understood.

  With a final nod for my friends, I stepped out of the door and into the falling rain. For some reason, I felt lighter as though a great weight had been removed from me. I was alone for the first time in a long while and I would do what I did best. Find my prey and kill it.

  Chapter 12 – Ryan

  It didn’t take long for me to find the store that the girl had mentioned. A two storey, rectangular block of ugly red brick that took up a large chunk of the street. A quick glance at the wide window displays with its mannequins dressed in, what were no doubt fashionable clothing, told me that they’d entered with a view to looking for clothes rather than any useful supplies.

  I stepped through the door, pausing a moment to wipe the rain water from my face and hair as best I could. My coat, which had been shredded by the claw-like fingers of the Feral I had fought earlier, was discarded. Soaked with water as it was and dripping everywhere, it would only be a hindrance. Plus, I was in the right place to find a new one.

  With that thought, I set off through the store, weaving my way between the racks of clothing and pausing often to scan the shadows for signs of movement. What little light managed to filter through the grey rain filled clouds had begun to fade with the advent of night.

  Hardly an ideal situation to hunt in but I’d make do. The thrill of it had already set my heart beating against my chest. I moved lightly, each step placed carefully to avoid making any noise, head tilting as I listened for any sounds out of place.

  The patter of rain dripping from the overflowing gutters, splashing against the pavement before the glass doors. The rattle of plastic clothes hangers against the aluminium rails when the wind blew through those doors, and the muffled sound of someone moving slowly on the floor above me. I heard it all and unable to hold back the smile, I headed for the stairs at the back of the building.

  It was hard to tell if the foul aroma that permeated the place was the result of something being inside the building in the last day or so, or just part of the general foul odour that seemed to linger around any place that held a large number of the undead.

  With that in mind, I crouched low as I exited the stairwell and moved as stealthily as I could amongst the racks of what appeared to be lingerie. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that I could move silently when required.

  The second floor of the two storey building was a great deal darker than the one below. Despite the rain and gloom outside, some light filtered through the windows and doors. Unfortunately, the few windows on the second floor were small and covered in large part by posters. No doubt it made sense to stick them up back when the world had been fairly normal, but for the moment, it was entirely inconvenient.

  Forced to wait while my eyes adjusted, I listened as best I could for sounds of movement. It was still there, a muffled thump that was, to my mind, the sound of someone moving around. I placed it as best I could, in the far corner of the room, near what appeared to be the changing rooms and a customer service counter set before a closed door.

  I crept through the room, careful to avoid brushing against the clothes, lest I raise a noise that would alarm whatever was in that back room. It took an agonising ten minutes to cross that space, muscles tense as I kept myself alert for any sign of an enemy and with a growing concern that whatever was back there would leave before I got the chance to kill it.

  A pause beside the counter before I peered round to make sure the way was clear and then I stood and pressed my back against the wall beside the door. If I leant in, I could clearly hear the rhythmic thump of footsteps. Something was inside the room, pacing.

  My fingers closed around the handle, turning it oh so slowly, careful to avoid any potential sound as I pulled open the door a bare inch.

  Whatever was making that noise stayed out of view of the door and I swore silently. I much preferred to see my prey before I attacked, but beggars can’t always be choosers… I pulled back on the door and leapt through, axe raised.

  “Damn…” I said to the empty room as I skidded to a halt.

  The open window, caught by the wind, banged once more against the frame before bouncing away, the latch unable to close because someone, at some point, had draped a cloth over the bottom of the frame.

  I pulled a small penlight from my jeans pocket and flicked it on. A quick scan of the room revealed little in the way of missing girls, dead bodies or undead enemies. Just racks of clothes that had at one point been returned.

  With no other exits from the room and no visible threats, I used the light from the small torch to help me do a thorough search. I pulled aside racks of clothes and overturned piled boxes but no sign of the missing girl was there.

  After that room I moved back out onto the main floor and began to search the area, starting with the changing rooms. I couldn’t exactly say why they would have used the changing rooms. It wasn’t like there were any other shoppers in the place, but I guessed it was just habit. Choose some clothes and go into the small curtained boxes that were provided to change.

  There was no blood, no obvious signs of struggle, just several piles of clothes. Some of them had obviously been there for some time, likely since the fall of the world, judging by the layer of dust on them and everything else. The small pile of damp clothing was obviously from the missing girl. Beside it was a stack of underwear, t-shirts and jeans that looked to have been brought in recently.

  I checked the racks closest to the changing rooms next. With penlight in hand, I inched around each circular rack, checking every centimetre of them. Which is how I found it. A fresh stain on the very edge of some f
limsy looking green shirt. It wouldn’t have been noticeable without the light and even with it, I’d only caught it by going over every damn item on the rack.

  Since it looked to be blood, I had no intention of getting it near my face. It could be the girls, it could be from a zombie or anyone else’s. No idea what nasty pathogens it contained and with the ever present foul odour, I couldn’t tell if it was fresh human or spoiled zombie blood.

  If nothing else, it strongly suggested that something or someone had taken the girl. The question was to where.

  Rather than rush and miss something, I checked each of the racks next to the one where I’d found the blood. Then the next lot of racks in an expanding circle, until I found another slight dab of blood. It gave me a rough direction which meant I could narrow down my focus.

  It’d been well over an hour before I found the door. Nestled between two racks of heavy coats fitted against the wall, it was easy to miss and that was likely the intention. No point having a door marked staff only that any customer could wander through. Best to keep it out of the way. I grabbed one of the coats that was about the right size and pulled it on, appreciating the warmth.

  I had a brief thought that I should have checked along the walls first for signs of a door, but since there were no obvious marks around it, I wouldn’t have had the trail of blood marked items to suggest the girl had been taken that way anyway.

  Of course, when I carefully pushed open the door and stepped through into another storeroom, I found scuff marks in the dust that coated the floor. I would have noticed that and could have saved myself some time. Damn!

  To be fair though, I was more interested in finding out what had happened than I was in actually trying to rescue the girl. I’d do it because Lily would prefer that, but so long as I got to kill someone I would be happy.

  A thorough search of the storeroom revealed little of use except a door marked ‘EXIT’ in green letters that glowed beneath the light I shone over it. I pushed down on the locking bar and stepped out into the storm.