Alison rushed forward as soon as it turned its back and was caught by a backhanded blow as it swung back to face her, catching her in the side and sending her crashing to the floor. It didn’t rush after her, just turned back to watching me.
Smart. As soon as it had gone to bite her, I would have been on it.
I hefted the knives in my hands and grinned widely beneath my hood as the adrenaline surged through my body and my heart increased its beat, eagerness for the fight rising within me. I didn’t run, didn’t need to rush, as I moved forward to meet it.
Chapter 19 – Lily
We made it to the boat, a squad of marines setting up at the bottom of the gangplank, weapons ready. I gripped the rail of the boat as I watched the stragglers come running towards us, the slow-moving horde of undead behind them.
“Come on!” I muttered, urging them on.
Wounded were carried by their comrades, the dead left where they lay. Weapons that still had ammunition were fired into the massed ranks of the undead to little noticeable effect on their numbers.
“Must be hundreds of the damn things,” Gregg said from beside me. “Where did they all come from?”
I just shook my head. Occasionally, a Feral could be seen in amongst the massed ranks, mainly though they were behind them, urging them on. A roar sounded behind them, answered by the haunted moans from a thousand throats and a shudder ran through me.
“How many do you think we’ve lost?”
“Maybe twenty marines,” he said in a low voice. “With the squads we lost earlier that’s what? Fifty or more of our people.”
“Would have been more,” the Admiral said from behind me. “If you hadn’t warned us.”
“Still too many,” I said without looking his way.
It was a disaster. We’d known that we might lose some of our newly made CDF forces in the assault on the shipyards, but we’d been expecting to find some Shamblers and maybe, some Ferals. We could deal with them, we knew how to fight them and we’d trained for it. We’d not been expecting ambushes and a guiding intelligence that was waiting to spring such a trap.
If we’d not retreated when we did. If we’d continued chasing them through the buildings and amongst the containers. If we’d just gone that bit further in… we’d have been surrounded and slaughtered.
Yes, I’d managed to save some of our people by recognising the danger, but nowhere near enough. The Admiral was accountable and there were factions that would see him replaced. Factions that had the desire to see military rule over our little island.
“What a mess,” I muttered and hung my head. I had no need to see the rout of our forces.
“Speaker for the living,” the female acolyte said and I turned my head to look her way.
“What?” I asked, aware that several of the soldiers and the Admiral had bemused looks on their faces as they watched the exchange.
“We must return. Our Lord Death must hear of this.”
Oh, just what I needed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get you across the river.”
“You must return too.”
I raised my eyebrows at that and shared a look with Gregg. If Ryan had wanted me to return, then he should have asked me and not instructed his zealots to do so.
“What?” My tone was suitably cold as I bit back on my anger.
“We are not to leave your side,” she said and I calmed myself a little.
No exact order to bring me back then, just one to stay with me.
“So, you can’t go back without me. What would you have done if I never planned to go back.”
“Once you were in a place of safety, we would have returned.”
“Lieutenant?” The Admiral said, “Care to explain.”
I ignored Gregg’s snicker as I watched the last of the marine’s board the boat. The gangplank was raised and the last few shots were fired into the approaching undead before the wounded were tended to. I leaned back against the railing and exhaled a soft sigh.
“We have things we need to talk about,” I said to the Admiral. “Though, preferably in private.”
“Understood,” he said with a slight smile forming. “I’m sure it will be… Look out!”
A hand grabbed me by the throat, claws digging into my flesh and I barely had the time to let out a scream before one of the acolytes had a knife spinning past my head to slam, blade first into the skull of the undead behind me.
“W-wha?” I gasped as the acolyte pulled a second knife and rushed to the rail, while I collapsed to my knees.
All along the length of the dock, the Ferals were leaping from the edge and clinging onto the side of the boat for dear life. Claws digging into the wood as they pulled themselves up.
“Cast off!” the Admiral called as the marines leapt to action.
I could only watch as the acolytes and soldiers defended the boat from the encroaching undead. Gregg pulled me away from the railing and helped me to my feet and the boat pulled away as the last of the zombies fell away.
“They’ve always been terrified of water!” Gregg said. “I’ve never seen them approach it willingly, let alone jump across it.”
Another thing to worry about, another change and if they were more scared of this Reaper class of zombie than they were of the water, what did that mean for our people, out on the island.
“I need to contact the Fleet,” Admiral Stuart said. “For now, we’ll set up a temporary position with Lieutenant Macintosh and his people.”
He turned away, then paused before looking back. “Glad you’re okay,” he said.
“Me too,” I replied and looked for the female Acolyte who spoke to me.
“Thank you,” I told her. “You very likely just saved my life.”
“As My Lord commanded,” she replied with just as much emotion in her voice as she would have if she had just returned my lost purse and not killed the zombie about to tear my throat out.
I shook my head and rubbed at my throat, thankful that it hadn’t managed to break the skin before it was killed. My hands trembled as I realised just how close I had come to dying. I couldn’t help but think of the things I still needed to do and the people I needed to speak to.
It made me so very grateful for the acolyte saving me and though she didn’t seem to think it was anything special, it certainly was to me. Which, I realised with sudden clarity, is exactly like all those other people at Lou’s place would have felt.
These black-garbed zealots asked for nothing and willingly gave their lives to save others. They did it in such a manner that you couldn’t help but realise that it wasn’t special to them. It was just an everyday reality. Someone needed saving, then they would be the ones to do it.
Ryan, for all his faults, had built a force for good. Now, how he’d built it, that was most definitely wrong but that couldn’t be changed quite so easily. It didn’t seem to matter that much either. They weren’t out there actively recruiting people to join them, just allowing them to if they asked.
They asked for nothing, expected nothing and would spend the rest of their lives saving people and putting their own lives at risk to do so.
Crap!
I was going to have to admit to Ryan that he was doing something right with them and that would kind of undermine my whole being pissed at him.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Gregg said.
“Just realising a few unpleasant truths,” I said and scratched Jinx idly behind the ears.
“I can guess what about,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah.” I shook my head and smiled ruefully. “I’m gonna have to see him again, aren’t I?”
“Was that ever in doubt?”
“He left me.”
I couldn’t hide the pain behind those words. It still stung and no matter my feelings for him, no matter how much I might want to be with him. He’d hurt me and there was a part of me that couldn’t shake the thought that he took it as an easy out. A way to be with someone more like he was. Li
ke that bitch Georgia.
“Can you really blame him?” he asked and held up his hands placatingly as I scowled. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded.”
“How else could you bloody mean it?”
“You know how he is,” he said, lowering his voice. “What he is. He was hardly a sociable person and one of his few friends had just been killed. We all blamed Gabe and the others, it’s just that he was the one who did something about it.”
He sighed and scratched at his face, at the scar tissue around his eyepatch.
“I would have killed them in an instant if I’d had the chance,” he said. “I hold no ill will to him for doing it other than that he felt that he couldn’t ask us to help. Cass feels the same way.”
“She does?”
“Of course, she does! She loved Pat. She’s carrying his child for God’s sake! Her upset was at Pat’s death and the way…” he glanced at the Acolytes. “The way, your boyfriend chose to deal with it alone.”
“But he did leave us,” I said. “In his mind, he saw them as innocent and he went to kill them anyway.”
“You and I both know he thought you saw them as innocent,” he said gently, perhaps gentler than I deserved. “He left to protect you. To save you having to compromise who you were for him.”
He gave a soft laugh as the boat was tied off at the bottom of the office block and the cage began to descend.
“The chances of my finding someone to love me were low before this,” he said with a gesture to his ravaged face. “So, take it from me, when I say that man loves you whether he knows it or not.”
His smile was full of sorrow and lost hope as he reached out, taking my hand in his own and squeezing it gently.
“Just like you still love him, whether you’ll admit it or not,” he said.
Chapter 20 – Ryan
I hit the ground hard, amidst a shower of broken glass from the panel I’d just been thrown through. The air rushed from my lungs, leaving me gasping for breath and the Feral Leader grasped each side of the wrought iron window frame in its claw-like hands and pulled itself through.
My grip tightened on my knives as I rolled over and pushed myself to my feet. It didn’t seem to be in any rush to actually kill me, which was a novelty. I tasted blood in my mouth and grinned as it approached.
It swung one hand, almost lazily towards me and I ducked beneath it, stepping to the side and pivoting on my heel to slam my short-bladed knife against its skull. The blade bounced off the bone plating at its temples, and I began to sweat a little.
A gun fired, a spurt of thick, almost black, blood bursting from the creature’s shoulder and I swore.
“Aim at its head, you idiot!” I snapped before ducking another swing of its claws.
It stumbled as the next bullet hit the back of its head, glancing off the bony plates and doing little to no damage. It let out a roar of anger though and the Officer, gulped as it swung towards him.
My long knife sank up to the hilt in its back and I was forced to release my grip on it as a resounding blow from the back of its bony hand caught me on the side of the head. I stumbled, almost falling and backed away from it.
“Great!” I muttered to myself as I stared down at the short-bladed knife that was all I had left to work with.
The two soldiers followed the Feral Leader through the shattered window, their bucklers held before them and their pointed metal spikes held ready. I doubted that they’d have too much luck, but it bought me time to think.
As the first soldier rushed in, it batted aside his clumsy lunge and responded by jamming its clawed hand into and through his abdomen. His face turned pale, eyes opening wide with shock as he began to scream.
It pulled back it’s crimson soaked arm and seemed to grin, if such creatures could be said to do such a thing, before spinning on its heel, disembowelling the other soldier with one clawed foot. It turned towards the officer. He ran.
Wonderful.
I dashed forward, dropping low beneath its swing and sliding across the glass covered grass, short blade slashing out across its left ankle. It howled as it collapsed, the ankle giving away beneath it as the hamstring was severed.
Sharp pain flared in my leg as I pushed myself back to my feet and I glanced down at the large piece of glass embedded in my thigh. Not great, but I could still stand. I leapt on the Feral Leader and was batted aside with embarrassing ease.
I rolled over the grass, grimacing as my weight came down on the glass sticking into my leg, driving it deeper. I allowed myself a bare moment to lay on the grass before I pushed myself back to my feet, the Feral Leader pulling itself towards me.
Broken teeth, were visible as it worked its mouth, a series of low growls issuing forth. I grinned back at it as I kicked aside its hand plunged my knife down against its skull.
“Dammit!” I was sure it was laughing at me as I failed to break through its skull once more.
I hobbled away, thinking carefully about my options. I could always go in through the eye, but it was too fast for that and managed to move its head just enough to avoid it each time I’d tried. No, to do that I’d need to have it held still.
My knife was still sticking out of its back and I nodded thoughtfully then laughed as I realised what I was going to do. I kicked aside its hands once more, dropping down on its back and grasping the dagger.
I set one booted foot against its side and pulled. The knife slipped free and without hesitation, I slammed it down again, right through the neck and hard enough that it pinned the creature to the ground.
It growled and thrashed but was unable to move very much which gave me enough time to stab down with my short-bladed knife, sliding it in between the vertebrae and severing its spine. It’s arms and legs stopped moving as it lost all control and I dropped back onto the grass, breathing heavily.
For a moment there, I thought it had me. Certainly, as it threw me through the damned windows, I was pretty sure I had fought my last fight. Overall though, I was pleased with the outcome.
“My Lord…” Alison said.
Her voice was full of pain and she held onto the window frame as though afraid she’d fall. I waved her forward.
“Find that coward who ran,” I said. “Then you can help me with this.”
“Help?”
“Can’t just leave it here if I’m going to find out how best to kill it,” I said. “We’ll take it with us and I can… experiment a little.”
She nodded before catching herself and her eyes closed as pain shot through her. She clutched her head and steadied herself before going in search of the officer who had run.
I stared down at the Feral Leader, noting the bone growths that formed protective plates and wondered if the creatures were natural at all. I’d thought that the zombie virus or whatever it was that reanimated them, was a natural occurrence, but seeing the changes, I wasn’t so sure.
With a sigh, I put aside that thought for later. The glass stuck in my thigh wasn’t deep but I didn’t want to pull it out without having some first aid supplies close by, which meant a long walk back to base.
Since Alison was injured as well, I thought it would be only fair to make the officer carry the zombie. It would give him something to do while I decided whether or not I was going to kill him.
Chapter 21 – Lily
It felt wrong to be standing safe, sipping at a hot cup of coffee while just a short time before, so many of my fellow soldiers had lost their lives. There would be no headstones raised for them, no grave for their loved ones to visit. Just an endless hunger until we gave them the final death.
“Ugly sight,” Gregg said with a nod towards the docks across the river.
The massed undead stared across at us, their moans filling the night air and bringing a tremble of apprehension to even the most battle-weary soldier. Some of those gathered down there were our comrades, our friends.
“We’ll never win, will we?”
“What do you mean?”
He placed his cup on the ledge that ran around the building’s roof and sank down to sit on the rough surface of the roof, his back to the undead as though he was determined to show he wasn’t scared of them.
“We’ve won some battles, saved some people… but still, look at them.” I gestured down at the undead. “Every time we start to get a handle on them, they change. Bloody evolve into something stronger, more lethal.”
“Everything changes. It’s natural.”
“Like those things are natural,” I snapped and his lips twitched in a smile.
“What’s eating you?” he asked. “You’re not usually this fatalistic. Is it…”
He pointed with his chin, to the black-garbed acolyte standing a short distance away. Far enough to give me the privacy I’d demanded, but close enough to leap to my aid should I need it.
“Yeah, that’s part of it,” I said.
It marked me out as different and there’d been more than a few strange looks as their presence was noted. More so, when the soldiers began to realise that only one of them spoke and then only to me. The rumours were starting again.
“When’s the Admiral wanting to talk to you?”
“No idea. He’s been on the radio for most of the afternoon and then joined in debriefing the troops.”
“Trying to find an answer to what happened?” He asked with a bark of laughter. “That’s easy. We were overconfident and fucked up.”
“Hardly our fault. No one’s ever seen them do this sort of thing before.”
“We did,” he said. “We knew there was a new class of zombie out there.”
“No,” I corrected. “As far as we knew, there was a smarter than average Feral. That’s all. We can’t blame ourselves for this.”
“Man, it’s a mess. This whole bloody thing. I’ve had enough.”
“What do you mean?”
I watched him cautiously as I sipped at the coffee. There’d been a period of time as he recovered where his mood had darkened. His usual good cheer had gone, replaced by anger and despair. We’d kept a close watch on him, Cass and me, but for a time I’d been really scared that he’d hurt himself.
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