Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis (11 page)

“It’s alien,” said Tom
sighing. “Sorry, Jackson, but you’re not quite right. This infection that kills decent people and turns them into walking dead cannibals isn’t a message from God, nor is it manmade. It wasn’t here on Earth either. It didn’t crawl from the belly of some creature into the human food chain. No, it came from somewhere up there.” Tom raised one finger and pointed upward. “Fuck knows how, or why, but it did. This thing is alien. That’s why we have no cure for it.”

The room fell silent.

Jackson began to laugh. “Tom, I respect you, but you sound like a raving lunatic. You’re really talking about aliens? Are you saying we are being attacked by zombies from Mars?” Jackson slapped his palm against his head. “This is…this is just crazy”

“I
tend to agree, Tom, why would you think this is alien? Are you lying to us trying to make us feel better ‘cause if so, I don’t get it,” said Jessica.

“It’s true,” said Christina
coming down the stairs. “Tom’s not lying.”

“You too?” said Jackson. He sat down and threw his hands up in the air. “Sheesh.”

“You don’t have to believe me or Tom,” said Christina
. “Quite frankly that’s up to you, but this infection is alien.”

“How so?” said Harry. “Where did you get this?”

“Ferrera,” answered Tom. “We talked to him back at the airport before he...anyway, before he left us, shall I say. He filled me and Christina in on what this thing was.”

“This Ferrera bloke, how did he know? Who was he?” said
Moira. “Can we talk to him?”

Tom sn
iffed. “Nope, you can’t talk to him, he didn’t make it. He was a soldier, but he’s dead now. He had no reason to lie to us. And what he said makes sense.”

“Maybe,” said Harry. “But if it’s alien, and I’m prepared to concede it’s possible, then why? Did something crash here
? Was it an accident? Or was this thing sent here on purpose? If it was designed specifically for man, presumably with the intention of wiping us out, then you have to say it’s doing a damn good job.”

“That doesn’t explain how it spread around the world so fast,” said Jessica. “If some kind of alien disease started in London I can see how it would spread around the country
, but that doesn’t explain France or anywhere else.”

“Oui,
it’s true, Paris was hit hard by the infection. I heard of other incidents around the country in Lyon, Marseille, all over, even stories of infected coming over the border from Germany. It was some kind of viral outbreak that they couldn’t contain. This was not a disease from England. This is not like your beef with the foot and mouth, eh?” said Laurent smiling wryly. His attempt to inject a little humour to dissolve the tension only annoyed Jackson.

“Now hang on,” interrupted Jackson, “I’ve tolerated this up to now
, but I can’t take much more of this nonsense.” Jackson got up and began pacing the floor.

“Jackson, sit
down, mate. There’s no need to get angry,” said Harry.

Jackson sat down on the sofa and folded his arms. He couldn’t summon up the energy to argue anymore. He ground his teeth and wished he could rewind the clock. He wished he had not gone into work that fateful day and
had stayed home with Mary. Instead of being here now, arguing with strangers, having spent the last few weeks killing zombies, he could be with her, his wife, in Heaven. He had no death wish, but sometimes he thought Mary had gotten the best deal of the two of them.

“
We need to focus,” said Tom. “Let’s save the debating for another day. Every minute we spend here today is a minute wasted. I’ve got an idea of how to get out of here, but I need everyone on board.”

“
Okay, let’s talk about the Martians another day. Let’s hear the plan,” said Moira still keeping a cautious eye on the driveway below.

“We need a diversion. Two or three of us can get out back into the field easily enough without being noticed. We track back around to the road and make a scene; shout, scream and get their attention. Not all, but a lot of the dead will go for it. You’ll have to be quick on your feet though. Run down the main road and lead them out of town as far as you can. There’s a petrol station a mile out of town. Make it there and hide. If you can slip inside without being seen the dead will keep running.
Meantime, the rest of us will pile into the van and get out of here. We’ll then get the dead to follow us, lead them back into town. We’ll circle around and pick you up from the petrol station. Then it’s off to Penzance.”

“I think it’s insane,” said Harry, “but I think it might work. I can’t see a better option. Anyone else?”

“Do what you like,” said Daniel, “but me and my family will stay here, thank you.”

“You don’t have to come with us,” said Harry, “but I wouldn’t stay here if I was you. Once we
leave, we can’t shut the door behind us. Some of those things will get in and you won’t be safe. From what I hear you can’t go home.”

“Dad
, listen to them. Even if just for now, we need to stick together.” Heidi looked from him to her mother. Glenda was quiet and downcast, her eyes wet.

“Fine. We’ll go along with
you, for now,” Daniel replied.

“I’ll go,” said Laurent. “I’m a fast runner
. I don’t mind being the bait. I’m getting used to it anyway, eh, Tom?”

Tom nodded at Laurent who was smirking. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, Tom, you need to drive the van. I’ll go,” said Harry.

“Me too,” said Rosa.

“What? Why? You don’t need to!” exclaimed Jessica.

“Yes I do. It’s going to take more than one or two of us to get noticed
. The more the better. Besides, we’re not easily all going to fit in the van, are we?” Rosa knew that Jess was the tough one, but she wanted to make a point and do something. This was her chance.

“
Thanks, Rosa,” said Tom.

“Us too,” said Daniel. “Me and Glenda are coming with you and Laurent.”

“Look, Daniel, you don’t have to...”

“Yes I do. I need you to protect my daughter and the safest way is for her to ride with you. If me and Glenda can help you get
away, then try and stop us.”

Heidi looked horrified. “
Dad, come on, I’ll be fine, stay with me. There’s enough room for…”

“Heidi, go with Tom and the others,” said Glenda. “Your father’s right. You heard Tom, we’ll be fine, you’re going to come back for
us, so don’t worry. Just look after yourself, honey.” Glenda took her daughter and held her tight.

“
Okay, Laurent’s in charge,” said Tom. “Out there you listen to him, follow him and do exactly what he says. He’ll lead the way. Harry, Rosa, for God’s sake, take care out there. Everyone else, gather up your shit. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

*
* * *

La
urent jumped down into the back garden and began scaling the low fence into the field. It was full of un-harvested wheat, and weeds had already begun to take a hold, slowly strangling the crop. Harry followed behind him and Rosa swiftly after him. They were nervous, but kept their emotions in check. They had spent weeks on the run, learning how to hide and move out in the open, avoiding making any noises and movements that would get them noticed. Rosa glanced behind her as she entered the field and saw Daniel and Glenda right behind her. She thought they might chicken out, but to their credit, they were coming. They must love their daughter a lot, she thought as she fought her way thought a thick cluster of overgrown stalks that pulled at her feet.

Back in the
house, they had gathered their belongings together and were filling up the van. Tom and Jackson sat in the front, with Christina, Caterina and Jessica in the back. The final two seats were reserved for Leonard and Moira.

Moira was keeping a look out upstairs and as soon as Laurent and the others had drawn away most of the dead, would run down and give Tom the signal to go.
Leonard was in the toilet as he was worried about going outside again. Wandering outside was not normally allowed and the nurse, Wendy, had told him off on more than once occasion.

Moira heard the van start and saw some of the dead at the start of the driveway be
gin to turn away from the house. She couldn’t see Laurent or any of the others though as the road was hidden by the last few houses on the edge of town. She smiled as more and more of the zombies were drawn away from the driveway. So Laurent must have made it. She waited a minute and eventually the driveway looked clear enough.

“Lenny, come on, time to go!” Moira raced to the bathroom and banged on the door. It swung open and she was surprised to find it empty.

“Lenny? Lenny, where are you?” Moira called out, but the house was quiet. She began to panic. Where could he be? Was he hiding? She raced upstairs and checked in all of the rooms, behind the doors, even under the beds, but he was not in the house. She called out again, but still got no answer. There was no time to wait. She couldn’t leave the others out there. Moira ran down to the garage and jumped in the van. She clicked her seatbelt in and Tom started the engine.

“Where’s Lenny?”
asked Jackson.

“He’s gone, I couldn’t find him anywhere. He must’ve snuck out when I was looking out the window.”

“What? Where the bloody hell did he go?” said Christina shocked. “Oh, my God, we can’t leave him.”

“There’s only one place he could’ve gone and that’s out the back after Laurent.” Tom put the van into gear and took off the handbrake. “If he’s lucky he kept up with them. We can’t go looking for him now.
We’ll pick him up later when we get to the petrol station. Harry, do it. Everyone else, buckle up.”

Harry pressed the automatic garage door opener and it swung upwards smoothly revealing the driveway. The others had done a good job of drawing the zombies away. There were only a few left and Tom put his foot down on the accelerator. The van charged out of the garage at speed and
instantly ran over three dead boys who crunched under its wheels. Caterina cringed and kept her eyes shut as the van bumped its way down the driveway, knocking over bodies and running over any zombies in its path.

Blood splattered the front of the van and Tom flicked the wipers on to clear it so he could see. As an old woman bounced off the bonnet
, her long black hair caught and pulled off one of the wipers, leaving bloodied strands of her scalp stuck on the window. The van jumped and skidded as more bodies slipped under its wheels and Tom carried on, relentless, having long since tuned himself out to the horrors of what they had to do to survive now.

The van
bumped over the pavement at the end of the driveway and Tom braked quickly. They came to a juddering halt in the middle of the road. To their left, the road was clear. To the right, he saw the zombies, hundreds of them, loping and running down the street after Laurent, Harry, Rosa, Daniel and Glenda.

“Right, let’s get their
attention, shall we?” Tom hit the horn and kept his hand on it as he pulled the van away after them. He needed to get as many as possible to follow the van, giving time for the others to reach the petrol station and hide.

Leonard heard the horn blaring and stopped. He had gotten lost in the field of wheat and was worried. What would Billy do if he got lost and couldn’t get home? He looked down at his pyjamas covered in
dust and dirt. Carol would not like seeing him dressed like this and he began to think it hadn’t been such a good idea to follow Mr and Mrs Cooper. They had seemed like such a nice couple. He ran forward, following the sound of the horn and hoped he would find his way out of the field before the bad people found him.

CHAPTER NINE

Jimmy prised the last nail from the door and put it in his pocket with the others. He removed the plank and carefully carried it through to the lounge, laying it down quietly behind the
out of tune piano. He went back to the kitchen and put his hand on the doorknob. This was it, there was no going back. Once he opened that door, they would be exposed.

The door creaked open and Jimmy looked at the street before him. The house
across the road had indeed burned down, but the flames hadn’t reached any others nearby. The burnt out shell looked like a rotten decayed tooth in a row of otherwise perfect teeth. Jimmy pushed the door back so it was wide open. The air tasted good. The sun had barely risen so it was gloomy outside, but Jimmy felt happy. He wasn’t nervous about going outside. His mother had been caught out, unprepared, but Jimmy knew what he was doing. He needed one of them, just one of the dead, and his father would see sense. Actions speak louder than words, as his father was fond of telling him before giving him a slap on the back of the head.

Jimmy walked down the pathway from the front door and began whistling.
Anyone listening would’ve heard a badly out of tune rendition of Crowded House’s ‘World Where you Live.’ It was the first song that popped into Jimmy’s head. He waited, listened and then, sure enough, a solitary zombie appeared. It had been crouched between two cars a little down the road, apparently eating something as it still carried the bloody entrails of something between its dead hands. The zombie looked like it used to be a woman, but its body had decayed badly and its flesh was thin and scraggly.

Jimmy whistled again to make su
re he had its attention and then ran back inside the house. Now he would go and wake his father up and show him
why
they had to leave. He glanced at the clock. His father was never awake before seven, he would still be sleeping. Probably sleeping it off, Jimmy thought.

“Dad! Dad, get up!” Jimmy bounded up the stairs two at a time. He opened his parent’s bedroom door and David was on his feet. He was wearing just a pair of dirty boxer shorts and brandishing a knife.

“What? What’s happened?” David’s eyes were sleepy yet wild with surprise. He stared at Jimmy. “What the hell’s going on, lad?”

Jimmy was surprised that his father was so alert for such an early time of the day. “
Dad, we have to go, they’re here. One of them broke the door down. Come quick!”

Jimmy rushed out of the bedroom and David followed him downstairs into the kitchen. Jimmy stood there proudly by the front door which was wide open. “See? I told you.”

“What the..?” David couldn’t understand how the door had been broken down. It looked fine and there were no zombies milling around the house.

Suddenly,
the dead woman that Jimmy had whistled to appeared and dropped the meat it carried in the doorway. The zombie reached out for Jimmy and David lunged at the same time. He managed to grasp the dead woman as Jimmy ducked out of the way. He hadn’t expected the zombie to actually get
into
their house.

“Dad?
!” Jimmy recoiled in horror, pressing himself against the wooden table as his father rolled around on the floor with the dead woman. Jimmy could see blood coming from his father’s arms where the woman had scratched him and torn at his flesh.

David managed to roll over and get on top
of it. He sat astride the zombie with his knife plunged firmly into its head. As the woman finally stopped moving, David pulled the knife from her skull and he wiped it on his boxers. He turned to face his son, his face red and sweaty. He spat on the floor and Jimmy noticed his saliva was thick and red.

“Jimmy, what the fuck have you done? What the fuck have you
done, you idiot?!”

Jimmy felt sick. Perhaps he should’ve tried talking to his father first. “Dad, I...”

Another zombie suddenly appeared in the doorway, a boy that Jimmy recognised from school. It literally jumped on David’s back and sank its teeth into his shoulder, ripping out flesh and tissue. It bit him again, ravaging his neck, drinking in David’s sweet warm blood. David tried to throw the boy off, but it was holding him firmly. Exhausted, David sunk to his knees.

“Jimmy,” he
rasped, “get out of here. Go!” David’s eyes were locked on his son. His knuckles were white as he made fists and hit the zombie biting him. He tried to shake the monster off his back, but it was too strong.

“Dad, I can’t, I...”

David felt himself weakening. He was acutely aware that he was losing a lot of blood and the pain was overwhelming. The dead boy on his back refused to give up and continued digging its teeth into him.

“
Please, Jimmy, I love you, son.”

Jimmy watched as
his father dribbled blood from his mouth and sank to the floor. The zombie continued its relentless attack, gorging on the rare fresh meat it had suddenly found. Jimmy picked up the large screwdriver from the table with which he had unscrewed the nails earlier and approached the zombie. It was so intent on eating his father, who was now unconscious, that it was oblivious to Jimmy.

The screwdriver entered the zombie’s head through one ear and the tip came out the other side. Jimmy held onto it as the zombie keeled over onto the floor
. When he was sure the zombie was dead, Jimmy pulled the screwdriver out.

“
Dad?” he whispered. It was too late though. David was already dead. Jimmy bent down and touched his father’s wrist. There was no pulse. Should he run, like his father had said, or try to board the door up again? What about his father? He couldn’t leave him like this. Jimmy stood up again, staring at his father, unable to believe he was really dead. As Jimmy stared at his father’s bloody corpse, David’s left leg twitched. Jimmmy flinched and stepped back. Surely his father wasn’t going to come back? He wouldn’t, would he?

Jimmy heard the roar of an engine outside and turned to the doorway.
The noise was growing louder and he peered around the door carefully, but saw no more of the dead. Tentatively, he stepped outside clutching the screwdriver and saw a van coming down the street. It was being followed by hundreds of zombies. Jimmy recognised it as being the same van that he had seen last night and ran out into the road to flag it down.

* * * *

Harry shouted at Tom to stop, but there was no time to avoid the figure in the road. It had run right out in front of them yet Tom instinctively knew it wasn’t one of the dead. The figure was waving its hands above its head and holding a weapon of some sort. Tom saw the boy’s eyes and knew he was alive. He yanked the wheel down hard and the van careered over the pavement and crashed into a parked car. It missed Jimmy by an inch and he felt the air rush past him as the van whisked by his head.

Harry coughed and looked across at Tom who was conscious but had a bleeding nose. The van had no airbags and they had both smashed into the front of the vehicle.
Luckily, they had been wearing their seatbelts.

“Is anyone hurt?” said Harry turning slowly in his seat. He felt like a
ton of bricks had been thrown at him. There were murmurs and groans from the back seat, but nobody spoke. He looked in the mirror and saw the army of dead advancing.

“Tom, can you start it?”

Tom wiped his bleeding nose on his sleeve and turned the key. The van did not even turn over. He tried again and again, but the van stayed silent.

“It’s dead,” Tom said slapping the steering wheel in frust
ration.

A face appeared by his window and Tom
pressed himself back in his seat. He felt down the side of the driver’s seat and curled his fingers around a tyre iron. The face at the window stared at Tom in amazement before speaking.

“Please, you’ve got to help me, my dad...” said Jimmy. Seeing the blood on Tom’s face
, Jimmy’s amazement turned to concern. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to...”

Tom unclipped his belt and opened the door. Jimmy stepped away and Tom got out, still holding the tyre iron.

“We’ve got to help
you
? Are you fucking kidding?” shouted Tom.

Harry got out of th
e van too and helped the others. They were dazed, but otherwise unhurt.

“Tom, we’ve got to go. Leave him be, he’s just a boy,” said Jackson. “Those things will be on us in a minute.”

“Shit, Tom, what do we do now?” said Jessica looking down the street at the numerous zombies running and lurching toward them.

“We have to run for it. Come on.”

Tom ran down the road and everyone followed, heading away from the walking corpses coming for them. Jimmy hesitated and looked back at his home. His father David was stood in the doorway, his near naked body covered in blood. Jimmy ran after the others leaving his dead father chasing after him.

Tom turned a corner and let the others catch up. Harry and Heidi reached him first.

“We’re going to have to find somewhere to hide, try to give them the slip. When they’ve dispersed, we’ll try to find a working vehicle and go get the others.”

“I don’t like the look of any of these
houses, Tom,” said Harry. “There’s no cover, no safety. We don’t know what’s in them.”

“We should go down there,” said Heidi panting. “Godolphin Road leads to the main road out of town. There’
s a mini shopping complex there. You know, like a supermarket and some warehouses and stuff. Maybe that would be safer?”

Moira and Jessica caught up and heard the conversation.

“Let’s keep moving. I’m not dying out here today,” said Moira. She had managed to grab a rucksack and rifled through it quickly only to find it was full of books. Right now, a weapon would have proven far more useful than a well-read paperback.

Jackson and Christina appeared from around the corner with Caterina. Her normally pale face was almost purple.
Christina had managed to grab a bag too and Tom guessed it would have Caterina’s things in it, mostly medicines and vitamins.

“Heidi, lead on, quickly,” said Tom.

As Heidi ran, they all followed. Jackson ran up to Tom.

“Where’s Lenny?
We can’t leave him.”

“I don’t like it
either, Jackson, but what choice do we have?”

“I’m going to look for him. We didn’t leave Benzo
behind, did we? I can’t do it. When I’ve got him I’ll meet you at the petrol station.”

Tom opened his mouth to argue
, but Jackson suddenly ran off to the left, down a small residential street, his oversized shirt flapping in the wind. Within seconds, he was gone.

“Damn
it, Jackson,” Tom said hurrying after Heidi. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the dead in the distance. Between him and the dead was the boy who had run out into the street. Tom saw he was crying and slowed down to let him catch up.

“What’s your name?” said Tom as the boy approached him.

“Jimmy.”

The boy was still clutching the screwdriver and looked terrified.

“Jimmy, stick with us, we’re going to find somewhere safe, okay? Don’t worry about before, it was an accident. Come on.”

Tom saw the complex that Heidi had been talking about. She was running across a deserted car park headed to a series of low-rise buildings. He saw a supermarket
, but the front windows had all been smashed in. It looked as if someone had rammed them with a truck of some sort. The shop was decimated and rubbish blew around the storefront. Next to the supermarket was the entrance to a mall. It was dark inside, but Tom could see that the shops had been looted and the entrance to the mall had been destroyed. Tom guessed that someone had driven a truck or large van into the mall, probably the same one that had ram-raided the supermarket. The large metal grill that should’ve been in place was on the ground. There was no way of shutting the doorway and the mall would be useless.

Heidi had obviously noticed the same thing and was running around it, down the side, past a burnt out coffee cart.
She paused and waved for everyone to follow her. There was a garden centre next to the mall and a tall fence surrounded it. Tom could see a huge array of plants, trees, shrubs and flowers through the fencing, but wondered how Heidi was planning on getting in, if that was her plan. They would need a ladder twenty feet high to get over the fencing. Taking a look over his shoulder he saw the zombies giving chase. He hoped that Jackson had made himself scarce and quickly.

Tom and Jimmy ran past the coffee cart and down the side of the mall. They were sandwiched between the back wall of the shopping centre an
d the tall fence. Everybody stopped where Heidi had and Caterina and Christina were on their knees gasping for breath. Tom looked around and they were out of sight of the road. They had a few precious seconds out of sight of the dead before they were found. He ran up to Heidi.

“Any ideas?” he
asked hopefully.

Heidi’s face was flushed. “I thought maybe the shopping complex would be safe
, but it’s been trashed. I can’t believe it!”