Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis (22 page)

“
Harry, we need to get back to the causeway. Caterina’s waiting there for us in the ambulance. We’re going to use it to get to Penzance,” said Tom absently wiping Walker’s blood from his hands on his thighs.

“Um
, Tom,” said Harry, “where is it? Where’s the ambulance?”

Tom looked across from the castle over to the beach
, but the ambulance was gone. The slip road was empty and there was no sign of it or Caterina.

“I don’t get it
. We told her to wait. We told her to wait for us unless…”

“Unless what?” asked Harry.

Tom raced around the corner of the castle, almost straight into the arms of a waiting zombie. He felled the dead corpse swiftly, dropping it with one swing of the axe. He scanned the horizon, looking west in the direction of Penzance. The buildings of the town glistened in the sunlight, and across the water, Tom saw it. A huge naval ship was heading away from Penzance, out to see.

“No.
Oh please, no, not yet,” he said quietly as Harry came running around the corner after him. Heidi followed with Jessica and Rosa behind her. Jessica handed Heidi her saw and Heidi crushed the skull of an advancing zombie. Thankfully, most were drawn to the battles around the Mount. What few of Lazarus’ men were left, were fighting and shouting, attracting the dead toward them.

“Harry, it’s gone. It’s too late,” said Tom despondently. “The navy
is leaving.”

“
They can’t be going already,” said Jessica. “Tom, what do we do now? If Caterina and Jimmy took off, how are we going to get to Penzance? Can we catch up to them?”

Tom threw his axe down in disgust. “It’s too late. I was too slow.”

“Could we stay here?” asked Heidi. “Make this place secure again?”

Tom shook his head. “No. If we stay on the Mount, we’d only end up getting attacked again, perhaps by someone with bigger guns or a bigger army. It’s not safe here anymore. Besides, look around you, there are zombies pouring over the causeway to the Mount, dozens and dozens of them, far more than we have bullets for or can take care of.

“We’re going to be surrounded by hundreds of the fuckers soon; snarling, drooling, infected festering corpses, just waiting to take a bite out of us. Fighting back through them will be dangerous. You try to do that all the way to Penzance and you may as well just jump off this cliff right now.”

“
The water supply is infected now too,” said Harry thinking of the well and Norm. “There’s still a chance we could make it though,” said Harry. “There’s another way. I found a boat. I sent Moira there with Christina. It’s not far, come on we can make it!”

Harry led them down
the side of the hilltop, avoiding as many of the dead as they feasibly could, making as little noise as possible. The last thing they wanted to do was bring a hundred zombies with them to the boat. Harry noted that many of Lazarus’ men had been overrun, unable to cope with the sheer numbers of the zombies on the island now. Some of them had been devoured, but some only partially before being infected, dying, and reanimating. Harry found the steps down the cliff side and ushered Jessica, Rosa and Heidi down.

“Harry, some of them are going to follow
us, you know.” Tom picked up a discarded dagger and thrust it into the forehead of a zombie that had tried following them. It dropped dead at his feet, the dagger sticking upright like a flagpole. The moaning sound of so many zombies close by was unsettling. Being out in the open was unsettling.

“I know, but this is the way, trust me. There’s a boat down there.
This is really the
only
way out of here, Tom.”

As Harry reached the base of the
cliff, he heard shouting. It was coming from inside the cave and he recognised Christina’s voice.

“
No, we have to go back!”

“
Back? Did you see what was going on up there? There’s no way we’re going back now,” said Moira. “We wait for Harry. He’ll bring the others to us.”

“I am
not
leaving Caterina alone with that kid. She needs me. She’s six months pregnant, for Christ’s sake, we can’t abandon her.”

Harry continued into the cave where he saw the boat was still tied up. Christina and Moira were
standing on the rocks arguing and another man was sat at their feet, idly tapping a sledgehammer against a wet rock whilst the ocean threw spray over them.

“Moira, thank
God, you found it, I was worried you wouldn’t,” said Harry embracing her.

She held onto him, unable to admit her feelings for Harry were growing stronger. She knew he was
a good ten years older than her, but they had forged a strong bond over the last few weeks. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same about her, but as long as he was alive, that was enough for her, for now.

“Christina wants to go back for Cat,” said Moira
, reluctantly letting Harry go.

Tom stepped forward. “Christina, she’s gone. We need to use this boat to go too.”

“What do you mean gone? We’ve only just got here, she can’t have gone already.”

“It’s true,” said Heidi. “That navy boat was there.
Jimmy must’ve seen it too. We’ve no transport, so…”

Christina saw the looks on their faces and knew it was true. The navy had come already. So Caterina was alone with Jimmy? God help her if he didn’t get them to Penzance harbour in time. Christina looked past Tom and
Heidi, and saw Rosa.

“Oh Jesus, Rosa, what
did they..?” Christina looked beyond her, but the steps were empty and she frowned. “What about Glenda? Lenny? Anyone?”

Tom shook his head.

“My friends too?” asked Mac. “Sally? Keisha? They didn’t make it?”

“This is it
,” said Harry.

“Motherfucker. I hope you stuck it to the prick running this place.”

“I did,” said Harry. “He’s long gone.”

“Christina, w
e have to go,
now
,” said Tom feeling queasy. The adrenalin was wearing off and he felt cold. “You know how to steer this thing, don’t you, because none of us have a clue.”

“Um, yeah, yeah, I have a yacht myself.
Had
a yacht. Not that I did much sailing myself. I always had someone else do it for me. I think I can figure something out. Yeah, okay.” She turned to Moira. “I’m sorry, Moira, about earlier. I didn’t mean anything, I was just upset.”

“Don’t worry,” said Moira hugging Christina. “Now tell us what to do so we can get the hell off this place.”

Christina got Moira and Mac to untie the boat as she jumped on board. Tom and Harry helped Rosa across, and Jessica and Heidi followed. Christina started the engine and everyone collapsed onto the deck, exhausted. Mac and Moira jumped aboard just as the first of the zombies came crawling around the steps to the cave. One saw the boat and reached for it futilely. The zombie tripped over the rocks and careered headlong into the shallow, choppy water. Behind it came more. Rotting bodies shuffled toward the boat searching for the living.

Christina slowly steered the small boat out of the cave, past the cliff to the deeper ocean. Looking around the
boat, she saw a group of people who had nearly killed themselves. Tom, as usual, was cut and bleeding. He looked like he had been in a fight with a bear. Harry was comforting Heidi, and Moira was sitting quietly beside him. Christina realised that Heidi had just lost both her parents and her heart reached out to her. Jessica and Rosa were sitting on the deck leaning against the railings. Jessica found an old blanket on the deck and wrapped it around Rosa. She was whispering into her ear, stroking her hair, holding her close. Never again would she want Rosa to be out of her sight, even for a second.

Mac came and stood beside Christina. “That it?” he said pointing out to the ocean. There was a huge ship in the distance, a small grey spot on the horizon. “You think we can catch up with them?”

Christina turned the wheel, taking them away from the Mount toward the ship. “We have to. If we don’t…”

“If we
don’t, then we’ll figure it out. I’ve seen you with Cat. She’s stronger than you think, you know. She won’t take no shit from Jimmy.” Mac dropped his sledgehammer onto the deck. “Guess I don’t need this anymore.”

“Look at that,” said Christina. “They’re everywhere.”

Mac looked back at the Mount. It was eerie. The dead were crawling all over it, scores of them eating the flesh of Lazarus’ men, tearing into the raw meat like starving dogs. The hillside was dotted with zombies amongst the rocks and the island resembled a giant ant hill. The morning was sunny, but the castle was dark, deserted and desolate. The castle was perched atop the hillside looking ominous, like a symbol of death. Mac shuddered. His friends Sally and Keisha had been brought here. He hoped they hadn’t been infected. He didn’t want to think of them walking around like that, like zombies.

“Can I help? You know what you’re
doing, right?” he asked Christina.

“Yeah I’m fine, thanks Mac.
I’ve got the basics covered anyway.” Christina looked around the boat. There was a small door to their side leading down into the cabin below deck. Apart from that the ship was empty. It looked like it had never been used. She sailed them away from the Mount and away from the mainland in pursuit of the naval ship. She hoped they would be able to catch it up, but in reality, she doubted it. If they wanted to, the navy could charge away in a heartbeat. Where would they be then? Where would Caterina be?

“At least we’re safe,” said Christina. “Sit down, get some rest. There’s no rush now. When you’re ready, maybe go down below and see if there’s a radio? We could try to raise the navy on it. It’s a long shot
, but it’s worth a go.”

“
Sure. I just want check on Tom first, he looks pretty beat up.”

Mac wandered over to Tom and Harry whilst Christina steered the boat on, its small engine chugging away
.

Jessica
snuggled up closer to Rosa. Tears streaked their faces, but they were smiling.

“I don’t know what I would do without
you, Rosa.” Jess planted a soft kiss on Rosa’s lips.

Rosa winced slightly
, but kissed her back. Her lips were cracked and swollen. “Those men, are they all dead?”

“Yep
, all of them. You’re safe now,” said Jessica running her fingers through Rosa’s hair.

“Good. After what they did to me I hope they rot in hell.”

Jessica knew what they had done to Rosa. It was clear from the marks on her body how they had abused her. Harry had intimated as much to her, but it didn’t need saying out loud. When Jessica thought about what they had subjected her to it made her feel sick and angry. Rosa was so naïve and innocent, she shouldn’t be punished like that. What had she ever done to deserve being locked up with those animals?

“You know, Rosa, I think we’re going to be okay.” Jessica took Rosa’s face and kissed her forehead. She looked directly into her eyes. “We’ll find somewhere safe again, some place to call home. You’re safe now. Nothing can keep us apart anymore.”

They relaxed back against the ships railing as Christina drove the boat on, taking them away from the dangers of the land.

CHAPTER TWENTY

He could feel his life slipping away. He could no longer see, but he could
feel
. He could feel everything in excruciating detail. Below deck was dark and cramped. The boat only had two small cabins and he had locked himself away in one of them, closing the curtains before lying down on the single bed to die. He could tell they were at sea now. The boat was listing and he could hear the waves creaking against the hull. So someone had found his escape plan and used it for themselves. I hope it’s Walker, thought Lazarus, and none of those deadweight losers from the mainland.

Lazarus was
scared. He always thought it was his destiny to be a leader and something special. His father hadn’t thought so, but his father had been wrong about a lot of things. Lazarus felt the twinge in his gut and knew the end would come soon. That devious traitor Harry had gutted him with his own sword. Now he was dying, alone.

Suddenly,
his skin started bubbling and Lazarus gritted his teeth as the agony spread. From his roiling chest to his extremities, it felt like his blood was on fire. Is this what death felt like? No, something was wrong. This wasn’t just the pain of death, this was something more. Was he infected? How?

Lazarus tried to sit up
, but he was too weak. Is this what his father felt like when he was dying at home, spread-eagled on the floor? Lazarus tried to call out, but only managed to spew thick blood over the sheets. He opened his eyes, and saw nothing but blackness. Was he blind? He could hear faint noises from above: footsteps and talking. If they would only come down they could help him. Walker would help him.

Suddenly,
Lazarus arched his back and he couldn’t breathe. His muscles were collectively contracting and his lungs felt like lead. He opened his mouth, gasping for air like a stranded fish. He tried to grab hold of something, but only found the wooden walls of the cabin. His fingernails splintered off one by one as he pressed down on the walls, desperate for breath. Finally, his body relaxed and he drew in a huge gulp of air. Lazarus wished he was dead. He would rather die quickly than suffer this ignoble, painful death. Why could he not slip away quietly, why must he suffer these torments? His spine abruptly went into spasms, rippling up and down until it cracked. Lazarus fell onto the bed in acute pain, a pain so hot and overwhelming he had never known anything like it.

Shaking, Lazarus’ body tensed again and abruptly his back split open. His spine careered upwards, bringing his skin with it. His blistered
, blackened skin was now mottled with purples and bright greens, dark hairs growing rapidly from every pore. His spine, like a worm with a life of its own, ripped his shoulder sockets out and stretched his skin taut. Looking more like a giant bat, his head rolled forward and two antennae burst from his forehead, spraying the cabin with more blood. From between his legs tentacles slithered out from every orifice, slithering and sliding across the bed, entwining themselves together to form a long fleshy tail.

“And there were no more worlds to conquer
,” Lazarus said quietly, terrified. A single tear dripped from his eye and then his lungs expelled air for the last time. Lazarus’ heart stopped beating and he died whilst his body kept moving; bones cracking, tissue and muscles shifting while the infection grew. His very DNA was being radicalised and redirected; restructured. Toxins and poisons ran through his veins. The next time Lazarus would open his eyes he would be able to see again. The next time he stood up he would be one of the undead, yet also something more. He would remember the man that used to be called Lazarus, but he would know his new name too.

* * * *

Harry pulled the bundle of papers out of his back pocket and began to read. He could see they were slipping further behind the naval ship, but nobody had said anything about it yet and he didn’t want to be the first to broach the subject. It was still early in the day to have all your hopes crushed. Anyway, who knows, maybe Christina would be able to catch up with it.

“What’s that?” said Tom. Heidi was trying to attend to the arrow
still sticking in his leg but wasn’t sure what was best to do.

“Tom, sit
still, will you? The bleeding’s stopped, but you need to elevate it. We need to get this thing out of you before it gets infected.”

“I’ll see if there’s a first aid kit,” said Mac, getting up and leaving them. “
Hey, Moira, you wanna help me look?”

“It’s a transcript,” said Harry dryly. “Lazarus managed to get tuned into some military frequency or something. He heard more than that automated message we heard. It’s a conversation between the British and US by the looks of it. I don’t know what’s on it but Lazarus thought it was important.”

“Throw it overboard,” said Heidi. “If that man thought it was important it’s probably rubbish. Who needs it.”

“No, go
on, Harry. What does it say?” Tom sat up and let Heidi continue checking him over. It felt good. Her hands were soft and smooth. It felt good to have someone close to him. Jessica had Rosa, why shouldn’t he have someone too?

“It says here
that Samson is Captain of the USS Lincoln. From the childish scribble, I think it says the US Navy is based in the Caribbean. Then there’s another note here, says he was talking to an Admiral McCulloch on HMS Daring. Oh shit, it’s the Daring that was coming to Penzance, that’s who we’re following.”

Tom studied Harry’s face whilst he read. Harry started off with a f
urrowed brow of concentration which gradually receded into wonder and finally horror as he read.

“What does it say?” asked Tom.

Harry let the papers fall to his lap. “Well, at least we’re not completely alone. The navy must’ve escaped the worst of the infection. I guess any ships out at sea would’ve escaped it. HMS Daring and HMS Illustrious made it, but the rest of the British navy haven’t been heard of. On the American side, the USS Lincoln, the USS Wasp and the Gerald Ford made it. Both say that the administration’s gone. There’s no one in charge anymore. The world leaders, the UN, Europe, everything is all gone. The infection swept around the globe faster than a celebrity sex-video. That’s why there was no firestorm. There’s no one left to push the button.”

“What else?”
asked Tom. He knew from Harry’s face he had read more than that.

“Samson
says they picked up an alien in the US. They’ve been talking to it, actually
talking
to it.”

“You’re kidding,
” said Heidi. “An alien?”

Jessica was still comforting Rosa
, but had heard them talking and her ears pricked up when she heard the word alien. She still found it hard to believe. Even after the two-headed dogs and the strange creature that had attacked her, it was difficult to accept without seeing it with her own eyes.

Harry continued. “
Apparently, this alien was found somewhere in the South. They interrogated it.”

“Tortured it, you mean,” said Heidi.

Harry knew what interrogated meant too, but ignored Heidi. “Seems they managed to get it to talk in the end. At first, it was using a language they couldn’t understand, but later, it changed to English. I don’t know if this information is any good to us, but...this alien said some crazy stuff. Look here. It says, and I quote:

‘We are not a technological race. We have made huge technological advances
, but with the goal of expanding our race, nothing else. We are clearly superior to you humans and all the pathetic creatures that dwell on this backwater you call Earth. To us this is planet XY-77. We need to use your planet. That is why we are here. Humans are so arrogant. You think that we would waste vast amounts of time and effort just to conquer you? Our science helped us to develop biological warfare. There are others out there who wish to destroy us. To this end we have created a variety of biological creatures to attack our enemies. In order to test these, we needed a fertile testing ground, one rich in life, yet ignorant and dumb, retarded if you like, a race inferior to our own.

That is where your planet Earth comes in. Germs, viruses, plants,
animals - twisting organisms at the very root of their DNA, manipulating them is what we do, and we do it well. They are better than bombs and guns because they can adapt, mutate, even self-reproduce on the battlefield. Biological weapons are immune to fatigue. We can use your planet to create the perfect invincible weapon to defeat our enemies.’”

“
Or to put it another way,” said Tom, “we’re fucked.”

Harry picked up the papers again. “It says here there will be schools of fish, hundreds upon hundreds of them, designed to look for meat
that will scavenge our oceans for food. It says our skies will be filled with carnivores, larger than skyscrapers, and our land will be populated by the reanimated dead. They want to see how the creatures perform against us. Humans are just convenient test subjects for their new design of weapons.

“The alien says
they sent a few test subjects full of toxins from the aliens’ own race that they hope will combine with a human subject. It says both DNA will fuse to create the perfect killing machine. They launched one toxin over Northern Africa, one over the Eastern coast of the US, and one over Southern England. Apparently, they wanted to see how long it would take for the toxin to find the correct subject, and to see how long it would take to work in the field as it would only work with a rare blood type. The human who receives this toxin would have to have a unique genetic code. He would have to be strong too as the metamorphosis would inflict them with unimaginable pain. If successful, the new hybrid creature would serve the aliens and be pre-designed to have a hatred for humans.

“
Huh, it says this killing machine will be able to reproduce at will, spawning a new generation to rule the Earth and guard their new testing planet, a race designed to live on Earth forever, wiping out any human resistance and protecting XY-77 indefinitely.”

“You sure about
this, Harry?” said Jessica. “What if this is some elaborate joke? Sounds a little off kilter to me.”

“H
ow will we know if it worked?” asked Heidi. “I’ve seen some bizarre things, but this sounds a bit crazy, if you ask me. Maybe the alien was just trying to scare them? Perhaps it was just bragging?”

“
Sounds plausible from what I’ve seen,” said Tom. “Back at the garden centre when you were all asleep, there were things in the sky: huge, amazing creatures. They weren’t of this planet. I can tell you that for a fact. I’ve seen what this infection is doing to animals too.”

Harry interjected.
“The alien says here the new hybrid creature will be able to speak only its name to humans and all other communication will be in the alien’s native tongue. It will be called Otaktay.”

“
What kind of name is that? If it is true, let’s hope we never run into it,” said Tom. “Anything else we need to know, Harry?”

“Not really.
Unless you want to see some badly drawn doodles of zombies. Jesus, I wish I’d never picked this up now.” Harry threw the papers over the side of the boat.

Mac and Moira stood in front of the cabin door beside Christina.

“There’s nothing up here,” said Mac. “I’ll go down and see if I can find something.” He tugged at the door handle, but it didn’t budge. “It’s stuck.”

Moira pushed Mac aside. “Allow me.” Moira began pulling on the door handle.
“Hope there’s a good book down there, because I left all mine behind.”

Harry
sat upright. If the alien had been telling the truth, then the toxin had been released somewhere potentially close by. What if it had been Laurent, Daniel or someone on the island? Surely something would have happened by now. Besides, Southern England was a large area, so the toxin could be anywhere. Jackson? No, Jackson was dead. Harry had put him out of his misery. That emerald-studded sword had seen to that.

As Harry thought
more about it, there was something nagging at the back of his mind. He had used that sword once more, on Lazarus. Why did it matter? Lazarus was dead. The sword was long gone, left behind at the Mount. Harry had cut through Lazarus with it like a scythe slicing through hay. He was surprised when Rosa had said he had managed to get up and walk away, but stranger things than that had happened recently.

Harry
watched Moira tugging on the door as Mac laughed at her, ribbing her for being a typical weak girl. Mac seemed comfortable with them. He would be a good addition to the group. Moira was laughing as Mac joined her in trying to get the cabin door open. Harry liked it when Moira laughed. It was rare that anyone laughed these days, but her childish giggle made him smile. He had seen the way she looked at him and he liked her too, but it was too early. His family was still fresh in his mind and any thoughts of Moira inevitably made him feel rueful. His wife and children were dead, but it was hard to move on. There had been no funeral or grieving period. Maybe one day, soon, he might be able to move on.

The alien’s words would not leave Harry’s mind and he found himself thinking about them
. The dots were there, but he couldn’t connect them. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he forget it? Maybe the alien had been fucking with them all along.