Family Matters: Season 2 Book 3 (Killing the Dead 9) (17 page)

With barely a glance his way, Ryan yanked open the door as the larger man reached him. Caleb met the door with a resounding bang and a grunt of pain as Ryan spun round, grabbing the man's head in one hand and slamming it down against the car roof.

Caleb fell as though poleaxed and the crowd around the car was silent. Ryan looked down at the man and then up at Bryan.

“Hello father,” he said in a conversational tone. “You might want to close the gate, there’s a lot of zombies following us.”

Chapter 18 - Ryan

She’s still alive, alive! Why does she look so annoyed?

The man on the ground at my feet groaned and I looked down at him. No idea who he was but he was obviously angry too.
Is she mad because of that? I didn’t kill him, just hurt him a little. Why’s everyone looking so upset with me?

“Is it just me or are we not exactly being welcomed here, mate?” Gregg asked from the side of his mouth, lips barely moving as he surveyed the crowd.

“You must have done something to upset them,” I replied as I set off towards Lily. The click of the dog's claws on the stone covered ground told me that she was following along.

The crowd parted before me, hostility on several faces and hands clenched into fists. I ignored them and focused on Lily, being held up by the strong arm of Pat, but hunched slightly around the wound in her stomach.
She’s in pain,
I thought as understanding came. No wonder she looked angry.

“Hello Lily,” I said as I approached.

“Hello Ryan,” she replied. The faintest of smiles tugged at the corner of her mouth and she’d completed our little ritual which meant that she may be upset, but she was still glad to see me.

I shrugged off the backpack, eyes never leaving hers and held it out to my sister who took it without speaking and fumbled to open it. Cass stepped forward and paused before laying one hand on my filth covered shoulder.

“Thank you for bringing him home,” she said before wrapping her brother in a tight embrace.

“Glad you made it mate,” Pat said in his usual quiet way. I nodded, eyes never leaving Lily. She was definitely annoyed with me. I knew enough to know that much at least, but there was a thawing around the eyes and she didn’t look away.

“Jeez you two, get a bloody room,” Becky snapped before pushing past me and disappearing amongst the crowd.

“Maybe a good idea to get inside,” a young woman standing beside Lily said.

“Yeah I agree,” Lily replied to her as she finally tore her eyes from my own. As though freed from some spell, I was suddenly acutely aware of the angry murmurings from the crowd behind me and a frown formed.
Foolish to ignore a threat so completely.

“What did we do?” Gregg asked as his sister finally released him from her hug.

“We’ll talk about that inside,” Lily said. Even in pain, still in charge. My smile widened and this time, she returned it for about a second before she said, “Looks like your dad’s headed this way.”

“Hello father,” I said as I turned to see him approaching. He looked much the same as the last time I’d seen him, perhaps a little older, hair a little thinner but still generally the same.

He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it, before looking across at my sister. “Take the young lady inside and put that medicine to good use.”

“Yes dad,” she replied and I almost rolled my eyes.

“Take the dog too,” I said and could see her look of puzzlement from the corner of my eye.

“I’m not a vet!”

“Do you really think I care?” I asked and turned my head so I could like directly at her. “That dog was useful to me and it even helped keep us alive so you will treat it with respect.”

“Evie, do what you can please,” my father said and she nodded as I looked back over to him, a lacklustre smile firmly on my face.

The crowd behind him was restless and I caught a glimpse of the great wooden gates closing. That was good at least, in a short time, we would be hip deep in zombies.

“We need to talk Ryan,” my father said and I laughed in his face.

“Talk all you want later, for now, I need to make sure Lily is ok.”

“No,” she said from behind me and I spun to stare at her, surprise no doubt evident on my face. “You need to talk to him, then come see me.”

“Very well.” She smiled at my agreement, a genuine smile,
I think,
before Pat lifted her and carried her away. Jinx looked up at me and I nodded towards the departing group and she trotted along after them.

“That dog responds well to you,” my father said and I shrugged my shoulders as I turned back to him. I doubted that was what he wanted to talk about and my patience was wearing thin. I wanted nothing more to see that Lily was receiving the care she needed and then I could finally sleep.

“What do you want father?”

“Ryan! Watch your tongue,” a woman's voice said rather sharply.

“That would be a ridiculous thing to try and do mother,” I replied as she pushed through the crowd to stand beside my father.
Yep, she looks angry too. What’s wrong with everyone?

“Enough of this,” my father snapped before my mother could reply and I flashed her a devilish grin of pure mischief. “We need to speak with you son.”

“Then speak, I have things to do.”

“In private,” he said with a slight incline of his head to the angry sounds of the crowd behind him.

“No.”

“Ryan, do as your dad says.”

“No,” I repeated. “Speak now or come and find me later.”

“Insolent child,” my mother snapped and my grin widened. It was hard to get her really riled up but I was too used to being myself these days and had lost practice with pretending to be the good son.

“You’ve been accused of killing two young men,” my father said. “We need to discuss this.”

“Oh, that? Fine, I did it. Now are we done?”

Both my parents stared at me, bodies stiffened at my casual admittance of a crime they would never be able to comprehend ever having to do. It was almost enough to make me burst into laughter. I’d wanted to let them truly know the real me for such a long time that it felt surprisingly good to get it out into the open.

The crowd behind them however, heard my words and the angry mutterings rose in volume. I let my right hand rest casually on the combat knife on my belt and met the eyes of the closest people in the crowd. They one and all, flinched from the darkness they saw there and I knew I’d have no real problems with them.

They weren’t soldiers, warriors or killers. They were scared people trying to survive and most of them adhered to my parent's philosophy of non-violence. If I so chose, I was fairly sure I could cut down the first handful and the rest would run in fear.
But that would break Lily’s promise.

With a conscious effort, I moved my hand from the hilt of my knife and looked to my parents. I hesitated just a moment before speaking, slipping back into my old pattern finally.

“Forgive me,” I said with a slight bow of my head that I hoped would indicate chastisement. “It has been a fraught few days and I am beyond exhausted. I spoke flippantly and without thought. I am concerned for my… friend and would like to ensure she is okay and get some rest, then I will speak to you at length about what happened.”

My mother crossed her arms and her brows knotted as she glared at me. Clearly, she was upset and fighting the urge to shed some tears which would truly annoy me, so I hoped she would hold off on that for now.

Bryan, my father, and leader of this group nodded thoughtfully as he scrutinized me. He saw something, of that I was sure and he wasn’t quite ready to understand what that was. But he seemed to see the need to give me some space.

“Go to your… friend,” he said. “We’ll let you rest and see you in a bit. Be warned though, the man you just assaulted is the father of those two poor young men and wants answers.”

“He shall have them fully later,” I assured them. “For now, I was not being flippant about the undead. Hundreds followed us from Dumfries and will be at the gate in a short time.”

“We’ll secure it,” he said before he turned away. My mother, features clouded by sorrow, followed him without a word.

As they moved away, they chivvied the crowd to go with them. A quiet word here, a promise of answers later there, and a quiet authority that had them believing in him.

“Well, that could have gone better,” I muttered to myself as they began to disperse.

“It’s your own fault,” a woman's voice came from behind me and I spun to face her, hand dropping to my knife.

The woman, young and perhaps in her mid-twenties, with a baggy shirt and brightly coloured long skirt, tilted her head as her gaze fell to my hand on the knife hilt without apparent fear. “You thinking you need that?”

“You never know,” I told her but removed my hand as her eyes met mine, just for a moment, but that was apparently enough for a spark of something to flash between us.
What?
Was my confused reaction.

“That was quite an entrance,” she said. Apparently, she was unperturbed by my blood soaked appearance or the threat I posed. “You’ve certainly stirred things up here. But I don’t think you’ve made any friends.”

“You’d be surprised at how many people dislike me,” I said with a grin. “By far, the majority of all the survivors I’ve met really don’t like me.”

“You seem okay with that.”

I shrugged and winked at her, “It would likely also surprise you how little I care what people think about me.”

She stood, hands on hips as she studied me with a small smile, playing around her lips. Her head bobbed slowly as though in agreement as she said, “Perhaps it would.”

“Well as fun as it’s been to upset my parents and everyone else in this place, I need to go and find my way to my friends.”

“Nice meeting you,” she said as I turned away and I shrugged in response. It might have been for her but it was just confusing for me and I was too tired to think about why. With weary steps, I went in search of Lily.

      
      
      
      
      
      
****

After some insistence from Lily I had cleaned myself up as best I could and disposed of my ruined clothing. I’d also taken the time to shave away the dark stubble that covered my face and clean my knives.

Dressed in a plain grey t-shirt and equally grey tracksuit bottoms, I sat next to her bed in the crowded room and felt somewhat relaxed for the first time in days. Jinx lay beside me, her head on my lap and a mournful expression on her fur covered face. Her wound had been cleaned and sewn up and I’d been instructed by my annoyed sister, to keep her from bothering the wound.

Cass had taken five minutes away from holding onto her brother, to insist he clean himself up too. He’d returned freshly shaven, wearing a multicoloured t-shirt reminiscent of the kind worn by new age hippies and skinny jeans with an embarrassed expression.

“It was all they had in my size,” he muttered as he joined his sister and Pat by the window.

“You look good mate,” Pat said and smirked at his friend's discomfort while Cass gave him a playful smack on the arm.

“You’re all done,” Evelyn said. She’d ignored the rest of us as best she could as she’d cleaned and re-dressed Lily’s wound. She then handed her a packet of pills and instructed her on how many to take and how often with a stern look that told her she better not forget.

“Thank you,” Lily said and my sister nodded as she rose to her feet and gathered all the medical supplies up before dropping them back in the bag.

“You should thank my brother,” she said with a flick of her eyes towards me. “He’s the one who got the medicine, at such cost.”

“I know,” Lily said and looked at me in a way that made me uncomfortable though I didn’t know why.

My sister left the room and the brittle joviality of my friends faded into a silence that was comfortable for me but seemed to make the others restless. They kept sharing glances between one another and more than once, one of them would open their mouth to speak only to change their mind.

“What happened out there?” Lily asked and I was about to reply when her eyes narrowed and she raised one hand. “Not you. I need to hear from Gregg. Everything.”

“Ah… right,” Gregg said and glanced at me. I shrugged,
I’ve nothing to hide.

He began haltingly, speaking of our choice to take the road alongside the river Nith and through the village of Glencaple. He spoke of the brief fight and the deaths of the two men followed by the argument at the edge of the village.

The faces of the others were expressionless as he spoke and when I glanced at Lily, her eyes glittered and I had the distinct impression she was sitting in judgement over me. It was not a comfortable feeling.

Gregg continued with the blocked road and our need to cut across the university grounds, the huge number of undead and the refusal of my brother to come with us. He included his own initial fear and seemed embarrassed when he told Lily he hesitated.

“You did nothing wrong,” she said and the others murmured their agreement.

He continued in a stronger voice, as though buoyed up by their understanding and described the chaos of fighting the undead and our seeking refuge in the halls of residence. He seemed to emphasise that we were trapped until the drone appeared, drawing away the undead.

His description of Charlie and Reece was verbose and his cheeks coloured as he told of spending the night there, though for some curious reason he felt no need to say whose bed he’d stayed in. With a quick glance around at the rest of us, lingering for a moment on the knowing smile his sister wore, he rushed on.

The field of bones before the hospital, the crawl across the still ripe bodies stacked around the field and the curious behaviour of the Ferals. He trailed off with a sheepish grin and explained he’d left then at my instruction to try and find a car with Reece.

“What happened in the hospital?” Pat asked me and it was my turn to be on the receiving end of all their stares. Even Gregg was curious because neither Charlie nor I had spoken much when we got in the car.