Killing the Dead (2 page)

“Now if you have perhaps forgotten, you brought some friends with you to my front door, who are at this moment trying to break into my home and I can only assume, kill us. Perhaps we should leave.”

“We should leave! Did you really suggest I would go anywhere with you!” she screamed.

“Why not?” I asked, genuinely curious. It seemed perfectly logical that strength lay in numbers.

“Because you have just told me that you murdered a man. I will be safer with those creatures out there” she said, her eyes darting between myself and the staircase. At any moment I was sure she would make a dash for the exit and I would find myself alone. I couldn’t shake the feeling that being alone would be a bad thing during a rising of the undead.

“I know it may not mean much to you but I promise I won’t hurt you. In fact,” I said as inspiration struck, “if you look behind you on the cabinet, you will find my case. In this case are plenty of knives, take one or more. Keep them with you and you can defend yourself.” I told her, adding “if the dead are rising surely it would be a good idea to have someone with you who is capable of killing?”

The pretty lady didn’t immediately answer. She stood for far too many long seconds as she glared at me, weighing my words. She took a moment to glance behind her at the cabinet, taking stock of the knives it held.

Finally she stepped back and reached into the case, pulling out two knives. The first was a favourite of mine, 115mm slim filleting blade that would fold down into the handle. The second was a more standard combat style knife, 152mm blade, beautiful black oxide coating and a sheath. She certainly chose well.

“Fine, We can stick together for now. You even look at me funny though and I’ll gut you” she snarled, brandishing the sheathed combat knife. She looked quite distractingly dangerous and for a moment I considered taking the knives back. I simply smiled though and gave a quick nod of the head to show my acceptance. I then picked up my jacket from the box where I had carelessly laid it earlier, retrieved my knife from the back of Mr Josh Taylor’s skull and headed straight up the stairs.

As I stepped out into my kitchen the worst sort of noise came from my front door. A splintering of wood followed by a crash and a deep moaning as the undead managed to force their way in. I pulled shut the kitchen door and pressed my weight against it to prevent access from the hallway. I reached into my jacket pocket, grabbing hold of the back door keys and throwing them to the woman as she came out of the cellar.

“Open the door. Quick!” I yelled.

She swore and ran across the kitchen as she fumbled with the keys to try and unlock the door.

“Hurry” I called across, just as the first body crashed against the door.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold on for long, these undead people seemed extremely strong. I looked around my kitchen for something to help block the door. The fridge would work but I doubted that I would have the time to cross the room and manhandle it back to the kitchen door. No. I was left with little choice.

With a deep sigh I bade farewell to my favourite knife before I reached down and thrust the blade beneath the door. A firm kick against the knife handle wedged it firmly in place, making an effective doorstop. It wouldn’t last too long, but perhaps long enough for the two of us to escape.

“All clear, let’s go.” my companion called before she exited my home, and jogged quickly across the back garden towards the high wall that provided a barrier against entry for all but the neighbourhood cats. I said farewell to my home, my sanctuary, the place where I had lived and slept, as I dreamt of all the delightful things I would do to so many people.

It was time to go. I stepped through the door, retrieving the keys before I shut and locked it behind me. It would take the undead some time to break through both doors. We could rest a moment and I would be able to speak to this lady. I had no real idea what was going on or where we would find a safe place.

By the time I joined my somewhat unwilling companion, she had pulled herself to the top of the wall, hanging with just her head peeking over to allow her to see beyond.

“We have a little time” I began, “perhaps we should introduce ourselves and you can tell me what exactly is going on.”

She dropped down beside me and paused a moment before nodding. Then she began to speak. “The news has been saying it’s happening all over. It began a couple of weeks ago; some super bug was causing people to get sick. After a day or so the people would die. The doctors couldn’t figure out why and no drug they tried seemed to work.” She turned and looked at me, “How could you not know this?”

“I don’t watch much TV and I was busy looking for someone who would be appropriate for my... hobby.” I replied, offering a small smile.

“Hobby. Right, that.” Her tone gave a firm indication of how she felt about that. “The hospitals got crowded with the sick and then with the morgues all full, the hospitals were running out of space to put the dead.” She sighed and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes.

“My boyfriend worked at the hospital. He called me yesterday. He was scared; he said that something had changed. The people who had died were starting to come back.” She started to cry softly, arms wrapped around her body. I wondered if I was supposed to do something to comfort her.

“He was scared. The dead people were attacking everyone. Ripping them apart and the ones they killed would get up and join them. He was stuck on the top floor of the hospital with some of the children.” She stopped talking to take the time to – thankfully – pull herself together a little. She brushed her hand across her eyes wiping away the tears before she continued.

“The last thing I heard was someone screaming that they had broken through the doors when the call ended. He didn’t pick up the phone again, no matter how many times I called so I jumped in my car and headed straight for the hospital. I needed to know what had happened to him.

When I arrived, it was chaos. Those... things were wandering everywhere. I couldn’t even get to the entrance. The police were there with guns and shooting at them. It didn’t seem to stop them. I saw some of the policemen die, dragged under a crowd of those monsters and ripped apart. It was awful. I panicked and drove away.” She sighed once more. “I was listening to the radio in the car; it said this was happening everywhere and that people should stay indoors. I was heading home when one of those things stepped out in front of me. I swerved without even thinking and drove straight into a parked car. I had to get out and run, then some of those things started chasing me. I arrived here looking for somewhere safe from them.” She laughed a little bitterly at that. “Ironic huh? Running for my life from the undead and I end up in the cellar of a murderer.” I had to agree that it was somewhat ironic. I started to laugh at that and after a moment she joined in.

“Well this place certainly isn’t safe anymore.” I said after the laughter subsided, “and by the sounds of it, we will find more of these creatures all over the place. I think the first thing we need to do is get some transport. Before we go though, you still haven’t given me your name.”

“Lily. My name is Lily.” She said.

“Hello Lily, my name is Ryan.” I smiled, happier now. I don’t know why but I have always hated not knowing a name, whether that is the name of an object or a person, without the name I can find no way for this thing to fit into place in my world. It is more than a little irksome.

“Ok then, beyond this wall is an alleyway that runs between the rows of houses. At the far end - unfortunately the end furthest from us - are the garages for these houses. We may find at least one car there, though it won’t be much use without a key” I said.

“Don’t worry too much about that.” Lilly said with a smile that transformed her face from pretty to truly beautiful. “I had a bit of a reckless youth. I can possibly hotwire a car if we need to.”

This was the first good news I had received since she had arrived at my door. While I could drive a car, the mechanics of them were a complete mystery. I had always preferred the inner workings of the human body over those of the machine.

With a firm plan in mind, we climbed to the top of the wall, Lily with a great deal more grace than I managed. From the top, as we sat on the cold stone we could see towards either end of the alleyway. All was clear along its length. The long stretch of cracked pavement had weeds growing through the gaps. It was filled with broken bottles, food wrappings and the general detritus that people felt the need to dump over the walls. Along each side of the pavement were the garden walls much like my own, occasionally broken with the shadowed recess that indicated a gate set into the wall. With a final look back at my house, we dropped down into the alley.

By unspoken agreement we stayed close to the wall. It seemed imprudent to walk out in the open. I let Lily lead the way as she was the only one with anything resembling a weapon.

As we cautiously made our way along the alley stepping through the puddles of what I could only hope was remnants of the last nights rainfall, I couldn’t help but look behind us. The hairs were rising on my neck and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched. I would look up at the houses around us but could see nothing to indicate anything was different today. It was an unpleasant feeling that I wasn’t at all familiar with.

We paused as we reached the end of the alleyway. A cautious look showed a row of garages in an overgrown area of dirt. The simple structures were just boxes made of concrete with a metal door that opened outwards, though all were closed. Aside from the alley entrance you could only leave by the single wide ramp down onto the main road. Two cars sat silent and ready to be stolen by Lily and myself.

We cautiously moved along the front of the garages towards the closest car. This was a grime encrusted black rectangle on wheels. Perhaps some alpha male type would have been able to give you the car’s make, model and engine specifications. I could simply tell you that it had four wheels, four doors and was fairly small.

Lily gestured for me to step closer as we reached the car. The stress of remaining undetected must have been getting to her as when she spoke it was in a whisper. “Keep a watch for any undead whilst I try and get this car started.”

“Happy to do so, however I seem to be without any sort of weapon.” I pointed out.

“Ok, take this then.” said Lily as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the fold out filleting knife. I wasn’t sure what good it would do against the undead but it was better than nothing. I stood with my back against the garage door, allowing me to see both the alleyway and the road entrance just by constantly turning my head from left to right.

Lily, happy that she could work undisturbed pulled off her jacket and bunching it up. She held it firmly against the car window before striking the glass hard with the butt of the combat knife. The sound of the window shattering was muffled and we were extremely fortunate no alarm went off.

As Lily pulled open the door and climbed into the car to fiddle with whatever it was that she needed to fiddle with. I tried to keep an attentive watch though my headache was still with me and I was considering our options.

I was forced to work on the assumption that Lily was correct about what she had told me earlier. The dead were rising everywhere and not just here. This meant we were going to have a great many problems. We had left my house with only the clothes on our backs and a couple of knives. Finding some sort of shelter from these creatures would be important, but getting hold of some supplies was equally so.

Getting hold of the supplies would be the problem. If these undead were killing and multiplying then the emergency services would not be able to cope. The police would be forced to rapidly fall back. This wasn’t America. Aside from special tactical units, the majority of the police were unarmed. I highly doubted the undead would be concerned with pepper spray or Tasers.

No. The government would be forced to deploy the military, which would not be easy as a great many of them were overseas fighting on foreign soil. So, with an almost free reign the dead would soon be overwhelming in number. This in turn would mean no food deliveries to the supermarkets, no happy industrious workers turning up at the power or water treatment plants. No one in fact would be keeping the basic infrastructure intact. This presented a rather bleak future for us.

The sound of the car as it burst to life awoke me from my reverie. Lily looked up triumphant, “Told you I could do it.” she said with one of those seemingly rare but breathtaking smiles. Her smile turned to a frown as she looked over at the alleyway. “Who is this?” she asked.

I followed her gaze to see a rotund man running up towards us. He didn’t seem to be undead and it didn’t look as though he were being chased. He did however seem red faced though that could just be from the exertion of running.

“Shit. I think this might be his car.” Lily said. “He is going to be pissed at us.” I would consider that a problem easily solved. I pulled open the knife.

“What are you doing?” Lily yelled as she noticed what I was preparing to do.

“We need this car; I won’t allow him to stop us.”

“No. You can’t kill him. Rule number one if you are sticking with me. No killing live people.” Lily’s frown was directed full force at me. I wilted slightly. The rules of this new world hadn’t seemed to have changed that much after all. If I wanted to group with others for protection it seemed like I would have to play nice.

“Fine, no killing.” I agreed, somewhat sulkily closing up the knife and slipping it back into my pocket. I silently added ‘for the moment
.’

“What the hell are you doing with my car?” demanded the angry fat man as he finally waddled up wheezing and flapping his arms in an indignant rage.

“We need to get out of here, you do too. Haven’t you seen what’s happening?” Lily said her tone firm and brooking no nonsense.

“Bah, I don’t care what’s going on. That’s my car and you can’t bloody take it,” Angry man shouted at Lily. I was becoming annoyed; the shouting was making my headache worse and would no doubt attract unwanted attention.