Safety Lost (Killing the Dead Book 3) (23 page)

“Too many zombies and not enough people today.” He replied with a wan smile.

“What do you mean?” Lily asked as she finished her food.

“We tried to keep leading the zombies away from camp” Pat said as he removed his sodden jacket. “It was kind of working until Joe and Mel lead one group straight into another.”

“Oh God, what happened?”

“They died” Pay said simply as he sat at the kitchen table. “Then we spent most of the day trying to kill the bloody things.”

“There’s too many” Gregg said quietly with a glance towards Emma, “We couldn’t send any more south at one point without them running into another group so we had to start sending them north.”

“Towards Windermere?” Lily said.

“Yeah. I don’t think those soldiers will be happy with us if they figure out that we have been doing that.”

“What about tonight?” I asked, “The zombies won’t stop moving because it gets dark. Is anyone out there trying to redirect them?”

“No.” Pat said with a shake of his head, “Matthew and Howard have decided to try and barricade the road in to the camp with a couple of the vehicles.”

“That won’t do anything about the ones coming through the woods.”

“Matthew said something about sending as many people and supplies as possible, across to a boat.” Gregg said around a mouthful of the food that Julie had handed him.

“Kids are going first” Pat added with a look towards Emma, “He told us to let you know that you need to get her ready to go in the next half hour. One adult can go with her.”

“That should be Julie” Lily said, “If nothing else it will get her out of the way of those newcomers too.” She added when Julie looked ready to protest.

“So what then?” Cass asked.

“Kids and a few adults first, along with a lot of blankets because it will get damn cold over there” Pat said, “Then it will be supplies and the rest of us. Most of us will be spending the night in camp though.”

“It’s going to be a long night.” Gregg added, “Very little sleep for anyone and no guns allowed. Too much noise and not enough ammo anyway.”

Julie left to gather blankets for Emma and to get her dressed as warmly as possible. In truth I didn’t envy the people who would be on the boat. No privacy and everyone crammed in together like sardines with just the one toilet too.

I shuddered and considered myself lucky that I would have the chance to stay in camp and possibly kill some zombies, perhaps even the newcomers. I smiled happily at the thought as I considered the best way to kill them in peace.

A frenzied banging on the door disturbed my thoughts and Gregg went to open it with a frown and a hand firmly grasping his club.

He opened the door and a clearly distraught and teary eyed Claire entered and ran to Lily.

“Oh it’s terrible.” She wailed.

“What’s wrong? Is Maggie ok?” Lily asked with alarm.

“Yes she’s fine, it’s Liz. She’s dead.” Claire cried.

Chapter 33

I stood beneath a tree just beyond the edge of the camp as the late afternoon light faded and did my best to ignore the babbling crowd that had gathered around the slowly swinging form of Liz that hung from the sturdy branch.

Lily was arguing loudly and hotly with Matthew and Howard with Cass beside her urging calm. Gregg and Pat had escorted Julie and Emma to the Lake and the rowboat that was to take them across to the boat. A distraught Claire had returned to her own cottage and her daughter Maggie.

My clothes were still wet and the bare branches of the woods offered no protection from the rain. I suppressed a sigh and slowly inspected the body.

It seemed that someone wanted everyone to think that an upset Liz had killed herself. From the faint bruising and dishevelled state I could guess that she didn’t go without a fight at least. A loud voice was demanding that she be cut down and given a decent burial and I glanced across the crowd to see Jim with bible in hand.

I hadn’t seen much of him around the camp since I had arrived which had been fine with me. His constant praying and references to God back at the golf course had been irritating to say the least. I did my best to tune him out as I leant back against the tree.

The murder of the girl was a message to me, I was sure of that. What I wasn’t sure of was why Liz. She had no real meaning to me and I could see no benefit and plenty of risk to the newcomers. The benefit for me was that it would likely be a great deal easier to convince Lily to let me kill them.

Across the crowd I saw Rachel and Candice standing with heads together as they spoke quietly, their eyes locked firmly on me. I smiled and saw their expressions darken. My grip tightened on the boat hook as I imagined thrusting it through their throats.

I cast around for the two newcomers but didn’t see them, which showed that they were intelligent enough to keep themselves out of sight in case the accusations started. Though I was sure that Rachel and Candice were present to tell everyone how upset Liz was and how she had been suicidal since John had died.

“They are fucking useless” Cass spat as she walked across to me with a furious Lily in tow.

“Oh?”

“Howard is happy to accept it was a suicide and Matthew just kept saying we can’t prove anything.” She said. “It’s time we had a new vote on who should lead here.”

“You ok?” I asked Lily and she shook her head firmly.

“No. I am far from being ‘Ok’” she said.

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to kill those bastards for this.” She snapped.

“Then I shall pay them a visit tonight.” I said with a smile.

“No. They will be waiting for you.” Lily said with a sideways glance at a confused looking Cass. “We will have to wait.”

“I really think we should.....” I cut off as the scream sounded from the camp.

“What now?” Lily said as she turned and started running towards the sound. With a sigh I hefted my weapon and ran after her.

I entered the main camp and the first thing I saw was a pale skinned zombie ripping at the exposed throat of a man in the rain. A woman stood at the door to her cottage close by, screaming. Beyond the camp moans rose above the sounds of the storm.

“Oh hell.” Cass yelled as she ran into the camp.

“Get back to the cottage and get your weapons” I said to Lily and Cass as I raised my own.

The girls ran as I stepped forward towards the feasting ghoul. It looked at me as I approached and I was very much aware that it seemed to be following my approach with its eyes. When I was a couple of metres away it sprang up and leapt at me.

It was fast and vicious but I was ready. I ducked to the side and swung my weapon. The hook caught the creatures arm and I pulled. The creature stumbled off balance as I stepped forward and kicked out at its leg.

The zombie fell to the rain soaked mud and I reversed the boat hook and jabbed it down at the creatures head. Bone cracked and blood spurted as it died. I turned to see more entering the camp.

Several others from the camp ran forward to engage the attacking undead and I paused. A dozen or more zombies were making their way into the camp. It was hardly a catastrophic amount and I saw Gregg and Pat run forward with weapons in hand.

I thought that things seemed to be in hand so I ducked between two of the cottages and made my way around the outside of the camp. I had seen the newcomers join the fight and the chaos of a zombie attack was the perfect time for me to do my thing.

With a grin I approached their cottage. A quick circuit revealed no open windows but they hadn’t locked the door so I slipped inside.

The cottage interior had only a single candle to light the living room which was empty. I knew where most of the people were but I hadn’t seen Beth, so I had to be cautious. I moved slowly and silently through the cottage.

It only had two bedrooms and the first held two single beds that had been pushed together and was empty. The master bedroom had a king size bed and a sleeping Beth wrapped in the sheets. I crept into the room and looked around.

Candice’s bag was beside the bed. It was the first time that I had seen it out of her clutches and curious as to its contents I crouched down and opened it slowly before glancing inside.

With a shake of my head I stood and approached the bed where Beth lay. The bedside table beside her held more of the drug paraphernalia that I had found inside Candice’s bag. I was certain that Beth was in the grip of whatever drug she had taken, rather than just sleeping.

I nudged her gently and when I received no response I tried again, harder. She remained resolutely unconscious and I stared down at her for long moments. I had nothing against her personally and from the little I knew she wasn’t a bad person so I couldn’t just outright kill her without breaking Lily’s rules. My gaze caught the gore covered steel tip of my boat hook and I grinned.

Beth didn’t awaken even when I scratched her arm with the point. A small trickle of blood mingled with the darker stain that had been left by the boat hook. I watched for a moment longer to ensure she didn’t wake before heading back into the living room.

I blew out the candle and sat quietly in the darkness as I awaited the return of the two newcomers, cold rainwater slowly pooling beneath me on the carpet. The sounds of fighting, screaming and moaning from outside the cottage were starting to lessen as I pulled the combat knife from its sheath.

The wait wasn’t long before the door slammed open and the two men walked in laughing and joking. They went straight for their respective rooms and I waited a few minutes to make sure that Candice and Rachel weren’t right behind them.

When no one followed them in, I glanced out the window to see people in the centre of the camp clearing away the corpses. Rachel was standing by the improvised barricade of cars by the road with Candice beside her.

It seemed that I was in luck and they were going to be busy for a while. I crept silently to the master bedroom and listened at the door. I could hear some rough grunting but nothing else. I moved to the second bedroom.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. Gary turned to speak and his jaw dropped when he saw that it was me and not who he was expecting. I leapt forward and rammed my knife into his stomach and twisted the blade as my left hand covered his mouth to muffle his scream.

His eyes were opened wide in pain and shock as I pulled free the knife and stabbed it between his ribs. I lay atop him with my hand pressed firmly over his mouth and my knife held firmly with the blade between his ribs and stared into his eyes as he slowly died.

Laughter wanted to bubble to the surface and I clenched my jaw tight to keep the sound from escaping. My breathing was heavy and my heart was racing and I wanted very much to shout with joy.

Instead, I pulled free my knife and left the room. I approached the door to the master bedroom and listened intently. Fresh shouts and screams were sounding from outside but all I could hear from beyond the door was grunting.

I pushed the door and it swung open silently. I stepped inside and saw the half naked form of Shaun beneath the blankets as he took advantage of the unconscious Beth. He was so intent on taking his pleasure that he didn’t even notice as I sidled up beside him.

He definitely noticed when I grabbed his hair with my left hand and yanked back on his head before sliding the knife across his exposed throat. His attempt to scream produced little more than a gurgle as he thrashed and tried to stem the blood that was spurting from his severed carotid artery.

My back hit the wall and I sagged against it as I watched the man die. Even the copious amounts of blood that drenched the young woman beneath him, didn’t wake her. I stood and watched for several long minutes, drinking in the sight and revelling in the deaths I had wrought before the sounds from beyond the cottage finally intruded.

With a smile and humming a low tune I left the bedroom and retrieved my boat hook before leaving the cottage without a backwards glance.

Chapter 34

The camp was in chaos. Dozens of undead had fallen and their corpses mixed with those of the people of the camp. I could see a large number of people were headed towards the Lake while Matthew tried to contain a growing number of zombies pressing up against the barricade of cars.

With boat hook in hand I jogged across to where Lily stood swinging her axe overhead at any Zombie that tried to crawl over the barricade.

“What’s going on?” I shouted as I thrust the boat hook at a zombies face.

“Large group” She called back, “We need to hold them here long enough for everyone to get on the boat.”
      
“Sounds fun” I said with a grin and she cast a quick glance my way.

“Where have you been?”

I just laughed and jabbed at another zombie. She looked at my blood spattered clothes then rolled her eyes and said. “Oh.”

A scream came from beside me and a woman pulled back her hand that was missing two fingers. Her wooden club lay on the roof of the car besides the zombie that had fresh blood around its mouth. I cracked it in the side of the head with the boat hook.

“This won’t work” I muttered as I looked across the parked car at the ever growing horde of zombies that were pushing their way down the road.

Another scream came from behind us, inside the camp and I turned in time to see a blood drenched naked woman run through the camp. I turned back to the barricade and Lily caught my eye. I shrugged and assumed my most innocent expression.

The next half an hour passed in a blur as we worked to keep the undead on the other side of the barricade. Moans surrounded us as the zombies spread out into the woods to either side of the road. I thrust the boat hook into the throat of a zombie and pulled Lily to the side.

“We need to go” I said, “If we don’t leave now we will be surrounded.”

She looked around desperately before finally nodding in agreement. She ran across to Matthew and spoke urgently to him. I pushed back another zombie as I tried to keep an eye on the frantic argument she was having.

Matthew was shaking his head and seemed determined to stay though that opinion changed as a few zombies came out of the woods behind the cottages. He screamed for everyone to run for the lake.