The Grave: A Zombie Novel (18 page)

From all sides of the road they came. Dozens and dozens of dead bodies, spilling from the hillside and up from the road ahead
. They poured onto the road, chasing after Tug, Will, Mark, Suzy, Kelly and Claire. There were men and women, many naked, all in various states of decay. Their diseased bodies and rotten legs were carrying them as fast as possible. A terrifying moaning filled the air and Rasmus heard Will and Tug shouting at them to move.

Tricia turned around and screamed.
The outstretched arms of a dead child clawed at her dress. She grabbed Rasmus’ arm and they ran.

NINE

Rasmus and Tricia ran away from the fallen tree, evading the clutches of the Deathless. Rasmus couldn’t believe how many there were or how they had appeared so quickly. Yet again, they had gotten complacent and allowed themselves to be snuck up on. He kept hold of Tricia and headed straight to the doorway of the dark clubhouse in front of them. Maybe they could escape in there and give the dead the slip, perhaps hide out or barricade themselves in. A lone Deathless figure stumbled through the doorway and swayed into the grass outside. The body had been dead for years. Its skin had fallen away and its muscles had withered and shrunk so it looked like little more than a walking skeleton. A knife was embedded in the shoulder of the bony corpse, the blade wedged in its collarbone.

Tricia screamed when she saw it appear. “Rasmus, we can’t, we have to get out of here!” She tore herself l
oose from his grip and headed past the rusted old transit van into the dense trees beyond.

“Tricia, wait! Come back!” Rasmus watched as Tricia disappeared into the
thick foliage and he hesitated. Should he follow her or try for the clubhouse? He whirled around and saw the others still running too. There were so many of the dead surrounding him on all sides, he had no choice. He couldn’t wait for help. He knew deep down that he couldn’t leave her. He had to get Tricia back.

Kelly and Suzy were swinging wildly as they ran, their broken floorboards connecting with arms and heads. Tug slashed with kni
ves in both of his hands, lopping off fingers and stabbing at any of the dead within reach. Too often, a hand would grab hold of his shirt and he would shove it away, praying he hadn’t been scratched. Mark kept his head down and tried to run through the crowd, weaving in and out, as teeth tried to bite him. Will had grabbed Claire and forced her to run. Her broken wrist banged against her body with every step, but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind. Everywhere she looked, she saw her imminent death, the haggard old women and decaying bodies of men, the broken yellow teeth gnashing and grinding only inches away and the children who were so much quicker than the adults, their spritely feet keeping pace with her.

“Rasmus!
Tricia!” Will watched as they both disappeared into the trees behind the van. If they went too deep, they would get lost. Out here, there were no markers or signposts. If they got disorientated, they might not find the others again.

There was no response to his calls though and Will
tried to think where they could run next. He noticed the skeletal figure standing unsteadily in the doorway of the clubhouse and decided it was their best bet. He hoped there were no more inside and charged ahead.

“Follow me,” he shouted, dragging Claire along behind him. Beside the oak
tree, there was a fallen branch on the ground and he scooped it up. Immediately, he had to use it, bashing on the head of the dead child who had nearly bitten Tricia. Will winced as he struck the child’s head and sent the poor wretch reeling. As they neared the doorway, the skeletal figure reached out and took an unsteady foot forward. Will rammed into it and together they flew into the clubhouse.

He heard Claire scream in the darkness and the hands of the dead
figure groping at him, pulling at his hair and clothes. Will managed to push it away and brought the branch down on its head, cracking the skull open. Still, the dead creature tried to get up and Will struck again and again, finally caving in the skull until the creature lay on the floor twitching. Will jumped on the figure, smashing the bones until it lay completely still.

Suzy and Kelly joined him in the room. Mark followed them and Tug stumbled in as another of the dead fell in behind him
, its arms thrashing around blindly as it saw so many people. Tug thrust his knife into the man’s head and the dead man fell onto the ground.

“We have to keep moving,” said Tug in the gloom.
He twisted the knife in the man’s skull, making sure it wasn’t going to get back up.

The room was very dark and the only light came from the open doorway and another door at the back of the room. There were some wooden tables and benches to one side and a counter from where food had been served back when the
clubhouse had been full of happy golfers. To one side of the room was a bar still fully stocked with bottles of spirits and a huge menu on the wall behind it with the dinner menu clearly still displayed. Despite the darkness, Tug could tell there were no more of the dead inside. If they stayed there for long, he knew there soon would be.

“Those mother fuckers,” said Tug between breaths. “We hadn’t left them behind. When we lost them last
night, they must have kept going. They went past the farmhouse and they were probably still searching for us. They actually got ahead of us. We just ran right into them. I’m such an idiot. I should’ve thought of it.”

“Where now?” asked Kelly. “We can’t
go back out there. We can’t outrun all of them.” She had collapsed down onto one of the benches. She still held a floorboard in her hand, sticky and wet with blood.

“This way,” said
Will, walking toward the back door. “We’ll see if we can find a way around them. We don’t have many options.”

As if to reinforce the
point, a dead woman appeared in the doorway behind him. She was dressed in jeans and a blue lace top. Her hair was bunched up in a ponytail and if it hadn’t been for her lower jaw missing, she would’ve passed as normal. Her pale, thin arms reached out and she took a step forward before tripping over the dead man in the doorway.

The woman got up quickly and headed for Mark who was closest. He was struck by the woman’s features
. Her blue eyes and shiny hair made her look almost beautiful. Blood and grime dripped from her broken jaw and Mark’s first reaction was to lift his camera up to capture her face forever. As his fingers slipped around the lens, a plank of wood connected with the woman’s face and she fell back once again, her teeth scattering over the floor. Tug swung again and scalped her, sending the top of her head flying back against the wall.

Mark let his camera drop and felt guilty. “Thanks.”

“I suggest you lot stop fannying around and follow Will,” said Tug. He marched to the back door where Will was waiting. The others quickly followed Tug.

Will stepped out into the back area of the golf club rooms. A low rope surrounded the garden area that had long since become overgrown with weeds and flowers. There was a tin storeroom, but Will could see it had been ransacked and the room was empty. There was an ice cream shack to his right and another building with a low roof and some rusted golf clubs outside. He was tempted to lead them into the other building and hide out until the dead thinned out enough to escape. Then he saw what was nothing short of a miracle.

“I see it,” said Tug before Will had even pointed it out. Tug took a step toward the buggy and Will put an arm out to block his way. Tug remembered the farmhouse from last night, and how Will stopped him from entering. “Now is not the time to resume our argument, mate,” said Tug.

“I’m not going to
argue with you, Tug,” said Will. “But we can’t go without Rasmus and Tricia. We need to find them first.”

“Are you kidding me? Who knows where those two daft sods have gone. They shouldn’t have been pissing around and
gotten separated from us.”

“What is that?” asked Kelly.

“It’s a golf buggy,” said Will. “Solar powered. It’ll be a squeeze to get everyone on, but we could do it. Keep your fingers crossed, but that could be our way out of here.”

Kelly looked at the buggy. It would offer very little protection from the horde of dead. There were no doors or windows. It had a metal framework and a roof made of solar panels. There were four seats in total, including the drivers. The wheels had not perished and she began to believe it
might just be the best way past the Deathless. “And you think it’ll still work?”

“Don’t see why not
,” said Tug, eager to get going. “Those solar panels look intact to me and it’s not shaded by anything close by. Someone conveniently left it right out in the open so it should be charged up and ready to go. The sun’s been out for a little while so it should have some juice in it. Not much, but enough to get away from here. We should make a move now while we can.”

“What about Tricia?” said
Suzy.

“And Rasmus?” said Claire rubbing her bandages. Her wrist was throbbing again after all the running and the bone had not yet had time to heal. “We can’t leave them.”

“Like fuck we can’t.” Tug pushed past Will and strode over to the buggy.

“Tug, get back here,” hissed Kelly.
“Tug!”

He ignored her and kept walking, reaching the buggy in only a few seconds. He could hear the wailing of the dead close by and got in
to the driver’s seat. He pressed the start button and the engine pulsed into life. It was quiet, smooth and started instantly. He turned to the others. “Coming?”

“Fucking ass
hole,” cursed Will. He heard crashes and bangs coming from inside the clubhouse. He heard clumsy footsteps from behind them. They had no time to waste. “Everyone get over there and get on.”

Mark and Claire ran over and got into the back seats.

“I’m not leaving them,” said Kelly.

“Me neither,” said Suzy. “They wouldn’t leave us.”

“Kelly, get over there and get Tug to do a circuit of the building. He can do that much for us at least. It’ll give us a few minutes to find them. Suzy, you stick by me. We’re going to get them.”

Kelly ran over and Will
watched her talking to Tug. He was shaking his head in obvious disagreement. Kelly was pointing at him animatedly and Tug began to look uncomfortable. Will had only been on the receiving end of one of Kelly’s outbursts a couple of times and they weren’t pleasant. Tug slowly nodded and Kelly got in beside him. A moment later and the buggy took off.

“Right,” said Will. “We have to make this fast, Suzy
Q. Tug will give us a few minutes, no more. We have to shout like hell and hope Tricia and Rasmus hear us. If they’re too far gone, I’m afraid we don’t have much choice.”

“No. I’m not going anywhere without them. Kelly was right. We stick together. That’s the only way we’ll make it through this.”

Will grabbed Suzy’s shoulders and looked into her light blue eyes. She proudly looked back at him and he knew she was trying to dig her heels in on this one. He wanted her to. He wanted her to be right and for them to wait for Rasmus and Tricia. He desperately wanted to prove Tug wrong, but he couldn’t. Not this time. He was aware that every second they stood there was another second for the dead to catch up with them. “Suzy, if we stick together this time, we die. We all die. Rasmus and Tricia have one chance. Shout as loud as you can. It doesn’t matter if the dead hear us; they know we’re here already anyway. Scream for them, scream as loud as you can for Rasmus and Tricia.

“
Now, I’m going to grab one of those golf clubs and head into the treeline they disappeared into. You should get a club too, because you might need it. I’m going to find them and I’ll meet you back here in a minute. You are
not
going to die on this island, Suzy.”

Will did not give
her a chance to respond. He gave her a kiss and then ran off before she could respond. He plucked one of the rusted golf clubs up and ran toward the thick treeline out of Suzy’s sight.

Suzy felt queasy. Her he
ad was spinning. She had only a moment before the dead would be on her. Will had left her, Tug had driven the others around the other side of the building, and she suddenly realised she was alone. She sprinted over to the prone golf bag and took a club out. She knew nothing about golf, but the club was heavy in her hands and had a thick solid end. The rust didn’t matter; it was still sturdy enough to beat the crap out of any Deathless that came her way.

“Rasmus!
Tricia!” Suzy shouted as loud as she could, calling their names out over and over. “Where are you? We’re leaving, guys, come on. Rasmus! Tricia!”

The dead stumbled from the
clubhouse and headed straight for Suzy. She looked around for Will, but he was nowhere to be seen. There was no sign of the buggy either and she wondered if Tug had abandoned them. Surely, Kelly wouldn’t let him?

Suzy swung her club as one of the Deathless advanced upon her. A young man, both arms missing, was careering toward her menacingly. Suzy struck the man on the side of the head and he fell away into the long grass. The whole left hand side of his face caved in, yet he got back up. Suzy
swung again and the man’s face exploded. Bloody tissue and small bones showered the ground at her feet. There was no time to react though as the next one appeared.