Killing the Dead (Season 2 | Book 2): Dark and Deadly Land (4 page)

“You ok?”

“Hmm?” he asked with a quick glance back to me and then away across the lake again.

“Are you okay I said?”

“Fine,” he replied and I reached out to gently turn him towards me.

“What’s so distracting?”

“There’s a zombie over there,” he said with a slight tilt of the head back the way he’d been looking. “I can’t be sure from this distance but I think it’s watching us.”

I stared past him and felt the frown form on my brow for a moment before I quickly smoothed it away. He was right, there at the water’s edge, almost in the water, was a lone zombie. Unlike those others that we would often see wandering along the road, this one was
off
in some way that I couldn’t place.

“That’s weird.”

“Obviously I cannot be sure, but I am fairly certain that is the one-eyed zombie from the cellar,” Ryan said. I glanced at him and saw the corners of his mouth turn up in the slightest smile.

“You’re happy about that?”

“It’s different and different is… interesting.”

“Oh for god’s sake,” I said. “Don’t think I don’t know exactly what you mean by that.”

“You do?” he asked as he turned to look fully at me, one eyebrow raised quizzically.

“I do, so get in the boat,” I said in little more than a whisper. “We don’t need the distraction right now.”

He stared at me for several long seconds, his eyes seeming to pierce me. Eventually, he shrugged and climbed down into the boat without as much as a glance back at the gathered crowd of people. I sighed and followed him.

As boats go, it wasn’t a bad one. A flat stern and varnished wooden sides that curved forward to form a point at the prow. It had a sizeable engine that was mounted at the rear and Toby sat on the seat beside it. Pat and Cass were on the next seat, then Ryan and myself while Becky and Gregg sat towards the front.

Ryan continued to watch the lone zombie while the rest of us waved and Toby started the engine. It spluttered to life with an unhealthy sounding growl as smoke issued forth. The noise was much louder than I’d expected and after so long without the sound of an engine, it was almost unpleasant to hear.

We pulled away from the dock and I settled in to watch the land speed by as the boat moved across the open waters at a fair pace. My hand reached for Ryan’s and a smile came to me as he held mine firmly rather than pull away.

I settled back to enjoy the journey. Toby was confident the diesel he had for the motor would last long enough to get us where we were going and then bring him back. The idea being that we would all bail out while he led any zombies away with the sound of the engine.

With the faint spray of water cool on my face and the bright warming sun in the blue sky above us. I could almost imagine the world hadn’t gone to hell. I even allowed myself a brief fantasy of just being out on a boat with friends, enjoying the spring sunshine and blowing away the winter blues.

Ryan finally gave up on watching the zombie as we moved further away from the island and settled onto his seat with a slightly bored expression on his face as he watched the land move by. He really needed to learn how to enjoy the small things.

“Tell me about your family,” I said and he glanced at me in surprise.

“Why?”

“I want to know,” I told him as I let my free hand trail in the water, enjoying the feeling of it moving around my fingers. Gregg and Becky both looked back, their interest piqued.

“Not much to tell,” he said. “I had a mother and father, brother and sister.”

“Your parents weren’t divorced?”

“No, they were still married when last I spoke to them.”

“When was that?” Cass asked and he turned to look at her, seemingly surprised by everyone’s interest.

“A few years ago.”

“Do you not get on with them?” she asked with a quick flick of the eyes to her own brother. They had long since fallen out of touch with their parents who had reacted badly to the news their son was gay.

“I get on fine with them,” Ryan said. “I just haven’t had anything to say for a while.”

“That’s so sad,” Cass said and he shrugged.

“What about your brother and sister?” I asked.

“Brother was younger, sister older. Both married I think.”

“You think?”

“Well my sister married a few years ago and my parents insisted I attend. That was… unpleasant for all of us. My brother was probably married but he didn’t like me so I was spared attending that.”

“I wonder why?” Becky said and he flashed her a smile. I squeezed his hand to bring his attention back to me. I’d need to have a word with her, those little jibes needed to stop before he took offence and reacted.

“What did they do for a living?”

“Parents retired, sister was a psychiatrist and brother was an architect.”

“Both had good careers then,” Cass said. “What was it you did?”

“A bit of office work, nothing exciting,” he said. “I had other interests more important to me than a career.”

Cass swallowed what she was about to say and just nodded. We all knew what his other interests were and while our friends had accepted it, they weren’t exactly comfortable discussing it.

“Hush now, keep watch,” Toby called. He pointed ahead and I followed the direction to see the town filling the horizon.

Like most of the towns around the lakes, Ambleside had a marina. Or at least it had a marina once, now all it contained was blackened rubble that had once been the boating shops and cafes. Most of the boats that had been tied up at the docks were capsized or submerged and the ones that were upright had zombies on their decks.

Two hundred metres to the west of the marina, past a wide open field of wild grass, was the mouth of the river Rothay. Fifteen feet wide and more than deep enough for our little boat to pass, Toby directed us straight towards it.

“We’ll attract the dead ones,” Toby said. “Most’ll be stopped by the water, some’ll be too stupid though and might come for us. Round the bend the river narrows as we pass through the town, that’s when we’re most at risk.”

I swallowed hard past a suddenly dry mouth and throat. My palms felt clammy and I reached for my club with my free hand. It wasn’t much to look at, just a piece of timber taken from a boatyard. One end had been cut down until it was narrow enough to be gripped and string was wrapped tightly around to make a handle. The other end was thick and bore several notches and dents. Each of us had a club and Ryan, of course, had his combat knife on his belt.

His hand tightened on mine and I glanced over to see him watching me. He was utterly calm and at peace, no nerves for him at the thought of the danger ahead. He smiled at me, a small smile for me alone and I knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to us. Calm washed over me and I managed a smile of my own for him.

The journey along the river started well enough. I could see a few Shamblers making their way towards us from the edge of the town but they would never catch us. The water was calm and flowing steadily towards the lake we were leaving but that posed no problem to the motorised boat we were in.

We rounded the first bend and a short distance after, turned another in the opposite direction. At that point, the river split. One wide channel off to our left headed west to a smaller lake and the other almost straight north. We went north towards the edge of the town.

“This is where it’ll get rough,” Toby called. He needn’t have raised his voice, our attention was fixed firmly on the task at hand and no one was willing to risk distracting another.

Ryan squeezed my hand and when I glanced his way he nodded towards the west bank of the river on our left. I looked over to see the steep grass covered slope of the banking and through the thin veil of trees an open grass covered space and then the road; that was teeming with the undead.

My eyes were round as I saw them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands following the road barely thirty metres from where we were. Heads turned as the sound of our engine carried to them over their own incessant moans. I’d barely noticed the stench, so used to it had I become.

“There’s a wall alongside the road,” I whispered and he nodded. I saw no fear in his eyes but as he mentally measured the distance from the river bank, I saw doubt surface and his hand left mine to draw his blade.

His unease was easy to understand. As fearful of moving water as they were, that many of them rushing towards us would end up with a great deal of them being pushed into the river by those behind. It wouldn’t take long for them to form a blockage in the water we couldn’t get through.

“Bridge ahead,” Gregg called.

All eyes turned from the zombies to the looming structure we were headed towards. Houses had appeared through the trees, darkened windows empty and forlorn. We were at the edge of the town and a tall, wide bridge crossed the river, a grey stone wall the only barrier between us and the zombies crowded upon it.

I silently cursed myself for leaving the guns back at the island. We’d not had many, and few bullets, and at the time I’d considered them better used to protect the people on the island. The way I figured it, any gun shots would just draw more zombies to us. At that moment though, as we neared the edge of town I could have done with having one to hand.

Sycamore trees lined the banks at either side, towering above us and bursting to life with new growth. An almost grotesque counterpoint to those undead monsters that pushed through the shrubs at their base.

Fear filled me and any pretence of calm was gone as their awful cacophony drowned out even the sounds of the engine. Ruined faces bearing the hideous tale of their demise watched us as withered limbs reached for us.

The first zombie fell from the banking into the water, pushed from behind by its decayed brethren in their eagerness to reach us. Then another, and another. In moments, it was dozens and more were being pushed forward to stand ankle deep in the river, then it was up to their knees.

Someone cried out and I very much feared it was me as the river narrowed to pass beneath the bridge. A hand grasped the rim of the boat next to me and a face rose beside it. Dead eyes watched us hungrily and its mouth opened in anticipation of tearing at our flesh. I sat paralysed, overwhelmed by so many of them around us, surrounding us, so eager to devour us.

An arm stabbed out, silvered blade piercing an eye socket and the zombie died a second time. His free hand touched my cheek, almost tenderly as he turned my face towards him. His eyes found mine and I read the question there.

“I’m fine,” I said as I drew in a deep breath and raised my club. The next hand that grasped the side felt its weight as I slammed it down and shattered its bones. Ryan turned back to his own side and his blade flashed again as he put it to good use.

The river water was churning as the undead scrambled below the surface, desperately reaching for any handhold as the moving water robbed them of their balance. I cracked a skull as darkness covered us and we were beneath the bridge. Calm returned for a moment and then we were out the other side.

Toby yelled and the boat rocked precariously as a falling zombie collided with the corner of the vessel and I looked up to see another topple over the wall. It missed the boat by a good foot and sank beneath the water.

“Feral,” Pat snarled as he pointed to the pebbled banking to the right.

It stood still and watched us pass, torn clothing hanging from its thin frame. Dark gouges covered its pale flesh, old wounds that were as close to healed as a zombies flesh ever could. It seemed for all the world to be judging the distance between the banking and the boat.

Another zombie pushed against it and without taking those dead eyes off of us, it swiped at the other creature, tearing rotted flesh away from its cheek. I felt a shiver run through me as its eyes met mine.

Then we were past, the river widened and Toby manoeuvred to the centre, as far from either bank as we could get. Along the banks, they followed us until some barrier or other stopped them. I couldn’t see the feral and that terrified me more than it should.

“Everyone ok?” Cass asked and a chorus of assents came from the others. I answered the same, afraid to say more.

I’d faced the living and the undead before and been fearless. Something had been different this time and for the life of me, I couldn’t say what it was. I knew that I had to figure it out before the next time or I’d be putting one of my friend’s lives in danger.

In the apocalypse, hesitation would kill you.

Chapter 5 - Ryan

After the slightly interesting stretch of river around Ambleside, things seemed to quieten down. We made good time and any zombies we encountered were fleeting. Merely a few moments for them to notice us and turn their heads before we were past. It was insufferably dull.

Lily had lapsed into a moody silence and I suspected she had something on her mind. My one brief attempt to ask her what was wrong was dismissed so I left her to it.

At some point, the others seemed to feel comfortable enough to let down their guard and converse amongst themselves. Once again the talk was much about what they hoped to find at the end of our journey and the repetitive chatter about what they missed from before. I tuned them out and watched the world go by.

We travelled along the river, slowing occasionally when the need arose to avoid some floating debris. Once we passed a body that was face down in the water. From the looks of it, the man had been killed by something other than the undead since he hadn’t turned. Toby refused to stop to let me look properly and the others agreed with him.

As mildly interesting as that was, the rest of the journey was interminably boring. I had few causes to draw my knife and no cause to use it. By mid-afternoon the river we were following opened out into a small lake. Barely two hundred and fifty metres in width and twice that in length.

The ground around us changed as we entered the mountainous regions, the hills becoming great peaks that towered above us on either side. Our journey across the lake was as swift and as dull as the rest of the journey and then we were back on a river.