Thirteen Roses Book Two: After: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (9 page)

They were past Holborn, and the road ahead narrowed and was choked with cars. There was no way they were getting down there. She tried to turn but the road was way too thin. So she tried reverse and went shooting back, slamming the rear of the car into another. It was horribly loud and she ducked, half expecting someone to come out and shout at her.
 

Instead, a zombie approached and banged on the door. She jumped as the sunken eyes glared through the glass. It wore a suit and was probably one of the snooty businessmen who sneered at her the few times she made the mistake of trying to beg in the Square Mile. Ed's words came back to her and she put the car into first gear.
 

Unable to contain her smile, she grabbed the door handle and opened it silently. With a fierce movement she slammed the door into the creature's legs. It staggered, one leg giving way until it ended up on its arse. She yanked the door closed and put her foot down, turning the car hard. They were almost round but she couldn't avoid the horror of further reversing. She managed it without running into anything else, and it left her pointing at the businessman.
 

She glanced at Ed. His teeth were gritted and he was nodding. She put her foot down and hit the creature fast enough for its legs to collapse completely beneath the impact. Its head struck the bumper and a splash of blood made it all the way up to the windscreen. She stamped on the brake and stared at it for a moment, frozen.
 

Then Ed whooped and raised a hand, so she high-fived him and put her foot down.
 

'My dad worked in the city. Every morning he'd go before I got up. Must have seen him like two days a week, tops.' Ed said.
 

'That sounds like heaven.'

He barked a laugh. 'It would be if Mum wasn't a complete bitch. But Dad would be there at the weekends and wonder why I never spoke and why I never wanted to go with them when they went out.' His voice lowered. 'Never got close enough to find the marks.'

'Didn't you tell someone?'

'How did that go for you?'

She hesitated, frowning. At least she'd tried. 'He might have listened, though. Surely you could have tried.'

'You don't... you didn't know my parents. They were like so in love, just completely in love. I was an afterthought.'

'You're too young to think that.'

'I'm fourteen and that's plenty old enough to know when you're a fifth wheel. I was always a fifth wheel.'

She patted him on the shoulder, quickly so she could get her hands back on the wheel. 'Not anymore.'

He laughed. 'There's the silver lining. I'm never going to be their fifth wheel again. Or their fourth or third or anything else for that matter.'

From the corner of her eye she saw him nodding and smiling, the most genuine expression she'd seen from him in the last day. Except for the greed when they'd run over the zombies. She let out a breath. She thought he was going to be lost forever, but maybe not.
 

'Hey, what's that?'

She followed to where he pointed and saw a plume of black smoke emerging over the tops of the buildings.
 

'Dunno, it's where we're going, though, so we'll soon find out.'
 

She looked back at the road and slammed on the brakes, sending the car skidding sideways. A bus had slewed across the carriageway, blocking the entire road, and they came to a halt a few feet away. She put her hand on her chest and waited for her heart to stop dancing.
 

She grumbled as she turned it around and took a couple of lefts, bringing them back on track down Cannon Street. They'd gone only a few metres when she stamped on the brakes again.
 

'God, can you just learn how to drive already?'

She ducked down beneath the steering wheel. 'Get down.'

'What?'

'Get down, now, get down.'

He looked at her blankly so she grabbed his collar and hauled him towards her. He came willingly enough until his head touched hers.
 

'What's going on?'

'Up ahead. Guys with guns.'

'It's the army, they're here to save us, oh my god, oh thank god--'

'Shut up. It's not the army. They've got these big crosses on their backs.'

'Huh?'

'Look.'

She raised her head just enough to peer over the steering wheel. He joined her and together they looked at what she realised was the back of St Paul's Cathedral. Four men did were loitering, standing in a rough circle with guns slung carelessly over their shoulders. The one with his back to them displayed a huge symbol on his back, of a white cross with a red outline.
 

'That's not the army.'

'Are they church people? Maybe the church is helping out.'

'With guns?'

They exchanged looks and he shook his head. 'They won't hurt us, come on, we ca—'
 

He reached for the door handle and she slapped him. It was the second time that day, and had a much greater effect this time.

'Oww, what the hell?'

'Think about, Ed. Weirdos with guns and gas masks. Where'd they get the gas masks? They're in on it.'

'On what?'

She thought about slapping him again. 'I don't know. I don't what it is. But this whole thing, the fog and the zombies? They've been caused by something, right?'

He shrugged.
 

'So someone's behind this. London's deserted, there's no one here except us. But by pure chance, there's a bunch of random guys with gas masks right in the middle of town. You really think they're here to help us?'

'Why else would they be here?'

'I dunno.' She hated admitting it, but she didn't have a clue. 'I just don't wanna show ourselves until we know who they are.'

He shrugged again but his hand was away from the door handle. 'So what now, then?'

She peered over the steering wheel. The four men were still there but now she noticed something else behind them. Two huge trucks, painted menacing tones of grey, pulled up on the edge of the road and disgorged lots more of the men. They greeted the first four then wandered away around the side of St Paul's.

'Why aren't they being attacked?'

It was true. Why hadn't she realised? The four men looked relaxed, not like they were surrounded by zombies. And they
were
surrounded, but at a distance. It was as though there was an invisible barrier about ten metres away from the men in all directions. The zombies were gathered around them, eager looks on their faces but coming no closer.
 

'They must have something.'

'Like what?'

'I don't bloody know, do I?'

They sat in silence, staring at the perimeter of zombies. She wanted to get out and go around St Paul's, but the moment they appeared the zombies would flock to them. She ground her teeth together. They could drive around it, go the long way and come from another direction, but the men could be gone by then.
 

'What do we do?'

Ed shrugged and patted the dashboard. 'We're safe in here.'

'Yeah, screw safe, I wanna see what they've got.' She pushed open the door, grabbed her bag and stepped out. She hovered beside the car, heart thumping. She stayed completely still, watching the ring of zombies for signs of interest. The men in gas masks weren't even reacting to them, like they saw them every day, like they were normal. She took a slow step away, pausing as she put her foot down. Still no movement from the zombies.
 

She took another.
 

Stop.
 

Another.
 

Stop.
 

There were zombies further away who should have seen her, but at that moment she was unnoticed. She glanced back at the car. Ed had pulled the driver's door closed and stared at her through the window, wide eyed and shaking his head. She stared back and was about to gesture him out when she stopped. Maybe it would be better this way. She didn't have to worry about him and she wouldn't have to think about him if she ran.
 

She turned away from the car and took her slow steps, one by one, towards St Paul's. She almost got around the back before she heard the tell-tale growl that meant she'd been smelled. Sweat broke out across her back and her breath caught in her throat. She broke into a run, away from the soldiers and down the far side of the cathedral, trying to ignore the scratch of feet as the zombies closed in.
 

Alex - Plague Day

The world turned upside down. In truth, his feet simply stepped from grass onto a patterned-stone pathway, lined with trees and sat beneath a burning sun. But it was night time and he was on Glastonbury Tor so there was no way there could be sunshine.
 

But there was.
 

So the world flipped and Alex found himself hanging, clinging on with nails already cracked and pulling off.
 

Luke was already striding away down the path and he tried to keep up, but his legs refused to obey his commands and he staggered to a stop. The trees bore huge harvests of olives and the smell made him think of holidays and summer. The stone beneath his feet was carved into long spirals and shapes that danced before his eyes and made him dizzy.
 

He swallowed and looked down the path. Ahead lay the sea, glittering an impossible blue beneath the sun. Before it, a long low wall bordered the edge of the hill upon which they stood. A figure sat on the wall but it was too far to make out any details. There was a possibility this was God. A god. The god. It didn't matter overmuch. He wanted to chuckle and shake his head, but he couldn't deny the warmth that beat on his head, nor the wind that caressed his legs with soft sand.
 

He didn't know who the person sat on the wall was, but he knew he wasn't in England anymore. He swallowed and made his slow way after Luke.

As he drew nearer, the person came into focus and proved, for the most part, unremarkable. White, wispy hair that clung to his skull like ambitious candyfloss, created the image of an old man, and the lines on his forehead agreed. He wore a loincloth and nothing else, displaying a wiry body, the sort older men in the Mediterranean had that spoke of a life spent on boats beneath the sun. But despite the mundanity of his appearance, his eyes were entirely remarkable and Alex found himself trapped.
 

They were the colour of the sea after a storm and pierced straight through him. His disbelief, what was left of it, withered. This person, this being, was something he hadn't even imagined, let alone seen before. Luke called him the Father and it was a name that fitted. He'd already seen everything Alex had done. He knew all his secrets and his mysteries. The question that remained was what sort of a father he was.
 

Alex's father had been solid. That was the word he used when he talked to mates. Solid, easy, relaxed, patient. A good dad, really. He supported his son's love of chemistry and had been way more thrilled than Alex when he got the place at uni. He had the feeling the man sitting on the wall would be somewhat different.
 

He caught Luke just as he spoke.
 

'Why did you send me to Earth?'

It was asked in the tone of voice that normally commanded answers and threatened pain if they didn't arrive. The white-haired man merely raised his eyes to look at Luke and his eyebrows to indicate he'd heard.
 

'You know the answer to that. It was time for you to rediscover yourself.'

'I know who I am well enough, thank you. Now tell me the truth, why am I here?'

The Father leant back and folded his arms. 'Come forward, Alex, please.'

He decided he'd rather leap off the cliff than come forward, but his feet were already moving. He stared at his legs, willing them to stop, and decided that he didn't have any control over them. Which was both terrifying and oddly comforting. He wasn't out of his depth. He'd already drowned and was standing on the sea bed.
 

'You made a difficult choice a couple of weeks ago. You made the right one, well done.'

'You know who I am?'

'Of course. I know who everyone is.'

Luke snorted. 'You mean you looked at my list. Are you sure you didn't plan my list?'

'You know I don't take that sort of a hands-on role. Why, was it different to usual?'

'I failed. I failed my quota. The first time ever. And it wasn't because I was 'out of sorts' or 'no longer inspired by my job'.'

'You were, though. It is clear to me you've been out of sorts for some time.'

'Bollocks. Someone told you I was out of sorts and you believed them because it gave you a good reason to screw me.'

The Father raised his eyebrows again and smirked. Alex hadn't expected a smirk, and when the Father met his gaze for a second, he squirmed. It was creepy, like finding your dad's stash of porn.
 

'Tell me, Luci, in what way have I 'screwed' you?'

'Ways. You sent me to Earth, quite possibly making me mortal. You sent me here to save everyone from a disease that I don't have a chance of stopping. And then you let someone send Kali to distract me at the one moment I could have done something.'

The Father frowned, shaking his head. 'No one has been to Earth, not since you arrived.'

'That's where you're wrong. Kali was here six days ago.'

The air around the Father shimmered, like a heat haze over the desert, and Alex blinked as his ears popped. The old man stood abruptly and smoothly, showing none of his age.
 

'Who was the someone?'

For the first time since they'd met, Alex saw Luke hesitate. He didn't know why but he filed it away to ask him about later. Or maybe not ask him about directly, just dance around it until he found out the truth. Luke shifted from foot to foot.
 

'That isn't important.'

'That's entirely important. That is, in fact, considerably more important than your whining and whinging about being sent to Earth.'