Burden of Survival: Killing the Dead : Season Two (3 page)

We crossed the road that ran alongside the lake and passed into the trees. Our destination wasn’t far and I hoped that we’d find some zombies to kill before we reached it.

Up into the hills we walked as a light drizzle began. I was grateful for the thick waterproof coat and warm woollen gloves Lily had found for me. Jenny following behind was swearing quietly as she pulled her thinner jacket close about her.

I had no idea why she wore it since it was much better suited to an evening out than traipsing through the woods in the early spring. It barely fell past her waist and only buttoned half way up. She always seemed to wear it though so I imagined she had her reasons.

We were approaching our destination and I had just about given up on meeting any undead when they appeared through the trees. I did a quick head count and smiled grimly as I pointed them out to Jenny.

“Five of them,” she said.

“Start on the left, I’ll go right and we’ll meet in the middle,” I told her before setting off at a brisk jog.

They noticed my approach and turned towards me, ruined voices raised in anger or perhaps hunger. Their emaciated forms were clothed in rags that were once clothes and vicious wounds covered their bodies.

So slow
I thought as I slid past the feeble grasp of the closest zombie and slammed my knife through the thin bone of its temple. I kicked out and knocked the next to the ground where it lay on its back struggling to right itself.

The third had a hold on my arm for just a moment before I thrust my blade up beneath its jaw and through the soft palette in the mouth and in to its brain.

A quick look told me Jenny had taken out one and was on to the next so I turned my attention to the fallen zombie. It thrashed its arms and legs while snapping its broken and rotted teeth in my direction, perhaps hoping I would wander close enough for it to bite into my flesh.

It didn’t seem to be doing so well. Its grey skin hung loose on its frame and several fingers were missing while others were blackened with decay. I’d already determined they fared better than the usual run of the mill corpse but it did seem that they were slowly starting to rot.

“You gonna kill it?” Jenny asked as she approached me, her blade still drawn and a look of anger firmly fixed in place.

“Does it seem… off to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Those bites,” I said and pointed to its shoulder where chunks of flesh were missing. “They look recent.”

“So?”

“Well, this one’s been a zombie a while,” I said. “So why would anyone bite it?”

“You sure it’s a bite?” she asked as she peered down at it. “Could have been caused by something else.”

“Perhaps,” I said.

While I disliked a mystery, I had other things to do and a need to be back at the island by lunchtime so had no real desire to inspect the festering flesh closely. I kicked aside its closest arm and stabbed my knife down through its skull. It ceased its thrashing about immediately.

Much to my dismay the killing of the three undead had brought no particular joy other than for a job well done. I may as well have been chopping wood for all the true pleasure I’d gained from the task. That was potentially a problem.

We didn’t bother moving the bodies. It was too wet to burn them and I had no intention of digging a grave in the half frozen earth. Besides, when the world was covered with the undead, a few corpses attracting vermin were the least of our worries.

As we continued on our way I couldn’t help but wonder once again at that. When they were animated as zombies, the usual bacteria that worked to break apart the body after death didn’t seem to be doing their job, or at least they were doing it incredibly slowly.

The other vermin and carrion eaters, the insects and rats avoided them too. Though I had seen proof that flies had laid their eggs in the body; that may well have been before they were animated. After a zombie was killed, those carrion eaters would treat them like any other corpse.

It was yet another puzzle about the undead that I had yet to figure out. I would though, of that I was sure. That need to know was like an incessant itch that couldn’t be scratched and as such, I was well motivated to find an answer.

“I’ll check round back,” Jenny said as we approached our destination and I nodded approval in an absent minded way as I watched the house warily,

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was a fairly standard two storey dwelling with whitewashed walls and discoloured grey slate roof. Dark green ivy climbed the walls and surrounded the door and I knew that as the weather warmed that wall climbing plant would be crawling with stinging insects.

It had been searched early on by members of our group and anything of use had been taken away. The location wasn’t far enough away from the island to be used as one of our temporary safe camps that were used on extended periods away from our home and sitting out in the open as it did, it would be little use when avoiding the undead.

All together that meant that no one would ever bother to visit the property unless they had a reason and the ones who did have a reason were few in number. Even so, it paid to be wary and I watched Jenny jog around the side of the house alert for any sign of ambush.

If the location had been compromised and she was attacked I would have ample time to decide whether it was worth helping her or retreating.

When no attack came, I approached the front door. The stench was distant but it was there and I spat as it seemed to linger in the back of my throat. I kept my knife steady as I knocked on the door.

I waited patiently for the door to open, my gaze on the hills and woods around us. If any threat was to come, it would be from there and I had no intention of being caught unawares. My attention turned back to the door as a key turned in the lock with a solid sound of metal on metal and it was pulled open.

“You’re early,” Gregg said.

At least that’s what I thought he said, it was hard to make out what he was saying due to the thick cloth that was wrapped around his face leaving only his eyes and dark hair exposed.

“Better early than late,” I offered with a tight smile as he ushered me through the door.

He was one of those who knew what I was and one of those few people I considered a friend. It still amazed me that I actually had friends. I’d never before needed any and not really lamented their loss. Now that I had some, I was surprised to find that I was growing to like having them, though not enough to seek out more.

“What you here for?”

“I can’t just come and visit?”

“Yeah right,” Gregg scoffed. “Like you ever do anything without a reason.”

“True,” I said agreeably as I inspected the house.

Most of the furniture that could be easily transported was gone and the few pieces remaining had been pushed up against entranceways to help provide barriers should anything find their way inside.

The smell of death was stronger inside the house and I guessed that to be the reason for the thick cloth over Greggs face. Faint sounds came from beneath the floorboards and Gregg gestured towards the kitchen.

“I’ve been staying upstairs,” he said. “The stink isn’t as bad up there. You coming up or want to head downstairs first?”

“Downstairs,” I said with a smile.

“Fair enough mate,” he said with a weary sigh.

Gregg led the way into the kitchen and pulled a heavy metal key from the pocket of his thick coat which he used to unlock the equally heavy padlock on the cellar door. The sounds from below grew in volume as though in anticipation.

“Here,” he said as he handed me a flashlight. I flicked it on and descended the stairs carefully, knife gripped firmly in my other hand.

I swung the flashlight around when I reached the bottom of the stairs to let the beam illuminate as much of the cellar as I could. I wanted no surprises.

The beam of light hit the table in the centre of the room and the still figure that lay bound atop it. The zombie’s one remaining eye stared unblinkingly at me as it watched me and I smiled at it, not that it seemed to know the difference between a smile and a scowl.

“No problems?” I asked.

“Saw a couple of shamblers wander past the other day,” Gregg said. “They didn’t pay much attention to the house. Reckon the stink has them thinking it’s just more of them living here.”

“What about from these?”

Gregg looked around the cellar, taking in each of the bound forms that surrounded the table in the centre.

“Nothing much to report. They chew off the gags occasionally but that’s about it. They can’t get free.”

I looked over at the closest zombie. It lay on the floor chewing on the cloth that had been wrapped around its face. A blanket had been wrapped tightly around its body holding its arms and legs immobile, then rope had been used to bind that tightly enough that it couldn’t move. It lay there wriggling slightly as it struggled at its bonds.

“Let’s get that one upstairs,” I said. “It’s time to see what’s making them work.”

Chapter 4

Lily

I pulled my friend into the comforting embrace she so obviously needed as my mind raced with the enormity of the problem I had just been handed.

A baby was going to be hard at the best of times but during the apocalypse! Well it would be beyond hard even if we had any of the required equipment and medical staff. The best we had was Gabby, a veterinarian in her past life.

“Have you told anyone else?” I asked.
      

She shook her head against my shoulder and murmured softly that she hadn’t. I stroked her head gently as I considered what to do.

“Okay, first things first, we need to speak to Gabby,” I said. “She’s the closest thing we have to a midwife. Then you need to speak to Pat.”

“We were so careful,” she said with a sob. “Both of us knew how hard a baby would be.”

“Accidents happen,” I agreed. “Nothing is one hundred percent guaranteed to work.”

“He’ll be mad.”

“I very much doubt he will be,” I said. “That’s your panic talking.”

We were starting to attract attention from the people around us and I didn’t think it best for everyone to know just yet so I gently turned my friend away from the doors.

“Let’s go and find Gabby.”

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being so understanding,” Cass said as she wiped at her eyes.

I stared at her in surprise. This woman who I had personally seen standing firm against zombie hordes, who had fought and lived beside me, who stood by her friends even when she found out they were a serial killer… she wanted to thank me for not being pissed that her birth control didn’t work?

“Come on,” I said gently. “Let’s go see Gabby.

Rather than go through the main house where people were starting to stir and go about their daily tasks, I led her around the side. It gave her a little time to compose herself and we stopped when out of sight of everyone to let her wipe at her eyes with a tissue from the pack I kept in my pocket.

When she was ready, we continued on until we came to what we’d laughingly dubbed the ‘kitchen.’

Since the actual kitchen inside the house was connected to a propane tank, it did work… just not very well for seventy people. The answer to that was to build something a little more suitable to our needs.

With the aid of some cement and bricks scavenged from Windermere when we still had access to the greater carrying capacity of the passenger boat, we managed to build a row of brick ovens.

They weren’t always ideal and were barely more than rudimentary but they actually worked. Through the winter we’d burnt wood in them and made all manner of warm meals the group could all enjoy.

The last scavenging run had turned up a number of sacks of flour and yeast in an abandoned bakery. In short time we were making our own bread. It was rough stuff to be fair but it was a filling staple of our diet.

A number of tent poles and tarpaulin had been used to make a shelter over the row of ovens which had made using them during the worst of winter, if not pleasant then at least tolerable. The undisputed leader of the ‘kitchen’ was Annalise.

“Young lady,” Annalise called as she saw us approach. “I need a word.”

“Oh what now,” I muttered and received a companionable squeeze of my hand from Cass. I was supposed to be comforting her not the other way around.

“Young lady, we really must speak.”

“What can I do for you?” I asked. My voice was carefully neutral and I resisted the urge to look away from her. If I let her have her own way she’d walk all over me.

The grey haired woman wore a white apron over her faded blue jeans and thick coat. I wasn’t entirely sure how she managed it, but her aprons were always clean.

“I’ve been told you have some pigs,” she said and I blinked in surprise.
Who told you that?

“You’re mistaken,” I said.

“No, no. You have pigs and you won’t let us cook them,” Annalise said. “We need fresh meat, more than just the fish from the lake.”

“Any animals out there the zombies could catch, were killed,” I said carefully. “The only animals we have are the chickens.”

“We need their eggs more than their meat,” Cass added and I smiled my thanks to her.

“You have pigs and we need them,” Annalise repeated. “The children are hungry.”

“We’re all hungry,” I said.
Keep calm
I told myself.

“What about your friends from Coniston?” she demanded. “They take our fish, what do we get in return?”

“We get many things in return that we don’t have,” Cass said. “Tools and salt for a start.”

“Bah, we can find that ourselves. We need meat.”

“You want meat, there’s a difference, “I said. “Now if you don’t need anything else…”

“You have pigs’ young lady and you need to share them with us,” she said crossly.

“What makes you think we have these animals?”

“I hear things,” she said with a sudden secretive smile. “You and your friends are keeping them for yourself. Maybe I should ask a few people what they think of that eh?”

“If you have any concerns you can bring them up tomorrow night when we have the weekly meeting,” I said. I was barely holding my temper in check but the insufferable woman was pushing my buttons. “You can raise them there and we will answer you.”