Domain of the Dead (22 page)

“You look clean,” Bates said in a firm voice. “No scratches.”

The dead guard slammed up against the outside of the cell, snarling and flailing. Thrusting his arms between the bars, the ghoul snatched at the air in a forlorn attempt to seize its prey. Wild with fury, his lips curled back, the zombie lashed out, its gnashing teeth dripping with saliva. He snarled like a rabid dog.

“Don’t look too happy at having his meal interrupted,” Bates quipped.

Sarah took a couple of deep breaths. She knew her cellmates would assume she was trying to regain her composure after the fright, but in truth Sarah had felt a different primordial reaction.

She granted herself a fleeting smile, a physical acknowledgment of the brief moment of arousal she’d felt for Bates, before returning to their situation.

“I thought when you resurrected you were brain dead, but that fucker looks real pissed,” Nathan said.

“Animals get angry,” Sarah offered. “Doesn’t mean they’re intelligent. It’s just an instinct.”

Bates stepped a little closer, but still out of reach of the zombie. He stepped from side to side, watching as the zombie followed him with thrashing arms.

“He’s working on autopilot,” Bates said without taking his eyes of the zombie. “Like the knee-jerk reaction. It doesn’t take any thought. If he could think, he’d just take his keys and open up the door.”

“We’ve got to get those keys.” Nathan pawed at his chin as if trying to find a solution.

“Anything for a quiet life, eh!” Bates signalled to Nathan. “You grab his right arm. I’ll grab his left.”

“My left or your left?” Nathan asked.

“What the fuck?! We’re facing the same way!”

“I mean our left or his left?”

“His left.” Bates stood agog. “Look, just grab the one on your side. When we do, Sarah can get the key. Okay?”

“Sure,” Nathan said, nodding his head in agreement.

Bates looked over at Sarah for consent.

She nodded.

Taking up a stance with his weight on his front leg, Bates started swaying as if he were about to try to leap a chasm. “One… two…”

“Whoa! Whoa!” Nathan shouted, his hands raised in front of him, palms facing out. “On three or after three?”

Sarah stepped between the pair. “Boys...” She paused and looked them in the eye, in turn. “Just grab him
now
!”

The two men lunged at the zombie. Its arms lashed out, trying to haul them into its maw. The bars rattled and clanked as the two men battled to subdue the creature.

Bates managed to get a two-handed grasp, one below the wrist and the other gripped onto its forearm.

“Fuck me, this bugger’s strong!” Bates gritted, fighting to restrain it.

“Shit!” Nathan cursed as he completely lost control of the zombie’s other arm.

The dead crewman used his freedom to get closer to Bates. It pushed its snarling face hard against the bars. The metal rods jammed into its cheeks. Only the bone beneath prevented it from forcing its way through.

Bates stared into the snarling creature’s eyes. Its irises were still plain to see, unlike the clouded white that old zombies seemed to turn.

The creature used Bates’ grip against him. It flexed its dead muscle and started to pull him closer to the bars.

Bates could smell the fresh blood that glistened black in the red light on the cadaver’s neck.

“Have you been working out?” Bates joked as he struggled against the zombie.

Bates was a military trained man. He was strong and he was practiced but the creature he fought struggled harder than any living man could. It didn’t feel pain, it ignored fatigue, it fought until its muscles ripped.

Bates had an epiphany.

“Fuck it!” he snarled as he pulled the zombie’s arm fully into the cell and snapped it back against the bars. Its humerus split in two with a sickening crack. The zombie still flailed unabated, but without the bone for leverage the arm was useless.

Bates held onto the struggling zombie. The arm still tensed and contracted, but deprived of its anchoring the muscles had no purchase. The zombie shoved itself at the bars again and Bates felt the two ends of raw bone rasp together. The crunching ragged edges of bone sent shudders down the zombie’s arm each time they grated together. Bates too shuddered at the sound of bone against bone.

He shouted, “Grab the other arm!”

Nathan danced in and grabbed the ghoul’s arm.

“Now, Sarah!” Nathan barked.

Sarah lunged between them, falling onto her knees. She thrust her right arm through the bars and grabbed for the keys clipped to the cadaver’s waist. Although pinned by both arms, the creature still writhed with considerable force. It threw its weight left then right, fighting not to break loose but to break through. The keys on its hip jangled and bounced as the zombie flailed.

Sarah grasped hold of the keys and yanked hard to dislodge them. The serrated edges of the metal dug into her palms as she pulled, but instead of feeling a jolt of resistance the keys came away easily. Then the cord reached its full extension and snapped taut. Sarah lost her grip and the keys whirled back, drawn by the keychain reel clipped to the guard’s belt.

Sarah reached through the bars again, this time grabbing the whole reel. She pulled down at it, but the backing clip held firm, simply tugging at the guard’s trousers. Again she tried, this time pushing the reel up and over. The unit slipped up and was almost clear when the zombie twisted, snagging the keys against a belt loop. The whole thing was wrenched from Sarah’s grasp and fell clattering to the floor. The zombie’s foot clipped the bunch of keys and with a loud jangle they went skittering across the deck. Terrified that they could be knocked out of reach, Sarah plunged her hand down and clutched her fingers over them. Just as she did, the zombie lurched against its restrainers and brought its foot down on Sarah’s hand.

For an instant Sarah couldn’t work out what had went crunch. Then the pain hit her.

A scream punched its way out of her mouth as her eyes welled up with tears. The zombie shuffled and Sarah snatched her hand back through the bars. She sobbed, cradling her hand to her chest, too scared to look down at where the pain was coming from, too worried by what the damage would be.

“I’ve got it!” Nathan called as he let go of the zombie’s arm. He ducked down and made a grab for the keys.

“Hurry up!” Bates screamed as the zombie tried to pull away.

Bates felt something tear—something soft. He looked down to see the zombie’s bicep ripped open by the jagged end of the bone underneath. In the tug of war between them, it was the zombie’s flesh that was giving way. The skin was being sawn open from the inside by the frantic heaving.

“I can’t hold him!” Bates warned.

Nathan threw himself to the back of the cell, keys held aloft in triumph. “Got ‘em!”

“Thank fuck,” Bates said as he let go of the half severed arm and stepped out of reach.

The frustrated creature let out a plaintive moan. Its face pressed against the bars, drool dripping off its chin. Its arms outstretched through the bars, the mangled and broken arm swinging limp from the bicep, twitching spasmodically as it dangled.

Bates knelt down. He felt nauseous. Remembering the feeling of the bones grinding together sent kicks of revulsion to his stomach. He swallowed back the taste of bile and turned to Sarah.

“Let me see,” he said, softly looking down to where Sarah hid her hand.

Still too scared to look, Sarah took her good hand away, and turning her head she held out her injured hand.

“Okay,” Bates said as he looked at her crumpled fingers. “It looks like the index and middle fingers are broken.”

He stood up and walked over to the bunk he’d been using before Sarah and Nathan’s incarceration. At the foot of the bunk there was a metal cup with the hilt of a spoon protruding from the lip. Bates picked up the spoon and wiped it on the bed covers.

He called over the noise of the whining zombie, “Nathan, pull the covers off that bed and rip me some strips off to use as bandages.”

Nathan nodded and started about his task.

Bates sat down next to Sarah again. He had the spoon in both hands and was bending it at the neck. “I’m going to splint those two fingers. It’s not going to stop them from hurting but it’ll make it a bit more comfortable.” He looked over his shoulder at the snarling zombie. “Well, as comfortable as you get given the situation.”

Sarah nodded as Nathan passed over a wad of stripped linen.

“This is going to hurt,” Bates said as he snapped the head off the spoon.

Nathan held out his hand “Here. Squeeze it as hard as you like.”

Sarah clasped her good hand into Nathan’s and started taking some deep breaths.

“I’ll be as quick as I can,” Bates said.

He took firm hold of Sarah’s broken fingers and pulled.

Sarah screamed. She screamed so hard even the zombie was stunned. Blackness rushed in around her vision. Her head giddy and light, it rolled onto her chest and she passed out.

* * *

When she woke up, the first thing she heard was the zombie’s wheezy moan.

“Don’t get up.”

It was Nathan’s voice she heard. Sarah started to regain her bearings. She was still in the cell, but now she was laying on one of the cots, coarse woollen blanket on top of her.

“You passed out,” Nathan said.

Sarah raised her head to look at her bandaged hand. Her fingertips and the ragged end of a broken spoon poked out from the dressing.

“Not the best looking bandage I know, but it will do,” Bates said. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay I guess. How long was I out?”

“About half an hour.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Get the fuck out off here!” Nathan offered.

Sarah slowly sat up in bed, careful not to place any weight on her injured hand. “I had expected a little more planning than that, Nathan.”

“Get the fuck out of here and off this ship!” Nathan replied unhelpfully.

“We don’t know if the whole ship’s been overrun,” Bates said. “But I think we should assume the worst for now. If I’m wrong then life’s easy, but its been quiet except for moaning, so my guess is we’ve been overrun.”

Sarah nodded. “Agreed. We need to get out of here and get to Jennifer.”

“Well,” Nathan said, pointing at the zombified guard, “our first problem is him.”

“Same as with the key,” Bates said. “Two of us hold him by the arms through the bars. The other person opens the cell door and dispatches him.”

“With what?” Sarah asked.

“The gun?” Nathan said, pointing at where the discarded weapon lay.

“Gun’s empty,” Bates reminded them. “You saw that when he tried to off himself.”

“Is there any more ammo?” Sarah asked.

“It’s a possibility, but not a certainty,” Bates replied. “He was just guarding us, so no need for more than one clip…
normally
.”

Sarah swung her legs round to sit on the edge of the bed. “If there is any ammo, where is it likely to be?”

“In a pocket or in the desk drawer,” Bates said. “If it’s in the drawer, it might be locked.” He started to pace the cell. He ran a hand through his hair before adding, “If there is a reload, it’ll be quicker for me to do it.”

Sarah nodded. “Okay.”

“Jeez, volunteered again,” Bates said, trying to lighten the mood. “I should just keep my big mouth shut.”

Sarah took his attempt at humour as a disguise against nervousness. She couldn’t blame him; a bite or even a scratch could be enough to kill him and turn him into one of them. It was a prospect none of them relished.

Bates spun the keys around on their chain, familiarising himself with what was there: A key for the cell, a key for the main door and a key for the desk. The desk key was a small thin silver thing with a reference number stamped on the head. The other two keys were more sturdy, heavier and longer, with a block of teeth at the end. There was no way of telling which were for what lock. He would just have to try both and that could mean a delay in getting the ammo. He knew the longer he took the more chance there was that the zombie would get loose and attack him. He’d never fought a zombie barehanded before and it wasn’t something he was keen to try.

Nathan placed his hand flat on Sarah’s leg. “Are you up to this?”

Sarah nodded.

“If you can’t keep a grip on him you holler and let me know,” Bates said, just as concerned about Nathan’s abilities as Sarah’s.

“Sure thing, Bates,” Sarah said as she stood up from the bed.

Bates held the two likely keys in front of him. “Okay… go!”

Sarah and Nathan raced forward, Nathan grabbed hold of the creature’s left arm, leaving Sarah to take its partially severed right. Bates knelt down in front of the lock and reached round, key in hand, to feel for the entrance of the lock. Neing a prison cell, the door only opened from the outside. The tip of the key danced around where Bates thought the opening should be. He swirled the key round, desperately trying to locate the opening. All the while Bates could hear the slap, and grunts and undead groans as his comrades struggled to control the monster mere inches away. Finally the key snagged. He gently eased it over and found the entrance. He pushed the key home, but the angle was too steep. It jammed against the cylinder inside. He pulled it out slightly and tried again at a shallower angle. This time the key found the seating. He twisted it and met with resistance. Again he tried a little harder but still nothing.