Demise of the Living (40 page)

“Why’d they jump off into the
horde, anyway?” Billy asked. “Why didn’t they jump off on the car
park side of the building?”

“Maybe they didn’t think about
that,” Sharon offered.

“What about Mo?” Colin
said.

“Mo? Mo’s dead,” Sharon
replied.

“
Is he? We’ve only
assumed that. I mean, Thomas didn’t say how he died. He might have
just assumed it.”

“He was always disappearing,”
Liz added.

“
So Mo’s stalking us?
Killing us off one by one? That’s ludicrous,” Sharon
said.

“Look, this is getting us
nowhere,” Colin said. “Let’s face it: without police forensics
we’re making a lot of suppositions here.”

“The only person here we know
who has killed is Billy,” Liz said.

“
I was fucking set up!”
Billy spat, red-faced and pointing a finger at Liz.

“So you say,” Sharon added.

Colin cut in, “Look, this is
getting us nowhere!”

“So you’re saying we just
ignore the fact that people are getting killed and go about as if
nothing’s happened?" Sharon said.

They all stood silently looking
each other over.

“
Okay, okay,” Colin said.
“First things first. What do we do with the bodies?”

***

The two green sleeping bags lay
side by side. One looked half empty.

“Do we say a few words?” Liz
asked.

“Does anyone know if John or
Karen had a faith?” Billy said.

“Other than a friend’s
daughter’s christening, I don’t remember John ever talking about
church,” Sharon said.

“What about Karen?” Billy
asked.

Colin shook his head, looking
at the smaller of the two sleeping bags.

“
I don’t remember. She
certainly doesn’t have any overtly religious beliefs,” he said,
chewing on his bottom lip. He shook his head. “Such a waste. She
was only fourteen.”

“Well, if no one else wants to,
I’ll say a few words,” Billy volunteered.

He coughed to clear his throat
and bowed his head. The others followed suit.

“Oh Lord, I ask you to take
these three souls into your care. I don’t remember much from Sunday
school and such, but as I recall we are to take comfort from the
promise of our resurrection and eternal life through our Lord Jesus
Christ. I would like to thank you, Lord, for not bestowing this
upon our friends. Amen.”

A round of
Amens
lifted from the impromptu flock, except from
Liz.

Her bottom jaw wavered and
tears ran from her eyes. She turned and looked towards the office
where her dead son was contained.

“
Oh shit,” Billy said.
“I’m sorry, Liz. I didn’t… I mean…that was insensitive. I’m
sorry.”

Sharon gestured to Billy that
he should stop rambling and walked over to put an arm around Liz.
Melissa was already hugging her mother tight around the waist.

Colin lent in towards Billy and
spoke quietly.

“
You said three souls,”
he said.

“
I was including Thomas,
too,” Billy said.

He turned and exited the
office.

Colin watched the doors close
behind him.

“Should we let him go off on
his own?” he asked.

“Why?” Sharon asked, with her
arm round Liz’s shoulder.

“What if he’s the murderer?”
Colin said.

“Who’s he going to murder,
Colin?”

“
Shit. What if he’s going
to get one of the machine guns?”

“Billy’s not the murderer,” Liz
said, composing herself.

“How do you know that?” Colin
asked.

“He’s got that shotgun,” Liz
said.

“
Yeah, but he’s only got
two cartridges left for it,” Colin said. “He couldn’t kill us all
with two shots.”

“He wouldn’t have to,” Liz
said. “He could just shoot you, then me or Sharon. Even out of
ammunition he could easily overpower a little girl and one grown
woman.”

Colin shook his head.
“I’m not convinced. In fact, the only person I can say for sure
isn’t the murderer is me.”

“
Way to go, Colin. Of
course the murderer would deny the fact,” Sharon said.

“
What are we going to
do?” Liz asked. “One of you is a murderer. How do the rest of us
survive? What if John was poisoned? Do we cook our meals separately
now? What do we do when we need to sleep?”

“Suppose we’ll need to do
everything together and have a watch at night; two people sleep,
two people keep guard,” Sharon replied.

“As if things weren't bad
enough,” Colin said.

Saturday

Chapter
20

Colin felt a hand on his chest
and he woke with a start.

Liz was looming over him,
lantern in hand.

“Calm down,” she said. “It’s
yours and Billy’s turn to take watch.”

“Oh,” Colin said, trying to
slow his heart down.

He unzipped the sleeping bag
and sat up. It was cold, colder than it had been since his arrival
here. He pulled his shorts and shirt back on. The thought struck
him that if they were still here in winter he might just freeze to
death. He slipped his shoes on and with a stretch he emerged from
his tent.

Billy was already up. He
stood leaning up against the windows on the street side of the
building. There was a fire somewhere not too distant that lit the
underside of the smoky clouds a dull orange.

“Ma?” a sweet voice said from
behind him.

The little dog hopped out
of the girl’s tent and took a look around.

“I’m just coming to bed, honey.
You snuggle under,” Liz replied.

“
Here, Blow,” Melisa
called.

The dog did an about-face
and disappeared back into the tent.

“What time is it?” Colin asked
absently.

“Three in the morning, like you
agreed,” Sharon said as she walked past him towards her own
tent.

“Oh, right,” Colin said, ending
the statement with a yawn.

He walked over to the
water faucet to pour himself a drink. Pressing the button, nothing
happened. He tapped the side of the plastic water bottle. It rang
hollow, but a tiny trickle of water splashed out. It was less than
a mouthful. Colin turned to his fellow survivors.

“Is there no water left?” he
asked.

“There’s still a ton of them
over by the supply crates,” Liz answered.

Colin drank down the measly
dribble of water from the cup.

“
I can’t be arsed
switching
a
full one over in the dark,” he said.

“The water cooler on the second
is still full,” Sharon offered.

“Okay,” Colin said.

He put his hand on the office
door and paused.

I
’ll be
fine
, he told himself, deciding not to go
to the hassle of getting a drink.

He strolled over to where Billy
was standing.

Billy was stolid and quiet,
with only his heavy breathing to differentiate him from a
statue.

Slowly the rustling of sleeping
bags subsided as the girls drifted off to sleep.

Colin looked out of the
window at the infested street below. The ambient light from the far
away fire wasn’t enough to illuminate the darkness. The hard edges
of the buildings across the way caught a little of the light, but
the heaving mass of zombies in the street were an inky black
sea.

“You get used to the noise
quick,” Colin said softly.

“The moaning?” Billy asked.

“Yeah. It’s like the sound of
traffic. When I moved here, the sound of the cars outside kept me
awake the first couple of nights. By the end of the first week it
didn’t bother me at all.”

He turned to look at Billy.
Even leaning against the windowsill he was taller than Colin at
full stretch.

“Liz says you’re not the
murderer,” Colin said.

Billy didn’t reply. Colin stood
and watched the big man’s chest rise and fall as he breathed, but
he made no move to speak. He cradled the shotgun in his arms like
he was trying to keep it warm.

“So are you?” Colin asked.

“The murderer?” Billy
asked.

“Uh-huh.” Colin nodded.

“Doesn’t matter what I say. The
murderer isn’t likely to admit it,” Billy replied.

“That’s what Sharon said,”
Colin replied.

He turned and looked back out
of the window.

“
Can we track back
people’s movements for each of the murders?” he asked.

“Doubt it,” Billy said.

“You’re being very
dismissive.”

“It’s a fact. There’s no way we
can account for everybody’s whereabouts over the last few
days.”

“
There’s got to be some
clues or evidence. We’ve got to work this out. Otherwise we’ll tear
ourselves apart accusing each other.”

Colin sat down in an
office chair. The chair squeaked gently as it accepted his weight.
His hand stretched out and found the desk and his fingers started
to drum on the table.

“
I wish we’d had the
foresight to raid the library at school as well as the kitchen,” he
lamented. He paused a moment, then added in a raised tone, “The
school!”

“What about the school?” Billy
asked.

“
Karen's friend, Shan—she
ran off when I bumped into them,” Colin explained. “She was a piece
of work, that girl: truancy, shoplifting, drugs.”

“And?” Billy asked
impatiently.

“What if she followed us back
here? What if she snuck into the building and is looking for
revenge for us abandoning her?”

“
For one, why would she
sexually assault Karen? Surely she’d just kill her. And what about
John? She never knew him.”

“
John might have just
died of natural causes,” Colin said. “Too much stress on his heart,
and
boom
.”

“Not buying it,” Billy replied,
shaking his head.

“Excuse me,” a voice said out
of nowhere.

Colin jumped and almost
fell off his chair. Turning round, he saw Melissa in the adult
T-shirt she had been using as a nightdress.

“What is it, Melissa?” Billy
asked sweetly.

Billy’s little dog, who had
been sleeping with Melissa, was trailing at the girl’s ankle.

“Can I have a glass of water?”
she asked.

“Sure thing,” Colin said.

He stood up and walked over to
the faucet.

“Ah, hell,” he muttered,
remembering it was dry. “It’s empty.”

“The one upstairs is still
good. Sharon said so,” Billy replied.

“
Okay. You want one while
I’m up?” Colin offered.

Billy nodded. “Sure.”

Colin picked up a torch
and stepped through the door. Melissa started to follow
him.

“
It’s okay. Just you wait
here. I’ll go get your water,” Colin said.

Melissa looked back at her tent
nervously, then nodded.

Colin jogged up the dark
stairwell, the oval of his torch dancing along ahead of him. He
pushed the door open and popped the hilt of the torch in his mouth.
With both hands free, he quickly poured three plastic cups full of
water. He got to the door and had to do a little bit of a dance to
hook his elbow through the door handle, then pull the door open and
wedge a foot before it closed shut. In all the juggling acrobatics
to avoid having to put the drinks down, a gulp of water splashed
over the rim of the cup and dribbled down his wrists. With the
torch still between his teeth, his curse came out as a snarling
moan.

Gingerly he made his way down
to the encampment.

From behind the door came the
muffled yelp of the tiny dog, like someone had accidentally stood
on its paw.

With his hands full, he put his
back to the door and pushed it open, spinning round to stand facing
in.

He stood there for a moment,
unable to comprehend the scene.

Billy was clawing at a long
metal object protruding from the side of his neck. From beside him,
Liz stood up the shotgun in hand.

“
Liz?” Colin said, the
torch tumbling from his mouth.

Liz levelled the barrel at him
and pulled the trigger.

The pellets struck Colin,
throwing him hard up against the doors.

“What the hell was that?!”
Sharon screamed, waking with a jolt.

Liz turned and marched over to
the tent. Inside, Sharon was struggling to get out of her sleeping
bag.

Standing a foot from the
zipped-shut entrance, Liz aimed the gun and fired. The tent fabric
ripped open. Through the ragged edges of the foot-wide hole, she
could see Sharon sprawled over her camp bed.

“Ma!” Melissa said.

Liz turned to see her daughter
pointing at the open doorway. Colin was slowly crawling out of the
office. Liz dropped the empty shotgun on the floor and walked up to
Billy. She placed a foot on his head and pulled the kitchen knife
from his neck.

“Stay out of the way, honey,”
Liz said sweetly as she past her daughter.

Colin hadn’t yet made it half
out of the office. His fresh blood was smeared across the rough
carpet tiles.

Blood was flowing quickly from
the ragged wound on his torso. He kicked off with his feet and slid
the rest of the way into the stairwell. The door clattered shut in
front of him.

The pain licked through his
body, tendrils of molten agony that erupted with every
movement.

Colin heaved himself back on
his elbows and kicked out with his feet. The pain bit deep. His
chest and stomach burning from the massive wound, he tried to back
up the stairs.