Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis (2 page)

Le
onard recoiled as she jumped up, trying to reach him. Beneath her, on the beige carpet that he had walked across for so many years, lay pools of faeces and entrails. Norma was caked in blood, some of it her own, most of it not. Beside her stood a tall, naked man with a gaunt haunted face who was nudging against her, arms outstretched too, reaching up as if Leonard was some kind of god to be worshipped. The man had thick white hair and a pointy nose matching his lanky frame. Long gangly legs held the body upright while bony arms stuck out from the man’s side. Leonard tried not to look at the shrivelled penis that was only just hidden beneath a thin forest of white pubic hair. Leonard vaguely recognised the man as Bob’s roommate, Ted or Fred or something, but he was dead, wasn’t he? Leonard distinctly remembered Billy telling him
before
they had come up to the attic. Bob’s roommate had suffered a heart attack and...

Another figure suddenly appeared, knocking Norma over. A large
naked woman with huge, sagging veined breasts swaying violently stopped directly beneath the opening of the trapdoor and cried out. Leonard couldn’t tell what she was trying to say, as she only made short guttural noises, like the insistent grunts of pigs fucking. Over and over she grunted, all the time jumping up and down trying to get up into the attic. Her dirty black hair was wrapped around a grimy pudgy face and Leonard only then noticed that she had one arm. Her left shoulder bone was exposed and shreds of flesh and muscle hung off it loosely, whipping around and around as the fat woman danced up and down desperately. Her fingers kept brushing against the lip of the attic access.

“What are you doing? Go away,” he said. Leonard took another step back into the attic, unable to pull his eyes away from the horror below. “I just need to...I need...
oh Carol...”

As the familiar
, fetid stench of death reached up to Leonard, he put his hand up to his mouth, but it was too late. Reeling, he threw up, the little amount of food he had eaten in the last day mixing with viscid bile and projecting itself out of his mouth, down through the trapdoor onto the dead below. Leonard watched as his vomit splattered over the dead fat lady and the tall man. They didn’t flinch, didn’t recoil from the rejected warm contents of his stomach. In fact, the fat woman licked her lips as the chunky puke dribbled over her face. With her only hand, she scooped as much of it as she could from her face and thrust it into her mouth, sucking greedily on her hand, enjoying the warmth; the taste of the living.

With their appetites further aroused, the
three dead below resumed jumping and stretching, trying to reach up to the ceiling, to reach Leonard. Norma was struggling to get back up off the floor as the fat woman, as full of energy as a rabbit in heat, repeatedly knocked her down. As Leonard took a step back, the tall man took a step forward, and trod on Norma’s back. A small bone in her fragile spine snapped, but still, she struggled on the floor.

Aided by the extra height he had, th
e tall man surged forward and pushed himself up. He clasped the lip of the attic trapdoor with his dead fingers. His hands grabbed a supporting beam nearby and he slowly hauled himself up, pulling his long nude body over the lip of the trapdoor. The tall man’s eyes never left Leonard.

“Billy? Billy?” hissed Leonard, staring at the man
who was coming at him, now crawling across the wooden floor of the attic.

Not getting an answer, Leonard turned around to see
Billy on the floor, unconscious.

“Billy, get up!”

The tall man had succeeded in getting his legs up over the trapdoor ledge and was beginning to stand. A nail, protruding from the floorboards stuck into the dead man’s side, and as he stood up, it tore into the man’s skin. Leonard’s mouth fell open as the man ignored the deep cut widening from his hip to his knee and continued walking toward him. No blood fell from the man’s leg and now, the lantern shining over the man, Leonard could see his terrible skin, mottled with magenta bruises, purple and green welts that blossomed into bright red blisters. Pus oozed from the sores on the man’s chest and a violet coloured fungus seemed to wrap its way around his chest like a bloodied tourniquet. The deceased man’s skin was thin and black lumps of clotted blood seemed to shift beneath it, oozing out of the open gash on his leg onto the dusty floorboards.

Leonard raced to Billy. He knelt over him and shook him.

“Billy, get up, quick!”

Billy lay still, unmoving, breathing
, and not responding to Leonard.

Leonard’s heart was racing and he could feel an uncomfortable sweat breaking out over his body. He pulled off his purple robe
and threw it aside, dressed now only in the flannelette pyjamas he had been wearing three weeks ago when he and Billy had come up here together. He could sense the tall man behind him and Leonard shouted.

“Get away, get away
! Leave us alone!” He shoved the tall man in the chest and the dead man stumbled backward. Leonard wiped the slime from his hands and watched the tall man attack again. The man’s teeth were clacking together, but otherwise, he made no sound. Leonard could hear wailing and moaning from below, but the tall man was silent.

Leonard ran to the corner of the attic and for a
moment, the tall man seemed confused, unsure of whether to follow him or jump on Billy who was prostrate on the floor only four feet away. There was a small pile of unused wooden planks and floorboards, and Leonard grasped one. It was about three feet long but solid, the same type they had used to board up one of the attic windows. Leonard charged at the tall man, swinging the plank and bringing it crashing down onto the man’s head.

Again, the tall man stumbled
, but did not fall down. Leonard was sure he had struck the man firmly and sure enough, when he lowered the plank, he saw the man’s head cocked to one side, his jaw broken. Still, the man kept coming.

“
I told you to leave us alone!” shouted Leonard running toward the tall man. He kept the plank horizontal, levelled out in front of him so that one end was nestled in the cradle of his shoulder, the other stuck out in front of him like a battering ram. The plank sliced into the tall man’s chest, crunching through the rib cage and locking itself with the man’s body. Leonard shoved with all his strength and the tall man wheeled away, unable to stop as Leonard propelled him back toward the trapdoor.

Finally,
Leonard let go of the plank as the tall man dropped out of sight, down through the attic opening into the corridor of the rest home below. Leonard dropped to his knees, exhausted. His fingers were sore from gripping the plank but he was relieved and grateful that he and Billy were alone again, safe.

“Billy?”

Leonard walked over to his unconscious friend, ignoring the moaning sounds that were echoing up into the attic from the growing dead beneath them. He shook Billy once again, and this time, he stirred. Billy coughed and Leonard helped him sit up.

“Are you all right?

Billy coughed again and winced as he felt the pain in his broken arm return. “My arm – I think I broke it.” He looked at Leonard who was sweating profusely. “Lenny, what happened? Are you..?”

Leonard shook his head. “I’m okay
, Billy. I’m sorry, I just wanted to see Carol. I didn’t know about...I mean I forgot...one of them got up, but I got rid of him. He’s gone now.”

Billy saw Leonard smile and forgot all about the argument earlier. Maybe he had underestimated him
. If he had fought off one of the dead, then maybe Leonard still had a few marbles left.

There were worryingly loud noises now
from below them. Moaning sounds, horrible slithering sounds, and they seemed to be increasing. He looked over Leonard’s shoulder and saw the shadows dancing on the attic roof, arms and hands, heads, bodies, jostling below. Suddenly, an arm appeared and a hand reached up, finally settling on a beam. The hand grabbed it.

“Lenny, we have to get out of here, it’s not safe anymore,” said Billy, struggling to get to his feet. “They know we’re here now,
so we can’t stay.”

“But where are we going?”
asked Leonard following Billy over to the window and the green rug. “You said this was the safest place to be. You said we just had to be quiet and still and they wouldn’t find us. You said...”

“I
know, Lenny, I’m sorry, but...look behind you.” Billy pointed toward the trapdoor and Leonard saw Norma struggling to pull herself up into the attic. She was half in, half out and another arm was scratching at her back, trying to use her as a springboard into the attic. Norma’s face looked hideous in the half lit attic, her mouth seemingly locked in a ferocious sneer exposing her teeth.

Billy pulled
aside the green rug and opened the window. He kept his broken arm as still as possible, but the pain was sending throbbing waves around his brain and it was difficult to move without the pain intensifying. He looked out at the evening, across the rooftops of the neighbouring houses and wondered what they were going to do now. The town seemed quiet, but he knew that was a false security. The dead were everywhere and they didn’t sleep. Leonard was right. They had nowhere to go, certainly nowhere safe, but they couldn’t stay here. Even if they could get the trapdoor shut again, the dead knew they were here. The two men would be trapped in there forever until their food and water ran out. Then what?

“
Lenny, we’re going outside. We’re going out the window right now, do you understand? The roof outside is flat and we’ll find somewhere else to stay. Don’t worry, just follow me.” Billy was scared, but he didn’t want Lenny to see. He wasn’t sure how he would react.

Billy went through the window and crouched down low on the roof as Leonard followed him. The green rug flapped down behind him and Billy hoped it might buy them some time before the dea
d realised where they had gone.

“Come
on, Lenny, this way.” Billy kept low on the roof. The streets were deserted, but he still didn’t like being out in the open, so exposed and vulnerable.

He led them over to the front of the building and peered over the edge into the car park.
Luckily, there was a car parked right beneath them. There was no ladder or stairway so he told Leonard to follow him and then he sat down on the ledge. With a broken arm, he was worried that when he landed he might hit it and pass out again. Leonard sat down beside him.

“Lenny, we’re going to jump down onto that car
, okay? As soon as we land, you need to run as fast as you can. See over there, that alleyway? Run down there. It leads into Victoria Street. It’s empty right now, but I don’t know for how long. You need to find somewhere to hide: a house, a shed, a garage - anything you can.”

“You’re coming with
me, aren’t you, Billy?” said Leonard frowning.

“Yes but...I’m slower than
you, so don’t wait for me, just run, okay Lenny? I’ll find you.”

L
eonard nodded. “I’m sorry, Billy.” He put his arm across his friend’s shoulder gently, careful not to touch the broken arm.

“It’s all
right, Lenny. I’ll be right behind you.” Billy gave Leonard a wink and smiled. “Come on then, old man.”

Billy dropped off the roof onto the blue car
below, and unable to use his arms as balance, slipped straight off it onto the tarmac. Leonard followed him, but landed with ease and slid of the car’s bonnet before softly planting his feet on the cold ground. He heard Billy scream in pain and hesitated.

“Go
on, Lenny, run!” Billy’s vision was swimming and he felt dizzy, but he knew he had to urge Leonard on. Billy got to his feet and saw Leonard running down the alleyway as he had been told to do. Billy started after him and from the corner of his eye, saw the dead. They were streaming out of the rest home. The older ones like Norma and Bob were slow, but some of the nurses and doctors were fast. Billy ran and made it to the alley just in time to see Leonard leaving at the other end. He knew the dead were close behind him and if he tried to run the length of the alley, they would catch him there. He began running down it as fast as he could, but he was already breathless. You’re only as old as you feel, he told himself. A voice in his head told him he felt like he was a hundred years old. He was only halfway down the alley and any moment now the dead would be too. He wouldn’t be able to outrun them or reach the street in time. He would be trapped.

There was a skip
on one shadowy side of the alley. Graffiti covered much of it, hiding the yellow scratched paint, and Billy peered over the edge. It was full of black bags and rubbish, discarded plastic bottles and decayed food. He hauled himself painfully up, standing on a wooden pallet and looked closer. It smelt foul, but that could be to his advantage. If they couldn’t see him, or smell him, maybe they would run past. He could catch up to Leonard when they had gone.

Billy straddled the rusty lip of the huge skip and sank down into it. His velvet slippers fell off as he lowered himself down the sloping walls and his bare feet touched the black bags. He half expected a rat to shoot out and dart up his leg
, but nothing moved. Billy held his breath as the disgusting smell of week’s old rotten food billowed up into the air. Finally, he sank into the skip, trying to ignore the slimy objects underfoot. He could hear footsteps in the alley now. The dead were running, coming for him, getting closer every second.