Safety Lost (Killing the Dead Book 3) (16 page)

I watched her move through the crowd for nearly an hour speaking to one person after another, a careful touch on the arm as she reassured one balding older man, a frown and a scowl as she spoke quietly to a frumpy red faced woman.

She worked her way through the crowd and her words seemed to be having an impact. The crowd was visibly calming and I admit to feeling a little in awe at how well she could take charge in these situations. My first recourse would be to use a weapon, hers was to reassure and persuade others.

The day was wearing on and at some point I was hoping that Eric would turn. I wondered idly if anyone had bothered to put a guard on him for just that eventuality. A blood curdling scream that sounded from his cottage suggested that they hadn’t.

Cass and Gregg were at my side in a moment as they watched through the window as the scene unfolded. An agile and fully undead Eric ran out of his cottage. His clothes were dishevelled and the large crimson stain that ran from his chin and down his chest indicated he had just bitten someone.

Cries of dismay rose from the crowd at his appearance, followed rapidly by screams of terror as he leapt from the decking and bit down hard on the cheek of a woman who had been standing close by.

I had a moment to notice that he was behaving more like the zombie from the service station all those weeks ago, rather than the slow shambling creatures we had become used to, before I saw that Lily had pulled a burning limb from the bonfire and was headed towards Eric.

With a curse I ran for the door. I had no weapon to hand and as I emerged from the cottage the crowd were streaming away from the bonfire in all directions except towards Eric as he bit deeply into the leg of a screaming man.

Lily swung the still burning branch at him as I pushed my way through the crowd and I saw several faces I recognised as well as some I didn’t, as they joined her with an assortment of hastily gathered weapons.

Pat and John each with an improvised club were trying to hit the fast moving Eric who seemed agile enough to dodge or block most of their blows. It was definitely uncharacteristic of the undead I had seen before and I wondered if it was something to do with how I had infected him.

A gun fired and Eric jerked as a plume of crimson burst from his chest and I looked around to see Rachel standing beside the door to her cottage with a rifle to her shoulder. She fired again and caught him this time in the neck, the bullet passed straight through and grazed Johns cheek as he raised his club to strike down at Eric’s head.

One of the unknown men managed to hit the zombie’s leg and Eric collapsed to his knees. Lily and Pat each managed to land blows on his skull. The next strike by John cracked his skull and Eric was dead before I had even had the chance to join the fight.

“You ok?” I asked Lily as I finally managed to reach her. She glanced once at me and nodded before looking across at John.

“Oh no.” she said.

“What?”

“John. The bullet that grazed him passed through Eric, he could be infected.” She said sadly.

“How many times does she have to be warned about guns?” I muttered as Pat looked first at John and then across to Rachel. I could see the anguish as he realised what may have happened.

“Someone will need to deal with the people he bit” I said to no one in particular, though Lily nodded and issued some instructions to one of the men I didn’t know. He nodded and called a few of his friends over and they began to check each of the bodies that lay on the ground before Eric’s cottage.

“Will you check inside?” Lily asked wearily. “I need to find Howard and get everyone calmed down.”

“No worries.” I said, “As long as someone takes that gun off of Rachel first, I don’t want to be shot by mistake.”

“Enough of that” Lily snapped and I grinned and entered the cottage.

Inside the cottage was pretty much as I remembered from my earlier visit. In Eric’s bedroom I found a young woman laying in a growing pool of blood that was leaking from the large hole in her throat. A discarded cloth lay beside an overturned bowl that indicated she was probably in the room with Eric to mop his fevered brow.

It was interesting to see how quickly he had turned and how spry he had been when a zombie. Perhaps because the infection had taken him before his body was damaged by death. I would have to try it again sometime to see if it had the same results.

Of course I would have to ensure it was less messy. Two people potentially infected and a couple dead outright and I hadn’t even been able to kill the zombie Eric. It was disappointing but at least I had removed Eric without actually killing him personally. It was a technicality but I was happy to think of it as the infection killing him and not me, so my promise was whole.

I chuckled softly and did a quick search of the kitchen. I found a wooden chopping board that, after a couple of hard swings, managed to crack through the skull of the dead woman and prevent her from rising as a zombie. I left the cottage and threw the now un-useable chopping board onto the bonfire.

“Everything go ok in there?” Lily asked as she left a shaken looking Howard and joined me as I stared into the roaring flames.

“Oh fine. One woman was dead and I made sure she wouldn’t come back.”

“Thanks.”

“What have you done with John and the other one that was bitten?”

“They are locked away in separate rooms at the moment. No guarantee either will turn but we will be prepared this time.” She said with a weary sigh.

“What about Rachel?”

“Pat is dealing with her.” Lily said and we fell into a companionable silence that I hadn’t felt since arriving here. It was pleasant.

“I’m sorry.” Lily said finally.

“What for?”

“For being such an idiot these last few days.”

“Oh right. Ok.” I said and could feel her glare.

“That is where you are supposed to tell me I wasn’t being an idiot.” She snapped.

“Sorry.”

“Forget it. Come on let’s get back to the cabin, I don’t think there’ll be a group meal tonight.”

“I like you too” I said quietly as she turned to leave. “I just can’t always express that and I don’t want you to keep hiding away from me.”

Lily looked across at me for what seemed an eternity before reaching out and squeezing my hand. “Glad to hear that.” She said with a smile and led the way back to the cottage.

Chapter 22

For once it seemed that I had said or done the right thing and Lily and I entered the cottage together. She didn’t immediately go into her bedroom which seemed to surprise Cass and Gregg.

“What happened out there?” Cass asked and Lily filled them both in on what had transpired.

“Ah, poor John. He was a nice guy.” Gregg said quietly when she had finished.

“Poor Liz too, she and he were getting close.” Cass added.

“Did anyone else notice how weirdly Eric was acting? Zombie Eric I mean.” Gregg said.

“He reminded me of the ones we saw in the first videos when all this started.” Cass said and Lily nodded. I had no idea what they meant as I had been somewhat busy with my own pursuits when everything was going to hell, so had not even noticed it was happening until Lily had turned up at my door.

“Well I think I managed to convince enough people that you weren’t the cause” Lily said with a smile to Cass.

The talk turned to how people were going to deal with the - possibly - infected people and the changes that would need to be made around the camp. I tuned out and relived in my mind, the carnage I had wrought with my actions.

A knocking on the door broke through into my thoughts and I looked around in time to see Gregg open the door to a tired looking Pat.

“Hey guys, can I stay here tonight?” he asked.

“Of course you can. Things not go well with Rachel?” Lily asked.

“Not really. She refused to believe she did anything wrong.” Pat said as he sat down beside me on the couch.

“What’s Howard doing about her?” Cass asked.

“Nothing at all. He told her not to fire the rifle in camp and that was it.”

“You’re joking.” Gregg said incredulously. “Someone needs to take charge here, Howard is a nice enough guy but sometimes hard decisions need to be made.”

“You should be in charge” Cass said to Lily. “You would be great at it.”

“No thanks.” Lily said, “I tried that on the journey out here and it ended badly. I don’t want that to happen again.”

I glanced at Lily and saw her wipe at her eyes with the back of her hand and I resolved to find out what had happened on their journey here. That would come at another time though. I agreed with Cass that Lily would be best suited to lead this group and I decided to make that happen.

It wouldn’t be a quick or simple process but I was confident that I could make it happen. I would have to eliminate a few people to do that and I was more than happy to do so. I doubted that she would agree so I would keep it to myself.

The group spent a little while longer talking before heading to their respective rooms to get some sleep. I retained my favoured couch and Pat took the other. Sleep was long in coming for me though. I had a great deal to think about.

A knocking on the door woke me the next morning and Pat who seemed to have been already awake was pulling open the door as I stood and stretched.

“Someone here to see you.” Pat said as he led a man I hadn’t previously met, into the room.

“Good to finally meet you” The man said. “I’m Matthew.”

He thrust his hand out as if he expected me to shake it and frowned when I didn’t. He was a tall man, well over six feet in height and I guessed he was in his fifties. Despite his age he was in good shape and still had a full head of hair though that was greying. His neatly trimmed beard reminded me that I hadn’t shaved for days.

“What can I do for you?” I asked.

“I understand you want to join my group of scavengers” Matthew said. “Eric seemed to be against it, but he isn’t here now and I have far too few people willing to risk themselves.”

“Well I would certainly be happy to help in any way I can.” I said with a sincere smile. The thought of getting out of the camp and possibly killing a few zombies was exciting.

“Good to hear. First thing we need is to clear up this mess here. I gather you saw what happened?” he asked and I nodded. “Good then you know we have two infected people here. We won’t be scavenging until that situation is dealt with and I am keeping some of my guys here to guard them.”

“So what would you need me to do?”

“The main duties of my people are to scavenge for goods, patrol through the woods to make sure we don’t have any zombies wander in and stand out on the roads and direct any survivors here.”

“Well since you aren’t scavenging, I assume you would like me to patrol or stand out on the road?”

“Not quite. I have been absent from camp lately because things are changing out there.”

“What do you mean?” Pat asked.

“Look, let me show you.” Matthew said as he pulled out a map of the area and spread it on the table.

“This is us.” He said and pointed at a large red ‘X’ on the map. “From here we have the main road that goes directly past us to the town of Windermere to the north and directly south where the road splits. Past the road we have hills, woods and fields as well as more roads. You clear on that?” he asked looking at both Pat and I. We both agreed that we were.

“The undead have been turning up more often. Just a few at first, but lately we have been seeing more of them. We have seen them drifting in from all directions with the majority, the largest groups especially, coming from the east.” Matthew said.

“Where are they coming from?” Pat asked quietly. He seemed shocked by the news as though he had expected them to just never come out this way.

“God alone knows where they are coming from. We have Newcastle and Carlisle to the north and north-east, Leeds and Manchester to the south. That’s millions of people right there and the main motorways that connect them travel straight past us.” He paused and looked at each of us before continuing. “I think this is just the start, they are heading out of the towns and cities in search of more prey.”

“Damn.” Pat whispered.

“So what is your plan to deal with them?” I asked Matthew.

“Long term, I have no idea.” He said. “Short term I want you and a few others to be out there destroying as many as you can and leading away the larger groups.”

“What do you mean?” Pat asked.

“He means that if we see a large group, we let them notice us and run as fast as we can away from this camp with the zombies following us. Then we lose them and circle around, while the brainless undead keep going in the last direction they had seen us.” I said and Matthew nodded.

“I understand that you have used that tactic before and it worked.” He said.

“It worked though I can’t say it was a spectacularly successful tactic” I told him. “Who else will be doing this?”

“I thought the two of you and your friends Cass and Gregg to start with.” Matthew said. “Considering what happened yesterday it would likely be a good thing to have your friend stay noticeably distant from the camp.”

“You have to be joking.” Pat said with more than a little heat in his voice. “She had nothing to do with Eric.”

“Yes, you are probably right but we have a large number of people here who are already scared and I need them to feel safe here.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because our supply situation is pretty damn terrible around about now and I need people here to feel safe enough to let me send my guys out scavenging and not have them stand around camp to make the people feel safer.” Matthew said tiredly.

“He’s right” Lily said as she joined us with an unhappy looking Cass and Gregg in tow. “We need to gather enough food to last the winter before we can do anything else.”

“Are you ok with this?” Pat demanded of Cass and Gregg.

“Yeah mate.” Gregg replied, “It’s not great but we heard enough to understand why.”

“So the four of you will start out today then?” Matthew asked and we each nodded in turn. “You can take a couple of rifles and some ammo though that is really low right now.”