Six Days With the Dead (32 page)

‘
Oh Cam, you rascal,’ Sister Rebecca said as she blushed.

Ten minutes later Phil arrived in the Refectory. Usually, those on evening watch would find the room empty, with only a few of the candles burning and everybody else
already left for their beds. Tonight however, everybody was still there, talking in small groups about what had happened on Charlie’s journey to get Emma O’Brien. Sister Catherine walked up to him with a tray holding the meals that had been set aside for Mohammed and himself.

‘
Where’s Mohammed?’ Sister Catherine said looking behind Phil curiously.

‘
He got a bit mucky putting down one of the Dead, so he’s gone to wash and change before eating,’ Phil replied, tucking into the plate of scrambled eggs in front of him.

‘
Oh, Ok,’ she said, taking back Mohammed’s plate. ‘I’ll pop this on the kitchen range to keep warm. When he comes in will you tell him it’s there for me, it’s time I was in the Chapel.’

‘
Sure, no problem Sister,’ Phil replied, his broad smile showing the chives stuck in his teeth.

‘
God, no wonder you’re single,’ Liz said, smiling as she walked up to his table.

Sister Catherine laughed
, sharing the joke with Liz, both of them laughing even more at the bemused look on Phil’s face. Liz tapped her teeth to indicate he had something stuck there.

‘
No, the reason I’m single is that you continually fail to bring any hot gay men back from your jaunts for me to rectify my situation,’ Phil said, after he had fished the offending chives from his teeth with his tongue.

‘
What did you say!’ Reverend Moore was on his feet his fists shaking at his sides. Ruth tried to rise to stop her husband, but the Reverend was already striding purposefully over to Phil’s table. The Reverend looked down at the man sitting there, not bothering to disguise his disgust, ‘I said, what did you say!’

‘
Hey, what’s your problem man? Don’t worry you’re not my type!’ Phil said, a little tired with still having to deal with this type of crap after all that the world had gone through.

He turned back to his meal deciding to ignore the Reverend and his opinions.

‘Sodomite!’ the Reverend shouted, the rage making him visibly shake.

I
mmediately all other conversations in the room died, all eyes turning on the Reverend. Charlie glanced at Alice, both of them instinctively rising. Phil was not the sort of man that put up with abuse from anyone and if the Reverend wasn’t careful he would end up getting a kicking.

‘
Filthy Sodomite, how dare you defile the hallowed sanctity of these walls.’

Then the Reverend took it one step too far and spat at Phil. Slowly Phil put down his fork, turned and began to leave his seat.

‘Hey!’ Liz said, standing in between Phil and the Reverend, her arm holding Phil back in his seat. ‘You need to go back to your wife Reverend… Now!’

‘
Look Reverend, you don’t need to be insulting people,’ Barry said, also standing from his seat. ‘You don’t like someone, you keep it to yourself, OK? So, why don’t you sit back down.’   

But the calming words fell on deaf ears.

‘Mark my words pervert, you are an abomination unto the Lord. God will turn his gaze upon these walls soon enough, he will look into your wretched soul and will find you wanting. You shall be Damned for your perversion!’ the Reverend shouted pointing to Phil, in his other hand he gripped his crucifix tightly while religious righteousness burned in his darks eyes, ‘Damned!’

Phil had had enough of this mad man
and went to move Liz aside.

‘
Reverend Moore!’ Sister Josephine shouted uncharacteristically from across the hall.

The Reverend
’s head snapped in her direction at the sound of her voice, his eyes narrowing at the audacity that the woman should dare to challenge him on such matters.

‘
I warned you Reverend, I would not tolerate such behaviour in Lanherne. All are welcome here. All!’

‘
You are not fit to carry your title, Mother Superior, you have allowed the very stones of God’s house to be soiled with perverts and ungodly heathens,’ the Reverend said, the last with a flick of his head to Imran.

This one just keeps making more and more friends, Liz thought to herself.

‘Now that’s enough Reverend!’ Charlie shouted, his deep voice echoing around the hall. ‘It’s obvious Lanherne is not a place for you. I suggest that you leave us in the morning. If your wife wants to stay we will take her and the child but you are no longer welcome to stay.’

It wasn
’t often Charlie would speak for the group like this, without first discussing the matter thoroughly but he knew they would all be behind him on this. The Reverend’s eyes blazed with hatred and was about to say something more when his wife spoke his name calmly.

‘
Nathan.’

The Reverend turned at her voice and something unspoken passed between them.

‘We will both leave in the morning,’ Ruth said pointedly, and walked silently to the door, the baby in her arms.

The Reverend followed closely behind, clenching and unclenching h
is fists angrily. He would have to console himself with the knowledge that all of these people were nothing but the walking Damned waiting for God’s judgement, a judgement that would be swift and absolute. With a wave of the Lord’s divine hand, their flesh would soon be as putrid and blackened, as their worthless souls.

‘
You know the nicest people,’ Phil said to Liz with a smile, breaking the tension that still hovered in the room.

Conversations began again around the Refectory as groups gave their opinion
s on what had happened. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment or gossip for those at Lanherne so whenever they were given something they could get their teeth into, they did so with relish. Eventually, once everyone had given their opinion, rehashed the scene, and then chatted in detail about what Charlie had told them, people began to say their goodnights and leave for bed. Slowly like a dripping bucket, the Refectory began to empty, until only Charlie, Imran, Liz and Alice remained. Sister Josephine was also there, collecting the last stubs of the tallow candles for the Sisters to use as they prayed in the chapel.

‘
We had to give them the chance to fit in,’ Charlie said watching Sister Josephine plunge one table after the next into darkness, as she removed the candles. ‘Some people are too wrapped up in their own agendas to keep their mouths shut. Sorry if I spoke out of turn Sister but I could see the way the wind was blowing with the Reverend. He’d have never been able to keep his religion to himself without hating those who couldn’t fit into his way of seeing the world.’

‘
Well, as you know, I prefer to normally take a vote but unfortunately you were right, we all have to live here in harmony and there’s clearly nothing but hate and anger disguised as faith in that man’s heart,’ she replied, looking a little sad, she sighed, ‘but they’ve made their choice, so that’s that.’

‘
Don’t worry, I’ll point them in the direction of the O’Brien home, perhaps they can make a life for themselves there. Seems a waste of a home otherwise,’ Charlie said, realising Sister Josephine was thinking of the innocent baby being taken from the safety of the convent.

‘
Well, may God protect them,’ Sister Josephine said quietly to herself, as she left the Refectory.

****

Sister Josephine walked down the dark stone corridor, the flickering light of the candles she held chasing away the darkness momentarily, so that as she walked she was held within a ball of orange light. As she neared the large carved doors that led to the chapel, she saw the Reverend standing there waiting for her in the darkness. He stood, head down, motionless as if waiting to be brought to life by some unseen puppet master. As she approached he slowly tilted his head to look at her. There was not much that Sister Josephine feared in this world anymore, after all, she had seen the Dead drag down and feast upon the living before her very eyes, but as she neared the Reverend her breath quickened and her heart beat loudly in her ears. It was something in the way the candle light reflected off his eyes. The orange flames, dancing briskly with a warm jollity, only appeared cold in those unfriendly eyes that some-how held an unspoken warning.

‘
Reverend?’ she said, trying to fight the shakiness in her voice, ‘I thought you were going to your room?’

‘
I came to apologise for earlier, Mother Superior,’ he replied, keeping his eyes on her while he bowed his head slightly ‘I fear I spoke out of turn. How you run your house is your business and although we will leave tomorrow, I wanted you to know I bare you no hard feelings.’

‘
Well, thank you… ’ Sister Josephine said, slightly taken aback by the vast change in the Reverends character. In the short time she had known the Reverend she had found him a very proud and self-righteous man but now she would say he was humbling himself before her.

‘
And I was wondering if I may pray in your chapel a while?’ he continued, beginning to push open the chapel door, ‘I fear I will need the Lord’s strength for what is to come.’

‘
Yes, yes of course,’ Sister Josephine said, gesturing with her hand for him to enter.

With a low creak
, the door slowly swung open. Much like the rest of Lanherne, the chapel was mainly built from a cool grey stone. After many years of disrepair the chapel was certainly looking a little worse for wear and although she felt foolish, it sadden her to see it this way. In places the dusty layer of white paint was flaking, showing the stone beneath, and Sister Josephine knew that more than one of the high wooden beams that supported the arched ceiling, would soon lose their battle against the damp rot. Being quite a small chapel, there were only seven double rows of old wooden pews, before the stone floor rose step by step to the communion rail. The altar itself was a huge carved stone gothic masterpiece inlaid with intricately carved biblical scenes. It also stood before a wall of carved niches, each depicting various saints lifting their eyes heavenward in divine piety. As Sister Josephine walked down the central aisle to the communion rail, the Reverend followed silently a few paces behind. With the only light coming from the few candles the four other sisters had placed upon the alter around the base of the wooden crucifix and those Sister Josephine carried with her, the main body of the chapel sat shrouded in darkness. Placing the collection of candles she had retrieved from the Refectory at the base of the Cross, Sister Josephine knelt at the communion rail to pray. As she did so, the Reverend dropped to his knees behind her and then throwing his arms wide, fell to the floor to lie prostrate before his God. As the Sisters prayed silently to Jesus and his Holy mother, Sister Josephine could not help but catch the Reverends whispered pleads for strength to do His will. After twenty minutes she realised the Reverend was crying and repeating a single phrase over and over again

‘
My hand is your hand, by your hand your children will be saved, thy will be done.’

Eventually
, as the candles went out one by one, the time came that even the Sisters had to retire to their beds.

‘
Reverend?’ Sister Josephine said quietly, reaching down to touch his shoulder ‘Reverend Moore… we will be going to bed now.’

But the Reverend just carried on whispering his holy mantra, if he heard Sister Josephine
’s words he gave no indication of it. Realising she couldn’t physically pull the man to his feet, she ushered the other sisters around him and down the main aisle. As she followed the last of the sisters through the Chapel door, Sister Josephine turned to look at the Reverend Nathan Moore, lying face down, lost in his prayers. While she watched, the last candle she had left on the alter flickered and finally went out, leaving the chapel and Reverend Moore in complete darkness. Even as she slowly closed the chapel door behind her, she could still hear the Reverend’s whispering voice echoing in the darkness.

‘
Thy will be done.’

DAY 5

Liz’s eyes fluttered open. There was a still chill in the small dark room but she knew outside the rising sun would be starting to burn away the cool morning mist. For once the nightmare of her initiation to this world of the Dead had not stalked her dreams. She glanced over at her sister sleeping in the bed next to her. From the flicker behind her eyes Liz could tell Anne was still dreaming. For someone who had seen such horrors in her young life, Anne had remarkably few nightmares. Perhaps because the daily horror was all she had ever known, the images did not follow her into her dreams to torture and torment her sleep. Anne certainly wasn’t being tormented now. Liz looked down on her sister, a mess of gently snoring blond curls and wondered what sort of life Anne could expect to have when she grew up. Sooner or later, the Dead that walked the land would become too decrepit to move, let alone attack anyone and when that happened that only left the living to deal with. The worst part about the Dead was that they would be a recurring plague to blot the future of mankind forever. Communities always had to be on the lookout for the sick, old or dying. These could so easily bring a fresh wave of the Dead to feast on the living, if they were not dealt with properly. Liz had known of some communities that completely shunned the sick and dying, going so far as to expel them from within their walls, for fear they would turn, in an unwatched moment. The internally locking cell doors at Lanherne were a good precaution against the misfortune of someone dying in their sleep but there were still a lot of other rooms and corridors in the Convent that a dying person could turn into one of the Dead unnoticed. They were lucky that everyone at the moment was healthy but it was inevitable that old age would get them all in the end. With the Sisters being among the oldest of the group, they surely would be the first to go and Liz did not relish the thought of being the one to drive a blade through any of the kind Sisters’ skulls. When that day came it would be a sad day indeed. The Sisters had opened their home to the survivors and given them a place to live, that was not only a refuge from the Dead, but far more importantly, a home.