Zombiekill (14 page)

“Good evening.” The man smiled as he looked down at them all. “How are we all doing this fine night?”

“Attwood, stop messing around and let us in.” Jeremy spoke with anger in his voice. “My daughter is only ten. Let us in, and we can talk inside.”

“Damn it, Jeremy, just shut up.” Schafer wanted to punch Jeremy, but he knew he had to keep himself calm. He shouted up to the man on the gantry. “Attwood, I’m sorry, we don’t mean to be rude. It’s been a long journey here, and we’re all stressed out. You can imagine, right? We don’t mean any trouble.”

“Of course, I understand completely. I have to apologize about all the cloak and dagger stuff, but you can imagine how many people have come here trying to take this place from me. I have to be very careful about who I let in.”

“Absolutely,” replied Schafer. He turned to Magda. “You see, my love? It’s going to be all right.”

“Okay, let’s do this. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, so we’re going to have to start by trusting one another. This is my place, and I have certain rules that make sure it stays that way.”

“But you’re going to let us in, right?” asked Jeremy. “My wife has been through a lot. I just want—”

“Who are you?”

“Jeremy. I’d feel a lot more comfortable if you’d just let us in, Attwood.”

“Jeremy? If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I am a very generous man. I take it you know all about me? I don’t seem to recognize any of you though.”

“We all know of you, Mr. Attwood,” said Schafer. “Obviously, we haven’t met you before, but we are so grateful for your kindness. I appreciate it’s dangerous to just open the door to anyone, so tell us what you want, and we’ll do it.”

“Well now, that’s just what I wanted to hear.”

“Attwood?”

“Yes, Jeremy?”

“Can you stop the bullshit and just open the door?”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Look, do me a favor and toss your weapons over in front of you. I can see you don’t have much, but I can’t in good faith let eight armed people in just like that.”

“Do it,” said Schafer as he saw Jeremy tuck his knife into his belt. “Don’t be an idiot, and just do it.”

Reluctantly Jeremy tossed his knife away as the others did the same.

“Thank you. One of my associates will just clear those up for you.”

Charlie watched as a door opened up ahead of them, and a man came through it carrying a gun and a sack. He wore a black jacket similar to Attwood’s and a beanie pulled down low over his forehead. Through the gloom she saw a white goatee and marks on his hands, like tattoos or scars. The man didn’t speak or acknowledge them at all, but simply scooped up the meagre pile of weapons into the sack, and then went back out the same door as he had entered through. It closed softly behind him.

“So we can go now? That the way?” Jeremy made to go to the door, but Schafer held him back.

“Take your time, Jeremy. Attwood’s on our side. Don’t rush this, and we’ll be fine,” said Schafer.

“Wonderful. Well, I guess we can get things settled now. Sorry about the welcome. I know this doesn’t look much, but I can assure you the house is amazing. I’ve got so much food and fresh water I hardly know what to do with it all. The walls extend all around the property, so you’ll be quite safe here.”

Schafer hugged Magda and looked into her eyes. “You see? We did it. We’re going to be fine.”

Jeremy grinned as he took his wife’s hand. “You were right, Schafer. I’m just pleased this is all over.”

Charlie looked at them all smiling and felt relieved. It was amazing to think that Attwood had been here the whole time. They could have come here months ago and saved themselves a lot of heartache. Maybe now they could get back to being a family again. Her father had suffered and struggled when it was just the two of them, and this was a chance to start afresh. Charlie was so glad she had decided to come. It was over. They could actually live here without having to worry about where their next meal was coming from or if the dead would break in at night. This was going to be paradise compared to what they were used to.

“Vicky, come here, darling,” said Lyn, beaming. “It’s all right, Vicky, Mr. Attwood is going to help us. It’s all okay.”

Charlie watched as Victoria nervously approached her parents. “You took good care of her,” Charlie said to Rilla. “I can see she trusts you perhaps more than anyone else.”

“She’s a great kid, really. Usually she’s very bubbly and fun. I guess today’s been hard on her. You’ll see the best of her tomorrow when she relaxes and gets to know you.”

Rilla smiled as she heard her mother laughing. Schafer held her in a bear-hug and was kissing her on the side of the head.

“I guess it’s been a long time since you saw your parents like that?” asked Charlie.

“Yeah,” replied Rilla. “A long time.” Rilla’s smile made Charlie feel safe. There was something natural and warm to the girl. She had no pretenses or affectations.

“It’ll be good to get to know all of you,” said Charlie. “I can see—”

The door in front of them automatically opened revealing the house beyond. It was the same door the man had come through earlier to take their weapons, and he was now stood in it again blocking their exit.

“Charlie,” said Kyler approaching her. “Tug your cap down, quickly.”

“Why?” Charlie smiled at her father. She still wore the blue and green fishing cap, and on top of the baggy sweatshirt she wore, she felt distinctly unfeminine next to Rilla. Charlie reached up to take it off. “I thought I’d get rid of it actually, it kind of makes my head itch. Rilla, could—”

Kyler yanked it down hard on Charlie’s head, hiding her short blonde hair.

“What did you do that for?” asked Charlie.

Above them, Attwood smiled and reached out to a switch on the wall behind him.

“Don’t say a fucking word. If they ask, then you’re my son,” said Kyler quickly and quietly as light flooded the room.

“Dad?” Charlie didn’t have time to take in her surroundings. Her father was standing right in front of her, and when he put his hand on her arm, she could feel him shaking.

Kyler leant in closer and whispered in Charlie’s ear. “That’s
not
Attwood.”

CHAPTER 9

As Charlie’s eyes got used to the brilliant light in the room, she heard voices talking but paid no attention to what was being said. After the gloom of the roads and only moonlight to see by, the dazzling white light that illuminated the annex made it difficult to see clearly. She stared at her shoes with one hand on Rilla’s shoulder. Squinting through her reluctant tears, she noticed the stains on the concrete. There was an odd odor to the room, something mixed in with the smell of shit that reminded her of hospitals. As she stared at the floor, she realized it was some kind of bleach, as if the floor had been scrubbed with it to remove those stains.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked to her right. The wall was painted a dark green, almost black, and had those same stains on it. As she looked around the room, she noticed that there were scratches on the wall, too, deep cuts that ran through the paint into the fabric of the metal. They were all around her and more by the two doors. She looked back from where they had entered the annex and saw a small red light on a panel above the door indicating that it was locked electronically. She also noticed that there was no door handle, and the frame of the door was silver copper overlaid in more scratches. High above the door and well out of reach was the upper gantry, a single walkway that stretched around all four walls of the room but with no way down. There was a door behind the man who had said he was Attwood and a green light above his head.

“Charlie, what are they?”

Charlie looked at where Rilla pointed, noticing the four small panels on the wall closest to them. Above each one was another small red light.

“I don’t know, Rilla.” Charlie felt all of the fear and terror back in an instant. This wasn’t right. Suddenly she felt trapped. There was no way out. If Kyler was right about Attwood, then they had just stumbled into a trap.

“Listen, Attwood, I don’t know what kind of stupid game you’re playing, but I’m not laughing,” said Jeremy. “I demand you let us in. This place stinks, and I’m not going to stand around here all night while my wife and daughter catch some disease. Get your man out of the way.”

Attwood leant over the gantry and called out. “Conan, you want to move aside, and let these folk in?”

The man with the white goatee remained in the door ahead of them and shook his head slowly. He raised a gun and pointed it at the group, singling out nobody in particular.

“Now hold on Attwood, there’s no need for any of this,” said Schafer. He held both hands out to indicate he was unarmed and looked up. “Please. We came to you with good intentions. We don’t have any weapons, just a little food and water. All we ask for is a little kindness. Surely, with everything that’s happening on the other side of that wall, you can understand why we needed to come here? Surely you can understand what we’re doing here? We’re not like them. We’re not infected; we just need a decent place to spend the night in safety without worrying about the war going on around us.”

“Save your breath,” said Kyler. “This guy’s not listening.”

“Attwood, you let us in
right now
!” shouted Jeremy angrily.

“Hush, hush, it’s late. You don’t want to go waking the whole neighborhood, do you? Those people you just passed on your way here are not too friendly. In fact, they’re a little snappy.” The man on the gantry clacked his teeth together. “No? Nobody? Tough crowd.” He cast his eyes around the group. “Okay, so there’s just the six of you? You’re the largest group we’ve had stop by in quite a while. What do you think, Conan, gotta be a few months?”

Conan said nothing and kept his gun focused on them.

“Forgive him,” said the man on the gantry, “he doesn’t say much. The big man’s just a pussycat really. Aren’t you, Conan?”

Again the man said nothing.

Schafer looked at Magda and felt like he had betrayed her. All her hope and happiness had evaporated, replaced with abject fear. “Look, Attwood,” Schafer said, “we can figure this out. Whatever it is you want, we’ll do it. We can help you.”

“You help me? Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve got everything I need right here. That’s why you’ve come crawling to me asking for
my
help, right? Look, let’s start over. It was interesting to begin with, but the truth is it’s late and I’m tired. So, how about a few introductions? Mr. Attwood is otherwise engaged right now, so—”

“Is he even here?” asked Kyler. “I bet Attwood’s not even at home.”

“Oh, he’s here. But like I said, he can’t come to the door, so you’re left with me.”

“And you are?” Kyler was pleased Jemma wasn’t here with him. He had a bad feeling about this. He flexed his fingers ready for a fight. If it came to it, he would rush Conan and risk being shot rather than wait here to die.

“Well, my name isn’t really important, but you can call me Butcher.” The man on the gantry smiled and then stifled a yawn.

“Well, Butcher, how about we continue this conversation inside? Like my friend said, we’ll do whatever it is you need. It’s late, and everyone is tired. There’s no need for any... trouble.” Kyler didn’t think it would be that easy to gain access to Attwood’s, but he had to try for Charlie’s sake.

“Oh, you’ll do what I need, I know that,” said Butcher. He drew a gun silently from his jacket and pointed it down at Kyler. “Now, let’s start this again. Names. Go.”

“Kyler.”

“Schafer. This is my wife, Magda.”

Jeremy was increasingly anxious and jittery. He kept looking at the gun pointed at them. “Look, Butcher, I don’t see—”

“
Names
!” Butcher’s scream echoed around the annex shocking them all.

“Just tell him,” said Schafer quietly. “It’ll be okay.”

“Jeremy. My name is Jeremy. My wife is Lyn. And my daughter, Victoria,” Jeremy said softly.

“And you two at the back? Don’t think I can’t see you there. Names?” asked Butcher, straightening up and reaching for a panel of controls in front of him.

“Rilla. And you can kiss my ass.”

“Charming. And you?” asked Butcher, pointing at Charlie.

“That’s my son, Charlie,” said Kyler quickly. “Since we lost his mother, he doesn’t say a lot. He’s what you would call simple.”

“Nice.” Butcher sighed. “Okay, let’s get this over with. If you’re half as tired as I am, then you’ll want to do this as fast as you can. So you, Rilla, the one with the potty mouth, go on over to Conan.”

“No way,” said Rilla firmly. “I’m not going in there on my own. What about my family? My friends? You’re letting us all in, right? You have no idea what we’ve been through, how far we’ve come, and what we’ve had to cross to get here. I’m not giving it all up now.”

“Darling, I don’t have time for your sob stories. I only need people I can use. So hurry the fuck up and get over to Conan, please? He’ll take you inside. No messing about, please. My friend has a Desert Eagle semi-automatic aimed at you, so I encourage you to do what I say. Get over to Conan,
now,
and don’t fuck with him.”

Rilla folded her arms. She knew what kind of man Butcher was. He was interested in her because she was young and pretty. She had learned about that kind of man a while ago and wasn’t about to become some piece of meat passed between him and his friends. “Fuck that. We all go, or we all stay.”

“Butcher, this is insane.” Jeremy strode forward toward the open door ahead of them. Attwood’s house lay just beyond it. “I don’t care what you think you’re doing, but you tell your buddy Conan to let us by this second. I’ve had enough of listening to your shit. I demand that you let us go and speak to Attwood. This is his place, not yours. My daughter is ten. Ten! How dare you treat us like this? I’m going to—”

The sound of the gunshot bounced around the annex like thunder, and Charlie watched as Jeremy turned around to face his family. The left side of his head was gone, and his jaw hung open in surprise. A flap of skin draped loosely around his chin, and a chunk of brain plopped out onto his shoulder. Warm red blood flowed from his head and streamed down his neck. Charlie heard Lyn scream as Jeremy’s lifeless body collapsed to the ground. Then she saw her father grab Schafer’s arm and hold him back. As the blood spewed from Jeremy’s shattered skull, Charlie noticed how it formed a large pool around his head. It was going to be just another stain in this dirty, horrible place. Then she knew: how many times had they done this before? How many times had someone come to them for help only to be turned away or killed?

She caught her father’s eye and tugged her cap down tight. She hadn’t understood why he had lied about who she was, about why he had said she was his son and that she was simple, yet as she saw Victoria cry and the disbelief in Lyn’s eyes, she understood. He was protecting her. Even now, he was doing what he could to protect her.

“Oh fuck,” said Rilla gently. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.”

Charlie shivered.

“Right, let’s just try this again, shall we?” The impatience in Butcher’s voice was evident. “You. Rilla. Step forward. Trust me. You really don’t want to piss off Conan. You can see how he acts when someone doesn’t listen.”

Rilla slowly pushed her way through to the front of the group and stood beside Jeremy’s body. She glanced down and saw a lifeless eye stare back at her blankly. At least he wouldn’t be returning. Rilla knew that she had no choice, yet couldn’t help but think that this might be the last time she saw her parents alive.

“No, Rilla, don’t,” said Schafer. “You can’t go.”

“You heard him, Dad. I have to.”

Rilla, listening to her mother crying, crossed the floor and reached Conan. She turned around to look at them again, to see if she could convince Butcher to let the others in, when Conan pushed the gun between her shoulder blades. His warm breath tickled her ear when he spoke.

“The girl too.”

Rilla looked at Charlie, confused. But Kyler had told them she was his son. It was a good move considering the circumstances, and may just have saved Charlie’s life, so how did Conan know? How could he tell that underneath the fishing cap and baggy sweatshirt she was female? There was no way from back here that he could know. Rilla didn’t want to be on her own, but she was afraid of what would happen to them if she let them take them both. Charlie stood a better chance with her father.

“Look, Mr. Conan, I don’t think—”

Conan pressed the gun between her shoulder blades and then raised it up to the back of her neck.

“Don’t think. Just do it. The little girl. Victoria?”

Rilla realized he hadn’t meant Charlie after all, but then stopped herself from going to get Victoria. What could they possibly want with her? What could they need with a young girl? It hit Rilla then exactly what they could do to her.

“No way, I’m not letting you take her too. You just killed her father, and now you want to drag her into this sorry mess?”

Conan pushed Rilla forward, and she fell to the ground. Her hands felt the cold hard concrete and slipped into the blood pouring from Jeremy’s dead body. Shaking, Rilla scrambled desperately to her feet.

Conan looked at her blankly and pointed the gun at her head. “Five. Four. Three.  Two—”

“Okay, okay!” Rilla wiped her hands on her legs and turned to Lyn. “I’m sorry. I’ll take care of her.”

“One.”

Rilla heard Conan behind her and raced forward. She grabbed Victoria’s hand and pulled her away from her mother. The girl tried to hold onto her mother’s leg, but Rilla couldn’t afford to let her get away, and she held Victoria in a bear-like hug.

“I’m sorry, honey, I’m sorry,” said Rilla as she marched back to Conan with Victoria struggling in her arms.

“Butcher, stop this. You’re not going to achieve anything by splitting us up,” said Schafer. “Let my daughter go. The girls have nothing to offer you. I’m strong. Kyler too. We can help you build this place, make it stronger. Think about it.”

There was silence, aside from Magda and Lyn crying, and Schafer wondered if Butcher was thinking it over. There had to be something else, something he could do to make this right. Butcher and Conan were insane. If they kicked Schafer and the rest of the group back outside, then he would do anything to get back in to rescue his daughter. Butcher had to know that. Butcher surely would know that a father would do anything to protect his children.

“Don’t you have a child?” asked Schafer. “You know I love my daughter. Rilla is my only child. I would do anything for her, and I can’t let you hurt her. You
know
I can’t. You understand that I’m offering to do anything right now, but if you hurt her or Victoria, then I’ll kill you. You kick us out now, and I’m going to come back for her.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Butcher sniffed. His silence hadn’t been because he was thinking about Schafer’s offer, but because he was distracted. “Sorry, I was just figuring out the controls here. It’s been a while since I had to do this. Anyway, you said something about coming back for her?”

“Jesus, Butcher, what do you think is happening here? You can’t send us back out there, not to face
them
.”

Butcher peered over the gantry. “Conan, if you’ve got them, then take them both back up to the house, and close the door behind you. You can come back later to clean up. Get them to Verity. If the older one gives you any shit—just shoot her.”