Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18

by Murray, Richard

“Deposed him?” I said with a wide smile. “Oh, sweetie, he didn’t care about the people on this island. He was just in it for himself.”

  “Don’t lie, bitch!” the other young man shouted, raising his gun and pointing it at me.

  That was the second time he’d called me that I was damned sure they wouldn’t be a third. When I’d taken power, I’d realised that I could be as idealistic as I wanted but there would be times when I needed to be strong, to be ruthless.

  The arrest of Shahid had been one of those moments. I had the choice of showing mercy and giving her the chance to rot in a cell, wasting our resources on keeping her fed, or I could do what had to be done and let everyone know that behaviour like hers would not be tolerated.

  Apparently, my message hadn’t gotten through to everyone.

  I moved over to the wall and lowered my hands, moving them ever so slowly around my back to where I kept the razor blade hidden in the secret pocket behind my belt. The black-clad acolytes would have the same hidden weapon and probably more besides.

  Each of those acolytes was watching me intently, waiting for the moment I gave the word for them to strike. They knew some or perhaps all of them would die, but that was their purpose. To die so that others could live. To kill so that others didn’t have to.

  I hadn’t truly understood that until that moment, standing there with armed thugs spewing their pointless rhetoric at us before they were going to kill us all. I glanced across at Cass, at Charlie, even the admiral and realised that I too would die so they could live, that I would kill so they never had to.

  It was an odd realisation. As much as Ryan complained about my infecting him with my ‘goodness’ and need to protect the innocent, he, it seemed, had had a similar effect on me. I could make those hard decisions, I could do the things I would need to do because it would mean that the people I loved would have a chance to live without having to do the same.

  That was a choice I would willingly make and at another time I would have needed to take some time to think about that. But just then, with the idiocy being shouted at us by the leader of the little band of idiots, I simply had to take action and worry about it later.

  “Can I have a word with you,” I said, cutting him off.

  He blinked rapidly as though he had been lost in his own little-deluded world and need a moment to return to reality. He looked at the others and had no help there.

  “Why?”

  “You have us under your control. We are your prisoners and we fully accept that you are putting Wells back in charge. But, we still have a war to fight and there is crucial information that you need to know”

  “What is it?”

  “Ah.” I made a point of looking at each of the others of his group before returning my attention to him. “This is something that only the man in charge should know.”

  “Johnny,” one of the women said warningly. “You can’t trust her.”

  “Come now. I’m half his size and he has a gun. What am I going to do?”

  “Yeah, I’m not afraid of her.”

  I managed to hold back my smile at that and at his gesture, walked slowly to the other side of the room. His idiot followers were clustered together near the centre of the room, closer to the acolytes than the others. I met Lisa’s gaze for a moment and gave the slightest incline of my head. She returned the gesture and I knew she’d be ready.

  “What?” the man asked as we came to a stop.

  I made a show of looking around and gestured for him to lean close, lowering my voice conspiratorially.

  He didn’t make a sound for a second, just stared at me, surprise evident in his eyes as my hand lifted and swiped the razor across his neck in one smooth, practised motion. A gasp of breath escaped him as I dropped the razor and reached for his gun.

  Behind him the acolytes sprang into action, pulling free their own blades and leaping at the gathered men and women. Time seemed to slow as I raised the assault rifle to my shoulder, whispering a prayer as I aimed and fired.

  A woman fell, blood bursting from her body as the bullets hit her and then the acolytes were amongst them. A gun fired and a woman screamed, an acolyte fell having placed herself between the muzzle of the gun and the young member of Charlie’s team.

  Lisa moved with a speed and grace I had only seen once before, on my beloved Ryan. She slipped between the armed fighters, her hand cutting through the air and blood spraying in her wake. With fist and feet, the armed intruders were taken down.

  One of the gun-wielding women raised her assault rifle, blood flowing from a cut on her neck. She aimed it at my friend but before she could fire, Jinx was on her back, jaws clamping down on the back of her neck.

  She screamed, agony filling the sound, and dropped the weapon to reach up, desperate to push away the canine that was tearing into her flesh with so very sharp teeth.

  Then it was over.

  Only the crying of the wounded could be heard above the growls of Jinx as she worried at the woman’s neck. I breathed a sigh of relief and knew that later, when I could, I would weep for the acolytes who had died protecting us, but just then, we had other things to do.

  “Make sure they don’t rise,” I said and Lisa nodded, picking up her knife from the floor.

  “The ones still alive?”

  “Them too.”

  She gave a curt nod and the sound of the wounded was ended abruptly.

  “Shit,” Charlie said with a shudder as she watched Jinx. “That’s fucked up.”

  “Back to your screens. I want a status update now.”

  They hurried back to their workstations and the admiral paused a moment beside me to take the gun from my unfeeling grip. I drew in a sharp breath and nodded my thanks.

  “We need to secure the…”

  “No time,” I said. “Lock the door here and barricade it if necessary but there are people dying out there. They are more important.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a crisp salute and turned to shout orders.

  Cass reached out her hand and took mine, closing her fingers tightly around my own and giving a sympathetic squeeze.

  “What’s happening?” I demanded over the squawking of the radios.

  “The undead are engaged all across the island. We have, shit, we have reports of troops down. The undead have broken through the line by Col and are moving down the road,” Charlie said, staring at the data on her screen. “Dammit! Thousands of them are already at the barricade!”

  “Any sign of the Reaper?”

  Charlie stared at the screens for a moment, flicking from one image to another as her drones flew their pre-programmed routes.

  “Fuck! It came ashore five minutes ago!”

  “Where?”

  “A kilometre from the barricade.”

  “Get the ship on the radio, ready the release of our Reaper.”

  “No point,” Admiral Stuart said forlornly. “It’s too late, we missed our chance. It’s in amongst several thousand of the undead. If we release the Reaper now it will be torn apart by the others and barely give them pause.”

  “Shit…” I said into the silence.

  Chapter 23

  I inched open the door as the last of the screams sounded and peered through. Only one of the zombies remained standing but there were a half-dozen of the security forces down. I grinned at Isaac and gestured for him to pass me his gun.

  He did so and I pushed open the door far enough for me to reach through, taking careful aim at the zombie as it tore at the flesh of one of the downed men. A single shot, the sound of the shot echoing up the stairwell, and blood and bone burst from the zombie’s head.

  I gave the gun back to Isaac and pushed through the door. He paused in front of the bodies, staring down at them with revulsion. I lifted a combat knife from the belt of one woman and a handgun from another.

  “Get some more ammo,” I said. “Quick before they start to reanimate.”

  He gave me a look of disgust and I responded with a
bark of laughter.

  “I thought you were a mercenary. Surely you’ve seen dead folk before.”

  “Sure, I’ve done my share of wet-work, but I did it because the job demanded it. I’ve never seen anyone enjoy it as much you do and I’ve worked with some serious nutters before.”

  “What can I say? I do love my work and I do it well.”

  “When I saw your files… I mean, I figured you were a psycho but didn’t realise you were so…”

  “I am what I am,” I said with a shrug. “How many more of these people will be on their way?”

  “Probably none. There’s only so many security personnel and a lot of them will be guarding the elevators and executive rooms. Not to mention those trying to get into the control centre.”

  “Good to know.”

  I stared up the shaft of the stairwell. It was fairly small with the steel steps attached to the walls, winding all the way up to the top. It was a pretty long way and I could already feel the aching in my body.

  “Better get started,” I muttered as I took that first step.

  We climbed in silence, weapons held at the ready and pausing on each new level to check the doors, making sure that we weren’t about to be ambushed or surprised from behind. Level by level, all too aware that at any moment they could break into the control centre and activate the disc in Isaacs' chest.

  I let him take the lead. That way if it was activated and he collapsed, I would have a couple of seconds to stab my blade down into his skull before he reanimated as a fast and pissed off zombie.

  By the time we had reached level eight the dolorous moans of the newly risen undead reached us from far below. They would be faster than the Shamblers, at least for a short while, and I doubted they would reach us before we were at level five. Even so, we increased our pace.

  Panting and more than a little winded, I slumped against the wall by the door leading to level five and waved Isaac forward. He inched the door open and peered through. Immediately we could hear the sounds of raised voices and the hiss of what I assumed was cutting equipment.

  Fortunately, whoever had designed the place had done so with the assumption that the control centre may one day come under assault and had built it to withstand quite a bit. Clearly, they hadn’t considered that the assailants may already be on the inside.

  “Clear,” Isaac whispered and I gestured for him to go through.

  He held his gun before him, both hands clasped to the grip and he moved through the door, swinging his gun from one side to the other as he searched for a threat. I followed with a little less of the military theatrics.

  He led the way along a corridor and down another, pausing at the intersection at the end. He raised one finger to his lips and risked a look around the corner.

  “Seven,” he whispered. “All armed with one using a cutting torch.”

  “Plus, the group of five or six by the elevator,” I whispered back. “How far away?”

  “Not far enough.”

  “How good a shot are you?”

  “Good enough, why?”

  “The cutting torch has oxygen and acetylene tanks doesn’t it?” I asked with a wide smile.

  His face paled but he nodded slowly, closing his eyes a minute and pressing his head back against the wall. He swallowed hard and gestured for me to back up, which I did gladly.

  He stepped out into the corridor and raised his gun. He took a deep breath and as he breathed out, he squeezed the trigger. A single shot rang out and he dived to the side as a resounding, thunderous explosion filled the air.

  Fire roared past the corridor behind a wave of sound that was almost physical and I pressed myself back against the wall, hands against my ears. After a moment that seemed to last a small eternity, the fire cut off and the wave of sound had passed us by.

  “You alive?” I called out and heard a weak, “aye,” from Isaac.

  I limped over to where he lay and peered around the corner. There was little left of the people other than scattered body parts that littered the corridor. The steel doors, however, were scorched but seemed relatively unscathed.

  “Call your friends.”

  Isaac pushed himself up to a sitting position and reached for the radio. He spoke into it and a moment later the doors slowly inched open. A scared looking man peered out, gun in hand.

  “Come on,” I snapped to the mercenary. “The others will be coming.”

  He climbed to his feet, holding onto the wall as he was a little unsteady and together we headed towards the control room. A voice called out behind us as we stepped through the door and I was pushed to one side as a gun was fired. Then the door closed behind us and we were, relatively, safe.

  “That was fun,” I said as I climbed back to my feet.

  Isaac ignored me and turned his attention to the two men who had apparently been on duty in the control centre. Two more bodies laid out behind the consoles told me that they hadn’t been entirely alone when they had been forced to act.

  “Where do I plug this bloody thing in?” Isaac asked and was directed to a slot on one of the consoles.

  He inserted the flash drive and I took a seat on one of the chairs and looked around. I’d expected more if I were honest. A circular room lined with consoles and monitors that showed live feeds from all over the bunker.

  Flashing lights lit up all across the consoles and as tempted as I was to touch a few buttons to see what happened, I decided against it.

  “We’re in,” Isaac muttered and I turned my attention to him.

  “Make sure they just disable the tamper-proofing.”

  “No, we disable them fully.”

  “Not if you want to escape,” I said cheerfully. “They’ll hunt you down because you know about them. You know they will.”

  He set his jaw and I almost sighed at the stubborn refusal to do what was necessary.

  “I’ll do it for you,” I said. “No blood on your hands.”

  “There’s hundreds of people here!”

  “Hundreds of enemies.”

  He shook his head and I did sigh then and raised the gun I held.

  “You know that I have absolutely no compunction about killing you all, right here, right now, yeah?”

  “I really don’t like you, clever bastard.”

  “Yeah, I know and I don’t care. I do like you though, so I would prefer not to kill you as you could be useful to me. But I will.”

  His eyes flicked down towards the gun he’d placed on the console beside him and I grinned.

  “You know this needs to be done. You have all the children out?”

  “What?”

  “Come on, I’m not stupid. As soon as you heard what I planned to do you would have ensured that all of the children in this place were in your little group.”

  “Yeah, you really are a clever bastard.”

  “The children will live, I’m not a total monster after all, but the adults. They need to die or they will never stop hunting you.”

  “Fuck it!” he snapped. “Fine, do what you want.”

  I always do, I thought with a grin.

  He tapped out some commands on the keyboard before him and then stepped away, before giving me a dirty look as he waved at the keyboard.

  “The directory is open. The tamper-proofing is disabled.”

  He proved that by opening his shirt, grasping the slim black disc and pulling it free of his skin with a grunt. I watched him for a moment and when he didn’t keel over and die, lowered my gun. The other two men followed suit and Isaac raised the radio to his lips and told the people on the other end to do the same.

  I waited patiently, quite enjoying the silence, until the radio crackled to life once more and a voice on the other end told him that it was done. All the discs were removed. I pushed myself to my feet and limped over to the keyboard.

  It was fairly simple. A list of all the codes for every disc on the base and one straightforward command. Activate all.

  I pressed the ‘Y�
� key and hovered my finger over the enter key. I sucked in a breath, exultation flowing through me at what was about to happen. I looked up and met Isaacs gaze, a silly smile plastered on my face.

  He shook his head and simply said, “You’re a monster.”

  “Yes,” I said gleefully. “I am.”

  I pressed the button.

  Chapter 24

  “Get those damned planes in the air!” the admiral yelled into the radio. “Now, all three of them!”

  I watched in horror the screens before me. On nearly every one of them, our soldiers were engaged with the undead. Thousands of them were ashore and it seemed an endless wave of them were crawling from the sea onto the shore.

  The radios burst to life with pleas for help, the cries of the wounded and dying sounding behind them and voices filled with fear begging for instruction. Most of the CDF troops weren’t real soldiers and had never seen battle.

  They had survived the exodus as they fled before the undead and found safety with the naval forces led by the admiral. They’d been given as much training as we could and some basic weapons but that wasn’t enough to truly prepare them for what they faced.

  I watched them fight and die, I listened to their cries and I wanted to weep. I was helpless, impotent, as I stood in front of those monitors, safe from the horrors they showed and could do nothing but pray for some kind of salvation.

  Samuel’s people were holding firm at the barricade before an overwhelming number of the undead and there, somewhere amongst the mass of horrors, was the Reaper. I wanted nothing more than to join them on that barricade and defend my people.

  “Planes are in the air,” Charlie said softly.

  There were tears in her eyes that she didn’t try to hide. In fact, there were few there listening that weren’t showing the same. I clasped my hand on her shoulder and gave what comfort I could.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “One of the small single engine plans is on it’s way up the coast. I’ve already given the order for the soldiers there to retreat, drawing the undead with them,” Admiral Stuart said. “Once they reach the area just below the village of Gress, they will hold them off in the natural narrow space between the steep hills and the sea.”