“An outstanding achievement, sir,” the commander said with another salute for the admiral who returned it stoically.
“Yes, yes,” Minister Shepherd snapped. “Where have you been for the past year and why were you so mysterious about this favour you asked of us?”
Commander Lowery shared a look with his lieutenant and sucked in a deep breath before he spoke.
“As the world began to fall, we were given specific and confidential orders. They are classified until such time as I receive orders otherwise.”
“Then I order you to declassify them,” Admiral Stuart said. “We have already established I am your immediate superior and that this room contains the recognised government of Great Britain.”
“Ah.” He looked behind him at the marines and then back to the admiral.
“Sargeant, take your squad out into the hall please.” The Admiral pulled his sidearm out of its holster and placed it on the desk before him, keeping his hand on it.
As the marines filed out, I watched the two newcomers, alert for any signs of treachery.
“Now, I order you to explain your orders and where you have been for the past year.”
“Sir.” The commander cleared his throat and began to speak. “When it became clear that we would not make it, the country had effectively fallen, we were tasked with one job. We were to secure our nuclear facilities and power plants and ensure they were safe.”
“Safe?” Cass asked. “What do you mean?”
“Everything happened so fast, they weren’t shut down, ma’am. If left for too long we risked melt-down.”
“Why would the government care if they knew they weren’t going to make it?” Minister Shepherd asked. “What would it matter?”
It wouldn’t, I realised with a start, not for the government anyway. But for some people who had a hidden bunker and intended to step out into the world when the zombies were gone, they would want it to be liveable.
“I don’t know, ma’am. Those were our orders and we followed them. All of us…” he stopped and cleared his throat. “All of us had lost our families. We were sure of that and we had little else to do but hope that someone, somewhere would survive. They would have a better chance if the world wasn’t a radioactive mess.”
“And?” Admiral Stuart said into the silence that fell after the commander finished speaking. “What else?”
“There were some other sites that needed securing and locking down, sir.”
“What sort of sites?” I asked though I suspected I could guess.
“Biological research and storage locations, ma’am.”
I was right then.
“That wouldn’t take a year, surely?”
“No, ma’am. Not for just the UK, no.”
Ah.
“So we are to believe you have been travelling the world for the past year and a half trying to secure those places that house things worse than the zombie virus and shut down all the nuclear power plants,” Minister Shepherd scoffed. “How very noble of you.”
“We had nothing else to do. Ma’am.”
The lieutenant's reply had a little bite to it and I hid my smile behind my hand as I glanced at the Admiral. He appeared to be deep in thought and if anyone could tell if they were speaking truth, it was him. He had the knowledge of the military and its people after all.
“When you arrived, you asked for a specific task to be performed,” Admiral Stuart said. “I think we should discuss that now.”
“Yes,” I said my voice growing hard. “I would like to know why I sent two people into danger without any clear reason behind it.”
“Two?” Lieutenant Green said in surprise. “I thought you were sending more!”
“You had a specific timeline. We happened to have two people in that area who could reach the location in the time specified.”
“But we…” she looked at her commander, eyes wide. “Sir! We lost nearly forty men!”
“You had to reach it from the sea,” Cass said. “Our people will be travelling from the other direction and they are… well, they are accomplished at this sort of thing.”
“What will they find there?” I added.
“There’s a facility that has been locked down since the start of this,” Commander Lowery said. “The people inside have been working on a cure.”
“Bit late for that,” Minister Shephard said with a bark of laughter.
“They have something others don’t.”
“What?” I asked, leaning forward. “What do they have?”
“The original parasite and as far as we know, they are the only people left in the world without any trace of the parasite inside of them.”
Interesting but I wasn’t quite sure what that would mean for us. For why I had sent two people dear to me into danger.
“They have developed a vaccine and inoculated themselves to test it.”
“What will this vaccine do?” I asked curiously. If I didn’t like their answer I would call Ryan home.
“It stops them turning,” Commander Lowery said. “Even when bitten, they won’t rise as one of the undead.”
That rocked me back on my heels a little and I shared a wide-eyed glance with Cass as my hand pressed against my stomach. The chance that my children wouldn’t have to fear someone they loved dying in their sleep and rising as one of the undead was an incredible thing.
Not to mention the damage Ryan’s people could do if they didn’t have to fear every bite turning them.
“That… that is something worth investigating more.”
“We have the plane,” Minister Shepherd said. “Could load it up with some troops and fly them out to meet that man of yours.”
“No,” Admiral Stuart interrupted. “The sound of the plane will draw the undead from miles around. We could possibly land it but by the time those people returned it would be surrounded by every damned zombie in the area.”
He tapped his chin as he thought, eyes narrowed and gaze distant.
“The plane is only really of use for extraction. When they have these people and somewhere it can land, they can call it in and we’ll pull them out.”
“That’s leaving a lot of pressure on those two,” Minister Shepherd said. “No matter how accomplished they are, they’re just two men.”
Not quite. There was nothing ordinary about them and I trusted they would be able to do what needed to be done.
“One more thing,” Admiral Stuart said looking at the commander. “Your primary mission, did you succeed?”
“No.”
Just that, a single word from the commander that raised eyebrows from the assembled government ministers and me.
“What does that mean then?” I asked. “Do we need to send people to secure these places?”
“I’m afraid it’s too late, ma’am,” the commander said wearily. “Those that are going to meltdown have already begun the process and the resulting explosions and radiation, along with that from the various countries that used part of their nuclear arsenal, can’t be stopped.”
“But what does that mean long term?”
“You’re feeling the effects already, ma’am. It’s not going to be quite nuclear winter, but there’s enough junk been thrown up into the air to ensure a change in the weather.”
Just great.
Chapter 7
We soon left the main road, heading up a smaller road that was barely wide enough for a single vehicle. It was soon apparent that we were woefully unprepared as the wind tugged at our clothes and the chill seeped into our very bones. I Kept my head down and focused on placing one foot before the other.
The steep sides of the hills were covered in trees and bushes that would have made the going hard were it not for the road, but even that was showing signs of wear, the tarmac cracked with weeds poking through.
There were no zombies in sight and as we reached the top, breaking clear of the trees and seeing nothing but seemingly endless swathes of grass-covered hills, we found ours
elves remarkably safe. Save for the Reaper that was no doubt following us.
I glanced back at that thought but saw nothing. That didn’t surprise me as it had already shown a marked affinity for hiding itself when it had first followed me out to the bunker.
With little else to do, we kept on walking, both of us knowing that there was little likelihood of stopping until we were over the hills and down into the lowlands. With no tent and little in the way of shelter to be seen, we wouldn’t be stopping for the night.
We kept walking until long after the day turned to night, sticking to the road and using our torches as there was little light to be seen through the overcast sky. The leather jacket and coveralls I wore were no defence against the chill night air and I found myself shivering often as I limped along.
By the time dawn arrived, I was cold, tired and in a pretty foul mood. Neither of us had spoken much beyond occasional words for several hours and I was more than a little irritated to see plenty more hill to cross before us.
“Four miles, maybe,” Gregg muttered and I glanced at him, not bothering to reply.
We carried on walking.
There was little of note on those hills, just endless grass and many bushes. Smaller wildlife scampered here and there, the flash of fur as the rabbits scrambled away at our approach. They were small, furry and carefree. They irritated me immensely.
It was late in the afternoon when we finally crested a hill and found ourselves looking down at a cluster of houses far below us. I craned my neck to look behind us but still saw no sign of the Reaper and so, with little else to do, we carried on down the hill.
The houses turned out to be faux log cabins on the banks of a small lake. The grass around them had grown wild and weeds poked up everywhere. It was clear that there was no one there, living or undead but we still made a point of checking each of the cabins in turn.
Once we were sure they were clear, we chose a cabin a little way back from the road and broke in. The lock on the door wasn’t there as a serious deterrent and I guessed that back when the world was normal there would have been staff living on site to care for the cabins.
Inside there was a thick layer of dust covering everything but aside from that, it was fairly standard. Sofa, chairs all upholstered. Ample space and a kitchen that would have been quite pleasant to use back when it worked.
Obviously, there was no power, gas or water, but once we shoved a chair in front of the door, we could at least get some rest and eat more of our salted fish. It was tough to chew and not pleasant, but it filled the belly and provided some sustenance.
Neither of us was quite up to the task of keeping watch, so once again, we barricaded ourselves into the bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. Sleeping through the night and only waking the next morning.
We still had a ways to go and little real idea of how to find our target location. We knew it was generally southeast of where we had been and that was all well and good, but a map of the area would make things go easier.
Fortunately, we were in tourist country and I had some hope the little holiday cottages we had found would have a nearby office with maps of the area.
Apparently not.
I let the door of the office slam shut behind me, not really caring about the noise and headed towards the main road without a word. Gregg followed along, not really trying to hide his amusement.
“Not sure what you expected, mate. The world had gone digital.”
“That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have maps!”
“Who would print out maps when everyone had an app on their phone for it?”
“I would use maps.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t know you had voicemail.”
“One time I mentioned that!”
He chuckled and wisely didn’t reply. My mood hadn’t really improved with a good nights sleep. Which was understandable since my side still hurt when I moved and I walked with a noticeable limp because every bit of pressure of my foot sent bursts of pain up my leg.
At that point, I was pretty much hoping we would run into some zombies so I could kill something.
The one thing going our way was that we could follow the road. We had a general idea that we needed to head towards Perth and while we were still some distance from there, the road signs pointed us in the general direction.
As we moved further away from the hills, we began to see more signs of habitation. We passed cars abandoned on the road, most pulled up onto the grass verge with the doors closed and obvious signs that someone had taken the time to sort through their belongings and choose what they would leave behind.
There was usually little left for us to scavenge and I considered the food rations we had. Admittedly, we had more than one person would usually carry since we had taken some of those rations from my dead minions too, but it wasn’t enough. Not without cutting our daily ration anyway.
By about noon, we came across a small hamlet. No more than seven houses that sat beside the road. Three on one side and four on the other. The first five were cleared out completely and the sixth had old blood splashed over the windows.
“What do you think, mate?”
“I think that it will likely still have food and zombies inside.”
“We gonna chance it or move on to the next?”
In answer, I reached for the door handle. It opened easily and the stench of old death rolled over us. We’d long grown used to the odour though so undeterred, we headed inside and it didn’t take long to find the former occupants.
They were huddled in the living room, surrounded by their own dried blood. Clearly trapped since way back in the beginning, they were in a sad state.
Grey skin hung from their skeletal frames and they could barely muster the energy to look over to where we stood in the doorway.
“Barely worth killing,” I muttered.
“They look… well, like their starving.”
“Aye. Understandable. The zombification slows the process of decay but it doesn’t stop it. Without food, they will eventually die. Given time, we’ll only need to worry about Ferals and Reapers and then not even them.”
“Right. Well, I’m off to raid the kitchen then, mate. You do what you want with these pathetic things.”
I watched him go, lost in thought for a moment and undecided. There would be no real joy to it but I was loathe to let them live on principle alone. At the same time, my ribs ached and I just couldn’t be bothered spending more of my limited energy on them. I closed the living room door and went to join Gregg in the kitchen.
“Score!” he crowed as I joined him. “Look at this stuff.”
He pulled tins of vegetables and soups from the cupboards and placed them alongside unopened packets of biscuits and pasta. It wasn’t a small amount and I had no idea if he thought we would be taking it all with us.
“I reckon we take as much as we can and make a big meal tonight. What do you think?”
“Whatever you want, my friend.”
He glanced at me, eyebrows rising.
“Not often you call me that. I like it.”
“What?”
“Friend.”
“You know you’re my friend.”
“Still nice to hear every now and again,” he said with a sniff.
I watched him a moment unsure how to respond and then raised my shoulders in a shrug and turned to head back to the front door.
“Gather it up and let’s get moving.”
“Check the garage, mate.”
“What?”
“There’s a garage and the people are all here, so it makes sense that if there’s a car it’ll be in the garage.”
“And?”
“Some people kept maps in their cars.”
I’d take his word for it since I had never bothered to learn to drive and was hardly familiar with motorised vehicles. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check.
The garage had a white metal door that rolled up. It also had a lock that didn’t do well against
my knife and in a few moments, I pulled it up and stepped back, weapon ready.
Nothing moved in the darkness and, almost disappointed, I sheathed my knife and checked out the car. It was, apparently, a Renault and was also locked. The glass window shattered easily and I reached inside, opening the glove box and rooting around.
It was almost a pleasant surprise to find an old AA map of the area. I took it into the kitchen and unfolded it on the wide worktop where Gregg was busily sorting food.
“What’s the name of this place?”
“No idea. Don’t think it has one.” He paused and then added, “we’re on the B846 road though.”
I searched the map and soon found it, tracing our route back along the road until I found the rough area where we were likely to be.
“There was a river coming up, yeah?”
“Er, yeah. River Lyon or something.”
“Got it.”
By my estimation, it put us about thirty odd miles out from Perth and there were several roads leading that way. More to the point, I could quite clearly see the small town of Dunkeld. Somewhere, close to that town in a heavily wooded area was our target.
It was around twenty miles from where we were and that put it at perhaps two days if we were lucky and encountered no major problems. So, all being well, a couple of days to get there and assess the situation and a couple more to head further south, skirting the edge of Perth to the small private airport where we would be collected.
Sounded easy. I mean, there was only a potential fifty thousand or so people in the city of Perth, plus all the small towns and villages we would have to pass through. Yeah, easy.
“We ready?” Gregg asked and I nodded curtly, folding up the map and slipping it into a pocket.
“Aye.”
He grunted as he lifted his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. It didn’t escape my attention that he was taking most of the foodstuffs, ensuring I didn’t have too much weight to carry. I appreciated it.
“Is it just me or is this going remarkably well?” Gregg asked with a grin that faded as we stepped out of the house. “Crap.”
“Morning fellas,” the man on the horse said to us as he cradled the shotgun in his arms.
Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18 Page 39