Isaac stepped back, pulling me with him, a grimace of disgust on his face as a nearby soldier gagged at the stench.
CDF troopers, with rags over their mouth and nose and protective goggles over their eyes, used rakes and shovels to clear the ground up zombies. Hundreds died, walking into those traps before the first engine began to whine.
“Too many,” Isaac muttered. “Workings are getting stuck.”
I shrugged at that. The machines had worked well enough and thinned the horde. A command was called out and all along the road, marines rose up from their hiding place behind the walls, assault rifles in hand, and opened fire.
They took their time, shots placed with care and the zombies kept on dying. More CDF troopers came running up, forming ranks behind the meat grinders. The steel bucklers they carried on one arm were held out before them and their poignards raised.
Another command and my engineer minion did something with the meatgrinders, allowing the zombies through. They came straight into those massed ranks and died. I laughed at the absurdity of it.
“The hell’s wrong with you, Clever Bastard?”
“Been a good day.”
“You lost about fifteen people if I were to judge. How the hell’s that a good day?”
“Fifteen for thousands of the undead. That’s a good exchange,” I said with a grin. “This is just the start. Tens of thousands more of these things all over the island. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
The large mercenaries face twisted in disgust but he wisely chose not to reply, leaving me to enjoy the slaughter of the undead in peace.
Chapter 14
When morning came I was still standing in the command centre, watching over the shoulder of a tech as the drone she was controlling flew through the town. The camera it carried was of decent quality and even in the dull morning light, I could see plenty of people staring up in confusion.
“Anything?” Cass asked dully as she came over to join me, smothering a yawn with one clenched fist.
“Not yet.”
“Christ! You’d think someone would have found her by now.”
I couldn’t disagree with that line of thought. We’d quickly roused a number of key people throughout the night and enlisted them to help in the search. All to little avail it seemed as Briony had gone into hiding.
“There’s only so many bloody places she could be,” I muttered as I chewed on a fingernail, a nervous habit that I’d successfully managed to cure myself off, or at least so I’d thought. “I mean, it’s not like she can be knocking on someone’s door, is it?”
Cass gently pulled my hand away from my mouth and gave me her sternest look. It was one she must have been practising for when her daughter was a little older and getting into trouble. She did it well.
“Don’t bite your fingernails. Nasty habit at the best of times and even more so now.”
“I know.”
My eyes burned with tiredness and my back ached but I couldn’t give up. We’d not found any more bodies, which was good news at least, though a nasty little part of my mind kept trying to suggest that was because anyone she killed had been turned.
But that wasn’t likely. Which is something I’d been repeating throughout the night. If anyone had died, we’d have found blood. There’d have been someone looking or some noise, something to tell us what had happened.
No, it was most likely that she had eaten enough flesh to sate her immediate hunger and regained enough control to go into hiding, likely fearing our response. Even if that were what happened though, sooner rather than later, she’d be hungry again.
“Do you think we can keep this quiet?” Cass asked and I shook my head, hand reaching up to sweep hair badly in need of a wash from my face.
“Too late for that. Far too many people know about her already.”
I trusted the soldiers and the techs with the defence of the island, but they were still people and people loved to gossip.
“Ma’am,” a tech called out and I turned to look at her wearily.
“You have something?”
“There’s a, a house.”
I stared at her and blinked stupidly at her as it took far too long for my tired brain to catch up with what she had just said and even longer to understand what it likely meant.
“Oh, God!” I rushed across to her, Cass following close behind.
The house sat at the end of a private road at the far north of town. It had no doubt once been rather expensive because of the privacy and the view of the open fields to the north. It was a fair size and likely housed several people.
Grey slate tiles made up the roof and a large hedge surrounded it, offering yet more privacy. The gardens to front and back were overgrown with plenty of places to hide or approach without being seen in the darkness.
As the drone hovered high above the house, high enough that it wouldn’t spook Briony, the camera mounted beneath it was directed at the rear door, that hung open. What looked to be an arm stuck out, twitching and jerking as though something was pulling at it from inside.
“Does that mean what I think it does?” Cass asked, a shudder running through her.
I licked dry lips and swallowed the sour taste in my mouth as I nodded grimly and turned to the tech.
“Get everyone to that house now, while she’s feeding.”
The techs eyes widened and her eyes flicked towards that arm that kept moving as something inside the house tore at the flesh of the body it was connected to. “Y-yes, ma’am.”
As she began relaying the order to the search teams I stepped away, running a hand through my hair and grimacing at the feel. I needed to wash it, but that required time and energy that I just didn’t have.
For a moment I contemplated just shaving it off and being done with it; but realised I was just avoiding having to think about what was going on outside the command centre.
The town was waking up and there would be questions about the squads of armed soldiers and acolytes running through the streets. Factions had been forming, spokespeople had been elected and demands were being made on a daily basis.
I could only imagine what the mornings meeting would be like.
“Where’s Shepherd?”
“You asked her to gather up whatever members of the government she could,” Cass said with a look of concern for me. “About an hour ago.”
“Sorry. Yeah, I remember.”
It was something to do with putting on a united front and perhaps coming up with something we could sell to the populace without it looking like we’d fucked up. Which we had.
Our job was to keep people safe and as soon as one person died because of our choices, because of my choices, then we’d failed. Shepherd wanted us to go into full government spin mode and try to brush it under the carpet.
I just wanted to tell the truth. To let people know that there was a reason for what we were doing.
Even I knew how foolish that would be.
There were several hundred half-trained CDF soldiers on the island and a handful of the Dead. Barely enough to keep the peace at the best of times and if everyone decided to riot again, there would be nothing we could do.
“First squad is approaching,” the tech intoned into the silence.
“Tell them to hold off until more arrive,” Cass snapped and I turned quickly to watch the screen again.
Three CDF soldiers armed with poignard and buckler were moving through the garden of the house. An order was given and one of the three moved to the right to stand before the front door as the others headed towards the back.
“Why aren’t they responding?” I snapped as the tech repeated the order and was ignored.
“I-I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t know.”
“Bloody gung-ho idiots,” Cass muttered as she stared intently at the screen.
The two CDF soldiers had slowed as they approached the back door where the arm was still moving in small jerking motions. I began to swear under my breath as the two men raised
their bucklers before them and readied their poignards.
They approached the door cautiously, and one glanced at the other as they paused for a moment and then he ran in, through the back door.
He flew back out of it a moment later, a small woman sinking her teeth into his throat as blood spurted everywhere.
A second infected leapt at the other soldier who stood stock still staring in surprise and terror. I didn’t need sound on the drone to know he was screaming as the infected man savaged him.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Cass said quietly, eyes fixed on the screen as she watched the slaughter.
“Where are the others?” I snapped at the wide-eyed tech.
She spun the joystick on her controls and the camera spun dizzyingly to point towards the road outside the hedge. Six more CDF were running full speed towards the house and close behind were two fists of the Dead. Leading them was the tall, gangly form of Samuel and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
The tech kept the camera trained on them as they burst through the garden gates. Samuel, clearly knowing that the time for stealth was gone, shouted orders to the others. I watched the silent screen and wished that we could have outfitted the drones with microphones too.
As the CDF troops formed a wall before the front door, Samuel led the Dead around to the back of the house. The two infected were feeding still, tearing off strips of flesh and stuffing them into their blood covered maws.
They sprang up as soon as they saw the black-garbed figures approaching and ran straight towards them. They were fast and strong, leaping at the Dead with arms outstretched.
The first collided with an acolyte who wasted no time in stabbing a knife blade into her skull. The second hit Samuel. He went down but rolled away from the infected before coming up with a knife in hand and pouncing.
He wrapped an arm around the infected man's throat and used his body weight to press the struggling figure down. An acolyte leapt on its legs and held them as Samuel freed his knife hand and sank it into the infected man’s skull.
The other acolytes hadn’t paused other than to ensure the two CDF troopers wouldn’t rise again before they swept into the house. I watched, tense, as Samuel picked himself up and followed after them.
It was a taut five minutes before the radio crackled to life and the tech flicked a switch allowing us to hear the message.
“There’s plenty of corpses in here but the escaped prisoner’s not one of them.”
I shared a look with Cass and reached for the headset, settling it in place and clearing my throat before I answered.
“You’re sure?”
“Aye, she was here. Killed everyone inside by the looks. The first two that came back were feeding when those soldiers turned up.”
“She was there though. We know that for sure, so start searching.”
“As you command.”
The radio went silent and I pulled the headset off and handed it back to the tech. I shared another look with Cass and raked my fingers through my greasy hair.
“Time to face the music,” I said and squared my shoulders.
“We could-“
“No. No lies, no half-truths, we need to be clear with everyone. People have died.”
“Okay.” There was sympathy in her voice because she knew I would bear the brunt of the condemnation.
“If it comes to it,” I said as I turned towards the door. “We do whatever we must to avoid more riots. We can’t afford that just now.”
“Whatever you say.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what that would require or me but whatever the price of keeping peace on the island, I’d pay it.
Chapter 15
The CDF squaddies kicked in the door and dashed inside. I watched them with some amusement as they did their very best to appear competent while clearing the house.
“What you smiling about?”
Gregg had his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched as he sat on the wall beside me in the rain. He’d been with the other half of our force when we had split and had only rejoined us that morning.
By all accounts, the village and various homesteads had fallen with little real loss of life. Not something we could say about the town of Ramsay.
Fifteen of my own minions and forty-six of the CDF soldiers so far. A handful of which had been lost as they moved from house to house clearing them of any undead lurking within. Watching them perform their house clearing duties, I fully expected there to be more deaths before we were done.
“Just laughing at life,” I replied with a secretive smile.
He grimaced but didn’t press and I went back to watching the street. All along it, soldiers were breaking into houses and dragging out bodies. Those bodies were loaded onto the flatbed wagons and would be taken to be burned on one of the pyres that had been burning since we had won the battle.
“I heard someone broke into the camp.”
“Here?” I asked and cocked an eyebrow as I looked at him again.
“No, mate. That village, Bride or whatever it’s called. Some supplies went missing and when they checked the fence, there was a hole in it.”
Survivors then, I thought and my smile grew. Those same ones that had impaled the villagers on the spikes as a means of hiding themselves. An undead alarm system and screen of rotting flesh to hide the smell of the living.
When we had arrived, they had gone into hiding and were stealing our supplies. That didn’t make them hostile as such, but it didn’t make them friendly either. I realised that they must have a hiding place close to the village and before we could move people over, we would need to find them.
If we didn’t, then they could turn violent. At the moment, they might see us as an organised force of looters, not realising we were moving in. They might be waiting to see if we will be leaving again and when they realise we wouldn’t be, that we will be taking their land… well, it wouldn’t be pretty.
No doubt the admiral had realised the same thing as I had, but even so, I would need to bring it up with him. I wouldn’t leave a threat like that lying in wait for when Lily arrived.
“Incoming,” Gregg muttered and nodded a greeting to the approaching duo.
“Morning, boys,” Isaac said as he approached.
Erin, as usual, remained silent, just watched us both like a cat would a mouse. Her rifle was slung over her shoulder but she could probably have it aimed at us in just a second or two. I flashed her a smile which she ignored.
“What do you want?”
“Now, now, lad. No need to be like that.”
He scraped thick fingers against his cheek and grinned right back at me. “Your big boss man wants a word.”
“And he sent you?”
I thought that unlikely and since I had been abducted once before by the big mercenary, I was understandably cautious about going anywhere with him.
“Aye, well, seems you have your radio off.”
“Oh.”
I glanced down at where it was attached to my belt and saw that it was indeed switched off. I could even remember doing it because I had been annoyed by the constant noise. I lifted my shoulders in a shrug, lips twisting in amusement.
“My bad. What does he want?”
“Just the messenger. I’ve no idea.”
A loud crack came from a door being kicked in behind him and he winced and looked back over his shoulder, shaking his head.
“These laddies don’t have a clue what they’re doing, do they?”
“Perhaps you should show them.”
“Nae, lad. Not me.”
Well, I couldn’t argue with that. As much as I was willing to try and save people because it pleased Lily, some were so stupid it was of more benefit to the rest of us to let them die. Anyone who couldn’t clear a house without acting like some gung-ho action hero they had watched in a film, was not worth saving.
“Should probably see what the admiral wants,” Gregg suggested. He watched the two mercenaries with some
suspicion, not that they seemed to mind. “Probably gonna be for something unpleasant.”
“Usually is,” Isaac agreed with a laugh. “It’s why I left. Couldn’t be doing with the bosses.”
I pushed myself off the wall and dusted off my hands. The rain left dark streaks everywhere it landed which also meant that anywhere you touched ended up filthy. Someone had suggested it was the dirt and ash that filled the air that caused it.
When the various countries had set off their nukes and later, as the nuclear reactors had melted down, a lot of ash and dust had been sent into the air. It was why the dark clouds covered the sky and why it felt more like late autumn than summer.
What effect that would have on the crops Lily intended to have planned, I didn’t know. If we were headed for a full nuclear winter, then I had a plan, but that was a ways off yet.
Gregg and the two mercenaries followed along as I made my way through the town to where the Admiral had set up his command centre. The town had held around eight thousand people or so before the fall.
We had around a thousand soldiers and around half of them had been given the duty of clearing the houses. It had been going on all morning and would likely continue for the next day or so because it wasn’t just clearing the houses.
No, when the bodies were dragged out and the CDF troops moved on to the next, another squad would go in after them. They would search the empty house and scavenge anything and everything that could be of use. Loading it onto more of the trucks we had working, to send it all off to a designated storage area.
Eventually, it would all be inventoried and secured so that when people moved into the town, they would have some supplies and goods waiting for them. It made the task a little more time consuming, but with nothing else to do, it was progressing quickly.
The command centre was in what had once been the Ramsay town hall. Soldiers on guard duty nodded and let us past without a word. They didn’t salute, as I wasn’t part of their command structure, but there was definite respect in their eyes.
Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18 Page 60