'Where are we?' he asked.
'Well, Jackson, I had found the device before I was so rudely distracted.' Luke pulled his head back inside the cab.
They waited, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding eye contact. A couple of toe-curling minutes later, Luke pushed the door open and emerged, bearing what looked like an over-sized smart-phone, only thicker and with more sharp edges. He hefted it in one hand.
'How do you know that's it?'
'I don't. I just think it is. I'm hoping ripping it off the van hasn't damaged it.'
She twisted and stared behind her, heart racing. The zombies weren't coming any closer. Luke gave them all a grin. 'Let's find out, shall we?'
He stomped away and they rushed to keep up. He headed for the far end of the bus. She spotted David and Ed peering at them through the windows. The zombies moved. Those in front of them were forced back by the wall created by the device Luke held. They were most of the way there before the thought struck her.
She spun and stared at where they'd just come from. The far side of the truck was outside the area and zombies were rocking it back and forth. Before she could say anything, Luke took another step and one of the soldiers fell outside the zone. The zombies fell on him, driving teeth deep into his arms and head and face. His scream was something she couldn't imagine ever forgetting.
Luke
The discovery of the device went some way to calming his anger. The Father had a seriously sick sense of humour. Sending him to Earth was one thing. Making him mortal and tossing him into the middle of a zombie apocalypse was another. But giving him these people to work with was pure evil.
He glanced at the others as they had their backs to him, staring in horror as the soldiers were devoured. Jackson was the real worry. He was completely barking mad. Worse, he believed in something and that made him dangerous. Bayleigh and Alex were all right, sane for the most part and not hating him entirely, so they might do what they were told.
He glanced over his shoulder at the two faces pressed against the glass. Ed was too young. He already carried enough scars and this would just make more. But he wasn't a worry. He'd do what Luke asked and so long as he stayed out of the way, they would get on just fine. David was a different story. He was cracked and very much on the edge. The irony wasn't lost on him.
David's time in isolation had clearly done things to his brain, just like the first time. After that instance, he'd seemed to recover, but now he was teetering and Luke had no idea which way he'd go. He'd survived the first day so his survival instinct was strong. Would it slip if he lost the plot entirely?
Luke took slow steps back and the fourth soldier was exposed. Bayleigh choked back a sob as a zombie set its teeth into his face and tore through the skin. The gas mask came off with the best part of his nose and cheeks. Bayleigh turned away and Luke prepared himself for the onslaught.
Instead she buried her face in his chest and sobbed. He put his arms around her, blinking at the top of her head. This was unexpected.
Here he was trying to warn them and they just didn't get it. It was a warning to the freaks the Father had dumped him with that he was as evil as they thought he was. It was also a warning of how little he cared about the soldiers of god.
And as if on cue, Alex turned on him, snarling. 'How can you do that? They're the only humans left alive except us and you let them die.'
'They aren't humans, not how you'd like them to be.'
Bayleigh pushed him away and sniffed. 'What do you mean?'
'They are true believers. Their only goal in life is to do whatever they are told by the priests. They have no more compassion for us than they would an ant. Either we're believers or we're dead.'
'Easy for you to say.' Alex said, 'How do you know that?'
'Because I know these people. They have been around for millennia, stirring up shit and causing pain and suffering wherever they can. Now they've destroyed the world and you can bet they think they have a good reason for it.'
'So it was definitely them?'
'You saw it yourself, Bayleigh. You know it was them.'
'But why? Why would you do that?'
Luke shrugged and groaned inside. This question could go round and round. 'Because they're evil bastards?' He got a look from Alex and Bayleigh. 'Because they believe. I'm hoping when we find Krystal we might get some insight into exactly what that is.'
On the other hand, it could just be Az screwing with me and the Father and everyone else. He wouldn't say that out loud, though. They didn't want to hear that.
'The most important thing is to rescue Krystal. That comes first. If we can, we do some digging, but not until she's safe.'
Bayleigh frowned and shook her head at him. He wasn't going to explain himself, she could wonder all she wanted. He raised a hand and rapped on the bus window. The two on board jumped and vanished from sight.
'We'll go on foot from here. With this, we have nothing to worry about.'
He shoved the device in his pocket. Bloody great invention. It was using a pheromone of some sort, it had to be. It was the only thing he could think of, although how the soldiers had worked out what the zombies would be repelled by he had no idea. It would be great to find out. He added it to the list and set off walking. David and Ed bundled down off the bus, shouting for him to wait. He didn't.
Luke led them to the edge of the street, close enough to the buildings for them to hide should more soldiers appear, which they surely would following the failure of their companions to return. They strung out in a line behind him and he glanced over his shoulder.
Bayleigh was directly behind him, pale and red-eyed. She was tired and strung out and should really be asleep. He needed to look after them. He hated being nursemaid, but without proper sleep they'd get fractious and argue, and it would be one headache after another.
All of them were twitchy, jumping and jerking as zombies came closer before shuffling away. The perimeter was a good twenty feet on all sides of the device so there was nothing to worry about.
But he understood their fear. Being human was weird. They were the superior race on Earth, in control of their environment and the world around them. Yet they lived their lives in constant fear of what could happen, or what might happen. He'd known this for millennia but not understood it properly. Now he felt it, sinking through his bones like a cancer, unseen but irrefutable.
He wasn't worried, but he still twitched every time one of them came close. It was a reaction that made no sense and had no basis in logic. But still he couldn't stop himself. How long was he going to be here? The longer he was here the more human he'd become, and the thought made him squirm.
It was ironic, of course, that the Father sent him here just as humans stopped being the dominant race. They were the hunted now, the tiny minority hiding away from the rest of the world. He should have had the Father show him elsewhere on the earth, so he could see the damage done in other countries. Was everywhere like this? Had anyone else survived?
He stopped, raising a hand to halt the rest. They'd reached the point in the street where it straightened out and the spire of St Paul's poked above the buildings. He crept forwards, hand resting lightly on his sword. Jackson had brought one of the guns but the others had treated them like poison. It was probably for the best.
Five trucks were parked in a row on the left of the cathedral in front of the Tesco store, surrounded by soldiers. God, those shops were bloody everywhere. They were in the brave new world, and the only things he could see were the soldiers of god and Tesco's. He sniffed. No Krystal.
There was no way they were getting in the front. It meant going through the tunnels, which took far longer than he wanted. He hissed and turned back to the others, making eye contact with Alex as he spoke. 'We're heading to the hospital, just up Old Bailey.'
He nodded past them and they shuffled round until David led the way. He walked as slowly as possible, checking over his shoulder every second. The zombies in front of him were he
ld back, but only by six or seven feet, and every time one raised a hand he flinched and stopped walking. Luke handled it for all of a minute before he pushed past Bayleigh with a growl and caught up with David.
'You're pathetic. You're safe, they can't get you.'
'Yeah, you're an evil bastard. I was safer when I was the wind.'
Luke blinked and decided not to ask.
The hospital was filled with bedridden zombies and zombies in wheelchairs, and there was something both funny and heart-achingly sad about it. Luke paid as little attention as he could, focusing on getting them down into the subterranean garage beneath without anyone getting eaten.
The hatch hung like a garage door in a darkened corner of the car park, blending in with the flat grey walls. He, Jackson and Alex got fingertips beneath it and hauled it upright. Jackson was a loony but could, at least, be useful. David just stood to one side, arms wrapped around himself as he eyeballed them.
The hatch opened and they plunged into the gloom that lay beyond. Luke tugged the hatch down behind them and they were smothered in total darkness. Ed was the first to crack.
'Can't we get some light or something?'
'Hold hands. The path is wide and flat. There's nothing to worry about because there aren't any zombies down here and we've got the blocker anyway. If any of the soldiers are down here, they'll have lights so we'll see them. If we don't have lights, they won't see us, understand?'
He was met with silence and, with a satisfied nod, set off. The walk back to St Paul's was quick and quiet and it wasn't long before they emerged into the huge cavern. Lights still burned in here and flickering shadows played across the walls. He gave them a few moments to gasp and act suitably amazed before he led them around the outside of the cavern towards the staircase.
The cave was quiet and there was no sign of life from the miniature St Paul's. How many soldiers of god were there, altogether? The plague had been unleashed in America and Russia and Europe, and various other places besides. It would have taken soldiers on the ground to do that.
All they had to focus on was getting Krystal out. He had to keep them alive so he could get home. That was the reason, the only reason. It didn't feel like that, though. It felt like he cared. He shuddered at the thought. The Father had done a number on him, slipped some compassion in during his conversion to mortality. It was either that or he was reverting back to his earliest nature, the way he was first born.
The thought made him want to spit. He sniffed and patted the stairs. His hiss sounded loud in the cavern. 'We go up as quickly as we can. If someone enters at the top of the stairs, we need to be ready, so no dawdling.'
He set off, using his hands as much as his feet on the steep, narrow steps. The climb was quicker going up than it had been coming down and he reached the top without any problems. The others were strung out down the wall. Bayleigh was doing well, but Ed and Jackson were struggling, further back than the others.
Ed would scramble up a few steps and stop, clinging to the stairs. Every now and then he'd look out or down and freeze, his entire body quivering. Luke groaned and rubbed his head. He settled himself against an outcrop of rock and waited. A few moments later, Bayleigh's head appeared above the lip and he reached out a hand to pull her up.
'That was exciting.' She said.
He gave her a wry smile. 'That, I imagine, was the easy bit.'
'Why did you kill my dad?'
He almost fell off the rock. Bayleigh blushed and put her hand on his arm. 'Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out quite like that. I just got thinking on the way up.'
Luke stammered. It wasn't something he could ever remember doing before. 'I, I… I thought it was what you wanted. It was certainly what he wanted.'
'Really?'
'Yes. The list tells me everything, stuff I could never find out on my own. He was very much ready to die.'
'Oh.' It came out like a mini explosion of air and Bayleigh sat abruptly on the flat rock, heedless of the drop six inches to her right. 'Oh. Well, that's good then.'
He turned away and cleared his throat as tears ran down her cheeks. Alex appeared at the edge and he pulled him up. The scientist raised an eyebrow and nodded towards Bayleigh. Luke indicated it was all right and they turned together to help David up. The moment he was on the shelf, David scrambled straight up to the next one and cowered beside the entrance to the tunnel.
Two left. Luke glanced down, saw Jackson a few metres below, and nodded. The first part was almost complete. It might have made more sense leaving some below, but he didn't trust them to not do something stupid. Still, they were nearly all here now. The next thing he heard made him want to punch himself in the face. He had no superstitions, they were meaningless when you knew how everything worked, but he couldn't help blaming his previous thoughts for the sound of boots crunching their way down the tunnel towards them.
David
His hands were shaking. All of him was shaking. His legs ached from the climb and his mind was still screaming from the moment near the top when his foot had slipped. He belonged on the ground, or in the sky. He was the wind. Down here was no place for the likes of him.
But they were here to save the girl and there was no greater purpose than that. He would grab her and fly, run like no one else until they were far away. Then he would put her down and she would smile and thank him and a zombie would eat her face. He shuddered and put his head in his hands, pressing his fingers into the side of his face until he thought his jaw would pop out.
Luke and Alex were talking, chatting away like they weren't hundreds of feet below ground in the lair of the enemy. He still wasn't convinced they were the enemy. The only proof he had was what the others had told him. Yes, they'd shot at them, but they probably thought they were being attacked. And they were soldiers, that was their job. It didn't matter now. They had sneaked in and become the enemy.
A sound made him freeze. His body stopped shaking for a brief moment while he listened to the click and scuff of boots on the stone floor of the tunnel. He poked his head over the edge and peered into the darkness. A faint shape materialised and he shook his head, backing away. He bumped into something and squeaked, the sound muffled as a hand covered his mouth. Luke's whisper was loud in his ear.
'Make another sound and I'll toss you over the edge, understand?'
He tried to nod but all he did was shake. Luke was obviously satisfied because he pushed him to one side and stepped closer to the tunnel. Bayleigh and Alex had already moved as near to the edges as possible. David glanced over his shoulder and looked straight down two hundred feet to the ragged stones below. Sweat broke afresh over his brow and he dug his fingers into the stone at his feet.
The footsteps drew closer until a face appeared at the exit to the tunnel. Luke moved fast, like a pouncing cat. His fist hit the guy in the throat and he tumbled forwards from the tunnel without making a sound. Luke caught him and lowered the body to the stone floor.
'Jim, what's going on, you alright?'
The sound was muffled, like the man had his hand over his mouth. David realised it was a gas mask just as the second face appeared. Luke repeated the trick, but this one was quicker and got his arm in the way of the blow. He unbalanced and also fell forwards, but he fought as he went.
He and Luke grabbed one another and grappled in silence, the peace of the cavern broken by their grunts and gasps. David covered his face, not wanting to watch. Alex had mentioned Luke's extra strength and speed, and it showed now as he pulled away from the soldier and struck him in the face. The gas mask exploded, burying plastic in the man's skin.
He pawed at his mouth, covering it as he held his breath. Everyone froze, staring at the soldier and his rapidly widening eyes. His breath finally gave out and he took a shallow sniff through his nose. David's toes curled inside his shoes.
It happened in horrible slow motion. His eyes went red and sunk into his face and his skin grew pale and pasty. His hands curled up, scratching his face as his
nails grew ludicrously quickly. Finally, he toppled over and hit the stone, stiff and cold.
David wanted to scream. He bit his lip as hard as he dared, tasting blood and spitting it out onto the stone. Luke grabbed the body by the shoulders and tossed it off the edge of the platform. He couldn't help turning to watch, even as his gorge rose up. He wasn't the only one who saw the body hit the floor and the explosion of blood and organs that spread out around it.
A shout made him spin back around. He wasn't the only one distracted. Another of the soldiers had emerged from the tunnel and made a b-line for Bayleigh. Now he had his arm around her throat. David was about to leap forwards when he saw the knife pressed against her neck.
'Easy now, gentlemen. I've no qualms about killing women. Done it before, I'll do it again. You wanna find out if today is the day?'
They were silent but nobody moved.
'Good, wise choice. So, you're all immune like the little brat upstairs, are you? How convenient. Line yourselves up with your backs to me, facing the cavern. Near the edge as possible, please.'
David glanced at the edge and burst out laughing.
'This funny, is it?' The soldier pressed the tip of his knife into Bayleigh's neck and she squirmed and whimpered.
'I couldn't go near the edge if you paid me. Not a chance.' It was funny and he couldn't help laughing again. The soldier stepped around Bayleigh and lashed out at him with one foot. He dodged it but his laughter dried up. He sat, hands pressed carefully on his legs and looked up at the soldier.
'I'm really not kidding. I can't do it.'
'Just turn around then. Come on, get on with it.'
David turned slowly, seeing Luke do the same. David waggled his eyebrows frantically, to ask why he wasn't doing anything. Luke looked his usual weird brand of calm and David swallowed. He didn't like the calm Luke any more than he liked the angry Luke.
Thirteen Roses Book Two: After: A Paranormal Zombie Saga Page 13