by Perrin Briar
Fritz turned the piece of paper around.
“Well?” Liz said. “What is it?”
“I have no idea,” Fritz said.
He turned around for the others to see. It was a rough craggy image.
“Are you sure it’s not upside down?” Ernest said.
“This is how he was looking at it,” Fritz said. “Why would he draw upside down?”
“Looks like a kid’s drawing,” Jack said. “Even Francis can draw better than that.”
“It is the best he could do under the circumstances,” Bill said. “Believe me, this is Van Gogh considering the circumstances.”
“But what is it?” Jack said.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Bill said.
“Not to me it’s not,” Liz said.
“It’s a map,” Bill said. “He’s telling us where the weapons are buried. That’s what the X is for.”
The chances Jim had simply been speaking in his fevered dreams were high, but none of the family voiced that concern. They needed something to believe in, something that they could strive for rather than simply waiting here to die.
“So, how do you want to do this?” Fritz said.
Chapter Fourteen
THE OVERLORD In Black had found a crumb. It was small, and didn’t yield much information, but it was useful nonetheless. It detailed a discussion between Rupert and Liz Flower, heard through the ears of the silent, and therefore easily ignored, Manuel.
“Where do you go during the day?” Rupert said.
“Oh, just out and about,” Liz said evasively.
The Overlord In Black paused the memory and replayed it.
“Where do you go during the day?” Rupert said.
“Oh, just out and about,” Liz said.
It was the only evidence of the existence of another place the family sometimes went that the Overlord In Black didn’t know about. Somewhere where the female went but none of the others ever seemed to go. He could see which direction she walked from each day, and so he focused his search in the same direction.
Unfortunately, it was a large area with a variety of objects and obstacles in the way. But his creatures were tireless, unceasing. He would find the family eventually. Eventually. The word made a smile crease the Overlord In Black’s face. He was excited. He always was when in the middle of a hunt. It was the expectation that drove him, that propelled him and made him want more and more.
There was a screech as a falcon spread its wings and darted down from high above the treetops. It was a beautiful creature, with bright plumage and elegant form.
A series of images of the bird flooded the overlord’s mind. They were all of the same bird. Its name was Beast. And it belonged to Fritz. He was always with it. He wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere without it. The Overlord In Black smiled and issued an order.
Every hunt had to come to an end eventually. There was the final strike, the gutting, the pain and anguish. The Overlord In Black couldn’t wait.
Chapter Fifteen
THEY DECIDED to head directly for the X marked on the map. They couldn’t afford to waste time, and there seemed to be little else they could do. It beat sitting on their backsides for one. But it also meant they couldn’t take Jim with them, not and reasonably expect to live through the ordeal of crossing the island.
“How are you going to get there?” Bill said.
“A direct line is faster,” Liz said. “And it’s not like we can hang around forever. We need to get there as soon as possible.”
“Good thinking,” Bill said. “The Overlord In Black won’t be expecting you to head out. Hopefully he won’t know what we’re looking for either.”
“What if he does?” Liz said.
“Then we’re screwed anyway,” Bill said. “Best to take the risk and hope he doesn’t know about it. It’s not far. It shouldn’t take long if you’re careful.”
They had tried waking the unconscious Jim, but he had been unresponsive to their efforts.
“I don’t like leaving you here like this,” Liz said. “Not with those things roaming around out there and no one here to protect you.”
“We can’t take Jim with us,” Bill said. “And I don’t want to take Francis with us either. It’s better this way.”
Still, Liz didn’t like it. Bill was still suffering from the effects of the poisoning he’d received at Rupert’s hands. His movements were slow and sluggish, like he was moving through treacle. There was no way he could outrun the undead in a jungle the way he was.
“How about the boys go find the weapons, and we’ll both stay?” Liz said.
But they both knew that wasn’t going to happen. Despite how much they trusted the kids and knew they would do their best, they still needed one of their parents in charge, or else communication would break down. There would be anarchy and confusion, not one of them accepting the other as leader. But with a parent involved, it was clear who the orders would be coming from. And though it didn’t sit well with Bill, who was usually the one to lead the family out on their little adventures, this time it would be him who stayed behind and babysat.
“No,” Bill said. “I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can,” Liz said. “But I still don’t like it.”
“Of course you don’t,” Bill said. “What’s to like?”
They hugged and kissed. Liz cuddled Francis and smiled at Jim, a private thank-you for, if not giving them the solution to their problem—it could still turn out to be nothing—then the hope to take action.
Francis was crying, and rubbed his eyes to displace the tears.
“This isn’t goodbye, Francis,” Bill said. “This is just goodbye for now. We’ll see them again. And this time we’ll be packing enough firepower to take down a small country.”
“Just an island will do,” Ernest said.
Bill gave them all a brave smile as they turned and headed for the door, a hole concealed by a clutch of foliage. Bill had a bad feeling about this. He had never been the one left behind before. He turned to Jim, who was unconscious again. Unlikely to get much stimulating conversation from those quarters.
You had better be right, Bill thought. If this was part of some kind of trap, Jim would soon find out how dangerous a trained doctor could be. A doctor could not only heal, he could inflict great harm too. Such was their training, and if any harm came to his family, Bill wouldn’t hesitate to inflict the maximum amount he could onto the hapless perpetrator.
Chapter Sixteen
LIZ INSTINCTIVELY turned around to check where Francis was every few minutes. He was always at her feet and she felt panicked every time she found he wasn’t there, before realizing he shouldn’t be there.
It was important they get away from Bill and Francis and the Cove without the Lurchers spotting them. The farther away they got, the safer it would be for them. They continued through the foliage, keeping low, armed only with their hand weapons.
It was entirely possible there were no weapons at all at the X marked on the map, of course. Or they were already gone. Or they were still there but wouldn’t work. But they had no other choice. They needed a way to stand against this smart Lurcher. Without arming themselves they stood no chance. They needed modern weaponry to even the odds.
They had fought a horde of undead before and won. They didn’t really know how many Lurchers they were up against this time, but the fact they were up against an intelligent enemy only tipped the odds against them. They had little time to prepare. Before, they had made traps to ensnare their enemy. They were dumb and stumbled into the traps even though they knew they were there. It was not a mistake this Overlord In Black would make, Liz was sure.
They stopped and looked around the area, taking the time to access their position. There would be undead everywhere, she knew, and it would take just one eyeball to alert this Overlord In Black of where they were. They did not know how the Overlord In Black’s power worked, except that he seemed to be able to control the
undead. What else did that entail? Was Bill right in thinking the creature could somehow read minds? Could know what his slaves felt? Could control them in other ways too?
The thought that someone could have that much control over her brought a shiver up Liz’s spine.
There was a low groan, and the family froze and turned as one to look at a figure standing in the shade of a Jambu tree. It was looking right at them.
Chapter Seventeen
HAD IT seen where they had emerged from? Did it now know where Bill was? A million and one questions raced through Liz’s mind, but there was no time to think about them all.
Liz turned and ran, the foliage slapping against her skin, dealing red welts, stinging and painful. They did not stop. The undead would be converging on them now, and though Liz didn’t see them, she could hear them. She ran for cover, ducked, and weaved through the foliage. She checked over her shoulders to see the kids—they would always be kids in her mind—but couldn’t make them out. Though she was afraid for their safety she knew they were smart and wouldn’t put themselves in more danger than they had to.
She came to a clearing, perhaps twenty feet wide and a hundred long. There were felled logs along either side, forming a long corridor. She peered around at her surroundings. She recognized the area immediately and skidded to a halt. It was the corridor of traps they had set up to deal with the horde of zombies from the cruise liner. Dangerous to her perhaps, but even more dangerous to the shuffling undead behind her.
Raaaaaaaw!
They were getting close.
Liz ran her eyes over the leaves and tree branches that had been hastily tossed over the first pit. Liz took a step back and leapt over it. She caught herself, turning to look back. She saw a figure emerge from the foliage. His jaw opened and closed in a movement of hunger. He took off after her, reached out for her…
And promptly fell through the thin blanket of tree limbs.
After defeating the horde that had attacked them before, the family had decided to set the traps up again, preparing for a similar event such as this. They checked on them occasionally, discovering a Lurcher inside them more often than not, but sometimes they were lucky and were rewarded with a wild boar. They were always sure to cover the traps up again.
“Yes!” Liz said, raising her arms up in the arm.
Success!
Finally, a stroke of luck. The rest of the undead would fall into the same hole, eliminating their effectiveness.
Uhhhhhhhhhh.
Up ahead, more Lurchers emerged, stepping from her worst nightmares. They looked down at the hole in the ground where their comrade had fallen through and impaled himself on upturned spikes.
Liz stood on the other side of the pit. It was what always happened, what they always did.
“Come on,” Liz said. “Come on!”
But they didn’t come. They cocked their heads to the side in thought. The lead Lurcher smiled at Liz and blew her a kiss. Then they all began to move as one, around the trap.
Liz ran, trying to keep ahead, leaping over the traps. It began easily, Liz throwing herself over the small crevasses. She settled into a slow, gently loping run.
The traps they had set for others had now become a trap for her should she lose her footing. When she chanced to glance over her shoulder she saw the undead running around the traps’ edges. Occasionally an undead fell into a pit, but the moment it did, none of the others followed.
Bill was right. There was no way the undead could avoid these traps with this degree of luck. Someone was in charge of them, leading them, taking them in the direction they needed in order to avoid the traps.
There was no faster route to anywhere than a straight line, and that was what Liz was doing now, though she couldn’t help but notice her pace slowing. There was little more she could do, as the panting deep breaths wheezing from her throat attested. She couldn’t go any faster. She just wanted to get to the end. The Lurchers were falling behind, having to make the wide strafing crisscross pattern across the field, unable to jump as Liz was.
Liz got to the end, puffing, panting, sweating. She had a moment to catch her breath, the swarm a safe distance now. The undead were still heading in her direction, unwavering, unflinching, getting closer by the second. If she was smart, she ought to outwit this smart undead character. After all, this was their island. He was merely a stranger here.
She turned and was immediately struck by a figure that lurched from the shadows, catching Liz unaware. She barely managed to scream before the figure gripped her tight by the arms.
Chapter Eighteen
FRITZ WAS the fastest runner in school. He excelled at track and field and was always far ahead of the next best runner in his class. Running through the thick undergrowth of the jungle was not easy, and offered up its own challenges, but the principles of running were the same everywhere.
The vines snatched at his clothes, legs and arms. Soon after spotting the undead, he was off, running at first in a random direction, before turning to head in the same direction they had been heading in in the first place. The mystical X that marked the spot.
Fritz leapt over fallen logs and trees, traversing the thick bushes that lay like pimples on the jungle floor. In his mind, he was putting the undead between himself and the natural obstacles, knowing it would take them some time to work their way round the bushes and fallen tree stumps.
Before he knew it, he estimated he had put thirty minutes, perhaps more, between him and them, and that was if they didn’t forget they were chasing him in the first place, which was very likely, knowing their natural brain state.
Fritz came to a gradual stop. He had created a large enough lead. He could take a break and let the moment of calm wash over him. He was sweating hard head to toe. There was nothing quite like building up a sweat, especially after being cooped up in the Cove for so long with nothing to do.
Exotic birds called and fluttered on an easy summer breeze. Easy to forget he had been running for his life.
And then he realized something.
The jungle was quiet. None of the undead were on his tail, none knew he was where he was. It meant all the undead were far away, having given up chasing him, and were now chasing someone else.
One of the others.
Fritz turned cold. His family would be the victim of his successful escape. He’d left them to deal with the undead by themselves.
He shook his head and began to trot back through the jungle. He replayed the series of objects and obstacles he’d run around and through in order to get where he was. It wasn’t difficult. His fear had made recall easy, and in any case, it was largely just a straight line.
He only hoped he wasn’t too late.
Chapter Nineteen
THERE WAS A sudden uptick in the number of undead in the area. Bill didn’t understand where they were coming from or why they had suddenly appeared here.
“Do you think they know where we are?” Francis said.
“No,” Bill said.
If they did, they would be in the room with them already, Bill knew. The fact they were still wandering around suggested they still didn’t know where the Cove was. But it was only a matter of time before they did find out where he was. He didn’t have much faith the shrubbery would hide the entrance for much longer. They had already bumped into it a dozen times, causing it to shiver. They were going to discover him any moment.
Where they had chosen to hide themselves was a good location, but the Cove was a dead end. There was no other way out, no back door. They had come there out of desperation.
Bill cast around, looking at the inside of the cave hideout.
“Spread out,” he said to Francis. “Look for a way out of here. But stay quiet. We don’t want to alert anyone to our location.”
Francis focused on the bottom half of the room, Bill the top. There was an opening, a small circle that they used as a window, where sunlight shone through, but there was no way to get up there.
If they didn’t find some way out soon the undead could come up and knock. They would be doomed. He suspected this Overlord In Black had no desire to reduce any pain that he might inflict on them. It would be pain all the way.
Bill looked at Francis’s little body, the little person he had chosen to share his life with. He couldn’t let that happen to him. He wouldn’t. But could he do what was necessary, what he knew he would need to do when the time came to ensure Francis was not subject to the same levels of torture he would be?
He didn’t know. Could never know, until the moment presented itself. He supposed it was only a matter of time before he would know. Life wasn’t fair. It was cruel and dangerous. But he felt the wooden rod in his hand and knew what he would have to do when the time came.
There was a grunt, and the shrubbery outside rustled. Bill shut his eyes and in silent prayer hoped the creature would pass by, just as all the others had. But the groan grew louder, stronger, and more voluminous. It was getting closer.
“Get behind me,” Bill said.
Francis did, staying close to Bill’s leg.
“Can we swim with the fishes?” Francis said.
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Bill said.
He felt the rod in his hand and knew he couldn’t do it. He could never harm the little angel at his feet. He would die before he caused harm to one of his own flesh and blood.
The shrubbery shook further and then a figure began to emerge, an unholy spirit forged by the fires of hell. His features were torn and ravaged. The face of death. Behind him were more just like him, inhuman malformed clones of an expelled demon.
Bill was going to fight, fight with every ounce of his strength. He got to his feet and his head swam. He was still dizzy from his earlier brush with drugs. His arm was already shaking, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him from putting up a good defense. He doubted he could take out many of the creatures, but he would try.