The Dying & The Dead 2

by Jack Jewis

  She found the trail at the back of the house. Like everything else in the Mainland, it had been made by man but had fallen into ruin after the outbreak. Not that anyone could be to blame. With the constant battle in most people’s lives being the need to have food and water, maintaining a pathway over the wasteland’s rocks and plains was a bottom-of-the-list priority.

  The horse took her along the path. Every few seconds she risked a look behind her, and she saw that the Capita soldiers weren’t following. Hopefully Charles had gone down into the basement. She wondered what stuff he could possibly need to get, but she knew that they must have been important. The bounty hunter wasn’t one to idle.

  For a second, a thought latched onto her as it drifted past, scratching its claws into her and then crawling into her head and scurrying around. What if she just left him there? After all, she was never going to be able to trust him, and there was something about his daughter that made her uneasy. Another thought sat in her mind as a counter balance, stronger than any other belief she held. She would do anything to find Kim. If that meant placing her trust in the bounty hunter, so be it.

  She wanted to speed up the horse. She thought that the way to do it was to nudge it in the sides, but it seemed cruel. Cruel. What a stupid thought. She had torn a man’s throat with her bare teeth and tortured information out of another, yet she couldn’t give a horse a light tap on the side.

  She dug her boots into its body and felt the pace pick up, the horse’s hooves making a clip-clop on the ground as the wasteland went by. After a few minutes, she brought it to a halt and turned it around.

  A couple of Capita soldiers were at the back of the house, and the rest must have been searching inside. With some satisfaction she remembered that there was a time when Charles Bull would have been leading house raids like this. Maybe now he’d understand what it was like.

  She held the gun in her hand. It felt like a toy, and she wondered if it would even make enough noise to draw the soldiers’ attention. Maybe when she pulled the trigger, a red flag saying ‘bang’ would pop out.

  She raised the gun in the air. This was it. Pulling the trigger was akin to signing a contract with Charles Bull. Once she helped him get out of the house, there was no going back.

  She fired it. The boom was so loud that it took her by surprise, and she held onto the reins as the horse stepped back in shock.

  The soldiers outside the house turned in her direction. One stared at her, and the other ran inside. Sure that they’d seen her, she turned the horse around. She whipped the reins and continued on down the path. Somewhere along the way, Charles was supposed to meet her.

  There were voices shouting behind her. She risked a look, and saw that the soldiers had mounted their horses and had started to follow. Heather knew she’d built up enough of a lead to keep them at bay, but she didn’t know where she was going.

  She heard another noise, but this time it wasn’t shouting. She looked around, and saw a soldier walking by the side of the house. He held long leads in his hands, and a pack of dogs strained at the ends, jumping up and down with excitement. The solider kneeled down and unclipped them, and without a second of pause the dogs picked up the trail and started running toward Heather.

  The barking seemed to put her horse on edge. She leaned forward and rubbed its head, but she didn’t have much time for reassurance. She knew that the Capita kept its dogs hungry, and there wasn’t much that could match the speed of a dog with an empty belly, especially ones bred for aggression.

  She kicked the horse in the side. It sped up, but not fast enough. Excited yelps grew louder behind her, and six of the dogs bounded over the path. Their heads were low and their eyes looked wild. It was as if they hadn’t eaten for days and didn’t see Heather and her horse in front, but instead saw one lump of meat riding a larger lump.

  Where was Charles? As her horse covered the ground, Heather began to get the feeling that the bounty hunter had betrayed her. In a few minutes the dogs would catch up and they’d bring the horse to the ground and then tear Heather apart. Maybe being ripped open by dogs would be a mercy, because there was plenty worse that the Capita could do. Perhaps the hounds had been trained to leave people alive, and the soldiers would take her back to the Dome where a cell of horrors awaited her.

  She kicked the horse again. The wind hit her face a little bit harder, but it was no use. The barking grew louder, and when she turned her head, she saw that they were only ten metres away.

  One of the dogs rounded her on the left side and the other went right, while the others in the pack stayed behind. In an attack that seemed as coordinated as the tactics of a football team, the left and right dogs leapt and sunk their teeth into the horse’s legs, bringing the animal to the ground in a fit of whinnying.

  Heather put her arms out to stop her fall, but she hit the ground at ten miles an hour and felt her nose squash against the pathway. Stones scratched her skin as she rolled to a stop. She sat up, stomach winded.

  The dogs gave her barely a blink to recover, forming a circle around her before she could move. They hung their heads just an inch above ground and showed her pointy teeth, and their throaty growls warned her that they were more than happy to use them. The dungeons it was, then. The dogs were just going to surround her until the Capita soldiers came.

  Sure enough she heard the sound of horse hooves trampling toward her. When she looked back, three Capita soldiers were trying to make up the gap between them. A sound came from her right, and she saw Charles Bull break through a clearing of trees to the side of the trail. Ken pounded toward her, carrying the bounty hunter and his daughter as if the weight was nothing to him.

  The dogs snarled and bunched together when they saw Charles. As they got closer, Heather saw Lilly lift up a bottle with a rag stuffed in the top. Brown liquid swished against the sides. Maybe this is what Charles had meant when he said he needed to grab supplies. It made sense that the Capita’s bounty hunter would have the same tactics as its soldiers. Lilly flickered a lighter in her other hand and set the rag on fire, then held it above her head.

  “Toss it,” said Charles.

  Heather got to her feet. Lilly closed one eye, squinted, and then threw the bottle at the dogs. It landed in the middle of the pack and exploded in a cloud of flame, with the yellow fire leaping from dog to dog, singeing hair and burning skin. Heather flinched at the yelps of pain.

  The Capita soldiers had made up some of the distance. Charles stopped in front of Heather.

  “Get on,” he said.

  There didn’t seem to be much room on the horse with Charles and Lilly already riding.

  “Can he carry all of us?”

  “Ken’s back is made of iron. He’ll be alright. Get on.”

  The soldiers were close enough that Heather could hear them shout. She heard one of them call out in shock.

  “The bastards burned the dogs!”

  One of them had a rifle slung at his side. He brought his horse to a stop and held the gun in his hands.

  Heather tried to climb up onto Ken. Charles had a saddle that he had modified so that Lilly could ride. The two of them took up all the leather, and that didn’t leave any room for Heather to grip onto.

  The soldier brought the rifle to shoulder height and looked down the barrel. He took a breath and fired, and Heather saw dust kick up a few feet away from her. The proximity of the bullet set her pulse into a panic.

  She climbed up onto the horse. Charles pulled onto the reins, and Ken sped forward along the path. She heard the soldiers shouting behind her, but within a minute the wind whipped against her face and they started to put distance between them and their pursuers. She gripped onto Lilly’s waist as they rode.

  There was another crack. A bullet dug into the dirt. Heather flinched, and instinctively put her head down. The dogs behind her rolled on the floor, and she could still smell the sour aroma of burning hair. She wanted to put her hands to her ears to drown out their cries of pain. The throat
y cries of the infected were bad enough, but nothing matched the squeal of a burning dog.

  After ten minutes, the Capita horses showed no signs of slowing. The soldier with the rifle continued to fire, each bullet tearing into the ground around them. The clamour behind them grew, and Charles hunched forward in the saddle and spurred Ken to go faster.

  She saw something in the distance. Buildings bunched together with a metal fence surrounding them. It looked to be the ruins of an old town, but Heather had never been to this part of the Mainland before. Charles seemed to be guiding Ken toward it.

  Another shot boomed. This time it didn’t hit the dirt. Ken gave a cry and reared up on his back legs, and Heather had to grip Lilly’s waist tighter so that she didn’t fall off. Charles patted the animal’s body.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  Heather knew that it wasn’t okay. The bullet had hit Ken on the side, and the horse shook his body as if he was trying to free himself from the piece of lead in his flesh.

  With Ken’s pace slowed, the soldiers advanced. Charles spurred him on, head fixed firmly on the buildings and the fence in front of them. The soldiers were so close now that the pounding of their horses’ hooves sounded like a drumbeat.

  “The saddle,” Charles said, without turning around.

  Lilly reached into the saddle pouch and pulled out another bottle with a rag stuffed in it. She tried to light it, but Ken’s movements were jerky, and she couldn’t keep the flame lit long enough to ignite the rag.

  Heathy took the lighter off her. She brought it close to the bottle and let the flame take hold on the cloth. She took the bottle off Lilly and turned around. The soldiers were twenty feet away now. The one with the rifle raised his weapon again and took aim. One more shot and Ken would be done.

  Heather raised the bottle and threw it. She missed the soldiers, but the bottle exploded in front of their horses and caused the animals to rear up at the flames, wheezing at the blaze.

  Charles whipped Ken’s reins and spurred the animal forward. They reached the metal fence, and just as they crossed through it and passed the first dilapidated building, Ken slowed. Gradually his pace dropped until he just trotted, and there was nothing Charles could do to press him on. Ken slackened to a stop, and then just fell over onto his side, sending the three of them to the ground. Heather cried out in pain as her leg was crushed by the weight of the animal and the other riders.

  She squirmed free. She got to her feet. She was thankful that her leg wasn’t so damaged that she couldn’t walk, but she wasn’t going to be running any marathons in the near future. Charles stood up. He went to Lilly’s side and unhooked her from the saddle.

  Behind them, The Capita soldiers reached the fence but instead of pursuing, they stopped. The soldier with the gun held his hand in the air, and the unit pulled their horses to a standstill.

  Heather looked around her. Somehow, she knew that this was Mordeline. It was an abandoned town where the grey buildings had been left in ruins and had started to show the strain of time on their brickwork. Weeds pushed through the concrete pavement, and there was an unwholesome smell. At first, everything around them was silent. There was a tension in the air. It was a feeling so real that Heather felt it settle on her shoulders, and she looked around as if waiting for something to happen. She understood now why nobody came to Mordeline. With the dark shadows creeping over every inch of light and buildings left abandoned, it was a place she wouldn’t have wanted to travel through alone.

  Bodies started to emerge from the rubble and lurched out of open doorways. One, an infected woman with a long, ratty plat in her hair, gurgled and then stumbled out of a light fitting shop. Another walked from the entrance to a pizza parlour, and it tripped over a loose car exhaust that had been left on the street. More joined them, and the streets of Mordeline filled with the rasping chorus of the infected. They moved with jerky steps, stretching as though they hadn’t walked in weeks.

  “We need to get cover,” said Heather.

  With Lilly free, Charles’s focus was solely on his horse. He kneeled by Ken’s side and stroked his hair. Ken gave shallow breaths, and blood leaked out from the wound on his side. Charles’s eyes were wide and black, and they looked on the verge of welling with tears.

  “Charles,” said Heather, trying to get his attention.

  He stroked the animal’s head. He took hold of it and lifted it to his own.

  “Come on, Ken. Come on, lad,” he said.

  The infected edged closer. Some of them wailed, as if they were giving a signal to the others that a meal was here and if they didn’t act soon, they would miss it.

  Heather looked to her right. There was a building with a gothic archway, and pillars supporting a roof that was covered in ivy. Spirals were carved into stone work that was turning green with the spread of moss. A sign above the door read ‘Mordeline Community Municipal Theatre.’

  Lilly dragged herself over to her father. When she was by his side, she leaned back and then slapped him in the face. Charles snapped his head toward her, and a blaze of anger met with the sadness welling up in him. He seemed to notice the infected around them now.

  He gave Ken another stoke, and then got to his feet. He picked up Lilly, and without a word walked over to the Mordeline Theatre and went through the archway. Heather followed, with the dragging footsteps of the monsters behind her.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Tammuz (Baz)

  He’d never seen a real battle before, and this definitely wasn’t what he expected. In his head he’d imagined two opposing forces meeting outside of Kiele, standing under the rising morning sun and sizing each other up. Men clinging to their weapons and hoping this wouldn’t be the last day they’d ever get to use them. Maybe one party would send a messenger over to the other and give them one last chance to surrender. It showed just how naïve he really was.

  In reality, Hanks had ordered his two stealthiest men to creep to the town gates and kill the guards. The rest of the unit pressed forward, passing the decapitated heads on the spikes along the way. The sight of them, with the wood driven through their wide-open mouths, made Baz turn his gaze. Hanks, on the other hand, patted the hair of one of them as he went by it on his horse.

  When they went beyond the gates and stood in Kiele, Baz saw something that he hadn’t laid eyes on in a long time. Kiele was an actual town. The buildings were rundown, but it was clear that the townspeople had maintained them as best they could. People pushed wheelbarrows full of food produce along the pavement. Others idled on the street and chatted while across from them, children ran away from each other, careful to avoid getting tagged and becoming ‘it.’

  “Got you,” Baz heard one of them say as he hit his friend. He wore a red t-shirt with a faded image of a man in a cape on the front. “Now you’re Ripeech.”

  There was something liberating about standing in a settlement that wasn’t covered by a glass ceiling. He’d never considered that the places beyond the Capita lands could be safe. All this time he’d planned raids on Mainland towns, and he’d settled his conscience by telling himself that the Capita were bringing safety to the wasteland. Maybe all they brought was fear and death.

  None of the townsfolk had noticed them yet. Hanks signalled to the back of the unit. Five Runts brought the defanged infected forward, dragging them by ropes tied around their necks. Their skin was scratched red from how tight the knots were around their throats. They tried to cry out, but all their mouths could produce was a hollow rattle.

  “Set them loose,” said Hanks.

  The Runts untied the infected and pushed them away. At first Baz thought that the monsters might just turn around and try to grab the Capita soldiers, but one of them saw the children, and gave a wheezy cry. The others followed suit, and soon they walked forward onto the streets of Kiele, keen to join the children’s game of tag, but with a darker motivation.

  The boy wearing the superhero t-shirt saw the infected. He screamed, and this brough
t the attention of a group of men who were talking and smoking next to an old butcher’s shop. One of the men, with a goatee beard on his chin and his cigarette pinched between his thumb and index finger, jerked his head back in surprise. He flicked his cigarette and rushed over to the children and ordered them to go indoors.

  One of the infected stumbled over to the man. Lacking weapons to fight with, he looked around him in panic. He didn’t know that the infected had been defanged, so his response was natural. He turned to his friends.

  “Fetch our blades. And go tell Rushden and Max,” he said.

  Hanks watched the scene with straight shoulders and a firm gaze. He turned to the Capita unit and nodded.

  “Okay boys,” said one of the officers. “Runts first. Go for the men, then the women. If anyone fights back, I want a pile of bodies.”

  The Runts stormed forward, followed by the rest of the unit. Too many of the Kiele townspeople were caught unaware, and some only realised that they were being attacked when a blade sliced through their skin. Blood splattered onto the grey pavement. The children scampered indoors. One of them crossed the road and made for a house, but an officer kicked the side of his horse and cut the child off. When the child was caught under the horse and crushed beneath a hoof, Baz felt sick.