“It wasn’t me,” Piper pleaded through the agony. “You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m just a—”
Danny drew his arm back and thundered a right fist into Piper’s face. His head dented the van side and bounced off with a dull clang, accompanied by a snap, and a pop as Piper’s nose broke, and his glasses disintegrated. He toppled forward like a felled tree and Danny let him fall. Pip appeared at his side. “I didn’t hear you read him his rights,” she said.
“He doesn’t have any,” Danny said. “He lost them when he took my daughter.”
20: Doubts
Summer banged her hand against the window, trying to get the attention of the man standing outside the greenhouse. “Hey, mister,” she shouted, “Up here. Help us, please.” The man looked directly at Summer, waved and went into the glasshouse. “No, don’t go, mister, help us. Get us out of here.”
Colette appeared at her side and said, “Stop it, Summer. He’ll hear you.”
Summer tried the window handle for the umpteenth time, but it was locked shut. She hammered her fists against the glass in frustration. “I think he’s gone out, but I’ll take the chance anyway,” she said. “We’ve got to get out of here. Look at those things piling up against the fence. If they get in, they’ll eat us.”
“It’s okay,” Colette tried to reassure her. “They can’t get us in here.”
“Yes, they can,” Kirsty said, joining them at the window. “And Summer’s right, we have to get out. I’d rather take my chances out there with the twitchers than in here with the Preacher.”
Paul Jenson’s arms were aching from stabbing zombies in the head with the javelin. The work was both tedious and tiring, and he couldn’t keep it up for much longer. He moved back and forwards in a ten-meter line, constantly thrusting the makeshift lance at head height, one thrust per stride.
He took his next step and shoved the weapon through the wire into the stomach of zombie and was baffled as to why the ghoul was so high up. For a moment, he thought it was climbing the fence, but then he looked at the ground and saw it was standing on top of a pile of bodies. “Oh no,” he said, glancing up and down the length of the fence, taking in the staggered head heights of the twitchers. As far as he was aware, they were incapable of dextrous tasks and didn’t know how to climb, but they knew how to scramble onto things to reach higher and what could be simpler than standing on bodies piling up around them?
Suddenly, Paul was yanked against the fence and torn away from his thoughts. Teeth gnashed before his eyes, and he felt cold dead fingers probe his face through the wire squares. He cried out in fear and revulsion, using all his strength to push. Eventually, he created a space between himself and the fence. He dug his heels in and leant backwards, using his bodyweight to liberate his lance from the lethal tug-of-war. After a moment’s resistance, the javelin came free, and he toppled over backwards, landing hard on the seat of his pants.
The guard next to him burst out laughing. “Man, that’s the funniest thing I’ve seen since I’ve been here. In fact, it’s the only funny thing I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
“Glad I could put a smile on your face,” Paul said. “Life’s not exactly a barrel of laughs around here.”
He used the lance as a crutch to stand up, and as he glanced up, he saw a small group of girls waving at him through a window. When they saw him looking, they increased their efforts, and when Paul waved back, they beckoned him towards them. A smile spread across his face, and he walked towards the building, with the girls watching him and applauding. “Hey, man,” the other guard said. “Don’t leave your post; we need you back here.”
Paul saw the Preacher walking near the fence, interacting with the troops, and he knew that any information given to him was rewarded well, like the time he told him of two men’s plans to leave. They were caught carrying a ladder towards the fence, by the ninth hole, and the Preacher had them beaten, bound and thrown off the front wall into the waiting zombies. Just out of badness, the Preacher had them thrown them separately, and the remaining man on the wall was made to watch his accomplice die, knowing that he would soon suffer the same fate, which he did.
Afterwards, Paul had been invited to the Preacher’s private quarters and given a whole chicken to eat as a thank you for his loyalty to him and the Lord God. He couldn’t imagine the size of the reward he would receive for letting him know there were a group of girls trying to escape from his apartment.
Moses led Nina by the hand into his apartment and locked the door. She was the little fat girl he had deemed too young and too ugly to be part of his harem, and he stands by his initial thought. How she was so fat, in days when food was scant, flummoxed Moses. Her little piggy eyes widened in delight when she saw the luxury of her surroundings. Moses led her straight to the harem and pressed his ear against the door. The occupants were quiet which was a good thing; he wanted their full attention for the lesson he was about to teach them.
He took the key off the top of the architrave and unlocked the door. Still, there was no sound from inside. He pressed down on the lever and pushed the door open ninety degrees. All four girls were lined up against the wall opposite the door, and the combined looks of disappointment and disbelief were so comical that Moses had to stifle a laugh. They were holding their breaths in anticipation, and all of them exhaled with loud sighs. “Were you expecting someone else, ladies?” Moses asked.
“No, Preacher,” Summer said. “Why do you ask?”
“You all looked surprised to see me, that’s why. Anyway, here’s somebody I want you to meet.” He pulled Nina into view from behind the wall. “Girls, I’d like you to meet Nina, the latest addition to our happy home.”
He pushed her into the room, and the girls stepped away from the wall to greet her. Moses glared at the girls, all of them with their heads bowed. Only Summer gave him the briefest of glances before looking at the new girl. He left them in a group hug and went over to the kitchen area of his apartment. He could hear snippets of Nina saying how nice he was and how lucky they all were, while he rummaged through a drawer of utensils.
He found what he was looking for and returned to the harem, hiding what he held behind his back. He smiled at the happy scene before him. Nina broke away from the communal embrace and walked back towards Moses. “Thank you, Mr Preacher,” she said, with tear-filled eyes. “Thank you for letting me be part of this group.”
“Don’t mention it, my dear.”
His arm was a blur as he swung it from behind his back and smacked Nina on top of the head with a stainless-steel steak hammer. Her skull fractured with a pop and the girls behind her screamed in unison. Surprisingly, Nina stayed on her feet, but when she looked up at Moses, her eyes were bloodshot orbs looking in different directions; blood trickled out of her nose, and her bottom jaw hung open, almost resting on her chest. “Fwap, nya, eee,” she said, dribbling and holding up a chubby hand.
“Whatever,” Moses said and swung the heavy metal mallet against her right temple.
This time, she went down, and the girls reformed their group hug, crying onto each other’s shoulders, their backs to the scene of the murder. Moses bent over the prone body of Nina. “Look at me, girls,” he said, and the terrified girls obeyed. “Watch and learn.”
He brought the steak-hammer down on her forehead. The raised points on the hammer head left dimples in the skin, but not surprisingly, there was no response from Nina. Moses knew the first blow had killed her; the second strike had merely knocked her to the floor. He battered her about the head another five times, just for dramatic effect, each blow bringing a yelp from the girls.
Finally, he stood up and dropped the bloody metal mallet onto the dead girl’s chest. “See what you’ve made me do, girls?” he said, walking towards them. They cowered away into a corner. “It’s your fault she’s dead. You made me kill her. God told me about you planning to leave, and I had to show you what happens to ungrateful bitches. The next time I’m told or suspect you’re scheming,
it will be Roberta who dies like this.”
Roberta screamed, shaking her head and the other girls pulled her close and held her. Moses watched disinterestedly for half a minute, then said, “That’s enough now, girls. Take Nina downstairs and leave her by the back doors. Once you’ve done that, get this floor scrubbed clean.” He pointed at Nina’s body on the plush cream carpet, her pulverised head outlined by blood. “I want it looking like new. When you’ve done that, you can all shower, and then we’ll have ice-cream. See, my darlings, I’m not all bad, am I?”
“I’m telling you, something’s going on in his apartment,” Leonard Kingsley said to Alison Melham. “When I was in the greenhouse earlier, I saw young girls at a window. He’s imprisoned them in there, I could tell by the looks on their faces. They’re terrified.”
The gardener had come down to the laundry room especially, to tell her his concerns, so Alison let him talk uninterrupted. He stroked his ginger beard nervously, as he awaited her response. Everybody in the community knew that betrayal of the Preacher was punishable by death and by Leonard opening up to her, he had put himself in a very vulnerable position. On the other hand, it could be a trap. He could have been sent by the Preacher as a test of Alison’s loyalty because of her refusal to let him take the girls the other night. Girls who had never been seen since and Alison would bet a rock to a ruby they were up in his room.
She stared back at Lenny’s constantly shifting eyebrows, unsure of making a commitment until she saw the genuine sincerity in his chestnut eyes could not be faked. “I think I know who two of the girls are and I think you’re right, they are in grave danger.”
The gardener let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad you believe me, Alison. I was going out of my mind with worry for them, and not being able to speak to anybody about it hasn’t helped. The Preacher has everybody at The Castle in his pocket.”
“Not me he doesn’t,” Alison said, “I despise the man. He’s a bully, a bigot and a phoney with about as much faith in God as a witch.” Lenny looked around, apprehensively, lowering his head into his shoulders. “Relax, Lenny, there’s nobody down here but us and it’s good to be able to talk about it.”
“So, what are we going to do, Alison?”
Alison looked at him like he’d gone mad. “Well, obviously, we’re going to get them out. Right now, before he has a chance to harm them any more than he already has.”
“Great,” the gardener said. “But I’d like to stop by the greenhouse before we call on him. I’d like to have my pick-axe handle.”
21: Breach
The cold water thrown over Piper’s back brought him back to consciousness with rapidity he wouldn’t have thought possible, had he not experienced it. He jerked his head up to see what was happening, but without his glasses, he was virtually blind. He was on his knees and tried to move his hands, but they were secured behind his back with a thick plastic tie-wrap, the unyielding material digging into his wrists.
He tried to straighten up from his hunched over position, but the attempt at movement sent a shockwave of intense pain through his entire core, causing him to cry out and fall forward. His nose, still tender from the beating at the hands of the lawman, banged into the dirt and a fresh surge of agony filled his head. He turned his head to one side and could just make out a pair of legs in the grass nearby. They walked out of sight behind him.
“Get him up, Pip,” a voice said.
A rope around his neck yanked Piper back onto his knees, the coarse fibres digging into his windpipe, almost to the point of asphyxiation. His spine creaked as his body straightened and his ribs screamed in protest. When he was vertical, his knees trembled under his bodyweight, and his right hip throbbed with an excruciating pulse of its own. Through his streaming eyes, he saw the blurred outline of the cop walking towards him. He stopped in front of him and spoke: “Okay, Pip, ease off a bit. Let’s see what he has to say.”
The pressure on his windpipe abated, and Piper gasped. He gulped down large intakes of air while the policeman looked on.
“Here’s the situation,” Danny said. “We’re on top of the hill overlooking the perimeter fence at the back of The Castle. At the bottom of the hill, hundreds of zombies are at the fence, trying to get in, which I suspect is why you left. Some of them are already aware of our presence and are coming towards us, so we don’t have much time. You have a rope around your neck, and the other end of it is tied to the tow bar of what’s left of your van. And, I have to add, what a struggle it was towing that wreck up here. What I need to know is this: where is my daughter?”
Piper let out a chuckle, a dry rasping sound devoid of any humour. “Why should I tell you? You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“You’ve got me there,” Danny said. “Yes, I am, but if you tell me where I can find her, I’ll put you down, like the vermin that you are, painlessly with a bullet to the head. If you don’t, you’ll be dragged downhill by your neck into the throng of zombies, where you’ll be torn apart and eaten alive.”
“What sort of choice is that?”
“The only one you have. Make it, now.”
“Fuck you,” Piper said and spat in Danny’s direction.
“Okay, have it your way,” Danny walked behind Piper, released the handbrake and pushed against the buckled back doors of the van. The vehicle rocked forward, and the rope lifted off the ground, hanging slack like a washing line between Piper’s neck and his vehicle.
“Wait,” Piper said. “You need me alive to find her.”
“You’ve had your chance,” Danny said and pushed again, harder. “I’ll take mine.”
The van rolled downhill, and Piper was yanked over backwards as the rope pulled tight and dragged him along behind it. Piper’s face was already purple as he passed Danny’s feet and he doubted if he’d be alive by the time he reached the bottom. The van stopped rolling as the bare metal of the wheels dug into the hillside and for a moment the spectators - Danny and Pip - thought the show was over, but the steep incline allowed the van to slide down it.
The zombies left the fence and headed towards the oncoming vehicle. The van slid onwards, with Piper in tow and Danny used his binoculars to see if he was still alive, but the long grass obscured his view. The van started to slalom, and Piper followed its course of descent, swerving left and right, flattening the grass behind it. The ghouls spotted Piper and they parted around the van like the Red Sea before Moses.
An army of undead fell upon Piper and tore him limb from limb. Danny watched through his binoculars as numerous rotting hands held entrails and body parts aloft like trophies. He smiled, content that Piper had survived the downhill trip to meet his death. The van slid onwards, and where Piper had been, there was only a frayed bloody rope, dancing along behind the vehicle, as it gained momentum and headed towards the fence.
Moses unlocked the harem door and stepped into the room, holding a plain white carrier bag. The girls stood pressed against the wall between the rows of beds, clearly terrified of him, and that was just how he liked them. “You’ve all done very well,” he said, casting an approving eye over the blood-free cream carpet. “This place is just like it was before the unfortunate incident with Nina. So, step forward and take your rewards.” He dipped his hand into the bag and pulled out a rocket-shaped ice-lolly. “Remember, manners cost nothing and mean everything. What do you say, girls?”
“Thank you,” Summer said, and the rest of the girls murmured their false gratitude.
They all came forward to take one, with Summer last in line. She approached with caution and looked down when the Preacher smiled at her, a lecherous grin that made her skin crawl. The other girls were back on their beds with their lollies and Summer was eager to join them. When she reached down to take the last one out of the bag, the Preacher grabbed her wrist.
Summer cried out in surprise, and from behind her, the other girls screamed. She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he held tight. He twisted her arm behind her, and Summer had to turn
her back to him to alleviate the pain in her shoulder. His other hand tightened around her neck, and he squeezed it until her eyes bulged.
“Shut up,” Moses yelled, almost deafening Summer. “If you don’t stop that fucking screaming right now, you’ll be taking Summer’s body out of here. Do you hear me?” The girls’ screams diminished to terrified whimpers. “That’s better; I can’t hear myself think over the noise you lot make.”
He released his grip on Summer’s throat and put his hand on her shoulder. She tried to walk away, but he held her tight. “Not so fast, pretty,” he said. “You’re coming with me. The only reason you girls are here is so you can bear my children and repopulate the world. And I’m starting with you, Summer.”
“No,” Summer cried, struggling in his grip.
Moses’ hand was back around her throat and squeezing hard. “Calm down, young lady. You might even enjoy it.”
He walked backwards out of the room, dragging Summer with him. He paused to lock the door and heard the girls inside burst into tears. He eased his grip on Summer’s windpipe. “Are you going to behave now, or do I have to cut you?”
Summer shook her head. “I’ll behave,” she said, crying. “Please, don’t hurt me.”
“Hush, my dear,” Moses said, putting an arm around her shoulders. “God has chosen you. You should feel honoured.”
He led the terrified girl into his bedroom and sat her down on the bed.
“Are you ready?” Alison asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Lenny answered.
Alison rapped on the door of Moses’ apartment, four good loud knocks, to make sure the Preacher heard them. The pair waited in silence for half a minute. Lenny held the pick-axe handle in front of him, gripping it so tight that his knuckles turned white. “For God’s sake, Lenny, put that thing out of sight.”
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