“Time is of the essence.”
“And if she’s survived this long, then she’ll make it to tomorrow. She’s strong and we won’t help her if we die in the night.”
“Who’s she?” the girl asked with a pout. “Someone you care about?”
I ignored her question as I pulled off my rucksack and let it drop before I sank down into the only chair in the room. The delays were beyond frustrating and the more frustrated I became, the more that darkness that swirled inside of me, ached for release.
“Yeah someone close to us,” Gregg said when he saw I wasn’t about to answer. “What about you two? Tell us about yourselves. I’m Gregg and my friend is Ryan by the way.”
“Pour me a drink sweetie and I’ll happily tell you a story,” The girl said. “You can call me Charlie and you’ve already been making eyes with my buddy Reece.”
She laughed as a blush darkened Greggs' cheeks and he rose to head over to a bedside table that was loaded with bottles of alcohol. He picked one that was unopened with seal intact and broke it before picking up some dusty glasses and filling them.
Good thinking, I thought as he handed out glasses of booze. There was no way to tell what was in the opened bottles so better to not trust them. He handed a glass to me and I took it with a nod. It was filled almost to the brim with a clear liquid that I suspected to be vodka.
I took a small sip, barely wetting my lips as I watched the others carefully. Gregg had settled against the wall beside the door, his bat leant beside him. Jinx was already asleep next to my chair which meant she considered the youths to be unthreatening.
Reece had already finished his drink and had reached for the bottle to pour another while Charlie was sipping at her own and watching me. I raised one eyebrow at her and she winked back. Is she flirting?
“So how long you been here?” Gregg asked.
“Since the beginning,” Reece said.
“We were sat in Mills classroom waiting for him to arrive,” Charlie added. “Next thing we know, the door opens and he falls through it with three girls attacking him. It was fucked up.”
“Then it was chaos,” Reece shook his head as he said that and then downed his glass of vodka, wiping at his mouth with the back of one hand before pouring another. “Everyone was trying to get out of the way, the room we were in had a pair of double doors that led outside at least and everyone ran for them.”
“While all the rest of the bastards were out for themselves, Reece helped me get out and stuck with me as we ran for it,” Charlie added. “We saw a few other people being attacked and ran for the halls.”
“Halls?” Gregg asked.
“Yeah, halls of residence.”
“Where we just were?”
“Nah, there’s another set on the other side of campus. We were in there.” She swallowed down her drink and held her glass out for her friend to refill. “We holed up there for about a week with some others and watched the news and stayed on the internet. Eventually, that all went down but by then we knew the world was done for.”
“What happened to the others?” I asked.
“Good question handsome,” she said with a lopsided smile. Gregg grinned and coughed once again as he shared a look with the other guy and I just scowled. “Billy and Lamar decided to head home to their families. Don’t know if they made it.”
“Shelly got bit when we were out looking for supplies,” Reece said. His voice softened as he said it and even I could see the urge to get up and comfort him on Greggs' face. “Sara got picked up on another run.”
“Picked up?” I leaned forward, suddenly interested.
“Yeah, some dicks in a van grabbed her and drove off. Not seen her since. That was months ago before the snow.”
“I hope she died soon after,” Charlie said. “I’d hate to think of her still alive after months with people like that.”
“Who else,” Reece nodded to his friend and raised his glass. She did the same and the both drank deeply in what was obviously a gesture to the lost that they had repeated often. “Meredith and Noah went with Harry about three weeks ago.”
“Went where?”
“To find somewhere safe,” Reece said. “Decided that this place wasn’t enough for them and wanted to find some place with more people.”
“Yeah well Noah was doing the deed with Meredith and Harry wasn’t into guys and really wasn’t into black disabled chicks,” Charlie said without any rancour. “So he couldn’t be arsed sitting around listening to them two go at it like bunnies when his options were me or Reece.”
“Sounds like a nice guy,” Gregg said with a smile that suggested he had no problems with the floppy-haired young man.
“Yah he was a prick,” she agreed. She also seemed to have noticed the looks shared between the other two men and in turn, looked to me from beneath lidded eyes.
“How did you power the drone and how did you end up here?” I asked in an attempt to divert her attention.
“That was easy,” she said after downing her drink and holding it out for a refill. “When the others left we realised we couldn’t protect ourselves that well in the halls. Loads of those dead fuckers were wandering around everywhere and it was getting harder to go out and find food and stuff.”
“So we used the drone to distract them and came here. Reece boarded up the windows as best he could using the furniture from the restaurant downstairs and we made ourselves a nice little nest.”
“And the drones power?”
“I was a computer sciences student,” Charlie said with a grin. “The drone was mine because since I’m not as nimble as I used to be, it gave me the chance to see what was going on while stuck in my room. I also had a ton of gadgets to hand and Reece found some other bits and pieces lying around.”
“Yeah, the university was full of that stuff,” he agreed.
“What were you studying?” Gregg asked and Charlie grinned at the obvious interest he was showing.
“Business studies,” he said. “Absolutely useless now.”
“That may have been useless but you’re a fantastic fucking scavenger,” Charlie said. She had begun to slur her words slightly as she downed drink after drink. “Anyway, he got me the solar panels I needed.”
“Solar power,” I said. “Very clever. You have power as long as you have sunlight.”
“Not much,” she said. “This is Scotland and not somewhere that gets a lot of sun even in the summer let alone during winter. Plus it takes a lot of hours of charging to allow me a few hours on my laptop let alone to charge the drones battery and we just used most of its power to rescue your sorry asses.”
“Wait!” Gregg said. “You have a working laptop. Do you have internet? What about phone or TV?”
“Hold your horse's cutie,” she said and winked at him. “Phones are dead no matter how much charge they get. There’s nothing for them to connect to. Everything's down. Same with TV.”
“Internet?”
“There’s no signal to connect to. Wi-fi isn’t picking anything up. We do have a radio though.”
“Any signal on that?” Gregg looked deeply disappointed. Reece rose from the bed to walk over to him on legs that wobbled a little and slid down the wall beside him before filling his glass and patting his arm.
“We get some chatter from it every now and again,” Charlie admitted. “Mostly people asking for help, for contact from any survivors or just trying to reach loved ones.”
“There was that one voice…” Reece began and broke off, shaking his head.
“Yeah that was fucking brutal,” Charlie agreed and I cocked one eyebrow at her. She took the hint and elaborated. “This guy came on, he said there’d been out of food for days and their house was surrounded. His wife and kids were sleeping and he wanted to ask someone, anyone for forgiveness for what he was about to do.”
She paused and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve before she continued. “Worthless prick left it transmitting and we heard the screams.”
<
br /> “And the crying,” Reece added. “I’ll never forget the cries of the kids.”
“When he’d done, we heard the door open and the moans of the undead. Bastard took a long time to die, served him right.”
“I think on that note,” Gregg said. “I’ve had enough and I’m going to get some sleep.”
“Hey, I’ll show you to a room,” Reece said with a smile as he pushed himself to his feet.
“You okay?” I asked Gregg who nodded and grabbed his bat before he left the room. I’d leave him to it, he could look after himself if he needed to.
“Are you going to leave us too?” Charlie asked. Her words were definitely slurred and her head was bobbing as though she struggled to keep her head up. “Leave us all alone again?”
“Yes,” I said. “Tomorrow, when you wake, we’ll be gone.”
“Bastard,” she said and began to cry. Jinx rose to her feet and looked from me to the sobbing girl and back again as though expecting me to do something.
“You’re as bad as Lily,” I muttered to the dog as I rose to my feet.
I lifted the slight girl with ease from her chair and carried her to the bed, laying her down and pulling the covers over her. She didn’t struggle though she did grab my arm as I made to move away.
“Stay a bit,” she said. “Please. I don’t want to be alone.”
With a scowl for Jinx who seemed completely unrepentant, I settled down onto the bed next to the girl and let her hold onto my arm as she fell asleep. My free hand held to the hilt of my knife and more than once as the night wore on, I considered using it.
Chapter 12 - Lily
By some miracle or other, I found myself awake once more with light streaming in through the office window. Someone had taken down the blanket covering and left it folded neatly on the floor beside it.
My mouth tasted horrible and my throat was dry and scratchy while my wound seemed to throb, sending a pulse of pain through my body every other second. I moaned, not unlike one of the undead and had a sudden burst of amusement as I realised I better speak before someone thought I had died in my sleep.
“Water?” I asked the room in general and a cup appeared in my vision. Strong hands helped lift me to a sitting position and I was able to turn my head to see Cass was holding the cup.
Her eyes were red from weeping and fresh lines of worry seemed to have formed on her face in just the short time since I’d seen her last. She tried to raise a smile but it was feeble and soon faded away.
“They’re still alive,” I said as firmly as I could and she nodded as her eyes looked beyond me to the other side of the cot. With a great deal of effort and no small amount of pain, I turned my head to see Pat.
His eyes were also red and it was clear that they had spent the time together, sharing their grief and I hoped, drawing strength from one another. “They’re not,” I repeated and he nodded.
“Sure,” he said.
“Don’t patronise me you big lummox,” I snapped back. “You know them as well as me, do you really think they’d die that easily?”
“Of course we don’t,” Cass said as she placed the cup against my lips and tilted it back to allow the foul tasting water into my mouth. I didn’t care how bad the taste or how tepid it was, I was just happy for it to salve my throat.
She didn’t believe it. I could tell that much and from the frequent glances she shared with her beloved, she clearly felt that it was better to placate me than to argue the point. It left me wanting to scream at her. She was wrong, I knew it deep down inside of me. If he had died then I would know.
I waved away the cup and she put it down beside the bed for me. From my raised position I could actually see through the window, though there was little see besides trees at the other side of the moat. It was better than staring at the walls.
“Where is Evelyn?” I asked.
“Sleeping, she was with you most of the night,” Cass said. “She’ll be back later but needs to spend a little time with her parents first.”
“Why?” I asked and then the answer came immediately after. “Oh right. She thinks…”
“We need to be careful what we say,” Pat said with a glance towards the closed office door. “No need for them to know everything about their son.”
“I agree. But I can’t talk about that just now. How are the others? Becky, Emily?”
“Becky is with Gabe,” Cass said. “Emily is making herself useful about the place. It’s not general knowledge that she stabbed you, but Bryan is having her watched to make sure she doesn’t try anything silly.”
“Bryan?”
“Evelyn’s Dad,” Pat said and I snorted. They didn’t even want to say Ryan’s name in case it upset me.
“What’s he like?”
“Quiet, good sense of humour…” Cass said.
“Nice bloke,” Pat added. “Just sets you at ease straight away. Couldn’t be more different than… well, you know.”
“Guys! Come on. I’m not going to go into hysterics if you use his name,” I said. I know he’s alive and that’s what matters.
They shared another look and I rolled my eyes as dramatically as possible. It was going to be one of those days. “I want to get out of this room,” I said.
More glances between the two of them, full of meaning. I sighed quite loudly to get their attention and forced a grin when they both looked at me.
“You need to rest,” Cass said.
“I’m feeling better,” I insisted. “A bit of pain admittedly but I don’t feel ill.” Which was true, the fever of the day before seemed to have lessened a great deal.
“Evelyn did say the fever was retreating,” Pat said and received a glare from Cass. “Well, she did.”
“See,” I said and flashed my brightest smile. “I’m getting better.”
“You don’t have the strength to lift yourself up,” Cass pointed out in a tone that brooked no argument. “I’m not going to let you collapse on us again. You scared us enough the last time.”
She had a point, though I was loathe to let her know that. The urge to get out of the clammy little office that was my makeshift hospital room and get outside, to feel the sunlight on my face… well, it was overwhelming.
“Pat can carry me,” I said and turned to him. “You don’t mind do you?”
“Erm. No, I guess not,” he said and shrugged as Cass’s scowl deepened.
“Fine but if Evelyn gets pissed, I was against this.”
“Yay,” I said and threw off the blankets. Pat’s face turned bright red and he spun on his heel to face the wall.
“We better find you some clothes,” Cass said with a sigh.
****
It took nearly twenty minutes to get me dressed, five minutes for Pat to hold me in a manner that wasn’t causing me more pain than I was already feeling and another five for Cass to stop hovering and allow us out of the room.
Three minutes later, I wanted to return to my bed but my stubborn streak wouldn’t let me. Good grief though, each step Pat took sent waves of agony shooting through me and by the time we made it outside into the castle courtyard, I could taste blood in my mouth from biting my lip to stop from crying out.
I managed a weak smile at something Cass said that I didn’t quite catch and almost wept with relief when Pat crossed the courtyard to a sturdy wooden bench and set me down gently.
With a smile of thanks and a quick wipe at the sweat on my brow, I settled back against the bench and watched the people going about their business.
It seemed that there were a few more people than I’d expected and I had no idea where they all slept. The castle, after all, was half ruined though the remaining part had enough room for a small museum and tea room.
Two people, a man and a woman, stood watch on top of the tall guard tower beside the front gate and several small fires were burning at one end of the courtyard. I wondered at their purpose until I saw a man place a metal cauldron over one of the fires. It was held up by another me
tal bar suspended between two rigid poles of black metal I suspected to be iron.
Once the cauldron was above the flames, a series of men and women came out of a door behind it carrying buckets full of water. They filled the cauldron and set up another over the next fire before doing the same for that.
“They’re getting ready to make the evening meal,” Cass said as she saw where I was looking.
“Really?”
“Yeah, they’re going to make stew or soup. I can’t remember which. The big pot things came from the museum storage. They’re probably hundreds of years old.”
“I take it the well is in that room behind them?”
“Aye.”
For several more minutes, I watched the people work. There were some hanging washing on a line over by the far wall and at one point, a group of three people headed towards the rear of the castle and climbed into the boat. Off to forage or scavenge for something or other.
One thing I did notice was their lack of weapons or any kind. I scanned the courtyard, noting the group of children playing, the men stacking wood, the few people laughing as they chatted in groups. Not one of them had a weapon and something seemed off as though there was an undercurrent of tension that I could just about feel.
“How do they defend themselves?” I asked Cass.
“They don’t,” Pat said and I turned to him. “From what we can tell, they avoid the undead when they can and they haven’t really had any living people threaten this place.”
“Wouldn’t take much to overrun it,” Cass muttered. “A few people with knives would be able to take this place easily.”
“Gabe said that when they went out scavenging, if someone gets caught, they’re left behind,” I said as I thought back to when we had first found him, tied up and tortured for the location of this place.
“They’re asking for trouble,” Pat agreed. “And they’ve been bloody lucky so far. Zombies haven’t come in large numbers and no one has given away their location.”
“Shh,” Cass said as she nudged me and looked immediately contrite as I gasped in pain. My vision blurred as tears formed and by the time I had cleared my eyes, a young woman was stood before us.
Killing The Dead 9 (Season 2 | Book 3): Family Matters Page 8