‘And it always went to hell,’ Tom mumbled, watching the corpse of woman shuffle past.
‘They had no idea what they were up against… not in the beginning,’ sighed Fran, ‘or how to stop it spreading.’
‘Oh,’ said Kai, instinctively reaching out to take Fran’s hand to comfort her. ‘But w…why are they still here then?’
‘Hmm,’ agreed Tom, his eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out this deadly puzzle, ‘he’s got a point. From the looks of it, the gate to the camp is open,’ he continued, his whisper barely heard over the creaking of the moving cart as it rolled onward, ‘so there’s no reason they’d still be here… not after all this time.’
‘Oh, fuck!’ gasped Fran, her mouth agape as she looked at the large building only just coming into view; a large building with an equally large tree crashed though one of its walls. ‘That’s because they were in the Village hall... or were until recently.’
Even as the whispered words fell from her lips they saw the emaciated corpse of what had once been a young woman claw her way through the rubble and wreckage to at last free herself of her unintentional prison.
‘Must have come down during last night’s storm,’ mused Tom, with a nod to the great fallen oak that had been violently uprooted; smashing though a side wall of the hall and part of the roof.
‘How l…long do you think they’ve b…been there?’ asked Kai, watching as the Dead woman finally stumbled beyond the broken bricks and smashed tiles to follow the channel of already trampled down grass down to the roadside and her Dead comrades that had gone before her.
‘Who knows,’ Tom replied, with a shrug, ‘but at a guess I’d say the Dead overran the refugee camp at some point and those that manage to escape, shut themselves in the Village Hall hoping to wait them out.’
‘Clearly not knowing that they’d brought death inside with them,’ added Fran, shaking her head at the needless waste of life; her fingers subconsciously tightening about Kai’s hand.
‘Looks like it,’ continued Tom, giving Star’s reins a brief tug to one side to guide her round two rusting cars and the wrecked remains of an army transport vehicle, ‘and… yes,’ he went on to say, craning his neck to get a look at the front of the recently damaged building, ‘yes, it looks like the front doors are still secure, probably still barricaded from the inside too. Those poor bastards simply couldn’t get out in time… they were doomed by their own fucking defences.’
As Star pulled them level with the driveway leading up to the Village Hall, the Dead woman suddenly tripped and momentarily disappeared from view behind an overgrown bush. But as she shakily got to her feet again she gave testament to the full horror of what those trapped inside the hall had endured; for covering the grey rotting flesh of her arms, neck and face were multiple bite marks. It was clear more than one of these wounds had ripped vital veins or arteries from her body, causing her to rapidly bleed to death and then reanimate before her corpse could be consumed by her attackers.
‘Jesus,’ Fran whispered, imagining the horror that the trapped woman had gone through as the Dead had pounced upon her like a pack of starving hounds, their jaws tearing at her flesh and all the while her knowing there was no escape.
Fran shook her head. She knew not dwell on the last horrific moments of these walking corpses she came across, no matter how exposed and blatant their tales were to see. For just when she thought she had conceived each possible nightmare in this world of the Dead, seen it present itself bloody and raw for inspection, she was proven wrong. Even after all this time there was always one more nightmare to be played out, one more horror that lurked unseen and unacknowledged until evidence of its passing was standing before her; torn, brutalized and hungry for her flesh.
‘Let’s just get out of here,’ she whispered, looking away from the Dead woman’s shuffling corpse.
‘No argument here,’ mumbled Tom, giving the woman’s cadaver one last glance before returning his attention back to the road ahead of them and the half a dozen other hungry corpses milling in their path. ‘Let’s g…’
And then Tom suddenly paused, somehow transfixed by the tortuous movements of a Dead child he had spotted on the opposite side of the street, its chest cavity nothing more than a dark gaping hole. Then, with a slight shake of his head, he mumbled something more. But whatever he said it was not meant for Fran or Kai to hear. His words were something to placate, something meant to appease and something to reassure the angry whispers that only he could hear.
‘Soon!’ he finally hissed, like an exasperated man at the end of his tether.
‘Tom,’ whispered Fran, reaching out to gently touch his shoulder.
Yet no sooner had her fingers brushed the fabric of his jacket than his head snapped back to glare at her.
‘I said…’ he started to snap until he stopped himself, blinking as he shamefully realised the touch was in fact Fran’s and not the tormenting caress of less corporal spectres.
‘Just straight along this road and then bear left,’ whispered Fran, the neutral expression on her face hiding the worry and concern bubbling within her. ‘We should see the river in just under a mile or so.’
‘Bear left,’ Tom quietly repeated, sheepishly turning to look back to the road, ‘got it… left it is.’
Fran looked at the back of Tom’s head and wondered what self-imposed torments raged within his mind. He was a man broken, she had known this from the moment they met but she had hoped that over time he may find a way to fix himself, somehow putting himself and his shattered mind back together piece by piece; unfortunately it looked as if her hopes were going to go unrealised.
Glancing at Kai, she could see the question in his dark eyes. She could read in his expression what he wanted to say; what worries and concerns danced upon his lips, waiting to be voiced. But Fran knew now was not the time to speak them, so using the side of the rocking cart to steady herself, she let his fingers slip from hers and slowly returned to her seat on the crowded bench. Sighing as she avoided his probing gaze, she reached down and gave the dog by her feet a friendly pat.
‘Guess we should give you a name,’ she muttered, all the while thinking to herself. ‘How much longer have we got left with you, Tom?’
***
Thanks to the roads being littered with the detritus of a way of life that no longer existed, the rest of their journey through Chacewater was slow, doggedly hampered by the Dead but uneventful. They soon found themselves leaving behind the once picturesque cottages, now little more than sad reminders of the fate that had befallen man. Overgrown and reclaimed by nature, the small red brick buildings with their shattered windows and broken down doors sat nestled amid gardens gone to seed. Shrubs and bushes, at one time lovingly tendered and pruned to keep them in order, now run riot; spilling over from their borders to battle with lawns choked with tall grasses, wildflowers, weeds and in some places even young determined tree saplings.
‘Oh, what the…’grumbled Tom, slowly pulling Star to a halt just as they were about to take their turning.
‘What’s up?’ asked Fran, pushing aside Bob, their newly named canine addition.
‘Some sort of checkpoint or something across the road,’ he replied, glancing back at Fran and Kai.
‘Can we get p…past it?’ asked Kai, moving over to see what was a completely useless collection of bollards, scaffolding poles, tents and a long counterweight lever arm that had been broken midway across the road. ‘Oh,’ he continued, once he realized how it was going to be more of an irritation than a hindrance.
‘Christ, you’ve got to wonder what sort of bollock-brained moron thought that was going to keep anyone out,’ sighed Tom, shaking his head in disbelief.
‘Please form an orderly cue and would those at the back please try not to get their arse eaten by the Dead coming up behind them,’ tutted Fran, exasperated by the stupidity of those supposedly in charge; stupidity and bureaucracy that had ultimately sentenced many to a bloody and horrific death.
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‘Exactly,’ muttered Tom, remembering that he himself had used his black cab to ram one such checkpoint when he had fled from London all those years ago.
It was strange considering the sights he had seen over the five years but it was that one moment or rather that one soldier’s face that had always stayed with him. Young, scared and ill-equipped to deal with the panicking public that forced their way through his checkpoint, it was his face that Tom remembered; this one overwhelmed young man that caused a knot of guilt to twist in his stomach whenever he thought of him. Tom tried not to remember the scene he had witnessed in his rear-view mirror as his cab smashed through the barrier and sped away. The way the soldiers were instantly set upon by the mob venting their fear and anger at an establishment that had seemingly failed them; and then the brief gunfire and screams as they were torn apart by people that up until a few days ago had been decent, law-abiding citizens.
‘Well, it’s not going to move itself,’ huffed Fran, jarring Tom’s thoughts back to the present as she moved from one spyhole to the next checking for the Dead. ‘Kai, any on your side?’ she continued, once she had determined her side was clear.
‘Clear,’ he replied, letting the spyhole cover fall back into place. ‘Do you w…want me to come with you?’
For a moment Fran paused, glancing briefly at Tom before speaking.
‘Yeah, okay,’ she replied, reaching for her trusty crowbar, ‘you can do the lifting, I’ll do the watching.’
‘Hardly s…seems fair?’ said Kai, with a smile on lips.
Fran was about to speak when she noticed the look on Tom’s face as he turned back to look at the roadblock ahead of them. Fearing he thought she hadn’t asked him because of what had happened earlier she put her foot up on the bench and made a point of checking the knife from the sheath strapped to her calf.
‘How are your ribs?’ she asked as nonchalantly as she could while she wiped the blade on a piece of cloth. ‘If sitting in one position gets painful just let me know and we’ll swap, okay.’
‘Yeah… okay,’ Tom replied without looking back at her, his tone flat.
‘Oh great,’ thought Fran, slipping the knife back into its sheath, ‘a grown man sulking like a baby… just what I need.’
‘Well the offer’s there,’ she sighed, ignoring his bruised ego. ‘I’ll go out first,’ she continued, turning her attention back to Kai. ‘There’s none of the Dead around at the moment but they can come out of nowhere so follow me and keep close, okay?’
‘Okay,’ he replied, with a sharp nod as Fran slowly opened the side hatch.
‘No… no, you stay here, Bob,’ she whispered, having to push the small dog back to stop it from following her.
Jumping down, the loose gravel scraping beneath her boots, Fran instinctively dropped to a crouch by the side of the cart and scanned her surroundings. The abandoned cars, the thick bushes and high hedgerows, the shadows beneath the hastily erected scaffolding, even the flimsy remains of a nearby tent flapping on its metal frame in the breeze, all of these places could hide the Dead and without moving she checked them all. Only once she was satisfied that the only other things moving in the immediate area were a small flock of curious magpies darting and swooping about the scaffolding framework, did she then signal for Kai to join her.
‘Nice and slow’ she whispered, Kai’s sudden appearance beside her causing two of the magpies to noisily abandon the scaffolding in favour of a taller nearby tree.
As they slowly and silently approached the road block Fran couldn’t help but pause to glance into one of the rusting cars. With the driver’s door open, it’s window shattered and an old dark stain spread over the inside of the windscreen, it didn’t take a detective to guess what had happened here.
‘One of the Dead!’ she thought, looking at Kai who was nervously looking back over his shoulder to the safety of the waiting cart.
‘Come on,’ she gestured, with a flick of her head toward the broken barrier, smiling briefly to reassure him.
With broken glass crunching underfoot, Fran and Kai slowly crept onward; ever vigilant should one of the Dead appear from some unseen hiding place. As they walked Fran’s gaze briefly flitted over the remnants of a lost world scattered about the road before her. A rotting shoe, a pair of broken glasses, a cracked laptop, a collection of CDs, a dented open suitcase, its contents long since turned to a moulding mass by the rain; all of these things that had been so easily abandoned when their owner’s lives had been in peril. Dropped and left to rot like the forgotten shackles of a past life they were just pointless objects now; useless without the presence of Man to justify them.
Taking up her ‘guard’ position beside the scaffolding framework, Fran motioned to Kai that it was okay to go ahead and move the broken barrier to one side of the road. Watching only briefly as he picked up one end of the length of wood and began to drag it across the cracked tarmac, Fran turned and let her gaze wander over the road ahead of them.
‘Where are you hiding?’ she thought to herself, scanning the collection of rusting abandoned cars and vans in front of her for any sign of the Dead. ‘There you are!’ she continued, suddenly noticing two corpses fifty metres away slowly shuffling amongst the parked vehicles.
Too far to determine their sex, age or state of decay, Fran watched as one with its back to her unwittingly dragged itself on a collision course with the second cadaver. Knowing she was too far away for their milky eyes to notice her, she momentarily dismissed the two corpses in favour of something else that had piqued her interest; something with far more potential.
‘Done,’ whispered Kai, jogging back to her side before giving Tom a wave so that he knew the way ahead was now clear.
‘Hmmm… what, sorry?’ muttered Fran, lost in thought as she studied a particular section of overgrown hedgerow.
‘The road’s c…clear,’ he repeated, wondering just what had caught her attention.
‘Oh right… good, thanks,’ she replied, at last turning to look at him. ‘Kai, what do you see there?’ she continued nodding questioningly to an especially wild patch of foliage a little further down the road.
‘B…by the blue van? Erm…’ he pondered, finally shrugging his shoulders in reply.
‘Well,’ she began, turning her head to glance at Star and the cart that were just appearing behind them, ‘doesn’t it look like that part of the road is sort of set back from the rest, like there was originally a break in the hedgerow there or something?’
‘So?’ he asked, guessing he was clearly missing some vital clue.
‘So… if there was a break,’ she replied, signalling to Tom she had seen something she wanted to investigate, ‘then why are there bushes there now? Surely there’d just be the usual amount of encroachment… you know, just a metre or so of growth either side. They wouldn’t have met in the middle... not yet anyway,’ she continued, quickly returning her gaze to check on the progress of the two Dead figures further down the road.
‘Could it just be a l…layby?’ asked Kai.
‘Could be…’ she pondered thoughtfully, resting the weight of her crowbar against her shoulder.
‘Is this a W…woman’s intuition-Spidey-sense type thing?’ whispered Kai, at a loss to what it was about the patch of road that had her so intrigued.
‘Could be,’ she repeated, her lips twitching into a smile. ‘Well there’s only one way to find out… come on.’
And with that she darted forward, making sure to run in a crouch just in case her movement alerted the cadaver facing in their direction. The closer she got the more convinced she was that something was wrong with what she was seeing. Suddenly she realised she had been right about the break in the well-established fauna that ran along the sides of the road. For now that she was getting closer, she could see a narrow path ran along this side of the road and then as it approached the questionable section it abruptly curved, as if turning a corner.
‘See, told you so!’ she gestured to Kai, with a nod,
a smile and waggle of her eyebrows.
Giving her a look that clearly said ‘smart-arse’ in reply, Kai secretly wondered if there may be some truth to woman’s intuition after all.
Ducking beside the blue van, Fran had to restrain herself while she waited for Kai to join her.
‘Look!’ she hissed, as he dropped down next to her. ‘What the fuck?
‘Oh!’ said Kai, clearly seeing what she was now talking about.
There, cleverly camouflaged and breaching a gap of five or six metres between the real ends of the hedgerows, was effectively a loosely woven wicker wall; a wall to which a huge amount of foliage, branches and plants had been attached. Whoever had constructed it, Fran had to give it to them, they certainly had an eye for detail. Not only had the greenery been artfully interwoven with the existing hedgerow on either side but they had even gone to the trouble of arranging clumps of grasses, wildflowers and weeds along the base; making it almost appear to be growing out onto the road. If the woven screen itself wasn’t curious enough, Fran found the glint of sheet glass behind it positively intriguing.
‘There’s something on the other side,’ she whispered, using the cover of the van to move closer and push aside a clump of dry leaves. ‘It’s glass,’ she continued, once she had made a gap large enough to wriggle her fingers through to touch it. ‘I… I think it’s a window.’
‘A window? To w…what?’ pondered Kai, forcing the branches wider apart for her; wincing at the sound of snapping of wood as he did so.
‘It’s okay,’ Fran reassured him, looking up over the bonnet of the van to the single cadaver that was still yet to notice their presence. ‘There’s only one... we’ve got a few minutes yet anyway.’
Once he had made the hole wide enough, Kai pushed his face against the small patch of exposed glass.
‘Well?’ asked Fran, on tenterhooks at just what secret they’d stumbled upon.
‘It’s…’ replied Kai, tilting his face to one side to get as much as a view along the side of the window as possible, ‘it’s a shop. A small village shop.’
Star Drawn Saga (Book 2): Lost Among The Dead Page 7