by Ian Woodhead
He marched up to the other officer and demanded to know what was going on and what were they doing here.
“I work here,” replied Dominic. “What business is it of yours?”
The officer just shook his head.
“Not right now, you don’t.” He glared at the woman, “And she certainly doesn’t work here.”
He drew his weapon and pointed the barrel at Clarisse. “Just look at the way they are dressed, you idiot,” he snarled, looking at the other officer. “They’re about to do a runner, it’s obvious. Now, the question is, why now, what has changed?” He abruptly burst out laughing. “You know what? I think we now have the opportunity to test out the magistrate’s new theory.”
Dominic watched the other officer go pale.
“Go on, bring it out here, this is going to be more educational.”
Dominic then noticed slimy black crud coating the captain’s boot and his stomach sank. He knew exactly what that stuff was. The captain cocked his pistol.
“Don’t even think of running.”
Dominic heard a noise to his left and saw the other officer walking backwards holding a long pole, struggling with the thing at the other end of it. The pole’s strap was tight around the neck of one of the dead. The officer swung it round in a wide arc and pushed the thing towards them. As soon as it saw them, it started to go wild. It acted just like the thing on the fence earlier, gnashing its teeth and snarling like a rabid dog. The officer lost his grip on the pole and the dead thing lurched towards the woman. Dominic ran forward and plunged the knife into the thing's rotten skull.
The captain kicked Dominic down to the floor and pressed his gun against Dominic’s temple. He could feel the officer's hand shaking. Dominic hoped that was not a tremble of excitement that the officer would get to kill him.
“That was just amazing. It appears that out beloved leader was indeed correct. We have caught another two tainted. I’m going to enjoy executing the two of you,” he said, smiling.
Chapter Eight
That rush of adrenalin that had surged through Robert Johnson’s body vanished as soon as he saw the last one fall to the ground. Just a few moments ago, Robert felt like a superhero, believing that he and the rest of the defensive force were unstoppable. Those hordes of undead monsters were proving to be powerless against their swords and machetes; it felt like cutting through a field of wheat.
As the drug left his system, Robert had to reach out and hold on to his colleague’s shoulder to stop him from collapsing.
“Jesus, Robert! Are you alright?”
He slowly nodded, finding his old aches re-emerging; Robert was not surprised to feel a few new aches saying hello as well. His fifty-one year old body was crying out for a bit of tender loving care. Robert leaned back on his lead filled legs and grinned at the young man.
“Don’t you worry about me, son,” he replied, pointing down at the dozens of corpses lying in front of their feet. “It looks like you owe me three tins of stewed steak and that pair of boots.”
“Not a chance,” replied his companion. “Your eyesight is as bad as your cutting technique. Most of those kills are mine, Robert.”
The man held his breath, trying to stay calm and not punch Greg right in his indignant little mouth. What pissed him off more than anything was that the lad did not even look that tired, unlike Robert. He felt as though he had just run a marathon in a clown outfit, complete with over sized shoes.
“Well, I can tell you now that the naked woman is one that I took down. Just look at the cut. It is too deep to be made from your sword, Greg. He is mine as well,” he announced, pointing at a young man, wearing the remains of a police uniform. There’s no way that your weapon could have caused that injury.”
The young man’s face slowly broke into a smile.
“Dude, I was just joshing with you. Cool your jets,” Greg patted Robert on the back. “You won the bet fair and square. You did good for a bloke three times my age. Besides, I don’t even like stewed steak.”
“You cheeky little bastard. You can get away with twice my age, Greg. Three times is pushing it. It’s almost as if you want me to slap you.” Robert grinned at the boy, trying to stop his whole body from shaking. “And further more…” He suddenly folded over as a sharp pain lanced through his stomach.
“Bloody hell, are you okay?”
Robert managed to nod. “Of course I am, it’s just a stitch.”
“Look, I’ll get you home.”
“I’m okay,” he growled, brushing away Greg’s hand. "Don’t treat me like an invalid.” The pain was beginning to recede. “Thanks, anyway.”
From the edge of his vision, he saw two more people heading towards them.
“Good job, guys.”
He nodded. “We beat them this time, Maddie,” Robert sighed. “What about the next time though? Or the attack after that?”
Maddie shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, you now the procedure. Have you checked each other for scratches?”
Greg nodded. “I’ve already inspected Robert and he’s clean.”
The woman gazed at the bodies between them. “I saw you fighting, Robert. You looked as though you could take on the whole lot of them” Her face creased with concern. “You had better get home. You look knackered.”
“What about the bodies?”
“Don’t worry about those,” Maddie replied. “There are enough of us to drag these things over to the incinerator.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “You did pretty well today. Now go on, get home. Your Kim will be worried about you.”
Robert reluctantly turned away from the group. Despite the worrying pains, he still felt as though he was letting them down by not helping them move the bodies.
“I’ll bring the gear over later!” shouted Greg.
Kim will be pleased with the extra meat. Perhaps it would be best not to tell the woman that if he had lost, his forfeit would have been the last three tins of carnation milk. His wife would have hit the ceiling, considering they belonged to her.
“I need a bath,” he announced. That sounded like the best idea that he had ever had. The way his poor body was reminding him that he was no longer a kid, perhaps Kim’s steel glare and disgruntled pose as he handed her stuff to Greg would have been more preferable.
Robert saw his home as he slowly climbed the hill out of the lower boroughs and smiled at the sight of his loving wife anxiously waiting for him in their garden, standing by their row of cabbages. He waved, wincing at just how much his muscles ached. His heart lifted when Kim returned his greeting. He currently felt like the luckiest man in their community.
Unlike all the other survivors, they had somehow lived through the nightmare without losing each other. They had not been able to have children and both their parents had passed away before the outbreak. Although he missed his mum and dad, Robert was still thankful that they had not been around to witness this.
“Just look at the state of you!”
Robert opened the gate and closed it behind him. “Hello, my sweet.” He said.
“How bad was it?”
“It was pretty bad,” he replied, “but we didn’t lose anyone.” He saw the relief flood through her. Kim had been secretly opposed to Robert joining the defence force, despite the fact that he really had no choice. Because Kim could not have children and Robert refused to leave her, the rules were that Robert had to put in more duty just to justify their upkeep.
It had taken him some time to calm her down and soothe the woman. The last thing he wished to do was to put his life on the line just because of some stupid rule.
He did not think Kim understood the real situation entirely. She had thought that they would be able to go back to how it was before the dead rose when they settled down in the community. There were so many differences.
“I’ll go run you a bath.” She hurried over to the front door. “I want you to take as much clothing off as you can. I don’t want you to trail
any of that muck into the house. I’ve just cleaned up.”
He nodded while grinning to himself. Robert felt better already; granted, he was numb, but the ache was going. He looked down at his filthy clothing then back at the house. Kim used to say those exact words when he used to work in the garden at their other home. Kim really was trying to put the outbreak behind her.
“Or maybe she was denying that it ever existed?” he muttered.
Robert tramped over to the front door and sat on the step so he could remove his boots. He then removed the protective padding and body armour, wrinkling his nose at the fresh stench. Robert lifted up his arms and saw a wet crimson stain on the under side of his arm. His heart beat quickened when he realised what this could mean.
He jumped up, rushed inside the house, and ran past his wife.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
He felt like he was about to faint. “I’ve been scratched, Kim!” he wailed. “Oh fuck, I’m infected.”
"Get in that bath, Robert," she replied. “Get yourself washed, don't you dare start getting giddy on me just yet.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Just do as you’re fucking told.” She shouted back.
He was not sure that he heard that correctly. His Kim had never sworn, ever.
“Go get in that bath,” she uttered. “I’ll go fetch some disinfectant.”
He turned around and raced up the stairs, removing the last of his clothes before he reached the bathroom. Robert climbed in to the hot water and pressed a sponge over the wound and began to weep when he moved the sponge and saw two deep scratches, “oh good god. I am infected.”
The door opened and his wife slowly walked in, she had no bottle of disinfectant. Instead, the woman carried a large kitchen knife. She stopped by the side of the bath and kneeled down. He could see the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Put your head back, Robert.” She leaned over and kissed him. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, the pain in her eyes broke his heart.
He placed his head back against the tiles and watched her bring up the knife; she rested the point under his chin. Robert curled his own hand over hers. “Let’s do this.” He gasped jerking his hand towards him.
Chapter Nine
Maddie closed the bedroom door and stepped into the woman’s hallway, so thankful to be out of that room. She had left Robert’s wife with two older women that had both lost their husbands during the outbreak. They should be able to help poor Kim.
She rushed down the hallway, channelling her sense of loss into anger. Maddie just knew that Greg had lied about checking out Robert and intended to tear the little bastard a new arsehole. She looked back, her heart breaking in two at the sound of Kim’s wailing. Maddie, like everyone else, always considered Kim to be a bit of a soft touch, someone who really was not too sure what was going on. Her incredibly brave actions just went to show that they could not afford to judge.
When she reached the end of the hallway, Damian grabbed her shoulders and pointed to Greg who was at the end of the garden with two other men.
“I know what’s going through your head, Maddie. Just look at him though. I bet he’s more broken up than Kim.”
She shook his hand off and spun around. God, she was fucking furious.
“How can you even suggest that?” she hissed. “That poor woman has just lost her…” Maddie jerked her head up, feeling all her anger, frustration and misery just flow out of her mind, leaving Maddie feeling more relaxed than she had for months. She looked around and saw that she was not the only one smiling.
“Our Lady has just awoken,” gasped Damian.
Maddie nodded and watched Our Lady’s carers run across Kim’s vegetable plot. She looked over at Damian,
“Keep a close eye on Greg.” She followed the carers out of Kim’s garden, and they sprinted across to Our Lady’s house. The two armed guards outside her front door ran up to Maddie.
“She wants to see you.” They looked to her carers. “Alone, Maddie.”
The woman entered the house with her heart in her mouth.
The familiar scent of spiced candles that she had always associated with hippy shops entered Maddie’s nostrils. She sighed in relief at the sight of Our Lady sat in her wicker chair beside her small bed, sipping coffee. The stuff was strong. Maddie could smell it above the candle scent.
Maddie kneeled in front of the woman and rested her hands gently on Our Lady’s arms.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that you’re now awake.”
The woman smiled down at Maddie, then took another mouthful of coffee. She still remembered the shock of seeing this frail looking old woman mixed up in a group of survivors rushing through the main gates over eight months ago.
Back then, Maddie had been part of the Magistrate’s new adjustment officer force. She had been on guard duty when the lookouts excitedly shouted out that another group were heading towards the main gate. Because of her skill with the crossbow, her task was to take out any hunter or climber threat. Maddie’s impressive kill count meant that she was the first one to join the lookouts on the top of the fences.
She had counted four hunters tailing the panicked group. It had been the most she had seen for ages. Everyone knew that hunters tried to stay apart for fear of attracting the dead. Maddie had taken out all four with ease, including the last one that had dived into the crowd, biting and chewing its way towards the middle. It looked to Maddie that it had been trying to reach an old woman, stuck in the centre.
While the rest of the officers put down the newly infected, Maddie had climbed down and ushered the ones that had lived through the attack into the compound.
The target of the hunter’s mindless aggression threaded her way through the weeping crowd and headed straight for Maddie.
“Madeline Greystoke. As I live and breathe.”
She has dropped her weapon in complete shock at the sight of this tiny woman smiling up at her. For the first time since the outbreak, Maddie had found another person that she actually knew.
“Mrs Hudson, oh my God!” she had thrown her arms around the woman, trying not to burst into tears.
Mrs Hudson was one of the lecturers from Maddie’s university in Teesside. After making it through the initial rising, Maddie had tried to journey the two hundred mile trek back home. She had given up that attempt after a bunch of dead things had cornered her in a house and almost had her as a meal.
The embrace had triggered something else as well. Until the arrival of the woman and her crowd, Maddie had found it difficult to bond with anyone, preferring her own company. For the first time, she believed that her family had just arrived, for the first time, she actually felt as though she belonged to someone.
It had been another couple of months for Maddie to discover just what the old lady had brought into the camp with her. Every member of her group were tainted; she had explained to Maddie that they all were just like her.
Our Lady placed her coffee down and held Maddie’s hands.
“I didn’t mean to cause upset by going to sleep. I needed to recharge my batteries so I can be fresh for what we are about to face.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, not sure that she wanted to hear. “You mean the hunters really are coming?”
“How do you feel, Maddie?”
She shrugged, “I feel pretty good, a lot better now compared to how I felt before you woke up.”
The woman shivered. “The euphoria will not last much longer for any of our family, but it will help our people to prepare for the upcoming tragedies.” She gazed deep into Maddie’s eyes. "I believe that the others will cope with what is to come, Madeline. The black cloud is upon us, but I have faith that most of us will prevail. It is you, my child, whom I worry for.”
Maddie shook her head. “There really is no need. I can look after myself.”
“Wendy has been taken from us, Maddie. She died a few hours ago.” The woman c
hoked back a sob. “I could have saved her, I could have saved Robert too, but I dare not. Their deaths have set up a cascade. I had to play by fate’s ridiculous rules otherwise we will all perish.”
Maddie was not sure she had heard that correctly. Before she could question Our Lady, the woman leaned forward.
“I did not wish for this crushing burden to be placed on my shoulders, Maddie. All I wanted to do when that climber bit my arm was to go find a quiet spot and just die.” She closed her eyes. “We are all about to be tested. Some of us will not make it through this. I’m not even sure that any of us will." She opened her eyes. "I cannot see further than the next couple of hours.” She then stood up and made her way other to her bed. “Please forgive me, Maddie.”
Our Lady lay down and looked at the girl, “The time is now upon us.”
Maddie shrieked at the sound of a single gunshot.
“Please forgive me,” repeated the old woman.
Maddie watched the two armed guards and her carers rush into the room, and with a simple gesture of her frail hand Our Lady ushered them back out. Maddie approached the bed.
“There really is nothing to forgive.” She wanted to weep herself at the sight of the old woman’s tears.
“You have one more death to come, my child, perhaps you won’t be so forgiving soon.”
The four men came back into the room. “There are officers everywhere and they’re rounding everybody up.”
Our Lady nodded. “Yes, I know. It has begun. Take me to the other room,” she ordered. She looked at Maddie. “He will be seeking you out. Listen to David and I urge you to be strong. Our future depends on it.”
The men ushered the old lady into a secret room. The door swung back and Maddie rushed over and slid a bookcase across the door. She suddenly spun around and saw three adjustment officers run into the room, all armed with shotguns.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” she shouted.
The officers advanced towards Maddie. She ducked to the side and snatched up a staff from Our Lady’s weapon cabinet.
“Who is going to be first?” she growled.