‘Hmm, I heard…’ Liz replied, quickly grabbing hold of the rope about the sheep’s neck.
Glancing behind her she saw Sally, Tyrone and Paul were also jumping out of the second cart to join the others who had previously fought the Dead at the gate.
‘Get Freya so the women can be checked.’ Liz heard Kyle snap at the young man who had just run over. ‘And hurry!’
‘Yes, Kyle,’ he replied, sprinting off as if his life depended on it.
Liz turned to look at Kyle as he watched the young man weaving through the vegetable beds to reach a part of the main building. Almost as if he could tell Liz was watching him, he swivelled his head to look directly at her and smiled.
‘The sooner Freya can check you for bites, the sooner Carmella can be made comfortable,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders apologetically.
‘Hey, it’s your turf, your rules,’ she replied, mirroring Kyle’s shrug and smile.
‘Yes, it is,’ Kyle continued with a nod, the smile on his face suddenly becoming nothing more than a random twist of muscles on his face.
He was about to say more when Fran began the slow task of helping Carmella down from the cart. In the briefest of moments Liz saw something flash across Kyle’s face as he swiftly looked Fran up and down.
‘Can someone help me?’ Fran huffed, struggling to get Carmella’s feet back on the ground while she went through another bout of labour pains.
‘Here, let me…’ said Kyle darting forward past Liz to help Fran before anyone else could intervene.
‘Fran,’ she replied, only half paying attention to Kyle while she tried to hold Carmella upright.
‘Well, Fran,’ he went on the say, once he had taken much of Carmella’s weight upon himself, ‘let’s get Carmella inside shall we? There’s a bench she can sit on while we wait for Freya… I’m sure she’ll be more comfortable there.’
Before she could answer, Kyle was guiding Carmella with herself in tow towards the doorway of the small building.
‘What do you think?’ Liz whispered, catching Charlie’s eye.
‘We don’t have much choice at the moment,’ he replied, glancing back to the open doorway. ‘I’m not mad on the way they mete out punishment for law breaking here but from the look of this place they must be doing something right…’
‘Hmm…’ she replied, her gaze wondering over to the vast allotments of vegetables being tended by half a dozen of the ex-pupils of Saint Xavier’s and then back the way they had come to the wall.
Something about what she saw didn’t sit right with her. She couldn’t put her finger on it but she definitely felt a strange niggling concern at the back of her mind and then it suddenly hit her. It was the two archers still on guard on the platform, instead of looking out across the road for any of the approaching Dead they faced inwards as if keeping watch over those within the walls.
‘Charlie…’ she began, an uneasy feeling building inside her.
‘Ah, here’s Freya,’ said Kyle with a smile, appearing back in the doorway to interrupt her.
Liz turned to look at the approaching young woman. Just as Kyle had said Freya was indeed pregnant and at a guess Liz would say she was at least six months gone. With her thick curly blond hair escaping the floral headscarf she wore, Liz thought Freya was very inappropriately dressed for a woman in a world full of the Dead. Clothed in what she could only describe as a knee-length smock dress over which a droopy looking cardigan hung half off her shoulders, Liz knew the woman wouldn’t stand a chance if she needed to run from the Dead. As if her attire hadn’t screamed ‘Dead hands latch on’ enough, when Liz looked down at her feet she saw that Freya was also wearing flip-flops.
‘Freya, will you check the women and the little girl for bites and then take the one having the baby to Mr Bronwyn’s room,’ said Kyle, with a jerk of his head to the open doorway. ‘I think she’s going to need your help delivering the baby…’
‘Yes, Kyle,’ Freya replied, with a nod.
‘Now if you two ladies wouldn’t mind,’ said Kyle, looking from Liz to Sally while he gestured with a nod to the open doorway.
With every movement dripping with as much sexuality as she could muster, Sally sauntered over to Kyle holding his gaze for as long as she could before he broke eye contact, nervously looking away. Rolling her eyes in exasperation at Sally’s antics, Liz took Anne from Charlie’s arms, stepped awkwardly past Kyle and entered the small brick building just in time to hear Freya speak to Carmella.
‘I’m sorry, I’ll be as quick as I can… promise,’ she said checking the pregnant woman’s bear torso for bite marks.
Looking around the small interior of the building, Liz had been right to assume it had once been some sort of outside toilet. With blue and white antique tiles decorating the walls and stalls and with sink surrounds made from a rich deeply varnished wood, it was certainly the fanciest convenience she had ever been in. Stepping over to lean against one of the sinks, she noticed that even the creamy porcelain of the bowl had been painted with delicate trailing blue flowers.
‘Check thoroughly, Freya!’ came Kyle’s voice from the doorway. ‘And shout if you find anything.’
‘I’m not an idiot,’ mumbled Freya to herself, slowly turning Carmella round to check her neck and back.
‘Now if you could just take down your trousers,’ she continued, handing Carmella back her shirt. ‘I just need to see your legs.’
With her face slick with sweat, Carmella leant against the wall for support and pushed down her baggy jogging bottom trousers. Beside her Fran had already stripped down to her underwear in preparation and was eying Carmella with concern. Following her example Liz, slipped the strap of her sword over her head, shrugged herself out of her jacket and pulled off her T-shirt.
‘Sally,’ said Liz, nodding to her clothes as she crouched down to help Anne. ‘The quicker we’re done here the quicker Carmella can get to her room.’
‘Oh, yeah… Sorry,’ Sally replied, pulling her top over her head.
‘I think I’ll leave these off,’ Carmella puffed, after Freya had given them all the ‘all clear’.
‘That’s fine,’ Freya replied, smiling reassuringly back at the woman, ‘your shirt’s quite long enough to cover you.’
‘Now, I just need you all to tie one of these around your upper arm,’ she continued, pulling strips of bright pink fabric from her cardigan pocket. ‘We all have to wear a band of one colour or another…’
Taking the strip of cloth from her, Liz then went to reach for her jacket but Freya’s hand quickly snapped out to grab it first.
‘Here,’ she said, staring at Liz as she handed her the folded jacket.
‘Erm… thanks,’ she replied, slightly bemused by the strange woman as she slowly took her jacket from her.
‘So how come ours is pink and yours is yellow?’ asked Fran, helping to tie the band about Carmella’s arm.
‘Pink is for… guests,’ she replied, taking a moment to think of the word, ‘As a female member of Saint Xavier’s I wear a yellow one and the men all wear green… except when they go beyond the wall then they have to wear a red one. Only when they’ve been checked and given the OK are they given the green one again.’
‘Don’t the women ever go beyond the wall?’ Liz asked casually, realising Freya had specifically only referred to the men doing so.
‘No,’ She flatly replied, briskly turning away from Liz to make sure everybody was dressed and ready.
‘All clear!’ she then called to Kyle, gently taking Carmella’s arm again.
‘Marvellous…’ said Kyle appearing in the doorway, his intense gaze automatically drifting to Fran. ‘Now we can make our mum-to-be a bit more comfortable.’
‘Good,’ said Fran, feeling slightly uncomfortable under Kyle’s such obvious scrutiny.
‘Now, Freya, run along with Carmella,’ said Kyle, with a shooing dismissive hand movement.
Fran moved to follow when he reached out to stop.
‘Sorry, the re
st of you need to stay with me for now,’ he began.
‘But…’ interrupted Fran, looking from Kyle to Charlie for some sort of support.
‘I assure you she’ll be safe in Freya’s hands,’ he continued, holding up his hands trying to placate her. ‘Please, try to see it from our point of view. You’re strangers to us. You could be anybody for all we know… I mean, how do we know you’re not just some sort of scouting party checking us out for a future full on raid? Surely you understand we simply can’t have you all running round unaccompanied.’
‘Charlie, I’ve got to be with Carmella, she needs me,’ said Fran.
‘Someone will take you to her soon, I promise,’ said Kyle, trying to smile as he pushed his glasses along the bridge of his nose, ‘But first I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping and then I’m sure Zak will want to talk to some of you about things he wants done in return for your stay…’
‘Now, listen, if you…’ Fran continued, anxiously watching Freya lead Carmella to a doorway in the main building.
‘No, you listen!’ Kyle suddenly snapped, cutting off Fran’s words and making her jump.
Instantly Liz and Charlie caught each other’s eye. From his outburst it was now clear to them both that, despite his almost ‘nerdy’ appearance and build, Kyle was not used to being argued with. Realising the harsh tone he had used, Kyle removed his glasses, sighed and carried on in a more patient manner.
‘I’m sorry… but… but this is not open for debate.’
‘We understand,’ said Charlie, with a nod and a sharp glare directed at Fran before she could interrupt again. ‘Now… do you want to get on with checking the rest us for bites?’
‘Yes… yes, thank you,’ Kyle replied, once again.
As the men piled into the outside toilet to strip for checking, Liz, Anne, Sally and Fran were left to their own devices outside.
‘Stay close,’ Liz called to Anne, as the young girl gleefully chased after a startled chicken. ‘Don’t go too far…’
‘So much for not leaving us unsupervised,’ grumbled Fran, sitting slumped against the side of the building with her jacket draped over her knees. ‘What’s to stop us wandering off now?’
‘This!’ replied Liz, giving the pink band around her arm a tug.
‘What? Has it got some sort of tracking device in it?’ Fran scoffed, angrily pulling at a tuft of grass.
‘No, but it tells them at a glance just who or what we are…’ Liz began, pretending to look at Star as she spoke.
‘Tells who?’ Sally butted in.
‘Those archers on the wall,’ Liz replied, giving Sally a sideways glance. ‘I thought it was odd that they were facing this way rather than looking for any of the Dead on the other side of the wall. From where they are and with the help of this colour coding, they can identify everyone out here at a glance… the men of Saint Xavier’s, the women and of course… their guests.’ With the last word she flicked the end of the pink fabric.
‘Oh, crap!’ whispered Fran, slowly realising the significance of Liz’s observation, the clump of grass she had been venting her anger on suddenly becoming unimportant.
‘So what?’ asked Sally, her hands firmly placed on her hips in exasperation.
‘So, it means that at best this place is a dictatorship and at worst…’
‘A prison,’ said Fran, completing the sentence while nervously steeling a glance at the archers on the platform.
‘Right, no problems there… all free of bites,’ said Kyle, suddenly appearing in the doorway with Charlie, Cam and the other just behind him readjusting their clothes.
‘Good, so can I be taken to Carmella now?’ asked Fran, pushing herself up from the ground.
‘Yes, I just have to get someone to…’ he replied, scanning the vast patchwork of greenery for the nearest worker, ‘take you…’
With a sharp whistle, he waved a tall attractive young man over with a flick of his fingers. Ripping a floppy fishing hat from his head to reveal short jet black hair, the man took a brief second to locate the source of the summoning whistle and then ran over to Kyle.
‘Y…Y…Y…Yes, K… K… K…?’ he said, trying to force the words past his severe stammer.
‘Spit it out, Kai,’ snapped Kyle impatiently.
‘K… Kyle.’ finished Kai, finally managing to say Kyle’s name.
‘S… S… S…’ Kai began apologetically.
‘Oh, let’s not start that again,’ interrupted Kyle, with an aggravated sigh. ‘I need you to take Fran here to old Bronwyn’s room, Freya’s there with the pregnant woman… and make sure they have everything they need… OK?’
‘Y… Y… Yes,’ he replied, sparing a glance in Fran’s direction.
‘Be safe,’ whispered Cam, placing the palm of his hand on her back as she bent down to retrieve her jacket from the ground.
Glancing over her shoulder back at Cam, she saw his concern and something a little less definable looking back at her.
‘Thanks,’ she replied, almost wishing the feel of his hand on her would never come to end, ‘I… I can take care of myself, don’t worry.’
‘Oh, I know,’ said Cam, a smile twitching his lips as he finally removed his hand.
Slipping her arms back into her jacket, it was if she could still feel the ghostly presence of Cam’s hand on her back and as she followed the young man called Kai towards the doorway Freya had taken Carmella, she found herself turning back to steal a final look.
‘His father was an ambassador for the Thai Government,’ said Kyle to no-one in particular, nodding towards Kai as he led Fran away. ‘All that money and it still takes him an age to say his own name…’
Once again Liz caught Charlie’s eye and with unspoken words they both agreed Kyle was fast becoming a bit of an arsehole in their opinion.
‘Right, so let’s get the rest of you settled,’ he continued, completely unaware of just how he was coming across.
Confident the new arrivals would follow him Kyle purposefully strode off, making his way through the growing vegetables to a large doorway with an intricately carved surround.
‘Please don’t dawdle,’ he said, turning back as he pushed open the door, ‘the building is quite a maze of corridors and classrooms… and I don’t want anyone getting lost along the way.’
With Anne’s small hand in her own, Liz stepped through the wide doorway into a high vaulted hallway. Glancing up she saw that a leaded glass dome flooded the entry hall with sunlight, highlighting tiny motes as they swirled and danced on unfelt air currents. Stretching out ahead of her and to her left and right ran corridors which seemed going on forever. The whole place exuded an air of tradition, establishment and privilege but despite this Liz couldn’t help but notice the definite tang of mould in the air. Her gaze flitted across the flooring made up of interlocking wooden tiles that had clearly suffered from a lack of polish for the last five years, to the walls covered in richly carved panelling. Overhead, running off into the distance, large globes of beautifully etched glass hung from the ceiling. Now just a useless reminder of a time long gone, Liz wondered why only every tenth or so light fitting still had its globe in place.
‘We removed them and disabled the fitting so not to waste electricity by mistake,’ said Kyle, noticing Liz’s interest in the lights.
‘What? You have electricity?’ she replied, tearing her gaze away from the hunting scene etched on the nearest hanging globe. ‘How?’
‘Solar panels,’ he said flatly, already striding off along the left hand corridor.
As far as Kyle was concerned he had already explained this to Charlie and as the group’s leader it was therefore his job to fill them in. He didn’t have time to explain every detail of Saint Xavier’s to each of the arrivals in turn just because Charlie didn’t think to share the information.
‘But…’ Liz continued, quickening her pace to catch up with Kyle.
‘Look,’ Kyle snapped, spinning on his heel to face her, ‘all you need to know is
that everything’s on a timer, the lights, the hot water, the showers, everything… OK?’
‘Oh… sorry,’ she apologised, slightly taken aback by Kyle’s attitude.
She was itching to ask Kyle just how they had water pressure enough to work a shower but from the irritated look on his face she knew better and bit her tongue. With nothing further to say, Kyle turned and continued leading them along corridors, round corners, up, down and then up again what seemed like to Liz the same staircase, before finally coming to a stop at the mouth of a short hallway on the first floor of the building. Perched on a stool outside one of the six doorways in the corridor was a young woman. In her headscarf, pinafore dress and sloppy looking cardigan, she was dressed very similar to Freya; only this time the flip-flops had been replaced by a pair of heavy boots that seemed to swamp her feet. In her arms was a pile of rather worn looking towels.
‘Ah, Lauren,’ said Kyle, noticing the woman as she wearily rose from the stool, ‘I see you’ve brought our guests some towels, good.’
‘These will be your rooms for your short stay with us,’ he continued, turning to address the group while gesturing to the six doors. ‘The room at the end on the right is a bathroom. Obviously the toilets don’t flush but if you need to urinate you can still do so in the cubicles, anything else then use the commode which will have to be emptied in the morning…. Oh, and this evening after you have completed the tasks Zak assigns you, you will each be allowed a two minute shower.’
‘Hence the towels,’ chimed in the woman Kyle had called Lauren with a friendly smile, shaking the bundle in her arms slightly.
‘Yes… Hence the towels,’ said Kyle, giving Lauren a sideways glance.
With the smile slowly fading on her lips, Lauren almost thrust the towels into Michael’s arms.
‘Do you need anything else,’ she asked Kyle, the smile now truly gone from her face.
Out the corner of her eye Liz saw Tyrone signing something to Paul. She didn’t catch the deaf boy’s signed reply but from the stifled laugh that Tyrone barely held in check she knew neither of them was being very complementary of their somewhat ungracious host. For a second Kyle didn’t speak and it was only when Liz followed his line of sight that she realised he was staring blankly at Tyrone and his brother. Then with a slow almost feline blink, Kyle returned his attention back to Lauren.
Lanherne Chronicles (Prequel): To Escape the Dead Page 19