“W-what are you talking about?” the man asked.
“Tell me about these Riders.”
Chapter 10
It was almost dark before our new ‘friends’ brought us to their home, a sheltered valley surrounded by steep hills that you would be hard pressed to ascend without climbing gear. A fence of corrugated iron had been built across the valley mouth and waiting patiently outside of it were several thousand undead.
As a result, the man and his daughter led us around that horde and into a wooded area beyond. We walked for some time before we found ourselves in a small glade before a sheer rock face. At our approach, a screen of bushes swung wide and I smiled as I saw that they were attached to a gate of iron.
The man led us into a tunnel, nodding a greeting to the two others who were on guard there and pulling a torch out of the saddlebags behind his horse's saddle. He led it through the tunnel, the roof barely an inch above the horses head.
Water ran down the walls in several places and the scampering of small feet and claws on the stone came often. I remained quiet and kept my hand on the hilt of my knife, not quite willing to trust anyone just yet.
Another gate sealed the exit and it was pulled open to allow us through. The girl took her father’s horse and led it away to the stables as I blinked at the light. Once my vision cleared, I stared out over the landscape and admitted to being pleasantly surprised.
There was a small cluster of houses surrounding a stone well. Some of those houses were new, built of rough-hewn logs and resembling little more than cabins. The others were older by far and I could easily guess that the cabins were for the families who had moved to the valley after the apocalypse began.
Beyond them stretched grasslands that, to my utter delight, were full of cattle and even a few sheep, separated by wire fences. It was the first time I had seen such animals in a long time and I was surprised at how pleased I was to see them once more.
“Welcome to our valley,” the man said. “Follow me and we’ll set you up with some food.”
I wasn’t going to argue. Behind the houses were a number of vegetable gardens being tended by both adults and children. There were few people not doing something and it was pleasant to see a group of people who had seemingly prospered.
“Nice tunnel,” I said and he grunted.
“Was being built before the world went to hell. My father was a man who believed in being prepared and he knew something would happen. Whether that would be a nuclear war, a meteorite dropping on us or the economy collapsing, he knew something was coming.”
“Didn’t expect it to be zombies though,” Gregg said with a smile and the man laughed.
“Aye, true enough. Even so, he left us with the tunnel almost carved through the hill and the fence in place along with a healthy supply of foodstuffs. Gave us the chance to survive when many didn’t and even meant we could take in our neighbours too.”
“What about the zombies out front?” I asked with a look over my shoulder to the fence. It was perhaps eighteen feet high and had been reinforced and braced with a great deal of metal. It looked formidable. “I’ve seen them tear through walls before.”
“We go out now and again and draw some away. Mostly we leave them others there to deter people like the Riders.”
Made sense, I supposed, but still, the idea of having them gathered just outside the valley had my fingers itching towards my knife.
He led us to the oldest of the houses, a sprawling building that had clearly been built and added to over several years judging by the different colours of the wood and stone. The door opened as we approached and a woman came out onto the porch wiping her hands on a tea-towel.
“Delilah,” the man said with a fond smile. “I’ve brought some guests for supper.”
She gave us a long, appraising, look and sniffed, clearly unimpressed. Her greying hair curled around her face and the glasses she wore were held together by tape. She wore the same jeans and jumper as her husband, well made and sturdy.
“Mind your feet,” she said pausing only a moment to greet her husband with a peck on the cheek.
He gestured us in and waved away the few curious people who were headed towards us. They turned away and I glanced at him anew. He was clearly in charge and his people respected him. That was a good sign that I’d been right not to kill him.
I seated myself beside Gregg at the old, well polished, wooden table in the centre of the kitchen. The floor was tiled and the cabinets old, but in good condition. From what I could see of the house, it was spotless.
A growl came from nearby and I glanced over at a border collie dog that stared back at me, teeth bared.
“Jasper, settle,” Delilah said. “William! Take him outside.”
The man complied with his wife’s demand without question, grabbing the dogs collar and pulling it towards the door. It growled at me all the while, not taking its eyes from me.
“Not a good sign,” Delilah said. “Animals are good judges of character.”
It had been some time since I’d seen an animal, let alone been close to one and I’d forgotten how they tended to respond to me. Jinx had been the first dog to actually like me. It seemed that they sensed something of the predator that I was and felt threatened.
Normally that wouldn’t be a problem but when trying to make friends in the brave new world, it was a problem. I just offered a weak smile and waited quietly.
William returned without the dog and seated himself opposite me. He raised one eyebrow questioningly and I gestured to Gregg who removed the radio from his pack and went about setting it up.
Delilah watched us quietly as she stirred at a pot of food that smelt, frankly, delicious and paused as Gregg flicked the switch powering up the radio. He held it for a moment, twisting a dial before speaking.
“Hello, hello, anyone listening?”
“Yeah, who’s this?” Charlie's voice came through clear and unmistakable.
“It’s Gregg.”
“Oh, hey dude. You want me to get the boss lady? She’s around somewhere, they just finished their latest meeting.”
“No, no,” he said with a sideways glance at me. “No need to bother her. We just need you to do something.”
“What’s that?”
“We’ve met some survivors, they want to know a bit about who we are.”
“Oh! Cool. Hey new survivors. Welcome to the post-apocalyptic hellscape that we live in. I’m Charlie, technician extraordinaire for the new government of Great Britain, or NGGB for short. I mean, let’s be fair, it’s a bit of a mouthful and I told them they should have chosen something shorter, more…”
“Stick to the point,” I said taking the radio from Gregg.
“Oh, hey Ryan. Glad you’re still alive.”
“Yeah, me too. Don’t you have some prepared message you give to survivor groups you find?”
“Er, yeah, one min. Been a while, ya know?”
We waited patiently as she searched for her notes, the man staring at the radio without blinking and his wife, watching open-mouthed.
“Ah, here we are. Greetings to you. We would like to inform you that the NGGB have formed a haven for survivors like you. If you need aid and supplies, we will get them to you as soon as possible. With the aid of the Civilian Defence Forces and the Royal Navy, we will get to you.”
“If you would like to join us, you are welcome to do so and if you would like to remain where you are, then we will do everything we can to help you to secure your home and protect you from the undead hordes.”
“Be at ease, we are here to help you.”
William licked his dry lips and held out a hand, I passed him the radio and he swallowed hard before he pressed the button and spoke.
“Hello. This is William Campbell. Can I ask some questions?”
“Hi William, sure you can, dude. Go for it.”
“H-how many of you are there?”
“Around twenty-five thousand though I’ve just heard we’re
having a census so will be able to give a more accurate figure later.”
If anything, Delilah’s mouth opened wider at that and she stared at us in shock as she realised just how many people had survived. It was clearly overwhelming to some people who had considered themselves to be possibly the only people left.
“Where are you?”
“Currently on the Isle of Lewis. If you are near the coast and have a boat, we ask that you don’t attempt the journey alone. We can send a ship for you. Safety first, dude.”
He shook his head, not quite sure what to say and he passed the radio back to Gregg who nodded understandingly.
“Thanks, Charlie. Let my sister know I’m okay and tell Lily we’ll be in touch soon.”
“Will do. Be safe.”
“Always.”
He turned off the radio and returned it to his pack as the husband and wife exchanged looks. Finally, the man turned to me and spoke.
“I-I believe you. What do you need from us?”
“Information on the Riders,” I said and his wife gasped. “They’re probably going to interfere with our task so I need to deal with them.”
“How?” Delilah asked. “You can’t do anything against them, there’s too many and we can’t risk anyone here to help you.”
“I didn’t ask for help,” I said coldly. “I just want their location, numbers and any other information you can provide.”
“What my friend means,” Gregg said placatingly. “Is that we need to know what we’re up against.”
“They’re raiders,” William said. “We’re fairly isolated out here and a good number of families survived the initial chaos. Those animals left them alone until they began to run out of food, then they attacked.”
“Killed some good people,” Delilah said softly. “And took others back with them to do god alone knows what with.”
I could guess and it meant they were exactly the kind of people I could kill without breaking Lily’s rules. That thought sent a flutter of excitement running through me.
“They were at Dunkeld for a bit and they still hold the crossing point there, but they moved into the forest to the north-east.”
“Why the forest?” I asked, though I suspected the answer.
“There’s a compound there. High walls and a lot of security. Think it was some government place back before things went to hell. Easy to secure.”
I shared a glance with Gregg. That was likely our target and if they were there, then there was no guarantee the people we needed to find were even alive. Even so, we had to be sure and that would be difficult.
“Weapons?” I asked.
“They had mainly knives and clubs but managed to take some rifles from nearby farms. Last I saw, some of them had other guns too.”
Likely taken from the people sent by Lily’s new allies. Not a good indication.
“Numbers?”
“We don’t know, but could be thirty or so? Keeps changing.”
Understandable since the people in those particular type of groups didn’t tend to be the most forgiving when it came to arguments. Fistfights could end as easily in death as in unconsciousness and with no fear of prison, nothing to stop them killing each other over women or food.
“Great,” Gregg said quietly. “Any idea how we can beat them?”
“Sorry, no.”
With darkness and a sharp blade was my immediate answer, but I knew enough to not say it out loud.
“If you could mark the locations on our map, that would be appreciated,” I said instead. “Then we shall be off.”
“Please, have a meal first,” William said. “You can leave in the morning.”
“Yes,” Delilah added with decidedly less enthusiasm. “Please stay.”
“We have a great many questions about this group of yours and I think we can perhaps do some trading.”
“What do you want to trade?”
“We have cattle,” Delilah said. “We’ll have more calves than we can keep in the spring, and crops too.”
The thought of real meat was something that I couldn’t deny would be useful but a few calves wouldn’t feed many. They would, however, be the beginnings of our own herds. More important would be the knowledge of farming and cattle rearing.
“What would you want in return?”
“Medical supplies and fuel, if you have any.”
“We do,” I said, nodding slowly. “We also have machine shops and can make parts for your equipment as it fails.”
“How about,” Gregg said. “You write a list of what you need and what you have to offer and we’ll radio in to base. I’m sure we can come to some agreement that will benefit all of us.”
I settled back in my chair, letting the sound of their chatter wash over me. I was content to let Gregg negotiate with them as I had little real interest in it and a great deal to think about. Namely, how to slaughter a band of raiders by myself.
Gregg would want to help, of course, but as skilled as he was against the undead, he was still squeamish when it came to killing people. No, I would need to do it myself and as much as that thought excited me, I wanted to survive it. Which meant I had to be careful.
I was still silently brooding on that as Delilah placed a bowl of beef stew in front of me and not even the delightful aroma of fresh beef could distract me as I contemplated the death and destruction that was to come.
Chapter 11
I handed the headset back to Charlie and smiled my first genuine smile of the day as I reached down to pat Jinx. A new group of survivors who were not only friendly but willing to trade. And what a potential value that trade would be.
“Cattle. They actually have cows and sheep,” Cass said softly, a smile of childlike delight on her face.
“Chicken and ducks too. My god, given some time we could be having breakfast omelettes again.”
It was strange really. You never knew how much something meant to you until it was gone. I’d probably had thousands of omelettes in my life and hadn’t thought twice about them. In the past year and a half though, I had been craving them like crazy.
A steady increase in the number of animals would be a huge boon to us and all being well, we could keep trading. We produced plenty of fuel but had no farm animals nor crops. The few they could trade with us wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to feed everyone, but it was a start.
It would take years, sure, but those would be years where we would be building a future for our children. Time and effort well spent I thought.
“What about the other thing?” Cass asked with a glance at Charlie who raised her hands and turned away.
“Message received, talk freely, I have work to do.”
I jerked my head to the side and moved across the office, away from the techs and their equipment. Cass followed along with Jinx and when we were far enough away, I stopped and turned to her.
“You know he’s going to try anyway, right?” Cass said before I could speak.
“Of course he is. Even if he knew those bloody people were dead, he’d ignore it because it gave him a chance to go and murder a bunch of people who, quite frankly, deserve it.”
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about him and really, really, didn’t want him to go. It was amazing what you could become used to and the fact that my lover, the father of my children, was a serial killer was something that I would have laughed about if you’d ever told me it would happen.
I’d been a pacifist. Anti-war, anti-death penalty and all the rest. I’d rarely watched horror movies or even many action ones, simply because of the violence. Barely two years later, I was deeply in love with a serial murderer and had killed far too many people myself.
It was bizarre. Utterly, utterly, bizarre and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d been a child back then before the world fell. A foolish child with equally child-like notions of the world we lived in. The fact was, some people didn’t deserve to live and so long as Ryan only killed those kinds of people, I really didn’t
care any longer that he enjoyed it.
I did want him to come home to me, to our children, though and a raider gang in a secure compound was probably beyond even his skills. There was no way I could dissuade him though. I knew him well enough to know that.
“We’ll make sure the plane’s prepared. That’s the only thing we can do and as soon as we get the call, we send it.”
“Whatever you want,” Cass said.
She was clearly worried about her brother and I offered her a smile of comfort. “Ryan won't let him get hurt.”
“I know. But I know my brother too and he won’t let Ryan go alone.”
That was true also. Gregg was nothing if not loyal. I linked my arms with hers and steered her towards the door. My small army of bodyguards, all garbed in black with their hoods on their heads, fell in around us as we made to leave the building.
I’d long since given up on arguing about their presence and if anything, I was comforted by it. After all, it wasn’t just my life at risk, but my babies too.
We moved through the town as the sun sank towards the horizon. Many people were still loitering around, their expressions dull and faces lacking hope. All around the town, support groups had formed to try and help those people who had seen some horrific sights and face loss than no one should ever face.
It wasn’t enough.
Despite all we could do, we didn’t have any trained psychotherapists on the island. All we could do was offer support and when someone cracked beneath the pressure of those memories, we threw them into a holding cell as much for their own safety as for others.
Domestic violence was on the rise across the island. Men and women lashing out at one another as they tried to find some outlet for their grief. Our little prison area was rapidly filling with people. Many of them were released after a few days but a few would remain there until the agreed to fight alongside the Dead.
Rapists and murderers mainly, though there were more of the former than the latter. All would serve with the Dead, removed from the living and ‘trained’ by Samuel until such time as he considered them ready to be allowed to walk amongst the people of the island once more.
Killing The Dead (Book 15): The Gathering Storm Page 7