War of the Dead

by Richard Murray

  Chapter 6

  Admiral Stuart arrived a short time after the rather dull evening meal of dried fish and tinned vegetables. Hardly appetizing but I ate it, chewing methodically and without any real enjoyment. It was easier than listening to a lecture about my need to maintain my health.

  Samuel approached the table where I sat with Lily and Gregg. He nodded approvingly at my plate of food and exchanged a look with Lily that soured my mood a little. I was well aware of my less than healthy state of mind and body before Lily had found me in Glasgow.

  Somehow, the two of them had put their heads together and decided that it was incumbent upon them both to ensure that I was healthy. Lily, I could understand. She, for some reason I had yet to fathom, loved me and wanted me to be well. Samuel though, well, his motivations I was less sure of.

  “The Admiral is here.” He paused, clearly uncomfortable at not following it up with the usual title I had been given and I grinned.

  “Have we somewhere private we can speak with him?”

  “There was a staff lounge. I thought it best that he be taken there.” He looked over at Lily and added, “your friend is with him.”

  “Cass?” Gregg asked eagerly. “Did she bring the baby?”

  The tall man nodded in response, a slight upturn of his lips at the corners of his mouth the only indication that even he appreciated the sight of a new child.

  “What about Carl and Alice?” Lily asked.

  I wondered if that was suspicion I heard in her tone or if it was just some lingering trace of the paranoia that had infected me over those months when I had been alone, surrounded by followers I had believed that I couldn’t trust.

  Not that I was entirely sure just then, but Lily seemed to believe they were loyal and so I had let down my guard.

  A little.

  “Alice has been placed in charge of the inventory. I believe she will make a competent quartermaster and Carl, at his own request, has taken on the role of carpenter. He will see to the building's defences and security.”

  “Nothing that will put him in harm's way,” I said firmly. “At least not until his decision is made.”

  “Of course, My Lord Death.”

  Ah, there was that title again. I forced my face to remain still, absent of the irritation I felt. While it had amused me for a while, the title and the obeisance was irksome at best. It allowed me to continue with my task but was hardly ideal.

  At some point, my minions would turn to me, expecting something of me that I wasn’t willing to give. Then they would turn on me. That wasn’t the paranoia talking, I was sure of that. People were fickle at best.

  “We should go meet them then,” Lily said, pushing away from the table and rising, an expectant look on her face as she glanced my way.

  I rose from my seat and before I could gather my plate up, a black-clad minion swooped in and began to clear away the plates.

  “That isn’t necessary,” I muttered as I followed Lily and Samuel through the improvised mess hall.

  “They like doing things for you,” she replied, nodding politely to the minion that held open the door for us.

  “It is true, My Lor… Ryan.”

  I scowled at the back of Samuels' head, not that he noticed. My fingers itched to circle around the hilt of my knife, ready to draw it. There was an urge growing in that dark place inside of me, a need to shed the blood of another.

  We had been forced to remain in those buildings near the docks while in Glasgow, and the expeditions we had mounted had been few and far between. My chances to kill anything of interest had faded as the winter wore on and my mood had deteriorated.

  It was with a great deal of hope, that I approached the meeting with the admiral. No matter how it went, I would be leaving the island soon enough and headed to the mainland. Either with the blessing and support of the new government or alone, having severed all ties.

  My gaze fell on Lily and for some reason, there was a hesitancy there. If I left for good, it would be with her. There was no way I would leave her behind and if she chose to stay rather than leave, well, that would be a problem that I would need to address.

  Samuel led us to a room on the ground floor, set away from the locker rooms and showers of the main complex. Bare walls with a couple of tattered couches set in the centre of the room, a low table between them.

  There was a coffee machine on the counter beneath a row of cupboards that someone had no doubt already rummaged through. To my surprise, it was filling slowly with a rich black liquid and the aroma of coffee filled the room.

  Cass sat on one of the couches, the admiral beside her. He was pulling faces at the cloth wrapped bundle she cradled in her arms. An amusing sight, considering that he was the highest-ranking officer I had seen and had been stern-faced in our previous meetings.

  She hadn’t changed. I knew that people often spoke of the ‘glow of motherhood’ but I just didn’t see it. There was no real difference, other than the darker patches of skin beneath her eyes and the new lines at the corners.

  Her eyes met mine as she looked up and I resolutely held my gaze steady, searching for the condemnation I expected to find there. I wouldn’t blame her. While I hadn’t been responsible for her lover’s death, I should have been better prepared, I should have prevented it.

  “Ryan,” she said, her smile widening. “Come and meet her.”

  “Who?”

  There was no one else in the room and beside me, Lily rolled her eyes as she tilted her head towards the baby Cass held. Oh!

  I nodded politely to her as I peered down at the child. It looked like pretty much every other baby I had seen, not that I had seen many. Small, wrinkled and – thankfully – quiet. I searched its chubby face for some similarity to its parents and shifted uncomfortably.

  “She is very nice,” I said. “Well done.”

  “Oh good lord!” Cass said with a giggle. “Could you be any more uncomfortable?”

  “He’s faced Reapers and hordes of the undead with just a knife and I’ve never seen him this nervous,” Lily added with a smile.

  She leant down and gently tickled the child beneath the chin. All the while she looked at me as if trying to make a point. If she was, it eluded me.

  I lifted my shoulders in a shrug and retreated to the opposite couch. I had never once pretended that I was comfortable with other people or capable of dealing with them like Lily could. They were, by and large, a mystery and I never quite knew how to react to such situations.

  Give me a knife and an enemy to fight and I was in my element. Put me in a room with someone and expect me to make small talk or understand a single thing about them or their life and I would be searching for a way out before the first minute had passed.

  Gregg seated himself beside his sister, a smile tugging at the ruined skin of his face as he reached eagerly for the child. His sister handed her over with a smile on her face that wilted just a little as she looked at her brother.

  “Would you prefer me to leave, My Lord Death?”

  “No.”

  I gestured to the couch I was sitting on, indicating he should sit. If I was to suffer through the whole small talk nonsense, then so could he.

  Lily seated herself beside me and Samuel took his place next to her. She slipped one arm around my back and pressed herself close to me. A familiarity that I would have allowed from no other, still it made me uncomfortable when others were around. She knew this, but seemed to think that the easiest way for me to learn to be comfortable was for her to continue to do it.

  “Give me a reason to stay,” I said and all eyes turned towards the admiral.

  He let out a heavy sigh and leant forward, rubbing his chin with one hand as his eyes flicked from me to Lily and then back.

  “The situation is… difficult.”

  I interrupted him with a curt gesture. There was no need to beat around the bush, I wanted him to be direct and to the point. He nodded once, understanding my meaning.

  “Whi
le I am still in command of the royal naval forces, that is all I am in command of. The CDF have been given to minister Shahid.”

  “Shahid?” Lily’s eyes widened as she heard that and it was clearly news to her. “The lady from the council, the one who wore the hijab?”

  “Yes,” Cass said, the twist to her mouth telling me plenty.

  “I have maintained my control of the fleet, but that is pretty much it,” Admiral Stuart continued. “My purview ends at the shoreline and while some of my troops have been allocated to the training camps, most of them are not doing much training.”

  “How so?” Lily asked.

  “They have stopped recruiting,” he replied with a shrug. “As far as the first minister is concerned, there is no need for more soldiers.”

  “I think you need to fill us in on exactly what is going on here,” Lily said.

  There was an edge to her voice as she said it and I held back a smile. I was more than willing to let her take the lead when it came to conversations like that since she was far more able to get people talking that I was.

  “May I?” the admiral asked with a tilt of his head towards the coffee.

  Samuel rose to his feet and crossed the room in four quick strides. He poured a generous portion into each of the small cups that had been left on a tray beside the machine and carried it over to the table. He set it down and passed the admiral a cup before taking one for himself and taking a seat. No one else seemed inclined to take a drink, all eager to hear what he had to say.

  “The situation is balanced, for the moment. The first minister has enough votes to ensure the troops stay on the island, but not enough to fully stop recruiting or stem the flow of refugees that you have been sending us.”

  “At the same time, he has hamstrung me with regards to what I can and cannot do and given much of the control of the military to minister, Shahid.”

  He paused and sipped at the coffee, pulling a face at the bitter taste. Sugar was one of those foodstuffs in short supply.

  “Shahid supports the first minister, her vote generally coincides with his. Falk is the same.”

  “Falk?”

  “Considers himself a bit of a scientist,” Cass said. “In truth, he’s an arrogant prick who taught biology in the local college. He’s firmly behind the first minister and has been rewarded by being put in charge of the holding facility.”

  Holding facility? Now that sounded interesting. I shifted in my seat, leaning forward a little as my curiosity was piqued.

  “Shahid, Falk, Simmonds,” the admiral continued. “They are his core support. Mason isn’t one of his supporters but she gives in to him on most things so may as well be. She is firmly on the fence for pretty much everything and is the only reason we have won any concessions at all.”

  “Between them,” Cass added. “They have control of the CDF, the holding facility, the prison and allocation of housing.”

  “Which tends to mean that those they consider to be least useful are assigned to homes here in the town, while the more competent are kept further away. They have a solid support base here because of that and for the life of me, I have no idea why they are doing it.”

  “The towns just a breeding ground for angry protest,” Cass added. “Fights breaking out daily and ever more people being arrested and taken away.”

  “Tell me about this holding facility and prison,” I said, trying to keep the eagerness from my voice.

  “Anyone caught committing any kind of violent crime tends to go to the prison. It’s an improvised camp to the north. The CDF guard it and maintain order but from the little I have been able to hear; the conditions are deplorable. There’s some four hundred people in there.”

  That was interesting and I caught Samuel’s look as he turned my way. They were the sort of people that we could recruit and use in our war against the scourge. Of course, any that had committed crimes that were too heinous even for us, I could kill.

  The darkness within seemed to stir hungrily at that thought and my fingers twitched. I had a need to kill and to do it soon.

  “As for the holding facility,” the admiral said. “That is controlled by Falk and we have no idea what he is doing there. Anyone infected, any undead that we find on the island, all go there and so far, nothing has come out.”

  “Christ!” Lily said, letting out a breath of air. “That doesn’t bode well at all.”

  “No,” he agreed with a slight smile. “Not quite the utopia we expected when this began.”

  “Not at all.”

  “How are you for supplies?” I asked. “I imagine you are struggling with feeding so many.”

  “Yes,” he agreed, giving me a shrewd look. “We are fast reaching the point where we are going to have to cut rations.”

  “Then you need more. Give me the boats and I shall get them for you.”

  “You will?”

  Both he and Lily looked at each other as they spoke at the same time and I grinned.

  “This situation is not tenable and you know it. Either my people leave or we make things work here.” I glanced at Lily and the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. “Lily seems determined to make this place work so I will help.”

  “What if they won’t let you leave?” Cass asked.

  “Then they are welcome to stop us.”

  Samuel’s voice was cold and hard as he said that and Cass gave him a nervous look.

  “We can make it work,” the admiral said. Even he eyed Samuel warily. “We can sell it to the council. No risk to ourselves and you will bring supplies back to the island.”

  “The greedy bastards will love that,” Cass agreed.

  “I’ll arrange that with them. How many of you will you take and where will you be going?”

  “Oban,” I said. “A couple of my followers are from the area and they are aware of two large food wholesalers. Large warehouses, likely to be untouched because that area fell fast. I’ll take no more than fifty of my people.”

  “Two ships,” the admiral said, nodding to himself as he considered. “A smaller one for your troops and another with crew and some of my own people to help load any supplies.”

  “Works for me.”

  “I can take my team too,” Lily said and I shook my head.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Too dangerous for anyone who is not willing to die.”

  A strange look crossed her face that I couldn’t understand when I said that. It was mirrored by Cass and even the admiral wore something that I suspected to be sympathy. I wasn’t sure why, but I pressed on regardless, dismissing it from my mind.

  “Samuel.”

  “My Lord Death?”

  “See to the training of those who remain here. I want them too exhausted to do anything but sleep at the end of the day. Make them strong.”

  “It will be done.”

  “This isn’t over,” Lily hissed and I glanced at her, one eyebrow cocked.

  “What isn’t?”

  “Perhaps,” the admiral interrupted before she could reply. “Lieutenant Morgan would be willing to do a task for me.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  The look she gave me told me that she would be speaking to me at length later, but I wasn’t sure why she was suddenly so angry. I could have asked her, but I had learnt enough from her to know that to do so would be a mistake.

  “I want you to find out what the CDF is doing.”

  “Sir?”

  “They are closed to me. No matter what I do, I cannot find out what is going on with them. The orders I do hear about are strange and seemed designed to funnel people to either the prison or the holding facility.”

  “I’ll see what I can find out, sir.”

  “Then we have a plan, of sorts.”

  The Admiral finished his coffee and set the cup down gently on the table. His shoulders slumped and for a moment, it seemed as though he were carrying the weight of the world. Then, with a seemingly conscious effort,
he straightened his back and rose to his feet.

  “There is something going on here and I don’t think the first minister is looking out for the people. That has to change. There are scattered groups of survivors out there and they are dying at the hands of the undead. We can’t allow that to continue.”

  “Agreed,” Cass said. “But before we can help them, we need to make sure we are secure. It’s pointless to rescue them if we can’t support them.”

  He nodded and glanced once more at me before saying, “have your people at the docks before dawn. The ships will be waiting.”

  With that, he nodded politely to the rest and marched from the room. Samuel rose and followed silently. He would see the admiral out of the building safely and then go about his tasks.

  “If you don’t mind,” Cass said. “Gregg will walk me home.”

  “I will?”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice a hiss of annoyance as she looked pointedly at Lily and me.

  “Oh! Right, yeah.”

  “We’ll leave you to talk,” she said and rose to her feet, the baby in her arms beginning to wake. “Patricia needs to feed anyway.”

  With a smile for Lily and a look of pity for me, she headed towards the door, Gregg trailing behind. I waited for them to leave and turned to look at Lily, expecting an argument. Instead, I saw only tears in her eyes.

  Without a word, she rose to her feet and stalked from the room as I sat there wondering what I had done to upset her.

  Chapter 7

  I slept alone and when I awoke, well before the dawn, I walked towards the docks and watched the love of my life clamber aboard a battered old fishing trawler that bobbed up and down in the rough sea.

  He looked back, but I doubted that he could see me, hidden as I was in the shadows beside the building where I stood. His acolytes followed him, each of them dressed in black and wearing their appropriately named death shrouds.

  Jinx whined softly beside me and I reached down to pat her head, fingers ruffling her fur as I pressed one arm across my stomach, holding myself. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wouldn’t see him again and the urge to run across the docks calling his name was almost more than I could bear.