Deserted with the Dead (Book 3): Fearland

by Aline Riva

  “Make it a good one!” he joked.

  “He's the erm... Sex Bomb?” David wondered vaguely.

  “Cheers, I like that!” Rick said with a chuckle, “Yes, I think you chose well there... that name could stick!”

  Then the little girl wandered back over, still holding the brain on the stick, now with a big, visible bite taken out of the left side of it.

  “And this is...our new mascot...I think,” David added, “Little candy floss icky stick...Flossie!”

  “That's a good one!” Tara said in surprise, “Suits her, too!”

  The woman stood there for a moment taking in the sight of the group, then her gaze shifted to Rick's metal hand.

  “You are from the future?”

  “I wish,” he replied, “It's just a prosthetic, nothing special.”

  “Poor woman's mad,” Sandra said quietly.

  “What was your name before you came to the park?” David asked.

  She blinked.

  “Emma,” the woman stated.

  “Then we shall call you Emma,” he replied, “I don't suppose you know of anywhere around here that's safe to sleep for the night, Emma?”

  She nodded, pointing over to the entrance to an old fashioned hall of mirrors.

  “Steel door, locks on the inside,” she added, suddenly sounding very much north London and not gypsy at all, then she turned away and took the lead, heading for the fun house as the others followed on as above them the sun dipped and the skies darkened, sending evening shadows chasing eerily through the abandoned fairground.

  Chapter 5: An Open Mind on Change

  “They came for us all...”

  As Emma spoke the words that echoed about the locked up hall of mirrors, she struck a match and set it to a candle, lighting it with a warm glow that lit up the room as shadows leapt up the walls and the twisted mirrors made the shifting light look ghastly. They were all sat on the ground, thankful to rest in a secure place, but now as Emma related her tale after David has asked her to tell them what had happened here, a hush had fallen on the group as Emma's eyes widened and her voice dropped low.

  “First came the men with swords. Then came the dead. The dead devoured the fallen and he took them away again...the devil named Mortiz!”

  She paused as if for dramatic effect, it was clear she was caught somewhere between who she really was and the old fairground persona she used to put on as the gypsy fortune teller.

  “Mortiz came with his men first?” David asked carefully.

  She nodded.

  “The park was closing, evacuation day...”

  As Toby paused to drape a blanket over the child who slept in a corner below a large mirror, the stick clutched in her hand, he looked to the others.

  “She's almost human like this...maybe we should take that stick away from her...”

  “Don't!” David warned him, “Remember she's still transformed...she never lets go of that stick. Leave her to sleep.”

  “And what about when we sleep?” he asked, a flicker of worry clear in his eyes.

  “I'll take turns on watch with you,” David replied, “Just to be sure she's no threat.”

  “She followed us in here like a dog,” Sandra said in surprise, “It's like she wants to belong.”

  David looked over at the child huddled under the blanket.

  “Let's hope you're right about that,” he replied, then he turned his gaze back to Emma as Toby sat down to hear the rest of her tale.

  “Mortiz came with his army...they killed everyone who didn't run and hide. Those who did hide... the undead were sent in for them later...”

  “And you hid in here?”

  She nodded.

  “What about the little girl?” David asked, glancing over to Flossie who was still curled up sleeping, “Do you know anything about her?”

  “She wandered into the park, just before it closed... she must have hid in the zoo when Mortiz invaded.”

  “How would you know that?” he asked.

  “I saw her come in just as the park was closing. But I was busy getting ready to leave, then we had no time to leave... She has a bite mark on the back of her hand, not from the undead. From an animal, two puncture wounds...”

  David paused for thought.

  “So she wasn't bitten by a corpse? She was infected by a animal?”

  She nodded.

  David thought about it.

  “She looks kind of half turned...same shade of skin, but not like the reanimated corpses look. And she's friendly, like the animals...”

  “But she eats the dead,” added Tara.

  Emma nodded again.

  “Same hunger as the animals – they hunt the living dead like prey, like they are the new meat in the food chain.”

  “Nature fighting back, perhaps?” Toby suggested.

  “That would make sense,” David agreed, “Introduce a virus into the world and nature will do its best do beat it one way or another...I'm no scientist, but it seems to fit.”

  “Maybe the animals could be a way of fighting back, we could use them in some way?” Sandra suggested.

  David looked across the dimly lit room, her face in shadow far off from the candle light.

  “That would be a great idea if we had as many lions in the UK as we have farm animals,” he replied, “Maybe a pride here could be harnessed for that use but not every animal is infected...I'm guessing the wild ones from the zoo were infected when the dead were brought in to finish off the rest of the survivors.”

  “The undead destroy everything,” Emma whispered as fear flashed in her eyes and she silently recalled the horror she had witnessed, “I foresee the sun shall be covered with blood!”

  A crazed look had come to her eyes.

  “The sun can't be covered with anything,” David assured her, realising she had slipped back into madness, “You're safe now, Emma...you're with us. When we leave, you leave with us, okay?”

  She nodded, his words swiftly reassuring her after months alone in the fairground hiding from the undead.

  “I think we should all get some sleep now,” David added, looking to the others.

  “The dawn shall return to Fearland!” Emma declared, and then she blew out the candle sharply, plunging the fun house into darkness as the smell of the smoking wick filled the air.

  As the group settled down for the night, thankful for the pillows and blankets that Emma seemed to have managed to amass since moving into the fun house, the place quickly settled into a peaceful silence punctured only by the far off sounds of distant animals, their breed impossible to guess at as howls and growls came from far off and then the moans of the undead carried on the night air, all muffled by the solid door that protected the group from the outside world.

  Occasionally, the wind howled as it picked up and whipped about the structure, a whistle and a moan that sounded strangely familiar and reminded those still awake of times before the undead had arisen, these days anything that brought to mind the old, safe world that had been dashed away seemed odd – this was a life spent on red alert, always ready for a fight, always ready for attack. To think of the past in the days when the world made sense almost had no sense to it at all now, because that world was gone...

  Around the corner from the main part of the fun house, past the final twisted mirror mounted on a huge green frame, was an office door. In here there was enough space to bed down for the night, on carpet, in a room with concrete walls that had no windows or door to the outside word, it was as safe as the rest of the structure, just a little more private.

  Here, Rick had laid down a couple of cushions and some old seat padding to form a mattress, and now they were under the blanket together, he held Lois in his arms as she rested with her head on his shoulder. This room was warm and the carpet kept out the chill of the night as the wind continued to howl around the building.

  “Once we get out of here,” Rick said quietly, “Once we find Mortiz and he gets what's coming to him, I think it's
time for us to move on, don't you?”

  Lois reached for the candle on the table that was set into a saucer, stuck firm by melted wax, and struck one of the matches from the box left beside it and watched as light and shadow crept up the walls. In here, the office was simply furnished with a desk, chair and some old metal filing cabinets. She noticed more candles on the table, fresh with wicks that had never been lit – clearly, this was where Emma had found the source of her light – there were candles in saucers all over this building, ready to be lit in the absence of electric lighting.

  As the flame glowed and she looked into the eyes of her lover, she felt confused.

  “Of course we'll move on, Rick. We can't stay here, we'll all move on.”

  “I mean just the two of us,” he replied, “You and me, we can find somewhere safe and then we'll figure out a way to fetch your son from London. I want us to be a family.”

  As she looked into his soft brown eyes, she saw such love and sincerity there, but his statement seemed to make little sense in a world blown to hell with the dead walking the earth...

  “Rick, nowhere is truly safe any more!”

  He turned on his side, ran his fingertips down her arm softly as her hand closed about the end of his other wrist, where flesh met with the metallic hand.

  “Once Mortiz is dead, I see no point carrying on with the group,” he explained, “We go from place to place hoping to find survivors or some kind of answer...I don't think we can ever really make that much of a difference - we're just one group of people and the whole world has gone to hell, what am I supposed to do about that? There's no heroes any more, just desperate people who want to stay alive. If we can find somewhere safe, maybe an island or somewhere accessible only by bridge...something like that, you and me could spend the rest of our days there with your son. What do you think about that, Lois? Do you want to do that?”

  She nodded.

  “If we find somewhere, yes,” she agreed, “I'm no fighter, Rick.”

  “Neither am I,” he replied, “I just do what I have to do, but once I find Mortiz, once that's over with, I want a better life for us. We'll find a way, nothing is impossible.”

  Seeing determination set in his gaze lent her much needed hope.

  “I would like nothing more,” she told him, “Just you and me and my son, some kind of normality in our lives again...”

  He smiled.

  “I want to wake up to the smell of coffee. Birds singing in the trees as a breeze comes through the open window... I want to roll over on my back and see you looking down at me and wait for you to say good morning and give me a kiss that tastes of your lipstick...I just want a normal life again.”

  “Is that what your ex used to do, wake you with a kiss?” she asked.

  Rick settled back down, pulled her closer and laughed softly.

  “No, she used to say Get up you lazy sod, you've missed the alarm again! But I would like to have that life, waking up to see you leaning over me, kissing me to say good morning. I've missed being loved for a long time...It's crazy, to think it could happen now with the way the world is, but love doesn't come along to order, it happens when it happens, and with the person you least expect. I love you, Lois.”

  “I love you too,” she replied, then he kissed her fondly, blew out the candle and they settled down as the wind howled outside as they stayed warm, together, and slipped into sleep with shared thoughts of a better future.

  When morning came, the group woke to lit candles in the windowless structure, as the flames threw up oddly shaped flickers reflected in the fun house mirrors.

  “The world wakens to more of the same,” said Emma, “Blood and ruin and chaos...Who wants cereal?”

  She shook a box of cereal, then indicated to a jar of milk on the table.

  “Three bowls only – you'll have to take turns...only two spoons...There's more than enough of the powdered milk, I make it up from the water from the tap in the bathroom, the water is clean...”

  The others blinked away sleep, looked at each other and then Toby got up first.

  “Thanks, Emma, I'll have some.”

  “Me too,” added Sandra as she got up then paused to fold her blanket and leave it on top of a cushion.

  As the others began to get up and get ready to either eat or prepare to leave, David and Tara had got up, then both turned to the corner as Tara had touched David's arm and whispered, Look....

  Flossie had got up too, leaving the blanket cast aside. Dust clung to her clothing where she had curled on the floor, but the brain on the stick was still there – minus a few breakfast bites. Now she stood there holding the stick, looking to the group, still as a statue.

  “What is she doing?” Tara whispered, “Why is she just watching us like that?”

  “I think she's learning,” David said quietly as he looked away from the child, “She's capable of forming attachment to ordinary humans...I don't think she can remember much about what her life was like before the bite, but she seems to feel like she needs to belong with us.”

  “Like family?” Tara wondered.

  “Possibly, I'd imagine a trait of a pack animal is more likely,” David replied.

  Then Flossie stepped out from the shadows, went over to Toby, stood watching as he dug his spoon into the bowl of cereal, then as he noticed her standing there he chuckled.

  “Want some?” he said jokingly.

  The girl smiled, stuck her fingers into the brain on a stick, pulled off a piece of brain tissue and dunked it into his cereal as the milk splashed out, then she popped it into her mouth as she chewed, glee filled her eyes and she made sound somewhere between a giggle and a low growl.

  “And that's me right off the idea of breakfast,” Toby said, turning from the sight of her, “Anyone else hungry? I've got left overs in my bowl.”

  A few groans came from the rest of the group.

  “Piss right off,” said Jason, “I feel sick!”

  Sandra giggled, then Tara laughed softly as she shook her head. Flossie was quite an unexpected addition to the group, but she was growing on them quickly – even her liking for brains could be overlooked by some of them now, a mutated brain eating child seemed like the last thing any of them would have wished to encounter, but she was different, almost human, and certainly harmless. As they prepared to leave, Flossie ripped off another piece of the brain, dunked it again and continued to eat happily as she watched the people around her as they put on their boots and checked their weapons, and she smiled as the taste of milk and brains filled her mouth - something about these people felt right, reminding her of a word she had lost but it seemed so familiar as it vaguely echoed in her altered mind. The word was Family...

  By the time the sun was rising in a clear sky on warm morning, no hint of the wild winds from the night before remained, the trees were still save for the odd rustle up in the branches, and each time it happened as they neared the entrance to the zoo, they looked up and about, recalling the mutated lion. Although it seemed the altered animals were friendly and posed no threat to human life, there was still a question mark over that theory, based on the fact that one lion didn't equal the whole of the mutated wild animal kingdom and nothing was certain in this fractured world any more...

  As they neared the gates, Flossie, who had been marching on ahead with half eaten brain on a stick abruptly stopped, looking up to nearby leafy boughs as an old tree spread wide and heavy. She looked down at the bite mark on her hand, a faded scar of two blackened punctures, then as a snake reared its head from the tree and its eyes blazed darkly as its fangs yawned wide and it made a strange rasping sound, Flossie's expression turned to one of anger as her little face screwed up into murderous rage and she bared her teeth and gave a sharp warning hiss. The snake slithered out of sight, backing away at once.

  “I thought she got on with the animals,” David said in confusion.

  “Not that one,” Rick told him, looking up as the snake suddenly slithered overhead along th
e branch then went deeper into the tree, “Those fangs match her bite mark. I bet that was the snake that bit her. Maybe the reptiles don't work the same way as the other animals who got infected...that snake came out of the tree very aggressively.”

  “And she remembers?” Tara said in surprise.

  Flossie hissed again, looking up into the tree with rage still glittering in her darkened eyes, then she took a bite from her brains on the stick and turned away and began to wander through the entrance to the zoo.

  “This way, this way! Follow me, take this path...The dead are not here any more, the animals destroyed them...”

  As Emma took the lead as they headed down the path, she dashed on ahead, past remains of torn apart undead, clearly eaten by large animals – it could have been the work of lions, or perhaps tigers, but here the cages were open and no animals could be seen, no doubt they were now happy to roam the wider area of the park and the land beyond it where fields stretched on for miles. Now they were free of the confines of their cages, the place where they had been held was deserted – maybe like Flossie, the animals could also remember, most of all, recalling captivity...

  They passed empty cages and pens, took a leafy path to a bridge and then Emma stopped, standing in front of it, her eyes wide.

  “The world ends here!”

  Jason gave a sigh.

  “Oh no, the only guide we have has gone off her head again...”

  “Shut up!” Sandra said sharply, then she looked to Emma.

  “The world doesn't end here, there's a bridge and over there past the trees I can see tall, solid metal fencing and strong gates. That must be the other side of the park.”

  “What's behind those gates, Emma?” asked David.

  “Hell!”

  Emma's eyes were wide and her face had paled.

  Rick stepped forward, holding her gaze intently as he spoke softly, calmly, trying to extract the truth he sought whilst holding down the urge to grab hold of her and shake it out of her, because the thought that Mortiz might be hiding behind those gates was enough to send the urge for vengeance coursing through his blood like fire...