Deserted with the Dead (Book 3): Fearland

by Aline Riva

  He swam upward, pulling on the rail to speed the climb, bursting into daylight and fresh air and out of the over flowing water at the top as hands reached for him, one warm and reassuringly human, whilst another was reassuringly metallic, as Tara and Rick dragged him clear of the water.

  He fell back dripping wet and gasping for air, David blinked the salt from his stinging eyes to see Toby and Jason slamming the heavy door shut, then Rick joined them in the effort to turn the wheel, sealing the hatch and locking in the creatures that had risen through the stairwell.

  “That's secured, we're safe!” Rick said as he turned from the door and breathed a relieved sigh.

  “No we're not, arm yourselves!” David said in horror.

  As he spoke he staggered to his feet, pushing away Tara's offer of help as adrenaline coursed through his body as he geared up for another fight, looking to the beach, where some of the undead that had survived the shark attack were now walking ashore – at least, the ones who could walk. One zombie had been bitten in half and crawled along the sand, using hands and then elbows to slither as rotten guts trailed from its torso and glistened in the sunlight as the afternoon drew late and the sun dipped low and mellow on a world cursed with the affliction of the undead walking its surface. They were dripping wet and all sights were set on the living, as David and his group looked back at them, drawing guns, ready to use up precious ammo that was almost spent and could not be replaced.

  Flossie was running, icky stick clutched tightly as she led the way, some animals were behind her, some level with her, all keen to follow the kindred child who had found the vast food source. The tigers padded along patiently, the lions moved with stealth, a whole pride had joined in the hunt now as the monkeys scampered on behind and leapt from tree to tree as the animals made a strange collection of sounds, the thud of heavy paws, the grunts and low growls of the hunters in their pride, the chatter of the monkeys. The were all heading for a feast, the feast of the new prey – the undead.

  As she neared the doorway, Flossie looked to the gathering of animals, every one of them had the need to feed plainly set in their eyes. She could feel their desire for feasting like something rising on the air – it was also something she needed to step clear from, this was to be the feast for the animals. She would have to find her zombie meat elsewhere, the animals were gathering into packs ready for assault.

  She stepped aside, leaving the path and wandering over to a nearby crossroad that showed the way to the fair and the water park, and then she stood and watched.

  The lions went in first, leaping at the fencing, splintering it like matchwood as they burst through, taking down the two fences and the wooden roof that made up the corridor that ran around the enclosure. Wood splintered and cracked, collapsing as the lions leapt through into a sea of undead. One after another the great beasts jumped in, followed by the tigers and then the scurrying, chattering monkeys.

  What followed was a strange mix of moans and screeches from the undead mingled with the roar of the beasts, as Flossie watched through the broken down fencing as the animals took over the enclosure, devouring the undead with ravenous glee...

  As the chaos was spotted on the monitors, a guard ran to alert Mortiz as the guard on observation duties watched in alarm as mutated wild animals bounded about the enclosure, tearing up the undead. The soldiers went in with weapons ready, they screamed and cried out as fingers slipped from the triggers of their poised weapons as surviving undead claimed them, biting deeply, tearing at flesh and drinking deeply from the blood of their warm, living victims. It was like a scene a from hell – the mutant animals tearing up the dead, the dead tearing up the living.

  Mortiz was losing his army on all counts...

  The guard switched to the laboratory, and spoke through the intercom:

  “All manpower needed – crisis in the enclosure! Mortiz needs to be informed, this is an emergency!”

  Then as he watched the men hurry off, the guard got up, paused to check his weapon and then put on a battle helmet and tugged down a visor. Things were about to change, and he was the kind of man to embrace change – especially if that change offered an opportunity to break away from the employment of the psychopath known as Mortiz...

  Before he made his break for freedom, the guard left the observation room and took the lift to the laboratory, guessing the door would be bolted from the outside – someone had to give that young woman trapped inside a fighting chance...

  Throughout the climb, he thought about his choice and then as the doors opened and she turned from the lab table clutching papers, he noticed a hidden board on the wooden floor of the haunted house had been shifted.

  Carrie held the papers up, noticing this guard was not one of the swordsmen – this guard was one of the few who carried guns and often walked alongside Mortiz as a personal protector. As the screams and moans from the carnage inside the enclosure carried across the park, she held the papers high over the flame of a lit Bunsen burner.

  “These are Adrienne's real papers – her real theory on how the virus works!” she said as she paled and her hand trembled, making the papers shiver in her grasp, “Let me go or I burn the only hope this world has left! LET ME GO!”

  He held out his hand.

  “We need to get away from the fairground,” he said, “The dead are being torn apart by mutant animals and those that escaped the mutants are tearing up the guards...I'm not one of his swordsmen - I'm a personal protector hired by Samuel Lee just before the outbreak. I swear I had no hand in his massacres. I just want out as much as you do!”

  She hesitated, then as more roars and shrieks carried from across the enclosure, she turned back to the table, left the flame glowing on the burner and hastily switched on two other gas taps, then, clutching the papers in one hand, with the other she grabbed the hand of the guard and he unlocked the door, leading her out to the corridor where he indicated to a wooden door at the end.

  “Stairway leads to the bottom – from there we can cut across to the water park. We might find a building we can use for shelter until the worst of this is over. The dead are all set loose, so we have to hurry!”

  He slid the bolts back and threw open the door, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder as the smell of gas escaped from the lab.

  “I reckon we've got two minutes before this place blows!” he exclaimed, then he grabbed her hand again and quickly led her down the stairway, heading for the back door as they desperately unlocked it and then ran out, knowing there could be no simple route to escape the place known as Fearland.

  By now the sun had sunk low and out of sight and evening shadows chased across the hellish scene laid out over the once colourful theme park. Now it was awash with blood, the blood of undead and of the guards as the animals scattered, leaving the vast enclosure soaked in scarlet and stinking of death. The fences were broken, the surviving dead had wandered out, and so the mutant animals, satisfied with their meal, had departed – to wait for the coming of dawn to regroup and hunt down the remaining zombies, a morning breakfast for the virus mutated former residents of the zoo... Over at the water park, David and the others had holed up in the nearby bar, picking off the dead one by one as their shots rang out and ammunition had dwindled along with the remainder of the undead that had emerged from the sea. Now bodies littered the beach and the patio area, and as David locked the doors and turned to the others, he was exhausted and so were they, all of them worn out from the ordeal in the corridor, then the tunnels, to have to now pick off the remaining attacking undead had been almost too much.

  Emma's death was on their minds, how Sandra died would never be forgotten and the whole group were shattered and thankful to sink down on to the carpeted floor of the bar. The place stank of spilled, stale booze and the bar itself and around some of the tables had been littered with broken glass from bottles and drinking glasses, some of that glass was bloodstained too but thankfully no bodies – of the undead or their victims – were in this build
ing.

  Toby had gone around and checked all doors and windows were locked before they had rested, now they were out of sight, locked in, and at least for now, safe...

  As David sat on the floor and checked his gun he looked to the others.

  “How much ammo do we have left?”

  “Very little,” Tara replied, “We can't hold off another horde.”

  Silence fell on the group. They all knew this respite from the battle was temporary – sooner or later, more undead would come, they would sniff out the living and launch another attack...

  “We need to find new weapons,” Jason said.

  Rick, who had pulled up a chair and sat down at the only table not stained or covered with shards of glass, shook his head as he looked about the room.

  “There's nothing here.. a couple of broken bottles, and the way they're broken we're more likely to harm ourselves with them simply by picking them up.”

  “You could use one,” Jason said, indicating to Rick's metallic hand.

  Rick gave a sigh.

  “This hand is metal. It can handle a lot - but not glass, not broken glass, Jason!”

  Tara, who was sat beside David, turned her head and met his gaze.

  “So I guess we have to fight our way out of here...or not, are the odds in our favour?”

  “That remains to be seen,” he replied, looking towards the cracked wall as his thoughts shifted back to the Arctic and how this nightmare had begun. Then his thoughts drifted further, back to his ex wife and his son... They were safe, they had to be, it was the only thought he could allow to fix there in his mind as he pictured them, then he thought to his present circumstances, wondering if he and the others would make it out of the amusement park and if he would ever get the chance to put the brakes on this insane journey through hell and have a brief precious time to search for the family he feared lost...

  He glanced at Tara, thought about sharing what was on his mind, but her eyes were closed and she looked exhausted. Right now they didn't know if they would make it out of this place alive and it really wasn't the right time to bring up his past – no matter how much it was suddenly tugging sharply at his heart...

  “This life...this thing we have left that we call a life.. it doesn't allow much room to think, does it?” he murmured.

  Tara's eyes were still closed as she gave a weary sigh.

  “Then don't,” she replied, “Don't think...just keep moving, it's all we can do.”

  “I say we give it an hour, if we have an hour,” Toby added, “Then we get moving again...we have to find another way out of the park.”

  Then a boom sounded somewhere in the distance and David jumped up, ran to the door and opened it, to see a plume of thick smoke billowing into the darkening skies over at the fairground. Then carried on the wind came a strange mix of moans of the undead and cries and shrieks that seemed to almost resemble the sound of wild animals, but it seemed to be coming from all around the park, from all corners, and at a distance...

  “We have got to get over there!” he said as the others got up and joined him, watching the smoke rising as a tall building burned, lighting up the night sky like a beacon.

  “What about the ammo?” Rick asked, casting him a worried glance.

  David looked back to the night skies, where the fires burned high and bright.

  “We'll just have to hope for the best...We were so busy shooting down those dead that came up from the sea, we didn't think about what else could be happening in the rest of this place...I think Mortiz is in trouble..” he glanced back at him as hope shone in his eyes, “I think you might just get to settle that score after all, Rick...”

  Mortiz stood in the middle of the fairground on a lawn area, his eyes wide and his face and clothing marked with soot, a legacy from his failed attempt to reach his family, his undead family trapped in the former haunted house attraction... As the explosion had happened, he had been over at a security point near the water park, watching a screen that gave clear and detailed imagery of the under water attraction and the area above it. He had watched as the group had fought their way out, then picked off the remaining undead who emerged from the sea...

  And then the explosion had happened. He had run back to see his guards firing into the broken enclosure as mutated wild animals tore up most of his army of living dead, then they had turned on the guards and Mortiz had run over to the blaze, falling to his knees as he screamed the names of his lost family. He held no understanding of the theory that the reanimated dead were incurable, that cure had always been his goal and now as he staggered across the lawn and looked to the entrance to the water park as more of his guards fell to lurking zombies, amid their cries for help his mind was set on one goal:

  He did not know what had caused the fire, nor did he know if the animals that caused the carnage had been lured there, or had simply been biding their time to mount this attack – but he knew he had lost everything, and he gave a yell of rage as his eyes blazed and he turned to the masked men who ran to his side, their swords sheathed as they looked to their leader for instruction.

  “Go to the water park,” he said darkly, “Kill them all!”

  Then he watched as the men ran off down the path – he had seen the shootings on the monitor, he had noticed ammunition was low. These strangers would stand no chance against his remaining swordsmen who had survived the battle inside the undead enclosure.

  “On this night you will you die,” he said bitterly as he looked towards the water park and thought of the intruders, “Tonight, all shall die!”

  As Carrie ran with the guard, her hand stayed in his grip as he led her past swordsmen battling undead, past monkeys in trees with mutated faces, clutching the flesh of the undead and taking bites as they chattered way, far off in the distance a lion was running with a corpse in its mouth, heading to far off woodland beyond the boundaries of the park.

  Then amid the chaos she tugged at his hand, pulling him back.

  “I need to make contact with Outpost K23!”

  He looked at her, his face obscured by the tinted visor as even amid the chaos and noise of the battle so close by, her words had confused him.

  “What?” he said.

  “The Outpost is the under sea research centre where Adrienne was supposed it be based in the event of this crisis getting out of control – it's the last place where the best of the research scientists can work on a real solution. I have the paperwork in my hand, this is what she wanted to keep safe, we're so close to finding an answer!”

  “There's no time to contact your research base – and how would you even reach them from here?”

  “Take me to a radio control area – I just need to get a message out -”

  “From here?”he said again.

  “Yes, from here!”

  As two snarling undead staggered past locked in conflict with a swordsman, he pulled her clear as the blade swung sharp, lopping off the zombies head.

  “There's a radio communications area in the water park...”

  “Thank you!” she exclaimed, then for a moment she was pulling him sharply onward, then they ran, weaving about debris and battling guards and undead, as together they dashed for the path that led to the water attractions.

  As David and the others clutched their weapons, very mindful of the fact that few bullets were left, they ran across the patio area, over the bodies of the fallen undead, heading towards the beach, where they stopped, looking about.

  “We'll have to go back through the whole of the park!” Tara exclaimed, realising there was no alternative way out of this section, the only choice was to turn back and hide, or to take their chances through the chaos in the pitch dark, with little ammunition left...

  “We've got no choice,” David replied, looking to the others, “Out there over the barrier is the open sea, we don't have a boat, there's no where to swim to and I'm pretty sure Nemo isn't capable of giving us all a ride to the nearest available shore! We have to get through w
hatever has happened out there – I heard animals and undead, I'm guessing they hunted down a huge food supply source – the enclosure. If the dead broke out, the guards are dead and probably Mortiz too. We have to make a run for it, we've got no other choice.”

  Then a sound cut through the air, and as they all looked left and right about the beach, their faces all matched the same shade of horror - they were trapped by a horde. The air was filled with moans and groans and screeching as they staggered, slithered and ran towards them. These were the survivors of the mutant animal attack, these were in rags and decaying and some had limbs missing, others had eyes hanging out and flesh peeling off, and they kept coming, so many of them, too many of them and not enough ammo...

  “Get back inside!” David yelled, and as they turned to run for the smashed up bar, he caught a look of despair in Tara's eyes. He felt the same way as the same thought ran through the minds of all the group:

  Is this it, is this how it ends for us, do we all die tonight?

  Chapter 10: Fearland - Final Showdown

  As the dead advanced, some came running, even the ones that staggered did so at eerie speed, arms outstretched, determined to lay claim to the human blood they craved. As David reached the doors and he struggled to open them up as the damaged lock stuck firmly, he tugged again at the door, looked back at the horde and knew it was too late.

  “This is it,” he said as he raised his weapon and prepared to fire.

  “No, this is not how we die!” Tara replied firmly, squeezing the trigger of her own weapon as a zombie staggered back from the head shot, then fell.

  Jason was reloading his gun with the last of his bullets. Rick took aim and fired off two shots, taking out the fastest of the nearest approaching attackers.