by Watts, Russ
“Hey, there’s no need for that,” said Harry. “We thought we were helping. We just need a bed for the night. I’m sorry about your friend. He told us…”
“How do we know you didn’t shoot him?” said Walker suspiciously. “How do we know Honok isn’t dead already? For all I know, you killed him, shot Shane, and came up with this plan to get over here. Thought you could get in the easy way instead of having to shoot your way in, eh?”
“Mr Walker, look, please, if we were that stupid, why would we have just given you our guns?” Harry lowered his hands. “We didn’t even know if there would be anyone here. Like I said, we’ve been on the road for weeks and we happened to hear the gunshots.”
“It’s okay, Walker, put the gun down,” said Lazarus.
They hadn’t realised he had heard the banging on the doors too and had come down to investigate. He had been stood on the steps, listening to the conversation. As he entered the room, Walker handed him one of the guns and Lazarus smiled.
“Harry? Jackson? Pleased to have you on board. We can give you a bed for the night, after that you’re free to leave. I think you’ll find we have a good thing going here. We have food, water, shelter. In fact, we’re having a town meeting right now to discuss a few things. Come and join us. I suspect poor Shane won’t be joining us.”
Harry looked at the man standing before him holding the automatic. A long black coat hung off his broad shoulders and he had bright penetrating eyes. Harry felt like the man was peering into his soul. “Okay, thank you, Mister..?”
Lazarus held out a hand for Harry to shake. “Welcome to the Mount. I’m Lazarus.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ed led the way out of the castle with Harry and Jackson following. They headed down the hillside toward the settlement where the meeting was to be held. Walker and Lazarus followed them at a distance.
“You believe them?” said Walker.
“I’m not sure,” said Lazarus. “They could be telling the truth. Then again...keep an eye on them, Walker. The old chap, Jackson, doesn’t look too good. We need to see if it’s just old age or anything worse. We need to keep the Mount clean of infection. After the meeting, take them back to the castle and check them over.”
Lazarus scurried to catch up with them and fell in step beside Harry. “So, Harry, how did you get these guns?”
“Military checkpoint,” answered Harry. “We were coming down into Southampton last week when we came across it. There was no one around so we took them. It seemed too good an opportunity to waste.”
“So the both of you have been together all this time?” Lazarus continued his probing. “Just you? Nobody else? How did you manage to survive for so long out there? From my reports, I understand there are very few survivors on the mainland. The zombies are everywhere.”
Harry cleared his throat. “We haven’t seen anyone else alive for weeks until today. I worked with Jackson at a paper mill outside Reading. It got too heavy so we split, thought we might stand a better chance near the coast. You know, find somewhere less populated?”
“Then why head to Southampton?” asked Lazarus.
Harry paused. He hadn’t had time to think of their back-story thoroughly and was making it up as he went along. If he got caught out now, he knew what Lazarus would do to them both.
“My daughter,” said Jackson suddenly. “She moved to Southampton five years back. I was hoping we could find her, but...well, I guess she’s gone now.”
“I see, I see,” said Lazarus. “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Mr Jackson.”
They walked on in silence until they neared the houses. Harry counted the buildings as they approached. Eight stone houses and a larger one slightly separated from the others by a well. It looked like the houses were in a circular formation and Harry wondered if they were heading to the large house for the meeting. He was worried that Lazarus hadn’t bought their story. Their rescue could be over before it had even begun.
“Is that where the meeting is?” said Harry pointing to the large building.
“Oh no,” Lazarus said. “That’s the old pub. We have a well-stocked bar and there’s large freezer at the back of the pub. We run it from an old oil generator to keep the food fresh. That way, we can serve decent meals instead of living out of tins all the time. I’ll bet you haven’t had a solid meal in weeks. I’ll take you there tomorrow. For now, we’ve business to attend to. Just follow Ed.”
Ed led them between two houses and Harry immediately tensed up. He heard Jackson draw in a sharp breath. Standing around the circle of houses were the island’s inhabitants. He estimated at least twenty men and counted only one old woman. They were standing in an oval shape and the sun was casting tall shadows across the rough ground. In the middle of them all was a set of stocks. Harry hadn’t seen anything like them before, only in history books, but he knew what they were for. He also recognised Glenda who had been locked into them. Her feet were in shackles and her hands bound together.
Walker and Ed made Harry and Jackson stand beside them as Lazarus strode into the centre of the village green. The grass had long since died and the ground was now muddy, littered with exposed sharp protrusions of flint and rock. There was a low murmur as Lazarus stood next to the stocks. Glenda was naked and appeared to be semi-conscious. Lazarus raised his hands and then, as he lowered them, the men hushed.
“I hope you have all had a productive day today, men. It has been an interesting one. I trust you enjoyed the entertainment I laid on?”
There were cheers and laughter. Jackson wanted to grab the gun off Walker and shoot every last one of these pigs down in cold blood. Harry could see the look in Jackson’s eyes and shot him a stern glance. They couldn’t expose themselves now, not without at least finding out if Rosa and Laurent were still alive.
Lazarus waited for the noise to subside before continuing. “Some of you may be aware that we have lost some of our own today. Tim and Shane won’t be joining us this evening. They were brave men who went down fighting, laying down their own lives to protect us; to protect the Mount. Tim was killed by outsiders, Shane gunned down in cold blood too. When you dine tonight, I ask you all to raise your glasses to these men and offer a prayer for their souls.
“Another of our own, Honok, is still out there. We do not know yet what has happened to him, or if he’ll be coming back. These are dangerous times, gentlemen. Probably the most dangerous we have experienced since setting up base here. We are facing many dangers and we must be prepared to face our enemy.”
“Who are these bastards?!” shouted a voice.
“Let’s get out there and find them!” shouted another.
As more and more voices joined in, Lazarus asked the men to quieten down. “We shall have our revenge, but we do not need to go looking for these people. Whoever they are, they will come to us. We have captured some of the aggressors. We must defend the Mount when they come, and surely they will. This woman here is one of them. Honok and Shane managed to bravely capture four of them. Two of them are locked up right now and will be questioned further. I believe you have all already met one of them, a lovely young thing called Rosa.”
Harry bristled at her name. From the chorus of laughter and wolf-whistles that accompanied her name, he surmised that she was in trouble. If this vile band of nefarious men had her locked up in a cell there was no telling what they would do to her, or had done to her. Harry wanted to get to her as quickly as possible.
Lazarus cupped Glenda’s face and picked up a sword from the ground. Harry and Jackson could tell she had been beaten badly and was having trouble focussing.
“This is one of them. This is an outlaw, one of the people who mercilessly killed Tim. What should we do with her?”
“Throw her over the side!” shouted a voice from the crowd.
“Kill her. Kill ‘em all!” shouted Christopher.
Harry and Jackson were shocked as the chorus of voices clamouring for her death rose. Lazarus let it reach a crescendo befo
re drawing the sword across Glenda’s throat. As her blood spurted out, the voices grew into a raucous cheering. Ed and Walker were enjoying the show and didn’t notice as Harry put his hand on Jackson’s arm.
“Steady,” he whispered. “Steady, Jackson.” Harry could see the steel in Jackson’s eyes. If they revealed their true intentions now they would have an angry lynch mob on their backs and they would be as dead as Glenda within minutes.
Glenda still stood with her arms locked in the wooden stocks, but her life was nearly spent. Her knees wobbled and urine dribbled down her legs. Her last thoughts were of the mountains back home. She forgot the zombies and the castle, the agonising death of her husband and the rape. She pictured the snow-capped mountains and the lush green fields as her blood spewed out of her neck.
Lazarus took the sword, drew it back, and with one clean slice, lopped off Glenda’s head. Her body sagged and quivered as her head rolled away across the ground. Her eyes blinked twice and then froze open, a deathly glaze covering them.
Jackson looked to the ground. He wished he could block out the cheers, the horrible applause and the hurrahs that were ringing in his ears. He wished this were over with so he could find Rosa, Laurent, and Lenny, and take them back to safety. Somehow, he doubted that was going to happen. The infection coursing through his veins was growing stronger. He would not live to see daybreak tomorrow.
The gleeful hollering of the men subsided once more as Lazarus raised the sword into the air, Glenda’s fresh blood trickling down it onto his arm.
“Go now, men. Go eat, drink, and rest. I suspect we will need to fight before the next day dawns. May this pathetic woman’s death serve as a message to all our enemies. Blood will be spilled on this land, for you will not take our home lightly. All sentry duties will be doubled. I want extra manpower around the island, all posts guarded twenty four hours a day from now on. We will take no prisoners, men. There will be no shirking from the battle ahead. No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny. This is our time. Nobody is going to take the Mount from me, from us. This is our land!”
To unified acclaim, Lazarus left the circle as the men dispersed. He thrust the sword into Glenda’s decapitated head as he strode back over to Harry and Jackson.
“Ed, clear that up, then get back to the radio. I’ve got something to attend to. Walker, make sure the men get organised after eating. I want sentries all over the place. I do not want any nasty surprises in the night. Get Norm to see if he can get any more information from our guests in the cells. Now take these two men back up to the castle. Inspect them thoroughly for any bites or sign of infection. If they’re contaminated, kill them.” Lazarus marched away out of sight around the back of the pub.
As Walker prodded Harry and Jackson along back up the path to the castle, Harry began to wonder if they hadn’t bitten off more than they could chew. These men were enthralled by Lazarus, hanging on his every word. Harry had no doubt that they would rather die than give up their home on the Mount. He had lost his gun and was going to have to find an opportune moment to strike. He really hoped he would get one soon. He didn’t like to think of Tom fetching the others to this place, and if Jackson was inspected, then he knew what would happen. There would indeed be much blood spilled.
* * * *
Ed sank into the chair and picked up the headphones. He hated having to get his hands dirty, but accepted it was part of living on the island. It was one thing offing a zombie. It was already dead, but Glenda had been a living, breathing human being. Her body was still warm when Ed tossed it over the cliff edge into the ocean. He had refused to touch her head, using a spade to scoop it up and put it in a bag. He had thrown her head into the ocean too and watched it bob away before returning to the radio.
The old woman of the group, Malini, had brought him a meal and a couple of beers. She was a good cook and ran the pub, such as it was. She kept the place clean, cooked everyone’s food and kept quiet. She was nearly sixty and overweight. Her fat bulged out the side of her food-stained sari. She was of little use other than for cooking their meals, and it was the only reason she hadn’t been tossed into the cells with the others.
The radio crackled and hissed, but there was nothing. He sat listening, waiting for the voices to come back. He wondered how his family were back home. He had been closest to his elder brother Evan. They used to go surfing together until Evan had got married. Then two kids had appeared on the scene and Evan became the family man. Ed had more time for partying and women and got into a few scrapes with the law. His father bailed him out of trouble several times, but eventually it got too much and he wound his way over to England via Bali. Ed had no trouble falling in with Lazarus. Since the whole zombie thing, the world had gone crazy. Lazarus was crazy, but he kept them together. He kept everything going. Ed reclined and let his mind meander back to Australia.
The radio beeped loudly in Ed’s ear and the static abruptly gave way to conversation.
“McCulloch here on HMS Daring of the British Royal Naval Force, respond please, Samson.”
After a moment, Ed heard the response come through.
“McCulloch, Samson here, USS Abraham Lincoln. It’s good to hear your voice - I thought we’d lost you.”
“How’s it going, Samson? We’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“Not good, McCulloch. Things are...difficult here. How are you?”
“We’re okay. We’re set for the extradition tomorrow at 0730 hours. We’re keeping a safe distance for now. All quiet out here in The Channel. Unfortunately, we lost two men just a few hours ago. Remember I told you about the dolphins and the attack on us? The two men who got hurt died. We’re going to have a ceremony for them shortly. There’s no family to take their bodies back to, so we’re going to take care of it ourselves. What’s your problem, Samson, what’s happened?”
“Where do I start? Jesus, the shit has really hit the fan. This morning, we lost contact with the USS Wasp. No coms at all. The ship’s still on our radar, but there are no noises coming from them. We don’t know if it’s mechanical or a technical malfunction of some sort, but we’re preparing for the worst. I still have communication with Blaine, of course, on the USS Gerald Ford. He’s sitting tight near the Windies waiting for us. He’s running a full crew and they’re itching to get cracking, but he says he’d rather wait for our backup.
“McCulloch, Blaine said he picked up a signal from the Pentagon. God knows how. I guess these new Supercarriers have better equipment than we do. We haven’t had a goddamn upgrade in fifteen years. It was a recorded message. It said the US was overrun and the President and his immediate security personnel and council were being evacuated to a secure location. We have no way of knowing if they made it or not. It went on to say that many world leaders are missing, feared dead. Apparently, your PM was in Belgium, but the European Council headquarters in Brussels was swamped by those zombies. Military jets destroyed the building. There were no survivors.”
Ed scribbled it all down, not daring to miss a word for fear Lazarus would find out. He heard McCulloch sigh before the American continued.
“UN estimates currently put the reanimated at something like five hundred million worldwide. Can you fucking believe that? Five hundred million! Knowing the UN that was probably a conservative estimate too. Those idiots couldn’t count to three on a fucking abacus. The message ended by saying that all military personnel were to await word directly from the President imminently.”
“What did he say?” asked McCulloch.
“Nothing. We haven’t heard from him. We haven’t heard a word from anyone. The Pentagon’s recorded message was dated over two weeks ago. Who knows what’s happened in the time since they sent that out.”
“Jesus,” said McCulloch. “We really are on our own, aren’t we?”
“Not exactly, buddy.”
“What do you mean?”
Samson went on. “You remember I told you we had something? We captured one of them, on
e of the mother-fucking alien bitches who started this thing. Picked it up near Oklahoma. Long story. Anyway, it’s still alive and we’re talking to it.”
“Alive? What’s it like? What...what did it say?”
“Not much yet, but we’re working on it. Trust me, the US Army knows how to get information out of people. We’ll get it. So far, it’s offered very little information. It’s capable of speaking English, which is handy. It was very placid, very calm – until it realised it was on a ship out in the middle of the ocean. After that, it went psycho. We’ve got it contained, for now, but it was not a happy bunny. It said it was in danger, because the ocean was deadly. I asked if it would prefer to be on land with six million zombies and it said yes. Told you it was psycho. It said the things from the ocean and the skies were a thousand times worse than what was on land. It said there would be dozens and dozens of them, scores, hundreds, rising from the depths. Then it clammed up.”
“Samson, you called it a bitch. Are you saying it’s female? Is it humanoid?”
Samson laughed. “Yeah, it’s humanoid, and it’s definitely a female. Of the Queen Bitch variety.”
“Anything else you can tell me? What was in the ocean that it was so scared of?” asked McCulloch.
“Listen up,” said Samson.
Ed furiously wrote down the conversation until they were done. He was unaware that he had been listening, and writing, for hours. It was only when they had finished and he re-read the transcript that what they had said sunk in. Ed felt a chill run across him and almost released his bowels right there and then. He let the feeling of nausea pass and then stood up clutching the papers. Ed went outside into the dark night and made straight for the castle. Lazarus had to know about this immediately.
* * * *
“You’re good to go,” said Walker. Harry put his shirt back on. They were in one of the rooms at the castle. Walker had taken them both into one of the bedrooms. Jackson was finding it hard to focus on his surroundings, having to concentrate on his breathing.