by Watts, Russ
Harry walked around, occasionally tripping on an outcrop of granite, ignoring the cold air that accompanied him. He tried not to think about Jackson. Did Lazarus bury his dead? They wouldn’t leave Jackson to rot in that room, surely? No, he suspected that Lazarus had little time for things that were ‘useless.’ Jackson would probably be buried or burned along with Shane.
Harry walked slowly and carefully, making sure he took everything in. Shortly, he came across a set of steps leading down the face of a cliff and carefully followed them down. They seemed to lead straight into the ocean, which made no sense at all. He kept following them. He hadn’t made it to DI in the Met’ without following his instincts occasionally. At the base of the cliff was a cave. Harry saw a rope nailed to the inner wall of the cave and took hold of it. The cave swallowed him into its darkness and then Harry saw it: a boat.
It was difficult to see clearly in the fading light, but there was a small mast and it looked seaworthy. It was moored up and appeared to be deserted. Harry left it alone and began ascending the steps carved into the cliff once more. He assumed that Lazarus had the boat there just in case. As much as he liked to think the Mount was defended by his men, it was not a complete fortress. Nowhere was impregnable.
On his way back to the castle, Harry saw nobody outside. Approaching the castle entrance, he saw two sentries up on the turret and two more by the castle’s main doors. No doubt there were more around, keeping watch over the whole island. He remembered the instructions given to him by Walker and found the passageway leading down to the cells. As he descended the stairway, he wondered what he was going to find in there. He hoped Rosa wasn’t in there. The cells were cold and damp. No good could come of her being locked away down in a dungeon with these people. Part of him hoped that she was in there. Searching the rest of the castle would be very difficult without being spotted.
“Did Lazarus send you?” asked Norm, getting up as Harry entered the cells.
“Yeah, he said I could come by.”
“Knock yourself out. She’ll be co-operative. If that other one gives you any trouble, just shout and I’ll shut him up.” Norm raised a fist. His meaning was clear.
Harry could see two figures in the cells, lying in the shadows, not making any sound. He took a few steps closer, past the first empty cell, and saw a woman lying on the floor. It was unmistakeably Rosa. Harry felt for the knife in his back pocket – he could slit Norm’s throat in seconds. The obese man would not be able to outrun him, but he might raise the alarm. Getting back to the tunnel armed with only a knife was a suicidal idea.
“Hey, Norm, I forgot to say, Walker said you should call it quits for the night. He put me on guard duty, said I should make myself useful if I’m going to be joining you. He said you could have a night off.”
Norm looked at Harry suspiciously. “Really? He didn’t mention anything to me. Maybe I should go check.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you. He didn’t look too happy when I mentioned I was coming here. Did you piss him off or something?” Harry took a gamble that Walker’s name would carry credence and weight to his argument.
Norm grumbled something under his breath and rubbed his jaw. “Fine. This lot are more hassle than they’re worth anyway. Good luck to you.” He fished a set of keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Harry. Then he turned away and trudged upstairs.
When Norm was safely gone, Harry hurried to unlock Rosa’s cell. He raced in and knelt down beside her, gently shaking her. “Rosa? Rosa, it’s Harry.”
She stirred and groaned. Harry took his jacket off and covered her with it. She was naked and it didn’t take a genius to work out what had happened to her. There was a soiled mattress in one corner of the cell and a bucket in the other. The whole place stank of sex and excrement.
“Harry?” Rosa opened her left eye. Her right eye was swollen shut and she didn’t have the energy to force it open. Her lip was split and her once blonde hair was now a dirty grey, tousled and greasy. She offered him a faint smile and he sat down beside her, cradling her head on his legs.
“Oh, Rosa, I’m so sorry we didn’t get here sooner. How are you holding up?”
She shrugged and closed her one good eye. She didn’t even have the energy to speak.
“Harry? Is that you?” came a voice from the other cell.
“Laurent? Thank God, I found you. Yes, it’s me, Harry. Laurent, what the hell happened to you. Where’s Lenny?”
“I promised I’d look after him, but I couldn’t. I let him down. I let everyone down.”
Harry heard a shuffling, scraping sound and then Laurent’s face appeared at the cell bars. He too had been beaten and not just with fists and boots. Laurent’s head looked like it had been used as a football. There were deep lacerations across his face and neck and his right ear was hanging on by a thread. Harry felt anger rising in his gut.
“There were too many of them, Harry. They threw us down here in the cells. That man, Norm, beat me. Rosa too. Kept trying to ask us where we’d come from and who we were with. We didn’t say a thing, I swear. Rosa was so strong. I don’t know how she did it. Glenda was here too, but they took her away. Do you know what happened to her?”
“She’s dead, Laurent. They killed her.”
“Good God. Poor Heidi. First her father, then her mother. These people are sick, Harry. They’re evil. That Lazarus...he abused her and then he threw her down here with me. He sent his men in here to her. They raped her. They forced me to watch, but...I lost count, Harry, I lost count of how many men came and raped her and beat her and…”
Laurent began crying. He shrank back into the dark of his own cell so that Harry could not see his tears. He had managed to be strong all day, not showing emotion or weakness, trying to help Rosa. Now Harry was here, he felt like someone else could finally take charge and carry some of the burden. He tried to look after her, but he failed. He wept for her and his broken promises.
“I’m going to get you out, Laurent, all of you,” said Harry after a while. “You, Rosa and Lenny. Where is he? Are they keeping him somewhere else?”
Laurent snorted, holding back a laugh and then immediately regretted it. Any movement just caused him pain. “No, he’s dead too.”
“What? How?”
“Lazarus killed him. I assume you’ve met? Charming man. He killed Lenny in cold blood. Made us stand there and watch. He took a club and battered him to death right there in front of us.”
Harry rubbed his temples. Glenda and Lenny had died at the hands of this man. He should go up there now and run him through, to hell with the consequences. Harry looked down at Rosa. She needed him, now more than ever before. He couldn’t leave her like this.
“Where’s everyone else? What happened after we left the house?” Laurent’s voice was fragile.
Rosa came to, but lay quiet and still, unable to speak, unwilling to move. Any slight movement only brought her pain.
“We ran into some trouble,” said Harry. “Everyone else is set up back in Longrock in an out of town shopping centre. They’re safe for now.”
“Jess?” whispered Rosa.
“She’s fine.” Harry stroked her hair softly, holding her head in his lap.
“So you came on your own?” Laurent thought about sitting up, but realised he didn’t have the strength. As he pushed himself up his head swam and he lay back down.
“No, Tom and Jackson came with me. Tom’s gone back to the others. He knows to get help if we don’t come back right away. He was going to wait a couple of hours and then go get help.”
“And Jackson? Did he go back with Tom?”
Harry had hoped he wouldn’t have to tell them now, not while they were so weak. He wasn’t prepared to lie to his friends though. “No, he was with me. He...back in Longrock he got bitten. He came here with me, helped me get in.”
“He’s infected and they let him in? They let him stay? Are they helping him?” Laurent crawled forward again to the edge of the cell and his blue eyes
stared at Harry who dropped his head. Laurent knew then that Jackson was dead.
“Once they found out he was infected...he’s gone now. He’s with his wife at last. I think he’s happy now. He’s at peace.”
Laurent wanted to scream and roar, but all he could manage was a single tear. He felt so utterly lost that tears were useless. Laurent felt numb. “It’s not fair. Poor Jackson.”
Harry looked down at Rosa. She had fallen unconscious again. She really needed medical attention, but she wasn’t going to get any in here. All Harry could do was try to comfort her. Her breathing was shallow, but her wounds were superficial. Physically, she would be able to recover, but mentally? Harry wouldn’t have inflicted the torture and abuse she had suffered upon his worst enemies, except for maybe Lazarus.
“So why not get us out now?” said Laurent suddenly. “Where’s Tom? Where’s everyone else?” He was angry and the adrenalin gave him enough energy to sit himself upright, to push through the pain. “We could get back out the tunnel and nobody would even know. There are only three of us. We could still make it to Penzance and the ship tomorrow. What are we waiting for, Harry? Let’s go!”
Harry shook his head. “It wouldn’t work. Lazarus has doubled all the guards. They’re everywhere: the tunnel, the castle, all over the island. The grounds are relatively clear, but there’s nowhere to go. We need the tunnel to get out of here, or daylight at the very least to make it across the causeway. It would be impossible to sneak past them all.”
“Fuck sneaking past them, I’ll kill them!” said Laurent, his eyes blazing. “You’ve got a sword and you saw for yourself there are plenty more up there: swords, knives, axes, all sorts. What are you scared of, Harry? You don’t know what we have gone through here. Rosa is...I mean look at her! We have to get her out of here. We can’t wait any longer.”
“They have guns, Laurent. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you and Rosa, but we have to be patient. We have to wait for Tom. He’ll bring the others. He’s got guns now too. He’ll get us out as soon as he can.”
“What if Tom doesn’t come?” said Laurent dejected. “What if he doesn’t come, Harry?”
Harry looked down at Rosa, at her battered face and body, and held her, trying to warm her. “He’ll come. He has to.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tom picked at the scab on his elbow, scratching and scratching until it came off and pus oozed from the wound. He dug a fingernail in and embraced the sweet pain it brought him. He dug his fingernail in deeper until he drew blood. It trickled down his finger and he watched as a single drop landed on the ground by his feet. The blood began to bubble as if it were being heated by an underground furnace. It spread out becoming a pool, a river, an ocean. Tom found himself swimming in an ocean of boiling blood, struggling to keep his head above the rising levels. As he flailed around in the viscous liquid something began sucking him down, tugging on his ankles. He tried to reach for something to hold onto, but there was nothing, no land, nothing solid to get hold of. He splashed around as his ankles were suddenly sucked down and he took a deep breath. As he sank beneath the blood, a zombie swam up to him, its teeth gnashing as it approached. The zombie was an old work colleague, Brad and his jaws opened to bite down on Tom’s arms. Tom desperately tried to push the zombie away, but beneath the tide of red he couldn’t. He opened his mouth to scream as Brad’s sharp teeth bit down on his arm and blood poured into his throat.
With a start, Tom sat upright, his eyes wide open. He was sweating profusely, and looking around at his sleeping friends, realised he had the nightmare again. He glanced at the clock on the wall – five thirty. If it was the right time, it would soon be time to get up anyway if they were to make the low tide. He found it difficult getting back to sleep after the nightmares so he decided to get up.
He tiptoed out of the restroom, carefully trying not to wake any of the others. They would need their rest for later and still had time for a few more minutes precious sleep. Honok was still tied up, asleep or unconscious on the sofa, and Tom went into the garden centre, out past the large doors to the sanctity of the outdoor area. He could hear the zombies still at the fence, unable to get in. Ignoring them, he found a seat amongst some potted plants and sat down, looking up at the sky.
He hoped that Harry had succeeded in finding Rosa, Glenda, Laurent and Lenny. He knew that Jackson would be dead by now and wished him well, wherever he was. They were as well prepared as they were going to be for the day ahead. Tom hoped that the Mount wouldn’t prove to be as difficult as he suspected. Who knew how long the navy would stick around? If they missed the rendezvous with it, he had no idea what they would do. His plans only extended that far.
He thought back to yesterday and the path from Longrock to the Mount. The road was fairly simple. It was almost a straight line and only a couple of miles. The difficulty was what was on the road. Jessica had told him about the flying creature that had attacked her and he was worried there may be more. He hadn’t told her, or anyone else, about the tentacled dead rabbit they had seen. On his way back to the garden centre with Honok they had seen something else, something neither of them wished to talk about or see again.
As they had driven through Longrock, they had passed a two-headed dog. It had ignored them as it was busy with a meal. A large man, dressed in a flamboyant yellow shirt and naked from the waist down, half eaten, was in the dog’s jaws, both of them. The dog, a bull mastiff, had no back legs yet clearly two heads. On its back were two small wings, covered in dirty brown fur. It was trying to fly up into the air, but it could not get more than a foot above the ground. It skittered about unevenly on the road, like a fawn on an icy lake, but it could not fly, it was too heavy. The jaws of the dog were clamped around the man’s waist and refusing to let go, so every time it tried to fly it just stayed where it was. Tom watched from the ambulance as they passed it by. He’d asked Honok if he’d seen anything like that before, but it was clear from Honok’s face he had not.
Tom had seen no reason to worry the others about it. This alien infection was creating not just zombies but monsters, abhorrent disgusting creatures that were putting two fingers up to nature. Tom began to think zombies weren’t so bad. They weren’t very intelligent, they could be distracted fairly easily and they could be put down with a clean head shot. These other things though, these bizarre beasts were becoming more and more frequent. Where they from the same infection? Was the virus or disease that reanimated humans, somehow affecting animals differently? Or was there more than one infection? What if there was a different strain? And what would it do to a human?
Tom’s thought were interrupted by a booming thunderous noise from overhead. He looked up, expecting to see a dark cloud and a flash of white lightning amongst the inevitable downpour. He expected the stars would be obliterated by the oncoming storm clouds, but he saw a clear sky, twinkling stars and a bright crescent moon. The low rumble was almost unmistakeably thunder yet the source of it was hidden. Where were the clouds? He strained to see through the fence, past the overhanging branches and leaves of the small trees, but the early dawn refused to reveal its mysteries.
He crept quietly to the back of the centre to where it was clearer. He stood on an empty wooden pallet that rested against the garden centre wall and there above the fence, away from the zombies, he finally saw the source of the noise. Three mammoth creatures were flying above him, coming from the south. He could not identify what they were or used to be. They were not of this Earth. Their wings looked as big as houses and their bodies were long and cylindrical. Their dark black feathers matched the deep blue morning sky and he was grateful he could not see their features. He watched in silence as the monstrous titans of the sky continued on their path north, slowly flapping their giant wings, to what purpose he knew not. He was just pleased they were heading away. He felt an ominous sensation sprinkle over him and his stomach turned over. What was happening to the world? How could he possibly hope to find a future in this place of t
he dead and the diseased and the damned?
A ceramic plant pot behind him suddenly toppled over and smashed on the ground. He whirled around, whipping a knife out from his belt. A figure emerged from the bushes.
“Shit, sorry, Tom, I didn’t mean to make you jump,” said Heidi.
He put the knife back in his belt loop and jumped down off the pallet.
“Don’t worry, you just caught me off guard. I thought I was alone.”
“Mac started snoring. I couldn’t sleep and I noticed you were gone. Is everything all right? What was that noise I just heard? Is there a thunderstorm coming?”
“You could say that.”
Heidi looked up at the sky. “Doesn’t look like it.”
The dawn sky was enough light for Tom to see Heidi’s attractive face. Her blonde hair and slim figure perfectly suited her bright outlook. A smile crept upon his face until he remembered Jess and Rosa, and all the problems lying ahead of them.
“You’re an odd one, Tom,” Heidi said. “One minute sitting in an office, probably hiding behind a pile of paperwork right, the next, leading a group of people past zombies to safety. What gives?”
Heidi leant back against the wall, grateful that there were no zombies in this area. With her and Tom out here, she didn’t know how long that might be, but it was nice for a change for it to be just the two of them.
“The days of sitting at a computer, trawling through emails and filling in spreadsheets are long gone. To be honest, I’d only just finished college. I was kind of thinking my future was going to be boring, but things didn’t quite work out how I’d expected. Mind you, I would swap it all to go back. There’s so much death in the world now. I’ve lost my family, friends...for what? I’m sorry, Heidi, I know you only just lost your dad.”