Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis

by Watts, Russ

  They relaxed back against the ships railing as Christina drove the boat on, taking them away from the dangers of the land.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  He could feel his life slipping away. He could no longer see, but he could feel. He could feel everything in excruciating detail. Below deck was dark and cramped. The boat only had two small cabins and he had locked himself away in one of them, closing the curtains before lying down on the single bed to die. He could tell they were at sea now. The boat was listing and he could hear the waves creaking against the hull. So someone had found his escape plan and used it for themselves. I hope it’s Walker, thought Lazarus, and none of those deadweight losers from the mainland.

  Lazarus was scared. He always thought it was his destiny to be a leader and something special. His father hadn’t thought so, but his father had been wrong about a lot of things. Lazarus felt the twinge in his gut and knew the end would come soon. That devious traitor Harry had gutted him with his own sword. Now he was dying, alone.

  Suddenly, his skin started bubbling and Lazarus gritted his teeth as the agony spread. From his roiling chest to his extremities, it felt like his blood was on fire. Is this what death felt like? No, something was wrong. This wasn’t just the pain of death, this was something more. Was he infected? How?

  Lazarus tried to sit up, but he was too weak. Is this what his father felt like when he was dying at home, spread-eagled on the floor? Lazarus tried to call out, but only managed to spew thick blood over the sheets. He opened his eyes, and saw nothing but blackness. Was he blind? He could hear faint noises from above: footsteps and talking. If they would only come down they could help him. Walker would help him.

  Suddenly, Lazarus arched his back and he couldn’t breathe. His muscles were collectively contracting and his lungs felt like lead. He opened his mouth, gasping for air like a stranded fish. He tried to grab hold of something, but only found the wooden walls of the cabin. His fingernails splintered off one by one as he pressed down on the walls, desperate for breath. Finally, his body relaxed and he drew in a huge gulp of air. Lazarus wished he was dead. He would rather die quickly than suffer this ignoble, painful death. Why could he not slip away quietly, why must he suffer these torments? His spine abruptly went into spasms, rippling up and down until it cracked. Lazarus fell onto the bed in acute pain, a pain so hot and overwhelming he had never known anything like it.

  Shaking, Lazarus’ body tensed again and abruptly his back split open. His spine careered upwards, bringing his skin with it. His blistered, blackened skin was now mottled with purples and bright greens, dark hairs growing rapidly from every pore. His spine, like a worm with a life of its own, ripped his shoulder sockets out and stretched his skin taut. Looking more like a giant bat, his head rolled forward and two antennae burst from his forehead, spraying the cabin with more blood. From between his legs tentacles slithered out from every orifice, slithering and sliding across the bed, entwining themselves together to form a long fleshy tail.

  “And there were no more worlds to conquer,” Lazarus said quietly, terrified. A single tear dripped from his eye and then his lungs expelled air for the last time. Lazarus’ heart stopped beating and he died whilst his body kept moving; bones cracking, tissue and muscles shifting while the infection grew. His very DNA was being radicalised and redirected; restructured. Toxins and poisons ran through his veins. The next time Lazarus would open his eyes he would be able to see again. The next time he stood up he would be one of the undead, yet also something more. He would remember the man that used to be called Lazarus, but he would know his new name too.

  * * * *

  Harry pulled the bundle of papers out of his back pocket and began to read. He could see they were slipping further behind the naval ship, but nobody had said anything about it yet and he didn’t want to be the first to broach the subject. It was still early in the day to have all your hopes crushed. Anyway, who knows, maybe Christina would be able to catch up with it.

  “What’s that?” said Tom. Heidi was trying to attend to the arrow still sticking in his leg but wasn’t sure what was best to do.

  “Tom, sit still, will you? The bleeding’s stopped, but you need to elevate it. We need to get this thing out of you before it gets infected.”

  “I’ll see if there’s a first aid kit,” said Mac, getting up and leaving them. “Hey, Moira, you wanna help me look?”

  “It’s a transcript,” said Harry dryly. “Lazarus managed to get tuned into some military frequency or something. He heard more than that automated message we heard. It’s a conversation between the British and US by the looks of it. I don’t know what’s on it but Lazarus thought it was important.”

  “Throw it overboard,” said Heidi. “If that man thought it was important it’s probably rubbish. Who needs it.”

  “No, go on, Harry. What does it say?” Tom sat up and let Heidi continue checking him over. It felt good. Her hands were soft and smooth. It felt good to have someone close to him. Jessica had Rosa, why shouldn’t he have someone too?

  “It says here that Samson is Captain of the USS Lincoln. From the childish scribble, I think it says the US Navy is based in the Caribbean. Then there’s another note here, says he was talking to an Admiral McCulloch on HMS Daring. Oh shit, it’s the Daring that was coming to Penzance, that’s who we’re following.”

  Tom studied Harry’s face whilst he read. Harry started off with a furrowed brow of concentration which gradually receded into wonder and finally horror as he read.

  “What does it say?” asked Tom.

  Harry let the papers fall to his lap. “Well, at least we’re not completely alone. The navy must’ve escaped the worst of the infection. I guess any ships out at sea would’ve escaped it. HMS Daring and HMS Illustrious made it, but the rest of the British navy haven’t been heard of. On the American side, the USS Lincoln, the USS Wasp and the Gerald Ford made it. Both say that the administration’s gone. There’s no one in charge anymore. The world leaders, the UN, Europe, everything is all gone. The infection swept around the globe faster than a celebrity sex-video. That’s why there was no firestorm. There’s no one left to push the button.”

  “What else?” asked Tom. He knew from Harry’s face he had read more than that.

  “Samson says they picked up an alien in the US. They’ve been talking to it, actually talking to it.”

  “You’re kidding,” said Heidi. “An alien?”

  Jessica was still comforting Rosa, but had heard them talking and her ears pricked up when she heard the word alien. She still found it hard to believe. Even after the two-headed dogs and the strange creature that had attacked her, it was difficult to accept without seeing it with her own eyes.

  Harry continued. “Apparently, this alien was found somewhere in the South. They interrogated it.”

  “Tortured it, you mean,” said Heidi.

  Harry knew what interrogated meant too, but ignored Heidi. “Seems they managed to get it to talk in the end. At first, it was using a language they couldn’t understand, but later, it changed to English. I don’t know if this information is any good to us, but...this alien said some crazy stuff. Look here. It says, and I quote:

  ‘We are not a technological race. We have made huge technological advances, but with the goal of expanding our race, nothing else. We are clearly superior to you humans and all the pathetic creatures that dwell on this backwater you call Earth. To us this is planet XY-77. We need to use your planet. That is why we are here. Humans are so arrogant. You think that we would waste vast amounts of time and effort just to conquer you? Our science helped us to develop biological warfare. There are others out there who wish to destroy us. To this end we have created a variety of biological creatures to attack our enemies. In order to test these, we needed a fertile testing ground, one rich in life, yet ignorant and dumb, retarded if you like, a race inferior to our own.

  That is where your planet Earth comes in. Germs, viruses, plants, animals - twisting organisms at the
very root of their DNA, manipulating them is what we do, and we do it well. They are better than bombs and guns because they can adapt, mutate, even self-reproduce on the battlefield. Biological weapons are immune to fatigue. We can use your planet to create the perfect invincible weapon to defeat our enemies.’”

  “Or to put it another way,” said Tom, “we’re fucked.”

  Harry picked up the papers again. “It says here there will be schools of fish, hundreds upon hundreds of them, designed to look for meat that will scavenge our oceans for food. It says our skies will be filled with carnivores, larger than skyscrapers, and our land will be populated by the reanimated dead. They want to see how the creatures perform against us. Humans are just convenient test subjects for their new design of weapons.

  “The alien says they sent a few test subjects full of toxins from the aliens’ own race that they hope will combine with a human subject. It says both DNA will fuse to create the perfect killing machine. They launched one toxin over Northern Africa, one over the Eastern coast of the US, and one over Southern England. Apparently, they wanted to see how long it would take for the toxin to find the correct subject, and to see how long it would take to work in the field as it would only work with a rare blood type. The human who receives this toxin would have to have a unique genetic code. He would have to be strong too as the metamorphosis would inflict them with unimaginable pain. If successful, the new hybrid creature would serve the aliens and be pre-designed to have a hatred for humans.

  “Huh, it says this killing machine will be able to reproduce at will, spawning a new generation to rule the Earth and guard their new testing planet, a race designed to live on Earth forever, wiping out any human resistance and protecting XY-77 indefinitely.”

  “You sure about this, Harry?” said Jessica. “What if this is some elaborate joke? Sounds a little off kilter to me.”

  “How will we know if it worked?” asked Heidi. “I’ve seen some bizarre things, but this sounds a bit crazy, if you ask me. Maybe the alien was just trying to scare them? Perhaps it was just bragging?”

  “Sounds plausible from what I’ve seen,” said Tom. “Back at the garden centre when you were all asleep, there were things in the sky: huge, amazing creatures. They weren’t of this planet. I can tell you that for a fact. I’ve seen what this infection is doing to animals too.”

  Harry interjected. “The alien says here the new hybrid creature will be able to speak only its name to humans and all other communication will be in the alien’s native tongue. It will be called Otaktay.”

  “What kind of name is that? If it is true, let’s hope we never run into it,” said Tom. “Anything else we need to know, Harry?”

  “Not really. Unless you want to see some badly drawn doodles of zombies. Jesus, I wish I’d never picked this up now.” Harry threw the papers over the side of the boat.

  Mac and Moira stood in front of the cabin door beside Christina.

  “There’s nothing up here,” said Mac. “I’ll go down and see if I can find something.” He tugged at the door handle, but it didn’t budge. “It’s stuck.”

  Moira pushed Mac aside. “Allow me.” Moira began pulling on the door handle. “Hope there’s a good book down there, because I left all mine behind.”

  Harry sat upright. If the alien had been telling the truth, then the toxin had been released somewhere potentially close by. What if it had been Laurent, Daniel or someone on the island? Surely something would have happened by now. Besides, Southern England was a large area, so the toxin could be anywhere. Jackson? No, Jackson was dead. Harry had put him out of his misery. That emerald-studded sword had seen to that.

  As Harry thought more about it, there was something nagging at the back of his mind. He had used that sword once more, on Lazarus. Why did it matter? Lazarus was dead. The sword was long gone, left behind at the Mount. Harry had cut through Lazarus with it like a scythe slicing through hay. He was surprised when Rosa had said he had managed to get up and walk away, but stranger things than that had happened recently.

  Harry watched Moira tugging on the door as Mac laughed at her, ribbing her for being a typical weak girl. Mac seemed comfortable with them. He would be a good addition to the group. Moira was laughing as Mac joined her in trying to get the cabin door open. Harry liked it when Moira laughed. It was rare that anyone laughed these days, but her childish giggle made him smile. He had seen the way she looked at him and he liked her too, but it was too early. His family was still fresh in his mind and any thoughts of Moira inevitably made him feel rueful. His wife and children were dead, but it was hard to move on. There had been no funeral or grieving period. Maybe one day, soon, he might be able to move on.

  The alien’s words would not leave Harry’s mind and he found himself thinking about them. The dots were there, but he couldn’t connect them. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he forget it? Maybe the alien had been fucking with them all along.

  The sword he had killed Jackson with, the same sword he had cut Lazarus with. The sword still had Jackson’s blood on it, infected blood. Lazarus was a strong man, but strong enough to survive being run through with a sword? Harry’s blood ran cold. This was Lazarus’ boat. When he had left the dungeons, where had he gone? Not to the mainland. To crawl away in a corner and die somewhere? Not likely. What if he came here? What if he was infected? What if Lazarus was that one-in-a-million chance, the one subject the aliens needed? What if he had the rare blood type that the toxin needed to…

  “Mac. Moira. Don’t open that door!” Harry jumped up and shouted at them.

  “What’s up, Harry?” said Moira waving and smiling at him as she finally pulled the door open.

  The deformed creature that used to be Lazarus flew out of the cabin and sliced clean through Moira, its wings cutting her in half. Mac was sprayed with crimson blood as Moira’s lifeless body fell to the wooden deck. The flying creature’s tail swung wildly and thudded into Mac sending him flying back into Christina. She screamed and let go of the wheel as Mac landed on top of her. Mac hit his head on the deck and was knocked out immediately. The boat, uncontrolled, lurched and Heidi fell over the railings into the ocean. The flying creature swooped up into the air and hovered above the boat.

  “Moira!” shouted Harry in disbelief.

  Tom could see she was dead before she had hit the deck. Bright red blood pooled from her body and sloshed across the wooden deck.

  Harry looked up and saw the dead body of Lazarus silhouetted against the sun. He recognised the dark flowing hair and distorted facial features. Two antennae were sticking out of his skull and his eyes were dead, yet without a doubt, he could see. There was no doubt it was him either. Lazarus had somehow sprouted wings covered in matted black hair. His arms bled into them, leaving only short stumpy hands to protrude from his torso. His legs were the only part of him that still looked human, and where his genitals used to be there was now a long tail that lashed from side to side.

  “Help Heidi!” yelled Tom to Christina.

  She crawled over the deck and threw a lifesaver over the side of the boat. Jessica and Rosa got to their feet.

  “Tom, what do we do, what do we do?” Jessica took her eyes off the abomination above them and looked at him imploringly.

  “We don’t have any guns left, we don’t have anything. I…” Tom was dumbfounded.

  Suddenly, the magnificent creature swooped down toward the boat again to attack. Harry roared as Tom ducked and Jessica tried to drag Rosa out of the way. Jessica slipped in Moira’s blood as she felt the weight of the creature’s wings flapping above her. The sunlight was obscured as Jessica was covered in a huge shadow. As she fell, she heard Rosa scream her name.

  Turning over, she saw Rosa flying up into the air, the creature holding her tightly with its tail. Rosa was crying and beating on the tail, trying to force it to let go, but it held her firmly. The creature flapped its wings slowly, hovering about fifteen feet above the deck.

  “Let her go!” shou
ted Harry. “Lazarus, let her go, take me!”

  The abomination turned its head toward Harry slowly. It made a series of growling noises and clicks before it opened its jaw widely.

  “O-tak-tay,” it said slowly. “Otaktay,” it repeated. The creature spat the words out rather than spoke. Its tail tightened around Rosa and she gasped as it began crushing her. Two of her ribs snapped as it slowly coiled more of its fleshy tail around her slender frame. Her eyes bulged as the tail squeezed harder and she could feel her bones breaking. A creamy substance oozed from the tip of the monster’s tail, dribbling onto the deck far below.

  “Rosa! Rosa!” screamed Jessica from below. She jumped up, trying to grab Rosa’s feet, but she was too far away. Jessica was directly beneath her, but it was impossible to reach Rosa.

  There was an audible pop when Rosa’s spine came apart. As it splintered, Otaktay’s tail sliced clean through Rosa’s body, splitting her in half. With one last dying scream, Rosa was ripped apart. Her left side went one way and her right half went the other. A massive waterfall of blood cascaded down over Jessica, choking her as it filled her open screaming mouth. The ocean turned red as Otaktay threw Rosa’s twitching decapitated body into it, discarding the useless flesh he had no desire to devour. He had pierced her head with the tip of his tail and he flicked it away, down onto the boat. Rosa’s head skipped across the deck until it fell over the side and bounced one last time off the hull into the icy water. Jessica fainted, drenched in the blood of her dead lover.

  Otaktay swooped high up into the sky and then plunged straight back down again towards the out of control boat. Christina was trying to haul Heidi up the side of the hull from the freezing cold water. Tom and Harry were frantically looking for a weapon to defend themselves with, so far unable to find anything.

  “Look out!” shouted Tom too late.

  Otaktay flew quickly above them and in an instant, Harry had been snatched up in its tail. Tom picked the sledgehammer up from next to the unconscious Mac. He took a swipe at the thing that used to be Lazarus and clipped a wing. Otaktay still managed to fly up out of reach of Tom and again hovered over them whilst Harry punched and kicked, desperate to release himself from the creature’s hold.