Killing the Dead (Book 12): Fear the Reaper

by Murray, Richard

  “You disapprove?”

  “Of course not, sir,” he said. “Your will is absolute.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t disapprove. Speak freely. I detest anything but the absolute truth.”

  He thought for a moment before nodding sharply.

  “She should have lost the hand. At the very least, a finger for each member of the Fist that she abandoned.”

  “Then she would have been useless to us for weeks,” I said. “If she even survived the amputation.”

  “Discipline must be maintained! They acolytes especially must see that they can never run from the Scourge!”

  “She obeyed her Fist leader,” I said more than a little tetchily. Internal politics bored me and as useful as he was, Samuel was a little too fanatical at times.

  “My Lor… Ryan,” he said. “I was the First! All I want is to serve you and to do so, you must have only the strongest warriors. Those who obey, who fight and die without wavering. Allow me to punish her appropriately!”

  I watched him as best I could in the darkness. He had indeed been the first to follow me and without his odd belief that I was the actual God of Death walking the world in human form during the end times, I wouldn’t have the growing number of minions I currently had.

  Without him, it could be argued that I wouldn’t have been able to save so many of the innocent, so many of the weak and helpless as I had. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to have had as much fun. Still, he had to realise that I was in charge, whether I cared to be or not.

  “No,” I said and grinned at the flash of anger in his eyes.

  He had set me atop a high pedestal in his mind and no sane person could live up the image he’d formed. I had no reason to care to try, which meant that one day, likely soon, I would disappoint him. He would then turn on me and try to kill me.

  Personally, I was looking forward to it.

  Chapter 14 - Lily

  I accepted the cup of steaming coffee from Gregg with a sour grunt. He just grinned, well aware of how techy I could be on a morning. He seemed to take no offence and sank down to the carpeted floor beside me.

  Jinx raised her head to look at him and he winked her way and reached out a hand to pet her. She bared her teeth in a snarl and he quickly snatched his hand away.

  “Jesus, you two are as bad as each other on a morning.”

  “Ha, bloody, ha,” I said and scratched the gorgeous Alsatian behind the ears. Just because I could.

  “Jennings is still pissed,” he said with a nod towards the small group huddled at the far end of the room. “Trying to get the Fleet on the radio for the last hour. He want’s orders.”

  “More like he wants to be able to put the blame on someone else when things go tits up,” Ray added with a chuckle.

  I flashed him a smile and turned towards Mark. He’d been quieter than usual since we’d arrived. Quieter even than the taciturn Lars who had become so silent I often forgot he was there.

  “You have any luck with your radio?”

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “Not sure what’s wrong, just getting static.”

  “Is that something we should worry about?”

  “We’re too far from the Fleet,” he said thoughtfully. “Well out of their range but the landing force should have set-up a Comms hub by now.”

  “So, they’ve either had some problem getting set up or things have gone wrong.”

  “Maybe you should ask Ryan,” Gregg said and ignored the irritated look that flashed across Mark’s face. “He’s probably got people watching them anyway.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I agreed.

  While I wasn’t sure how I felt about his current role and the people he’d gathered around him, I wouldn’t risk the safety of my own squad just because of my own personal feelings. I’d search him out and find him as soon as I could.

  “What’s the plan for today lass?” Ray asked.

  “I guess I need to sit down with Ryan and figure out an agreement.”

  “Yeah, that’ll be easy,” Gregg said. “Five minutes and you’ll be trying to hit him again.”

  My cheeks heated at that but I couldn’t deny he was right. I was angry at Ryan. No, not angry, I was furious. He’d left us when we needed him and all to pursue some private vengeance. He’d done it in such a way that he thought that he’d destroyed whatever was between us because of that stupid promise.

  It never occurred to him that given just a little bit of time I’d have agreed with him. That his brother and those others were responsible for Pat’s death and were most definitely not innocents. I didn’t give a damn that he’d killed them because I had bigger problems these days, like trying to save all the people who actually were innocent.

  But no, he’d gone off on his own and that Bitch Georgia had followed him. Then he’d tried to get himself killed and somehow ended up the leader of a new bloody religion. Worse than that, he was likely the only person who would be able to ensure the safety of any survivors moving through the city while the CDF searched for supplies.

  “Well, we need to do something,” I said. “Can’t be sitting around here too long. We have people to feed and winter is fast approaching.”

  “You don’t need to do anything, Morgan,” Jennings snapped as he crossed the room to us. “I shall speak to this, Ryan, fellow and make a deal. You will head back to the LZ with an update.”

  “Do you really think it’s wise to split up the squads?”

  “We have no choice. We can’t make contact and I don’t trust this bunch of fanatics.”

  I was about to retort when Gregg shook his head, a tiny movement but enough for me to see. I swallowed back what I’d been about to say and instead said, “Yes, sir. We’ll leave immediately.”

  “Good,” he gave a curt nod, surprise evident on his face. He’d expected an argument.

  As he walked away, I cocked an eyebrow and looked at Gregg. He shrugged uncomfortably.

  “Sorry, but he’s right. We need to know what’s going on with the Fleet and you need some distance from Ryan.”

  “Fine! Gather your gear.”

  The squad sprung to action, gathering their few belongings and checking weapons. I did the same and once ready, headed to the door where a black-garbed acolyte blocked my path.

  “We need to leave,” I said and the figure shook his head.

  “Morgan?” Jennings asked as he approached, hand on the butt of his gun. “Problem here?”

  “Not yet,” I said as I watched the acolyte warily.

  He raised a hand, palm open and out towards us. A universal gesture that meant he wanted us to wait. I crossed my arms and tapped my foot as my squad moved up behind me. It didn’t take long before he arrived.

  “Hello, Lily,” Ryan said. “What seems to be the problem?”

  “Lieutenant Morgan will be returning to the landing zone,” Jennings said.

  Ryan didn’t reply. His smile fixed firmly in place he just stared at the Captain for several long seconds before stepping back, swinging his arm out behind him.

  “Then by all means, off you go.”

  There was something off about him. I hadn’t expected him to give in so easily but after what we’d witnessed the night before, that ridiculous rite, I wasn’t sure what to expect from him anymore.

  “One thing though,” he said as we filed past and I rolled my eyes as I turned to him.

  “What?”

  “I will be sending some of my people with you.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because the streets are not safe. I feel it is my duty to ensure you reach the end of your journey safely.”

  Yeah right.

  “What’s the real reason?” I asked and his grin widened.

  “I want to make sure you don’t die,” he said and without another word, spun on his heel and marched down the corridor as I stared after him.

  “Well, I think he likes you,” Gregg said quietly.

  “Shut up.”

  His laug
hter echoed through the halls and I pushed ahead of the others so that none of them could see the crimson in my cheeks.

  I didn’t see Ryan again before we stepped out into the early morning chill. I shivered a little and not from the cold as I saw the handful of zombies being dragged to one side of the street by silent figures garbed in black.

  Considering the defences and people set on watch, for them to be so close, marked them as Ferals. No doubt using the cover of night to creep up on us. An unpleasant thought, that they would be smart enough to do that.

  It was becoming harder and harder to think of them as the mindless undead. The Shamblers, sure. They were as dumb as a doorpost, but the Ferals were decidedly different. Over the months, as more survivors were found, we heard far too many tales of them.

  They’d taken to hunting in packs and used the darkness as cover. They ate their own kind when they needed to and even herded groups of them along with them as a source of food in case they couldn’t find any of their preferred prey.

  Agile, smart and full of malice for the living. They were a threat that we couldn’t ignore since they were growing in number as humanity was shrinking. Worse than that, they weren’t showing signs of deterioration like their dumber brethren, likely because they were feeding regularly on the Shamblers.

  “We ready?” Gregg asked.

  “Yeah,” I nodded curtly and took one last look around.

  We were only a few hours walk from Lou’s base and the shipyards, though on the opposite side of the river from them. The streets had been cleared by Ryan’s group at least, so I didn’t expect any real problems. I especially saw no need for the figures that formed up on either side of us.

  “Are any of you going to speak?” I asked the four shapeless figures.

  “I speak for the Dead,” one of them said in a voice that I suspected was a woman’s. Damned hard to tell anything about them when you couldn’t see their faces.

  “You join me up front then,” I said. “And lead the way.”

  She moved with a fluid sort of grace, to stand beside me. I recognised that self-assured type of movement. I’d seen it often enough in Ryan. It was clear that his followers were emulating him, and I just hoped they weren’t copying everything about him.

  We walked in silence for a good twenty minutes or so. Each of us intent on watching for danger, but there was only so long that I could contain my curiosity and I trusted Gregg and Jinx to both keep an eye out for any danger as I took the opportunity to speak to one of the Dead.

  “How long have you been part of your group?”

  Silence was my only reply and I tried again.

  “What does it mean to be dead?”

  “The Dead have nothing,” she said after a silence just long enough for me to think she wasn’t going to reply.

  “Yeah, but what does that mean?”

  Her eyes shifted behind the hood, meeting mine for the briefest of moments before she went back to scanning the buildings around us.

  “We have no loved ones,” she said, her voice so soft that I could barely hear her. “No connections with this world. All we have left is our hatred for the Scourge and a desire to ensure no more of the living fall to their foul foot soldiers.”

  “Scourge? I heard that before. What is it?”

  “The undead, they are a scourge on this world. Sent to scour it clean of the living.”

  “Who sent them?” Gregg asked from behind us.

  She didn’t reply and I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want us to know or simply didn’t have an answer. I thought for a moment about what to ask next. It was clear that she was skittish about some things and I didn’t want to cut off any communication with her by asking the wrong thing.

  “You’re leader…” I began and for the first time, she looked at me directly.

  “Watch what you say next,” she said, her voice a hiss of warning. I was suddenly very conscious of how close the acolyte’s hands were to their weapons.

  “Lieutenant?” Lars asked, his hand on the holster of his sidearm and a palpable tension in the air as my squad shifted away from the black-garbed acolytes.

  “Hold,” I ordered. “We are all friends here.”

  “Some friends,” Gregg muttered with a glance to the half-drawn knife of the man beside him.

  “We mean no disrespect,” I said to the woman. “We’re just curious.”

  “Curiosity is encouraged,” she said. “It leads to understanding.”

  “And that understanding is?”

  I was more than a little concerned about just how fanatically loyal these people were to Ryan. It was a little disturbing, to say the least.

  “That the end times have come,” she said. “The Scourge is here to cleanse the world, and Death has taken human form to fight them.”

  Holy shit! She meant Ryan. That was pretty clear. In just a short time, they had begun to build a mythos around him that fit in with what they were seeing. The undead were killing their friends and their families, while whatever God they might have worshipped did nothing. They needed something else to believe in, someone to put their faith into and then Ryan had come along.

  Killing with ease and with such joyous fervour that they saw him as their saviour. The only problem was, when you put such faith in someone, they had no chance of not letting you down. And, knowing Ryan, he would get bored and abandon them as soon as they started to demand more of him than he was willing to give.

  “How…” I stumbled a little, unsure how to best phrase my next question without getting stabbed for asking it. I started again.

  “You kill the zombies, yeah?” she nodded, a barely perceptible movement of her head beneath the hood. “What about the living?”

  “We protect the living.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they cannot protect themselves,” she said. “The Scourge is merciless in its need to take them.”

  “What about Raiders?” Gregg asked.

  I glanced at him and saw that the rest of my squad were listening intently too. All of them as curious as I was about this strangely fanatical group.

  “We kill if we must,” she said. “Only to protect ourselves or others. To do otherwise is a great sin.”

  Phew! He wasn’t training them to be serial killers like he was then. But to be protectors, which, while I could argue his means of doing so was wrong, his intentions at least were good.

  “Only My Lord Death can choose when to end the life of another,” she continued.

  Crap!

  “So, all these people,” Ray asked with a nod towards one of the zombies that hung from a streetlamp. “They were killed by your leader?”

  She nodded once again and gave an almost reverent nod towards the hanging body.

  “He freed them.”

  “Freed them?” I asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “They were full of darkness,” she said with another glance to me, her eyes meeting mine for just a moment but long enough for me to see the zeal there. “They could not release that darkness. They would have continued to hurt others. My Lord Death, he took their darkness from them and freed them.”

  I shook my head as I caught Gregg’s eye and he closed his mouth before he said something that I was pretty sure would get us all killed. He, of course, knew Ryan and was fairly relaxed around him as the rest of our friends had been.

  We’d been with him long enough to have become comfortable with the sort of man he was. Comfortable enough to even joke about it a little, and Gregg had been the one who did that most. A bit of banter with the man he would have reported to the police just a year before. I was pretty sure that sort of comment he would come out with would have these followers turn on us in an instant.

  My Lord Death, that’s what they called him. To them, he was the personification of death and I honestly couldn’t think of any way that they could ever be allowed to join with our main group out on the island.

  Religion was one thin
g, but if knowledge of the cult of bloody Ryan, got into the general population it would begin to spread. I was sure of that.

  At any other time, they would have arrested and imprisoned Ryan, not deified him. But, when the dead were walking the world; when you had a group of terrified survivors who had lost everything and badly needed some kind of hope to cling to… well, it was easy to see that he offered them hope and a chance to fight back.

  It couldn’t possibly end well. He was, after all, just a man and he was not even a normal man. He was disconnected from his emotions and from everything else. The only thing stopping him from being the worst of those preying on others was…

  “Oh crap!” I said quietly to myself.

  My fault then, all my goddamned fault. When we’d first met, he’d not cared about other people at all other than how they could best serve his immediate needs, which was staying alive. He’d made his bargain with me out of pragmatism.

  Over time, with my undeniable influence, he had begun to consider helping others without being prompted. He’d become, almost human at times and if he was a little cynical and callous now and then, what of it? Who wasn’t in these end times?

  This whole mission of his, protecting the living. That’s what I’d been wanting him to do, it’s what we’d been doing since the beginning, almost. When he’d left, he could have easily gone back to being his usual soulless self, but he clearly hadn’t. If he had, he wouldn’t have a whole fucking army of people following him.

  It was all my damned fault.

  Chapter 15

  The four black-garbed minions stood waiting by the door as I marched up to meet them. They stared silently at me and I noted the way that three of them stood slightly apart from the fourth. I flashed Alison a grin that should let the others know I held no ill will towards her.

  “Are you sure about this?” Samuel asked.

  He eyed the girl warily. No doubt he’d been one of the first to ostracise her when they all gathered to eat after the rite. The others would have followed his lead and she would have had a miserable night without the only family she had.