Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France

by Strange, J. S.

  “See? I told you he would be fine with you!”

  “You’re not going to apologise for trying to kill us with baseball bats, then?” Violet asked.

  Keiron and his group burst out in laughter. Violet bristled. “Sorry, love, but you gotta be tough to survive this.”

  “We survived London. We got this far. I think that makes us pretty tough.”

  Keiron shook his head. “London was nothing compared to France.”

  “What do you mean?” Zach asked.

  “You don’t know what it’s like up there.”

  “I heard you escaped V,” Winter spoke, trying to appear confident. “You had a government job. You created some of the dead, and you left and now V wants you dead. Is that true?”

  Keiron’s expression clouded over. He was a sinister sight. His dark eyes were hooded, and he had a scar next to the corner of his lip. He wasn’t the most attractive of men, but there was something rugged about him. “How do you know that, darling?”

  Winter felt her heart beating. She knew it wasn’t smart to piss off a sociopath. “I heard some of your cronies talking.”

  A few people from the group snickered. Keiron shook his head. “Those people don’t know how to keep their mouth shut.” Keiron ran a hand over his chest. “Fine. What you heard is right. But if you had that job you would have to escape it, too.”

  “I’m not blaming you for escaping,” Winter said. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

  “Believe me, I tried to end it whenever I could. Then I stumbled across these dudes and we formed an alliance.”

  Violet sighed. “Everything’s a fucking alliance right now.”

  Keiron laughed. “You’ll need an alliance if you want to survive.”

  Violet stared at him, challenging him almost. Keiron held her eye contact until he looked at Missy. “So, how did you find these people then? Bet they were shitting themselves when you found them, huh?”

  Missy shook her head. “They came on my train.”

  “Looks like they like breaking into people’s property.” Keiron commented.

  “Again, this isn’t your property,” Violet remarked.

  “Your mouth will get you into trouble one day, girl.”

  “It already has.”

  Missy cleared her throat. “But I knew Winter before any of this ever happened.”

  Keiron seemed surprised. “You did?”

  He stepped away from his group and moved a little closer to Connor. Connor moved ever so slightly away from him, worried about what might happen. Someone in the group of men made a gruff noise.

  Missy nodded, somewhat enthusiastically. “Oh, yes. We were friends when life was good. She thought I was a goner. I thought she was a goner. Then she comes on the train and tries taking my food. What are the chances?”

  “Fate,” Keiron said seriously. “This is all about fate.”

  “If you say so,” Violet muttered.

  Keiron turned to his group of men. “What say you, boys? Can these losers join us?”

  The men roared their approval, and just like that the group were welcomed to join another. Taking tentative steps forwards, Winter led her friends into the midst of the men in black. They sat around a makeshift fire in a metal waste bin, and watched as one boy – at least younger than twenty – began toasting bread.

  “So, give us all the information you have,” Zach said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

  “What information do you want, buddy?” Keiron said, as the group of guys around them began talking amongst themselves. Someone made a moaning noise again, but nobody seemed to be bothered.

  “What it’s like out there?” Zach said. “What the job was like. What…what she’s like.”

  “Never saw her,” Keiron said, recalling V. “I saw her cloaked figure walk past doorways and into elevators, surrounded by security, but I never saw her up close and personal. I don’t know what she looks like. For all I know, any one of you could be her.”

  “Is that why you don’t trust anybody?” Violet asked.

  “That, and the fact that the living are just as dangerous as the dead. People may be against V, but they’re not willing to work together to defeat her. Human kind has always been the same. We expect change but we’re all too egotistical to actually make any.”

  “We’re fucked,” a masked man said.

  Keiron nodded.

  “So how did you start working for her?” Winter asked.

  “A normal government job ad,” Keiron shrugged. “Something about working admin in a lab, with great career progression. Started off well, then all of a sudden we were told to create a virus, or at least help others make it. We tried our best, then one day somebody had created it. The rest is history. We saw people being brought in at first, then I was given the job of injecting people. At first, I didn’t know what it was, and I thought these people had volunteered. They hadn’t, and soon I found myself face to face with fucking zombies.”

  “How many types are there?”

  “Types?” Keiron seemed confused.

  Winter felt embarrassed to ask. “It’s just, when I was in London, I thought I saw my granddad.”

  “You may well have done,” Keiron replied. “If he was bitten then he became the dead, just like everybody else. That’s the reason the world got so shit. V began releasing bitten people before they could turn, and the dead began multiplying. All it takes is a bite.”

  “My granddad was dead before the apocalypse.”

  Keiron shook his head. “Then it’s impossible you saw him.”

  Violet looked at Winter like she was crazy.

  “I could have been so sure it was him.”

  “The virus doesn’t bring back those who have already died,” Keiron said confidentially. “At least, not yet. Trust me, those who are buried are the safest people on earth.”

  “Shame they’re dead, really.” Connor remarked.

  Keiron grinned. “Yep.”

  Winter smirked, but didn’t feel the humour.

  “So how did you escape?” Violet asked. “If you don’t mind me saying, I’m sceptical.”

  “Why are you sceptical, babe?”

  Violet pulled a face. “If V really is that dangerous, and you left her job behind so quickly, why haven’t you been caught and killed?”

  Behind Keiron, a group of men were fussing over another man. Winter eyed them, but couldn’t see anything of worry. Most people seemed calm. Winter wondered if maybe the man was old, or coming down with the flu.

  “I’m good at evading people.”

  “So she has no idea you’re underground?”

  “To be honest, love, I’m not the most wanted on her list. She’s got other worries.”

  Zach crossed his arms. “Like what?”

  “The Union. The Trio Girls. The immune. And her dead outnumbering the living.”

  There was silence, except for the hushed whispers from the men behind Keiron.

  “The immune?” Connor finally asked.

  “Oh, yes.” Keiron nodded. “Some sods are lucky enough to be immune to the virus V created.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Keiron led the group over to a seating area, away from the fire but still close enough to get some heat. Winter spotted rolled out sleeping bags, inflatable mattresses and a supply of tinned foods. Keiron and his gang really had something going here.

  “It’s like we’re mole people, isn’t it?” Keiron asked her, looking over at the tinned food. “We’ve moved underground. The Bible never predicted that, did it?”

  Winter slowly nodded. “You’re religious?”

  Keiron waved his hand. “Course not. Load of rubbish. Just highlighting that for you.”

  Winter laughed, and took a seat on a children’s wooden chair. Violet sat opposite her in a plastic deck chair, whilst Zach and Connor knelt on the floor. Keiron sat down besides Winter and pulled a rucksack towards him.

  “You want food?” Keiron held out baked beans. Winter no
dded.

  Missy joined the group and sat next to Violet. “I’m starving. Great idea, Keiron.”

  “Thanks, Missy.” Keiron winked. He began to undo the can and rooted in another bag for a metal pan. “So,” The beans splattered on the surface of the pan. “London you escaped from?”

  “Yes,” Violet answered. “We haven’t been here long.”

  “Bet you wish you were back in London, don’t you?”

  “Not quite,” Zach muttered.

  “It’s not so bad here.” Keiron began to light up another fire, using wood found from god knew where. “Once you know the escape routes, have some weapons, know where to get food, then you’re fine.”

  “This isn’t life, surely?” Connor asked.

  Keiron looked directly at him. “This is the new world order, mate.”

  “Tell us more about the immune,” Winter said.

  Keiron shrugged, just as he managed to light a fire. He quickly moved the pan over the flames, watching the beans. “What else is there to say? Nothing. Some people who get bit can survive it. It was a flaw V didn’t see coming.”

  “Do you know who’s immune?” Violet asked.

  Keiron shook his head. The beans began to pop, spitting tomato sauce out into the air, like lava escaping a volcano. “No one does. Rumours go around about who could be. A lot of it is bullshit. I heard one rumour that Britney Spears was immune. Then you hear rumours about some guy in a town who is immune, and days later his house is burnt out and he’s disappeared. Believe me, you don’t want to be immune.”

  “Why not?” Zach asked. “Surely you would feel safer out there surrounded by the dead?”

  “Maybe so.” Keiron shrugged. “But if V gets wind of the immune, they’ll be top of her list. She won’t be far off from finding out who’s immune and who isn’t. She’s got a whole database of blood tests.”

  Violet gasped. Everyone turned to her. “The government people who came to the café in Elstree.” She looked at Winter and Zach. They began to realise what she meant. “Donna? Liz? The ones we killed. They took our bloods. Then the ship? We had our bloods taken on the ship.”

  “I didn’t,” Winter said.

  “Government people took your blood?” Keiron asked.

  “When we were trying to escape, yes,” Zach confirmed.

  “My bloods were taken on arrival to camp,” Missy said.

  Keiron nodded, as if this confirmed everything he had suspected. “They’ve got you on record, then. You want to hope they come back negative. Then, of course, everyone has had their bloods taken at some point in their lives. She’ll find a way. The difference with you guys is she might not know you’re here in France yet. You never registered as French citizens.”

  “Why would she want to kill the immune?” Connor asked.

  “Because the immune are the answer to the cure. If we can find the immune, we can study them and find out what keeps them going. Then, on what we find out, the immune create the cure.”

  “We?”

  “Hypothetically speaking, I’m not here to change the world, just ride it through. If you want to change the world, it’s The Union you want to find. Good luck finding them, though.”

  “I’ve already told them,” Missy nodded.

  “Maybe we’ll find them,” Violet said. “Beats living underground and going blind.”

  Keiron laughed. “Yeah, you could say that.”

  “I would love to be immune,” Missy said. “Means I wouldn’t die at the hands of the dead.”

  “Wrong,” Keiron said. “If enough get at you you’ll lose enough blood to die.”

  Missy shivered. “I suppose you’re right.”

  Keiron picked up the backpack with his free hand and dug out small, tin bowls. He handed them out until everyone held one, and then he began to dish out the beans. “I’m afraid I don’t have any bread.”

  “Just beans?” Violet asked.

  “Just beans.”

  Keiron put out the fire with water and sat back down. He found spoons and handed them to everyone and signalled to dig in. “V’s a dangerous woman.”

  “You said she’s outnumbered?” Zach asked. Keiron looked at him. “What does that mean?”

  “Means exactly what I said. She’s created the dead and has overlooked one key issue: the dead multiply.”

  “You mean she only wanted a small amount?”

  “Enough to get rid of the weak.”

  “The weak?” Winter asked.

  “New world order,” Keiron repeated. “To get a new world, to her own rules, she needed something to ruin what once was. What better than a virus that kills many, and changes the way we live completely? This is the transitional period from dead to a new world. A new world that has one world government, and brand new rules and way of living. The dead are just the beginning, and they’re just a little bit less dangerous than V’s rules.”

  Winter stared at the beans in the small bowl in her hand. She hated this. How had the world gotten like this? Where did V come from?

  “That can’t possibly happen.” Connor shook his head. He had finished his food already. “It’s impossible.”

  Keiron shrugged. “If you had asked me at the beginning of the world about a zombie apocalypse, I would have said it was the stories of Hollywood. Now, I’d say differently. She’s achieved this much. I wouldn’t rule her out yet.”

  “But she has weaknesses,” Violet commented. “She’s overlooked a few things, by the sounds of it.”

  “True, but don’t underestimate her.”

  There was a cry from behind them, in the group of the men in black. Winter turned to see a few men moving backwards, others running for cover.

  “Keiron!” A few voices called, strangled with fear.

  “What’s happening?” Violet asked.

  Keiron shook his head quickly and stood. He began to approach his men, but there was a noise that stopped him. Someone was moaning, but it wasn’t human. It was deep. It was animal.

  The group around the source of the sound spread, and Winter saw a man hunched over. He was convulsing violently. His head snapped up, and Winter dropped her bowl, the beans splattering across the stone floor.

  The man’s face had decayed, blood dribbling down his mouth and his neck. His eyes were bloodshot, with no more colour. He leapt to his feet and twisted around, his leg snapping as he did so.

  “Shit,” Zach gasped. He grabbed Winter. “Shit, Winter, we have to go.”

  The men raised their bats and swung. It hit the decaying man and knocked him off his feet. But this was a mistake. The man reached out with a hand that had exposed bone, and he pulled the nearest leg to him: a man without a weapon. The man fell to his feet, and within seconds he was bitten. Blood stained the stone, rolling into the grooves. The man began to twitch as another bite was taken. The dead man let him go, got to his feet and launched himself on another. He bit even as he was hit with wooden bats. Soon, his skull had cracked, and his brain was hit, stopping him in his tracks. The man was killed, but the damage had been done. People around them began to turn.

  Missy turned her back on the commotion and looked at Winter. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Winter nodded. They began to head towards the tunnels, away from the group. Keiron stopped them.

  “You’re going to desert us?”

  Violet stepped in front of Winter. “You told us this was all about survival. Well, now we’re surviving.”

  Connor picked up a discarded baseball bat, stained with blood, and swatted it in his hands. “Let us go, Keiron.”

  Keiron gripped his steel bat, gritted his teeth, and moved aside. His men were beginning to desert him, as more people began to turn. Groans began to echo around them, chilling them.

  “Don’t stay and fight,” Missy pleaded.

  Keiron pointed to a tunnel at the end of the room. “Get through there. Get out of the underground. It’s not going to stay safe much longer.”

  “What are you going to do
?” Missy asked, as Violet and Zach moved towards the tunnels.

  “I’m going to find my men and survive,” Keiron answered.

  He turned on his heel and lifted his bat. He ruthlessly beat the dead around him, no longer remaining loyal to the men he had recruited.

  Winter took Missy’s hand. Violet and Zach were a few feet ahead, avoiding the dead. “Come on, Missy. We have to go.”

  Missy tore her eyes away from Keiron and they hurried across the room. Connor swung the bat he held at any of the dead that came towards them. In seconds, the floor below had changed from something safe to something dangerous. Some of the dead split off, running up the steps and out into the air above, or heading away into different tunnels. Some pursued Winter, but were stopped by Keiron, and others fed on men who were too weak to escape.

  Feeling claustrophobic, Winter sped up, keeping a firm grip on Missy who seemed to have lost the spring in her step. They fled down the dark tunnels, where trains no longer ran, and kept moving until the sounds of the dead faded away.

  Chapter Twelve

  They came to stop at a station that was littered with spilt bins; blood stains and burnt out trains. Winter paused, afraid to cross the room; sure that it was a trap.

  “There’s nothing to worry about here,” Missy said. “There were a group hiding out here that tried taking on Keiron. They died. They didn’t come back to life.”

  Winter nodded, and they walked through the open platform.

  “Do you think Keiron will be okay?” Zach asked.

  “I hope so.” Missy sighed.

  “He’s a crazy man,” Violet said. “He’s forgetting what humanity is.”

  “He doesn’t realise it, but he’s letting the new world order take control of him,” Zach commented.

  “He’s a good guy,” Missy defended. “I just hope he makes it.”

  “We need to think of us,” Violet said. “Let’s find somewhere that isn’t underground. If the dead are multiplying here I’d rather be above ground.”

  “Wherever we go, we won’t be able to escape the dead,” Connor said.

  “I’d rather be above ground.”

  They walked a little further, until they came across a set of stairs that led back up onto the ground above.