March of the Dead (Killing the Dead Book 11)

by Richard Murray

  “Tell me of these zombies that are coming.”

  “Well now,” Amos said quickly and flashed a look of triumph my way. “They’ve been heading north at a fair pace for some time…”

  He sputtered to a stop as Lou held up one hand and looked directly at me.

  “You,” he said. “Tell me about them.”

  “Why him!” Amos demanded.

  “You’re clearly from north of here, Aberdeen if I’m not mistaken judging by your accent.” He paused and Amos nodded, a scowl on his face. Lou turned back to me. “You, on the other hand, are from further south and since the zombies are coming from that direction, I want to hear what you have to say.”

  “We were headed south,” I said with a wave towards Georgia. “Got as far as Hadrian’s wall when we encountered them.”

  “Heading south from where?”

  “Near Dumfries.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why south and not north or east or west? Why were you there in the first place?”

  “We were heading north with some friends,” Georgia said. “We’d heard of a Royal Navy operated safe zone.”

  “Then why turn back?”

  “There were some deaths,” I said softly. “We decided that we’d gone as far as we could and would return to a place we knew in Cumbria.”

  “Okay,” Lou said. “Not an uncommon tale so far. Tell me about these undead.”

  “As I said, we encountered them near Hadrian’s wall. They were primarily the slower type of zombie, we call them Shamblers.”

  He nodded and gestured for me to continue, which I did, a little irritated that he hadn’t taken a moment to elaborate on the third type of zombie he’d mentioned. That would have been a perfect time to do so.

  “They stretched across the land, from East to West as far as we could see. They numbered in the tens of thousands and they moved forward in an unstoppable wave. As unrelenting as a tsunami, they swept away anything in their path.”

  “Very poetic,” Georgia said with a sly smile.

  “We turned back northwards and have been just hours or occasionally days ahead of them ever since,” I continued. “We’ve not been able to find much in the way of food or water for some time now and the hills slowed them down but didn’t stop them.”

  “The Ferals were with them for a while, but we’ve not seen them for a bit,” Georgia added. “That’s what we call the faster, more nimble ones that eat the others.”

  Lou exhaled softly as he bowed his head, eyes staring down at the floor as he thought.

  “We’ve repelled attacks from the undead before,” he said. “Though not without loss. We have some defences prepared.”

  “The river turns to the west,” I said. “Before it reaches the hills and it’s too wide. The horde will split east to west and those that go east will come to the road that leads directly here.”

  “No doubt,” he agreed.

  “You’ll have thousands, perhaps tens of thousands to deal with and even if you do, there’s more of them. Spread all across the country. At some point, the ones to the far sides will come upon Edinburgh and Glasgow. You’ll be surrounded.”

  “Edinburgh is a smoking ruin,” Lou said. “There’s nothing there for them to meet and they’ll carry on through the rubble. That’ll give us time.”

  “What do you mean it’s a ruin?” I asked. “What happened?”

  He ran one hand down his face and for the first time, I took a good look at him. The dark rings beneath his eyes and the lines of tension at the corners. He was beyond exhausted with the stress of surviving.

  “We’ve been here since the beginning,” he said softly. “My detachment was tasked with getting the people of Glasgow to the refugee spaces.”

  I thought back to the men and women who had been guarding the refugee centre I had been in, and how it had ended and figured I knew what was coming.

  “When they began to turn, we barricaded them inside, the living and the dead alike and burned them to the ground,” he said. “We had to save those we could and contain the threat.”

  “No arguments from me,” I said with a smile that he didn’t seem to appreciate.

  “When we realised the city was lost, we retreated and set up cordons, blocking the roads as much as possible. We contained the threat. In Edinburgh, they went further. They fought to the last and demolished a good portion of the city in doing so.”

  “What you’re saying then,” I said into the quiet that followed. “Is that Glasgow has a contained mass of undead just waiting to be unleashed and Edinburgh is a smoking ruin that will… what? Make it easier for the undead to pass or just have them bunch up waiting for something to chase and devour?”

  “In essence, yes.”

  “What about the town here? You said there were no undead.”

  “No, I said the town wasn’t full of them,” he corrected. “When we first retreated here much of the town was uninfected. We’d learnt our lesson from Glasgow though.”

  “What did you do?” I asked, genuinely curious. For once.

  “We initiated curfew. People were contained in their homes and anyone caught outside was arrested or shot on sight.”

  “That’s very… dictatorial of you,” Georgia said, a smirk crossing her face.

  “We did what we had to do,” he said with a defiance that was belied by the way his shoulders slumped. “We delivered food to people and those that were infected, we sealed up the houses.”

  “Was obviously a stunning success lad,” Amos said. “That’s why you have thousands of people here in this hidey hole of yours.”

  Lou glared at him but nodded agreement.

  “It was working. The number of people turning had slowed to a trickle.”

  “Then what?” I asked. Something must have happened.

  “Some zombies escaped the blockade we’d set up around the city. Three or four thousand of the bloody things came through the town.”

  He shuddered slightly as he recalled what happened and I forced my face to stillness. I doubted that he’d appreciate my amusement.

  “We fought them of course, but there just weren’t enough of us. By the time we realised that, we were overrun. Some of us managed to retreat here,” he said. “Gathered up some people along the way and more trickled in after.”

  “You mean…” I said and he nodded.

  “The zombies stayed in the town for the most part and anyone who left their homes ended up dead. Most stayed inside and starved. Of those that came here, many died as we tried to build the defences while being under constant attack.”

  “What about the zombies on the streets?”

  “Over the winter, we kept making trips into the town. We killed hundreds of them, thousands when the snow came and it slowed them down a little. But it was too late.”

  “We ended up with nearly five hundred people here,” he continued. “No heat and constant fighting against the undead. By the time the winter ended, we’d cleared out the undead on the streets but we were down to around a hundred and thirty people.”

  “There’s less than a hundred people here,” I said. “Unless there’s more somewhere.”

  “No, you’re right. We finished off the… Shamblers? That what you called them?” I nodded. “And then we had an attack from these others, the Ferals. We’d just wiped them out and human raiders attacked us.”

  “We’ve been steadily losing people since we got here,” he said. “I’m not sure how much more we can take. We’re hanging on, just waiting.”

  “You mentioned a third type,” I said as I leant forward, eager for his reply. “What are they?”

  “We’ve not seen them, just heard about them.”

  “Ah.” I leant back in my chair, suddenly bored. Without first-hand experience of them, how could I determine if it was true? “Who told you that then? Some terrified survivor?”

  “No, the Royal Navy.”

  Chapter 16

  “The Navy
?” I said, once again very much interested. “When? How long ago?”

  Lou waved his hands in a pacifying gesture as the noise rose, questions being thrown at him from each of my companions.

  “Yes, yes,” he said. “The Navy is still very much alive and well.”

  That changed a number of things. My friends were right and with luck, they would find the safe place they’d been looking for. Cass would have her child and they would get the help they had been seeking for those we’d left back in the Lake District.

  “There’s a safe zone?” I asked and he nodded as quiet slowly fell.

  “I’ve not been provided with all the details but yes, when things went to hell the majority of the Navy was a long way from home. By the time they made it back, the country had been overrun.”

  He paused and looked at each of us in turn.

  “They have confirmed that so far as they know, there are no nations remaining. Scattered survivors is all.”

  “To be expected,” I said. “Go on.”

  “The south was too populous to risk a landing,” he said with a long considering look at me. “Instead they headed north, picking up civilian boats and survivors along the way. A safe zone was established by Fort William.”

  He paused before he added, “It was overrun two months ago.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” I demanded. If everyone had died then so too would my friends.

  “The survivors were taken to the Isle of Lewis, just off the north-western coast of Scotland. Some twenty-five thousand people by the last count.”

  “So many,” I said and shared a glance with Georgia. I could almost read her thoughts. So many people to kill and hide amongst.

  “Yes, well for the moment. The problem is that it isn’t suitable for them all and conditions are worsening. Food supplies are low and morale even lower. People are dying daily and the chances of one turning and creating more of them is growing with every new death.”

  “So, what are you waiting for then?” I asked. “Why haven’t you headed north?”

  “We’re waiting because the Royal Navy is coming here.” As he said it, he threw his shoulders back and lifted his chin, pride filling his voice. “They will re-take Glasgow and we will help.”

  There was silence when he finished speaking, each of us lost in our own thoughts until I spoke.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why Glasgow… the shipyards?” I answered my own question as realisation dawned and he smiled.

  “Yes.”

  “What shipyards?” Georgia asked.

  “Naval shipyards and a couple of army bases,” I said. “Supplies for their ships and if they managed to get into the city, ample supplies of food for the survivors. A city the size of Glasgow will have warehouses stocked to the rafters with food.”

  “And everything else we need to kick-start civilisation on the islands,” Lou said. “I’m not privy to operational matters but I can guess that to be the ultimate goal. There’s the Isle of Man to the south, between England and Ireland.”

  “Could settle a hundred thousand or more people there and feed them easily,” I agreed. “Clear it of the undead and you’ve got the Irish Sea as a barrier to the zombies.”

  “Right!” he said and I could hear the excitement in his voice. “Which is why we need to survive what comes and why we won’t flee. We can’t go to Glasgow till the Navy commence operations.”

  “How long till the Navy gets here?” I asked. “How much contact do you have?”

  “We have a radio, I have contact once a week at minimum, usually every few days,” he said before adding, “there’s other groups out there that they are in contact with. They’ll be here in a few weeks, a month at most. People are gathering, preparing to come and join the fight.”

  “Well now, this is all very interesting laddie,” Amos said. “And I’ll be thanking you for your story, but we should be off.”

  “What?” Lou said and even I looked at him with surprise.

  “You can’t fight yon horde of dead men,” he said. “I’ll thank you for any food and water you can spare, but we’ll be off.”

  “But if you stay and help us, you know what’s coming. They will take you to the safe zone with the other survivors,” Lou said. “They’re building a small army of men and women willing to fight the undead and need all the help they can get.”

  “Might be so lad,” Amos said. “But that’s not for us.”

  “This place is secure,” Lou protested. “Even if they made it through the walls, we could retreat up here with ample food to wait them out.”

  “Nevertheless,” he said. “We shall be going.”

  “I’ll give you a minute to discuss,” Lou said. “Maybe think about what you’re giving up on.”

  He wore a sour look as he crossed the room and left by the door we’d all entered through. I wasn’t sure how long he would give us or how secure it was for us to speak freely.

  “What’s your problem?” I asked Amos.

  “No problem laddie, just opportunity.”

  “In leaving?”

  “Och aye,” he smiled broadly. “They’ll slow down that horde for some time and they’ve already said that most of the town is clear.”

  “Not the houses,” Georgia pointed out.

  “Aye, well, we could clear those one at a time easily enough and take our pick of food and belongings. Then we have a pretty clear run all the way to Glasgow.”

  “We do?”

  “Aye lad, aye. You heard him. They contained them. Means most of the roads will be clear and we can get past quickly enough that we can finally get ahead of those damn dead men.”

  “Not staying to fight them, too right,” Kareem said.

  A sentiment that was echoed by Harper. A man who proved the stereotype of the dumb blonde to be true. I’d barely heard him speak but when he did he sounded like he’d struggle to put a coherent sentence together.

  “If we stay, we’ll die,” Georgia agreed. “Pointless. We should take what we can and go.”

  The trouble was, I couldn’t argue with them. They were right and for the life of me, I didn’t know why I had the urge to stay and fight. It was extremely altruistic and not like me at all. Or at least, not like the man I’d been before this all started.

  “Fine,” I said. “We’ll leave.”

  “You sure? You can stay and play soldier if you like laddie,” Amos said and received the obligatory titter from his two little followers. “No one’s forcing you to come with us.”

  That was true too, but if I ever got back the urge to kill, I wanted them to be the top of the list.

  “I said, I’ll stay with you,” I told him and ignored that part of myself that insisted I stay to fight, to help.

  “Then it’s decided,” he said more than a little smugly.

  A few minutes of silence followed and the door swung open as Lou stalked in, a look of fear on his face.

  “They’re in view,” he said. “I didn’t believe your estimate.”

  “Bet you do now,” I said with a grin and he nodded, clearly shaken.

  “You need to decide now. Stay and help or leave.”

  “We’ll be off laddie, but would appreciate any food and water you can let us have.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lou said with a strained smile. “The resources we have will need to remain here. We’re likely in for a long siege.”

  He waved his hand and a couple of burly men with spears walked into the room. They glared balefully at us and I forced myself not to grin at them. Even as exhausted and half-starved as I was, I figured I could take them both.

  “These men will escort you out,” Lou said. His pleasant demeanour of earlier replaced by a tightly controlled anger. “While I go and see to the defence of my people.”

  Without much need for anything else to be said, the two spear carriers led us back through the rows of tents. More than one of the people there watched us curiously, no doubt wonderi
ng why spearmen were taking us out when we’d come in as guests.

  Amos and the others were watching everything. Their heads moving from side to side to take it all in and I was fairly sure they weren’t doing that out of curiosity.

  We all climbed down the rope ladder and were led to the north wall. Much like the first, it was made of storage containers, old train carriages and assorted pieces of heavy machinery that clearly no longer worked. There must have been a scrapyard close by for them to have found so much. Either that or a train track at least.

  The cranes and heavy machinery they must have used to build the wall sat inside, between it and the building. A couple of fuel tankers sat close by and I wondered idly if they had anything left in them. Would be foolish to leave so easy a target in clear view.

  Another rope ladder was thrown down and the two young spearmen watched us warily as first Amos and then Georgia climbed up. Kareem went next, followed by Harper and when it was my turn I reached out to grasp the ladder, the rope, rough against my hand when Lou spoke.

  “Be careful. The Raiders came from the north and I suspect they’re either in the town or close by.”

  “Thanks,” I said and genuinely meant it. He’d had no need to warn us at all.

  “We have some people out there too,” he said. “I’d appreciate it if you saw them, that you told them to head back. We’ll need all the help we can get to man the walls.”

  That was definitely a dig at us, but I let it pass. Had no choice, I didn’t have a weapon with me and while I could kill him with my bare hands should I choose, the two lads with spears would finish me off.

  “I will.”

  As I put my foot on the first rung, he opened his mouth to speak and then paused. I waited patiently to see what he’d say. Likely an entreaty for us to stay and help fight the advancing horde.

  “Not sure if this means anything to you,” he said and coughed gently into one closed fist as though embarrassed. “We’re safe, Jinx misses you.”

  He watched my face as he spoke and something there caused him to nod slowly.

  “It does then.”

  “Who told you that?” I demanded, perhaps harsher than I’d intended judging by the way the spearmen readied their weapons. “When?”