“To use as food,” Cass said. “Because there’s few people left.”
“Indeed.” He nodded sagely and chewed his lip absently as he considered. “Some of those in the second stage begin the transition to the third and final stage. We do not, as of yet, understand what begins the transition but suspect it is to do with the availability of food.”
“We’ve seen them change when there’s been little food,” I pointed out. “Some just seem to change.”
He looked thoughtful and nodded slowly.
“That will bear looking into however we would need observation and a controlled setting to be able to determine that for sure.”
“Which you won’t get,” I said firmly. “We will not be making more of these things and we will not feed them!”
“Of course, of course. That being the case, there will be limits on what I can learn.”
“You will manage.”
“As you say,” he agreed. “Now, this third and final stage are different. Unlike the first, which is merely a reanimation of a dead body, or the second which is the restoration of some functions that body already possessed, the third is entirely new.”
“The bone growths around the skull, forming a crown of bone that protects the most vulnerable parts, that is new. Now there’s been ample evidence of aberrant bone growth on people in the past, the fact that all of these creatures are growing it in the same place indicates design.”
“Their limbs and torso are elongating, giving them a greater reach and, I suspect, the ability to increase their speed when running.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, it will require some testing, but as with the other changes to the body, I believe it is not random. The bone growth around the skull has been observed along the shoulders and forearms, providing both armour and I suspect another way of damaging those they attack.”
He gestured for me to tap on the glass again and I did so, the creature on the other side responding immediately to the soft vibration.
“They are increasingly sensitive to sound and vibration which I suspect makes up for their limited eyesight and they are easily as intelligent as you or I.”
“That’s bloody scary,” Cass said, wrapping her arms around herself, a shiver running through her.
“Now, I have been informed that you are aware of the mass growing within them?”
The worm-like tendrils that formed a writhing ball in their abdomens. I nodded and swallowed back the sudden nausea as I recalled the way it had moved in Ryan’s hands when he had pulled one out. Those tendrils wrapping around his fingers and wrist as though sentient.
“We believe, and I am looking forward to having some live specimens to test, that the parasite that infected the host eventually grows to be that. Moving throughout the body, consuming and replacing those parts of it that are no longer needed.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, internal organs like the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and so on. The tendrils spread through the body like roots, strengthening muscle and tendon and even up into the mouth.”
“The mouth! Why?” Cass asked, eyes wide as she looked at me and then back at the scientist.
“Have you heard of the cymothoa exigua?” he asked and we both shook our heads. “It’s better known as the tongue-eating louse.”
He smiled at our expressions and turned to look directly at the Reaper behind the glass as he spoke.
“It’s a parasitic isopod. It enters a fish through the gills and then attaches itself to the fish’s tongue. It severs the arteries to the tongue, causing it to fall off and then attaches itself to the stub of what was once the fish’s tongue, becoming, in effect, the new tongue.”
I stared at him, horrified at the idea and then turned to look at the dark, black tongue that flicked from the Reapers mouth and shuddered.
“The tendrils do much the same to the zombie. Any food it consumes is taken in by the parasite, which is why it no longer needs the host bodies internal organs. The body is, in effect, merely a means by which the parasite can move around and find the food it needs.”
“That’s repulsive,” Cass said and I had to agree.
“Maybe so,” Darren agreed softly. “But fascinating none the less. While this could have evolved in nature I firmly believe it to be human-made.”
“What makes you sure?”
“Mother nature, for all her wonder, isn’t perfect,” he said with a slow smile. “Look inside any living creature and you will find parts that are now redundant. Useful once, but no longer needed as we have grown and evolved into what we are now.”
“Like the appendix?” I asked and he nodded, a delighted smile on his face.
“Well done. Yes, like the appendix. Now if you are building a new parasite from scratch, you design it to function a certain way. Every part of it will be necessary with no redundant parts because it hasn’t evolved over millennia but is simply a newer version of something created in a lab.”
“That’s what you think this is?”
“That fellow who leads the cult, I don’t know his name, but he captured one and allowed Admiral Stuart to bring it to me. I was able to study it and can confirm that the creature looks to have been built by an engineer and not by random chance.”
“Someone out there built it for a reason then. Who?”
He shrugged his narrow shoulders and sighed heavily.
“I wish I knew. I would love to see their data and talk with them. They have done some truly inspiring work. Revolutionary!”
“Not the word I would use,” I said.
The Reaper hadn’t moved from where it stood, tongue poking out of its mouth as though it were tasting the air. I held back another shudder and gestured with a jerk of my head towards the door, for Cass to follow me.
“I expect frequent updates on your work.”
“Of course,” Darren said with an absent wave, mind already elsewhere.
We left him there, standing in the darkened hallway, staring at the trapped Reaper. The black-clad guards at the door saluted me with fists to chest as I passed by and I smiled, as I nodded in return.
“My Lady,” Lisa said as the door closed behind me.
She held herself a little stiffly and the faceless mask she wore hid her face but I recognised her voice and my smile grew wider as I stepped forward, pulling her into an embrace that she returned awkwardly.
“I’m glad you’re alive!” I said and winced as the wound I had taken was pulled by my movements.
“My Lady? You are well?”
“I’m fine,” I said waving away her concern. “Are you assigned to guard this place?”
She had been one of the three Dead assigned to guard me by Samuel before I had taken control of the island and I had thought she had died, sacrificing herself to buy us time for Samuel to arrive as the Ferals rampaged through the town.
I was inordinately pleased to see her and couldn’t keep the smile from my face, even as she glanced back over her shoulder at the small army of black-clad men and women behind her.
“Ah, no, My Lady.”
“Seriously?”
There were two full fists of acolytes, standing waiting with their weapons sheathed at their hips and their eyes constantly moving as they watched for threats.
“Forgive me, My Lady.”
“I thought I told you to call me, Lily?”
“That would not be appropriate.”
“Okay. First things first. Lose some of the guards. I don’t need them.”
“Samuel suggested that you might argue,” she said and I thought I detected humour in her tone. “He said that we would argue back and forth, haggling over the numbers and you would finally settle on four.”
I pursed my lips and felt the frown forming on my brow. The man was far too sure of himself and if I was to be in charge of the island, that meant him and his people too.
“Four will be fine,” Cass said and I turned to look at her in surprise.
&nbs
p; “It will?”
“Shahid is still out there and has supporters. Colonel Smith might be captured but we have no idea who he has still following his orders. You are a target now.”
“Fine! But none of this, ‘My Lady’ crap. It’s Lily.”
“As you wish, Lily.”
She raised one clenched fist and all but three of the acolytes dispersed. I shook my head at the theatrics but was pleased that Lisa would be staying as one of my bodyguards. If I had to have one, I knew she would do a great job.
“Well,” Cass said. “You’ve seen the Reapers. What next?”
“There’s a day full of meetings,” I said with a sigh. “Inventory first, then resources and manufacture, then… well, let’s just say it will be late before I get some sleep.”
“I’ll take your meeting discussing the state of our larder,” Cass said and I looked at her quizzically. She smiled back as she added, “You need to go to medical and get a check-up anyway.”
I pressed my hand against my stomach and nodded. That was certainly something important and when Ryan came back, and he would! I wanted to be able to tell him his child was healthy.
Chapter 4
The journey out of the town was almost pleasant. The electric truck provided a smooth ride and despite the surly glares of my captors, I leant back and enjoyed the warmth of the day. Not that I didn’t pay attention of course.
It was clear that they were returning along the route they had originally arrived by. Corpses littered the side of the road, many of them burnt and blackened. I eyed the flamethrower once more and allowed myself a moment to imagine the fun I could have with it.
There were less abandoned vehicles on the road than I had expected, but considering how far north we were, it was perhaps understandable. The larger population centres were to the south and while many people had died in the far north of Scotland, there were simply fewer people, to begin with.
We passed lush green hills and untended fields that had returned to a wild state they had probably not seen for centuries. In barely more than a year, much of man’s impact upon the world had been erased.
The vast herds of cattle and sheep were gone, most food for the zombies and the endless sea of crops that covered the land had become fields of weeds. The few houses we passed were empty and dark, with no movement and often signs of violence in their broken doors and shattered windows.
In many of the vehicles on the road, bodies remained, locked in place by seatbelts and doors the undead didn’t know how to open. Those zombies just sat there, rousing only enough to moan as we passed them by.
Our speed was… not impressive, but faster than walking at least. I suspected that we would need several stops before we reached our destination unless we had had the misfortune to loot a town right next to a hidden bunker. Not even I was that unlucky.
We passed the burnt-out wreckage of a petrol station that had hundreds of bodies surrounding it, most of them little more than charred bones. I wondered, briefly, at what had happened and guessed finally that someone had made a last stand there, destroying the undead and themselves in a fiery inferno. I could respect that.
If you were going to die, you might as well take as many of the undead with you as you could. Anything less was just selfish.
“You smile a lot,” Jer said, interrupting my thoughts and wiping the smile from my face.
“Why not?” I said, smile returning, cocky and full of enough arrogance to annoy him. “It’s a nice day and I’m not having to walk anywhere.”
Jer looked at Dawn, raising his eyebrows as he shook his head. She ignored him and he turned back to me.
“You’re a prisoner. You get that right?”
I glanced down at the zip ties that bound my hands tightly together and then back at him, cocking one eyebrow.
“Yes, I had noticed.”
“We aren’t taking you for a picnic, yeah? You’re going to be interrogated, most likely tortured and then killed. Why the hell are you so happy?”
“I learnt long ago not to worry about the large stuff and instead, to focus on the small things that I can control. I choose to do that.”
“Small things? Like what?”
I didn’t answer, instead just widened my smile and leant back keeping my eyes fixed on him. I revised my plan and decided that perhaps Dawn would not be the first to die.
The mercenary shook his head and returned to watching the sides of the road though his lazy posture and nonchalant attitude led me to believe that he wasn’t truly expecting any danger. Which was just foolish.
If he had been looking back, as I had been, he would have noticed the occasional flash of grey skin through the bushes or the way they rustled as something pushed through them. We were being followed and I suspected it to be the Reaper.
It wasn’t unusual behaviour after all. One of them had followed my group for a considerable time and, as I recalled, it too had just the one eye. The other had been removed by me and it seemed to take offence at that.
The zombie I had injured back in Oban had clearly taken the same kind of offence and seemed determined to reach me. Since it had no army of undead minions to help it and I had neither minions nor allies, I figured that when it found me we would have an almost fair fight. If I didn’t have my hands bound and a weapon anyway.
After an hour’s travel, we came upon a small village. Barely a few hundred homes that pressed up beside the road. As with Oban, the streets were silent and the homes empty. I couldn’t help but frown as we drove past, all too aware of how odd it was.
“Where are all the undead?” I heard myself ask.
“What?”
“The zombies,” I gave Jer an exasperated look at his inability to comprehend my simple question. “Everywhere else I have been there have been zombies. Oban, the village we just passed, there are none.”
“We killed all the zombies at Oban, man!”
“No. You killed a small number that happened to be in a town that should have contained a hell of a lot more.”
His brows drew down and he looked to Dawn for support who, in turn, ignored him. He lifted his shoulders in a shrug and didn’t answer, which was more than a little bit frustrating.
While it was true that some zombies moved from area to area, many of them simply stayed where they were. Even in Scotland that had a much smaller population than England, I would have expected the towns and villages to still have the undead haunting their streets.
That they didn’t, was a little bit odd. I knew that Glasgow had a million or more undead clustered around the city, or had a bare fortnight ago. Why then did Oban, a town with a population of around nine thousand before the fall, have so few zombies?
It was a question that I didn’t have an answer for and that bothered me a great deal more than it should.
I pondered the question as we travelled and as the day drew to a close, I was still no closer to an answer. The wind had picked up and the sky had turned grey as the rain began to fall. I stared up at the sky, letting the water strike my face and relishing the chill it brought with it.
The route we were following had us driving alongside Loch Etive, a body of water that was almost twenty miles in length and a mile wide. Those dark waters stirred hungrily, waves cresting and crashing against the stony shore.
“We’ll be staying here for the night,” Jer said as he nodded his head at a building further along the road. “The water will keep the undead away at least.”
“What undead?” Dawn snapped, speaking for the first time since we had climbed into the back of the truck. “None around here.”
“You always get a couple wandering through,” Jer countered. “Best to be wary.”
“Nothing to worry about,” I said, perhaps a little snidely. “You have your guns after all.”
“Aye, you bet your ass we do! That’s why we kick ass and the rest of the world is dying.”
I shook my head, a smile growing on my face at his bluster. Take away his precious guns a
nd he would be soon dead. It was foolish to grow reliant on them.
The truck rolled to a stop and the two mercenaries in the front clambered out. Isaac, looking a great deal drier than those of us who had been required to sit in the open rear of the truck, began issuing orders.
Since I wasn’t under his command I simply leant back against the side of the truck and looked around, affecting a bored demeanour while trying to take in everything I could.
Surrounded by trees and a large grey fence, the building had been a holiday home for some wealthy family. A two-door garage sat open beside the main gate and a wood chip covered pathway marked the way through the trees to the house that sat beside the loch.
There was a small dock for their pleasure boats and a great many wide windows set around the building. Not a great thing to have in a building you want to be secure from the undead. Still, I thought with a shrug, it wasn’t my concern.
“You!” Isaac snapped and I turned my head to look at him. “Get your ass moving!”
Dawn prodded me with the muzzle of her gun and I flashed her a smile which she ignored, merely prodding me once more with a little more force.
I followed her directions towards the house where Neil, the youngest mercenary, was waiting. He had a torch in one hand and his assault rifle in the other. Dawn said something that I didn’t catch over the sound of the rain hitting the leaves of the trees and the slate roof of the house. Neil did though and nodded as he gestured for me to step ahead of him.
A smile creased my face as I looked back to see Dawn jogging back towards the front gates. I was alone with just the youngest mercenary, who, despite having a gun was still just a man. I was a killer.
He directed me through a series of once lavish rooms, now dust covered and smelling slightly of damp. Past the stairway that led up to the next floor and into the kitchen. He gestured for me to pull open the door there and grunted when I did.
“No,” I said as I looked into the empty pantry.
A small room with barely any space to stand upright let alone stretch out to sleep. Bare shelves and no light, hardly an accommodating place to spend my night.
Killing the Dead (Book 14): Enemies Unknown Page 3