“I will always come back to you,” he said to her. In the darkest parts of his soul however, he knew this was a lie.
They lay in the blackness with just the single flame to light their world, and held one another. Each clinging tightly to the person that made them whole. There they might have stayed except fate always has other plans.
“Regulus, Lucia. Vitus wants to see you,” Lee said from just outside their small alcove.
“Is it urgent, Lee?” Lucia asked from her place next to Regulus.
“The raiders are in the town and they are looking for the cave.” Lee sounded both frightened and exhilarated at the prospect of a fight, and Lucia resigned herself to leaving Regulus.
“Give me a moment, I’ll dress and join you,” Lucia said.
“We are in the main cavern,” Lee said and Lucia heard him run back the way he had come.
“Will you be okay?” she asked Regulus.
He nodded and lied, telling her he was fine. In truth the terror of the temple had stayed with him longer than it ever had before. Usually it was gone almost as soon as he woke. This time he felt a sickening dread in his stomach that felt like calamity in the making.
He watched her as she dressed in the candle light. Her curves and pale skin were a balm to soothe his pain and soon enough she was gone.
Vitus was already addressing a small crowd of men as Lucia joined them. He nodded to her, causing a few to turn in her direction. She saw that everybody was armed, some with bows and some with swords.
In the days since their arrival the companions had heard little but talk of the raiders. They were more of a menace to the towns people than the Risen, or so it would seem. In the weeks before Vitus and his friends had arrived the town had lost no people to the Risen, but three had been found dead and two had gone missing.
Two of the bodies had been killed by arrows and one had been found with a sword slash across his chest. Those that had gone missing were the real worry. If they had been forced to talk, then the cave might be in danger. Extra sentries had been posted along the roads past the town and now a band of raiders had been spotted heading their way.
Lucia looked around the crowd and saw that most were older men - the younger townspeople had mostly left soon after the Risen had started crossing from Germania into Italy. The faces she saw were determined but looking anxious. Some she guessed might be former legionaries, but most would be farmers and other people unused to fighting. She saw Tatius and Gallus standing to one side and Garic standing with Hakor at the back of the group.
“How many are there?” a man asked, he had a thick beard streaked with grey.
“About a dozen in one party and a second smaller group, if the sentries are correct. They’re on horses but that will do them little good if they try to get into the cave.”
In the days since they had arrived, Vitus had been shown all the entrances into the cave. It was actually a warren, made up of a number of passages through the rock. Each pathway ended in the main chamber but their were many more ways to get in. Some tunnels were smaller than others, and some were almost impassable by all but the smallest of people. If the raiders had been told about the openings, the cave would be hard to defend. Vitus had pushed for some of the entrances to be blocked but Juliana wouldn’t hear of it. Every route that they blocked, she had argued, was one less way to escape if the Risen finally found the caves.
“Separate into pairs, go to the places where the passageways cross, remain out of sight, and be careful but understand that if those men get past you, there is nobody else,” he said to them. Lucia watched looks of determination cross faces that had looked afraid only moments before. This was their home and they would defend it. Vitus watched the townspeople separate into pairs and organise themselves with a concerned look on his face.
He turned to his companions who had waited to hear what he would have them do.
“These people aren’t equipped to fight determined men,” he said to them all. “If we can head them off before they reach the cave I think we should try.”
“What do you have in mind?” Garic asked.
“I don’t know yet. Get your weapons and any armour you can find, and meet me back here as quickly as possible,” Vitus said, his mind already on the town below the mountains, planning the fight to come.
Lucia ran back to where Regulus waited for her, still laying on the bed. He had dozed while she had been away and now he opened one sleepy eye to see her pulling her sword belt around her waist.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“There are raiders heading this way and we need to defend the town and the caves.” Lucia watched Regulus try to get up off the bed and put a hand to his chest, gently pushing him back down.
“I need to help,” he said to her, imploringly.
“You can’t fight with us,” she saw the look of helplessness on his face and her heart broke. “Stay here, help the people defend the cave, they need a leader who knows how to fight.”
Regulus nodded and she helped him up of the bed. He limped to where his clothes were folded on a natural shelf in the rock. He moved like an old man, not a boy who hadn’t reached even her sixteen years. She leaned in behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He straightened against her and let her kiss the crook of his neck. He reached a hand to her head and teased his fingers into her hair.
He turned toward her and kissed her, firmly. There was always a passion between them, even in the briefest kiss and Lucia was tempted to deny the world outside and get back into bed with the man she loved. To tell everyone else it wasn’t her problem anymore, she was tired of the sacrifice. With a weary hand, she pushed him away and carried on preparing for the fight to come. He stood and watched her a moment longer, a dazed and beautiful look on his face, then he did the same.
“Lucia, get up in that house when we are ready, the big one at the end,” Vitus said to her as they entered the main street of the town. “Don’t stand in the window, stand back a few feet, you will still be able see to shoot but they won’t be able to see you, though.”
Lucia nodded, she gathered her bow and two bundles of arrows that had been given to her by the townspeople. Vitus continued giving orders.
“Gallus, Tatius, I want you two over there in that cottage. When they come into town, I’m hoping they will come in a fairly large group. When Lucia and I start firing into them, I expect them to scatter, most will move backwards toward you. Don’t face them directly but let them move toward you and pick them off if you can.”
The two legionaries nodded and grinned at each other. Never shy of a fight, they were in their element.
“Garic and Hakor, you take those houses there,” he pointed to two low cottages on either side of the street. “Be ready for them to split off and find shelter, take them down quickly while they are surprised. Both houses have back entrances, use them if you have to and watch out for surprise attacks.” Both men looked fearful, but determined. “Just remember that we don’t have to stop the attack here, we just want to thin their numbers and make it easier for the people in the cave to defend their homes. I will be in that building up there.” He pointed to a window on the second floor of the biggest house on the street.
Vitus turned to Lucia, “Wait until they notice me firing at them, I’m going to try to take a few stragglers before I start on the main group, we might get one or two down for free. When you start, keep firing at them to make them panic. At the first sign of trouble heading your way, you run. Get back to the cave, do not get into a fight you can’t win.” She nodded and he bent to kiss her cheek. They had come a long way since the farm in Germania and she loved him. He was her brother.
Lucia jogged up the street toward the house Vitus had pointed at. She made her way upstairs and found the bedroom. The window gave a good view of the street below, she took her bow off her shoulder and a string from a pouch at her belt. Vitus had taught her that leaving her bow strung would stretch the string and give the bow les
s power.
With that done she pulled a small, ornate table from the corner of the room. She took one of the bundles of arrows from her back and laid them out, so that she could easily reach them.
Her nerves were tight as she watched her friends ready themselves for the fight to come. She thought back to the events that had brought her, a merchant's daughter, to this place and time. The rise of the undead, the journey to and escape from Rome. So much had happened to her in the last few months.
She remembered the day she had received the letter from her aunt Flavia, how she had wondered what Rome would be like and what kind of woman her aunt might be. It had been the day her father had disappeared, lost in the fight with the Risen. They had not known what the undead were then, and how they would turn the world upside-down.
She looked out from the top floor window and saw the dust cloud. Thirty or so horses, making their way along the road toward the town. She shouted to Vitus and saw his face appear in the window further down the street. She pointed off into the distance and saw him nod in silent reply.
She dropped back out of the light coming through the open window. It would not do to be silhouetted for the raiders to see. She took a deep breath and watched the dust cloud move closer, it was coming so fast and it carried fear before it.
Chapter Eleven
Death found the women and children on the streets of Rome, but for the actions and sacrifice of one woman it could have been some much worse.
The journey to their new home went well, to begin with. The sky was clear and the moon gave them light by which to see, it also made the journey a little more dangerous. The children were scared but the mothers and women of the house managed to keep them from crying out or running in fright into the dark streets.
Secundus had spread his men among their charges and had effectively divided the women and children up into smaller more manageable groups. Flavia and her maid Pamela had six children with them, one too young to walk and the oldest almost in her thirteenth year. Behind them followed three more groups, mothers and children helped along by other slaves and maids from the house of Domitius.
At each street or corner Secundus would send two of his men forward to check the route was clear, then he would send the women following one group at a time. On the first two streets the Risen were nowhere to be seen, and this above all else, settled the children.
About half way to the house of Augustus, however, they came to a street that was filled with the undead. It was a wide thoroughfare that would in better times have seen thousands of people walk its length every day. Shops lined both sides of the road, all dark and deserted.
The Risen were gathered around something in the middle of the street and none of them saw Secundus as he peered, low to the ground, around the corner of a house. There were maybe two hundred of the undead, looking like a gathering of indigent and homeless beggars. Secundus waited, wanting to see what had attracted so many of the creatures to one place, unsure why he needed to know.
As the crowd moved and thinned, he saw the bloody remains of a body on the floor. One more poor soul, driven from hiding by hunger or fear. Secundus ducked back around the corner and signalled for everyone to move closer to the wall and the security of darkness. Flavia leaned in to hear what he had to say, as he re-joined the group.
“We need to go back the way we came, the undead are everywhere up there,” he pointed behind him toward the corner. Flavia nodded and turned to pass the message to her girls, as Secundus relayed orders to his men.
As he moved to the other end of the line to lead them from what would be the new front group, Flavia took hold of his arm. She signalled to him that she wanted to take her small band to the head of the line. Secundus, a man who knew the value of leading from the front, understood immediately. He nodded and Flavia, Pamela and the children in their group followed the centurion past the frightened faces of the other refugees. Had she remained at the back, the death toll might have been so much worst than it eventually was.
They skirted the building past which they had just come and turned right, hoping to come back to the house from further up the street. The children were beginning to get spooked by this change of plan, so were some of the women, if truth were told. One young girl, an orphan whose mother had died in the battle for Rome was beginning to sob. Flavia picked her up and cradled her head into her shoulder.
As they reached the corner, they saw that two Risen had wandered into their path. Secundus motioned for everyone to huddle against the wall, where the moonlit shadows were the darkest. He silently gave orders to three of his men to follow him using just hand signals. Flavia watched as the three men stepped out into the moonlight and behind the two undead.
One was a woman, Flavia couldn’t see her face but she had been thin and tall in life, Secundus drove his sword into her skull from behind, catching her as she fell to the ground. The second Risen, a hugely fat man who dragged the torn remains of a toga behind him, turned to see his companion fall. As he did one of Secundus’ men, a young man with little experience, felled him with a massive swing of his sword, severing the head. Secundus cursed the boy for a fool, wincing at what would come next.
It was the sound of the head falling to the ground that alerted the first of the Risen to their presence. There weren’t as many as there had been gathered on the street around the corpse, but to the group escorting the children there were far too many. Flavia watched as four more of Secundus’ men stepped forward, drawing their swords and facing the Risen as they came down the street. They were outnumbered but they did not hesitate for a second.
The women in the group instinctively began picking up the smaller children, getting ready to run. Pamela scooped up a young boy and took the hand of a young woman with a shock of blonde hair. Beside Flavia a young girl of maybe twelve picked up a much younger companion and prepared herself to run if she was told to. Flavia blessed her for her calm strength.
On the street the legionaries were fighting hard and the noise was unavoidable, with more Risen appearing to join the fight. Flavia watched one of the men go down on the ground. He swung his arms wildly in an attempt to regain his feet, but the men around him were retreating slowly and he was engulfed by the undead. His screams were muted by the amount of bodies that crowded in on top of him.
Secundus pulled at Flavia’s sleeve and the women and children quietly moved away from the fight. They skirted round a corner and down a side alley, the darkness was almost total, out of sight of the moon. Flavia felt panic rise in her stomach but fought against it. She would be no help to the children if she could not remain calm herself.
The men in the street fighting the Risen had begun to shout as they fought. Flavia felt her heart go out to them in thanks. They were selling themselves, giving their lives, in order to distract the Risen from the fleeing women and children. One of the youngest children began to cry in the dark and Flavia heard the sobs muffled. She hoped it was by a gentle hand but if it saved the lives of the other children then she could tolerate a little rough treatment.
“Down here,” Secundus said to Flavia’s right. She felt rather than saw the second alleyway that ran off the one they were currently using. The night air seemed to be sucked in that direction and she started to shepherd the group in the new direction.
“Stop!” Secundus hisses in the darkness. Flavia felt everyone around her come to a halt. She stood, not daring to move without the centurion’s say so, then she heard him begin to fight.
The sound was of a scuffle, like two people gripping each other and wrestling on the floor. She could not see what was happening, or who had the upper hand. Terror gripped her as she realised that she would not know if Secundus had been killed until she felt hands reach for her in the darkness. The fight seemed to go on for the longest time, then almost as suddenly as it had begun Secundus whispered in the darkness.
“Tread carefully, there is a body at your feet,” he said and Flavia felt his hand reach out to guide her over t
he obstacle. She stepped over what felt like a bundle of clothes, but as she brushed it with the sole of her shoe, she knew it wasn’t.
Flavia was completely lost now, she had no idea which direction they were heading in and worse than that, no idea which way they were trying to go. She was at the mercy of the centurion and the few men that were left with them. It was only now, in the dark, that she understood that it wasn’t only the undead that could be dangerous.
They came to the end of the alleyway and the moonlight seemed so bright after the darkness between the buildings. Secundus pointed up the street and Flavia realised they were close to the Palatine hill, it would not be too much further before they would see their destination.
“The far side of the road,” he whispered close to Flavia’s ear. “The shadows are darker, we will need to move slowly and keep close to the walls.”
Flavia turned to the centurion and nodded her understanding. Secundus signalled for two of his remaining men to cross first and they ran across the road, keeping low. On reaching the other side, Flavia saw that they did indeed disappear into the shadows. Secundus must still have been able to see them, however, because he seemed to react to a signal and sent the rest of the group across the road.
A few of the children were beginning to get restless and scared now, they had been out in the open for a long time and had witnessed things that they should never have seen. Men had died and the undead had appeared before them, and Flavia was amazed that they were still as quiet as they were. She whispered to Secundus to stop for a moment, and moved down the column reassuring the women and children as she passed. She did not take long but felt it was necessary in the circumstances. She reached the centurion at the front of the line and one of the last groups of living people began to edge up the Palatine hill, staying close to the wall.
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