Killing The Dead | Book 21 | The Journey Home Read online

  The Journey Home.

  Killing the Dead: Season Four Book Three

  By Richard Murray

  Copyright 2020 Richard Murray

  All Rights Reserved

  All Characters are a work of Fiction.

  Any resemblance to real persons

  Living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Some scenes are based on real locations that

  have been altered for the purpose of the story.

  Chapter 1

  Darkness edged my vision as my hands clutched at the rope wrapped around my throat, so tight that I couldn’t pull it away as I gasped for a breath that was denied me. Anger, pain, sorrow, they all fell away as I neared my end.

  My legs kicked at the open-air beneath me as I was hauled up, high above the crowd, there to dangle as I died, slowly suffocated by the noose Sebastian’s pitiful followers had pulled over my head.

  A roar sounded from the crowd in the park, a rising cry of outrage and helplessness as they watched my death. They could not fight, not against the Dead, those black-garbed cultists that ringed the park, weapons drawn.

  Something changed, an order given, and the ground rushed up to meet me and I collided with the wooden platform, with bruising force. I pulled at the slackened rope, sucking down great gulps of air as I fought against the pain.

  My gaze met that of Cass, standing in the crowd, hand pressed against her mouth and eyes red with tears shed for me. I wanted to weep for her, being forced to watch the death of one she loved. A fate that I, at least, would be spared.

  The air felt so good as I sucked in as much of it as I could possibly hold, my lungs burning with the need to release it. I coughed as I did so, body shaking as I looked over at the smirking face of Sebastian Cho, leader of the cult my beloved had created.

  “Couldn’t do it?” I asked; the words as laboured as my breath.

  “Silence!” he snapped back, eyes moving as he scanned the crowd. “You have felt the noose and your fate, so tell me now, where are your children?”

  “Far from you,” was all I said, for in truth, I didn’t really know and even if I did, I would never reveal their hiding place to him.

  “You will tell me!” His fury radiated from him in waves. “Where has Samuel hidden them?”

  There was no point in answering for he was a true believer and he had decided that with Ryan’s death, his role as ‘Lord Death’ had fallen to one of our children. Of course, that naturally meant that the other role, that of life bringer, had moved from me to the other child.

  He had drunk deep of the mystical well as he built upon the death cult Ryan had founded and helped turn it into a true religion. I had been wrong when he moved against Samuel, as I had merely thought he wanted power for himself.

  I had been very badly wrong.

  No, he wanted to bring about the second coming, the rebirth of his Lord Death. To do that, he only needed to find someone worthy for the role. Again, I had made the mistake of believing he intended to fill that role himself.

  My mistakes had cost the island dearly as he had seized power and kept me imprisoned while he brutalised the people of our island home. Holding my children hostage as he readied to prepare them for the roles, he had assigned them.

  “Gone,” I said. Freed with the help of the loyalists who still believed in Samuel’s version of their religion and spirited away to some hidden place. “To a place you will never find them.”

  A curt gesture from his hand and my eyes went round as the noose was pulled tight and I was pulled from those wooden planks, up into the air, once more denied the breath I needed.

  There was no way to tell how long I dangled, legs kicking as I pulled on that rope, my skin burning as it was rubbed raw by the rope burn. I wanted to weep, to cry out, but without the breath to do so, all I could do was slowly die.

  I hit the boards hard for a second time as the rope was released and I wept as I sucked down that first breath of air. I glared at my tormentor, as I coughed and gasped, and wished only that I had not failed when I tried to kill him.

  “Again!” he snapped, raising his arm but stopped as a roar went up from the crowd.

  “No!” Cass yelled. “You can’t do this. We won’t allow it.”

  Sebastian stared with hate-filled gaze at the crowd, seeing their anger at my treatment and I almost wept. I tried to meet my friend’s eyes, but they were fixed on Sebastian. I wanted to tell her to stop, to let him do as he pleased because anything else would result in more death and I would not have people die for me.

  Not again.

  “The Scourge will sweep away all life!” Sebastian cried to the crowd as his minions shifted their weight, readying for a fight. There were fewer of them than the island people, but they were fanatical death cultists with no fear. “Without those chosen, those sent to bring balance to this world, we will all perish!”

  His eyes swept the crowd, and he could almost feel their anger so great it was. But as delusional as he might be, he knew that their anger would cool quickly once the blood was spilt.

  “Our Lord Death died to protect you, all of you! Now there is a greater threat out there and one that only the living manifestation of death can destroy. Without him, without his gift, we will not survive what comes.”

  “This woman!” He turned his angry glare on me as he pointed at me accusingly. “Gifted as she was to be the embodiment of life itself, has betrayed us all by stealing away those chosen to inherit the mantle of their parents.”

  I just shook my head, hating how he justified his actions to himself and to everyone else. Hiding behind his beliefs that had been formed by Samuel in a time of chaos and darkness. There was no light and dark, no embodiment of life and death. We were just people, trying to survive.

  “This island, our home,” Sebastian continued, his voice carrying to the crowd. “It is our sanctuary and will protect us for some time, but not forever. The parasites are growing, spreading their evil across the land and without our saviour, the chosen embodiment of death itself, we will all die.”

  His gaze swept the crowd and while they were not believers, they could still see his passion, his belief and more than a few of them were beginning to look uncertain.

  “We have tried to destroy them! With fire and acid, with the greatest explosive devices we could make, and we have failed!” His impassioned cry was heartfelt, I would give him that. He actually believed what he was saying. “The only one who can kill these parasites, these most unholy creations of the Scourge, is our Lord Death. So, join with me now in finding-“

  He cut off as an acolyte ran up, piece of paper in one hand. “What is it?”

  The acolyte spoke quietly but quickly as Sebastian lowered his head to listen, righteous fury fading as his face lost all its colour. He grabbed the paper out of the acolyte’s hand, holding it up to his face as he scrutinized it, eyes intent.

  Finally, he licked suddenly dry lips and turned his head to look at me, eyes meeting mine. I wondered at the confusion I saw there that was quickly replaced with fear as he walked over to me.

  “Forgive me, my Lady.”

  “Huh?”

  He extended a hand and gestured angrily at the acolytes behind me. They jumped swiftly to obey his unspoken commands as they helped me rise, pulling the rope from around my neck. I winced and felt a trickle of blood run from the broken skin there.

  “I was hasty,” Sebastian said. “I hope that you find it within yourself to forgive me.”

  With that, he turned and hurried quickly across the platform. I watched his retreating back and only then realised that his acolytes were following him, streaming from the park and
back towards the sports centre that they had made their home.

  “What just happened?” I asked the empty platform as I gaped at the empty space where Sebastian had been just a moment ago.

  Strong arms wrapped around me as Cass pulled me close. Her cheeks were wet as they pressed against mine and I just stood, unsure what was happening as more of the crowd joined her. Evie and her mother both taking a turn hugging me.

  “Why did they leave?” I asked, not understanding. “Does anyone know?”

  “I do!”

  The crowd parted as Charlie was pushed through by one of her techs. Her chair faring so poorly on the damp grass of the park, she had need of help. She had a laptop open on her lap and she was shooing people away irritably.

  “Got here as fast as I could,” she said, looking around. “Guess the other guy beat me to it.”

  “Other guy?” Cass said. “You mean the acolyte?”

  “Yeah, black-clothed prick! He took off as soon as we confirmed it.”

  “Confirmed what?” I asked.

  In truth, I didn’t want to know. My body ached everywhere, and my legs trembled so much that Evie and Cass had each slipped an arm around my waist to help hold me up. All I wanted was to lie down and sleep.

  “We were tracking the parasites, yeah?” Charlie said, and I nodded. Even as a prisoner, I had been able to gain some information. “Well of the three that were over on the mainland…”

  “Go on,” I said, hating the theatrics and the way she grinned as she relished the attention.

  “Now there’s only two.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I saw it with my own eyes when the satellite passed over London. It’s still there, but it’s not moving.”

  “You’re sure?” Cass said.

  Charlie affected an expression of hurt as she said, “do you even have to ask that?”

  “This is important!” I said, Sebastian’s words suddenly making sense to me. “How do you know it’s dead?”

  I was well aware of the crowd as Charlie looked pointedly at them, but I shook my head anyway. The time for secrets was long past and I was in too much pain and way too tired to be concerned with them just then.

  “Look, the image we get is small, but these fuckers are so big that we can see them moving. The satellite gives us real-time and we have about three whole minutes before it passes, but that’s enough.”

  “To see that it wasn’t moving?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Could it just be… I don’t know. Sleeping or hibernating?”

  “I’ve been watching these things for over a year,” Charlie said. “They don’t stop moving, ever. This one has.”

  “How did it die?” I wondered aloud.

  “Radiation from the nuke’s?” Cass suggested.

  “Nah, that’s practically at normal levels now,” Charlie said.

  “Another zombie? People?”

  “It eats zombies. People too,” she replied with a grin. “We’ve not found a way to kill the bloody things and you think some random survivor managed it?”

  “What about the others?” I asked. “Any sign of change in them?”

  Charlie turned the laptop around so that I could see the video feed playing and she shook her head. “They’re the same.”

  “So, one parasite, the size of a small house has died but the others haven’t?” Cass mused, looking at me. “What’s changed?”

  I had no answer to give. One thing I was sure of though, it had scared the hell out of Sebastian. His whole belief system was founded on the one very simple fact that they could only be killed by the new Lord Death.

  If someone had killed one, then it meant Sebastian had been wrong to think my children would be his chosen warriors in the holy crusade he planned to wage. It also meant, in his mind at least, that my title of the embodiment of life was still good.

  No wonder he’d almost wet himself as he ran from the platform. To him, as true a believer as he was, it was likely one of the greatest sins he had almost committed by nearly killing me. While I didn’t believe it myself, I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  “First things first,” I said, voice as firm as I could make it. “We get those cultists off this island. After that, I want to get some of our people out there to find out just what killed the damned thing. I really hate the idea that there might be something scarier than them out there.”

  “Maybe he was right,” Cass said, voice soft. She had lost her brother in the same blast that had killed my beloved Ryan. “Maybe there is some new hero out there ready to save us all.”

  “I don’t believe in them,” I replied. “But whatever happened, we’ll figure it out.”

  There was an excited murmur from the crowd, and I looked down at the laptop screen, wondering just what was out there that could kill a creature that our bombs couldn’t and how worried I should be about it.

  One way or another, I was sure that I would find out.

  Chapter 2

  I sucked in a breath and cast a glare at Abigail as I hissed at her, “careful with that needle!”

  She matched my stare with one of her own, seeming to have forgotten her fear of me in those long years we were trapped together beneath the ground. She didn’t immediately reply as she just continued to sew together the wound in my left shoulder.

  “I wouldn’t have to do this if you were more careful.”

  “She’s right, mate.”

  Gregg leant against a lamppost, hands in the pockets of his coat as he kicked idly at one of the many appendages of the parasite that lay quite dead a short distance away. Those appendages were as thick around as tree trunks and stank of death and decay.

  “Wasn’t like I had much choice,” I muttered.

  “Pretty sure you did.”

  “Oh? I was supposed to leave it to keep growing. No, I would have needed to deal with it at some point anyway, might as well be now.”

  Gregg looked pointedly at the bolt gun that lay on the ground a short distance away. Made of machined steel by one of the Genpact engineers, it was as thick around as my wrist and as long as my forearm. It had a crack that ran along its length, put there as the creature knocked it from my hand and dropped an appendage on it while in its death throes.

  “We only have three of those and not as much of the viral load as I’d like. We can’t waste it.” Gregg turned his sternest look upon me, and I held back from rolling my eyes. “You just wanted to kill something, and it didn’t need to be this.”

  He had a point. Perhaps if he hadn’t drugged me so that I slept as those few Genpact survivors made their way out of the bunker, then I would have sated my bloodlust on them. Instead, I had walked out into the morning sunlight, blinking my eyes at a world I had not seen for five years and all I could think of was my need to kill.

  Encountering the first tendrils of the parasite a short walk north from the tunnel, that had been dug out of the lowest levels of the bunker, had given rise to a burst of pure excitement in my breast. I had rushed head-first into the fight, not really thinking of much beyond my desire to kill it.

  As a result, I had used one of the few vials of the viral load that could kill the parasites and lost one of the three bolt guns that could inject it deep enough into the flesh of the creature to kill it. I had been caught high on the shoulder by one of the fang-like teeth on the end of an appendage and had only just managed to kill the damned thing.

  I was getting rusty, being stuck away in that bunker all those years.

  “Perhaps we won’t meet many more,” I said as Abigail finished off her stitching.

  “Aye, perhaps, mate.”

  My friend wore a look of what I thought was worry on his scarred face. His one remaining eye was fixed on the ruins of civilisation around us as though he were worried about an attack. Foolish as that would be with a parasite so close. There would be no living creature within its range.

  No undead creature either.

  He wore the same trave
lling clothes as both Abigail and myself. Thick boots, waterproof, grey trousers, and sturdy jackets taken from the Genpact stores. We each carried a backpack loaded down with everything I had thought we would need on our long journey across the length of England.

  I had been right about the first aid kit at least, I thought with a smile as Abigail put it away in her pack. I pulled my coat back on and then slipped my arms through the straps of my pack with only a mild grunt for the burst of pain from my shoulder.

  My combat knife was in its sheath on my left hip and the hand-axe hung on my right. Suitably armed and ready for whatever the world may throw at us, we set off walking once more.

  The world had changed in my long absence and not for the better. Once tall buildings were crumbling into ruin, their windows shattered and their walls weather-beaten and worn. The pavements and roads were cracked with weeds and grass rising tall through them.

  Overgrown trees lined the roads, their branches meeting and forming dark canopies to walk beneath with years of fallen leaves to soften our steps. Small animals had grown in number and the undergrowth positively overflowed with them.

  Birds flitted from tree to tree, singing their irritatingly high-pitched songs of welcome and I knew we would have ample wildlife to feast on as we made our way north.

  What cars remained on the roads sat on tyres long gone flat, their bodies rusting, and glass shattered. It seemed as though the whole world was decaying with every passing moment as the people who had tended it had long gone.

  I hummed softly as I walked, my mind not really on our surroundings. I didn’t particularly fear attack, not while I could see the tendrils of the parasite climbing the building walls like some crimson ivy.

  Instead, I thought of what I would do. To return to Lily and disrupt the life she had undoubtedly built after my supposed passing was not an option. She was one of the few people in the world I cared about and the first person I had been able to truly connect with.

  No. I would not disrupt the life she had, but what we had left the bunker with needed to get to her. If she had any real chance of rebuilding the world, she would need the viral load that she could use to kill the parasites.