Family Matters: Season 2 Book 3 (Killing the Dead 9) Read online

  Family Matters

  Killing the Dead: Season Two Book Three

  By Richard Murray

  Copyright 2015 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 purposes of the story.

  Dedication / Acknowledgment

  This book and the ones that preceded it, couldn’t have happened without the help of my mother who acts as first proofreader and without the readers, those rare people who can overlook any technical issues and see the story beneath. Thank you.

  Chapter 1 - Ryan

  The ice cold waters of the Irish Sea, pressed against my legs as the waves pushed in towards the shore. A fitting counterpoint to the searing rage that I carried within me.

  I held tight to Lily’s far too limp body and held her above the waves as I waded ashore without a backwards glance to the inflatable dinghy that had carried us out from the battered old fishing boat. I could taste the salt water on my tongue.

  Excited chatter rose from my friends as they waded along and the sleek black form of Jinx as she paddled through the water beside me was somehow comforting. She’d glance up to me and my burden as she kept pace with me and would let out a whine. One of the first sounds I’d heard from her.

  “Here now lass,” Gabe called to Becky as she stumbled. He reached out to take her arm in his and flashed a grin her way. “There’s lots of rocks to catch your feet on. Hold on to me and I’ll see you safely to shore.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, just barely, as she blushed and battered her eyelashes back at him. She was clearly besotted with my brother and had even ceased her endless demands to make haste to the far north of Scotland to the fabled naval landing force that awaited us.

  My grip tightened on my burden as a strong wave pushed at my back and I turned my attention back to getting her still form to the shore. I glanced down to her pale face and quickly away again, the urge to kill someone, anyone, grew stronger with every look.

  The distant drone of the inflatables engine as it made its way back to the fishing boat faded away as I climbed the pebbled shore, each step accompanied by the crunching of stone rubbing together and despite the sun high in the sky above us, I couldn’t hold back the shiver.

  “Mate,” Pat said in his usual quiet tones as he came up beside me. “I’ll take her.”

  I shook my head and saw him glance at Cass. She sucked in a deep breath and laid a gentle hand against his arm as she moved past him to stand before me.

  “Ryan,” she said in a voice kept carefully low. “Let Pat take her. You’ve had little rest and if we meet any of the undead, you’ll be more use to us with your hands-free.”

  “She needs me,” I said in a voice as cold as the sea we had just left behind. Tight control was all I had left to me and if I let it slip, someone would die.

  “Then let Pat carry her,” Cass insisted. “You’ll not be helping her if you can’t protect her properly.”

  I glanced down at Lily once more, indecision no doubt plain for all to see, my control was slipping. Finally, I nodded and carefully passed her across to his waiting arms.

  He shifted her weight and nodded once he had her securely held. I tried to offer a smile of thanks but it came across as more of a grimace. They seemed to understand anyway.

  “Which way?” Gregg asked my brother as he joined the rest of us. He was shivering from the cold, the jeans he wore were a poor choice for wading through the cold seas.

  “Head this way,” Gabe said as he pointed north. “Across the mudflats and salt marsh towards that treeline. Straight through those trees and our destination is on the other side.”

  “Anything we should worry about?” Cass asked with a glance to me as I drew my combat knife from its sheath on my belt.

  “Nah lass.” He shook his head and flashed another grin her way. “Might be a few of those undead creatures wandering about but they can be easily avoided.”

  “You don’t kill them?” she asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “Not if we can help it. Do no harm is our motto,” he replied with a quick look to me. His expression turned sorrowful as he saw the knife and he shook his head. No doubt imagining the conversation he would soon be having with our parents.

  The first stirrings of amusement at his obvious discomfort faded as I saw her, cowering behind him and Becky. A slight young girl, barely sixteen with her dark hair in a ponytail and looking everywhere but at me.

  Gregg caught my arm as I took a step towards her and I glanced at him to see him shake his head warningly. “Come on mate, we’ll scout ahead.”

  My knuckles whitened as I gripped the handle of my knife but I nodded and followed him, away from the others, Jinx, the dark-furred Alsatian close to my heels.

  We were soon a good fifty metres or so ahead of the main group and I had to resist the urge to keep looking back to them and to her. It would do no good. She would still be slowly dying.

  In short time we were striding through the stinking mudflats of the Caerlaverock nature reserve. A wide stretch of desolate land that was more mud than sand with an irritating number of shallow streams cutting through towards the sea.

  Seagulls scattered at our approach only to settle down behind us once we had passed. Every time they did so, I glared at them, irritated beyond measure that I had no way of actually reaching and killing them before they flew away. It brought attention to us for anyone who may be watching.

  We headed upwards, away from the mud and stench behind us, away from the cold sea breeze and raucous calls of the gulls. Towards the clumped green and yellow grasses and the waiting treeline.

  I scanned the horizon as I walked, alert and hopeful for some form of danger to us but as the morning wore on and nothing presented itself, I could feel my frustration growing. It wasn’t a good sign.

  “You need to do something for me,” I said to Gregg in a low voice so that there was no chance of it carrying on the wind to our friends behind us.

  “Whatever you need mate.”

  “When she dies…”

  “She’s not going to mate, have a little faith,” he said as he looked over to me. His dark eyes glistened. “We’ll get her fixed up, you’ll see.”

  My jaw clenched and I tightened my grip on the knife as I fought for control. “Fine. If she dies…”

  “She won’t.”

  “Just shut up and listen,” I said with a snarl that caused his eyes to widen in alarm. I followed his gaze to see I had half raised my arm, the knife blade gleaming as it pointed towards him. I carefully lowered it back down.

  “Ok mate.” His tone was placating, soft as though trying to calm a wild animal.

  “If she dies. I want you to make sure you gather the others together and get as far from me as you can. Promise me that you will.”

  A line appeared between his brows and his eyes shone with tears. His mouth moved but no words came as he seemed to struggle with what to say. I could see in his eyes that he understood though, that he knew why they needed to leave. He nodded.

  “I promise.”

  When… no, if, she died, then the only thing I could offer her would be to allow the people she cared about to live. Everyone else though…

  In silence, we passed beneath the first broadleaved trees. Their branches beginning to show colour after the winter. Spring was here and w
ith it had come the new growth and annoying insects. I wondered briefly, as I swatted at a gnat, whether the hordes of undead would bring with them an overabundance of vermin and insect life. If they did, it would make an unpleasant situation all the more so.

  Jinx trotted ahead a short way and then stopped, her head raised as she sniffed at the air. She glanced back to me and seemed to be wanting some kind of response. I nodded once, a tilt of the head, and she set off through the trees. I glanced at Gregg who gave a half shrug before we followed.

  Our friends were still behind us with a healthy distance to allow us to deal with any threats that appeared. I was pleased to see that Cass and Becky had taken up positions on either side of Pat, their clubs held ready to defend him and the still form he carried.

  A growl sounded, low and insistent and I stepped around a tree to see three zombies crouched over the body of a young woman. They were tearing at her flesh, fingers digging in and pulling out thick chunks that they stuffed into their mouths. They hadn’t noticed us.

  I waved Gregg away and saw him step back from the corner of my eye as I moved forward. Jinx glanced at me as I passed her and I paused, before gesturing her to stay. She settled onto her haunches, eyes fixed on the three undead.

  The first died without knowing I was there, my knife buried almost to the hilt in its skull. I yanked it out as the next closest rose to its feet, arms reaching out towards me. It was pathetically easy to brush aside the clumsy lunge and drive my blade through its eye socket.

  As the third zombie approached me, stumbling over the dead girl's body, I released my hold on the knife, leaving it embedded in the eye socket.

  “What’re you doing?” Gregg let out a yelp as I stepped forward into the zombie's embrace.

  I gripped the zombie's throat with one hand as it flailed ineffectually at me. My thick coat was more than enough to block its attempts to reach my flesh and it didn’t have the sense to go for my exposed skin.

  Its eyes were covered with a pale white film and I saw no signs of intelligence lurking in them. Its teeth snapped together as it strained to move closer to me but I had no problem holding its emaciated form at bay.

  “Ryan!” Cass snapped and I looked back to see the rest of our group had arrived. Pat had a frown on his face and he was sweating despite the chill in the air. Cass wore an expression of irritation that I had seen all too often on Lily’s face. Becky just shook her head and looked away while Gabe was staring wide-eyed at me.

  “These are weak,” I said quietly. “Turned long ago and left without food for some time. They were already dying slowly. This meal,” I nodded towards the dead girl. “Would have slowed the decay but not for long.”

  “What’re you trying to say mate?” Pat asked as I batted away an arm that came close to my face.

  “I’m saying these Shamblers are dying,” I said with a thoughtful look at the undead I held easily at arm's length. “We’ve been seeing it for a while now. When this first started, any one of these would have been a threat. Now… they’re barely an irritant.”

  My booted foot swept out and the zombie's legs were brushed aside easily. It dropped to the ground as I released my grip on its throat and before it could even try to rise back to its feet, I stamped down hard on its skull.

  “Good lord man, what’ve you become?” Gabe asked with a shake of his head.

  “What was your point?” Cass asked before I could answer him. I shrugged.

  “Once the summer begins and the weather heats up, with little food left for them and the heat helping the decay along, I could well imagine that most of the zombies will die out.”

  “Really?” she said as she pressed one hand against her stomach. She wore such an expression of hope that I almost felt bad about dashing it.

  “The Ferals won’t,” I said and her nose wrinkled as she considered that. “In fact, I could well imagine that those types will become more common. Then we will have problems again.”

  “Something to think about later,” Pat said. He grunted as he shifted his weight and nodded towards the north. “We need to keep going.”

  “It’s just a short way now,” Gabe said as he looked at the dead girl, his face contorting with sorrow.

  “You knew her?” Becky asked, her hand reaching for his.

  “Aye lass, that I did.”

  I pulled the knife from the zombie's skull and wiped it clean on the tattered scraps of clothing it wore. “Let's get moving then.”

  “We can’t just leave her here,” Gabe protested.

  “Do what you want, but I’m not waiting.”

  He glowered at me with little effect as I gestured for Jinx to follow and set off once more through the trees. I spared a moment to glance once more at the zombies I’d just killed. They’d done nothing to appease the rage inside of me and the thought that they were dying out brought no real joy.

  At least if the Shamblers died out and we had more of the Ferals, it would be once again a bit of a challenge.

  ****

  We came out of the woods and stopped to stare at the sanctuary my brother had spoken of. Even I could admit it was fairly impressive and not a terrible place to hole up during the apocalypse.

  “Holy shit,” Gregg said with his usual eloquence as he stared at the ruined castle.

  “This is Sanctuary?” Becky asked with a low laugh of pure delight.

  “Aye lass, that it is.”

  “Take her inside,” I said to Pat before anyone else could ask stupid questions that could wait.

  He nodded once and shrugged his wide shoulders to better settle her weight in his arms. Despite the obvious strain carrying her was placing on him, he hadn’t once complained or asked for someone else to take her. I respected that.

  With thick woods to the south and east and open fields on the other two sides, the triangular red stone castle was surrounded by a wide moat. It had a wooden bridge that led across the moat to the wide gates at the front that I assumed had been closed.

  From where we had left the woods, we could see the rear of the castle. One of the two remaining towers on the south-west corner and the crumbling wall that would have made up the southern defences. Thick reeds and grasses formed a screen of sorts and from what I could see, the inhabitants had erected a wire mesh fence where the wall had fallen.

  Gabriel led the way with a smile fixed on his face. It was clear to all that he was pleased to be home and though his eyes would shift towards me and that smile would falter, a weight seemed to have lifted from him.

  “You’ll love it here,” he said to Becky who smiled back at him. “The undead don’t seem to like the water and they can’t get through the front gate.”

  “Where do you all sleep?” Cass asked as she eyed the ruined rear wall. We could see that the south and eastern rooms were empty shells.

  “In the main hall. The guard towers to the north are still solid and that one there,” he said with a gesture to the south-western corner tower. “Well, we use those to keep watch on the area.”

  He paused to wave and I saw movement on the tower as someone waved back. We kept walking towards the moat as he resumed speaking.

  “There’s a well inside and a kitchen of sorts for the tea room that was there for visitors. It was a fairly popular tourist site before this all happened and it had a restaurant and gift shop, toilets and a small museum to display all kinds of things.”

  “Weapons?” I asked and he frowned.

  “Aye, some of those and armour too.”

  “Have you made use of them to fight the undead?” Cass asked.

  “Nah lass,” he replied with a shake of his head. “We tend not to kill them when we can.”

  “Why not?” I asked and he stopped to turn to me.

  “You know why brother. They were still people once and unless we have no choice, we leave them be.”

  “Have you had many attacks by them then?” Cass asked before I could speak.

 
“Nah, we’re reasonably out of the way of the main roads here so the few that wander by soon lose interest.”

  Voices came from across the moat and I looked over to see two men lowering an inflatable dinghy into the water. They’d pulled back the wire mesh fence and one of them climbed down into the dinghy while the other held it steady. He began to steadily row across the twenty metres or so of water.

  “Joel!” Gabe called as the dinghy approached.

  “Good to see you lad,” the older man called back. “We thought we’d lost you.”

  My brother stepped into the water to grab the front of the inflatable craft and hold it steady. He gestured Pat forward. “Only a couple of people at a time, so you take her in first.”

  “She’s not been bitten has she?” Joel asked. His face was red from the exertion of rowing across the moat and he scanned our group with a frown wrinkling his forehead as he did a count and realised how many more trips he’d need to make.

  “No, no,” Gabe said with a wave to the other man. “Knife wound and she’s in dire need of some help. We need to get her to my sister.”

  “Your sister?” Cass asked. “I thought she was a psychiatrist?”

  “Aye she is…was, but she had some medical training at Uni and she’s the best thing we have.”

  “She was with your mam and dad,” Joel said. “Up in the main hall.”

  “I’d best go too,” Gabe said with a sideways glance to me. “Can you fit the three of us in?”

  “Course I can lad, in you get.”

  The grey haired man shifted in his seat to make room as Pat laid Lily gently into the boat, he looked back at me questioningly and I shook my head and gestured for him to go. I had little interest in meeting my family and less so in hearing that she couldn’t be saved. Better for everyone if I hold off on that for as long as possible.

  Cass laid her hand gently on my arm as I watched the inflatable dinghy make its way back across the moat. The grey haired Joel puffing and panting as he worked the oars. I glanced at Cass and she squeezed my arm as she looked at me with eyes that welled with unshed tears.