Killing the Dead Read online

  “My boyfriend worked at the hospital. He called me yesterday. He was scared; he said that something had changed. The people who had died were starting to come back.” She started to cry softly, arms wrapped around her body. I wondered if I was supposed to do something to comfort her.

  “He was scared. The dead people were attacking everyone. Ripping them apart and the ones they killed would get up and join them. He was stuck on the top floor of the hospital with some of the children.” She stopped talking to take the time to – thankfully – pull herself together a little. She brushed her hand across her eyes wiping away the tears before she continued.

  “The last thing I heard was someone screaming that they had broken through the doors when the call ended. He didn’t pick up the phone again, no matter how many times I called so I jumped in my car and headed straight for the hospital. I needed to know what had happened to him.

  When I arrived, it was chaos. Those... things were wandering everywhere. I couldn’t even get to the entrance. The police were there with guns and shooting at them. It didn’t seem to stop them. I saw some of the policemen die, dragged under a crowd of those monsters and ripped apart. It was awful. I panicked and drove away.” She sighed once more. “I was listening to the radio in the car; it said this was happening everywhere and that people should stay indoors. I was heading home when one of those things stepped out in front of me. I swerved without even thinking and drove straight into a parked car. I had to get out and run, then some of those things started chasing me. I arrived here looking for somewhere safe from them.” She laughed a little bitterly at that. “Ironic huh? Running for my life from the undead and I end up in the cellar of a murderer.” I had to agree that it was somewhat ironic. I started to laugh at that and after a moment she joined in.

  “Well this place certainly isn’t safe anymore.” I said after the laughter subsided, “and by the sounds of it, we will find more of these creatures all over the place. I think the first thing we need to do is get some transport. Before we go though, you still haven’t given me your name.”

  “Lily. My name is Lily.” She said.

  “Hello Lily, my name is Ryan.” I smiled, happier now. I don’t know why but I have always hated not knowing a name, whether that is the name of an object or a person, without the name I can find no way for this thing to fit into place in my world. It is more than a little irksome.

  “Ok then, beyond this wall is an alleyway that runs between the rows of houses. At the far end - unfortunately the end furthest from us - are the garages for these houses. We may find at least one car there, though it won’t be much use without a key” I said.

  “Don’t worry too much about that.” Lilly said with a smile that transformed her face from pretty to truly beautiful. “I had a bit of a reckless youth. I can possibly hotwire a car if we need to.”

  This was the first good news I had received since she had arrived at my door. While I could drive a car, the mechanics of them were a complete mystery. I had always preferred the inner workings of the human body over those of the machine.

  With a firm plan in mind, we climbed to the top of the wall, Lily with a great deal more grace than I managed. From the top, as we sat on the cold stone we could see towards either end of the alleyway. All was clear along its length. The long stretch of cracked pavement had weeds growing through the gaps. It was filled with broken bottles, food wrappings and the general detritus that people felt the need to dump over the walls. Along each side of the pavement were the garden walls much like my own, occasionally broken with the shadowed recess that indicated a gate set into the wall. With a final look back at my house, we dropped down into the alley.

  By unspoken agreement we stayed close to the wall. It seemed imprudent to walk out in the open. I let Lily lead the way as she was the only one with anything resembling a weapon.

  As we cautiously made our way along the alley stepping through the puddles of what I could only hope was remnants of the last nights rainfall, I couldn’t help but look behind us. The hairs were rising on my neck and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched. I would look up at the houses around us but could see nothing to indicate anything was different today. It was an unpleasant feeling that I wasn’t at all familiar with.

  We paused as we reached the end of the alleyway. A cautious look showed a row of garages in an overgrown area of dirt. The simple structures were just boxes made of concrete with a metal door that opened outwards, though all were closed. Aside from the alley entrance you could only leave by the single wide ramp down onto the main road. Two cars sat silent and ready to be stolen by Lily and myself.

  We cautiously moved along the front of the garages towards the closest car. This was a grime encrusted black rectangle on wheels. Perhaps some alpha male type would have been able to give you the car’s make, model and engine specifications. I could simply tell you that it had four wheels, four doors and was fairly small.

  Lily gestured for me to step closer as we reached the car. The stress of remaining undetected must have been getting to her as when she spoke it was in a whisper. “Keep a watch for any undead whilst I try and get this car started.”

  “Happy to do so, however I seem to be without any sort of weapon.” I pointed out.

  “Ok, take this then.” said Lily as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the fold out filleting knife. I wasn’t sure what good it would do against the undead but it was better than nothing. I stood with my back against the garage door, allowing me to see both the alleyway and the road entrance just by constantly turning my head from left to right.

  Lily, happy that she could work undisturbed pulled off her jacket and bunching it up. She held it firmly against the car window before striking the glass hard with the butt of the combat knife. The sound of the window shattering was muffled and we were extremely fortunate no alarm went off.

  As Lily pulled open the door and climbed into the car to fiddle with whatever it was that she needed to fiddle with. I tried to keep an attentive watch though my headache was still with me and I was considering our options.

  I was forced to work on the assumption that Lily was correct about what she had told me earlier. The dead were rising everywhere and not just here. This meant we were going to have a great many problems. We had left my house with only the clothes on our backs and a couple of knives. Finding some sort of shelter from these creatures would be important, but getting hold of some supplies was equally so.

  Getting hold of the supplies would be the problem. If these undead were killing and multiplying then the emergency services would not be able to cope. The police would be forced to rapidly fall back. This wasn’t America. Aside from special tactical units, the majority of the police were unarmed. I highly doubted the undead would be concerned with pepper spray or Tasers.

  No. The government would be forced to deploy the military, which would not be easy as a great many of them were overseas fighting on foreign soil. So, with an almost free reign the dead would soon be overwhelming in number. This in turn would mean no food deliveries to the supermarkets, no happy industrious workers turning up at the power or water treatment plants. No one in fact would be keeping the basic infrastructure intact. This presented a rather bleak future for us.

  The sound of the car as it burst to life awoke me from my reverie. Lily looked up triumphant, “Told you I could do it.” she said with one of those seemingly rare but breathtaking smiles. Her smile turned to a frown as she looked over at the alleyway. “Who is this?” she asked.

  I followed her gaze to see a rotund man running up towards us. He didn’t seem to be undead and it didn’t look as though he were being chased. He did however seem red faced though that could just be from the exertion of running.

  “Shit. I think this might be his car.” Lily said. “He is going to be pissed at us.” I would consider that a problem easily solved. I pulled open the knife.

  “What are you doing?” Lily yelled as she noticed what I was prepar
ing to do.

  “We need this car; I won’t allow him to stop us.”

  “No. You can’t kill him. Rule number one if you are sticking with me. No killing live people.” Lily’s frown was directed full force at me. I wilted slightly. The rules of this new world hadn’t seemed to have changed that much after all. If I wanted to group with others for protection it seemed like I would have to play nice.

  “Fine, no killing.” I agreed, somewhat sulkily closing up the knife and slipping it back into my pocket. I silently added ‘for the moment.’

  “What the hell are you doing with my car?” demanded the angry fat man as he finally waddled up wheezing and flapping his arms in an indignant rage.

  “We need to get out of here, you do too. Haven’t you seen what’s happening?” Lily said her tone firm and brooking no nonsense.

  “Bah, I don’t care what’s going on. That’s my car and you can’t bloody take it,” Angry man shouted at Lily. I was becoming annoyed; the shouting was making my headache worse and would no doubt attract unwanted attention.

  “Please. It’s not safe here and we really need to get away.” Lily pleaded.

  “I really don’t care. Get the hell out of my car.” said the angry man as he reached across and grabbed Lily by the arm, hand grasping tight and causing her to yelp in pain.

  My knife was out and unfolded in an instant; I stepped up against the angry fat man and stabbed the blade into the side of his leg. He screamed and fell over releasing his hold on Lily.

  “What did you do?” Lily shouted.

  “I didn’t kill him” I said, surprised at how defensive I sounded and how much I wanted to not upset Lily. “We really need to go and his shouting will attract them.”

  Lily looked at me for several seconds, I couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking but she looked annoyed. I hoped she wasn’t going to set off without me.

  “Pick him up and put him in the back.” Lily said finally.

  “Why?”

  “Because we can’t just leave him lying here, he needs some medical attention.” she said looking down at the angry man who lay on his side, hands pressed against the bleeding wound in his leg.

  “You stabbed him. You get to look after him” said Lily. “Don’t you dare even think of arguing, if you say one word I will leave without you.” She punctuated this last word by slamming the door shut and grabbing hold of the wheel.

  I resisted the urge to sigh and put away my knife. I grabbed the wounded man under the arms and I was able to lift him, straining slightly under the weight, before I pushed him awkwardly into the back seat of the car. I told the man quietly to keep hold of his leg to staunch the bleeding before I closed the door and trotted around the car.

  “So where to?” Lily asked, as I climbed into the passenger seat beside her.

  “I have an idea.” I said. “First though, we need a library.”

  Lily spared a moment to glance my way, one eyebrow raised in silent query. I gave her my widest grin. I had a plan. Seeing that she would receive nothing further from me and with no place of her own in mind, she nodded once and we set off.

  Chapter 3

  The journey to the library in the town centre took twenty long minutes. The streets we passed were deserted by the living. The few undead we saw seemingly excited by our presence as we passed through their midst set up a gurgling sort of wail which, coupled with the moaning coming from our passenger in the back seat was extremely unpleasant.

  The undead themselves were fascinating to watch. I could recall movies I saw as a child about the undead coming back to life and shuffling around eating brains and such like. These creatures seemed to have no special interest in the brains of their prey, any flesh would do.

  As we passed one intersection I chanced to see two of the undead fall upon a young woman. In the all too brief moment before we passed beyond view, I had the chance to see them as they used their teeth to devastating effect. They ripped into her flesh, blood and pieces of meat spattering the ground around them. I was unsure whether or not they would be able to actually digest anything, but they were certainly trying.

  Another group of the undead we passed were a mixed lot. The leading fellow in a suit and tie had no wound apparent at all. The old man directly behind him was missing a hand and had a large hole where his throat should have been. These wounds didn’t seem to inconvenience him in the least. Yet another of the group had such a large hole in her neck that she was unable to raise her head.

  It occurred to me that these creatures were truly undead. They didn’t seem to feel pain and whilst they did bleed, as proven when I stuck my knife into Mr Josh Taylor for the second time, it was thick and dark and almost congealed. Rigor mortis was likely setting in, which would indicate that the older these undead became, the slower they would be.

  I recalled Lily’s words from earlier that this seemed to have started with a superbug of some kind. It was entirely likely that the bug was transferred through contact with bodily fluids. My gaze travelled down to my hand, still bearing some of the blood of Mr Josh Taylor. It apparently didn’t matter too much if you got their fluid on your skin, but I doubted how safe it would be to get their fluids in the mouth, eyes or an open wound. It would be a good idea to wash my hands as soon as possible.

  “We will be at the library in a few minutes. You want to tell me why we are going there?” said Lily breaking into my quiet contemplation.

  “The world is going to hell, perhaps literally.” I said, nodding towards another group of the undead wandering out of a side street as we passed. “Food will become an issue and clean safe to drink water will definitely become a problem. I personally have no idea how to purify water, how to grow vegetables or what medicinal benefits can be found in the plants that grow all around us. I think this may be knowledge that we will need though and the best place to get that is at the local library.” I said, adding as an afterthought “it will also likely have all kinds of maps of the surrounding area.”

  Lily seemed to consider what I had said, swerving around a gruesome looking corpse standing in the road. I wondered idly if it had any thoughts swirling around in its rotting brain.

  “Ok. I see what you mean. It’s as good an idea as any I suppose. Perhaps it will have a phone that works inside.” Lily said.

  I was pleased that she had agreed with me. I had spent so much of my life alone it was an interesting feeling to have someone listen and act on my words. I was so pleased that I didn’t bother to complain as she pulled up outside the library and instructed me to bring the angry little man who was now whimpering and bleeding all over the back seat.

  The town centre was as deserted as the streets we had driven through. I imagined that if we went by the hospital we would find it a great deal more crowded, but for now I was happy not to have to deal with too many walking corpses.

  Lily jogged across to the library entrance as I lifted the angry man out of the car, throwing one arm around him to help keep him upright as I ignored his curses. Fortunately the library was a new building. Two stories high and built on level ground to ensure the elderly and disabled didn’t have too many stairs to climb. I was happy for that considering how heavy the angry man was.

  Lily pulled the doors open and stepped inside. She stuck her head back out a moment later and motioned for us to join her. Angry man gave a whimper and a new curse word every time he put any weight on his wounded leg. A little more blood dribbled out with every step, which would have amused me more if it wasn’t being brushed onto my own leg as I helped him along.

  I stepped into the library and heaved a sigh of relief as I dropped angry man on the floor. He swore at me and moaned. Lily looked less than amused. I felt it prudent to find some way to secure the door and have a look around.

  The doors each had a small bolt at the top and bottom which allowed them to be locked tight without the aid of a key. I reasoned that as long as we stayed out of the line of sight of anyone outside then we should be ok.


  Lily was busy helping angry man to a chair behind the librarians counter so I decided to wander about. The library was two stories high, the ground floor being almost exclusively books with a few computers for people to use. The second floor could be reached from a set of stairs by the entrance that led up to door for an art gallery of some sort. I can honestly say that I had never felt the need to go up there so perhaps that would be something worth doing.

  Lining the sides of the building for its full length were shelves full of books. Through the centre of the room were rows of standalone bookshelves rising almost to the roof, whilst in the centre were the desks and chairs, where the casual reader could look through their books in comfort.

  To the right of the doors were the librarians counter and a square office, the plain wooden door was closed. Lily was rooting around under the counter.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her.

  “Looking for a first aid box, they must have one, it’s the law or something, I’m sure.” Lily glanced at me, showing her most fearsome frown so far. “We need a first aid kit because someone stabbed Brian.”

  The formerly angry man who I now knew as Brian was also flaring at me. I felt that perhaps we may have gotten off to the wrong start. “Hello Brian, glad you could join us.” I said offering him my most sincere smile.

  “It’s Mr Johnson to you.” Brian said, as my smile faded under his withering glare. I shrugged and walked away, leaving them to it. I made a mental note to look for something I could use as a weapon as I headed for the computers.

  The first terminal wasn’t in working order; the second though had an internet connection. I sat and spent the next thirty minutes browsing any of the news sites that I could actually access. A great many of them were either running extremely slowly or simple showed an “error, unable to connect” message. It looked like I was not the only one trying to find some news.