Killing the Dead Read online

  Eventually though I had a working picture of what was happening. The world had indeed gone to hell. In an incredibly short space of time the governments across the globe were calling on people to get off the streets. Not so much to maintain order but to try and stop the undead killing people and adding to their ranks.

  The name I had seen bandied about by several news services was Zombie. It made sense I supposed. Undead and walking around eating people would kind of fit most people’s definitions of zombie. I wondered why I had been shying away from calling them that. In the end I figured it didn’t matter. Zombies were rising and taking over this dreary little world of ours.

  According to the news, the militaries of the many nations of the world were having problems. Simply shooting the zombies wouldn’t work. The movies had been right about that at least, destroying the brain was the easiest way to kill them. That alone made much of the modern militaries weaponry pretty pointless. Grenades designed to incapacitate or fling shrapnel around would be no use. Blow up a zombie and all you had for your trouble was lots of pieces of zombie lying around and any parts still connected to a head trying to bite your ankles as you walked past.

  The BBC at least was working and listed some advice. If you knew someone had been infected in any way – usually by a bite or initial sickness– then you needed to quarantine them. There was no cure. If you could stay in your home or place of business you were advised to do so and the rescue services would get to you as soon as they could. I kind of doubted that one.

  If you had nowhere that was safe to go, the military and police were setting up refugee centres in most towns that they could reach with the limited personnel. Generally these would be in schools or sports stadiums as they could hold plenty of people and be secured. The final piece of advice was to avoid hospitals. The majority of these would by now be swarming with zombies.

  I leaned back in the chair and digested this. It certainly wasn’t looking good. I looked over to see Lily and Brian chatting. It seemed she had found some bandages and managed to get Brian to calm down a bit. It was annoying how easily he could talk to her. Small talk was a skill that I had never really acquired.

  Through years of practice I had become used to assessing people as threats or potential victims and Brian was neither. Middle aged and overweight, a handle bar moustache and glasses. He sat there in his beige khakis and flannel shirt. I would have no trouble killing him if required. Though at the same time he was too loud, too likely to be missed if taken as a participant in my hobby. All told he would be someone on the street that I would have no cause to look at twice. He annoyed the hell out of me though and that bothered me.

  Lily on the other hand would certainly never have been a victim of mine. She too would be the sort of person who would be missed. Her shoulder length dark hair, beautiful blue eyes like windows into her soul – a cliché but no less true for that - and a smile that could light a room, though I had seen little of that; no, even sitting there talking in jeans and a t-shirt she stood out. She would be missed by far too many people.

  At the same time I couldn’t see her as a threat, but something about her made me wary. I couldn’t help but think that getting too close to her would be a really bad thing for me, though I didn’t know why. It was an instinctive feeling though and over the years I had learnt to trust those when I got them.

  Shaking off my thoughts of my current companions, I stood and started to walk around the shelves of books. The ones I wanted would be in the reference section which would make the area to search manageable.

  I was stood between two of the large shelves searching amongst the books when the smell hit me. It was revolting, something along of the lines of rotting meat mixed with raw sewage. I wondered briefly if the drains were blocked when a rather unpleasant realisation hit me.

  The library doors had been unlocked yet we had seen no sign of any of the members of staff who may have opened then. I still had the knife I had used to stab Brian and I took a moment to take it from my pocket and open it up. I could hear Lily laugh at something Brian said back by the entrance and, wary of calling out and alerting any potential zombie, I slowly started to walk back the way I had come.

  I was having another ‘eerie’ feeling, as though someone or something was watching me. I really don’t like that sort of feeling at all. The hairs were standing up on the back of my neck again. I swivelled on my heel quickly to look behind me, nothing there. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back.

  Oh shit! The zombie had come around the corner of the bookshelf. A dark trail of blood led from her mouth and down the front of her dress. Her silence disturbed me as I couldn’t tell if that was due to some predatory instinct or damage to her vocal cords. However this woman died, the number of wounds she bore told me that she must have been attacked by several other undead.

  My blade was raised before me. I intended to wait until she came close enough that I could swiftly drive my small blade up beneath her chin and end her miserable existence. At least that was the plan. As she came around the corner and realised I was there, a ready meal just waiting to be eaten she picked up speed. Unfortunately she had been dead long enough that her limbs had stiffened and one of the wounds on her ankle was too deep. The ankle gave way and the zombie stumbled, her claw like hands taking a vicelike grip on my jacket as she pulled me down with her.

  Caught by surprise I landed on top of the zombie, and the putrid smell filled my nostrils. As she writhed beneath me her teeth clacked together as she tried to bite me. I panicked. Knife carelessly dropped as I frantically attempted to push myself away from her bite and get back onto my feet.

  A desperate grab for a shelf gave me the leverage I needed and I managed to pull myself back to my feet, as I scrambled to put some space between myself and the zombie as she thrashed about on the floor. Her bloody and broken fingers were scratching against the worn carpet as she tried to take hold of me. Foul creature! I kicked her as hard as I could, catching her cheek. Greying skin split and a dark sticky substance splattered my shoe.

  My panic was leaving quickly replaced by anger. This zombie, this pathetic shell of a human being who would have been nothing more than a victim to me just days ago had scared me. Me! I was the one who scared others. I was the one who brought fear and death. I kicked repeatedly at her rotting form as I released all of my rage.

  Just a few frantic moments had passed since the zombie had first appeared around the bookshelf. It lay unmoving on the floor, its skull a bloody ruin. I stared down at it and all I could think was how my shoes, covered in bits of brain and gore were ruined. I had no sense of joy, no satisfaction at the taking of a life. I was left with emptiness. Where the rage had been was now nothing, I had become drained of all feeling. I had never taken a life in such anger. It had always been coldly calculated. I hoped that the lack of joy was a reaction to the panic. I could not fathom a world where the taking of even the false life of the undead did not bring me some measure of pleasure.

  A low moan rose from the shelves around me. My struggle with the zombie had not gone unnoticed. It would seem she had some friends. I ran out from between the shelves calling out to Lily.

  As I sprinted down the length of the library I saw Lily and Brian look towards me, puzzlement rapidly turned to alarm as they caught a glimpse of the zombies pursuing me. Lily vaulted the counter in a display of agility I was sure that I could never match. She ran to the entrance doors reaching to unlock them before she paused, staring out through the glass.

  My laboured breathing from just a short run would have been embarrassing any other day. I reached Lily and took a moment to glance back at my pursuers. A dozen zombies were slowly shambling towards us. They were a curious mix of the most gruesomely wounded, with body parts and chunks of flesh missing from their mutilated bodies, which accounted for their lack of speed.

  “Open the door Lily we need to go” I said.

  “No point.” Lily said, her tone one of defeat.

  “Why?�
�� I asked as I looked back at her. She was still staring through the glass. Brian had by now joined us and was swearing quietly as he leaned against the counter for support.

  More than a little exasperated I reached for the locks myself and recoiled as I finally realised what they had been looking at. Zombies, far too many zombies were walking around just outside our library.

  “Well!” I said.

  Chapter 4

  My - thankfully slow - pursuers had reached the centre of the library. The zombies outside had not noticed us yet, though our car was pretty much surrounded. Lily had perhaps reached the end of her tether. The stresses of the day had taken their toll on her. Brian was just as useless now as he had been when we first met him. It seemed that if we wished to survive for much longer, it would be up to me.

  So be it. We had two options. We could duck into the office and see if we could bar the door or we could head up to the art gallery above us. We did I supposed have a third option, but since that would be to be devoured by the slowest zombies in the history of the world. I decided that wasn’t really an option.

  I took Lily by the arm and gently pushed her towards the stairs. “Come on. Upstairs, we can block the door.” She seemed to perk up a little and moved up the stairs ahead of me. Brian hobbled along behind us, sweating and cursing at the exertion.

  Happy that Lily was moving up the stairs, I dashed ahead to the door to the gallery. Puffing and panting I decided that if I survived then I would do more cardio. The door was fortunately unlocked. It was also, somewhat more unfortunately just plain glass. We would definitely need to find some way to block it off.

  “Ryan.” Lily called. “Brian needs help. He can’t get up the stairs.”

  Brian was indeed struggling to climb the stairs. His injured leg couldn’t fully support his weight and he had nothing to grab hold of to support himself in the bare staircase. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and sigh. I consoled myself that if he were having problems, then the wounded zombies may struggle just as badly.

  “Fine, I’ll help him. You need to find something to block the door up there and check for any zombies first.” I instructed Lily as I trotted back down the stairs. Lily just nodded and headed up.

  As I reached Brian I risked a look at the Zombies. The smell alone indicated they were getting closer, the moans were getting louder and I had a moment’s concern that the zombies outside would hear and come and investigate. The zombies were almost upon us staggering en masse towards the only meal available, the three of us. I heaved Brian up the stairs as fast as I could. I was doing my best to ignore his swearing and glares.

  “Curse all you want, if those things reach us I will happily leave you to them. So you better move” I snarled.

  Terror gave Brian the adrenaline surge he needed to make it all the way to the top of the stairs, where he promptly fell through the door gasping. His bandage had reddened, fresh blood leaking through. I slammed the door shut.

  “Help me with this” Lily called from across the room. She stood beside a large blue couch. It was one of the fashionable seats that made up a small rest area before the entrance to the art gallery proper.

  With a grunt I grabbed one end of the couch and with Lily’s help managed to get it set before the door. I looked around the room, seeing the reception desk beside the gallery entrance. The rest of the room contained a table and two sturdy looking blue armchairs set beside the space where the couch had stood, a water cooler and a door labelled bathroom that faced the main entrance.

  It wasn’t much but it was all we had. In just a few minutes Lily and I had piled the table and chairs against the door. It wasn’t great but the width of the staircase wouldn’t allow more than a couple of zombies to stand at the top at one time. I hoped it would be enough to stop them forcing their way in, at least for a little while.

  After a final check of our barricade, I instructed Lily and the ever more useless Brian to stay and watch the door whilst I investigated the gallery. I was determined to ensure that we wouldn’t have another surprise. They agreed and I left them as Lily crouched beside Brian and attempted to staunch his bleeding.

  I opened the door onto the gallery. It was a large and open space with skylights in the ceiling to let in plenty of light for the art aficionados to properly view the works on display. Hard wooden floors had been polished until they gleamed. The centre of the room was filled with cases that contained sculpted works of art and at the far end of the room were doors leading to a back room. The sign above the doors instructed they were for staff only.

  The walls of the gallery were lined with paintings from local artists. Landscapes, seascapes and portraits of a ridiculous number of animals made up the collections that hung on the wall to the left of the entrance. The opposite side contained more surreal works. Splashes of colour covered the canvases. Swirls and shapes that were supposed to have some meaning. It looked like something a child could do. I wondered briefly if more normal people would see something in these pictures. If it was perhaps some flaw within myself that meant the supposed beauty of these works was lost on me.

  Dotted around the room were some heavy looking benches where guests of the gallery could rest when overcome by the dazzling beauty and talent of the works that filled the walls. I made a mental note to drag them through to the reception area to help barricade the entrance, after I had broken the rules of the gallery by entering the back room.

  The off limits room was a disappointment merely being a store room filled with boxes of odds and ends of art, nothing of use in the event of a zombie apocalypse. It did have an emergency exit which I made a mental note of. I headed back to the reception area, stopping to grab a bench and drag it through with me. The benches were heavy and I was amused to see the great gouges made in the floorboards as I dragged the bench along.

  As I walked through the door I gave the all clear to Lily and she helped with the rest of the benches. Before long our barricade was much more secure, the large couch weighed down by six benches, two chairs and a small table. I sat beside the cooler and took a much needed drink of water. With all the heavy lifting, running for my life and zombie splatter, I stank.

  I figured that now was as good a time as any to check out the bathrooms and hopefully get a good wash. I heaved myself up wincing a little at the aches and pains that even a small rest had created. I entered the bathroom.

  It took only a few moments to see that the bathroom was just a single stall, a wash basin with a mirror and a small window set high into the wall. After checking the stall was clear, I ran some water and washed my hands and face. An attempt at using some damp paper towels to brush off the worst of the mess on my clothes was quickly abandoned. Too much gore, the clothes wouldn’t be clean any time soon.

  The window was locked so I went back out to my companions and once more gave the all clear. Lily gratefully went to use the facilities whilst I had another drink of water. When she re-joined us we sat in silence for a little while listening to the moaning from the zombies as they tried to climb the stairs.

  “So where do you think all those zombies outside came from?” asked Lily.

  I had been considering this and thought I may have an answer. “They followed us I would imagine.”

  “Really, what makes you say that?”

  “Well, those zombies downstairs. They were quiet at the back of the library until they realised we were there. Once they knew we were there they came after us.” I said.

  “Yes but they were so slow” said Lily

  “That’s not actually that big a disadvantage. They may be slow but I don’t think they need to rest, to sleep. I imagine that unless they see something else to distract them they will just keep on going in whatever direction they are travelling, until they can no longer move forward. Then they will wait patiently until they find something else to chase.” I said, thinking back to the scene I had glimpsed through the door earlier. “I think that some of those outside were ones that we had passed in the car. We cam
e in a fairly straight line so it’s likely they followed along and others with nothing better to do followed them.”

  “So what do we do now?” asked Lily. She sounded tired.

  “It is getting late” I said glancing at my watch. “It will be dark in a few hours. It may be best to try and rest here before moving on tomorrow.”

  “You can’t be bloody serious.” Brian spoke finally, “we can’t stay here with them out there. We need to get help. I need a hospital too if you hadn’t forgotten.” The last was said with a glare directed at me full force. I resisted the urge to grin at him.

  “He’s right though” said Lily indicating me. “We don’t want to be out there when it gets dark and we can’t go to a hospital anyway. They were worst hit by this.” Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered her boyfriend no doubt. Brian was solicitous and hastily agreed to stay when he saw she was upset. It seemed he was as uncomfortable as I with over abundant emotion which was one point in his favour at least.

  “It’s agreed then. I suggest we all try and get some rest whilst we can.” I said, taking off my jacket and folding it so that I could rest my head on the clean inner lining as I used it as a pillow. The others followed suit and we lay for a while, each lost in our own thoughts.

  My watch told me that it was after midnight when I awoke. The building lights were still on and the moans from outside hadn’t grown any fainter. They were masked slightly by Brian’s snores. Lily was gone. I stood and went into the bathroom, knocking gently first. I was loath to disturb Lily if she was within. When no one answered I went in and used the facilities myself.

  When I had finished my business and dutifully washed my hands I went looking for Lily. I found her in the main gallery standing lost in thought as she gazed at a painting of a seascape. I quietly walked across the room to join her, careful not to startle her.

  “It’s beautiful isn’t it” said Lily with a gesture to the painting, as I stopped beside her. I gave a noncommittal grunt and we stood in silence once more.