Safety Lost (Killing the Dead Book 3) Read online

  Dark blood fell as the brick finally cracked open his skull. One final blow and the zombie went limp and fell against me. I dropped the gore covered brick and pushed the stinking corpse away from me. The semi-congealed blood that seemed to flow through the zombies veins covered my jacket and I hastily slipped out of it and left it on the floor.

  I was going through clothes at an astounding rate and with the cold weather I couldn’t afford to be without the warmth provided by a thick jacket. No matter how cold it was though I couldn’t bring myself to wear something so coated in infected blood.

  The zombie’s behaviour was not typical and his speed and coordination was worrying. My survival so far had relied greatly on the relative stupidity and lack of agility and coordination of the undead. If they were changing in any way then I would be in trouble.

  Something had caught the attention of the zombie and I was curious enough to want to know what it was. The door was locked and lacking anything to actually try and open it with I decided that the best policy would just be to knock.

  I banged loudly on the door and called out several times, informing anyone who may be hiding within that I was alone and still very much alive. I waited several minutes and was about ready to think that anyone who was inside was dead when I heard the click of a lock turning.

  The door was segmented and when it opened, it folded to one side. It opened a few inches, just enough for whoever was inside to get a look outside.

  “Is he gone?” asked the young girl.

  Chapter 4

  She must have only been about eight years old. Pale blue eyes, red from crying looked up at me from an oval face. I was momentarily speechless. I had not expected to find a child inside the building.

  “Yes. Are you alone?” I asked.

  “No my sister’s here” she said, not opening the door any further. I silently applauded her good sense not to trust a stranger.

  “How long have you been in there?”

  “A long time, Sara’s hurt. Are you here to help her?” she asked, her expression turning hopeful.

  I stared down at her as I considered my response. I had no intention of making my journey any harder than it already was and sticking around to help a couple of kids would definitely make things more difficult. On the other hand I had some time to kill until it was dark enough to head back into the village and the garage would be an ok place to stay until then.

  “Sure. I will do what I can for her.” I assured the child and she eagerly pulled open the door enough for me to step through.

  The garage was full of tools and I saw that I could find plenty of items that would serve as weapons. I was shaken from my perusal of them when the child took my hand in hers and led me through the garage to a small office.

  Grimy windows set high into the walls were the only source of light and that was barely enough to see where I was walking. Inside the office I could just make out a shape slumped in the chair.

  I cautiously approached the chair and instructed the child to wait by the door. A tentative touch told me that Sara was no longer alive. Her body was cold and still beneath my hand. I gently probed her body to find the reason for her death. I had no intention of being in the same small room as someone who had died from being bitten.

  “What happened, how did she get hurt?” I asked when my probing found no visible wounds.

  “Her car crashed.” The little girl said. “She hurt herself then and that bad man was chasing us so she brought me here.”

  If nothing else, the dead girl had my admiration. She likely had some internal injury from the crash but had still managed to bring her little sister to a place of safety to hide from the undead. A futile effort admittedly as it would have been a slow death by starvation if I hadn’t turned up, but a noble effort at least.

  “Can you help her?” the girl asked.

  “Your sister is dead. No one can help her now.” I said and the girl burst into tears. I realised that I should have been a little more diplomatic and silently wished for Lily to be here to help deal with the girl.

  She sat on the floor as huge racking sobs shook her small frame. I had no idea how to deal with the situation and my usual method of either walking away or permanently silencing the person weren’t really feasible.

  I lowered myself to sit by the girl and gently patted her back. I thought back to my travels with the group and tried to remember how they dealt with things like this. I made some sounds that I hoped were soothing and continued to pat her.

  The girl pressed close and wrapped her arms around me, needing human contact so badly that she would take what comfort she could from a stranger. She cried for a time until exhausted she fell asleep against me.

  It wasn’t long before I had an ache in the small of my back from sitting on the hard floor with no back support. Every time I tried to move the child stirred and whimpered and I had to settle back in place or risk her waking and subjecting me to more weeping.

  I clenched my free hand into a fist and pushed it against the ache in my back in an attempt to knead the pain away. It didn’t work. With a sigh I shifted my weight and considered what options I had for dealing with the child.

  A small part of my mind was already warning me that Lily would not approve of abandoning a child in the zombie infested world, though another part snidely pointed out that she would never know.

  If the girl was left alone she would probably die and while I was more than happy to let adults live or die by their own choices – or mine – a child was different. I liked children. They were refreshingly easy to deal with usually and while I would never actively kill one, that didn’t mean I wanted to be in any way responsible for one either.

  My best idea would be to leave her with someone else, though that would mean finding someone I could trust enough to actually take care of her and not harm her. The only person I truly trusted was Lily. She would be able to decide what to do with her.

  That decision made, my next was how to keep her alive to get to Lily. That would mean food and water first of all, which meant that my raiding the village for supplies was still necessary. I sat quietly and let the child sleep until the sky started to darken.

  “Wake up, time to go.” I said as I shook her awake roughly. She rubbed at her eyes and looked around in post sleep stupor.

  “Eh?”

  “We need to go.”

  “Go where?” she asked.

  “I need to find some food and then I am going to find my friend. You can come with me or you can stay here on your own.” I told her firmly.

  Her eyes darted to the office and quickly away again as tears formed, “I’m not supposed to go with strangers.”

  “You don’t have much choice do you?” I asked and then as she started to sniffle I added, “Look, my name is Ryan. What’s your name?”

  “Emma” she said and swiped at her nose with the back of her hand.

  “Ok Emma, now we aren’t strangers. Do you know where your parents are?”

  “The bad people killed them. Sara said it was just us now.” Emma said with fresh sobs.

  “Well then you can come with me and I will introduce you to my friend Lily. She will know what to do with you” I said with some irritability. The constant tears would get annoying fairly quickly.

  I had a root around the various racks of tools. I found plenty of power tools that were of course absolutely useless without power. Screwdrivers, wrenches, spanners and hammers would all be useful for bludgeoning and stabbing. I collected a few of each item and after checking the forecourt was clear I carried them out to the car.

  “Where are we going? I’m hungry” Emma said from the doorway.

  “Get in the car and we will go and see if we can find some food.” I instructed as I pulled open the driver side door and climbed in. A few moments later the back door opened and Emma joined me. She pulled closed the door behind her and put on her seatbelt.

  “The people who have th
e food are not going to share it, so I am going to park close to some houses and you will wait in the car while I go and... borrow some food.” I told her.

  “Stealing is bad.” Emma said.

  “So is starving to death and I know which I would rather do.” I said with a grin and started the engine.

  A short journey back to the village and I pulled up outside the first houses on the very edge, as far from the barricaded section as possible.

  “Right then, you need to stay here. I won’t be long” I told Emma.

  “I don’t want to be alone” she said with a whimper.

  “Well there’s nothing I can do about that. These people will hurt you if they catch you. Stay in the car, crouch down between the seats and keep quiet and I will be back soon.” I said and climbed out of the car.

  Since I wasn’t expecting to meet any zombies I carried only the Stanley knife I had found at the warehouse. With a last check around the area to make sure no zombies were lurking ready to eat Emma whilst I were away, I set off along the street.

  Chapter 5

  The barricade of cars was still in place and a couple of the villagers stood behind the cars chatting quietly. They were hardly the most alert guards I had ever seen and I was thankful for that. A long and slow walk around the outside of the village had revealed that one fairly circular section of the village was blocked off either by fences or improvised barricades.

  A dozen villagers were standing around at various points, supposedly on the alert for any potential zombie attack. I glanced at the sky and swore beneath my breath. True to form, my luck was terrible. The night sky was cloudless with a far too much light provided from the glow of the moon and the stars.

  With little choice I crept through gardens, staying low behind the hedges and fences until I reached the outer edge of the secured section of village. Dark shadows moved beyond the cars to my left and I couldn’t tell if any were looking my way.

  Moving slowly and as quietly as possible I crossed the last open area to the fence I would need to climb. When no alarm came I breathed a sigh of relief and reached up to grasp the top of the fence. I pulled myself up just enough that I could stare over the top.

  The garden beyond was full of darkness. I could make out a pond in the centre of a paved area with plants around the edge. The house was a single story bungalow with wide patio doors that were currently closed. No lights shone from the windows.

  With arms that were trembling from holding myself against the wooden fence, I pulled myself over and dropped into the garden with only a slight thud. Another pause to ensure no alarms were forthcoming before I dashed across the garden.

  It seemed that the house I had chosen was one of a number that faced onto the village green in a rough triangular shape with main access to the road directly ahead of me on the opposite side of the grassy area.

  A number of vans and trucks were currently parked around the edges and some tents filled the space in the middle. It was easy to imagine that all the villagers had moved into this one small area after all. It was far too reminiscent of the cramped conditions of the sports stadium that had been used as a refugee centre back in my home town.

  I could only imagine this place would end up much like that, with a great deal of screaming, crying and death. I crouched beside the wall and tried to think of the best place to try and steal some food from.

  The houses would be my first choice, but anyone who had organised the village like this would most likely have a central food area and rationing. The tents wouldn’t hold anything that was worth the risk of taking which left the trucks that surround the village green.

  With no sentries in sight I made a quick dash from the side of the house and across the grass to the first van. I almost slid into the side of it on the damp grass as I tried to stop and only barely managed to catch myself in time.

  A quick tug on the door handle confirmed that it was locked and I moved along the side to the next. I kept my eyes focused on the houses around me, alert for any villager or any movement from the houses.

  The second van was also locked and I moved onto the next vehicle which was a large delivery truck of some kind. I was becoming concerned that this would be the most useless attempt at theft ever, if I couldn’t find any doors that were unlocked.

  I was almost at the back of the truck when I noticed the dark shape that was leant against the front. A small ember of light told me that someone was having a smoke. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Stanley knife before creeping forward.

  With the cool breeze blowing the tobacco smoke towards me and stinging my eyes I reached out to grab the villager around the throat, my knife held at the ready. Then the world went black.

  My head really hurt. I groaned and tried to raise my hand to touch what felt like the worlds’ largest bump on the side of my head only to find that my hands were tied securely.

  “The bastard’s awake.” A rough voice said from somewhere above me and my body jerked as I was hauled to my feet and slammed back against the side of the truck.

  “Not so smug now are you.” Rough voice said as a fist slammed into my jaw raising laughter as I yelped in pain and my mouth filled with the taste of blood.

  “Watch it, Grace is coming.” Another voice said over the laughter.

  I opened my eyes to see three rather burly looking men holding me and coming across the green was the elderly lady I had spoken to earlier. She didn’t look amused.

  “What is going on?” she demanded as she came closer.

  “Caught this bastard creeping around, he was about to use this on Gaz when I caught him” rough voice said and handed my Stanley knife to Grace.

  “Is this true?” Grace asked with one raised eyebrow, “Were you going to hurt someone with this?” she raised the Stanley knife before me.

  With no way of answering that question without making myself seem extremely guilty I settled for spitting some blood onto the floor. I probed the cut with my tongue and grinned at her.

  “You would kill someone because we denied you our food?” Grace asked with a look of distaste at the blood on the ground.

  “Answer her” rough voice said as he raised his fist. I gazed at him and insolently waited a few more moments before speaking.

  “I had little choice in the matter as you seemed rather unwilling to share.” I told her.

  Rough voices flush was evident even in the dim moonlight and he struck me once below the ribs, causing me to groan and sag against their hold.

  “Enough of that.” Grace said in a voice that was used to being obeyed. “You don’t think that we would share if we had anything spare?” she asked, “We have families here, children who will need food to get through the winter.”

  “You aren’t the only one with a child to feed” I retorted as inspiration struck.

  “What do you mean?” Grace asked.

  “I need the food for a child, Emma.” I said. “She is waiting in my car right now.”

  Grace stared at me for what felt like a short eternity. I was very aware that I would have little chance of surviving a beating from the men holding me.

  “Take me to her.” Grace commanded.

  Rough voice and his companions released their hold a little but not fully. One man holding to each of my arms and Grace following behind, I led the way through the village and back to the car, hoping silently that Emma had obeyed my instruction to stay put.

  For once luck was on my side and Emma was crouched down between the seats. Grace frowned as she saw her and had rough voice release my hands so I could open the door. With a sharp gesture to the men she indicated I be taken a little distance away as she spoke to Emma alone.

  I spat a little more blood onto the floor and smirked as rough voice stepped back away from the spittle as it landed before him. He growled and my smirk turned to a grin.

  “Now now, you don’t want to upset your boss do you?” I said with a tilt of the head towards
Grace.

  Rough voice glowered and was about to say something no doubt cutting, but stopped as Grace returned.

  “Gaz will you run back and grab a few items for me?” Grace asked and as Gaz nodded, she listed a few foodstuffs and added a bottle of water before turning to me.

  “Emma had a few things to say about you, not least of which is that you saved her from a ‘bad thing’ and you are taking her to someone called Lily,” Grace said.

  I nodded and decided not to give any more information that was strictly necessary.

  “We will spare a small amount of food for you” Grace said and ignored Rough voice’s angry murmur, “I hope that you have learnt something from this experience.”

  “Oh I have,” I promised her. I certainly had learnt to be more careful and not get caught.

  Gaz returned at a brisk jog and handed over a small carrier bag of items to me. “I suggest you go and don’t come back this way” Grace said before waving goodbye to Emma.

  Rough voice gave me a less than gentlemanly shoulder bump as he brushed past me but I was willing to forgive that as it would annoy him more. I watched for a moment as they walked away before taking the bag to the car.

  “She was nice” Emma said as she buckled her seat belt again.

  “She was to you yes” I said and handed her a bag of crisps and a bottle of water from the bag. It had a few other items in, not much but perhaps enough to stop us starving on the way to Lily. I climbed back into the driver’s seat and felt at the bump on the side of my head.

  As much as I would rather rest, I felt it would be a good idea to get some distance from the village sooner rather than later, so I started the engine.

  Chapter 6

  I still only had a rough idea of where I was going. I was desperately wishing I had a map of the area as I drove us past the service station and past a small cluster of buildings that sat on the roadside. A sign beside the road informed me that I was about to enter the town of Todmorden.