War of the Dead Read online

  She threw back her hand and a shriek rose from her damaged throat. She leapt at the troopers, taking two down with the force of her collision. Her hand gripped an ankle and she pulled, another of the troopers was down, stabbing ineffectually at her.

  Her head darted down, teeth closing on the lip of the terrified young man beneath her. Blood flowed and he screamed, part of his lip torn free and gulped down by the feral woman.

  My poignard struck down as she moved, avoiding it. Her hands reaching for my leg. My booted foot caught her in the jaw and she rocked back as my poignard followed it, straight through her eye and into her brain.

  “Help them up,” I commanded as more fire wreathed figures stumbled from the house. “Bucklers up! Form a damned line!”

  The sergeant lifted one of the troopers and thrust him into place beside the others as I turned to face the undead. I counted five of them including the two small forms that could only have been children. I swallowed hard and braced myself for them.

  “Use your bloody bucklers!” the sergeant yelled. “Keep them back!”

  An older man with a thick moustache killed the first. Striking it with his poignard and slamming his buckler into the side of the head of the next nearest. It stumbled and fell then one of the other troopers stabbed down into its skull.

  The man beside me pushed one of them back with his steel buckler, a look of horror on his face as he stared at the small form before him. I swallowed back my revulsion and ended its unnatural life with one thrust of my poignard.

  Silence fell with the last of the zombies and all I could hear was the moaning of the wounded trooper and the roar of the flames as the house burned. In the distance, a siren sounded as the fire service made their approach.

  “Get that man to the medics,” I said to the trooper beside me.

  “Ah, ma’am,” the sergeant said and I looked at him, a question in my gaze. “Orders are to take any infected to the holding facility.”

  Holding facility? I shook my head. That was a question for another time.

  “Then take him there,” I said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the trooper replied as he gestured for another to help him.

  The moustachioed trooper wiped his weapon and slid it into its sheath. His eyes flicked my way and I gestured for him to approach.

  “Ma’am?”

  “What’s your name, trooper?”

  “Mahmoud Abed, ma’am.”

  “You did well, Mahmoud.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  I nodded and he turned away. The sergeant gave me a quizzical look and I smiled at him.

  “It’s good to let people know when they do well, especially when one of their comrades has just been injured.”

  He nodded politely and I knew he wasn’t convinced, but as far as I was concerned, when people knew you valued them they would fight all the harder. Besides, after what we had just faced, a bit of positivity was needed.

  “Does this happen often?” I asked with a nod to the burning house.

  “Often enough, ma’am. Too many people in there all shivering with the cold and someone thinks it’s a good idea to start a fire. Only none of them really know how or realise the chimney was capped a long, bloody time ago.”

  It was hard to see anything on the roof because of the smoke but I would take his word for it. Many of the older homes would have chimneys and fireplaces but if they had been modernised even a little, they would have capped the chimney to stop the cold getting in and the heat escaping.

  “Why didn’t the troopers go in and try to save them?”

  “Orders, ma’am.” The sergeant shrugged uncomfortably.

  It seemed that there were plenty of orders that were being obeyed without question and I wondered who was giving them and what exactly they were. It was something I intended to find out and when I next spoke with the admiral, I would have some hard questions.

  “We’re pretty much done here, ma’am,” the sergeant said and gestured back to the road we had been walking along. “Shall we?”

  “Lead the way.”

  I followed him, lost in thought, all the way to the towns sports centre. A large sprawling building, it covered a considerable space and I couldn’t help but think that it could have been put to better use as a place where the townsfolk could burn off some excess energy.

  The sergeant left me at the entrance and the two soldiers on guard saluted before letting me past. They wore the markings of the CDF and once again, I began to frown as I realised they had become nothing more than guards.

  Ryan was seated behind the reception desk. His dark hair was ruffled and the day's old stubble on his face didn’t exactly give the air of professional receptionist. Having done that job more than once myself, I couldn’t help but smile at the idea of him being the first person a visitor would see. He was hardly the meet and greet type of guy.

  He noted my arrival with a faint smile as he listened to Gregg chatter on. I cleared my throat and he stopped talking long enough to twist his head to look over his shoulder.

  “Oh hey, boss,” Gregg said with a polite nod.

  “Boss? We’ve talked about this.”

  “Yeah and agreed that so long as I saluted and addressed you appropriately in public, in private you didn’t care.”

  “He’s not wrong,” Ryan added, rather unhelpfully.

  “Fine!” I rolled my eyes and moved around the desk to pat Jinx on the head and plant a kiss on my lover’s lips. “Having fun?”

  “Always,” he agreed. “What did you learn?”

  “Nothing good.”

  I let out a sigh and settled back against the counter as I explained what Cass had told me and then the what I had seen myself with the fire. It didn’t take long and his expression darkened as I spoke.

  “Much as I suspected,” he said. “I’ll have Samuel gather the minions and we’ll head out immediately.”

  “Wait!” I held up my hands placatingly and he tilted his head as he watched me much like a tiger would a antelope.

  “Why? We are clearly not needed here and my goal remains the same.”

  To save as many innocent people as he could while enjoying himself immensely killing the bad people and the undead. Not quite the same goals as those he gave to his followers but I knew him well.

  “Cass will be here soon and the Admiral too. We should hear what they have to say in private.”

  “I can wait, but if I don’t like what I hear, we will be leaving.”

  He spoke in absolutes and when he said, ‘we’ I wasn’t entirely sure he was including me in that. He’d left me once before and while we had made up, I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever be enough to keep him from doing whatever the hell he wanted regardless of my feelings.

  “When we leave, will you come with me?” he asked and I blinked. Bastard!

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, huh?”

  Before he could answer, Samuel appeared at his side. I could swear that the guy was half shadow. He moved without a sound and just seemed to appear out of thin air. It would be creepy as hell if I hadn’t known him.

  “My Lord Death.”

  Even his voice sounded like something out of a horror movie. I suppressed a smile at the thought and he inclined his head politely in my direction.

  “Lieutenant Morgan.”

  “How many times? Call me Lily.”

  “As you wish.” His eyes flicked towards Gregg and in a decidedly cooler tone he said, “Gregg.”

  “Still pissed that I beat you at chess?” Gregg asked with a wide grin, not at all perturbed by the cool reception. “Not my fault that you always make the same opening move.”

  “We shall see about that, later.”

  “Any time, mate.”

  The tall man with the crazy eyes nodded at that and leant in close towards Ryan as he lowered his voice.

  “We have a situation.”

  “Oh?”

  “There has been an… indiscretion.”
r />   I caught Gregg's eye and he shrugged. The rules of Ryan’s cult of the Dead were fairly simple. Once you joined, you gave up all ties to the rest of the world. You had one purpose and that was to protect the living, even if that meant dying to do so.

  Of course, people being who they are, no one could truly give up everything. While they didn’t fraternize with the ‘Living,’ those people who weren’t part of their cult, with those inside they did pretty much what any group of people would do.

  They talked, they ate together, played games to while away the time and of course, they screwed like bunnies. When every day might be your last, they had decided to make as much out of each day as they could.

  “Was it consensual?” Ryan asked in a voice so cold that I shivered a little.

  His eyes, as he spoke, had seemed to pale as though all life were leaching from him. In an instant, he was the killer, and at that moment, I saw what his followers did. It was easy to see why they considered him to be an incarnation of death itself.

  “Very much so, My Lor… Ryan.”

  I smiled at that. It was so very hard to get Samuel to forget the title nonsense and speak to him as a person. While he was one of the few people who could do that, it was the hardest for him as he was a true believer.

  “How far along?”

  “Six weeks, she believes.”

  “Have you designated a chamber yet?”

  “There is a basketball court that will be suitable,” Samuel said. “Shall I gather the acolytes?”

  “Yes.” There was something in his voice that set my heart beating faster. “Bring them both and gather the rest. I shall be there shortly.”

  “As you command.”

  A single fist press to his chest and he spun on his heel and was gone. I swallowed hard as I watched him go. The first time I had witnessed one of their gatherings I had watched Ryan kill a man. Admittedly, a man who had confessed to terrible things, but I wasn’t sure I could watch the same with two people who had been careless during sex. Especially something that could happen to literally anyone. It wasn’t like there was any way of just nipping to the local chemist for some contraceptives.

  “You two don’t need to attend,” Ryan said and I swore softly. It was like he was reading my mind which was bloody irritating.

  “No. As the CDF representative and liaison to your people, I need to be there.”

  “Well, I don’t,” Gregg said. “So, I’ll hang back here and keep the dog company.”

  I nodded once and with more than a little trepidation, I followed Ryan through the building. It didn’t take long to find the indoor basketball court and already his followers had begun to gather.

  They didn’t wear their hoods while inside their base since it was just them usually. It was the one place they were allowed to be anything other than the killing machines that Ryan demanded they be in the outside world.

  There was only Gregg and me that were allowed to see them without their hoods. It had been made clear that we were to be treated differently and while I wasn’t entirely sure how Samuel had worked it into the narrative, we were accepted.

  Ryan took up a place before the wall opposite the door and I moved off to the side and watched in silence as the room filled with black-clad people. They were male and female, young and old. It didn’t matter about your skin colour or your sexuality, so long as you obeyed the rules and did as Ryan commanded.

  At any other time, I might have applauded that. He truly treated everyone equally and if that was because he didn’t actually care rather than because he was an enlightened man, well, I could live with that.

  Samuel marched through the doors, two black-clad figures walking behind him. They bowed their heads in shame and while both still carried their weapons, neither of them touched them. They didn’t need to be disarmed. Whatever punishment he commanded, they would accept without question.

  If he told them to slit their own throats, they would do so with that same look of adoration and worship I saw on the faces of any of his people when they looked at him. Another shiver ran through me.

  “Carl and Alice,” Samuel said as he arrived before Ryan.

  The young couple went to their knees as their names were spoken. Neither of them looked up, just stared at the floor. I tilted my head as I watched them. They were a good-looking couple, both in their twenties and physically fit like all of his followers were.

  In another time, she would have been considered pretty and he, handsome. Now, they were just two more soldiers in the endless war against the undead, awaiting their punishment for an accident that could happen to anyone.

  I wiped at my stinging eyes and forced myself not to look away. Whatever was to come, I would bear witness. I had to believe that he was still the man I had fallen in love with and wouldn’t break his promise to me.

  “Speak,” Ryan said, his voice soft yet seeming to carry all through the room. “Name your crimes.”

  “W-we…” Alice began but stuttered to a stop as her nerves got the better of her.

  “It was an accident, My Lord Death!” Carl added. “I swear, we didn’t mean it to happen.”

  “Name it.”

  “I-I’m pregnant,” Alice said and a silent wave of condemnation seemed to pass through the crowd.

  “Who are we?” Samuel demanded in a loud voice.

  “We are the Dead!” the crowd cried as one.

  “What is our role?”

  “To fight the Scourge! To die so they may live!”

  “It is not to bear children. It is not to have a family,” Samuel said, his voice laced with anger. “We are the Dead because we have nothing! Our loved ones are gone, our lives have no meaning! The Living bear children, the Dead fight and die!”

  “Remove your weapons,” Ryan said to the young couple.

  They each pulled free their knives and laid them carefully on the floor before them, as though making an offering to him. He took a step forward and I held my breath, not sure if I could stop him should he decide to hurt them.

  He knelt down before them and gently placed two fingers beneath the chin of each, tilting their heads up so that he could look each of them in the eye. He stared at them for what seemed an eternity as my heart beat thunderously in my chest and finally, he shook his head, a look of sorrow crossing his face.

  “Mourn for them,” he said so softly I wasn’t sure anyone but Samuel and I could hear him. “For they are no longer dead.”

  He rose to his feet and faced the crowd. There was an eagerness in them, an almost palpable need to hear his words, to be in his presence. It was hypnotic. It was terrifying.

  “We are the Dead, for we have no connection to the Living,” he said and looked down at the cowering couple. “A child though, that can only be a connection to life that cannot be ignored. Put on your shrouds for these two are no longer Dead.”

  “P-p-please!” Alice cried as a room full of men and women pulled on their black hoods, hiding their faces from the two who had once been part of their group. “Don’t abandon us.”

  Carl just stared, open-mouthed as though not quite able to believe what was happening. Ryan looked down at them and there was nothing showing on his face. Then he spoke and my heart beat so fast I thought it would burst from my chest.

  “You are now what we are fighting for,” he said. “All here will remember you for the brave and valiant fighters you were. There will be no hate, no anger, no remorse for the door will always be open for you to return.”

  He paused and nodded to himself.

  “But ask yourself this. Why did you join us? Like most, it will most likely be because you had lost everything worth living for. You have that now. A chance to re-join the Living and have a life, to bear a life. That is something worth having.”

  He glanced over at Samuel who nodded and took a step towards the young couple.

  “You can no longer fight with us and we will die before we allow harm to come to you,” Samuel said. “But you will have a place with
us.”

  “We-we will?”

  “Of course. Leave your knives where they lay and follow me.”

  He strode through the crowd as they parted before him and the young couple, with tears in their eyes, followed. As though a signal had been given, the rest of the black-clad people turned and left too. I moved over to Ryan where he stood staring down at the knives.

  “That was a nice thing you did,” I said and he blinked as he looked at me, a wry smile forming on his lips.

  “What did you expect? That I would cast them out to exist as best they could with the other refugees?”

  “Yes. At best,” I said with a smile. “I thought you were going to punish them as a warning to others.”

  He laughed then and it chilled me with how utterly emotionless it was.

  “You don’t think that was punishment to them? Or a warning to the others?” He shook his head slowly as he watched me. “The others will know that there are consequences to their actions. That if they wish to remain part of this, then they need to be careful.”

  “Accidents happen,” I said softly and he shrugged.

  “No doubt, but people still need to take responsibility for those accidents, despite the cost.”

  I wiped at my eyes and turned from him, not sure what I could say to that. He gave a soft sigh and placed his hands on my waist as he pressed close to me. I put my hands on his as they slid around my waist and leant back against him, enjoying the feeling of just being close to him.

  “They will be protected and cared for. When the child is born they will have a choice. To dedicate themselves to raising that child or to have the child adopted and return to the task they had started here. But, it has to be their choice and theirs alone.”

  “No way they could do both?”

  “They cannot go out and fight the undead, risk their lives if their mind is on a child back at home. They would get themselves and possibly others killed.”

  “It could be a strength,” I said, my voice low. “A reason for them to fight all the harder, knowing they have something to return home to.”

  He didn’t answer and I had no more words to give. I wasn’t sure it would make any difference, but I had to at least try. Not just for the young couple but for all of us.