Lanherne Chronicles (Prequel): To Escape the Dead (22 page)

‘What do you want?’ said a tall well-built young man with ruffled raven black hair and dark circles under his eyes.

‘Are you in charge?’ Charlie repeated, directing his question solely to the dark haired man.

‘Yeah… yes, I’m in charge,’ he replied, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. ‘Now answer my question. What do you want?’

‘We’re looking for a home…’ Charlie began, gesturing to the two carts.

‘Well then you’ve had a wasted trip,’ said the young man, cutting short Charlie’s reply.

‘Please,’ Charlie continued. ‘Hear me out… We’re not asking to be a burden on you or looking for charity... far from it. We can work, we can plant and tend crops… and we can clear the Dead… and from the looks of it you need fighters more than anything round here.’

‘Really?’ said the young man, arching an eyebrow. ‘Aiden.’ He barked, nodding to a young man with short dusty blond hair beside him.

Returning the nod, the man called Aiden reached for something resting on the platform below him and came up holding a longbow and quiver full of arrows. Pulling an arrow from the quiver, he placed it in the bow and with a ‘creak’ the string was pulled back.

‘What the fuck’s going on here?’ snapped Tom, stepping forward.

‘Showing you just how in need of fighters we are…’ the dark haired man replied with a shrug. ‘Go on, Aiden.’

‘No!’ shouted Charlie and Tom in unison as with a ‘twang’ the string sprung back into place letting Aiden’s arrow fly.

With a dull thud the arrow suddenly appeared lodged deeply in the decapitated head resting by the side of the road; a perfect example of Aiden’s skill with his bow. Charlie looked from the still quivering arrow back to the young man lowering his bow, who simply returned his stare with a look of bored blankness.

‘So… So what the fuck was all this about if you can take the Dead out as easily as that?’ Charlie asked, sparing a glance to the headless body of a young man who moments ago had been fighting for his life.

‘They broke the law,’ the young man with dark hair replied with a shrug.

‘Broke the law?’ Charlie growled, feeling his anger beginning to rise for the apparent total disregard for life he was witnessing.

It was then that another young man spoke. He had been standing just behind the dark haired leader of the group. Although he was slightly shorter and wearing glasses, the resemblance between the two of them was undeniable, causing Charlie to assume they were related in some way, probably brothers.

‘As Zak said, they broke the law and without laws there is anarchy and chaos,’ he said, moving calmly to stand beside his brother. ‘If we are to survive, we cannot let transgression pass unpunished… especially now when the very existence of humanity hangs in the balance.’

‘So you effectively sentenced them to death?’ asked Phil.

‘On the contrary...’ the young man in the glasses continued, nodding to the teenage girl and her fellow comrade who had survived the battle. ‘They have survived their punishment… their debt is paid.’

‘Not all of them,’ interrupted Charlie.

‘No… but the law is the law,’ said Zak, his gaze momentarily flicking to the headless corpse.

Charlie wasn’t sure but he could have sworn he saw in Zak’s eyes the briefest flash of something that may have been guilt or remorse.

‘But anyway, as I was saying, we have no need for your help,’ he continued, focusing his attention back on Charlie. ‘You will have to find somewhere else to….’

It was then that a scream of agony erupted from one of the carts, making Zak’s words falter.

‘What?’ he began to ask.

‘Charlie!’ cried Liz, throwing open the hatch, a panicked look on her face. ‘Carmella’s waters… they’ve broken!’

‘Fuck!’ snapped Charlie, urgently looking from Liz to Zak. ‘Look, please…’

‘You have a woman with you having a baby?’ asked Zak, his eyebrows creasing together looking from Charlie to Liz.

‘Yes, ‘Charlie replied. ‘Look, please... let us in… even if it’s just long enough for her to have the baby. We won’t stand a chance out here, you know that. The Dead, they’ll hear her… there’s just too many of them round here, we won’t last until morning.’

‘Erm…’ Zak said nervously, as if unsure what to say.

‘We can barter,’ said Charlie, the words spilling out of his mouth. ‘We have two sheep, they’re yours. All we’re asking for is a day or two and then we’ll be on our way.’

‘Charlie?’ said Michael, unsure they should be so readily giving away their precious food especially if they were going to be on the road again so soon.

Charlie shook his head at Michael, now was not the time to discuss the matter. From the cart Carmella screamed again as another powerful contraction shook through her.

‘Zak,’ said the young man in glasses, looking over to Liz perched in the open hatchway of the cart.

Zak turned to his brother, indecision clearly written on his face.

‘Kyle… I…’ he began to say.

‘It would be a nice change to have some red meat… and what’s a few days?’ interrupted Kyle, his words full of urgency.

‘We’ll even skin and gut them for you,’ Charlie quickly added, hoping to sweeten the pot. ‘Phil here, he’s a butcher.’

‘Zak,’ Kyle repeated, pushing his glasses up along the bridge of his nose.

With the briefest of nods, Zak turned back to face Charlie, his slightly shaking hand running through his thick raven hair.

‘OK,’ he finally said, a hint of reluctance souring the word, ‘you can stay a few days… but that’s all.’

‘Thank you,’ sighed Charlie, relieved Carmella would at least be able to give birth in safety.

‘And of course those of you that can, will need you pay your way with work while you’re here,’ added Kyle, almost as an afterthought.

‘But we’re already giving you two sheep!’ said Michael and Phil almost at the same time.

‘That’s the deal,’ said Zak, backing up his brother’s words. ‘Take it or leave it. The sheep get you in but you work for your keep.’

‘Deal!’ shouted Charlie before anyone else could voice their protest.

He knew their options were severely limited and if it meant working for Zak and his community for the next few days while Carmella recovered from childbirth, then so be it.

‘Corey, Chris, go open the gates,’ said Zak seemingly to no-one in particular.

Immediately two young men, one tall with a shock of ginger hair and the other shorter with his left arm in a sling began walk along the platform to do as Zak had requested. As they moved Charlie noticed they each wore a green strip of fabric on their right arm.

‘And whoever’s on clean up, get these bodies away from the gates,’ barked Zak, instantly spurring two men who looked identical, barring the length of their hair, into action.

‘Yes, Zak,’ they both said in unison, each of them wearing a red arm band.

‘And Harry,’ Zak called out to the twin with a short stubbly blond crew-cut.

‘Yes, Zak?’ the young man called Harry replied, pausing mid step.

‘Burn the bodies properly this time…’ Zak continued, his tone indicating he was already bored with the whole conversation. ‘We don’t want the dog pack to come back.’

‘Yes, Zak… I mean no, Zak.’ Harry replied, flustering over his words as he and his brother followed Corey and Chris down from the platform.

‘And everyone else get back to work,’ continued Zak, ignoring Harry’s assurances as he turned to leave himself. ‘I’m… I’m going to my room... I’ve got a splitting headache...,’ he muttered to himself following the rest of the Saint Xavier’s group down from the platform.

‘I’ll show our guests where they can stay and find some of them something to do,’ Kyle called after his brother.

Hearing his voice, Zak turned back, his eyes seemingly unwilling to rest upon any one spot.

‘Yeah… I’ll… I’ll leave that with you, Kyle,’ he quickly replied before spinning on his heel to leave.

‘Aiden, perhaps you should take Jamie with you to keep watch over those two idiot brothers,’ Kyle nodded to Harry and his twin brother beginning to climb down a ladder.

‘We don’t want to lose anyone else today,’ he continued, pointedly glancing from the headless corpse below him to the face of the teenage girl. ‘Do we?’

‘Sure,’ nodded Aiden, already reaching for an arrow from his quiver in preparation for venturing beyond the safety of the wall.

‘Jamie, with me!’ he called over to the man with his arm around a brittle looking young woman.

Jamie whispered something in the woman’s ear, causing a weak smile to appear on her lips before she looked away. With a large grin advertising the absence of his two front teeth, the young man barked a guttural laugh, landed a slap on her rump and then after adjusting the black band around his upper arm, he reached down to pick up a longbow similar to Aiden’s.

With a rattling of heavy chains, the two men Zak had referred to as Corey and Chris began to unlock the tall filigree ironwork gate, while behind them stood the two archers, Kyle and the twins, one of which now pushed a large garden wheelbarrow. Glancing back up to the platform Charlie saw that a third archer, his bow ready and primed, was providing covering fire for those below until Elliot and Jamie were beyond the gate. Like the first two archers, he too sported a black strip of fabric wrapped around his upper arm.

With a protesting screech from one of its unoiled hinges, the gates were slowly pushed open.

‘Thanks,’ came a quiet voice from Charlie’s right.

Having almost forgotten her presence, he had to briefly look around for who had spoken with such a soft tone and it was only when his gaze settled on the blood streaked face of the teenage girl that he remembered she was there at all.

‘Oh, you’re welcome,’ he said, the beginning of a friendly smile twitching his mouth.

‘Abby, now that you’ve had such a lucky reprieve I’m sure you’ve got some work to do,’ interrupted Kyle, stepping through the gate to greet Charlie.

‘I…’ she began but as Kyle twitched an eyebrow the words failed her and she darted past him through the open gate and into the school grounds.

Barely a footstep behind her, her comrade eagerly followed suit. Making a point of stepping around Jamie, he spared a thankful glance in Charlie’s direction and then was gone from sight.

‘Now, if you’d like to bring both your carts inside,’ continued Kyle, taking off his glasses to clean a spot on one of the lenses. ‘We can find somewhere a little more comfortable for the lady having her baby… I… I don’t suppose you have anyone with any medical experience with you?’

‘No,’ said Charlie, glancing briefly away from Kyle to wave at Liz to begin guiding Star over to the gate.

‘Pity,’ Kyle replied, replacing his glasses, ‘but I’ll have Freya come to help her. Apparently she helped her own mother deliver her brother when she was fourteen… and she’s pregnant herself so she’s been reading up about it… you know, so that she knows what to expect… it’s not much but…’

‘No, no any help will be great I’m sure, thanks,’ Charlie nodded, slipping his ice pick back in its slot to take hold of Star’s bridle as she slowly approached by him.

‘Good,’ smiled Kyle, running his gaze from Star, across the box covered cart and over to the second horse and cart following up behind.

‘Just how many are you?’ he asked, glancing to Phil and the others following the first cart.

‘Twelve in all,’ Charlie replied, pulling Star forward through the gate.

‘Soon to be thirteen,’ reminded Kyle.

‘Yeah, soon to be thirteen… hopefully,’ agreed Charlie, nervously eyeing the cart.

‘There were more of us when we set out but…’ he continued, letting the sentence hang unfinished.

‘I understand,’ said Kyle shaking his head. ‘It’s a nightmare out there.’

‘Tell me about it, you wouldn’t bel…’ Charlie began but what he saw inside the grounds made his words falter, ‘Fuck!’

It took a moment for Charlie to believe what he was seeing, for hidden beyond the drab stone wall of Saint Xavier’s lay a veritable Garden of Eden. Well that is if Paradise had been made up of vast vegetable patches with an abundance of scrawny looking chickens running freely around it. He had certainly been right about just how much land the wall enclosed. Where once a huge rolling lawn, small gravel covered car park and a playing field large enough to accommodate at least four if not five football or rugby pitches had been, now grew plot after plot of neatly lined vegetables patches. He could even see to his right what looked to be three tennis courts, their high wire link fencing covered with a thick clear plastic sheeting that also ran across the top to create a roof, turning them into makeshift greenhouses. Beyond the huge gardens, with a light patch of woodland nestled behind it, was the large sprawling building that was Saint Xavier’s Academy. Larger than any school Charlie had ever seen, the building was testament to late Elizabethan architecture. Unlike any other buildings in the area, Saint Xavier’s was made of deep red brickwork set with paler stone window and door surrounds, while along its roofline a myriad of intricately carved finials, turrets and balustrades seemed to go on for ever. At the heart of the interlocked buildings and walkways grew a tall clock tower. Seeming to watch over those returning to their work, the tower silently measured the passing of time on all beneath its gaze.