Safety Lost (Killing the Dead Book 3) (20 page)

“Right then, let’s be off.” Matthew said as he rejoined us. I glanced questioningly at Lily and she held up a fire axe. I nodded appreciatively and gestured her to wait as the two newcomers set off after Matthew. I had no intention of letting them walk behind us.

We walked straight north through the woods. Matthew talked quietly with the newcomers as he led the way and didn’t seem to mind that they said little back. I stayed close to Lily and kept a wary eye out for any dangers.

The day was the coldest yet and I was glad to be wearing my ski-jacket and gloves. The hiking boots that I was wearing helped me keep my footing steady on the frozen ground. Lily was wearing trainers and she had to take hold of my arm to help keep her balance more than once.

“Thanks” she said as I caught her arm as her foot slipped out from beneath her.

“Happy to help” I said with a smile and was surprised to find that I was telling the truth.

I let go of her arm and carried on walking. I didn’t need the distraction.

“Do you think they will try anything?” she asked in a whisper.

“I wouldn’t put it past them. I know I would if I were them.” I replied with a low laugh.

“So what do we do?”

“We can wait for them to do something and react or we can deal with them first” I said.

“I’m not sure I can kill a living person.”

“You may not have a choice if we have to wait and react.” I told her and she frowned as she chewed on her lower lip.

“When do you think they will try something?” she asked finally.

“My guess is that they will wait until we clear the boat and then do it. That way they will have access to the boat as well if it is actually useable.”

“They might not try anything. We will just have to be on our guard. I warned Matthew about them as well, when I was in his cottage.” She said and we carried on walking in silence.

We were soon at the clearing where Emma had spotted the boat and we stopped by the water’s edge to take a look. The boat still lay half hidden beside the island.

“How do we get out to it?” Shaun, the taller newcomer, asked.

“Further north, not far from here is a private dock.” Matthew said as he stared hungrily at the boat. “As far as I know it still has a couple of rowboats tied up on the dock.”

“As far as you know?” Lily asked.

“They were there the last time I passed. It has a gravel driveway that leads to the main road so we checked it out on one of our scavenging runs.” He said.

“So why the hell didn’t we take one of the cars you have back at the camp and drive straight there?” Gary demanded.

“We need to save the fuel” Matthew said, “No idea when we’ll be able to get some more.”

“Well we won’t accomplish anything arguing about it” Lily said before the newcomers could say anything else, “Let’s keep going. I want to see this boat up close.”

Matthew nodded amiably and set off across the clearing. The newcomers followed after casting a dirty look our way and with a smile I hefted my spear and trailed after them.

Chapter 28

A single wooden walkway extended out over the water. Thick logs had been sunk into the water with sturdy timber planks set between them. It was weathered and in need of some attention but looked sturdy enough.

The driveway that led down to the water’s edge was gravel and a wooden shed sat just off of the side. A house sat further up the drive, the windows were dark and the front door was open. A half dozen undead were wandering in the general vicinity of the dock and the boats we were hoping to use were half submerged in the water.

“What do you want to do now?” Lily asked Matthew in a tense whisper.

“The boats could be useable, so we should clear away the zombies and take a look at them.” He whispered back.

“No problem” Gary said with a toothy smile as he patted his shotgun. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“You two stay back here” Matthew said to Lily and me as he hefted his own rifle. “We’ll take them out with the guns.”
      

“Won’t that bring too much attention to us?” Lily asked.

“We should be fine.” Matthew said as he stood. Gary and Shaun did the same and they started moving slowly forward through the undergrowth as Lily and I sat and watched.

I paid particular attention to how the two newcomers handled themselves as they crept towards the closer zombies. Their shotguns lacked the range of Matthew’s rifle so they needed to be a great deal closer.

When they were in range of the closest undead, they stood upright and raised their guns to their shoulders before firing at almost the same moment. Blood and bone flew as the shots hit their target. Matthew fired a moment later and a third zombie fell without a sound.

The other three had turned at the noise and started their shambling run towards the newcomers who were rapidly reloading. Matthew fired a second shot and hit one of the zombies in the shoulder with little noticeable effect.

Matthew fired a third time and another zombie died. The newcomers had reloaded and both fired again. One of the undead fell silently to the ground while the final zombie lost part of its face but kept moving towards them.

With no time to reload Shaun stepped forward and used his shotgun like a club and knocked the zombie to the ground. As the undead creature tried to rise again, Gary and Shaun both began to kick and stomp on its head until bone cracked and the zombie was still.

“Well that went well” Lily muttered as the two newcomers congratulated each other with laughter and pats on the back. I scanned the open area around the house and dock, alert for any more danger.

“Let’s get those boats out of the water” Matthew called as he led the way across to the dock. Lily set off after the newcomers and I trailed behind. With the number of undead that Cass and the others had been seeing lately, I was convinced that the noise would have attracted attention.

My hiking boots were becoming damp from the long scraggly grass as I walked and I glanced up at the grey cloud covered sky. The weather had been cold of late and while the cottages were fairly well insulated, we had still been feeling the cold on a night despite the numerous blankets we had.

It wouldn’t be long before we had snow and we could well be facing a long slow and miserable death in the winter. I called out to Matthew as a thought occurred to me.

“Has anyone tried fishing in the lake?”

“A couple of the people back at camp want to, we just lack the gear.” Matthew said, “I keep hoping to find some but haven’t had much luck yet.”

“Another zombie” Lily interrupted and pointed to the house where a lone zombie had appeared.

“I’ll deal with it” I said and set off at a jog towards the undead creature. I wanted a little more practice with my spear.

As I neared it I slowed to a walk and approached cautiously. Up close the zombie was in a miserable state. What little clothing remained was almost shredded and bite marks covered its scrawny body. Somewhere along the way it had lost all of the fingers from its right hand and its left ear.

I grasped my spear and held it with the point facing toward my target. My right hand was placed toward the bottom and my left toward the top, with about two feet of space between them. It seemed comfortable and would hopefully allow me to put some power behind my thrust.

The zombie was moaning and trying to run towards me. I waited until the last possible moment before stepping forward and swinging the spear hard against its legs. The creature fell onto its side and I tightened my grip on the spear before stabbing it down at the zombies head.

It was awkward and messy and took far too many attempts, but finally the point pierced the creature’s brain and it lay dead. I could feel sweat slowly making its way down my back as I panted from the exertion and once again I lamented the loss of my beloved hatchet.

I pulled the spear from the skull of the corpse and inspected the end as best I could without touching it. The tip had splintered and no longer resembled a point. I understood why the books had mentioned hardening the tip in a fire and regretted not having done it as I cast the ruined spear away.

With a hardened point or a blade on the end, I could see the use of a spear. Without those though, it would be a great deal easier to use a club or an axe. I sighed and walked back to the others at a steady pace.

The others had managed to pull a large rowing boat out of the water by the time I rejoined them and had turned it over as they inspected it for damage.

“It looks ok” Matthew was saying to Lily.

“Why was it under the water then?” she asked.

“Probably a combination of being left unattended for a long period along with wind and rain.” Matthew said. “Turn it back over and let’s see if it floats.”
      
With a great deal of grunting and swearing the two newcomers managed to turn over the boat and get it back into the water where it bobbed along with no apparent leaks.

“Well then, it looks big enough for us all. We just need some oars.” Matthew said cheerfully.

“We’ll check the boating shed” Lily said before anyone else could suggest it and grabbed hold of my arm to pull me along with her.

“What’s the matter?” I asked quietly as we left the others.

“Nothing. I just need to get away from those two. Some of the comments they were making when they thought I couldn’t hear were disgusting.”

“What comments?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She said with a shake of her head as we reached the shed and she pulled open the doors.

At some point recently, someone had broken the lock on the door and ransacked the shed for anything of use. I suspected it would have been Matthew or some of his scavenger people. Whoever it had been had made a mess.

The floor of the wooden building was littered with items that had been pulled off of the walls and out of cupboards. A tin of white paint had been overturned and a large pool had formed as it spread across the floor. Footprints left a trail to the door.

We moved through the debris that had once been someone’s carefully maintained storage shed as we searched for oars. It seemed that any tools that the shed had contained had been taken.

“I’ve found one” Lily called from the far side of the shed.

“Just one?”

“I’m afraid so... wait, no I have another.” She held both oars up proudly.

“They are different lengths.” I pointed out.

“It should be ok. We aren’t going far.”

“Fair enough.” I said with a shrug as I took them from her.

“Thanks”

“Who said chivalry is dead” I told her with a grin, “Besides you have the axe to carry.”

Lily laughed and led the way from the shed. I carried the oars awkwardly. They were made of what looked to be Ash wood and were fairly heavy with long laminated blades. One of the oars looked to be around six feet in length, while the second was closer to eight feet.

I approached the boat and handed the oars to Matthew as he indicated I climb in with the others. I looked at the boat with a little bit of scepticism. It had, after all been submerged just a short time ago, though it did seem to be holding the others fairly safely.

The boat was made of white painted wood and was large enough to seat the five of us. The back end of the boat had a place where a motor could be mounted and the two sides curved forward to meet at the front.

Matthew passed the oars to the two newcomers who were sat in the centre of the boat before sitting at the front. I joined Lily at the back of the boat. Gary and Shaun had to sit facing us as they rowed slowly out onto the lake and from the looks they were directing at us, they were not happy to have to be doing the majority of the work. I smiled at them and watched as their glowers grew.

“Look back there” Lily said quietly.

I looked back towards the dock and saw a dozen undead making their way out of the trees.

“They must have heard the gunshots.” I said with more than a little smugness. I did so enjoy being right.

“Most likely” Lily said with a sideways glance at me before she rolled her eyes. “I am more concerned by the fact that so many were close enough in the first place.”

“I told you it was getting worse.” Matthew said softly. “We are rapidly becoming surrounded.”

“Is that why you want the boat?” Lily asked him.

“Yes. If it is big enough to fit us all in, we can cross the lake or ideally, make our way to one of the larger islands where we can be safe.” Matthew said.

“And if it isn’t big enough for all of us?” I asked.

“Then we will go a few at a time.” He said. “Just think of how much easier it would be if we could use the boat to go further out in search of supplies.”

Matthew was growing more animated as he talked of his plans. I sat back against the firm wood of the boat and let the words wash over me as we moved slowly through the water.

By the time we were nearing the small island that hid the boat, it had begun to rain. Freezing drops of water that stung the skin as the growing wind blew the rain at our faces. The placid seeming lake was fast becoming rougher and the boat was rocking from side to side as the low waves hit.

“Row around the island” Matthew shouted over the sound of the rain, “Head straight for the boat.”

I could see sharp rocks around the edge of the island and I was sure that we would find more just below the surface if we went too close. I waited helplessly as the two newcomers struggled to manoeuvre the rowboat, unable to do anything but sit and watch as my life and wellbeing was in the hands of other people.

“There. The boat” Matthew shouted as he pointed.

Through the rain that was falling heavily I could just make out the low shape of a boat rocking in the water as the waves pummelled its sides. The boat was fairly long, around fifty feet and perhaps twelve feet in width.

The boat, from just before the front and all the way to the back was enclosed with glass windows that filled the entire length. Spotlights were mounted on the front and the boat looked like it had been parked beside the island.

“Can you see a door?” I called to him.