Savage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (21 page)

A
nna had some ointment in her medical
bag, but her medical bag was inside the diner.  Right now, it would have
been of great use to ease Rene’s pain, but it would be too dangerous to
retrieve it from the ruined building.  The skin of his neck had sloughed
off in thin, wet sheets and every time he moved it hurt him. 
He’ll get
an infection for sure,
Anna thought glumly.

The fires started to peter out.  The pier had
been constructed after an older, smaller pier burnt down.  It’d been
erected with fire-safety in mind.  The gaps between the buildings were
sufficient enough that they didn’t fall like dominos and the decked walkway was
lined with strips of galvanised steel.  The rain, which dawn had brought,
only helped to stymy the flames further.  The pier was destroyed, but half
of it, at least, still stood.  Most importantly, the gate still remained
in place.

The dead were drawn to fire like bumbling moths. 
The sound of the initial explosion had drawn them from miles around.  Now
they lined up at the gate in their dozens.  Anna knew that, given time,
they would assemble in
their
hundreds.  The gate
would fall. 
It’s all lost.  Once the dead get through that gate, they’ll
be nothing left but blood and guts come the time when Garfield gets back. 
There already is….  Losing Poppy is going to break him.

Anna studied herself, examining the blood that caked
her from head to toe and the soot that clung to every inch of her
clothing.  Then she looked at the three bodies laid out in a row on the
decked walkway: Chris, Alistair…Poppy. 
A child.

Anna had seen hundreds of dead children in the past
year, but this was the first to truly matter on a personal level.  The
sight of Poppy’s ruined face burned down right to Anna’s bones, as if the fires
themselves had consumed her. 
Samuel Raymeady will pay for this.

Rene placed an arm around her.  It was the first
time he’d ever done so.  When she looked at his face, she could see that
the pain from his wounds was nothing compared to the agony going through his
mind.

“This is so messed up,” said Jimmy, limping over to
the railing.  “What are we going to do?  We’ve got the dead on one
side and those boats on the other.  What do we do?”

“We should all head down to the beach,” said
Samantha.  She walked down the deck towards the sea and the others
followed after her.  “We’ll have to go along the shore.”

“That’s probably our only option,” said Anna. 
“We can’t go into the village.  Not with all of the zombies
arriving.  We’ll have to trek down the beach and try to find somewhere
safe.”

“What about Garfield?” said old man
Bob.
 
“He’ll be back soon.  If we’re all gone….”

“He’ll have to look for us,” said Anna.  “Better
that than he finds us all dead.  We can’t wait for him.  For all we
know, he might never make it back.  Who knows what the foragers ran into
out there?”

The thought made everyone drop
their
heads in sadness.  One day ago, they’d been a family, safe and sound.
 Their only danger each day had been irritation at each other.  Now
it had all gone to pieces in a heartbeat. 
Their
home, their family, had been torn to shreds.  Surviving long enough to
find the pier in the first place had been a miracle.  None of them could
hold out much hope of finding another sanctuary.  They would probably all
be dead soon.

Anna stared out at the frigate.  Now that morning
had arrived, it looked like the queen bee at the centre of a hive.  A
hundred smaller boats surrounded it and Anna had no vessel
of
her own
.  The only way to get to the frigate was to sail to it, but
any of the boats in the fleet would likely just finish their captain’s job and
kill her. 
Please, God, don’t let me die without taking that tyrant
with me.  He can’t get away with all he’s done.  If what Tim said is
true….

Something caught Anna’s eye as she stared out at the
fleet.  One of the boats was coming closer.  It was a small yacht,
piloted by a man.  Rene went to speak but she nodded before he had
chance.  “I see it.  Probably someone come to finish us off.”

“What should we do, Anna?” old man Bob asked.

“Arm up and get ready.  We didn’t make it this
long to go down without a fight.”

Tim was sitting on the deck with his legs dangling
over the collapsed edge of the walkway and his crutches lay across his
lap.  He said it was easier on his back to sit down.  Now he was
pointing to the small yacht coming their way.  “I don’t think it’s coming
to hunt us,” he said.  “Look.”

Anna did as Tim asked and looked harder.  As she
squinted, she made out a man piloting the boat.  He looked harmless
enough: shaggy brown hair atop a benign face.  It was the two people
standing either side of him that made him seem completely unthreatening. 
“He has two children with him.”

“And a dog,” said Tim.  “And it’s way too small
to be an attack dog.”

Anna nodded.  The little dog was more like a
longhaired rat than a Rottweiler.  The two young girls standing beside the
man were about Poppy’s age and both were waving their hands.  Anna frowned
in confusion.  “Get weapons,” she said.  “I don’t trust anyone at
this point.”

Everybody nodded and went and fetched whatever they
could find.  Luckily, most of the pier’s weapon stockpiles were close to
the gate, which was at the untouched front end of the pier.  Once they all
returned they looked like a huddle of gladiators.

The yacht came closer and Anna saw that its passengers
looked even warier than those on the pier.  The man at the wheel kept his
daughters close to him and seemed to be speaking words of caution, if the grave
expression on their faces was anything to go by.  Anna knew her own face
was unfriendly, her expression hostile, but she couldn’t help it.  She
wasn’t about to trust anybody on a boat.

The unknown man waved a hand.  “A-ahoy! 
Is…is anybody hurt?”

Anna snorted.  The man had a French accent, which
made him sound cultured and intellectual, but the words out of his mouth were
stupid.  “What do you think?” she said.  “Your captain just bombed
us.”

The man looked embarrassed.  “I apologise. 
That was stupid of me, yes?  I…I do not know what has happened to you, or
why the
Kirkland
fired at you, but I am here to help if I am able. 
Is there anything I can do?”

“Yeah,” said Anna.  “Piss off!”  Rene
grabbed her wrist and gave her a chiding look.  Anna sighed and rethought
her approach.  “I’m sorry.  Your captain has ruined us.  Some of
our people are dead because of him.  That makes you our enemy.”

“I am no one’s enemy,” said the man.  “My name is
Hugo, and I am worrying that my great captain is a bad man, no?”

“He is evil,” said Tim.  “I used to be on that
frigate, but when I left he sent a man to kill me and bombed this pier when he
found out I was here.”

Hugo puttered the boat the last few feet so that he
was directly underneath them.  His young daughters looked hardened by life
at sea, but they also had that naïve innocence that only young girls
possessed.  Poppy had had it too.

“I do not know who you are,” Hugo told Tim, “but if
these people are guilty only of knowing you, then the captain’s actions are
most wicked.  My boat is too small to take you all aboard, but I can spare
supplies, maybe pass on a message to the captain for you.  Perhaps he will
accept surrender.”

“Sod the captain,” spat Anna.  “And sod
surrender.”

Hugo winced.  “Please,
madam
, my girls…”

“Sorry,” said Anna.

“It is okay.  I understand.  I wish only to
see you safe.  Ask of me what you will and I will do what I can.”

“Give us your boat,” said Tim.

Anna looked at him and frowned.  Hugo frowned,
too.  “This I cannot do for you, sir.  It may not be much, but the
éternuer
is my home.  My daughter’s home.”

“We only wish to meet with the captain and discuss
terms of safe surrender,” Tim explained.  “You will have your boat back
within the day.”

“No, I am sorry.”

Tim went to argue, but Anna put a hand up.  She
was beginning to form ideas of her own.  “We don’t need your boat,
Hugo.  We’ll give you terms of surrender to deliver to the
Kirkland
for
us.  No one else has to die today.”

Hugo nodded.  “I am glad to help in this.”

“We need to sit down and discuss it first,” she
said.  “Our home is a little battered right now, but we have plenty to
drink and some fresh fish.  It might be a bit overdone after the fires,
but we will gladly welcome you as a guest while we decide the content of our
message to the captain.”

Hugo’s face fell and suspicion washed over him. 
“I…I do not think that would be a good idea.”

Anna smiled.  “I understand you don’t trust us,
but we are not the bad guys here.  How long have you been at sea?”

Hugo sighed.  “Many
many
months.”

“Then come aboard for an hour and feel the ground
beneath your feet.  Let your daughters stretch their legs and your little
dog sniff something new.  It’ll do you all good.  I promise we’ll do
nothing to harm you and we cannot take your boat without your keys, anyway.”

Hugo’s daughters both muttered to him.  From the
look on the man’s face, he was obviously being nagged.  He looked up at
the pier anxiously.  “We will come aboard, but please, I beg you, do not
show yourselves to be bad people.  My faith in men has been badly damaged
these last few days, and I cannot cope with more badness.  My daughters…”

“Are beautiful,” said Anna.  “And we would never
dream of treating them as anything other than friends.  Climb up,
Hugo.  We would usually drop down a rope, but with the struts in the mess
that they are, it’s pretty easy to get up without.”

Hugo nodded.  “
Oui
.”

The Frenchman’s hands were shaking as he helped his
daughters climb up from the yacht. 
He’s afraid of us. 
Afraid for his daughters.
  But he’s desperate enough to
take the risk.
  Anna and old man Bob helped them up, while Hugo
attached the yacht to the pier.  Once he finished tying a large mooring
knot, he hoisted up the little dog, which wriggled and
yipped! 
“Be
careful with my little Houdini,” he said.  “He has not made new friends in
quite a while.”

Yip!

Anna managed to hang down and grab the little dog
under the flanks.  Old man Bob held her from behind and yanked her back
with the animal in her arms.  She set the dog down and watched in
amusement as it spun in a circle of disbelieving excitement.  Within
seconds, the small hound was sniffing the ground and peeing up the
railings. 
Make yourself at home
,
champ
.
 

Hugo switched off the yacht’s engine and pocketed the
keys.  He grabbed a hold of the pier’s twisted struts and pushed himself
upwards.  Anna grabbed him by the hand and yanked him up over the
edge.  As soon as his feet hit the deck he smiled.

“Feel good to be on solid ground again?” Anna asked
him. 
Don’t get too used to it.

Hugo bounced a little.  “I can feel it in my
knees.  It…it has been too long.  Thank you for allowing me into your
home.”

“What’s left of it,” said Anna, waving a hand over the
burning debris of the more unfortunate buildings.  “We’re going to have to
move on soon.”

“I am sorry for your pain.  These are my
daughters, Daphne and Sophie.  This little man is Houdini.”

Anna patted the friendly dog on the head and smiled at
each of the girls.  That was when Hugo leapt backwards and almost fell
into the sea.  Anna grabbed him just in time.  “What is it?”

Hugo pointed down the pier at the gate.  “The…the
dead.”

Anna chuckled.  “They can’t hurt us.  The
gate will hold them for now.  Don’t worry, you get used to them.  I
suppose you haven’t seen the dead much from the sea.”

Hugo shook his head.  His bottom lip
quivered.  “Are they everywhere?  Is nowhere safe?”

“This place was safe,” said old man Bob.  “Until
your boss destroyed it.”

Anna sighed.  It was not Hugo’s fault.  She
could tell that the man’s concern for them was genuine.  There was nothing
to be gained by giving him a hard time. 
But I don’t have a choice.
 
“There are some safe places, but they’re hard to find, Hugo.  We’ll move
on from here soon and look for someplace new.  Somewhere with thick doors
and a way of finding food.  You can come with us if you want.” 
Would
he want that?  Is the fleet really so great?

When she made the offer, both of Hugo’s daughters
looked at him expectantly.  Hugo stammered for a second, but declined the
offer.  “A bad idea, I think.  I must keep my daughter’s out of
harm’s way.”

“I understand,” said Anna.  “Worst thing in the
world is seeing a child hurt, wouldn’t you agree?” 
We’ll see what you
truly think of it in a moment.