Search for Safety: Killing the Dead Book Two (13 page)

“Why does it need cleaning out?” I asked with alarm.

“I don’t know when you last changed that gauze but the wound was healing and then broke open again allowing dirt and bacteria from the gauze to get in. It’s early stages yet but there’s definitely infection in there and if I don’t open it up and clean it out it will get really bad for you.” Louise said in a no nonsense tone.

It seemed my day was going from bad to worse. Louise went to sterilise some water and a small scalpel she had in a case in her bag. As I waited Lily came into the room.

“Hey” she said, “Just letting you know we are going out to get the cars set up.” She said.

“Good luck out there” I told her with actual sincerity.

“Same to you,” she said with a laugh. “Louise just told me what she needs to do. It will hurt.”

“I appreciate your concern.” I grunted. Lily just gave another laugh and left the room.

Louise soon returned with a bowl of water that she set beside me. With a business like attitude that I admired, she proceeded with her task. No talk or attempts to soothe any concerns or worries I may have. She just got on with it. She would definitely make a useful addition to the group.

She cleaned around the wound first before taking the scalpel and slicing through the skin. The sharp pain was enough to make me wince and I muttered a curse or two when she started cleaning out the now open wound.

In no time at all the wound was cleaned and she had fresh gauze taped over it. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small pack of pills. “Follow the instructions on the pack and take these until they are gone.” She instructed. “I will change the gauze for you when it’s needed but you have to keep it clean and get some proper rest or you just won’t heal.”

“Sure thing, I will ask the undead to stop bothering us for a few days while I heal” I said.

Louise looked less than amused and she glared at me, “The worst thing out here will be infection. Even the smallest cut can kill you long before the zombies reach you if you aren’t careful” she said. “Keep it clean and get whatever rest you can.”

“I will do what I can.” I assured her as she gathered her belongings. I thanked her for her assistance and went back into the bar. I was an infrequent drinker, the chance of making a mistake was too high for me to risk it, but right now I felt a strong urge to drown my sorrows.

The clock set into the wall above the quite astounding array of alcoholic beverages, was insisting that it was eleven thirty six when Rachel came into the bar.

“The zombies are coming” she told us, her face flushed from climbing down the ladder and running full speed into the building. “Pat is keeping a watch on them and he thinks they’ll be here in a couple of hours.”

“Ok then, time to get into the cars.” Lily said with a look around the room, “Lock this place up and stay quiet.”

“I’ll stay on the roof” Rachel said as she left the room.

The room became a hive of activity as the few who were to be distractions in the cars readied themselves to leave. Lily crossed the room to where I sat on a stool at the bar.

“Don’t drink too much” she admonished, “You may have to be able to react quickly soon.”

“I doubt I will have much need to do anything, you and the others will be doing all the hard work.” I said with a touch of anger.

“You aren’t upset that you can’t risk yourself are you?” she asked and I swallowed another gulp of my beer. “You are aren’t you! Of all the stupid things to get upset about.” She shook her head in amusement.

“Take it easy on the drinks and get some rest. The sooner you are healed, the sooner you can be back out there killing things.” Lily said with a laugh before turning away.

I don’t know who was more surprised when I reached out and took a firm grip on her arm. “Be careful” I said.

She looked as though she were about to say something before just nodding and I released my hold on her arm. Lily and the others left and Jim locked the door behind them. Debbie was in tears and Robert was comforting her.

“They’re in God’s hands now.” Jim said as he came back into the bar and I resisted an urge to laugh at him. I could just hear the sound of the cars engines starting and then soon fading as they moved towards the main road to intercept the zombies.

I finished my drink and poured another. My mood was worsening and some small part of my brain was screaming at me to stop drinking and keep control. I told it to be quiet and then snickered at the ridiculous notion of one part of my mind telling another part to be quiet.

“Having fun?” Louise asked as she joined me at the bar.

“Just getting started” I told her with a grin.

“I think I’ll join you” she said as she reached over the bar for a glass. “I really can’t stand waiting.”

“You and me both” I agreed.

“Debbie is a diabetic” Louise whispered to me. I gazed at her wondering why she was bringing it up.

“Her insulin will run out soon” she said with a glance over her shoulder at the sobbing woman. “Even if we find some more for her, that won’t last forever and I doubt anyone will be making anymore.”

“I suppose not.”

“She will die and I can’t do anything about it except wait.” She took a long swallow of her drink, “It will only get worse too.”

“How do you mean?”

“Think of all those people out there on anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, cancer treatments, and dialysis. The list is endless. All of those people will start dying soon, if any of them have survived so far.”

“I guess so.” The idea of so many dying from anything other than the undead had not occurred to me. I wondered idly if anyone would be left for me to kill.

“I became a nurse to help people and now all I can do is wait and watch people die” she said with tears forming that were angrily wiped away.

“It’s going to be a rough few years” I agreed.

“Add in the diseases, old and new that will come along and wipe out so many people, malnutrition will likely be the worst killer over this coming winter” she continued.

Louise was drinking steadily as she spoke and I was beginning to think that she was a dour kind of drunk. I actually found her pessimism immensely appealing.

“It could be worse” I said and earned a glower for my efforts. I refilled my glass.

“Do you think you should be drinking so much?” asked Jim as he approached the bar.

“Will it make any difference if we are drunk or sober when the zombies arrive?” I countered.

“He has a point” Cass said from behind us. “If we need to fight, you will need to be sober.”

“I think not. They will be no fighting for me today and if you lot are going to be a pain about it, I shall drink in private” I said as I stood and reached across the bar for a bottle of expensive looking wine.

“Me too” Louise said as she grabbed a bottle of her own.

We left the bar and the disapproving looks of the others and slowly climbed the stairs to the manager’s office.

Once in the office I set the bottle of wine carefully on the desk and sat once more in the leather chair and stared out the window. Louise dragged a chair around the desk and set it beside mine before sitting down with her wine bottle nestled safely in her lap.

“Jerks!” she said, “Who are they to tell us what to do?”

I grunted a noncommittal reply and continued to stare through the window. I had realised that to continue drinking would be foolish and far too much of a risk to my own fragile hide, but I had no intention of letting the religious fellow think he had anything to do with it.

Louise had opened her bottle and was happily swigging from it without the need of a glass. She began to chatter about this and that and I soon lost interest. A headache was forming and I suspected that was the fault of the alcohol.

We would have a few hours yet before the undead even arrived and certainly several hours after that before the others returned. With little else to do I sat back in the chair and rested my foot on the windowsill as I thought over our options.

Staying here for a few days would be fine once the imminent threat of the zombies was done with. We could send out a few scavenging parties and maybe find some camping gear, or perhaps even find the military that were obviously still out there somewhere.

Louise had long since passed the pleasant company stage and had opened the second bottle of wine seemingly oblivious to the one sided nature of the conversation she was having with me.

The day passed slowly with nothing to do but stare out of the window and listen to Louise prattle on. Eventually she decided that she needed the bathroom and more alcohol before wandering away. I was happy to see her go and be left alone with my thoughts.

As the day crept slowly towards night and no attack materialised I guessed the others had managed to draw away the zombies. I was disappointed.

It was nearly midnight when I heard a commotion from downstairs. I resisted the urge to go down to greet the returning heroes. They could get their pats on the back from the others first.

A pounding on the stairs caught my attention and I swung around to face the door as Gregg pushed it open. He was upset as he almost yelled “Where’s Louise?”

“I don’t know I haven’t seen her in hours. Why?”

“Eric’s hurt, we need medical help.” He called over his shoulder as he ran down the corridor towards the staff room.

I found Pat at the bottom of the stairs. He looked tired and was covered in mud and gore. Louise pushed past me and ran into the bar-room with little sign of any ill effects from the alcohol. Gregg stopped at the bottom of the stairs, reluctant to go in and join the others.

“What happened out there?” I asked.

“The plan kind of worked,” Pat began “A huge number of zombies were headed this way, when they saw us they split up and began chasing us. I don’t know what happened to the other car but we drove straight into another pack of the bloody things coming the other way.

“Eric tried to avoid them but we ploughed through a few of them and then off the side of the road.” Pat ran his hand over his head, a nervous habit of his. I noticed his hands were shaking as he continued. “It was a nightmare. The car was stuck and the zombies were coming from all around us, so we jumped out of the car and ran. I don’t know how many I had to kill just to get away from the car but I thought I was done for.”

The main entrance door opened and Rachel ran in and once she saw Pat, threw her arms around him and asked him what happened. I listened as Pat repeated what he had told us before asking “What happened to Eric?”

“We got cornered by a group of zombies in the woods on the way back. I’ll say this for the old bloke; he’s a damn good fighter. He downed a couple of them before one knocked him over and he cracked his head open on a rock.”

“So he wasn’t infected?”

“I don’t know” Pat said hesitantly, “There was blood everywhere.”

“We will need to keep an eye on him.” Gregg said.

“We have bigger problems” Rachel said, “As I was climbing down the ladder I saw a load of them coming onto the golf course and they’re headed this way.”

Chapter 13

I hurried across to the door and pulled it open to peer out into the darkness. A thankfully cloudless sky and almost full moon allowed me to see a large mass of shadowy figures moving slowly across the golf course.

“Oh hell!” exclaimed Gregg as he joined me at the door.

“Ok, let’s go through to the bar, we need to speak to everyone and we need to decide what we are doing if we want to survive this.” I said and wasted no time by leading the way through to the bar myself.

The two groups of people were all huddled together before the fire talking quietly as Louise saw to Eric’s injury that was apparently minor, just messy. I called for attention and when all eyes were turned to me, I explained what was coming our way.

“What are we going to do?” Claire asked with a worried look across at the sleeping form of Maggie who was curled up on some coats by the fire.

“We are going to have to fight them.” I said.

“Why can’t we just barricade the door and wait for them to leave?” Jim asked.

“Because they won’t leave if they know we are in here and more importantly Lily and John are still out there and we can’t go and find them if we are trapped in here.” I told him and let a touch of anger enter my voice.

“So how do we fight them?” Cass asked.

“Rachel and Pat will head to the roof and shoot at them.” I said with a glance at them, “When the undead are all focused on them, the rest of us can go out and hit them from behind with whatever weapons we have.”

“What weapons do we have? A couple of hand axes and hammers?” Robert asked in his apparently usual arrogant manner. “We aren’t all going to be able to fight them with knives you know.”

“Anyone who doesn’t want to fight can stay in here.” I said

“That still leaves us lacking weapons” Cass said quietly.

“There’s some golf clubs in the staff room” Louise said as she came to join us with Eric in tow.

“They will work“ I said thoughtfully, “Long enough to allow you to strike from a distance and sturdy enough that they will do some damage.”

“So who is going to go out and fight?” Gregg asked.

“Pat and Rachel you two better go now and get set up. Try and draw them all to you.” I said. “As for the rest of you, it’s up to you if you are willing to fight to stay alive or not.”

“I’ll be with you” Gregg said and Cass quickly echoed her agreement.

“I can swing a golf club as well as anyone so you can count me in” Eric offered.

“Me too” Claire said quietly.

“Are you sure?” I asked her with a glance towards Maggie’s sleeping form. “No one will think less of you if you stay here with her.”

Several of the group added their assurance as well. “No, I need to help protect her and my friend is missing out there.” Claire said.

“Ok. What about the rest of you?” I asked as I looked at the others in turn.

“Count me in,” said Louise “Someone needs to stay in and look after the kids though and I think that should be Debbie.”

“I can’t go out” Liz said in her quiet voice. She was so quiet I had forgotten she was even here.