Star Drawn Saga (Book 2): Lost Among The Dead (23 page)

‘Trouble… how?’ asked Fran, wincing slightly as she moved to pushed aside one of the spy hole covers.

‘Well, apart from the fact that some of the ground floor windows are broken and no one’s made any attempt to secure them,’ he replied, dropping his voice even lower as he noticed the corpse of a Dead man shuffling into view, ‘I think the fact they’ve left the gates open is a bit of a giveaway. My guess is they’ve either just got here, say within the last few hours or so, or they’re a bunch of morons,’ he continued. ‘Either way, I say we leave them to it.’

‘So when you say trouble you really mean burden,’ clarified Fran, frowning as she shook her head despite agreeing with his assessment. ‘Okay then,’ she at last continued, finally letting the cover slip back into place, ‘so we stick to the plan then. We try White Oak Park… and if it turns out someone else has got there first and they’re not looking to add to their numbers… well… well, then we can always come back here, take on the burden of someone who doesn’t think to close a gate behind them and try to secure this place instead… If anything, it’ll do while we decide what to do next… agreed?’

With Fran’s suggestion met with a collection of nods and mumbled words of approval, Tom gave the rising smoke one final disapproving glance and then with flick of Star’s reins they were on the move again.

***

‘W…what do we d…do?’ whispered Kai ten minutes later, his eyes full of concern as he looked back at Fran. ‘We have t…to help her.’

‘Kai, you’re with me,’ said Tom, not waiting for Fran’s reply as he twisted in his seat and reached for a machete attached to the wall of the cart. ‘Stay close and don’t move until I say so. We’re going to make for the side of the café, over there,’ he continued, pointing to the small stone building; the upturned tables and shattered windows testament to the carnage that had occurred here years before. ‘They haven’t noticed the cart yet but they will… at least from there we’ll have the jump on them.’

‘Tom, no, I should…’ Fran started to protest, instantly cursing the small involuntary gasp she made as she moved too quickly.

‘Really?’ he interrupted. ‘The state your back’s in, you’re more of a liability. I’m taking Kai.’

‘Me, a liability, there’s a least three of the Dead out there that I can see from here!’ she spat back, instantly regretting her choice of words and the pained expression that flitted across Tom’s face that they had caused.

‘Take this,’ said Tom matter-of-factly, a mask of cool determination settling over his features as he handed Kai the machete. ‘Fran you know how to drive Star, you take the reins, Mike you…’

‘Tom, I didn’t mean…’ Fran tried to apologize while Tom pushed past her to get to the side hatch.

‘Fran, we don’t have time for this,’ he replied, briefly looking back at her before turning his attention back to Mike. ‘Don’t let her follow us,’ he went on to say, ‘and no matter what happens make sure you three and that daughter of yours get out of here safely, okay?’

‘I… yeah, sure,’ said Mike, a little flustered by the sudden turn of events, ‘but… but you’re sure you don’t need another pair of hands?’

‘Mike, no!’ warned Sam, her eyes suddenly full of worry as she looked from her husband to Tom and back again; fearful his offer may be taken up

‘No,’ Tom replied, his hand hovering over the latch bolt as his gaze drifted to the child held tightly in Sam’s arms, ‘you stay with your family… your daughter needs you.’

Then with dark unheard whispers already itching at the corners of his mind, Tom opened the hatch and jumped out.

‘Every girl needs her daddy,’ he muttered, darting away from the cart; only the heavy sound of Kai’s boots landing on the concrete behind him letting him know he wasn’t alone.

When they had first reached the access road leading down to the landing strip the older barge that Mike had told them about was disappointingly nowhere in sight and with the useless hulk of the modern ferry stalled midway across the wide river blocking their view, they could only assume the barge was already on the other bank. The only other form of transport they could see was a small dilapidated two man rowing boat with the ironic name of ‘
Titanic 2’
painted along its side. Unfortunately though, just like the barge, this too had been pulled up far onto the muddy shoreline of the opposite bank.

It was only a few minutes later while they were discussing who should swim over and how they could use the barge’s own guide ropes to stop them being swept away by the current, that Sam calmly pointed out that the barge was now coming into view, slowly appearing from behind the stern of the ferry and that, more importantly, it was also carrying passengers. One by one they turned towards the slit cut in the front of the cart, each eager to see just who was pulling the barge across the river Fal. As it turned out there were four of them, two men slowly dragging the wet ropes up out of the river at the stern of the barge only for them to fall back below the waterline at the bow and a third, holding tightly onto a girl in her early teens; his stance rigid, as if afraid she would fall and follow the ropes to the watery depths beneath them. Tom had assumed these strangers were part of whatever group was already staying back at Trelissick House and was wondering if they should ask them about the state of White Oak Park before trying to cross themselves; that was until they heard the struggling girl’s screams to be set free.

‘
Daddy
,’ the voice of Tom’s eldest daughter whispered, her breath cold against his ear as he crouched beside ruined café, an overturned table partly hiding him from view while Kai squatted by his side.

‘Not now, Princess,’ Tom mumbled in reply, watching as the barge drew closer and closer to the landing; the men no longer indistinct figures but real and distinguishable as men; men he may be forced to kill, ‘Daddy needs to help another girl… a girl who’s been taken by bad men.’

‘
Taken by bad men?
’ his eldest daughter almost snorted; the jaded and cruel tone alien to her when alive, ‘
Is that all.
’

‘
And where were you when worse came for your own children?
’ the spectre of his wife mocked, her spiteful words plucking at his wounded soul.

‘Don’t… please,’ begged Tom, images of blood and carnage bubbling to the surface of his mind.

‘
It’s not fair, Daddy,
’ whined the voice of his youngest child, her ghostly mouth surely forming a sulky pout, ‘
why does she get to be saved? It’s not fair.
’

‘I know, Sweetheart, I know,’ Tom muttered in reply, already slowly creeping forward, only vaguely aware of Kai’s presence following closely on his heels.

By now the wooden barge had come close enough to the cobbled shoreline that the two men pulling it had jumped into the shallow water to walk the rest of the way ashore. The first, a tall middle aged black man with a patchy beard and an even patchier head of hair, strode purposefully forward; his head down as if the presence of those behind him had already been forgotten. His fellow barge-hand, by comparison, was a short, muscular man in his early thirties, with rough looking stubble, thick red hair and a row of tattooed stars creeping up one side of his neck. Unlike the black man, he had paused to aid the man with the struggling girl get down from the platform.

‘Get off me! Let me go!’ the girl cried, twisting in her kidnapper’s tight grip, her face flush with tears. ‘Please, you’re hurting me. Please let me go! I…I want to go back! Please!’

‘I think the little lady said she wanted you to let her go,’ Tom growled, his sudden appearance menacing and unexpected.

‘Shit!’ the black man still ankle deep in water gasped, frantically scrabbling to pull a knife from a sheath on his belt. ‘Ray… Ray, we’ve got company!’

‘I don’t know who you are but this has nothing to do with you,’ said the one referred to as Ray, striding though the water dragging the struggling girl behind him, a fresh set a fat tears spilling over her cheeks. ‘Jog on, mate… don’t get involved!’

‘I’m already involved,’ said Tom, his tone causing the kidnapper to falter; the man’s confidence clearly wavering. ‘More than you know,’ Tom continued, muttering under his breath; his gaze locking with that of the teenager before him.

It was then that an echo of hungry groans sounded from somewhere behind them; the Dead had found them once more and had them in their sights.

‘Tom!’ he heard Kai suddenly hiss.

‘How many?’ asked Tom, without looking back.

‘Four… no, now there’s f…five,’ Kai replied, knowing the chances of them dealing with the Dead and at the same time stopping the three men from escaping with the girl were not promising. ‘W…we’ve got ab…about thirty seconds and then they’ll b…be on us.’

‘You don’t know what’s going on here, mate…’ Ray started to say.

‘You’re going to be okay, Sweetheart,’ said Tom, ignoring Ray’s comment to talk directly to the girl.

‘Haven’t you got enough problems about to bite you on the arse,’ stated Ray, using the back of his free hand to push his glasses back up along the bridge of his nose. ‘Why go looking for any more?’

‘Didn’t you hear? I’ve got thirty seconds,’ said Tom, his tone calm and unruffled as he broke eye contact with the girl to look directly at Ray; trying to look intimidating while the ghosts of his lost family whispered from the dark recesses of his mind. ‘You should see the… damage… I can do in thirty seconds,’

For a moment nobody spoke or moved, the silence broken only by the ominous moaning of the Dead as they drew ever closer.

‘Oh, screw this!’ the black man abruptly spat, breaking the silent standoff with a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘I never wanted any of this shit! Ray, Chaz… you’re on your own.’

And with that he began to wade through the shallow water, his hands held aloft in surrender as he stepped over the guide rope and made his way to a steep grassy bank just to the left of them. With one man gone, Tom took as step forward; menacingly spinning the curved blades in his hinds.

‘Hey, wait! Louis! Louis, wait for me!’ Chaz suddenly called after the older black man, as he too abandoned Ray; deciding whatever reason they had for taking the young girl, she clearly wasn’t worth dying at the hands of a complete stranger for.

‘Wise move,’ said Tom, jerking his head in the direction the two men had taken; while, unheard by anyone but himself, his eldest daughter began a petulant outburst from beyond the grave, battling for his attention. ‘Just… just let the girl go… no one has to get hurt.’

‘Tom!’ warned Kai, his tone clear that their time had run out; the Dead were upon them.

‘Yes… yes, you know I loved you. You were my world,’ Tom suddenly said out of the blue, the spoken words meant for other far less corporal ears, bringing a flash of confusion to Ray’s features. ‘Yes, yes I will, Princess… yes, Daddy will cut them up,’ he went on the mutter, slowly turning his back on Ray and the girl, determined to reap the demanded vengeance upon the hungry corpses shuffling towards them.

‘Stay w…with me, Tom!’ said Kai, hoping to break though the man’s delusion and keep his mind in the here and now. ‘Tom!’

But already Tom was moving, rushing forward, his blades flashing through the air as he met the first cadaver head on. And with each movement moulding skin split, muscle and sinew parted and Dead limbs fell to the ground; once more nothing but lifeless rotting flesh. Tom span, slashing out at the corpse of a Dead man already missing arm; ripped savagely away when he had been cruelly conscripted into an army of walking death. Yet Tom could feel no pity for this creature before him. For as always, this Dead man was all of them; every hungry corpse that had ripped a child from a mother’s arms, every recently risen cadaver that had pounced upon a loved one, tearing into their flesh with abandon and every nightmare trapped in a human shaped shell that had stalked the living for the last five years. So as Tom’s blades sliced across the grey skin of the cadaver’s neck, separating head from shoulders, he felt no joy or release for even in his mania he knew there would always be more to take its place.

And so with his mind clouded by hatred and revenge, Tom barely registered Kai mirroring his movements next to him. Like a fading dream upon wakening, he was only vaguely aware of Kai crippling the corpse of teenage boy, knocking away its legs from under it before embedding his blade deep within its skull. But even as his mind fought to hold onto these details of the scene around him, his own perception of reality raced away from him; slipping from his grasp. For Tom’s whole world was the next cadaver in front of him and its impending destruction. Even if he wanted to, he was unable to abandon or turn away from this task; the conjured spectres of his wife and daughters would simply not allow it. So as Tom, lost to his psychosis, approached the next hungry corpse, its arms held aloft as if begging for a loving embrace, he could only partially hear Kai’s shouts and the sounds of a struggle coming from somewhere behind him.

Kai had sidestepped the cadaver of a young woman, its face stripped of both flesh and features as it had tumbled towards him, and leaving Tom to deal with the remaining three corpses, he had raced to the water’s edge where Ray was struggling to pull the girl the last few metres to shore.

‘Move it, you little bitch!’ Kai heard Ray growl, forcefully pulling the young teenager forward; his temper flaring when she fell to her knees, slipping on the slick cobbles beneath her feet. ‘Get up, you fucking…’