The Grave: A Zombie Novel (11 page)

Kelly lowered her voice. She had
gotten everyone’s attention. She hated playing the authority card, but she had to get control of the situation before it spun away from her and someone got into trouble.

“Will, no more talk of not being rescued, okay? Planes do not disappear. This is not the Bermuda Triangle. Someone, somewhere, will already be looking for us. Tug, calm down. I appreciate what you are doing, but the truth is
that nobody knows for sure where we are or what is on this island. Maybe the Deathless are all gone, I hope so. But maybe they aren’t. I’m sorry, Claire, but they are not pleasant people and we need to avoid them at all costs. So for now, we must be extra careful. Rasmus, can you please go with Josef, I don’t want him going off on his own and...shit, where is he?”

“Josef?”
Rasmus peered down the hallway, but there was no sign of him. “Josef?” he called out again, louder. A chill ran down Rasmus’ spine.

Kelly stiffened up. Josef should have answered by now.
“Mark, would you mind going with Rasmus to get Josef back. We can’t afford for anyone to go wandering off on their own.”

Mark followed Rasmus into the hallway. The front door was still open and the rain was still pouring down. If
anything, it had gotten stronger. The secondary door they had seen was ajar, and Rasmus guessed Josef had just gone ahead without them once the arguing had started.

“Josef?”
Rasmus pushed the door open and entered the room. The living room was deserted. The air smelled foul and the leather suite was covered in a grey fungus. Mould adorned the ceiling in huge patches, brown and yellow clouds mushrooming out in all directions. The wallpaper was peeling off and in places, it exposed the crumbling plaster underneath. Rasmus didn’t want to spend any more time in this house than he had to, but he felt compelled to go on. Josef had still not answered him and Rasmus was getting worried now. He walked across the room to another door. This one was ajar too and Rasmus pulled it open with Mark behind him.

The room beyond was similar to the one they had just crossed, except the floor had caved in. The old floorboards that had stood for decades had final
ly given way, succumbing to the weather and old age. The wet evening’s dull light trickled in through a square window and Rasmus looked down through the decayed floorboards. He could see the faint outline of Josef’s body lying in the cellar below. The air was still and Rasmus gasped. Judging from the angle at which they now lay, Josef’s legs must have broken and he had probably been knocked out instantly. He had not even had time to call out for help. Rasmus and Mark had been going slowly in their search for him, but Josef had walked straight into the dark room without thinking to check first and had fallen.

Mark could not see past Rasmus in the doorway and wondered why they had stopped. “What’s going on? What is it?”
he hissed.

Rasmus was about to break the news to him when he saw movement in the cellar. It
was so dark he hadn’t noticed at first, but a figure was crouching over Josef. At the sound of Mark’s voice, the figure turned around and looked directly up at Rasmus. Suddenly Rasmus forgot the bump on his head, the crash and the expedition. Sheer panic overcame him and he froze.

“Mark,” he whispered, “do you have a light on your camera?”

“No, but Tug probably has one. What is it?”

“Can you go get it please? Keep your voice down and for God’s
sake, don’t let anyone else come back here. Just you, okay?”

Mark left Rasmus alone as he went to find a light, puzzled as to why Rasmus was acting so oddly.

Rasmus’ eyes were slowly getting accustomed to the gloom and he could make out that the figure was quite small. It was hunched over Josef, obscuring his face. Rasmus could hear faint crunching sounds and slopping noises as if the figure was eating something. Rasmus suspected what it was, but couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. He didn’t want to think about it, but he had to know for sure. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Here,” said Mark handing him a small pocket torch. “It’s all Tug had. Now tell me, what can you see? Is it Josef?” Mark gently squeezed into the doorway beside Rasmus so he could see too.

Rasmus flicked the torch on and shone the beam down into the hole. The weak light illuminated Josef’s feet and legs. Rasmus moved the torch slowly upward exposing Josef’s chest. A thin, bare arm lay on his chest and the hand was covered in blood. It was obvious that the arm was not Josef’s.

Rasmus’ hands were shaking so much that the light was unsteady and flickering as he moved it further up Josef’s body. The dead child looked up suddenly as the light fell upon his face. Dead
, pale eyes looked up at Rasmus and Mark. The child must have been about eight or nine when it had died. It wore loose ragged clothes over its thin body and it snarled into the torch light. The child’s face was covered in blood and as it stood up, they could see Josef’s neck had been torn open. His eyes were glazed over and it was clear he was dead.

After falling down into the
cellar, the child, who had been trapped down there, pounced immediately, ripping Josef’s throat out before he had time to regain consciousness or shout for help.

Moving the torch up further, Rasmus could see Josef’s head had cracked open when he had fallen. His brains lay
pooled out over the floor in a sickening creamy white puddle looking like curdled milk. Small bloody handprints covered Josef’s face, and Rasmus guessed the child had eaten some of the brains, pulling them from Josef’s broken skull. Perhaps that was why Josef still lay dead on the ground and had not reanimated; he had cracked his skull and broken at least one of his legs when he had fallen into the deadly cellar.

“Oh fuck,” said Mark backing away. “Oh fuck,” he said again.

The child in the cellar reached up toward Mark and Rasmus, bloody hands straining for them, but he was too far away. Rasmus watched as the child’s teeth snapped uselessly, pieces of Josef’s stringy neck still caught in the child’s jaws. A gooey grey lump fell from the child’s mouth and plopped onto the dusty ground. Rasmus recognised it; it was unmistakably a piece of Josef’s brain tissue and he gagged.

Rasmus swallowed down the bile that was threatening to erupt from his churning stomach. He flicked the torch off and turned to face Mark.

“We need to leave. Now.”

In the kitchen, Suzy and Will were trying to wake Wilfred
who had fallen unconscious. Kelly was still holding onto Claire whilst Tug and Tricia were searching for anything useful in the pantry.

Mark burst into the room, swiftly followed by Rasmus.
“Time to go,” said Mark urgently.

“What’s happened? Where’s Josef?” said Will. He could
tell from the wild look in Mark’s eyes that it was bad. Rasmus was avoiding eye contact with anyone and looking down at the ground.

Mark shook his head. “He’s...he’s not...we need to leave. Just listen to me, everyone, this house is not safe. There’s no time to...”

He stopped as a crashing sound came from above them. Something, or someone, had fallen to the floor and there were loud scrabbling sounds above them, as if a thousand rats were trying to claw their way through the ceiling to get down to the kitchen.

“Fuck th
is, I’m outta here,” said Mark.

Without further discussion, everyone poured out of the house,
racing after Mark and Rasmus.

Tug and Will were last as they
carried Wilfred between them. He was still unconscious and they hadn’t been able to raise him. Everyone had congregated on the pathway to the house, unsure of where to go.

“Rasmus, where’s Josef?”
asked Kelly.

Rasmus had turned almost as white as his beard. “He’s dead. They’re here.
The Deathless. They’re in the house. I saw one. A child was...it had killed him and...”

“They’re not just in the house,” said Suzy. “Look.”

Suzy pointed down the road, past the wreckage of the plane. There were a dozen figures on the road, heading straight for them. More were joining them, ambling into the street from the trees and hedges at the roadside. There were men and women of all shapes and sizes. Some were naked, some were clothed, but all of them were dead. They made a yearning, moaning sound as they approached and some were faster than others were. The fastest of the pack, a stout woman with her belly slit open, had already made it to the plane and was advancing upon the group rapidly.

Tug dropped Wilfred and Will just managed to catch him before he hit the tarmac.

“This way,” shouted Tug, running away from the dead and not waiting for anyone else.

The others ran after him, not knowing where he was heading, just knowing it was away from the
throng of the dead. Will tried to pick up Wilfred on his own, but he was struggling. Suzy stopped and ran back to help him.

“Will, hurry up
please, they’re getting close,” she said, trying to help him lift Wilfred.

“I’m trying, but...” Will and Suzy together managed to get Wilfred between them and began after the others who were by now far ahead.

Suzy cast a look over her shoulder and screamed, “Will, we’re not going to make it.”

Will looked back and saw that the dead woman at the front had almost caught up with them. There was no way they were going to outrun the Deathless while carrying Wilfred as well.

Will lowered Wilfred to the floor and knelt over him. “We’re going to have to leave him, Suzy.” He was furious with himself for letting his guard drop. He should have forced Tug to listen. Maybe they would have found somewhere safe instead of wasting time in that house. He was right. The Deathless had found them, drawn by the plane and the noise. Now he had to choose. Stay here and fight to protect Wilfred, or run and get Suzy away.

“But...but...” Suzy looked at Will and then back at the woman who was only ten feet away now. Suzy could smell the rotting stench of decayed flesh and stepped back.

“Oh, Will.” Sheer terror gripped Suzy and the dead body was almost upon her.

Will stood, took
Suzy’s hand, and they ran. Will looked back to see if they were getting further away from the woman and was relieved to see they were. However, it was only because the woman had stopped at Wilfred’s prostrate body. Will had hoped that if Wilfred stayed unconscious the Deathless might not notice him. He’d hoped they would run past and perhaps they would be able to circle back around and get Wilfred when the road was clear. However, the dead had found him and there would be no going back for him.

The stout woman fell upon Wilfred and took a chunk out of his arm. Wilfred’s eyes shot open and he let out a deep roar as another of the dead fell upon him. An old man, bald and sallow-skinned, collapsed on top of Wilfred and began biting at his face. Another and another fell upon him and soon Wilfred’s cries were stopped. Will turned away, unable to watch, knowing he couldn’t save his friend.
With Wilfred’s body hidden under a pile of writhing corpses, many of the dead ignored him and continued giving chase to Suzy and Will.

“Over here!”

Will saw Kelly waving frantically at them from around a corner and he led Suzy to where Kelly stood waiting for them.

“Where are the others?” said Will out of breath.

“Over there, come on. I wanted to make sure you’d find us. Wilfred?”

Will shook his head and Kelly nodded in understanding. Then she took off,
running up the winding hill that led out of the town centre. Will and Suzy were hot on her heels as they ran, occasionally looking back to see that the dead were slowly getting left behind. The road twisted and turned as it meandered uphill and Will saw a signpost beneath a large oak tree.

‘Thank you for visiting Judgeford.

Please drive safely.

Haere
ra.’

As they rounded a corner, they stopp
ed running. The others were all on the roadside, exhausted, waiting for Kelly, Will and Suzy to catch up. The evening was rapidly turning into night and the only light in the countryside came from the moon above. Rainclouds still darted about the sky and the pale half-moon jumped in and out of view skittishly, disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.

“We have to keep moving,” said Tug leaning over a
gatepost. “They won’t stop.”

Rasmus tried to answer, but was shattered and couldn’t summon the energy to talk back.

“What about over there?” said Mark. “That post you’re leaning on is part of a fence. It looks like the start of a driveway. It must lead somewhere, maybe someone’s home. There are so many trees though I can’t see the house and that means
they
won’t see it either. If we’re quick enough, maybe we can hide out there for a while?”

“You want to go back inside another house?” said Suzy doubled over. She was fit and healthy, but running up hill was not something she had planned to do tonight. Her knees felt like jelly and she could only imagine how bad Rasmus felt. Not only was he
over sixty, he had just seen his two old friends killed.

“We can’t stay out here,” said Will. “
He’s right. They won’t stop.”

“If they don’
t get us, the cold and the rain will. We won’t make it ‘til morning,” Tug said, pushing open the gate. He realised that Mark was right. There was a rough, dirt track leading into a secluded copse. If they were lucky, there might be shelter somewhere on the other side. If not, it was going to be a very long night.

“Everyone, move it,” said Kelly.
“Down the path, now. Tug, shut that gate behind you. Everyone keep quiet. If we’re lucky we might just get out of sight before they catch up.”

Nobody spoke another word as they marched down the driveway. It was little more than a mud track
littered with leaves and fallen branches. Twigs cracked sharply underfoot and all of them kept their senses alert, listening out for the dead that were somewhere behind them. The trees on either side of the track became thicker and hid them from the road as they walked on. They turned a bend and the driveway opened out into a large gravel yard. Tall hedges stood staunchly around it and an enormous farmhouse confronted them.

The building was new
ly built of brick and mortar, and looked much more solid and dryer than the cottages back at Judgeford. The windows were dark and the curtains drawn. There was no sign of light or life inside and no smoke came from the chimney. The front door was closed and Will half expected a farmer to come out with a shotgun, warning them off his property. Nobody came from the house though and the group stood in front of it with trepidation. They all wanted to go inside, out of the rain that was seeping through their clothes and soaking their skin, yet they were afraid. After what they had seen in Judgeford, they were sceptical about the safety of another house.

Will approached the wooden front door and tried the handle. It was stiff, but it
turned and the door evidently wasn’t locked. He knocked quietly on the door and waited. He couldn’t hear anything and turned to the others in the darkness.

“I’m going in.
Wait here. I’ll skirt around the house as fast as I can, upstairs and down. If I’m not back in five minutes...don’t wait for me, just move on.” Will pushed the door open and disappeared inside, flashing out of sight like a ghost.

As they waited outside in the yard, nobody spoke. Suzy listened as the rain fell on the gravel and the trees around them. She had tuned the rest of them out. Whe
n Will had gone inside the farmhouse, she had thought that someone should offer to go with him; that
she
should have gone with him. But nobody had spoken up. They had let him go in alone and she felt both guilty and relieved. He had sacrificed Wilfred to save himself and her. Now here he was again, putting himself in danger for the sake of others. She needed to thank him, tell him she was grateful he was here with her. What if he didn’t come out of the house though? Two minutes had already passed and there was no sign of him. Despite the cold temperature and her drenched clothes, she was sweating. A tough upbringing in Brooklyn had been nothing compared to this.

Suddenly Suzy heard a
series of low-pitched screeches and looked about for the source of the noise. It didn’t sound like the Deathless and if it had been a person they would’ve heard the footsteps on the gravel. It sounded more like a parrot.

“It’
s probably a Kakapo,” said Rasmus. “Nothing to worry about, my dear. It’s a nocturnal bird that was nearly brought to extinction. I’m not sure I have it right though. Josef would know.” Rasmus trailed off, remembering his old friend. Did his body still lie half-eaten in that cold cellar, or had the child consumed him? What if by disturbing the child, Josef’s body had time to reanimate? Rasmus felt queasy and tried to put the thought out of his head. Surely, that was not possible. It was hard to rid his mind of the image though; Josef’s mangled dead body lying there so still.

The front door opened and Suzy flinched as a hand appeared on the frame. A second
later, Will appeared.

“It’s safe. There’s no one here.”

Will held the door open and one by one, they filed in. As Suzy passed him, she looked at his eyes, trying to see if he was all right. She wanted him to talk to him, to check how he was feeling, but he didn’t see her. He was lost in thought, his blue eyes scanning the yard for trouble and the dead. Suzy carried on deeper into the house, following Kelly who was leading the way.

At the end, Tug stepped into the house, the last of the group to enter. Will put a hand against the opposite wall and blocked his path. Tug looked at him slowly.

“What?” Tug looked at Will defiantly.

Will stared back. “Thanks for your help back there, Tug.”

Tug smiled and shrugged. “You’re not going to make me feel guilty about Wilfred. He was checking out anyway and he would only slow us down. You did the right thing, letting him go. It’s all about survival now, mate.”

“Survival?
What about looking out for each other? What about your ethics, your morals? Who’s next, eh, Tug? You going to cut us all loose if it means saving your own skin?”

“Probably,” nodded Tug. He gripped Will’s arm and he relinquished, letting Tug inside. “So should you. I’m not here to make enemies, Will. This is a survival test now, pure and simple.” Tug walked into
the house. “And shut the door.”

Will slammed the front door and closed the latch. It wouldn’t hold up against many if the Deathless found them, but it would give them some time to find another way out. Will rested with his back against the door for a moment. He didn’t want to join the rest while he was still ang
ry. He had been ready to pound Tug into the ground, but he knew he was only half-angry with Tug. He was angry with himself as much. He had left Wilfred to die. He hadn’t even thought about Josef. He had only thought about how he and Suzy were going to get out of there. If they were going to get through this ordeal, he was going to have to stay sharp. Tug had proven adept at handling the situation so far, but Will didn’t trust him. There was no doubt that if it came to it, Tug would put himself before anyone else on this failed expedition. Will wondered how he would react if put into a tight corner. Would he let Kelly or Rasmus die to save himself? Would he let Tricia or Claire die? Suzy?