The Grave: A Zombie Novel (30 page)

“Shit,” said Mark racing ahead of Kelly brandishing his knife. Nothing
raced out of the undergrowth though, so he slowly crept forward to see what it was. Kelly, Suzy and Roach were right behind him.

A
woman, her body almost entirely obscured form the road by the tall grass, was pinned to the ground by a road sign. A rusted metal pole with a circular head showing the number eighty protruded from the dead woman’s abdomen. Unable to get up, the Deathless woman had lain there for years. Someone had deliberately left it there, deliberately skewering the woman to the ground. The body had wasted away and the skin had peeled back from its face. The woman’s jaw was twitching, teeth clacking together as they stepped closer.

“Jesus
,” whispered Mark. The woman’s arms and legs flailed uselessly and she looked like an upturned beetle trying to get on its legs again. The ravaged fingers clawed at the ground and even its own guts to get free, but the dead woman was too weak.

“Look at the
bird feathers and bones around its neck. I guess it must have eaten anything that got too inquisitive.” Kelly had overcome her shock and stood beside Mark. “Leave it. Take it as a warning to watch your step. All of you.”

As Kelly and Roach walked off down the road, Suzy peered over Mark’s shoulder and turned her nose up at the foulness permeating the air. “I hope
she was dead before she got stuck with that sign in her guts,” she said coldly.

Mark left the woman as he’d found her, just another husk littering the roadside. He had to believe she had already turned before she
was trapped in the ground like that. Self-defence; that was all it had been. He had been to many dangerous parts of the world and seen some terrible things, and this was right up there with the worst of them.

Suzy waited, staring into the murky water as the others walked on ahead. She fumbled in her pockets and pulled out a small plastic bottle. She unclicked the cap and threw two of the
paracetamol into her mouth, remembering how she had given some to Claire last night. There were still four left and she rattled them around their lonely container. Suzy looked around, making sure the others were not watching her and then bent down, scooping the plastic tub through the infected pond water. She sloshed it around, letting the bloody water and Aqua-Gene soak into the tablets. Then she drained the water out, replaced the cap, and shoved it back into her pocket.

Suzy smiled as she hurried to catch the others up. No one else would understand. Nobody needed to know. She had felt so helpless watching Will die. Now she felt bolder. She fingered the rattling tub in her jacket pocket, making sure it was tucked down deep. When she got back to New
York, she planned on meeting up with President Agnew. One way or another, he deserved a little present for what he’d done to them, her and to Will.

A
s they made their way onward, the road edged uphill slightly. Mark looked across to the west as they rounded a bend and the houses that had grown to be such a familiar sight receded. Fertile pasture gave way to a muddy patch of land where nothing grew. Almost a straight line had been carved into the earth dividing the two. On one side, the grass was thick and dark green, growing freely and in abundance. He thought he could see patches of colour where roses grew and ferns reached up from the rich soil. On the other side of the line, a barren stretch ran for miles, utterly devoid of life as far as he could see. It was littered with the bones of the weak and the dead. Aphids and musk-flies danced deliriously over the ruinous, desolate graveyard. The atrophied land was cold and dark despite the glorious sunshine overhead.

“What is that?” said Mark
to Kelly as they walked. She pointed at the line in the earth.

“You really want to know?”
Kelly kicked a gigantic beetle off her shoe that had crept up unnoticed. It could be infected and she couldn’t take any chances. She ground it beneath her feet leaving nothing but a black sticky splodge on the tarmac and two feebly twitching antennae.

Mark nodded and Kelly
explained. “This is one of those places I read about, I’m sure of it. Before The Grave became what it is today, the infected were put down. There was no cure, no way of dealing with them, and no one else wanted them. So they were...executed is the best word, I guess. A hundred thousand people had been slain in the first week and they were buried in massive pits outside the city’s boundaries. They just scooped them up, dropped them in, and covered them up. There were rumours that some of the Deathless were put in the pits as they were. Just rounded up and buried alive. Now the land is as dead as the people buried beneath it are. Nothing grows on it, not a tree, a plant; not even a solitary weed. Technically, there’s no reason why the ground shouldn’t be able to support life.”

“It’s in mourning,” said
Suzy. “If you ask me the earth knows of the dead in its bowels and the terrible things that went on here. I doubt anything will ever grow there again. Who knows how many people are buried beneath the surface. Their bones and tissue would’ve meshed with the dirt now, making it soiled, barren, and infected. Even the weeds that sprouted there have died. You can’t even see moss growing on the rocks. Nothing could take purchase in such poisonous
filth
.” Suzy spat out the last word, as if the earth’s very presence offended her.

Kelly was as surprised at Suzy’s outburst as much as the fact she was speaking at all.
“That’s one version certainly. But even weeds need something viable to put their roots into. Maybe the ground was already barren and cannot stimulate or support growth. The soil might have been disturbed and just lost its minerals and nutrients. Don’t dwell on it, Suzy. We should keep moving.”

“Have you taken everything in, really?” Suzy stared straight ahead as she spoke. “The wild weather, the houses that are just derelict shells now, homes and belongings forgotten, photos and family heirlooms left behind in the rush to leave. The Grave has claimed everything. It has assumed an identity of its o
wn now. I think it has an aura of death and devastation. There is a strange conflict going on, I’ll give you that. There is bountiful vegetation in places and certainly, some exotic plants are thriving. Yet alongside this, all evidence that man once lived here is dying. Only corpses and death remain. The Grave pulls you in, doesn’t it? You try and you try but you can’t escape.” Suzy saw Will in her mind, spewing blood, and walked away.

Mark felt hollow. Suzy had cut right through the bullshit. The Grave was
pulling them all in, slowly and inexorably. “We’re going to die here, aren’t we.” He didn’t mean it as a genuine question; he was just thinking aloud.

“Fuck that,” said Kelly
, turning away from the desolate vista and resuming her path toward the city. “Suzy has her own issues right now, but don’t fall apart on me too, Mark.”

He hurried to keep up with Kelly, keeping Suzy and Roach in sight just up ahead.
He admired Kelly’s spirit, even though he was finding it hard to find that same resolution to keep going.

Kelly wiped the sweat from her face. The heat was becoming unbearable. There was no breeze or wind to offer any respite, no shade from the intense sun. “
You ever head of the Brugmansia flower? It has beautiful, fragrant flowers, yet it is also very toxic. You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but it contains hyoscyamine, potentially lethal to animal life. You eat some of the leaves and you are going to be ill. You might feel like dying, you might
want
to die, but it’s not a given. There is no certainty, Mark. You can live. We can live. Understand? But you have to want it. Suzy is suffering right now, but she’ll pull through. She can’t see much of a future I suppose. She’s thinking about the here and now. But I’m not giving up. The Grave hasn’t beaten us yet.”

As the sun beat down on them, they passed more signs for the city’s suburbs and the heat began to take its toll. They had exhausted their limited water supply and the walk became monotonous and dreary. They had not seen any sign of life since passing the
woman pinned down by the road sign a few miles back. There were no Deathless, no birds, no bugs, nothing, and even the vegetation was thinning out. Tall trees and thick bushes were replaced by low-lying scrub and weeds. The heat was merciless and their pace slowed without intention. Resolute, they trudged on. The city was still not in sight. Occasional rusted signs told them they were headed in the right direction, but the highway was slow going. The heat bounced off the hot tarmac and they frequently had to navigate their way past crashed cars and broken down trucks.

Roach began to wonder if Stella would welcome him home. They had been married for ten years before he had been whisked away
from her by Agnew’s men that terrible night. Had she believed the lies? Had Agnew convinced her that her husband had been a terrorist who had fled the country, sullying the family name and abandoning his family? Of his son, Bobby, he couldn’t begin to think how it had affected him. He had grown up without a father. If he came face to face with him again, would they even recognise each other now? Roach knew he had a lot of bridges to mend when he got home. As much as he wanted to face Agnew, Roach knew he could leave the others to get the truth out about him, he didn’t doubt that. Only he could try to repair his relationship with his family.

Kelly, Suzy and Mark t
ried to ignore the oppressive air by entertaining themselves with their own thoughts.

Mark kept planning his story and how he was going to break the news to the world that The Grave was not what they thought it was; that their president was at the heart of this rotten corrupted fabrication.

Kelly tried not to plan too far ahead. If Roach was telling them the truth, then Agnew had to pay. Everyone who collaborated with him to cover this up should pay. The truth
had
to get out. She began thinking about what they would do when they reached the embassy. Would they find countless undead blocking their way to safety or would luck be on their side for once? Would they manage to get to the helicopter or would they be shot down in cold blood by a ruthless military? She tried to picture herself back in New York and she couldn’t do it. All she could picture was her dead friends and colleagues, Tricia and Will in particular. She would fight with her last breath to get off this island. There had been enough dying in the last couple of days.

Suzy wallowed in pity, not looking for sympathy, but unable to lift her thoughts above the gloom of seeing Will dead. How could she have a future without him? His death had been so pointless. She could tell Kelly was on a mission now, a crusade to avenge his death and all the deaths their expedition had suffered. Kelly was stronger than
she was, no doubt about it. Suzy had always considered herself strong and tough. She told everyone she had been raised by her streetwise brothers in Brooklyn and whilst that was true, she really used it as a cover story to hide how scared she felt sometimes. Now look at her; the truth was that when the shit hit the fan, she crumbled. She hadn’t had to deal with death in a long time. Her grandmother had passed when she was small, and since then, she had managed to avoid it. No friends or family had passed, and she had certainly never lost a loved one before. Her relationship with Will was in its infancy, but she knew it was headed for long term. He had been special and now when she remembered that kiss they had shared, it was tainted with the image of his dead body walking toward her.

Maybe Kelly
was right. She knew she had to get back and expose Agnew. However, right now, she didn’t have the energy for anything. Not even tears. One minute at a time. One day after another. Eventually, something would figure itself out. She fingered the small plastic bottle in her pocket. She would just wait.

SIXTEEN

A smell of rotting flesh wafted over the gentle breeze and made Mark’s eyes water. He held his hand over his mouth. “Where is
that
coming from?”

They had recently passed a turnoff to a place called
Johnsonville and the road was veering on a downward gradient, still winding through green hills adorned with houses. Power lines ran along the length of the road and there were assorted bird’s nests clogging the now defunct wires. In the middle of the road up ahead were several abandoned diggers and trucks forming a roadblock. A swarm of flies like a dirty cloud hung low over them. The air was thick, hot and stifling.

T
he smell of meat clung to their sweaty, sticky skin. They all put their hands over their mouths and noses, trying to avoid the nasty smell as it enveloped them. As they passed the roadblock, the direction of the wind changed and the smell dissipated. They paused to look back but they all wished they hadn’t.

A pile of bodies was in the centre of the road, hidden behind the excavation trucks. It was at
least fifty deep and spilled out to the far side of the road, over the median strip and into grassland beyond. There was no way to tell if the pile of bodies had been amassed with any clear intention in mind and it was impossible to see if the people had been eaten or killed.

“Do you think they were infected?” asked
Mark.

“I’d forgotten about this,” said Roach. “It was so many years ago.
I passed this on my way out of the city. I’ve no idea if they were killed before they turned or not. I didn’t take much interest. It doesn’t matter now, I suppose.”