Thirteen Roses Book Three: Beyond: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (5 page)

It felt like she’d been kicked by a horse and she shouted in pain, grabbing the wounded leg and bending over it.
 

‘Help me, Christ.’

She looked up and grimaced. Bayleigh still clung to the creature as it twisted and squirmed in her grasp, feet kicking above the ground. It would have been comical if its face hadn’t been so terrible. It gnashed its teeth and twisted, breaking free of Bayleigh’s hand. She held the other shoulder for a moment before dropping it entirely.
 

The beast landed on both feet and bounced, coming straight at Krystal. She raised her feet and booted it in the face as it came at her. Its tiny nose cracked and split apart and her stomach turned over as blood sprayed from it onto her legs. It landed on its hooves and stood still for a moment, going cross eyed as it tried to look at its nose.
 

Krystal lashed out, kicking it as hard as she could in the face. Something gave way as it flew back. It struck Bayleigh where she stood frozen, staring at it, and knocked her backwards. The impact stopped the creature and it swayed on its feet. Krystal clambered up and took a step closer.
 

It was suddenly pathetic, this tiny being flailing its arms before its ruined face. She swallowed and tried to focus on its claws and the teeth that were obscured by the torn flesh. It was a zombie, baby or not. She swung her foot and smashed the creature in the side of the head.
 

Its temple caved in. The toe of her boot drove straight through it and emerged from its forehead covered in the grey sludge of its brain.
 
It stiffened and dropped and Krystal joined it, falling onto her arse with a sob. She couldn’t take her eyes off the rotting matter stuck to the toe of her boot so she kicked and waved it around, sending tiny specks of brain flying off into the darkness.
 

Bayleigh crept closer, staring at the corpse with her lips pressed hard together.
 

‘It was a baby.’

Krystal nodded. ‘Yeah. Where’s Ed?’

‘I’m here, I’m alright. Think I got knocked out for a moment.’ Ed emerged from the dark, blood smeared down his face from a gash in his forehead. Bayleigh rushed to him and pulled a tissue from her pocket. She pressed it against his head and muttered soothing words. Krystal smiled as her thoughts were drawn away from the corpse lying on the floor.
 

Ed sat with a bump beside her, moaning and shaking his head slowly. ‘God, what happened?’

Krystal nodded at the tiny body. ‘We were attacked by the zombie devil child.’

‘Oh. Nasty.’

‘Yeah. But hey, it’s dead and we’re not.’

Bayleigh sat opposite them, a look of bemusement on her face. ‘How do you do that?’

‘Do what?’

‘Be so calm. That thing is…’ She shuddered and turned away, squeezing her eyes closed. Krystal patted her on the shoulder. ‘There’re zombies outside. Don’t think it matters much what they look like. They’re zombies. I mean, zombies, you know?’

Bayleigh nodded but Krystal wasn’t convinced she got what she was saying. That thing was beyond horrible, but it was still a zombie. Zombies weren’t as scary as people like Dawid, or the never ending fear of not knowing where you were going to sleep, or what might happen to you when you did.

She looked across the cavern at the church huddled within a narrowing pool of light. She did feel calm and she knew why now. The lady sitting beside her was twice her age and had a job and a house and all those sorts of things, but now they were equal. All those things didn’t matter anymore. Now it was just you versus the zombies and being homeless meant nothing.
 

It was a good feeling. Aside from the zombies.
 

Another of the torches flared and went out and the darkness crowded in like commuters on the tube.
 

‘We should get out, back to the hospital.’

Bayleigh nodded and rose to her feet, shaking herself. Ed stood and staggered a little then stopped himself. ‘I’m alright, I’m alright.’

Krystal looked over his head and found a gash just above his forehead, buried by his hair. It looked nasty and was rising into a lump but the bleeding had stopped. ‘You sure?’

‘Yeah. We should go.’

They took a few steps toward the exit when another of the torches went and there was complete blackness between them and the exit. Krystal took a few more steps before she began to question whether she was heading in the right direction.
 

‘Is anyone sure we’re going in the right direction?’

Mumbles met her and she stopped. ‘Hold on. We could wander for bloody hours in here.’

‘We need to get out.’

‘I know but I’m not convinced we’re going to manage it.’

The entire cavern was pitch black save for lights flickering in the stained glass windows of the miniature St Paul’s. She nodded towards it and realised they probably couldn’t see her. ‘How about we go in there and check it out? Maybe we could take a torch or something.’

‘Yeah, good call.’ Ed said.

‘Bayleigh?’
 

‘I just think we need to get out.’

‘Yeah, but what if we miss the exit, what if we walk into the wall an—’

‘I’m still facing the right direction, I think I can find it pretty easy.’

‘But if you don’t we’re screwed. And—’

‘We aren’t screwed, we just follow the wall until we find it.’

‘But what if there’s other tunnels? What if we find one that takes us away from the exit?’

‘I’m going to the church thingy, come on.’ Ed set off without another word and Bayleigh hissed.
 

‘I’m staying with him, sorry.’ Krystal said, ‘Come on, we can get a torch and it’ll be fine.’

Bayleigh grumbled but followed her to the church. As they drew nearer, the stained glass windows became easier to see. Bayleigh groaned like she was in pain and Krystal saw her shake her head and put her hands around it. The pictures in the windows were different from the ones upstairs. They showed people being hung and chopped up and torn apart by horses and all sorts of really revolting things.
 

‘They’re nasty.’

‘They’re horrific. They’re terrible, horrible things. I can’t believe anyone would make a church with those things in the window.’

‘How many churches have you been in?’ This came from Ed who’d stopped to stare at the windows. ‘My parents made me go every week and the vicar would always be going on and on about punishment in hell and all the nasty ways they could punish you.’

‘How old were you?’

‘Oh, it’s like, my earliest memories. I remember him better than my parents. He had this nose that had weird lumps poking out of it, like he’d stuffed things up there.’

Ed shivered and stomped round to the front of the cathedral. The steps up were just the same as above, only smaller and shallower. They jumped up them, craving the light that came from within, but paused outside the doorway.
 

Bayleigh took Krystal’s arm before she could enter. ‘Hold on, let me just check.’

She went past and peered through the doorway. After a minute, she waved a hand and they crept in, heading straight to one side into the shadows. The pews were normal size and there was room for about ten rows before the altar. Behind the altar was a machine the size of a car and Krystal stared open-mouthed. It was about the coolest thing she’d ever seen.
 

Bayleigh muttered something about staying close but there was nobody here, so Krystal set off down one side of the church, keeping to the shadows and keeping quiet. She sneaked around behind the altar and looked closer at the machine. Bayleigh’s voice hissed through the church.
 

‘Krystal, be careful.’

She was nice, but the paranoia was becoming a drag. She waved a hand to indicate no evil soldiers had killed her yet and knelt beside the machine. Fans whirred and lights blinked on and off. It looked sort of like a bunch of vending machines held together with tiny scaffolding. But the scaffolding was wrapped in hundreds of wires that ran between the machines.
 

Ed joined her and they crept slowly around the machine. There were plenty of lights but no buttons of any sort, which was a shame. This was almost certainly owned by the soldiers and the chance to screw with them would be amazing. They got most of the way round before they found the instruction manual.
 

It hung on a thin chain from one of the steel rods and she and Ed exchanged a grin before she picked it up and had a look.
 

She got as far as the title.
 

‘Pheromones enhancer and blending systems

Instruction and maintenance manual.

Property of MOD.’

Then Bayleigh arrived, huffing and puffing. ‘What is it?’

Krystal waved the manual at her. ‘Something to do with pheromones. Didn’t Luke say that’s what the safety devices ran on?’

Bayleigh nodded and dropped to her knees behind them. They began to read the manual and had just got past the safety instructions when they heard the voice.

‘I don’t expect to be bothered, not unless it is absolutely essential.’
 

He sounded very posh and very annoyed.
 

‘I know, master and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have come if we didn’t deem it worthy of your attention. But Etienne was determined you should know.’

‘Well, go on then, what is it?’

‘One of the test subjects, your honour, was impregnated.’

‘Impregnated? By whom?’

‘Actually, it’s by what. It was a demon.’

‘A demon?’

‘Yes, your honour.’

‘I see. This does rate my attention, well done.’

The voices were coming from below their feet and Krystal glanced around as they grew louder. There were a series of metal grates down the centre of the church and she saw light travelling along beneath them, heading for the exit. The voice sounded again.
 

‘We have some unwanted visitors in here. Let me deal with them and I’ll come straight up after.’

Krystal gasped and realised how loud her voice was in the silence of the church. Bayleigh gripped her arm and waved at the front door. They started running down the aisle but took only a few steps when the grate nearest the front door exploded from the floor. A dark black cloud emerged and billowed out to fill the space.
 

Luke

Luke led them around the back of the tent. It was quieter here. The soldiers were far too busy trying to hunt the child to worry about the two of them. They reached the corner of the canvas and spotted another, smaller tent near the front of the church.
 

They dashed past it, reached the wall and the shadow that lay upon it, and crept towards the door. No one stood guard. Back in the gloom of the church, Luke saw the soldiers formed into a semi-circle and closing slowly in on something. He couldn’t see the child but it didn’t stand much of a chance. Not against guns. Az was tough but even he wasn’t impervious to bullets.
 

That started off a chain of thought that made him pause. Was Az mortal now? Demons were mixed in terms of their longevity. Some were as long-lived as angels and a few had been around almost as long as him. Others came and went, lasting a couple of centuries before they crumbled away to nothing.
 

Az was in the former camp. He’d been in hell when Luke got there and done a sterling job until the Father closed it all up. It would take a lot to kill him. The usual things like a volcano or complete dismemberment and disemboweling would do it, but holding him down long enough would be a challenge. Had that changed now? Had the Father taken that from him when he’d sent him to Earth?

He hadn’t taken his reproductive capabilities, which was a surprise in itself. Half the demons in the Flights were neutered and it was a good thing. They reproduced faster than they talked and, given a couple of weeks and some randy succubi or faelings, the place would be overrun.
 

He blinked when Alex nudged him in the back. ‘Are we leaving or enjoying the carving.’

He raised his eyes from the floor and threw a smile at Alex. Despite his complete stupidity in creating the damn disease in the first place, Luke was beginning to enjoy his company. Enjoy was possibly a strong word, but he no longer loathed him. He struggled to see humans as anything more than subjects, a long line of jobs that need to be completed. But things were different now. He wasn’t going to use the word ‘friend’ anytime soon, but he was at least glad he was stuck with Alex and not David or Jackson.
 

He groaned. He had to keep them alive. They were both somewhere in here and he had no idea where, but if either of them died he was screwed. He clenched his fists and cursed the Father. There was a time, not along ago, when a curse from him would destroy a life. Now it meant less than the wind upon which it was carried.
 

‘We’re leaving. But we need to come back for the others.’

Alex grunted and followed him to the doorway. They peered out in time to see three trucks rumble up Fleet Street and park back outside Tesco. The soldiers climbed down and a figure without a gas mask was yanked from the back of one. He recognised David and put his head in his hands.
 

‘You didn’t want to make this easy, did you?’ Luke said.

‘He can’t hear you.’

‘The Father can.’

‘Ah.’

Two of the soldiers approached the cathedral, dragging David between them. Luke shoved Alex back into the shadows. The dim lighting was a blessing and they remained near enough the entrance to hear the soldiers talking as they strode in.
 

‘…Bastard still trashed one of the trucks.’

‘Doesn’t matter. The leader’s gonna want him to work out why he survived.’

‘Bloody creepy if you ask me. What sort of person could survive that nasty shit?’

‘With you on that. I’m sure they’ll let…’

The voices drifted away as they headed deeper into the cathedral. Luke pulled Alex back to the door and they peered out. The soldiers were milling around the trucks and paying no attention to the cathedral. Luke slipped out and behind one of the huge pillars that fronted the church. He paused to watch the soldiers.