Six Days With the Dead (21 page)

****

As the tree line closed behind them, Charlie and Imran soon got used to following the path that nature had begun to reclaim. Like many things, once they knew what they were looking for, it was easy to see. Using the largest gap between the trees as an indicator to the original path’s route, they walked slowly deeper into the wood. With every snap of a twig or rustle in the undergrowth, Charlie and Imran would pause, listen, and scan the area for danger.

‘
Well, it doesn’t look as if the Donaldson’s have been slack with their clean-up duties after all,’ Charlie whispered, after reacting once again to a false alarm, ‘Now let’s just hope they’re in the mood for guests.’

After about twenty minutes of their stop- start motion along the over grown path, Charlie and Imran came to a high wooden gate. Lichen and moss bloomed over the roughly nailed together surface, making Charlie think this entran
ce was rarely used. Running from the gate in both directions ran a six foot high wall of crawling ivy. Imran went over to the wall and brushed some of the ivy aside.

‘
Clever,’ he said.

It was clear that many years ago the Donaldsons had built a wall of in
terwoven branches, forming a screen that Imran assumed ran the whole perimeter of the lake they had created. Over time the woven screen had been used by the creeping ivy, so that it now resembled a solid wall of green leaves blocking off any sign of their island home. The Dead, not being able to see the island or any of the activity inside, would have no reason to push through the relatively fragile obstacle. Pushing aside a little more of the ivy, Imran made a small gap though which he could just about see what lay beyond. With his eye peering through the woven branches, Imran could see that the woodland ended abruptly a few metres from the screen. A thick carpet of high reeds and water grasses then led down to the dark lapping water of the large lake. Sitting in the middle of the lake, some forty metres from the shore was the island the Donaldson family had made their home. Looking like a metal fortress rising up from the water, the Donaldsons had surrounded the island shore of their home with tall sheets of rusting corrugated iron.

‘
Well at least it looks like someone’s home,’ Imran said, noticing a thin wispy trail of smoke rising in to the air from behind the iron wall, ‘So, how do we let them know we’re here?’

‘
Hmm.. not sure,’ Charlie said, ‘Last time someone was already here but from the looks of it they don’t use this gate very often, so perhaps there’s another way in?’

Imran had another look through the gap in the wall of ivy hoping to see some human activity. It wasn
’t until his eyes searched the shore line for another way in, that he noticed on the far side of the lake was a small row boat. Using the same principle as their covered cart, the boat had a wicker cover over it, making it look more like an upside-down floating basket. When a pair of thin looking arms began pulling a net up out of the water, he realised the boat had a passenger.

‘
Hey, there’s a small boat on the lake, and someone’s in it,’ Imran whispered to Charlie. ‘Don’t know how we’ll get their attention though.’

‘
You don’t need to be getting their attention arsehole, now fuck off!’ A gruff male voice said in a harsh tone from behind the ivy wall.

Imran and Charlie exchanged a surprised look. They had been caught
completely off guard. This person had managed to sneak up on them without making a sound.

‘
I must be slipping.’ Charlie thought to himself.

‘
Hello, is someone there?’ Charlie asked quietly, ‘It’s Sergeant Charlie Philips, I’m from the Lanherne Convent. Is that Mr Donaldson?’

‘
One of them. Now, Fuck off! We’ve got no food to spare and don’t want your company,’ the voice interrupted before Charlie could continue.

‘
How did you know we were here?’ Imran asked the disembodied voice, equally surprised that the man had caught them unawares.

‘
We’ve been watching you lumber through the wood like a herd of elephants since the three of you got to the main gate,’ the Donaldson voice replied. ‘Didn’t you see the sign? or are you fucking blind as well as stupid.’

Charlie had had enough of this. He was j
ust going to give them their warning and leave them to it.

‘
Look, as unpleasant as you lot are, I thought you should know there’s some psycho raiders in the area wiping out other outposts,’ Charlie said, realising this had been a total waste of time, ‘We were trying to warn you.’

‘
Well now you’ve told us, Piss off back to your Nuns.’ the voice replied and with barely a rustle of leaves they could tell the Donaldson man had gone.

That was all the interaction they were going to get with the strange family an
d Imran was glad of it.

‘
Ungrateful bastard,’ Imran grumbled ‘come on let’s get back to Liz. What a waste of time this has been’

T
urning, Charlie and Imran began the walk back to the main gate through the forest, wondering if they were still being watched by an unseen member of the Donaldson family. It wasn’t until they had been walking for ten minutes when Charlie stopped, a look of shocked realisation on his face.

‘
Shit! Run!’ He said, pulling Imran forward.

‘
What?’ Imran asked confused, as they began to run. Any care they had taken to be quiet now abandoned.

‘
He said he saw the three of us at the gate. They know we left Liz on her own,’ he replied, leaping over a small fallen tree. 

With those words
, Imran put on a burst of speed and over took Charlie. Horrific images of Liz, flitted through his mind, and he prayed none of them would come to pass.

****

As Liz drifted back to consciousness she could feel a strange tugging at her waist. Cotton wool filled her brain and her fingers tingled, but she knew she was alive for now and that was the main thing. She gently opened her eyes, the green leaves of the tree canopy high above her blurred in and out of focus. Trying to lift up her head a fraction, an explosion of pain almost made her black out again, dark shadows swimming at the sides of vision. To calm herself she slowed her breathing and without moving her head glanced down her chest. The man who had hit her was pulling at her belt, trying to undo her trousers. It didn’t take a genius to guess what he had in mind for her. Without alerting him to her now being awake she tried to move her arms slightly, but he had tied them tightly behind her. In fact the cord around her wrists dug deeply into her skin restricting the blood flow to her hands.

‘
At least that explains the numbness spreading up my fingers,’ she thought to herself.

Glancing to her left she could just make out the handle of her sword, too far out of reach even if she could move her hands. It was a sad fact but i
n this new world there were worse things than being raped. As long as she could stay conscious, Liz wouldn’t give up without a fight. The man, who she guessed was one of the Donaldson brothers, was fumbling with her belt buckle, his excitement affecting his dexterity.

‘
Come on you damn thing,’ he muttered to himself.

As he spoke
, Liz could smell his rancid breath, mingling with the stench of sweat and shit, just the thought of him even touching her spurred her into action. With his head so close to her waist, Donaldson didn’t see the knee that Liz jerked up with as much force as she could, until it slammed into the side of his head. With a yell he fell to the side, clutching his right ear. Liz fighting her body’s need to fall into darkness, pushed herself up on one elbow.

‘
You fucking bitch!’ he said, spitting with fury as he pushed her back down to the road.

With his face now inches from hers, she could see the madness in his eyes. This family had been on their own for far too long. Like a cancer, they had
fed on each other’s depravity, twisting the norm to suit their own desires. Liz desperately tried to reach the can of pepper spray she had put in her trouser leg pocket but as he pushed down on her she just couldn’t move her arms out from under her.

‘
Get off me you fucker!’ Liz spat in his face.

‘
You want me to cut you up a bit first, cunt?’ the man said, pulling a knife from his belt, ‘I don’t mind fucking you while you’re bleeding.’

The smile that spread over his filthy face made her want to gag. There w
as no point getting killed to stop him. She just had to pray Imran and Charlie would come back before he got bored with just rape, this one looked like he had other darker tastes. Using the knife to slice through her belt the Donaldson man began to pull down her trousers. Smiling with a crazy excitement, the man put his face down to her now exposed underwear. Liz tried in vain to squirm away, as he began nuzzling and smelling her through her knickers. With shaking hands he hooked his fingers through the band of her underwear, savouring the view as he slowly pulled the band lower.

‘
Fucking hell, come on Imran,’ Liz thought to herself.

Just then a shadow fell across the man
’s back. Too engrossed in undoing his own belt and fly with one filthy hand, while pawing Liz’s body with the other, he didn’t notice the figure now standing behind him. With the sun throwing the figure in silhouette, Liz was unable to see who it was but guessed Imran would not just be standing there if it was him. Then with a lurching motion the figure bent forward. Two Dead hands grasped the man’s shoulders from behind and before he could look around to see who it was, a Dead face fell on his neck. The Donaldson man tried desperately to push the Dead man off his back, but already its jaw was biting into the exposed flesh of his neck. The man let out a panicked high pitch scream as the Dead man’s head drew back, skin and flesh stretching and tearing. Blood splashed across Liz’s chest and face as the chunk of flesh was torn from the Donaldson brother’s neck forever. Wriggling even more frantically, Liz tried to push the hysterical man off her, before the Dead man, who had inadvertently come to her rescue, decided she looked good to eat too.  With a bucking motion from her hips, the brother rolled off her to the side taking the Dead man, who had gone in for a second bite, with him. The grappling pair came to a stop with the brother on top.

‘
You fucking piece of stinking shit!’ the brother yelled, repeatedly as he stabbed his knife into the dead man’s face over and over again.

Abruptly the Dead man
’s hands that had been reaching for the brother fell to the floor, now lifeless. Panting heavily, the Donaldson man sat back on his heels, the corpse beneath him. Looking to the sky above he screamed in rage, knowing his time in this world had been abruptly cut short. Suddenly rape was the lesser of two evils for Liz. The brother, bitten and losing a lot of blood would be dead in minutes. He would then come at her again but this time it would not be sex on his mind but her living flesh.

‘
Oh Christ…’ Liz said, in barely a whisper to herself.

Then out of the corner of her eye she caught some movement by the trees. Straining her head so she could see better, a wave of relief swept through her
, as Charlie & Imran crept over the gate. They encircled her to come up behind the man. When Imran caught her gaze she could see the pain and anger bubbling beneath the surface. She silently mouthed the word ‘bitten’ to him so he would know what he was dealing with. When Imran was only half a metre behind the Donaldson brother, his iron piped raised above his head, Charlie stepped out in front of the bitten man.

‘
We came to help you people and this is how you treat us, you fucker!’ Charlie said, anger bringing the blood to his face. ‘We should leave you so you can eat up the rest of that sick family of yours.’

The brother looked pale, the front of his t-shirt and trousers now completely red from the blood spilling through his fingers.

‘Fuck you!’ he managed to say through the gasps of pain, anger in his eyes.

‘
Hey Arsehole!’ Imran shouted from behind him.

The man turned his head slightly, his eyes bulging in pain while more of his blood was pumped from his body. Imran brought the pipe down with as much force
as he could muster.  With an audible crack the man’s skull broke, and when Imran pulled the pipe away a large section of the temple was crushed, caving inwards. Releasing one last long breath, the man fell forwards, dead, his bladder and bowels emptying slowly, to join his blood spreading over the road surface. Imran dropped the pipe and ran to Liz. Cradling her in his arms while Charlie gingerly moved some of her blood matted hair to see where the man had hit her. 

‘
I think you’ll live,’ Charlie said, with a reassuring smile, ‘but we need to get her in the cart and get out of here asap, we don’t want the rest of the Donaldson’s descending on us’

Slowly they helped Liz to her feet, and with a flick of a knife her arms were free to drape around their should
ers.

‘
I’ll be ok in a few minutes, I’m just dizzy that’s all and…’ but Liz’s words were cut short as the darkness enveloped her once again.