Six Days With the Dead (27 page)

‘
Ok, it was a good idea, I’ll give you that,’ Charlie said smiling, as he hoisted the box up into the cart. ‘I feel like Father Christmas.’ 

Liz and Imran looked
down at the haul in front of them, only half remembering what many of the things were. There were some tins of fruit, a large jar of Marmite, four packets of freeze dried noodles, some dried packet pasta-in-sauce, two boxes of chocolate cake mix, some shampoo,  a bottle of thick bleach, washing detergent, six cans of fizzy soft drink and the jewel of the find as far as Charlie was concerned, four cans of lager.

‘
Wow,’ Liz said, picking up the bottle of shampoo.

Turning so it caught the light, she watched a
n air bubble slowly rise to the surface through the thick emerald green liquid. Flicking open the lid, she inhaled deeply, filling her nose with the fresh herby smell.

‘
Now I really can’t wait to get home and shower,’ she continued, laying the bottle down with care, like it was a fragile child.

‘
Well, with all the crap we’ve had to deal with, I think we deserve a little treat,’ Charlie said, offering a can of lager to Liz and Imran. They both refused, preferring to have a can of soft drink each. With a blast of escaping fizz, all three cans were opened. 

‘
Cheers,’ Charlie said taking a gulp of his lager, soon followed by a burp and a sigh of pleasure.

‘
Ah… that’s the stuff alright. I’d forgotten how good it tasted,’ he said taking another glug.

Liz sipped
her fizzy drink, savouring the sweet fruity taste as it washed over her tongue. Placing his can down, Charlie reached for a tin of fruit in syrup. He tried a few times to remove the ring-pull lid but it was difficult with only one hand, so he passed it to Imran to do the honours.

‘
Peaches!’ Imran said, raising an eyebrow at Liz.

The golden peach halves sitting in their tin of syrup, seemed to glow in the dim light of the cart. Charlie quickly found three plastic forks stashed in a rucksack and handed them
round. Once each of them had speared a peach half on their fork, they took a bite. The taste was amazing and as warm flavour exploded inside their mouths, Liz remembered sitting in front of the television in her dressing gown, eating tinned peaches with evaporated milk, while behind her on the sofa her heavily pregnant mother knitted a hat for the then unborn baby Anne. Thinking of Anne, she was immediately flooded with guilt. She shouldn’t be sitting here enjoying herself when who knows what, could be happening at the convent.

‘
We should get going,’ she said, ‘we can eat these just as easily on the move.’

Agreeing with her, Charlie turned back
around and flicking Delilah’s reins they set off again. Every so often he would take a sip from his can of lager, savouring each precious mouthful, until finally it was gone.

‘
You know, I think sister Rebecca should make up one of the cake mixes when we get back, I can’t wait to see Anne’s face when she first tastes chocolate cake,’ Charlie chuckled to himself.

Finding
the old world food, not to mention the precious medical supplies, had lifted their spirits. The gloom that had descended on those in the cart since leaving Cawsands Bay had evaporated, to be replaced with a growing need to be among those they cared about as soon as possible. They needed to feel the safety that living behind the high convent walls gave them. There, they could shut out the horrors of the real world, if only for an instant. All those inside knew the little world they had created for themselves was nothing more than a happy illusion. An illusion that would shatter the moment they climbed up on to the walkway to see the world beyond, but it was an illusion they all needed. You just could not live your whole life with adrenalin pumping through your veins, always looking over your shoulder in case a walking corpse had found you. So with each corner they passed, and with each lane they travelled, the excitement grew within them. They soon re-joined the blocked road on the other side and were back on track. The delay the fallen tree had cost them had been much outweighed by the booty their detour had provided.

‘
Sometimes what he takes with one hand he gives with another,’ Imran said once they were going in the correct direction again. ‘We never would have found that ambulance if the way hadn’t been blocked.’

‘
My Man, the philosopher,’ Liz said to herself smiling, as she kept an eye on the passing countryside.

‘
Well, there’s more to me than my stunning good looks and sexual prowess,’ he said turning his head in profile, striking a pose.

At that precise moment Ratbag chose to release her bladder.

Laughing, Liz said, ‘one if you is taking the piss, hard to tell which though.’

‘
Very funny,’ Imran said, returning to look out of an eye hole, a fake sulky look on his face.

****

For the next few miles, Liz and Imran exchanged friendly insults and jibes. The type of insults that could only come from someone that loved you and knew was loved in return. No malice or hidden meaning was inferred, it was more a way to pass the time and with each hour that passed, the convent became just that bit closer. The morning soon became afternoon, as the miles passed beneath them without incident or any sign of the Dead. Occasionally, they heard the distant barking of dogs, echoing through the countryside as they gave chase to a meal. They would never know if their quarry had screamed as the pack descended upon it or just let out a Dead moan. Liz prayed the scene they had witnessed in the field was not being replayed again, and somewhere a living person wasn’t fighting for their life against a hungry pack. But the barking soon faded to be replaced by the call of the birds and the slow, rhythmic creaking of the cart as Delilah pulled them home. 

As the afternoon wore on
the sky ahead began to darken as the angry clouds, creeping across the sky from the west, forewarned of the heavy downpour to come.

‘
Hope we get back before that breaks,’ Charlie said, glancing up at the block of slate grey coming their way, ‘but knowing our luck on this trip, I doubt it.’

They had just begun to pass a few dilapidated cottages when Liz recognised one of the small abandoned homes.

‘I know where we are,’ she said excitedly. ‘We’re pulling into the village with the bus crashed on the village green. It’s not that far to St Mawgan village, the Raven Inn, Jackson and then home.’ Counting each signpost off on her fingers as she named them, Liz then grabbed Imran’s shirt, pulling him roughly towards her to plant a kiss on his lips.

‘
Almost home,’ she said, her mouth barely leaving his as her lips formed the words.

Sure enough
, Delilah soon pulled them onto one of the small roads that ran along the side of the green, its crashed provincial school bus a testament to the unnatural horrors that had visited this quiet placed so many years ago. The dark slate clouds had caught up with them now, blanketing the whole sky with rumbling storm clouds. With the sun cut off by the thick cloud cover, the village was now bathed in a gloomy half-light. Colour seemed to vanish from the scene, as everything became painted in shades of dusty grey. Above their heads the clouds seem to roll and bubble, it would not be long before they could hold their torrent no longer.

‘
I don’t think we’re going to outrun this,’ Imran said.

With hardly any light now coming into the cart, they sat in near darkness. To the west a low rumbling began, ominously increasing in volume as more and more of the heavy c
louds collided into each other. Then without warning, there was a violent crash of thunder directly above them, followed immediately by another flash of lightening that streaked wild electricity across the sky. Startled by the sudden loud noise and light, Delilah reared up, neighing in fear as she bucked her head back and forth.

‘
Whoa girl, easy, easy…’ Charlie said, trying to calm Delilah down before she bolted into a gallop.

If she did
, the cart wheels would surely be damaged on the uneven broken road surface. Inside the cart, Delilah’s motion knocked them back and forth. Stinky and Ratbag squealed angrily as they were buffeted around in their little crate, while Liz and Imran had to brace themselves against the sides of the cart. Then within a few seconds, the first few heavy drops hit the ground, each throwing up a tiny cloud of dust in their wake as they landed. Soon the few became many and then the heavy rain was falling in such a deluge they could barely see a few metres ahead of themselves. Potholes quickly began to fill, while blocked and broken gutters on buildings sprayed collected water over paths and overgrown gardens alike. Falling in sheets, the heavy drops pounded noisily against the cart’s roof and even began to drip through onto the occupants inside. Eventually Charlie managed to calm Delilah, though she still swung her head and stamped her hooves in annoyance. Finally, he managed to encourage her to move onward again and once more Liz was thankful for Delilah’s temperament. Many a startled horse had broken free of its harness before, to gallop away leaving those in the cart stranded and in danger. She may have reared in fear at first but Liz knew Delilah trusted Charlie and his soothing tone had quickly calmed her down enough to be able to get back to work.

The dim light and the pouring rain were making it diff
icult for Charlie to determine which of the puddles were really the water filled potholes and on more than one occasion the cart leaned sharply to one side as a wheel dipped into one. At least at the pace they were moving this jarring motion was less likely to damage the wheel but it was a chance Charlie didn’t like to take, especially so far from the Convent. Half an hour later, the storm still raged on. Above them, rain fell, thunder rumbled and the darkness was ripped apart by the arcs of lightning shooting across a blackened sky. At least they had left the small village green far behind them now and were one step closer to home. In her head Liz was mentally jumping through the visual landmarks they would pass on their way, ticking them off one by one as they came upon them. A particular car wreck on a corner, a twisted tree that looked like a screaming woman, the gate on a field with the faded painted letters ‘GG’ on the cross bar, all were mentally ticked off her list as Delilah took them nearer and nearer to St Mawgan village.

An hour later and the downpour still hadn
’t let up, the rain a constant drumming on the cart roof, while above them the dark clouds rumbled. It would not be long before they reached the outskirts of St Mawgan and Liz was itching to get home.

‘
For God’s sake,’ Imran said, trying to position himself out from underneath a constant drip falling down his neck, ‘this is storm’s bad one. Do you think the harvest in the fields will be ruined?’

‘
Sister Claire will have to take a look in the morning,’ Charlie said. ‘The whole Convent may have to go out in the fields tomorrow if she says we have to salvage the grain and potato harvest before they rot.’

‘
Oh, that’ll be fun,’ Imran said sarcastically, ‘back breaking work, ankle deep in mud, can’t wait.’

‘
Well, if we want to eat bread or have potatoes through the winter, we don’t have much choice,’ Liz said, as she absentmindedly scratched Stinky behind the ear.

Ratbag, who seemed to have now got used to her new human companions
, tried to push Stinky out of the way to nuzzle at Liz's hand herself. Glancing down at the two piglets, now squabbling for her attention, Liz reached into the crate with her other hand to give Ratbag a scratch too. Now that she was leaning low over the crate her head was in line with one of the open spy holes. So, as she gave the piglets the scratching they craved, she watched the rain drenched scenery pass by. It was still quite dark outside and she couldn’t see far, so when they passed a small turning, she had to quickly move to another spy hole to make sure she had seen correctly.

‘
Stop!’ she shouted grabbing the back of Charlie’s jacket.

A swift tug on the reins and Delilah was brought to a halt.

‘What? What is it?’ Imran said, moving from eye hole to eye hole trying to see what she had seen.

‘
I saw a horse and cart down the last turning. They were sat there not moving, parked under a large tree’ she replied, looking from Charlie to Imran.

‘
Sheltering from the rain or waiting in ambush?’ Charlie said scratching his chin. ‘That’s the question.’

‘
Well, we can back Delilah up to the turning. You and Liz check them out and I’ll keep you covered from here,’ Imran said, reaching for his bow. ‘Although, with this heavy rain, like at the Substation, I can’t guarantee on my aim… but they won’t know that.’

‘
Right, looks like we’re about to get very wet very quickly,’ Charlie said, as he opened one of the side hatches.

Jumping down to the road, he was drenched almost immediate
ly. Taking Delilah by her bridle, he led her in a tight circle so they could go back the few metres to where the other road joined theirs. Once the cart was in position, Imran opened the top hatch to give fire cover for Liz and Charlie while they walked to the stationary strangers. Liz, giving up trying to wipe the dripping water from her face, concentrated on the vehicle in front of them. There was a strange sound coming from the cart but each time she thought she could identify it, the wind would howl past them, snatching the sound away. Like their own, the cart was a basic box on wheels pulled by a horse. The poor beast looked like it was on its last legs. It stood forlornly with its head down, rain water dripping from its muzzle and mane. Unlike their own cart though, this one had some sort of strange decoration on its walls. Not until they got closer, could Liz see that nailed to the outside were strings of rosary beads and crucifixes in various sizes. They had seen this sort of thing before. People desperate to appease a harsh and angry God, would go to the extremes in their desire to show their faith. Many of these Zealots thought that the Dead were a test and all they had to do was keep the faith and they would survive this trial. But Liz had seen many a devout man soon lose his conviction when Dead teeth began to rip them to pieces and pull out their organs. God had never intervened in the fate of Man before, so why would he now. She never understood why these people thought it would be different this time, just because the Dead had come back.