Clifton Falls (22 page)

TWENTY-SIX

Blake felt restless again as he sat in his living room. Karen sensed he was hiding something and in constant agony, but it wasn’t physical, it was inner pain, the pain you get when you’ve too much information stored inside your mind and haven’t released any of it. She walked by at least three times before deciding to question him about the matter. “What is it, Blake? Tell me what’s on your mind?”

The atmosphere was way too quiet for these two. Karen touched him on the shoulder and Blake became aware of her concern. “I don’t think this is the end of all the terrible things that’s gone on recently. I think there’s going to be more heartache and soon,” he spilled from his mouth.

His words did nothing to lessen Karen’s worry.

What happened while he was out with Shane? He’s acting completely different and it’s freaking me out
, she thought.
“You’re starting to scare me. Why are you thinking this?”
Blake covered his face with his hands. It was as if he were trying on a mask to hide the fact he was about to break down and cry. After a few more seconds the mask was removed, revealing the saddened looking husband.
“What if the fertilizer was washed down to the graveyard? Do you know how many bodies there are there that could come back to life and kill the living?”
Karen almost collapsed from the last few words. This was news to her. She sat before falling down. Her legs weakened to the point of her almost fainting.
“What are you going on about? Who’s going to come back to life?”
Blake realized what he said. He hadn’t planned on telling her what he’d heard, but he did.
Stupid man
, he thought.
“The police told Shane that dead people were behind the killings. Why would he lie about it?” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“That Shane is a troublemaker. Can’t you see that he’s fucking with your head?”
Blake knew she would say that. He felt angry with himself now and stood up. “If he’s lying then why has no one been in touch with us to identify the Smythes’ bodies? I tell you why, it’s because they were murdered and the police covered it up.”
Karen was very concerned for her husband’s health. He seemed too involved and should back down. In her eyes he was acting like he’d lost the plot. “The police are probably still busy; they’ll get in touch.”
“They’ve already been here, but never mentioned the hospital. All they wanted was the fertilizer.”
Karen thought for a second.
Everything he said made sense
, but her thoughts still swayed over to the opposite of what Blake was thinking. She didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead but still wanted to help her husband overcome this obsessive behaviour. “I don’t believe there are dead people amongst us walking the earth. I’m sorry, I just can’t believe that.”
Blake placed a nervous hand on top of one of her hands.
“I’m not asking you to believe that, I’m just asking you to believe me.”
She wasn’t going to let him down when he needed her help, so their issues on the subject would have to be put to one side. “If you think this strongly about it then why don’t you tell the police?”
“What if I’m wrong? I could never live it down.”
Karen needed to pick her husband’s faith up before he fell too far. If he did then she would find it difficult to reach him. “You were right about the fertilizer, so tell them about this. They won’t take you for granted now, so do what you have to do.”
Blake smiled. It was good enough for Karen. She knew she’d got through to him. His head slowly became clear. He now had more of a visible picture as he prepared himself for his next mission. “Cheers babe. I don’t know what I would do without you, you know that.” His motivation was back and he smacked a large kiss on her lips. He left the living room and slipped on his jacket, ready to leave his home on his quest to be a hero. “I’m going to the police station and won’t be back until those jerks listen to me.”
“Well if that’s how you feel, I won’t stop you.” Karen hugged him and smiled. She was pleased to see him snap out of his end-ofthe-world philosophy.
“Bye love, and thanks for listening.”
The front door opened and off he went to fight crime in his own way.
Blake rushed into the station and headed for the reception area. George had been drafted back in on short notice. “Hello again, is Mike in? I might have some useful information for him.”
“Yeah, go right ahead,” an overtired George replied.
Chris and Shane were still with the chief when Blake entered the office.
“Hello. What can I do for you?” Mike said.
Shane stared over at Blake and somehow knew what was going to be said. He now regretted mentioning the walking dead to an agitated man.
“I don’t think the killings are over yet.”
Mike leapt out of his seat and came very close to cracking his knees against his wooden desk. The words floated around the air, smacking him around the face until he was left shivering from the fear of two things, how did Blake know about the killings? And what if he told the truth?
“What do you know about the murders?”
“I only know what Shane told me, and that wasn’t much.”
Mike’s thermometer of stress rose to boiling point again after hearing that another person knew about what really happened. “Fucking hell, Shane, don’t you know what a secret means?”
The scientist cowered behind the small reporter. It was quite funny seeing him desperately try to shrink himself to look invisible, but it wasn’t working. Blake managed to bail him out of Mike’s bad books, for now at least.
“He thought I already knew. I haven’t told anyone else.”
He wasn’t going to mention telling Karen. What’s the point when she didn’t believe in the un-dead?
Mike was uncaring about who knew now. All he wanted was this mess sorted out before the authorities from the city took over.
“Okay, so everyone in this room knows the truth,” Mike said, while still glaring at Shane. “This information had better be good because I seriously need to rest.”
Blake hesitated before speaking, as he wanted to be sure about what he was going to say. “I think you should patrol the graveyard. How do we know for sure that the dead won’t wake up again from there?”
The chief stopped suddenly. It wasn’t so long ago that he’d discussed this possibility with Wayne. He now felt pleased that someone else had thought of this as well.
“I’ve already thought about that, but wasn’t prepared to lose precious time scouring the area if the fertilizer ended up not to be the cause.”
Blake needed to provide more information before Mike agreed with him. “I’ve been to the cemetery and noticed twelve departed that were buried within the last year. Don’t you think that’s enough evidence to check it out?”
“Really...” Mike was impressed that Blake had gone to so much trouble. “You’ve got a point there. I’ll send Doug and Craig to patrol the area.”
“Cheers for listening to me. I was worried you would throw it back in my face.”
“Don’t be silly. You’ve been a great help by bringing this to me.” “I want this to be over,” Blake replied.
“We all want the same thing, mate.”
Mike asked to see the mentioned officers. He knew they would be back in the canteen, and could read their movements just like a book. It wasn’t long before the men arrived. They had sprinklings of cake crumbs down their jackets, plus chocolate sauce on their faces.
“I thought this was over, boss,” Doug said.
“I know you had to rush down your food.” Mike wiped his hand across his face to make them realize that they still had chocolate sauce across their cheeks. “I just want to make sure we haven’t missed anything, and the cemetery is an obvious place to check.”
Doug and Craig nodded, and to show they were ready for action, scrubbed the dark juice off.
“We’ll keep you informed,” said Doug. “If we see something out of the ordinary then we’ll get in touch.”
“Doug, shoot the zombies first before you get in touch. It’ll be safer that way.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll get Craig to shoot them while I get in touch.”
“That’s better. Off you go. I’ll speak to you soon.”
Mike and the remaining men laughed. Doug and Craig were like a couple of clowns sometimes. Maybe that was why Mike had hired them?
Both men left the station, but neither believed that there could be more of those freaks lurking around. Mike didn’t want any more people stressing out so suggested that everyone remained in the office for now. They sat drinking coffee, waiting to hear from the two officers.

Doug parked outside the gates of the burial ground. Neither man noticed the muddy tyre marks from the escaping thieves because the police vehicle covered the evidence.

They sat, staring at the graves. A quick glance from one to the next was all they did at this time. They didn’t seem bothered about going inside. Both agreed that there were too many tombs to check out more closely, and besides, if a zombie climbed out of one then they would notice. Craig picked up the car’s radio handset.

“Chief, there’s been no sign of any activities to report, over.”

“Okay, I want you to get in touch every half hour. You got that?”
“Yes boss, over.”
“If anything changes, let me know straightaway. Don’t let me down. Speak soon.”
Craig could see that his partner was bored out of his mind.
“There’s not much to do here, so do you fancy a game of dominoes?”
“Why not..? Anything’s better than this shit,” replied Doug.
Their attentions had been taken away from the job in hand, but if they’d gone into the cemetery to check the graves, would’ve noticed the disturbed ones and the scattered bag of cash. Their idea of just sitting in the car chilling out, eating the sandwiches and crisps that Doug brought from the canteen, favoured them immensely. Doug walked a thin line by doing this. He’d fooled his partner so far over the canteen lady, but sooner or later Craig would click on to why the car was always fully equipped with snacks.

The escaped zombies roamed the forest area. They could smell the aroma of more living humans as they dragged their deformed bodies toward them. Their senses seemed to be in tiptop condition considering they were supposed to be dead meat. To smell humans from where they stood was amazing, but what was more amazing was the fact they could tell the direction of where the smell came from. While these six monsters moved around, another six coffins shook. Slowly, very slowly, the hungry vermin slammed hands and feet against the wooden lids of their homes. It wouldn’t take long before they too escaped from their tombs and climbed out of the ground.

Craig and Doug remained playing with the small, dotted bricks. The winner of each game chose a selection of food from the stash.

The first bunch of monsters gradually closed in on the village. The occupiers of this area were going to be in for one hell of a shock.
One of the latest walking corpses used to be a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Thomas Griffin. He’d passed away a few weeks ago from a rare disease. The other monsters were aged between twenty-five and ninety. The old one moved at a much slower pace than the younger versions and staggered from side to side. The reason was obvious. Walking had been a major problem before this person died, but it gave it a go, even though it obviously struggled.
The non-uniformed men became restless inside Mike’s office, especially Chris. He loved the thrill of an adventure and just wanted to get out there, do anything. Mike noticed the other man’s reaction, and for a split second imagined Chris as being Jason. Both men had the same likeness in their attitudes to life. Mike could so easily of told them all to back off and go home, but the town only had a handful of officers. Some were already dead, so the more help offered to him the better. A pleasant approach at persuading everyone he wanted them to stay for a reason was enough to convince the reporter to calm down again. Mike would rather gamble on letting these untrained people help than admit defeat, calling the commissioner for backup. Keeping this town contained from any outside interference was the only choice he had. It was too dangerous to allow more people from the city to risk being infected.
Another half an hour drifted by as Craig now talked to the chief again. “All right chief. I’ve not noticed anything different, over.”
Mike was getting a bit annoyed with the ‘over’ bit.
“Craig, you can leave out the ‘over’ bit, all I want from you is information.”
Doug was seen cracking a tiny laugh, so Craig threw a domino at his head. “Sorry boss, I was trying to be professional,” he replied. A bright red complexion was now stamped on his cheeks.
Mike couldn’t be asked to respond to that, but did have an excellent question up his sleeve to take the piss out of the other man. “Okay, have you got your torch with you?”
Doug and Craig were slightly lost by that sentence.
“Torch, why boss?”
“Because you’ll need it when it gets dark that’s why.”
The officers in the car weren’t expecting this to happen. They thought they would go to the graveyard, crack open some sandwiches and have a laugh until their shift was over. How wrong they were to assume this.
“We don’t have to stay here when it gets dark, do we?”
“Why? Are you scared?”
All four men in Mike’s office laughed again and the inhabitants of the car overheard it.
“Hey, this isn’t funny, man. Our shift will be over soon.”
“I didn’t say it was funny, Craig. I can’t let you two go home on time today, mate. I’m sorry. I’m going to need that area patrolled just in case something happens. You can understand that. We’re short staffed and we all need to stick together.”
Craig took in everything the chief said and now felt bad for wanting to leave. “Sorry boss. We’ll stay as long as we have to. Both of us have got torches.” There was a two-second interval before Craig finished his speech. “I’ll be in touch in another thirty minutes.”
No more ‘over’ at the end of that sentence.
“Nice one. I’ll speak to you soon. I just want you both to know that I’m very proud of you for doing this.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

The rotting flesh and maggot-infested monsters approached the holiday village. Apart from a few kids playing outside and an elderly lady situated nearby, the area seemed pretty much nonexistent of activity. The bloodthirsty, flesh-biting zombies spotted the unfortunate woman and moved in her direction. Even the old corpse, with infected drool leaking from its mouth, desperately tried staggering that little bit faster to get its hands on some tasty, human meat, but it fell down from going too quick, and like a drunken bum in a pissed up alleyway, eventually found itself upright again to carry on its quest.