Domain of the Dead (18 page)

Out of her bed and shuffling towards the door, Doctor Robertson gave out an excited moan.

The door handle started to turn. “I’m coming in. I don’t care what you and Frankenstein are up to.”

A shaft of light spilled into the dark room from the doorway. Kelly lent into the room, blinking as his eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. Out of the gloom he could make out the shape of Doctor Robertson coming towards him.

She stretched out her hands and grabbed Kelly’s head.

“What are you... Shit!” Kelly screamed as Doctor Robertson stepped into the light. He saw her face: Her lips cracked and broken, trails of blood across her chin and those milky eyes bereft of life.

Off balance, leaning half through the doorway, Kelly couldn’t find the purchase to pull away.

Doctor Robertson lunged in and started biting.

Sarah panted. Her chest burnt with each breath. The sound of her trainers slapping against the tarmac cascaded around the alleyway. An agitated moan echoed after her, but in front of her she could see daylight in the street ahead.

A silhouette shambled across her exit. Sarah skidded to a halt. More moans; their attention drawn by the noise. More shapes congregated at the end of the alley. Looking round, Sarah could see her pursuers lethargically ambling towards her. Frantically she looked around for an escape route. She threw herself against unyielding doors and with every failure the groaning crowd grew closer.

Seizing an assortment of boxes and trashcans, Sarah started piling all that she could find under a fire escape. A gust of wind blew down the tight walls of the alley, bringing with it the stench of rotting flesh.

The zombies were too close now to do anything else. Sarah flung herself at her pyramid of garbage. Her weight made her sink into the loosely packed material. Her hands and knees sunk down, pulled in by the mire. In slow motion-like movements, Sarah clambered up. Something swiped at her legs but missed its grasp. She kicked out harder, dislodging some of the structure beneath her. She pushed up, her left hand scrabbling at the rough brick wall for purchase, her right hand stretched out and clawing for the bottom rung of the ladder. Hands grabbed at her feet and legs.

Sarah pushed off with all her strength. She felt the pile disintegrate and collapse beneath her. Her hand grasped out and clenched around the first rung of the ladder. Now with her full weight tugging on the rust-pitted rung, a squeal of metal dragging against metal sounded round the alley. Slowly the ladder started to pull down and as it slid further down she to sank deeper into the pile of trash and closer to the dead hands clawing at her. Before the ladder had time to trundle to a stop, Sarah threw her left hand onto the second rung and started to climb. The escape ladder sunk down to the ground and she climbed. Each thrust upwards did nothing more than keep her stationary. With a metallic clunk the ladder met its full extension and stopped moving. Kicking wildly against the grabbing hands, Sarah finally hauled herself beyond the reach of the ghouls. Gasping for air, she sat on the first landing. Beneath her the alleyway swarmed with the living dead, rotting arms outstretched for her.

Sarah picked herself up, and finding the fire exits barred, she started walking along the ledge around the building. Her body flat against the wall, she cautiously edged her way along the alley towards the daylight and the street beyond. As she shuffled along she came to a window. Inside looked like the living room of a small apartment. As she picked her way around she noticed a pair of legs in the doorway between this room and the next. She continued shuffling along the ledge until she encountered the next window. Inside, lying on the kitchen floor, was a body. The girl on the floor was crouched over by a ravenous zombie, eviscerating its victim.

This flat was familiar, but somehow out of context. In a flicker of insight, Sarah recognised the place.

This was the flat she had shared with Tricia.

Sarah took a second look at the victim. Behind the sandy blond hair and the blood splatters, it was her—the body on the floor was Sarah.

She let out a gasp at the realisation.

The zombie looked up from its feast. Its chin dripping with blood, its eyes dead and cold. Sarah expected to see her long dead flatmate, but it wasn’t. It was Sarah’s face that stared back at her with death’s gaze. Both the corpse and the zombie were her.

Before Sarah had time to absorb any of this, the zombie picked itself up and with none of the familiar stiffness it charged at the window.

Sarah stood there on the window ledge in disbelief as the glass shattered and the zombie doppelganger burst through. The impact knocked Sarah from the ledge and tumbling towards the sea of outstretched cadaverous arms.

She kicked and screamed as she fell, propelling the bed covers across the cabin.

“Fuck!” Nathan bellowed as he too sat bolt upright.

Jennifer gave out a shrill scream as the ruckus woke her too.

“It’s okay,” Sarah gasped as she regained her bearings. “I had a nightmare. That’s all.”

“You scared the shit out of me,” Nathan complained.

“Me too,” Jennifer added.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “Let’s go back to sleep.”

The trio started settling back in.

“How are you feeling anyway, Nathan?” Sarah asked.

“Still shitty. Been lying here dozing.” Nathan rolled over to face Sarah from his bed. “I’m hungry but I’m too scared to eat any—”

“Wait!” Sarah cut in. “Quiet!”

Nathan and Jennifer lay there, silent and still. The ship was making low groans as she ploughed her way against the storm. The rain and the waves showered the porthole of their cabin while the wind found tight nooks and taut lines from which to whistle.

Nathan shook his head, but kept quiet.

After waiting fruitlessly for a repetition, Sarah finally explained, “I’m sure I heard a scream.”

“I hate to say this,” Nathan said, “but could it just have been the wind?”

“No, something doesn’t feel right,” Sarah replied.

“Look, it’s our first night on a boat and we’re in the middle of a storm,” Nathan reasoned, rubbing his upset stomach. “Of course nothing feels right.”

Sarah sat up and slipped her feet into her shoes.

“Where are you going?” Jennifer asked.

Sarah picked up the shirt she’d worn to dinner and slipped it over the baggy white vest and boxer shorts she’d worn to bed. “I’m going to take a look.”

Jennifer looked worried.

Sarah bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s probably nothing, but if I don’t check I’ll be up all night worrying about it.”

“If it was something serious, don’t you think they’d have a warning siren or something?” Nathan’s voice had reflected his own insecurity. It was more of a question than an attempt to allay anyone’s fears. After a moment he grumbled and tossed off his covers. “Ah, hell. I’m coming, too. Wasn’t getting any sleep anyways.” He pulled on his jeans and slipped on his trainers.

“Can I come?” Jennifer asked.

“No point in us all losing sleep, honey,” Nathan said. “You wait here.”

Sarah opened the door to the hallway. “Best lock the door, honey, and don’t open it until we get back.”

Jennifer nodded.

* * *

The hallway was on night time lighting, with only half the lights illuminated. It felt deserted. Even the constant drone of the engine was lost to the noise of the storm outside.

“Sarah,” Nathan said softly, getting her attention. “Why were you on the roof this morning?”

“What?” Sarah asked, taken by surprise.

“What were you doing up on the warehouse roof so early?”

“Like I said, I couldn’t sleep,” Sarah said.

“No, I said that,” Nathan corrected. “I don’t recall you saying anything.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Why wouldn’t you talk to me?”

“Nathan, you’re not making sense.”

Nathan slipped his hand into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out the envelope he’d been passed that afternoon. He held it out for Sarah. “You forgot to clear your pockets out when your stuff was taken to the laundry.”

Sarah slowly reached out and took the letter from Nathan’s grasp. “I don’t know what to say, Nathan.”

“Obviously not, otherwise you’d have spoken to me before you wrote this,” Nathan replied. “We would have thought of something even if these guys hadn’t shown up.”

Sarah stood there, head bowed low.

“Sarah, I… I wouldn’t want…” Nathan stopped, unable to say what he wanted.

“Nathan, I never wanted to hurt anyone...”

“But you would have.”

Sarah let out a puff of breath that juddered with the beginning of a sob.

Nathan broke in, “Any idea where we’re going?”

“I was hoping I’d hear something,” Sarah confessed.

Nathan waited a moment, hoping Sarah would become inspired. Finally he said, “Patterson and a guy were in the radio room downstairs. We could check there first. Maybe they heard something.”

Sarah let a shallow smile grow on her lips and placed a hand on Nathan’s arm. “Thank you.”

“Watch the doors on the way down,” Nathan warned. “One of them swung back and almost took my leg off.”

When they reached the radio room the door was shut.

Nathan knocked on the door. “Anyone there?”

“I can hear something,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, I suppose it’s the radio,” Nathan guessed. “You can hear beeps like what’s it... Morse code?”

“Would they leave the radio on if no one was listening to it?” Sarah asked. She didn’t expect an answer from Nathan but it felt suspicious to her.

Nathan gave his usual shrug. “Don’t know, they might. I used to leave my PC on all the time ‘cause it was easier than booting it up. Maybe it’s a similar thing here.”

“Maybe.”

“There’s nothing going on,” Nathan said. “Now can I try and get some sleep?”

Grudgingly, Sarah said, “I suppose.”

Nathan was already opening the hatch to the stairwell when Sarah stepped in, closely followed by Nathan. She had placed a foot onto the first step when they both heard it:

A guttural moan from the deck below.

“Did you hear that?” Sarah asked.

Nathan’s eyes were wide open, “I wish I hadn’t.”

As silently as they could against the pitching of the ship, they crept down the stairs. Nathan pointed to a red box on the wall. Sarah placed her index finger against her lips and Nathan nodded. He eased open the case and retrieved a fire axe from inside.

Sarah pushed open the hatch. Her hands still on the latch in case she had to close it quickly, she lent over to peer through the crack in the door.

What she could see of the corridor was empty. As nothing leapt out at her, Sarah decided to open the door fully and step into the corridor. She looked over her shoulder to Nathan. His knuckles were white, clenched around the shaft of the fire axe. Sarah took a hand off the door latch and gestured her intention to go through. Nathan nodded in agreement.

Pushing the door half open, Sarah stepped over into the corridor.

There was a wet smack from behind her like a wet sponge being dropped. Sarah whipped round to see the back of Doctor Robertson. She was sitting on the floor in a pool of blood beside a sailor. The blood waxed and waned as the boat tossed from side to side, like the ocean in miniature.

Doctor Robertson seemed to be examining something as Sarah stepped up to her.

Sarah reached out a hand to touch the doctor’s shoulder. Her mouth dry with fear, her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Doctor Robertson?”

Doctor Robertson turned her head towards the voice. Her grey face was smeared with fresh red blood. A long strip of pink flesh from the dead marine on the deck dangled from her mouth. The dull dead eyes of the marine stared at the ceiling, but Doctor Robertson’s looked directly at Sarah.

With a throat full of fresh blood, the zombie snarled and twisted round, its blood soaked hands lashing out.

Sarah lunged backwards, missing her step. She threw her arms out for balance but the pitch of the ship tipped her and she crashed to the floor. Ignoring her throbbing coccyx, Sarah propped herself up and started to scramble backwards.

But the zombie that was once Doctor Robertson had turned to pursue its new prey. With one swipe the creature snatched hold of Sarah’s left foot and hauled herself up into biting range. Sarah kicked out her right foot, smashing her heel into the zombie’s nose. The cartilage crunched loudly from the impact and when she pulled her foot back Sarah could see the nose was spread flat across its face. But this alone would not deter the zombie from its victim.

Nathan rushed forward, axe raised above his head.

“Look out!” Sarah cried as a second zombie lunged at Nathan from the gloom of the cabin.

Caught by surprise by the second creature, Nathan was pinned against the wall with no space to swing his axe.