Search for Safety: Killing the Dead Book Two (19 page)

The engine came to life at the first turn of the key and I waved Lily forward. She drove cautiously and I did my best to follow her around the various obstacles. A glance in the rear-view mirror revealed a large number of shadowy forms following us along in the dark.

Lily slowed and came to a stop. There was enough room for me to pull up alongside her.

“The bridge is blocked” she called through her open window.

I climbed out of the car and looked at where she was pointing. The bridge was full of vehicles of all sizes and shapes. Many of them loaded up with belongings. Somewhere along the road the cars had stopped and all of the others behind them had formed a great long traffic jam. The undead walked amongst the cars, already alerted to our approach by the lights of our vehicles.

Behind us the zombies were coming closer and we had no side streets to divert down, no way to turn around and go back the way we had just arrived and we could not go forward.

“I knew this would be the death of me” I said to no one in particular.

“We are going to have to try and cross the bridge.” Lily said as she helped John out of the back seat of the car she had been driving.

“Fine. Follow me then.” I told her and set off walking as she followed behind, one arm around John’s waist as she supported him.

The bridge was made of stone and had two lanes for traffic to cross. At either side of the bridge was a raised pavement with steel posts planted evenly along the edge of the road with two cylindrical steel cross bars to complete the barrier that stopped pedestrians stepping into the road. A chest high barrier of painted steel railings rose from the furthest edge of the pavement and ran for the whole hundred metre length of the bridge.

      
Most of the undead were walking between the cars so I led the way onto the pavement between the two barriers. We stayed as close to the railings as we could, so that the zombies couldn’t reach us from the road.

“Several zombies headed our way” Lily called.

“I see them.” I told her calmly. I increased my pace to meet the zombies head on. They were an assorted bunch, clothes ripped and filthy. Hair matted with blood and other noxious substances, dark crimson fluid leaking slowly from wounds that would never heal.

My hatchet blade caught the first in the shoulder and spun it around with the force of the blow. I ducked beneath the swinging arms of another zombie and chopped at its leg. I jumped back out of its way as it fell and felt a burst of pain in my barely healing ankle as I landed.

A third zombie tripped over its downed fellows and I struck down with my hatchet and cracked its skull. It lay conveniently unmoving on top of the two fallen zombies that were struggling to rise with the dead weight pressing down on them.

“Ryan!” Lily yelled.

I risked a quick glance over my shoulder and saw that the undead had reached the bridge and were moving steadily towards us. I turned back to the zombies before me and struck repeatedly against the ones that were standing.

“This isn’t working” Lily said as she kicked out at the head of one of the fallen zombies that was crawling towards her.

The zombie before me collapsed and I placed a foot on its chest and pulled my hatchet from its skull. I looked around. Dozens of undead were pressed against the barrier beside the road, arms outstretched as they sought to grasp us.

Behind us the pavement was teeming with zombies as they marched towards us and the end of the bridge ahead of us was rapidly becoming the same. We were surrounded.

“Well we are pretty much screwed.” I told Lily with a grin.

“I’m sorry” she said.

“Don’t be. Can you swim?” I asked with a glance down at the water below.

“You two go over first while I hold them back.” I said before moving away from her and towards the enemy.

“Don’t take too long,” Lily called as she helped John climb the railing. “If you can’t find us, we will meet you at the club house.”

I waved and felt some of the tension leave as I heard the splash as two people jumped into the water. A savage kind of joy could be found when facing almost certain death and I found that I rather relished it.

I leapt at the zombies with my hatchet raised before plunging it down against the skull of the closest one to me. I pulled free the blade as the corpse fell and lashed out to either side of me, striking without aiming and just delaying as long as possible.

Pain shot through my shoulder as a zombie bit down. I cracked it on the side of the head with two rapid blows and it fell away. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I hoped that the teeth hadn’t made it through my thick jacket.

My hatchets handle snapped as I made another blow to the skull of a zombie and I was without a weapon. I kicked at the leg of the next undead that came too close before jumping backwards away from the melee.

With a quick glance around at the carnage I had wrought I clasped the top of the railings firmly and with a last defiant grin at the zombies as they surged towards me, I vaulted over the railing and into the dark waters below.

Killing the Dead will continue in Book 3.

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