Thirteen Roses Book Five: Home: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (14 page)

He didn’t bother saying anything else. It was up to them how they responded. But he needed to find Harriet before he did anything else. The rest of the ladies were hiding in the two luxury suites so he headed down to them. They sat on the two corners of the Shard, enjoying the best views over London.
 

The first was filled with terrified women. At the sight of him with his blade and impatient look, they looked even more scared. He gave them a nod and told them what he’d just told the others. He left without awaiting a response and found the rest. Harriet was sat among them and he thought she was praying.

He waited by the door, watching her lips move and remembering what else they were good for. No one looked very good praying when you could picture them sucking your dick. Particularly not when you could also remember them beating you around the face with their shoe. He was grinning when she finally rose from the small group and swayed over.
 

‘Hi. I was just praying with some of the girls. They’re really shaken up.’

‘I can see that. Come with me.’

She dutifully followed him out. He led her to one of the empty bedrooms and used his knife to remove as much of her clothing as possible. She helped with the rest and they fell onto the bed. He had to be careful with the knife, but when he nicked her shoulder and spilled blood onto the sheets, she only panted harder and ground against him.

‘Is that what you wanted to say?’ She asked when they were finished. ‘Because if it is, I should get back to them.’

‘I’m leaving.’

‘What?’

‘I have to hunt Az and Seph. All of this is because of them and until they’re dead, we don—’

‘He’s a demon. Not a man or even a man with some kind of supernatural powers. He’s a demon. He’ll destroy you.’

‘He might. But I don’t think so. God’s looking out for me and besides, he won’t even know I’m coming for him.’

Jackson blinked and stared at the wall when Harriet burst into tears and buried her face into his chest. ‘I don’t want you to go, I need you.’

‘No you don’t.’ He shoved his hand between her legs and squeezed hard. She jerked back then pushed herself into his grip, moaning. ‘You need this. But you can live without it.’

He rolled over and got up. ‘I’m not going right now, anyway. I need to train some of you, make sure you can look after yourselves. Once I’m happy with that, then I go.’

‘You bastard.’ She rose from the bed, cheeks flaming. ‘You utter bastard, how can you do this?’ The first blow landed and he smiled and let the pain bring him alive.
 

He strolled from the room, leaving her wrapped in the sheets, and meandered back to reception. Screwing Harriet always made him heavy, but he had no time to piss about. Fifteen of the ladies were in reception and when he walked in, they stood and waited in silence. The weight of his promise appeared around his neck, making him heavier still.

How was he supposed to train them? He shrugged. A bit of punching, a bit of foul play, and how to stab someone. All the basics, really.
 

‘Right, we’re gonna start with something really basic. How many of you have ever been in a fight?’

There was not one hand raised or voice saying yes. He swallowed and tried to look calm. He could do this.
 

The painkillers wore off a couple of hours later and his calm voice started to slip. It was after he threatened to break one of the lady’s faces he decided he probably wasn’t doing God’s work anymore. He scattered the girls except for Ella and made sure they would return in an hour.
 

‘I need more of whatever you gave me before.’

She nodded, headed down to the room where they’d left the two ladies, and returned with a packet. He downed two with water before slouching into one of the sofas.
 

The wind was peaceful now he wasn’t about to go flying. The window showed signs of the ladies trying to tape something over it, but without any luck. The rain had stopped early in the morning and he realised with a jolt that it was probably lunchtime.
 

‘You need more sleep.’

‘What?’

‘You only slept for a few hours. You’re feeling better because I gave you the painkillers, but you’re on the edge of a total collapse. You need to sleep.’

‘I’ll sleep when Az is dead and w—’

‘No, you’ll sleep today. Otherwise we won’t get anywhere near Az.’

‘We?’

‘I’m coming with you. I can make him think I’m there for, you know…’

Jackson nodded. She had a point. And it meant he could watch her arse while they walked across London. There wasn’t that far to go but it’d pass the time. He rested his head back and closed his eyes.
 

He must have been asleep because he’d been talking to someone right before she shook him awake. It wasn’t a bad face to wake up to, though, and he smiled. Then Ella frowned, lines forming across her forehead, and it became clear this wasn’t a nice wake up call.
 

‘The zombies are back. There are some in the stairwell. Actually, there are hundreds in the stairwell.

Dave

He had a child. A son. A scream came from the car and he stood, stumbling beneath the weight of his baby. He put his head in the driver’s door and gagged. The smell of blood was strong enough to knock him straight back out. He glimpsed the white, rain-beaten face of his helper crouching behind her friend.
 

The pregnant lady was face down on the back seat, no longer moving. His helper stood and Dave saw the child in her arms, a twin to the one he held in his. It was beautiful, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
 

The lady came round the car and they stood together in the rain, gazing down at the tiny creatures in their arm. The lady smiled at him, the sort of smile he thought a proud mother might wear. He looked at the body on the back seat and knew immediately that she was dead. They were both dead. The real mothers were gone, so why not the woman beside him?

His vision darkened for a moment as something stirred inside him. Like a fierce ache in his gut that travelled upwards almost as soon as he felt it. Names came with it.
 

Amber and Steph.

He’d known them.
 

Had he loved them? It felt like he had. He wasn’t sure what love was anymore.

He’d had feelings, things that ran his life. He’d lost them, somewhere, but the baby in his arms was bringing everything back.
 

There was something else as well. An emptiness. A loneliness. He remembered… it struck him behind the eyes, like a migraine headache that bent him double and made him clutch the baby like a life raft. He’d been alone. He’d been so alone it had broken him. The pieces of his mind were parting, fracturing like melting ice. It couldn’t happen again, not now.
 

He fell to his knees, ignoring the stabbing in his legs as he sucked in deep breaths. He tipped his head back and let the rain run down him, though he barely felt it anymore. He couldn’t be broken. He had children to care for, children who relied on him. He couldn’t be broken.
 

His teeth ground together and he shook his head so hard his hair whipped back and forth. ‘I’m Dave, I’m Dave, I’m Dave, I can’t be broken, I can’t.’

‘Are you alright?’

It was such a simple question. It was so basic and so fundamental and he had no idea what the answer was so he said what he always said. ‘Yeah, not too bad.’

And just like that, he was. The ice solidified enough for him to stand on it. It creaked and groaned beneath his weight, but the dark waters beneath were hidden. He wasn’t broken and he was still Dave.
 

He rose to his feet, one leg at a time, with the baby still clutched tight against his chest. He leant against the car and took deep breaths, trying to count them as they came and went. The zombies were gathering, coming at them with eyes fixed on the still-widening pools of blood.
 

‘Follow me, walk slowly.’

He led her away from the car in a wide circuit round the body sprawled face down on the ground. He tried not to think what her last moments were like, knees pressed into the soaking concrete and the rain beating on her back as her child tore her apart inside. He tried not to think about how the child was Az’s and not his, and that he would lose them soon.
 

The children. He had to focus on the children. The zombies fell onto the corpse. Some formed a circle around the pool of blood and set to work with tongues lapping. More surrounded the car and moments later the other mother was dragged out by her feet and ripped apart.
 

A lump formed in his throat. He swallowed it back and kept walking. The baby in his arms let out another scream that crept inside his head and became a writhing, lashing serpent. His arms stiffened and he nearly dropped him. The baby squirmed and had Dave not just seen it be born, he’d have sworn it was a few years old and impatient to play.
   

The lady screamed and his other child fell to the tarmac. Time seemed to slow as the baby tumbled through the air. Then it flipped like a cat and came down on arms far stronger than they should have been. The moment it landed,
 
it scrabbled off across the bridge on all fours.

Dave set off chasing it through the storm. He no longer cared whether the lady was still with them. If she truly wanted to be there, she would keep up. And if she didn’t then she shouldn’t have left the Shard. He could only think about one thing at a time right now.
 

The baby swerved across the bridge and charged directly at a zombie. Dave was about to scream when his baby left the ground at speed and grabbed the zombie around the head. There was a brief tussle during which the zombie flailed pointlessly with its arms, before his baby sank its teeth into the creature’s head and tore a chunk out. He grabbed a handful of the exposed brains and shoved it into his mouth.
 

Seconds later, the rotting brain came back out, accompanied by a unexpectedly-cute expression of disgust. Dave stood frozen, staring as the zombie crashed face down to the concrete with his child still gripping onto its head. The baby in his arms had stopped wriggling and he looked down at him.
 

He stared back, lips curling back from fully formed and very sharp looking teeth. There was a brief second he thought he was going to spring up and bite him. But that was ludicrous. He was his father, he would never do that. Then his head twisted to the side and his eyes found the lady. Dave glanced at his other child and saw him doing the same.
 

The baby in his arms squirmed and kicked to be released and he let it go as it sprang from his arms. They ran together, moving like hunting cats. The lady realised what was happening. She shook her head, eyes widening as she raised her hands.
 

‘What’s going on, what are they doing? Dave, help me, they can’t—’

Dave shook his head and stared at the ground. His children needed food and he couldn’t provide it. What else was a father to do? The lady broke and ran and the babies exploded into life. One leapt and wrapped itself around her head. The other sank its teeth deep into her leg. She screamed and tripped. His children swarmed, tearing bits of flesh out far faster than the zombies.
 

Dave turned away, gorge rising. He tried to find sadness or regret, the feelings he now knew should be inside him. But they were absent still, as though his awakening of a few minutes ago had been a lie. Had he woken at all? He had, because when he turned back to watch his children feed, his heart grew warm until his eyes filled with tears.
 

They were so perfect. So perfectly formed and so healthy. And growing so fast. He blinked. Had they got bigger since they attacked her? It looked like it, and when he drew closer and tried to imagine holding one in his arms, he couldn’t.
 

The zombies had finished the bodies of the two ladies and were heading towards them. He needed a car. He headed for the nearest and tried the engine. It took a few tries before it sputtered into life. The petrol gauge was nearly empty but it would be enough to get them off the bridge and nearer the theatre.
 

He jumped in and shouted to his children. ‘Get in, we’re leaving.’

He had no idea why he thought they’d respond to that, but they did. Not, though, before they grabbed the lady’s legs and tore them from her body. She wasn’t a zombie, she was human and healthy, and he shuddered at the strength there must be in those little arms to rip her apart.

They climbed in, looking more like squat monkeys with short arms than human babies. He put his foot down and motored off the bridge, leaving behind an undead crowd gathered around what was left of the lady. Something stirred within that he thought might be guilt, but it went as quickly as it came. He couldn’t help looking in the rear view as they drove, marveling at the little people tucking into their lunch on the back seat.
 

Their eyes were black and flicked about constantly. There was the slightest hint of horns thrusting through the fuzz atop their heads. They had their horns already! He grinned, tapping the steering wheel as they turned left and headed down the Strand.
 

The car got them all the way to the theatre. Stepping back in through the entrance was like coming home. He got the babies into reception. waving at the two zombies rotting away behind the ticket windows.
 

They crept into the box, the babies holding his hands and walking on two legs. Almost as soon as they were in, they found a corner and curled up together to sleep. Dave watched them. Their little chests and backs rose and fell fast and beneath their red eyelids their eyes still flicked back and forth.
 

He was nodding off when he felt the pull to the roof and, moments later, hauled himself up through the skylight and out. The rain was finally easing off, leaving a light drizzle through which the early morning sun tried, but failed, to shine. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself as he leant back against the slant.