Thirteen Roses Book Two: After: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (17 page)

'We need to go, while they're distracted.'

Luke nodded and waved her into the driving seat. 'Will this thing still go?'

She shrugged and sat, finding something like comfort as she gripped the wheel. The engine started reluctantly, but it started. She sat for a moment. Fresh air poured in through the shattered window and a few feet below her, hordes of zombies feasted on the flesh of their mates. She was about to drive when she remembered something.
 

'Didn't you tell me to stop here? Why am I still driving?'

'Excellent question. I need you to drive over to the soldiers' truck.'

'Oh, okay.'

She stuck it in first and put her foot down. The bus lurched forwards, and the sounds of crunching bones and splitting flesh filled her ears. She revved the engine to block them out but it made no difference to the thumping and rolling as she ran them over. The growls from below became higher pitched and desperate.
 

Then they were past and into the peaceful zone around the soldiers. She stopped the bus and took her seatbelt off, staring in dismay at the men on the floor. They were frozen now, huddled in small bundles of abject terror, oblivious to what lay around them. She opened the door and Luke stepped down to the street.
 

She followed him and paused on the bottom step. She couldn't do it. She couldn't just go out there, without any kind of defence. She looked at the sword she still gripped in one hand and shrugged. That was no defence. But Luke was out there and they weren't eating him.
 

She took a deep breath and climbed down to be surrounded by zombies who growled and gnashed at her, but came no closer. She chewed on her lip and worked full time to control the urge to dash back onto the bus. Luke seemed as oblivious to them as the soldiers did as he examined the truck.
 

Alex and Jackson came out, standing within the zone and marvelling at the zombies surrounding them.
 

'What are we doing?' she asked.
 

Luke gave her a look, as if to say 'what do you think?'

'I'd rather just stay on the bus. Aren't we supposed to be rescuing someone?'

He sighed but Alex spoke. 'Something's keeping the zombies away. If we can work out what it is and get hold of it, it's gonna make a huge difference.'

'Oh.' She blushed and turned away, hoping he hadn't seen the red in her cheeks. She knelt beside the first soldier and gently searched him. He reacted by averting his eyes and muttering something too low for her to hear, twitching all the while. She found a knife and ammunition and all sorts of things, but no mysterious gadgets.
 

Alex was doing the same with another of the soldiers as Luke climbed into the cab of the truck. She straightened from her search and spotted Jackson. He was right on the edge of the protective circle, talking to the zombies.
 

'Jackson, stop it, don't be silly.'

As soon as the words left her mouth she swallowed and ducked. He turned, mouth twisted in a sneer. 'I'm facing my fear, getting to know my enemy. You might wanna do it, too, you think you're gonna survive out here.'

His voice had changed. He'd lost some of the London twang and had a slight curl to his words as though he was American. He was living in a dream world. It was fascinating, in a scary sort of way. She turned away and searched the next soldier.
 

They were all lacking in anything resembling a top secret zombie blocker so she and Alex ended up standing beside the truck, waiting for Luke to emerge from the cab. They watched Jackson. He'd got one of the soldier's guns and was aiming at random zombies, pretending to shoot them. She was half turned away when he pulled the trigger.
 

Her ears rang and she jumped, grabbing Alex's arm. He did the same to her and they clung to one another, staring in amazement. A zombie a few feet outside the perimeter toppled slowly over, the top half of its head missing. Some of the others fell on the corpse and tucked in.
 

She turned away and covered her mouth. 'God, that's horrible, I'll never get used to that.'

'Me neither. I'd rather we didn't have to watch it.' Alex replied.

'You can say it then, I'm not talking to him anymore.'

Alex gave her a look then took tentative steps towards the huge man. The gun looked toy-like in his massive hands. She didn't hear what Alex said but Jackson responded calmly, then turned and shot another of the zombies. Luke's head thrust out from the cab.
 

'What the hell is going on?'

'Jackson's getting in some target practice.'

Luke huffed. 'Jackson, cut it out. They'll hear at the cathedral.'

The big man glared at them and she thought he was going to ignore Luke as well. Then he lowered the gun and rumbled over. As his bulk filled her eye-line, she decided she'd rather he stay and shoot things.
 

'Where are we?' he asked.
 

'Well, Jackson, I had found the device before I was so rudely distracted.' Luke pulled his head back inside the cab.
 

They waited, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding eye contact. A couple of toe-curling minutes later, Luke pushed the door open and emerged, bearing what looked like an over-sized smart-phone, only thicker and with more sharp edges. He hefted it in one hand.
 

'How do you know that's it?'

'I don't. I just think it is. I'm hoping ripping it off the van hasn't damaged it.'

She twisted and stared behind her, heart racing. The zombies weren't coming any closer. Luke gave them all a grin. 'Let's find out, shall we?'

He stomped away and they rushed to keep up. He headed for the far end of the bus. She spotted David and Ed peering at them through the windows. The zombies moved. Those in front of them were forced back by the wall created by the device Luke held. They were most of the way there before the thought struck her.
 

She spun and stared at where they'd just come from. The far side of the truck was outside the area and zombies were rocking it back and forth. Before she could say anything, Luke took another step and one of the soldiers fell outside the zone. The zombies fell on him, driving teeth deep into his arms and head and face. His scream was something she couldn't imagine ever forgetting.
 

Luke

The discovery of the device went some way to calming his anger. The Father had a seriously sick sense of humour. Sending him to Earth was one thing. Making him mortal and tossing him into the middle of a zombie apocalypse was another. But giving him these people to work with was pure evil.
 

He glanced at the others as they had their backs to him, staring in horror as the soldiers were devoured. Jackson was the real worry. He was completely barking mad. Worse, he believed in something and that made him dangerous. Bayleigh and Alex were all right, sane for the most part and not hating him entirely, so they might do what they were told.
 

He glanced over his shoulder at the two faces pressed against the glass. Ed was too young. He already carried enough scars and this would just make more. But he wasn't a worry. He'd do what Luke asked and so long as he stayed out of the way, they would get on just fine. David was a different story. He was cracked and very much on the edge. The irony wasn't lost on him.

David's time in isolation had clearly done things to his brain, just like the first time. After that instance, he'd seemed to recover, but now he was teetering and Luke had no idea which way he'd go. He'd survived the first day so his survival instinct was strong. Would it slip if he lost the plot entirely?

Luke took slow steps back and the fourth soldier was exposed. Bayleigh choked back a sob as a zombie set its teeth into his face and tore through the skin. The gas mask came off with the best part of his nose and cheeks. Bayleigh turned away and Luke prepared himself for the onslaught.
 

Instead she buried her face in his chest and sobbed. He put his arms around her, blinking at the top of her head. This was unexpected.
 

Here he was trying to warn them and they just didn't get it. It was a warning to the freaks the Father had dumped him with that he was as evil as they thought he was. It was also a warning of how little he cared about the soldiers of god.
 

And as if on cue, Alex turned on him, snarling. 'How can you do that? They're the only humans left alive except us and you let them die.'

'They aren't humans, not how you'd like them to be.'

Bayleigh pushed him away and sniffed. 'What do you mean?'

'They are true believers. Their only goal in life is to do whatever they are told by the priests. They have no more compassion for us than they would an ant. Either we're believers or we're dead.'

'Easy for you to say.' Alex said, 'How do you know that?'

'Because I know these people. They have been around for millennia, stirring up shit and causing pain and suffering wherever they can. Now they've destroyed the world and you can bet they think they have a good reason for it.'

'So it was definitely them?'

'You saw it yourself, Bayleigh. You know it was them.'

'But why? Why would you do that?'

Luke shrugged and groaned inside. This question could go round and round. 'Because they're evil bastards?' He got a look from Alex and Bayleigh. 'Because they believe. I'm hoping when we find Krystal we might get some insight into exactly what that is.'

On the other hand, it could just be Az screwing with me and the Father and everyone else
. He wouldn't say that out loud, though. They didn't want to hear that.
 

'The most important thing is to rescue Krystal. That comes first. If we can, we do some digging, but not until she's safe.'

Bayleigh frowned and shook her head at him. He wasn't going to explain himself, she could wonder all she wanted. He raised a hand and rapped on the bus window. The two on board jumped and vanished from sight.
 

'We'll go on foot from here. With this, we have nothing to worry about.'

He shoved the device in his pocket. Bloody great invention. It was using a pheromone of some sort, it had to be. It was the only thing he could think of, although how the soldiers had worked out what the zombies would be repelled by he had no idea. It would be great to find out. He added it to the list and set off walking. David and Ed bundled down off the bus, shouting for him to wait. He didn't.

Luke led them to the edge of the street, close enough to the buildings for them to hide should more soldiers appear, which they surely would following the failure of their companions to return. They strung out in a line behind him and he glanced over his shoulder.
 

Bayleigh was directly behind him, pale and red-eyed. She was tired and strung out and should really be asleep. He needed to look after them. He hated being nursemaid, but without proper sleep they'd get fractious and argue, and it would be one headache after another.
 

All of them were twitchy, jumping and jerking as zombies came closer before shuffling away. The perimeter was a good twenty feet on all sides of the device so there was nothing to worry about.
 

But he understood their fear. Being human was weird. They were the superior race on Earth, in control of their environment and the world around them. Yet they lived their lives in constant fear of what could happen, or what might happen. He'd known this for millennia but not understood it properly. Now he felt it, sinking through his bones like a cancer, unseen but irrefutable.
 

He wasn't worried, but he still twitched every time one of them came close. It was a reaction that made no sense and had no basis in logic. But still he couldn't stop himself. How long was he going to be here? The longer he was here the more human he'd become, and the thought made him squirm.
 

It was ironic, of course, that the Father sent him here just as humans stopped being the dominant race. They were the hunted now, the tiny minority hiding away from the rest of the world. He should have had the Father show him elsewhere on the earth, so he could see the damage done in other countries. Was everywhere like this? Had anyone else survived?

He stopped, raising a hand to halt the rest. They'd reached the point in the street where it straightened out and the spire of St Paul's poked above the buildings. He crept forwards, hand resting lightly on his sword. Jackson had brought one of the guns but the others had treated them like poison. It was probably for the best.
 

Five trucks were parked in a row on the left of the cathedral in front of the Tesco store, surrounded by soldiers. God, those shops were bloody everywhere. They were in the brave new world, and the only things he could see were the soldiers of god and Tesco's. He sniffed. No Krystal.

There was no way they were getting in the front. It meant going through the tunnels, which took far longer than he wanted. He hissed and turned back to the others, making eye contact with Alex as he spoke. 'We're heading to the hospital, just up Old Bailey.'

He nodded past them and they shuffled round until David led the way. He walked as slowly as possible, checking over his shoulder every second. The zombies in front of him were held back, but only by six or seven feet, and every time one raised a hand he flinched and stopped walking. Luke handled it for all of a minute before he pushed past Bayleigh with a growl and caught up with David.
 

'You're pathetic. You're safe, they can't get you.'

'Yeah, you're an evil bastard. I was safer when I was the wind.'

Luke blinked and decided not to ask.
 

The hospital was filled with bedridden zombies and zombies in wheelchairs, and there was something both funny and heart-achingly sad about it. Luke paid as little attention as he could, focusing on getting them down into the subterranean garage beneath without anyone getting eaten.