Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis (14 page)

He
wiped the spit from his cheek and merely smiled. “I’m not going to waste time asking you questions, my dear. I can think of something
far
more fun to do with you.”

“Let her
go, you animal,” ordered Laurent. “Let us all go! We’re no good to you. I’m not going to tell you anything, or where our friends are.”

“Walker, bring the girl over here by the cart please.
Rosa, wasn’t it? Honok, Shane, bring Mr Laurent over here.”

Lazarus went over to a corner of the room and came back with
a club. It was made of steel and the end of it was rusty. Lazarus leant over the cart where Leonard was sitting. He was hunched over, his hands shaking and his eyes shut tight.

“Who was this
again, Honok?”

“Leonard, sir. I think his mind’s gone, stupid old fucker.”

“How...disappointing. Leonard open your eyes, please. I want to talk to you,” said Lazarus.

Leonard slowly opened them and l
ooked up at the scary strange man staring back at him. They had hurt Glenda and he was scared. Laurent and Rosa were there too, but they looked frightened of this man.

“I want to go home. I want to see Billy,” said Leonard.
“Carol will be wondering where I am if I don’t go back soon.”

“Let me help you, said Lazarus offering Leonard a hand. He helped
Leonard out of the cart and then pushed it away as the old man stood in the centre of the room. He was clearly bewildered.

“It’s
okay, Lenny, ignore him, don’t talk to him,” said Laurent.

“Shut up,” said
Shane, punching Laurent hard in the face, breaking his nose.

Honok grinned and held him up as Laurent reeled.
Laurent refused to cry out, defiantly looking at Lazarus as blood poured from his nose.

Leonard wet himself and Lazarus could
literally smell the man’s fear as it spread through his pyjamas and puddled on the stone floor.

“Laurent, Rosa,
Lenny
, let me tell you something. This is
my
place. What you want is irrelevant to me. Anyone on this island is either with me, or against me. Now I am quite sure that you are not going to work for me, which means you are my enemies, my prisoners. Mr Laurent, you have information which I want, so Walker is going to ask you some questions. How painful the answers are is up to you. In the meantime, I shall take your friend Rosa someplace else. She looks tired if you ask me. I think we should find a nice comfortable bed for her, don’t you agree?”

“Who are you?” said Laurent. “You’re no better than those thing
s out there.”

“We men are wretched things. I do not expect you to understand.
But I do expect you to do as I say. My name is Lazarus. Welcome to the Mount.” Lazarus smiled.

Laurent and Rosa screamed as
Lazarus took the club and raised it in the air, smashing it against the side of Leonard’s head, instantly splitting his fragile skull. Leonard roared as Lazarus brought the club down again. He smashed Leonard’s hands and arms, shattering the bones with each blow as the old man tried to get out of the way. Lazarus continued to rain blows upon Leonard’s old body as Honok and Shane dragged Laurent away.

Blood and bone flecked Lazarus’ face as he bludgeoned Leonard to death. When the old man stopped
moving, Lazarus threw the club aside. Leonard was hardly recognisable anymore. His body had been smashed and battered, and he lay in a crumpled bloody heap.

Walker laughed as Rosa struggled, unable to escape the man’s strong hold. He watched as Shane and Honok took Laurent away up the stairs and deeper into the castle. The man was fighting, but Walker would get what he needed to know out of him. Today was going to be a good day.

Lazarus exhaled and ran bloody fingers through his thick black hair. He pointed at Walker. “Take that girl to my room and tie her up. Then clear this shit up. Tell Honok not to waste anymore of my time bringing me old rubbish like this. He would’ve been nothing but a drain on our resources. When they have Laurent locked up, I want him and Shane back out there right away.”

Lazarus
turned and went upstairs as Walker pushed Rosa ahead of him. She was bawling her eyes out, praying her death would be quicker and less painful than Lenny’s had.

* * * *

Lazarus rolled his head and stretched his neck. He grabbed a towel and ran it across his back, the rough texture of the dry towel absorbing the sweat from his muscular body. He reached down to the floor, discarding the towel and began to dress. “Now where was I? Oh yes, your friends.”

Rosa was naked, tied to his bed. Her ankles and wrists began to bleed from the tight binding and she turned her face away from him. She had lost track of time since he had brought her up here and tied her up. It must have been an hour or
two, she thought. They had gone through a long underground tunnel to this place, and every passing minute was another minute closer to death and further away from Jess. Lazarus had spent a considerable amount of time in fucking her. He hadn’t said anything to her, just grunted and ground away on top of her, ignoring her pleas for him to stop. Eventually, she had given up and blocked him out. She tried to think about Jessica, Tom, home; anything but here and the pain she was feeling.

“You might as well tell
me, Rosa, your French friend has probably spilled his guts to Walker already,” Lazarus chortled. “If not, then no matter. You’ll tell me, won’t you?”

She didn’t answer him. Rosa was thinking about Jessica and the last time she’d seen her. It had been in the house in Longrock
on the morning before they’d split up. She had gone with Laurent because she wanted to prove a point. She wanted to prove to Jessica that she wasn’t a pushover or a flake, and that she could handle herself. Now look where she was; tied up and raped, her life at the mercy of a madman.

“Still not talking to me? Shame.” Lazarus walked around the bed to face her. He held her head with one large bony hand so she could not turn away. “Fine, have it your way. I’m going to send you downstairs to your friend.
Gwen or whatever her name was. Do you know what my men are going to do to you?”

Rosa stared back at him, refusing to speak. She was scared of what was going to happen to her, but was more scared what would happen if she told him where Jess and the others were.

Lazarus let go of her and pulled a shirt on over his head. He put on his boots, his long black coat, and picked up a small sword from the drawers beneath a window. He bent over Rosa and she braced herself, waiting for the cool steel blade to slice through her skin. Instead, Lazarus cut her ties and freed her. He grabbed her arms and she felt the sword pressing against her back.

“We’re going on a little
walk, my dear. If you try anything, I will cut off your tits and let you bleed to death.”

Lazarus frogmarched her out of his bedroom and down the stairway. He kept a strong hold of her all the way down to the cells where he passed Christopher coming out. “Christopher, wait
there please.”

Lazarus threw her down the steps into the cell and barked at Norm to lock her up in the spare cell. Once he had seen Norm close the door on
her, he went back upstairs to find Christopher obediently waiting for him.

“Christopher. I want you to go and tell everyone there is to be a meeting tonight at six. Until
then, everyone can relax, stop work and have a break. Tell the men we have new entertainment for them and they don’t need to wait for my permission. Tell them to come right away, in fact. Think of it as a little present from me.”

“
Yes, sir, right away.” He didn’t think twice about what the meeting was about. He had finished with the older woman, but now that the young one was available, he intended to go back for her. She was slim and pretty. “The boys are going to have a lot of fun, thanks sir.” Christopher gleefully left the castle to inform his colleagues and friends of the good news.

Lazarus made his way down the hillside to the village
and entered one of the houses as Christopher spread the word.

“Ed, anything?”

“Perfect timing, sir, they’ve just started talking again. I was about to fetch you.”

Ed held out the headphones and Lazarus sat down at the radio.

“Ed, we’ve some visitors. Go and see if Walker needs a hand will you?”

Ed left to go find Walker whilst Lazarus reached for the volume button and turned the dial clockwise. Through the
static, he began to hear the voices, one British, one American.

“...luck with it McCulloch. Seriously, I hope you find some people. I’m starting to feel like we’re the last ones alive on E
arth,” said the American voice.

“
Thanks, Samson, I‘ll let you know how we get on, of course. We’re not going to take any risks, but we can’t call it off now. We’ve been sending the message out and we’re just hoping someone heard it. We’ll know by 0730 tomorrow one way or another. Penzance is our last hope.”

Lazarus recognised the second voice as being British and guessed it was that of McCulloch, the British naval Admiral.

“I’ve been in discussion with Blaine on the USS Gerald Ford, and he’s in agreement with me. He thinks we should get together too. We’ve been unsuccessful in reaching anyone on the mainland and we’re better prepared for this thing with you than without you. Are you still in agreement?” said Samson.

“Absolutely. I can’t wait to meet you face to
face, Samson. I’ve told some of my men and they’re keen to get going. We can put our heads together and come up with a plan. I’m sure of it. Things are pretty hairy down here. We’ve seen some strange shit.”

“You mean worse than the zombies?”
asked Samson.

Admiral M
cCulloch coughed before answering. Lazarus wondered if he were hurt, or just being very British and polite.

“In the ocean. Marine life
around here isn’t usually very exciting, but...some of my men reported seeing things in the last couple of days. There are things floating on the surface of the sea. They look like harmless lumps of seaweed, but if you look closer, they’re alive. A couple of my men got hurt. It sounds crazy, but these long tentacles reached up out of the water and stung them.”

“McCulloch
, I hope you put them in quarantine.”

“
Oh, yes, of course. They’ve been sedated, but they’re not doing well. We even saw dolphins yesterday, but…”

“Go on.”

There was static and Lazarus wondered if he had lost the frequency for a moment before the British voice resumed.

“The dolphins tried attacking the ship. They rammed themselves into us.
God knows what they thought they were trying to achieve. It was hard to see clearly, but they didn’t look well. I’m thinking that this infection thing isn’t contained to humans. The dolphins were covered with blisters and cuts. They looked terrible. After a while, they must have figured out they couldn’t get at us and gave up. We fired a few warning shots, not that they took much notice of them.”

“
Well, the dolphins are much friendlier over in the Caribbean,” said Samson. “The USS Gerald Ford is sitting tight there. They’re going to wait for you and me to join them. I told you there’s something we wanted to share with you yesterday and I mean that, McCulloch.”

“Tell
me, Samson, what have you found. You said you picked it up near Texas right?”

“Yeah, you’re not going to believe it when you see it.
What we’ve got here is nothing short of a miracle. It’s one of them. It’s a goddamn alien.”

Lazarus took off the headphones. So the Americans had captured an alien? Was that how this infection had started? He was amazed. He hadn’t been naïve enough to believe man was alone in the cosmos, but an alien here on Earth, alive? He put the headphones back on just in time to hear the two ship’s captains saying their goodbyes. No wonder there ha
dn’t been a cure for the disease and no wonder it had spread so quickly.

Lazarus got up. He needed to go see Walker. If this infection could spread to animal
life, then it wasn’t just zombies they were dealing with. They were going to need a large arsenal and Rosa’s friends could help them. Lazarus left the stone house, slamming the door behind him.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“We need another distraction,” said Harry. “He’ll never get past all those things to the fence. Quick, go tell the others.”

Moira sprinted into the garden centre whilst Harry kept a watch on Jackson.
Jackson wouldn’t exactly know their whereabouts of course, and Harry could see the confusion on his face. Jackson was looking at the shopping mall, the supermarket, trying to figure out where to go. He also couldn’t keep still as the zombies had noticed him and were gathering around him, getting closer all the time.

Tom and Jessica came sprinting back with Heidi and stopped behind Harry.

“It’s him? What’s he doing here?” said Tom.

“I don’t know
, but we need to do something fast or he won’t be here for long,” said Harry.

“Over there. We have to go the front of the centre and shout and scream, get the zombies to follow us. Harry, Jess, you come with me. Moira, stay here and hide. When the coast is
clear, open the fence door, get out there and wave for Jackson to follow you. We’ll keep them away from you as long as we can.”

Tom didn’t wait for an answer
and rushed through the bushes into the open, heading for the opposite corner. There were a hundred zombies in the car park and he began hollering and whooping. Harry and Jess followed suit and began jumping up and down, trying to make as much noise as possible. Slowly, the zombies headed in the direction of all the noise. Tom and Harry kept a safe distance from the fence so no prying fingers or hands could reach them. Jessica stood behind them with half an eye on the sky. She hadn’t forgotten the strange creature that had nearly decapitated her only five minutes earlier.

When the majority of zombies had moved
away, Moira slipped the door open quietly and jogged down the side of the building. She waved her arms over her head and Jackson spotted her. He ran toward her, a line of zombies following his path. They looked like they had formed a bizarre conga line. Only ten feet away from salvation and a dead shopper emerged from the supermarket between Moira and Jackson.

Jackson stopped in his tracks and Moira did not hesitate. She swung the bow saw at the zombie and lopped its head off. Jackson raced past the falling body and Moira led him back through the door into the garden centre. She locked the door behind her and dragged a bush over it. Some of the zombies had seen where they had gone through the fence and the whole centre was now surrounded.

Exhausted, Jackson sank to his knees. He was panting, out of breath, and Tom and Harry helped him to his feet. Together, they carried him inside.

“Get him some water!” shouted Tom
when they reached the restroom.

T
hey laid him down on the sofa and Mac brought a bottle of water out to him. Jackson took a sip and looked around the room. All eyes were staring at him expectantly.

“What the
hell, Jackson? We thought you were going to wait at the petrol station for us?” said Harry. “What happened?”

“
Oh, my God, Rosa, is she..?” Jessica brought a hand to her mouth.

“She’s alive,” said
Jackson, draining the water from the plastic bottle.

“My parents? Where are they?!” Heidi clutched Tom’s arm.

“Okay, hang on, everyone. Give him some room.” Tom ushered everyone away. They waited for Jackson to respond. Heidi was holding her breath and gripping Tom’s arm.

“It went wrong. Jesus, it’s all fucked up.” Jackson face was bright red and he
let out a sigh. “Heidi, I’m sorry but your dad...”

“
Oh, my God.” Heidi gripped Tom’s arm tighter. “Mum?”

“She got away.”

Heidi threw herself at Tom and he held her there. He could feel his chest getting wet through his shirt from her tears.

“What
happened, Jackson?” Christina sat down beside him and he inched away from her.

“It was so fast
that I hardly know. I went after Lenny. I traced my way back to the house, and to the fields out the back of the house. By the time I got there, I couldn’t see Lenny, but I saw the petrol station. Laurent and Rosa got inside with Glenda, but Daniel...he was too slow...the zombies, they...” Jackson didn’t want to tell Heidi what he had really seen, how he had seen those dogs rip him apart.

Christina touched Jackson’s arm and he flinched.

“Don’t touch me. Sorry, but just don’t, okay? Look, the others got into the petrol station, but then someone else turned up. They were in an ambulance of all things.”

Tom looked at Mac who nodded. Jackson went on.

“There were three of them to start with, but they killed one of their own. They just maimed him and fed him to the zombies. Then they got to the station and before I could do anything, they got Laurent, Rosa and Glenda. They were armed with knives and swords and they just bundled them into the back. They took Lenny too.”

“Those motherfuckers, I knew it. I knew they were bad news.” Mac began pacing up and down. “
Well, I guess I know where Sally and Keisha are. Fuck, we have to go get them.”

“Steady on,” said Tom. Heidi had stopped crying and Tom gingerly pushed her away. Caterina took her to
one side and consoled her.

J
essica watched. Maybe Heidi’s tears were real this time. Her father
had
just been eaten alive. Jackson was right, this was fucked up. “He’s right, Tom. Rosa’s there, so we have to go get them. What did these men look like, Jackson? Do you know where they were going?”

Jackson shrugged. “I’d recognise them again
, but I don’t know where they were going. One was a short fat man, the other average looking. Big butch man though. Thick hands and arms. If we’re going looking for a fight, I think we’ll get one.”

“
Oh, God I can’t believe this. We were so close.” Christina put her head in her hands. The thought of reaching that naval ship tomorrow had been her focus for so long now that it had kept her going. She had planned to get Caterina on that boat no matter what. Now Laurent and Rosa had been kidnapped? That boat wasn’t going to be back. They had to be on it tomorrow, they just
had
to.

“Excuse me,” said Jimmy clearing his throat. “I don’t mean to interrupt
, but there are nine of us in this room. Just to play devil’s advocate, but it sounds to me like you’re proposing going to rescue your friends? What if you don’t? These men took four people, two of whom you hardly even know. One of them is an old man, right?”

Christina looked at Jimmy. She had comforted the boy, got no more than two words out of him the whole time
, and now here he was giving a speech about how they should leave their friends behind? “Jimmy, shut the fuck up before someone shuts you up,” she said calmly.

“I’m not leaving my mum!” cried Heidi.

“Are you for real?” said Jessica. “Who the fucking hell are you anyway? It’s your fault we’re in this mess, you little shit! We should be leaving
you
behind.”

“We’re not leaving
anyone
behind,” said Tom. He picked up the garden shears and rested them against a shoulder. “Jimmy, you’re way out of line. I don’t know what rock you crawled out of but you’d better start growing up fast. We can always throw you outside if you’d prefer. Heidi, Jess, we’ll go back for them.” Tom sighed. He had to get some control of things before people started going their own way. If Jimmy kept talking that way, he was liable to get lynched. Tom watched a red-faced Jimmy slink into the background. “Jackson, what about Laurent and Lenny, did they seem okay?”

“
Yeah, I suppose so.”

“
How about you? Are you okay?”

Jackson looked at Tom and didn’t answer.

“Jackson, tell Tom you’re okay,” said Christina.

There was no response.

“No, no, no,” whispered Christina, a horrified look dawning across her face.

“When the ambulance
left, I knew I wouldn’t be able to follow it,” said Jackson softly. “The only option I really had was to get back and find you to tell you what had happened. I thought I was well hidden in the cornfield, but turns out, I wasn’t hidden so well. There were so many of them, so many of the dead.”

“Oh fuck, no. Did
you get bitten?” said Harry.

“
Sort of. I got quite far through the fields before I realised something was following me. I thought I was going to make it back, but I knew I wouldn’t. I came to the edge of the field and then I saw them. It was a pack of dogs and they were all dead. I guess they could smell me. I didn’t have anything on me so I had to run for it. Unfortunately, dead dogs can run quite fast.”

Jackson leaned over and rolled up his trouser leg. There were two sets of bite marks on his shins where they had bitten him. The skin around the bites was already bruising and Tom saw the tell-tale sign of the infection already, a line of white blisters spreading up his leg. Jackson rolled the trousers down.

Christina leant over and gave Jackson a hug. “I’m sorry, Jackson, I’m so sorry,” she whispered in his ear.

“
Well, better me than one of you lot,” said Jackson stoically. “I’ve had a good inning and I do miss my Mary. I know she’s waiting for me.”

Tom smashed the shears down on the table and stormed out swearing. Harry followed him.

“I’m sorry, Jackson,” said Caterina. “Thank you for trying. Thank you for everything.” She came over and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Jackson
brushed Caterina away, keen not to let her get any closer. “You’d best all keep your distance from me.” He shook himself and shuddered. “Well, sod this, I’m not dead yet. Now who are you, young man?” He began talking to Mac.

Heidi sank down into one of the sofas and held a cushion to her
chest. She had stopped crying, but was sniffing and dabbing at her eyes. She couldn’t believe her father was dead. Her mother was alone out there. Daniel had been a rock for her and Heidi was worried that without him, her mother might crumble. Where was she now?

Jessica saw Heidi holding back the tears and thought it might be time to
mend some bridges. She sat down beside her. “Hey, I’m sorry about your dad.”

“Thanks.
He was…“ Heidi choked up as so many memories of her childhood raced through her mind. She had to try and think about that later. Her mother was still alive. “I’m worried about my mum.”

“I told Rosa not to go
, but she’s pig-headed sometimes. If she’s with Laurent, she’ll be okay. Glenda too. Laurent’s a good man. He’ll look out for them.”

“So you and Rosa are...together?” asked Heidi innocently.

“Yeah, no problem with that, is there?” Jessica had enough to worry about without having to worry about homophobia too.

“Of course not,
I’m not my dad. I just wasn’t sure. I thought maybe you and Tom...”

“No, we’re good friends
, but that’s it,” said Jessica.

“I can’t get him out of my head,” said Heidi.
She knew Jessica and Tom were close, that they had been through this since the beginning. She still wasn’t sure quite how their relationship worked, and wanted to try getting some understanding of how she might fit in. “I know this isn’t exactly the time, but I can’t help it. There’s something about him. Shit, if he can get my mum back, I will have his babies.” Heidi wiped her eyes and tried to smile at her own lame joke, hoping Jessica might open up. “I’ve never met anyone like him. You know him well. Did you know him before all of this? You think I should say something to him?”

Jessica gritted her teeth.
She had been wrong to think that Heidi would fit into their group. She was too immature and Jessica was fed up. She was worried about whether Rosa was alive or dead, yet all Heidi could talk about was boys? “I think you need to grow up. He isn’t interested, okay? I’ve met plenty of pretty girls like you before, all tits and blonde hair, and I’ll meet plenty more when you’re gone. Just leave Tom alone. He’s got bigger issues to deal with right now than your hormones.”

Jessica left Heidi looking on bemused as she grabbed a drink and walked out of the restroom. She hadn’t meant to snap
, but there was something about Heidi that pushed her buttons.

Jessica heard voices and tracked them down. She made her way past the garden furniture display into the
gift area and found Tom and Harry in deep discussion. “Mind if I join you, it’s getting crowded in there.” Jessica was feeling pissed off and didn’t want to be in the same room as Heidi anymore.

“Sure. How’s Jackson doing?”
asked Harry.

“Surprisingly chirpy, considering,” she answered.
“He’s chatting away with Mac.”

“How’s Heidi coping?” asked Tom.

Jessica shrugged. “Fine.” She wasn’t about to tell Tom what Heidi had said. He had other things to be thinking about right now, like how they were going to get Rosa back.

“We were just saying that we need to do something sooner rather than later,” said Harry. “Mac doesn’t have a very high impression of these guys and from
what Jackson tells us, I agree. If Laurent and Rosa were taken at knifepoint, then we have to assume the worst. Mac says they would’ve been taken to the Mount.”