Last Days With the Dead (12 page)

Phil’s eyebrows creased in concern. Up until Avery had joined them, Nadine had been their only source of medical knowledge. It puzzled him a little that Bryon should be stepping up to help Avery instead of her.

‘Where’s Nadine?’ he asked, turning back to J-man, his hand resting on the convent door.

J-man simply shrugged his shoulders.

‘Bryon was just there, I suppose,’ he replied.

With that, Phil slowly nodded and went inside. Something was wrong, he knew it
, and not just the explosion and Avery and Alice’s injuries. He prayed he was just jumping to conclusions, but with Nadine strangely missing, he somehow knew there was still more bad news to come that night.

***

‘Now use the antiseptic spray,’ Avery was saying to Bryon as Phil appeared at Alice’s doorway.

‘What’s the situation outside?’ Patrick asked quietly, placing a hand on Phil’s soot streaked shoulder.

‘What? Oh, we’ve blocked the breach in the wall and the fires are out,’ Phil replied, unable to take his eyes from the scene in the room.

‘It’s not a bad as it looks,’ Avery said, noticing Phil staring
at the blood covering one side of his face and shoulders, ‘head wounds always bleed a lot, and baring infection, Alice should be okay in the long run. There’s a clean exit wound on the back of her shoulder and miraculously no major arteries or veins were hit. The bullet nicked her shoulder blade, which will be painful for a while, but it’ll heal eventually.’

‘But there’s so much blood?’ Phil said, looking at the pool surrounding Alice.

‘Just looks like a lot spread out like that,’ Avery replied, wincing as Liz gently pulled the wadded up bloody towel away from his head to look at the wound. ‘Probably only a pint or two at most,’ he continued, giving Liz an annoyed look, ‘she’ll be a bit delicate for a day or so, but she’ll come through. She’s only unconscious now because she fainted from the shock.’

‘I take it we’ve got Melissa and Lucy to thank for all of this?’ Phil asked
, turning to look at Patrick.

‘Mary,’ Patrick corrected, crossing his arms to stop himself from punching a wall, ‘the bitch’s name is actually Mary, Mary Donaldson
. Sister Rebecca recognised her.’

‘Shit
,’ said Phil, realising just whom they had let into their home, ‘I take it this was a revenge thing for killing that man of theirs last year?’

‘No,’ said Liz, ‘they took Charlie. I think that was their plan all along
.’

‘What! If they hurt that boy, I’m going to kill those incestuous freaks! I swear!’ Phil growled, his gaze falling back to Alice’s pale face.

‘So, with the explosives and Charlie kidnaped, it certainly looks like the Donaldson’s have made some very well equipped friends.’ Patrick continued.

‘Captain Cardin,’ Avery whispered, the colour suddenly draining from his own face, ‘
my, God, how did they know Charlie and Alice survived the ambush?’

‘We can work that out later,’ Phil began,
‘first; we’ve got to get Charlie back. If the Donaldson’s have him, at least we got an idea where they’re headed.’

‘Yes but…’Liz started to say
, but stopped when over Patrick’s shoulder, Steve appeared from the shadows with blood over his chest and arms.

‘What is it?’ she asked, fearing the words he would say
, but still needing to hear them.

Steve’s gaze flicked towards Bryon
, and instantly, Liz knew. Bryon and Nadine had been such close friends, ever since they had joined the convoy that eventually arrived at Lanherne, and Liz knew he would take this news badly.

‘I’m sorry, Bryon.’ Steve said softly, looking at the man kneeling in the lamp light while he applied a bandage to Alice’s shoulder.

‘What?’ Bryon whispered, noticing for the first time Steve’s blood covered chest and somehow knowing what he was going to say.

‘It’s Nadine
,’ Steve continued, ‘I’m sorry.’

Bryon stared silently back at Steve, his eyes filling up with heavy tears. For a few
minutes, no one said anything. Finally, Liz reached out her hand to touch Bryon’s shoulder, but with a strangled sob, Bryon turned to Avery.

‘What now
,’ he managed to say even as heavy tears fell from his eyes, ‘what do you want me to do now for Alice?’

‘It’s alright
, Bryon,’ Liz said, reaching to take the bandages from him, ‘I can finish up here, it’s alright.’

‘No, it’s not fucking alright!’ Bryon snapped back
. ‘They’ve taken Nadine from us, I’ll be damned if I let these Fuckers take Alice too.’

Wiping his tears away on the back of his sleeve, Bryon coughed and let out a shaky breath.

‘I said, what now, Avery?’ he repeated, fighting to keep the quiver from his voice.

‘Now that it’s safe to move her, we should get
her up onto the bed,’ Avery replied, shakily pushing himself off Alice’s bed.

‘Whoa, take it slow,’ Liz said, reaching out to take Avery’s arm, ‘you’re still a bit wobbly on your feet.’

Waving away her concerns and the worried look on Phil’s face, Avery slowly stepped over Alice’s unconscious body and sat down on a fold away chair that had been propped in the corner of the room.

‘Patrick, Phil,’ he said motioning to the two large men, ‘would you mind doing the honours
, gently does it.’

Once they placed her softly down onto the bed, Phil perched his large form on the edge of the small creaking bed.

‘We’ll get him back, Alice,’ he whispered, brushing a blood caked lock of hair from her face, ‘I promise.’

‘Right, I think we’d better call everyone to the Refectory hall,’ said Patrick, nervously running his finger along his scar as he watched Phil
. ‘Avery, can you stay to look after Alice?’

‘Yes, of course
, but Bryon better stay with me, in case my knock to the head is worse than I thought.’ Avery’s eyes flicked to Bryon telling Patrick he was just keeping Bryon here to keep him occupied.

There would be time for Bryon’s grief when they had got
ten Charlie back safely, they didn’t need people getting distraught when there were things that needed to be done.

‘Right,’ said Patrick, silently thanking Avery
. ‘Steve, can you spread the word about the meeting, I’ll go see if Sister Rebecca can rustle up something warm to eat, we’ll not be going back to sleep tonight.’

With a nod, Steve turned to leave
, but Patrick caught his elbow.

‘Make sure Nadine’s body is taken to the Chapel
… use a sheet or something to wrap her in,’ he whispered, glancing back into the room, hoping Bryon hadn’t heard him.

‘Yeah, course
, and I’ll have a quick wash before I come to the meeting,’ replied Steve, looking down at his blood smeared arms and chest, ‘people don’t need to be seeing this.’

‘Thanks,’ said Patrick.

As he watched Steve turn and walk away, his form slowly disappearing into the darkness along the corridor, Patrick could hear Avery behind him talking softly to Bryon.

‘Why don’t we clean her up a bit,’ he was saying, ‘she doesn’t need to wake up covered in crusted blood, it’ll only upset her
.’

‘
It’ll take more than a bowl of water to make this right
,’ Patrick thought to himself, ‘
a lot
more
.’

***

Later, Patrick looked out at the worried and confused faces of the people of Lanherne. They had all turned to him as he rose from the bench and walked over to stand in front of the large map on the wall. If they expected from him, words of comfort or solace, they were to be disappointed. All he had for them was grief and ill tidings. Once again, those who had nothing in their hearts but malice and greed, had infiltrated Lanherne. They had taken the hospitality and hope offered to them and trampled it under foot, leaving nothing but death and sorrow in their wake. All, accept Chloe, who Patrick asked to stay with all the children in his bedroom, Avery, Bryon, and Alice, had gathered in the Refectory hall, their worried and whispered conversations crating a palpable tension in the room.

‘As you know by now, Lissa and her daughter were not what they seemed,’ he began, looking from one face to the next
. ‘Thanks to Sister Rebecca, we now know her real name is Mary Donaldson.’

With
this, Patrick heard Sister Rebecca choke back a sob.

‘You couldn’t have known what they would do,’ Helen said softly, reaching across to hold the old woman’s hand.

‘But if only I’d remembered sooner,’ she replied, ‘it’s my fault…’

‘No!’ said Patrick, his strong voice booming around th
e Refectory. ‘None of this is any of our faults, and I don’t want anyone thinking like that. We need to hold it together; we need to keep strong as a community. If we let this break us, then we’ll fall apart bit by bit, and if that happens, then they really have won, and I won’t have that.’

‘He’s right,’ added Liz, pushing herself away from the bench to stand, ‘the only people to blame here are Mary and her daughter. We offered them the chance to live a life safe from the Dead
, and look how they repaid us.’

‘For those of you who may not have heard,’ Patrick interrupted, knowing what he was about to say would be unknown to some of the people in the room
, and it should really come from him, ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news.  Not only did they attack Avery and Alice, and blow a hole in the wall when they left but, well, I’m afraid they also killed Nadine.’

A hushed silence met his words as each of the members of Lanherne took in his words.

‘Those fucking bastards,’ spat Rich, taking his wife’s hand in his own.

‘My God! They had no idea she wouldn’t come back as one of the Dead,’ whispered Niki, looking back at her husband with tears in her eyes, ‘so as far as they were concerned
, they were killing us all, weren’t they?’

‘I think we have to assume that, yes
,’ continued Patrick, hearing Niki’s words. ‘They came here for a precise reason and didn’t care who got killed in the process.’

‘But why
,’ asked William, ‘it’s been over a year since their brother, father, or whoever he was, was killed when he was attacking Liz. Why wait until now?’

‘Charlie.’ Patrick replied, looking about the room
. ‘They came to get Charlie.’

‘What?’ said Duncan, not seeing the connection.

‘Obviously, when Steve’s friend, Matt, returned to the Military base, they didn’t believe that the convoy being overrun by the Dead was purely coincidental,’ Patrick continued. ‘Where else would the Donaldson’s get explosives and motorbikes? It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. Captain Cardin and his scientists have somehow got the Donaldson clan to do their dirty work for them.’

‘And
… and did they?’ asked Sister Claire in a soft voice.

‘Yes
, I’m afraid they did.’ replied Patrick, looking over at the old nun clutching her rosary beads tightly in her hand.

‘But we’re going to get him back
,’ said Phil matter-of-factly, standing to look about the room, his very stature giving his words strength.

‘Yes,’ agreed Patrick, tapping a point on the map behind him
, ‘and at least we have an idea where they’re headed.’   

‘With the motorbikes, they’ve got a head start on us
,’ said Phil, moving over to look at the large map, ‘but if we leave at first light, we should be able to get there by this afternoon if we take this direct route.’

‘No, Phil
, it’s too risky,’ interrupted Helen, seeing the route his finger had traced, ‘that’ll take you through a red zone. We stay clear of the red zones, that’s the rule. There are just too many of the Dead there.’

‘We don’t have much choice,’ Phil replied turning to look at Helen, ‘if we’re to have any chance of catching up with them before they hand over Charlie to the soldiers, we’ve got to go this way.’

‘He’s right, Helen,’ added Patrick, seeing the concern in his wife’s eyes. ‘It’s the only chance we have.’

‘And I suppose you’re one of the ones taking that chance?’ she replied softly, already knowing his answer.

With a simple nod, he confirmed what she knew. Despite having his own wife and daughter to care for, Patrick would never be able to turn his back on those who needed his help, even if it meant putting his own life at risk. Deep down, she wanted to demand he stay, demand he let someone else go in his stead, but she knew she could not. For the very reason that made her love him so much, she knew he would go.

‘I’m coming with you
,’ said Imran, rising to stand next to Liz.

‘Me too
,’ added Liz.

‘No, Liz
, I think you should stay,’ said Patrick, hoping he wasn’t going to have an argument on his hands. ‘Alice is going to need you here and I think and if he’s willing, Steve should come. If the soldiers are back in the mix, we’ll need his expertise.’