Last Days With the Dead (3 page)

‘We need to talk
,’ Leon continued, turning his attention to Patrick who had moved next to him.

With those words, Patrick knew bad news
was on the cards, but as a horde of the Dead hadn’t been following the cart up the lane, he knew whatever it was, could wait a few minutes.

‘Well, William and Damien will be on watch duty in about five minutes, you and Cam meet me in the Refectory,
okay?’ said Patrick, pushing aside the canvas glove to glance at the old battered watch on his wrist.

‘If you hurry, Sister Rebecca will cook you both some breakfast,’ called Lars over his shoulder, while he led Delilah over to the water trough.

At the mention of food, a loud growl emanated from Leon’s stomach.

‘Sorry
,’ he said, his hand moving to cover his stomach, ‘guess I could do with something to eat.’   

‘Right, see you in five minutes then
,’ said Patrick, slapping Leon on the shoulder before turning to climb back up onto the walkway to do another circuit of the walls. ‘Oh, and welcome home you two.’

***

In the Refectory, Liz sat at one of the long wooden tables with Saleana asleep in her arms, watching Nadine and Jen with the small group of children. Her sister, Anne, as one of the older members of the make shift school, was normally well behaved, but today, Nadine was teaching them mathematics and it was clear that Anne was bored by the subject, and had decided to play up. Justin on the other hand, who was a few years older than Anne, seemed to relish the order and simple truth that mathematics offered him, and had been able to master the subject at an alarming rate. Perhaps in the years to come, he would be able to put to good use his skill and even learn from Duncan the wonders of mechanics. They would surely need all the help they could get if they wanted a chance of rebuilding the world. But at the moment, his studious attitude was being disrupted by Anne, who was pulling faces at him.

‘Anne
,’ Liz said sternly, hooking her finger back and forth, ‘come here.’

‘Now you’re for it
,’ said Nadine, nodding for Anne to cross the room to her sister.

With a ‘humph’ sound, Anne pushed herself away from the table and walked over to Liz.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ asked Liz sounding and acting more like Anne’s mother than her sister. ‘Do you want to be a dumbo all your life?’

‘But it’s boring,’ Anne whined
. ‘Can’t I read instead, I like reading.’

‘What if we all only did what we liked, Anne
,’ replied Liz, ‘the crops wouldn’t get harvested and the Dead wouldn’t get killed, and then where would we be?’

‘You like killing the Dead
,’ Anne mumbled, absentmindedly kicking the leg of the table again and again.

Anne had got her there. It was
true; Liz did like killing the Dead. Well, not so much ‘liked’ but rather ‘needed’. She felt compelled to send these walking corpses back to the graves that had been denied them. She just knew it was her job to put down these creatures. They were simply wrong, their very existence at odds with nature and the way things should be. She felt this even more so now that she had given birth to a child. She refused to accept that her daughter was destined to live in a world where the Dead blossomed. Thanks to Avery’s anti-virus, the survivors at Lanherne may have miraculously been given the gift of true death, but to think of Saleana spending her whole life with the millions upon millions of walking corpses, tore at her heart.

‘Well
,’ Anne continued, breaking Liz from her thoughts, ‘Can’t I read instead? P.l.e.e.e.a.s.e.’

Looking into the large blue eyes peering out from an angelic upturned face, Liz smiled, lent forward
, and took her sister’s chin in her hand.

‘No!’ she said flatly
. ‘Get back to your work and get on with it, or you’ll be cleaning out the pigsty for a week, and I’m not joking.’

Anne scrunched up her face, spun on her heals
, and stomped back to her seat by Justin. With Anne now dealt with, Liz gently readjusted Saleana in her arms and looked over at the collection of found children that had been adopted by the survivors of Lanherne. There was Jimmy and Samantha, brother and sister, and just happy to be together, they were now both seven. There was Alex Penhaligan who had just turned six, and Bailey, who was also six. Then there was Danny. Poor trapped Danny, they could only guess his age and even the name they called him by, had been made up when he first arrived at the Convent. The poor child had survived such horrors before coming to them that Sister Rebecca had named him after the bible story of Daniel in the lion’s den. But the child had not come through the ordeal unscathed. Trapped in his own world, whether he was autistic or simply unable to find his way back from the horrors he had endured, they could not tell. But once in a while, he would recognise his name when they called it, or would suddenly pick up an object when offered. It was in those moments that there was hope, and with that hope, they knew someday, they would rescue the child that was imprisoned within his own mind.

Liz watched
, as Jen sat on the floor with Danny between her legs, trying unsuccessfully to engage the boy with the brightly coloured pictures of a book.

‘O
ooh, look at the funny doggy, Danny,’ Jen said softly in the child’s ear, as she pointed to the picture of an orange cartoon dog. ‘You like doggies don’t you… you like Toby and Goldie, you remember them don’t you, Sweetie, eh…’

Toby and Goldie were two more strays that had been taken in by the Convent.  With dogs now
running wild in packs, attacking the living and Dead alike, it somehow felt right to take in the two dogs that each in their own way had brought comfort to those in need. Goldie was an old Golden Retriever and had been with them for over a year now. It was when the cult had tricked their way into Lanherne to steal Anne that Liz had first encountered her, running wild and feeding on scraps of the Dead. Unlike the packs, Goldie was still able to remember Man as a friend, rather than a meal, and Liz had repaid such loyalty by giving her a home. In the death and sadness that was left in the wake of the cult’s departure, Goldie had been a comfort and a distraction for Justin while he waited for news of Anne. Toby on the other hand, had been a puppy when Jackson had found him in the woods. The happy little black bundle of fur had brought some joy to his otherwise lonely existence in the village school building, and when Jackson had finally taken his own life, Imran had brought the puppy back to Lanherne to keep Goldie company. The young pup and the old bitch had become fast friends, and were now quite inseparable. They would often be found draped over each, a mass of black and sandy coloured fur, sleeping peacefully in a warming pool of sunlight.    

As usual, Danny’s eyes slowly wandered about the room, settling only momentarily before moving on again. The one place that he seemed unable to focus his attention was the colourful page in front of him. Jen gently took one of his small hands in hers and stroked the back of it with her thumb. With a sigh, she turned to the page of the book. This time a brightly coloured row of ducks danced across the page.

‘Quack, quack,’ she said, pointing to the mother duck with her ducklings, ‘look, at the pretty ducks, Danny, all in a row… quack, quack, quack.’

‘Quack, quack
,’ came a voice from the Refectory door.

Looking up from the book, Jen couldn’t help but smile at the figure of Leon, as he stood leaning in the doorway with his arms folded.

‘Hey, you,’ he said giving her a sly wink, ‘miss me?’

‘Sorry, and who are you again?’ she replied, her brow creasing questioningly.

Leon nodded a ‘hello’ to Liz and Nadine, and then sauntered slowly into the room until he was stood behind Jen. Crouching down, he put his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest.

‘I’m the man you’re crazy about
,’ he said as he kissed the back of her neck.

‘Oh, yes, now I think of it, your face does ring a bell
,’ she replied, her hand leaving Danny’s to cup the side of Leon’s face behind her.

‘And how are you, Danny-boy?’ Leon said, reaching forward to ruffle Danny’s sandy blond hair
. ‘You taking good care of my lady?’

At the sound of Leon’s voice, Danny surprisingly turned his head to look back at the young mixed-race man who had spoken. For a split
second, there was some kind of recognition behind his eyes, but as Danny’s gaze flitted across Leon’s face, it was lost again.

‘What was that about?’ Leon whispered to Jen
.

‘Who knows,’ she replied, puzzled as much as Leon by Danny’s brief trip back to reality
, ‘it could be something as simple as the tone of your voice. You know, reminding him of his father or something.’

‘Or perhaps you just like me, don’t you Danny-boy, eh
,’ Leon continued, reaching forward again to pat the small boy on the head, ‘you and me are best buds, aren’t we?’

But this time Danny gave no reaction to Leon’s touch, the boy was lost again.

‘Anyway, what are you doing back so early?’ Jen asked, turning her head to look back at Leon. ‘I thought you weren’t due back until tomorrow, and where’s Cam? Nothing’s happened to him I hope. ’

‘I was just about to ask the same
,’ said Liz, walking over to the couple, Saleana resting peacefully on her shoulder.

‘Patrick and Imran are coming up in a minute, I’ll go through it all then,’ he replied, siting back on his ankles
, ‘and Cam’s gone for a wash. I just wanted something to eat first.’

‘Pity you didn’t take his example
,’ Jen said with a smile.

‘What?’ Leon said, lifting his arm to smell the armpit of his T-shirt
. ‘That’s the smell of a man that is.’

‘Yeah, a man that hasn’t washed in two days
,’ Jen continued, wrinkling her nose.

‘But everything’s o
kay?’ Liz interrupted.

‘For the moment, yes
,’ Leon replied, as he pushed himself back up. ‘Look, let me get some food, and then Cam and I will tell you what happened.’

Trusting that if it was something that posed an immediate danger to the safety of Lanherne
, he would have said so right away, Liz nodded back at him, all the while, her hand moved slowly in a circular motion over Saleana’s back. After watching the young man disappear through the side door that led to the kitchen, Liz turned back to Jen.

‘It suits you, you know
,’ she said, nodding towards Danny, ‘being a mum, you’re a natural.’

‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ Jen replied, looking from Liz back to Danny
, ‘I never really thought I’d get to experience that side of life, well, not until I came here. I spent the last four years travelling with my brother, so just trying to stay alive was hard enough...’

Jen’s voice trailed off
, as sad memories of the brother’s pointless death rose to the surface of her mind, bringing tears to her eyes.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to…’ Liz said, reaching to touch Jen’s shoulder
.

‘No, no
, it’s alright,’ she replied, shaking herself free of the memories. ‘Anyway, as I was saying, being a mum was never on the cards before, but who knows, this place seems different, perhaps, one day…’

‘Wh
at do you mean ‘perhaps one day’?’ Liz said, nodding towards the silent child nestled between Jen’s legs. ‘You’ve moved Danny into your room, you wash, feed and care for him, if that’s not being a parent what is?’

‘I suppose so
,’ she replied, looking thoughtfully back down at Danny.

‘And with you and Leon,’ Liz continued, waggling her eyebrows suggestively at Jen
, ‘it won’t be long until you have one of your own too.’

‘God
, and twins run in my family!’ said Jen looking at Liz in mock horror.

‘Ouch
,’ Liz laughed, ‘well, look on the bright side; at least we’ve got Avery.’

‘I’ve got Avery
,’ said Phil, following Leon back into the Refectory, ‘and I just happen to let you professionally borrow him from time to time, that’s all.’

For a man in his forties, Phil was a great bear of a man. With his
close-cropped hair, dark goatee beard, and a tall, hard, muscular frame, he certainly cut an imposing and at times, fearful figure. But Liz knew beneath the somewhat gruff exterior, beat a heart of gold and in fact, on more than one occasion, he had risked his own life to save her from the Dead. That he had at last found the love he needed in Avery’s arms, gave her a warm feeling of satisfaction. Although, with Avery having his background in microbiology, and Phil being a butcher, Liz did at times wonder how the two men found any common ground.

‘Funny, you don’t look like a doctor’s wife
,’ Liz joked.

‘I’ve got no qualms about hitting a woman
,’ Phil replied, placing the plate of food for Cam on one of the tables before turning back to Liz, ‘but perhaps, not one with such a precious cargo.’

‘Can I?’ he asked holding out his large hands to take Saleana from Liz.

‘Okay, but don’t wake her,’ Liz replied, slowly passing over her baby to Phil.