Six Days With The Dead Part 20

As they finally made their way past the corner, the hope that they would be able to gain access to the rail line here, vanished. Imran had been correct in locating a section where there was a crossing, but what they saw before them seemingly ruled this one out for sure. There, blocking the road in front of the gate they would need to pa.s.s through, was a large abandoned truck. Unfortunately the vehicle had not come to a controlled stop and its trailer sat parked at an angle across the road. It was unusual to see one so large this far from the major roads and they were surprised it had managed to get this far along the small winding lanes.

*Oh, for f.u.c.ks sake!' Liz said, looking at the huge vehicle that might as well have been a cruise liner, for all the chance they had of moving it. *How the h.e.l.l did that manage to get here? And what a stupid place to leave it.'

*Well, we'll just have to look for another crossing,' Alice said, taking the map from Imran, *there must be another one not too far away.'

*Sod this! I'm just going to take a quick look before we write this one off' Liz said, opening one of the side hatches and jumping down to the cracked road before the others could stop her.

*Imran,' Charlie said, knowing there was no point calling Liz to get back in, *Cover her.'

Immediately, Imran flipped open the top hatch, his bow already armed with an arrow, as he watched Liz gingerly walk over to the lorry. With bits of the tarmac crunching under her feet, she slowly made her way to the lorry, her sword held low but ready. Liz briefly paused to listen for any of the tell-tale moaning of the Dead. If any were around and caught sight of her, they wouldn't be able to help but let out a hungry moan, so the fact that all she could hear was the chorus of bird song was promising. Following the side of the lorry to the cab section wedged against a garden wall, it was clear they wouldn't be getting onto the tracks that way. Liz looked up at the dark blood smeared windows of the cab and knew whoever had been driving had not left this world peacefully. Even as she stared up at a flaking handprint on the gla.s.s, she could see the pathetic Dead man inside begin to stir, the presence of her living flesh bringing life to his previously still form. He had become one of the Dead so long ago that Liz knew there wasn't a chance in h.e.l.l that he could break the gla.s.s to get to her, so she ignored him and doubled back to check out the rear end instead. Although there was a little room between the end of the trailer and the garden wall on this side, there was still no way near enough room for even Delilah to squeeze through, let alone the cart too. Cursing their bad luck, Liz was about to return to the cart when she notice that a little further down a section of the fence blocking their access to the track had been removed. Curious, she walked past the end of the trailer to take a look. When she got there, a smile slowly crept across her face as she realised what she was seeing. There, leading up to the gap in the fence, were the ruts in the mud caused by a cart's wheels. Following them backwards, they led down the bank and into one of the back gardens. Taking care that she didn't inadvertently step on anything Dead in the high gra.s.s, Liz tracked the carts route, through the overgrown garden and onto a small brick patio at the side of the house. As she crossed the patio she could see that two wooden garage doors blocked off the road from the back of the house. Crossing her fingers that there wouldn't be a car the other side of the doors, she undid the simple latch and let the doors swing open.

*Yes!' she said to herself smiling, as the sight of the back of their cart came into view.

Having not only found a way onto the tracks but also a sign that someone had quite recently come this way, the group had a new sense of hope that their hunch about the Reverend using the train lines to bypa.s.s red-zones, might just be correct.

They made surprisingly good time travelling along the tracks and Charlie sat there grumbling away under his breath, kicking himself for not thinking of it sooner. It was ideal. The line afforded them uninterrupted travel and with the tracks going straight from A to B, they saved a lot of the time that they would usually spend on the winding country lanes. The only drawback that Charlie could see, was that if they didn't want to risk damaging the wheels they would have to find another crossing where the tracks sank lower. Only there, would the cart's wheels be able to roll back onto a normal road easily without a risky b.u.mp up and over.

So they were pleased that after only a few hours they began to see the motorway coming up in the distance. Liz breathed a sigh of relief when they first realised the track continued over the motorway via a bridge rather than a tunnel. Despite the high fence that would have kept the Dead from the tacks, she didn't relish the idea of travelling through a dark tunnel. With not being able to see what was in front of them, you didn't know what could be lying in wait. Any pleasure they felt by approaching the motorway so soon, began to evaporate when they got close enough for it to be more than a distant rusting manmade scar across the landscape. Living at Lanherne, in their relatively hidden away existence, it was easy to sometimes forget just how much Man has lost to the Dead. Obviously each had had their own horrific experiences and they had certainly all lost many they loved when the world had changed. But to witness the rusting evidence of the devastation stretching off into the distance was breath-taking in its scale. As they approached the bridge that was to take them over the motorway, Charlie turned to them and spoke in a serious hushed tone.

*Look, we don't know how many of the Dead are still lurking around down there, so until we're over the bridge we're on silent mode. Got it? Last thing we want is a h.o.a.rd of the Dead trying to climb the embankment up to the track and heaven help us if they managed to get through the fence, they'd be on our tail all the way to Carnglaze.'

With equally serious nods from the other three, Charlie turned back round. He knew they already understood the danger they would be in if things went wrong, but better to repeat the obvious than put their lives in jeopardy.

*Right, here goes nothing,' Charlie said to himself.

With a gentle flick of the reins, Charlie coaxed Delilah forward. Not only was walking on the gravel, scattered between the sleepers, uncomfortable for the horse but the cloying scent of death hung in the air like an invisible fog making her unusually jittery. Delilah wasn't normally affected by the Dead in such a way, so Charlie knew there must a great number still on the road below them to unnerve the steady mare in such a way. Glancing down at the motorway below him, Charlie could understand poor Delilah's apprehension but they had a job to do. Step by step, Delilah slowly pulled them over the bridge. When they were just over half way across, Alice quietly slid aside one of the spy hole covers to look at the scene below them. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat and her heart pound frantically. She looked back at Liz, her eyes wide with fear, a nervous sweat beading on her forehead. Taking the unspoken hint, Liz also moved to take in the scene. At first all Liz saw were the mangled and twisted wrecks spreading way into the distance. It wasn't until one of the Dead stumbled slightly that she noticed them literally everywhere along the road. Below the bridge, the Dead stood in their thousands. They waited silently, shoulder to shoulder between the crushed vehicles, like an army awaiting command. In life these people had been trapped by their sheer numbers, dooming themselves to a hideous death and, so too now were the Dead. Unable to move forward or back, the Dead stayed motionless, just waiting for something living to catch their attention. Despite their vast number, she hadn't even noticed them at first because they had been so still. It didn't help either that the dried blood covering their decaying forms had turned a deep dusty red colour, matching much of the burnt and rusting wreckage about them. Liz gave an involuntary s.h.i.+ver and turned away from the nightmare scene below them. She knew that if this army of the Dead, even in their decrepit state, ever went on the march, there wouldn't be a wall high enough to keep them out. They would descend upon the living like a biblical plague of locust, devouring all in their path.

Everyone breathed a heavy sigh of relief once they had finally made it across the bridge with-out attracting the attention of the Dead h.o.a.rd below them. Even Delilah seemed to perk up once she had left the oppressive smell of the Dead behind her.

*Right, so how far till we can get back onto the road?' Imran asked, once they had left the motorway far behind them.

Charlie spread the unfolded map out to study their options.

*Well, we don't want to leave too early and give up the easy going too soon, but then we don't want to risk missing the exit the Reverend took either,' Charlie said, looking at each crossing they would come to on the map and following the roads there back to the caverns. *He obviously knows how to use the rail network efficiently and wouldn't give up the easy travelling until it was absolutely necessary, so I think this one here is our best bet.'

Charlie indicated a crossing a few miles down the track, leading from which were a set a winding roads which would eventually take them to Carnglaze and hopefully to Anne. With only Charlie's gut instinct to go on, they all agreed it was as good a choice as any.

*Here it is, coming up ahead' Charlie said, after they had been travelling for an hour.

*s.h.i.+t! The gates are closed!' he continued.

*So? We opened the other ones on the way back to Lanherne. We can open these,' Liz said, confused as to why Charlie was so het up about the gates.

*Yes, we can open them but the point is, it took both Imran and me to open them last time. The Reverend wouldn't stand a chance of manually moving that counterweight by himself and that wife of his wouldn't have been much help either, so he can't have used this crossing' he replied.

*Oh.' Liz said feeling a little foolish for not seeing what should have been obvious. *I guess we'll have to try the next crossing then.'

*I guess so,' Charlie said, a little put out that his hunch about this crossing had been wrong.

Delilah had just pulled them level with the gate and Charlie couldn't help but give it a dirty look as they pa.s.sed. Unsure of something Charlie pulled Delilah to a stop. He had noticed something that looked slightly wrong with the way the gate was hanging and wanted to check it out to be sure.

*That sneaky b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' Charlie said, a smile creeping across his face, realising he had been right about the gate after all. *Oh, he's a sly one is the Reverend Nathan Moore.'

Only now that they were level, could Charlie see that the counterweight had actually been neatly cut through at the pivotal point where it joined the bar part of the gate, so at first glance it looked untouched and impa.s.sable. With the actual gate part now just propped up against the post, it meant a single man could easily move the gate to the side, allowing a cart to pa.s.s and then close it afterwards to cover their tracks.

*Looks like we're on the right track then,' Liz said, nudging Imran to move over a little.

She had just returned after moving the gate aside for Delilah to pa.s.s and Imran had decided to spread out a bit in her absence. Instead of moving over, Imran pulled her closer to him, taking comfort in the closeness of her body.

*We'll get them Lizzy and we'll make them pay,' he said quietly into her hair as he breathed in her scent to calm himself.

*This isn't about revenge, Imran,' Charlie said, looking back over his shoulder at three of the most important people left in his life. *It's about getting Anne, Alex and Emma's baby back from those lunatics, that's all. We're not here to conjure up some long drawn out torture for the Reverend and his wife, just to make us feel better. Because, believe me, down the road when you look back at what you did, it'll make you feel a heck of a lot worse about yourself. Bad things like that tend to have a way of leaving their mark on a person and once you've gone down that path you're never quite the same again. So no, we just get the kids back and put the Reverend and his wife out of action for good. Clean and simple, you understand?'

*Clean and simple,' Imran said with a sharp nod, but Liz could still feel the tension in his body and knew given the chance *clean and simple' would be the last thing on his mind.

She would have to keep an eye on Imran, if only to save him from doing something that he may regret in the future. Mohammed's death had obviously hit him hard and his pain was still blatantly raw, so Liz didn't blame him for this reaction. Nearly everyone she knew had lost people they loved to the Dead, but each had to find a way to move past their pain and anger, otherwise they became consumed by their grief. The pain could so easily become such an integral part of them, that something within them changed permanently and they became totally defined by their grief. Liz had met people like this, their anger and pain twisting inside them so they spent their whole time raging against the world and the other survivors within it. She didn't think she could stand to see Imran change in this way and prayed that with her love, he would be able to eventually move on to live the life Mohammed would've wanted for him.

Now that they had left the train line behind them, they were making slow pace again, having to manoeuvre around fallen trees, large potholes and the abandoned cars that were once again the norm. Each time they pa.s.sed a rusting vehicle, Liz would stare blankly and wonder of the untold story each held. There would inevitably be the rag covered remains, lying forever abandoned where they had fallen. Of course, all would have their skulls shattered or broken in some way or another and Liz would wonder if a friend or loved one had been forced to deal with their Dead travelling companion, for themselves to eventually join them in their un-natural Dead state. A decaying mess of rags and bones, surrounded by scattered weather worn possessions was not much of an obituary for a life lived and that's what depressed her the most. No one would ever know what had happened here or who had spent their last terrified moments on earth praying for an oblivion that would be forever denied them.

*What the f.u.c.k?' Charlie said, pulling Delilah to a stop.

With the others huddling over his shoulder, they looked out of the front view slit at the hanging corpse before them. There, held aloft by her manacled hands to a telegraph pole, were the remains of a Dead woman. A large and well fed rook perched upon her head, pecked lazily at the insects burrowing about in the thin lank hair hanging over her face. Noticing the unwanted visitors, the rook let out an annoyed call to those in the cart before returning to its meal. Alerted by the rook, the Dead woman slowly turned her rotten face in the direction of the cart, it was at that moment the rook decided to pluck out her remaining film covered eye. As the optic nerve stretched and finally snapped, the rook gave one final call before taking flight with its stomach churning meal held tightly in its beak. As if the tableau before them wasn't horrific enough, the fact that this woman had had the flesh stripped from below the knee only made it worse.

*From the look of her, I'd say she was put up there alive,' Charlie said, shaking his head with sad disbelief. *The Dead must have feasted on the flesh on her legs until she bled to death and turned.'

*f.u.c.k...' Imran said, summing the whole situation up in one word.

*My G.o.d! What on earth is happening to people,' Alice said, turning away having seen enough, *just when you think it things can't get worse, we find a whole new level of s.h.i.+t to deal with.'

*Do you think this is some of the Reverend's handy-work?' Liz asked, her concern and fear for Anne's safety increasing.

With a creased brow and a shrug of his shoulders, Charlie urged Delilah forward again. It was one thing to kill but this was torture born of an insane and unbalance mind, pure and simple.

Turning a corner in the lane, they were met again by another hanging corpse, this one had at one time been a teenage boy. His thin and under developed body was naked apart from the soiled underwear he wore, the Dead having torn the trousers from his kicking legs, as they fought to get to the flesh hidden beneath. As they drew level with the unfortunate creature, he turned to look at them, the hunger for flesh tearing at his very soul, clear to see as he let forth a whispering moan.

*s.h.i.+t!' Charlie said, realising the hanging cadaver was at just the right height to be able to look through the slit into the cart at him. *He can see us.'

*And that's not all, look!' Imran said indicating down the road.

There further along the lane was another pole, complete with a Dead man hanging from it.

*If they're all hanging at the same height, they'll all be able see us,' he continued, *and with each of them moaning as we pa.s.s, it's like some sort of macabre alarm system.'

*So that means we must be getting close,' Liz added, hopefully, *but we're going to have to find a way of silencing this alarm or they'll certainly know someone's on the way.'

*Hmmm,' Charlie said seriously, trying to come up with a plan.

*Well, I can shut them down from a distance but we'll have to pull up alongside them afterwards, I'd rather not waste the arrows and who knows what's up ahead,' Imran said, reaching for the top hatch.

*Do you think you can take out this one and the one further down the road from where we are now?' asked Charlie, peering through the front slit and judging the distance to the next pole. *We don't want to alert the one after that one that we're coming, so you need to pop up, take your two shots and be out of sight until we've reached the second one, where you get your arrow back and fire at the next one down the road.'

*Sort of like throwing stepping stones ahead of you, to cross a river?' said Alice.

*Yeah, sort of,' Imran said, squinting his eyes as he wondered if he'd be able to make an accurate head shot at this distance.

Realising it was really their only option, he readied himself for a second, before throwing open the hatch. With amazing swiftness and power the first arrow flew, silencing the Dead teenager, his head was knocked to the side by the sheer power behind the arrow. As it shot through his skull it erupted part way through the other side. Then with smooth practised movements, Imran reached back for another arrow from his quiver, reloaded, took aim at the hanging cadaver on the next telephone pole and fired. This time the power behind the arrow was reduced by the distance it covered before reaching its target, but thankfully it still hit home. The hanging Dead man had just begun to turn his head in Imran's direction when the arrow flew to end his unnatural existence. The rooks had also feasted on this Cadaver and like the woman, one of his eyes was missing. So when the arrow lodged deep through the socket of his remaining right eye, he was effectively blinded. As the creature's world disappeared into blackness, the Dead man became still. With nothing to excite it any longer, it would simply hang there until it rotted and fell to the ground.

Delilah pulled the cart level with the Dead teenager Imran had put down. Climbing out onto the roof and sitting on the edge of the cart, Imran lent across and with a foot against his head for leverage, yanked the arrow free from the still corpse. Knocking his leg against the side of the cart as a signal for Charlie, Imran stayed sitting out on the roof while Delilah pulled them down the road to the next quiet hanging corpse. Before he removed the arrow from this one, Imran took aim at a Dead woman hanging by her wrists on the next telephone pole.

*Gotcha!' he said under his breath, as the arrow flew and found its target effortlessly.

Satisfied that they would now not be seen by any of the hanging Dead, Imran reached over to the cadaver hanging next to him, the arrow buried deep in his eye-socket. Imran's hand had barely closed over the end of the arrow to wiggle to it free, when the Dead man suddenly jerked its head towards him, its teeth snapping wildly at flesh it could no longer see. Luckily for Imran, the blinded corpse had only been relying on its hearing. If it had seen him, he certainly wouldn't have missed Imran's tasty fingers so close to his Dead mouth.

*s.h.i.+t!' Imran said, kicking himself away from the corpse.

Realising that this noise was making the plan to keep the Dead quiet a bit pointless, Imran quickly pulled his hunting knife from the sheath on his ankle and drove it home through the top of the Dead man's skull, finally putting the corpse to rest.

*From now on, I think I'll give them a poke before I let my hands get too close,' Imran called to Charlie in the cart, re-sheathing his knife.

That had been stupid and far too close a call for Imran's liking. A few centimetres to the right and the Dead man's jaws would have clamped down on his fingers, and it would have been *goodnight Imran' forever.

*G.o.d, I have to be more careful...' he thought to himself.

Imran climbed back into the cart and waited for Delilah to pull them level with the next hanging Dead woman, who now had his arrow lodged in her skull. Once again he fired another arrow at the next hanging corpse, before retrieving the one from the woman. Thankfully, they managed to get all the way along the road with no further mishaps, leaving a trail of the hanging Dead, silenced forever, behind them.

*Looks like we're leaving the road,' Charlie said, looking at the hanging corpses leading down a gravel side road.

*It's like some macabre Hansel and Gretel bread crumb trail, leading them home,' Alice said, looking up at the mouldy cadaver in front of them.

Liz looked up from the map and pushed it in front of Charlie, her finger marking the location of Carnglaze Caverns.

*If we're here, then the caverns are just down this lane,' she said, following the small line on the map that led them to Carnglaze and hopefully Anne, *see?'

*Hmm, you're not wrong,' Charlie replied, briefly double checking the map. *Right, let's weapon up. We're going the rest of the way on foot. Imran can you kill that Dead man, no point in having them alerted we're coming sooner than necessary.'

As Imran did as he was told, Alice and Liz began stuffing various objects in a rucksack that they may need. All the ammo for the guns, a small medical kit, the binoculars, some wire cutters and an a.s.sortment of knives were hastily thrown in. Once it was full, Alice slipped it onto her back and after making a few adjustments so it was comfortable, she was ready to go.

*Try not to use the guns unless we've no options left,' Charlie said, flicking open the barrel of his handgun to check it was loaded for the third time. *They'll only alert everyone there that we've arrived, not to mention any of the Dead that happen to be within earshot.'

Stepping out onto the gravel lane, Liz took a breath to steady her nerves. She was certain that Anne was but a few hundred metres down this lane and it took all her control not to break into a run to get to her. But she knew they would have to play a very careful game, who knew what setup the Reverend and his wife had here, and with Anne's life in their hands, they couldn't afford to make any rash decisions.

The gravel lane sloped downwards with the side of a hill rising on its right hand side. The other side of the lane was covered with a light woodland of young ash and birch trees and it would be through here that the group would follow the path to the cavern. From here on in, there would be no talking, communication between them would be strictly limited to hand signals. Crouching low, the four made their way just inside the tree line along the lane. When the next pole with its cadaver came up, Charlie gave Imran the signal. Standing to his full height, Imran took aim and fired. His arrow flying from his bow before the Dead had a chance to register the living flesh that had appeared before it. The lane began to slowly curve around the growing hill and after dealing with another four of the Dead, they could finally see the chain link fence of the Reverend's compound coming up.

*We follow the tree line round, till we're in front of the compound,' Charlie whispered to the others, as his eyes scanned back and forth along the lane. *We can't see what's what from here and I don't want us going in blind.'

Liz and Imran immediately began slowly stalking through the thin woodland with Alice and Charlie taking up the rear.

*Can you hear them?' Alice said in barely a whisper, her tight grip on her bat making her knuckles turn white *there's more of the Dead and they sound excited'

*You don't have to do this,' Charlie said taking her chin in his hand, *you can keep an eye on Delilah if you like.'

*You don't get rid of me that easily,' she whispered back, her tone slightly angry as she began to move off after Liz and Imran.

Charlie was proud of Alice, of all of them, she was the only one who didn't have to be here. Liz and himself were here for Anne, while Imran had come to avenge his brother's death, so Alice coming here was purely because she loved him too much to let him go alone. He didn't know if it was the most beautiful or the most stupid thing anyone had ever done for him, but he was sure glad she was with him. Shaking his head at the stubbornness of the beautiful woman in front of him, Charlie followed after her through the tree line. They soon came to a stop and crouched down among the ferns looking out over the compound before them.

The wire fence encircled a compound mainly given over to vegetables, which at the moment were being tended to by a middle aged man. Luckily the man was engrossed in his weeding and had his back to them. The high chain-link fence surrounding the compound wouldn't be a problem, thanks to the wire cutters they brought with them, but the seven Dead figures writhing and moaning on the poles might prove to be a bit tricky. If they stepped out from the cover of the tree line, the Dead would go frantic and surely alert the man gardening of their presence. Charlie signalled for Imran to take out the Dead one by one. Hopefully they could then get through the fence before the man noticed them and raised the alarm. With the writhing Dead desperate to get to the living man behind them, Imran had to time it just right otherwise he could very easily miss his target. Using a birch tree as cover, Imran stood up and took aim at the first of the Dead. It had been a young woman, her once curvaceous and admired body, now ravaged and torn. Imran watched the way she moved her head back and forth, trying to discern a pattern to her movements. After a time the Dead woman would realise she would not be able to reach the living man behind her from one side, so her head would swing wildly to the other side to start the fruitless exercise again. Once Imran had noticed this, it was simply a matter of timing. So with a dull thud, the woman was finally put to rest, as Imran's arrow plunged deep into her skull. The next in line was another woman, this one was emaciated to the point where it looked as if her grey mouldy skin was the only thing keeping her bones together. She had obviously been hanging there for some time, as her movements were slow, even for the Dead. With pathetically strained movements, she craned her head sideways, always trying to catch a glimpse of the living man she knew was behind her. When her position was just right, Imran let fly another silent arrow. This time it sunk deep into her temple just at the side of her eye. Her desperately hungry moan instantly died on her lips, as her last unnatural breath escaped her body.

Imran repeated this for the next two hanging Dead, each time getting the killing shot removing two more abominations from the world.

*s.h.i.+t.' Charlie whispered under his breath.

The man who had been gardening had turned and was now working his way up another row of vegetables, which unfortunately meant he was now facing in their direction. Then suddenly the man paused and began scanning the tree line with a confused look on his face. It was only when he walked up to the poles to look up at the Dead, did Charlie realise the man had noticed the drop in volume from his hanging Dead sentries. The man looked up at one of the now quiet Dead women, Imran's arrow firmly embedded in her skull and faster than Charlie thought possible, he turned and began to sprint away from the fence towards the cave entrance.

*Take him out Imran,' Charlie said, his voice harsh and commanding.

He knew what he was asking of Imran. To take the unnatural life of the Dead was one thing, but to shoot a fleeing living man in the back was quite another matter altogether, but it had to be done. For the briefest moments, Imran caught Charlie's gaze and knew he needed to do this if they wanted to get Anne back alive. With a nod, Imran broke cover from the tree line and darted to the fence, a new arrow already in place. Placing the tip of the arrow between the wire holes so it would fly true, he sighted the back of the escaping man's head, took a deep breath and released his hold on the string. With a sickening crunch the metal tipped arrow shattered the back of the man's skull and continued on its journey through his brain and out through the area just above his cheek bone. The man's body seemed to carry on running unguided by a brain for another two steps, before collapsing to floor, forever still.

Liz, Alice and Charlie had already joined Imran at the fence and even before the man had fallen to the floor, Liz was snipping away at the wire with the cutters. They had to get in there as soon as possible, they really didn't want any of the other members of this twisted community to come out and find one of their number lying face down among the runner beans with an arrow in the back of his head.

*Almost there,' Liz said, a few minutes later, her breathing heavy.

The wire had been tougher to cut than she thought but determination had given strength to her arms and even though her hands now ached, she pulled aside the hole in the fence so the others could pa.s.s through. She had barely begun wriggling through herself, before Charlie and Imran darted off to drag the man's corpse out of sight. Pulling the body by its legs, they stashed it behind the Reverend's cart before anyone had the chance to see it. Alice scanned the compound nervously, as she waited for Liz to pull herself fully through the fence. As soon as she was free, the two of them silently ran in a low crouch to join Charlie and Imran hiding by the cart.

*So what now?' Alice asked, her heart pounding loudly in her ears as they crouched hidden from sight. *Do we just charge in or what?'

*No, we can't risk them killing Anne, just because they're cornered and anyway we don't know how many we're up against. So...' Charlie's words where cut short by the sight of a startled man stepping into view from around the cart.

*What the?' the short Italian looking man said.

From the look on his face, he clearly wasn't expecting to see them there. Anything else he wanted to say went unsaid, as Charlie's large form barrelled into him, knocking him to the floor. As the air was knocked out of the foreign man's lungs, Charlie swung his large clenched fist at his chin, knocking him out cold with the first strike.

*Take his feet and put him with the other one,' Charlie said to Imran, as he pushed himself upright.

Imran grabbed hold of the unconscious man's feet and pulled him behind the cart, leaving him motionless alongside his dead companion. Of course what the group could not know was that the man Charlie had just knocked out, who had proved himself worthy before G.o.d by hanging for a day and a night to a pole, this man was actually slowly dying in front of them, completely un-noticed. When Charlie's fist had connected with Marcello's jaw, the forces that had jolted through his skull had ruptured a tiny blood vessel in his brain and even now as Charlie went over their plan, Marcello's brain was slowly shutting down piece by piece.

Liz withdrew her sword from its sheath, ready for the battle she knew would commence as soon as they entered the cave. They had decided as a group, that they would have to kill any adults they came across. Even though they may not have had a direct hand in the atrocities the Reverend and his wife had caused across the Cornish countryside, their very acceptance made them guilty. Put simply, they were too dangerous a group to allow them to scatter, un-punished.

*Right, I want it to be clean kill shots in there, we don't want the Dead to have to deal with too,' Charlie said, as Liz began to edge forward away from the cart.

Behind them, something within Marcello's brain was taking control of his oxygen starved body and had already begun to pull him back from the black oblivion into an unnatural existence. First with a fist clenched, then milky eyes began to move back and forth rapidly behind eyelids that should never open again, until finally a new Marcello was brought forth, a Marcello whose sole purpose was to quench the burning need that raged at his very core. Sitting up, the Dead thing that had once been Marcello turned his head, drawn to the sound of the living near to him.

*Look out!' *Charlie!' Liz and Alice screamed in unison at the Dead figure rose behind him.

*Jesus!' Charlie said, as the Dead Marcello pounced onto his back, his mouth wide, intent on tearing into the flesh presented to him.

Grappling with the man on his back, Charlie threw himself backwards to the floor and rolled. Wild Dead hands clawed at his skin as Charlie managed to finally get on top of the struggling Dead man. With his hand under the snapping jaw, Charlie drew back his knife wrist, preparing to ram the blade into the side of twisting and moaning Dead man's head. Out of the blue a metal bat swung just in front of Charlie's eyes and collided with the Dead man's temple. With a sickening crunch, the front of the animated cadaver's temple collapsed, as skin tore and bone shattered. Not intent with one hit, Alice pulled her bat back swiftly and swung again with all the force she had in her. When the bat hit the Dead Marcello's head this time, there was no question that he had finally been put to rest. With his head little more than a broken and b.l.o.o.d.y mess, Marcello's brief unnatural after-life had come to an end.

*f.u.c.k!' Charlie said, his hand going up to his neck to rub the muscles that had been pulled when the Dead man leapt on him, *I'm ok, I'm ok.'