Free Last Days With the Dead by Stephen Charlick Page A

inadvertently sent the other flying backwards to crack their skull open.
    ‘Come on,’ Alice smiled, ‘let’s get you out of this madness.’
    As Alice led them out of the Refectory, they bumped into Sister Rebecca hurrying along with a jar of preserved peaches from the stores.
    ‘Hello Alice… oh dear, someone doesn’t sound happy,’ she said brushing her finger along the side of Charlie’s face.
    ‘I’m putting him down for a nap, hopefully, he’ll sleep right through tonight,’ replied Alice. ‘Oh, Sister Rebecca, this is Lissa and Lucy. They’re staying at the school at the moment.’
    ‘Oh , yes, Avery told me about your sick baby,’ the Nun said, sympathetically. ‘I’ll say a prayer for him later.’
    ‘I think we’ll be fine with Dr Avery ,’ Lissa replied, rather snappishly.
    ‘Well, it can’t hurt.’ Sister Rebecca added, sadly knowing that since the Dead had come to plague mankind, not everyone was happy with the idea of relying on God’s mercy to help them.
    ‘If you say so, Sister,’ continued Lissa, visibly annoyed at the Nun’s efforts to offer some form of spiritual solace.
    ‘Well, I’ll show you to your room ,’ said Alice, breaking the awkward silence that had suddenly arisen.
    As Alice walked past Sister Rebecca, she smiled and briefly gave the old woman’s arm a gentle squeeze in reassurance.
    ‘Well, welcome to our home, anyway,’ Sister Rebecca said to Lissa, who had turned to look back at her as she passed.
    In the instant Lissa’s eyes met hers, Sister Rebecca was struck with the strangest feeling that she had met the woman before. There was something about those eyes that seemed familiar, and even the way the woman held her head as she turned to go, added to the nagging sense that she should know this woman. As Sister Rebecca slowly turned to walk back to the kitchen, her mind was filled with the hazy countless faces she had known over the years.
    ‘Dar n, this old memory of mine,’ she mumbled to herself, as she re-entered the kitchen, ‘where do I know her from?’
    ***
    In their sleeping cell, Lissa and her daughter sat in silence as their room slowly became shrouded in darkening shadow. Outside, the sun was finally dipping beyond the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with a riot of oranges and deep smoky reds, while a chorus of bird song bid farewell to another day. Lucy looked at her mother rummaging through the large purple shoulder bag and pushed herself up from her cot. Walking over to look up at the small window set high in the grey stonewall, she turned back to her mother.
    ‘How much longer?’ she asked, her hand moving to her small aching breasts . ‘I want the baby.’
    Looking from the battered watch on her wrist to the darkening sky outside, Lissa counted out the hours on her fingers.
    ‘Four hours, perhaps five,’ she replied, ‘…depends. You might as well try to get some sleep, girl. You’ll be no good to the babe if you’re too tired.’
    With an irritated sigh, Lucy dropped herself back down onto the cot and watched her mother pull from her bag , the small black box that would even up a score and save the lives of those they loved.
    ‘You ready to do this girl?’ Lissa asked, looking up from the small box she held in her hands.
    ‘It’s nothing they don’t deserve,’ she replied, repositioning herself so she didn’t lay on her tender chest, ‘they thought they could get away with killing Uncle Hugh,  we’ll show them.’
    ‘That’s my girl,’ said Lissa with a proud smile , as she flipped open the lid of the small box to reveal the tiny keyboard and digital display inside.
    Holding the box up to catch the last remnants of light coming through the window, Lissa carefully punched in the memorised code that would activate the device. When the letters ‘E.T.A?’ began to scroll across the small screen, she breathed a sigh of relief. They had kept their word after all. They would be waiting for them just beyond the wall, just