Free Star Drawn Saga (Book 2): Lost Among The Dead by Stephen Charlick

Fran smiled back, slowly refolding the map as she shook thoughts of Tom’s delusional mania from her mind. ‘Right,’ she continued, keeping her voice low just in case there were any Dead on the road, before handing the map back to Kai. ‘It’s a pity we had to come this way at all but with the other way’s blocked, it was either this or double-back on ourselves… anyway, so we continue along this road for about half a mile and then we’ll find ourselves entering the village of… Chacewater.’
    ‘How many b…buildings are we t…talking about?’ asked Kai, knowing that the term village in Cornwall could mean barely a dozen homes to anything up to fifty or sixty.
    ‘Chacewater is a bit on the big size,’ Fran replied, scrunching up her face, ‘which is why it would have been better to avoid it… but looks like we’ll bypass most of it anyway. Look, see here, we’ll take this road,’ she continued, reaching over Kai’s shoulder to run her finger along the map, ‘it skirts past the most concentrated parts of the village. Past a sports field of some sort… here… and this thing that could be a church… and from there, there are only buildings on one side of the road until we get to here… and then that leads on to the river further on down here.’
    ‘Easy as pie,’ sighed Tom, from behind her.
    ‘Hmm,’ hummed Kai, following the route on the map before turning to look back at Fran and Tom. ‘Do you w…want to drive,’ he asked, offering Tom the reins, ‘you’re more used to it than m…me and there may be ab…abandoned traffic on the road to go around… I don’t want to get us stuck.’
    ‘ And if you’re in the driving seat there’s less chance of you having an episode and jumping ship when you see some of the Dead, ’ Kai silently added to himself, his eyes briefly flicking to Fran and wondering if she guessed his ulterior motive.
    ‘Erm, yeah… sure,’ said Tom, faltering slightly as he slowly reached to take Star’s reins from the younger man already exiting the driving seat. ‘No problem, I’ll drive.’
    As Tom and Kai swapped positions in the cart, Kai caught Fran looking at him; it was clear from her expression that she had indeed guessed his motives. Unfortunately from the silent ‘ that wasn’t very subtle ’ roll of her eyes and disapproving shake of her head that it was also clear that she thought Tom had too.
    Mouthing a silent ‘sorry’, Kai made room on the crowded bench opposite Fran and awkwardly sat down.
    ‘Right, you make yourself useful and...’ she started to say to Kai, waving away his apology; after all, in the grand scheme of things what was a few hurt feelings if it kept you alive for another day,‘ have a…’
    Just then cart lurched abruptly to one side.
    ‘Christ, Tom!’ she grumbled. ‘We want to get there in one piece.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Tom muttered in reply. ‘Potholes.’
    ‘Potholes,’ she parroted, sounding a little unconvinced by his apology and expecting he was teaching them a lesson. ‘Anyway… Kai,’ she at last continued, indicating to a wooden box under the bench he was sat on, ‘have a look through that will you. See if you can find me a pair of scissors.’
    ‘Scissors?’ he asked, already reaching between his legs to pull the box out from beneath him.
    ‘Yes, scissors,’ she replied, lifting up a heavily matted clump of the dog’s fur between her fingers. ‘Time someone had a haircut.’
    ***
    ‘We’re just coming up to the first cottage now,’ whispered Tom, glancing back at Fran and Kai, some twenty minutes later as they began their approach on the village of Chacewater.
    ‘And?’ asked Fran, his slight frown causing her to gently push aside the small dog with its choppy new haircut and move to stand behind him.
    ‘Well,’ he replied, his hushed tone telling her the Dead were nearby, ‘for a village, even one of this size, there’s already a lot of corpses on the road ahead.’
    ‘What sort of state are