Free Killing the Dead (Season 2 | Book 2): Dark and Deadly Land by Richard Murray Page B

between two of the houses,” he said as he twisted in his seat. He glanced back to me. “You want to check it out?”
    The anger, that first stirring of hate for what he was drained away at that. No one else had seen, no one else would have known if he’d never mentioned it, but he had anyway. It reassured me that there was something inside of him worth loving.
    “Yes!” I said as I brought the car to a stop. “What did you see?”
    “Two people on top of a truck. It was a momentary glimpse between two houses to the street beyond as we passed but I’m fairly sure they were alive and surrounded.”
    “Group vote,” I said. “This isn’t like the island, we have a task to do and nowhere to put anyone we save. I won’t ask anyone to do it if they don’t want to but if you all vote not to then I’ll go alone and meet up with you later.”
    “Don’t be stupid,” Gregg said. “Of course, we’re with you.”
    “Becky?” I said as Pat and Cass nodded agreement.
    “Like it matters,” she said with a nod to the others. “It’s already decided.”
    “Let’s go then.”
    We left the car on the road making sure to lock it and take the keys with us. Jinx seemed to understand the need to stay behind and guard the vehicle while the rest of us, I like to think, were eager to just do something after seeing so much horror in this town.
    Ryan led the way back to where he’d caught a glimpse and stood on the pavement as he leant forward on a garden wall to better see the tableau unfold. I joined him and saw that he’d been right. Something I was intensely grateful for since it gave me hope for him.
    A young couple crouched on top of a refrigerated lorry that had been abandoned in the middle of the road. Around it were perhaps twenty or more undead all jostling each other and reaching up to try and claw at them. Around the edge of that crowd, three zombies circled the lorry, each seeming more alert than the others and my heart sank as I realised they were Ferals’.
    “You see them?” I asked and he nodded. Of course, he did.
    “What do you think?” Pat asked as he hefted his club in one large hand. He seemed both eager to release some pent up frustration while at the same time, wary of the danger Cass would be putting herself in.
    “We get their attention,” Ryan said in that quiet tone of voice he tended to use before he killed something. “We have this garden wall and the one at the rear of the house. They’ll come up against the wall and we kill them.”
    “What about the others,” Gregg asked as he pointed to the three Ferals’.
    “Leave them to me,” he said with a predatory smile that sent a shiver down my spine.
    The sound of all too familiar moans rose and I glanced over to the lorry to see one of the Ferals had tried climbing over the cab and been struck over the head with what looked to be a cricket bat. Ryan uttered a curse and when I looked at him he seemed irritated that one of the Ferals had been killed.
    “You going to be ok with the other two?” I asked and he grunted as he vaulted the wall. I took that for assurance that he would be and gestured for the others to follow.
    We dashed across the garden and Gregg let out a yell to grab the attention of the zombies. An unsettling number of heads turned toward us at the sound and we were seen. Fully two-thirds of the undead lurched towards us and came up short against the garden wall.
    They were slow and definitely starting to decay. I tried not to think of the people they had once been as I took a deep breath and swung my club. My swing came up short and rather than crush the skull it caught the zombie’s cheek, tearing off most of the rotten flesh of the face with a slurping sound.
    I coughed and staggered back as the breakfast I’d eaten came straight back up and then out to splatter against the unkempt grass of the garden. I swiped the back of my free hand over my mouth and sent silent thanks after Pat as he stepped into my place and