Free Undead at Heart by Calum Kerr Page B

company.
    “Yes,” agreed Tony. “I
think that’s probably a good idea. Another drink and then we work out what to
do next. We came here looking for help, shelter, and maybe a radio or a phone
so we could find out what’s going on. Obviously we haven’t come far enough, but
I’m guessing at least one of you knows the area well enough to lead us away
from here, and away from whatever’s happening up the road, until maybe we can
find something.”
    “Aye,” said Bert. Sam
was finding his thick northern accent rather soothing, as though at any moment
he would give her a boiled sweet and ruffle her hair. “ Me and the missus walk all round here after our lunches. There’s a path out the
back which leads southeast from here. It’ll take us to the Dyson farm and, if
that ain’t far enough, we can head down the road to the village. That should do
us.”
    Tony nodded. “Good.
That sounds like a plan. We’ll have another drink and then we’ll set off. We
should be safe here long enough for that,” he smiled around the group, pleased
with himself , but none of them were listening any
longer. While he’d been talking, he’d not been aware of the series of thumps
that were growing steadily louder. Sam could feel the vibrations of the thumps
through her stool, travelling up her spine. She turned in a full circle, trying
to work out where they were coming from.
    Her question was soon
answered when, with a loud crashing and rending noise, a huge metal rod, ending
in a flat plate came crashing through the ceiling at the far end of the pub. It had broken through the roof and the upper floor and carried on
down. It smashed through the floor and into the cellar beneath, trailing
slates and plaster and splintered floor boards with it. She screamed and threw
herself backwards under a table, taking cover. The others were scattering, even
as the monstrous metal pole ripped itself back up, out of the pub, and
disappeared. No-one moved for a moment, then as a single group they all ran for
the back of the pub, escaping the now-sunlit wreck of the bar for the unscathed
conservatory and the car-park beyond. She emerged at the rear of the group,
blinking in the bright sun, and shielded her eyes to see what they were all
looking at. Striding away into the woods, in the direction from which she and
Tony had originally come, was what looked like a giant metal spider. A central
body the size of a small house, balanced on ten or twelve legs which sprouted
from the sides at regular intervals. Each of its articulated legs ended in a
flat plate.
    Doreen, Bert’s wife,
gave out a shriek and fainted. Bert tried to catch her, but was too slow and
she slumped to the ground. None of the others moved to help, they were all too busy watching the robotic shape disappearing into the
distance. In fact, they were too busy even to notice the other one until it
ripped down the remaining half of the pub with one of its legs and strode after
its sibling.

Eighteen
     
     
    Nicola led and Stan
followed. He checked his watch but it had stopped along with everything else.
He seemed to have been trekking across the countryside behind this woman for
days.
    The crops, whatever
they were, seemed only half-grown, and their green stalks parted easily as they
waded through them, bending and shifting then springing back into place as they
passed. The ground was soft underfoot, but easy to walk on. With the expanse of
green field and the blue sky and the warm breeze it should have been a
beautiful day. But, like the others, Stan couldn’t help hunching his shoulders
against whatever might come from the skies next.
    The farm appeared
quickly, the silo rising into the air above them as they walked, and the
building, small in comparison, huddled next to it. Stan could see an array of
sheds, barns and not one, but two houses. As they got closer he could see sheep
milling and bleating in a pen next to one of the barns, and a couple of dogs
wandered aimlessly in the yard.