Free Fear the Dead 2 by Jack Lewis

sliver of the moon peaked from
behind a cloud, and it cast a shard of white light on the balcony. Below, the
faint moans of the infected were carried by the wind. Despite the danger it
posed, the sound made me drowsy. I’d spent years sleeping rough in the Wilds,
using their moans as a lullaby. When I got back to Vasey, I thought I’d done it
for the last time. It was going to be a long night.
     
    Justin tucked his arm behind his head
and leant against it. “I think she already knows what he was like, Kyle. That’s
why she was running from him.”
     
    “She needs to know the truth.”
     
    “Sometimes the truth doesn’t do any
good,” said Justin, in words that sounded far older than he was. Sometimes he
talked sense, and I had no idea where it came from.
     
    I pulled my coat closer to my chin
and tucked it in. “I’ll keep it to myself for now. Listen, you better go and
sleep for a bit,” I said.
     
    Justin got up and opened the sliding
door. “Night Kyle.”
     
    Justin had only been gone a few
minutes when the door opened again.
     
    “Listen, kid, you need to get some –
“
     
    “It’s me Kyle.”
     
    Faizel walked onto the balcony. He
went to the edge and looked down on the village streets below. Stood in front
of me, cast in the moonlight, it was hard not to be impressed by him. Despite
everything he’d been through in the past few days – leaving his family, his
wife not talking to him, killing the dog – he didn’t let the strain show. His
back was straight, his shoulders high.
     
    I reached into my pocket and pulled
out a packet of cigarettes. I put one to my lips and flicked the lighter. The
orange flame wavered in the breeze, and I hesitated before bringing it to the
end of the cigarette. Finally I let the flame fan the tobacco, and took a deep
breath of smoke that shot straight into my lungs. For a minute everything went
fuzzy, and I closed my eyes.
     
    “Those’ll kill you,” said Faizel.
     
    I let out a billow of smoke. “I’ve
got better things to worry about right now.”
     
    He leant against the balcony wall,
his back to the street. His face was shrouded by the night. “I didn’t know you
smoked.”
     
    I flicked ash onto the floor. I
pressed my finger to it and smeared it into the stone, leaving a sooty stain.
“Haven’t had one in twenty years.”
     
    “Then why start now?”
     
    “Better time than any,” I said.
“Found them in the house.”
     
    He turned his head to the east and
then put his hand to his brow as though it would focus his vision. “You can see
Vasey from here.”
     
    I sat up straighter. “Yeah? Take it
they haven’t all packed up and gone?”
     
    “They’ll all be in bed. The place
looks fragile, though. It’s hard to believe those walls keep us safe.”
     
    I took another drag, then coughed. It
tasted like crap. I stubbed the cigarette out onto the floor, screwed up the
packet and threw it across the balcony. “Believe me, those walls are as good as
it gets.”
     
    “I know, Kyle. I’ve been scouting for
Vasey for years, and I’ve spent my fair share of time in the Wilds.”
     
    I remembered back to when I’d first
met Faizel a year ago. I’d been out in the Wilds, alone, and I came across a
wooden shack he and Dan were staying in. It was the dead of night and the
stalkers were coming out, and I needed a place to crash. They offered to let me
stay in the scout shack with them, but despite how much I needed it, I refused.
I didn’t trust anyone back then.
     
    “Why did you come, Faizel?” I asked.
“Your wife wasn’t talking to you. Your kid was crying his eyes out. You didn’t
have to do it.”
     
    Faizel crossed his arms. His shirt
was folded up to his elbows. A long white scar ran along his left arm, as
though the flesh had been seared.
     
    “I didn’t want to leave them. But I
believe in Vasey. I know it’s the only way forward for us, and if we give it
up, then we’ll have nowhere else to go. Sometimes you