Free The Undead Day Twenty by RR Haywood

elders. Right now they are safe. They have order. It doesn’t matter to him what they are doing or where they are going. Whatever the elders decide is right. He knows Reginald will now join in and together they’ll form the next phase of the plan and he’ll be ready whatever that is.
    ‘Right here by the looks of it,’ Howie’s voice comes over.
    ‘Subi said they stopped here,’ Paula says. ‘Said they used that hose…’ she points down the field towards the access point to the lower section. ‘Must have come through there.’
    ‘She’s off,’ Clarence says, watching Meredith start following a trail across the paddock.
    ‘That way,’ Howie calls out, motioning towards that access point. Blowers nods, his mind already assessing the next phase.
    ‘Line across the rear, watch that gate,’ he calls back and waits with Maddox for the others to fall in at either side. ‘Even spacing,’ he says quietly, watching with an expert eye as they move further away from each other while walking ahead behind the elders.
    The feeling comes back. Order and discipline gained. He looks ahead, seeing the gap and knowing Charlie will get there first.
    ‘This what you do?’
    ‘Shut up,’ Blowers snaps the words out, silencing Maddox. He needs to listen and be ready. He watches the hedge, spotting the gaps between the tightly woven branches. Meredith pushes on, following a straight path down.
    Maddox suppresses the urge to exhale noisily knowing it will be a show of his frustration. Earning his place in his mind meant being at the front with Howie. Not at the back with the followers. He bides his time, waiting for a chance to go forward and show he can lead and make decisions. He knows the damage done by his actions with Lani and although he stands by his belief, and was later proved right by the fact she turned, he also knows he made mistakes in how he did it. He knows he relied on the numbers in his crews and the use of force whereas it was a time for diplomacy instead of violence.
    He finally came out of the medical section last night and saw first hand what Lilly had accomplished, which brought an immediate conflict within him. He was deeply impressed but he also realised it was done without him. He wasn’t needed. There were no armed guards inside the fort. No men with guns. Instead there was a weird feeling of peace. Lenski sensed the change too and it was her that told him to go to Howie and earn his respect back, either that or they leave. He didn’t do anything at first but then started to see the remaining youths from his crews here and there. They looked different too. None of them were in black for a start and all of them kept their distance from him.
    ‘Mr Howie, it’s Charlie…there is a big gap in the hedge at the bottom of the field. Lots of bodies here…’
    ‘Roger, stay back. We’ll come to you.’
    Blowers picks the pace up, closing the gap between his team and the elders with an instinct that tells him Howie will push on faster. He does too. Howie starts jogging but the pace is already there and holding that distance steady. They go through the access gap to a furrowed field enclosed on all sides by thick hedge. Charlie at the far side on Jess aiming her rifle into a visible gap in the gnarled branches.
    ‘Slow down,’ Blowers says, sensing the urge in Maddox to rush forward. Maddox is not a leader here.
    He scans the field, looking for points of danger. All of them do. All of them with eyes up, watching and scanning. The two gaps are the only obvious points of danger. As they reach the bottom so Blowers allows his line to collapse in to join everyone else.
    ‘Smell that?’ Blowers asks, glancing at Maddox who inhales the air before screwing his face up in disgust. ‘Infected. The smell gets worse every day. Shit, blood, piss…you smell that and you know they’re close.’
    Maddox looks at the gap in the hedge, seeing the freshly snapped branches showing stark and obvious. Bodies everywhere