Jack Lewis - Fear the Dead - A Zombie Apocalypse Book

David pushed the infected off him. He turned his body round, held up the shotgun and pulled the trigger. The gun exploded with a booming sound that broke the stillness of the farm. To our left a bird flew from a tree, and even the wind died down, as though it were surprised to hear the noise.

The infected’s head sprayed across the floor in so many pieces that even if I had been a genius at jigsaws, I wouldn’t have been able to piece it back together. I wondered who the infected had been, and why it was sat in the tractor. I looked at David.

“Was that your – “

He shook his head. “Wasn’t dad.”

I scratched the back of my neck. “You okay?” I said.

David was quiet for a few seconds. Then, he stuck his arm out toward me. His cost was ripped down to the skin, and there were grooves in his flesh from where the infected’s teeth had punctured him. Blood started to ooze out of them and drip away.

He was bitten.

Before I even had time to process what this meant, I heard a voice next to me.

“Torben’s been looking for you,” said the hunter with the long fringe. Next to him were two other men, and one of them pointed a rifle at my chest.

“Drop the knife,” he said.

I weighed up my odds, and I came up short. I dropped my knife to the floor.

Chapter 20

The farmhouse was dirty and there was a mouldy smell that seemed to be coming from the walls. Cracked wooden beams ran along the ceiling to support it, though in some places the roof bulged slightly as though it would cave in any second. There was a dining table in the far side of the room, and a tattered couch that looked like it had been salvaged from a rubbish tip. On a dresser next to a wall, there was a solitary photo frame, and in it was a little girl with auburn hair and a wide grin. I knew that girl, or I knew the woman she had grown up to be. It was Clara.

I moved my arms and struggled at the rough ropes that tied me to the chair. They were wrapped so tight around my wrists that it felt like they were cutting off my circulation.

I looked up at the photo again. Clara had never shown me photos of her as a kid before, and it was almost like her childhood had never existed. Yet here was something; a memento her dad had saved and given a prominent place in his house, despite the fact he hadn’t seen his daughter in decades.

Torben followed my gaze to the photo. He walked over, picked it up and studied it. Seeing him with his hands on a photo of Clara made me clench my fists, but I said nothing. Instead, I looked to the door.

“Can’t we bring him in?” I said.

When they had escorted me into the farmhouse they had left David outside on the porch.

Torben put the photo face down on the dresser, walked over to the dining table and pulled out a chair. He sat in it and faced me. Despite how pale and tired his men looked, Torben’s face glowed red by contrast. There was no doubt that he was getting enough to eat.

“Your friend is bitten,” said Torben. “And soon he’s gonna turn. Or he would, if I wasn’t here.”

“What do you mean?”

He looked around him. “We’re on a farm. What do farmers do with sick animals?” he said.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“They take them in the barn and shoot them.”

I looked out toward the porch, but I couldn’t see David. I knew he was hurt, and I knew he’d be scared. I didn’t want to admit it, but deep down I knew that Torben was right. David was infected now, and soon he was going to die. I pushed the thought down as far as I could.

Across from us and through a door, I could hear footsteps walking down the stairs. They got closer and then the door opened, and Justin walked into the room. His clothes were tattered and his nose looked bloody around the nostrils, but otherwise he seemed fine. He saw me, stopped, and his eyes grew large. Torben stood up, walked over to him and ruffled his hair.

“Here’s my lad.” He said, and give him a punch on his arm. Justin looked away. Torben smiled at me. “Kyle, I’d like you to meet our latest recruit.”

I shook my head. Did he mean that Justin had joined the hunters? The way I saw it, he had been kidnapped, and there was no way he’d ally himself with them.

“Looks more like a prisoner than a recruit,” I said.

Torben walked back to the chair and took a seat. He nodded at Justin and beckoned him to do the same. “I gave him a choice,” he said. “Join us, or die. It looks like his survival instinct kicked in.”

“He’d never join you,” I said, feeling a lump in the back of my throat.

Torben closed his eyes and shook his head. “You make it sound like we’re monsters. All we’re doing is surviving, just like you. We’re a pack. We trust each other with our lives.”

I scrunched up my face. I couldn’t shake the feeling of disgust. “There’s something rotten at the core of your ‘pack’. “

Torben stood up and perched against the dining table. Through his open jacket I could see a revolver in a holster. I recognised the gun – it was mine, the one I’d kept in the rucksack that Torben had stolen.

“It’s not man versus man anymore, Kyle. There are no cliques, no armies. Its man versus infected.”

“So why hunt people?”

“Some men just don’t belong in a pack” he said, and stared at me. Then he turned to Justin. “But others fit right in.”

I struggled against the ropes on my wrist, but I barely had a centimetre to move. My skin burnt from rubbing against the rough material.

Torben reached into the holster and took out the revolver. He opened the chamber and checked the bullets, and from my chair I could see gold circles filling two of the holes. The other four were empty. Torben span the chamber round to line up the bullets and then closed it with a snap.

My breath caught in my lungs now, and my chest felt tight. The bullets had only one purpose; I knew it, and Torben knew it. I was tied to the chair so tight that there was no way I was going to move. I looked over at Justin and tried to get a sense of what he was thinking. Had he really joined them, or was he just playing along? Maybe he had weighed up his options and come to the conclusion that sticking with the hunters was the only way to stay alive.

Torben walked over to me and stopped just inches away. He reached forward with the revolver and pressed it into my forehead. I felt the cold metal dig into my head, and Torben pressed it harder so that it broke the skin. It was like he was trying to push it all the way through my skull and into my brain. The metal pressing against my head stung, but I wasn’t going to show him that. I took a deep breath and held it in.

“The farm’s ours, and so are you. You lost.”

I opened my mouth and spat at him. Torben took a step back and wiped his khakis with his hand. He turned, put the gun on the table and slid it over to Justin. The boy looked up in surprise.

“Pick it up,” said Torben.

Justin looked at the gun and then at Torben. I could tell what he was thinking; he was wondering if he should pick it up and fire it in Torben’s face. At least, that’s what I hoped he was thinking. Then again, there were six hunters outside who would come running in the minute they heard a shot. Whether Justin was on my side or not, we were still outnumbered.

Torben nodded at Justin. “It’s okay,” he said. “You can do it.” His voice was soft. He pointed over at me. “This guy doesn’t give a crap about you, but you’re one of us now.”

Justin’s picked up the gun, but his hands were shaking.

Torben stood up and put an arm around his shoulder. “Every man has to die, Justin. At least you won’t have to do it alone.”

Justin raised the gun at me. His pupils were so big that it seemed like his eyes were completely black. His arms were trembling, and his cheeks were white. He pointed the gun at my head. I looked deep into his eyes and tried to guess what he was thinking. Despite him aiming the gun at me, I knew that there was no way he would do it. There was no chance that Justin could shoot me.