Killing the Dead Read Free Page B

was in a whisper. “Keep a watch for any undead whilst I try and get this car started.”
    “Happy to do so, however I seem to be without any sort of weapon.” I pointed out.
    “Ok, take this then.” said Lily as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the fold out filleting knife. I wasn’t sure what good it would do against the undead but it was better than nothing. I stood with my back against the garage door, allowing me to see both the alleyway and the road entrance just by constantly turning my head from left to right.
    Lily, happy that she could work undisturbed pulled off her jacket and bunching it up. She held it firmly against the car window before striking the glass hard with the butt of the combat knife. The sound of the window shattering was muffled and we were extremely fortunate no alarm went off.
    As Lily pulled open the door and climbed into the car to fiddle with whatever it was that she needed to fiddle with. I tried to keep an attentive watch though my headache was still with me and I was considering our options.
    I was forced to work on the assumption that Lily was correct about what she had told me earlier. The dead were rising everywhere and not just here. This meant we were going to have a great many problems. We had left my house with only the clothes on our backs and a couple of knives. Finding some sort of shelter from these creatures would be important, but getting hold of some supplies was equally so.
    Getting hold of the supplies would be the problem. If these undead were killing and multiplying then the emergency services would not be able to cope. The police would be forced to rapidly fall back. This wasn’t America. Aside from special tactical units, the majority of the police were unarmed. I highly doubted the undead would be concerned with pepper spray or Tasers.
    No. The government would be forced to deploy the military, which would not be easy as a great many of them were overseas fighting on foreign soil. So, with an almost free reign the dead would soon be overwhelming in number. This in turn would mean no food deliveries to the supermarkets, no happy industrious workers turning up at the power or water treatment plants. No one in fact would be keeping the basic infrastructure intact. This presented a rather bleak future for us.
    The sound of the car as it burst to life awoke me from my reverie. Lily looked up triumphant, “Told you I could do it.” she said with one of those seemingly rare but breathtaking smiles. Her smile turned to a frown as she looked over at the alleyway. “Who is this?” she asked.
    I followed her gaze to see a rotund man running up towards us. He didn’t seem to be undead and it didn’t look as though he were being chased. He did however seem red faced though that could just be from the exertion of running.
    “Shit. I think this might be his car.” Lily said. “He is going to be pissed at us.” I would consider that a problem easily solved. I pulled open the knife.
    “What are you doing?” Lily yelled as she noticed what I was preparing to do.
    “We need this car; I won’t allow him to stop us.”
    “No. You can’t kill him. Rule number one if you are sticking with me. No killing live people.” Lily’s frown was directed full force at me. I wilted slightly. The rules of this new world hadn’t seemed to have changed that much after all. If I wanted to group with others for protection it seemed like I would have to play nice.
    “Fine, no killing.” I agreed, somewhat sulkily closing up the knife and slipping it back into my pocket. I silently added ‘for the moment .’
    “What the hell are you doing with my car?” demanded the angry fat man as he finally waddled up wheezing and flapping his arms in an indignant rage.
    “We need to get out of here, you do too. Haven’t you seen what’s happening?” Lily said her tone firm and brooking no nonsense.
    “Bah, I don’t care what’s going on. That’s my car and you can’t bloody