Part 10 (2/2)

Like James Penhaligan his throat had been cut, or at least it had been attempted. This time the cut had not gone deep enough, or perhaps Mr O'Brien had tried to fight them off during the attack. Either way, instead of the single slice under the chin, this cut had slipped down to the shoulder on one side, missing the major arteries. Whoever had killed him, finally had to resort to plunging a knife deep into his chest to finish him off. The Dead man's milky eyes focusing on Charlie seemed to glow in the pale moonlight. With an extra burst of speed, Daniel O'Brien lunged at Charlie with murderous intent. After his time in the army, and years of fighting the Dead, this frenzied attack was clumsy at best. With a quick sidestep, Charlie was swinging his ice pick towards the back of the Dead man's skull. With a dull *thud' the tip of the pick broke through Mr O'Brien's cranium and tore into the brain. With the unnatural life now gone from this moving sack of flesh and bones, Daniel O'Brien slumped to his knees and fell to his side, forever to lie among the other flotsam and jetsam along the high tideline.

*s.h.i.+t,' Charlie said, as he wiped clean the tip of the ice pick, *We've got to get back to the Convent as soon as possible, we've been dealing with this bulls.h.i.+t long enough.'

*But what about Emma?' Liz asked, as they started to climb back up the cliff path. *We can't just abandon her and her baby.'

Shaking his head, Charlie sighed.

*Sorry Liz, but I've got a sneaky feeling that they'll both turn up Dead somewhere round here.'

Liz went quiet, as she thought of poor Emma forever to carry inside her, her unborn Dead infant.

*We should at least try to find her.'

*Well, it's too dangerous to search the village tonight. We'll bed down at the Police station and take a look at first light,' Charlie said *but we're not hanging around for too long, we've got to take care of our own first. I want to be back at Lanherne before tomorrow evening. Agreed?'

*Agreed.' Liz replied.

This whole trip seemed to have led from one horror to the next and Charlie was right, they could not allow this to visit those they cared for at Lanherne.

*Well?' Imran asked, when they had returned to the Police station.

*It was Mr O'Brien. They got him.' Liz replied.

Standing in the pool of warm yellow torch light, Liz just wanted to step into his comforting arms and forget the sights, even for just a few minutes. But she knew they needed to secure Delilah for the night and then move into the O'Brien's home to sleep.

*f.u.c.k!' Imran replied. *So what now?'

*Bed down here, a quick look for Emma at dawn, then we get our a.r.s.es back to the Convent and pray everything's alright there' Charlie said, as he unhitched Delilah and began to lead her to the back of the station, where a fenced off area would keep her safe.

*Come on...,' Imran said to Liz, pulling some blankets out of the cart *we might as well get inside.

Walking into the station, Liz and Imran looked about the blood splattered room, the flickering torch light adding to the uneasy atmosphere.

*Well, we're not sleeping in here,' Imran said, *let's find a room with a little less carnage in it.'

Nodding her agreement, Liz took the torch from Imran and headed to the other door. Walking down the small corridor, she soon found a suitable room to sleep in. At one time it had been an office of some kind, but since Emma and Daniel had taken up residence, it was now a bedroom. In one corner sat a small crib. It would never hold the smiling happy baby it was intended for and was now nothing more than a reminder that just when you thought life couldn't get any worse, some b.a.s.t.a.r.ds could come along and add a whole new level of s.h.i.+t to deal with. Liz placed the torch in the small fire place, the kindling quickly catching alight, filling the room with a flickering, comforting light. Moving over to sit on the bed, Liz picked up something folded by the pillows.

*Christ, IH many more are going to die, before they're stopped?'

*I don't know what to say, Liz,' Imran replied, wrapping his arms around her *but all those who have been attacked have been in small groups and there's a lot of us at the Convent. We'll be ok, don't worry.'

*I suppose so, but that's not really the point.' Liz replied, turning round in Imran's embrace.

*Delilah's sorted out back, all watered and fed,' Charlie said, as he joined them in the bedroom. *Emma and Daniel have a good flock of chickens out there. I think we'll take what we can, no point letting them starve and it'll be good to cross breed them with ours too.'

Looking about the small room, he chose a st.u.r.dy looking wooden chair and jammed it under the door handle, just in case.

*Right, you two have the bed and I'll sort myself out on the floor.'

Grabbing two seat pads from a dilapidated looking sofa, Charlie made a make s.h.i.+ft bed on the floor. Taking one of the pillows from the bed and a blanket from Imran, Charlie tried to get as comfortable as he could.

*Night,' he said, as he turned on his side.

Soon Liz could hear his breathing take on a slow steady rhythm, as he drifted off to sleep. Liz and Imran lay down on the bed, spooning their bodies against each other.

*I love you,' Imran whispered in her ear, kissing the back of her neck.

*I love you too,' she answered.

Feeling Imran's heart beating through her back she could tell, like Charlie he was soon asleep. For a while she watched the orange flames dancing in the fire grate, as the tragic and terrifying events of the day replayed themselves in her mind. Pulling Imran arms tighter about her she prayed tomorrow would be a better day. She prayed tomorrow they would find Emma alive and most importantly, she prayed these crazy raiders would not find their way to the convent.

DAY 4.

*Push, Emma. Push,' Liz screamed to the woman lying in front of her giving birth.

Emma, her hair plastered to her face with sweat, panted through the pain as another contraction racked through her body. As the pain reached a crescendo she screamed and grabbed for Liz's hand. Liz winced at the fierce grip Emma had on her and not for the first time wished someone else was here to help. Where was everybody else, she thought to herself looking around the small bedroom? Emma screamed again, the contractions coming again to tear through her. Liz wetted a cloth with her free hand and wiped Emma's brow, trying to cool her. Then suddenly Emma's breath caught in her throat, her eyes bulging horrifically, she looked at Liz, her panic clear to see. Emma opened her mouth to speak but before a sound could pa.s.s Emma's lips an explosion of blood shot from between her legs soaking the bed. Emma bucked her body wildly, blood flecking on her lips as her hysterical screams tore something in her throat.

*Get it out of me, get it out!' she screamed, as another wave of blood splatted onto the bed.

Liz looked at the blood horrified. Prying Emma's fingers off one by one, Liz managed to free her hand and move to the foot of the bed. Sitting in the pool of clotting blood, Liz forced apart Emma knees to see what was happening. As she looked at Emma, the baby's head fully crowned, she knew something was wrong. What she saw wasn't so much as Emma giving birth to the baby but more like the baby was forcing its way out of Emma's womb. Liz could see tiny fingers being pushed either side of the head, tearing at the edges of Emma's v.a.g.i.n.a in their desperation to get out. Emma's skin ripped and her screaming became uncontrollable and horrific. Forcing her wider, the fingers soon became hands and then a wrist and then an arm. The little arm, covered in blood and bits of torn flesh, reached forward and grabbed the blood soaked blanket. Using its hold as leverage, the baby began to pull itself out of Emma. Liz instinctively backed away from the emerging infant, knowing whatever was coming out of Emma was not the rosy cheeked baby Emma had hoped for. Emma had stopped screaming, with her vocal chords now ripped and b.l.o.o.d.y, she could only manage horse grunts of pain. Convulsions spasmed through her, forcing her back to arch high off the bed. Even then the thing pulling itself out of her would not let go its hold on the blanket. The baby wriggled its shoulders and soon its other arm was now gripping tightly to the blanket, pulling the rest of itself out of Emma's ruined body. With a stomach churning rip, the baby pulled itself free of its mother. Then with unnatural strength the new born child wrapped its tiny pudgy fingers around its own umbilical cord and yanked. With a *splat' the placenta was ripped from Emma to land beside her demonic infant. Emma let out one final grunt and as Liz flicked her eyes up to her face, she could see Emma had died. And then suddenly all was still in the small bedroom. Slowly she lowered her gaze, scared at what she may see lying small and b.l.o.o.d.y between Emma's legs. Horrified, Liz looked down at the thing that had ripped its way into existence, only for her breath to catch in her throat at what she saw. With its eyes closed, it hungrily licked blood and bits of Emma off its lips and fingers. Then with a look on its face could only be described as a smirk, it opened its eyes to look at Liz with the milky white eyes of the Dead.

*No!' Liz screamed.

Screaming herself awake, Liz sat up with a jolt, her heart pounding in her chest.

*Hey, hey, it's alright you were just dreaming,' Imran said sitting up to pull her into his arms.

*s.h.i.+t! Imran. That was a bad one,' Liz said, her voice shaky, *Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you'

Imran held her close, rubbing her back to calm her down until he could feel her heartbeat returning to normal.

*Hey, that's ok. Though lucky for you Charlie's just gone out to scout around. Don't think he'd appreciate your cheery wake-up call quite so much,' Imran said smiling at her.

Rubbing her face to clear the last vestiges of the dream from her mind, Liz swung her legs over the side of the bed.

*Oh, he shouldn't have gone on his own. Come on, we should go after him, just in case,' Liz said, standing up and reaching for her sword. *And I could do with something to eat. I'm starved.'

With a groan, Imran pulled himself up from the bed and began folding up their blankets.

*I could do with a wee first,' he said following Liz out of the room with the blankets under his arm.

As they walked down the small corridor back to the front office, they could see that Charlie had already taken many of the O'Brien's supplies. Though, where he had managed to stash them in the already cramped cart, Liz had no idea. Stepping over the large sticky patch of drying blood in the front office, Liz and Imran made their way outside to find Charlie. As they stood on the threshold of the Police station, a small flock of seagulls flew past the peninsular calling to each other through the clear icy blue sky and flew off out to sea. The clean sea air had a chill to it this morning but Liz still found it refres.h.i.+ng as the last cobwebs of her dream were blown away. Charlie had already brought Delilah around and harnessed her to the cart, which Liz could now see had the addition of a small two wheeled trailer attached to the back. Charlie had packed the trailer high with much of the rescued O'Brien supplies.

*Back in a sec,' Imran said, jogging to the side of the building to relieve his bladder.

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