Part 21 (2/2)

*No!' Ruth screamed, her hate for those daring to intrude upon her work, written on her contorted features.

Anne jumped to her feet and ran to her sister, relief bringing her to shed more tears.

*Lizzy! I knew you'd come for me. I knew!' Anne sobbed into her sister's body as she clung to her waist.

Liz pulled her sister even tighter and thanked G.o.d that they had found her in time.

*They've got Alex Penhaligan and some other children too. You've got to save them,' Anne said, looking up at Liz's tear filled eyes.

*It's ok Anne,' Imran said, kneeling down to give Anne a fierce hug. *Alice is with them, they're safe now.'

*Anne. Where's the baby, Anne? Where's Emma's baby?' Liz asked, tilting her sister's face up to look at her.

With those words, Anne eyes filled with tears again, as she turned slowly looking towards the pit.

*No...' Liz whispered, a tightening in her chest changing the sadness to an anger that boiled and rolled within her.

Stepping around the pit, Liz glanced down at the Dead children held there. As they caught sight of Liz standing over them, they reached up to her with small broken hands, many with fingers and flesh missing consumed by their Dead companions. Pulling her gaze from the sad abominations before her, Liz turned to look at the woman who had caused all this pain and misery.

*You f.u.c.king crazy b.i.t.c.h!' Liz spat, her anger making the words hard and crisp while the tip of her sword hovered under Ruth's chin. *What have you done!'

*They were worthless, they were nothing but maggots writhing in s.h.i.+t before the eyes of the Lord,' Ruth shouted with a scream of desperate rage.

She tried to move past the tip of Liz's sword, but with the arrow through her arm holding her in place, she only managed to receive a thin gash along her collar bone for her troubles.

*Worthless?!' Liz said, unable to believe someone could regard another human being with such little compa.s.sion, *They were just children?'

*They were nothing!' Ruth spat back, *They deserved to die.'

Liz had heard enough. Images flashed in her mind of the poor Penhaligan family pointlessly slain, of Mr O'Brien's corpse walking the moon lit beach and the haunted lost expression of Emma, her body savagely ripped open to get to the baby she carried. And then, worst of all, the shroud wrapped bodies of her murdered friends at Lanherne, the blood from their torn and abused bodies still seeping through the sheets as they lay to be buried. In that moment, Liz knew the world would be a better place with this insane murderess removed from it.

*You're going to burn in h.e.l.l, b.i.t.c.h,' Liz said calmly, now that she had decided what she would do, the anger that threatened to consume her seemed to ebb away.

This was merely a task to perform, a problem to be resolved. With one smooth motion she drew back her sword, ready to strike. But then, before she could swing it forward to end the life of the woman before her, a gunshot exploded behind her. With a spray of skin, bone and brain matter, the back of Ruth's head exploded across the back wall of the chamber. Turning, Liz saw Charlie holding the handgun, his face looking flushed and severe.

*You didn't need her death stalking your... dreams,' Charlie said, a sharp intake of breath strangely breaking his words.

With the echo of the shot bouncing back and forth in the chamber, Liz looked at the slumped figure still pinned to the post and knew it was finally over. Like a fairy tale, they had stopped a monster who bathed in the blood of the innocent. The good guys had won and all was just as it should be.

Charlie looked down at the clambering Dead children in the pit, their withered and torn limbs reaching desperately for the flesh above them. Shaking his head slowly back and forth, Charlie lifted the gun to take aim at the first of the stolen children. Shot after shot echoed through the cavern and when finally the last child fell, finally at rest, Charlie automatically reloaded the gun.

*Tell William, we found his nephew,' Charlie said with a sigh as he looked down at the small child wearing the b.l.o.o.d.y, tattered remains of a Sponge Bob t-s.h.i.+rt.

*Let's go home,' she said, picking Anne up in her arms as the echo of the final shot slowly faded.

*I'm not coming Liz,' Charlie said, softly. His words stopping her mid movement *Don't be stupid of course you're coming,' Liz said, not understanding why Charlie was talking like this.

*No Liz, I can't come back with you.... Not now,' he replied, his stare fixing her in place, as tears p.r.i.c.ked the corners of his eyes.

Nothing more was said between them but somehow Liz knew. The Dead man who had attacked him outside. Charlie had lied when he said he was alright. There had been a twist at the end of this fairy tale, a price would to be paid for deeds done and that price was Charlie.

*No!' Liz whispered, as she felt her world falling away from her.

Charlie had always been there for her, it was impossible for her now to imagine a future time without him.

*What?' Anne said, looking from Charlie to her sister, confused.

Liz looked down at Anne and instantly Anne knew.

*No!' Anne screamed running from Liz into Charlie's arms, *No, it's not fair. It's not fair.'

*I know,' Charlie, said cradling the weeping girls in his arms, *life stopped being fair seven years ago, sweetheart.'

Charlie kissed the top of Anne's head and looked up at Imran and Liz.

*You have to take care of them now. All of them,' Charlie could tell he didn't have long and there were some things he needed to say. *Son, your parents would've been so proud of the man you've become. Never forget that. And Lizzy, meeting you and Anne, being part of your lives, that's the only good thing that's come out of these last years. I love you both so much, in my heart you are my daughters and know that I will always love you.

Liz had fallen to her knees and her arms had joined her sisters wrapped around the man who had truly been a father to them. He had saved their lives countless times and given them the tools they would to survive in this world of the Dead.

*I love you,' Liz wept into his shoulder, *Please don't go... don't leave us.'

*Lizzy, please..' Charlie said, his own tears flowing freely, as the pain tore at him inside *If there was any way, I would... Please, you've got to go now. Please' A painful cough wracked through him, blood speckling his lips. *Tell Alice I'm sorry and ... and tell her I loved her.'

Liz sat back on her heals and through her tears, stared into the face of a hero. She leant forward and kissed him a final goodbye on his forehead. Liz could see he was nearing the end and she knew it would be an insult to his life to let Charlie come back as one of the Dead. With a small nod, Liz began to prise Anne tight fists from Charlie's s.h.i.+rt.

*Come on Anne, we need to go. We have to go,' she whispered, *Please Anne...'

But Anne held on, refusing to let go of the only man who had been her father. Eventually Imran had to help Liz pull Anne's small kicking and crying body away from Charlie.

*Daddy!' she cried, reaching for Charlie, overwhelmed with the grief.

And as Liz and Imran pulled a distraught Anne back to the boat through the dark tunnel, they heard Charlie's words call after them.

*I love you!' and then the sound of a single gunshot stopped them in their tracks.

Holding each other in the dark tunnel, Liz, Anne and Imran wept for the man who had forged a safe life for so many. They wept for a father taken from them so unjustly and for a man who was truly a hero. They wept for all that could have been and for what now would never be. They wept for their Charlie. They wept for themselves.

EPILOGUE : 6 MONTHS LATER.

*Are you sure you're ok, do you need anything?' Imran asked Liz, giving her large distended belly an affectionate rub.

*Yes, I'm fine. Honestly you'd think I was the first woman to get pregnant,' she replied, looking down at Imran's smiling face.

When she first told him they were going to have a baby, he had gone very quiet and she feared he was unhappy about the impending addition. As it turned out he had been just a little stunned by the news and once he had calmed himself down, he hadn't stopped smiling since.

<script>