Dead Village by Gerry Tate Read Free Book Online

into the dark moonlit sky, and pushed on, deeper into the forest.
    She walked almost zombie like, as she tripped and stumbled against the trees and branches that stood in her path. Her forearm bled from an earlier fall, but she pushed on and ignored it.
    â€œBen, Charles,” she called. “Where are you? Please come to me.”
    A small animal darted from the undergrowth and crashed into her legs, almost causing her to fall, but the startled animal sped off into the bushes before she could distinguish what it was. Whatever it was though, something must have frightened it badly, she reasoned.
    A feeling inside of her told her they where close by, and even though she couldn’t see them, Greta felt this to be true.
    Greta scanned ahead, fully focused on what she had to do.
    The rain was pouring down heavily, but Greta didn’t even notice it, as it ran down and across her face, and mixed with her tears, forming little streams that spread onto her coatless shoulders and down her arms, dripping off her elbows and hands.
    â€œPlease,” she begged, “please don’t leave me again.”
    Even through the heavy rain and the darkness, Greta had seen something way out in front. Two figures had moved across her vision. It was them, she was sure of it. It was her husband and son, waiting for her. A feeling of euphoria filled her every being, and she moved very quickly on.
    â€œCome back, come back,” she yelled. “I’m here, I’m here.”
    Suddenly she went very quiet, and glanced around her, as though someone would see her, someone who would stop her from looking. That someone was Ken Tully, she feared.
    *  *  *  *  *
    She remembered back to just last week She had been searching the forest that night, when she saw a figure, and like tonight, she had yelled at it to come to her. But when the figure emerged from the darkness and shone his torch toward her, she found to her embarrassment that it was the gamekeeper, Tully.
    Greta had remembered that Tully had been very pleasant with her though, and he had walked her from the forest with his arm on her shoulder, talking to her all the while.
    But he had warned her of the dangers of the forest at night, with traps and such laid just about everywhere. To dissuade her from coming back, Tully had also lied to her that there were poisonous snakes in the forest, and he had made her promise him that she would not venture in there again at night.
    She pretended to agree with Tully, and promised she would do as he asked, but deep down she had resented his interference.
    After all, he wasn’t the one who had been left on his own in an empty house every night and day for all these many lonely years. And anyhow, it was a free bloody country, she felt.
    Ken Tully simply had no right to stop her from trying to find her family, even if he did mean well.
    She gripped the large knife handle tightly, and made herself a promise. If Tully tried to stop her again tonight, then she would stab him through his heart and have done with it.
    She would kill him without a second thought, because no one was going to keep her from her family. No one!
    She struggled through the dense hedgerows and wet clinging grass, ignoring the cuts on her legs, searching everywhere, but now the figures had disappeared.
    Her body tensed as she panicked, and she turned full circle as she scanned all around.
    â€œDamn you Ben, damn you Charles,” she sobbed, as she fell to her knees and clutched at her wet hair.
    High above her, in the swaying trees, the two hooded figures hovered, unmoving, watching down.
    The smaller of the two creatures slowly started to edge forward, out from the branches, when suddenly the other creature gripped its arm firmly, and pulled it back into the shadows. Greta stumbled on, but soon found herself at the end of the forest. She could see the shiny rain lashed road through the trees, and she