Lanherne Chronicles (Prequel): To Escape the Dead by Stephen Charlick Read Free Book Online Page B

then,’ asked Sally, a resigned sadness creeping into her voice.
    ‘I’m afraid it looks like it,’ he replied with a heavy sigh, as he slid aside the bolt on the hatch door.
    Thankfully the process of transferring some of the group from the full cart over to Sally was completed in only a few uneventful minutes. Dividing those with fighting skills between the two carts, Charlie decided rather than move her unnecessarily, Carmella and therefore Vincenzo should stay where they were, together with Liz, Anne, Cam, Fran and himself. The others would be joining Sally for the night.
    ‘If Paul falls asleep make sure he doesn’t cry out,’ whispered Charlie as he began to close the hatch on Tom, Phil and the others.
    ‘I’ll stay awake to make sure,’ replied Tyrone from the darkness.
    Tyrone realised his profoundly deaf brother could be a liability to them all, even to the point of possibly endangering their very lives. Unaware and unable to control the sounds he made in his sleep while his mind tortured him with horrific dreams Paul, and by default Tyrone himself, could easily have been abandoned or left to fend for themselves if Charlie had pushed the point. But despite the dangers, Charlie had brushed aside his worries and told Tyrone in no uncertain terms he would never even contemplate leaving them behind. Such was the type of man Charlie was.
    Charlie silently closed the hatch on the second cart safe in the knowledge Tyrone would be true to his word and would indeed stay awake to watch over his brother. Walking back to towards Snow, he paused briefly to grab the Dead man he had dispatched by the ankles. Despite a layer of filth covered denim between his hands and the Dead man’s emaciated legs, he could still feel the loose skin sloughing and tearing beneath his grasp as he pulled the corpse over to the side of the road. With a grunt he tossed the body, legs first, into a large bramble bush before walking back over to Snow.
    ‘That better, girl?’ he whispered, giving her cheek a friendly pat.
    As if to answer him, the trusty mare briefly snorted and nudged him back affectionately.
    ‘We’ll find you something to eat in the morning,’ he mumbled, looking over at the burning Institute as the soft golden glow from the flames danced across his concerned face, ‘hopefully…’

 
    Chapter 2
    As her blade whispered through the air Liz casually noticed the Dead woman in front of her was missing three of the fingers of her right hand; yet this was in fact the least of the Dead woman’s injuries. With only a dried leathery strip of curling skin on her shoulder, she was actually missing her whole left arm. Offering barely any resistance, the razor sharp edge of Liz’s blade sliced effortlessly through tendon, withered muscle and bone, sending the Dead woman’s mutilated hand dropping to the road. Of course this did little to stop the Dead woman in her compulsive advancement toward the flesh she craved, towards Liz. But now with only the severed stump reaching for her, Liz could take her time to exercise a clean killing blow. With a flick of her wrist her sword sliced through the air yet again, the arc of the blade bisecting the woman’s face just above her jaw bone. Almost instantly the Dead woman’s moaning stopped and her remaining arm fell lifeless to her side. For a split second she seemed to waver back and forth, unsteadily on her feet but then, as gravity took control, her ruined body fell to join the hand at Liz’s feet. Liz watched as the top half of the cadaver’s head bounced along the cracked road surface, finally coming to rest by a large patch of dandelions that had taken root just near the curb. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Charlie, Cam and Tom had the other Dead under control, Liz walked over to what was left of the decapitated head. Even though the Dead woman was effectively out of action and no longer a danger to anyone Liz refused to allow the remaining abomination to carry on its