Plague Of The Revenants by Edward Chilvers Read Free Book Online

to be picky. I was looking for a place with high walls and a large garden, perhaps even a castle, but of these buildings there was no sign. Instead there was village after village packed with revenant after revenant which all merged into one eventually and nothing in between except endless fields. I saw signs for the main roads but these I avoided for I knew they would be packed with abandoned cars and their revenant owners. I saw the mass panic, frozen in time, the cars stopped and crashed, the bloodstains on the road. I saw male and female revenants, the young and the old. Once I even saw a woman lumbering up the road carrying her undead baby in a sling. Humankind: we who were once the monarchs of the planet now reduced to the most base of parasites with not even the free will of a cockroach. And to think that I, the scum of the earth, was one of the only men left alive.

It was mid-afternoon when the truck finally ran out of petrol. I had miscalculated badly. Not wanting to leave the relative safety of my moving vehicle I had ignored tempting prospects by the side of the road. Now, as I wound my way down the various country lanes, I found there was not a truck or car to be seen as the gauge crept agonisingly closer to empty. By the time the thing finally spluttered to a stop I found myself isolated in a narrow road surrounded by thick woodland on either side. Cautiously I unwound the window and listened close. I couldn’t hear any of the inhuman moaning that had characterised my time in the city but that hardly meant a thing. I cursed loudly and slammed my fists down upon the steering wheel. I should have planned it so much better than this. Had I been the man I used to be I would have fared much better. Those eight years inside, with everything being done for me, when I was told when to eat, sleep and shit were what had done for me. I thought back to my journey since leaving the town and realised there had been many opportunities to reach shelter in isolated cottages. I could have taken to the loft and looted as I saw fit, could at least have eaten and I could definitely have found another vehicle had I put my mind to it. Instead I had driven around looking for a miracle, as mindless as the revenants themselves. I needed to get it together. I shook my head to calm myself down then reached behind me and took the rucksack and the hammer. My stomach was rumbling and I needed to find food fast. I got out of the truck and set off on foot down the road in the opposite direction from which I had come.

I had driven too far out. I had sought the wilderness but now I had finally found it there was no place for me to go. I had no aim, no idea where I was going and I did not know how I would define safety even if I were to find it. Nothing lay ahead of me except wide fields, large skies and the open countryside. From time to time I saw a barn, warehouse or other outbuilding but this was no good to me. I needed somewhere with food where I could stay a while. I needed honest to God bricks and mortar where I could hole up on a more permanent basis. I started making my way through woodland. I knew leaving the open ground was a bad idea but I was conscious of the time. Night would fall soon and I had no intention of feeling my way through the darkness in this sort of terrain. I was tired and had never been so hungry. All I wanted was some food and a place to lay my head for a few hours. I considered it a miracle I had survived so far. I was too regimented, too used to having everything done for me in the prison, or at least this is what I told myself. How else could I have made so many elemental mistakes? Then again I was still strong and resourceful, patient too. In waiting out the crisis I had avoided the panicked rush which seemed to have claimed most of the population for the revenants. In prison you learn to act on instinct; to keep your wits about you and your ears open. This is why when I heard the sound of something crashing