The Dying & The Dead 2 by Jack Jewis Read Free Book Online Page A

the ground. A crow flew
down and perched on the petrol sign across from them. It gave a croaky squawk.
     
    “Kiela,” Max said.
     
    “Interesting name,” said Charles.
     
    “We named her after Kiele. It seemed
right.”
     
    “And what about your wife?” said
Heather.
     
    “Lauren.”
     
    “She doesn’t mind you being away for
three years?”
     
    “She understands. I guess. We needed
someone who could live in the Capita and pretend to support them, and I used to
be an actor. Back before the outbreak, that is. Before you ask, no, you
probably never saw me in anything. But yeah, I don’t have much of a
relationship with her or Kiela. Some causes mean you’ve gotta forgo stuff like
that.”
     
    Heather felt a flinch of anger. Her
daughter was miles away in the Capita’s hands, and Heather would have cut off
her own legs to get her back. She knew that no matter what happened, she
wouldn’t stop trying to find Kim until her own body broke down. She couldn’t
believe that this man would voluntarily leave his daughter for so long. It
seemed wasteful; frittering away the most important bond you could ever have
just to play spy.
     
    “You’re cold,” she said.
     
    Max sighed and closed his eyes, as if it
was an argument he’d had many times before. The smile on his mask achieved the
reverse of its intended effect. Now it just looked sad.
     
    “It’s the opposite, really,” he said.
“I’m not cold. I’m warmer than anyone else. I’m not content to look after my
own and say a big ‘screw you’ to the rest. I want to make things better for
everyone, and I’ve sacrificed a hell of a lot to do that. Whereas you, you’re
only interested in yourself, and Kim.”
     
    “And Eric,” said Heather.
     
    “Point is, you look after yourself. I do
what I do for everyone on the Mainland. Listen, Heather. You need to
toughen up. You need to take on some of the dark. There are things we have to
do that might not taste right, but you swallow them down anyway. If that’s what
it takes to get rid of the Capita, then that’s what you have to do.”
     
    Heather found herself shaking her head,
as if the action would expel Max’s words. Having a cause didn’t just excuse everything
you did to achieve it. There was a lot of darkness in the world, and Heather
wouldn’t thicken it by pouring in some of her own. She was going to get Kim
back, she was certain of that much. She wouldn’t lose herself in the process.
     
    ~
     
    Five miles later she saw buildings in
the distance. They were standard two-story houses, grouped together and then
hemmed in by a wall which ran around them. There was a large, black metal gate
in the centre. Thin streams of smoke rose up from a few of the chimneys. It
looked like a quiet place. She imagined the people inside. They would be
self-sufficient, spending all day gathering food and water and doing what they
could to keep safe. She pictured a community where everyone knew each other’s
names, where meals were shared and town meetings were held.
     
    As they got closer, she saw wooden
stakes driven into the ground in front of town. Max pulled on the reins and
slowed his horse.
     
    “Lady and gentleman,” he said. “Welcome
to Kiele.”
     
    “Cue the dramatic music,” said Charles.
     
    Heather saw the wooden stakes clearly
now. They surrounded the walls of Kiele, each one twenty feet away from the
next. The wood looked sturdy, and the tops of them had been carved into spikes.
On top of the spikes, wedged down so as not to fall off, were decapitated
heads.
     
    At first she thought they might be fake,
but looking closer, she knew that wasn’t the case. Blood had dried at the tops
of the stakes. The heads had their mouths open, and the wood was driven through
their neck, into their mouths and then up through their brains until it
punctured their skull. Their eyes were wide open, as if they had died in a
state of terror.
     
    “The spikes are normal,” said Max.