Killing the Dead (Season 2 | Book 2): Dark and Deadly Land Read Online Free PDF Page B

she was about to say and just nodded. We all knew what his other interests were and while our friends had accepted it, they weren’t exactly comfortable discussing it.
    “Hush now, keep watch,” Toby called. He pointed ahead and I followed the direction to see the town filling the horizon.
    Like most of the towns around the lakes, Ambleside had a marina. Or at least it had a marina once, now all it contained was blackened rubble that had once been the boating shops and cafes. Most of the boats that had been tied up at the docks were capsized or submerged and the ones that were upright had zombies on their decks.
    Two hundred metres to the west of the marina, past a wide open field of wild grass, was the mouth of the river Rothay. Fifteen feet wide and more than deep enough for our little boat to pass, Toby directed us straight towards it.
    “We’ll attract the dead ones,” Toby said. “Most’ll be stopped by the water, some’ll be too stupid though and might come for us. Round the bend the river narrows as we pass through the town, that’s when we’re most at risk.”
    I swallowed hard past a suddenly dry mouth and throat. My palms felt clammy and I reached for my club with my free hand. It wasn’t much to look at, just a piece of timber taken from a boatyard. One end had been cut down until it was narrow enough to be gripped and string was wrapped tightly around to make a handle. The other end was thick and bore several notches and dents. Each of us had a club and Ryan, of course, had his combat knife on his belt.
    His hand tightened on mine and I glanced over to see him watching me. He was utterly calm and at peace, no nerves for him at the thought of the danger ahead. He smiled at me, a small smile for me alone and I knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to us. Calm washed over me and I managed a smile of my own for him.
    The journey along the river started well enough. I could see a few Shamblers making their way towards us from the edge of the town but they would never catch us. The water was calm and flowing steadily towards the lake we were leaving but that posed no problem to the motorised boat we were in.
    We rounded the first bend and a short distance after, turned another in the opposite direction. At that point, the river split. One wide channel off to our left headed west to a smaller lake and the other almost straight north. We went north towards the edge of the town.
    “This is where it’ll get rough,” Toby called. He needn’t have raised his voice, our attention was fixed firmly on the task at hand and no one was willing to risk distracting another.
    Ryan squeezed my hand and when I glanced his way he nodded towards the west bank of the river on our left. I looked over to see the steep grass covered slope of the banking and through the thin veil of trees an open grass covered space and then the road; that was teeming with the undead.
    My eyes were round as I saw them. Hundreds, perhaps thousands following the road barely thirty metres from where we were. Heads turned as the sound of our engine carried to them over their own incessant moans. I’d barely noticed the stench, so used to it had I become.
    “There’s a wall alongside the road,” I whispered and he nodded. I saw no fear in his eyes but as he mentally measured the distance from the river bank, I saw doubt surface and his hand left mine to draw his blade.
    His unease was easy to understand. As fearful of moving water as they were, that many of them rushing towards us would end up with a great deal of them being pushed into the river by those behind. It wouldn’t take long for them to form a blockage in the water we couldn’t get through.
    “Bridge ahead,” Gregg called.
    All eyes turned from the zombies to the looming structure we were headed towards. Houses had appeared through the trees, darkened windows empty and forlorn. We were at the edge of the town and a tall, wide bridge crossed the river, a grey stone wall the