Sand, Sea, Zombies, Page 2

see it with my own eyes, unless I experience it...’

  ‘You experiencing the world a bit too much is what I’m worried about. There are monsters out here, zombies, and if you’re not careful, you’ll meet one.’

  ‘I’ll be careful. I’m not an idiot you know.’

  He sighs. ‘I never said you were, but I am. I’m not going to let you wander around out here on your own. I’m going to have to come with you.’

  I feel quite offended. It’s not like I need protecting. I can do that myself. Any monsters better be scared and stay away. They won’t like the alternative.

  ‘Go back to the Tower, Ed. I’ll be fine.’

  He shakes his head. ‘If you want to go for a walk, then I’m coming too.’ He steps away from the Tower. ‘Come on, the sooner we get moving, the sooner we can do whatever it is you want to do and then find somewhere safe to hide.’

  I follow him, jumping over the bigger cracks in the pavement and avoiding the festering overturned rubbish bins.

  ‘So what are these monsters like?’ I ask.

  ‘Pray you never find out,’ Ed responds. ‘They aren’t pretty but what they do is far worse.’

  I glance at him. ‘What do they do?’

  He shudders.

  ‘It can’t be that bad.’

  He stops walking and turns to look at me. ‘I saw my little sister attacked by a zombie. They bit her, ate her, but what happened later.’ He wipes a tear from his cheek. ‘What is bitten by a zombie becomes a zombie, that's what happened to her, she turned into one of them. And then she came after the rest of my family. I'm the only one left.’

  I don’t know what to say to that. What can I say? The monsters sound horrifying, but are they real? I’ve never believed in monsters. I have always thought of them as fairy tales like the books Mother read to me. But I don’t think Ed is lying. Which means he must be mistaken. He thought he saw something, but what was really happening was something else. ‘I’m sorry,’ I say, mainly because he looks so sad. ‘That must have been hard.’

  ‘It was a long time ago. Only a few years after it all started. My parents tried to protect us, like your mother protected you, but they weren’t as good at it.’ He shakes his head. ‘It's no good thinking about the past. I can’t bring them back.’ He looks down a road toward the sea. ‘I doubt your mother went for a paddle so I think we should carry on down this road and then go up Talbot Road until we reach the old train station. I’ve heard there’s a group of people living there. If we’re lucky, they’ll still be there and will have seen your mother. She might even be with them right now.’

  ‘Are you sure? Mother never said anything about anyone living near to us.’

  ‘I don’t know, but…’ He puts his arm out in front of me.

  ‘What?’ I ask. But then I see what. Before us is a woman, but she doesn’t look anything like me or Mother. She is wearing a ripped and dirty dress and the rest of her is filthy too. Her hair, what little she has left, hangs in knots around her shoulders and she only has one arm. But it isn’t her appearance which is most shocking, it is the fact that she is crouched down by a body, ripping up strands of flesh with her fingers before stuffing them in her mouth.

  It seems that Ed was right. There really are monsters.

  ‘We need to go back,’ Ed whispers. ‘We don’t want her to see us.’

  I nod my head and start to turn around. And that is when I see two other monsters lumbering toward us.

  I grab Ed’s hand.

  ‘I see them,’ he says. ‘I also see another three coming up from the promenade.’

  ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘Not die for a start.’ He pulls me toward a doorway. ‘There’s a door at the front of this building,’ he says. ‘I’m hoping that there are no more of those things inside, and we can get to it and to safety.' He backs up as another monster stumbles out of the door.

  'Ed,' I scream.

  Bending down, he grabs a broken leg of a chair from the ground. ‘Don't worry, I’ll fight them.’

  ‘You can’t fight them. You’re just a boy.’

  ‘I don’t have a choice do I? It’s either fight or die. And I don’t want to die.’ He waves the leg in front of him.

  And then, in a whirl of grey and purple, I see Mother. Her black hair swirling around her head, a long curved sword in her hand.

  She decapitates the monsters and then looks at me. ‘Why have you left the Tower, Lily? How could you have been so stupid? How could you have been so selfish?’ She glances at Ed. ‘You should go,’ she says. ‘I’m taking my daughter back to the Tower, to where she is safe.’

  ‘You can’t leave him out here. There could be more monsters.’

  ‘There probably are. But believe me, he is safer out here than in the Tower. Now come on, let’s go.’

  I can’t believe Mother wouldn’t let Ed come back with us. And what did she mean when she said he was safer outside than inside here with us? There are no dangers in here, well apart from boredom. I sigh, twist my finger around some loose fibres sticking out of the edge of the carpet. It would have been nice to have someone beside Mother to talk to. Especially as half the time she’s up at the top of the Tower doing science experiments. I don't know what experiments, or why she's doing them, she's never let me up there. Just tells me the floor is made of glass and would break if two of us stood on it. But that's just an excuse. After all, who would use glass in a floor? That's crazy. I've thought about sneaking up there. Just to have a look around. When she was gone I tried to, but she'd taken the key. I couldn’t even get through the door.

  ‘I’m going upstairs to check an experiment I set before I left,’ Mother says. ‘If you need me, then call me on the intercom. But whatever you do, don’t open that door or try to go outside again. I will be very angry with you if you do.’

  I slump back against the wall once she’s gone, and stare at the furniture in front of the door. The world is a dangerous place, Mother was right about that, but it’s also exciting. Now she’s never going to let me out there again. And I’ve lost the only friend I’ve ever had.

  ‘Lily.’ The handle of the door moves. ‘Let me in.’

  I hurry over. ‘Is that you Ed?’

  ‘Of course it’s me. Can you let me in? It’s nearly dark and the streets are no place for anyone at night.’

  ‘I can’t. Mother...'

  ‘Please. Just for tonight. I never did get to eat you know.’

  ‘Fine.’ I start to move the furniture. ‘There aren’t any of those monsters out there with you?’ I ask.

  ‘Just me.’

  I turn the key in the lock and open the door.

  ‘Thank you,’ Ed says, and steps through the doorway. ‘I really didn’t want to be outside tonight. I think I’m coming down with something.’

  ‘Did one of the monsters bite you?’

  ‘No. Thanks to your mother.’ He smiles. ‘I’ve probably just got a cold.' He groans. ‘My stomach hurts too and I’m feeling really hungry.’

  ‘You’re hungry?’ I step away from him. ‘How hungry?’

  ‘Not enough to eat you,’ he grins. ‘I just need something to eat, and then I want to sleep. I’m very tired.’

  ‘You can sleep in the ballroom,’ I say. ‘Mother hardly ever goes in there so she won’t know I let you in. And I’ll get you some bedding and food too.’ I shut the outside door quickly. After pushing the furniture back in front of it, I help him to reach the ballroom. ‘Won’t be long,’ I say before hurrying away.

  ‘Lily, did you open that can of corned beef?’ Mother asks. ‘I didn’t think you liked it.’

  ‘I ate it yesterday before you came back,’ I say quickly, hoping she doesn’t know I’m lying. ‘There was nothing else to eat.’

  ‘Lily.’

  I turn to look at her. ‘Yes?’

  ‘You couldn’t have eaten it then. It wasn’t here.’

  ‘I mean I was hungry today.’

  ‘And you suddenly felt like
corned beef?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She shakes her head. ‘You let him in didn’t you?’

  ‘I don’t know what you…’

  ‘The boy. The one you were with. You let him in, and gave him the corned beef.’ She sighs. ‘I’m right aren’t I? Where is he?’

  ‘I didn’t.’ I jerk around as I hear something banging. ‘What was that? Are those monsters trying to break in?’

  ‘Oh Lily,’ she shakes her head and pulls a long knife out of her pocket. ‘Where is he?’

  I stare at the knife. ‘What are you going to do with that? You’re not going to hurt him are you? Kill him?’

  ‘I will do what I have to do.’

  Another bang sounds through the Tower, and it sounds like it’s coming from the ballroom door.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘And I never wanted you to.’ She puts a hand over her face, breathing deeply before looking at me. ‘Was the boy ill? When you let him in, was he ill?’

  ‘He wasn’t bitten.’

  ‘No, he wouldn’t need to have been bitten. He was ill though, wasn’t he? Did his stomach hurt?’

  I nod my head. ‘And he was hungry.’

  The ballroom door bangs again, and then with the sound of splintering wood, opens. And Ed stumbles out, sees us and starts to lumber toward us.

  ‘Ed?’ I stare at the boy I’d met yesterday. ‘Mother, what is going on? Why does he look like a monster?’

  ‘Because he is.’ She steps forward and jams the knife into his skull.

  I watch as his body drops to the floor, black blood from his head pooling on the carpet. 'He wasn't bitten though,' I mumble. How could he have become that when he wasn't bitten?' I look up at Mother. 'It’s in the air isn't