Cadaver 7: A Zombie Apocalypse Thriller, page 10
"Right, you guys stay here," Aksel instructs, pointing at a spot on the lawn. "I'll plant the bomb, and you keep watch. The second you see or hear it, call out the signal, so I can light it up."
Kristoffer nods, and Aksel runs to the grave. Ella squeezes his hand a little tighter, and Kristoffer glances sideways at her. He expect to meet her eyes, but Ella is staring at the grass.
"It was here," she whispers. "She stood right here when he shot her."
"I'm sorry," Kristoffer tells her for the umpteenth time. "I should have gone with you. If I'd just shown up earlier, then maybe—"
"You couldn't have done anything to change it," Ella says firmly. "He would just have shot you too."
"You're probably right," Kristoffer mutters. "Still, I wish we'd done something different …"
"I have the same feeling right now," Ella says, looking over at Aksel.
Kristoffer follows her gaze and sees Aksel on top of the grave. He's put the bag down and is digging eagerly in the soft soil with his hands.
"You don't think this will work," Kristoffer says. It's not a question, and Ella doesn't answer. "I wish we had a playbook."
"Me too," she says quietly. "And I wish my parents were here." She looks him in the eye. "Maybe that was what did it, you know? Maybe Aksel was onto something. Two protected people, maybe that's too much for the draug."
Kristoffer considers this. "Maybe," he says. "But I don't think so."
She looks at him, mild surprise in her eyes.
"I don't think you need him, Ella," Kristoffer says, shrugging. "I don't think you ever did. You don't need me, either. Or your mother, may she rest in peace. You're way braver than all of us. And you already have what it takes." He smiles, even though his cheeks are frozen. "If you hadn't, you wouldn't have made it this far."
She looks at him for a long time. Then she leans closer, and Kristoffer takes it to mean she's about to whisper something she doesn't want Aksel to hear, so he lowers his head for her to come closer to his ear. Instead, Ella reaches up and places a kiss on his mouth. It's surprisingly warm and moist despite the freezing weather.
"Oh," he says stupidly, leaning back to look at her. "I, uhm … well. Okay."
Ella smiles. "Thank you."
"No, thank you."
"No, I mean … thanks for believing in me."
"Oh. Right. Absolutely."
A moment of awkward silence follows. Kristoffer forgets all about the impending danger and the fate of the world.
Then, Aksel breaks the silence: "Hey, love birds! If you're done making out, I'm ready when you are!"
Kristoffer looks over to see him wave at them from the top of the grave. The bag is gone. In front of him, just over the opening, is a large pile of dirt. Aksel evidently buried the bag, and it looks like he left a corner sticking up.
"We'll let you know," Kristoffer hears himself say.
Aksel nods, then crouches down and disappears from view.
Kristoffer and Ella just stand there for what feels like several minutes, holding hands, waiting, freezing. In his free hand, Kristoffer holds the gun that used to belong to Ella's mother. He checked the magazine ten times before they left, made sure it's full. He doesn't believe very much the gun will make any different, but he still feels a little better holding it. If nothing else he might be able to use it to slow down the draug just long enough for Ella to escape.
He does his best to keep his senses alert. He listens to the sounds of the night. His eyes keep scanning the garden. The draug could theoretically return from any direction.
Suddenly, there's a series of gunshots. At least ten. They're pretty far away.
"Fuck," Aksel says, peeking up from his hiding place. "Was that Belinda?"
"No," Kristoffer says. "I'm almost certain it came from another direction."
That only gives him a bit of solace, though. It's good that it probably wasn't Belinda who had to fire the gun, but someone else in town did, and that can't really be good news.
He doesn't get much time to think about it, because he feels Ella tighten the grip on his hand.
"It's coming," she whispers.
Kristoffer looks around the garden, sees nothing, then looks at Ella. She's staring at the corner of the house. Kristoffer can't see or hear anything. "You sure?" he asks.
Ella nods once, not removing her eyes from the place she's staring at.
"Axe!" Kristoffer calls out. "Get ready. It's coming."
"Heard," Aksel calls back. "Don't address me again from this point forward."
We won't need to, Kristoffer thinks. It'll know you're here the moment it steps into the garden.
And then, suddenly, he can feel it, too. It's subtle, but the sensation is growing stronger. It's exactly like what he felt when he saw the hole in the hill for the first time.
Ella is muttering something under the breath. It almost sounds like a prayer.
"It won't hurt us," Kristoffer assures her. "If it could harm you, it would have done so the first time."
"It almost did," Ella says grimly.
Kristoffer just nods. He tightens the grip on the gun. His fingers are freezing, but he's pretty sure he can squeeze the trigger. The feeling of the draug is a lot more forceful now. It's pressing against his chest, making it harder to breathe.
Then Ella gasps, and two seconds later, the draug comes around the corner of the house.
It's the first time Kristoffer sees it, and even though it's shrouded in shadow, he can all too easily make out how big it is. The top of its head reaches the rain gutter, and its arms are way too long. In one of its long-fingered hands is something golden—the goblet, probably. The draug pauses briefly to look at them. It turns its head—the face is mercifully hidden, but Kristoffer is pretty sure it gazes towards the grave—then looks back at them.
The signal, a thought urges him from very far away. For an awful second, Kristoffer can't recall it. Then the word comes to him, and he croaks, "Fire." Clearing his throat, he tries again: "Fire!"
The sound of a match that's struck.
The draug gives off a deep, rumbling sound. It's not a threatening noise, not exactly. It sounds lighter. Almost amused. As though the creature says, "Really? You think a little fire will stop me?"
It begins lumbering towards the grave. As it does, it comes out from the shadow of the house, and as Kristoffer gets a clearer view of it, his throat closes up completely, and he's glad that he already called out the signal for Aksel, because now it's too late, he can't get a word out.
Ella, obviously not as shocked at the appearance of the draug as he is, suddenly steps forward and lets go of Kristoffer's hand.
"No, wait, Ella!"
She stops a few paces away, crouches down and picks up something shiny. As she gets back up, she's holding the sickle. It must have been lying there in the grass the entire time without any of them noticing.
The draug notices it right away. It stops dead in its tracks and turns towards Ella. It gives off another, deep sound, and this time, it really is threatening. Unmistakably so.
Ella raises the sickle. "Stay back, or I will kill you!"
Her voice falters a little, but only a little. She sounds determined. Sounds ready.
"No, Ella!" Aksel calls out from farther back in the garden—Kristoffer can tell he's no longer on the hill. "For fuck's sake, I already lit the bomb! What are you doing?"
Kristoffer sees the fire out of the corner of his eye. It's burning on top of the grave like a torch.
The draug doesn't seem to care about Aksel or the fire. Ella's warning was clearly meant to scare the monster, but it has the exact opposite effect. As it glares at her from across the lawn, Kristoffer can tell how it literally grows in size. It sucks in long, rattling breathes, and it opens and closes the long fingers on the free hand, as though itching to strangle Ella. Then it roars out loud enough that Kristoffer feels the sound hit his face and causes him to gasp.
Ella stumbles a little, but regains her bearings and shouts back, "I'm not afraid of you! I'm your master, and you will obey me!"
The draug does no such thing. Instead, it comes tramping towards her, picking up speed. It looks like an angry bull as it charges her, crossing the lawn at a terrifying speed.
Then, in a flash, it finally hits home for Kristoffer.
The missing piece.
She put it down. That's what made it retreat.
"The sickle. Drop the sickle, Ella. Drop it. Now."
He says it in barely more than a whisper, but apparently, Ella hears him, because she turns her head sideways briefly, and Kristoffer can tell she connects the dots as quickly as he did. And then she drops the sickle. She simply lets go of the handle, and the weapon falls to the grass. The only thing between her and the giant monster about to tear her apart is now gone, and—
And to Kristoffer's astonishment, it works.
The draug, as though connecting with an invisible fence, stops so abruptly, its giant feet literally dig into the frozen ground and tear up the grass.
With less than five yards between them, it's looming over Ella like a grizzly bear in front of a hare, and it can almost reach her with its unnaturally long arms.
It doesn't attempt to, though. In fact, it leans back a little, as though Ella has suddenly turned from a tasty meal to something poisonous. Kristoffer can make out the features of its decaying face. The black eye balls are jumping up and down Ella, like a fighter assessing an opponent. And it clearly finds her much more threatening now that the sickle is no longer in her hand.
It utters a grunt, a huff, and then it suddenly turns and runs. Kristoffer can feel every step in the ground as the creature bolts for the grave.
"No, wait!" Aksel screams. "Stall it! Stall it!"
But there's nothing any of them can do, and the draug slips into the opening—despite the fact that it's much too narrow. It looks to Kristoffer like a giant spider escaping down a drain.
"Fuck!" Aksel shouts from somewhere.
Ella turns to Kristoffer. Her expression is weirdly serene, and he takes it at first to be surprise.
"We should get back," he hears himself say. "The bomb is about to go off."
He holds out a hand, but Ella doesn't come towards him. Instead, she lowers her eyebrows, and Kristoffer realizes what he read as shock is really resignation. "I know how to do this now."
Then she turns and runs after the draug.
"Nooo!" Kristoffer screams, stepping forward. "No, Ella, don't go in there! It's about to—"
But Ella is already gone, and two seconds later, the fire reaches the propane canisters, and the entire hill blows up.
Aksel
"Fucking hell … what have I done?"
Aksel stares at the now considerably flatter hill. There's no longer an opening. Where the entrance to the grave used to be is now only what seems like two tons of black soil.
"You trapped her," Kristoffer says evenly.
Aksel wipes away something that got on his forehead. Even though he was at the back of the garden, dirt was flung everywhere, and Kristoffer looks even worse; it's in his hair, his ears, all over his clothes. He doesn't seem to care, though.
"Even if she survived the blast, she's dead," he goes on.
Aksel groans. "Why the fuck would she run after it?"
Kristoffer rounds on him, his eyes blazing, and Aksel recoils. "Because she was trying to fix this, instead of just blowing everything to pieces!"
"Fuck you," Aksel mutters, regaining some of his bearings. "You guys went along with the plan."
"Only because we didn't have a better idea," Kristoffer snarls. He looks back at the hill, and the rage in his eyes turns into what he's really feeling: regret and sorrow. "I should've figured it out sooner …"
"Figured what out?" Aksel asks.
Kristoffer sits down on the ground and folds his hands over his knees. "It was the sickle," he says. "The only thing that'll kill the draug. That's what made it furious. As long as Ella was holding it, she was nothing more than a threat to it, and it was allowed to defend itself. It's in the curse. I read it in the book somewhere. Apparently, the draug's right to protect itself from harm overrules the fact that it's meant to obey Ella. The moment she dropped the sickle, that changed. She was no longer posing a threat to it—she was its master again. The balance of power shifted, and that's why it ran." Kristoffer buries his face in his hands. "It was always Ella it was afraid of. Nothing else."
"Fuck me," Aksel mutters, running a hand through his hair, finding pieces of dirt there, too. "So if she'd just faced it without the sickle … she could have killed it?"
"I don't know," Kristoffer mutters. "But she'd definitely stood a much better chance."
"So … that's what she's doing now?" Aksel asks in disbelief. "Going after it without the weapon?"
"Yeah," Kristoffer says. "Assuming she's still alive, that's what she's doing."
Aksel looks at the collapsed hill. "Jesus Christ. The balls on that girl …"
He feels awful for what he did. He keeps telling himself he didn't know better, and neither did Kris or Ella. But that doesn't change the fact that not only was the home-brewed bomb never going to kill the draug, but now Ella is trapped underground. Even if she's still alive, even if she finds the draug and kills it, she'll suffocate down there in the darkness. All because of Aksel.
"We can't just … we can't just leave her down there," Aksel says, getting a grip of himself.
Kristoffer looks up at him. "What do you suggest we do? Dig her out?"
"Yes!"
"That'll take days. There's nowhere near enough oxygen down there to last that long."
"No, but … we need to try. I'm finding a shovel." He runs towards the house.
"Wait, Aksel."
He stops and looks back. Kristoffer has gotten to his feet, and Aksel expects him to argue that digging for Ella is pointless. Aksel doesn't care; he's gonna do it anyway, and he's about to tell Kristoffer so, when Kristoffer points and says, "Try the shed. That's where Halgrim kept his tools. Bring me a shovel, too."
Marit
"Should be right down there!"
Baxter points out the windscreen.
Marit can make out a house on the left about fifty yards down the road. Or rather, it looks more like a mansion.
"You sure?" she mutters.
Baxter shrugs. "It's the address you gave me."
As far as Marit knows, Ella doesn't have any rich friends or relatives. She's never even heard of Ella or Anne having any connection to Lilyhammer. It could be that Anne knew someone through work who agreed to let them come stay here. Judging by the fence she sees as they drive closer, it's not unlikely it's a cop living here.
Of course Ella would find a place like this. It looks very safe. Probably got food for months in there.
"So, are you gonna call her?" Baxter asks, stopping the car in front of the fence.
Marit is already holding her phone. She's been debating whether to call Ella or not the entire way over here. She's afraid Ella will tell her to stay the hell away if she calls her and tells her she's nearby. Her gut tells her it's better to just show up. If she can talk to Ella face to face, her cousin might still get angry, but it'll be a lot harder for her to send her away.
"I tried already," Marit lies, looking up at the house. A few lights are on, so someone is definitely home. "It just goes to voicemail. Her phone is off, I think."
"Oh. Well, maybe we should—" Baxter cuts himself off as he apparently sees something. "Hey, is that a dead guy?"
Marit follows his finger and sees the figure lying in the gravel inside the gate. There are two more, farther off to the side. Judging by the torn clothes, it looks like zombies. Evidently, a fight went down in the courtyard, and they didn't bother cleaning up. Maybe it's even—
Baxter gasps. "Oh, shit!" Marit sees them to as they come to the gate. At least a dozen zombies crossing the gravel.
"We gotta leave," Baxter says, putting it in reverse.
"No, wait! They can't get to us. Just take it easy, Baxter."
He looks from Marit to the group of zombies. They've reached the gate, and—just like Marit said—they just bump into it and reach their arms through.
"It's locked, see?"
"But … I don't get it. Why would they let a whole bunch of infected folks through the gate, then lock it again?"
"Obviously, they didn't let them in," Marit sneers, feeling like slapping Baxter.
"Ooh. I get it now. It's the folks who used to live there!"
"Nope," Marit says again. At least this guess wasn't as stupid as his first, but still not a prize-winner. "Look at them. There's all kinds of people. There's a goth teenager. There's a very old guy. And her right there, isn't she pregnant? No way so many different people lived here. It's not a fucking hostel, it's a family home." She points at the brass plague mounted on the wall next to the gate. She squints in order to read the calligraphic letters. "It says … "M. & U. Hashmi" … so only two people."
"Couldn't they have let all these folks in back when they were still healthy?" Baxter suggests, checking the mirrors. He looks uncomfortable staying this close to the zombies, even though there's an iron gate between them.
"Rich folks wouldn't do such a thing," Marit mutters, looking along the wall. "And they couldn't have climbed over, either. No, I think there's another explanation."
"What?"
She nods into the darkness. "I bet you if we run along that wall, we'll find somewhere we can get through."
Baxter shakes his head. "I'm not going out there, Marit. We don't even have a gun!"
Marit looks at him with disgust. "You're too slow anyway. It's gotta be me." She was going to do it anyway, because she wants to be the one to talk to Ella, not the fat moron Baxter whom Ella have never met and have no reason to trust. Besides, it'll be very easy for her to leave Baxter out here if Ella let's her in. "You stay here, and you make sure they stay too. If you see them move away from the gate, then you get your ass out of the car and walk closer to the gate. That's very important. Because if they leave the gate, they'll get to me."
