Read Lanherne Chronicles (Prequel): To Escape the Dead for Free Online

for concern. There, loping through the darkness towards them, were two Dead men. The first had had most of the flesh savagely torn from his face while the second clearly had died as Dead hands ripped open his stomach to feast upon his organs and even now, from the bloody gaping hole the last remnants of his intestines trailed behind him. Tom knew any movement would attract the two Dead men. So as he hung from the rope, his muscles starting to shake with the strain, he prayed they would soon pass by without noticing the flesh they craved hanging just above their heads. Luckily for Tom, somewhere in the grounds someone else was meeting their end and as the screams of horrendous agony drifted on the breeze, the first of the Dead men span on his heels and darted off to join in the bloody banquet. As he ran past the Dead man with his belly ripped open he knocked into him, sending him tumbling to the ground. With no stomach muscles for support, the Dead man was having difficulty righting himself and as he slowly pushed himself to his knees he inadvertently tilted his head in Tom’s direction. Instantly his slowly decaying brain knew these living things hanging mid-air, just out of his reach, were something his teeth needed to tear into. They held within them that indefinable spark of life, a quality his mind could no longer process but somehow knew his body craved. It would feed the compulsion within him to rip, tear, gorge and consume until he was full and no spark remained. But the Dead man had no way to know he would never feel the release of a full stomach, even if he still had one. For his bloody hands could stuff stolen flesh into his mouth until the muscles rotted on his bones and he would still never feel sated, such was the way of the Dead.
    ‘Shit!’ said Tom, locking eyes with the Dead man.
    But Tom needn’t have worried, for even as the Dead man leant forward to push himself up from his knees, an unnoticed dark form appeared behind him. Suddenly the Dead man’s head snapped violently to one side and then the other as Tyrone rained heavy blows down upon him. By the third blow the back of the Dead man’s skull had been reduced to little more than dark bloody pulp and as he momentarily swayed on his knees, Tyrone brought his pipe down for a killing blow. Realising time was of the essence, Tom continued his descent and by the time his feet finally touched down on the roof of the cart, the Dead man was slumped face down on the grass, truly lifeless at last.
    ‘Where’s the other cart?’ whispered Charlie, finally closing the roof hatch behind him, as he followed Liz and the others down into the already very cramped cart.
    ‘Fuck knows!’ replied Michael, glancing over his shoulder but unable to see anything in the darkness. ‘By the time we got there some bastard had nicked it… I doubt we’ll see the dappled mare or the cart again.’
    ‘Do you think it could have been Sally?’ asked Liz, only just remembering the woman was missing as Anne climbed onto her arms.
    ‘I doubt it… At least, not on her own,’ said Charlie quietly, steadying himself against one of the walls when the cart jolted forward. ‘Sally isn’t the type of woman to go it alone.’
    ‘So what do we do now?’ asked Tom in a low voice. ‘Stay in here or leave?’
    ‘I say we get out of here,’ said Tyrone. ‘Why risk it?’
    ‘We’ve got no supplies, hardly any weapons and there are about six bodies too many in here for travelling any distance,’ noted Charlie, realising they may be safe from the Dead for now but in the long run it didn’t look good at all.
    ‘If someone’s already left then presumably the gate will be open,’ whispered Cam, ‘How about we get to the other side of the wall, close the gate behind us and wait the Dead out until morning…’
    ‘And then come back to stock up and hopefully find another horse and cart,’ added Charlie. ‘I like it… good idea.’
    ‘Right then,’ mumbled Michael, gently