“Demons?” Ted had never seen enough of them dead to require petrol.
“I could use yow help, if yow don’t mind. It’s a grim task.”
Frank was straightforward, which was a trait Ted admired, but agreeing to help the man would feel too… familiar. But how could he refuse? The man was asking for help to bury dead children. “I’ll bring the petrol,” said Ted. “I’ll meet you round front in a few minutes.”
“Bostin! Thank yow, Ted. It’s really great to have yow here. I’ll admit, I was concerned by all yow newcomers, but I suppose I was wrong. We should stick together.”
Ted nodded. “I’ll catch you up.”
He watched Frank disappear around the front of the cabin which, with the man’s short legs, took a while. Ted leant back against the side of the cabin and took a moment to think. The more he stayed in this place, the more he felt tugged in a dozen different directions.
But there was only one direction in which he wanted to go.
Ted revisited the workshop and scavenged a canister of petrol, adding it to his wheelbarrow. He rolled the whole lot around to the front of the cabin where he spotted an assembly of people in the clearing beside the lake. Frank was now talking to Jackie, while the other adults stabbed at the ground with shovels. At the edge of the activity, several children watched in solemn silence. The younger ones were weeping.
A little girl with blonde curls sat away from it all, sobbing into her lap by herself. Ted tried to walk right by her on his way to the main group, but her whimpers jabbed at his heart. He had to stop and ask if she was okay.
She’d been so lost in her grief that she hadn’t seen him arrive. A yelp escaped her lips, then she looked up at him. Her eyes and cheeks glistened. “I’m okay,” she said softly. “Sorry.”
Ted knelt so he wasn’t looking down on her. “Sorry for what, sweetheart?”
“For crying. Reece said only cry-babies cry.”
“Who’s Reece?” Ted felt the name was vaguely familiar.
The girl pointed off at the assembly of adults. “My brother. The monsters hurt him last night. We have to bury him now.”
“Oh…” Ted didn’t know what to say. His mouth turned dry. How could you console a child who witnessed a monster eating her sibling? Every day, this world made him hate it more. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Milly.”
“I’m sorry about Reece, Milly, but it’s okay to cry. Crying shows Reece how much you care about him.”
She looked up at him, wet eyes hopeful. “He can see me?”
“Sure he can. He’ll know everything you do, and he’ll see how brave you are.”
“I’m not brave. I’m scared.”
“You have to be scared to be brave. It’s okay, I get scared too.”
“Really? You don’t look scared to me.”
He ruffled her soft, blonde hair and smiled. “That’s because you don’t know my secret.”
“What secret?”
“Wasps terrify the pants off me. Seriously, I leap ten-feet in the air and scream my lungs out every time I hear buzzing. I was at a supermarket once and I fell right over a Pot Noodle display. They went all over the floor.”
Milly erupted in giggles. She wiped the tears from her eyes and gave him a warm smile that struck him hard in the guts. “You’re funny,” she said. “Wasps won’t sting you if you stay perfectly still, don’t you know that?”
“Wow, thanks for the tip, Milly. I’ll try that next time. You going to be okay?”
“I’m scared of the monsters.”
“I know you are, sweetheart. Things will be okay though. The adults are going to put a plan together and keep everyone safe.”
“You promise?”
Ted hesitated, but not long enough to alarm the girl. “I promise.”
He left Milly to her thoughts, but took his time reaching the others. He wasn’t relishing being around so many emotional people at once. It was all for nothing because Jackie saw him and came rushing over immediately. “Ted! I see you’ve already got stuck in helping us. Thank you so much.”
Ted’s eyes fell upon a dead woman lying on the ground, and then three dead children. Dried blood covered only two of them. “I thought you said there were two children that...”
Jackie knew what he was asking, and in a quiet voice she said, “We lost Bray to sickness last night. That’s his father, Philip, over there.”
Ted recognised the man with greying hair as the one who’d struck the doctor last night. His cold, empty stare was familiar to Ted, a consuming grief he knew all too well. There would be little of Philip left by the time his pain was done.
Ted searched for Dr Kamiyo but couldn’t find the man. Doctor or not, he obviously chose not to surround himself with death. Perhaps he was avoiding Philip.
Frank came and shook Ted’s hand like they hadn’t just been talking five minutes ago. “There am two crews,” he explained. “Which one yow want to join?”
Ted studied the two huddles of people, one larger than the other. The larger group tended to the three dead children and adult, digging a line of neat graves. The smaller group, a short black man and two teenagers, were gathering demon corpses into a pile. It was the worse job, but one which was being done in grim silence. Ted cleared his throat. “I’ll help burn the monsters.”
Frank nodded solemnly. “Not afraid to get your hands dirty, am yow?”
“My hands are beyond washing.”
“Yeah, I imagine they might be. Thanks for helping us, Ted.
Jackie placed a hand on Ted’s shoulder, a gesture he found at once repulsive and electrifying. He shuddered and stepped back, but she behaved as if she didn’t notice and smiled at him. “Dr Kamiyo said we need to burn the bodies in case they make us sick. Sooner the better.”
“I’ll get to it then.” Ted grabbed a shovel from Frank and trudged over to the
