Read Online Killing the Dead (Season 2 | Book 2): Dark and Deadly Land by Richard Murray - Free Book Online

woman said. “She will obey Jonathan but he swears that she is too wild to be allowed to work the farm like the others. He was never comfortable having her out with the sheep.”
    Becky seemed incapable of stopping her giggling and I was growing irritated. My food was finished so I thanked Mary and placed the plate in the sink at her instruction before leaving the house.
    With nothing else to do, I headed over to speak to Lily to find out when she planned on leaving. She was talking cheerfully about engines as I approached and I stood patiently, waiting for her to finish.
    “Should be just about done,” Jonathan said. “I have to admit it went a lot easier with your help lass.”
    “My pleasure,” Lily replied. “It’s been far too long since I got to work on an engine.”
    “You’ve been doing it long?”
    “Misspent youth,” she said with a grin. “I hung around with a rough crowd and picked up a lot from them. Turned out I was quite good at it.”
    “Aye well you certainly are that,” Jonathan said. He turned away from the engine, wiping his hands on a stained rag.
    “Morning,” Lily said as she noticed my presence. “Who’s your friend?”
    “What?” I followed the direction of her gaze and turned to find the canine sat silently behind me, its tongue hanging out of its mouth.
    “Jinx?” Jonathan said. “Well now, what on earth is she doing just sitting there?”
    “No idea,” I said with a scowl that the animal ignored.
    Lily smiled at my irritation and threw her arms around me as she kissed me in greeting. I allowed it for a moment before pulling away, uncomfortable with the public display of affection. She just grinned.
    The dog had its head to the side as it watched us and it seemed to have some understanding in those dark eyes. It came forward and sniffed at Lily’s hand, I was about to warn her not to touch it when she scratched it behind the ear. Much to my surprise and Jonathans, it gave no indication of displeasure at her touch.
    “Well now,” Jonathan repeated. “Seems like she likes you two.”
    “People keep saying that,” I muttered softly. Lily heard and rolled her eyes.
    “Car should be ready in another hour,” she said. “Jon has kindly offered us a good bit of food and a map of the area.”
    “Ordnance survey from when the kids wanted to go camping,” Jonathan said with a roughness to his voice that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
    “As much as I appreciate the gesture,” I lied. “I’m not certain how much use a car will be to us. The roads are full of the undead.”
    “This valley’s enclosed,” Jonathan said. “One way in or out by road and if you follow it all the way north you’ll pass by Derwent water and come to Keswick.”
    “The town that Toby mentioned,” Lily said. “That road, the A591 or whatever leads right there. Sort of.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “That road will meet this one,” Jonathan said with a gesture to the lone road. “But the A591 curves around before splitting to the east and north-west.”
    “How does that help us?”
    “Well I’ve been north,” Jonathan said. “Where those roads meet was an almighty pile of wrecked cars and trucks.”
    “The zombies can’t go into the town,” Lily said with an excitement that I didn’t quite see the need for. “They all mill around a bit and then move off to the east.”
    “There’s a couple of roads that lead almost around the town but you’ll need to travel through at least part of it. After that, the road will be mainly clear all the way out to the coast.”
    Lily looked at me and smiled brightly. It was hard not to respond in kind but I still had doubts. If nothing else we would have something that needed killing at least.
    “You go tell the others while we finish up here,” she said. “Take your new friend with you.”
    I glanced down at the dog who looked back and even gave its tail a quick wag. I exhaled a sigh and left her to it, the animal following behind.
    Gregg