Lanherne Chronicles (Prequel): To Escape the Dead by Stephen Charlick Page A

last of the Dead on the other side of the cart.
    ‘You’ll be alright! You’ll be alright!’ he repeated over and over, his shaky hands trying to stem the heavy flow of blood from Vincenzo’s neck.
    But even as he said the words, Cam knew it wouldn’t be alright, Vincenzo’s time was running out. Already he had slumped to the floor, gasping for breath as his terrified body started going into shock from blood loss.  
    ‘What… what can we do?’ he said, looking up into Phil’s resigned face.
    Phil knew what need to be done, they all did. They had all been here before and all knew what would shortly happen to Vincenzo’s body.
    ‘We…,’ he began but his words were cut short by Carmella’s hysterical screams.
    Almost throwing herself from the cart the young pregnant woman saw what little was left of her world falling apart before her very eyes. Running to be with Vincenzo, Carmella missed her footing on a patch of gore and suddenly went down hard with a ‘thump’.
    ‘Carmella,’ said Fran, rushing forward, concerned for both the woman and her unborn baby after such a fall.
    But Carmella could not be consoled. Screaming Vincenzo’s name, her face contorted by grief and fear, she pushed Fran away who was trying to help her to her feet. Almost on her hands and knees she pulled herself to her husband, desperate to be with him, desperate for the truth of what she was seeing to be lie.
    ‘Vincenzo, Vincenzo,’ she sobbed cradling his head in her lap as he gasped for air, ‘ per favore non lasciarmi … per favore non lasciarmi , Vincenzo… per favore… per favore…’
    ‘Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’ said Phil, pacing back and forth, his gaze flicking from Carmella to Vincenzo’s blood soaked body.
    ‘Phil,’ said Cam finally looking up from his hands covered in Vincenzo’s blood. ‘Phil, he’s gone…’
    ‘Shit!’ he replied, realising what he would now have to do.
    ‘Carmella,’ Cam continued, his voice little more than a whisper, ‘Carmella, you need to let him go now… he’s gone Carmella, he’s gone…’
    But the grief stricken woman would not relinquish her husband’s body. To let him go was to accept what was happening was real and that she could not do.
    ‘Carmella, please…’ whispered Cam again, ‘it’s not safe… Carmella he’ll come back…’
    ‘No!’ she suddenly screamed, looking from Cam to Phil and back to Cam. ‘No! No! No! Not Vincenzo… you cannot… you cannot!’
    ‘Carmella,’ said Fran, squatting down to put her arm about the hysterical woman’s shoulder, ‘you must… think of the baby… you must let him go.’
    But Carmella only pulled her husband’s body closer to her, desperate to cling to the last remnants of her past life.
    ‘We don’t have time, Carmella,’ Fran continued, trying to prise the woman from Vincenzo’s bloody corpse. ‘He’ll turn…’
    ‘No, no, no, no…’ Carmella wailed, rocking back and forth.
    Fran looked up at Phil.
    ‘Do something!’ she said. ‘Before it’s too late, you’ve got to do something!’
    Phil looked back at her, momentarily not knowing what to do for the best.
    ‘For fuck’s sake!’ Fran cried, her own grief for her lost sister still fresh and raw inside her suddenly bubbling to the surface to mirror Carmella’s.
    ‘Carmella!’ shouted Cam, causing the grief stricken woman to suddenly look at him.
    The moment she did he struck out at her, landing a hefty punch to her chin. Instantly Carmella stopped sobbing as her eyes rolled back in her head, brief unconsciousness claiming her.
    ‘Do it!’ He said to Phil, pulling Carmella’s prone body away from Vincenzo’s corpse. ‘Before he comes back! Do it now!’
    ‘Tyrone, David, help Cam get Carmella back into the other cart in case she comes round…. she doesn’t need to see this…’ he said, shaking his head at such a cruel waste of life while pulling a large knife from a strap on his calf.
    Slowly Phil got down on his knees and pulled