Fear the Dead (Book 3) by Jack Lewis

suppose
you know the Vasey people are here?” I said.
     
    Alice held
her hand in front of her, inspected the blisters crested on her palms.
     
    “How do you
feel about that?”
     
    I thought
about what to say. If I told her how I really felt, it might scare her. The
force of anger in my chest made it feel like I had an angry dragon in me. I
thought about holding it back but if there was anyone I could be honest with,
it was Alice.
     
    “I want to
kill Moe,” I said.
     
    There was
silence except for a gust of wind that that rushed past us. It groaned against
the fence and made it wobble. To our left there was a children’s playground,
but it had been a while since the rusted swings and dirty slide had seen any
children on them. Not even children had time to play anymore.
     
    “I can
understand that, Kyle. But it wouldn’t do any good. There’s way too many of
them. If you ever touched Moe, you’d have the rest of the Vasey crew chasing
you with pitchforks. Best thing is to stay away.”
     
    “I wish I
could do that.”
     
    Alice turned
to me. The dark rings around her eyes made it look like she hadn’t slept in a
week. “What do you mean?”
     
    “I know how
much you want to stay here,” I said. “You want somewhere safe for Ben.”
     
    Alice
nodded.
     
    I took a
deep breath. “Victoria is letting us stay. But I have to help deal with their
stalker problem.”
     
    “What
problem?”
     
    “There’s a
nest of them, somewhere. They’ve been picking people off every night.”
     
    “I wouldn’t
know where to start with that,” said Alice.
     
    A rush of
wind kicked at the fence across from us. The fence jarred as though a tank had
hit it. One of the men stepped back, his face red.
     
    “I said hold
the fucking thing!” he shouted.
     
    “I need to
get back,” said Alice.
     
    “I need your
help,” I said. “Apparently the stalker deaths calmed down since the Vasey
people got here. Moe must have found a way to deal with them, and I need to
find out what that is. If I do, Victoria’s gonna let us stay here. Only thing
is, I can’t go and talk to them alone. If I’m left on my own with him, I know
what I’ll do. And we can’t afford that. I need you there Alice.”
     
    Alice looked
at the ground for a few seconds. Her skin was full and pink, and it was free of
the wrinkles that most people her age sported. Whatever burdens Alice carried,
she carried them well. She was a contrast to Victoria, whose wrinkles made her
look like a leather purse. Alice looked toward the fence. The men stepped away
from the area they had been holding.
     
    “I’m sorry
Kyle, I can’t. They need me here. You’ve seen how stupid they are. The fence
will fall apart if I leave it to Ewan. And he’d love to tell people I was
slacking off.”
     
    I sighed.
That was the answer I’d been dreading. “I know. I tried finding Lou, but she’s
a ghost.”
     
    “Saw her
yesterday,” said Alice. “She was arguing with the guy we saw in Victoria’s
office, the one with the scarred face.”
     
    “Billy?”
     
    “Yeah. Then I
saw her in the street and she blanked me.”
     
    I didn’t
know what was going on with Lou. She knew Billy from before, that much was
obvious. She was keeping something from me, but I had to remind myself that I
had only met the woman a few weeks ago. I had no right to demand to know the
secrets of her past. I would just have to wait for her to tell me. Until then,
though, I didn’t know how much I could trust her.
     
    Pinpricks of
freezing wind punctured through the insulation of my coat. I stamped my feet on
the ground to get my blood flowing.
     
    “Thanks
anyway,” I said.
     
    I walked
away, toward the exit of the settlement.
     
    “Kyle?”
Alice called after me.
     
    I turned,
waited for her to say something.
     
    “Don’t do
anything to fuck this up for us,” she said.
     
    There was no
way around it. I was going to have to go and see Moe alone. If I didn’t,