Plague Of The Revenants by Edward Chilvers

months and now I found a pack in the side of the car so I pilfered it for myself. Hope that doesn’t count as hording.”
I sparked up hungrily, even though I had only been an infrequent smoker back in the prison. It was good to have some sort of luxury, good to be able to worry about a more conventional health risk aside from the marauding revenants and besides, I thought, I might as well smoke up whilst it still existed.
“I’m surprised you’re not downstairs,” said Kit after a time. “Lapping up the praise after our latest adventure. Everybody is talking about you.” She said the last part resentfully in a voice thick with jealousy.
“They’re just on a high,” I said dismissively. “It won’t last, they just need to think they’ve found a saviour at last. The only reason they think this is because so far it’s early days. When this sort of thing becomes a routine occurrence or when we become more stable and secure behind the barricades events such as this will become commonplace.”
“Is this all just a game to you?” Asked Kit suddenly. “All this talk of building barricades and planning for the future? I watched you today and you were like a madman in the way you killed, completely without remorse, without hesitation. Are you somehow immune to the sight of blood, to organs that once sustained life? Those revenants were people once.”
“Not anymore as I keep telling you,” I said firmly. “They said it was a parasite on the news, when there was still news that is, and even though it was only one of many theories it is still the theory I like the best. It means those things out there are dead, nothing more than reanimated corpses who can’t be saved and can’t be brought back to life again, only killed again, this time for good.”
“You think I’m naive,” said Kit. “But nobody who survived this long is stupid. We’ve all had to do things. We’ve all had to kill.”
“And you regret it?”
“Of course.”
“Well there is the difference between us,” I said with a shrug. “If every one of those things were to die tomorrow we’d save the entire human race. Its either us or them. We can’t go in for conservation or equality in this new world, Kit. They all need to die, every single one of them.”
“Maybe so but you’re still far too comfortable with doing it.”
“I don’t know why you even came up here,” I said as I smoked. “You knew I was up here and it seems to me all you wanted to do is rant.”
“I recognise some of the people who walk like that,” said Kit. “I still see the faces of who they once were. You can’t just put that aside.”
“Forget it,” I snapped at her harshly. “They’re not there anymore, those people. They’re dead, they’re nothing and a demon has taken their place. Start getting sentimental and you’ll end up joining them before you know it.”
“Some people have had to kill members of their own family,” muttered Kit. “Some people have had to leave loved ones behind in order to survive. There are people here who have no idea what might have happened to their families and still cling to the hope they might be alive somewhere. You don’t know any of that. You have nobody, you said so yourself last night.”
“I don’t like stories,” I told her. “Everybody has a story, everybody has lost something.”
“Even you?”
“Sure.” But there was no emotion in my voice.
“I know everybody wants you to take charge,” said Kit. “I know my dad doesn’t want to lead people out into the great unknown and I know we did well today, but I think you’re dangerous, Grant. You won’t join in with the rest of us, won’t tell us anything about yourself. That means you’re detached, it means you don’t really care what happens to the rest of us.”
“Of course I care,” I told her flatly. “You think I’d stick around with a few old women, some kids and a vicar and her daughter if I didn’t care?”
“Only for