I stood alone, surrounded by vermin. Hopefully the others would meet Lieutenant Bain in the smaller chamber and dispose of their undead guard. I tried to remember how many soldiers had emerged from the back of our single truck. Fifteen, perhaps? Not enough to turn this tide, my mind whispered.Fifteen men had to be enough, because there was no alternative with the rest stationed at the big house. The men could send Alice toward safety and the outside world before they launched an attack on Elizabeth. All I had to do was stay alive until then. Death would not claim me today. I had things left unsaid to Seth, and things not yet done, that I wanted to grab with both hands.Animated corpses drew closer to me and I shied away. I could use my time pretending I was dicing vegetables in the kitchen, or try and draw more information from Elizabeth. The creatures herded me toward the altar, where they flowed around the pile of stones to surround their queen. They left me standing before Elizab

I stared at the open cage as Louise's taunt of dog rang in my ears. Where had they even found a cage? I wasn?t sure Elizabeth understood her job as vermin queen. Instead of converting all the locals, she seemed to have her minions out stealing clothes, furniture, and farmyard objects. At least they hadn't claimed any more souls as far as we knew. My conscience much preferred thievery over the mass slaughter of innocent people."I shall keep you as a pet, while I drag every one of your sorry family down here and have them Turned before you," Elizabeth said."Including your father the vegetable." Louise spat the words out as she shoved me into the open pen. The gate clanged shut and she turned the key in the lock. Then she pulled the brass key out and threw it toward the silver river.I strained my ears for a splash. Did it reach the water or lie on the bank? Either way, I was reduced to a circus attraction. The cage was too small for me to stand upright and I had to kneel. In my mind

Our army moved into place as soldiers spread out, following the curve of the vast cavern and put themselves between the wall and the vermin. Then, like fire-breathing shepherds, they herded the flock toward the centre. Vermin scuttled backwards, away from the liquid flames, and drew inward into a concentrated pack. Soldiers armed with swords worked behind the flamethrower units, beheading the undead distracted by their own flaming limbs.My mind couldn't comprehend the number of men tackling the undead. There were far more than the single truckload that followed us here, but where had they materialised from? It appeared Jack and Jake had done far more than tell the lieutenant we were in trouble; they had rallied more troops.I was annoyed Frank had allowed Alice to return, but she looked fetching dressed as a soldier and emitted a new fierce determination as she clutched the mallet. They had snuck through the enemy lines with a small squad of soldiers and reached us in time to down L

PART THREE: Rory, the SleeperThis is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper.The Hollow Men by T.S. ElliotI had so much to do. We defeated Elizabeth, but the Grim War still raged and a larger enemy loomed. How had the name of Millicent deMage whispered down through the centuries to reach Elizabeth's ears? Was there a link between the pandemic and the work of Aleister Crowley, as some newspaper articles speculated? I needed to identify those struck in the original pandemic who survived. A potential clue to defeating the vermin may linger in their recovery. I had to talk to the Commodore in Dorset to find any consistency in how hives behaved. I?Seth's lips brushed over the top of my ear and stalled my frantic thought processes. "Stop worrying for a few hours. Have a bath and get some sleep. We can tackle the mountain of work tomorrow."His quiet words were a pinprick to a balloon. In an instant the turmoil blew away. I slumped against him in the dark, with my arms

On my first day at the manse, I learned it is possible to burn water, or at least the pot containing it. Ella, Alice, and Magda undertook the cooking and housework. Mother said aristocrats didn't dirty their hands with manual labour, and so we sat in the parlour, staring at the wallpaper. If mother was particularly mad at Ella, she sent me below stairs to issue demands. While I had observed some of the workings of the kitchen, I had no practical experience.From what I saw, I thought I understood the mechanics of cooking, but actually making a meal was akin to some arcane magical rite. A boiled egg involved a pot, water, and an egg. But how much water? How long did the egg have to remain immersed? Did it matter if I had a chicken egg or a larger duck egg? And how did you extract a boiling hot egg from the pot without dropping both on the floor? The exact process was a mystery, as though such knowledge passed from woman to child in hushed whispers those upstairs weren't supposed to ove