The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 (Zombie)

The man stood there grinning like an idiot with the torch illuminating his face. He looked like he’d just climbed out of Hell to do the devils bidding.

It was too much for Simon. “That’s it, I’m off,” he said with a wave of the hand, turning back the other way.

“Wait, Simon!” said Roxy. She turned back to Holly. “I’ll go after him,” and she disappeared into the night after Simon. A few moments later she was back, her finger held up to the man with the torch. “She knows karate, Doctor Strange. You touch her and you’ll never touch anything ever again.”

Holly smiled. “I’m fine, Rox. You go.” She didn’t know karate.

Roxy nodded, pointed at the Doctor again and then disappeared into the night.

Holly looked at the Doctor who had now stopped grinning and was looking intently at her.

“I saw you this morning at the graveyard near the factory.”

“Yes, I recognised you from the funeral you had attended,” he said. He extended a hand. “Your name?”

“Holly Dangerfield,” she said, cautiously taking his hand and shaking it.

“A fantastic name, Miss Dangerfield,” he said, shaking her hand vigorously, “but it’s way too dangerous for your to be out here. No pun intended of course.”

“What’s going on?” she said, realising that, although this guy was a stranger, this was her opportunity for answers. “What’s happened to Simons mum? You said you were hunting the dead.”

“Maybe best if you don’t know,” said the Doctor with a weak smile. “What you don’t know can’t kill you.” He chuckled to himself.

She frowned. “Simon used to be a friend of mine. I think I have the right.”

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak when there came a scream from somewhere over the fence and into the depths of the darkened cemetery.

“Lilly!” said the Doctor, frantically looking over and trying to shine the light. The beam only illuminated the fence in front of them.

“The blonde girl?” said Holly. “Is she your friend?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “She went around to the other side to check the gates. She must have gone in for some reason.” He looked down. “It’ll take me another 10 minutes to work my way around to get inside.”

“There’s a gap in the fence,” said Holly. She pointed her torch towards the broken slats. “You can get in that way.”

“Thank you, Holly Dangerfield,” he said, shaking her hand and jumping into the ditch.

“I’m coming with you,” said Holly, clambering down to join him.

“No, you go home. Follow your friends. It’s too dangerous.”

“Dangerfield’s my name, danger’s my nature,” she said with a smile, and then suddenly realised how cheesy that sounded.

He held out a finger. “Go back.”

“You’re not the police, are you?”

He frowned. “No, of course not.”

“Then you have no right. Come on, let’s get in.” She held out her hand in a defensive gesture. “I know karate, remember?”

He sighed, shook his head and then made for the loose slats.




Roxy found Simon walking along the pathway beside the motorway, intent on getting back home. She finally managed to catch up with him and grabbed his arm.

“Just go back to Holly,” said Simon.

“She can take care of herself. It’s you I’m worried about,” she said, trotting alongside of him.

“I’m just not ready for anything like this. It’s why I left the group all those years ago. I wanted to settle and live a normal life.”

“Nothing’s normal about a loved one coming back from the dead.”

“Exactly,” said Simon, stopping and removing his glasses. “I just want normal back.”

“Have you thought that maybe your mother needs you?”

“It can’t be mum. Mum burned to death in our house. It just can’t be.”

Roxy touched his arm and smiled at him. His eyes were wet and he’d obviously been crying. She opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly felt a searing pain across the top of her head. It felt like someone had pushed a hot poker into her temple - a rusty one - and had pulled it out the other side.

She fell to her knees, her eyes quivering in their sockets.

“Roxy!” said Simon, kneeling down in front of her. “Roxy! Roxanne! What’s wrong?”

She was trying to mumble something, her lips trembling. “Car…car….carnage.”

And then she passed out.




The Doctor and Holly had made their way into the cemetery, the Doctor flashing the torch around, frantically trying to find any sign of his friend, Lilly. Since the first scream they had heard nothing else and this obviously concerned the Doctor.

Holly could barely keep up with him as he raced between the gravestones, illuminating names of the long, gone dead and eroded angels faces as they loomed over them in what Holly was sure wasn’t meant to be a menacing fashion.

“I’m all disorientated,” said the Doctor, scratching his chin and shaking his head.

“You said she went to the other gates?” said Holly. “Which ones? There are three entrances to this place, not including the hole in the fence.”

“She went right around the other side.”

“Right, in that case it’s the Saxby Road entrance, which is over there towards the Victorian area.”

“Thank you. Come on!”

They made their way down a pathway under the tall trees and past the graves of the people killed during both World Wars. Holly wasn’t sure if this felt right, but she was feeling quite excited. The adrenaline rush had taken over. Then she grabbed a hold of herself. She remembered that someone was out here and in possible danger.

She thought she saw something moving in the shadows, but didn’t stop moving. She already knew something odd was going on here, no matter how strange it was. She certainly didn’t want to lose sight of this Doctor. He seemed to know what was going on, even if he was keeping quiet about it.

“Lilly!” cried the Doctor as his torch shone down on the girls prone form, lying down on the ground, a cut to the side of her head.

“Is she okay?” said Holly, crouching down beside him as he checked her over.

“She’s just unconscious,” he said. He got up and paced around on the spot, clicking his fingers, his eyes closed. “Come on. Come on. What am I missing here?”

“A zombie must have attacked her?” suggested Holly, realising how daft that sounded.

“They’re not zombies,” said the Doctor, crouching back beside Lilly. She was starting to stir.

“But if the dead are walking -”

“They’re not zombies,” said the Doctor again. “A zombie would eat Lilly. Well most zombie’s would eat Lilly. Not all zombies. In fact that‘s a myth.”

“True,” said Holly, remembering watching numerous zombie films back when she was at college.

“Doctor…” groaned Lilly, her head turning side to side, her eyes fluttering open.

“How do you feel?” said the Doctor. “Can you stand?”

“Give her a chance,” said Holly.

“We don’t have the time,” said the Doctor. He helped Lilly to sit up. “What did you see?”

She put a hand to the side of her head and winced in pain. “It was a man. Dressed in a suit and covered in dirt. Looked to be in his 50’s. I came around to check the gates when I saw him staggering around. I know I shouldn’t have, but I went to see if I could help or gather some more info.”

“And he attacked you?” said the Doctor.

“Yeah,” she drew her knees up to her chest, her eyes staring ahead, remembering. “He was scared though. He lashed out and everything went black.” Lilly got to her feet with a wobble, assisted by the Doctor. “What are we missing here?”

“I don’t know.”

Holly felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. It was Roxy. She answered it. “Roxy, are you alright? How’s Simon?” She frowned. “What? Where are you now?” She nodded. “I’m on my way, Simon.”

“Problems?” said the Doctor, scratching his chin.

“It was Simon. Roxy took a funny turn. He’s managed to get her home, but she’s asking for me.”

“You better go,” said the Doctor.

She turned to leave, stopped and then turned back. “What about you two?”

“Forget about us.”

“No,” said Holly. “I want some answers. If you don’t tell me I’ll go to the police.”

“Holly…”

“Please.” She was genuinely pleading with him. She couldn’t let this go now.

The Doctor tapped on his chin and then turned to face her. “Meet you at 9am tomorrow at the fountain down the road.”

Holly smiled and nodded. “Disco 2000?”

The Doctor looked completely lost.

“Never mind,” said Holly with a shake of her head. “See you tomorrow.”

Lilly watched Holly disappear through the open gates and onto Saxby Road. She turned to the Doctor.

“Okay, Miss Galloway?”

“Forget about me,” she said. “Do you really think we should be involving her?”

“I don’t see why not. She’s got an inquisitive mind.” He smiled. “She may be of some use.”

“She may be of some use,” said Lilly, “but I can’t see her becoming one of us.”




When Holly found her way to Roxy’s flat in the centre of town she felt her stomach rumbling - she was getting hungry. She passed a fish and chip shop, but resisted the urge to go inside. She needed to check on Roxy.

She knocked on the door and Simon answered, leading her up the stairs to her flat above the corner shop on Westfield and Critchen Street.

The flat was quite sparsely decorated in cream and red and Roxy had very little furniture.

She was lying on a sofa in the living room, a cold, wet flannel pressed onto her forehead.

“What happened?” said Holly.

Simon shook his head. “She was fine one moment, then she started mumbling something about ‘carnage’ and then collapsed.”

“Carnage?” frowned Holly.

“That’s all she said. I carried her for a bit and then she woke up and helped me to get her back here. My arms are killing me,” he said, rubbing his forearms.

“Hey!” said Roxy. “I’m not that heavy.”

Holly knelt down beside the sofa and Roxy turned to look at her friend.

“What happened?”

“What happened?” said Roxy. She shook her head. “I can tell you what happened, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Go on then,” said Holly.

“I felt like I was having a seizure or something. I saw flashes of things - images - in my mind.”

“What kind of images?”

“Flashes of a dead world. That’s the only way I can describe it. Flames and buildings crumbling. I felt so frightened.”

“What about now?” said Simon. “How are you feeling now?”

“Oh, Foxy,” smiled Roxy, “don’t worry about me, sweetheart. I’m fine now. I don’t know what it was.”

Holly turned and sat on the floor, her back against the bottom of the sofa. “This day just gets weirder and weirder.”

“Why?” said Holly, forcing herself to sit up and slide down the sofa next to Holly, “what happened out there?”

“The blonde girl and the Doctor - she was knocked unconscious.” She turned to Roxy. “Something very odd is going on, Roxy, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”




Richard Hicks was a normal enough bloke. He worked on the fruit and veg stall on the market, went home every night, saw his kids and wife, maybe watched a bit of TV. Then he’d go to bed, get up the next morning, and it’d start all over again.

It was a pretty monotonous life, but he enjoyed it. The days and days of things being the same were interspersed with the occasional trip to the pub with his wife or friends, or a day out to the beach with his kids.

He was sat on the sofa watching EastEnders whilst his kids - Molly, 6 and Liam, 8 - were upstairs playing. His wife was in the kitchen doing the dishes and he was sat with a beer in his hand.

Normally he would only drink at the weekend, but as it was him and his wife’s seven-year anniversary, Cheryl had forced a bottle into his hand. They didn’t really have enough money to go out celebrating, but this was all he needed. The love of his wife, his kids and a nice, stable home.

Today hadn’t been entirely normal though. Since leaving work he’d been getting a mild headache in his forehead. It hadn’t bothered him though, and he had taken an paracetemol to make him feel better. But now it had returned and he found himself squinting at the TV screen.

“You alright, love?” asked Cheryl as she walked into the room with a cup of tea.

“Just a bit of a pain in the head,” said Richard.

“Have you taken anything for it?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning the volume down on the TV, “took a tablet when I came home.”

“Maybe you should lie down.”

“No,” he said, getting up and crossing over to her and guiding her to sit on the sofa, “this is our night. I don’t want to ruin it.”

He leaned in to kiss her and then recoiled in pain, his balled up fists to his head.

“Richard!” yelled Cheryl, dropping her tea and leaping to her feet.

Richard screamed out in agony and then suddenly stopped. His eyes opened and he looked from left to right and then at Cheryl, confusion on his face,

“Richard, are you okay?”

He didn’t respond. He just continued to stare at her. And then he looked around the room. He looked scared and worried.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” said Cheryl.

“Who are you?” said Richard, just as she grabbed the phone.

“What do you mean? It’s me. Cheryl.”

“Cheryl who?”

“Your wife. Cheryl Hicks. We met when we were at school, remember? It’s our anniversary.”

Richard shook his head. “The only Cheryl I remember from school died years ago. Cheryl Noone.”

“That was me. My maiden name before we married. But I’m not dead, Richard, I’m here.”

Richard shook his head again. “But the world isn’t like this any more. Not for a long time.”




Lilly found the Doctor sat on the curb of the road, behind him was the dark park. He had his knees drawn to his chest and he was counting on his fingers, mumbling to himself and writing in a small notepad in his other hand.

“You know it’s nearly midnight, yeah?” said Lilly, sitting down beside him.

“And?”

“And you really need to get some sleep,” she said. “And it’s bloody cold out here.”

“You go inside then,” he said, jotting something else down. He shook his head. “We’re missing something. We’re missing something. It’s so frustrating!”

“What are we missing?”

“Something. Something.”

Lilly smiled. “Okay, old man,” she said, taking the notepad off him, much to his annoyance, “we’re getting you inside. You can have a nice nap and then we’ll meet that Holly girl in the morning and we can have a nice, English breakfast and discuss this. Although why you need her, I’ll never know.”

“Because,” said the Doctor, getting to his feet, “she has an inquisitive side to her.”

“You already said that, but we shouldn’t be letting her get involved,” said Lilly. “You know what happened last time.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” said the Doctor, as he wandered off into the darkened trees.

“Again,” exhaled Lilly under her breath.

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2 (Life)

Holly had always had a strange attraction towards graveyards and cemeteries. She didn’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it was the silence of it all. One particular graveyard - or rather cemetery - the one her granddad had been buried in was located in a quieter part of town.

She used to follow the line of the old railway until it headed out of town and past the woods. There a pathway would lead across a field to a road which led into the crematorium and the cemetery.

When she was 13 her and Roxanne had snuck out of the house late one night and, armed with a couple of torches, made their way down the tracks to the cemetery. They found an entrance around the back, accessed by a field and a hole in the fence. They had to cross a ditch and Holly had fallen in, landing in water that came up to her ankles.

The two girls had laughed as Roxanne had dragged her out. They’d wandered amongst the gravestones illuminated by the silver moonlight until they had headed deeper and deeper into the cemetery to the old, Victorian area.

Here stone angels loomed over them. Angels were meant to be comforting, but these ones looked quite sinister, their cracked and disfigured faces eroded by decades of acid rain.

They had found a bench near the small chapel that served as the entrance archway from the main road to the cemetery. They had taken flasks with hot tea and had told ghost stories. Holly had always been scared, but scared in a good way. Scared in a way that made you want to carry on.

But now Holly was unsure if she ever wanted to visit a cemetery again. After her experiences earlier in the day at the small churchyard, she could think of nothing else.

Eventually the working day came to an end again and Holly found herself walking home the longer way just to avoid the small church. Something odd was going on there and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be involved in it.

When she got home there was nobody in. It’d be another hour or so before Agatha finished school and her parents were both still at work. Her father was a dentist and her mother a recruitment consultant. They were both paid fairly well, but it was most definitely not the type of job she wanted to go into. Up until a few months ago she had been enjoying her job at the library. She was sad it had come to an end.

She sat down in the living room, her hands in her lap. She stared straight ahead at the net curtains and sighed.

She was bored.

It was then that her phone beeped. She looked at the text message.




YOU BUSY? COME TO THE DEN? GOT SOMETHING TO TELL YOU. ROXY.




She frowned. What was Roxanne doing in the Den at this time? She didn’t usually go there until later in the evening.

Oh well, she thought, something to kill the boredom at last!

She jumped up, pulled on her coat, hat and scarf, and made her way outside.




The Den was located deep into the woods on the edge of town. Before you got to the actual line of trees that led to the woods, there was a children’s play area, although at this time of the year it was quiet. A large, sloping hill led up towards the tree line.

Holly glanced up at the sky, the sun was beginning to set and it’d be dark in about thirty minutes. Luckily she’d brought her torch with her. She was used to being up in the woods at night anyway, it’s where the gang always met.

She’d met Roxanne when they were at school together and they had both gone on to study photography at college. Roxy had always been a bit of a wild card. Whilst Holly tended to get herself in all sorts of scrapes when she was out and about mainly by accident, Roxy was the sort of girl who would deliberately go looking for trouble.

Holly and Roxy had made quite a nice group of friends at college, and when they all left they stayed in touch. They used to go drinking in the woods late at night in the Den and they were all interested in the paranormal and supernatural.

Roxy had claimed that when she was 11 years old she had seen a woman in white walk across her hallway. Since then she had been interested in all sorts of spooky goings on. Holly herself had always had a recurring nightmare of a headless woman in a long, flowing ball gown that used to walk down the passageway behind her house. They didn’t do anything serious with the gang, but it was fun. It was a laugh.

These days, though, they didn’t tend to meet up at the Den as much. Most of them had moved on in life, only once in a blue moon heading up there.

Holly reached the tree line and muddy pathway that wound around the woods and into the denser area of trees. Although there was still some light, the trees obscured most of the sky so she turned her torch on.

The Den was located in a dense circle of trees which was itself set in a circular clearing. She could already see the gentle glow from the fire amongst the trees.

As she made her way across the clearing and towards the trees Roxy appeared at the edge. She had long, curly brown hair, glasses and a small collection of freckles around her nose. She was wearing a blue bobble hat and smiled when she saw Holly.

“Hey, Roxy,” said Holly.

They embraced warmly. They hadn’t seen each other for a while now.

“Hey, yourself, Dangerfield.”

“How you been?”

“Oh, you know,” said Roxy, “between jobs at the moment. I lost the job at the ice rink.”

“What?” said Holly, as Roxy guided her into the trees. “I thought you were alright there.”

“I was until I went in there late one night after arguing with Brian and spray painted “ROXY WAS HERE” on the ice.”

Roxy had been going out with the manager of the ice rink, Brian, for the past year or so. They had been getting on well, but Roxy wasn’t the sort of person to want to settle down.

“So he sacked you?”

“Not exactly,” said Roxy. “The owners gave Brian a choice - either I left or they sacked him.”

“So you thought with your heart then?”

“Yes,” said Roxy, rolling her eyes. “We split up, but I couldn’t let him lose his job cos of me. I might do daft things sometimes, but I’m not about to let someone lose their job over it.”

“So what’s this all about?” said Holly. She wasn’t ready to tell yet another person that her granddad had recently passed away.

“You’ll see. I’ve got Foxy here.”

“Simon Fox?” said Holly. He was one of the first to leave the group back in the day. They hadn’t seen him for years since he’d gotten a job at a law firm in town. They used to joke that Foxy and Roxy would end up together one day.

They didn’t.

“Yep,” said Roxy. “It was a bit of a bolt out of the blue. He called my house phone. He was gibbering on about something he’d seen in his garden.”

“Jesus, it must have been weird for him to have called on you. Foxy was the biggest unbeliever of them all.” She smiled. “No offence, of course.”

“None taken, sweetheart,” said Roxy with a chuckle.

“So what was it?”

“I’ll let him tell you himself.”

The Den was a large, wooden shelter-like hut. It was about 5 foot high and could fit about six people in it. It was missing the front wall, but a ragged sheet had been fixed to the frame to give them some shelter. Simon Fox was sat beside the fire, picking at his nails. He looked up as the two women entered.

“Hey, Foxy,” smiled Holly.

“Wow, Holly. You’re looking good.”

They hugged each other. Simon had left them when they were only 17. She’d been a goofy, gangly teenager back then. She’d definitely grown into herself as she had gotten older.

“Looking sharp, yourself,” smiled Holly, nodding at his blazer, shirt and tie.

“Too smart for this place,” said Roxy, sitting beside Simon and poking a stick at the dying fire.

“So what’s it all about?” said Holly, sitting down next to Simon and looking at him with interest.

“Don’t laugh,” said Simon, “but this morning I saw my dead mother.”




The Scottish girl stepped up to the gates. They were padlocked and she shook them. Nothing was going to get them open. At least not in a hurry. She sighed and looked around. It was dark now, just the car park lights from the crematorium casting a dull orange glow across the nearby buildings.

A man exited the crematorium and looked over to her. “Can I help you, miss?” he called from across the car park.

“Thought I could cut through,” lied the girl.

“Gates get locked at dusk,” he said. He continued to stare at her and then went back inside.

She took her phone out of her jeans pocket and put it to her ears. “It’s me,” she said. She rolled her eyes. “Who do you think, daft head? It’s Lilly.”

There was a noise just beyond the gates. The cracking of twigs.

“Yes, it’s all secure. No I haven’t checked the other side yet. Do you know how long it’d take me to walk around there?” She shook her head. “Too dark to go through now, even if I did unlock it. Did you deal with the woman?” She smiled. “Good. This is getting a bit dodgy now.”

There was another sound. Another twig, but this time further away.

“Look, I’ve changed my mind. I’m off to check the other gates. If I see anything I’ll call. See you later.”

She put her phone back into her jeans and quickly made her way down the road.

The girl - Lilly - wasn’t aware that eyes were watching her from the other side of the gate, shrouded in darkness.




Simon had finished telling Holly about his encounter in the back garden with his dead mother.

“And you just left her?” said Holly.

“No,” said Simon. “I didn’t know what to say to her, and then this bloke and a blonde girl barged through the back gate and threw a bag over her head.”

Holly’s eyes narrowed. Those two again!

“They told me not to say anything and that it was a trick of the light and dragged mum out of the garden and disappeared down the alleyway.”

“What did you do?” said Holly.

“I called the police. They fobbed me off and said someone would come round. They still haven’t been.”

“Fox Mulder’s planes not landed yet,” said Roxy with a smile.

“I didn’t go into work. I waited for the mist to lift and had a look round but there was nothing. So I called Roxanne instead. It’s the stuff we used to talk about, yeah?”

“That’s right partner,” said Roxy slapping Simon on the back. “Roxy and Foxy back in business.”

“What do you think?” said Simon to Holly. “You don’t seem too surprised.”

“Well, it’s weird, yeah,” said Holly, nodding slowly, “and I’d find it hard to believe, if I hadn’t seen the two people you described this morning myself, tackling some old guy to the ground.”

“Was he a dead person?” said Simon.

“How should I know?” said Holly. “He just looked…old.”

“What a minute, Hols. You saw a dead person too?” said Roxy, getting in closer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“To be honest I’m still trying to process it all,” said Holly, scratching her head. “Where they both Scottish? The man and girl?”

“Yep,” said Simon, nodding. “I mean, my mum’s long gone.”

Holly nodded. She had remembered reading it in the paper. His mum had died in a house fire five years ago. Simon’s Dad had walked out on the family when he was only seven and he had been an only child. He had been brought up by his mum and it had affected him badly when she had died.

“Hang on,” said Holly. “I don’t want to sound insensitive or anything, but how did your mum look?”

“Like the same old mum,” said Simon sadly.

“Not…burnt or anything?”

“Holly!” said Roxy, astonished.

“I’m sorry, Simon,” said Holly, “but I’ve gotta ask.”

Simon shook his head. “No. Just the same as she’d always looked. Pale, but…beautiful.”

Holly looked at Roxy, got to her feet and then guided her towards the trees out of earshot of Foxy. “Janelle Fox was burnt to death, remember? As absurd as it sounds, if her body really had climbed out of the grave and gone to see Simon, why didn’t it look like she’d done two rounds with the Human Torch?”

Roxy nodded. “True. But then how do you explain it?”

“You can’t explain it,” said Simon, getting up and brushing his trousers down. “You just can’t.”

“I vote we take a trip to the cemetery,” said Roxy, grabbing her rucksack.

“Why? It’s too dark anyway,” said Simon.

“That never stopped us,” said Roxy.

“It’s not like it’s late or anything,” said Holly. “It’s just dark. There’s still that hole in the side of the fence over the ditch. We can get in that way.”

“Will you two listen to yourselves?” said Simon. “We’re adults now, not college kids. I work for a law firm.”

Holly nodded. “Yeah, normally I would have accepted that and backed down, however, this is not a normal, adult situation. The dead are wandering the town.”

“You don’t know that,” said Simon.

“Then maybe you imagined your mother,” said Roxy. “Simon, I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s the only way. I don’t know how it’s happened, but, darling, this town has a case of zombies.”




The two young women weren’t sure how they had done it, but somehow they had managed to convince Simon to go with them. Holly and Roxy were dressed for the trip, but Simon looked out of place in his blazer, jumper and shiny black shoes. He looked worried and frustrated, but he knew he needed answers.

They had trekked through the woods to the dark-track that led across a field. The track then crossed over a farmers flyover that stretched across the main road that had been built on top of the old railway. They then followed a path until they reached the field that ran along the side of the cemetery. A ditch ran along the fence but it had been long since drained of water.

Holly shone her torch along the metal fence. It was around here somewhere. The same place Holly had fallen in all those years ago.

There it was!

Holly pointed. There were a couple of slats which looked like they could be easily swung aside.

“Nice one, Dangerfield,” said Roxy. “Nice of the council to not bother fixing it.”

They were about to make their way into the dry ditch when there came a voice.

“Good evening.”

The three of them turned around in unison. Standing there with a torch light shining under his chin was a man with brown hair and stubble. The same man Holly and Simon had seen earlier in the day.

“Can I help you?” he said with a smile. He had a warm and gentle voice.

“Who are you?” said Holly, the only one managing to find her voice.

“My name’s the Doctor. I’m hunting the dead, and I suspect you are too”

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 (Death)

Holly Dangerfield stood beside the bay window, gazing out at the rain-lashed street outside. She found it odd to think that on a day like today everybody else was going about their normal business. Driving to and from work. Doing their shopping. Picking their kids up from school. Just all the normal things you’d expect to be doing on a Wednesday.

And Wednesdays…she hated Wednesday. People at work would say it was the “middle finger” to the rest of the working week. She just hated them full stop. Today she had even more cause to hate the day.

As she stood there in her all-black dress holding a small bunch of white lilies, she forced herself to stop crying. She was determined to not end up at the cemetery in a state.

She had been at work as usual when her Mum had called her with the news.

She had always been close to her granddad when she was small, but felt guilty because she hadn’t seen much of him in the last few years. She had made an effort to go every few weeks, but it had been a good few years since her grandma had died and somehow it never felt the same with him on his own. He had just become gloomier and gloomier without her near. He missed her.

Her father had said that he had died of old age. Holly believed, however stupid it sounded, that he had died of a broken heart.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head a little to her right. She could smell her dads aftershave.

“You okay love?”

His voice was warm and reassuring.. She should have been asking if he was okay, not the other way around. It was, after all, his own father who had died.

“I’m good. I’m fine,” said Holly with a weak smile.

“Why don’t you come and sit down?”

She shook her head. “I just wanna watch the rain.” She liked watching the rain. It made her think. Sometimes she felt hypnotised watching those tiny droplets of water race each other down the window pane and merge into a small puddle at the bottom.

“Granddad wouldn’t want you to be unhappy, love,” he said.

She frowned. “Granddad wouldn’t want me to forget him.”

“You’re not forgetting him, sweetheart. We have to try and be happy. It’s what he would have wanted.”

She felt angry. She felt frustrated that it was her granddad that had been taken away. She turned and looked at him angrily. “Well it doesn’t matter what he wants now because he’s not here, is he?”

She put the lilies on the table and walked into the kitchen where her little sister, Agatha, was sat with her granddads dog, her eyes puffy and red.

“You shouldn’t shout at Dad,” said Agatha.

“You heard, did you?” said Holly, sitting down on the floor next to her sister and joining in stroking the old Labrador.

“I think everyone heard you.”

Holly shook her head. Her sister was only 13 and ten years younger than her, but she had her head screwed on and was a bright kid. She hadn’t been as close to her grandparents as Holly was, but that was because she was younger and had spent less time with them.

“I’m just upset, Aggie,” said Holly, staring at a tiny crack above the skirting board. “Granddad meant a lot to me.”

“I know he did,” said Agatha, “but you can’t just get angry with Dad. It’s not his fault.”

“I know,” she said, nodding. “I’ll apologise. I promise.”

Agatha smiled at her. “Anyone would think that I was the big sister.”

Holly laughed. “No chance, squirt.”

Agatha playfully smacked her sisters arm and the two girls laughed.

Holly’s Dad appeared in the doorway and looked at each of the two girls.

Holly smiled sadly and got to her feet. “I’m sorry, Dad,” she said, giving him a big hug.

He tried to hold back his tears. “Hey, not to worry, sweetheart. I’m your Dad. I can take a knock.” He laughed. “Human punch bag, you know?”




By the time they had left the house for the crematorium, the rain had eased off. A large, angry, grey cloud still loomed ominously in the sky, but Holly was thankful that it was getting dry now.

The procession of cars wound their way down the tree-lined road that led past nice-looking detached houses, a school and an allotment, before finally coming to a stop at the gates to the cemetery, the tall trees looming over them and swaying wildly in the wind.

Holly didn’t remember much about the service. She remembered trying to hold it in for as long as possible, before seeing Agatha crying, which set her off. Then she remembered gazing up at the stained glass window at the front of the building and seeing the sun peek through the clouds and shine a few rays of light through the coloured glass and onto granddads coffin.

Holly closed her eyes and tried to block everything out around her, but every time she did she saw her granddads face smiling at her. In some ways she found it comforting, but every time she felt comfortable, it made her think again of how much she missed him and it made her feel even worse.




She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but, after they had sung ‘Edelwiess’ - granddads favourite song - the procession had moved outside. He had always wanted a burial, even more so after her grandma had been buried as well.

Her grandma’s grave had been reopened and Holly peered a little over the edge. She could see the dirt-stained coffin far down in the ground and her thoughts went to her grandma lying there still and lifeless. She back up a little and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think those thoughts.

Slowly the coffin was lowered into the ground, and for a moment Holly was momentarily distracted by something in the corner of her eye.

To her right, a few gravestones away, was a man - older than her - with dark, unkempt hair, piercing blue eyes and an unshaven jaw line. He was attractive and wore a long, grey coat with a high collar and a pair of dark blue jeans. He was stood at a side to her, but his head had turned to look at her way.

She frowned.

He frowned back.

And then a small, blonde girl appeared at his side. He turned to her and smiled. She was rather pretty, but she looked frustrated, she looked as if she had a permanent frown etched onto her face. Her eyes flicked to Holly’s and Holly looked away quickly.

The two were talking, but Holly couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Ashes to ashes…dust to dust,” said the vicar, drawing her back into the sadness in front of her.

She watched as members of the family threw in handfuls of dirt and then moved away one by one. She grabbed a handful, looked at Agatha, and then threw it down to the coffin.

“Goodbye Granddad,” she said with a sniff, took Agatha’s hand, and then walked away from the graveside.

As she walked away she glanced around her, but the man and the young girl were nowhere to be seen.




A few weeks passed. Life returned to normal.




It was on a Monday morning when things took a slightly more…odder turn.

Holly had been working at a frozen food factory for the past few months. She’d recently lost her job at the library due to cutbacks, and she saw this job as just something to tide her over until she found something better.

At the age of 23 she was definitely not old enough to go into something new, but she enjoyed working with books and libraries and she was hoping to get a job at the local shopping centre’s Waterstones. She was just waiting for them to get back to her with her interview time.

On the whole working on a production line packing fish was a largely boring experience, but it paid her way and let her continue her hobbies. Her mind was always racing with things so she never felt too bored. She’d simply switch off and find herself in her own little world.

At school Holly had been a little bit of an outcast. Whilst all the other kids were into playing games and showing off their new toys, Holly had been into books and adventure. She and her friend, Roxanne, used to have all sorts of adventures on the old, disused railway line near her family home. She’d often return home with a bit of fabric tied around the top of her head for a bandana, a wooden stick used for a staff and her face smeared with mud.

Her parents used to get frustrated with their “Little Princess”, who most certainly wasn’t acting like a princess, but they knew they couldn’t break her out of her ways.

She sighed as she pulled off her hairnet and went to her locker to get changed into her shoes and coat. She made her way out of the building and into the crisp, Autumn afternoon. It had stayed particularly dry for the last few weeks after the funeral and this made her happy. Autumn was her favourite time of the year, but she detested the rain. She liked the cold and dark nights and the dead leaves, but the atmosphere was always ruined by the rain.

She unlocked her bike and began cycling home. As she made her way home she cycled past one of the smaller churches on her route where she noticed an ambulance and police car parked up outside the small, ancient graveyard.

She frowned. Someone must have collapsed or maybe there had been an accident. She put it out of her head, and then she saw him. The same man she had seen a few weeks ago in the cemetery at her granddads funeral. Sure enough he was standing there with the girl who still looked slightly pissed off. They were stood a little way from the ambulance, but were clearly staring at something in the small graveyard.

The man noticed Holly cycling past and his blue eyes flicked to her again. There was a moment of recognition and he smiled at her.

The blonde girl noticed he was looking and tugged on his arm. When he looked at her quizzically, she jabbed her finger towards one of the graves.

Holly followed their gaze and could see one of the graves, the earth overturned in it. She momentarily lost concentration on what she was doing until a car horn beeped at her. She’d veered to the other side of the road and she had to swerve to get out of the way of an oncoming car.

She skidded to a halt, mounted the pavement and took a few deep breaths.

“Get a grip,” she said to herself. She looked back one more time, but the man and girl were walking away, his hands deep in his pockets, her hands busy writing in a scruffy-looking notepad. She considered going back to see what all the fuss was about, but she just wanted to get home. She was tired and needed a bath.




That night she was unable to sleep. She lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She turned to face the clock. It was 11pm and she knew she had to be up in five hours to set off for work again. She could hear Agatha’s TV coming from down the hall. If she didn’t turn it down, her mum would be in to tell her off.

Holly made a mental note to consider getting her own little place. She loved living with her family, but sometimes she just craved the peace and quiet.

Eventually…eventually…she drifted off.

The next thing she knew her eyes were wide open and the alarm was going off.

She groaned as she threw back the covers. She had a shower, made a cup of coffee and then made her way back outside.

The air was crisp again and there was a layer of frost of the grass in the back garden. She got on her bike and her heart sank when she realised that she had a puncture. How had I not noticed that yesterday? she thought to herself.

She grabbed her MP3 player, wrapped a scarf around her, unlocked the back gate and began the long walk to the factory.

It was about 25 minutes into the walk when she passed the small church and the graveyard she had cycled past the other day. There was a thin layer of mist that had covered the ground and the headstones looked scary, peeking out from the spooky mist.

She noticed that a police cordon had been put around the grave that had been overturned. She frowned, took a look around her, and let her curiosity get the better of her.

She climbed over the small wall and up the gentle incline to the grave, feeling her old adventurous self rear its head again. She couldn’t really see what the problem was and why it had been cordoned off and was about to turn and carry on to work when she heard a shuffling sound a few graves away.

It made her jump and she turned. Standing there with his back to her was an old man in a black suit.

Holly didn’t know what to say. He looked completely out of place. What was an old man doing wandering the streets at this time in the morning, let alone wandering a graveyard?

“Are you okay?” said Holly, jumping at the sound of her own voice in the silence.

The old man turned his head slowly to face her. He looked confused and his eyes were dark and sunken in. His skin was pale and stretched over his face. If it hadn’t been for the skin he could have looked just like a skeleton.

“Are you lost?” said Holly.

The old man frowned and turned the rest of his body to face her. But he didn’t move. He just kept staring at her.

“Do you need help?” asked Holly.

The old man opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he reached up an arm towards her and slowly began shuffling forward. At first slowly, but it soon turned into a stumbling walk, always threatening to trip over his own feet.

“I think I better go,” said Holly.

The old man was almost on top of her when suddenly the unshaven man she had seen yesterday leapt out from the mist and grabbed the old man, both arms wrapped tightly around him.

He was followed by the young girl, dressed in a red bobble hat and dark coat. She was carrying an old brown bag and threw it over the old man’s head.

The man turned to face Holly, clearly struggling to hold the writhing old man. “Just go,” he said.

She frowned. “What the hell…?”

“You heard the man,” said the young girl. She had a Scottish accent. Come to think of it, so did he. “Just get out of here. You don’t wanna get involved.”

“Involved in what?” said Holly.

“That would be telling,” said the man, as he suddenly stumbled to the floor, the old man toppling on top of him.

The girl threw a rucksack to the ground and pulled out some rope. She leapt on top of the old man and began tying his hands behind his back. She turned back to Holly. “He said go!”

The man winked. “I’d do as she says,” he smiled.

Holly didn’t need to be told another time. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it looked like some kind of kidnapping. It wasn’t something she wanted to get involved in. She stumbled backwards, clambered over the wall and walked as fast as she could towards the factory.




Simon Fox opened the curtains and groaned at the freezing cold mist that had descended - and seemed to be getting thicker - in his garden. He shook his head, switched on the kettle, and then settled down at the kitchen table with the newspaper and cup of hot, black coffee.

He took a few sips and glanced momentarily out of the window. He did a double take when he realised what he had seen.

He couldn’t be quite sure, but he was certain he had seen a person wandering around through the fog. He put on his glasses and peered closer out of the window.

There it was again. It was definitely a person, wandering aimlessly near the back fence.

With an angry grunt he put on his shoes and wrapped his dressing gown tighter around him. He unlocked the backdoor and marched into the garden. He wasn’t sure what he was going to find, but he certainly knew he didn’t want an intruder back there.

He grabbed a garden cane as he marched confidently towards the back fence.

“Hey!” he said, his breath in the fog. “Hey! What the hell are you doing back there?”

He was almost on top of the person now as it turned to face him.

“I’m giving you a chance here,” said Simon, “or I’ll whack you with this thing.” Simon wasn’t a violent person. In fact he had never even whacked a fly with a rolled up newspaper. It was all a show.

He was right in front of the person.

“Turn around!” said Simon.

The figure turned around. It was a woman with long, blonde hair, ruby-red lips and a yellow, flowery dress.

Simon frowned. “Mum?”

Simon would normally have been happy to see his Mum. Except his Mum had been dead for five years.

To be continued...

The Dead Shall Walk Again: Prelude

Dear Diary,




Today I turned 12. It’s not really been a birthday I’ve been that fussed over, mainly because it’s not the big one. The big one is next year when I become - apparently - a terrible teenager. That’s what Mum said anyway. But for me being 12 is a big one. It means that I have to grow up soon. It means that I can’t just enjoy the days any more.

Yeah, school’s a bit rubbish and there’s always the bullies picking on me and Roxanne, but why would I want to grow up so soon? Why would I want to do hard studying and more homework and then look to the future? I don’t want to look to the future. I don’t want to grow up. Not yet anyway.

Me and Roxy bunked off school today and went down to the Den. God, if Mum and Dad found out they’d cancel Christmas. They probably will find out actually once the school work’s out that I didn’t have a sick note. And when they realise Roxy was off too…well, it’s only a matter of time.

But we both had a laugh anyway. It rained today, but it didn’t stop us. I always keep a pair of wellies hidden in an alcove underneath the train bridge for just these occasions. We met up in the park and then trudged down the old railway to the woods. It’s so peaceful up on the old tracks and it’ll be a shame when they dig it all up to put a road there.

We headed to the Den in the middle of the woods and lit a fire. Roxy had brought some green Panda Pops with her and I shared my sandwiches that Mum had made for me for school that day. Roxy told me about the ghost she thought she had seen in her house; a girl in a long, white dress that had walked from her Mums room, across the hallway and into the bathroom. Roxy wasn’t scared though - I might have been if I’d have seen it, but not her.

She grabbed her disposable camera and ran into the bathroom to try and take a photo only to find her brother having a shave. He’d told her off and she’d gone running back to her room.

That Dean can be a right git sometimes.

When the rain stopped we made our way past the cemetery and back towards home. I managed to make it back to my house at my usual time and my parents were none the wiser.

God, if they ever read this then I’m dead!

Anyway, I’ve gotta go now. We’re taking my birthday cake up to Granddad and Grandma’s house to celebrate. It’s Saturday tomorrow and me and Roxy are planning to spend the day back at the Den, working on our ghost story we’re writing. Granddad’s gonna give me some ideas for characters. I don’t know what I’d do without Granddad. He’s getting so old.

I hate getting older.

That’s all for now.

Love, Holly




Holly closed the diary and wiped away the tear. She’d been clearing her room out when she’d found the old diary behind an old bookcase. She hardly believed it had been eleven years since she’d written it. And she had hardly believed what her parents had told her when she had come home from work today: her Granddad had died.



Like she had said all those years ago, she hated getting older. It meant you were closer to death, and there was no coming back from the dead.

Resurrection: The first five stories!

Here are the first five story titles and covers...more to follow

The Dead Shall Walk Again

Holly Dangerfield meets the mysterious Doctor and Lilly Galloway as she is thrown into a world of resurrected corpses and visions of a dying world.

First chapter coming on March 2nd 2015!

Mondas Down

The TARDIS lands on a deep-space exploration vessel where they meet the crew that have just discovered a surviving ship containing the bodies of two Cyber-Mondasians in suspended animation.

Prisons in the Sky

The Rock - a dead world with rocky coastlines and stormy seas and prisons that houses the galaxies deadliest criminals high up in the sky.
Holly and Lilly are imprisoned for trespassing on the planet whilst the Doctor teams up with a group of rogues to try and break them out.

Aliens Among Us

The Doctor gathers information that a group of aliens, disguised as Humans, are hiding in a small town in the 1990's. He, Holly and Lilly must live normal lives and attempt to bring the aliens out of hiding.

The Fires That Burned Blue

The Master returns with a new face and a new agenda as the Doctor realises that wheels that he accidentally set in motion way back are about to come back and haunt him.







There will be more stories to come, but this should keep everyone going for now. Running orders, story titles, etc are subject to change.

Resurrection (Promotional Image)

Story 1: The Dead Shall Walk Again

“Who are you?” said Holly, the only one managing to find her voice.
“My name’s the Doctor. I’m hunting the dead, and I suspect you are too”

Holly Dangerfield has just lost her granddad to old age - or a broken heart. She's not sure which, but she knows she misses him.

One morning on her way to work she spots a man and a blonde girl tackling an old man to the ground. An old man wandering an old graveyard.

After her old friend, Simon Fox contacts her and her friend Roxy over an odd occurrence in his back garden, Holly soon finds herself thrown into the world of the Doctor as she begins to realise that the dead are walking again...


This is the first in a new series of adventures, loosely following on from the Darkpaths series and now featuring James McAvoy as the New Doctor, Felicity Jones as Holly and Evanna Lynch as Lilly.

Please note that you don't have to have read Darkpaths to enjoy this series, but it will enhance your enjoyment if you do!