I smelt my own breath and agreed with him. ‘What are you up to with the van?
‘Got all the ground zero TRADs in here along with the two that tried to jump over the wall. Gonna put all the smashed-up tents in take it down the gas works at the back and torch it. Only thing is last night made a fair bit of noise and we have a bit of action at the fences now. Nothing to worry about but just have to be careful when clearing the fences the next day or so.’ With that he headed off towards the gates, no doubt to be loaded up with as much crap as possible to keep down the number of journeys to the gas works.
My mouth tasted as bad as it stank, I needed water, rehydrate, pain killers and sleep, I could get all that at the camp… oh shit! Sarah! I turned to Kev. ‘Mate, I’ve got to go and check on Sarah!’
‘Go mate, nothing more to do here, get some rest, I will as soon as possible.’
I couldn’t run as my head thumped bad enough at walking pace. As I neared the 90, I could see the lights were off as was the engine and I could still see Sarah in the driver’s seat. Good girl. She soon saw me walking towards her, got out and ran towards me. She threw her arms around me and we hugged. ‘How are you?’ I asked.
Her eyes welled up. ‘Stayed put like you said but…’ She burst out crying. I held her in the hug, and she continued. ‘I saw people running, fighting, being attacked and I couldn’t help any of them. It felt like when mum and dad were attacked at the petrol station and I couldn’t do anything to help them either. I was worried I had lost you too.’
‘Well you did help, the lights helped us and the people running for shelter and the information you gave us about the van was really important and helped us find out what was really going on. Kev and I are still alive because of that.’ She was still sobbing but not as limp and seemed to have taken some comfort from what I had said.
We walked back to the 90 slowly, people still waving at me, then I remembered. ‘Oh you know your mate Paul?’ She instantly stiffened up. ‘Don’t worry he is fine, but the girl he was hanging around with got a broken nose.’ She didn’t speak but looked at me questioningly. ‘I hit her with the shotgun thinking she was a zombie!’ She burst out laughing.
‘Oh my god! Really? You plonker!’
‘Well it was dark, I was on edge, hungover and still am. I need some water, paracetamol’s and rehydrate.’
We had reached the 90. ‘I’ll get them for you.’ She let go of me, ran to the back and opened it, then opened the medical crate. The zombie that had flattened my windbreak had already been collected and most of the blood had been washed away with water and strong bleach by the smell of it. By who I didn’t know but I was grateful for sure. The wind break was still on the floor, but I could deal with that.
Sarah appeared with a bottle of mineral water tinted purple and a handful of white pills. I hated taking tablets, I always had to swallow one at a time. The tinted water was blackcurrant hydrate, and I certainly needed it. ‘Do you want brekkie?’ Sarah asked. I shook my head as I took the last pill. ‘I was going to cook.’ She announced. ‘Spam, fried potato, fried bread and tinned mushrooms with as much sweet tea as you can drink, then I’ll give you my bed, some ear plugs and you get some rest?’
I changed my mind, it sounded bloody good to me. ‘Sounds great, thanks.’ She gave me a smile and a thumbs up and went into cooking mode. I took off my tactical vest and threw it towards the back-driver side wheel followed by my leather jacket. I took a few deep swigs from the bottle and rested it on my chair. I rolled up the fallen wind break, luckily none of the poles were snapped. ‘Can you throw me the big lump hammer from the back while you are there please?’ She stopped rummaging for food, found the hammer and threw it under hand to me. I had to jump back a step as it landed at my feet. ‘Whoa! Steady on there Thor!’ I got the poked-out tongue as a response.
I repositioned the poles to avoid the old holes. I thumped the first few in and heard a car pull up down the little hill behind me and its engine stop. I didn’t bother turning around as I heard the door open and close either.
‘Yo! Slayer!’ I froze but still didn’t turn. ‘Your Landie is looking a bit worse for wear since I last saw it!’
I dropped the lump hammer and turned around. Standing to the side of a battered black BMW X5 was Sue.
The Reanimated Dead (Book 1): Into the Cotswolds Page 22