The few seconds of dazed silence after the impact was deafening. Scarlett’s seatbelt had knocked all the air out of her lungs and the pain was so severe that, for a moment, she could have sworn she’d broken some ribs. As she gathered her wits and took a few deep breaths, it began to subside and she was able to think more clearly.
She noticed the air bag had blown and the bonnet of her mother’s car was completely crumpled. There would be no driving it away.
Finally, she took the pistol in her hand.
“Are you both okay?” she panted.
“Yeah, I think we’re alright.”
“Good. Get out of the car and run. Now!”
They didn’t hesitate. The horde was fast approaching again and the trio began running in the opposite direction. Scarlett took the lead, heading straight toward an apartment block and barging her way through the door followed by Jimmy and Alice.
She took a few seconds to work out what to do next. To her right was a corridor of ground floor apartments, ahead was a staircase. Glancing behind, she made a quick decision based on the proximity of the horde.
They each sprinted up the stairs, not stopping until they reached the top floor. While Jimmy and Alice caught their breath, Scarlett noticed that the door to the apartment closest to them had been left ajar and she quickly but cautiously stepped inside.
The apartment was pitch black and Scarlett held the pistol out in front of her in one hand, trembling, while she used the other to feel along the wall for a light switch. Once she’d found one, she flicked it on and saw that she was in an open plan living room. Everything was in its place, every surface spotlessly clean and minimalist. Her eyes darted about the room for something big and heavy as she knew it wouldn’t be long before the monsters made it through the glass doors. The sofa, the bookcase, the solid oak coffee table.
“Jimmy,” she whispered, “Help me with this.”
She flipped the safety catch on the pistol and slid it into her back pocket as she approached the couch and began to push it toward the door. Jimmy appeared and started to pull the sofa out into the corridor.
Just as they’d started to squeeze it through the doorframe, Jimmy turned pale and his eyes fixed on something behind Scarlett. She spun around to see a child. A little girl who can’t have been any older than seven or eight. It was immediately clear that the girl was infected; her eyes were completely white and her face inexpressive. Scarlett froze.
Suddenly, Alice screamed from the hallway and without a second thought, Jimmy ran toward the sound leaving Scarlett alone with the tiny corpse who, due to Alice’s cry for help, now knew she was in the room. It lurched toward her and Scarlett skilfully dodged it, immediately spinning around to face it again. She stayed as silent as she could and slowly drew the pistol from her pocket.
“Scarlett!” came Jimmy’s panicked voice from the hallway, “They made it in!”
The little corpse quickly began scrambling over the sofa toward Jimmy and Alice, and Scarlett took aim at its head and pulled the trigger. But the trigger didn’t move. In her haste, she had forgotten that the safety was on.
She quickly threw herself at the creature, yanking it backward by the hair before thumping it twice in the face with the butt of the gun. The little girl stopped moving after the second unyielding strike and drooped in Scarlett’s grasp.
Scarlett screamed as she looked at what she’d done, but quickly tried to gather her wits when she heard Jimmy call out from another apartment.
She scrambled over the sofa to the corridor and began searching for Jimmy and Alice.
Out in the hall she could hear the rasped breaths of the dead. She looked to her right for any clues as to which apartment Jimmy and Alice were hiding in.
“Jimmy,” she whispered, “Where are you?”
No answer came, so she crept to the next open door. The light was on and, after a quick glance around, Scarlett entered and closed the door. Trembling, she readied the pistol for firing and held it out in front of herself.
“Jimmy?”
She jumped and had to stop herself from pulling the trigger when Alice emerged from the bedroom.
“We didn’t know what else to do, so we hid. Sorry, Scarlett.”
“Alice, I almost shot you.” Scarlett said, placing the weapon into her jeans, “It’s okay, you did the right thing. Where’s your brother?”
“I’m here.” Jimmy stated as he appeared in the doorway. “I’m sorry, Scarlett. I had to make sure Alice was safe.”
“I get it, it’s fine. We have to find a way out of here, and we sure as shit aren’t using the main entrance any time soon. There’s got to be a fire escape.”
Scarlett moved quickly to the window and opened it wide. She glanced around and noticed a metal staircase leading to the ground. She turned to face Jimmy and once again took the pistol in her hand.
“This is obviously worse than they were making out,” she began, “I don’t know where we’re going to go from here other than the fuck out of the city. For now, there’s a fire escape. I can only suggest we take what we can from here; food, water and a bag to carry it all, and we run.”
“We run?” Jimmy repeated.
“We just run, until we can’t see them anymore. Then we find a car and get as far away from here as possible.”
“You make it sound easy.” Jimmy said dejectedly, “How far do you think we’ll get? And those things can run. Fast.”
“Have you got a better idea? Because as it stands we either run or we stay here until they break the door down.”
“We can stay quiet. They won’t know we’re in here.” He reasoned.
“So we starve?” Jimmy stared at her blankly, “Jimmy, we’re going.”
Alice voted with her feet as she made her way to the fridge. She took a large bottle of water and some canned drinks, placing them on the kitchen counter before poking around in the cupboards. Jimmy sighed and looked at the ground, but gave in and began helping his sister. Scarlett walked quietly to the bedroom.
She walked around the king-size bed to the wardrobe and started digging through the neatly hung clothes. At the bottom, amongst shoes and a few loose items which had fallen from their hangers, Scarlett found two hiking rucksacks.
After packing what they could into the bags, the three of them stood by the door, Scarlett in front, tentatively holding the handle. She glanced back and Alice gave her a nervous smile. Jimmy just looked as though he was concentrating hard on not soiling himself.
Scarlett counted backwards from three, mostly for her own benefit, before slowly opening the door. She poked her head out a little and glanced to either side. To her right, she could see the corpses that had let themselves in, and to her left was clear. Pointing the pistol toward the creatures, she snuck out of the apartment along with Jimmy and Alice, all holding on to each other, and walked cautiously in the opposite direction, headed for the fire escape.
The push bar door was closed and just as Scarlett reached out for it, Jimmy stopped her.
“Wait,” he whispered, “It’s got an alarm. If you open the door it’ll go off and those things will come running.”
“Shit. It’s our only way out.” Scarlett replied. “I have to do it. When I open the door, you run as fast as you can. Don’t stop and don’t look back. Are you ready?”
Jimmy and Alice each gave an anxious nod and Scarlett took a deep breath before swiftly backing into the push bar, swinging it open to let the others through.
The noise from the alarm was deafening, and seemed to be amplified by the quiet streets. Scarlett shoved the door closed before running to catch up with Jimmy and Alice.
And they all ran, exactly as Scarlett had said. They ran until they couldn’t run anymore and Jimmy thought he was going to throw up. Scarlett looked back, breathing a sigh of relief when all she could see was the city skyline in the distance. She stared for a moment as they all caught their breath and watched as the dots of light from the tall buildings began to switch off one afte
r the other, plunging the city into darkness.
Scarlett looked at her watch, 6:10pm. She wondered if the buses had made it and if they’d be heading their way. All they could do was hope.
Once recovered from their run, they continued to walk the city outskirts, searching for a car.
Alice took her mobile phone from her pocket and began poking at the screen. She stopped dead and grabbed Jimmy’s sleeve.
“It’s a voicemail from Dad,” she stated.
It took Scarlett a moment to realise that they had stopped, and she continued to peer in the windows of deserted cars looking for keys.
Jimmy stood next to his sister, taking the phone from her hand and pressing the hands free button. They both smiled, comforted by hearing their father’s voice. But their relief soon faded on listening to what he had to say:
“Hi sweetheart. Our flights have been cancelled. They’re not letting anyone out of the country because of this virus – you might have heard about it on the news. Your mum’s not too good – she was attacked by one of the sick people so she’s resting up in the hotel. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we’re okay. I hope everything is alright at home and that your brother is remembering to lock up at night. Let’s hope that travel was halted in time to stop it spreading. They still don’t know what caused it. As soon as we have any news about coming home I’ll let you know... We love you both so much. Goodbye, honey.”
Scarlett heard the message and watched Jimmy drop the mobile on the ground, taking his little sister in his arms as she sobbed into his chest.
“I’m so sorry.” Scarlett said genuinely. “I’ll give you two a minute.”
She sat in the driver’s seat of a nearby vehicle and put her head in her hands. She appeared to have been closely followed by Alice, who climbed in next to her.
“Are you okay?”
“Me?” Scarlett scoffed, leaning back in her seat, “That wasn’t my dad on the phone.”
“Yeah, but... your mum...”
“A lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours and I can’t get my head around any of it. I’m still expecting to wake up from a totally fucked up dream. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m alive, right?” Alice shrugged. “And I can’t give up on my parents. Maybe they’re still alive too.”
“What about Jimmy?” Scarlett asked.
“He’ll be fine. I think he’s feeling pretty numb. He’s not even crying.”
“Shit.” Scarlett sighed, “I don’t know what to think. It’s in Paris. Could be the whole world for all we know.”
Scarlett flinched when Jimmy opened the car door. He seemed excited and pulled her by the arm out of the car. She could hear several planes overhead and, lifting her face to see them, they rapidly thundered by, toward the city. She heard a faint whistle before witnessing multiple fireballs erupting among the buildings. Then the sound made it to her ears – a few short, hollow booms. She felt the ground shake slightly underfoot and the wind seemed to pick up a little before the shockwave hit her.
As she fell to the ground, Scarlett could feel the vibrations of the explosion rippling through her body. It was like an invisible entity had barged into her with great force and she felt it in every fibre of her being. Her face was on the tarmac and her arms were instinctively protecting her head. She could feel various bits of shrapnel bouncing off of her back. Her ears rang and every other sound was stifled and distorted. Disorientated, she slowly sat up and looked toward the city, quickly realising how lucky they had been.
Flames burned higher than she’d ever seen before and the dark smoke billowing from them became indistinguishable from the clouds.
She glanced around for Jimmy and Alice, who were already getting to their feet.
“What in the holy shit was that?” Jimmy screamed.
“That, Jimmy, was the reason those fuckers on the radio wanted every asshole left in the vicinity to head for the centre.” Scarlett responded furiously. “They wanted living people there to attract the dead to the monument so they could drop a fucking bomb.”
“Why would they do that?” Alice asked, trying to steady her breathing.
“To try to contain the spread, I guess.”
“But we would have died!” Jimmy said, astounded.
“Collateral damage, Jimmy.” Scarlett said, shaking her head. “We have to go. There’s more abandoned cars further out. We search them until we find one with keys, then we carry on running.”
Chapter Two:
Scarlett, Jimmy and Alice had been on the road together for seven weeks, never able to settle anywhere for various reasons; from being overrun by corpses to not fully being able to trust certain individuals around two young women. They'd had supplies stolen by the first people who 'took them in'. A father with his two teenage daughters. So they avoided others and kept to areas they knew.
The end of civilisation had changed Scarlett. She was no longer a scared little girl, but a strong, protective, fierce woman who spent every waking minute looking after her companions. She even dressed the part; she’d replaced the baggy jeans and t-shirt with dark, figure-hugging jeans, black vests and flat, lace up boots. It was all easier to move and hide in, not to mention less for the Biters to grasp at. She wore an open shirt over the vest to keep her arms covered, but it was loose enough that she could shimmy it off if the dead started to grab at it.
Alice was taking everything in her stride, as she always had done. Jimmy's fear only seemed to grow with each passing day.
The trio now had a small hatchback. It was a reliable little car, but its small engine meant that they had to stop more frequently to fill it up.
They had pulled into a gas station, a little too optimistically hoping for fuel.
The station was dry, but Alice wanted to use the bathroom, so they warily approached the open shop door, each armed with their weapon of choice; Alice had her father’s pistol, although she’d never been allowed to use it unless absolutely necessary, Jimmy a large knife, and Scarlett favoured a pair of M48 Hawk Axes that she’d found on a corpse a few weeks earlier, complete with a black leather belt and holsters. The axes were jet black from the handle all the way up, with an eight inch steel blade on one side of the head and a piercing spike on the other. They made a pretty effective tool, and not just for putting down cadavers. They were just over two pounds each, making them light enough that she could carry them on her hips all day and barely even notice they were there.
Scarlett entered first, one axe held in her right arm, ready to swing, while she held Alice by the hand, keeping her close, with Jimmy bringing up the rear.
The store had been ransacked; shelves were empty, there were unwanted items strewn across the floor, and it was dark. Very dark.
Scarlett approached the disabled toilet door and tried the handle.
“Shit. It’s locked,” she said.
“There’s gotta be a key somewhere, maybe behind the counter?” Jimmy hinted.
“I’ll go, shall I?” Scarlett said with a sigh.
She walked cautiously over to the kiosk, leaving Alice and Jimmy huddled in front of the bathroom door.
Holding her axe above her head, Scarlett leant over the counter and, once satisfied that it was safe, began to feel around for a key. She was successful and took it quickly back to the door, unlocking and warily opening it, revealing a perfectly safe, if a little dirty, bathroom. Once she was finished, she noticed Jimmy smiling at her.
“What?” she said.
“You know, you’re gonna have to be less particular about where you pee soon.” Jimmy answered with a chuckle.
“Hey, just because the world’s ending, doesn’t mean a girl can’t be dignified, right, Scarlett?”
“Don’t look at me. You’re talking about dignity to the wrong girl. Jimmy will vouch for that.” She replied.
“She’s right, sis. Scarlett doesn’t have a dignified bone in her body. She was more than happy to pee in the woods or on the street even before everything
changed.”
Alice grimaced at the thought, silently telling them she didn’t need to hear anymore.
Scarlett placed her weapon back on her belt and began searching the tiny store for anything that may have been useful to them. All she found was two unclaimed tins of beans, some canned tomatoes, and powdered milk. Even the small stock room had been broken into and emptied.
The last few weeks had been difficult - anything with a sell by date was now past it and inedible. In the time since Scarlett had left her mother's house, they hadn't travelled far. Sticking to the areas they all knew well meant that their food supply was dwindling. Scarlett was even sure that they'd already visited this garage.
“So, Chef Alice,” she said, handing the food over, “here are your ingredients. I trust you can turn this into something delicious?”
“Of course.” Alice smiled.
Scarlett tried to stay optimistic. They would share the beans, tomatoes and milk the way they shared everything. They'd find another house, she'd clear it of bodies and they'd sit on the floor in the lounge or kitchen around their camping stove, eating in silence, all flinching and grasping for weapons with every unexpected sound. They'd spend the night and move on when the sun came up. But Scarlett was sure that it was only a matter of time before others found them; people they could trust, who were capable of protecting them, people who could offer them somewhere to settle.
Satisfied that they could at least have a little to eat that night, they made for the door.
As Scarlett opened it, she spotted a group of four hooded men and two women. They were standing around the car. Scarlett quietly closed the door again and pushed Jimmy and Alice back a little. She crouched down to surreptitiously peer through the glass and watched as one of the men sat himself in the driver’s seat, feeling for the keys.
“No, no, no, no, no.” Scarlett whispered.
“What is it?” Jimmy asked.
Roamers (Book 1) Page 3