Roamers (Book 1)

by Viper, Velveteen

  “So what are the options?” Travis queried, his voice hushed.

  “We could go in alone; leave the others here and see it for ourselves first. Or, we take them with us. It’d slow us down, but if we find shelter it means we can make sure Hope’s safe before we look for supplies.”

  “What do you think?”

  Before Scarlett could answer, Henry made his way over, concerned.

  “What’s up?” Scarlett asked.

  “River’s leg is infected. It looks bad. I just checked Riley’s bag; we’re out of antibiotics.”

  Scarlett looked up at Travis and shrugged.

  “Looks like we’re all going.”

  The town was silent; the only noises they could hear were the crunching of the snow underfoot, the sound of Scarlett’s belt connecting with the handles of her axes as she walked and Number Six’s exhausted panting. They’d been so used to the eerie groaning and the raspy breaths of the Roamers, but even that had stopped since their time at the cottage. Travis spotted a row of houses and picked up his pace with his crossbow resting under his chin, finger poised on the trigger. As they turned the corner, he stopped abruptly, throwing an arm out to the side. They were faced with a recently unfamiliar sight…

  There were more than they’d ever seen together; easily more than a hundred. The group, exhausted, hungry and cold, stopped in their tracks. The Roamers hadn’t heard them. Scarlett stood protectively in front of Hope as she and Travis thought hard about their options.

  They couldn’t go back, not now. They’d come so far and found so little that going back would almost certainly mean dying.

  Scarlett quietly ushered the others back behind a tall brick wall and took Hope and Travis to one side.

  “There must be a way to get by them,” she insisted, “If we go back, we’ll die. Whether we starve or freeze to death, we’re all dead.”

  Travis considered for a moment and looked down at Hope. He slowly knelt in front of her.

  “You remember what we said about stayin’ quiet?” he whispered. Hope nodded, terrified as she clung to her battered doll. Travis glanced at it and sighed. He put a hand on her cheek. “You’ll be fine, as long as you stay quiet. Alright?”

  “Okay.” Hope responded. Her brow furrowed but her eyes were wide and her bottom lip quivered as though she was about to let out a sob.

  “We’re going to be right with you, sweetheart. I promise,” Scarlett assured her, her voice shaking with the cold, “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Scarlett turned to the others, took her pistol and quietly loaded it before attaching the suppressor and slipping it back into its holster. They followed her lead and Scarlett picked her daughter up and drew an axe. Travis slung his bow over a shoulder in favour of his hunting knife.

  He and Scarlett remained at the front, as they slowly crept closer to the Roamers. Scarlett gripped tightly as she held Hope in one arm, wielding the axe with the other as the closest Roamer turned clumsily around. As it moved, Travis looked it in the face and saw something new. The eyes weren’t white, no longer blind. They had turned black, and Travis instinctively grabbed Scarlett by her coat, pulling her away and dropping his weapon in the process as the Roamer bared its teeth, its mouth a gaping pit of rotten flesh.

  Hope screamed when the Biter reached for her, and Scarlett swung her weapon down on its head. She had to use the force of a kick to dislodge the blade as the creature fell, almost pulling her down with it as she refused to abandon her weapon.

  The other Roamers were now aware of their presence and turned to face them. Travis dropped his rucksack and retrieved his knife from the ground before snatching Hope so that Scarlett could use her pistol.

  “Run!” he shouted, “Drop everythin’ and fuckin’ run! They can see us!”

  No one hesitated. Riley took River’s hand and led her around the pack of undead as fast as he could, shaking his bag off as he went. The others followed as Scarlett ran in front of Travis and their daughter, clearing a path through.

  And then one by one, the creatures began dropping to the ground. Blood sprayed on the ground, staining the crisp white sheet in iridescent red like wine. Shots were being fired ahead of them and intuitively, the survivors ran towards them.

  It felt like minutes before they were clear of the Roamers’ reaching hands. Scarlett’s gaze darted around, searching for the source of the gunfire as they continued to run. She glanced behind her to see Hope clinging tightly to her father with tears streaming down her face, petrified.

  Travis spotted a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, pointing a sniper rifle in their direction. He was stood above a metal sliding gate with concrete walls on either side.

  “There,” Travis said, pointing, “It came from over there.”

  The survivors ran toward the gate as it opened just enough for them to get inside the safety of the walls.

  Without a word, the group were led into a vast warehouse while the gate was firmly closed behind them, and on the way, Travis noticed a built-in auto-repair shop with a few vehicles in various states of disrepair sitting sadly outside.

  Once inside, they were greeted by a southern woman in her late fifties. She smiled sympathetically at them upon noticing Hope crying in her father’s arms. The more Travis tried to persuade her that she was safe, the tighter she clung to him. Scarlett stood protectively in front them, waiting for an introduction.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman began, surprisingly cheerful, “Y’all must be wondering who we are. My name is Elizabeth Gibson. I used to work on the checkouts here. It sounded like you were having a terrible time out there. Please, have a seat.”

  Elizabeth motioned toward an area of ten or so plastic picnic tables and, as Riley, River, Jack, Henry, Chino and the children gladly accepted the offer, she instructed another man to bring some water for their new guests. Scarlett and Travis remained standing as Hope gradually loosened her grip on her father’s neck, allowing him to place her gently on the ground. She still stood by them, clinging on to Scarlett’s hand.

  “What is this place?” Scarlett asked, soothingly stroking her daughter’s hair.

  “This used to be a wholesaler. Sellin’ almost anything you could think of. All the people livin’ here used to work here; I say all, but there were only seven of us who stayed when the world went to hell. Most left to go to their families, or just to take their chances outside,” as she spoke, Elizabeth began absent-mindedly giving a tour of her home, letting Scarlett and Travis see exactly what she was talking about, “Bein’ that there’s so few of us, we managed to survive on what was in the store at the beginnin’, plus we now grow our own crops. All the fences outside are reinforced with some of the useless junk that people paid a fortune for back in the day.”

  “You’ve all survived here for five years?” Travis queried, astonished.

  “That’s right. We had no need to go anywhere else. None of our people have even stepped foot outside the fences for, oh, probably about two years now.”

  “So, are we the only people you’ve taken in?” Scarlett questioned.

  “Oh, no, but the people we do take in always seem to move on. We try not to get offended though.” She giggled. Scarlett and Travis looked at each other, both a little muddled. “Now, y’all look like you haven’t eaten for months!” Elizabeth continued, “Why don’t you sit down with your friends while I get someone to fix you somethin’ to eat?”

  Before they could say another word, Elizabeth scurried away. Scarlett and Travis led Hope back to their friends and joined them in a well-earned rest.

  Water had already been provided and Scarlett and Travis helped themselves as their friends had already done, also handing a bottle to Hope.

  “What do you make of all this, Fox?” Jack was the first to ask before he continued to gulp down his bottle of water, dribbling down his chin as he did so.

  “I don’t know,” Scarlett replied, “They seem nice enough. I think they’ve just had nothing but their own compa
ny for too long. They seem pleased to have visitors.”

  “Did you see those things out there?” Riley interrupted, leaning closer to Travis.

  “Yeah,” he responded quietly, “They saw us before they heard us.”

  “Exactly. They were blind before; all of them. One of the early symptoms is blindness, which happens before they even die. So why can they see us now? And they can sure move fast too.”

  “We’ve always had runners,” Scarlett stated, “but the last ones we saw were too decayed to do anything other than stumble.”

  “It’s like they’re evolving,” Jack observed. The rest of the group just stared at him, “Seriously, think about it. This all started five years ago, right? So why haven’t those things decomposed enough to just stop functioning?”

  “It don’t make sense,” Travis said.

  “Why the hell not? Viruses advance all the time. This ‘vaccine’ was developed to prevent and cure the common cold – eradicating one of the least harmful, yet most contagious ailments on the planet. How many different types of cold are there? New variations were developing all the time, making it more infectious, tougher. You guys must know that you never catch an identical strain more than once, but at the same time, we have a bad winter and you could be unlucky enough to have the sniffles every couple of weeks.”

  Scarlett, Travis, Riley, River, Mouse and Chino continued to gawp with furrowed brows, trying to work out exactly where Jack was going.

  “So?” River spouted.

  “So, when vaccines are developed, a little of what they are trying to protect against is added to the formula.”

  “So, the virus that resulted from the human trials has taken the ability to change and grow from the thing that they were defending against in the first place?” Scarlett said, the penny finally dropping, “Well that’s just great.”

  “How many adaptations could we be dealin’ with?” Travis asked, concerned. Jack raised his eyebrows, shrugging. “Henry?”

  “I don’t know. We could be lucky, it might just be what we’ve already seen… but there could be thousands of changes.” Henry answered.

  “Well… shit,” Chino piped up, “So, we’re pretty screwed, huh?”

  Before they could discuss the matter further, Elizabeth returned with a tray of plastic plates and cutlery, the same man trailing behind her carrying another tray, filled with a wide selection of tinned food.

  “I sure hope y’all are hungry,” she grinned, “Now, don’t be shy; there’s plenty to go around. Eat as much as you like. Once you're settled in I’ll show you somewhere you can clean yourselves up. The water’s cold, but the variety of soaps is so worth it!” with that, she and the man placed the trays on the table and scampered off without another word.

  No one hesitated. They were all so hungry that manners no longer played a part in their dining habits. Other than allowing the children to choose first, it became a free-for-all, like a horde of seagulls on the seafront when someone’s dropped a bag of chips.

  As they continued to eat, with all sorts of gratified moans, grumbles and groans and the constant sounds of hurried, open-mouthed chewing surrounding their table, a man in his late forties approached. He stood behind Scarlett and cleared his throat, causing them all to grudgingly break their attention away from their feast.

  “Sorry to bother you while you’re eating,” the man said, smiling, “But I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name’s Colin. I used to be manager of the store before the outbreak.”

  “So, do you still run the place?” Jack asked, still chomping on his tinned tuna.

  “Well, the people here still look to me to do things like keeping track of the supplies, but to be honest; this warehouse pretty much runs itself.”

  Riley made an effort to quickly finish his mouthful and make introductions, as no one else seemed prepared to separate from their food.

  “I’m Riley. I used to be a private in the military. This is Jack, former sergeant; the little guy next to him is Chino--”

  “Hey, less of the little, man,” Chino interjected.

  “--and his brother, Mouse. Our younger members next to him are Helena, Thomas, Hope and Felix; and this is Scarlett and Travis. They’ve been leading us for the last few months.”

  Scarlett and Travis turned around to greet their host and upon seeing Scarlett, Colin turned white.

  “Oh… I--it’s lovely to meet you all…” he stuttered, “If you’d just excuse me for a moment…”

  The group watched as Colin rushed towards the back of the warehouse, looking as though he would vomit.

  “I don’t mean to sound rude, but no wonder none of their visitors stuck around for long,” Mouse said, “They’re all a little weird.”

  “What’s his problem?” Scarlett wondered.

  Travis took a dirty handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his mouth, only spreading more dust over his face, before standing and following their host.

  In a far corner of the warehouse, makeshift walls had been erected to form private places to sleep. Travis peered through a gap to see Colin, stood with his back to the walls, whispering too quietly for Travis to work out what he was saying.

  He took the liberty of letting himself in, startling Colin as he shifted the impermanent screen.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Travis began, “You looked like you’d seen a ghost out there…”

  Colin took a deep breath, unable to look Travis in the eye.

  “Yes… sorry about that,” he mumbled, “It was just quite a shock, that’s all.”

  “What, the children?” Travis enquired.

  “The woman out there, Scarlett; how old is she?”

  Now he had Travis confused. He took a step closer in an attempt to better see Colin’s face.

  “She’s twenty-four. Why?”

  “And her surname, do you know it?”

  “What’s goin’ on?” Travis demanded, feeling uneasy that the questioning revolved around Scarlett.

  Slowly, Colin reached for his breast pocket and pulled out a small, tattered photograph. Handing it to Travis, he looked at the ground as he spoke.

  “My name is Colin McKenzie. I had a wife by the name of Grace. We married young; I was only eighteen. Two years later, we had a daughter… she was just four years old when I left. That’s the last picture I have of her. She looks so much like her mother.”

  Travis looked at the toddler in the photo and noticed a striking resemblance to his own daughter; dark hair, pale skin. He turned it over to see written on the back, barely legible anymore, Scarlett, age 2. His mouth fell open as he looked back at Colin, “Her name was Scarlett McKenzie, and she’d be twenty-four this year.”

  Travis had no idea how to respond. He gnawed on the inside of his mouth, eyes narrow as he surveyed the man stood before him. The more he looked, the more similarities he noticed.

  “So, say Scarlett’s your daughter; why’d you run off? Surely bein’ reunited at all is a miracle, let alone durin’ an apocalypse, right?”

  Colin said nothing. He just kept his gaze on the ground. Travis began to feel angry – he couldn’t even imagine being separated from his daughter, so why did this man seem so on edge?

  “What ain’t you tellin’ me?”

  “I didn’t just leave,” he explained, “I left because, quite simply, I didn’t want to be a dad anymore. I thought we were too young. Then, when I’d realised the mistake I’d made, Grace wouldn’t let me near Scarlett. She said I’d let her down again. I got angry. I hit her.” upon finally looking Travis in the face, he noticed the fury, “I swear to God, I’m not that person anymore. Losing my only child was a wakeup call. It changed me.”

  “But you never bothered to look for her?”

  “There would have been no point. Grace was too protective – understandably – and by the time I’d pulled myself together, it was too late for Scarlett to even remember who I was. Grace and Scarlett moved away and I didn’t know whe
re. After everything changed, I lost all the people I knew, except my colleagues. I guess I just assumed she was dead.”

  Travis took a moment, wishing he hadn’t followed Colin. He inhaled deeply and shrugged his shoulders.

  “You gotta tell her.” he insisted. He thought for a moment, unsure whether to give him the next piece of information or not. “You know you have a grandchild?”

  Colin looked ready to pass out.

  “The young girl out there?” he gulped.

  “Yeah. Her name’s Hope. She’s three years old.”

  “But, that means…”

  “That’s right, Grandpa. She was born after the world went to shit. She doesn’t know any different to all this. Scarlett’s been through some tough shit since I met her; you don’t even want to know… News like this, it might do her some good.” Travis turned to leave, looking back to provide his incentive, “Oh, and in case you were wondering, I’m Hope’s father. I ain’t never laid a finger on Scarlett and I’d never abandon my little girl, so I think I get to take the moral high ground straight away. But for the record, I won’t think twice about beatin’ a piece of shit like you if you do anythin’, anythin’ to hurt those girls. Later, Dad.”

  When Travis returned to the others, Elizabeth was handing out blankets, inviting them to sleep wherever was comfortable for them. Travis made a beeline for Scarlett and, removing the fleece throw from her hands, simply took her in his arms, kissing the top of her head.

  “You okay?” she asked him, confused by the sudden show of affection.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just nice to have a full stomach and the chance for a good night’s sleep.”

  The group all settled close to each other, having been used to sharing two tents between the eleven of them for days on end. Scarlett and Travis slept soundly, either side of their daughter.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  Two days after their arrival, Scarlett was making use of the washroom facilities, enjoying the sweet aromas of the assortment of shampoos and soaps on offer. She returned to her friends, seeing that they had been joined by their host group, including Colin, who sat himself next to Hope. He’d done surprisingly well at avoiding Scarlett and the others up to this point, but Riley had thought it a good idea to bring both groups together to share a drink. Travis sat across from a slightly tipsy Colin, trying to catch his eye as a warning.