Deadweight | Book 2 | The Last Bite

by Forster, Paul

  “Don’t be so ungrateful! I saw Gina this morning, she had a smile nearly as big as yours,” Babs scolded. She stared hard at Peter, looking for the coy reaction that she found so funny.

  Peter could feel his face turning red. “I’m off to the cornfields, I’ll see you later.”

  “Okay, Pete!” Babs enjoyed his embarrassment. It was sweet.

  He made his way through the homes and shelters of the fellow survivors. Nothing was fancy, everything put function above form. Building supplies had been scavenged, and several survivors had the skills and the volunteers to help build the simple structures. Some had struck out alone and taken over existing buildings to call their homes. What they gained in comfort, they lost in security. Peter reached the edge of the cornfield and Michael was already there with Jake.

  “Peter, sleep in, did you? If you want to be a farmer, you need to get up before the sun does!” Michael pretended to be annoyed, but wasn’t, really.

  “Sorry,” Peter let out. He knew the scolding was fake, but still regretted his tardiness.

  Michael smiled. “You’re at our farm next week. We’ll make sure you’re up on time. You won’t have your lady friend there, so maybe you won’t stay up so late and be so tired.”

  Did everyone know about his love life? Peter mustered a forced smile.

  “Looks like there is wireworm feeding on your maize,” Jake brought it all back to business, he had plans that didn’t involve staring at corn.

  “Shit, how bad?” Peter had no idea what a wireworm was, but it didn’t sound good.

  “We can dig out the affected areas, hope the birds take care of what we can’t. The crop is far enough along you should be okay. By the time they fuck the roots, we should be able to harvest the corn,” Michael calmly replied.

  “Lets get started then,” Peter said, eager to get working.

  “I’ve got plans Mikey, with Kenneth,” Jake responded, already with one foot stepping away.

  “Of course you do. At least bag a few pigeons or even a squirrel. That big Welsh bastard is the only one not bored with Rabbit every day,” Michael went on. He too never thought he’d see the day he’d be so fussy when it came to fresh meat.

  Jake smiled and jogged off. He’d grown quite used to this community, Nutwood and the farm had become close allies. Trading food, supplies, and skills, both sites benefited from the relationship. He made his way to the small stretch of woodland where he knew Kenneth would stalk his prey. He glimpsed the air rifle as the shot was taken and a bunny evaded uninjured into its burrow. “Kenny, I like rabbit as much as anyone, but maybe we should get a few squirrels? Babs makes an amazing squirrel curry.”

  “Rabbit curry would be just as good,” Kenneth greeted Jake with a hug and a kiss.

  Liam was lying prone on the ground, squeezed the trigger of his air rifle, and sent a pellet whizzing past a pigeon as it escaped into the sky. “Bloody hell boys, can’t you keep it down? We’re supposed to be hunting!”

  “Sorry mate, how’s it looking?” Jake peered at the small haul besides the men.

  “Three rabbits, four pigeons, and a magpie. Can we eat magpies?” Liam proudly confirmed.

  “You can, I wouldn’t. I don’t think they taste good,” Jake claimed, his face confirmed his revulsion at the idea.

  “I know what goes in your mouth, so they must be bad,” Liam joked.

  Kenneth gave Liam a light kick with his foot, a smile beaming from his face. “Easy mush.”

  Liam stood up and handed the rifle to Jake. “You’re better with this than me.”

  “You heading off?” Jake, whilst eager to spend time with Kenneth, didn’t want to get between him and his friends.

  “Everyone’s favourite government of equals are stepping up Operation Reclaim. We’re expecting another batch of darts this morning to help some of those grey fiends find a worthwhile death. As soon as the chopper drops off the good stuff, we’re out of here to a place called Dorking,” Liam raised his voice accordingly as he walked away.

  “Sounds nice,” Kenneth lied.

  “I said Dorking, not dicking,” Liam laughed, only to be greeted by a middle finger salute from both men. “I’ll catch you boys later,” Liam shouted back as he headed back towards the farmhouse.

  With the governing council now firmly established on the Isle of Wight with the popular support of the people. The feeders on the island had been nearly completely eradicated, so now they had been stepping up efforts to take back the rest of the United Kingdom. Liam and his men had been provided with several tranquilliser guns and would be sent to spread the cure in the surrounding areas. Hundreds of similar missions were taking place around the country. It was slow work and not without danger, but it was successful. When returning to the areas where they had deployed the cure, there were no feeders remaining. Plenty of freshly fed on corpses and occasionally the odd cured monster having died of natural causes. It being the last creature in the area, there was nothing left to feed on it.

  Liam walked back to the farmhouse as the helicopter swooped in, a little too fast and a little low, the pilot enjoying himself. It touched down close to the shelters and homes of the survivors. A few faces who weren’t already outside peered to see what the disturbance was. Four soldiers were already making their way to the Lynx helicopter, kitted up with service rifles, hatchets, a few tranquilliser guns and their own cure kits. Now standard issue to all soldiers, and widely spread to known communities, a cure kit had three pre-loaded hypodermic needles. Even those who had needed to use the cure on themselves still carried the kit to treat others. Liam, assisted by three squaddies, had even used a hypodermic on one creature when they had run out of darts for the gun. They had pinned it to the ground, injected it, then ran like hell.

  “Liam, pull your thumb out of your arse, we’re off in two,” a soldier light-heartedly ordered his boss as he handed him his rifle and webbing set.

  “Alright, alright. He’ll wait, I just need to check out first,” he said and continued his way to the farmhouse, awkwardly putting on the webbing kit whilst holding the L85A3 rifle. Babs maintained her place on the bench, smiling at him. “The ride’s here for today’s work, let the boss know we’ll be back for teatime.”

  “Tell her yourself,” Babs replied. She enjoyed playing with the soldiers, Bo would have enjoyed it too.

  “Can you tell that crazy old bastard to not land so close to the bloody settlement? He’s woken Jacqueline,” Amy demanded as she emerged, angry and tired from the house holding a four-month-old crying baby girl, trying to calm her tears.

  “Sorry, it’s Seb. I’ll tell him. Again. We’ll be back before dark,” he answered. Liam jogged towards the helicopter to catch up with his team.

  “Stay safe,” Amy shouted to her second in command.

  Amy sat next to Babs. Baby Jacqueline had already calmed as she was rocked in her mother’s arms.

  “How is little Jackie?” Babs cooed. She couldn’t help but smile at the little girl’s peaceful face.

  “Up half the night as usual, sorry if she kept you up too,” Amy said and yawned, illustrating her rough night.

  “Don’t be silly, once I’m asleep I’m dead to the world,” Babs reassured Amy.

  “Tell me it gets easier, please,” begged Amy. The single mother hadn’t expected this life, hadn’t planned for it, and didn’t have the luxury of experience or the internet to guide her.

  “It does. You’ll look back one day and wonder how she was so small. You’ll crave the days when you were her world, and all she wanted was a cuddle and to be close to you,” Babs told her as she enjoyed the memory of motherhood.

  “I know. Sometimes I think it was easier smashing grey skulls in with a cricket bat than being a mum,” Amy confessed. She rested with Jacqueline, closing her eyes for a few seconds enjoying the quiet.

  “You’re doing an outstanding job. Jack would be so proud of you both,” Babs assured her. She couldn’t help but gently stroke the baby’s sleepy rosy cheeks. />
  “How are you doing?” Amy switched the focus away from her. Babs missed Bo. He had made a good recovery, until one morning without warning, he sat on his bench as usual and his chest grew tighter. His breath grew short and he let go. When he was found a short while later, he had already passed.

  “I still think of Bo. I do, but at least we got those extra few months, and he got to see that the world would carry on without him. He saw the cure, saw us, and knew we’d be okay. I’m grateful for that, I always will be. I think of my children and grandchildren nearly as much as Bo. They’re out there somewhere, I know they are. Somewhere like here, looking after each other.”

  Amy didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. They sat in silence, looking out at the living new world, pleased with what they saw. People working together, helping each other. Different races and religions, young and old, laughing and joking like close friends. Humanity had been decimated, those that survived had experienced hell on Earth, but here they were. Making a better future together.

  A small pill designed to make people feel like they could fit in, had destroyed the world. It was born out of a desire for instant results with minimal work. Desperation of the users and greed of its creators propagated it and slowly, quietly, it consumed the world. It had brought out the best and worst in people, but now the worst was over. The cure spread much more slowly than the infection had, but it did spread. Now every country in the world still capable of communicating had been given the cure. The formula shared and quickly replicated as grey flesh on every continent was gradually returned to pink, ready to be consumed and pass the cure on further.

  It would take time, but there was no rush. Not now that people had a future to look forward to, together.

  THE END

  About the Author

  I really hope you enjoyed “The Last Bite”. It was always my plan to look at a little more of the world with the second book, albeit only really as far as the Isle of Wight. For me, Deadweight is a British zombie apocalypse story and I really wanted to stick to that with the main story. The Deadweight universe will continue with a collection of short stories that I’ll be working on to form into a single book. There were many ideas I had for “The Last Bite”, that I either wrote but cut entirely, or just didn’t move beyond the planning stage. Here I’m looking to look to spread the grey fleshed menace further afield to other countries and continents, but still have a few more stories from blighty to tell. The first of which is “Thornhurst”, which revisits the fall of society, seen through the eyes of the villagers of Thornhurst. Subscribe to my newsletter, and you can get a working draft of “Thornhurst” to download for free.

  My next full length novel will be “The Time Travel Agency”, a touch of science fiction and a helping of cold war espionage. I’m really excited about moving away from zombies (as much as I love the undead) and hope you’ll join me on a trip to the 1980’s.

  Writing a novel whilst working a full-time job can be pretty demanding. I mainly write in the evenings, spending the rest of my time either at work or with my family. I’m blessed with two wonderful daughters and an amazing wife and I also have a great support network of friends and family who help keep me going. If you’d like to get in touch - to discuss my books or ask about my hatred of tinned sweetcorn look at the links below.

  As always, if you enjoyed The Last Bite, please leave a review. As an independent author, positive reviews and mentions on social media really help to spread the word to new readers.

  If you’re interested in finding out what I’m up to next, you can follow me on social media using the links below.

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