From Despair to Where

by Oliver Smith

  Closing the gate and turning the key to lock the manual opening, Jack said, “Can you two just stay outside for half an hour. There’s a few things I need to take care of before you can come in.”

  “Do you need a hand?” Lucy enquired, she made a face as she knew something was wrong, she could see spots of blood on his face, but kept her concerns to herself to spare Chloe from worry.

  “It’s okay, you two relax a little, I won’t be long.”

  -

  Walking back into the house and closing the door behind him, Jack looked at the giant body at the foot of the staircase, he groaned at the thought of its weight and decided to take a short cut. Rather than drag it outside, he would leave it in one of the downstairs rooms along with the remains of the dog.

  Retrieving a sheet from one of the seven bedrooms upstairs, Jack set it down at the bottom of the staircase and wrapped the body in it. He dragged the heavy remains into a small snug, the nearest room. Taking another sheet, and some rubber gloves he found under the sink, he wrapped the body of the dog and left it with the human body. Finally, Jack cleaned the blood on the staircase and in the kitchen, and got a duvet and covered both bodies, disguising them as a lump under the covers just in case Chloe found them.

  Sweaty and generally knackered, Jack mustered up the energy to push a large cabinet in front of the door where he’d left the bodies, one final security measure to keep Chloe from seeing the mess of the world. He breathed hard and summoned what little energy he had left.

  Opening the front door, in mock grandeur, he announced to Chloe and Lucy, “Ladies, if you’d please like to make your way into the house, I have been expecting you and am delighted you could join me in my humble abode.”

  Chloe shrieked with joy and ran in the house, Lucy followed slowly, weary from the day and her traumatic experiences. She stopped by Jack and he put his arms around her, pulling her close to him and hugging her tightly. She hung there in his embrace breathing slowly, grateful for the warmth and empathy.

  “There’s a lot I’ve got to show you in here, we’ve hit the jackpot.” Jack said warmly as he lost himself in the embrace.

  Chapter 27 - Nostalgia

  That evening, rather than discuss the escapades of the day, Chloe, Lucy, and Jack ate mezze style, using jars of expensive pickles, olives, flavoured peppers, and cured meats. Jack made some garlic ciabatta on the hob bringing back to life some stale bread. Chloe enjoyed copious amounts of Coca-Cola and Lucy and Jack found a bottle of 1983 Chateau Musar in the huge wine cellar, which they drank with relish, knowing from the date of the bottle that it must have been expensive and far grander a tipple than they’d ever had the pleasure of quaffing.

  While the girls were still eating, Jack went to explore the house and came back to the kitchen a short while later to lead the two girls to a cupboard with a grin on his face. Inside was a series of hooks with an array of car keys. Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bentley logos gleamed at them as they looked on.

  “Wow, where are they?” Chloe exclaimed excitedly, she was quite the tomboy and loved cars and recognised the symbols of the prestige brands.

  “Come with me young lady and I’ll show you.” Jack said ruffling the little girl’s hair.

  He led them to the garage at the side of the house; a massive two-story structure with an office on top, it was almost as impressive as the house. Opening the door, the light shone through to six cars parked on an angle like a showroom, the waxed paintwork gleaming from the light that stole through the door opening.

  Chloe ran inside and pressed her face against the window of a Ferrari, the girl gleamed at Jack and said, “This is a Ferrari 488 GTB and it can go over 200 miles per hour and can get from 0-60 in less than three seconds.”

  “You’re quite the petrol head young lady, I’m sorry you’ve had to slum it in my Citroen.” Jack said, feeling the joy of the girl spread to him. He’d never really been materialistic and knew very little about cars, but seeing the girl’s enthusiasm and wonder made him happy.

  “Why don’t you have a sit in it.” Lucy said as she grabbed the key from Jack and tossed it to Chloe who caught it with one hand.

  “I think we’ll upgrade the Citroen and I think this beast will do just fine.” Jack said as he gestured theatrically to a sunburnt red Bentley Benteyga.

  Lucy walked over and inspected the car, but she didn’t say anything. The events of the day still weighed heavily on her conscience. Jack had been worried about her ever since they met up again after her ill-fated diversion. Finally, she spoke, “This is great Jack, it’ll do. It’ll do very nicely.”

  “I’ve checked it out, it’s got a full tank of fuel. Once we’re in the hills, it will be better. I promise.” Jack was desperately trying to lighten Lucy’s mood, he’d noticed that she’d drank the wine at dinner, not because it was a nice bottle, but out of necessity.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Lucy responded with little enthusiasm while inspecting the car.

  “Come with me, I’ve got something to show you upstairs too.” He said, leading her by the hand.

  “Chloe, I’ve left the keys to the rest of the cars on the stool over there, knock yourself out, have a play. Just don’t start any of them, we don’t want to attract any attention to ourselves with the noise.” He called to the little girl who was busy, sitting in the driver seat of the Ferrari, imagining racing the car at high speed.

  “Okay.” The girl called back absentmindedly.

  Leading Lucy up the steps of the garage to the first floor by the hand, Jack opened the door and marched them both over to an enormous metal cabinet, he fumbled for a key and found the one he was looking for. With a clank, he swung the two doors outwards to display its contents.

  “Christ almighty.” Lucy said as her jaw dropped open, her hand involuntarily moving to her mouth.

  In the cabinet, neatly hung with labels detailing each item, hung a series of guns, including shotguns, rifles and what looked like modified handguns with extended barrels. In the drawers under the guns, labels showed where ammunition for each weapon lived: shotgun cartridges, rifle bullets and a larger draw marked simply with .22.

  “Who lived here? A gangster?” Lucy enquired as she picked up a pump action shotgun and held it against her chest, posing like she was at an NRA rally, “Does it go with my outfit.”

  “Sexy, I was always one for watching women in bikinis fire machine guns.” Jack joked, bringing a laugh from Lucy and filling Jack with pleasure, seeing her smile again.

  What neither Lucy nor Jack knew was that all the guns were legally owned by the house owner. His name was Jordan and he’d made a fortune through cyber currency having sold an IT business and invested heavily in both Bitcoin and Ethereum. With his new-found wealth, Jordan had invested in lots of toys to fill his time, this included his fascination and love of guns. Jordan had joined a gun club and gone through countless measures to stockpile his arsenal, this included police interviews, home visits from the local authority, criminal record checks and thorough research as to what type of guns were legal in the UK. With his keen eye for detail, Jordan had learned that he could own semi-automatic firearms, if the bullet didn’t exceed .22 inches in diameter, and he could own pump action shotguns if they didn’t hold more than three cartridges. He’d also learnt that, although handguns had been illegal since 1997, someone could own long-barrelled pistols with a fixed counterweight rod, which essentially was a handgun, but looked like someone had modified it. All of this information and a lot of cash had meant that over a few years, Jordan had built an impressive and expensive collection of guns. The guns however, hadn’t helped him when he was attacked and bitten whilst trying to grapple his dog out of the hands of one of the dead, the irony being that he ended up eating his dog anyway.

  “I’m not sure about these, Jack. It seems…it just seems wrong. Dangerous.” Lucy said as she put the shotgun back on the shelf.

  “Hey…I’m not a gun lover, I hate the things. Week after week you’d see another sh
ooting in America and think how crazy it was that pro-gun lobbyists would argue that the reason these shootings were happening was because people didn’t have enough guns. They are terrible things, but look at us, the world is a terrible place.” Jack paused a moment fearing he was ranting, but he continued.

  “Look at what’s happened to us already, Bulldog, that gang of pricks, who knows who else is out there, not to mention the dead. If the guns help to act as a deterrent and let us escape quickly, then its good news for us all, Chloe and you especially.”

  “Okay, I’m just a little uneasy about this, but I understand and agree. We need to be careful to keep them out of reach of Chloe, I don’t want her shooting herself or one of us by mistake.” Lucy said still hesitating.

  “Alright, when Chloe’s asleep we’ll load up some of the guns and bullets into the boot of the car, she’ll never know that we have them. We can take a couple in the front with us…just in case.” Jack said trying to quash Lucy’s worries.

  -

  Jack and Lucy had some difficulty dragging Chloe away from the array of performance cars in the garage, darkness and tiredness finally won their battle and they settled the exhausted little girl in the master bedroom in a bed that would have fitted 20 clones of her. Lucy sat with Chloe for about five minutes until she fell asleep.

  Walking downstairs, Lucy joined Jack in the kitchen, and he poured her a drink. They were both tired, but neither felt like sleeping.

  “Fancy going into the garden? It’s a beautiful evening.” Jack asked.

  “Sounds wonderful.” Lucy wanted to be in the fresh air.

  They wandered outside and Jack saw a giant hammock on the decking, pointing at it, he said “Come on, lets swing ourselves to a drunkard stupor, I see you’ve got the bottle.”

  He handed Lucy his drink and ungraciously tried to mount the swinging hammock, bending his torso onto it, and then kicking his legs wildly, wriggling himself up and turning around, just avoiding tumbling over the other side.

  “There’s that sophisticated man you were describing earlier.” Lucy said with a chuckle.

  Lucy told Jack to move over, putting the drinks and bottle down on the floor, she sat on the edge of the hammock, waited for it to stop swinging and graciously pivoted her legs over and nestled in next to Jack.

  “I see you’ve done that before.” Jack said with a grin.

  “Once or twice.

  “Tell me, what happened in the house earlier for you to take so long? I saw the blood on your face.”

  “I met the owner. He was dead unfortunately, maybe luckily, he might have shot me if he was still alive. He was big! Maybe 6’8” and it was a struggle, but I got a bit of luck when he tripped on the stairs.” Jack decided to leave the part about the dog out of it, he didn’t see the point of making an unpleasant situation worse.

  “Good God, you must be careful. I need you, we need you.” Lucy turned and kissed him gently on the cheek and Jack tingled instantly forgetting the traumas of the day.

  “I could say the same of you. How are you after today? I know it’s taken its toll on you, I can see it in you.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about that family. I could have gone further, just led the dead down the main road and jumped over a wall or something further down the road.”

  “You were trying to get them off the main road so they wouldn’t stumble back on me and Chloe. I’d have done the same and I’m not just saying that to make you feel better. I really mean it.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t ease my conscience.

  “What are we doing in this world, it’s just the beginning, things will get worse.” Lucy was down and the conversation wasn’t helping, she decided to change the subject, “What was your favourite gig you’ve been to?” She looked sombre again and added, “I guess there won’t be any more gigs.”

  “Don’t write off humanity just yet.” Jack responded desperate to raise her spirits. “To answer your question though, it’s a tough one, can I have two?”

  “That’s not really answering the question, but as you’ve got a bruised face and you’re still my hero, then I guess I can grant you two favourite gigs.” Lucy said smiling again.

  “That’s very gracious of you. So, my first would be the Super Fury Animals at the Reading Festival in 1997. I was so young and idealistic, but very drunk. I was at the front of the crowd being stupid. It was a ridiculously hot day and the security were passing water out, but we kept stealing the water and throwing it over everyone. It was fun, but I think it was that feeling of being young and surrounded by likeminded people and the feeling of utter positivity and that my whole life was ahead of me and that my opportunities were endless.

  “My second was not the most cultural, but again a lot of fun. The Courteeners, you may not have heard of them not being a Manchester girl, but they are big round these parts. It was a Christmas gig and I think after the release of their first album. It was a big crowd for not that big a band, but the crowd knew every word, including me, and the noise of the crowd singing drowned out the band. I remember leaving and everyone was still singing in unison. It was a wonderful moment.” Jack was smiling at the thought; a tinge of sadness filled him knowing he’d never have that again, he pulled himself out of it a returned the question to Lucy.

  “I see you’re an indie kid then. Those are two obscure bands” She said smiling, “I’ve always had a soft spot for an indie boy, tell me you play the guitar.”

  “Err, I’d like to lie to you now to impress you, but, no, I’m not that musical. Anyway, stop evading the question, what’s your favourite gig?”

  “Okay, I was going to say the Spice Girls in 1997, but then I fear I’d lose my street cred.”

  “You are joking aren’t you?”

  “Don’t worry, that was a joke. My favourite gig was recently after I moved to Manchester and I managed to snag a free ticket through work to see the Pixies at the Apollo. They were so loud and so good, but at the end they let off so much dry ice it just crept out from the stage and filled the entire place while the band still thundered away. It was both surreal and breath-taking, literally too with all that dry ice.”

  Jack laughed and looked at Lucy and kept his gaze.

  “What will you miss from the old world? I’m not talking about the obvious.” Lucy asked, the obvious referring to friends and family that hadn’t made it, those topics were conversations they’d not broached with each other, apart from their losses before the outbreak of the walking dead.

  Jack pondered for a while and in a sombre tone said, “The people I didn’t know.”

  “What do you mean?” Lucy asked turning onto her side as they got a little deeper with their conversation.

  “I used to work from home quite a bit and often I’d sit in the living room near the window and watch as people went about their business. I’d see the same people walking past living their own personal routines. Families, couples, people on their own, young and old. I’d watch them and make assumptions about their lives and in my mind those assumptions were real. I’d feel as if I’d know them, their lives, where they were going.

  “For instance, there was this one guy who always looked a little rough around the edges and wore leather gloves no matter what the temperature, I used to refer to him, to myself I’ll add, as the murderer. Then there was Walkie McWalkerson, an elegant tall lady who used to go for brisk walks. There’d be couples I’d see in love and then one day they’d be on their own and would no longer be with their other half. I know it’s stupid, but those strangers used to keep me company when I’d locked myself away from the world.”

  Lucy put her arms around Jack and pulled him closer and squeezed him tightly, “It’s not stupid at all. You’re so sweet.”

  “Sweet! That’s just what a guy wants to hear from the girl he’s crazy about. You’ll be telling me I remind you of your friend’s little brother next.” Jack laughed.

  “Sweet and sexy I should have said, plus I always had a thing for the you
nger man.” Lucy said mockingly.

  “Toy boy, I could get used to that.”

  Lucy relaxed into Jack and he held her with her head resting on his shoulder, she looked up at him, “Do you think that if we get settled somewhere, we’ll stop being so close. Sorry, that sounded cold, I mean, we’ve known each other less than a week and here we are in a world that’s broken, flirting, sharing and very much together. I’m not saying it feels wrong or anything, but, I don’t know, do you know what I mean?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve thought the same, but I’m not worried about us and to be honest I’m not thinking of the future. Right now is what’s important. It’s the moment we are in that matters.

  “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again now, I feel like I’ve known you all my life. I think you’re an incredible person; I also want to rip your clothes off every time I see you.” Jack and Lucy were both smiling and enjoying the warmth of their bodies pressed together. “If, or should I say when, we make it to a place where we can relax and be safe, who knows what will happen, maybe we’ll both need time to grieve the world and our previous lives, but with everything that’s happened I know I’m ready to move on and start living, and right now all of me wants that to be with you.”

  “You make everything seem so simple. I see you doubting yourself at times, I’ve noticed it, but you shouldn’t; you see things with clarity and that makes me feel safe and I think that’s very sexy…not sweet.” Lucy laughed again and kissed Jack once more, she whispered to him, “Right now is what I need and right now, you are what I need. I’m taking your advice and living in the present and you are my now.”

  They spent a couple more hours talking and getting to know each other, they knew their characters and were interlinked because of their recent experiences, but they knew very little about one another. They talked about the old days, things they liked; jokingly arguing over the pros and cons of Sex In the City and the traits of Carrie Bradshaw and whether she was a feminist icon or self-infatuated egomaniac; they both enjoyed chatting inconsequential shit and not worrying.