She wished she had brought her pistol crossbow. This would have been the ideal situation to test her skills. I’ll keep that in mind for next time, she murmured bitterly. She dragged the next cabinet through, repeating the actions she had with the first. It turned a little in the air this time, and two beasts dropped while another row fell backwards. She watched as an arrow shot straight through the head of one of the creatures at the back of the diminishing crowd, and looked towards her sister at the van, as she fired another.
✽ ✽ ✽
Each time Robyn fired an arrow, she got ready to dive back into the van for safety, but despite being out in the open, the horde of creatures was now transfixed by the open window and the succulent young flesh that kept emerging from it to fire taunts at them. There were less than ten monsters clawing at the front door now. Another two were alive but looked broken beyond repair on the ground. Robyn took aim and released another arrow. She might not get to the Commonwealth Games with her archery prowess, but she felt herself growing more confident with each shot.
Wren released another cabinet through the window, crushing two more creatures before the solid piece of office furniture cartwheeled down the steps, finally coming to a crashing stop.
“That’s it. I’m out of cabinets,” Wren shouted across the car park, shrugging her shoulders at the same time.
“I can honestly say, that is the first time I’ve ever heard that phrase,” Robyn said to herself lining up another shot. She noticed paper beginning to slowly rain down on the crowd of beasts, and although this would cause them no harm, it seemed to rally them into a heightened state of agitation. Their hands ripped at the A4 documents as they fluttered through the air, shredding them with their claw like fingernails. It kept their attention, and that was the most important thing, as Robyn continued to pick the creatures off one by one.
Eventually the hellish gurgles and banging hands diminished to nothing, as the final beast was slain. Robyn looked up at Wren, and she looked back down at her sister. There was no smile, no look of relief, just a look of knowing. This was another fight they had won. How many more battles would they have to wage before the war was ended?
“It’s okay,” Robyn said, turning to look inside the van. “It’s all over.”
Jeb did not move at first, but then gradually emerged into the light. He stepped down from the back of the van and stood next to Robyn, surveying what the two girls had done.
“Oh my!” he said.
“Yeah.” Robyn reached into the van for the javelin, and the two of them walked towards the once beautiful building that was now decorated by gory splats of bright red blood. They carefully navigated their way around the filing cabinets and avoided the decaying flesh and faltering limbs that carpeted the entrance. Robyn handed Jeb her bow before taking the javelin and finishing off the shattered creatures that had been hit by the falling missiles. When she was sure they were as dead as they could be, she tried the door, finding it locked. Not wanting to touch any part of the door with her hand, afraid what gory cocktail it might land in, she kicked it three times.
A few seconds passed before it swung open, and the two sisters hugged each other tightly. Jeb looked around at the bodies. He had known some of these people. Some of these people had been more than passing acquaintances; now they were just decaying monsters.
He stepped through the door, with an expression of sickened horror still emblazoned on his face.
“I...I don’t know what to say,” he said, noticing the other dead body under the filing cabinet in the hallway.
“Yeah, you start getting used to it after a while. This is how things are now,” Wren said. “All the meds are upstairs,” she turned around and started climbing the stairs.
“I convinced myself that you wouldn’t survive without a guiding hand to get you started back at the farm. That’s the only reason I came here with you today. It’s the only reason I let you come here for me. But it’s the other way around, isn’t it,” Jeb said.
“What do you mean?” Wren asked.
“I mean, I froze today. I was useless. It’s you who did all of this. It’s you two who saved us. I don’t think there is anything the two of you couldn’t handle by yourself. If anything, I’ve just become another responsibility, another burden for you.”
Wren stopped on the steps and looked down at him. “We’ve had more experience out there and we’re getting pretty good at dealing with these things. We can run and we can fight, they seem to be our strong points. You’re going to teach us how to survive.”
Jeb put a hand on the bannister and looked back towards the open door and the bodies beyond. “Looks like you can survive pretty well to me.”
“I don’t mean surviving the next hour, or the next day…I mean surviving the next year, the next five years. If we don’t figure out how to feed ourselves, we’re not going to last, and that’s how you can help us. If we don’t learn how to build and how to fortify, we’re not going to last. If we don’t learn some of the old ways…. This isn’t charity, us coming here today. This is to our mutual benefit. We need each other.”
chapter 18
There was a full box of Warfarin, and a dozen cannisters of heart spray in the stockroom upstairs. The sisters rifled through the rest of the boxes and took supplies of painkillers, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics as well as various bandages, ointments and other supplies. Within fifteen minutes the three of them were back at the van and keen to start their journey home.
Nobody spoke for a while; they simply reflected on the horrors of the morning. As they got further away from Tolsta, they began to relax a little more.
“I used up a lot of arrows back there,” Robyn said. “Didn’t really fancy taking all of them home to clean.”
“Don’t blame you this time,” Wren said.
“You were quite something with that bow,” Jeb said. “Picked it up as a bairn, did you?”
“Picked it up a few days ago,” Robyn chuckled.
Jeb turned his head to look at her, then turned it back to their direction of travel. “That’s...impressive.”
The van carried along the narrow country road for a while before they took a turn. “Where are we going?” Wren asked.
“Heading to my place. Need the fittings for the gate.”
“You still want to do that today?” Wren asked.
The van entered the yard and Jeb brought it to a stop, pulling on the handbrake and swivelling in his seat towards the two girls. “You and I have got a deal, and this is part of it. The sooner we get that fence and gate in place, the sooner I feel like I’ve started repaying the debt.”
“There isn’t a debt,” Robyn replied. “This is what friends do, they help each other out.”
“Hmph,” he said turning to the front once again and sitting back in his seat. “Then the sooner we’ll all sleep better. Thomas and I have helped each other out a lot in the past. I helped him fix the bucket loader on his tractor when it stopped working. He helped me when I was building the extension to my house. I helped him fit the stove in the lochside cottage. He helped me with some of the arrangements when my Lydia passed away. But never did either of us put our lives on the line for the other. Maybe we would have; who’s to say? But in all the time we’d known each other, the situation never presented itself, and as I sit here now with you two girls, I can say with my hand on my heart that I don’t know, honestly, if push came to shove whether we would have.” Jeb opened the van door, took a packet of cigarettes from his top pocket, lit one, and took a long drag before exhaling two streams of blue smoke through his nose. “But you girls, today. You didn’t think twice. You’d faced these things before, and you knew what to do. That went beyond what I’ve ever expected in a friend, what I’d ever have asked. So believe me when I say that I owe you a debt.” Jeb climbed out of the van and disappeared into one of the outbuildings. He returned a few minutes later and put various tools and accessories in the back of the van before climbing behind the wheel once more
. “Right, a couple more stops, and then we can get your fortress built.”
“A couple?” Where else do we need to go?” Wren asked.
“You’ll see,” he said, starting the engine again and pulling the wheel around to head back out of the yard. The van was speeding down the road in no time. They went straight past the farm that was now Wren and Robyn’s home, then past the lochside cottage too.
The sisters shot each other puzzled looks as they continued on the country lane. Jeb slowed the vehicle down as they passed the almost covered sign for the archery range. He took the sharp right and the van meandered up the windy, narrow road until they came to the car park. They pulled up by the side of the burnt-out van. Jeb looked at it and turned to the girls.
“Before you ask, yes, we did have something to do with that,” Wren said.
“Figured as much. Well, I thought as you used up a fair few of your arrows today on my account, the least I could do is give you a hand to replenish your stock,” he said with a thin smile.
The three of them climbed out of the van and Wren walked into the building first, her javelin at the ready, just in case. She headed to the shop and emptied the top rack of the arrow twelve packs before doing the same with the other two racks. Robyn looked at three more bows and decided to take all of them, while Jeb became transfixed with two shelves at the rear of the shop that looked incredibly dull to the two girls.
“Do you think, while we’ve got the van, we could take one of the targets back?” Robyn asked.
“I don’t see anybody objecting,” he said, as he carried one of the books he had picked up across to the light of the entrance so he could read it.
“Okay, we’ll get this stuff in the van,” Wren said.
Jeb did not say anything for a moment, but then realised Wren was addressing him and looked up from the book. “Oh, yes...yes, you do that. I’ll be along directly.”
The two girls loaded the arrows and the bows into the van before going back out to the range. They walked up to one of the targets, took a front leg each in their left hands, grabbed hold of the back legs with their right, then lifted.
“Bloody hell, this is heavier than it looks,” Wren said.
“So much for chivalry. I thought he might give us a hand. What’s he doing in there?”
“God knows.”
The two of them struggled halfway across the field before putting the heavy target down and catching their breath. “He froze today, y’know. He was useless; just some sad, frightened old man. I didn’t think he was that type.”
“I know, but remember what we were like the first time we faced one.”
“We weren’t that bad,” Robyn replied.
“Erm, didn’t you stand screaming and crying?”
“Now you come to mention it, I suppose I did.”
“They’re a lot to take in when you first see them. I mean...they’re dead...and then they come back to life…they smell horrible….I mean, y’know. That’s not exactly normal?”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“But look. This is the deal. All the farming and building and self-sufficiency stuff, that will be like the easiest thing in the world to him. We’ll learn everything he’s got to teach us. The fighting stuff, well, we’re getting pretty good with that now, and you’re turning into a real badass with that bow,” Wren smiled.
“Badass? In my life I have never heard you use the term badass to describe anything.”
“Okay, I won’t use it again.”
“No, I think it sums me up pretty well,” Robyn said, laughing.
The two girls picked the target up again and continued their struggle to get it to the van. When they reached the car park, they saw that there was still no sign of Jeb. They put the heavy construction of wood and straw down and re-entered the club house. He had grabbed a handful of thick plastic bags with the Anderson’s Archery logo on the side, and he was loading all sorts from the back shelves into them.
“What are you doing?” Robyn asked.
“I’m so glad we came here,” he said, putting another full bag down and filling another.
“What are you doing, Jeb?” Wren asked, worried that the old man had actually gone insane.
“This place is a goldmine,” he said.
“Okay, you’re starting to freak me out, Jeb. What’s going on?”
He finished filling that bag and put it on the floor. “These shelves…they’ve got tools and materials to make our own arrows—as many as we want. You’ll never have to worry about running out. I can make you all the arrows you want in my workshop. Don’t you understand? I can actually be useful.” Jeb gulped, and out of nowhere began to cry. “I wouldn’t be just some pathetic codger.”
Wren and Robyn both went to him and reached out, but he flinched away. “Jeb, you’re already useful, don’t be silly.”
“No. I’m an old man who froze like a scared bairn today. I’m ashamed of myself. I let two young girls like you do all the fighting and I just stood back and watched,” he started to sob. “My Lydia would be ashamed of me. I need to pay you back. I need to pay my debt. This is how I can contribute,” he looked towards the girls and in the uneven light of the shop they could see the glistening streaks running down his cheeks.
“Jeb, just chill,” Robyn said. “It’s the first time you saw those things today. It gets easier.” She reached out to him again, and this time, he did not shy away. “C’mon, let’s get this stuff in the van and then we can get home.”
They loaded all the equipment and began their journey. There was an uncomfortable silence, so Jeb turned on the CD player.
“Sounds like Frank Sinatra. My gran used to love this,” Wren said, trying to make polite conversation.
A small smile cracked on Jeb’s face. He had wiped away the streaks of tears, but there was still the odd patch that glistened on his skin. “Frank’s good, but this isn’t Frank. This is a guy called Bobby Darin. One of the most remarkable entertainers who ever walked God’s earth.”
“Erm, I doubt that,” Robyn replied.
Jeb smiled again. “I see I’m going to have to work on you,” he said, turning down the music a little. “But what I love about him, more than anything, was his commitment to what he did. He loved singing, he loved performing; he put everything into it. Darin suffered from illness most of his life and in his final years, he had to have an oxygen tank by the side of the stage just to get through a set because he refused to let an audience down. He used to say, ‘Whatever happens, the show must go on.’”
Robyn had tuned out half way through what Jeb had been saying, but suddenly her ears pricked up. “What?”
“That was a kind of unwritten motto for him. No matter how ill he felt, no matter what heartache was going on in his life, and trust me, he had plenty, the show must go on.”
Robyn and Wren looked at each other, they knew they were thinking the same thing. Queen’s song, The Show Must Go On, had been their father’s favourite. During their escape from Edinburgh, Robyn had left the track playing to attract the attention of a group of creatures, so she and Wren could make a run for it. “That’s some coincidence,” Wren said.
“Eh?” Jeb asked.
“Erm, nothing,” Wren replied, reaching forward and turning the music up.
When they reached the lochside house, Jeb reversed the van into the drive. He looked at the bodies lying on the ground in front of the gate and then further back to the house itself. “God almighty.”
“I don’t think he’s got much to do with what’s going on at the moment, and if he has, he’s got some explaining to do,” Robyn said.
Wren opened the door and the two sisters climbed out. Jeb got out too and walked up to the gate. He opened it a little, careful not to trip over any of the bodies. “Right. If you girls want to lift it up off the hinges I’ll keep it straight at this end.”
The galvanised steel gate rose into the air, the metal creaking as it scraped it’s lodging, Jeb stepped back with his en
d, placing it with a thud onto the wooden floor in the back of the van. The two girls struggled with the weight, but once the first end was down, Jeb went across to relieve them. He angled the gate into the cargo hold, sliding it into position with ease, making Robyn and Wren feel feeble in comparison.
Without hesitation, Jeb climbed back into the van and started the engine once again. He rolled down the window and looked towards the two girls, “Come on then, we don’t have all day.” Away from the creatures, back in the country, things started to make more sense to him again, he started to feel less of a burden and more of an asset.
Robyn and Wren climbed in, and within two minutes, they were pulling into the farmyard. “Wow, am I glad to see this place!” Robyn said.
“Tell me about it,” Wren replied.
The day had already been a long one and the last thing Robyn and Wren wanted to do was think about the arduous tasks of building a fence and installing a gate, but Jeb had a renewed vitality for the task at hand now. While the two sisters wearily unloaded the van and found places for all the newly gathered weaponry and medical supplies, Jeb got to work with his tape measure and drill. The lack of enthusiasm from the girls seemed to spur him on as he strove to inspire them. And as he drilled and screwed the fittings into the thick cylindrical fence posts, he found himself whistling.
It took Robyn and Wren far more time than was necessary to pack everything away, and they looked towards each other, desperate to think of an excuse not to join Jeb in the yard as they walked out of the kitchen and into the afternoon air, but as they approached him, their jaws almost dropped in amazement. The fence was all but finished.
Five rows of barbed wire had been stretched between the tall posts and stapled securely into position. Jeb turned around as he heard the shuffling over the stone chips. He smiled broadly. “Just in time for the hard work,” he said. The hinges are on, we’ve just got to lift the gate into position.”
The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3] Page 36