“Nate,” admonished Ruby, stepping forward. “We must look a right state – I know – we’ve been out walking in the wild for days. We’ve ran out of food and water and,” she looked to her feet. “We must stink. You know somewhere we can wash?” Meeting Cai’s eyes again; “We did help you with your little problem.”
“Lock the door behind you,” sighed Cai, turning and walking away. “But if you kill me, I’ll kill you.”
“Thank you!” said Ruby, pulling Nate inside.
Cai watched as they entered. Ruby applied the deadbolts while Nate seemed to stare absently at the rows and rows of books on the shelves; his eyes resting on a set of first edition The Lord of the Rings trilogy books, their yellowed, crumpled covers with their starkly circular emblems on the front resonating behind the locked-glass cabinets. “Much of a reader?” Cai asked him.
Nate grunted a response, then turned and looked at him. “Hmm? Sometimes. I mean, maybe.”
“Thousands of pounds worth of books in that cabinet alone.”
“Wow.”
“Ha,” laughed Cai. “Fuck would I know. Just presuming. I’m not from here. Follow me.” He lead them towards the back of the store and then up a narrow set of stairs; every floorboard in the old building creaked, and the carpets were mildly damp and musty from the months of having no central heating to keep the place warm.
“This wasn’t your shop?” asked Ruby, looking around at the titles.
“Nah. But I like it. Surrounded by all these books, makes you feel less alone. Lots of stories. Lots of people. Whole other worlds.”
“See, you’re just like my friend.”
“Oh I don’t read ‘em, love,” said Cai, stepping out onto the landing on the top floor. “I never liked reading. Bored me. I just like that they’re there.” In the corner of the landing stood three tall gas canisters. The one window faced the back and looked out over the slate-grey roofs of the neighbours.
Standing in the doorway of one room, Cai pointed inside and said; “Look. You guys look a fucking mess, no offense, and you stink. There’s water in there to wash in the bath, and I’ll find some clothes for you to put on. If you’re gonna stay a while I’d rather not have to open all the fucking windows.”
“Thank you,” said Ruby, looking around. “You got gas.”
“Got electric, too, but don’t tell anyone.” He stood aside as they went into the bathroom. “Don’t come out til you’re clean. I’ll get those clothes.”
Cai left them to it and went to one of the spare bedrooms. In large, plastic drawers that he presumed were once from IKEA, were clothes that he had found and arranged into girls’ and boys’, small to large. The drawers were laid out on the bed and formed a grid pattern. Boys on the left, girls on the right. He took what he guessed to be the right sizes; size 10 jeans for her, size 32 waist for him; medium and large T-shirts and a couple of zip-up hoodies. Underwear and socks from a drawer full of underwear. Outside the bathroom door again, with it open a crack, he threw the handful of clothes inside and said “Here you go. You should find towels inside.” He watched the movement of their shadows play on the tiles; listened to the splashing of water as they cleaned their bodies, and then turned and headed for the living room.
Not a book in sight. Shelves adorned with intricately painted pottery – Royal Worcester perhaps – within cabinets, were thick with dust, the cabinet doors long gone. The corner of the room was set up with a table and an array of cooking utensils, pots and pans. A gas camp-stove was attached to a gas canister that was lay on its side under the table. Also under the table was a stockpile of at least 100 tins – Cai hadn’t counted them in a while, and kept adding to them when he came across any. Next to the table stood a full-size refrigerator that he had dragged in from the kitchen next door; inside was stocked with bottled drinks, from water to wine, coke to orange squash. It grumbled. If Cai was to open it, its light would shine out.
Where the fireplace was – gas – stood an electric heater. Cai hadn’t figured out how to connect the mobile gas canisters to the fireplace, and so hadn’t taken a risk with it. Both the heater and the fridge were hooked up to a multi-plug adaptor, which in turn trailed out the door and onto the landing, and then into the main bedroom. Cai slept on the sofa in the living room at night, listening to the comforting drone of the generator as it purred, staring at the glowing white-yellow heater.
When the supply of petrol was ample, he sometimes ran the flat-screen television and watched DVDs, or played on the Playstation 3; Rayman or one of the LEGO games – too many of the other games were far too realistic.
Black-out curtains were drawn tightly across the window at night, gaffer-taped to the walls so that not even a sliver of blue light, or yellow candlelight, could escape out and reveal his presence.
He took a saucepan and placed it on the stove, lighting it. He rummaged beneath the table until he found two tins of tomato soup – everyone likes tomato soup – and poured the contents into the pan. It soon began to bubble beneath controlled flames.
From the refrigerator he took two large bottles of water and placed them on the dining table – with two chairs facing opposite each other. He sat and listened to the quiet hiss of the gas flames and the thudding of feet in the bathroom. After a while he checked on the soup and then poured it into bowls. When Nate and Ruby were done, two steaming bowls of soup were waiting for them.
They entered together; Cai noted that they were clean, but somehow still rough. Something about their skin – perhaps it was being out in the cold for so long – and though Ruby’s hair was wet and slicked down into what may be considered an elfin-style, it still looked like it would puff out again once dry. Before all this, it was evident they had been gym-goers; they could have been wrestlers, or at the very least boxers. Nate’s shoulders in particular were broad – wouldn’t like to mess with him!
“Feel better?” asked Cai.
“Yes, thank you,” said Ruby, stopping short.
From behind her; “Quite the set-up in here.”
“Sit, have some soup. There’s water too.”
They sat down at the table and bent over the soup, breathing it in. Cai watched them, fascinated. “Tomato. God knows you must’ve got tired of tinned soup, but that’s the age we live in now.”
Ruby picked up a spoon and started to eat. Nate picked up the bowl and drank from it.
Laughing, Cai turned on a stereo system. “Must’ve been hungry.”
Ruby looked up at the humming speakers; focused in on the red dot of the power light. She looked at Nate. “Listen.” He stopped.
After a hiss and crackle, the introduction to Motorhead’s Ace of Spades began. “Fuck me,” said Ruby.
“If you don’t like my taste in music, you can fuck off,” smiled Cai.
“Just to hear music again, is…”
Nate turned to Cai; “Turn it up.”
“If I turn it up any more we’ll have the whole town knocking down our door.”
Nate grunted and returned to his soup.
“A television, a Playstation, a fridge. All this working?” asked Ruby.
“Yep.”
“Wow. There was I thinking the whole country was just useless. Nice to see someone was resourceful.”
“Yeah, well, may as well make it as comfortable as possible for myself.”
“And all the towels in the bathroom; you were expecting company?”
“Yes and no. I figured, best to be prepared in case there’s any poor fucker still alive and needs my help. You’re lucky I ain’t no hermit, else I’d a never let you guys in, the state you were in.”
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, thanks,” said Nate. He licked his bowl. “Boy did we need a wash.”
“Well, you’re welcome. There’s water there, but there’s plenty other stuff in the fridge, just take a look for yourself.” He sat down in a chair positioned by the window and looked out, the handgun in the hem of his trousers digging into the small of his back. “So wha
t’s your story?”
“Same as everyone’s,” said Ruby. “Everything going along as planned and then… the world has a different plan for you.”
“You don’t have to say if you don’t wanna; not exactly gonna be the most uplifting of stories! I was in London when it happened. Managed to get out; I rode a bike out as the roads were just crazy and it would’ve taken a tank to get out. I reckon anyone who didn’t get out – they died most probably. Ain’t seen anything to change my mind on that! Met up with a guy from the army just outside of London and holed up with him for a while – he taught me a thing or two about survival. I’d be dead ten times or more if it weren’t for him.”
Outside, it was beginning to get dark again, so Cai pulled the curtains and taped them to the wall, before lighting a series of candles.
“But, the good ones always die, as they say. My father say, he’s resourceful, owns a farm just outside of Aberystwyth, see. Last phone call I got, I tell him I’m coming to him, but he says not to. Says his infected or something. Bitten. Though he killed the fucking piece of horseshit with a shotgun in the face. So, I was on my way there, but that was the last I spoke to him, and the phones went completely dead not long after. And here I am.”
“I didn’t mean to make as though stories don’t matter,” said Ruby. “Sorry.”
“Ah don’t worry about it.”
“What you’ve set up here is more than we could ever manage, right Nate?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Well, Nate saved me, twice I think, and we were gonna hole up ourselves, but we said to ourselves, where did we want to do that? And we figured, the seaside.”
“Happy memories to be found,” said Cai.
“So we been on the road since.”
“Not much of it roads, by the looks of you.”
Ruby smiled; “Incidentally, the soup was nice. Such a difference having hot soup!”
“Well, we ain’t animals, gotta retain some civilisation.” Seeing Nate smile, Cai asked him “You save this here pretty-one from one of those zombies?”
“Yes and no. It’s complicated.”
“Ah, just figured. You’re a big guy. They probably run as soon as look at you.”
“Well, not back then,” he said. “I would’ve wished.”
“It’s okay, Nate. I don’t mind,” said Ruby. “He found me and saved me from a raping pig-fucker, and then again when I was attacked by one of those non-zombies. He pulled me through!” She smiled at Nate and took his hand.
“Ah, figured you were both from the same wrestling team or something.” Cai stood. “I can make coffee if you want? Or tea? Powdered milk I’m afraid.”
“Sure, coffees would be nice – amazing. Next you’ll be offering ice cream!” said Ruby.
Shaking his head, “Sorry, no ice cream.”
“One step too far.”
Boiling some water, Cai continued; “Back at the start of all this, I could handle ‘em… mostly. These days, I dunno what happened to ‘em, see… but they’re stronger. You probably noticed. Of course you did.”
“Yeah, the one that bit me was a slow fucker compared to the older ones. They just get stronger I presume.” Ruby sniffed as the lid of the coffee jar was unscrewed. “Umm… haven’t had a coffee since I don’t know when, smells amazing.”
Crumpling his brow, Cai commented that he hadn’t even mixed the coffee yet, before adding; “Hold on, you were bitten?”
She looked at Nate, who shrugged. “I was.”
Cai walked over to her, looking her in the eye. “Where?”
She tilted her head. “On my neck.”
“Fuck off, nothing there but a scar.”
“Nothing there but a scar… now,” she said.
“I was bitten too,” said Nate, showing his scar. “We both thought we were dead.”
“Goners,” said Ruby.
“Bit the dust. But here we are – spared.”
“No, no,” said Cai, the water in the pan beginning to boil. “Everyone I ever saw get so much as a scratch from one of those bastards turned into one of those bastards.”
“Everyone ‘cept us.”
“What makes you so special?”
“If it wasn’t us,” said Ruby. “I think it would’ve just been someone else. We’re just lucky, or unfortunate, however you want to look at it.” Standing, Ruby passed Cai, who at six-foot was shorter than her, and poured the boiling water into the waiting mugs. The spoon tinkered against the side as she stirred.
Cai sat down and Ruby offered him her mug. “I hate the stuff,” he said.
“Fair enough,” she said, giving Nate his and sitting back down.
Cai, his chest tight, stared down at his legs, the glow of the candles flickering in his eyes; an occasional shadow flickered on his cheek from his nose, and sometimes from the shake of his head.
Goodbye, son. I love you.
His father had never said ‘I love you’ before… ever. His father had stood in the freezing cold on the hills with his staff in hand, his pipe in his mouth or otherwise hanging from the rim of his chest-pocket, the dog-whistle instead between his lips. His father’s hands had sheared wool from the sheep with manual cutters, spending hours bent over but never moaning, before upgrading to electric sheers and commenting that it wasn’t as satisfying. His father had looked at him with barely hidden disappointment as he told him he was heading to London, just to get a taste of it, see if it was for him. And that had been six years ago. His mother had said “Love you, son, do us proud,” as his father only looked on.
Goodbye, son. I love you.
“Bleeding hell,” he said. “You tell me now, tell me straight. Are you two lying?”
*****
Cai slept that night on the sofa surrounded by the detritus of empty tins and packets of chocolate bars; even two finished bottles of wine. They glowed on the carpet that he had still vacuumed once a week. Wineglasses sat on the fireplace mantle.
A Scrabble board lay in front of the electric heater and a score-pad; he had won easily with some four- and five-letter word combos while his guests struggled. Rotten luck with the draw, he had guessed.
Afterwards, they had played card games and the winning was more evenly distributed, whether at rummy or poker.
They had been hungry. They had eaten him out of house and home, his mother would’ve said before the cancer. She got out just in time. But that’s okay, he thought, looking at the wrappers, better to fill up while we can.
He went over and over in his head what they would need to take with them. They had no bags with them. Strange, he thought, though there was more than just one strange thing about them. Tomorrow, they would pack a bag each – at least. They would need as much food and water as they could carry, and he would fill the camping stove with gas so at least for the four or five days they were on the road they could eat a hot meal. Some matches in case that ran out. Sleeping bag. He had his handgun still, unloaded, now beneath the cushion of the sofa. Extra clothing. What else?
He thought of all the cars in the area he had siphoned petrol from. Even the ones with keys had died of flat batteries, with thanks to the central locking system slowly leeching them dry. No doubt they could try and find one and recharge it, but that would mean finding the right terminals, using the generator, hauling it around, hoping things like the alternator hadn’t seized in the cold – it could take hours, or days. A gamble he didn’t want to take, particularly if his father wasn’t dead and could at any moment be deciding to leave.
He sighed… and closed his eyes… hope will be the end of me.
*****
“You wanna go?” asked Ruby.
“I need to make sure, one way or another, that he’s gone,” said Cai.
“What about all this?”
“It was just a stop-gap really, love. This ain’t home – never was.” He flicked a switch on the generator, cutting its purring. “God knows I can get all this again. And more. Man, to have my bed again. To lo
ok out over Clarach Bay. To feel like I belong somewhere again. Will you help?”
“You can tag along.”
“I don’t just want to tag along. I want protection. Name your price.”
“We’ll think on it.”
*****
“Look, if we go down this road,” pointed Cai on the road map, “we can meet up with the A470 and then that takes us all the way to Aberystwyth.”
“But we like the scenic route,” said Nate.
“No telling where that’s heading – it’s Wales don’t you know. You said cycle there – take us twice the time up these hills and I ain’t ever been the fittest, not like you two. No, we should take this route, and if there’s any trouble there’ll always be a cottage or something we can hole up in.”
“We didn’t ask for this road-trip, you know,” said Nate, before being hushed by Ruby.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Whatever gets us there.”
Cai smiled, folding away the map into his back pocket – thank god for the tourist information centre, the one time it was ever useful – and said “I appreciate it. Really I do. You guys know how to equip yourselves, and you said you were headed for the seaside anyway – well, you’ll love Aberystwyth!”
“All-year sun is it, Cai?” laughed Ruby.
“Not quite, but you can get a room overlooking the sea.”
They shucked their backpacks over their shoulders; the straps particularly tight over Nate’s to the point that he looked uncomfortable and kept grimacing. They went down the creaking staircase with Cai shouting ‘goodbye’ and through the shop area, past books that Ruby had scanned the night before by torchlight that Cai had provided. She has returned upstairs with empty hands claiming that nothing caught her fancy.
Outside, Cai put the door on the latch so that it could be opened from the outside and pinned a note to it which he had covered in Sellotape to protect it from the rain. ‘Supplies inside. Electric, gas, food, warmth.’ “You never know,” he said, with Ruby looking at him. “You guys came along.”
Two crows sat on a lamppost above them waiting to return to the corpses rotting on the pavement. Cai held his nose and squeaked “Least you two didn’t smell as bad as these.”
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