“Why don’t you carry anything with you?” Boris asked as they walked through the park. He was of course referring to the fact that Emily had been completely unarmed. She didn’t exactly look like much of a fighter, he just couldn’t understand how she had been able to survive for so long without a weapon.
After Boris explained his reasoning to Emily, Emily simply shrugged. “I don’t really believe in fighting. I’m a good runner. I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve needed to fight. The infected are easy enough to outrun.” She explained.
This of course was true. The infected didn’t really seem to have speed on their side. They moved very slowly, they did not bare any muscular veracity, it was almost like watching a toddler taking their very first steps.
Emily explained to him, that she had managed to survive simply by running and hiding.
“But surely at some point you will have needed to defend yourself?” Boris asked intrigued.
Boris kept a crowbar in his rucksack, at all times. He had found many uses for it over the past few weeks, not just as a weapon, for example, he could easily pry into locked doors with it, or use it as a hammer.
Emily shook her head, “I’ve had a few close calls, especially when I was in the city. I’m not the type that people tend to notice, and I prefer it that way. I just run.”
“Well you may have been all right so far, but if you want my advice, go and get yourself something heavy, or maybe something sharp. Sooner or later you’ll run into too many of them, or maybe they’ll surround you. Either way, believe you me, there will come a time where running is not an option. You better get yourself prepared for that.” Boris warned.
“Maybe.” Emily sighed. She was highly reluctant to use a weapon of any kind, but practically and logically she knew that Boris had a point, and who was she to argue with logic?
There was a small part of her that didn’t want to hurt them. She knew that the infected were no longer people. She understood that it was the E-virus that was causing them to act as they did, however, she could not help but see them for the people they once were.
As to why the E-Virus was on this earth, well Emily felt as though this was some sort of great culling, or maybe even evolution.
She knew about the disastrous effects humanity had on this planet, after all humans were the most harmful animals on the planet, and as such, they were responsible for the majority of animal extinctions. Over 322 animal extinctions in fact. Emily thought remembering her earlier studies.
If one thing was clear, humans were definitely not top of the food chain anymore, the infected were. Emily found it all captivating. She wanted nothing more than to study this new species and to find out what they really were capable of.
Boris on the other hand hated the infected. He saw the bloodshed that had been caused. He saw the fear in people’s eyes as the infected tore pieces of flesh from their skin. He already knew what they were capable of and he didn’t need to know anymore.
“We’re here.” Emily said as the bus came into view. Boris had to hand it to her, he never would have thought twice about using the bus for shelter. He thought that he would be too exposed with the amount of windows surrounding either side of the bus, it was not somewhere he felt overly secure. However, Emily seemed to be able to pull it off quite well. Perhaps her method of run and hide wasn’t so bad after all.
Boris inspected the exterior of the bus, it had certainly seen better days. He felt apprehensive about using such a large vehicle as a mode of transportation, however the cars he had come across recently hadn’t been very helpful in the slightest. Most had been abandoned due to the fuel levels, those that weren’t completely out of fuel had been locked with no signs of any keys. Boris had no idea how to hot wire a car. He was beginning to wish that he had learned. Boris had been involved in a few dodgy dealings in his time, but he was not a criminal. He would never dream of stealing a car, nor did he ever have a need to.
He and Emily climbed inside the bus as he inspected the driver’s booth. He opened the door to the small cabin and got himself settled in. He pulled out his bottle of Whiskey and put it on the side next to him.
“I don’t think you need any more of that. You will probably be over the limit already.” Emily scorned.
“I don’t think those rules still apply.” Boris chuckled. “Where too Missy?” He asked as the engine garbled and spluttered to life.
Chapter 4
The gigantic bus veered towards the outskirts of the city. With no place to go, Boris figured it would be better to stick to the less populated areas. As the city faded into the distance, they came across a small shopping centre. A Sainsbury’s stood on the corner, along with a few cheap and tacky discount stores. A standalone Burger King restaurant and drive through sat in the middle of the car park.
The car park was deserted. A few abandoned cars littered the road, some with doors still wide open. Strangely, the shopping centre seemed mostly untouched. It seemed that the rate of infection had spread so quickly, that people simply didn’t have the chance to stock up, or as was probably a lot more likely in an area such as this, to loot and riot.
“This seems like a good enough place as any.” Boris called from the driver’s booth. He pulled over into the empty bus lane and cut the engine. “Are you ready?” He asked of Emily. Emily bobbed her head.
He released the doors as he stepped out of the booth. “Let’s start with Sainsbury’s. We can do a quick check to make sure it’s safe, then we can get ourselves stocked up.”
This was not a problem at all for Emily. She had never been much of a leader, so she was happy for Boris to take charge. After all she hadn’t exactly been doing great since this whole mess started, and there was only so long she could live in the shadows.
They walked side by side as they crossed the car park and towards the shop entrance.
The automatic doors were locked, shielding the store to the outside world. Of course it was, that came as no surprise. The doors themselves were covered in deep scratches, judging from the abandoned, mangled trollies nearby, somebody had tried to break in, and evidently, they had failed.
Boris cupped his hands around his eyes as he peered inside to take a closer look. The shop itself seemed to be secure. The lights were out so it proved difficult for Boris to see past the first few meters. However, in his eyes the store looked to be completely untouched. As the E-Virus began to spread, people were less inclined to go to work in the morning, and on this occasion, it was to Boris and Emily’s advantage. All they had to do now was to find a way into the store.
“Why don’t we go around the back? That’s probably where they take the deliveries.” Emily suggested.
As they snuck around to the back of the shop the sight which befell them seemed a lot different to what they had seen at the front of the store. Boxes and packaging had been strewn all over the concrete floor. A large Sainsbury’s lorry blocked the back entrance to the store. The smaller refrigerated delivery vans had been left wide open, and from the looks of it they had already been picked clean.
“This doesn’t look so good.” Boris grumbled. Emily ignored his negatively as she searched for a way in. “Over there” she pointed to the lorry. As Boris strained to see closer he saw what she was pointing towards. The ‘Goods In’ entrance had it shutters down, however it had not been closed properly.
Emily had spotted a small gap which must have been no more than thirty centimetres high. This certainly was not wide enough for Boris to get through, but it looked just enough for Emily to squeeze under.
“I think I can fit under there. Then I can open the doors from the inside.” Suggested Emily.
“Okay then, Ladies first.” Boris held his arms out, gesturing towards the small opening.
Emily lay flat on the floor and shimmied herself towards the opening. It was little harder than she anticipated, but eventually she was through. She pulled herself up from the cold concrete floor and looked around her.
“Ca
n you see the switch?” Boris called from outside. The room she now found herself in was pitch black and eerily quiet. All she could hear was the faint tap of water falling from the ceiling and landing against the cold floor.
Emily hesitated for a moment as she craned her neck to listen, she wanted to make damn sure she was alone in there. She was very aware that she was in a fairly confined room, with not a lot of options should she find herself in a situation which required her to run.
Her footsteps echoed all around her with every step she took. She followed the wall with her hand as she searched for the shutter switch. It didn’t take her long to find it. Although she expected nothing to happen, she was pleasantly surprised as the shutters roared to life, creaking as every steel flap ground against the brick wall.
“That’ll do.” Boris called once the shutters were half way up. He bent down and crawled through the opening. As more light, had now entered the room, they were soon able to locate the double doors leading through into the supermarket itself.
“Ready when you are, Missy.” Boris said with a hand on the door. In his other hand he was brandishing his trusted crowbar. Just in case he thought.
Emily nodded as she pushed through into the store. The putrid, rotting smell was first to hit them both. Boris covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve. Emily, who was used to spending her working days along a reeking canal which constantly smelled of sewage, seemed completely unfazed by it.
They had entered the fruit and vegetable aisle. Rotting fruit lined the walls. The berries had grown a white layer of fluff, whilst the once vibrant oranges took on more of a green powdered texture.
The bananas were jet black and covered in tiny maggots. A swarm of tiny flies filled the aisle. Both Boris and Emily had to swat them away as they made their way further into the supermarket.
They turned into the next aisle Boris’ nostrils filled with the stench of rotting meat. He turned away as he attempted to keep the contents of his stomach down.
Still unfazed by the new, yet equally unpleasant aroma Emily pushed on. Emily expected to see shelves upon shelves of mouldy chicken, beef, and lamb, but she gasped at the sight she was confronted with.
The corpse which stood in front of them was almost devoid of skin. It’s face was pitted by burrowing insects. Mangled and battered it hobbled towards them. Emily slowly walked back, her instincts to run beginning to kick in.
The fear coursed through her body as she watched it jerk its way towards her. She reached out and pulled at Boris’ arm. Its hollow, lifeless eyes followed every move they made.
Boris turned around as gasped. “You go and check the other aisles for any more of them, I’ll take care of this one.” Boris whispered to Emily as he brought his crowbar to bear. Boris was looking forward to this.
Emily continued to slowly back away as Boris stepped in front of her, shielding her from the undead monster. The undead corpse did not wane as blackened blood poured from its mouth. Boris shoved his crowbar straight into its left eye socket and drove the crowbar straight out the other side of its skull. As the infected fell to the floor, Boris used the creature’s chest for leverage and yanked the crowbar free from its skull.
Meanwhile Emily had escaped unscathed and she was currently creeping from Aisle to Aisle, sticking to the shadows as she evaluated the safety of the store. She felt a little shaken, the undead creature had taken her off guard. She had not seen one that decayed and inhuman looking before. Inhuman she thought. It was the only word she could come up with the describe what she had just seen.
Emily returned just as Boris was clearing the last of the E-Virus ridden congealed blood from his weapon. Emily grimaced “we’re alone.” She whispered softly.
“Great, I’ll go and get us a trolley.” He replied. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he went off to find a trolley for them to fill.
Meanwhile, Emily decided to start with the slightly less decaying aisles. She also wanted to stay as far away from the infected creature as possible, so she started with the confectionery aisle. She hadn’t eaten very much as of late and she could tell her blood sugar was low. This particular aisle seemed to be completely normal. Nothing was out of place, it looked how any normal supermarket should. A diverse range of chocolate and confectionery lined the walls around her. Her eye’s briefly scanned the shelves, she knew exactly what it was she was looking for. Guylian chocolate.
She found the praline seashells were completely irresistible. After all, the Belgians were the world’s best chocolatiers. She pulled open the cellophane wrapper surrounding the white box as she greedily pushed handfuls of the chocolate goodness into her mouth. She leaned against the shelves as she savoured the sweet, nutty and smooth taste of each seashell.
“Am I interrupting something?” Boris asked as he creeped over. He raised his eyebrows, shocked by Emily’s gluttony. For a little girl, she sure can put it away. Boris thought to himself.
Emily snickered self-consciously as she placed the remainder of the box back on the shelf. She grabbed chocolate bars, a large variety of Fox’s biscuits and Cadbury’s chocolate fingers and threw them into the trolley. It wasn’t the most balanced of diets but it was good enough for her. Meanwhile Boris, taking a more sensible approach went towards the breakfast bars, high in calories and full of oats and seeds.
As they moved from aisle to aisle, Emily thought that it might be easier to have her own trolley, she was feeling a little overly self-conscious. She felt that Boris was raising a few eyebrows at a few of her food choices.
Besides, it wasn’t as if they were paying for this stuff, and who knows how long it would be before they found a safe place to collect food again?
Boris swerved down the canned food aisle and busily threw can after can into his trolley. Emily didn’t seem so keen. She knew they would have to carry all this food out to the bus and cans weren’t exactly the lightest things in the world.
Instead she went down towards the household items and toiletries. She stocked up on toothbrushes and toothpaste. She hadn’t cleaned her teeth in weeks, let alone washed, for this she cleared the store of all the baby wipes and hand sanitiser.
Soon enough both trollies were full to the brim. In the meantime, Boris had figured out how to unlock the automatic doors to the shop so they began to make their way back to the bus.
As the wheels of the trolley hit the rough tarmac of the car park, the wheels began to make an almighty racket as Boris and Emily pushed them along. After a few steps, Emily had had enough.
“Shall we carry the rest of this to the bus? We are just going to attract more of them our way.”
Boris agreed. They pulled out the heavy-duty shopping bags they had filled with food, bags that Emily had commandeered from the store and they walked quietly towards the bus.
By the time that they had finished going back and forth, they had filled the first three rows of the bus with supplies.
“That should keep us going for a while.” Boris inspected.
They stood proudly together examining their haul as a buzzing sound erupted from Emily’s pocket. It was a text message. Emily had completely forgot she had kept her mobile phone with her.
Chapter 5
The message read:
Woodford Aerodrome, Chester Rd, Poynton, Woodford. SK7 1AG. Safe here - Uncle A.
“Who is that from?” Boris asked peering over her shoulder.
“It’s from my uncle Archie.” Emily replied. “It’s just an address. I assume he wants me to go there.” She explained. She decided it would be wise to briefly fill Boris in as to her uncle’s line of work within the pharmaceutical industry.
She left out the part about his key involvement within the study of the E-Virus. After all, even she didn’t know very much, but what she did know was that he was leading a team studying the effects of the E-Virus and although her Uncle had mentioned the possibility of a cure, it was still at it’s very early stages. Scientifically, she knew it would be years before they would dis
cover a breakthrough, if at all. She didn’t want to get Boris’ hopes up unnecessarily.
“So, what do you think? Do you want to go?” Boris asked.
A small smile crossed Emily’s lips. “You wouldn’t mind? I don’t know how far away it is from here.”
Boris shrugged. “Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do.”
Emily beamed “Okay, I would really like that. I guess we’re going to Woodford.”
“Uh, I don’t suppose you know where that is?” Emily asked.
“As a matter of fact I do. It’s South of here, the posh part. We should be fine, but we’ll have to go through the city. The ring road is completely blocked, there’s no way we will make it. I’ll try my best to get us both there, Missy.” Boris assured her. Emily smiled back.
“We better get going then.” Boris finished. He grunted as he reached down to pick up his backpack and closed himself in the driver’s cab.
Emily distinctively heard the clang of bottles rubbing against each other as he lifted his backpack. She was beginning to trust Boris, and she felt safe around him. However, his drinking was becoming a major cause of concern for her.
She didn’t feel the need to mention it to him, nor did she want to at this point. After all, he had agreed to take her to her uncle, and he had shown her great kindness. He seemed sensible enough. At least for now, she would give him the benefit of the doubt.
They drove on for a few hours. In this time, they covered no more than a mile and a half. Abandoned cars blocked their path. In his frustration, Boris began to use the gigantic double decker as a battering ram. Emily grabbed onto the support poles and held on for dear life as Boris bashed through the cars.
Bags of the supplies split and toppled over. Emily struggled to find her footing as cans rolled around the orange floor.
“Sorry about that, Missy!” He yelled over the commotion. “It’s clearing up now.”
Emily sighed as she was finally able to take a seat. Why buses came unequipped with seatbelts was beyond her.
E-Virus: Emily's Journey Page 2