by Stevens, GJ
Instead, I trusted the ground didn’t fall away beyond the thick foliage of the hedge to the right so we wouldn’t slide and roll to a more terrifying end.
Despite the violent clawing at our thin metal skin, I edged us further into the undergrowth as the lamppost grew closer. By the time we’d reached the tall pole, we hadn’t rolled away and out of sight.
Back on the verge and past the post, we drove on like that for a little while longer, having to divert from the safety of the grass every so often, each time fearing a fall into the unknown. But still we hadn’t disappeared, and I tried to ignore the chaos of cars, the debris and the dark patchwork of dried blood sprayed to the paintwork. The white cars were the worst.
As we passed car after car, I tried not to imagine the time when panic came, sending everyone running, chased in fear for their lives or at the thought of missing their last hope.
I remembered back to the dark hospital corridor when we’d interrupted the creature dragging the bodies away and tried not to think of a pile of rotting flesh beyond where we could see.
We were making excellent progress; roundabouts came and went with the same scene to our left. Not able to judge how far we’d travelled, I eventually spotted the road clear ahead. Each of the vehicles stopped in a neat line up against one of the six concrete blocks across the entire width of the road, including on the verge.
I didn’t pause. As soon as I knew there was no chance of getting through, I pulled open the door, jumping down and squeezing into the bush to scrape down the side, followed by Shadow. The others were out too, Cassie helped by Alex.
I rushed around the side to catch her when her step faltered. With my arm around her waist, I guided Cassie back up straight as we shuffled sideways between the cars, crunching cubes of glass under our shoes.
I worried for Shadow’s feet as he snaked between the cars, but nothing seemed to hinder his pace.
As we approached the head of the roadblock in the distance, a sudden thought turned me around to see none of the others had thought to pick up any of the supplies.
“Shit,” I said. “Fuck.” Cassie stiffened under my arm. “No one’s brought any of the food.”
The others turned back, looking at each other before settling on Mandy at the back of our trail.
“Don’t look at me. I’m not your mother,” she said.
Stuffing down the anger, I thought about telling her to head back as we waited, then wondered if I would wait at all. Then at least she’d realise how grateful she should have been for coming along for the ride.
Cassie’s soft voice drew away my anger.
“Leave it,” she said. “It’s not her fault. None of us can think straight.”
She was right of course. None of this was like anything we were used to. Each of us were having so many first experiences, how could we react right every time? Our punishment would be hunger and thirst if we couldn’t find anything to replace it, but I took solace that it had been so long since we’d seen any undead.
Without further word, we walked along the open road. I tried to ignore the thought of being so exposed, whilst listening out into the silence broken only by our steps. I heard no hum of traffic, no scurry of animals in the hedgerow. No call from the birds.
We walked at a slow pace for what I guessed could have been an hour and with the sight of the sea and a roundabout, we’d found civilisation again, just without the people.
At a petrol station we came across a queue of cars lined up at the pumps, maybe ten at each. The numbers on the tall sign were dark, and I guessed the cars were out of fuel when the pumps ran dry or the electricity went out.
“Will you guys wait here?” I said, looking to their faces.
“Yes. Go,” Cassie said, and untucked herself from my hold.
Just before I turned away, I looked to Alex who nodded back.
Jogging to the petrol station, I glanced in through the glass door at the shop and turned away at the sight of blood splashed across the floor just inside, instead peering at each of the vehicles. Some still had the nozzles plugged in. Each had their doors wide. Who shuts up their door when they have to run for their lives?
Checking the first, the keys were still in, the orange light coming on as I turned the ignition, with the needle sitting under the lowest line.
I moved to the next, looking past the blood sprayed across the four by four’s white side and the pump strewn to the road with the scent of fuel. With no keys, I moved to the next.
Glancing back to the road, each of the five still stood staring in my direction. Mandy watched with hope and I drew a smile as I saw Cassie standing with Alex near and her head raised, peering in my direction.
The next car, a Ford Focus, had keys. The tank was three quarters full and the engine started on the first attempt. I tried not to wonder why the owner hadn’t raced away when they had the opportunity.
***
I revelled at the speed, driving a hundred miles an hour down the empty roads potted only with the occasional car abandoned to the side. No one had the will to check them out; instead, we stared at the impact damage or the burning embers as we passed in the widest possible arcs.
With the town behind us, I slowed at junctions only to make sure we headed in the right direction. The road became a dual carriageway separated by a barrier and with our speed growing, so did the hope we were on the last leg of the journey and the next roadblock would be the last. On the other side would be a friendly army and their trucks to take us away; their guns and great numbers set to keep us safe.
I tried not to think what would happen if they recognised Jess, or if they had the same orders that had been given to Commander Lane and his crew.
The roadblocks continued to come and go and we skirted around the haphazard cars in lines and through walls smashed through with big trucks, bumping our way into fields to see vast lorries abandoned to the side with massive front-end damage.
Arriving in the town of Hayle and with the call of hunger, we stopped at a small trading estate and a bunch of shops; clothes and a coffeehouse. A pharmacy and supermarket. The carpark deserted, save for a battered old Ford Escort with its bonnet up.
I drove slowly into the expanse of tarmac and across the front of the shops with each of us peering in, stopping only when no one gave voice or warning of something seen.
Leaving the engine running and the door wide, Jess joined me, both of us looking to the horizon as we turned on the spot.
Shadow jumped out, peering around, but he waited by the car as if protecting the others when we walked away.
Jess opened the shop door, and I half expected a bell to sound. The place stank, but not of sewers and I hoped it to be the stench of food no longer so fresh.
A few people had been there before and they’d taken what they could carry and left, leaving a trail of tins and groceries. Grabbing wire baskets, I piled up cans, bags of crisps and bottles of water. Pulling open the boot, I was surprised to find someone’s belongings inside. The owner of the car.
Moving past the guilt, I dropped the suitcases to the road and filled it after five trips, along with the baskets, dropping the excess to Alex’s lap before jumping in the front seat.
Jess stayed outside of the car.
“Eat, close the door,” she said, as she continued to look across the horizon.
39
JESSICA
I couldn’t stand the smell of their food. Ever since I’d eaten human flesh, the thought of anything else in my mouth tightened a grip on my insides and that need for more was always there in the back of my mind. Only when Logan called for us to leave could I force myself into the car, leaning at the crack in the window like Shadow as the wind sprayed in.
The confinement did nothing for the stomach cramps, nor did Logan’s glances as if he knew what I felt. Still, better to be on the road eating up the miles. Two more hours, Logan had said, if there were no more roadblocks.
Or soldiers, I added in my head. Or Toni’s fa
iled experiments. Or the dead massing in our path.
Hope built as we sped, but each time he braked, I feared I would need to find my food, something to keep away the total loss of control, of feeling, or sympathy for the race I’d once belonged to. The feelings I hoped wouldn’t only ever be a memory.
I watched each time the road narrowed. We all did. At bridges. Junctions. Wide trees at the side of the road, or anything danger could hide behind. Relief bloomed as we passed, then dashed as the next appeared on the horizon.
We were making good progress, not dropping from over a hundred for a long while, but as I blinked, I felt us slow. Without having to ask, I saw the articulated lorry in the distance, the trailer jack-knifed and diagonal, blocking each of the four lanes. But that wasn’t all.
Bunched either side were cars strewn, stacked as if placed there by a crane in a breaker’s yard. Logan had to brake; the view looming too soon and with debris under the tyres, each head peered around the view.
“What now?” Cassie said, unable to hide the tiredness in her voice.
There had been a roadblock. The lorry hadn’t stopped. I couldn’t tell if it had been a deliberate act to break through the mess of cars, or an accident. The result of an attack, perhaps.
I looked for bodies as we drew closer. For blood marking the roads.
I saw none. No signs. Perhaps it happened when everyone but the truck driver had gone.
As we coasted to a stop, Mandy spoke, rushing her words. “What are you doing?”
“We have to walk,” Logan said, still letting the car slow.
“Are you mad? Go around,” she said, raising her voice.
I watched as he drew a deep breath, as if to hold back a verbal assault, then spoke.
“We won’t get up those banks. This thing’s two-wheel drive. It’s nowhere near as tough as the pickup.”
“Go back then,” she said. “Find another way.”
“No,” Logan replied as we stopped. “Listen. We don’t need this car anymore. Feel free to take it and find another way around. But if you’re coming with us, bring some food.” Without further pause, he stepped from the car, going around to the boot and hooking out a basket.
I pulled out of the car, taking a basket held out by Alex and kept an eye on Mandy still sitting in the back seat with her arms crossed. Turning away, I scanned for threats, scouring the view as we stepped away from the car.
The truck wedged either side of the road, both ends buried in metal wreckage, crushed to the rising banks.
Shadow found a route. Disappearing at first through a gap under the trailer only he could fit, but reappearing further down at a place we could follow. And we did, crawling on our hands and knees, we helped Cassie between us before rising to the lengthy line of concertinaed cars on the other side. Mandy followed a few moments behind.
We had to climb the metal, although Shadow found his own way. As we helped Cassie forward, it felt like hours before we saw the end ahead, partly hidden by the brow of the hill.
Cresting, we saw a roundabout in the distance. The warning signs must have been long flattened. At least by now the effect of the truck at the back had lessened and we could walk through the thin spaces between the cars, towards the concrete blocks.
I turned to the sky. It would get dark soon. We had to find a car and race through the miles before the hunger grew.
Movement ahead pulled me back to the moment. Logan followed my gaze as he saw me turn toward a Toyota dealership and the figure who’d disappeared below the roofline.
My stomach tightened. Saliva flowed; my eyes narrowing as the need came like a switch flicked and for the first time I couldn’t help but wonder why Logan and the rest hadn’t triggered the same reaction.
40
LOGAN
Jess saw him first, then Shadow; their silent stare to the horizon guiding me to the figure standing on the flat roof of the car dealership. Shadow’s silence didn’t last for long, but he quietened down as I leaned down to stroke along his nose.
The others turned as I did, seeing the last of the dark clothing lowering through the middle of the roof.
Standing on the exit of the dual carriageway, I couldn’t see much else of the building for the hedgerow. I turned to Jess and despite the faraway look in her eye, she glanced my way.
“What now?” I asked, but no one replied. “Shall we go say hello? Maybe they can spare a car?”
Jess and Alex shared a private look, a nod between them and seemed to make some unvoiced agreement.
“What?” I said, but they both just nodded in reply.
“Let’s go,” Alex said, and I turned to Mandy who’d caught up.
Out of courtesy, I asked. “What do you think?” I got nothing back other than her scorn radiating when she refused to look me in the eye. Still, she followed as we left the road.
Walking with a slow, considered pace, we kept the hedgerow between us and the building as it receded to reveal the tall glass walls of the dealership. A sign stood at the front rising to just below the roof with a round logo sat on top of bright red writing.
My eyes widened when beside the dealership’s car-crammed lot was a petrol station. With our pace increasing, I kept focused on the detail, careful to guide Cassie over the central barrier between the lanes.
Despite the distance remaining, I squinted through the large glass front, but couldn’t see any sign we should avoid the place.
The foliage ended as the hedgerow was replaced with a low brick wall.
“Everyone wait here,” I said, still peering to the glass as I settled Cassie to rest on the grass verge. “I’ll get a car,” I added, as I knelt to Cassie who looked up. I felt a sudden flash of guilt that I hadn’t yet told her what I knew of the danger the kids could be in.
Reasoning that now wasn’t the time or the place, I put my hand to her forehead. The second lot of painkillers were doing their job to keep her temperature down, but she was still so weak.
“I should go.” Jess’s voice took me by surprise and Alex too by her wide eyes as I peered up towards her. “You stay and look after Cassie,” she said, but I lingered on Alex’s face, wondering what the concern in her furrowed brow could mean.
“Alex. Can you?” I asked.
“I don’t need watching over,” Cassie added in a weak voice, not looking up from the grass.
Alex nodded and looked to Cassie.
“It’s fine,” Jess eventually said. “We can both go.”
I turned, scanning over the cars and pickups neatly lined up, but not pristine, each covered with a thin layer of dust, or perhaps ash. I glanced back to see Shadow had stayed behind to prowl up and down the wall.
Jess sped, hopping over the wall with ease.
“Slow down. We don’t want to scare them,” I said when her walk became a jog. She slowed without glancing back.
The front half of the showroom consisted mostly of glass, the back half formed of tall white walls surrounded by a slatted metal fence to create a compound. As we got closer, there were no lights on, but the wide inside space gleamed with sun shining through skylights to glance off the car’s paintwork.
Jess tried the glass front doors, but when they didn’t move, she headed around the side and out of sight as I leaned up against them, shielding each side of my face to get a better look. Old food containers, tins and packets littered around the desks at the back, but I couldn’t make out any movement and no sign of any disturbance.
To the sound of a door slapping closed where Jess had walked, I headed around the corner to an open door in the white metal siding with Jess out of sight.
Glancing around, nothing but the road ran this side of the building; beyond, fields headed off to the horizon lined with distant columns of smoke.
Mindful someone could lie in wait, I pushed past the fear and headed through the door, half expecting someone in a suit to call out, ‘Welcome to Parklands Toyota. Can I get you a coffee?’
No one stood on the other side. The
re was no sign of Jess and nothing but stale air greeted me.
Jogging forward, looking left and right, I called out, “Jess,” I said in a stage whisper, but only my echo replied until a muffled scream called out to my right and I ran.
Without thought, I grabbed the metal handle of the first door, pushing it wide, ready to pounce on whoever had taken Jess.
41
JESSICA
The door burst open at my back and I sensed Logan rushing through before he spoke. I stopped whatever I was about to do, biting at my bottom lip as I pulled back away from the three cowering in the corner.
“Shit,” Logan exclaimed, his words muffled despite the volume I’d expected. “What’s going on?”
He peered around, searching for threats in the office, not hiding his lowered brow when all he could see were the man, woman and kid.
“You’re bleeding,” he said as I flashed a look his way. I could already taste the copper, wiping my lip across the back of my hand.
“Are these it?” I asked, the first words coming to mind.
“Are what?” Logan hurried out.
“All the people here?” I added, shaking my head. He spoke, but I didn’t understand what he was saying. Something about the door.
He didn’t wait for an answer, instead turning to face the family. “Are you okay?” he said, holding his palms up. “We just need a car.”
“Or a place to stay the night?” I said, wiping at my mouth a second time.
Logan turned back my way, his gaze lingering as his brow furrowed.
“Let’s keep on the road,” he said slowly, his voice clearer as the pounding in my ears seemed to slow.
He was right. We had to keep towards Exeter and no one should leave me alone with these people. Or anyone. There was enough of me left to understand.