"So what do you want to do?"
"This will sound whack, but I'd like to take a holiday. I know that a trip to a sunny, deserted island is unrealistic. I'd just like to go to a place where I can just take it easy. You know those people on top of that shopping centre that you helped? That seems like a great place to hang out for a bit and I'm sure that they'll all be really interested in what you have been up to."
Dave nodded. "I'm cool with that. I'll probably rest as well. Sadly, I'm painfully aware that I'm missing a lot of skills. I might just look for a library and hunker down for a cram session."
"Just to be clear. I don't hate you or anything. I'm just a bit overwhelmed. I need some head time."
"I get it. I really do. We're friends, and that means I'm not your master. If you want to do something of your own then I'm cool with that. Try and be safe. That's all that I ask."
"Got it. Which raises the question of how should we meet up again latter. I doubt I can call you on phone."
"And if I do go on a study binge I don't know where that will be located. I'm not too sure where the nearest, biggish library is."
"Well, you know where I'll be."
"And I'll focus myself around our current camp on the supermarket. If I go anywhere I'll leave a note on your bed."
"I can work with that."
Subdued, the pair turned and finished walking over the bridge. In a few minutes they had reached the intersection and were standing in front of the supermarket that they had camped on.
"It's been a long day," said Dave. "Incredibly, there's still a few hours of daylight, but would you want to stay the night?"
Josh shook his head. "If I sleep on it I might convince myself to stay. But I need this time off. I'll just grab my bike and go."
"You'll not even going to take your sleeping bag and some food?"
"I know that it seems rude, but I don't mean it that way at all. I really just need to get moving and now. I think a part of me just needs the exercise to help my mind heal."
Dave nodded. "Be safe."
Josh shook hands with Dave. "And you too."
And with this goodbye Josh ran forward and entered the shopping centre where he collected his bicycle, before lugging it over the various improvised defences around the intersection. Josh didn't even look back as he started pedalling east along the road while Dave watched from a respectable distance.
* * *
A few days had passed since Josh had left, and Dave was still adjusting to being alone. In order to fight off a sense of loneliness, Dave had decided to go to the river and fill some jerry cans with water. He was standing on the bridge that crossed over the river and was relaxing while looking at the view. The trolley with the empty jerry cans had been left standing near the path that led down to the river.
Dave was taking a moment to rest up and take in the scenery. It was also a chance for him to have a look around. After the fall of the big camp that Dave had visited, there had been at first a large number of walkers about the area, but the numbers quickly dropped as the living avoided contact with the walkers. In a few days the walkers had nothing to hold their interest and had left the area. Or at least that's what Dave hoped.
He hadn't yet returned to the camp on the football oval and no one had visited from there, so Dave could only guess that he was seeing the same thinning out of the numbers of the dead as what was being seen over at the camp. And that is to say that they should be seeing nothing. However, their camp had been completely trashed by the walkers so Dave understood a lack of visitors on the grounds that the people at the camp were probably struggling with putting their lives together.
Although Dave was really curious to give them a visit, he was too worried that if he turned up that he would be too distracting. People who were working on putting their lives together would have to stop what they are doing in order to talk to him and, after what Dave saw, Dave was certain that the survival of the camp depended on people as being productive as they could be. To rebuild, one couldn't waste a moment of their most valuable resource time.
Dave's curiosity wasn't an emergency. He could wait for a better time when people had the leisure to stop and talk. Until then he had his own tasks to look into. Which right now was filling up some of his water storage.
Having rest enough, Dave turned towards where he had parked his trolley, only to notice a walker step out from some bushes to the right of the road. The walker promptly noticed Dave and started to shamble towards Dave. Dave was surprised by the walker as Dave had to have passed right by the walker without noticing it.
A walker just walks, so although surprised Dave wasn't fearful. He just had to walk south over the bridge and the walker would stop following him. Dave was suddenly curious. Why did the river act like a barrier stopping the walkers from crossing? Maybe he could watch the walker and try to notice what happened.
Keeping his eyes on the walker, Dave began backing up along the bridge. He felt no need to run and was comfortable at keeping a fixed distance with the walker. Meanwhile the walker only had eyes for Dave and shuffled straight for him. As Dave stepped off the bridge and onto the road approaches, he increased his focus.
What would happen? Would the noise of the river confuse the walker? Would there be some sign of fear on the walker? Would the walker lose interest in Dave and just retreat?
Dave became rather alarmed when the walker was clearly unaffected by the bridge. The walker had crossed over the line made by the river and was heading directly towards Dave.
Starting to panic slightly, Dave quickly looked around to make certain that this was the only walker around. The time for games was over, Dave decided that it was time to get out of there. Crossing back over the bridge was too risky. Even though the walker was slow Dave wanted to error on the side of caution.
Dave then had an idea. He remembered that the back of the church had a fence, so maybe he could lead the walker into the church's backyard and then lock the walker in by simply closing the gate. Walkers didn't seem too smart so Dave was sure that a mere fence would be enough to hold the walker within the church's backyard.
Moving quickly but pausing enough to keep the walker's interest, Dave made down the path leading to the church. When he got near to the church he ran ahead and checked out the fences. He opened a gate and stepped in. His plan was to lure the walker into the backyard and lead him to the far fence. Dave would jump the fence, quickly sprint around the small church, and if the walker was far enough from the gate, then Dave would close the gate and trap the walker within.
However, Dave noticed a rotting smell from the church. It was probably the priest. Dave was certain that they had closed up the church when they left the priest behind. Did they miss a window? He was certain that they didn't. The door to the back of the church was open, and from the open door came the smell and a walker.
Dave blinked in surprise. Now he had two walkers to deal with.
After backing up slightly, Dave found himself standing near where the priest had been making holy water in simple glass jars. For a completely irrational reason, Dave snatched up a jar and lobbed it towards the walker standing near the church door. His throw landed short and shattered at the walker's feet. A large paddle of water splashed on the walkers legs. The walker suddenly backed up into the church and fell over. It started to violently toss itself about on the ground as if it had been burnt with acid.
As this was happening the walker that had followed Dave from the bridge walked through the open gate. There was one bottle of water left and Dave picked it up off the table, before retreating from the walker. The walker followed Dave into the church's backyard. Once the walker was clear of the gate, Dave tossed the bottle of water towards one of the posts that made up the gate. The bottle hit the gate post with a thunk and failed to break. However, the bottle slid down the post and shattered. The gate post had been set in concrete and with the help of gravity the fall was enough to break the bottle.
The water splattered ou
t and formed a large patch of wetness that reached across the gateway. Oddly the walker turned to look at the water. Although the walkers weren't particularly emotionally expressive, Dave was certain that the walker stepped back from the puddle of water with horror.
While the walker was clearly distracted, Dave ran to the fence near the walker and leapt over it. Dave was certain that his curiosity was about to kill him but he couldn't stop himself. Dave walked over to the gate and stood just outside it. All the walker needed to do was take a few steps and it would have Dave in his hands. Instead the walker stared down at the puddle of water that seemed to be blocking the gateway. Dave was slightly amused by the walker's fixation on the puddle of water.
Unsure how long the effect would last, Dave reached to the gate and pulled it closed until he heard the clack of the lock holding the gate firmly closed. The walker was making no effort to move. The water had some effect that bewildered Dave. Hadn't the priest said something about putting this holy water into the river? How did this make any sense?
Dave turned and looked back towards the bridge that he had lured the walker from. The bridge was down stream from this church. If the priest was adding something to the water at this location then that would have flowed down to the bridge. Dave looked at the table where the priest had been making the holy water that the priest had in turn poured into the river.
The priest had been dead for a few days so he was clearly not following the ritual of pouring holy water into the river. Had it only taken a few days to clear out enough holy water from the river so that the dead could cross a river that they had previously been too terrified to cross? Dave had thought that the priest was mentally unhinged. And yet this observation and the priest's reaction to the text that made up the discs of light that appeared whenever one of the dead were injured made Dave wonder what the priest really knew.
The conclusion of Dave's rambling thoughts shocked Dave by its utter lack of scientific validity. The church had some power over the dead? How was the church connected to this plague of dead? What did they know? And worse, how did they know it? Dave tried to berate himself for falling for a corny conspiracy theory, but the fear-inducing idea remained.
Dave started walking away from the church in a daze. He didn't remember his journey back to his base, but he somehow did it safely. On the way he picked up a bottle of whiskey from the liquor section in the supermarket. He didn't remember much of the rest of that night, but as he sat on his camping bunk he drank down the entire contents of the bottle with little pause.
* * *
Dave was sitting on the roof of the supermarket writing up some observations into one of his notepads when he heard a metallic thump. He quietly got up and put the notepad on the chair where he had been sitting. Crouching down, he snuck to the half-wall nearest to where Dave thought the sound had come from. Carefully, Dave peeked over the half-wall and saw a figure climbing over one of the walls that made up the improvised defences around the road intersection.
Dave straightened up and spoke calmly. "Hello. We meet again."
The figure stopped moving and looked up at Dave. The figure made no attempt to reach for the rifle slung across their back. "Again?"
"Sorry. I find it hard to tell you people apart. You all dress the same."
The figure raised their arms slightly and began looking over what they were wearing.
"I've chatted to you DOA types before," said Dave. "I'm having a break. How about you come up here and join me? I can get some tea going."
The DOA figure looked around before Dave guessed what the confusion was. Dave walked to the side of the supermarket where the front doors were and pointed down. "You can get in through here. The doors aren't locked at the moment but could you make sure the door is firmly closed when you come up? Then you can walk to the storage room at the back where you'll find a ladder up here."
The DOA figure waved and clambered to the supermarket doors. Dave could hear the doors being used. He quickly checked that there was enough water in a kettle on the grill, before walking to the hatch that was above the storage access ladder. When he opened the hatch the DOA figure was looking up. The DOA figure quickly climbed up and onto the roof and Dave closed the hatch behind them.
"Take a seat," said Dave pointing to a canvas, foldable chair. "I'll grab a cup of tea for you. Sorry. There's no milk or sugar, so it's going to be a bit rough to drink."
"That's fine. I've been moving all day and anything would be nice."
Dave walked to the grill and picked up a simmering kettle. He filled up a clean cup with tea and refilled his own cup. He returned the kettle to the edge of the grill and picked up the cups of tea. He placed the cups on a fold out table and sat down on his own chair. The DOA person was looking at Dave's open notebook that Dave had left on the foldout table.
"I was just writing down some observations and thoughts," said Dave. "I had a really weird experience recently and I'm rather struggling to make sense of it."
"We're all struggling to make sense of it," came a voice from behind a mask that made up part of a full helmet. "I've heard of you. You're Dave, aren't you?"
Dave raised his eye brows in surprise. "People have heard of me?"
The DOA figure reached up and underneath their helmet where they fiddled with the chin buckles. With a sigh the DOA figure pulled off their helmet to reveal the face of a young woman. Free of the helmet she gave her tightly cut head of hair a quick shake. "I'm Jane."
Dave nodded at Jane while sipping at his tea. "I'm a little confused by what you said. Are you saying that I'm famous?"
Jane smiled slightly. There was a shadow behind her eyes. "Everything has broken down. There's nothing. Not a single service survived. The police were wiped out. There's no Army command. There's no hint of any politicians being useful, although one could ask if politicians are ever useful."
Dave gave a slight smile at the weak attempt at humour. "There's a camp just across the bridge over there," said Dave pointing south. "There's a few Army guys there, but no one of rank. The camp is a bit of a mess as no one seems to be in control. Although they came together and set a camp on a field, it seems that everyone wants to run the show. The Army guys just seem to want help but they have no idea who to help or how. It's a big pile of confusion."
"How many people are there?"
"I honestly don't know and if I did that number would have probably have been radically changed. They just camped out in the open and didn't make any defences. Then they got a visit from the walkers. A lot of walkers."
"'Walkers'?"
"That's what I call the dead that walk about in the day. When night comes the yellow patches on their skin fades away and they can move faster. I call the nighttime variants 'dashers'. Then there are other ones that come out at night and I gave them the name 'talkers'."
Jane didn't need and explanation of the term 'talkers'. "I've heard those 'talkers'. Creeped the hell out of me. Any idea what they are?"
"None. And I've even tried to talk directly to them."
Jane was clearly shocked. "What! You actually had a conversation with them? Whenever I hear them I just want to curl up into a ball and hide. Just the sound of their voice terrifies me to the core."
"I was like that at first, but I simply had to know."
"Know what?"
"Anything. But as I talked to them I just got more confused. I've been thinking about it and I'm now struck by how the talker sounded like he was a part of a religious cult."
"That makes no sense," said Jane frowning. "This is clearly biological."
"That's exactly my assumption. But I just keep coming across weird stuff. That's why I was writing in my journal just before. I'm alone at the moment so I have no other way of bouncing my thoughts around."
Jane looked about the rooftop before looking down at the chair in which she sat. "Your little campsite here is clearly set up for two people. Is it okay that I ask where the other one is?"
Dave blinked in confusion
for a moment at Jane's discomfort. "Oh. Don't worry. He's alive. Josh - that's his name - found some recent experiences to be a little overwhelming and wanted to take a holiday. I kind of want a holiday myself, and when we recharge then we'll meet up again and get back to work."
"It seems strange talking about a holiday in a time like this," said Jane with a sad look on her face.
"I suspect that Josh will find some people to sit about with and end up getting rolling drunk. I'm going to focus my time on studying and building up some new skills."
"New skills?"
"Everything that I've been seeing lately just doesn't make sense. I think that it's because I've made some basic assumptions that mightn't be right. In particular I want to actually see if this is an infection. That's my biggest assumption and one that I've never tested."
"Of course this is an infection," said Jane looking slightly alarmed. "What else could it be?"
"It could be chemical," suggested Dave playing a devil's advocate.
"But as the dead attacked other people the chemicals in their bodies would become more diluted. At some point the chemicals would be so diluted that they just won't have an effect. It has to be an infection. With a biological source like a virus, new virus material could be grown every time a host is taken over."
"My thoughts exactly."
"So why dismiss it?"
"Because we've never actually proven it. I'm no scientist and though I've been trying to be one I have to admit that my tests are pretty rough. But it shouldn't be too hard to confirm that this is an actual infection. Doing something simple like look at a blood sample from one of the dead under a microscope should quickly reveal if this is an infection. I have many problems that hinder that approach. I need lab equipment. I need to know how to use that equipment. And, most importantly, I need to know what I'm looking for. A trained biologist could probably do all this in a blink of an eye. However, I'm just a useless office worker. I wouldn't even know how to start."
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