by R J Murray
Of course, then Martin had suggested she start off slowly as it was her first day with them. She could do the dishes and help clean the kitchen while Clive got to wander out in the forest with a rifle and the others did… whatever it was they did. She wasn’t actually clear about that.
“So what exactly are everyone else doing while we scrub dishes?” she asked.
“Alan is trying to raise some sort of signal, connection or whatever,” Elise said. She paused in her scrubbing of the stove top and wiped a thin sheen of sweat from her forehead. “He worked with computers or something. I dunno, but he seems to know what he’s doing.”
“Martin is his… husband? Boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend.” She grinned and lowered her voice before leaning in close. “They’re both married back home and come out here on a boy’s holiday.”
“No wonder they aren’t in a hurry to get back to civilization.”
“Yeah. He’s a finance guy or something. Makes a lot of money and he’s an arsehole but Alan’s nice.”
“What about…”
“Mandy worked here. Her job was to make sure anything a guest wanted, they got.”
“Right.”
“Jacob’s retired. Just had a messy divorce and was out here blowing off steam.”
Terri realised just how chatty the young woman could be when she got going and hid her smile as Elise gossiped cheerfully about the people she’d been stuck with.
“Derrick is… I don’t actually know. He keeps to himself and doesn’t talk much. He’s kind’a creepy.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” she said dryly. “What about you?”
“Oh! Me.” Her voice lost a limit of its animation as she turned back to scrubbing the top of the stove. “I was here with my dad.”
Terri watched her for a long moment, her arms moving almost mechanically as she scrubbed, her mind elsewhere.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Yah, it’s fine. He’ll come back, I’m sure.”
“Oh! He’s not… I thought…”
“No,” Elise looked up and her eyes glistened. “He was out hunting. He’ll be back soon. I’m sure.”
Terri couldn’t feel anything but compassion for the young woman, barely more than a girl, and was fairly certain that she knew her dad wouldn’t be coming back. Whether she would admit that or not.
She finished the last of the dishes and set them aside on the rack provided. There was a machine that could have done it but since it was one of those large industrial types that used a fair amount of power, they had opted not to use it.
The lodge had a backup generator that had been used when the power went out. With the fuel they had in storage and being careful with it, Jacob was sure they could last the winter. Which did mean lights were fine and they needed to power the TV, laptop and radio, but that was it.
Food wasn’t bad. They’d done a complete inventory just a couple of days before and had a substantial amount. When the majority of the staff and guests had left, they’d done so without their luggage too so they had no shortage of clothing.
It wasn’t a bad setup at all and if she was going to be stuck somewhere for the winter, she reasoned that she could have done worse. As it was, they would be comfortable for a good long time and had weapons and ammo aplenty, should any problems arise.
She dried her hands on a small towel and draped it over the drying rack they’d set up before reaching for a spare set of rubber gloves.
“What’re you doing?” Elise asked as Terri joined her.
“Helping.”
“You don’t have to. Your job was dishes.”
“We’re in this together,” she said, nudging the younger woman playfully with her elbow. “Might as well get used to sharing tasks while we have a choice.”
“Thanks,” Elise said with another shy smile.
Together they made short work of the oven and were soon finished. The surface shone with a silvery sheen as they put away their cleaning items, laughing softly together as they shared stories.
“Hey,” a voice said and Terri turned to see a man enter the room.
Over six feet in height with a chiselled jaw and handsome features, he moved with a swagger as he headed over to the walk-in pantry. He had wide shoulders and a narrow waist with firm ass and a smile that said he knew she’d looked.
Elise stared hard at her shoes as he brushed past her, pulling a pan from a shelf and setting it on the hob. He opened a tin of soup and poured it into the pan, splashing the just cleaned surface with minestrone.
“Watch it!” Terri snapped. “We just cleaned that!”
“You can clean it again,” he said in a bored tone of voice.
She stared at him, wide-eyed as she thought of a response but Elise gripped her hand tight and shook her head when Terri looked her way.
Another man walked in, almost a carbon copy of the first. Same dirty blonde hair swept back to hang loosely around the neck, same arrogant look of disdain as his eyes lingered on Terri, sweeping up and down as a light smirk formed on his face.
“Who’s this?” he asked, eyes not moving from her breasts.
“Terri,” Elise said. “We found her in the town yesterday. With her boyfriend.”
“Well now,” he said, his eyes finally finding her face and not at all concerned by the dismissive look she was giving him. “Aren’t you a pretty thing.”
He stepped towards her, too close for her liking, his hand reaching up to brush her cheek. She jerked her head away and he smiled, a predatory gleam in his eyes.
“Clean up after yourselves,” Terri said, holding Elise’s hand tight and almost dragging her from the kitchen.
Her skin crawled as she brushed past him and she was pretty sure she could feel his eyes on her ass as she walked out of the room. She didn’t speak until well away from them and only then did she turn on Elise.
“What the hell was that?”
“Adam and Deke,” she said quietly, eyes downcast. “They’re American.”
“I figured,” Terri said, almost spitting the words. “I meant their behaviour. Who the hell does that?”
Elise shrugged and Terri stared at her aghast as realisation came.
“Have they… hurt you?” she asked and the girl shook her head from side to side dumbly.
She was visibly shaking and a burning anger stirred in the pit of Terri’s stomach at the thought of what might have happened.
“What did they do?” she demanded, trying to keep the anger from her voice and failing.
“It’s nothing,” Elise said. “Was my fault.”
“What was?”
“I shouldn’t have got that drunk. I was just upset about my dad.”
There were tears in her eyes as she looked at Terri and an almost palpable sense of fear and self-loathing. Terri pulled her into an embrace and held her as she shook in her arms. She didn’t need to hear more, didn’t need to know all the details. She just knew that she’d make sure the girl was protected and kept away from them.
“Now we can…” she began but cut off as a gunshot rang out. “What the hell?”
Chapter 12
Clive stumbled to a stop, breath coming in gasps after his headlong dash through the snow. His legs trembled and there was an ache in his side. He stared at the scene before him and a look of rage crossed his face.
“You fucking idiot!” he snapped at Martin.
The other man looked up from where he knelt, the body of a deer lying on the ground beside him, its blood staining the snow. He seemed inordinately pleased with himself and not at all fazed by the larger man’s anger.
“Jacob!” he called as the other man caught up. “Look at this beauty. Just walked right out of the forest and into my sights. Was perfect.”
“Why the hell are you hunting?” Jacob demanded as the smile slowly faded from Martin’s face.
“I wasn’t. I was doing as you asked and keeping watch. I saw this deer and couldn’t resist.”
“W
ell congrats you idiot,” Jacob snapped angrily. “You’ve just alerted every infected person in the area to our presence here. That includes those that were already headed this way.”
The man's mouth opened and closed as he looked from the deer to Jacob and back again. His shoulders slumped and he shook his head.
“Damn. I didn’t think.”
“Yeah, well you’re not thinking might well get us all killed. Get everyone inside and prepare for lockdown.”
“Lockdown?” Clive asked.
“Aye, there’s not much we can do about all the damn glass windows but they’re thick and double glazed against the cold. We can secure the doors and…” he turned to Martin. “For fuck-sake man, leave the bloody deer!”
“But…”
Jacob’s hands tightened on the hunting rifle he held and Martin’s eyes moved towards it. He gulped, adam's apple working as he swallowed back his protest and he nodded.
Anything further that he might have said was cut off by the loud howls and guttural moans coming from the forest. It was distant but coming closer and Martin’s face paled as he realised what was coming.
Clive stared at the hunting lodge. From floor to ceiling all around the ground floor were glass panels. Above that, a wide balcony ran around the building with sliding glass doors that gave access to the rooms.
The peaked roof was snow covered and a thin plume of smoke rose from the chimney. There were a dozen steps leading up to the ground floor terrace and all the tables and chairs were still placed where they had been when the staff abandoned the place.
A faint rumble of the generator was audible and he guessed it would get louder if he went around to the back of the building.
“Go in and douse the fire, son,” Jacob said to him as though reading his thoughts. “Make sure everything’s off. I’ll shut down the generator while you get everyone inside to lock down any windows and doors barring the rear. I’ll do that one when I come in.”
Clive nodded and set off without a word. Since the gunshot had echoed around the mountain, the guttural cries of the infected had increased and he suspected, so had their pace. The last thing he wanted was to die under a pile of naked people tearing at his flesh with their hands and teeth.
“What is it?” Terri asked as brushed past her into the building.
“Infected,” he said loud enough that all in the lounge could hear. “They’re coming. We have to get everything locked down.”
Elise paled while Mandy just stared at him, mouth forming an ‘O’ as she sat on her bar stool, half-filled glass held in her hand before her. Derrick scowled and lifted his bulk from the wide chair he’d taken root in and two men, barely out of their teens left their half-eaten food and hurried upstairs.
“Where’s Alan?” Martin asked as he came in behind them.
“In the back office,” Elise said in her quiet voice and he hurried off.
“Well…” Clive said to the others. “Get moving! Start locking windows and doors then head upstairs.”
“What’re you doing?” Terri asked and he paused, lowering his voice as he spoke so just she could hear.
“I’m going to douse the fire and then grab some food. I’ll bring it up to our room if you can find another rucksack from the guest's luggage.”
“You think we’ll need to leave?”
“I think we need to be prepared to.”
With that, he leant in and gave her an all too brief kiss on her lips before he hurried away. The fireplace was his first stop. It was wide and tall, made of grey river stone that fitted with the semi-rustic theme of the lodge.
He knew that there was probably a safe and efficient way of dousing it, and the lodge staff had likely known that. Unfortunately, he had little time or inclination to slowly scoop up the ash to douse the flames.
Fortunately, the lodge also had a safety mandate that required a fire extinguisher to be on hand in case of emergencies. He pulled it from its mount and set to killing the fire. Once done, he coughed and waved his hand before his face to clear the cloud before dropping the extinguisher and joining the others.
In minutes, the doors were secured and all windows locked. The Lodge didn’t have any curtains on the ground floor windows but did have some blinds that when closed, filled the room with gloom and obscured most of each glass panel.
Still, they headed upstairs to take refuge in their rooms. There was little need for speech and little any of them wanted to say. As Clive and Terri approached their room, she pulled away and he looked at her, a question on his face.
She hurried over to Elise and took her hand, leaning in to whisper into her ear as her eyes fixed on a room further along the hall. The younger woman smiled shyly and embraced Terri in a hug before they headed back to Clive.
“Elise will stay with us,” Terri said.
“Sure,” he replied with a smile, opening the door and pushing it open for them to enter. “Wait here while I go raid the kitchen.”
“Oh yeah, here,” she handed him an empty rucksack and he flashed her a smile as he lifted his own, emptying out the few bits of food he had in it, on to the bed.
He nodded once before leaving, closing the door softly behind him. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he almost collided with Jacob going the other way. The older man noticed the bags and nodded approvingly.
“Good man. Best to be prepared. Make sure you take items that won’t spoil. Focus on veggies and tinned fruit. You can find meat when needed.”
“You don’t mind?” Clive asked, surprised. “I don’t want you to think we’re abandoning you or planning on running off.”
“Makes sense, son,” Jacob said with a grunt. “I’ll drop some ammo off with your lady. Another rifle too. There’s a few spares left here when people fled.”
“Elise is in our room if you can spare a third, that would be good.”
“Aye,” he said with another approving nod. “She’s had a rough time. Keep her safe.”
“Of course,” Clive said, his face showing his confusion at the look of anger on the other man’s face.
He didn’t elaborate, just set off up the stairs and Clive watched him go for a moment before shaking his head at his foolishness and hurrying over to the kitchen. Once there, he pulled large tins of vegetables from the shelves.
Carrots, corn, potatoes, green beans and peas. Tinned pears and apricots along with some soups, vegetable, beef and tomato, with a couple of chicken broths thrown in. He loaded them into the bags and grunted as he lifted them.
It would be hard going if they had to run while carrying them, but better than running and finding themselves out in the forest with no food whatsoever.
He opened the door to the kitchen and stepped out, only to come to a stop as something hit the glass window. A thud, followed by the high pitched screech of something sliding down the glass. He swallowed hard as he caught sight of the shadows moving behind the blinds.
A face appeared, just for an instant in the gap between the blinds, blood covered its mouth and chin, spreading messily across its cheeks.
Clive dropped down behind the bar, heart hammering in his chest as he sent a silent prayer of hope that he hadn’t been seen. It was dark inside, he told himself, he probably wasn’t seen. Even so, he clutched the rucksacks close to him and held his breath, knowing it was foolish but terrified any sound might alert them to his presence.
He gauged the open distance between the bar and the stairs up to the first floor and the room he shared with Terri and knew that it was entirely too far when those infected people were outside.
His head thumped back against the bar softly as he closed his eyes and waited for them to move on.
Chapter 13
Terri pulled her coat tighter around her as she sat on the bed beside Elise. She glanced at the door, waiting for Clive to return and pushed down the worry that was gnawing at her. The moaning of the infected people down below didn’t help.
Jacob had left four boxes of bullets and two more ri
fles. They looked much the same as the one she’d used to murder all those infected back in the town, a crime she knew she’d have to answer for eventually and a memory that she knew would torment her if she paused long enough to let it.
She shook her head and picked up her rifle, running her hands over the smooth wooden stock, breathing in the odour of the oil that lingered on the metal. She pulled a bullet from one of the boxes and pushed it slowly into the chamber before sliding the bolt forward.
It was ready to be used. A single shot, one that could easily end a life and she hated herself for how ready she was to use it to defend herself and her lover. She’d always hated guns. Hated the idea of them and the fact that people used them for nothing but killing. She’d never thought she’d hold one, let alone take someone’s life. It didn’t matter that they were infected and crazed, in her eyes, she’d murdered them.
“Can they climb up, do you think?” Elise asked quietly, her voice little more than a whisper.
She trembled softly as she stared at the sliding glass doors that led out onto the first-floor balcony.
“We’ll be fine.” She reached over and squeezed Elise’s hand, a gesture or reassurance that she could have sorely done with herself. “There’s nothing for them to climb up.”
Terri wished that she was as sure as she sounded. Her mind kept going back to the memory of when she’d arrived the day before, standing and gazing at the lodge before entering. Trying to focus on whether or not there was anything they could climb.
Fear gnawed at her. Worry for Clive, for her family. She wanted to be with them, not stuck in some hunting lodge in the mountains of France. She wanted to be back home, in England with the people she loved.
Her grip tightened on the rifle as another howl rose, louder than the rest and answered immediately by what seemed to be hundreds more. She desperately wanted to creep out onto the balcony and look down, to see how many were out there but was too scared to do so.
There came a tap on the door and she had the rifle raised to her shoulder and pointed towards it in an instant.
“It’s Jacob,” the whispered voice said and she exhaled a soft sigh.