by Nick Harland
I looked around the group, the children looked away when I looked at them, one young boy burying his head in his mothers’ neck and starting to cry. I carried on, ‘It would be useful to know if anyone has any particularly useful skills, even hobbies, and if anyone has any medical knowledge. Don’t be shy, apart from Bill who is a mechanic, the rest of us are only good for killing Zombies.’
One man spoke up, ‘I was an electrician. I know it may not seem the most useful thing under the circumstances but I have an idea. I fitted some solar panels to my house last year and although it will take some time, and I could use some help, I can probably work out how to hook some into this place’s wiring. As cost isn’t a factor and this place has a big flat roof, a roof full of panels could provide us a decent amount of power and we can re-charge the leisure batteries for use over the winter. Ideally of course we need to find a generator or two.’
Bill beat me to it and said, ‘That’s fantastic, I’ll help you fit them. Anyone who has skills should be teaching at least one or two others as they go along anyway.’ Then he looked over at me and said, ‘Sorry for interrupting.’
I smiled, ‘No you’re right, that is fantastic, and you’re also right that those with knowledge and skills have a responsibility to pass them on.’
One of the younger woman gingerly put her hand up, ‘I’m a keen gardener and used to grow a lot of my own vegetables. I noticed you’ve made a start outside, and that you have tools and seeds. We could really use a proper greenhouse, or as there are a few of us, two or three, but there is a lot we can do here. We’re not going to stay healthy eating canned food all the time.’
Then one of the older women joined in, ‘I was an accountant which is useless, but I’m also a very keen cook and even entered one of those cooking shows once and did ok. I can make bread, and pasta, and I had just begun to learn how to preserve things and make pickles and jams. Homemade stuff we can keep will be useful, and more healthy than cans.’
Then the young man, I say young, he was probably a couple of years older than me said, ‘I was a labourer for a building firm and although I don’t have much skill or experience, I could probably put up a breeze block wall and once or twice one of the guys let me have a go in a JCB. With practice, I’m sure I could get used to one if we can find one. It would be useful for moving stuff and maybe even digging trenches for extra protection around this place. I’ve got all sorts of books and some tools at my parents’ house…’
Eve stood up next to me, ‘No one here needs to be ashamed of what they’re feeling and no one needs to keep it in. Everyone here has lost everyone they had, and everyone has good reason to be sad, or even to cry. All I would say is that now we’re relying on each other, and making new friends, don’t let that sadness get in the way of surviving. We’re doing really well so far, amazingly well. It might be too much to ask, but can anyone drive a forklift?’
A middle-aged women put her hand up and said, ‘Not really, but my ex-husband could. He was obsessed with them, and cranes, and used to talk about them all the time, I mean all the time, obsessively. It took me five years to get around to divorcing him because of it and some of what he said must have stuck. I’m willing to give it a try.’
I couldn’t help but giggle, ‘Well that’s good enough. Over the road there is a huge warehouse that must have supplied one of those catalogue shops. The shelves almost reach the roof and they are stacked full of pallets of stuff. We’ve barely even started to go through the place but there are a couple of forklifts we haven’t even tried to start.’
Eve spoke again, ‘I know someone would have said so by now but has anyone driven big HGV’s before. I can get by in the tipper truck but I wouldn’t want to try anything bigger and transportation is an issue. There is lots of heavy stuff out there which might be useful.’
The captain put his hand up, ‘I can fly most anything that isn’t a jet fighter but before I trained I was an HGV driver, over thirty five years ago now, but I think I’d manage. I assume they’ve made it easier not harder. It hadn’t even crossed my mind until you said it. I’ll be rusty as hell and it’s probably best I teach someone else, as my wrists aren’t so good these days, but I think I could manage.’
I smiled, ‘That’s excellent, there is one more thing, and I’m going to get into trouble for saying so, but Esme here is a Third-Dan black belt in Taekwondo and even teaching us one or two simple things has helped us stay alive. There is a good chance most or all of you will be facing a Zed hand to hand one day, so martial arts lessons are mandatory for everyone, no matter how young or old.’
One of the woman who hadn’t spoken so far put her hand up and said, ‘You said earlier you knew other groups must have survived. Tell us how you know and how you knew where to find us?’
I regretted my earlier bravado but went with it, ‘We know that the change happened over quite a short period of time and that it must have been global and airborne. We know some people were immune to the initial attack, like Bill and myself, but that’s very rare. We also know that anyone who was in a filtered air environment when it happened didn’t change. We knew where to find you because we figured anyone in the air at the time would be breathing filtered air or be above the level of the attack. Esme and Andrea were in a clean room in a lab at the time and that’s how they survived. That means anyone on a plane above a few thousand feet and any one in a clean room, like some of the big electronics factories have, will have survived the initial attack. Others like people scuba diving or wearing fire breathing gear..’
One of the men interrupted, ‘You keep saying the work “attack”, what do you mean?’
Eve stood up and said, more harshly than I expected, ‘I don’t want any questions as I don’t have any real answers, and I don’t want anyone freaking out. I have a PhD in microbiology and over there is a scanning electron microscope. When we rescued Andrea and Esme who worked in the lab we got the microscope. They looked at samples from Zeds on the day of the attack and although they could see bacteria like organisms the scanner didn’t recognise a single element, not hydrogen, not carbon, not anything. This wasn’t an apocalypse as such. Whatever arrived three weeks ago isn’t from any part of our known universe, we think this was an alien invasion. Now they’re here they’ve merged with some of our our normally occurring bacteria and are using the blood stream of the host to travel around the bodies and gain access to their systems and memories. We really have no idea how or why.’
‘What we do know is that they want us dead. We had captured a Zed a while ago and it started to talk before we left to find you guys. What it said was, “You must die, we will kill you”. It used the word “we”, which means they have some kind of shared plan.’
I looked around at the dumbstruck faces and Esme took over from Eve, ‘Andrea decided to stay caged up so we could observe her and take samples, and because the Zeds as we call them aren’t undead at all. The people out there are alive, but they’ve been colonised. For them to be able to talk and navigate as we’ve seen them do, some of the original memories and brain function must still be active, to some degree anyway.’
The man who had helped bury Helen spoke up angrily, ‘Why didn’t you say so earlier, you save your friend but not ours, Helen didn’t need to kill herself.’
Eve spoke again, ‘Like I said, we have no idea what went on here or what will happen next. We didn’t say so earlier because you had all been through enough and needed to rest. We didn’t save Andrea, she made a choice. For all we know she could be going through a living hell in there, feeling the pain the aliens make the body endure, being aware but having no control, like being locked in. She could be in the most horrific torment any of us could imagine. There could also be absolutely nothing left of her and the aliens just know how to access the brain tissue. She chose to believe there was a chance she could come back, but she knew that was probably a fantasy and that made going easier.’
‘I think she chose not to die so we would have another captive
to study. If I get bitten I don’t know what I’ll do, but I think I’m more likely to follow Helen’s example than Andrea’s. I think Helen was just as brave as Andrea. There is no right or wrong here, only choices. Now, we have a lot of organising and unloading to do so I suggest we get on with it. We can talk again when its lunch time and we’ve all had a chance to take in what’s been said so far.’
The captain stood up and ushering the crowd he said, ‘You heard the lady, we all have things we can be doing and we all need to earn our keep. This place won’t run itself.’
Chapter Six – Mark
The survivors went about the business of unloading and we took a moment on the couches. Bill looked across at me and said, ‘We’ve been lucky I think, but now we have even more competing priorities than we did, what’s the plan?’
My brain was hurting with trying to sort it all out. There weren’t any Zombie games where you controlled so may survivors and had so much you could do. I knew one thing though, so I said it, ‘The first priority never changes, surviving, and that means safety. We need to increase base security and personal safety. Everyone needs weapons and helmets.’
Putting my hand on Eve’s thigh next to me I added, ‘If Eve hadn’t had her helmet on yesterday things could be very different right now.’
I was going to say more but Eve chimed in, ‘I didn’t say it last night but I’m saying it now. Without your Zombie senses tingling at the houses yesterday it would definitely have been different. You saved all of our lives by not letting us walk into a trap. The Zeds are getting really good at working out when its best to attack, and co-ordinating themselves when they do. House to house will still be easier than shopping centre stuff but we can’t get complacent, every house is a challenge, every street is a trap.’
I carried on, ‘Eve is right, we got lucky yesterday and we need to perfect our house to house strategy. Water is still a huge issue and the luxury of hot showers has to be severely rationed now. Bill, you said there is a river a mile or two away. We’re going to need to start to make regular trips to it so people can wash and so we can collect water so people can have hot showers, even if it is with river water. We can’t do all the running around for over twenty people so getting these guys heathy and ready go out there is also a high priority. They’ll need decent vehicles with mesh over the windows to do so.’
Bill said, ‘We barely have any metal left for welding and it’s not urgent, but eventually we’re going to need more welding supplies. I need to teach someone else and we’ll need more gas.’
I replied, ‘I know and I have a good idea where to get all the metal we need that’s perfect, as much tubular steel and strong mesh as you can cut and weld. The building site outside my first base is surrounded by that site fencing with six-foot squares of tubular steel with mesh in the middle. We can load the truck full of it and we can kit out as many cars as we want.’
‘There are also JCB’s and I’m sure we could use one eventually, so if we can find a flatbed HGV somewhere we can move one here. The massive chemical industrial estate isn’t that far away from here and it’s full of huge HGV’s. I’m sure we can find the keys to a few of them. What I’m not sure about is weapons. We can use more bikes, but can anyone think of something better? I’m still not keen on knives or axes, they get stuck too easily.’
Eve said, ‘Seven works well. Its light and most of the survivors are women; the pry bars are heavy. If we’re going back to the building site anyway I think we should get more bikes. Aluminium is fine as titanium is rare, but carbon fibre isn’t, it would shatter. We might find some more helmets at the building site as well.’
Esme said, ‘That sounds like a day’s work but what’s bothering me is the greenhouse thing. That woman is right, we need two or three if we’re all going to stay healthy and spring is already moving on. If we’re going to feed twenty people we need to get at least one, and soon. I don’t think the DIY place actually stocked them and taking the time to take one down and transport it sounds like a nightmare to me, though we may not end up with a choice.’
I said, ‘I don’t know on that one, we can ask the others later. If necessary we can find more plastic ones at a garden centre and hitting a garden centre seems necessary now anyway. Right now, I think we agree on bikes and fencing. We have enough food and water for a few days at least and we can scout the route to the river later.’
We took Mary and the truck back to the building site and bike shop and managed the company we attracted while loading the bikes and fencing without too much difficulty. We were starting to work well together. Eve and I had killed the horde from the tower block and school that night at the old base, so there weren’t any more hordes. We found helmets on the building site and opened up a couple of the big storage containers. We found various supplies, including tools and lots of cement and stuff. We left it where it was for the time being.
We were back at the base for a late lunch and the survivors had waited for us. Someone had made a vegetarian bolognaise and it was quite nice even if the veg was canned. After we had eaten it was meeting time again but I stayed sat down this time. I started with, ‘Any questions from this morning or about the base and our plans? I think we’re going to have to start to learn each other’s names and who does what so if you speak, tell us your name, how old you are, if you have any medical conditions we need to take into account and what you did before the apocalypse.’
One of the older men spoke out, ‘I’m Jim. This is like some horrid management training thing but I’m 53 and I was a mid-level manager in a chemical plant on the industrial estate outside town. I don’t have questions, I’m just glad to be here and alive. I lost my wife on the plane early on and my kids live down south so I have to assume they’re dead too. I don’t have many practical skills but I know the chemical industrial estate well and every nook, cranny, and resource of the chemical plant I worked in because I was the health and safety manager. You mentioned HGV’s yesterday and, depending on how busy the plant is, I can show you where to find keys, welding gear, fuel, and if the solar power isn’t enough a couple of generators, though they’re probably too big.’
‘I think this place is great, but I don’t think much of base security. The fence is good but it needs some work, these things are getting athletic and organised and if a Talker arrived with a horde we’d be overrun in no time. There are rolls of barbed wire at the plant and lots of safety clothing that we could use. I think it’s a priority.’
I said, ‘Thanks Jim, you’re right, we were saying the same thing yesterday. We brought back all the steel fencing to beef up security as well as for the cars. If you can direct us to some HGV’s and barbed wire that’s awesome and yes, it’s a priority. The problem is, lots of competing priorities and only four of us that have any experience fighting. Bill will admit he’s more a driver than a fighter. We need to get you guys back to strength and either kit out another two or three cars, or preferably find a another couple of good four by four’s. We only have one spare four wheel drive and we’ve been thinking it’s for spares more than anything else anyway.’
Jim said, ‘Ok, that makes sense. Unless anyone says otherwise I’d like to head up base security.’ He looked around the room and there was silence.
I said, ‘Excellent start. Jim was challenging there and although we don’t want arguments and bad feelings, we do need everyone to start taking some initiative and to speak up if they have something to say. With that in mind, there are two other things that are a priority and we could use any other idea’s. We need greenhouses and if possible, guns and ammo. Most of our useful guns are 9mm and we have some ammo left, but it’s not enough for the long haul. I guess on the subject of guns, there is something else we need to admit to.’
I turned to Eve and said quietly, ‘You need to tell them.’
She looked confused for a moment then signed and nodded, ‘There are two other survivors not that far away and they are pretty well geared up. One is my husband, or pragmatica
lly my ex-husband. We had to chase him and his friend away about a week ago. As we left things, we have a shoot on sight agreement if he comes here. He has a helicopter and it was him that brought us the horde outside after we did admittedly screw him on our parting deal. Taking care of the horde he brought us wasn’t easy.’
‘He carries a grudge and he’s an obsessive control freak with psychopathic qualities. He’s not going to forget us. If he could Kill Brad, Esme, and Bill and capture me he would do so. He has a modified black Range Rover with black windows, raised suspension, and big wheels. If you see it, go in the other direction. If you come across him remember that all psychopaths and bastards are charming and persuasive to begin with.’
The captain spoke for the group but looked as bewildered as the rest of them, ‘Thanks for telling us, we’ll keep it in mind.’
A middle-aged man put his hand up and spoke, ‘I’m mike, I’m 47, and I worked in a supermarket. I was a keen camper and sometimes used a caravan. I have a question about toileting. Using the caravan toilets without chemicals is ok when we run out, which won’t be long, but the cassettes need changing every few days. I gather we’re putting them down one of the drains. It seems like a lot of work for lots of people to be doing all the time and eventually all the vans will get smelly. I’ve been on camps where we dug a big long drop toilet for everyone and it work well. We could even take a van off its wheels and put it over the hole. We could rig up a toilet in the middle because they have the useful slide thing to minimise the smell. It’s a fair bit of work right now, but it will save time overall and stop everyone having smelly vans and cassettes to empty all the time.’