by RR Haywood
‘Fruit!’ Clarence smiles and starts walking towards her, ‘any bananas?’ he calls out.
‘They’re mouldy and black,’ Lani replies ‘but there’s some apples and oranges here.’
‘Dave said to wait at the tower but I guess this is close enough, just make sure we keep a good watch,’ I sit down at the table and select a big green apple, looking at it closely before I sink my teeth into it and feel the fresh juice burst into my mouth.
‘Oh that’s so good.’
‘There’s a barbeque inside with a gas bottle, I’ve got it going to make hot water for coffee,’ Nick comes out smiling and rubbing his hands together. A few minutes later I’m watching as the lads devour everything in front of them while Lani eats politely. I can see she’s hungry but she restrains herself from going mad, unlike the rest of us who go at it like crazy.
Sitting in the beautiful warm sunlight we could almost forget why we’re here and what we’re here for. The food gets eaten and Nick goes back into the café with Lani before re-appearing a few minutes later with a tray of plain white coffee mugs all steaming away.
‘Milk portions!’ Cookey exclaims, delighted at the sight of the individual long life milk sachets. He rips the top off one and drinks it down quickly.
‘Oh look at this,’ Blowers groans with pleasure, ‘coffee, sugar and milk…’ like I said, small victories make for the best feelings sometimes and for this short amount of time while the world crumbles around us and with a town full of cannibal zombies ready to rip our hearts out, we sit in the sun drinking coffee. Nick breaks out a packet of cigarettes and hands them round, Blowers, Cookey and Lani take one each and are soon sitting there in a state of bliss. The temptation is too much so I slide one out of the packet and light it up, inhaling deeply I hold the smoke in my lungs for a second before blowing it out gently and immediately doubling over with a coughing fit.
‘Shit, I haven’t had one for ages,’ I wipe the tears from my eyes and take another drag as the others laugh at my sorry state.
‘You shouldn’t smoke Mr Howie,’ Dave’s voice surprises us all, making us jump and start going for weapons laying within grabbing reach. He’s leaning against the corner of the café watching us benignly.
‘How long have you been there?’ I splutter.
‘Only a second or two,’ he walks over and sits down next to Clarence. Taking a bottle of water he screws the top off before downing it in one.
‘I’ll get you a coffee Dave,’ Nick gets up heading towards the café.
‘Is there herbal tea?’ Dave asks into a sudden silence as we all take in what he just asked for.
‘Herbal tea?’ Nick asks.
‘Camomile or Peppermint,’ Dave says. Taking an apple from the nearly empty bowl, he pulls a small knife from a pocket and starts cutting chunks off.
‘Right…yeah…I’ll er have a look,’ Nick says. Dave puts the chunk of apple in his mouth before looking up and seeing us all staring at him.
‘I like herbal tea,’ he shrugs and cuts another chunk of apple.
‘Fair enough mate, did you see anything?’ I ask him.
‘Nothing,’ he shakes his head and looks at me, ‘something isn’t right, I can feel it. There’s no movement, nothing was following you…nothing,’ he adds.
‘That’s a good thing right?’ Cookey asks.
‘Should be,’ Dave replies, ‘but it isn’t…’
‘Why not?’ Blowers cuts in.
‘It means Darren has found something else to do,’ Clarence says, ‘something more important than coming after us.’
‘I see,’ I reply, ‘what could that be? If I was him I would be trying to build resources again, getting more of those things before he comes at us.’
‘Maybe we should go after him now then?’ Blowers says with a hard look, ‘take the fight to him for a change.’ Cookey nods seriously, Lani glances at them both before looking back to me.
‘I agree,’ Nick adds placing a mug down in front of Dave.
‘We’ve got a guide now,’ Clarence nods at Lani.
‘Options,’ I lean forward, ‘we’re here to get our group and get back to our fort, Darren poses a risk and will kill them and us at the first chance he gets. He could be trying to get more zombies to come after us which means we either take him out now but by doing that we put ourselves at risk or we keep going and hope we can find them before he does.’
‘By which time he could have turned loads of them and be an even bigger risk, and we don’t have the firepower or the resources to fight back like we did last time,’ Dave replies flatly.
‘And we’ll be lucky to find them and get back to the boats before nightfall, and even then we’ve got to hope the tide isn’t out. Last night was hard enough, these shotguns are good but they take too long to re-load,’ I take another drag of the cigarette.
‘If we knew they’d stay slow we’d stand a good chance of getting them now,’ Blowers says, ‘but we know they can turn like that,’ he clicks his fingers for effect.
‘Pity there’s not an army base we can raid again,’ I mutter.
‘There is,’ Lani says quickly, ‘there’s a Territorial Army camp but it’s on the other side of the Island.’
‘How far is that?’ Dave asks.
‘Driving? Maybe an hour there and an hour back.’
‘Do you know where it is?’ I look at her closely.
‘I know the area it’s in, I went there once with my school years ago.’
‘Did they have weapons?’ Dave questions her, ‘what did you see?’
‘They had army guns,’ she stares off clearly trying to think, ‘like you see the soldiers with on TV.’
‘Were they live firing?’ Dave asks.
‘What’s that?’ She replies.
‘Could they shoot bullets?’ Clarence takes over, ‘did you see them being fired? Were there any targets up like on a range or anything like that?’
‘Oh yeah we watched the soldiers shooting targets, they were lying down and firing down this long field with a big hill at the end, we had to wear things on our ears because of the noise.’
‘Lani, when the guns were fired, did you see the bullet cases being ejected from the side of the weapon?’ Clarence asks with serious intent but keeping his tone steady.
‘Yeah loads of them, like in the movies,’ she nods.
‘Right, what are the chances that someone hasn’t got there before us?’ I ask, ‘if they take school groups there then everyone on this Island will know, plus all the soldiers stationed here.’
‘Shit, good point,’ Clarence looks over at me, ‘if I was local it would the first place I would head for.’
‘We don’t have the time to risk getting over there and finding it either looted or more likely defended and they might not take kindly to a bunch of armed men knocking on their gates. We stick to the plan, find our people and get out of here.’ Nods all round although I get what they’re saying and going after Darren is a tempting idea.
We fill our bags with water and whatever snack food we can fit in before shrugging the packs on and setting off again. The thought that Darren must be massing again drives us on and our pace increases until we’re all sweating heavily in the blistering heat, apart from Dave and Lani who both remain looking cool and collected.
Following the shore line we walk round the long sweeping bay on the picturesque path separating the sand from the wooded area. Birds sing happily, insects and bee’s buzz about merrily doing whatever insects and bee’s do. They know nothing of this infection that’s wiped out one species already but then I remember the rats that attacked us at the motorway service station. They were clearly infected so why not all species, why just us and rats? Surely an infection or disease can’t just choose who it infects. But then there is a strong relationship between humans and rats. Rats will eat anything so if they chomped on the rotten corpses and got infected what’s to stop something else eating the rats.
‘What eats rats?’ I ask out loud.
‘Cats,’ Lani answers quickly.
‘Birds, foxes…dogs…anything that’s hungry enough,’ Clarence replies.
‘The rats at the service station?’ Dave asks guessing my thought process.
‘Yeah, just wondering what else could get infected.’
‘Everything I guess,’ Nick cuts in.
‘We might get zombie spiders,’ Cookey shudders as Blowers bursts out laughing.
‘You fucking twat! Zombie spiders!’ He sputters.
‘Why not?’ Cookey retorts, ‘they could get infected if they ate something that was infected.’
‘What do spiders eat then?’ Blowers goads him.
‘Flies…and flies will lay eggs on anything, especially warm rotting corpses,’ Cookey says.
‘Well, when you put it like that,’ Blowers stops laughing and stares round suspiciously at the ground as though expecting a horde of zombie spiders to suddenly launch themselves at us.
‘So do you think this is manmade or what?’ Cookey asks.
‘What the disease or whatever it is?’ Nick says, ‘is it a disease or virus or infection or what?’
‘I don’t know mate,’ I shrug, ‘isn’t it that a virus causes an infection? Like the virus goes from person to person and they become infected as a result.’
‘So it’s both?’ Lani asks.
‘Maybe, isn’t a disease something that develops and doesn’t need a virus?’ Cookey replies, ‘Blowers, what did your doctor say at the STD clinic?’
‘He said I caught syphilis from your mum,’ Blowers quips followed instantly by hoots of laughter from Nick and Lani, even Clarence chuckles deeply.
‘Leave my mum out of this,’ Cookey says in good humour.
‘That’s what the navy said that day,’ Blowers quips again.
‘You’d know what the navy said,’ Cookey retorts, ‘I bet you spent a lot of time with sailors.’
‘Oh good comeback mate,’ Blowers nods with respect.
‘I thank you,’ Cookey smiles taking a small bow.
‘I think it probably is manmade,’ I cut in, ‘probably some bloody scientists pissing about with things they should have left alone.’
‘What like terrorists?’ Nick asks.
‘I don’t know mate,’ I sigh, ‘to be honest I wasn’t sure where I stood on the whole terrorism thing?’
‘What do you mean?’ Clarence asks.
‘Well I’m sure we faced a threat from people who didn’t like us, meaning the west, but I just think governments can get away with murder by playing the terrorist card. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of bloody crazy people in the world who want to kill anyone that doesn’t believe in the same things as them so I guess we had to take some action, but I don’t know…it just felt it was more about oil than anything else.’ I realise I’ve just voiced an extreme view to two people who have probably devoted their lives to fighting and killing in the name of our country. Dave stays quiet and blank faced as ever but Clarence looks thoughtful.
‘What about an antidote or cure, there has to be something that can fix it,’ Cookey continues his questions with a keen interested look.
‘It works so quickly though mate, we’ve all seen how fast it can take over the body, how it can evolve and change. If it was just how it started out it would be easy in theory to go out and kill them in the day and hide at night, but it changed and became different. It evolved to survive and that’s just here with this threat. Imagine how else it could have changed in other places to survive other threats. We don’t know how long Darren was infected before he finally turned, or why he was chosen, but we know he can speak, think and do all the things we can do…’
‘So an antidote might work on one strain but not work on another, is that what you’re saying?’ Lani asks.
‘I don’t know,’ I shrug feeling helpless and unable to voice the nagging fear within my mind that there will not be a cure for this. There won’t be any men in white lab coats pissing about with test tubes and monkeys. This is what the world is now; two species fighting to survive. ‘Keep it simple and one step at a time. We find the others and get back to the fort then worry about everything else later.’
‘Amen,’ Clarence rumbles.
‘How much further?’ I ask Lani.
‘Not far, round the next bend and just a bit further on,’ even she’s starting to sweat now with the high heat and the sun glaring off the hot sand. The humidity feels high too and far hotter than any English summer I can remember. Rather than slowing down to take our packs off we dip into each other’s bags and take bottles of water out, rehydrating from the constant sweating and anticipation of not knowing if something will happen round the next corner. Dave turns as we march along and walks backwards, lifting his hand to shield his eyes and scan the route behind us.
‘Anything?’
‘No Mr Howie, nothing,’ He scans for a few more seconds then about turns to carry on.
‘Up there,’ Lani points off to a high wall butting up against the sea and what looks like a path snaking behind it into the tree line, ‘the path either goes down onto the beach or round through the grounds of the park.’
‘Park?’ Dave asks with concern.
‘That’s what it is now,’ she replies, ‘a park with mini golf, tennis courts and a café.’
‘You said it was a fort,’ Dave states with his usual diplomacy.
‘It was a fort or something, maybe a battery? I heard it being called that too.’
‘A mortar battery,’ Dave replies.
‘Yeah that.’
‘Well we’ll see in a minute,’ reaching the end of the path we’re on I can see a steep flight of stairs going down onto the beach and the high wall ahead of us. It looks solid and built in the same thick stone I saw in fort Spitbank.
‘That’s got to be five or six metres high,’ I say as we draw closer, ‘should slow them down a little.’ To the right I see a path following the high wall as it disappears into the tree line. We stop to look behind us for a few minutes, each of us shielding our eyes and scanning every inch of the vista before us. The path has risen gradually as we’ve come along so we can see right along the sweeping bay back further than the café we stopped at. Nothing moves in my field of vision and none of the others pass remark at anything.
With a final look round we head into the darkened copse following the high wall and instantly feeling the slightly cooler shaded air. The path ends at a right angle going off to the left and we see the high wall running into a steep grass bank. Turning the corner the dirt path gives way to concrete with the high bank running along on our left and a dilapidated fence on the other side. The bank creates a funnel which would be a perfect spot to erect a barricade and prevent entry but my heart starts to sink at the lack of any signs of fortification in this place.
In silence we move forward, hands gripping our weapons and looking all around as we come out of the funnel, the high bank ends suddenly and the area in front of us opens out into a wide, modern car park. We step out into the light and see no signs of life, no fortifications, no barricades or armed sentries waiting to challenge us. On the left there are high concrete walls with multiple thick rusted metal doors embedded in them at ground level. The undulation of the walls and the mounds clearly indicate a bunker complex from the Second World War long left to fall into ruin. At the top of the concrete wall we see metal fencing and wooden benches set at intervals. Metal staircases fixed to the walls lead to the top and we see more doors and barred gates as we slowly make our way into the park.
The ground on the right opens out into a large flat grassy area with signs to enquire at the café for pitch and putt golf. A small brick built kiosk stands at the edge of a children’s play area, now looking ominous and somewhat sinister in the silence of the gorgeous summer day with slides, monkey bars and swings all static and unused for several days. The construct and layout is eerily similar to that of fort Spitbank. The same conventional doorways with the same grey coloured
concrete. This must have originally been a Palmerston Fort too and then adapted over the years for use in the World Wars. With the bunker rooms, high walls and funnel entrance I’m amazed that it hasn’t been taken over and fortified.
‘Spread out in a line, look for any signs they passed through here,’ I give the instruction quietly and feel a creeping sense of unease. I expected to find our group here and I can’t understand why this hasn’t been put to use. The group spread out into a thin line with each person walking slowly, checking the ground, looking left and right and turning to scan behind them as they go along.
Reaching the kiosk I see another smaller car park built into the left side where the building line drops back. Up ahead is a long low single story building with big plate glass windows and the word café painted in thick black letters on the roof tiles. There are small brick built buildings standing isolated in the grounds, they look solid and well-built but have clearly been bordered up for long years with high weeds growing round the outside.
Immediately behind the kiosk is the hard surface tennis courts still with the netting in place across the middle. High metal fencing runs round the perimeter obviously to stop meandering tourists from getting whacked in the face by flying tennis balls.
‘Fuck me,’ Blowers mutters at the sight of the bodies stacked up in the middle of the courts and the many undead standing around them all slack jawed and drooling. At the sight of us they turn slowly and start shuffling over to the fence. I stare in horror expecting to see members of our group, or even worse my sister Sarah. We all stare over at them and I edge closer to examine each one closely. Breathing a sigh of relief I turn and shake my head at the rest, ‘none of ours that I can see.’ They nod back and walk over to the fence, staring in amazement at the sight of the dead and undead bodies.
‘Someone’s put them in there,’ Dave whispers.
‘Why though?’ I ask. The bodies in the middle look like dead zombies judging by the injuries and emaciated withered appearance. Quite a few of them are stacked up, not neatly like Dave did in the supermarket but just heaped together. At least twenty undead are still up on their feet though groaning as they drool and bang their faces against the metal fence.