The Undead the Second Week Compilation Edition Days 8-14

by RR Haywood

  To the south, across an expanse of deep blue water, at the end of a long wooden pier Howie and Lani clasp hands as they lay down to sleep, exhausted from battle and in need of that same contact, that same connection. Fingers as entwined as the limbs of Maddox and Lenski.

  Humanity rolls on. Awakening inside young hearts as love builds.

  ‘LISTEN UP!’ Maddox’s voice booms out across the compound. Young tired faces stare back, sipping the bottles of water handed out with the order to get them finished. Maddox stands tall and erect next to the pit, one foot raised on a log used for seating. Lenski nearby, holding her clipboard close to her chest and watching with pride as her lover commands every face within the base.

  ‘No patrols today, maybe later but not now. We are going to extend the base. The houses either side of the road leading away from the base will be taken in and the fence will be pushed to the end of the junction. Then we’re going to put the fence into the gardens at the end of the junction. They’ve got high walls all round them so we still get the protection but we get more space. We will knock the garden walls down between here and the junction so we make the ground open all the way to the end. That gives us more space for planting food to grow and it gives us more privacy. The two houses on the end will be used as sentry points with guard rooms, that means we can use height to look down and see further.’ Maddox pauses briefly, drawing breath and making sure they’re still watching him. The faces remain fixed, hanging off every word he says.

  ‘Every crew will be given a job and the chief will make sure that job is done properly. It’s gonna be a hard day and we’ll need one crew keeping guard, make sure your weapons are close all the time. Anyone caught without their weapon nearby will be washing all the shit smeared pants, you get me? That means you Liam.’ The youths burst out laughing as Liam takes a deep bow grinning happily at being named.

  ‘Darius is moving up too, so that means we need two more crew chiefs. Work hard and we’ll see who stands out today,’ that got their attention with the prospect of moving up to one of the coveted jobs. Maddox turns and nods the pre-arranged signal at Lenski who steps forward examining her clipboard.

  ‘Sierra will take first guard out on the junction,’ Lenski looks up to see Sierra nodding back. She already knew parts of the plan and had been warned her crew would be first up for guarding.

  ‘Darius will take his crew and Ryker’s to the shops down the road and bringing back the scaffold please yes? Skyla, can you take your crew and start knocking down the walls into the gardens on the right side and Mohammed the left side. Aaliyah you will be taking crew with Jagger and Ryland and help with the moving the fence yes? Questions?’

  ‘Are we gonna live in the houses?’ Liam shouts. A good question noticed by Maddox and Darius and already a contender emerges for one of the crew chief slots. More questions get thrown up once Liam got his answer, which was that they didn’t know yet. Maddox and Lenski field most of the questions, with Darius stepping up to take one or two and asserting his role at the top of the table. Not one youth picks up on Maddox’s change in manner, his use of normal speech instead of the usual street talk; even Darius drops some of the slang in favour of trying to be like Maddox, noticed with a wry smile by Sierra.

  The crews move about getting into their groups as the serious work of the day begins. Confusion descends for the first few minutes as each chief is bombarded with more questions, they in turn seek out the new leaders to find out exactly how they’re going to do what they’re tasked with.

  The fence is the first thing once Sierra has moved out to the junction and staggered her crew out across the roads. The crews gather round and slowly figure out what tools are needed to detach the gates from the high fencing and the drilled bolts in the ground, and then half dragging, half carrying the heavy loads down to the junction. Once they’re sure the fence can be erected safely, only then does Maddox give the order for Skyla and Mohammed to start bashing the high brick walls down. Making sure they understand to only make enough room for two or three people to walk through and no bigger.

  As the sun rises so does the volume of the young voices, shouting out and calling to each other, all the time working like demons with a sense of urgency and purpose. Darius leads his two crews out from the compound, a quiet word already spoken with Liam, telling him to keep an eye on the younger ones and be ready to help. That was all it needed and the young lad is transformed with his chest puffed out and a serious look in his eye.

  Throughout the hot morning they work hard. Walls are knocked through as the children get coated in brick dust and filth. A few cuts and bruises here and there quickly tended to by the ever watchful Lenski and her girls. The plants forgotten for the day as everyone comes out of the units to get stuck in. Maddox works hard, moving between the crews and helping lift, carry, move and graft shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. He takes the time to comment and praise the hard working youths.

  As the last section of fence is moved up and stacked at the junction Darius returns with a long line of children carrying scaffolding poles and wooden boards, he ditches them down and sends Liam back with Ryker’s crew to bring the rest.

  ‘Alright Maddox, what’s up?’ he takes the bottle of water held out by the leader.

  ‘Nuffin’, you?’

  ‘Nuffin.’ They both grin at the long standing greeting shared by them for years. ‘That Liam, he doin’ well bruv.’

  ‘Good, he’s up for crew chief then?’

  ‘Yeah I think so,’ Darius replies, trying to remember not to use so much slang now.

  ‘Did you see any infected?’ Maddox asks.

  ‘None, not one,’ Darius replies with a shrug.

  ‘We need to move quickly and get those fences up, we’re undefended now,’ Maddox says looking back down the road and straight into the compound.

  ‘Where do you want me?’ Darius asks.

  ‘Everywhere,’ Maddox says with a big grin making Darius laugh at seeing his best friend so animated instead of the usual deadpan poker face.

  Four

  The infection is everywhere. In every village, every town, every city and every country and it targets those that cause the most damage. Knowing that in order to survive those killers must be stopped.

  All across the world, the undead gather in great numbers headed by a host body of enhanced powers, and of ever changing and evolving abilities. The infection works quickly to understand the human brain and the processes it can achieve.

  Telepathy has been accomplished by the infection manipulating the blood cells passed from the enhanced host into the bodies of the infected. The few remaining survivors spread across the planet are outnumbered so vastly but still they fight back and inflict huge losses to the hosts.

  For every human taken, many hosts fall and the infection knows it cannot withstand this rate of attrition. Without conscious thought the infection cannot simply choose to disengage and withdraw. Survival means being finding new hosts and preventing the loss of the ones already taken.

  In the south of England. Past the northern edge of a vast and sprawling council estate a lone zombie stands staring on the motorway which forms the border of the huge urban jungle. Skin a sickly pallor, dried blood round his mouth, clothes filthy, torn and hanging from his gaunt frame. Losses have been taken here, far too many. Inflicted by young host bodies fighting with an alarming and ferocious savagery.

  The zombie stands erect and with intelligence within the red bloodshot eyes. An adult male employed as a taxi driver before he was blessedly taken into this new state of being and for the last day he has been busy. Busy finding hosts, drawing blood and building resources. Summoning every host for miles and drawing them here.

  Past the motorway, over the crash barrier and above the slight incline hordes of undead gather in the rolling fields. The drooling decaying fetid undead shuffle and groan quietly. Sensing the need to stay in this place despite the urge to move and find food. The undead shuffle in from every direction,
massing in great numbers.

  Still wearing his blood splattered photo identity badge from his previous life, the super zombie stares into the estate. Patiently waiting as more bodies shuffle into view, stumbling across the sun baked tarmac to join the legion.

  This enhanced host has learnt, as Darren did, that moving too fast during the day weakens the bodies. So it conserves that energy. The only thing it doesn’t know is if it can resist the urge until night fall, or whether he will succumb to the depraved hunger and charge earlier.

  Five

  Maddox stands back from the junction, looking down towards the compound, now out of sight behind the high fence and gates erected across the road. Panels fixed to the sides of the houses, using the tools the Bossman sourced during the first couple of days, and copying how he drilled into the ground and bolted the thick metal posts into place and attaching the panels to the posts. The walls of the houses on either side form a solid line down to their garden walls, and more high fencing topped with coiled razor wire has been fixed against the walls, providing a solid unbroken line, securing the base within.

  ‘Check the gates,’ he yells out and watches as Darius pushes both the solid metal gates out. Wide enough to drive a lorry through they push out to a ninety degree angle. Satisfied Maddox shouts to close them back up.

  The next decision is where to put the guard tower. They can use the upstairs windows of the houses to view down the opposite street but not the full length of the street opposite. He wants the tower outside of the gates, in the middle of the junction but that would mean whoever was inside it could get isolated or trapped. Maybe something could be rigged up from the top of the tower to the window of the closest house, an escape route. But the gap is too big; if he moved the tower closer to the building they would lose the view.

  ‘Where you puttin’ it?’ Darius asks as Maddox walks back through the gate into the now extended compound.

  ‘We’ll try behind the gate first, we’ll get a bit of a view of the side streets but a full view of that one,’ he points to the road leading away opposite them, ‘we’ll have people in those windows too.’

  ‘So we got to cover the front, the sides and the back too?’ Darius questions with a serious look, ‘if we’re all at the front or in the units it leaves the back open. Why not just use a crew each night, you know, make them in charge of the security for that night and they can rest the next day.’

  ‘I like it Darius,’ Maddox nods with respect, ‘fuckin’ good idea, yeah you get that sorted then.’

  ‘I’m on it!’ Darius grins broadly at having his suggestion taken on board.

  Leaving Darius to oversee the scaffold tower, Maddox makes his way down the short road, admiring the greater stretch of ground they have gained, looking at the front of the houses on either side and wondering how to make best use of them. As he nears the old fence point Lenski walks out from the end of the unit clutching her clipboard and drinking from a bottle of water.

  ‘The fence it look good yes?’ She asks, handing him bottle. He takes the water and takes a long plug from the top, feeling the refreshing liquid cascade down his parched throat.

  ‘Yeah, we got it all fixed in, Darius just doing the tower now.’ They fall into step side by side, walking towards the sounds of banging, shouts and clouds of dust as the kids happily smash walls down. Stepping over the fallen bricks and debris they look through to the end; a clear line of sight through the small gardens to the high end wall and the even higher fencing fixed against it. The youths working here, smashing up the big lumps of concrete and wall to make them easier to move look up and smile as Maddox and Lenski walk through.

  ‘We should use the houses for the crews no? Ten houses we have gained here, the five on each side so with eight crews is good yes?’ Lenski asks, watching Maddox finish the water off, he lowers the bottle and grins apologetically.

  ‘Sorry, I was thirsty.’

  ‘This I see,’ Lenski says with one raised eyebrow, ‘you like idea, we put crews here yes?’

  ‘Yeah I think so,’ Maddox agrees and outlines the details of Darius’s plan to keep one crew up everynight and tasked with security. They stroll through to the end, and then back out and up the other side.

  ‘Maybe we give the crews the food for the week and they do as they want with it?’ Lenski suggested.

  ‘Nah,’ Maddox laughed, ‘they’ll eat the best stuff the first night and sell the rest for drugs.’

  ‘Oh the drugs, what we do with them?’

  ‘I know what I want to do,’ Maddox drops his voice, and Lenski notices the hard edge to his tone, ‘I’d fuckin’ burn the lot of ‘em.’

  ‘We do this yes?’ Lenski urged.

  ‘Not yet, one step at a time. Remember where these kids have come from. They’ve grown up on this shit so we need to tread carefully. And there will be plenty of people out there that will still want it.’

  ‘For what? Why they need this drug now?’ Lenski demanded with a scowl.

  ‘Look what’s happened, the worlds fucked up overnight. Maybe that shit might make it easier for them or something. The point is there are people that will want it, so we can use it for trade.’

  ‘Okay,’ she shrugs clearly not convinced but willing to let the point go for now. ‘What you do next?’

  He sucks in a breath and lets rip, ‘get the scaffold up and work out where to put the tower, then gotta look at the houses and make sure they all the same size otherwise it’ll spark the crews off if one gets something the others don’t, then we need beds and bedding and while we’re moving all the stuff from the tents we need to check to make sure they’re clean. We also got to work out a way to divide the rooms up and give everyone equal space, now do we give the crew chiefs their own room or not because these houses ain’t that big really….’

  ‘Okay okay,’ she waves her clipboard to slow him down, ‘I take the point.’

  ‘Yeah…lots to do,’ he cocks his head to one side staring at the freckles on her nose.

  ‘You very busy.’

  ‘We both are,’ he nods. She nods back.

  ‘See you in your room in two minutes?’ She asks quietly.

  ‘Definitely,’ he replies. They walk separate directions as Lenski jogs back toward the unit and Maddox finds Darius to tell him to hold the fort.

  ‘Why where you going bruv?’ Darius asks in confusion while trying to organise the scaffold tower being erected.

  ‘Er…I got something to do.’

  ‘Where ?’

  ‘Inside,’ Maddox stares at the distracted lad trying to convey a message to stop asking.

  ‘Inside?’ Darius asks while hefting a long pole, ‘what you doing inside?’

  ‘I need to speak to Lenski…’

  ‘Lenski?’ Darius repeats. He catches the glare from Maddox and stares back dumbly for a second before finally catching on, ‘oh Lenski!’ He laughs with delight, ‘yeah of course bruv, you go have that private chat and I’ll stay here.’

  ‘Yeah thanks,’ Maddox growls softly and walks off leaving Darius smiling and shaking his head. He makes himself walk at a normal pace towards the unit, checking about him, nodding and waving at the youths and girls coming and going. Once inside he checks about, making sure he’s out of sight and starts running to his room. Bursting in and finding Lenski already undressed and laying naked on his bed.

  ‘I think Darius knows,’ Maddox says as he quickly strips off.

  ‘About us? Is that good?’ Lenski asks with a grin.

  ‘Right now…I don’t care.’ He dives onto the bed provoking a squeal from Lenski that’s quickly cut off as their mouths find one another. Furious but fun work takes place both inside his room and all across the compound as slowly a new community is forged.

  Six

  ‘I’m telling you they’re just little kids, the little shits we’d see running around here on their bikes,’ Jeff yells, wincing at the pain from his black eye and swollen nose.

  ‘Jeff, we agree,’ the man oppo
site him implores, ‘but they’re tough little bastards and they got guns. Look in the bloody mirror if you don’t believe what they can do.’

  ‘This?’ Jeff points at his own bruised face and moves round in a circle to take in the faces of the crowd gathered together, ‘this was a lucky shot done by some little wanker, I would’ve stopped him but he had two little bastards with shotguns stood right behind him.’ The two women with him yesterday raise their eyebrows knowingly. Jeff didn’t have time to react, that youth moved so fast none of them saw it coming until it was too late.

  ‘Now listen,’ Jeff softens his tone and looks round at the survivors all brought together in the main library of the council estate. This being the least likely place the kids would go to. Surprisingly, not one survivor had seen a zombie or a youth so far today.

  ‘Now come on, listen,’ Jeff repeats, ‘they’ve taken all our food, our supplies and for what?’

  ‘Well we all got here without being eaten.’ A voice shouts from the back, ‘they’ve got rid of the dead things.’

  ‘Yes well,’ Jeff bridles at the quick answer, ‘be that as it may but we have all seen how slow those things are during the day. Any of us could have killed them off.’

  ‘But we didn’t,’ the same voice shouts, ‘they did and I ain’t seen one of them since late yesterday afternoon.’

  ‘But the fact is we could have done if we wanted, but we couldn’t because we were too scared of those bloody kids. Did you see what they did to old Naylor?’

  ‘He was a bloody idiot,’ that same blasted voice shouts out again, irritating Jeff and making him wince more than the pain on his face. ‘He was always getting nicked for knocking people about, thought he was a proper hard bastard he did. Ha! Sod him, bloody kids did a good job if you ask me.’