by RR Haywood
‘Fort?’ He interrupts me as I walk closer to the gates.
‘Fort Spitbank, you know it?’
‘I know it.’
‘We’ve taken it over, got thousands of people there, doctors, medical facilities, security and police officers…we’ve got food but obviously we’ll need more.’
‘S’good fort that is, good move getting it,’ he nods.
‘There was a radio broadcast…the first or second day, it said to head for the forts but I guess not that many people heard it.’
‘No,’ he shakes his head, again just a small movement. Closer now and I can see his face looks tired and drawn with large bags under his eyes.
‘We’ve got more people turning up every day; it’s a good location, defendable and secure. How many did you say you had in here?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘No you didn’t did you? Well I’m glad this conversation is going so well. Really it’s not enough that we’re fucking about in this heat but we just removed the gigantic horde of undead from your gates and now I’m in a conversation with a monosyllabic man holding a shotgun,’ I wipe my forehead with my shirt sleeve which comes away sodden.
‘What would you do if a bloody great big armoured truck pulled up and a load of soldiers started shooting their assault rifles about?’ He asks with a lift of his chin.
‘Fair one,’ I sigh and feel suddenly very weary.
‘What’s your name?’ He asks quickly.
‘Howie, this is Dave and Clarence.’
‘Mr Howie and Dave is it?’ he asks with a slow grin spreading on his face.
‘Eh? What? Well….everyone keeps calling me Mr Howie but yeah that’s me and he’s Dave…how the…what…?’
‘You’re the ones that killed that nasty fella in Portsmouth, the one holding everyone hostage and making ‘em his slaves…’
‘Well it wasn’t quite like that but…’
‘And you saved all the people in the petrol station on the London road, blew up a petrol station too I heard.’
‘Bloody hell, yeah that was us…but we didn’t just blow it up, well no we did blow it up but you know…we kind of had a reason for blowing it up.’
‘You fella’s responsible for that big explosion a few days back too? That must have been down near the coast, bloody great mushroom cloud went up it did.’
‘Er, yep…that was us, well Dave actually and it was a housing estate…’
‘A housing estate? Why d’you blow up a housing estate?’
‘To kill the zombies that were in it.’
‘Oh…’
‘Long story, how the hell do you know all that though?’
‘News travels,’ he shrugs, ‘we’ve had people coming and going from here since it started, everyone keeps going on about this Mr Howie and Dave.’
‘This is all we bloody need; this is your fault Dave.’
‘Why me?’ Dave looks at me with a slightly startled expression.
‘For calling me Mr bloody Howie all the time in front of people.’
‘Sorry Mr Howie,’ he actually looks a little sheepish.
‘You wanna come in then? It’s too bloody hot out here,’ the man says.
‘Yeah, if that’s alright with you…er we got a load of vans down the road too.’
‘Got a big car park Mr Howie, get ‘em in here for a bit,’ he takes a key from his trouser pocket and unlocks the padlock, pulling the chain back and tugging the gate open.
‘Howie to Blowers, drive through mate and park up…Howie to Pete, come down through the gates and park up too mate.’
‘Blowers to Mr Howie, roger that.’
‘Pete to Mr Howie, on our way.’
Mr bloody Howie. Bloody Dave that is, why can’t he be Mr Dave and I be just Howie? And Clarence, he’s a bloody giant, he should be Mr Clarence.
Clarence, standing quietly with a wry grin on his face up till now helps the man with the second gate, lifting it from the floor and pushing it over to one side and getting a shocked glance from the shotgun man at the same time.
‘Sorry, you didn’t say your name,’ I hold my hand out which he shakes.
‘Geoff.’
‘Nice to meet you Geoff.’
‘Clarence,’ the big man steps up, holding his hand out for the obligatory shake.
‘You’re Dave then?’ Geoff asks holding his hand out to Dave who gives a slight grimace and shakes it quickly before wiping his hand down the back of his trousers. Serves him right, I’m going to get everyone to shake his hand from now on.
The car park is wide and baking hot, we walk slowly waiting for the Saxon to inch through with a grinning Tom behind the wheel and getting a thumbs up from Cookey sat in the passenger seat. The vans come through as the lads pile out from the Saxon, slurping water and holding their assault rifles. Lani jumps down nimbly and catches me admiring her again, giving me a big smile.
‘This isn’t a trap is it Geoff?’ I joke, which again falls flat as he stares back at me without expression.
‘No,’ he replies.
‘Yeah…I was er…just joking.’
The vans pull through the gates and park up behind the Saxon, the drivers, guards and crews piling out into the sunshine, lighting cigarettes. Pete goes round the back of his van, opening the rear doors and speaking to the family inside. They too jump down and stand about looking scared and uneasy. Pete hands them water bottles and chats amiable.
‘Do you know them?’ I ask Geoff nodding towards the family, ‘we met ‘em in the town centre, they were holed up in a flat. We’re taking them back with us.’
‘No, I don’t recognise them, you got room for more people then?’
‘Yeah, we er…’ I was about to explain about how we lost so many in the fight but my voice trails off, ‘yeah, we got plenty of space.’
‘Geoff? Why the hell did you open the gates?’ Another man comes charging from the door of the warehouse.
‘Norman,’ Geoff nods at the approaching man, ‘this is Mr Howie and Dave, and that big chap is Clarence.’
‘What?’ Norman’s face instantly glances to me, then Dave and back to Geoff.’
‘Nice to meet you, I’m Howie, this is Dave and Clarence,’ I take a couple of steps towards him holding my hand.
‘Christ mother and Mary! The Mr Howie and Dave?’ He asks still glancing between us.
‘Er…well yes…’ I reply, not sure on how to answer that.
‘What? Well….he stutters and shakes my hand, ‘Mr Howie right?...Er…I’m Norman.’
‘Nice to meet you, that’s Dave and Clarence.’ Again we repeat the procedure of Clarence stepping in and offering a handshake which leaves Dave kind of forced to offer his. Which makes me grin, which he sees and passes me a quick dark look which just makes me snort with a suppressed chuckle.
‘Oh god,’ Norman pales as he looks beyond us at the lads stood their dressed like mercenaries and holding assault rifles. I’m guessing Lani must have said something to the other four as they’re smiling nicely and not twatting about like normal.
‘It’s okay Norman,’ Geoff says quickly, ‘they’ve got that Fort Spitbank, taken it over they have, got doctors and hospitals and police stations and everything they have…thousands living there like a proper town.’
‘Eh? No wait…we got doctors and police officers, and yeah a few thousand people there but not quite like that,’ I add quickly. That’ll be the next thing. Mr Howie and Dave have a super city where everyone gets a free TV when they arrive.
‘Have you?’ Norman asks quickly, ‘I’ve heard of it, have you got space then?’
‘Well yeah we have, how many you got here?’
‘Erm…well we had a couple leave last night, and then that Thompson chap turned up didn’t he Geoff…’
‘He did Norman, and don’t forget that family yesterday that went.’
‘Christ mother and Mary! Of course, you know I’d forgotten all about them…so they left yesterday and that couple and then Mr Thomp
son turned up…’ he counts silently holding his fingers out.
‘Roughly…just roughly…we don’t need to know exactly,’ I prompt him.
‘Er…Fifty six,’ he answers with a smile, ‘no, fifty seven with Mr Thompson.’
‘Oh quite a few then,’ I reply.
‘Is there any food left?’ Clarence asks with a concerned tone.
‘Oh lots, we’ve been rationing very carefully you see, which has caused some arguments let me tell you that much for free but we said we’d have to be careful as we didn’t know how long it would be till help arrived.’
‘Help? What help?’ I ask him.
‘Well you know got to give the government time to get something worked out haven’t we?’
‘Government? Norman there is no government, there’s nothing. The whole country’s gone, Europe, the whole world…’
‘Yeah that’s what people keep telling me, but this is Great Britain…this is the United Kingdom! They’ll have a plan somewhere, just got to let the boffins work it out, and anyway…you’re here now, Mr Howie and Dave eh?’
‘We need to cut to the chase,’ Clarence steps forward looking very hot, ‘we need food, you’ve got food. You need somewhere safe and we have somewhere safe, so how about it?’
‘How about what?’ Norman pales slightly looking up at Clarence.
‘Er,’ I step in before Clarence pulls his head off, ‘as Clarence said we’ve got a safe place with doctors and medicines, it’s early days but we’re getting a good set up going…but we need food. You’ve got a whole warehouse of food here. So maybe you come to our fort and bring your food with you?’
‘Christ mother and Mary! That’s an idea…but well I’ll have to put it to the committee…’
‘The committee?’ Clarence growls.
‘Of course the committee, this country is a democracy not some tinpot autocratic dictatorship…oh no….we’ve got committee’s on rationing, guards…er…toilet cleaning duties…’
‘Entertainment,’ Geoff adds helpfully.
‘Oh yes the entertainment committee, they do marvellous things with keeping the little ones entertained you know.’
‘Okay! Er…well you could go and ask them or…’
‘I’ll get everyone together and maybe you can say a few words, you know…Mr Howie and Dave coming to the rescue, I think they’ll buy it,’ Norman smiles.
‘Buy it? I’m not asking anyone to buy anything. We’re offering people a secure place to live so the zombies don’t eat them…and you’ve got a warehouse full of food too.’
‘Yes well…you know how tricky committees can be, I’ll go and get them ready, I’ll bring them out for you,’ he walks off chatting excitedly with Geoff. Leaving the armed strangers alone in their car park.
‘How the fuck have they survived this long?’ Clarence asks.
‘They got committees,’ I reply, ‘bored the zombies to death probably.’
‘We need this food boss,’ Clarence urges.
‘I know mate, we’ll talk to them and convince them to come with us.’
‘Make it sound bad, really bad,’ he prompts me.
‘What ‘cos it isn’t already then? The whole end of the world, everyone’s a zombie thing not bad enough?’
‘You know what I mean,’ he replies with a slight grin which is nice to see instead of his angry flushed face.
‘Lads,’ Dave turns and barks at the rest gathered by the Saxon, ‘when that strange man comes back he’s bringing everyone out with him. I want you lot over there chatting and being nice, tell them how good our fort is, don’t let them touch the guns but smile and show them how professional you are,’ he orders, leaving me and Clarence staring at each other in amazement. The lads buck up instantly getting what we’re trying to accomplish, walking past quickly towards the front of the building and trying to look casual.
‘And Nick…’ Dave shouts.
‘Yes Dave?’ Nick turns with a grin.
‘No swearing.’
‘Yes Dave,’ he nods still grinning.
‘Bloody hell Dave that was good thinking,’ I say.
‘But aren’t they all going come out and see a bunch of armed people now?’ Clarence asks.
‘No the lads will do good, they’re good at this,’ I reply confidently.
‘Can I play in the headshots game now?’ Dave asks suddenly. We both reply no.
Within a couple of minutes the warehouse people are coming out, tentatively poking heads out then taking a few steps into the bright glare of the daylight. The lads smile and nod, waving at the people and strolling towards them.
‘See,’ I say. More people come out and we watch as our lads separate and move amongst them chatting to groups and smiling the whole time. Lani looks amazing with her beautiful smile and stood there holding a bloody great big machine gun. It takes time for everyone to exit the building, a few of them look very worried and scared at the sight of the army truck, the vans and the men stood round but we give it time and let the lads get some good words in.
‘Win their hearts and minds…’ Clarence says quietly.
‘Definitely,’ I reply, ‘come on, let’s get in there too. Dave needs to practise his handshakes.’ I grin at the small man taking a couple of steps towards the crowd.
‘Hang on,’ Clarence says, ‘they keep looking over at us, at you and Dave…you’ll have more effect if you stay back and talk to them as one.’
‘You reckon?’ I ask, but he’s right. Looking at the crowd and many of them are staring over, glancing at Dave and me, chatting and whispering to themselves.
They look all look tired and scared but I do notice at least their well-fed and clean, something most survivors can’t achieve. The crowd fractures into smaller groups, these then grow larger as more people join them, the groups congregate and a natural order ensues ending up with one large crowd with several key people in the middle talking loudly.
Norman appears from the building, carrying a plastic beer crate which he upends and stands on, clapping his hands to draw the attention of the crowd.
‘Now settle down, settle down please…come on everyone just quiet down for a minute, thank you. Now, as you can see we’ve been visited by Mr Howie and Dave and the rest of their group.’ Heads all turn to stare again, I raise one hand and nod back whispering for Dave to do the same, which he does woodenly.
‘They’ve got a community down on the coast in the old Spitbank Fort, thousands of them and by all accounts its growing every day, they’ve got law and order with fully uniformed police officers, doctors, hospitals, people in charge and they’ve got security,’ I wince as he relays the description, shaking my head slightly. ‘They’re here looking for food and supplies to take back with them…but they’ve invited us to go along with them and live in their fort, the question is do we stay here and hope for the best or take the invitation and go with them. I’ve spoken to Mr Howie and he’s happy to field any questions you may have and say a few words…Mr Howie?’ He looks over at me and I nod back, starting towards the beer crate.
‘We need that food,’ Clarence whispers as I pass in front of him.
‘Hi, my name is Howie, that is Dave and the big chap is Clarence. The armed people amongst you are part of our group from Fort Spitbank, we’ve been together for quite a few days now,’ standing on the beer crate and looking out I can see just how tired and exhausted they look. Scared people gathering together and not knowing what to do, so they cling to the lessons life has taught them. Form committees, form think-tank groups, discuss the options and wait for help. If they didn’t have this pile of food it would be a far different story.
‘The fort is on the coast, on a spit of land surrounded by flatlands and the sea so we’ve got a good defensible position. We’ve had one major fight with those things when they tried to take the fort but we fought them back. We lost a lot of good people but we’ve shown we can defend our home and in doing so we inflicted massive losses on them. I won’t lie or tell you anything tha
t isn’t plain fact…they might come back, the chances are that they will come back. But that goes for everyone, not just us in our fort. They need to eat and find more people. We’re already getting scarcer now so they’ll up their game to do what it takes. We’ve killed the ones outside your gates but they will come back. Yes, you have big metal gates but from I can see here you’ve only got a few small arms with you,’ I point to the few men in the crowd holding shotguns, ‘also, you’ve got a big stockpile of food in here and this building is just a warehouse, it’s not built to withstand a concerted attack. There will be other groups out there who want that food and will also do anything to get it. We’ve got plenty of space for you and you can join our fort, be a part of our community. We need people with skills, nurses, engineers, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, we need fit and healthy people who are willing to work and muck in, anyone with medical training or who can sew, stitch and repair clothing. We need teachers for our children. Our food is split evenly amongst everyone too. Sounds idyllic doesn’t it? A veritable utopia yeah?’ I can from their faces that I’ve pretty much convinced most of them already, which just shows how desperate they are.
‘Well it isn’t,’ I add firmly, ‘but neither is this,’ I wave my arm at the warehouse and car park, ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do to get our fort up and running so it can house so many people, there is a hell of a lot of work to do and everyone has to play their part but there is safety in numbers and like Norman said, we have organisation and order. We don’t have hospitals yet but we will have, we’ve been out today getting supplies from hospitals and pharmacies and as time goes on things will get more desperate. You are welcome to join us, we’ll lead you back to the fort and you’ll be admitted…’
‘What’s the cost?’ Someone shouts.
‘Cost?’ I ask staring in the general direction of the shout.
‘Oh shut up Frank,’ someone else shouts in an irritated tone.
‘No it’s a fair question, we came here for the food and supplies, we won’t take it from you by force, that won’t happen. But we do need more food and supplies…’
‘So you want our food then?’ Frank shouts.