by RR Haywood
Within a minute Paula notices the next horde staggering ahead of her. A huge group that clog the road, hundreds of them all walking through the town away from her. On the flat road she can’t see the head of the horde.
This must be all the things from the villages, all pressed together and going the same way. What’s drawing them? What is so important they have to be gathered in such large numbers?
She can’t get through, there are too many of them. She could plough into the back of the horde but the risk of getting bogged in is too great. She could pick them off but the numbers are too vast.
There must be a way of getting round them to see how many there are and where the front is and then work out where they’re going. The ordnance survey map shows the side roads loop into each other, forming a network of estates, avenues and through-roads. Taking a random side junction she curses within two minutes as she reaches the end of the cul-de-sac, chastising herself for not looking at the road sign. Something like that could be a potentially fatal mistake if she was being chased. It would mean giving the vehicle up and having to run on foot.
Vowing to stay vigilant she heads back out and stays behind the horde, waiting as they pass the next junction. Turning in she accelerates the four wheel drive, bouncing over the speed humps as she navigates the smaller side roads. The signs of devastation are much worse here, nearly every house looks damaged and bodies litter the pavements and gardens. Rotting corpses and mutilated cadavers festering in the heat and providing a food source for countless disease spreading bacteria that will be ingested by the maggots.
At each point where the side roads link back to the main road she pauses to gain a view, looking at the constant stream of the things walking past. Not one of them looks in her direction, not a flicker or a sign that they’ve seen her. The size of the marching column surprises her, stretching on and on. There must be hundreds and hundreds all contained together and keeping to an orderly rhythm.
She has to take the vehicle deeper into the winding estates, searching for a way to get ahead of them. Reading the map as she coasts along she works a route out, turning up a road that leads to a tributary carriageway that eventually feeds into the town’s main thoroughfare.
Driving faster now, pushing to find out where they’re going and desperate to know why they don’t react to her presence or try and take her.
She pulls up short of the junction, mouth hanging open as she looks at the things traipsing past. No way, they can’t be this far ahead. There must be a shortcut somewhere. She checks the map, tracing the road they’re on back to the town centre then using the top half of her thumb to measure the distance against the scale at the bottom of the map.
‘Shit,’ she whispers quietly. Over a mile. A mile long column of the things. Not hundreds but thousands and she still hasn’t seen where the front is.
They’re coming out the town onto this road; she looks at the red line on the map. It snakes through open country for miles, through woods and farm pasture before finally hitting another town, but that one is smaller than Bereford. Why would they be going there? The red line goes straight through the small town and continues back into open land.
She has to know why they’re going there. What’s in that town? And the thought of so many in one place is a challenge just waiting to be taken up. If she can get ahead of them she could lay traps and ambush sites, maybe get something rigged up to start killing them before they get there.
First thing is to find out why they’re heading there. The road marked in red is no good so she works another way round. It’ll take her miles out of the way but with a full tank of fuel and empty roads it should be done easy enough.
Decision made. Options weighed. Advantages and disadvantages accounted for. With a resolute nod she backs the vehicle into a driveway and heads back down the road.
Ten
‘Stop staring at me.’
‘Who?’ I ask.
‘All of you, you’re freaking me out.’
We turn away and stare elsewhere for a few seconds before slowly turning back to look at her again, all of us fixated by her eyes.
In the former police office we sit round the table while Cookey brews up and Meredith lies down by the door.
‘Cookey stop it,’ Lani exclaims at the lad stood there staring at her holding the jar of coffee with the spoon hovering above it.
‘Sorry,’ he turns away to keep spooning the granules into the mugs.
‘So what happened?’ She asks us.
‘Fuck,’ I say for the hundredth time, my head seemingly unable to keep up.
‘Stop saying that,’ she gasps, ‘what happened? Why haven’t I got red eyes?’
‘How do you feel?’ Clarence asks.
‘Normal, hungry…not like that Cookey,’ she rolls her eyes as he opens his mouth to say something then promptly closes it again, ‘thirsty, tired…normal and my stomach hurts,’ she winces and pulls the front of her top up to reveal the puckered wound where she was cut. It was only yesterday but it looks several days old already. The skin knotted together and a large bruise round it. Clarence and Dave both lean in, closely examining the injury.
‘No sign of infection,’ Clarence mutters.
‘Healed quick too,’ Dave adds then looks over at Meredith, ‘like a dog heals, faster than us.’
‘Did you just call me a dog?’ Lani asks.
‘No,’ Dave replies seriously, ‘I said the wound is healing faster, like a dog heals faster than us…the infection has accelerated your ability to heal.’
‘How?’ Lani asks staring down at her stomach.
‘I don’t know,’ Dave replies, ‘can I touch it please?’
‘Aren’t you worried about catching it?’ She asks him with a serious expression which he returns as only Dave can.
‘It’s a sealed wound, how would I catch it?’
‘There might be bacteria on my skin or something.’
‘If that was the case we’d all be infected by now, it’s transmitted by fluids.’
Dave uses the back of his hand to touch the wound, feeling along it gently, ‘no sign of heat,’ he says, ‘does it hurt?’
‘Yeah but not that much, not like it should if it was only yesterday.’
‘What’s the pain like inside?’
She shrugs and stares back at him for a second, ‘it aches when I move but nothing that bad.’
‘It was a deep wound, the pain should be a lot greater than that. Do you have a high pain threshold?’
‘I’m a woman aren’t I?’ She replies with one eyebrow raised.
‘I don’t understand,’ Dave replies in his flat tone.
‘Forget it,’ she says laconically, ‘er…not really, I don’t know if my pain threshold is any different to anyone else’s?’
‘May I try something?’ Dave asks.
‘Yeah,’ she looks up at him puzzled, then flinches as his hand shoots out to grab her ear lobe, giving it a nasty little twist. ‘Ow!’ She yells and pulls away, ‘what the hell Dave,’ she stares back with a flash of anger, ‘that really bloody hurt.’
‘Pain threshold normal then,’ Clarence mutters having watched with great interest.
‘Yes,’ Dave replies turning away.
‘You could have asked first,’ Lani moans rubbing her ear.
‘I did.’
‘Jesus, it felt like you pulled it off, so what does that mean then?’
‘Your pain receptors are normal now, unless you’re faking it but judging at the angry flush in your face I would say not,’ Dave explains, ‘but, a wound like that should see you in agony for days, so whatever infection was in you, it caused you to heal faster and dulled the pain.’
‘So it’s still in me then?’ She asks.
‘I don’t know… we don’t know how fast the rate of healing is, it could be that the wound is healed the same way someone else would be in a week or two weeks, but it only happened yesterday. We don’t know if you’re still healing faster than normal or if
you’re now back to normal,’ a long explanation for Dave and he trails off as though suddenly aware of himself.
‘Do you remember it?’ I ask her.
‘Sort of,’ she feels the wound with her fingertips, pressing lightly, ‘like a dream or something, all hazy but with clear bits…I know I could talk but Marcy was stopping me,’ the others all glance at me quickly, ‘what was that?’ Lani asks.
‘What?’
‘That look, what was that about?’
‘Later, go on keep going,’ I wave her on desperate to avoid that conversation.
‘I didn’t feel any pain or anything else but Marcy made me go straight in that toilet, they taped me up and left me there…’
‘And you just let them?’ Nick asks.
‘Yeah,’ Lani nods, ‘it was the most normal thing in the world, like someone else was completely in control and I just had to do what I was being told.’
‘That’s fucked up,’ Blowers remarks.
‘Completely,’ she agrees, ‘I couldn’t hear her voice or anything but like…I could feel her will and knew it was her but it was so natural and…well I guess organic,’ she shrugs struggling to find the words, ‘I take it you killed her?’
‘Who Marcy?’ I ask with a guilty start.
‘No the wicked witch of the west,’ she snaps, ‘yes Marcy…how did you kill her? What happened?’
‘I don’t think she’s dead,’ I explain slowly.
‘Right,’ Lani looks at me, stretching the word out, ‘thanks Cookey,’ she smiles as he places the mug in front of her.
‘I put sugar in it, do you still take sugar?’ He asks softly.
‘Yes, I still take sugar,’ she replies with forced patience.
‘So, Marcy then? Not dead?’ She looks back at me.
‘Don’t think so, er…hang on, when did you stop feeling like…er…well like you just said and then normal like now?’
She shrugs and thinks, shaking her head, ‘It was weird, I was out of it but I didn’t come back like instantly, it was slow, like sobering up from being drunk or…or coming round from anaesthetic…like bit by bit I could feel more of my body and my mind was swimming in and out. Then gradually I just sort of became aware of where I was, the more my mind came back the more things started to hurt, like my wrists and my stomach and I got cramp from being stuck in the same position too.
‘I heard the shooting and that snapped me back to full…er…alertness? Is that the word? Yeah, alertness…I recognised the sound of the GPMG and the assault rifles then later I heard you all running in and then saying how to kill me,’ she lifts one eyebrow at Dave.
‘Sorry Lani,’ he says.
‘The dog? Really?’ She asks, ‘you were going to get Meredith to eat me…that’s awful.’
‘We didn’t know,’ I reply.
‘I’m glad you didn’t, but just let Dave shoot me in the head next time, don’t use the dog, that’s awful.’
‘Okay.’
‘But check my eyes first,’ she adds quickly.
‘Okay,’ I reply again sheepishly, ‘I don’t get it…are you immune then?’
‘I don’t know,’ she replies quickly, ‘probably not, maybe I carry it without it showing or doing anything…’
‘But it healed you quickly, like it does with the other ones,’ Clarence points out, ‘and we saw you being the same as them….and Marcy controlled you…’
‘I don’t know,’ she repeats.
‘Which means that either your body has found a way to fend it off or stop it,’ I lean forward, ‘or you’re still infected and one of them and this is another trick.’
‘Another trick?’ She asks.
‘Yeah like Marcy did with Mr Howie,’ Cookey cuts in. I close my eyes quickly, grimacing as he realises what he just said.
‘Why? What did Marcy do with Mr Howie?’ She asks with a sidelong glance at me.
‘Er…you know…like tricking us into thinking she was er…like helping us,’ Nick adds quickly.
‘Yeah that’s what I meant,’ Cookey nods, ‘that…what Nick just said…’
‘Cookey?’ Lani asks.
‘Like Nick just said,’ he says too high pitched, ‘she tricked us like she was helping us…’
‘So where is she then?’
‘Who?’
‘Cookey you are a crap liar, what’s going on?’
‘Oh fuck,’ he mutters, ‘Nick have you got any smokes?’
‘Yes mate, we going out for one?’
‘Yeah,’
‘I’ll come,’ Blowers adds standing up.
‘No,’ Lani cuts in, ‘smoke in here.’
‘Dave said were not allowed,’ Cookey adds with a frantic look.
‘Did I?’ Dave asks.
‘Er…no?’ Cookey replies.
‘What,’ Lani snaps, ‘is going on? Where is Marcy? Howie…’ she looks at me.
‘Fuck I’m out of here,’ Nick walks quickly to the door with the two lads, leaving the rest of us sat there in silence.
‘So you could be immune then?’ I ask with a faint hope at changing the subject.
‘Where’s Marcy?’
‘Which would be good news of course,’ I nod.
‘Where’s Marcy?’
‘And could mean we found a cure…yay,’ I smile and nod again.
‘Howie,’ she looks at me, ‘where is Marcy?’
‘Oh she’s gone,’ I wave my hand, ‘just went off I think…’
‘Right, you leave me no choice,’ she turns to face Dave, ‘Dave, where is Marcy and what happened?’
‘Marcy and some of the other girls were giving pheromones off, making the men get all…er…’ he shrugs, ‘er…horny I think Alex called it, and they lured the men into almost getting with them…Marcy went for Mr Howie out the back but the others…’
‘Sorry what?’ Lani leans forward, ‘Marcy did what?’
‘Went for Mr Howie,’ Dave repeats, ‘but the others were down here and…’
‘Went for Mr Howie? Like how? Attacked him or…’
‘No, turning him on…’ Dave explains in his flat voice, ‘like I said, we think they were putting pheromones out and it made everyone get horny so Mr Howie went out the back with Marcy and they were getting naked when…
‘Dave,’ I shout in alarm.
‘What?’ Lani shouts at the same time.
‘Dave,’ Clarence shakes his head with a groan.
‘What?’ Dave asks innocently.
‘They were doing what?’ Lani shouts, ‘you were doing what?’ She repeats looking at me.
‘Right hang on, let me explain…’
‘I think you should,’ she sits back glaring at me, ‘you were getting naked with Marcy while I was tied up in a toilet?’
‘Hang on,’ I wail, ‘just wait…she was like…er…in my head or something, I couldn’t stop thinking of her…’
‘I beg your pardon,’ speaking softly she drops her head and lifts both eyebrows.
‘Ah, fucking hell, she was like in my head since we first met yesterday…I just couldn’t stop thinking about her…’
‘Yesterday? When I was alive and stood next to you? That yesterday yes?’
‘Yes,’ I groan, ‘that yesterday, I don’t know what happened, like Dave said it was pheromones or something, whatever it was it worked…’
‘Just on you?’ She asks me, ‘not the others…Clarence did you have the same thing with Marcy?’
‘Er…no not really,’ he rumbles nervously, ‘I got lured later by another one though, we all did apart from Dave.’
‘So, keep going,’ she looks back at me with a glare.
‘Right well yes, er…so we had the fight and she saved us, and then you were down and er…’
‘Get to the point,’ she growls folding her arms.’
‘I am,’ I whine, ‘then we were like fucked, completely fucked, everyone had died, Sarah and you and Chris and we just went to our rooms and slept, then when we woke up they had cleaned up and…’
‘Cleaned up? She didn’t do a very good did she? Have you seen the mess out there?’
‘Listen,’ I wave my hand at her, ‘it was all clean and with lights on, they made food for us and we er…well we had the food.’
‘Oh very nice, a romantic meal,’ she says slowly.
‘Then er…the lads were drinking and getting pissed, I was annoyed and feeling like manipulated like it was all contrived so I went out the back and Marcy came with me and then er…well I don’t know.’
‘Don’t know what?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say weakly, ‘oh fuck it,’ I sigh and rub my head. She deserves the truth so I spit it out quickly, ‘she was coming onto me, and I responded but I was aggressive with it, it wasn’t romantic or loving or anything else…it felt like that at the time but it wasn’t…it was lust, pure lust…and the most terrible thing is if she hadn’t of given it I would have taken it…’
‘My god?’ Lani looks at me in shock.
‘Yeah,’ I nod, ‘that’s how bad it was, we didn’t do anything…we didn’t kiss, we didn’t have sex…almost but not quite…but I was so turned on and so…I don’t know…aggressive and…’
‘I felt the same,’ Clarence cuts in, ‘and even one of the lads went for me when I tried getting the girls off them.’
‘Same here,’ Dave adds, ‘I had to trip Nick up as he was trying to fight me.’
‘Seriously?’ Lani asks.
‘Yeah, it was that bad,’ I reply.
‘I’m not talking to you,’ she snaps, ‘fair enough I get it, not your fault but I was tied up in a toilet and had only just been taken and you were trying to shag Marcy…so forgive me but you can fuck off for a bit.’
‘What? Hang on.’
‘No, fuck off,’ She snaps without looking at me, ‘just don’t speak to me for a minute.’
‘Lani,’ I plead.
‘Remember that bloke in the back of Saxon? The one who had his head cut off?’
‘Fine,’ I sit back quietly.
Lani shakes her head with a look of anger mixed in with hurt and confusion. She masks it well, keeping her face mostly impassive.
‘So where is she?’
Clarence explains the last bit, where Meredith pushed us both into the water, then the fight in the fort and Marcy on the top of the wall. Lani listens intently, nodding her head to show understanding. ‘So you don’t know where she’s gone?’