by RR Haywood
‘No,’ I reply and earn a filthy look from Lani in the process.
‘What about you?’ Clarence asks gently.
‘What about me? You’ve already asked me that and I told you, I don’t know…I could be infected, or it could be dormant in me…I don’t know.’
‘Meredith didn’t show any reaction to her,’ Dave says, ‘and her eyes are clear, either way she is now the important asset we have.’
‘Asset?’ Lani baulks, ‘I’m not an asset.’
‘Can we come back in yet?’ Nick calls out.
‘Of course you can,’ Lani replies, ‘it’s only Mr Howie I want to throttle, not you.’
‘Oh…er…that’s good then,’ Cookey says quietly as they file back in.
‘Lani, I guess the boss told you but we all had it,’ Blowers explains, ‘Dave was the only one not bothered by it.’
‘I had April,’ Cookey states proudly.
‘That’s not a good thing Cookey,’ Lani replies.
‘What? Did you see her? She was gorgeous, well, until Dave chopped her head off.’
‘I didn’t cut her head off,’ Dave replies.
‘Is that how you feel?’ She looks at me, ‘Marcy was gorgeous,’ she adds icily.
‘Eh? That’s not fair.’
‘Oh Mr Howie gets the best zombie girl yeah?’
‘Lani stop it,’ I sigh.
‘I will stop it,’ she adds softly, ‘but only because we’re in front of other people, but the minute we’re alone you’d better get ready.’
‘I will.’
‘I mean it.’
‘Okay,’ I hold my hands up.
‘Are you going to attack Mr Howie?’ Dave asks with alarm.
‘No Dave, not like that but I will be having a bloody good go at him…and it will be going on for a very long time.’
‘Okay,’ Dave says seemingly satisfied that my life isn’t being put in immediate danger.
‘So,’ she looks back at me, ‘Mr Howie, what’s the plan?’
‘Plan? I don’t bloody know!’
‘You always know,’ Cookey adds.
‘Well, we’re going to have to find a doctor for Lani and the dog… I don’t get it,’ I add suddenly, ‘why us? How come we find the dog and one of ours ends up being immune?’
‘We don’t know if I am immune,’ Lani replies.
‘So we work on the assumption that you are infected right?’ I ask her.
‘Probably should yes,’ she replies.
‘So that means we can’t give you weapons,’ Dave adds, ‘if you turn quickly you could kill everyone…well apart from me that is.’
‘Modest Dave,’ I add.
‘No,’ he shakes his head firmly, ‘realistic.’
‘Okay, no weapons then and I’ll stay close to the dog to save you having to set her on me if I do turn,’ she says archly.
‘Huh, that’s funny,’ Cookey snorts, ‘what? Well it was funny…I’m really glad you’re back Lani,’ he gives a huge grin with genuine feeling and rushes over to her. She stands up laughing as he grabs and hugs her, holding her tight.
‘Me too Cookey,’ she laughs again, ‘don’t squeeze too hard my stomach hurts.’
‘Sorry Lani,’ he grins and hugs her again, gently this time.
‘Me too,’ Nick grins as Cookey lets her go, ‘fucking good to see you again.’
‘You too Nick,’ she gives him a hug and quickly rubs his back.
Blowers goes next and not one of the lads show the slightest bit of embarrassment at showing affection for her.
‘Come here,’ Clarence rumbles and gives Lani a hug, taking extra care from the weight of his arms round her back.
‘I don’t do hugging,’ Dave says quickly as she turns to him, ‘glad to have you back but no hugging.’
‘I understand,’ she replies with a smile, ‘and Mr Howie doesn't get a hug either until I know he’s washed that whores smell off him,’ she smiles sweetly without looking at me, ‘and if we find her…I will be having a weapon and she will be mine, is that clear?’ She beams round the room, everyone nodding meekly.
‘So,’ she sits down, ‘the plan?’
‘The plan,’ I sigh, ‘was to go and get Maddox and see if he wants to move in here, but now…’
‘You say it like we’re moving house,’ Lani says, ‘it’s a good idea though…shouldn’t we get those bodies cleared away first?’
‘That’s why I was going to ask him, get his help with clearing up.’
‘That’s not fair,’ she replies, ‘it’s our mess, we should clear it up and how are you going to get him without splitting the team? You can’t leave this place empty with the armoury so full up.’
‘Okay, you being here changes things…we need to be uber bloody careful from now on, we don’t engage unless we have to, we don’t get into a scrap unless we’re cornered or threatened…and we keep them as far away from us as possible, Lani and Meredith have to be protected at all costs. Dave, I want you with Lani at all times and Lani, I want you with the dog at all times…understood?’
They nod back, which gives me some relief that at least she’s still willing to take orders from me.
‘And I mean it, the dog goes on a lead and Lani you hold that lead all the time, she doesn't go anywhere without you holding that lead.’
‘Do you want Dave to put a lead on me too?’
‘Don’t be funny.’
‘Sorry, er…am I with the dog so she can protect you if I turn or…’
‘Both,’ I cut her off, ‘to protect you as much as possible and to protect the dog…and us,’ I add quietly. ‘Clarence, can you drive the plant machinery we got between the walls?’
‘Probably,’ he nods, ‘shouldn’t be too hard.’
‘Nick, find a truck or a lorry, something old that we can burn. Clarence will scoop the bodies up and get them in the truck, we take them out to the estate and burn them…I want everyone in face masks and safety glasses too. I know we’ve got some here somewhere.’
‘In the stores,’ Lani adds quickly making me realise how valued she is, not just as a fighter but someone we all respect and admire.
‘Long day but we’ll get it done. The back gate stays locked and bolted and I want one person on the top wall at all times, we take it in turns…actually we can park the Saxon up there again.’
‘Got it,’ Blowers nods, ‘I’ll get it up there.’
‘Does that include me?’ Lani asks.
‘When Dave takes his turn yes,’ I nod back, ‘and Meredith too.’
‘Once that’s done we’ll re-assess and figure out what we do from there. Nick will drive the truck out to the estate with Clarence in the fuel tanker, Blowers and Cookey will go too and Dave will stay here with Lani and Meredith.’
The lads stand up and start heading outside, Blowers saying he will get the Saxon up top and Nick saying he will get the stuff from the stores. Cookey files out with them, then Clarence realises Lani is holding back and subtly suggests to Dave that they go outside.
‘But Mr Howie said I had to stay with Lani,’ he replies.
‘Yeah in a minute Dave,’ Clarence nods for him to leave, motioning with his head. Dave finally gets the hint after looking at me, then at Lani then back at Clarence.
Alone and we stare at each other in silence for a few minutes, ‘so you can have a go now,’ I say quietly.
‘Not now,’ she replies quickly, ‘I get it Howie, I get what she did…but it hurts like hell.’
‘I’m sorry, I just couldn’t think straight.’
‘Why me Howie?’ She looks at me intent, ‘why am I immune or different? I don’t get it.’
‘I don’t know,’ I reply, ‘We’ll have to figure it out and like I said, this changes everything now. I am glad though Lani…seeing you…well normal…it’s…’
‘Let’s get through today,’ she starts walking off.
‘Lani,’ I call out, she stops a few feet from me, ‘I am glad you’re okay.’
�
�I might not be,’ she shrugs, ‘we don’t know anything yet.’
‘But I thought I lost you, I thought you were gone.’ She locks eyes with me for a long second. I don’t know if I should move forward to hold her or what. She seems to sense my uncertainty and steps in, quickly wrapping her arms round my chest and pulling me in.
‘Shit that feels nice,’ I exhale deeply and hold her close.
‘Don’t get used to it,’ she pushes me away with a hard look, ‘you hurt me.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘We’ll talk later, I’ve got Mr Howie’s orders to do now.’
‘You’d best get on then,’ I smile, ‘I hear he can be a right nasty bastard.’
She cuts me off with a hard look, ‘more than you’ll ever know,’ she says before walking out.
Eleven
Another small market town in the south of England, further south than Bereford and further still from her town.
The map shows one main road leading into the town from Bereford, a thick red line indicating the route across the paper. By taking a long detour, Paula comes back onto that main road several miles away from Bereford.
At the junction on the quiet country road she looks to the empty road at the right, wondering how far back towards Bereford they are. She turns left and within a few hundred metres she can see signs of passage along this road too. Verges trampled down and some smeared blood stains along the road. They’re dried and dark but clearly blood stains and they indicate the things have come this was. It can’t be the same horde she saw in Bereford, it’s not possible for them to get this far that quickly. With a jolt she realises these tracks must be from the ones that were already in Bereford. The things she saw were others passing through.
What was drawing them? Picking up speed she accelerates down the road. High hedges on either side that wound along with the twists and gentle bends, fields, pastures and meadows dotted with copses here and there, overhanging trees dappling the surface of the road, giving a slight strobe effect on the windscreen as she drives along.
The heat is oppressive, even with the windows fully open she still sweats from the hot air buffeted past her.
Another crawler round the corner, this one crawling up the centre of the road. One leg seems to be working as it uses it to push along. Scrapes and flesh cut away, the tight drawn skin red and damaged from the abrasion.
She doesn't hesitate but goes straight over it, feeling a slight bump and a popping sounds as the skull is crushed.
A country pub stands proud before the start of the town. White walled with a thatched roof, black window frames and sills, a sturdy black double front door propped open. Manicured grounds with a big pond to one side, ducks, geese and swans swimming about between the floating corpses. One duck stands on the back of a body, using the few inches of height to give it an advantage over the rest.
Bodies everywhere. Spread over the patio tables and chairs, lying in amongst the reeds at the side of the pond, children bitten and mauled at the multi-coloured playground. Friday night at the local boozer and the event swept through here the same as everywhere else.
She snorts with irony at the name of the pub, The Dead Duck. The ducks are doing fine, she thinks. Just everything else is dead.
Speeding up and the hedgerow gives way to cottages, then short rows of terraced houses and then into the town.
Same as before. Same as every market town in this area. Pretty cottages, pretty walls, pretty flowers, and the same formulaic methodology. Everyone moans when the local pub gets taken over by a corporate chain but yet they fail to see their little kingdoms are the same, town after town, village after village.
It jars her senses and makes her feel on edge. If someone dropped her into one of these blindfolded she would never be able to tell which one it is. A main road going through the middle, a post office with faded posters, a convenience store owned by one of the chains, maybe a unique village square with some benches or a café.
Oh and don’t forget the church and the village hall. Used for everything from the local school play to election polling stations, village meetings, weddings, funerals and everything in between.
The pleasant surrounding should be soothing and nice but they aren’t, they are the same again and again and every one of them will be full of those things.
Except, like the first villages she went to, this one is empty too. The ones coming from Bereford are yet to arrive but the rest here have already shipped out, gone, vacated, rats deserting a sinking ship. But no, something else. Not deserting but flocking somewhere. Going to another place for another reason.
As she drives down the main road, once more looking at cottage after cottage she realises the same as before, that most of the doors are propped open, windows smashed and the odd body lying here and there.
Food. It must be food. They’ve run out of new people to eat or chomp on or whatever they do…infect she guesses is the right word. These small villages only hold finite residents and once they’re taken there isn’t much else to hang around for.
She pulls into the village square and gets down stretching her legs, still stiff from the previous night’s exertions. Pushing her hands high into the air she groans with pleasure as her back muscles stretch out, a very slight and nice feeling of being light-headed for a minute. The Bereford things will be a way off yet, time for a brew and think about what’s going on.
Paula pushes the top half of the back door up and drops the tailgate, pulling the gas stove out and going through the motions as she thinks.
With the stove on and heating a small pan of water she unwraps a health food nutty chocolate chip bar and chews slowly, eyes narrowed and staring off into the distance as she lets her mind relax.
Are they simply spreading out to find more people? No is the answer to that one. They are moving together and with purpose. If they were just after new people to turn they would have tried to take her.
So that’s not it, and in the absence of any other logical reasoning it suggests they are going somewhere to do something. Marching together in the same direction.
But if not here then where? She makes the coffee and pulls the map free, first of all finding her own town, then working along through the villages she went through until Bereford, then further along the red line to this place. Glancing up she scans round and checks the view before continuing. The red line of the road goes straight into her, then out the other side into more countryside and then more shitty little villages.
Maybe they’re working the route as they go, sweeping through to check every house on every street on the way. But no, that would be too much wouldn’t it? Every street on the way?
Thomas displayed intelligence, especially towards the end with leaving the note and the conversation he had. They definitely changed too over the last god knows how many days. Moving faster in the daytime, getting more aggressive and quicker too.
But what would the ultimate goal be? London is back the other way; if they were massing they should be heading towards the biggest city and not the coast. What’s on the coast that they could want so much?
‘Come on Paula,’ she mutters then takes a sip of the coffee, ‘think like them…you are being cut down by one woman in one town so maybe they’re leaving to escape me,’ she shakes her head, ‘no, as much as I’d love to take the credit that isn’t it…’ frowning she continues, ‘so not running away but running to something? But why? If they’re struggling for food now why get so many together when surely getting food will be harder in one place,’ not that, definitely not that, every strategic plan in the world means you don’t put all your resources in one place, unless you want to gather a large force for a specific purpose, ‘aah, that’s better, a large force for a specific purpose…like an invasion or something,’ she nods, feeling she’s on the right track this time.
‘What’s the purpose?’ She muses to herself, ‘they show intelligence and cunning, they work together too, using large numbers controlled by one at the top
…hang on,’ she sinks back into internal thoughts now, her mind running too fast to give voice to her processes. She reaches round to pull the carefully folded letter from her back pocket, using one hand to flick it open. She scans reads the note, eyes flicking over the sentences…
… I am not the only one of my kind. There will be others, others who are stronger, faster and
with greater numbers…
That’s it. Thomas knew he wasn’t the only one of his kind, and he must have meant that he was intelligent and able to think. There will be others, others who are stronger, faster and with greater numbers.
Was he trying to warn her? She smiles suddenly, a broad grin that lights her face up. He wasn’t trying to warn her, he was warning her outright. Don’t go after them. Stay away.
Why? What were they doing?
The question burned inside. She had to know the reasons. She had got the head-start in this event; she had killed thousands so she had the right to be in the middle of whatever it was.
Pushing the stove away she takes the mug of coffee into the front and pushes on, determined to know where they are heading.
Twelve
He rolls over, the bed creaking under his broad frame. Eyes snap open, instantly alert. He doesn't smoke or drink and rarely takes caffeine so when he wakes up, his head is instantly clear and ready for the day.
Glancing up at the window he can see the sun is already up with the promise of another scorching day. Standing up he flexes and stretches his long muscular legs and pushes his arms out to the side, feeling a slight increase in his heart rate as the blood is pumped quicker.
Before doing anything else he stares at the calendar on the wall and counts the days off. Thirteen today. Thirteen days since this began. Not even two weeks yet and everything has changed so much, and it’s about to change again.
He sniffs the air, detecting the scent of her deodorant. He vaguely remembers her getting out of bed before him and feels a slight pang of guilt that he slept longer than her. That’s not fair; he should be up with her, working to get everything done.