“Well why don’t I distract them and you two run off together that way you get to stay with him”, she said.
I shook my head, “I can’t let you do that, I nearly got you killed before I’m not going to let that happen again, I promise I will meet up with you both in town”.
“And what if you don’t and you get eaten?” she snapped, “How’s that keeping him safe?”
“Then I get eaten and you two will have to survive together without me, you both did that before a couple of days ago, anyhow I’ve only brought trouble for you both maybe you will both be better off without me. Ollie you lost Sian as soon as I showed up and Monique you lost Darren, with me away you might have a chance”, I said spilling all the pent up hatred I held for myself over to them, I knew that wasn’t how they felt but it was how I felt, I really did feel that me turning up had been a bad move for both of them and now they were both willing to follow me to find my sister even though they could just turn away and refuse, even though she meant nothing to them and I was just some stranger that had turned up in their town.
“That’s not how I see it”, Ollie replied to me.
Looking at him I could see the pain in his eyes over mentioning Sian and I knew I shouldn’t have but I thought maybe that might spur him into going with my plan, the fact that Sian had wanted him to survive so much, over her own life, I really wanted to make sure she hadn’t done it for nothing, “How do you see it?” I asked.
“Sian trusted you to look after me, she knew some day she wouldn’t be around, I heard her talking in her sleep, her restless dreams yet she thought this war hadn’t affected her it had. She spoke about when she would mess up and wouldn’t be here to watch over me and that was her biggest fear until we met you. Yes at first she didn’t trust you but you were willing to try and save her even though she had been hurt and would have been a burden to you, you kept trying to help us and even when she had died you still went after the doctor to avenge her. I don’t want to lose you and Sian wouldn’t want you to leave me”, he said sounding strong.
I felt guilty that I had kept those feelings inside when that wasn’t how either of them saw me, “I just don’t want to get you hurt, the closer we get to the big guns to the more chance you two could both get hurt!”
“Maybe but what else do we have to live for now? We have no home, no friends and no family so we might as well follow you. If it ends badly then we lived for those few days, we made use of the time we had left instead of sitting and rotting in some basement pretending to be surviving”, Monique added.
“So what do we do? How do we get past the creatures?” I asked.
“Do they like chicken?” Ollie asked me.
I shrugged, “No idea never asked”, I laughed.
“Let’s try”, he smiled.
But before he could suggest any crazy ideas about maybe throwing cooked chicken to them we heard a loud thumping noise in the distance but it was getting closer and closer quite quickly.
Turning to where the noise was coming from I spotted something appearing from out of the tree line near the stream, roaring out of the woods came a metallic blue Nissan Navara truck and it looked mean, it had been modified to the nines to deal with the new threats of this world, an A-bar had been welded to the front, large pointed spikes had been created sticking out in front of the cab and I knew that had been used for to smash into the creatures, to tear them apart. As the motor bee lined for our position I noticed that chicken wire had replaced the glass windows, its use to stop the ones that might try climbing from getting in, spotting the pointed end of a gun I watched as bullets flew out from the chicken wire slamming into some of the bodies, taking down whole armies of the creatures. Blood spattered up and all around a horde of the monsters, arms, legs, torso’s and heads all flying off in different directions as the bullets ripped them apart. The driver of the truck made a handbrake turn smashing the side of the vehicle into some of them sending them flying into the air and landing so that they died on impact, bones snapped and twisted as they collapsed back to earth. The back of it had been crudely cut away revealing the bed of the pickup and on it crudely welded to the roof was a machine gun of some sort, watching the raving driver and his passenger I held my breath as one of them climbed out the back window into the bed, a woman with jet black hair cut into a pixie crew cut, she wore a leather jacket, khaki linen trousers and big tough girl boots she could have easily been an army princess. She took aim with the machine gun and let rip into the crowd that had gathered by a fence as the creatures tried to get to the new food that was running a mock, now I could see why they had cut away the back as the rain of her bullets whipped through the flesh of the monsters like Swiss cheese making them fall to the ground in pieces but the empty shells fell to the floor off the bed and flew out the back leaving a trail of metal. The monsters blood and guts sprayed all around the farm turning the once green grass into a mass of blood red body matter.
The noise from the gun and the thumping of music inside the drivers cab was deafening but I couldn’t complain as they seemed to be saving our butts and we needed all the help we could get at this moment in time, I just hoped they were good guys too and not another group of terror like the big guns, I really didn’t need to be kidnapped by a rival gang right now. The driver seemed to be having fun as he raced around the farm as if it were a race track tearing up the land, smothering the vehicle and the creatures in mud, whilst manoeuvring the vehicle he also took aim with a pistol and fired a few rounds at some stragglers that he hadn’t hit, the girl stopped using the machine gun and took to using her pistol, maybe she’d run out of ammo or maybe she just wanted to save what was left, either way both of them were bloody good shots taking down loads, me and Monique took this as our turn to join in, taking aim at the ones below us we shot them down, blasting them in the head. One of the creatures turned its ugly rotting face to me, one of its eyes had fallen out of its socket, its mouth had been ripped to pieces by whomever had originally bitten it, exposed gums leered at me with bloodied teeth, taking aim I blasted its head off.
Once most of the threats were gone the driver pulled up just below our roof, turning off the thumping music and opening their doors they both got out, the girl looked up at us with dark brown but almost black iris’s, they were really alluring but piercing, peering into my eyes to see if I was a threat at all to her. The bloke climbed out the other side who must have been her brother the same jet black hair other than his was longer grown into an unruly wavy man bob, he had stubble that was dark around his chiselled jaw line, his dark piercing eyes looked us over examining us for bite wounds, he was tall maybe around the 6ft mark and he looked to be a couple of years older than his sister my guess would be around 23, making her around 21. He wore a denim jacket with a fur lining on the inside, a dark grey top sat under it making it plain to the eye he worked out, a long silver chain swung from his neck and just peering out from the neck line was the beginning of a tattoo but what image I couldn’t see. From his shirt he wore jeans which were tucked into some hard wearing leather boots, I finished looking him over and met his eyes again, I felt my cheeks burn as he smirked at me, looking away I tried to hide a brief smile he was handsome and he knew it but I had no chance, why was I even thinking that anyway? The end of the world had happened and he must be 6 years my senior, plus there was the whole not knowing if they were good or bad guys yet.
The guy spoke first cutting the weird awkward silence we had created between us, “Why don’t you guys come on down from your little perch?” his voice was an Irish velvet slur which slithered along my spine but it held a hint of danger which made me stick my arm out when Ollie stepped forward to jump down.
“Is it safe?” I asked looking at him.
The bloke laughed at me making me feel uneasy, “Look around do you think we would be standing here if there were any more of those things running round?”
“That’s not what I meant”, I said bluntly, yes he was handsome but that could make him
more dangerous, make women feel safe so they follow only to be caught and what if he was part of the big guns? Would he just kidnap us and kill us or worse? Yes I wanted and needed to find them but on my terms not theirs.
“What do you mean then girly?” he asked me his eyes like fire in mine, I wanted to squirm away but I needed to show we could hold our own.
“We know about that group the big guns, we don’t want any trouble we just want to go on our way”, I said studying his reaction but he showed nothing, not a flinch or a knowing look.
Nodding to himself he smiled again, “Do we look like the big guns? Where’s our patches?” he pointed to his arms and his sisters.
“You could have taken them off to fool us”, Ollie piped up trying to sound like the man in our group.
“If we were them we wouldn’t need to take them off to fool you, we would probably just kill you and take you anyway. Why would we save your asses just to kill you ourselves?” he said not bothering to look at the others just me, “Why don’t you come on down and introduce yourselves”.
I looked at Monique and she just shrugged but before we could discuss it Ollie had taken it upon himself to jump down, if he felt safe then I suppose they might be ok, right? Following Ollie we both jumped down after him, I took a quick scan of the area to make sure they weren’t lying and that some creatures weren’t hiding in wait to have us for a snack, after seeing the area was well and truly clear I turned to face the brother and sister duo.
She looked at me with a hard face, the guy had definitely taken the good genes from the family “So what’s your names?” she asked with the same Irish slur.
“I’m Stacie, this is Monique and Ollie”, I said motioning to the others.
“I’m Amanda this is my brother Callum”, she said back to us, I could see right away she had taken a dislike to me. I had no idea why? Maybe it was because I was acting like the leader of my pack which I wasn’t as we all made decisions together, sort of.
“So where are you guys headed?” Callum asked.
I felt a little sheepish now as I had tried to make out that we wanted nothing to do with the big guns, I had almost accused them of being part of that group and now what? Did I just spill what our plans were? “I’m looking for my sister”, I replied, that’s all they needed to know, I didn’t owe them a complete answer but it was the truth.
“Oh right, any ideas on her where bouts?” Callum asked me.
“Someone told me they spotted her in Bognor Regis”, I replied.
His eyes narrowed a little as he looked at me but he didn’t let on if he knew anything about Bognor, “Right well you’re going to need some rest and supplies right?”
I shook my head, “No we should be ok we can hunt for food thanks”.
“So you have an endless supply of bullets then do you?” he asked me sarcastically.
“No but…” I began but Amanda cut me off.
“No butts it’s settled you come with us we have a camp not far from here, we have set up residence in an old T.A base. We have ammunition, food and supplies for travelling, might come in handy for you guys”, she said jumping back in the truck and taking shotgun in the front passenger seat.
Callum led us to the back of the pickup, “You guys can sit in the back but don’t use the machine gun leave that to Amanda that’s her baby right!”
“Hang on, how did you know we were here?” I asked, I felt like we had the right to know especially since our lives could be unwittingly at stake here.
“Does it matter? We saved your asses”, Amanda spoke getting up and in my face from her seat.
“Yeah it matters, we’ve been through a lot in the past few days and we want to know whether your friend or foe. How did you know we were here, were you following us?” I leant right into hers.
Callum put his arm between me and Amanda separating us, “No we weren’t following you. We were out on lookout making sure that our surroundings near the base were safe. We spotted a few creatures so we decided to check it out and came across you guys and all this lot”, he motioned to the now all dead creatures.
“Right and does that make you friend or foe to us?” Monique said from beside me.
“I think that is pretty obvious”, Amanda growled.
“Not really, how do we not know that when you have us in your grasp that you won’t just kill us or hurt us?”
“You don’t but I guess you will just have to trust us and wait and see”, Callum said giving Ollie a leg up into the bed of the truck.
“Fine but we’re keeping our weapons”, Monique sniped.
“Sure thing but we never said you had to give them up”, Callum smiled giving me a leg up.
“Whatever”, Monique answered back to him, he tried to help her giving her a leg up but she swiped his hand away and pulled herself up.
Callum sped off in the truck and as I watched the farm house speed off into the distance I had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that something didn’t feel right, they seemed too nice. Yes a little rough and ready and the sister a little scary but I guess they had saved us from a nightmare but it seemed a little strange that now they were also so willing to share food, ammo and supplies, this seemed too good to be true and normally these things were. As the vehicle travelled over the grassy terrain I did consider getting the other two to jump off with me and make a run for it but they had a fast 4 x 4 and a huge weapon which would run us down in seconds, so for now I guess I had to grin and bear it.
The truck bounced over fields and at some points I had to hold on for dear life, as the vehicle turned sharply I tugged on Ollie’s top as he slid to the open back which dropped down to the fast moving ground beneath us. Trees flew past us in a blur of greens and browns, some animals whizzed past but too quick for me to see what they were, it took about ten more minutes before a hidden T.A base came looming out from behind the trees, Callum leant on the horn alerting someone to them being back which in turn opened a large gate, a large fenced area surrounded rows of small buildings inside, to one side of the buildings was a large pile of dead bodies smoking and smouldering as they had obviously been infected and burnt, the other side was a lush green pasture with food being grown and tended to. These people had quite a large camp, people stared at us as Callum pulled up in a small garage area surrounded by more people and they looked so shocked to have found more survivors. He and Amanda climbed out, another guy came over taking both their weapons checking them over and then stuffing more ammo in them and into some bags and loading the truck up ready for its next outing, he also re fuelled it and checked under the bonnet. He was a middle aged man with greying hair around the edges, his black skin coated with grime and sweat as he worked quickly and carefully.
“Cheers Gavin”, Callum said to the bloke.
“No prob’s I’ll be out with you in a minute”, the bloke Gavin called back.
“Take your time we’ve got newbies so I’ll show them to a dorm and then we can chat”, Callum said leading us out of the small garage out into the camp.
The other survivors of the camp had all come over to greet us, men, women, children, this place was their safe haven. They looked to be doing great here to, the children looked well fed and healthy and the adults happy. Taking a closer look I realised not all of the survivors had come, some were positioned at posts around the camp keeping look out, Callum and Amanda led us to them and made us all stand in a circle, I felt a little bit like a freak show.
“This is Stacie, Monique and Ollie our new recruits although they might not be staying for long, so please make them feel welcome and if they need anything show them but like always we keep each other safe so if they are doing anything you consider unsafe to the group as a whole tell Amanda or myself and we will deal with it”, he said to them all.
For a moment they just stared before suddenly some of them came over to hug us, shake our hands and talk to us about how they had feared they were the only ones and how nice it was to see new faces. Then Callum whiske
d us away to a small housing block near the end of the site, the outside of the building was mainly a quick concrete build of a shell with small windows and a shoddy roof but inside it was made to feel homely, the people that already occupied this part had made it cosy and warm, decorating with things they must have found on their travels. He led us through to the end to two small rooms, he pointed me to small room with bunks, by the looks of things the top bunk had already been taken by another girl as some clothes had been folded neatly on top of the cover and the room next door was for Ollie and Monique, I went to protest to say I wanted to be in with Ollie but the guy spoke first.
“Please make yourselves feel at home, rest for a bit if needed, we eat at around four before sunset I will see you all then and speak to you about your plans but right now I have to check out a few things around the camp”, he said.
“Thank you”, I said to him as he turned to leave.
He turned back to me and just smiled before leaving us. Ollie came in to see me and sat on my bunk with me for a while, “Do you think we can just stay here?” he asked.
“Maybe”, I said earnestly, I did like the feel of this place the vibe was happy and by the looks of things they had been here and happy for a while but I couldn’t quite shake that uneasy feeling that sat beneath the surface that something was amiss.
“But you wanted to go to the big guns and find your sister, which means we won’t stay”, he said in a confused tone.
“I can always go alone and leave you and Monique here. You don’t have to come with me that’s my little mission”, I replied giving his shoulder a squeeze.
“But I don’t want to lose you”, he told me.
“I’ll come back and I’ll bring my sister too”, I said to him.
“What if they don’t let you back out?” he asked.
“Oh they will don’t you worry”, I said scuffing his hair maybe it was better if those two did share a room, if they did end up staying here if they liked it then it would be easier for my piece of mind if they were always together.
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