by Ryan Colley
“Everyone gets a room to themselves,” Doc said, as people began to separate and go their own way. “Here are the things you wanted.”
He passed me the requested items and left for his room. I carried on until I found an unoccupied one. A cramped and ugly room filled with hundreds of pieces of someone’s life. Photos. Ribbons. Birthday cards. Christmas Cards. We love you, Nana! Homemade gifts. Finger paintings. Letters. Medals. Photos of a man in uniform.
I picked up one of the photos. It appeared to be one of the more recent ones. The woman in it looked so old. She was wrinkled and gaunt. Looked ill except for the smile on her face which illuminated her eyes, even through the photograph. She had two young children either side of her, smiling toothless smiles. Grandkids? Great grandkids? It could be either. She was nowhere now. Hadn’t taken anything with her. There wasn’t any sign of a struggle. No blood, either. I hoped she had survived somehow.
My thoughts turned inwards. Would I ever be a parent? A grandparent? Probably not. Not just because of not having any children, but because I doubted that I would make it to middle-aged. Would I even want to bring kids into the world? It wouldn’t be fair on them, and I doubted I could do it. I hadn’t ever thought about having kids, but now that the world had taken that option from me, I wanted children so bad. Life wasn’t fair. Why? Why did it have to happen?
“Dammit,” I sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. I would never experience life. I had been so excited to lose the responsibilities that the civilised world forced. I would never have to work or pay taxes, but I would never have a family or know true safety. The end of the world truly meant the end of all things. Not just the bad, but the good too.
After moping around in my self-pity for a while, I decided it was time to start getting ready. First things first was my hair. I ran the electric clippers over my head without even finding a mirror. I wasn’t bothered about it looking good, but was more worried about efficiency.
I watched the sink fill with my blond hair, only for it to disappear down the drain when I turned on the tap. I ran my hand over my freshly shaved head, feeling for spots I’d missed. Next was a quick shave with a manual razor to remove the stubble on the top of my head as well my developing beard. Then I needed to shower. I pulled all the safety equipment from the bath-shower combo – all the supports and handles was clearly for the previous residence. I didn’t need them and neither did anyone else anymore. I turned the shower on, extra hot, and enjoyed the cleansing heat that washed over me. I scrubbed away at my flesh until I felt truly clean.
Looking at the water that drained away, it shocked me at how filthy of a shade of brown it was. The filth must have been ingrained into my skin. Naturally, I peed in the shower, and no one has the right to act disgusted by that fact. There are two types of people in this world – those who pee in the shower, and goddamn liars.
I dried, dressed, and returned to the others, who were already done.
“Nice hair, killer,” one of the guys laughed.
“What’s that?” I smiled awkwardly.
“Your hair, makes you look like a psychopath,” he reiterated. I didn’t comment on his neck and knuckle tattoos. We all shared a laugh at my expense and then sat around waiting. One guy brought out some beer he had hidden previously and began drinking. I almost challenged him on drinking so early, only to realise I didn’t have a clue what time it was. The only clock I could see, required winding, and that had stopped long before. It was none of my business, anyway.
Once everyone was ready, we headed back. We returned uninterrupted and had one of the guards let us back in. He knew the deal and often partook in the morning visits. We went our own separate ways, except in higher spirits than when we’d left. I found my way to the centre, where the social gathering took place. There wasn’t any evidence of our previous night except for the ash from the fire. I hung around, just admiring the day and being at peace in the world.
Eventually, Boss found his way to me.
“You look chirpy today,” he smiled at me, and then added, “And a little crazy. Haircut?”
“Just a bit,” I smiled and rubbed my head. I wondered how many times I would hear a reference to how my hair made me look.
“Had anything to eat yet?” he asked. I shook my head. “I’m cooking up some bacon. Had to freeze the stuff to make it last. Gonna miss it when it’s gone. You in?”
“Sure. If that’s not a problem,” I grinned. Bacon – the true way to my heart.
“Not a problem at all. Besides, I wanna see if you’re up for a few things today,” he replied and began walking off. I wanted to show my newfound knowledge of the place, so I took the lead. Surprisingly, I got there without an issue and smiled to myself. I finally kind of knew where I was going.
CHAPTER 37
“Good?” Boss asked. I had scoffed the bacon down in seconds. It was glorious, and I so badly wanted more. I nodded, with a huge smile.
Boss also grinned. “Excellent. So how’d you feel about helping out today? It’s quite a big task and important for my future plans for the group.”
“Uh, sure,” I said, a surprising change in tone. I began to realise that the bacon may’ve been more of a bribe than a friendly offer of delicious meats.
“Great!” he cleared the table and proceeded to pull out a map from a filing cabinet.
The room was infinitely better furnished than mine. He had so much unnecessary stuff in there, exactly the sort of stuff that made a house a home, I suppose. He laid the map out, using salt shakers to hold the corners down. Several areas were highlighted, with circles drawn around the highlighted areas, including the container site.
“So what am I looking at?” I asked after a minute of silence.
“This is the area we’re currently in,” he pointed to an X. “The circle around it represents the houses we’ve cleared and taken supplies from.”
“Mm-hm,” I nodded. I could clearly see that.
“Over here,” he moved his fingers to a red circle, “is a mall. I’ve had a couple of guys watching it for a while. Before you got here, anyway. Apparently, it’s filled with meat-bags. It was open when the dead got in there, so now they’re still in there. I want that mall. It’s full of food, equipment, and there’s a hardware superstore not far from it. If we took it over, we would be completely protected. We’d get the shutters down and use stuff from the hardware store where we needed. If it was designed to keep the living out, it can keep the dead out, too.”
“So what’s stopping you?” I asked.
Having a mall seemed perfect, and incredibly cliché. They just needed a helicopter on the roof or some buses in the parking lot and they were good to go!
“We have the people, but we don’t have the firepower to take it,” he sighed, sitting back. “We’ve been waiting to see if the meat-bags let themselves out, but they seem quite content to be in there. So now we need to forcibly remove them. That is where the plan today comes in.”
“Which is?” I asked, deeply frustrated that no one ever elaborated on anything without pausing.
“This,” he pointed to another red circle on the map, “is a military outpost. We saw it the other day while driving back from clearing out some houses. It looked like a temporary setup, but there weren’t any soldiers in there. I think they were overrun and killed or something.”
I had finally clocked on to what he was saying and said as much, “You want the abandoned military equipment to help you retake the mall, right?”
“Exactly!” Boss beamed. “Now the question is, do you want to go along with the group today? I ask you since you seem to have the most experience fighting meat-bags.”
“I can do that,” I smiled, receiving a nice ego boost.
“It’ll do us a huge favour,” Boss continued, “and yourself, too. After all, you can take a share of it when you leave.”
“That’s awesome, thanks,” I smiled. “I’ll have to leave soon, you know.”
“I know, I know,” Boss n
odded and laughed. “Feel free to leave after we’ve taken the mall.”
“Sure, Boss. Cheers!” I said with a smile.
After a few moments of silence, my gaze fell to other areas marked on the map.
“What are those for?” I said, nodding at the map.
“Nothing important really,” Boss shrugged. “Previous areas we’ve looted. Potential areas of interest should we need to leave here. Some we’re using as storehouses in case we have to evacuate and need another supply of stuff.”
“Ah, makes sense,” I said, you didn’t want all your eggs in one basket. “So when are we going to the base?”
“A couple hours. I want to chat with the entire group before we go,” Boss explained. “I’ll be going too, but I want everyone to understand what we’re doing before we leave.”
“So meet at the centre in a couple hours?” I asked. Boss nodded. I didn’t know what to do with that time. It was the first free time I’d have where I was safe. An idea hit me. “Are there any spare pens or paper lying around? I wanna make a shopping list.”
Boss laughed. “Fine by me.”
He got me what I asked for, and I returned to my porta-cabin.
I sat there, a little sunlight coming through the window, but most of the world was obscured by surrounding containers and other cabins. I wasn’t in a prime location at all. Perhaps if I was living there, I could trade for a better cabin. It didn’t matter, I was leaving soon and needed to make a list. It wasn’t a shopping list as I’d told Boss, but more of a travel list. Stuff I wanted to leave with, whether thanks to Boss or from what I took from the mall. With a vehicle, I would have a lot more space to carry things as opposed to the backpack I previously had. The obvious things on the list were food and water, and a lot of it. Next was a gun and ammunition as well as sharp objects for when combat got up close and personal. Then there were other items which, although not necessary, would make my life easier – a flashlight, binoculars, a radio, and transmitter. Next were other items which, although not necessarily important to survival, would make life more comfortable – a raincoat, some thermal undergarments, two sets of clothes, a toothbrush and toothpaste, even some all-in-one body and hair wash. I would have to see what medicine I could scrounge as well. I was fully aware that luxury items would have to go amiss for the more essential stuff.
Goodbye delicious, guts-destroying fizzy drinks. Could I justify taking some whisky? It did have a dual purpose – delicious beverage and anaesthetic. But I was pushing it. I would have to go without. I could do with a satnav or a map, which would make travelling much easier. I preferred a satnav, but a map didn’t need recharging or recalibrating. The map it was, but it meant I needed a compass also. The list of what-ifs would go on and on.
I eventually just put my list to one side for later and went to wait in the centre for Boss and his big talk. A few others were there too, also waiting around. We greeted each other and acknowledged that we were all going to the same thing. The only one I recognised out of the group was Keith. We stood side by side and caught up. It hadn’t been long since we’d seen each other, but it felt like so much had happened since then.
Keith said he was asked to go because he knew a lot about guns. I told him I was asked because of my experience with the undead. He smiled. That was odd. Even Doc had some influence over what was to happen with the list of medical supplies he wanted.
Eventually, Boss turned up with the others. There was about fourteen of us altogether.
“So guys, today is quite a big day as we all know, hence you all being here,” he announced. Boss definitely had a way of talking to people. He could’ve made shovelling dung fun. “We’re going to take the military base not far from here. We need guns. We need equipment, and we need hardware. As a few of you know, we’re going to use it to take a bigger prize.”
“What is it?” one of the men called out.
“I’ll get to that in a bit. Either way, we need the weapons,” Boss replied. “So there are a few things we need to be careful of. As far as we can tell, there isn’t anyone living on the base. We’ve checked on it every couple days and haven’t seen anyone. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few still left. If there is, we’ll leave or ask them to join us. But it isn’t worth the unnecessary deaths. If there isn’t anyone alive, we still need to be careful – there will probably be meat-bags there. So we take it slow and steady. We’ll have someone on guard at the gate, and always stay in groups. We can watch each other’s backs. Finally, don’t forget to announce yourself if you see any other group. We don’t want any mishaps. We all clear?”
A combination of “aye” and “yeah” rang out.
“Let’s get going, then!” Boss called. We all left for the North Gate, guns and weapons already prepped for our journey. We climbed in, spread out between three vehicles, and left.
CHAPTER 38
“See anything?” Boss asked me. I had ended up in his group, with Keith and a few others. I was looking through a set of binoculars at the apparently abandoned military base. We had parked out of sight and were watching from a distance. The other half of the group had approached from the rear and were doing similar.
“Nothing,” I replied simply. “Undead and that’s it.”
The base consisted of three buildings and enclosed by a chain-link fence. I think it was probably an outpost or a supply depot, and never intended to be more. Even calling it a military base seemed a glorification. There wasn’t even a gate, but an opening for vehicles to drive in with sandbags either side. I could see corpses, and not just the shambling kind. The military had definitely lost that one. Luckily for us, no one else had the foresight to pick it clean – if they had, then they’d also been killed by zombies. There were guns scattered here and there, and some still clung to the undead thanks to the strap. Boss stood up and began walking to the base, everyone else followed. The other group appeared and made their way to the entrance also. We already had our weapons drawn – me with my trusty machete and the Benelli shotgun I had claimed ownership of. I didn’t feel I needed the shotgun as there were so many of us and so few of the undead, the machete would be the way forward.
“Remember lads, once we’re sure the place is empty of anything other than us, we meet in the middle and leave our weapons. No accidents today,” Boss reiterated. He was really against any accidental injuries occurring – I wonder how many times that had happened before. I didn’t mind, I didn’t want someone to accidentally discharge their weapon into me either.
“Can I put forward a suggestion?” I asked, an idea coming to me.
“Go ahead Sam,” Boss nodded, giving me the floor.
“I think we should only use guns as a last resort,” I began, gaining a few odd looks. “In my encounters with the undead, they’re drawn by sound. Gunshots included. If we take them out silently, we will potentially save ourselves more hassle later.”
A few people nodded approval and Boss said, “Sounds like a plan. Only use a firearm when you really have too.”
We all moved out and entered the base slowly. A few of the undead noticed our arrival. I wasn’t at the front of the group, so I got to see the visceral evisceration of the undead skulls being done by someone else for once. The first attack was two rapid strikes from a hammer. The first dented the zombie’s forehead, the skin sunk slightly where the skull had fractured below the surface. The second strike sunk through the flesh and into the rotting brain beneath. The zombie dropped, pulling the hammer and the man still holding it tightly, to the floor. The hammer was stuck pretty damn good. All I could think about was how ill-prepared the man was for fighting the undead, and that you shouldn’t use hammers! I snapped back from the momentary lapse in reality. A snarling zombie had dived on the person, pulling itself and the man towards each other, jaws snapping hungrily. I was reminded of piranhas. The man was doomed. That was it, he would be eaten. However, that wasn’t the case. Another two of the men dived forward and pulled the zombie off of their fallen friend. He
stood up and brushed himself off, smiling awkwardly. He was perfectly fine! The two guys held the thrashing zombie down while the man used the hammer to kill it once and for all. The face was left in a bloody mess and beyond recognition by the time he was done, but the zombie wasn’t moving and no one had died. Huh … I guess being in a team could be necessary for survival. I always wanted to be alone, but a team of people you trusted could work! I mean, he only survived because there was someone to watch his back, and they trusted each other enough to do that. All I needed was a team I could fully trust.
The men moved further and further into the base, dealing with any undead they found. I was teamed up with Boss, and we encountered no trouble at all. All the undead had either been killed or were not there – the men may have been inexperienced but they were very efficient. The only place left to check was a large shed-like structure … the one with munitions printed in thick block letters above the door.
“The motherlode?” I said to Boss with a huge smile.
“Let’s open it,” Boss grinned excitedly. I nodded and gave the metallic door a few taps. Nothing stirred inside. We were set. Boss stood by the door, ready to swing at any attackers, and I gripped the handle. I signalled to him a countdown before pushing the door. It bulged inwards slightly at where I pushed the handle, but it didn’t move. I tried again, pulling it – nothing.
“I think it’s locked from the inside,” I said with disappointment. Boss aimed his gun at the door. I shouted, voice high-pitched with panic, “No! If you hit anything inside, it’s gonna be very bad for us.”
“Ah,” Boss concluded and lowered his gun. Smart people could do surprisingly dumb things. “I think there is a crowbar in one of the trucks.”