by Thomas Hall
The only thing that the town didn’t seem to have in abundance was food. She had personally gone with the team to check the different shops which, from the outside, had appeared untouched. However, once they got inside they saw that the shelves had been cleared completely and the only thing they could find in any of them was more cigarettes for Russell.
The lack of food worried her, but Russell promised that he had everything in hand and she had seen the bikers ride out of the town a few times, returning with sacks of something. She believed him, but it didn’t stop her worrying.
The children shared a house with Rachel, David and Kathy. Beth was a couple of houses along from them with Dawn and Noel.
In the evenings they all gathered in one of the houses with a working fireplace and sat together, talking and eating as they warmed themselves. Darrel had managed to find a number of hot water bottles and they each took one away with them when it was time for bed.
Beth could see them being happy there. When the weather began to warm up they would be able to plant food and consider more permanent solutions. After a week she had no reason to regret her decision to stay and she looked on the possibility of returning to the road with a sense of dread.
Beth walked until she could no longer hear the sound of Darrel sawing firewood. She stopped in a street not disimilar to the one they now inhabited. The biggest difference was that the buildings here were older, and she wondered whether it was too late to move the convoy there. It seemed likely that more of them would have working fireplaces.
She started walking again and after a few minutes something caught her eye. At first she wasn’t sure that she’d seen anything at all, but she stopped and kept looking in the direction the sudden movement had come from. It took a while but then she saw it again.
A dark shape stood against the side of a distant town house.
Whatever it was moved too smoothly, with too much purpose, to be a zombie.
An animal then, maybe a dog that had been left behind and turned feral. There had to be plenty of them, somewhere, although she had rarely seen them. Dogs and cats didn’t seem to be effected by the virus, but when their human masters had abandoned them, they had turned into monsters of a different kind.
She walked towards the shape more cautiously. She had a pistol strapped to her thigh, but wondered if she should return for backup.
As she approached the building the thing disappeared. She rounded the corner where it had been and saw nothing there. Then she looked up the road and saw the unmistakeable form of a human running away.
Beth was so stunned that, for a moment, she just stood there watching. She wondered if it was someone from the convoy, but she didn’t think so.
‘Wait!’ she shouted, not thinking about who, or what, else might hear her.
The person didn’t stop and Beth watched them disappear around a corner and out of sight.
She thought she had lost them. After a moment she began to wonder whether she had seen them at all. Then she looked down and saw fresh footprints in the snow and knew that she hadn’t been imagining it.
The decision of whether or not to follow them was an easy one to make. Beth patted the gun on her leg for reassurance and set off.
At the top of the hill she stopped to look around. Most of the view was obscured by buildings, so she couldn’t see much, but what she could see gave her hope. This wasn’t a small place. This was a place that they could grow into over years, over generations, and turn into a home. They could put down roots and start to live their lives again. It wouldn’t be another Harmony, but it could be a home.
She saw another flash of movement down below. When she looked she saw the figure again, still running, and set off after them.
Whoever it was led her around the dankest part of the town. The buildings looked as if they should have been condemned, even before the zombies had shown up. They were covered in graffiti and looked rotten beneath it.
The figure kept going and she continued to follow. Through the other side of the decaying buildings and back to greener pastures.
A little later she became aware of other footprints in the snow and didn’t think that they belonged to the same person, they certainly didn’t belong to her.
When she looked up again she saw that the figure had stopped. A terrible thought occurred to her, but it didn’t stop her going towards him.
The boy didn’t look much older than Dawn. He was dressed in black from head to foot and stood in stark contrast to the snow covered ground and buildings. He had wild dark hair that had been swept back off his face and his cheeks were burning red.
‘It’s okay,’ Beth said as she walked towards him. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
She considered taking her gun out and laying it on the floor but she didn’t know what sort of damage the snow might do and she wasn’t prepared to lose a gun for the emotional wellbeing of a child she had never met.
As she got closer she became aware that something wasn’t right.
The place where he had stopped was crowded with buildings, dark spaces where anyone could be hiding. She told herself that she was being silly, seeing ghosts where there weren’t any, she kept going towards him, a little more cautiously than before.
The boy didn’t move. As she got closer she readjusted her estimate of his age to being even younger than Dawn. He looked about ten years old, but he was remarkably clean and his clothes looked as if they had recently been washed.
‘My name’s Beth,’ she said.
The boy didn’t reply but she hadn’t expected him to.
‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
The boy barely moved but she was close enough now to see the rise and fall of his chest. Close enough, she later thought, that she should have been able to guess what was going to happen.
But she didn’t.
Strong hands gripped her from behind and she cried out in surprise.
She struggled to get away but there was nothing she could do and now more people were appearing in front of her. By the time the bag was pulled over her head there were at least ten people standing there, looking at her and an untold number standing behind.
Beth tried to keep track of the turns they were taking, left, right, straight ahead for a minute, but they came so quickly and suddenly that she soon lost track. The bag that they had placed over her head became warm with her breath.
After a while she tried to talk to them.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she said.
No one answered her.
‘I’m not here to hurt you,’ she said, which seemed like a ridiculous thing to say in her current situation. She wouldn’t have been able to hurt them if she tried.
None of her captors spoke and she gave up trying to make them.
Eventually she lost track of time and was surprised when they stopped. She listened to muffled voices but was now too cold and confused to understand what they were saying. All she could do was hang there lifelessly. She wondered if they were going to kill her.
The quality of the air changed and she was aware of a distant warmth. She guessed they were inside and the sound of a door closing confirmed it. The footsteps of the people carrying her were muted by carpet. Beth couldn’t find the strength to struggle. She just let them take her wherever they were taking her.
Which turned out to be a small room which she would have described as a cell.
The bag was removed from her head and she blinked in her new surroundings. The walls and floor were bare concrete and, once the door was closed, there was no way for her to see what lay beyond.
She banged on the door for a while, but the metal was so thick that she didn’t think anyone heard her. She was a butterfly flapping her wings against a sheet of glass. She paced around for a while, but that didn’t get her anywhere either. So she sat cross-legged on the floor and waited to see what would happen next.
When the door finally opened she looked up at a very tall man. His body was malformed in the
way that very tall people often were. He had to stoop to get into the cell and, when he stood up, she found herself comfortably below the height of his chest. He took her arm without asking her permission and led her away.
They walked in silence along endless corridors.
The giant stopped outside a door. It was made of a light, modern wood with a gold handle and hinges. He knocked with a giant fist and then stepped back, waiting.
‘Come in,’ a voice called a moment later.
The giant opened the door for her, but didn’t go through himself. Beth looked up at him and he nodded that she should go ahead.
She took a deep breath and entered the room.
It was a large space, but somehow cosy. There was a fire burning in the hearth which gave everything a flickering warm glow. The carpet was the same rich red as the one outside had been, but laced with an intricate pattern of gold diamonds. There were paintings on the walls and plants against the window. In the middle of the room there was a large oak desk and sitting behind it was a woman with short grey hair.
The door closed behind her.
‘Sit down,’ the woman said and indicated the single chair opposite the desk.
Beth didn’t know what to do so she followed the woman’s instructions. She crossed the room and sat.
‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ the woman said.
‘My name’s Beth Malone.’ She drew herself upright. ‘And who are you?’
The woman stared at her and Beth stared back. At a guess, she put the woman in her late sixties, but well preserved. She wore little makeup and just a hint of perfume. She had a faintly disapproving look about her.
‘I’m the one asking questions,’ she said. ‘You should be more careful.’
‘Should I?’
‘If you don’t want to go back into the cell.’
Beth nodded, unsure what she hoped to achieve by antagonising the woman, but finding it difficult to forgive and forget.
‘My name is Margaret Eastfall,’ the woman said. ‘Now answer my question: what are you doing here?’
‘There’s a group of us,’ Beth said. ‘We’ve been travelling and needed somewhere to stop for the winter.’
‘And you decided to pick my town?’
‘Is that what it is?’
Margaret leaned across the desk. She had dark eyes and arched eyebrows. ‘This isn’t the right place for you. You aren’t welcome here.’
‘That’s unfortunate,’ Beth said.
‘We’re a small community,’ Margaret said. ‘Despite appearances, our resources are limited. I’m sure you understand.’
‘Of course,’ Beth said.
‘Then you’ll go?’ Margaret said, with disbelief, she hadn’t expected it to be so easy.
Beth decided not to disappoint her. ‘I didn’t say that.’
Margaret leaned back in her chair and seemed to prepare herself for what she had expected all along. Beth prepared to let her have it.
The room seemed to have become much smaller. Beth glanced at the windows and saw that it was getting dark. People would be looking for her soon.
‘Where were you when the zombies were outside?’ Beth said.
‘Excuse me?’ Margaret said.
‘Where were you and your people last week?’
‘I don’t see what business that is of yours,’ she said, which was about what Beth had expected.
‘Me and my people risked our lives to get rid of the zombies. We saved you.’
‘You did nothing of the sort.’
Beth ignored the interruption. ‘And I suppose you think it can’t happen again, that you’ve had your zombie attack and now you’re safe. Well you’re not. I’ve been out there and I know it’s not safe, I know that there are more of them coming and you won’t be able to hide.’
Margaret smiled. ‘Very good. Except you’re wrong about one thing: we know that it will happen again. It has happened before and life is like that. When the zombies come again we’ll be ready for them.’
‘You’ll hide you mean?’
‘Exactly. We don’t have to kill in order to survive.’
Beth tried to ignore the insult, if that was what it was. But it seemed silly for the two groups to be at odds when they both wanted the same thing. ‘We can help you. You wouldn’t have to run and hide every time a group of zombies turns up. We’re prepared for them. We’re armed.’
‘I expect you are, but that’s not what we want.’
‘What do you want?’ Beth said. ‘Because if you carry on like this you’ll end up getting yourselves killed. We can help you.’
‘We don’t want your help,’ Margaret said.
‘But if we work together, your people and my people, we can make a better life here. When Spring comes we could plant crops and grow our own food. Doesn’t that sound worthwhile to you?’
‘We have our own plans,’ Margaret said.
Beth felt as if she wasn’t getting anywhere with the woman. She had no intention of leaving the town though and it would be better for them all if they could find some way to live together.
‘You’re wasting your time,’ Margaret said. ‘I’ve told you what I want and now I’ll ask you to pack up your toys and go.’
‘Why though?’ Beth said.
‘Because I don’t trust you,’ Margaret said.
‘Why not?’ Beth said. ‘Your people led me into a trap. They kidnapped me. What have we ever done to you?’
Margaret shook her head. ‘I know your sort. You don’t think you’re the first group of travellers to come here, do you?’
Beth considered it and decided that it was unlikely.
‘You want to take what we’ve got here for yourselves and I won’t allow it. We’re happy here, we don’t want you and I won’t rest until you’re gone.’
That seemed final and Beth didn’t have anything else to say on the matter, it seemed that Margaret didn’t either. The door opened behind Beth.
‘Come in,’ Margaret said.
Beth turned, expecting to see the giant again, but instead she saw three smaller men, all dressed in the same black as the boy she had followed in the first place.
‘Philip, come in,’ Margaret said. ‘Miss Malone was just leaving.’
‘Was I?’ Beth said.
‘Yes,’ Margaret replied. ‘And if you know what’s good for you then you won’t stop at the door. Take yourself and your rag tag crew and get as far out of my town as you can. Do you understand?’
Beth stood up and walked to the door but refused to give Margaret the satisfaction of an answer. Instead she followed the man called Philip and his two accomplices out of the room with no intention of going further.
The three men led her out of the building. By now she felt herself incapable of surprise, but she still raised an eyebrow when she looked back and saw that she had come out of the red brick town hall. The ground had been cleared of zombies and cleaned (people from the convoy had even done that for them!) and there was no sign of what had happened.
Had Margaret and her people been inside the whole time?
‘Keep moving,’ Philip said.
Beth walked along the street, feeling a deep-rooted disgust for the place. She remembered what had happened there and couldn’t separate her feelings for the place from the events. If it hadn’t been for Margaret and her people she never would have come here. The two groups could have lived without knowledge of each other for years.
The men let her go once they reached the bridge.
She kept looking back every few steps, but they weren’t coming after her, and soon she could no longer see them. She kept going, unsure where she was, but not willing to return to the bridge to find herself again.
It took her almost an hour to find her was back to the convoy and, by the time she arrived, it was properly dark. She could see lights on in the house with the fireplace and also, curiously, in some of the caravans. She went there first.
Russell, Noel, Darrel and a few o
thers were leaning over a map of the town and didn’t notice her arrival.
‘What’s going on?’ she said.
Russell stood up so quickly that the cigarette fell out of his mouth and he fumbled desperately to catch it before it hit the map and started to burn.
‘Beth! Jesus?’ he said.
She turned to look him and received a sudden bear hug that almost cut off the air to her lungs. She wriggled her way out of his arms and took a step back.
‘What’s going on?’ she said, more of a question now than it had been the first time she’d asked.
‘We were coming to find you,’ Noel said. ‘We thought something had happened.’
Russell managed to get himself under control and looked at her for a moment before speaking. ‘What did happen? No one’s seen you since this morning.’
She had no reason to lie to them, but a part of her felt like doing so anyway.
Beth shook her head in a gesture of ‘you don’t want to know’, but she told them anyway.
‘There’s other people in town…’
CHAPTER 7
LIGHT STREAMED INTO THE HOUSE. IT REFLECTED OFF the fresh snow and ice outside and made everything feel as if it should be warm, but it wasn’t.
Beth made breakfast: almost stale cereal and a spoonful of jam. Then she stood by the gas oven and made coffee using the stove top espresso maker she had found in the cupboard.
At the back of her mind she knew that a decision would be required, but she was putting it off. She didn’t want to think about it. There was no easy answer and the longer she ignored it, the more difficult it would be to get everyone away. Already, she thought, there were people who would refuse to go. What was she supposed to do then? Abandon them?
A knock at the door pulled her back to reality and she saw Russell standing there. She nodded and he came in.
‘Is that coffee?’ he said, nodding at the stove.
‘Do you want some?’ she said.
‘Please,’ he said. He pulled out a chair from the round kitchen table and sat down heavily.
Beth finished making the drinks, knowing that the sooner she was done, the sooner she would have to talk to Russell. There was no point pretending that she didn’t know why he was there.