Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Zero Hour

by James Loscombe

“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” she said, her voice not rising above a whisper.

  “And would you like to?” Toby said. “Kiss me, I mean?”

  Dawn was so relieved that he hadn’t run away that she barely considered what a simple nod would lead to. As soon as the movement of her head was complete he leaned towards her and, after a moment, she leaned towards him.

  She felt his mouth open, and she copied. Although she was inexperienced he was a good teacher and the sensation was pleasant enough. More pleasant was the realisation that he had forgiven her for refusing him a kiss before.

  When they stopped, he asked if he could have a drink and she went to get it for him. Her legs felt shaky, but she made it to the sink and took out the bottle of water.

  She didn’t know what to think about the kiss, but she realised that she had overreacted the day before. It really wasn’t a big deal.

  Dawn sat beside him again and handed him the bottle. He drank and then he put his hand on her leg. She looked at him and smiled, liking the way it felt there. Then he started moving his hand further up towards her crotch, and she froze.

  “What’s the matter?” Toby said. His hand stopped moving, but he didn’t take it off her leg.

  Kissing might not have been a big deal, but she was sure that what he was trying to do next was. She wanted to push his hand away, but she remembered how terrible she had felt when she’d rejected him before.

  “It’s okay,” Toby said. “We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” But he still didn’t take his hand away.

  She didn’t tell him to take his hand away, and he left it there.

  “You can trust me, Dawn,” he said.

  She wanted to trust him, but did that mean she could? She didn’t know.

  “If you don’t want to, we can stop,” he said.

  “I just need some time to think about it,” she said.

  He squeezed her leg gently and then took his hand away. “It’s okay. I understand.”

  But did he?

  “I really like you, Toby,” she said.

  “Maybe another time?” he said.

  She nodded, glad that he was letting her off the hook. But was he really letting her off the hook? It was all so confusing, even now, seconds after he’d moved his hand away, a part of her wanted him to put it back. What if it really wasn’t okay? What if he didn’t understand? He might just be saying those things so that he could leave without making a scene.

  Dawn almost reached for his hand to put back on her leg, but before she got a chance he stood up.

  “Where are you going?” Dawn said.

  “I should see if there’s work to do,” he said. What he really meant was: if we’re not doing what I want to do, then I don’t want to be here.

  She watched him go and then turned to the window and pulled up the blind to watch him walk away. What if this was just like kissing? What if it was no big deal once you actually did it? What if she had just lost any chance she might have had with Toby, by being too inexperienced to comply with what he wanted?

  Dawn could feel tears coming again and, what was worse, she was all alone. Not even her sister (who she never would have told about this anyway) was there for company. It really seemed like the only person in the whole convoy who wanted to spend time with her was Toby. And now maybe he wouldn’t want to either.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Beth sat in the front passenger seat of the jeep. It was only the two of them in the car, and Russell had driven it away from the rest of the convoy. If she turned, she could still see them at the bottom of the hill, but she didn’t turn.

  Two weeks ago she would have worried about his plans for her at the top of the hill. He’d made no secret of wanting to get her alone. He reached into his pocket and took out a cigarette, lit it and blew smoke into the breeze. She was getting used to the smell of it now.

  “How are you settling in?” Russell said.

  Beth shrugged. “Good, I think. Why? Has somebody said something?”

  Russell laughed. “Feeling a little bit paranoid girl?”

  She forced a smile. “Yeah, guess I am.”

  He continued to smoke, and she waited for him to say more. She knew that he hadn’t brought her up here just to talk about her settling in. Something else was on his mind.

  “We’re running low on fuel,” he said.

  “So we need to go and get some?” Beth said.

  He nodded. “It’s not going to last forever, though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was talking to your friend Noel yesterday before the zombies showed up.”

  A group of a dozen zombies had surprised them in the middle of the afternoon. Nothing that they hadn’t been able to handle. Their bodies were now a smoldering heap of ashes a few miles behind them on the road.

  “He told me that refined petrol only has a shelf life of three to five years.”

  “Noel told you that?” she said. She was surprised because Noel had never struck her as someone with any sort of practical knowledge. As far as she knew, he’d worked in the theatre.

  “He did. Told me that after that we’d get decreasing returns until it stopped working completely.”

  “Is it true?” Beth said.

  “It could be, not something I know and there’s no Google to check.”

  She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the sky. They’d had clear weather for more than a week, but now dark storm clouds were starting to roll in. “What are we going to do?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” He put his cigarette out on the side of the jeep and then flicked the butt into the distance. “What do you think we should do?”

  Beth shook her head. “I suppose we could try to find somewhere to settle down,” she said. “A town or something.”

  “Will your people be okay with that?” Russell asked.

  She had given up correcting him and simply accepted that they were her people, at least as far as he was concerned. She told herself it was just a mental shortcut. Besides, being their leader was easier when she didn’t have to make decisions about anything because he was doing it all. “They’ll be fine. What about yours, though? They’ve been on the road for much longer.”

  “They’ll argue about it,” he said. “But I’ll tell them the truth and what can they do then? We could carry on with horses pulling the wagons, but I don’t think anyone wants that.”

  Beth nodded.

  Someone shouted, and they both turned. Russell had the engine on and was turning around before Beth even saw the zombie in the middle of the camp.

  * * * * *

  The jeep skidded to a halt in front of the zombie and Beth threw the door open. They had seen it at least a minute ago but still, nobody had put a bullet in its head. The lack of reaction was enough to make her check herself and confirm that it actually was a zombie, before pulling out her gun and shooting it in the head.

  She looked at the people who were just standing there, looking at it like it wouldn’t have hurt them.

  “Where’s Darell?” Russell said, puffing as he came around the other side of the jeep to join her. “Why isn’t he here?”

  Beth looked around but couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see any of the bikes and realised that he must have been out on patrol. Not only was that bad timing, but it also hadn’t been very effective; the zombie had managed to get through… and if it had caught one of the children...

  A terrible thought crossed her mind, and she turned towards the rear caravan.

  “Where’s Rachel?” she said.

  Nobody answered. Beth walked to the caravan and went inside. She was immediately hit by the smell of stale people who hadn’t washed nearly enough.

  “Rachel?” she said.

  There was no one there.

  She went to the bedroom, but there was nobody there either. The whole caravan was empty. She didn’t remember seeing anyone from Harmony out the front, but she had just been forced
to deal with a zombie she hadn’t been expecting, so maybe she’d missed them.

  The door opened behind her, and she turned around.

  “Beth?” Russell said.

  “Have you found them?”

  “Calm down,” Russell said. He walked towards her. “There’s nothing to worry about. They’re all fine.”

  “All of them?”

  “All of them. It didn’t get anyone.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Around the back, with the animals.”

  Beth went past him and out the door. She walked around the caravan to the open land behind it where the animals were grazing. She saw everyone there.

  “See?” Russell said. “Nothing to worry about. It’s over.”

  She nodded. “We should get everyone inside.”

  Russell didn’t respond, and she thought that he must have walked away to make sure his own people were safe. She turned to look for him and saw that he was still standing right behind her.

  “What’s wrong?” she said.

  He pointed, and she looked. In the distance, she could see more zombies coming towards them.

  * * * * *

  Beth looked past the front of the jeep towards the zombies. They didn’t appear to be hurrying, but they never did. She guessed there was about a hundred of them, more than she thought they could handle, but significantly less than Darrel claimed to have dealt with in the past.

  Where was Darrel? There had been no word from any of the bikers which worried her. Had they been caught and killed? Were they now amongst the undead she was about to fight?

  They would wait until the last moment before they opened fire. As soon as they started shooting, the zombies would know they were there, and the opportunity to hide would be gone. Russell had explained that there was still a chance the zombies might change direction at the last moment, or walk past without stopping.

  If they didn’t make a noise, then she might not have to shoot anyone.

  Not that they were people, of course. She knew that, and if there had been any doubt, she could see it as well. No person could have survived the injuries she saw. Wounds gaping open, large enough for her to get a fist in. Bones piercing through flesh, eyes hanging out and skin peeling off. If they had been human, they would have been in agony.

  “They’re close,” Colette said.

  Beth nodded without turning to look at her. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the undead now that they were so close.

  Dawn and the children were locked in the rear caravan. There was no contingency plan for what they would do if the zombies won and every armed adult was killed.

  She heard a gun click behind her. Russell was beside the van, Rick and Adam were on top of it. Others had taken positions around the convoy.

  The first gunshot came from somewhere behind her. A zombie at the front of the pack fell to the ground as its head exploded like a balloon filled with blood. The rest of them barely reacted. They stepped over the body, and it disappeared beneath them.

  Beth took aim and squeezed the trigger of her gun. It was the first time that she had fired such a powerful weapon, and the recoil took her by surprise. She managed to hit one of the undead but only in the shoulder.

  She quickly adjusted her aim and shot it again.

  Gunshots rang out around her, and the pack began to fall. Zombies could be fatal at close range, but if they managed to destroy them all before they reached the convoy there would be no danger.

  The zombies kept coming towards them, stepping on the bodies of their fallen, hardly reacting to the shots that were being fired until they were hit.

  Beth swapped the magazines on her gun, aimed and started firing again.

  She shot zombie after zombie, and now there were more of them on the floor than there were standing, but they kept coming. If there had been any doubt about their intelligence, this proved that they had none. Even animals would have turned and fled by now.

  Beth fired, and more of the zombies fell. By the time her second magazine was empty, there were no more zombies capable of walking.

  * * * * *

  The sound of gunfire stopped. It seemed impossible that they had actually won.

  “You did good,” Russell said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Is that all of them?” she said.

  “For now,” Russell said.

  “What about the bodies?” she said.

  “We’ll need to get rid of them,” Russell said. “They’ll attract others if we leave them there, and I don’t think we want the children to see them.”

  They stood together and looked at the bodies, spread out in some places, piled up in others. They hadn’t got far once the shooting had started. The whole thing had been over in a matter of minutes.

  In the distance, she heard a loud rumble and at first she thought it was more thunder. When she looked into the distance, all she could see was the storm clouds. The sound was coming from far away, but it was getting closer.

  “That’s them!” Colette said.

  Beth looked again, and she saw five figures racing towards them on bikes.

  “About bloody time,” Russell said, but she could tell he was relieved.

  The bikers were travelling quickly, too quickly, she thought, considering the rough ground. The last thing they needed was for them to crash.

  Hannah reached them first. She jumped off her bike, let it skid to the floor and ran up to them.

  Russell went to meet her. The smile had gone from his face.

  “We have to go!” Hannah shouted. She was a small girl, with pale blond hair that she had dyed a red stripe in.

  “What happened?” Russell said.

  “It’s coming,” Hannah said. “It’s coming.”

  Russell put his hands on her arms and stopped her moving away. By the time Beth and Colette had reached them the other bikers had arrived.

  “Is everyone packed up?” Darrel said.

  “What’s going on?” Russell said.

  “There’s a zombie,” Darrel said. He shook his head as if he was having trouble believing it, the way people had probably done before zombies had become a part of everyday life. “It’s… it’s not like the others.”

  “What do you mean?” Russell said.

  “It’s huge,” Darrel said. “It’s not… it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

  “But it’s just one zombie?” Russell said.

  Darrel nodded.

  “Then we can deal with it, can’t we?” Russell said.

  “No we can’t. It’s not like the others. It’s as big as a bus, and it’s smart. We have to go, dad.”

  Russell shook his head, and stepped back. He rubbed his face. “Are you sure?” he said.

  “I’m sure,” Darrel said.

  “Okay. Okay, we’ll go.”

  The look of relief on Darrel’s face was enough to convince Beth that he was serious. It would have been a pretty sick joke, but there was always the chance, the hope, that he had been mistaken. Now she knew he was telling the truth.

  “Everyone back inside,” Russell said, turning to call to the people who had been shooting. “We’re leaving.”

  Beth watched them climb off the roofs of vehicles. People who she hadn’t even realised were there suddenly appeared and then went inside.

  “Get your bikes,” Russell said to Darrel, Hannah, and the other bikers. Then he turned to Beth and Colette. “You two make yourself scarce. We’re not waiting around.”

  Beth nodded and turned away from him. She had been riding in the jeep with Russell since the second day of their journey, but now she didn’t want to. After the battle and, with whatever was out there now, she wanted to be with Dawn. She wanted to be surrounded by her people.

  * * * * *

  The convoy was already moving by the time she reached the caravan. She climbed up the steps and pushed open the door. The communal area was still in darkness, but she could see everyone sitting together, holding on and trying
to stay calm. Dawn stood up and came towards her.

  “Can I talk to you?” she said.

  “Can’t it wait?” Beth said. “We’re in the middle of something here.”

  “I suppose so,” Dawn said, although the way her shoulders slumped suggested she didn’t think that at all. Dawn wasn’t a stupid girl, she must have known they were in danger, so the fact she had still asked suggested it was important.

  “What is it?” Beth said.

  Before Dawn could answer the caravan stopped and they were both nearly thrown to the floor.

  “Wait here,” Beth said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’ll be back in a minute, I just need to find out what’s going on.”

  “You just got back,” Dawn said.

  Beth slipped past her without giving a response.

  The ground was muddy, and her boots stuck as she tried to walk. The wind was fierce and the rain had started to come down hard.

  Beth walked around the caravan towards the jeep at the front. She could see Russell standing next to it and from his gesticulation she guessed he was shouting, but she couldn’t hear a word he said. She made her way towards him, not even bothering to try and talk until she was nearly on top of them and she could see that he was with Darrel.

  “What’s going on?” she said, shouting to make herself heard.

  “We’re stuck,” Darrel shouted back.

  She looked around and then down. The front wheels of the jeep were buried in the mud. They were halfway down a hill, and the ground was littered with sharp looking rocks.

  “Can we get it out?” she said.

  Russell shook his head. “Not in this weather.”

  “We need to move,” Darrel said.

  “And leave the jeep behind?” Beth said.

  “Exactly,” Russell said. Then he shook his head. “I’m not leaving it, Darrel.”

  “It’s not going to do you a lot of good when you’re dead,” Darrel said. “That thing’s getting nearer. You didn’t see it. You don’t understand.”