“She could quite easily turn around and start following us again in a different car as soon as we were out of sight. Let’s ask her some more questions, but not take all day about it,” Jack replied.
“Okay, I’ll ask her a few more, but if she comes for us, we shoot, right?” I said.
Everyone behind the car nodded in agreement.
“If you want to kill us, you’re welcome to try. But one of us will then kill you, so there is no chance that you will be able to kill yourself. Do you understand?” I shouted.
“Why would I want to kill you or myself? What are you talking about? Is that what’s been happening?”
“Strip to your underwear,” Jack shouted.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Lea whispered.
“I am just making sure she has no concealed weapons.”
Lea shook her head. “Are you trying to get a cheap thrill?”
“Fuck you,” the woman answered.
“There’s another car coming towards us,” Bernie said.
In the distance, from the direction we had travelled, was a silver car.
“Let’s see if the next car can sort it out with her,” Jack said.
“What do you mean?” Bernie asked.
“We stay where we are and let the car approach. The woman and the other driver can talk, and we’ll see what happens.”
“What if she isn’t a killer and the other person is?” Lea said.
“We’ll shoot whoever attacks. If they are killers, one of them will slip if they get close to each other.”
“You’re going to use me as bait?” the woman screamed.
We all looked at her, then each other.
“Please, let me come behind that car with you.”
“Stay where you are or we’ll shoot,” I shouted.
The silver car approached slowly and pulled up alongside the woman. Inside sat an elderly looking man. He took a moment to look at us pointing our weapons at him and at the woman on her knees in front of us.
He wound down his window and shouted, “What the hell are you doing? Lower your guns.”
The shout seemed to be directed towards us.
“You don’t fool us, make one false move and I’ll blow your brains out,” Jack shouted back.
“Don’t be so absurd man, now lower your weapons,” he replied.
The woman jumped up and ran up to the driver’s window.
“Please let me come with you. These fucking perverts wanted me to strip-off at gunpoint. Please help me.”
I watched in astonishment as the woman jumped into the passenger seat and the car started to move away.
As it passed us, the elderly man leaned out of the window, “Haven’t you seen the mess around you? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The woman raised her middle finger out of the passenger window, and the car disappeared into the distance.
“What was that? They didn’t to want to kill each other,” Bernie said.
I was trying to think of a logical reason behind it.
“Had they both been on flights like we had?” Jack replied.
“The woman said the last thing she remembered was being in a car crash. Maybe being unconscious had left her unaffected and the man had been on a plane? I don’t know, it seems unlikely,” I said.
“Do you think the killer thing has stopped?” Lea said.
“If everyone is okay again, shall we go back to my place?” Bernie said.
“Guys, don’t forget what happened on the Long Island Expressway,” I replied, “I think we need to come across more people before coming to any hasty conclusions.”
“There’s no way I am going back to the City,” Jack added. “The place is in a complete mess and will be absolutely stinking in a day or two.”
I looked around for any other moving vehicles but couldn’t see any. I turned to face the group who were still stood by our cover vehicle, “We stick with the plan and keep heading to the countryside. It will keep us away from the smell of thousands of rotting corpses and gets us into an area of low population.”
“Agreed,” Bernie nodded.
“I said I wanted to go to the farm in the first place,” Lea shrugged.
Bernie drove us away from the scene of the incident, which seemed to have left us all confused, but I comforted myself with the thought that is was actually a positive sign. The others might have been feeling the same, judging by the silence in the car. If it really was over, it would mean facing up to the state of the world we were left in, which would be a different kind of challenge.
As we turned onto Interstate 84 on the final leg of our journey, Bernie excitedly shouted, “Look up in the sky, can you see that vapour trail?”
Streaking across the sky was a white fluffy line. It was a definitive sign that an aircraft had recently been flying above us.
“What do you reckon it was? A flight to safety?” he continued.
“Maybe it was from an area that hadn’t been affected and they were having a look about?” Lea replied.
“I wonder if it could be invaders on a scouting mission to check on the results of whatever they initially deployed,” Jack said, bringing an abrupt halt to the conversation from the back seat.
We’d have to wait and see. I certainly wasn’t going to go looking for any trouble just to prove a theory, not in the immediate future anyway. All we wanted was a secure and safe place to live.
For an hour, we drove without further incident. Bernie still had to weave through stationary vehicles and at regular intervals, we still had views of corpses in various distorted shapes, but the threat level seemed to have lowered.
As we drove past Stewart International Airport, we saw a man in the distance. He was standing at the side of the road and started waving both of his arms when he saw us. He was holding a knife in his right hand.
Bernie stopped the car fifty yards away and said, “What shall we do?”
“Let’s get a bit closer and see what he has to say,” Lea replied. “If the effects have worn off, I’d prefer to know as soon as possible so we can finally relax.”
Bernie pulled up within thirty yards of the man at a slight angle. This allowed Jack and me to aim our weapons out of the car windows.
“What do you want?” Jack shouted.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, I’ve been so scared since this morning. I don’t know what’s happening here, but I just want to get home. Can you give me a ride to Maybrook?”
“What are you doing out here with a knife? Why don’t you take a car yourself?” I asked.
“I can’t drive. I woke up this morning in a ditch by the airport with this knife.” He held it up, “I kept hold of it because of what I’ve seen around here. What’s happening?”
“Where’s Maybrook?” Jack asked Bernie.
“It’s quite close to where we are going. You’re not thinking of letting him come with us, are you?”
I guessed that Jack was. He, like Lea, was keen to find out if people had returned to a normal state.
“Drop the knife and come closer. We don’t mean you any harm,” I said.
He threw the knife to the side of the road and approached the car. “Thank God. I was beginning to think I was the only one alive around here.”
“That’s close enough,” I replied as he got within five yards. “What have you been doing in the last three days?”
“I remember being at home, having a day off, then waking up here. Besides that, I have a very vague memory of wanting to find people.”
“Do you know what day it is?” I asked.
“Saturday?”
It was Monday afternoon; three days had passed since we landed at JFK. The man’s response was a positive sign.
“We’ll take you to Maybrook,” I said, “but you’ll have to come along at gun-point. We’ll explain why once we get going. One false move and you’re dead.”
The man nodded, and Jack opened up his door. He sat directly behind me, I pointed my Glock aro
und the side of the seat and Jack pointed his rifle towards the man’s chin.
“What’s your name?” Lea asked.
“Greg.”
During the short ride to Maybrook, we gave Greg a brief outline of what we had seen since landing on Friday afternoon. It was a huge shock to him, and we quickly realised that he probably wasn’t a killer, at least not anymore.
“So, I haven’t killed anyone?” he asked.
“If you had killed anyone then you’d already be dead,” Bernie answered.
“How many have survived?”
The second question was more difficult for us to answer with any kind of accuracy.
“We know of at least twenty four people who are still alive, most are in the city, but we’ve seen two on our way here,” Lea replied. “There must be others all over the place that are coming back to themselves now. It’s only fair to warn you, not to get your hopes up about your own family and friends, we haven’t come across anywhere yet that wasn’t affected.”
Greg looked down and closed his eyes. This was a lot for anyone to take in, especially in just a few minutes. He had seen some of the carnage around Stewart International Airport but thought it was a terrible local accident.
“Seriously? The entire city? I can’t believe it.” He said, putting his hand on top of his head.
“It’s all true, JFK, Queens, Manhattan, and all the way here. It’s all fucked,” Jack replied.
“Where are you going?”
“A big old white house on the road to Montgomery. It’s…” Bernie answered.
“Near a farmhouse with a big barn next to it,” Lea said.
“I know that place,” Greg replied. “If home turns out to be a mess, you might find me knocking at your door.”
“Seriously, Greg, be careful, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybrook is probably going to look like a war zone, so you need to be prepared,” I said.
“Yeah, stay alert, find out what you can and if you need us, come to the house,” Jack added.
“Okay, thanks.”
We arrived at the exit for Maybrook and Bernie slowed down.
“Pull over guys, I’d like to walk from here and have a look around,” Greg said.
Before he left, Greg thanked us for the ride and promised to visit once he had been home.
He probably didn’t realise I was more thankful for meeting him.
Chapter 7 – The House
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” Bernie said as he pulled away.
“Do you think Greg will be alright?” Lea asked.
“Nice guy, but he’s going to be in for some bad news when he gets home. I can’t imagine he will be in any danger if it’s all over. You know? The killer thing,” Bernie replied.
“After we set ourselves up in the house, why don’t we find a spot closer to town where we can try and draw people in? We can observe from a safe distance just to make sure,” Jack suggested.
“Haven’t you tried this one before guys?” Lea replied.
We had, but hadn’t admitted it to Lea yet.
I ignored Lea and answered Jack. “Yeah, why not. We can also have a drive around and see if we can find anyone.”
We passed the black skeleton of a burnt out property on our right, a number of corpses littered the roadside, but the journey was now relatively quiet.
“Over there. That’s the farm I was telling you about,” Lea said.
I looked across and saw a tree lined road that led down to an impressive house with a large wooden barn by the side of it.
“We can go and have a look later on if you like?” I said.
Lea shrugged and brushed a hand through her hair.
Minutes later, Bernie turned right onto a crunchy gravel drive.
“Here it is!”
The house was stunning. It was the kind of place that I thought I’d only see on television in a period drama. It was a large white two-storey building, with a fantastic old porch around the front. If the danger had really subsided and the owners of the house were not alive, I could definitely be comfortable in these kinds of surroundings.
We parked at the end of the driveway and checked the outside areas first. Jack and Lea headed around the right hand side of the house, Bernie and me to the left. We met at the back having seen nothing to worry us. There was a large shed in the back corner of the garden, I approached, looked through a side window, and saw that it contained gardening tools.
I nodded over to the other three who started looking through the house windows.
“Here, in the kitchen,” Bernie called out.
I walked over to Bernie and looked over his shoulder. Lying on the kitchen floor were two bodies, a woman and man, they must have killed each other with kitchen knives judging by the state of their bodies. It was difficult to know who had killed whom, as both had gaping wounds in their necks.
“These two are probably the owners. Let’s get the bodies out of the house and make sure the rest is clear,” I said.
“What shall we do with the bodies?” Lea asked.
“After we clear the house, Harry and I will bury them in the back garden. You and Bernie secure the windows and doors,” Jack said.
Bernie tried the back door, and it clicked open. We slowly entered the house and crept together from room to room looking for any survivors. This really was a beautiful place, expensive fittings and furniture adorned every corner, upstairs, the bedrooms looked inviting. It felt like a long time since I’d slept in a proper bed, and was looking forward to getting some well deserved rest. We finally returned to the kitchen, which was starting to become a health hazard.
“Change of plan,” I said to Bernie and Lea. “Why don’t you make the kitchen clean and find out what supplies we have first? Jack and I will take care of the bodies.”
Lea started checking the cupboards for cleaning materials, as Jack and I dragged the two corpses out onto the back lawn, and then fetched two shovels from the shed.
“I bet you’d thought you’d dug your last garden,” I said.
“Can’t we just burn the bodies?” He shrugged.
I would have agreed, but was still concerned about drawing attention to our location.
“Come on,” I replied, “let’s get on with it, once we’ve finished, we can relax on those sun loungers over there.”
Jack nodded. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
He thrust his shovel into the ground to pull up a chunk of turf and we both set to work.
Digging a grave was tiring, although it was a good feeling to do some hard, honest work. I made quick progress as the bottled up emotions of the last few days were taken out on the earth.
Jack threw down his spade and stretched his back with a groan.
“I feel like I’ve been in a sauna,” he said, wiping his forehead.
“Me too, we can have a shower and change of clothes when we finish,” I said, as we took a quick break.
Before Jack could answer, Lea called from an upstairs window, “Keep up the good work, boys.”
We finished digging the graves to a depth of around four feet, and then rolled in the bodies.
“Shall we say something?” I said.
“Rest in peace,” he replied, and then began to scrape earth into the grave.
The task became much more palatable once the corpses were finally under a layer of soil. Jack was silently plugging away beside me – we still had work to do and could talk properly once we had time to relax.
We finished at roughly the same time and sat on the two sun loungers for a well-deserved rest.
“Can you hear that?” I said to Jack as I lay back.
“Hear what? I can’t hear anything?”
“Exactly. No gunshots, no screaming, no running.”
We were both lying back now and stayed there in silence for the next five minutes. The only noticeable sound was the muffled chatter from inside the house.
I stood to avoid nodding off and tapped Jack on the arm.
<
br /> “Come on, let’s get cleaned up and have something to eat.”
“I could sleep for days,” Jack replied, and groaned as he rose from the lounger to follow me.
We entered the kitchen to find out how Lea and Bernie had been progressing. Bernie was standing over a camping stove watching it boil a large pan of water.
“You’re Brits,” he said, “I suppose you two would like a cup of tea. There’s some eggs and bread here that are still edible as well, so I’ll make you a fried egg sandwich afterwards.”
“That’s music to my ears, Bernie, thanks,” Jack replied enthusiastically.
“How are the windows and doors looking?” I asked Lea.
“All of the windows are now locked; I’ve placed piles of coins on each frame.” She smiled, “Saw it on TV; we’ll hear if anyone breaks in, even if they don’t smash the glass. The external doors are all pretty solid. We’ll just have to lock them when we go to sleep.”
“Actually,” I said, “I don’t think that we should all sleep at the same time. With a house this size and an area we all aren’t familiar with, it’s probably best to take turns on watch – two hours each, from midnight until eight. That way we can all get a proper rest for at least a while.”
“Are you sleeping downstairs?” Bernie asked and placed a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of me.
“No, I intend to sleep in a bed tonight, but I’ll take one of the graveyard shifts. If that is alright with everyone?”
Lea wanted an early night, so we let her take the last watch and get a good length of time in bed. Jack and I said we’d be up late anyway, so we would take the first two. This left Bernie with the four till six shift, but he didn’t care, as he said he’d sleep like a log no matter what.
After our tea, Bernie made everyone a fried egg sandwich as promised, which was even more welcome than the hot drink.
Bernie and Lea had emptied the cupboards of anything we could use and put bottles of water, cans of tinned meat, jam, cake, carrots, and potatoes on the table.
“I can make a stew with the vegetables and a couple of those cans,” Lea said.
“Sounds good to me, I’m going to clean my arm and put on a new dressing,” I replied.
The grave digging had slightly opened the wound again and I was conscious that I needed to keep it clean. I walked upstairs to the bathroom and peeled off my t-shirt and the bandage. I wiped my arm with a sponge; blood seeped slowly from the cut down my arm. I checked the cabinets and discovered a small roll of bandage, then wrapped it around the healing wound. I headed back into the kitchen and found Bernie peeling a carrot, with Lea leaning over a large pan on the camping stove.
First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 13