The Farm

by Carter, Stuart

  The road was undulating slightly, and there were trees and hedgerows obscuring their view into the distance. The engine wasn’t loud, but it was enough to drown out a group on foot walking through the grass. Both of them grew tense as they feared what was ahead of them. The car slowed down to a jogging pace. Tim’s hand was on the gear stick ready to throw the car into reverse at any second.

  It was only about a mile before they saw what they were looking for. The sun was getting low in the horizon, and silhouetted on the skyline they saw a ragged group moving in their direction. They could make out nothing other than their outlines, but there was enough of them to strike terror. “How many do you think there are?” Tim asked.

  “I can see at least a hundred of them,” Jose answered. “But there could be thousands more behind that we can’t see yet.” The two of them watched in silence for a while as the dead advanced on them. They were still a long way from danger. “How far have we driven? How long do we have until they reach our camp?”

  “I don’t know. It’s got to take them a few days at least on foot.”

  “Lets get back. Keep an eye on the distance on the way. It will give us an idea of how much time we’ve got before they could get to us.”

  Tim turned the car around and headed back for their temporary home. In the wing mirror Jose detected an increase in pace from the hoard that threatened them. They would not match the pace of the car, so he didn’t worry about it. They’d soon be out of sight, and the steady walk would resume.

  Given what they had seen, they were quite relaxed heading back. They knew that they would need to be leaving soon, but they felt like they had detected the problem early enough that it wouldn’t prove to be much of a danger. On foot it would take a long time to reach their current home, and with the cars they could easily out run the infected when they arrived. The danger was being taken by surprise, and they’d avoided that. Luck was with them. A good night’s sleep awaited, followed by a leisurely drive out before anyone could arrive and test their defences.

  Five hours later they were fleeing in a panic. They had measured the distance as 13 ½ miles. It was far further than anything either of them had ever considered walking distance. For that to be covered in less than a day on foot didn’t seem probable. To leave first thing in the morning felt sufficiently cautious. When they got back from the drive Jose told the others what they had seen, and let them know that they would be leaving in the morning. No one suggested the alternatives of making a stand, or trying to hide until the horde had passed.

  Despite the feeling of security, Jose posted a couple of sentries, with instructions to rotate every three hours. With that done he went to tell Jed the situation. He hadn’t been seen for a couple of days, but the two of them were still heard on occasion. Jose felt awkward knocking on the door, but he knew this had to be done. Immediately on the first knock he heard a cry of “Come in.” he hadn’t expected to be welcomed on this visit. He slowly opened the door.

  “What brings you to my chamber?” Jed asked, failing to mimic a regal attitude. He looked bored.

  “We need to get out of here.” Jose told him. “Thousands of infected people from London are heading this way.”

  The reactions of the two people in the bed in front of him were complete opposites. She clutched tight to the man next to her, looking afraid. There was a noticeable glint in his eye. He was excited at the new adventure.

  “How far away are they? Have you seen them?”

  “We clocked them at about 13 miles. They’ll be getting closer now. In the morning we need to be out of here.”

  “Have we been able to charge the cars?” Jed asked.

  “No. We’ve got no need for those electric things anymore. We’ve got proper diesel cars now, loaded up and ready to go. Not as quiet, but a lot tougher if we have to go off road, and they’ll have a much longer range.”

  “Good work.” Jed got out of the bed, ignoring the attempts to cling onto him. Jose felt awkward seeing the other man strutting about the room naked, unsure of where to look. He soon started pulling on some of the clothes he found scattered around the room. “Get up,” he directed at the woman who was watching him from the bed. “We’re joining the rest of the gang. We all need to be ready to leave as soon as we need to. You wouldn’t want the two of us to be left behind would you?” Reluctantly she complied, keeping herself hidden under the duvet. Jose made his excuses and went back out to join the rest of the gang.

  It was getting dark fast. He was glad when Becky sidled up next to him. She was only interested in talking practicalities. She did it at a volume that did not share the conversation with the rest of the group. “Do you really think it will take so long for them to get to us? They seemed to be able to run pretty fast when we met them before.”

  “They were walking when we saw them earlier. If they haven’t got anything to chase they won’t run.”

  “You sure about that? And is 13 miles really so far? People run marathons in 4 hours, and that’s twice as far.”

  “They’re running. And it’s on roads, not cross country. Besides, we’ve got the sentries on to make sure.”

  “They won’t be able to see much in the dark. Should we light fires, or give them torches or something?”

  “That’ll make us too visible from a distance. It would be asking for trouble. Until the morning we’ll be fine. We’ll be out of here long before anything arrives to attack us.”

  The Farm

  Over the next week they took over another two neighbouring farms. Both had been deserted when they got there. The owners must have fled, as there was no sign of their undead forms haunting the place. A few zombies were wandering around, but not enough of them to put the farmers under threat. They had re-kitted the tractors, but they hadn’t been needed. Their guns had enough of a range to pick off any threats before they became a danger. Both had been eerily devoid of human life, but they found a few surviving chickens and plenty of plant life. There was also a couple of horses, both looking starved and ill as they had been shut in without anywhere to graze. They looked like they would survive, but it would take a long time for them to get back to strength.

  As their territory expanded they maintained the defences that they had formed around their own farm. They tried to form a defensive boundary around the entire area, but they didn’t have the manpower to support it through the night and still keep up with the farm work. Each morning they had to cautiously advance back over their new territory and clear out anything that had made it over their barriers in the night. They had miles of land, which felt necessary to support the ongoing food supply, but they had yet to find an efficient way of defending it.

  The big thing they now had in their favour was the two tractors they had kitted out as tanks. They had been found lacking in the first encounter, but they had learnt from that and improved on them. They hadn’t been tested, but they were all confident that nothing would be able to break through the armour they had welded on. There was still too much glass, but a grid of metal covered everything. The only thing that prevented an extensive testing of the vehicles was the lack of fuel. Otherwise they would have been on a joyride across the county.

  For a few days it seemed almost peaceful. While there was no way of avoiding the tragedy that had befallen the world, or at least the British part of it, nothing seemed to immediately threaten their survival. They were sure that challenges were approaching, but in the short term it felt like all they had to really concentrate on was growing their crops. The bank and the taxman was gone. The problems they had now, they could fight, rather than knuckle down under.

  The days were long, and the work endless. The nights were dark with the real possibility of monsters lurking in every corner. Everyone there had some tragedy lurking in their near past. Despite this, there was a growing sense of contentment appearing around the farm. It was not universal, but a sense of camaraderie and purpose was satisfying for most. They were building something. Out of tragedy hope was emer
ging. As long as they had to focus of the constant work of farming and defending themselves it was impossible to dwell too long on what was painful. There was no sense of us and them. The haves and have nots, which had infected everyone’s former lives. Envy of someone else had made every one of them feel like a have not. But now they stood together against a hostile world.

  There were frequent attacks on their growing farm, usually by lone zombies, but more and more often they arrived in small groups. For a couple of weeks after liberating the first neighbouring farm there was nothing that posed them a serious threat. They felt rich with guns and ammunition, and their defences kept growing stronger.

  They were in a rural area, which had had a sparse population before the crisis, which had spared them an assault by overwhelming numbers early on. It couldn’t last. As live victims grew scarce in the cities, the dead started to spread out in search of new prey. Cooper had assigned himself the role of scout, and a couple of times a day set out from the farm in the police car. His wife and daughter kept urging him to stop going out, but it was like an addiction with him. Some days he returned with survivors to add to the growing population of the farm, other days he returned with stories of atrocities carried out against humanity. Either way he always appeared energized by the adventure. John started to grow concerned about the excursions, but could come up with no good argument to put a stop to them. Cooper was bringing back more food and fuel than he was using, was saving lives, and was providing vital intelligence of what was happening beyond their borders. It was just the enthusiasm that the recon was carried out with that concerned him. As he couldn’t stop it, he ended up joining in instead.

  The two of them set out at first light. It was their third excursion together. Cooper seemed to appreciate the company, particularly as it got his wife off his back a little. Andrews and some of the other farmers joined him occasionally, but more often than not Cooper went out alone. John was planning to set up a rota so there was always two out on these trips. He was not willing to make this a daily thing, even if Cooper was. The way he drove was scary enough, without the other dangers that now surrounded them. His driving suggested a familiarity with the roads and driving conditions, but also a lack of concern for survival in the fairly short term. He had survived too long to be careless, but from the passenger seat it didn’t feel like that.

  That morning they set out in the direction of Norwich, on one of Cooper’s most frequent routes. He had explained at length the imminent danger that he expected from that city. Around them were mostly hamlets with dozens of people, villages with hundreds, or towns stretching to a couple of thousand, while Norwich held a quarter of a million. He had been there when it started and felt this had given him an understanding of the mind set of their enemy. Soon enough they would be leaving the cities drawn together into armies, desperate for new prey. The first sign of this appeared on the horizon.

  They had been driving for an hour along a tightly zig zagging path. John had no idea how far they were from the farm. All of the roads were familiar, but the combination had disorientated him in a short time. After a while he asked, “Are we going anywhere in particular, or are we just covering as wide an area as possible?”

  “A bit of both. This area is what lies between us and Norwich. We want to see as much of the area as possible. This is where the first big threat to the farm will come from and we need to be ready for it. London will be worse, but it’s further away. I hope the crowd from there will have spread out before they reach us, but what I’ve seen suggests that they will clump together. That means we may miss them entirely, or we may have thousands hitting us at once. The more we know about their movements the better chance we have.”

  Cooper did not take his eyes off the road while he said this, combining his words with a series of manoeuvres that took them down a series of ever narrower lanes.

  “Do you know if there are other survivors out here, or are we all that’s left?”

  “I’m sure there are more people alive, but they’re keeping themselves well hid. Most people who have survived this long will have done it by avoiding contact with any potential threats. I reckon if they hear a car going they will assume its looters and keep themselves and their valuables out of sight. Curiosity is dangerous.”

  “Isn’t curiosity exactly what we’re doing now?”

  “We are taking a calculated risk. Driving around out here is extremely dangerous. But I’d rather take the risk myself than allow some undead fucker creep up unseen and attack my wife and kid. If putting myself in danger increases their chances of survival then I will do it.”

  “How many infected people have you seen out here?”

  “Most days it’s only two or three. If it’s safe I deal with them, but if I can’t see far enough around me I leave them. I saw the kid who got bitten when we were clearing the Goddard farm yesterday. He didn’t make it…

  Biggest group I’ve seen was about forty strong. I spent a couple of hours leading them away from the farm. I’ve not seen them since, so hopefully they’ve kept heading South.”

  “What happened with the guy from our farm?” John was embarrassed to admit that he couldn’t remember the man’s name immediately.

  “I put a bullet in his head. Bunny was a good man. Didn’t deserve to be left to roam the country as a monster.”

  They sat in silence for a while after that. John didn’t know what he felt about what he’d just been told, and even less how to respond to it. Cooper didn’t invite any further conversation, just quietly kept of choosing roads to follow, seemingly at random. As the time passed there did seem to be a pattern in the types of roads that emerged. Norfolk was a flat county, but plenty of roads had their views blocked by trees and hedges to allow an unspoilt view of the countryside to an outside observer. Their seemingly random route had an unnatural tendency to avoid these. Eventually John asked,

  “So is this the standard route for you? Seems very well planned out.”

  “It’s one of many. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and we can’t risk a lot of people covering it.”

  “I don’t want you out here on your own anymore. We have enough people for you to always have a.”

  “Quiet!”

  Cooper pulled the car to the side of the road. He pushed a gun into John’s hand,

  “Keep this in hand, but out of sight. We don’t want to start a fight, but be ready if it happens.”

  Before John could question the instructions the approaching car made it far enough around the bend for him to see it. It was moving at a cautious speed, not slow, but not racing anywhere. Cooper flashed his lights at them to indicate they were there. The lead car slowed to pull up beside them, and another two cars were soon right behind it. Cooper lowered his window, and the other driver did the same. They were in a police car, and Cooper still looked the epitome of an authority figure. He maintained this, giving the other driver, and his vehicle a scrutinising look. They were clearly outnumbered, and almost definitely heavily outgunned, but he didn’t show any sense of being at a disadvantage.

  “Where are you guys headed?” he asked in a tone that suggested there was no possible answer that he wouldn’t disapprove of. The other driver looked like he was late teens. Twenty at most, but with the weight of the world thrust upon him. Probably had never had any responsibilities in his life, but now had three cars worth of people depending on him. There was some Hispanic ancestry to him, but his skin was pale enough to assume he had always lived in Britain. It was hard to tell if he was more pleased to see the police, or more scared of them. Beside him was a woman of a similar age. John couldn’t see much of her, other than her long blond hair, and a darkness around her eyes that suggested a prolonged lack of sleep. She was anxiously scanning the area around them for danger. John would have been doing the same if the three cars ahead of them weren’t the biggest threat in the area.

  “We were heading for the coast.” The other driver answered. “Trying to get as far away from the cities
as possible.”

  “Sensible move.” Cooper told him. “This road’s going to take you awful close to Norwich though. Not the biggest city in the country, but still one to avoid.”

  “We were hoping to pick up a local map somewhere. We’d appreciate any directions you can give us to get somewhere safe.”

  “So what are your long term plans? Find somewhere quiet to hide out? Teach yourselves how to do some farming and start civilization afresh?”

  “First thing is just staying alive. There’s enough food around for everyone. We just need to clear out a few abandoned houses and shops. It seems a bit early to be planning long term.”

  The conversation was interrupted as a man emerged from the second car levelling a gun at them. Others started getting out of the two following cars to back him up. Cooper obviously saw they were there but didn’t acknowledge them. The other driver was more obviously agitated by this escalation.

  “Jed, it’s OK. We’re just talking.” He said. The other man, Jed didn’t change his stance.

  “Just making sure they don’t try anything,” came the reply. The driver didn’t look happy about this. He was first in the firing line.

  “Don’t worry.” Cooper told him. “This is a police car. The Windshield is bullet proof, and where they’re standing makes them easy to drive through. I’m not going to panic and do something stupid.” John didn’t know how much of that was true but it did seem to put a big dent in the confidence of the people stood in front of them.

  “Sorry to pull the guns on you. We’ve been through a rough time lately. It’s hard not to see everything as a threat.”

  “A horrible number of people have died. You wouldn’t have survived this long without a bit of caution and a lot of luck. And today you seem to have hit a bit of a jackpot.”

  “What do you mean?” John could have asked the same question as the driver. They were in the midst of a violent confrontation.

  “If I’d been out here on my own I would have left you to go on your way to live or die as your intelligence or luck determined. He,” gesturing towards John, “is going to want to offer you something better.”