by Luke Duffy
Liam and David actually seemed quite excited by it all and answered up with an enthusiastic, “Yup.”
Steve could see that Sarah looked a little less like she was on an adventure than the other two and he moved over to her, dropping to one knee and speaking quietly, “You okay buddy?”
She looked back at him. “Yeah, do you think there’ll be many of them out there, Dad?” She nodded towards the door as she spoke.
“If there is, then it shouldn’t be a problem as long as we’re careful. We've got uncle Marcus’ big car remember, and that can get us through anything. What I need from you though is to look after David and Liam. You're the oldest, so you're the boss of the kids, and on top of that, you're a veteran and they're not.”
Sarah looked confused for a moment, screwing her eyebrows together and eyeing her father as though he has lost the plot slightly. “A veteran, isn’t that an animal doctor?”
He smiled and looked down, before looking back up into her innocent curious eyes. “No darling, that's a veterinarian. A veteran is someone who has been there and done it, like you did yesterday on the way here. Like soldiers who have been to war.”
“Ah.” She understood and seemed to inflate slightly with pride.
Once in the car, Steve inched out the heavy, but surprisingly easy to handle, vehicle into the road, he and Jennifer constantly glancing left and right. At one time, they would have done that looking out for other vehicles approaching; now they did it looking out for infected. The road was clear and Steve spun the wheel, forcing the vehicle to turn left.
They passed down the quiet country lanes; Steve driving and Jennifer navigating, and through small scenic villages. The streets were deserted with most people having either fled, or staying indoors. The government had urged people to keep off the streets and to avoid heavily populated areas. It seemed that most of the country still tried to do as they were told. As far as Steve felt, it was a bonus and meant that they were less likely to run into trouble; broken down traffic or otherwise.
The children remained calm and quiet in the back, with Liam falling asleep, resting his head on his brother’s shoulder. Sarah watched out of the window at the fields and scattered farms as they headed deeper in to the countryside. Even Jennifer seemed to relax and became less nervous.
Three miles into their journey, the road narrowed and Steve had to slam on the breaks to avoid crashing head on into the rear of a broken down small white van.
As the Range Rover came to a screeching halt, Steve swore into the steering wheel, “I fucking knew things were going too smoothly.” Jennifer began to look nervous again. “It’s okay, Jen. I’ll just have to see if we can get around it, and if not, then we’ll look for a different route on the map.”
Just one look at the narrow gap between the side of the van and the high hedgerow told him they would have to backtrack the way they had come. He was about to curse again when he saw movement from in front of the van. He had already put the van in gear and was about to back away. The figure moved into the open and then raised a hand. It wasn’t the clumsy hand of one of the infected, or the lunging movements of a walking corpse.
“Wait, please wait,” the woman shouted. She began to work her way around the side of the broken down vehicle and in their direction. Steve lifted the clutch as though he was about to reverse, when Jennifer put her hand on his forearm.
“Steve, wait. She wants our help. We can’t leave her.”
Steve flushed, feeling annoyed. “I told you, Jen, the same as I told Sarah yesterday. We have to look after ourselves. We don’t know who she is, or if she's infected.”
“She doesn’t look infected, Steve. They don’t talk, do they?”
“Not that I know of,” he replied.
He was looking back at the woman as she came closer. She didn't sprint and she didn't hobble. Instead, she trotted toward them, in all, looking pretty normal and unthreatening. He squinted, trying to focus better in the low morning sun, and noticed that she wore a nurse’s uniform. He pressed a button and the window came down with a mechanical whine.
“Stay where you are. Don't come any closer.”
The nurse stopped dead in her tracks. “Okay, but please don’t leave me. Take me with you. I'm alright. I've not been infected or injured.” She pleaded with him.
“We have to help her, Steve. If you don’t, I will.” Jennifer was adamant.
He rolled his eyes, knowing that if he tried to reverse back Jennifer was likely to either hit him or even jump out of the vehicle to help the woman.
“Right, okay. But I want to check her out first. Shuffle over and get behind the wheel once I get out. At the first sign of trouble, reverse down the road a couple of hundred metres. If I don’t show up after a while, then leave.”
Jennifer nodded and slid across; Steve stepped out onto the road, pulling the hammer free of his belt and lowering it to his side.
“Stay where you are,” he gestured to the woman as he spoke, “and if you come any closer, I'll not hesitate to use this.” He raised the hammer slightly and saw in the woman’s face that she understood as she nodded.
He slowly inched his way toward her, scanning all around to the sides and rear, wary of a possible attack. When he was close enough, he stopped. With just five metres between them Steve could see that the nurse, although looking tired and smeared in blood and dirt, was extremely attractive; small, but perfectly proportioned with jet black hair. In another time and place, he would have wasted no time in trying to chat her up.
But he eyed her with suspicion now. “You need to move your van. We can’t get past otherwise.”
She glanced back over her shoulder at the broken down vehicle and then back to Steve. “It won’t move. I don’t know what's up with it. Can I come with you?”
“Just move the fucking van will you? I can’t risk letting you come with us.” He was using the hammer as a pointer, alternating it from the nurse to the van.
She looked at him pleadingly, tears streaming down her face. “I told you, I'm okay. I'm not infected. This isn’t my blood.” She looked down at herself as she said it, sweeping her arms in a gesture to the stains on her clothing, then back up at Steve. “Please?”
He looked back at Jennifer, unable to read her expression through the window because of the reflection of the low sun. He turned back to the nurse, his heartstrings were tugging at his chest. He had always been a sucker for a pretty face, and even now, in the middle of nowhere and at the end of the world, he still felt the need to be the protecting alpha male for the damsel in distress.
Feeling awkward and unsure of how to place his words, he swallowed hard and looked down at his shoes. “Right, okay. If you want to come with us, I need to make sure you're safe, okay?”
The nurse nodded without saying a word. The desperation in her face told Steve that she would comply with anything he said as long as it meant safety.
“Uh...okay then. Now, listen...” he shuffled his feet like a school kid who knew he was in trouble and trying to think of a story to get him out of it. “I'm no pervert, so don’t take this the wrong way, but I need you to take your clothes off.”
A look of shock and a defensive instinct seemed to spread across the woman’s face, but before she could say anything Steve cut her off, raising his hand. “Look, for all I know, you could have bites and shit underneath your clothes that you’re hiding. I have my daughter and my brother’s family in the car, and I'm not letting you anywhere near them, or me, before I know you're not infected.”
The nurse seemed to understand and nodded slowly. Looking about, she began to undo the buttons to her tunic and removed it, letting it fall to the floor revealing a black lace bra underneath. Then she started to loosen her trousers. Steve wanted to look anywhere but directly at her, especially in her eyes. Regardless of his best intentions, he still felt like a pervert.
Her trousers were slid to the floor, and surprisingly, the first fleeting thought that ran through Steve’s head was, a
nd she’s actually wearing matching underwear. Women never do that! He instantly shook the thought away.
“Raise your arms out to the side and slowly turn around.”
The nurse complied and though she had a perfectly flawless and toned body, he concentrated on looking for bites. He made a conscious effort not to lick his lips, even though it wouldn't have been through lust; they actually were dry in the crisp morning air, but he didn't want her to see him as a leering predator.
She had done a full circle and now stood facing him. Steve looked down at his boots and then back at the car where Jennifer was. He still couldn’t see her through the window and wondered what was going through her mind.
He turned back to the nurse. “Okay, you look fine to me, uh...I mean okay,” he stumbled, “you can put your clothes back on now.”
She pulled up her trousers and picked up her tunic, all the time watching the man in front of her and seeing how clearly uncomfortable he looked.
She smiled slightly and spoke. “Okay then, I've shown you mine, now you show me yours.”
Steve looked up, shocked, and only when he saw the expression on the woman’s face did he return the smile with a shake of his head. “I'm sorry, but like I said, I had to be sure.”
“It’s okay, I understand. I'm Helen by the way.” And she walked toward him with her hand outstretched.
“I'm Steve,” he said shaking her hand.
He walked back to the Range Rover and introduced her to Jennifer and the children. Her eyes lit up when she saw them and she made a conscious effort of putting them all at ease as she introduced herself with her perfect tried and tested bedside manner.
She looked back at Steve. “I don’t think the van will budge, Steve, and I don’t know where you were heading, but you won’t get there along this road.”
After a cursory look at the broken down van, Steve confirmed that he wouldn't be able to move it. Sarah was now in the front seat as Jennifer and Helen sat in one of the many back seats and chatted. Jennifer looked completely relaxed, finally having someone on her level to talk to and to vent with. She searched through the bags and handed some clean clothes to Helen to change into.
“They might be a little long for you, but they're clean at least.”
Helen was happy to change and her hospital scrubs were thrown out of the window.
Liam and David were just as interested in the new arrival and kept on butting in on their conversation as the two women spoke about what was happening, what they knew, what they were doing and what they had experienced.
Helen only briefly spoke of the hospital. Glazing over the details and giving them a rough idea of what the situation was there. The memories of the maternity ward were too painful and fresh in her mind; she couldn’t risk becoming a blubbering wreck over it just yet.
Steve looked across at Sarah. “Righty dokey kiddo, I guess you're the new navigator. It’s alright though; I pretty much know where I'm going from here.”
He reversed the vehicle back down the long narrow road and drove an alternative route.
An hour later and they turned onto the main carriageway that led toward the Safari Park. Both sides of the road were deserted and Steve couldn’t even see any traffic in the far off distance. As they approached the slip road that would filter them into the park, he noticed a figure up ahead beneath the trees before the entrance to the main gate.
Everyone in the Range Rover was silent, having seen the figure rise to its feet and step into the road, watching them approach. When they were no more than fifty metres away, the figure turned and ran toward the gate, scaling the fence and jumping into the park, disappearing into the shadows on the other side.
Steve braked. “That's that idea out the window then. They're in the Safari Park too.”
He began to put the car into reverse when Helen put her hand on his shoulder. He looked down at her fingers gently clasping him, and followed her forearm up to her neck and the curve of her chin until he was looking her straight in the eyes. She glanced from the road and straight at him, making him blink with sudden discomfort.
“You may not be a pervert, Steve, but you've definitely got a one track mind. Or do you not get out much?” She grinned at him and, to save him any further torture, she pointed with her finger at the gate. “Look, from what I've seen, the dead can’t climb a fence like that, and I don’t think the aggressive strain infected can either. Plus, they would’ve run at us, not away from us. So they must be alright,” she concluded.
Jennifer had noticed the look in Steve's eye since he had introduced Helen to them. “Not just a pretty face is she Steve?”
He could feel his male pride and masculinity ebbing as these two women teased him. “So, what do we do then? The gates are closed, and if they're infection free, they might not want to risk letting us in. And we don’t know their strength, so we can’t barge our way in.”
Jennifer leaned forward. “We can just try talking to them instead. Show them that we’re not a threat and that we have children with us. Maybe the fact we have a nurse might convince them too?”
Steve cautiously drove the car toward the gate. Stopping short twenty metres so that whoever was watching could get a clear look at him as he approached on foot. He deliberately kept his weapons out of sight and tried to look as harmless as possible.
Large trees stretched far off to the left and right of the gate into the distance, obscuring the high wall that the main gate was built into. The foliage hung over the road and met high above in the middle, casting the entrance into shadow and making it difficult for Steve to make out anything beyond the railings.
Over to his right, he could hear the buzzing of flies and insects, and as his eyes adjusted he could see something in the long grass. There were a number of bodies lying just off to the side of the road. Steve couldn’t tell how many; ten, maybe twelve, all piled together unceremoniously. A draft of wind brought the sickly smell of the dead to his nostrils, the pungent, almost warm smell, like a mixture of raw sewage and sun baked garbage, of rotting flesh assaulting him and causing him to turn his head in disgust.
Putting it from his mind, he walked to the gate, his arms out from his sides to show he had no weapons and intended no harm.
“Hello?” he called. He paused and after a few seconds called again. “Hello, is there anyone here?” Still, there was no answer. “Look, we don’t want trouble. We saw you as we drove up, so I know there's someone there. I have two women and three kids in the car. We just want somewhere safe to stay.”
After a minute’s silence, as Steve tried to peer into the gloom, he heard a voice.
“Are any of you bitten? Is there anyone else with you?”
“No and no,” Steve replied. “We are all well and it’s just us. One of the women is a nurse too so maybe she could be of help?” He was doing his best to sound harmless and even convince them that they could be of use.
A man approached the gate, middle aged with grey swept back hair and overweight but with sure and steady steps. He carried himself as though he knew how to handle his self and the intended effect wasn’t lost on Steve.
“I'm Steve,” he smiled and reached a hand through the bars of the gate with his best friendly smile face.
The man watched him warily and kept his distance. He nodded over Steve’s shoulder, toward the Range Rover. “Tell them to get out of the car and come to the gate.”
Steve complied, and soon the whole group were stood in front of the fence as the man gave them the once over.
He eyed the kids last, then smiled at Sarah, who smiled back. He looked back at Steve. “I'm Gary, Park Ranger here.” He took Steve's hand and shook it. “I’ll open the gate and let you in, but promise me this. You'll follow me all the way to the main building and once there, you'll undergo a quick check over just to be sure.” He gave a slight squeeze to Steve's hand as he said it.
“No problem, Gary, we understand and we’ll be happy with whatever sets you at ease.”
H
elen looked across at Steve. “Seems like everyone wants to see me in my knickers today doesn’t it?”
Gary smiled and moved to the control box by the side of the gate. It slid open, and soon Steve was following Gary in his old Park Ranger Land Rover, zebra stripes and all.
They stopped at the main administration building in the centre of the park. It was an old mansion-style building with red and orange brickwork and high reaching chimney-tops and large windows. It occupied the highest part of the grounds, nestled within a clump of ancient trees on one side and wide open stretches of grassy fields to the other, a winding road leading up to it from within the wood.
From the main entrance all the way up to the admin buildings, it was mainly forested area with breaks here and there for gift shops, restaurants and picnic and play areas with a small lake. Further past the main building, from what Steve could remember from his childhood, was a high chain link fence that led into the Safari Park proper.
Gary escorted them inside from the gravelled parking area, immediately to the front of the building. More people were in the lobby and looked surprised to see the new arrivals. It was only then that Steve realised that most of them were wearing the same clothes; green t-shirts with black combat style trousers, Park Staff. He had suspected that he would find some here, and judging by the number, he guessed that there were maybe ten of them that he could see at a glance.
“This is Steve and his gang,” Gary said introducing them, “they’ve agreed to let us check them over, and Helen here is a nurse too.”
A few of the people from the park eyed them with suspicion, but the rest smiled and even approached the new group. They were led into separate rooms to the side of the main door. Steve was checked over by Gary himself, while the children and women were dealt with by two other female staff members. Ten minutes later they were back in the lobby and hot drinks were brought out for the adults and juice and chocolate for the children.
Everybody began to relax and they were given a quick layout of the grounds and the measures that had been taken to ensure their safety.