Zombielandia

by Lee Wade

  Then one day in spring, the day had started as any other. A few of us had gathered in the Neptune bar to make plans for the day. Ben and Hayley had taken all the kids down to the beach to collect pebbles and hunt in the rock pools. I was discussing the previous day’s events with Becky, Sophie and Paul. David, George and Frank were deciding on their plan of action for the day. Then suddenly we heard screams. We ran outside to see Luke, Emily and Britney running up the path from the beach. He was screaming something that I could not quite make out. As we ran towards him I heard him screaming Dad! Dad! They’ve got Alfie! Who’s got Alfie? I shouted back. The monsters Daddy, the monsters. We grabbed our weapons as Babs and Amy took the three children inside.

  When we got down to the beach there was a small boat grounded on the rocks. We could hear Hayley screaming, she was sheltering under the cliffs and there was a group of zombies heading towards her. She saw us coming. They’ve got Ben and Alfie she cried! We raced towards her and managed to get between her and the oncoming zombies. We used our weapons. I smashed my fork through the first one’s head. Becky did the same. Alan reacted well and pierced one through the chest with one of the spikes he’d made. The head! I cried out, the head! He managed to pull the spike back out and with all his strength, crunch, he speared it straight through the eye socket and into its brain. Good night sweet heart, he shouted as it fell to the ground. John had managed to wrestle one to the ground and was now pounding it’s head in with a boulder. George and Frank had netted two and were caving their heads in with a lobster hook. Soon they were all disposed of. Alfie! Alfie! Alfie, Hayley started to cry out. Where’s Alfie! We waded through the shallows to the boat. Ben was lying dead on the deck; two of the bastards were still feeding on him! We pulverised their brains with our weapons. We searched the boat. There was no more of them. Then we heard a noise coming from underneath Ben. We moved him to one side. There was a hatch under him. We opened it and there was Alfie amongst the rotting fish bait. We pulled him out, he was alive and un harmed. Ben had hidden and protected his son. Hayley came running over and scooped up little Alfie and headed back up to the site with him. She hadn’t seen Ben or if she had she was concentrating on her son now.

  George, Frank and David picked up the lifeless Ben and started to carry him to the beach, as they did though; Ben opened his eyes and sank his teeth into Frank’s arm, tearing the flesh from the bone. David reacted fastest and plunged his hook into Ben’s skull, he was silent again.

  We left Ben on the beach and covered him with a tarp until we could decide what to do with the body. We took Frank back to the Neptune bar. None of us had any medical skills, so Babs cleaned and bandaged his wounds best she could. We all knew it looked bad for him.

  Chapter Seven

  The following morning Frank had gone downhill badly overnight. George knew his friend would die if he didn’t get him medical help soon. He wanted to take Frank in their boat in search of help; he thought he could make it to Portsmouth, where there was still hopefully a safe zone.

  We all agreed that this would be the best course of action. We loaded the boat with supplies and George left us some fishing tackle before heading off with his friend in search of help. We spent the rest of the day gathering up the corpses on the beach before burning them all. We noticed something unusual as we were gathering them up to burn, most of them were wearing what appeared to be a blue sash, we had no idea what this meant or if it was of any significance.

  We buried Ben on the cliff top overlooking the sea. We all gathered that night and said a few words. Things had changed, we didn’t feel safe anymore. The children had been exposed to horrors no child should ever have to see. We knew then that it would never be the same again.

  We spent the next day building a barrier along the path that led to the beach so the children couldn’t get down there without an adult, not that we thought they’d want to anyway. We agreed to have someone on constant watch, day and night in case any more things floated to shore and also to keep a look out for Frank and George.

  Days turned into weeks and there was no sign of the guys returning. We had settled back into life on the site. We were managing to survive on what supplies we had, but things weren’t as comfortable as they had been. We still managed the occasional trip to the village, but it was tough using the kayaks instead of the boat as we were reliant on the weather being good.

  Chapter Eight

  After a while the guys decided to see what they could do with the boat that had crashed to shore a few weeks earlier when Ben had been killed. We managed to get it onto the beach using one of the tractors. It wasn’t particularly big, just a small fishing boat. It had a small cab type area with the steering wheel, navigational gear and radio. It looked quite old and well used. The back was basically empty with a raised edge where about eight people could fish from and there was an area in the middle that was used to store your bait and catch. The hull was a wooded frame with fibre glass. The fibre glass was badly damaged in a few places, but Ken and Paul were adamant that they could fix it. If nothing else, it gave them something to do outside of the normal daily search for food and supplies.

  After a few weeks the boat was ready for its first outing. We had renamed the boat Ben’s Hope (The Hope) after our friend who had died. Ken, Paul, David and Sophie decided they were going to test it out. We all helped to get it back into the sea. They had already checked out the engine and stuff and had it fuelled up ready to go.

  They set of early one morning with a bucket full of rag worms and the fishing gear that George had left for us. The rest of us stood on the beach and waved them off before getting back to the daily task of surviving, all hoping for a tasty fish supper later that evening!

  The guys returned later in the day with quite a successful haul of fish. I guess there weren’t that many people catching fish these days, one advantage of a zombie holocaust I suppose is that nature will have a chance to recover.

  However, it wasn’t catching the fish that was the most exciting thing about their day. David told us that they had travelled quite far out to a ship wreck that he knew had been a good spot for fishing in the past. They had spent most of their day there catching fish and generally having a relaxing day out away from the stresses of daily life. However when they had started to return home they spotted a massive ship a few miles further out to sea. They had gone a bit closer and had seen through their binoculars that is was a Royal Navy ship and that it appeared to be anchored. They said that they had seen a small fleet of smaller vessels around it, some anchored as well, but others moving away and towards it. It was quite a hive of activity by the sounds of it.

  The guys had discussed going to the ship, but then thought it would be better to come back home and discuss what they had seen with the rest of the group before deciding what to do about it. We sat up half the night in the Neptune bar discussing what we were going to do. We were surviving on our own here and had done so for almost eighteen months now. We had become a family, working together, looking out for one another. But what was on the ship? Was it going somewhere? It was a Royal Navy ship. Was there still a command structure on board? Did we still have a functioning government? Were my Brother and his family on board? Was one of the small vessels that the guys had seen George and Franks and were they still alive? So many questions!

  Our group was split. Some wanted to go back out and find out what was going on. Some didn’t want to risk what we had. We had learned to survive here on our own. Our families were relatively safe if we were careful and worked together. We needed each other. I wondered if we could use the radio on board the Hope to contact them. Eventually we decided that Paul, Sophie and David would take The Hope out the following day before sunrise and travel a few miles up the coast before attempting to contact the ship. We didn’t want them to be able to trace our location in case we decided that we didn’t like what we heard.

  Chapter Nine

  We hadn’t been sleeping long when we were woken by what sounded like
someone shouting on a loud speaker. We rushed to get dressed and ran down to the beach from where we could hear the noise coming from. We could see about half a dozen small vessels heading towards us. Eventually we managed to make out what was being said. “SURVIVORS, WE ARE YOUR SALVATION, WE HAVE COME TO RESCUE YOU, PUT DOWN YOUR ARMS AND JOIN US, DO NOT BE AFRAID, WE ARE OFFICERS OF HER MAJESTIES ROYAL NAVY”.

  They must have seen us the day before and come looking for us. Maybe my Brother had sent them, whatever had happened, there wasn’t a lot we could do now. They were heavily armed and we had long since blocked any land route out of the site to protect ourselves from zombies trying to get in. The sea was our only way in and out of the site now.

  We dropped our so called weapons and waited tentatively for the small vessels to arrive. The first one landed after a few minutes and five men jumped out and waded to shore. They were armed with rifles and hand guns. Two of them were dressed to what appeared to be Navy uniforms and the other three were wearing normal clothing with the same Blue sashes we had seen on the corpses of the zombies we’d disposed of a few weeks earlier.

  I stepped forward and introduced myself, one of the men in uniform shook my hand and introduced himself as Warrant Officer Shields. The other man in uniform was introduced as Petty Officer McGill. They explained that they’d been watching us for several days now and had been ordered to take us aboard their ship HMS Somerset where there were many other survivors. They also said that they had been ordered to commandeer our vessel and any supplies for the Royal Navy.

  Whilst this was being explained to us, the other boats had anchored and there were about twenty armed men on the beach, mostly in civilian clothing, but again wearing the Blue sashes.

  We were told that we’d be escorted back to where we were staying to collect clothing and any small personal items and that anything else we required would be provided for us.

  As we walked back up the beach road to the apartments I asked the officers if they had come across Frank and George’s boat The Salt Wind, they said they’d heard of it amongst the many small boats in their fleet, but knew nothing of who had owned it before they’d commandeered it.

  I went on to ask about my Brother, I knew he’d been a Warrant Officer at some point, but he was assigned to a nuclear submarine, so I didn’t think they’d know him, but I thought it was worth an ask. Keith Foster they cried, aye, we know Ginny! He’s on board the Somerset now! Oh my God, I cried, he’s alive! Tears started to stream down my face. And his family, I said, are they on board too? Whoa, one thing at a time, they said, let’s get you all packed and on board and you can ask all you want then, we don’t like to hang around on land too long these days.

  Chapter Ten

  We were spilt up among the seven boats. My family and I were on the Hope with one of the armed men in Blue sashes. It took us about an hour to get to the Somerset.

  The Children were frightened at first, but when we explained we were going to see Uncle Keith their fear turned to excitement and they started to talk about the games they were going to play with their cousins. The journey was pretty uneventful. As we drew closer to the Somerset we could see what the guys had been on about. The many other smaller vessels were milling about. I had a look for the Saltwind, but couldn’t see her.

  We cut power and the Hope floated in close under her own emersion. We were towards the front of the ship and I could see the other vessels with our group aboard lined up along the length of the ship too. There were already ladders on the side of the ship. Ropes with a kind of basket thing were tossed down for us to put our belongings in to and these were hauled aboard. We climbed up the ladder and aboard the ship with the Blue sash behind us.

  Once we were on board we were met by two other armed men, again with Blue sashes. We were escorted to a doorway and lead along several corridors until we arrived at what I guessed was our destination.

  Quarantine, one of the men grumbled, you’ll be kept here for a few days until we know you’re not infected, then we’ll take you to your quarters.

  We entered the room. It wasn’t very big. There were two sets of bunk beds against one wall. A wash basin and toilet against another wall with like a shower curtain you could pull round for some privacy. There were no windows, only the door we’d entered through which had a small hatch in it which was locked shut. There was a bookcase against the third wall with books and games on it for the children I guessed.

  We were told that is was protocol to protect everyone else on board and that we’d be provided with meals and they’d try to give us with anything else we required. I asked if my Brother knew we’d been found and they said he was aware we were aboard and would be down to see us once he’d finished his duties. I was told the rest of our group was together in other quarantine rooms not far away. I guessed that was fair enough. Better to be safe. I wondered if Frank and George had been in one of these rooms at some point and were now out and about and knew we were on board. Maybe they’d told the Navy about us and that’s why we’d been found. I felt on edge, nervous, not safe anymore, something just didn’t feel right to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I decided to play along for now; I didn’t have a great deal of choice in the matter anyway!

  The two sashes left the room; this is what I’d decided in my head to call them. I heard them turning a key in the lock so we couldn’t get out. We were trapped now and at the mercy of the Royal Navy. I think I preferred it when we were in charge of our own safety and destiny on the site. But we were here now and had to make the most of it for now.

  Chapter Eleven

  Babs and I set about making the room as comfortable as we could for the children. We made up the beds and Luke and Emily were playing quite happily with some toys from the book case, it was just a big adventure for them I guess.

  We were fed a meal of fish and rice later in the day. It was bought to us by the sashes that looked through the hatch in the door before entering, to see if we were still human I figured. We felt like prisoners to be honest and not patients. I asked about my Brother again, but got the same response as before. If it wasn’t for the fact that the two officers on the beach had known his Navy nick name, I’d have doubted he was even aboard. I guess they were just being extra careful.

  I wondered how long it took for someone who had been bitten to become a zombie. Ben hadn’t been dead long when he’d tuned. But I hadn’t actually seen someone who was still alive and had been bitten turn. Frank had been bitten and had survived the night without turning. I was assuming that everyone that was bitten turned, that’s what happened in the movies anyway. Unless of course you got to them quick enough and chopped off the infected limb! I supposed the Navy would have that experience by now and we’d be freed once that time was up.

  This went on for several further days, always two sashes, always three meals a day and never giving us any information. The children were getting restless, they’d gone from living in a holiday park to a room no bigger than their bedroom at home in Togston. We kept telling them they’d be able to go out soon and play with their friends, but I was beginning to regret the day we sent the Hope out fishing without being more careful about who might have been watching.

  Chapter Twelve

  Then after seven days in quarantine two sashes came in with a young woman in Navy uniform. She introduced herself as Warrant Officer Rigby, the ships Surgeon. She said that they’d been observing us for signs of infection and were happy we were clear now and apologised for the conditions we’d been kept in, but they needed to ensure the safety of everyone on board.

  We were taken to another part of the ship, again with the two armed sashes in tow. We were lead into a room with showers and a change of clothing. Officer Rigby instructed us to get showered and changed and she’d see us again shortly. The two sashes waited outside and we stripped off and showered. I wished the children were in a separate cubicle, because the sight off my beautiful naked wife after a week locked in a room with two children and bunk beds ha
d been a bit of a passion killer! Anyway, that would have to wait, we got changed into the fresh clothing and waited for the sashes to come back in and collect us.

  We were now taken down another corridor and into what appeared to be a medical room where Officer Rigby was waiting for us. She explained that we were to have a quick medical examination before being taken to our new quarters. She examined our hair and teeth, then checked our heart beats and blood pressure. We were given the all clear.

  Then there was a knock on the door and one of the sashes came in and spoke to the officer. She smiled and looked at me. There’s someone here to see you she said. I stopped hearing what she was saying as my brother was walking into the room. I dropped to my knees and started crying. Babs hugged me and helped me to my feet. I don’t know why, but in that moment it was if I felt that everything was going to be alright. I embraced my Brother. I thought you were all dead he said, we haven’t found anyone alive in months now and we’ve lost so many people searching for survivors.