Among The Dead (Book 3): Dwell In Unity

by Colley, Ryan

  “What are those?” Stephanie asked, watching me intently.

  “Medicine. Strong stuff too,” I said to her. I leaned against the countertop to face her. In doing so, my elbow knocked one of the pots off the side and it fell to the floor with a rattle. I bent down to pick it back up and, as I did so, uttered a curse.

  “That’s a crazy amount to have,” Stephanie said wearily. “Do they all have something in?”

  “All of them,” I nodded. “All painkillers.”

  “All the same?” she questioned further.

  “Pretty much. The guy couldn’t have been taking all of them,” I stated. When Stephanie looked at me quizzically, I explained, “They’re all such strong doses … it would have killed him.”

  “Ah, okay,” she nodded and went back to the film collection.

  As the time for settling down for the night crept closer, we made sure to cover all the windows in an attempt to stop light escaping. That consisted of taping sheets over them. We also made sure every window was sealed back up and the doors locked. We were confident we wouldn’t be found all the way out in the middle of nowhere, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Regardless, it was weird to be settling down in a house for the night. I even felt a little bit vulnerable doing so. I didn’t like it, feeling a false sense of security due to the walls. But it was also a welcome vulnerability. A step back to normality.

  As part of our preparation for bed, we performed all hygiene-related processes that we’d let slide while on the road. Brushed our teeth. Flossed. I even managed a shave! But, most importantly, we got to shower! An actual warm shower. It was almost a fight of who got to go in first, only being decided by a game of rock-paper-scissors. Keith won, and he took his sweet time in there. Kirsty second, me third and Stephanie last. I couldn’t blame Keith for taking his time, Kirsty either. We were all so desperate for it. Besides, we had clean bedding which we didn’t want to ruin with our dirty bodies.

  I stepped out of that steamy shower feeling like a new man. I hadn’t realised how grey from daily grime my skin had become. Or how much gore got into the various crevices of my body. My shoulders no longer ached, the soothing heat of the waterfall showerhead working wonders on my body. I felt like I could walk on water. A true luxury that I would miss all over again.

  Then there was dividing up the bedrooms, which was met with far less resistance than I expected. Keith, Kirsty and I all had the bedrooms, with Stephanie insisting on having the pull-out sofa. I tried to convince her to take my bed, Keith did as well – she’d been so excited for a bed – but she decided she’d rather the sofa. And who was I to push it? I wanted the bed as well. So, we all retired for the night. Eager for an early turn in with no one on nightshift.

  I sat in my darkened room, in the greatest comfort I’d experienced in such a long time, and the realisation that I couldn’t sleep dawned on me. I just laid there, in the eerie silence, and let my thoughts run wild. The house made sounds. Odd sounds. Not as odd as sitting outside and hearing the night as I had on so many occasions. Sounds of the house settling down and buzzing of various electronics.

  The room I was sitting in was, for such a big house, surprisingly small. Bigger than my room back in Bristol, but still small in comparison to the house. However, it felt too big – like I was exposed. I ignored that thought and tried to focus on something else. The décor. It was baby blue and barely furnished. It had the feel of a child’s room. However, nothing to distinguish and personalise it. I was thankful for that, I don’t know if I could have slept in a room with all the paraphernalia belonging to a dead child. I closed my eyes and just thought of something else. Thought about the world. Thought about me. Alice. My friends. Family. Everything. Even work crossed my mind. It was strange. I hadn’t thought about working in that shop for so long. I hated being a cashier – hated it even more when they told us we had to call ourselves customer assistants. Then again, I would have hated work no matter where it was.

  “Did I ever tell you about Woei?” I said to Thundy, as I dug out the bear. I’d made sure to bring him into the house with me. There was no way I was leaving him in the van alone all night! I stared at Thundy, and continued, “He was a great guy. A little older than me. He was my boss but was definitely a friend. I miss him. Haven’t thought about him for a long time. But, when I think back to my life before the dead, despite everything that was going wrong, I think of the fun we had. The normality of the situation. I hope Woei has survived all of this. I hope a lot of the people I knew have.”

  Thundy didn’t acknowledge my story.

  I told Thundy a few more stories about my life. Stuff I’d never had a chance to tell Alice. I laughed and cried and had a whole range of emotions. It was a true stress relief. One I’d been needing. Although I told those tales for another reason. Every time I stopped and tried to let my mind relax, memories of the supermarket came back. Not the one I’d worked in, but the one I’d killed in. Memories of Lindsey. I couldn’t let them rule my mind, so I spoke rubbish to an inanimate object in an attempt to hide it. To distract from it. It’s all I had.

  Partway through another story, there was a tap on my door, and it silently swung open. Kirsty stepped in, wearing a t-shirt and some shorts. She looked like she’d just woke up.

  “Who you talking too?” she yawned sleepily.

  “No one really,” I said, embarrassed to be caught in my moment of madness. I tucked Thundy out of sight.

  “Didn’t sound like it,” she said sitting on the bed with me, rubbing her eyes. There were a few moments of silence, then she tried another approach. “What were you talking about?”

  “Just moments from my life … that’s all,” I said with a shrug – I couldn’t believe the mansion had such thin walls. She put her head on my shoulder.

  “Tell me one,” she said sleepily.

  “Like what?” I questioned, initially flinching at the contact. Then I relaxed and accepted it for what it was.

  “Anything,” Kirsty said, yawning again.

  “Did I ever tell you about Woei?” I began again with a sad smile.

  CHAPTER 27

  I told a few stories from my working life and got a laugh from Kirsty. She traded me one of hers, and that was how the conversation went for a while, just back and forward, exchanging moments of interest from our lives. It was comforting. It was nice to be able to share something intimate with another person. Made me feel human again.

  “Stephanie is still up you know,” Kirsty said in one of many lulls of silence. I sat up straighter and looked at Kirsty. “Yeah, she’s watching films.”

  “I was meant to be watching one with her,” I said, my memory suddenly jump-starting. I felt the same panic people do when they realise they are late for work.

  “You better get going then,” Kirsty said with a sigh.

  “It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed talking to you!” I said, trying to reassure her. I stood up, ready to go and join Stephanie. Then something happened. Without warning, and piercing the silence of the night, was a female scream punctuated by the punch of a shotgun blast. I didn’t need to communicate anything to Kirsty, but she was up on her feet and following me in an instant.

  I didn’t know what to expect when I opened my bedroom door. The undead coming through the windows? An accidental misfire? An alien invasion? Any of those suggestions would have made more sense than what I saw. Stephanie stood in the corner shaking, staring at Keith – she looked terrified. Keith was on his knees, on the floor, with both hands on the back of his head. He was clearly in the surrender position. Next to him, on the floor, was the shotgun which Stephanie always kept so close. The shells were all over the floor, and the actual firearm had been dismantled next to them. Looking above Keith’s head, there was a small hole in the ceiling. Clearly the result of the shotgun.

  “What?” was all I could utter. I didn’t know whether to grab my gun or just continue standing there with my mouth agape

  “He tried to escape,” Stephanie sobb
ed, pointing a shaky finger at Keith. “Tried to take the gun.”

  “Observe the scene before you make any decisions,” Keith warned immediately after Stephanie spoke. It seemed like an oddly logical thing for a man to say who had an escape attempt thwarted.

  “Steph. What exactly happened?” I demanded, trying to remain calm and assess the situation.

  “I was sat watching films. Keith comes in and gets a drink. On the way back, he walks up to me and grabs the gun up, and I dived for it, and it fired it in the struggle. He shoved me back, and then he was on the floor like that,” Stephanie tried to explain, struggling to catch her breath between sobs. I looked around and knew something didn’t add up. The story just didn’t make sense. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Stephanie, but maybe she was missing something. Why would Keith try to escape? He was with us by choice, mostly. He’d been offered an opportunity to leave and chose not to. Also, from Stephanie’s point of view, she said Keith had managed to get the gun from her. Surely he’d be using it to aid his escape. Why would it be dismantled on the floor? Surely he’d want to keep it. It hadn’t come apart like that by accident. It was intentional.

  “Keith, you have one chance to explain yourself,” I said, facing him, all my original fears about him rapidly coming back from a not so shallow grave.

  “You said, before, I would have to do something extreme to gain everyone’s trust,” Keith began, talking quickly but calmly. “So, I did something extreme. I acted when you were at your weakest, proving I could have gotten away with it if I’d wanted to. I used my training to show dominance, gain a firearm and be in a position of power, and then dismantling it and surrendering before I ever needed too. You all could have been dead by my hand the moment you walked out of your door, or I could be long gone, but neither of those things happened. Instead, I’m here and putting myself at your mercy when I never needed to. I am not the villain some of you believe me to be. Do you see what I’m saying?”

  I did see what he was saying. It made sense in a messed up ‘dead are walking the earth’ kind of way.

  “I do,” I nodded, albeit reluctantly. I took the machete Kirsty was holding, who was reluctant to give it up, and cut his binds.

  “What?!” Stephanie shouted. “Why would you do that?”

  “He’s right,” I said turning to look at her. “He’s never given us reason to doubt him, and I think this furthers that point. He may have gone about it in a crazy way, but he’s proved himself. He’s one of us.”

  Stephanie began to speak, but couldn’t get her words out. She kept choking on a lump that had formed in her throat. Instead, she ran off and slammed one of the bathroom doors.

  “Thank you,” Keith said, rubbing his wrists.

  “Don’t mention it,” I sighed, and rubbed my forehead.

  “We should have discussed it first,” Kirsty finally said, after Keith walked away.

  “Yeah, I know, but still. I was right,” I shrugged, and I truly believed I was. I’d had enough of all the group politics. I approached the bathroom door and knocked.

  “Leave me alone!” Stephanie shouted back through sobs. I tried the handle but it didn’t budge. She shouted again, “Leave me alone!

  “We still need to watch a film together,” I said, trying something else, but there was no answer. I looked at Kirsty and shrugged, almost unsympathetically, “I’m going back to bed.”

  And I did go back to bed, and Kirsty joined me. Wordlessly, she climbed in. I hesitated. I almost left, to sleep on the sofa or in her room instead, but she held the covers back. I climbed in also, almost cautiously, and pulled the covers over us. Kirsty turned away but remained close. My heart hammered in my chest and I worried she would hear. It was unexpected but also … nice. She laid there and, almost without thinking, I put my arm around her. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t push me away. Hell, it even felt natural. Within minutes, she fell was asleep, signalled by her breathing becoming heavy and rhythmic. Or whatever constituted as sleep in the apocalypse. And nothing happened between us. I laid there while she slept, unable to sleep myself – just thinking about what had unfolded. Had I made the right decision? I thought so … it made sense. It seemed like the only viable option.

  An hour or so passed, with Kirsty in my arms, before guilt got the better of me. About Alice but, more pressingly, about Stephanie. I had to go and see if she was okay. I’d been easily annoyed at her, almost unsympathetic at times, and it was because I couldn’t cope with the fact she wasn’t coping. I would disguise my trespassing as the need for some water. It was a difficult decision to leave that bed – it was the most peaceful I’d been in a long time, pre-apocalypse included. My mind felt at rest, but I had a task at hand. It was my chance for one on one time with Stephanie.

  I walked out of the room, noticing the figure of Stephanie on the sofa in the dark.

  “Steph?” I questioned cautiously.

  “Hey Sam,” she answered sadly.

  “You ok?” I asked, walking up to her, no longer needing water as an excuse.

  “Not really,” she replied. I moved swiftly and sat next to her. She started to sob quietly, “I don’t know what to think anymore. I just feel so lost. I’ve lost myself. I’ve lost everything I know. Nothing makes sense.”

  “That’s the world now. You’re not the only one going through it though,” I said, trying to comfort her. It wasn’t working.

  “We have no future, so what’s the point?” she replied, staring at me through tear-rimmed eyes.

  “To enjoy the little things,” I said, with an awkward smile. I didn’t have an answer to that question. With that, I lifted the Disney film she’d shown me earlier. “Wanna watch it now?”

  “Definitely,” she said with a smile, tears still running down her face.

  So, we watched the film. We sat together, the way siblings would and enjoyed it. It was amazing, and a relief. A true bonding experience between us, those shared laughs connecting us in a way more than an uncomfortable situation ever could. And when we finished the film, it was the early hours of the morning. I stretched and smiled, and Stephanie did the same.

  “That was cool,” I said with a grin. I looked outside at the growing light. I still had a chance for a few hours of sleep. I yawned and said, “I’m gonna lie down for a couple of hours … need some sleep before we get going.”

  “Sam …” Stephanie began. I looked at her. She sighed and continued. “Thank you. Thank you for doing this with me. It means a lot.”

  “Anytime,” I said, smiling back. I suspected she’d changed what she was initially going to say, but it didn’t matter – she seemed happy, almost at peace.

  I wish I could say I’d forgot Kirsty was in my room, but I hadn’t. For the entire film, I’d been wanting to return my bed and put my arm around Kirsty – if only for me to experience the peace I’d previously had again. And, when I did climb back into bed, I did exactly that. She only stirred for a moment, enough to realise I wasn’t a threat and to remember where she was, before we both drifted off to sleep.

  Interlude Six – Stephanie

  Stephanie had waited in her university halls for days after the dead started walking, unsure of whether to leave or not. She’d been living there alone, even before the world fell apart, as all her other housemates were away on their holidays. Stephanie had nowhere else to be, so she stayed during the break.

  Even more time went by and she realised no one was coming to save her. She’d hoarded all the resources from the various rooms into one central place and blocked the front door. However, she knew it wouldn’t last forever. Food was running out, and she was sick of seeing the same thing day in and day out. She’d seen a couple of the ‘things’ walking by, but that was it. She decided it was time to leave. She didn’t know what to pack, and she didn’t have a weapon. She knew the creatures out there weren’t human anymore. She wasn’t dumb. She’d watched horror movies. Sure, she hadn’t watched zombie movies, but she certainly had seen other monster flicks. It wa
sn’t all that different as far as she was concerned.

  So, she packed her phone, some food, and some clean clothes into a backpack. She also took one of the many cheap kitchen knives. She wanted a gun though – even though she hadn’t shot properly in years, she still knew how to use them. It was a simple muscle memory, like riding a bike – she’d feel a lot safer with one.

  Once she got outside, she saw there were a few of the things on campus, just shambling about, but Stephanie was quiet and had a destination. She was able to avoid them, the horrendous smell that followed them was enough to help with that. That didn’t change the fact that breathing the air around them made her feel like she’d never be clean again, as if the smell had invaded her insides. She remembered that people in olden times thought disease was carried by bad smells and she understood why!

  Stephanie continued to her destination. She was going to the local supermarket, hoping other people would be there. There was safety in numbers after all. She regretted not having her car on campus, but it wasn’t a long walk. Before long, she suddenly heard scuffing of feet. Stephanie paused and looked around until she spotted one of the things. A young man, only wearing joggers. He’d been in quite a good shape, a six-pack and pecks were showing. The creature ran straight towards Stephanie as soon as it sighted her. She prepared her knife and waited for him to get close. She may have been prepared physically for combat, but not psychologically for a humanoid attacker. She almost froze in fear. However, the bloody gash on his throat showed that he definitely wasn’t human anymore – not a living one anyway – and her resolve was steadied. Stephanie plunged the knife into the side of the young man. It sunk into the soft flesh, the pallid skin offering little resistance, but it didn’t stop him. He continued to grab at her as he gnashed his teeth.

  “Leave me alone!” Stephanie screamed and shoved him away with minimal effect. She felt like she’d severely overestimated her strength and what she was capable of! She knew one thing she was good at though: running!