by Calum Kerr
“Okay, then,” said Nicola when she was sure she had everyone’s answer. The only one who hadn’t spoken was James. He was looking back over his shoulder into the mess of sheep-parts that used to be field. “Well, we know where we’re going. The only question left is where are you lot going to go. James?” He flicked his head back, almost as though caught doing something he should feel guilty about. “I take it you’re going with the rest of them?”
He paused, and she knew what he was thinking. “You can’t stay. I know it’s your home, but what if they all come back tonight? These people need to find somewhere safer and more comfortable than the cellar of a barn, and they’ve only got the day’s light in which to find it. You’re going to have to show them. This is your neighbourhood after all.”
He looked at her, stricken, and she felt her heart go out to him, but she couldn’t let him shirk this burden. “You need to find them some food, some shelter, something that can be sealed against attack. Can you do that? Is there a town or somewhere near here?”
He nodded, and she saw his Adam’s apple moving in his throat. “Where is it?” she asked, as kindly as she could without giving in to the welling tears in his eyes.
He pointed out of the gate to the right, the opposite of the way she and her group had to go. She nodded, that seemed right.
“Okay, you’re going to take them there. Don’t worry, you can do this. You’ll be fine.” He nodded. She wasn’t sure he believed her. Hell, it was a crappy pep talk. As long as he did what he was told, that was enough for her. He didn’t have to like it.
“We should get some food, first, if we can.” Tony said. Nicola nodded. It was going to be her next point.
“Yes, we’re going to have to go into the house and see what we can get. Matches, candles, anything like that would be useful. Food, yes, and anything else that might be useful.”
She saw Sam turn to James and place her hand on his arm. She spoke to him softly and he answered. She asked something else and he nodded, slowly, unwillingly.
“What is it?” asked Nicola. She knew her voice was overly harsh, but she really didn’t want to have to wait any longer than she had to.
Sam looked over at her, and Nicola could see a rebuke in her eyes. “I was asking him what size feet his mum had. They were 5 the same as me. So I thought I’d see if I could get some better shoes for running over fields.” Her words were defiant, challenging Nicola to make something of it.
Nicola nodded. It was a good idea. “Yes, any clothing or even sleeping bags would be useful. Whatever there is.”
She looked around and everyone was nodding. She glanced over her shoulder at the house. “But before we do that, we need to make sure it’s safe in there.”
Thirty-one
They approached the house warily. Dave and Dan had taken the lead, and for all that Tony was feeling brave, that was fine with him. They’d all armed themselves, either with the tools they’d had the day before, or with new things found in the barn. Tony had replaced his screwdriver with the axe he’d picked from the wall just before he found James. Dave and Dan each had a pickaxe, Darren his sledgehammer. Alan was carrying a length of metal bar, and Andy had, of all things, a golf club.
At a time like this, traditional gender roles had been asserted, and the women stayed outside in the safety of the sun. All, that is, except for Nicola. She was carrying what looked to Tony like a rusty sword, but which James had informed them was a broken blade from the old threshing machine. Whatever it was, she carried it with purpose, and Tony for one would be keeping out of her way. He guessed she was keen to get moving, but with them having to go through the house first, he was happy to take as long as necessary.
Dave and Dan waved for the others to hang back and they went in on their own. The others waited outside, listening intently for whatever sounds they could hear. The guys’ boots made a heavy noise on the floorboards which grew more muffled the further they went in. There was silence for a moment, and then one of them called, “It’s okay in here, you can come in.”
They entered. Nicola went ahead and the others followed, with Tony bringing up the rear. It was surprisingly dark, the small windows letting in little light. He looked around. There was nothing much to see. It was a kitchen. There was a wet patch on the ground where he presumed James’s father had fallen, but nothing else to suggest disturbance. As far as he could tell the zombie horde hadn’t even been in here last night. Maybe it would be okay, and they wouldn’t find anything. They could just get in and get out.
Darren and Dan started to open cupboards. They found large reusable carrier-bags and started filling them with food. Nicola and Dave headed for the door which, presumably led to the rest of the house. Andy and Alan followed, and so did Tony.
The hallway was also untouched, and Tony felt himself start to relax. Andy and Alan went through the open door into the lounge and Alan reported it empty. “There are some rucksacks, though. We’ll take them back to Dan and Daz, they can fill them with food. Easier to carry that way.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Tony found himself directly behind Nicola and Dave. He wasn’t keen on being so near the front, but didn’t really have an option. The three of them climbed the stairs. It was dark at the top. As they neared the landing, Tony realised this was because all the doors to the rooms had been closed. They reached the top without anything jumping out at them.
They didn’t confer and they didn’t split up. Nicola took the lead and headed back along the short landing to the front room. She paused with her hand on the doorknob and looked back at the others. Dave nodded and, after a moment, so did Tony. She turned back and flung the door wide, stepping back to give them all room to swing if they needed to.
Nothing moved. The room was empty of zombies. Not, thought Tony, that many could have fit in there. It was a small box room which had been used for storage. It had all kinds of things piled inside. Nicola let out a deep breath, and Tony realised he had also been holding his. He let his out slowly, through clenched teeth, in a quiet hiss. She nodded to herself, then spoke quietly, “Okay, this is good. There’s bound to be stuff in here we can use. Let’s check the other rooms first and then see what’s in here.”
Dave nodded and Tony just prepared himself to perform this nerve-wracking action over again. He looked around at the doors and counted. Another four times.
They turned to the door immediately on their right, the room over the lounge. Again, there was a pause before Nicola threw the door wide. Again, there was nothing. The room beyond was obviously the main bedroom. It had a large, unmade bed, and male and female clothing dotted around.
They stepped inside, but a quick inspection told them this room was empty too.
The next two rooms – James’s bedroom and a home office – were also empty, which just left the last door.
This was typical, thought Tony. He’d seen horror movies. He knew how this worked. The tension is on the first door, by the last one the heroes are getting relaxed and – BAM – that’s when the monster gets them.
They all seemed to be thinking the same thing, because, here in real life, rather than being relaxed, they were even more on edge.
Once again Nicola checked with them, and once again they confirmed they were ready with a simple nod. She reached for the handle, drew a deep breath, and flung it so far open it banged off the wall and started to close again.
Unless the porcelain was possessed, there was nothing in the bathroom, either. The house was clear.
They all sagged with relief; Tony going so far as to clutch the banister.
Dave gave out a low chuckle, which became a laugh. Tony joined in and then, reluctantly but inevitably, so did Nicola. The tears streamed down their faces as they let go of their tension.
It took them a while to get hold of themselves, and by the end the laughter was no longer fun. There was a hard edge to it all and Nicola seemed on the verge of tears. Tony went to put a comforting hand on her arm, but Dave was ahead of him. He
put his arm round her shoulder and she leant her head on him as her laughter became a sob, which became a sigh.
She stood like that for a moment, then straightened.
“Okay, then,” she said. “Let’s see what’s in that front room.”
They moved back down the landing, and Nicola went in and started hauling things out. They found small packs containing sleeping bags, more rucksacks, wet-weather gear, a box of candles and some wind-proof lanterns, and all kinds of camping equipment. As Nicola passed the things out, Dave started to pack them into a rucksack. Tony watched.
When the first rucksack was full, Dave passed it to Tony. “Take this down and come back for the next one.”
Tony didn’t argue at being ordered around in this way, he just complied. He hoisted the rucksack onto his back and headed downstairs. There was a hairy moment when he leant too far forward and the weight of his pack nearly sent him tumbling, but he grabbed the banister and kept going.
He walked through the kitchen where the other guys were still packing food into the rucksacks they’d found in the lounge. He left the pack he’d brought and headed back inside.
He had just reached the landing again when he heard a shout from downstairs. There was a loud crashing, more shouts, and then a huge shape was bounding up the stairs towards him. It was a large man, travelling on all fours like a giant dog. His head was lolling from side to side and Tony could see it was because half of his neck was missing.
Tony screamed.
Thirty-two
Nicola turned as she heard the noise from downstairs. She realised immediately what it was and started to struggle from the pile of debris that she had built around her legs. Her ‘sword’ was leaning against the door frame and she grabbed it, just as Tony screamed. She watched as a huge shape leapt at him. He took a step backwards and fell, full length, onto his back, knocking the wind out of his lungs and cutting off his scream.
The large zombie landed on the other side of Tony, turned, snarled and charged at her and Dave. Dave had dropped the rucksack he’d been holding and reached for his pickaxe. He misjudged, however, and knocked it to the floor. As he bent to retrieve it, the zombie leapt again, straight towards Nicola.
She swung with her blade, bracing her feet for the impact. It sank into the side of the creature, stopping it mid-leap and knocking it against the wall. It kicked out at Dave as it fell and he was knocked sprawling onto the floor of the main bedroom. As the creature hit the floor, the blade, stuck deep in its side, was pulled from her grip. As she lunged after it, she realised that she recognised the face of the creature which, even as she looked at it, was scrambling to its feet to re-launch its attack.
“Stan?” she asked, incredulous, unable to control her instinctive reaction to reach out to this man she recognised
The thing that had once been Stan grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. She let out a yell and tried to pull away, be he was too strong. It cocked its head, baring its teeth, seeming to take a slow meticulous pleasure in what it was about to do. It was almost as if it remembered her enough to make this a very special occasion.
She frantically tried to pull back, but to no avail, as Zombie Stan reeled her in, his mouth aiming for her throat. Just as he was about to sink his teeth into the tasty morsel that he had found, his head flew sideways and collided with the wall, and his arms let her drop.
“There,” said Tony, with an air of finality. He had regained his feet and clapped the creature on the side of the head with the flat of his axe, crushing part of its head. He stared down at it with an air of triumph, and looked completely surprised when it started to get back to its feet, snarling even louder.
It took a step towards Nicola, who had retreated back into the box room, and then Dave’s pick-axe swung through the open doorway from the main bedroom and the pointed pick part disappeared through the zombie’s face, carried on through and came out of the back of its head.
Dave planted his weight and pulled, yanking the zombie which had replaced his closest friend and pulled it through into the bedroom. Sunlight was streaming through the windows and when it hit the creature, it started to emit a gurgling scream. Its skin started to bubble and slide from its bones.
With a cry, Dave pulled the axe from its head, moved behind it, and with a foot planted in the middle of its back, sent it crashing through the windows, tumbling to the yard outside.
Nicola and Tony, who had made their way into the room in time to see this, could hear screaming from outside, but it soon stopped. Nicola imagined this was when the huge shape which had fallen from the house became nothing more than a steaming puddle of goo.
She could hear shouts and footsteps from below, the others coming to see if they were okay. For the moment, she couldn’t care about them. Dave, having ejected the monster, had stopped in the middle of the room, staring at the empty space where the window had been. Nicola was vaguely aware of Tony slipping from the room to assure the others they were okay. She stepped forward and turned Dave towards her. He looked stricken.
“It’s okay, honey. It’s okay,” she crooned, reaching up to stroke his face.
He let the pickaxe fall from his hand and it hit the floor with a thump. “It was… It was….” he murmured.
“I know, honey. I know. But it wasn’t him. He was already gone. That was just some thing.”
He finally looked up, into her eyes. She could see him pleading with her.
“It wasn’t him.” She was more definite now. “He was gone. That was just the thing that wanted to kill us all, and you saved us.”
She was nodding at him, over and over, trying to convince him. “You saved me,” she said softly, and then she was kissing him.
It started as a soft, comforting kiss, but quickly became more. The tension and the stress travelled through both of them, culminating in a fierce mashing of lips and scraping of teeth. It was animalistic and intense and neither of them was aware of Tony coming back into the room. He stopped and watched them for a moment, then left without saying anything or making a sound.
Thirty-three
They came out of the bedroom only seconds after Tony left them. He had waded into the box room and was carrying on packing and sorting, finding things they needed. They didn’t say anything about what had happened, and he didn’t tell them he’d seen them, he just carried on with the task. They took the objects he passed them and continued filling rucksacks.
When Alan and Andy had come rushing upstairs to check on him, Nicola and Dave, Tony had told them that they were all okay. He said what had happened, and they told him that it had come up through a trap-door in the cupboard under the stairs. No-one had checked there. Daz had slammed the door and was waiting for the others to come back down so they could go down and check, but they reckoned that if there had been more, they would probably already know.
The thing had emerged from the cellar, crashed through the door of the cupboard and knocked Andy off his feet as he walked from the lounge to the kitchen. He’d then headed straight upstairs, as if he had a particular reason to be there.
Satisfied everything was okay, the others had gone back down to help Daz, and that was when Tony had walked in and seen Dave and Nicola.
He didn’t know what to do. More importantly he could feel himself reacting inside but didn’t know what to make of what he was feeling. All he knew was that he hadn’t liked watching them. He wasn’t embarrassed, it just wasn’t something he wanted to see.
He backed out silently and went back to the box room to sort things out, thoughts spinning round his mind like bluebirds around a dazed cartoon character’s head.
With the three of them working on the things in the room, it didn’t take them long to fill the 5 rucksacks they found. Tony did find a sixth at the bottom of a pile, but when he put in a camping lantern it fell through where the bottom should have been and the glass smashed on the floor. He swore much more loudly and vehemently than the damage required. They had, after all, already packed fo
ur of the things successfully.
They had mostly been packing in silence, Tony still mulling over his thoughts, but Nicola had spoken once to comment on the fact that they were lucky to have found a family of hoarders. Tony grunted a response and the silence fell again.
Dave was doing the duties of ferrying the full packs downstairs again, leaving Nicola and Tony alone from time to time, but Tony had nothing to say to her and she seemed lost in her own thoughts. She didn’t seem to be as set on finding her daughter, and he did wonder idly, as he tried to understand his own inner conflict, what she was thinking about. He guessed she was worried what she would find when they got to the shed where Dave had left her, and part of her didn’t want to have to face the awful possibility.
How could she kiss him after he abandoned her daughter? Tony suddenly wondered. Just as quickly he dismissed the thought and went back to his rummaging. He had shifted and sifted most of the things in the room, but he just wanted to check for any last thing that they might need.
That was when he found the shotgun.
He had been moving things off the narrow bed which had been pushed under the window. Things had been piled high on it, and he’d had to clear the floor in front to get to it. Lying under a pile of old coats, the last thing before the mattress, was the gun. Next to it was a box of cartridges.
He couldn’t think why it was stashed away up here. It looked very suspicious. He would have thought, if it was for farming purposes – culling badgers or whatever – that it would be somewhere within reach. It felt… hidden.
Whatever the reason, he was glad he had found it. He lifted it up, surprised at how heavy it felt and how cold the metal was on such a warm day. He turned with it in his hands and heard Nicola give a gasp. She knew, as he did, that they had just found the single most useful thing that they could. She held out her hands to take it from him, but he pretended not to notice and held onto it. He turned back and grabbed the box of shells, and then started to make his way back out of the room. As he passed Nicola he pointed with the butt of the gun to the last of the rucksacks which was on the floor, leaning against her legs, he asked, “Can you manage that on your own?” But he didn’t wait for the answer and headed off downstairs.