by Calum Kerr
Thirty-four
Nicola followed Tony downstairs, unsure quite what was going on. Something had obviously happened to him when the zombie had attacked, but she wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was the scream and the falling over backwards. He could be ashamed of himself. But he had stood up and smacked that zombie with his axe – the blunt side, okay, but he had still saved her life. Maybe he had discovered something about himself in that moment of heroism and it was a new-found determination she could feel. Whatever it was, she knew she should ask him, but she couldn’t find the words and her mind was whirling too much to search for them.
Why had she kissed him? That was what she kept asking herself. If there was anyone in the group that she should hate, it should be Dave. He had taken her girl – when there was a threat, admittedly, but one which never became anything more – and he had locked her up and abandoned her. She ought to want nothing more than for him to lead her to the shed and then never clap eyes on him again.
But, somehow, she couldn’t criticise him for what he had done. She could understand exactly why he had done what he did, and knew that she would have done the same in that situation. And when she had seen the look on his face after he had had to kick the undead version of his best friend through the window, she had just wanted to make it better for him. He looked so torn, so anguished, so full of emotion, so human. So unlike Rob.
She had just wanted to soothe and comfort him, but then she had been kissing him. It wasn’t a decision she had taken, it was just something that happened. It had been nice. There had been a lot of other feelings mixed up in that kiss, but it had been nice. It was the first kiss she had had since Rob and she realised how much she missed the feeling of another’s lips on hers.
But even as she was kissing him, her hands pulling his head hard against hers, she had known that she didn’t really want to be doing this. And now it had happened, she didn’t think she wanted to do it again. She didn’t know why, but instead of feeling something new open up inside her, it had just left her feeling awkward.
They had broken their kiss and she had been unable to look at him, simply turning and returning to where Tony had already re-started the job that she should have been doing.
And now she was standing in the doorway to the box room, with Tony already downstairs, and she still wasn’t moving. She couldn’t understand it. She had woken up knowing what she needed to do and how she was going to achieve it. But as she had started rummaging through the belongings of other people who were only recently, dead, she had felt her purpose leaking away. Her mind just kept filling again, as she had known it would, with the sight of the field full of dismembered sheep. In her mind’s eye, each limb, each pool of blood, each splintered bone was Alyssa’s. Her daughter’s face appeared in her mind with a thousand different expressions of pain, horror and anguish; and every eye in every face accused her.
She hauled the rucksack from the floor and onto her back and made her way downstairs. She knew she had to carry on with the task ahead of her, but her dread weighed her down. In the kitchen they were dividing the things that had been found upstairs more evenly, and interspersing food with more practical objects. Nicola suspected that they had packed more things than they would need, but didn’t want to take any chances.
She stood in the doorway and watched them, the weight of the rucksack threatening to bring her to her knees, but she was unwilling to let it drop. Following the checking of the house, and the zombie attack, the others who had waited in the courtyard were now clustered around the back door. Nicola watched as they chatted and swapped objects back and forth, sorting what they would each need and who was capable of carrying what. Tony had also set himself apart from it all. He had taken a chair and placed it against the far wall. He was examining the gun. So far he had worked out how to open it, and was now examining cartridges which he had taken from the box. As she watched, he started to slide them into the gun: one, then two. He closed the gun with a click, and she saw a look of satisfaction pass over his face.
He looked up and saw her and his face went blank.
She stepped into the room and finally swung the pack from her back and let it thump to the ground. She took a deep breath, then, “Okay, then. How are we getting on?”
Andy looked up from where he was sliding bottles of water into one of the packs. “Not bad, we should have enough stuff to keep everyone comfortable and fed for a few days if needs be.” He glanced around then back to Nicola, “We should be good to go in a few minutes. We just need to sort that one out.” He pointed to the pack Nicola had brought down, and Dave stepped over to take it from her. He glanced up into her face, but she couldn’t read his expression. She looked away.
“Okay, good.” She turned and called out through the doorway, “Sam, if you want to come in, I’ll show you where the bedroom is. We can get you some shoes.”
Thirty-five
Sam was conscious that everyone was now waiting for her. She and Nicola went upstairs quickly and she was able to find trainers which fit her when she added two pairs of trainer-socks on each foot, and also to exchange her ’little black number’ for a pair of drawstring ¾ length ‘shorts’ and a t-shirt which wasn’t too baggy.
Nicola had left her to change, but all in all it had taken less than 5 minutes. She walked back into the kitchen, looking more practical but a lot less glamorous, she felt. She had even tied her hair up with a band she had found on the dressing table. She didn’t know if it was the new look, or just something what had been simmering, but as soon as she walked in, Tony stood from his chair at the side of the room, walked over to her with the shotgun held at his side, slid his left hand round the back of her neck to cup her head, and kissed her.
It was a soft and sensuous kiss, which grew a little harder and more passionate as it continued. Sam was aware that all movement in the room had ceased and imagined all eyes watching them, but she didn’t care. She didn’t know if it was the pressure of the situation, or just hormones which didn’t know when to shut up, but she had wanted Tony to kiss her almost as soon as she had first placed her hand on his shoulder back in the woods. She melted into the kiss, and felt her body mould to his, but he didn’t change. He stood, straight as a plank, holding her head to his, and kissed her until she finally had to break away, to breathe. She looked into his eyes, still surprised at the suddenness and publicness of what he had done. She didn’t know what she expected to see in his eyes – some softness, some affection, perhaps – but they were flat and fathomless, like a poisoned reservoir. She almost pulled away, but his fingers massaged the back of her neck a little, and she saw his face soften into a smile.
“Sorry,” he said, the smile seeming to fit itself over his features, rather than being part of them. “I just needed to do that.”
She tried to think of a response, but before she could he had turned back to the others, who looked away and tried to pretend they hadn’t been watching.
“We ready?” he asked them.
A last couple of things were swapped between bags and then they all agreed that, yes, they were ready.
Nicola seemed, after dawdling far more than Sam would have expected, to have found her urgency again. She grabbed a bag and swung it onto her back, and marched out of the kitchen, causing the group outside to have to back out of her way. The rest of them followed.
Once back into the open, everyone split into their two groups without having to be told. Dave, Dan and Nicola were carrying the packs for their group. Andy, Alan and Ryan had the other three. A couple of small bags had been hung from the back of Heidi’s pushchair, too.
There seemed little to say, now they had finally reached this point. Dan and Daz wished the others from the pub good luck, and the sentiment was repeated across the groups. And then they picked up their weapons and walked.
At the gate there was another round of farewells, and then James was leading his group off to the right, towards the village, and Dave was leading the others to the left, back the way
he and Nicola had come the night before; back to Alyssa.
Thirty-six
Nicola was angry. She knew she had no reason to be, and that her mind should have been focussed on her daughter, but it was anger which drove her now. She just wanted to find her daughter and get her away from all this to somewhere safe; somewhere where they could wait out whatever it was that was happening. Somewhere away from Tony.
She had no reason to have been shocked and angered by the way he kissed Sam, but she was, and she hated herself for it. When he stood up and did what he did, she knew immediately what had happened. He had seen her and Dave, and it had made him… what? Jealous? Something like that. And he had then kissed the girl in retaliation. That was what she was angry about. She wasn’t jealous for herself. She was just sad for the girl, who had obviously taken a shine to him, for some unknown reason. He had used her to try and get back at Nicola and the girl was going to be heartbroken when he cast her aside. She knew his type; she knew that would be his pattern.
Okay, so stressful times brought people together who would normally never look at each other, and maybe some of that was what was going on between Tony and Sam. But it was no excuse for treating her like that.
As they walked away from the farm, Dave set the pace, but Nicola soon moved up to join him. Dan and Daz followed behind, with Tony and Sam bringing up the rear. Nicola glanced back and felt a fresh jolt of anger as she saw they were holding hands. Sam was smiling, but Tony’s face was set.
A minute later and she could no longer worry about such things. They reached a place where a whole length of hedge had been torn down.
Dave stopped. The others caught up with him as he spoke, “This is the place where I came out last night, or as near as dammit. We could go back by the road and round, but I think this is quicker and I’m fairly sure I remember the way. It’s not particularly hard, but it is cross-country. That okay with everyone?”
They all agreed and again, he led the way. They stepped through the hedge and stopped. Like the sheep by the barn, the cows in this field had been ripped apart. Splashes of gore and bovine body parts littered the fields. Nicola ignored them, stepped around Dave, and carried on going. She didn’t look back to see if the others were following.
They did, and Dave was soon walking at her side again, guiding her to a gate which led to a field with similarly butchered sheep in it.
They crossed two more slaughterfields before they reached one containing crops. At the edge of this one, the ground started to rise and, as they climbed, Nicola could see a roof appear on the horizon.
She turned her head towards Dave, not breaking stride. “Is that it?”
“Yes,” he replied and then watched as she doubled her pace, taking the hill as if it wasn’t there.
The others started to drop behind, but all other thoughts had left Nicola’s head. She no longer cared what Tony did with his life. She didn’t care if Sam got hurt – she was a grown up and had to make her own mistakes. She didn’t care what Dave might assume about her and their shared kiss. She didn’t even care that he had abandoned her daughter here overnight. All she cared about was getting into that shed and rescuing what would be a very frightened, very hungry and very bewildered little girl.
Despite the weight of the pack on her back she sprinted up and over the brow of the hill. She rounded the side of the shed and stopped.
The door was not just ajar, it was completely gone. In the efforts to remove it, whatever had wanted to get in had torn the boards of the door into so much kindling. The pieces lay scattered across the grass in front of the shed, and she could see spatters of blood on them.
She was still standing there when the others arrived. They were out of breath, but that was not why no-one said anything. They all just stood ranged around her and looked at the same scene of devastation which had halted her.
Finally Dave stepped forward. He looked into her face as he passed her, making sure it was okay for him to do what he was doing, but she didn’t say anything to stop him. She wasn’t sure she could say anything at all.
He stepped into the shed and then straight out again. She waited for him to tell her about the mess of limbs and intestines and blood which was all that was left of her daughter. He took a breath to speak and she all but cringed before the blow that she was sure was coming.
He shook his head. “Nothing. She’s gone.”
Somehow, she found her voice. “No… body?”
He shook his head again, and walked over to her. He took her hands in his and she was reminded of their moment in the bedroom. He looked into her eyes.” Nothing. No blood, no body, nothing. Maybe, wherever she is, she’s okay.”
His voice was soothing, but she knew exactly what it was he wasn’t saying.
She nodded at him, acknowledging, but not agreeing. “That’s true. Or maybe she was screaming and they heard her. They broke down the door and – hell, maybe she ran for it – but more likely they dragged her out, they tore out her throat, and next time it goes dark my own daughter will come looking to eat her mother’s brains.”
She never raised her voice, but she saw him flinch at her words anyway. She felt bad for a moment. He was taking all this as his fault, but he hadn’t caused any of it to happen. He had just been trying to do his best. He might have messed up, but he hadn’t intended it. It occurred to her to say this, to try and relieve his guilt, to put aside her own feelings to make him feel better. But she didn’t. She didn’t have the chance.
She was just working out how to phrase what she wanted to say when the sky went dark. She looked around, expecting to see one of the giant metal spiders which she had been told about, but had yet to see. The transition from sunlight to shade was so sudden that she thought it must have been cast by something. Instead, as she looked up, she saw thick dark clouds- as thick as smoke, but too high up and moving too fast – covering the sky.
“Look!” Daz, who had ended up at the back of the group when they clustered at the front of the shed was pointing beyond it, back the way they had come.
The empty shed and its raft of possible meanings was forgotten in the moment. Nicola moved round the shed to look where he was pointing.
She looked out, over the fields and woods which they could see from their vantage, and could see the line of the A34 cutting through the landscape. In breaks in the trees she could see the snake of stalled cars, and had to force herself to remember that it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since she had been there.
Beyond that she could see the blasted and blackened landscape that had once been trees and grass and crops. Smoke rose from fires dotted around, some large enough to be buildings, some more likely vehicles.
Finally, right at the edge of what she could see, and getting less clear by the moment, she could see a dark dish, the size of a cruise liner, sitting amongst the charcoaled countryside. Rising from this, in a tree-trunk of light which must have been many yards wide was a beam of green light. It lit the charred land below it with a sickly hue that made her stomach lurch.
Where it reached into the sky, fresh clouds were boiling, thick and black, and from there they spread out at a frightening speed. She turned and looked, just in time to see the last of the blue vanish over the other horizon as the clouds finally covered everything in sight.
“What are they-?” Sam asked.
“Darkness,” was Nicola’s response. “They need darkness.”
As if summoned by her words, a screaming growl sounded from the valley behind them.
Thirty-seven
James was supposed to be leading the group, but once he’d told Alan and Andy that it was nothing more than a straight road leading to the village, they took the responsibility from him. He was grateful.
Alan and Charlotte walked at the front, just ahead of James. Debbie and Ryan came behind, Debbie pushing Heidi’s chair. Behind them were Bert and Doreen, and finally Andy and Sandra bringing up the rear.
Bert hadn’t slept well in the cellar - God, no
ne of them had – but he was certainly feeling his age today. He and Doreen, despite their many walks around the area, leaned on each other as they walked. She groaned and stumbled occasionally, and he wrapped his arm more securely around her to help her take her weight off her feet.
Eventually, he had to ask, “How far is this place, then, lad?”
The group paused as the sound of his voice caused Alan and James to look back. “Not far. About a mile,” said James.
“Can you manage, love?” Bert asked his wife. She nodded and they hobbled on.
The road wound through the green countryside. Occasionally there were places where the hedge had been ripped away by the passage of… well, of them. Through some of the gaps they could sometimes see trampled crops. Other times it was slaughtered livestock.
They rounded one bend, and again the group came to a halt. There was something in the road. Bert helped his wife to sit for a moment on the verge and walked up to the front. It was a body. That is to say, it was the remains of a person, but there was no head. The ragged flesh of the neck suggested that something had finally bitten off too much. James was shaking and Charlotte was holding him. Bert had noticed, even last night, that she seemed to have adopted the boy.
Bert helped Alan to lift the body to the side of the road. From the looks of it the corpse had once been a middle-aged man. They didn’t know what else they could do. They were certainly in no position to carry the body with them until they could find somewhere more ‘respectful’ than an unkempt grass bank. Mind you, Bert mused, this would hardly be the last unburied body that would come out of all this when the dust settled.