by Ryan Casey
The worried shouts of the crowd descended to a murmur. People started to turn away and wander back up the street. Tears ran down kids’ faces at the sight of the bloody mess. More tears ran down the faces of those who realised that the bloody mess was friendly little Luther.
“Rodrigo’s right,” Donald the gate guard said, rising back to the top of the ladder that looked out over the gate. “Right now, Allison needs some…Shite. Holy fookin’ shite.”
The crowd silenced again. Those who had turned to walk away turned back around, looking up at a clearly terrified Donald.
“What is it?” Riley shouted.
“What the fuck is it?” Pedro echoed.
Rodrigo stared on. Dave Wellson stared on.
Allison cradled and sobbed into her limp dog’s body some more.
“It’s…You’re gonna want to see this, Rodrigo. Gonna wanna fucking see this to make sure I’m not going bleedin’ mad here.”
Rodrigo stormed towards the ladder at the fence. The crowd followed closely behind, chatting loudly again, panic in the air.
When Rodrigo reached the top of the ladder, the frown dropped from his face, and he froze.
Riley managed to make his way up the ladder, too. Pulled himself onto it before anyone else and climbed his way to the top.
“What do you see?” Riley asked. “What is it?”
He didn’t need an answer.
When he got to the top of the ladder, he could see the horde of creatures staggering down the road from the opposite direction to the Dumping Ground.
Not tens.
Not even hundreds.
As far as the eye could see, right down the street.
And all of them were groaning.
Chapter Three
Riley stared down the street at the creatures wandering in the direction of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. Dread welled up inside him as he saw the distant faces of the hundreds, thousands of former humans, their groans echoing against the tarmac as they wandered and wandered with only one thing in mind.
Eating.
“Get down from there, Riley.” The voice was Rodrigo’s. He realised it came from below. He’d hopped off the ladder, as had Donald, and now was left up there on his own. The crowd were whispering. Not screaming or going crazy, like they might do in a Hollywood film. No, there was an eerie silence about them. A look of inevitability and realisation on their faces as Donald told them what was happening and to get back to their caravans.
Up ahead, as Riley started to climb down the ladder, away from the oncoming horde of creatures, he saw Anna and Aaron running in his direction with confused looks on their faces. He wanted to tell her himself. He wanted to be the one to give her the news.
The way she covered her mouth when a man in the crowd told her; the way Aaron lifted his hands behind his neck. They knew. Everybody knew.
Now they just had to work out what the hell they were going to do about it.
“Everybody, get back to your caravans,” Rodrigo said. “Just…just get back and stay as calm as you can. And lock the doors. I’ll contact you over the in-site speaker system if…if…”
“Now might be a good time to start thinking about that fucking contingency plan,” Pedro said, squaring up to Rodrigo. The panicked shouts and screams were starting to pick up now as footsteps jogged in the direction of the caravans.
“I’m not leaving this place. None of us are. We can work through this.”
“Work through this?” Pedro said. “Have you seen how many of those things are out there? We’re not talking a few straggling goons, mate. We’re talking an army.”
“And we’ll deal with them. We don’t have to leave this place.”
Rodrigo stepped around Pedro and started to walk back towards the gate.
“We just have to think,” Rodrigo said, his back turned to the others. Clouds loomed overhead. Not stormy clouds, not like some clichéd horror film. Fluffy clouds actually. In direct contrast to the shitstorm about to unfold on the ground.
“I’ve thought,” Pedro said as one of the gate watchers escorted Allison and her dog corpse back towards the caravans. “The way I see it, we have two options. Option one: we get the fuck out of here. Option two: we sit in here and wait for those goons to breach our gates. Which they will. Right, Riley? Back me up here, bruv.”
Riley stared at the gates. They were tall. Solid. They would likely hold even if a few hundred creatures pressed up against them. And if not, there were other security measures. They could shut the gates to the parking area they were standing in. Pen the creatures into a section of the caravan park and pick them off when they had them in sight.
“I think the main thing here is to keep everyone quiet,” Riley said.
“Quiet?” Pedro said. “Bruv, those things are groaning like motherfuckers as it is. Us going silent isn’t going to make such a difference the way I see it. Anna, Aaron. You’ve got my back here, right?”
Anna scratched at her shiny brown hair. Aaron looked at his feet, which he seemed to do a hell of a lot of.
“Fuck you,” Pedro said. “Fuck you all. You’re signing a death warrant. Don’t you see that?”
Riley looked up at the speaker systems around the site as Pedro and Anna bickered amongst one another. The loudspeakers were installed right on top of several tall, metal pylons, three of which Riley could see in Heathwaite’s Caravan Site.
“What I want to know is why the hell those things are heading this way,” Pedro said.
Aaron tutted.
“What?” Pedro said, reddening in the face. “Got something to say, kid? You seem to know a fuckload about what’s going on around here. Besides, how did that poor doggy get skinned after all?”
“Pedro, don’t be a dick,” Anna said, putting her arm over Aaron’s shoulder.
“I think the more pressing matter is figuring out what the hell our next move is here,” Rodrigo said, speaking sterner and louder. “There’s several hundred of those zombies heading right down the road and towards our gates. It doesn’t matter whether they’re from Silverdale, Morecambe Bay or Bagh-fucking-dad. All that matters is that they’re coming, and we better do something about them if we want to keep this place intact.”
Anna sighed and shrugged. “I…I want to stay. I mean, with winter getting colder and—”
“We’re lucky we found this place anyway,” Pedro said. “We’re lucky our boat ended up wrecked where it did. This place has been a nice stopgap, nothing more. About fucking time we accepted that before sentimentality gets us into any more trouble.”
“Lucky?” Anna said. Her face reddened. “Lucky? We lost Claudia and Chloë, Pedro.”
“We lose people all the time. All the fucking time, we lose people. And we’re gonna lose more people when those creatures hit the gates. We’ll lose people if we walk out of here. Not as many, which I like. But we lose people. That’s life.”
“Don’t pretend to be so cold to me, Pedro,” Anna said, her voice rising. “I know how much you want this place to work. How much you give a shit about this life. These people. About…about us. Don’t even try bullshitting me—”
“The loudspeaker,” Riley said.
Anna and Pedro went quiet. Rodrigo, who had his head in his hand, looked over at Riley.
“What about the loudspeaker?” Pedro asked.
“Rodrigo—the loudspeakers around the site. Is…is there one in the old site? The Dumping Ground?”
Rodrigo puffed his lips out as if he were re-grounding himself in reality and pointed in the direction of the Dumping Ground. “That mast over there is fitted with a loudspeaker, yeah.”
Riley’s heart thumped. He could see a plan forming out in front of him. Even through the groans, which were growing louder, more echoey by the second, he could see this plan shaping up. “Then maybe we don’t have to give this place up after all.”
Pedro tutted and shook his head. “Riley, I know you like this
place. I do too, bruv. But without a plan, we—”
“Is there a way to activate just one of the loudspeakers?”
Rodrigo nodded slowly, trying to latch on to Riley’s plan. “Yes. We’ve tried that before with the loudspeakers around the site. It is possible. Dean Hutchins is good with electrics. He’d be able to—”
“So we could create a sound from the loudspeaker in the old site? Draw the creatures over that way?”
Rodrigo’s nod intensified. Even Pedro looked intrigued all of a sudden.
“It’s possible. It’s just—”
“Then that’s what we do,” Riley said. “It might not be a permanent solution, but at least it keeps them away from us. Gets them distracted. And while they’re over in the old site, we can work on a sort of…a sort of blockade. An extension of the Dumping Ground. Something like—”
“There’s one small problem,” Rodrigo said. He didn’t look as triumphant or delighted as Riley expected him to look.
“Of course there is,” Anna muttered. “Of course there is.”
“The generator that powers the loudspeaker in the old site. It’s disconnected. Figured we’d conserve the power should ever we…you know. Need it.”
Riley shook his head. “You do need it. Right now is exactly when you need it. Please tell me we can activate this generator remotely.”
Rodrigo didn’t respond. He didn’t nod and he didn’t shake his head. He didn’t have to. The embarrassed look of defeat on his face was enough to give away that this generator needed activating manually.
“Then it looks like some of us are going on a little journey,” Riley said as the groans of the oncoming creatures grew louder and louder.
“So how are we going to do this?” Pedro asked.
Riley looked out of the side gate of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. It was situated in the middle of a group of trees to the left of the main Heathwaite’s leisure centre. Much like the front gate, it was made up of stacks of thick metal, as well as tyres, old parts of machinery, and a whole load of other things that Riley couldn’t quite recognise. It looked solid enough. Besides, there were only fields beyond it anyway. Fields that led out to nowhere, but if followed correctly, could lead right towards the Dumping Ground.
“Do it however you like,” Rodrigo said as he, Riley, Pedro, Anna and Aaron perched on the side of the gate. He pointed into the distance, where a metal tower much like the three in the main caravan park loomed over the tree-laden Dumping Ground. “As long as you get that thing up and running, I think we stand a semi-decent chance here.”
Pedro sighed and shook his head. “Look at all that land. All that land out there. We have time to walk. Time to pack everyone’s bags and walk—”
“We’re not walking away,” Rodrigo said, staring Pedro right in his eyes. “At least, I’m not. And I think it’s in the best interests of the people of Heathwaite’s for them to stay put, too.”
“Be careful deciding the best interests for people,” Anna said. “Fine line between saviour and dictator.”
Riley slipped back down the gate. In the distance, over by the front of the caravan park, he could hear the groans of the creatures echoing against the metallic fence. He could hear their limp limbs knocking against the metal, waiting for a sign of life. The most patient fucking things in the entire world.
“We’d better do this quick,” Aaron said. “We—we gotta do it as quick as we can. In and out. Yeah?”
“Sounds good to me, kid,” Rodrigo said.
“Where’s our car, anyway?” Pedro asked. “All loaded and ready to go?”
Rodrigo’s eyes widened. He looked at Pedro, then at the others as if he’d been mortally misunderstood. “I…I’m sorry. Car?”
A slight pause. The echoing groans of creatures at the other side of the front gate.
“We…we are heading down to the Dumping Ground in a car. Right?”
Rodrigo puffed out his lips. “I…If you go in a car, the zombies will follow you. They’ll hear the engine and they’ll follow you out there and before you know it you’ll be cornered. Now, I happen to be an honest man. I happen to be in the business of not shipping people out for our own benefit. I’m not Mike. Going by foot is in your best interests. Seriously.”
The news hit Riley square in the chest. He’d only just started feeling comfortable jogging around again after the shrapnel-in-leg incident. He was hardly in the mood to start running for his life so soon.
“I—I’m not sure,” Anna said. “What if…what if they see us when we’re heading down there? At least if they see us when we’re in a car we have a chance to drive away. But on foot…I don’t know.”
Rodrigo shrugged. “There’s no idea option here. Going on foot is the best way to sneak on down to the Dumping Ground, fire up that generator, then get back safely before we activate the loudspeaker. Going by car…you’re just asking for trouble.”
Before Riley could offer another thought on the matter, a huge clunking sound rattled against the front gate. He looked over. Donald and the guard beside him were gesticulating wildly and whispering to one another as they backed away from the gate. Heathwaite’s Caravan Park had been brought to an eerie silence. Even the birds that were left in the trees had given up their songs.
“I’ll say it again,” Rodrigo said. “There’s nothing ideal about this situation. But it’s the best shot Heathwaite’s has. We need this place. You saw the sprinkling of snow last night just as well as I did. And right before Christmas, too. These people need warmth, shelter, but most of all, they need hope.”
Riley thought for a moment that Pedro was going to disagree.
Instead, he grunted and nodded his head. “Let’s get going then.”
“I appreciate your loyalty,” Rodrigo said. “Understandably, I won’t be coming along. I’ve got people here to keep calm.”
“Understandably,” Riley said. Partly sarcastic, partly sincere.
“You four know each other well enough now. You’ve survived together before, you’ll survive together again. I can trust you—”
“Wait!”
A voice came from behind Rodrigo. It wasn’t a shout—more a pained, attempted whisper.
A man was running in their direction. Dave Wellson, that was his name. Dark hair. The cynical guy. Constant frown etched on his forehead. Piercing in his tragus and a spider tattooed on his hand. He had his eyes right on Riley.
“Dave, you should be back with your family,” Rodrigo said.
“When I heard you were goin’…goin’ out,” Dave said, panting between words. “I wanna pull my weight, Rod. I’m sick of sitting around like a sack of potatoes and doing fuck all around here. Let me give you a hand.”
Riley, Pedro, Anna and Aaron all looked at one another. Riley had kind of grown fond of their little team.
“Well…every little helps, or however that supermarket saying goes,” Rodrigo said. “But it’s up to these guys, really. Riley? What d’you think?”
Riley felt the spotlight burn against him.
Again.
“You understand the danger of what we’re about to do?” Riley said. The echoing cries of the creatures got louder. The rattling against the fences increased in number.
Dave nodded once, still looking right at Riley. “Course I do. I know how to ‘andle me-self. Used to go huntin’ back in the day. Outran a Grizzly Bear when I was in Canada once upon a time.”
Riley looked at the others. Anna raised her eyebrows. Pedro looked as sceptical as ever. “Aaron? What do you think?”
Aaron twitched like he’d been woken up from a coma. “I, erm…Dave’s a decent man. And he’s right—he knows how to handle himself.”
Riley nodded. “Then you’re welcome to come along. But you need to understand how we work. You stay with us. If we get surrounded, it’s our own life first, anybody else’s second. This world doesn’t reward h
eroes. Understand?”
Dave nodded again in acknowledgement. “Sure,” he said. “Sure. Makes sense. When we off?”
Riley and the group all exchanged a smile. A reassuring smile. A smile in the hope that they would all make it back here and be able to smile at one another again.
Riley took Rodrigo’s hand and shook it.
“Good luck,” Rodrigo said, pulling Riley close. “And if it all goes balls up, head over the Arnside Knott. That’s the hill over there. There’s an old military bunker over towards Grange way. No idea what sort of condition it’s in. And it’s in a remote spot, so it shouldn’t be too quiet. But that’s the contingency plan. Use it wisely. If all goes to shit here we…we’ll see you there.”
He pulled himself away, patted Riley on the arm, then turned back in the direction of the derelict caravan park road.
“What was that all about?” Anna asked as she pulled herself up onto the fence.
Riley ascended the ladder and looked down at the ground at the other side. The way Rodrigo had whispered it to him. He sensed it was a symbol of trust. A symbol of privacy. A real contingency plan.
“It doesn’t matter. Not yet.”
Riley took a deep breath, neared himself to the edge of the fence, then hopped down onto the spongy ground below.
The Other Side.
Chapter Four
Riley kept as low as he could as he moved across the crispy, frosty grass. The fluffy clouds overhead were growing even thicker. The frost underneath his feet reminded him of just how wintry it was out in the open. It was easy to forget when you had your feet up in your heated caravan. Something he longed for very much right now.
Riley led the way, with Pedro close behind. Anna was behind Pedro, Aaron was behind Anna, and Dave Wellson—their newest “recruit” of sorts—propped up the back of the group. He was hardly the smallest of men. Believing he’d outrun a bear was somewhat hard to believe. More likely he sat on the bear than anything.
As they moved across the fields towards the metal tower where the loudspeaker was propped, the tip of it getting closer and closer, the sounds and groans of the creatures at the gates and fences of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park grew more and more distant. That was a good sign. They weren’t following them, not yet. It was about as good a sign as they were going to get. Providing a whole new horde didn’t come flooding across the field, of course.