by Ryan Casey
“Mike, what is it?” Claudia asked.
That’s when she saw the face of the boy on the ground. Saw that square jaw and those bright blue eyes, just like his dad’s.
There was no mistaking the resemblance. It was Mike’s son, Stevie.
Mike’s son was dead.
Chapter Six
After Matt and Seth had blocked up the breached side door again, they moved the bodies temporarily over by the front door. They made sure to pop an extra bullet in the head of each fallen creature, just in case.
Mike sat alone with Stevie in his arms.
Claudia was on her knees. She mopped up the blood with a damp cloth. Chloë joined her—not something Claudia had asked of her, but something she’d volunteered to do. A silence hung over the lobby of Draca Hotel. A state of shock. One moment, it was just Shania who had gone. Now it was Keith, Karen, Smith. Stevie, who was a part of Mike. Everything had fallen apart. Everything.
Claudia wasn’t sure what to say to Mike. He seemed in his own world, staring into the dead eyes of his son. He was muttering things under his breath as tears rolled down his cheeks. Claudia couldn’t hear his words, but she felt his pain. This group—this group at the caravan park. They must’ve tossed Stevie out. Tossed Stevie out to be feasted on. Tossed him out for his dad to find. The way he’d come wandering through the door…that couldn’t be coincidence, could it?
“They planned this,” Mike said, almost like he was reading Claudia’s thoughts. His voice sounded distant. Detached. Claudia wasn’t sure whether he was speaking to her or just to himself. “They…Rodrigo. His group. They must’ve lured them here, somehow. Taunting me. Taunting all of us. Well, they got what they wanted. They got what they fucking wanted.”
He punched the bloody tiles beside his son’s limp body and descended into another fit of tears.
Chloë looked at Mike, then back at her mum with wide, understanding eyes. She’d seen death before. She’d experienced it, what with her sister and all the others. She knew what it felt like to grieve. Too well, perhaps.
“I say we hit em back,” Matt said. “Hit em right where it hurts. Can’t fuckin get away with this. Can’t fuckin—”
“We can’t go storming in there,” Mike said. “They…they outnumber us. Already did. And now there’s just…just five of us.” Mike’s voice crackled as he said this. He looked up at the bodies stacked over by the blocked-up front door.
“What ‘bout Dave?” Seth chirped in.
Dave was somebody who Mike apparently had on the inside at Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. A guy who had pledged loyalty to Mike, promising to deliver news of any interest about potential weak spots at the caravan sites, ways of forcing an entry.
“It’s risky,” Mike said, lowering his son down onto the cold tiles and brushing his hands as if he’d been handling something as minor as raw meat. “Any of us three go near Heathwaite’s and the guards will shoot us on sight.”
“If you have a man on the inside, then why didn’t you know about your son any earlier?”
This made Mike, Matt and Seth all turn around. None of them spoke for a few seconds. Claudia wasn’t sure why she’d splurged out those words, especially now. But it niggled at her. And the shock of all that had happened was still looming over her, doing funny things with her confidence.
Mike walked over to Claudia slowly. He smiled at Chloë as best he could, then looked Claudia in the eye. “I…I’m sorry. I haven’t been totally honest. It’s…my son. He—he chose the other side. He chose them.”
Claudia frowned. “Why would he do that?”
Mike shrugged. That was his definitive answer, right there. “But I knew they were just using him. And now I see that.” He pointed to his son’s dead body with a shaking hand. “Used him for all he was worth then tossed him away. Gave him a bit of hope. Gave me a bit of hope. Then snatched it away. That’s the kind of people they are.”
But this didn’t sit right with Claudia. Although she bought what Mike was saying about his son, and truly believed this story, surely there were other possibilities. “Maybe they didn’t kill him. Maybe he—maybe there was an accident. Maybe the caravan park is—”
“Would you to be willing to take a trip over there to find out?” Mike asked.
Claudia stopped and stared. “What…what do you mean?”
“Our man. Dave. He goes on a ‘supply run’ at ten a.m. every morning. Always loops out towards Silverdale. Usually on his own, but if he’s not it doesn’t matter anyway cause they won’t recognise you.”
“You want me to…to—”
“To pass on a message,” Mike said. He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and started jotting down words, scribbling them and writing them again.
“What’s the plan?” Matt asked. He seemed a little thrown that Mike hadn’t even come close to consulting him about some kind of involvement in this plan of his.
Mike popped the lid back on the pen. Handed the little note to Claudia with his shaking hand. “You need to understand that what we’re about to do is dangerous. Very dangerous. You’re going to have to lay low while it unfolds.”
Claudia shook her head. “I—I want to help. I want to, but my daughter, she—”
“She’s a good shot,” Mike said. “Better than most. She should go with you. Either that or she stays here with Seth and Matt.”
Claudia looked over at Seth. He smiled a little at this.
“I’ll hold your hand all the time, Mum,” Chloë said. She seemed way more excited about this than she should be, grinning and fidgeting. “I—I promise I’ll hold your hand.”
Claudia gulped. “What…what exactly are we going to do?”
Mike took a step closer to Claudia. She could feel him breathing on her face. Smell his mouthwash-drenched breath. “There’s a big group of zombies trapped in the gates of that big power plant over at Heysham. Matt and Seth are gonna let them loose. And we’re gonna lead them to the caravan site. We drop you off around Silverdale, you pass on the message to Dave…things should go smoothly from there.”
Claudia looked down at the note. Started to unfold it.
Mike’s hand landed on top of hers. It sent a shiver right through her body.
“It’s for Karen. For Smith. For…for my son.” Mike stared at her with those intense eyes. He was right. She had to act. She couldn’t let these horrible people get away with what they’d done.
“But the caravan park. If we…if we destroy the gates, then we have nowhere to stay. Seems like a waste.”
“We aren’t going to destroy the gates,” Mike said. “We’re going to scare them to the point where Rodrigo and his closest have no option but to leave. Then, we take the creatures out ourselves. Move in ourselves.”
Mike’s words made a kind of sense. But it didn’t sit right. Scaring Rodrigo away sounded fine, but surely there were innocent people at Heathwaite’s, too? Surely they weren’t all involved.
But then Riley had once told her that she needed to toughen up to survive in this world. To start making the tough decisions.
This was her tough decision.
“Okay,” she said.
Mike nodded. His eyes were still filled up with tears. “Good. Then we’d better get to it. You’ve got your guns, right? Just for safety.”
Claudia looked at the faulty gun that Matt had handed her. Then, she looked at Matt, bottom lip shaking, eyelids twitching.
“I’ll need another. And I’m going to need to test this one before I go anywhere.”
Claudia sat in the back seat of the silver Ford. Chloë was beside her. Mike drove them in the direction of Heathwaite’s Caravan Park. Matt and Seth were staying in Morecambe, making sure the group of creatures they’d just let loose from the confines of the Heysham Power Plant kept on following the right road.
With the body parts that had accumulated in the Draca Hotel bloodbat
h, leaving a trail wasn’t so hard. Perhaps it wasn’t showing respect for the dead, but it was utilising the dead to keep the living alive.
Claudia looked across the seat at her daughter. She was staring out the window at the sea. It was bright out there. A nice morning, if only the circumstances were different. But this was no morning like any other. This was the morning where everything had changed, and was about to change a whole lot more.
Claudia found herself thumbing the necklace that Chloë had given her. An early Christmas present. And now Christmas was in, what—five days? She’d lost track. But they were still here. Barely, but still here. Maybe they’d live to see another Christmas.
The necklace would be constant reminder that every day in the end times could very well be the last.
“I’ll have to drop you off just up the road,” Mike said, regret in his voice. He slowed the car down by some railway tracks. Up the line, a train had long ago ground to a halt, rusting in the open. “This is the edge of Dave’s circuit. Just keep your wits about you. It’s open, so it should be okay, but you never know. And remember—”
“If he’s alone, deliver the message and take shelter by the old children’s home opposite Heathwaite’s. When it’s clear, head back here, and I’ll meet with you. If he’s not alone then…improvise.”
“And how will you know it’s Dave?”
Claudia pictured what Mike had told her in her mind. “The spider tattoo on the outside of his hand. The piercing in his tragus.”
Mike looked right back at Claudia. Then, he turned to Chloë. “You okay with this, love?”
Chloë smiled and nodded. She lifted her gun and waved it in the air.
“Good,” Mike said, his voice shaky again. “Good.”
Claudia opened the back door and stepped out. It was cold out there. The sea air had been replaced with a sewerage, bog-like smell. She wasn’t sure which she hated the most of the two.
“Mike,” Claudia said after he said his goodbyes and began to lift his window.
He looked at her. She’d never seen his eyes look so vacant, so empty, before.
“I’m sorry. About Stevie. I really am—”
He nodded, closed the window, then drove back down the road they’d come from.
His car disappeared into the distance. Silence, but for the wind rustling the grass and the branches of the trees. It surrounded her. Surrounded Claudia and Chloë like death itself.
Chloë grabbed her mum’s hand.
“Shall we go?” she asked.
Claudia smiled at her daughter and squeezed her hand. “Let’s go.”
One of the few positives of that fateful day was that the man driving in their direction was alone.
If only that small glimmer of good luck was an accurate reflection of the way things were going to play out for the rest of the day.
At first, as this Land Rover made its way down the long open road towards the train tracks, this dark-haired man didn’t even seem to be looking. Not until Claudia held her arm out. That’s when he slowed down, his tires squealing against the road as he hit the brakes. He looked at her with wide eyes, then at Chloë with even wider eyes.
Claudia took a deep breath. Kept hold of her girl’s hand. Look for the tattoo. Look for the earring.
The man pulled up right beside them. Stared at them through the closed window of the Land Rover for a few seconds, eyeing them up, weighing them up.
Then, he lowered the window slightly.
“You…You alreet out ‘ere? Where you come from?”
That’s when Claudia saw it. The earring in his right ear. And the little tattoo on his hand. A bubble burst inside her. It was Dave. It had to be Dave.
“Dave, we have a message,” Claudia said. She held up the note that Mike had handed her. Rested it against the glass. “From Mike.”
Dave regarded and observed Claudia, Chloë, and the note for a few moments. “‘Owd you know my name?”
“The pierced tragus. The tattoo on the hand—”
“What’s his son’s name, this Mike?”
Claudia gulped. “Stevie. He’s—he’s dead. He’s—”
“Give us that note.” Dave snatched the note through the window of the Land Rover and read it. More moments of silence. More moments of waiting. Claudia watched Dave’s face as he read. Watched him scratch at his stubble, grumbling and sighing. Finally, he turned back to Claudia and Chloë, folding the note and slipping it into his pocket. “You two alreet with this?”
Claudia looked at Chloë. Chloë nodded. “We just have to wait for the creatures to make their way down the road. Once they’re occupied with the fences, we head back over here. You okay with your part?”
Dave nodded. “Improvising. I’m alreet at it. I’ll find a way to scare um even more.” He paused. Pointed ahead. “Take a left when you get to Silverdale. Just head down that way and it’s all clear. Always is. You’ll be reet if you got that way.”
He hit the “close” button of his car window, still looking at Claudia and Chloë, then he turned around and drove down the road towards Heathwaite’s Caravan Park.
Once again, Chloë and Claudia were alone.
“Last stop, the children’s home,” Claudia said, looking at her daughter and half-smiling.
As the pair of them walked down the open road, Claudia thought she heard the distant footsteps of creatures way down the road behind them.
Chapter Seven
More luck seemed to come Claudia and Chloë’s way when they arrived at the abandoned children’s home without so much as a straggling creature to stop them.
They sneaked around the back of the building, being careful to lay low. Heathwaite’s Caravan Park was so close now, they were practically a stone’s throw away. Claudia could see the makeshift gates that had been built at the site’s entrance—strong looking steel, tyres, all sorts of things, stacked up as high as possible, barbed wire lining the top of the blockade.
And on top of the fence, staring down at the road below, there were two men, both of them holding guns.
Claudia and Chloë were as quiet as possible as they opened the creaky door of the children’s home. The building was small and unspectacular. Apparently, it was a place where kids who were in orphanages and foster care came on holiday trips. Inside, it looked like it hadn’t been used for years. The windows were smashed. Graffiti covered the walls with all sorts of profanities and vulgarities sprayed around. The floor was so dusty that it actually felt spongy to the foot.
Claudia kept tight hold of Chloë’s hand as they walked up the creaky wooden stairs and towards a corridor on the landing area. Up here, they had a good view of the caravan park from a sheltered position, as well as a good elevated spot to deal with any creatures that might want to ruin their plans.
“What now?” Chloë asked, as the pair of them crouched down by the broken window at the top end of this landing area. Claudia leaned forward, being careful not to cut herself on any broken glass, and kept as low as she could.
“Now we wait for the creatures to come. Come on, love. Get down.”
Chloë followed her mum in crouching down. She pointed the gun at the two men, who were manning the gate.
“Don’t point that at them,” Claudia said, moving Chloë’s gun to one side.
Chloë frowned. “But they’re bad people. They killed Stevie and all those other people. Didn’t they?”
Claudia knew her daughter was right. But just seeing her like this again, holding a gun, aiming it at live people. After all the humanity Chloë seemed to have recaptured—all the innocence she’d rolled back—it didn’t seem right.
But what was right anymore?
“Let’s just keep our eyes on the road for now,” Claudia said. “Let things happen.”
Chloë sighed and lowered her gun. She stared at the guards around the Caravan Park. Then down at the road. Then back at the guards again. “Do you think they know they’re bad?
”
This question threw Claudia. “What…what do you mean, Chlo?”
Chloë took a bit of time to formulate her reply. “Well…like on the TV shows. The baddies never know they’re the baddies. They just think they’re doing the right thing. Do you think they’re like that?”
Claudia gulped. The baddies never know they’re the baddies.
How much did she know about the caravan park, after all?
“I think that—”
Her voice was cut out by a skin-crawling scream from behind the gates of the caravan park.
The guards descended from their posts. Shock covered their faces.
More wailing. More crying. Panic starting to spur up behind the gates.
“What was that, Mum?” Chloë asked. She was alert again now. Her gun was pointed right at the entrance to Heathwaite’s Caravan Park, a little squirrel for its logo chomping on an acorn.
Claudia knew what she wanted to say. It’s started, or something like that.
But instead, as the panic began to build inside the boundaries of Heathwaite’s, she couldn’t get the implications of her daughter’s words out of her head.
The baddies never know they’re the baddies.
Claudia wasn’t sure what possessed her to stand up, but she did.
“Mum, where are you—”
“We have to warn them,” Claudia said. She walked down the creaking stairs and back over the dusty reception area floor towards the back door. “This…There has to be another way. We can work this out. Co-exist.” She reached the back door of the children’s home and went to push it open.
“Wait!” Chloë said, in a heightened whisper.
Claudia turned. Her daughter was deathly still. Her hand was pointing to the right, back down the road from which they’d come.
“What is it?” Claudia asked. Her fingers were on the cold metal handle of the back door. She was ready to walk. Ready to walk on out there and risk her life to try and build bridges between the two sides.
“The creatures, Mum,” Chloë said. She lowered back down as slowly as she could and kept her focus down the road. “They’re coming.”