I nodded my head.
Terrance looked down to his gun in his lap and patted it like a dog. He looked me deep in the eyes and licked his lips. ‘I shot him Eric. Right between the eyes. I lived out the dream.’
I shifted my posture and felt Janet move closer to me.
‘Killing your zombie boss isn’t really a dream though is it,’ I asked him.
‘Oh he wasn’t a zombie when I shot him Eric. That’s the best part. I killed him during the initial outbreak. We had hundreds of people queuing up for food and petrol. We were swamped. I was working my ass off, but it still wasn’t good enough for him you know? There was only the two of us here and I was doing most of the work anyway!’
Terrance reclined back in his chair, and began clenching and unclenching his fists. He spoke again through gritted teeth.
‘The shop was getting too crowded. The people just kept coming and coming. My boss told me to lock the doors. I disagreed with him. I wanted to help the people get what they needed. A lot of them had children and I felt sorry them. I was a parent myself I knew what they were going through. But this place here was my boss’s baby, and when I disobeyed him he went crazy. He started calling me all sorts of names and was hurling insults at me. So then I snapped. I threw everyone out of the shop, and then I locked the doors. Just like he asked me to. But little did he know that would be the last order he would ever fucking give me.’
‘Well, you were only doing what was right,’ Janet said to him.
‘I know I was. I was right and he was wrong, and killing him was the only way. I know that now.’
Terrance hung his head and stared into his lap. I figured that he was reliving the whole thing. He chuckled to himself and spoke again.
‘But the insults didn’t stop there when I locked up guys. He kept telling me how useless I was, and how I let all of them wreck his shop. I ignored him though. I let the automatic shutters come down, and then went out back and got my gun.
Terrance looked at the butt end and smiled.
‘I came back and smacked him right in the face with this part right here. It bust him up pretty bad too. But it still didn’t stop him talking his shit. I mean how did he ever think that talking to me like I was scum was going to get positive results? So, I flipped Betty over and popped two rounds off right in his face. That finally shut him up I can tell you.’
Terrance burst out into a fit of breathless laughter. He threw his head back and slapped his knee. Janet looked at me with an expression that said I told you so! I had already concluded that this guy was unstable when I realised what he had done to my car. And the story he had just told us only confirmed what Janet had told me. He was crazy. He had shot his boss to death at a time when the law still meant a little something, and now that there was no law, this guy was capable of doing anything he really wanted.
I tried my best to keep the conversation flowing, while pretending to Terrance that I agreed with him entirely about his boss and what he had done to him. We then went on and talked about the old days, mostly about when we were apprentices’ and the various jobs we’d come across and about the strange people we met in our respective industries, and how we both believed that our friends were dead. Janet did her usual listening with involvement, and every so often I would catch Terrance staring at her.
We drank fizzy drinks, ate chocolate bars, and talked until the store began to grow dark. When it became difficult to see each other Terrance turned on a battery powered lantern. The glow from the lamp caused my head to throb again. When Terrance saw my discomfort he apologised.
‘Brain still sore huh?’
I nodded slowly while I massaged the back of my neck.
‘Well I’ve got some stronger stuff in the back I’ll get for you. Now that I know you better, I’ll let you have it. It’s good stuff, strong, and it will help you get a good night’s sleep too. Although I heard you’re not supposed to fall asleep after you get a bad knock to the head Eric.
I’ll be fine Terrance. I was out right after I first got hit anyway.’
Terrance shrugged and then left the shop before I had a chance to thank him. He returned as quickly before myself and Janet got a chance to speak. He had two rolled up sleeping bags and two small pillows under his arms. He handed me a small red capsule pill, and dropped the sleeping gear in front of Janet.
‘That’s fast acting Eric. So drop it and settle in. Myself and Janet will take turns in sleeping and keeping an eye on this place and you too. You cool with that Janet?’
‘Yeah of course,’ Janet replied as she rolled out our sleeping bags side by side.
‘Cool,’ Terrance added. ‘I’ll take the first watch so. I’ll wake you up Janet when I feel sleepy ok?’
‘Yeah that’s fine with me.’
I got into my sleeping bag slowly, and then Janet did the same. Terrance stood over the both of us watching closely. He went back to his seat only after I took the pill.
Janet squeezed my hand and moved in close to me. ‘Don’t forget to wake up on me buddy.’
She released my hand and turned onto her side. I was glad she did, and doubly glad that it was dark so that she couldn’t see my reaction. My face was burning. I didn’t know whether it was from the pill, the unease of Janet’s comments, or because she was lying so close to me. It may well have been all of those things, plus the concussion that Terrance was sure that I had. I was too tired to be overly concerned. I felt drained once again. But the thoughts of sleeping made me uneasy. Perhaps Terrance was right about me not falling asleep it could be dangerous, for me and for Janet
But I didn’t have too long to think about it, the shadows swallowed me whole.
Chapter 19
A massive explosion awoke me from a deep sleep. I squinted my eyes against the bright light and tried to sit up. But I couldn’t, my whole body felt numb from the neck down. When my vision adjusted, I saw Janet standing over Terrance’s body. His whole face looked as though it had been turned inside out, and there was a large pool of blood forming on the floor underneath his head.
Terrance was naked from the waist down. His erection bulging on his belly. The sight made my skin crawl, and I tried again to sit up again – but I was powerless.
‘Janid?’ I slurred. ‘What’s… going on?’
She looked at me and then back to Terrance. She put the rifle down on a high shelf beside her. She then took some newspapers from Terrance’s seat and threw them on top of him and onto the pool of blood. When she was finished she came and sat beside me. I couldn’t believe how calm she looked. My ears were ringing, and the room was floating around me, but strangely my head wasn’t hurting. Janet stared at me for a long time without speaking. Her whole body trembled and her face was as white as a sheet.
‘He tried to rape me Eric. That was his plan all along. He told me that he had given you some sort of muscle relaxers, so we wouldn’t be disturbed. I wasn’t asleep all that long when I woke up to find him standing over me with his, thing in one hand and these in the other.’
Janet dangled a clear bag of red pills in front of my face. ‘I guess he figured he’d use these on me if I didn’t cooperate.’
I tried to sit up again but Janet pressed her hand on my chest. ‘Just relax Eric. Everything’s ok now.’
I put my head back down on the pillow and groaned. Janet went to the lamp and dimmed it. When she came back she lay down on her side facing me. The air in the shop smelled of gun smoke, and the dead were hammering on the shutter outside. I felt paralysed, and Janet had just blown Terrance’s head apart. But thanks to the late aforementioned, and his magic pills, I didn’t really give a shit.
‘So where did you learn to shoot a rifle?’ I asked Janet. My tongue felt like a lump of led in my mouth. I didn’t expect to get a reply, so I closed my eyes and listened to the heavy rain that had begun to drown out the noise from the dead outside. I was almost asleep again before she answered me.
‘My dad was an army sergeant before he died. He passed aw
ay long before any of this shit. He had a heart attack on the evening of their wedding anniversary over dinner.
‘Jesus I’m sorry Janet.’
She smiled back at me. He was a great dad He used to go shooting a lot, and would take me whenever he could. We never game hunted, just target shooting. But I loved it. He taught me a lot about guns and survival. Who’d have thought I’d have needed it in such a way years later hey?’
I heard her shifting beside me, and when I turned my head, Janet had moved closer to me. Her cheek was resting on her forearm, and our noses were only millimetres apart. I pulled my head back and smiled. She did the same right back at me. Her glassy eyes bore into me.
‘I was pregnant before all of this began. Not heavily, I was still in the early stages. I’d done a test in the toilets in my job after I was two weeks late. When I saw that it was positive, I thought it was the end of the world at first. Myself and my boyfriend weren’t exactly being careful, and I know he really wanted a baby, but we hadn’t been getting on for a while, and I wasn’t in the same place he was to be honest.’
‘Well you must have been on some level if you weren’t being careful?’ I said trying not to sound condescending.
‘Maybe. I don’t know. I think a little piece of me thought that a baby would bring us closer together, and stop all the fighting. I mean I did love him so much.’
‘So what happened?’
Janet sighed and wiped her eyes before speaking again. ‘When I saw the test was positive I faked sickness and took a half day from work. The last thing I wanted to be doing after finding that out was number crunching in a stuffy office. I walked around town for a while browsing through the shops, and taking everything in. Then out of nowhere it started to rain. It rained exactly like it is now Eric.’
Janet’s eyes fixed on the shop front. The rain was really coming down and the wind was rattling the roller shutter in its track. It sounded like the dead had given up and moved on.
‘So I went home’, she said turning back to face me. ‘I planned to cook the both of us a nice dinner, and then break the news to Gavin. I was starting to come around to the idea that this could be the fresh start that we needed. But when I got home I found him fucking my best friend in our bed.’
‘Holy shit.’
‘I know’ Janet whispered. ‘Even after all that has happened I still think that seeing the two of them was the worst day of my life. As crazy as that sounds.’
‘It doesn’t sound crazy at all Janet. I mean dam that’s heavy shit.’
‘I punched Gavin right in the mouth and then gave my friend one in the eye before I left. I went and stayed with my mother that night. I told her everything. I miscarried five days later. The day after that, all of this happened just as I was leaving the clinic. My mam went to get the car while I waited out front. When she didn’t come back I went looking for her. But I never saw her again. And I’ve been running ever since that day.’
‘You’ve no other family?’
‘No, I was an only child and after dad died it was just myself and mum. I’ve got a few aunts and uncles, and cousins but that’s it. Well, I had. I was never really close with any of them either so I don’t know what became of them. I’d just love to see my mother again and hug her Eric. Like you with Lauren and your grandmother. I’d love that so much. But as the days pass, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.’
Janet wiped her eyes and turned her head away. I couldn’t help but find it strange that she didn’t want me to see her cry after everything she had just told me. Or maybe she was regretting telling me? But why? Our stories were so similar. The only difference was that Janet knew her baby was gone. But she couldn’t be sure about her mother. Ok the odds weren’t good, but she still needed to believe. Or maybe she was being realistic and I was the naïve one
But I still believed Lauren was alive and somewhere out there. I also knew that my grandmother was gone. Whether by her own accord or not. I knew it the moment I had read Lauren’s letter and I had accepted it with the reasoning that she was dying either way, even though it still tore me apart , I had accepted it. I had lost one woman I loved but I wasn’t giving up on the other one. But Janet was right about the passing days. The reality of the flesh eating dead creeping around the streets, and rapists like Terrance. Then the fact that our car had been destroyed and I was dead meat from the neck down. But I felt that if I dwelled on these things too long they would turn inwards and destroy me.
I breathed through pursed lips and tried to expel the self-loathing.
‘Janet?’
‘Yeah?’
‘We’ll get through this. The two of us.’
‘You really think so Eric?’
‘Yeah I do. Look at what we’ve come through so far, both on our own, and now together. We make a good team, and as long as we stick by each other we’ll get out of this.’
Janet turned back to me and smiled. ‘We do make a good team don’t we?’
‘We sure do. And I think we’ll be an even better team in the morning when these pills wear off and I can move my ass.’
Janet laughed and then kissed me on the forehead.
‘Goodnight Eric.’
‘Goodnight Janet.’
For the first time I didn’t feel guilty about being so close to Janet, or her kissing me. I really wasn’t doing anything wrong. We weren’t doing anything wrong. Janet knew I loved Lauren and she wanted me to find her. We were a team that was simply looking out for each other. As long as we stuck together the dead couldn’t hurt us.
Chapter 20
When I awoke I was relieved to find myself lying on my side and the staggered light of day spilling into shop. My motor functions had returned to me sometime through my slumber. I blinked away the sleep from my eyes and then rolled onto my back. Janet wasn’t in her sleeping bag, and when I ran my hand over it the fabric was cold. It looked as though she had been up a while but she wasn’t in the shop. I saw that Terrance’s body was gone too.
I sat up and stretched. The relief felt wonderful. The pain in my head was gone, and for the first time in a while I felt refreshed. I stood up and massaged my neck and traps and groaned.
‘Painful? Janet asked me as she came into the shop.
‘Not at all quite the opposite actually. Am I up late or are you up early?’
Janet see – sawed her hand. ‘I woke up a while ago to go the bathroom and I was greeted by the sight and smell of our dearly departed Terrance. So I did a little clean up. I put him in his bag and dragged him out back.’
‘Much appreciated,’ I muttered.
‘Don’t mention it partner. So how are you feeling?’
‘Pretty good actually. A little stiff, but alright.’
‘Good,’ she replied eyeing me up and down. ‘I think we should eat and then get going.’
‘Going? Where?’
‘Well we have to keep going Eric. That was the plan wasn’t it? We’re not going to find Lauren hiding out in here now, are we?’
I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I suppose you’re right.’
‘Don’t sound too enthusiastic, Jesus.’
‘Well, the car is fucked for a start Janet…’
‘Eric,’ she held her hand up in front of me, ‘we’ve got something better than the car remember?’
She tilted her head in the direction of the counter. I followed her movement and saw the rifle sitting in between two full backpacks.
Janet looked at me and smiled. ‘Terrance had a good collection of bullets too.’
‘But we still have to go on foot!’ I protested, while not feeling any more at ease.
‘I know. ‘But that rifle is a serious weapon, and I’m a really good shot from a distance. So now we have the advantage of seeing and hearing the dead first before they have a chance to hear our car.’
‘You’re right’, I said nodding. ‘Plus we don’t know what other roadblocks might be waiting for us further on either.’
‘My thoughts exact
ly,’ Janet added. ‘And if we do run into more crazies like Terrance, we’ve got one hell of an upper hand in that little baby. I’ll give you a crash course with it after we eat.’
Chapter 21
The rifle was a Ruger SR -556. It was fine piece of all American craftsmanship. According to Janet - Terrance’s taste in guns had been the best thing about him. She taught me how to load it, hold it, shoot it, and what to expect when I pulled the trigger. She gave me the rundown on the different parts, most of which were lost on me. Despite my crash course in assault rifles I was happy to leave Janet in charge of it. Holding it only made me nervous and unsure of myself.
We ate chocolate and drank water for breakfast. Janet even talked a bit more about herself too. I put that down to the incident with Terrance, and our conversation about being a team. When we were finished we put our backpacks on, and Janet hung the rifle from her neck with its leather strap that she must have found while I was sleeping. The rifle hung down her front just above her hips and swayed from side to side when she moved.
‘It’s hanging a little low isn’t it?’ I asked her staring at her midriff.
‘Nah it’s perfect. It’s low enough not to restrict me, and loose enough for me to cock it easily enough. Besides, I’ll be carrying it as much as possible.’
She took the weapon with both hands and brought it up to her chest. She looked at me and winked.
I smiled and turned to the shop’s front shutter. Her pose gave me flashbacks to the soldiers that I had seen being slaughtered in the streets. I peered through the rectangular cut – out that I guessed Terrance had hacked out to enable himself to look outside. The shop’s front doors were smeared with zombie slime and the rain looked as if it hadn’t let up all night. But Mother Nature appeared to be the only one out on the streets. For now.
‘Well, how’s it looking out there?’ Janet’s breath tickled my ear.
Her silent approach gave me a start. I jumped and braced a hand on the shutter.
The Dust: The Zombie Apocalypse in Ireland Page 8