George (Book 1): The Long Road Home

by Scarlet Le Clair

  Will was the first down the stairs, Adam and I followed behind him, silently. Each lost in our own thoughts. Adam used the banisters on either side of the stairs to support himself on the way down.

  As soon as we entered the room and Amelia saw that Adam was hurt, she immediately ran to him and started to make a fuss over him. I could tell she was really taken with the guy and by the way he was looking at her, the feeling was mutual.

  “Oh Adam, are you ok? Come and sit down.” She led him to one of the chairs and moved the coffee table so that he could keep his foot rested. “I’m sure I saw a cold pack in one of the first aid packs,” she said and made her way into the kitchen.

  Will was talking to everyone else trying to keep them busy and motivated so that they didn’t think about our current situation.

  I made my way to the fire escape and opened the door quietly, it didn’t make a difference, as soon as they saw me, the zombies underneath started their moans, I wondered if they could communicate with each other or if it was only the noise that drew more of them.

  I forced myself to concentrate on further down the alley. The building at the end had a fire escape ladder like ours only theirs was already down. This is exactly what I wanted, Amelia and I could run to that and make as much noise as we could to get the zombies to follow us, allowing the others to get into the cars and get away. I wish I could see the other buildings around it though to see how we could escape.

  Now all I needed was a distraction from around the front of or building to enable us to get to the other building further down. Once we had done that we would cause as much noise as possible for the zombies to follow us and then our guys could hopefully get to the cars and away safely and then we could meet them a few blocks away. As to how we were going to get that few blocks I had yet to work out. Yes, my plan was weak but it was the only plan we had.

  I went back inside and laid out my plan to Will, Nia, Adam and Amelia. Will didn’t like it, he wanted to go instead of me but I persuaded him that he was needed here as a leader more than me. I did however, write down my address and the directions to it from the shop where I first met Will, and made him promise that he would go there to try to find Kelly and the kids.

  He reluctantly agreed knowing this was the best bet. Amelia agreed to go with me as she was originally going with Adam, she felt sure that there would be a way off that roof as there were several buildings there, all close together of the same size, that we could maybe make our way onto.

  “No, I want to go with George, Amelia, you can stay here and help Adam. He will need you to get him out of here quickly,” Nia spoke up.

  She gave Will a no-nonsense glare that warned him not to argue.

  Amelia seemed pleased by this and reached over to hold Adam’s hand, he smiled at her and even blushed a little.

  “Ok then, George, that’s my niece, you look after her like she’s your own ok? Like I know you will. Nia, please stay safe, your all I’ve got left,” was all he said.

  Nia and I nodded at him and gave each other a small smile.

  “But how do we distract them long enough for us to get to the other building,” I asked.

  “Show us where the building is and we can judge distance and work out how long it will take you to get there.” Will started walking towards the fire door, Nia and I followed him.

  “I’ll just stay here!” Adam called, sounding frustrated but he soon perked up when Amelia began to fuss over him again.

  We walked out onto the fire escape and I pointed out the building with the low fire escape ladder. “See that one there? If we can go down ours really quick, then run to that ladder climb up it and then make a noise over there, for them to follow us back, then you guys may be able to get out via the front?” I formed it as a question as Will was always the best at these things.

  “Looks good, but what about the crowd that are already downstairs, what if they don’t move?” he asked.

  I could see him trying to work things out in his head.

  “Then George and I will try to find a running vehicle, and drive by, beeping the horn or something and properly draw them away. Let’s say if that happens, then we will meet in the next town over,” Nia suggested.

  Will looked between us, over to the other buildings and to our fellow survivors inside the station.

  “Ok, then that’s the plan, let’s go back inside and kit you out.” He walked in and grabbed two empty backpacks from the kitchen.

  He put two tins of food in each, not even bothering to check what they were - it’s the apocalypse we eat what we can, when we can, we can’t afford to be picky, two water bottles each, a torch, first aid kit and then he made sure that we added a weapon, a backup weapon and a sleeping bag.

  “Just in case something goes wrong, you never know these days. Plus, it will give us all less to carry. Go get another hour’s rest, if nothing has changed by then we will make a move, ok?” he advised us.

  Nodding, both Nia and I made our way back to our sleeping bags, but this time I went back to mine by the window, our eyes met for a few seconds and I could see the hurt and guilt in hers, I smiled meekly but there was nothing I could say to her with all of these people around so I just got into my bag and listened for a while as Will instructed everyone to start refilling their backpacks with all they could carry but to try to keep it as fair as possible. They needed to make sure that everyone had at least a bottle of water and some tins of food and energy bars each.

  Despite our situation, I soon fell into a dreamless sleep, before Will was urgently tugging me awake.

  “Gee, get up man, they’re downstairs, we need to get moving.”

  I was up and ready in less than a minute, having slept in my clothes and shoes with my backpack and weapons by the side of me.

  The sound of glass breaking from downstairs was really loud and the moans that followed were chilling.

  “How will you distract them, Will?” I asked.

  “With these,” he said holding up a box of fireworks. “Even if they can’t see them in the daylight they will be able to hear them, hopefully they will be loud enough for the ones downstairs to leave although I think Nia’s plan of a drive by would be better.”

  “Ok I’m ready to go, Nia?” I looked at her, she looked scared and very pale, but had a look of determination on her face and I knew that she wouldn’t let me down.

  “Give me three minutes to set these babies off, as soon as those things start coming this way, you two get out of here.”

  As we made our way out, Kerys and Lewis stopped and gave us hugs, Gareth and John had gone up to our roof with Will to set off the fireworks.

  We heard the wheeeee-bang of the fireworks. “That’s our cue,” I told Nia.

  We got out onto the metal fire escape to see that the plan was working, the zombies were walking away from us and towards the front of the station.

  There was still a few dozen shambling around when I decided to get on the fire escape and ready to go.

  “Right I’ll go first, as soon as most of them go I’ll make my way down and you follow ok?” I placed one foot on the ladder, when there were sounds of several vehicles and the roar of gunfire. The sounds caused me to jump, with my full weight on the ladder it started to give way from the wall. I tried to grab the wall but it was too late.

  The noise of the guns had started to draw them away but now with the promise of fresh meat just falling on them, they were waiting on me to drop.

  As quick as the ladder was falling, I was trying to scramble back up the remaining section still attached to the wall, but I wasn’t quick enough and as I went to put my foot onto the next rung up on the ladder, a cold, grey hand wrapped its fingers around my ankle.

  “Aaaaagh!” I called out, desperately trying to pull myself out of the deadly grip.

  “George! Hold on,” Nia called, stretching out her arms to try to reach me.

  Her fingers grazed mine. “Dammit,” she called out in frustration.

  Ki
cking out at the undead below me was making me weaker, my arms were burning from holding on and trying to pull myself up.

  I was slipping, my only comfort now would be that Will would go and try to save my family. That he and Nia would explain to them why daddy had been away for so long and why he wasn't coming back. I knew that he and Nia would look after Kelly and the kids.

  I was so stupid to have risked myself like this, trying to save all of these people when I should have just been selfish and escaped back to my family when I had the chance.

  I looked up, Nia had disappeared, probably looking for something or someone to help.

  My fingers were slipping. “Kelly,” I whispered just as I was letting go.

  My one true love was on my mind as I was about to fall to my death, my only hope was that it would be over quickly.

  I felt two pairs of arms grab my arms and start to pull.

  Looking up I could see Will and Gareth each holding one of my arms, trying to pull me to safety. But the zombie wasn't giving up his meal that easily, he started to moan louder as if in protest and he would not let my leg go.

  Nia too got down on her knees and helped to pull me up. I could hear a wet, tearing sound as the zombie’s arm, ripped off of its body.

  I started to rise a lot quicker and now had the use of my feet to help me.

  Once back safely on the fire escape, we sat there gasping for breath. My whole body was shaking from the shock.

  I looked up, my eyes meeting Nia’s, she pounced on me and hugged me tight.

  “I thought we had lost you then.” She sobbed.

  Hugging her back I pulled away and kissed her forehead. “Me too.”

  More gunfire snapped us out of our trance. “What the hell is happening out there? Is that our people?” I asked jumping up and following Will and the others back through to the main room.

  “The Calvary have arrived,” he told me, going over to the large windows and pointing down to the two armored trucks below that were firing weapons at the zombies and then driving away what looked like around a few streets, thinning the herd of zombies.

  “Friend or Foe do you think Will?”

  “At this point, killing the zombies is making them our friends, I can’t see them going to all of this trouble, just to rob us afterwards, but you never know. Gee, you, Adam and I will take the stairs and try to start taking out those that are left inside. Then, Billy, if you and Gareth can take the pole and start taking shots from there. Remember, only head shots count, ok?” Will instructed.

  We all nodded grimly and set off to do what we could to thin the herd and get our people out of here.

  Because of the way we had pushed the furniture down the stairs to block them off, only one of us at a time could shoot, in case of friendly fire. Will went first, taking his time, lining up the shots, we could hear gunfire from back in the main room and from outside. The noise was deafening and my ears were ringing. Adam took his turn next and we could hear even more gunfire inside with raised voices, shouting orders.

  “Please cease firing!” came a voice from below. “The enemy is no longer a threat, well for now anyway. I’m Captain Cooper, I have with me several other soldiers, we have a safe base that we can take you to, please tell your people to come down the fire pole quickly.”

  Adam and I looked at Will who shrugged his shoulders and nodded. At this point we really didn’t have any other options.

  “All right, it seems that some higher being is on our side and has sent us help in the form of the military, they say they have a safe base that we can go to. Adam, Gareth, you go first, then we will send the others, and the backpacks last,” Will called.

  One by one our friends slipped down the pole and into the military vehicles. Will and I dropped the backpacks down to Adam and Billy, who loaded them into one of the vehicles that we had brought with us from the warehouse. With the last of our possessions gone I slipped down the pole and Will followed me.

  “Thank you for saving us,” I addressed Captain Cooper, as Will and I shook his hand.

  “No problem, we do our rounds every few days through different towns to see if there any survivors, we have found a few but none as big a group as yours.” He led the way out to the cars.

  “Are you two able to drive your vehicles and follow us back? Good vehicles are hard to come by these days,” the captain asked us.

  “Yeah, I’m actually on the way back to my family, and so will be needing a car of my own.”

  “Where is your Family, what’s the situation?” the captain asked, signaling to his men that he was going to join me in my car.

  Will got into the other truck that we brought from the warehouse and fell in behind one of the military jeeps, then my car was behind him and the other military jeep was behind us, making sure that we were covered.

  On the way to the base I filled the Captain in on my journey so far. He replied that he and his men had gone in that direction looking for survivors before, but had not gotten as far as my village.

  “We have gone in the direction of your village before, but not as far as it. To be honest we seen a little walker activity and only a handful of survivors.” He replied.

  “As soon as my friends are safe in your base, I would like to request one of your vehicles so that I may go and attempt to rescue my family” I was hopeful that he would help me.

  He seemed to think about it for a few moments before nodding his head. “I understand George, you can have weapons, food, water and anything else we have at your disposal, I’ll try to spare a few men to go with you too. Just know that you and your family are welcome back at the base. Its secure at the moment and more people means more hands on deck to ensure that it stays that way.”

  We got back to the military base and it felt good to see the relief on the faces of my friends, for now, they would be safe. One by one they got out of the jeeps, holding each other and staying close together in a group.

  One of the other officers told them to follow him, he would give them food and show them to their rooms. They all started to move off and even though I was happy that my friends would be safe, I was sad that I would be leaving them even if it was only for a little while.

  Will and Nia soon realized that I was not following them and stopped walking.

  “George?” Nia asked

  “I can’t go in, I need to go and get my family. But as soon as I do I’ll be right back here with you guys. Ok?” I replied shakily.

  She nodded, her eyes filled with tears as she ran to me and hugged me fierce, kissing me on the cheek. “I’ll miss you George. Thanks again for everything. Bring that family home safe to us, ok?” Without letting me reply she turned around and ran to catch up to the others.

  Will held up one finger for me to wait and went to talk with Nia, she nodded a lot and glanced at me, nodded again and hugged Will too.

  He jogged back to me. “Road trip!”

  “Will you don’t have to…” I started but he cut me off.

  “Gee, you saved my family the day you chose Nia as your own from Deacon, and now it’s my turn to help you.” He walked to the truck he drove and grabbed two bags, one with food items and one with weapons, and put them into my truck as he got into the passenger side.

  I jumped into the driver’s side and was just about to pull out when Adam and the Captain stopped us.

  “Four of my officers will be joining you in one of our vehicles, and your man here wants to come also,” the captain advised us when I wound down my window.

  “That would be great, thank you,” I replied sincerely, their kindness left me choked up so I just nodded my head and gestured for Adam to get in.

  “We are in this together, till the end” Adam said.

  We pulled out and headed south for home, the journey was long and tiring, but surprisingly we did not see a lot of zombies along the way. Will and Adam were great and tried to keep me talking but I wasn’t in the mood, this was it, I was finally going home to my family, we would mo
ve to the military base for security. My mind raced with all of the things that I wanted to tell Kelly, Poppy and Cameron. I needed to hug them close and not let them go ever again.

  The closer we got to home, the more nervous I got, what if they had moved on already? Thinking that I had abandoned them. Well if that happened, I thought to myself, I would just travel around this country until I found them. I wouldn’t let myself think of the worst case scenario.

  “Nearly there now boys, about ten minutes away,” I told Will and Adam. Will called in to the soldiers behind us in their vehicle using a radio they had given us.

  However, it wasn’t long before we came to a road block, with two armed guards. I rolled the truck to a stop, the guys in the truck behind, Lee, Travis, Jonah and Matt instructed us to stay in our vehicle and to try and drive through the manmade barrier if things went wrong. Lee and Travis went to talk to the armed men whilst Matt and Jonah covered them from behind our truck.

  Things were tense inside our truck as we watched them talk, there was a lot of gesturing and nodding then our guys started to walk back with one of their guys to my driver’s window.

  “Right, this is Police Officer Jenkins, he and a few of his men have a dozen or so civilians here that they are keeping safe. We are going to put them in the truck with Jonah and Matt, then Travis and I will continue to accompany you on your journey,” Lee told us.

  “Ok then.” I nodded to Lee. “Be safe,” to the others.

  Travis and Lee jumped in the back of our truck with Adam and we were off again, we turned into my village and once again I was shocked at the sight of it. Windows and doors were smashed in most of the buildings, some of them had been damaged by fires.

  The odd Zombie ambled along but nothing that would slow us down.

  As we turned into my street, my hand shook so badly I could barely hold on to the steering wheel, my heart pounded, and beads of sweat broke out on my forehead.

  I could see that the undead had broken in through our front door, my heart plummeted. Before they could stop me I had slammed on the brakes and was out of the car, running towards my family. I soon hit the floor as bullets started to fly past my head.