Immediate Survivors

by Cenz Barone

  Baxter drove down the ramp as was Kenny holding the map in the front and Gage stood up watching the outside from the back of the camper van. The rest of the group, the girls were all sitting down or lying down. All were tired, exhausted and waiting to get out onto the road. Nancy called out “You will need to open the main door with this” she handed the key to Gage who went to the front holding it and waited for getting to the exit as Baxter just followed the signs. The group then parked outside the pump where Baxter said they needed to go. “I won’t be long” was all Baxter said and then he jumped out and began filling up the canisters. Kenny held his pistol outside the passenger window, anticipating an attack. Gage opened the rear door and went to join Baxter by offering cover. Those within the camper van could only wait. Kenny turned back to see them and saw how tired they were, just like he was. Had Baxter not turned up then their night might have been different.

  Gage watched Baxter leave the petrol pump within the back of the camper van and then Baxter walked towards a collection of plastic canisters, Baxter brought them towards the camper van. Gage asked him “What are you doing mate?” Baxter thinking ahead said “We need to make sure we have petrol, enough petrol to think we won’t find anymore petrol stations as convenient as this one for miles ahead”. Baxter brought another canister towards the camper van as all within heard their conversation. Gage said to him “We should just load up and go” Baxter disagreed and said “No, it is best we think ahead”. Baxter thus had five petrol canisters and loaded them into the camper van when they were filled up with Gage’s help as Kenny also went out to assist them and when the camper van was full up with petrol and the five canister were, and safely stored within Baxter went back to the driver’s side and moved to make his way to leave the underground car park.

  Baxter began coming down the last floor of the underground car park and came towards a closed metallic door. “What do you think is on the other side” asked Kenny sitting in the passenger seat. Gage then said to him as he was standing up overlooking the driver’s seat from the rear “Whatever it is you plough through them, plough through them you hear” Gage said as he now jumped outside the camper van holding the key card that Nancy had given him. Nancy remained lying down, nursing her injuries as Laura was watching Gage move towards the front slab where the key card was meant to be applied. Gage slid the key card on the machine and the metallic doors began to open slowly. Gage rushed back inside the back of the camper van as Baxter gripped the steering wheel waiting for it to open.

  As the doors were fully open Baxter went into first gear and began to drive outside, he went up the small hill as the metallic doors which gave access to the university underground car park closed automatically behind them. They reached the road leading outside the university and Baxter followed the signs, and as they reached the road, many of the dead things were seen, many of them rushing for the van and banging on the sides as Baxter kept focused ahead. Kenny closed his window as they drove further on and reached the exit of the university grounds, heading out of the gate which no longer hosted police or soldiers but there were plenty of dead bodies and fires burning in differing areas where the guard station once was. They passed the university property and were now on the streets and drove towards it. Baxter followed the road and headed towards the main street latching onto the road and going slowly as he passed static cars, many of which were clearly damaged and were evident of crashes and there were many dead bodies on the street, it was a horrific scene. The smell of diesel fumes was profound and filtered into the camper van.

  Baxter quietly drove amid the wreaked carnage and all within the camper van who looked outside were quiet before the scenes of ruin. After driving a couple of miles from the university Baxter parked the camper van up and found a spot to overlook a height that gave a view of the distant city and towns in the horizon. They all were lost in thought and Kenny in the passenger seat remarked “It’s a war zone”. Melissa stared outside and said “Laura have you seen this” Laura stood up from sitting down and joined Melissa who was near Gage to overlook the front window of the camper van and they saw the burning and bustling horizon, the chaos and mayhem, whereas down below they could make out dead bodies and the murderous onslaught as they saw the dead things moving around the scene on the streets below them. They noticed a crashed helicopter to the East outside of which were bodies of the pilots who use to fly it and then Baxter pointed to the West where he noticed a large collection of the dead things banging onto a building “Look over there” said Baxter. Kenny speculated “There must be people in there”.

  “There is nothing we can do for them, let’s just get out of here” Gage said to Baxter as Baxter after finding a spot to survey the scene automatically did as Gage asked and what Baxter himself wanted to do. Baxter reversed from the vantage point and the camper van went back onto the road from the viewing point and moved onto the streets as Baxter slowly navigated the debris on the road. Kenny sighed in the passenger seat as flashbacks came to him concerning riding as a passenger when Grant drove the van around the city streets, trying to find a place to rest up, only now Grant was dead and finally Kenny felt like he was out of the city and far from hostile town streets. Kenny was longing for the rural country roads to soon overpower him because he had enough of urban streets.

  Baxter passed the cluttered crashed cars and messy turmoil which was laid worse before them. The camper van crept forward and reached more rural roads as they passed the outlining districts on the edges of the town, having gone far from the city. The group were mostly tired and sat in silence, they were just relieved to have escaped and were now on their way free of the university and the mess left behind. Baxter drove at 30 miles an hour and Cherie stood up and went to the front where Gage was resting between the drivers and passenger seating, Cherie said “Why are you going so slow?” as Baxter replied “I don’t want to risk crashing, there is so much rubble on the road, I don’t fancy being stuck here”.

  Kenny said to Baxter “Where are we going again?” as Baxter answered him “Towards the motorway, I am following those signs”. Nancy sat up and said from formerly lying down “Just keeping following those signs Baxter, and head towards the countryside” as Baxter answered her “What countryside”. Nancy laid back down and said “The less it looks like a town the better” Nancy was exhausted. Kenny now said to Gage “Mate, you sit in the passenger seat, I want to stand up” Gage moved aside and assisted Kenny to move towards the back area, and then Gage took his place in the front in the passenger side. Kenny finally stood up and stretched as he overlooked the girls in the back and went down the isle of the camper van. He came towards Elise who was still mourning Grant, Kenny sat opposite her and Nancy herself sat up and looked at him. Baxter drove on.

  Gage was making himself comfortable in the camper van, Gage whispered to Baxter “Are you alright, buddy” Baxter just nodded and replied “If you are asking if I am tired, I am not. I won’t settle until I feel like I am safe” Baxter glanced at Gage and asked curiously “Do you think you are safe yet” Gage looked at him and did not answer him directly, instead Gage stared out the front window and said as Baxter drove “I will let you know when you take us there mate”.

  Laura was having her arm tended to by Melissa as Kenny sat in the back and rested his head on the seat he was in. Elise did not care about her wounded arm and just remained static and lost in thought, rethinking about Grant dying, Kenny himself although not knowing Grant for a significant period of time, felt like he owed so much to Grant for pulling up on the side of the road and helping him out all those days ago. Yet now Elise who was before him, had lost a friend and colleague in Grant, even though prior to these events she would not think of Grant as a friend, after all that had happened in the last few days, he was as close to anyone as she had ever been with. Kenny wanted to say something to her to provide comfort but did not know what to say. Kenny felt awful for Elise.

  Nancy looked at Kenny as they drove on from her sitting up from lying
down and Kenny broke his eye contact with her, his thoughts were on Elise and what she, Grant and himself had been through at the beginning. All of them though in general were just emotional to have escaped the university. It was a risk they all took willingly and the fact only one of them had died and only three of them were injured but not injured by bites from the dead things which were an inevitable death to die and be reanimated as one of the dead things was odds none could have anticipated. Yet here they were, in a camper van and heading towards what was part of their plan to a now forthcoming rural area, an area they were not yet at but heading to with hope that perhaps their situation could maybe be better than it had been to this point.

  Chapter 25 - Rural Relief

  They had been on the road for some miles at this point and in the silence of the back of the camper van Nancy observed Kenny, who was still moving between looking at Elise and the floor. Nancy realised what was taking place as she said to him “She is in shock Kenny, just leave her, she will wake from it soon”. Elise was staring straight ahead with a blank facial expression on her face, inside Elise was wondering what to do as she thought about her fallen friend Grant, she was for the most part unable to think straight because she had watched someone close to her die and that seemed to have taken a great deal for her to comprehend. Kenny turned his attention to Nancy who observed him, he asked her “What about you, how is your leg?” Nancy jokingly replied “The pain killers are working fine. I feel nothing, just a little drowsy and tired, lucky for me it’s a graze, the bullet has ripped off some skin but it still hurts like hell”.

  Kenny sat up from sitting down and moved towards Nancy and took hold of her leg, she looked up at him as he lifted her leg up, she groaned and kept her eyes on him, her natural suspicion of those around her intensified but he looked at her and said “Let me take a look” and then he lifted her trousers up as she watched him do so, she had to trust him she thought as Kenny moved up the trousers and Kenny stared at it, she felt his hands on her leg and he felt how soft her legs were, but when he saw the vicious wound, he knew it was not as bad as it could have been but the wound was not good all the same. Nancy was being too optimistic about it Kenny felt, even though he had no medical expertise. The danger now to Nancy was an infection of some kind. Nancy asked him “What is it, how bad is it. Just tell me” Kenny did not want to say anything so he turned to the front seats but Nancy sat up and held onto Kenny’s shirt, she through gritted teeth said “Tell me” she brought him closer to her and then she looked down and knew it was bad, the bullet was embedded into her thigh but not too deeply and on the outskirts of the thigh so it seemed, but it was hard to tell.

  She went back down and remarked “The adrenaline must have made the pain limited” she said in a mental agony knowing her entire chance of survival was limited if she could not use her legs. “Check the girls” Nancy barked at Kenny who went near Elise and checked her arm but Elise was dazed and confused now. Her arm was bleeding and the bullet was stuck in her arm, and she was closing her eyes and opening them as the street lights passed along her face. Kenny said, looking at Elise for signs of pain or recognition but Elise was numb, so Kenny said to Nancy “She’s fine, we just need to bandage it up”.

  Melissa held Laura’s arm and Laura was in more pain than the other two as a bit of her flesh was shot off, she had taken a load of pain killers from the back pack which had Nancy’s items within but her pain was still profound. Kenny looked down at it “Shit” he said when looking at Laura’s wound and he looked at all three of them, then he made his way to the front, near Cherie who was in between Gage in the passenger seat and Baxter who was driving. Kenny whispered “We need to go to a hospital” Gage turned to Kenny and said “A hospital, what the fuck are you talking about, how can we do that?”

  Kenny then whispered, trying to keep his voice low as Nancy observed the back of Kenny who spoke to those at the front, Melissa was conscious of this as well but Laura and Elise were quiet in their own thoughts. Kenny said to Gage “We have to try mate, the three girls are hurt badly. Nancy especially, she has been hit in a far more vulnerable place, her leg mate. If she does not get that leg looked at she will be unable to run or move. I do not think she can manage now but we have to try and get them to a doctor, anywhere there are opportunities for them to have treatment or surgery of some kind”.

  But Gage sighed and said “Mate, I want to help but we have to try and get to a safe place because...” Baxter then interrupted Gage and said “I know a hospital. It’s not too far from here. It is a quiet and private hospital. There might be some of those dead things there but not as much as would be found in hospitals in any cities or bigger towns”. All went quiet before Baxter who kept driving as Gage asked him “You know this area?” Baxter nodded as he focused on the road and glanced at Gage as he said “Of course I do. Why do you think I am driving and looking like I know where I am going?” Gage had no reply, so Kenny peered forward to Baxter and whispered “How far is it Baxter”. Baxter went quiet as he momentarily thought on the distance, before answering “It is about 29 miles in the rural areas along the duel carriage way, we will have to skip the motorway to get there though”.

  “Should we really risk it, maybe if we keep on the motorway we would come across some...” said Cherie who was then interrupted by Kenny who said “We cannot chance that Cherie, they need proper medical treatment as soon as possible” Kenny now looked at Baxter and said to him “Baxter just take us there okay, unless anyone has any objection” he looked at Cherie and then Gage. Cherie told Kenny “No I don’t, it’s got to be in the country right. I mean we all agreed to head to the rural parts so hopefully we find it. I suppose there is no choice really”. Gage just shrugged his shoulders and replied “I don’t care, as long as wherever we go is quiet”. Baxter then spoke “It is okay Kenny, I know this hospital. I use to go there” was all Baxter disclosed as Kenny smiled and said “Thanks Baxter”. Kenny kept his eyes on the front as Cherie now turned behind her and saw Nancy lying down with her hand over her head, trying to block out the pain. Elise was still dazed and as for Laura, she was coping with Melissa near her, but Melissa just sat beside her friend Laura offering emotional support even though Laura was far gone in her thoughts.

  Gage turned to Kenny and said “I want to go into the back” Gage now climbed over the passenger seat into the backdrop as Kenny replaced him and as he sat down. Kenny saw the total carnage as people ran up to the van occasionally and threw their weight against it, biting it almost thinking it was possible to bite through metal. “What the hell are they” Cherie asked knowing nobody knew. “I’ve been asking myself that since it first happened” Kenny said as Gage pointed to a restaurant and remarked “Look over there, those people” there were around fifty of those people eating out on bodies strewn across the road. Gage asked Baxter to turn on the radio to which Baxter did so, and then Baxter hit the on button and the camper van was filled with sound, as the voice from the radio came on

  “This is Bud Carlton bringing you your most recent news events. Manchester United have won the Champions League, The grand prix final race of the season will be held in Sunny Malaga and the Labour government is expected to make a fighting comeback at the winter general election, and as for the Liberal Democrat leader he said do not count us out, while the Tories have stated only by investment in their policies will the economy be safeguarded for future generations. But of course dear listener I am just regurgitating news from distant past months and years, the sort of news I have brought you from days long gone by. The real story, in case you have all been living under a rock recently is the entire world is being overrun by crazed psychotic flesh eating killers. Yes you heard it here folks, the dead are rising from their graves. You see nobody cares about you, our government has fled, like our Royals, our dearest politicians have absconded and as for your sport and entertainers well, I don’t know or care where the fuck they are, but neither do you, don’t you”.

  The radio host laughed at t
his point and then said drunkenly “I am just saying, it does not matter anymore, all the nonsense you thought that mattered, doesn’t matter anymore, which is why I am here with you like I am every night on the graveyard shift taking your calls. So call me. Wherever you are, I mean if you are alive” again the radio host laughed and then added “If you are hiding in a basement, living in a house that is not your own or stranded in a supermarket, or maybe you might be resting in a so-called rescue centre. Or maybe you’re on the fine British roads driving to God knows where. Look at it, this entire country is truly and utterly being fucked, oops I swore. Then again I suppose I can swear all I want now and you people will get offended, though I am sure some of you in the face of this terror are going to write a letter to a body to reprimand me”.

  The radio host laughed hysterically and said “Yes, I would not put it past some of you sad fuckers to write into a commission and say I dropped the F bomb, because despite all the shit happening I will never underestimate the Great British publics ability to get angry by letter writing. Please do something, show a lonesome DJ and his skeleton staff you are still alive out there. Maybe they will come and arrest me, take me to a safe house with nice policemen who have big guns and some fine wine and a massive tank for my troubles” the radio host laughed and then continued to speak in a serious tone as he said “I was in a press conference two days ago and the man said, the spokesman said they have no idea what is going on, no idea..”.