Immediate Survivors

by Cenz Barone

  Kenny struggled to his feet and stood up as he looked at Roy and said “How can you allow this to happen. Look at them” Kenny injured saying in reference to the women, who looked like frightened girls as he said “Don’t put them through it” mockingly Roy replied “Look who is acting like a grown up”. Melissa could not help but ask even though it was made clear what would happen, as she asked Roy, unable to look at him “What are you going to do to us” fear being the tone of her voice. Roy approached her and whispered “You see Melissa what is going to happen is pretty simple, we are going to take you to a quiet room, with lots of drink after you have washed up nice. You will be advised to drink yourself Melissa, it might help when all your clothes are taken off, by one or two or three men, after the seniors in command amongst us have had you. We might end up pouring alcohol over your body and drinking from it, until you beg us to stop” Roy now grabbed his own penis through his trousers and said “Many cocks will be penetrating you all over”. Melissa threw up, the way he spoke and how serious he was, plus the imagery his words elicited, this made Roy laugh and the men around them with their weapons. But unable to take anymore Nancy stepped forward and got in Roy’s face “That’s enough” she stated. Roy just blew cigar smoke in her face and said without concern “It will never be enough, at least for me”.

  Nancy pressed him “With everything happening, you and these people doing this is...” he interrupted her pointing his gun at them and said “It is time to move. All of you make your way towards the stable cart” the stable cart of horses truck being one of the few vehicles that had come up the road from the death squads, it was all so well organised. Even if the manner of the members appeared mostly rowdy and undisciplined they all had a sense of structure did the death squads. As they were standing there, the girl heard many sick words directed to them from some of the men but Roy and Curtis who were clearly in a position of seniority kept control of the situation. As the women moved, Kenny was about to join them but Roy placed up his hand onto Kenny’s chest stopping him and said severely “Not you!”

  Roy noticing the fear on Kenny’s face said “I have something else for you”. And with that Roy punched Kenny violently in the stomach, as Kenny fell onto the floor winded, he keeled forward struggling to breath and Roy smashed his right fist across Kenny’s left temple and then began to slam his food into Kenny’s stomach and then into his head, Kenny found his eyes all blurry as he was coughing up blood. The women watched on, as Kenny was being beaten thinking this was the end. Roy taking pleasure in the women’s silence, and Kenny’s weakness before him, he heard their muffled tears as they thought about what was going to happen to them as Kenny was being beaten, Roy spitting down at him and shouting “You think you are tough, you think you are brave!”

  As Roy continued to beat up Kenny, some of the militia he was with watched on and clapped, hollering as some were teasing the girls and pushing their hands towards them but the guards near them kept them at bay although the guards found it funny. Kenny felt like he was dying and Cherie knew she could not do anything, there were five of them with weapons pushing them along still towards the horse truck that they were meant to go on, they glanced back as Roy stared at them and said “I might decide to kill him right now ladies? Maybe chop him up and feed him to the dead things?” they were pushed towards the truck as Roy now punched Kenny several times in the face, a murderous frenzy as he took up his cigar and burnt Kenny’s shoulder, going through the clothes. Kenny groaned but then was punched once more.

  Roy came close to Kenny and said to him, whispering viciously “I am not going to kill you Kenny, like I said I am going to keep you alive. It is just time you learned who is boss, like the girls you were with will learn who their masters are. And poor Baxter learned his place, trying to be a hero and he paid for it beautifully. You see Kenny, you belong to me now”. Kenny was hyperventilating, and in dire agony was he and bleeding still as Roy took in the scene and felt so powerful. Roy whispered onwards into Kenny’s ear “It is a new world Kenny, those ahead of the game will not only survive the longest but make profits out of it. You, like the people I found you here with, are my property now, but those I am with are like cavemen who might just want to kill you outright because they do not think ahead. I am thinking about putting you into a room full of those creatures, taking bets on how long you can survive, or maybe have you fighting to the death one of the lads I am with, you know like gladiators”.

  It was all so hard to understand for Kenny, the words being told to him as Roy bragged on and Roy said “I am entrepreneurial Kenny. You know I never went to university, I went straight to work in the factory after school, all those years ago, but I have always fancied myself as a business man, and you my little boy are going to make me a bundle” Kenny was in no state to answer, the boot to his head had made him see stars and blood gushed from his nose and ears. Roy slapped his face a few times seeing Kenny was not with it mentally. Roy then said delightfully “You are kind of not faring well are you? You’ve done well though to get this far, to have lasted this long, all of you but obviously, it is not good enough”.

  Roy grabbed Kenny by the scruff of the neck lifting him up as he said “Come on bitch boy. Get the fuck up” Roy now held onto Kenny’s head and pushed him forwards as Kenny struggled to keep his footing, but he was kicked and slapped forward by Roy as well as two other men part of the group Roy was with. The girls were all in the back of the truck amongst themselves at this point. Watching were they in the darkness of night as their fire in camp still went on and the items and materials they had built up were taken and loaded into other trucks, they saw as the camper van and 4x4 had been moved and driven away as the death squads all moved and worked together, with arguments sometimes taking place and shouting as groups argued about what to have, it seemed like haggling was taking place. But their gaze was reserved for what Kenny was going through, the beating being issued out to him by Roy.

  The situation resembled something like a war, where a group of soldiers had raided the enemy camp and were taking all the booty, but instead it was the actual situation of modern day Britain in the grips of an uprising of the dead. But the dead things were not in these parts of the woodland, it was just the survivors. They watched as Roy kicked and punched Kenny, showing off was Roy in front of his colleagues in the militia and Kenny merely complied and moved into the direction Roy wished him to go. Up ahead Kenny noticed a car, one of many vehicles by this time around the camp site area, the boot of the car was open and Roy observed as three of the men near him, young men thrust him inside, manhandling him and giving good punches for added effect.

  Kenny lay in the boot, all cramped up as Roy approached, he stared down at Kenny and began to punch at him. Nancy resting her hands on the railings of the horse truck she with the others were in lowered her head, fearing the worst for herself and those she was with. Laura was crying, in frozen fright, Melissa kept quiet, the words Roy earlier told her had taken a life of their own in her thoughts, and Elise and Cherie observed the scene, the shadows of the death squads running around hollering and ruining their camp as the fire light mingled in with torches. Roy finished punching Kenny, as Kenny kept groaning he lost the strength to and now he remained quiet and weakly coughed. Curtis this time appeared near Roy who stood near the boot of the car, he had managed to light up his cigar once more had Roy. Curtis observed the beaten, bloody and battered state of Kenny, Curtis remarked “We are almost done here mate” as Roy nodded inhaling the cigar smoke. Curtis said about Kenny “I don’t see why you don’t just kill him, leave him here”.

  Roy shook his head and replied “This find is going to be valuable to us Curtis, trust me” Curtis shrugged his shoulders and remarked “Whatever is of value I don’t see, he will likely bleed to death, but all the same when we get back to the HQ we will put him in the cell with the others” as Roy turned to Curtis and asked “How many are there since I was last in the warehouse?” Curtis smirked and answered “Like I said, that’s
my surprise for you mate”. So Roy curiously asked “Ah, so you can see the value in keeping people alive, not just taking the women folk. To be honest, I want to just use those creatures to entertain us, with these pathetic survivors. Let’s charge some sick bastards whatever is valuable to see a poor fuck fight one of those things. Ha”. Curtis winked at him and said “I hear you mate”.

  Then another one of the militia, a man in the death squads named Derek said “Are you both ready, it is time to move”. Derek went into his inner jacket and handed Roy a bag of white powder as Derek smirked and said “It is coke. Compliments of a police station we raided earlier in the week down by Brighton”. Roy took the bag and opened it up, he placed some of the powder on his sleeve and sniffed it as he placed his head back and laughed, he then said “So when I have been out here babysitting and watching over these fucks, you have been gallivanting around the country having a great time. For fucks sake” but Curtis took some of the powder placing it on his sleeve and said after sniffing “Don’t worry Roy, there is plenty back at the warehouse for you”.

  Derek now moved from the back of the boot and dangled another bag of cocaine in front of the truck the women were on, as they watched him, Derek teased the girls “You want some girls? Plenty here for you, who wants to sniff?” but Roy then said unimpressed to Derek “So you think flashing that shit will get you to jump the queue with the girls Derek. There is no way you are jumping the line even if you gave me some freebies” Derek annoyed turned to Roy and said “Come on mate, sharing is caring”. Kenny was only barely hearing the conversation around him as he was losing consciousness slowly. Curtis and Roy, Kenny could see from one eye that was half-shut at the top of the boot he was in, the boot open still as Roy and Curtis looked towards Derek, still engaged in their conversation but for Kenny the sight was blurry mingled in with burning sweat and the voices around him were inaudible. “This is all done in love Roy. We have plenty of pussy back at the warehouse and I have had some good times down South” said Derek as Roy and Curtis looked down on Kenny and Roy with disdain said “Ah well, fuck it. Let’s get out of here”.

  Roy now slammed the boot of the car shut, and Kenny was thus submerged into the blackness of the boot. His injured head resting against some plastic bags within as he struggled to keep his eyes open but he muttered “Are they open or closed” he was so unsure about where he had his open or shut, such was the confusion of the boot being closed and his injuries. And then after taking a few deep breaths Kenny passed out, and the last thing he heard was the terrified screams and shout of the women he was with, Nancy, Cherie, Laura, Melissa and Elise who were being taunted and having the men grab them through the bars of the horse carriage they were in, so all the girls had to stand in the middle of it. Roy and Curtis though shooed the other men in the death squads away, taking it all in their stride were they. Roy and Curtis continued to speak outside the car Kenny was in until the other death squad’s members all were ready to go and chatters went on and the entire scene was rushed, so the vehicles began to move out, as in a convoy.

  The horse truck the women were in now moved forward, with Roy sitting in the front passenger seat, to make sure he was around his most valuable of goods and the camp fire was left raging. With the tents of the group still kept up, as the camper van and 4x4 was long gone, along with all the most valuable of items the group had desperately collected prior to coming to the downs, but was now stolen just as they had stolen it. And on they went to the next destination, prisoners of other survivors in the world overrun by the dead things. But as the girls were driven in the horse carriage, they knew enough to know, the dead things would pose the least of dangers for them, to wherever they were being taken.

  End of Book 1