Winter Smith (Book 1): London's Burning

by Strange, J. S.

  She tried to run, but then suddenly her jumper caught on one of the trees. In an instant her granddad was upon her. She tried pushing him away, but he spat and screamed at her with his teeth bared, ready to infect her with a bite.

  She heard her jumper rip; she fell to the floor and knew that her luck had finally run out.

  “Help!” She screamed, but her voice didn’t even echo. There was no one to hear her. “Help!”

  Her tears fell as he lifted her up and his dead hands gripped her skin. He seemed to smell her once more, like he did before he went on to other things.

  Then there was a gunshot. Her granddad had been hit. A second gunshot released his grasp, and a third shot him to the ground.

  There was silence. Winter stood where she was, shivering, remembering everything she had tried to forget. There was nothing but the sound of her whimpering. She peeked around her and saw her granddad was gone. He could never come back. Not now. He was well and truly dead.

  Footsteps crunched over twigs. They were heavy footsteps, as if the person were wearing boots. She suddenly felt hopeful. Had the government found her at last?

  But as she turned, she saw two people walking towards her, a young man, maybe in his twenties, looking wild with a bushy brown beard and tangled hair. A young woman, who seemed to be the same age, accompanied him. Her hair was tied back and she looked up tight and worried. They were eying Winter suspiciously, and when Winter took in the rest of their appearance she saw she was being held at gunpoint.

  Now she truly felt scared.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Who are you?” The man asked through his beard.

  “M-my name is Winter Smith,” Winter sniffed. “I came from Watford.”

  “She’s talking…” The woman whispered, loud enough for Winter to hear.

  “Yes, I’m talking.”

  The man and woman glanced at each other; similar to the way Violet and Zach had done before they had left her. She began to cry again.

  “Are you bitten?” The man asked. He seemed slightly worried that she was crying. “ARE YOU BITTEN?”

  “No!” Winter hugged herself, wishing she could just lay down somewhere.

  “Check her,” the man said to the woman.

  The woman edged forwards cautiously, craning her neck to get a better look at Winter.

  “Did that thing touch you?”

  Winter shivered again.

  “Y-Yes. Too many times.”

  The woman looked at her like she was mad. She had missed the true meaning of the words.

  “Are you bitten?”

  “No, I’m not bitten.”

  Winter displayed her arms, her hands, her legs and her neck, all of which were bruised and cut but not bitten.

  “She’s human.” The woman confirmed.

  The man lowered his gun and hurried over to Winter with a caring hand raised. All sense of suspicion was gone now. The woman, also lowering her gun, patted Winter’s shoulder.

  “Nasty buggers, aren’t they?” She asked. She had an accent that was native to London, but had the hint of foreign about it. Winter thought she sounded slightly German, as if she had been there for a while but had not been born there. “I’m Helena. This is Gerry.”

  Gerry held out a hand attached to a slightly overweight wrist. Winter shook his hand, feeling his tight grip on hers. It was the handshake of equals, someone who was in the same mind set as her, when she wasn’t emotionally drained and tired.

  “Where ‘ave you come from?” Gerry asked. He had a cockney accent and he seemed very cheery.

  “I was staying in the industrial estate, just back there,” Winter whispered. “But I was chased out.”

  “Not surprising, that ain’t.” Gerry shrugged. “Come with us. We’ve got a place to stay.”

  They began to walk, but Winter stayed where she was. Helena looked at her.

  “What’s wrong, Winter?” She asked kindly.

  “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “Be’cos we’re the same as you.” Gerry grinned.

  Winter was led to a park that was eerily silent and wide. The odd tree stood on what was once neatly manicured grass, but was now the victim of hurried feet and blood soaked bodies. She stayed close to Gerry and Helena, who were chatting happily to each other as they reminisced about pranks they had played in University.

  Winter suddenly realised where she was. She had been here once before, when she was twelve. Her parents had sponsored a live concert that had happened here, for a charity for dogs. It had been riddled with the public, the press and dogs themselves. Winter had pleasantly enjoyed it. She had managed to stay away from Missy Founder and her friends, and had stayed on the good side of her parents.

  “We’re in Canon’s Park, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah, we are!” Gerry beamed, happy that Winter had noticed their whereabouts. The sun above was rising slowly, casting some trees in a hazy light. “Wai’ until ya see where’bouts we’re hidin’.”

  He winked and they carried on walking. They came to a set of walls, built together to form a square. There were tall, grand gates to their right, but Gerry walked straight past these.

  “Aren’t we using the gates?” Winter asked.

  “You can try but ya won’t get in through them!” Gerry smiled.

  Instead he came to the end of the wall and bent down. Helena stood on his extended knee and began to climb the wall in front of her, which was covered by overgrowing leaves. She disappeared out of view as she dropped to the other side.

  “Winter, you next,” Gerry said.

  “I can’t do that,” Winter said, looking down at her feet with embarrassment.

  “Ah, don’t worry about those, love!” Gerry laughed, a laugh that was full and jolly. “Wait until you see how dirty the uvva’s are.”

  As Winter began to climb the wall, with Gerry’s assistance, she felt a little nervous. There were others. She would have to meet others.

  She jumped to the other side of the wall and was faced with a grand garden, full of different flowers and winding paths all enclosed in the four walls set around it. There were more gates that Winter hadn’t seen all closed tightly, and in the middle of the neat grounds was a small pool. Winter thought this was the only part of London or even the United Kingdom that still remained as it once had before.

  Gerry dropped down next to her, which made her jump slightly. Helena hid a grin as Gerry stood up.

  “Welcome to King George’s Memorial Garden.”

  It was only now that Winter saw a small, orange glow at one corner of the garden. Figures were surrounding the area, and one was stood up waving at them.

  “Come and see everyone, Winter.” Helena smiled.

  She was led across the garden, and with each step she took Winter felt even more nervous. These people seemed like they were in some tight knit group, as if they had been together for a long time. How would they warm to a new arrival?

  Winter arrived to the camp area and saw two tents set up and camp chairs outside. There were three people sat around the fire, one of which shook Winter’s hand as she arrived.

  He smiled at her cheekily, looking at her through blue eyes, and said, “Hello, I’m William.”

  He was so stereotypically English Winter almost laughed. But his grin and those eyes did something to Winter that began to make her blush, and she quickly hid her face.

  Another young man, around the same age as Gerry, was sat on one of the camp chairs around the fire. He looked moody and Winter had noticed he had simply glanced at her once as she arrived.

  “This is Oliver,” Gerry said, following her gaze.

  Oliver nodded, while still staring into the flames. Winter just made a sound before she was introduced to a girl slightly younger than her called Laura.

  “This is camp. We’ve been here about a week now, and it’s really nice here,” William said. “Don’t be shy to look in those bags there. We have everything you could possibly want. We ransacked a sho
pping centre, you see.”

  He winked at her and again Winter had to hide her reddening cheeks.

  “Winter?”

  Winter turned around, as did everybody else.

  There, stood near the small pool was Connor.

  Winter couldn’t believe it. Every worry she had felt before now disappeared to be replaced with relief. Again, she found that she was crying. She hated herself for it.

  Connor ran over to her, dropping the firewood he was carrying, and threw his arms around her. Winter hugged him back, feeling his body around hers made her feel so secure. She ran a hand through his hair, which had grown since the last time she had saw him, and before she could stop herself she was kissing him.

  She could hear wolf whistles behind her. Someone was clapping. William and Gerry patted Connor affectionately on the back, and Laura and Helena grinned at each other. Oliver remained where he sat, watching the reunion with boredom.

  “I can’t believe it,” Connor said, breaking away from her and looking her up and down. “You’re still alive.”

  “I knew you would be, too.” Winter shook her head, hardly able to believe what she saw herself.

  “Where’s Violet?” Connor asked. It was an innocent question, yet it made Winter angry.

  “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “So you know each other?” Helena asked.

  “Kind of, yes.” Connor nodded. “Our first date was the night of the outbreak.”

  “What a date to remember.” Laura giggled.

  Connor grinned, looking at Winter again. He took her hand and led her to a chair across from Oliver. She sat down and was glad when Connor sat next to her, his hand still in hers.

  “So, tell me what happened to you,” Winter said. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

  “After I left you, I got to the weapon store.” Connor explained. “Gerry and William were running it.”

  He indicated the boys, who were sat with a beer each, and they nodded happily at her. Winter smiled back before looking at Connor again.

  “And they gave me weapons, enough for us to escape. But as I walked, it started to get dark and then there was the outbreak. I ran back to Gerry and William’s shop, which thankfully was this metal garage, which we locked ourselves in and waited for everything to stop.”

  “Do you smoke, Winter?” William asked. She turned to see him holding out a pack of tobacco, two sticks already rolled.

  “I don’t, no,” Winter said, a little nervously.

  “Ah, good on yuh!” Gerry grinned.

  “When it had stopped, we knew we couldn’t keep trading where we were, didn’t we boys?” Connor said.

  “Town was a bloodbath,” Gerry said, with the swipe of his hands. He was in the middle of rolling a cigarette together for Laura who was stood watching Oliver pick at the ground with a stick. “We knew if we stayed there any longer they were bound to sense us and we’d be goners ourselves.”

  “So we hurried back to Borehamwood, on Connor’s orders,” William said, lighting his cigarette with a Zippo lighter. “He said he just had to find this girl.”

  He made his British accent even more so, and came across a little camp with the last few words he said. However, all of the boys laughed, and even Oliver raised a small smile.

  “Anyway, I thought I was still pretty far from Borehamwood, so I thought the place would be safe,” Connor explained. “But as I got there it was carnage. Zombies were attacking government workers, cars were up in flames and houses were ruined. I tried to get to Violet’s place, but there were too many of those zombies for me to get there.”

  “They got in,” Winter said. “Once the people in the building knew their town was being attacked, they began to run out of the building, and as soon as they opened the doors they were in.”

  “Rookie mistakes.” Laura chipped in.

  Winter nodded. “I thought then and there I was going to die but somehow we managed to get out.”

  “And Violet’s family…?” Connor asked, although he seemed to already know the answer.

  Winter shook her head slightly. There was a moment silence in which Winter relived the terrible moments again.

  “Where did you go after that?” Winter asked, breaking the silence.

  The sun was rising now. It was yet to warm up the frosty air, but it shone down on the garden like a spotlight. The water winked and rippled under its gaze, and the trees seemed to come alive around them.

  “Well, we went pretty much everywhere, didn’t we?” Connor enquired of Gerry.

  “I knew a place we could hide out under this bridge. I used to go there when I was a kid, and I was still going there in my youth. It was a good place to take the ladies, if you know what I mean.” Gerry choked on his own laughter, and was joined by boyish giggles from William and Connor. Laura, who seemed to be more boy than girl, grinned along. Helena just watched them with affection.

  “It was there they found me,” She said.

  “Yeah, she was using my spot!”

  “You took me there before.” Helena shrugged. “I knew it was safe, and I had been chased out of my town, so I hid out there.”

  “What about your family?” Winter asked, trying to be polite and caring.

  “I don’t know.” Helena shook her head, a look of slight sadness on her face. “I was on uni campus for the last week.”

  “Horrible, innit?” Gerry said, noticing Winter’s expression.

  She nodded.

  “Soon, though, the bridge got infested and we knew we had to move,” Connor said. “There was only one way in and out, so if they had gotten under we would have been killed.”

  “Plus, I didn’t really like staying so close to a running river!” Helena said. “I hate water. I can’t swim.”

  “We just made our way from building to building, town to town,” William said.

  “And then we heard that you had made this appeal to find me,” Connor said.

  Winter didn’t look at anyone else, afraid that they would judge her for it. Sure enough, they remarked on her using her celebrity status in such a peculiar time.

  “We said we couldn’t believe that Connor knew Winter Smith,” Gerry said. “We said we thought he was just a regular boy, not one that hung with the stars.”

  Winter could feel herself blushing. She mumbled, “It was Violet’s idea.”

  “It was a good idea, and I tried to get in touch with you,” Connor confessed.

  “That David Herald is a sleaze.” Laura stuck out her tongue.

  “He bumped into me, and he tried to make me do this interview where I said I didn’t like you, I didn’t want your life, that love doesn’t matter at a time like this and you were just being selfish to even appeal to find me.” Connor sighed. “But when I said I didn’t want to do it, he just broke down, didn’t he?”

  “It was quite funny, really.” William laughed, taking a puff of his cigarette. “He started to cry, said he knew that all of his hard work on his dad’s paper was going to go down the drain now that all of this was happening. He said all he wanted to do was keep people interested in something else while the zombies were clearly taking over, and that people were just throwing it back in his face.”

  “He couldn’t really let go,” Helena said. “He couldn’t face that he wouldn’t have a job for awhile.”

  “He said it was all he’d known, and that he needed to get through this whole ordeal his own way.” Gerry smiled. “He said a story like this was the story that would cement his career as a true journalist, one to be respected.”

  “Hardly.” Winter scoffed. She was angry he had found Connor, and angry that David had let the story drop. The whole appeal had been promising, according to Violet, but it hadn’t gone anywhere. Then Winter remembered how Violet had convinced her it was a good idea, and when it hadn’t been Violet had apologised. Had she done it on purpose? Had her plan been to put Winter in a bad light once more?

  “Where did he go?”

&
nbsp; “I think he got out,” William said. “I think he got to the docks by bribing the government.”

  “We heard him telling the government he could help boost morale with his reporting in Paris, and he was on the Jeep and out of there in an instant.” Helena shrugged.

  “Of course he would do something like that,” Winter said. “Selfish man.”

  “You knew him well?” Laura asked.

  “He was responsible for half of the shit he wrote about me. He always managed to wrap me around his finger. He could really twist my words.”

  She shook her head. She didn’t like that David Herald, of all people, had escaped London without a glance back. Of all people, David Herald deserved to fight for his freedom.

  “We bumped into Laura and Oliver a little while later,” Connor said. “The two of them were hiding out in the shopping centre, where we got all of this stuff from.”

  “I was glad when they found us.” Oliver muttered.

  “We didn’t think we’d get out of London, if we’re being honest,” Laura said. “I know we’re not out now, but we’re close.”

  “You can almost taste the finish line, can’t ya?” Gerry grinned.

  Winter nodded.

  “So what about Violet?” Connor asked. “Is she still alive?”

  Winter explained everything. She explained how she had left Violet’s by the help of a boy named Zach. She explained how the three of them developed their relationship, and how happy she felt knowing she had them by her side. Then she explained how she started to grow suspicious of Violet, how Violet had convinced Winter the David Herald story was a good idea. Winter explained that Violet would not let her go back to find Connor, and that soon Violet and Zach believed him to be dead. She explained that deranged people in a leisure centre had almost killed them, and she also explained how she started to drift away from both Violet and Zach when Violet started using sex as a weapon. Winter felt somewhat stupid after her explanation, but nevertheless Connor sympathised.

  “I didn’t really like Violet,” he said. “She seemed so obnoxious. She was horrible.”

  “I didn’t mind her. I thought she was just a hurting girl who needed a fresh start in life, but then she screwed me over.”