Winter Smith (Book 1): London's Burning

by Strange, J. S.

  “All we had on us was our guns. I’ve got everything I need.”

  Zach smiled. He looked at the kids who were stood in the middle of the room, huddled together.

  “Are you ready?”

  They nodded.

  Violet took the girl in her arms. Zach took the boy. She couldn’t help but think that this was the situation of her escape with her brother all over again.

  “Remember, as soon as we get down there we run,” Zach said. “We don’t stop running, either.”

  “Yes, Zach, I know.”

  They looked at each other, slight smiles on their faces, understanding coursing between them, not just because they knew what to do in the next few moments, but because spending this time together had confirmed many things.

  “The Thames is achievable if we keep running. But it’s going to be swarming the closer we get.”

  “It’s in sight, Zach, and that is all that matters.”

  “What if we get there and the ship isn’t leaving until tonight?”

  “They’re not going to make us wait on land.”

  Violet opened the window as quietly as she possibly could. She peered out, keeping the girl close to her.

  “Okay, are you ready?”

  “Yes,” said Zach and the two children.

  Zach opened his window, slower than Violet’s as his creaked and groaned.

  “Are they looking?”

  “No.”

  Violet and Zach climbed onto the sill of each window until they stood between the indoor and out. Standing, they both realised the height they had to jump, but now was not the time to overthink things. Now was the time to escape, once and for all.

  “Three,” Violet whispered. “Two…”

  And they jumped, before they reached one, before they could let the doubt set in. Someone screamed. Zach was aware of a girl screaming. Falling through the air, which seemed never ending, he could see Violet covering her face and hugging the girl.

  They landed. Zach stumbled. Violet was already running. For a moment he thought she was leaving him. Until she shouted for him.

  “Zach, run!”

  Zach did as he was told without looking back. He knew the scream would have alerted the dead. They would be chasing. The ones in the house would be fighting to get out, outraged that they had lost their meals, if they could even feel outrage.

  They ran up the winding, cobbled road of the strange street. They passed dank shop window after dank shop window, their hearts pounding as the air whistled past their ears.

  Violet took a left down a side street and Zach followed. The alleyway was narrow, and Violet thought back to the escape from the diner, all that time ago.

  Zach’s gun hit his hip. It was beginning to bruise. He knew that if even tried to shift it, he could drop the boy he held who was making odd noises. There was no time to find out the problem. He could hear the dead behind him.

  They got to the middle of a street and were surrounded by dead yet to see them. Violet didn’t even stop, and by the time the dead were aware of living souls they were gone.

  “How do we know which way we’re going?” Zach called after Violet.

  “We don’t.”

  They stopped by a doorway. Zach skidded and fell backwards, landing on his back. The boy was still whining.

  “Why have you stopped?”

  Violet hushed him. She was looking up the street. Zach peered over her shoulder to see two government workers leaning against a car. They were both on mobile phones, animatedly texting. The back doors of the van were left open, but from this angle neither Violet nor Zach could see inside.

  “How are they using those?” Zach whispered.

  Violet shook her head slightly.

  “There’s no signal. There’s not even electricity. How are they still using those phones?”

  Something fell behind them. They turned and saw the dead charging down the street towards them. Their knees buckled and moved at odd angles at the speed they were going. Zach swayed slightly, feeling nauseous.

  Violet ran straight out into the street where government workers stood. She shouted at them, alerting them to the zombies. They looked alarmed and quickly hid their phones. They charged into their car, shutting the two back doors before Violet or Zach could get a good look inside.

  The car started up and Zach knew they were about to scarper. He shot at their tyres, one deflating, while keeping a grip of the boy who was gripping the back of Zach’s neck. Violet did the same, shooting the side so the bullets went ricocheting through.

  The guards shouted after them as they went running by, but in a few seconds the car and the guards became the main interest to the pursuing dead.

  As they ran, Zach tried door after door in the hopes they could get inside somewhere just for a few minutes. Violet seemed to think this was a good idea. They knew they were close now, and they knew that in reality they couldn’t keep running.

  Finally, a door opened under Zach’s hand and he fell into a small front room. Violet stopped, realising what had happened, and quickly made her way in, shutting the door behind them.

  All that was of this house was this front room, equipped with a real fireplace with wood stacked to the side, pink soft sofas, bookcases, an antique table, picture frames and a backdoor leading to the kitchen and bathroom.

  “What an odd place,” Violet commented.

  “We won’t be here long.”

  He placed the boy on the sofa, who was going a shade of green. Violet let his sister run to him, but she didn’t look much better.

  “They’re really not well, are they?” Zach whispered.

  Violet shook her head. She had a feeling she knew what was happening to them.

  “Did you see those government workers?”

  Zach nodded. “How the hell were they using the phones, Vi?”

  “It’s odd, isn’t it?”

  “It’s more than odd. Mobile signals, TV signals, even radio signals are down. The only signal comes from Paris, but even that isn’t enough to generate throughout the world. We’ve got no electricity, so any devices like that would soon run out of charge.”

  “We just killed government workers.” Violet gasped.

  “But we escaped, and that is all that matters.”

  * * *

  Their car pulled up outside Buckingham palace. They drove slowly, keeping all eyes open and aware to what was around them. The palace was surrounded with the dead. They walked from left to right, up and down, looking for their next victims. Connor cut the car engine. They were parked next to the gates of the palace, where the dead guard regiments looked at them through the inside of the gates.

  Winter took it as a good sign that none of them had come towards the car yet, although many nearby corpses stared at them.

  “Good to know they’ve been locked inside,” Connor whispered, looking at a guard inside the gates.

  “Yeah, but we’ve still got those lot to face,” Oliver said.

  Winter eyed the Victoria Memorial. It was covered in blood and the dead seemed to centre around it, enthralled.

  “Can’t we drive further in?” Winter asked. There was no chance they were to get through the rest of London when the area they were in now was full of the dead.

  “Queen’s in,” William said, nodding towards the Royal Standard flag, which was flying proudly above the palace. It looked untouched.

  “But is she alive?” Connor added.

  Winter eyed the guards. “Probably not.”

  “Are we going then or not?” Oliver asked, evidently annoyed at the irrelevant conversation.

  “How far is the Thames from here?” Winter asked.

  “We’re pretty close,” William said. “If we could only drive.”

  “To drive there, we’d have to go down roads, and you know how full those roads will be. We won’t stand a chance of getting out of the car,” Connor said.

  “So you’re saying we have to get out here?”

  “That’s e
xactly what I’m saying. It’s open, and if we hurry without drawing too much attention to ourselves we can get to the Thames.”

  Winter rested her head against the window. Her bushy hair had gained length since her parents’ party. She wondered if she should cut it when she got to Paris. If she thought things like that, she could momentarily forget her worries of even getting there.

  “If we get to Horseferry Road, and travel down Millbank, we’re at the Thames.”

  “But where is the ship running from?” Oliver asked. “It could go from any road. It could even go from the other side.”

  “We’ll find it.” Winter nodded. “We’ve got until tonight, haven’t we?”

  “That’s what the radio said,” William said. “I just hope they haven’t changed plans since we’ve been driving.”

  “Try and get the radio now. We couldn’t earlier.”

  Connor hadn’t apologised for causing the crash earlier, but Winter hadn’t expected him to. Oliver had enraged the situation, causing distractions. Everyone had come out unscathed, except for Gerry and poor Laura.

  The radio whirled to life under William’s touch and the voice of the French radio filled the car.

  They listened to him interviewing a woman who owned a pub, who had said business was booming now, and that anyone angry that Paris was becoming ‘increasingly full’ needed to get their priorities sorted. The interview finished, to be followed by statistics on home prices shooting up as people were forced to house refugees.

  “You can already see the strains, can’t you?” William said.

  Oliver shook his head. “I say they should just get over it.”

  Winter wanted to hit him.

  “People in London, if you are listening, you are in a high risk zone. You must evacuate tonight, at 8PM. If you miss this ship, running from the river Thames, then you will unfortunately be left behind.”

  “It hasn’t changed,” William said.

  “One chance.”

  “Let’s get going then.”

  “But if we get there early, what are we going to do?” Winter asked.

  “They’re not going to keep us on land, are they?” Connor fired back.

  Winter shrugged. She supposed he was right.

  Then, suddenly, they knew what they had to do. They all poised themselves, ready to open their doors and get moving. They would have a few seconds before the dead realised they were in company of the living.

  Winter pushed open her lock. She felt the door move slightly but she kept it shut. She heard the others do the same. She looked up and down, noticing that only a few eyes were on the car.

  “Do you think it’s safe to go when we’re being watched?” William questioned.

  “If we wait any longer we’ll have more eyes on us,” Oliver said.

  Oliver opened his door first. It swung with a slight noise that seemed magnified to Winter, but looking around she saw that nobody was heading their way. Following his lead, the others opened their door one by one and stepped out, not bothering to shut the car doors.

  They hurried past the car and headed straight towards the street in front of them, suddenly panicked. Winter knew she wasn’t moving fast enough. She felt like her body was purposely slowing her down, failing to allow her the escape she desperately wanted.

  William had his gun raised at all times, ready for the attack. They passed the statue, Winter admiring the grandness of the design, before coming face to face with a rotting woman.

  The stench filled her nostrils, stinging the back of her throat. Fear curled up and imploded inside her, paralysing her body and striking her heart. She moved just as the woman screeched and went for the infectious bite. A gun shot at the woman’s head exploded in blood.

  Now they were surrounded. The dead came running from all areas, intent on killing survivors. They seemed to run with hungry ambition. It seemed like they hadn’t tasted human flesh for a good few days at least.

  They all lifted their guns and began to fire, hopping and running along towards the street they had headed to earlier. Winter felt her survival kick in. She spun around to shoot at a police officer running her way, and then a second later she slipped across the ground and fired a bullet at a woman who had been seconds away from grabbing her.

  Oliver was firing the most bullets, manoeuvring through the crowd effectively. They all knew they were in dangerous waters now, but everyone shared the same determination: survival.

  Together, as a team, they looked out for each other. Winter jumped up on top of a parked car and skilfully shot a man carrying a camera, who was running straight at Connor. William fired straight at the zombie that had grabbed Oliver, with such precision, Winter was impressed.

  Jumping off the car she ran towards the road they had been heading towards. Her coast was clear, and Oliver was already waiting for them. Someone screamed. William fell to the ground. Connor sped towards him, and Winter’s heart suddenly sunk.

  She fired aimlessly at the area, until Oliver stopped her. She was ready to shout at him, to tell him that they needed to save their friends, but Oliver spoke.

  “You might hit them.”

  Then, Connor and William began to run towards them. The zombies were all set on the two boys, while the odd few came towards Winter and Oliver but were shot down before they could get too close.

  Winter’s heart beat heavily as she willed Connor and William to get closer. When they were nearby they fled up the street, where the odd zombie came running from the trees, and where bullets fired in different directions until they knew they had more time to escape.

  They passed wrecked black cabs, strewn bodies, pools of blood and stray animals. They were safe for now but as soon as they got into the streets they knew they would have more problems on their hands.

  Then, running into one street, they were stopped by an oncoming speeding car. Winter only just managed to scatter, being pulled to one side by William. The car screeched to a halt a few feet away. Winter wasn’t concerned, and her and William began to run, but firing bullets and smashed windows made her stop. She turned around to see that Connor had fired the bullets. He was staring at Winter.

  “You can’t go,” he said.

  The doors of the car opened, and two people stepped out. One was a woman, the same age as William, strikingly pretty with wavy blonde hair. The other was a young man, a year or two older than Winter, with chiselled features and piercing blue eyes.

  The man raised the gun in his hand and shot Oliver straight through the head.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Winter screamed. She couldn’t take her eyes off the blood-splattered wall where Oliver’s head had been.

  The woman accompanying the man was also carrying a gun, and she hadn’t even flinched. Instead, she walked straight up to Connor and hugged him.

  Winter stood where she was, completely stunned. What was going on?

  Connor looked uncertain, slightly frightened. William kept hold of Winter’s arm. She could feel him trembling.

  The man shook Connor’s hand like they were old friends. Connor actually smiled, as if he were glad to see him. Winter wanted to speak, but after the ruthless killing of Oliver, Winter thought it was best to keep her mouth shut.

  The young man turned to look at Winter, his hand still in Connor’s. He turned back to Connor, patting him on the shoulder and began walking towards Winter. The woman followed, slightly pursed lipped. Winter gripped William, ready to save him if this man was to kill him, too.

  The man seemed to read her thoughts. He grinned boyishly.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill him. We had a deal.” The young man exchanged knowing glances with Connor, who nodded slightly.

  “What the…?” William said under his breath.

  The young man held out his hand to Winter, surveying her through those diamond blue eyes. She noticed the veins in his arms. “I’m Cedric. Cedric French.”

  Winter didn’t move. She didn’t speak. What was she supposed to
say?

  “Who are you?” William asked.

  Cedric French turned to him and smiled, which relieved Winter. The woman had a slight smirk on her face.

  “Pardon my manners, I would have thought my friend here would have told you.” He was indicating Connor, who was still stood on the other side of the street. “I’ve just told you my name is Cedric French. My assistant here is Ruby Minister.”

  “You know I don’t like to be called your assistant,” Ruby said. Her voice was seductively soft, with a French edge to it. Winter felt something stir inside her.

  “I’m here to poach you, Winter.” He grinned.

  Winter blinked. “Poach?”

  “It sounds much worse than it actually is,” Cedric said. It annoyed Winter that his stupid, business smile hadn’t faltered. “You see, we know things back in Paris. Only a small number, that is, but we have to alert more people. And with you on our side, we can do just that.”

  Winter looked around at Connor, who looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

  “You knew about this?”

  “He arranged it.” Ruby said.

  “You what?”

  Connor quickly walked forwards. “Listen, can we talk about this on the boat? We don’t have much time.”

  “Yes, that’s a brilliant idea!” Cedric said enthusiastically. “Do you want us to take you there?”

  “No, no, no,” Winter said, shaking her hands. “No, you tell me what’s going on right now.”

  Cedric sighed. “It’s not something we can really talk about here, out in the open.”

  “There’s no one to hear you.”

  “I’m afraid there’s always someone to hear you.”

  Winter shook her head. “Why do you want me on your side?”

  “Why are there sides in the first place?” William asked.

  “I’m afraid we can’t discuss this here,” Ruby said.

  “Then I’m not travelling with you to the Thames.”

  “You would travel with the government.”

  “Yes, because they’re here to help.”

  Cedric shook his head. He turned to Connor. “Was I wrong about her? Have you been lying?”

  “No. No, what you’ve heard is the truth.”