“You really have changed you know”, Callum told me.
“No I haven’t Callum, I always used to hunt, it is you that’s changed”.
“I haven’t changed, I’m still me”.
I had to say it though as although it didn’t bug me as such it was still a bitter taste on my tongue, “But you have, your with Monique now, why this sudden need to see and talk to me when you should be with her making sure she’s getting better”.
He sighed and looked at his feet, “I knew you would notice”.
“Well you do share a house and a bed I presume?”
“The house yes but…look we grew close when you ‘died’ we found this place and set up a home bringing as many people from the sanctuary as possible. We settled here and it was home, we worked hard as a team to make it work, we grew close that’s all”.
“Close? It didn’t just look close to me especially when you two cuddled up together on the sofa”, I said a little more bitterly than I wanted to.
“What do you know? You haven’t been here to witness anything maybe we were mates just having a cuddle”.
“I can see by the way she looks at you that’s its more than just close”.
He went to continue on with this argument but I carried on walking leaving his words as barely a whisper on the cold air, he rushed in front of me placing his hands on my shoulders, his dark eyes on me the whole time, his long choppy dark hair framing his features, “I missed you, you know. I never got over you”.
“Well now it’s time you need to move on”.
He let his arms drop to his sides and he let me go.
The walk back towards camp was a silent one until the others caught us up, “Wow a fox huh, that’s er different”, Ollie smiled looking the fox over with some distaste.
“Meat is meat Ollie, it’s all gotta be eaten to survive”, I said just as we approached the gate and were let back in. Ollie and Kaley had managed to catch a few rabbits, Albi caught a deer which he dragged behind him in the snow and along with my fox there was plenty to go around. We dropped it all off to a man named Harry, he was the camp butcher and got right to work slicing and dicing the meat into joints that people could work with and cook up as meals, before we left I asked him for one of the rabbit feet he seemed to understand why and he chopped it and cleaned it before giving it to me.
I saw Cain waiting for me on the front step of my house, his little eyes lit up as he saw me. I opened the door and let him in along with Kaley, Ollie and Albi had gone off to help with checking on the residents in the snow.
“So what did you get me?” Cain asked.
I handed him the rabbit foot, “It’s a rabbit foot, meant to bring you luck”.
“Wow thanks, I hope it does. I want to be lucky and hunt like Ollie one day”.
I patted his hair, “I’m sure you will”.
I soon had dinner on the go for us, I sent Kaley out for some food and she came back with the chopped fox meat and some vegetables, I knew no one else would want the fox meat but it was all food to survive so I was more than happy to cook and eat it. Cain and Kaley sat with me eating their dinner before Chantelle came to collect Cain to tell him it was time for bed. He clung tightly to his rabbit foot and I watch him disappear into the night.
The next few weeks went by in a blur, we hunted, we ate, we talked but in all that time I had managed to avoid Callum after our chat in the woods, whenever he was nearby he kept his head down muttering a hello so as not to show Monique anything then he went on his way. Monique was back to full health and running the roost again shouting orders to keep the camp in shape.
The December morning light streamed in through my curtains glaring white from all the snow, more had fallen in the night and cast everything in a winter wonderland. Stepping out of my room fully dressed I made my way to the front door. I had a surprise in mind for Cain, going to the gate I spoke to Dwayne who was on watch he promised to let me out on a supply run if I could find his kid something in the town to bring back. Quickly vanishing into the white washed town of Tonbridge I made my way to my once old flat, from here I could still see it was how I left it but the homes and buildings around it barred the scars of the night the scavengers had come, burning many places to the ground.
Climbing over my makeshift fence and up the wall and over the balcony I made it into my flat, the feeling of being here was strange now, the dank damp walls and the grimy wall paper from where a leak had come in from the roof showed me how much nicer my new home was. Opening my bag I packed away some personal things that I wanted to keep with me, most of it was useless but a few things held some value to me, I also grabbed some of the few tins of food I had stacked in the cupboards. Lastly I pulled a small loft hatch down from the ceiling and using a pull down ladder I climbed up into the roof, I had been up here once before just to see if there was anything useful but I had found nothing other than old Christmas decorations which was what I had come for today. I had no idea when Christmas was but the doctor had been keeping tabs on the dates and believed it to be around a week or two away. Autumn had definitely been and gone and winter was fully set in which meant Christmas was coming, I had loved Christmas as a child and I knew Cain and some of the other children had never seen it before, had never heard of Santa Claus, had never opened presents from under the tree. Feeling a tingle of excitement I found the decorations all packed away in a box but lucky for me I had found an old wheel barrow which I planned to carry it all back to camp in.
I jumped down from the attic and closed it back up holding the box and my bag, next I went out of my flat and turned the key in the lock and locked it up for the last time, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be coming back here so I placed the key on the floor by the door, if anyone needed a safe haven then they could use it, I also left a note like Monique had once done at the basement in Brighton under an old hotel.‘Safe house please use if you need’then I left the flat and loaded up the wheel barrow. As I walked down the deserted street I trailed off down a small side road which I knew led to some shops which hopefully hadn’t been burnt out. Checking the area was safe I then walked to the window of the nearest shop and peered inside, it had been an old toy shop, the shutters locked down but they made easy work for me. Some toys had already been looted a long time ago, the broken back door showed me that but there were still a lot of toys, sorting through them all I found enough for all the kids back at camp and a few silly ones for Ollie, Kaley, Albi, Monique and yes Callum too, I didn’t want there to be any hard feelings over Christmas, we needed some form of happiness.
Smiling to myself as I walked back to camp I felt like nothing could ruin this perfect place, I truly felt happy for the first time in years. I arrived back just before lunch and had to contain my excitement as I rushed back to mine to hide the supplies, obviously I gave Dwayne something for his kid but the rest I hid in my room. I didn’t have wrapping paper so I took a lot of old cloth rags that people didn’t use anymore and used that to wrap up the presents labelling each one with a marker so I knew who was meant to have what. The main one of course was for Cain and that had pride of place under my bed.
Now all I had to get was the tree.
So people didn’t know what I was planning I left it a few days before venturing out and finding just the right tree, I had to travel in the forest a bit but I found it. As I smuggled it back in with the help of Dwayne I now needed to find somewhere to put it, I decided on the community centre, we all went there for meetings and other things. I spent hours putting up the tree and decorating it with tinsel, babuls and some pine cones that had been in the old attic. Feeling happy with it I collected all the presents and hid them under the tree and locked the door up tight in the hope no one would find out until Christmas day.
As I left the community centre I bumped into Callum with my mind not focused I didn’t see him coming to do his rounds on checking the camp.
“Stacie”.
“Callum”, I said.
“What you been up t
o? You’ve been acting strange”.
“Have I? Sorry just me being me I suppose”.
“Really? The early morning supply runs with no supplies?”
“I have a surprise for the kids, so don’t ruin it, ok”.
“What surprise?”
“Just wait and see”, I smiled and for the first time I felt my heart soften towards him and I immediately hated myself for it.
“Stacie I’ve really missed you”, he said lifting his hand to my cheek and stroking it.
I went to back away but my legs didn’t want to move, he took my silence as me feeling the same way and he leant in to kiss me, his lips brushed over mine which made me flinch, I shoved him away and he fell down in the snow.
“What are you playing at?” I hissed.
“What am I playing at?” he cried out, “Stacie these feelings don’t just go away”.
“No but Monique has feelings for you now, it’s wrong this is just wrong”. I backed away from him and walked off leaving Callum once again eating my snow dust.
~
Monique had been watching Stacie for a few days now wondering what she was up to and her heart melted at the sign of a Christmas tree and presents for the children, for Cain. But what she hadn’t expect to see was Callum go in for a kiss, she then felt her heart shatter into thousands of pieces. She couldn’t handle these emotions that whirled around her mind and she started for the gate, she needed some space and some air, she needed to be away from the camp for a while.
She asked the person on gate duty to let her out, lying that she needed to check the perimeter for damage. Instead she stormed off into the forest area and out towards the old mansion. She was so angry, how had she not seen it before, how Callum tensed up around her, how he hardly spoke to her, it was all a ploy because those two were back together but she had been too blind to see it. She felt the anger rise in her and she careered into the gardens of the mansion, the snow made the mansion look undeniably beautiful, the fluffed up snow trailed and laced over the windows and their sills, icy droplets had frozen into place around an old fountain. The snow and ice almost shimmered in the sunlight, she breathed in the cool air and walked through the dead trees which hung with icy vines, like the tinsel of a Christmas tree.
She approached the back door of the mansion which was a jar but Stacie had told her how this was where she first met Kaley and Lucas, how he threw a grenade at her, shame it didn’t kill her. She froze on the spot about what she had just thought, that was an evil mind set not like her own. She shook it away and continued on in but the anger was set so deep inside her now. She looked around the once grand home of someone who had owned a lot of money but where had it got them now? Nowhere as they were most probably dead like most of the damned world she lived in. Taking to a rather grand posh old mahogany staircase she flitted to the first floor, searching around she came across an old library, it was full of dusty and damp old books none of which took her fancy. Reading them through by title and author she came across one with the author’s name being ‘Stacy Coleman’ feeling rage split through her she grabbed the book and threw it on the floor, she smashed it with her foot over and over, not hearing the groaning and splintering of the wood as she continued on. A leak in the room above had damaged the floor boards until…Snap…Crack…Crash!
She screamed out a little as she plummeted to the floor hitting her head and blacking out.
Chapter 6 …
Monique’s eyes came into focus, it was dark, gloomy and cold, her head ached and she felt a little sick…She shot right up wishing she hadn’t as her vision swum and her mind screamed, was she dead?
“Thank god you’re awake!” a guy’s voice said from behind her.
“What happened?” she asked stroking the back of her head where a large lump had formed, she also felt some of her hair had melted away at the back where she must have landed in a small puddle but luckily it hadn’t burnt into her skin “And who the hell are you?”
“I hit you with my bike, I was getting away from those…things”, he replied, “I brought you here and tried to fix you up”.
Suddenly she remembered the ration station being overrun by melted people who tore into others and killed them, she remembered running through the graveyard, down the road and Bang! She looked around the room she was in and noticed it was an old book store, the guy had barricaded them in by shoving all the old book cases over the doors. The windows had no protection but as she looked out the window into the dark night sky she realised they must have been above the ground floor, maybe on the first or second.
“Who are you again?” she asked knowing full well he hadn’t said but she could see he was scared shitless and had probably forgotten her question.
As he replied she looked him over, he was dark like her with wild afro hair swept back with a band, he had dark scared eyes which flashed over hers before looking elsewhere, his clothes where the normal jogging bottoms and top but they had dark stains on them that looked like dried blood. “I’m Will”, he replied, “William Moore”.
“So is it all true what I remember? About the acid rain and the melter’s or is my mind playing silly buggers with me since you made me hit it?” As she said it she hoped that it was all a crazy dream that maybe she had been mugged and ran out in front of him instead but no such luck occurred.
“It’s true there are Zombies everywhere”, he said his eyes darting to the door as he said it.
“Zombies huh?”
He nodded, “Sure why not they eat everyone, moan and groan and they should all be dead. I’ve seen enough Zombie films and played enough Zombie games to know what they are”.
“I have to get to my family”, she said changing the subject as she knew it was silly talk there was no such things as Zombies she suddenly stood up but fell back down as the dizziness took over.
“You ain’t going nowhere tonight with your head like that, plus those streets are crammed with those fuckers and they know we’re here”.
“Shit, I need to know my families alright”, she hissed through the pain, “Where’s my bag and knife?”
“Over there”, he pointed to the window where her blade and bag sat below the sill.
“Can you pass them here?” she asked and he obliged passing them over, “You hungry?”
He nodded, “Always”.
She opened her bag and passed him a packet of something edible and also a tin of Tinny’s beer.
“Wow where’d you get this?” he said looking elated.
“I worked at the ration station, it was my box so I put it in my bag”, she said.
“What! You got beer in your rations?” he sounded pissed that he didn’t.
“No I found them hidden in the church”, she laughed, “No one gets alcohol in their rations”.
They sat there in silence as they ate their food before turning to talk again.
“You got any more food in that bag?” he asked licking his lips.
“A bit but not a lot, I’ll let you have some more in the morning”, she replied, “We need to…”
“Ration it”, he laughed.
She laughed too, it just all felt so weird yet so funny, it was either laugh or cry.
“So what’s your name girly?” he asked sounding a little more macho now he gulped down a beer.
“Monique”.
“So what’s your plan, for in the morning when you better?” he asked.
She shrugged, “Go home and see if my family are ok, you?”
He looked haunted for a moment before letting it go, “My family’s all gone, all melted into the pavement. Was thinking I’ll just hole up here until the army comes thundering in”.
“Do you think they will?”
“Gotta do ain’t they”.
“What if they’re all melted too?” she asked.
“Then…shit I ain’t thought of that”.
“Well I’m gonna go and find my family, once I found them and know they ok ill come get you and you can stay wi
th us”, she said.
“I dunno if I wanna go back out there, I’d rather just stay safe in here”, he said.
“And what about when you’re really hungry? Or thirsty?”
He shrugged, “I dunno man this world too messed up, I can’t think straight no more”.
“How’s your bike?” she asked him.
“Alright but its outside, bit dented the wheel but still turns ok”, he mumbled taking one last swig if the beer, his eyes looked tipsy.
“Can I use it in the morning?”
“Sure I ain’t gonna go nowhere”.
They didn’t say much else to each other, they just holed up in a corner together thinking about what had happened and how things were going to change and nothing was going to be simple anymore.
The sunlight rippled through the wooden slats that were blinds covering the windows, streaming in the sun beams which danced over the dust which floated around the air. Monique’s head still hurt when she touched it but the swelling had gone down and she could now sit up without feeling dizzy or sick. Glancing over at Will she saw he was wide awake and rummaging through some draws on an old disused till point. “What you doing?”
He looked up, “Sorry did I wake you?”
She shook her head, “No the sun woke me up, what you looking for?”
“Keys to the store rooms might be some food or something out there”.
“I doubt it, this is a bookshop but worth a look I guess”, she said but he wasn’t paying attention as he jingled some keys in his hands. “Go careful yeah!”
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 11