Safe Zone (Book 1): The Greater Good

by Sussex, Suzanne

  “Should we … er like … barricade the doors of something?” Sam asked when they had finished.

  “That’s actually a good idea, Sam,” Lex said, impressed and a little ashamed that she had not thought of it herself.

  Pleased with himself, Sam pointed to the wooden chairs and tables, which were placed strategically around the room. “We could use those.”

  Lex nodded. “Yes, they’ll work.” She walked over to the closest table and ran a finger over it.

  Sam, enjoying his moment of glory and keen for it to continue, added, “Why don’t you ladies sit down and rest. I’ll sort these out. It’s been a long day … er, … ya know?”

  The astonishment at the selfless gesture was apparent on the faces of all three girls.

  “Okay,” said Sally and plonked herself down gracelessly on a large black leather sofa.

  The other two girls joined her. None of them noticed the frown on Sam’s face. He had only offered so it looked like he was being helpful. He hadn’t expected them to agree. What had happened to equal rights?

  Sam picked up a table, then put it down again. It was really fucking heavy, must be solid wood. Not like the cheap flat pack furniture he has in his flat. There was no way he could lift it and carry it over to the door. He considered pushing it, but that would make him look like a wimp. He picked up a chair, much lighter. He carried it over to the entrance and placed it in the middle of the double doors. It looked pathetic. A child would be able to move that. It would take him ages to pile up enough chairs to barricade the door; then it would take too long to move them when they wanted to leave. He walked back over to the sofa where the girls were sitting.

  “Er, seconds thoughts, I don’t think those chairs and tables will be strong enough … I think we should use a sofa. One of those two-seaters will fit perfect.”

  “Perfectly,” Lex muttered quietly. “Okay,” she said to Sam and then carried on with the conversation she had been having with Claire and Sally.

  Sam stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, “Er … well … see … I’ll need help to lift it,” he said.

  The girls stood and between the four of them, they managed to place the sofa in front of the double doors. Sam was right, it did fit perfectly. A sense of relaxation came over the group. It was only a small sofa, but it would be hard to push the doors open with that in the way. For the first time that day, they felt safe.

  Claire took four more bottles of water out of the fridge, brought them back to the sofa they had been sitting on, and handed them out.

  “Right,” said Lex, decisively, “Sally, can you please tell us what has been going on out there?”

  Sally gulped, conscious of the three pairs of eyes fixed on her. “It started on Monday, something happened in London, on the Underground. The news didn’t really say how it started, but they showed clips of people tearing into each other. Literally, with their teeth. It was gross. Then the Prime Minister made a speech, it was everywhere across Europe and America, in all the big cities. He said not to worry, just to stay indoors and the army would get control… but I don’t know what happened. The army didn’t get control. It spread really quickly, and by Tuesday it was in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, even … even Oxford.” She paused, picked up the bottle of water and took a sip. The others stayed silent, absorbing her words.

  “What about Kent?” Sam asked in a quiet voice, afraid to hear the answer.

  “Kent?” Sally said, then remembered Sam lived there. “I’m sorry Sam, most of Kent is gone,” she said, her tone softer, “It’s so close to London; it was overrun with the infected by Tuesday afternoon.”

  “And it’s definitely zombies?” Claire asked.

  Sally nodded, “They haven’t used that term on the news, but yeah. People are being bitten, they die, then they come back. So yeah, zombies.”

  Lex looked thoughtful and chewed on her bottom lip, “How long?’ she asked.

  “Since Monday,” said Sally, biting back the frustration, had Lex not been listening?

  “No, sorry, how long after being bitten do they turn?”

  “Oh, um, I’ve not seen anyone change myself, but the news said up to forty-eight hours.”

  Lex nodded. “That explains suit man and Paige.”

  “What happened to her?” asked Sally.

  “This guy collapsed. Paige tried to help him, but he woke up and started biting her. The soldiers shot them both in the head.”

  “So she didn’t turn?” Sally asked. Lex shook her head. “Good, it was a horrible way to die, but I’m glad she didn’t become one of those things.”

  “Must’ve been the same in the other tent then,” Sam said, “I guess the soldiers didn’t shoot the people that turned quickly enough.

  “The other tent?” asked Sally.

  “Yeah,” Sam nodded, “there was another tent. I think they put the people that had been exposed in Alicante in there. My mates were in there. Everyone had been shot. Hundreds of dead bodies there was.”

  Lex let the grammatical error slide, “There must have been a few people infected in there. I assume that they turned at the same time,” She trailed off and chewed on her bottom lip. This morning it had felt like a bit of a game, that she was investigating a murder, playing detective. It had not occurred to her that this was everywhere. Even Oxford … Oxford. She lives on the outskirts. Are her parents okay?

  “How did you get here?” she asked, the hope evident in her voice. If Sally had made it here alone, then it can’t be too bad out there.

  “I took a bus,” Sally stated.

  “You took a bus?” Lex questioned, “the buses are still running?” She laughed. “Thank God, it can’t be that bad if the buses are still running.” A weight lifted from her shoulders. Public transport would be the first thing to be cancelled if there was a crisis. Sally must be exaggerating.

  “It is,” Sally insisted. “I didn’t catch a bus. I took one. Literally stole one. The mini bus from the village school.”

  Sam laughed, his respect for Sally increased tenfold. She stole a bus. “Ha, ha, that’s fucking hilarious.”

  Lex glared at him. Hope smashed away. Now it felt like her heart had been torn from her body, stamped upon and forced back in, the wrong way. “Prick,” she said, before getting up and running to the other side of the lounge.

  “Her family live in Oxford, Sam,” Claire said when Lex was far enough away.

  “Oh … oh shit … I didn’t mean to be such a dick,” Sam cursed himself. He had just felt that he was being accepted and now he had fucked it up by laughing when Lex was clearly in pain.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Claire said.

  “No,” Sam stood as he spoke, ‘I will, it was my big gob.’

  He walked hurriedly over in the direction Lex had gone. He passed a fridge on his way that held chocolate bars and snacks. Grabbing a selection, he carried on walking. As he approached, he saw her sitting on the floor with her back to a sofa. Her arms wrapped around her knees, which were pulled into her chest. He could see her shoulders heaving and hear the anguished sobs. Lex had seemed so strong and confident. She was the smart one, the rational one.

  To see her like this broke something in Sam. All his teenage years he had been selfish, only concerned with the effect situations had on him. Trev dying had meant that he could not brag about Sally. Dean and the lads dying; his first thought had been that he would need to find new friends. Kent being overrun had meant that he probably wouldn’t get to go home to his belongings.

  Witnessing the raw emotion pouring from Lex, made him, for the first time in his life, think of someone else’s feelings and not his own.

  He stood awkwardly behind her, not knowing what to say. Lex sensed the presence of another person and looked up, expecting to see Sally or Claire.

  “Go away, Sam,” she said wearily. No trace of anger in her voice, just pain.

  “I’m so sorry, Lex. I … I can’t imagine what you are going through right now.” He used the word
s that Claire had spoken earlier this morning when she was comforting him. It had made him feel a little better. Surely that would work with Lex.

  “Why? Why can you not imagine, Sam?” she shouted, the anger returning.

  “My family are in Oxford and are probably dead. Your family are in Kent and are probably dead. You should be able to imagine exactly what I am going through now. Not joking about Sally stealing a bloody bus.”

  She knew her words were blunt and cruel, but she didn’t care. She wanted to lash out, to make someone hurt like she was.

  “My family are dead,” Sam replied, keeping his tone neutral, “they died when I was twelve, my mum, dad and little brother. Car accident.” He stopped, unable to continue.

  “Oh,” Lex said, the anger leaving her instantaneously. “Who brought you up?” The shocking statement made by Sam had made her forget her own fears. There was still hope for her family. Sam had lost his when he was so young.

  “My uncle took me in, but he got fed up with me and kicked me out when I was thirteen. Then it was foster homes for a few years, till I was eighteen then the council gave me a flat.”

  “Aren’t you worried about your uncle? I guess he’s still family.”

  “He kicked me out when I was still a kid.” Sam’s voice grew harder. “I was just a kid. My entire family had died, he didn’t try to help or understand why I was acting out, he just took the easy option. I hope he gets what he deserves.” He tightly gripped the chocolate he was still holding. The pain of those years that he had kept buried for so long threatened to bubble to the service. He took a deep breath.

  “Er, I got you some chocolate. Girls like chocolate … right.” He dropped the bars at Lex’s feet.

  She laughed, “Yes, Sam, girls do like chocolate.”

  She picked up a fruit and nut bar, then offered it to him. “Want one? Boys like chocolate, right?” she asked with a cheeky smile on her tear-stained face.

  “Well played,” he smiled as he sat down next to her and took the bar from her. “I love fruit and nut.” They sat in companionable silence, savouring the taste of the chocolate bars.

  “I’ve never met anyone that was in a foster home before, would you mind telling me about it?” she asked. She leant her head on his shoulder as he began to talk, the physical contact offering some comfort to her, his stories helping to push the worry about her parents to the back of her mind.

  Sally stood unseen behind the two of them. She watched them share the chocolate, noted the affectionate way that Lex was leaning against him.

  Jealousy stabbed through her like a knife, when Sam lifted an arm and draped it casually over Lex’s shoulders. She turned silently on her heel and walked away.

  “Is she okay?” Claire asked Sally when she returned to her seat.

  “Yes. Fine,” replied Sally, bluntly. “They seem to be getting on very well.”

  Claire studied her friend’s face. Was Sally jealous? “Um Sal,” she said cautiously.

  “What?” Sally asked harshly.

  Claire considered what to say next, should she tell her? It was Lex’s secret to tell, besides she could be wrong about Sally being jealous. “How did you steal a bus?”

  Sally, letting out a small sigh of relief, had been expecting probing questions about her sudden mood swing. “Dad wouldn’t let me come back to get you. We argued a lot. I even cried, and you know what he’s like when he sees me crying.”

  Claire nodded, smiling, “Yep, I’m still scarred from the time we had that argument about whose Barbie was prettiest, you cried, and he shouted at me and sent me home.”

  “Haha, yes I remember that,” Sally chuckled. “Well, it didn’t work. So on Wednesday night when he was asleep, I got up, and stuffed pillows under my duvet, so it looked like I was sleeping. He must have hidden the car keys, because I couldn’t find them anywhere. But I did find the keys to the gun cabinet. I took the shotgun and decided to walk.”

  Sensing Claire was going to comment, Sally added, “Stupid, I know. It took me ten minutes just to get to the end of the driveway. It would have probably taken me days to get here. So I figured I needed to find a car.”

  “So how did you end up with the school bus?’

  “I walked into the village. It was really dark outside, creepy. I could hear these groans, you know, the sound that the zombies make?”

  Claire shook her head, “No, I’ve not seen any of them. What does it sound like?”

  “Um… it’s kind of… urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” Sally mimicked the noise as much as she could, looking embarrassed.

  “Like a dog growling. But it’s constant. I had heard it on the news, but hearing it in real life is bloody scary. The school was the first building I came to, and the bus was in the car park.”

  “Lucky for you the keys were in it,” Claire commented.

  Sally looked uncomfortable, “Um … well … they weren’t.”

  “So how did you take the bus?” Claire asked confused.

  “I kind of … um … broke into the school,” Sally replied, looking down at her hands and studying them intently.

  “What?” Claire exclaimed, then she let out a loud snort of laughter. “You broke into a school. You stole a bus. You shot someone. What happened to sweet, shy Sally?” She teased. “I couldn’t believe you were swearing earlier, but that’s nothing compared to everything else you’ve done.”

  “I didn’t mean to shoot that man,” Sally protested. “But I guess the rest of it, yes, guilty,” she held her up her hands in mock surrender. “I don’t know, since Saturday, you know … Sam,” she said awkwardly. “Well, that and quarantine and all those people dying … I guess we’re all going to have to adapt if we want to survive this.”

  “Is it really that bad?” Claire asked gently. Being in quarantine had protected her from everything else that was going on. She was still half expecting that she’d go home tomorrow and see her family, sit down for a welcome home meal and talk about her adventures.

  “Yes,” Sally muttered, studying her hands again. “It’s bad. It’s really bad. Do you remember Rita, our cleaner?” Claire nodded.

  “She came on Tuesday as normal, but she wasn’t well. She died in the kitchen. I didn’t know anything about it until I heard yelling, then loud bangs… Dad hit her with a frying pan … said it was self-defence … that she was attacking him.”

  Claire gasped, “That’s awful … was she?”

  “I don’t know. I ran downstairs when I heard Dad shouting. Her body was on the kitchen floor. There was blood everywhere. Before he shoved me out of the room, I saw her eyes. They were black. The news said that happened when they turn. So she probably was infected.” She gulped in a breath of air, trying to keep the tears from falling.

  “Dad took her body somewhere, he was only gone for half an hour or so, but when he came back, he was different. Quiet, pale and, I guess, sad. Probably even more so than I remember him being when mum died.” A fat tear rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it away with her sleeve.

  Claire reached over and squeezed her hands. “That’s terrible, you must have been so scared.”

  “I was, but that wasn’t the scariest thing I’ve seen,” she said, glad of the comfort of Claire’s hand holding hers.

  “What was?” Claire asked.

  “At the school, I broke in through the office window, figured that’s the best place to find the keys.” She paused, anticipating the next question.

  “I threw a big rock at the window. It smashed, but the noise was so loud. I used the torch on my phone and found the keys quickly. They were hung on a rack, and they were even labelled, so I was only in there for a few minutes but when I climbed out of the window, the groaning sounded really close. I shined the torch around, and saw children. They can’t have been older than five or six. They were coming towards me. Their eyes … the groaning,” she shuddered, reliving the memory. “They were so close. The closest one grabbed me, but I punched it.”

  Claire had been listening wi
th increasing fascination exclaimed, “You punched a child?”

  “Yes, but they’re not people anymore, not really. If I hadn’t, it would have bitten me. It didn’t seem to hurt it, but it fell over, and a couple of the other kids tripped over it. I sprinted for the bus before they could get up again.”

  “Bloody hell,” Claire exhaled.

  “When I turned on the ignition, the headlights came on. There were dozens of children. Everywhere I looked, these kids, with those awful black eyes, were heading towards the bus.”

  “Jesus, what did you do?”

  “I … They were everywhere … I had no choice …”

  “Oh,” Claire said, understanding what Sally seemed unable to say, “You did the right thing, Sal,” she added reassuringly. “You said yourself, they’re not people anymore.”

  “I know,” Sally nodded.

  Both girls went quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Despite her words to Sally, Claire could not help but feel shocked at her friend’s actions. Running over children. Could she have done the same? She admired Sally’s bravery and strength. It just did not seem real. Surely things cannot be as bad as Sally is suggesting.

  The silence between the two became awkward and uncomfortable. Sally sensed that Claire was judging her actions, but she did not know. She had not been there. Those children had shown no fear as the minibus sped towards them. They made no attempt to move. No screams as the heavy wheels snapped their bones. Just those groans. She’d had to do it. If she hadn’t, she would have become one of them, and she would rather die than let that happen.

  Footsteps echoed around the room as Lex and Sam walked back over to them. The change in the pair was noticeable. Lex was laughing at something Sam said. He was grinning with delight at making her laugh. They seemed comfortable together. Friendly. Sally felt the ugly twinge of jealousy flow through her again, but pushed it aside. It was out of place after the conversation they had just had.