by Nick Harland
I drove frank back up the little hill to the roundabout and by rumbling back and forth over bodies and the curb separating the lanes we made it to the front of the DIY store. I even managed to turn around, ready for a quick…ish getaway. By the time I’d finished we could see a few Zeds making their way towards us and there was a slow stream from inside the shop. I turned the engine off, nodded to Eve, and undid the roof. It took a few minutes but soon we appeared to be Zed free. We had made our decision and it was time to leave the safety of the car. We left the doors open and the keys in the ignition. It felt really weird to leave it like that, just waiting to be stolen, but it was a new world.
We were just about to walk inside when Eve stopped and hesitantly looked up from the ground until she met and held my eye’s, ‘Shouldn’t we have an arrangement, you know, for if the worst happens?’
I looked at her and my stomach turned to lead, sank through me, and made me feel sick. The words and feelings were out before I could stop them, ‘I’m not fucking leaving you, to be alone after the last few days would kill me anyway. There are no circumstances where you would be dead and I will still be alive so there’s no fucking point in any arrangement.’
I realised I had said it almost angrily and I felt horrid, a man telling her what to do was the last thing she needed. I was about to apologise when her face softened like she’d seen a puppy. She took my hand and said, ‘That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me and It’s ok, I feel the same. Death or glory. Together… or not at all.’
We walked in holding hands. The store was a mess. It must have been chaos when it all happened. What could spread so quickly I had no idea, but it must have. There were mauled bodies that had never turned all over the place and some of the shelves were a mess. There were also quite a few dead Zeds. I could see makeshift weapons still held in some of the corpses’ hands. We must have attracted any live Zeds near to the door at least as the entrance area was clear. Mutt stuck to my right leg.
We walked towards the tools isle and it had been ransacked. People had obviously started looting, or at least trying to get their hands on anything to protect themselves with, but there was still stuff on the shelves and in the trays. We picked up a few saws and chisel sets; how expensive are chisels!, and put them into a holdall. We already had hammers and stuff. We also picked up some protective clothes and I found some decent boots that fitted me. Next was the nails and screws isle and we stuck with big, mean looking, double threaded ones. There was also rope and cord of various sizes and we grabbed a couple of reels. A Zed found us packing the cord but Mutt was on top of it before we could even react and he was getting quicker in his work.
Next we headed towards the isles with torches and batteries and grabbed a few heavy duty metal torches and as many batteries as we could carry. It was time to dump what we had. We headed out of the isle back towards the front and Mutt growled low and meaningfully. There was a group of about ten Zeds that emerged from an isle at the far end of the store and headed towards us. One sprinter broke from the group, quickly followed by one Beefcake.
Eve drew one pistol and said, ‘You take the big fucker, I’ll only back you up if you really need it.’
I drew my Werlod and tried to stay calm. Eve waited until the Sprinter was almost on top of us and shot one round. Its momentum carried it forwards and it slid to a halt at her feet. I would have liked to have seen the smile I knew she would have on her face but I had my own worries. I fired off one shot but knew the moment I pulled the trigger it was a miss. I’d jerked the trigger and breathed in quickly as I did. I only had time for one more shot after resetting the gun. I calmed my breathing, looked the fucker straight in the eyes and squeezed the trigger. It was strangely like bullet time from a computer game, everything seemed to slow and I saw the hole appear in its head. There was no satisfying coming to a halt at my feet though and I barely dodged out of its way as it tumbled towards me.
Eve was already picking off the rest of the group but she left a couple for me. Mutt couldn’t resist taking one of them and although it took two shots, this time the first one was close rather than a complete miss, and the second took it down before it reached me. We waited with guns in hands for a minute and after finishing his Mutt walked up a down the front of the shop, but no more came. We dumped the gear in Frank and I took care of one outside with Seven.
I grabbed a shopping trolley for our next trip and said, ‘Follow me.’
As we turned into the garden section she giggled and said, ‘And this is a priority?’
I looked over at her and said, ‘As it seems we won’t be dying in here after all I think it is, yes. We both like a bit of salad and it’s spring. By the end of the year, if we make it that far, fresh food will be a distant memory. We should make the most of all the seedlings they’ll have while we can. Growing from seed next year won’t be as easy.’
Eve took my hand and replied, ‘Yes of course. I never did any gardening myself but I did read quite a lot about it so I could tell the gardener what we wanted. If they have any fruit trees or bushes we should take them too. We have quite a bit of land.’ Then she stopped in her tracks and exclaimed, ‘Chickens, I wonder if we could find any chickens.’ The she paused and thought about it some more, ‘No, perhaps not.’
Eve found another trolley and I grabbed some of the surviving salad and tomato plants and a couple of crappy plastic greenhouse things. Eve grabbed three small apple trees, and two raspberry bushes. Between us we emptied the seed section of anything useful and took a few sprays and fertilizers before heading back to Frank again. Frank was starting to fill up after we dumped the plants but there was so much more we could use. In the next trip we took growbags and garden tools and by then Frank was looking stuffed.
After loading the last grow bag I looked over at the massive pet store and said, ‘We’ve taken care of ourselves but we’re a team. What do you think?’
I knew Eve wasn’t uncomfortable with dogs, but had plainly never had one. She looked down at Mutt who returned her stare and she put her hand down to stroke his head. Mutt leant in and rewarded her with a quick lick on the hand. I could see her eyes light up at the unconditional affection and I knew she was hooked, ‘Do we drive and deal with any Zed’s we attract, or do we go stealth?’
I looked down at Mutt who had already got through a supermarket sized bag of dry dogfood and a stack of tins. I replied, ‘I would refer you my earlier comments about Ninja’s and cement, it counts the same for massive bags of dog food. That reminds me, we haven’t hit the builders yard yet.’
Eve looked at the back of Frank and said, ‘I’m sure we could fit more in but who knows when we’ll come back, what might be waiting, or who else might clear it out in the meantime. We need another vehicle, a van perhaps. It would be good to have a spare anyway. If Frank dies we need a backup or two.’
I climbed onto the roof of a nearby car to scope out the carpark. Eve reached into Franks’ glovebox and handed me some small binoculars. I scanned the SUV’s and vans. The trick of course was to find one with a Zed stuck inside who might have keys. There were a couple of possibilities, a Ford Ranger pickup that had one Zed and what appeared to be a corpse in it, and a transit with a logo on the side indicating a building contractor. Unfortunately, the Zed inside the van looked like it could be a Beefcake. It wouldn’t be easy to get either one out of the carpark and I didn’t want us to split up, but with Franks help it looked doable.
The Ford was closest so we walked over trying to stay low and quiet as we did. We reached the truck and I knew Eve felt the same as I did seeing the Male Zed and the half-eaten female corpse beside it. They were probably husband and wife and he had turned first. Eve moved quickly. She tore open the door of the driver’s side and shot the Zed before pulling him out. She looked at me with a tear in her eye, ‘I can’t do the other one…’
I nodded, opened the passenger door and carefully pulled the corpse out of the car. The seat was a mess and it stank in there.
The effect of a weeks’ decomposition time behind glass in the spring was not to be underestimated. Eve found keys on the Zed, ‘We should check the other one. This one wouldn’t be nice to be in but we should take the handbrake off and keep the keys in case.’
I kicked myself for having been so stupid, it was over a week and any stationary car’s breaks could start to cease on if the handbrake was on. I should have thought about it earlier and suggested we find the keys to other decent cars on Eve’s road, and taken the hand breaks off at least. She looked at me and understood, ‘I should have thought about it too, but it’s not too late, most cars will still be fine but it’ll become an issue over time. Let’s check out the van.’
We walked further across the carpark towards the van and I stopped as we were approaching it from the side, ‘It looks like a Beefcake to me, they are loud and can be pretty fast as well. I know we don’t want a smashed window but we don’t want to attract more Zeds or for one of us to get hurt either. Could you shoot it through the glass before it sees us?’
‘I might be able to but these silenced guns are not the most powerful and car glass is tough. It would be better if we sneak up and surprise it. You could sneak up and open the door and I’ll finish it the moment you do. It would be quieter.’
I nodded, ‘Ok.’
We ducked down and worked our way slowly towards the van. I half crawled along the floor until I was right by the door but too low for it to see me. Eve crouched behind a car a few spaces away for cover and took aim. I nodded my head three times to count to three and then pulled the handle to open the door. Nothing happened, it was sodding locked.
Well I say nothing happened, the Beefcake went ballistic thrashing around and roaring. I saw Eve trying to line up a shot but it was moving a lot. A moment later it put its elbow through the glass which sprayed down on top me. Eve emptied four shots through the window until eventually it was still. I stood up and bent forwards to shake my head to get rid of the glass on me. Eve came over and helped while I was doubled over, ‘Sorry.’
I mumbled back, ‘Its ok, shit happens. Let’s have a look.’
I was about to reach in and undo the doors when Mutt growled a warning growl. I didn’t like the tone of it. We both looked around and saw what was worrying him, a pretty big horde approaching from the main road. There was a small grassy verge that rose a couple of feet from the road and a two foot high metal barrier between the road and the carpark, but after a few fell the others would clamber over them and we’d be in trouble. We had about two minutes to decide what to do.
Eve decided for us. She grabbed my hand and said, ‘We’ve done well, let’s not push our luck. We can come back, perhaps with a van or truck from somewhere else.’
I didn’t argue and followed her lead. I went around to the passenger side and said, ‘We need quick and efficient.’
Eve nodded and we piled into Frank and strapped ourselves in. The back was full so Mutt sat in the passenger foot well with me. Eve started up Frank and said, ‘Hold on.’
She floored the throttle and hit the first large pile of bodies hard, propelling us onto the top of the second. The pile of Zeds wasn’t high, especially after a two ton range rover landed on them, but we were thrown around inside and Mutt knocked his head on the bottom of the glove box. Eve slowed a little to manoeuvre over the big curb separating the lanes a couple of times, then accelerated again and skidded around the roundabout. We beat the horde to the exit, turned onto the main road, and drove away. A couple of sprinters chased us but we were able lose them despite some cars to manoeuvre around on the way.
The rest of the trip home wasn’t too bad but we passed a really big hoard outside the two tower blocks which was strange; it was as if someone had let them all out. Eve looked over at me, ‘That’s not good.’
I nodded, ‘I know, let’s just get back. It would be nice to be behind the fence again.’
We drove in silence the rest of the way and even Mutt seemed to need some reassurance and wiped his head on my legs until I scratched his ears for a while.
We got Frank inside the compound and unloaded him. Then we sat in the camper for a rest and a cup of tea with powdered milk. I really missed milk. It wasn’t like we had done that much but we were both tired. The stress of being outside was exhausting.
There was still several hours of light left so I said, ‘I know we’ve had a hard day already but I think we could both use a day or two without going out. How about we check out the building site and see if there is any cement. If there is, we should move some cement and breeze blocks here to start playing with. I know it uses water but we can scavenge more from the house when we need to. We got the attention of that hoard when we passed it and they can be persistent bastards. It’s possible some of them might make it up here and could end up in the building site.’
Eve finished her tea and replied, ‘A couple of days here sounds nice, so let’s do it.’ After hesitating she added, ‘I get the feeling the ammo won’t last as long as I might have hoped. I should get used to the hand to hand fighting from outside the car so if there are only a few around we should take them without using the guns.’
I picked up Seven and handed her to Eve, ‘Why don’t you use Seven and I’ll use the pry bar. Seven is better I think.’
Eve took Seven and raised one eyebrow, ‘Seven eh, you never said you’d named it, or rather her, do I need to guess?’
I replied, ‘No not really. In my defence though, it was after the film and the seven grand bike it came off as well.’
I opened the gates and Eve drove through. The path down from the base was quite steep and led more or less straight to the entrance to the building site. We figured if we were careful we could roll down the hill without the engine to minimise attention and then get back up before any Zeds knew we were there.
I was worried about all the Zed’s I had left in the foundation trenches but we needed the materials and there was only one way to find out what was there. We rolled silently down the hill and came to a halt just outside the entrance to the site. We would still have to haul stuff that wasn’t close by but it was better than attracting attention. Eve popped the roof and I got up and used the binoculars. It was difficult to see much from our position but I found the end of one of the trenches and didn’t like what I saw. The Zeds appeared to be climbing out and heading in our direction. I was staring in confusion at them when Eve tugged on my leg. I put down the binoculars to see a steady stream of Zeds coming around the large container I had fought the Beefcake next to. They were also headed towards us.
Eve said, ‘How many, can we take them?’
I was still confused by what I had seen. The Zeds had been largely mindless but now they were climbing out of the trenches. Then there was the hoard at the tower blocks. I couldn’t be sure they had come from inside but they hadn’t been there when we had passed by the first time and the noise we had made pushing cars out of the way would have attracted them if they were inside.
I sat back in the seat and pushed the button to close the roof. Eve looked at me with concern in her eyes, ‘What is it, what’s wrong?’
All I could tell her was the truth, ‘I don’t know but we need to get out of here… now.’
Eve turned the ignition and cornered tightly to head back up the path. I looked behind us as Eve pulled away and the line of Zeds started to speed up in pursuit. My stomach turned to lead again and my hands started to sweat.
Eve looked across at me searching for my eyes, her brow furrowed. I just said, ‘Get the car in’, and jumped out of Frank the moment we reached the gate. I unlocked the gate and Mutt stood by me looking down the path and growling. Eve drove in and screeched to a halt, jumping from the car immediately. She helped me close the gates and held them while I locked them.
I knew I’d got spooked and that we had another minute before they reached the fence, but I couldn’t deny the urge to get to safety as quickly as possible. Eve stood by me and held my hand as they started banging a
gainst the gate. She said, ‘Something’s changed hasn’t it.’
I squeezed her hand and said, ‘Yes, the honeymoons over.’
Chapter Eleven – Shit
There weren’t too many from the building site and although Eve did what she had to I knew the fact they were kids, often huge adult sized kids, but kids none the less, bothered her. It wasn’t difficult to kill them as they bashed against the bars of the fence but it was hard work and my arm ached afterwards. After we were finished we went to sit in the camper and made tea. After we sat down Eve said, ‘I think I can guess but you need to tell me, what’s changed?’
I answered, ‘They have. I led that lot to the trenches and they fell in and stayed there. They made no attempt to get out at all. Today I saw them looking up at the wall of earth and climbing out. Also, that huge hoard we passed outside the tower blocks on the way back wasn’t there when we went. Had they been close by when we passed the first time I think we would have seen them, or they would have followed the noise and been half way down the road to the DIY store by the time we came out.’
‘I’m guessing, but I think they came from the tower block. A week ago they would just bash against whatever they came across. I think they’ve started to learn, or remember, or something. I think they’ve learnt how to open doors and navigate a little. They were also faster as they came from the building site than I’ve seen them before. They don’t usually speed up until they get close and even then it’s only a fast shamble, but that lot saw us getting away and came after us, it was deliberate. It was like they had better balance and were trying to run. I can’t deny it, it scared me.’
Eve put her hand over mine on the table and looked at me, her usual smile absent from her face, ‘I know, I could see it in your eyes and it scared me too.’ She stopped me before I could apologise, ‘It’s ok, if your right, it is scary. Mindless Zeds with the odd fast or strong one is one thing, smart ones is quite another. If they ever started working together that would be it, we wouldn’t stand a chance. Did you ever see that movie I Am Le……’