After the Fall

by Stephen Cross

  Simon and Ash got out of the truck. They left the doors open and the keys in the ignition.

  “Don’t make too much noise,” said Simon in an even voice. “They got good hearing.”

  Simon carried his baseball bat, and Ash had what looked like a long survival knife, the type they used to show on the front of survival magazines.

  Ash walked away from the truck and stared at the store. Beyond the glass frontage it was dark and uninviting. The glint of tools and the dull steadiness of piles of breeze blocks for sale stood in silence behind the windows.

  “How you doing Jack?” she said. “Easy so far?”

  Jack nodded, now getting strangely used to the constant anxious buzz in his body.

  “What are we looking for?” said Simon.

  Ash took a piece of paper out of her pocket. “The shopping list.” She half smiled. “Concrete mix, wooden posts, barbed wire, any sort of fence wire, sledgehammers…”

  “Looks like we’re building a fence,” said Marcus.

  Jack nodded. “There are still a good few gaps need plugging. Covered with trees and crap at the moment. Will keep them out for now, but a big storm, passing of time, who knows.”

  “Well, whatever the reason, we got our list,” said Ash. “We’ll go in the front here. Let’s stick together. Marcus, you and Jack grab one of those large trolleys. Me and Simon will cover you front and back as you load up. We’ll try and do it all in one trip.”

  They moved slowly towards the grey of the building. Jack noticed his companions constantly looking in all directions with sharp furtive glances.

  Jack took a large wooden trolley from beside the entrance to the shop.

  “I’ll stack ‘em,” said Marcus. “You keep pushing.”

  Ash and Simon pushed open the door, and they entered as a unit: Simon at the front, Jack pushing the trolley with Marcus beside him, and Ash at the rear.

  She closed the door behind them.

  To their right and left was a bank of cash tills, surrounded by special offer deals of hammers, shammy leathers, tool boxes, tiles, concrete mix.

  “Special offer,” said Marcus smiling. “We’ll have some of that.” He moved quickly and lifted a few bags of the concrete mix onto the trolley.

  Beyond the tills stood tall aisles of building goods. Their every movement echoed in the still of the cavernous building

  “Remember, we stick together,” said Ash. “And keep as quiet as you can. ”

  They passed the tills at a steady pace and into the main part of the shop. They turned left and moved slowly to the far end, aisle one.

  Jack pushed the trolley up the aisle in half darkness. The dull grey from outside did its best to penetrate the shop, but as they got further up the aisles, it seemed to give up. A murky darkness engulfed them. The goods shelves towered twenty feet above like menacing sentinels, displeased at being disturbed from their months of rest.

  Simon looked back and winked at Jack. “Doing good Jack, doing good.”

  Their footsteps echoed in the emptiness. The wheels of the trolley let out the odd squeak. Whenever they found an item from the list, the transfer from shelf to trolley sounded as loud as a car crash. Jack remembered when he was a teenager, trying to sneak into his house after a night out drinking, and how everything, from opening the front door to turning on a light switch, had seemed loud as an elephant herd.

  Jack imagined every excruciating sound calling out to all the zombies for miles around.

  But it wasn’t until the fifth aisle that something happened.

  Chapter 6

  Annie and Tom ran laughing through the maze of chalets, pretending to be chased by the zombies, never getting caught.

  The rain became heavier, but neither child noticed. Annie hadn’t had this much fun since arriving at the holiday park - it was much better than being stuck in the chalet playing with boring jigsaws or colouring in.

  “Come on Annie, lets go near the beach,” shouted Tom.

  Annie paused. “Are we allowed? My Daddy says it’s dangerous.”

  “It’s fine, I go there all the time with my Dad.”

  Her Daddy would never take her near the beach.

  They ran past the last chalet at the edge of the holiday camp, and onto the dunes, slowing down as they clambered up the wet sand.

  “When do we have to be back?” said Annie. Now the chalets where behind her, she had that funny nervous feeling in her belly, the silly butterflies, as Mummy used to call them.

  “Mum thinks we are playing at Sam’s chalet,” said Tom. “So we should be ok for another hour or so.”

  Annie reached the top of the sand dune. The fence was at the bottom. Her silly butterflies fluttered a little harder. “You mean your mummy doesn’t know we are by the fence?”

  Tom let out a big sigh and rolled his eyes. “God, girls are so boring. I thought you said you were bored inside the chalet all the time?”

  Annie nodded. She had been bored, but something didn’t feel right.

  Tom stood a few paces ahead of her. “Are you a coward like your dad?”

  “He’s not a coward, he’s just sad.”

  Tom shrugged. “Ok then, if you don’t want to see my secret, then we can go back.”

  No one had ever shared a secret with her before, never mind an older boy.

  “What secret?”

  “You have to come with me to find out.”

  Maybe it was ok. Tom was older and smarter than her, and he did say he came here with his dad. “Ok, just for a few minutes though, then we have to go back.”

  “Sure, come on.” Tom bounded down the dune towards the fence.

  Annie followed, laughing again as she fell over in the sand and rolled down the hill.

  Ash looked over the list and the accumulating items on the trolley. “All we need is barbed wire,” she said. “Where do you think-”

  She stopped and held her hand up. Simon and Marcus jumped to attention. Jack looked at them, scared. “What, what is it?”

  Simon motioned at him to be quiet, his face caught in a vicious frown. “Shut it…” he hissed.

  Then Jack heard it. Too quiet at first to be anything, but growing slowly and certainly. In a normal world he could have easily discounted it as wind buffeting the trees outside, or the multitude of raindrops against the glass fronting of the huge store. But this wasn’t the normal world anymore - he knew it was something else.

  Steady, metronome shuffling.

  “Just sounds like the one, shall I go have a look?” said Simon.

  Ash nodded, but before Simon took a step, there was a large crash and the sound of breaking glass.

  “What the hell?” said Marcus.

  “It must have knocked something over…” said Simon.

  Another crash, a louder sound that lasted for a few seconds. Jack imagined boxes of building supplies tumbling to the ground before the zombie’s advances.

  “I’m not sure about this,” said Ash, the whites of eyes glowing in the murk of aisle 5.

  “Me neither,” said Simon. “We’ve got most of what we need, let’s go. This place is freaking me out.”

  Jack felt his body heave a sigh of relief.

  “It’s ok man,” said Marcus resting his hand on Jack’s shoulder, “we’re going.”

  Marcus helped Jack turn the trolley round.

  They had only moved a few feet when a chorus of voices, terrible voices able only to render pained moans, echoed through the whole of the empty building. The air seemed to shake.

  Jack was sure his heart stopped.

  “Fuck,” shouted Simon above the din, “sounds like hundreds of them. Wait here.” He ran towards the end of the aisle. The rumbling cacophony escalated and the shuffles of what sounded like hundreds of feet bounced from wall to wall, so they appeared to be everywhere at once. It was impossible to tell how close they were.

  Simon reached the end of the aisle and peered round the corner. Within seconds he was motioning like crazy for the oth
ers to join him. “Move, we have to move now!”

  Annie and Tom stopped by the fence. It was built from wooden posts and wire, strengthened with thick tree branches, logs, piles of sand, concrete, anything to block the holes, all along the length of the fence, for as afar as she could see. Annie thought it looked like it went all around the world, and impossible to get through. It was taller than Daddy, maybe even twice as tall as him. Curls of angry looking barbed wire lined the top.

  No way any zombies could get through. Maybe Tom was right, it was safe.

  “Come on, this way,” said Tom, motioning for her to follow him along the length of the fence.

  She tramped through the sand, her little legs getting tired, but she didn’t want Tom to think she was a coward, so she kept going. The waves crashing onto the beach could be heard on the other side of the fence, and seemed to be getting louder. They were getting closer to the sea.

  “Ok, you ready to see the secret?” said Tom.

  Annie nodded.

  They had stopped at what seemed to be a very thick part of the fence. Huge tree branches were covered by a tall and wide piece of wood.

  “Ok, but can I trust you?”

  “I wont tell anyone.”

  “Are you sure, because if you do, we could get into trouble.”

  “Is it bad?”

  “No, it’s not bad, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

  Annie’s butterflies fluttered like crazy. She had never had such an important secret before.

  She took a deep breath. “I promise not to tell anyone,” she said.

  “Even your Dad?”

  “Even Daddy.” Tom looked at her for a moment, his eyes narrowing. She hoped that he believed her. “Please, I won’t tell anyone Tom, I promise. Super promise. Double promise.”

  Tom nodded his head slowly, “Ok.”

  Annie felt a wave of relief, and then excitement.

  Tom reached over to the piece of wood and pushed it to reveal a gap in the fence.

  Annie and Tom kneeled down and peered through. No wire, no branches. Just empty air, leading straight to the beach. Annie gasped.

  “You ever been to the beach before?” said Tom.

  She rolled her eyes, what a stupid question. “Of course, everyone has been to the beach.”

  “But not this one?”

  He was right about that. “No.”

  “Come on then, let’s go.”

  She knew it was wrong, and she knew she would get into trouble, big trouble, if Daddy found out. But that just made it more exciting.

  They climbed through the gap, onto the beach.

  Chapter 7

  Jack would replay the next five minutes over and over in the months to come. What actions should he have taken; could he have stopped anyone from dying?

  Simon shouted and waved manically, “Move, we have to move now!”

  Jack leapt forward into a sprint, again a rabbit scurrying for cover.

  His first mistake was to stop when he heard the noise. A heavy and deep metallic clang that seemed to shake the whole building. The floor shuddered. He stopped dead and fell over as Marcus clattered into the back of him.

  Ash was ahead and nearly out of the aisle, and Jack was on the floor with Marcus on top of him when the second explosive clang sounded. Now it was accompanied by dull thuds, high pitched bangs and twisting groans, like a building falling apart.

  He scrambled to get up, his limbs not moving fast enough for the furious instructions from his brain.

  Another huge bang, and then nearly immediately after, another.

  He looked up to see Ash and Simon yelling at him from the end of the aisle, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

  Another bang, this one nearly on top of him. It reminded him of the time the washing pole in his back garden had been hit by lightning. The clap of thunder had run through his whole body, right to his bones.

  He looked up and saw the looming hulk of the the high shelves tipping over slowly, building up speed, and falling. The heavy wrought iron shelves that made the walls of the aisle, were collapsing on top of him and Marcus.

  He didn’t remember thought, only movement and fear.

  He wouldn’t escape the aisle before it fell.

  He should have ran, but he cringed. The behemoth descending on him froze his nervous system and he fell into a ball on the ground.

  He yelled as all around him building supplies clattered and banged; bags of concrete; metal poles; pieces of timber. He held his head in his hands and waited for death - for a wayward pole to sever his spine, or for a brick to hit his skull.

  The noise reached a crescendo as the aisles tumbled one by one for the whole length of the building. A discordant racket of metal and concrete echoes filled the store.

  And then it stopped.

  Everything that could fall had fallen, and he was alive. The shelves had come to rest at a steep diagonal angle, leaning against the next set of shelves, which no doubt leaned against the next, repeated to the end of the store like the huge dominoes of a giant’s playset.

  He looked up, and at the end of the aisle, he saw Ash and Simon, now fighting a crowd of zombies. A collection of the undead in various states of decomposition crowded around the two, lining up to be killed again.

  Jack jumped up and ran, towards the end of the aisle. He had to get out.

  A shout from behind. Marcus.

  The skinny teenager was lying on the floor, his leg underneath a number of bags of concrete. He was stuck.

  “Jack, help, get me out of here.”

  Jack’s immediate urge was to run. Out of the aisle, past Simon and Ash and their opponents, and into the car park. Away from everything.

  But he fought the urge and dashed back to help Marcus.

  “Thanks man, Christ, my leg is hurting, really hurting,” said Marcus.

  Jack struggled with the concrete bag. “Don’t worry, we’ll get it moved.”

  A moan from nearby and Jack looked up to see three zombies approaching from the back end of the aisle, buried in darkness.

  One wore a summer dress; an old woman, probably buying something for her garden when the apocalypse hit. The other two wore matching yellow and black retail uniforms, and sported matching gaping wounds on their necks. The skin hung off the face of one of the shop assistants, revealing a blank white staring skull.

  “Shit,” said Jack.

  Marcus turned and saw them too. “Oh fuck. Come on man, hurry up. Hurry man.”

  Jack pulled at the concrete bag, but he couldn’t shift it. It was stuck under a heavy immoveable metal pole, jammed between the floor and the shelving.

  “I can’t move it,” said Jack.

  “You have to, come on Jack.”

  Jack shook his head. “I said I can’t fucking move it. It wont budge!”

  Marcus started to cry. “Then kill them, kill them and get the others.”

  The zombies were only a few feet away. Jack’s sledgehammer was by the zombie’s feet. He couldn’t get it.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, quietly.

  He ran.

  Marcus shouted after him, and Jack’s mind tried to filter out his desperate cries. The cries turned to terrified yelling, which turned to the ripping of flesh and gurgling screams.

  Jack burst out of the aisle to where Ash and Simon were finishing off the rest of the zombies.

  “Where’s Marcus?” shouted Ash as she stabbed the last zombie in the head.

  “He didn’t make it,” said Jack. He stared at Ash blankly. “He was caught under concrete, the aisle had fallen on him.”

  Simon looked down the end of the aisle, “Jesus,” he said quietly, before turning to the others, “Lets fucking go.”

  They ran out of the store and into the truck. Jack jumped into the back.

  Alone.

  Chapter 8

  Annie kicked her sandals off and ran along the beach, following Tom who had sprinted to the water’s edge.

  “Co
me on,” he shouted.

  The grey sea lapped upon the sand and Annie laughed as the white foam tickled her toes.

  “Do you want to see the rocks?”

  “Sure!”

  Annie forgot that she shouldn’t be out here - how could anywhere so much fun be dangerous? Maybe Tom was right, her Daddy was just not very brave, not like the other Dads.

  The two children ran far down the beach, towards the headland that tapered into the sea, ending in a sprinkle of large and heavy rocks.

  The truck stopped. They were only half way back to the holiday camp.

  The front door opened and Simon jumped out and stomped to the back of the pick up. He scowled at Jack.

  “What the hell happened?”

  “I… I don’t know, I was knocked out by the… I couldn’t get to him. It was too late,” stammered Jack.

  Simon jumped into the back of the pick up and grabbed Jack by the lapels, pulling him up. He held him over the edge of the pick up.

  “What are we going to tell his mum, he was only seventeen!”

  “Simon!” Ash appeared at the side of the pick up. “Stop it, let him go.”

  Jack turned round to look at Ash. There was no sympathy in her eyes, but no anger either.

  He felt limp. Part of him wanted Simon to let him drop, to leave him here.

  “You’ve seen what he was like,” said Simon to Ash. “Shit scared the whole time. Like a fucking rabbit.”

  The rabbits again.

  “We were all scared once,” said Ash, “and I’m sure we all will be again. We don’t know what happened. We can only take Jack’s word for it. If he’s lying,” she looked at Jack, stared at him, “then he will have to deal with it.”

  Simon let his hold go and Jack stood up.

  “What happened Jack?” said Ash.

  Jack faced Ash, glad to get the chance to turn away from Simon. “I don’t know, not for sure. We were running, and then the shelves fell, and next thing I was on the ground. I think something hit me. When I got up, they were already on Marcus. I couldn’t do anything.”