Janet got out and looked around, Alex changed places to sit behind the van's steering wheel, with Rachel next to her. Steve and Alex stayed in the back of the van. Janet, Karen, Bill and Graham went into the shop. Sarah remained outside, keeping a lookout with the flare gun.
The aisles furthest from the door, where all the useful goods were kept, were deeply shadowed. Janet found the chillers still running but most of the food was a couple of weeks out of date.
'Things like cheese are going to be edible, even if the meat isn't,' Janet said. 'Actually, anything that might have gone off has been taken away. That's odd.'
'Looks like there's plenty of meat and fish in cans,' Graham said.
Karen was in the aisle marked Canned Vegetables. 'I wonder if they've got any of those tins of baked beans with the little sausages in?'
'How about long life milk or jars of coffee?' Bill said, switching on the torch.
A deafening bang had everyone on the floor and sent the few goods they'd picked up rolling across the tiles. Bits of plaster and dust floated about, and a ceiling panel clattered down on to the top of a freezer cabinet.
'You alright in there?' Sarah's panicked voice shouted from outside the door.
'Went in the ceiling.' Janet said. 'Stay outside, just in case.'
'We've got guns, too you know, mate,' Graham said. 'Doesn't mean we have to go shooting at people.'
'Weren't shootin' at yer,' an elderly male voice came back. 'This is all our stuff. Don't want you robbin' it.'
Graham noted the plural in the old man's reply. 'You the owners, then?'
'None of your business.'
'So, it's not your food, either.'
'No, but we was 'ere first.' The voice stayed where it was, near the bakery department in the back corner, as far as Graham could make out.
'Fair enough,' Bill said, reassuring himself he had his revolver in his pocket. He crawled to a junction between the aisles and squinted round but couldn't see anything.
Janet reached in her bag for the flare gun. When her hand reached the lining and it wasn't there, she froze for a second, thinking she must have lost it. With a sigh she realised Sarah had it.
Chapter 17: A Green Light
The gruff voice in the corner returned. 'What you doin' in 'ere?'
'We're just hungry is all it is,' Janet said, trying not to sound as fearful as she felt.
'Stan, they have women with them,' a woman's voice said. 'Now give that gun to me.' The woman's accent contrasted sharply with the man's. Her voice was just so, like an old fashioned BBC radio announcer.
'We've got kids outside, you can spare a little food for them, can't you?' Karen said. She reached for the tin of beans she'd dropped when the old man fired his gun.
'Don't know 'bout that. Said they'd got guns themselves.'
'We have no intention of shooting anyone,' Janet said, recovering her usual firmness.
'Now look here, Stanley, you do as I say.'
'Neither us nor the kids have eaten today,' Karen said.
'It's alright,' said the woman. 'I have Stanley's gun. It'll not be fired again, I can assure you.'
'Thank you. May we collect a few things, then?'
A grey-haired lady of medium height stepped into view, holding the muzzle of a single shot rifle, the shoulder stock resting on the floor. 'It's all right, you can get up now. Use a basket but please only take what you need. We don't know how long this will have to last us. We lost our homes, you know.'
'Thanks, that's very kind. We'll just take a piece of cheese and a few tins, if that's alright.'
'And a jar of coffee and some milk, please,' Karen said.
'Certainly dear,' the lady said. 'Take a box of chocolate maize flakes.'
'Those are?'
'Next aisle. All the kids like those, don't they.'
Graham, Bill, Karen and Janet had picked themselves and the few tins of food they'd dropped earlier and smiled at the woman who was now acting as their host. Before the fugitives moved off to take another item or two, Stan appeared next to the woman, putting his arm around her and taking the gun but keeping it resting on the ground.
'We 'ad trouble last night, see,' he said.
Janet looked up from the chiller. 'Trouble?'
'Some of those frightful creatures came bothering us.'
'Yeah, we thought they was supposed to be all cleared out by the army.'
'Stanley had to shoot two of them,' the old lady said. 'You were awfully brave, weren't you dear?'
'In the shop?' Janet said.
Bill flashed the torch on its UV setting back around the aisles towards the door. The beam was noticeably dimmer than usual but there was no sign of the fluorescence that would be given off by zombie blood.
'Oh gracious, no, we shut everything up at night. They were trying to get in at the back, gave us a dreadful fright.'
'Yeah but I shot 'em through the toilet window upstairs.'
'Yes, beastly things. Quite woke us up. We, ah… we sleep in the office upstairs, you see.'
Janet smiled to herself at the lady's embarrassment at admitting to sharing living quarters with the man she called Stanley.
'You don't have any batteries left do you?' Bill said, holding up the torch.
'Yeah, spec so. Don't 'ave any use for them things,' Stan said, pointing towards one of the aisles near the checkouts.
Bill went and chose two of the big, square batteries which fitted the torch. In trying them out, the beam brushed over the faces of Stan and his companion. Their eyes flashed with bright green fluorescence.
'Ere, watch where you're pointin' that thing.'
'Oh, er, yes. Sorry,' Bill said, casting a hurried glance towards Janet, to see if she'd noticed the effect on the couple's eyes.
'The, um, zombies you shot last night, you didn't touch them, did you?' Janet said.
'Nah, not really. Just dragged them in a heap and covered them in wood, set fire to it, like they tell you on the radio.'
'Awful, Stanley, just awful.'
'Yeah, disgustin' they was. All sticky with blood and dribble.'
'I see. Oh, well thank you for letting us have some food,' Janet said.
'Yes, thanks,' Karen said, moving quickly towards the door with the others.
They put the provisions in the back of the van and Janet got in the front beside Rachel. Alex squashed up in the middle next to her classmate, so Graham could drive. As they drove off, Bill said to Karen in the back of the van, 'If they didn't want people to go in, why'd they leave the door unlocked?'
'Perhaps they weren't expecting anyone. Maybe, if they locked it folks would break in anyway.'
'Don't think it's that. There's practically no-one around anyway.'
'Still a few zombies,' like they said.
A mile down the road they came to an industrial estate. There was a warehouse with its front doors wide open.
'Pull over,' Janet said.
Chapter 18: Poor Old Things
Graham manoeuvred the van up next to the warehouse doors and backed it inside. Bill checked the immediate area with the torch for zombie blood. It was clear.
'I'm starving!' Maisie said, jumping out the back of the van with the others.
'Before we eat,' Janet said, 'I want to check something. Bill, did you see the old couple's eyes when you flashed the UV beam at them?'
'Yeah, what do you make of that?'
'I don't know but I want to try it on us. Everyone line up over here in the shadow. Right Bill, sweep the torch over our faces with the UV on.'
'Yeah, OK?'
'Did you see anything?'
'Nothing. Not like those two old folks back there, bless 'em.'
'Now on yourself.'
'Right, you're the same, nothing.'
'What's up, mum,' Steve said.
'When Bill shone the torch in the eyes of the two people back there, they flashed bright green.'
'What, like zombie blood?'
'Yes, just like that. I don't
understand.'
'Had they been near zombies?'
'Said they'd shot a couple last night.'
'And they touched them?'
'Sounded like it. They might have got infected but it's too soon to tell.'
'No, no. Mum, that's it. That's the test!'
'Can you can talk while we eat at the same time?' Alex said.
'Very sensible. Let's stack all the food we got over there and sweep that with the torch too. Bill?'
'It's all fine, by the look of it.'
'Alright, Bill, save the batteries. Karen, Sarah, can you organise the food, while I talk to Steve?'
'No problem. Maisie, Rachel, what can we do for a can opener?'
'I've got one on my penknife,' Fred said.
'I am like so hungry, Sarah,' Maisie said. 'Please can I start on the cereal?'
'Sure, take a handful and pass the carton along.'
A separate little huddle comprising Janet, Graham and Steve formed around the warmth from the van's engine.
'Do you mind if I join you, Mrs Reynolds?' Alex said. 'This sounds even more interesting than eating right now.'
'Of course.'
Steven was practically bursting with the desire to explain his theory. 'It's the pre-symptomatic stage,' he said.
'The what?' Graham said.
'Before people start with the drooling and melting and things going rotten kind of stuff. Before it shows up in blood tests, maybe.'
'OK,' Alex said, 'You mean the torch doesn't only work for zombie blood, it works on the eyes as well?'
'Exactly, it's a way of telling if someone's infected almost straight away. Within a few hours by the look of it.'
'Are you saying that when someone's got the virus, their eyes light up, like the old couple at the supermarket?'
'Looks like it, mum. You and Bill saw it…'
'I saw it, too,' Graham said.
'The three of you saw it. You heard them saying they'd been in contact with zombies. That Stan fellow even said he'd touched them. You only need a speck of blood inside you and that's it.'
'So it means they've got it,' Alex said. 'Poor old things.'
Janet sighed and nodded. 'Certainly looks that way.'
'But our eyes don't light up, so it proves none of us is infected,' Steve said.
'At least that's one good thing to come out of it.'
'It's not just that, don't you realise what it means?' Alex said.
'Well, for a start we can show we're not infected,' Graham said.
Steve had been studying Alex's face. 'That's not all. They can screen people now, instead of herding everyone together until they all die.'
Alex nodded. 'Exactly.'
'There's a third thing, too,' Janet said. 'We can use it to bargain with the Ministry to let us go free.'
Chapter 19: Welcome to Stannicvale
The sound of a helicopter at high altitude grew in volume.
'Get inside, right inside!' Janet said.
The noise of the helicopter passed slowly overhead.
'Think they're looking for us?'
'Absolutely certain.'
'We're trapped then.'
'We need to change the van for something else, that's for sure.'
'When the 'copter's gone, I'll take a look round, there might be something else on this estate.'
Bill and Graham scouted around the various factory units. There was a furniture removal van, a minibus but it was painted in bright colours and would be seen from miles away, and an abandoned local single-decker bus.
'This looks about the best of a bad job,' Graham said.
'Still pretty visible, though. Let's try the next building.
'Oh, this is perfect! Look at this.'
They found themselves standing before a medium sized army truck, complete with camo paintwork and an intact camo net over the back section.
'Don't get too excited, it's probably been left here because there's something wrong with it.'
'Well, there's a key still in it,' Graham said after opening the driver's door.
'OK, give it a whirl.'
Graham sat in the driver's seat, checked the gears were in neutral, then gave the key a firm twist. The engine revolved half a turn, coughed and the battery died.
'Fuel gauge is on empty.'
'We can try the battery from the van and there might be other vehicles that have fuel left in them. If we have to we can syphon it out.'
'That's if we can find some tubing and a can to put it in.'
'As long as that 'copter's out of the way, we can get everyone else looking round.'
'OK, we'll get them started, while we swap the batteries out.'
Changing the batteries over turned out to be the easy part. After more than an hour, the fugitives had managed to find an old oil can, a plastic bucket, a piece of sheet metal that could be bent to form a makeshift funnel, and a length of hosepipe. It took another forty minutes to transfer two bucket-fulls of fuel into the army truck's tank.
'OK,' Bill said, 'let's give it a try.'
'Better prime the pump first.' Graham reached into the engine compartment and found the little rubber button on the top of the fuel pump. He depressed it repeatedly, until the little glass bowl next to it filled with fuel.
'Try it now, Bill.'
After the fourth attempt, the engine roared into life, accompanied by clouds of smoke.
'Oh, that's like gross!' Maisie said, waving her hands and backing away.
Janet kept a wary eye on the sky. 'Let's hope the helicopter doesn't see that smoke.'
Fifteen minutes later, they were back on the road. Bill was driving with the instruction that if anyone saw the helicopter, or anything else for that matter, he must stop immediately. As long as the truck wasn't moving when it was spotted, there was a chance it would simply be assumed to be abandoned. The first time it was seen at least.
They drove on for another two hours, until they reached Stannicvale, a medium-sized town. It looked to have been abandoned, as were many towns across the south west of the country. What they needed was somewhere to rest up and recover, have something uncontaminated to eat. They had flour, eggs and some of the tinned food left from the supermarket. There was also one large pack of bacon which had defrosted and needed to be eaten straight away, if they could only cook it.
'I'm going to try the shopping district,' Graham said. If we can find a café, we may be able to cook what we've got.'
'Milk, flour, eggs. Like, that means pancakes!'
'There's still a pack of bacon the army guys missed. It's got to be eaten today.'
'Cheese and bacon omelettes.'
'Or fried eggs and bacon.'
'Will you kids stop talking about food!' Bill said, 'You've nearly got me drooling like a zombie already.'
'Eww, Bill!'
Chapter 20: Café Zombie
The whole street had a sorrowful air; shop signs sagged, broken glass was everywhere, between clothing and other goods which had been looted and later dropped in the road. They passed a jeweller's shop, where the windows were completely smashed away and every single item had been stripped out. Sarah kept a sharp lookout from the front seat next to Graham, while he dodged the larger items of rubbish that were strewn around the road.
'Look, there's one,' Sarah said, pointing to the right hand side of the road.
Graham stopped short of the café. Its windows were intact but the door was cracked and standing ajar.
Despite the hunger the kids had worked up in him with their talk, Bill remained cautious. 'Better scan the place with the UV.' He stepped down from the van and shone the torch into the doorway. There were the tell-tale signs of contamination. The spots of blood were faint, maybe months old but no-one had any idea yet how long the virus remained active. 'We'd better move on,' he said.
They passed a fast food takeaway and a pizza restaurant, without being able to use either because of contamination. Graham turned into a parallel street and almost at once Sarah grabbed
his arm.
'Look, that big clothing store. The ones in that chain all have a café on the top floor.'
'That's right, Janet said. 'It's supposed to keep the customers in the shop longer, so they're more likely to buy something.'
Bill shone Steve's torch around the doorway and found only a couple of spots several feet away on the pavement. He pushed at the main door but found it locked.
'That might be a good sign; it doesn't look like this street took so much damage. Is there any chance we can get in?'
'There's probably some sort of tool kit with a truck like this.'
'Here,' cried Alex, holding up a heavy compartmentalised folding pouch which had been digging into her back for the last few miles.
Graham took if from her. 'Great, let's see if there's anything like a tyre wrench in there?'
'Here we go,' Bill said, pulling out a two foot long metal bar which was flattened at one end. 'This might do it.'
After several minutes of levering and shoving, the door gave way. The UV torch showed the place to be clean inside. Even better, the lights still worked.
'It's amazing how there's power everywhere,' Janet said.
Steve carried on trying the switches until he had just the lights in the back of the shop working. 'The power companies probably don't have the engineers to go round doing maintenance, unless there's a serious problem, then I expect they just isolate the whole section.
'Can we like go upstairs now?'
'You're always so keen to go charging in,' Rachel said.
'Well, if I hadn't got your bag, it would be still back at the school under a pile of rubble.'
'Which was very nearly where you ended up,' Alex said.
'I wonder if they've got any shoes here.'
'Rachel! We're like all half dead from hunger!'
'Yes,' Janet said. 'Bill, you've got the pistol and Steve's torch; Graham will you please take the flare gun and go with Bill to check all the way to the top. See if the café has any equipment working. Maisie, make sure all the food is ready in the shopping basket.'
British Zombie Breakout: Part Two Page 5