by Russ Watts
Will looked at Suzy and leant forward to embrace her. He swept his arms around her and pulled her into his body. His hand sank into her soft blonde hair and they kissed, softly and tenderly. Suzy’s lips were salty from the tears she had been unable to hold back. They knew the kiss could not lead any further, but it felt good at that moment in time. The despair and tension was forgotten in that brief moment. It felt good to know they weren’t going through this alone. Their lips parted and they lingered there together, their foreheads gently resting on each other’s.
Mark swept the door open and came striding into the room.
Suzy jumped up off the bed quickly and brushed past him. “Oh, hey, Mark, I was just leaving.”
Will watched, bemused, as Suzy almost ran out of the room.
“You okay, buddy?” said Mark slipping beneath the bed covers, making sure his camera was within arm’s reach.
“Yeah, yeah, fine,” said Will. He couldn’t expect too much of Suzy now, not with what was going on. He just hoped that she didn’t think he was taking advantage of her. Somehow, being with Suzy just felt right. He shrugged off her speedy exit, kicked his shoes off and got beneath the duvet. “No funny business now, Mark, you hear?”
Mark let out a short laugh. “Sorry darling, you’re not my type. You just keep to your side of the bed, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
They lay there in silence, waiting for sleep to take them. It took a long time though. Will’s mind would not rest. He thought about his mother and about how she was coping without him. He thought about the journey they were going to undertake tomorrow and the inherent risks involved. He thought about Suzy too. When they got back to New York, he was going to put himself first for once and take her out on the date he kept promising her.
The night was restless for all of them. Sleep came sporadically. Some dreamt of home before nightmares interrupted them; visions of the dead, of Josef and Wilfred lying cold and dead, and of the plane crash. Even Tug slept fitfully, tossing and turning all night.
Eventually, Suzy was awoken by Kelly moving around the room. The curtains were still drawn, but there was a sliver of sunlight coming over the top of them. “Is it morning already?” She could see Kelly dressed and swallowing something. “More paracetamol?” said Suzy throwing back the bed covers and exposing herself to the frigid air.
Kelly threw her head back and swallowed. “You caught me. It’s a bitch without water too.”
Suzy quickly dressed and was grateful they had dry clothes. She had found a blue shirt and some old jeans that were a little baggy on her, but were certainly better than the wet dress she wore yesterday. She pulled on a pair of thick socks and then reluctantly her slip-on black shoes. She wished she had worn something more practical now. “How’s the head?”
“Sore, but I’ll live. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I just heard some noise downstairs and thought I should check it out.”
“Noise?” said Suzy alarmed.
“Don’t worry,” said Kelly seeing the shock on Suzy’s face. “I heard Will and Mark’s voices so it’s nothing untoward. I haven’t dared look outside yet. I should guess it’s time for us to make a move though. You all right?”
Suzy just nodded and followed Kelly out of the room. In the hallway, a dim patch of sunlight lit up the wooden floor from a skylight overhead. The bedroom doors were all open and it seemed they were the last up. They made their way downstairs and Suzy began to hear the voices again. It was impossible to hear what was being said though as there was a banging noise too. They headed for the kitchen where the sounds were coming from.
Upon entering the room, it was clear what the banging was. Tug and Mark were pulling up floorboards and Will was hammering at them with a pickaxe. Rasmus and Tricia were filling empty plastic bottles with water from saucepans whilst Claire held the two backpacks open for them.
“Morning all,” said Kelly. “Looks like I missed the memo.”
She was greeted by a chorus of cheerful voices, much to her surprise. “Up at last, sleepyhead,” said Will. “Hi, Suzy.”
Suzy made a beeline for Rasmus. “You should’ve woken us. Here, let me help.” She held a small bottle steady whilst Rasmus carefully poured the rainwater in.
“Oh we’ve not been up long, my dear. Tug here was up hard at work whilst we were snoring. He went and found those tools in the garden shed so we could tear up some floorboards.”
“Okay, firstly, Tug, you should not be going out on your own, it’s not safe,” said Kelly exasperated already. “Secondly, why? What are we doing with the floor?”
Tug rested a floorboard against the wall and leant back against the counter, wiping sweat from his face. “We need something to defend ourselves with out there. I found one shovel and one pickaxe out there. With the kitchen knives we found that’s four weapons, at best, we’ve got. There’s eight of us, Kelly. We need more. These floorboards are perfect. They’re strong, solid and will be useful for smashing against anyone or anything that attacks us.”
“It’s true,” said Will. “Here, Tug, this is the last one.” He handed a board to Tug who stacked it up against the others. “How’s the water situation?”
“Not bad, it must’ve rained a fair bit last night,” said Tricia as she screwed the top on an old coke bottle now full of rainwater. “We’ve managed to fill a few bottles. We can carry these easily enough between us. There’s a cooking pot on the side there that we can’t use, we’ve run out of bottles. I’d say we might as well drink it now.”
“Right, let’s get sorted,” said Tug pulling up a chair to the kitchen table, winking at Claire as he did so. He scattered the food on the table around him. “We’ve got ten power bars in total. One each and two spare.”
Claire put the two spares into one of the bags. “Should we eat it now? I’m starving.”
“Up to you. Personally, I’m going to have half of mine now and the rest later. I don’t think we can expect to get to the coast much before evening so you might want to ration yourself. Unless we get picked up straight away, it could be a long day,” answered Tug, peeling off the wrapper to his bar.
Everyone grabbed a bar and began eating. Rasmus scooped water from the pot into mugs and handed them around. A few minutes later and the food and water were gone.
Tug got up and began checking through the cupboards and drawers, pulling them open and slamming them shut again, when he found them empty. He ignored the conversation and instead focused on what he did best: surviving. He knew they were in a desperate situation and rather than waste time talking about it, he preferred to keep himself busy. He was looking for food, weapons, anything that would be useful in the next few hours or days they were going to be stuck here. So far, he had come across very little of use. Any food had long since perished or been taken. The power had obviously been turned off long ago, but the fridge had not been emptied and he didn’t need to open the door to know what was inside; green mould had sprouted from the cracks around the door and the smell was putrid. Whatever vegetables or perishable food had been in there had had years to decay and rot.
“So how do we do this?” said Suzy. “I mean, literally, how do we even know the best direction to head?”
“Follow the road for now.” Will put one of the backpacks on and picked up the pickaxe. “By the way, I’ll take this. It’s heavy and I can manage it. Tug or Mark, do you want to take the other pack?”
Tug gave up his search for anything more useful and quickly grabbed the other pack, slinging it over his shoulders. “Back the way we came, back to the road and then head west. Follow the sun. We’ll stick to the road as long as we can. We’ll have to play it by ear, see how it goes. If we run into trouble we’ll try to go around.”
Kelly picked up one of the rough floorboards. It was fairly heavy, but not so much that it could not be carried easily. If she had to defend herself, it would make a substantial weapon. “I’ll take lead with Tug. I want Rasmus behind me with Tricia and Claire. Will, Mark, I want you
two at the back, please. Anyone got a problem with that?”
Nobody spoke. Suzy cast a glance at Will, but he was examining the pickaxe. She picked up a wooden board. It was roughly four feet long and she knew if she struck someone with it, they would know about it. She also hoped she would not have to use it.
“Right, grab your gear, let’s go. Once we’re outside we keep quiet until we’re in the clear. We don’t know where those things went last night, so be careful. If you see something, let me know.” Kelly didn’t wait for an answer and marched to the front door.
Outside in the yard, the air was crisp and cool. The power bar Kelly had eaten had settled her stomach, but she already regretted eating it all. It had been so good though that she hadn’t been able to resist the whole thing. As she made her way across the yard, she looked and listened for signs of the dead. The air was perfectly still and she heard no sounds other than her own breathing and the footsteps of everyone behind her. As she walked down the driveway back to the road, she began to feel tense. Very little was known about the Deathless. What if they were lying in wait? What if they had regrouped and now instead of a handful there were a hundred, a thousand, or more? As she walked, she looked into the bushes and the trees, trying to spot anything unusual. Was there a pair of feet under that gorse bush? Had she seen eyes watching her from over the crest of that hill? A small rabbit darted out in front of her and she let out a shriek. It raced off into the undergrowth, immediately disappearing out of sight.
“Don’t let your nerves get the better of you,” said Tug as he walked up beside her. “Don’t be worried about what you can’t see, just what you can. Okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied, trying to sound confident. Not only had she made herself look a fool, she had risked them all by screaming like that. She gripped the wooden board in her hand and continued down the driveway, letting Tug take the lead.
At the junction to the roadway, there was no sign of them. The dead had left having either found food elsewhere or having lost sight of their prey last night. Yawning, Tug lead the way up the hill, following the road as it wound its way amongst the green hills of The Grave. The sky was clear and it looked as though all of last night’s rainclouds had blown away. Will, the last one out, shut the gate to the farmhouse driveway quietly, and then jogged to catch up to Mark.
“You think we’re going in the right direction?” Will asked him.
Mark raised his eyebrows. “You mean do I think we can trust him? He’s got an attitude, but yeah, I think we can follow him. If there’s one thing I know about him, it’s that he wants off this island. Right now, he’s probably our safest bet.”
Mark held up his camera and took a quick shot of a house as they walked by. One side had collapsed and exposed the ramshackle interior. The outer brickwork had crumbled away exposing the inner struts and joists. Surrounding the house were overgrown roses of all colours and bright flowers, making the dark house look even more striking.
“I hope you get to do something with those photos of yours, Mark,” said Will as he waited for Mark to finish.
“I will. I haven’t shirked a story yet and I’m not going to start now. It’s pretty amazing actually. Look at that place, all the colour and life. I thought...well I don’t know what I thought exactly, but I didn’t expect this place to be so vivid and full of life.”
“I need some of what you’re on,” said Will, incredulous. “I don’t see what you do. That house is just dead. This whole place is utterly devoid of life. It’s like looking at one of those old sepia photographs. You know, all brown and tinted colours? I guess you probably think they’re cool, but I just see an emptiness, like it’s a memory of life. It’s not the real thing. There’s no life here, just death.”
Mark chuckled. “You’ve spent too long in New York. I don’t think you know how to live without that constant buzz. It’s a rush all right, but sometimes you’ve got to get away from it all.”
“And a vacation in The Grave is your recommendation?” Now it was Will’s turn to chuckle.
“Well, it’s peaceful. You’re never going to get stuck in a traffic jam. And the beaches are deserted,” joked Mark.
The two men laughed and talked, all the while keeping their voices low. It seemed as though the dead from last night had truly gone though. It didn’t feel like there was anyone around. The area had seemed deadly ominous last night in the cold, dark evening. Now that the sun was up and they were on their way, it felt different.
Mark was optimistic for the first time since the crash. Tug would find a path to the coast and surely, it wouldn’t take long before they were seen. A boat ride and a plane would see them safely back on American soil in no time.
Will was concerned, but he said nothing else. Mark had his little project to keep his mind occupied and that was good. Will supposed that everyone did. His mind kept switching between his mother and Suzy. Tricia and Claire were supporting each other and Kelly was still trying to be team leader, taking care of everyone. Rasmus wanted to get back to the museum so he could honour his friends and Tug had himself to think about. If they had nothing else, the desolation of this place would wear them down. Will felt as if The Grave was not just devoid of life, but of hope. How could anyone survive a place like this? He shuddered and concentrated on what Mark was saying.
“Tug’s stopped. We’d better see what’s going on.”
They had been walking for about half an hour, all the while keeping their wits about them. No dead bodies had approached them, and they had managed to follow the road for a few miles before they’d needed to stop.
“What is it?” said Will as they joined the others.
“It seems we’re approaching some more houses. You can see down the road that there’s a cluster of buildings. We’d better be careful,” said Kelly. “There’s no point looking in those places for help, we won’t find any. We should keep on and pass straight through.”
“Should we go around?” asked Suzy. “What if those...things are hiding inside?”
Will tucked his hands into his pockets. The morning was cold and he was lucky he had been wearing his overcoat when the plane crashed. It had dried out overnight and the fleece-lined pockets were comforting. “Best to stick to the road,” he said. “In theory there’s no reason why any of them should be hiding inside the houses - there’s nothing to hide from. If anything, they’re more likely to be out in the open looking for food.”
At the mention of food, Rasmus’ stomach growled audibly. Will felt his turn too, but refused to let it distract him. They were unlikely to get much food soon and he had enough experience to know to eat small amounts slowly. Rasmus had wolfed down his ration so quickly this morning that it had barely touched the sides.
“We’ll be much faster if we stick to the roads,” said Tug. He began to walk up the road, striding out purposefully. “We’ll only get slowed down in the fields and the long grass. Best follow me and keep to firm ground.”
Will and Kelly took off immediately, with Rasmus moaning under his breath about his hunger, but reluctantly following. Tricia was retying her laces and Mark was adjusting his camera strap so it hung loosely around his neck.
“You all right, Claire?” asked Suzy putting an arm around the young girl as they followed behind Will and Kelly.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Claire smiled, but it was clearly forced and she was not fine. Suzy left her arm on Claire’s shoulder as they walked together.
“Try not to worry too much, okay? These guys have been in some serious scrapes, they’ll get us through this. Will and Kelly have been all over the world so they know what they’re doing. Tug’s an asshole, but he won’t take us anywhere dangerous. And Rasmus, hell he knows everything about everything. Plus you’ve got me.” Suzy squeezed Claire’s arm and then let her go. If she mothered her too much, she sensed Claire was liable to start crying. Suzy remembered last night and how she had started crying with Will before they had kissed. She bit her lip and focussed on Claire.
&n
bsp; “You really think those houses are empty?” Claire looked nervously at the road ahead. Since leaving the farmhouse, they had kept to the road. It seemed to lead in the direction they wanted to go, so they decided to follow it for as long as they could. After leaving the farm, they had not seen or heard anything; no birds or animals, nothing living or dead, and no towns or villages either. The road now however was lined with about a dozen houses on either side. In the middle was a small shop. The village, if you could call it that, was deserted. The houses were like giant tombs just waiting to open up and spill death out into the road. Windows and doors were broken, open and rotting; the very air smelt of damp.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Suzy taking Claire’s hand.
The eight figures walked through the morning air, treading quietly. Clouds were forming in the sky and Suzy hoped the rain was not returning. The sunshine was becoming weaker and the drains had become blocked with fallen leaves and branches. They frequently had to avoid stepping in pools of murky water.
Up ahead, Rasmus was showing no fear and confidently marching through the row of houses. He looked from side to side occasionally, but saw no reason to panic. He had decided he couldn’t leave everything to Kelly. Tug might have the experience of being out in the ‘thick of it’, but he didn’t know these people. Rasmus decided he needed to step up and help lead his friends out of this desolate place. He was scared, but he could not show it. The young girl, Claire, particularly, would be looking up to him and expecting someone more experienced and knowledgeable to lead them home. They had not asked him to lead, yet somehow he felt like he should. There was no reason why he couldn’t assume the role. He knew they did not have much time so he tried to hurry the others along as much as he could. There was precious little untainted food and water available to them so the better time they made, the more likely they would be to make it off the island alive.