by J N Wood
‘There’s not many of us left, no point in fighting amongst ourselves. We’re not gonna fight are we?’ she asked.
I shook my head and told her no.
She gave me a quizzical look. ‘Do you know how to use that bad boy?’ She pointed down to my gun, now back on my hip.
I considered making a penis joke but thought better of it.
‘No of course not, I’m English. We don’t have guns.’
She just laughed and walked away.
I followed her as she brought us back to the corrugated shutters and opened the little door. It actually felt warmer outside than it did in the warehouse.
‘So is it Ali or Alison?’ I asked, as we headed towards the same bit of fence we’d climbed over earlier.
She pulled her balaclava back on, covering her head and face.
‘Either, I don’t mind. I’ve been called Ali since high school. Uncle Gilberto still calls me Alison.’
‘So are you all family in there?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, apart from one of the kids, the blond haired one. We’re not sure who he belongs to, he won’t tell us anything. I found him wandering the streets two nights ago. Sandra and Pete are out looking for Sandra’s husband and her daughter, the other two boys in there are hers.’ She gestured towards the warehouse with her thumb.
‘Well it’s good that you’re all together, you know, mostly.’
We reached the fence and Ali placed another pallet against the fence, before getting the same piece of carpet and setting it up.
‘Yep, just waiting until we find Sophia and Dale.’ She did her impressive vault over the fence again and then spun around to face me. ‘Then we get the fuck out of this place.’ She beckoned me to climb over.
I did it in my own embarrassing style. I wasn’t going to try to copy her. I’d probably just fall and land on my face.
‘Hey,’ I whispered. ‘What you said about them being less active at night, how true is that?’
‘Very true I think,’ she replied in a hushed tone. ‘It’s just a theory but I think that they’re still basically human, so they still have our instincts and behavioural patterns. Such as being awake during the day and sleeping at night, I think they go into some kind of dormant state at night. I don’t want to call it sleeping because they can do it standing up. I’ve seen them, it’s very scary looking.’
I remembered the creepy little fucker standing in the corner of the basement. ‘Yeah I’ve seen it as well.’
We quickly reached the back of the gun shop. There was no sign of anybody, alive or dead.
‘Did you say your truck was around the front?’ she asked.
I nodded and Ali led me around the buildings to the front of the shop.
There she was, just where we had left her. I was surprised at how happy I was to see Blue.
Maybe Jack was inside waiting for me.
I crept over to the truck and peered in through the windows, but it was empty. My stomach felt like it had dropped to the floor. For a few seconds there I’d honestly believed that he would be hiding in the truck’s cab.
Turning back to Ali I shook my head, and then very carefully opened the back door to lift my backpack out. Everything I needed for a few days was already packed in the bag. Just as I reached inside I was hit by a sudden wave of emotion.
Shit, don’t cry in front of Ali for fuck’s sake.
I loitered with my head in the truck for a few extra moments, pretending to look through our stuff, attempting to regain my composure.
Maybe Jack was dead, or lost forever.
I quietly closed the door and put my bag on my back, wondering why it was so heavy, but then I remembered half of our bullets were in there.
I turned to look at Ali. ‘I’m going to look for Jack before it gets light, thanks very much for your help.’
‘Don’t be stupid, I’ll help you look for him. I’m going out to look for Dale and Sophia anyway,’ she replied.
I thanked her and told her how grateful I was, and I really was. I had hoped she would offer to help. A local guide would be very helpful.
We searched the area around the gun shop and Ali’s warehouse. It all seemed to be industrial units around there. Then we crossed the freeway and started making our way around people’s homes. Ali asked for absolute silence after she explained that’s where most of the zombies would be. I tried to be as stealth like as she was managing. She did have to shush me a couple of times when I kicked something or walked into a car. It felt like being told off by my mother.
We had made so many twists and turns around homes and through gardens I’d lost my bearings a long time ago.
It must have been about six o’clock in the morning when Ali stopped and faced me. She raised her finger to her balaclava covered mouth.
I nodded to show her I understood.
‘We’re going to have to head back, we don’t want to get caught out by the sun rising,’ she whispered.
To say I was disappointed would have been a massive understatement but I obviously understood.
I slowly nodded my head.
What do I do if I can’t find him? Carry on going to Mountain View and just hope I can find Beth at Sarah and fucking doodah’s house? Wherever that was. Shit, I didn’t actually know where it was. Had Jack told me?
Fucking hell, I don’t think so.
I felt like I needed to scream. Instead, I just trudged along behind Ali. I was just so tired, desperately needing sleep.
Half an hour later we returned to the small warehouse door, the soft glow of the sun just appearing on the horizon. The birds hadn’t started singing yet.
When had I last heard any birds? I couldn’t remember.
Ali startled me when she placed her hand on my shoulder. It felt like I’d been sleepwalking and the physical contact dragged me back into consciousness.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked, her hand still resting on my shoulder.
No, of course I’m not fucking okay, I’m freaking the fuck out about everything and now a beautiful woman is touching me.
‘Yeah I’m fine, just worried about Jack, and how I’m going to stay alive, all the usual shit,’ I replied, managing to keep my thoughts to myself.
She pulled her balaclava off and sighed.
‘None of us are okay. We’re all living in a pile of horse shit at the moment. Life is literally hell, and I don’t mean the way people use the word literally nowadays, I mean actual hell. But I’m asking you seriously, are you okay?’
‘Yeah I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I’m not gonna kill myself or anything.’
‘Good. Come on, we need to go to bed. I’m not accustomed to the night shifts yet.’
There was a brief moment when I thought she meant we would be sleeping together. Had I mentioned I was married?
But she hadn’t meant that at all.
I really wasn’t thinking straight.
She set me up with a blanket and a pillow in between some boxes in the warehouse. It was just like building a fort when I was a kid. It was actually really comfortable compared to sleeping under a sofa, if a bit cold. Why hadn’t I picked up my amazing sleeping bag when we passed the truck?
I did not sleep well at all. I was pretty sure that Steve, or Ramrod, or the fucking arsehole as I was now going to call him, deliberately tried to wake me up by kicking the boxes next to me. Most times I opened my eyes I saw him ducking around the corner.
It wasn’t just him that caused me to wake up constantly. It was probably just my body adjusting to sleeping during daylight hours. My phone and watch batteries being dead didn’t help. I had no idea what the time was.
I decided I’d better get up so I dragged myself out of my festering cubby hole. There was a distinct smell of sweat coming from me.
On the way to the canteen I bumped into Ali, she looked the opposite of how I imagined myself looking.
‘Morning…or afternoon or whatever it is,’ I said.
‘There’s a shower room down at the f
ar end of the warehouse,’ she said, pointing to the far corner.
All I could see were boxes.
‘Just head for the far corner, you’ll see it. I’ll meet you in the canteen after you’ve finished, you must be starving. I certainly am.’
I looked at my reflection in the mirror after using the surprisingly good shower. I felt so much better but I looked like absolute shite.
Are they white hairs in my beard? Surely that was just the light?
I leaned in closer to the mirror after wiping it with my towel to get rid of the condensation.
Nope, they’re actually white, bright fucking white as well. What happened to turning grey? Have I missed that part out?
I dressed in the last set of clean clothes I had on me. I’d have to go back to the truck at some point tonight.
Almost as soon as my old man reflection wasn’t looking back at me, I forgot about my new noticeable signs of ageing.
It was quite nerve wracking walking back to the canteen on my own, like my first day at school. I certainly hadn’t received the warmest of welcomes from them last night.
Do I have to give them something for their hospitality? Is that how this world works now, trading and bartering for things?
Apart from Ali, none of the adults even looked my way. The kids noticed I had entered the room, giving me the briefest of glances before going back to whatever they were doing. Ali had already made scrambled eggs and toast for the both of us, she was half way through eating hers and gestured for me to sit opposite her, where a full plate awaited me.
‘How was the shower?’ she asked.
‘Brilliant, thanks very much. It was actually hot.’
I was suddenly desperate to start my eggs, hungrier than I’d thought I was.
‘How long do you reckon the water and the electricity will go on for?’ I asked. ‘There can’t be people still working at the power stations.’
‘I have no idea, as long as—.’ She jumped slightly when she was interrupted by one of the young boys stood behind her.
‘Aunt Alison, when are Mom and Dad coming back? When are we going home?’ The boy asked.
His dark hair colour was exactly the same as Ali’s.
Ali put her knife and fork down. ‘Hi Seth.’ She picked him up and sat him down on her lap. ‘They’ll be back real soon. Your Mom has just gone to get your Dad and Sophia. You know that.’
The boy sniffed and wiped away a single tear. ‘You said soon yesterday, and why are we at Uncle Steven’s job? I want to go home, Gremlin will need feeding. That’s always my job on a morning after I have waked up. I miss Gremlin. He will be hungry.’
His lower lip began to quiver. More tears appeared and quickly ran down his reddening cheeks.
Ali pulled him closer to her body and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Don’t worry about Gremlin, he’s being taken care of. Your Mom and Dad will be back soon and it will all be fine.’
The boy started to sob quietly.
‘Come on Seth, you need to be a big brave boy, you don’t want to cry in front of Chris do you? He’s only just met you,’ Ali continued, soothingly.
The sobs rapidly turned into wailing cries. ‘I don’t care about that man! I want my Mommy!’ he screamed. ‘I want Mom!’
Ali held him tighter and gave me a desperate look.
I just shrugged and tried an awkward smile.
Out of nowhere, Steve appeared at the side of our table. ‘Hey Seth,’ he said. ‘Don’t get upset, we need to finish that Lego before your Dad gets back. He’s gonna be so impressed with what you’ve made him.’ He crouched down so he was at the same level as the young boy. ‘Come on. Let’s get back to the Lego.’
Steve held out his arms, the boy released his grip on Ali and allowed Steve to scoop him up, carrying him over to the other two children in the corner.
Ali sighed and pushed her plate away. ‘Steve’s really good with the kids. We’re trying to hide what’s going on but there’s only so many times I can say the same thing. They’re not stupid.’
‘You did fine,’ I said. ‘Is Sandra your sister? They’re not back yet then?’
‘Yes she’s my big sister, and no, they haven’t come back. We go out at night to look for Dale and Sophia, but we always come back here before daybreak. Sandra has been going out at night with Pete, that’s Steve and Theo’s brother, while I’ve been mostly going out with Steve. I’m really worried about them all. I don’t know what will happen to the kids if…’ She paused and then dropped her head into her hands.
For a moment I thought she was going to cry. I was just about to console her somehow but she let out a quiet little, ‘Fuck,’ before lifting her head up.
‘This is all so fucking horrible,’ she whispered, letting out an exasperated long sigh.
‘You got kids?’ she asked.
I shook my head and said no.
‘Me neither, I always wanted them but I’m really glad I never got around to it.’
‘My friend Jack,’ I said, in between mouthfuls. ‘His wife’s pregnant.’
‘What are you going to do? You know? If he’s…’ She paused for a long moment. ‘If you can’t find him?’
I put the last of my eggs into my mouth but it was becoming really difficult to swallow, finally going down with a very audible gulp.
‘He’ll turn up. If he doesn’t, I’m well and truly fucked. His wife is staying with friends and I don’t know where they live. I’ll have to still go and look for her. Jack would never forgive me if I didn’t try.’
‘So, are you from London?’ she asked.
‘Nope, not from London. I’m from the north of England. You do know there’s more to England than just London?’
‘Of course I do, there’s Scotland.’
‘I wouldn’t say that in front of a Scottish person.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Scotland isn’t in England, it is part of the—.’
‘Boring. Come on.’ Ali placed my plate on top of hers, picked them up and rose to her feet. ‘Follow me. I need to show you something.’
‘What, where to wash the dishes?’
Ali laughed. ‘Well yes, but something else as well.’
I followed her out of the canteen using a different door to the one that led down to the warehouse. This one opened to a corridor and we stopped half way down, at a padlocked door. She reached up to take a small key from the top of the door frame.
‘We don’t let the kids come down here,’ she explained, before unlocking the padlock and opening the door.
It opened up onto the top of a fire escape and I followed her outside. It was another beautiful day and the bright sunshine hurt my eyes.
‘That’s why we don’t go out during the day,’ she said, pointing down towards the fence surrounding the warehouse.
It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the light, but when my vision cleared my breath was taken away by the sight in front of me.
Thousands of zombies shuffled along in silence, the only noise they made were the sounds of them hitting the surrounding buildings. They completely filled the roads and alleyways in front of us. The horrifying scene before me reminded me of the news footage I’d seen of a tsunami enveloping a coastal city. It looked like debris being funnelled through the streets. They were all going in the same direction, like some kind of mass migration.
‘I’ve never seen this many together, are the groups always this big?’ I managed to ask, through my shocked state.
‘They vary in size. This could be the biggest we’ve seen actually. We’ve just been lucky that a swarm hasn’t been around us when the sun has set. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get out of our little complex.’
I tried to find the edges of the group, or swarm, but it seemed to go on forever. They were brushing up against the chain link fence as they shuffled along.
‘Is the fence strong enough?’ I asked.
‘I think it is while the swarms are this size, and they’re just walking al
ong at this kind of speed. The concrete posts should hold it in place for now. If there was more of them and they actually tried to get in? Then, it wouldn’t last long. Don’t worry though, they can’t see us at this distance, they’ve got bad eyesight.’
‘Yeah we noticed that as well,’ I replied. ‘I was thinking their senses have maybe dulled or wasted away now they’re dead.’
‘Yes probably.’ She half turned to leave but stopped. ‘I never thought I would be having these kinds of conversations, did you?’ she asked.
‘Nope.’
‘Who do you think did it?’ she asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Who did this?’ She pointed out to the zombie filled streets. ‘Who created this virus to wipe us out?’
‘What? The zombie virus?’
‘No, I think that was a mistake, a kind of by product. I mean the initial virus. The Chinese, North Koreans, the Russians? Somebody did this.’
‘I honestly hadn’t thought about it like that. I just thought it was a virus,’ I said.
‘So everyone is carrying on with their lives just like normal, and then within two days, just two days, millions of people are dead. With no warning?’
‘I’m not saying you’re not right, just that I don’t know.’
She shook her head. ‘Come on, let’s get back inside, I need to talk to my Uncle about where we’re going to search tonight.’
Ali spun around and walked straight into the younger looking guy I’d seen stood at Gilberto’s side.
‘Oh, sorry Theo,’ she said. ‘We’re just heading in, you staying out here?’
Theo looked at me like I’d just taken a shit in his shoes. What the fuck had I done to offend these people?
‘Yes, Dad asked me to keep an eye on this swarm.’ Theo gave a little nod to the zombies. ‘Whoa, that’s a big one!’
‘That’s what she said.’ I couldn’t resist, it was handed to me on a plate.
Theo looked confused. ‘Well she would, it is big.’
‘Yep, she said that as well,’ I replied.
‘What?’ Theo asked.
I shook my head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
At least Ali was smiling at my immature joke.