“I will never leave your side again.” He murmured as he whispered into her ear. Holding her close and kissing her cheeks, Lara returned the affection and the rest of us looked away embarrassed. Jason tapped me on the shoulder, and I winced at being prodded in the area I had hit on my fall earlier.
“You were right, I was an idiot, I just thought about getting as many of them as possible, but I should have thought harder, I’m sorry.” He looked sheepish as I rubbed my shoulder and I realised it hadn’t been personal, he was just trying to protect his friends, I also realised he had probably got most of the ravenous in town in one swoop. I held up my bow. “Can it be fixed?” I asked.
He took it gently. “I think I can fix her up.”
I smiled at him and pointed to his head. “I’ve got some bandages in the truck; we should cover that cut up in case they can smell the blood.” Jason agreed, and we made a tentative peace.
Having mended bows and covered cuts, we also strapped up my shoulder and finished loading the van. We loaded extra diesel and as much food as we could grab; I handed Lara some boxes of female essentials. Jason saw them going into the van and I inwardly groaned awaiting his scornful comments, but he didn’t make any, I wondered if I had misjudged him or maybe I was just stupidly embarrassed by needing these items and feeling on edge. Whatever the reason for my thoughts, he didn’t say a word, and I wondered if I would have been as silent had I seen him loading up condoms or haemorrhoid cream.
The ravenous could be back at any moment, so we headed out of town. After a quick discussion about who would drive it turned out we all knew how but only Mark and Lance had a licence, it was decided Mark would drive, for now, Jason or Lance would take over after a few hours and tomorrow myself or Lara would drive, we would take it in shifts. Now we all had two-way radios and a vast supply of batteries, so we could always check in with each other and the group. The van had a large front seat which Mark, Lance, and Jason occupied. Lara and I had blankets and cushions in the back and had made a secure area by piling the boxes around us and strapping them in with bungee cords. We could look out through slits in the metal frame and although the truck may have been used in the past to transport animals, it didn’t smell and was actually quite clean.
We began our long drive to the castle. Lara liked to chatter, and I didn’t feel inclined to talk much so I listened as she told me about her father in Germany and how he would be back soon to come and get her, about how Lance had lived down the street and helped her when she had woken up and found her sister was dead. She spoke of the ravenous smashing through the windows of her house, of her mother being dragged out into the street and the horror as they ripped her apart. Lara cried openly as she spoke, and I rubbed her back and held her, listening to the tale of gore and terror. She found the words difficult, so we held each other for a while. “How did you get out?” I asked as she sobbed, she looked up at me and I saw a fire in her eyes at first, I thought it was anger but then I realised it was love. “Lance.” She said simply and showed me the scars on her arms. “They tried to get me too, but he kicked my front door down and rescued me. I had never really spoken to him before, but I had seen him around. This is where they bit me.” I nodded and let her sit up against the boxes. She began to talk fondly of her stepsister and little brother. Both were living with her father. I reassured her without knowing why that they were ok and that the gas probably hadn’t hit Germany, I felt guilty for lying but it was a little like talking to a vulnerable child. I wanted to make everything ok for her and she made me feel very protective. Perhaps that was what had attracted Lance to her. We talked of our families and I spoke a little of Mary Jane, feeling my throat tighten with her memory. Lara laughed gently at my tales about our past exploits; clamped cars, closed down night clubs, true stories of how something always went wrong when Mary Jane and I went out and how we could always laugh about it. Lara joined me in my tears as I spoke of finding Mary Jane in her bed and the loneliness I had felt.
In short, we became friends in the back of an old truck with limited ventilation and hard metal flooring; it felt great; I needed a friend and Lara was so willing to be friends. She was a little simple, perhaps, but not stupid and very sweet and caring. She listened intently if I spoke and held my hand as I talked of Mary Jane. Suddenly I didn’t feel so alone, and I was so glad this group of survivors had found me.
We looked out of our peepholes and saw dead cows in the fields, sheep and horses lying in the grass. Lara wept openly at the loss of life and I comforted her, trying to shield her from the sight of ravenous in the fields eating the dead animals. Their stomachs distended, covered in blood and dirt; their milky eyes vacant and cold as they ripped at flesh, fur or grass. Sometimes they chased the truck, but once they fell behind, they lost interest and returned to the fields.
The van seemed to burn diesel at a ridiculously fast rate and we stopped a few times to re-supply ourselves from garage shops, being careful to steer clear of places where ravenous where rife, we only stopped if there was a large body of water around and if the place didn’t look ransacked. On one of our stops, Jason discovered a hole in our tank; we tried to fix it with a number of different things. Lara was an unexpected whiz with the engine and patched it up with precise accuracy, but it continued to leak a little, despite our best efforts. Finally, Mark stated the obvious; we would need to swap vehicles. The thought of unloading and reloading our supplies was depressing, but it was the only way we would make it to the castle, so we kept our eyes open for a truck that we could utilise.
Night was coming and although the ravenous seemed to be out and about at all times of the day and night, the feeling was that with our vision impaired by the darkness and with no street lamps to light our way, we should be extra vigilant, we decided we would stop once we found somewhere that looked safe. Lara and I wrapped blankets around ourselves as the air blowing into the van grew colder.
I felt myself dozing and almost jumped out of my skin when Lara began to shout.
Chapter 3 – Weather
“Look a light.” Lara suddenly shouted, startling me. I sat up rubbing my eyes and looked at where she was pointing.
“It’s a light from a building, I’m sure!” she said excitedly.
Jason stopped the van, and we clambered out of the back, Lara babbling about people and generators.
I noticed it was very cold, and the air seemed frigid, Lara was shivering slightly.
“It looks like a house, way out in the field,” said Mark sounding unsure. Coming around to where we stood, he began to pull torches out of the boxes in the back of the truck. Lance tried to calm Lara explaining that it could be anything; that a light didn’t mean that people were still there, just because a generator was still running, or a torch had been left on, it didn’t mean civilisation. Lara stopped talking and looked dejected, but I knew it was for the best not to get her hopes up. We pulled on jackets against the sudden night chill, grabbing our weapons and making sure we had ammo. As I looked along the sight of my bow, I felt it. At first, I thought it was rain, but it fell too gently, I held my torch up and stuck out my hand. “Snow,” I muttered amazed at the gentle white flake that landed on my skin and began to melt, we hadn’t had snow for about 6 years. Global change had put a stop to white Christmas’s and even to white Aprils.
Lara twirled in the torchlight. “Snow,” she trilled like an overexcited child. We all started smiling and making jokes about having no gloves or woolly hats and speculating as to the possible connection between the gas in the atmosphere and the sudden appearance of snow.
Mark took the lead, walking through a broken part of the fence that ran along the roadside and into the darkness beyond. We followed silently and trekked across the field; the snow fell thick and fast and a few inches had spread across the ground before we could get very far. Lara tripped over an unseen obstacle and when Lance tried to help her up, she mischievously pulled him down into the small layer of settled white stuff, picking up a handful and dumping
it on his head; this of course started a snowball fight.
Lance jumped up, laughing and began balling up snow. He was quick and threw them with the accuracy of a sniper. I caught one in the leg and fell backwards; it was cold and hard but made me laugh. Wet snow was everywhere, I could feel it soaking through my flimsy coat and freezing my hands but that didn’t stop me from jumping up and returning a snowball straight back at Lance. My aim was not as good as his and in the moonlight, I could hardly see where anyone was. My snowball connected but I heard Mark shout. “Hey, who threw that?” Giggling wildly, I threw another one and was suddenly bombarded by three or four freezing balls of ice. I screamed and felt my stomachache from laughing as I went down again into the snow. The dark figures of the others ran past me all throwing snowballs and shouting cheerfully, I looked up at the snowflakes falling and glittering as they landed all around me. I felt like a child again, I remembered having a snowball fight with Mary when we were little. We had never seen snow before and the older girls at the home had to show us how to ball it up and how to build a snowman. We had the best afternoon, laughing, wet, and cold. Warmed by my memories I tried to struggle back up and as I did, I saw a leg pass near to my arms, so I grabbed it making the person tumble into the snow. Lara landed next to me. “Aargh, you were waiting to ambush me!” She was gasping with joy. I dumped a handful of snow on the back of her head as she tried to wriggle away from me. She began screaming in a high-pitched girly way as it went down her back and neck. Quickly I jumped up, still panting; the cold air making it harder to breathe, but I was ready to run. My movement attracted attention and snowballs filled the air. I ran, squealing and trying to gather snow into balls to fight back. As I bent over, a hard snowball hit me on the backside, and I went over face first. Lara was near enough to see, and she started laughing so hard I thought she was going to be sick. I had snow up my nose and, in my mouth, but I didn’t care it was a few perfect moments of forgetting where we were, the horrors we had seen, and the ones we still might face.
Suddenly Mark shouted out, “Stop.” Lara’s laughter was cut off as we all looked around in fear, certain he’d seen something coming, but he continued swiftly. “This snow is getting thick fast, we have to move, or we are going to get stuck in this field. We need cover.” He began again for the distant light and it alarmed me to see the banks of snow covering the ground all around us, I could hardly see the van anymore in the dark and the light we were heading towards was still a long way off. Realising Mark was right we all struggled through the white frozen field as the cold began to numb our hands and feet. The wind picked up and made the snow sting our faces as we walked, it fell faster settling on us and all the time getting deeper and deeper.
The wind blowing into us hampered the walking pace, pushing us back and making each step a struggle.
Mark was way out in front, striding along with Lance; the wind ruffled their hair and billowed out their jackets. Lara was half running to catch up but staying behind the others a little way, so she could benefit from the slight cover their bodies made by blocking the wind. Jason was striding confidently through the snow somewhere to my right, I could just about make out his figure, dark against the falling flakes.
The wind whipped at me and I could feel myself falling behind with each step, but my back still hurt, and my legs felt very heavy. The wetness of the snow so much fun a few moments before now made my clothes heavy and very cold. I could feel my skin sticking to the cloth and the wind made me shiver. My hands had begun to go numb, as had my feet.
Suddenly, as I took a step, I was falling; my foot had found a hole in the ground hidden under the piles of snow that now came up past my knees. I fell hard into the thick snow and felt the flakes begin to cover me.
It was almost serine for a moment. The snow was cold but fresh, so it was wonderfully soft and as the flakes fell, I swallowed some, and I thought about just lying there and falling asleep. I knew it could mean never waking up again, but somehow in this dead, scary place that was appealing. My mind rebelled, I couldn’t give up, I had to move, in a few moments the snow would cover me, and the others wouldn’t be able to see me. I struggled against the yielding whiteness, panicking a little when I couldn’t get upright.
All of a sudden, a hand came over the bank of snow and I grabbed at it with lifesaving swiftness. As the figure pulled me out of the hole I’d created with my fall, I looked up expecting to see Mark and almost fell back into the hole as I realised it was Jason. He had come back for me.
He pulled me close and kept me upright as we battled through the storm. I couldn’t see the others anymore, but we marched on towards the light.
He half dragged me along, my walking stride was much shorter than his, but he kept me going and supported me as I struggled to keep up.
As we got closer to the light, I realised the hulking shapes I could see peeking out from under the snow were solar panels, many looked smashed or dismantled, wires were ripped out and poked out of the snow like black snakes.. I realised that we were at our local power station; the light was coming from an upper window of the building. We still couldn’t see the others and as Jason let me go, I was confused and upset, not wanting to lose his body heat. But as I watched him load his weapon, I realised I needed to do the same. We had no idea what waited ahead; I forced my frozen fingers to work and after almost dropping the arrow; I armed myself. Jason pulled at the closest door, but after a few tugs he realised it was going nowhere with the snow piled against it. We walked over to the lower windows; the snow was already up to their bases, which were almost head height. A few were smashed and using his longbow Jason smashed out the remainder of the glass and make it safer to get through. Shouldering the bow, he linked his hands to make a foothold and helped me onto the ledge. I pulled myself through the gaping hole and dropped into the dark room beyond. It was silent and spooky but warmer than outside, even with the snow blowing through the smashed areas. Jason appeared over the ledge grunting with the effort of pulling himself up and I grabbed his arm to help him.
He jumped down and readied his bow; I followed suit and with my torch held in my mouth I moved my head and swept the area slowly with the bright beam. The light traced around banks of desks and chairs, blank computer screens, a room that seemed dead and useless. Dust motes danced in the beam, disturbed by our passing. It seemed to be completely empty.
Jason pulled out his radio and called Mark, “We are inside. Are you?” Mark’s voice came back loud and echoed in the stillness. “Where are you? Is Cathy there?”
Jason looked about at the room, “In one of the rooms near the front, judging by the furniture, I’d say it’s probably an office. Cathy is fine.” I looked about at the lines of desks and thought ‘Could be a call centre’, but the distinction wasn’t important. The radio crackled back into life with Mark’s voice. “We came in the back; we’ll work our way to you. Stay there.”
Jason lowered his weapon and sat on a desk.
“Looks like we’re waiting here then,” he said, picking up some paperwork and rifling through it.
I moved towards the desks and lowered my weapon. The torch battery was too precious to waste, so I turned it off but kept it in my hand just in case. I rested with my back to the wall and watched the broken window; my toes beginning to tingle as they warmed up, as did my face and fingers. I didn’t really want to talk, but I needed to hear a voice in the darkness.
I asked quietly, “How do you and Mark know each other?” and waited for a reply. At first there was no sound, and I wondered if Jason had heard me and even if he had, if he was ignoring the question. Then he began speaking in a low voice.
“Mark saved my life, it wasn’t long after my sister...Well, you know…… I had gone hunting. Ravenous. But they overwhelmed me, and I had to run. I got caught in an alley and had to hide in a garage. They were all around me banging on the garage shutter and I thought this is it, this is where I die. I didn’t fight back when a hand grabbed my leg. I was sure one of them ha
d got in, I stood there waiting for the feel of teeth. Then I heard a voice. “Crawl through here.” I got on my hands and knees and in the dark, I could see a head poking through a hole in the cement wall. I followed the figure, hoping it would lead me to something or somewhere good; I guess I felt any place was better than the one I was in. I followed it into sudden sunlight. There was a guy in front of me, skinny with greasy long hair. He gave me a grin and said, “Follow me.”
I don’t know if I was so alone, I didn’t care anymore, or why I trusted him, but he said ‘follow’ and I did. We went into a nearby block of flats and I thought he was going to go into one of the apartments, but he pulled down a short ladder on the side of the building, it was a fire escape, he started to climb and as I followed him he motioned for me to pull up the ladder after me. I clung by one arm and pulled the ladder back up, then we climbed up to the flat roof of the small block. I looked around and realised this guy was living here. He had a tent set up in the corner and stuff covered with tarpaulins. There was a burnt-out fire and tins scattered about. He even had an old sofa. I was surprised but sort of impressed; we sat together, and Mark told me all about himself. He had owned one of the flats below but couldn’t bring himself to live in it as he had woken up to find his dead girlfriend beside him. He told me he had travelled to his parent’s house and found their place smashed and ransacked. He still has no idea if his parents are alive or if they survived the gas. He said he had seen me get cornered from up on the roof and had come down to give me a helping hand. He said it in such an offhand way, but I’d had no one risk their life for me before. I decided that I owed this guy and that I’d watch his back.”
“There is no one else I’d rather have,” Mark said as he came through a door that lead deeper into the building. Lara and Lance were already in the room, we hadn’t heard them arrive. Mark stood in the door frame; his torch strapped to his belt, sending light into the room. I clicked on my torch and swung my beam over to where he stood, surprised at his sudden arrival. The light hit him in the face, and he grunted, putting his hand up to shield his eyes. That’s when the ravenous behind him took a bite out of his neck.
Surviving The Ravenous Page 4
