Surviving The Ravenous

by King, Christine

  So, I decided then to just shut up and let her talk. The time went slowly; I sat listening to the incessant chatter and watched her flirt with Jason. I felt he was flattered by her attempts to charm him, but I wondered if he felt anything in return. He was a hard person to read. Finally, our shift was over, and Lara and Lance came out of the van to take over, I sighed with happiness and exhaustion. Del laughed a shrill little laugh, “Is it that time already? That went quick, didn’t it darlings?” She gracefully put out her hand to ask Jason to help her to rise. For a second, I hoped he would tell her to get lost, but he grabbed her hand and helped her up. She stumbled slightly and fell into him, “Sorry, I must be more tired than I thought.” Jason gave a quick smile and helped her to stand.

  I felt sick, my stomach cramped up and I heard Lara whisper to Lance “She is a real master of flirtation.” I knew what they meant, and it just made me feel worse. Letting Jason and Del go ahead I followed behind feeling dejected, but I couldn’t justify the feeling, I guessed I was just overprotective of my new friends and didn’t want to see Jason get hurt or played. Climbing into the back of the van I saw Del waking up Ali, she explained to her that she was going to have a sleep and that Ali should take one of the knives. “Just in case.”

  As we settled in the back; Del sat close to Jason and laid her head on the boxes next to his. I curled up in the corner and tried not to let it get to me. Ali lay back down with us as her shift with Mark wasn’t due till later, she had her arm protectively over Adam and Mark was lying on the other side, with the boy kept safe between them. I listened to them breathe for a while and wondered if Mark felt he had to protect the youngest member of our group. When I woke up, it was light outside and I could hear laughing, I quickly washed my face, and looking around the dim light in the back of the van I could see there was no one inside with me. Opening the doors, I climbed out carefully, looking around in the bright sunshine. Everyone was camped on the grassy verge by the side of the road; they had laid out one of the blankets and were having a breakfast picnic. The puppies were jumping about as a cleaned up, overexcited and laughing Adam teased them playfully with a piece of string. I wandered over to the group and gave a double-take as I spied Del. She had used the knife Jason had given her very well, her hair was cut a little shorter, and she had changed her clothes again opting for some shorts; I realised she must have shaved her legs and felt mine catching on my jeans, all stubbly and rough. With her face and hair clean and in the brightness of the morning she looked very pretty, her sister was also cleaner and had cut her hair as short as mine, she had her head bent and was cutting at some material with scissors. Ali had opted for a thin long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans but Del was wearing a bright, cropped top and very high shorts, so highly cut that the pockets ends flapped out from under the denim. I raised my eyebrows a little and sat next to Lara on the blanket. Lara could sense my amusement and said a little sarcastically, “Ali is cutting some clothes down to Adam’s size, she has also cut something to Del’s size. Del felt she needed something closer to the latest fashion, something she felt she would wear in company.” I nodded, trying hard not to smile while looking at Del’s bare legs, “they could have used the cut-offs from those jean shorts to make an entire suit for Adam.”

  Lara snorted and pretended to choke on her juice to cover the laugh. Del flirted shamelessly with Jason, and I felt my chest growing tighter every time he smiled at her or let her pour him more juice. Mark sat very close to Ali, and I began to wonder what I had missed in the night. I drank a little juice and helped Ali catch Adam and the puppies as they raced between the cars; we forced a little food down him and although Ali didn’t say anything I felt we had become a little closer, bonding over Adam’s needs. As I cut up food for him, she smiled thankfully at me and when Adam sat next to me and tried to braid my hair under Lara’s direction, I saw Ali beaming at us all. Mark seemed to be watching too. He had approval in his eyes as we got Adam chatting and Lara showed him how to make a daisy chain. Finally, the time came for us to pack up and get back on the road again. It had been a pleasant break, and we had all needed a rest from travelling and fighting, just to relax and have a bit of fun. We drove slowly through the cars that cluttered certain stretches of the motorway; many were empty with their windows smashed. Some were not empty, and we saw bodies ripped apart and people dead inside their hot cars, belongings fluttered in the breeze and human waste littered the streets as the ravenous ate and defecated without thought or pause. The smell would get pretty bad soon with no one to clear away the mess, we all relied on services provided by those in power to take away rubbish, mend our bodies, put out fires or keep the law but this structure was gone, and we would have to start doing things for ourselves.

  At the appalling sight of bodies that had been torn at and the devastation on certain stretches of the motorway we all tried to keep Adam's eyes off the road and kept him busy playing cards, this worked to distract him and us as well.

  As we headed down a smaller road, the way became clearer and less gruesome, so Lara sat with Ali and Adam playing eye spy and I sat laughing at some of Adam’s guesses. Del was standing at the front, leaning on the back of the seats and looking out of the windows. She had her hand rested on Jason’s shoulder and I tried not to stare at her fingers which brushed against his neck now and then while she chattered away to him, Mark and Lance. After a while, Mark got fed up with her asking questions about the road and the scenery and swapped places with her so she could sit in the front. He came into the back with us and rolled his eyes at me in an exasperated fashion; I smiled a little but was conscious of her sister sitting a few feet away. The last thing I wanted to do was upset Ali, even though she never spoke she seemed to be a lovely person and very sweet.

  Mark sat near her and Lara came over to my side of the van, she smiled over at Ali as Mark settled by her side. Ali sat and listened to Mark as he spoke to her in a low voice. She seemed to light up when he got near. I asked Lara in a hushed voice if anyone knew why Ali didn’t talk. She shrugged and said, “I think she can but since the shock of all this, she has been silent” I widened my eyes and looked over at poor quiet Ali. What had she seen that had made her like this?

  Suddenly the puppies whined, and Mark looked up sharply towards the road. He called out to Lance to stop the van. We pulled over and then we could all hear it. It was an engine, and it was getting closer. There was a mad scramble as Mark shouted instructions and we all grabbed our weapons and hid in the back. Only Mark and Jason stayed in the front and they both put their weapons under the dashboard out of sight. We covered ourselves with blankets and my thoughts flashed back to the drunken idiots we had met in the farmhouse. Del and Ali had heard the story from us all, and I saw Ali covering Adam with her body under the blanket. We could hear the engine coming down the road, it slowed as it reached us, and I heard Jason call out “Hello”. The engine stopped, I heard muffled talking, Jason said “Yes” a few times and laughed. Mark joined in the laughter and called out “It’s ok everyone, it’s a family of survivors”. Adam sprung up at Marks’ words and ran to the front; he clambered over the seats and looked out of the side window. I heard a woman’s voice, and a door opened on the other vehicle. We got out from under the blankets and Lance opened the back door, a young man was stood there dressed in shorts and a thin vest top. He looked in his late teens and was deeply tanned with dark brown almost black hair, next to him stood a little dark-skinned girl in dungarees, she seemed about ten years old, she waved at us and I waved back, laughing she skipped off, her long black hair billowing out behind her. The young man stepped forward and helped Del down, “I’m Haliem,” he said a wide grin on his face. Del smiled back at him and said, “I’m Delilah, that’s my older sister Alison and her little boy.” Lara and I exchanged glances; we were obviously not important enough to be introduced. Lance jumped down and shook the guy’s hand “I’m Lance,” he said sounding manly, “and this is my girlfriend Lara, the lady over there is Cathy. Who are you trave
lling with?” Haliem pulled his eyes away from Del’s mid-drift long enough to gesture towards the large blue family car parked in the road, “My family. My sister Geeta, my brother Siam and my mum and dad” his eyes went back to Del’s legs. Lance nodded with a bemused look on his face and walked towards Jason and Mark; they had already got out of the van and were talking to an older blonde-haired lady in a long summer dress who was stood by the side window. Another man was stood by the blue car; he looked very similar to Haliem, but with a slightly haggard look on his face. He was in ripped blue jeans and a dirty blue t-shirt; a couple of large knives were strapped to his waist. I could see an old man in the back seat his dark skin was liver-spotted and his hair was almost all gone, what was left was wispy and white; he had his head bent and looked unwell, so I approached the vehicle. The young guy stood by the car window walked around to meet me, he blocked my view, I looked into his worried face and tried to smile as I said gently “You must be Siam, Is that your father?” He looked over his shoulder towards the old man and I could see how scared he was but defiant with it. “Yes, he isn’t feeling well.”

  I put my hand out to be shook and said. “I’m Cathy; I’ve met your brother and sister. We have some medicines. I’d like to try to help.” Siam shook my outstretched hand in one quick motion, and I could see uncertainty in his eyes. “If you come with me to speak to him” I tried in a cajoling tone “We may be able to help him” he still looked undecided but then he stepped aside and pointed to the car. “If you think you can help, go ahead” I smiled my thanks and walked to the side window, feeling Siam close behind me. The man in the back seat looked in his late fifty’s, his tanned skin had an unhealthy pallor and he seemed to be gasping for breath, he looked hot but wasn’t sweating. I guessed straight away that it was some kind of heat exhaustion; I ran back to the van and grabbed our thinnest blanket. I yelled at Lara to get me some of the snow melt that we were keeping stored. Quickly I opened the car door and put the blanket over the poor guy, Siam stepped out of the way and I hoped he could tell I was trying to help. The man hardly registered my arrival, Lara brought the water with Siam and Haliem helping, and as we soaked the blanket, Lara gave the gentleman sips of water. As I monitored his temperature Haliem explained that their dad had felt a bit sick and had gone for a lie down at the back of the large car, where there were no seats. When they had checked on him, he had been sick and couldn’t talk, they had sat him up and started for the closest hospital.

  Lara nodded but said in an authoritative tone, “After your Dad had gone to sleep in the back of the car, the hot sun made his temperature sky high and it brought on a heat stroke.” I was impressed; she had been reading the medical books. The older lady came over and I guessed she was the Mum of this group, she held her husband’s hand “Thank you, Lara and Cathy, is it?” She felt his forehead with the back of her hand, “I’m Tessa and this is my husband Jarl, the rest of my family you seem to have met” I smiled and nodded. We worked together to get the wet blanket off and covered the windows with paper and tape to try to stop the hot sun from baking the inside of the car. Tessa gathered her children, and we all decided to head to the closest service station and meet up there to swap stories. Mark herded us back into the truck, Haliem whispered something to Del which made her laugh and she pushed him away playfully, jumping into the van with us. We drove along following the blue people carrier; the signs said it was only a few miles to the next stop, so we settled in for a short drive. Del gushed at her sister about Haliem; “he is so cute, I know he’s young, but it’s so flattering.” Every now and then she looked over at Jason to see his reaction, but he was busy watching the road.

  Ali was first out of the van when we stopped, and I didn’t blame her, her sister’s constant chatter had given me a headache as well. Adam had both puppies on leads, and they dragged him out as the doors opened. We followed him and saw the blue car a little way ahead; Tessa was overseeing the boys as they carried their father from the vehicle. Geeta ran over and helped Adam with the puppies. They took one each and headed towards the building, but Mark ran ahead and silently waved them back. He put his finger to his lips and motioned for Lance to come to the front. Carefully we all went into the main building; Mark and Lance led with Jason in the rear. The place looked deserted, but there were no guarantees.

  After a quick scout around, they came back out and called to us all to come in. We secured the dining area near the doors and the children were allowed to play with Lara watching them while we found something to eat, Siam and Haliem settled Jarl into a booth and we made a meal out of the tinned ham and carrots that we had found in the stockroom. Del sat close to Haliem, and he seemed to glow with pleasure at having her so close. I looked at Jason’s face, wondering if I would see anger or rejection there, but he seemed not to notice that Del’s affections and attention had been diverted to Haliem.

  Tessa began to tell us about her family as we ate, and we all listened, recognising the need that we all had to share our survivor stories.

  “We all woke up on the morning of this gas assault with no idea that anything had happened. We were all ok, and it was early, so after a quick breakfast and the usual chatter, I sent the children off to school without a second thought. Jarl had headed to work, and I was thinking about the items I needed to buy at the supermarket when suddenly the electric went out, I thought it was a fuse and went to look in the electric cupboard. I couldn’t see what was wrong, so I grabbed my mobile and looked up a number for a local electrician, three different electricians later and no answer I tried the electric board, but it just had an engaged tone, I got a little worried. As I hung up, my mobile rang, it was the boys they said they had waited outside the gates, but the school was closed up, no one had arrived to start the day and then while they were on the phone talking to me Geeta turned up at their school. I could hear she was upset. The boys questioned her, and she said no one had opened her school either. That’s when I began to feel panicked, I told the boys to bring Geeta home and then I tried to call Jarl, but he didn’t answer, I even tried to unsuccessfully call 999 as I was getting a little hysterical. I was feeling lost, but then the kids arrived home and I knew I had to try to hold it together. Jarl arrived a little later with some gruesome stories of cars out on the motorway with dead people inside and seeing people running around eating each other. We shielded the children from these stories as we didn’t want to frighten them. But one of the cannibals had attacked Jarl's car, and he had decided to turn the car around and head home as he was worried about us all and his phone was out of charge.

  After a long debate, we decided to go out and find help; instead, we found our neighbours dead in their houses and fought off more cannibal attacks.”

  She took a deep breath and looked around at her family.

  “It seemed the whole world had died or gone crazy. After a few days of no help arriving, Jarl drove us to a local army base, but it was locked up tight and the only humans we saw tried to attack us. We found a survivor on the motorway a teenage girl but she had been attacked by the cannibals, she had a terrible fever and we couldn’t stop the bleeding, she died soon after we found her she was lying in my arms calling me, “Mummy” it broke my heart.” Tessa stopped again, and we could all see the tears in her eyes, but she continued. “Then we had to get supplies and find somewhere to stay, at first we tried a large supermarket but the whole front was glass and it just seemed too easy to get attacked in there, we reconsidered and decided to pack up the car and head to the pier and then on our way we met all of you.” Tessa smiled at us, parts of her story were familiar to us all and we had all been nodding along sympathetically. “Did you say the pier?” Mark asked gently. Tessa nodded and smiled again. “We have a plan to survive this.” We all listened intently as bit by bit with Siam interjecting now and then she outlined their plan. They had figured out that the ravenous hated water and so they were planning to go to the pier and live on the structure until help arrived. They were going to destroy the planks
at the beginning of it to stop ravenous getting across and they had gathered some supplies, but they intended to take more. We all agreed that it was a good plan, but I was certain it wouldn’t work in the long run.

  As the group chatted, I caught Mark’s eye and tilted my head as if you say I want to talk to you over there. Mark nodded slightly, and we both got up and headed to the kitchen area. We looked through the food and cans that were left and unspoilt. “It is a good idea.” Mark said quietly, “but it is not a long-term survival plan”.

  I nodded my agreement, “there is no way to grow crops on wooden slates or to defend against raiders from the shore.”

  Mark nodded as well, “you think this might last a long time?”

  I shrugged my shoulders, “the news report didn’t sound good, did it?” I replied. “Who knows if there are people coming to get us? If anyone left out there is even in a position to help us? Or how long it will all take? Does anyone know we are here? Does anyone care?”