The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Artinian, Christopher

  Wren closed the book. “Before we can even think about the fencing, we need to get all the materials here. That’s going to take a long time. We’ll probably only get two rolls of barbed wire in the wheelbarrow at any one time.”

  “God, that’ll take forever,” Robyn replied.

  “I told you this was going to be hard work.”

  “Come on then.”

  They both went back outside, and Robyn picked up the handles of the barrow. They walked down the track and as they went along the lane, a cloud covered the sun. As they re-entered the farmyard, and the wheel of the barrow crunched across the stone chips, Robyn paused and looked towards the house.

  “What is it?” Wren asked.

  “Are you sure we’re making the right decision?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Wouldn’t it be better if we moved in here?”

  “But…” Wren looked towards the purple patch of dried blood on the stone chips.

  Robyn put the wheelbarrow down and walked over to the purple stain. “We could always wash them or we could cart them out.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “What then?”

  “This was their home, Bobbi. They took us in. They were good to us. And within a few days of us arriving, they’re all dead.”

  “That’s not because of us,” Robyn replied. “I told you before. They were weak. They weren’t cut out for this world. If we hadn’t have come along, this would have happened anyway.”

  “All they needed was a little time...like us.”

  “No, Wren. They weren’t like us. Yes, they were good people. They were kind people. They gave us shelter and help, and food when we needed it the most, but it wasn’t our fault things ended up this way.”

  “It just feels wrong taking their home.”

  “We need to think about us. Would it be better for us to live here, or at the other place?” Robyn walked across to the house and opened the kitchen door. She stepped inside and a few seconds later, she felt the presence of her sister by her.

  “They’ve got the well, and I suppose it means we wouldn’t have to cart water back and forth.”

  “They’ve got the solid fuel range which heats the hot water and the radiators. We could have hot showers or baths whenever we wanted. In winter we wouldn’t just be stuck in the one room to stay warm; the whole house would be warm.”

  “It’s enclosed by fences, but it’s got a really big entrance. That would be a huge job making that secure.”

  “Yeah, but nowhere near as big as what we wanted to do at the other place.”

  “We’d need to get all their clothes and stuff out. I don’t want this to feel like their house. I don’t want a constant reminder.”

  “Totally. I don’t want to feel like I’m ripping off a dead family…but maybe they would have wanted us to have the place. We’ll make it our own. What do you say?” Robyn asked.

  “I suppose it’s the sensible thing to do.”

  “Okay then. So…” The pair walked back out into the yard and up to the entrance. There was a white, knee-high wall that ran down the lane in either direction. Behind the wall were thick hedges. It would be very difficult for a creature to gain access through those, but not impossible.

  “This gap must be about eight metres,” Wren said, surveying the entrance to the yard.

  “How can you guess that just by looking?”

  “Well, I can jump over six metres, and it’s longer than that.”

  “So, where do we start?”

  Wren stood looking for a moment longer. She glanced at the black tarmac of the road and then the narrow concrete lip that separated it from the farm. She walked across and bent down, digging underneath the white stone chips. After removing a couple of handfuls, she uncovered a thick, black landscaping sheet. Pulling the pen knife out of her pocket, she dug up the edge of it and peeled back as much as she could. “It just looks like earth underneath,” Wren said.

  “And?”

  “I think we’re going to have to put a couple of fence posts in.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. But we don’t have anything to attach the barbed wire to. And I think we’ll need to build a gate, too, otherwise getting in and out is going to be hard.”

  Robyn’s shoulders sagged, and her confidence began to dissipate. “It’s one thing wrapping barbed wire around a load of trees to make a fence, but actually building one...I mean one that will stand up if we get attacked…is something else.”

  “Whichever place we choose to live there are going to be risks, and there are going to be problems. So, again, Bobbi, is this the best place for us to live?”

  Robyn looked around again. “I thought it was.”

  “Then we do what we need to do to make this safe.”

  “I suppose you’re—”

  “Oh shit!” screamed Wren as a creature suddenly appeared. It did not mirror Wren’s shock, but it switched from what was almost a meander to a full-paced sprint in the blink of an eye.

  The two girls ran for their weapons, which they’d leant by the side of the door. Wren held her javelin tightly, while Robyn picked up her bow and whipped an arrow out of the quiver. She aimed and fired as the beast flew towards them. The arrow shot straight through the beast’s neck, causing it to falter for a second before continuing towards them. Robyn grabbed hold of a second arrow, but Wren stepped forward, she knew there would not be enough time to get another shot off.

  The beast lunged, and Wren brought up the javelin, misjudging the trajectory of the creature. It parried the metal spear with its upper arm and she watched in horror as the monstrous figure came ever closer. It dived, grasping Wren’s shoulders. Wren staggered back, her left foot tripping over her right. Her body hit the stone chips hard, and she brought her hands up in a last-ditch attempt to fight off the beast. It was a feral, rabid animal: no feeling, no mercy, and one look into its eyes made Wren shiver.

  The creature opened its mouth wide, and zeroed in on her neck. The smell of decay almost choked her as it pushed closer, but then a loud crack shocked Wren from her fatalistic thoughts. The monster almost flew off her as Robyn’s boot made contact with its left temple. As the beast toppled, her foot continued to rise into the air. She quickly brought it down again and grabbed the javelin from the floor while the creature collected itself from its sideways roll. The side of its head appeared to be stoved in, but by some devilry, this did not affect its resolve, and it charged once again.

  Wren scooted out of the way, as this time it pounced towards Robyn. The beast was too quick for her to aim the javelin, but she managed to smash its head, causing it to tumble against the side of the house and stain the white paint with a blotch of red from its head wound. It began to scramble back to its feet just as quickly, but Robyn unleashed another blow with the javelin, knocking the creature flat on its face. This time she pressed her foot down hard on its back and thrust the javelin up through the base of its skull. All struggling ceased immediately, but Robyn stayed in position, desperately trying to bring her breathing back under control. “Are you okay?” she eventually asked her sister.

  “Yeah. Are you?” Wren asked.

  “I think so.” She withdrew the javelin and wiped it off on the fallen beast’s clothes.

  “That came from the direction of Tolsta. Do you think they’ve broken out of the surgery?”

  “I doubt it, Wren. They’re not very smart.”

  “Do you think someone else might have opened the surgery doors? Maybe they were looking for supplies.”

  Robyn looked long and hard at her sister. “God, I hope not.”

  “The sooner we get this place secured, the better.”

  “What are we going to do with the body? It already stinks; it will only get worse.”

  “Should we bury it?”

  “We can’t bury every single one we kill. All we’ll be doing is digging holes.”

  “What then?” Wren asked. “If we burn them,
smoke will go into the air and that might attract more of them.”

  “I know that, Wren. I don’t have all the answers. We need to think about this. We need to think about everything. We need to think about how we’re going to put up fence posts. I mean, how the hell do we do that? How the hell do we get rid of a body? How the hell do we do any of it?” Robyn was nearly in tears.

  “It’s okay. We’re going to figure it out.”

  “Oh yeah? Everything’s gone so well for us so far, hasn’t it? We’ve figured everything out just great.”

  “We’re still here aren’t we?”

  “For the time being, but who knows when the next one of these things is going to come around the corner. Next time we might be facing away. We might be away from our weapons. We might have our hands full with bags of fertiliser or—” Robyn started to hyperventilate.

  Wren opened the door and guided her sister to the kitchen table. Robyn took a seat and doubled over while Wren closed the door behind them. Robyn’s loud, rasping breaths continued for a few moments and her sister crouched down beside her, gently rubbing her back. Robyn’s breathing eventually returned to normal.

  “That hasn’t happened in a long time,” Wren said,

  “I thought I’d grown out of it. This is turning out to be a great day.”

  “I’m here with you, Bobbi. We’ll figure all of this out together; you don’t need to take all the responsibility.”

  “Responsibility was never my thing, was it?” Robyn said, laughing.

  “I know you’re going to roll your eyes, but it would help if we made a list and drew up a plan before we just started diving into things.”

  Robyn sat back a little in the chair. “I’m not going to roll my eyes. For once, I think having a nerd like you around might actually help. I mean, there’ll be reading instructions and stuff. I can’t be bothered with that shit.” The two girls laughed.

  “Stay here a minute.” Wren disappeared into one of the other rooms and came back with a pen and pad of paper. She wrote OBJECTIVES at the top of the first sheet and tore it out, placing it to one side of the pad.

  “What are you doing?” Robyn asked.

  “Okay, this is how we do it. On this sheet we write down our objectives, and put a number beside them.” She wrote DELIVERY at the top of the next sheet. “And on this one we detail how we’re actually going to do it.” She tore off that sheet, and on a third sheet wrote, RESOURCES. “And on this one, we write down what we’re going to need.”

  “Okay, I take it back. Dial down the nerd a little; you’re freaking me out.”

  “Be serious.”

  “I am being. How did no one beat you up at school?”

  “You don’t mess with a girl who can put the shot nearly fourteen metres. And if anybody ever came along who could, well, I run the two hundred in twenty-five, so I’ve got all the bases covered,” she said with a smile.

  Robyn pushed her lower lip forward with her tongue and made a sound mocking her sister. “Smart arse.”

  “Okay, so, first off,” she said, writing; ‘1 - GET RID OF ZOMBIE BODIES’, on the objectives sheet. “How are we going to do this?”

  “I thought the whole point was you were going to tell me. What was all that crap about it’s both our responsibility?”

  “We’re going to figure it out; this is brainstorming.”

  “Oh god, kill me now.”

  “Stop it. Trust me, this will work.”

  “Let me guess. Your pervy coach taught you how to do this shit?”

  “Kind of.”

  Robyn leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and placing her hands over her face. “So? Go on, Brainiac. Brainstorm.”

  Wren sat there for a moment just looking at the piece of paper. “We can’t leave the bodies just lying around; the smell alone could make us ill.”

  “Well, duh!” Robyn said from underneath her hands.

  “We can’t bury them, because that would take up way too much time.”

  “Can I go back to bed and you can just wake me when you’ve finished talking to yourself?”

  “We can’t burn them at night because of the flames, but in daylight, the smoke might be seen. To be honest, for the odd one, I doubt if it would be that noticeable, but we don’t want to be burning just one at a time.”

  “This is getting us nowhere. Y’know, most people wait to speak until they’ve got a thought in their head actually worth saying,” Robyn said, slapping her hands down on the kitchen table.

  Ignoring her sister’s comment, Wren continued. “But if we dug a big, deep ditch, and burnt the bodies at night, no one, or no thing, would be able to see the smoke or the flames.”

  Robyn looked up at her. “A ditch?”

  “Yeah. We dig it deep enough so the flames don’t appear above ground level.”

  Robyn thought about it for a moment and a small smile crept onto her face. “Y’see, this is teamwork. I provide the constructive criticism, you come up with the solution.”

  “Yeah. There’s no way I could have done it without you. You’re a great sounding board, sis.”

  “Okay, you lucked out on this one, what’s next?”

  “Now we go to the ‘DELIVERY’ sheet,” Wren said, with a smile on her face.

  “Oh god! You love this stuff, don’t you?”

  “It’s not about loving it, it’s about getting the job done. It helps me feel like I’m in control.” She tore another sheet of paper out of the pad and handed that and a pen to her sister.

  “What’s this for?”

  “I thought you might want to amuse yourself drawing pretty pictures or something while I get on with the real work.”

  “Screw you, nerd girl,” she replied, shoving the pen and paper back across the table.

  “Okay, so we deliver our objective by…” she started writing on the delivery sheet.

  “By a hell of a lot of digging.”

  “Which brings us onto our final sheet,” Wren said, as Robyn let out a loud groan. “Pick axes, shovels, wheelbarrow, digger, question mark.”

  “What do you mean digger, question mark?”

  “They’ve got a mechanical digger in the barn.”

  “And?”

  “Maybe we can figure out how to use it.”

  “Just like that?”

  “I’m not saying we will. I’m just saying it’s worth taking a look before we start what will probably be a day or more of backbreaking labour.”

  Robyn shook her head. “Whatever.”

  “Okay,” Wren said, pulling the objectives sheet back towards her. “Number two - secure the entrance to the farm.”

  “We’re going to fill these sheets before we actually do anything, aren’t we?”

  “Yes...yes we are.”

  “Ugh! I need coffee then.”

  “Make me one too.”

  Robyn got up and placed the kettle onto the range. It was still throwing out heat from the previous day, but she opened it up and threw another log and some kindling on top of the glowing embers. She stood back a little as she watched it catch, and then she let out a sigh. “Do you remember how Mum always dreamed of having a gas one of these?”

  Wren pushed her chair back and went to stand by her sister’s side. “Yeah, she’d have loved this.”

  Robyn turned back towards Wren. “You look like her, y’know. You look like Mum.”

  “We both do,” Wren replied. “It’s only cos you dyed your hair black and tried to look like someone out of a chick metal band. You grow all that out, and we both look like Mum again.”

  “I’m glad we look like her. Shit, can you imagine if we’d got Dad’s eyebrows?” The two girls laughed. “I’m sorry I was making fun. You’re really good at this.”

  “It’s all I know.”

  “I’m glad one of us does.”

  “Trust me, Bobbi, we can make this work, you and me, I promise.”

  “You should only make a promise if you know you can keep it, Wren.”
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br />   chapter 10

  “What do you mean we take the gate from the other house? Are you mental?”

  “Calm down,” Wren replied. “It makes sense. The gate is about three metres in length, it’s strong, galvanised steel.”

  “Erm, hello, it’s like already cemented to the posts and stuff.”

  “Well, actually, it’s not. That gate will lift straight up and off the hinges if you took the time to look at it.”

  “Okay, smart arse. Where do we get new hinges from?”

  “We take those.”

  “They’re cemented into the posts. What don’t you understand about that?”

  “We take a pick axe to them. We dig them out, we build another post here for it.”

  “We just build another post? The two of us? I’m sorry, I must have been asleep when you passed your master builder qualification. I’m assuming you have one, cos I haven’t got a clue how to do any of that.”

  Wren disappeared for a moment and came back with a large, red, hardback book. “I told you, everything we need can be found in books.”

  “Collins Complete DIY Manual? I’ve just realised. The world didn’t end at all. I just died, and this is hell.”

  “I told you, Bobbi, you need to trust me.”

  Wren spent the rest of the afternoon filling the sheets with everything from bolstering their stock of food with regularly scheduled fishing and foraging trips, to defending themselves by tabling archery and crossbow practice once a day.

  “So, now we’ve spent the entire day talking and doing absolutely nothing. We need to decide: are we going to stay here for the night, or go back to the other place? Let me guess; you want to do a pros and cons chart to decide.”

  “Funny. No, it makes more sense to stay here tonight. The stove is already heated, we can have some supper and a good night’s sleep so we can make an early start tomorrow,” Wren said, heading towards the cupboards to see what there was to eat.

  “How come you’re not bothered about smoke from the chimney for the range, but you’re worried about smoke if we burn bodies without building a ditch?”

  “One or two logs won’t produce a massive amount of smoke, and chances are it will dissipate before it rises too high in the air. If you set fire to half a dozen of those things, they could be wearing all sorts of materials that throw off nasty stuff when they burn. We don’t want to take risks.”