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

by Artinian, Christopher

  The girls took longer than needed to organise themselves, and both of them knew why, they just did not want to admit it. They were still unnerved by the events of the morning. The whole episode with the wheelbarrow made no sense at all.

  Putting up a fence, a secure fence that was going to protect them, might not have been too big a deal for Thomas, or even Kayleigh. They had been brought up on farms, and had probably helped with such things from a young age. But Wren and Robyn had no idea what they were doing; they didn’t know a shovel from a spade. They were winging it well and truly. The fence had the potential to be a disaster, and not just that, but they were exposed at the mouth of the farmyard. If any creatures came along the lane, the two sisters would be seen for sure. And then there was the digger. The digger’s engine was loud, and its arm made a metallic clunk which echoed like a church bell every time it straightened. Wren had not been too worried when she was digging the grave at the back of the barn, but now, their location seemed a little less safe, a little less isolated.

  “Looks good,” Wren said, as she stood in the doorway to Robyn’s room.

  “Scary how similar Kayleigh’s taste was.”

  “I was thinking that,” Wren said, smiling. “I got you a ‘welcome to your new room’ present.” Wren handed Robyn something that was wrapped in a green and white checked tea towel with a bow around it.

  Robyn took it and smiled. “What is it?”

  “Open it and see.”

  Robyn sat down on the bed and undid the bow. It was a picture frame that she recognised from the living room. But now, rather than it containing an old wedding photo of Thomas and Isabel, there was a picture of the two sisters and their parents in it. A warm smile crept over Robyn’s face. “This was last Easter. It was boiling that weekend.”

  “I remember.”

  “Thanks, Wren. I love it. Can’t believe you’ve kept it safe this whole time,” she said, carefully placing it down on her bedside cabinet. She looked towards her sister and the smile gradually thinned. “Don’t suppose we can put this off any longer, can we?”

  “We can put it off as long as we want, but we run the risk of waking up one morning and the house being surrounded by zombies.”

  Robyn stood. “Okay, I’ll meet you outside in a minute.” Wren nodded and left. Robyn reached for the photo again and brought it up to her lips. “Miss you,” she whispered.

  Outside, Wren had placed the javelin and Robyn’s bow and a quiver of arrows against the side of the house, next to the front door. On the bench beneath the kitchen window, she had the self-sufficiency book open at the ‘fence building’ section. She had read it several times, but was going through it again. “Before we do anything, we need to clear a channel of stone chips away from the edging, so we can peel back the covering.”

  “Okay,” Robyn said, picking up one of the shovels that her sister had already laid out. They picked up their weapons too, and the pair of them walked up to the small concrete lip that separated the tarmac of the road from the white stone chips of the yard. They looked in both directions before leaning the bow and the javelin against the tall hedge that bordered the front of the driveway at either side of the entrance.

  “Time to get to work,” Wren said, wheeling the barrow across.

  They started shoveling the stone chips, filling the wheelbarrow several times. Finally, the job was done. Wren peeled back the thick landscaping sheet designed to stop weeds breaking through from the earth below.

  “So, what now?”

  “Now we—” A sound broke Wren from her thoughts and the pair looked at each other with the same panicked expression. Robyn immediately picked up her bow and placed the quiver over her shoulder then passed Wren her javelin.

  It was an engine. At first neither of them could figure out where it was coming from, but as it got louder, they looked down the lane in the direction of the polytunnel field.

  “What should we do?” Robyn asked.

  “Well; It’s not going to be a zombie driving is it?”

  Then they saw it. A vintage, bottle green pick-up truck emerged from around the bend and chugged towards them. As it got closer still, they heard music playing, it was a little like Tony Bennett, but not. “I swear to god this is like a scene out of Jeepers Creepers. If the driver of that thing is wearing a cowboy hat, I’m out of here.”

  It took what seemed like an age for the classic truck to grind to a halt in front of them. The sun reflected against the glass, and they could not make out the figure inside. The engine stopped, but the music played on for a moment, coming to a crashing finish, before falling silent.

  The driver’s door squeaked open, releasing a cloud of blue smoke, and a tall figure climbed out. He was a man who looked to be in his sixties. He had a craggy face, like he’d spent most of his life outdoors, and a full head of greying black hair. He walked over to where the two girls were standing. “Who might you be then?” he asked, in a deep gravelly voice, taking a puff on his cigarette.

  “We could ask the same question,” Wren said, trying not to seem perturbed by his imposing stature.

  A smile formed on the man’s face, as if sensing the girls’ fear. He looked towards the one holding the bow, then at the one, who had spoken. Her hand was grasped tightly around a javelin. “What are you going to do with that?” he asked, nodding towards the long metal spear.

  Wren puffed out her chest a little. “Hopefully nothing.”

  The smile remained on his face, and he nodded. “Where are Thomas and Isabel?” he asked.

  Wren’s shoulders sagged, but she kept a tight hold on the javelin. “They’re...gone.”

  “Gone as in, they’ve up and left? Or gone as in dead?”

  “The second one.”

  His smile disappeared, and he took a long draw on his cigarette, issuing a stream of smoke through his nose. “I knew Thomas all his life. Knew his father before him. Good people. That’s too bad. The kids? Brendan and Kayleigh?”

  “They’re gone too,” Wren said.

  The man gave a gentle shake of his head. “Shame. Good family.”

  “Yes, they were,” Wren replied.

  “You knew them?”

  “Briefly. They took us in.”

  “I see.” He looked at the strip of earth that had been uncovered. “What you up to here then?”

  “We’re going to put up a fence...and a gate.”

  The man raised his eyebrows. “You are, are you? Lot of work.” He suddenly noticed the wheelbarrow and the bags of concrete. “That was you who left the wheelbarrow in the middle of the road yesterday?”

  “Yeah. We had to run.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “That was you who pushed it back to the field?”

  “Didn’t want to leave it in the middle of the road. Went back this morning, saw it wasn’t there. Thought I’d come up here and see what was going on.”

  “Did you see those...things, yesterday?”

  “I did. My place is well back from the road, but you couldn’t fail to hear that many.”

  “We’re out in the sticks here. Where did they all come from?”

  “From what I’ve heard, these things don’t have much sense. They see something and home in on it. Might have been a couple hundred in total. Not many in the grand scheme of things. They saw the smoke and headed towards it. Dare say there were plenty more on one of the main routes.”

  “There were enough.”

  “That there were.”

  The man took a final puff on his cigarette, and stubbed it out on the heel of his boot before walking back to the car and putting it in the ashtray. He took his coat off and placed it on the driver’s seat, then walked back across to join the girls. “Not got any plans this afternoon, don’t mind giving you a hand if you want.”

  “It’s kind of you to offer, but we’ll be f—”

  “That would be amazing,” Robyn blurted before she could finish.

  The man looked at Wren and smiled, then looked
over to Robyn. “Name’s Jeb,” he said, holding out his hand.

  Robyn placed the bow down and reached across. “I’m Robyn, this is my sister, Wren. Jeb, so what’s that short for?”

  “Full name is Jeremiah Edward Blake.”

  “Jeremiah?” Wren said.

  “That’s why I go by Jeb,” he said.

  “So what are we doing here?”

  Wren talked Jeb through her plans and he nodded appreciatively. “You came up with this yourself?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Smart girl. Right then. Let’s get these holes dug.”

  “I used the digger yesterday, but you’ve probably got more experience with it.”

  “The digger?” Jeb said. “We don’t want a digger for this, it will make the holes way too big. Pickaxe and shovels, that’s all we need.” He walked across the yard and disappeared into the large equipment shed.

  “Don’t you think we should have discussed this before inviting him to stay?” Wren said.

  “He offered to help. We don’t know what we’re doing, and I bet he’s built a hundred fences in his time.”

  “But what if he’s another Norman?”

  “He doesn’t look like a Norman, and he doesn’t talk like a Norman.”

  “Norman didn’t talk like a Norman until he did.”

  “I tell you what, if he comes out of there dangling one of the dead rats, by its tail, I’ll shoot him with my bow. If he doesn’t, we’ll accept his help.”

  Jeb re-emerged from the shed whistling. He had two pickaxes, and as he approached the girls, he handed one to Wren. “Thomas Edison said, The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. You’ve already proved you’ve got the last two covered, let’s see how you do with the first one.” He went to his car and pulled out a tape measure from the glove compartment. He asked Robyn to hold one end while he made and marked several measurements. “You say it’s the gate at the loch cottage you’re using?” he said, looking at Wren.

  “Yeah, but I forgot to measure it, sorry.”

  “It’s twelve foot,” Jeb replied.

  “How do you know?” Wren asked.

  “Thomas and I always opted for the seven rail, twelve-foot gates. And you don’t want to be messing around trying to remove the fittings. There’s a lot of cement holding that in place. I’ve got some back in my shed, but we’ll get those later. Let’s make a start on this or the day will be gone before we know it.”

  By mid-afternoon the three fence posts were in the ground. Jeb walked across to the car and leaned in, pulling a packet of cigarettes from the dashboard. He took one out, lit it up and blew a long column of smoke into the air. “What now?” Robyn asked.

  “That’s us done for the day,” Jeb said.

  “I don’t understand,” Wren said. “We’ve still got plenty of daylight.”

  “The concrete’s got to dry,” Jeb replied.

  “How long will that take?”

  “Twenty-four hours or so.” He looked at his watch. “We’ll start again the day after tomorrow to be safe. I need to head to Tolsta tomorrow morning, get some supplies.”

  “Tolsta?” Wren said. “Tolsta’s gone”

  He was about to take another puff of his cigarette, but stopped and turned to look at Wren. “What do you mean, gone?”

  “I mean it’s gone. There was a big fire, and when we were there the other day it was swimming with those things.”

  “But...so...the church too?”

  “No, the church is okay, but the main street is toast,” Robyn replied.

  “So it’s just the main street?” Jeb asked.

  “Yeah,” Wren said.

  “So the doctor’s surgery. That’s okay?”

  “Erm. It depends what you mean by okay,” Robyn said.

  “It’s still standing?” Jeb said.

  “Yeah, but you can’t go there,” Robyn said.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s full of those things. It’s full of the dead.”

  Jeb let out a long sigh. “Oh well, we’ve all got to die of something.”

  “What do you mean?” Robyn asked.

  “I have heart disease. I was due to go and collect my prescription for Warfarin and Nitroglycerine spray.”

  “Erm…how much do you have left?”

  “I take my last tablet tomorrow, and with recent events, I’ve been using the spray quite a bit.”

  “Should you really be doing digging and that kind of stuff with a heart condition?”

  “They say exercise is good,” he replied with a broad smile.

  “Yeah, I think they’re talking about a nice brisk walk when they say that.”

  He grinned. “I suppose we’ll see soon enough.”

  chapter 15

  Robyn and Wren looked towards each other, suddenly feeling very guilty. “I…don’t know what to say,” began Robyn.

  “Nothing to say,” Jeb replied. “I don’t have a choice. I’ve never been a quitter. I’ve got to at least try to get it.”

  “But—”

  “We’ll help you,” Wren said. Robyn looked towards her sister, bewildered.

  “I would never dream of putting somebody else in harm’s way for my sake. I’m an old man, living on borrowed time as it is.”

  “Listen to me,” Wren said, looking at Jeb, then looking towards Robyn. The creatures that were in the village. The ones that we saw when we went with Thomas the other day. They had probably been drawn in by the smoke from the fire. They are more than likely among the ones that came through here yesterday, so the only zombies we’ll to worry about are in the surgery,” Wren said.

  “No biggie there then,” Robyn replied.

  “How do you know these things are in the surgery?”

  “We trapped them there,” Wren replied.

  “Why?”

  “It’s a long story,” Wren replied.

  “I’ll bet it is. So how many are we talking about?”

  “The whole village.”

  “How in Hades did you manage that?”

  “I told you, it’s a long story. There are at least forty of them.”

  “Then there’s no way to get to what I need. It would be a death sentence for anyone to try getting inside. I thought Tolsta would have been okay. I thought it was too remote. I didn’t realise it would have spread out there so quickly,” Jeb took another puff on his cigarette, and started coughing. “My wife always told me these things would be the death of me. If only she knew.”

  “Your wife?” Robyn said.

  “Long gone.” He looked across the farmyard and to the fields beyond. “Ten years since my Lydia left me. She’s buried in the cemetery in Tolsta.”

  “That’s why you wanted to know about the church?” Wren said. Jeb nodded. The three of them stood in silence while the old man finished his cigarette. Like before, he stubbed it out on the sole of his shoe and placed it in the ashtray.

  “Well, I’d better be getting home. I’ll come back across tomorrow with those fixtures for the gate and I’ll help you bring it down from the cottage.”

  He climbed into the car, but Wren held the door open. “Have dinner with us,” she said.

  “Yes,” Robyn added coming to join her. “At the very least, have dinner with us, Jeb. It’s the least we can do after you helped us today.”

  Jeb, tousled the stubble on his chin. “Well…”

  “We insist,” Wren said.

  “I’ve never been one to say no to a meal with a beautiful woman, and now I’ve got two asking me.” He looked up to the sky. “Lydia, close your eyes,” he said, chuckling to himself.

  Robyn and Wren laughed too, but it was a sad laugh. They had both taken to Jeb, and now it looked like it would be the briefest of friendships. He started the car and carefully steered it, making sure not to undo any of the good work they had done. He pulled up outside the house and climbed out again.

  “Not
hing too exciting,” Wren said. “Pasta bake with mushrooms.”

  “When somebody else is cooking, I’m never fussy,” Jeb said. “If I’d have known I was coming out for dinner, I’d have got dressed up, though.”

  “It’ll be a little while yet, why don’t you go through to the living room, and relax?” Wren said.

  Jeb and Robyn went through and Wren started preparing dinner. She put a pan of water on the stove and grabbed an onion and a clove of garlic from the fridge. Within a few minutes, Robyn came in to join her.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “It’s okay. You go through and talk to Jeb,” Wren said as she chopped the onion.

  “He pretty much drifted off to sleep as soon as he sat down on the couch.”

  “So, it’s not just me who drifts off when you start talking?”

  “Funny cow, aren’t you?”

  Robyn watched as Wren prepared the food. “You do realise, he’s going to die because of us.”

  “Erm, no, he’s not,” Robyn said. “He’s going to die because a virus has taken over the planet, turning people into flesh eating monsters.”

  “Yeah, but we lured them into that surgery. That was the one hope he had, and we took it away.”

  “There’s not much we can do about it now, is there? I mean I feel bad for him, but it’s not like we can turn back time.”

  Wren took a packet of pasta from the pantry, and removed the plate of oyster mushrooms she and Isabel had found just a couple of days before, from the fridge. She rinsed them under the tap and dried them on a clean tea towel, then carried them back to the work surface, where she sliced them. “The thing is, I’ve been thinking about it.”

  “Oh god. I knew this was coming,” Robyn said. “I could just tell. I could see the cogs going.”

  “Listen, it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds,” Wren said.

  “Here we go.”

  “There are what, forty of those things? How many did we take out yesterday?”

  Robyn thought for a while. “I don’t know, about twenty-five, thirty.”

  “Yeah, and that was with no planning. It just happened. I think if we actually thought about it, we could come up with a way to do it.”