Children of the Apocalypse: Mega Boxed Set

by Baileigh Higgins

  A fist hammered on the door. “Max, come quick!”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, jumping to his feet. He had to shout to make himself heard as he struggled to pull on his boots.

  “Trouble by the game farm,” the voice replied through the haze of falling water and rumbling skies.

  He opened the door to reveal a wide-eyed Ronnie, his ruddy skin pale and his shock of rusty hair plastered to his skull. Another clash of white light forked across the sky. It revealed banks of roiling clouds across their heads and trees bent double under the onslaught of the wind and rain.

  “What trouble?” Max asked as he shrugged on a jacket.

  “A tree fell over onto the fence,” Ronnie replied. “Breytenbach’s already there.”

  The wind snatched the next words from his lips, and Max leaned closer to hear better. “What did you say?”

  “Infected. They’re inside. They’re everywhere!”

  Chapter 5 - Lisa

  Lisa picked at the bland rice and bean mixture on her plate without enthusiasm. There was no meat in the dish and minimal salt. Only a smattering of tomatoes and onions provided relief from the starchy mess. With the whole camp on short rations, however, it was the best Elise, and the kitchen staff could offer at the moment.

  Not that Kabelo appeared to agree. He shoveled the stuff into his mouth at the speed of light. Rice kernels littered the tabletop where he sat, and he chewed with admirable dedication. At least he’s using a spoon this time.

  She sighed and looked away from the sight. Her eyes wandered toward the windows. The rain fell in sheets, sloughing off the glass in a downpour of water the likes of which none of them had seen all year. Thunder rumbled in the background and rolled across the empty veldt in a wave of sound while lightning lit the roiling clouds with brilliant flashes of white.

  She flinched when one hit particularly close, the sharp crack eliciting a squeak from Kabelo who stopped eating for a moment to stare outside.

  Lisa shifted in her seat and pushed her half-empty plate aside. She wasn’t hungry anyway. Instead, she brooded on the past few weeks spent babysitting Kabelo, her prisoner. At first, she’d hated him. Hated him more than anything in this world. She’d watched him like a hawk, following his every move with brooding distrust. She’d even hoped he’d give her a reason to kill him.

  But the boy behaved with complete innocence. He shied away from her harsh words and treatment, acting like a skittish horse. When she scowled at him, he cowered. When she commanded him to do something, he obeyed. All with a quiet fearfulness better suited to a terrified child than a ruthless gang member out to murder and plunder.

  This put her in a quandary. Not only was she beginning to feel sorry for him, but she even thought that maybe Elise was right. Perhaps he was just a kid and innocent in all of this. He doesn’t look capable of swatting a fly.

  There had been one particular incident when he came across the other children playing outside the schoolroom. The wistful longing on his face had tugged at her heartstrings. This despite all her efforts to keep herself hardened against him.

  “Can I play?” he’d asked.

  “I’m sorry, but no.”

  “Why not?”

  “The parents won’t like it.”

  “Because I’m bad?”

  “Because you might be.”

  His lips had pressed together in an expression that looked like grief. “I no have parents. Maybe I am bad.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  He shook his head and turned away from the sight of the frolicking kids. “Maybe I don’t deserve. Maybe it who I am.”

  She hadn’t known what to say, and his remarks had bothered her ever since. What had he meant by it? That he was bad because he didn’t have parents? Or that he didn’t have parents because he was bad? That he didn’t deserve them?

  Now she studied him through lowered lashes and felt warmth well up inside for the annoying boy. She was not the only one. Even Julianne was beginning to warm up to him and no longer stalked his every move.

  “Kabelo, please clean up your mess,” she said. He did as she asked, scooping up bits of food with his fingers before popping it into his mouth. She sighed and shook her head while suppressing laughter. There was no help for it. He is what he is.

  She leaned back and looked around. The dining area was almost empty. The only other people there were Elise, Joanna, David, and Hannah. They sat at a corner table and murmured among themselves. The lights above their heads flickered, and she wondered how long the power would hold. It had been an overcast day, so she doubted there was a lot of energy stored in the batteries from the solar panels.

  Things had changed since Ke Tau’s attack, and not for the better. Each person in camp was expected to participate in a rolling schedule of guard duty, repairs, food production and storage, cooking, cleaning, and weapons training. It was grueling and made worse by the strict rationing of food and water. Bathing was now restricted to a quick wash once a week, and lunch was scrapped for all but the children and breastfeeding women. Even the lights were shut off at nine each night except for the inner walls.

  “I wish this thing with Ke Tau would come to an end now,” she grumbled. Kabelo twitched at the name but remained silent. “At least then I’d be rid of you.”

  “You no like me?”

  Lisa pursed her lips, unsure how to answer.

  “You no trust me?” he insisted.

  “How can I?” she answered.

  Kabelo didn’t look at her, though his face expressed hurt. He picked at the table with a broken fingernail before shooting her a cryptic glance. His eyes were in shadow, and for a second, she thought she spotted anger.

  But the moment passed, and his eyes glazed over with their usual bland disinterest. He threw a meaningful glance at her still half-full plate. After several such pointed looks, she pushed the food across and watched as he dug in with gusto. At least someone’s enjoying that crap.

  After swallowing the last of her water, she got to her feet and walked toward the window to gaze into the night. At first, she saw nothing but rain and darkness. When her eyes adjusted, she could make out the various buckets and containers that dotted the grounds. Earlier, there had been a rush as they all scrambled to put the things outside in a bid to catch the precious liquid.

  Some, like her and a reluctant Kabelo, had even washed in the rain. But after dinner, things had quieted down, and people either sought their beds or took up their watch for the night. Now, all was quiet.

  Or so she thought until several running figures caught her attention. Flashlights bobbed up and down, illuminating the spectacle, and her senses came to full alert. “What the hell?”

  Lightning forked across the sky and struck the ground a few meters away in a spray of sparks. The brilliant glow threw the outlines of the buildings into sharp relief while the crack threatened to burst her eardrums. Behind her, a plate fell and shattered. She whirled to find a terrified Kabelo huddling underneath the table while a concerned Elise hurried over to comfort him.

  She strode over. “Elise, something is going on outside.”

  Elise glanced up from the sobbing Kabelo with a worried frown. “Is it serious?”

  “I don’t know. I just saw people running.” She looked from the seemingly incapacitated Kabelo to Elise. “Someone needs to go look.”

  Elise nodded. “You go. I’ll watch him.”

  Lisa hesitated.

  “Go!” Elise insisted. “I promise I won’t let him out of my sight for a second. Besides, I’m not alone. What’s the worse he can do?”

  Lisa looked from her to Kabelo and the others before slipping her flashlight and knife from her belt. She never went anywhere without them and the gun that rode on the other side in its holster. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “Be careful.”

  Lisa jogged to the door and opened it to a deluge of water. The muted roar of rain falling on the roofs grew louder, drowning out all other sounds. Her flash
light cast a feeble glow into the deep, and she lunged forward in a run, following the direction she’d seen the others go. Within seconds, she was soaked to the skin, her ponytail plastered to her back and her feet slipping in ankle deep mud.

  Her gait carried her to the smaller gate in their inner stone walls that led to the back fields. The gate was open, and cold fear spurted through her veins. What’s going on?

  Then she spotted the agile figure of Abe who kept watch and ran toward him. “Abe!”

  At her second try, he heard her and turned. “Lisa?”

  She could barely hear him as she stumbled to a stop in front of him. “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know. There’s trouble at the game farm. A fence is down, and the infected got in.”

  “What?” Disbelief reigned for a brief second before she swore. “Shit. I’d better get over there.”

  He nodded. “Max and Breytenbach are already there. I have to stay here and guard the gate.

  She clapped him on the shoulder and shot through the opening into the fields outside their inner sanctum. She sprinted toward the fenced off game reserve that took up a corner of the land they occupied.

  Her mind whirled as she tried to make sense of Abe’s words. How could the fence be down? They were checked daily, and the reserves walls were stronger than most. Add to that the moat that encircled the entire area, and it was impossible for infected to get through.

  That’s what we thought when Ke Tau attacked and look what happened. They plowed right over the moat and our defenses like they were nothing, a small voice cautioned in the back of her head.

  So was all our labor and preparations of the past month for nothing then? Building up the walls and fences, deepening the moat, putting blockades up further out in the fields and roads.

  Despair dragged at her limbs, but she refused to let it slow her. Her feet crunched over the gravel road that led to the reserve. In the distance, she saw the gate. It was closed and guarded by two people. Phillip and Abraham.

  Phillip turned to face her when she ran up. His lean face appeared cadaver like in the light of the lantern he held, the eyes sunken deep into his skull. His tall, thin body resembled a scarecrow, and her mind flashed toward the image of the grim reaper. Next to him, Abraham seemed frail and ancient, his spirit on the verge of flying free.

  She grabbed hold of her superstitious fears and cried, “Where’s the breach?”

  “It’s over there on the eastern side,” he replied, pointing to the place in question.

  “Open up!” Rainwater ran in runnels down her cheeks, and she blinked furiously.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “There’s infected in there. They got through somehow.”

  “Yes, let me in.”

  Without questioning her further, he opened the gates and let her through, slamming them shut behind her. It was a chilling sound. Now there was nothing that stood between her and the encroaching zombies. It was just her and her knife.

  She set off in the direction he’d shown her, keeping to a slow jog this time. Her head whirled, and she strained to see through the pouring rain and the black night. Her flashlight barely illuminated her path, and she stumbled across the uneven ground. Tussocks of grass and loose stones appeared from the gloom to slow her further. A tall, thin silhouette caused her to whirl in readiness with her knife raised until she realized it was a tree.

  “Shit,” she swore, running past it. “I don’t have time for this.”

  The faint sound of voices up ahead spurred her on, and she finally arrived at the eastern fence to find the world in chaos. People grappled with others, some moving with purposeful agility and others with mindless aggression. The dead had found a way in, and now it was up to them to stop the influx of corpses.

  A figure lurched toward her, its face caught in the beam of her light for a second. Rotten teeth were spread open in mid-attack as the creature leaned in for a bite. Without pausing, she shoved it back before plunging her knife into its forehead. The thing shuddered while its mouth snapped at the air until it stilled. With a kick, she freed her weapon then whirled when something grabbed her shoulder.

  “Whoa, there. Lisa?”

  Her eyes fell on Max’s surprised face, and she nearly laughed out of relief. “I came to help!”

  He bobbed his head before turning. “Over there. Keep them off us while we repair the gap.”

  She stumbled after him, stopping only once to wait while he killed another snarling zombie that came in for the kill. They were in a small clearing between a few trees. A dying flare cast a red glow on the ground before another bloomed to life in the hands of Breytenbach. Its light shimmered on the strands of wire that ran alongside the clearing and made up the fence.

  Immediately, Lisa saw what the problem was. A massive tree inside the fence had fallen over. Its thick trunk had smashed the barrier into the ground while its dense foliage and numerous branches filled the moat and created a bridge. The area swarmed with infected, all making their way across this bridge and through the fence.

  People with shovels cleared away the mud and debris around the tree and the crash site while others fought the infected. Immediately, she jumped into action and pounced on a zombie that reached skeletal fingers toward Max’s arm. Her knife sank into the eyeball and burst the delicate organ to release a spray of putrid fluid lost seconds later in the rain.

  Another replaced it, and she stabbed it in the temple with a backward thrust of her hand. Her foot swept the legs from beneath another, and she drove her weapon into its forehead while it squirmed under her. The past few weeks of weapon’s training now came into play, and she never skipped a beat. Her body moved of its own accord, and she lost herself in the battle. The world around her faded as the singular joy of victory filled her each time an undead corpse fell beneath her hands.

  Her focus got broken when the rain lessened, its downpour easing only to reveal a different sound, that of a tractor. She twisted around to see Joseph driving up in the excavator. Mainly used for the backhoe attached to the back, today it served a different purpose. With the front end lowered, Joseph bulldozed into the tree and pushed the remains of the roots out of the ground already softened by the storm.

  Maneuvering away, he then pushed into it again and shifted the entire thing through the gap it had already made in the fence. The engine roared as the tree fought it, its branches scraping through the mud and breaking off inside the moat. The crackling snaps of broken wood filled Lisa’s ears as she watched in awe. Infected and tree were pushed out like so much debris until finally, the opening was clear.

  “Right,” Max shouted, waving at the vehicle that had driven up behind the excavator, its lights throwing the clearing into bright relief. “Come on in!”

  The vehicle, which turned out to be Tallulah and driven by Mike, pushed forward and parked its bulk inside the opening in the fence and blocked it. Those carrying shovels now jumped in and stopped up the gaps on the sides and beneath with mud, stones, and branches, assisted by the excavator. Its backhoe soon came into play, digging up vast chunks of earth to further build up the barricade. Those not working on the fence mopped up the few infected stragglers still on the inside.

  Throwing herself into the fray, Lisa killed two more undead before she straightened up to find they were all down. The rain, now a gentle drizzle, washed the blood and muck from her skin while she fought to regain her breath. She ran a trembling hand across her forehead and grinned as spontaneous happiness welled up inside her. “We did it!”

  Her joy was echoed by those around her as they high-fived and laughed, congratulating each other on averting what could have been a disaster. Max clapped her on the shoulder. “Thanks, Lisa. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

  He then turned to the gathering. “Go on, guys. Get inside and dry off. You’ve done enough.”

  “What about that?” Ronnie asked, gesturing to the fence and the zombies that clawed at it on the other side. The wall had been mended
, but there was still a tree inside the moat creating a bridge.

  “It’s all right. The fence should hold, and tomorrow we can clear it out and repair it. For now, I’ll stay here with Joseph while he fortifies this stretch of wire with an earth embankment.”

  “More like a mud embankment!” Mike cried.

  Max grinned and nodded. “As long as it keeps the zombies out, I’m not going to be picky.”

  “I’ll stay too,” Breytenbach volunteered. “There might be more stragglers in the area, and someone needs to watch your back.”

  “If you’re sure,” Max replied.

  “I am staying as well,” Kirstin said, standing by his side.

  He grinned and kissed her before turning back. “Right. The rest of you get out of here. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

  Lisa considered staying as well for a moment but decided against it when she remembered Kabelo. Uneasy at leaving him unguarded for so long, she made her way back to camp. Along the way, she greeted those that had helped in the fight and acknowledged their bravery. Liesel, Mbali, Julianne, Jonathan, Ben, Sean, Ronnie, Mike, and Lenka. Together, they all made their way to their beds or duties except Lisa who headed back to the dining room.

  Exhausted, she pushed open the door, knife still in hand. Her eyes blinked while they adjusted to the flickering yellow lights, and a greeting hovered on her lips. “Hey, guys, I’m b―”

  Her gaze fell on the prone figure of Joanna who lay on the floor, and her mouth froze on the empty words. The old woman pressed trembling hands to her side. Blood gushed out between her fingers, and more of the crimson stuff frothed on her pale lips.

  Above her hovered Hannah who worked with frantic haste to fashion a dressing. Neither Elise nor Dave was anywhere in sight.

  She rushed over. “What happened?”

  Hannah flashed her a brief look. “It was Kabelo. He stabbed her and made a run for it the moment you were gone.”

  “That murdering son of a bitch. I knew it,” Lisa swore. “Where’s Elise? And Dave?”

  “Elise has gone looking for Jonathan. The wound is serious. She’ll need surgery.” Hannah shook her head. “Dave went after Kabelo.”