by Alex South
“How?”
“We went to a house, and… the zombies come, and we run, and… and we run… and then they are not with us.”
Laura moved her eyes back and forth between them. “So, they ran another way?”
Duke stared at the floor.
“Yes,” said Elena.
“Do you think they’re okay?”
“I don’t know.”
A long silence held the room. Jess sat on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest.
“Were the zombies running?” said Laura eventually.
“Yes,” said Elena, “The zombies were in a house. And we ran from the house, and then more chased us, and we looked back and we were just us only.
“Did you go back for them?” said Laura.
“Yes,” said Elena, “we went back, but we don’t know where they went to.”
Laura pressed for more information, desperate to know all she could. Eventually, after many questions, it became clear that they had given her everything and suddenly there was nothing left to say. Now the room’s emptiness crushed Laura. It needed more people. The silence needed breaking. The possibility that they all feared needed interruption. With each second, it clung tighter to her. The longer it endured, the stronger it became.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Jess ran to the door, followed by Elena and Duke. Laura waited.
“Dreadlocks!” Laura heard Jess shout.
Jess, Elena and Duke came back in, followed by Dreadlocks.
“Oh god… Dreadlocks… what happened?” said Laura
Dreadlocks took a deep breath, “Me and John were separated from the group… we were trapped in a house, and we escaped… thanks to John. We ran, but then there were more zombies and they were running. So, we had to run a different way and… we were running as fast as we could and then I looked back and I couldn’t see John.”
“But… I don’t understand,” said Laura.
“One moment he was there and the next he wasn’t.”
“Did you go back?”
Dreadlocks was silent for a while before he spoke:
“The zombies were running… All I could do was run the other way; I couldn’t go back,”
Laura stared at him for a while. “Do you think they got him?” she said quietly.
“I don’t know,” said Dreadlocks, looking at the floor.
Chapter 10
Knock! Knock! Knock!
A long time had passed since Laura had first started to cry. Her hope for John’s return had become more and more unstable. Now, with this knock, she knew that it could only be one of two people.
She waited as everyone went to the door.
“John!” she heard some of them shout.
They all walked back in. Duke had his arm around John – who wasn’t wearing any shoes. After the excitement died down, John told them what had happened: how he had jumped from a great height into a tree and how that had led to his escape. He explained that he had come home as fast as he could, trying to walk in sheltered places so that no zombies would see him from afar.
Some time after this, there was another knock at the door.
“Rob…” said Laura.
…
Duke heard muffled, groaning noises as he approached the front door. He froze.
Knock Knock Knock.
“It’s Rob!” Duke heard him say.
“What’s that noise?” Duke shouted.
“The zombie.”
“You brought it…” said Duke, opening the door.
“Yes,” said Rob, standing behind it and holding the handles of its wheelchair.
“You went back for it?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t any of them chase you?”
“No, I need to put this in the basement.
“Um, yeah, I need to talk to the others. Laura doesn’t know yet, I think.”
Chapter 11
John was on the floor of Laura’s room, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. He was weak, not just from the day’s events, but from the huge argument they had all just had. So many different opinions… so many different demands… and most of it had fallen into chaos.
It all boiled down to three things, the cure, the wheelchair zombie, and the little girl, Stacy – whom everyone agreed must be responsible for the horror they had witnessed in the house. The clues were there – the running zombies, with their improved motor coordination, the toys in the house, the childish paintings on the wall. Arguments were made — passionate speeches about this or that. The whole thing had gone around and around in circles. Throughout, Jess had accused Rob of lying. It hadn’t taken long for him to storm off.
As for John, he had said a lot, agreed strongly with certain statements, called out in protest when it seemed as if the group mentality was going somewhere dangerous. But despite all this, he still had no idea what he thought. It was impossible now. Anything could be right or wrong. Maybe she had set all this up. Maybe she was in Rob’s head, making him talk about this cure. It was getting harder and harder to have a real opinion on anything. In the end, with the group unable to commit to any decisive action, the wheelchair zombie had been taken to the basement, gagged, tied up and blindfolded. Duke had gone to Rob’s room to talk to him. One thing was clear. They all needed him to test his blood on the zombie as soon as possible; there could be no delay.
“John,” said Laura, taking him out of his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Can you look in Poppy’s room, see if there’s some Valium?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Yeah, she has, like, a box, with a picture of a galaxy on the front. She has all her drugs there.”
John left Laura’s room, walked straight forward, past the right turn that led to the bathroom and Rob’s room, and opened the door.
He went over to the bed. There were two draws on either side, he checked them all, finding a vibrator, erotic fiction, clothes, a hammer, paint brushes, a bong, and lots of other random bits and pieces. There was, however, no box.
“Can’t find it,” he said, once he was back with Laura.
Chapter 12
John watched Rob pick up the syringe. It had taken a long time to get him out of his room.
However, after a long back and forth exchange between Duke and a locked door, Rob had eventually emerged and agreed to show them the cure. Now everyone except Laura was here, in the basement, crowded around the tied up and gagged zombie, waiting to see what Rob would do next.
“Where did you get that?” said Jess, in reference to the syringe in Rob’s hand.
“I found it at a house,” said Rob.
“Why would someone have a syringe in their house?” said Jess.
“Diabetic.” said Rob.
The basement had two sections. The first, which they were in, was full of dust and junk. Old, unstable looking shelves held some of it; the floor held the rest – with everything illuminated by a single, naked bulb hanging from the ceiling. Then, there were the box-freezers - two large, white rectangles. John realised that that must be where Rob kept the zombie meat.
A small doorway cut into the wall led to the second section. In there, a table held the centre of the room. On top of it lay a circular saw. Dark red and brown stains covered the floor. John knew what happened there.
Rob placed the needle in his arm and drew out blood. Now he went over to the zombie, carefully lined up the needle with a vein on its arm, pricked the skin, and then made the injection.
“That’s it,” said Rob, quietly.
“How long before we see some if it works or not?”
“I don’t know,” said Rob. “The last one took a few weeks.”
“A few weeks…” said Duke.
“Yeah,”
Duke glanced at Jess, and then back at Rob, “That’s too long.”
“That’s how long it takes,” said Rob.
“It’s going to bring the little girl here,” said Duke.
�
�Yeah…” said Jess.
Rob looked between them, “But I need to test the blood.”
“I’m sorry,” said Duke, “But we can’t take the risk.”
“But Duke, we haven’t agreed nothing,” said Elena.
“Jesus! I know, but we don’t have time. Am I the only one who gets that this is urgent?” said Duke, turning to her.
“It’s urgent because you want your way. You want to be urgent? I want to be urgent. You think I don’t want to be urgent?”
“No!” Rob’s voice suddenly rang out. John looked at him, and saw that he was staring at Jess, who was holding a lit cigarette in her hand. John watched nervously, her and Rob seemed locked in silence. He had no idea where she had found cigarettes
“No. You can’t smoke,” said Rob, finally.
“She can do what she wants to,” said Elena.
“I don’t want dirty smoke.”
Jess rolled her eyes, took another drag and then left the room. Rob stared at her absence for a few seconds and then quickly marched after her.
“Rob,” said Duke, half pleadingly, half disappointedly.
John followed.
“I don’t want to breathe smoke!” Rob said, as John caught up with them in the front room — with Dreadlocks and Elena right behind him, but no Duke.
Jess held her hand out to the side, fingers spread wide in appeal. “Then, leave the room!”
“She can do what she wants to!” said Elena.
“Come on, Rob. We have bigger problems,” said John.
“No. It’s not allowed.”
“Guys, come on,” said Dreadlocks.
“I’ll smoke it out the window,” said Jess. “They’re not all boarded up are they?”
“No, I don’t want the curtains open.”
“All right then, just fuck off then!”
“No.”
“Yes, babe, yes! Fuck. Off. Please.”
“No, I forbid it!”
There was silence. Jess started laughing. John knew at that moment that things were going to get worse.
“Do you?” she said.
“Yes. Yes, I do. Stop being a stupid woman!”
John raised his eyebrows.
“Fuck you!” said Jess. “Fuck you… Okay?!”
Rob backed away, muttered something inaudible and stormed out.
“Don’t do that,” said Dreadlocks.
Jess turned her head to blow smoke, and then looked at him. “What?!”
“Don’t aggravate him. Work with him.”
“Er… what? He was aggravating me.”
“Rising above it is the best response.”
“URGHH. Just… just don’t. Please.”
John expected her to leave, but she stayed exactly where she was. He supposed that she didn’t want to run into Rob by herself. It was then that she started sniffing and wiping tears from her eyes. There was a long silence. Dreadlocks moved over and put his hand on her shoulder.
She jerked away. “Get off me!” she said holding her palm to face him, as if to physically block him from trying again.
“Okay.”
John was glad he had stayed where he was. He left the room to return to the basement, but found the stairs blocked by Rob climbing them backwards and pulling the wheelchair with him.
“What are you doing?” said John.
Rob said nothing, and John moved out of the way as he came to the top. He watched as Rob moved towards the front door. Duke came up the stairs and stood next to John, but said nothing. John could not help but feel that Duke harboured the feeling that this was a double victory. Not only were they getting rid of the zombie. It seemed they were getting rid of Rob.
Chapter 13
Reality began to seep into John’s consciousness as he drifted into wakefulness. He desperately wanted more sleep, but his stomach had started aching with hunger. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to ignore it.
With a burst of will power, he forced himself out of the bed he’d been sharing with Duke and Dreadlocks. He took the stairs to the ground floor and walked to the kitchen. He felt weak, like all he wanted to do was crawl back under the duvet. Coffee – The idea flashed in his mind, and soon he found himself at the marked wooden table, a steaming mug in his hand.
Amongst everything, this gave him a sliver of happiness, sitting here, in the daze between dreams and life – pushing the bitter caffeine into his blood. It was a moment from the old world.
He thought about the supermarket, then instantly tried not to. An image of Tyler surrounded by zombies flashed by — then one of Dan’s scattered brains back in the staffroom of the supermarket. They were good people. Bad things happen to good people. That’s life, he told himself, forcefully trying to avoid that train of thought.
Now his mind jumped to something else, back to when the group had first escaped their flats in search of food. They had passed some houses. He had seen a woman’s face in one of the windows. He could have told Dreadlocks to stop driving, taken her with them. But he hadn’t. He had left her there – avoided the risk. What did that say about him? What did that make him?
He imagined her heart sinking as the car passed by. She was hungry, starving. She needed him. What had happened next? Had she stayed in the house? Was she still there now? Did she leave in search of food? Had she been bitten? He thought of her in the street, zombies sinking their teeth into her pale flesh. All he needed to do was to stop the car. All he needed to do was to stop the car and she would have come running. She would be with them now. Why hadn’t he done it? Who was he?
…
A little while later, Dreadlocks entered the kitchen.
“Something is bringing us together at this time,” he said, putting his hands on the chair opposite John.
John held up the caffettiera. “Coffee,” he replied.
He smiled. “I was thinking about a deep, universal force.”
“Yeah, coffee?”
“You know it can speed up your metabolism, and that’s going to make you more hungry.”
John knew he had a point, but stood up to make more anyway. “I’m going to go back to the supermarket and get some food today. You want anything?”
It took a half-second for Dreadlocks to realise he was joking. “No thanks,”
“Okay, yeah, I’ll just nip down around midday, headshot a few of them. Maybe I can just fill a trolley. I can chain a trolley to one of the zombies and just walk a few feet in front of it. Get it to pull it the whole way.” John laughed and instantly thought how hollow it sounded.
“That could work.” Dreadlocks said, but it was half-hearted; he didn’t seem to find it funny.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Come on, it’s just a joke.” He felt angry now; why didn’t he just laugh, at least to be polite?
“No, no… it’s all good. It’s good. Laughter is the best medicine. It’s just that I’m not there with you right now.”
John finished making the coffee, having made enough for both of them.
“Is that your second?” said Dreadlocks.
John poured in into his mug. “Yeah,” he said without looking at him.
Dreadlocks said nothing.
“What else is there to do? Fuck it.”
“Okay, friend,” said Dreadlocks.
John finished his coffee. Elena and Jess arrived and they were all soon sitting in silence, with nothing between them but the cold, numb passing of time, and the occasional failed attempt by Dreadlocks to start a conversation. So it was that a void developed. And developed. And developed.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The sound crashed through the emptiness, hooking John by the gut, and ripping him into the moment. His mind flashed with possibilities. Was it Rob? Someone else? Something else? They all exchanged glances. Dreadlocks, put his finger to his lips, slowly rose from his chair and crept out of the kitchen. John’s heart thumped against his chest. His thoughts scrambled for the next move – stay here? Follow Dreadlocks? Some unknown force pushed him to his
feet, as every other part of him begged him to stay down. He followed Dreadlocks across the sitting room, and watched as he moved down the hallway to put his eye against the peephole. A few second passed. Dreadlocks opened the door.
“Can I come in?” Rob said.
“Of course,” said Dreadlocks.
They all moved back. Rob softly closed the door behind him. Now he looked at Dreadlocks right in the eye.
“I was wrong. You were right.”
“Okay…” said Dreadlocks.
Rob looked at John.
“I killed the zombie as well. In case the girl can read its memory.”
“Right… what about your cure?” said Dreadlocks.
Rob shrugged, “We can do it in a better way. But not here. Next time we won’t bring it here.”
“Well… come in…” said Dreadlocks.
“I’m going to go to my room. I’m tired.”
“Where were you?” said Jess.
“I spent the night in a tree,” said Rob.
No-one said anything. Rob seemed to be waiting for more questions, but then seemed to realise that none were coming. Without a word he began climbing the stairs, his eyes resolutely avoiding them.
“Um…” said Dreadlocks looking at John, Jess and Elena.
“I’ll go get Duke,” said Jess.
“Yeah…” said Dreadlocks. Jess led the way, Dreadlocks and Elena followed. John stared at their backs, numbly, then decided, instead, to go into the living room. It began to rain. He listened to it splatter against the boarded up windows. He could hear the emptiness of time in its sound. He could hear its endless journey, to rise and fall, to come and go, to wash away all the temporary structures of rock and earth, to drown the world, forever, forever, forever.
Chapter 14
“So, let’s talk options,” said Duke. “So, most important thing is survival, right? So, what can we do to make sure we can eat?” He scratched his beard.
Duke had called a meeting, and now, with Rob still in the attic room, everyone else had gathered next to Laura – all of them sitting on the floor, apart from Jess, who was on the bedside table.
“I don’t know,” said John without looking up, “but I’m really fucking hungry.” His back was against Laura’s wooden bedframe, his head at the same level as her mattress.
