by Nick Harland
Esme sniggered and Eve added, ‘Yes he’s coming, if he’s conscious tomorrow, but only for those Zombie senses of his, not for fighting. If he’s lucky we’ll give him a gun. It’s strictly a stealthy in and out job with no unnecessary mess.’
The girls dropped me off at the van while they foraged for food. They came back with corned beef and salad cracker bread sandwiches for us all and it was good to have fresh lettuce again. Eve smiled then signed in satisfaction as she ate. She said, ‘You were right, the garden is worth it. Now the village is empty we should consider checking the rest of the gardens. In a pretty village like that there’s bound to be other decent vegetable gardens, some fruit trees, and what the hell, a few flowers around the place wouldn’t exactly be a disaster.’
By the time we’d finished eating I was starting to feel lightheaded and had even began to slur my words. Esme looked at me and said, ‘We have lift off.’
Ten minutes later I was dribbling on the bed and struggling to keep my eyes open. The reason I was struggling to keep my eyes open, rather than giving in to the very inviting haze, was that Esme and Eve were teasing me.
Esme said, ‘Well he can’t go to bed like that, let’s get him undressed.’
Eve replied, ‘And neither can we for that matter’, at which point she took her top off. After undoing her bra she leaned over me and eased the bra from her breasts so they hung beautifully just above my face. I could just feel the musty heat of a days’ survival radiating from them.
Esme followed suit and kneeling up on the other side of me so her breasts were in Eve’s face she added, ‘How long do you think he can keep his eyes open for?’ Then she shuddered and groaned quietly as Eve began to lick and suck one of her nipples.
I reached up with my good arm and caressed Eve’s breasts but found I couldn’t lift my head up to kiss them. Eve pulled away from Esme’s breast, still sucking hard, so she pulled it towards her until there was a wet pop as her delightfully hard nipple finally escaped. Eve said, ‘I don’t know. I suppose in the name of science we should try and keep him occupied to find out. What does he most like to watch us do?’
Esme pulled her cute pink panties down, turning so her bum was towards me and rolling them slowly down over her gorgeous skin, ‘It’s so hard to tell, he seems to like everything. Let’s face it, he’s a man who’s got two hot women who want to make out undressing in front of him.’ Then she turned around, put her hand on my chest and slowly ran it down my stomach until she was holding me, ‘Woops, I’ve gone and ruined the experiment, we were just supposed to be seeing what he liked to watch.’
Eve smiled and lowered her sumptuous soft breast onto my face, expertly placing her semi-hard nipple in my mouth, ‘Oh well, in for a penny….’
I have no memory of what followed and I assume I passed out. I have no regrets about not lasting longer though. I’ll cherish the memory of falling asleep, or whatever, with Eve’s breast covering my face and her nipple in my mouth for as long as I can avoid the Zed’s.
I woke up feeling surprisingly good. My shoulder hurt, but not as badly as I had expected. It was stiff when I tried to move it and I was disappointed not to find either Esme or Eve in the van. Then I looked at the clock, it was 10.30. I dressed in clean clothes, well as clean as being hand washed in river water could get them, but they smelled nice. We still had plenty of washing detergent at least. I ventured out to the communal area and found Eve and Esme on a couch chatting to some others. Gary was on the opposite couch, he smiled and said, ‘So how’s the patient?’
Eve and Esme turned around and both gave me big smiles, ‘We saved you some breakfast.’
I sat on one of the chairs and took the bowl offered to me, ‘I’m fine thanks doc, better than expected actually.’ I moved the shoulder around in an arc and it caught and made me wince at a certain angle. I added, ‘But still a ways to go I suppose.’
Then I looked at Esme and Eve, ‘Sorry it’s late, I..’
Eve replied, ‘It’s fine. Gary needed a bit more rest anyway and you both have a good excuse. Gary has explained where the clinic is and it shouldn’t take long so we still have plenty of time to get there and back. We’re all ready when you’ve finished your cereal.’
Picking up some of the dry cornflakes and having flashbacks to a stream of cool silky white milk hitting them on an advert, something occurred to me, ‘How are the goats?’
A woman in one of the chairs with dirty hands said, ‘They’re fine, they’ve got pretty bad mastitis but we found some cream in a haul of medication and it should clear it up in a week or so. We’re hopeful that as long as we get them back to full strength they’ll start producing milk. I miss milk.’
I smiled and nodded, ‘Me too, of all of it, it’s one of the hardest things. I don’t even mind the no fresh meat, but the milk….’ The woman nodded and we both sighed.
Eve got up and said, ‘I hate to stop this reminiscing but we do have a job to do, finish up and let’s get out there.’
Chapter Twenty One - Councillor
Half an hour later we were all loaded up and ready to go. Bill was still working on Mary and had taken on apprentices. He’d fitted a plough to a sturdy looking Q5 and we also took the V6 Range Rover. Gary came with Eve and I and Chris rode with Esme and Mike who had proved himself handy in a fight during the horde attack and was willing to join the fighters. We got onto the dual carriageway ok but hadn’t travelled in the direction we were headed before. Within a few miles there were crashed cars blocking the road.
We drove up to the blockage and there were a mix of dead bodies and dead Zeds lying here and there on the road, and some still in cars. It was a grim sight and seeing kids never got any easier. Seeing them still strapped into a crashed car but half eaten was particularly gruesome and I hoped it had been quick. Eve squeezed my knee and said, ‘Just take a few breaths. Remember, there is no shame or weakness here, just evidence we’re still human. Her voice cracked and I turned to look at her, there were a few tears running down her face.
Thankfully Esme was behind us but I knew she wouldn’t spare herself. She came on the radio her usual chirpy self, ‘What’s the plan?’
I took the radio from Eve and said, ‘It doesn’t look like any of the crashes were high speed and I’m not sure many people walked away so there are probably keys to most of the cars. I doubt many will have handbrakes on but some batteries might be dead. Let’s investigate on foot and see what we can move. Esme…..we need you with us in case, but it’s not going to be easy. I’m sorry.’
I heard Esme sigh, she had done this enough to know what it could be like, ‘Ok, thanks for the warning.’
It took about half an hour and we had to move a few cars and push a couple of others out of the way but we weren’t disturbed. I had to stand on the side lines with an M9 and watch. Not all the cars were crashed and there was an old short wheelbase Landover with a very sturdy looking roof rack with two canoes strapped to it, a minibus; empty thankfully, and a new Transit van that were all worth salvaging. We decided to think about picking them up on the way back, depending on circumstances. We knew better than to plan anything in an apocalypse, anything could happen and death was always the most likely anything.
After clearing a path we carried on and managed to snake through other stretches where the road was cluttered. There was a caravan on the road before we turned off and we stopped to take the gas bottle and leisure battery. We turned off the dual carriageway and Gary said the medical centre was only a couple of miles away. He said there was a medical centre with a small gym and hydro pool for rehabilitation, a small pharmacy, and a vet on the site. It was just past a large cemetery and across the road from a poor run down housing estate. There was a small shop just down the road from the medical centre but we had promised ourselves as little drama as possible and I was barely able to fight.
We approached the medical centre slowly and there were several dead Zed’s and a couple of dead people scattered over the road just outside the entra
nce. The Zeds heads were smashed in and they looked fresher than most we’d seen. Eve took a sharp breath and whispered, ‘Survivors.’ We turned into the decent sized car park and there were more Zeds, quite a few more, that looked like road kill. As we crept closer to the doors there was an old Land Rover that had obviously been responsible for the road kill parked right next to the doors. I realised I was holding my breath and Eve stopped the car.
The doors to the medical centre were barely visible from the houses on the opposite side of the road so I hoped there would be no surprises when we got out of the cars. It also looked like the survivor was likely to have attracted the ones from the closest houses in the early days when they weren’t so smart.
Esme came on the radio, excitement in her voice, ‘Looks like survivors, how are we playing this?’
Eve answered, ‘No different to how we planned. It’s a pretty harsh estate over the road and we have really good vehicles so let’s not assume any survivors are friendly until proven otherwise.’
There was no Zed activity and no tingles so we got out of the cars. We waited a minute and there was no horde. Esme led the way with Eve, her guns out, Gary was in the middle and Mike and I covered the back. The doors were open and there was a reception area with two more dead Zeds, heads bashed in. Gary whispered, ‘I recognise the woman, just, she was a receptionist.’
Gary pointed down a corridor to the right with a few doors leading off it. There were two more dead Zeds, ‘Those are the consulting rooms and they will all have a few supplies in but the minor surgery room with most of the supplies is at the end. This place did needle exchange so there will be loads of syringes, needles, and swabs. The Pharmacy down the other corridor will have plenty as well.’
We started to creep down the corridor towards the room at the end when we saw a head peek briefly around the door and then disappear again. There was a deep male voice, ‘Can I help you folks? As you can see I can take care of myself and I don’t want any trouble.’ Then the voice lost its confidence and said, ‘Are you friendly, I could really use some friends, I’ve not seen another survivor since it happened and I was starting to think I was the only one.’
Esme waved her hand down behind her and said, ‘It’s ok we’re friendly and we can help. We’re from a group and we’ve rescued almost forty people now. We’ve come for the medical supplies. We have Dr Penfold with us who used to work here.’
The man stepped into the doorway. He was about six foot tall, black, with a bald head and large partially greying beard. He was wearing a t-shirt and had a full sleeve tattoo up one arm. He was carrying a baseball bat that had plainly had use, ‘Gary, seriously, is that you?’
Gary came forward and said, ‘Don, it’s so nice to see you, how the hell did you make it alone all these weeks?’
Don came forwards and dropped his bat. He ignored the rest of us and went to hug Gary, tears running down his face even before he reached him. We all waited while they hugged until Don pulled away, wiped his tears and said, ‘I’m sorry. I just…seeing a friendly face, I know we don’t…’
Gary interrupted, ‘It’s ok Don really, I can’t imagine what you’ve been through here all alone. It’s amazing you’re alive and a miracle you’re sane. These are good people, they’ve built a safe community and they can handle themselves. I’ve heard the stories from both before and after they rescued me and they’ve kill literally hundreds and hundreds of Zeds. You’re safe now.’
Don stood back and looked at us all, he was still shaking with what I assumed was shock. Esme smiled and said, ‘Gary’s right, you’re safe now and we’d love you to join us if you want to. To have survived by yourself all this time is amazing. I don’t think any of us could have. In fact we’d all be dead if it wasn’t for Brad here and as it turns out it looks like you two have something in common. Apart from being badass survivors, you’re both immune to the original virus. How have you managed to survive, the water went off weeks ago.’
Don was pulling himself together and had stopped shaking so much. He stuttered, ‘I…I was lucky, I guess. I’m a drugs councillor here and the clients can be unpredictable sometimes. I’ve been attacked a few times so I did some self-defence lessons for a while. Although no one knew, I also kept a small baseball bat in my bag and I’d probably be dead without it. It was lunch time when it all kicked off so I was alone in one of the consulting rooms and when I heard fighting I grabbed my bat. The rest is a bit of a blur but I survived the one’s in here.’
‘It wasn’t too hard to begin with, this place is pretty secure and they were slow and predictable. I used my car to kill a load of them until it broke. As far as food and water, there is a small hydro pool in the rehab centre that was empty at the time. It’s not very nice to drink but it’s full of bug killing chemicals so it stayed clear for ages. I found the chemicals in the back and added some more when it started to stagnate. There wasn’t much food here but there is a shop just down the road and when I ran out I managed to sneak in one night and kill the two Zombies inside. It’s a poor estate so the shop had loads of cans and cheap bread that lasts ages. I was just starting to run low. I’m sure you know they are really dangerous now so I’ve stayed in for the last week rationing myself. I was dreading having to consider scavenging again and I had started to seriously considering my other options. There are plenty of decent drugs in the pharmacy.’
I was going to speak but Eve beat me to it, ‘Well Don, I’m really glad you hung on, but like you said they’re getting dangerous. Their tactics over the last week or so have been particularly challenging so if you don’t mind, we promised ourselves we’d avoid barely escaping with our lives today and we have a job to do. Pick up your bat and stay close, you’re one of us now.’
Don picked up his bat and nodded, ‘Yes of course. The sooner I get can get the hell out of here the better so tell me what you want and I’ll take you to it.’
It took a while to clean out the place but the medical haul was well worth it. While we were scavenging I caught Eve and said, ‘That was a bit harsh back there, that guy is a hero but he’s right on the edge.’
Eve looked at me sternly, ‘I know and that’s why I was harsh. It’s like if someone is starving and you give them a big meal it kills them. He is a hero and he’s done amazing, but he’s right on the edge. If we give him a chance to, if we’re too nice, he’ll completely fall apart and it will be a nightmare to get him back again. That’s not good for him, or us. He’s lived on nothing but stress and adrenalin for over a month and it’s all that’s keeping him going, take it away and he won’t have a clue. I was mean to be nice.’
I got it. She was right and I knew it. I just wasn’t hard enough to do what needed to be done. I had worked out ages ago that she was stronger than me. I knew that although we had a pact she would manage without me much better than I would manage without her. She caught me in my reflection and said, ‘It’s ok. It’s ok to be nice. I’m not better for being able to be mean even if it was what was necessary. I also know that if I hadn’t been here you would have worked it out pretty quickly and been mean instead. You have a good heart and that’s a rare thing, it’s why I love you.’
We hadn’t said the actual words to each other much and I blushed, ‘I love you too, even if you are mean.’
Esme stopped in the doorway of the room we were moving from stuff from, ‘Am I interrupting something?’
Eve smiled, ‘Not really, just telling each other how mean we are and how much we love each other.’
Esme was speechless for a moment and Eve added, ‘I love you Esme, but not because you’re mean, because you’re cute, and because you have a soft heart but iron fists.’
She looked at me for some direction but I couldn’t help myself. I said, ‘I love you Esme, because you’re strong and hard, but also vulnerable and soft, and no matter what we see or what we have to do, I know that will never change.’
Esme smiled and replied, ‘And I love you guys, because you’re both fucking nuts and n
ot afraid of showing it. I love that in my life, now move you’re arses we’re out of here.’
We loaded the gear and made it back to the dual carriage way without incident. Don and Gary rode with us. We stopped at the jam of cars we had cleared a path through and Eve radioed Esme, ‘Meet us for a conflab.’
We got out of the car and met Esme on the road. Eve said, ‘So there are three vehicles it would be good to take back with us. I know we have quite a few already but I think the more we have the better.’
Both Eve and Esme looked at me. There were times when being the leader was difficult. I said, ‘Driving any unprotected vehicle is a risk but a few hours ago at least the route was clear. I don’t think Don’s in any shape and Gary is too important.’
I was about to go on when Esme said, ‘So are you, and you’re in no shape to fight your way out if things go tit’s up. Someone’s got to be with you all to protect you and a gun in the right hands is worth a hundred swings of a bat.’
I said, ‘That only leaves you, Chris and Mike and I don’t want to risk any of you.’
Esme smiled, ‘I know, and that’s lovely, but of all us, if things were to get hairy, I’d be the most likely to survive. Chris can take care of himself as long as he has bullets and Mike’s great, but he’s still a bit new to it all. That’s means they should stay together and I should take one of the new vehicles.’
Again they both looked at me, ‘We don’t have a van. In an emergency we can still ram a load of people in a van, and the rest of the time it can be used to safely haul stuff like furniture, that’s not true of a minibus.’
Esme stepped forwards and gave me a quick kiss, ‘It’s ok, the path was clear a few hours ago and I can go between you guys and the Q5. If shit happens we’re in it together anyway. We can’t second guess our risk taking now or we’d never get anything done. I’ll see you back at base.’
