by Thomas Hall
‘You’re back then,’ she said.
He nodded but didn’t speak.
‘Did you find anything?’
‘We’ll talk in the morning,’ he said. ‘Go and get some rest.’
She considered arguing with him but the thought of closing her eyes and going to sleep was more appealing.
Beth climbed off the roof and went into the caravan where she found that Dawn and the others had already bedded down. She stripped off her coat and climbed into her sleeping bag, ready for another night on the hard floor, but glad that she had even that.
It took the combined efforts of every vehicle and every able bodied person pushing, but they managed to get the truck moving and turned around. They travelled a mile back along the road to a position that could be more easily defended and then stopped for breakfast. It wasn’t their routine to stop for meals, but Beth wanted to get an update from Darrel before he rode off again.
She found him standing at the jeep with a cup of coffee and a map. Russell was standing beside him looking over his shoulder.
‘…if we carry on along here the road looked pretty clear,’ Darrel said.
‘What have you got for me?’ Beth said loudly, interrupting them.
Darrel looked up. He didn’t say anything for a moment and she thought he was going to tell her to leave. Sometimes she had the feeling that not everyone was happy with her position within the group.
‘We found a village, about two miles from here,’ he said.
Beth smiled and walked around so that she could see the map. Even from the map she could see that it was small but the idea that they might be able to stop, even just for a few days, was appealing. ‘It looks promising,’ she said as Darrel traced the route he was proposing they take.
‘There’s a few things we’ll have to move out of the road but we should be able to get through.’
‘Okay,’ Beth said. ‘Lets take a look after breakfast.’
They were practiced in the art of making a quick getaway, but that morning there was no need. While the others were making preparations for their departure she went to look in on the passengers in the other caravans.
The second to last caravan was a new one and had been found already kitted out with easy access and safety features, which had made it an obvious place for Kathy to live. An additional bonus (at least as far as Rachel and David were concerned) was that she was happy to have the children in with her. The kids loved their aunty Kathy and, as Beth approached the beige vehicle, she could hear raised voices and laughter.
She opened the door but didn’t go in. Kathy turned around and smiled at her.
‘Morning sweaty,’ she said.
‘I hope this lot aren’t causing too much trouble?’ Beth said.
‘Oh nothing I can’t handle,’ Kathy said. Then she turned back towards the group of children, stuck out her tongue and blew a wet raspberry at them. The children fell over each other laughing and shouting and blowing raspberries back at her.
‘Is there anything I can get you?’ Beth said. ‘We’ll be moving again soon, but just for a couple of hours.’
Kathy shook her head. ‘I’m perfectly capable Beth, you know that.’
‘I know,’ she said and put a hand on Kathy’s shoulder. ‘I just like looking after you.’
‘You’ve got plenty to do.’
‘Are you sure there’s nothing?’
As they were talking one of the children, Julia, Beth thought, had begun to sneak up on Kathy. Beth wasn’t sure what game they were playing, but watched the little girl out of the corner of her eye.
‘Sure as I am that someone wants to get tickled again,’ Kathy said and turned more quickly than her advanced years made her seem capable of. She grabbed hold of little Julia and swung her onto her lap, already pulling up her top and tickling her stomach. The little girl burst out in excited laughs and screams.
Beth stepped out of the caravan and left them to it. Kathy seemed to be having a great time, but she made a mental note to give her a chance to rest later on. Maybe ask Rachel and David to spend a few hours with the kids every day.
She went to the other caravans and explained her plans for the day. No one asked any questions about it, but they were happy to listen to her explain. When she was done she made her way back to the jeep where Russell and Darrel were packing away the final few things.
‘Everything ready?’ Beth said.
‘Just about,’ Russell said. ‘How’s everyone doing?’
‘They’re good. Ready to stop for a while though.’
‘Aren’t we all,’ Russell said. He folded up the map and climbed into the jeep. Beth got in the back.
It took less than two hours to reach the village. The obstacles that Darrel had warned them about didn’t pose much of a problem and they were able to squeeze their way along the main road. They stopped when Beth could see the first cluster of houses in the distance.
The village was at the bottom of a hill which meant that they could see all fifty of buildings that made it up. There was no sign of a market, let alone a super market.
Beth turned to Darrel who was on his bike beside the jeep. ‘This is it?’
Darrel turned to look at Russell.
‘We were thinking we could stay for the winter,’ Russell said.
She turned away and looked down the hill. The buildings were more than a hundred years old but that meant they would be solid and easy to protect. There was a low grey wall running around the perimeter of the village and on the other side of it a small river. That was all fine, and she could have ignored the fact that they were at the bottom of a hill, but what she couldn’t overlook was the fact that she could see movement.
‘There’s people there,’ she said.
‘What?’ Russell said. ‘Let me see.’
Russell took a pair of binoculars out of the door pocket and climbed out of the jeep. He stood next to Darrel and looked down at the village.
‘Zombies,’ he said. ‘You didn’t tell me there were zombies.’
‘It’s only a few,’ Darrel said. ‘Nothing we can’t handle.’
‘You brought us here when you knew there were zombies?’ Beth said.
‘It’s a fixer-upper, we can get rid of them.’
‘But they’re here now,’ Beth said. ‘Why?’
Darrel shrugged. ‘How should I know? They’re zombies, they don’t have to make sense.’
‘I don’t like it,’ Russell said.
‘Me neither,’ Beth agreed.
But they didn’t move. The three of them stood beside the jeep and watched the creatures moving slowly around the village.
‘So what do you think?’ Darrel said after a few minutes of silence. ‘Should I take a crew down and clear it out?’
Russell turned to Beth.
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘Come on,’ Darrel said. ‘Once we’ve got rid of the zombies it’ll be great. We can have proper beds and houses for the winter.’
Russell began to shake his head. ‘I don’t like it,’ he said. ‘Where there’s a dozen zombies there might be more.’
‘We’ll keep it clear,’ Darrel said. ‘We won’t let any more get in.’
Russell shook his head.
Darrel turned to look at Beth.
‘I’m with Russell,’ she said.
‘Seriously?’ he said. ‘It’s twenty zombies max, and they’re slow. I could kill them in my sleep.’
‘It’s not just that,’ Beth said. ‘We need to keep moving. We’re running low on supplies and this doesn’t look like the kind of place with a Tesco nearby.’
‘So we’ll send people out to get food. I’ll go myself. The winter’s coming, don’t you want to sleep in a proper bed for a few months?’
The idea was more than appealing. Beth found that she wanted it with every fibre of her being, but that didn’t mean she could give into it. What her heart wanted, and what her mind thought was a good idea, just didn’t match up. She shook he
r head.
Darrel looked as if he might be about to argue further, but then he threw up his arms in despair. He turned away from them and went to get his bike, but Russell called him back.
‘Darrel, here,’ he said.
Reluctantly Darrel came back to them.
‘What?’ he said.
‘You don’t want to go against us on this.’
‘But it’s right there! You said you wanted somewhere you could spend the winter and I found it. Of course there are zombies there, there’s zombies every-fucking-where now. What are you expecting?’
‘Not this,’ Russell said. ‘Not here.’
Darrel turned away with an exaggerated sigh.
‘Let’s keep moving,’ Beth said. ‘We need to get food on board before we get too far north.’
She walked back to the door and climbed into the jeep before Darrel could turn around and say more. She didn’t want to get into an argument with him about this, but Russell was right, she was right, this wasn’t the place for them.
‘We’ll keep looking,’ she said as Russell climbed into the driver’s seat.
‘I just hope we can last until we find something,’ he said. He glanced upwards. ‘It’s looking like a cold one’s coming.
She closed the caravan door behind her and walked quietly away. It was dark but the moon reflected enough light for her to see where she was going, not that she intended to go far.
They had been travelling on a motorway all day. Not long ago cars would have been racing along it at close to 100mph. Now the surface was cracked and weeds were breaking through. There was also an epic traffic jam which would never end. Most of the time they were lucky if they could get up to 30mph.
‘Having trouble sleeping?’
Beth turned suddenly towards the unexpected voice and saw Kathy standing outside her caravan. ‘You scared me half to death.’
‘I’m sorry dear, you don’t need to be scared.’
Beth wasn’t sure whether she was annoyed or relieved by Kathy’s presence. The old woman walked towards her.
‘I’d be glad of some company,’ Kathy said. ‘If you think you can keep up.’
‘You might need to ease me into it,’ Beth said with a smile.
They walked in silence until they were far enough away that Beth didn’t worry about being overheard.
‘We found a village today,’ Beth said.
Kathy nodded but didn’t interrupt.
‘We could have stopped there. I mean, there were some zombies, but we could have dealt with them easily. Darrel wanted to stop.’
‘But you didn’t think it was a good idea?’ There was no judgement in her tone. She was unreadable.
‘I decided we should keep going,’ Beth said.
‘I see,’ Kathy said.
They stopped when they reached the crash barrier that divided the road. On the other side she could see the cars facing in the opposite direction, proving that there hadn’t been any safe place to go when the end came. People’s first reaction had just been to get ‘away’.
Kathy leaned against the metal barrier and rested her stick between her legs. ‘And now you’re worried that you made the wrong decision?’
‘Something like that.’
‘I see.’
The air was mostly still, but every now and again a stiff wind came along the road. Beth shivered and wished she’d dressed more warmly.
‘You had your reasons, I assume?’ Kathy said.
Beth nodded. ‘We need to find food and...’ She raised her arms as if their current predicament was explanation enough. ‘There’s nothing around. We might have starved if we’d set up camp there.’
‘Or we might not,’ Kathy said.
‘Sure, we might not.’
Beth looked back towards the caravans. There were some lights on, but not many, and the only movement she could see were three orange lights from cigarettes. She didn’t know what to say and lapsed into silence.
‘You didn’t starve,’ Kathy said.
Beth said nothing but didn’t turn away.
‘You kept them safe and most of them are still here. You did your best.’
She saw movement in the distance. A singular shape that could only be one thing. All of a sudden she wanted to be away from Kathy.
‘You need to learn how to forgive yourself. It’s not going to do you any good holding onto all this guilt.’
‘Huh?’ Beth turned back towards her.
‘Sometimes you need to make sacrifices in order to succeed,’ Kathy said, full of earnest good will. ‘It’s the nature of life. And if you’re going to be a leader you need to be able to do that.’
‘I guess,’ Beth said. She was watching the shape of the super zombie moving around on the other side of the convoy. ‘We should go back. It’s getting cold.’ Beth started walking away from the divider.
‘If that’s what you think,’ Kathy said and then stood as agonisingly slowly as she had sat.
Beth felt guilty about turning away from Kathy’s advice, but she could still use it. Something about sacrifice and forgiveness, she was already foggy on the details.
They said goodbye to one another outside Kathy’s caravan and Beth made as if to walk back to her own, but as soon as Kathy was out of sight, she turned away, walked to the other side of the convoy and went to find the super zombie.
The size of the super zombie still surprised her. It was roughly equivalent to four men, two side by side and each with another man on his shoulder. Its skin was decaying and peeling in places to reveal raw muscle and bone beneath. The eyes were the same dull green as Dale’s had been.
It was sitting on the other side of the crash barrier that separated the road from a five meter fall into the river. It was halfway down the slope, but Beth could still see its head and the creature watched her approach.
There was a time when she had been scared to visit the super zombie, but repetition had led to complacency. She knew that it was potentially dangerous, had seen it kill and knew that it was stronger than everyone in the convoy put together, but she couldn’t find it within herself to be worried.
‘You’ve been somewhere?’ Beth said as she climbed over the crash barrier.
The super zombie nodded slowly and raised its giant hand so that it was ready to catch her if she fell.
Beth sat down on the grass at the top of the hill so that their heads were level. Its eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight. The creature wasn’t capable of much expression but she thought she saw it smile.
She crossed her arms on her knees and allowed herself to relax in a way she hadn’t been able to do with Kathy. The super zombie couldn’t speak to her, couldn’t offer her advice or wisdom and that was what she needed, just someone who she could sit with and quietly contemplate the situation she was in.
An hour passed without either of them moving. Somewhere in the distance a wolf or wild dog began to bark. Beth didn’t feel scared. She felt that, as long as the super zombie was there with her, she would be protected and that was the only thing that mattered.
CHAPTER 3
THE WEATHER SET IN AND THE ROADS BECAME more treacherous. Beth decided that she’d had enough of travelling in the draughty jeep and returned to the caravan where she spent the days with Dawn and the others.
They found a supermarket warehouse with enough tinned food to replenish their supplies. There was talk about setting up there for the winter, with a little bit of effort they could even have taken the vehicles inside, but Beth chose to keep moving. There was, she realised, a good chance that the vehicles wouldn’t be operational once Spring came. If they were going to stop then it should be somewhere with land that they could farm and turn into long term settlement.
So they kept moving, and the days kept getting shorter. The frost no longer melted during the day. The only good thing about the change of weather was that it made the zombies even slower and more fragile.
When Beth woke up one morning she knew that something had chang
ed. She was warm enough in her sleeping bag, surrounded by other warm bodies, but the air still felt different. Doing her best to move quietly and not wake the others, she got up, got dressed and went to the door.
As soon as she stepped outside she knew what the problem was.
The cold was bitter and a stiff wind had whipped up around the caravans. She closed the door immediately and went to find something warmer to wear.
When she got outside she found that there was a thick layer of snow on everything and she couldn’t see more than twenty metres in any direction. She couldn’t see the other side of the road they had stopped on.
Beth walked along the convoy. The snow crunched beneath her feet and she realised that they would no longer be able to move without being noticed.
When the zombies had first come Beth had been alone. She had seen the news about the Battle of Oxford Circus, but a part of her hadn’t really accepted that it was true. Then one day, on her way home from work, she’d seen her first real life zombie
From a distance it hadn’t seemed threatening. She’d stopped on the other side of the road and watched it clawing at the front door of a block of flats. It hadn’t been aware of her and she should have been able to get away easily. Now she realised her mistake, but, at the time, she hadn’t felt like she was in danger.
As she’d watched the creature she’d become aware that she was the only one on the street. The only noise had been the arrhythmic scratching of the zombie’s nails against the wooden door.
The zombie had turned towards her. It was still fresh and she hadn’t realised what that meant. She could see that it had been a man and that its clothes were now ripped and hung in shreds around it. Even now she could remember the unicorn tattoo on its fat stomach.
It bared its teeth and she took an involuntary step backwards. It had taken a step towards her and then she’d felt threatened, but only as she would have done if any strange man had behaved the same way.
Beth had started to run.
She’d been able to hear the zombie behind her, its heavy footfalls on the ground echoed along the street. A glance over her shoulder had shown that it was gaining on her.
