“You need to get some sleep,” Noel said.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not. You’re exhausted. Go to sleep, I’ll wake you if there’s trouble.”
Beth nodded. She didn’t have the strength to argue about that as well. She climbed off the log and lay down on the ground next to Dawn. Her sister stirred but didn’t wake up. A moment later Beth was asleep as well.
CHAPTER THREE
She thought of it as ‘The Camp’ but it wasn’t really. There were some rocks and a cave, a fire pit that looked as if it had been used at some point in the last several weeks, but not much else. They had stumbled upon it during the fifth day of walking and it hadn’t taken much argument from Dawn and Noel to convince her that they could stay there, at least for a little while.
They took shelter in the mouth of the cave. Beth had been far enough back in the tunnels to convince herself that there were no zombies, nor bears, lurking there.
There was a river that ended in the clearing, but the water was brown and still. Noel had followed it back through the forest and found a place that it was safe to drink, and had made it his daily duty to fill everyone’s canteens there in the morning.
It wasn’t much, but it felt safe. They had been there for three days without any sign of zombies. People left her alone and got on with things themselves. She could spend whole days without talking to anyone except Dawn and Noel, and that was fine by her.
On the fourth day, she was sitting with her back against a tree, looking down on the clearing and trying not to think about Dale. She spent a lot of time trying not to think about Dale now.
She saw Rachel walking towards her and considered getting up and leaving, but she didn’t. Beth had always liked Rachel and was thankful to her for keeping Dawn safe when the zombies had attacked the school.
“Hi,” Rachel said.
Beth smiled at her but didn’t say anything. She was holding an empty crisp packet in her right hand.
“Do you mind if I sit down?”
Beth shrugged. Rachel sat.
For a while, she didn’t say anything, and Beth almost forgot that she was there.
“Noel said I should come and talk to you,” Rachel said.
Fucking Noel, she thought, but didn’t say anything.
“We’re running low on food,” Rachel said.
“How low?” Beth said. She had noticed the dwindling of her own supplies but the truth was she hadn’t been eating much recently, she didn’t seem to have an appetite.
“The children have what we could find in the school,” Rachel said. She shrugged. “Maybe another two days if we’re careful.”
“Has anyone got anything they can share?”
Rachel pulled her knees up under her chin. She was a few years older than Beth, maybe in her early thirties, but she was still trim and flexible. “We’re all low,” she said. “No one has anything to share.”
At least they had water, she thought, but they could only survive without food for so long. The question was, what was she supposed to do about it? And, nestling just underneath that question, why was she supposed to be the one to do something?
“I just thought you should know,” Rachel said.
“Thanks,” Beth said.
She watched Rachel walk back across the clearing towards the children who were playing around the empty fire pit. She didn’t want this to be her problem, but perhaps it was. Even though she hadn’t wanted to stop in the camp, even though she wasn’t the leader.
Beth sighed and turned away. If they didn’t find food soon they would all starve, herself and Dawn included.
Other people came to visit and told her the same thing. She listened to their concerns, but she didn’t have any advice to give them. When she was on her own, she worried that they were all going to starve to death and that it would be her fault.
* * * * *
“We’re going to look for food.”
Beth was sitting cross-legged on the floor at the entrance to the cave. She looked up at the man who had spoken. His name was Michael, his once-shaved head was sprouting stubble and he seemed to have gone from tubby to emaciated in fewer than two weeks. Standing next to him were his two brothers; William (the younger) and Trevor (the older).
“Where are you going to look?” she said. She had considered the possibility that they might need to leave the clearing, or send people to look for food, but she hadn’t been able to make the decision to do so. In some ways it was a relief that the three brothers had taken it upon themselves but, as far as she knew, they were in the middle of nowhere, the nearest town was miles away.
“There must be something nearby,” Michael said. He rubbed the back of his head as he spoke and Beth wondered if he had expected her to refuse to let him go. “A petrol station maybe, or a farm.”
“It’s dangerous,” Beth said.
“We’ll starve to death if we don’t find something.”
She nodded. “Will you come back?”
“Of course,” Michael said. “We’re doing this for everyone.”
If she’d had a weapon worth giving them, then she would have done so. She looked at the three men and thought that they were brave for doing this but, at the same time, foolish beyond measure. A part of her didn’t think that she would ever see them again.
“When are you leaving?” she said.
“In the morning. Hopefully, we can be there and back in a day.”
It depended on where ‘there’ was, she thought. Beth smiled and nodded. “Thank you,” she said.
The men stood for a moment longer, and she wondered if there was something else they expected from her. She didn’t have anything else to give.
“You should get some rest,” she said.
Michael nodded. “Sure,” he said and then he turned to his brothers. The three of them walked away.
When the group found out that the Sullivan brothers were going to look for food they were relieved but concerned. Some others decided that they should go as well, that the more people who were looking, the greater their chances of success.
The next morning three different groups left the camp. They went in different directions but with the same goal in mind. Beth watched them from the mouth of the cave and wondered if she would see any of them again.
* * * * *
None of them returned that evening. Noel lit a fire in the pit, and they sat down to share the last of their food. There wasn’t enough to satisfy their growing hunger, and the unspoken truth was that if no one returned, then they would all starve.
Beth lay awake for most of the night, wondering what she should do. It felt like it had been a mistake to let them go at all. Now they were wedded to the campsite; even though it probably made more sense to pack up their things and move on, they couldn’t. They had to wait there in case anyone came back.
She fell asleep thinking about the problem and, when she woke, she was surprised to find that she had come up with a solution.
An hour after sunrise they were all standing in the middle of the clearing. She could see that no one else had slept particularly well either, but hoped that what she was going to tell them would help.
“There’s forest all around us,” she said.
They looked back at her with a mixture of fear and hope. She didn’t know which they felt more keenly.
“We can find berries and fruit and maybe even work out how to trap an animal.”
The animal seemed unlikely, she hadn’t seen any since they had left Harmony, but she felt the need to offer them more berries to live on.
“If we organise ourselves then we should be able to find enough to live on.”
They muttered to one another, and she couldn’t tell whether it was exhaustion or genuine dissatisfaction with her plan. But really, what other choice did they have? They could stay and starve or they could try. Surely this was better than nothing.
She broke them up into groups and sent them into the forest. In her gut, she felt l
ike some of them wouldn’t make it back, and a wicked voice in the back of her head said that might be for the best: if there were fewer mouths to feed then those of them who did make it back would have a better chance of long-term survival.
Beth walked with Noel and Dawn. They each had a bag that had once been full of food, but was now sadly empty. She would have preferred to leave Dawn at the camp but, with no one there to guard her, it seemed safer to bring her along. Plus an extra pair of hands would be useful.
Each group had gone in a different direction. The forest was naturally quiet so she could hear them moving around. At first, she had thought they were zombies but if there had been any that close to the camp, they would have met them already.
“I’ve found some berries,” Dawn said. She was a few metres to the left, still clearly visible. Beth and Noel went over to her. “How can we tell if they’re safe to eat?”
Beth looked at Noel, and he shrugged. She didn’t have a clue. They looked safe enough, but what if they weren’t?
“They might be poisonous,” Dawn said.
After a moment of hesitation, Noel reached out and picked one of the dark berries off the branch. He put it into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. “If I’m still alive when we get back we’ll know they’re not poisonous.”
Beth looked at him, unable to decide whether he was being brave or foolish. She shrugged to herself and started picking the berries. They came off in handfuls, and she easily managed to fill her bag and Dawn’s. They moved onto another bush and filled Noel’s bag as well.
They weren’t the first one’s back to camp. She could hear voices as she made her way through the last stretch of forest. About half the group was already sitting by the fire pit and on the ground in front of them were piles of berries. It occurred to Beth that they were all different, and they had no way of telling whether any of them were poisonous. She decided not to mention it; if they were poisonous then they would all die, if they didn’t eat then they would also die.
To her relief, the rest of the group returned a short while later. They had found some apples and added them to the pile on the floor. It looked like a feast, but she had personally picked a whole bush clean, and she didn’t think that more would grow there over night. This was a short-term solution at best.
They ate around the fire which Noel, who had made it back to the camp without dying, had built. They talked and ate, and no one seemed at all concerned by the fact that, even if they had an unlimited supply of fruits and berries, they couldn’t survive on them forever.
Beth made her excuses and went back to the cave while they were all still laughing and talking. She could feel herself growing depressed, and she didn’t want to bring the mood down now that people were finally happy.
At some point, she fell asleep but was woken again a short time later by the sudden resurgence of voices. She sat up and, at first, she couldn’t tell whether the noises were happy ones. She got to her feet and stumbled out of the cave, scared that she was going to find a group of zombies making its way through the camp.
She hurried down the narrow path which led from the cave to the pit. All she could see was a collection of bodies around the fire. They were moving but at a distance fighting and dancing looked very similar. Her only thought was Dawn. That she shouldn’t have left her there alone.
“Beth!” Noel came running towards her, and she froze. She still couldn’t tell whether he was happy or scared. “They’re back!”
If she’d had more time to think, then she might have been annoyed by the vagueness of the statement. Did he mean that the zombies had come back or someone else?
He stopped in front of her and at last she could see that he wasn’t scared, he was happy. He took her arm and forced her to move with him.
Beth followed him the rest of the way along the path, and saw a group of girls who looked as if they had crawled through mud to get back.
“They found a village,” Noel said, still leading her by the arm. On the floor, beside what was left of the berries, she saw tins and packets of food and even bottles of drink.
She looked at the girls who were standing with their hands in front of them like they were unsure whether she was going to be angry or happy. She smiled and felt the tension leave her body. There was enough there to last them for days.
“Is there more?” she said.
One of the girls nodded. “We took what we could carry, but the shop was full.”
Had it really been that easy? She wondered, was all they’d had to do look? She suddenly felt guilty: if it had been left to her, they might have all starved within walking distance of a feast.
“Well done,” she said.
The girl who had spoken smiled but none of them turned away.
“You must be exhausted. Why don’t you get some rest?”
They thanked her (they thanked her!) and then walked away, back up the path towards the cave.
There was so much food that it took five of them to carry it all. They took it to the cave and made space towards the back where it would be out of the sun.
Beth didn’t return to the pit. She could hear laughing and singing and she felt a little like celebrating as well, but she didn’t join them. Every time she got close to feeling happy she found herself thinking about Dale. If she went back there, she would bring them down, and they’d had little to celebrate recently. It would be better to let them have their fun while she slept and hoped not to dream.
* * * * *
The following day they ate chocolate and crisps for breakfast. Even after they had all taken their share, the pile of food seemed not to have diminished. It would have been easy to feel like they had been saved, but Beth knew that would be a mistake.
She ate sparingly while the others took what they wanted. A part of her thought that she should instigate a rationing system, but would they listen to her if she tried? She thought, they probably would, but that was the kind of thing that a leader would do, and she didn’t want to give them false hope. So she sat and watched as people helped themselves and she said nothing.
By mid-afternoon, she’d had enough of sitting in the cave and jealously guarding the food. She picked herself up and walked back along the narrow path towards the pit. There were a few people around, and some of the children were playing together while Rachel and David watched.
“Hi, Beth!” one of the children said.
She smiled but didn’t stop. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she didn’t want to be around people, especially not children, who had a habit of asking questions that she wouldn’t want to answer.
She took herself towards the forest. There were few enough people around that she knew others must have made the same journey, but the forest was big enough that she could avoid them.
The forest was cool and dark and a good place to think if that was what you wanted. Beth didn’t. She wanted to walk until she was too exhausted to be able to think.
She walked past the familiar territory, unsure when she would stop. She came to a narrow part of the river and stepped over it without getting her feet wet.
The scream seemed to echo through the forest for a long time. Long enough for her to wonder whether it was actually a bird retching somewhere unseen. She stopped on the dusty path and turned back. It had come from the campsite, there was no other explanation.
She started to run.
She ran until she could feel her lungs burning. She jumped back over the river but in her haste stumbled, and her back foot went in. Beth pulled herself back up and continued.
When she was closer, she could hear more screaming and the low guttural moan of zombies. Her worst fears had been realised.
She burst out of the forest and into the clearing. At first, she could only see the group running around and the scene was not dissimilar to the dancing she had seen the night before. But then her eyes fell upon the three dark shapes, moving slowly through the camp.
When they turned towards her, she had
to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop herself screaming. All three of the Sullivan brothers looked at her with dead eyes.
Beth was momentarily frozen. They looked at her but didn’t move. She wondered why no one was attacking them and then it dawned on her that she had been followed by the weakest and least prepared people in Harmony. They were ready made victims.
“Beth?”
She turned around and saw Noel coming towards her around the perimeter of the camp. He was carrying a large stick that had been whittled down into the shape of a baseball bat.
“You need to get back to the cave,” Noel said.
“I need a weapon,” she said.
Noel shook his head. “It’s not safe,” he said. “We need to keep you safe.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. She started walking down towards the pit where the three brothers were now moving around as if they were waiting for her. “I’m not hiding.”
“We need you, Beth,” Noel said, following her closely. “If something happens to you what are we supposed to do?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t the leader so it didn’t matter. “You’re not going to treat me like a symbol. If I can’t fight then I’m no good to anyone.”
The children were standing with Rachel and David. If anyone should have been taken back to the cave, it was them.
“Beth listen to me,” Noel said. He managed to get in front of her and block the path with his skinny body.
“Either get me a weapon or get out of my way,” she said.
Noel looked at her and seemed to sag. He held out the bat that he had been carrying. She knew it was his weapon and that, even without one, he would follow her. It crossed her mind to refuse it, but the look in his eyes told her that was more likely to start an entirely new argument.
She took the stick. “Thank you.”
Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Zero Hour Page 3
