Before Safe Haven (Book 4): Jules

by Artinian, Christopher

  He raised the bottle in front of him just as Jules had. “Sláinte.”

  By the time they had finished their toasts, the first of the trolleys were being wheeled in from the kitchen. “Back at the Depot, we have a little remembrance plot,” she said as she watched eager hands grabbing plastic-wrapped trays of tins from the shelves and loading them onto the carts.

  “What do you mean?” Scotty asked.

  “The garden section of the Depot is behind a massive walled area with fences climbing another dozen feet higher than that, so there’s no danger of the infected ever seeing us or bothering us. We’ve got rows of plant pots in there with people’s names written on. If we had a church, we’d light candles for our dead, but I thought it might be nice if people were able to sow a seed for their loved ones. A way to remember them. You probably think it’s daft, but a lot of us have done it.”

  “I don’t think it’s daft at all,” Scotty replied. “I’d very much like to do that for my family. Do you think I’d be able to?”

  “Too right you’d be able to, darlin’. Sounds mad I know, but I go back and talk to my plant pot like I’m talking to my ma and da.”

  “That doesn’t sound mad. That sounds lovely.”

  “Ah well. It gives me a little comfort anyway, and I think we need all the comfort we can get these days, don’t you?”

  “I’ll drink to that,” Scotty said, taking another drink from the bottle and offering it to Jules, who put her hands up.

  “Nah, better keep my wits about me. God knows I need extra to make up for the three halves my brothers are missing between them,” she said, just as Rob was looking perplexed as to why the loaded trolley he was trying to push back out of the room was not moving. She walked across and flicked the two brakes up with her foot then turned to Jon, who had pushed the brakes on in the first place. “We’ve got a job to do. No larking about.”

  Jules walked out of the pantry and headed along the corridor to the mess. Natural light shone into the hallway from the propped open double doors. George and Rog stood at the fire exit waiting for the first of the trolleys to arrive. Jules went across to them. “While we’re getting the food loaded, we could do with another team unloading the trashed truck if you’ve got any spare bods,” Rog said.

  Jules looked towards the army vehicle with its canvas top parked parallel with the pantry. “Everybody else is tied up at the moment, but I can make a start on that.”

  “I didn’t realise you got your hands dirty; thought you were management,” Rog said with a grin.

  “You cheeky fuckin’ shite, I’ll give you management,” she said, smiling.

  The team worked like a well-oiled machine. As the pantry emptied, more people joined Jules. Eventually, there was no more space in the box van, and it was time for George to take over with the decoy duties that Ben and Olly were carrying out so well. The group had remained vigilant and occasionally heard the odd vehicle horn but had not seen a single creature.

  “I don’t like you going alone,” Jules said, taking hold of George’s arm as she walked him to the van.

  “It makes sense. The more people helping you load, the sooner you’ll be done and it’s better if Rog stays here. If anything goes wrong, it will be good to have a trained soldier around.”

  “Yeah, but what if you run into trouble?”

  “Then it’s better to just put one old man at risk than two people, isn’t it?”

  “I was thinking more about the supplies,” Jules replied.

  “Cheeky bugger. I’m not going to run into trouble, and you’re going to need Rog here to show you where everything is.”

  Suddenly, Andy overtook them without saying a word and went to sit in the passenger seat of the box van. Jules and George gave each other a confused look. When they reached the van, Jules opened the driver’s door and looked across at her brother. “What’s going on?”

  Andy held up a pistol. “This is a Glock 17,” he said, almost as if he was doing a commercial presentation for it. “Rog has told me how to use it. George can’t go alone, so I’m going with him.”

  “I don’t want you shooting bloody guns off, that’s the last thing we need,” Jules replied.

  “I’m not an idiot. I’ve got no thought of using it unless it’s an absolute emergency, but if something happens and we’re surrounded by twenty-odd of those things what are we going to do?”

  Jules couldn’t answer. She looked back towards the rest of the group who were now ferrying military clothing out of the building on the same trolleys they had used for the food. “Watch yourselves, the pair of you,” she said, turning to Andy and then to George.

  There was a look of apprehension, bordering horror and torment, on George’s face as he climbed into the cab. He started up the engine and lowered the window. “Get everybody back inside until the other van’s back here. It might not be as straightforward as we hope… Could end up with both vans being followed rather than just one.”

  Jules nodded, and as George levered off the handbrake, she set about ushering everyone back inside the building. She slammed the fire door closed behind them, and the group just stood there, waiting for a signal to announce the all-clear.

  Three minutes later, there was the sound of an engine coming to a stop. A door opened and closed, and then they heard three firm knocks on the fire exit. Jules hit the panic bar, and the door swung open. Ben and Olly were standing there with smiles on their faces, and Jules’s face lit up too. She gave them both tight embraces and she was about to issue instructions to the rest of the group to get the second van loaded up when two shots rang out, and the blood in her veins suddenly turned to ice.

  CHAPTER 5

  Nobody moved and nobody spoke for what seemed like an eternity but was actually no more than just a few seconds. Jules thought back to the last words her brother had spoken about only using the gun if it was an absolute emergency. “Stay here,” she said to the others, closing the emergency exit behind her and heading to the box van.

  Ben ran around to the driver side, and Olly climbed into the passenger seats. They were about to set off when Rog banged on the door. “Budge up,” he said, opening it and climbing inside.

  Olly squeezed up against Jules and Rog shut the door again, planting the butt of his rifle in the footwell. The wheels began to turn on the van and they’d been travelling less than a minute before they saw the other vehicle completely surrounded by a horde of beasts in military uniform battering the sides and front of the cab. None of them turned as Ben pulled on the handbrake. The full attention of the undead mob was focussed on George and Andy.

  “Oh dear God!” Jules cried as she watched the rabid creatures thrashing against the other vehicle. There was a loud bang as the glass in the windscreen splintered, then the same thing happened with the passenger window. “They’re sitting ducks. What do we do?”

  Ben pressed hard on the horn, the sound temporarily drowning out the growls. A number of the beasts looked in the direction of the sound but just as quickly returned their attention to the prey they had trapped just a few inches beyond the glass.

  The box van, despite being weighed down with supplies, began to tip from side to side as the agitated hammering from the horde became even more frantic. Before she knew what was happening, Jules suddenly felt less squashed and looked to her left to see Rog had opened the door and jumped down. He raised his rifle and fired. There was an eruption of red that turned to mist in the air, and one of the creatures fell to the ground. He fired again and a second beast fell, then a third.

  Half the horde split from the van and began to sprint towards him. Here was a living, breathing, pink-fleshed body out in the open just ready for the plucking. Rog fired again, and another monster fell. As it hit the ground, he climbed back into the box van. “Put your foot down,” he commanded, and Ben did as he was told. The engine revved loudly, and the tyres screeched as the van began to speed towards the advancing beasts. The creatures converged but soon spread again as the vehi
cle smashed through them. Bodies flew in multiple directions; arms swam through the air, legs kicked at nothing. Two of the beasts collided with the bonnet of the box van head-on. Jules cringed as she saw their rib cages crumble. They remained stuck there for a moment before disappearing beneath the wheels.

  Ben slammed on the brakes and turned the vehicle in a big U. More of the creatures surrounding George and Andy suddenly broke off and gave chase. “They’re following us, they’re following us!” Ben shouted excitedly.

  “Okay, stop here again,” Rog said. This time, when he opened the door and jumped out, Jules and Olly got out with him.

  “Turn her round,” Olly barked through the door before slamming it shut. He looked towards Jules. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

  “Why, because I’m a girl?”

  “No, because we’ve got guns and you’ve just got that,” he replied, nodding towards the hatchet in Jules’s hand.

  The van moved off, and Rog and Olly took aim at two of the half-dozen creatures sprinting towards them. They fired at the same time. One flew backwards, skidding across the tarmac. Olly’s bullet entered his target’s shoulder. The creature stumbled a little but was soon back to a full sprint. “Shit!” Olly cried.

  They both fired again. Again, Olly’s bullet strayed while Rog’s brought a second beast down. Jules threw a look behind to see the van still manoeuvring. “Shite!” She looked back towards the creatures and saw that even more had broken away from the crowd and were heading in their direction. “Do your best not to shoot me,” she said and started to run towards the advancing monsters.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” shouted Olly.

  Jules felt her heart race as she took the first strides towards the pack of growling beasts. She had to do something. She would not be able to live with herself if anything happened to Andy or George. She veered right and both monstrous groups changed direction immediately, following her like shoals of piranhas tracking a wounded fish. She continued between two antiquated looking, single-storey buildings as shots began to ring out behind her once more. She heard the roar of the engine as Ben turned the other van around, but as she looked back, she could see that the attention of all the beasts was now firmly fixed on her. Andy and George’s van was clear now, but what momentary happiness that gave her soon washed away as she realised the creatures were gaining ground.

  Another shot fired and the lead beast went down. Others stumbled behind it, giving Jules just a moment’s respite. She carried on between the two buildings. Now, though, she really was alone. Rog and Olly would be able to pick off the odd pursuer still, but they would not have a clear line of sight of the front-runners, the ones that presented Jules with the greatest threat.

  There were more rifle reports, but as Jules rounded the corner she did not look back to see if any more beasts had fallen. It was enough to hear the multiple pounding feet and the excited growls. These hellish monsters were hot on her trail and getting closer all the time. She could almost feel their grasping fingers upon her.

  She rounded the next corner but, just then, her boot landed on a thin layer of gravel, sending her skidding and crashing to the floor. Pain spasmed through her as she made contact with the gritty surface, but that was her last consideration as the demonic horde attacked.

  CHAPTER 6

  The first creature was almost on top of her when she suddenly rolled to the side. It landed face down on the tarmac, flattening its nose in a gory explosion. Two shots fired and Jules heard the high-pitched revving of the box van, but as another beast pounced she did not have the time to see what was going on beyond her own terrifying field of vision. She rolled again, and this time the creature managed to skew its body to land on her like some deranged alligator with frantically snapping jaws.

  Jules pushed hard, forcing it off her, then swung her hatchet in a wide arc. The blade cracked through the monster’s forehead as a third and fourth beast lunged. The small axe was buried too deep for her to pull it out quickly enough, so she shuffled backwards as further shots fired.

  The two pouncing beasts collapsed immediately, but the first creature with the flattened nose reached out, catching Jules’s ankle. She screamed and booted it hard with her other foot as yet another bullet fired, causing a monster that looked like a giant from a children’s story to drop to its knees. More beasts ran into the back of it resulting in a mini pile-up and, Jules kicked the creature that had her in its clutches even harder. The toe of her left foot made contact with its head, and for a moment its hand clenched her ankle even tighter, but then the fingers unfurled momentarily and she pulled free. She shuffled back on her hands, heels and buttocks, finally springing to her feet and turning to run.

  Rog and Olly were stood either side of the tarmac passage between the two buildings, but the focus of her attention now was on the box van that was hurtling straight towards her. She could see Ben in the driver seat desperately waving his left arm, urging her to get out of the way. Jules looked back towards the beasts as they started to gather themselves, and she slowed down then finally stopped. There were only thirteen or fourteen left now, and she knew this was the best chance they had to finish them all off. Within a few seconds, they were charging towards her once more.

  Jules turned and sprinted towards the box van as it accelerated even more. She turned her head to glimpse the horde closing then pivoted and dived to the side, crashing onto the hard ground and rolling to a heavy stop. She heard the tyres squeal as Ben adjusted the vehicle’s direction. Two beasts emerged into her line of sight and began to charge towards her, but heavy thuds drummed into the air as more still were battered by the speeding box van.

  More shots sounded from behind her and both creatures making a beeline for Jules stuttered in mid-stride as one bullet disappeared into a neck and another into a chest, but neither beast fell. She climbed to her feet, jarred, bruised and aching. She started to run towards Olly and Rog. The pair fired again, and as the sound of screeching tyres ripped through the air, Jules dared to turn around. The beasts that had been pursuing her were both down. All but one remaining pair of creatures were on the ground in various states of mobility. Even from a distance, Jules could see most had broken limbs and shattered bodies.

  The van straightened up as the last two vertical beasts limped towards it. There were two loud smashes as the creatures were batted off the bonnet at speed, leaving gruesome imprints on the white bodywork. The van swerved twice more, rolling over any beasts that looked like they had the slimmest chance of climbing back to their feet, but the danger was over. The vehicle pulled up in front of Jules, and Ben climbed out, running towards her and clutching her in the tightest of embraces. They held each other for a moment and then finally withdrew.

  “What the bloody hell were you thinking?” Ben demanded.

  “I had to do something; that was George and my brother in that van.”

  “That was madness. Do you realise how dangerous that was, Jules?”

  “Well, considering it was my arse out there, I’ve got a pretty good idea, yeah.”

  “You could have been killed just as easily as not.”

  “Yeah, well, I wasn’t, was I?”

  “Not for a bloody lack of trying.”

  “Jules!” Andy shouted and Jules turned her head. She ran towards her brother and he ran to her. He flung his arms around her and kissed her roughly on the cheek.

  “Are you alright?” she asked, pulling back and looking at him to make sure he was not hurt.

  “I’m fine.”

  George came up behind Andy and Jules threw her arms around him too. “What happened?”

  “Bloody thing stalled; then it wouldn’t start again. I think it’s the starter motor. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, we’d have been in real trouble,” George said.

  “Yeah, well, that was a close thing all round,” Rog said as he walked across to them. “Right, well, after you’ve got your breath, let’s get your van going, get loaded up and get out of here befo
re dark. I really don’t want us to be travelling at night if we can help it.”

  Jules looked towards Ben, but he had already climbed back into the van, he was obviously still angry with her. She started heading back then stopped and looked around. “What is it?” Olly asked.

  Jules turned to Rog. “What’s to stop us bringing the gang from the Home and Garden Depot here? I mean we can repair the gate, make it secure and there’s plenty of space. Surely—”

  “They stopped using this place years ago. It was only when the disaster hit that they reopened it, but they soon wished they hadn’t. The buildings are disintegrating and are full of asbestos. The pantry is about the only room in the place whose walls aren’t painted with toxic mould. If you’ve got young or old people among you, this is the last place you want to bring them,” Rog said.

  Jules let out a sigh. “Ah well. It was just a thought.”

  Rog and George hitched a tow rope to the van with the faulty starter motor, and once they got the engine running, George kept it running. They filled the second van with all the supplies it could carry then carefully stretchered Scotty on board.

  The journey back to the Home and Garden Depot was quiet. Ben did not make eye contact with Jules despite her frequent attempts to grab his attention and even after they had unloaded the vans and introduced the newcomers, the tensions did not ease.

  George and Jules made Scotty as comfortable as they could in the cash office, but it was not long until the skies began to darken. They both went upstairs to the manager’s office and sat down in the well-padded, comfortable armchairs.

  “That was some day,” George said.

  “You can say that again,” Jules replied. “I was scared to death I was going to lose you and that idiot brother of mine.”

  “There was a time there when I thought you were going to lose us too.” George took out his pipe and went through his usual rituals with the tobacco before lighting it and taking a few puffs. “He stepped up today did Andy.”