The Farm

by Carter, Stuart

  “Hey, I’m not in charge here. Why don’t you hassle someone else for a plan?”

  “Because you’re the one with a fucking brain. The rest of those idiots need to be told what to do. Jed’s got the whole Alpha male thing going, but he’s a fucking idiot. If you weren’t so stupid you’d have ditched the lot of us years ago. We belong on the streets. You should have done something better years ago.”

  Jose wasn’t sure what to say to such a direct challenge to his failings. He had known for long enough that he should get himself clear of this gang, but he had never made any concrete steps to achieve it. His parents had always pushed for it, but he’d ignored them. He felt that he should defend himself, but wasn’t sure how to. Instead he said,

  “If we want to be safe the first thing is to get in shape. I’m going to be running every day. You should be with me. Then we’re going to get some proper defences set up around this place. We need a solid escape plan as well.”

  “That’s more like it.” She said, rewarding him with a smile.

  Jose started to get into a routine after that. He rose early in the mornings, starting his day as it got light enough to see clearly. Stumbling about in the dark at either end of the day seemed foolhardy. The day started with a run. At first this didn’t last long, as he didn’t have the stamina to go far, but he found that his fitness improved quickly, and he covered more and more distance, and could maintain a faster and faster pace. The route was dull as hell. He just circled the house endlessly. It wasn’t safe to go further afield, but just the feeling of running and getting noticeably fitter each day made up for that in the early days of his regime.

  Ideally a good shower would have followed the run, but that wasn’t an option. There was no running water. There was very little water of any kind, so he set fixing this as his first priority. The house was well stocked with bottles of soft drinks, booze and water for a period snowed in, but with the number of them living there it wasn’t going to last more than a few days. There was a pond in the back garden full of stagnant water. At a push it would keep them alive for a bit, but they would soon drain it, and most of them would get sick in the process.

  Having finished his run and rested up a bit, he told a few of the others that he planned to investigate the houses either side of the one they occupied to try and find a better water source. The houses were too far away to be directly observed. The fact that they hadn’t been disturbed suggested that they were unoccupied, but there was no way of knowing for sure. He expected Becky to volunteer to go with him. His main reason for announcing his intention to go was the hope that she would follow him. She had been running again that morning, but had kept her own pace instead of trying to keep up with him. They had passed each other a few times, but had not spoken beyond the basic greetings. He was surprised that she was not the only one to join him on the task he had set for the day, or even the first. Most of the people he spoke to were keen to go along on the reccie.

  Taking a closer look at the people around him. The people who had been his friends for years. People that he barely knew. He recognized that they were bored. They were out of their comfort zone. Clueless about what they should be doing with their time. Scared that they didn’t know what to do if the shit hit the fan. Unwittingly they had latched onto a strong leader, and avoided having to think too much for themselves. Now with Jed absent fucking his latest conquest they were at a loose end. He wasn’t convinced about Becky’s interpretation of himself, but he understood her interpretation of the others needing someone to step up and give them some direction. He wished there was someone else there to give it, but Jed was the only real leader they had. Where Becky sat in this hierarchy he wasn’t sure. He wanted her to tell him what he should do.

  Five of them went to the house on their right to determine what resources it had to offer. They didn’t know if the place was occupied so they approached slowly. The kid, Rosa, had wanted to go with them, but she had been told to stay behind and keep the dog with her. Jose was worried that she would follow anyway, but wasn’t sure what he could do to stop her, short of trying her down. He didn’t see himself as much of an authority figure, so if his instructions didn’t match her inclinations he doubted that they would be followed. Every time he looked back he expected to see her creeping up behind them with the dog on a lead for protection.

  By the time that they reached the house she hadn’t appeared, so he hoped that it meant that she wouldn’t that day. They had no idea what the house contained so they approached with caution. Before approaching the door they circled the building, splitting into two groups to move in opposite directions. They were all armed. One gun moved in either direction, with the rest of them carrying an assortment of blunt instruments. Everyone had a solid back up to their primary weapon.

  Circling the house they encountered nothing until they found each other. With the perimeter explored they returned to the front door. As they approached the entrance they were met with a massive crash on the other side of the door. It rattled in its frame but held solid. This was a wealthy area. Everything was well made out of solid materials. No chipboard or dodgy workmanship would have been permitted in this part of the country. Not that it mattered to the people inside. They were just as dead as anyone in the cheapest block of flats. Only difference was that it was harder for them to escape from their homes now that the Yale lock had become too complex for them to operate.

  “What do we do about the person on the other side?” Becky asked.

  “You guys stay here and try to keep them entertained. We,” he said, indicating towards James, “will go around the back and try to break in that way. Try to make sure that anything that can move around is focused on this door so we can just walk up and shoot them in the back of the head.” As he finished the sentence he was already close to the corner of the house. Becky watched until he was out of sight, then remembered that she was supposed to be acting as bait and started making some noise to attract anything that may be tempted to eat her brains. Following her lead the others joined in, to the point where she was concerned that they would draw attention from further afield and told them to ease off a bit.

  After ten minutes she started to get seriously worried. There was no let off in the crashing against the door they were facing. It showed no signs of buckling, but they had given more than enough time for Jose and James to get in and deal with the houses re-animated occupants. She was about to suggest that they go around the back after them when she finally heard the sounds of a brief fight inside. It was over before she had a chance to try and establish what was going on behind the door. She had expected the door to open immediately, but was disappointed. She feared that the battle had gone against her friends, but didn’t know what she should do about it. Her instinct was to follow them inside. To find out what had happened, to help them if they could still be saved. But in her mind she knew that if they had succumbed, her chances in the house were even worse than theirs had been. The two of them would now be infected and hostile to her. Two more assailants waited, and she didn’t even have a gun like they had had.

  To Becky’s relief the door opened while she was still in doubt that the worst case scenario had happened. Behind the door was Jose, who still looked alive and well. There had been a family of three trying to break out of their own house, now with cratered skulls that would make their death permanent. Their bodies had been dragged into another room away from the doorway. Both of the men that she knew had blood splattered all over their clothes. She backed away from them, and the other two stayed behind her. Momentarily Jose looked confused and hurt by her reaction. He had expected some sort of praise for the dispatch of these hostiles, and it took him a moment to realize the reason for the negative reaction.

  “Hey, it’s OK. No one’s bit me.” He told the cowering trio.

  “You’re covered in blood. Is a bite even necessary?” Becky asked. “Tim got bled on and we all know what happened to him.”

  “Me and James are fine. Nei
ther of us have any gaping wounds for the infection to get into.”

  “Please don’t make us take the risk,” Becky asked with a desperate look. “Too many people have died already. One mistake and you could finish us off.”

  “Fine. Me and James will stay in this house tonight. The rest of you can go back. When you come back tomorrow we’ll have picked out the stuff we need. Might as well do something useful while we are in quarantine.”

  “Please don’t hate me.”

  James looked ready to argue, but Jose got in first, “It’s OK. None of us know how this infection works. This is the right thing to do.” He closed the door, cutting out any other conversation.

  True to his word, Jose had everything that could be of use to them piled up near the front door when Becky went round at first light the next morning. She was alone, having been unable to sleep. The people around her didn’t seem to have the same problem. While she wanted the safety of numbers, it felt worth the risk to make this trip alone. It wasn’t until she had knocked on the door that she realized that she had walked across unarmed. She had taken for granted that Jose would be there to protect her, even when she feared for her life. She scolded herself for the absurdity of her decisions, but stood her ground on the doorstep regardless. She promised herself that she would smarten up and toughen up to survive what was ahead of them. Learn to take responsibility for her own safety when there was no effective leadership available.

  The door opened before there was any chance to back away or look for a weapon. Jose was standing there, looking healthy, and in a clean set of clothes. Without a second thought she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Without thinking they were kissing, pressed together in a tight embrace. At first he felt stiff and awkward, but seemed to relax as she ran her fingers through his hair and stroked her fingers across the small of his back.

  He pulled away sooner than she would have liked. With him close she felt safer than she had in a long time. Since a long time before this crisis, before her mum had died, and her dad, desperate, alone and unemployed had moved them into the squalid estate that they’d all called home. She looked up at him, trying to express her confusion at his rejection. He held her gaze, with a warmth she was not used to. She had been with a lot of guys, but none had sent such turmoil through her body as Jose had managed with that single look.

  In an instant he switched back to his customary nervous awkwardness. “We found everything that’s useful in this house. We should start taking it across… If you’re OK with me coming out of quarantine that is.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh at him, “You’re so cute.” She gave him a quick kiss, then grabbed a couple of the bags that he had lined up and led the way back to their main base. She couldn’t help thinking that the end of the world wasn’t turning out too badly.

  They fell into a bit of a routine. Most of them anyway. Jose got up in the morning and went for a run. Most of them followed him, not all of them for very far, but none of them went without improvement. After that they washed as best they could with the water available. They ruled out using the bottled stuff for cleaning, so used the pond and a well they found in one of the neighbouring gardens. Soap and deodorant were plentiful. After exercising and washing there were two main tasks. Building defensive barriers, and exploring the nearest houses and retrieving anything that looked useful. The former soon became Jose’s main role, as ideas kept coming to him to improve on what they had. On the days he had been out exploring he had pissed everyone off by making suggestions that superseded the work they had achieved that day.

  The houses were well spread out, and they operated with extreme caution, so there was not much of an increase in their food supplies, but they were not running out. There were fields around them that were growing wheat, or barley or oats. They weren’t sure which, and didn’t know what to do with any of them. There were trees dotted about with apples, pears and other fruits that would supplement their diet, but they didn’t know how to keep them fresh. A couple of times Jose tried to engage with the owner of the house they were squatting in, but she seemed unwilling, or unable to do anything but cling onto Jed. At times the gang seemed to miss the leadership that he had always offered them, but for the most part they were happy to fill their time with whatever task was in front of them.

  Through the day Jose carried on with the mostly self-imposed tasks that were set for him. He strove for continual improvement in his own physical condition, and in their greater material situation. Elements he was proud of; he was fitter, the walls were stronger, most of them were working together to build something better. But he could see that their lack of knowledge was soon going to be their downfall. They had spent all of their lives in the city, and were not equipped to deal with food that didn’t come microwave ready. Their defences were improving, but there were millions infected in London ready to spread across the country. A tiny percentage of them would crush all they had built.

  Knowing their limitations, Jose made sure they were ready to flee as soon as the time came. They found three sturdy off road vehicles, and kept them permanently stocked with essential resources. It meant they were ready to cut and run at any moment. But, even with this on is mind, his days were focused on Becky. In the nights they would sneak off together and sleep in the house they had first cleared and spend the night there. When he reflected on it, Jose couldn’t help thinking that these were the best days of his life. He tried to remind himself of the catastrophe surrounding them, but so long as the fate of his parents was a mystery he kept convincing himself that they would be OK, and it was OK for him to be happy.

  The enthusiasm for the wave of activity was inconsistent across the group. Some were never fully engaged, while others waxed and waned in their efforts. A couple of others seemed to find solace in the activity and pushed themselves to match every effort Jose put in. He didn’t try to force anyone to help out unless additional numbers were essential for a task. He knew that the people around him would habitually make every effort to avoid work if they were pushed into it. He had no desire to spend his days trying to control an unwilling workforce, so continued to rely on voluntary contributions. At times he could sense Becky’s disapproval of his unwillingness to push the rest of the gang to work harder, but he felt that he knew the limits of what he could get out of them.

  Days kept rolling past with little incident. A couple of times their defences were tested by the infected, the first time singly, the second, by a group of three. Both times they were sopped easily enough, but at the expense of their limited supply of bullets. Jose had told them not to shoot unless absolutely necessary, but no one was prone to listen to this instruction. The bodies were left untouched on the other side of their barriers and ignored. No one wanted to touch them for fear of infection. They stank from the start, and kept getting worse, but it was not long before the smell stopped registering.

  The peace couldn’t last. Their patrols were going out further and further to find food, fuel and any other resources that could be useful. One day they came back to the house with a ragged looking young couple along with a scant supply of new food. Under the dirt and layers of torn clothing it was hard to tell what they looked like, let alone how old they were. There was a wild eyed look to them, screaming of a deep mistrust of the people they were now surrounded by. They must have been desperate to get into the car with the two guys who had been out driving. Neither looked particularly approachable.

  Jose tried to reassure them that they were going to be OK, handing them some food and bottles of water. They seemed reluctant to take anything from him, but once the food was in their hands they ate ravenously. All the time their heads twitched side to side, always looking for the next sign of danger. Neither said a word, and they guys who had picked then up said they hadn’t spoken the whole time they had been with them. He’d almost left them behind, but both had complied when he asked to check them for bites. He said that they even seemed to relax a bit at the scrutiny, but had
never let their guard down.

  “Do you guys want to clean up a bit?” Jose asked. “We’ve not got anything fancy, just a pond to wash in, but it’s better than nothing… We can give you some new clothes too. Just stuff we’ve found in the houses around here.”

  “We don’t have long.” The girl answered. “They weren’t far behind us. They never rest.”

  “How many of them? How long do we have?”

  “Thousands. It looks like the whole of London is spreading across the country.”

  “Did you see them?” Jose directed his question to Tim, the driver of the car that had found them.

  “Not a living thing apart from these two.”

  “OK. Tim, I want you to take me to where you found these two. I want to see what we’re up against. The rest of you, get these two cleaned up, and make sure the cars are ready for a quick getaway if we need to run. We need people on watch to make sure we aren’t taken by surprise.”

  He was walking away before he could see if anyone was following his instructions. It didn’t occur to him to check. Their situation was precarious enough that everything he said was common sense, and had no need of enforcement. Within a few strides Tim caught up with him, ready to take him to where the two refugees had been found.

  They were driving for longer than he had expected. He asked, “Are we needing to travel this far to find food now?”

  “Not really. We were just out for a bit of a drive to see what was around here. We went a bit further than we planned, then we saw those two in the distance.” He drove for a few moments more then pointed, “There. That’s exactly where we first saw them. Didn’t see anyone else chasing them though.”

  “They were obviously terrified of something. I think they’ve been getting chased for a long time, and never had much of a lead. Slow down and keep your eyes open. They could be close.”