I needed answers, and there was no way we could head back to bastion at that moment in time.
After hours and hours of interrupted, mostly failed attempts at sleep, we gathered in the kitchen a little before midday.
‘I want to go to Ashby.’
‘Are you insane?’ Hayley asked. ‘That’s where this thing started.’
‘I know that, but there are so many questions that we haven’t had answers to yet. If this thing started there then we might get some insight as to who it was who infected them, and where this thing came from. Look, we might never see Bastion again, but if we find out how things went down at Ashby then it might help us take Bastion back.’
‘What are you planning on finding there?’ Robbie asked.
‘I don’t know… A clue… Something? I mean, for all we know the place could be fine. We don’t know for sure that it’s them who overran us at Bastion. If they’re still alive we could make a deal with them to take back the town. They could help us.’
Silence, then-
‘But what if it was them who attacked us?’ Leah said.
‘Then… It’s them, and we take whatever we can. If the place isn’t too much of a mess we could make it our new home. Keep looking for survivors.’
‘Survivors?’ Robbie asked. ‘Don’t you hear yourself?’
‘Look, I know I usually seem as if I’ve got a plan, and that everything’s going to fall into place, but right now I don’t. I’m just making this thing up as I go along. We can stay here and struggle on, and live with just the four of us, or we can try and solve this situation and take back our town. Maybe you’re right. Maybe they’re all gone, every single one of them from Bastion is gone, and it’s just us. But I’m not going to sit around and speculate on the matter. I’d rather… I’d rather be dead than know that we can still save them. Anything’s possible. They could be hiding for all we know, in the basements or something.
‘I’m sick of debating on this. I’m going anyway. You can come with me, or you can stay here. It’s your call. I’m not asking you to choose either.’
Leah, Robbie and Hayley all looked between each other. We sat in silence for so long that I assumed they were going to say no. I had made the offer though – it was still in their right to decide against it.
‘You’ve led us this far,’ Leah said, ‘I think you’ve done a pretty good job of it.’
‘Really think I’m gonna say no?’ Hayley asked.
I looked over at my brother as he folded his arms and looked me in the eye.
‘All right,’ he said, ‘but only because the thought of living with you in this damn house for the rest of my life without Bastion outside the front door sounds hellish.’
***
We packed up supplies and the weapons we had in our possession. It was a three mile walk to Ashby through the countryside, a route that would take us away from where the main access road was, past a dried up water drainage system and a long-abandoned and overgrown sewage containment facility. The Ranger was completely out of gas, so going on foot was really the only option that we had in this entire situation.
We stopped off one last time at the gravesides of Maria and Marcus before heading off. I still couldn’t get over how quickly they had returned to our lives, just to disappear once again. Three days ago in the field on our way to the farm, Carl had asked casually asked me what I thought of Maria, and he had gone right ahead and shook hands with Marcus and made conversation with her.
Now the brother and sister were dead, and Carl was either a smear on the road of Bastion or one of the infected, a shelled out version of who he used to be.
We set off around 1pm by my best guess, heading through the fields mostly in silence. Some awful conflicted part of me felt like I was purposefully walking slower, like I knew that something terrible awaited us, like I was trying my best to put off whatever we would find. It was inevitable, though. I knew that we had to get there, as sure as I knew anything – we were getting closer and closer, step by step.
So we stopped.
‘Let’s take a break for a five minutes, guys. This is as good a place as any.’
Nobody suggested that we carry on – I think, deep down, that they all felt the same.
I headed down to the river, another one of the things that had benefitted since the fall of Earth. With the absence of use that the sewage plant experienced, it was now running with clear water. Nature continued to take over from the humans.
I stood by the stream, watching the steady trickle run by me over and in between rocks. It was perhaps only a foot deep and a few yards wide, surrounded on a descent by trees and bushes. It was truly secluded, save for the walk back up the ascent to the path that we had been taking.
After a minute or so of nothing but the sound of the water and the birds in the trees, I heard footsteps approaching behind me.
‘How are you, Tommy?’
I turned to see Hayley heading towards me, her arms crossed in front of her. I had never seen her look so tired.
‘I’m all right. As all right as I can be.’
‘Me too… I can’t fucking believe this.’
‘What?’
‘All of this, Bastion, the zombies, everybody just gone…’
‘Wait, wait… What? What did you just say?’
‘What, zombies?’
‘Yeah.’
‘What about it?’
Hayley looked me up and down, biting the inside of her lip before settling into a static glare at my face.
‘Do you remember the other day when we were at the lookout point, talking about those old movies? It was around the same time you were acting like a complete asshole.’
‘I remember. Get to the point.’
‘We watched one once about those people who go get attacked by people, except… They’re not people. They’re all slow and crazy.’
‘Yeah, I remember it,’ I said. ‘This is nothing like that, though.’
‘How is it not like that?’
‘Because they were slow and groaning. These things are like… Animals. They’re infected with something. I don’t know what. It burns them out until they’re dead and then they kick back up, running like crazy, trying to…’
‘To bite everyone?’
I looked over at Hayley, suddenly seeing the logic in what she was saying but adamantly denying it still in my mind.
‘It’s like that, I will admit. This is different, though. This isn’t a movie. They’re fast. Like a predator… It’s like they’re designed to kill, to spread the infection. How does something like that even start? Where does it start? A biological weapon? Who the fuck would bother with that in this day and age, or even have access to the knowledge and resources to make something like that possible?’
‘I don’t know, Tommy. Maybe we’ll find the answers at Bastion. Maybe… Maybe the entire world is infected and we were the last one’s.’
‘What… Why would you think that?’
‘Well, you said it yourself. We don’t have the knowledge. We know about Ashby, and that there are a few settlements further out, but that’s all we know. If it had happened, how would you find out? We really could be the last ones alive.’
I stood there in silence, deliberating on everything that she had said. No matter how much that that was another thing I wanted to deny, I couldn’t help but realise that she was right. There was no other way for me to tell, even if I was the leader… Or acted like I was. All I cared about was keeping my people safe, and I had fucked that up completely.
What did that make me?
‘Maybe we should just go back…’ Hayley continued, ‘find a remote farmhouse, take as many supplies as we can and live our days out in the middle of nowhere. Leah and Robbie would want the same, I’m sure.’
‘They’d find us eventually. Maybe not soon, but one day one of those things would find us. What would happen then? I don’t know much about any of this, but I know that if I can get Bastion back, and if anybody e
lse survived it, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure we get as much as we can back.’
She looked over at me for a long time, gazing into my eyes. How I had ever put off my feelings for Hayley for so long was beyond me...
I wrapped my arms around her, feeling the warmth of her returned embrace as she buried her face in my neck. She raised her lips kissing me once before pressing her forehead against mine.
‘Just promise me that you’ll stay alive,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to lose you too.’
‘You won’t. We can get through this.’
‘Are you two quite done down there?’
I heard Robbie’s voice – we both looked back up the ascent and he was stood there with Leah, both with folded arms and faux-judgemental expressions.
‘Now I understand why we stopped,’ Leah said, shaking her head. ‘When you two lovebirds are done can we get a move on? We’re losing daylight.’
***
We continued on through the fields until the path veered off to the road and we had to pass by a long hedgerow to the left, finally reaching a fence. We were right on the outskirts of the town, perhaps a quarter of a mile from the walls of the Ashby community walls.
We jumped over the small fence, pushing our way through shrubbery and landing in the overgrown grounds of the first of several manor houses that we would be confronted with – these were the kind of old places that existed on the outskirts of every rural town. They used to be owned by the old, rich families, where wealth was passed down between landowners across generations.
Now they belonged to nobody, and the money they held in the bank was paper with pictures on it, as far as anybody in this world was concerned.
‘Think we set up shop in the wrong place,’ Robbie said, looking up at the enormous manor house. ‘Why didn’t we move here when we set up Bastion?’
‘Having so many people living together in one house doesn’t exactly work,’ I said. ‘Plus we’d be too close to Ashby, anyway. I know we like to think of them as our allies but they’re more like acquaintances. There’s never been a whole lot of trust…’
‘World like this?’ Leah said. ‘There can’t be. No police to tell you not to pillage and overrun the next community along.’
If the first virus that killed most of humanity had never broken out it was the kind of place I would probably have dreamt about at this age, being able to afford it.
Now I had no interest in it at all.
We carried on to the next garden, making our way over the fence and into the next garden. There were a few like that, manor houses with dilapidated fronts and shattered windows, the wilds having grown all about them.
Finally we reached the open stretch of grass where the river continued to run alongside it. Maybe 300 yards ahead I could see the walls. They had gone for the same system that we had – cars positioned on top of each other like a row in a junkyard, covered in sheet metal that blocked a view from either side. They had a considerably higher number of lookout posts than us down to the sheer fact that they had more people occupying the community.
The problem then, though, was that I couldn’t see a single person occupying any of the posts.
‘I don’t see anybody,’ Hayley said.
‘Me neither,’ I said, pulling out the rifle and removing the scope.
‘What are you doing?’ Robbie asked.
‘Getting a closer look. I’m not leaving the scope in the rifle. If any of them are up there watching us and we just can’t see them, me pointing the barrel of a gun in their direction isn’t going to do us any favours. I haven’t come this far just to get shot over something like that.’
I raised the scope and cast my view over the line of the wall, seeking out any sign of movement.
‘There’s nobody there…’
‘I don’t like this,’ Leah said. ‘What if it’s an ambush or something?’
‘Then it’s the most elaborate ambush in history,’ Hayley said. ‘I say we just head in. Keep our hands raised and everything else, and hope for the best.’
‘Or we sneak to a vantage point for a better look,’ Robbie said.
‘We?’ Hayley asked.
‘No, not we,’ I said, ‘I’ll go.’
‘No,’ Robbie place his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. ‘I’ll go.’
‘Absolutely not,’ I said.
‘Why?’
‘Because you’re my little brother, and I promised mom a long time ago that I’d always try to keep you safe.’
Robbie smiled at me, shaking his head and looking down at his feet before looking back up at me in the eyes.
‘Look,’ he started, ‘you’re my brother, and I love you, but you can’t be the guy who always takes the dangerous jobs all the time. I know you’re just trying to look after me, after all of us, but you’ve got to let me do something once in a while for myself. I’ll be careful, I promise.’
It was just another moment of conflict, a moment where I had to reason with my habits in order to get past the reality of the situation, a reality that I had to confront and live with.
‘Okay… All right,’ I managed, nodding and restraining myself from tying him to a tree or something just to keep him from going anywhere. ‘If anything happens to you, though, I swear to God I’ll lock you in the basement for the rest of your life.’
‘What basement? The one back home?’
‘I’ll find a new basement and put you in it… Go on, get out of here.’
I handed the scope to him and he glanced between us all. Then, without saying another word, and just like the teenager he still was, set off running towards the opposite treeline before jumping over the fence.
We took a more covered spot behind a section of trees close to the river. All three of us kept our eyes on the gardens that led into town, watching Robbie make his way through them before he dashed out of our line of sight.
From then on there was nothing but the sound of the river again, and we strained our eyes desperately searching for him to come back into sight.
‘Where is he?’ I said frantically, feeling the pangs of panic run through me. I expected to hear a gunshot at any moment, but there was nothing.
‘I don’t see him,’ Hayley muttered, looking about. ‘No, wait… There he is…’
I followed the direction in which she was pointing, finally seeing him steadying his footing on the branch of a tree on the opposite side of the road by the stretch of grass. He spent some time getting steady before finally raising the scope and looking through it. I couldn’t see his reaction or anything that hinted at what laid beyond the walls, but after nothing more than a few seconds of observance he made his way down from the tree and jumped over the nearby fence sprinting down the stretch of grass towards us.
‘What the fuck is he doing?’ I muttered, ‘They’re gonna see him…!’
The three of us set off from behind the treeline, sprinting towards Robbie as he ran towards us.
‘We need to get inside…’ Robbie shouted, turning and setting off back towards the walls of Ashby.
‘What are you doing?’ I shouted. ‘What did you see?’
‘You need to see this for yourself…’
All I could do was follow him, all three of us running after him until we finally reached the wall. My heart was racing, and not because of the running – a part of me knew for sure what would await us, but Robbie was right. I had to see this.
There was no door on this side of the wall, so we had to climb up over the carcasses of the cars that composed it. It didn’t take long, making our way up over the metal exterior and the many footholds and gaps available. We pulled ourselves up to the top, standing atop the rusted rooftops of the old, wrecked cars and looking out over Ashby.
Chapter Sixteen
Last Man Standing
It wasn’t Ashby, though. It was what was left of it.
Perhaps ten or eleven bodies littered the streets, splayed out on the concrete and tarmac like pieces of trash, cast aside. Some
resided facing away from us or down against the ground, while others were face up or on their side, their eyes wide and dead. All were spattered with blood and ripped clothes.
I couldn’t account for the number of ways in which they had been killed. Some were ripped apart, others laid next to enormous pools of dried blood on the roads, horrendous wounds on their heads – the few that had been lucky enough to be put out of their misery in one way or another, those who would not have to succumb to the perils of the infection.
Before it had happened they had operated a similar system to us, utilising the detached houses for individual homes that everybody could use. Now, though, almost every one of these houses possessed smashed windows and open doors, the general signs of mess and disorder as the place lay quiet. That deathly silence that cast itself over Ashby, a place that was once vibrant and teeming with human life in the face of the apocalypse, sent a wave of terror washing over me that I hadn’t felt since we had gone running from Bastion, since I had left my people and my mother behind.
Maybe we would have all muttered expletives at the sight of what lay before us – I’d like to tell you that we did, because I think it might have helped our perception of the whole thing. None of us said a word, though. The death of the town spoke for itself.
We remained in silence for some time before I heard a long exhalation from Hayley, and she spoke.
‘Let’s head inside.’
It was a dangerous prospect, probably the most life-threatening one that we had considered since having left Bastion. We had talked about going inside and investigating beforehand, but now that we were here…
‘Yeah…’ I said, keeping myself together. ‘Let’s go. I’ll take front with the rifle. Keep your eyes open and stay away from the bodies. Any one of them so much as flinches, cave their skull in.’
The Survivors of Bastion (Fall of Earth Book 1) Page 13
