Immediate Survivors

by Cenz Barone

  The memories he had were vague, his tiredness making him have his timeline all mixed up, but he just knew he had been hiding and moving along the city in frantic fashion when he did eventually seek to escape the hotel he was staying in. Firstly in his rental car which he used to try and get out of the city centre but unfortunately he had an accident when he swerved to avoid someone in the street who was trying to flag him down. And upon so doing he had gone off the road and straight down a ditch to smash into a set of trees, the car was a write off and since then he was moving around nomadically, hiding out in shelters and people's houses or businesses, mainly moving and praying he was not seen, he often ran from people who did not appear possessed, or infected, whatever it was because he could not trust anyone or anything in the immediate stages, and to a point he still did not.

  The amount of people he passed who were like him, scared out of their wits or suspicious of other people who were not infected, he lost count of. But all of them on his nomadic travels were petrified of those creatures, those people, he could tell. It was as though everybody had a fixed what the fuck expression on their faces.

  Kenny had moved out of the city and into the surrounding districts but felt like he was going in slow motion and in circles due to him having to rest up and hide, plus the area was unfamiliar to him so it was hard to know where the outskirts were and the centre, he always felt like he was walking in circles. It was though not until Grant picked him up soon after that he felt somewhat secure, but this was momentarily because once the relief of being in a van with someone who seemed to know what they were doing wore off, Kenny realised Grant was just as lost as he was.

  He felt his panting increase slightly did Kenny but he took a few deep breaths until his breathing rate was normal. His mind was racing back to the start for him, and he recalled with crystal clear clarity when the red flags began to appear about what was taking place outside. Kenny was in a diner having breakfast, a diner that was attached to the hotel he was staying at, and even though he swore he would be getting up early that morning, he characteristically awoke 2 hours later than his intended time. But his lateness was his own fault for drinking a couple of beers in the hotel bar and eating junk food late into the night, because that was his celebration after finishing his examinations.

  Kenny had already sat his exams over the last week and a half and felt as he always did when he finished the last one, extremely nervous about it but his tendency to dwell on those things he could not change or control, it was just who he was. So he would have crippling anxiety for the next few weeks until he forgot about the results which were due in a couple of months and he would wait until the official results would be released. Usually the only way Kenny could control his nerves from the examination or any event where he was being assessed was by distracting himself, and if it was not by drinking alcohol it was walking around the local community, notably the city or town nearby. But this time he distracted himself by employing a house hunting project.

  Why house hunt? Well he wanted to play a little game which went in with his eccentric ways, and this involved him wearing a smart suit and sporting a fashionable tie because he wanted to convey the impression that he was wealthy and was going to numerous estate agents in and around Oxford between swatting for his exams, and acting as if he could afford a house.

  Indeed one of the reasons his girlfriend dumped him was his inability to take things seriously with her, because these games he would indulge in she found immature. Besides, she was far too clingy he thought but she was talking about things like settling down and planning on starting a family, after marriage in a sort of timetable. His ex-girlfriend was incredibly organised and would talk about subjects related to him and her which would span 20 years into their future. Kenny though was far from that mindset, he was still in university and unsure what he wanted to do with his life but she was commanding and almost domineering in her expectations, so in a way he was glad she dumped him. She herself was in another university and a few months before today’s date they met up and she decided to call it quits. What made Kenny amused that day was she was looking for him to be upset but he just shrugged his shoulders and accepted it, he even put out his hands to shake hers, as though they ended a business deal, which he could see on her face she was not impressed by. But alas he did not care, and they had only been together for less than a year anyways.

  Kenny laughed to himself at the memory of her, and thought she was often a mean-spirited witch who would have drained any life or happiness out of him had he danced to her tune, now though the things outside were threatening to drain all those things out of him. Kenny stared around the van again and thought to himself what a miserable place to die, if he was going to die in this van.

  His thoughts then went back to what he had been getting up to in Oxford since he arrived. It was after his first exam that Kenny opted to put on his smart suit and tie and played around with the idea he could buy an expensive house. But for someone as young as he was, plus without any full time work it was very difficult to see that he would be taken seriously. Only in Kenny's mind, the estate agents around Oxford did not have to know that, to him it was all role play, or fantasy, besides this was his entertainment between exams when he wanted a break from study.

  It always amazed Kenny how people would treat him on the basis of how he dressed and acted. But he learned everything depended on how one carried oneself, so when he turned up after booking house visiting appointments, and he explained he was from out of town, and searching for houses on behalf of his business relocation. The estate agents always behaved professionally. Why would they not, when they met this well dressed, well groomed young man who had impeccable manners. And it just panned out as he expected. It was just like putting into practice the psychology he sometimes studied.

  To Kenny it was all about believing the part he played to make it work. But he nevertheless found it remarkable how different his experience was, when the contrast was just between wearing a suit and everyday clothing. Because these house hunting projects were things he had done in the past, and the subtle snobbery related to common clothing when investigating an extremely expensive house was profound, whilst the suit and some bullshit story of his background that spoke of wealth brought esteem and respect, far more warmth and detail in the tour of a house when compared to the hurried and uninspiring tour he often had when he was dressed like mister overdraft, which he essentially was.

  Kenny's musing of these trivial times soon washed away as he now went back to focus on the diner of the hotel. It was through that diner connected to the hotel when he heard the noises indicating something terrifying was taking place.

  The noise was a loud blood curdling shout that grew into a scream, the sound of which made all the patrons in the diner stop eating. Each fell silent in their tracks as the sound came closer and closer and then an overweight woman had ran into the diner, straight off the street. She was screaming manically, holding her left hand tightly with her right hand nursing it, and her left hand had three fingers almost completely severed with only the slightest bit of skin connecting the fingers to the hand.

  The blood was all over the floor of the diner as she ran around crazily inside begging for help, but she was incoherent and hard to understand because she was speaking fast and shaking profusely. Her manner terrified those within the diner, and the staff members who were out in the diner looked on in amazement. The woman had glasses and brunette hair which was neatly combed, and she was dressed smartly, as though she was heading to work on this morning.

  The manager of the diner soon appeared on the scene, he was drawn to the commotion inside the diner. The staff members out in the open eventually recovered from the shock of seeing her and her injuries and had gone to her, as though to calm her and also reassure the patrons like Kenny within the diner. Kenny like the other patrons who were eating breakfast within the diner was so startled at this hysterical woman with such horrific injuries bringing chaos to an otherwise qu
iet diner that appetites were quickly lost.

  The manager was a chubby male with thick glasses and greying hair who was a true commander once on the scene, he took over instantly and to his credit immediately acted fast upon seeing this women who was not a patron of either the hotel or diner. But compassionately, sensing her being in dire need the manager was bossing his employees to bring out cloths wrapped around ice cubes, and he was taking charge of the situation by demanding of his patrons if anyone was a doctor or if anyone had any medical expertise.

  Kenny recalled how the woman was laying on the floor crying, within a minute of entering, as though she had collapsed in a heap after finally having found a safe place to seek help. When she was on the floor, she was speaking too fast for him to make sense of what she was saying, her entire tone was mostly unintelligible so it was impossible to make out had happened to her. The staff were assisting her with the clothes of ice pressed up against her fingers and clearing the tables and chairs to give her room, whilst another was on the phone calling for an ambulance.

  A take away from that sight Kenny thought was how professional the staff acted, but what he mainly took away was a reminder about how much he detested the sight of blood. His attitude towards it then was how sick he felt and despite feeling sorry for the woman, he soon left the diner and went back along the cream corridors to his hotel room. The woman's screaming however echoed on, and many other patrons had also exited in the aftermath of the bloody scene. They like Kenny were not needed to offer help due to the diner staff taking charge, but also like Kenny they had lost their desire to eat

  Kenny himself had a weak stomach, point of fact he struggled to even watch horror films, which with its blood and gore acted as a deterrent for him. Yet during the period of time since he saw that woman come in off the streets, he had seen his fair share of gore to make any gore fiend blush. And had been forced to develop a stronger stomach in the realist sense of the word, in what was still such a short period of time.

  As Kenny left the diner he still heard the woman's yelping still, she was begging for the police more so than an ambulance and some of the few sentences yelled which happened to be intelligible, as they drifted across the downstairs foyer was "He bit me! He fucking bit me!" Luckily for her an ambulance did come quite quickly. Kenny had opted not go to his hotel room this time, so abstained to use the elevator, instead he wanted to get some fresh air, so used the electronic doors and went outside into the hotel car park, the sun was up and it was a relatively warm day, despite being winter, so the skies were partially blue to, but it was pleasant and there he saw an ambulance pull up. Wow Kenny thought they were quick.

  At this point Kenny went into his pocket and took out a bottle of orange juice and began drinking from the bottle, this was part of the breakfast meal in the hotel diner, and he watched as the paramedics parked up at the rear car park of the hotel. Kenny busied himself by hanging around his own rented car at this point and was relaxing, trying to calm his nerves after the chaotic scene in the diner, and within 10 minutes the woman was taken out on a stretcher and whisked away.

  In retrospect Kenny highly doubted the woman lived when he reflected that her words about being bit were the cause of her injuries. When he first heard her say that, he thought maybe she was on drugs of some kind, despite her looking relatively respectful in her business suit. Now he could believe she was not just bit but died and arose as one of those things. Soon after the ambulance had left Kenny had opted to go into his car to go to a local shop to buy some snacks for his evening in the hotel. He did not think much more about the woman's horrific injury, it rattled him but it did not traumatise him when he reflected in that moment it was over.

  Around an hour later he returned back to his hotel, he recalled going to the front desk and speaking to the receptionist who asked if he was okay, she was aware he was in the diner when the woman barged in. And management had informed the staff to pay extra attention to the hotel guests who endured the bloody scene who were in the diner. Kenny politely said he was fine and asked if there was an update about the woman who was injured, he was just curious and being polite to which the receptionist said she had none and would likely not have any as the woman was not a patron of the hotel. Kenny had a good relationship with the staff in the hotel he had been in for the time he had been a guest, and they were all professional and always smiling, they were eager to go out of their way for the customers, which Kenny appreciated. To Kenny though he reflected when he as a shop assistant would also do the same thing, and most of the hotel staff were around his age, likely university students working part-time he thought.

  As Kenny continued to replay those earlier events in his mind, the red flags that something was wrong were all there for him to appreciate at that time, but during those early moments he could not anticipate how forewarning the signs would be.

  Kenny was rudely shifted back to reality as his eyes opened and there he was within the blackness of this van with strangers once more. He was thrust back into the present and felt his breathing rate was heightened, he did not know why as he did not have a nightmare. After calmly relaxing he took control of his breathing once more and was normal in his air intake. Kenny turned to the frontal side of the van and saw the back of Grants head. At this point Grant was resting it firmly against the stand and was breathing in a rhythmic pace. Grant had also keeled over slightly and Kenny could tell from Grant’s light sounds, that he was napping.

  Kenny crept up a little bit from resting on the floor of the van because he heard distant noises from beyond the alleyway and as he stood up to stare ahead he saw around 20 of those possessed looking people walking from the left to the right beyond the junction of the alleyway. Kenny instinctively gripped the seats, and realised his hunters rifle was on the floor near where he was just sitting, but he abstained from grabbing it. The people who he saw up ahead were walking in the middle of the road and several were hunched forward and limped from left to right, but their movement was to go straight ahead.

  He could not get over how they walked so unnaturally, but nothing about them Kenny reasoned was natural. Kenny, upon soaking in the view of observing their trance like movements felt his heartbeat a little bit faster, and he felt his stomach capsize at the sight as though the blood was draining from his face. He still did not know how to physically process their sight despite coming up close and personal with them several times since it began less than 48 hours ago.

  Kenny felt his own fight or flight responsiveness was hovering more towards the flight side as he watched the last member of the group bypass the gap in the lane of the alleyway between the houses the van was in. But thankfully for him that group had now motioned out of sight and moved along the street. When he went quiet, quieting his breathing he heard their groans, that horrible noise they sometimes made pollute the air, but it was low in volume, much ado with the rain smashing onto the van roof.

  Grant himself still had his eyes closed and Kenny could hear Grants passive breathing, Grant clearly oblivious to the recent sight of those things and their sound passing the gap of the lane up ahead. Kenny began to pray to himself that they would not notice the van or come down the alleyway, as though they would suddenly change their mind and decide to venture down the alleyway to where the van was. He started mouthing a prayer which for a self-confessed agnostic might seem odd but Kenny like so many was brought up to believe in a God, himself christened in the protestant faith. He had last went to church at 12 years of age and never really gave much thought to it thereafter, but during these last few days so much had changed whereby he was praying to any higher power he could muster in his imagination that existed just hoping for help.

  How hypocritical he thought to himself yet here he was praying when trouble came and it was no different for him muttering a prayer preceding himself going into an exam, just praying for a good grade even though he joked with himself that he was an agnostic with potential.

  Since the passing crowd of those possesse
d people had long bypassed, another group of them was now seen by Kenny moving ahead, and going in the same direction as the first group. As though following the first group like they were a pack of some kind. This second group similarly were in the exact sort of trance like state, moving extremely slowly almost at a slug like pace, and just pushing themselves forward as if they were driven on instinct like an animal. But their bodies were human yet their eyes and skin told a differing story. Kenny could also make out, when he squinted to focus that some of the people had weapons in them, like they had been stabbed and the weapons were stuck in them, be this at the front or in their back and blood. Yet on they walked like they were not affected.

  Moving in a manner just like the first group, Kenny began listening to their low sounding groaning and moaning. This time their sound made Kenny kneel down and he took hold of the hunting rifle, he gripped it tightly. It was much louder than the first group. He had never held anything so tightly or with the purpose he was with that hunting rifle. Even though he never handled a gun or used a gun before finding this hunting a rifle, he now had to not just be prepared to use it but also try to figure out how to operate it. He pitifully reflected on movies and video games he had played, but that was all useless information until he used his common sense regarding the weapons features, which he had worked out how to utilise it to its fullest capability.

  Deep inside, Kenny knew he would be prepared to use it if the time came, but he knew enough to know the hunting rifle was far from the military standard. So its overall effectiveness on those things would be limited, and not just in terms of if the things came in many numbers. Regardless of this, it was the most effective gun in the world to him at this point, and the only gun in the world that mattered because it was all he had.