“Well, we’re not in a reasonable distance.” Winter reminded her. “I think we should wait for an evacuation squad.”
“I want to see my family first,” Violet said, almost with embarrassment.
Winter nodded. It was understandable, but worrying. The credits to the news began rolling on the screen. Violet patted her hand on the counter and stood up.
“Right, well, we can’t go on the move tonight. The zombies are still in London and getting worse. People are saying they’re more likely to be seen at night, but they can go out in the day. I think as they increase, it won’t matter if the sun is in the sky.”
“You sure you’re alright spending another night away from your mum and brothers?” Winter asked.
“I have no choice.” Violet shrugged. “See you in the morning.”
Winter nodded and watched Violet leave. She turned back to the TV and thought about what she could do.
They needed to escape London within the next few days. If they didn’t, the infection spreading the world would only get worse, and London would soon be deemed inescapable. If that happened, both evacuation squads and boats would leave them behind.
Winter wondered what would happen if Paris became infested with infection. There would be no safe place to stay. They would truly be doomed.
She sat down in the seat Violet had vacated, thinking about how they would escape this. Would they wait, or would they make their way to the Thames?
She opened the newspaper and read the report on the attacks in London. A lot of the photos were from the party. Winter realised why she had seen the reporters taking photos that night. Seeing the photos now, she was reliving the fear. She tried to look for her parents, but she couldn’t see them in the crowds. There was no report on specific people dying, just that once bitten, humans became infected and became one of these beasts. There were warnings on approaching these beings, which Winter laughed at. It was obvious that you shouldn’t approach them. There was information on how to barricade doors, numbers on who to contact for help, information on the evacuation squad. Winter thought it was helpful, but it wouldn’t help when facing the situation of a pandemic.
She heard footsteps walking down from upstairs. The door opened and Connor appeared, his hair messy and wet.
“How are you?” He asked as he approached the bar.
“Fine.” Winter nodded. She indicated the bag of food that she had bought earlier. “I went out to get us some things.”
Connor nodded. “Any idea when we’re going to leave?”
Winter shook her head. “We could contact one of these evacuation squads, but Violet wants to see her family first. I won’t begrudge her that, but at the same time, there’s limited time on getting out of here.”
“We can get to Borehamwood. I think if we left tomorrow, we could get there. If we leave it any later, probably not. But once there, I think we need to call these squads. We need to leave.”
Winter was unsure. Borehamwood was awhile away, especially in these circumstances. Could they really do it?
“Are those pictures from the party?” Connor asked, seeing the double-page spread of the newspaper.
Winter nodded. “Turns out those photographs we saw were proving what happened. I don’t know if they survived, or if their cameras were found.”
The thought sunk in for Connor.
“Who knows?” He scanned the pages of the newspaper. “I think we have to move, Winter,” He leant against the bar awkwardly. “I don’t think we should hang around in places longer than a day.”
Winter nodded. She lowered her voice before speaking.
“But what about Violet? We can’t leave for the Thames, or call an evacuation squad, because I’m pretty sure she would leave us behind and go to her family.”
“But if that happens, we’d just have to let it, wouldn’t we?”
Winter leant back. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Connor what Violet had told her the night before.
“It’s complicated.” Winter muttered.
“How is it complicated?”
Winter sighed. She tried to ignore the question, hoping Connor would move on from the tough subject. He didn’t.
“I’m sure she can leave her family behind, like we had to. Like a bunch of other people had to.”
“Do you know how insensitive that sounds, Connor?” Winter asked, anger flaring up inside her. “I didn’t leave my parents behind by choice. Neither did you. It just happened that way. And if Violet has a chance to go back and save her family, she can do that.”
“Alone,”
“No, not alone. That would be suicidal. We go with her.”
“It’s suicidal to go with her!”
“We go, and if we find that the town is infested, we leave. It’s that simple. She has to know if there’s a chance to save her family, and if there is, I’m going to let her do that.”
Connor sighed. He obviously didn’t see the point. Winter knew she would have to tell him.
“Her mother has cancer.” Winter whispered.
Connor tensed up next to Winter. He turned his head slowly to look at her, maybe to check if she was telling the truth. Winter stared straight ahead, at the dusty mirror behind the bar, alcohol logos stuck on it.
“Her mother is bedridden,” Winter continued. “Her brothers are young. Violet is the only one that can provide for her family. That’s why she does what she does.”
“Why was she this far out?” Connor asked.
“She said it was business. She’s doing what she can to provide for her family.”
“But she’s left them alone.”
“She didn’t want to do that. My betting is that she was hoping to be back at home last night. I think we need to leave as soon as possible, not only because we have to get away from this street, but because Violet doesn’t want to leave her family any longer than she has to.”
Connor looked tense. He ran a hand through his wet hair, sticking it up at odd angles.
“We can’t stay long in Borehamwood,” Connor said quietly. “We call one of these evacuation squads as soon as we get there.”
“So are you okay with going to her home?”
Connor nodded. “I have to be. I’m not leaving you, and if you’re set on going to Violet’s place, then that is where I’ll go too. We need to all stick together.”
“We need weapons, too.”
Connor leafed through the information booklet Violet had left behind. He stopped at a page and turned it to Winter.
She saw a page she never thought she would see. Guns, grenades and knives were being sold at a small garage shop in Elstree. They weren’t going for a price, but were in short supply, and would not be available for long. Winter thought it was unlikely they would get there in time.
“It’s in Elstree,” Winter said. “How are we going to get from here, to Borehamwood, to Elstree in time?”
Connor shrugged. “Just a good thing to remember.”
Winter sighed. She ran a hand through her messy hair, breaking through a knot.
“This is horrible. I just feel hopeless.”
“Don’t. We will get through this.”
Winter and Connor sat together that night, watching the TV. They flicked from news reports to TV shows, series in mid-flow no longer being watched by familiar audience figures.
It was ten to twelve when she heard the noises outside. Winter and Connor froze. They listened to the sound of something falling down the street, smashing of glass, a woman’s scream in the distance. Winter stood up, her hands shaking as she crept to the window and peered out of the blinds. The street was infested with zombies, more than last night, looking for victims and trying to get into the homes and shops. As Winter watched, a group of zombies managed to break a window and began to crawl in. Winter’s heart skipped as she thought of the diner’s windows being broken. She looked at them and decided they were much too strong to break through, and reassured herself by thinking they would be out of here tomorrow
. She double-checked that everything was piled high against the door.
“Oh my god,” Connor whispered, joining Winter at the window. He spotted the smashed glass of a shop a few buildings up from theirs. “Do you think anyone is inside?”
Winter wasn’t sure. Her eyes were drawn to the flat opposite them, the curtains still drawn.
For a while she sat with Connor and just watched the zombies, dragging their lifeless bodies through the street and peering at every day objects with wonder. It wasn’t until they started to approach the diner windows did she shut the blinds, lock the door leading up stairs, left Connor barricading it once more, and get ready for bed.
She jumped in the shower after checking on Violet, who had slept through the noises of the zombies outside. After feeling refreshed she went into the room with the sofa that she would be spending the night on, and looked out of the window. The zombies were still in the street, climbing up on bins and trying their best to find their victims. Other people were peering from the upstairs windows too. A man next to the flat opposite them waved at Winter and rolled his eyes. Winter smiled and waved back.
She looked towards the shop she had been in earlier, and wondered if the old woman was alright. Maybe she had left.
The lights began to flicker in the street and in their flat at five past one in the morning. By half two there was no longer any electricity. Connor’s mobile phone was low on battery, and Winter already felt cut off.
“They haven’t answered.” Connor sighed. He had been trying to ring his parents all night.
“It’s late.” Winter replied.
Connor looked doubtful. “I don’t think they’re alive, Winter. I didn’t even leave them on good terms. My dad was out when I left for yours, and I had snapped at my mum about leaving my trainers in the hallway. I don’t live far from the coffee shop or your place. I don’t think they stood a chance.”
Winter looked at the boy before her. She felt a pang of sadness for him. He looked so lost and defeated.
“I didn’t think our date night would end up like this.” He laughed. “It was my first date as well.”
“It was mine, too.” Winter smiled.
They looked at each other for a moment, both savouring being with each other. Winter broke the eye contact first.
Connor climbed into his bed he had made on the floor behind her, muttering about the floor behind uncomfortable.
Winter looked over the rooftops and at the full moon that bathed the rooftops in silver light. The night was chilled and atmospheric, but alive with dead beings. She decided to open her window wide and breathe in the night air. It felt pure and seemed to calm her. The noises from the zombies intensified, and she was sure that the other streets were infested too.
“What are you doing?” Connor gasped. “Shut the window!”
Winter looked down and saw a group of zombies trying desperately to get to her, lifting their dead arms up to the sky and groaning stupidly, unable to comprehend they couldn’t get that high up. A border collie dog ran through the streets, sniffing at the rubbish that had spewed across the floor when zombies had fallen off the bin. The zombies completely ignored it, walking past as if it was nothing.
A crash of more things falling in a nearby alleyway grabbed the zombie’s attention and they began to run, screaming, towards the source of the sound. Winter hoped that if it was the sound of someone escaping, they got away before it was too late.
Winter took one last breath of the cold night air and shut the window. She listened out for any screams, hoping that she wouldn’t hear anything. Deciding it may have been one of the zombies themselves hitting something over she undressed and let a peaceful sleep wash over her.
Chapter Six
Winter awoke to the screaming coming from the street outside, glass smashing and hissing and screeching from the zombies. Police sirens were wailing through the night air. Cars stopped, horns blasted, doors slammed and people cried out for help.
Bang, the room illuminated for a few seconds, people screaming, and then Winter heard fire crackling. It was five past four in the morning.
Groggy with sleep, but beginning to feel panicked, Winter closed her eyes against the flashing blue lights outside, swirling around and around, reflecting in the window. She rubbed her eyes, pulled on her ruined designer dress and went to stand up.
A bang downstairs made her stop. Something threw itself against the diner.
The door opened and Winter screamed, expecting the worst, but Violet stood in the doorway looking pale.
Connor sat up, looking around the room in confusion.
“Have you looked outside?” Violet whispered.
Winter shook her head. “Have you?”
Violet shook her head.
Standing up, Winter walked slowly towards the window. She could imagine what was going on without even looking.
As she got to the window, her heart dropped and her whole body was gripped with fear.
Numerous police cars and vans parked in the roads. At one end of the street zombies were attacking the buildings, ripping flesh from recent victims, while on the other side police officers and a number of town’s people were behind shields. The newsagent was on fire. Some police officers, dressed in riot gear, had guns raised; some even had flame torches in their hands. Other police officers were interviewing the residents that were in nightwear, rubbing their arms in a bid to stop their shivering, on the safety side. Winter noticed army vans parked with the police cars, some survivors from the buildings inside. Printed on the army vans was ‘Evacuation Squad – NWO’.
Since Winter had been asleep, the town had been ruined. Many windows were smashed, both upstairs and down. Bodies littered the street and flames destroyed houses. Doors had been ripped off their frames and in the houses that were behind the shield; many people sat in each other’s arms, weeping hopelessly. Winter observed as families tried to escape, bullets were fired, but it was no use. The zombies moved with surprising speed and pinned the human bodies to the floor before devouring their flesh without any thought.
“We need to leave,” Connor said. He had come to the window in only his boxers and was staring at the street in fear. “We have to get into one of those evacuation vans.”
One of the evacuation vans reversed out of its parking space and sped up the street and away from view. The people inside the cage at the back of the van watched as their old lives left them behind.
Connor was getting dressed when Winter turned around, and Violet was holding her gun. Winter picked up the table leg that she had scavenged from her home.
“What is that green smoke?” Winter asked, turning back to the window.
Connor and Violet came up behind her and peered over her shoulder.
“The zombies aren’t going near it.” Violet noted.
“It’s flickering, though,” Connor said. “I don’t think it’s going to hold them off for long.”
Winter turned back to the room and began to pace. Violet and Connor watched her, waiting for her orders on what to do.
“You two wait here.” Winter told them.
“What?” Connor gasped.
“You’re going to leave us here?”
Winter shook her head. “I’m going to go outside and see what’s going on. I’ll see if we can get away on one of those vans. Just wait here, keep an eye out for me.”
Before Violet or Connor could object, Winter left the room. She got to the bottom of the steps, slipping on her Converse shoes, and moved the barricade of chairs aside. Walking into the diner, the bangs Winter had heard earlier were clearer. They were coming from the kitchen, and Winter feared that the zombies had gotten in. Peering past the mountain of piled furniture, Winter saw the zombies were throwing themselves against the kitchen door that led outside, evidently smelling the scent from the dead waitress.
Turning away, feeling slightly apprehensive that the zombies would break in through the kitchen, Winter walked to the front door. She peered outside and sa
w that the police were blocking the street a shop down from the diner. Winter was relieved to find they were on the safe side for now. But if the zombies got through, they’d be the first in danger.
Her eyes drifted to the flat opposite them. The curtains had moved slightly, but were still shut.
She unlocked the diner door and walked out into the chaotic street, full of survivors, police officers and evacuation squad team members.
Winter was watched by a police officer holding a torch. He took in her appearance, possibly wondering if she was a threat. Winter spotted a policewoman stood behind an open car door, her gun raised and aimed at the zombies. All that stopped the dead from getting to the living was the green smoke coming from a small container, just in front of the police barricade.
“What’s going on?” She asked. “Why are they divided? Why aren’t they attacking?”
“That thing you see in the middle of the street is a zombie repellent, if you will. We’ve been given these by the government for a while now. It seems the government always knew this was coming, but instead decided to hush it up. If they hadn’t we’d be out of this mess by now,” the police officer said. She had her eyes fixed on the zombies intently. “The gas emitted burns the zombie’s flesh, and the zombies get away from it. It holds them off but they won’t do much longer. The zombies are multiplying. The people dead in the street will become zombies themselves. Some people on this side have been bitten.”
Winter looked around them. She spotted a woman hugging a man, his arm exposed with a red bite mark, a first aid trainee tending to it.
“You need to get those bitten on the other side,” Winter said quickly.
“We can’t do that.”
“If they stay here, they’re going to turn, and then you haven’t got a safe side anymore. Why aren’t you shooting? You need to kill those! Don’t wait for them to come closer.”
Winter Smith (Book 1): London's Burning Page 9
