A flashback of the night transported Winter back to the scene. Her granddad, calling her from down in the cellar. She had just run upstairs, past her grandmother lying on the floor in the hallway, and up the second flight of stairs. She wanted to lock herself away in a bedroom, barricade the doors, but the voice froze her, chilled her to the bone. She had hit him over the head with a cane. His own cane, for goodness sake. Surely he should be out of it by now.
“Winter?” Violet asked, placing a hand on Winter’s knee.
Winter flinched and a few chips fell to the floor. Violet brought her hand back as if she had been burnt.
“Sorry,” Winter muttered. “Sorry.”
“It’s too hard for you to talk about,” Zach said. “Forget I asked.”
“It’s fine,” Winter said, but she stopped there. She couldn’t remember what had happened just yet. She wasn’t ready to discuss it.
“What about your family?” Violet asked of Zach, deciding it was best to fill the silence. “Why did they leave you?”
Zach joined Winter in reeling himself in and closing all of the doors so a barricade blocked him. He tried to ignore the question, as though he hadn’t heard it.
“Zach?” Violet asked, knowing full well he had heard her.
“They just left,” Zach said, looking at the ground. “I don’t know. We were all in the living room, and then…and then I went upstairs to go to the bathroom, and when I came back down outside was horrible. There they were…my parents. They had hopped in a car and taken everything with them. My dad looked at me, shut his door and drove away.”
Winter tried to imagine it. She couldn’t fathom the thought of a father leaving his son alone in a house, knowing that in seconds the place would be ripped apart by the dead.
“How did you get away?” Violet asked.
“I ran.” Zach shrugged. “I wasn’t staying there. If my parents were escaping with their lives then so would I.”
“Was it hard living with your family?”
“Not at all! They were very work orientated, and always brought their work home with them. You couldn’t talk to them unless you talked about their work. But we didn’t really argue or hate each other. I don’t know why they left me behind.”
“What did they work as?”
Zach went to answer, then thought better of it.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“So we’re just three kids on the wrong side of eighteen, living alone without parents.” Violet remarked.
“Every young person’s dream!” Winter grinned.
“Except without all of the zombies.”
“I wonder how many people survived that night at my home.” The thought that David Herald knew her parents were dead had been at the back of her mind since she had taken it in. She wondered if they had escaped the party, or if they had died.
“I wonder how many people survived in my estate,” Violet said. “It was pretty brutal.”
“There was no one left when I escaped,” Zach said.
“I’m not going against the government at all, but you do think they should have seen this coming, don’t you? You also can’t help but wonder why they aren’t doing everything they can to save people.”
“They’re probably losing just as many of their employees as well as normal people,” Violet said.
Winter bit her lip. She had never thought how hard it must be to control your country when something this bad was breaking out around the world.
“There’s no order anymore,” Zach said. “There won’t be order for a long time yet.”
“What do you mean by that?” Winter asked.
“Well,” Zach began, thinking of what to say next. “People have lost their homes, so they’ll be angry, demanding they get re-homed and compensated immediately. People have lost their jobs, so how the hell are they supposed to pay for their new homes? Also, they’ll have to work in Paris, where the first language is French, how are people arriving from all over the world supposed to adapt to that?”
“God, what a depressing view.” Violet muttered.
“It’s true though!” Zach exclaimed. “Then you’ve got France being a small country, compared to a lot of other countries. Soon, they’ll be rejecting people, and then where are those people going to go?”
“To sea,”
“Possibly,” Zach said with a nod of his head. “Then there are rations; food will be in short supply, because so many crops and factories have been destroyed. Electricity, mobiles, Internet, they’re all down, so any chance of contacting lost ones are gone. People will be losing and grieving their family, so that leaves room for anger and hatred towards who ever. Then you have people, like the chef, who are caught out and challenged over something they thought was a secret, causing arguments and tension and murders.”
“Now you’re writing a plot for Eastenders.” Violet scoffed.
“If Eastenders had done a storyline about zombies, I think we would be pretty safe right now.”
Violet rolled her eyes.
“It’s going to be hard surviving now.” Zach sighed. “We’ve lost everything, and if we don’t start rebuilding it soon we’ll lose it forever.”
“Plus, Paris isn’t going to be the safest place eventually.” Violet added.
“Exactly. France is surrounded by countries that are infected. It is only a matter of time before that virus heads over to France and there is a huge outbreak there.”
“All it takes is one bite,” Winter said, remembering the attack on Violet’s street.
Winter finished off her chips and ran a hand through her hair. “Do you think it’s too late to go to the showers now? I’ve wanted one for a while. I feel disgusting.”
Zach looked stunned. His eyes flickered to the black sky outside.
“It’s too dangerous to go at night.”
“We’ve got guns,” Violet said. “Besides, this area is safe.”
“It’s not always the dead you have to fear.” Zach warned. “This area looks posh, but just outside it gets very rough.”
“Zach, I think a lot of people are going to be hiding away behind wooden planks. I could use a shower, too, and if you had a mirror you would agree you’d need one as well.”
Zach looked a little offended, but Winter thought Violet had a point. They all looked greasy and dirty, their eyes heavy with sleep and their skin slightly blotchy. Winter also noticed they were covered in dirt that had seemed to embed itself in their skin. Only a good scrub with soap would get that out.
“Why don’t you both go?” Zach asked. “I’ll keep watch.”
“We don’t know each other well enough yet, Zach, to leave you alone,” Violet said. “You could easily screw us over.”
“And also, I’ve already lost a friend because he insisted on leaving alone, I’m not losing another,” Winter said, taking a more soft approach to the situation. “We stick together at all times.”
Zach looked from Winter to Violet, both of them staring at him. He seemed defeated.
“Fine.” He said, glumly. “Let’s go get clean.”
They loaded their guns onto their backs, using a strap Violet had cleverly made out of some loose fabric found in one of the boxes at the back of the attic. Zach led the way out of the café, looking apprehensive.
“Keep quiet,” he whispered. “The people inside might mistake us as zombies.”
“Of course they will,” Violet said, her voice oozing with sarcasm. However, Winter noticed she was the quietest out of the three of them.
They took a turn down a dark street, which seemed to get colder with every step they took. The once grand houses now looked like they were dying. With the streetlights broken – their wires cut from the inside – the houses were cast in dark shadows. Every window and door was boarded up, with metal grates fitted on some windows with gaps wide enough for eyes to view the street. Winter felt like they were being watched from somewhere, and she kept her eyes on the dark shadows in case she saw any movement.
<
br /> Zach stopped on a stretch of road that was lit by one pitiful light. The road was cast in an orange glow, with rubbish pouring out onto concrete and a light wind rustling the dying grass. He headed towards a modern looking building, coloured an aqua blue. The tall windows had been boarded up here, and the doors had been padlocked. Winter looked around, observing other buildings – a bank, a clothes shop, a café – all of them had the same appearance.
“These don’t look like they’ve been open for weeks,” Winter remarked.
“There are people inside,” Zach said. “Keep your voice low. I don’t trust this area at night.”
He led them down the side of the leisure centre, down a small pathway where the odd item of clothing lay. Winter tried to spot if any were bloodstained, but the walkway was too dark.
They walked past a locked off area, where a cut in the wire had been made leaving enough room for someone to climb through. Once they had done this, they approached a door that had once been bolted shut, but had been vandalised and left open.
Hovering by the door, which stood uninvitingly ajar, Winter could only see darkness. She had no idea what was on the other side, but as her eyes adjusted she made out the odd shape. The smell of chlorine was strong here, and the silence pressed on her ears.
“Who’s going in first?” Violet asked, and Winter detected the hint of fear in her voice.
“I will,” Winter said, not realising she was speaking. She saw Violet and Zach turn to look at her, and then realised what she had volunteered to do.
She walked over grassy flooring until she stood on small, blue tiles. Her feet echoed around the dark room, and she decided it must be vastly wide. She listened, in case she heard the dreaded sounds of the dead, but when there was nothing she moved in further.
She jumped when her feet crunched over broken glass, and she swore when Zach nudged a piece of wood on the floor, which echoed around the room. The lights flickered on, and Winter’s heart flipped, thinking someone else was in the building with them.
She looked from left to right until she saw Violet in the corner, her finger on the switch, and her eyes taking in the room.
Winter followed her gaze, and saw they were indeed in the pool area itself. The water had still been left in place, with a white funnel hanging in the water left behind after the place was shut down. A few foam floats bobbed up and down on small ripples.
To the right, mounted higher than the pool and on the other side of glass was the seating area; blue, plastic seats in four rows, all of them looking undisturbed and empty, except for the odd item that had been left behind.
At the far end of the room, behind a lifeguard seat, were two doorways leading into the changing rooms.
“The showers are in there,” Zach said, indicating the changing rooms. He was holding his gun in case something popped out at them. Winter was feeling at ease now the lights were on.
“Let’s get in and get out,” Violet said, and she led the way around the pool towards the changing room.
Just then, something in the seating area caught Winter’s eye. She stopped, unsure if what she had seen had really been there.
It took a few seconds before Violet and Zach realised she had stopped.
“What?” Zach breathed. He was stood in front of another glass door that locked off hydro slides.
“Nothing,” Winter said. What she had seen hadn’t been there again, and she decided it had been a trick of the light, or their reflections, possibly. “Come on, let’s go.”
They made their way through the little narrow hallway and came to a metal gate pulled across. It was locked, but only took the lift of the rusting handle to open it. They were inside the changing room. Rows of stalls, some with doors wide open, others shut, greeted them. Rows and rows of lockers were stacked opposite each stall. Near the back of the room were four cubicles, with small showerheads protruding from the wall. Winter could see that shampoo had been left behind from the previous occupant.
Violet hurried over, her panic seemingly increasing the deeper she got inside the building.
Winter and Zach joined Violet at the showers. Just across from the showers was a door, leading out into a white hallway. Winter tried the door and found it was locked. She saw it was bolted from the outside.
“Why would someone bolt this door from out there?” Winter asked.
“I don’t know, just get in the shower,” Zach said.
Zach and Violet had already gone into separate cubicles, and Winter took the one next to Violet. None of them could see each other except for their ankles and feet between the stalls.
Winter heard the water begin to run, rolling off skin and bouncing off tiled floor. Soon, the area was warm and steamy, and as Winter stood under her own shower she couldn’t help but savour the feeling of water running down her bare skin.
The shampoo that had been left behind was shared between them, Violet taking more than she should have, so Winter had to shake the bottle until nothing else came out.
As Winter was about to wash the shampoo from her hair, they heard an echoing thud, which froze the three of them.
“What the fuck was that?” Violet asked, and her water stopped running.
Zach stopped his own water. “What did you hear?”
“It was a thud. A fucking loud thud.”
“Relax,” Winter said, trying to keep the pair calm. She had thought Violet would have been rational. “Finish up and let’s get going.”
Winter was quickly washing her hair, and once the water stopped she was quick to pull her clothes over her wet skin. She had showered and changed fast in school, being on a sports team, yet she had always hated dry clothes on wet skin.
As she was tying up the laces on her shoes, the thud came again. This time it was accompanied by a groan.
“Shit.” Violet gasped, her eyes trained on one of the cubical doors.
Winter saw a shadow moving underneath the stall. Two pale white feet were shifting side to side.
They were frozen outside the showers, staring at the feet. The longer they looked, the more Winter was convinced they were tinged a slight green colour.
Then Winter remembered the door behind them, locked from the outside, locking something in. She remembered the metal gate being pulled across the entrance into the changing rooms, remembered how they had simply unlocked it and walked on in.
“Someone check and see who that is,” Zach whispered.
Another thud, this time from a cubical down the row nearest them.
Winter looked at Violet and Zach. Violet’s colour had completely drained, while Zach looked like he was about to faint.
Winter began to crouch down slowly, afraid that if she moved too quickly a noise would emit from their area and alert those locked in the cubicles. She was only a few feet away from one cubical that was empty, and thought if she could look under she would be able to see if the people locked inside were anything to fear.
The tiles pressed against her knees as she peered under the cubical, down at a set of feet a few stalls down. They were pale green, with blemished purple skin. She was about to move when all of a sudden a face peered back at her from the nearest cubical, the one she thought had been empty. The face was sunken and rotten, bloodshot eyes taking in human skin. Its teeth were black, missing to reveal bloody gums, and tattered hair hung around its shoulders. It hissed at her, and Winter quickly jumped up and away from the cubical.
“Shit!” She gasped, and her voice echoed around the changing rooms.
The zombie inside the cubical seemed to now know how to escape its prison. It sunk to the floor and pulled itself underneath the stalls, dragging its dead body across tiled ground and eyeing the three human teenagers in front of it.
Violet screamed and lifted her gun. She shot once, twice, three times until the last bullet went straight through the zombie’s head.
The bangs echoed around them, before cubical doors being hit replaced the sound. Suddenly, Winter saw feet and hands scratchi
ng away at the bottom of the cubicles and she realised too late that they were not alone.
The gunshot had seemed to awaken those that lay dormant. The apparently empty cubicles had really been occupied. Those that had doors already open were now allowing a gateway for the dead to get to the living. Winter spotted the shadows of the dead coming around the corner, and in a few seconds three zombies in bathing suits ran towards them.
The wide changing room was suddenly full of hisses and groans from the dead. Violet seemed to abolish her fear and summon courage and survival. She raised her gun, took aim and fired, shooting one of the approaching zombies to the floor.
Winter did the same, moving away from Violet and Zach to peer down another corridor. There, running towards her, was a lifeguard. She raised the gun, shot, but the bullet missed. Her heart flipped as she took aim again and hit the lifeguard in the stomach, slowing him down. She tried to forget that she didn’t know how to use a gun, tried to find survival within, and tell herself she could do this. She raised the gun a little higher, waited for the lifeguard to get closer, and shot. The bullet hit his head, purple blood splattering the walls. The lifeguard fell to the floor.
Zach yanked at the padlocked door, trying desperately to prize it open. Winter hurried towards him, and when she touched his shoulder he turned to her with his gun raised.
“Calm down,” Winter shouted at him. She could hear bullets firing somewhere and knew Violet was alone. “We have to get Violet and get out of here.”
Zach seemed to realise he needed to help Winter as much as possible. He looked over her shoulder and Winter followed his gaze. Violet was stood in a cubical, shooting at anything that came her way. The area was covered in spilt blood, and Winter realised if Violet didn’t see something approaching she would be cornered.
Winter ran forwards, but was outrun by Zach. He raised his gun, lowered to his knees, and skidded across the floor. He began to shoot underneath the cubicles and Winter peered down to see that zombies were crawling underneath cubicles to where Violet stood.
As Zach shot, Winter pulled Violet out of the cubical until she was out in the open. The corridor they stood in was clear, except for the dead and the blood, yet Winter could hear dead feet slapping against tiled flooring, the groans of the hungry.
Winter Smith (Book 1): London's Burning Page 19
