An old fried chicken shop, a fish and chip shop, a coffee shop … as Vicky passed each one after Serj, she looked into the mess inside. They’d all been turned over and all of them seemed free of diseased.
Another charity shop sat at the end of the row. The British Red Cross, it looked to have been mostly left alone. Not even scavengers wanted the shit they tried to sell. What use were books and DVDs now?
Serj got to the shop first and Vicky stepped up beside him a few seconds later. The place smelled of dust and rot. The wooden window frames looked to have collapsed a long time ago and flakes of the damp wood lay scattered on the ground.
They had a clearer view of McDonald’s from where they stood and Vicky drew a sharp breath to see the source of the screaming child. What looked like a family of four had barricaded the stairs to the first floor. For now, it kept the diseased penned in on the lower level. Hard to tell from the distance, but it looked to her like a mum, dad, and two daughters. Although like she’d discovered with the dead kids, long hair didn’t denote gender anymore. Regardless, the youngest looked to be about ten, the other one about fourteen. Neither of them would see adulthood.
“They must have raided the army surplus store,” Serj said. “Other than clothes, they have nothing left in there.”
The entire family wore camouflaged gear. “Yeah, I’d say so too. I doubt they have any military experience. They look about as well trained as Hugh.”
“Maybe they’ve been door kicking in Mogadishu too.”
Vicky smiled for a second before she looked back at the McDonald’s. Hard to maintain her mirth with the sight in front of them.
“We need to help them,” Serj said.
“They’re all right,” Vicky replied. “They have the diseased contained.”
At that moment, a large diseased man climbed over one of the tables the family was using as a barricade. The dad looked to have an axe like Serj, which he planted in the head of the creature before he threw it back over into the crowd trying to get to them.
“You were saying?” Serj said.
The mum abandoned the others and ran up the stairs. When she appeared at one of the windows on the first floor, Vicky grabbed a handful of Serj’s shirt and pulled him back.
“What are you doing?” Serj asked.
“That woman might have seen us.” Vicky checked the knife on her hip.
“So what?”
“So what? What if she starts screaming at us and alerts that mob to our presence? Look, Serj, I admire that you want to help people out, but you need to take your head out of your arse. We can’t beat that crowd.”
When a female voice called out, Vicky’s stomach sank. “Hey, you! Please help us.”
Vicky clamped her jaw shut and shook her head as she glared at Serj.
“Please,” the woman called again.
Serj stepped forward and Vicky grabbed him. Although taller than her, he cowered slightly in response to her growl. “Don’t make me fuck you up. You may be the leader of Home, but that means fuck all out here.”
When Vicky heard voices out in the street, she encouraged Serj to step back with a gentle push and slowly poked her head around the corner. Where she’d expected the woman in McDonald’s to be looking at her, she found her looking the other way. A crowd of people—mostly men—walked down the street. They carried an array of handheld weapons from bats to machetes, and moved in a line like riot police. Maybe twenty of them, they would give most packs of diseased a good fight.
Serj moved forward next to her and poked his head around the corner too. “I think they’ve found their saviours,” Vicky said.
“You think?”
“Either way, I ain’t fighting the diseased and them. You can if you like, but you’re on your own.”
Without consulting Serj, Vicky moved away from the corner and ran in the direction of the road they’d entered the town on. She checked her knife at her hip as she looked into the shops again. The sooner they got away from the place, the better. Fuck knew who the people were, but she didn’t have much interest in finding out.
Chapter 8
Vicky stood in line with the other guards as Serj addressed them, his voice echoing in the enclosed space of Home’s foyer. “You all have a key now.”
Each gold key had been threaded on a shoelace. Better to give it to Flynn that way than single him out as the one who needed it around his neck like a ten-year-old would. He and Vicky still hadn’t spoken much.
Serj walked along the line and handed them out one by one. When Vicky saw Flynn slip the key over his neck, she couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s crazy that we’ve had to get some of the kids standing guard for hours so they can let us back in. Now we can do it ourselves. We also have a spare just in case.” Serj pointed at the key hanging from a nail on the wall. It hung close to the siren Hugh used to use when they kicked people out. They wouldn’t use that again. “That key mustn’t be removed.”
Scoop snorted a laugh as she pulled her dreadlocks back and tied them into a ponytail. “Is that why it says ‘key must not be removed’ above it?”
For the second time in quick succession, Vicky smiled. She liked Scoop; the woman had fire in her belly.
A facetious grin and Serj continued to pace up and down in front of the five guards. “Any key goes missing and you need to tell me straight away. We can’t afford to let them get into the wrong hands. I have eight locks and I can put another one in. Replacing the lock is fine. I’d rather do that than have you feel too shy to tell me you’ve lost it and we get overrun by hostiles one night.”
Maybe he hadn’t realised it, but Vicky had watched Serj deliver most of his speech to Flynn.
“What?” Flynn said, “You think I’m going to lose a key because I’m young?”
“I didn’t say that,” Serj replied.
Flynn either didn’t hear him or didn’t care. “Jesus, Serj, I know how to look after a key. It’s not rocket science.”
Normally on the receiving end of Flynn’s anger, Vicky remained silent and let them work it out.
“I said, ‘I didn’t say that.’” A usually calm man, Serj’s face turned red as he stared at Flynn, daring him to carry on. If he needed to bite the young pup to get him back in line, he would.
Flynn fell silent.
If only Vicky had that control. Flynn would have gone at her all night were she Serj at that moment.
“Also, if you’re the last of the guards to return home, make sure you bolt the door. But make sure you are the last guard home. I’d hate for the door to be locked with someone still outside.”
All the while Serj had spoken, rain crashed against the two huge windows that flanked the main door. So much water fell from the sky it cascaded down the glass.
“We’re going out today,” Serj said. “Vicky and I have something to show you.”
Just the thought of it pulled Vicky’s stomach tight. What would they think when they saw it?
“We’re going out in that?” Scoop said.
A nod and Serj continued to pace up and down, his footsteps light against the hard floor. “It’s only a bit of rain. Do you all have weapons?”
A glance down the line and Vicky saw that both Flynn and Piotr had baseball bats. Scoop had a hammer, Serj his axe, and Vicky pulled her crossbow from the harness on her back. She held it with both hands.
“Okay,” Serj said, slipping the key in the lock and freeing it with a click, “let’s go.”
“Meisha,” Scoop called out as she leaned down the stairs into the canteen.
A few seconds later, Meisha appeared, her eyebrows raised in response to the shout.
“We’re going out, sweetheart. Mama Bear loves you and I’ll be back soon, all right?”
Meisha nodded but didn’t respond.
Vicky and Serj had remained inside waiting for Scoop while Flynn and Piotr stepped out into the rain.
After blowing her daughter a kiss, Scoop stepped outside into the downpour.
Vicky and Serj looked at one another. They didn’t need to speak about it. The guards would see it all soon enough. A deep breath to settle her anxiety and Vicky followed the others out. God knew how they’d react when they got to the pen.
Chapter 9
Despite being summer, the rain came down in sheets and Vicky shivered against the breeze. Her clothes were already soaked and they clung to her as she walked through the field’s long grass. She’d got so wet her feet squelched in her boots. The familiar anxiety about rotting laces rose up in her and quickly dropped when she looked down at the new ones she’d put in. It would be months before she had to worry about them again.
None of the group said much over the sound of the swishing grass and strong wind. When Vicky glanced at the others, each of them seemed locked in the same battle as her. Tense jaws, heavy scowls, raised shoulders, they all dipped their heads into the stinging and horizontal rain as they pushed on.
Vicky opened her mouth as she walked. An old habit, she tasted the slightly muddy hint of the rain and quenched her thirst with it. When they’d been in the shipping containers, the rain had always been the freshest source of water. But she now had the filtration system at Home.
Piotr finally spoke. It seemed for no other reason than for the sake of speaking. “It’s amazing how much has changed in such a short space of time.”
The large Russian looked back at Home and Vicky did too. For the first time she looked at the closed front door and knew her fate didn’t depend on kids. Not that they’d ever fucked up, but giving anyone that power over her life made her uneasy.
“To think,” Piotr said, “just a few weeks back we were panicking about food. We were trying to get things to grow in over-farmed soil, and Hugh had no idea about how we could improve it. I thought we’d run out. Jessica dying has forced so much change.”
Vicky winced and watched the large Russian clamp his hand across his mouth. It muffled his words when he said, “I’m so sorry, Serj. I didn’t mean to mention her name or for it to sound that way.”
“It’s fine,” Serj said, scowling as he looked away from the group. He offered a petulant, “I don’t care.”
A particularly strong gust of wind crashed into Vicky’s right side, shoving her a few stumbling steps to the left. The continuous onslaught of the cold rain had turned one side of her face numb. She now felt every stinging drop as if it rained nails.
“We may be outnumbered by Moira’s community,” Serj said.
The others looked at him, confusion crushing their faces. Although Vicky knew exactly where he was going with it.
He then added, “I don’t know how many people they have there; none of us do.”
“Yet Stuart keeps asking you,” Flynn said to Vicky and giggled. None of the others laughed, so Vicky gave the blushing boy a smile. Piotr and Scoop seemed to get Serj had something important to say from his tone, even if his words hadn’t made much sense.
“What we do know, however, is that we need an army on our side,” Serj continued. “We can win against them with an army. We need a resilient group that are ready to attack and hopefully able to overwhelm Moira and her lot. They won’t know what’s hit them when we send them in.”
“Aren’t you being a bit hopeful calling the people at Home an army?” Piotr asked.
Before Serj could respond, the first sounds of the penned diseased rode the winds towards them. Piotr raised his bat and dropped into a defensive hunch. A second later, Scoop and Flynn raised their weapons too.
When Vicky saw Piotr step in front of Flynn, a pang twisted through her chest. But she didn’t say anything. It should be a good thing Flynn had someone looking out for him. Even if that someone wasn’t her.
Vicky reached across and put a hand on Flynn’s forearm to encourage him to lower his bat.
Confusion stared back at her.
“Trust me,” she said, “you won’t need to fight.”
Flynn ignored her, and so he should. For the past decade, the sound of the diseased meant danger. Vicky pulled her hand away from him and let him grip his weapon and scan the distance for signs of the horrible fuckers.
“I’ve just had a thought,” Scoop said as she walked with a hunch and scowled at the horizon. “If we get chased, how will we get back into Home quickly?”
“We won’t get chased,” Serj said.
“Can’t you hear that?” Scoop replied.
Serj shook his head. “We won’t get chased. Trust me.”
The looks from Flynn, Scoop, and Piotr suggested they thought Serj had lost the plot. One by one they looked at Vicky for backup. She didn’t give it to them. Just a few more paces and they’d crest the top of the small hill.
Serj stopped at that moment and turned to the others. “What we have here,” he said, and then backed up a few paces to the top of the hill, “is a group of expendables.” He introduced the scene as if opening a fictional door with his left arm.
To be fair to Flynn, he articulated it best as they all moved forward to see what lay beyond the hill. The boy pulled his sodden hair from his eyes and said, “What the fuck?”
Chapter 10
It didn’t matter how many times Vicky crested the small hill, whenever she saw the pen she nearly froze. Over two hundred diseased stretched out before them. All of them had chased her at one point or another in the past few months and, if she looked hard enough, she could recognise every one of their horrible faces.
Vicky pushed on, fighting against her leaden limbs and the stinging onslaught of the rain. They’re penned in; they can’t get out. Regardless of how many times she told herself that, she couldn’t get over her fear when she saw the horrible bastards.
“The fuck?” Flynn said as if his first expletive didn’t quite hit the mark.
“Vicky and I have been gathering these for several weeks now,” Serj said.
Vicky noticed Flynn stare across at her in her peripheral vision, but she didn’t look back. Another thing she’d kept from him. He had every right to be pissed off with her, but they didn’t need to address it now.
Serj raised his voice over the sound of the wind and rain. “We’ve been luring them in and gathering them up.”
“Because life isn’t dangerous enough for you already?” Flynn said.
Vicky hated when he got in these moods. He’d do anything for an argument. She could really do without mediating for the hot-headed boy today. Fortunately, she didn’t need to because Serj ignored him and continued.
“We’re going to set them loose on Moira’s community.”
Piotr pointed down at the pen. “This is your army?”
“Yep.”
“Total cannon fodder,” Vicky said. “We don’t have to worry about their well-being and they can put a serious dent in Moira’s gang.”
“How do you know?” Scoop said. “You said you don’t know how many of them are down there.”
At first Vicky didn’t have an answer. Then she said, “We don’t know exactly how many, but even if we assume the worst, there are enough diseased here to seriously damage them. Also, don’t forget there are a good twenty to thirty people in the prison on our side too. It’ll be chaos when we send these things over the top. That’ll work in our favour.”
When none of the others spoke, Serj led them toward the pen and closer to the stench of rot.
As they followed behind, Flynn moved close to Vicky. Just by the way he held himself, she could feel his anger, but before he could vent it, the shrill call of a diseased rang out. Paranoid for Flynn’s safety, Vicky raised her bow and jumped in front of the boy.
Serj turned to look at her. “It came from within the pen. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Flynn spoke beneath his breath so only Vicky could hear him. “Yeah, and I can look after myself, thanks.”
The gunmetal grey sky and fierce rain made the pen of diseased all the more ominous. Unlike the guards, who all flinched or covered their faces against the elements, the diseased seeme
d oblivious to it as they stood like statues and stared at the approaching group.
Serj guided them along the side of the fence. “As you can see, they’re secure in here. This pen was already set up to obviously hold some kind of livestock. Because these fuckers can’t climb, we’re fairly confident they won’t get out.”
The fence resembled many Vicky had seen before. It had upright poles with two horizontal wooden bars between each one. Maybe they’d kept horses in the pen before the diseased. Fuck knew, but with the chicken wire all the way around, it served as the perfect enclosure for the horrible bastards.
Once they’d rounded the first bend, they had to get slightly closer to the fence. With the river on one side and the pen on the other, the walkway narrowed, but not to the point where it put any of them in danger. The diseased reached out, and although it felt like they could grab one of them, Vicky had been down here enough times to know they couldn’t. It didn’t stop Piotr, Scoop, and Flynn from recoiling from their grasping hands though.
“We might try to get a few more in here before we release them,” Serj said.
“And how do you know they’ll go to Moira’s complex rather than ours?” Scoop asked.
“I’m going to run ahead of them,” Vicky said.
Scoop’s face fell slack. “You’re what?”
Before Vicky could reply, the screech of another diseased called out. It sounded much like the one earlier, the one who’d made Vicky jump. And now she heard it again, she looked up and her breath quickened. As did her words. “It’s not in the pen, Serj.”
The creature sprinted for them and screamed. Dried bloody eyes fixed on the group as it gnashed at the air with its wide mouth and reached out in front of itself. It moved with its clumsy yet fast gait and screamed again.
Before any of them had time to react, the monster got to Serj at the front of the group. He ducked under its swinging arms.
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