All this banter and my brain was suddenly brought back round to the serious questions we were avoiding facing. I hadn’t asked about Thomas. She didn’t look too upset. Perhaps that was a good sign. I don’t think she’d be having a joke at breakfast if he was in a critical condition, so I decided to leave that particular piece of delicate handling to the ladies. There was chattering all around us, but it stilled to nothing when Austin wandered back in to the centre of the room, putting on a little swagger to catch our attention. There was no air of nicety this time. Everyone sensed that the casual start to the morning was over. Andrew had already pointed out that not all the men were present. There was always someone watching out. How much of a watch? And why? What news did people have?
“Right everyone, we’ve been listening out on the radio and I’m sorry to say there’s nothing promising. The major news sites, well the UK ones anyway, haven’t been updated. Foreign sites are somehow reporting that London is lost despite not having any credible feet on the ground. We can’t trust anything coming from those. It might be sensationalism.”
“But what if they’re reporting from in the UK? Or taking it from social media?”
“You’re assuming the sources are correct. Facebook? Could be kids talking bull. Twitter? Don’t even get me started on that bollocks. Pretty much everywhere we can see is corroborating Pete over there.” Pete gave the room a wave. “Everyone that’s being bitten is turning in to one of those things. If you’re bitten and don’t die, you’re a quickie.” I suppressed a childish snort. “They’re the ones that are doing the most damage. The ones that die? Well, they’re the creepy quiet things that are taking everyone by surprise. They’re just as deadly so don’t take them for granted. But they’re slow. If you see them coming, you don’t need to panic. At the moment, we’ve mostly got slow ones in our front garden, so to speak. Some of us have been unfortunate enough to encounter the quicker zombies, but perhaps fortunate enough to live to tell the tale.
The last valid update from the government is what we have to stick to. The emergency services are doing everything they can. Stay indoors and stay safe. We seem to have a lucky spot. The gates are holding and even though the restaurant has broken, its dead customers have decided to look for their next meal elsewhere. What we were first hoping – that we’d get passed by a ship taking people to safety – doesn’t appear to be happening. I’m not really surprised if I’m being really honest with you, but Lana is still checking the telescopes daily to see if there’s anything we can risk signalling.
We have five newcomers. We welcome Warren, Rick and Carla, who are all active and much needed hands to our defence efforts. We also welcome Anna and her son Thomas. Thomas is in the care of Mary, who’s coping well with all the ailments we’re managing to throw her way. Anna will be helping care for her son, so will join the other parents in making sure we all stay sanitised.
This leads me on to the next bit. And perhaps the part we were all waiting for. The chores where we’ve been on watch and manning the scopes, whilst not exactly nice on the eyes, has been easy enough. We’re running out of things. We still have fresh running water, and we have rudimentary food. We’re managing to fish, but we need more than that. And Mary needs medical supplies. We don’t have basics. We need bandages, antiseptics, and ethanol.”
“Wait a minute,” I broke in. Over a dozen pairs of eyes swivelled to focus on me and I suddenly felt self-conscious about my knee-jerk observations. Austin gestured for me to stand up, which I did.
“This is Warren. Single-handedly taken down I don’t know how many of those things with – wait for it – a hammer!” There were a few guffaws followed by a ripple of applause. “I think we can do better than that, that kind of effort, but now isn’t really the time. You got something to say, Warren?”
“Yeah I do. It’s about the tap water. When I had to deal with them in my home, the first thing I did was rinse off the blood. So what’s happening to the blood after that? I don’t know what happens to the water in the mains system. I’m wondering if any of this is happening because we’re washing infected blood in to our own drinking water. What do people think?”
There was a lot of muttering and murmuring, some nodding between each other. Austin screwed up his face as if he were literally chewing the words over and not at all liking what he tasted. “You know I hadn’t thought about that. But wouldn’t it take weeks or something for it to all go through? And they must filter it. If we’re the only animals on the planet stupid enough to piss in our own drinking water, we must have ways of getting the impurities out.”
“Impurities, yes. But this? No one even knows what this is. I say we veto tap water. I mean, nothing bad has happened yet, but what if something makes its way round in to the system? We’re all gone, for a glass of water.”
“So you want to add what drinking water to this scavenge we need to do?”
“Yes. It’s the only guaranteed way to be safe, unless you can think of something else?”
“Well,” Austin rubbed the back of his head. “Now you’ve mentioned it, and we’ve all heard it, I don’t see how any of us can actually forget it. So water it is. Though the amount that adds to our weight we’ll either need to do two runs or go mob-handed.”
“No. We don’t send all our practical weight in to one fight. Even if it takes three or four trips.”
“And what makes you the buck shot all of a sudden?”
“It’s big shot. And it’s common sense. If you send all your men in one supply run and they all die, then what? Who’s defending? Who’s doing runs in the future? What if a group comes past and they have more men and better weapons, and they decide they want the pier?”
“What is this? The Walking Dead? Life doesn’t work like that. No one’s going to try to ‘take the pier’.” Doughy waved around his arms for effect, as if I were being childish.
“Can you really be sure of that?” my tone was both incredulous and condescending. But Austin was a class one chump if he thought sending the Thin Red Line out in to Bennington to collect goodies was a brilliant idea. And defence? Who was he fooling? “Of course people are going to want it. I know how desperate I felt when I was running for shelter. This pier is perfect. And let’s be honest - because you’re not being honest with people. I managed to break through that gate on my own. Admit it. And you think you have defence?”
Austin went beet red and every eye turned from him to me, and then back on their apparent leader. “If I hadn’t of wanted you in here you cocky little bastard, then you wouldn’t be in here.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. And… and you tricked me!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, anyone that’s going to try to take over is going to get a megaphone and ask nicely. I can’t see anyone tricking anyone. It wasn’t as if the first thing people did when this broke out was start looting shops, stealing cars and stealing boats. If people were nice and this was a normal situation with law-abiding people Oz, I would be on my sister’s boat halfway over the Atlantic. But we’re in the middle of a national disaster, Oz. They’ve declared a state of capital emergency, Oz. People are murdering. If they want to take this pier they will not hesitate to do so.”
I looked around me. Women were getting teary-eyed. The men looked shocked. Austin looked furious, beet-red with anger and still horrendously embarrassed. He wasn’t a leader. These people may have been safely behind a high iron barrier, but they had the fight and teeth of a baby behind a stair gate. Anything that came for them would get them.
“So what are you suggesting Rambo?”
“Look Austin, it’s done well here. You’ve done well. These people are alive, they are fed, and they are clean, which is more than can be said for a lot of the country. But you need to think of more than that. I mean, look how many people are in this room right now. Did you call everyone in here?”
“Yes. I have done since we all first got in here. Everyone has to know what’s going on.”
“So wha
t’s wrong with passing messages on? Who’s watching the gate?”
“Oh there’s always someone watching the gate.”
“One person? Does he have 360 vision? A gun? A loudspeaker for if something goes wrong? What if he falls and gets hurt? Can he see the whole pier from where he is?”
“Whoa whoa whoa, who are you exactly - Columbo? What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a journalist.”
“Ha. And you think you can run this better than I’ve done so far?”
“Well, he is right Austin.” Of all the people around us, Pete was the first to sound out support for my worries. “We have only got one man out there. And it’s Sammy. Sammy doesn’t even have great vision. And he’s a little bit deaf. I’m not too sure about the water any more either. That makes sense. And sending us all in one big run? What did you think we were going to do? Pop around in a truck to each shop and get a bit of what we need?”
“Well I… what else are we meant to do”?
“Plan it for a start!”
The murmurs grew in to a burgeoning swell of support for me. Austin looked lost.
“All right all right! Everyone else out, back to the chores. Have you still got your lists? Because this is our first full day together and we need it to go well. I want Warren and his folk to stay in here. And you, Pete. You too Andrew.”
Everyone shuffled out reluctantly. I got some pats on the shoulder, and an enthusiastic thumb-up from Lana. Austin waited until they had gone. He even leant his head down the stairs to make sure of it. Then he righteously slammed the door shut and pushed himself in to my face. He poked me in the sternum and opened his mouth to start yelling at me. Pete and Andrew pushed him back. Carla got right back in his face. Apparently no one pushes at her older brother.
“All right princess. Get the hell off me, you two. Whose side are you on anyway?”
“Sides? This isn’t about sides, Austin. Get a grip! This lad has pointed out too many things we didn’t think about. No one’s in charge, you said that yourself. What’s got you so het up anyway?”
“Hold on Pete, you wait there,” Andrew wailed. “He fancied himself the leader. Didn’t you? Oz? You wanted to run the show! This isn’t the movies Austin. We want to stay alive. And if we’re not all thinking about the right things, then we need to accept information. We need to round table everything together and we need to be straight and steady.”
“Okay so no one else was stepping up. What did you expect me to start thinking? I’m only human! And forgive me, but last night this asshole throws himself through the gate and threatens to shove a hammer infected with blood down my throat. What do you expect me to do?”
“You weren’t going to let us in, Austin. There were zombies behind us. We’d just lost one of our own. What did you expect me to do?”
“You could have asked?”
“We did ask you, you cock. You just wanted to let in my sexy girlfriend. And what did you want to do there? What kind of show did you actually want to run here, Oz?”
“I told you already Rob.”
“Rick.”
“Whatever. I told you. That was a joke. And it’s not the point we’re talking about. We’re talking about your brother in law being a dickhead and trying to take over.”
“I’m trying to keep myself alive, chubby. Yes, you heard. Myself. However, it just so happens I’m on this pier with the rest of you. So you get to benefit from the ideas I use to preserve myself. Sounds selfish, huh? Well at least I’m being honest. I don’t want to die. I sure as fuck don’t want to die on a shitty little pier in some retirement town surrounded by diseased people and emaciated zombies, all because we didn’t think things through! I’m not taking over. I just want to stay human. So let’s stop this little circus alright! Let’s just talk! There is no plan at the moment beyond “get stuff”. From where? Who? And when? What’s our long term plan? We know the government aren’t good for anything, so what’s our long term plans for survival? How long can we stay on the pier before it becomes intolerable?”
“Slow down. We can’t answer all those questions at once!”
“Maybe not” I retorted “but we need to think about them all. Important things first.” I was proud of myself here. I’d actually been thinking about Thomas. “Who’s Mary? She a nurse?”
“Yeah. A nurse from the local hospital. Lucky we’ve got her really. Quite a few of us rocked in with some nasty injuries.”
“Okay. You’ve told us some bits and pieces of what she wants, but we need a list. Someone needs to go to her and get a full inventory. Medicine and accessories, and volume. We need to plan the volume for the amount of time we’re thinking about staying here.”
Carla chipped in quickly “That makes sense. I can do that. I’ll do that now actually. I can sense the rest of this turning into man-stuff. That is, if I’m okay to leave? Gentlemen?”
No one tried to stop her. I sure as hell wouldn’t. Not for quite a lot of money. She wound her arm around Rick and gave him a peck on the cheek before slipping out of the door. I heard her feet on the metal stairs and padding away on the decking. I turned to the rest of the men. We were in a circle now. It felt more stable. Austin was looking me in the eye, and he looked calmer. Pete and Andrew looked open. They both looked interested in what we had to say. I decided not to be too much of a cowboy and opened the floor up to suggestions.
“Well, what else is important after medical supplies?”
Austin and Andrew shrugged and turned to Pete, who in turn scuffed his feet on the ground. Rick sighed. “Do we know exactly who we’ve got here? And what their skills are? Except for Mary, that is. I mean, didn’t someone say the guy you had on watch couldn’t see very well?”
We spent the next hour listing our residents and their physical capabilities. Rick was sent off to find out if they had any special talents we should know about. It’d be a good way for him to really get to know people – then I could find out his opinion without listening to Austin. We were about to launch in to some kind of plan to order our priorities for a supply run when Rick burst back through the door.
“I… I don’t know if this is normal or not. Could you… come and take a look at this?”
We filtered out, undeniably intrigued. My jaw dropped at what I saw. “Is that the swarm from the town?”
“I can’t think what else it might be. What’s got their attention, d’you think?”
The tide was low and the bursting sun had cleared any low lying cloud. This afforded us a long view of the pebbly beach. At least, it would have been a long view if the exposed beach wasn’t packed with the wandering dead. To a man they all seemed like the slow ones, but they were so tight together that it would have been hard for anyone to make a head of speed. Anyone caught by that would have been disintegrated under a mass of tearing fingers. I inwardly thanked anyone that was listening that we had done this last night. They were pouring in from the town centre.
“Is that most of the town?”
“It has to be. Christ. Is anyone else left alive out there apart from us?”
“Anyone sensible is staying tucked away. But hey, shouldn’t this clear the town for us? If we’re going to do a supply run, let’s do it whilst these things are distracted by the seagulls. With any luck they’ll just keep going and wash up abroad.”
“I wouldn’t wish this on the rest of the world. Not even the French.” I muttered grimly. But Rick was right, now was the perfect time to do a supply run.
“Have we decided the medical supplies are the thing we need right now?”
“Well it was, until you opened your gobby mouth about the water situation. So I suppose we need that now too.”
Gollum was walking up the stairs. He didn’t look any better in daylight. I wanted to sneer at him, but held it back for politeness sake. He suited his nickname. His head was shaved close. He had a disgusting nose piercing going straight through like those things you see on bulls. There was a lip piercing too. His right ear had a gap
ing loophole which, I assumed, contained at some point some other kind of ridiculous piercing.
“Less of that Jez. It’s in the past.”
“But Oz, you were only saying last night that,”
“I was saying nothing, Jez. When did this lot start sunbathing?”
“Aww they started hobbling around right after the end of the meeting. Birds were giving it some. But we kept quiet on the pier boss, so they haven’t seen us any. There was one staring in the gate at the start, but I think it must have heard something else. Not there no more.”
Gollum came and stood loyally by Austin. I filed both of them under the “avoid and discretely kill if possible” section of my immediate social circle. The beach however was an awesome sight to behold.
“Who’s looking after the gate?”
“Me, boss.”
“Then why aren’t you there? Get the fuck back down there you idiot! We’re going to do a run soon. We need to make sure the coast is clear.”
Gollum – I don’t think I’d ever be able to bring myself to calling him Jez – scuttled away muttering vitriol to himself.
“You want to do the run?”
“Rick’s right. Those things – they’re distracted. We need to get a small cluster of men together – yes, men. I’m only going to risk the strongest people we have on the first run. We don’t know what to expect, and the strongest have the best chance. So that’s you Warren, Rick and Andrew. One large rucksack each. One for medical supplies, the other two for as much water you can carry. Maybe a shotgun.”
Great Bitten: Outbreak Page 14
