“Here”, he said and passed her some fruit and bread, “Grew this in my own garden and my wife made…” he trailed off.
“Your wife, is she?”
“Gone…yup she’s gone but I gotta try and live on for her right?”
She nodded, “You sure do, hey um I’m Monique”.
“Robert, my names Robert and my wife was…”
“You can tell me I don’t mind”, she smiled warmly.
“May, my wife was called May”, tears appeared in his eyes and he wiped at them, “Can’t be crying in front of a lady now can I”, he tried to joke but it came out in a strangled sob.
“I lost a friend today…William…He saved my life”, she said feeling numb.
Robert must have sensed Monique’s mood and changed back to where she was trying to get to, “So Brighton hey, still a long old trip ahead of ya”.
She nodded, “Yeah I know but I gotta try, there is hope that they might still be alive”.
“I guess for you there is”, he ate his food slowly studying her before saying, “I might be able to help you get there if you would be willing to do something for me”.
She eyed him over, “What’s that?”
“There is a pub up the road, I knew the owners they had a lot of money and could afford to buy extra food along with their rations, they were the type of people that could still shop in supermarkets and places like that. Well I know that they are…dead…or melted…but I want their food but I’m too old and slow to be able to get in there and out without being hunted down, but you your young, athletic, you could out run a bunch of those things”.
“Right and if I do this how can you help me?” she asked, she felt like this guy was just going to use her to make his life easier.
“I know of a car that’s hidden in a garage, you get me that food and I’ll help you with the car”, he told her.
“Can I see the car first, I don’t wanna do all that and then it’s not real”.
“What? You saying I’m a liar?”
“No, no not at all but I’ve been played a lot in my life by scammers, I just don’t want to risk my life for something if it ain’t the real deal you know”.
He shrugged, “Believe me or not we both need more food, you get it and I promise I will take you to the car, I ain’t telling in case you take the car and go leaving me here”.
“I wouldn’t do that”.
“Just as I ain’t lying but I guess we both won’t know either way until it’s done”.
Monique didn’t like the fact that she might be being scammed but what else did she have, if it turned out he had played her she would at least have more food but all she wanted was to leave, to go to Brighton and see if her family where still there.
“Fine I’ll do it”.
“Great”.
The next morning Monique was up bright an early, Robert had drawn her a map of where the pub was, he also gave her a large wheel barrow to put the food into, she didn’t think much of the noisy melter calling machine but she wouldn’t be able to carry all the food back and if she did it would take too many journey’s she wanted to leave and get this done with now.
“There is also one more thing”, he said as she stood out in the cool breeze.
“What’s that?” she said warily.
“In the pub there should be some extra petrol, those toffee nosed pub owners stocked up on that too, might be worth grabbing, especially if you want to drive all the way to Brighton”.
“Fine, I’ll look”.
She didn’t know if he was just trying to make it sound like he wasn’t messing her around or whether there actually would be fuel and a car but none the less she had to try.
Robert let her out the gate, said to call his name when she was near so he could unlock it for her. There was a small group of melter’s that had congregated by his home but Monique was fast and the wheel barrow was light and she made it out of his road in no time, plus Robert was making a lot of noise to attract their attention. The walk to the pub was fairly quiet, only the occasional wail or moan called out, she kept her blade close to her hand ready to strike out but so far so good. She made it to the said pub, ‘The Prince Albert’ the pub was typical for a small village like town, white bricked with a blue sign. The windows had all been boarded up shut which gave her the idea that maybe the owners were not as dead as Robert let on. She walked up to the door and decided to knock just to make sure she wasn’t going to get shot for trespassing on someone’s property, she had heard and seen all of that territorial gun crime in London and didn’t fancy her chances of getting shot now in a demented melted world.
There was no reply so she tried the handle, it moved and shifted and the door swung inwards, the smell of stale beer hit her nostrils. Lifting her blade she took a few steps in, the boards over the windows made it hard to see with all the shadows and the gloom but she carried on in, she checked under tables, behind the bar area, finally she came to the entrance to what she presumed was the store room where they were most likely to keep the food and the alcohol, she tapped the door lightly and heard a moan and a wail. Someone was down there.
She wanted to bolt out the door and run, maybe she could try her chances on the open road and make it to Brighton by foot, might take a while but she knew she could do it. But the thought of food made her stomach churn, even if she went out on the road on her own she would need to eat and drink. She had to look.
Turning the handle and keeping the blade raised she opened the door slowly and entered the gloomy storage room, a small window let some light in and she could make out three moving shapes. The first figure waddled up closely to her and she had to ask to make sure it wasn’t human first, “Are you ok? Are you still human?” a hungry moan escaped the lips of all of them as the other two turned to her. Almost crying with fear she took a step back and tripped over a lose box on the floor, sobbing in fear she looked up to see the first one nearly upon her, it was a woman with half a melted dress and a bald head where her hair had all but melted off, lunging forward Monique slashed with the blade ripping the poor woman’s face off, showing her skeletal features. Monique stabbed again taking the woman in the heart and she fell to the floor in a heap, the other two were gaining on her position and she decided it was better to go to them and take them out then let them go for her, she rammed the blade in the chest of one and in the throat of the other, both went down like flies. When she knew the property was now creature free she went and collected the wheel barrow and filled it until she could fit no more, just like Robert had said there was in fact a can of petrol and it was damn heavy but she heaved that too into the wheelbarrow. Dragging it back out onto the street she made her way back to Roberts just making it back to his before another rain storm set in.
“You made it”, he exclaimed ushering her inside, “We can feast tonight”.
“Wait what about the car”, she said.
“I will take you to it tomorrow, first you need to rest and sort out some food and supplies to take with you, you cannot go unprepared”.
“Why don’t you come with me, you have nothing to keep you here”, she told him.
“Oh but I do, you won’t understand but I have shared this house with my wife for twenty five years I cannot abandon it now, not with all those precious memories”.
She felt fear twinge at her mind at the thought of going alone, at least with someone else you can share the fear but he looked as if his mind was made. She shuddered at the thought of what she had to do to those people at the pub but this was life now, fighting to stay alive…For Will.
That night Robert had let her stay in the guest room again, whilst he slept down stairs to keep an eye out on the melter’s in case one or two tried to break in but a strange noise awoke her early from her sleep. It was a shuffling sound coming from a room just a few doors down, she opened her door and looked down the hallway of the old Tudor looking house, she couldn’t see anything but she could still hear the shuffling, had one of them made it i
n without Robert realising. Taking the blade from under her pillow she walked out and listened to each door until she came to the culprit, the old dark wooden door had a small plaque on it, burned into the plaque was Master Bedroom.
Taking the handle she turned it and peered in, a small oil lamp had been lit on the bed side table showing Monique in all it’s scary glory a woman in her fifties chained to the bed, her wrists showed a bloodied raw mess as the woman had tried and failed to get out of her imprisonment, her hair was a matted mess, her skin deathly pale other than the rosy red bite mark that took up the whole of her right cheek.
“Oh my god”, she whispered.
“That’s May, my wife”, Robert said from behind her, he was holding up a large chunk of meat, a leg of an infected human by the looks of things.
“And that’s why you won’t leave?” she asked him as he walked past and handed his wife the raw meat.
He nodded, “How can I leave her when she still needs me, I can’t imagine living without her”.
Monique didn’t know how to play this, she didn’t want to say the wrong thing and upset Robert, he could very well over power her and make her May’s next meal, she was sure she would like that, real fresh meat not infected meat. So she went along with the understanding route, “No your right she needs you, you need each other. Sorry I interrupted I just heard a noise a wondered, that’s all”.
“There’s no need to be kind kiddo, I know it’s weird to keep her here, tied up and feeding her, when I should let her out of her misery, but she’s my wife and I love her, I just can’t bring myself to kill her…I guess you wouldn’t understand”.
“Actually I do in a way, my friend Will he got bitten back in London, he made it so I found a bus and could drive out of there and have a chance, I took it but first he made me promise”.
“Promise what?” he asked.
“To not let him become one of those things…And I didn’t, I ran him over with the very bus he found for me”.
“You…did that?”
She nodded, “Yes because it was what he wanted, I hate myself for it, I feel sick thinking about it but…He’s at peace now and with his family”.
Robert looked at May who was happily chowing down on the leg, even crunching down on the bone and breaking her teeth, the pain and the noise didn’t even faze her, “I think I need some time alone Monique, if you don’t mind I’d like it if you went back to your room till morning”.
“Sure thing”, she said and left him, he closed the door sharply behind her and she could hear his sobs all the way to her room until she closed the door. Feeling weirded out she moved the dresser in front of the door and fell into an unsettled sleep of buses, blood and William.
The next morning she awoke to the smell of burning flesh, the charred texture in the air made her gag, grabbing her blade she ran out of her room and into the master bedroom to find it empty of May and Robert. Calling out his name she took to the stairs and found smoke coming in from the open back door to the garden, rushing through she came out to find Robert in tears tending to a burning corpse in the bushes.
“Robert?” she said slowly approaching him.
“You were right, how could I let her suffer being one of those things”, he sighed, “I was just so afraid of losing her but…I already had, she wasn’t May anymore”.
She put her arm on his shoulder, “I’m sorry Robert”.
“Don’t be it ain’t your fault”, he said, “But I’ve decided I’m going to really help you get to Brighton, I will drive you myself”.
“So you will come with me?” she said happily.
He looked at her with pained eyes, “I will drive you there but then I must leave”.
“Leave why?”
“I want to be with May”, was all he said but it was all he needed to say, Monique understood.
“Well that would be lovely to have you take me but if you would rather stay here then I will understand”.
“It’s what May would want me to do”.
She nodded, “Then I will be honoured”.
Within the hour they had a bag packed with enough food to last her a week, some medicine for just in case and the car had been retrieved out of an old garage which had been in the back garden the whole time, if only Monique had really wanted to look. Robert started the car and put his foot down to the metal, taking the motorway he left behind Copthorne but he knew he would return, either by his car or in spirit, he would be with May sooner or later.
The journey took a few hours due to the pileups on the roads, the remains of towns from previous bombings and of course the creatures that now roamed the towns and the nearing city. Robert got her to Brighton before the midday sun and he pulled up just before the turning going into the main city centre near an old university and stadium which had been ruined to the ground by bombs. Monique looked at the ghost city that was Brighton, so much of it had been torn apart by the war, now she wasn’t even so sure her family would have come here or even made it this far.
Robert sensed her feelings but said nothing, instead he killed the engine, then spoke hesitantly, “You can either go look kid or come back to mine but I won’t be around for long”.
“No I need to do this, I need to find them”.
“Well good luck and god speed”.
“Thank you Robert”, she smiled and climbed out the car, he gave a short wave before turning the car around and driving back the way he had come, she had seen that the petrol tank was nearly on empty, although she had secured the find of petrol in the pub it only merely pushed the pointer up a little, if anything it had given them maybe a few extra miles. She had also noticed a rope tied into a noose on the back seat hidden under some sheets. She knew Robert wouldn’t make it home, Robert wanted to be with May. And for a brief moment Monique thought that might be a good way to go, knowing you were going to be with a loved one again. Snapping her attention back to the city that lay spread in front of her she put one foot in front of the other and walked into the silent city.
Walking down a street that was lined with broken homes, litter blowing in the breeze on the pavements, small craters and much larger ones from all the bombs that had been dropped, random body parts and bloodied remains were scattered around from the poor souls who had been melted down to nothing more than jellied chunks of meat. She walked for about half a mile without seeing a single person, alive or melted, this made her feel really uneasy, surely there must be some survivors.
She followed the map she had kept in her mind from a kid of coming down to the seaside city to see her nanna but the streets had been changed so much they were unrecognisable. She passed a large building full of windowless windows, it had been part of a university but it by the looks of things it had been out of commission for months or maybe years because of the war. It looked ghostly as it swam in her vision before she turned to keep following the main roads, she soon reached one of the more inner city roads and stood shocked to her core, most of the shops were gone just a huge crater filled out were the old buildings used to be. It had happened some months ago by the looks of the plant life that was greening out from the cracks but she hadn’t known things had also been this bad down south, she had imagined just the capital had been attacked by most of the bombs. She turned off down another road hoping it would swing her round to come back on track for the city centre, she held a bucket of dread in her stomach at the thought that even if her family had made it this far to go to their nans, she herself might no longer be alive. She might have perished in one of the bombs, her block of flats demolished like her own home now had been and with no telephone lines or normal cars to travel in they might never have found out.
The walk took her down an empty street full of old houses that were crumbling from the aftershocks of the bombs, they too held no windows or life. Curtains blew tirelessly in the wind, glass crunched under foot, rubbish lined the streets. She even reached an alleyway that she knew she could cut through but the stink from the rubbish and the sig
ht of rats, a whole group them tearing apart rubbish bags and…a body…a half melted body that lay head first in a pile of bin bags, the rats had chewed through whatever meat had been left on the bones. Heaving she passed the alley and decided on the main streets, no short cuts for her.
The afternoon had fully set in by the time she had reached her nans old road but the sight that greeted her made her collapse to her knees, the whole road was covered in melter’s, a whole army of them walking around, moaning to one another with their hunger. Her Nan’s flat was still intact but there was no way to it from here, not without being bitten, torn apart and eaten. Why were they all congregating down this road anyway?
Suddenly one of the ones closest to her sniffed the air with its nose half hanging off its face, scars lined its cheeks from the acid which were still red raw, bursting with infection. It turned to her and with its one eye stared at her, dipping its neck to crane for a closer look, then it howled, a blood curdling cry of hunger. Then all the others turned to look, then they came.
She took off at a run back the way she had come but she froze as more melter’s stood there howling, spinning on her heel she found a back alley that would go behind her nans home taking flight she ran down it only for a gate to open and she slammed into it, arms grabbed her from the small back entrance to the flats, she kicked out and screamed until the cool voice laughed out in relief, “Monique”.
She paused her kicking attack and looked up, “Tyrone”, Oh my god he was alive, he had made it.
“No flipping way girl how’d you do it? We went to the church and it was chaos, we couldn’t see you under all the bodies and the blood and the melted people, we searched for hours before deciding you must be…well you know”, he smiled, his dark face lit up as he held her close.
“Er bro can we like go inside those things are coming”, she said hearing the army of melter’s coming her way.
He shoved her inside and locked the gate up, then led her into a fire exit at the back of the block and slammed that door shut and placed a huge metal pole through the handle so nothing from the outside could get in.
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 26
