by Perrin Briar
He only hoped he could row far enough before it did.
Chapter Twenty-Four
BILL BLINKED. His eyes felt gritty, like they were full of sand. His body was wracked with pain, each movement causing him to grimace. He sat slumped in a sitting position in the middle of the dinghy. His neck was stiff and sore. It was broad daylight, the sun high above him. He looked ahead, left and right with his groggy eyes. Endless blue on all three sides.
Liz and the boys lay curled up on the floor.
“Wake up,” Bill said, his voice hoarse.
He licked his chapped lips with his dry tongue.
“Get up,” he said.
He bent down and poked the nearest shape with his finger. Fritz grunted and sat up. He rubbed his eyes with the fleshy part of his palms. Bill prodded the others. They grumbled and got up.
“We’re lost,” Bill said, voice grating. “We’re done for.”
“Er, Pop,” Ernest said, pointing behind Bill.
Bill turned and looked over his shoulder.
A chimpanzee sat perched on the side of the dinghy, head cocked to one side, gazing at Bill and the others. It made light Oo oo noises from its puckered lips. It reached into the raft and picked up a woodchip. It put it to its nose and sniffed. It turned its head away from the smell, poked its tongue out in revulsion and tossed the fragment aside. It reached back inside the boat and fingered the backpacks instead.
Liz leaned forward and waved at it, batting it away. The chimpanzee waved back, its thick lips peeling back revealing sharp incisors. It screeched. Bill got to his feet. He looked big and scary enough for the chimpanzee to hop down off the raft and onto the sandy beach.
He ran to the treeline, where he stopped, turned and screeched back at the Flowers, perhaps in an attempt to save face with its own family, who sat watching with curiosity from the safety of the high branches of the trees.
The waves beat on the soft, warm sand, and the coconut trees waved gently in the wind. The family climbed from the dinghy. Bill dragged the raft onto the shore, up the beach out of reach of the waterline. The family peered around at the vast expanse of the sea in every direction.
“Is this enough adventure for you, Bill?” Liz said.
Bill smiled.
“Not exactly what I meant,” he said.
Liz put her hand over her eyes. She pointed to a mountain east of their location.
“If we go over there we might be able to see which way we should head next,” she said. “See where the nearest town or city is.”
They turned and entered the jungle. A cacophony of hooting, tweeting, chirping, hissing alien animals welcomed them.
“I can’t wait to get back to civilisation,” Liz said. “Get a nice cup of coffee, go shopping. Eat some spaghetti…”
Francis screamed when a dragonfly as big as his hand hovered above his head. Birds of vibrant colours peered down at them, whistling and squawking.
“…Go trekking on the weekends,” Liz continued. “Meet friends and have parties…”
A snake in the middle of a small clearing rattled its tail at them. They gave it a wide berth.
“…No wild animals,” Liz said. “Except the ones we keep as pets.”
They emerged out on the south eastern corner and began to scale the steep flint-like incline. Panting and out of breath, they got to the top. The Flowers turned to look back at the jungle. They gasped.
The jungle was encircled by yellow-white sandy beaches and beyond that, the blue azure of the ocean. It was an island.
Bill chuckled.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll be shopping at Louis Vuitton any time soon,” Bill said.
Liz’s shoulders slumped.
FLOWERS VS. ZOMBIES
Book Two — Vagrant
Chapter One
“I CAN’T wait to get back to civilisation,” Liz said. “Get a nice cup of coffee, go shopping, eat some spaghetti, go trekking on the weekends, meet friends and have parties. No wild animals. Except the ones we keep as pets.”
Adults, teenagers and children came out two by two from the thick jungle foliage. They were worn and tired, their eyes ensnared by grey. Their boots slid a little with each step until they got to the peak, where a strong wind beat at the tops of their heads, throwing their hair into further disarray.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll be shopping at Louis Vuitton any time soon,” Bill said with a smile.
The jungle lay spread out before them, the foliage dancing like the sea, a single living organism. The writhing azure embraced the green on every side like a warm blanket.
“What’s that?” Liz said, shading her eyes with one hand and pointing off into the distance with the other.
A dark shape protruded out of the water off the east coast.
“Looks like a boat,” Bill said.
“A boat?” Liz said. “Looks pretty small to be a boat.”
“It’s not the whole boat,” Bill said. “Just the stern. It must have run aground.”
“We’ll have to explore it sometime,” Liz said. “There might be supplies on board.”
“I wonder who that’s going to end up being,” Bill grumbled.
“What was that?” Liz said.
“Nothing,” Bill said. “It’s going to be dark soon. I don’t know about you, but I don’t much relish the idea of being stuck out here when night comes.”
“What’ll we do?” Liz said.
“We need to find somewhere safe to lay our heads,” Bill said.
“Any ideas?” Liz said.
Chapter Two
“WATCH YOUR heads,” Bill said. “It’s a little low here.”
The cave walls were craggy, rough, and full of holes. They had to place their feet carefully or risk falling flat on their faces.
“It’s like our first apartment,” Bill said. “Careful where you place your feet.”
“Are you sure the water can’t get in here?” Liz said, casting furtive glances back at the cave’s entrance, where the sea doused them with light spray.
“The entrance is too high for the water to enter,” Bill said.
“Are you sure?” Liz said.
“Fairly certain,” Bill said, heading deeper into the cave.
“That fills me with confidence,” Liz said.
Here, the dying daylight barely penetrated. Bill took out the handheld torch from the emergency life raft and cast it around the inside of the cave, the harsh light kicking up large intimidating shadows like they were inside the mouth of a giant monster.
The ground levelled out. They could sit down and stretch their legs. Any uncalculated movement resulted in a skinned elbow or a torn hole in their clothes on the sharp craggy rocks.
“It’s like sleeping in the Haunted House at the fair,” Fritz said.
“But without the comfort of knowing it’s not real,” Ernest said.
“How are we going to sleep in here?” Liz said. “We can’t even lie down!”
“We’ll have to sleep sitting up,” Bill said. “I don’t know about you, but with the way I’m feeling I could sleep anywhere.”
“Me too,” Liz said. “As long as we’re safe for the night, I’m happy.”
They unshouldered their backpacks and arranged them on the ground to act as pillows. They relieved their bags of all food items. Liz sorted amongst the provisions and shared them out.
“Thank you, Dennis,” Bill said to the roof of the cave while chewing on a piece of Kendal Mint Cake.
After Jack had finished his pack of dried mangoes he reached for another.
“No more,” Liz said. “We need to preserve them for tomorrow. We might struggle to find food for the first few days.”
Francis lay flat out with his head in Liz’s lap. He at least appeared comfortable. Fritz and Ernest lay on their backs with their knees up, facing the ceiling. Within moments light snoring escaped their lips.
“We need to know what’s happening on the outside world,” Liz said in a hushed voice. “It
might all be cleared up by now.”
“It won’t be over yet,” Bill said.
“How can you be sure?” Liz said.
“You didn’t hear the transmission on the radio,” Bill said. “It didn’t sound like the kind of thing that would get cleared up any time soon.”
“Tell me what it said,” Liz said.
Bill shifted position, dislodging a sharp rock stabbing him in the middle of his back.
“The virus had spread up and down the entire east and west coast of America,” he said. “There were reports of fighting on the streets of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The last thing we heard was New York was taken. If that’s true…”
He let the meaning hang.
“Then how will we know when we can return home?” Liz said.
“We’ll have to see,” Bill said.
“Do you think they’ll send a rescue ship?” Liz said.
“Almost certainly not,” Bill said.
“Our friends and family back home…” Liz said.
“They’ll take care of themselves,” Bill said. “As must we. We will see them again, one day.”
“When?” Liz said.
“I wish I knew,” Bill said.
Liz cast an eye over the lumpy sleeping forms.
“We have to protect them,” she said. “What do we do?”
“We have to build a shelter,” Bill said. “We can’t live in this cave forever.”
Bill yawned and stretched his limbs, scraping his knuckles on the wall in the process.
“We’d best get some shuteye,” he said. “Tomorrow is going to be a hard day.”
“It can’t be any harder than the one we just had,” Liz said.
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Bill said.
Sleep came easy snuggled up in a warm blanket of darkness. The sea washed against the cave’s mouth and filtered through the rocks on its way out again.
Bill started awake. He rubbed a hand over his face. Something had brushed against his cheek; half slap, half caressing blow. His eyes opened, glimpsing the velvet crack of the cave entrance. Liz and the boys were unmoving sleeping forms. He must have imagined it.
Bill turned to one side, a rock jabbing him in the side. He repositioned himself and found a comfortable spot.
He fell silent again, his breaths low, deep and drawn-out. Sleep seduced him once again, and as he felt himself begin to teeter over the edge and into the precipice of oblivion, he felt another slap against his cheek, followed by a high-pitched squeak.
Bill grunted and opened one eye. It drooped closed.
Squeak.
Both eyes opened now. By the light outside Bill guessed the time to be an hour before dawn. Something slapped against the back of his head. He felt at where he’d been struck. He turned to look at the darkness of the cave. There was nothing there. But he heard flapping, like a child clapping her tiny hands. It disappeared toward the mouth of the cave.
Then something struck him in the face. He caught sight of its huge bulbous eyes before it blacked out the world. Bill’s hands threw the creature off. It collided with the wall and hit the ground. It got up, flapped its wings and flew toward the exit.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
From somewhere deep in the darkness, accompanied by children’s clapping, dozens, maybe hundreds, of squeaking voices echoed up.
“Bats!” Bill shouted, his voice reverberating off the unseen cave walls. “Bats!”
The Flowers started up. Bill turned on his torch, finding each of their sleep-filled faces.
“Everyone up!” Bill said. “Out! Quick!”
“Wha-?” Ernest said.
The first bat hit Ernest on the chest. It looked up at him. He looked down at it. They both screamed. Ernest swept it off, turned, and ran for the exit. The others were up on their feet in an instant, backpacks clutched in her shaking hands.
Bill tripped and fell, tearing a hole in the knees of his trousers. They scrabbled in the pitch darkness, rushing toward the moon. The cloud of flapping wings burst from the cave like a leather river, spiralling into the darkness outside, up toward the moon as if trying to reach it.
The Flowers lay on their fronts, panting as the final few stragglers zipped out of the cave.
“They’ll be gone for a few hours now,” Bill said.
“If you think I’m going back in there you’ve got another thing coming!” Liz said, rubbing her hands over herself to dispel the imaginary tiny claws crawling over her body.
“Then what do you suggest we do now?” Bill said.
“I don’t know,” Liz said. “I don’t care. But I’m not going back in there.”
“The sun won’t be rising for another few hours,” Bill said. “And the jungle isn’t the safest place to be at night.”
“Then we’ll stay on the beach until the sun does come up,” Liz said, a pinch of hysteria entering her voice.
Bill took Liz in his arms.
“Sh, sh, sh,” he said. “It’s going to be all right.”
“I can’t believe we’re here,” Liz said, on the verge of tears. “Why did this have to happen to us? Why now?”
Bill ran his fingers through Liz’s hair.
“We’re lucky,” he said. “We could have become one of those things.”
“I know,” Liz said, sniffing. “I just… Twenty-four hours ago we were at home in Chucerne. The world made sense. And now…”
“Things will get better,” Bill said. “You’ll see. We’ll go to the beach. No bats there. You can all sleep while I keep watch.”
“We’re never going to survive here,” Ernest said. “The first wave of settlers never do well.”
“We’re just going to have to do our best,” Bill said with a reassuring smile. “We’ll colonise this island. It’ll become New Switzerland.”
Liz’s lips cracked a smile at that.
“New Switzerland,” she said.
“We have a place to call home,” Bill said. “It’ll take time, but what else do we have?”
The boys scooped up a mound of sand each into a serviceable pillow and stretched out in long rows. Sleep found them quickly.
Bill sat with Liz between his legs, looking out at the ocean. There was a chill in the air as the sun began to rise. Bill wrapped his arms tighter around Liz.
“This is all I need, right here,” Bill said. “You and the boys. Healthy and well. Everything else is a bonus.”
“A roof would be nice,” Liz said. “And a bath.”
“And we’ll have them,” Bill said. “But right now we have each other. For now that’s enough.”
Liz looked out at the glowing orange ball on the horizon.
“It’s the first dawn of a new world,” Liz said. “What do you think everyone else is doing right now?”
“Exactly what we are,” Bill said. “Recovering. Surviving. Today marks the beginning of a new era, the era when man is no longer the top of the food chain. What people do today will determine what they’ll do every day from now on. Run, fight, or hide.”
Bill leaned his head against Liz’s shoulder and thought about all the things yet to do on the island. His body groaned at the challenge. But for now, this moment at least, he could relax. His breaths came slow and deep and his body pressed into Liz.
He heard a shuffling sound. He was slow to react, his movements tempered by malaise. He looked over his shoulder. The cloying fetid stench of a rotting corpse filled his senses as a zombie fell upon him. Bill’s face contorted into a mask of horror, and the broken yellow teeth set in a snapped jaw angled toward him.
Chapter Three
BILL STARTED awake, gasping, “Ah!”
Liz was bent over him, having woken him. Bill got to his feet, ignoring the twinge in his ankle.
“Where are the boys?” Bill said.
“They’re getting breakfast,” Liz said.
He looked beyond Liz to the edge of the jungle, where the boys were throwing rocks at coconuts. Fritz’s rock struck home and the
coconut fell to earth. Bill released the breath he’d been holding.
“Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” he said.
“You needed rest,” Liz said.
“Not when we have so much to do,” Bill said.
Bill approached the boys, who were now smashing the coconuts open with sharp rocks. Fritz succeeded first, prying the coconut open with the sharp edge of a stone. He tilted his head back and drank the juice. Then he handed it to the others. After it was gone, Bill took the coconut and snapped it into pieces, handing one to each of them.
“What are we going to do today?” Fritz said around a mouthful of coconut.
“I thought we’d go shopping, catch a movie at the cinema,” Bill said. “What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me,” Fritz said.
“Today we’re going to find where our home is going to be,” Bill said. “Then we’re going to start building it.”
“Already?” Ernest said. “I thought we could take a rest for a while.”
“We’re not on holiday, though it might feel like it,” Bill said, peering around at their surroundings. “We don’t want to get caught with no shelter during the monsoon season.”
“Monsoon season?” Jack said.
“It means heavy rain,” Ernest said.
“I know what it means!” Jack said.
“All the countries in this area have them,” Bill said. “At least then we won’t have a water shortage problem.”
“No,” Fritz said. “But we might have a drowning problem.”
“There might be other people here,” Liz said. “Natives. They’d know how to survive. They could help us.”
“Sure, or eat us,” Bill said.
“Thanks for the confidence boost,” Liz said drily.
