by Nick Harland
‘We already have gear people might kill for. I know it’s only us so far but This is a small suburb and two of us have survived. If you extrapolate that out into the whole town and surrounding suburbs there must be several other survivors at least and this is probably the richest suburb around. If I were stuck in the town centre I would want to get out as quickly as I could and I’d head in this direction; big houses, big cars and close to the main roads in and out.’
Eve looked concerned, ‘You think that if there are others they might not be friendly?’
I replied, ‘I don’t know, but the town centre can be pretty rough and the rule of law has gone. I would hope people would want to work together but, for different reasons completely, you might not be the only person who feels better off in a Zombie apocalypse. Let’s face it, some people are just mad sadistic fuckers. If any of them have survived they’re having a bloody field day.’
Eve sighed and nodded, ‘So we need to go to the shopping centre down the road and hit the DIY mega store?’
I sighed too, ‘Yes. I’ve been dreading it but it has to be done at some point and we’re as well-equipped and ready for a fight as we’ll ever be. Or at least we will be by the time we get back from your old house.’
Eve pursed her lips and said, ‘Right then, we better get on with it hadn’t we.’
Eve threw me the keys to new Frank and I’m not ashamed to say I really wanted to drive it. We must have at least temporarily cleared the route because there was no trouble on the way. Driving new Frank wasn’t that different from the old Frank but it felt heavier and more powerful at the same time. Eve pointed out controls and features as we went. The glass was all bullet proof and the tyres would run for miles with a hole in, they would also inflate and deflate from a dashboard command, when they didn’t have a hole in obviously.
It had a forward and rear camera that could be switched to night vision. The cabin was sealed tight when locked and you could survive for at least 15 minutes while being pelted with petrol bombs until enough engine components melted that the engine wouldn’t start, then you’d be fucked. It had a reserve tank but its range was still only about 700 miles as it had crap fuel economy. Finally, it had a sky roof like a big metal sunroof that would roll back far enough for up to four people to stand up on their seats.
The bomb proof panic room hidden behind the back wall of the garage was bigger than the one in the house and had a single bunkbed to be more space efficient. It must have been at least twenty feet under the ground that rose steeply up towards the house. Eve explained it had an air-vent that ran up into the garden for when the door was sealed and filters to clean the air of any chemicals that could be removed. Apparently, there was a huge water tank above it that would keep two people alive for a month if they were careful. The thought of all the weight above us started to make me feel claustrophobic. I won’t even talk about the toilet, of all the contexts where the word ‘long drop’ could be used, none are good, and that definitely includes toileting.
We took more guns, a butt load of ammo, a crate of serious looking tools, three grenades, and two highly illegal survivalist nut-job homemade landmines, yes, landmines. There was also a large robust case with two laptops, spare batteries, a hand-charger rig and a solar charger rig. There were several high capacity USB dives full of plans to build everything from simple breezeblock buildings to nuclear power plants. Eve just rolled her eyes and didn’t need to explain. I was glad of the charging gear at least so I could continue to use my laptop to write. We took some more things including clothes and sheets from the house and we both used the facilities. We pretty much filled Frank before we attracted any attention.
By the time we had finished I was equipped with two holstered guns, the Werlod and a noisier M9. We were ready to leave but I had never fired a gun and thought it best to have a few practice shots. Two Zeds that must have heard us talking and loading Frank came walking up the road. I pulled out the M9 and Eve stood behind me showing me how to stand and aim, a gun in her other hand just in case. I waited until the first Zed was about twenty feet away and fired. Fuck knows where the bullet went but it wasn’t in its head. It started to speed up and it took three more shots before it went down. It wasn’t my proudest moment and although I wasn’t that keen of FPS games I figured they might have been worth something, but obviously not.
Eve took care of the last Zed and said, ‘Well it wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think we could use the expression, ‘He’s a natural’ either.’
I drove back to base and was happy to have two Zeds to take my frustration out on on the way.
We unloaded all the gear and decided what to take shopping. We made an emergency pack of food and water and took a small bag of useful tools, including a heavy duty pry bar and some safety goggles for protection against smashing glass. We took our guns, a decent amount of ammo, and both Henry rifles. We had an empty 65 litre rucksack each and a medium sized holdall each. Eve joined me in wearing a cycle helmet; I didn’t want to look a prat alone.
Eve took one of the lighter pry bars as a hand to hand weapon and we wrapped it with some tape to make it easier to hold; sweaty palms are forgivable when being charged by a Zombie. We both hoped she wouldn’t have to use it. Mutt just brought his teeth and his usual bad attitude towards Zombies who still had throats, or necks for that matter.
We both knew we were driving into a much more densely populated area with a couple of high-rise blocks of flats on the way. We also knew the shopping centre could potentially have over a thousand Zeds in it and might be a death trap. It had been over a week since the event and I wondered if other survivors might have been there, or if any horde there might have been attracted by something and moved on; anything might have happened. I thought back to the guy in swimming trunks outside the base and smiled.
The shopping centre was about 5 miles in a straight line down the road the base was off, down a big hill, then right at the bottom and another mile or two. We drove as quietly as Franks (I’m dropping the ‘’new” from now on as it’s dull) 4.4 litre V8 diesel could and passed a few Zeds on the way. Half way down the hill we had to push through a roadblock caused by an accident but Frank was more than up to the task. This did attract about ten Zeds but with the doors locked we were invulnerable for the short time it took to get through. We drove off and left them shambling after us.
There were another couple of cars to push aside outside the tower blocks but it didn’t take long. We made it to the turning and both held our breath as we approached the shopping centre. On the way we saw houses with broken windows and several that had been consumed by fire. There was the occasional half-eaten body and again I wondered, if the Zeds were so keen on meat, why the bodies we had seen hadn’t been picked bare.
There were quite a few cars on the road to the shopping centre we had to manoeuvre around and a couple we needed to shunt, but they were small so we weren’t too noisy. There would be no way of making a quick escape in Frank but we could certainly outrun a normal Zed without a problem. Eve said the radio warnings started in the middle of the day and all the live radio had stopped pretty quickly. This meant that the shopping centre would have been open and busy with lunchtime shoppers when it started. It would have made things so much easier if it had all happened at night.
The road into the shopping centre itself had a crash blocking it and we could already see a few Zeds milling around. We took the exit road in, which was clear, and because there was a small slope up to the car park we didn’t get a full view until we hit the small roundabout at the top. Unfortunately, the DIY megastore was at the very end of the road right from the roundabout and there were five other big stores before it, I smiled to see the huge pet store but that wasn’t a priority.
The view that greeted us when we could eventually see across the carpark was not pretty. Cars had jammed up on the road out before the little roundabout which was separated from the road in by a high doublewide curb. We swapped back onto the road in at the ro
undabout. Although the carpark was mostly occupied by lots of live Zeds, there had obviously been some fighting and there were some dead Zeds and mauled corpses. It was packed with cars and there were a few partially blocking the road between us and the DIY store.
Even though the windows of most of the storefronts were huge and must have been really hard to break, a couple were gone. A car stuck out of one from a furniture store. The entrance to the DIY store was via a covered area that was open at either end and under the cover there were double doors in and out. I figured from what Eve said the doors would be open. How many Zeds were inside was anyone’s guess, but we knew it could be a lot.
I looked at Eve, ‘How many extra rounds did you bring?’
‘I have 100 and the 15 in each clip. It’s not going to be enough. What do we do?’
I surveyed the scene, we had about five seconds before the first Zeds hit us. There was about twenty feet of clear road in front of us before we would have to shove or awkwardly manoeuvre around a car. There were two further cars between us and the store but Frank could make it over the curb that separated the lanes no problems and by swapping lanes we could get close to the entrance.
I said, ‘We could really use some of the stuff in there but there’s no doubt this is properly dangerous. Let’s use the car to kill or immobilise as many as we can and we’ll see where we are in a few minutes. If the car is as secure as you say, even if we get temporarily stuck, we should be fine. I guess getting properly stuck is our main risk right now.’
Eve looked at me nervously and bit her lip. I guessed what the problem was, ‘You need to drive don’t you. You’ve had training and stuff.’
She nodded and by then the first Zed had hit the front of the car. We swapped seats and she kissed me as she clambered over me and said, ‘Thank you’, as she shoved her boobs in my face and pressed my head between them for a moment. I was still smiling by the time I’d made it to the passenger seat.
By the time Eve was ready we were surrounded by a wall of zeds. She put Frank into auto mode and blipped the accelerator to shake some off, my head whipped backwards and hit the headrest and she giggled. Then she drove forwards more slowly keeping the revs up until we nudged the car in front, squashing a few Zeds against it as we did. Then she drove backwards to the roundabout. By the time we had gone forwards and backwards one more time it was getting really bumpy and I could feel the wheels starting to slip in places. We were still surrounded within seconds of coming to a standstill.
She stopped and said, ‘We’re ok but it’s getting risky, the tyres and four-wheel drive system will go over a mountain of bodies but they’re piling up unevenly and it’s possible we could get beached. They can barely reach the roof so why don’t we try some good old fashioned elbow grease. I’ll keep the gun handy for any that make it onto the bonnet. I nodded and she hit the button that undid the sky roof.
I looked at Mutt and said in what I hoped was a serious and authoritarian tone, ‘STAY.’
We stood on our seats and could reach the heads of the Zeds closest to the car. Frank was taller than old Frank because of the raised suspension and huge tyres so fighting from roof level was easier and safer. What can I say except we started bashing away and it was messy. With the bodies piled up beside us Eve had to shoot a few Zeds who started to crawl over them, and a couple who made it onto the bonnet. Of course the more bodies there were the more of a ramp we created for them, and we were still surrounded. I took a moment to look around and there were still Zeds wandering in our direction from the far reaches of the carpark, some of which must have come from inside shops.
We turned to look at each other and didn’t need to say anything. Eve pushed the roof button and we watched its painfully slow progress as Zeds got onto the bonnet. Within a second of it closing there was a Zed on the roof. She said, ‘Put your seat belt on, the time for subtlety is over.’
I nodded, strapped myself in, and clicked my fingers towards the rear foot well. Mutt didn’t need a second invitation. Eve didn’t floor it but accelerated quickly after we got started. We rumbled backwards over the piles of bodies slipping here and there but the traction held until we bounced onto the small raised roundabout, knocking Zeds here and there as we did. Then she drove back out onto the main road. We watched the horde follow us and although there were still plenty we had definitely thinned it out.
We had a good fifty feet to play with on the main road and Eve said, ‘Rinse and repeat?’ I nodded.
With the additional space on the main road we started to make real progress and eventually after what seemed like endless runs and a couple of stops for batting practice no more Zeds came. Eve turned the engine off and sighed heavily, ‘That was not fucking fun. The engine was just starting to overheat, there must be goo covering the radiator, and we’ve used a noticeable amount of gas even though we’ve only done a few miles. What do we do now?’
I could see she was stressed and tired, and so was I. We needed a break. I said, ‘Now my mistress of Zombie mayhem, my diva of destruction…. we have lunch.’
She replied, ‘Mistress, I like it, you may live to regret putting that idea in my dirty little head.’
I smiled broadly, ‘Yes mistress, whatever you say mistress.’
Although she had been used to much better, Eve didn’t seem to mind the canned ham and crackers. The crackers were messy, or at least they were when I ate them. I looked down at the avalanche of crumbs over my lap. I wiped them onto the floor then looking at the mess said instinctively, ‘Sorry.’
Eve Looked at me and although she started to smile a dark cloud passed across her face and she froze for a moment, her breath catching in her throat. I reached across and put my hand on her thigh, ‘What? We probably won’t make it out of the DIY store alive anyway so there seems very little point in keeping anything in.’
That made her smile, ‘That’s very reassuring, thanks. You will have guessed that my ex liked things just so. He was ok most of the time but if things at home weren’t exactly to his liking well, then he wasn’t ok. I’m sure I could have beaten him to a pulp, he was all mouth when it came to the fitness training part of survivalist stuff and he was about your size, but I never did. I wasn’t sure what would happen and I was too scared to find out. If when he checked the car there was so much as a hair in it, it would have been a bad night. The crumbs just reminded me for a moment.’
I looked at her and said, ‘I guess none of that comes as a surprise really. I should probably say it’s not your fault and all that but I think coming from a 22 year old to…. someone with much more life experience, it would seem stupid or patronising.’
I raised my eyebrows and smiled to acknowledge the elephant in the car. Eve smiled back, ‘Good save, but there was no way out of that one when you started it was there? That’s what I find so attractive about you. You’re genuine and considerate and despite your age you have a certain wisdom, niche admittedly, that age doesn’t necessarily teach. I’m 39 and loving it, do you mind?’
I still had my hand on her thigh and thoughts of all the things I didn’t mind flooded my consciousness and headed straight between my legs. I slid my hand between her legs and said, ‘Are you kidding. I’d take you over any twenty something I’ve ever had, known, or lusted after. I’m loving it too.’
She squirmed a little under my touch helping me find a better spot and said, ‘You know at the house when I smashed the coffee machine and shot the pictures, that was to prove to myself I was free. Crumbs are one thing, but it’s someway off the ultimate insult. I know we’ve probably been worse than most twenty something new couples, and that’s saying something, but if we’re going to die in there I fancy doing it with a moist panties and the memory of you inside me. Mistress says take your kit off.’
She had her top off, her soft breasts smothering my face, and some delightful instructions for me to follow before I could even get my trousers off. Being close to death made sex frequent and fantastic, but with her it was so much more than
that. Her ex would probably have had a heart attack on the spot if he’d seen and smelled how we left the seats.
Chapter Ten – Honeymoon’s over
Refreshed, emotionally at least, it was decision time. I said, ‘There are bound to be quite a few more up there and more in the shop. Almost everything we need is heavy so although we could leave the car here so we don’t attract more attention and do stealth missions, I just don’t fancy it. I assume there is cement and stuff at the building site but I don’t know it for a fact and you don’t see many Ninja’s carrying a bag of cement on their back. I say we drive up as close as we can, deal with any the car attracts, then go for it.’
Eve nodded, ‘I agree. Fuck’em, Fuck’em in the ear. Also, you can’t learn from watching so fuck that too, let’s swap seats again.’
I smiled at her, ‘Gangster movie buff eh, I like it. You know, I know we need to survive and all that, but we have means of recharging my computer now and it can play DVD’s. I don’t think there are going to be any new films out for a while so as of now, they’re all classics. It’d be nice to have a movie night sometime.’
Eve smiled and put her hand gently on the side of my face before kissing me softly, it was lovely. She said, ‘I’d like that.’ Then she grinned widely and added, ‘I know there’s no internet now but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any porn. If we find a shop we’ll have our pick of the movies, and toys.’
I smiled at the thought and took a moment to consider just how lucky I was. I replied, ‘You dirty fucking bitch!’
Eve grinned again and grabbed my crotch. It was a bit of gamble so I was glad it’d paid off. She replied, ‘Yes, but I’m your dirty fucking bitch and you fucking love it.’
We could almost have done it again but we had business to attend to. I stored up the memory to carry on the conversation later and hoped Eve did too.
