The last to step forward was a girl of around 20. She had wavy red hair that hung just below her shoulders. She spoke with a clear voice, full of confidence and passion.
“My name is Audrey.” She said simply.
“Audrey?” Penny said. “I always loved that name.” She said.
Audrey stood back with her group. Jack, Charlie, Rory, Penny and Vanessa stood across from them, facing the new people.
“Well?” Charlie said. “What are you waiting for? Welcome to the group!”
***
As the new and improved group of survivors walked towards the armoured van, they started to chat. It was now blatantly obvious that they were going to have to find a new mode of transport for the new members of the group. The van was amazing, but even it couldn’t house 10 passengers.
Luckily, as they were walking down the highway, they spotted another van, not nearly as indestructible as the armoured van was, lying next to some trees. Even more amazing, they found the keys to the truck in the ignition! They elected someone from the group, Vanessa, to drive the truck back to where the armoured van was and wait for them there. While she was gone, the nine other members had a chance to talk more about their lives. It turned out that the five new group members were actually a family. Santa was the father and patriarch of the group, and Walt, Audrey, Jessica and Megan were his children. They told the others how James had tortured and killed Santa’s wife, right in front of their eyes. In turn, Penny and Jack told them something that they had told Charlie and Rory during the five months of relative peace at their home: They, too, knew the pain of losing a close family member. They had actually lost their infant daughter when she was only 16 months old. Thankfully, the mood picked up after that, talking about their life before the apocalypse, their jobs, hobbies, friends and homes. They had continued on the topic of their previous jobs when all of a sudden 10 or 11 shambling zombies emerged from the trees surrounding the highway.
“Shit.” Jack muttered.
“Ok guys.” He said. “Time to prove exactly how good you guys really are.”
“Grab one of our guns, and do your best.”
Charlie, Rory, Jack and Penny each handed them their second guns. Charlie drew his sword and sliced one of the oncoming zombies from its navel right through the top of his head. The corpse fell to the ground in a heap. Jack shot another zombie straight in the eye. It flipped back and hit the ground. Rory grabbed his knife from its sheath and jammed it through the zombie’s temple. It slipped to the ground. Penny shot her gun, the bullet hitting a zombie right between the eyes. That zombie fell to the ground with a thud.
Santa walked forwards, bringing a knife from his pocket. He threw the knife straight at one of the zombies. It hit the zombie, the knife ramming through the nose of the zombie, the hilt burying itself into the zombie’s face. Walt was next. While he didn’t look like a very physically strong person, Walt was EXTREMLY skilled in martial arts. He punched the zombie right in the side of the head. Then he brought his knee up and slammed the zombie’s head into his knee. Finally, he threw the zombie to the ground, and stamped on its head. Walt’s strong boot crushed the comparatively weak zombie’s skull in an instant. Jessica then walked forwards, with Megan slinking behind. She looked terrified. They each put their guns into the mouths of two zombies, and blew their brains out of their skulls. Megan squealed as the zombies now liquefied brains showered back. Finally, Audrey stepped forwards. She pulled out a long, very pretty sword from behind her back, which had previously been concealed when Jack first met them. The sword was almost identical to Charlie’s, except for the fact that it was a little bit longer, which annoyed Charlie. She swirled the sword above her head, before bringing it down on three zombies in a row. Charlie watched the heads bounce harmlessly in front of him.
Charlie just stared at her, his mouth agape.
The danger now gone, the nine survivors continued on their journey towards the armoured van. As they were walking away, Charlie spoke to Rory.
“So much for a primary antagonist, am I right?”
Rory looked at him with disapproval.
“You’ve got fucking issues, man.”
Chapter 8: Lifeblood
Food had never really been a problem for the survivors. Jack and Penny had had a vegetable patch back at the house, so the survivors always had enough food. In the 3 weeks they had spent planning the attack on James’ compound, they had scavenged the area. And it had been easy enough finding food for the survivors. When the survivors meant 4 people, that is. Now, including Vanessa, there were 6 more people, which mean 6 more mouths to feed.
Jack turned to look at Charlie. He looked upset; almost as if he was annoyed Charlie had chosen this moment to spoil the good and somewhat peaceful mood that had since permeated the air. However, as Jack stared at Charlie, he realised he was right. They had no food, at all. Jack had kept emergency rations in the van, but they would only last the survivors for 2 weeks, and that was when it was meant for 4 people. With 10, they would be lucky to have enough for 2 nights in a row.
“Ok, we need to find out where there is some food.” Jack said to the group. “Everyone think.”
There was silence for a while. Then Santa looked at Jack. “I know of a supermarket just 3 or 4 miles from here. We can go there and look for food.”
Jack seemed pleased with this.
“Good!” He said. “Lets walk back to the van, and tell Vanessa. I think we should sleep first though, ok?”
They continued their walking for about 15 more minutes until they finally reached their van. Rory told Vanessa of their plan.
“Oh, ok.” She said. “Hopefully it hasn’t been completely wiped out.”
“I agree. Ok people; let’s get some sleep. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
So the 10 survivors got into their respective vans, and drove for a while, looking for a safe place to sleep. While the inhabitants of the armoured van were safe from almost any zombie attack, the new van they had picked up was nowhere near as safe. Eventually, they found a secluded house. Remarkably, it had stood the test of time since the apocalypse had started. It stood strong and proud, two stories high. It reminded Jack of his old house. They parked their vans inside the garage, which already housed a sturdy looking 4-wheel drive, with the armoured van parked in front of the other van so the inhabitants of the armoured van would at least hear any zombies coming there way. Jack signalled to the driver of the other van, which was Santa, that it was safe to get out. Jack immediately noticed 3 large tanks full of water next to the house. Everyone piled out of their respective vans and crept over to the house. Santa noticed something else next to the house.
“Guys!” He said, clearly excited. “It’s a generator!!”
“A generator?” Charlie asked. This was good news. Charlie supposed the only thing they needed now was –
“FUEL!! SHITLOADS OF FUEL!” Charlie heard Rory yell. Jack, Charlie and the rest of the survivors ran over to the generator. There was a lot of fuel, Rory was right about that. Enough to run this generator for months, at least. Even more remarkable was that the generator itself still had almost three quarters of a tank full. Walt leaned down and turned the generator on. Charlie walked towards the front door and twisted the doorknob. The door was unlocked.
“Sshhhh.” He whispered to the others. “Let me go in first. I’ve got the quietest weapon.”
“So have I.” Audrey whispered indignantly.
“Fine. You can come with me.” Charlie said with a grin. They walked through the front door, and Charlie flicked on his flashlight. They spotted the first zombie almost immediately. When the zombie had been human, her age would have exceeded 80. She stumbled towards Audrey and Charlie, who quickly and efficiently executed her. They did a sweep of the rest of the house, and found it clean. Charlie grabbed the old ladies corpse and hauled her outside. They would deal with her later. With the house now secure, the survivors could get to the REALLY important question. Did the generator wor
k? Jack put his hand on the hallway light switch. He flicked it upwards, and the survivors were bathed in beautiful, artificial light.
***
The survivors turned on every single light in the house. They all worked perfectly, as did a space heater that was locked in a cupboard. They also found an air conditioner as well. That old lady had EVRYTHING in her house. Finally, they found the master bedroom. Jack and Penny took one look at each other before shouting:
“I CALL THE MASTER BEDROOM!”
“Dammit.” They heard Charlie mutter.
“I call the couch then, at least.” He said.
“What, so the rest of us are supposed to sleep on the floor?” Rory said, annoyed.
“Woah.” Santa said. “No need, guys.”
He opened up another cupboard, to reveal at least 10 mattresses.
“What the hell was wrong with this women?” Jessica said.
“Who cares?” Megan said. “We are sleeping on actual mattresses tonight!”
So the remaining survivors each grabbed a mattress and laid it onto the floor. Jack and Penny also replaced the old, musty smelling mattress in the master bedroom with a cleaner, fresher one.
Before they left for bed, Penny pulled Jack aside.
“Jack.” She said. “Are we going to stay here permanently?”
“I don’t see why not.” He replied, smiling serenely.
“Ok then guys.” Jack said. “Lets go to sleep.”
So everyone said their goodnights and they went to sleep, a new feeling of hope etched into their hearts.
When they woke, the sun was rising. Charlie looked at his watch. The survivors had slept for almost 13 hours!
“Christ.” He mumbled to himself.
“Get up.” He said, as he kicked Jack.
“Bite me, Charlie.” Jack mumbled.
“Fine, you asked for it, you lazy dick.” Charlie said. He walked over to the Jack, and blasted an air horn he had found in a box upstairs. It was loud.
“OW! Fuck, I’m up, I’m up.” Jack said, rubbing his ears.
The horn had also woken up the inhabitants of the house as well, and as they each said their good mornings, they started to plot how they would make this all-important grocery trip.
“Ok. First of all, since this would have been a crowded place when the people of the world weren’t shambling, decomposing bags of meat, we should keep close to each other, because there could still be a bunch of them there.” Jack said.
“I have seen them become really disinterested in things if they don’t see potential food there.” Said Charlie.
Audrey looked up. “What if the zombies have eaten all the food in the supermarket?”
“No.” Santa said. “I have only ever seen them interested in meat, and all the meat at that supermarket would have spoiled a long time ago, so it is useless to us anyway.”
Jack stood up. “OK guys. It’s time to go.”
Rory, Charlie and Jack rounded up everyone and they sat together and made a grocery list. Such a completely normal thing to do, and yet Charlie nearly cried because of how much he missed it.
Basically, their entire list consisted of every possible, edible thing in the supermarket that wasn’t out of date or fruit. This meant 2-minute noodles, peanut butter, jam, honey, and biscuits; anything that hadn’t passed its use-by date.
Walt stood up and grabbed his gun. Not that he ever really needed it. He was fine to use his hands as weapons. Audrey picked up her sword from next to where she had been sleeping. Santa grabbed his pistol from his holster, which was lying on a coffee table in the middle of the large living room. Jessica and Megan grabbed their guns.
Penny holstered her pistol, Charlie grabbed his beloved sword, Rory grabbed his gun, Jack took his gun from the bedside table and Vanessa took her weapon off the coffee table.
“Alright guys. Lets head off now.” Charlie said to the others.
“Shit!” Jack exclaimed. “I almost forgot! Mark where this place is in the map. I want to come back here, maybe we can even live here.”
“Good idea, Jack.” Rory said, marking the house in the map.
Everyone piled into the two vans, and they set off towards the potentially lifesaving supermarket.
Sitting in the front seat of the van, Charlie reflected on the prospect of finding food. They had survived on vegetables for the last 6 months, and Charlie swore to god, if he ever saw another cucumber again, he was going to scream. The one thing he was really looking forward to was the prospect of eating two minute noodles again. He had practically lived off them before the apocalypse, and he was looking forward to having them again. His favourite flavour was chicken. In fact, that was the only flavour that he liked. While Charlie sat in his seat, drooling over noodles, Jack was pulling up outside the supermarket.
He parked the van and unclicked his seat belt. When everyone was out of the two vans, Jack told them to form a circle, each person with their weapon raised facing the outside, so that they could see in every direction. They made their way slowly towards the supermarket.
‘Supermarket’ was a bit of an understatement, Charlie felt. It was a big one; two stories high, at least three times the size of your average supermarket. It looked more like the size of a whole mall than just a supermarket, which was even better.
Vanessa looked towards the sign that adorned the top of the gargantuan complex.
Gigantamarket.
‘Shit name.’ She muttered to herself as they walked along.
They reached the front door of the store. The front door remained firmly closed, which was a good sign, as it meant no one had looted it yet. However, it was also a very bad thing, as there was now no clear way to get into the complex.
“Well… shit.” Walt said.
“Hey!” Santa said indignantly. “Watch your bloody mouth.”
Rory and Charlie looked at each other and smirked.
The survivors stood there, wasting daylight as they strived to come with an idea.
“Hang on.” Jack said. “Get back.”
Everyone stood clear of the doors as Jack sprinted back to the van. He put the key into the ignition, floored it, and drove straight through the doors of the complex.
***
The doors that closed off the supermarket to the rest of the world immediately buckled under the weight of the armoured van. The van ploughed into the building, and came to a rest in the middle of the floor. Jack got out of the van, with a grin that stretched across his face.
“You have NO idea how much fun that was.” He said.
Everyone ran through the newly formed gaping hole in the building. The inside of the building looked even larger from the inside than it did on the outside, if that was even possible. Each of the survivors grabbed a shopping cart and walked through the deserted isles. They threw everything that was edible into their carts, which turned out to be quite a lot. Jack had requested that everyone stayed together, so that they would not get lost in this monstrous shopping centre. Charlie turned a corner and saw one of the nicest sites he had seen since the whole apocalypse had taken place. Shelves and shelves and shelves of two-minute noodles. He threw packets and packets of them into his cart, and only stopped when he turned around and saw that every other person was staring at him.
“What?” He said. “I like noodles.”
“Don’t worry, guys.” Rory said. “He did this before the world went to hell as well.”
“Whatever Charlie. Whatever floats your boat, man.” Penny said.
A chuckle went through the group. The survivors walked on and on, grabbing spreads and anything that wasn’t past its use by date and chucking them into the carts.
When they decided they had more than enough food, they loaded all the food into the two vans. There was more than enough food to last them for weeks, even a couple of months. They decided to have another look through the giant mall, in order to find some general things. Fun things, specifically DVDs, clothes and books. God, how Charlie missed book
s.
After finding loads of books, clothes and DVDs, they decided to chuck those in the van as well. Then, they just decided to go for a walk around the mall, because they hadn’t been anywhere fun for a very long time.
The morale of the group was rather high. They had food; they now had shelter that they would later fortify, they had entertainment and they had more people with them, which meant a safer guard against other dicks like James.
Charlie sped ahead of the others, in order to look for some more DVDs. He turned around the corner, and found not DVDs, but dozens and dozens of moaning, shambling, decomposing zombies.
Chapter 9: Dust-to-Dust
“FUCK!” Charlie yelled, sprinting back around the corner to the others. “ZOMBIES. SHITLOADS OF ZOMBIES.”
Life As We Know It Page 8
