Frank Barker looked at Jack, then Charlie, who had finally stopped struggling against Rory’s strong arms. He did not fancy being forced out of his home by then.
“Fine.” He said. “I will go.” But give me until tonight, at least.”
“That’s what he just said, you moron.” Charlie said.
The survivors watched Barker as he walked back towards his property.
“You know we are going to have to force him out, right?” Charlie murmured to Jack.
“I know.” He replied, watching the retreating figure of Barker.
***
The minute hand on Charlie’s watch seemed to be teasing him. First it ticked by extremely sluggishly, and then it appeared to go backwards. Charlie chalked it up to him being tired, although his watch could easily be broken.
To pass the time, Charlie read through his books. For some unfathomable reason, Charlie had been compelled to place all of his favourite books from Jack’s house into the armoured van the night before Jacks house had caught fire. Thanks to that, he still was able to read his favourite books, instead of the stuff that Penny suggested to him. Charlie respected the hobbies and passions of others, but if Penny asked him to read any of her soppy romance books again, he would probably scream.
Finally, after what felt like 12 weeks more than 12 hours, Jack and Charlie set off towards Frank Barker’s house. It was pretty dark out, but neither Jack nor Charlie fancied turning on a torch, for fear of Barker firing a shot at them.
Come to think of it, Charlie wasn’t even sure if Barker owned a gun. How the hell had that man survived a year in these conditions? He looked like the type of man that needed help crossing the road.
It occurred to Charlie that this was the first time they had ever tried to approach Barker’s house.
They trudged up the road towards the house, and saw that there was a fire outside of the house.
“Shit.” Jack muttered, quickening his pace.
As they got closer, it became obvious that the fire was actually a controlled campfire outside of Barker’s house. Compared to the two story house that Ruth had owned, Barker’s house was a run down old shack. Actually, Charlie reflected, compared to most houses, Barker’s house was a run down old shack. It was made completely of wood, and stank of death, even from afar.
Barker was sitting outside of his house, on a deck chair in front of the fire. He sat there, watching the fire crackle peacefully. When he noticed his guests, he leaped up from his chair.
“You!” He said, pointing to Charlie and Jack.
“Who, little old us?” Charlie said, hoping for another chance to grate on Barker’s nerves.
“You want me gone. You want to kill me, just like you killed my mother.”
“Oh for fuck sakes, here we go.” Charlie said.
“You want my place as well, don’t you? You’ve come here to kill me so you can have my place as well!!”
Charlie looked at him.
“BELIEVE me, that is not the case.” He said.
“YOU WANT TO KILL ME?” Barker roared. “YOU HAVE TO FUCKING CATCH ME FIRST!!”
Barker bent down and scooped up a large stick, wrapped in a rag that was covered in some sort of liquid. When he dipped the stick into the fire and the flames immediately licked hungrily onto the rag, Charlie surmised that the liquid was gasoline.
“What the fuck?” Jack said, moving towards Barker.
Barker swung the flaming stick at him, missing him by inches.
“HOLY SHIT.” Jack said, jumping back.
Barker turned around, and still with the alight stick in his hand, he ran towards his shack.
“NO! STOP!” Jack yelled.
It was no use. Jack and Charlie heard Barker throw the stick to the ground of his shack. They saw as the fire latched on the old wood, and they heard Frank Barker scream as he burned.
Finally, when they heard Barker scream no more, and they saw the weakened shack fall to the ground, they accepted his death.
***
Charlie and Jack stood in absolute shock for almost 10 minutes, before finally heading back up to The house.
Even Charlie hadn’t wanted that to happen. Sure, he hated the guy, and he had even expressed desire to kill Barker himself, but that had just been talk. All we had wanted was for Barker to leave, not kill himself. He was an asshole, granted, but all things considered, he was an innocent man.
Jack and Charlie reached The house at about 9:45 PM. As expected, every other person was wide-awake, waiting in the lounge room in order to hear every single detail of what had transpired at Barker’s house.
“Hey guys.” Charlie said miserably.
“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, shocked to see such a face on Charlie.
“Bark- Barker killed himself.” Jack said.
Everyone gasped at the news.
“What? How?” Santa asked.
Charlie was the one to answer.
“We walked up to his place. It was a tiny wooden shack. Guys, I’m pretty sure a light breeze could have knocked this place down. Anyway, as we were heading towards the house, we saw a fire up ahead. Thinking that Barker’s place was alight, we ran to his house. We then saw that it was a controlled fire set by Barker himself, in a fireplace out the front of his house. When he notices us, he jumps up and starts screaming at us about how we had killed his mother, and that we were about to kill him as well. He picked up a stick with a rag wrapped around it, dipped in gasoline and set the stick on fire. He started waving it around, threatening us, and then ran inside his house, screaming more about how we would have to catch him if we wanted to kill him. Then his house caught fire. We heard him die.”
Penny looked horrified.
“Why?” She asked, her voice muffled by her hand clamped tightly over her mouth.
“Why? He was insane. I don’t know if that had started before the apocalypse, or if he snapped after the apocalypse, but he snapped, that’s for sure.”
“Shit.” Walter muttered.
“Yeah. I know.” Charlie said.
Charlie slumped down on the couch. He was in no way particularly saddened by the death of Barker. He sure as hell wasn’t going to miss him, that’s for damned sure, but even still. Barker wasn’t evil. He was just annoying. He didn’t exactly deserve to die like that.
“I cannot believe that he just killed himself.” Jack said. “I mean, I think we all knew that he was little bit unhinged, but he just ran into the flames like it was nothing.”
“Hmm. Weird.” Santa said.
“Jesus Christ. Look at you two.” Penny said, eying Jack and Charlie who had been yawning constantly since they walked in the door. “Go get some sleep. We will do another run in the morning. All of us. I think after all of the horrible shit that has happened to us in the last couple of months, we need a bit of fun.”
***
The next morning, Jack, Charlie and all the others awoke to a bright, sunny morning. Despite what had transpired the night before, both Charlie and Jack had enjoyed a deep and dreamless sleep.
As Charlie made himself a coffee, he thought about what Penny had promised the night before.
“We will do another run in the morning. All of us. I think after all of the horrible shit that has happened to us in the last couple of months, we need a bit of fun.”
Charlie gave a small laugh at the memory. A bit of fun hadn’t really happened to them for a very long time.
After Charlie finished his coffee, he went to have a chat to Rory. They were best friends after all, and if anyone could help Charlie feel better about Barker’s death, it was Rory. All throughout high school, Charlie had called Rory the ‘Peacekeeper’ because of his uncanny ability to bring peace to everyone he talked to. Charlie had a theory that it was this nickname that inspired Rory to become a police officer.
“Hey Rory.” Charlie said.
Rory was sitting on the couch, sipping a mug of tea. Always the fancier of the two, Rory was.
“Oh, hey Charlemag
ne.” Rory said, using his old nickname for Charlie. “What’s up?”
“What if Barker’s death was my fault?” Charlie asked.
“You cannae beat yourself up over it, Charlie.” Rory said in his thick Scottish accent. “You did nothing wrong to him. He had obviously always been a bit crazy, and this apocalypse has brought out the worst in all of us. Your conscience should be clear.”
“You really think so?” Charlie said.
“Of course, my friend.” Rory replied with a smile.
“And you really think the apocalypse brings out the worst in everyone?
Charlie quizzed.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Rory replied wryly.
“HEY!” They heard Penny yell. “Is everyone ready to go? I want to leave in ten minutes!”
All across the house, an assortment of ‘yes’ rang through the air.
“Oops. I had better get ready!” Rory said with a chuckle, rising from the couch and heading towards his room.
10 minutes later, all of the survivors gathered in the garage in front of the Badass Bus.
They each piled into the armoured van and drove off into the distance, not knowing the absolute horror that was yet to confront them.
Chapter 12: The Man Without A Home
The survivors drove. They drove and drove and drove. Further out than they had ever been before. Penny had decided that the best way to cheer Jack and Charlie up was to take them somewhere they had never been. Jack had always had an unquenchable thirst for new places, and while they could not go to some exotic and lovely place, they could go to a little country town mall, which, knowing Jack, he would have enjoyed even more. Jack had always loved exploring the little op-shops he would find, as well as bookstores and even supermarkets. Back when Jack had been just a little boy, his mother had taken him out to old second hand bookstores and op-shops every weekend. She had believed that there was nothing better than discovering a treasure that someone else had discarded. Jack had grown up with the same mentality in his mind, which was exactly what had led Jack to purchase the armoured van for $500 at an impound lot. At the time, Penny had thought it was a ludicrous purchase, but the Badass Bus had saved their lives many times since it had been purchased, before and after the world ended. There had been one time, roughly 4 years before the apocalypse had started, that Penny had been driving home from work. She was driving down the highway, when she was sideswiped by an SUV. While the SUV was almost a write-off, the armoured van had barely been scratched. Jack was, and always would be, an explorer first and foremost. He had had his boring day job, but at heart, he had always wanted to try new things, to explore anything that he hadn’t encountered before. That was one of the things that had led Penny to fall in love with Jack – his sense of adventure.
Jack stared out of the window. He actually felt happy. A feeling that he felt with a great deal of guilt. He didn’t think that it was exactly fair that within 24 hours of a man’s death he should be feeling so joyous. Nevertheless, he pushed those guilty thoughts away and focused on the happy ones. After all, in this life now, they didn’t know when they would feel happy next, or if they would even feel it ever again.
Charlie was sitting directly in front of Penny. He and Penny were deep in the middle of a discussion about the correct way of dispatching zombies.
Charlie had twisted almost 180 degrees so that he was practically facing Penny, in order to have a better argument.
“A bullet through the brain.” Penny insisted, wanting to thump Charlie.
“A bullet through the brain?” Charlie mimicked, incredulous. “Where is the class? The finesse? The beauty?”
“Class? Finesse? Beauty? Jesus Christ, Charlie, you are killing flesh-eating monsters, not attending a dinner party!”
“Shut up.” Charlie said. “Decapitation is the best way to go, full stop.” He said. “It’s faster, and quite frankly, it looks a hell of a lot cooler as well.”
“Well, I will give you that.” Penny said begrudgingly. “It does look kind of badass. But with a bullet, that kills them like that. With decapitation, you still have to destroy the brain.”
“Not necessarily, Penny. What if you are absolutely surrounded? You don’t actually need them dead, you just need to eliminate the threat-”
“Which is best done by killing them.” Penny interrupted.
“Oi! I wasn’t done yet.” Charlie said. “All I need to do with a sword is just swing at them. I take its head, and it can’t grab at me or anything like that. Also, a sword cannot run out of ammo. Guns can.”
“Do I need to turn this van around and head home?” Jack joked from the drivers seat.
“No, Jack.” The two replied in perfect unison.
There was silence in the van.
“I still say the sword is better.” Charlie muttered.
***
Finally, after almost 3 hours of driving, Jack had made his way into a tiny little town. There was around 15-20 zombies milling around in the towns centre. They hadn’t even noticed the survivor’s arrival.
“Perfect.” He grinned.
They all climbed out of the van and looked over to the town in front of them, as well as the zombies in front of them.
Charlie whistled.
“Hey!! Look at me-ee!” He yelled in a child-like voice.
“Dumbass.” Santa chuckled.
Walt looked at him scathingly.
“What?” Santa said. “The world has ended. Swearing probably isn’t the biggest problem in the world now!”
While the van had failed to grab the zombie’s attention, Charlie’s whistle certainly did not.
The zombies turned their heads and started moving towards the group. Charlie grinned.
“Is it wrong that I have REALLY missed this?” He said to Rory.
“Yes.” Rory replied. He thought for a moment. “But I have too.”
As the zombies advanced on the group, Charlie and Audrey unsheathed their swords; Santa took his knife from its sheath and the rest of the group took their guns from their holsters.
Charlie and Audrey went first, grinning as they each killed a zombie. Walt came forth next and shot another in the face. It flipped back and hit the ground, hard. Megan and Jessica took on the next two, each of them shooting the zombies and hitting their marks. Penny was next. She let her zombie get right up close to her, within arms reach. She brought the gun up under the zombies chin, and pulled the trigger. The bullet left a star shaped hole in the zombie’s skull, and the zombie found itself without a head. Santa took his knife and threw it at a zombie. The knife buried itself into the zombie’s head with a dull thunk. The zombie dropped to the ground and laid still. Rory tackled the next one, shooting it multiple times in the head. The zombie’s weak skull shattered when the bullet slammed into it, and the zombie fell to the ground. Jack came next. He shot one zombie in the head, then another in the chest. It staggered backwards, and came for Jack again.
“Shit.” He muttered. He shot at the advancing zombie again in the head, only to find that his gun was out of ammo.
“Oh, fuck.” He said again, this time with real terror in his voice.
The zombie was practically on top of Jack when a thin red line appeared across the zombie’s neck. The zombie’s head slid off its neck and bounced along the ground.
Charlie stood behind him.
“I never did properly thank you for saving me that first day.” He said.
“Fucking hell Charlie. Good timing.” Jack said as Charlie extended his hand and pulled Jack up.
Charlie looked over towards the zombies that were left. There were 6.
“Stand back people. You are about to see some serious ninja shit.”
Charlie whipped the sword around, above his head. He advanced on the zombies, decapitating two in an instant. He stabbed another in the chest, and in one fluid motion, brought the sword up and through the top of the zombie’s head. Then, he actually threw his sword at another two, pinning their heads to a tree. Finally, he
produced a short dagger-like knife and plunged it into the last zombie’s eye. The zombie’s eye burst and runny liquid ran down it’s decaying face. The zombie fell to the ground with a thud.
Charlie turned around and faced the group.
“Well?” He boasted. “What do you think of that?”
“Show-off.” Audrey muttered, placing her own sword back into its sheath. Charlie poked his tongue out at her.
Life As We Know It Page 11
