by Aline Riva
As day followed day, the survivors became used to life on board the ship – it was a respite from fear, from the constant being on watch for lurking dangers. The dead did no occupy the water, here it was just the ship making its way towards home on the long, long journey.
In addition to the cargo there was a small armoury of guns in locked room and Maxie was more than happy to share, telling the others they did not know what they might encounter out at sea, or when they reached home – no one needed to be told twice to reach for loaded gun.
For a week they sailed, they dined together, talked together, it was almost a strange kind of holiday from the nightmare that waited on land, and that fact was never far from their minds as they all silently turned their thoughts to home and what that word now meant.
Maxie taught David how to steer the ship. They took turns, sometimes they stayed on the captain's deck together, David talking about his days in the RAF and Maxie talking about the years he had spent as a career criminal and they years he had spent in prison because of it. The more they talked, the more David decided he liked this man who under other circumstances, he never would have met. A brotherly bond was forming between them despite the difference in their ages and chosen paths in life. The old life was gone now – all that remained was this, those who survived had to stand together, there could be no other way as they united against the common enemy, the deadliest threat humanity had ever known. It was a plan of sorts to survive. It could be a base for more, David had thought that over several times as he recalled how good a shot Maxie had been on the dock.
When they reached the UK, they would have to stick together and they had all the weaponry they needed to fight off attacks from those virus infected creatures. It made sense to stay together.
Tara spent most nights in David's room, where in his arms she felt safety and normality, at least for the hours they slept and the first five minutes of waking until reality came once again and they would lay together, saying nothing, reflecting on how the old world and life as they knew it to be was ripped away never to return.
After a conversation later one morning with Lauren as they entered British waters, she had smiled and nodded on hearing the suggestion that Maxie should join them. It was clear the oldest and only survivor of the students had certainly taken a liking to the man who said enough and then no more and then kept a distance from closeness, but Lauren was not one to give up on these matters. She had instantly agreed he ought to come with them when they reached land. By now they had made three stops en route, each at small ports, Maxie had covered them while they went in for supplies, but so far there had been no incidents because the ports had all been closed as the dead had started to rise worldwide.
As the sea view finally broke to the solid show of land and the white cliffs of Dover came into view, the sight was a delight for all who stood together beside Maxie as he steered the ship homeward. In that moment hope seemed to spark to life despite the reality of the situation, from here they could see no wandering dead, nor corpses of their devoured victims. The cliffs were white reflecting sun, the land above lush and green and full of the promise of familiarity, of home soil. It was such a stark contrast to the barren wastelands of ice and snow now stained with blood that for the briefest time, the group all watched as the shore loomed closer, feeling the pull of home and enjoying the memories of a life long passed and blown away with horrible sands of time and the changes brought with it – in that moment, they were home, what ever home now happened to be, no matter how much it was changed, this was still British soil with a warm sun shining down as if nature was making way for a welcome in absence of the living to do it for them.
They bypassed the main port and Maxie took them inland, anchoring the ship where the waters were shallow and then after grabbing supplies, they climbed into the lowered boat, and once all were aboard, they rowed the short distance to shore.
As the boat hit sand and the water's edge gave way to a shingled beach where beyond a pathway led to the top of a hillside, they all exchanged a glance that was mixed with victory and dread: They had made it, but what lie beyond this, could not be predicted...All were armed and ready for the worst as they each clung to tiny sparks of hope that they were not the only survivors left...
They climbed out of the boat and on to the beach, then as David and Tara dragged the boat to the beach and then high on to the pathway far from the reaches of the tide, Lauren joined Maxie, who stood alone by the path, looking out to sea as his thoughts seemed far from the shore.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He looked at her then blinked, pulling his thoughts back to here and now.
“I was just thinking about how we were so much safer out there than we are here,” he replied, “But we can't stay on the water forever...we all want to go home, of course we do...I've had many homes over the years, been in and out of prison for theft...drifted...now this has happened all I want to do is find somewhere safe, somewhere I can stay forever, away from threats and danger. I just want normality.”
“I guess we all want that,” she replied, “Maybe we'll have it again one day.”
As the sea breeze ruffled his hair he cast his gaze away from the open sea once more and looked at her, smiling fondly.
“Keep dreaming,” he said, “I do, Lauren. Never lose hope. If we lose that, we really do have nothing left.”
For a moment her gaze locked with his, then as David called to them, he looked up the pathway where he and Tara were already making their way up.
“Time to go,” he said to Lauren, “Let's find out exactly how much of Great Britain is left, shall we?” And they walked up the path together, joining David and Tara as they headed for the top, ready to face the remnants of the homeland they had left behind, now ravaged by the dead.
Chapter 10: Destiny's Pathway
The walk across the grassy hillside leading down from the cliffs was deceptively ordinary, the sun was warm the breeze was sweet and the colours of a world where nothing was frozen and covered in white or frosted with the deathly blue hue of the Arctic was like leaving a blank canvas and stepping into a portrait filled with splashes of colour, the world had never seemed so vivid, so solid and alive and vibrant.
But each of them kept a grip on their weapons, Maxie was carrying his rifle and plenty of shells, Lauren had the ammo for the hand guns the rest of them carried and the guns were loaded, ready for the next encounter with the dead.
As they cleared the hillside and reached the road, it was empty, save for a few abandoned cars. Splashes of dried blood were on the seats, doors were open and windscreens smashed. Body parts littered the road for quite a distance where beyond, past a bloody trail and a severed hand, the road became mercifully clear of the scene of mutilations.
“Let's just keep walking,” David said, taking to the roadside to avid the carnage, “Going by the smell of the decay I'd say this happened a few days back...at least no one was left whole, no one to rise up and attack us, at least.”
Lauren drew in a deep breath as she took in the sight of it, then she felt a hand softly close around hers, holding on with a gentle grip. She turned her head and met his gaze as Maxie spoke quietly, making a confession.
“I've been in prison with some very bad people, some dangerous people,” he told her, “But nothing prepared me for this. You think the world ending might come about one day by an asteroid or nuclear war...not now, I mean...hundreds of years from now. You just don't expect this in your lifetime...you don't expect the dead to rise up and take over the bloody planet!”
“But as long as we don't give up hope,” she reminded him, and he nodded.
“All the same, I'll hold your hand for a while, Lauren. I think we both need that assurance, am I right?”
She smiled and so did her, then they walked on, as David and Tara took the lead, as they passed the carnage of the blood and body parts, to where the road was clear and no sign of horror remained.
The four survivors wal
ked on, for miles up the lonely road, now and then passing over turned vehicles but finding no blood or traces of death, just abandoned cars here and there. The fields were in all shades of colour nature could provide, the trees were tall and spreading and boughs were leafy and rustled softly as the breeze passed through. And there was not a sight nor sound to indicate another living soul for miles around...
Further down the road it branched off, and they finally reached the outskirts of a small town where houses were abandoned and the world seemed ghostly and still.
“There have to be survivors,” David said as he looked about the silent, eerie street where windows were broken and curtains flapped in the breeze.
“If there are,” Tara replied, “They'll be hiding somewhere...which is probably what we should be doing.”
They all exchanged a glance, the same thought registering that it was not a smart move to be out here in the open, faced by dangers that lurked unseen, ready to attack without warning. They could be anywhere, in the shrubbery, in a shady corner, somewhere out of view but watching their every move....
David turned his head and looked to the drive way of a nearby house, where there stood a car, the driver's door wide open and keys in the ignition. If there had been any blood it wasn't present on the seating inside, if it had been spilled outside on the driveway, the rain could have washed it away. The driver's door was open wide, the seats looked clean...
“I say we drive,” he said, turning for the house and the unlocked car, “We go as far as we can and find a safe house...there must be somewhere to hole up until we can figure out where to go from here. We have to establish a safe place for a while. Plans take time and we all have people we're worried about – but first, we have to find a place to stay.”
Then he headed over to the car, the others followed and he got in the drivers seat and Tara sat beside him, closing the passenger door. She looked further up the drive, where Lauren and Maxie had just stopped holding hands and were heading over to join them.
“I can see those two getting together,” she remarked, and she smiled back at them, leaning out of the open window as she gave them a shout.
“Come on lovebirds!” she teased.
Maxie smiled.
“Me? In love? As if...” he chuckled, as he glanced to Lauren, who smiled too. Then as David started up the engine, their smiles faded as Lauren shook her head, eyes wide and as he set his sights on the vehicle, Maxie's blue gaze became hard and cold as steel as he raised his rifle.
“What?” Tara said in confusion.
David looked around from his seat, in time to see the dead thing rise from the back seats, reaching for a handful of Tara's hair and a handful of his own as they were both slammed back against their seats and the stinking, starving corpse gave a dry, cracked roar.
A shot punched through the back window, as it misted with cracks and began to crumble, the bullet blew off the back of the creature's head, spattering the back seat in blood and rotting brains as it released then both, falling heavily into a pool of its own rotten blood in the back seat of the car.
David drew in a shaken breath as Tara sat up sharply, running her fingers though her hair as if she wished she could brush off the touch of the dead thing that had just tried to kill them both.
“Are you okay?” Maxie called out as he lowered his rifle.
“Yeah, we're both fine!” David called back, exchanging a relieved glance with Tara – this time, they had been lucky. But there would be a next time, now there would always be a next time because these things were everywhere...
An hour later, after scouting the area for a suitable vehicle and finding another road worthy car with petrol in the tank and keys in the ignition but no living dead hiding in the back, they were finally on the road, heading inland, David driving with Tara beside him as Lauren and Maxie sat in the back. They drove down empty motorways that gave little problems as most cars had been prevented from using the main routes when the lock down had begun, here and there he had to swerve the odd abandoned car, but so far, it was a straight run.
“Where are we heading?”
As Lauren spoke up from the back seat, David could not give an answer, because anywhere did not sound like a destination.
“Somewhere safe,” Tara replied, “We'll know when we find it. We just have to keep on exploring and eventually we'll find others. If we could survive the Arctic I'm sure many more survived here in the UK. We just have to find them.”
“They will be strength in numbers,” Maxie added, “That's what we need, to find the survivors – there could be many more than we realise, we just haven't found them yet. And what a difference it will make when we do find them...Safety, shelter, a sense of community...it's all out there somewhere, perhaps just not where it used to be.”
“And we have to keep looking,” Tara agreed as she glanced to David, who nodded but said nothing as he kept his eyes on the empty road ahead and kept on driving.
As some corpses stepped out from the bushes near the roadside he swerved the car, missing them. They broke into a run to give chase but as the car sped on, putting a distance between them and the chasing dead, soon the creatures were left far behind and once again nothing but the open road beckoned as the light began to fade to a beautiful sunset that streaked the sky in shades of amber and peach and darkest blue, it was a sky that seemed to defy the horrors of the land it graced, but it was also a reminder of how life used to be, the simple pleasure of admiring a sunset was still there, even here in hell on earth...
David kept on driving, saying nothing as the others talked, nursing hopes that loved ones had miraculously survived, hoping for an end soon to this crisis as they put it. He just looked ahead, driving on, thinking of the search for safety, because for now after all they had been through, it was all they could realistically hope for - at least at this moment, when it seemed they had returned to a world over run by the dead...
David:
As I drive on, I don't know where we are going or what I'm taking these people into – a new nightmare, a worse situation than the Arctic?
What if no one is left but us?
What if it's only a matter of time before the dead catch up with us?
Life holds no promises any more except the promise of the inevitable – death. But if I can hold that off and protect these people, the deaths of those we knew out in the frozen wastes would not have been in vain. In their memory, I shall fight on and protect the living, and together we will find a way to survive this nightmare – if it can be survived.
All I see is a long road ahead and I don't know when or how that road will end, all I can do is keep going and hope. Hope is all we have left now, but as long as we have that, we have something to hold on to and that is reason enough not to give up.
The world we used to know is gone, but we are still here. So I'll keep driving down that long empty motorway, and I won't stop until we reach some kind of place we can call safety. It's out there somewhere and so are survivors – and we will find them, we have to, because it's all we have left now. The world is full of living corpses but I'm still driving, still hoping, and as long as I have the strength to search, I have something to hope for – we all do.
None of us are finished yet, we still have our lives and as long we have life and purpose, we have a reason to keep going. The dead may rule the land, our lives may never be the same again but we still have the one thing they can't destroy as long as we live and breathe:
We still have hope...
End
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