by Walker, Jack
“Simon, what food stocks do you have here in your shop?” How long do you think we can survive here with what you have?” she enquired cocking an eye at him.
“Well, I do have loads of coffee; and I have a few freeze dried rations out back, but not anything exceptionally healthy. Most of the stuff I get in is freshly baked just down the street. Water should not be a problem as there is an old artesian well which I use for all the coffee machines and washing. As far as I know it is a bit unique in that this shop is directly over it, and I do not pay water charges at all. The rest of the city does.” He explained briefly. “We can survive for quite a while if we have to just on the water, right? I am not too sure on the whole survival scenario.” He said hopefully again, looking over at Judith, then over to Dawson.
“Yep, we sure can go for longer on water, but food of any form is important as well. As long as the water is uncontaminated and pure we could survive pretty much indefinitely. Can you show me where the spring is located and how it then gets into your water supply?” asked Dawson quickly. Simon led her to the rear of the shop, opening the door to the small crawlspace just in front of the storage room where all his prepacked foods were kept to be sold to customers. He had a fair supply of chips, cookies and even some jerky in the storage cupboard. Along with the freezer that held a few frozen items.
Dawson looked over at Judith, and asked for her help to help organise the group to get things counted and organised so they could properly assess their survivability. Judith smiled and went to work quickly, getting the others to help with their tasks. Dawson and Simon opened the crawlspace, and Simon showed her the steps leading down into the cistern holding the water. He explained to her that he had researched the history of the location and had found that the land had been used as a dairy farm originally, and the cistern had provided the water for feeding all the animals. Then it had been developed and the cistern nearly forgotten until it had been rediscovered under a destroyed building. The land owner had then dug out the cistern wider so that it could get more water out and that no matter how much water they used the cistern never emptied. The land was eventually developed into the current area with small shops, cafes and other premises springing up around the artesian well. The shop above was eventually turned into a coffee shop; but the water supply was never fully discovered until they looked inside the forgotten hatch. This was when the well was re-discovered once again. Dawson had listened as he had explained, all the while nodding her head in assent. After he had stopped the explanation she had looked at him and smiled. “This could well be a blessing in disguise,” she mused softly. “We could outlast anything as long as we have all this water.”
Chapter Three
Simon grinned as he pointed toward the pumping system he had fitted a couple of years ago, a mini electric model he explained; with a hand crank back-up if the electricity failed. He had only had to use the hand crank once, he explained to Dawson. It had been in the last big winter, 3 years back. Surprisingly the water had not frozen over like the rest of the streets mains supplied water either, another slightly unusual aspect he had noted. He explained to Dawson that he had discovered the shop about ten years back, and had loved the coffee so much that he eventually bought the coffee shop off the old man who had previously owned it. The old man had retired in Florida, and had finally died a year past. Dawson looked at the pump, and then nodded in approval. She was puzzled as she could not see the backup system anywhere down here. She looked at Simon and he motioned for her to follow him. He led her back up the short steps, and led her back to the counter, where she could now see a crank handle sticking out the wall. He nodded and said to her that that was the backup system he had had installed. She grinned at him and asked if she could try out the system. Simon insisted she have a go and watched with a smile on his face as she easily turned the crank handle and water filled up the large glass tank he had had installed to then be fed by gravity into the coffee machines. Dawson shook her head in wonder, and laughed softly, not forgetting the danger just outside the door of the coffee shop.
The rest of the group had by now witnessed the marvel of the water cylinder, and how easily it had been to use. Simon explained that the gearing had been modified to allow users ease of use to draw water from the cistern, and to fill the tank in the coffee shop. It had become quite the talking point among his customers. Not many had asked about the crank handle though. He could see that Judith was smiling at him again as she stood with the final tally of all the supplies they had. The list included coffee, sugar, pastries, some frozen dough and some chips in bags. Jerky was a small luxury item that was not a massive stock, but could last them a while if needed. She read the items out and Simon was actually quite surprised how much stuff he actually had in stock. He looked at the list and shook his head, realising now why his expenditure had been so high. Mandy; the stores girl had been buying in bulk, and had bought more than enough for the shop, and had thought of a few extra things as well. Sighing he looked over at Dawson, who was now peering out between the blinds at the street.
“It’s quieter out there now, maybe we should see if there are any cops around? I doubt it however, as they could not seem to have maintained control for long.” she intoned. “I saw loads of them out there that had been bitten and had started attacking everybody else on the street. Surely by now we should have seen somebody coming in here to clean up the mess?” sighing, she turned away from the dismal sight, and looked at her wrist. The time said it was not only 9am. She did a double take, and showed Simon the time. He could not believe it had only been an hour since he had first helped them out by letting them into his shop. Simon turned back to his machines, and decided they all needed a coffee.
“Who is having what, I could do with a drink of strong coffee. Let me know what you want and I will get busy making the coffee for all.” he asked them, getting the grinder back in action. He busied himself, and then spotted Judith coming over to where he stood behind the counter. Leaning forward and placing her elbows on the counter she watched what he was doing as he prepared the beans in the grinder. Her grey eyes studied his lithe form, watching his movements as he deftly placed the beans in the filter, and then prepared the water. Judith watched him fascinated by the whole process of the making of the coffee. Simon turned around and noticed her there, and he asked if she wanted to help him out by getting cups and utensils ready for their coffees. She nodded eagerly, and he directed her to where he stood behind the counter, and nodded to where the cups were kept. He watched her as she stepped carefully round the side of the counter and moved to see where he had motioned. They were kept under the counter, and on the left of the under counter fridge. He noticed her nice curvy rear as she bent over, her jeans straining slightly over her shapely backside. Simon was distracted and noticed Dawson looking at him as she watched his face redden as he realised she had caught him admiring Judith’s ass. ‘Damn, busted!’ he thought to himself, and blushed. He saw Dawson smile at him then, and she shook her head as if saying: ‘Men, what to do, what to do. Always looking.’ He could see she was silently laughing at his discomfort which was made worse when Judith had stood up just after he had blushed bright red. He stammered and tried to say something but he could not get the words out at all. He gave up and turned back to the coffee machine, trying desperately to not look at Judith again. Judith just giggled and must have realised what had gone on. Finally the coffee had been poured for everyone, and they all sat there and sighed, enjoying the coffee, piping hot from the machine. Simon decided to sneak another quick peek at Judith who was busy talking to Dawson in the corner, and Simon wondered what they were discussing so secretively. He looked at the rest of the group closer then, and they did not look overly remarkable at all. None of them stood out among the others, the only people that had really made a real impression on him had been Dawson and Judith. They looked like they were in control of the group, and he was relatively sure that they could easily handle themselves if they were to be pushed into a co
rner. Relaxing a bit he sipped his coffee, savouring the taste of the bitter blend, and he realised how fortunate his decision to start early had been. If he had not come in earlier than usual, he would not have been secure inside the shop when all the trouble began.
Chapter Four
The noise from next door alerted him that something was going on, and he quickly glanced over to see that Dawson had placed her cup down on the table in front of her, and had moved to the front door to see what the commotion was. He heard her gasp, and heard the glass breaking in the window of the shop next door.
“There is one of those infected creatures that are breaking in next door that was what the glass breaking was.” said Dawson softly with a tremor in her voice. “I think there is someone in there, a survivor like us?” she looked back at Simon questioningly, and said in a tremulous voice, “We need someone to go and have a look.”
“You’re right, we need to go and have a look. There might be something that we can do to help. I will go, but I will not go alone. Who will come with me and help?” Simon said quietly, loud enough that everyone could hear him. “I am looking for volunteers.” Simon reached down and lifted his nearly empty cup and drank the last of the coffee. He decided to get a refill of his coffee first before he was going to head out to see if there was a survivor next door. Pouring the coffee into his cup he noticed that it was still hot, not too hot but just enough to be good. Just as he was about to put the jug back down everyone heard the scream. He started, and fumbled with the jug; dropping it on the floor where it shattered. Some of the grounds splattered on his shoes and pants.
“Damn, I did not want that to happen.” he said harshly to himself.
The scream came again, just as he was about to try wipe off the grounds.
“No time he shouted, we need to go now. Who is with me?” He called urgently. He saw that Dawson and Phil had stood and nodded.
“Right, I have my baseball bat. What have you guys got to use as weapons?” Simon asked quickly as he looked around. Dawson reached for her bag and pulled out the machete she had worn when he had first seen her. Phil had a length of pipe in his hands; motioning over to Dawson and said in his throaty voice with a raised eyebrow,
“She had this in that bag, along with a few other interesting articles. She is definitely a girl scout.”
Dawson chuckled, and looked sheepishly at Simon trying to explain, “I am a plumber now, and I was on my way to a job downtown, when all this shit happened.” she said simply, “My machete goes everywhere with me. My bag does contain a few tools, along with a knuckle duster for protection.”
Phil laughed at this, and looked at Simon, “She is one hell of a woman this Dawson, Simon. I know she said she was a soldier but among her tools are a wrench; some duct tape; as well as a few lengths of pipe.”
Simon laughed, shaking his head at the woman; who just stood there, her shoulders shaking as she tried to suppress a giggle. “We need to move out People, come on. Let’s go and have a look at the situation.” she snorted as she spoke.
“Right, let’s go Dawson.” walking toward the door, his bat in his hands. The other two followed him toward the front door, where Judith stood, nervously wringing her hands. As Simon approached her, she tried to calm her nerves and spoke to Simon softly.
“Come back, go but please do come back safely to me. I like you. I want to get to know you better.” she said softly, placing a hand on his arm gently.
Simon smiled at her and nodded. Looking back at Phil and Dawson they nodded as well, and reached the door. Judith opened the door and the three of them left the shop quickly, blinking in the sunlight. A meaty smell of raw meat and the coppery smell of blood hit their nostrils as they walked into the bright sunlight. He had not noticed the smell before as he had not been as exposed earlier to the smell. They moved as silently as they could toward the shop next door. There they saw the shattered window, and looked into the interior. Fortunately the lights were still on and they quickly entered the flower shop. They heard the noise of someone or something moving deeper inside the shop. They spread out, moving behind the counter and into the storeroom at the back of the shop. They heard a scuffling noise, and Simon spoke softly to them; letting them know that if they got the chance they should take out whatever it was inside the shop. Moving carefully Simon reached the door to the storeroom, and carefully pulled it open with the hand not holding the bat.
Suddenly the creature exploded out of the store room, rushing silently toward them; shoving Simon out of the way, into the wall and that knocked him out. Dawson and Phil were fortunately ready for anything, and the pipe that Phil swung connected squarely with the creatures head. The creature fell, landing hard on the floor and collapsing into a heap. It had only been stunned briefly and almost immediately it jumped back up and roared at Phil, hitting him squarely into the counter. Dawson struck the creature from behind with her machete; striking in a downward arc she hit the creature in the head, severing the brainstem. The creature collapsed writhing, it’s life force extinguished finally. Phil stood, shaking his head and limped back over to Dawson and together they went over to where Simon lay. They reached down and sat him up slowly, making sure he was still breathing. After a minute he regained consciousness, and stood shakily, looking at the creature now lying dead on the floor.
“Wha..what happened?” he said groggily, looking at Dawson and Phil, standing unsteadily. “W.. we still need to investigate the scream, and see if there is anyone else in here. Let me take a minute to recover, and then we can move out to look further.”
Dawson and Phil agreed, and they let Simon gather his wits before they moved ahead with their impromptu plan. They continued moving forward carefully toward the open door, and slowly entered the store room when the stench of raw meat and blood hit them. Gagging, Simon nearly retched, but fortunately managed to hold it down. The woman’s body lay sprawled on the floor, her scattered organs destroyed by the creature that had once been a man. Mostly complete she was starting to twitch; the process nearly complete of turning her into one of the creatures as well. Dawson saw the body move and quickly strode up to the woman, and quickly delivered a blow to the head, destroying the brainstem with a single stroke. Another noise came from further back in the store, and they all froze. Looking at each other they slowly moved toward the noise. Stepping carefully they approached the location of the noise, being extra cautious to not make any unnecessary noise. The scratched cupboard stood against the back wall, and the three of them could see the fresh scratches on the wooden sides and door. A scraping noise came from inside the cupboard, and the door opened with a small squeak. Simon spoke softly, wanting to reassure the person that was hiding in there that everything was okay. A head finally appeared from inside the closet; a rather pretty brunette. Her luminous eyes were tearing up and she spoke softly, “Is..is it safe? Can I come out now?”
Chapter Five
Ella climbed out of the closet, stretched and then ran up to the three rescuers, hugging them each in turn; thanking them for their rescue from the creature. They looked at this elfin creature, and smiled. Her story came out then as she told them of her hiding in the closet, after she had seen the creature come into the store after her. She had run into the store hoping that somebody was there, and the owner had been just about to investigate the same scream Simon had initially heard when the attack had happened. That was how she had gotten into the store, and the owner and herself had closed and locked the door behind them and moved into the back of the storage area. The creature had apparently not been so clever and must have missed Ella running into the store. Gratefully Ella had thanked the owner and had warned her of the danger that she was in, and told her not to go out there at all; no matter what happened. Ella had asked if she could use the bathroom and had gone to try to calm herself down. Ella explained that after an hour after everything had ‘calmed down’; the owner had decided to put her flowers out for the day. She had not realised the danger she was placing herself in and h
ad started to move the flower stands out the door, and that was where the creature had finally spotted her. Ella had been in the storage room, watching horrified, from the door and realised too late that the woman had endangered them both by trying to act as if it were a normal day. The creature had charged the woman who had run toward the door and had just managed to close it behind her when the creature had broken the glass and come in through the broken door. That was when Ella had screamed in fear. Realising the creature was inside, and had by this point seen what was happening and had gone to find the only place she could think of to hide; the cupboard. Where she had just emerged from and had recounted her story to the three of them. Shaking she sat down, trying to catch her breath.
“We heard your scream and decided to come and investigate. That is how we came into the shop and killed the creature and her victim.” Simon said with a low voice. “We had better get to my shop next door, and try seeing if there is anything we can do to make my shop a bit safer for us if we want to stay there for any length of time while this crisis is on.”
“I must admit, I thought that I was going to die. I did not realise there was anybody nearby. Thank you again.” said Ella a bit breathily. “Thank you very much.”
Simon blushed a little at her thanks and smiled back at her. Her face lit up and he saw the smile grow, and she quickly reached out to Simon and kissed him on the lips. He started and blushed again furiously. He could not believe that now there was a girl he was interested in and another girl that was interested in him! His mind whirled as he thought of the conflict that this could cause. He knew Judith was possibly interested in him, and then this new complication of Ella had just cropped up. Ella went to Dawson, hugged her and also went up to Phil, but did not kiss him; just shook his hand. Simon saw the three of them chatting quietly in the corner while he stood there trying to get this new twist straightened in his head. He could not believe that somehow he had become the sort of leader, and Dawson had become the second in charge. He chuckled at the thought of everyone listening to him. The other three looked at him as he chuckled, and they came over.
