I Dream of Zombies

by Johnstone, Vickie

  ***

  “She’s gone,” cried Marla, turning to face Tommy who had abandoned the jeep to rush after her.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find her,” he said, giving her a half hug.

  “How?! How will we find her?”

  Tommy waved her forwards. “Come on. Let’s get back to the car. It isn’t safe here.”

  Wiping the tears from her eyes, Marla nodded and hurried behind him. On the way through the station, he grabbed a couple of leaflets. Once inside the jeep, Tommy opened the timetable and glanced through it. “Kings Langley… right, okay, the train is going to Apsley. That’s the next station up.”

  “But we can’t outrace a train,” Marla grumbled in despair.

  Tommy started the engine. “We can try and it will terminate there. Fasten your seatbelt.”

  She did as she was told as the jeep reversed and they sped off down the road.

  “Know the way?” asked Marla after spending a few minutes lost in her thoughts.

  “Yeah, like the back of my hand,” he replied, laughing. “Joy of having been a long-distance lorry driver.”

  “Ah, I forgot you did that for a while.”

  “The wife didn’t – too many days away and all that. Trouble and strife indeed, and then some,” he added with a wink.

  Marla managed a smile, before sinking back in her chair and turning to stare out the side window. Bob whined in the back, as though he knew something was up and someone was missing, she thought. The roads were eerily quiet, which only meant one thing: the healthy had either been evacuated or were hiding. Glancing up at any windows with drawn curtains, she wondered if there was anyone left inside. Now and then they would pass a building with boarded-up glass; a clue that someone had chosen to stay, just like Leonie had.

  “How many people do you think are left here?”

  “Who knows,” Tommy replied. “Hard to guess.”

  “There must be a hell of a lot of people in the rescue centres.”

  “I sure hope so,” he said with a shrug. “This area is damn quiet though. I reckon most were evacuated. Maybe you should get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get near the next station.

  Marla sniffed. “There’s no way I can sleep.”

  ***

  “Look!” yelled Tommy, slowing down to a stop on the side of the motorway. “The train has stopped.”

  Marla unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over Tommy to glance out of his window. He glanced down, feeling unsettled by the close proximity of her body. Trying to ignore it, he brushed his hair off his face and backed into his seat.

  As if aware of his thoughts, she edged away from him slightly. “I can see it,” she said. “Sure it’s the same one?”

  Tommy nodded. “It’s on the right route and that’s the type of train.”

  “Okay, so we go down and check it out?”

  He blew out a breath. “Could be tricky. These banks are steep and down there we’ll be sitting ducks for anything...”

  “She’s my sister.”

  “But then she’s your sister,” mumbled Tommy, shaking his head. “Let’s get powered up then and I’m taking a grenade. Just warning you.”

  “Okay,” Marla answered, crawling into the back of the jeep. Straight away, the dog jumped up and tried to lick her face. “No, Bob, down boy.” She sorted some guns and extra ammo, which she slung in her drawstring bag. Slinging it over her shoulders, she crawled back again. “Thanks for this,” she added. “I know it’s asking a lot.”

  “No worries,” he replied. “It’s Ellen.”

  Marla nodded. “The bastard had her gun, so she’s defenceless. I’m scared what we’ll find...”

  “I’ll take care of anything you can’t,” said Tommy, and they both knew what he meant.

  “Okay, okay,” Marla mumbled. “Let’s go.”

  Tommy leaned over the seat and stroked Bob. “You stay here, boy. With a bit of luck we’ll be back in no time.” The Labrador glanced up at him with his big brown eyes and licked the back of his hand. “Attaboy.”

  Marla and Tommy climbed out of the jeep, closed the doors quietly, locked up and wandered to the side of the grassy bank. At least it had the decency not to rain, she thought, so the route down would not be slippery.

  “Think you can make it?” Tommy asked.

  “You’re having a laugh, aren’t you?” she retorted.

  Tommy winked and led the way. While he put on a confident face in front of Marla, he was quaking in his boots as he made his way down the grassy bank. Once they reached the bottom it would be difficult to run back up if they were being chased by something. He flicked the thought out of his mind. No use in panicking myself. Think of Ellen. He glanced at Marla, who was wearing a look of steely determination, and then he reached flat ground seconds before her.

  “See anything?” she whispered.

  He shook his head. “No one outside the train. All inside, I guess.”

  “Any ideas?”

  “We should start at one end, not the middle,” Tommy suggested.

  “Why do you think it stopped here?”

  He shrugged.

  “Me neither,” she replied.

  Checking their weapons, they moved together towards the front of the train. Marla glanced in the driver’s cab, but there was no one inside. Tommy pointed towards the right and she followed behind, her Glock drawn. They walked slowly.

  “Hey!”

  Spinning around, they came face to face with a tall man with dark hair. He was wearing a blue shirt, jeans and brown leather boots. “You the driver?” asked Marla.

  He nodded, dragging his fingers through his hair. “You’ve got guns?”

  Tommy ignored the question. “How long has this train been going?”

  “Just from the first station,” replied the guy. “I was trying to escape...”

  “So some of the people on there have the virus?” asked Marla. “Have they changed?”

  The man nodded. “If you can call it that, yes. There are monsters in there and some who aren’t, or at least when I started the train they weren’t.”

  “How come you managed it?” Marla enquired, lowering her gun slightly.

  “I’m a driver. My name is Billy, by the way.”

  “Good to meet you. This here is Tommy and I’m Marla.”

  “Cool,” said Billy, nodding. “I’m glad to see someone… real.”

  “You haven’t been bitten?”

  “No,” he answered, holding his arms out. “I’ve been lucky.”

  Marla glanced around. “We came down here looking for my sister. She’s so high with blonde hair. Have you seen her?”

  Billy scratched his head and then his eyes widened. “Yeah, one station back. She got on with a guy. I noticed them because... well, they looked normal, but...”

  “But what?”

  “The guy seemed to push her into a carriage.”

  “Shit,” breathed Marla.

  “It’s okay,” soothed Tommy. “Guess we better hurry. She didn’t get off anywhere?”

  Billy shook his head. “No, we haven’t stopped at any station since. I only stopped now because someone pulled the emergency cable and...”

  “That must have been her!” hoped Marla. “I just know it. Come on, we’ve got to find her.”

  The guy did not move, but just muttered something beneath his breath.

  “You don’t have to come,” Tommy suggested, “but when we open those doors, you might want to hide in the front or you can wait up on the bank there. That’s our jeep.”

  Billy glanced at his feet and back up again. “Wait,” he said. “Give me a sec. I need to get Mr C.”

  Tommy and Marla stared after the man in bewilderment as he climbed back into the driver’s cab. Within a minute or so, he reappeared with a rucksack and slammed the door. In his right hand was a rifle. “I’m ready when you are,” he told them.

  “Thanks,” said Marla with a half smile. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

&nb
sp; “Nice,” Tommy remarked, eyeing the weapon in the man’s hands. “A Colt AR-15 – lightweight, 5.56mm, magazine fed, semi-automatic with adjustable sights.”

  Billy chuckled. “Yeah, Mr C. My dad’s a copper. It’s his. And that’s a Remington 870 solid-steel pump-action shotgun you’ve got yourself there. You know your guns, mate.”

  “Ex-army.”

  Billy nodded.

  “Come on, guys,” urged Marla. “When you’ve finished with the willy waggling, we shouldn’t be wasting time.”

  Tommy walked ahead, taking the lead. As soon as they passed the initial window of the first carriage, a flock of gruesome-looking faces appeared, hideous in their disfigurement. There was a loud bang as one of the dead began to pound on the glass. As though a signal had gone off, other figures flowed towards the windows, flattening their faces against them.

  “We should walk faster. Maybe they’ll calm down when they can’t see us,” suggested Tommy, peering inside. “Can’t see her in this one.”

  Billy nodded. “I don’t fancy our chances if they smash the glass. The worst cases were at this end. When the train started I could see more normal-looking people at the other end, but they all looked sick and expressionless, you know?”

  Marla remembered. “I know.”

  “If we see her, we’re going to have to open a door,” said Tommy. “It’s going to be hell. Well, that’s the first bit of good news,” he added.

  Marla paused. “What?”

  “That guy, Devan, or what’s left of him,” he replied, pointing.

  The movement was greeted by heavy pounding on the glass. “Let’s m-move,” said Marla, taking a deep breath. She hoped her sister had managed to get away from Devan, but she did not dare to imagine it. Fear slammed around her ears and hooked itself in her throat.

  “Right, we’ve walked the length of the train and there’s no sign of her,” said Tommy. “Billy, are you sure she couldn’t have got off?”

  “Positive, there’s no way.”

  “But I didn’t see her anywhere,” said Marla, wiping her forehead.

  “Don’t panic,” soothed Tommy. “She must be hiding.”

  “But where? Where can you hide on a train?”

  “You can’t,” said Billy, resting on the butt of his rifle. “Unless...”

  “What?” the other two asked in unison.

  “She might be hiding in one of the toilets.”

  “Great,” said Marla, exhaling loudly. “Thank you. That’s the best news...”

  “Can you tell which one, from the alarm being pulled?” asked Tommy.

  Billy shook his head slowly. “No. I can tell if an alarm has been pulled, but if it’s inside the toilet, there’s no way of knowing. There are eight carriages – that’s eight toilets.”

  “Fuck!” Marla bent over and leaned her arms against her thighs. “Fuck!”

  “What do you suggest?” Tommy asked him. “We can’t go storming all eight.”

  Billy smoothed his hair back out of his face, making it spike up. “Okay, let me think. There are five normal little toilets and three disabled ones. Now those ones are big and they lock in such a way that no one can get in, so if I was her, I would have chosen one of those.”

  “But if you’re being chased, you’d just go into the first one,” Marla argued. “You know?”

  “Okay,” said Billy, thinking. “Let me try and work this out. I remember seeing her get on the train clearly, so I’m pretty sure it was one of the front carriages. Maybe the second or third, I’m guessing. He was behind, that guy, Devan, you mentioned. Depends which way they went.”

  “Devan is dead in the third carriage,” said Tommy.

  “So we know she got further,” added Marla, trying to calm her nerves. “I can’t just stand around here doing nothing...”

  “Yeah, but we have to plan this,” urged Tommy. “Look how many of those things there are.”

  “Did you bring a grenade?” asked Marla.

  “Grenades?” asked Billy in shock.

  Tommy nodded. “Two.”

  “Okay.” Marla wiped her mouth and glanced at the faces in the last carriage, where they were standing.

  “Right, so she’s in carriage four at least,” concluded Billy, walking behind them.

  “Where are you going?” asked Tommy.

  “I’m going around the other side because those monsters are looking straight at us, and that’s going to wind them up. I’m going to walk down as far as carriage four and see where she could have gone.”

  Marla nodded. “Thanks. We’ll stay here where the dead-lookers can see us.”

  “Dead-lookers? You call them that? I call them monsters,” mumbled Billy, disappearing around the back of the train.

  “Think we can trust him?” Marla whispered to Tommy.

  He nodded. “My instincts say so, and he’s helping us. He didn’t have to.”

  “And after this?”

  Tommy shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Guessing isn’t good enough. Not after Devan.”

  “I know.”

  “I can’t believe what he did. How could he do this? We’re all in this together – we’re supposed to help each other, and now he’s dead. What was he – nineteen, twenty? What a waste.”

  “I know.”

  Marla glanced at the snarling faces glued against the window, and then checked her Glock and the knife strapped to her boot.

  “Prepared?” asked Tommy.

  “I wish.”

  A noise made them turn to see Billy, wearing a smile. “Okay, guys, we’re in luck,” he piped up. “There’s a disabled toilet in carriage four, close to the door she would have gone through to enter it. Now if it was me, I’d have gone straight inside.”

  Marla smiled. “Makes sense, yeah, Tommy?”

  He nodded. “Thanks, Billy. Appreciate it.”

  “So how do we do this?” she asked.

  Billy took a deep breath. “Okay, well there are four exit doors per carriage, as you know. From what I’ve seen, these monsters can’t work out how to open something; they just push and smash. That’s an advantage for us. When we open the door, the toilet is just to the right. The crucial thing is to be as fast as we can. We’ve gotta open it and get out quick.”

  “Right,” said Marla, rolling her eyes, “that means we have a whole carriage of dead to deal with. Hell!”

  “Not necessarily. There are doors between the carriages and for some reason there has always been one after the disabled toilets, dividing that small part from the main seating area. There will be a few seats by the toilet, but most of the passengers will be behind a door.”

  “Thank Christ for that,” Tommy exclaimed, “but all those doors are made of glass.”

  “And that’s why we need to be fast,” added Marla. “Let’s go.”

  “Other side,” Billy suggested.

  “Good idea,” she agreed. “We should crouch down all the way to the door, so they won’t see us until the last minute.”

  Tommy nodded. “I’ll go first.”

  With him leading, the three of them dipped their bodies below the windows and made their way slowly down the length of the train. The quiet was comforting and short-lived. All too soon they reached the exit closest to the toilet where they hoped to find Ellen hiding. The door, which had a window from halfway up, would need to be opened manually. From where they stood, it was impossible to see inside.

  “I’ll check,” Marla offered, carefully raising herself up to peek around the corner of the glass. She quickly dipped her head back down again. “I can’t see anyone in there.”

  “That’s the gap between the trains,” Billy reminded them. “You know, on the right will be a glass door going into the previous carriage – carriage three. It’s sealed with a button. They won’t be able to work it out, from what I’ve seen. To the right you’ve got a few seats – I can’t think how many – and the toilet, and then a glass door again separating the seating area.”

  “
Okay,” Marla agreed. “I’ve got it in my head. Are you guys ready?”

  “Yep,” said Tommy, moving swiftly past her to open the carriage door as quietly as he could.

  Billy raised an eyebrow at Marla and she returned it by rolling her eyes. Gripping her Glock, she waved the guy to get on second. She would protect him, she figured. Tommy held the door for Billy to take and stepped up on to the train. Billy and Marla followed, leaving the door swung open, resting against the carriage. From where he stood, Tommy had no clear line of sight. Taking a deep breath, he peeked around to the right in the opposite direction to the toilet. Shit! The door was smashed and he could see straight through the next carriage. It was full of freaks. Feeling like the wind had been blown out of his sails, he rested his back against the wall.

  Marla frowned, seeking an answer, and Tommy nodded towards the right. “Smashed,” he whispered.

  She drew in a breath and Billy readied his Colt rifle. Taking a silent step, Tommy glanced to the left where the toilet was. The glass door to the far side of it was still intact, but there were two figures slumped on chairs in between. He rested his head against the wall and thanked God for small mercies. Smiling strangely, he pointed and muttered, “Fine, but two freaks. Basically, they’re going to come at us from the right in a pack.”

  Marla nodded. “You take those two and I’ll start firing to the right when they notice.”

  “Okay, I’ll cover you,” said Tommy. “Billy, can you get Ellen out?”

  The guy nodded and gripped his weapon tightly. Marla noticed him glance at the ceiling, take a deep breath and pat his stomach. “Ready?” she asked. When Billy nodded, she moved close behind Tommy to peer to the right. The sight of the dead-lookers beyond the broken door sickened her for a second, but then she summoned her wits about her. This was no time to get the jitters; her sister’s life depended on it.

  “Go,” whispered Tommy, turning to the left and blasting the first slumped figure in the head with his shotgun. It splattered against the wall. Without pause, he fired a second shot into the forehead of the freak alongside it as it let out a low groan and began to rise. The corpse collapsed on to the other body. As it fell, almost in slow motion, Billy ran forward and pressed the ‘open’ button on the door of the disabled toilet. Nothing happened. “Damn, it’s locked,” he muttered.