The Road Trip At The End (Book 2): Border

by Wood, J N

  The noise from within abruptly stopped.

  ‘Hello,’ I whispered. My heartbeat was now racing.

  If this is another bear, I’m not gonna be very happy.

  The door slowly creaked open. I peered into the darkness, there didn’t seem to be anybody opening the door.

  ‘Chris?’ Pete called out.

  Fuck’s sake.

  Pete stepped out through the door.

  ‘What the fuck?’ I said. ‘You nearly scared the shit out of me. What are you doing in there?’

  ‘Just getting the gas from this car.’ He opened the door and shone his torch inside, illuminating the back of a beat up vehicle.

  ‘What was all the noise? It sounded like a trapped animal.’

  ‘Oh, that was just Theo. It was his turn to do the sucking.’

  I screwed up my face. ‘What?’

  ‘He swallowed a bit of gas,’ Pete said brightly, a smile on his face. ‘Happens every now and then.’

  I slowly nodded. ‘Okay, anything else of any value in there?’

  ‘Not really,’ he replied, looking back into the garage. ‘Just engine parts.’

  ‘Right,’ I said. ‘See you back in the house. Enjoy your sucking.’

  I picked up my belongings and headed back. I’d salvaged everything we needed from outside.

  I bumped into Roy just as I entered through the back door.

  ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘I was just coming out to find you.’

  I leaned my bat against the wall and handed him the large bolt cutting tool. ‘All done,’ I said, pulling the two wire cutters out of my jeans pocket, and then the box of dust masks out from the inside of my jacket. ‘Got these as well.’

  Roy held the bolt cutter in both hands and swung them in front of him, almost exactly as I had done. ‘The weight will make it a good weapon as well.’

  ‘Yep. Did you find blankets and shit?’

  Roy pointed to two piles of blankets and duvets on the kitchen table. ‘Yeah, all sorted.’

  We sat ourselves down in the living room and waited for everyone else to return.

  Sandra and the kids had actually found some goggles and snorkelling masks. Only two pairs of each, but I was surprised they’d found them. Not enough for everyone, which of course meant I wouldn’t be getting any to wear.

  Ali returned with lots of tinned food.

  Jack and Beth had filled every plastic bottle they could find with water, so seventeen bottles of various sizes sat on top of the coffee table in the living room.

  Pete and Theo returned to the house last, carrying eight full jerry cans.

  ‘You do realise we’re gonna have to carry all this to the farm?’ I asked them all. ‘We can’t drive up there.’

  ‘We’ll manage,’ Ali said, looking at everything we’d collected. ‘Somehow,’ she added.

  My back pack was now stuffed with blankets, and three new tools, one of which was very heavy. I was also carrying my baseball bat, and a plastic bag containing three petrol filled jerry cans. I wasn’t alone, everyone else was also overloaded. Nobody more so than Jack, who had taken some of Beth’s load as well as his own.

  We left the farm in the dark. Sandra, the kids and Beth were the only ones with any free hands. We had to rely on them to light the way with their torches.

  During the walk through the woods, I lost count of the amount of rest breaks we took. So by the time we reached the tall grass, we must have been walking for two hours or more.

  Ali was down on her knees, leaning in close to the three young boys. ‘We’re going to go into the grass now,’ she whispered to them. ‘And no matter what, we can’t make any noise. Okay?’

  ‘Okay Aunt Alison,’ Seth and Jonah replied in unison.

  ‘Okay Max?’ Ali repeated.

  Max gave her three very quick nods of his head, saying, ‘Okay Aunt Alison.’

  ‘Good boys,’ she said with a big smile. ‘Nothing to worry about. We’re all just going on a big adventure.’

  ‘Stay close to me,’ Sandra said to the boys.

  Ali stood up and very briefly looked at us all. ‘All the rest of you, don’t group up. They might notice the movement in the grass if we all stay together.’

  I over dramatically lifted the heavy plastic bag, nodding towards the farm in the middle of the field. She smiled and turned around. We followed her in, keeping our heads below the height of the grass.

  We hadn’t told the kids that there may be zombies in the fields, but we’d all decided beforehand, if we encountered any, we’d drop everything, pick up the kids, and run back to the woods.

  Ten minutes later, we were stood outside the farmhouse. We hadn’t met anything as we made our way through the tall grass. Where we were stood, we were hidden from the Canadians, but that also meant we couldn’t see the border.

  Behind the house were the large industrial looking buildings I’d seen earlier in the day.

  I pointed behind the farmhouse towards them. ‘We could do with being in them really. We need to be able to see what is happening at the border.’

  ‘Stay here,’ Ali quietly said. ‘Pete, you come with me. We’ll find the best way to get in.’

  They both placed everything they were carrying onto the ground, and crept away into the night.

  They returned a few nerve wracking minutes later.

  ‘Okay,’ Ali whispered. ‘We’ve found a way in. It’s easy. Follow us.’

  They picked up their things, and led us down an alleyway between the house and a long shed. A tractor was parked on a thin lane behind the house. Ali passed the things she was carrying in her hands to Pete, and then started to climb up onto the tractor.

  ‘Alison?’ Sandra questioned her.

  ‘There’s no other way,’ Pete said. The main doors are on the border side.’ He pointed up to the flat roof adjacent to the tractor. ‘There’s an open window up there.’

  Ali turned around on the bonnet of the tractor, and reached down for her stuff. ‘It’s safe,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry. We both went in this way.’ She turned around and placed her bags on top of the tractor’s roof.

  Passing the kids up and everything else we were carrying made it a much more complicated task than it should have been, but we were soon all inside the building. The window we had climbed through led us to a metal gantry walkway, which skirted all the way around the inside edge of the huge building. It was about twenty feet to the warehouse floor beneath us. Under the walkway were massive steel brewing tanks, maybe thirty of them. Three metal staircases led down to the warehouse floor.

  Jack turned to me as we travelled along the walkway to the front of the warehouse. ‘Blowing a brewery up would have been sacrilege.’

  ‘I’m sure we’d have managed,’ I said.

  We unpacked the blankets and duvets, and set up camp on the cold, hard, metal gantry. Not the most ideal surface for sleeping on.

  DAY TWENTY THREE

  Chapter 28: Dancing

  The night had been a cold one. My body wasn’t adjusting well to the constantly changing sleeping patterns. I’d probably had about three or four hours at the very most.

  Everyone looked as miserable as me as we sat on the walkway, eating cold food out of tins. I counted myself lucky at getting a chilli con carne. Jack’s lucky dip looked like a gloopy macaroni and cheese, a repeat of the meals we’d shared in the Colorado Mountains three weeks ago.

  Mine would have definitely tasted better heated up.

  We’d left all of the fuel, matches, lighters, and a lot of the blankets and water, hidden away under the tractor. That way, when the helicopters arrived to lure the zombies into the woods, we wouldn’t have to worry about climbing down whilst carrying everything.

  The morning had consisted of us staring at the wall being constructed. We repeatedly went over our plan while we waited. It was approaching midday before anything of note began to happen.

  We had opened the blinds covering the windows, just a tiny amount, so we could see through th
e thin gaps, and over to the border.

  Theo had the binoculars in front of his face, his free hand pointing out towards the wall. ‘There are things happening,’ he excitedly said. ‘They’re rolling some kind of big machinery over to the edge of the wall. The zombies are moving around a lot more. They’re crowding around that part over there. Look.’

  We all peered out, listening for machinery, or for the helicopters.

  ‘Can anybody hear anything,’ Jack asked.

  ‘Shush Jack,’ Beth scolded him.

  We stood in silence for at least a minute.

  ‘Shite,’ I whispered. ‘Maybe they’re not coming this time. They’ll come eventually.’

  ‘Wait,’ Roy said. ‘Listen.’

  We all leant further over the barrier of the metal walkway, trying to get as close as possible to the windows. Eventually the sound of distant helicopter rotors reached my ears.

  ‘Everyone get ready,’ Ali said.

  My chest suddenly felt tight, excitement, fear and nerves starting to rush through me.

  ‘You all know what to do,’ Ali continued. ‘Theo, you stay here and watch the direction of the smoke. Pete, Beth, Sandra and the boys, you’re by the open window, where we came in.’ She locked eyes with Pete. ‘Peter, do not take your eyes off Theo, and wait for his signal. The rest of us, let’s go and make some fire.’

  Ali, Jack, Roy and I stared out of the windows at the back of the warehouse. Firstly, we were waiting for the helicopters to fly over, and secondly, for a lot of zombies to walk past us.

  The sound of the helicopters was getting louder and louder, increasing the levels of anticipation within our group. We heard them as they flew overhead, sounding like they were right on top of us. We couldn’t see them at first, because they were actually way over to our left. They were so loud it just sounded like they were closer.

  They flew away from us, the tall grass below them being blown in every direction.

  ‘Come on zombies,’ I said. ‘Where the fuck are you?’

  The first of them started to appear, some running, some walking, most looking like their time on this Earth was almost up. They were all staring up at the noisy machines in the sky. Their numbers gradually increased, until they were streaming around the farm house and surrounding buildings, moving further into the fields behind us. It only took a few minutes for the numbers to thin, and the incredibly slow stragglers to appear, crawling or staggering past us, still staring at the sky. They were truly fascinated by the helicopters.

  We all looked back across the warehouse to Theo. Three flashes from his torch meant we were clear to go.

  We climbed down as quickly as possible. Roy was the last to touch down on the lane, sending dust flying as his feet hit the ground.

  As we all slipped on the dust masks, Ali said, ‘Two gas containers each, and don’t forget water, some matches, and a back up lighter just in case.’

  We collected up everything we needed and headed out together into the grass.

  After we’d gone about thirty feet, Ali said, ‘Roy, this is you.’

  Roy stopped and started unscrewing one of his jerry cans.

  Another thirty feet, and we left Jack to do the same. Thirty more and Ali stopped. I carried on until I felt I’d ran far enough.

  This is all fucking guesswork on my part.

  I unscrewed both of the jerry cans. I then walked backwards in a wide zig zag pattern, emptying both cans as I went. When they were empty, I counted to thirty, just to make sure the other three had definitely finished. I stepped back from the petrol soaking into the dirt, lit a match, and threw it to the ground. The flame fizzled out before it hit the ground.

  Fuck off.

  I quickly lit another. This time I let it burn for just a little bit longer, before releasing it. It hit the ground and the fire was instantaneous. The flames started to travel away from me, through the grass and along the path I’d just taken. I was very briefly transfixed by the zig zagging flickering flames, until I remembered we were supposed to be sticking to a plan.

  I turned away from the flames, and ran back towards the farm buildings. When I thought I was in Ali’s general location, I started saying her name.

  I heard her calling for me, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I eventually found her standing way over to my left.

  She was very aggressively gesturing for me to come to her. ‘Chris, get over here now,’ she said.

  Bollocks, I’m probably stood in her petrol. Maybe my zig zag pattern had been too wide?

  I quickly ran over to her. Once I was behind her, she lit a match and dropped it to the ground, lighting the trail she’d left.

  We ran together, looking for Jack. I spotted him in the distance almost straight away, peering through the grass towards us. Upon seeing us he lit the match he had ready in his hand, and dropped it. The orange flames danced away, seeking the path of the petrol. The three of us moved on, to search for Roy.

  Roy was also ready and waiting. He had his trail alight before we made it to him. He stood and watched us running towards him, while the fire spread out behind him. We all sprinted back to the buildings together.

  When we made it back to the tractor, everyone was already down on the ground and getting ready.

  ‘It’s working,’ Theo said. ‘There’s already smoke everywhere. The workers are all leaving as well. They’re not wearing masks. It’s really working.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ali said. ‘Don’t get overexcited.’

  Max and Jonah were wearing the swimming goggles. As Seth was the biggest of the three, he was wearing one of the snorkelling masks. Sandra was wearing the other.

  With all the fire and smoke behind them, it was a peculiar sight.

  Everyone had their dust masks on. Pete and Theo were soaking blankets with water and then placing them over the boy’s backs.

  ‘It’s cold,’ Seth complained.

  ‘Sorry Seth,’ Pete said. ‘It soon won’t be.’

  Pete then picked Seth up. Theo picked Jonah up, and Sandra was carrying Max. I passed one of the wire cutters to Ali, and the other to Jack. So I could carry the Smasher, I’d strapped the large bolt cutter into my backpack.

  ‘Now or never,’ Ali said.

  The sound of hissing made us all spin around. They were coming back.

  ‘Now,’ I said.

  We ran around the buildings and down the dirt track that led to the fence. Black smoke filled our vision. We were coughing already, and we’d only been going for twenty seconds.

  The smoke certainly was working. Although it also meant we couldn’t see the fucking fence.

  I could hear that flapping noise again, the same noise I’d heard outside Roy and Sarah’s destroyed house in Mountain View, like wet towels being blown around on a washing line.

  One of the kids started screaming. He must have been able to see the burning flames running towards us.

  I glanced over my right shoulder. A flaming zombie was running straight for Pete and Seth. I changed direction to intercept it. I ran as quickly as I possibly could, trying to get to it before it could get anywhere near the kids.

  Ali was slowing, moving off the track, also aiming to cut the flaming attacker off.

  ‘Keep going!’ I shouted to her. ‘Get everyone to the fence.’

  She spotted me running behind her, towards the burning zombie, and the fires behind it. She very briefly hesitated, before getting back onto the dirt track and running along with everyone else.

  I tried to bend my approach, so its flaming body wouldn’t just slam into me immediately after I hit it. The Smasher was poised over my shoulder already. I swung it and connected with its chest, or shoulder, or something. I closed my eyes as hot sparks flew everywhere, hitting my face and neck. The burning creature was thrown backwards, slamming the back of its head into the ground when it hit the ground. Flaming parts of its skull scattered behind it.

  The denim jacket the medic had given me was alight in numerous places. I ripped it off and threw
it away as I ran to catch the others. In a panic, I patted my hand all over my hair and beard, trying to extinguish any flames that I hadn’t noticed.

  I couldn’t see anybody. With my painful eyes half on the dirt track beneath my feet, and half on trying to find them, I continued.

  Through the smoke I ran, trying to blink away the stinging tears. I spotted Jack up ahead. He was waiting for three zombies to come to him. Parts of their clothing were ablaze. His axe crushed the head of the first one to reach him. It fell to the ground, only its legs were on fire. Then he turned and swung the axe, taking the other two zombies’ heads clean off with that one swing. Their burning bodies slumped to the ground and skidded past him on the dirt track.

  He patted himself down, before looking up to see me running towards him. He lifted his axe in my direction.

  A fireball emerged from the smoke, only a few feet away from Jack. I pointed to it with the Smasher as I ran. He managed to turn and swing the axe. He hit the fiery thing right in its centre.

  It was like a firework exploding. Tiny flickering fireballs went everywhere, hitting Jack like sparks. He immediately dropped his axe and started rubbing his head with his hands. There were little flames all over his clothing.

  Without slowing, I let go of the Smasher and took my bag off my back, quickly pulling out the thick blanket I’d placed in there. The flames were rapidly spreading across Jack’s entire body.

  ‘Roll on the ground Jack!’ I shouted. ‘Get on the fucking ground!’

  He must have heard me, because he immediately dropped to the floor and started rolling in the dirt. I made it to him and covered him with the blanket. Some of the flames wouldn’t go out, so I basically had to whip him with the twisted up blanket. Once they were all extinguished, I pulled a bottle of water out of my bag, and emptied it over his head.

  ‘Get the fuck up Jack,’ I screamed close to his face.

  I got to my feet, ready to fight off anything coming for us, with the bolt cutters if I needed to. All I could see was smoke. My eyes were feeling incredibly hot.