Sighing, I run a hand through my hair. “Exactly, which is why I didn’t tell you. You know what the protocol is. You know what comes next.”
He says nothing but nods. He knows. He helped come up with the plan. That doesn’t make it any easier.
Lee grabs his pack and starts shoving food and medicine in it. “We need to keep moving forward.”
“We can’t just leave them―they could need us!” Karen screeches, as she grabs her own gear.
“They could also all be compromised,” I vocalise calmly, voicing words no one really wanted to hear. Compromised was a nicer way of saying dead. They all stop and sit back down.
“My daughter…” Dai whispers.
“Look, the evacuation plan was to head for the Litchfield army base should anything happen. We need to do that.”
“Litchfield?” Mia says with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah, we’ve heard rumours that they’re still operational.”
“My father was at Litchfield. It can’t be operational; he would have come for me…”
“Not if he thought you were in the wreckages?”
Mia’s mouth draws into a thin line as she thinks about it.
Chapter Eight
Mia
Alex tries Basecamp one last time, but there's still just silence. The crackle of the radio is all we're met with. We sit on the fire escape, watching as the afternoon sun fades. There are more zombies in the field than there were yesterday, the groaning and moaning is louder as it slowly surrounds us. We've disturbed the area, and we can only hide in here for so long, and at some point, they are going to realise exactly where we were. I've asked Alex if I can come to Litchfield with him, I don't want to be stuck here alone again.
He takes my hand in his and gives it a gentle squeeze as he tries to get one last message through to base. "We’re going to Litchfield. Over. I repeat, we are going to Litchfield. Over."
The others have spent the afternoon gathering supplies, ready for the journey ahead. They are only taking what they can carry, as the plan is to return to Rosehill at some point. If we could build the defences up, it would provide an excellent second base for survivors.
That night, I climb into Alex's bed without saying a word and pull his arms tightly around my waist. I wasn't naive, I knew that leaving my safe haven came with risks, that not all of us would make it to Litchfield. And if luck was really against us, none of us would make it. But I haven't felt this safe at all in the past year, and I wasn't ready to give that up. It may sound like a stupid teenage crush or a youthful delusion, but I was prepared to follow Alex wherever he wanted to lead. He kisses my exposed shoulder before whispering good night into my hair, and in that moment, I feel alive. The last twelve months, I have been numbly existing, each day the same, and since Ellie left, each day was just a mix of fear and loneliness until him.
The next morning, we eat breakfast together in silence. Our packs and weapons are ready to go near the door. Donovan found an old rusted hunting rifle in the gamekeeper shed at the back of the school grounds, there wasn't much ammo but enough in case of an emergency. All of them have been equipped with a bow and arrows that they had spent last night sharpening, using tools from the D and T classroom. This was as ready as we were ever going to be.
Donovan and I spend almost an hour taking out all the zombies within our sights, as we were the only ones who could actually shoot a bow with accuracy. That reduced the number of threats hanging around on our doorstep, but there were still others out there that we either couldn't see or reach with an arrow.
Alex decides it’s best to leave via the side gate so that we could keep the front gate securely locked. It probably wouldn't make a difference, but we pretended that it might. We stick to the lane as much as we can, but when we approach the bend, Alex signals at us to enter the woodland. I feel like all the nerves in my body have been electrified as every sound and every tiny movement sets me on edge. We push on slowly, our chosen weapons drawn, and luckily, only encounter two zombies. One had lost legs and was dragging itself along the muddy forest floor with its fingers, jaw snapping as it spots us. Lee quickly deals with that one as another runs at Ethan, who was still limping behind thanks to my shot days earlier. Karen, whose weapon of choice was an axe, moved quickly to eliminate the threat. She shot me a bitter look as if to say I was risking Ethan's life. I was only defending myself, but she couldn't move past that.
Through the trees, I catch sight of the rusted school bus, memories of that day make my chest tighten. I still hear the screams at night when I sleep. I still saw Mrs. Evans's face as that creature tore her open. Alex signals us to slow down, there are more monsters on the other side of the trees, and we couldn't risk them noticing us as we crept past. I swear, we all hold our breaths as we tiptoe through the area. Karen remains silent as we pass the carnage, but her face softens slightly as she takes in the sight of carcasses and zombies. Somehow, we get passed the buses and move back out into the lane. Both Alex and Donovan think it's safer to stick to the roads where we can as we have a clearer line of sight and are less likely to make loud noises. Lee is behind me to the left, as we continue to creep down the lane, when he whispers, "I wonder what caused the two coaches to crash?"
Donovan shrugs, we hadn't been able to see an obvious cause. I pause. Two? I hadn't even registered that there had only been two coaches involved that day. I still hadn't noticed it now, but I knew, because it had been burned into my brain the day of the outbreak, that there had been three. Something like excitement moves through me, there could be survivors, some of them could have made it. I push away the negative thoughts that start to creep in. It doesn't do any good to wonder why no one came from me, or to think that they survived the crash only to be killed further down the road. I shake my head a little, I need to stay positive.
We keep moving on, and after about thirty minutes, a small row of houses, cottages really, come into sight. Four houses making up a tiny terrace in the middle of nowhere, typical countryside. Donovan and Lee go ahead and scout out the buildings for any zombie threats, as it'll be night soon and there's nowhere else to hide for miles. They come back and give us the all clear, so we begin to explore.
Chapter Nine
Alex
As the others go into the first house to see what they can find, Donovan pulls me to the side. "There’s something you need to see in the last cottage."
"What is it?"
"Mate, it's better if you come and look yourself."
I follow him into the house, it looks largely untouched, which is completely opposite to the destruction I'd seen in London. Given a spring clean, this place is practically liveable, if a little small. He leads me into the tiny kitchen and gestures to the table, where a partially decomposed body sits. Again, it's wearing a Rosehill uniform. Maybe someone had escaped the crash? An empty bottle of pills lay near a notepad and pen. Some people were not cut out to fight in this world. For others, the fear was too much. I turn away, but Donovan pulls me back and hands me the note. I feel like there are rocks in my stomach as I read the curving penmanship. There are only five words, but those five words make me feel sick.
I'm sorry, Mia. I tried.
"What do you think it means?" Donovan asks, as he gestures to the poor girl's corpse. "Do you think Mia had something to do with this?"
"Do you?"
Donovan shakes his head, Mia had already shown that she would do what was necessary. She’d taken the life of a classmate in order to survive, but only once the girl had completely turned. The person in front of us showed no signs of turning, and I knew that Mia would have done whatever she could to keep her alive.
I hear footsteps behind me, but before I can do anything, Mia snatches the note out of my hand. As she reads it, she drops to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she struggles to breathe. Between sobs, I hear her whisper 'Ellie' over and over. Lowering myself to the floor, I pull her into my lap, and together, we rock until there are no more tears left to
fall. Donovan leaves the cottage and gives us some privacy. I don't know how long I hold her in my arms for or how long she cries, but the light begins to disappear from the sky.
"Mia, who is Ellie?" I ask, as I stroke her hair and rock her gently. The crying has slowed now. Tears fall freely, but the sobs that wracked her body have stopped.
“There were three of us,” she murmurs. “The three of us made it off the minibus back to school.”
A few minutes pass, and she says nothing more, but she seems lost in her thoughts as the tears keep coming, so I give her a gentle nudge again. “What happened?”
She looks up at me, her green eyes filled with sadness and an edge of despair that wasn’t there before. She had hoped her friend was alive. She had wanted to believe it.
“Susan was bitten. We had to... We had to kill her. After that, Ellie wasn't the same. She kept saying that she wasn't strong enough or brave enough. She didn't want to live in fear.”
“How did she end up here?” I motion to the small room we were rammed into, taking up most of the floor space. Ellie could have survived here for weeks, depending on the food situation and whether she could find a weapon, months even.
“About three months ago, she said she would let fate decide if she lived or died. I tried to stop her. I tried to convince her not to leave, but she wouldn't listen. She promised she would try to survive, but ultimately, it was up to God. She was counting on him to give her strength. She was an idiot. I never should have let her leave.” The words seem to get stuck in her throat as she breaks down, sobbing again.
“Shhhh, you couldn’t stop this, Mia. You tried your best, just like she did.” I try to hold her together, keep the broken pieces from falling apart. I don’t know why, but I can’t bear to see her like this, my little fighter isn’t someone who crumbles like this. I kiss the top of her head and squeeze her tighter. We fall asleep like that, curled up together on the kitchen floor, a tangle of limbs, not sure where one of us begins and the other ends.
Chapter Ten
Mia
I wake with Alex’s arms wrapped tightly around me, and I feel safe. I used to be repulsed by a man’s touch, but I needed his. Ellie’s death had shaken me even though I wasn’t surprised. Back at Rosehill, I had imagined she was still alive, that she’d found others and was safe, although logically I knew that was just a daydream. Ellie had become a shell of her former self, hardly ever speaking, eating only when I made her, and she rarely slept. I could see her declining right in front of me. She started reading the Bible, and for a while, that seemed to help. Until she decided to leave. She walked out of the front gate, with only the clothes on her back and not a single weapon or scrap of food. She wasn’t prepared for the zombie apocalypse. I begged her to stay, pleaded with her, but she stared straight past me. Now, her body sat crumpled at a stranger’s kitchen table. I can feel the tears stinging my eyes again, but I’m done crying. I exhale, blowing out each breath slowly as I try to reign in my emotions. Ellie made her choice, she did what she thought she had to do, and I just wish she didn’t feel guilty towards the end. I pocket the note, I had to keep going, I had to keep living. I’d come this far and I’d lost this much, it would be stupid to cave now.
Alex stirs, and I smile. Up this close, I can see a small scar near his eye and another on his chin. His long dark lashes flutter as he slowly starts to wake, and without thinking, I cup his face and gently press my lips to his. His skin is warm beneath mine as he deepens the kiss, pulling me closer. Shifting, I move so that I’m straddling him, and his hands move under my jumper and up my spine. The feel of his touch on my bare flesh makes me feel alive, sending sparks across my skin. My body has a mind of its own as I grind against him, hips rolling of their own violation. I know that he wants me. Wants this. I moan in protest as he pulls away.
“Mia, we can’t…” he murmurs as I kiss his cheeks.
I nuzzle against the curve of his neck. “Why?”
“You’re still a kid, I can’t…”
I sit back. “I’m eighteen and have been for a whole month and a half Alex, stop treating me like a child.” Pulling off my jumper, I hear his breath hitch as he looks at my exposed body. For a moment, I think I’ve won, but when I hear him sigh, I know I haven’t.
Tenderly, he tugs my jumper back on. “Yeah, but our first time shouldn’t be like this, it shouldn’t be here. There’s a dead body in the room.”
His words pierce through the lust haze that seems to have taken over my brain. I don’t turn around to where he’s looking, but knowing that Ellie’s body is behind me causes enough guilt for me to groan loudly and climb off his lap.
“Come on, we should go and check on the others,” he says as he stands, offering me a hand up.
A loud crash and shouts next door draw Alex to the window. A group of zombies are scratching at the door, trying to find a way in. One manages to smash a window and leans in, we see its body go limp, but that doesn't stop the next one trying the same path. I draw my bow, ready to shoot, but Alex shakes his head.
“Look,” he says, pointing at the lane we had come down. More were coming, the road filling up with shuffling bodies drawn to the noise. We needed to find a way out of here.
There's a crash on our back door as a zombie throws itself against the wood. The doors won't hold forever, and we hear Donovan on the other side of the wall screaming, "Retreat. Get upstairs."
Even though we're in a different house, we do the same. Alex leads us to the back bedroom, where we can see below, there are zombies in the back garden, and thankfully, they are far fewer than the ones trying to break down the front door. They must have been the original inhabitants as all the rear gardens were closed off with high stone walls. Only one of the metal gates was damaged, and it was the one at the far end of the cottage, where none of us had stayed last night. Both houses have higgledy-piggledy sheds that run the entire length of the garden. If we could get onto the first shed roof, we could run along and over a stone wall at the end. We would be in the forest, which came with its own set of dangers, but it was a chance we had to take. Our front door creaks and groans as it finally gives way. Frenzied growling and moaning noises fill the hallway below us. We quickly slam the bedroom door closed and barricade ourselves in, moving the wardrobe and the bed, trying to create a barrier between us and them.
Alex opens the window at the same time Donovan opens his. They both lean out and try to come up with a plan of action before things get even worse.
“Bollocks,” I hear Donovan curse. “Going to be the fucking scenic route, isn't it?”
“Sorry mate, we don’t exactly have a lot of options right now,” Alex replies with a dry chuckle, trying to diffuse some of the tension.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“The plan stays the same, get to Litchfield...just through the woods. We may be separated, and if that happens, don't wait, get to Litchfield.”
I can't see what Donovan does in reply, but Alex repeats himself, this time with more force. “Get to Litchfield.”
There's another crack as their front door finally gives way and more zombies pour inside. We hear the others scrambling to grab something and calling to each other. As I put my head out of the window, I can see that they've found a ladder that they’re using to connect the window to the shed roof. Lee crawls across first and waits at the other end, steadying the ladder as Ethan goes next. We don't have a ladder, and if we did, we had no way of getting it, as the scratching at our door gets louder.
“We’re going to have to jump,” Alex says, as he pulls me into a hug. “We can do this.”
He climbs out of the window and sits, perched on the windowsill for a moment before throwing himself onto the shed roof. Our first shed is made of wood, and when Alex's foot lands, it goes straight through. He pulls his leg out of the hole, and for a split second, I see worry on his face before he hides it and smiles at me.
“It's okay. Your turn.” He has his arms out to me, ready to catch me when
I land.
But I can't do it. I sit on the window ledge, my fingers dig into the rotting wood with my heart in my throat. I can't make my body move. I hear wood splinter behind me, and I look over my shoulder to see a dirty, bloody hand reaching through the barricade. Groans below draw my attention as one of the zombies at the back door has noticed us. It claws at the wall, trying to reach my feet, it's like it has gone crazy as it snaps and scratches.
“I need you to jump, Mia. You need to jump and then run!” Alex calls out, trying to cheer me on. I can see the others moving down the sheds, they’re all across and almost at the wall now.
“I can’t!” It’s like I’ve lost control over my body as the panic sets in, and no matter how I try, I can’t make it move.
“Yes, you can.”
I feel fear rising up, like acid reflux. “No, Alex. This is too much. I can’t…”
Alex rocks on his feet for a moment, running a hand through his hair as he tries to think up a way to coax me across. A zombie is trying to climb up onto the shed roof, but Alex uses a knife, and its carcass falls to the ground with a thump.
“Okay, take a deep breath.” He grins at me, and I frown. “Here’s what we’re going to do. When I get scared, I imagine it’s like a game.”
“A game? Do you see that thing’s fucking teeth?!” I cry, pointing down at the monster gnashing at my heels.
“Yep, I do. And I need you to not get caught, okay? We have some unfinished business, you and I.” He flashes me another grin and gives me a big exaggerated wink. He’s referring to earlier, and it feels like a hundred butterflies have been unleashed in my stomach. How could a day that started so great turn to shit so spectacularly?
“So, let’s play a round of Tag,” he continues. “Don’t let that creature touch you or catch you, or I’m sorry, but you’re out.”
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