Tag

by Everheart, AJ

  Hazeldine rubs his face before muttering, “I hope so.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mia

  I cannot believe my father is alive. I hoped, prayed, that I’d find him here, it was the reason I’d wanted to come. Hearing that there was a vaccine, a way to fight back no matter how small, has lifted my mood. We weren’t giving up.

  Once we finish our tea, he takes us back out and into a large hangar bay that has been filled with camp beds. It’s cramped and almost bursting with survivors in here but no one complains. He leads us through the crowds of people eyeing us wearily, probably paranoid about whether we could be infected. As we near the back of the hangar, I hear a sound I never thought I’d miss, but had. Children laughing and playing breaks through the general chatter, and when I see them, I fall to my knees. There are forty or so kids, running around or sitting on camp beds talking. I recognise their faces, and though I’ve never spoken to most of them, the sense of relief I feel is overwhelming.

  My father’s arm comes around my shoulder, and he squeezes me. “They’re the survivors from the first coach.”

  I let the tears fall, they’re tears of sadness for the lives we lost but also happiness, for the ones who got away. I feel Alex reach out on my other side and thread his fingers through mine. I wonder if anyone from Basecamp made it here? I look at Alex, but he shakes his head.

  “We sent scouts, they said that there were no survivors,” my father almost whispers, his voice full of guilt. “We didn’t check the school. I didn’t think the risk was worth it...there were too many zombies. I should have checked. I should have done it anyway.”

  I squeeze him back. “Dad, you did what you thought was right.”

  He just nods, but I know that look, he still blames himself and nothing I could say would change that.

  “Colonel, we’ve got some more newcomers,” a young soldier interrupts. “They’re asking for them.” He nods towards Alex and I.

  We look at each other for a moment, the others must have arrived. They should have been here before us as they’d had a head start, something must have gone wrong. We’re led back out as they finish helping Karen out of the back of the Jeep. She sees us and storms towards me. With a loud crack, she slaps my face. Alex pushes her away and holds her as she tries to hit me again.

  “Dai is dead, you bitch, and it’s your fault,” she screams as she kicks out.

  “Woah Karen, how the hell is it Mia’s fault?” Lee asks, stepping forward.

  He stands in front of me with my father, creating a barrier from the woman who hated me from the moment she met me.

  She hisses as she struggles to get to me. “She injured Ethan who slowed us down, and then Alex left us for her. They left us vulnerable.”

  Donovan throws his pack down and grabs her, taking her from Alex. Holding both her arms, he gives her a firm shake.

  Bringing his face close to hers, he bellows, “And they weren’t? Fuck, Karen. We left them with a knife and a bow in the middle of nowhere. We left THEM.”

  He lets go, and she falls to the floor sobbing. My heart breaks once more, Dai had a daughter. He had something he was fighting for, and he didn’t deserve to die like this.

  “Everyone has been through a lot the last few days. Let’s get you assigned to a bed then you can get cleaned up and fed,” my father commands as he motions for another soldier to step forward and escort them to the hangar. They leave us, Karen throwing me daggers the entire time.

  Another faceless soldier steps forward and salutes my father, who nods.

  “I have to go and take care of something, I’ll be back in a few hours.” He strides off, and I remember as a child how I always used to think he was intimidating, now it was reassuring. He seemed to know what he was doing, and that gave me a quiet confidence that we could make it through this.

  I take Alex’s hand, and we walk around the bunkers, weaving in and out as we process what’s happened. Dai was gone. There had been survivors from Rosehill. My father was going to keep us alive. There was nothing from Basecamp yet. It was a lot to take in, and we say nothing for a long time.

  “Did you know it’s a year exactly since the outbreak? I saw the date on a calendar back in your dad's room.” Alex rubs a thumb over my skin, trying to reassure me that everything was going to be okay.

  “Huh.” I snort, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “Yeah, not exactly romantic, is it?” He pulls me into a hug and kisses my forehead, his arms tight around my waist.

  I half-shrug. “I’ve had worse…”

  He raises a brow at me. “Really?”

  “No,” I chuckle, kissing him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alex

  A month at Litchfield flies by in the blink of an eye. It’s quiet, almost too quiet as the only real action we see is a perimeter breach in one of the fences that is quickly resolved. Hazeldine sent out a small group of soldiers to Basecamp about a week ago, and we wait now every day to hear something. Each day that passes just means bad news. I can feel it in my bones. He also sent some to Rosehill to secure it. At the rate stragglers turn up here, we’re going to run out of what little space we have. The plan is to build some sort of secured path between the two through the woods, but I’m doubtful if it’s even possible. We’re also attracting more zombies. They’ve started gathering in groups in the nearby town and every now and again will come up to the base. As the population grows, so does the risk, it’s a catch twenty-two situation.

  “Did your perimeter patrol go okay?” Mia asks, her voice muffled with sleep as I climb back into bed and pull her into me. She smells like soap as I bury my face into her neck.

  About a week ago, we’d moved into a shared quarters together, against her father’s protests. It wasn’t anything luxurious, barely enough space to dress in let alone cohabit with another person, but we made it work. I was training with the soldiers, learning some basic skills while helping to keep the surrounding defences maintained and secure. Mia wanted to do the same, but her dad was dead set against it. He had her working with survivors, helping with the children and trying to keep morale up.

  “When are you going to take me shooting?” she mumbles as she turns in the bed to face me.

  Those big green eyes always make me want to give her the world. It’s strange how quickly we’ve become a couple and even stranger how fast it’s been accepted by those around us. Before the outbreak and the end of society, we would have had to fight for what we have, defend it to all those who moaned about the age gap, how quickly it happened and all that. But in an apocalypse, it seemed you took your human connection where you could find it and no one batted an eyelid. We, as a race, were clinging together in the darkness and no one gave a shit, we were just trying to survive.

  “Later,” I grumble as I start to drift into sleep.

  “You promise?” Mia whispers as she pulls my head onto her chest. I don’t get a chance to reply as I fall asleep wrapped around her, both of us holding on tight.

  I don’t know how long I sleep for, but when I wake, I’m alone in the bed. I swear Hazeldine does this on purpose, he is keeping us working on opposite things, but I refuse to confront him on it. He knows she shares my bed, knows that she’s mine in the same way I am hers, and he can’t stop that even with his petty as fuck attempts. I dress quickly and head down to the air hangar to check in on Donovan and Lee, Ethan and Karen haven’t spoken to me since they arrived here. We held a service of sorts for Dai, but it was still hard to accept he was gone. It was like there was a Dai-shaped hole in our lives, a rift torn open by his death.

  We’d each shared a memory of him as we took a swig out of a bottle of whiskey Donovan had found in his explorations and sat around a small fire. We should be used to death by now, numb to it, but it was still just as fresh and raw. Sometimes, I wondered if it was even worse now, because we’d survived the outbreak, we’d stayed alive for a year only to be cruelly cut down just as we were starting to settle in this new w
orld of ours. Life was so fucking unfair.

  Donovan spots me first and flashes me a grin as he stands. “Alright?”

  “Yeah man, just came down to see you guys and grab some food. Bloody starving. I swear these stupid dawn patrols are messing up my eating.”

  He chuckles as we all go over to the mess hall together. He’s settled into life here easily, but Donovan was always one of those people who could feel comfortable anywhere. He still refuses to go anywhere without the bow he got from Rosehill and his knife, even around here, and he cuts a terrifying figure for it. He’s been working with Hazeldine to coordinate raiding parties and scavenge supplies, but it’s not something he really talks about. Lee on the other hand is openly chatty about the engineering work Hazeldine has him doing. He can’t stop talking about what fucking thing he’s fixed today, not that I have a clue about alternators or bloody sumps.

  “Hazeldine is sending me out today,” Donovan says, his voice low, and there’s a strange look in his dark eyes. Lee is oblivious as he wolfs down his food.

  “Yeah?” I say as I mop up my porridge with this flatbread we seem to have with almost every meal.

  He nods, he’s looking at me, and I feel like there’s something he wants to say, but he can’t. I tilt my head and follow his gaze as he looks around at all the soldier’s standing around. His mouth draws into a tight line, and he gulps down the remainder of his tea.

  “What time do you think you’ll be back?” I don’t glance up at him as I ask.

  “Around midnight, hopefully.”

  I nod. I still don’t trust in Hazeldine’s immunisation plan, I think it’s crazy. Something doesn’t feel quite right about it, and it makes me nervous. When Donovan returns tonight, I’ll be there waiting.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mia

  One of the children is sick on my trainers, and I want to cry. I have never been a people person, nor a child-friendly person, so why would my father assign me here? I want to be with Alex, I want to be useful and not just a babysitter. He doesn’t realise it yet, but my dad has spent his whole life training me for a scenario just like this. All those camping holidays he took me on, the ‘life skills’ as he called them, all the times he showed me how to defend myself, and now, he won’t let me use any of it. He watches me like I’m made from glass, like I’m some fragile ornament that should be kept out of the way on the top shelf and occasionally dusted. That isn’t who I am. Not who I’ve become. I spent a year surviving, and now, it’s like he’s trying to sweep that under the rug and group me in with the mothers and children when I am neither. I am a survivor, a fighter.

  Alex has promised me he’ll show me everything he is being taught in training, and tonight, he’s promised to show me how to shoot. I want to learn badly as I think my bow isn’t always the right weapon, but so far, all he’s allowed me to do is clean his Glock 17 and practise loading it and unloading it. Maintenance is important here, they’re trying to drill into us that not everything will last, and we have to do our best to take care of things so that we have some hope of keeping them. Humanity, in general, became so wasteful before the outbreak, how much did we take for granted? How many times did we break something only to say ‘It’s okay, I’ll order another one off Amazon’? Only now there is no Amazon, no shops, no delivery company who can have it with you by the next day. We need to take care of what we have.

  Another child starts crying, and I’m brought out of my thoughts of how we brought this on ourselves. The clock on the wall tells me it’s almost lunch time, and I find myself wishing it would tick along quicker. These tiny humans start getting antsy when they’re hungry, and I don’t have the patience today to deal with it. It’s not them, it’s me, and right now, I want to be with Alex and not changing dirty nappies and watching tantrums break out. He’s quickly become my everything, and I know that people will think it’s not real, it’s born from desperation, to not be alone at the end of the world, but they couldn’t be more wrong. The bond we have is almost indescribable; it’s like he’s what keeps me tethered to sanity. When I’m with him, I have hope that we’re going to pull through, we made it here alive, didn’t we? He keeps the desolation at bay.

  My father hasn’t mentioned the immunisation project since we arrived, and I wonder if it’s even going ahead. It’s the only plan he had, and right now, it feels like we’re playing a waiting game. It’s like we’re stuck, as every day just ticks by slowly and is exactly the same as the one before. If something doesn’t change soon, I don’t know what will happen because it feels like I’m constantly on edge, balancing on a precipice, and I refuse to stay here forever and do nothing.

  The rest of the day drags on unsurprisingly, and by the time dinner rolls around, I’m exhausted. It’s draining living in a state of existence, because that isn’t really living at all. I hate the zombie apocalypse. Alex strides into the mess hall and gently kisses the top of my head as he places his tray down next to mine. I feel a strange burning sensation on the back of my neck and turn to see my father watching us from the doorway. Something has changed about him, and I’m not really sure what. We were as close as a girl without a mother and a workaholic army colonel could be, but I could still tell that there was something bothering him, and it wasn’t just Alex.

  “Tonight, at eleven, we’ll practise, okay?” Alex whispers as he leans into me.

  I grin back at him, I was ready for this.

  Lee sits down with us a few minutes later and starts talking about a tank he got to work on today. It’s odd to see someone thriving in the apocalypse, but that was exactly what Lee was doing. In biology, we’d been taught that only the strong survive, leaving the weaker species to die out, but that wasn’t the case. The resourceful survived, those willing to adapt and fight everyday were the ones who surrounded us now.

  Karen walks past and manages to catch the corner of her tray on the back of my head as she barges by. I wince but say nothing, exhaling slowly. Alex goes to stand, growling, but I place a hand on his leg. She blames me for the death of her friend, she’s still hurting, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Ethan mumbles an apology as he too shuffles past. He doesn’t like me either, but at least he isn’t outright hostile like Karen is.

  “Fucking Karen,” Lee grumbles as he eats his food.

  He hates being torn between us and them, I think her behaviour is starting to get to him though, as he finally throws down his fork and goes to have a word with her. I can see her get instantly defensive the way her back straightens, but Lee says something in response, and she shoots me an evil look. Let her blame me for everything falling apart if she wants, I didn’t do this.

  After dinner, Alex heads to bed to catch a few hours’ sleep before his next shift, and I decide to join him. Not that there was much to do otherwise, people found ways to entertain themselves here, but I wasn’t in the mood for card games or charades. Again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Alex

  I bring Mia outside into the darkness, and we carefully navigate our way towards the edge of the buildings and away from the patrolling soldiers. When we’re hidden out of sight, I draw a target onto a concrete breeze block wall for her to aim at with some chalk I’d found earlier. We wouldn’t be using actual bullets but rubber ones the army has for training purposes, we couldn’t waste the real ammunition. Every shot had to count for something.

  She’s pretty good at it and quickly gets the hang of aiming, reloading, and firing. I reckon her archery skills have something to do with it, and even though she was desperate to practise with a gun, I can see how uncomfortable she feels holding it. Maybe it’s the thought of using it on a zombie, a creature that was once human. With the bow, there was an element of distance, she didn’t have to be so close, but with a gun like the Glock 17, it was more effective the closer you were. She shudders and gives me a small smile before reloading. My girl is definitely more of a badass archer rather than a gunslinger, and that’s fine with me.

  Time was suc
h a strange concept these days, and if it wasn’t for the large clocks on the walls or the people who wore watches, I’d lose track of it entirely. One of the soldier’s, a guy named Dean, had lent me his for patrol tonight so that I could set an alarm ready for midnight. The tiny black device starts to beep quietly on my wrist, and I take Mia by the hand and lead her towards the barricade gates. We crouch down by the corner of a building, I think it’s the mess hall, but in the dark, I’m not entirely sure.

  “What’s going on?” Mia asks as she looks around the edge to where the gates start to open.

  “I just need to see something.” I say quietly, as we hear shouts and see a small group of people moving into the base. I spot Donovan easily as he stands taller than the others.

  “What?” I can feel her concern permeating the air as she tries to make out what we’re watching too.

  “I don’t know yet…”

  I hear her inhale, sucking in the breath sharply as we finally realise what’s going on. This wasn’t a supply run, it was a zombie run. The soldiers carefully lead three zombies in through the gates. They’re secured with a wire loop around their necks and a long stick, creating the much-needed distance, as the others aim guns at them. The low guttural growls travel in the silent night air, and the hairs on my arm begin to rise as they reach out for the soldiers. What the fuck was Hazeldine playing at? He was inviting these monsters on site while everyone slept. There were civilians here, women and children, old people. Why was he bringing the cat amongst the pigeons?

  “Shit, Alex…”

  “Should we follow?” I ask, taking her hand in mine. We were in this together, we made these choices together, and I had a feeling that there would be no going back once we saw what the hell was going on. I needed her to be ready.