I woke up like a man coming up from a deep dive with no oxygen. What had woken me up. Then my answer came loud knocking on the door.
"SID OPEN UP PLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE PLEASE"
I got to my feet the knocking constant and impatient. I unlocked the door. A man pushed past me knocking my back. It was Earl he sat on my sofa breathing heavy.
"it's OK man I'm hear." I put a hand on his shoulder and he started to wail tear streamed down his face.
"put your head between your legs and breath slow in through your nose and out of your mouth. In and out. In and out."
he did as he was told I got him a drink of water. He sat back and drank like he hadn't drunk for a week. He threw his arms around me. I rubbed his back like you would a child that had skinned a knee.
" your OK now buddy. "
" don't let me do anything so stupid again please promise me. Slap me if anything so stupid comes out of my mouth again."
"OK I promise that I will slap you next time you say something stupid. Now can you please tell me what happened."
"when I left here it wasn't too bad at first. You know the odd dog and I'm going to say it now zombie."
There was a pause. He sat there going red.
"what's up why you going red ya big poof."
"well it seems wrong to call them zombies."
"well if a cats a cat then a zombie is a zombie. So just say it as it is."
"OK but zombies aren't real."
"correction zombies weren't real. Now they are so deal with it."
"I don't want to deal with it but OK. So I was driving on and kept seeing the odd zombie and dog. When I was about three miles away from town that's when it turned to shit. The roads are gridlocked. There are crashed cars hear a d there. Some cars abandoned some with zombies trapped in them they are the worst. In the films you never see zombie kids do you. "
" I can't say that I have maybe they don't think that they are scary enough to be in films. "
" Well let me tell you. They are they are not just scary they are disturbing. When you look into a car window and see mummy zombie daddy zombie and baby zombie all look at you like your a free mars bar. That's traumatic. So I tried to go round a different way to town. It was something else driving round. I was like an ice-cream van out side of a school. They just ran at me from all directions. I think it was the noise that made them notice me. I was fine while the roads were clear but when the traffic got snarled up. I was fucked. So like I said I was trying to get in to town using the side roads. Why I didn't turn around after the first road I don't know. Just stupid I suppose but I had to find out what was happening in the town hall. But as I tried smaller and smaller roads it seemed like more and more zombies were coming. As well as that they became more densely packed. If I had known that would happen I would have come straight back instead of trying over and over. Most people learn after one or two tries. Not me I'll tell ya nine times I tried. How stupid can one guy be. Oh while I remember my van is now fucked."
"hang on nine times and you fucked your van. What time is it."
We both checked the clock. Four forty five.
"look at the fucking time in about ten hours on your own you got into a lot of shit. Who wakes someone up at this time man. I need a coffee break,"
I went to my pickup and unlocked it and started it look through my bags for coffee sugar and milk. I got them and went back inside. I set up two cups and sparked up and tossed my packet at Earl. He wasn't watching and they bounced off his head.
" just what the doctor ordered." he said.
"some how I doubt that. He never told me to light up I normaly get a bollocking for it off mine. You'll have to give me his number. Anyway get back on with your story."
"Well on my last attempt I got completely penned in by them. I had to reverse over them. It wasn't easy there was so many of them I couldn't see out of any window so I was effectively blind. Bones cracked and crunched as the van went over them at one point body's had lifted the van off the road and my wheels were just spinning. That wasn't as bad as it sounds they kept walking at the van and the wheels would rip parts off them. The down side to the was they started to get wrapped around the wheel and slow it down. But with them rocking the van I got traction angin. Eventually I got free from them and came here. But because of the damage done to the van and blocked roads it took ages. I was starting to think that you might have gone."
"i told you that I would wait. I'm happy that you came back. Let's get some sleep."
We went to bed and slept for another five hours. After breakfast we transferred Earl's supplies to the pickup. We set off to the first place on my list. It was an old friends house Jim crabtree. I had no intention of staying there. Jim and his dad were hunters. My intention was to see if they were in and alive first. If they were gone or dead break in and look for their rifles and shot guns. I had not told Earl about this I thought that he would object. We pulled up and the drive way was full of cars like normal Jim's dad was a mechanic. I got out I had my bike jacket on on put my helmet on for protection now. I knocked on the door after looking through the windows it was fairly quiet in the area not many houses about. The door opened when I knocked.
"HELLO ANYONE HOME"
"Upstairs sid come in"
The voice sounded like Jim's mum. I went in Earl was behind me visibly shacking. We went upstairs. I did not expect the sight I saw. Jim and Philip Jim's dad were both dead. Sue Jim's mum was sick. Phillip had a large hunting knife stuck in his ear. Jim was in the corner with half his head missing. Sue had a shot gun. I turned to sue.
"you OK love. What happened." she lifted her head and I could see blood on her shoulder. She was crying.
"I killed my poor boy. Both Jim and phill got sick Phil turned first and attacked me. Jim had enough strength to stab him in the head. But it was too late I had been bitten. A little later Jim turned too. I had to shoot him. I started to get sick an hour ago. I will die soon. I wasn't sick until Phil bit me. I was waiting for the nose bleed to start then kill myself. Now you are here will you stay until I change then kill me please."
" OK come down stairs and we can have a drink and get you comfortable."
"no I want to stay with them."
"ok Earl put the kettle on. We will be OK here for now."
Earl asked how sue liked her drink and went to sort them out.
"sue I need to ask you for your guns and ammo."
"i won't need anything it's all yours. What ever you want take it just do what I have asked."
"thank you."
We all sat in the bedroom with the corpses. I put blankets over them and we talked all day. It was around three o'clock when sue took her last breath. I waited for her to change. When she did it was scary. She went from dead still with her eyes closed. To instant animation. Her eyes pinged open and she sat bolt upright. I didn't hesitate I pulled the trigger of the shot gun. At that range her he'd disappeared into a red mist. I was on my own Earl had gone to sleep. I got sprayed with blood but I was covered up and none got to my skin. That is when Earl came back and saw what had been done.
"I'm going back to bed."
"OK see you in the morning."
I was amazed at the speed we had both got to grips with what was happening. I was starting to think that I was a heartless bastard. I covered sues body and start to gather all the weapons I could find. There was two shot guns four hunting rifles I don't know what they I just know that they all used.. 22 rounds they all had sights I found eight hunting knives and ten full boxes of ammo. Three boxes of shotgun shells and a bow and arrows I liked that best of all. The rifles had sights as well. I had been hunting with them a few times so I knew how to use them all. I was happy with the selection of weapons I had now and went looking for supplies I found a lot of tinned food and dog food I had forgotten about the springer spaniel. Jessie, I went out to the kennel with a bowl of food. Please be normal.
"Jessie come hear girl."
I gave a whistle. She came running to the gate.
", Jessie who's a good girl yes you are yes you are."
I spoke to her in a babyish voice. Passing her food under the gate. She was fine giddy as always reached through and stroked her. My hand touched something wet and sticky. I couldn't see in the dark. I pulled my hand back and sniffed it. Shit one of her favourite tricks to hide her scent. I went back inside and washed my hands. When I had finished loading the supplies I went to bed.
We got up around nine and ate breakfast a bacon sandwich with ketchup for me brown sauce for Earl. "We have a new companion as well as more supplies." "what do you mean we have a new companion. The supplies I can understand straight away. But companion what." "come with me. You need to meet her." "ooh her what's her name." "Jessie" "sounds cute." "she is very." I knew I was getting him excited for the wrong reason. But it was too easy. We went out to the kennels. "what's she doing in there." Then the penny dropped. "she is a dog." I couldn't help myself I started laughing. His face was a picture. "sorry mate it was too easy. JESSIE COME ON GIRL." Jessie came bouncing out of her shelter and up to the gates of the kennel. Earl stepped back away from the metal gate. Jessie was jumping around in circles barking happily. "SID how do we know that she is safe." "seriously look at
Know one was feeling great this morning. We all held our heads at the table. Gaz got up and went to a cupboard in the kitchen. I watched to see what he was doing. He got a box of pain killers out. "I don't think any of us should do that." "Why" A rough one-word answer it annoyed me but I swallowed it down. We were in his house after all. "Do you have an unlimited supply?" "No." Again with the one-word answer. At least this time he sounded like he was thinking. "So do you know how long it will take before life gets back to normal?" "No, you don't have to go on about it. I get it we might run out if we don't start rationing." He put the box of pills back. How do we get rid of this hand over then? I got up and poured a jug of water and put four glasses on the table. Everyone was looking at me expectedly. " Let's have a bacon butty and make a plan." Lucy was the first to speak.
It was five in the morning and the sun was coming up. It was still dark but getting lighter. I was absolutely knackered. A few hours sleep would not go a miss but I needed to keep going. I went to my supply of speed I had hidden it away alongside my other drugs. I didn't tell anyone I had them. Looking around to make sure no one was watching I took a small amount to keep me going. I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down outside and had a fag. I was shocked to see a zombie walking through a field about one hundred metres away. I was concerned about seeing one so far away from any other houses. I saw an axe at the end of the house next to a pile of wood. I picked it up and walked to a metal gate that led into the field. The zombie didn't appear to have noticed me at this point. So I got the axe and banged on the gate softly. It stopped moving I was shocked at how sensitive its hearing was. I tapped again no louder than the first time. It looked to be sniffing the air. So tapped aga
I was woken by the sound of the others down in the kitchen. My ears were still ringing from the shotgun the other day. I went downstairs after getting washed and brushed my teeth."Morning everybody.""Morning." everyone spoke in unison."Has anyone had any more thoughts on what they think we should do.""Sit down Sid. We have been talking already. Lucy has said that she is worried about the water we are fed from a natural spring at the moment.""Ok, that's a good point Red. What does everyone else think.""Well, I have suggested that Lucy gets on the Internet before it all goes down to find ways of distilling water and storing electricity. Gaz is worried about the fuel for all the vehicles.""OK has anyone had ideas about that.""Gaz has suggested that he and Earl go round the filling stations and fill containers.""And what about you Red.""Me personally I think that they are all great ideas but who am I to say.
The day before had taught us all a lesson about being quiet. We saw how much they are attracted to sound. We all wanted to say thank you to Itchy Coo."So what do you know about Itchy Coo then Sid"gaz had a massive cheesy smile on his face. Like he thought I was going to tell them something good."I don't know him I've met him a few times when I was younger. I used to go up on the moors to pick mushrooms to sell. I never dabble in hallosenagenics. Whereas Itchy eats mushrooms like sweets. People call him Itchy Coo because he lives in a tank and doesn't have a bath or shower so he stinks and is always scathing. He's about sixty at guess. That's all I know about him. "We talked for a bit longer and decided that me and Gaz would carry on with the fencing and the others would go for more supplies. This time we all went out armed and heavily clothed. It was just me and Gaz at the farm when we heard a car horn. We dropped everything and went to see what it wa
The last few days work had really got cracked on. We had built a good fence around the barns and house. We had got netting over the buildings and land inside the fence so we didn't have to worry about the birds as much. We had a strong gate at the end of the drive and we had enough food and ingredients to last the nine of us and Jessie at least five years. I'm not going to say that we are completely safe the fence needs strengthening and I have plans for traps. The girls were our main hunter-gatherers now it made sense until this place was properly fortified. Red and Earl had made water stills so we had safe water. They had been working on solar panels to power the house when the power eventually went down, but not got it worked out yet. It was around ten-thirty in the morning everyone was out doing their allocated jobs. Me and Gaz were out in the fields with the three-sixty mini digger. It wasn't ideal but it was better than using a shovel and pick to dig a large deep hole. We were
Everyone was up now. There was nothing during the night to speak of. We were all getting on with our jobs but keeping on our side of the fence as much as possible Gaz had a trials bike that we now took out with so we could catch anyone who was near quickly. We were all on pins though and after having no sleep me and Gaz were tetchy, to say the least. Me and Gaz were the only ones outside the fence still digging pits and setting traps we smashed up a load of glass and cemented the shards on top of the walls near our boundary. We had been working all morning. It had been harder without Jessie with us to spot and catch the birds. We were fully kitted out so they couldn't get us but we had to keep stopping to kill them. We went back to the farmhouse for some dinner. Everyone was there. We got sat down to eat when the power went off. It was daylight but the kettle went off the clock on the cooker went off but worst of all the burglar alarm started to go off. Gaz managed to get the alarm
I woke up buzzing I had not felt so good in a long time. Around the breakfast table, I spoke to everyone and let them know that I was going out to see who I could find I was going on the offensive. I was not willing to wait for them to come to us and catch us out. We were going to turn it around on them I wouldn't take a gun because I was going out on my Vespa and had nowhere to put one I took a couple of knives and my bat I strapped it onto the rack on the back of the Vespa everyone else was going to keep guard. I set off tooled up my phone was fully charged. I drove up and down roads looking for the car I had seen in the distance on the day of their visit. I had been out a couple of hours with no luck as of yet I don't know if it was luck. Because if I got caught I could end up dead. I decided to see if I could get close to the supermarket and sneak a look around being on my Vespa meant I could get around the abandoned cars easily deads were getting more and more common the closer