The Undead. The First Seven Days (103 page)

Dave stares at him.
  ‘Okay, Mr Howie, I’ll do that,’ Dave says.
  ‘Bloody hell! You will?’ A shocked Howie says.
  ‘Yes, and you have to do it, if you’re wrong,’ Dave answers with a very rare grin.
  ‘No, hang on a minute…’
  ‘Yes, Mr Howie?’ Dave asks, innocently.
  ‘GRUB IS UP,’ Tucker bellows from the Saxon, watching a line of people carrying metal trays covered with aluminium foil.
  ‘Saved by the bell,’ Dave says quietly, and starts off towards the food.
  ‘Oh, you’re changing Dave,’ Howie calls out.
  Trestle tables are carried up from the visitors centre and laid out in a row near the Saxon, metal trays covered with foil are laid on them, along with piles of plates and stacks of cutlery.

Howie walks over to the edge and looks down into the camp at the cooking points. People are gathered round and drifting over, holding their weapons under arms or clutched between knees as they stand eating from paper plates with plastic forks.
  Tucker moves along the trestle table, fussing about like a hotel head chef, adjusting the trays and crimping the foil down firmer to keep the heat inside.
  ‘Bloody hell lads, where did you come from?’ Howie laughs at seeing Blowers and Cookey first in the queue.
  ‘We were here all along, Mr Howie,’ Cookey says, with a grin.
  ‘Tucker, we wondered where you had been all day,’ Blowers calls out.
  ‘I’ve been doing proper work, not like you two standing about a gate all day and drinking coffee,’ Tucker shouts, smiling.
  Chris appears, walking up the vehicle ramp and over to join Howie watching the queue of armed men and women walking along to get scoops of hot food piled onto their plates.
  ‘You all right. mate?’ Howie asks the tired looking man.
  ‘Yeah, I think we’re all set, just got to wait for Clarence to get back,’ he replies as Dave stops to join them.
  ‘Dave thinks they won’t attack for a few hours,’ Howie says quietly, trying to keep out of earshot of the people waiting for food.
  ‘It would make sense,’ Chris answers. ‘Give them a chance to rest and get us all wound up and tired for a few hours, probably attack during the night or first thing in the morning.’
  ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ Howie mutters, as Dave gives another sly grin.
  ‘What?’ Chris asks, looking between them.
  ‘Nothing,’ Howie says, sighing.
  ‘
Clarence to point east and west, where are you? We’re ready to go’
Clarence’s voice comes out in stereo from all the radio’s attached in the area.
  ‘
Point East, I’m almost there,’
the man sounds exhausted.
  ‘
Point… West, hang… on,’
the second voice sounds worse, as the man struggles to speak as he runs.
Minutes pass as everyone pauses, staring at the radio’s and waiting for an update, the food queue holds fast, the servers frozen with ladles in mid-air, as everyone waits with bated breath.
  ‘The food’s getting cold,’ Tucker mutters quietly, fretting about his beloved creation and moving down the tables to discreetly tug the foil covers back on.
  ‘
Clarence to Fort, we have both points, repeat we have both men, on our way back now.’
Cheering erupts from the top of the inner wall, knowing they’ve lost one man, but saved two more.

The eating resumes as the foil is quickly pulled back off and the serving carries on. Howie, Chris and Dave are joined by Blowers and Cookey. Both of them hungrily tucking into the food and shovelling it into their mouths quickly.
  ‘There they are,’ Chris nods at the small car speeding down the road towards them.

They watch as the car slows to enter the gates and hear as the gates are pulled closed, securing them inside.
  ‘Thank fuck for that,’ Howie says quietly. ‘We’ll wait for Clarence and Malcolm and eat together,’ he adds.

Within a few minutes, Clarence walks up the vehicle ramp accompanied by Malcolm, both of them carrying heavy canvass bags filled with ammunition.

They dump the bags by the side of the Saxon and move over to join Howie and Chris, as Howie motions with his head for Nick to come and join them; mouthing for him to get Curtis and Jamie on the way.

Within a couple of minutes, they are all stood together for the first time that day: Howie, Dave, Blowers, Cookey, Curtis, Nick, Jamie and Tucker, then Chris stood in the middle of his trusted comrades, Clarence and Malcolm.
  ‘Well, we did it,’ Howie says. ‘In one day we got the traps laid, found more weapons, rigged the estate, got two cannon working, hopefully, and even cooked a gourmet meal, bloody impressive if you ask me.’
  ‘And found time to play pass the bucket,’ Nick adds, as they all smile.
  ‘Let’s get some food,’ Howie says.
  They move towards the tables and head for the back of the queue, chatting and joking amongst themselves.

One of the people stood near the back, moves a few steps aside and motions for them to go ahead of him, it catches on and, within seconds, the waiting people have all stood back, quietly and respectfully.
  ‘Thank you,’ Howie speaks clearly nodding to them, the others join in, showing gratitude and offering polite
thank-you’s
as they move to the table.
  ‘Have you already eaten?’ Clarence rumbles, looking at the dirty plate held by Blowers.
  ‘Err… no?’ Blowers says slowly, looking to Cookey and his dirty plate, which he quickly tucks behind his back.
  ‘Bloody greedy, if you ask me,’ Cookey says, nodding towards Clarence. ‘I’d never go back for seconds, personally.’
  They get plates of steaming meat and vegetables, giving Tucker compliments about the food and Howie notices the look of pride on the young man’s face. They have worked hard today, all of them. Fighting all day yesterday, then fleeing through the night to get here. Not one of them has moaned or complained and this effort with the food now has lifted the spirits of everyone here.
  They move away from the table, juggling heaped plates and already eating as they head over to the wall and sit down in a wide circle.

The sight of Howie, Chris, Clarence and the others all sitting down. eating and joking amongst themselves. sends a ripple out along the top of the inner wall. Taking the edge off the fraught tension felt by all the other armed men and women.
  ‘Mind if we join you?’ A voice asks, the group twist round to see Ted grinning while Sarah, Sergeant Hopewell, Terri, Tom and Steven get plates of food from the trestle table.

A chorus of voices greets them as they shuffle round to make room. Sarah moves deftly to sit beside Clarence and smiles a big grin to Howie, who nods and smiles back at her.
  The conversations break into smaller chunks as they joke and banter amongst themselves, easy conversation in easy company. Those that haven’t met yet, introduce themselves and nod greetings at one another - before long they’re exchanging war stories of the last week. Tom and Steven both, at the same time, try to recount when Dave disarmed Tom with the Taser.
  Howie glances round to see the top of the inner wall and the groups of people now stood or seated, chatting and talking quietly. Guns, rifles and bows propped up against the wall as they mingle.
  Howie thinks back to watching the television and then seeing the horrors start outside his house. The blind panic and screaming as he threw the contents of his flat at the zombies as they attacked. He had forgotten the man leading them away with the armoured van and encouraging them into the town. Then the first hands on attack as he killed his first zombie, that was the start right there. That feeling of anger and vengeance that surged through him. He thinks back to meeting up with Dave in the supermarket and again he gives thanks that he found Dave. Today has been the longest period they’ve spent apart in a week and having Dave back at his side now feels normal. Like the balance is restored.
  ‘I was thinking back to the supermarket, Dave,’ Howie says, between mouthfuls.
  ‘Yes, Mr Howie?’ Dave replies.
  ‘All those bodies you stacked up, I wonder if you would have stayed there, if I didn’t come along.’
  ‘Probably.’
  ‘You think?’
  ‘I didn’t have anywhere else to go,’ Dave answers, matter of factly.
  ‘Yeah maybe, do you remember that fat woman that got stuck in the door,’ Howie says, bursting out laughing.
  ‘Yes, and I remember you walking into the door and falling up the stairs too.’
  ‘Oh yeah!’ Howie chuckles. ‘At least I didn’t put the wrong fuel into that car.’
  ‘I didn’t fall over and shoot a car,’ Dave quips back, but still devoid of expression.
  ‘Yeah, but you got stripped off pretty quickly when Sergeant Hopewell was watching us,’ Howie fires back.
  ‘You broke my shotgun.’
  ‘When?’ Howie says.
  ‘In Portsmouth, at the barricade.’
  ‘You told me to,’ Howie says, with mock indignation.
  ‘I said to draw him out.’
  ‘Well, it was either that or my head, and I gave you another shotgun.’
  ‘Yes, you did, thank you.’
  ‘That was that bloody John Jones, nasty fucker, and his son too.’
  ‘The one you kept punching,’ Dave says.
  ‘Yeah him, I wonder what happened to them.’
  ‘I don’t know, Mr Howie.’
  ‘It’s been a long week, mate,’ Howie says, after a pause.
  ‘It has, Mr Howie.’
  ‘That bridge was good,’ Howie says.
  ‘Tower Bridge?’ Dave asks.
  ‘No, the first one in that village when we were turning it by hand and they kept falling off.’
  ‘Yes,’ Dave says, nodding.
  ‘And that freaky one that caught my axe when I tried to chop his head off, that was horrible.’
  ‘The chainsaw was good.’
  ‘Ha, did you see the chainsaw? I thought you were busy on your side,’ Howie laughs.
  ‘I saw it, and the lump hammers, and the sledge hammer, and all the other tools you tried.’
  ‘The chainsaw was the best though. I love the axe, mind you.’
  ‘I like knives.’ Dave says flatly.
  ‘Do you? I’d never have noticed… I wonder how our
Tesco
lorry is doing.’
  ‘Those kids probably stole it.’
  ‘Yeah, probably,’ Howie pauses, taking another mouthful of food. ‘Salisbury was good, I’m glad we went there,’ Howie says. ‘Apart from that bloody officer,’ he adds.
  ‘Charles Galloway-Gibbs,’ Nick says, as Howie realises everyone else has gone quiet and is listening to him and Dave.
  ‘Complete tool,’ Blowers says.
  ‘Now that was a hard night, getting that Saxon,’ Cookey adds.
  ‘We did it though,’ Howie says. ‘There must have been a thousand of them at least.’
  ‘Thanks to Dave and the GPMG,’ Blowers says. ‘Another five minutes and I think we’d be staggering round now too.’
  ‘BRAAIINNNS, I WANT COOOKEY BRAAAIINNS,’ Howie says, to laughter from the recruits, remembering the jokes from before.
  ‘So, which is better? The feast Tucker did in the barracks or this one?’ Howie asks, seeing Tucker’s face lights up.
  ‘The one at Salisbury was fucking lovely,’ Nick blurts. ‘Sorry, I meant it was very nice,’ he adds quickly with a glance at Sergeant Hopewell.
  ‘This is nice but that was a feast and a half,’ Blowers agrees.
The conversations carry on, of great meals eaten in faraway places, of dangerous missions undertaken by Chris, Malcolm and Clarence. The officers jumping in with stories of incidents and strange crimes they’ve dealt with. Each of them sharing an experience and memories of a life now gone; thinking this may be the last time they get to share something, to tell another human of who they are and where they came from. The close feeling shared amongst them grows and matures as they listen to each other, laughing or nodding with understanding.

‘It’s getting dark,’ Chris says, as the conversations start to trail off, they look up to the sky to see the beautiful swathes of red mixed with the golden rays of the dwindling light.
  ‘Red sky at night, zombies delight,’ Blowers mutters, quietly.
  ‘Right, so what’s the plan?’ Howie asks. ‘We wait for them to come and hope our traps work, then throw what we can at them from up here and when that ends we go down and meet them? That’s what I think, anyway.’
  ‘Sounds about right to me,’ Chris nods back.
  ‘Any other suggestions?’ Howie asks.
  ‘Keep it fluid,’ Dave offers. ‘We’ve planned as best we can, and now we just have to be able to react accordingly.’ He adds to nods and murmurs of agreement and stares of awe from Jamie, Tom and Steven
  ‘Okay, keep your hand weapons to… err… well to hand, I guess, and, in the meantime, let’s try and rest.’
  They break apart slowly, lingering to have a few words with each other. Howie steps over to Sarah, drawing her away from the group.
  ‘Any news on the boats?’ Howie asks, quietly.
  ‘Nothing yet, but we’ve spoken to the mother’s and got the children ready to move.’
  ‘And Ted? Did you speak to him?’
  ‘He was reluctant, but said he would do it as it was you asking,’ Sarah replies.

Howie looks over to see Ted looking back, giving a single, knowing nod.
  ‘Good, let me know as soon as they’re back.’
  ‘Howie, I, well…’ Sarah says, hesitantly.
  ‘What is it?’ Howie asks with concern.
  ‘Well, we’ve not really spoken since you got me, and…’
  ‘Yeah, I know, I’m sorry, it’s been manic.’
  ‘No, you don’t have to apologise. I just wanted to spend some time with my brother before, well before…’
  ‘You can say it,’ Howie smiles. ‘Before they come for us.’
  ‘Yes, before they come,’ Sarah says softly. ‘You seem so different now, it’s only been a week and you’ve changed so much. I hardly recognised you. I couldn’t believe it when I saw you fighting through those things in London.’
  ‘It doesn’t feel like a week,’ Howie muses. ‘It feels like a lifetime.’
  ‘What happened? How did you get like this?’
  ‘I don’t know, I really don’t. I was lucky I guess. I was at home when it happened and it was happening right outside my house. They were trying to get in to get me, I fought back, but there were so many, I thought I was done for. Then this van went past, leading them all away from me. I managed to get out and then the rest just sort of happened. I was heading home, to Mum and Dad’s house. I found some crappy old bicycle and was going on the motorway. This car went past me and then hit the barrier and flipped over. There was a woman in the wreckage; she was still alive when I got to her. I tried to pull her out and save her but one of those things was in the car and bit her, she died as I was trying to save her,’ Howie explains in a flat, emotionless voice.
  ‘That’s awful,’ Sarah says.
  ‘Yeah, but then, like I said, she died. I was crying and she came back and tried to bite my face off,’ Howie says.
  ‘What did you do?’ Sarah asks.
  ‘I kicked her to death,’ Howie replies. ‘And I guess that was the point when I decided they were all dirty evil scum. Then I went through a village and more of them came for me so I set them on fire and probably burnt the village down in the process. Then I got to a shop and killed some more. I finally got home and found the note from Mum and Dad, saying they had gone to look for me. I went back home but couldn’t find them, got attacked a few more times and killed some more of them. I went to work, met Dave and figured Mum and Dad would have gone back to theirs. I went back again, they weren’t there and I sort of snapped.’
  ‘Snapped?’ Sarah asks.
  ‘I went back to Boroughfare. I went back knowing I wanted to kill them one by one. Fortunately Dave came with me and we’ve been going ever since. I came up with this mad plan to get a tank to get through London to find you,’ Howie laughs. ‘So we went to Salisbury to steal something big and hard and ended up hooking up with that lot,’ Howie nods at the recruits nearby. ‘Had more fights, killed more of them and they wanted to stay with us, so we came to London.’
  ‘Howie, that’s amazing,’ Sarah says, staring at her brother with awe.
  ‘Not really, you stayed alive and fought back too. I saw what you did in the back of that van,’ Howie says.
  ‘Howie, please don’t get me wrong. You saved my life and many others, by what you’ve done with Dave, but well, I’ve never seen you so alive, so… I don’t know…’ She trails off, uncertain of how to say it. ‘It seems like you’re enjoying it, Howie,’ she finally says, looking directly at him.
  ‘Enjoying it? The end of the world and being surrounded by death and destruction?’ Howie replies with an offended and puzzled tone.
  ‘The fighting, Howie I saw you fighting in London, you were more alive than I have ever seen you. You were possessed, I saw your face and the way you were. I know you better than all of these people…’
  ‘What about Clarence? Chris? Malcolm? Did they look like they were enjoying it too? Have you seen Dave fight?’ Howie demands, with anger.
  ‘Yes, I saw Dave,’ Sarah replies softly.
  ‘Well, did he look like he was enjoying it? What about Blowers and the rest?’
  ‘Howie, I don’t know them. I only know you and it was shocking to see you like that,’ Sarah says.
  ‘So what would you prefer? That I stayed at home and hid under the blankets?’
  ‘That’s not what I meant, Howie… I mean, you were enjoying it, it gave you pleasure and that’s wrong.’
  ‘Why? Why is it wrong? How did it feel when you and that other woman killed them all in the van?’
  ‘It felt awful Howie, it was survival and it had to be done but that was it.’
  ‘No sense of victory? No feeling of righteousness?’
  ‘No,’ she says firmly.