Thirteen Roses Book Two: After: A Paranormal Zombie Saga (6 page)

That was, of course, if it was God's plan. Mam had always taught him that God had a plan and arguing was pointless. She'd been right. He hadn't believed her, not for a second. Not even when he burned the house down with her in it. That wasn't part of the plan, was it, Mam? Turns out it was, because God definitely had a plan, and he was a huge part of it.
 

He blinked, shaking his head as the street came back into focus. His throat was sore and he remembered the children. He must never forget the children, for they made him what he had become. He sneaked further from the end of the alley and looked up the street. Smoke billowed from a shop front a little way up and he stared.
 

Someone else, another living person. He felt a pang of something that he thought might be jealousy. He couldn't be jealous, of course not, he was God's soldier. If God had a plan, then these people were part of it, too. Maybe one of them was a woman, the key to the rebirth of the human race. A smile crept across his face.
 

He set off, jogging with the axe held loosely in one hand. He passed the nearest zombie and readied himself. The head came clean off the body and hit the ground with a satisfying thud. He kept moving, eager to face more of them. The street was quieter than some of the others and the fire had drawn many of them up ahead of him.
 

He stopped and his mouth fell open as he watched a man charge towards the crowd of zombies before the shop, shouting and waving his hands. He was trying to distract them. There was someone in the shop as well, someone human. And he couldn't deny that the man was doing something heroic. Stupid, but heroic.
 

He looked around for some way to help. And saw the bus. It had lurched onto the pavement but not hit anything, and he dashed over to it. A zombie sat in the driver's seat, thrashing at the window. Its hands had broken off long ago and the glass that surrounded it was painted red, but still it thrashed. He hefted the axe and climbed into the bus.
 

Krystal

Her heart hammered so loud she could barely hear herself saying over and over, 'why, why the bloody hell are you doing this, why?' It was probably fortunate, because if she had the chance to think properly, she'd stop long before she reached the front door. As it was, she yanked it open before she had a moment to breathe, and charged out.
 

Ed was at the end of the path, opening the wrought iron gate like he was heading out to get the paper. She had a flash, for just a second, of what it must be like to live in a house and do those sorts of things. Normal things. But nothing was normal anymore. She'd thought it wasn't for the last few years, but living on the streets was nothing compared to what was heading towards the house, lurching from side to side with arms outstretched.
 

She'd seen a movie, years ago, with Dad. Mum wouldn't have let her watch it, and to be fair, she'd had nightmares after. All she remembered of it now was all the people in a town being taken over by aliens and walking around in a sort of daze with these weird eyes. That's what it looked like in front of the house. Ed stepped out onto the pavement and the nearest zombie headed straight for him, growling in the back of its throat.
 

She was too far away, she wouldn't get there in time. She raced up the garden path and grabbed the gate that had swung shut. Ed had stopped to watch the zombie approach.
 

'ED! Stop it, come back.'

He didn't respond and she hauled on the gate, ignoring the catch and tugging pointlessly at it. Finally her brain kicked in and she lifted the latch and pulled it open. The zombie had one hand on Ed's shoulder and he still didn't move.
 

'ED, PLEASE!'

He jumped a tiny amount as though he'd only just heard her. He half turned before the zombie hauled him back around. She charged straight into them, knocking them both onto the floor. She dived at the zombie and found herself astride it, staring down at an open mouth and wild, staring, bloodshot eyes. What the hell happened now?

One of its hands caught in her bob and the other clawed at her breasts. She heaved at the smell and leant forwards, clutching the sides of its head. She lifted it and slammed it back down, bashing the back of its skull against the pavement.
 

There would be others coming. Any moment now, one would grab her and teeth would sink into her neck or shoulder or face. But all she could do was slam the head again and again. On the fifth blow it went a little lower than before and she heard a sound like a stick snapping. On the next blow she felt the back of its skull give way. She slammed again and the arms fell. One more for luck, and the chunk of skull she was holding broke away, leaving her gripping tightly to two pieces of bone complete with hair and ears.
 

She whimpered, threw them away as hard as she could and scrambled to her feet. Ed was sitting where she'd knocked him over, staring at her and shaking his head. She grabbed his arm. 'Get the hell up just get up get up.'

She tugged and tugged and something got through, because he got to his feet and allowed her to lead him back down the path. Another zombie entered the garden as she slammed the front door. They stopped just inside, Ed still static and staring, her panting and gasping for breath.
 

Her breathing was just slowing when something smashed against the door, and she shrieked and threw herself backwards. Ed took a few steps down the hall but gave no other signs to suggest he was at all surprised or shocked. She ran into the kitchen and picked up her bag. She stuffed food into it and slung it over her back, then returned to the hallway.
 

She found a jacket in the understairs cupboard. It wasn't quite the right size, but as it cost more money than she'd seen in the last three years combined, she decided it would do. Ed was where she'd left him and she stopped, trying to slow everything down.
 

What should she do? What could she do? What had happened to him? She thought maybe she knew that. She'd seen something like it in street kids. Ones who came to it too young, or had been there too long, got this stare. It wasn't anything specific, and if you asked, they'd smile and say everything was fine, but you knew anyway. They were waiting to die, because everything that made up the life they knew was gone. When you no longer recognise anything about yourself, it's difficult to believe there can be anything after it.
 

She stood in front of him and stared into his eyes. He looked back but he wasn't looking at her. She slapped him hard across the face. He blinked and looked at her properly for a minute, but she saw the exact moment he drifted away.
 

'What's wrong?'

It was such a stupid pointless thing to say. As if she even needed to ask. But still. They were alive and healthy and they had free food. That was better than she'd had for the last three years, so why was he so lost? 'I understand why you're upset, but—'

'Do you? I have a family. They're all dead. I had friends at school. They're all dead. I had… people I knew. I had people I knew on Facebook and they're all dead. Everyone's dead.'

'No they aren't. Do your family even live in London?'

He laughed and shook his head. 'Don't you get it? That broadcast? That wasn't coming from London and even if it was, there'd be somewhere else that would have taken over. It's not just London it's everywhere. Here, come on.'

He grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the lounge. The TV flashed into life to show the same clip again.
 

'They're bound to have satellite, let's try somewhere else, America maybe.'

He flicked through the channels, stabbing at the remote with stiff fingers, and everyone had the same thing. Some were completely gone, not working anymore, and others were showing news loops. He reached CNN and they watched the newscaster explain that strange trucks had been sighted in Washington, New York and San Francisco in the moments before the gas was released.
 

Then he said that for the safety of the staff they were being evacuated and that this loop would be left on. Then he wished God's blessings on everyone, put his lapel mic on the desk and walked out. The empty desk stared back at them for a minute and then the loop started again.
 

It happened in America just the same as London; strange fog that covered the ground but went everywhere until the streets were filled with the walking dead. They had long-range shots of the big road in Washington that ran up to the White House with zombies lurching back and forth. There was no mention of what happened to the president.
 

Ed flicked the TV off and looked at her. 'Maybe it's terrorists, or maybe it's the end of the world. It doesn't matter. Everything we've ever loved or cared about is dead. And all we're doing is waiting to die, too. Do you really want to live your life running away and being scared?'

She burst out laughing and he frowned.
 

'You don't get it, do you?' She snapped. 'What do think I've been doing for the last three years? I've been running since I was thirteen and it hasn't got any easier. But I've done it because there's no way I'm giving up. Screw that. Why should this be any different?'

'You really want to spend the rest of your life running away from zombies?' He replied. 'Not really sleeping because they might find you and eat you, never relaxing ever again.'

'And again I say, I've already done it. And hey, at least we've got company. On my own this would have been tough, but we've got each other, right?'

He sneered and turned away, tramping to the window. She waited, looking at her hands. There was blood between her fingers and under her nails and they smelled of rot. She went into the bathroom and scrubbed until they hurt, then pulled down her trousers and took a pee. It was weird, peeing when you could actually sit on the seat and didn't have to squat.
 

There was a knock on the wall outside. She hadn't closed the door.
 

'Come in, really.'

He walked in, saw her and blushed, covering his eyes. 'God, I'm so sorry, you should have said.'

'Ed, I'm taking a piss, it's not a big thing. There are bloody zombies outside, I mean, really.'

He kept his eyes covered but didn't leave. 'Look. I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have done that and thank you for saving me. Again. But I can't do it. I don't know how to do this without going mad.'

She wiped, flushed and pulled her trousers up. She washed her hands again, just for good measure, and watched as he took his hands away and tried not to look at any part of her except the face.
 

'It's just peeing, it's alright.'

'Uh, yeah, right.'

She strolled past him, shaking her head. One minute he's all 'everyone's dead and what's the point', the next he's freaking out about seeing her on the toilet. What did he think was gonna happen if one of them got injured?
 

She went into the lounge and sat on the sofa, staring at the black TV screen. 'I don't know if there is a way. I mean, I don't know how to do it, either. One day at a time, I guess. But you can do it. You just have to decide to do it.'

'Yeah, just like that, r—'

'Exactly.' She interrupted, hearing the doubt in his voice. 'Just like that. Why not?'

'It's not, it's just…' He sighed and threw his hands up. 'It's just not that simple.'
 

'It can be. Look, first things first, we need to see whether anyone else is alive.'

'That's what I'm talking about. How are we supposed to do that?'

There was silence for a moment while she tried to work out an answer that didn't sound hopeless, and another thump came at the front door. They both jumped and smiled sheepishly at one another.
 

'If you were alive. I mean, if you survived the fog, where would you go?'

Ed cocked his head to one side. 'I'd go to Harrods.'

She laughed and enjoyed the strange sensation. 'I wouldn't. I'd want to know what happened. I
do
want to know what happened. I'd go to the centre of things, where it started.'

'Where's that?'

'The guy on the news said the Houses of Parliament, right? So we go there.'

'But we're in Shadwell, it's miles away.'

'It's not that far. Can you drive?'

'Drive? Krystal, I'm fourteen, of course I can't drive, can you?'

'Nah. I know the theory, though. I could probably work it out.'

'Probably?'

'We can just walk if you like. It's a nice day.'

He gave her a look and disappeared into the kitchen. He emerged moments later dangling a set of car keys from his finger. It had a Ford fob on it and she peered out the front window at the Ford Focus parked on the street. Between it and them were three zombies, two on the garden path and one loitering outside the gate.
 

She scooped up her bag and took a breath. 'We get past them, we get in the car and lock it and we're safe, right?'

He shrugged. 'We aren't safe anywhere. Remember, I'm not doing this because I think we've got a chance. I just don't want to die alone.'

'That's fine. So long as you remember I don't want to die at all, so no standing there looking like a numpty if they attack us, right?'

He nodded, cheeks reddening. She headed into the kitchen and emerged with the knife block. She tipped them out onto the carpet and chose three, shoving two into her belt and clutching the third in her right hand. Ed stared at them as though they were poisonous, but eventually he picked up the bread knife and brandished it before him.
 

'Ready?'

He nodded and swallowed, and she gave him her brightest smile. Then she cracked open the front door, checked she had the keys in her pocket, and stepped out into the sunlight.
 

Luke - Tuesday: 2 Days to Plague Day

Finding the gem had been easy. The church didn't know what it had in many of its treasures and kept them carelessly in view. Stealing it had involved a certain level of damage to certain people, but as each and every bit of hurt would lead straight back to the Father, he found it hard to feel bad.