Year of the Zombie (Book 8): Scratch (7 page)

‘How do you know?’ Gary
demanded. ‘You might have just cut yourself on the glass or something?’

‘It would have been
cleaner if it was a glass cut,’ Jody said, sounding clinical and cold,
detached. ‘One of them did that to her. One of the infected.’

Charlie stifled another
deep sob as the inevitable enormity of what had happened began to fully sink
in. She looked at Jody. ‘What do I do?’

‘There’s got to be
someone we can contact? Somewhere we can take her?’ Gary said, and he too
looked to Jody for answers.

‘There’s nothing and you
know it. We all saw the TV reports yesterday. Sorry, Charlie, I truly am.’

‘But I don’t want to be
like one of them,’ she cried, shooting a sideways glance at the swarm of
squabbling infected on the other side of the boarded-up glass. ‘I don’t want to
go. I want to stay here with you...’

‘I’m sorry,’ Jody said
again, and she too wiped away a tear. She’d had plenty of reasons not to like
Charlie, but had quickly warmed to her. What she was going through now and what
lay ahead was too awful to even contemplate. Jody couldn’t begin to imagine
what she must have been feeling.

‘You’re not going
anywhere,’ Gary announced, and he took a couple of steps closer to his
girlfriend, then checked himself and held back. ‘We don’t know for sure it was
one of them, do we? The window frame’s damaged... maybe you just caught your
arm on some wood.’

‘Come on, Gary,’ Jody
sighed. ‘Don’t be so frigging naïve.’

‘It was one of them,’
Charlie said. ‘I know it was. I saw it happen. I’m infected. I should go.’

‘You’re not going
anywhere.’

‘I have to, Gary.’

‘No you don’t. Not until
we’re completely sure.’

‘Are you out of your
fucking mind?’ Jody barked. ‘Seriously? For fuck’s sake, Gary, our kids are in
this house. We can’t take the risk. Look, Charlie, I’m truly sorry, but...’

‘It’s okay,’ Charlie
said. ‘I get it. I’ll go. And if I’m okay in a few hours, I’ll come back. At
least then we’ll know for sure if—’

‘Did you not hear me?’
Gary interrupted, furious. ‘You’re not going anywhere.’

‘She heard you all
right, she’s just choosing to ignore you,’ Jody said, glaring at him.

‘You, on the other
hand,’ he shouted at his ex, ‘can fuck off right away.’

‘I’m not going anywhere
without the kids.’

‘Take my car,’ Charlie
said, struggling to think straight but managing to recall the conversation
they’d had earlier. She seemed short of breath now, face ice-white, clammy.
‘The keys are on the... hook in the kitchen. Just go. Get safe.’

‘Thanks, love,’ Jody
said, and she went to leave the room but Gary blocked her way.

‘I’ve got the keys to
Charlie’s car,’ he said, dangling them in front of her. ‘If you’re leaving on
your own, you’re welcome to them. If you’re still thinking about snatching the
kids – which I really wouldn’t recommend – then we’ve got a
problem.’

Their latest argument
was interrupted before it started proper by Charlie. She dropped to her knees
and doubled-over in pain, clutching her stomach. She looked up at Gary and
Jody, her face screwed up in agony. ‘It hurts,’ she gasped. ‘Really hurts.’

‘So there’s your
answer,’ Jody said. ‘That can only be infection. I saw it on the news –
this is how it starts. She’ll lose consciousness for an hour or two now, maybe
longer, and when she wakes up she’ll be one of those fucking things outside and
she won’t stop until she’s infected every last one of us. You, me and the kids.
Is that what you want?’

Almost on cue, Charlie
passed out. She slumped forward in an undignified heap, the rancorous gash on
her arm exposed.

‘Help me get her
outside.’

‘Don’t you fucking touch
her,’ Gary warned, and before she could react he grabbed her arm and manhandled
her out of the room. Jody didn’t fight back, but she continued to protest. She
dug her heels in and clung onto the sides of the door frame as he tried to push
her through.

‘Think about what you’re
doing, Gary. I know you’re hurting, but Charlie’s gone. There’s nothing you can
do for her.’

‘We don’t know that for
sure. Not yet.’

‘Oh, come on. What are
you going to do? Keep her locked up in there until she’s scratching at the
door, baying for blood?’

‘I’ll deal with her when
the time comes.’

‘Deal with her now.’

‘No.’

He shoved Jody in the
small of her back and sent her flying across the hallway. She hit the wall hard
and rebounded. By the time she’d picked herself back up he’d slammed the dining
room door shut and was leaning against it to stop her getting anywhere near.

‘You stay here with your
dead girlfriend. I’m leaving and I’m taking the kids,’ she told him.

‘You’re not going
anywhere with my children.’

‘
Our
children.’

‘Whatever. Right now
they need to be with their dad more than ever.’

‘No, you prick, they
need to be
safe
.’

‘Yeah, and they’re
better off with me.’

‘How d’you work that
out?’

‘I’m not the one who
took them camping when all this shit kicked off, for Christ’s sake.’

‘How was I supposed to
know?’

‘They’d have been better
off with me from the start.’

‘That’s not what the
judge said.’

‘Yeah, well the judge is
probably in as shitty a situation as we are right now. He’s probably one of
those diseased things walking the streets.’

‘Like your girlfriend?’

‘Priceless. You absolute
bitch. I know your problem. You’re jealous.’

She’d heard it all now.
‘Jealous? Christ, Gary, you’re deluded. I’m not interested in you or anything
you’ve got. I couldn’t care if you were the—’

‘Can’t you just stop?’ a
quiet voice asked. Jody looked around and then up. It was Jenny. There were
three small faces at the top of the stairs, peering down between the
balustrades. Seeing them there immediately took Jody back eighteen months to
when things had been at their absolute worst with Gary, when every single day
had been miserable: a never-ending succession of fight after fight after bloody
pointless, energy-draining fight.

‘Sorry,’ she said, and
she genuinely was.

‘So you should be,’
hissed Gary.

Jenny cautiously crept
downstairs. ‘I’m scared,’ she said.

‘We’re all scared,’ Jody
told her, and she immediately regretted her candid admission.

‘It’s okay,’ Gary said,
sitting down on the step next to his daughter. ‘Everything’s going to be all
right.’

Ben and Holly were a few
steps further up still, hanging back. ‘Where’s Charlie?’ Ben asked.

‘She’s not feeling too
good,’ Gary answered quickly, getting in quick before Jody had chance to speak.

‘She sick like them?’
Ben demanded, unexpectedly abrupt. He pointed in the direction of the grey
figures which milled around outside, visible through the frosted glass window
in the front door.

‘No, no, no... nothing
like that,’ Gary said and, out of sight of he kids, he glared at Jody. The
intent behind his eyes was clear:
don’t you say a fucking word.

‘We going home soon?’
Jenny asked.

‘This is your home,
love.’

She looked from face to
face, sensing trouble.

‘Are we staying here
then?’

‘I don’t know what we’re
doing yet,’ Jody said. ‘Your dad and I need to talk about it.’

‘I don’t want you kids
going anywhere.’

‘What about Mummy?’
Holly asked.

‘That’s for the grown
ups to decide, isn’t it, love?’ Gary said.

‘Suppose.’

‘You three hungry?’ he
asked.

In spite of everything,
they were. He took the children into the kitchen and found them something to
eat.

When he returned to the
hallway a few minutes later, the dining room door was open. Jody was standing
over Charlie, holding the hammer he’d used to board up the window.

‘What the fuck are you
doing?’

‘What do you think? I’m
watching your bloody girlfriend to make sure she doesn’t come back and start
trying to infect us.’ Jody stopped and took a breath. ‘Look, Gary, this isn’t
doing any of us any good, especially the kids. I know you’re hurting, but you
need to get over that and think carefully about what might happen here. Be
ready for the worst.’

‘You quite finished?’

She ignored him. ‘Don’t
forget, I was out there yesterday. I’ve seen what they can do. I’ve seen how
they attack and what you become when you’ve been scratched, and it’s not
pretty.’

‘I get that,’ he said,
dropping the bullshit and bravado momentarily, ‘but I can’t write her off until
I know for sure, okay?’

‘I think we’re already
at that point. She’s been infected. You have to face facts.’

‘And when the time comes,
I will.’

Charlie began to stir.
Jody gripped the hammer, ready to use it if she had to. Both she and Gary edged
back cautiously. Ice-cold and sweat-soaked, Charlie’s eyes fluttered open. Her
throat was bone dry. She tried to clear it, but the effort was too much.

‘I’m okay,’ she said,
her voice a bronchial croak, and with considerable effort she rolled over onto
her front and picked herself up using a high-backed wooden dining chair for
support. She plonked herself down heavily in the seat, exhausted. ‘Really
thirsty.’

Gary went to get her
some water, but by the time he’d filled the glass she was out cold again.

‘We should tie her up,’
Jody suggested. ‘Tape her hands like they said on the news. Just to be sure.’

‘Don’t you fucking touch
her.’

***

He stood guard outside the dining room whilst
Jody sat in the kitchen. The kids moved freely between them, diving their time
and their loyalties, hypersensitive and not wanting to do anything to upset
either of their parents.

The situation felt on a
knife-edge, both inside and outside the house. On the TV news, reports were
coming in of trouble as people tried to escape the infected zone. The endless
snaking queues of traffic were being patrolled by security forces which were
already severely depleted. There were unavoidable bottlenecks and delays at the
checkpoints, and the terrified public were not responding well to being left
waiting in their cars indefinitely while the infected prowled nearby. Jody kept
reminding herself that this was infinitely better than the outcome of most of
the horror movies she’d watched over the years. Nine times out of ten in a
horror flick the survivors would have been reduced to killing each other to
stay alive by now. All things considered, and apart from poor old Charlie, they
were actually doing pretty well.

It was quieter outside,
too. Still no sign of any governmental or military interventions on this
particular street, but the number of infected hadn’t increased. They hadn’t
reduced either, but no net gain was still a good result in Jody’s book.

The kids had been
gorging themselves on sweets and chocolate. Jody’s stomach churned with nerves
and the thought of eating anything made her want to vomit. Holly, on the other
hand, had eaten far too much and was feeling the effects, but having a free
pass to the kitchen cupboards was something she was determined to make the most
of. She dragged a chair over to a cupboard and stood on tiptoes to look inside.
‘Can I help you, young lady?’ Jody asked. ‘Don’t you think you’ve had enough?’

‘Want another Mars bar.’

‘Maybe later.’

‘Want one
now
,’
she said, elevating the last word of her demand to an uncomfortably loud
volume. Jody cringed, remembering the effect she and Gary’s argument had on the
creatures outside earlier.

‘Keep your voice down.’

‘What’s the problem?’
Gary asked, concerned.

‘No problem.’

‘I want another Mars
bar,’ Holly told him.

‘So let her have one.’

‘I’ve already told her
no.’

‘What’s the harm in the
kid having more chocolate?’ Gary said, and he reached into the cupboard and brought
down another multipack.

Jody seethed with anger.
‘How about trying to show a united front?’ she hissed at him once Holly had
disappeared.

‘And how about not being
such a fucking drag,’ he quickly countered.

And they were at it
full-throttle again.

‘Why are you always
pulling in the opposite direction to me? Do you do it on purpose?’

‘Yeah, well you’re not
always right, you know. You seem to think you have a monopoly on common-sense,
coming at me from your bloody moral high ground.’

‘It’s not about common-sense,
it’s about putting the kids first and not scoring points. I don’t think you can
do that.’