“They’re here,” Cartwright said, peering out through the window.
“Everybody keep quiet,” Brand whispered.
I could hear shuffling outside, movement in the grass, Then a heavy set of footsteps sounded on the wood of the porch and I felt adrenaline pumping through my body. I wanted to run but there was nowhere to run to.
Another set of footsteps joined the first and the two nasties lumbered along the porch. A bang on the door made me jump. It sounded like a fist landing heavily on the wood.
A pause then another bang.
Then another.
Cartwright whispered, “I count seven of them out there.”
“There are some around the back as well,” Brand replied.
As if to prove him correct, a heavy fist landed on the back door.
Knock knock.
“Can they get in?” Lucy whispered.
Brand shook his head. “They’re testing for ways into the house but they aren’t intelligent enough to combine their strength to break the doors down.”
Something hit the window at the back of the house and we all jumped. Another blow to the glass made it shudder in the frame.
Brand positioned himself so he faced the window, assault rifle ready in case the thing outside broke through.
As they pounded on the doors and windows, Lucy looked at me with fear in her eyes. “I can’t take much more of this.”
I put a comforting arm around her shoulder.
“Do they know we’re in here?” Mike fidgeted nervously by the fireplace. He looked like he might actually run out of the house and into the mountains. His body trembled with unspent adrenaline and his eyes darted around the room every time one of those things banged on the house.
“Who knows?” Brand shrugged. “They probably know that people live in houses so there might be people inside this one. If they don’t get in and we don’t make a noise, they should move on. They respond to movement and sound. If they don’t see or hear anything that attracts their attention, they go elsewhere.”
We sat there in the glow of the firelight while the zombies shuffled around the house and tested the doors and windows. We probably sat like that for half an hour but it seemed like an eternity. When the banging and pounding stopped, Cartwright and Brand still didn’t touch the curtains in case the nasties were still in the area.
When Brand finally looked out, he said, “They’re gone.”
The entire room breathed a sigh of relief.
Brand pulled back the curtains to let light spill into the room. “Now, how about some food? There must be something in that kitchen.”
“I’ll see what there is,” Lucy said, getting up.
“I’ll come with you.” I got to my feet then froze when I heard a sound on the window.
Brand laughed. “You scaredy-cat, it’s just the rain.”
The sky opened and heavy droplets of rain spattered against the glass; in the distance, thunder rumbled.
“Typical Welsh weather,” Cartwright murmured.
“Yeah, but it gave our lad here a fright.” Brand laughed again and Cartwright joined him.
Following Lucy into the kitchen, I tried to ignore the laughter. We had all just sat here hiding from a bunch of zombies so it was no wonder I felt on edge. I was still coming down from an adrenaline high.
Lucy rummaged through the cupboards and found pasta. Placing it onto the kitchen counter, she searched in another cupboard and brought out two jars of sauce. There was a wood-burning stove sitting in the corner but also a modern gas cooker on one wall. I took two saucepans from the wall where they hung from metal hooks and filled one of them with water before placing it on the burner and turning on the gas. The igniter sparked and the gas lit with blue flame, heating the water. I found a salt shaker and added a few grains to the pan.
Outside, the rain came down heavier, lashing against the house from a dark grey sky. The view from the kitchen window showed open grassy fields leading to the mountains.
“What are we going to do, Alex?” Lucy placed the pasta into the boiling pan of water.
“What can we do except try to survive?”
“We can’t stay in this house forever.” She stirred the pasta with a fork.
“Where else can we go?”
“What about our families? You have a brother, don’t you? And your parents are still alive?”
They were the last time I checked but I didn’t hold out much hope now. “Yeah, I have a brother. Joe. He’s two years older than me and when we were growing up he was a pain in the ass, but we get on much better now that we don’t live in the same house.”
I didn’t realize it at the time but when I was younger, Joe looked out for me. A lot. As a geek, I got pushed around in school, made fun of by the other kids, avoided by most of the girls.
I found out a few years after leaving school that Joe had gotten into a few scrapes on my behalf, including a fight that saw him taking on the school bully Derek Green. I remembered Joe coming home with a black eye and bruises but he never told me until we were both adults that he had fought with Green that day because the bully made a remark about me. I didn’t even hear him say it but Joe went wading in to defend me.
I prayed to all the gods in heaven that Joe was still alive somewhere, surviving this shit. It didn’t seem right for me to be still alive if Joe were dead. He was tough and I was weak. He was successful in life but I was mediocre.
“Don’t you want to know what happened to him?” Lucy asked.
“Of course I do. But what can I do about that right now? It’s not like I can just go to his house and say, ‘Hey, Joe, what do you think of all this zombie stuff?’ while he makes me a cup of tea. He won’t be there. I just hope he’s with our parents. They lived quite close. Maybe Joe had time to get to their house before all the virus stuff went too crazy.”
“We’re going to have to find our families sometime,” she said, looking out of the window at the rain.
“Yes, but we also have to stay alive. We’re safe here.”
She stared at the stormy landscape. “For now. What happens when those… nasties… realize we’re in here?”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” Brand said from the doorway. “You can’t stay here. Why do you think Cartwright and I are here? We’re doing a sweep to gather the remaining uninfected survivors for the Survivors Camp at Brecon.”
“But we don’t want to go to a Survivors Camp,” I said. I had a problem with authority and the thought of being herded into a military camp with a load of other people, some of whom could be infected, sounded worse than trying to survive alone.
“You don’t have a choice,” Brand said. “We’re in charge now. The government has declared a state of emergency. Britain is controlled by the military. Don’t worry, there’s a checkpoint on the main road. We’ll get you there safely. I hear the camps aren’t too bad.”
“I’m not going to any camp,” I said.
“We can’t have you running about out here. Look at you. You’ll get turned in no time, then it’s one more nasty for us to deal with.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
He looked at me with a hard stare and shook his head. “No, you won’t. Either we escort you civilians to the checkpoint or we take you there at gunpoint. It makes no difference to us.” He looked at Lucy and winked. “How’s that food coming along, gorgeous?”