Teaching what it meant to care for someone deeply. Learning tolerance of others and their situations.
Dee had thought it too late, too much of a princess fantasy to find that “one”, but she had.
She had fought her demons, her insecurities, every day with Jack. Her anxiety got the better of her some days, causing her to stay inside, hiding from the world. Cocooning herself away.
One night, after a few drinks, Dee had opened up to Jack, poured her heart out. She had told him about all her demons. Jack had cried, pouring out his own heart and releasing his own.
That had been that golden moment, that moment told in all the fairy tales.
She knew that was it. Jack was “The One.”
A popping sound caused Dee to look back out into the yard. One of the creatures was back. A straggler, maybe? It was staring straight into her neighbour’s house, sniffing the air. The sound of its sucker mouth smacked, making her shiver.
She prayed that her elderly neighbour, Faye, was hidden. In her nineties, the woman never ceased to amaze Dee with her virility by still playing tennis and tending her garden.
The virus had taken over so fast, and with so much fury, that no one had had a chance. Before the phones had died, Dee had called Faye, telling her to hide with her, to wait for Jack. Faye had refused, saying that her family were on their way. They were going together to the evac centre at Claudelands. But after five days, nothing. No sign of anyone. Dee now wished she had insisted having seen what was going on out there for herself and barely escaping with her life.
The creature was still there, sniffing. It suddenly burst over the fence with incredible speed, shrieking. Dee heard the crash of glass breaking. Her heart sank.
Against her better judgement, she grabbed the only weapon she had — the katana — and dashed outside. She leapt over the short boundary fence.
Dee could see the smashed window. A horrifying noise came from inside the house. Peering in, she saw the creature standing over Faye’s torn body, one of her arms clamped in its claws. Blood and gore dripping from its strange sucker mouth, it let out another shriek. More shrieks answered from close by, maybe a few houses down.
With blinding speed, the creature leapt at Dee.
Stumbling backwards, she brought the katana up as she fell. The speed of the creature went against it as the tip of the sword slid in underneath its chin and up into its brain, killing it instantly. Black, foul-smelling sludge poured down the blade to coat Dee’s arm and neck.
Gasping, her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest, she gagged and pushed the living nightmare off her. Hearing the shrieks again, but much closer, she listened intently. Screams, human screams, were intermingled with them.
Time to leave.
As she cleared the fence, she saw a group of people running up the street.
Dee gasped. People? I haven’t seen anyone for a couple of days!
“In here!” she waved.
The group turned towards the sound of her voice as one, their eyes wide in terror. They changed course and dashed towards her.
Dee ran to her basement door and swung it open. Getting a better look at the group, Dee made out four men and a couple of women.
“Hurry! C’mon!” Dee called, gesturing urgently for them to get inside.
The shrieking sounded really close as she slammed the door behind them, bolting it.
“Quickly, in the back,” Dee instructed. She reached into a plastic container and splashed some of the foul-smelling liquid over the door and floor.
Satisfied that she had disguised their presence, she joined the frightened group in the shadows. Dee could hear the creatures scratching around outside, and one of the creatures banged into the door, its joints popping as it moved around. It scratched at the door again, sniffing. Dee hoped that her seaweed garden solution would do the trick again, that its pungent stench would confuse the creatures, tricking them into thinking there was nothing to devour here. For the second time that day, the creatures moved on, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s the awful smell?” asked one of the men, whispering. Dee looked at him. Shaved head, slightly overweight, funny, beady eyes.
“That awful smell just saved your life,” Dee said. Annoyed, she met his eyes and glared at him.
“Matt, manners. She just saved our ass,” said one of the women.
“Sheesh, all right.”
Dee looked over at the woman who had chastised Matt and smiled. She had blonde hair, nice figure, a real beauty.
“Sorry about that. I’m Alice. You know Matt.” She nodded in his direction. Pointing at the others, she listed their names in turn. “Mike, Aston, Vicki and Boss.”
“Boss?” exclaimed Dee, looking closer at the teenage boy Alice had pointed at. “What, like Bruce Springsteen?”
Boss looked at Dee, a grin on his face. “Who?”
I like this kid already.
Boss started to laugh. “Nah, it’s a gaming thing. I used to boss everyone around in my WOW guild, drove everyone nuts.”
Oh, a gamer?
Dee grinned. “All right, Boss.” Dee looked over the group and lowered her voice. “That foul smell is raw sewage. It hides our scent from those creatures out there. That stench I put on the door is seaweed, and it does the same thing. You are welcome to stay here, but I have rules. I’ve managed to hide away from the creatures for three days. You get used to it, trust me.”
Dee glanced at each of them. So far they were paying attention.
“Rule one. Stay out of sight. Two. Minimal noise, no raised voices.” Dee grimaced. “We can share what little food I have. Hopefully my husband Jack will arrive before we have to scavenge more.”
“Variants. They’re called Variants,” murmured Boss.
Dee turned and looked at Boss. “What?”
“That’s what the American on the radio was calling them. Variants.”
“You’ve got a radio?”
“Well, had, until they found me and Mum.”
Dee could see Boss didn’t want to discuss the events of the last few days, so she made a mental note to ask him about it later.
Variants? Variants of what?
Dee’s group settled into an uneasy routine. For ten days they tried their best to be silent at all times, especially during the night. The darkness brought nightmares of hellish proportions. The Variants outside scurried, popped and shrieked continuously.
The ever-present fear of being discovered frayed everyone’s nerves. They took turns watching out of the ventilation grates in two-hour shifts, being careful to stay in the shadows.
Boss came up with the idea of dousing themselves in the seaweed solution, and Dee insisted that the human waste be buried and covered in garden lime. Minutes ticking by dragged into hours, and hours dragged into days.
And still no Jack.
With little else to do when not on watch, they played cards, read books from Jack and Dee’s stored collection or tried to sleep. But, knowing what awaited them outside, real sleep was a forgotten luxury.
Boss and Dee became fast friends, finding a common ground in all things Monty Python. They would try to lighten their mood by writing quotes, each testing the other person’s knowledge.
Matt, Alice and Aston all sat staring morosely, sometimes whispering to each other.
Vicki and Mike spent long hours just cuddling, only rising to do their shifts, eat and use the primitive bathroom. They had barely said two words to anyone, the shock of the past few days showing.
We all deal with things in a different way, some better than others.