Chapter 11: Chapter ten

CHAPTER TEN

‘I can’t get this thing working’ I sighed, pushing the police radio back in it’s place. We’d been driving aimlessly down the road for about twenty minutes. I’d climbled forward to the passenger side when Lucas and Percy had passed out from exhaustion after we all drunk a bottle of water between us, spilling half of it with our shaking hands. Keith and I were knackered too with it being past ten o clock and having had no sleep in what felt like years, but we’d tried to park the car and rest– we’d been too fearful to close our eyes for more than five minutes though so we’d decided to just drive.

‘It’s fine, I didn’t think it’d work anyway’. We fell back into an easy silence as I winced at yet more infected running for the car. We’d had so many close calls in the last ten minutes that I was starting to wonder if we were better off just locking ourselves in a house again.

‘How are you feeling?’ Keith glanced to me, looking concerned, ‘I’ve barely had a chance to ask’ he spoke, swerving to avoid a young girl in the road who was screeching at the car.

‘I’m okay’ I said, shaken at the close call, ‘You?’

‘Well this isn’t Disneyland but I’m okay’.

I laughed quietly, realising that among all the drama there had been no time to simply talk and breathe.

‘Where would you be if we hadn’t all met up?’ I asked, curious for the answer.

‘Dead, probably’ he said quietly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel, ‘I didn’t have a car so I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night’.

‘Are you scared of dying?’

‘A little. I never really worried about it but now it feels like it’s just kind of crept up on us, like we have to worry now’.

‘I know’ I sighed, understanding completely, ‘Do you want some food? Or for me to drive?’ I offered, knowing he was probably sick of manning the steering wheel by now.

‘From what Lucas has told me, I’m not sure I could trust you to drive a car, especially in the dark’ a playful grin broke out on Keith’s face as I narrowed my eyes towards him.

‘I can drive just fine! What did he tell you?’

‘That the first time he tried to teach you, you nearly ran somebody over’.

‘Oh’ I mumbled, deciding not to even bother denying it, ‘Accident’. Keith chuckled, smiling right at me, ‘Easy mistake to make’.

‘Do you want some chocolate before I throw it at you?’ I smiled sweetly at Keith who laughed again, nodding in reply, ‘What’s your favourite chocolate?’

‘Um’ I tilted my head back, wondering how I could possibly answer that, ‘The plain stuff, Cadburys’.

‘Girl after my own heart’ he sighed, ‘I like the simple stuff too. It’s probably why I work in Sainsbury’s and only buy home brand bread’.

‘Sounds good to me’ I smiled, wondering when the last time I went to Sainsburys was.

‘Did you leave anyone behind?’ Keith asked suddenly, looking awkwardly from me to the road then back again.

‘My friends’ my stomach tensed horribly at all of the awful possibilites. They were fine.

‘No boyfriend?’ I glanced towards him and my eyes widened when I noticed his cheeks were the slightest shade of red. I smiled slightly.

‘No boyfriend. Did you.. leave anyone behind?’

‘Not really. Some work colleagues but I didn’t really like them too much, as harsh as it sounds. They weren’t too nice’.

‘No girlfriend?’ I asked quickly, wondering why I was even asking. I suppose he’d asked me so it only seemed fair.

‘Nah, I’ve only really had one girlfriend and she was a bit.. well, she wasn’t the one for me. You know how it is’ he smiled, tapping on the steering wheel rhythmically,

‘Yeah, I get it. Do you think things will ever be the same again?’

‘Probably not’ he stopped talking but he must have noticed the unshed tears in my eyes because his expression softened, ‘But things change every day, right? Once this is all finished, it’ll be another horrible event in history, like the wars or the Holocaust. We’ll get through it, you’ll see’.

‘I hope so’ I nodded, staring straight ahead.

‘I know so. Now cheer up or I’ll sing to you’.

‘Sing to me?’ I asked, confused. I didn’t need to wonder for long though, because once Keith started singing ‘Our Song’ by Elton John, I realised just what he meant.

‘Oh god, stop’ I choked between fits of laughter as he wailed out the tune, completely off key.

‘You asked for it’ he grinned, not stopping.

‘Stop or I’ll sing too’ and just for the sake of it, I broke loudly into a Radiohead song and the mashup of our voices sent us both into fits of laughter.

‘You’re priceless’ Keith stopped singing eventually, still shaking with laughter.

‘Oh Jesus, what are you guys doing?’ Lucas blearily lifted his head from behind me and I gasped; I’d completely forgotten he was asleep. So had Keith by the look of things because he bit his lip and apologised.

‘Sorry man, completely forgot. And you, Percy’ he grimaced at me, trying to avoid Percy’s harsh and bleary eyed stare. As if he suddenly remembered something, Keith suddenly spoke to Percy, his voice confused.

‘Percy, why did you have a lighter back there? You don’t strike me as the smoker type’.

‘I don’t’ he replied awkwardly, looking anywhere but to us.

‘Then why?’ Lucas probed him.

‘I.. I like fire’ he mumbled, so quietly that I barely heard him.

‘Fan of the pyrotechnics then?’ Lucas asked, wide eyed.

‘It’s not a big deal, I just like looking at it’ Percy said, embarrassed.

‘I’m not judging, I like stacking things up and knocking them down for the hell of it’ Keith shrugged, baffling me further.

‘Boys are weird’.

‘Come in, come in’ a voice crackled from the radio, making me jump about a foot in the air. We all looked at one another as the car moved, each of us paralysed in place.

‘Wait’ Lucas called as I lunged for the radio, ‘We know by now that they won’t answer to just anyone. Pass it here’. Without much of a thought, I passed the small black object back to Lucas who cleared his throat before clicking the button.

‘Responding’ he answered in a much deeper voice than his own.

‘Officer Healey, respond?’

‘Responding’ Lucas repeated but more loudly this time, taking a shot in the dark by putting on a convincing Scottish accent which even shocked me.

‘Finally’ the rough voice with it’s own thick Scottish accent began to sound calmer, ‘How are you getting on?’

Lucas sent us a look that said ‘help’ but quickly recovered, ‘It’s fine down here, what’s your status?’

‘Up shit creek without a paddle’ the voice replied, sighing heavily, ‘On my way to evac’.

‘Evac?’ Lucas’ voice brightened as his eyes widened, ‘Which one?’

‘Healey, what’s wrong with you?’ The voice sounded suspicious, ‘We have one damn evac in this country, you know that’.

‘One?’ Lucas’ voice nearly betrayed him as we all looked to one another in surprise. We hadn’t been told there were a bunch of them but I suppose we’d kind of assumed. How could they fit everyone in one evac centre? Was it a building, a big field with a fence? A castle, what?

‘Yes Healey, one, and you’d better get your ass here before they blow this place to Kingdom come’.

Now we all just stared at one another, mouths agape. Had we misheard? What the hell did he mean?

‘Come again, you’re breaking up’ Lucas said, his voice cracking obviously.

‘Oh come on’ the voice grumbled, ‘If you’re not at evac in by tomorrow night, you’ll go down with this country’.

‘Scotland?’

‘Well if you’re gonna be pedantic about it, no, the UK. They’re setting the bombers up already I hear, making me feel a bit uneasy if I’m honest’.

Bombers.

‘No’ Keith muttered, letting the car come to a halt, ‘no’.

No, we had to have misunderstood. We had to.

‘Why?’ Lucas cried, forgetting his accent completely. The man on the other end wasn’t deterred though as he carried on. ‘Why do you think, nutter? It’s easier, isn’t it? The EU had a massive meeting and turns out the UK is disposable, dunno how the people will feel about it though’.

Lucas let the radio fall to the floor as we all choked on the silence, each with wide eyes and unsteady hearts.

‘This can’t be happening’ Percy began to hyperventilate, ‘It can’t be’

‘Breathe’ Lucas hit him on the back a few times, his own face pale.

‘They can’t do that’ Keith shook his head, ‘He must be wrong, he has to be. It’d never be allowed, there are millions-‘

‘No, he’s right’ Lucas breathed, ‘Think about it, have you seen a single bloody ‘rescue helicopter’ the whole time this has been happening? Even one?’

No.

We hadn’t, not a single one.

‘We could’ve missed them, we’ve been distracted’.

‘I haven’t, I’ve been looking out for them’.

‘Oh my god’.

‘All this’ Keith’s eyes were unfocused, for the first time he looked as though he was going to break down, ‘All this and they’re just going to eliminate us like we’re parasites’.

‘We’ll find a way out, we’ll go to the evac points and get our family, then we’ll ru-‘

‘What evac points?’ Percy cried, avoiding my eyes, ‘If we’re getting bombed then what the hell are these evac points?’

‘Decoys’ Keith whispered, almost forgetting I was right next to him. When he caught my eye he looked apologetic, regretful.

‘Harley-‘

‘No, no. I don’t understand what you’re getting at but my family is there, so just don’t. All we have to do is get there, find them and get a boat. That’s it’.

‘Keith is on the right track’ Percy said, trying not to cry, ‘They’ve played us for such fools. I bet these evac points are just big fences where they can gather us all up so we don’t try and leave the country. Decoys to distract us from the real threat’.

‘Shut up, my family is there’ Lucas growled, reaching for the radio, ‘Hello?’ he called through it, the fake accent back.

‘Thought you were zombie food there, Healey’.

‘Yeah. Where are you?’

‘Up by Fort William still, next to the Old Graven Inn. Near to the evac point, getting myself outta this dead country. I suggest you do the same, officer. Over and out’.

‘Fort William’ Keith muttered, ‘I saw a sign for that a while ago, we’re close, really close’.

‘Petrol?’

‘Enough. Let’s go’.

***

Driving was difficult, I wasn’t sure how Keith had done it for all this time. Among a bunch of useless crap, we’d found a ripped map stashed in one of the car compartments and I was taking over driving for a little bit while the guys slept. Keith had driven while I’d gotten some sleep and now I actually felt a lot more refreshed and a whole lot more determined. With only the open road and my thoughts though, my mind was going haywire. Most of the streets we drove past were on fire, infected were banging on front doors and lunging for the car – some areas there were none and some there were crowds of them but I still stayed alert, ready to be jumped on. Even when we got away from this, even when we managed to leave what would there be left of the UK, of my home? Rubble, smashed furniture, barricades, blood. Glass, bodies everywhere. The taste of death wherever a person might walk, no amount of decontamination could erase that.

Would it even get that far?

We would live, we had to. There was no way I could let my life end at just seventeen years old along with my family and the boy who’d saved us so many times but what was the other option? They were bombing us, bombing us. The rational side of my mind told me that would never happen but so far the rational side had failed me more times in these few days than it had in the rest of my life. I was ready to believe the unbelievable and if that meant that driving through the dark at 3am to avoid zombies and an impending anihalation of my home was in fact reality, then so be it. We’d find a way out, we’d get into this bloody camp, get the hell out with the people I love and get out of the country, fucking swim if we have to but we would not be left behind to be exterminated.

Like all the other innocents. What about children, babies? Families?

No, they couldn’t. No, it just went against everything the world stood for. We lacked complete unity and sometimes we made horrible decisions but we would not destroy a whole country when there were still other options. No, they must have been fed wrong information, the EU. Maybe they’d been told we were all dead.

That had to be it. There was a hero in every story.

Was I the hero?

Doctor William Tennille.

Vultures.

Can it be? No, it must be a mistake. I’ve made enough of them in the last few days. I made it clear to my colleagues that the infection takes days to fully change a human but lo and behold, it can take only hours. Depends on the person, their immune system, the size of their brain. Magical, the way it happens really. Not for the victim obviously but.. for people like me. Piques my interest.

‘Any matches?’

‘No’ I reply, still fiddling with a pipette, ‘But I tried to match it with matter from a vulture and something seems to be a little similar, but not similar enough. Still, a breakthrough is a breakthrough and as far as it goes, this is huge’.

‘Vulture? No, doesn’t seem plausible’.

‘Which is why I’m not jumping through the roof’ I sigh, finally dropping the sodden pipette, ‘It’s not enough and I don’t understand. This virus is baffling beyond anything I’ve ever been baffled by. How can I possibly find a cure when I don’t even know how this thing is made? Of course we know how it’s spread but that’s it, isn’t it?’

‘Well, yes. Keep working though, we have about 18 hours still before the big guns get us out of here’.

‘Yes, us’ I sigh, wondering how I can possibly be happy about that, ‘But what about everyone else, the people we can’t save? The people that are still alive?’

‘Come on William, it’s been days. We know for a fact that the whole of England is dead, majority of Scotland and all of Wales. Ever since the evac places got overrun, the EU made the right decision in taking us all out’.

‘I know the evacuations got ruined but what about all the people holed up in houses, shut in warehouses, churches, shopping centres? What about them?’

‘As good as dead and we all know it. As far as we know, there aren’t even any people alive, the EU have scanned the area as best they could and seen only infected. You know they’re only doing what they have to, they’ve already said they’ll cancel the bombing if they find evidence of real human life. Face it William, they’re all dead’.

‘Maybe’ I reply, ‘Maybe. But if we’ve survived just fine in this big old lab, whose to say other people haven’t found ways to survive?’

‘They’ve scanned the area William, I told you. All infected, most of the towns are dead, scattered with body after body. They’re evacuating people they know are alive and that’s that’.

‘Some people must have survived in the evacuation centres, they must have’.

‘Not a single soul. I told you, the computers failed, doors went up. Everybody died’.

Everybody died.

‘Rest in peace’.

Harley Sawyer

‘Oh my.. wake up! Wake up!’

‘Harley’ Keith coughed awake, jumping upright, ‘What’s wrong?’ I laughed at his expression, wiping the tears from my eyes which had appeared at the sight before me. Nothing had ever been so beautiful.

‘You found it. You found it, Harley’ Lucas breathed, eyes pointing to the sign my own eyes were fixated on.

BRAGBURY COMMUNITY CENTRE AND CHURCH   REFUGEE EVACUATION centre.

‘Oh my.. oh my lord, thank you’ Percy cried, ‘Thank you so much. Oh lord, I thought you were going to be total buffoons but oh, you’ve proved yourself!’.

‘As have you, Percy my friend’ Lucas laughed genuinely, slapping him on the back.

‘Careful, careful, mind the suit’ Percy scowled but he grinned straight after the words left his lips, ‘I love you guys. I love you. I’m going to see my mother now, my sisters. You’ve saved my life, you have to meet them, they’re going to want to meet you..’

‘Steady on’ Keith laughed jovially, smiling at me, ‘See what you did?’

‘What we did’ I smiled back, wondering what I would have done without him. We’d made it, all of us together. We were going to live, I’d see my family again. Hell, I could even give my baby brother the jigsaw I’d gotten him. The last infected I’d ever have to see was twenty minutes behind me, a man angrily clawing at a bird. The very last.

Such a beautiful thought.

‘Harley..’ Keith trailed off, staring me down, his eyes completely alight with fire, ‘You are the most selfless human being I have ever met. I hope you go in there and find your family, find everything you want and I am going to find you again when all of this is over, I promise that'.

When the words left his lips and hit my brain and my heart, I literally felt myself crumble. Until that moment, I’d let my emotions and my heart be taken over in the madness but in the silence and protection of where I was, his words hit me like a ton of bricks.

‘You’re leaving?’ I choked, attempting to concentrate on the road.

‘I don’t really have much choice, Sunshine. You guys have your family and we’re going to end up in totally different parts of the world when this is over.. I know we are’.

Oh god.

When had I become attached to him? When did it happen that the idea of him leaving my side made my stomach flip, made me want to stop this car and cry, beg him to stay? When, why? I’d been so caught up in staying alive that I’d ignored every instinct that told me I needed him, that he was a part of me now. I’d been so goddamn busy and now he was going to walk away? How could he walk away?

‘How can you do that?’ I cried, slamming the car to a halt. Keith looked surprised at my words yet his eyes never left mine.

‘I.. I just assumed you'd want to split when we got here, Harley. You have your family and I know you guys aren't gonna want me hanging around, not under circumstances like this'.

‘How could you just assume that?’

‘I don’t know, I just thought..’

‘Well, don’t ‘just think’’ I bit back, knowing I was angry for no reason, knowing I was taking my mixed feelings out on him. I never planned to get so bloody attached, I never planned it.

‘I’m sorry Harley, I’m sorry, let’s not worry about it for now’ he reached his hand out and took mine in his much bigger one, stroking it with his thumb, ‘I’m not very good at doing the right thing, let’s just get to this Church and we'll sort it out there, alright?’.

It took a few seconds for me to realise that Lucas was staring at us curiously.

‘Did I miss something?’ he asked, raising his eyebrow suspiciously.

‘No’ we both looked back at him as I revved the engine again, ‘Va va voom’.

I wound through a few roads before I finally turned a sharp right into where I assumed the centre to be. I took my eyes off the road for only a second when I heard Keith yell at me to brake.

‘Stop!’

Thud.

An infected – I’d hit an infected. How?

‘No’ I mumbled ‘they shouldn’t be here’.

‘There’s more’ Keith said, staring down a whole crowd in front of us.

‘Am I in the right place’.

‘Yeah, yeah, The community centre is here’ Lucas’ voice wasn’t as smooth as it usually was, ‘It’s just over the-‘

His voice stopped, his breath catching in his throat. I didn’t have to wonder why for very long. Following his gaze, I saw the single worst thing I’d ever seen in my life.

‘No’ I whispered, ‘No, it can’t be here, no..’

The community centre, the Church, they were swarmed with infected. They spilled out the doors, growling and screeching. Bodies lay spread all over the floor, discarded and used.

‘No, we must be in the wrong place’.

The huge scribbled sign with ‘Scotland Refuge Evacuation Centre’ told me different though.

‘They must have relocated’ Keith’s eyes were filled with disbelief, shock. He didn’t believe his words, I could tell. I didn’t believe his words, this was it. I knew because of the men in army print I could see on the floor, still thrashing for their lives. I knew because of the familiar face laying on the concrete, the familiar body sprawled out on the floor near the car.

‘Skylar!’ I sobbed, pushing open the car door and slamming it behind me, ‘Skylar!’ I could hear the boys screaming behind me, telling me to get back in. I knew the infected were in crowds only a little way ahead but I didn’t care, I just didn’t care.

‘Oh no’ I cried, dropping to the ground next to her body, knowing this wasn’t the best friend whose house I’d left only days ago. We’d cried together watching Titanic, she spilled popcorn all over the floor.

She was dead, laying in front of me dead.

‘Harley’ It was Lucas, gripping onto my shoulders, ‘Oh god, I’m so sorry Harley, I’m so sorry’.

He was wrong, it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be.

‘No’ I choked, ‘This isn’t happening’ My eyes involuntarily squeezed shut, trying to block out everything around me, stopping my hand reaching for the beautiful red hair of my best friend splayed all over the pavement in a fan, like she’d planned it.

‘Harley’ It was Keith now, pulling me into his arms, letting me sob into his chest, stroking my hair, whispering soft reassurances into my ear. I could feel him gently tugging me in the direction of the car and in seconds I was seated again with the doors closed, still entwined with the boy I still couldn’t quite let go.

Dead. Skylar, my best friend, dead. What about my family? If Skylar had ended up all the way up here, what about my family? They must have been here, they must have.

‘I found this’ Lucas whispered the words as though he could barely force them from his throat. Between sobs I let my neck rotate slowly, looking directly at his hands.

Mum’s purse.

He was holding mum’s purse.