Autumn exodus, p.8
Autumn - Exodus, page 8
They were still hung up on past losses, hadn’t had space to even start trying to deal with them. Today alone they’d lost more than one hundred and fifty of their friends – another mass of hurt that would eventually need to be unpacked. And no one yet dared to mention the countless family members, loved ones, colleagues, and other friends who’d been killed without explanation that first week of September. It felt like there was layer upon layer upon layer of loss, too deep for any of them to dig through.
#
They dined on ration packs in a musty mess-hall. With everyone occupied, David left the main building to look for Chapman and Steve. He saw that there were bodies in front of the gates. It was no surprise; wherever they went, the dead would find them. Their numbers were low for now, but David knew it wouldn’t take much of a disturbance for a handful to become a crowd, then a mob, then a major problem.
They were waiting for him in the cadet headquarters on the other side of the yard. It reminded David of the draughty old Scout hut he used to go to when he was a kid. In comparison to the other buildings on the site, it felt flimsy and prefabricated. ‘Our reluctant leader,’ Steve said when he entered the building.
David sighed. ‘Fuck me, I keep telling everyone I’m not the leader.’
‘And the rest of us keep telling you that you are. For now, at least. Anyway, want to know what we’ve got?’
‘Go on.’
‘For starters, three well-maintained trucks and a van. Not the most comfortable of rides, but they’ll do. Plenty of room for all of us that’s left and our gear. Next, quite a bit of useful kit. There’s a reasonable stock of ration packs, some protective gear, lots of useful stuff we can use out in the field.’
‘Sounds good. What about–?’
‘Weapons?’ Steve interrupted, pre-empting him. ‘Yep, there’s some stuff we can take, but I’d keep it between us. You know how it is, Dave, the dead are coming apart at the seams as it is, we don’t need to start shooting at them.’
Chapman agreed. ‘We need to steer away from guns and grenades. You’ll get rid of a handful, but every single shot will let hundreds more corpses know where you are.’
Steve wasn’t finished. ‘I know my way around this kit, but I don’t intend spending the next few weeks and months training civvies how to fight. I mean, can you imagine Omar getting his hands on a frigging automatic rifle? Terrifying! We’re not that far gone.’
David managed half a smile. ‘So, apart from the fact you don’t trust Omar with a gun, what exactly are you telling me?’
‘That we should be good here for a day or two, but no longer,’ Chapman explained. ‘As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we already have an audience building outside. We’ve got time to get some rest and get our heads together, talk about next steps, but that’s about it. I reckon we’re still far too close to London to risk hanging around for long.’
‘People are going to want to stay,’ David said.
‘And we need to be ready to persuade them otherwise. Look around... things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the capital, and it should only get easier the further north we go. I’m not suggesting we go all the way up to la la land or wherever it is in Yorkshire that Vicky’s determined to visit, just far enough. It’ll be December in a couple of days. Winter’s coming. Once we get a couple of months into the new year, everything will look different again.’
‘Will it? I’m not so sure. You might have the appetite for it, but I’m not sure about everyone else. I’m not even sure I have. It’s the wrong end of the wrong day to be having this conversation.’
‘No, it’s exactly the right day. We should let the others have a night off tonight, then start sowing the seeds tomorrow. And don’t start with all that I’m not a leader bullshit again, because right now you’re the closest thing we’ve got.’
‘I’m no Dominic Grove,’ he said quickly.
‘Thank fuck for that,’ Steve said. ‘You’re as far removed from that slimy little bastard as it’s possible to get. Look, mate, I know what I’m talking about. You’re good officer material. You lead from the front, and you’re not opposed to getting your hands dirty. I heard people talking tonight like they’d found their forever home here, but I reckon that’s just wishful thinking. We need to get them used to the idea that this is just another pitstop. In fact, we need to get them used to the fact that it’s going to be pitstop after pitstop for the foreseeable future.’
12
DAY EIGHTY-EIGHT
They spent almost the entire following day trying to acclimatise, but it was easier said than done. Switching off and kicking back was a thing of the past, no matter how safe their surroundings had initially appeared. As the hours ticked by, the barracks began to feel less suitable, less secure, less permanent. As much of an improvement on their previous hideouts and boltholes as they clearly were, they still weren’t good enough. Even here, surrounded by military kit and protected by walls and fences and open spaces, they still had to take risks just to fulfil their basic needs.
For starters, they needed food.
Sam and Mihai found a supermarket within walking distance. A group of ten volunteers left the base to collect enough to keep everyone fed and watered for a few days at least. Despite the fact they stayed quiet and moved slowly, and even though most of the people who went out to loot were used to tiptoeing around the dead and not taking chances, they still hit problems. There were too many wandering bodies in the area to be able to avoid all of them. The looters tried to balance safety and speed, and though they were largely successful, by the time the job was done, the crowd of cadavers hanging around the gates had more than doubled in size. The dead showed no signs of retreat. ‘They’re becoming more persistent,’ Sam said. ‘Their behaviours are changing. They’re holding back more, reacting with less volatility. It’s like they’re thinking.’
His comments had initially been met with derision from certain quarters, but the evidence was mounting.
‘I saw the same thing at the service station, and again on the way here. And before you start ripping the piss out of me, I know exactly how ridiculous this sounds. Their physical condition is better than the ones in London, it makes sense that what’s left of their brains are in better shape too. I swear I could see one making a rudimentary decision last night; I don’t know... it sounds crazy, I know.’
‘No, I think you’re onto something,’ Vicky said. ‘I’ve seen it too. When I watch them now, I can feel them watching back. I think they’re struggling to work out what’s happening to them as much as we are.’
The food they’d scavenged had mostly been eaten by the end of the day. They’d have to go out again tomorrow and get more. The group’s first night here had been relaxing and optimistic, but with a steadily growing crowd loitering outside the gates, and with Sam’s words echoing around their heads, many people resigned themselves to sleepless second nights. David resisted the temptation to try and impose his views on the rest of the group, figuring instead that it would be better for them all to come naturally to the same conclusions. He paced around the barracks, no intention of trying to sleep. Our time here is running out, he thought. Why are we delaying things? Why not just leave right now?
#
He’d only been lying on his bed for a couple of minutes when Lisa collared him. ‘You’re needed,’ she whispered, gesturing towards the cadet building, and his heart sank. He didn’t bother asking questions because there was no point. It could only be bad news. There’s no such thing as good news anymore, if there ever was.
Sanjay, Chapman, Sam, and Steven had three prisoners.
It wasn’t too strong a word to use, because whoever these kids were – and he didn’t recognise any of them – they weren’t going anywhere. They were young and uniformly scrawny mid-teens, waifs, two lads and a girl, each of them draped in layers of ragged clothes that might have fitted once but which now looked several sizes too big.
‘We caught these three trying to break in and help themselves,’ Steve explained.
‘It’s not like it’s your stuff,’ one of the boys said. ‘You broke in here too.’
The girl in the middle nudged him in the ribs. ‘I told you, I’ll do the talking,’ she hissed. He crossed his arms and slumped back in his chair, suitably admonished. She looked up at David. ‘We weren’t after your stuff.’
He stood in front of the three of them, doing his best impression of a stern headteacher. ‘If you’re not on the take, do you want to tell us what it is you’re doing here?’
‘Trying to stay alive, same as you.’
‘And how do you know anything about us?’
‘We don’t. All we know is that you’re trouble. Are you something to do with that last lot that came through? We heard them on the motorway, frigging maniacs.’
David glanced at Chapman, then turned back to the girl. ‘Believe me, we’re nothing to do with them. And you’ll stay away from them too if you’ve got any sense.’
‘They didn’t hang around. Were they friends of yours?’
‘Hardly.’
‘What do you mean, we’re trouble?’ Chapman demanded. She shrugged.
‘We’ve only lasted so long here because we’ve been careful. We saw you lot walking along the Warley Road. We heard you a mile off. Ours is one of those big houses you went past.’
‘And?’
‘And if we heard you, they’ll hear you too. It’s not good. You’ll fuck it up for all of us. You’ve already got a load of them hanging around outside.’
Much to Chapman’s surprise and annoyance, David pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the kids. ‘You’re right. You’ve done well to have lasted so long here. We’ve had a bit of a shitty time, to be honest. I’m David. It’s good to meet you.’
Taken aback, the girl shook his hand when he offered it. ‘I’m Mia. This is Callum and Ollie.’
‘And you three have been doing okay here?’
‘Better than everybody else,’ Callum said. David laughed.
‘Good answer. So, you’ve got a good set up at the house?’
Callum was about to answer, but Mia spoke first. ‘Why should we tell you? You gonna come and take all our stuff next?’
‘That’s not going to happen, I promise. There’s more than enough to go around these days. We’re not going to be a threat to you unless you threaten us.’
‘Carry on like this and you’re gonna get us all killed,’ Callum grunted. His voice was full of animosity. ‘We heard you out shopping this morning, dumb fuckers. Every dead bastard a mile around heard you too.’
Chapman wasn’t impressed. ‘Who does he think he’s talking to? Cocky little shit.’
David held up a hand to silence him. ‘It’s okay. I understand. We’re on their turf, remember.’ He turned back to Callum. ‘We’re just trying to find somewhere safe. We started off in central London, not through choice, and we’ve been trying to get out ever since.’
‘There was a lot of smoke coming from that way,’ Mia said.
‘Yep. Long story short, there’s not a lot of central London left anymore. There’s not a lot of us left either, to be honest. Until a couple of days ago there were almost three hundred of us. We lost a lot of people along the way.’
‘You got a plan, or are you making it up as you go along?’
‘Bit of both. We’re trying to get north. We think things will be better up there.’
‘So who was that we heard on the motorway?’
‘Trouble. People who sold us out and left us stranded. We’re all better off without them.’
‘To be honest, sounds like we had it easy in comparison,’ Mia said. ‘We just found the biggest house we could, away from everything else, and we’re waiting it out. We’re all from around here. We know the place. We went the long way whenever we needed to go into town and fetch stuff – through the park then in and out on the train line. There was never many of the dead down there.’
‘Sounds like you’ve done alright for yourselves.’
There was a pause, a definite hesitation before she continued. Her voice was different now, emotional, all the cockiness stripped away. ‘We had another couple of people with us to start with.’
‘What happened?’
‘Crace had diabetes. This woman Simone had been with him from the start. She knew him from before it all happened. He ran out of insulin, and we couldn’t find what he needed. We told Simone we’d been through all the hospitals and the chemists we knew, but she wanted to keep looking, even though she knew there was no point because she was only ever gonna keep him alive for a little bit longer. She went out on her own one day and never came back. Stupid, really. They didn’t both have to die.’
The conversation faltered, everyone musing on what Mia had said. Then Ollie cleared his throat and spoke for the first time. ‘You can’t stay here.’
‘Why not?’ David asked.
‘Too close to town. Too many deaders. It ain’t gonna take a lot to bring them all over this way. You’re lucky you never done it when you was in the supermarket, ‘cause if that happens, we’re all fucked.’
‘We’re not planning on hanging around.’
‘I get it. You’re just gonna stay here long enough to fuck everything up for us, then leave?’
‘You could come with us. That’s what you really came here for, isn’t it?’ David looked at each of their grubby faces, struggling to discern their reactions. He gestured at the bags they’d been carrying. ‘We can drop all the pretence. You’ve come packed. There’s no point hanging around here on your own.’
‘Jesus, Dave, we don’t even know them,’ Chapman said.
‘And we don’t know you,’ Ollie sneered. ‘You could be paedos or anything.’
Mia glared at him again. ‘If so many of your group have died, are we gonna be any safer with you?’
‘Now that’s the million-dollar question,’ David explained. ‘Things might work out for the best, but on the other hand, leaving here might be the biggest mistake any of us have made. We’ve got some ideas of where we’re going, but nothing concrete. We’re going to try and find ourselves somewhere away from the dead and wait until they’ve rotted away to nothing.’
‘We were thinking the same,’ she said, nonchalant.
‘You were planning to stay in Brentwood, though?’
She shrugged. ‘Couldn’t really go anywhere.’
‘Look, I’ll level with you,’ David said, ‘it makes no difference to us either way. You’re right, we’ve lost too many of our people; and a number of them chose not to come. I don’t know... having you three onboard feels like a step in the right direction.’
‘Are we sure about this?’ Sanjay asked. ‘Bit of a frigging risk if you ask me. They could be anybody.’
‘So could we.’
‘And what are they going to bring to the party? Just three more mouths to feed?’
‘We can help you get out of Brentwood safe,’ Callum said. ‘We can get you back to the motorway, help you get around the crowds.’
‘I’m sure we can manage,’ Chapman said, sounding less than impressed. ‘I don’t need kids giving me directions.’
‘You sure? You been into Brentwood recently?’
13
DAY EIGHTY-NINE
The layover at the barracks came to a natural end. By mid-morning the size of the crowd outside the gates was substantial and showed no signs of abating. The question was not if the group left, but when. There were no arguments when David made the announcement. ‘We’ve dealt with bigger hordes, sure, but we all know things could go either way. They’re unpredictable, and there might be another ten thousand waiting for us around the corner. Look at it this way, if we’re not safe here in an army base, then we’re not safe here at all.’
With vehicles and supplies, they could make actual progress.
The vote was unanimous.
The yard at the rear of the barracks was secluded enough that Steve, Chapman, and Ruth could work on getting the vehicles ready without antagonising the rotting crowd. Liz, Vicky, Orla, and David coordinated the rest of the group as they stripped the site.
Sam had been dispatched into town with Ollie and Callum, the three of them tasked with doing whatever they could to coax the dead away from the roads that would be used to get back to the motorway. Their respective routes had been meticulously planned, little margin for error. Everyone involved knew that the moment the engines burst into life, a slow-motion stampede would be triggered. Unless they could be persuaded otherwise, the entire remaining undead population of Brentwood would begin to herd in the direction of the barracks.
‘I never realised there was so much green space here,’ Sam said, keeping his voice low as they skulked between the trees. The forest stretched away in all directions. It was hard to believe they were so close to the centre of a London commuter town.
‘Whole world’s gonna look like this soon enough,’ Ollie mumbled, ‘how ‘bout that? A fucking silver lining.’
At the northern tip of these woods, a path out of the trees led between a cemetery on one side and the backs of houses on the other. Sam pulled Ollie back. ‘You’re sure this is going to work?’
‘It’s all under control, mate. We’ve done this loads of times before. Go with the flow and don’t slow us down. Just trust us.’
