British Zombie Breakout: Part Two (7 page)

The aisles furthest from the door, where all the useful goods
were kept, were deeply shadowed. Janet found the chillers still
running but most of the food was a couple of weeks out of
date.

'Things like cheese are going to be edible, even if the meat
isn't,' Janet said. 'Actually, anything that might have gone off
has been taken away. That's odd.'

'Looks like there's plenty of meat and fish in cans,' Graham
said.

Karen was in the aisle marked Canned Vegetables. 'I wonder if
they've got any of those tins of baked beans with the little
sausages in?'

'How about long life milk or jars of coffee?' Bill said,
switching on the torch.

A deafening bang had everyone on the floor and sent the few
goods they'd picked up rolling across the tiles. Bits of plaster
and dust floated about, and a ceiling panel clattered down on to
the top of a freezer cabinet.

'You alright in there?' Sarah's panicked voice shouted from
outside the door.

'Went in the ceiling.' Janet said. 'Stay outside, just in
case.'

'We've got guns, too you know, mate,' Graham said. 'Doesn't
mean we have to go shooting at people.'

'Weren't shootin' at yer,' an elderly male voice came back.
'This is all our stuff. Don't want you robbin' it.'

Graham noted the plural in the old man's reply. 'You the
owners, then?'

'None of your business.'

'So, it's not your food, either.'

'No, but we was 'ere first.' The voice stayed where it was,
near the bakery department in the back corner, as far as Graham
could make out.

'Fair enough,' Bill said, reassuring himself he had his
revolver in his pocket. He crawled to a junction between the aisles
and squinted round but couldn't see anything.

Janet reached in her bag for the flare gun. When her hand
reached the lining and it wasn't there, she froze for a second,
thinking she must have lost it. With a sigh she realised Sarah had
it.

Chapter
1
7: A Green Light

The gruff voice in the corner returned. 'What you doin' in
'ere?'

'We're just hungry is all it is,' Janet said, trying not to
sound as fearful as she felt.

'Stan, they have women with them,' a woman's voice said. 'Now
give that gun to me.' The woman's accent contrasted sharply with
the man's. Her voice was just so, like an old fashioned BBC radio
announcer.

'We've got kids outside, you can spare a little food for them,
can't you?' Karen said. She reached for the tin of beans she'd
dropped when the old man fired his gun.

'Don't know 'bout that. Said they'd got guns
themselves.'

'We have no intention of shooting anyone,' Janet said,
recovering her usual firmness.

'Now look here, Stanley, you do as I say.'

'Neither us nor the kids have eaten today,' Karen
said.

'It's alright,' said the woman. 'I have Stanley's gun. It'll
not be fired again, I can assure you.'

'Thank you. May we collect a few things, then?'

A grey-haired lady of medium height stepped into view, holding
the muzzle of a single shot rifle, the shoulder stock resting on
the floor. 'It's all right, you can get up now. Use a basket but
please only take what you need. We don't know how long this will
have to last us. We lost our homes, you know.'

'Thanks, that's very kind. We'll just take a piece of cheese
and a few tins, if that's alright.'

'And a jar of coffee and some milk, please,' Karen
said.

'Certainly dear,' the lady said. 'Take a box of chocolate
maize flakes.'

'Those are?'

'Next aisle. All the kids like those, don't they.'

Graham, Bill, Karen and Janet had picked themselves and the
few tins of food they'd dropped earlier and smiled at the woman who
was now acting as their host. Before the fugitives moved off to
take another item or two, Stan appeared next to the woman, putting
his arm around her and taking the gun but keeping it resting on the
ground.

'We 'ad trouble last night, see,' he said.

Janet looked up from the chiller. 'Trouble?'

'Some of those frightful creatures came bothering
us.'

'Yeah, we thought they was supposed to be all cleared out by
the army.'

'Stanley had to shoot two of them,' the old lady said. 'You
were awfully brave, weren't you dear?'

'In the shop?' Janet said.

Bill flashed the torch on its UV setting back around the
aisles towards the door. The beam was noticeably dimmer than usual
but there was no sign of the fluorescence that would be given off
by zombie blood.

'Oh gracious, no, we shut everything up at night. They were
trying to get in at the back, gave us a dreadful
fright.'

'Yeah but I shot 'em through the toilet window
upstairs.'

'Yes, beastly things. Quite woke us up. We, ah… we sleep in
the office upstairs, you see.'

Janet smiled to herself at the lady's embarrassment at
admitting to sharing living quarters with the man she called
Stanley.

'You don't have any batteries left do you?' Bill said, holding
up the torch.

'Yeah, spec so. Don't 'ave any use for them things,' Stan
said, pointing towards one of the aisles near the
checkouts.

Bill went and chose two of the big, square batteries which
fitted the torch. In trying them out, the beam brushed over the
faces of Stan and his companion. Their eyes flashed with bright
green fluorescence.

'Ere, watch where you're pointin' that thing.'

'Oh, er, yes. Sorry,' Bill said, casting a hurried glance
towards Janet, to see if she'd noticed the effect on the couple's
eyes.

'The, um, zombies you shot last night, you didn't touch them,
did you?' Janet said.

'Nah, not really. Just dragged them in a heap and covered them
in wood, set fire to it, like they tell you on the
radio.'

'Awful, Stanley, just awful.'

'Yeah, disgustin' they was. All sticky with blood and
dribble.'

'I see. Oh, well thank you for letting us have some food,'
Janet said.

'Yes, thanks,' Karen said, moving quickly towards the door
with the others.

They put the provisions in the back of the van and Janet got
in the front beside Rachel. Alex squashed up in the middle next to
her classmate, so Graham could drive. As they drove off, Bill said
to Karen in the back of the van, 'If they didn't want people to go
in, why'd they leave the door unlocked?'

'Perhaps they weren't expecting anyone. Maybe, if they locked
it folks would break in anyway.'

'Don't think it's that. There's practically no-one around
anyway.'

'Still a few zombies,' like they said.

A mile down the road they came to an industrial estate. There
was a warehouse with its front doors wide open.

'Pull over,' Janet said.

Chapter
18: Poor Old Things

Graham manoeuvred the van up next to the warehouse doors and
backed it inside. Bill checked the immediate area with the torch
for zombie blood. It was clear.

'I'm starving!' Maisie said, jumping out the back of the van
with the others.

'Before we eat,' Janet said, 'I want to check something. Bill,
did you see the old couple's eyes when you flashed the UV beam at
them?'

'Yeah, what do you make of that?'

'I don't know but I want to try it on us. Everyone line up
over here in the shadow. Right Bill, sweep the torch over our faces
with the UV on.'

'Yeah, OK?'

'Did you see anything?'

'Nothing. Not like those two old folks back there, bless
'em.'

'Now on yourself.'

'Right, you're the same, nothing.'

'What's up, mum,' Steve said.

'When Bill shone the torch in the eyes of the two people back
there, they flashed bright green.'

'What, like zombie blood?'

'Yes, just like that. I don't understand.'

'Had they been near zombies?'

'Said they'd shot a couple last night.'

'And they touched them?'

'Sounded like it. They might have got infected but it's too
soon to tell.'

'No, no. Mum, that's it. That's the test!'

'Can you can talk while we eat at the same time?' Alex
said.

'Very sensible. Let's stack all the food we got over there and
sweep that with the torch too. Bill?'

'It's all fine, by the look of it.'

'Alright, Bill, save the batteries. Karen, Sarah, can you
organise the food, while I talk to Steve?'

'No problem. Maisie, Rachel, what can we do for a can
opener?'

'I've got one on my penknife,' Fred said.

'I am like so hungry, Sarah,' Maisie said. 'Please can I start
on the cereal?'

'Sure, take a handful and pass the carton along.'

A separate little huddle comprising Janet, Graham and Steve
formed around the warmth from the van's engine.

'Do you mind if I join you, Mrs Reynolds?' Alex said. 'This
sounds even more interesting than eating right now.'

'Of course.'

Steven was practically bursting with the desire to explain his
theory. 'It's the pre-symptomatic stage,' he said.

'The what?' Graham said.

'Before people start with the drooling and melting and things
going rotten kind of stuff. Before it shows up in blood tests,
maybe.'

'OK,' Alex said, 'You mean the torch doesn't only work for
zombie blood, it works on the eyes as well?'

'Exactly, it's a way of telling if someone's infected almost
straight away. Within a few hours by the look of it.'

'Are you saying that when someone's got the virus, their eyes
light up, like the old couple at the supermarket?'

'Looks like it, mum. You and Bill saw it…'

'I saw it, too,' Graham said.

'The three of you saw it. You heard them saying they'd been in
contact with zombies. That Stan fellow even said he'd touched them.
You only need a speck of blood inside you and that's
it.'

'So it means they've got it,' Alex said. 'Poor old
things.'

Janet sighed and nodded. 'Certainly looks that
way.'

'But our eyes don't light up, so it proves none of us is
infected,' Steve said.

'At least that's one good thing to come out of it.'

'It's not just that, don't you realise what it means?' Alex
said.

'Well, for a start we can show we're not infected,' Graham
said.

Steve had been studying Alex's face. 'That's not all. They can
screen people now, instead of herding everyone together until they
all die.'

Alex nodded. 'Exactly.'

'There's a third thing, too,' Janet said. 'We can use it to
bargain with the Ministry to let us go free.'

Chapter
19: Welcome to Stannicvale

The sound of a helicopter at high altitude grew in
volume.

'Get inside, right inside!' Janet said.

The noise of the helicopter passed slowly overhead.

'Think they're looking for us?'

'Absolutely certain.'

'We're trapped then.'

'We need to change the van for something else, that's for
sure.'

'When the 'copter's gone, I'll take a look round, there might
be something else on this estate.'

Bill and Graham scouted around the various factory units.
There was a furniture removal van, a minibus but it was painted in
bright colours and would be seen from miles away, and an abandoned
local single-decker bus.

'This looks about the best of a bad job,' Graham
said.

'Still pretty visible, though. Let's try the next
building.

'Oh, this is perfect! Look at this.'

They found themselves standing before a medium sized army
truck, complete with camo paintwork and an intact camo net over the
back section.

'Don't get too excited, it's probably been left here because
there's something wrong with it.'

'Well, there's a key still in it,' Graham said after opening
the driver's door.

'OK, give it a whirl.'

Graham sat in the driver's seat, checked the gears were in
neutral, then gave the key a firm twist. The engine revolved half a
turn, coughed and the battery died.

'Fuel gauge is on empty.'

'We can try the battery from the van and there might be other
vehicles that have fuel left in them. If we have to we can syphon
it out.'

'That's if we can find some tubing and a can to put it
in.'