Dead Winter: A gripping crime thriller full of suspense (7 page)

Lucky. Yeah, that was the right word for it.

We spent the rest of the day either sat in the lounge, playing card games and chess; or on the balconies, scanning the streets for any sign of life. Eventually, we resigned ourselves to our respective rooms.

My room was rather cramped, the walls plastered with posters of various rock stars and bands. I happily threw myself onto the bed and gazed up at the ceiling for awhile, thinking everything through. I wondered if the infection had reached my father yet. For the first time in a long time, I was concerned for his safety.

Pulling out my phone, I went through my contacts until I found his number. I put it to my ear and waited, listening to the rhythmic electric dial-tone. After about a minute, nobody answered and it went through to voice mail.

At least the phones were still working.

One by one, I went through all the contacts on my phone for a good twenty minutes. Nobody answered however, and I threw the phone onto a nearby desk and sighed in desperation. I wanted with all my heart for everyone to be fine. But deep in my mind, I knew that it wasn't that simple.

Sleep slowly came over me, and I fell into another haunted sleep, full of torn flesh, screaming and blood. Sleeping wasn't that easy without my medication.

Chapter Seven

Day Four (24th December – 11:07AM)

Light sifted into the room through the blinds as my eyes slowly flickered open and adjusted to the light. Dragging myself into a sitting position I let out a loud yawn and stretched my arms out.

I reached out for my phone and glanced at the time before noticing the flashing light at the top of the display, the battery was finally going dead.

11:07AM. I'd overslept.

After changing into my clothes, I made my way downstairs to the lounge. To my surprise, only two people were present besides myself out of the five of us. Claire stood in the kitchen, making coffee while Paul sat in an armchair, absorbed in a book.

I walked into the kitchen and pulled myself a mug from the drainer and began making myself a coffee while the kettle boiled. Somehow, the electricity was still running. Perhaps the power station was still in operation, maybe the military had set up a base there.

I honestly had no idea.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Claire, who was preoccupied with pouring hot water into both of our mugs.

"Dave and John left a few hours ago to go find something, not quite sure what they're looking for." she responded cheerfully. I picked up my mug from the counter and walked over to the couch with it, setting it down on the table.

"Huh.. They could've woken me." I muttered to myself as I took my seat. We'd been staying at this house for a day or two now and I found myself growing more accustomed to my surroundings. Though I kind of missed my own home, still laying in ruins further in the city.

I grabbed the television remote and pressed the on button as I took a sip of my drink. The screen came to life with a little humming noise. Every since the outbreak, the news had been playing pretty much 24/7; replacing the variety of shows now were news reports from all across the country. They must be broadcasting from somewhere further south, away from all of this.

Must be nice, being away from all the danger.

"We're hearing reports of infected individuals appearing in southern cities, and there has been a reported outbreak in the city of London yesterday." the news-anchor said sternly, shuffling a stack of papers in her hands while she spoke.

Maybe not so nice after all.

I grew weary of all the reports after an hour or so and decided to turn the TV off again. Claire brought me a few slices of toast since I hadn't eaten yet; we were trying to eat all of the perishable foods before they went off. Unfortunately, the bread was rather stale, but it didn't really matter to me.

I'd lived the student life, eating stale foods and reduced items to save money. I deeply missed my life before all of this; I missed my friends dearly and wondered how they were doing.

A couple of hours later, the sound of an engine humming became audible from outside as the other two returned from their little trip. We were still using the car we had taken from the supermarket.

Claire ran over to the door to unlock it for them, the familiar sound of clicking was heard for a few seconds before the door swung open, bringing with it a cold and bitter wind that chilled my very bones.

The door closed behind them as they entered the hallway and locked the door once more. I caught a brief glimpse of John as he passed the doorway, but instead of entering the lounge, he dashed up the stairs to his room with bags in hand.

On the other hand, Dave entered the lounge and threw his coat onto the back of an armchair before planting himself in it. He let out a brief yawn and turned his head to face me.

"When'd you wake up?" he asked me, stretching his arms out into the air. I took a sip of my coffee and propped my feet up on the table.

"A few hours ago. Where have you been?" I asked, setting my mug down on the table.

"We went out looking for some things, it's a bit of a surprise." Dave answered, a smug grin lurking across his face.

A surprise? This should be interesting.

After a few minutes, John came back downstairs and entered the lounge. He too slid off his coat and threw it on top of Dave's before slouching into one of the armchairs.

"It's bloody cold out there now." John sighed, biting his bottom lip as Claire approached him and Dave with two cups of coffee. They nodded in appreciation before taking small sips from their mugs.

The lounge was nice and warm compared to the harsh winter winds outside, we'd turned the electric fire on and it was filling the room with a nice, cosy warmth that soothed me deeply. Paul glanced over the top of his book to look at us for a second before turning the page and diving straight back into it.

"Anything new on the news while we were gone?" John asked, the question being directed at me specifically.

"Not that much, really. There's infected in London now though, apparently." I responded, letting out a little sigh as I reached for my mug, snatching it off of the table.

"Yeah, I heard about that this morning" Dave added, straightening his tie a little. "The whole country seems to be falling to pieces."

Indeed it was.

"We found a little military outpost while we were out, the place was deserted." said John while toying with his ponytail. I rubbed my chin stubble for a second before my hand moved up to my head, feeling the little mark where I had hit it a few days ago. I'd removed the bandages the previous night.

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of laughter and couldn't help but remember the last time I was woken up by such a sound. I shuddered for a moment, remembering the fate of that man.

I clothed myself and headed downstairs where the laughter was coming from. Appearing in the lounge, I was met with a strange sight.

In the corner of the room stood a tall Christmas tree, already adorned with various decorations: gold and red tinsel and a variety of different colour baubles with a golden star on top.

"God damn, It's Christmas!" John sang merrily to himself, busying himself with making coffee for everyone.

"Holy shit, it's Christmas!" Dave retorted in a mockingly accurate impersonation of John.

It's Christmas. I'd nearly forgotten.

Under tree were little bundles wrapped inside plastic shopping bags, there were at least a dozen or more of them. I sank into an armchair by the television, which was muted.

"Right! Now that we're all here. It's present time~" John called to the rest of us. "We've even been out to get a few special items."

The eyes fell once more upon the wrapped packages under the tree as John reached down to grab them, peering inside to check which was which and which one was for who.

It was Claire's turn first and John was not ready to disappoint, pulling out a rectangular black box to hand to her. She opened it, and a faint glimmer of silver came into view as she pulled a delicate looking necklace from the box. She smiled in glee as she placed it around her neck, stuttering words of thanks.

"This is for you, thought you should be able to protect yourself if you ever need to." Dave said as he pulled out a rather shiny knife in a sheath from his bag, handing it over to her.

Next, John pulled out a package from his own bag, handing it to Dave. Dave nodded as he took the package, unwrapping it to reveal a handgun quite similar to mine. A brief smirk could be seen on Dave's face as he looked at the gun.

"Thanks, man. I wondered what you were doing back there." he said to John, clearly talking about something that had happened while they were out.

"Well it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if you knew now, would it mate?" John snickered, motioning to his bag once more.

"Now for you, Ethan. I've got something special." John sang, walking over to me with two packages in hand. I wondered what he could have possibly acquired for me.

As I thought about it, he handed the first one over to me. It was another shopping bag with a few rectangular objects inside. As I opened it, I realised what they were; magazines for my handgun, full of rounds.

"Thanks, man." I uttered, but was cut off near the end as John spoke again.

"Don't thank me just yet, wait till you see the next one!" he said, laughing a little before handing me the last package.

I turned the square box over in my hands for a few seconds before opening it gently. A glint of gold was visible as the box opened; it was a watch cast in solid gold and silver.

"I imagine that you're phone is just about out of juice, right?" John said in his sing-song tone of voice, pointing to my pocket.

"Wow, this is great. I wonder how much it's worth.." I said, thanking John profusely as I tried on the watch. It was a decent fit, a little slack but it wasn't as if I could get it adjusted. It suited me quite a bit considering how often I checked the time.

For Paul was an obvious gift; books. His eyes lit up as Dave and John pulled out a book each by his favourite author. Paul didn't seem to do much besides read the whole time I had been here, I suppose it was his hobby.

My hobby was dead in the snow, along with all my other possessions.

Having completely forgotten about Christmas, I had to improvise a little with my choice in gifts. For Dave, I gave the metal baseball bat I had acquired from the supermarket. For John, I gave something I had hidden in my bag for the last day or so; a leather slouch hat.

As he tried on the hat, I was vividly reminded of a character from a game I used to play, an Australian Sniper who had a tendency to wear these sorts of hats. John looked the part, he even had the kukri.

"Now, THIS is nice." John said, checking himself out in the mirror.

"Thought you might like it, saw it when we first met." I muttered, shrugging my shoulders lightly.

"So your first thought was to get me a hat?" John laughed, spinning around on the spot, his coat swishing around behind him.

"Not exactly.." I grimaced.

Unfortunately, I didn't really have much else to give and made my apologies clear to Paul and Claire. I had pretty much forgotten about Christmas, so hadn't had time to prepare.

Everything was buried in the rubble.

So we sat there, quietly singing songs and drinking whiskey. John was still admiring his hat in the corner of the room.

At least he liked it.

I felt strangely disillusioned with the whole scenario. Here we were drinking alcohol and pulling Christmas crackers with funny hats, having a jolly time while outside in the dark people were screaming, dying and struggling to live.

We sat around the fire for a couple of hours, talking merrily. As I reached over to examine my handgun, I knocked over the television remote and the screen flickered on.

"The infection is spreading at a faster rate than first anticipated, already reaching parts of Lincolnshire and other regions." the news-anchor said in a worried tone of voice, knowing full well that the infection might soon reach their doorsteps down in London.

All it took was one person, one person with even a shred of resistance to travel to another area while they were still fine. Then all that had to happen was for the infection to take over. Just a tiny bit of fluid from any part of the body. Even a kiss could transfer the infection over to a new host.

"Mate, turn that shit off. It's Christmas!" John called over the noise of the television. I leant down to pick up the remote, turning it over in my hands.

But as I was about to turn it off, something flashed up on the screen in front of me in big black letters across the bottom half of the screen. Breaking News.

"Hang on, hang on. Be quiet!" I hissed, paying close attention to every word that the news-anchor was saying to us.

"To anyone still in the initial region, there is an evacuation point setting up on the northern side of the city, just off of the motorway. Anyone who is still alive should seek evacuation immediately." the news-anchor said as clear as she could.

Huh?

Chapter Eight