Great Bitten: Outbreak (24 page)

Lana was looking at us both, and now she was more scared of Rick. In his grief he would be the more likely of us to strike out at her in anger. Now she was guaranteed to become one of the infected, perhaps he would feel justified in his vengeance. But Rick looked at her through tear-stained eyes and shook his head.

“I can’t do it for you Lana. I just can’t hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it. God help that fat bastard when I get my hands on him. But I can’t hurt you.”

She smiled gloomily at us. “Thank you. I was worried you’d turn on me or leave me. It’s nice to be around normal people at the end. But I’m just putting you both in danger by staying here. Is there anything else you need to know?”

We both shook our heads at the same time. As far as the rest was concerned, we knew as much as she did. Perhaps more, with our knowledge of Matt’s betrayal, Andy’s attempt to amend his mistakes at the cost of his own life, and Jez’ heroism despite his knowledge of what people thought of him. Lana got to her knees, patting her still-damp pockets and making sure there was nothing she had that would be of use to us. She came up clean and still managed to look apologetic. Then she held out her hand to us. We both took it in turn. Her stance told her that was all she needed; the only form of comfort she wanted before the end.

“You saved my life. I can’t even give you a clean end.”

“It doesn’t matter Warren.” She began to walk away. Partway down the hill she looked back at me over her shoulder. “I always thought living in a zombie apocalypse would be kind of cool. And now I know it absolutely whomps. I’m just going to walk in the direction of some people I don’t like and hope they’re still around for me to say hello.”

She left. Rick and I sat down next to each other, bodies barely separated. Night fell. Under the blanket of the stars we were cold and alone. But we were alive.

“
aut viam inveniam aut faciam”

Sleep that
night was impossible for both of us. We lost ourselves in our thoughts. There wasn’t enough humour in the atmosphere for us to make small talk. The sky became overcast as the night drew towards morning, and when dawn broke it was only to reveal a miserable mist-ridden morning. Dour grey clouds hung in every direction. It threatened rain. It all seemed very properly British.

I thought I saw smoke in quite a few directions. There hadn’t been any smudges of orange on the horizon that suggested large clusters of fire, but that didn’t mean the country was smouldering in lieu of meltdown. I looked at Rick. His stubble was filthy and he wouldn’t meet my eyes. He looked like he had aged years overnight. I didn’t want to bring up the subject of Carla, but we needed to figure out what we were going to do next.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said as soon as I opened my mouth to speak.

“We have to, Rick.”

“We don’t. We don’t have to talk about anything. We would have been safe if you hadn’t made us leave the house. We wouldn’t have gone to the pier, those people wouldn’t have died.”

“You don’t know that.”

“But we still had to see it happen, didn’t we? Warren Fielding, adventurer. Responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocent women and children and the abduction and rape of his little sister!”

The spark fired. I pulled back and punched him in the jaw.
He went to ground heavily and I immediately felt remorseful. I knelt down to give him a hand up and he pushed me away. Staggering to his feet he pushed at my chest.

“Come on, big man. How long you been dying to do that for? You always thought I mooched off your sister well come on, get it off your chest, tell me how you really feel.” I bit my lip, trying not to take the bait. We were both wired and shouldn’t take it out on each other. But if there’s anything that really grinds my gears it’s being poked. Rick pushed repeatedly at me with an accusatory hand. “Come on zombie killer! Warren Fielding saviour of man! You just don’t have the balls.”

“Enough Rick! We’re not going to get her back doing this.”

“We’re not going to get her back asshole! We had our chance. Get to the pier and stop Austin from taking off. But we couldn’t even fucking do that, could we.
How the hell do you think we’re going to make it all the way up north? Walk?”

“If we have to. I’m not leaving her with that pervert.”

“As if you have a choice! Do you think they’re going to stay there? Do you think they’re even going to keep her alive once they’ve finished having their fun? There’s only one way I’m getting any revenge for this and it’s going to be by taking it out on you – because you let her get taken in the first place.”

“Hang on you prick. If you were such an attentive and amazing fella, you would have made it clear to Austin she was beyond limits. And what would you prefer? That she was in that helicopter, potentially there to save, or in that clubroom and either a zombie or charred ashes?”

“I just want her back Warren!” he couldn’t hold back his tears and crushed himself against me chest. “I just want her back.”

I held him awkwardly, glad that he had burned out his ire so quickly. I squinted down the hill. We had company. They weren’t quick ones, but where there was smoke there was fire. We had been spotted. “Rick” I said, breaking our stiff hug “I need you back onside. We’ve got incoming.”

He sniffed and glanced over at the few shambling newcomers. “We’re clean out of weapons aren’t we?”

“Sure are. Anything we can do to make a stand?”

“Nope. Those who fight and run away, no? Let’s get to a road. We’ll find a car, try to get some radio contact and we’ll get on our way. Maybe the authorities have made some progress whilst we’ve been in the dark. Let’s get this back on track. We’re not going to find Carla standing around and scratching our arses. Deal?”

I shook his outstretched hand. “Deal. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

We turned and made our way down the hill, away from the shambling corpses making their way slowly up to us. There was a ramblers path already cut in to the hillside. It would lead us all the way to the bottom, and from there it shouldn’t take us too long to find what we needed. Bennington was long behind us, and now we had two immediate aims: find Carla, and kill Austin. Trusting she didn’t kill him first. And I still hadn’t lost my desire to find out where this had come from. Heading to civilisation, to where Carla had been taken, would be a good step towards being able to get my hands on more technology and in turn, more information.

I slapped Rick on the back. He gave me a smile. There wasn’t much realism or warmth behind it, but it was a marked improvement on a fist fight on Undead Mound. Truth is, if I hadn’t been able to calm him down I would have fought him and if needs be, would have left him on that hill. I don’t think the same would be true in reverse. The undead would have found him, and he would have been devoured. I felt slightly numb and disturbed knowing that I would make that kind of call. It was a
feeling strangely juxtaposed with relief though. I knew I would be able to make the decisions I needed to stay alive, but I was aware that they were not necessarily choices that would be deemed as being morally good.

Whether or not it was better to be a monster by chance or by choice would remain to be seen.

Thanks for following Warren on his story. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. As ever, if you have any feedback
or would like to discuss any elements of the book I would be delighted to hear from you. The best way to contact me is either via my website
www.beyondapocalypse.com
or via the Facebook page
www.facebook.com/dawnpeersauthor
.

Warren’s story is an ongoing tale, but as I hope you’ve inferred from some of the scenarios I’ve dropped in to the book, Warren’s isn’t the only story I’m going to tell. With there being millions of residents in the UK, there are too many different scenarios and perspectives to tell just one person’s tale when an event of this magnitude occurs. As the series evolves, you will find out about the origins of Ma Deathly, McHoody, and Mr Classical as well as a few of the other tertiary characters that have been introduced so far. Look out for these in my next release, a collection of short morality tales based within the events of Great Bitten.

If you enjoyed the cover art I would encourage you to check out
www.facebook.com/danielletunstall
. Danielle is a horror photographer, and helps to create eye-catching work for books and album covers, amongst other things. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Thank you to Silver Thistle for your help with proof-reading. It turns out the saying is correct – the more, the merrier!

Also by the Author

Warren Fielding is my horror pseudonym. Under my real name
, Dawn Peers, I write fantasy fiction. You can buy my dark fantasy novel “In the Dying Eyes of Night”, the first of a dark fantasy trilogy, in eBook and paperback on Amazon and in paperback online at larger book retailers.

Thank you for reading. Have a happy apocalypse.