The Grave: A Zombie Novel (10 page)

“
Sorry, mate, that’s not going to happen.” Tug dropped a couple of bags at Will’s feet. “He didn’t make it either. Impact tore him right out of his seat and cut him in half.”

“Fuck,” said Kelly.

They were quiet then. The pilot’s death hit them. More than that, they had crashed and both pilots were dead. They all realised they were on their own now with no plane and no pilots.

“We need to make a move. The
plane is not safe. I don’t know how long it’ll take for the fuel to catch fire, maybe never in this weather, but there’s fuel all over the place and we shouldn’t hang around to find out.” Tug was putting on a jacket he had rescued from the plane.

Will realised it was raining. He hadn’t even noticed
before. It was a small rain shower, just a drizzle. Will looked up at the sky, which was dark and bleak. Suddenly, he began to think practically again. He forgot the dead pilot and the pain in his head. He realised Tug had been doing just that too, thinking practically; fetching bags and items from the plane whilst he could. Tug had a short, abrasive manner, but Will respected him for thinking logically when everyone else was panicking. He looked at his watch, but it was broken, the hands permanently stuck at five thirty one.

“What’s the time?” Will
asked, knowing it must be late. The sky was dark and not just because of the rain clouds. The air was cold and the night would not be far away. Will picked up a bag and slung it over his shoulder.

“Nearly six,” said Tug.
“Time to move. Suzy, put this on, you’re going to get cold.” He handed her a jacket he had pulled from a rucksack and she quickly pulled it on over her dress. “Kelly, think you can carry this?”

Kelly took the final bag from Tug and nodded. “Where are we going to go
, Tug? Why do we need to move? We should stay close by. They’ll be looking for us. Planes don’t just disappear; there’ll be search parties looking for us already. Won’t there?”

Tug shook his head. “The best way to stay alive in a situation like this is to find shelter. We need to stay dry and warm. We can’t sit around here waiting
to be rescued. It could be hours away, maybe longer. What if it’s days? We need to find shelter and quickly. It’s going to be dark soon.”

“That’s not all,” said Will. He turned around and shouted to the others. “Tricia, Wilfred,
Josef, we’re leaving. Are you okay to walk?”

They gave him the thumbs up and Josef
went to help Wilfred to his feet. Wilfred was still pale and quiet, but there were no apparent injuries. Rasmus was walking over with Claire who had her left arm wrapped up in a shirt they had found in someone’s luggage.

“So what do you suggest,
Tug? Try one of these houses? See if we can find somewhere to stay for the night?” Suzy noticeably shivered as she spoke and was keen to leave. The sight of the smouldering plane only made her feel more frightened.

“Somewhere close by, yes. Any of these houses should be fine. Then when the A-team turn up we won’t be far away and we can be out of here.”
Tug looked down the street and spied a two-storey building that looked in good repair. He marched off toward it purposefully.

As everyone followed
him, Will thought that Tug had it almost right, but there was something risky about his plan. “Tug, slow down. I’m not sure we should stay here, not so close anyway.”

“Why not?”
Tug continued walking away.

“Because
they’re
probably here. If not already, then they won’t be far away. They would’ve noticed us, the crash, the noise...we should try to get away from this place. Hide.”

“Hide?
Is he mad? We need to be found, not hiding.” Claire looked up at Rasmus who chose to ignore her. He knew what Will was getting at.

“What are you on about, mate? I kn
ow where we are, I’m not stupid.” Tug snorted and turned down a path to the house he wanted to check out. “The things you’re talking about are a load of bollocks. They’re dead. There ain’t been fuck all on this island for years and
they
are long gone. What did they live on, the fresh air? Give me a break.”

Will was concerned that Tug’s bravado might lead them into further trouble and hurried to catch up.
He had to calm Tug down. There was logic to his thinking and he was right, they did need to get out of the cold rain. However, staying so close to the crash site might not be a good idea and Tug seemed to have made his mind up. “Please, Tug, just slow down. We need to talk about this.”

Tug stopped at the front door. The house was dark and the windows showed no sign of movement inside. The drapes had rotted away and the rooms inside were bare and dusty. The rain still fell
from the darkening sky and Tug wiped the water from his face. “Look, Will, I’m not going to argue with you. You do what you do, and I’ll stay out of the way. If we ever get to the bloody Antarctic, you can be in charge. But right now, you need to listen to me. Talking is not what’s needed now, it’s action. I am here for one reason only, and that is to look after all of you. That is exactly what I’m doing. Yes, the situation has changed, but my job hasn’t.” Tug put his hand on the front door.

“Maybe you should just hang on, Tug?” said Mark.
He had been up and down the street looking for signs of life, but the village was deserted. He had taken some photos of the crash site and then seen the others all headed for this house. “You don’t know what’s behind that door? What if you open it up and they’re inside, just waiting to pounce?”

Mark was
standing with the rest of the group in the front yard, surrounding Will and Tug. He had no interest in stoking the embers of the argument that seemed to be brewing. Will might be right though. They had just cheated death and Mark didn’t fancy heading into another dangerous situation. He was a journalist, not a fighter or an explorer. Compared to Tug, he looked spindly and weak and he felt exhausted.

“What are they on about?” asked Claire. She pulled at
Rasmus’ sleeve. “Who’s here? Where are we?”

Rasmus
was stroking his beard as he looked down at her. He knew they were in terrible danger, but didn’t know how to break it to the girl. “The residents of this island, Claire, are not friendly. They’re...look, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Best to keep quiet, Claire. I’ll fill you in later.” Rasmus held his breath as Tug pushed on the front door and it opened an inch.

“Tug, don’t.
Please,” Will brushed the rain from his eyes and asked Tug quietly. He was concerned that even their raised voices might be enough to draw
them
out. They couldn’t afford to get into a pissing contest now. Tug was doing what he thought was the best thing for all of them. He didn’t know that he might be leading them into peril.

“We’re going in. It’ll be fine. Come on.” Tug pushed the door harder and it swung open.

Will looked through the doorway into the darkness and hoped they were alone. After surviving the plane crash, he doubted any of them, Tug included had the strength to fight off the Deathless.

Tug stepped over the threshold and entered the house.

FIVE

Tug stepped into the dark hallway of the house and waited. He listened for sounds, anything that might suggest they weren’t alone. He waited ten seconds and counted slowly to twenty. The cold house remained dark and quiet. Tug turned around where Will was stood nervously in the doorway.

“Told you
it’s safe. There’s nothing here. They’re a myth, Will, a legend like sodding Bigfoot or the yeti. They were real once, years ago, but they’re dead now. Come on. Just watch your step, yeah? These floorboards are probably damp and rotten, so be careful.”

Surprised, yet happy that the house was empty, Will followed Tug and signalled for the others to follow him. As they all trooped inside, Will caught up with Tug. He had gone ahead into the kitchen and was rummaging through the drawers.

“Tug, you got lucky, but next time, what if something is behind the door. You know what the Deathless are? The clue’s in the name. We don’t know how long they can live. They could very well be coming here right now.” Even in the darkness, Will could see Tug was paying him little attention.

“Live? Ha, that’s a good one, Will.
Frankly, I doubt there are any around, and dead people don’t
live
, they just exist, the same way a worm does when it’s been cut in half. They should’ve been destroyed years ago. All we need to do now is focus on surviving until the rescue comes. We need warmth, shelter, food; every minute we waste talking about this is a minute closer to not surviving this bloody place.”

Kelly and Suzy joined them in the kitchen and the others followed. Chairs scraped on the kitchen floor as Tricia, Wilfred, Josef and Claire sat down.

Mark was fiddling with the camera around his neck, adjusting it for the low-level light conditions. He hadn’t prepared for this, but he knew a good photographer should be ready for any event and he didn’t intend to go home empty-handed. He had taken a couple of snaps of the plane crash and wanted to get as much as he could from this strange place.

“Where are we?” said Jose
f. “What are we going to do now, Kelly?” His hands were shaking with fear and he tried to hide the tremble in his voice.

“I think that’s up for debate,” said Rasmus. “
Ideally, I would say we need medical attention. I’m worried about all of us. I’ve strapped up Claire’s arm as best I can, but I’m no doctor. I’m pretty sure the wrist is broken. And look at Wilfred; he’s as white as a ghost.”

Wilfred tried to speak. “I’ll be fine,” he rasped. He tried to speak again, but he began coughing and Tricia
took his hand. Wilfred tried to hide it, but they all saw the blood he coughed up on the kitchen table. What they couldn’t see was the punctured lung beneath his broken rib cage.

“Hang in
there, Wilfred,” said Josef. “Tug, do you think we can find a hospital or something around here? Maybe even a doctor’s surgery that might have some supplies we could use?”

“It’
s not likely,” said Tug frowning at Wilfred. “By the looks of it, we are in a very small town and even if there was a hospital around, any supplies would’ve been cleaned out years back along with the inhabitants of this poxy hole.”

“
So what, we sit here and wait? For what? For how long?” asked Tricia.

“Actually, no,” said Tug. “I was looking for some matches so we could start a fire and try to dry out our damp clothes. I haven’t found any so we should look in the rest of the house. Once we get some warmth in
us, we can decide what we want to do. If we stay like this we’ll all end up with hypothermia.”

Josef got up and headed for the doorway.
He wanted to help and Wilfred looked terrible. “I’ll go look. There was another door in the hallway. Old houses like this used to have wooden fires so there may be some in there.”

“I’ll go upstairs and look,” said Kelly.

“Me too,” said Suzy. “I’ll check out the bathroom too. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some medicine or bandages, you never know.”

Rasmus got up
too. “I’ll come with you, Josef. It does seem safe here, Will.”

“Good
man, Rasmus,” said Tug. “Right then, let’s...”

“Hang on, hang on, I think you’re all forgetting something,” said Will exasperated. “I don’t know if you’re all trying to ignore what’s just happened, but we have landed,
crash-landed
, on a land without humans. There is no electricity, water, power, no phone lines or radio. We don’t know if rescue is even coming. This is The Grave.
The Grave.
There is a reason nobody is allowed on or off this island. We don’t know what is out there. We should not be running around now or splitting up. Hell, for all we know, they could be right outside.”

“Can
someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Claire shoved her chair back and it flew into the sideboard. “Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just want to go home.” She began crying and Suzy pulled her into her body. Claire’s sobs were stifled by Suzy’s shoulder.

There was silence in the room for a moment before everyone started talking at once. Will and Tug began arguing about whether to stay or run. Rasmus was trying to talk to Claire whilst Suzy tried to protect her and was telling Rasmus in no uncertain terms to leave her alone. Tricia and Mark were trying to get Will and Tug to calm down whilst Wilfred sl
owly sank into unconsciousness.

Nobody saw Josef sneak out into the hallway
that they had just come through. He wanted to leave the arguing to the others, and went to find matches. By the time they were through, he could have started a fire and then they would all be feeling a lot better. He couldn’t just stand by idly whilst Wilfred was suffering.

“All right, all right, enough,” shouted Kelly. “Enough!”

Silence descended upon the room once more and Kelly held her hands to her head. “Listen, we are all tired and scared, I know. My head is killing me. But arguing amongst ourselves is solving nothing. I’m not one to put my foot down very often, but I’m doing it right now.
I
am in charge. I am responsible for all of you. I know you all have your own ideas and thoughts, and yes, Tug, we do need to get warm and safe. And yes, Will, I agree, it’s probably not safe to stay here. But ultimately, whatever happens I will have the final say. If anything happens to any of you, then I will be the once facing the music when we get home. More than that, if anything happens to any of you, it will be on
my
conscience. I don’t want that. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wishing we had been trying to help each other when all we did was argue and stuff things up.”