The Grave: A Zombie Novel (14 page)

“
Nothing, honey,” said Suzy. She crossed the cold room and leant over Claire, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “How’s your arm, feeling any better?”

In the
dark, Claire gave Suzy a shrug. “Sort of. I’m trying not to think about it anymore. Rasmus has strapped it up good and tight. Besides, when I start thinking about what’s happened, I forget all about the pain anyway.”

“
Well, Tricia here is the best. You need anything you just holler,” said Suzy as she softly walked to the door.

“You
betcha,” said Tricia. “Goodnight, Suzy.”

Suzy left them alone and headed across the hallway to her room. She hesitated and then turned around. She wanted to make sure Will and Mark were okay. Kelly had already gone to bed and
fallen asleep almost straight away. She was probably exhausted. Suzy knew Kelly was trying to keep it together, not just physically, but mentally trying to stay strong for the sake of the group. She passed by the room where Rasmus and Tug were staying and hoped that Rasmus would cope with his bunkmate. Rasmus seemed to be coping well, considering he had just lost two of his old friends. Tug was a handful and she hoped he would give Rasmus some space. Suzy knocked on Will’s door and went in.

“Hey, Suzy, what’s up?” said Mark. He was sitting cross-legged on top of the bed, looking at his camera. “I’m just looking at the photographs I’ve
gotten. I can review them, edit them, and even email them straight to my editor from this baby. Well, I could if there was any service around here.”

“There’s some grim stuff on there. He’s got a good eye, that’s for sure,” said Will who was perched on the edge of the
double bed next to Mark.

Suzy went
over and sat down next to Will and looked at the view-screen on Mark’s camera. She saw a picture of Judgeford. She saw the wreckage of the plane and marvelled once again how they had managed to walk away from it. Mark flicked onto the next picture. The photo was taken from a strange angle and she realised Mark must’ve taken it when they were running. Looking closer, she could see herself and Will bending over Wilfred’s body. In the background, she counted at least twenty of the dead. She looked away. “That’s horrible.”

“Reality is,” he said.
Mark turned the camera off. “Look, I don’t intend to publish these, not ones like that at least. But all I do is capture what I see. I’m not going to apologise for what I do. They say every picture tells a story, right? Well this is my story now. This place: The Grave. This is a chance nobody has
ever
had before. Probably never will again. I have to record as much as I can. When we get home, the world is going to want to know what we saw, what we experienced and how we lived through it.”

“You think we’re going to live through this?” asked Suzy, still unable to look at the camera. All she could see now was Wilfred’s body as they ran away, leaving him to the
clutches of the Deathless.

“We have to,” said Will. “We can’t give up now. There’s so much to tell, so much to do. I need to get home.”

Will trailed off again. Suzy waited for him to speak, but he said nothing.

“I’ll be back in five,” said Mark getting u
p, putting his camera on the bedside table. “Bathroom break. Then I might hit the hay. See ya, Suzy.”

Mark closed the door behind him and Suzy didn’t even realise when Will put
his arm around her. She was still thinking about Wilfred.

“I know, I can’t get him out of my head either,” said Will. “
We won’t forget him, but we have to move on. We have to focus on the future, Suzy, or we’re never going to get out of here. Do you think Tug is grieving right now? I’ll bet he’s sound asleep. He’s a pain in the neck, but he has one thing correct. We have to think about how we’re going to survive this.”

Suzy let out a long sigh and looked at Will in the dark, cold room.
His face was troubled and his brow furrowed. In the dark of the room, he looked more handsome than ever. She wiped her red eyes and suddenly felt like crying. She knew she was on the verge, but Will was right. There was no time to grieve. She had to get home.

“
Why did our plane crash, Will? Seriously, I am so pissed off. Some tiny thing probably, some little bolt or nut that wasn’t screwed in quite right. Some engineer who didn’t spot the metal fatigue or...” Suzy sighed. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter now. I miss my family. I only see them occasionally. You know what it’s like in New York. There’s always something that keeps me busy and stops me getting home as much as I’d like.”

Will smiled and Suzy’s lips trembled. She really didn’t want to cry in front of him, but she began thinking about her brothers and how she might not see them again.

“We’ll make it. I know it. Suzy Q, as tough as old boots, right?” Will licked his lips. Sometimes Suzy seemed a lot more fragile than she let on. Will wanted to let her in. He found it difficult to open up, but he felt at ease with Suzy. “I told you my mom was sick, but I didn’t tell you how sick. She’s in St. Luke’s. They tell me she’s got a few weeks at most. I sure would like the chance to see her one last time.”

Will looked at Suzy and
leant forward to embrace her. He swept his arms around her and pulled her into his body. His hand sank into her soft blonde hair and they kissed, softly and tenderly. Suzy’s lips were salty from the tears she had been unable to hold back. They knew the kiss could not lead any further, but it felt good at that moment in time. The despair and tension was forgotten in that brief moment. It felt good to know they weren’t going through this alone. Their lips parted and they lingered there together, their foreheads gently resting on each other’s.

Mark swept the door open and
came striding into the room.

Suzy jumped
up off the bed quickly and brushed past him. “Oh, hey, Mark, I was just leaving.”

Will watched
, bemused, as Suzy almost ran out of the room.

“You okay, buddy?” said Mark
slipping beneath the bed covers, making sure his camera was within arm’s reach.

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” said Will.
He couldn’t expect too much of Suzy now, not with what was going on. He just hoped that she didn’t think he was taking advantage of her. Somehow, being with Suzy just felt right. He shrugged off her speedy exit, kicked his shoes off and got beneath the duvet. “No funny business now, Mark, you hear?”

Mark let out a short laugh. “
Sorry darling, you’re not my type. You just keep to your side of the bed, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

They lay there in silence, waiting for sleep to take them. It took a long time though. Will’s mi
nd would not rest. He thought about his mother and about how she was coping without him. He thought about the journey they were going to undertake tomorrow and the inherent risks involved. He thought about Suzy too. When they got back to New York, he was going to put himself first for once and take her out on the date he kept promising her.

The night was restless for all of them. Sleep came sporadically. Some dreamt of home before nightmares interrupted them; visions of the dead, of Josef
and Wilfred lying cold and dead, and of the plane crash. Even Tug slept fitfully, tossing and turning all night.

Eventually,
Suzy was awoken by Kelly moving around the room. The curtains were still drawn, but there was a sliver of sunlight coming over the top of them. “Is it morning already?” She could see Kelly dressed and swallowing something. “More paracetamol?” said Suzy throwing back the bed covers and exposing herself to the frigid air.

Kelly threw her head back and swallowed. “You caught me.
It’s a bitch without water too.”

Suzy quickly dressed and was grateful they had dry clothes. She had found a blue shirt and some old jeans that were a little baggy on her, but were certainly better than the wet dress she wore yesterday. She pulled on a pair of thick socks and then reluctantly her
slip-on black shoes. She wished she had worn something more practical now. “How’s the head?”

“Sore, but I’ll live. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I just heard some noise downstairs and thought I should check it out.”

“Noise?” said Suzy alarmed.

“Don’t worry,” said Kelly seeing the shock on Suzy’s face. “I hear
d Will and Mark’s voices so it’s nothing untoward. I haven’t dared look outside yet. I should guess it’s time for us to make a move though. You all right?”

Suzy just nodded and followed Kelly out of the room. In the
hallway, a dim patch of sunlight lit up the wooden floor from a skylight overhead. The bedroom doors were all open and it seemed they were the last up. They made their way downstairs and Suzy began to hear the voices again. It was impossible to hear what was being said though as there was a banging noise too. They headed for the kitchen where the sounds were coming from.

Upon enteri
ng the room, it was clear what the banging was. Tug and Mark were pulling up floorboards and Will was hammering at them with a pickaxe. Rasmus and Tricia were filling empty plastic bottles with water from saucepans whilst Claire held the two backpacks open for them.

“Morning all,” said Kelly. “Looks like I missed the memo.”

She was greeted by a chorus of cheerful voices, much to her surprise. “Up at last, sleepyhead,” said Will. “Hi, Suzy.”

Suzy made a beeline for Rasmus. “You should’ve woken us
. Here, let me help.” She held a small bottle steady whilst Rasmus carefully poured the rainwater in.

“Oh we’ve not been up long, my dear. Tug here was up hard at work whilst we were snoring. He went and found those tools in the garden shed so we could tear up some floorboards.”

“Okay, firstly, Tug, you should
not
be going out on your own, it’s not safe,” said Kelly exasperated already. “Secondly, why? What are we doing with the floor?”

Tug rested a floorboard against the wall and leant back against the counter, wiping sweat from his face. “We need something to defend ourselves with out there.
I found one shovel and one pickaxe out there. With the kitchen knives we found that’s four weapons, at best, we’ve got. There’s eight of us, Kelly. We need more. These floorboards are perfect. They’re strong, solid and will be useful for smashing against anyone or anything that attacks us.”

“It’s true,” said Will. “Here,
Tug, this is the last one.” He handed a board to Tug who stacked it up against the others. “How’s the water situation?”

“Not bad, it must’ve rained a fair bit last night,” said Tricia as she screwed the top on an old coke bottle now full of rainwater. “We’ve managed to fill a few bottles. We can carry these easily enough between us. There’s a cooking pot on the side there that we can’t use, we’ve run out of bottles. I’d say we
might as well drink it now.”

“Right, let’s get sorted,” said Tug pulling up a chair to the kitchen table, winking at Claire as he did so. He scattered the food on the table around him. “We’ve got ten power bars in total.
One each and two spare.”

Claire put the two
spares into one of the bags. “Should we eat it now? I’m starving.”

“Up to you.
Personally, I’m going to have half of mine now and the rest later. I don’t think we can expect to get to the coast much before evening so you might want to ration yourself. Unless we get picked up straight away, it could be a long day,” answered Tug, peeling off the wrapper to his bar.

Everyone
grabbed a bar and began eating. Rasmus scooped water from the pot into mugs and handed them around. A few minutes later and the food and water were gone.

Tug
got up and began checking through the cupboards and drawers, pulling them open and slamming them shut again, when he found them empty. He ignored the conversation and instead focused on what he did best: surviving. He knew they were in a desperate situation and rather than waste time talking about it, he preferred to keep himself busy. He was looking for food, weapons, anything that would be useful in the next few hours or days they were going to be stuck here. So far, he had come across very little of use. Any food had long since perished or been taken. The power had obviously been turned off long ago, but the fridge had not been emptied and he didn’t need to open the door to know what was inside; green mould had sprouted from the cracks around the door and the smell was putrid. Whatever vegetables or perishable food had been in there had had years to decay and rot.

“So how do we do this?” said
Suzy. “I mean, literally, how do we even know the best direction to head?”

“Follow the road for now
.” Will put one of the backpacks on and picked up the pickaxe. “By the way, I’ll take this. It’s heavy and I can manage it. Tug or Mark, do you want to take the other pack?”

Tug gave up his search for anything more useful and
quickly grabbed the other pack, slinging it over his shoulders. “Back the way we came, back to the road and then head west. Follow the sun. We’ll stick to the road as long as we can. We’ll have to play it by ear, see how it goes. If we run into trouble we’ll try to go around.”

Kelly picked up one of the rough floorboards. It was fairly heavy, but not so much that it could not be carried easily. If she had to defend
herself, it would make a substantial weapon. “I’ll take lead with Tug. I want Rasmus behind me with Tricia and Claire. Will, Mark, I want you two at the back, please. Anyone got a problem with that?”