The Undead Day Twenty (25 page)

‘A boots? I am not sure I understand. Do you require footwear?’

‘No. Boots. Boots the Chemist. The shop. Do they have a Boots? I need make-up remover and some moisturiser. This heat is making me sweat which means I am washing my face like so much more than normal and I’m getting dry skin. Shall I tell you about that? In long sentences? I wash my face with soap to rinse the sweat off but the soap residue dries my skin out which…’

‘
Oh my. Good gosh she is so infuriating,’ Reginald exclaims as Paula laughs to herself in the front of Roy’s van.

‘And of course a lady still needs to look like lady even in the apocalypse. Shall I tell you about that too? In long sentences?’

‘I hate her,’ Reginald says emphatically.

Sixteen

‘Half mile warning.’

‘Cheers, pulling over,’
Howie says, thumbing his radio. He smiles to himself at the curt tone Reginald used to give the last transmission. ‘I think you pissed him off, Marcy.’

‘Yeah?’ Marcy says hopefully. ‘Good.’

Heather frowns and looks at Paco next to her in the front of the Toyota. ‘What’s a half mile warning for?’

Paco does not know what the half mile warning is for.

‘They’re stopping,’ Heather tells Paco, seeing the brake lights coming on at the back of the horsebox and the slowdown of the vehicles in front of her. She steers out to see ahead and looks down the long wide empty motorway. Fields on both sides. Rolling meadows and trees bordering copses. A heat haze shimmers over the road but the air-conditioning in the Toyota blasts out a beautifully ice cold breeze that makes her shiver with delight.

‘Why are they stopping?’ she asks Paco.

Paco does not know why they’re stopping.

The Saxon glides to a halt. Roy eases the speed down to stop a few metres back as the Toyota, operated by a frowning Heather, also stops.

They file out from the Saxon. Dave and Mo drop down and away from the back as Blowers gives the order for his team to range out and watch the sides.

‘Stay with me,’ he tells Maddox dully. Maddox follows the corporal as they jump from the Saxon into a wall of heat made worse by the bare concrete of the motorway.

‘What are we doing?’ Maddox asks as Howie and Clarence head down towards Roy van.

‘Drone,’ Blowers says, giving a one-word answer that hangs in the hot air for a second. He nods in the direction of the town they are heading for, ‘get some eyes up to see what’s there.’

Maddox stares in the same direction then looks down towards Roy’s van. He wants to see the drone and what it looks like. He wants to see the feed to the monitor and know how it works.

‘Rifle!’ Blowers calls out with a grin. Maddox turns to see Heather stop mid-step as she walks from the Toyota then darts back to pull her assault rifle from the back seat with a wave towards Blowers. ‘We’ll go down, Blinky, Charlie…you keep eyes on the front.’

He leads Maddox towards the armoured van as Roy steps out into the middle of carriageway to set the drone down.

‘What’s happening?’ Heather asks Blowers, feeling comfortable to talk with him away from the others. They only spent an hour together but it was enough for Heather to see he was a professional soldier, polite, decent and committed to his role.

‘We’ve got a drone,’ Blowers explains, his tone markedly more friendly towards Heather than it was to Maddox. ‘We try and stop half mile away from anything like a town…so we have an idea what we’re going in against and the layout, the roads…that sort of thing.’

‘I saw that,’ Heather says, staring at the drone on the ground. ‘In that square that day.’

‘Yeah we used it there,’ Blowers says. ‘And er…don’t forget your rifle when you get out the vehicle next time.’

‘Yeah sorry, Blowers,’ she says casually, staring at the way he stands with his feet planted apart and the rifle held over the crook of his elbows. She frowns and copies him, widening her feet then resting the rifle over her bent arms. ‘Like this?’ she asks.

‘Yep,’ Blowers says, just as casually. They both look at Maddox who stands with his rifle held in one hand down at his side.

‘Heather?’ Paula calls out. ‘You coming with us to the town?’

‘Er no, we’re going through it,’ Heather says, not knowing where she was going but thinking to stop somewhere and look through the list and maps.

‘Ah okay,’ Paula says easily, ‘Reggie said we might get some opposition so…you know…might be an idea to go round or another direction.’

‘Okay.’

‘I’m not saying you
can’t
go in the town but…if we’re firing and bullets are going all over the place and…’

‘Rounds,’ Blowers says.

‘Eh?’ Paula asks.

‘We’ll go round,’ Heather says.

‘Rounds not bullets,’ Blowers says.

‘Is there a difference?’ Paula asks.

‘Yeah, they’re called rounds not bullets. That’s the difference…er…Miss Paula.’

‘Cheeky sod,’ she laughs at seeing his grin.

‘How many rounds in the magazine?’ Blowers asks, looking at Heather.

‘Thirty, well…I guess twenty-nine if one is in that bit there,’ she says, pointing to the chamber.

‘Good enough,’ Blowers says, leaning down to see if the safety is on then peering across her front to the pistol on her hip.

‘Loaded, made ready, safety on,’ Heather tells him, turning so he can see the holster on her hip.

‘Cool,’ Blowers says, glancing over to see Paco’s pistol safely holstered.

‘His is the same,’ she says.

‘Fair one,’ Blowers says, inclining his head at Paco. ‘Alright mate?’ Paco doesn’t reply but then he doesn’t try and kill him either which Blowers takes as a good sign. ‘So he does speak then? I mean, we heard him saying your name back at that house.’

‘He does when he wants to,’ Heather says. ‘He will get better,’ she asserts quickly.

‘Fair one,’ Blowers says again.

‘Did you know him before?’ Heather asks, hating having to talk about Paco like he isn’t present.

‘Only for like…half hour or something, actually it might have been longer but we were scrapping at the time. I mean fighting the…’

‘I understand,’ she says.

‘We didn’t really speak or anything like that,’ Blowers says.

‘Are we infected?’

Blowers looks at her carefully, seeing the change in her and the sensing there is a deep intelligence behind the shyness and projected dislike for people.

‘Probably,’ he says, tilting his head as though
what can you do.

‘Oh,’ she says, looking from Blowers to Maddox. ‘What about you?’

‘Immune,’ Maddox says.

‘So…’ Heather says and stops, looking from Maddox to Paco. ‘What’s the difference?’

‘We’re infected and he’s immune,’ Blowers says, nodding at Maddox with a grin. She smiles back. Showing she got the joke and hasn’t take offence.

‘I’m not tired or anything,’ she blurts, ‘and my bites don’t hurt…is that normal for us?’

‘Yep. Totally,’ Blowers says, exuding so much competence it makes Maddox look away with a scowl. ‘See the bosses wounds…got so many. Covered in bites and Charlie? The girl with the cut face? That only happened yesterday.’

‘So it’s normal? Like…normal for us I mean? What about not being tired?’

‘Same for us. We don’t get that tired…not like before…you know. We get knackered when we been fighting and running all day but…we rest and have a kip then we’re good to go again.’ He tenses his legs and shifts on the spot. ‘My legs ache a bit and my shoulders but…nothing like they should be.’

‘So…is anything different with us? I mean anything bad?’

‘Dunno, mate. I don’t think so…Reggie hasn’t said anything and Marcy was fully turned and she hasn’t said anything either…’

Heather nods, ‘Paula’s lovely.’

‘They all are,’ Blowers says, casting a quick glance at Maddox.

‘And Charlie seems really nice too,’ Heather says. ‘Blinky’s a bit strange but…’

‘Hard as nails,’ Blowers says.

‘Hmmm, so…have any of you turned back into…like…those things…I guess not if…oh,’ she says, seeing the troubled look on Blowers face and wincing. ‘Sorry, did I…I mean…I’m not good at small talk and…’

‘Nah it’s fine,’ Blowers says as Maddox looks away again. ‘Er, like one of ours was turned but she came back…she er…she got hurt though and…we don’t really know what happened but she er…turned back…’

Tension between them. Even Heather, with her non-existent experience of conversation detects the sudden darkening of mood between Blowers and Maddox. She goes to speak but dries up and suddenly feels very awkward.

‘It was probably a one off,’ Maddox says after a pause, finding voice in an effort to fill the silence. Blowers just stares at him.

‘Er,’ Heather says, wanting to just walk off. She walks off. Paco follows her. Heedless to any sense of awkwardness hanging in the air.

‘One off?’ Blowers whispers, glaring hard.

Maddox shrugs and glares back with challenge in his eyes.

‘You two okay?’ Clarence calls over.

‘Yep,’ Blowers says.

Maddox holds Clarence’s eye contact for a few seconds longer than necessary as even the big man starts to think keeping Maddox with them might be the wrong move.

The drone comes to life. The electric motor whirring loudly as the four sets of propellers go from static to spinning faster than the eye can see. Roy stands at the back of his van talking to Reginald inside holding the controller for the camera. A nod from Reginald. Roy pushes the stick to give lift. The drone rises, the motor whines louder as the object rises slowly.

‘That’s not right,’ Nick says as Roy frowns.

‘What’s up?’ Howie asks, staring up at the drone.

‘Too slow,’ Roy says, thumbing the stick. ‘Not responding either…’

‘Battery,’ Nick says, ‘bring it back we’ll swap over.’

‘That
is
the charged battery,’ Roy says.

‘Can’t be, you can hear it’s fucked,’ Nick says, cocking his head to listen. Blowers watches the drone and hears the whirring dropping in pitch and tone as it starts to descend back to the road.

‘It is,’ Roy says, ‘I had it on charge.’

Nick goes forward as it lands and waits for the propellers to stop spinning before checking the battery. ‘You getting a camera feed, Reggie?’

‘There was for a second’ Reginald says. ‘The screen has gone blank.’

‘It was on charge,’ Roy says, moving to Nick’s side as he disconnects the battery from the drone.

‘Try the other one,’ Nick says. ‘Boss? It’s right next to Reggie’s desk…can you…’

‘This it?’ Howie asks, holding the other battery up.

‘Yep, cheers,’ Nick says running to swap over before going back to the drone. He slides the new battery into place and checks the connections. ‘Try it now.’

‘Nothing,’ Roy says, fiddling with the controls.

‘Seriously? They’re both flat?’

‘The one you took out was on charge,’ Roy says. ‘Must be the charging unit or…maybe a loose connection. Plug the other one in and see if it…’

‘Doing it now,’ Howie says, in the back of the van pushing the battery into the charger. ‘The lights are on…green lights right?’

‘Yep,’ Nick says, sharing a shrug with Roy. ‘S’fucked then…I can have a look later but…’

‘No drone,’ Roy says as Howie comes out the van.

‘Shame,’ Howie tuts, looking in the direction of the town. ‘Reggie? How far to the other town?’

‘Oh gosh…let me see…we are here,’ Reginald says, finding their current location and tracing a fingertip over the map to the place he noted earlier. ‘I would estimate we are…perhaps…yes just over one hour driving time.’

‘Cock it,’ Howie mutters.

‘We went in plenty of places before we had the drone,’ Clarence says.

‘Yeah true,’ Howie says. ‘Right. Fine. Heather, you coming in with us?’

‘No.’

‘Okay,’ Howie says after waiting for a second for the rest of conversation he expected to hear. ‘Er…so…guess we’ll see you at some point…at the fort probably.’

‘Probably,’ Heather says, retreating back to the car and wishing she could say something else.

‘Reggie, what’s closest? The horse place or the bows and arrows place?’

‘The equestrian centre requires a slight deviation before we reach the town centre. I would advise we do that first in case we find heavy opposition within the town.’

‘Righto mate.’

They load back up into the hot vehicles. The Saxon the worst of all. Cramped and sweltering even with the back doors left open. Roy’s van and the Toyota pump air-conditioned breezes through vents that reduce the temperature and suck the crushing humidity from the air.

This time Heather waits for them to pull away and sits with Paco in the car idling the engine and letting the other two vehicles pull away to avoid any more awkward instances. She feels a strange desire to stay with them. That thrill is still there. They are the heart of the resistance to fight back. She smiles at Paco and remembers the golden days of just being with him but then she has a radio and the plastic object seems to magnify the connection to the others. She could press the button and simply say she wants to go with them. They’ll be cool too. Easy-going and chilled out. They won’t ask stupid questions but will respect her difference of manner.

She picks the radio up and holds it ready to press the button on the side but hesitates with her thumb touching but not pressing.

Go with them. Stay with them. Work together to find the immunes and do what needs to be done. Press the button and say something.

Still the fears linger. The fear that all people are bad.