Undead at Heart (6 page)

She nodded back at
him.
“Fine.
That’s your right. But I’m going.” She
didn’t make the same invitation to the others that he had, but she didn’t need
to. She just started walking across the forest floor towards him. She smiled as
she reached him then carried on walking, deeper into the woods. After a beat of
time, most of the rest of the crowd followed her. Tony turned and watched and
slowly, inexorably, they disappeared from his view.

He turned back and now
there were four of them: the blonde girl who seemed to have attached herself to
him, and a middle-aged couple dressed in fancy clothes which looked completely
out of place amongst the trees. The woman smiled an
embarrassed
smile at him as he looked at her bright blue dress, large matching hat, and
sparkly high-heeled shoes. “We were on our way to a wedding.”

Sam sat and watched
the others walk away. She started to stand, but then they were all around her
and it would feel weird to be rising to her feet surrounded by all these
people, so she stayed where she was. It felt weird anyway, sitting there while
they loomed over her, but her man was standing over her and she felt safe. He
said nothing, just watched them walk away, but she could tell that he felt sad
for them. They had chosen to listen to the panicking woman who wanted them all
to run away, rather than listen to his sensible argument. Of course there would
be people coming to help them. Of course the police and ambulances would be
here soon. Of course they’d be okay.

The clearing emptied
and she looked up at him. He was just staring after them, watching them leave.
He looked around and spoke to the other sensible couple who had decided to stay.
Then he looked down to her and offered his hand to help her to her feet. She
rose from the ground and stood next to him, looking up at him, and waited to
find out what his plan was now.

It wasn’t the first time
she’d been sent to the other store to pick something up. One branch in
Winchester and one in Oxford meant they were close enough to swap stock when
necessary without having to use a courier company. But they were also far
enough apart that it was a full afternoon’s trip. Of course, stopping for a
latte and a cupcake with Sandra always made it a slightly longer journey. That
was how she’d happened to be driving back from Oxford when she’d seen the truck
fall out of the sky in front of her. As always she’d been leaving a sensible
distance in front of her. It was, after all, her boss, Ryan’s car, and there
was no way she wanted to damage it in any way. She’d pulled up about a hundred
yards from the accident and watched that loud American woman rescue the man
from the car. She watched them run from the burning car and then set off to
leave. She was disappointed when she saw him get into the car with her. She
couldn’t quite understand how they could have known each other, but she guessed
it was his lucky day. Now, having seen them arguing, she guessed that they
hadn’t known each other at all. She presumed that that woman had forced him
into her car. She wanted to run away and needed someone to protect her, Sam
guessed.

When the cars had all
cut out, he’d taken his chance and run away from the crazy bitch, and Sam had
followed. She was aware that the trees at the side of the road had burst into
flames, but was more intent on following him.

She caught up with him
in the woods, where for a moment he seemed to be crying. He explained that he
was just breathing heavily from being out of shape. She could understand that,
but he didn’t look out of shape to her. He looked just fine.

“I’m Sam. Samantha,”
she said once she was standing again.

“Tony,” he said, his
eyes already wandering away from her to look around the woods. She loved the
way he was taking control of the situation. She wanted to ask him what he
thought was happening. She was sure he knew but just didn’t want to show off in
front of everyone else. She did know that he was making a plan, however, and
didn’t want to interrupt, so she left him to his important thoughts and went
over to talk to the other couple who had been sensible enough to stay.

She introduced herself
to Bob and Janet. They had been on their way to Janet’s niece’s wedding. “It’s
only a few miles. I said to Bob that we should take the back road, go through
the nice countryside. I said that if we went onto the main road all that would
happen is that there would be a traffic jam and we’d get stuck. And I was
right, wasn’t I, Bob?” Bob nodded. “Not that I knew it would be anything like
this.
Trucks falling on us from the sky?
Fighter planes bombing us?
The car cutting
out on us?
Having to run for our lives into the woods? I mean, what on
Earth is going on? And how are we going to get to Aimee’s wedding now? If our
car won’t go and the road is blocked, what exactly are we meant to do? And that
woman was all very well, but I said to Bob when she was talking, I said ‘Bob,
it’s all very well panicking and making a fuss, but I think we should do like
the nice man says and stay and wait for the police. Maybe,’ I said to Bob.
‘Maybe they’ll even give us a lift to Aimee’s wedding – what with it being a
special day and everything – and if they need to take a statement, maybe we can
come in and make it later.’”

Samantha smiled
politely at this barrage of information. Working in a very upmarket dress shop
she was used to women who would come in and talk at her without really
expecting any response.

“I just hope that
being here in these woods hasn’t ruined my shoes. After all it’s pretty muddy.
I mean, I know the weather’s been nice and it’s been dry for the last two
weeks. Bob and I have been able to eat out every evening, haven’t we, Bob?” Bob
nodded again.  “It’s been lovely because we only got it redone last year,
and this year all the flowers have really taken off. I mean, they were nice
last year, but everything was so new that it needed a year to bed in.” She
paused, and for the first time as far as Sam could tell, Janet took a breath.
“Anyway… It’s been so nice, and I’ve got a lovely tan, but this ground is so
soft my heels are sliding in and I’m worried they’re going to be ruined for the
wedding. Do you think they are going to be very much longer?”

Sam was taken
surprise, not by the nature of the question, but by the fact that there was a
question at all. She said nothing for a moment, except an indeterminate, ‘Erm…”
and then there was a huge blast of wind and an almighty thump which shook the
ground and knocked her over backwards. She slid down into the depression left
by the roots of a fallen tree, and rolled over onto her face. She heard a loud
crash and scrabbled round onto her knees, wiping her hair from her face even as
she wiped mud onto her skin. She peered up to where she had been standing and
was faced with a large, unidentifiable scramble of metal. It was streaming
smoke, and seemed composed solely of sharp and charred edges.

Sam stumbled to her
feet, and then screamed as she saw a very muddy, but instantly recognisable
pair of shiny, blue high-heels sticking from under the wreckage. A pair of
slightly thick ankles still emerged from the shoes and disappeared, amongst a
spatter of blood, under the metal. Of Bob, there was no sign. She fell to her
knees and screamed and screamed until Tony came over and pulled her away. She
buried her head in his chest and continued to scream as he attempted to coax
her into movement. In the end he gave up, scooped her into his arms, and
staggered off into the forest.

Stan looked over at
Dave and raised his eyebrows. Once he had his brother’s attention, he cocked
his head in the direction of the woman who had introduced herself as Nicola.

Once they had gone far
enough to be out of sight of the clearing where they had left that incredibly
stubborn guy and his ‘followers’ she had stopped to tell them her name and that
she had no intention of being their leader, she just thought they should get
away. Once they had, she told them, someone else who knew what they were doing
could take over.

Even as she said it,
though, Stan could feel everyone hitching their attention and their hopes to
her. She may not know it, but she had something about her which made everyone
want to trust and follow her. She was their leader, simply because she was,
whether she wanted the job or not.

Dave looked back and
nodded. He knew what Stan was thinking. The girl might be carrying a child in
her arms, and this might be completely the wrong time to be thinking such
things, but she was seriously hot. Stan had been the one to disagree most
defiantly with the crazy guy, and also the one who had asked Nicola what she
thought they should do. When she opened up with the comment about the EMP, he’d
known that whatever her background, wherever she came from, her brain was still
working in the midst of everyone else’s panic. If nothing else, she would keep
her head and, Stan hoped, that would help him to hold onto his.

Brains
and beauty.
This
could be Stan’s chance for a real catch. If following her and doing what she
said was the way to charm her, then he was more than willing to do that.

They carried on
through the woods, making decent time. He didn't know where she was leading
them, but it seemed that she just wanted to put as much distance as possible
between them and the field of fire. It was not so much a case of where they
were going to. The important word was ‘away’.

A rattling thump shook
the ground and caused Stan to stumble. Dave caught his arm and kept him from
falling on his face and then the two of them turned to each side, helping up
those who hadn’t been so lucky. Small pieces of burning metal and other debris
started to rain through the canopy. Some dropped onto the leafy ground,
starting smouldering fires. One piece landed on Stan’s shoulder, burning
straight through to his skin. He let out a yelp and brushed at it, his hand
singeing in the same movement and coming away with black char marks and blood
from his shoulder.

Other people cried out
as smaller and larger pieces struck them, and the group broke into a ragged
run, trying to outdistance this burning rain.

An older woman
stumbled in front of Stan and he simply caught her round the waist like a rugby
receiver as he headed past, keeping her on her feet and helping her on her way,
thanking the years of ploughing his way up the sport’s field on a Sunday
morning. He was aware of Dave on his other side, the two of them forming a team
of assistance as they made their way through the jostling, fearful crowd.

Finally the downpour
ceased and they slowed again as they realised the bombardment had stopped.
People turned to one another, stranger to stranger and inspected burns and
wounds. It seemed that they had escaped largely unscathed, with most injuries
consisting of small burns which didn’t seem too bad. One or two people held
handkerchiefs or pieces of torn clothing over larger injuries, but everyone
seemed to be able to carry on.

It was only at this
point that Stan noticed that their group contained no children apart from the
girl that Nicola had been carrying. He guessed it was partly because it was the
middle of a school day, but maybe they’d also not made it away from the road –
either through a misguided belief that it was safer to stay, or because with
children to slow them down they hadn’t made it to their impromptu gathering in
the woods. Whatever it was, Stan wasn’t going to worry about children who
weren’t even there,
he
just thought it was
interesting.

He wondered what sort
of airburst had caused the rain of burning metal and wondered if one of the
jets they’d seen previously had exploded for some reason. There was no way of
knowing, unless he went back to search for larger debris; something he was
definitely
not
going to do.  He was just curious. With each new
event, each new catastrophe, he grew more and more confused about just what was
going on.

As though his thoughts
about children had cast a spell, he noticed that Nicola’s girl was awake and
now standing next to her. The girl was unhurt by the falling fire, but her mother
was cradling her upper arm. She had torn a strip off the bottom of her t-shirt
and was attempting to wrap and tie it with one hand. Stan stepped over and took
the strip from her, tying it over a shallow burn which was weeping ever so
slightly.

He smiled at her as
she winced. “Don’t worry, love, we’ll find somewhere soon where you can wash
that and put some cream on it.”

She returned a weak
smile. “Well, I hope so. After all, somehow I seem to have become the leader of
this gang and I guess I’m responsible if we don’t.” Stan thought that the smile
lit up her face, but he could see signs of stress and pressure which were
undoubtedly not new, but he imagined that today wasn’t helping matters much.

“Don’t worry. This is
England, not America. You can’t go very far without finding another town, or at
least a farmhouse, hotel or pub. Hell, I’m surprised these woods have gone on
as long as they have. I thought the only trees left in this country were being
kept in nature reserves.”

She nodded, partly in
agreement, partly acknowledging his attempt to make her feel better. “That’s
true,
we’re not exactly out in the wilds, are we?” Her smile
was more genuine this time and Stan thought he might be making a little
break-through with her.