Chloe Zombie Apocalypse series (Book 1): Chloe (15 page)

C
hloë followed
the group out of the camp and through the woods.

It was early afternoon. The night had passed since her infiltration of Aiden, Alice and Trev’s group. It was sunny, but not a stuffy warmth like Chloë had grown so used to. The sound of birdsong in the trees was calming.

The sound of footsteps cracking through the fallen branches beside her felt … well, good.

Every now and then, Chloë turned. Checked Aiden, Alice and Trev hadn’t turned on her; double-crossed her. She knew they were the ones who should be worried. They were walking towards the CoY camp after all.

But still, just the feeling of being with another group again. The feeling of believing in people. Trusting people.

It was a feeling Chloë still had to get used to.

“How far out is it anyway?”

Chloë turned. Saw Alice to her left. She was scanning the trees with a pistol. All of them had guns and knives. All of them had weapons.

Weapons were exactly what they needed with the plan they had.

“It’s a while yet,” Chloë said. Speaking still felt strange. Her throat was sore from all the words she’d uttered this last night and morning. She hadn’t spoken this much for quite some time. “But we’ll know when we’re close.”

“How?” Trev asked.

Chloë remembered the mass of monsters surrounding the outskirts of the CoY camp. The dip in the valley, the walls at the edge of the woods. “We just will,” she said.

Aiden wasn’t saying much. And she figured that was okay. She’d told him she had a plan. A plan to get into the CoY camp. To take the place as their own. That wasn’t
really
her plan. It was a nice idea, but it’d be hard for her to carry it out.

She’d lied. A little.

But she’d done what she had to do to get the group to come with her.

Besides, Aiden was the toughest to please of the three of them. Trev and Alice decided they wanted to come with Chloë and help her rescue her dad before she’d mentioned taking CoY’s camp.

“What’s this plan of yours then?” Trev asked. “Better be a good ’un.”

Chloë thought back to the previous night. The way she’d murdered one of the CoY men; left another for dead. And the way she’d let the women and children go. She’d asked them something. Asked them to wait in the woods. Wait with the guards’ weapons for her return.

“I have an idea. I just … It’s better if we get there first.”

“We won’t get there,” Aiden muttered.

Chloë didn’t take him on.

She just took a deep breath and kept on walking.

She thought about the women and the kids. The ones the two guards had been taking out into the woods. The ones she’d freed. She worried about them. Felt bad about asking them not to flee. But she’d told them how things were. She’d told them what her plan was. Her plan to sneak inside the CoY camp. To start an attack from within.

She knew it wasn’t the best plan in the world. She knew it’d result in a lot of people dead.

But she had to fight for her dad.

It was the only way she’d ever come close to freeing him from CoY.

Of course, she didn’t tell anyone what she knew about her dad.

What she’d seen him doing.

Executing Seth.

She didn’t think about that too much. Preferred to keep it out of her mind.

She’d ask him about it directly when she got the chance.

Until then, she had to get to him.

“How’s the chest?” Aiden muttered.

Chloë didn’t know he was speaking to her. Not until he turned around. Looked her in the eye.

She looked up at him. Swallowed a lump in her throat. “It’s … it’s better. Thanks.”

Aiden opened his mouth like he was going to say something.

Then he closed it. Half-smiled. Nodded.

Chloë felt a swelling in her throat as Aiden turned and carried on. A swelling of acceptance. Like Aiden was forgiving her. Letting her off after last night, after the incident the night before.

And even though it should really be Chloë forgiving him for shooting a bolt through her chest then trying to kill her, she didn’t want to push her luck too much. Not right now.

They reached the cage. The cage where Chloë got trapped. It was still on the ground, not yet reset. They sneaked around the fallen monsters. Flies flew up and butted them in the face. The stench of death was strong in the air, a warm breeze making it even worse.

But on they moved.

On they pushed.

“Are we gonna be getting there today or…”

“Just be patient, Trev,” Alice said. “The kid’s got us this far. We haven’t stopped for a rest. We’ve not come across a single thing, living or dead. I’d say that’s a good thing.”

“I’d say it’s a creepy thing,” Aiden said. He stopped. Stretched out his arms. “You reckon we take an hour?”

Chloë carried on walking. “I’d rather—”

“Chloë,” Aiden said. He put a hand to her chest. “You’ve lost blood. You’ve gone through serious malnutrition and dehydration. You look even paler today than you did last night. You need rest. We all need rest.”

Chloë looked to the forest floor. Thought about her dad. Thought about him in those walls, clueless to the fact that she was still alive.

“Your dad isn’t going anywhere,” Aiden said. “He’s still gonna be there when we arrive. Just an hour. An hour’s rest. That’s all we need. Right?”

Chloë looked up into Aiden’s eyes. She wanted to ask about him. Wanted to know who he really was. Wanted to know if he’d had any family. Any kids. Anyone he loved.

But of course he did. Everyone had lost something they loved. That’s what united people in this world.

Nobody made it this far without losing something they cared deeply about.

It was how you handled that loss that defined which path you walked down.

Chloë nodded. She lowered her rucksack. Went to sit down, as did Trev and Alice.

Aiden wandered over to a tree. “Bit of sun. Nice breeze. What more could you ask for?”

He turned to Chloë.

Smiled.

Then, blood spurted out of his neck.

Chloë shot up. She lifted her knife. Rushed over to Aiden.

Someone was on his back.

Ripping his neck open.

A monster.

Chloë lifted the knife. Went to stab the monster in the head.

“Chloë!”

She heard Alice’s voice.

Turned and saw another monster approaching.

Then another from behind Alice and Trev.

More from the tree behind Aiden.

She looked around. Looked at the oncoming dead. Listened to their footsteps. Listened to their moans.

Aiden’s face was pale. Blood poured out of his neck and onto the ground.

There was nothing Chloë could do for him now.

Nothing any of them could do.

They were surrounded.

“
B
ack the fuck up
! Quick!”

Chloë heard Alice’s voice over the cries of the monsters. She heard it, but she couldn’t focus. Not really.

Not with the monsters approaching from the left.

From the right.

From ahead.

Not with Aiden lying on the ground and spluttering blood.

“Chloë!” Alice shouted. “We need to form a circle. Quick!”

Chloë glanced over at Alice. Tasted the rot in the thickening air as the monsters approached.

And then she held her breath and lifted her pistol.

She fired first at Aiden. Popped a bullet through his head.

“Chloë!” Alice shouted. “Don’t … don’t fucking shoot. You’re drawing attention to…”

But Chloë didn’t hear the rest of what Alice had to say.

She knew what she’d be saying anyway. Begging her to stop. To run towards them. To form a circle so they could defend all directions.

But no.

She’d seen those circles in the past. They never worked.

She needed something else.

“Chloë!”

She lowered the gun. Rushed over to Aiden’s body. He had her knife. She needed her knife if she was to get by. For this to work.

To survive.

She saw monsters drifting towards Aiden. Saw the decaying flesh dangling off their bones. Saw teeth contorted in all different directions.

She had her gun. She could fire at them if she needed to.

But she kept her cool.

Kept on running towards Aiden’s body.

Towards her knife.

She landed right beside him. Searched his left pocket. Nothing but loose change.

And his right pocket. Some keys. A photograph of his family. And—

Chloë felt the hand grab her left arm.

Felt it drag her away from Aiden’s body.

She fell back against the forest floor. Looked up.

A monster crouched above her. Its teeth had split through its bottom lip. The skin on its face was covered in black marks, like someone had pushed a cigarette up to it and burned it.

Chloë looked into the monster’s empty eyes.

Then she pulled the pistol around.

Pressed it against its forehead.

Fired.

The blast split her ears. Knocked her further back into the ground. Covered her in even more icy-cool blood.

She wiped the blood away. Gasped as she lay on her back. In the distance, she could hear gunshots. Slicing. Alice and Trev fighting their way out of the mass of monsters.

She hoped they got away. One way or another, she hoped they got away.

She was relying on them to get away.

She pushed the monster aside. Stood. Rushed back towards Aiden’s body. Four more monsters approached. Just feet away. She had to beat them. She had to get to the knife.

She tripped. Fell right on top of Aiden’s stationary body.

She tried not to freak out when blood spurted out of his neck. The neck of a man she’d been speaking to just minutes earlier. Gone. Gone, in a snap of the fingers. Just like everyone did in this world.

She reached into his back pocket.

The knife was in there.

She pulled it out. Pulled as hard as she could, battling against Aiden’s body weight. The monsters to her left were getting closer. Soon, they’d surround her. She could take one, probably two, but four was difficult. Even with a gun, four was a struggle.

She had to get the knife.

She had to hurry.

She had to—

The knife slipped out of Aiden’s pocket.

She stumbled back. Almost rolled onto the tip of the blade.

The first of the monsters—an old woman with wiry hair and a weeping bite mark on her left arm—descended on Chloë.

Chloë swung the knife around.

Rammed it into the old woman’s skull.

Pushed her aside.

She crawled back. Tried to get to her feet. Three more. Three more coming her way. Another six to her right.

She lifted the knife.

Jabbed it into the bright blue eye of the skinny young man whose kneecap was dangling down his shin.

Pulled it away.

Rammed it into the neck of a ginger woman.

Sliced open her throat.

Shoved the blade through her forehead.

She pulled the knife away. Stepped back. Watched the final monster fall to the ground.

And then she felt a hand on her right arm.

She turned. Another monster was on to her. It was so rotten, so decayed, she couldn’t make out whether it was male or female at first glance. Long, thin strands of greying hair. A narrow, skeletal face. Skin a shade of grey.

It held on to Chloë with a withered hand.

She pulled back. Went to slice through its head.

She didn’t have to.

The skin on the monster’s hand just slurped away as Chloë pulled on it. In its place, nothing but skeleton, with insects and maggots feasting on the last of the monster’s flesh and muscle.

Chloë watched more skin crumble away from the monster’s body as it approached her. And as it approached, she felt pity. Pity, because of the chain around the monster’s neck.

The open locket. A picture of an old woman and a young boy. Grandma and grandson.

Chloë thought she saw a glimmer of compassion, a flash of understanding, in the monster’s eyes.

And then the monster’s head split open.

Chloë wasn’t sure how it had happened. Not at first.

And then she saw Alice standing behind it. Crossbow in hand. Trev standing sheepishly behind her.

“Come on,” Alice said, dripping blood.

Chloë looked around. Saw more monsters wandering through the trees. But nothing they couldn’t handle. Dwindling numbers. Manageable.

The plan was still on.

They just had to get to the spot she’d told the women—the CoY prisoners—to wait.

She just had to hope they were still…

“One—one got me.”

The voice came out of nowhere.

But there was no arguing with those words.

Chloë turned. Looked back.

Trev was standing still. Squeezing his arm.

He looked up at Chloë with tearful eyes. She could hear his teeth chattering from here. “One got me. One of the biters. I … I’m bit.”

He moved his hand away from his arm.

And as the second wave of monsters got closer and closer, Chloë saw the gaping, bloody wound on Trev’s arm.

C
hloë knew
she was going to have to ram a knife through Trev’s temple at some stage.

It was just a case of finding the right moment.

The sun peered down from directly above. The air was cooler, breezier. The trees were thicker in this part of the forest, too. They stretched right up into the sky like fingers clawing at the outside world, desperate to find their way out.

A breeze brushed through the woods. Carried the sound of birdsong. Always a sound that calmed Chloë. It always had been, even when she was a kid. Birdsong meant no one else was around. If someone else was around, the birds would fly away.

Either that or someone was around but they were just being very, very quiet.

Trev leaned back against the wide tree. He clutched at his bleeding arm. He coughed. Spluttered. Chloë saw the sweat on his forehead. Saw his skin taking that greyish pale tone. She knew it was almost time. The turn took some people longer than others. Trev looked like he was very close to arrival. Very close to the end.

“If Trev wants to go this way then he goes this way,” Alice whispered. Her voice was unsteady, but she was keeping herself together pretty well. “We have no right to work against his wishes.”

Chloë looked down at Trev. Looked at the blood pooling out of his arm. Death would set in first. Then the infection would build inside. “I don’t want him coming back—”

“This isn’t about you,” Alice said. “It’s about what Trev wants. If Trev doesn’t want us to put him down, we don’t put him down.”

“But nobody should come back. Nobody should have to come back.”

“I know you’re fucking talking about me,” Trev said.

Chloë looked over Alice’s shoulder. Alice turned around.

Trev let out a throaty cough. A smile stretched across his face. “Just about the most unsubtle conversation I’ve ever heard.”

Alice walked towards Trev. Chloë followed. “How you feeling?” Alice asked.

“Like I’ve been bit by a fucking zombie. Death warmed up. Which I suppose I am, in a way.”

“Trev,” Alice said. “You … you know what’s going to happen to you. If we let you die. You know what happens next. Right?”

Trev let out a nastier cough. Spat out a blob of blood onto the ground. “Course I do. Not a frickin’ idiot.”

“Then … then you’ll know why we don’t want that for you.”

“And since when did I give a fuck about what you want for me?”

“That’s hardly fair,” Alice said.

Trev wiped his mouth. Sniffed up. “Y’know, the two most intimate, most personal moments in our lives are when we make love for the first time, and when we die. But there’s nothing more personal than death. That’s—that’s why I don’t get all these euthanasia bans. It’s why I don’t get why people say there’s no point in living a life as a vegetable. Shit like that. At the end of the day, death’s personal. The dying should get a say in how they die. Ain’t I just lucky I live in a world where I get a chance at that?”

Chloë didn’t totally understand what Trev was saying. She was still just a kid after all, as much as she’d been forced to mature over the last nine months. But whatever it was made Alice cry.

Alice nodded. Stepped away from Trev. Put a hand on his shoulder. “You go peacefully, mate. You go peacefully.”

“If you ever find my Julie, tell her she—”

“—still owes you for that Italian. Right.”

Trev smirked. Let out a little nervous laugh.

Chloë saw the look between him and Alice. Saw the look that was always there in every goodbye.

She squeezed the knife.

Walked up to Trev.

Lifted the knife and pressed it to his temple.

“Chloë!” Alice shouted. She grabbed Chloë by the scruff of her neck. Tried to pull her back.

But Chloë saw something. Saw a look on Trev’s face. Not a look of fear. Just a look of disappointment. Like he was a teacher and she’d let him down.

“You’ve got a lot to learn, kid. A lot to learn about respecting other people’s wishes. A lot to learn about looking out for number two and three as well as numero uno.”

“You’ll turn into one of them.”

“And I’m okay with that.”

Chloë’s hand shook. She looked down at the dirt. “You’ll … you’ll come back. You’ll come back and you’ll kill people.”

“And I’m damned okay with that too,” Trev said. “People’ve trampled on me my entire life. Figure my undead self has a bit of revenge to seek. Besides, it’s kind of nice, don’t you think? Knowing there’s a kind of afterlife. I mean obviously it’s not an
ideal
afterlife. But it’s something. It’ll be interesting to see where I end up. Like one of those balloons people let off with notes attached to them. Maybe I’ll wander up to Scotland. Fried Mars bars, anyone?”

Chloë felt her mouth going dry. Her hand grew shakier. “How can … how can you be so okay with this?”

Trev put a hand to the sharp edge of the knife. “Because I accepted my fate a long time ago, kid. Hell, I had a good run. We all did. Now you’ve gotta just move on without me.”

He pressed the knife.

Waited for Chloë to lower the knife.

After a few seconds, she did.

She lowered the knife. Stepped away. Wiped a tear from her face.

She stood beside Alice. Looked down at Trev. He snivelled. Coughed up blood. Got paler and paler by the second.

He was suffering. No doubt about that.

But he’d chosen this suffering.

And Chloë had to respect his choices.

She had to respect the choices of other people.

Because, yes. She had to look out for herself in this world. But she couldn’t just go around making the rules for everyone else in the process.

When she did that, she became just like CoY.

“Good luck,” Trev said. “Both of you. If I’ve learned one thing living in these woods over the past few months, it’s that you’re sure as hell gonna need it.”

Alice nodded. She walked over to Trev. Stroked his face. “Goodbye, Trev.”

He touched her hand. Closed his eyes. “Good luck. Now go on. Shoo. Be gone with ya.”

Alice walked away. Tears fell down her face. She sniffed up. Half-smiled at Chloë.

Chloë looked back at Trev. He nodded at her. Nodded, as sweat dripped down his face, as blood poured from his nose.

Chloë nodded back.

Then she turned away.

Grabbed Alice’s hand.

Together, they walked.

T
rev leaned back
against the tree and stared up at the sky.

The sunlight beamed right down on him. Not a bad place to go. Reminded him of the woods by the caravan Julie and he used to take the kids to. Down in the New Forest. One of those places you could just walk around day after day and still find something new.

He’d made love to Julie in those woods so many times. Felt at one with nature as he held her hands. As he pressed his lips against her warm body. As she moaned, birds singing around them, not another human soul in sight.

The pain in his arm throbbed. No use trying chopping it or anything. The fever had kicked in ages ago. He could feel the wound warming up, but the rest of his body was cold. The only taste in his mouth was blood. His nose was so blocked up, he couldn’t smell a thing.

But he was on his way.

On his way out.

Into whatever was next.

He thought about his existence after life. Thought about all the zombies he’d seen. Some of them had made it nine months. All nine damned months just wandering around in these woods. Because the amount that people bumped into were the minority. The rest just got on with their lives—or their post-lives.

Wandered around scavenging whatever they could.

In a way, the idea of that afterlife comforted Trev.

At least it was something.

A whole load of something before the inevitable, eternal nothing.

He took a deep, quivery breath. Looked up the bark of the tree. Right up at the blinding sun. The rest of the woods felt like it was fading; softening, like a filtered lens on a camera.

The throbbing in his arm grew more intense.

He knew he was on his way.

All alone.

Ready to step over into the next life.

Ready to move on.

Ready to—

“Hello there.”