Demise of the Living (21 page)

There were murmurs and requests
for pens as the group wrote down their preferences.

“What now?” Thomas asked.

“Now we place our chits down
next to the sandwiches we want,” Sharon said.

There was some jostling as they
all came up to the table and placed down their bids. Once everyone
had stood back, Sharon stepped up to count the votes.

“
Well, only one for the
cheese and relish,” she said, lifting up the scrap of paper. “Mo,
you happy with that?”

“Sure,” Mo said, stretching
over to receive his winnings.

One by one Sharon counted the
votes and doled out the meals until only two remained on the
table.

“So what do we do now?” Thomas
asked, looking at the pile of papers sitting next to the Cajun
wrap.

“Well, John and you have spent
all three of your chits on the one sandwich,” Sharon observed.

“I’ve said already I don’t like
prawns, so John will have to take that one,” Thomas said, getting
quite animated.

“I’m not going to take a prawn
one just because you don’t like them,” John said firmly.

“You’re not allergic to
shellfish, are you, Thomas?” Sharon asked.

“For all you know I could be,”
Thomas said.

“
So
no
then,” Billy
interjected.

“All right, you can toss for
it,” Colin suggested.

“As good a way to do it as
any,” John agreed.

“Whoa, I don’t want the prawn
sandwich,” Thomas huffed. “If I’d wanted the prawn one I would have
voted for it.”

“That’s the chance you take
betting on the one thing,” Sharon said.

“Okay, you call, Thomas,” Colin
said, coin in hand.

“I don’t want to call. I want
the wrap,” Thomas moaned.

“
Oh, stop whining. You
might win the wrap anyway,” Billy said.

“John then,” Colin said.

“Heads,” John said quickly
before Thomas could change his mind.

Colin flipped the coin high in
the air, caught it and flipped it onto the back of his hand.

“Heads it is,” Colin
announced.

“
Yes
,”” John said triumphantly as
he dipped in and lifted up the wrap.

“
Oh, come on! That prawn
sandwich looks awful. It’s probably off by now, too,” Thomas
complained.

“Dem’s da breaks,” Billy said,
smiling.

“Fuck you,” Thomas said. “It
won’t be so funny if I get food poisoning and puke all over the
shop, now will it?”

“Stop being a sore loser,” John
said, taking a massive bite from his winnings.

Thomas turned and stomped out
of the room.

“Hey you forgot your sandwich,”
Sharon called after him.

“Fuck you,” Thomas replied.

Wednesday

Chapter
10

“I say a couple of us take John
and Sharon’s cars to the local supermarket and raid the place,”
Thomas said.

“Not gonna work,” Billy
said.

“
Oh yeah? How
not?”

“Cause they’ve already been
looted. I passed three supermarkets and a dozen convenience stores
on my way here and every one of them had their shutters ripped open
and their shelves gutted. Hell, even the electrical goods were
gone—useless shit like TVs and microwaves.”

“
Okay,” Sharon said. “But
we need food. Where will there be a stock of food that won’t have
been stolen?”

“
People’s houses,” John
chipped in. “People tend to have a good few days’ supplies and if
the stores have been looted they have even more.”

“I don’t like that idea, John,”
Sharon said. “What if the occupants are still there? Are we going
to fight them for it?”

“If we have to,” Thomas
answered.

“Don't be so blasé, Thomas,”
Billy said. “It’s one thing to sit here and say you’d bash some old
couple over the head for a tin of beans. It’s a completely
different thing standing in their kitchen.”

“There will be plenty of houses
out there where the owners have fled or have become one of those
things,” Thomas argued.

Liz pointed out, “Even if we do
go to a house, there’s only going to be enough food for a few of
us. We’d need to go to several houses.”

“I’m not sure we should be
stealing,” Mo said.

“What do you suggest then?
Cannibalism? Do we start eating each other?” Thomas gnashed his
teeth for emphasis.

“No, no!” Mo protested.

“
Quit it, Thomas. You're
just being obnoxious,” Sharon said.

Colin slapped his hand on
the desk. “School!”

“What?” Sharon asked, puzzled
by the interjection.

Colin smiled, pleased at his
eureka moment.

“School. It’s simple.”

Thomas snapped, “Colin, just
get to the point,”

“I was on my way to the school
where I teach when I got caught up in this,” Colin said.

“I thought it was the summer
holidays?” John said.

“
It is. Me and one of the
other teachers were due to take a group of kids on a camping trip,”
Colin explained. “I was on my way over there because the trip had
been cancelled. The head was calling round to tell the parents not
to turn up, but he wanted someone there in case some of them didn’t
get the message. There’s a mini bus sitting there with a trailer
full of camping supplies.”

“How’s a bunch of tents and a
couple of canoes going to help us?” Thomas snipped.

“There’s camping supplies in
there: Food, water purifying kit, tons of useful stuff,” Colin
said.

“So how far away is the
school?” Sharon asked.

“Ten minute drive?” Colin
estimated.

“It may have been ten minutes
last week, but I can assure you the roads out there aren’t clear,”
Billy said.

“We take one of the cars.”
Colin said. “I get dropped off and I can drive the mini bus
straight back here.”

“
What’s to say you won’t
get to the bus and make a run for the hills?” Thomas
asked.

Colin screwed up his
eyebrows. “I wouldn’t!”

“
So you say,” Thomas
said.

“I hate to admit it, but Thomas
has a point,” John added.

Sharon cleared her throat to
attract the group’s attention.

“
No one is here against
their will. If anyone wants to leave, you’re welcome to as long as
it doesn’t put the rest of us in danger. I think now’s the moment
to ask ourselves if we want to stay or leave?” Sharon looked around
the group. “Given the state of things outside, I believe our best
chance is to bunker up in here if we can get the food supplies.
Billy, you’ve been out there more recently than the rest of us.
What’s your thoughts?”

“
I’ve got to agree with
Sharon,” Billy said. “It’s a mess out there. None of us would last
for long on our own.”

“
Now I
don’
t know the first thing about
survival, but I do know about teamwork. We are more likely to
survive this if we work together than if we pull apart,” Sharon
said. “If anyone wants to leave, the ideal opportunity will be when
we go foraging for food.”

Straightening herself, she
summoned up all the corporate management training sessions she’d
been on. She pushed the chair out from behind her and stood.

“Now’s the time to say if you
want to go,” she said, looking around the faces in the group.

Everyone was
uncharacteristically quiet. There were a few nervous glances across
the table, but no one voiced a preference to leave.

Seeing the implied acceptance,
Sharon raised a smile.

“
We may not have chosen
to be brought together, but it’s a fact, and if we are going to
survive then we need to pool our abilities.” She sat back down and
continued, “Now, if the bickering is over, let’s plan how best to
go about this. The sooner we can organise a plan the sooner we can
implement it.”

***

Most of the group
gathered at the loading bay. The room was small and cramped and had
a musty smell; it was no more than a clear space with a long set of
shutters running almost the length of the back wall. A set of
concrete steps led down about three feet to a sturdy metal door
adjacent to the shutter. The height difference was obviously to
allow large trucks to back up and be unloaded, no doubt like the
one that had delivered the massive water bottles stacked against
the back wall.

Thomas called out, “Where’s
Billy?”

“Just coming!” Billy shouted
back.

The office block had seemed
quiet and abandoned until now. With almost everyone down on the
first floor milling about the loading bay, it felt oppressive and
overcrowded. Crammed up so close there was an unpleasant smell of
sweat.

“Melissa?” Billy called.

“Yes?” the young girl
replied.

Billy knelt down so that he was
eye level with the girl.

“Can you do me a big favour,
doll?” he asked.

Melissa looked at him a hint of
suspicion in her eyes.

“What?” she asked him
flatly.

“
It might get a bit
messed up out there and my wee doggy…” Billy paused and looked down
at the dog. Blow was her usual self, skittering around her master’s
feet, tail wagging. “I don’t want anything happening to her. Would
you be a darling and look after her until I get back?”

A smile lifted across Melissa’s
face.

“Could I?” Melissa said,
looking up at her mother.

Liz nodded.

“I’ll look after her, Billy. I
promise,” Melissa said, scooping the dog up in her arms.

The dog looked around, startled
by the sudden affection, but didn’t try to break from the
embrace.

“Thanks,” Billy said.

He picked up his shotgun and
swung it over his shoulder before giving the dog a quick rub behind
its ears.

“I’m ready,” he announced.

“Let’s just run through this
one last time,” Sharon said.

“
No thanks. We’re good,”
Thomas said dismissively. “On three you hit that shutter
switch.”

Sharon didn’t have time to
protest at Thomas’ contempt before he started his countdown.

On the signal, she turned the
switch and the shutter clattered to life. A beam of strong sunlight
leapt into the loading bay through the widening crack. The metal
shutter seemed to screech and clatter far louder than ever
before.

Over the noise of the shutter
trundling open, there came a moan, loud and harsh and raspingly
dry.

Two shadows rushed at the
gap, then two pairs of hands were thrust in. The loading bay being
a few feet higher than the parking lot level meant that the two
attackers were stopped at chest height by the ramp.

Gary and the stranger
thrust their whole upper bodies into the loading bay and pawed
wildly at the people inside. Their faces were grey, the skin slack
under their bleached eyes, and as they drew close their foul stench
completely overpowered the unpleasant smell of body
odour.

“Oh God…” Sharon snatched at
her mouth in an attempt to hold back the putrid aroma and the
churning vomit in her guts.

Thomas dashed in and
smacked Gary over the head with a heavy wrench. Gary’s skull
cracked and he fell down to lie quiet and inanimate on the
ground.

Colin swiped at the
second creature with the length of pipe. The metal piping bounced
off the side of the man’s head with a
thunk
.

The dishevelled attacker
moaned more fervently at the indignity of the blow. It turned to
Colin and tried to grab at him. As it did Billy swooped in and
cracked its skull open with a solid smash from the butt of his
shotgun.

“Thank me later,” Billy said,
jumping down off the ramp.

“Okay, let's go!” Colin
called.

“Um… I’ve changed my mind,”
John said, holding out his car keys.

“What?” Colin asked.

John shook his head. “I’m
not coming. I’m not going outside.”

Thomas moaned, “Fucking
pussy.”

Colin rolled his eyes,
remembering how quickly Thomas had bolted when they let Billy
in.

“Let’s roll,” Billy said,
snatching the keys from John.

John turned and scurried off
back into the perceived safety of the office block.

Sharon turned to call after
him, but thought better of it.

“Do you need me to come with
you?” she asked.

“We’ll be fine,” Colin assured
her.

The four men—Billy,
Colin, Thomas, and Mo—moved swiftly across the car park.

Mo broke off from the group and
made for the gates. He jogged lightly, hunched down low in an
attempt to remain unseen. He arrived at the gates and took a long
look up and down the alleyway. It looked clear. Behind him he heard
the car’s engine starting. He unclasped the padlock and pulled the
bolt back. Looking over his shoulder, he could see Billy in the
driving seat with Thomas next to him. Colin was nowhere to be seen,
but Mo guessed he was in the back seat. The car started to roll
towards him. Mo pulled both gates wide open and the car trundled
through.

As it left Billy made a mock
salute and turned off down the alleyway.

Something on the ground
caught Mo’s eye. He bent down and picked it up. It was a small pink
and white quartz pebble. He looked around at all the other bits and
pieces of detritus. There were plenty of other stones scattered
here and there, smaller chunks of aggregate no doubt left over from
building the office block or paving the parking lot. This small
lump of water worn rock was out of place here.

A wave of loneliness
swept over Mo.