The Afflicted: A Zombie Novel (15 page)

“Just drive, anywhere you can. If you can stop
, fine, we’ll switch, but we have company outside so just drive as fast as you can. We need to get away from here.”

Father Thomas was awake and holding his broken arm. He was amazed at what he saw
. He hadn’t been out of the vicarage since it had all begun. He had always sent Nathaniel out on his little errands.

“My
, God. Look at it. Never did I imagine the end of the world would look like this.”

They passed another army checkpoint. Grotesque charred bodies with twisted hands and arms reached up imploringly from gruesome piles of men, wom
en, and children along the side of the road. Tents and marquees stood idle: canvas doors flapping in the breeze, exposing their contents. Dozens and dozens of zombies emerged into glorious sunshine, smelling the car fumes and hearing the sound of the living so tantalisingly close. Reanimated corpses of soldiers and citizens stumbled alongside each other toward the passing hearse.

Feral faces flashed past his window, snarling and sneering, evil eyes locking on
to him with some kind of fury. He saw a once proud community devastated, now reduced to a forest of undead, foraging for flesh. Children and toddlers stumbled toward the car, arms permanently horizontal, reaching for their ungodly feast, now nothing more than primitive predators. He saw babies with no legs crawling over broken glass, young eyes devoid of life. He saw young men and women murdered in their prime, caked in blood, soaked in blood and vomit, emitting such primeval sounds that he had not heard before, that they could not be of this Earth.

As one, they followed behind the hearse, decaying corpses walking side by side like a bizarre funeral procession. At first, just a handful followed; then it was a dozen, fifty, and a hundred. All stayed true to the hearse’s path, their sole goal ahead of them in a black box on wheels.

He saw shops and houses burning
, flames leaping from roof to roof; fire spreading endlessly with no one to stop it. Front steps and gardens were flooded in deep dirty water as there was no one to turn the taps off now either. A small block of shops and flats had banners and signs draped out of every window, words crudely fashioned with paint, bleach, anything that had been to hand: Help, Trapped, Survivors. Father Thomas saw no one left alive. Their souls had long since departed, but to where, he was no longer sure.

On the
horizon, he noticed a haze of smoke. Occasional plumes of fire would shoot up into the sky as something on the ground exploded, reminding him of those blurry images on television from the endless war in the Middle East. He saw no birds or animals. The grass, the plants, the flowers and trees: all passed by looking lifeless and fading under a sun, which seemed hotter and brighter than ever before. Brown crisp leaves littered the road, skittering and crunching under the car tyres sounding like gunfire.

He was jolted out of his sombre reverie as the car suddenly pitched forward and he was thrown against the front seat, his tingling arm stinging painfully back into life.

“Hold on!” grunted Amane, as the hearse slipped down a steep embankment toward the river. The wheels slid on the muddy plain as Amane slowed the car and spun it sideways. Mindful of the river only feet away, she took the car along the edge of the river.

“The roads are blocked, there’s no way I can get through. This should take us a little way to the city
.” In the mirror, she saw the swarming crowd of zombies follow but there was an increasing distance between them. They drove for a good twenty minutes, leaving the shambling zombies in the distance, but eventually could not get any further. Four or five cars had blocked an access road to the river and there was no way round. Amane stopped the car and peered out. The cars had smashed into one another creating a metal snake that curved up the embankment.

“You think it’s safe?” she said.

“I don’t know,” said Evan. “George, you got anything in that backpack we can use as a weapon?” He rustled around and came out empty-handed.

“No.”

“I’ll go out and check around,” said Evan. “If we’re going on foot from here, I’d better see how the land lies. You two keep an eye on him. If he moves, throw him in the river.”

Evan got out of the car and the overhead sun beat down
on him. The air was hot and dry. George turned around in his seat and stared at the demoralised Father who was slumped back in his seat, head pounding. He did not intend to go anywhere. Amane watched as Evan walked to the front of the hearse.

He surveyed the crash; the car
doors were open and every car was blackened and burnt out. It was silent, save the gentle lapping of the water against the riverbank. He approached the nearest car and picked up a piece of wood, no more than a foot long. Evan banged the stick on the car door, the harsh clanging sound sounding abnormal in this stultifying atmosphere. Nothing happened. No zombies raced out. No soldiers came over the hill, shooting guns and mouthing off. No rescue came.

Evan trod cautiously. He was
acutely aware of their unnatural and potentially lethal surroundings. He walked toward the river where one car was partially submerged, its trailer sunken into the riverbed. The car was empty and he climbed into the drivers’ seat. As there was no way round, he decided to take the direct route and go through.

On the other
side, he stepped out onto soggy ground. The embankment ahead was clear but what interested him more, was the small wooden pier with a boat tethered to it. Evan looked around again and called out.

“
Anyone here?”

The sound of silence filled his ears. The pier went all the way to the rivers’ edge and he walked over to the steps, out onto the pier toward the little boat. It was
not much bigger than the hearse, but it would do. A propeller was at the back and a small cabin that would shield them from the sun. Looking down at the sluggish water, he saw two bodies floating face down and bloated, a woman and child. He could see bullet holes in the back of their heads and the little girls’ blonde hair was tangled in the reeds. He squatted, and leaning over the side of the pier, prodded the mother with the wood. No response. Whoever they were, they were dead. As dead as dead can be, he thought.

Evan went back to the hearse and explained to
Amane what he had found. They agreed it was a good idea to stick to the river. As far as they knew, the zombies could not swim and it should prove easier than driving the congested streets attracting unwanted attention. Amane and George headed through the burnt car to the boat whilst Evan helped Father Thomas.

“I hope you weren’t lying, Father. If you can steer this boat down the river
, then you have a chance of a future. But if you try anything at all, then I will have no hesitation in leaving you behind for them.” Evan pointed back down the river where they had come from. A massive crowd of zombies was in sight now, heading their way. Some of them splashed into the riverbed and disappeared under the water, not to return. Most though, kept their footing and would not be deterred or distracted.

The Father
disconsolately nodded and limped alongside Evan to the boat. When they reached the pier, George was on board in the cabin investigating, whilst Amane began untying the rope so they could cast off. Evan shoved the Father on and told him to get on with it. He sat down, monitoring the Father closely as the priest started the engine, moaning and cursing under his breath. Evan thought about Charlie and Anna. It really felt like he was getting somewhere now. Maybe this time tomorrow he would find them. He was sure his father’s boat was much bigger than this, equipped much better with a far larger cabin.

“I’m scared, I’m scared.”
The words haunted Evan, day and night.

Amane’s
unexpected terrifying scream pierced the air, shocking everyone. The dead girl floating in the river had burst out of the brown sludge and grabbed Amane’s arm whilst she was untying the boat.

“Help!”
Amane couldn’t shake her off. She struggled but she was losing her balance. The girl’s hands were hooked around Amane’s and her sodden weight was pulling them both to the water. Amane looked into the girl’s face. It had been shattered by a bullet and her eye sockets were soggy and dark red. The girl no longer had eyes and she splashed about in the shallow water like a dying fish. Amane began to topple overboard, cold water splashing her face as she headed down to the river and the zombie’s clutches.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Amane braced herself, waiting for the icy water to suck her down, or the zombie’s teeth to sink into her arms. A flash in front of her eyes and the girl was knocked sideways, her neck broken. George struck again with the oar and the girls face fell apart. He cleaved the girl’s head off exposing dead brain and the zombie lost its grip, plunging back beneath the river’s surface. Amane fell backwards and Evan grabbed her. George stood by the side of the boat looking at the zombie beneath the rippling water. He chucked the oar down onto the deck and threw the last of the rope off.

“What are you waiting for,
let’s move it!” he shouted at the Father who was looking on in amazement. The Father turned back to the wheel and slowly the boat drew away from the pier. George sat down, a mean, serious, look on his face. He scanned the riverbank looking for problems or solutions, whichever presented itself first. He knew that one would come soon enough, as sure as the sun would set.

“You okay,
Amane?” Evan held her on the deck where they had fallen. She was shaking and glad he was holding her.

“Yeah,” she said holding onto Evan’s arms. She felt reassured he was there.

“I wasn’t paying attention. I thought we were safe, you know? Stupid really.”

“It’s not your fault
. We all have to be more careful. I should’ve checked properly first.” Evan stood up and brushed himself down. The boat was chugging down the centre of the river now, away from the pier. The zombies were at the burnt out cars, trying to climb over, through and under, any way they could. A few struggled through, but the obstacle was proving difficult and they couldn’t keep up with the boat as it headed toward the city.

Amane
stood letting the sun dry her and standing close to Evan, spoke in a hushed voice so that only he could hear her.

“I’m worried about George. I’ve never seen him like this. I mean
, it’s great that he can handle himself but it’s like he’s not bothered by it all now. Remember when we met him? I thought he was a bit of a mummy’s boy. He’s changing. When I told him about Joe, he just clammed up. We need to keep an eye on him.”

“True,” said Evan
, “we owe it to Joe at least. I think in George’s defence, he’s getting stronger which is a good thing. Look, I’m going to watch Father Thomas. Firstly, to make sure he knows where he’s going and isn’t trying anything funny, but secondly, because I want to know how to steer a boat. I’d hoped that being on deck like this might bring back some memories of my father’s boat but I’ve got nothing. Maybe I never learnt? I seem to remember dropping the kids off for the holidays, so maybe I didn’t actually sail anywhere with them? I just can’t remember. If anything happens to the Father, we need to be able to handle ourselves.” Evan put his hand on Amane’s shoulder, looking at the sunshine reflect off her pale skin.

“Can you talk to George? Keep him co
mpany. Don’t try anything heavy; just get him to open up if you can. Try and bring a bit of normality back into his life, even if just for a few minutes?”

Amane
nodded. As Evan left her, she felt an urge to kiss him but swallowed it down. He had a family to find; thoughts like that would only cause them both problems. She watched as Evan walked up to the Father and began talking to him. She wondered how he did it. She couldn’t talk to him like that, not knowing what he had done to Lily; how he had pretended to take them in and kept them captive whilst he plotted their demise. Amane wondered if he really was a priest. Maybe he was an imposter? Perhaps he had killed the real priest and took his place, took his house, took everything and perverted it for his own evil ends. She walked over to George.

“How’re you doing
, mate?” He had his hands in his pockets and was watching the embankment closely. He just shrugged and ignored her. Amane sat down beside him on the warm wooden deck.

“
George, thank you for helping me, if you hadn’t...”

He turned, finally, to look at her.

“Then you’d be dead.”

“Well, yeah. Are you okay about what happened back there?”
Amane had to shield her eyes from the sun as she talked to him.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not stupid you know
.” George sat down beside Amane, apparently satisfied that nothing was going to jump out at them for the time being.

“Sometimes dad used to go away for work
: Hong Kong, Singapore, places like that. When he went, he used to say to me, ‘you’re the man of the house now, son. Look after your mother and sister for me.’ I didn’t really get that until now. I didn’t do a very good job either. Mum’s dead. Lucy’s dead. There’s only me left.” He idly kicked at a piece of frayed rope lying on the deck.

“Well
, I think your dad would be proud of you, George. What happened to your mum and Lucy was out of your control. But you helped me, didn’t you? You’ve got to think about the future, George. You can’t help them now. But you can help me and Evan. And you can help yourself.”

“
Mmm.” George picked up the frayed rope and looked around. He couldn’t see much over the riverbank. Occasionally, a tall building would peek over, and he could see smoke, but that was all. In another time, this would have been a beautiful day to cruise down the river. Today, he felt as if someone had opened the gates from another world and unleashed hell. Today was the first day he was able to see things for what they were. Evan and Amane were nice but they couldn’t help him. They couldn’t protect him. Amane was right. He had to think about the future now.

“How did Lily die?” he asked. “She was
pretty cool. I liked her.”

Amane
let out a huge sigh. “I don’t really know, George, and I don’t want to know. All I know is that
he
is responsible for it.” She looked at the Father with hatred.

“Lily was my friend. I wish we could have protected her but...sometimes things don’t go as you planned.
We talked a lot. She asked about you. She thought maybe you were my son!”

George laugh
ed. “No offence, but do I look like you?”

“Not very
much,” laughed Amane. “She missed her family as well you know. She was a bit like you I thought. I miss her.”

George let the silence hang in the air for a minute, the water splashing by the boat and the sun beating down refreshing him.
He found the heat invigorating.

“What happened to her family?” he asked.

“Well, she lost her mother. When all this started, her mum went out and just never came back.” Amane didn’t feel the need to give George all the details.

“And her dad too?”
George threw the useless frayed rope into the river.

“Not quite. Her dad was a politician. He was, or is, in Canberra. She actually believed he might still be alive, even after all this. She said they built a bunker there.
I don’t know if it’s true. Sounds plausible I suppose. What do you think?”

George mulled it over before answering. “I believe her. Why would she lie? It’s a good
idea. We’ve got a safe room back home and it’s got enough food and water to last six months. If my dad thought of that for us, then imagine what they’d do at parliament.”

Amane
was glad George was talking, sounding more like his old self. She had to get him to focus on the future and not dwell on the past.

“She told me something else too
; something that I haven’t told anyone else.” Amane lowered her voice, noting that Evan and the Father were still out of earshot over at the tiller. “Can you keep a secret, George?”

He nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, she told me that before we lost power, you know, all the mobile phones, and TV’s and everything, that she had a phone call at home. Before we picked her up, her dad called her from Canberra. It was very brief and she couldn’t hear well: too much background noise at both ends. She told me that her dad had said there was a plan. They had an idea how to deal with all the zombies. It was something about burning them. He’d said, ‘From the centre we’ll start a fire and burn them all out.’ I’m not sure what that means exactly. She was confused too. Her dad got cut off and that was the last she heard from him. She didn’t get to find out where he is or what was going on. The next day, we picked her up and that was that.”

“Wow,” said George. “I think we should
definitely go to Canberra. Think about it, Amane, if there
is
a bunker there, then they’ll be safe: Lily’s dad and all the policemen. We can hide with them and when the zombies have gone, we’ll come out and we can go back to normal again.”

“I’ll tell you what I told
Lily, that
maybe
, we’ll go there, but only after we’ve found Evan’s kids. We’re better off sticking together right now. If we start splitting up, we’ll get nowhere. Once we get to Tasmania, we can regroup and work out a plan, okay? Right now, there’s too many of them, and too few of us to get anywhere. Do you understand, George?” Amane put her arms around him.

“Yeah
, I guess so.” He stood up, shrugging off Amane’s arm. “I’m going to keep watch. I’m okay. I just want to make sure the coast is clear. If you know what I mean.”

“Okay
, mate.” Amane stood up and gave him a reassuring smile. “Shout if you see anything or need anything, yeah?”

George didn’t answer. He had plenty to think about and wanted to be on his own.
Amane walked up to Evan who was steering the boat. Father Thomas was slumped down in the cabin, next to George’s backpack, sheltering from the blistering sun, holding his arm.

“How’s it going, sailor?” she said smiling at Evan, mock-saluting him.

“Not bad actually,” he said, concentrating on the river’s path ahead. “He showed me how to work the engine, how to steer. I think I’ve got the hang of it. It might be a bit early to put me behind the wheel of an ocean liner though.”

They slipped under a low bridge, the shadow cooling them instantly, before sending them back
on their way into the heat of the day.

“How’s
Father Thomas doing?” Amane stood beside Evan, watching how he handled the wheel.

“Don’t ask. Physically, he’s banged up
, but he’ll live. Mentally..?” Evan shook his head. “He’s on a different planet. I had to make him go inside, he was doing my head in. He kept telling me how the kingdom of heaven was lost to mankind. He said we are being punished for our sins so the angels won’t let us into heaven anymore. That’s why when we die we’re still walking the Earth,
apparently
. I think he was trying to inspire awe in me. Put the fear of God into me. All he inspired was the desire to throw him overboard.”

“So what’s the plan now? We can’t take him with us. Well we could, but we’re not going to, right?”
Amane looked up at Evan earnestly.

“
You’re right, we’re not. But can you just leave him here? Could you really throw him into the lion’s den? I was full of big plans about how I was going to kill him, but now? If we do, we’re stooping to his level. We can’t take him to the police: there aren’t any. I say, when we reach the city, we find a bigger and better boat that will get you, George, and me, to Tasmania. We’ll leave him there and he can fend for himself, do whatever he likes.”

“I suppose.”
Amane leant her head against Evan’s strong shoulders. “How long do you think ‘til we reach the city?”

“
At this speed, about an hour. There are plenty of marina’s where, if there are any left, we should be able to find a boat. He says the owners sometimes leave keys in the harbour master’s hut. Keep your finger’s crossed is all I can say.”

Evan
paused, feeling Amane’s head on his shoulder. It felt normal. It was the first time since he had woken up at the airport that anything had felt remotely normal. In that moment, he was eternally pleased he had met her; doing this alone would be horrific. With her at his side, he felt stronger, more courageous and purposeful. He could talk to her as if he’d known her his whole life. It was difficult to grieve for his wife. However, the many years they had spent together were all condensed into the briefest of memories.

Time
passed slowly as they wound their way down the river. The embankment began to flatten out and they chugged through more and more built-up areas. They could see more buildings and roads now. The bridges overhead grew bigger and were full of dead traffic and dead drivers. The odd zombie appeared at the sides of the bridges and stared at them, but could not threaten them from so far away. The boat glided past tantalisingly out of reach.

Finally, n
earing the city, Evan spied a marina and the masts of yachts. As they drew closer, he saw that there were indeed some boats still around. The harbour itself appeared deserted, but beyond it, the streets were, as usual, clogged with cars and dead bodies, some animated, some not. Buildings burnt alongside perfectly preserved shops and blood-splattered high-rises. He slowed the boat down and turned off the engine so they could drift a little closer without making any noise.

“What do you think?” asked
Amane. George was putting their only backpack on, whilst the incongruous Father staggered to his feet to look at the city.