Winter Smith (Book 1): London's Burning (49 page)

              How were they to bounce back from this? The whole world had been disrupted. How?

              Soon, over the sounds of the pouring rain, Winter could hear the light snoring of William. She suddenly felt lonely and afraid.

* * *

              Violet and Zach sat upright against the white wall, staring at the wall covered in odd drawings and markings left by the past inhabitants. The kids were underneath the windows, peacefully asleep after screaming and crying with panic.

              The zombies barged against the door rhythmically, unrelenting on getting in. The sounds of things falling occasionally echoed downstairs, making the pair flinch.

              Violet wrapped her hand around Zach’s.

              “What are we doing here?” She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

              “We’re screwed, aren’t we?”

              Violet brushed a strand of hair away from her face. She sniffed, feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on.

              “You know why this has happened to us, don’t you?”

              Zach sighed. He looked at Violet. “I know what you’re going to say, but we’re going to have to carry on as we are.”

              “And you think we’ll escape this? You really think we’ll get out of here alive?”

              “No, I don’t.” Zach shrugged. “We’re surrounded. Death is only around the corner.”

              A tear rolled down Violet’s cheek. “We should never have left Winter.”

              Zach clicked his tongue. Violet looked at him.

              “What?” She demanded.

              “You were the one who wanted to leave her.”

              “And now I want her back.”

              Zach shook his head. Violet pulled away from him.

              “Well, what’s wrong with that, Zach? I know you know it. You know that without her we’re fucking doomed.”

              “We were doomed anyway! Don’t you understand? We were always doomed!”

              “You weren’t saying that when Winter was here.”

              Violet made a noise of indignation and stood in the middle of the room, staring at the wall.

              “Don’t start now, Zach. I don’t know why we’re arguing so much lately.”

              Zach said nothing. Violet, set on arguing, picked on another subject.

              “You know she’s probably dead.”

              She glanced at Zach to see him look across at the bed, trying to hide his emotion at the thought. She knew she had found a weak spot.

              “She would have been lucky to have survived five minutes after we left her. That place was swarming.”

              “Shut up.”

              Violet laughed, even though it felt cold and shallow. “I’m being truthful, Zach.”

              “Don’t say she’s dead. That’s just cruel.”

              Violet rolled her eyes, looking towards the window. “I’m not giving up. We’ll get out of here tonight, or tomorrow if we have to.”

              “But the kids…”

              “I don’t fucking care about the kids!”

              Her screaming voice hung in the room as she exchanged glares with Zach.

              When she decided Zach wouldn’t speak again she continued.

              “I can’t do this anymore, Zach. We need to cut the loose ties.”

              She strode across the room and snatched up her gun, which lay against the bed propped against the bedroom door. The zombies outside seemed to sense her presence, throwing themselves against the door with a newfound gusto.

              She grimaced at the door, even though she couldn’t see what was beyond it, and turned the gun on the sleeping kids.

              “What the hell?” Zach gasped. “What do you think you’re doing?”

              “They’re deadweight, Zach. We don’t fucking need them. They’re the reason we’re not out of here.”

              “No, the reason we’re not out of here is because you left Winter behind and then insisted I went out there to get help.”

              “Oh, really?”

              Violet looked like she wanted to burst. She was shaking her head viciously.

              “Really.”

              “You’re going to fucking blame me for this shit?”

              “Well why shouldn’t I?” Zach asked, trying to keep his voice quiet and calm so he didn’t wake the kids. “You made us leave Winter, and you got us in this mess.”

              “Oh shut the fuck up about Winter, Zach. Honestly, you clearly want to be with her!”

              “I want to be with you, Vi.”

              “Well, you keep fucking going on about Winter. You seem to be thinking about
her
all the time.”

              “Because she was our friend, Vi. We ditched our friend.”

              “No we didn’t. We cut our ties because she was holding us back.”

              “Honestly, do
you
even know why you’re angry?”

              Violet laughed. “You don’t get me, do you?”

              “No I really don’t.”

              Violet went to reply, but she seemed a little shocked at his reply. She couldn’t think of anything else to say so she tipped the gun she held a little further in the direction of the sleeping girl.

              “I wanted to get rid of Winter, so I got rid of her. I wanted her gone because of the fucking children. You brought them with you. Now we’re here because of these kids weighing us down. They’re too ill to travel and we have little time. If we don’t fucking get out of here tomorrow, Zach, I’m leaving you behind.”

              “You sent me out there to get help and when I did the zombies got in!”

              “Because you were fucking slow!”

              The boy moved. Violet looked down at him.

              “With these gone, we’re free to go. Let’s just get rid of them and leave them behind for the zombies. They’ll be busy with them and we can escape.”

              It was Zach’s turn to look stunned.

              “Listen to what you’re saying.”

              “I know what I’m saying, Zach, and I’m saying it for a logical reason: so we can escape.”

              “Logical? You really think you’re being logical?”

              “Uh, that is what I just said.”

Zach smiled.

Violet shook her head slightly. “Why are you smiling?”

              “You. You’re a joke.”

              Violet sunk to her knees. She began to cry, the angry emotions she had felt so many times breaking down and being replaced by a tidal wave of fear.

              “Why are we doing this to each other, Zach?”

              “Because we’re scared.”

              Violet looked at him. “They have to go. Those kids have to go.”

              “Look, we’ll escape in the morning. We’ll carry the kids. Come on, let’s plan.”

              Zach cast a look around the room and spotted crumpled up paper lying on the floor. He walked over to it and picked it up, beginning to unwrap it.

              “What are you doing?”

              “We’re going to plan thoroughly.”

              Violet stood up.

              “Put that paper down, Zach…”

              Zach stopped. He had unfolded the paper and read the notes, written in the hand of Violet. He looked up at her, staring at her like he hadn’t before. She waited for him to speak, tensing as he looked back down at the kids.

              “You really…you really planned this.” He looked back up at her, waiting for an answer. “You really planned
this?”

             
He screamed the last words, booming them throughout the room. It was so shockingly out of character Violet felt frightened. The zombies on the other side of the door momentarily stopped throwing themselves against the door, but soon they seemed spurred by the anger, feeding off the ferocity of the situation.

              “Zach…”

              “I didn’t think you were planning this, Violet. I didn’t bloody think you were thinking this.”

              He screwed the papers up in his hand and threw them with force at the wall. It bounced off with anti-climax, rolling across the floor. Zach pulled at his hair. He looked deranged, different. Violet suddenly realised she had hurt him. She had hurt the boy she loved.

              “Zach. I didn’t want to act on them.”

              “You wrote them down, Violet. You’ve got to be sick to write down things like that.” Zach shook his head. “When were you going to do it? Were you going to do it while I was asleep? Were you going to push me out of a window? Were you going to ditch me like you ditched Winter?”

              “I didn’t ditch Winter.” Violet protested, but she had little fight left in her.

              “Yes you did. You thought only of you, and I thought you were right. I trusted you. I wanted you. So I did what you did. I left Winter, too, and I came here with you, and I respected what you wanted to do. What, did you want me to support you with murder? Did you want me to say ‘Ah, so you want to kill me, do you? Well, that’s alright, just wait until I’m asleep.’ You’re deranged. You’re not who I thought you were.”

              Violet hurried up to Zach, dropping the gun onto the floor with a loud thud. She gripped Zach’s shirt desperately, looking up at him.

              “Zach, look, I was angry. I wasn’t thinking. I just wrote what was in my mind.”

              “No, you weren’t thinking. You haven’t been thinking this whole time.”

              He pushed her away from him. She stumbled.

              “Don’t turn on me, Zach, don’t you dare turn on me.” Violet held a finger at him sternly. “You’re all I have.”

              And she cried. The tears fell from her eyes like a burst pipe. She had nothing else to do anymore. She had used up her anger, she had used up her manipulation, and now all she had left was hopeless tears.

              Zach wrapped his arms around her. He held her tightly, ignoring that she didn’t hug him back because he knew. He knew this wasn’t right. Not yet.

              “Did you mean it?” He whispered.

              “No, I never would have killed you.”

              “I mean, did you mean it about Winter?”

              Violet sighed.

              “I only hope that I was wrong.”

              The pair stood in the middle of the room, shaking as the cold from the pouring rain outside nipped at their exposed skin.

* * *

              Morning came with a strong sun shining down on the wrecks of the M1. Winter woke up in a sweat, feeling like she was in an oven. She desperately needed fresh air.

              She fumbled for the door and threw it open. It hit the car next to her, Connor’s KA, and she heard him shout out. The horn of the car in front beeped loudly as Gerry and Oliver were woken up.

              “It’s alright, it’s okay,” William quickly said, hurrying around to Winter’s door. He had been keeping watch for the rest of the night. “It was just Winter opening the car door.”

              Winter looked across to the KA to see Connor and Laura looking back at her.

              “Oh god, I’m sorry,” she said. She began to climb out of the car. “That was stupid.”

              The Jeep’s door shut behind Gerry as he got out of the car. He approached.

              “Anything last night?”

              “I didn’t see anything,” Laura said, rolling down the KA window. “Although I did hear a few odd noises.”

              “I heard the same,” William said.

              Gerry breathed in, looking around them. “Come on then. We have to go.”

              “What about breakfast, mate?” Oliver protested from the Jeep.

              “We’re going.”

              William rubbed a hand at the back of his head. “Listen, guys, something’s happened…”

              Connor climbed out of the KA, pulling on a t-shirt.

              “I was listening to the radio last night, the one from Paris,” William said. “They were talking about the usual thing when breaking news came through. There are only two more ships.”

              “We knew that anyway,” Winter said.

              “But they’ve changed. One is leaving in an hour. The other is leaving tomorrow night.”

              “Well we’re not going to get that then are we?”

              Winter wanted to kill him. Every eye turned to Oliver who seemed to be enjoying himself. It was like William had announced they had won the lottery.

              “If we don’t get to a ship by tomorrow night, Oliver, we’re here for good,” Laura said, staring straight at him.

              “Well then, we better get a move on.” Oliver smiled.

              Gerry turned to the others. “We have to go.”

              He hurried back to the Jeep, opening the passenger door he had been staying in. He picked up his bags, stuffing his sleeping bag away. He looked harassed and panicked.

              “We’ll keep walking. We’re bound to find a car,” he said, more to himself than the others.

              Winter took his lead. She climbed out of the car and began packing away her things. William joined her.

              “You think we’re going to catch it?”

              Winter looked at William and could see this meant everything to him. She tried to appear brave, like she knew they would get there in time, but she didn’t believe it herself.

              He smiled slightly at her, her silence speaking volumes. The odds were stacked against them.