Autumn

Chapter 5

DAY EIGHTY-EIGHT

They spent almost the entire following day trying to acclimatise, but it was easier said than done. Switching off and kicking back was a thing of the past, no matter how safe their surroundings had initially appeared. As the hours ticked by, the barracks began to feel less suitable, less secure, less permanent. As much of an improvement on their previous hideouts and boltholes as they clearly were, they still weren’t good enough. Even here, surrounded by military kit and protected by walls and fences and open spaces, they still had to take risks just to fulfil their basic needs.

For starters, they needed food.

Sam and Mihai found a supermarket within walking distance. A group of ten volunteers left the base to collect enough to keep everyone fed and watered for a few days at least. Despite the fact they stayed quiet and moved slowly, and even though most of the people who went out to loot were used to tiptoeing around the dead and not taking chances, they still hit problems. There were too many wandering bodies in the area to be able to avoid all of them. The looters tried to balance safety and speed, and though they were largely successful, by the time the job was done, the crowd of cadavers hanging around the gates had more than doubled in size. The dead showed no signs of retreat. ‘They’re becoming more persistent,’ Sam said. ‘Their behaviours are changing. They’re holding back more, reacting with less volatility. It’s like they’re thinking.’

His comments had initially been met with derision from certain quarters, but the evidence was mounting.

‘I saw the same thing at the service station, and again on the way here. And before you start ripping the piss out of me, I know exactly how ridiculous this sounds. Their physical condition is better than the ones in London, it makes sense that what’s left of their brains are in better shape too. I swear I could see one making a rudimentary decision last night; I don’t know... it sounds crazy, I know.’

‘No, I think you’re onto something,’ Vicky said. ‘I’ve seen it too. When I watch them now, I can feel them watching back. I think they’re struggling to work out what’s happening to them as much as we are.’

The food they’d scavenged had mostly been eaten by the end of the day. They’d have to go out again tomorrow and get more. The group’s first night here had been relaxing and optimistic, but with a steadily growing crowd loitering outside the gates, and with Sam’s words echoing around their heads, many people resigned themselves to sleepless second nights. David resisted the temptation to try and impose his views on the rest of the group, figuring instead that it would be better for them all to come naturally to the same conclusions. He paced around the barracks, no intention of trying to sleep. Our time here is running out, he thought. Why are we delaying things? Why not just leave right now?

#

He’d only been lying on his bed for a couple of minutes when Lisa collared him. ‘You’re needed,’ she whispered, gesturing towards the cadet building, and his heart sank. He didn’t bother asking questions because there was no point. It could only be bad news. There’s no such thing as good news anymore, if there ever was.

Sanjay, Chapman, Sam, and Steven had three prisoners.

It wasn’t too strong a word to use, because whoever these kids were – and he didn’t recognise any of them – they weren’t going anywhere. They were young and uniformly scrawny mid-teens, waifs, two lads and a girl, each of them draped in layers of ragged clothes that might have fitted once but which now looked several sizes too big.

‘We caught these three trying to break in and help themselves,’ Steve explained.

‘It’s not like it’s your stuff,’ one of the boys said. ‘You broke in here too.’

The girl in the middle nudged him in the ribs. ‘I told you, I’ll do the talking,’ she hissed. He crossed his arms and slumped back in his chair, suitably admonished. She looked up at David. ‘We weren’t after your stuff.’

He stood in front of the three of them, doing his best impression of a stern headteacher. ‘If you’re not on the take, do you want to tell us what it is you’re doing here?’

‘Trying to stay alive, same as you.’

‘And how do you know anything about us?’

‘We don’t. All we know is that you’re trouble. Are you something to do with that last lot that came through? We heard them on the motorway, frigging maniacs.’

David glanced at Chapman, then turned back to the girl. ‘Believe me, we’re nothing to do with them. And you’ll stay away from them too if you’ve got any sense.’

‘They didn’t hang around. Were they friends of yours?’

‘Hardly.’

‘What do you mean, we’re trouble?’ Chapman demanded. She shrugged.

‘We’ve only lasted so long here because we’ve been careful. We saw you lot walking along the Warley Road. We heard you a mile off. Ours is one of those big houses you went past.’

‘And?’

‘And if we heard you, they’ll hear you too. It’s not good. You’ll f**k it up for all of us. You’ve already got a load of them hanging around outside.’

Much to Chapman’s surprise and annoyance, David pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the kids. ‘You’re right. You’ve done well to have lasted so long here. We’ve had a bit of a shitty time, to be honest. I’m David. It’s good to meet you.’

Taken aback, the girl shook his hand when he offered it. ‘I’m Mia. This is Callum and Ollie.’

‘And you three have been doing okay here?’

‘Better than everybody else,’ Callum said. David laughed.

‘Good answer. So, you’ve got a good set up at the house?’

Callum was about to answer, but Mia spoke first. ‘Why should we tell you? You gonna come and take all our stuff next?’

‘That’s not going to happen, I promise. There’s more than enough to go around these days. We’re not going to be a threat to you unless you threaten us.’

‘Carry on like this and you’re gonna get us all killed,’ Callum grunted. His voice was full of animosity. ‘We heard you out shopping this morning, dumb fuckers. Every dead bastard a mile around heard you too.’

Chapman wasn’t impressed. ‘Who does he think he’s talking to? Cocky little shit.’

David held up a hand to silence him. ‘It’s okay. I understand. We’re on their turf, remember.’ He turned back to Callum. ‘We’re just trying to find somewhere safe. We started off in central London, not through choice, and we’ve been trying to get out ever since.’

‘There was a lot of smoke coming from that way,’ Mia said.

‘Yep. Long story short, there’s not a lot of central London left anymore. There’s not a lot of us left either, to be honest. Until a couple of days ago there were almost three hundred of us. We lost a lot of people along the way.’

‘You got a plan, or are you making it up as you go along?’

‘Bit of both. We’re trying to get north. We think things will be better up there.’

‘So who was that we heard on the motorway?’

‘Trouble. People who sold us out and left us stranded. We’re all better off without them.’

‘To be honest, sounds like we had it easy in comparison,’ Mia said. ‘We just found the biggest house we could, away from everything else, and we’re waiting it out. We’re all from around here. We know the place. We went the long way whenever we needed to go into town and fetch stuff – through the park then in and out on the train line. There was never many of the dead down there.’

‘Sounds like you’ve done alright for yourselves.’

There was a pause, a definite hesitation before she continued. Her voice was different now, emotional, all the cockiness stripped away. ‘We had another couple of people with us to start with.’

‘What happened?’

‘Crace had diabetes. This woman Simone had been with him from the start. She knew him from before it all happened. He ran out of insulin, and we couldn’t find what he needed. We told Simone we’d been through all the hospitals and the chemists we knew, but she wanted to keep looking, even though she knew there was no point because she was only ever gonna keep him alive for a little bit longer. She went out on her own one day and never came back. Stupid, really. They didn’t both have to die.’

The conversation faltered, everyone musing on what Mia had said. Then Ollie cleared his throat and spoke for the first time. ‘You can’t stay here.’

‘Why not?’ David asked.

‘Too close to town. Too many deaders. It ain’t gonna take a lot to bring them all over this way. You’re lucky you never done it when you was in the supermarket, ‘cause if that happens, we’re all fucked.’

‘We’re not planning on hanging around.’

‘I get it. You’re just gonna stay here long enough to f**k everything up for us, then leave?’

‘You could come with us. That’s what you really came here for, isn’t it?’ David looked at each of their grubby faces, struggling to discern their reactions. He gestured at the bags they’d been carrying. ‘We can drop all the pretence. You’ve come packed. There’s no point hanging around here on your own.’

‘Jesus, Dave, we don’t even know them,’ Chapman said.

‘And we don’t know you,’ Ollie sneered. ‘You could be paedos or anything.’

Mia glared at him again. ‘If so many of your group have died, are we gonna be any safer with you?’

‘Now that’s the million-dollar question,’ David explained. ‘Things might work out for the best, but on the other hand, leaving here might be the biggest mistake any of us have made. We’ve got some ideas of where we’re going, but nothing concrete. We’re going to try and find ourselves somewhere away from the dead and wait until they’ve rotted away to nothing.’

‘We were thinking the same,’ she said, nonchalant.

‘You were planning to stay in Brentwood, though?’

She shrugged. ‘Couldn’t really go anywhere.’

‘Look, I’ll level with you,’ David said, ‘it makes no difference to us either way. You’re right, we’ve lost too many of our people; and a number of them chose not to come. I don’t know... having you three onboard feels like a step in the right direction.’

‘Are we sure about this?’ Sanjay asked. ‘Bit of a frigging risk if you ask me. They could be anybody.’

‘So could we.’

‘And what are they going to bring to the party? Just three more mouths to feed?’

‘We can help you get out of Brentwood safe,’ Callum said. ‘We can get you back to the motorway, help you get around the crowds.’

‘I’m sure we can manage,’ Chapman said, sounding less than impressed. ‘I don’t need kids giving me directions.’

‘You sure? You been into Brentwood recently?’