Road to London: City of the Dead - Chapter IA Chapter by TJPresent - The Prices at Tesco are Dead cheapII
July 19th
The arrow on
the gauge had been flashing red for nearly an hour but James insisted on
pushing the Land Rover on. It was only when he saw the petrol station of
Bunerton come into view that he gave any indication of slowing down. Nathan ran
his index finger along the edge of his knife. It didn’t draw blood, but felt as
though it had so he stopped. The blade had begun to blunt from use. He turned
his eyes on Svetlana who was checking the equipment in her first aid kit.
Nathan was aware that she knew everything was there, but he also knew that
checking calmed her nerves.
Svetlana was
beautiful when she was nervous. She was a pretty girl normally but the fear of
death seemed to bring out the best in Svet’s cold features. Nathan suspected
that some of it was due to the fact that when her face paled it highlighted the
contrast between her complexion and her jet black hair. The cherry red streaks
seemed to glow more fluorescently as well, although he knew this was probably
his imagination. He took a moment to watch her fingers tremble as they placed a
hypodermic needle full of morphine back into its designated slot.
Next he
looked at Hiya-kō, who sat opposite him with her legs crossed. She appeared to
be meditating as she rubbed a whetstone back and forth across the glistening
steel of her katana. Nathan knew that if the car crashed and she let go then
the sword would probably decapitate him. But he wasn’t worried. Hiya-kō was the
kind of person you knew wouldn’t let go.
Hiya-kō was
attractive as well but in a completely different way. She too had icy black
hair that fell over her pale face but this black was deeper, more absolute and
less shiny. Hiya-kō was definitely not nervous, she appeared proud and composed
yet humble. Nathan had no real idea what a Geisha was, but he suspected that
Hiya-kō would be the perfect model of one. She noticed him watching her and met
his eyes. Instead of averting his gaze he stared on and after a respectful
acknowledgment she looked back to the sword.
By this time
the car had pulled into the petrol station car park. James had already got out
and was stretching his back with a pained expression on his face. Conrad leaned
over into the back of the Land Rover and gave the instruction to move out in
his moderate Texan accent. Nathan considered mocking it, but then decided that
doing so would be inappropriate so instead he waited for Svet to open the door
and hopped out after her. He suddenly understood why James was in such
discomfort. The Land Rover was only designed for five people and even after
tearing out the back seats seven was an extremely tight fit.
Nathan put
his hand across his face to keep the sun out of his eyes while everyone
stretched out. The ethereal purple, blueish glow seeping through his fingers.
He still hadn’t gotten used to it yet.
“Gogo,” asked
Conrad, to which Hiya-kō answered with a nod. “you got the list?” She handed him
a piece of paper on which a catalogue of supplies was scrawled in surprisingly
legible handwriting. “Israel, Hiyako, Nathan,” he paused while the three
acknowledged him, “There’s a Tesco about three hundred metres down the road
from here, we’re gonna go and stock up while the others fill up on gas.” The
three gave silent nods to show they understood their orders and Conrad turned
to the remainder of the group. “It’s not
gas.” Muttered Israel, who had jumped on the opportunity and was fighting back
a smile “What?” asked
Conrad, turning back to Israel with a bemused expression. “It’s called
petrol...” Conrad was silent for a few seconds before breaking out in a grin
when he realised Israel was messing with him.
As this was
going on James was confirming his previous fears. After around a minute of
prodding and poking at the nearest fuel station he kicked the pump and swore
loudly. “There’s no way we can get into these things, they’re self service and
there’s no power...” There was silence for a moment before Katrina spoke up
“Can’t we bash our way in?” James glared at Katrina, who returned his look
blankly and he decided that the question wasn’t worth his time. There was a gap
in the dialogue while the group silently groped in the dark for a solution to
the problem at hand. “What about
these other cars?” Svet asked. She motioned to the abundance of Vauxhaul Astras
and Ford Focuses that lay abandoned all around them. “What about
them?” “Well, most
of these will be at least half full of fuel so... can’t we siphon some of
theirs?” James made a
triumphant exclamation and skipped over to the pump. “Conrad, pass us your
axe.” After taking minimal care to catch the fire axe single handed, James
pulled the hose out of the pump and took a large yet precise swing at the
piping to sever about a metre length or rubber tubing.
Leaving James
and the others to siphon the petrol, Conrad led Nathan and the others down the
road towards the Tesco’s, which stood out like a shining pyramid amongst the
bungalows of this little English town. Bunerton looked to Nathan like the kind
of settlement that was made of about three villages that had grown into each
other over time. There didn’t seem to be any kind of structure apart from the
newly built stretch of road that connected the motorway to the Tesco car park.
When they
reached the shop they found the glass in the automatic doors already smashed,
judging from the lack of blood on the jagged edges Conrad concluded that the
break in must be the work of hungry teenagers and so decided that it was safe
to go inside. Nathan stepped carefully through the hole in the door and was
greeted by the distinct smell of stale dairy products. It was deathly quiet
inside the supermarket and Nathan had to tell himself not to tiptoe as the
group gathered in a semicircle around Conrad by the basket rack.
“Hiyako and
Nathan, you go to food. Israel and I’ll take everything else. Don’t move
further than an aisle away from your partner and keep your weapons ready, if
you hear the signal get out however you can and we’ll meet in the car park.
Everyone clear?” The group answered with only nods apart from Israel who added
an “Aye, Aye Cap’n” which made everyone snigger except Hiya-kō who didn’t
appreciate sarcasm, or maybe just didn’t understand it. She and Nathan walked
to the food aisles and began collecting the items on the list, which mainly
consisted of canned and dried foods. Nathan took the initiative and picked up
some Coco Pops (which Hiya-kō seemed to have forgotten were an essential part of any
teenager’s diet).
There was no
artificial light in the supermarket, so Nathan had to rely on what the sun was
generous enough to share with him through the slim skylight in the roof. He was
trying to make out the label on a bag of rice when a hand touched him on the
shoulder. Nearly jumping out of his skin Nathan lashed out with one of his
knives, intending to bury it in his assailant’s neck. Hiya-kō parried the blade
effortlessly with her bare hand, the look on her face betraying no emotion
despite it nearly being impaled. “F*****g hell Hiyako! I nearly killed you!”
Nathan spat, trying to sound sincere yet keep his voice down. Hiya-kō scoffed,
obviously amused at the idea of Nathan being able to kill her.
She made a
gesture to the very bottom of the list, where the words “beef burgers” had been
scrawled messily next to some Japanese characters that Nathan assumed meant
“Big Mac” when translated literally. He looked back to Hiya-kō, cocking his
left eyebrow. The girl shrugged. Nathan shook his head and tutted
condescendingly as he turned and began walking towards the meat counter.
Any meat out
in the air would undoubtedly have gone rotten weeks ago so Nathan decided to
look in the Freezer room behind the counter. It felt cool vaulting the glass
obstacle and seeing the shop from an entirely new perspective. The doors to the
freezer section swung open silently, as if they had been recently oiled. Nathan
was grateful for this. He hated creaky doors.
The first
thing he noticed was that the floor was wet underfoot. Looking down he was
shocked to see his shoes soaked in blood but then realised that without air
conditioning the frozen meat would have begun to defrost. The second thing he
noticed was the stink. A stink of fetid and rotting flesh that made Nathan
realise that his hunt for burgers would probably end here. It didn’t seem to
have a source and made him recoil. The third and most unnerving thing about the
room that he noticed was the regular crunch, crunch that was coming from
somewhere in front of him. He looked up and saw something that made his whole
body freeze like the carcasses around him.
Spread
throughout the freezer room, chewing on the various animal corpses that hung
from the hooks on the ceiling were slouching figures. They swayed uncertainly
and cast huge crimson shadows in the red light that the room was bathed in.
They looked to Nathan like they could have been here for days, working away at
their rock hard feasts oblivious of their shattered teeth and broken jaws.
None of the
Dead had noticed Nathan yet, preoccupied as they were. Thankful for this he
began backtracking at a snail’s pace, aware that even the sound of sloshing
blood under his shoes could give him away. When he was confident that he could
make a break for it Nathan turned and began to run, bumping into a large obstruction
face first.
The
obstruction was a very tall and very large man. Nathan had to crane his neck to
see his grey, vacant eyes and wide mouth that leaked blood down his chin with
every breath. Nathan heard the Dead behind him taking interest and beginning to
move in for whatever twitching appendage they could get their hands on. From
what he could hear these Dead moved sluggishly, probably because their muscles
were ruined from being in near zero temperatures for so long. This meant that
Nathan had a few precious moments to move the Tall Man, warn the others and get
the f**k out.
As swiftly as
he could Nathan whipped his knives from their makeshift sheaths and plunged
them upwards, under the Tall Man’s ribs, hoping to reach the heart. The man
flinched and a mouthful of fresh blood fell to the floor between him and
Nathan. However, the large fist clenching around his neck and slamming him into
one of the freezer room doors told him that he had missed. Knowing that it
would be pointless to try and wrench the Tall Man’s hand loose, he grabbed the
handles of his knives, retracted them a few inches then repeatedly drove them
deeper and deeper into his chest.
More blood
than Nathan thought was possible spilled out of the Tall Man to join with the
vast amount already on the ground but the hand stayed clenched. The Tall Man
leaned in to take a chunk out of Nathan’s neck and was rewarded by more
frequent and more vicious, relentless stabbing. Just as Nathan was about to
give in and shout to the others to flee, a sharp crack sounded and everything
that was left of the Tall Man’s scrambled brain flew out of his right ear.
The grip
finally weakened, but Nathan didn’t stop to breath. He tore out his knives and
ran towards his savoir, who stood stock still, holding the smoking Nambu pistol
in her left hand. Knowing that the Dead from the freezer room were only feet
behind him and that more were probably going to be summoned by the gunshot,
Nathan ran as fast as he could behind Hiya-kō. His heart felt like it was about
to explode but still he ran, with only the flash of the Japanese girl’s hair to
guide him through the aisles.
He kept
running until he was through the shattered doors (his shoes crashing though the
unbroken glass jutting out of the frame) and then he kept running to the car
park where Conrad and Israel were standing. He ran faster when he saw the
horror on the pair’s faces when they noticed what was chasing him. Even though
he could hear his own heart beat and had stopped breathing altogether he kept
running.
He had to
stop, he had run further than he ever had before and now he had to rest. It
would be easy to just lie down and let the snapping jaws of the Dead take him
to a place where he could sleep. He began to slow, then tripped, only just
managing to keep footing. He thought of Svet. How she would react to seeing him
ripped apart so close to safety. The thought kept him running.
Nathan could
hear more Dead pouring out of the adjacent streets and alleyways like clotting
blood but all he could see was the Land Rover a hundred or so metres ahead. He
heard Latiwa and the others yell and he heard the whistle as Molotov Cocktails
were tossed over his head and the roar of the flames as they exploded amongst
the hoards of screeching Dead that were hot on his tail. He saw the Land Rover
lurch into action and he saw Conrad’s outstretched hand. Nathan reached for it,
his fingertips straining and stretching.
A flash of
light. Hot. Black. © 2013 TJAuthor's Note
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