Issue 5: Hitting The Road

A Chapter by Nathan Davis

As Blake, Blackjack and Skyla struggle to escape the bar, conditions in camp are only getting worse...

Brook Campsite 6/9/2014 15:37

Blackjack pulled the taxi up alongside the gate, feeling worse than he’d ever felt. They had barely gotten out of The Fish Bait alive, but what was worse was the sacrifices they had made in the process. The three of them- Blake, Blackjack and Skyla, could of died in that bar, and they had only gotten out by abandoning all the money they had found. Now, they all felt more vulnerable and shaken than they ever could be. Blake wasn't sure he’d ever be able to forget the horrors he had witnessed in there. In fact, he reckoned that the day he got used to experiences like that was the day he would really start to worry. As they arrived, Noah and Piper were already running towards the double gates to open them backwards and let the taxi shamble in. Piper looked like she had been crying and Noah wore a grim expression, like someone who had just been told that they were dying of a terminal illness. When he looked at them, Blake felt suddenly miserable too, even though he had no idea what they were upset about.

“At least you’re OK…” said Noah as the three exited the taxi.

“Why? What happened?” Skyla asked, although she was terribly certain that knew what the answer was, “Is everything alright back here?”

“No, Skyla, it isn’t alright.” Moaned Piper. After a long pause, which Blake thought might never come to an end, came:

“Judy is dead.”

The Fish Bait 6/9/2014 12:51

“Get to the back door!” Blake yelled, rushing towards the back room behind the bar.

“I’m on it!” Skyla overtook him, then Blackjack. When the trio reached the back door, Skyla twisted the handle.

Click.

“Damn! Locked.” She moaned. Blackjack grinned and passed over her mallet.

“Picked it up for you on my way out.”

“Thank God.” For the second time in five minutes, Skyla swung her mallet into the lock, knocking it clean off the door. Without requiring any force, the door swayed open rapidly and the three stepped out into a back alley.

They looked around. Directly in front was another brick wall that appeared to stretch up higher than The Fish Bait. To the left was a chain-link fence behind two old-style metallic trash cans. On the right was a litter-peppered exit out onto the street, from which hungry, victorious creepers were already starting to pour.

“The bins,” Blake started, rushing away from the immediate danger, “We can get up onto the roof.”

“And then what?” snapped Blackjack, clearly petrified and not dealing well with the situation. But Blake was already halfway up onto the roof.

“And then we live.” Said Skyla, following Blake. “C’mon, Blackjack, you can’t argue with that.”

Despite knowing that they were getting themselves trapped, Blackjack followed his girlfriend and the man he barely knew or trusted up onto the roof seconds before the grabbing hands reached him and snaked up to the roof, looking for a meal.

Brook campsite 6/9/2014 15:39

In the films, when a returning hero was told of a friend’s death, they sometimes cried, ran off, threw themselves into the grave if it was that bad a movie. But, despite Blake's expectations, the only reaction was a soft,

“Oh”

From Skyla. Then came silence, which was worse for Blake than crying or fleeing or suicide, because that was something. But pale, icy silence was emptiness, and Blake couldn’t take any more emptiness in his life right now. Noah, being the wise old man he was, sensed the uncomfortable atmosphere, or maybe he felt it too, because he broke the eternal silence with:

“She… slipped away after you left. We’ll bury her tonight. For now, though, what did you get?” He turned to Blackjack, despite Blake's presence, as a force of habit.

“A lot of drinks, Blake's guitar and a case. We weren’t sure anyone played.”

“Judy-” Noah began.

Piper, who had been fairly quiet up to this point, suddenly began to cry. She collapsed forward like she had been shot in the back. Skyla rushed forward to catch her, holding Piper up, a fireman pushing a fallen tree off of a road.

“What will we do? What can we do?” she sobbed in between breaths.

At that moment Skyla wanted to say that they would think of something, that it would all be alright, but instead she didn’t because, as a child, she remembered being warned never to tell lies.

The Fish Bait roof 6/9/2014 12:53

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. The trio, terrified and exhausted, yanked themselves up onto the roof of The Fish Bait, and without ever wanting to, stepped to the edge to survey the damage. It was the kind of sight that made Blake's heart sink into his stomach like an open plastic box in a lake. Looking into Blackjack and Skyla's eyes, he could almost see their lives flashing through their minds at twenty times the speed of a bullet train.

“NOW WHAT?” Blackjack screamed over the moans of the creepers below, not at all happy that his point seemed to of been proved. Blake looked to his side, then down to the oil carrier on its back like a dead dog not three meters across the roof. For the first time in his life, he had what he thought was a genuinely good idea.

“Blackjack, you got a lighter?” Blake asked him. Confused, Blackjack handed Blake an almost-full, glossy red lighter. He saw disapproval on Skyla's face, but ignored it for now.

“Stay there.” Blake ordered, and jogged along the roof, shouting loudly.

“What?” Blackjack shouted to him, frustrated. “What the hell are you doing?”

All the creepers that were previously devoted to the bins suddenly turned and made a huddle in the space between the oil pools and Blake’s corner of the roof.

“This had better work.” Blake said as he struck down with his thumb and dropped the lighter.

Brook Campsite 6/9/2014 18:00

“I don’t think that any of us could of anticipated losing Judy. She was just one of those people who we thought… would always be with us. Judy was an asset to this group, someone who, without being around, would leave us so much worse off than we are now. She worked hard, not for herself either. And now, she’s gone. Dead. I think death is something… we’ll have to get used to.

I know a lot of you are expecting rescue. I know you think some team will show up, tear through these monsters and everything will be back to normal in a month. But think about it. The military have plenty of equipment. If they were going to rescue us, it would of happened already. They. Aren’t. Coming.

This is real, the problem we’re in. This is real and it could even be permanent. There are far more of them than us, that’s for sure. Maybe we’re the only survivors in the area. Which means we have to fend for ourselves. However, although Blackjack, Skyla and Blake have done a great job out there, it… it may not be enough. We can’t camp here forever, no way. It’s too damn dangerous.

Bearing that in mind, I’ve made a decision- not that you have to follow me, of course. We are leaving tomorrow. If we set off first thing in the morning, we’re sure to find somewhere safer by dark. We’ve got to. Anyone who wants to stay is welcome. Just don’t expect me to put my life on the line and stay with you. We can take all the vehicles- unless you want to stay and you own that vehicle- with us, plenty of room.

I know you don’t all agree with this decision. I can see it in your eyes. But believe me, it isn’t safe here. Not after Judy. I just can’t accept that this is the best option for us. I just- well…

As hard as it may be for some of you to believe, I’m trying as hard as I can to do what’s best for you guys. ‘Cause truthfully, the six of you are all I’ve got.

That’s why we need to go. Sunrise, no later. If you don’t… I can’t promise that coming with me will guarantee safety. But I am sure as hell that your chances are a lot worse off here.

I’m not a great leader. I’m not strong, fast, or good with anything except this pitchfork in a fight. But I have seen people die. I’ve watched in pain as my friends go insane before my eyes. And I’ll be damned if I let that happen to any of you.

So yeah, I’m sorry, Judy. Hope you’re in a better place and all that kind of stuff. But the truth is, if there is a heaven- in which case you’ll be there now- you have one hell of a depressing show to watch down here.”

The Fish Bait roof 6/9/2014 12:55

Sounding oddly like a mattress cover being torn in two, the lighter spark went tearing from a Bunsen-burner sized flame to a campfire heat and eventually a fully-spread inferno in the space of two seconds. In fact, such was the unexpected magnitude of the blaze that Blake barely ran back to the opposite corner of the roof to Blackjack and Skyla before the heat scorched his re-worn clothing. Luckily, due to the noise Blake had made (He had barely noticed the burglar alarm deactivating after a minute), the creepers had all headed towards the fire, where he hoped they were each burning in hell.

“Problem solved.” He mocked loudly to Skyla.

“Are you crazy?” She screamed, eyes fixated on the relishing fire.

“Quite possibly,” he replied without a trace of humour, “Now run before the oil tank blows!”

Apparently, neither of them particularly wanted to get blown apart, as they followed him once he had climbed off of the roof.

“Damn.” Said Skyla.

“What is it?” asked Blackjack, but he realised before she could answer. “The money! We left it!”

“No time for that, for Christ’s sake!” Blake shouted almost immediately. “Get in the taxi!”

Faster than he had ever moved before, Blake opened the car taxi door, slammed it behind him, turned the keys (which were still in the ignition) with such speed that they nearly snapped, and sped the car off with Skyla and Blackjack behind him as a tank of oil and petrol exploded into a mushroom of red and black and spread, so that if they had left a second later it would of consumed them in ways more painful than the creepers could ever inflict. The eruption spread like poisonous gas, eating up and destroying the flaming, dying zombies before the fire could terminate their heads once and for all.

For a while, the car was quiet.

“We don’t breathe a word of this to Noah. Understand?” Blake said to the other two, “He obviously isn’t happy about sending us out here in the first place, and if he knew how close we just came to dying, he would never let us go out again. That’s just the kind of person he is. We need to come back for supplies, so for his sake- and the group’s- will you both keep quiet?”

There was a brief but thoughtful pause, and eventually they both nodded.

“That makes sense.” Blackjack said.

“Now, let’s get back soon.” Skyla added, “I want to crack open some more Pepsi for a change.”

Miles behind them, as the final creepers fell foul to the fire which had now encased The Fish Bait, a second car pulled up alongside the entrance, this one darker and sleeker than a shadow. Two men got out, one tall and businessman-like, the other younger, clutching a curled black whip in one hand.

“Were they here?” the young man asked the taller, older one.

“Oh yeah,” he replied, “They were here.”

Brook Campsite 7/9/2014 07:09

“Blake,” Called Noah as they were packing the vehicles the next morning, “I need to talk to you for a minute.” He stood at the rear of his van, carefully loading boxes into the back through the two open back doors.

“Sure, Noah” Blake replied as he started towards him. Although Blake had no idea what the conversation could be about, he was not at all prepared for what Noah asked of him.

“I need you to keep an eye on Ross.” Noah said in a hushed voice. Blake was left more than confused.

“Keep an eye on him, Noah? They guy’s twenty-seven.”

“I know, but ever since Judy he’s just not been himself. Now I’ve seen people go mad over losing their loved ones. Ross and Judy were close, closer than maybe even Skyla and Blackjack are. He’s gone quiet, and he doesn’t seem to want to do anything much anymore.”

“Well, that’s the grieving process. Give it time, he’ll feel better.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” In the old world, you could sit at home after a funeral and mope about, never move at all if you didn’t want to. But here, he won’t have that luxury.”

“Ah.” Said Blake, suddenly feeling very stupid. “Of course I’ll keep an eye on him. But Noah- why did you ask me?”

Noah took a deep breath, which suddenly made him seem much older and much weaker than he had acted in the last week.

“Clark is no more than a kid. Blackjack will always be more interested in looking after Skyla, not that I hold it against him. Piper, she just isn’t up to it right now- she was close to Judy too. Same with Skyla. And I can’t afford to focus my attention on just one of you. The fact is, despite all the death he must of seen in his life being a paramedic and all, Ross is a broken man. Our responsibility is to help him fix himself.”

“I understand. I’d better go and finish packing the taxi with Clark. See you, Noah.” Blake began to walk away.

“Thanks, Blake. For everything.” Noah said quietly, closing both van doors behind him.

Brook Campsite Gates 7/9/2014 07:26

“Right guys, this is it. The plan,” Noah told the group as he stood in front of the huddle of vehicles parked outside the gate, “Is to head to Manchester. There is- or was- an army camp around there. My bet is they’re loaded with weapons, so the place is probably still standing. We have no time to lose if we want to make it there in one piece. Let’s get on the move, head off right now. That fence could come down any minute and I don’t want to be around when it does.”

And so, that day, the group pulled out of Brook Campsite, from the graves of Margaret and Judy, led by Noah in his van, Piper driving the blue Toyota with Blackjack and Skyla in the back seats, Ross in tow in the otherwise empty ambulance, and behind them, Blake Trueman, with Clark at the wheel, in the worn down taxi that had saved his life. As they left, Blake wondered what lay in store for them, and how long they would last.

Hell, the way he saw it, he was just along for the ride.

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