~ Welcome to Quills ~

Our lungs were burning by the time we stopped running. We had reached the outskirts of town and the sky, already bleak from the falling rain and residual smoke and elements, was starting to darken. Twilight was approaching. Weak from adrenalin and hunger we came across an old farm and sought refuge within. The barn was rickety and dark but it looked to have been cleared of animals for quite some time. The homestead laid a good hundred or so metres away behind a barbed wire fence, the occupants we assumed dead inside – if not hungry. It wasn’t the ideal location but it was all we had. Using whatever we could find we barricaded ourselves inside and waited as night quickly fell.

 

The rain continued to patter down, coming and going, the sound hypnotic as we sat up on the musty boards that smelled of old oil and cow dung and exchanged solemn glances. Time passed slowly – it always did now.

 

“Rob, you’re freezing,” I gasped.

 

He smiled at me, introverted as always, as he sat shivering against a solid balustrade. He shook his head and pretended to dismiss it but even across the few feet that separated us I could see his teeth and jaw chattering. Crawling towards him I stripped off my jacket and ignoring his protest slipped it around him. His smile grew but all too soon wavered and fell away.

 

“I’m okay,” he sniffled. Water still dripped in places from his hair. Despite his initial protest he huddled behind the jacket and breathed into his hands, wringing them to warm them.

 

“Come here,” I said, settling in along side him. I leant against his side, cringing at first from the water still saturating his clothes. Together we huddled beneath the one jacket as David could be heard lazily patrolling the ground below. For a while we didn’t talk, we just sat together listening to the rain and pretending not to strain our eyes and ears to the slightest movement.

 

“Better?” I asked eventually.

 

Rob slid his arms around me as I cuddled against him, blushing beneath his gaze that I could no longer see only feel.

 

He nodded but I knew without him having to say a word that he was lying.

 

“God I’m so cold.”

 

“You’ve probably got a chill,” I assured.

 

I looked around but it was virtually impossible to see in the near pitch black darkness. Though I had a torch amongst other things in my backpack I knew the bright light would only attract them. There was nothing to dry him off with as he had lost his equipment earlier – now we were down to bare minimum of everything, including the one sleeping bag. Carefully I dragged the bag over and unzipped it, unfurling the blanket as Rob sat shivering behind me. He protested but I knew he didn’t mean it. Since the gas attack all those months ago there was no such thing as chivalry anymore, just the basic need to survive. To an utterance of thanks I wrapped him in it. Eventually we lay cuddled together as I did my best to warm him using my body heat for insulation. For what felt like hours we lay frozen together, him cuddling into my back, struggling to get warm in the damp and the darkness. The chattering of his teeth steadily worsened.

 

“Rae?” he stammered at some point.

 

I fluttered my eyes open and grunted back in acknowledgement.

 

“I’m- I’m sorry,” he began.

 

Rather than let him continue I soothed him and assured that everything was okay. We’d find food later; we’d get him another backpack. But even as I spoke hunger and exhaustion was claiming me and I soon fell asleep.

 

When I awoke the blue-grey hue of the encroaching dawn peered in through gaps in the barn walls. The rain had finally stopped, and so too had Rob’s feverish shivers. It took me an instant to realise in the ear-ringing silence that something was wrong. Rob’s arm was too heavy. It was too cold. On instinct I recoiled. Immediately I heard a distinct sound, like a low growl, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. A cold shiver ran the length of my spine. I was frozen beneath the blanket. There was movement behind me. The blanket was lifting. I closed my eyes. I squeezed them tight. I could smell the tepid rotting breath. I could hear the floorboards creaking beneath him. He was pushing himself up onto an arm behind me. He was leaning over me. He was drawing closer. Opening my eyes I peered back in time to see him lunge mouth open towards me. The sound was inhuman. I screamed-

 

***

 

“Shh!”

 

With a gasp I furiously fluttered my eyes open. Someone had their palm wrapped around my mouth, smothering me. I struggled and was smartly stopped. David shook me. He raised a finger to his lips. That’s when I heard it too – movement outside. It sounded like footsteps pounding through the dirt – not the usual limp dragging gait of the dead, but something other. My shoulders deflated. Releasing my face David gingerly lifted his rifle from the floor and gestured his intention. He was going to take up ambush position inside the door. Struggling to shirk off my dreams I nodded, immediately startled into action. Stiffly uncurling myself from the floorboards I had called my bed for the night; I picked up my pistol and checked the magazine clip. Almost empty. Figured. Outside the boarded window shadows were moving; People, and more agile than what we were used to. Hope soared and then faded at the prospect we had now wandered into the path of a far more dangerous enemy – other survivors just like us; desperate, lonely, paranoid and destitute – and looking to survive by any and all means necessary.

 

Peering through the boards nailed over the window David frowned and drew closer. A perpetual dim light painted a blue-grey line across his face. In the internal gloom it was hard to tell whether night was falling or the sun was rising, or even was season it was anymore.

 

“What?” I asked.

 

David raised his hand at me gesturing silence. A moment later he beckoned me over. Taking my pistol with me I made my way across the dusty old hut to join him.

“Look at that,” he said, “Tell me what you see.”

 

Thinking it was a trick question I frowned but did as I was bidden. Through the small sliver I was able to see the road we had walked hours before strewn with the usual detritus of a town gone to hell virtually overnight. I saw the burnt out overturned cars, the ransacked houses with their darkened windows and gaping doors like mouths opened in a silent scream, the same suburban façades I’d seen for weeks now wandering the countryside in almost every town we passed through. Always we saw the same trail of destruction but came across very few survivors; some, like us, obviously didn’t want to be found.

 

Seeing movement several metres to my left my heart locked inside my throat but with a morbid curiosity I could not make myself turn away as footsteps, slow even footsteps came, passed and continued on their way past.

 

“There’s people out there,” David exclaimed in awe. “I don’t think they’re infected.”

 

“Who are they?”

 

“What does it matter? They’re alive aren’t they?”

 

“Yeah but for how much longer?”

 

David frowned at me and my previous venom dried up, stalling like a knot at the back of my throat. My eyes fell to the floor as I stood there silent a moment, lost to my thoughts. When I looked up David was making his way back towards the door.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“There’s a light out there,” he marvelled.

 

I shrugged in confusion. The look on his face both scared and excited me. I saw him reach for the door handle. My heart was pounding with such force I felt like I was about to collapse where I stood. I didn’t have time to stop him; clearly he had already decided on the best course of action. Left with no choice but to go along or be left behind I hurriedly gathered my meagre possessions into my bag and shrugged it on to my back. Still clasping my gun in my fist I met him in the doorway.

 

“We’ll wait til they’re out of sight and then we’ll follow,” he said. To my tentative expression he added, “Would you rather stay here and wait for more of those things come and find us?”

 

I shook my head. In truth I was too scared to say anything. In truth I had no idea what was about to happen to us. I stood there as memories of Rob hit me like a tidal wave. All I knew was I didn’t want that to happen to me. I didn’t to become whatever he now was.

 

***

David huffed and shrugged his shoulders at me. The road behind was empty and growing dark beneath the shade of the mountain and trees. The road ahead was light but fraught with unseen dangers. If this was the place shining the light into the sky intermittently it had to be for a reason. I didn’t want to think these people, whoever they were, had lost touch of their humanity to such a degree they would lure survivors just to rob them, but there was no guarantees anymore. The war had killed the life I’d known but not all of it had stayed dead. With a shudder I bowed my head and sighed decisively. Hearing gravel crunch like bones underfoot I looked up. David was waiting for me.

 

“We keep moving. Same as always. If we stop we die,” he said, “I don’t know about you but I don’t feel like dying today. If they want to shoot us so be it, I’d rather that than the alternative. But I’m not going down without a fight. Are you coming or not?”

 

Taking my trusty pistol in fist I nodded and together we made our way down the road towards the village.

***

 

The camp was silent as we approached. We knew we were being watched, we could feel it, but we didn’t see anyone. The barbed wire glittered in the sun and shifted lazily in the cool salty breeze. Making our way towards the gate we studied the white sheets that billowed from make shift flag poles on both sides. We exchanged wary glances. The sign above the gate said ‘The Park.’ We didn’t see any evidence of the infected anywhere around us; we couldn’t even see their rotting corpses liquefying in the sun as we had in other ‘safehouses.’ Panic swelled in me at the thought we were already too late. Visions of the dead limping around inside probably massed in their hundreds hiding in darkness flooded my head but we were at the gate and there was no turning back. With a dry mouth I came to a stop beside David. Then, from out of nowhere, a woman’s voice called down to us.

“Drop 'em and raise your hands!”

David glared at me with a strange smile on his face. I shook my head. If he wanted to die in a shoot out I was begging him with my eyes not to take me down with him. But the woman called again and we saw, through the fence line, the shadow of a head peering back at us. With a distinct sound we knew she was armed and dangerous. I immediately threw my pistol on the ground as with a huff David reluctantly followed. The gate creaked open and the woman emerged.

“Have you been bitten?”

David and I stared at her, at the petite brunette with two pistols aimed in our faces, and raised our hands in unison.

“Have you been bitten?” she yelled again.

 

Another emerged behind her and snatched up our guns. Someone else relieved us of our backpacks. David’s face was crumpled bitterly. I shook my head. Before I could say anything a third man emerged, young, not overly striking, with long dark hair and a slightly toned build. Large dark sunglasses shielded his eyes from us as he swaggered out of the gates headed in our direction.

“Sorry,” he said, “I know what it looks like but believe me it’s not. This is a sanctuary for survivors just like you. We just have to take… certain precautions, you understand.”

“So you’re not robbing us?” David uttered, his eyes narrowed on the younger man. He snorted and spat at the mud. “You could have fooled me.”

The young man smiled. He was nervous but happy too. I couldn’t tell how long he’d been living in this camp as he was practically incognito behind his clothes and glasses but it was obvious he was elated to see new company arrive – even if he was looking at David like some untamed animal that he wasn’t sure how to deal with.

“Please,” the young man said, “I don’t want to get off to a bad start. My name’s Jason. This here is Jill, Leon and Albert. We call him Wesker.”

I nodded. David said nothing.

“Rae. That’s David.”

“So that’s it, just the two of you?”

“There was more,” I began, but then my mouth stayed open and remained silent. David was lowering his hands and sharing a defiant glare with the woman named Jill a few feet away. Jason nodded. He smiled tightly.

“So how’d you find us?”

“Followed the white rabbit,” David said. He rolled his gaze upwards.

When his eyes returned he was smirking bitterly. Clearly he was not at all happy to have been separated from his beloved rifle. Jason smiled. Another of the men chuckled. Silence beset us. Ships still docked in the harbour rattled against the water. The tide was turning. Again Jason looked up and studied the sky. His shoulders fell with a sigh. With a nod the others were returning inside. Jason gestured us to follow him.

“It’s not much but it’s the best we could do with what we’ve got,” he said. “There’s a few huts inside with the basics, you’re welcome to one of course. Boiled water, some basic food, it’s not much but it’s enough. For now. We’ve even got a generator for a few things so it’s not all rustic,” he smiled. “We’re expecting others, at least we can always hope. When we get more numbers we'll go scout, that’s the plan anyway. Well, I’ll let you take a look around. Settle in. Any questions come find me; I’ll answer what I can. Anyway… welcome to your new home, welcome to ‘The Park.’”

With a creak the gates closed, locking us inside.

-- Edited by Ravynlee on Sunday 19th of April 2009 10:23:49 AM

I know I should be in bed and I know there's meant to be an update from DL regarding the state of the Park but I couldn't help myself again - I wrote another 3 'filler' pages while waiting for the update - and I haven't integrated Jess in yet. I'm working on that depending as to what happens first, DL's update or Jess' response - or me getting impatient again.

 

For reference 'Nick' below is a character anyone can control. If you need someone to talk to and have no one to tell it to he's available. Do with him as you see fit (though I suggest killing straight away to be useless to us all unless you can validate it so early in the story, just a thought is all )

 

***

 

An eerie feeling overcame me setting foot inside what was to be my new refuge. As natural light fast faded and the sky outside cast its usual dissociative grey glare through whatever vantage points it could, I crept in with awe and trepidation thinking; this was someone else’s home not that long ago. Someone else lived here and now they’re all gone. They’re dead – at least I hope they’re dead – really dead. How long will it be before whatever happened to them happens to me? But I consciously stopped there before my imagination got the best of me. I couldn’t afford to think thoughts like that anymore – but still they niggled at the back of my mind like a nagging conscience.

 

Creeping in with carefully placed steps I studied the darkness as David patrolled as always just in front of me. Though he was technically unarmed he penetrated the shadows with his fists raised as if anticipating something to suddenly manifest and launch a surprise attack. I smiled at him guiltily as he lowered his arms with a sigh and looked back at me, his face still crumpled in that stubborn and unimpressed façade. The woman Jill who had walked us to the hut watched on until David met her stare. With a snort she tapped the doorway with her hand, nodded at me, and then walked away.

I sighed rather than say anything. An awkward silence had set in. I watched David lazily wander around the room, picking up this, shifting that, all the while maintaining the same tight-lipped silence he had picked up the minute we had been accosted and relieved of our supplies at the gate.

“Well , this is… nice,” I struggled eventually.

David snorted and shook his head, a dour smirk tugging up the corner of his mouth. I cast my eyes around the hut, at the kitchen benches still cluttered with dusty dishes, of condiments scattered across the dining table, at the window that had been boarded up and the tattered curtains hanging limp to one side of them and my shoulders slumped.

 

“It could be worse.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

 

David slid his slitted eyes over his shoulder towards me. Again he scoffed and picked up a fallen chair to set in place under the table. The noise of scraping legs against the wooden floor was amplified and aggressive in the stillness and silence.

 

“Open your eyes. This is a damn prison, Rae. The only thing that’s missing are the bars.”

 

I smiled and shook my head. Sure it wasn’t the Hilton but after months of living on the lamb, sleeping on hardwood floors and walking endlessly in the driving wind and rains I was happy at last to have a place where I could stay for longer than a night.

 

“I don’t think so,” I said eventually. I was hoping to sound certain even if I was only convincing myself.

 

David turned and frowned at me. His arms were locked across his chest. His head pitched on a lean.

 

“No?” he challenged. A beefy arm shot out and stabbed at a wall covered with dusty photographs. “You tell that to the guards. They took our guns away and they kept theirs, did you happen to notice that? There’s miles of barbed wire around us, one way in or out, and we’re already being told where to go. Mark my words, the next thing they’ll do is exert authority and start telling us what to do and where. I don’t like this Rae, I don’t like it one bit. We should have shot that bitch when we had the chance and maybe taken a chance at the rest. This isn’t a safe house it’s a f***ing prison compound and I’ve got no intentions of sticking around. I’ve seen what happens in places like this, all it takes is one bight with all of us locked in here and we’re history. You want to be a sitting duck in a little pond? I sure as sh*t don’t. These are amateurs, Rae, they’re kids. They’re not going to protect us; we can take care of ourselves just like we always have. The first chance I get I am grabbing my sh*t, grabbing some supplies, and getting the f**k out of here. I suggest if you’ve got any brains you’ll do the smart thing and follow me. It’s that or stay here with your new friends and count the days til one of you get jumped or raped and decide to make a meal out of the rest of you.”

 

David snorted and shook his head before striding past without so much as another word.

 

“Hey- whoa!” I heard another voice say.

 

Footsteps rescinded without lapse or pause.

 

Making my way to the door I saw a man waiting, staring at David’s back with his face scowling in shock and indignation.

 

“Man, what’s his problem? I was just…”

 

I smiled tightly and nodded at the stranger who was smoothing down the front of his jacket as if David had run into him – he probably had and in typical fashion had kept walking. The young man was easily half his build even if he was taller, and offered no real physical deterrent.

 

“Sorry about that,” I said.

 

I watched David’s skulking frame trudge past a large building and disappear around a corner. The young man was looking at me expectantly, a big grin beaming from ear to ear. Words failed me. I was so taken by his openness that for a moment I was unsure quite how to deal with it.

 

“Hey. I’m Nick,” he said, thrusting his hand out for me to shake.

 

I frowned as I stared at his hand and with a small smile accepted it.

 

“Rae.”

 

“Rae,” he repeated, still shaking my hand. Though the gesture seemed awkwardly long I wasn’t offended by it. Clearly there was a desperation for human contact in him too, I thought, and couldn’t help but stare into his eyes that were blue and big and a bit misty for no real reason. I wondered what horrors he too had seen and endured in the many months since the war had impacted – and what horrors he must have perpetrated in order to survive. Eventually I slipped my hand free as Nick excused himself with an apology. He dug his hands into his hip pockets and shrugged his shoulders beneath his faded bomber jacket.

 

“I’m just glad to see new faces is all,” he blushed at me. “After all this time we were starting to lose hope. Well, I was losing hope anyway. Crazy I know.”

-- Edited by Ravynlee on Sunday 19th of April 2009 11:49:26 PM

"You stick that needle in me and I swear I'll fuc-"

"Shh," the mysterious figure whispered as he shoved tape against my face, covering my mouth.  "It'll be all right.  You'll thank me once this is over."

I couldn't move - I was strapped firmly to a large stone slab.  I pushed upwards with my arms in hopeless attempts to free myself.  The veins in my arms were thick and the stirring blood inside changed my skin from a pale white to a deep red.

The person -- who apparently was a man according to his deep voice -- stuck the needle directly into my wrist as I watched the viscous liquid inside the syringe slowly enter my pulsing vein.

I tried to scream.  My eyelids opened wider and wider.

"Hey," Alice shook me gently, awaking me from my nightmare, "Having those dreams again?"

I looked around, eyes slowly recovering from their rest, and noticed familiar surroundings.  I was in a forest - the one closest to home.  Trees towered around me, covering the hideous black sky.  I looked at Alice as her delicate hand stayed securely on my shoulder and tried to smile.  I couldn't.  To my sadness, I just couldn't.

"Aye... aye.  I... I can remember more this time.  It was a man who stuck the needle in me.  I seen the stuff inside it - it was thick."

She bit her lip in a vain attempt to seem sympathetic.  "Blood... thick?"

I smirked and shrugged her question off but the probability of the liquid being blood was frightening.  What if I had been infected? 

I stood up.  I looked around and could see nothing but endless trees.  The sun was setting - the sky was becoming darker.  That was the interesting thing, I had always thought: despite the horrible gases polluting the air and sky, the sun still managed to shine through.  It was as solid as a symbol of hope. 

Some symbol. 

"Don't you think it's strange that we haven't seen any undead in a while?" Alice asked me as she walked over to a rotting log and sat on it.  "I mean, we used to have to fight them all the time.  Now... hell, now we're lucky to find a small group of them."

I was confused - she almost seemed disappointed.  "Damn straight we're lucky.  We're lucky that we haven't bumped into one of them - that's a bad thing.  We're lucky to be alive Alice."

She nodded as if reassuring herself that we didn't want to find them.  I glanced at the ground and saw my axe nestled in some grass, crumpled and flattened by the weight of it.  I had gotten it from a school a couple of states back; one of those fire axes.  It had never let me down.  I picked it up and made my way over to Alice.

Voom!  Alice fell to the ground and a small red circle became visible on her forehead.  Blood slowly trickled from the dot and I suddenly realised she had been shot.

Frustration filled me rather than fear and I let out a roar.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhh!"

I turned about, seen no one.  I looked to my left; to my right - but I could see no one.  I turned to Alice and ran to her lifeless body.  I tilted up her head as I knelt down beside her and kissed her nose - some sh*tty, stupid way of paying my respects.  Laying her head down gently, a tear slipped from my eye and onto her lips.  I wiped my nose and whispered, "This is one nightmare you won't be waking from my love."

"You gonna stand there like some faggot cryin' over a dumb broad?"  A voice hit me from behind and every word pierced my ear as if it were being stabbed with a spear.  They were close; whoever they were.  It was a man.

"You... fu**ing bastard... you're gonna pay... I'll kill you!"  I turned around and swung my axe wildly, careless of whoever may be behind me.  My eyes were shut for a long time and I can only remember hearing an unimpressed laugh before I was knocked unconscious.

"Shh.  It'll be all right.  You'll thank me once this is over."

I was dreaming again.



-- Edited by Brendan on Monday 20th of April 2009 05:08:35 AM

PETERDEA #1: A Basic History
Recommended for listening while reading: “Get Smashed Gate Crash” by Hadouken!

“Okay then I’m going to kick the **** out of you...” I told the kid who tried to get me to leave. He reacted by turning to his friends and laughing, which really set me off. I stepped forwards and landed the biggest haymaker you have ever seen right on his jaw. The loser dropped, not before all of his friends came over to get me.
Heath taught me not to talk when a fight is about to erupt but I really couldn’t help myself. All three of this kids friends came to get me.
“Right, no surprise here homos...” I laughed as I landed another haymaker on another friend. “You guys obviously haven’t been taught how to fight.”
I knew haymakers were a bad idea but I figured that my only option with these three losers was to drop at least two as quickly as I could.
One of them got behind me and attempted to hold my arms back while the other tried to punch me in the face over and over. I managed to avoid the first few punches but the next few hit me directly i the face. It didn’t bother me that I was getting beaten down, and revenge would have been far from my mind if I knew what was about to happen.
I felt the grip of the loser behind me loosen followed by a scream of intense pain. As soon as I was free I punched the guy who was punching me out and then turned around to check out who the hell stuck up for me and had my back.
What I saw was so strange, almost made me sick. Some sick looking dude was making a feast of this loser. I didn’t think of what I was doing at the time, I ran over to this sick looking dude and kicked him directly in the stomach. He barely moved, which surprised me. I don’t mean to brag but even back then I had more power then anyone I knew.
I decided it was time for some more extreme action, I took a run up and kicked the freak right in his sick looking head. He fell off the loser who held me back earlier but then began to get up. This angered me. Alcohol fuelled me, I kicked it in the head over and over and over until it stopped moving. I had killed someone.
The loser who was attacked earlier got up and then he started to feast upon someone else. I thought about my chances of killing him, and decided against it. I’d rather go down for one murder on “self defence” rather than killing many people and just getting torn apart by the law. So I got up and left.

I was fairly drunk that night, but it was the first night of the end of the world. So really if I knew that, killing the losers would have been first on my list. The unfortunate thing was the loss of my family. But it didn’t take long to overcome the grief once the will to survive kicked in. My family were incredibly close to me but at least I had Kaye and Heath so see me through the loss.
I was a crazy party kid before the **** hit the fan. My crew back home were known for putting on a Hadouken! Or Dizzee Rascall album and just getting totally messed up. We’d always go out looking for parties, drugs, girls and booze. The whole thing changed once Heath got ahold of me.
“Your living like a total dickhead mate...” He told me straight out. Of course I didn’t react well to that. I launched at him and tried to kick his head in, but of course, he beat the **** out of me. The next day he came up to me and talked to me about it.
“You go around crashing parties, doing drugs and ****ing all the birds man, you’re gonna ruin your life if you aren’t careful. Come out with me and the boys for a drink, you needa learn a lot or your gonna end up dead.”
After that Heath taught me to fight, moderate and live. Even after everything went to **** Heath remained the strongest guy I know. Yeah by that point I stood a chance in a fight with him but he is powerful not only physically but also emotionally and mentally which is something I’ll admit took me a lot longer to learn.
After everything happened (I won’t refer to it as anything in particular, I still have no idea what the hell is going on) Heath introduced me to his friend Kaye who was a beautiful young girl. We then set off to find refuge from the horrors of the flesh eaters. We knew there was a long road ahead.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The woman that had passed away we didn’t know. She had apparently been ill when we arrived and some people like us had been living on the run so long they had almost forgotten what it was like to associate with others – for some, especially those who had endured the worst horrors, or had fallen prey to other survivors who were in it for their own gain, there was probably no going back. I didn’t know her name, no one really did, but she had been young, much younger, and far leaner, than me. As I sat in public, as much as one could here, there was no gloating to be had that all the size zero women who had been the poster children for fashion and the envy of a pre-apocalyptic society, those that survived the gas and widespread panic, and the food shortages and looters and the initial round of flesh eaters themselves, had starved to death quite literally in the first few weeks following the attack – zombies it seemed had no preference for label or couture, everyone, including Dolce and Gabbana beauty queens, still went down the same way in the end.

The rec room was literally a gutted hall with material covering a hole in the front, featuring a well beaten pool table with the felt scored and stained, and a table with cards on it that looked equally damaged. There was an old Wurlitzer in the corner but its neon lights were off now. With the atmosphere like that of a tomb the last thing on anyone’s mind was listening to music. Once, soon after arriving, Nick told me a story about a car having been driven through it, and testament to Jason and his renegade posse, they sure knew how to bring a semblance of order back from the surrounding chaos. 

From the small kitchen area at the back a stew bubbled in a large galvanised pot. At least it constituted as stew, even if it really looked more like vomit. We sat, stone faced and weary-eyed as we ate our communal meal in relative silence. We did this at least once a day; eating together, food was so short we could no longer raid the refrigerator as we had in our former lives. Now each of us were forced to live on rations that were doled out by one of Jason’s crew with utterances of thanks like homeless bums feeding on the charity of strangers – in essence that was exactly what we had become.

Ordinarily the news of a death would have turned the least of us off our meal but like vermin we divided the deceased woman’s portion and hungrily devoured it without too much hesitation. There was no time for pity when we were all days or weeks away from the same possible fate ourselves. Dysentery. Diarrhoea. Once upon a time we would have taken a pill, maybe taken the day off work, laid around in bed all day drinking water and fighting to keep the chicken soup down. Now it was fatal. Everything we had once shrugged off or dismissed as an annoyance were now lethal enemies; a cough, a cold, a grazed knee, a fracture or dislocation. There were no doctors, no medical centres, no hospitals within a hundred mile radius that we were aware of, and certainly the little taken from the first aid kits in the Army jeeps were not designed to combat everything – as a society we had grown complacent and comfortable thinking science and medicine would always be around to save us. Oh how wrong we were. Dead wrong. And one slip up would mean our days were numbered. The thought was a very timely and sobering one.

“They’ll bury the body where we buried the others,” Nick informed us.

Though Jason was officially the man in charge he was, I came to learn, a man of even fewer words than Leon, but perhaps a fraction more than the one they called Wesker. The four of them sat at the head of one of the several long folding tables at the rear of the hall – that had once been used by the Army no doubt to notate the infected population and sort out the sick from the soon-to-be-dead – and they seldom said anything except amongst themselves.

“Why don’t we burn the dead?” I wondered. “I mean, aren’t we worried one of those things out there could find her and… I dunno, dig her up?”

Though it sounded ludicrous enough thankfully no one laughed. Again Nick, in his usual wary yet impulsive manner, was the one to tell me that burning them polluted the already tainted air.

“But at least she can’t come back without a body,” I said. “Those things, they’re attracted to blood among other things. What of they smell her and, I dunno, start crawling out of the woodwork or something?”

“Then we make sure we dig deep,” Wesker uttered, apparently having heard me from across the room. 

That, as far as everyone was concerned, was that, the conversation was over. But across the table David looked at me and said nothing. His eyes were narrowed with so many things he obviously wanted to say but spooning another sloppy heap of pea soup into his mouth he hunched his shoulders over the table and remained for the moment silent.


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When he told me later that he was accompanying the burial mission I was gob smacked.

“You can’t! Are you crazy? Those things are still out there, we don’t even know where they’re going!” I cried in regards to this alleged mass grave. “It’s too risky. You might die out there!”

David shrugged in his impassive way. “I could die in here too.” 

He opened a cupboard and hefted a bag from it, some faded dusty rucksack that smelled of fish and salt and dumped it with a clatter on the kitchen table. He had found it in his earlier rummaging and along with a few choice items had filled it with other things that could be used as potential weapons along with his sharpened stakes.

“You know what I think is funny? They took away our guns for our own protection they say, but they leave things like this laying around.” He contemplated a small serrated knife, the blade rusted to the hilt by the elements, touching the tip with a dour smirk. “What’s to stop one of us from going all Norman Bates and carving into one another while the rest of them sleep?”

Whether it was meant as a joke or something thought provoking I couldn’t answer, as I sat on the edge of the hut’s solitary bed and folded my arms in a huff.

Darkness had settled properly now and we had retired to our hut after the group meal despite the old adage of there being safety in numbers. I didn’t want to play pool or pretend to be happy with a game of poker while my mind was constantly fearful and haunted by dark memories. Outside, under the brooding sky that masked what had once been a blanket of stars, we were exposed now to unseen dangers. I’d heard talk since arriving that zombies were not the only threats we were up against anymore, though thankfully they were all I had seen since this whole ordeal had started. Each of us inside our modest huts that rattled in the salty breeze and whistled and moaned as the cool air settled in, had built little bubbles around ourselves, convinced that here in our new homes we were relatively safe and sheltered from the worst of what was out there – thoughts of anything to the contrary were more than just unhelpful they were also dangerous – no one could exist under such stressful conditions without food, water and rest – madness would surely spread faster than disease, lending credence to David’s earlier quip about someone in the camp suddenly flying into a homicidal rage. But rest was the last thing on my mind now, as weary as I was. Candle light flickered as the wick fought against the tide of pooling wax from its vantage point in the centre of the kitchen table in the centre of the room. We were low on food, gas and basic supplies. The generator that was used to run lights in parts of the camp and other pieces of equipment had to be used sparingly – and now Jason apparently wanted to risk more lives by taking this dead woman a quarter mile out to bury in the open. I was more than upset I was equally angry and terrified.

“You can’t do it,” I said, “You can’t go. It’s- it's suicide.”

David snorted rather than say anything as the silence of the night briefly settled inside the shack.


(continued)


-- Edited by Ravynlee on Sunday 26th of April 2009 10:40:50 PM

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“When did you have your last period?” Jill inquired.

I slumped back against the wall, reeling at the news. My head was spinning. My heart was pounding so hard I could practically see it. I was stunned, I almost laughed aloud but something internal stopped me, strangling all other sounds beyond a tight wince. But I didn’t have time to do anything as movement startled me. Jason was on his way towards me, no doubt headed for the rec room. Not wanting to be seen eavesdropping I quickly bowed my head, gave a tight smile in his direction and started walking – I didn’t have a destination in mind other than to just keep moving. I didn’t even hear a response from David, if there had been one, hoping more than anything he hadn’t seen me standing there listening. Why hadn’t he told me, I asked myself, why hadn’t I suspected? But I was too shaken to really think clearly, trying to reason Nick must have had it wrong, the man I knew only killed out of necessity, but still the cold seed of doubt had been planted into my subconscious and bore its way in like a splinter.

My blind, aimless wanderings were short lived as I heard Jill call out and Jason emerge from the rec room. She was waving and pointing towards the coastline. I stopped in fear, all thoughts stalled, as Jason raced past me and climbed the steps to meet her on the barricade. Wesker soon joined them. The trio were muttering amongst themselves. Immediately I could tell by the hurried pace and tone of their voices that something was out there. Then I heard a low rumble, like thunder, making its way towards us. Immediately following came the distinct pop of gun shots. Though they were distant I still flinched and cowered as if I were being shot at. Finding shelter behind the nearest object I hid behind the Jeep’s rear bumper and tucked myself into a tight ball. Jason was descending the stairs. He was in a panic.

“What is it?” I asked, walking backwards.

My mind was suddenly firing at the prospect of all sorts of dangers gathering out there beyond those safe walls and my heart was practically a cold rock sinking inside of my chest. But Jason didn’t hear me. Maybe he was too distracted to respond, or didn’t want to. He whistled and seemed to pluck a rifle out of the air – that’s when I saw Leon swing into the vehicle and realised he must have thrown it. I backed up as the jeep roared to life and the gates started to open.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jill cried down to them. 

Behind her Wesker tracked the progress of the distraction outside using the scope of his 12 gauge rifle. Jason nodded and Leon wrenched the gear stick with his face set in determination. I stood rooted to the mud not even realising people were suddenly milling behind me as Jason and Leon sped out of The Park and the gates creaked to a close, shutting us in and our beloved leader out to face the danger on our behalf, whatever it was.


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Now that should fit in to the very end of DarknessLover's last post, so we have a sense of consistency. I got there in the end ;)
Now the next posts I'm on my own and DL (when/if) he responds, has to play catch up - I actually wrote DL out of the park briefly so he can write himself back in when he's ready, thus giving me the oppertunity to continue on without him for now. Hope that's okay!


-- Edited by Ravynlee on Friday 1st of May 2009 04:53:37 PM