Demise of the Living (31 page)

Karen flinched. “What?”

“I mean, had she already turned
when you found her or did she say anything to you before she
turned?”

“What do you mean?”

Colin was embarrassed to ask.
He wanted to know if she’d mentioned him at all.

But
what
does it matter
now?
he thought.

“
Is it itchy?” he asked,
changing the subject.

“The shoulder? Like a bastard,”
Karen replied.

“
Good. It looks like it’s
healing up pretty well. I’d say you got off pretty lightly if you
came off a dirt bike and only grazed your shoulder,” Colin said. He
stepped back. “I think we should put a fresh dressing on it and
some antiseptic cream. There’s some in the first aid pack on the
first floor.”

Karen nodded, picking up the
ragged T-shirt.

“There’s also some fresh shirts
in with the camping gear,” Colin said. “You wait here and I’ll
bring them up.”

He went to leave, but
then stopped. He stood still for a moment. His eyes were watery and
his mouth moved as if he were silently speaking.

Eventually he asked
hesitantly, “Did she suffer? Miss Alvarez, that is?”

“It was quick,” Karen
replied.

Colin swung the door open to
the stairwell and the sound of voices wafted over him. Looking down
he could see a procession of people below.

He called down, “What’s going
on?”

“Is Karen with you?” Sharon
asked.

“Yeah, she’s up here. She’s
fine.”

“Good,” Sharon replied.

The mob of people continued
their ascent of the stairs.

As they drew closer,
Colin could see they were armed.

“
What are the guns for?”
he asked. “Karen’s not infected. It’s just a graze from coming off
her motorbike.”

“Don’t panic, Colin,” Sharon
said as she drew level with him on the stairs. “This isn’t a witch
hunt.”

“Liz was going to show us how
to use the guns,” Billy said. “You coming?”

“I’m just going downstairs to
get the first aid kit for Karen. I want to clean up that graze and
get a fresh dressing on it.”

Billy peered into the office at
Karen.

The young girl saw the
intrusion, squealed and pulled the T-shirt across her chest.

“Sorry,” Billy said, waving at
her.

“Billy, give the girl some
privacy,” Sharon chastised.

“How did she say she got hurt?”
Billy asked.

“Falling off a dirt bike,”
Colin replied.

“Did she say where?”

“No.”

Billy pressed, “Off road?
On a street? Where?”

“No, she didn’t say. Why?”

“Cause that don’t look like
road rash,” Billy said.

“Road rash?”

“The kind of scrape you get
coming off a bike,” Billy said.

“Are you sure?” Colin
asked.

“No, I’m not sure. I only got a
glimpse, but if she came off a bike at any speed I’d have expected
to see a much larger area of damage and no neat holes.”

“
What if it was gravel?
Wouldn’t that leave holes?”

“
Sure, but they would run
from the momentum. You’d see a tail where they’d scraped the skin.”
Billy ran a finger up his arm to mimic the course of the
theoretical stone.

“Okay, thanks,” Colin said,
puzzled.

He cast a glance back at
Karen, but she had moved out of the line of sight from the
door.

“I’ll fix her up and join you
guys on the roof,” Colin said.

He headed down the stairs.

Billy turned to see
John’s fat legs disappear up the access steps to the roof. He
followed the fat, sweaty office worker up the short climb. John was
huffing and trying to catch his breath. Billy looked down at his
own beer belly. It was far bigger and rounder than he would have
liked, but he was at least ten years older than John and twice as
fit. Putting on a bit of speed, Billy overtook the labouring desk
jockey and beat him to the roof’s edge.

Liz was already sitting on the
edge, examining the gun in daylight.

“Thought you were going to show
us how to use these?” Thomas asked snidely.

Liz shielded her eyes from the
polarized light filtering through the smoke-laden sky.

“I will as soon as I get a
chance to refresh my memory,” she said.

The group stood in a semicircle
around her as she unloaded a magazine, placing the bullets standing
up in a row on the lip of the roof.

“Anything we can do to help?”
Billy asked.

“Not right now,” Liz replied,
fastidiously examining the underside of the rifle.

“Doesn’t look as bad out
today,” Billy said absently.

“
Are you kidding? There’s
a million of them down there,” Thomas replied.

“I meant the weather—the smoke
in the sky,” Billy snapped back.

“Shit!” Liz barked.

“What is it?” Colin asked.

Liz sat with her thumb in her
mouth.

“Broke my nail loading the
magazine,” she mumbled past the digit.

“You okay?” Billy asked.

“Told you she knew fuck-all
about guns,” Thomas complained. “Give it here; I’ll work it
out.”

Liz glared at Thomas as she
chewed off and spat out the broken nail.

She picked up the magazine and
slapped it into the back of the rifle. Pointing the gun up in the
air, she whipped back a sliding bolt before sighting the
weapon.

There was a sharp crack
and one of the zombies in the street below collapsed. Subtly, Liz
moved the barrel of the rifle and fired again. A second zombie was
floored.

She lowered the muzzle and
stood up from her firing position.

“It’s all coming back now,” she
announced.

Chapter
16

“Thank you all for coming to
the five p.m. meeting,” Sharon announced.

It was now five
twenty-five, but she made no comment about having to round everyone
up.

With the group sitting in the
meeting room, the two empty chairs beside Thomas were a gaping
sore.

Sharon closed her eyes
for a moment and gathered her focus. “Well, as I am sure it is
apparent, we have unpacked and catalogued the supplies brought in
yesterday. We have made an encampment here on the first floor with
a food store and preparations.”

“I’d rather take a camp bed and
move into the plant room,” Thomas said.

“
Shall we save that for
‘any other business’, Thomas?” Sharon said.

“The second and third floors
are empty; we could all almost have a floor each,” John added.

“There’s still nine of us,
John,” Billy said.

There was a loud rumble
from John’s belly and he placed a hand over his protruding gut as
if to stifle it.

He said, “Well, we could have a
lot more space each, is my point.”

“Splitting up isn’t a good
idea,” Colin said.

“
Why not?” Thomas
asked.

“
What if something
happens, like an emergency—like they break in or there’s a fire?”
Colin paused for a moment to let people ponder that possibility.
“If we’re all scattered throughout the building we’ll be on our own
and vulnerable. We’ve more chance in an emergency if we work
together.”

“I agree with Colin. There’s
safety in numbers,” Mo said.

“Don’t talk soft,” Thomas
huffed. “Half you lot would be a liability in a crisis. And anyway,
I don’t want to spend another night listening to John’s grunting
and farting.”

“
John’s snoring is
nowhere near as disturbing as the moaning coming from outside,” Liz
said.

“
Could we move up to the
top floor?” Mo asked. “It might be a bit quieter higher
up.”

“I don’t think that would be
prudent,” Billy said. “If there’s a fire, at least we can dreep
down to the car park.”

“Dreep?” Sharon asked.

“
You know… when you hold
on to the top of a wall to lower yourself down so you don’t have as
far to fall,” Billy explained.

Colin said, “Getting back
on track, Billy has a point. We limit our ability to escape in an
emergency if we move further up the building.”

“I think that sounds logical,”
Mo agreed.

“
Don’t we get a vote on
it?” Thomas asked. “I mean, when did you get appointed queen of the
living?”

“”No need for that, Thomas,”
John protested.

“
No, he has a point,”
Sharon said. “I’m not the
queen of the living
, as you put
it. Shall we take a vote?”

There was a murmur of agreement
from around the table.

Sharon said, “All those in
favour of moving to the top floor…?”

“
Whoa,” Thomas
interjected. “I never said I’d move to the top floor. I want to
stay in the plant room.”

“We can’t all fit in there,”
John said.

“That’s the fucking point, you
idiot.”

“
Okay, okay,” Sharon cut
in. “All those in favour of the status quo...?”

“What’s a status quo?” Karen
asked.

“Everyone who wants to keep
things the way they are, raise your hand,” Sharon said
discordantly.

Mo, Billy, and Colin raised
their hands.

“All right, those
against—whether that be moving to the top floor or splitting
up…?”

Thomas, John, and Karen put
their hands in the air.

Sharon looked over at Liz and
Melissa. She said, “Those abstaining…?”

Liz half-heartedly raised a
hand.

“
So it’s tied on three
apiece,” Thomas said.

“
Not quite,” Sharon said.
“As Chairperson, I have yet to cast my vote and I say we stay where
we are.”

“
Oh, for fuck’s sake,”
Thomas protested. “What’s it to you if I go sleep in the plant
room?”

“You’re the one who wanted to
vote on it, Thomas,” Billy said.

“We stay together; it’s the
safest thing to do,” Sharon said. “We can lock the doors to the
ground floor as a precaution, so if that glass panel does give, we
won’t be overrun.”

“You won’t be overrun—you’ve
got those barricades right on the landings,” Thomas protested.

“Just listen to yourself,”
Billy said. “A lot of good that’s going to do you if you’re down in
the plant room, eh?”

“I don’t see you giving a fuck
if I do get trapped down there,” Thomas muttered.

“Do you want me to lock the
doors?” Mo asked.

“Yes, please, Mo,” Sharon
said.

“I’ve only got the one key for
them and we still need in and out of the plant room for the power,”
Mo pointed out.

“So we’ll need to find you each
time we want to switch the power on and off?” Sharon asked.

“
Nobody uses the north
stairwells. Why don’t I lock the north doors and leave the key in
the south one?”

“
That seems like a
reasonable plan,” Sharon said, casting her gaze around the room and
checking the level of agreement. She looked down at her notes.
“Now, the next item on the agenda is toilet provision.” She didn’t
really have to remind herself of what was next, but it meant that
she could break eye contact with anyone still dissenting over the
sleeping arrangements. “The chemical toilet that was with the
camping equipment is now set up in the disabled toilets by virtue
of space. I’ve never used one. Is there anything special you need
to do?”

“
No, it’s just like a
normal toilet,” Colin answered. “You sit down and do your business.
If it’s a bit whiffy, you pour a glug of the blue stuff down. Did
you find the toilet fluid?”

“Two litre tub with a diamond
logo on it?” Liz replied.

“Yeah, that’s the one. Just
pour a little of that in if you need it. There’s a trap door thing
at the front. Pull that out first’ makes it easier to clean and
keeps the smell in a bit.”

“Those things need emptied and
with nine of us, I’m guessing that will be once a day, at least,”
Billy said.

“We’ll need to draw up a rota,”
Sharon added.

“
Can I suggest that the
men still use the urinals?” Colin said. “It will reduce the need to
empty out the port-a-potty. If it starts to stink the place up, it
will only take a capful of the blue to sort it out.”

“
Good. It will also
reduce the wait in the morning,” Sharon said. “Colin, would you
draw up a rota and show everyone how to empty it?”

“Yeah, I’ll take the first turn
and show you all tomorrow morning.”

“It’s what passes for
entertainment these days, folks,” Billy chirped.

“We move on to food,” Sharon
said. “We’ve all been snacking on the leftovers from last night’s
cook-off. Thank you for that, Liz. But we’re going to have to start
opening cans and feeding ourselves and there are a number of issues
surrounding that.”

“
Well, the food’s not
going to last forever,” Billy commented. “We need to think about
how we’re going to ration it and what we do just before it runs
out.”

“
So that’s a simple
equation, isn't it?” Colin said. “Calories needed times mouths to
feed.”

“Three thousand calories per
day, times nine,” Thomas added.

“Times ten,” Billy
corrected.

“You telling me Alex didn’t
jump off the roof last night?” Thomas asked.

“No, you’re forgetting about
Blow,” Billy said.

“
Your
dog
?! We’re not
missing out on meals to feed your mutt!”

“So what do you propose to
do?”

“That’s your problem.” Thomas
sat back and folded his arms.