Devouring The Dead (Book 1) (12 page)

“Freddy’s not goi
ng to come back up here in the middle of the night and infect the rest of us, if that’s what you’re thinking,” said Tom. “He’s...secure.”

“It was so quick,” whispered
Caterina. “How could it take him so quickly? My nanna got hypothermia and was in hospital for weeks before she died.”

“It’s not
just that,” said Benzo. “You know he died from the infection right, from a rat bite? Well, there are a hell of a lot of rats in this city and doors don’t bother them. They can get under them, through walls, through skirting boards, up ventilation shafts and into almost anywhere. Those bastards can bite through practically anything. You see where I’m going with this?”

Tom did. He hadn’t thought about it from that angle. If they sat here doing nothing
, they were as good as dead. This disease wasn’t just a human one. It clearly transferred between species; anything could be infected. If it affected rats, then why not mice, bugs, cockroaches... if any infected thing got up to them, then...

“And I’m starving,” said Parker. “Let’s be honest, we all are. We can’t live on biscuits and crisps for ever and there’s not an infinite amount of them either.”

“So how do we do it?” asked Tom.

“We have a rough plan,” said Parker.

“Rough? Ha! You can say that again,” said Philip. He stood up and Kate told him quietly to sit, that he was drunk, and making a scene,
again
.

“No, I won’t sit down. This is ludicrous. You should hear yourselves. Rats?
Tunnels? Are you people insane? I’m going back down to the bar to wait this out. They’ll send help eventually.” Philip wobbled his way over to the doorway. “Come on, Kate.”

“
Who are ‘they,’ Philip? Tell me, enlighten us! There’s no ‘they’ left, they’re gone. Don’t you see? The army, the government, they’re gone. No. I’m staying here. These people need our help.
We
need their help, Philip.”

 
  He snickered and left his wife behind, heading back down to the bar where he could drink without having to listen to morons. Kate went red, annoyed her husband could be so flippant. She stayed put though. Philip might be able to solve everything with a corkscrew, but she had enough.

“The plan,” said Christina
ignoring the outburst, “is to leave; tomorrow. Our food is already running low and tomorrow will be our third day in this building. I’m not sure we can last much longer.” She slipped an arm around Kate and Kate felt a lump rise in her throat. She took a sip of wine and swallowed her feelings back down. Was she wrong not to support her husband? Should she have left with him? These people seemed like good people and were at least trying.

Tom
swallowed the last of his wine and felt a little better. Despite everything, he actually felt more relaxed now. Must be the wine, he thought.

“We need lig
hts and torches if we’re going into the car park. It’s completely black down there; there are no lights, no emergency exit lights, nothing,” he said.

“Do you think we could get in one of the cars and drive through the tunnel? It would be safer than walking, surely?” said Jessica.

“It would be, but no. I doubt the keys will be sitting in the ignition for us and I’ll be fucked if we’re going to waste time searching this whole building looking for them. You could be looking for a week and never find them. No, we’ll have to go on foot.” Tom reached for the wine and poured himself another drink.

“There are maintenance rooms on the ninth and eighteenth floors,” said Reggie, who had been listening from the doorway
. He had been hanging back, unsure of how to introduce himself. “I can get us some torches and lanterns, even some candles if you like.”

“Thanks...
er..?” said Tom.

“Reggie
.” He walked into the room sheepishly.

“Have a drink
, Reggie,” said Benzo. He handed him a mug of red wine, the plastic cups having been exhausted.

“
So we can see down there,” said Brad, “but what about weapons?”

“I don’t think we need guns,” said Christin
a. “Besides, we haven’t got any and I doubt you’ve got any tucked away, eh, Reggie?” He shook his head.

“No,
Brad’s right,” said Tom. “Guns, no; but if we get attacked, we need to defend ourselves. I don’t just mean attacked by other people either. It was a rat that got Freddy. There’s probably more down there. Rats, mice, who knows what. When we went down earlier, there were dogs outside too. They were infected. We need something to protect ourselves with, that’s for sure.”

“Well
, there are plenty of knives around, although I’m not comfortable with the idea of defending myself against an onslaught of the dead with just a kitchen knife,” said Benzo.

“Saucepans, pots, kettles; anything we can feasibly carry and strike with
or defend ourselves with, we should take. It’ll have to do,” said Tom.

“You said candles, Reggie?” asked Jackson. Reggie nodded. “We c
ould make some torches to burn; wrap some cloth around something, pour over some of your cleaning chemicals, light it, and burn any fucker that gets in our way.”

“Not a bad idea
, Jackson,” said Benzo.

They continued talking amongst themselves, discussing how best to make the weapons they needed. Tomorrow morning they would go with Reggie and get whatever they could, bring it back to sixteen
, and make as many torches to burn as they could. Jobs were divided up so as not to waste too much daylight. Troy and Michelle could go find as many backpacks or satchels as they could find. Jenny and Dina would put as much food and water as they could into them so everyone could carry supplies, and Christina would go with Tom, Parker, and Jill to the roof, so she could outline where the conference centre was and where the tunnel might come out. Beyond getting out, they could not think further than that. Some wanted to head straight home, some wanted to head to the airport, some to the police station; the only thing they could decide on for sure was that they were leaving.

“We have to know where we’re going and
, until we can decide otherwise, once we get out of the tunnel, we should head to the nearest building,” said Christina, “which is the conference centre.”

 
  “I just want to go home,” said Caterina. “I don’t want to go to the ideal home show, innit.”

“Okay, we’ve been over this a thousand times,” said Tom rubbing his head. “Look
, if the streets are clear and everything is peachy, then go home. Why not? I’m not going to stop you. I hope whatever this infection is has been stopped and I’d love to say that by tea time, we’ll be home watching Coronation Street.

“But think about it; the reality is that the streets have been taken over. Dead people are walking around
out there. Not just walking but running. It’s not safe out there and if you try to get home, the chances are you’re not going to make it. We need to accept that London is most likely gone. And if that is the case, we need to think bigger; not about getting home, but about getting out of the city.”

“With what little food and water we’ve got, I’m not about to walk to Heathrow,” said
Benzo. “If we get to the other side of the tunnel and it’s still chucking down a shit-storm out there, I say we go for the conference centre. Regroup, grab what we can, and go from there.”

“But we don’t know do we? I mean, we haven’t been outside in three days
, so who knows what it’s like,” said Caterina.

“
I think we have a good idea. Look, there’ll be food and water in there for sure,” said Christina.

“Tomorrow is going to be a
hell of a day,” said Benzo.

“I feel
like my head’s going to explode,” said Jackson, “there’s so much to think about. Half of it I don’t even
want
to think about, but I can’t get it out of my head.”

Caterina
got up and stormed out of the office.

“Hey
, Cat, come back!” said Jessica.

“It’s a
ll right, let her go,” said Tom. “Things are getting tense and she should be relaxing, not stressing and getting any more upset than she has to right now.”

The group sat in silence for a minute until Brad spoke.

“Kate, you said there’s a bar on the tenth floor where you were, right? You think we can get some more booze and bring it up here?”

“Yeah I don’t see why not.”

“Then let’s go. We’ve got tomorrow morning to get everything sorted. Let’s enjoy tonight as much as we can.”

“We could do with something to help us relax, that’s true,” said Jessica
, staring at the empty wine bottle.

“I’ll go down there
,” said Kate. “It’ll give me a chance to talk to Philip. I need a couple of volunteers to help me carry back some bottles though?” said Kate.

“I’m in,” said Brad. “We should
ask some of the others.

E
veryone should feel like they’re a part of this group and be involved.”

“Speak to Troy,” said Jackson
. “He’s quiet, but he’s reliable. And see if you can find any more food while you’re down there.”

Brad and Kate left the kitchen and went into the office where they found Troy chatting to Michelle. They
decided to all go down together to fetch more food and wine from the bar on the tenth floor.

“You know someone needs to go talk to Jill and someone needs to go check the foyer again,” said Benzo.

“I’ll go talk to Jill,” said Tom.

“No, I’ll go,” said Jessica, getting up and straightening her hair. “You’ve done enough, Tom. Stay here and wait for the party to arrive. I don’t know this Jill, but it seems pretty clear she’s upset; she hardly comes out of her room. Maybe she’d prefer to speak to another woman.”

“Thanks,” said Tom watching her leave.

“I’ll go check downstairs,” said Benzo. “I’ll sleep happier tonight knowing the door is still shut and we’re not going to be eaten alive by a zillion zombies while we’re up here.”

He left and Reggie went back to the office to talk to Jenny; he felt more akin to her than anyone else.
The group broke up and Jackson was left alone with Tom.

“You know, there’s one thing I’m worried about. Jenny mentioned it last night and I dismissed her
, but...”

“What is it?” asked Tom.

“Amber’s missing. I’m not sure you remember her, but she went off yesterday and we haven’t seen her since. I think some of the group have forgotten about her, but I’m worried. I don’t understand where she could be.”

“Well
, I doubt she’s left the building. Look, maybe she’s upset about this whole thing and just wants to be alone? If she doesn’t appear by tomorrow morning, we’ll go look for her okay? Everyone can. We’ll go floor by floor.”

“Sur
e, I suppose so,” said Jackson.

They sat in silence listening to the faint murmurs from next door. Occasionally
, they would hear Reggie’s booming laugh. After a while, Kate reappeared with a case of wine. Behind her came Brad, Troy, and Michelle, all carrying cases of wine. Christina walked in carrying a bag of food, mostly biscuits and junk, but at least it was something.

“No Philip?” she asked Kate whilst the others opened the wine and poured it out.

“No, he, er, wanted to be alone for a while,” Kate answered, bursting into tears. Kate ran out of the room and Christina followed her.

“Al
l right, everyone, come and get it!” shouted Brad. He emptied a bag of chocolate bars onto the table.

“Where’d you get all of them?” said
Caterina grabbing a handful. She had calmed down and ripped a bar open. She stuffed it into her mouth.

“
I just kicked a vending machine in,” he said.

Caterina
looked at him as if he were mad and mumbled something through a mouthful of satisfying chocolate.

“Well
, I didn’t have the right change,” Brad said smiling at her.

One by one everyone filed into the kitchen. Cups a
nd mugs of wine were handed out while crisps and chocolate bars were devoured. They drank and talked about tomorrow and the plan to escape; about what needed to be done. Jessica even managed to get Jill to come in, and she sat quietly on a chair, sipping wine for a while.

As the evening turned to night
, the drinking got heavier, and the mood lighter. They had little to eat and so the alcohol affected them more. Caterina had one glass, just to calm her nerves, and people chatted and slurred as if it was a typical Saturday night in the pub. Tom found himself talking to people he had barely even met: Karl, David, Troy, Julie-Anne, Michelle. He found Michelle intriguing. She was clearly very drunk and yet she had just told him she was pregnant.

“Do you know Troy?” she had whispered to him conspiratorially, giggling.

“Yeah, just about, the blond guy, right, with the surfer hair?”