The Dying & The Dead 1: Post Apocalyptic Survival (16 page)

13

Heather

Normally
Heather would have walked straight by Kim’s room, glad of the chance to be free
of her and Eric for a while. They weren’t exactly children, not really, but
having two young people in the house was more trouble than she needed. Though
Eric was a kind hearted boy he’d proven difficult. He ate so much you’d think
he was a hamster storing it in his cheeks for the winter, and it seemed that at
some point every night Heather would be woken up to the sounds of him screaming
his way out of a nightmare.

The
first time he did it she went into his room and found him sat up in bed,
panting. There was a chill in the air but when she put her hand to his head she
felt warm beads of sweat on his burning skin. She asked him what was wrong.

“I
see them when I sleep”,
he said.

“Who?”

“Mum
and Luna. And Dale.”

Heather
sat next to him on the bed and put her arm around his shoulders.

“After
my grandad died I used to have nightmares,”
 she said. “
I’d get a phone call
from a nurse telling me that grandad was dying and that I had ten minutes to
get to the hospital to save him. I’d run around my house but it was so pitch
black that I couldn’t find mum and dad. So I’d go get my bike but find that the
chain had rusted and snapped off. Then I’d go outside and start running but the
streets were covered in thick, oil and the harder I tried to run the more stuck
I got.”

Although
sharing this with him didn’t seem to help with his night terrors, it had the
effect of making Heather feel warmer toward him. She found herself smiling when
she saw him. At the same time, he made her stressed. She’d sometimes find him
hidden in the closet in his room, or under his bed. He could develop a temper
out of nowhere and his mode of defence was to scratch. Heather knew she had to
get him well away from the Capita. It was only through distance that he’d be
able to put it behind him.

It was
Eric’s cough that made her pause for a second outside Kim’s door. It was shut,
so she couldn’t see them, though she could hear them murmuring through the
wood. Eric coughed again and it sounded like his lungs were squeezing up his
throat. Since his soaking in Cresstone he’d been snivelling and sneezing all
over the place.

“What’s
it like to breathe outside?” said Kim.

“Nothing
special.”

“Come
on. You’re lying to me.”

Another
sneeze. “It’s like being free,” he said. “It feels natural, like that’s how
it’s meant to be.”

“What’s
your favourite smell?”

Eric
was silent for a few seconds, and then said “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I
know you miss your mum,” said Kim.

Eric
didn’t respond to this, but Heather knew that silences didn’t deter her
daughter. Sure enough, it was Kim who broke it.

“You’re
my brother now,” she said.

Heather
put her hand to her face. She liked to see the pair of them getting on, but at
the same time she felt like she should lock Eric in a room of his own. It
wouldn’t do Kim any good to grow to like him, because there was no way that the
boy could stay. Imagine what would happen if Charles found out? The pleasure
he’d take in having them arrested and sent to the dungeons. She had to get the
boy to the Resistance. Maybe they could meet up with him at some point, after
they left the Capita lands.

“How
did you find out you were immune?” said Kim.

“There’s
only one way you can find out.”

“You took
your mask off?”

Eric’s
voice dropped in volume until he was nearly whispering. Heather had to press
her ear against the door.

“Dad
did it when he was drunk.”

“So
how do people normally find out?”

“I
guess if your mum or dad is immune there’s a good chance you are, probably. But
I don’t think anyone finds out on purpose. No one wants to get infected.”

Eric
went into a coughing fit, and there was a slapping sound as Kim hit his back to
help clear the phlegm.

“I
never knew my dad,” said Kim. “Maybe he was immune.”

This
was a stab in the chest for Heather. She didn’t want her daughter wondering if
her father was immune. Where possible she tried to avoid ever talking about him
to Kim, and she’d become skilful in dancing around her daughter’s questions.
Deep down she knew it was wrong not to tell her, but it was for her own good.
Sometimes you had to do bad things if the end result was good.

She
opened the door and stepped into the room. The children’s heads turned and
Kim’s cheeks went red as if Heather had caught them doing something they
shouldn’t.

“Your
dad wasn’t immune,” said Heather. “So get that out of your head.”

Kim
looked away, and Heather could tell she was gritting her teeth.

“You
never talk about him,” she said.

“I
won’t have this conversation now, Kim. Go outside for a minute.”

“Are
you kidding? I’m – “

“Now,
Kim.”

Her
daughter stood up and threw her hands in front of her in annoyance. Huffing
like a train letting off steam, she stomped her way out of the bedroom. Once
the door shut Heather looked at the boy on the floor. He wore a mask, though it
was positioned badly over his face and she could tell he’d been removing it to
cough and sneeze. Still, at least he was wearing it.

She
decided that she was going to have to get him to the Resistance sooner rather
than later. Every second he spent in her home increased the chance of him being
caught in a Capita raid. She didn’t want to abandon him but she couldn’t put
Kim in danger, and she’d already done enough. Nobody else would have gone back
to Cresstone to help him.

She’d
pay Wes’s price. If he wanted half her food, then so be it. If that was the cost
of getting the boy out of the Capita while keeping her daughter safe, then it
was worth it. It would set their plan back, but at least she’d feel like she’d
done something for once. Not as much as she could, maybe, but something.

“Listen,
Eric,” she said.

She
crouched down next to him on the floor. How was she going to word this? She
didn’t want to upset him.

Eric
lifted his mask and sneezed. Heather picked a scrap of old newspaper, tore a
strip off and handed it to him. The boy wiped his red nose. There were dozens
of strips of paper around him, printed relics of news that was years old and
covered in Eric’s snot.

“You
know you weren’t going to stay here forever, right? And that it’s not safe for
you in the Capita?”

The
boy looked up at her, eyes alarmed.

“I’ve
decided,” Heather carried on. “That I’m going to –“

She
heard something pounding on her front door. From the way the wood rumbled and
the letterbox hatch clanged, she knew who made the knocks. From the chill that
ran through her and the sudden urge to run, she knew who waited on her
doorstep.

She
was going to tell Eric to hide when she heard the front door open. She walked
to the top of the stairs and watched as Charles Bull’s shadow filled her
hallway.

“Miss
Castle,” his voice sang. “I have a present for you.”

She
walk down a step and waited. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a towel that hung on
her bannister and wrapped around her head. Charles’s bulk soon filled the
hallway. He smiled when he saw Heather at the top of the stairs.

“Pardon
the intrusion. But I brought you these.”

He
waved a clear plastic bag in the air. Little seeds danced as he shook it. He
flicked his hand back and threw the seeds up the stairs like a master giving
his dog a treat, and they landed a couple of steps away from Heather.

“Charles,”
she said, with a lump growing so large in her throat that it was hard to talk.
“What are you doing here?”

She
looked to her right, where she could see into Kim’s bedroom. Eric stood up off
the floor. His face had drained, and Heather thought that she might have to
rush into the room and stop him fainting.

“I was
wondering if I could take a look around?” said Charles, and began to walk up
the stairs.

Eric’s
teeth chattered as though there was a ghost behind him with its hands on his
shoulders. Heather stared at him and made her eyes large. There wasn’t much she
could convey in the expression, but she hoped that Eric took it for what it
meant.
Hide.

Heather
stood on the stairs as Charles approached and blocked his way.

“What
are you looking for?” she asked.

Charles
stopped midway up the staircase. His pickaxe hung on his back and looked so
heavy that it would have tipped most men over. She glanced into Kim’s room and
saw that Eric had propped a chair up against the wardrobe. There was a panel at
the top of it, ten feet up, which was just big enough for him to hide in. Heather
just had to keep Charles away long enough to give him time to reach it.

Charles’s
eyebrows gave him the look of an angry owl.

“I’m
not sure when the Capita started having to explain its intentions?”

Heather
folded her arms. She tried to relax, but her skin felt like it was tightening
over her.

“I’d
just like to know what you want from me.”

“It’s
not you, Heather. It’s the house and what’s in it.”

In the
hallway below two Capita soldiers came into view. One of them, Max Armstrong,
looked at Heather and the bounty hunter as they stood on a staircase and raised
an eyebrow. The other gave a glance and then walked through into the living
room. She didn’t like the idea of him being alone with Kim.

“Kim?”
Heather shouted down. “Come here, honey.”

“There’s
a mouth-breather boy on the loose, Heather,” said Charles. He took a step
forward, and the wood groaned under his boots. “And your questions make me
suspicious.”

“I
don’t like people poking around my house”

“All
the same, I will look.”

He took
another step forward. There was six feet separating them now, and he was only
two steps away from being able to see into Kim’s room. If he saw Eric, she knew
that everything was lost. She and Kim would be arrested and taken to the Capita,
where they’d never feel the light of the sun on their faces again. Two steps
were all that separated her from such a fate.

“I
don’t know what you’re talking about. Why do you want the boy?” she said.

Hurry
up and hide,
she
thought.

“It’s
not for you to know why.”

Charles
took another step.

“It is,
if the Capita expects me to teach their children,” said Heather. “What good is
a teacher who doesn’t know the truth?”

“We
don’t want you to teach the children the truth. Just tell them what we want
them to believe.”

As
Charles raised his leg to take another step, Heather stared to her right. She
felt her blood complete a grand prix around her veins. As the bounty hunter put
his foot on the last step, Heather saw that the room was empty.