The Grave: A Zombie Novel (28 page)

“
I’m going to say this for the last time. You have to decide
now
what you want to do. I can take us out of here, far away, to the city if you like, anywhere really. Or we can stay here – but we have to take care of your friends if you want to stay.” Roach pulled a backpack out from behind a pillar that was hanging on a hook and took a gun out. He zipped the bag back up and clicked the safety off the gun.

“I kept it here in case of emergency. Thank God I did.
Kelly, we have a narrow window of opportunity here. Now, what’s it to be?”

Kelly couldn’t decide. She heard sobbing to her left and looked at Suzy who was being cradled by Mark. He too had tears in his eyes. “
Roach, I...I...”

“
Now, Kelly
. You have to decide.” Roach had one hand on his gun, and another on the door handle that led outside into the alley.

“What about the
m? The dead...outside?” she muttered. “There’s too many. We won’t...”

Roach slowly shook his head. “They’re gone. They never hang around long
if there’s nothing to eat. Something else would’ve gotten their attention by now. We can get past the stragglers.”

Kel
ly winced. Now it felt like she was having a heart attack. She bent double and threw up again. There was no food to come out, just bile and bitter saliva. She dry retched and literally shook her head, spitting onto the grimy floor. Roach was right; she had to deal with this. She couldn’t afford to fall apart now.

Roach continued, ignoring the smell of vomit and fear that pervaded the air he breathed
. He had seen and smelt far worse on The Grave. “A noise elsewhere, a bird or a possum, anything, anything that gets their attention will draw them away. I’ve seen it countless times. There’ll be a few for sure, some of the slower ones, but we can get past them if you want to go. If you want to stay here then...” Roach looked at her impatiently. “Well?”

Kelly looked at Mark and Suzy. They were silent now. Suzy had gone into a state of shock. Kelly didn’t want to make this decision, but she had to. It was her responsibility. The full weight of the gravity of the situation hit her. They could run now, try to escape, and leave
Claire, Tricia and Will’s dead bodies forever wandering the empty corridors of the shopping mall. Alternatively, they could go back. Stock up and stay hidden in safety, away from whatever was outside. She had no doubt that this time, Roach would not miss. Now they were away from the confusion and chaos, he could take them down. All three would then be truly dead. She couldn’t picture it though. Her friends were dead and gone. What kind of a choice was it to go back and put bullets in their heads, or to leave their soulless bodies marooned in a dirty shopping mall for eternity?

“We go. You take us to the e
mbassy. We go, now.” Kelly couldn’t find a valid reason to go back. Why stay here any longer? Claire, Tricia and Will were already dead. Why stay and prolong the agony? Why not just go now? It was early and they could make the embassy in the daylight. She wanted to get home. She didn’t care about the museum anymore, the expedition, or her home. She cared about the friends and colleagues she’d lost. She cared about someone paying for what had happened to them. She cared enough to want to live, and for the truth of The Grave to come out.

Who had called it that, The Grave? Were they being witty or clever? This place wasn’t a grave. A grave was a quiet place of mourning, a place where you honoured the dead. This place, this horrible ruined cesspit was nothing but a stinking cancerous island of death; damn it to hell.
Kelly felt the anger inside her welling up, overtaking the grief and demanding something to be done. They - she - had wasted too much time and lost too much.

It wasn’t about her anymore. Kelly Munroe,
Associate Director of the American Museum of Natural History, quit. She quit feeling second best, trying to prove her worth. She decided that right now, all that was over. Looking for love, looking for promotion, looking for something to better herself, to make her mark? No, Suzy and Mark needed her.
She
needed her. She was confident, strong, intelligent and better than this. She was a damn sight better than The Grave. Fuck The Grave. Fuck the Deathless. And fuck President Agnew for letting them rot here. Fuck him for having the audacity to play this game of chicken with death. She looked at her feet on the cold concrete of the warehouse, covered in her own vomit. Still scared? Kelly wanted off this island. She wanted Agnew to pay.

“Mark, Suzy, get up.” Kelly hauled Mark up and took hold of his shoulders. “It’s up to us now
. We are not dying here. We’re leaving now. There’s nothing more we can do for them. There’s nothing to be gained by staying any longer.” She leaned in closer and spoke in a hushed voice. “Look out for Suzy. She’s going to be hit hard by this. I need to know you’re with me, Mark.”

He nodded and Kelly turned to Roach who had already
opened the door. He was peering out into the gloomy alley. It was covered in puddles, but the dead had gone. Drawn by something else, the alley was clear. It smelt of stagnant water, yet the air was cool and crisp. The storm had abated and the early morning sun was casting shadows down the long alley.

“Roach, you said you could help us. So, what have you got?”

Roach dropped his pack and began taking out the items, recounting them as he did so. “A hatchet, two pig-hunting knives, one more gun, two cartridges of ammo, three cans of food, one bottle of water, one torch with spare batteries, and some matches.”

Kelly picked up the
hatchet and spare gun. “I’ll take these. I’ve done a little target practice in my time.” She handed one of the knives to Mark. “Take this, Mark, you’re going to need it.” Kelly then picked up the other knife and strode over to Suzy. “Take it.”

Suzy looked down at the knife and then up at Kelly. Her arms hung limply by her side. She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t do this...I...”

Kelly slapped her across the face. Not too hard, but enough to know she meant business. Kelly held the knife out again. “
Take it
.” She grabbed Suzy’s arm and firmly put the knife in her hand, so Suzy had no option, other than to take hold of it. “Cry all you want later, Suzy, but today we’re going home. I’ll be
damned
if we’re going to be left behind to rot on this island. So get your shit together, and move it.”

Startled, Suzy followed Kelly to the doorway.
Her cheek fizzed where Kelly had slapped her and she could feel it reddening. She began to move instinctively, not really knowing or caring where they were headed. Her lips could still taste the salty kiss she had shared with Will two days ago. Dead. Why had she run from that kiss they had shared that night? She had not stopped to think about it before, but now that she did, she knew why. She had been scared. She had kissed men before, but Will was different. Kissing him was like kissing someone she had known for a thousand years. It had been exciting and reliable, sexy and comfortable, all at the same time. She had known he was her future then. Will. Was he not running after them now? He was pretending, wasn’t he? He just wanted to make sure the others got out safely. Any minute, he would come loping through that doorway, his big grin making her stomach turn as it always did. Suzy looked back at the open doorway to the mall behind her looking for Will. He didn’t appear. The mall was absent of life now. She waited, but Will did not come.

Roach had thrown his pack on
and held the door open. “Ready?”

Kelly glanced at Mark and Suzy. She felt so many things, so many emot
ions trying to control her head that it was hard to block them all out, but the over-riding sensation she felt now was anger. Will had been right when he’d said there was no rescue coming for them. They had been left to die. Her eyes blazed, determined that not one more soul would die here, not while she was still around. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get out there.”

In the shadows of the alley, Roach crept along with his back to the wall
and his gun pointed to the ground. His feet splashed through dirty pools of water and he took a breath. He hoped the streets were truly clear of the dead, because he did not want to go back inside the mall. It had been his home for about four years, but it was gone now. Yes, he could go back and make it home again, but what for? To live a subsistence diet alone until one of the Deathless finally found their way in and killed him in his sleep? No, that was no life. This was his chance. Perhaps these people would make it off The Grave and perhaps he could go with them. It was a chance worth taking.

Roach peered carefully around the edge of the building. The street was clear. The shops and stores that flanked the open road were empty and quiet. He stepped quickly into the street and looked back at Kelly, nodding for her to follow. Suzy and Mark followed
her, their eyes wide and white, betraying their fear. Roach could not blame them. They didn’t know these streets like he did. Their friends had died and they expected to die too.

“Just stay close behind me and try not to make any sound,” whispered Roach. “We
might encounter one or two drifters, but don’t engage them unless you have to. We can outrun them and there’s no point wasting ammo. I expect whatever has drawn them all away is either in some other building or back up in the hills. I don’t tend to get crowds like last night around much. I can have us on the highway toward the city in five minutes. So keep your eyes open and your heads down. When we’re in the clear, I’ll let you know and you can breathe out.”

Roach tightened his backpack and took off. He could hear the footsteps of the other three behind him as he skirted off around the corner of an old post office. He knew precisely where to go
, and as long as the Deathless were occupied elsewhere, they were going to be fine. At least until they reached the capital.

Mark tried to ignore the fear that was threatening to burst out of his guts. They were out in the open now, on the very same roads where only last
night, he had seen countless of the dead. He passed the doorway where he had seen the woman’s stomach explode and he couldn’t help but glance at the putrid bloody stain on the pavement. Roach had better be right about this and know where he was going. Mark leant against a shop window full of nude mannequins, waiting as Roach checked the next street. Mark looked around, desperately hoping they were alone. Then he saw movement back where they had come from in the alley. He watched as a figure emerged into the thin sunlight, stumbling and groaning. The head was hanging to one side as if straining to hear something. Mark looked closer at the tall man. It was Will.

Mark squeezed the
knife in his hands. Will had died, hadn’t he? It couldn’t be. A bubble of hope sprang up inside Mark’s brain. Roach hadn’t locked the door after they’d left the mall. Maybe Will had made it out? Mark stood up and opened his mouth to call out, to let Will know where they were.

“W...” Mark didn’t bother finishing the first word out of his mouth. The bubble burst. It was Will, but it wasn’t him; not the real Will. This thing was dead. There was no soul behind t
he glassy eyes. Mark wanted to hit something, shout, jump up and down, and scream until his throat was sore. It wasn’t fair. Will was looking straight at him now.

Mark looked away. Roach was moving on, Kelly and Suzy too. Mark knew Will was trying to follow, but he had to forget him.
Nothing could be done for him now. Mark knew if he looked back, he was likely to see Tricia and Claire too. He couldn’t face it, the thought of seeing them standing like that, so ghastly and ghoulish, blood covering them. No, he knew he would be seeing them in his future nightmares and he didn’t need to see them now.

Mark ran after the others, not telling them what he had seen. It was better
that they didn’t know. He ran as fast as it took to keep up with them, ignoring where they were going and what they passed. Every second on the island was a second closer to death. He didn’t want to be a part of The Grave. He ran away from Will, away from death, away from all he had seen; he ran for his future.

FIFTEEN

Cars, bicycles, dead bodies and mountains of garbage lined the streets. They passed burnt out buildings, petrol stations that had been reduced to rubble, and charred pits in the earth where something or
things
had been torched. The sun was behind them, warming their backs. With a mixture of fear and adrenalin, sorrow and regret, hope and courage, they managed to wind their way through the deserted streets without encountering any of the Deathless. After a little over five minutes, the road flattened out and they were on an off-ramp to the main highway that led directly to the capital of this old island. The homes and shops gradually disappeared, only showing themselves in the near distance between the thick bushes and tall grass.

Roach took them across the flyover and down the ramp onto the four-lane highway that stretched out ahead of them. “You can breathe now,” he said putting his gun into his belt. “We should be okay for a while now. It’s going to take us a few hours to get to the city from here. With the
sun, it’s going to be slow, hot work too. I’m not saying we can relax completely, but if any of them are around, we’ll have ample time to see them coming. Now, we just follow the yellow brick road.”