The Falling Stars (The Vamps and One Direction Zombie Apocalypse)

Chapter 26- Welcome Home

Three days after Brad and Ellie split, we set off again.

We arrived at the radio tower early the following morning, after taking a wrong turning and nearly wandering back into the bomb sight again. I was supporting the ever-limping James, so was extremely tired as we finally approached the dishevelled tower we had been searching for for weeks.

The tower was a grey concrete rectangular building which loomed on the horizon like a figure in the way of the sun, a spire of metal jutting out and going at least one hundred metres up which crackled with power. A rusty but intact water well was nearby, a pump built into the side. I could see four vehicles parked below a sort of canopy which expanded from the side of the building to protect the contents from the elements.

There was a rotating door that had been well boarded over, leaving almost no gaps to see through, and scrapes and bite marks showed signs of past attacks.

Carefully, I moved James’ arm over Casey’s shoulder, leaving me free to walk to the fire exit which was un boarded on the opposite side. I hammered on the door in no particular rhythm and waited. It was a few minutes before anyone arrived at the door, but that could only be expected given that my ever trusty watch told me the time was 6:14 am. We had been travelling for an hour that day already after being woken by an attack. I guess it was our fault for sleeping in the open but it would have been nice to have had a full night’s sleep for once especially as I had been taking watch until 3am.

The door opened as if no one was behind it and a man in a hoody appeared. His hood was up concealing his hair and he had a scarf on covering the bottom half of his face. Brown eyes could be visible above the fabric and they looked surprised to see us.

“Errm... Hi” I said nervously. The others were shuffling up behind me “I’m Connor, and this is Ava Rose,” I gestured to Ava, who had half of one of Casey’s strawberry laces dangling out of her mouth, and then to the others in turn as I said their names.

“Oh right, it’s you! We thought you were all dead it’s been 2 weeks since you said you were coming and no word! Come in! Come In!” His voice sounded muffled but relieved.

The man ushered us in through the door and up several flights of stairs. We passed corridors on the way which had signs signifying different radio shows, but had been heavily graphitized over and said stuff like ‘The Kool Katz’ and ‘Vas Happenin’ Crew’. I laughed at how cheesy they were already. We passed about six of these corridors before we reached the room the man was bringing us to. It was messy but cosy.

Old radio equipment was littered around the room, along with beanbag chairs, a chess set with a few missing pieces, packs of playing cards, about six radios, and some portable generators. The back wall was almost entirely filled by a three seater purple sofa which looked over stuffed and inviting, its coating of plush cushions and fluffy blankets making it look particularly pleasurable to those who had not slept properly for a good few weeks. A battered electric guitar, drum kit and keyboard lay abandoned in a corner, electrical cables tangled. Black paint was almost covering an entire wall and they had scribbled words and drawings on it in chalk and metallic marker.

The man, who had walked across to a cupboard in the corner counted how many of us there were and tossed us all chocolate bars and water which we accepted hungrily, before removing his scarf to reveal he was Liam Payne. He gestured for us to sit down as he pulled off his hoody. We fell back into the sofa which practically swallowed us up and watched him quietly as he took the weapons belt off he was wearing revealing he was still dressed in pyjamas.

He watched us gaze around the room curiously for a few minutes, looking directly at us, before saying

“Well, welcome anyway!” James laughed a bit at the almost emptiness of his welcome. “We’re trying to make it homely,” Liam continued, scratching the back of his neck “The sofa, music stuff, black board paint” He pointed to the wall they had drawn on “We’re trying to be laid back about the whole thing really.” We only gawped at him “We have a weapons bank, like we need, mostly contact stuff though, we only have a few guns” He was eyeing up our rifles and other guns “And, well, yeah” His voice tailed away. I guess he was trying to be a good host, but it wasn’t really working that well as we were so tired we could have listened to anything.

“How long have you been up for?” He asked us.

“Urgh more than an hour, we had an attack last night and none of us really sleep that well anyway..” Replied Jake, but Liam had already grabbed Casey’s arm and was guiding us all down the stairs.

I half thought he was going to guide us back down the stairs and out of the door again, but he lead us back to the bottom corridor, which was labelled ‘The Badasses!!!!’ There were only two doors closed on that level which had signs on the front, one of which read ‘Liam’ the other one ‘Harry’. Through one of the two doors left open I could see a bed, and through the other one another sofa and a bed.

Ava Rose had dived for the room with the bed and sofa in before anyone could tell her otherwise. Seeing his opportunity, Jake darted into the other room and Casey followed Ava slamming the door behind her. I heard a groan from behind Harry’s door.

“Oh god we better get off this floor before he turns up” Liam grinned, guiding us up to the second floor. This floor was home to the main store room so only one door right at the entrance was open, which James swiftly claimed leaving Brad, Ellie and I to venture up to the final floor.

“Oh okay this is where the room shares are going to have to work” Liam scratched the top of his head “Since we can sort it out later today while you’re all not so tired, for now, Ellie you go in here” He opened a door marked with a letter ‘L’. A dark shaped moved in sleep on the bed but there was another sofa in the corner which Ellie could take. “Brad, you go here” The room he sent brad into was very small, an old computer room which could have held one computer and one chair. The tiny bed in there only just squeezed in. “And Connor, you go in with Niall” He opened a green and white door to my right and showed me into the room.

It was probably the biggest room in the whole place besides the main room and had space for loads of beds. It had a thin white blind which fell to the ground covering a huge viewing window which looked out over the hillside. The furniture had been recently moved around as there were shiny indentations in the carpet and a large double bed was pushed right against the wall. I saw Niall move in the half light but couldn’t concentrate on the movement as I noticed the identical purple sofa in the corner, dragging my tired frame over to it and throwing myself into the fabric.

The dial on my watch read 11:30 when I woke up again and the bed on the other side of the room was empty. I changed quickly into a black t-shirt with slightly less holes in than my other clothes and a clean pair of jeans and tucked my revolver into my belt. I stepped out of the room quietly, and after seeing an absence of Brad I headed downstairs to find James.

I couldn’t remember which room he’d gone in, so I checked all the open ones to see if he was out or not, before coming across one room which made my heart skip a beat. Spindly writing in scarlet lettering clearly read

‘Tristan Evans’