Bricks of Ash and Blood

Chapter 1: Simon Locke

SIMON  

Even though I'm leader, I still do my share of the work. That's why I was standing on the roof of the school, on Guard duty. The school was a ring of buildings, with a large courtyard in the middle. Perfect for our day to day activities. I was supposed to be looking out towards the suburbs, and hills behind them, but there was no point anymore, the zombies were gone.

So instead, I put my attention to a girl, no older than fourteen, skinning a kangaroo, carefully cutting sections of meat, and placing them in garbage bags, before two young boys hauled them to the industrial freezer we hooked up in the canteen. If the hunters had caught kangaroo, it meant stew for our evening meal. It amused me, how such a sight would have been gross, six months ago, but now, was totally normal. I turned my head higher, to what used to be a football field, but was now full of growing vegetables, and a few saplings. Being unfenced, unlike the rest of the school, the four farmers were closely watched, losing our vegetable farm would be devastating. There wasn't much to be nervous of now though, the last sign of danger had been weeks ago. Our group had grown to thirty five people recently. A good size.

The sound of metal clanging against metal grabbed my attention, and I looked away from the school, to see our scavenging group return. My closest friend, Alex, led the group of six on foot, all of them laden with a heavy backpack. No doubt full of batteries, alcohol, medicine, and other useful goods. The group dragged their respective weapons along the ground as they walked, the grating a mismatched theme song of theirs. They all wore thick jeans, and leather jackets. Most wore gloves. I placed my makeshift crossbow on the roof, gave them a wave, and slid down a ladder, onto the ground. I unlatched the fence, opening it for the group. They had been scavenging since early morning, and were only returning now, in the late afternoon. Over the last few months, they had taken everything of value from within a five kilometre radius, and were now forced to search further. I smiled at my friend, and before he went to drop off his goods at the storage rooms, he told me what they had gathered, pointing out how few zombies they'd ran into today.

My shift as a guard was over at 9:00pm. Everyone in our community has a job or two, and we do them in shifts. Scavengers do shifts out in the "wild", looking for goods, and shifts as guards. Farmers do shifts out on the field, growing crops, and keeping chickens. Hunters go out to the nearby nature reserve, hunting rabbits, fish, and gathering edible plants. Everyone else who stays at the school spend their time preparing meals, reinforcing or improving our defences, practicing combat, pulling guard duty, or sorting and allocating resources, such as clothes, extra food, and batteries. My friend leads the scavengers, and I lead here, at home. Our base is a well-oiled machine, we have survived raids by other groups, zombie waves, and starvation.

Now that my shift was over, I walked down to the canteen, to get a hot meal. With shifts ending at random times, the canteen was open until late, always a hot meal waiting for the tired worker. I received my bowl of stew, balancing a chunk of fresh bread on the rim. I thanked Chuck, our perpetually smiling chef, and left the canteen, leaving the cold, empty booths, and heading for my room.

Most slept one or two to a classroom, all of which were stripped of desks and chairs, and decoration left to the new owners. The school equipment was used for fire wood and materials. Performing exceptionally at your job, a hunter bringing in a kangaroo, for example, would earn you extra clothes, candy, or better bedding. The school did have enough rooms for everyone to have their own room, but after a close call with a large group of zombies a few months ago, half of the bottom floor classrooms had the lingering scent of rotting flesh, and the memories of death that accompanied. I was lucky, as leader, I was afforded my own room. I liked to keep things simple, with a mattress on the floor in a corner, and a large desk in the other. It made the large classroom seem sparse, but as paranoid as I am, the extra room makes it easier to fight in case of an emergency. But that was the last thing on my mind, as I sat at my desk, spooning hot stew into my mouth. Warmth spread through my body as I ate, washing away the chilly bite of the night. It wasn't winter yet, but it was getting closer, and colder.