The Virus

Thirty One

I drop the bottles of wine and they smash on the floor. Red liquid oozes out and I begin to feel sick. Noah would never use a gun on a Roamer, it was too loud, too dangerous. I sprint out of the drinks aisle but he's gone. Three full carts sit in the aisle. I sprint to the front. I can't shout. There might be more. I edge the front door open and blink away the sunlight.

That's when I see her, at least I think I see her. At first I assume I'm imagining it. But I keep blinking and staring and it's still her. Kay jumps up and down, whining. I can't see what she's whining at so I make my way over. I get about five feet away when I slap a hand to my mouth. Claire lying on the floor, just like when I met her. Except, this time she's not breathing and this time she doesn't have a pulse because there's a bullet wound that goes straight through her skull.

My legs give out from under me and I collapse by by her side, Kay whining at me, asking me what's wrong, telling Claire to get up. Out of nowhere, a Roamer comes from behind and tries to attack me. I pull myself up and kill it, but I can't regain my balance. I fall and my knife created a deep slit along my left arm. I cry out in pain and Kay runs over. Where was Noah? Both vans are still here, and he wouldn't have left me anyway.

Then i see Noah clatter out of the supermarket and towards me. He pulls me up when he gets to me and we start walking back to the van with Kay. "Claire..." I say, close to tears.

"Ophey. I was out back. The gunshot, it's attracting them fast. We need to get out of here." He says, breathlessly.

I nod. "Wait! We can't lead them back. We'll go separate ways and circle around to the highway. Meet there. If you get there first just wait there. I won't be far behind." I say. Noah agrees and we get in the cars. Kay follows me and jumps into the car after me. 

I turn my walkie talkie on "Don't worry if we lose connection we'll probably go out of range." I say. I start the car and pull away sharing one lingering glance at Noah before he leaves. I don't go too fast, only about twenty miles per hour. As I turn the corner, I see walkers spilling out from every part of the supermarket. Kay whines and I try to comfort her but it's no use. She witnessed the murder of her owner. And probably narrowly missed her own death. She was more than shaken up.

I leave her in the back to calm down and begin to gather my bearings and deduce my route. I'm closer to the school so I can go past the front and wind around taking the shorter trip. It'll take less than twenty minutes. I make several more turns and turn into the road with our school. I get several metres down the road when I see them. The herd.

I freeze in horror. It's completely different when there isn't a wall to protect you from them. Much more real. I throw the van in reverse and speed out of there. I can't take that way I'll have to find another way. And I can't take the way by the hospital because that's where they'll be going next in a few minutes.

I speed down a main road and another, until I'm at a roundabout. I know where I'm going now. I keep going straight and take a right. At the end of another long road where there's another roundabout. I go right and speed by all the shops, I go past another supermarket and a gas station. It takes longer here because there are more cars to swerve around.

I've been gone for nearly twenty minutes now I hope Noah isn't worried. I make my way down the last long road that connects to the highway. This is the longest road of all and it's takes nearly ten minutes to drive from one end to the other. I pull up and make sure Noah isn't parked here and he isn't. I assume he's up on the highway waiting for me. I take the intersection and drive up there but his van is nowhere to be seen.

I have a full tank of fuel which will get me over four hundred miles luckily. And I can always siphone some from nearby vehicles. The highway isn't as packed as I thought it would be. It's probably because this one only leads to London. There's nothing anybody needs in London during the apocalypse.

I'm relatively high up, on one side I can see rows and rows of empty houses. Nearly as far as the school but not quite. I can see the hospital though. And on the other side, my right side, there's woods that seem to stretch along with the road itself. If I encounter a herd up here, I'll be screwed. Nowhere to turn or run. If I jump over the railing I'll just break my legs and they would all jump after me anyway.

I stop the car and begin cleaning my cut, it's deep and blood is all over the car now. After it's cleaned I have to dress it quickly as the blood doesn't seem to be clotting. I cover it in a thick plaster like sheet and then another one. I wait a few minutes to see if the blood oozes through and it doesn't. I wrap it in a bandage but keep it free as I'll probably need at one point or another before I get home.

I wait about an hour, it's April now. My birthday was not long ago. And the sun doesn't set until about seven thirty at night. I check my watch. Still about another two and a half hours yet. Noah is still nowhere to be seen. Worrying is not the word I would use to describe my state at this point.

I don't really want to go along this highway. I don't know my way around London or the area surrounding it. And I don't want to get lost. After another hour, a few damned Roamers come out of the shadows and approach my car. There's several of them and I don't want them to draw any extra attention so I kill them through the window.

With an open gap I pull as much as I can from the open back into the back seat. Kay jumps into the passenger seat. I don't want anything being stolen. This van has tinted windows too, which will come in handy.

The sun sets and still, Noah make no sign of appearing. He should be here. That was the plan. I periodically turn on my walkie talkie every hour to check if he is near but no one ever replies.