Valli : Personal Journal of Valli Pillay, a Living Dead Pandemic Survivor

Entry 31

I've been up for over 24 hours. We had to ship a lot of panels. I feel wired, but I want to keep writing. I'm sure if Fergie were to read this he'd say I'm having some kind of breakthrough.

That night, back at the farm, after dinner, Dad locked the gates.

"This will keep them out," Dad said. "Unless they can open gates!"

"What if they break the fence?" I asked.

"I hope not. But if they do, we'll try to get to the truck or we head to the river."

"What if we were to sleep in the truck?" I asked.

"We'll be fine here. They'll just move past," Dad said. Not sounding all that convinced himself that the gate would hold.

The threat of the living dead was in the air. I felt tense, scared, and the question that kept popping into my head was, "Should we have left with the others?" I didn't say anything to Dad though. I didn't want to stress him out.

So, we went to bed. Dad had loaded the rifle and kept it beside him. He had given the shotgun he took off Som to Satish and Dave. I finally fell asleep. When I had been with the group I had been sleeping much better than before; it felt like family and safer. That night I didn't sleep well. Dad had me keep my club close by just in case. As I drifted in and out of sleep, I heard whining. At first, I thought it was the wind. I raised my head and realized it was Milou. The wind was blowing outside and it also sounded as if something was pressing against the fence.

"Dad?" I whispered.

"I hear it."

I turned on my torch. Dad shielded his eyes; he had the gun on his lap.

"Turn it off!"

Outside there was a kind of moan followed by a loud crash.

Dad got up and grabbed my hand. "Let's go! The truck."

He opened the door and I followed him out on to the patio, we stopped in our tracks. They had crashed the gate and were in the yard in front of our little hut, some of them were already near the truck, with plenty more coming from the top of the farm, which meant they had broken the fences. As they were near the truck, there was no way we could reach it. Even if we did the gate was blocked.

"The river!" Dad raised the rifle. "Go!"

"Dad!"

Dad fired a shot and hit one of the infected. I just saw it fall back against the truck.

"Dammit! The head." Dad shot it again and this time hit it in the head. It fell face forward.

"Go, Valli." Dad pushed me towards the river. I ran. One of the living dead stood between me and the path. It had been an older woman. I hit her in the head with my club and she collapsed. I ran past her. As I got closer to the stairs leading down the bank I saw they were blocking my path. I went left, heading towards the back of the farm, further along the top of the bank, with the river to my right. They came after me. Behind me I could hear gunshots. I saw more coming from my left. I called out to Dad, but he didn't reply. There were so many of them. I went straight down the bank to my right; it was overgrown with bushes and trees. I cut my cheek and lost my club as I went down but I didn't care. I kept going. Milou followed me down the slope. In the dark, it was hard to see where I was going. I stumbled, then tripped going head over heels, until I hit the water. I was downstream from where the stairs were, and the water was shallower, up to my chest. I swam across to the other side with Milou right behind me. Once on the other side I scrambled up the bank, as I got to the top there was a growl, the living dead were on the other side. One of them came for me, I ducked and it slipped off the top of the bank and went down the side, straight into the water. It could have easily stood up, but it floundered about and stopped moving. That didn't stop the others from trying to get me. I went back down the bank and they followed me down. A few of them ended up in the water, they too floundered about before "dying." I found a big rock in the middle of the river and stood there with Milou. I called out for Dad. He didn't answer. I stepped back in the water to go find him when I saw him come crashing down the side of the bank I had come down.