Zombie War: Health + Safety Regs

Chapter 9 - Risk Assessment

Kendra woke with a start.

'Good thing it's only us,' Richard said with a grin. 'I thought you were keeping watch. You and Tate would have been history if one of our zombie friends had managed to find their way up here.'

'Sorry Rich,' Kendra muttered, pushing the hair back off her face. 'Must have dozed off for a few minutes, did you find much?'

Richard waved his hand toward the back of the cave where Buddy was carefully stacking some bags and a couple of boxes.

'Yeah, we managed to get quite a bit of food and one of those boxes is full of bottled water. What's even better, one of the places we checked out had enough medical supplies to supply a small pharmacy. It's all in Tate's red backpack, there are even some antibiotics.'

Kendra flashed him a grateful smile.

'Did you run into any trouble?'

Richard shook his head slowly.

'No it was all sweet, a really easy run out.'

Kendra looked so pale and strung out he decided she didn't need to know what a close call Buddy had had at one of the farms they'd checked out. Buddy's inability or stubborn refusal to speak could sometimes be a blessing and this was one of those times.

The rambling cream-painted farmhouse had looked as though it was quiet and empty of life (or the undead) as they approached it with their customary caution. Richard had led the way through the large, sunlit rooms as they searched for food, weapons, and ammunition. As they opened cupboards and drawers, Richard emptied them quickly and efficiently, sifting through the contents for anything useable. Buddy, on the other hand, kept getting distracted. He'd find trinkets, gadgets or leaflets that interested him and become entranced with them. Every other minute, he would run over to where Richard was working and wave something in his face until he took notice. Once it was a snow globe with a miniature Eiffel Tower in it, another time a leaflet for pizza delivery and then a tiny remote control for a stereo system.

Exasperated, Richard grabbed the small boy by the shoulders and turned him so he was facing him.

'Buddy, I know all this stuff is great but I need you to concentrate. You know what we're looking for and I've explained to you how important it is. We can only carry so much, so we have to prioritise.'

Buddy bit his lower lip and hung his head so Richard wouldn't see he was crying.

The huge man shook his shoulders gently, before pulling him into a hug.

'I know it's hard. I know it's not fair Buddy. But if we tried to take everything with us that caught your fancy we'd need a removal truck.'

The little boy's sobs subsided, so Richard fished a vaguely clean handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the child's face clean of snot and tears.

'Only useful stuff remember?' he admonished, pushing Buddy towards a large set of drawers and refrained from mentioning he could see the bulge of the snow globe in the pocket of the boy's shorts.

He only let Buddy search drawers and the smaller cupboards. Larger cupboards, small rooms and even freezers sometimes contained nasty surprises these days. Once Richard had pulled up the lid of a large cabinet freezer that was still cold and running off a generator, when the wizened hand of an elderly woman had reached up and grabbed him by the throat. Displaying amazing strength for such a frail limb, the zombie had tried to pull him into the freezer's icy depths.

Richard had grappled with the chilly fingers; grimly aware it would take just one shallow scratch or graze to turn him. If there was any contaminated blood or body tissue on those fingers or even lodged under the ragged fingernails, he was lost. After several gut churning minutes, he'd managed to break free of the potential death grip and had banged the lid shut, turning the catch so there was no chance the zombie would be able to climb out.