I Dream of Zombies (17 page)

Day turned to night and to dawn again, and no army vehicle arrived to escort them. The motorway remained eerily quiet. Simon contacted his commander and each time he was instructed to wait. There was chaos in the capital, he was warned, and things would just take time. With every passing hour, Tommy became more concerned. Marla was willing to sit it out, yet it was becoming clear to her that he was not. Most of the passengers were still sleeping, but the two of them were wide awake, keeping watch, as was the soldier at the front of the coach.

“What if those things come here?”
Tommy asked her.

“We’re in a coach. We’re safe. They can’t reach the windows,” she replied.

“What if we run out of food?”

“There’s a Happy Eater just down the way and a petrol station.”

“What if it’s overrun? We’ve almost no ammo left. I haven’t got any, and I don’t think soldier boy will have much. I don’t know if I trust him to protect us. What if the army escort doesn’t come? We’ll be on our own, and we need guns and ammo for defence. Where can we get them? It’s not as if you can walk into a store and buy them in this country. God, I wish that rule was different now.”

“Calm down,” Marla insisted. “
Keep your voice down. You’re just going to panic everyone.”

“I’m whispering!”

Marla gave him a serious look. “Tommy, I’m just as scared as you are. I might not be showing it, but I’m worried. There should have been someone here by now. We’ve seen no one come up this motorway. How fucking weird is that? And have you noticed all those cars parked further down? It’s as if people abandoned them. Why? Where are these people? Did the army evacuate them all?”

“It sucks. All we’re getting on the radio is that repeated message.”

“Maybe they have no more information to give. We don’t know what’s going on outside. Maybe this is happening in other countries. Have you thought of that? Maybe it’s global and not just here, because why should it be just Britain? It doesn’t make sense. God, I hope my brother’s okay, wherever he is.”

“I still think it’s some war weapon that
was being developed and got leaked,” Tommy said, “like you thought all along. It went wrong.”

“Or some virus like AIDS – it originated with monkeys, I believe. Then there’s that bug that makes your flesh rot – the one that eats your bo
dy – maybe it’s related to that,” Marla theorised. “You know how people kept warning that if we kept using so many antibiotics then things would just become immune and become even nastier?”

“But that wouldn’t mutate into something that could bring you back from the dead and into a walking work of hell.”

“Why not?” asked Marla. “Any theory is as good as any other.”

“Yeah, I feel like that. Like we are in some kind of demonic world now,” a voice cut in.

Marla and Tommy turned around.

“You were listening?” she asked.

“I heard every word,” said Ellen. “Probably no one else has, but you’re louder than you think. I trust that the army will come and get us. But what they’re dealing with is getting bigger.”

“I hope Mum is okay,” Marla muttered, glancing out the window at the empty road.

“Don’t even get me started. I can’t stop thinking about my son,” Tommy admitted. “He could be anywhere and I should be with him. That’s why I want the army to turn up, so they can take us somewhere and I can find out if he’s at one of the safe facilities. He’s gotta be.”

“I’m
sure he is,” Ellen soothed him, “along with our mum. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do except wait.”

“But there is,” Tommy exclaim
ed. “We can go back to my place and get the jeep, along with all our guns and ammo. That way we can defend ourselves, and them,” he added, nodding towards the passengers who were sleeping peacefully. “Most of them would not be able to fight those things off.”

Ellen
made a face. “I’m not sure I could either. Leaving the coach is a crazy idea.”

“
We could also try to contact people. Maybe the internet isn’t down or the landline phones. Perhaps the government is trying to control us and check our movements – monitor us? There could still be news being broadcast on TV. We’re isolated here and just being told to trust the little information we’re being fed. I don’t trust it,” said Tommy.

“And you thought I was paranoid?
” Marla remarked.

“Are you still having those dreams?” he
rebuffed and she bit her lip. “Then it’s far from over, is it?” he continued. “It’s going to get worse. They’re going to outnumber us, overrun us, and I’m not going to just sit here waiting for it, like fish bait in the middle of a stream. A mass of those freaks could overturn this bus. You know how many people lived in London – what if all the ones who were left behind suddenly came this way. What would we do then?”

“Drive away,” said Devan, who had woken up several minutes
earlier and was listening intently.

“I need to get my stuff,” Tommy insisted. “I’m not sitting here waiting
anymore.”

“He’s got a point,” said Marla. “If the army
doesn’t come, we have no idea where to go. We don’t know where’s safe or where the camps are. We really don’t know anything.”

“So, are you coming?” asked Tommy. “
Right now we’re at Theydon Bois and Epping, where the M11 meets the M25. Easy to find. We can take the M11 down to the North Circular, and head to my place from there. Any sign of trouble and we can come back, but it’s worth a try, surely, as long as we don’t take any risks? Just in and out, and to be honest, I want to see how bad it is, because I don’t believe the whole city is overrun. It’s too big. And my ex or parents might have left messages on my answering machine or sent an email.”

Marla thought for a few moments
. “Same with our mum – she may have tried to contact us.”

“But we could head to an internet cafe for that,” Ellen argued.

“Without weapons, what would we do if the place was full of freaks? Are you in?” asked Tommy, looking at Marla.

She nodded
, but Ellen sat back heavily in her seat. Marla turned to her. “You can stay here, Ellen, if you want. You’re safe, but he’s right – we need a means to defend ourselves. We’re sitting targets. If we run out of food, we’re going to have to find some and we can’t risk going anywhere without guns. There are a lot of people on this coach. I wish I hadn’t agreed to being evacuated and travelled with all my stuff in the jeep.”

“But then we wouldn’t have known anything
at all,” Ellen insisted. “All the information we’re getting is from the soldier’s commander.”

“And a great
lot of good he is at the moment.”

“You’re definitely going?
I can’t stop you?”

“No
. I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Marla. “We should go in daylight as it’s safer – we can see clearer. Maybe there are people still in the city anyway.”

“It’s
gonna be like that camp that blew up,” said Devan. “Everything up in smoke and no one around – you really want to go in there?”

“Well, if we see anyone from the army or police
, we can ask where the nearest safe evacuation camp is,” said Marla.

“Now that makes sense,” Ellen agreed. “That’s the first non-crazy thing I’ve heard. But I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t have to. It could be dangerous. If you’re here, I’ll know you’re safe.”

“But you
just told me not to worry because you won’t be in danger, being in a car and everything.”

Marla bit her lip. She’d come up with an argument that had stung her on the arse and there was no
getting out of it.

“Where you gonna get a car from anyway?” asked Devan.

“Over there,” said Tommy, pointing to the rows of abandoned vehicles. “Maybe some people left keys. If not, I can start anything.”

“How?” asked Ellen.

Tommy tapped the side of his nose and got up from his seat. “Going to speak to soldier boy.” He walked to the front of the coach where Eric and Simon were wide awake, chatting. They stopped and looked up as he approached. Taking a seat, he leaned over and spoke quietly. “I’ve been thinking. We’ve been sitting here waiting and no one has shown up. That worries me and I have an idea of driving into the city, basically back to my place. I can take a car from those over there, see? I have guns and ammo back at home. I couldn’t bring them, but we need them now to defend ourselves if the army doesn’t come.”

“How do you have guns?” asked the solder.

“I’m ex-army,” Tommy replied. “I have connections.”

“Illegal ones?”

Tommy shrugged. “Does it matter if it helps us now? You can trust me. I served my country. I’m not about to let people down. Also, if I meet anyone who is police or army, I can find out where the refugee camps are – the safe ones and the nearest. I can also check the TV and phones in the city. Maybe it’s different than we think. Our mobile batteries are dead now, so we can’t really tell about the networks. Maybe some things are working.”

“I think it’s a good plan,” said Eric.

The soldier did not look convinced.

“Look, I know it’s not how you
do things, by the book and all, but I think the book has gone out the window now. There are new rules and we’re going to have to make things up as we go along.”

Simon gave in.
“Okay,” he said, waving his hands around as if trying to find a home for them. “But if the army comes, we might not be able to wait for you.”

Tommy smiled. “We’ll be back by then. I plan to take the
M11 all the way down, as close as I can to where I live. We shouldn’t be long. A couple of hours tops. I won’t waste time at home.”

The soldier nodded and Tommy wandered bac
k to his seat. “Ready?”

Marla got up slowly. “
Yeah, but I think we should take all our stuff, just in case.”

“Just in case of what?”

She shrugged. “In case of anything.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Devan.

“You don’t have to,” Ellen argued. “You’re safe here. I just can’t let my sister go without me.”

“I can help,” he insisted. “Plus I’d just worry all the time
whether you were okay or not.”

“What about your family? You might be able to find them.”

Devan’s expression froze and his eyes filled with a darkness that spooked Ellen, but then it lifted so suddenly that she reasoned she had mistaken it. Smiling, she tapped his arm. “Fine, but it’s your choice – don’t blame me for anything later. And thanks,” she added with a grin.

“Where are you going?” asked
Isabel as they walked down the aisle.

Marla turned. “We’re going to see if we can get help, but we’ll be back real soon. We’re not going far.”

The older lady nodded, and all of the passengers wished them luck as they made their way to the front of the coach.

“Want me to come?” asked Eric.

Tommy shook his head. “They need you to drive.”

“Do you have any am
mo left for your gun?” Simon enquired.

“
Nope,” Tommy admitted. “I just have my knife.”

“
And I just have one magazine – seventeen rounds,” added Marla, to which the soldier raised an eyebrow.

Opening his rucksack, h
e took out four magazines. Glancing at Marla, he gave her another one. “That’s all I can spare.”

“That’s great,”
Marla replied. “I thank you for that and I’ll give them back when I see you next. Ellen has her gun too, Tommy.”

“I don’t have anything at all,” Devan said.

Tommy glanced at him. “Sure you want to come?”

He looked at Ellen and nodded.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Marla. “Bye, everyone,
we’ll see you soon.”

“Stay safe,” Tommy added.

**
*

“This one has keys,” said Ellen, as they checked the windows of the cars.

Tommy nodded, opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat of the Ford. The engine started fine. “Needs petrol,” he said, tapping the steering wheel in frustration. “Next.”

“This one,” Marla called out as she got into the front seat
of a blue BMW. It was fine. “Nearly a full tank.”

“That’s more like it,” said Tommy. “But who is driving?”

She laughed. “I’ll let you, but once I get my jeep, it’s going to be me behind the wheel.”

“And I’m not looking forward to that if I remember your driving
skills rightly.”

“Me-ow,” Ellen teased, glancing at Devan who seemed to be looking at her with a permanent grin on his face.

“I can’t drive, so you’ll get no argument from me,” he said.

“Really?” Tommy was surprised.

“Yeah, I never learnt. Only my brother...” His voice trailed off and he turned away.