Dead Winter: A gripping crime thriller full of suspense (15 page)

After a few minutes, I bade farewell to everyone as I crawled into my tent to get some much needed sleep, praying that it would be nightmare-free as the quiet chattering continued from outside these thin walls.

Chapter Nineteen

Day Nine (29th December – 6:33PM)

Tiny embers sailed through the air as I sat beside the fire, the tongues of flame licking up at the air. The chattering had died down somewhat, with only a whisper or a muffled voice audible every minute or so.

"So what's your story?" I asked the man opposite me. He leaned forwards in his little camping chair, his face illuminated by the fire between us. Dave stifled a little yawn from beside me.

"Me? I was just a teacher at one of the schools on the edge of the city. P.E and the like, y'know?" Nate said quietly, trying to keep his voice low so he wouldn't wake our neighbours up.

"How'd you get out of the city?" Dave asked as he tried to hold back another yawn. Dave hadn't slept the entire day, nor the last unlike John and Claire, who were both sound asleep in their tents.

"That's the thing. I got out as soon as this shit started, grabbed a cricket bat and ran for the roads as fast as I could." replied Nate, making a gesture as though he were swinging a bat through the air. The man furthest away from the fire was muttering to himself again, staring up at the sky.

What was he looking at?

We'd met Nate only a couple of hours ago. Nate was just a nickname of sorts, apparently; his real name was Nathan Graves. He'd been sleeping in the tent next to Annie and Steve when we arrived.

"And you?" I called, my question aimed at the mumbling man, who shot a bewildered look over at me before shuffling his chair closer to the fire.

"Yes?" he stammered, running his fingers across his chin stubble.

"What's your story?" I found myself asking again. The man fumbled around in his bag for something before pulling out a little bottle of pills. He took one out and downed it with a sip from his water bottle.

"I'm Nicholas, but call me Nick. I like Nick." the man said to us, glancing nervously at each of us in turn. He had a shifty look to him, something didn't seem right at all with this one.

"Okay, Nick. Where did you come from?" I asked calmly, slowing my speech ever so slightly as Nick looked at me. As he moved closer to the firelight, I noticed just how dark his eyes were; coal black, with deep bags under them.

"From the city, like you. Yes." Nick said, stuttering slightly with his words, as if it were hard to speak. He waved his arms around slightly as he spoke, making strange gestures.

Next to me, Dave was lighting up a cigarette. He began taking long puffs from it, staring up at the star-strewn sky before letting out little rings of smoke. I'd always liked the ring trick.

"Was in a hospital, I think. Memories are hazy. Nurse came to give me my medicine when they got in. Attacked her." Nick said, continuing on from his vague answer. It sounded as though he were an escaped mental patient of sorts, I felt strangely uneasy for some reason, reminded of the man in the police evacuation.

"And then?" I asked, interested in his story.

"Turned on me, beat them down with a fire extinguisher. Then I grabbed what pills I needed and escaped. Wandered alone through the woods for a few days. Found this place." concluded Nick, still detailing the circumstances of his escape from the city.

There were a few of us from the city here.

I was surprised, honestly. From the way the doctor had been talking, I'd assumed there weren't that many people from the city in here. Although everyone we'd met so far had been on the edge of the city, next to the motorway.

We'd already explained to Nate how we'd made it through the whole city, fighting infected and people alike just to survive. He'd stared at us with disbelief when we told him about the things we'd seen.

"I'm lucky then, I guess. Haven't run into one of them yet." Nate said, sighing in relief.

"It's not just the infected that you should be careful of." Dave interjected, taking another drag from his cigarette.

"How do you mean?" Nate asked curiously, his interest seemingly piqued.

"We had a run in with a group of hunters before we got here. There was five of us originally. They took us prisoner and were probably going to kill us until we escaped." Dave explained, and my mind was drawn back to the actions of that night. I felt a small pang of guilt as I remembered what I had done.

"Hunters?" Nick enquired, tilting his head slightly as he tried to understand what Dave meant. In the distance, I thought I heard someone walking.

"That's what we called them. I dunno what else to call them. Raiders? Bandits? They weren't nice people, let me tell you that!" Dave finished, taking a swig from his water bottle before placing it back on the ground.

The sound of footsteps grew ever closer as we talked, my attention was split between our conversation and the sound of whoever was walking nearby. The sound grew louder with every passing second until a figure appeared from behind one of the tents.

A gun-toting silhouette.

"Howdy, guys." Shaun said, cutting in as he crouched down near the fire. Dave yawned loudly next to me, declaring that he was finally going to go get some sleep.

"Hey, Shaun." I said, motioning over to an empty chair next to me. Shaun shook his head briefly before speaking.

"Can't, on guard duty. Just wondered if you wanted to come with." Shaun stated, his gun still slung low over his shoulder.

"Sure." I said, glancing at Nick and Nate, the latter of which shrugged casually as he unwrapped a chocolate bar. On that note I picked myself up from the awkward little chair into a standing position and started to follow Shaun, who had begun to walk the way he came.

"We'll do a sweep of this side of the wall, then go up to the guard tower." Shaun called at me from over his shoulder, pulling out a torch as we made our way through the tents, crates and vehicles.

We walked for a minute or so until we reached a corner, where a bit of fencing and a concrete blockade met. At this point we started to walk slowly along the fencing.

"So, tell me about yourself, Ethan." Shaun asked of me, peering through the gaps in the fencing towards the trees beyond, looking for any sign of life, infected or not.

"Used to be a student before all this happened. Woke up and the world had gone to hell. Barely got out of my apartment complex alive." I explained, glancing through the gaps in the fencing myself. I swore I saw something move in the darkness.

"Apartment complex?" Shaun asked.

"Yeah, I lived in the big blue one. It started collapsing with me still inside it." I said, running my hand through my hair out of habit.

"Jesus.. I wondered where that thing went." the soldier mumbled as we walked, still peering through the chain-link fencing and concrete blockades that the perimeter was comprised of.

"Then I ran into Dave, and then John and his sister. Then we walked to the motorway." I continued, my eyes trained on Shaun, who was looking away from me as we spoke.

"So you walked through the city...walked!?" he exclaimed suddenly, turning around to face me.

"Pretty much. We had a car at one point, but the roads were jammed." I said, yawning quietly. I was still a little worn-out from the events of yesterday.

"Random question, I know this might seem a little personal, but.. Have you ever killed someone. Like, someone not infected?" Shaun asked me, the curiosity in his voice was easy to pick up. I wondered why he wanted to know.

"Only when I had to. There was a guy in the city, a murderer who wanted to kill me, only I got there first. And the hunters before we got here." I said, sighing lightly as I recalled the events I had gone through since all of this started.

I wondered if what I was saying was actually true. Did we really have to kill the hunters? I mean, they were probably going to do the same to us; but still, was it necessary?

"Wait, hunters? I'd heard rumours that there were people living in the forest.." Shaun asked, lighting a cigarette as we reached what I assumed was the halfway mark of this side of the wall.

"Yeah, we ran into them. Nasty bunch." I said, trying to cast away my doubting thoughts. I decided to change the subject.

"What about you, Shaun?" I enquired, casting a glance at him, as he looked over his shoulder at me before continuing to look through the fencing. We were nearly at the end of the wall, approaching the makeshift towers that guarded the front gate.

"What about me? I'm just a soldier, or I was until I abandoned my post. I don't know what I am right now." Shaun sighed, taking a puff of his cigarette, exhaling deeply.

"Your post?" I asked, my curiosity bouncing back.

"Yeah, was defending the on-ramp to the motorway from infected, but they just kept coming, so I took one of the trucks, some ammo and legged it with a couple friends." he explained as we climbed the ladder up to the watchtower, gazing down at the dark expanse of trees and fields that surrounded us.

"You were at the on-ramp? We went through there when we heard about the evacuation! It was completely deserted, besides from the bodies." I exclaimed in shock, vividly reminded of my outburst back at the military outpost.

"Shit..." Shaun muttered under his breath, letting out a deep sigh as he realised that his colleagues were most likely dead or infected. I felt rather sorry for him.

We stood there in silence for a few minutes, our breath hanging in spirals in the air above us as the bitter wind kicked in again, making the trees sway and creak.

"Anyway. I have another question." Shaun said, his voice croaking slightly.

"Shoot." I shot back at him, yawning quietly.

"We're putting together a supply run in a day or so. Was wondered if you and your friends wanted to tag along. I can put in a good word to the boss for you." he asked, yawning himself a few seconds after I had. Yawning still retained its contagious nature.

"Sure, they'll probably be up for it. John always is, anyway." I answered, making a mental note to ask John and Dave about it the next time I saw them.

Shaun patted me on the back as I made my way back towards the tents. The grass was starting to frost over as I arrived back where I had started, climbing into my tent to get some more sleep.

My schedule sure has changed lately.

Chapter Twenty

Day Eleven (31st December – 7:00AM)

These four walls confine me; trapped in a room of black and white.

Feeling claustrophobic, my eyes dart around the room in a vain attempt to locate an exit, of which there are seemingly none. The room is empty except for one object fixed to the wall behind me; a mirror takes up a large amount of the space on the back wall.

I don't even want to look at myself, but find my gaze drawn to the mirror as I slowly turn around. I'm faced with a full view of myself in all my colours, the reflection creating a stark contrast between me and the monochrome room.

As I stared deep into my own eyes, the walls start to change colour, the black and white melting into a haze of grey, I wondered if it had any meaning at all. My eyes felt hot, and red rings of light burned over the irises of my eyes, the light growing brighter until I couldn't help but tear my gaze away.

The reflection in the mirror is smirking at me as he reaches out with his hand, despite the fact that I wasn't moving at all. He knocks on the surface of the mirror, as though it were a window into another room, or dimension.

I'm going crazy.

Taking several steps back, my reflection takes a dash at the mirror, smashing straight through it. Shards of reflective glass fly through the air in slow motion before they disintegrate before my eyes, turning to dust as they reach me.

My reflection has a pained expression on his face as he reaches out to grab me, finding his hand turning to dust as he moves closer to me. There's a brief scream of pain as he finds he cannot stop his momentum, doomed to disintegrate. The room shatters around me as I find myself falling through the darkness again as everything turns to dust.

With a brief moment of blinding agony, I'm thrown into a fenced-off area, filled with military vehicles and corpses. I'm in the city again, watching myself in the distance as I fight my way through the horde. The scene glitches before my eyes as the colours change from red to monochrome, changing back to full colour as though someone were applying filters over my life.

I find my perspective flying towards myself as I stand in the middle of the horde, looking up at the on-ramp to the motorway, where several figures stand on the hill, mere silhouettes looking down upon me.

Dashing after them as they turn away to run, I find myself running through a thick forest, rife with screams and creaking branches as I chase the figures through the trees. Alongside me runs a familiar face, grinning at me as he runs in reverse, staring at me with those burning eyes.

"You've been enjoying this." Lucas says to me, running backwards through the trees.

"Like hell I have!" I shouted at him, making a swiping motion through the air at him with my hand, rending him into fragments which hover in the air before catching fire; burning to a crisp as I try to catch up with the figures.

Some part of me agreed, this was all like a game.

I reach a house as everything turns black, white and grey; trees surround the farmhouse clearing as the figures stop, turning to face me once more, the light catching their faces. A line of hunters grinning like Cheshire cats as I slow my pace, walking towards them.

"Surprise, motherfucker!" Randy called, mocking me with a sing-song tone reminiscent of Lucas. I noticed a feminine figure standing behind the row of men, hammer in hand as they run fingers through their hair.

"Did you forget about us, too? Or are you having too much fun?" shouted one of the hunters to me as he tries to pry a rope from around his neck.

"Why do you all think I enjoy this? I just did what I had to!" I found myself shouting at the hunters, my voice echoing through the air, resonating in my ears for a few seconds until only silence remained.

With a swing of the hammer, the hunters burst into dust one-by-one until there's nothing left at all but the trees, house and the distance between us. She stands up to stare towards me, but I can't see her face as she reaches out to me with her free hand.

"Don't tell them.." her voice blurts out, stuttering slightly as she raised a finger to her lips before vanishing in a whirl of smoke. I'm left on my own once more as the ground rises up around me to form the room I'd started in.

Why is this happening?

"Ethan! Rise and shine, kiddo!" a familiar voice calls out from beyond the walls. Everything went black for a second until I found myself sat bolt upright in my tent, the dream fading away as I woke up.

It was Shaun, still wearing his uniform as he peered in through the open door of the tent, beckoning me outside. I slipped into my jacket and crawled out onto the frosted grass.

"What's up?" I asked, brushing my hair out of my eyes.

"It's time for the supply run, remember?" Shaun said, before stretching his arms out wide as he let out a loud yawn.

"What about weapons?" I enquired, worried that I'd find myself completely defenceless against the infected threat.

"We get to take our pick from the armoury! Though I always have my weapon of choice." Shaun sang, cradling his SA80 assault rifle in his arms for a few seconds before letting it hang under his arm once more.

"You'll need a weapon that isn't a gun, man." I found myself saying as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. The infected were drawn in by sound, so he'd need a melee weapon of sorts.

"Probably. I think we have a few of those somewhere. Got my eyes on a sword, not sure where it came from." Shaun said, rubbing his chin stubble as he thought about the weapons in the armoury.

"No can do, that sword's mine." I stated, unwilling to let someone else use my new favourite weapon.

"Aww man, really?" Shaun said, letting out a sigh of disappointment as I shot his hopes down.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm rather attached to it." I said, before yawning as my body continued adjusting to being awake.

"Where the hell did you get that thing anyway?" Shaun asked curiously, glancing at me from over his shoulder as we walked towards the shed that was the armoury.

"Honestly? Took it from a serial killer." I admitted, deciding it probably wasn't wise to keep secrets such as these. As we turned the corner around a car, I spotted John and Dave standing by the doors to the armoury.

Shaun was seemingly taken aback by what I had said, trying to comprehend it as he fumbled with a bunch of keys, unlocking the armoury. We were like little kids in a candy store as we walked into the armoury, examining our choices. John immediately went for his kukri as I picked up my sword, tying it to my belt again as I looked for my handgun.

Dave went for his cleaver, also picking up a revolver which had been attracting my attention as well. John had gone for the usual kukri and handgun set-up which I practically identified him by. Shaun reached out for a combat knife, attaching it to his belt before grabbing a metal baseball bat.

Twenty minutes later, we were on the road. Cramped in between Dave and John in the back of a 4x4 vehicle. Shaun was driving, beside him was another man clad in the attire of a soldier. Shaun had introduced him as his friend, Edward Scott.

Shaun AND Ed? I can barely contain myself. It was perfect.

"So where are we going?" John asked Shaun, leaning forward in his seat a little as he stared at the back of Shaun's head.

"There's a decently-sized village a few miles away from here that we haven't checked yet." said Shaun, glancing over his shoulder at the three of us before turning back to face the road, swerving the vehicle to avoid an abandoned car. The roads were pretty much clear on this side of the motorway.

It had been awhile since my last supply run, my mind wandering back through my memories until I found myself picturing that supermarket again, with the girl who was both infected and not. The gunshot rang out, cutting through the silence in my mind.

Gazing out of the window, I thought I saw everything flash red for a second, and I wondered if I was still trapped in some sort of dream world, desperately trying to wake up.

"Why did I ever agree to do this?" the soldier next to Shaun joked, laughing casually as Shaun glanced at him.

"We've done worse. Remember Alex's stag night?" Shaun called, snickering to himself as he remembered something from the past. Ed roared with laughter in the passengers seat, rubbing his eyes a little.

In the distance, a large group of buildings was coming into view from over the hill. It must be the village they were talking about. We continued to drive towards it, slowing down as we approached the first set of buildings until the vehicle came to a stop.

"Ed'll stay with the car. The four of us are going to have a look 'round." Shaun stated, glancing at Ed who was busy checking the magazine in his SA80.

"Right you are. Ain't anybody getting past me." Ed mumbled to himself as he slid the magazine back into the rifle with a satisfying click before he looked up at us with a grin.

Ed was pretty well-built. Not large, but seemingly quite muscular. He had short black hair and a little chin stubble, like Shaun. He was also pretty tall, standing at around six foot two. I didn't really know much more about him, besides that he and Shaun had been friends since they went to high school together.

I missed my old friends quite a lot recently.

The road we were on looked pretty much like the village we'd come through to get to Sanctuary. It was picturesque in many senses of the word; traditionally-styled village houses painted in black and white. Even an old looking red postbox stood on the edge of the pavement.

In contrast to the traditional architecture of the village on one side of the road, was a rather modern looking mini-supermarket, which we immediately made a beeline for, pushing the doors wide open to the smell of stale food, a repugnant odour that coursed through my nostrils with every breath, making me gag a little.

Shaun whistled loudly, the sound echoing through the store for a few seconds before a series of bumps and bangs came back to us, followed by quiet moans.

"Out you come!" Shaun shouted as the sound of footsteps grew louder.

An infected woman came around the corner of one of the aisles, staggering with each and every step. I briefly examined the infected, noticing a patch of dried blood on her leggings, surrounding a large tear through the fabric. There was a reason she was unsteady on her feet, it seemed.

Throwing the baseball bat up into the air, Shaun caught it mid-spin by the handle and twirled it through the air a little as he walked towards the infected. With a brief smirk, he swung for the woman, hitting her in the stomach. She keeled over onto her knees, snarling at us as she tried to pick herself up.

With another blow, Shaun struck the infected across the face with the metal bat, sending her to the ground where she lay, writhing in pain as Shaun pulled out his knife and stabbed it through her skull. He pulled the knife out, placed it back on his belt and resumed his whistling.

Was he enjoying this?

"Search the store, aisle-by-aisle. Anything useful? Put it in the bag." Shaun said calmly, turning away from the corpse of the infected to look at the rest of us. On his word, we began to walk past him to different aisles.

"You've got red on you." I said, passing Shaun by as I pointed at his chest, where a little splatter of blood had begun to soak into the fabric. I honestly couldn't resist making a joke, chuckling to myself as I entered an aisle. I heard Shaun grumble to himself as I turned the corner.

My mind was still thinking about the dream I'd had, wondering what it all could possibly mean. If dreams are a window into the subconscious, what did my dreams say about me? It was all starting to haze and fade away now, only the specifics remained.

Scanning the aisle, which had already been raided by the looks of things, I spotted a few cans of food which I promptly slid into my large backpack. I heard Dave muttering to himself from the aisle next to mine.

"I got water! Anyone else find anything?" Dave called out to the rest of us. I could hear him fumbling with the zip of his bag as he placed the water inside.

"I got food, not much though." I called back, waving my arm above the top of the shelves.