Dead Winter: A gripping crime thriller full of suspense (16 page)

"I found some chicken nuggets! They're off though. Shame, I fucking love chicken nuggets!" Shaun shouted from one of the other aisles, laughing to himself.

After about ten minutes of taking whatever remained in the looted store, we stepped outside as Shaun consulted a small map, pointing to our left. He reminded me of John when we'd been walking through the city.

Between the four of us, we'd acquired ten bottles of water, about twenty cans of varying food products, a few multi-pack bags of crisps, a few soda cans, three bottles of whiskey and some painkillers.

"There's a pharmacy over this way. Got a list of meds we need to find from the Doc." Shaun said to us, glancing around the corner in case there were any infected present between us and our destination.

Dispatching the only infected on the street, we picked up the pace and broke out into a little jog towards the pharmacy. Strangely, it looked like a house converted into a store, blending in almost perfectly with the buildings next to it.

Pushing the door open, I noticed signs that it had already been forced open, implying that it had been locked when the infection spread to this area. Someone had clearly raided it already.

"Shit, looks like someone's been here already." Shaun said, grimacing as he leaped over the counter and started examining the many shelves and drawers for anything that was on his list.

Helping Shaun, we rifled through the drawers and scoured the floor for anything of use. Finding something, I nudged Shaun and handed over a couple rolls of bandages that I had found. He checked it off the list and resumed his search for medication.

"They gotta have some.. Nick's gonna go berserk if we don't find some of this stuff." he mumbled to himself, throwing some antibiotics into his bag. He was looking for something specific and by the sounds of it, it was the medication that Nick took, I wondered what it was.

Giving it up as a lost cause as we searched the last cupboards, drawers and shelves and found nothing but a few boxes of painkillers. Exiting the pharmacy, we began to search a couple of the small houses in the surrounding area, but found each one of them had their doors kicked in. Someone had swept this place clean.

"So now what? We go back to the car?" Dave asked, looking relatively disappointed with the supplies we had acquired.

"Hang on.. Hide!" Shaun and John whispered together as they both noticed something in the distance. Taking cover around the side of one of the houses, we crouched down and listened hard as a couple of people came around the corner, walking straight past us.

"There's nothing here, mate. Get the fuck over it!" one of them said to the other, in a harsh tone of voice.

"You watch your language!" the older one said, staring down at his hunting rifle.

"What the hell is this?" Dave muttered to himself quietly as the figures went out of sight for a second.

"You what? Come at me, bro!" the younger man shouted.

What the hell?

Was everyone crazy now? I almost felt like laughing as the two figures faded out of sight, turning another corner to head in the opposite direction as us. We all let out a little sigh of relief as we ducked out from behind the house and began walking back the way we had arrived.

"Got everything?" Ed called to us as we turned the corner onto the street where the car was waiting for us. Beside the soldier lay a corpse, clearly an infected that had come out from one of the surrounding houses. It seemed that Ed knew how to handle himself.

"Hardly..." Shaun sighed, showing Ed the list he had made of what we had found in the village.

"Shit, only that much?" Ed said, shaking his head as he scrolled through the list, before staring at the last item.

"You got some whiskey?" exclaimed Ed, a smile running across his face as he spoke.

"Yeah, I figured we could all have some tonight. By my count, it should be New Years tonight." Shaun said, counting the days on his fingers as his gun moved around a little as it was slung over his shoulder.

"Damn, you're right. Today's the 31st." Dave uttered as he also counted the days on his fingers. After this little conversation, we all climbed back into the car and set off back towards Sanctuary.

What a Christmas this has been so far.

Chapter Twenty-One

Day Fourteen (3rd January – 12:11PM)

Here I am, sat around the smouldering fire once more, poised awkwardly in my little camping chair. Dave carefully placed a couple pieces of wood into the fire, trying to get the flames higher.

New Years had been interesting. We'd stayed up till Midnight, counting down the time according to my watch. As the hands had struck the hour, we'd raised our glasses and gave a toast to everyone who couldn't be there with us.

Dave had been rather quiet every since then. From what I could tell, he was lost in thought, visiting happier memories. Who could blame him?

"I still think about them a lot these days." he muttered to me, a sombre look playing across his face as he stepped away from the fire. I spent a second trying to figure out what he meant.

"Your family?" I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

"Yeah.. I keep seeing their faces, smiling at me, and I hope they're somewhere far away from all of this, a better place." Dave sighed, holding his hand to his face, covering his eyes.

"Anywhere is better than here." I said, twisting the cap back onto my bottle of water. Dave hadn't struck me as the religious type, but I guess loss had the power to change us all in ways we wouldn't expect.

No man should ever have to go through the things Dave had. I was honestly surprised that he managed to hold himself together so well. Here I was, haunted by nightmares of the people I'd had to outlive, complete strangers while Dave had to put down his family. I wondered if he had dreams too.

He was made of tougher stuff than I.

"I guess." Dave said, trying to shrug off his thoughts.

"Do you have dreams?" I asked, suddenly feeling compelled to do so.

"Of course I do, Ethan. I dream I'm back with my family and this whole thing never happened, I see their smiling faces and it breaks my heart." Dave uttered sadly, clearly visualising it in his mind. His eyes watered briefly for only a moment before he wiped them dry.

"Mm.." I let out, thinking about my own dreams.

"How are you holding up?" Dave asked, glancing up at me with that concerned look that made me feel as though I were being scanned by some kind of machine. X-Ray vision.

"What do you mean?" I enquired, although I knew exactly what he meant this time.

"I've heard you, talking in your sleep. And don't say you're fine, because I've seen it when you think nobody can see you." Dave stated, rising up into a standing position, still staring at me.

"Oh?" I uttered, my heart seemingly skipping a beat. I hated these sorts of talks.

Opening up to others wasn't exactly my forte; in fact, I was downright terrible at it, being used to keeping myself to myself. It was one of my biggest weaknesses.

"That dead-eye stare, like you're lost somewhere. Talk to me, Ethan." Dave said to me, placing his hand on my shoulder as I gazed down at the ground, wondering when I had ever looked like that.

"Fine. You want to hear it?" I said calmly, my insides turning.

"Of course. We're friends." he said, glancing back at the fire. The flames had started rising once more, sending little embers floating through the air above it as the warm current of air surged up.

"I'm having nightmares. Weird dreams where all the people I've ever crossed are mocking me." I confessed, trying to get these thoughts off of my chest.

"And what do they say, Ethan?" Dave asked, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he stared into mine with that calm, collected look as though I were a patient in his office.

"They think I'm enjoying all of this, that killing them was fun." I said, reciting some of the words the people in my dreams had said to me.

Maybe they were right.

"And is it?" Dave asked slowly. I couldn't get a read on him as I looked him in the eyes. I wondered if he was just changing the subject so he didn't have to think about his past. Maybe it was just his nature, caring about others more than himself.

"I don't even know any more. Part of me is fully denying it, but there's a little feeling deep in here that thinks it might just be all a game." I admitted. I was quite literally pouring my heart out today, it seemed.

"Reminds me of John, I sometimes wonder if all of this is just a game to him." Dave mused. I pictured John's dance-like movements when dealing with threats, his face painted with what I considered joy.

"Yeah." I sneered, twisting open my bottle of water again to take another small swig as Dave lit up a cigarette, puffing on it quietly until he spoke again.

"But back on topic. These dreams, where are you in them?" Dave said, exhaling a large cloud of smoke as he turned away from me.

"Back in the city, or in the forest. He's always there, the Executioner. Mocking me with those glowing, red eyes. Sometimes I'm stuck in a room with no doors. Everything turns to dust when it gets close to me." I continued, briefly detailing the things I saw in my nightmares.

"I'm not sure what to make of that, but you're clearly torn up about having to do the things you've done." Dave admitted, turning back around to face me as he took another puff on his cigarette.

"I suppose. It's not normal, all of this. I just feel like I'm slowly losing my mind. It's like Matt all over again.." I sighed, sipping on my water as Dave cast another glance my way.

"Matt?" Dave enquired, trying to remember if he'd heard the name before.

"My brother, remember?" I said, my mind cycling back to a conversation I'd had with Dave many days ago.

"I thought you said he killed himself. But you also said he was killed by that serial killer. I'm a bit confused over that." Dave said, rubbing his chin in thought.

"I'm really not sure. I visited him once in the middle of the case, he was out of his mind, writing on the walls and talking to himself. Sometimes I wonder if he really did get murdered, of if he just set it up to look like that." I admitted, my thoughts conflicting with each other. Neither options were particularly appealing, but the facts remained; my brother went crazy and ended up dead.

There was a loud bang as what I assumed was one of the guardsmen fired a shot past the perimeter. This happened every now and then, and every time it did, I felt very worried. Infected were drawn to sound, after all.

"Jesus.. That shit me up. Gets me every time." Dave said, chuckling to himself as he got over the sudden shock that the gunshot had caused.

This conversation is over.

"I'll go see what's going on." I said, no longer wanting to continue the conversation any further. Dave nodded and puffed on his cigarette as I turned around and walked towards the main gate, cutting through the little maze of tents.

I waved to Steve, who was talking to Nate over by the car we had used to get into the town. He gave me a little wave before resuming his conversation.

We'd adjusted rather quickly to life in Sanctuary, it was a relatively peaceful respite from the horrific world beyond these walls. Though occasionally, you'd be woken up in the middle of the night by a gunshot as one of the guards picked off a stray infected.

I was nearly at the little tower next to the front gate, turning around the corner of a car. Gazing up at the tower, I spotted John talking to the guard who had taken the shot, his ponytail swaying slightly in the winter breeze.

"Hey, Ethan! Come here for a second." I heard a voice call to me from somewhere to my right. I turned my head to try and locate the source of the voice, noticing Shaun ducking out of a large tent, he was calling me over.

"What's up?" I asked casually, striding across the grass towards him. Shaun beckoned me into the tent and pointed at the radio before speaking again.

"There's a repeated message, I just found it a minute ago." Shaun declared, crossing his arms as he looked at me with a smirk on his face. He was clearly happy about something.

"What did it say?" I demanded, intensely curious as to the contents of the message.

"It said that there's going to be an evacuation in four days! A boat out of the country!" Shaun exclaimed, barely able to contain himself.

"Where is it?" I asked, sighing quietly as I remembered all the other supposed evacuation attempts. I wasn't going to get my hopes up any more, I don't think I could handle another lost cause.

"It's in Hull, by the port. Sounds like it might be the last boat out of this place, though.." Shaun stated, pointing to a map of the surrounding area. I didn't think Shaun realised that we'd have to make our way through the city on foot, if it was anything like where we'd come from.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked quickly, casting a blank look towards Shaun, who seemed surprised by my lack of excitement.

"Well, I'll talk it over with the boss. And we'll likely all head out together in the cars the day before." Shaun stated, letting out a sigh of his own. Shaun didn't seem to enjoy the thought of consulting with the boss.

"What do you think he'll he say?" I asked, crossing my arms as I examined the map briefly.

"I don't think he really has a choice, to be honest. We don't exactly have that many supplies right now and this is pretty much our only shot." Shaun admitted. Deep in the corners of my mind, I felt a little spark of hope fire up as I thought about finally ridding myself of this world.

After all, what's the point if you can't hope?

Biding farewell to Shaun, I duck out from the tent and resumed my walk towards the tower where John and the man were still conversing. Climbing the ladder, I greeted the two of them.

"Hey, kiddo." John sang, glancing over his shoulder at me.

"What's going on?" I asked calmly, casting a look at both of them in turn.

"You missed a great shot." John sighed, pointing towards the corpse of what I assumed was an infected man. The body was a fair distance from the front gate and I guessed that was why John was so pleased with it.

"You should be careful with those guns. Why didn't you just whack it with something?"

"But that's no fun!" John called, talking loudly despite the fact that I was a mere yard or so away from him. Though that was John all over, loud whenever he had the chance.

Another infected came out from the trees, staggering onto the little road that joined the camp to the village. It had clearly been drawn in by the gunshot. The guard offered John the hunting rifle he had been holding.

He took it in stride, lining up his sights as the infected teenager began stumbling towards the camp. After a second or two, he pulled the trigger and the sound of the gun echoed throughout the clearing as the bullet tore through the head of the infected, who fell spectacularly into a puddle.

"Nice shot, John!" the guard called, patting John on the back as he roared with laughter. It really was all a game to them, wasn't it? Did they even care that the people they were toying with had lives?

"So this is what you do now? Hang out here and shoot infected?" I said disapprovingly, crossing my arms again.

"What else is there to do? I don't see a game of Cluedo lying around, do you?" John joked, handing the rifle back over to the guard. In the distance, I thought I saw something moving.

There was a strange sound in the air as many figures appeared from the end of the road. They ducked out from the trees as far as I could see. Spotting us, they all began to sprint in unison towards us. There were at least fifty of them, if not more.

"Oh, fuck!" the guard swore as both himself and John noticed the flock of infected dashing towards the camp. He took aim with his rifle and began to fire shot after shot. Cursing him as an idiot, I climbed quickly down the ladder and headed for the tent I hoped Shaun was still in.

"Claire!" John shouted, jumping off the tower onto the grass before dashing off towards our tents, running past me with a panicked expression on his face.

Oh, shit.