Jake said, “I didn’t mean to scare you, June, I’m sorry. Look, just stay here tonight. It’s not safe out there now. I’ll give you some food to take with you tomorrow.”
June sat back down and threw her arms up. “Fine.”
Chapter 2
Jake showed them upstairs. There was his bedroom, two spare bedrooms, and a bathroom. Pretty standard for a suburban new build.
Harriet was to sleep in one of the spare rooms, which Jake had turned into a study/storage room.
“This airbed should be fine,” said Jake, giving a few finishing squeezes on the foot pump.
At least he’s eager to please, thought Harriet. But then he probably didn’t get to speak to a lot of women his age, she thought, looking around at all the survival magazines, ninja weapons, and camo gear.
“I’ll be in there”, said Jake to his guests, pointing to the room next to Harriet’s. “I’ll probably be up late, and you might hear some power tools.” He handed everyone some ear plugs. “You can use these.”
“Power tools?” said June.
Jake nodded. “Yes, I’m going to to get to work on securing the place.” June gave him a sharp look, he smiled back at her. “Just the windows.”
“Ok, thanks Jake,” said Harriet. “Thank you very much, for being so generous. You’re very kind.”
Jake blushed. “That’s ok,” he quickly started back down the stairs. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
Once he was downstairs, June whispered, “This guy’s a bit weird, are you sure about staying here?”
“I think he’s mainly harmless, and besides, I don’t see we have any other options, do you? We can get out of here first thing.”
June shrugged, “Do you want to to sleep in with us?”
“Thanks, but I think it will be ok.”
June didn’t look convinced, “If you’re sure. We’ll see you tomorrow. Nice and early.”
“Ok, night June.” She waved at Adam, “Night Adam.”
“Night Harriet,” said Adam.
Harriet closed the bedroom door behind her. The desk and a few boxes took up most of the floor space, with just enough room left for her airbed. The desk housed a PC, numerous game boxes, manga magazines and novels about war, soldiers, space, etc.
Harriet looked out the window, the lights were still on in the street and a dusky orange watched over the stillness. No houses had any lights on that she could see, and only one house had a car in its drive. It seemed most had ignored the emergency broadcast to stay home.
She gasped as she saw movement outside, a figure emerging from the darkness. She ducked down, peering over the window sill, and watched as the figure shuffled, not walked, along the middle of the empty street. It was difficult to make out details in the low lights, but it looked like a man, maybe in his fifties, fat, wearing a shirt and tie. He dragged his left leg behind him, and as he got closer, Harriet noted his shirt was covered in blood. The skin on one side of the man’s head hung off, resting on his shoulder, flapping gently as he walked.
Harriet pulled her hand over her mouth and ducked out of sight, breathing heavily. She fought the rising panic, breathe deep, breathe slow, one, two, three, close your eyes…
She found the courage to look again. The man was disappearing into the darkness. She quickly closed the curtains and climbed into bed.
She started to cry. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help herself. It was all she could do to stop her panic from engulfing her. She would allow herself the luxury of crying.
Harriet woke in the darkness, and for a moment she was back in bed in her Camden flat. She reached over to look at the clock on her bedside table, but instead she found the chair leg of Jake’s desk.
She sat up on her elbows, remembering were she was.
A strange sound from downstairs sent a shiver down her spine, the sound of an electric motor, muffled through her earplugs.
Power tools. Jake had said they would hear the sound of power tools.
She wondered if the sounds would attract any more zombies, and struggled to get back to sleep, but eventually the hypnotic rhythm of the tools lulled her to a shallow slumber.
Harriet woke early - it was six o’clock according to her watch. An immediate nervousness set upon her stomach, as the memories of yesterday flooded into her mind.
She sat up and carefully pulled back one of the curtains a little, peering out to the street.
Empty.
She had expected to see a crowd of zombies outside the house, baying to get in.
She pulled out her earplugs and got dressed. She went to the bathroom.
The house was silent - she was the first to wake. She wondered how late Jake had stayed up last night, ‘securing’ the house.
Although feeling a little rude going downstairs whilst Jake was still asleep, she needed a drink of water. And she might as well get a coffee whilst down there. She was sure Jake wouldn’t mind.
She stepped quietly down the stairs, wincing at the few creaks on the stairs.
The house was dark.
Harriet paused at the bottom of the stairs and stared at the front door. Wooden slats had been screwed in the full length of the door - there was no way to open or close it.
That’s why it was dark - the door window and the porch glass had been covered with large wooden boards.
Walking quickly around the ground floor, treading carefully in the darkness, she found that all the windows had been covered. The back door in the kitchen was also sealed shut.
She was trapped in darkness. This is what Jake meant by securing the house - no one in, no one out.
Including her.
Scared, she crept upstairs and gently opened the door to June’s room. She was asleep, but Adam was awake, his eyes looking up at her from the darkness. He waved and said “Morning Harriet.”
Harriet rushed her finger to her lips and hushed him. She leaned down next to June and shook her gently awake.
June stretched and opened her mouth to speak, but Harriet, and also Adam, hushed her.
“What is it?” whispered June, a frown on forehead. “What time is it?”
“It’s just past six in the morning. We’re in trouble.”
June sat up quickly and grabbed her jumper. “What do you mean?” she quickly glanced at Adam to check he was ok.
“I’ve just been downstairs - he’s screwed wooden planks across all the windows and doors. We can’t get out.”
“What?” She got out of bed and pulled her clothes on. “Get dressed Adam. Tell me exactly what’s happened.”
Harriet shrugged, “That’s it. Every door and window has a load of planks over them - he’s trapped us, we can’t get out.”
June shook her head angrily. “I knew that little bastard was bad news. Come on, we have to get out of here.” June put her hand on the bedroom door handle.
“Wait,” said Harriet, “just wait a minute. Let’s think about this.”
“What is there to think about? The man’s a bloody nutter, we have to get out of here.”
“I know, that’s what I mean. Last night, he never mentioned anything about this - he knew that we didn’t want to be locked in, and he was all smiles and promises we could leave today.”
“What’s your point Harriet?”
“If he catches us trying to ‘escape’, how do we know what he’s going to do? He could be dangerous.”
“Are we in trouble mummy?” said Adam.
June crouched down beside her son. “No, don’t you worry, darling. We’re ok.” She hugged him and said to Harriet, “Well, we have to do something. I want to see.”
The three sneaked down the stairs and June held in a gasp as she saw the planks nailed across the front door. They went into the kitchen, the room in darkness, only slight slivers of light able to pierce the gaps in the planks.
June held her hands to her face. “Dammit. Dammit! How could I be so stupid,” she whispered.
Adam took a closer look at the planks on the kitchen door.
“Mummy, these are screwed in.”
“Come here Adam,” she held out her hand.
“But mummy, we can try and unscrew them, we could do it quietly.”
“He’s onto something, June,” said Harriet. “I’ll bet there’s a screwdriver around here somewhere. Either in this kitchen, or in that spare room I was sleeping in.”
“Soldiers always have tools around,” said Adam.
“He’s not a solider,” said June. “I’ll look down here. Do you want to check your room?”
Harriet nodded and looked at her watch. “It’s six thirty. Let’s hope he was up working late on this - I imagine otherwise he’s a rise early sort of guy.”
Harriet moved quietly up the stairs, again wincing at the creaking staircase. She went back into the spare room and started to search for a screwdriver. Her hands were shaking.
“Calm down, come on.”
She slowly pulled out drawers and looked through boxes. It didn’t take long to find an old tool box under a pile of tired army clothes. She grabbed a few screwdrivers and took them to the kitchen.
“Found some,” she said, holding them up.
“So did we. And that’s not all, look at this.” June eased open a drawer to reveal a number of large and deadly looking knives.
“Wow. They look pretty serious,” said Harriet.
“They are.” June took out two large knives, both with thick handles and double blades, one smooth and the other serrated. She passed one of the knives to Harriet.
“What? I don’t want one.”
“Take it, we’re not in Kansas any more.”
Harriet sighed and took the knife. June passed her a sheath, and Harriet put the knife in it, tucking the ensemble in the back of her jeans.
“Come on, we don’t know how much time we have,” said June.
They each took a screwdriver and started to work on the planks. Adam was tasked with standing at the bottom of the stairs to listen for any sounds of waking.
Unscrewing the screws was much harder work than Harriet had thought. The drill that Jake used had done a good job.
“This isn’t going to work,” said Harriet after a few minutes had only yielded three screws. “There’s hundreds of them.”
June looked over the boards. “Not hundreds, but definitely a lot. If he comes down when we’re half way through…”
As if on queue, Adam came back into the kitchen and pointed upstairs. “He’s awake,” he whispered.
Harriet looked to the boards and the screws on the floor. She remembered the knife in her back pocket. She stood up, about to put the knife away, then thought the screws on the floor were more obvious, so she kneeled down to pick them up.
June grabbed her wrist, “What are you doing? Calm down.”
Harriet took a few deep breaths.
The sound of footsteps came from above them.
June picked up the three screws from the floor. “Keep hold of your knife, but put the back of your shirt over it, tuck it well down in your jeans. You may need it.”
Harriet nodded and stood up, doing as June had said.
Adam tip toed out of the kitchen.
Harriet looked at the board they had been working on. Although dark, the missing screws shone out to her like a beacon.
“What do we do now?” she said.
“What people always do, make a cup of tea,” said June, smiling.
She opened and closed cupboards, not trying to be quiet.
“I think we should be listening to the radio today,” said June in a normal voice, making Harriet jump.
Harriet mouthed, “What are you doing?”
June whispered, “Everything is normal, we are good with this ok? If he catches us, I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Harriet’s eyes lit up in realisation. “Oh,” she mouthed, then louder, “Yeah, I’m sure the police will have everything under control in a day or two.”
Adam walked into the kitchen, looking confused.
“Everything’s ok, isn’t it Adam?” said June, winking at him.
Adam smiled, “Sure mum,” he said catching onto the facade straight away.
Bright kid, thought Harriet, I needed it spelt out to me.
The sound of footsteps came from the stairs.
June turned the kitchen light on.
“Where do you think the sugar is?” she said in a bright voice.
Jake appeared at the door, he stopped still and surveyed the kitchen, looking at each person in turn. “Everyone alright?”
Harriet held her breath, unable to speak.
June smiled, “Sure we are. Just trying to rustle up a cup of tea. You don’t mind do you? I can make you one?”
Jake stared at June for a moment, then his face relaxed, and he smiled. “Course I don’t mind. I’d love a cuppa. I don’t have any sugar though. It’s not good for you.”
“Oh, that’s ok. I could do with cutting down myself.”
Jake looked at Harriet. “How are you Harriet, did you sleep ok?”
Harriet forced herself to smile and look Jake in the eye. “Yes, great thanks.”
Jake held her eye for a moment, then turned back to June. “The cups are in there.” He pointed to a cupboard above the kettle. “And how are you young man?”
“Tip top, reporting for duty sir!” Adam mocked a salute.
Jake laughed, “Good lad.”