When There's No More room In Hell: A Zombie Novel (31 page)

“No worries,” h
e shrugged.

“I'm serious.” S
he touched his hand and stared at him. “Thanks.”

He
shifted in his seat, feeling a little uncomfortable and changed the subject. “Did you look in on Sarah?”

She sighed
. “Yeah, she was still sleeping. Helen told me that she is starting to seem better. The fever has gone and she said that you and her spoke too.”

“She recognised me this morning and even managed a smile. I think she’ll be okay
, Claire.”

She tried to feed from
his optimism. “I hope so, Steve,” she sighed as she ruffled her hair into some sort of presentable shape.

He looked down at his cup, biting his lip and then back to Claire
. “There's something else we need to discuss, Claire.”

“I know.
Roy,” she replied without looking up from the table.

“Yeah
, Roy. Jake has kept an eye on him but we are gonna have to do something about him soon. From what I know, there's no cure, and every bite is one hundred percent fatal and he will come back, Claire.”

She nodded as she stared down at the table
top. “I know, Steve. He may be a coward and self-centered, but I wouldn't wish this on him.”

“I don’t
, Claire. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.”

She looked up,
flicking her hair from her face. “What do we do then?”

Roy had been made as comfortable as possible and dosed with pain killers and sedatives.
Jake and Lee had handled him into one of the spare rooms and took turns sitting watch over him.

His fever had strengthened and he had become delirious and incoherent. He continuously shouted out at no one in particular, and his words could rarely be understood. His arm had swollen to almost twice its natural size and his veins were visible underneath the skin as the infection coursed through his blood stream and around his body.

“He's gonna die soon, you know that, and we need to be ready for it. We need to restrain him. I dunno about you, but I think it would be better to put him out of his misery before the infection gets any worse.”

Her brow creased
. “He's not a fucking horse, Steve.”

“I know
. I know that, Claire. But it’s too dangerous to let him turn. You've seen what happens and you've seen what they can do. For fuck sake, Claire, remember what they did to Kevin the other day?” He was pleading with her but it came across more as him lecturing and trying to lay the law down at her.

“Yes
, Steve, I remember what they did. I had a front row seat remember? But we can’t just start killing people when they get bitten. Or sick. Would you kill Sarah, could you kill her if you knew she would turn?” She looked at him questioningly and accusingly.

Steve raised his voice and spat his words
. “Don't even fucking say it, Claire, that's different.”

“Not when you
look at it the way that you are. In a ‘not taking any chances’ sort of way.”

He realised her point and backed down with a sig
h as he slumped into his chair. “Sarah wasn't bitten, Roy was, and it’s not a dead cert that anyone catching the flu will turn, but Roy will. I just don’t want to take any risks, Claire.”

“Like you said,” s
he leaned forward and took his cup and raised it to her mouth, “we can keep him separated, and restrained if need be. And when he turns, it should be me that kills him. I owe him that much.”

Her last statement shocked Steve. He had always k
nown she was strong and fiery, but still, it shocked him. He just nodded.

Later in the morning, Lee approached Steve. He looked troubled and he pulled Steve to one side
in the lobby of the mansion to speak quietly. Discretion wasn't exactly Lee’s forte and instead of a private conversation, it was more of a loud one, just removed from the rest of the people, who could actually still hear every word.

“Steve, that Jake, is he a bender?”

Steve laughed
. “You mean gay? Yeah he is. Why?”

“Fucking hell,
I've been spending loads of time with him lately and people may think I'm a sausage bandit too.” He was rubbing his head, clearly uncomfortable and afraid that his masculinity, as well as his sexuality, may be in question.

Steve knew that unless dealt with in a more diplomatic manner, Lee was likely to climb on a chair and begin announcing that he wasn't gay to the whole house. It would be meant in a purely ‘clearing the air’ sort of way
to Lee, but Steve knew it wouldn't be taken like that by others. It would offend some, because he wasn't likely to use the politically friendly terms, and others would think him mad.

He
placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Lee, no one here thinks you're gay. It’s as plain as the nose on your face that you're straight because since you got here, you've been walking about like a dog with five dicks, drooling over Sophie and Helen.”

“You don’t think h
e fancies me do you?” he asked with a worried tone in his voice.

Steve was shaking his head and grinning
broadly. “Don't flatter yourself mate. Just because he's gay, doesn’t mean he wants a piece of you.”

“Yeah
, Lee,” a voice came from behind, “I don’t want to bum every bloke I see you know.” Jake walked past with a mug of steaming coffee, speaking casually between sips. He paused and smiled at Lee. “What's up, did I seem too butch? I can go and put my hot pants on and mince about for you if you want?”

Lee looked at St
eve then at Jake, his eyes wide. “Look, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I just didn't know.”

“Hey mate,” Jake was smiling, “i
t’s cool. I'm happy with being a ‘bender’ as you call it, and you've nothing to worry about Lee. You're far too ugly for me, even if it is the end of the world.”

Lee grinned, relieved that he wasn't an object of desire for a gay man, and also that it was still okay for him to be friends with some
one he had clearly already begun to bond with.

Steve waved Jake over.
“Anyway, if you have time Jake, I want to talk to you about the radio.”

“What about it?”
he asked as he lowered the cup from his lips.

“Well uh, will I be able to talk to my brother on it?”

“Depends what he is using. Has he said anything about their equipment?”

“Something called Codan? Does that mean anything to you?
I’ll be truthful, I don’t know the first thing about that kind of stuff.” Steve was hopeful that Jake did.

Jake nodded slowly.
“Yeah, the Australians developed it for the outback originally. It’s HF,” he looked from Steve to Lee and saw they were no wiser and rolled his eyes. “High Frequency. Depending on the frequency and the antenna types and lengths and times of day, you can talk to someone on the other side of the planet. If it has been supplied by the military though, it could be encrypted and we would be unable to pick it up, at least with the equipment we have here.”

Steve and Lee swapped glances then both looked at Jake.

Steve said, “You've just given me a big bowl of Greek salad there Jake, but you obviously know what you're talking about. Have a play about with the radio and I’ll try and get more info from Marcus on what he's carrying.”

“I’ll have a look at it this afternoon. What are you two gonna be doing?”

“We need to start working on an escape plan for this place and the possibility of blocking off the road to stop those things from wandering up to the front gate. We need to be better organized and start having people doing set jobs around here. Obviously, you're the Bill Gates and Steven Hawking of the group rolled into one, so you're the tech guy.”

Jake raised his eyebrows
. “Lucky me eh?”

Sarah began to slowly recover and with each hour, she looked and seemed to feel better
, but Helen was adamant that she should remain in bed and under constant supervision. Steve was happy to comply.

As Sarah fought the virus off,
Roy deteriorated rapidly. Four days after being bitten and he was close to death.

Lee, Jake, Steve and Gary helped to carry him down and out through the back
on a makeshift stretcher, out of sight from the rest of the people of the house. Sophie had been detailed to take the children out the front and to entertain them to prevent them from seeing the almost lifeless Roy as he was brought through the house.

He was placed on
to a mattress that had been set aside for him, in an annex that was used as a large storeroom for the mansion. He was completely incoherent and didn't seem to notice his new surroundings. His hands and feet had been bound to stop him from lashing out or being able to move in case he turned suddenly.

Helen took his vital signs, feeling for his pulse
and listening to his breathing. “I don’t think he will hang on much longer,” she said gravely, shaking her head as she stood.

He was ghastly pale and gaunt. His features had withered as though he w
ere already dead. His sunken eyes were rolled into the back of his head and he struggled to breathe. His entire body was soaked with sweat and as he was unable to take in more fluids to replace what he was losing, his body began to dehydrate and shrink to nothing.

Claire approached, pushing her way to the front of the gaggle that
had formed around the mattress. “Leave us. I’ll deal with it from here. I’ll wait with him. I owe him that much.”

Steve looked down and saw that she was carrying a pick axe
. “Claire, are you sure?”

She nodded
. “Just leave please.” She looked around at their faces, pleading, with tears in her eyes.

They left the room and went
back into the main part of the house.

Steve went to see Sarah. She was still weak, but the colour had started to return to her cheeks. Jennifer sat beside her as she slept.

“She is gonna be okay, Steve,” she said to him as he took up position on the other side of her.

“
Looks that way don’t it? Jesus, I was so worried.”

“Is Claire with Roy?” Jennifer asked. She lowered her voice as she spoke, more from respect than to keep it a secret.

“Yeah,” he nodded, staring down at the blankets on the bed. “She insisted and wanted us all to leave.”

She blew out a long
, loud breath. “God, that can’t be an easy thing to do. Understatement I know.”

“Yeah, she's a strong woman and has always been independent when it comes to
making difficult choices.”

Sensing that Steve wasn't comfortable to go on speaking about what needed to be done for Roy and the decision that Claire had
made, Jennifer changed the subject.

“I don’t think Marcus is gonna be too impressed about his baby,”
she said.

Steve looked at her and t
hen realised what she had meant. “Oh, you mean the Range Rover? Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to come up with a good story on that one aren’t I?”

“Nah,” s
he smiled as she shrugged. “It was used to save us all and besides, he can have his pick of cars when he gets here.”

It had been hours since Claire entered the room and stayed with Roy. Steve and Helen had remained in
the lobby, the door leading into the storeroom just in view down a small corridor that led away to the back of the house.

They watched the door, waiting for Claire to emerge.

It had been almost twelve hours when the door finally opened. Claire appeared, she staggered, clutching the door frame and then she slowly and unsteadily made her way toward the sitting area.

Steve watched as she approached
, casting nervous glances at Helen, who returned the same expression. Claire came closer and stopped. She raised her head and looked at them both in turn before closing her eyes tightly.

Fi
nally, she nodded. “It’s done.”

She slumped in
to one of the large antique leather armchairs and reached for the crystal canter in the centre of the low table in front of her. She flipped off the top and poured herself a generous helping of brandy into a glass tumbler. She raised the glass to her lips and threw her head back, swallowing the contents of the glass in one gulp before pouring another.

Steve and Helen sat in silence and let her get on with it. They refrained from asking the usual stupid questions such as
‘Are you okay?’

Those very same questions, though meant well, always annoyed him.

Of course she isn’t okay, she just slammed a pick axe through her boyfriend’s head
, Steve thought to himself.

Later,
Steve helped Jake and Lee to move the body when Claire had gone to clean up and sleep off the six large glasses of brandy.

She had done a clean job of dealing with Roy.
There had been no unnecessary suffering. It had been quick and Roy would’ve felt nothing. Steve wondered whether the dead felt pain at all.