The Risen (Book 1): The Risen, Part 1 by Smith Adam J

Author:Smith, Adam J. [Smith, Adam J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Zombies
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2016-06-18T04:00:00+00:00

*****

They watched the motorbike receding, cold vapours circling the air behind it, the sound of the roaring engine echoing in the stillness. Had birds been roosting in the barren capillaries of the trees they would have taken flight; instead the browns and greys stood starkly against the blue sky, starkly empty, and distant houses crenulated the horizon line with squares and rectangles. The rest of us could die tomorrow, thought Nate, but the horizons would never be flat again.

“You know, he could have been a scout, searching for food and water, and he’s off now to tell the bad guys where we are.” Ruby turned back towards the fire, and Nate fell in at her heels.

“But he wasn’t.”

Back at the fire, the logs were petering into grey ash, with some unburned pieces sticking out. Nate kicked them into the action and sat down. “Should we keep it going?” he asked.

“I’m not cold, but the microwave don’t work.”

“We have petrol. We can set it going again later.”

“Yeah.”

“We need a gas camping stove.”

“Must be one nearby.”

“Must be loads of things nearby we need.”

“But are we going to stay nearby?” Ruby asked.

“We have to set up somewhere, right?”

Ruby paced around, but then decided to head for the swings. She sat on the longest chained-seat and rocked to-and-fro. “I don’t know, do we?”

“I don’t know.” Nate grabbed a twig that had blown from a nearby conclave of dead branches and held it in the fire.

“Our options are: stay or leave.”

“We stay; we build something – a base, make it protectable. We offer refuge to anyone who comes along maybe. We feed them. Give them water. If they want to stay, they can.” Their eyes met, but neither were convinced.

“We go; we head out, on foot, on bike, in a car – we what?”

“We just keep going,” replied Nate, “until we find somewhere we want to stay.”

“You know, Dover sounded nice,” said Ruby, building up her swing now. “The sea. If there’s anywhere I wanted to stay, it would be the seaside.”

“John wasn’t going to Dover though,” said Nate, joining Ruby on the adjacent swing.

“I figured that one,” she said, giving Nate what her and her friends would have called, unapologetically, the ‘spastic’ look.

Ignoring this, he continued; “Sea sounds nice. To be honest, I’m restless.” He looked to his left, watching Ruby swing higher and higher. “Are you?”

“Yeah.”

“We could get to the sea in one day, you know. Just find a working car and choose a direction and we’d be there in a couple of hours.”

“Fuck the speed cameras,” she half-shouted.

“But, do you have this energy?”

Ruby swung down and landed on the ground like a parachutist. Looking to her right, she said, “I feel like I wanna run – not something I thought I would ever say.”

“So let’s do it,” replied Nate, walking slowly forwards and backwards, still sitting on his swing-seat. “Let’s pack what we need and go.”

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