Book 1: The Dead
Chapter 24
‘Sorry that was my fault,’ he said, I turned around quickly,
startled to hear an unfamiliar voice. He looked older than me, and his size was
slightly intimidating but his smile, Nicole’s reaction, and the fact that he
was wearing a police badge made me trust just a little bit more. ‘Just a little
misunderstanding,’ Nicole assured, ‘Will, Todd, this is Connor’
‘Hi,’ he waved, ‘yeah when I first came here I was looking
for survivors, but all they saw was my gun and assumed I was here to rob them.’
‘We've had some bad experiences,’ I said, still slightly
untrusting
‘So I've heard, when I came in a saw this one,’ Connor
gestured to Daniel, ‘reaching for a gun on the floor and I reacted a bit
harshly’
‘But no one was hurt so no harm done,’ Nicole said, but she
sounded like she was trying to convince him not me. Connor looked at her embarrassed
‘I haven’t been a policeman for long,’ he explained, ‘I don’t think my
instincts are up to scratch’
‘Lucky for me neither is your aim,’ Daniel joked, but with a
solemn expression. We all smiled slightly but I dreaded what was coming ‘Nicole,
we need to talk.’
…
A few hours later everyone had been caught up. Connor and
Todd were discussing weapons, Connor had brought with him two more hand guns
and a helpful amount of ammo. We decided the spare gun would go to Monica, who
Todd had already been teaching to shoot. Nicole had to overcome the shock of
Caleb’s death quickly because Simon’s fever had worsened and Daphne began
screaming until Nicole took the medicine to him and got to work, now he was
beginning to feel better and Nicole felt confident that he would recover.
Nicole, Brooke and I had sorted out what we had gathered from the hospital and
put it into bags.
It was becoming dark when Todd and Connor, who had been
talking for a while, approached Brooke, Nicole and me. ‘We've been talking,’
Connor began, ‘I don’t think this place is very safe… for any of us’
‘I told about those raiders,’ Todd added
‘Yes and its more than likely that there will be more like
them and you may not get off as easy as you did last time’
‘I agree,’ I said, ‘I mean it’s not like we decided to stay
here forever, we only came here to get medicine for Simon and now we have that’
‘I would wait a few days before we start moving,’ Nicole
interjected, ‘Simon’s wounds might be healing well but who knows what’s going
to happen with this infection, and we all know how dangerous it can be on the
road’
‘And you think it’s safer here?’ Todd asked
‘We've been fine ever since you left, who says we won’t be
safe here?’ Brooke added
‘I do,’ Todd replied, ‘right now the dead are scattered,
there feeding on the families still in their homes and the people who don’t
have the defenses or the sense we do, but eventually their food source is going
to run out and their going to come looking for fresher meat.’ Nicole cringed at
the last comment, I think the fear of what comes next was starting to set in.
When we were moving towards and through the hospital we had
drive, purpose. Now everything has stopped moving, now we needed to find
safety, and a steady source of food and water. We had regained some stability
by regrouping and bringing the medicine, but now we needed to look further into
the future and think about what we should do next. We don’t know that the
clinic offers the best chance at giving us that stability ‘what do you suggest,’
I asked Connor, I had to know what he had in mind
‘Before I came here I was staying in the police station a
little while from here,’ he replied to the group, but Brooke shook her head in
protest
‘We can’t do that,’ she said incredulously, ‘police stations
are where all those panicked people were running to, half of them were bitten, or
vaccinated that place is probably overrun by now’
‘No,’ Connor replied quickly, ‘yes those people gathered at
the police station, and yes some of them were infected, but then the army came’
‘The army?’ several of us said at once
‘They took control of the situation,’ Connor explained, ‘They
took away most of the people, checking to see if they were infected first, if
they were then-then they were killed,’ Connor stared at the floor as he
finished. I put my hand on his shoulder and after a while he continued, ‘eventually
the crowd began to riot over fear of attack and anger over seeing the infected
being killed,’ he paused again and closed his eyes, ‘so the army killed them
all and drove off.’
I was horrified at what I had heard, I could hardly imagine
so many people dying at one point, although even more horrifying was the part
of me that said that it was a smart decision and the right thing to do. I felt
sorry for Connor, he seemed like a good man, the fact that he was hurt by what
had happened was a testament to that. ‘How many people are left at the police
station?’ Todd asked after giving Connor a moment to regain his composure
‘After the army left, just me,’ Connor replied, ‘most of the
others left with the army but,’ Connor paused, shaking his head, ‘I wasn't going to go with them’
‘You stayed behind on your own?’ Nicole asked, amazed that he
had the courage to do that
‘I wasn't alone for long,’ Connor smiled, ‘a little while
after the army trucks left two civilians showed up, they had hidden from some
of the dead and that had delayed them enough so they missed the trucks, I wonder
if that saved their lives. Their still at the station in case others turn up.’
After a while of considering it I spoke first, ‘I think we
should go, the more people we have, up to a certain point, the more chance we
have of surviving. And a police station is probably more defensible than a
clinic’
‘I've always agreed with Connor,’ Todd said, ‘this place was
never intended to be permanent, just while Simon was injured’
‘It’s probably for the best,’ Nicole relented, ‘but I’m going
to make sure Simon’s okay before we go and I’m going to take some of the
equipment with me.’ Brooke just shrugged after Nicole’s statement, after this time
without Todd and Will she had learned to trust Nicole’s judgment.
Daniel had no protests, and Daphne agreed after Nicole
reassured her Simon would be okay to be moved. So it was decided that we would
leave the clinic and head towards the police station, Todd pulled out a map and
found the perfect route that would avoid most dangerous areas. I felt more
confident now, we had some of that drive back, and we had become a team now,
not just a group of people hiding from the dead, but a team hell bent on surviving
this apocalypse, but it was long from over.
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