Autumn

came.
    ‘Almost there,’ Carl said under his breath as he steered towards the car park exit.
    ‘Keep going,’ Emma yelled, her voice hoarse with emotion. ‘For Christ’s sake don’t stop.’
    A single solitary figure stumbled out in front of the van and, rather than waste precious seconds trying to avoid the woman’s body, Carl instead ploughed straight into it. The momentum of the van carried the corpse along for a few meters before it slipped down under the front bumper and was crushed beneath the wheels. As they left the car park and turned onto the road, Michael continued to watch the battered body on the ground. Its legs were smashed and shattered - that much was clear - and yet it still tried to move. The surging crowd tripped and stumbled over it ignorantly but still it continued to move oblivious. Reaching out with twisting, broken fingers, it dragged itself along the ground, inch by inch by inch.

26
    Michael

    I didn’t know the true meaning of the word fear until we were on our way back to the farm. It was only then that the reality of our situation came crashing down around me. For the last few days life had begun to feel almost bearable - we had lived with our incredible situation for almost a week and the initial shock and desperation had, for a while, begun to subside and had been replaced by something resembling a sense of purpose. We had found ourselves somewhere safe where we could hide together and sit out the storm that had destroyed the rest of the world around us. But the bodies in the field and the visit to the supermarket had changed all that. Suddenly, having found some protection, we were exposed and vulnerable again. And the situation seemed to be deteriorating with each passing hour, practically each minute. As we drove back along roads strewn with rotting human remains and other wrecked remnants of society, I began to wonder what was next. How could things get any worse? The bodies were becoming more violent and unpredictable with each passing hour. If they were ready to tear us apart today, what would they be like tomorrow?
    Once we’d made it back to the farm we quickly unpacked the van. We literally threw the boxes and bags into the house. I watched Emma and Carl as we worked and I could see that they were obviously as terrified as I was. The fear was impossible to hide. Every unexpected movement caused us to freeze and catch our breath and every sudden sound made our hearts miss a collective beat. Even the rustle of the wind through the bushes was no longer just an innocent background noise. Instead it had become a whispered warning and reminder to be constantly on our guard.
    A few long hours later and the three of us found ourselves sitting around the kitchen table.
    ‘So what are we going to do?’ I asked. I couldn’t just sit there and wait any longer.
    Carl shrugged his shoulders and Emma did the same. To her credit she did at least answer me.
    ‘Don’t know,’ she mumbled.
    I had been thinking about our situation constantly, but I hadn’t yet managed to come up with any constructive ideas other than to lock all the doors and sit and hide in the dark and wait. It wouldn’t achieve anything, but at that moment it seemed to be the easiest option.
    ‘We’ll be all right if we can keep them away from the house,’ Emma said a short while later.
    ‘And how are we going to do that?’ I instinctively asked.
    ‘Build a wall or a fence?’ she offered.
    We had discussed building some kind of barrier before, and it still seemed sensible.
    ‘I don’t want to go out there again today,’ Carl grumbled pathetically.
    ‘Neither do I but if we don’t do something,’ I said, ‘then we really are going to be trapped here. We won’t be able to risk making a sound.’
    ‘So how are we supposed to build a fence without making any noise?’ Emma asked. A valid question to which I didn’t have an answer.
    ‘And what are we going to use to build this barrier?’ Carl added.
    Another question that I couldn’t answer.
    ‘I don’t know,’ I replied honestly. ‘I suppose we’ll just have to use whatever we can find lying around. This is a farm for Christ’s sake. There’s bound to be plenty of stuff if we look for it...’
    Emma picked up a pen and a scrap of paper from the table. She began to sketch a very simple outline of the house.
    ‘You know,’ she mumbled as she drew, ‘there wouldn’t be as much work to do as you’d think. Look, we could build something