First Activation

The task became much more palatable once the corpses were finally under a layer of soil. Jack was silently plugging away beside me — we still had work to do and could talk properly once we had time to relax.

We finished at roughly the same time and sat on the two sun loungers for a well-deserved rest.

“Can you hear that?” I said to Jack as I lay back.

“Hear what? I can’t hear anything?”

“Exactly. No gunshots, no screaming, no running.”

We were both lying back now and stayed there in silence for the next five minutes. The only noticeable sound was the muffled chatter from inside the house.

I stood to avoid nodding off and tapped Jack on the arm.

“Come on, let’s get cleaned up and have something to eat.”

“I could sleep for days,” Jack replied, and groaned as he rose from the lounger to follow me.

We entered the kitchen to find out how Lea and Bernie had been progressing. Bernie was standing over a camping stove watching it boil a large pan of water.

“You’re Brits,” he said, “I suppose you two would like a cup of tea. There’s some eggs and bread here that are still edible as well, so I’ll make you a fried egg sandwich afterwards.”

“That’s music to my ears, Bernie, thanks,” Jack replied enthusiastically.

“How are the windows and doors looking?” I asked Lea.

“All of the windows are now locked; I’ve placed piles of coins on each frame.” She smiled, “Saw it on TV; we’ll hear if anyone breaks in, even if they don’t smash the glass. The external doors are all pretty solid. We’ll just have to lock them when we go to sleep.”

“Actually,” I said, “I don’t think that we should all sleep at the same time. With a house this size and an area we all aren’t familiar with, it’s probably best to take turns on watch — two hours each, from midnight until eight. That way we can all get a proper rest for at least a while.”

“Are you sleeping downstairs?” Bernie asked and placed a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of me.

“No, I intend to sleep in a bed tonight, but I’ll take one of the graveyard shifts. If that is alright with everyone?”

Lea wanted an early night, so we let her take the last watch and get a good length of time in bed. Jack and I said we’d be up late anyway, so we would take the first two. This left Bernie with the four till six shift, but he didn’t care, as he said he’d sleep like a log no matter what.

After our tea, Bernie made everyone a fried egg sandwich as promised, which was even more welcome than the hot drink.

Bernie and Lea had emptied the cupboards of anything we could use and put bottles of water, cans of tinned meat, jam, cake, carrots, and potatoes on the table.

“I can make a stew with the vegetables and a couple of those cans,” Lea said.

“Sounds good to me, I’m going to clean my arm and put on a new dressing,” I replied.

The grave digging had slightly opened the wound again and I was conscious that I needed to keep it clean. I walked upstairs to the bathroom and peeled off my t-shirt and the bandage. I wiped my arm with a sponge; blood seeped slowly from the cut down my arm. I checked the cabinets and discovered a small roll of bandage, then wrapped it around the healing wound. I headed back into the kitchen and found Bernie peeling a carrot, with Lea leaning over a large pan on the camping stove.

“Jack’s outside on the lounger, go join him if you want?” Bernie said.

“Are you sure? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“What is it you guys say? Too many cooks spoil the broth. Go join Jack, you deserve a rest.”

“Cheers, Bernie.”

I walked outside and sat on the spare lounger next to Jack, he passed me an open tin of pineapple chunks and a spoon.

“It feels strange chilling out, I feel like I should be doing something,” he said.

“I know what you mean, but we need some down time.”

Jack nodded and folded an arm behind his head, he was reading, ‘Day of the Triffids’, which he had picked up from the bookcase inside earlier.

I settled back on the lounger and started watching a brightly coloured bird, busily hopping around a tree. As I wondered what species it might be, the smell of cooking wafted over from the kitchen and my mouth watered. I momentarily closed my eyes and tried to capture this single moment, away from the events of the last few days. I felt calm until I opened my eyes again and caught sight of the two graves in my peripheral vision.

We still needed to stay alert, so I walked around the house, enjoying the breeze on my face and the sound of the wind whispering through the trees. With space around us, an apparent lack of people, a reasonable amount of supplies in the kitchen, and a secure house, I started to believe our long term prospects were good.

I returned to the lounger and said to Jack, “It’s a great place. Maybe we should forget about trying to find other survivors for a while?”

“To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature,” Jack smiled.

“You’ve just read that haven’t you?” I laughed.

Jack nodded.