David Moody - Autumn

‘But we have to go out, Ralph,’ Emma said, calmly and quietly. ‘We’ve got to try and find out what’s going on.’

‘I’m not interested,’ the flustered and frightened man snapped. ‘I don’t care what’s happening. There’s no way I’m going to go out there and risk…’

‘Risk what?’ Michael interrupted. ‘No-one’s asking you to go outside, are they?’

‘Opening that door is enough of a bloody risk in itself,’ Garner muttered anxiously. He chewed on the fingers of his left hand as he spoke. ‘Keep it shut and keep them out.’

‘We can’t take any chances by exposing ourselves to those things…’ Ralph protested.

‘Things?’ Emma repeated, her tone suddenly venomous and agitated. ‘Those things are people you selfish shit. Bloody hell, your friends and family could be out there…’

‘Those bodies have been lying dead on the ground for days!’ he yelled, his face suddenly just inches from hers.

‘How do you know they were dead?’ Michael asked, perfectly seriously and calmly. ‘Did you check them all? Did you check any of them for a pulse before you shut yourself away in here?’

‘You know as well as I do that…’

‘Did you?’ he asked again. Ralph shook his head. ‘And have you ever seen a dead body walk before?’

This time Ralph didn’t answer. He turned away and leant against the nearest wall.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Garner cursed, ‘of course we’ve never seen fucking dead bodies walking, but…’

‘But what?’

‘But I’ve never seen anyone drop to the ground and not get up for two days either. Face it Michael, they were all dead.’

‘Look, Paul,’ he sighed, ‘let’s be straight with each other for a second. None of us have got the first bloody clue what’s happening here. The only thing I know for sure is that I’m interested in looking after myself and the rest of the people in this hall and…’

‘If you’re only interested in the people in here why do you want to go out there and…’

‘I’m interested in looking after myself,’ Michael repeated, still somehow remaining calm, ‘but I need to go out there and see if I can find out what’s happening and to see if any of those bodies pose a threat to us. I’m not interested in helping them, I just want to know what’s going on.’

‘And how are you going to find out what’s happening?’ Ralph demanded, turning around to face the rest of the group again. ‘Who’s going to tell you?’

For a moment Michael struggled to answer.

‘Emma’s studied medicine,’ he replied, thinking quickly and looking across at her. ‘You’ll be able to tell us what’s wrong with them, won’t you?’

Emma shifted her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot and shrugged her shoulders.

‘I’ll try,’ she mumbled. ‘I can try and tell you whether they’re dead or not but after that I…’

‘But can’t you see what you’re doing?’ Ralph protested, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. ‘You’re putting us all at risk. If you’d just wait for a while and…’

‘Wait for what?’ Carl interrupted. ‘Seems to me that we’re at risk whatever we do. We’re sat here in a hall that we could knock down with our bare hands if we tried hard enough, and we’re surrounded by thousands of dead bodies, some of which have decided to get up and start walking around. Staying here seems pretty risky to me.’

Sensing that the conversation was about to stray into familiar waters with yet another pointless debate about whether to go outside or not, Michael made his feelings and intentions clear.

‘I’m going outside,’ he said. His voice was quiet and yet carried with it an undeniable force. ‘Stay in here and hide if you want, but I’m going out and I’m going out now.’

‘For Christ’s sake,’ Ralph pleaded, ‘think about it before you do anything that might…’

Michael didn’t stop to hear the end of his sentence. Instead he simply turned his back on the others and walked up to the main door out of the community centre. He paused for a second and glanced back over his shoulder towards Carl, Emma and Kate. The rest of the survivors were silent.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

After a second’s thought Carl nodded and made his way to stand next to Michael, closely followed by Emma and Kate. Michael took a deep breath, pushed the door open and stepped out into the bright September sunlight.

It was surprisingly warm. Carl (the only one who had been outside for any length of time recently) noticed that last night’s bitter wind had dropped. He shielded his eyes from the light and watched as Michael cautiously retraced the steps that he had taken earlier, walking away from the dilapidated wooden building and towards the road. When the first moving body staggered into view he instinctively stopped and turned back to face the others.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Emma, immediately concerned.

‘Nothing,’ he mumbled, feeling nervous and unsure.

The three other survivors walked towards him and stood close. Carl noticed that a crowd had gathered to watch them in the shadows of the doorway of the community hall.

‘So what are we going to do now?’ Kate James wondered. She was a quiet, short and round woman with a usually flushed red face which had suddenly lost much of its colour.

Michael looked around for inspiration.

‘Don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘Anyone got any ideas?’

Three faces returned three blank expressions. A few seconds later Emma cleared her throat and spoke.

‘We need to have a good look at one of them,’ she whispered.

‘What do you mean?’ Kate asked, her voice also quiet. ‘What are we supposed to be looking at?’

‘Let’s try and see how responsive they are. We should see if they can tell us anything.’

While she had been speaking Michael had taken a few steps further forward.

‘What about her?’ he asked, pointing at one of the nearest moving bodies. ‘What about that one there?’

The group stood together in silence and watched the painful progress of the pitiful creature. The woman’s movements were tired and stilted. Her arms hung listlessly at her sides. She seemed almost to be dragging her feet behind her.

‘What are we going to do with her?’ Kate wondered nervously.

‘Do you want to get closer and just have a look?’ Carl asked.

Michael shook his head.

‘No,’ he said, ‘let’s get her inside.’

‘What, back in there?’ he gasped, gesturing at the building behind them.

‘Yes, in there,’ Michael replied. His voice still remained calm and unflustered and it was beginning to annoy Carl who silently hoped that the others shared his mounting fear and unease because he certainly wasn’t as together and as sure as Michael appeared. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘Not to me,’ said Emma. ‘Try convincing the others though.’

He obviously wasn’t concerned.

‘I think we should get her indoors and try and make her comfortable. We’ll get more out of her if we can get her to relax.’

‘Are you sure about this?’ muttered Kate. Her nerves were obviously beginning to fray.

Michael thought for a moment before nodding his head.

‘I’m sure,’ he said, sounding confident. ‘What about the rest of you?’

Silence.

After a few awkward seconds had passed Carl spoke.

‘Bloody hell, let’s just do it. We’re never going to achieve anything just standing out here like this, are we?’

That was all that Michael needed to hear. With that he strode up behind the woman, reached out and rested his hands on her shoulders. She stopped moving instantly.

Emma jogged the last few steps and moved round to stand in front of the body. She looked up into her glazed eyes and saw that they seemed unfocussed and vacant. Her skin was pale and taut, as if it had been stretched tight across her skull. Although she was sure that the body couldn’t see her (she didn’t even seem to know she was there) Emma respectfully tried to hide her mounting revulsion. There was a deep gash on the woman’s right temple. Dark blood had been flowing freely from the wound for some time and had drenched her once smart white blouse and grey business suit.