of us and we’ll be right back to where we started. We could sit in this fucking house in silence for six months until all but a handful of them have disappeared and we’d still have a problem. All it needs is for one of them to see us and start hammering on the door and then more would hear that, then more, then more…’
‘So what are you saying?’
He shrugged his shoulders and wiped his eyes.
‘I don’t know…’ he muttered, taking care to avoid letting Emma know what he was really thinking. But she was intelligent and persistent and she’d already worked it out for herself.
‘I think you’re saying that we have to leave. I don’t think we can stay here any longer.’
He nodded.
‘Don’t know where we’re going to go or how we’re going to get out of here…’
‘But we don’t have any option, do we?’
Michael didn’t respond. He wiped his eyes again and looked around the room. For almost a minute he said nothing.
‘We’ve got to keep out of sight and out of earshot of those bloody things,’ he eventually announced, ‘and we’ve got to get as much stuff together as we can. We’ll just have to fight our way through.’
‘But how? How are we going to get to the cars…?’
‘We’ll wait for a couple of hours until it’s dark,’ he interrupted, ‘and we’ll see if a few of them disappear. I’ll try and get the generator started and…’
‘Why?’
‘Because it will distract them, won’t it? If there’s a louder sound round the back of the house they’re more likely to go looking for us there, aren’t they? Anyway, we’ll wait and give Carl a chance to come round and pull himself together, then we’ll just have to go for it.’
With that he walked out of the bedroom to start collecting their things from the upstairs rooms of the house. Emma stayed where she was, leaning against the bedroom wall. Now that the conversation had ended an uneasy silence had descended upon the building. The deceptive peace, however, was short-lived. She quickly became aware of the bodies outside again. She stood there in absolute hopeless terror and listened as the dragging footsteps of hundreds upon hundreds of rotting corpses advanced closer and closer towards them.
44
Although the nights were beginning to quickly draw in, it seemed to take an eternity for darkness to finally arrive. Each nervous, painful minute dragged unbearably, almost to the point that every last second seemed to take a protracted eternity to pass. In the time that it took the low grey light to fade completely to black, Carl did not move. He lay motionless on the bed, still staring up at the ceiling. Emma wondered if he was even aware of what was happening around him, or whether he had become completely withdrawn and catatonic. Whatever, she decided that she didn’t want to disturb him. She didn’t dare take the risk, at least like this he was quiet. She was frightened that if she tried to help him or even get him to try and move he might suddenly turn and crack, and that any reaction from him might provoke another unwanted and terrifying response from the vast crowds outside the house.
Both Emma and Michael had managed to pack their few belongings. Between them they had done the same with Carl’s gear which had been bagged up in black plastic refuse sacks. They stockpiled their luggage in the shadows at the top of the staircase, not daring to get any closer to the front of the house for fear of being seen. They had no way of easily reaching the more important supplies downstairs. As much as they needed their clothes, they both knew that taking the food and other items left in the kitchen could well be crucial to their continued survival.
Michael and Emma passed each other on the landing close to the bedroom door. They stopped there for a few seconds and spoke to each other in hushed, anxious whispers.
‘You okay?’ he asked. Emma’s eyes looked tired and frightened in the half-light.
‘I’m all right.’
‘Carl okay?’
‘No change.’
‘Is he going to be all right?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘Christ, you were the one studying to be a doctor.’
‘Fuck off, this is way beyond anything I studied. I don’t even know if I’m going to be all right anymore, never mind anyone else.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Forget it.’
‘Got much stuff together?’
‘Got my clothes and a few odds and ends. What about you?’
‘The same. We’re going to have to get downstairs though and try and get some of the stuff in the kitchen packed.’
‘So how are we going to do that? There are bloody huge windows in every room. We can’t go anywhere without being seen from outside.’
‘I know.’
