George (Book 2): The Long Road Ahead

that he’s seen the odd zombie here and there but nothing he couldn’t handle. The fences and gates were fortified to keep out fans and stalkers when the actors were here. There are three huge Winnebago’s and three real houses. Each house has four bedrooms. We have the food that we brought and Mick says that there’s a food van here which has cases of water and dried fruit packets. He isn’t sure but he thinks that the food van has gas bottles to run the stove but he doesn’t know if there is gas left in any of them. There is also a fully functioning well here for fresh water.” He smiled widely at the last part.

This was an amazing find, a well. No more looking for water. We could keep the crates of water for when we went on supply runs etc.

“Ok, we can have some dinner together tonight and discuss who wants to live where and wait until morning to work out our rations. Is that ok with everyone?” Will asked.

They all nodded one by one, Mr and Mrs Snow hugged each other tightly. I smiled at Nia, hopefully this would be our forever home. I wouldn’t allow myself get my hopes up though, I’d thought that about our camp and look how that turned out.

Later that night we all had dinner together as Will had suggested. We pulled extra chairs and another table into the second house from the third house. It was the best night that I’d had in a while. In fact I think it was the best night that any of us had had in a long time.

We had fruit that Nia and Will had brought from camp, that was our starters. For our main we had some dried military meals and for dessert we each had a half a protein bar. The children had half a chocolate breakfast bar each. It was a lively evening with plenty of smiles and laughter.

Whilst the children played in the large back garden, us adults had a level headed, fair discussion on who was going to live where.

It was agreed that John, Lewis, Ben and Cory would stay at Micks place to keep an eye on him, Mr and Mrs Snow would take the smaller Winnebago with Maddy and Amber.

Nia, Will, Adam, Amelia and Myself would be in the larger Winnebago.

Heidi, Andrew and their kids would take the second house that we were having dinner in.

Brian and Sheila were going to take the third smaller trailer.

With the Prices permission, I took a wander around the house whilst everyone else played a game of eye spy with the kids. The house was all open plan. It had a large living area and dining room all fully furnished in plush, expensive furniture and accessories in cream and gold. The kitchen had grey cupboards and black counter tops and a double fridge which of course was no good to us now.

Upstairs there were four bedrooms, each with huge king-sized beds in them and two of which had en suite bathrooms. All covered in what looked like expensive bedding all in shades of White and Grey with accessories of lemon, lime and orange throughout. What a way to live, I walked out onto the balcony through the glass double doors in the master bedroom and sat on the white metal chair out there.

It looked out over the front of the house, I could see the park from where I was. It was quiet and peaceful, aside from the laughter and the voices of my friends down below. In this setting, it was easy to forget the horrors that lay outside these gates.

I must have been sat up there around twenty minutes when the hushed voices of Andrew and Heidi Price got louder, floating up the stairs.

 Heidi poked her head through the door, she was carrying one of the smaller children. “We are just going to take the children to bed. It’s been a long couple of days.” She whispered and smiled.

“Thank you I’ll head downstairs, if you need any help let me know.” I followed her into the hallway. She carried on along it as I made my way down the stairs. Andrew came down just after me and ushered the older children up the stairs to bed also.

The rest of us waved and headed outside. We all gathered together and whispered our goodbyes. We headed to our trucks to get our bags. I was lucky that Nia and Will had picked up my bag before they had left. It held the picture that poppy had given me before I had left my home for what was supposed to have been a short-term supply run and also the photo album that I thought I’d lost forever.

They were my most prized possession. I got them out of my bag and hugged them to my chest as we walked along quietly, back to the Winnebago.

Amelia and Adam took Mr and Mrs Snow or Ken and Rita as they had asked to be called, to their Winnebago and showed them and their granddaughters around.

Nia, Will and I carried on with Brian and Sheila to our new home. We hugged and waved goodbye to our new neighbours who were just on the other side of us.

Mr and Mrs Snow on the left, us in the middle and Brian and Sheila on the end. The end one was a smaller trailer and not a Winnebago as Mick had told us. It had a double bed and a double pull out in the lounge. Brian had offered to stay in the lounge as Sheila did not want to stay alone. That was the excuse but I’d seen the way that they looked at each other. I wasn’t going to voice it out loud as it was their private business and I’m sure that