Carlton
Carlton looked down his driveway to see the
rampaging people moving down his street. There was an endless stream of
families, couples and retirees moving towards Northlands mall. Ever since the
evacuation call had gone out over the radio, TV and internet people had been
rushing past in a desperate bid to be evacuated first. Carlton had seen an
elderly woman been pushed to the ground two minutes ago; he'd gone outside of
his house to come to her aid but already she had vanished amongst the shuffling
feet.
A few minutes ago Carlton had received a text from
his manager, Sasha about moving to Northlands as well to evacuate. Ideally Carlton
would have grabbed his brother and they would have made a move towards the mall
ages ago, but their Mamma hadn't returned from her work. They couldn't leave
without her, it wasn't right. Carlton wasn't prepared to put his family at risk
to whatever was attacking the city, he was going to see them through this.
"Carlton?" Derrick asked cautiously,
approaching from the house. "Any word from Mamma yet?" Sometimes
Carlton was amused by his brother’s features; short-cropped black hair, full
faced, trimmed beard. It was like looking at a younger Carlton. But amusement
was not on his mind when he saw Derrick carrying Carlton's wooden katana in one
hand and a knife in the other. He wasn't meeting Carlton's gaze, instead
looking out to the street as if he had something he wanted to say but couldn't.
"Derrick?" Carlton prompted, stepping
away from the drive way and back towards the house. "What's going
on?"
"Have you noticed?" Derrick whispered,
nodding towards the street.
Carlton followed his gaze, but he already had some
idea as to what Derrick was talking about. Even now the rampage from before had
quietened down to nothing more than a trickle of people, stragglers and
latecomers. Pretty soon there wouldn't be anyone coming and it'd just be him
and Derrick left in the entire neighbourhood.
"We have to wait for Mamma," Carlton said
firmly. "You know that."
"Carlton listen to me," Derrick pleaded.
"They're saying that infected people are walking around out there but I
think that's a cover. People online are saying that it's the dead, the dead are
walking and eating people. I want to wait for Mamma but what if we wait too long?
What if they evacuate the mall and we're stuck here waiting?"
"I'm not abandoning her," Carlton
reiterated.
"All I'm saying is that we could run down the
road, see if the military are there yet or not. If not we run back and keep on
waiting and checking until we either hear from Mamma or she comes back
home."
"I'm not sure,"
"Well the way I see it I can either come with
you and we leave Mamma a sign or you go and I'll wait here for her."
"This isn't a good plan." Carlton said
hesitantly.
"Yes it is and you know it," Derrick said
firmly. "Now what do you want to do?"
"If we're doing this," Carlton began
hesitantly, "then let's grab some paint from the garage. We'll leave her a
sign and then she can make her way to one of the evacuation points."
Derrick nodded, passing Carlton the wooden katana
before turning and running back towards the garage. Carlton felt uneasy holding
the weapon in his hands, he'd bought it because it was cool. Now he might be
forced to use it on someone or something if it attacked him or his family. This
was like nothing he'd ever believed possible.
Carlton had seen the news like everyone else about
an epidemic ravaging other countries. He didn't know if this was it, or if this
was a whole other thing. But he figured that the country would be helped by
somebody eventually. That is if there was anyone left out there still able to
come to their aid.
He turned at the sound of Derrick returning with a
couple of cans of white paint. He'd also brought a ratty looking paintbrush to
help write their message.
"What should we say?" Derrick asked,
prying open the lid of a paint can with the point of his knife.
"That we've evacuated to Northlands and she
should get to an evacuation point as well."
Carlton watched his brother work away at the ground
with his paint brush, taking care to make the letters easy to read. Before long
he'd completed a short sign that spanned the front of their house. It read
'Have left 4 Nlands. B safe. Will find u.' Derrick then ended it by painting a
small heart next to the message before laying down his brush and turning back
to face Carlton.
Carlton stared at the message for a long time, his
face set into a frown. Finally he lifted his gaze to meet his brother's and
nodded his approval. Hefting his sword tightly in one hand he began walking
down their driveway and out onto the road. Derrick jogged up to him and then
matched Carlton's pace. They carried forth in silence, neither wanting to voice
their concerns for their mother or their fear at what was awaiting them in the
streets beyond.
As the streetlights of the Main North Road came
into view they began to hear sounds coming from the mall. A loud cacophony of
cars honking at one another, drivers afraid of losing their chance to evacuate.
All of that night air was abuzz with raised voices, screams and sobbing; people
who had seen evidence of the virus already and others who knew it would descend
soon if the military didn't arrive. Faintly, amongst all the other sounds, was
the shattering of glass as looters pushed through into the mall in the hopes of
profiteering off the sickness.
As they passed the Rose and Thistle bar Carlton
finally got a decent view of Northlands mall. It was teeming with vehicles
attempting to get inside the complex as well as people camped out in the
parking lot. Shadowed figures were charging to the place, trying to find
shelter no matter the lack of space. The troubling thing was the lack of
military personnel; a response team didn't seem to be onsite at all, nor was
there an evac station.
"They haven't even started evacuating," Carlton
said, completely shocked.
"What should we do?" Derrick asked,
looking to his brother.
"Let's cut through the petrol station, we can
move behind the block of shops there and come out by the cinema," Carlton
suggested.
Derrick nodded and Carlton crossed the road to the
brightly lit petrol station. The store at the station looked as if it had been
completely smashed up. Shelves and boxes had been pulled outside and their
contents clearly taken. At each end of the gas station was a car; at the far
end was a small Honda 1994 Civic, and in front of the brothers was a large station
wagon with several of its doors wide open.
"Check it out..." Derrick whispered,
pointing at the station wagon.
"Yeah I'll take a look," Carlton said
apprehensively.
Carlton moved towards the station wagon cautiously,
his wooden katana defensively raised. Several of the station wagon's doors had
been left open as if the occupants had suddenly fled from the car. He moved
around the driver's door to look inside only to see that the keys had been left
inside the ignition. In the backseat he noticed a car seat, the kind you would
have for a toddler. As he glanced into the backseat window for a closer
inspection he could make out blood stains on the toddler's car seat.
Immediately he drew back several paces, shaken by fear. What had happened here?
Even from afar he could see that none of the supplies had been packed out of
the back of the car. Something devastating had happened here.
"Carlton!" Derrick called out from afar.
Carlton turned to see that his brother had wandered
over to the Honda across the petrol station lot. He was just moving around the
bonnet to examine the rest of the car. Carlton cursed inwardly for not keeping Derrick
in sight. There was no way they should be splitting up now, not when they were
so close to the evac zone.
The next moment seemed to move so fast, one moment Derrick
was peeking around the corner of the Civic and the next he was falling to the
ground and yelling in alarm. Carlton saw his brother take most of the impact
with his shoulder but there was another problem. A person was clutching at Derrick's
ankle and attempting to drag itself onto him. Derrick was squirming away and
kicking at the hand but the person's grip was too tight.
"Derrick!" Carlton cried in alarm.
Carlton sprinted across the lot, passing the pumps
at a blur. All he could see was that pale wrist around his brother's ankle, all
he could focus on was stopping this attack. As he approached he brought the
katana high over his head and with one smooth sweep aimed it downwards at the
person's exposed wrist. With a hiss the person lost their grip of Derrick's
ankle, who scurried away as quickly as he could. Carlton lifted his katana back
up only to see a borderline crack along the blade from his excessive swing.
A snarl brought Carlton's attention back to the
assailant, who was scrabbling to reach for Carlton's ankle. Looking down at the
person Carlton could see that their leg was pinned by the Holden which had been
reversed onto it. There didn't seem to be anything human about the person
before Carlton other than their appearance. Their eyes had fogged over and
turned a pale grey, locked directly onto Carlton with a feral stare. The skin
of the person had turned ghostly white, to the point of extreme discolouration.
It pawed at the air, screaming and raging at Carlton, there was nothing left
but frenzy. They were wrong; it wasn't the dead walking, they were beasts.
A grotesque rending sound came from the beast's leg
and Carlton blanched as he saw the beast's leg dislocate then tear away. No
longer hindered by its previous trapped limb the monster lunged for Carlton,
lips pulled back to reveal teeth with black gums. Swinging wildly Carlton
brought his katana down hard upon the beast's head, causing it to fall
awkwardly to the ground. Once more he brought it down upon the head of the
beast, only to feel the sword splinter and snap in half just as he fractured
the skull. With a weak hiss the beast began reaching up at him, baring its
teeth again. Carlton slammed the splintered hilt of his sword into the fracture
he'd made feeling the bone give way and the beast's frantic movements cease.
"Carlton..." Derrick whispered, in
complete shock at what Carlton had just done.
"Sorry," Carlton said, shaking his head
in shock. "I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't-God, my God. I just did that. Shit I
just...Oh shit."
Derrick moved to Carlton and placed a hand on his
shoulder, he opened his mouth as if to speak but the right words were not
there. Perhaps there was nothing that could be said, the deed was done and the
dead was dead once more. Carlton's gaze never left the beast's body, he stared
at the collapsed scrambled mess of a head with the hilt of his sword protruding
from it. He wondered if it was right what he had done, but he knew the answer
to that. So maybe the question was could he live with it?
Carlton finally turned to see his brother sitting
next to him, a hand still resting on his shoulder. He had no idea how long he
had been sitting like that, but he knew it had been too long. Gently he lifted
his brother's hand from his shoulder and held out his hand for Derrick's knife.
Hesitantly Derrick passed it to him and Carlton carefully placed it in his
pocket. He nodded towards the mall and they began walking slowly through the
petrol station and back-alley shops.
Finally they reached a small dimly lit bar opposite
the road from the mall. They crouched behind a collection of rubbish bins and
peered across at the cinema. Even from here the brothers had a clear view of
the mall and could see the crowds of people otherwise camped outside the mall
or who had broken into the mall. No evacuation was underway yet, but everyone
seemed to be moving about as if trying to get somewhere or being moved by
something.
It was when the screaming starting that Carlton
realised what the mass movement meant; beasts had broken into the Northlands
evac zone and were tearing up the bottlenecked camp from the inside out. Cars
honked at one another just as much as they drove right into each other,
sometimes colliding with people. From where he was sitting Carlton could see a
van that careened right through a family's campsite, impacting with several
bodies before continuing out onto the street and into the night. Howls came
from inside and outside the mall, and it was a howl of satisfaction at the meal
that had so easily presented itself to the slaughter.
This was not to be a quick slaughter, few people
escaped as walkers pressed from every side. So the screams carried on and the
howls did too. All Carlton and Derrick could do was watch as Northlands mall
fell to the plague with no resistance and no hope of survival.
Written by Ciaran Findlay
Edited by Nicole Campbell and Blair Findlay
