The Dead

Greg rubbed the top of Liam’s head with his fist.

‘You’re a good boy. I’m so proud of you, son. So proud. You’re all I live for.’

Ed stood on the lowest step of the bus to get a better vantage point. He was nervous being out here, but he’d wanted to keep close to Jack, even though it was obvious that Jack didn’t really want him around. He was trying to talk to Frédérique and Ed felt like a spare part. Maybe if he kept watch he might appear to be useful.

Jack was watching the cat as she rooted around among the plants.

‘Listen, Frédérique,’ he said. ‘I know you’ve been through some bad stuff, we all have. But … if you want to talk about any of it, you know, it might help.’

‘I am scared,’ she said bluntly.

‘We’re all scared,’ said Jack.

‘No. You do not understand. You ca

‘I do understand. Since your dad died …’

‘Yes.’ Frédérique gripped Jack’s forearm. ‘Yes. You are right. Since my father died I am scared.’

‘But we’re all together now, we’re safe on the bus. I’ll look after you. Greg will look after you. We’ll all look after you. Look, even Ed’s keeping an eye out for us.’

‘Why is Greg not sick?’

‘I honestly don’t know.’ Jack shook his head. ‘He doesn’t know either. Maybe the sickness doesn’t affect everyone.’

Frédérique smiled for the first time, and it was as if the clouds had lifted and the sun was beaming bright and warm. Her whole face changed and Jack was with another person.

She looked very beautiful when she smiled.

‘Yes,’ she said, nodding her head. ‘Maybe not everyone will get sick. Maybe everything will be all right.’

‘You see,’ said Jack. ‘We don’t need to give up hope.’

‘Yes.’ Frédérique was madly nodding, smiling and crying at the same time. Then there was a gust of cold wind and she stifled a small cough, anxious not to alarm the cat.

‘So, how did you end up at Rowhurst?’ Jack asked. ‘I mean, I know your dad was there and everything, but …’

‘My mother she still was living in France. In Paris. But my father is walk out on her. They argue all the time. I was at school in Paris but I miss my papa. My mother, she was one of the first to get sick. She send me to England to be with my papa. She thought I would be safer here. She thought maybe because England is an island it will be better. I came in the Eurostar. It was very difficult when I arrive. To get from London to Rowhurst take me a long time and when I arrive is very bad. Papa, he try to keep me safe, we hide in the flat, keep the curtains closed all day, but … then … Yesterday, he is go out and not come back. I know he is sick. I have seen the same symptômes …? How you say symptôme?’

‘Symptom,’ said Jack. ‘It’s the same word.’

‘Yes. The same. I see that Papa is sick like Mama. That I think is why he leave me. He did not want to hurt me. But I don’t see him again. Then you come. You save me, Jack.’

Jack could see that Frédérique was going to lose it again so he put his arms round her and held her. He felt pretty rotten that he’d been the one to kill her father, but he’d had to do it, and it wasn’t like the man had even really been human any more. He wondered if he would ever be able to tell her. Now was definitely not the time. Frédérique felt warm and damp, and very thin. She was trembling in the cold. He stroked her back, looking over her shoulder.

It was a little while before he realized the cat was nowhere to be seen.

‘Dior?’ he said, breaking away from Frédérique. ‘Where is she?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Frédérique. ‘She is there. But she needs to be private or she will not do what she needs to do.’

‘I know how she feels,’ said Jack with a lopsided grin.

His grin faded as Ed called out to them.

‘People!’

Way off down the road in the direction they had come Jack could see dark shapes moving.

‘Grown-ups?’ he asked.

‘Reckon so.’

‘Are they coming our way?’

‘Far as I can tell.’

Jack checked the road. He could just make out some distant figures. He turned back to Frédérique. ‘We need to go. Get the cat, can you?’

‘She is not finish. She will not come until she is finish.’

‘All right, we’ve got a few minutes, but if Greg sees those bloody zombies he might leave without us.’

‘We have time. They are far away.’

‘Far away but getting nearer,’ Ed said, shielding his eyes from the drizzling rain.

Frédérique bent down and put the opened tin of food in the carrying-box. Then she started making noises to entice Dior back towards it. Jack could still see no sign of the cat. His eyes flicked from the patch of vegetation to the road, from the road to the bushes, back and forth.

No sign of the cat in one direction – people growing steadily closer in the other.

‘Come on,’ Ed urged, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot.

‘Stand in the way of the door,’ Jack said quietly. ‘So Greg can’t close it.’

‘OK.’ Ed did as he was told.

‘Come on, puss,’ said Jack, joining Frédérique.

‘Non.’ Frédérique pushed him away. ‘She will not come if you are there.’

‘If she doesn’t come soon, we’ll have to leave her.’

‘I won’t leave her. She was Papa’s cat. I gave her to him when she was a kitten. The last thing he said before he leave me is look after her, feed her, and now he is gone she is all that I have left of him.’

‘Where is she, though? I can’t see her.’

‘She is there.’

‘Where?’ Jack wanted to say a lot of things. That Dior was just a cat. That their own lives were more important. That the cat would probably be better off trying to fend for itself in the wild …

But he didn’t say any of them. He just stood there getting damp and scared.

‘Are you sure she’s there?’ he asked, trying to hold it together.

The approaching people were close enough now that he could make out individuals. They were definitely not kids. Men and women, mothers and fathers, about twenty of them.

It was only a matter of time before Greg saw them.

‘Frédérique, you’ll have to leave her. I can’t see any sign of her. She’s probably run off.’

Frédérique made some more cooing noises. ‘She is there, but she is nervous.’

‘She’s not the only one. Here, puss-puss-puss … if you can see her, can’t you just go over and grab her?’

‘No – if I try it and she is scared she might then run away.’

‘Come on … We’ll have to leave her.’

‘Oi!’ Greg shouted from the coach. ‘All aboard, who’s coming aboard. There’s some movement down the way.’

‘We’re just coming,’ said Jack. ‘Hold on.’

‘Get out of the doorway so I can close it.’

‘No. It’s all right.’ Ed sounded rattled. ‘I’m keeping watch. Those people are still a long way off.’

‘You saw them already, didn’t you? Why didn’t you say nothing?’

‘They’re miles away.’

‘Whatever – I ain’t taking no risks. Now get out of my doorway so’s I can close up.’

‘Here, puss-puss-puss …’

‘Move it!’

‘They just need to get the cat,’ said Ed.

Greg swore, calling the cat all ma

‘Here, puss-puss …’

He looked down the road.

Oh, Jesus.

The grown-ups weren’t moving very fast but they were tramping steadily towards the bus, breathing through their mouths, rotten flesh hanging off their faces. The mother who seemed to be leading them had bulging black-rimmed eyes like hard-boiled eggs. She was completely bald with a patch of bare skull on the top of her head surrounded by a ring of boils.

‘Here, puss, come on, Dior, come on, cat …’

‘I can see her.’

‘Where?’

The cat’s face emerged from the long grass and it sneaked towards Frédérique, sensing the tense atmosphere.