The Purple Haze (10 page)

“
That's what we were just wondering,” he heard Craig say. “Weird, isn't it?”

“
You can say that again,” James replied. He looked around the room. “Is there any food? Or water?”

Craig pointed to the kitchenette through an archway at the other side of the room. “There's some bread and bottled water in there, but not a lot else. Since the powers out I'd assume there won't be any morning coffee.”

James went into the kitchenette and looked in the fridge and immediately saw the power hadn't come back at all since the light didn't come on. There was some milk in there, and some butter. He looked in the cupboards and found the bread and bottled water. He poked his head round the archway to see everyone was up now. “I'm going to make some bread and butter. We all need to keep our energy levels up.” He got to work on preparing some food for the group.

Back in the staff room, everyone had gathered around the window. Yvonne looked out in disappointment. She was hoping that the fog would have cleared completely. She didn't know why but she wanted to see the sky. Just a bit of clear blue sky, to show that something natural was still functioning in the world, and she would have felt more at ease. “What's going to happen now?” she asked.

“
What do you mean?” Gaz replied.

“
Well there must be someone out there who knows what's going on. Don't the government have plans for this sort of thing? Like a rescue plan or a containment plan?”

“
We don't know how far this has spread and where too.” Mike said, “We have to assume that the government had no idea about this, and that they too are most likely in our situation, or worse.”

“
So you don't think they'll be rescuing us any time soon?” she said.

“
Well we haven't sent any communications or received any,” Mike said, “and we only have a limited range on these radios. Nobody will know we are here.”

“
Well why aren't you on the radio trying to get hold of somebody?” she said, sounding angry. “If you think that there may be someone out there, find them!”

Mike, without realising it, fell back into crowd control mode and held his hands up in a calming gesture. “Look, we will do that, but we have to tend to ourselves first. Dave's leg needs looking at and dressing properly, and we all need to eat something. Once we have done all that and we are all feeling a little more awake, me and James will get on our radios and try and raise someone. We have designated emergency frequencies and if anyone has a radio, they'll be listening.”

Yvonne walked away from the window and sat against the wall. She pulled her legs to her chest and buried her face in her arms. The rest of the group moved away from the window and gathered around the table. Mike looked at Dave's leg.

“
Craig? Is there a first aid kit anywhere?” he said.

“
Yeah it's in the kitchen.”

“
Can you bring it for me? I need dress Dave's leg properly.”

Craig went into the kitchen and came back with the first aid kit. Mike opened it up to see what was in it. Bandages, plasters, wound wash and a tube of disinfectant cream. He emptied the contents onto the table. “Right, let's have a look.” Carefully, he unwound the jacket from around the leg and looked at the wound. He was immediately concerned by what he saw. He looked at Dave, and Dave saw the look on his face.

“
I've seen it already,” he said, “I know how it looks but I feel fine.”

“
I know you do, but this looks infected,” Mike replied, “We need to get you some antibiotics. I can dress this now, but without proper medication the infection will spread.”

“
Look, don't worry about it,” Dave said sternly.

“
They probably have antibiotics in the ambulances,” Gaz said.

“
Yeah, that's a good idea,” said Mike, “We'll need to get some of those.”

“
Don't be risking anyone for me,” Dave said, “it isn't worth it.”

“
Shut up with that crap right now,” Mike said, this time he was sounding quite stern. “Nobody is
worth
losing
here, and that includes you. Now shut up and let me dress this.” Mike proceeded to wash the wound and applied the cream to it. Then he wrapped it tightly in bandages.

James came into the room carrying a plate in one hand, a stack of glasses in the other and a two litre bottle of water under his arm. He put them all down on the table. The plate had a loaf's worth of sliced bread all spread rather messily with butter.

“
It doesn't look like much but it'll have to do for now,” James said. “We should get away with a couple of slices each and half a glass of water for now. At least it's something.” Nobody complained about the modest breakfast or the state of the bread. Until the food was down on the table, nobody had really even thought about food. They all ate and drank in silence. Once they had all finished, James was the first to speak.

“
Does anybody have any ideas on what we ought to do here?”

“
Well,” said Mike, “I know it's a risk but we need to check the ambulances outside for antibiotics. The bite on Dave's leg is infected.”

James nodded. “Okay, we'll do that.”

“
Before we do, though, we need to scan the radios in case anyone is out there, and we can't stay here without food or water.”

“
Yeah, you're right. I'll get on the radio now.” James stood up and went into the kitchenette, Mike following. The rest of the group heard the static sounds from the radios and the two officers speaking into them.

“
What happens if there isn't anyone out there?” Craig asked.

“
Then we find somewhere we can hold up until we can figure out exactly what to do,” Martin said. “Whatever happens, Mike is right, we can't stay here without food.”

“
I don't think I can go out there,” Yvonne said, “not after what I saw last night.”

“
We don't have a choice, Yvonne,” said Gaz, “it's either that or we stay here and starve to death. We have guns, we just need some supplies and we'll be good for a while.”

“
Exactly,” said Martin, “don't worry about those things. They don’t appear to have very good mobility. As long as we don't run into too many of them we'll be able to handle it.”

In the kitchen, James and Mike were trying all of the emergency frequencies. So far neither one of them had had any luck in getting a response. James tuned into one, called out SOS, got no reply, and then tuned into another. Mike did the same. It seemed pointless, but then James tuned into a station and without even having to say anything, the radio was speaking to him. The speech was broken due to signal strength, but there was definitely a voice there.

“
I got something!” he said to Mike.

The two stood shoulder to shoulder listening to James' radio. They figured that the message was recorded and would be playing on a loop as it was giving out instructions. They listened and heard that there was emergency shelter at the Spring Meadow Community Centre.

“
That's about three miles from here,” Mike said.

“
Yeah, on foot and with Dave hobbling the whole way, it could take some time,” James said, sounding a little annoyed that the message hadn't given a more local address.

“
What do you think?” Mike asked.

James sighed. “Well, as long as we take it slow, don’t attract any attention and have no problems, we could do it in about two hours. Like you say, we'll get antibiotics from the ambulance first, and then we'll set off.”

“
Okay,” said Mike, “we'd better tell the rest of them.”

The two of them left the kitchen and saw the rest of the group still gathered around the table. Yvonne perked up immediately.

“
Are they coming for us?” she said, the highest of hopes coming out of her as she spoke.

“
Nobody is coming for us,” said James, “but we have an address of an emergency shelter not too far from here.”

Yvonne looked as though her hopes had been shattered with that one sentence. She bowed her head.

“
How far is it?” Colin asked.

“
It's on Spring Meadow,” Mike said, “two or three miles away.”

Yvonne looked again. “Two or three miles?” she said, looking as though she could cry at any given second.

“
I know what you're getting at,” James said, “but if we take it slow, keep our wits about us and don’t run into any trouble then we could do it in about two hours, maybe less. They'll have food and shelter there waiting for us.”

The group looked at each other. It was clear they were nervous. The thought of being outside with those things on the loose scared them more than anything, but it was pointless staying in a building with no food. Martin stood up and moved next to James and Mike.

“
Okay,” he said, “let’s do it.”

Chapter 7

The survivors made their way down from upstairs back into the main area of the bank. James went first and opened the door slowly so that he could see if the front of the bank was clear. With the exception of the creatures that had been crushed against the glass, there was no sign of them. All that remained were the blood streaks from the destroyed ones, and the streaks of saliva and puss from those that made it close enough without being crushed. In the main area of the bank, the corpses of the two customers and Conner still lay there in the pools of blood left from their bullet wounds, and Simon’s body still lay on the floor behind the counters. He gave the all clear sign to the rest of the group and they moved into the banking area. They all climbed over the counter, Colin and Gaz helping Dave get over. They gathered around the front door and looked up and down the street as far as they could. Everything was still.

“
Are we ready?” said Mike.

The group nodded unanimously and Mike unbolted the door. Outside the air smelled stagnant. It felt thick, heavy and filled with moisture, reeking completely with the lingering stench of the corpses left in the street. They looked around again to check the street was free of movement, and then they moved as a group towards the ambulances. Once they reached the ambulance Mike climbed into the back and began searching for medication. The first thing he came across was a crutch. He went back to the group outside.

“
Dave? Will this do for you at all?” He held out the crutch.

“
Yes, definitely,” Dave said enthusiastically, “thanks Mike.” He took the crutch and tried it out. He was able to move a bit more freely and without the help of Colin or Gaz, but it was still slow for him. Another bonus was that it freed up one of his hands.

“
I suppose you'll want this back?” Mike said whilst removing Dave's pistol from his pocket and handing it back to him. Dave took it and nodded in thanks. He checked he could still aim and smiled at his weapon as though it was his friend. He felt a bit safer with it and felt he could at least make a bit of a difference in a fight against the horde, if they came after them again. Mike disappeared back into the ambulance to carry on looking for the medication

Outside the ambulance, Martin looked across the street and noticed a general convenience store next door to the bank. “Someone should go into that shop and get some supplies,” he said.

James looked at the shop. “That's good thinking.”

Martin pointed at Gaz and Colin “You two get as much you can. Make sure you get water and something decent to eat, not just sweets and chocolate. The last thing we need is somebody having a sugar crash and not being able to fight.”

“
Yeah, yeah, I know,” said Gaz, sounded like a teenager who didn’t like being told what to do. “Come on Colin” The two of them went over to the shop and stopped at the door. Colin poked his head around the door to see if he could see anyone inside. He couldn't see any movement, so he slowly entered the store, holding his gun ready and looking down the sights as he went. Gaz followed and grabbed a carrier bag from off the counter. They looked ahead and saw that the shop was small, but it had exactly what they needed. There was a central display unit running the length of the shop floor creating two separate aisles. The right hand side started with cooling fridges and then had some shelves holding loaves of bread. The rest of the shop was filled with various goods, including tinned food, sweets and magazines. They went down the right hand aisle first, Colin grabbing a loaf of bread off the shelf.

“
Grab a few, we'll need more than that,” Gaz said. Colin picked up two more while Gaz opened up one of the fridges and put as many bottles of water as he could fit. He went back to the front of the shop and picked up another bag, leaving the water at the front. He went back in and began filling it with tinned goods.

Colin was holding the things the best he could, but he was starting to though with his arms full of bread and his hands holding tinned goods. It was then that he noticed on one of the shelves some back packs, the cheap kind that would just come in plastic wrapping shipped from China, with fake brands like 'Hike' printed on the side. He took down two of them and filled them with the goods he was holding. He took a third one and went to Gaz with it.

“
Look what I've found,” he said, handing the bag to Gaz.

“
Excellent, this'll do nicely.” Gaz took the tins out of the carrier bag and put them into the back pack. “Is there another one?” He asked Colin