I Dream of Zombies (Book 2): Haven by Vickie Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page B

making the sound of a cat meowing, which made Billy and Ellen laugh again. “What do you think, Tommy, can you imagine her purring in black PVC or do you see her as Wonder Woman with a golden whip. Ka-ching?!”
    Almost spitting out his tea, Tommy gave Eric a quick kick under the table. The other man squeaked, causing the three women to gawk at him in curiosity.
    “Come on, stop ribbing me or I’m going to forget why I missed you,” Marla pleaded.
    “Sure,” Eric replied with a side glance at Tommy, who didn’t seem to know where to look. “Let’s start again. How are settling in, Marla?”
    She smiled. “Fine. I didn’t mean to slag it off already. You’re right, we’re safe, and everything we need is here. The food is okay, people seem fine and there are things to do.”
    “Like a little community,” Bella chipped in.
    “I miss crap TV,” said Tommy. “Being able to turn it on and switch my brain off.”
    “You can watch something in the cinema instead,” said Bella.
    “You know, if you’re in the guard, maybe you can find out what it’s like outside in the rest of the country,” Eric suggested.
    “Doesn’ t anyone tell you?” asked Tommy.
    “Not really. We get update meetings now and then , but we don’t get told much. If you could get talking to one of the guys who go out in the helicopters maybe you could ask what they see. Being here is like living in a vacuum.”
    “The administrator told us there’s n o internet. Is that right?” asked Ellen.
    “ Yep,” Eric answered. “No one gets to use it, only the top dogs. We can use the computer room, but that doesn’t mean internet.”
    “What about our mobiles ?” Tommy asked. “They took mine when we went into quarantine, but I haven’t had it back, or my laptop.”
    “You won’t get your phone back,” said Bella. “If you’ve got stuff on it that you want, like photos or messages, they’ll put them on a disk for you to keep.”
    “As for y our laptops,” Eric added, “they’ll check ‘em to make sure you can’t communicate in any way at all and then give ‘em back. You’ll only be able to use them in the computer room anyway, because…”
    “Yeah, I no ticed there are no sockets anywhere,” said Ellen. “I’ve been towel-drying my hair.”
    “Like everyone,” said Bella. “I miss my luxuries, like a shower. You can borrow a CD player and headphones from the library and CDs, as well as books and magazines. Anything like an iPod is useless, because you’d need to plug it in to charge it.”
    “It’s to use as little power as possible,” Eric explained. “We have CD players and hand the batteries in at the library to get them charged.”
    “But the Grid is still up and running. There’s still power,” Billy remarked.
    “Maybe not everywhere,” said Eric. “We’re not getting told much, but a guy I know works in the generator room and there are loads of backup generators, ‘just in case’, he says. No one knows if the Grid will go down some day. Everyone is in the dark. I don’t know what the administrator gets told by the government, but it’s not being passed down to us.”
    “And no one is protesting about being told nothing?” asked Tommy.
    “Most people only care about being safe,” Eric answered. “Nearly everyone you talk to went through some kind of shit. There are kids with no parents living up on the tenth floor, where they’ve got people taking care of them. Outside what would have happened to them?”
    “ We know. Barney and Ruth are up there,” Ellen chipped in.
    “There you go. Those who didn’t experience first-hand shit have heard the stories. Besides, if anyone does protest in here, Commander Caballero and the administrator don’t take too kin dly to it. If you cause trouble they can send you to another facility. That happened to some guys who started a fight in here; didn’t see them again. That was the last bit of trouble I saw.”
    “Okay, so you’re making me even