The Undead Day Twenty by RR Haywood Read Free Book Online Page B

Rifles are checked, fresh magazines loaded. Pistols the same. Dull metallic clicks sound from every room. Voices arguing over space and kit. The bathroom is used. A constant flushing of the toilet. Kyle moves amongst them, passing rolls into hands to make sure they all get something.
    Charlie goes into the back garden to get Jess ready before going back into the house with a thoughtful look on her face. The cut on her cheek is itching already. She scratches it gently then the top of her ear too, feeling the new shape under her fingertips. She stops outside to look down at Jess munching happily on the grass verge.
    ‘Why is Jess out the front?’ She asks, going back into the house.
    ‘My fault,’ Clarence calls down from upstairs. ‘She came out last night…’
    ‘How did she…’
    ‘Through the house. I had biscuits.’
    ‘Oh. Oh I see. Right…’
    ‘Is that okay? Can she have biscuits?’
    ‘One or two now and then won’t harm her.’
    ‘Er…roger that, one or two….now and then…roger.’
    She goes back outside to get Jess ready, checking the big animal over before leading her to the horse box at the back of Roy’s van.
    Maddox waits on the path outside the house. Watching and listening and feeling very alone. Pea and Sam eat bread rolls and move amongst the team with ease, sharing jokes and comments. Joan stays at the van with Paula and Marcy. Everyone ignores him. His lip stings a little but it’s not the first time he’s been hit and he knows Blowers pulled that punch a lot. That thought alone tells him there might be a chance to earn back the respect he had before. Still, it was a bloody hard punch though. He hasn’t been put on his arse for a long time. Not since he was a kid.
    ‘Twat,’ Cookey mutters, rushing past to get the Saxon ready.
    ‘Cookey,’ Maddox says, still holding that polite tone.
    ‘Cunt…’
    ‘Who are you?’ Maddox asks.
    ‘Blinky,’ Blinky says, stopping as she rushes behind Cookey. ‘I blink a lot…’
    ‘Oh…I’m Maddox.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘Bye.’
    ‘Er…bye,’ Maddox says as she runs towards the Saxon. ‘Hey,’ he looks down at feeling Meredith’s nose sniffing his leg. He drops to a squat, rubbing her head and ears. ‘Do you hate me?’ She runs off back to the van and smells inside. ‘Figures,’ Maddox mutters, standing back up.
    ‘We ready?’ Howie asks, coming down the stairs with his hands full of kit. ‘Marcy, your stuff is here by the door.’
    ‘Ta,’ she shouts from the van.
    ‘Maddox.’
    ‘Hi,’ Maddox says, nodding at Roy coming out the house. ‘How are you?’
    ‘Fine…got a weird pain in my mouth though. In the right cheek…might be a growth.’
    ‘A growth?’
    ‘And I’m sure my neck doesn’t feel right…’ Roy says, turning his head side to side. ‘Feels knotted…must be something bad.’
    ‘New pillows?’ Maddox asks.
    ‘Ah could be…’ Roy says, looking at the younger man thoughtfully. ‘Blowers hit you?’
    ‘S’nothing.’
    ‘Bit swollen. I’ve got a medic’s bag from the hospital section yesterday.’
    ‘That’s er…that’s good.’
    ‘Red.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘The bag. It’s red. Got loads of stuff in it. I really want a defib though. We should have a defib.’
    ‘Cock,’ Cookey mutters rushing back into the house.
    ‘Other than that I think I got some good stuff though. Have they got any over there?’
    ‘Any what?’
    ‘Defibs?’
    ‘Er…I don’t…yes, yes they have.’
    ‘The mobile ones in the yellow case? It’s all self-contained…has a voice that tells you what to do…’
    ‘I’m not sure.’
    ‘Cock.’
    ‘Cookey,’ Maddox says, nodding politely again.
    ‘Course I said I’m not a medic but Howie seems to think I am.’
    ‘Hey, Maddox.’
    ‘Blinky.’
    ‘Cunt…why are we calling him names again?’
    ‘He locked Lani in the…’
    ‘I could probably set a broken arm. Maybe a broken leg…you know, splint it up. Cuts and bruises are easy enough