The Colonel was already waiting for us to prepare for the journey, had even gone to the effort of checking our weapons to see they were in good working order and gathered together all of our backpacks. We left nothing behind us as we went on our way.
noon
Stopped for a break, not really having lunch, as we decided to ration our supplies. Two meals a day is all we are getting right now. My head agrees with this logic, but my stomach wants me to commit a bloody mutiny. Except for the fact that I was the one to first suggest rationing in the first place. Damn clouds are getting darker by the day, don't know what is up with that. Fucking hell, time to move on already.
mid-afternoon
Found a small town, not unlike the one where we picked up Copper, only this one had been overrun by the Dead. Only about ten of them, but more than enough for the few residents of this tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Junior, Biker and I went around making sure the Dead were no more threat to anybody, while Copper and The Colonel gathered the badly needed supplies from the local shop. They came out beaming, as they had found a pair of huge glass jars that were full of beef jerky, as well as more canned goods. Food was now far less of a problem for us.
Having thoroughly searched through the entire town, what little there was of it, we decided on staying at least for tonight, as there was a house with beds enough for all of us, providing we keep a watch out, and double up in the beds. Considering these were the first beds we had seen since leaving the commune we didn't mind that in the slightest.
The really beautiful part of this tiny town was the razor Junior found in the bathroom, and the bath itself. There was no running hot water, but the prospect of a warm bath kept the majority of us heating water for the rest until late into the night. When I tumbled into the bed that I shared with Apocalypse Girl, I was clean, and the beard that I had been cultivating had been shaved off.
January 31st Year 1 A.Z.
morning
I awoke from possibly the most comfortable sleep I had ever had, feeling warm and safe. That lasted only long enough for me to remember the events of the last month. It seemed, at first, as though the memories were no more than a bad dream, but then I saw the bandage on Apocalypse Girl's arm, and the reality of it all hit home, hard.
We ate our breakfast together, and discussed our next move. The weather had been getting steadily colder over the last couple of days, but we found some warm clothes, jeans, jackets and the like that would both protect and keep us warm. Apocalypse Girl's arm was healing nicely, and the decision before us was a simple one, stay here or move on.
After some debate, we eventually decided on moving onwards. The road to the east was free and clear, and we had found a roadmap in the Ute sitting in the driveway. Apocalypse Girl plugged her mobile charger into the Ute's cigarette lighter and grinned like a little girl when it lit up, indicating the charging had begun. Soon we would have news of the world.
noon
The news was indeed grim. Apocalypse Girl began scouring the internet. There were a few videos showing panicked people making last messages for their loved ones, the odd message telling survivors to go for the head. Nothing we didn't know on that side of things. However, The Colonel had been proven correct. There had been seven cities destroyed by nuclear fire in the name of quarantine. New York had been the first, followed by London, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, New Delhi and finally Tokyo. There was no other news of world events, so she checked the social networking sites. The only status updates she could find involved people saying that they had been bitten, or that they had watched their entire families torn to pieces. Several suicide notes. Apocalypse Girl's eyes began to well with tears, and she moved to throw the phone away. I caught her arm, shaking my head. It would still be useful, I told her, and that she needed to control her emotions for all of our sakes. She nodded, and put the phone away.
evening
We gathered all of our equipment, deciding that we would sleep here overnight once more. We debated the prospects of taking the Ute with us, but the seven of us were safer on foot, for now. No Dead followed us, but there was little point in potentially attracting more of them. We ate a meal of boiled, canned meat pie filling, then prepared for bed.
I was taking one last look at the sun as it set behind the boiling dark grey clouds, when something fell from the sky. Something totally unexpected in this part of the world, at this time of year especially.
It was
snowing!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Rowlands is the author of a moderately successful Zombie survival handbook, and is currently working on more fiction. Hey, maybe you can even read that when he is finished? Wouldn't that be awesome?