Z-Day Series: Book 1 First Burnz Read online

Chapter 16

  I got busy at once, preparing the dogs and packing some meals, as I planned to be out for days at a time. The said plan would need supplies and a sort of defence against the undead, not even mentioning all the wild animals, who were even more ferocious now the fight for survival was getting tougher, and the chances of winning slimmer by the day.

  Courtney was planning to be ‘Head of Crop Growing’, as the already planted crops would need tending to, then harvesting, then planting again, in that respective order, and new crops would need to be grown on new fields. This meant she was going to be very busy, so Ellie, her now faithful companion, decided to stay by her side.

  Daniella, on the other hand, was taking the completely different approach; tending to the livestock. As I have mentioned before, this farm boasted a large, if slightly diminished by the strange circumstances, population of animals, from horses to chickens, and everything in between.

  She was going to be feeding them, moving them to their individual pens in the day then back to the sheds at night, and also making sure they were in good condition, as well as, well, I suppose you could say ‘farming’ them, using them for what they were on the farm for. Cows: milk, pigs: meat, chickens: eggs, and so on.

  Teegan would be sorting out exports, and all the delivery times, as that was, ultimately, the full purpose of us being on the farm, and the farm being in action. She would be keeping communications with all the delivery and export trucks, as well as the libraries, where the deliveries would arrive. This was a huge responsibility, but we all had faith in her, because, as she said, even if things do go wrong in the end, they deserve to be done properly when they actually work.

  With all of the jobs handed out, and roles explained, I was able to pack my meals, a few spare clothes and a backpack to put all of this in, before heading out with Molly, Buddy, Zipper, Kane and Xena, leaving the others in the care of Daniella, who was going to be taking them around the farm with her as she completed her daily chores.

  The sun was bright, making me wish I had some sort of hat, but the sun cream that had been sprayed on me just before I left, a quick idea from Courtney, was doing its job well.

  At first, I was definitely terrible at it, managing to get the sheep going in a general direction after about an hour. The dogs seemed to be better than me, sometimes taking over as their faint instincts told them what to do. Neither breed was bred for herding, which wasn’t really ideal, but I figured that they would do, which they did, and they stuck at it loyally.

  By the end of about three hours, I had various whistles which the dogs responded to, making my job easier, as Molly and Buddy tried to teach the younger ones to do it right, which usually ended in chaos, but, just that once, it actually turned out alright, as long as the pups didn’t get too hyper, since they thought their job was great fun, but that sometimes made the herd get a little out of hand, and so the more mature members of our little team would have more work to do, namely me.

  You may be wondering how I was going to get back to the farm. The answer? Courtney had given me some red tape, two rolls, and I was to mark out each fence of each new field I went through, as well as any trees. All I hoped was I didn’t go through any forests! This method was quite clever, as, after a few days, I would go back along the red trail and get myself back to the farm. In the mean time, I was given a walkie-talkie, and told to check in with Teegan every morning, and tell her when I was heading back, if I got into any trouble, so on.

  The countryside was quite peaceful, as hardly any Zombies came up into the rolling valleys and picturesque hills, preferring the compact cities and the company of others to the lonely greenery that I was currently travelling through. Every now and again, the dogs would alert me to one’s presence, but I would sort it out quickly, and onwards we travelled.

  The sheep were Leicester Longwool sheep, according to Daniella, who had used my downloaded pages of Wikipedia to check, as, good internet or not, we were still really far into the country, and so did not have any internet signal at all.

  By the time the sun started to go down, I had pretty much handled the basics of herding. As we were in a pretty small field, I was confident to let the sheep graze, the dogs all coming over to me for a licking session! It was fun, but started reminding me of life before, and it wasn’t long until my slightly miserable memories disrupted the fun, and I was left lying on the grass, under a tree, falling to sleep slowly, with all of the dogs leaning somewhere on my body. Sleep came soon, and blocked out everything, until the first rays of morning light broke through the night sky, waking me up early!

  But it was just as well, as I could see that the dogs had been up before me, attacking the Zombies who had dared stumble within their lines of sight. Their ‘dog coats’ protecting them, they could all fight well, even the ‘puppies’, who were actually almost a year old. That got me thinking: it would be December soon, and what’s in December? Christmas, that’s what! And no apocalypse is stopping that!

  But, on the thought of Christmas, it meant that Winter would be coming around again, and fast. That meant cold, and, eventually, snow. This had all started in late January, but there wasn’t a lot of snow that Winter, so it didn’t really affect the Zombies in any way. But, if it did snow, that meant that the snow could slow down the Zombies, making them easier to kill, and, therefore, making our job easier.

  Getting up properly, I ate some bread, butter and a quarter of a bottle of orange juice for breakfast, before getting the dogs ready for a whole day of herding, and making sure that I still had my red tape on me, marking my path carefully.

  Setting off, I noticed for the first time that the sheep were not even bothered by the Zombies, disregarding them almost completely and being more scared of the dogs! They moved around, not even bothered by going right near these perilous monsters, but I supposed it was because they hadn’t been attacked yet. They had either had fences or sheds to protect them, so not one of them had been bit, which made them increasingly docile around Zombies.

  It must have been the sixth Zombie I had seen that day, which was a lot, when I first saw her. A stumbling mess of blood and.. It was just a girl. Just a girl, who had been turned by this cruel world. Remembering Hannah sadly, I walked over to it, as it was stuck getting over the fence, and prepared to shoot. But, as its head rose, I saw that it was not some random Zombie, but... Hannah. Her Zombified face was hard, cold and unforgiving, but I couldn’t just leave her there. I couldn’t shoot her either.

  Suddenly, something completely absurd came to my mind, as I got the dogs away from this particular Zombie, getting out my knife. This was going to be hard. I grabbed the undead Hannah by the neck, stabbing her, or it, in the mouth, pulling down and cutting out her bottom jaw. There, she wasn’t going to bite anyone if she couldn’t physically bite them, was she?

  Next were her arms. I mean, it wasn’t proven that a Zombie scratch could infect you, but we’ve all seen the movies. Right? No? Just me? Ok... Besides, I didn’t want her grabbing anyone.

  Satisfied, I got some rope out of my backpack, tying it around her neck, and got her over the fence. I had an idea. Pulling my backpack off my back, I put it on hers. Well, I did just stop her getting murdered by some other survivors, so she had to earn her keep somehow. I could move faster without the backpack, and, as the dogs recognised her faint human smell, underneath all the hard Zombie skin, she became a good companion for them, if you’ll believe it. Hannah was being useful!

  A few days later, I was heading back to the farm, my arrival causing much joy among my friends, who had missed me, as with the dogs. The sheep were also ready to be sheared, so the wool was being sent to a factory to become ‘something useful’, as Courtney put it.

  Hannah’s zombified arrival caused a little stir, but Courtney, eventually, told me I’d done the right thing, giving Hannah her own room, and arranging for her to be fed every day or two. Teegan and Ellie didn’t know Hannah, so were surprised, but soon respected me for my decision, and the dogs mus
t’ve learnt it off each other, some how, as they didn’t attack her, instead playing with her.

  Nothing eventful then happened for about a month, until something happened that changed the way we lived. Remember when I said we did what we liked, and nothing could stop us? Well... I arrived back at the farm, and I heard gunshots. Gunshots. Rushing the sheep into their pen, I arrived in the house to see armoured guards who had kicked down the doors pointing guns at everyone and yelling!

  One of them pointed one at me, and, as the bullet flew towards me, my slightly fearful eyes turned to Courtney’s brave ones, asking her a silent question. Was this the end? She shook her head, making me a promise, that she would never leave, before the bullet pounded into my skin, and it all went dark.