Dash Dash Dot Dot

Matthew

Matthew climbed onto the van and looked over the fence. The zombies wandered up and down the fence, bounding off it and each other. Same story every day. Nothing changed. He sat in the chair he had strapped to the roof of the vehicle. Every now and then he would toss a rock across the street and watch the zombies as they chased the sound, only to come back to the fence after stumbling around for several minutes, unable to locate the source of the noise. In this new world you had to create your own entertainment, and when on patrol duty you couldn't have your nose in a book.

The days were cooling down and some of the nights were frosty. In the mornings some of the zombies would have the frost all over them, the cold seemed to slow them down a bit, freezing up their joints and limbs. But when the sun came out and the frost thawed they would move more freely. Any exposed skin had become sun burnt, large blisters covered some of the fairer skinned zombies, others started looking like a tanned leather handbag. Then you had the smell of decaying flesh, faeces and urine that when the wind blew would bring the stench right to your nose.

Matthew sighed and looked across at Richard. The guy was almost three times his age; he sat on the top of another van, five cars away. His head had dropped forward and his arms were crossed over his chest. Matthew rolled his eyes, he had dozed off. Again. He would have to report this to the committee. He liked the guy, but if he couldn't stay awake during patrol then he should be doing a different job, this was their safety that was at stake. He pulled a slingshot from his pocket and a grape from his lunch bag. He pulled back and took aim then released it. It flew the distance between them and hit Richard on the cheek. The older man jumped and looked around. Matthew pointed two fingers at his eyes then out towards the zombies. Richard scowled and stood, stretching his back.

Matthew heard a distinct noise, getting closer and closer, a noise he hadn't heard since the outbreak occurred. It sounded like a car, maybe it was the Navy Patrol that was supposed to come to the factions, offering help. The Naval Base had faired a lot better than the areas surrounding it. They already had fences in place and a lot of security measures so their infection rate was said to have been maybe 20% of their population, compared to the estimated 60% or more in the towns. He looked toward the rise; the zombies in front of him had taken notice too. He watched as a small silver car suddenly changed course and turned into the street behind the houses sharing the same block as the school. Then he saw a couple dozen zombies come over the rise, they were chasing the vehicle, some of the zombies in front of the school fence turned to join the chase.

He turned to look at Richard who put up his hands in a shrug; he seemed just as confused as Matthew was. He heard a crash and several moments later many dull thuds. Hopefully whoever had been driving the car had made it to a safe spot. It was hard to see with the houses between the school and the street the car had gone down what was happening. He took it as a good sign that he didn't hear any screams. The zombies moaned and groaned, but the living screamed, especially when faced with a few dozen of the undead. He felt his van shake and turned to see Richard standing next to him.

"We should go tell the committee what just happened." By 'we' he meant he, so he didn't have to stay on patrol for a bit. Matthew understood, the man was 60 years old, sitting on the top of a vehicle watching the infected definitely wasn't in his retirement plans.

"Yeah, go, I'll get a closer look and see if I can figure out what’s going on." He slung his bow and quiver over his shoulder and jumped off the vehicle. Richard slid off the hood and turned to look at the young man. Matthew waved his hand at him, "Don't worry, I won’t leave the security of the fence, but I just want to see if I can see between the houses over there to see where the car went, don't forget, it also just brought a couple dozen new zombies our way so we need to suss it out in case we need to do a cull or something." Richard opened his mouth to reply but changed his mind and shut it again then walked away.

Matthew jogged over to the cars on the side where the houses were and climbed up on one, he was staring at the back of a house. No good. He jumped across to the next car. The house was still in the way, but he could see the next one was in line with the driveway. He hopped to the next car and looked down the driveway. The silver car was parked across the street in front of one of the houses, its front doors were open and the zombies were clawing at it. The doors being open was a good sign that whoever was inside the vehicle had run, but he couldn't tell where they had gone. The house where the car was parked had no curtains but there were no signs of anyone being inside. He jumped across a few more cars to look down another driveway to the neighboring house. The curtains were drawn so he couldn't see inside.

He settled down on top of the vehicle and opened his satchel, after digging around he found his binoculars. He studied the house for several tense minutes, maybe he was wrong, maybe whoever had been in the car didn't make it. Then he saw the slightest movement in the window as the curtain was pulled back several inches. It was too dark inside the house to see the person behind the curtain, but he was filled with some relief knowing that the survivor had made it to safety but they were still stuck over there. Clearly they had been aiming for the school but with the zombies hanging around, they changed course to avoid them.

"What is happening Matt?" Raj's voice cut through his thoughts, the man climbed up next to him. Matthew offered him the binoculars and pointed to the house across the street.

"Someone is trapped in that house; they were just looking through the curtain at the zombies around the car. Smart choice to go to the neighboring house rather than where they parked the vehicle. Both front doors on the vehicle are open, so there is possibly two or more survivors over there." Matthew informed him. He heard a couple more voices behind him, belonging to the other committee members; Lee, Heather, John and Banjo. Raj relayed everything Matthew had told him to them.

"We can’t go rushing out there to save them, we'll have to wait till the zombies calm down and are no longer in a frenzy." Heather stated. "Being a hero will only get you, and, or, others killed." Matthew bit the inside of his cheek, he knew she was right, but he didn't like leaving someone stranded. "We need to discuss the matter and come up with a plan that will keep us safe and will hopefully help whoever is over there. They should be fine for a few hours until the zombies have calmed down, they are safe inside the house and the zombies don't seem to realize that they escaped over there."

"I want to be involved." Matthew said. "I want to help, you know I'm good with my bow, no one else in this faction is better than me. And plus, I was here when the car showed up." Heather held up her hands for Matthew to be quiet and nodded at him.

"We know that Matt. And yes, of course you will be kept informed about our decision and plan. But for now, the best course of action is to keep an eye on those frenzied zombies; we don't want them getting others worked up because that will make this whole situation more dangerous. I know your shift just started so I'll send another person to watch your spot and you can stay on this side. Let us know if anything changes." Matthew nodded and thanked her. Then the committee left. He turned back to watch the house.