// Keep Moving

by // TheRobot

Spencer rapped on the door. No answer. He tried again, harder this time. He pressed his ear up against the door and heard the creatures within stirring. Resting his hand on his knife he waited patiently. He knocked once more and the door swung open.

"C'mon Spencer" Abbi yawned. "I've only been asleep a couple hours."

"Five minutes" he replied.

She shut the door in his face and he left it at that. None of them had had a lot of sleep the last week, but sleep was a luxury they couldn't afford any more. Spencer knew Abbi and her idiot husband would take at least fifteen minutes to get ready, so he took a seat by the window and used the time strip down his rifle. He hated the task but it had to be done. Every piece he pulled off the SA80 reminded him of his platoon, the base, and the day it fell.

They'd spent the night in a farmhouse, a old building with tiny door ways and a cramped staircase. Through the window he kept watch over the old dilapidated barn and an overgrown field. He reassembled his rifle after wiping it down, clicked, clacked and locked everything into place. He raised it and looked through the scope, scanning his view out the window hovering the crosshairs over a shambling shadow on the horizon. Seventeen rifle rounds was all he had left, and his pistol was empty. Bullets were fast becoming extinct. He affixed the bayonet and suddenly felt naked without his uniform. It was an eerie chill feeling that ran down his spin.

Abbi and Lucas finally emerged from their room, just in time for the sun to rise and for the three to enjoy the golden hour. Their breath tumbled through the cold air leaving Abbi in some kind of trance. She hadn't had a cigarette in over month, Spencer could see the desperation in her face rise and then quickly fade away as she remembered where she was. It was too early for words, instead wrapped up warm with packs over their shoulders they marched on. Spencer taking the lead, Abbi a few paces behind and as always Lucas dragging his feet behind them. Spencer didn't really give a shit about Lucas, the speccy nerd could drop as far behind as he wanted but Spencer wasn't going back for him.

"We going to have breakfast today?" asked Abbi after an hour of romping through the woods.

Spencer would give anything for these two to be soldiers. But no, he was stuck with two civvies, that would whine when they got "hangry" and he'd have to play momma bear. He stopped, dropped to a knee and opened his pack. He pulled out a cereal bar and handed it to his sister. "Half each."

"What about all this shit we're carrying around with us?" moaned Lucas.

"We ration it" said Spencer for what felt like the tenth time, "we don't know when we're going to find more."

"Can't we just have a good meal, regain our strength and then go hunting for more food?" argued Lucas.

"Okay sure" shot back Spencer turning to face his brother-in-law. "Let's do that, then what happens when we don't find any and fucking starve to death."

"At least we die after a good meal" muttered Lucas.

Spencer couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Lucas, did you wake up today and think 'how much of a twat can i be today?'"

"Both of you shut up" said Abbi.

"I'm the big soldier, I'm always right, I probably don't have PTSD" Lucas jested while mimicking an ape with his arms.

"Lucas!" hissed Abbi. "The cereal bar will be fine."

"Listen to your wife, Lucas" stabbed Spencer turning his back to the couple.

"You always pick his side!" he heard Lucas arguing.

He mouthed the words along with his sister, "that's because he's the soldier, and you're the software developer." She said that nearly once a day. That was because everyday Lucas said something stupid. Sometimes he wondered if he could just shoot the prick and deal with Abbi's shit later.

They marched on for another hour. The sun was rising higher across the sky and the beautiful morning golden hour had begun to fade away into another bleak overcast day. The clouds would soon block out the sun as a thick dark one was chasing the group. Hopefully it wasn't heavy with rainwater. Spencer had always felt like the sun was there for humanity, without it they would never have existed. But sometimes the cold thought crept into his head that it really didn't care about humanity. It didn't give a shit if everyone on Earth was dead, it would still rise in the east and set in the west traveling the skies of an empty world.

His celestial thoughts were interrupted by the sound of metal on bone. He spun on his heel, rifle raised and watched Lucas cave the head in of a zombie with his shovel. It took him a few swings but he got there in the end. Did I just walk past that one?

"Hello!" waved Lucas, "wake up at the back of the class."

I did.

He ignored his brother-in-law and turned carrying on, ears twitching at the sound of Abbi sighing. Your fault, you married the fuck-wit. He stopped in his tracks, heart in his throat. He was nearly nose to to nose with the face of a rotting corpse. It snarled at him. Gnashed its teeth and craned its neck trying to bite his face. Spencer jolted back and rammed his bayonet up through its chin and out the top of it's scalp. He ripped it out and the living dead fell to the floor, now dead in the traditional sense.

"Spence!" called out Abbi.

He turned to see another emerging from behind a tree. Followed by another and another. He smashed the nearest one in the jaw with the butt of his rifle. "Run!" he ordered Abbi. She shot off into the trees with Lucas not far behind. Spencer skipped back a few paces, clicked the safety off his rifle. He watched them for a moment, tripping over each other, arms outstretched like they were reaching for him to help. They were hungry, just like he, Abbi and her idiot were. He put the rifle back on safe and sprinted off after his family.

He caught up with them quick. They'd already slowed their pace but he hoped he'd inspire them to keep going. Hungry, with little to no sleep they ran through the woods. No idea if they'd lost the horde or they were only a few feet behind them. They dared not look back.

They finally stopped once they reached a road. Abbi dropped to her knees panting and wheezing. Lucas nursed what looked like a stitch beside her. Spencer stopped, turned and scanned the woods behind them with his rifle. He tried his hardest to control his breathing while the other two collapsed beside him. "C'mon!" said Spencer lowering the rifle. "Let's follow this road North, they'll keep heading East until they get distracted".

"Sure" gasped Abbi. "But can we just take a minute."

Spencer gritted his teeth, slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled Abbi to her feet. "We can't afford to hang around Ab."

"Christ G.I Joe" wheezed Lucas, "we lost them alright, just give us a moment."

"Fucking man up Lucas!" spat Spencer. He put his sister's arm over his shoulder and began to follow the road not bothering to look back to see if he was coming. It didn't take long before she caught her breath back and was keeping up with his pace. She fell back a bit to talk to Lucas. Spencer could hear the two muttering, most probably about him but he didn't care. He had his mission and he was seeing it through.

Late afternoon had finally arrived and with no zombie sightings for what Spencer guessed was about eight hours he stopped. His muscles burned and his knees felt like collapsing. He let the other two catch up while he thought up the plan for tonight. He'd been pushing them hard over the last four days. Tonight they'd settle down for a hot meal. The road signs pointed to a small town up ahead. He'd find them a pair of beds they'd have a full night's sleep. He needed it as well.

An empty house on the outskirts of town would provide them with a much needed respite. They arrived before sundown and quickly got to work fortifying the place. They dragged and piled up furniture stacking it behind the back and front doors. They drew the curtains and piled up everything else they could find to cover the windows. Tables, chairs, sofas, beds, cupboards leaving just the mattresses up stairs to sleep on. Spencer took the leadership decision to cook in the attic. There were no windows up there, that way no passers by living or dead would see the light from their small camping stove cooking a can of beans.

"Look what I found!" chimed Abbi climbing up the ladder to the attic. She plonked two bottles of vodka at brothers-in-law feet with a cheeky grin on her face.

"God I love you!" giggled Lucas.

Spencer's smile faded and his lips curled in one corner. "I don't think so guys, we need to stay sober."

"C'mon Spence!" laughed Abbi, that devious smile across her face she had when she wanted to peer pressure him into something. "Nobody knows we're hear, you said it yourself we're all going to have a good long sleep tonight. Why not help it along."

She placed three mugs in front of them and started pouring. Spencer slid the stove away from the flammable liquid not wanting his sister to burn down another house. He ate a mouthful of beans and then washed it down with a mouthful of vodka, wincing at the taste as hit the back of his throat. His lips tingled, "you didn't find anything to mix it with?"

"It's better this way" she explained taking a sip and grimacing at the horrid taste. "Gets you drunk quicker."

Spencer stayed quiet during dinner, letting the couple get merry together. He sipped his alcohol, unlike the other two. He prefered to watch them banter, reminisce over times before the dead walked the earth rather than joining in himself. He drunk enough to give himself a buzz and left the two just as they started getting all 'touchy' with eachother. The room he picked was bare now, the wardrobe and bed frame taken down stairs to barricade the place leaving him with just a mattress on the floor. He curled up and let the booze carry him to sleep.

He was woken up in the early morning by Abbi coming crashing into his room. Her hair was a mess, her clothes hastily thrown on. At least somebody's getting laid around here, he pushed the disgusting thoughts of his sister and her husband aside as she rather inelegantly plonked herself down in the corner of the dark room.

She hiccuped, and slurred her speech, "Spence. I had a genius fucking idea".

"Shoot" he muttered not taking his head off the mattress.

"Remember Dad's VW Camper he decked out for his and mum's European road trip?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't we head to their place, grab that! Then we've got a car, a house, a kitchen, a sort of shower..."

"What happens when we can't find any petrol?" Spencer groaned.

She was silent. For a long moment, almost long enough for him to fall back to sleep.

"We build a sail!" she finally broke the silence.

He couldn't help but giggle at his sister's stupid drunken bullshit.She was a party girl at heart, drinking all night and sleeping all day only to be woken up by the wrath of their parents. But little' sis Abbi always rang big brother Spence and left him a few bullshit voice mails.

"So then we sail around the country on our Camper slash pirate ship?" he snorted.

"Yup" she hiccuped again, "Captain Abbi..." she slurred the rest of the sentence into some kind of gibberish mess.

"Then we make Lucas walk the plank" added Spencer and the pair erupted into hush giggles they fell about to control.

They both sighed after settling down. "He tries you know" she said.

Spencer thought long and hard about his reply. Abbi and Spencer never hid anything from each other, and they both often spoke as candidly as they wanted. "I know" was he felt like saying.

"It's not easy for any of us. I doubt you were even trained for this sort of thing?"

"I've seen every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I know what I'm doing..." he couldn't finish the sentence without giggling again.

"Zombies, not Vampires" replied Abbi. Which the last thing either of them uttered before drifting off back to sleep.

They set off in the morning just after sunrise. An eerie chill had swept across the country reminding them that winter was coming and they were not ready. Cautiously the three walked down the main road through the empty town. The clouds above were grey casting a hopeless dim light across the buildings. Every so often a zombie would hurl itself at a window to try and get the three. One of them would have a peek and look for anything useful, every time so far they'd just moved on.

Spencer led the group, rifle in hand marching right down the centre of the highstreet. His sister and brother-in-law flanking him several feet to the sides, shovel and kitchen knife in hand. They couldn't go on like this forever, they weren't nomads. A farm maybe, a farm would have fences to keep the zombies out and space to grow their own food.

"Empty" muttered Lucas looking the window of a small express supermarket.

"What about the storage rooms?" asked Abbi.

"Good call" answered Spencer. The front of the store was entirely glass and they didn't want to loudly shatter it unless they had to. Instead they carried on until they found an alleyway round the back of the supermarket. The door had already been kicked in and was hanging off it's hinges. Muzzle on point Spencer round the corner and did a quick scan for threats. It was empty. Empty of not just life but anything useful as well. "Like I said Lucas, we'll be lucky if we find more food."

"Fuck off!" screamed Lucas, his voice almost breaking. "What have I ever done to you?"

"It's probably just your resting dick face."

"You fuck..." Lucas swung his shovel for Spencer. He knocked it away with his rifle. A quick lurch forward and his forehead crushed Lucas' nose bone. He reeled back and fell to the floor, blood pouring down his nose and getting in between his teeth. Abbi quickly knelt down to his side.

Spencer's forehead didn't feel too good, like Lucas' nose had left an imprint. He was oddly satisfied, he haddn't tried to bait his brother-in-law to attack him but he'd wished it every day since Abbi met the man. He just wanted an excuse first.

"You, need to sort out your attitude!" Abbi said shooting an accusing finger at Spencer.

"My attitude!?" replied Spencer. "He is your husband, and he is more concerned with having a decent meal than getting you to safety!"

She got to her feet and stood nose to nose with her older brother. "That's because he's scared Spencer, I'm scared and even if you don't want to admit it. You're scared."

That one stung. Abbi knew her brother.

"And what do you mean getting me to safety?! What am I burden to you two or something?"

"Hey" interrupted a small voice.

Abbi stopped, jaw still open ready to start the next sentence. Like they had practiced all three of them slowly turned their head to the side.

"Shut up" said the small woman standing on the opposite side of the alley way. She was holding up a bow with an arrow drawn back and aimed at either Spencer or Abbi. He couldn't tell which. "Put down the gun" she said next. Beside her stood an old man, a double barrel shotgun at his waist with both barrels aimed at the trio.

Spencer did as she ordered, carefully placing his SA80 on the ground in front of him being careful not to let his shirt slip and reveal his sidearm. "It's got a few rounds left. You can have it, just let us..."

"Where are you headed?" she asked talking over him.

Spencer watched her arm began to quiver. Clever girl he thought.

"Nowhere" coughed Lucas, blood drenching his shirt. Spencer honestly didn't think he had hit him that hard.

"Where did you come from?" she asked next.

"An army base, in the south-west" answered Spencer. He needed the other two to shut up so he could deal with her.

"My names Spencer Fitzgerald and this is..."

"What happened?" she interrupted again.

It was a long crazy story he had never had to put into words before with horrors he didn't think he'd live through.

"A few people...they lost it. The wrong person took charge and things got ugly". That was honestly the best he could with describing some truly fucked up shit.

"C'mon..." whispered the old man to her and slightly lowering his weapon.

The Woman gently relaxed arms, stowed the arrow and put the bow over her shoulder. The Old Man moved carefully to the right while his accomplice cautiously stepped towards Spencer. Her eyes looked like a tigress on his rifle. He could hear the breathing of the others fade away. Abbi, Lucas and the Old Man. None of them dared take a breath. But Spencer and this Woman both took deep calm breaths of the crisp morning air that chilled their lungs. They locked eyes as she knelt down and put out a hand for the weapon. He grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back and stood her up. He stepped in from Abbi and pulled his pistol from his belt and jammed it onto her temple.

"Drop it friend!" he snarled.

The Old Man and raised the shotgun onto his shoulder.

"Grandad! Grandad it's me alright! Zoe. Just do as the man says" Spencer pushed the pistol in hard making her twist her neck. He needed to show them he meant business.

"I...I don't remember" he said holding his head.

"Just put it down Old Man!" called out Spencer. Like a cornered animal he fired off a shot. It sent rubble from the brickwork behind them showering onto Spencer and his meat shield. He desperately wanted to squeezed his trigger but he couldn't let them know he had no ammo. "What the fuck!" he yelled.

"Just let me go" whispered the woman in arms.

He forced the muzzle of the pistol in harder. She whispered again, teeth gritted "he has dementia, let me go."

It was his only real option. He sighed and let go, making sure to grab the bow as she broke away from him. Slowly with her hands raised but low down the woman approached her Grandfather. Spencer meanwhile kept his pistol trained on her and gently knelt down to grab his rifle.

"Grandad, it's Zoe, okay" she said in a happy voice with undertones of nervousness. "Remember the beach" she faked laughed. "When we built that sandcastle..." she grabbed the shotgun and yanked it out his hands followed by embracing him. He returned it and they stood their in a back alley during the apocalypse hugging while Spencer held a rifle to them.

"Why the hell, did you give a man with dementia a shotgun?" asked Lucas.

Zoe waited until she finished hugging her grandfather. She turned around to meet Spencer's gazed and cracked open the weapon. Tossing out the empty shell and sliding the unused one in her pocket. "Just like you I don't have a lot of choice, although I didn't have a shovel to give mine."

Lucas needs some cream for that burn thought Spencer.

Zoe took off her backpack and dumped it on the floor, shotgun laid next to it. "So, this is the part where you take our shit, you going to kill us or can we go?" she asked pointing out the alley with double finger guns.

Spencer tossed her the bow. "Keep it" he uttered lowering his rifle.

"Spencer!" screeched Abbi.

"C'mon, let's go" he said nodding to the way out. She helped Lucas up and started back the way they'd come. Empty handed with an added injury.

"Hey!" Called Zoe. "We're going that way."

"Wait here for an hour" Spencer called back. The Old Man would slow her down way more than Lucas.

"Don't you want to know where?" she shouted back as they rounded the corner. The trio kept going. "They've got more than just a couple cans of peaches and an unloaded pistol."

He stopped in his tracks. What did she just say. He put his head back around the corner, neither of them had gathered their things yet. "What?"

"I've heard of a place. It's protected. Has food, people, medicine" she replied.

"About the pistol".

"No mag dipshit".

It was a risk. But even if she was lying it was a better option than skulking around rural Britain all winter. Spencer's trio had become a quintet, with caution of course. Abbi was now armed with a shotgun and Lucas scarily with a bow. The five of them had left the town and had returned to desolate country roads. Zoe had shown them the markings on the map, only another few days trek.

"I don't like this" whispered Abbi.

"Neither do I. But it's the best option we've got."

"What if it's a trap? Cute girl and her grandfather, stumble upon a hero and takes them back to her canibal friends".

"Too risky for a trap" replied Spencer, "we could have just shot them."

"She plays the part well" muttered Abbi.

Spencer peeled off to join Zoe who was leading the way a bit further up. "We were honest with you, now you be honest with us" he said to her. "Where did you come from?"

"London" she replied.

"That must have been a shit show."

"It was."

"How did you manage with the old man?"

She leaned in close and he lowered his head to listen. "He's not my granddad. Found him wandering the streets a few months back, don't even know his name."

He desperately wanted to believe her, she was pretty, kind and seemed to know what she was doing. "Why'd you pick him up?"

"It was the right thing."

"It was the stupid thing."

"There's a difference between surviving and living" she shot back, this time looking him in the eye as if it to let that soak in. Things went silent and he pondered on it.

The sun set and they'd settled for the night on a small cottage down a country lane. They followed their usual modus operandi and stacked all the furniture up against the doors and windows and found a place to sleep on the second floor. Abbi and Lucas had retired to their room after dinner, rations got even smaller splitting between five people. Zoe sat on the floor next to her sleeping not-grandfather with Spencer in the doorway, rifle across his lap. He couldn't get his sister's reservations about Zoe out of his head.

"Why are you taking us to this place?" he asked. "We could be murders."

"You're not" she said not taking her eyes of the Old Man.

"How can you know that."

"I just know people, it's sort of like a gift. Super power" she smiled.

"You can't rely on gut feeling in this world."

"Maybe I'm just tired" she met his gaze. "Maybe I don't care what happens any more."

"You just want somebody else to take control..."

She smiled.

He clicked the safety off his rifle, put it against his shoulder and took aim at her head across the room. "Do you want me to pop you right now?" He lined up the scope between her eyes.

"You're in control" she said. "Its up to you, live. Or survive."

"What would you choose?" he asked. "Between shooting me and living another day? Or taking me into that other bedroom and fucking me?"

She went silent for a moment, a grin was pulled across her face, "The latter."

He lowered his rifle, took her hand and lead her into the bedroom.

"You can tie me to the radiator if it makes you feel safer" she winked.

"That's not living" he laughed.

A thunder erupted in the cottage and Spencer sat up. Zoe copied him soon after. He grabbed his rifle and pulled the door open. Completely naked he checked the room opposite. Empty. He moved room where Abbi and Lucas had slept. The door was wide open.

Spencer came around the corner, rifle raised. The Old Man stood in the centre of the room, smoking shotgun in his hand and blood covered bed before him.

"She was one of them."

Spencer put him down. He dropped to the floor and silence was gone. Abbi screamed and cried in pain and he rushed to her side. Blood was pouring from her stomach. It was splattered across her face. Spencer grabbed a pillow and forced it onto the wound. He tried to remember his first aid.

"I'm scared" she gasped.

"You'll be fine. Get my bag!"

Zoe disappeared around the door, reappearing and tossing Spencer's backpack across the room. He fumbled around for the kit. Bright green, sat at the bottom. He took it out, opened it and started just turning things over. Gauze, bandages, tape, scalpel, scissors. It was all useless.

"I don't want to die" she cried.

"You're not going to!" Blood gurgled out of her stomach and dripped onto the floor. Pretty soon he was drenched in it but he pushed on looking for something to help. "Lucas help!" he yelled the terrified husband covered in his wife's blood squatting in the corner. He didn't move.

"Help your wife!" Zoe screamed at him pulling him off the floor.

He kneeled on the bed. "What do I do?"

"Hold this and talk to her!" Lucas pushed down on the pillow. Blood seeping out from under it and soaking the white sheets.

"Please Lucas" sobbed Abbi, "help me."

He fumbled his words, "This place we're going to. You said it has medicine, a doctor!?"

"It's too far she won't make it" said Spencer still wrangling the first aid kit.

He grabbed a bandage and slid it under the pillow. "Here! This'll stop the bleeding".

"Oh god, Abbi I love you" said Lucas taking her hand in his.

Spencer looked to Zoe, and nodded to the rifle. He hoped his expression was enough. He couldn't do it. He leaned in his head next to Spencer.

Smiling down at her. "Abbi, don't worry. I think I've got it" he said getting her to smile. He gave Zoe a thumbs up behind his back and it was over in a flash.

"No" said Lucas sitting back.

"What did you do?" he sobbed.

"It was the right thing, Lucas" said Spencer.

He roared like Spencer had never heard before. Lucas spun and launched himself at Zoe. Spencer dived over the bed and his sister. Tackling his brother-in-law to the ground and holding him down.

"She killed her! They killed my wife!" he screamed as Spencer held him down.

Zoe disappeared out the door while Lucas kept fighting to get free.

"It's over Lucas" he said in his ear while he thrashed about. "She's gone."

They laid there together as in-laws and cried. It wasn't until the evening they'd finally decided to dig the graves. One marked for Abbi Conwright, and one for John Doe. Spencer didn't blame the Old Man, he hated him but didn't blame him. Nobody spoke to each other until the next day. 

Spencer and Zoe were all dressed, packed and ready to head out. Spencer knocked on Lucas' door and slowly pushed it open with a finger. The stench of blood was still thick in the air. Lucas sat on a chair by the window sill, looking out at the graves in the back garden.

"You coming?" asked Spencer.

"No."

He didn't argue. He just left the man to his own devices while he and Zoe continued on down the road. For hours he watched her out the corner of his eye trying to find the words.

"I'm sorry..."

"Thank you" he interrupted her. "I couldn't do it."

"It's all my fault".

"No" he said.

And carried on towards this settlement she had spoken about.