WalkerZ - A Zombie Apocalypse Story

Chapter 13 - An Odious Toad

"Are you okay Merryn?" Hope had left Stan at the front of the group and had waited until Merryn caught up with her, the others still walking along in single file along the edge of the dual carriageway.

"Hmm?" Merryn shook her head as if to clear it. "I'm sorry Hope, I'm a little distracted. I'll get myself together." She looked ahead and spotted a road sign. "We need to go right here. Let's go and join Stan."

The two of them increased their stride and pace and caught up with Stan who had been shambling along; untiring, uncomplaining, and as uncommunicative as ever.

Merryn took point as they moved off the dual carriageway and onto a country road. After a few hundred yards, houses appeared and a faint smile appeared on Merryn's face.

"It never changes," she said. "Let me go ahead a moment please." Hope nodded and stopped, tugging Stan's sleeve and telling him to wait.

Merryn walked on, scanning the street, unsheathed her machete, ducked under a low-hanging tree, and walked up to a long low house with a thatched roof. Flowers bloomed through the untidy chaos of the long-neglected front garden, and a garden gnome peered owlishly out from behind a bird bath that was full of leaves. Pausing for a moment, she leaned down to her left, moved a brick, and picked up the key from underneath it, inserting it into the lock and turning it with a grating clunk. Cautiously she opened the door and walked into the gloom, her blade held ready.

Hope found her sitting in the kitchen at a sturdy-looking pine table. Dust was on every surface but the house was otherwise undisturbed. Merryn sat with a letter in her hand, tears running down her cheeks. Hope enveloped her in a hug, running her hand down her friend's hair as she sobbed.

"I don't know what I expected," said Merryn a little later as Andrew busied himself with the stove and a kettle. "For some reason, I expected to see my Nan sitting here with a plate of cakes, music on the radio, and the kettle whistling on the stove. But she's gone, of course."

"I knew you had good local knowledge," said Eddie who now sat next to Merryn, with Hope on the other side. "But I'd not realised your family was here. Did your Nan say anything about where she was going?"

Merryn waved the letter. "She was heading to Mum and Dad's. But I know she didn't make it as I've already been there. I'd not had the opportunity to get here until now. She folded the letter and placed it in a pocket. On the table in front of her was a gold ring with two cut stones set into the band.

"I suspect she knew she was unlikely to make it. She had this ring made when my brother and I were born. When Piran died..." Merryn stopped talking for a moment, then gathered herself. "When Piran died she promised me I would have the ring when she died to remember both her and Piran by." She slipped the ring onto her finger and twisted it until the ruby and emerald faced up, their facets glinting in the pale light from the dusty kitchen window.

Andrew placed a steaming mug of tea in front of her and she nodded her thanks, cupping the mug between both hands. "If I'm honest, I'd half expected a Nan-shaped walker on the other side of the door, since it was still locked."

Merryn looked at Andrew. "That's why I needed to go first, Andrew. If it had been her then it would have been my job to take care of her, not yours. I couldn't forgive anyone else for having to do that."

Merryn placed her mug on the table, fiddled with the new ring on her finger, and appeared to gather herself. "Eddie, can you get the radio please, Hope can you check on Stan."

A few moments later Eddie placed the radio on the table and Merryn flicked it into life. "Control, this is Scout 2, are you receiving?"

"Control here. Hi Merryn, Mal here. How are you getting on?"