The Desolate

Sleep was hard to come by despite the exertion from our physical activities. It was still mostly dark when I finally climbed out of bed and pulled on my clothes. The zombies had all cleared away from the front porch and moved on with the storm, except for a few stragglers which could be heard from the room. Ashe quickly got changed as well, following me towards the door with a sense of urgency. I smiled reassuringly, and whispered, “Wait here!”

Slipping out of the room quietly. I made my way downstairs cautiously, knife in hand and pistol drawn. Inside the house was almost certainly clear since we hadn’t heard any sign of forced entry, but I made my way from room to room just to be safe, before heading towards the front entrance of the house. Opening the door carefully and slipping out onto the front porch. The zombies were dispersed around the yard, seemingly lost, after having been left behind by the herd. But two others seemed focused on the front lawn, licking the spot where the blood had dripped from the kangaroo meat just a day or two earlier. Even after the rain, they seemed able to taste or smell something. They were so distracted that neither of them took notice of my approach as I swiftly moved up and thrust the knife up under the base of the skull of one, twisting just once before pulling the blade out and letting it collapse around itself, The other one was completely oblivious to the death of its friend, and it barely even looked up at me as I pulled its head back and thrust the knife through the eye socket. As I stood up, a third zombie growled and lurched towards me from the far side of the yard. Snarling hungrily as it rushed forward, faster than expected, causing me to trip slightly. But I recovered quickly and sidestepped the creature as it made its final lunge. It fell face first onto the grass, giving me ample time to kill it, burying the blade up through its neck and under its skull.

Standing quickly, I turned my attention turned back to my surroundings, two more zombies appeared to have made themselves at home around the side of the farmhouse. They had been left behind by the herd and seemed happy to stay there for the moment despite their confusion. I found one with its head leaning against the wall at the rear of the house, and another had kicked over one of the condensation traps that we didn’t have time to move and it was still sitting on the porch where it had fallen. I dealt with them both quickly, the one by the wall I simply gripped what was left of its hair, pulling its skull back onto the blade before approaching the zombie on the ground. It looked up at me, snarling as it attempted to clumsily climb to its feet. I didn’t hesitate, seizing the opportunity to swiftly close the distance between us before driving my knife through its left eye socket like so many others before it, pushing the blade into its brain with a well-rehearsed twist of the handle.

Once I announced we were clear Ashe came outside with her rifle nervously as she surveyed the area quickly. Her focus then turned to the fresh zombie corpses, getting her first up-close look at them. “Fuck they smell awful!” She said, covering her mouth and nose, “I really wonder how these things were able to destroy the world though! They are so slow and clumsy.”

I shrugged. “If there was cooperation in the early days of the outbreak and old-world society was better prepared, we probably could have, or perhaps should have stopped it,” I agreed, before returning my focus to our present situation. “Let’s get packed up and ready to move. There will be more stragglers in this group, so we better not hang around too long. There is a good chance the house will become a part of their herd movements from now on.”

Ashe hesitated for just a moment, whispering with a sigh, “It’ll be a shame to leave this place!”

“Yeah!” I agreed. It really was a shame to leave, and along with the McRae family, we had it good there for sure. But I was not yet ready to stop, there was unfinished business for me to the south-east. And we were certainly not prepared to fight off an entire zombie herd the next time they passed through. Ashe thankfully seemed to understand my decision and followed my lead without hesitation, though she was undoubtedly unsettled by the idea of yet more travelling. We got everything packed up that we could carry, plenty of food and water and a few spare bottles of alcohol. If nothing else, we could use them in trade, though I certainly relished the idea of enjoying another glass of quality whisky at some point before I die. I exited the house first while Ashe pulled on her thick pants and backpack, joining me moments later with her rifle nestled in the crook of her shoulder. I cleaned off my knife in one of the remaining condensation traps but did not collect any of the water. There was no way to know which were contaminated and which weren’t. Once clean of blood, I dried and placed the knife back in its sheath and said, “Let’s hit the road!”

Ashe gave me a small reluctant nod, and the two of us left on foot. It was mid-morning when we got on the road, and the humidity was climbing fast along with the heat after the storm, but it was nothing compared to the desert, so we just kept going. Ashe seemed to handle the humidity better this time and she looked a lot happier and healthier for the few days of rest. She handed me a piece of kangaroo meat to chew on as we walked. We hadn’t bothered to eat breakfast, so it was good to get something in. The smell of the dead zombies had put a stop to any thought of food before leaving. But now we were away from the house it seemed better. Ashe was very quiet which I assumed had to do with us heading off into an area where a large zombie herd had just passed through. But she looked strong and alert like something had changed in her, she seemed more confident and more prepared to face whatever lay before us. And I suppose, after the evening’s events, it should not have been a complete surprise that something would have shifted between us. But was it just that? I wondered. She just seemed to carry an air of confidence and grace that had not been so forthcoming before now. Her hair seemed to have more colour, and I could not help but admire her slightly fuller figure. A few days of rest, protein, and good nutrition had done us both a world of good.

We followed the road south for several kilometres to an intersection of two long-overgrown dirt roads. The path was still visible thankfully and it seemed safer than the overgrown fields, which offered far less visibility than I would have liked. As we passed an old vineyard, Ashe was the first to spot more than a dozen zombies moving to intersect us. The moment they saw us, they changed direction and charged across the long-dead vineyard, running awkwardly through the now thick grass that had overgrown in the fields. They were deceptively quick and relentless, and their dexterity had improved slightly over the years, so they sometimes held onto sticks or a rock. However, the brain was still not capable of executing complex tasks requiring the use of basic logic, they were probably several centuries away from using tools at this rate. And even navigating the parallel meshing still attached to the overgrown vines proved far too complicated. If they’d moved a few metres in either direction, they might have gotten to us easily. But as it happened, they found themselves stuck and increasingly tangled in thick rusted wires, and the more they struggled the worse the tangled mess became, ensnaring a dozen zombies for an easy kill. There was no better time than the present for Ashe to get her feet wet when it came to killing zombies.

And without a word or instruction, Ashe raised her rifle, her newly discovered confidence shining through. They were still around fifty metres away, and since there was nowhere to hold up for a few hours and take cover, we had to shoot and move. “Take a knee, we are going to need to take them out quickly,” I said calmly as I aimed. “As soon as they’re all down, we run!” I sighted the nearest zombie with my rifle and fired, careful not to waste ammunition. While Ashe did the same, opening fire at the same time. She proved to be a pretty good shot proving once more that she had become a real asset to both of our survival prospects. It still amazed me that her family had sold her into slavery given her utility alone. It made little sense in this world to waste such strength and intelligence, and yet the settlements and tribes that dotted the central and northern regions did so all the time with young girls and women just like Ashe.

Regardless of the moral problems I held onto with rape and slavery, she was a survival asset, and worth far more than any slave I had ever come across most of whom simply filled the bare minimum of work that they were required to do to survive. But Ashe was no slave, neither in terms of her thinking nor her demeanour and it’s probably one of the reasons that kind of life had been so difficult for her. Had she gone to almost any other slave owner, they likely would have sold her on or simply killed her because of her wilful nature. I’d seen that early on in our interactions, but my first instinct was that it would be such a waste to any group given her capabilities alone. But my second thought was far more sentimental and worrying, the idea of someone hurting her filled me with a sense of anger and rage and of a duty to protect the girl that had so thoroughly embedded herself in my life. And who had become my closest friend in our short time together.

In the end, the firefight was more like a slaughter with the zombies mostly being taken out while caught up on the wire mesh. Once the shooting stopped, I turned to Ashe and said with urgency, “More will come after the noise, they would have heard the shooting a long way off. It might even bring the whole herd this way, so let’s move!”

We ran south through overgrown fields and farmland for another ten kilometres before easing off on the pace, keeping parallel to the mountains in case we needed to retreat. Ashe was getting short of breath after a short time, and we were both in need of water. Stopping for just a few minutes to rest and recover before continuing south. Proper rest was not forthcoming as we continued throughout the day and most of the following night, given the level of threat all around us, we couldn’t afford to stop and make camp, and there was very little shelter on offer. We had passed near several large herds, so we had to maintain our distance and continue at a good pace. Beyond a few short bathroom breaks, and to take in a little food and water we just kept moving. The regular sight of zombies kept us on edge, and by the next morning, we had reached the southernmost point of the mountain range before turning east, sticking to the low-lying areas for better visibility.

The mountains had minimal tree cover and might have offered an incentive for zombies to follow. Their natural behaviour was to follow the path of least resistance and stick to the lowlands like we were doing, but with no cover on the mountains, it was likely we would be spotted and chased. Especially during the day. It meant heading much further south than I had planned, and much closer to the ruins of Adelaide than I felt comfortable with, but it seemed necessary.

We had so far managed to avoid any further direct confrontation with zombies. While I certainly could have kept going throughout the following day. Ashe was beginning to really struggle to keep up the pace, once again, the humidity was dehydrating her quickly. We needed to take shelter from the heat for a few hours and get a little rest, so we crossed another decaying highway headed east to west, passing under an old gas pipeline before finding a small farmhouse just a few hundred metres beyond that point. It was mid-morning when we approached the ruins of the old single-story brick home, which was showing signs of severe weathering.

It wasn’t overly hospitable in appearance, but there was shade, and we had to stop in any case. Ashe and I cleared around a veranda that circled the house, finding the roof half collapsed on the far side of the structure, and upon making entry to the house, we discovered that the interior roofing had given out in all but one room. The house was a death trap on the inside, so we stayed out under the veranda, using the shade it offered as a little protection from the heat. Ashe was starting to struggle, and my own lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with me.

Ashe rested on the front porch with a bottle of water and some smoked meat while I scavenged through the house carefully, finding very little of use. Once finished, I returned to her side to keep watch and let her get a little rest out of the heat for a few hours before we swapped, and I managed a little sleep as well while the chance presented itself. It had turned into a very hot day and humidity was only getting worse, indicating that there might be more storms on the way. This house was unlikely to be very safe in that case, so we were back on the road by late afternoon following the highway east along the southern tip of the mountains.

It was a beautiful area; the land was greener, and the forests were slowly encroaching on the surrounding fields and plains, reclaiming the land that had been used for large-scale agriculture that kept the people of the old world fed. The scars humanity had left on the region were still quite visible even after so many years, but nature was winning out over time as it always did.

We neared the outskirts of another large, ruined town sometime through the night, and zombies once again became a threat, we stopped and hid behind a rusty old car wreck as a group of a dozen zombies passed us by heading back west along the highway. Once clear, we continued following the ruined pipeline as it continued southeast. The following day, we managed to find an intact bridge that allowed us to cross the Murray River. Its waters were nearly bursting its banks in numerous areas where large areas around the river had been turned into a marsh.

We continued similarly for another four more days, getting rest where we could, burning through about half of our food and water supplies until we were no more than about one hundred kilometres northwest of Melbourne and heading towards the foot of the Great Ranges. The zombie count hadn’t changed a great deal since leaving the farmhouse, the land was lush and green, and human life seemed very scarce throughout. But as we moved up into the eastern mountain range, we passed several somewhat maintained houses that had barricades around them, along with a few seemingly abandoned compounds just off the highway we were following as we made our way east. All seemed to have been abandoned for at least a few years though some were likely safe houses or off-site storage locations for nearby settlements, though we had yet to encounter one directly. Human life out here was very hard to find. In the desert, you just tend to stumble on people, but here you could just about pass someone and because both were on watch for zombies you would completely miss each other. The forests and mountains made that especially apparent, it meant that unless you knew where to look, you might never find them. Still, the signs were certainly there to be found.

Ashe and I made entry to one such safe house just at nightfall on the fifth day, we were both exhausted beyond the point of being able to continue. Neither of us had slept more than a few hours at a time on the road heading east. She picked the lock quickly, and we found ourselves in what was once a small lounge area with a window offering an excellent view of the region south of the mountains. The house overlooked the foothills and all the way out to the ocean. And when I saw it, I froze, staring for a long time. It was as beautiful as I remembered, but neither Ashe nor I were in any shape to appreciate it fully in the dying light of the evening. Our water supplies were getting low, and we had not seen a living person since we had met the McRae family. A decent night’s rest was a must, and when I found the house was well-stocked, it confirmed my suspicions that this was definitely somebody else’s safe house.

I had no interest in stealing from them, so we gathered supplies from the house that we needed to keep us going, and I left them what I thought was a fair-value trade of ammunition and a bottle of whiskey.

The urge to continue travelling had slowly left me over the last few days, and now all I felt was an urge to stop soon at least for a while so we could both rest and recover properly after several weeks on the road since leaving New Alice. The look on Ashe’s face, when I said that we were headed up into the mountains, told me she was far less than pleased with the idea of another week of travel. “I’ve got fucking blisters on my blisters, Jack. We need to find somewhere to stop and hold up soon,” she demanded; we had not gone long without passing a herd of zombies since crossing the river. But the mountains offered us some respite, with far fewer zombies willing to trek uphill without a reason to do so. The thick forests provided ample cover to move more freely as well, and it meant that what zombies were around here were not likely to see us if we stayed off the highway.

“The problem is that we have been sticking to the lowlands. Remember that they follow the path of least resistance, and if we head up into the mountains, their numbers will be much less,” I explained, trying to convince her of what I knew all too well.

She sighed. She was exhausted; she was frustrated, and she was in pain. “Fuck you owe me big time for this, Jack,” she said her tone half teasing half serious, trying to lighten the mood a little.

I smiled, trying to reassure her, whispering, “We’re pretty close now!” The region to the south of the lookout was close to my childhood home, and even though night had descended over the surrounding hills, the moon lit up the landscape and distant ocean in a glorious pale blue glow. And despite her pain, Ashe was awestruck by the scene, offering an uninterrupted view for tens of kilometres to the south. We camped in one of the small rooms in the house, once again taking turns to rest as had become our routine.

The cold night air moved in quickly as a thick frost settled around the house. Ashe was shivering, she was used to the dry heat of the desert and evening fires to fight off the cool air. But a fire here was a death sentence in a place like this. It might as well ring the dinner bell to any surrounding herds. So, we just sat on the floor and dozed in and out of sleep, holding each other beneath a few blankets for warmth.

My mind wandered, thinking about our next move. It was summer, and the zombies were particularly active through this time of year normally. The storms kept them well hydrated and continuously moving, meaning they would roam the east coast up and down endlessly for the next few months until slowing down in the colder months when they would typically stop migrating. At least that’s what they did last time I’d kept track of them. So far, we seemed to be the only people alive this far east, at least that we had seen, but a well-stocked safe house indicated that was simply not the case, so it meant we would need to be careful.

As the night went on, and Ashe rested, my mind continued to work through my anxieties about stopping and settling, a big part of me held onto the desire to avoid trust and people. My mind once again reflected on Ashe and the trust she had earned, she had done a lot to that point and deserved it, though I was still wary of the danger that caring for her posed. The idea of a relationship even with the young woman that I trusted implicitly scared me to death. Especially one that meant stopping and starting a family.

In the early hours of the morning, I was alerted to Ashe’s unsettled sleep, a nightmare I supposed. “Ashe,” I whispered, trying to wake her from her nightmare.

As soon as my hand touched her cheek, she snapped awake and stared at me as if trying to work out where she was for a moment. “Shit, I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking off her sleep, “Did you want to get some more sleep?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m okay, you just seemed to be having a bad dream.”

She took in a few deep breaths and then sighed. “Yeah, I just had a dream that I lost you.” She shuffled closer to me, then put her head on my chest. Her heart was still pounding but slowed over the next few minutes as she drifted back into a comfortable sleep. My hand gently caressed her long red hair.