Bottom of the Food Chain (Chapter 3)

CHAPTER 3

‘That is why we have a back up plan’

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“You never go into something half cocked, you always plan for every eventuality.”

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Driving down the derelict run down roads of England, Katherine could barely keep her eyes open. To her, it felt like they had been driving for hours when in reality they had probably only been driving for thirty to forty minutes. She was suitably dressed in the same clothes as before with the addition of the leather jacket Christian had found for her. She had not made a big fuss over it at the time but, it was a very sweet gesture by Christian and she was more than happy to see him almost, well, open up in a way. Christian had his eyes set forward with laser focus on the road ahead whilst Katherine sat with the map, that had been roughly marked with a route and various points to stop at, on her lap. She wasn’t the best with directions but, she was determined not to screw this up. She wanted to impress Christian, why? She didn’t need to justify that to anyone. She knew roughly where they were on the map as they hadn’t left the motorway since they had merged onto it. To Katherines’ dismay, the majority of road signs had been taken apart likely for scrap materials by other survivors.

“So, I think we need to take the next exit.” She stated, breaking the silence that had hung over them for a large portion of the drive. Christian snapped out of his focussed state for a brief moment to respond.

“I’ll assume you’re correct. How long would you say until our first stop?” He asked.

“Five minutes?” It was purely a guess.

“Perfect, I need a piss.” Katherine couldn’t help but smile at his words, it was possibly the most human Christian had ever sounded since she had known him. Katherine didn’t respond and kept looking to the map at brief intervals as Christian began to pull into the left lane to take the exit. Regardless of how empty and derelict the roads were, Christian was still driving as if they were still living in the old world... the better world. Katherine was excited to stop as well, it was her turn to drive next and she desperately needed to do something to keep her awake. Staring at a map was dreadfully boring and, god forbid she let Christian know this, confusing. She wasn’t that clued up on how to read a map or navigate, that’s what the GPS application on her phone was for. Katherine reached her hand to the side and gripped onto the plastic handle, beginning to roll the dirty translucent window down to get a more clear view of the outside world as they drove. Christian let his eyes drift to the left, the fresh air was quite relaxing. A much needed relief he didn’t realised he needed on this lengthy journey they had embarked on.

Christian took the exit, the service station marked clearly on the sign. In the world prior to this apocalypse there would’ve been a McDonalds or a KFC full of customers and cars doing several laps of the car park looking for a space that seemed to never be there. The sight that awaited them, it wasn’t that. The car park had a few vehicles abandoned, most of which not parked correctly in any way, shape or form. Observing the vehicles more closely, they were derelict and in complete disrepair, clearly survivors had been picking at them over time. Christian parked directly in front of the entrance to the service station building. They disembarked the vehicle and began to ascend the concrete steps towards the double doors. Shortly, they were inside and it looked as depressing as the rest of the world. The interior was relatively dark, the only light source being from the outside and there were muddy foot prints and splatters of blood on almost every tile in the building.

“I’m going to find the toilet, you try to find us some food.” With that statement and command, Christian had set off into the building. Retrieving her cleaver style blade from her rucksack, Katherine held it up with her left hand and began to descend into the partial darkness herself. It took a few moments but, she had located an M&S. Unfortunately, due to the lack of power most of the remaining food had perished due to no refrigeration. Katherine scanned the aisles closely as she slowly traversed the shop floor. Suddenly, she felt a sudden obstruction against her right foot. Her eyes shot to the floor and her blood turned to ice in a matter of milliseconds, immediately her stomach felt heavy, she felt like she was going to throw up. She took one whole step back and took in exactly what she had bumped into. It was a body, but... they didn’t seem like they had deteriorated at all and the smell of death wasn’t prevalent yet. In fact, Katherine could easily make the assumption they had died relatively recent but it didn’t seem like a straggler had got to them taking in account there was several stab-like wounds on the upper part of their chest. Maybe within the last twenty four hours? Katherine took her condor moment before finally snapping out of her trance-like state and continuing on her search for anything they could eat or drink. Her thought process was very rudely interrupted as she heard footsteps nearby... Christian? She looked to her left to see the silhouetted figure stood at the end of the aisle.

“Christian?” Was all that left her lips but, the figure didn’t answer and began to approach. The hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention and a wave of nausea and uneasiness came over her. Clutching the cleaver like blade in her left hand, she raised it and took one step back.

“Stay back.” She ordered, a little less assertively than she’d have liked in this moment but, as assertive as she could be. The figure seemed to chuckle and Katherine could just about make out the faint details of a long bladed article in their right hand. Her guess? That was a sword and it certainly wasn’t just for show.

“Why, what is a young lass doing out here all on her own?” The accent was unmistakable, thick Scottish and male. Katherine was terrified but, she wasn’t backing down.

“I said stay back!” She had yelled it this time. There was silence. Katherine went to take a tentative step forward when the figure sprung to life. Instinctively she had lurched backwards and felt the air breeze past her face as the blade clattered into the shelving unit to her right, ruining whatever was on the shelves. Kicking out towards her attacker, Katherine cried out.

“Christian!” Her voice was shrill, in fear. Her foot had hit the male’s thigh and he staggered back ever so slightly.

“Oh, I love it when they fight back!” His voice was playful if anything and this sickened Katherine as she turned and ran. She could hear the hurried footsteps behind her as she got into the main foyer and turned to face her assailant, the light from outside beaming in from the windows. The male stood there, pale with thinning light brown hair and a twisted expression upon his face. His grey hoodie was covered in blood alongside his dark blue jeans. Now, Katherine could see the sword, it was also covered in blood... clearly the blood of the deceased she had seen moments prior.

“Why’d you stop? Accepting your fa-“ The male was cut off mid sentence as a long projectile like weapon struck him in his side, just under his rib cage. Christians’ javelins! Katherine turned to her left and watched as Christian hurried over already readying another javelin. The male swung his blade once again towards Katherine who threw herself backwards onto the floor and readied her own weapon for the worst. Christian thrusted his javelin like a spear forward but, the assailant evaded it narrowly and lashed downwards with his forearm. The javelin snapped and as fast as Christian had mounted his offence, so did the male. His head jerked forward and collided with Christians’ nose sending him flat on his back. Katherine had taken the time the attention wasn’t solely on her to stand up as she watched the male shakily raise his sword above his head. Raising her cleaver, Katherine had stepped forward and swung downwards. The male barely had the time to peer over at Katherine as the cleaver lodged itself into his neck. His eyes went wide and Katherine used all her strength to rip her cleaver free, the blood spurting out over her face and clothes causing her to recoil in disgust. The sound of metal clattering against the floor echoed throughout the foyer as the man now clutched at his neck. Christian had stood grabbing onto the man’s shoulder and ripped his javelin free from his side. As a final act of triumph, Christian shoved the man over to let him bleed out. With one last look at the soon to be corpse Christian furrowed his brow... taking another’s life never got any easier no matter what. Turning back to Katherine, Christian hurried over as she was keeled over. He heard a rather peculiar sound coming from her. Was that dry heaving? He advanced to Katherine’s side concerned that she may have been hurt but, upon closer inspection Christian quickly made the observation of what was about to happen. Springing into action, Christian removed the last measly inch of distance between them with one last determined step.

“Hey, hey... get it all out.” He stated as his hand immediately went to her back, rubbing it softly as she continued to bring back up anything she had eaten in the past two days. Christian smiled to himself, if only for a brief moment, that was his exact reaction the first time he’d taken another life... albeit it was a squirrel and it was whilst out hunting with his father. Katherine in some ways reminded Christian of himself from a much simpler time. Yes she didn’t quite know how this world worked yet but, she was kind and from the lucky save only mere moments before Christian pinned her as loyal to a fault. A person of Katherine’s talkative nature and energy was a rare commodity that he had not been as fortunate enough to come across since this whole apocalypse begun. Soon enough, Katherine had finally finished and looked up to Christian. The silence hung over them like a dark cloud of despair only dissipating once Katherine realised that her actions had indeed saved Christian’s life. A smile threatened to take over her features, tugging aggressively at the corners of her mouth. The last thing she wanted to do right now was look too proud of her ‘accomplishment’. Realising that it was her turn to speak she panicked, what should she say?

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” A weak laugh escaped her lips and Christian shrugged.

“You saved my life, you get to be as disgusting as your heart desires.” He smiled, Katherine could not believe what she was seeing. She rolled her eyes and hit his arm playfully.

“You’re such an ass.” She remarked as she stood up straight, her eyes meeting with his for a moment. She’d never truly admired how much of a gorgeous shade of brown his eyes truly were. The moment seemed to end all too soon as Christian broke the silence first.

“Katherine? We still need to find food.” He had turned, motioning for her to follow him as he continued onwards back towards the M&S. Katherine sighed to herself, now was not the time to drool over Rambo, it was time to find supplies to preserve their life expectancy. Following Christian back into the dark area of the M&S, Katherine spoke up.

“There’s a body.” Was all she uttered, hoping Christian would understand. Christian simply nodded back at her as they entered the shop floor once again, Christian wasted no time as he scooped up a basket from the entrance and began to scour the shelves both with his eyes and his hands. He was just scooping whatever he found into the basket and... Katherine followed suit. She also grabbed a basket and did the exact same thing on the other side of the shop floor, if it was on the shelf then it was going in the basket. They could sort through the perishables later and considering the fact they had a vehicle, storage was not an issue. Katherine had stopped as she got to a section right next to the till. It was the sanitary station and she could make out a few items that were crucial for any lady to have in their possession. She sighed to herself and scooped them into the basket alongside the rest of the food and drink items. Katherine began to make for the exit where she found Christian already stood waiting.

“Let’s load up the vehicle and get back en route to Haven.” Christian was being rather strict with his timings but, he wanted to get there as soon as possible. If it existed then everything would be great but, if it was indeed all a hoax then he wanted plenty of daylight hours left to try to find somewhere else to hunker down or formulate another plan of survival. They walked in relative silence with their baskets of goodies to the car. Christian had put his Kukri in his basket before reaching forward and taking Katherines’ basket from her.

“I’ll load the boot, you’re driving.” He remarked as he walked ahead. Katherine smiled to herself, he was your typical man.

Soon enough, they were back on the road. Christian had snagged a few snacks he had found in the baskets for the journey to keep Katherine and himself going. He was tucking into a packet of nuts, raisins and seeds whilst studying the map. They were on this road for a while and luckily there had been no pile ups thus far even though, he had planned for that eventuality and had marked several back road routes that could be utilised.

“Probably be on this road for another thirty minutes, if you need a break at any point just say.” Christian spoke up but, Katherine wasn’t going to let herself look weak in front of Christian.

“I can handle a little bit of driving Christian, why don’t you get some sleep?” She suggested with a glance over in his direction.

“You need a navigator.” He replied in classic Christian fashion.

“Suit yourself, don’t complain when it’s your turn to drive and you feel a little tired.” Katherine teased playfully as Christian shrugged and buried his head back in his map. He was definitely going to be a tough nut to crack but, Katherine was determined to get Christian to open up. Focusing on the road, Katherine read the various signs and changed lanes every so often to avoid cars that had been abandoned long ago. The roads were relatively empty so the journey was consistent and smooth, she was doing eighty miles per hour constantly as she wasn’t a fan of driving particularly fast but this was a world without speed limits so why drive at seventy? Christian was pondering over the many possibilities of this Haven. His general vision had it as a sort of outpost much like the ones the military had set up early on hopefully with their own electricity presumably from fuel powered generators and maybe even running water? Surely a plumber or two must have survived this thing, hopefully. Christian was just holding out hope that this Haven did in fact exist and would take them in. He was tired of living a nomadic lifestyle constantly in the open to be picked at by scavengers, stragglers and whatever else in between. Sure, he could handle his own and had been relatively unscathed up until now but, no one wanted to live a life constantly on the move and having to look over their shoulder every two seconds in fear of something biting down on it.

“So, tell me more about yourself.” Katherines’ simple question broke the silence once again and Christian couldn’t deny, this journey would go a lot faster with conversation. He cleared his throat ready to speak up.

“I was an only child to a single father. My mother unfortunately died during child birth.” He began to explain, Katherine couldn’t help but already feel the heaviness of his statement even if he did choose to present it with the same dry tone he seemed to always speak with.

“It wasn’t all doom and gloom. My father taught me many things, how to shave, drive, shoot and even how to play the guitar.” As a rare sight, Christian was smiling ever so slightly as he reminisced about the times with his father as a young lad.

“The guitar? You? Now, this I have got to see.” Katherine was grinning from ear to ear, Mr Mathers was truly full of surprises.

“I wouldn’t say I’m any good but, I can certainly play some campfire songs.” Laughter, a joke? Christian was certainly more at ease, more so than Katherine had witnessed in the short time having known him.

“Well if we find a guitar anytime soon, you’ll have to let me be the judge of that.” Katherine remarked, playfully of course.

“So, how old were you when you joined the military?” She enquired, further.

“Sixteen, I spent a lot of my teenage years in training establishments. First off I was at the College in Harrogate then the Training Centre in Catterick. Soon enough, I had joined the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment.” Christian went on to explain his time spent in training. How he got disciplined multiple times due to his willingness to talk back to the training staff and dispute a lot of their decisions. Young Christian was definitely a troublemaker.

They had been talking for quite some time when Christian eventually snapped out of his talkative mood and back into navigator mode.

“This exit coming up.” He reminded Katherine who simply nodded before opening her mouth to speak up again.

“I like hearing your stories. You’re an interesting man, Christian.” She glanced over to him briefly, noticing the small smile that this compliment garnered from him.

“Thank you Katherine, but, I believe it’s time you tell me more about yourself?” Classic deflection tactic but, Katherine never shied away from an opportunity to make conversation.

“Well, I actually had three siblings growing up. One older sister and two younger brothers.” Katherine couldn’t help but smile as she reminisced about better days.

“So, my sisters name was Steph, she would’ve been twenty eight now. Then we have Jacob and Morgan. Seventeen and fifteen respectively.” As Katherine spoke she revealed how Stephanie was the brains of the family, going into accountancy at a big firm not long after graduating from university. Jacob was your classic teenage lad, he played video games a lot and more often than not would arrive home at early hours in the morning highly intoxicated after drinking in the woods with his friends. Lastly, Morgan was very quiet and spent most of his days drawing and by the sound of it he was very talented when it came to art. Christian had always wished for a big family of many siblings but, he would never change the memories he had with his father. In fact, it was the lack of siblings that made them so close. He tuned back into what Katherine was saying as she spoke further about her family life.

“I did three years of Health and Social care at college, I didn’t really fancy uni so I went straight into work in a care home.” Katherine went on to detail how most of her ‘patients’ were much like the stragglers but, with much less biting. Of course, she laughed as she made this comparison hoping Christian would laugh alongside her. He didn’t laugh but, he half smiled and that was a win for Katherine or at least she’d class it as one. She continued on explaining about one of her patients, a male in his nineties by the name of Marv. He would play dead and he was a damn convincing actor so Katherine would have a mild panic attack every time just for Marv to scare her and laugh uproariously after it.

“Marv died on my third year at the care home, when he passed it broke my heart.” The statement brought Christian back to their own reality, nothing good lasted forever.

“Well, it sounds like you guys had some good memories together and at least you know... he was happy until the very end.” He smiled softly at Katherine as he said this, a rare softness behind his voice and amongst his facial features.

“Thank you, that’s a nice thought.” Katherine responded sharing the brief smile with Christian as she continued to drive on down the road. Keeping her eyes trained on the road ahead, Katherine changed over to the far right lane to avoid the overturned car blocking the left two lanes. Whoever was driving that vehicle beforehand certainly didn’t get off too well. Then, it was time to take the next exit. She pulled off into the left lane and followed the road towards the roundabout coming up.

Christian was brought back to his senses from his map as the vehicle slammed to a halt. Christian’s head shot up to look forward. There was a massive pile up on the roundabout that would be severely difficult to traverse.

“Jesus Christ, this is a mess.” Katherines’ words spoke true of the carnage ahead of them and Christian nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, luckily I have a back up route but, it is ten miles back the other way.” Christian remarked. He stayed silent for a long moment as Katherine studied the wreckage ahead of them. The main cause of the pile-up seemed to be an overturned lorry, the body work of an SUV was protruding from under the back end of the lorry with several cars all on their side or crumpled up together like sardines. Katherine could not have imagined the terror or fear people felt during this horrific accident. Christian had a sudden realisation and opened his door on impulse.

“Let’s go grab whatever we can salvage then get out of here.” The words left his mouth and Katherine began to leave the safety of the vehicle clutching her cleaver close as Christian slowly brought one of his javelins from his bundle with his left hand. Moving as one, they approached the wreck. Christian pointed to Katherine subsequently pointing at the nearest car; a crumpled estate car with the boot relatively still in a good state. Nodding her head at his simple command, Katherine reached her target beginning to work on prying the boot open to get at the treasures that would potentially be hidden inside. Christian stretched his arm out as far as it would go in an attempt to reach a grey rucksack in the back seat of the crumpled vehicle. Shards of broken glass surrounded his arm feeling more and more like a shark’s mouth by the second. His fingertips brushed the strap of the rucksack ever so slightly as he desperately attempted to grasp a hold of it. Noise, the hairs on the back of Christian’s neck stood up as his head snapped to his right seeing what he feared most. Three individuals were making their way through the carnage... he stepped back in one swift motion feeling the jagged edges of the broken window run along the underside of his arm. Christian bit his tongue to stifle his pain feeling that all too familiar warmth as the blood soaked the fabric of his sleeve from the fresh wound. Dropping to one knee to conceal himself, Christian looked straight in Katherine’s direction as she worked away on the boot of her assigned vehicle. Katherine’s gaze fell on Christian, the look of confusion spread over her face as he motioned to the floor then over his shoulder. Katherine’s eyes followed the trail and her eyes widened upon the realisation of what had spooked Christian. Following Christian’s lead she dropped down to one knee behind her own vehicle peering past the wheel arch to keep an eye on Christian as well as the advancing threat. Leading the pack was a young brown haired male with a tanned complexion. His facial hair was scarce and patchy with a short pale scar running from under his earlobe to the centre of his right cheek. He wore a simple red chequered shirt, dark blue jeans and light brown worker boots. Within his hands was a short barrelled shotgun, presumably sawn off, a weapon of pure destruction in any close quarters situation.

Christian’s eyes went wide seeing the weaponry the trio had available to themselves, it was incredibly rare to see a singular firearm nowadays let alone three. Whatever sense of fear and uneasiness Christian was feeling at this moment, Katherine was feeling that but multiplied tenfold. Christian slowly began to duck walk towards Katherine peeking over his shoulder at irregular intervals. Christian had never been thrust into a situation where he had to possibly face a well equipped enemy without matching their equipment and weaponry or surpassing it. Suddenly, the loud voice of the trio’s leader broke the eerie silence.

“Vehicle, just off the roundabout! Get to it!” The orders were barked out and Christian couldn’t help but think of all the days he spent in training hearing the same tone of voice berating him as he breathlessly tried to traverse a hill with mountains of kit baring down on his shoulders. Peeking back over the side of the car, the leader had disappeared out of sight. Christian leant a little bit further out desperately trying to get eyes back on the potential threat. The hairs on the back of Christians neck stood to attention, too late for his liking. Before he could react to his obvious survival instincts he felt something cold against the back of his neck. It was metallic and he’d already guessed it wasn’t something pleasant.

“Stand up.” The same voice that had barked out those commands just mere moments ago was now directing those commands to him. Christian obeyed, slowly standing fully.

“Drop it.” Christian took a deep breath as he let go of his Kukri, hearing the blade drop to his feet.

“Good. Now, is anyone else with you?” The question Christian was dreading. At least, if he was asking he hadn’t discovered Katherine yet. If the girl had any sense, she’d get out of there and try to survive on her own. Christian doubted she’d leave him, the girl was too good natured and that would be her downfall if she decided to play hero in this story, just go. Christian could get himself out of this situation, he just had to think.

“No, I’m on my own.” Christian’s words broke the silence as the male behind processed this, Christian was thankful the man couldn’t bring out a polygraph machine right now to detect his lie. Suddenly, Christian felt the weapon pushed harder into the back of his skull.

“Are you sure about that? Not many people travelling alone by themselves nowadays.” This man was persistent but, Christian wasn’t backing down.

“I’m sure, I’m all alone.” Christian felt the weight back down ever so slightly.

“Okay, Lone Ranger, I’ll believe you for now. How about you show me the keys to that there vehicle?” Christian’s eyes went wide at this proposal, he didn’t have the keys. Katherine had driven last and taken the keys with her.

“The keys? You think I’ve been driving in that thing? I’ve been living in it.” Christian lied. The male laughed, not a gleeful, joyful laugh but a sinister laugh.

“We heard you arrive, we were searching this little pile up just like yourself. Now give me those keys, my little group could do with a motor.” The man had already caught Christian out on a lie now and as such, it was going to get increasingly harder to talk his way out of this one. So, he wasn’t going to.

Christian stepped forward ever so slightly before dropping down suddenly, his left leg struck out backwards hitting the man right where it hurt. The male staggered back as Christian took this opportunity to lunge forward, his left hand seized the arm holding the firearm as his other went straight to the male’s neck. The male had fired off his rounds in surprise as Christian grabbed his wrist, his arm twisted and pulled trying to no avail to break Christians grasp. The man’s knee shot up into Christian’s stomach keeling him over slightly. Letting go of his neck, Christians fist smashed into the side of the man’s head. The sound of something clattering against the ground snapped both males heads to the side. The sawn off was laying by their feet. Christian shoved the man into the bonnet of a car as he scrambled towards the firearm.

“Boys! Shoot him!” The male yelled out as he began to advance towards Christian. The two males from earlier began to run towards the pile up from the vehicle they had been searching. Christian had reached the firearm and he felt his fingertips brush it before he felt a hand grip his shoulder getting pulled back rather aggressively. He kicked his Kukri as he staggered back, perfect. Reaching down, he grabbed his blade and swung as the male turned the blade striked the forearm. The male yelled out in pain the firearm once again clattering to the ground. Christian scooped up the sawn off and raised it until it was level with the males head. A gunshot broke Christian out of his trance, he placed a boot into the man’s stomach before turning and running as fast as he could. He heard another few gunshots but, luckily his attackers didn’t seem to be trained marksmen. He began to look around, his head snapping in every direction as he ran. Where the hell was Katherine?

Katherine was following Christians every move with her eyes as she followed from a distance, not running as such but keeping a hurried pace as she weaved through the pile up. The attackers hadn’t noticed her yet and she was very much thankful for that fact. Was he really going to abandon their vehicle? It was the most efficient way to get to Haven and it held all their supplies! Katherine tried to keep her cool, whatever Christian had decided he would definitely have a good reason. He seemed to always have a back up plan or strategy. The attackers weren’t running as such anymore, Katherine was very lucky as she had a perfect vantage point here to keep eyes on both Christian and the attackers. She noticed that the trio of thugs were now searching looking within every vehicle as they passed. They’d lost Christian, now was her chance! She began to weave her way towards Christian who had hunkered himself behind an SUV style vehicle presumably to catch his breath. It took a few minutes, that felt like hours, but Katherine had made it to the SUV. She peeked around the corner of the vehicle.

“Hello stranger, leaving without me?” Her voice was surprisingly calm. Christian raised the weapon but, upon realisation he shook his head with a brief chuckle.

“Well, not anymore. Let’s go.”