The Loner

Chapter One - The Discovery

It was a brisk morning with a slight north westerly breeze. Quite low cloud and today seemed to have a new hope about it.
Kate lay in the grass, covered by a make shift blanket made from a cardboard box that she found the day before. She looked up towards the blue sky. There were scattered white fluffy clouds which were drifting slowly above her, disappearing out of Kate's view. The long grass made it difficult to see too much further than a meter or so in any direction, the blades made quiet brushing sounds as they swayed and battered against each other in the morning wind.
Kate had decided she would lie outside last night. Well it was not really her idea. She was forced by the police. It seemed they had a problem with loiterers in this town. Kate usually found the best places to sleep were always the ones the police seemed to patrol nightly and she could never get a good night's sleep with them around. It seemed like they kept waking her up every five minutes. So she decided to make her way to where she was now a field which turned out to be quite a safe place, at least so far. As it seemed the tall grass concealed her from the surrounding roads and more importantly other people, including the police.
Kate shivered and tried to cover herself with more of her homemade duvet as she pulled herself to sit up straight. The early morning sun and wind did not go down well, and Kate winced and shivered and finally slumped as she sat up. She found if she sat up straight and stretched a little she could just see above the top of the grass. She looked around and it seemed very quiet for a weekday morning.
Kate looked around and guessed it was about 8 in the morning. She was normally pretty good at telling time by the sun and the fact that lots of people and cars were around meant that it was close to 9, but not today for some strange reason. She couldn't see or hear for that matter, anything.
She listened, not just heard, but really tried to listen to any sound or noise that might make her feel a little more at ease. But there was nothing. She felt a little uncomfortable even if they did bother her during the night. This kind of non sound hurt her ears as she strained for a noise which never came, only the wind.
She sat there with a slight slump not even moving, just managing to peak through the top of the grass as it sway lower than its natural height, giving split second views of buildings along the street. She quickly scanned the chimneys for smoke of which there was none. She thought about the night before. How she scrambled for any kind of material to make her bed with, which wouldn't get too wet in the night. I suppose that depended on the place where she slept, but that was the whole skill about sleeping on the street, or in last nights case sleeping in a field. Luckily it didn't rain, but it was uncomfortable all the same with this piercing cold wind.
Kate decided to get up properly, once and for all. She couldn't sleep here all day now could she? She remembered back to when she and her brother lived at home with their parents. She would still be in bed when dad used to shout upstairs in the morning. "Get up Kate, were leaving in 5 minutes". It was such a hardship to get out of bed on a cold morning and get washed and dressed and for her to eat breakfast and go to college, but she did it all the same. She kind of wished she was still back in that bed, snuggling up to the warm pillows and her stuffed animals.
She felt some remorse for herself in her situation and zoned out for a while becoming stuck in the moment.
She was quickly jolted out by a cold blast of the morning wind. She shivered again and pulled the cardboard bed clothes off of her and swung round to sit on her knees. At this height she could easily see above the tall grass by a whole head's length.
She looked around to see not a single body moving around in the streets. Not even someone peeking through the curtains at their next door neighbor's new car and such like.
She couldn't understand what had happened. Even on a holiday there were people still roaming the streets doing their errands whether there commercial or domestic, it didn't matter. She stood up straight, trying to perform some exercise she remembered from an expensive fitness video her mother used to own. Slowly moving her shoulders back and forth and hearing faint clicking noises coming from her joints. She definitely felt the difference to sleeping on the cold hard pavement. Maybe she could get a season ticket to her knew found penthouse suite in the field? She cracked a weathered smile at the thought of it, and finished the rest of her exercises.
She looked around and decided what to do first. "I think the first order of the day" she said "would be... "no, should be, BREAKFAST!" she said aloud. Her stomach agreed with this executive decision and with this in mind she walked towards her favorite bakers. Well it was the only one she could see at the time but she treated it as such. She rummaged around in her pockets and discovered she had a little money left over and hoped she would have enough for a roll or doughnut or something. It could be anything really, just as long as it kept the hunger monsters away, she rubbed her tummy. Maybe she would ask the shop keeper where everyone was.
As she got closer to the bakers she definitely realized something was wrong because there was no one in the shop. Not even an assistant. Kate walked to the door of the bakers and found it was unlocked. It even made the tell tail jingle to let the owners know someone had just come in to the shop. She walked over to the counter and said in a calm slightly juddering voice because of the cold "Anyone there?" She waited for a little while and said it again. She glanced around the inside of the shop and quickly through the shop window to make sure no one was trying to trick her. Kate decided to go behind the counter, and quickly looked through the doorway which seemed to go to the back room to check no one was there waiting to surprise her. Kate wasn't sure why someone would go through all the hassle just to trick her but she felt compelled to do so anyway.
She turned her attention to the bread products in the display counter. She reached out and grabbed a doughnut and immediately stuffed it into her mouth and munching down on it quickly with a sense of completion when she licked her lips to hide any evidence of foul play on her part for not paying.
Kate quickly scanned all of the items on display and noticed there weren't any hot products like bread or buns from the morning's oven. This could just mean that they hadn't cooked any this morning. Kate mulled over this fact and thought it was very strange. "Well She said "They will just go out of business if there aren't any fresh bread products "whatever, I don't care she finished. Kate immediately grabbed only what she needed and stuffed them into her coat and bag. She climbed back over the counter taking her place on the rightful side of counter again. She couldn't really believe her luck and cracked a big smile while she gorged on her third doughnut.
Kate walked out of the shop. She took the panorama in and decided to walk down the high street. Only because that's where most people would be either shopping or working, she wanted to know what was going on. She walked at a steady pace and noticed cars parked in their normal spots next to flats above shops. She stopped and listened. She could hear a faint noise but nothing else not even birds. The noise grew closer and increased in volume. She thought it was a kind of shuffling maybe footsteps, she wasn't sure.
Kate span round and saw a man dressed in what looked like jeans and a normal coat nothing special, but he was walking funny. Kate tilted her head and squinted to try and make more sense of him, but she couldn't. He had a kind of limp or walking impediment she couldn't be sure. The man was at least 20 odd meters away slowly walking towards her. She felt a little relieved that someone else was around which was a little strange in its self. Kate had never liked the other people, people that walk on past and never look down to see just what's in the gutter. Most of the time it was her, and if they ever did look, she would be looking straight back at them. They couldn't seem to handle that.
She maneuvered her self back against the shop front and continued to watch the man walk towards her. The man was meandering as he walked and from time to time Kate thought he was walking directly at her. This was stupid she thought, anyway he looked creepy. She broke the stare for a moment and looked at the ground in a lame attempt to feel a little more secure.
As Kate looked back towards him again he had increased his speed and was almost falling over himself to get to her. This time his arms were stretched out towards Kate and there was a wide blank stare in his eyes. Kate could see that he was no ordinary man, far from it. He had grey skin and something around his mouth like¦ no, hang on. It was blood.
She got to her feet as quickly as an army recruit did reacting from an order from her drill sergeant. Then she froze as the man had reached her by this time and his hands were quickly moving towards her neck. The man grabbed Kate around the neck and wouldn't let go. "GET OF ME YOU FREAK! Kate shouted and started to struggle against the man's iron grip. Kate was quite strong. She used to do self defense at school and could give someone a mean crotch kick. She had evidence to this fact because she put her bastard boy friend in the fetal position after she found out he was going with her best friend.
She brought her foot up with such force that it made her leg ache. The man didn't even flinch and he tried to bite her neck. What was this she thought some vampire movie. "GET THE FUCK OF ME SHITHEAD she yelled in his ear. She brought her leg up and stuck it between them both and pushed with all the power she could muster. He stumbled back letting go of her neck and nearly fell on his ass. Kate watched him and became transfixed by eyes of the man. They seemed to have the fire of hell in them.
Kate felt a powerful chill deep inside her and she gasped with terror and instinctively put her hands in front of her face to somehow protect her from this evil terror. What happened next Kate couldn't really understand for a brief moment but it soon dawned on her what had transpired. Kate heard a gunshot coming from the distance and then a sound that could only be attributed to a body hitting the ground. She brought her arms away from her face and looked at the man lying on the ground with what looked like a gunshot wound in the head, not a very clean one, blood was everywhere including on her.
Not believing her eyes she quickly swung her head left and right to see where the shot had come from scanning the buildings, doors and windows.
As she looked to the left back from where she walked from and saw another figure standing on a wall besides the pathway. She watched as the figure became a man as it got closer, a man with a gun. Kate wanted to move in the opposite direction and run, but her body refused to work.
The man walked towards her and stopped in front of Kate.
"I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner, I'm sorry to put you through that but I had to make sure said the man
Kate looked up at the man his eyes were kind but his features were course and weathered, like he'd been outside for days surviving on street like Kate.
"I Kate paused; she didn't know where to start
Kate couldn't help it but tears started to well up in her eyes and she started to cry, right there in front of this man. She couldn't believe she was crying in front of a stranger, how embarrassing but she didn't care. She hadn't cried since her childhood and almost forgot how, but this event soon brought that skill back.
Kate's frozen pose finally ended as if she was a puppet controlled by some external force and someone had cut her strings and she immediately slumped like a rag doll on to floor. The man caught her in time just before she hurt herself badly and held her in his arms. Kate found an immediate solace in this man and flung her arms around him and buried her head deep into his thick coat.
"Its OK, it's OK he said
Kate found her footing and attempted to stand up. Kate couldn't hold it back anymore, she let go and started sobbing.
"She snapped I tell you, it was as if she was waiting for someone to come along and show 'er, her deepest nightmare and make her face up to it
"I can't blame her though, can you? Would you? Not for what by the sounds she has gone through anyway
"I need a drink muttered josh
"Hey bar keep! josh said while emphasizing the buh and the ke.
An old guy slightly balding swaggered over and nodded at josh.
"I'll have another please Said Josh and looked down at his empty glass. The bar tender picked up glass and walked away.
"So where did you find her Josh? said Fred
"It's a long story Fred, I was on my routine check of the town centre to check if any of them bastards had made it that far and I saw her walking around. She was definitely not one of them, you know you can tell some how?
Fred nodded in agreement and sat of his seat waiting for Josh to continue his story.
"So yeah, she was walking towards town and I decided to follow her. I thought we could use her you know? Fred nodded again. "Then probably because I was so interested in her I didn't notice one of them bastards coming up behind me. Luckily it didn't see me before I knew it was there. I hid in a shop front and let it stumble by. I watched it go slowly towards the girl and I raised my rifle and took aim at his head.
The bar tender came back with a full glass of vodka covered with ice and put it down on the counter next to josh and muttered something about the world going to hell under his breath. Josh immediately grabbed the glass and took a large swig of vodka and crushed one of the ice cubes in his mouth and eat it like a piece of meat.
"So, there I was watching this bastard through the scope of my rifle as it was gaining speed towards her. I saw that he had his arms stretched out for her and I wasn't totally sure that she wasn't one of them before, but I was one hundred percent sure she wasn't one of them now. It grabbed her round the neck and it looked like it was all over for her and I cursed my slow thinking, but as luck would have it she managed to push him back and I took that opportunity to blast his brains out. Josh smiled and swigged the rest of the vodka down leaving the ice cubes to melt.
"Well sighed Fred "I must admit you are one crack shot when it comes to rifles, but what I don't understand is how you manage to have such a natural talent for it? asked Fred
At that point the door opened behind them and they both spun round to see Kate standing there with red eyes still wearing her old clothes and yawning at them.

Chapter Two - Confusion

"So what were you doing, just wandering about in what happens to be the worst place in this town?" Josh raised and eyebrow and looked straight into Lucy eyes.
Lucy stared straight back into Josh's eyes with a glazed look. Fred leaned over towards Josh "She doesn't look to good Josh, she probably didn't sleep too well".
"Lucy" she whispered with a faint but steady tone.
"Ahh so you do have name, Lucy aie" said Josh. Lucy walked slowly towards Josh and stopped in front of him next to the bar. "Why did you kill that man?" whispered Lucy "because I had too Lucy" he said in a cold voice "and besides he was no man"
"What do you mean he wasn't a man, he looked like one too me" Lucy immediately regretted saying this having seen the man close up and personal because on reflection he was anything but normal and it only seemed to dawn on her now, when she was at peace.
"He wasn't" blurted Josh and took a final swig from his whisky and crushed the ice in his teeth.
The expression on Lucy's face told Josh and Fred that she didn't know what was going on. There was a long silence with all three of them just sitting there, staring down at the table into what seemed like there own private crystal balls trying to get a grip on the situation to find some solace.
"So what were you doing there? Outside, unprotected?" Immediately after Fred had said this Josh blurted out "somehow under his breath.
"She didn't look too unprotected to me, I saw Lucy give that thing a nasty groin kick". Lucy looked up at Josh. "It hurt though". "I bet it didn't flinch either" said Fred "I've tried that once or twice myself thought it would be a good idea, on the men that is, I bet you could shoot them in the groin and they still wouldn't care" finished Fred "But how, what the hell is going on" said Lucy Both Josh and Fred watched Lucy more closely than before and saw her calm exterior turn instantly into fright and panic and all the emotions that coincided with something bad. Lucy started to cry again but she forced herself to stop and just buried her head in her folded arms on the table and sighed. They didn't say anything but both Josh and Fred knew they had gone through the same emotions to at least there families did. They all sat there again doused in silence except for the barman who was whistling some Irish shanty tune. None of them could quite put there finger on it but there was no use in asking him what it was because the barman didn't have a name, he was called barman and oh yeah, he can't talk.
"What do you mean he wasn't real?" shouted Lucy with her scariest flare face on. She looked straight into the eyes of Fred and asked the question once more. Fred look bemused to find she was so angry and he tried to avoid confrontation whenever he could, especially with women. He slowly moved his look away from Lucy's eyes and they dropped towards the floor. On the way down his eyes fell on her chest and immediately he snapped his head back up to look her straight in her eyes which were still full of fire and rage at him not answering. "WELL?" sneered Lucy Fred stepped in at this point worrying about Fred having a mental breakdown because of an inquisition made by a girl. A pretty one at that.
"Hang on there, wait one second... Said Josh
Just as josh finished his sentence a bell had started to ring, it wasn't an electric alarm bell it was more like an old hand cranked war alarm.
Lucy looked at Josh and Fred who knew exactly what this meant and jumped to their feet. Lucy didn't know what was going on and what to do if she did. She just sat there in the brief second that was allowed, before Josh had ordered Fred to get her back into her room. Josh ran out of the room and Fred grabbed Lucy by the arm and pulled her along. Lucy looked up at Fred like this physical contact had jolted her out of this trance.
"It's gonna be fine, just come with me, ok? Said Fred
Lucy just nodded and let Fred almost drag her out of the room and guide her back down the corridor. Fred might as well have ran with her because it all just seemed like a blur until they reached the semi familiar room where she awoke earlier.
"Just sit there ok? pleaded Fred
"Ok said Lucy calmly
Fred immediately turned and left the room and Lucy heard Fred almost sprinting down the corridor.
Lucy sat there and tried to fathom what was going on. The room was quiet and calm and it was almost like nothing had happened.
Josh saw Fred sprint towards him up the stair to where he was overlooking the courtyard outside the gate beyond the fences.
"Come on, quick, for Christ's sake Fred shouted Josh
Josh turned back towards the outside of the compound. He raised his rifle and took aim at the advancing things.
Fred came to a stop next to Josh panting.
Still with his rifle pointed towards them he turned towards Fred.
"There almost here, again
"Ok Josh, I'm ready for them this time! panted Fred
Josh turned back and took aim at one in the front row advancing slowly. He pulled the trigger and Fred saw it fall from its stagger.
"Nice shot, you are getting better! said Fred now calming down from his semi sprint.
"How did they get through this time? Said Fred
"The fence post near the old shed, you can see it through your scope. It gave way again Said Josh
"There getting stronger? Said Fred
"Maybe, who knows shrugged Josh
Fred took aim and took one of the down about the same distance as the one Josh hit.
Over several minutes they both cleared the area.
"It's your turn Josh said calmly at Fred whilst still looking through his scope.
"Hey nuf of that bullshit Josh you know we both have to go out there and fix that, and once and for all this time I'm sick of sticking my neck out every time they break through. Said Fred
"I know, lets get down there quick and do it before anymore uninvited guests show up?
Josh brought his look away from his scope and raised an eyebrow.