Survival Of The Fittest by Catherine Holland (novel24 .TXT) 📖

took refuge in the area she'd once lived in, the memories too strong for her to stay in the place she'd once called home. After feeding and changing the babe, and setting up the travel-cot, Gabby made sure the small house was secure, and set up the cameras to her laptop.

Later that night, after Gabby made sure the babe was sleeping peacefully, she made herself a mug of coffee, and sat in a chair near the window, after the stress and caution of having to search, and shoot the infected, she could no longer hold back the memories:

It had been two weeks, since the attack outside of their home, and Gabby had forced her mother, and brother, to pack up a few essential belongings, and had waited for the first light of dawn, before loading everything into her car.

During the first few hours, they had seen the streets littered with the infected, men, women, and children, they had then driven past dead animals. "What's happening to everyone?" My brother had asked, "I don't know, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning." Gabby had replied.

Her mother had wrapped a comforting arm around her brother, and said, "Don't worry, Gabby will keep us safe." Gabby had looked in her rear-view mirror, and seen the scared looks on their faces, she had then turned on the radio, to see if any station had any news of what was happening, and she caught the tail end of an emergency broadcast. ". . . Repeat, do not attempt to go near any of the infected, and avoid the quarantine areas, if at all possible, the infected are highly contagious."

There had been no more news, or information after that announcement, but Gabby had figured out more than enough to keep them alive, "We need weapons, and a safe place to stay." She had said, her brother had replied, "Can't we just go home?" She had caught her mother's eye and shaken her head, then listened as her mother started muttering soothing nonsense to her brother.

Over the next two weeks, a routine developed, Gabby, her mother, and brother, would search for survivors and practice their shooting by day, and by night, they would select a house to spend the night in, taking it in turns to watch out for any infected that may become curious, and decide to break into the house.

At the beginning of the third week, just after Gabby, and her family had stolen supplies from a Supermarket, they heard a baby crying, as it was during the day, Gabby assumed that the baby would be free from infection. As her mother had approached the squalling babe, Gabby said.

"Before you pick it up, make sure that none of that blood, belongs to it." Her mother had glanced at her and replied, "It's only a baby, Gabby, he's probably just hungry, besides, it's daytime." Gabby had shaken her head, "That doesn't matter, it's better to be safe, than sorry."

Her mother had had a stubborn streak, but she'd nodded her head, and approached the baby with more caution. Gabby had a bad feeling about the baby, it was the same feeling she'd had when the infected had first started attacking. The closer her mother got to the toddler, the quieter it became, the alarm bells ringing in Gabby's head, growing louder.

Just as her mother picked the baby up, Gabby called out a warning, but it was too late, the toddler's bronze eyes flashed, just as he sank his teeth into her mother's neck. Her mother dropped to the floor, the infected baby still tearing chunks of flesh from her mother's neck, crying loudly.

Gabby was wrenched from her memories by the baby, she was wriggling around and crying softly, sitting up straighter and clutching the loaded gun in her hand, Gabby glanced out of the window, and was unnerved to see some of the infected nearing the house she was staying in.

Lifting the babe from her travel-cot, she felt a wetness, and discovered the source of the noise, glancing out of the window once more, she saw the infected staring back at her, Gabby swore to herself, and judged that she had about ten minutes, before the infected figured out how to get into the property.

Double-checking that her weapons were fully loaded, Gabby took a risk and changed the babe, placing her back in the cot, just as the front door crashed open, she went out into the hallway, and turned the light on, making sure that her bag full of loaded guns was open, and by her side, and settled in for a long night, dawn was still three hours away.

As the first of the infected reached the inner doors, the resounding crashes made her flinch, but after taking one look at the bloodied mouths, Gabby opened fire, one shot to each head. Time seemed to pass in a blur, it was only the increased violence in the infected, that made Gabby realise that dawn was fast approaching.

Gabby was down to her last clip of ammo, when the infected started dropping to the floor, she could see the sunlight creeping across the few exposed places on the ground floor. She waited another ten minutes, before deciding it was safe enough to go outside, Gabby picked up the empty clips and the used guns, putting them into the pack, she then went into the smaller and master bedrooms, and collected her cameras, laptop, and swords, before picking the babe up and placing her in the car seat, before folding down the travel-cot, slinging the baby bag over her shoulder, and carefully going down the stairs, past the infected, to load up her car.

The babe was still crying an hour later, so Gabby pulled into a twenty-four hour service station at the beginning of the motorway, and made several solutions of bottled milk up, picking up several cans of cold coffee and something to eat for breakfast, before activating the petrol pumps and filling up her car.

Once the bottles were at room temperature, Gabby picked the babe up, held her close to her chest, and began feeding her. The babe began falling asleep after the bottle was half-empty, and Gabby was struck by a sudden thought, looking down at the sleeping child, she started patting her back to bring up the wind, "What do we call you? I can't keep calling you 'the babe,' it doesn't seem right."

Half an hour later, as Gabby was scouting out possible locations for where survivors would hide-out, she glanced at the child, and realised, that it really was a miracle, that the child had survived this long, "Angel." Gabby said aloud, the name seemed fitting, especially under the circumstances, besides, she couldn't exactly ask the child's parents, as they were already dead.

Lost in her own thoughts, Gabby almost missed the small woman, stumbling along the pavement, feeling cautious, she stopped the car and beeped her horn, the woman stopped and slowly turned around, her dark hair was greasy, and her clothes were filthy, but there were no signs of blood that Gabby could see.

Gabby switched off the engine, glanced at Angel, and then slowly opened her door, the swords at her back were comforting, to the woman, she said, "Can you hear me?" The woman seemed offended, "Of course I can, do you take me for being stupid?" Gabby inclined her head, "My apologies, I had to know if you were infected."

The woman stiffened, "Infected? If I was one of them, do you think I'd be walking around during the day? Now, if you're done insulting me, I have places to be." The woman half-turned around to walk away, "Wait!" Gabby said, the woman turned and looked at her, "Yes?" Gabby scanned the street and said, "Would you like a lift? It's been a while since I've been around live company, survivors are a rare occurance these days."

The woman hesitated, then said, "Are you armed?" Gabby replied, "Yes, but I'm running low on ammo, and I'll have to feed Angel soon, are you armed?" The woman shook her head, "No, and it's getting harder to cope with the amount of infected, that show up at night." Gabby nodded her head, "I know what you mean, we can always band together, there's safety in numbers."

The woman hesitated again, then replied, "I like the sound of that, there's a gun store not too far from here." Gabby smiled as the woman approached her, holding out her hand, she said, "My name is Gabby, and the child in the passenger seat, is Angel." The woman replied, "My name is Danni, I can't be too long, I have to get back before dark."

As they got into Gabby's car, and were once more in motion, Gabby said, "Where is it you have to get back to? If there are more survivors, we stand a greater chance of fighting the infected." Before Danni could reply, Angel woke up and started crying, Gabby pulled over and took a bottle out from the bag, she then positioned the blanket to hold the bottle in place, and started driving again.

Danni suddenly said, "The gun store is just there, I'll stay and watch Angel, whilst you gather what you need." Gabby shot her a sharp look, "Why would you do that? I don't mean to offend, but I don't know you." Danni shrugged, "Lock us in, if you like, it makes no difference to me, I'm just offering to help." Gabby looked into Danni's eyes, and finally nodded, she then looked at Angel and took the keys out of the ignition, she closed the door, and then locked them, hearing the satisfying 'beep' of the alarm system.

It took Gabby an hour, and six trips to the car, before she was satisfied that she had enough guns and ammo, Danni's eyes were wide open in astonishment, "What did you do, take every weapon you saw?" Gabby looked at her and replied, "Enough to keep us safe, where do you need to go?" Danni said, "I need to get supplies, enough to keep us going for a while."

Gabby looked up at the sky, and swore softly, the storm clouds moving in quickly, meant the sun would set early. Danni followed her gaze, and said, "Will we have enough time?" Gabby estimated the time it would take to get to the shopping complex, plus the amount of time spent inside, and shook her head, "No, I have food with me, tell me where you're staying, and for tonight, we'll combine forces."

Danni nodded, and said, "Albatross Radio, there were about fifty of us, now we're down to sixteen." Gabby winced, "How did you lose so many?" When there was no answer, she looked in her rear-view mirror, and saw tears in Danni's eyes, and roll silently down her face. "Danni, I'm sorry, I know it's hard losing people you know, even loved ones, we're almost there now."

A few minutes later, Gabby pulled up outside Albatross Radio, and was dismayed to see at least fifty infected bodies, both inside and out, Danni seemed to become alert the moment the car stopped. Gabby undid the seatbelt that had held Angel in place, and said, "Take Angel inside, amd wait for me, I need to clear the infected out of the way."

 

Chapter Two