Free Wild Strawberry: Book 3 Ascent by Trevor Donnelly Page B

for the virus, Danniella had considered suicide more than once, but she had refused to run away from the problem she had helped create.  She recognised the despair in Tina’s voice, and worried that her companion may be helpful in a fight, but Tina’s presence could pull Danniella’s moral even lower.
     
    *   *   *
     
    With Arlene gone the shopping trip became much more difficult.  Primal instinct made Will want to be the ‘hunter-gatherer’ so Siobhan could stay in the relative safety of the car.
                  However, Siobhan insisted, “I’m faster, more agile, and you are the better driver.”  She didn’t really believe the last point, but hoped it would appeal to Will’s dented male pride.
                  After a long discussion Will conceded, “OK, but I don’t like it.”
                  They targeted garages and small village stores.  The stores tended to be boarded up, but garages were often looted.
                  At length they found enough to call it a day.
                  “I’d really like some new books.”
                  Will rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “It’s gonna be dangerous to get them, I don’t know if they’re worth the risk.”
                  “Books not worth the risk?”  Siobhan shook her head. “We could be spending the rest of our lives down there; this could be the last time we ever, ever go outdoors.  We need to get a lifetime’s entertainment.
                  “Shite.”  They had talked about life underground, but for the first time Will had a vision of what that could really be like. “Bugger the books!  We need whiskey, and some films.”
                  “So we’re agreed, entertainment is a priority?”
                  “OK.”
                  “And you’re with me that this is worth risking our lives for?”
                  “Abso-fucking-lutely!”
                  “I know where to go!”  Siobhan sat upright in her seat,  “No wait!”  She slumped back down.
                  “What’s wrong?”
                  “I was thinking of Lakeside, the big shopping centre, but it’s the wrong side of the Thames; we’d have to cross at the Queen Elizabeth Bridge or the Blackwall Tunnel.”
                  “I’m not going down the tunnel.  It’d be a death trap.”  He paused. “Not sure about the bridge.  Almost certainly blocked.”  They were driving past a garage with several cars for sale.  At the end of a line of grubby cars stood a few grubby motorbikes and scooters. “It would be almost certainly blocked for cars.  But what about a motorbike?”
                  Siobhan had visions of hordes of the undead tearing her from a bike.  This competed with visions of her driving through the streets at eighty miles an hour. “I don’t know, I don’t know, it’s tempting.”
                  They pulled into the garage forecourt. 
                  It seemed deserted.
                  “You look at the shop, I’ll look at the bikes.”
                  “You’re not going to be cautious and stay with the car?”
                  “Fuck the caution, you’ve just got risk it sometimes, you know, feel the rain in your hair.”
                  Siobhan smiled. “But let’s keep the doors open, and the engine running.”
                  They left the car and ran, stooped low, treading as quietly as possible.  Siobhan found the shop door open, and the shop was a mess: most of the shelves toppled over and the contents scattered across the ground. 
                  There was blood all over the counter.  Siobhan stood up straight, acutely alert.  Then the smell hit her.  It was the stench of rotting human flesh.  A smell that six