Disintegration

35

The brightness of the early afternoon belied the low temperature. The sky was clear, uninterrupted blue and the sun held a position high above the red-tiled roof of the hotel. Despite pushing to go out for supplies sooner rather than later, last-minute nerves and tiredness had combined and the planned trip out had been delayed until the next morning. Most of the group found themselves outdoors, relaxing in the relatively fresh air and enjoying the luxury of being able to spend time out in the open. It wasn’t long before the football had been found.

“Shoot, you idiot!” Jas yelled at Harte, who’d just dribbled the ball between Webb’s legs and now had a clear shot at goal. Sean waited on the goal line, trying to guess which way he needed to dive.

“I’ve got him!” shouted Amir, sprinting toward Harte, ready to throw himself at the ball. Aware that he was there, Harte waited until the last possible second, then sold him a dummy, flicked the ball a couple of feet to his right, lined up his shot, and blasted the ball at Sean. To his credit Sean moved in the right direction. He just managed to touch the ball with outstretched fingers, but only succeeded in deflecting it into the corner of the goal he was defending.

“You’re fucking useless!” Webb screamed across the makeshift pitch. “What are you playing at?”

Dejected, Sean dropped his head and jogged after the ball. He picked it up and booted it back into play. The sun was in his eyes and he sliced the ball off the side of his foot, sending it bouncing over the boundary fence, right over the road and onto the golf course.

“Sorry,” he whined.

“You jerk,” Webb yelled. “You complete fucking jerk. What did you do that for?”

“It was an accident.”

“You can go and get it!” Jas joked, a wide grin on his face. “Don’t worry about it, mate. We’ll get another one tomorrow.”

“You never know, they might throw it back!” Harte laughed, his mind filling with images of dead bodies playing football across the road. “I can see it now, there’s bound to be a few of them that—”

“What’s the matter?” Amir asked anxiously, unnerved by the way he’d suddenly stopped talking.

“Shh…” Harte said, lifting his finger to his lips and looking up. “Listen.”

“What?” Webb demanded.

“The helicopter,” Amir said, spinning around and scanning the skies. “It’s back.”

“Where?”

“There!” he said excitedly, pointing up into the distance.

“Is it the same one you saw before?” wondered Jas.

“Think so,” Amir replied, following the flight of the machine through the air. It seemed a little closer today than it had been when they’d seen it previously. Maybe the pilot had seen them, he allowed himself to dream. Perhaps he’s just scouting around trying to find somewhere safe to land?

Martin, Hollis, Ginnie and several of the others had rushed outside.

“How many times have you seen it now, Martin?” Hollis asked.

“This is the fifth, I think,” he answered, standing on tiptoes to try and keep track of the tiny aircraft as it flew farther away.

“And which way has it been going?”

“Alternate directions each day.”

“So it’s flying between two sites?”

“Seems that way. No way of knowing for sure, but that seems likely.”

“We’ve just got to hope it comes back again, and work out a way of making ourselves more visible.”

“I don’t know how. I don’t want to do anything that’s going to bring the bodies back.”

“We might have to. We might not have any choice.”

* * *

A handful of people remained out in the open long after the helicopter had disappeared, hoping it might return. Hollis and Caron sat together on a wooden bench at the front of the hotel and watched as Howard played with his dog. He threw a rubber toy as far away from the building as he could. The dog sprinted after it, skidding in the long grass, almost running too fast to stop. She grabbed the toy in her teeth and ran back, dropping it obediently at Howard’s feet and waiting expectantly for him to throw it again. He hurled it up into the air and watched as it dropped back down.

“Doesn’t she ever get bored of this game?” Hollis asked.

“No,” Howard replied, rubbing his hands to keep them warm, “but I do. I don’t mind, though. She doesn’t get enough exercise. It’s not like I can take her out for a walk or anything like that.”

“Shame,” Caron said, shielding her eyes from the sun and looking into the distance. “all this beautiful countryside and we’re stuck here.”

The dog returned, dropped the toy and looked up again hopefully. Growing weary, Howard stooped down, picked it up, and threw it again, this time hurling it farther than he had previously, out toward the hedgerow. The dog sprinted away at full pelt, covering almost half the distance before the toy had hit the ground.

“Nice throw,” Hollis commented. Howard massaged his suddenly aching shoulder and cursed under his breath.

“I’ve had enough,” he announced. “I’m going in.”

He turned and began to walk back toward the entrance door. Caron stood up to follow him. Hollis didn’t move.

“What’s the matter?” she asked. He was still staring out toward the hedgerow which enclosed the hotel grounds. He stood up slowly and shielded his eyes from the sun. Then, when he still couldn’t see properly, he stood on the bench. “Greg, what’s the matter?” Caron asked again.

“Where’s the dog?”

Howard stopped walking and turned around. His instinct was to call out but he knew that he couldn’t. Any second now, he thought, and she’ll come thundering back, her toy clamped tight between her teeth. Maybe she hadn’t found it. Perhaps it had become stuck in a tree or in the hedge? Still no sign. Hollis jumped down from the bench and began to jog across the grass. Howard was close behind.

“Be careful,” Caron urged, her stomach suddenly knotted with nerves.

Hollis ran up over a slight rise and then stopped. He could see the dog. She was standing perfectly still, ears pricked up.

“What’s the matter with her?” he asked.

“That’s not good,” Howard replied ominously. “See how she’s standing? That’s what she does when they’re near.”

The two men continued cautiously toward the hedge. The dog hardly moved. Her ears twitched and she sniffed and turned her head momentarily as they approached, but otherwise she remained completely still. Hollis noticed that her teeth were bared. She was snarling but not making a sound.

“Must be on the other side of the road,” he whispered. “I take it from this reaction that they don’t usually come down this far?”

“Not seen them here for a long time,” Howard replied.

Hollis edged closer to the boundary. Iron railings ran around the perimeter of the hotel which, over the years, had been swallowed up by thick laurel hedging. Beyond that was the road and, on the other side, the golf course, itself enclosed by another hedgerow. Despite the distance he could see flashes of movement through the mass of gnarled and twisted branches. He could see three or four bodies, maybe more. Their awkward, stumbling gait gave them away.

“What’s brought them back?”

Howard looked at him incredulously. Didn’t he understand? Christ, from what he’d seen Hollis was supposed to be one of the more intelligent of the new arrivals. Did he have to spell it out to him?

“You noisy bastards,” he answered angrily, keeping the level of his voice low. “Them being here is the result of the noise you lot made when you got here yesterday and your friends playing football earlier. Now just imagine how much damage you’ll probably do when you go out again tomorrow.”

Hollis began to walk back toward the hotel. “Two hedges, metal railings and a road,” he said. “They won’t get through. I don’t care how many of them there are, they’ll disappear again in time.”

“You reckon?”

He kept walking. Howard crouched down next to his dog, held her head in his hands and blew gently into her face, distracting her.

“Come on, girl,” he said quietly, grabbing her collar and leading her away. “It’s all right.”