Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty Four - A Flock Of Seagulls (1/2)

Although they had been able to secure a fair few supplies, with no inventive chefs, their cans of ready made meals, especially those containing some meat, were dwindling fast.

They had secured the bulk of the village, all of the smaller properties had been cleared of Zombie occupants and of the larger estates, that they planned to envelope into a mini-base away from more populated areas, one of them turned out to be completely empty.It had been going through an internal reconstruction, for which brand new bathrooms and a bespoke kitchen had been installed, however all of the floors were either concrete or floorboards and the walls had only gone so far to have cracks filled and were without paint nor wallpaper.

But while this meant that there had been no occupants in the property to mutate into monsters, there had also been no food nor supplies beyond a bottle of cleaning fluid and toilet paper.However even then there had been a trove of treasure to be uncovered.

”Solar panels?”Patrick's eyes twinkled as he heard that these had been found in the property's ridiculously large garage.Clearly the owner had been into cars or had other plans for such a massive space.

”Yeah, but don't get your hopes up,” Dexter replied as he sauntered on back to the truck parked on the drive of the property.”It's not like anyone amongst us can install them.”

Ren Zexian remained silent.He did not understand why these men were so excited about the strange flat sheets with the linear designs upon the dark, reflective surface.However, there were many things that he failed to comprehend in this world, such as the 'television set,' which apparently should show images of plays and acts of theatre troupes as well as reports of nonsensical things like the weather.Why would such a thing be required when the sky revealed much by looking at it and the senses could test the wind to provide word of wet weather or storms?But all of that was a mute point, the 'television set' did not work for it needed 'electricity', which apparently was like tamed lightning.

As he was thinking over these things, he did not notice the first tugs upon his poison core first, but his refined sense of danger had him stand up in the moving truck and narrow his eyes, coming to settle on a strange, distant fog.

”What's wrong?” Dexter asked, glancing around in case of a zombie attack.Although they had cleared the village of human undead, as well as many animals, it did not stop the odd zombie from wandering in their direction on a whim.That and the herd were still loose in the grassy fields surrounding them.

Paul dug around in the front compartment of the truck and opened the window to stick half his body through the opening as he brought a pair of binoculars to his eyes.He adjusted them until the fog cleared into more component parts.Migrational bird?Wait, actually they looked a bit like seagulls.He let loose a sigh of relief too soon as their gliding patterns seemed a little rough and one bird seemed to fly at an odd angle...

”Those birds are of the risen dead,” Ren Zexian confirmed.

”Quick, back to the house!” Dexter yelled at Tyler, who wrestled with the clutch and gear stick, cursing the truck as he accelerated.

”Don't mess up my truck!” Winston warned him, but no one paid attention as they kept one eye on the road and one of the approaching flock.Fortunately, the drive was not long and the men jumped out of the truck and over the wall of the garden without trouble.However their scent clearly lingered on the wind and the fog of birds began to sharply descend, eager to rip into fresh meat.Tyler grabbed little Lucy from where she was digging holes in a vegetable patch, while Aslan growled and barked, before realising the danger and dissolving into smoke.

Ren Zexian threw a ball of fire at the gulls, as he wrapped an arm around the Nathan and guided him into the house.The one it hit burst into flames, it's dry skin catching fire immediately and it screamed in frustration as it's wings became useless.It vanished beyond the garden's boundaries.They locked the windows and doors, but sensed wisely that this would not deter the gulls, that and there were many windows open in the house.The powerless men grabbed a weapon and paired up with those with abilities as they rushed to ensure the house was secure, while Nathan and Lucy were sent to hide in the basement.