Savage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel Read Free

Garfield, “but I would much
rather avoid them if there is.  They have guns and we don’t.”

POPPY
    G arfield and the others had been gone
ages.  Poppy knew they’d be okay – they went out all the time
– but she could never help but worry.  For the last hour she’d been
sitting, shivering on the rooftop of the Sea Grill restaurant with her cardigan
wrapped around her shoulders, anxiously watching the horizon for Garfield’s
return.  During that time, she had absentmindedly tied her white-blonde
hair into two long plaits.  I wonder if Garfield will like them. 
    The Great Southern Pier was all there was for
miles.  The seaside village that surrounded it was just a few
bed-and-breakfast hotels and places to eat, with the odd pub interspersed
– boozers her daddy used to call them.  Poppy had never been
inside a pub, but she knew it was a place that only adults were allowed
in.  Now nobody went in the pubs; they were all empty. 
    The pier was the biggest in England after having been
rebuilt following a big fire – at least that’s what Garfield had told
her.  He said the pier had only just opened when people got sick. 
That’s why everything was so new and unused.  There was even an oven in
the Sea Grill restaurant that was still wrapped in plastic and had never
been plugged in.  What a waste of money.
    The people who’d built the pier had planned on
bringing lots of visitors and making the village so rich that it would grow
into a town and have more shops and nice houses.  None of that ever
happened, though, and now the great big pier looked silly next to the tiny
village.  And all of the people live here instead of in the
houses.
    Behind Poppy, the rest of the camp went about their
usual business.  The pier had lots of shops and restaurants on it and a
big building shaped like a tent at the far end.  The tent was full of
games and rides that no longer worked because there was no electricity.
 It made Poppy sad whenever she looked at them.  They would have
been so much fun.
    Everybody was safe at the pier because it sat on big
metal stilts above the sand and could only be accessed from a big long deck
barred at one end by a fat metal gate.  Sometimes dead people would come
up to the gate and try to get inside, but it never worked.  The gate was
too big and strong.  The dead people would eventually go away if everybody
on the pier kept quiet enough.  And if they didn’t go away, Garfield would
go out and hit them.  That always made her sad; to see the dead people
hit.  They looked so lonely at the gate, like all they wanted in the world
was to be inside with the living people.  But if we let them in they’ll
try and hurt us.
    At least there were no zombies around at the
moment.  When Garfield and the others left yesterday, all the dead people
in the village had followed after them until they’d disappeared into the
distance, at the point where the main road took them out of sight.  Poppy
had a feeling that Garfield probably hit the dead people when they were away
from the village.  He always tried to avoid hurting them near the pier
– he said their smelly bodies would make people sick.  One time at
the pier, Poppy had gotten a poorly throat and it was
terrible.  She’d wanted so much to be better, but the pain and aching went
on forever.  There was no more medicine like her mummy used to give her to
make the hurt go away quicker.  Lots of things are gone.  I miss
my bed with the pink pony sheets and my fluffy dressing gown.  I miss my
parents, too.
    Poppy’s mummy was gone now and so was her daddy.
 The only person she had to look after her was Garfield – and he was
never there.  No sooner would he return to the pier then he was off
again.  She understood why he had to go.  He would always say to her,
“I never chose this,” but she would still miss him when he was gone. 
Sometimes when he returned, he would bring food, or toys, or comic books for
her.  That