Before Safe Haven (Book 4): Jules Read online

  Before Safe Haven: Jules

  Christopher Artinian

  Published by Headless RAM Publishing

  COPYRIGHT © 2019

  CHRISTOPHER ARTINIAN

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Dedication

  To the unsung heroes who are forever in our midst

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  CHAPTER 1

  The days since news that the outbreak had left the quarantine areas and hit the rest of the country had been long, hard and terrifying. No one had really known what to do, especially Jules. She was winging it, but so far, she’d had the Midas touch and people followed her every suggestion. She knew, however, that when they figured out just how clueless she was, the trouble would start.

  She watched as her three younger brothers left the manager’s office of the Home and Garden Depot. Andy, the eldest, was last to leave and he tripped over the turned-up corner of a carpet tile, grabbing hold of the door frame just in time to avoid falling face down on the floor. Jules shook her head despairingly then looked towards George and Maggie, the two people she had come to rely on more than anyone in the last few days. “I swear to Jesus,” she said in her soft Belfast accent, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say my parents were doing crack cocaine when they conceived the three of them. How the fuck can they have come from the same ma and da as me?”

  Maggie and George looked at each other and laughed. “Are you sure you weren’t adopted?” Maggie asked.

  “I tell ya, don’t think that thought doesn’t keep me up at nights, cos it does. But Ma and Da were good people. If I’d been adopted, they’d have told me. They wouldn’t have let me carry on suffering like this.” She spun around in her chair to look at her two friends. “Okay, finally to business. How did it go this morning?”

  “It was a little tricky,” began George, pulling his tobacco pipe from his inside coat pocket and placing it in his mouth.

  “Nice try. You’re not smoking that in here,” Maggie said.

  George let out a sigh, took the pipe from his lips and returned it from where it came. Jules smiled. “So anyway, you were saying.”

  “Yes, we managed to get close to a hundred and twenty gallons from the hot water tanks in surrounding shops and offices. Problem was, though, we got broke off quite a bit. The lookouts did their jobs well though. All in all, it went to plan, but there are a lot more infected around here than there were a couple of days ago,” George said.

  “Yeah, well, that fire over at the KFC will have brought a lot of attention to the area,” Jules said and then turned to Maggie. “How’s our pantry looking, Mags?”

  “It was looking better before we took in the five newcomers we found in next door’s car park yesterday.”

  It was Jules who sighed this time. “We don’t have a choice. We can’t leave people out there. And surely the more of us there are, the better chance we have.”

  “I don’t want to sound heartless, and this does sound heartless, but four of those people are in their seventies and only survived this long because up until yesterday morning, they had a working minibus. If it hadn’t have been for that young woman with them, none of them would have made it. Having four extra mouths to feed and getting nothing in return doesn’t make us stronger, it makes us weaker.”

  Jules stared at her for a moment. “So, what do you want me to do, Mags? Turn them away? What kind of person would that make me? What kind of people does it make us?”

  “As I said, I know it sounds heartless, but the needs of the many… And I’m just echoing what a lot of people have been saying since they showed up.”

  “And what do you think?” Jules asked, swivelling in her chair towards George.

  “Well, I’m not a million miles away from their age, so I’m probably a bit biased.”

  “You’re different,” Maggie said. “You’re fit; you contribute as much as anyone ... more than anyone.”

  “Okay, you’re biased,” Jules said. “I still want to know what you think.”

  “Well, these people ... they were born in the forties. Life would have been hard. Britain had a lot of rebuilding to do after the war. They’ll have worked harder than most to make life the best it could be for future generations. I say they’ve contributed to all of us enough and if they need a hand now, then they should get one. What’s more, they’ll have knowledge that could be invaluable to us.”

  “Knowledge about what?” Maggie asked.

  “Knowledge about how to live when times were hard, when there were shortages. Simple things but things that would be useful to us now. How not to waste things. People today ... everything is throwaway. Back then, nothing was disposable, it was all precious. We need that kind of thinking now, that kind of knowledge.”

  Maggie shrugged her shoulders, and Jules smiled. “Thank you, George. Those are excellent points.”

  “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Maggie said.

  “Warn me? Look, if anybody wants to take over, they’re more than welcome to. I never wanted to be the leader here. In fact, I’m pretty certain I said it was a fuckin’ terrible idea.”

  “You were a natural choice,” George said.

  “Why, because I was the deputy manager? Sure, if we were opening the doors for business, I’d agree; in the absence of the general manager, I’m the perfect person to run things. But just cos I’ve got a fuckin’ set of keys to the place, it doesn’t mean I should be making the life and death decisions for all of us.”

  “I disagree.”

  “Disagree as much as you want, old man, I’m fuckin’ tellin’ you.”

  “You swear a lot, don’t you?”

  “Fuck you,” Jules replied, and they all let out a small laugh.

  “Right, I’m heading back down, I’ll see you a little later,” Maggie said, leaving Jules and George alone.

  George watched as the door closed behind her and then turned back to Jules. “The reason people follow you isn’t that you’re the one with the keys to this place. It’s because you’re practical yet compassionate at the same time. You’re doing a great job, most people think so.”

  “That’s nice of you to say, George, but we’ll see if people still feel that way when the food runs out.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.”

  “And?”

  “Well. We’ve got a couple of conscripts among us, and they were telling me about a quartermaster’s store that they visited a few times just a little to the east.”

  “And?”

  George brought his pipe out again. “May I?”

  “Doesn’t bother me if you want to rot your lungs and smell like my grandad.” He smiled and removed a small tin as well. He placed the pipe in his mouth and opened the lid of the tin; pinching a tuft of tobacco between his thumb and forefinger, he tapped it in the chamber and finally lit it. “Jesus Christ, it’s like waiting for Christmas.”

  George took a few puffs making the tobacco crackle and a cloud of blue smoke rise into the air. He put the lid back on the tin, placed the tin in his pocket and pulled the pipe from his mouth, releasing another plume of smoke as he did. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that patience is a virtue, Jules?”

  “Didn’t anyone ever tell you to get to the bleeding point?”

  George smiled, pulled up the chair on the opposite side of the desk and sat down. “Now, where was I?”

  “For the love of—”

  “Ah yes. Quartermaster’s store.”

  “I swear to God almighty, I�
�m going to be old and grey before you get to the end of this story.”

  George ignored her and carried on. “Most people came here with the clothes on their backs and nothing else. There are plenty of places we could get new ones from further in town, but, as we know, that’s overrun. Providing it hasn’t been raided, we could probably kit out everybody here with a good supply and then some.”

  “Okay. Can I just ask? Cos I might have missed the point. What the fuck does that have to do with our food supply?”

  “I was coming to that.”

  “When?”

  “Directly.”

  “Jaysus.”

  “Also, at the quartermaster’s, there are weapons and ammunition. Now, as our food supplies dwindle, we’re going to have to become increasingly bold with our ventures to find more, so I think having a small band of trained guards will be integral not just to our scavenging trips but also to the security of this place.” He put the pipe back in his mouth and took another long suck before releasing another billowing cloud of blue smoke.

  “See, that’s why you should be running this place and not me. You think of all the important shite I could never even fathom.”

  “I’m a doer, I’m not a leader.”

  “Yeah, but people listen to you, George. You have the respect of everybody in this building.”

  “As do you.”

  “But you know what you’re doing.”

  George smiled. “I have faith in you, Jules; have a little faith in yourself.”

  Suddenly, the door burst open, and Maggie rushed in. “Jesus Christ,” Jules said, putting her hand up to her chest, “are you trying to give us a bleedin’ heart attack?”

  “We’ve got a problem,” said Maggie.

  “Yeah, tell me about it, I think I just pissed myself.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “What is it?” George said, turning slowly in his seat to look at Maggie.

  “Stephen, Jeff and Clive are all gone. They’ve taken their families with them.”

  “That’s not such a big problem. All they did was complain about everything anyway and shirk whatever work they could,” Jules said.

  “That’s not what I’m concerned about.”

  “What is it then?”

  “Jules, they’ve taken most of the supplies. We won’t have enough to see us to the end of the week.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Jules and George looked at each other as the full weight of Maggie’s words sunk in. The smoke continued to drift in the room, making the atmosphere even heavier.

  “How the fuck did that happen?” Jules asked, standing up from the desk, sending her chair wheeling across the carpet.

  “Looks like everybody else was busy, washing clothes, preparing dinner, the usual stuff. I went to the storeroom, after our discussion I decided it might be an idea to take an inventory, but—”

  “So what? They just walked out with it under their arms?” Jules asked.

  “This is my fault,” George said.

  “Your fault?” Jules asked. “How is this your fault?”

  “Clive was a mechanic. He mentioned something yesterday about being able to get the minibus that the newcomers were in moving again. I thought it was about time he did something useful and told him to go ahead by all means. I didn’t realise it was part of some plan to run off with our supplies.”

  “Brilliant. So we’ve got until the end of the week to get fresh supplies, or we all start going hungry,” Jules said.

  Maggie pulled up a chair as well, and they all just sat around the desk staring into space. Eventually, George stood up, taking another long puff on his pipe. He walked across to the window and stared out contemplatively. “Seems to me that we’re going to have to head to that quartermaster's sooner rather than later.”

  “Quartermaster’s?” Maggie asked. “So, you’ve discussed it then?”

  “Thought it seemed prudent.”

  Maggie turned to Jules. “What do you think about the idea?”

  “What I think becomes less and less relevant by the minute. We’re up Shit Creek without a paddle in a boat with holes in it.”

  “You do have a wonderful way with words,” George said.

  “It’s a gift.”

  “Seemingly.”

  Jules looked at her watch then looked towards Maggie. “Who else knows this? About the food. I mean.”

  “Lizzy was with me when I was doing the stocktake, but I told her not to say a word to anyone until I spoke to you.”

  “Lizzy? Oh shite. She’s nothing but a gob on a stick. The whole fuckin’ store’ll know by now. George, it’s three o’clock. How many people do you think we need to go to the quartermaster’s place? And how soon do you think they can be ready?”

  “You want to go today?”

  “Yeah, I want to go today. If people think we’re running low on food, who’s to say more won’t get the idea of running out?”

  George had one final puff on his pipe and levered open the window. He turned the chamber upside down and tapped it on the ledge, watching the spent tobacco and a few sparks drift onto the canopy of the loading bay below. “I dare say we can have a group ready in twenty minutes or so.”

  “Well, dare say and make it happen, me and Mags will meet you down there.”

  George nodded and left, leaving the two women together. “Are you okay?” Maggie asked.

  “What possible reason would there be for me not to be okay?”

  Maggie smiled. “Okay, stupid question,” she said, getting up. “I’ll see you down there.”

  Jules swivelled in her chair and looked out of the open window into the blue sky. She had never wanted this kind of responsibility. She fell into the deputy manager role by accident, and now she was sitting in the manager’s chair with much more at stake than a healthy balance sheet. The door opened again, but Jules didn’t turn around.

  Footsteps came up behind her, and a gentle hand moved onto her shoulder, around her neck and down the front of her T-shirt. “Men these days have no fuckin’ finesse, do they? Just straight in there, not as much as a hello.”

  “I’m sorry,” the man said, beginning to remove his hand.

  Jules slapped her own hand over his, pinning it against her skin. “I didn’t say stop now, did I?”

  The two of them giggled. The man withdrew his hand, and Jules spun around in her chair. “Hi!”

  “Hi, gorgeous,” Jules replied, standing up and throwing her arms around him. The two of them shared a long, passionate kiss before Jules pulled back and stared dreamily at him. Benicio was Spanish by birth. His handsome Latin features were accentuated by a smile that no matter how dire a situation was managed to light up a room.

  He moved his hand up to Jules’s face and gently flicked away a curl of red hair from her forehead before kissing it. “Hello, beautiful,” he said, smiling and revealing teeth whiter than snow.

  “Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes?”

  “Bad day?”

  “Bad century. I think I’d have been much happier if I’d have been born a couple of hundred years ago. All this women's lib shite I can do without. What’s wrong with men running around after me, treating me like a fuckin’ princess and me just sipping tea and planning dinner parties?”

  Benicio smiled. “Life is so unfair.”

  “It totally fuckin’ is,” Jules said, smiling, and they both kissed again.

  Their lips finally parted, and Benicio pulled Jules towards him. “So we’re heading out?”

  “Yeah,” Jules replied, pressing her ear to his chest and listening to his heart beat.

  “I don’t suppose there’s any point in me trying to convince you to stay here?”

  “What and miss out on all the fun?”

  “You take too many risks, Jules.”

  “Ben, darlin’, you’re a sweetheart, but people look to me. If I come up with plans and let other people carry them out while I stay here, safe, what kind of message does that send?”


  “You have done enough. You don’t need to prove anything. Everybody knows you are a good person; you are brave, you are fair.”

  “Aww, stop it, you’re making my head big.”

  “I am being serious.”

  “I know you are, but I couldn’t do it in good conscience. I couldn’t let people take risks on my behalf. It wouldn’t be right.”

  He moved both his hands up to her cheeks and just looked at her for a moment. “I have never met a girl like you.”

  “Hey, you’ve only known me a week. I’m saving up all the good stuff,” she replied with a cheeky grin.

  “Do you think we can sneak up here again tonight, just you and me, when everybody else is asleep?”

  “I think we might manage that.” They kissed again. “Now, come on, we’ve got work to do.”

  George and Maggie walked straight up to Jules and Ben as they both appeared through the staff only door. “We’ve got thirteen volunteers including you two, Maggie and myself. We can take—”

  “I want you to stay here, Mags,” Jules interrupted, turning towards the older woman.

  “Why?”

  “I need somebody smart, who people will listen to, to take care of things and avert any disasters.”

  “On the subject of which, your brothers all volunteered,” Maggie replied.

  “In which case, it’s more important than ever that you stay here. The chances of us not returning just went up threefold.”

  “Come on, they’re not that bad.”

  “We’ll see soon enough, won’t we?”

  “It’ll be fine,” Maggie replied.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Jules and Ben sat in the passenger seats of the first box van, scouring the landscape as George accelerated out of the city. Several creatures ran towards them and battered themselves against the vehicle, but the van was travelling at enough speed for them not to be a threat. The convoy was heading east out of the city, and they knew the majority of the infected were concentrated in the centre. They knew this not because they had seen them, but every time they stepped outside there was a constant, chilling, growling dirge that made the air vibrate as if legions of Lucifer’s demons were just waiting for the right moment to unleash hell on earth. Stragglers here and there gravitated towards it, and it was a handful of those stragglers that rushed towards the box vans now. Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! The spinning bodies flew off the sides of the vehicles, landing in crumpled heaps on kerbs and verges.