The man sat quietly in the room. It was almost empty apart from the chair he sat in and an old Victorian chest that lay open in front of him. In his hands he clutched an old world war two single shot rifle. By his feet was a set of cleaning materials. Meticulously he cleaned the weapon.

Robert Dorgard let out a sigh the weapon was working perfectly he was fed up of all the checks but he knew that a weapon jam could be fatal.

The one door in the room swung open revealing an elderly man who from the look of his was pushing sixty. The newcomer smiled at the younger man. Robert looked up at him and he returned a forced smile.

“Oh hey Paul we ready to leave?”

“Yes we are. Katie and Chris are ready we should be leaving in a bit.”

“Any idea on where we are heading?” asked Rob,

“Yeah we are heading north-east Chris says there is a school in his childhood town that had been reinforced prior to the outbreak in response to a recent increase in vandalism to their building. I think it will be better to defend than this place is.”

“Okay if that’s what you want lets head off. I’ve checked and cleaned all the weapons and they are good to go.”

“Of course they are, why do you think I never asked? The answer is I have faith in your ability.”

Robert smiled at the compliment and got up. He reached for a rucksack behind him opening it up before filling it up with ammo. He loaded several clips, loose rounds of all types. After filling up another three bags, Rob handed Paul the rifle he had been working on as well as another ancient one. He also passed him one of the bags. The door opened again and Chris and Katie entered the room. They were both smiling,

“You ready Robbie?” asked Katie smiling flirtatiously before taking one of the bags off him.

“The school is on the outskirts of the town so we shouldn’t get in too deep with zombies,” added Chris taking the final bag.

Robert grabbed the last two guns, one was a semi-automatic rifle which he’d ‘borrowed’ from a dead soldier he’d passed on his journey from his home town. The other was a hunting rifle. Smiling the four friends walked outside and out of the safety of the safe-house. No one looked back except Robert who gazed at the old farm building with a look that said he’d miss the rusty old place.

“We going on foot?” asked Paul,

“Not really, I said we wouldn’t get too deep in zombies. But I still think we should travel via a vehicle.”

“Yeah Chris is right, we saw a van parked in the next farm, we’re going to steal it.”

Robert looked at Katie as she spoke, her smile lighted up her face. Damn why does she have to be so pretty. Robert let a smile form on his lips. She was good looking but it was obvious that she and Chris had a thing going. She threw him a wink and laughed, Chris joined in while Paul just frowned, he was too old and was a moody sod most of the time.

“I’m going to have to pass on the lift. I prefer moving on foot, I like to rely on nothing but myself.”

“Fair enough Rob, we’ll drive slow so you can keep up.”

Chris laughed at him, and throwing his arm around Katie they headed off in the direction of the neighbouring farm. Paul however stood at him looking concerned as usual.

“Reconsider Robert, its not safe on foot,” he asked,

“You should know my background, I’ve been trained for survival I’ll be fine. Don’t worry if you get into trouble I’ll be there to bail you out.”

“Okay, but still be careful. Remember when I first met you a week ago you were the last member of a team and you only survived thanks to me a Betty.”

Robert smiled, Paul did have a point. He had saved him thanks to Betty and on that thought he handed him the hunting rifle that Paul had named after his deceased wife. The old man took it gladly and hurried off after the others.

Double checking his rifle was loaded. Robert set off after them, his pace was slow but sure and his eyes were searching his ears ready to pick up any tell tall signs. Luckily for him and the others, the undead were very considerate in that respect and tended to leave plenty of clues to their whereabouts.

“Zombies!” Robert head Chris shout out and his call was quickly followed by a single gunshot, then his cheer to signal a successful kill.

“Quiet! There may be more about,” this came from Paul.

Robert searched his immediate surroundings and listening carefully. Surprisingly there were no moans or groans. Luckily they had stumbled on a loner. Rob had encountered a few loners, all of them seemed to stay in one place and didn’t travel to hunt like the others. They were easily the easiest to take out, he heard something in the barn next to him. Quietly he slipped inside and froze when he saw the mess that was spread out on the floor.

The zombie was missing everything below the waist, it dragged itself on broken fingers. Why didn’t he moan? As almost a response the zombie raised its head revealing half his throat was missing. Obviously when he was killed they’d torn out his voice box. Robert smiled and raised his gun, unlike the other guns; his was fitted with a silencer which he never removed. His heightened sense of hearing picked up the delicate ‘phut’ of the round being released. It went straight for the zombie’s head and it passed right through it, brain matter splattering behind it.

“Robbie, we’ve got the van ready, last chance do you want to join the party?” he heard Chris call out.

He honestly considered climbing aboard when he heard the moans, he looked at the three inside the van. All smiling at him, obviously they couldn’t hear yet. Moments later however they did, the smiles quickly vanishing. Robert still couldn’t locate the source of the sound but it sounded like a few of them.

“Not now I can’t. You head off I need to take these out otherwise they could follow us and that’ll attract more of them.”

Paul looked like he was about to disagree, Katie looked on with a sad face. Chris just nodded and slammed his foot on the accelerator and the van raced off. Robert watched it disappear and he turned as the moaning got nearer. It was only then he’d released that apart from the rounds in his gun. He’d got no other ammo.

“Oh shit,” he cursed loudly and he looked in the distance and saw the first of the zombies. It was then he noticed the bag on the floor. Paul had obviously left it, but when he picked up the bag the women’s perfume lingered in the material. Katie. “Stay safe.”

Robert spun and fired, the zombie dropped to the ground a bloody hole where his right eye had been. He heard the others get closer. He looked at the two barns either side of him and noticed the one he’d just left had a second floor. Dashing back inside he quickly located the ladder in the corner and he climbed up and quickly went to the window. He looked outside and saw the zombies they were nearly at the point where he had been standing moments earlier.

With a sigh he took aim, for a split second he marvelled at the view of the scene below. From this vantage point he could easily take out any intruders. If only they had checked out this farm before.  Then he fired, again and again. Not wasting a single shot he took out them all. By the time his clip was empty none of the zombies below stood.

He waited for a moment wanting to be sure that there was no more of them.  He gave it half an hour and he saw no other zombies or heard no moans or groans. Then he reloaded and left the farm heading in the direction of the tire tracks…