The Farm: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Survival Read online

  THE FARM

  A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Survival

  By ROSS LYNCH

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  Copyright © 2017 Ross Lynch

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, entities and places are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual people, businesses, entities or events is entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER 1

  Three years, two months and nineteen days have passed since human civilisation, as we know it, seized to exist.

  The summer’s early-evening sun oversees a lonely, weed-ridden country road, its dead-silence shattered by the sickly groan of an old 2.5 litre engine.

  Behind the wheel of this motorhome, sits Ben Jackson. The thirty-two-year-old, with long, dark, greasy hair and a matted beard, stares out at the road ahead with quiet anguish as the fuel gauge flashes red.

  By Ben’s side, as ever, is his childhood sweetheart and loving wife, Sarah, one year his elder. Despite her dirty, tattered hair and unwashed face, there is no hiding the true, natural-beauty that lies beneath.

  Having grown up together on neighbouring farms, and attending the same schools, they have always been close, but it wasn’t till their late teens that they became more than just friends.

  Sat at the table behind them, are their two beloved children, Jessica and Corey.

  Jessica has just turned twelve this last month. For her birthday present, her parents gave her a book they found in a burnt-out library. Reading is Jessica’s only way of escaping this cruel new world that she finds herself in. Nothing else works.

  Corey, her seven-year-old brother, plays with his toy soldiers. Making machine gun noises, he gleefully knocks them over once they’ve been hit. Unlike his older sister, Corey takes everything in his stride. He is too young to remember better times.

  The family’s eleven-year-old Labrador, Rio, lies at their feet, guarding them. Something the yellow lab has done for many years now, and will continue to do for the rest of his life.

  Glancing between the road map on her knee and the flashing red light of the fuel gauge, Sarah begins to nervously twirl her cross-necklace between her fingers.

  Ben and Sarah make fleeting eye contact, but nothing is said. Nothing needs to be said.

  Nothing can be said.

  The stench of fear lingers in the air as it begins to dawn on them the world of hell they’d be in if they were to breakdown now, in the middle of nowhere.

  Nowadays, food doesn’t grow and clean water doesn’t flow. Not since ‘the storm’.

  The family know this all too well as they’ve travelled non-stop for the last three years, searching for something, or someone, to give them hope that they are not alone in this barren wasteland, filled with colourless fields of dead crops and littered cow carcasses.

  Their Fiat Ducato motorhome lumbers towards a crossroads, eventually coming to a stop just a few yards short.

  Without a word, Ben and Sarah exit the vehicle with the map. They then make their way into the middle of the crossroads and look around, taking everything in.

  Jessica and Corey glance across at one another. Shooting up from the table, they move towards the front of the vehicle and sit, gawping out as their parents argue outside.

  “You’re the one who wanted to head north,” Ben says, trying his best not to lose his temper with her.

  Sarah stands her ground. “Well, I didn’t hear you suggest an alternative.”

  They try to hide the fact that they’re arguing, but Jessica and Corey know better. They are not stupid.

  “What do you think they’re arguing about, Jessica?” Corey asks.

  “We’re lost… again.”

  Looking up at his sister with his innocent, baby-blue eyes, Corey seeks out just an ounce of comfort from her.

  Jessica softens her gaze and lets out a warm smile. “It’ll be fine though, Corey. It always is.”

  This seems to satisfy Corey, at least enough for him to get up and rush over to the table, where he can get back to invading some alien lands with his toy soldiers.

  Jessica stays at the wheel and watches on as her parents continue their discussion. Like a hawk, she scrutinizes their every move and tries to lip read what they’re saying.

  Ben turns sharply away from Sarah, putting his hands over his face as he thinks. “I don’t get where we went wrong,” he says. “I thought we were on the right track.”

  “Let’s just take another look at the map,” Sarah says, trying to calm him down before he implodes. “We’ll figure this out.”

  Ben pretends not to hear her. He’s too busy thinking of all the terrible things that could befall them, alone out here at night.

  “How many miles has she got left?” she asks.

  Again, he does not reply.

  “Ben, how many miles?” she says, raising her voice.

  Ben finally turns around to face her. Putting his hands out to the side, he looks at her as if to say, “I don’t really know”.

  “Five, ten… fifteen tops,” he says finally.

  Sarah moves back towards the motorhome, still trying to keep a calm exterior, knowing that Jessica is watching them from above.

  Laying the road map out onto the motorhome’s gritty bonnet, they hold it down, trying desperately to keep it from blowing away in the strong winds.

  They take a long good look at the map as they try and workout where the hell they are. It’s a minute before one of them speaks.

  “Okay,” Ben says, running his finger down the map. “If we’re here, then turning right would land us there, in the nearest town, only ten miles away.”

  “No, Ben. We’re here,” Sarah says, guiding his finger back up the map with her hand. “We’re not there, we’re here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Ben scans the map again, totally confused. He then runs his sweaty hands through his thick, greasy hair. “Fuck.”

  Sarah points at the map again. “I’ve been the one with the map, Ben. Trust me. We’re here. I know it. We just took the wrong turn before, that’s all… but we’ve corrected it. I just needed to see the map laid out to make sure.”

  Ben looks deep into his wife’s eyes. If she’s wrong, then this could be the end of us, he thinks to himself.

  It might sound like he’s over exaggerating, but he really isn’t. Without any food or clean water, they would be lucky to last a few days out here.

  “Okay,” he says finally. “I trust you.”

  Ben and Sarah investigate the map further. They study and analyse every possible route, their minds calculating the shortest way possible.

  “If we turn right now and then take the next left,” Ben says, stroking his thick beard. “Then it’s only about ten… fifteen miles to the nearest town. We should make it, if I take it easy.”

  He waits before running his finger back down the map, glancing back up at his wife. “But, if we’re actually here and we go right, and make the next left… then there’s nothing in that direction for another fifty miles.”

  They both gaze into one another’s eyes for a long moment. Sarah then turns away to face the road ahead, brushing her hair back as she lets the cold, crisp breeze blow across her face, freeing her mind of any lingering thoughts.

  Jessica watches on. Although she has not heard a word of what her parents are saying, she knows that something’s wrong. Having seen enough, she makes her way back over to the table and begins to stroke Rio, trying her best to calm her nerves.

  Climbing back into the vehicle, Ben and Sarah give the kids a reassuring smile.

  Jessica smiles back. As for Corey though, he is too busy in his own little dreamland to give a care.

  Pulling forward and turning right, the motorhome drives on towards uncertainty. Only time will tell what their fate will be.

  The evening sun cowers behind the dark clouds as a pack of grey wolves makes their way through the forest, scavenging for what little remains.

  The dying soil at their feet grows little-to-no nutrition. This has resulted in a sharp and sudden decline of wildlife in recent years.

  These days, there is little food to sustain a lone wolf, never mind a large pack of them.

  What was once a healthy pack of eight has now been whittled down to just three, due to illness and starvation. Two of the pack’s males and all three of their females, including the alpha female, have died in the last couple of years.

  Despite this, the remaining th
ree wolves have stuck together and soldiered on regardless, so far managing to persevere as they battle against the odds.

  It’s an uphill struggle for survival, however, but it is one they are determined not to lose, and they will do anything to hold onto life.

  Survival is a war so few are winning, mainly just insects and small creatures such as rats and birds. Larger species in the animal kingdom, like wild horses and wolves, have mostly succumbed to the new world, and less than one percent has made it through these three long and painful years since ‘the storm’.

  Alpha, the leader of the pack, guides them through the woods. The aging veteran has a battle-scar above his left eye, and his large, dark grey, bulky frame sets him out from the others.

  His two sons, Slash and Dagger, are both young and inexperienced. With this, and them weighing less than their father, neither of them is strong enough to mount a challenge to his leadership, not that they would want to anyway… at least not for now.

  Of the two young’uns, Slash is the bigger of the two. Being a beta male, and second in command, he is the dominant sibling over his smaller, but faster brother.

  Being an omega, Dagger is, by quite some distance, the weakest of the pack. In truth, he always has been, and it’s nothing short of a miracle that he has survived for this long, especially considering the illnesses he has had to endure along the way, due to malnutrition.

  Leading the way through the trees, Alpha is followed a few yards behind by Slash, with Dagger trailing a few yards behind him.

  Heading along an old deer path, they are hoping to catch scent of one. It has been over three weeks since their last sighting, and they haven’t had anything larger than a rat for over three days now.

  They are beginning to starve.

  Already aggressive, they now find themselves at breaking point. At this rate, they will soon be forced to turn on their weakest for much needed nutrition.

  Guiding the pack further along the track, it’s not long before Alpha catches scent of something. Sniffing the air, he turns off track and bolts up a steep hill.

  The others follow.

  The motorhome drags itself along a winding country road as the family continue their desperate pursuit for some much needed fuel.

  It’s only a matter of time now before the vehicle conks out, the fuel gauge already bending around the bottom pin. It couldn’t possibly get any lower.

  Time is ticking, and fast.

  In all their years of travelling, they are still yet to find a single soul. They have driven through tens of cities, hundreds of towns and thousands of villages, but they have come across no one, not even the dead.

  Lifting up his shirt, Ben begins to scratch at his armpit, letting out the rancid smell that lies underneath. Bathing has not been at the top of his to-do-list of late. They have been conserving their water for drinking use only, at least till they’re able to collect some more water.

  Priorities have somewhat changed since the good old days of just being able to turn on a tap, not giving a second thought as to where it came from or how it got to be there.

  Those days are well and truly gone.

  It’s not long before the vehicle approaches a steep incline. They wouldn’t normally notice, but with their lack of diesel it might as well be Mount Everest for the Jackson family.

  Ben’s hands are water, every line a river leading to the ocean palm. Closing his eyes tight shut, he tries to escape it all, but it’s no use. He’s trapped.

  Anxiety coursing through her tightening veins, Sarah struggles to breathe, but she suppresses her urge to panic and decides instead to press on with her fight for control. She must keep calm for her children’s sake.

  Jessica is aware that there’s something going on, but not wanting to think too much about it, she has absorbed herself in her book.

  Still in his own little world, Corey is busy killing aliens with his toy soldiers and tanks, blowing them back into outer space where they belong. He has no idea of the danger they’re in.

  Ben misses a gear. The reek of warm clutch hits the back of their throats, leaving them gasping for the fresh air that has escaped them.

  Coughing and spluttering, Jessica and Corey awake from their blissful trance. Jessica reaches to open the window as they slide across for some clean air.

  The motorhome limps towards the peak. Inch by inch, the evening breeze willingly pushes them up the hill with all its strength as if it were trying to help them.

  At last, they reach the summit. The glare of an evening sunset reveals a mysterious town on the horizon, just a few miles ahead up the valley.

  A heavy weight falls from Ben’s shoulders. Relaxing back in his seat, he lets out a relieved sigh. Finally!

  Beaming with glee, Sarah offers out her hand to him, and he grabs it like nothing he has ever grabbed before in his life. Their fingers lovingly entwine as they descend.

  Ben and Sarah remain hand-in-hand for the rest of the journey down the valley, every so often glancing back at one another and smiling with their eyes.

  Alpha leaps over fallen trees and branches like they’re not even there. He knows there is something up ahead, something worth all the effort.

  Slash struggles to keep up, but Dagger is too afraid to overtake his brother. If he does, he might get attacked for doing so.

  Just about managing to keep their father in their sights, the young wolves watch him from afar as he expertly navigates the rugged terrain. They have a lot to learn from him still.

  Stopping in his tracks and letting the others catch up, Alpha sniffs the air again. He then turns and begins to sprint down another deer track to the east.

  Their prey must have altered their course.

  Trees whiz by as the three wolves venture deeper into the woodland, dodging everything in their path, their hearts going ten to the dozen as they use up every last ounce of energy in their starved bodies.

  Now that the ground is starting to level out, their smaller frames allow Slash and Dagger to catch up with their father.

  Then, without warning, Alpha changes course again down another deer track. He picks up pace once more, leaving the others behind in a cloud of dust.

  Finally catching hold of the preys scent for themselves, Slash and Dagger instinctively split up as the pack begin to form an attack.

  Heading toward the edge of the woods, the pack finally catches sight of what could be their first meal in over three days.

  Rabbits.

  Families of them scatter along the deer path. The odd one peels from the colony, but the majority of them stick together. Safety in numbers is their tactic of choice.

  Closing in on them with each and every stride, the pack gets ready to make their move, heading ever closer to the light at the end of the woodland.

  Bursting out from the trees and onto the road, the rabbits scurry towards the lonely petrol station that stands a hundred yards down the abandoned street.

  Just a few moments later, the three wolves join them on the road and immediately set chase.

  Hunting the rabbits down the street, their mouths foam at the prospect of a rare evening meal.

  The remaining rabbits dart towards the petrol station’s crumbling building. Running for their lives, they spot a small gap underneath the door, their little hearts racing like mad as they try and squeeze through.

  The wolves are so close now they can almost smell and taste the rabbits’ soon-to-be warm, dead flesh.

  Fighting to get under the gap in the door, the rabbits at the back of the queue squeak and squeal as they wait impatiently for the others to hurry up and get through.

  Alpha rips around the corner and smashes into the door, banging his head and body against it as he just misses the last rabbit by mere milliseconds.

  Snacking and snarling, he sniffs and scratches underneath the door, knowing fine well that the rabbits are long gone.

  In frustration, Alpha bites out at Slash. Slash then tears his teeth into Dagger’s leg as the fight for superiority breaks out again, just like it does every night they go hungry.

  Starvation will soon take hold, unless their luck changes, and changes soon.

  Rolling into the town of Prudham, the Jackson family scan the devastated scraps of what was once its town centre. Burnt-out cars and crumbling buildings scatter the eyes-view, the pong of overflown sewage making their eyes water as it seeps in through the vents.