Better off Dead

'They're better off dead.'

The first words Craig spoke since we left Nont Sarah. We were parked and waking up, eating some of the cakes we had for breakfast when he just started to talk. He only spoke of his parents' friends. I can only imagine how hard it must be for him to have seen his parents go through the same thing.

Their descent into madness started with the flu. A couple of days lead to delirium and then the beginnings of violence and madness. Tying them up only did so good, as they passed a point where they no longer cared about their own well being. They smashed their way free simply by becoming so violent they broke the beds that they were tied to. In doing so they inflicted grievous wounds upon themselves. These did little to hamper them. Craig insisted they either did not notice them or simply paid their wounds no attention.

Craig had taken to watching them from holes he made in the ceiling. Once when the woman got free, he managed to goad her into another room and lock her in there. From that point of their madness they slow down both mentally and physically. In the man's case quickly, while the woman remained more aware for a few more days. As they slowed their violent outbursts decreased. They could still move quickly in very short bursts, but their anger and violence, their madness was gone. What replaced it was what I had seen as I walked from Oldham, creatures that were pure instinct. They were attracted by noise and movement. They were not at all clever and appeared to have lost a lot of whatever knowledge they held in life. They tried to eat objects that Craig would toss into the room. Biting to taste perhaps. Noise would attract them, and some things they did appear to recognise. Bird noise would make them walk dumbly to a window. Craig's voice would get a much stronger reaction. Clearly seeing me was something they could not resist.

I let him talk. Once he was done, he returned to his silence, but not perhaps as deeply as before. At least he responded to offers of food, even if they were only cakes. At some point we were going to have to get some fruit or vegetables or a pack of vitamin pills. Sugar was only going to get us so far.

As my thoughts returned to the plan I had to get into my sister's house, I realised that Craig may have been warning me. I was acutely aware my sister may have suffered the same fate. At the same time she was as likely to have barricaded herself in. Given the curfews and warnings for people to remain in their houses, I believed she was there. The only question was, in what state was she?

Sleep had helped my plan, and I told Craig in the hopes that he could see anything very badly wrong with it. Her house was part of a terraced row of houses, and all we needed to do was get into the roof space of any of them, and then knock our way through to the correct house. I could not imagine any of the ghouls being able to get up into the roof space, so even if a house contained any Infected, we would be able to simply move on being safely above them. It was simply another version of the way Craig had lived the past few weeks. He just shrugged.

We would take the car and lead the Infected away first, much like a modern Pied Piper. Then quickly return and

Damn. We need a ladder to get to the roof, not a rope. Long ladder too, not a step ladder. OK, what about going into a house. Dangers... full of Infected. Have to rush back out, just as the ones lured away are starting to return. Not good. Can't damage door in case the house is clean. Can't risk turning any house into a deathtrap for us. We need that ladder. Damn.