Chapter 2: City of Wolves
Wolverhampton – 2 miles. The trek up the motorway was relatively uneventful. Car after car after car. All similar in their stories, all packed with clothes and supplies and shite no one needed. Bodies long since rotten. Policemen, soldiers, green shirts, blue blouses, red blazers, black coats. Women, men, children, babies. All of them stuck in the same grid lock, going towards the next damn grid lock. Madness piled into madness. Wolvo seemed more apprehensive than ever. He had been calm and collected during their time in London. But the closer they moved towards his home town, he must have sensed the answers to the questions were close. Dark answers, family and friends. What had happened to them all? No one wanted to say. They were dead of course. Like everyone else.
"We'll come into the city via Fordhouses, we'll move into Pendeford and then onto Claregate. My Mom and Dad live around there." Wolvo held his sledgehammer firmly in his hands. It seemed he had more to say, but said nothing. Tim glanced a knowing look at his friend. What did he expect to find at his home? Except for bones. Ellsy couldn't bare the question hanging in the air any longer. "How long will it take to get there?" Wolvo began flipping his hammer over and over with the slightest flick of his wrist, "A few hours". Nothing more was said as the three entered the city.
Wolvo had grown more and more silent since Jon was killed. Choosier with his words and less happy go lucky. The journey north only deepened his gloominess. He had lost his girlfriend when the infection began, but never knew the fate of his family back home. Maybe he felt a sense of hope in not knowing. Tim and Ellsy had lost everyone, so they pushed to find out what had happened to Wolvos. He agreed a few weeks ago, yet it didn't seem to help anyone.
Ellsy seemed to go from strength to strength. She knew the two needed her as much as she needed them. Tim seemed lost in thought most of the time and Wolvo was only growing more withdrawn. She had grown so close to Tim, yet there was still a distance there. She couldn't bare losing anyone else and in this world they lived, that could happen at any moment. She would do everything she could to hold them together.
Wolverhampton was the same as everywhere else. It had all the same qualities as London, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Birmingham, the stale smell of loss. Wolvo seemed more aware. Tim noticed small looks and stares at certain buildings. Someone he knew or a place he had spent a lot of time perhaps. Yet he still said nothing. Barking could be heard in the distance. The three hadn't seen many animals on their travels. The odd cat missing an eye or a horse in a distant field, yet dogs seemed to hide from any kind of noise or human activity, who could blame them. Think how many countless pets that had had been beaten to death by the infected. How many zoos that must have been ransacked, Tim hoped that a lion somewhere had managed to take down a few infected with him.
Wolvo turned to the two after a while, "We're nearly here". Tim saw something out of his peripheral vision. It was definite movement. He looked sharply behind him and swore he saw a dog, a brief second and it had disappeared into a side street. Tim stood still for a moment, looking at the emptiness of the street. "You okay?" Ellsy looked concerned. "A dog" Tim whispered. "So?" Wolvo had already begun walking on. "Ellsy walked back and gently took Tim by the arm, "there's nothing out there". Tim stood ever watchful, but relented and they continued on.
Ash was in the air, the smell of burning permeated throughout the area. There had been a great fire here. Rows of attached and detached houses were in various stages of having burnt down. Wolvo quickened his pace; the other two knew already what this meant. Wolvo turned onto a street, you could hardly tell where one house would have ended and the next began, just ash and burnt out cars. Wolvo stopped suddenly, staring at a blackened piece of earth. A few walls remained stained with soot, a stone wall at the front of the house but not much else. Wolvo walked slowly into the ruins. Ellsy and Tim stood outside, almost afraid at how Wolvo would react to seeing his life burnt down to a wall or two.
Two dogs barking, closer this time. Tim stared around the landscape. Desperately looking for movement, he managed to catch something. An animal darting between two ruined houses. Tim calmly backed up toward Ellsy. "We're being stalked", she smiled at first and looked at him, the smile fell away when she knew Tim was being serious. "There is no infected left Tim and the Infected don't track people anyway". Tim stared into her eyes, "Animals do, dogs can carry the virus but can't be infected, but they can be feral". Ellsy looked to Wolvo, "you're going to hurry him up? Now? His whole fucking world just burnt down." Tim walked past her and into the ruins; Wolvo was on his knees amongst the debris.
As Tim approached Wolvo smiled. "I used to have my dinner there, Mom would set the table and Dad would cook, he loved cooking. Mom was the handy man around the house. They made this place a home." Tim looked impatient, but a little upset with himself for having to hurry Wolvo on. "Wolvo, we have to leave mate. There are dogs that are following us." Wolvo pointed at another corner of the room. "That's where I learned how to write. My Dad would sit me down and explain in the calmest way, never got cross with me Tim. Not once. My Mom had the temper, but she was just so caring to." Ellsy barged into the ruin. "Tim there's more than one out there". Wolvo was jerked out of his daze. He brandished his hammer as if ready to fight there and then. "We have to get inside somewhere. Open ground doesn't favour us here". Wolvo gestured towards a large factory that stood close by. They began to run, leaving the residue of Wolvos past behind.
They were almost at the front door of the factory when it happened. A piercing snarl and the scratching of paws on pavement, Wolvo turned just quick enough to slam his hammer into the jaw of a leaping Rottweiler, its lifeless body sprawling against a brick wall, leaving only a bloody splatter against the red brick. Three more dogs came pelting out of the surrounding area, Ellsy scrambled for her gun firing off several shots, she managed to hit a black Labrador in its rib cage, but she was no marksman. The other two dogs were closing in on Wolvo. Tim scrambled to open the large doors, bound together by a heavy rusted chain. He forced a small gap, just enough for them to fit through. "Ellsy come on". Wolvo stood ready as the dogs approached; they were rabid, fur over grown and covered in a black dried substance.
Ellsy tried to fit through the gap, but was caught by her back pack. She tore it off and slid through the gap into the factory. Tim called to Wolvo as the dogs reached him. Wolvo managed to catch another one of them in the head, his hammer splashing brain all over the pavement. The last dog found its mark, biting Wolvo on the right arm. The two fumbled for just a few seconds. Wolvo managed to yank the dog away from its eye socket, the dog yelping in pain. He pinned it to the ground and like a wild ape he smashed his fist into its skull. It was all over with a dozen crazed strikes. Tim looked on in horror. "Wolvo?" Tim took a step towards him. A snarl, Tim took a step back. Wolvos head jerked back, eyes red as hell. The two shared a stare, a short moment of understanding and horror. The infection had taken him; he jolted to his feet and began sprinting towards his friend. Tim squeezed between the doors with seconds to spare. The doors were pounded against, shaking with every thump. Tim grabbed Ellsys hand and they ran into the dark, cold factory.
