Post by roch on Aug 25, 2007 18:01:38 GMT 1
This is the end now - I hope you like it!
==============================================
“Wait!” Daz cried as the van sped away from Emmerdale. “We can’t just leave them!”
Jack put his arm around him, but he shrugged it off. “We had to leave them. Chas might have become one of the... things.”
“But what about Scarlet?!”
“Oh,” Jack said sheepishly, having forgotten that they had left a young girl in the midst of a zombie apocalypse with people they weren’t sure would protect her.
***
Grayson tried to fight off the tourist that had come out of the door, but it was followed by more.
“Open it up!” Matthew shouted, indicating the ice cream van.
Grayson gave the farm implement to Scarlet, who wasn’t even strong enough to lift it, and ran to the van. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and fumbled as he tried to open the door in his panic.
Carl took the farm implement off Scarlet, seeing that she could not handle it. “Look after Chas,” he said.
She tried to ask what was wrong with her, but there was hardly time for a response.
***
“Dear God, what is happening to us?” Edna asked, sitting at the table in Home Farm’s kitchen.
“That’s a good question,” Rodney said, raising an eyebrow. “Things like this don’t just happen!”
“It’s like something out of a movie!” Viv said excitedly, as if everything was alright now that she was away from the chaos.
Suddenly there was a loud crash as Rosemary dropped the tray of refreshments she had just picked up. Everyone jumped, but she had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sure Grayson will come back safely,” Rodney said softly, putting his arm around her.
She shrugged him off. “No, you don’t understand!”
***
Grayson started the ice cream van’s engine, ready for everyone to escape, but he could see that it wasn’t possible yet. Two other tourists had appeared from wherever it was that Shadrach had come from, and three others had come out of the pub’s back door. They were surrounded by undead creatures trying to eat their flesh and drink their blood, and what could they do about it? If they fled without putting up a fight, surely some of them would die, if not all.
Matthew and Carl tried to make a stand against the three that had come out of the door, and with a great swing of the farm implement Carl managed to take one of their heads off.
But behind them, the two other tourists made a dash for Scarlet, who was kneeling over Chas. Scarlet screamed, and Grayson and Matthew both rushed to her side, leaving Carl to defend himself against the other two.
Scarlet scrambled to her feet and kicked one of the tourists in the shin, trying to help, but she did it no harm.
“We need to beat them back so we can get away!” Grayson said, trying to conjure up a bit more wartime spirit.
“No!” Matthew shouted back as he hit one of the tourists. “We need to hold them off while the others get into the van!”
Carl would have rolled his eyes if he had not been engaged in fighting. They hardly needed a machismo contest now.
***
“What don’t we understand, Rosemary?” Rodney asked, steering her to a seat at the table. “Jamie, get her a drink.”
As Jamie looked around for a bottle of whisky and a suitable glass, Rosemary looked up at Rodney with what looked like real fear in her eyes. “I didn’t know this would happen!” she cried at last.
“Well none of us did,” Rodney said kindly, patting her arm. But when she looked down, averting her eyes from his, he wondered if there was more to her fear than he had thought.
***
Matthew angrily swung his axe at a tourist, taking its arm off rather than the intended head. He grimaced as Carl turned round and finished the creature off. “Give that to Larry,” he said, indicating the farm implement Carl was holding.
Before Grayson could protest, he had the unwieldy weapon in his hands again and he was forced to swerve away as one of the tourists swiped its long nails at him. But it darted back before he could do it any damage.
“Carl, get Chas in the back of the van,” Matthew said, going to stand by Grayson’s side to help him fight off the creatures. “Scarlet, go and get in the passenger seat.”
Grayson had half a mind to object to this plan, but he could hardly do so without sounding like a coward. And he had come back to the village with the intention of saving others, so he could hardly complain that he was being made to act the hero. He just wished they might have been different people who needed saving.
***
“Yes, yes, of course,” Rosemary said quickly, getting up with the intention of leaving the kitchen.
But Rodney stopped her with a firm hand on her arm. “Rosemary, if you know something...”
She turned on him with fire in her eyes. “How dare you insinuate such a thing!” she cried, shaking his hand off and storming from the room.
Rodney, and the others, wondered what she thought he had been insinuating.
***
“Matt!” Scarlet shouted as another tourist appeared from round the other side of the ice cream van. She ducked and ran away from the creature, and her brother attacked it, making it pull away and circle round to the other three tourists that Grayson was now trying to fight off.
“Get in and start it up!” Matthew shouted before turning back to help Grayson fight the tourists.
Deciding now wasn’t the best time to reveal she didn’t know how to start it up, Scarlet climbed in the passenger side of the ice cream van and saw that the key was in the ignition – Grayson must have put it there. She reached out and turned it a little, and suddenly We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday started to play.
***
“Does she seem suspicious or what?” Jamie asked when Rosemary had left the room.
“You can’t just speak about her like that,” Rodney insisted nobly, though in fact he had his own suspicions.
***
“Right!” Grayson exclaimed as he tried to get the better of a female tourist. “We just need to beat these ones back and we can get away! Mother was worried sick when I got the first lot of people back to Home Farm...”
“We can kill them!” Matthew replied after a pause, seemingly ignoring Grayson’s words. “All you have to do is cut their heads off and they’re dead!”
“Er, right,” Grayson said. For a moment he turned his attention to knocking back a particularly strong male creature that was baring its teeth like a dog. He swung his farm implement and missed, but he had bought himself enough time to look round at his fighting companion.
But Matthew wasn’t there.
***
“What happened?” Chas asked weakly as she began to come round. She moved her hand a little and accidentally caught it in a fallen box of 99 flakes. “Where am I?”
Carl was kneeling and had his arm around her. “You’re in the ice cream van. It’s a long story, don’t worry about it now.” He smiled at her, glad she was safe.
“I... oh, Carl, those creatures! Was that true?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “But we’re getting away from them now.”
She was quiet for a moment but then spoke again. “Carl, I’ve got something to tell you.”
Just then the van started to move.
***
Grayson gaped at the ice cream van.
Matthew wound the window down. “I’m afraid there’s no room for you, Larry!” he said, waving cheerfully as he began to drive off.
Scarlet was looking past her brother, quite horrified by what he was doing. Grayson was in real danger. “There’s one behind you!” she shouted as loudly as she could before they were out of earshot.
But Grayson was surrounded and alone.
***
Rosemary waited alone at the front door of Home Farm, praying that her son would return safe. No-one came out to find her, but that was because they were not sure what was on her mind. She was worried, of course, but her reactions when pressed on the matter rather suggested something different.
***
Carl closed his eyes. “No, don’t tell me they bit you. Please, Chas. And you mustn’t tell Matt, you know what he’s like. We’ll fix you, I promise.”
Chas sat up as much as she could manage, but she suddenly clasped her hand over her mouth as the motion of the van made her nauseous.
“Oh God,” Carl whispered, thinking she was about to turn into one of them, just like Jimmy had.
“You muppet,” she said, taking her hand away but struggling to speak normally without being sick. “I didn’t get bit. I’m pregnant.”
***
Ten minutes later, the ice cream van screeched up the drive and stopped outside Home Farm. Matthew turned the engine off, and the music ceased.
Rosemary came forward from the door, but when she saw that it was a battered but alive Matthew who got out of the van she gasped. “Gray?” she said. “Gray!”
Matthew smirked at her. “Worried about your precious Larry, are you?”
“Where is he?” she screamed, with tears in her eyes. A few moments later, Rodney, Edna, Viv, Jasmine and Jamie appeared at the door.
“I think you’ve got some questions to answer first,” Matthew said without smiling. “Larry said you’d been worried about him when he brought people here before. But there wasn’t time for him to have told you first, was there? You already knew!”
“Don’t be preposterous!” she snapped. “Tell me where my son is!”
Matthew stepped forward and grabbed her by the wrists. “If you ever want to see him again,” he said in a low and threatening voice, “then you’ll give me some answers.
Rodney and the others were hovering on the doorstep, wondering whether they should intervene. But they wanted answers too.
When she still refused to speak, Matthew twisted her wrists painfully. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he shouted. “Wasn’t it?!”
***
If he could just get away, Grayson knew he would be alright. He still had his car keys in his pocket, and Mill Cottage, where his car was parked, was a short walk away. A short walk or a very quick sprint with all those creatures after him. He was still managing to hold them off, but there was nowhere close by he could take refuge. The shop was blazing now, and the pub was on fire too. He swung out at the nearest tourist and tried to edge his way towards his house.
***
Rosemary was shaking but she managed to whisper. “Yes, it was me.”
He shook her violently. “Jimmy’s dead! First you killed my Dad and then you killed my brother! You bitch!” He released her suddenly, and she fell to the ground.
The people on the doorstep, not having heard her admission, all stepped forward.
“Tell me how you did it,” Matthew said. Suddenly there was a movement and he felt something in his hand. He looked round to see that Scarlet had given him the axe.
“She was responsible for Jimmy’s death?” she asked.
“Go on,” Matthew said. “Tell her! Loud as you can so everyone can hear!” He pointed the axe at her. “She made those creatures come here!” he shouted to everyone present.
“Alright!” Rosemary shouted, sobbing. “I wanted you dead, Matthew, you and your brothers, for the way you’ve treated me! So I contacted someone who said they could provide what I wanted. I know more powerful people than you ever could! I knew where you would be, so I sent those creatures there!”
Before Matthew could reply, Jasmine stepped forward. “My Granddad’s dead because of you! You had some petty vendetta, so you put the whole village at risk? You’re a monster!”
Rosemary climbed to her feet, and no-one helped her. Rodney was looking at her in utter disgust, and so was everyone else. Carl and Chas got out of the van then, having heard her confession.
“Right, what are we going to do to her?” Chas asked. Everyone considered things that they never would have considered before that eventful day. Perhaps she should die for what she had done to them.
Matthew shook his head. “She admitted it now. I feel a bit sorry for her, I think I’ll take her to her son.”
Chas smirked as Rosemary got into the ice cream van with him.
***
“Where is he?” Rosemary asked quietly as Matthew drove at break-neck speed towards the village, but she received no reply.
Soon they pulled into the main street, which looked deserted. Buildings blazed, but there was no sign of Grayson or the tourists. Disappointed, Matthew drove on a little.
Sure enough, there Grayson was, just outside Mill Cottage. He had put up a valiant fight, but there were still four tourists harrying him, and he was struggling to hold them off now as he got more tired.
With a cry, Rosemary opened the door and got out of the ice cream van.
Matthew would have liked to stay and watch what happened next, to make sure they died, but he didn’t want to put himself in danger, not now he could truly say he was head of the family. How could they survive now, anyway? He drove away, and that tune haunted Rosemary and Grayson’s last moments in the village.
==============================================
“Wait!” Daz cried as the van sped away from Emmerdale. “We can’t just leave them!”
Jack put his arm around him, but he shrugged it off. “We had to leave them. Chas might have become one of the... things.”
“But what about Scarlet?!”
“Oh,” Jack said sheepishly, having forgotten that they had left a young girl in the midst of a zombie apocalypse with people they weren’t sure would protect her.
***
Grayson tried to fight off the tourist that had come out of the door, but it was followed by more.
“Open it up!” Matthew shouted, indicating the ice cream van.
Grayson gave the farm implement to Scarlet, who wasn’t even strong enough to lift it, and ran to the van. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and fumbled as he tried to open the door in his panic.
Carl took the farm implement off Scarlet, seeing that she could not handle it. “Look after Chas,” he said.
She tried to ask what was wrong with her, but there was hardly time for a response.
***
“Dear God, what is happening to us?” Edna asked, sitting at the table in Home Farm’s kitchen.
“That’s a good question,” Rodney said, raising an eyebrow. “Things like this don’t just happen!”
“It’s like something out of a movie!” Viv said excitedly, as if everything was alright now that she was away from the chaos.
Suddenly there was a loud crash as Rosemary dropped the tray of refreshments she had just picked up. Everyone jumped, but she had tears in her eyes.
“I’m sure Grayson will come back safely,” Rodney said softly, putting his arm around her.
She shrugged him off. “No, you don’t understand!”
***
Grayson started the ice cream van’s engine, ready for everyone to escape, but he could see that it wasn’t possible yet. Two other tourists had appeared from wherever it was that Shadrach had come from, and three others had come out of the pub’s back door. They were surrounded by undead creatures trying to eat their flesh and drink their blood, and what could they do about it? If they fled without putting up a fight, surely some of them would die, if not all.
Matthew and Carl tried to make a stand against the three that had come out of the door, and with a great swing of the farm implement Carl managed to take one of their heads off.
But behind them, the two other tourists made a dash for Scarlet, who was kneeling over Chas. Scarlet screamed, and Grayson and Matthew both rushed to her side, leaving Carl to defend himself against the other two.
Scarlet scrambled to her feet and kicked one of the tourists in the shin, trying to help, but she did it no harm.
“We need to beat them back so we can get away!” Grayson said, trying to conjure up a bit more wartime spirit.
“No!” Matthew shouted back as he hit one of the tourists. “We need to hold them off while the others get into the van!”
Carl would have rolled his eyes if he had not been engaged in fighting. They hardly needed a machismo contest now.
***
“What don’t we understand, Rosemary?” Rodney asked, steering her to a seat at the table. “Jamie, get her a drink.”
As Jamie looked around for a bottle of whisky and a suitable glass, Rosemary looked up at Rodney with what looked like real fear in her eyes. “I didn’t know this would happen!” she cried at last.
“Well none of us did,” Rodney said kindly, patting her arm. But when she looked down, averting her eyes from his, he wondered if there was more to her fear than he had thought.
***
Matthew angrily swung his axe at a tourist, taking its arm off rather than the intended head. He grimaced as Carl turned round and finished the creature off. “Give that to Larry,” he said, indicating the farm implement Carl was holding.
Before Grayson could protest, he had the unwieldy weapon in his hands again and he was forced to swerve away as one of the tourists swiped its long nails at him. But it darted back before he could do it any damage.
“Carl, get Chas in the back of the van,” Matthew said, going to stand by Grayson’s side to help him fight off the creatures. “Scarlet, go and get in the passenger seat.”
Grayson had half a mind to object to this plan, but he could hardly do so without sounding like a coward. And he had come back to the village with the intention of saving others, so he could hardly complain that he was being made to act the hero. He just wished they might have been different people who needed saving.
***
“Yes, yes, of course,” Rosemary said quickly, getting up with the intention of leaving the kitchen.
But Rodney stopped her with a firm hand on her arm. “Rosemary, if you know something...”
She turned on him with fire in her eyes. “How dare you insinuate such a thing!” she cried, shaking his hand off and storming from the room.
Rodney, and the others, wondered what she thought he had been insinuating.
***
“Matt!” Scarlet shouted as another tourist appeared from round the other side of the ice cream van. She ducked and ran away from the creature, and her brother attacked it, making it pull away and circle round to the other three tourists that Grayson was now trying to fight off.
“Get in and start it up!” Matthew shouted before turning back to help Grayson fight the tourists.
Deciding now wasn’t the best time to reveal she didn’t know how to start it up, Scarlet climbed in the passenger side of the ice cream van and saw that the key was in the ignition – Grayson must have put it there. She reached out and turned it a little, and suddenly We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday started to play.
***
“Does she seem suspicious or what?” Jamie asked when Rosemary had left the room.
“You can’t just speak about her like that,” Rodney insisted nobly, though in fact he had his own suspicions.
***
“Right!” Grayson exclaimed as he tried to get the better of a female tourist. “We just need to beat these ones back and we can get away! Mother was worried sick when I got the first lot of people back to Home Farm...”
“We can kill them!” Matthew replied after a pause, seemingly ignoring Grayson’s words. “All you have to do is cut their heads off and they’re dead!”
“Er, right,” Grayson said. For a moment he turned his attention to knocking back a particularly strong male creature that was baring its teeth like a dog. He swung his farm implement and missed, but he had bought himself enough time to look round at his fighting companion.
But Matthew wasn’t there.
***
“What happened?” Chas asked weakly as she began to come round. She moved her hand a little and accidentally caught it in a fallen box of 99 flakes. “Where am I?”
Carl was kneeling and had his arm around her. “You’re in the ice cream van. It’s a long story, don’t worry about it now.” He smiled at her, glad she was safe.
“I... oh, Carl, those creatures! Was that true?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “But we’re getting away from them now.”
She was quiet for a moment but then spoke again. “Carl, I’ve got something to tell you.”
Just then the van started to move.
***
Grayson gaped at the ice cream van.
Matthew wound the window down. “I’m afraid there’s no room for you, Larry!” he said, waving cheerfully as he began to drive off.
Scarlet was looking past her brother, quite horrified by what he was doing. Grayson was in real danger. “There’s one behind you!” she shouted as loudly as she could before they were out of earshot.
But Grayson was surrounded and alone.
***
Rosemary waited alone at the front door of Home Farm, praying that her son would return safe. No-one came out to find her, but that was because they were not sure what was on her mind. She was worried, of course, but her reactions when pressed on the matter rather suggested something different.
***
Carl closed his eyes. “No, don’t tell me they bit you. Please, Chas. And you mustn’t tell Matt, you know what he’s like. We’ll fix you, I promise.”
Chas sat up as much as she could manage, but she suddenly clasped her hand over her mouth as the motion of the van made her nauseous.
“Oh God,” Carl whispered, thinking she was about to turn into one of them, just like Jimmy had.
“You muppet,” she said, taking her hand away but struggling to speak normally without being sick. “I didn’t get bit. I’m pregnant.”
***
Ten minutes later, the ice cream van screeched up the drive and stopped outside Home Farm. Matthew turned the engine off, and the music ceased.
Rosemary came forward from the door, but when she saw that it was a battered but alive Matthew who got out of the van she gasped. “Gray?” she said. “Gray!”
Matthew smirked at her. “Worried about your precious Larry, are you?”
“Where is he?” she screamed, with tears in her eyes. A few moments later, Rodney, Edna, Viv, Jasmine and Jamie appeared at the door.
“I think you’ve got some questions to answer first,” Matthew said without smiling. “Larry said you’d been worried about him when he brought people here before. But there wasn’t time for him to have told you first, was there? You already knew!”
“Don’t be preposterous!” she snapped. “Tell me where my son is!”
Matthew stepped forward and grabbed her by the wrists. “If you ever want to see him again,” he said in a low and threatening voice, “then you’ll give me some answers.
Rodney and the others were hovering on the doorstep, wondering whether they should intervene. But they wanted answers too.
When she still refused to speak, Matthew twisted her wrists painfully. “It was you, wasn’t it?” he shouted. “Wasn’t it?!”
***
If he could just get away, Grayson knew he would be alright. He still had his car keys in his pocket, and Mill Cottage, where his car was parked, was a short walk away. A short walk or a very quick sprint with all those creatures after him. He was still managing to hold them off, but there was nowhere close by he could take refuge. The shop was blazing now, and the pub was on fire too. He swung out at the nearest tourist and tried to edge his way towards his house.
***
Rosemary was shaking but she managed to whisper. “Yes, it was me.”
He shook her violently. “Jimmy’s dead! First you killed my Dad and then you killed my brother! You bitch!” He released her suddenly, and she fell to the ground.
The people on the doorstep, not having heard her admission, all stepped forward.
“Tell me how you did it,” Matthew said. Suddenly there was a movement and he felt something in his hand. He looked round to see that Scarlet had given him the axe.
“She was responsible for Jimmy’s death?” she asked.
“Go on,” Matthew said. “Tell her! Loud as you can so everyone can hear!” He pointed the axe at her. “She made those creatures come here!” he shouted to everyone present.
“Alright!” Rosemary shouted, sobbing. “I wanted you dead, Matthew, you and your brothers, for the way you’ve treated me! So I contacted someone who said they could provide what I wanted. I know more powerful people than you ever could! I knew where you would be, so I sent those creatures there!”
Before Matthew could reply, Jasmine stepped forward. “My Granddad’s dead because of you! You had some petty vendetta, so you put the whole village at risk? You’re a monster!”
Rosemary climbed to her feet, and no-one helped her. Rodney was looking at her in utter disgust, and so was everyone else. Carl and Chas got out of the van then, having heard her confession.
“Right, what are we going to do to her?” Chas asked. Everyone considered things that they never would have considered before that eventful day. Perhaps she should die for what she had done to them.
Matthew shook his head. “She admitted it now. I feel a bit sorry for her, I think I’ll take her to her son.”
Chas smirked as Rosemary got into the ice cream van with him.
***
“Where is he?” Rosemary asked quietly as Matthew drove at break-neck speed towards the village, but she received no reply.
Soon they pulled into the main street, which looked deserted. Buildings blazed, but there was no sign of Grayson or the tourists. Disappointed, Matthew drove on a little.
Sure enough, there Grayson was, just outside Mill Cottage. He had put up a valiant fight, but there were still four tourists harrying him, and he was struggling to hold them off now as he got more tired.
With a cry, Rosemary opened the door and got out of the ice cream van.
Matthew would have liked to stay and watch what happened next, to make sure they died, but he didn’t want to put himself in danger, not now he could truly say he was head of the family. How could they survive now, anyway? He drove away, and that tune haunted Rosemary and Grayson’s last moments in the village.
though am a bit sad to see the end too...
