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flesh, oozing between his fingers. His hand scrabbled on the table for something, anything he could use as a weapon, and landed on a fork. But this was his mum; he raised the fork to her face. As he pushed the fork deep into her eye socket he felt the tears streaming down his cheeks.

Chapter
    2
    Dead Run
     
     
    Caleb woke before dawn, but he always woke before dawn now. He sat at the bedroom window watching the sunrise. He liked to remind himself that the world was still able to produce something so beautiful. Also, he liked to be sure there wasn’t any of the dead waiting outside for him. Today was a good day; there wasn’t anything out there but blue skies and fresh air. He didn’t know the time, the sun was the only timepiece now, and it was pointed directly at food o’clock. There were porridge oats and honey in the kitchen. He looked at the boy. He used to love porridge and hone y. ‘ I wonder if that will put a smile on his face?’ he thought to himself.
    “Its time to get up.” he said quietly, shaking the boys shoulder. “Jeez, only you could sleep through the apocalypse. Get up!” The boy rolled over and gave him a blank expression through bloodshot brown eyes that looked all too much like his mothers. He wiped his sleeve across his nose and gave a sniff, then ran his hand through his tussled hair, making no improvement on the black strands sticking out in every direction. He was still dressed in his dirty, worn blue jeans and torn black jumper. Caleb ruffled Brandon’s hair a little more and said “C’mon. Help me move this bed and I’ll make breakfast.
    After breakfast (which failed at the smile test) Caleb had a snoop around the workshop for weapons. The place had obviously been pretty successful, too successful for Caleb’s liking. Too many machines and not enough hand tools. He got a few nice sharp chisels and a good, 22oz leather handled roofing hammer, but that was it. There were a couple of ornamental looking scythes hung up on the wall of the workshop, but they were too cumbersome, and nothing compared to the Naginata. He left with his spoils and headed back to the house.
    When he got to the house the boy was sitting at the kitchen table with various kitchen knives stabbed into it. He was busying himself with duck taping one of the larger ones on to a broom handle. “It seems to work for you.” he said without lifting his head.
    “This is yours if you want it?” Caleb said stabbing the point of the hammer into the table amongst the kitchen knives.
    He looked up at Caleb and said “Nah,” with a slight twinkle in his eye hefting something from his belt “I found this under the stairs.” he stuck the hatchet into the table by the point at the bottom of the blade.
    “Ha! Well you certainly are my son. C’mon, let’s hit the road”
    “Wait” the boy said tentatively “these…” he was fishing in his pocket “…are yours if you want them?” He tossed the keys over and Caleb caught them with a sharp exhale through his nose.
    “You know how I feel about this....”
    “I do, but how far do you reckon we are from the sea?”
    “It’s not as simple as getting to the fucking sea. I have explained this....” Caleb said trying not to lose his temper.
    “Can we at least see how much fuel is in it first?”
    Caleb calmed. The boy had a point. “OK, OK, we will take a look and see what we got.”
    They went round to the garage and opened the door to see what god awful run around had been left to them.
    “Highlux.... Nice!” As it turns out it wasn’t too bad, dark blue 1992 Toyota Highlx pickup truck, fully kitted out with spots on the front bars and on the bars behind the cab. “It’s got bull bars at least. Let’s see what we got in the tank.” Caleb climbed in and grimaced as he started the engine. It was too loud for his liking. The petrol gauge climbed up past the quarter mark and kept on going to just past half a tank. That made the boy smile!
    “How far do you think