“As you know, we have four candidates,” Shepherd said, voice strong and firm. “All votes have been tallied and I am pleased to announce that in total, twenty-two thousand, six hundred and thirty-eight votes were cast.”
That was the majority of the island’s population, barring those on duty elsewhere and my own minions who, naturally, didn’t vote in the election. A high turnout and that could be good, or bad.
“Alistair Coombs, one thousand, two hundred and twelve votes.”
I wasn’t surprised. A miserable man who had clearly thrown his name in the ring in the hopes that it would elevate him above everyone else and make his life easier. He clearly didn’t understand the sacrifice required for the role.
Because that is what it was. A sacrifice. Lily had made sure of that. Anyone who found themselves in charge would have some large boots to fill and she had set a precedent that many would find hard to follow.
“Martha Simmons,” Shepherd continued. “Nine hundred and sixteen votes.”
Again, not a surprise. The former minister had been a close confidant of the then First Minister. She’d been as corrupt as he was and there was little chance the people would forgive those fools.
“Cassandra Walsh.”
Lily reached over and grasped her friend’s hand and even I leant in a little. She was the best option for us and if she didn’t win, we would be well and truly done for.
“Six thousand, four hundred and seventy-three votes.”
Cass leant back, shoulders slumping and Lily turned to look at me with an ashen expression. By my rough estimation, that left around fourteen thousand votes for the remaining candidate. She had won by a landslide and we would be fleeing for our lives.
“Alison Mason.”
I closed my eyes at hearing that name. Leader of the small, yet fanatical, religious group that had formed as a direct result of my own death cult. She was a vocal opponent of Lily and had actively called for the expulsion of my cult from the island.
“Two hundred and seven votes.”
I blinked, startled as I turned back to the radio, not sure I had heard correctly. The others did much the same, confusion clear on their faces as it most likely was on my own.
“There is a fifth candidate,” Shepherd said, voice calm. “Since no one said it was against the rules and, well, since we have no real rules. I am willing to accept the write-in candidate. With thirteen thousand, eight hundred and thirty votes, I am very pleased to announce our new First Minister is Lily Morgan.”
The woman in question, the woman I loved, stared at the radio, mouth agape. Cass reached forward and hugged her, laughing delightedly and even Gregg reached out and patted my shoulder in comradely fashion until I glared at him and he stopped.
“What just happened?” Lily asked, dumbfounded.
“It seems the people have spoken,” Cass replied. “They want you to lead them.”
“But I voted for you…”
Cass just laughed and hugged her tighter, tears in her eyes. Shepherds voice was drowned out by the cheers coming from the soldiers that filled the building. It seemed that more than a few of them had voted for her too.
For once, I was pleased with the people of the island. They had done the right thing. There was no one better to lead them and it meant that they’d had sense enough to choose someone who would put the needs of the island before anything else.
“Congratulations,” I said, softly. “You deserve this.”
“But I don’t want to be in charge!”
“Maybe that’s why you are best suited for it.”
“It’s a service,” Cass agreed. “I doubt anyone will better serve the people than you will.”
“What about you?”
“I came second,” she said with a hearty laugh. “Seriously, that’s fine by me. I beat that stuck-up bitch Alison-“
“By a lot,” Gregg added.
“Yes! By a lot. That’s enough for me. I only put my name forward because you didn’t, and I couldn’t have someone like her being in charge.”
The door opened once more, letting in the noise and bustle of the corridor beyond and Vanessa Cassidy walked in, a tablet in one hand and a serious expression on her face. She nodded curtly to Lily and closed the door firmly, cutting off the sounds of the excited soldiers outside.
“Congratulations,” she said and then immediately added, “I wish I could let you enjoy the victory for a little while longer.”
“What is it?” Lily asked. “The people from the boat?”
The doctor nodded slowly, dark braids shaking with the movement. She wore them long, hanging down her back and still bore the plumpness of someone who had not suffered unduly since the world ended.
She had a stern demeanour that had become sterner since her friend Briony had escaped the island, leaving a lot of dead people behind her. She blamed herself, and us, for that.
“Smallpox,” she said without preamble and the room fell silent for a long, drawn-out moment.
“You’re sure?” Lily asked. “I thought that was eliminated back in the seventies.”
“Seventy-nine,” Vanessa agreed. “But cultures were stored in labs.”
“And all of those people have smallpox?”
“Yes. Each of those thirteen people are past the incubation stage. They exhibit signs of fever and bear the distinctive rash. They are most definitely infectious.” She turned to Gregg and me. “Did either of you come into contact with those people?”
“No,” Gregg said, shaking his head and looking at me.
“We didn’t go into the hold,” I agreed with a slight nod for Gregg. If he hadn’t stopped me, I would have. “What about the dead man?”
“Healthy as far as I can tell,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Once the autopsy is complete, we can say for sure; but I suspect he was merely there to transport them.”
“Can you help those people?” Cass asked.
“No. With antivirals, we might have a chance, but with the limited medicines we have here, no.”
“Then what will happen to them?”
“What was supposed to,” I said, and all eyes turned to me. “They will die and resurrect as zombies that are infectious to anyone they come into contact with.”
“What’s the point of that?” Gregg asked. “Anyone they can touch they will kill anyway.”
“Not if we kill the zombies first,” I said with a grim smile. “I’m guessing from your question it is spread through contact?”
“Yes,” Vanessa said. “As well as saliva droplets.”
“Blood too?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“When we kill the zombies, we get their blood on us. It’s not a problem as long as we don’t get it into a cut. If just touching them will infect us with smallpox, anyone who fights the zombies will be infected and then take that infection home to their family and friends.”
“Christ!” Cass said, horror filling her voice. “That’s evil!”
“That’s Genpact,” Lily said, brows drawing down and I grinned as I nodded.
“Yes. They are the only ones who could be cultivating it. My guess, they gathered up some survivors, infected them and loaded them onto the boat. When the first signs started to appear, they were to be brought here with the intention of us taking them in.”
I looked at the doctor and tilted my head towards her. “Without the doctor’s knowledge, we would have taken them in without realising and then it would have spread like wildfire.”
“If they had answered the radio…” Lily trailed off, face pale. “We need to call a meeting. Inform the Admiral and the government about this. Anyone approaching the island will need to be checked.”
“What about us?” Gregg asked. “When will we know if we have it?”
“A day or so and I will have some idea,” Vanessa said. “I suspect you will be fine but we cannot take risks.”
“Then what?” Cass asked. “We tell everyone and what? Stop letting peopl
e in?”
“No,” I said, voice clear as I looked directly at the woman I loved. She glared back at me, knowing what I was about to say. “Genpact have made their intentions clear. We know where their base is, so, we go and stop them.”
“Stop them?” Vanessa scoffed. “Just like that, huh? How do you propose to do that?”
“Easy,” I said with a grin. “We kill them all.”
Chapter 9
When I arrived back at the control room, I stepped through the doors and received a round of applause. I stopped, staring around in surprise as the normally dour Admiral approached me with a wide smile on his face.
“Congratulations,” he said and performed a smart salute.
All around us, the soldiers and technicians rose to their feet and did the same. It was a display that brought me to tears and I unashamedly wiped my eyes as I smiled widely.
“Thank you. All of you,” I waved to the staff and they clapped once more before settling back down to their work.
“You look a little overwhelmed,” Minister Shepherd said as she joined us. The stern-faced woman had a smile of her own and looked happier than I’d ever seen her before. “Come, take a seat.”
She directed me to the corner of the room that had become a sort of break area. In lieu of desks and terminals, there were comfy sofas and cabinets where they could store whatever snacks they could scrounge up.
At a glance from the Admiral, the two staff members taking their break there, rose up to their feet, saluted and then hurried away. I watched them go with a pang of guilt. They shouldn’t have to move for me.
“You could have warned me,” I said, with only a hint of an accusation in my tone. “No one told me they’d written in my name.”
“Didn’t know it would matter until we tallied them up,” Shepherd said.
Admiral Stuart, Cass and Shepherd seated themselves on the sofas and I did the same, sighing as some of the tension I hadn’t even realised that I’d been carrying, drained from me. It felt like an age since I had really had the chance to relax.
“You’ve been briefed about the boat people?” I asked, looking at the Admiral and Shepherd.
“Yes, most troubling.”
“One way of putting it,” Shepherd muttered. “This is damned biological warfare! What are we going to do about it?”
They were all looking at me, I realised, expecting me to just have an answer. They had elected me to lead them and it seemed that came with a great deal of expectation. I had to admit, I liked that. I enjoyed being useful, being in charge, being the one to have the answers.
It gave me a chance to help remake the world we had lost and to remake it better than it was. Without the corruption and waste, without the needless suffering and selfish hoarding of resources. We had a chance of becoming great.
“There’s no way to cure those infected people,” I said, voice soft and even, hiding the pain those words caused me. “We can leave them to suffer or put them out of their misery.”
“Kill them,” Shepherd said flatly, mouth twisting with distaste.
“Yes.”
“And burn the bodies,” Admiral Stuart added. His demeanour was calm but there was an undercurrent of anger in his voice. He didn’t like the idea. “I have drawn up a plan of action, ma’am.”
There he was with the formality again. At times, he treated me almost like another human being, but at others, he retreated into formality. I had been irritated at first, but soon came to realise that it was his way of coping with distressing situations.
He was a military man and had been one all of his life. He liked to have a well-defined chain of command. It helped him deal with the chaos of the world, especially in the apocalypse we found ourselves in.
“Go on,” I encouraged, gently. “I’ll need a full report, but please, let us have the basics.”
“The drone coverage will be extended to ensure no one approaches the island without being noticed. I will increase the number of patrols in the Irish Sea, and there will be several rapid response teams set up along our eastern coastline.”
“What will these rapid response teams do?”
“They will be outfitted with containment suits and will meet any approaching boats. Once aboard those boats, they will redirect them south to the Calf of Man.”
I shared a puzzled glance with Cass. “I’m not familiar with that name.”
“Apologies, ma’am. It is the smaller island just off the south coast of the Isle of Man. Approx two and a half square kilometres that is separated from the main island by a narrow stretch of water. It was, I understand, a bird sanctuary before the fall.”
“Okay, so you will take them to this bird sanctuary and then what?”
“Doctor Cassidy is working with us to set up containment protocols. Any new refugees will be tested and observed. If they are not infected, they will be allowed to the main island.”
“And if they are?” Shepherd asked, squinting suspiciously at the military man. “What then?”
“They will be assessed as to whether they can be cured of whatever infections and illnesses they carry. If they can, we shall do so,” I said firmly. “If they can’t, then they will be given peace.”
“A polite way of saying we’ll kill them.”
“Yes.”
The silence stretched uncomfortably as the older woman grimaced at me, jaw moving as though she were chewing something unpalatable. I didn’t need the full support of the government to make that decision, but it would be easier to have it. I needed the other members of my cabinet to work with me, else I would spend my days pointlessly arguing and nothing would get done.
Finally, she nodded.
“I don’t like it, but we don’t have much choice.”
“You will have sufficient forces stationed there to ensure no one can make it to the main island?” I said, turning back to the Admiral.
“Yes, ma’am. Also, Samuel has agreed to have a rotating force of acolytes there.”
I nodded at that. It made sense. They would be the ones most likely to put people out of their misery. We didn’t have the resources to medically do the task and most of the islanders would baulk at the idea of killing those people. Not Ryan’s followers though.
“That’s that then,” Shepherd said. “What about whoever sent them?”
“The most likely culprits are Genpact,” I said. “And we know where their base is.”
“A bunker, with power, supplies and mercenary guards with a small arsenal. It would not be an easy fight.” Admiral Stuart looked thoughtful, eyes seeming to unfocus as he looked inwards. “When Samuel stripped the Scottish base of supplies and useful equipment, he took the time to record everything he could.”
“He did?” That was news to me.
“Yes, ma’am. From the video he provided, those bunkers are designed to survive anything. The steel doors alone were several feet thick and blast proof. Even if we could get inside, we would then have to fight our way along narrow corridors as they picked us off. We would lose a lot of people.”
“Then what do you propose?”
“Honestly? I would suggest we try diplomacy first.”
He smiled at the way we all gaped at him and he tapped his clean-shaven chin with one finger as he thought.
“Yes, we can distract them with diplomacy while a small team make their way inside.”
“And how do you propose they do that?” Shepherd scoffed.
“That would be me,” Isaac said as he sauntered up beside us.
The big mercenary grinned at our looks of surprise and he offered a casual salute to the Admiral and a nod to me.
Despite his brutish appearance, he was an intelligent man and surprisingly loyal considering that he had been one of the mercenary guards at the Genpact base. What surprised me most was that Ryan seemed to trust him, as much as he trusted anyone.
After all, Isaac had been the one to abduct him and take him to be tortured by his Genpact employers.
“W
hat do you mean?” Shepherd asked and the man offered her a wolfish grin that would have made a nun blush.
“I know those bases. I lived in one for long enough.”
“Isaac offered a plan of action,” Admiral Stuart said softly. “One I am inclined to listen to.”
“Aye, well, when I heard about the boat people-“
“You heard?” Cass asked. “Who told you?”
A good question. It wasn’t exactly a secret but we needed to maintain some level of distance between the Islanders and the full facts, just to avoid a panic.
“I have friends,” he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Soldiers gossip amongst themselves.”
“What’s your plan?” I said and gave the Admiral a meaningful look. He nodded in acknowledgement and I knew he would deal with any further such gossip.
“We send a force of your CDF soldiers.” I opened my mouth to speak but he raised one hand, gesturing for me to wait. “We make a show of building up a large force that could attack them and as we do, we send a group of diplomats to talk truce with them.”
“Won’t work, of course, those Genpact fucks care only about themselves. They’ll make a show of listening though as it will give them time to come up with a counter to the soldiers on their doorstep.”
“While that is all going on, I can lead a small group of suicidal fucks into the base and…”
He didn’t need to finish. We all knew what needed to be done and as cold and harsh as that sounded, it was necessary. Genpact had created the zombie apocalypse and they wouldn’t leave their bunkers until the world was clear of living and undead alike.
They wanted a virgin world to rebuild in their own image and would stop at nothing to get that. There was no way we could make peace with them, even if I had wanted to. They had murdered billions and didn’t seem the sort to give up before the job was done.
“I thought the Genpact people in the England bunker were having doubts about their plan,” Cass said. “That’s what Ryan told us when he came back.”
“Aye, well that’s before he went and wiped an entire bunker out,” Isaac said. “No offence to you lot, but that probably wiped away any doubts they were having.”
Killing the Dead Season 3 Box Set | Books 13-18 Page 73