by Murray, Lee
The line of troopers lifted their guns. Thirty gun barrels, thirty perfect black eyes, were aimed right at me.
I stopped in my tracks. My heart thumped. Those were real guns.
This isn’t a game.
“Seb!” I barely heard Talia’s warning although she can’t have been more than a few steps behind me.
“Stay back,” Kirkham shouted though the megaphone. “Infected citizens are required to stay inside the town perimeter.”
“You don’t understand,” I yelled.
Kirkham cupped a hand to his ear. In the middle of the park, it was obvious he couldn’t hear me over the noise.
I needed him to hear what I had to say. If we did what Kirkham and his troops were asking, we’d be abandoning our experiment just when it was looking like it might work. But with a line of assault rifles trained on me, pinning me where I was, how was I going to communicate with him? I didn’t have a cell phone, and even if I was prepared to risk zombification to use one, I didn’t have Kirkham’s number and he wasn’t likely to have mine.
Something touched my knee and I jumped so high I almost reached Mars.
It was Ava. My throat tightened. I’d forgotten all about her. She snaked her arm around my leg. Nervous in front of the soldiers, her fingers plucked at my leg hairs.
Ouch.
I wasn’t feeling too confident myself, but I put my arm about her shoulders and patted her head. That’s when I saw the paper cup dragging on the grass. Ava’s paper cup phone! It was a long shot, but it was worth a go.
Bending, I prised Ava away from my leg so I could whisper in her ear. “Is it okay if I borrow your phone for a sec?”
She nodded.
Picking up the loose end, I let out the extra string I’d looped inside the cup, and tossed one end of the phone to Kirkham. The captain looked at me as if to say, ‘you-have-got-to-be-kidding’, but he picked it up anyway, lifting it to his ear.
Taking a step back to pull the string taut, I tried not to grimace as I put my mouth to Ava’s drooly paper cup. I shouted, “My name is Sebastion Mackay. My friends and I are not affected by the virus.”
Kirkham lifted the loudspeaker. “Sorry, son, but we can’t take that chance. This virus is highly infectious. It’s already spread to Silverpond and Pinewood. You and your friends could be incubating it and not even know.”
“But—”
“Please back up and return to your homes. I have orders to quarantine this town,” the captain said.
Orders. Kirkham had orders to quarantine Bridgetown.
The captain was just doing as he’d been told, acting on what his superiors had told him. He might not have been infected by the Dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse game, but in a lot of ways Kirkham was as much a zombie as everyone else. My Einstein brain hummed.
Kirkham inclined his head. The line of soldiers took a step closer. If I was going to act, I had to do it now.
“Wait, please,” I begged. I waved my arm to get Kirkham’s attention. I put the cup to my mouth again.
Kirkham raised his paper cup to his ear.
“What if I could get everyone into the school gym?” I called into the white interior of the cup. “It would be easier to quarantine us all there, right? You wouldn’t have to patrol the entire town.”
He was still a long way away—about the length of a basketball court—but I thought I saw Kirkham arch an eyebrow. He turned and conferred with the paratrooper beside him. Finally, he tightened the string, and spoke into Ava’s cup, the words so faint I could barely make them out. “Can you do that?”
“Yes, my friends and I can get them there.”
There was a pause.
I squashed the cup to my ear, straining for his answer.
“Okay, son. Do what you have to do.”
CHAPTER 26
Dropping the paper cup, I grabbed Ava by the hand and ran back to Darren and Talia.
“We need to get everyone into the school gym,” I shouted.
“What? I don’t—” Talia protested.
“Trust me, there’s no time to explain,” I yelled over Martha’s warbling and the clash of cymbals. “Can you look after Ava, and Grandma and Cody? Make sure they get to the gym?”
For a second, I thought she was going to tell me off for bossing her. Instead, she surprised me, yelling ‘okay’. Turning, she picked up Ava and hurried away.
I watched them go, Ava in Talia’s arms, holding on to Mum’s hat and waving a chubby fist in the air. Talia’s ponytail swished from side to side like…well, like a pony’s tail. I realised she was galloping, making it a game for Ava.
Darren shook me out of it. “Seb, the zombies! Some of them are going home,” he bellowed over the top of the hatbox.
I cupped my hands and leaned in towards his ear. “We have to head them off. Quick. Lead them to the gym.”
We ran to catch up with the mob, Darren gripping the hatbox, which bounced as he ran. I was worried the CD would scratch. That little break in the singing earlier had given me the frights. Without the music, we were doomed.
The twins were near the back of the crowd, still boogeying away. “Keep going,” I shouted to Darren as I peeled off in the twins’ direction.
“Amelia! Karen! Over here.”
The two girls joined me. Away from the hatbox amplifier, the music was a bit quieter. I couldn’t feel the rhythm pounding against my ribs any more.
“Don’t let the zombies go home,” I gasped. “We think the sunlight will reverse the zombification, but for that to happen we need to keep them outside for longer.”
“Longer. Right, got it,” said Amelia.
“Only, we have to get them to the gym first.”
Karen looked puzzled. “Hang on. If we need to keep them outside, why exactly are we taking them inside?”
“I have a plan. Follow Darren. Tell the others.”
The twins ran off to spread the news.
CHAPTER 27
The double doors of the gym slammed shut. Only Talia and I were left outside. Everyone else was in the gym.
Or, at least, they had been.
It was true that Darren had led the horde into the gym. But, in another of my spectacular brainstorming ideas, I’d got my best mate to lead the crowd into the building, straight across the basketball court, past the music annex and the coach’s office and out the other side of the complex! The twins had done their job and they’d all followed: the zombies, the oldies including Grandma with Ava and Cody, and the kids from school.
With a bit of luck, Darren would be miles away at the front of the line. The tail end of the procession was still traipsing through the gym, when I’d pulled Talia aside. “I have to head off Kirkham and his commandos. Stall them, while everyone goes through.”
“I’ll come with you,” she’d said.
So there we were, Talia and me, outside the gym, our backs hard against the graffiti-ed paintwork as Kirkham and his soldiers closed in, their guns raised.
I felt like Horatio, defending the city of Rome.
Hopefully, by now, if everything had gone to plan, the front of the procession would be halfway down Mannering Street, still dancing in the sunshine. But in case they weren’t all out of sight, the soldiers couldn’t be allowed to look inside the gym. A single glimpse and the game would be up. I hoped they didn’t have thermal imaging scopes or the game would be up even sooner. I straightened my shoulders. Of course, they wouldn’t have thermal imaging scopes. It was day time. But if Kirkham found out Talia and I were leading the army on a wild zombie chase, things could get very hot.
Talia gave me a nudge. I raised my hands the way people do in cowboy movies, inching forward and sideways until I was standing in front of her.
“Don’t get too close, sir,” I called to Kirkham. “It’s like you said. We could have the
virus.”
Kirkham raised his hand. Behind him the wall of black slowed, although the guns were still pointed at us.
“Are they all in there?” Kirkham demanded.
“Yes, sir.”
Well, it was true a minute ago.
The captain grinned. “Well done, lad. You’d make a good soldier.”
I shrugged. “Just trying to help.”
Kirkham waved the barrel of his gun at the double doors. “Right, well you kids had better get in there, too.”
Stepping around Talia, I opened the door, making sure the gap wasn’t wide enough for the troopers to look inside. I motioned for Talia to enter. Passing through door, she glanced across the gym. She stared at me, her eyes wide.
We must’ve had some sort of telepathic subliminal connection because, straight away, I knew she was trying to send me a message. Something was up. They mustn’t be through yet! Maybe one of the oldies had stopped into the bathrooms on their way through the gym? I had to give them more time! My hand still on the door, I turned. “Captain Kirkham.”
“Yes?”
“What about the other places? Pinewood and Silverpond. How long have those people been in quarantine?”
Kirkham gave me a hard look. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
I nodded slowly, as if I understood.
“Look, son, I can assure you that our people are doing everything to solve this problem, but we need to protect the rest of the country. Possibly the world.”
I swallowed hard. It was one thing if Kirkham and his men found out that we’d pulled the wool over their eyes, but what if we were wrong? What if mucking about in the sunshine and fresh air didn’t help? The army’s job wasn’t to save the zombies; Kirkham had made it clear that they’d already given up on that. They wanted to isolate the zombies, and any potential zombies nearby. So, if our solution didn’t work, we would end up surrounded by the army, prisoners in our own homes, in our own towns. If that happened, giving Ava a bath might the least of my worries.
I squared my shoulders. “When I’m inside, I recommend you have your men barricade this door, sir. Things could get ugly.”
CHAPTER 28
Talia was waiting for me just inside the door.
“Is everyone through?”
“Yes, the last of them just left the music annex.”
I dropped the bolt into the floor and grabbed her hand. “Come on. We’d better move too. We haven’t got much time.”
She pulled her hand back. “Wait! Andrew said to tell you that he reckons the CD player’s a bit iffy. The music is still playing, but it’s raspy, and the machine is making a funny clicking noise.”
“We don’t have time to worry about that now. We need to lock the doors and cover the windows—before Kirkham and his troops realise there’s no one here.”
Talia ran to lock the back door, while I dropped the sunshades on the windows. I couldn’t do anything about the line of windows near the roof of the gym, but hopefully they’d be too high for anyone to see through. Unless the soldiers had periscopes. Or drones. Or a helicopter…
“The doors are locked. Let’s go,” Talia urged.
I was following Talia, heading for the music annex and the exit, when I realised what was wrong. It was too quiet. There was no laughter. No loud conversations. A crowd of people in an enclosed space made a racket. Instead, the gym sounded as if the NFL league champions had missed an easy catch. It was silent. There was no way Kirkham’s unit would believe all Bridgetown’s citizens were crammed in here.
I switched direction, skidding into Mr Davies’ office.
Talia appeared in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer. Slipping into Mr Davies’ chair, I powered up the computer.
Talia blinked. She stepped into the office and approached the desk. “Look, Seb, I’m really sorry I said this was all your fault.” She fiddled with the pencils in Mr Davies’ pencil cup. “I know you didn’t mean to download the virus and trigger an apocalypse. No one could’ve known about the subliminal quotient embedded in the game. It’s just, I really don’t think now is the time to try and fix it.”
Clicking the mouse, I logged on to my school account.
“Seb! Did you hear me?” Her voice rose. “I said you’re not responsible.”
“I’m not trying to fix it. Mr Davies recorded all the basketball home games and loaded them up to the school network. If I can run the audio through the school speaker system, maybe it’ll convince Kirkham and his men that we’re still in here.”
Talia wrapped her arms around her body. “Seb, don’t. Please. The school network’s corrupted.”
“It’ll only take a second. I’ve been outside for a lot of the day. I should’ve got enough sun to counter the zombie effect.”
Talia raised an eyebrow. “And if not?”
I glanced out the window. The last of the zombies were dancing down the street, followed up by Andrew and the twins. They were almost out of view—and almost out of earshot. Any minute now, Kirkham and his soldiers would notice the lack of noise.
“If not, then find Darren and the others. Finish the experiment without me.”
She stared at me, her hazel eyes boring into mine. “I’ll wait,” she said.
I turned back to the computer, as the sound of hammering reverberated in the gym next door. Kirkham was nailing the main doors shut as I’d suggested. Good. The banging would hide the fact that the building was emptier than an open day at the morgue.
Not for long, though. I’d have to hurry.
Like most teachers, Mr Davies was super-organised. I found the recordings under the file name BasketballHomegamesRecordings. Loading them up, I moved the volume bar to maximum and pressed play. Shrieks and shouts blared over the gym loudspeakers. It must’ve been a good game because the crowd was going ballistic.
Which is what Kirkham will do when he discovers that all he’s quarantined are a few sweat molecules and some warm air.
Now came the test. Could I walk away from the computer?
My eyes still on the screen, I stood up. I didn’t feel like a zombie, but Jason always said I looked brain dead anyway. I checked my reflection in the glass partition separating Mr Davies’ office from the corridor, turning my head left and right. I didn’t look any different. That’s because I wasn’t different! I was fine. I could quit the computer any time I wanted.
And I could. I wasn’t looking at the screen now!
“Let’s go!” I left the machine running.
We sprinted into the corridor. We’d nearly made it through the music annex when something made me slow.
Had the subliminal quotient hooked me after all?
“Seb?”
“I just have to—”
Then, I spied what it was that’d made me hesitate. A guitar. I snatched it up, slinging it over my shoulder as I ran.
CHAPTER 29
When we caught up with the others, Darren handed the hatbox to Penny, so she and Andrew could take a turn at leading the horde around town.
“When you can, double back to Founders Park,” I told them.
Like a flamingo, Penny lifted her knee so she could hoist the box higher. She giggled. “I feel like the Pied Piper of Hamlin.”
“Don’t you mean the Pied Piper of Bridgetown?” Andrew said.
It was a joke, but it didn’t feel funny. I pulled my face into a smile as our friends led the crowd away, and tried not to remember that The Pied Piper of Hamlin didn’t have a happy ending. There’d been a double-cross in that story, too.
Talia, Darren and I hung back, walking just behind Grandma and Ava.
“I’m so sick of this music,” Darren moaned. I could hardly blame him. After a billion plays on repeat, Martha was getting boring.
“We could change it,” Talia
said. ‘All we’d have to do is select track 2. It would still be the same artist, but at least the song would be different.”
I shook my head. “It’s too risky. What if the next song is a lullaby?”
“Good point. Let’s leave it,” Darren said. “Although if we ever get out of this apocalypse, I never ever want to hear that song again.” He could say that again. We bumped fists. I looked up, ready to bump fists with Talia too, but she had that little crease her forehead again. “I think Andrew was right. The CD isn’t as good as it was. Close up you can hear it clicking. And it cut out before.”
Instead of trying to tune the music out, I concentrated on Martha’s voice. It was kind of scratchy, like an old fan heater that’s been running on full blast. “It’ll hold out,” I insisted.
“I hope so.” Darren was starting to sound a lot like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. “We don’t know how long it’ll take to work.”
Actually, we didn’t know if it would work at all. But I couldn’t let my friends get depressed. It was like Darren said before: times like these it’s important to keep people’s morale up.
“Hey, take a chill pill, guys. Everything’s going to be fine,” I assured them.
Grabbing the pushchair handles from Grandma, I wiggled my hips then flicked out my legs in my own silly version of the Bunny Hop. The pushchair surged forward then slowed, surged and slowed, a bit like Grandma’s driving. Ava squealed, Cody leapt about my legs, and my friends’ laughter followed me into the next street.
CHAPTER 30
We’d barely stepped onto Founders Park, after our second circuit of the town for the day, when Ava did her screaming iron girder trick.
“Ava out!” She braced her feet against the footrest and strained against the straps. “Out now.”
“She must be tired,” Grandma said. “I’m not surprised; this has been quite the Founders Day Parade.”
“We could let her run around for a bit,” Talia said quickly. “If we let her stretch her legs, she might nod off on the way home.”