by Craig Jones
He banged his fist on the table in front of him to gain everyone’s attention, and in a moment the room was silent. He didn’t sit and although he wasn’t the tallest man, he dominated proceedings.
“As most of you are aware, we’ve been given the order to evacuate.”
He paused, giving a few seconds for the hubbub of conversation to dissipate. I glanced around at some of the faces. It was apparent that everyone, military or otherwise, looked nervous. Some looked outright scared. The stadium had offered us everything that Captain Mitchell had told me it would: shelter, safety, and refuge. Even during the most severe attacks by the Remakes, not a single door had even buckled. And now it sounded like we were going leave that safety behind.
“The decision has been made because it has been decided that at this moment, the enemy is too strong to be defeated. We have no idea of their numbers. And in terms of the faster zombies, the apparently more intelligent, more human creatures…” He hesitated, sought me out in the crowd and gave me the most subtle of nods. “Well, we just don’t know where they are.”
The room erupted in noise. Questions were thrown out from all directions, and Rogers continued to stand calmly at the front, both hands flat on the table.
“Where are we meant to go?”
“How are we going to get there?”
“Are there reinforcements coming to help us?”
Again, he waited until silence once more descended.
“Where are we going? Folkestone. The Channel Tunnel, to be precise. How are we getting there? We will drive. We have several military vehicles that will provide an escort to the three buses we’ve found in the garage in the bowels of the stadium. And no, there will be no reinforcements.”
Anger and accusations filled the room. With raised hands, Rogers managed to restore a little peace.
“Anyone who wishes to stay within the confines of the stadium can do so. I cannot order any member of the public to come with us if they don’t want to, but I strongly advise that you do. I will not be leaving any soldiers to stand guard once we have left.”
Captain Bateman, who had been sitting beside the general throughout his briefing, rose to his feet. “That’s all we have to tell you for now. Please spread the word amongst the population, and we’ll have another planning meeting tomorrow. We’ll be leaving in exactly seventy two hours.”
Despite further protestations, the room was quickly emptied. As I made my way out, Bateman caught me by the sleeve.
“You need to stick around for the next part of the meeting, kid,” he told me.
The door closed and Rogers began to address us again. I was the only civilian left. The rest of the room was filled with soldiers and officers. Chris glared in my direction.
“We’re not the only group heading for the tunnel,” he told us. “There are similar safe havens across the country. Some are being evacuated by boat, but anyone along the south coast and the motorway corridor are being directed to Folkestone. But we aren’t just anyone!”
I crept forward to the edge of my seat.
“Gentlemen, we have a very special mission,” Rogers stated. “It would appear that in the middle of all of this carnage and death, there is in fact hope. Hope that has come too late for so many people but hope that we can defeat the zombies once and for all. Boys, they’ve found a cure.”
Despite all of their training, despite all of their discipline, the soldiers around me became frenzied. I had no reaction. I felt like my chair was dragged backwards through the room, and that I was watching the scene through the binoculars that I used when on mission. When Rogers began to speak once more, I felt like I was listening to him from underwater.
“On our way to Folkestone, we will be making a detour to Bath University. It would appear that there are three scientists there who have found a way to end this pandemic forever. Our mission is to get them and their research to the Channel Tunnel and out of Britain safely…”
He continued to talk, but his words were just noise to me.
A cure!
My mind turned to Robbie. He would be so delighted at the thought of his father being saved that he…
I couldn’t believe what I had thought. I hadn’t considered Danny first. I didn’t immediately suffer some bitter rage against the authorities for not coming up with this cure more quickly to save my brother. For once I had thought of someone else first. And of course it wouldn’t just be Robbie’s father but his sisters could also be cured—made human again. The hope I felt for the kid was beyond anything I had felt before. To be the one who could tell him this amazing turn of events filled me with elation. I’d sworn I would look after him, but up until now, I could do no more than that. I could bring him the news that would make him whole once more. Forget what the cure could do, this news was going to make him human again too.
But most of all, above all else, for the first time in as long as I could remember, I felt hope. It lasted all of two minutes.
10
“You know, boys,” General Rogers said, finally taking a seat. “I used to think there was only one cure for those SOB's out there.”
He stopped, letting his words sink in as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating he meant the zombies that kept us locked away inside the stadium.
“You know what that was?” he asked.
No one replied as he brought his hand out towards us. His thumb was still extended, and he pointed his index finger forward. He brought his thumb down towards his hand as if he were a kid pretending to shoot a gun. He blew at his finger tip, as if clearing away the gun smoke.
“A bullet to the head. I’ve seen friends die. I wasn’t there when my family was killed, but I know I’ll never see them again. And then I hear about what they’ve achieved at Bath University.”
I had no idea he’d even had a family. The way he was, I had assumed he was solely an Army man. Heck, he could have been James Bond in another life, or so I thought. Maybe this was why he’d taken me into the fold and let me be of some use. Perhaps he understood why I had left the stadium to try to rescue Nick’s family. Maybe he believed I saw them as my own. Maybe word had gotten back to him about Danny and what we’d done in Usk. To hear him open up like this was a revelation.
“Now I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but when I heard what they’ve done, well it even got me excited. A cure. A permanent cure. Can you imagine that, boys? A permanent cure? Something that made sure that those things would never come back?”
He let his words sink in. I could see why he’d climbed the ranks. Under the hard man, there was a leader. A motivator. The private who’d taken Robbie and I to our room asked, “What have they discovered, sir?”
“They’ve analyzed the bodies of the zombies. They’ve found something in there that they think causes the change. But they’ve found something else…”
I expected the room to be filled with noise as he paused, but silence reigned.
“They’ve found something that shuts them down for good. Terminally. And they think it can be made into some sort of airborne spray, like an aerosol, and when it gets deployed, we can say goodbye to those things for ever. Now that’s what I call a cure!”
The soldiers around me began to clap and slap each other on the shoulders. As they took to their feet, I stayed seated. All the hope I had built up inside me vanished. I felt sick to the pit of my stomach. How was I going to tell Robbie about what was going to happen? That his father and sisters would be given no chance but would be wiped out like insects by a crop sprayer?
I looked across the room at General Rogers and saw that he was reveling in the anticipation of eradicating the zombies with no hesitation, without a moment’s consideration that the creatures were someone’s father, sister or brother.
It all came back to my brother though, didn’t it?
My brother and my selfish actions to try to save him. Maybe Rogers was right; maybe they couldn’t be saved. Maybe they didn’t deserve to be saved. Mayb
e they were nothing more than machinations of death, focused on the single goal of feeding on us until we no longer survived as a species. Was my hope of them finding a cure truly to alleviate Robbie’s grieving for a family not truly dead, or was it more to put an end to a series of cataclysms that I had set in motion? I wanted to believe that I had the boy’s emotions at the heart of my actions, but underneath it all? I wasn’t too sure.
Just minutes ago I had dreamt of going back to our room, finding Robbie and telling him we were going to be part of the solution and that we were going to help transport the cure away from danger. That when it was safe to use, we’d use that chemical concoction instead of gunfire to halt the march of the dead. That I could tell Rob there was a flickering hope that he would have his father hold him again, that he would once more be the big brother to the siblings he so deeply missed.
The flame of hope died within my soul and my thoughts returned to the soldier out on the street; the one with the bite on the thigh. He had turned his weapon on himself, not able to face the reality of being bitten, not able to deal with the concept of becoming one of the zombies. But I wasn’t bitten. I wasn’t on the verge of turning into the undead. Inside, I was already as dead as I was ever going to be.
Bateman pushed his way through the crowd of soldiers towards me.
“You’ve been making good progress, kid,” he told me. His words were nothing to me. All I could think of was Robbie. “If you’re up to the challenge, I want you on my team as we prepare to move out. Sound good to you?”
“I’ll do whatever you like,” I said, standing up. I heard my voice but it didn’t feel like it was coming out of my mouth. “I’ll take whatever risk you need me to. But please, don’t let word of this cure get out. The boy I brought back? He still thinks his family really can be saved.”
“That’s why only the soldiers were here for that part of the briefing. We don’t want to cause any undue distress to anyone.”
I raised my eyebrows. “If only the soldiers were kept behind then why wasn’t I asked to leave?”
“Because whether you like it or not, kid, you’re one of us now.”
One of them? For so long I’d despised the Army. They’d shown up in Usk, just too late to save my brother, arriving just as I’d been venting my vengeance on the undead.
I rammed the sharpened end of the wood into the face of the first zombie I could reach. Not aiming for the eye, just wanting to see if it could be hurt any other way. No, it still rocked there, so I lined up the eye socket and shoved the splintered wood in as hard as I could, fighting to keep it upright so I could destroy its face—rip it to pieces, and then there was a distant ‘crack’ and the head of the zombie next to it simply exploded. Then a second, closer ‘crack’ and another zombie was obliterated.
And then a voice;
‘Sir, step away from the gate’.
I continued to probe at its face, the muscles in my arms and back already heavily fatigued, not understanding what was going on, only understanding what I had to do right now to keep myself sane.
‘Sir, for your own safety’.
Crack! Mash! Another zombie fell to the floor.
‘This is the British Army. We have the situation under control.’
Too late.
I looked across to where Rogers stood, talking to a group of men. His men. And now I was one of them?
No, I didn’t like it one bit. But what choice did I have? It wasn’t just my life that I held in my hands.
11
I made my way back to our room, knowing that Robbie would be desperate to hear what was going on. Robbie was my responsibility now and I’d protect him no matter what, and that went far beyond just making sure he was physically safe. I had to ensure that he was able to emotionally recover from what he had endured too. Telling him that the cure was going to eradicate every zombie in Great Britain was something I just could not do. And there was no way I was going to break the orders Rogers had laid out. Next time I crossed him, I had no doubt he’d toss me from the top of the stadium without a moment’s hesitation.
I opened the door and Robbie ran right to me, wrapping his arms around me. I could see he’d been crying.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.
Amanda, Bill’s wife, answered for him. “He had a nightmare and woke himself up screaming. He’s better now but was scared when you weren’t here.”
“I’m sorry,” I told him, smiling thinly over his head, so Amanda knew I truly appreciated her concern. “Everyone…I have news.”
I took a seat on the floor, my arms still holding Robbie close. He stared up at me with bloodshot, exhausted eyes as the rest of our roommates gathered around us. Along with Bill, Amanda and their daughter, Emma, there were the two men, Dan and Calvin in addition to the woman, Bev, who had hardly mombled a word to anyone the entire time we had been here. They all looked at me expectantly.
“The orders have come for us to move out. The Army has to get us to the Channel Tunnel and then we’ll leave for France.”
Dan’s face turned purple with rage. “What? That’s ridiculous! We’re safe in here, why would they--”
“Let him finish,” Bill said calmly. “Go on, Son.”
“A convoy of vehicles will be put together, and we’ll head for Folkestone where there’ll be a train waiting--”
Dan interrupted me again. “A convoy? How will the soldiers keep us safe?”
“I’m only the messenger,” I told him. “There’re three buses that the soldiers are going to make secure, plus the Army vehicles. General Rogers has had his orders, and he has to carry them out.”
I hoped that by dropping in the name of the man in charge, I could convince Dan to change his attitude.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly. “For weeks, all we’ve heard is that this is the most secure place to be; that we’re safe here…and now they expect us to go out there. In case you hadn’t noticed, out there is where those things are!”
Before I had chance to respond, Robbie leapt to his feet.
“Yeah, Matt does know where those ‘things’ are!” he shouted. “He knows because he goes out there every day to find us food. What have you done to help?”
The room fell silent, and Dan could only stare at the floor. I felt so proud of Robbie, not just for his words, but for the strength he found to speak them.
“Well I’m not going,” Dan said, childishly compared to Robbie’s mature outburst, and then retreated to his corner of the room.
“Me neither,” Calvin grunted.
Bev finally spoke.
“You think it’s any different in here than it is out there?” she asked. Her tone was steady, her face calm. I felt the tension in the room ease a little bit as it seemed the voice of reason was about to take charge. “All any of us are doing is waiting to die. One way or the other, the final outcome will be the same. We’ll be torn to pieces out there, or we’ll starve to death in here. It all adds up to the same thing--”
“You’re scaring the children!” Amanda snapped.
“I’m giving them a dose of reality,” Bev barked. “You think it will be a Sunday drive in the country? Roads will be blocked; we’ll have to stop every hundred yards to move wreckage out of the way. Sitting ducks! That’s what we’ll be.”
“Please!” Amanda implored as Emma burst into tears.
“Ah, whatever,” Bev said dismissively. “Live in your fantasy. Or die in it, I don’t care. I’ll take my chance here. At least then I can choose how and when I die. Not like out there.”
The door burst open, releasing the tension in the room like a pressure valve.
“There’s a rumor they’ve found a cure!” someone cried and our room emptied out as everyone rushed into the corridor to find out more.
I remained seated on the floor with Robbie next to me.
Those expectant eyes burrowed into my conscience.
“A cure? Really?”
I couldn’t tell him the truth.
>
“It’s just a rumor, but some scientists may have come up with a way to end all this. I don’t know how it would work, or even if it’s true. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”
The words began to clog in my throat as a smile of delight spread across Robbie’s cheeks. He’d not looked so animated since we’d arrived at the stadium and it was borne out of a lie.
“But there’s a chance, isn’t there?” he blurted. “A chance for Dad? For Sally? For Jayne?”
I hugged him close to me.
I’d thought there had been a chance for Danny too, right up to when I’d driven a stake through his eye socket and into his brain. I’d have given anything to hear that there was hope because that was all that Robbie needed to keep him going. Hope.
I didn’t think there was any hope. Not for finding a true cure or for any of us if the growing tensions within the stadium were given the chance to fester.
12
The next two days were a blur of activity as preparations for the convoy were put into motion. The first stage was to make sure that the three buses were as secure as possible. The soldiers unbolted banks of plastic seating from the stadium and attached them across the side and back windows of the vehicles. Although they didn’t completely cover the glass, they would be an effective barrier to any zombies attempting to clamber on board.
I’d been part of the detail that had ransacked a hardware store, and the troops had brought back welding kits. Watching them work to fix the rows of seats to the buses took me back to watching old episodes of the A Team with Danny. It always seemed that whenever the bad guys captured Hannibal Smith, Face, B. A. and Murdock, that there would always be an acetylene torch for them to action some dramatic escape. I hoped our breakout would be as successful.