‘I don’t know where Mark is,’ Grace said. Her voice gave away the fact that she was close to tears.
‘Then we’ll find him,’ Luke said. Grace couldn’t help noticing sadness in his green eyes as he made the offer.
Day nine of the outbreak
‘They’re not back yet?' Lucy asked as she woke up just in time to see the sun rising.
Yasmin shook her head and Grace wandered further into the trees. Mark followed.
‘We need to leave soon. We shouldn’t stay so close to them,’ Mark reasoned — meaning the soldiers guarding the exits out of Manchester.
‘They’ll be back. They're just…' Grace faltered, unable to come up with any plausible explanation for what had happened to Luke and Gregg.
‘If we stay, we’ll be spotted eventually and you saw what the army guys did to those people?’
'It doesn't make any sense. We found food and bottles of water, left for us, but they shoot dead anyone who tries to leave.'
'I think their orders are to feed us, but not let us leave Manchester, that's the only explanation I can come up with. How long before that changes and they give up on us altogether? We need to go, Grace.'
‘Just a little longer,’ she pleaded.
Mark looked like he wanted to argue, but instead reached out his hand to Grace’s face, brushing away a few stray hairs. ‘You’re a good person, but that’s going to get you killed.’
‘Aren’t you a good person too?’
‘Sure, but not at the expense of my own life.’ Grace opened her mouth to argue with him, but Mark had moved closer, pressing his lips against hers and gently kissing her, then standing back before Grace had time to decide whether to kiss him back or push him away. ‘I like you Grace. I don’t want you to die, one hour,’ he said before heading back towards the others, leaving Grace staring after him.
She took advantage of the few moments of privacy to use a nearby bush as a toilet, then went to re-join Mark and the others.
‘They’re back?’ Yasmin questioned as two figures approached in the distance.
‘Get back,’ Mark commanded taking out a hammer from his back pack.
‘What are you doing?’ Lucy squealed.
‘They might not be them anymore,’ Mark pointed out.
Yasmin shot Mark an angry stare, but stood protectively in front of Lucy.
‘Luke,’ Grace’s voice was full of concern as she realised Luke was bleeding and needed help from Gregg to be able to walk. She tried to run towards him, but Mark wrapped his arms tightly around her to hold her back. ‘Let go,’ she demanded.
‘No, he might be…’
‘Gregg wouldn’t be helping Luke if Luke was one of those things,’ Grace reasoned and Mark reluctantly let go. Grace ran to Luke and almost fell as she let him lean on her the rest of the way. ‘What happened?’
‘Everything's guarded. Soldiers and tanks everywhere, even drones, we were shot at. Luke took a bullet to the leg, then fell and hurt his side when the infected came after us,’ Gregg hurriedly explained.
'There’s no way out?’ Paula questioned.
‘There’s nobody on our side,’ Luke mumbled.
Grace took off her hoodie and used it to try to attempt to stop the bleeding from Luke’s leg as blood soaked through his torn trousers. ‘Don’t we need to get the bullet out?’ she questioned.
‘Went straight through,’ Luke winced as Grace pressed the hoodie harder against his leg.
‘Sorry, I don’t know what to do here.’ She looked up at the rest of her group, who all looked as clueless as she felt. She was grateful when Luke began directing her on what to do to help stop the bleeding. Mark stepped in and cut up the part of the hoodie which wasn’t blood soaked, along with one of his own jumpers to make bandages. He helped Grace to tie them around Luke’s injured side as well as his leg. ‘Thank you,’ she told him.
‘We need to go,’ Mark responded, helping Luke to his feet. ‘Grace and I can help you walk, but we need to be quick.’
‘I’m fine,’ Luke argued, but stumbled before Grace could stop his fall.
‘Sure you are,’ she retorted, before she and Mark helped him to stand again and supported his weight.
‘Get his things,’ Grace instructed Yasmin, Paula, Lucy and Gregg. ‘We can’t leave weapons and supplies behind.'
They had barely walked a mile when one of the infected approached them. Grace and Mark, sat Luke down despite his protests that he was fine and could fight. Mark quickly disposed of the creature, smashing it over the head with his hammer, but two more were approaching.
‘It’s the blood,’ Luke speculated, pointing to the gunshot wound on his leg, which was bleeding again through the home-made bandages. ‘Just leave me, I’m attracting them. I'll run the other way, lead them away from you all.’
‘Screw that,’ Grace replied.
‘Come on,’ Mark tried to pull her away.
The others all looked unsure, but seemed ready to run rather than fight off more of the infected.
‘I’m not leaving him,’ Grace insisted, 'so you can either help me get him somewhere safer, or you can leave me too.’
‘Gracie, he said…’ Mark began.
‘I don’t care what he said,’ Grace carried on trying to help Luke to his feet.
Mark rolled his eyes and helped her with Luke. ‘Hurry up,’ he snapped at him.
‘They’re coming,’ Lucy cried out.
Yasmin ran towards a clearing in the trees, away from where the soldiers and tanks were.
‘Where are you going?’ Gregg demanded, but Yasmin kept on running.
Lucy, Gregg and Paula went after her, leaving Grace, Mark and Luke to stumble through the trees together. The creatures were almost upon the three of them as they finally reached the clearing.
‘Get in the back,’ Yasmin instructed from the passenger side of a small white van. Gregg was sat in the drivers seat.
Grace didn’t have time to question where they had found it. She opened the back door and ushered in Luke and Mark. There wasn’t much space and Grace found herself squashed against Mark who didn’t seem to mind much.
Chapter five
‘That must be the shortest time I’ve lasted in a job,’ Grace commented as Luke helped her load her bags into the back of his car, leaving her second-hand car behind.
‘From what you told me, you’re not giving up much.’
Grace pulled a face. ‘I took a call, from some woman. She was almost in tears because her Internet cut out for an hour.’
Luke snorted in disgust. ‘The silly cow should try surviving a zombie outbreak. We lost internet on day three, not that it mattered. There’s no time to check emails when a horde of the infected trying to eat you.’
‘Exactly. Do you ever think we should have spoken out?’ Grace questioned as they both got into the car.
‘I don’t think we had much choice. Do you really think they would have just let us go, if we were going to tell everyone? It's not like anyone would believe us and I doubt they really let us go anyway.’
‘What do you mean?’ Grace’s forehead creased.
‘They gave us somewhere to live, helped you get your new job, paid for the rust bucket that you drove here in, helped me get my job back and rebuilt my house. Do you think they did that out of the goodness of their hearts?’
‘They felt guilty and they wanted to keep us quiet,’ Grace answered.
‘You’re right about that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t keeping a much closer eye on us than that.’
‘You think they've bugged us somehow?’
‘Just in case, can’t have people running around shouting about the Manchester zombie apocalypse.’
‘No, they wouldn’t,’ Grace shook her head, but she knew the government had done much worse to avoid the outbreak spreading and to cover up the whole mess.
The rest of the journey was spent in silence until they were almost back in Manchester.
‘I don’t like t
his place,’ Luke glanced at Grace, ‘but I’m trying to reclaim this city. It was my home before and I only want things to go back to how they were.’
‘I’m just here because I want to find out where Mark went, then I’m gone again.'
‘You think he left Manchester?’
‘That’s not so far fetched. He's not as optimistic as you. I doubt he believes things can go back to normal.’
‘I never said I believed that, just that it’s what I want. I’ve got to try.’
Grace wanted to tell Luke that Mark wasn’t the ‘stay and try to make things better’ type. He had left her rather than staying to work on their relationship. Instead, she remained quiet and tried to suppress a shiver when they drove through Manchester. She wondered why she agreed to come back. Mark wouldn’t be there.
‘We’ll speak to the guy who told me where you were. If Mark’s left Manchester, we’ll find out where he went and go there.’
Day 373 of the outbreak
Grace woke up feeling groggy and cold, realising she was naked. For a moment, she wondered if she was dead, but then common sense told her she wouldn’t feel or be aware of anything if she was dead. That didn’t shut up the voice of fear nagging away inside her head. There were zombies, so why not ghosts? She looked around her, but it was dark and she could only make out the outlines of what seemed to be a hospital trolley which she was laid on. And a door. That’s good, she told herself, a door meant a way out. Her head hurt more than the time she had run into a brick wall, because she hadn't been looking where she was going. Grace was pleased at remembering something from her childhood and who she was, as she tried to recall how she had ended up there. She summoned up a memory of running with Mark and the others, but that’s all she ever seemed to do. Grace decided the best thing to do was try to escape, then attempt to retrieve her memories later. It was only as she tried to sit up when she felt the restraints on her wrists and ankles, digging into her skin and pulling her back down.
‘No, no, no,’ she panicked. If she was tied down, she was vulnerable. The infected could find her at any time and she wouldn’t be able to fight or protect herself. She wanted to scream out, but knew that could alert any infected who happened to be nearby. It would be as good as ringing the dinner bell. She lay still, listening. There were noises — maybe in the next room — but definitely no further than a few rooms away. Grace heard a door slam shut and footsteps echoing slightly. It could be a corridor that the owner of the footsteps were walking along. They were getting closer to the room she was in. Grace was almost certain this was a hospital, but they weren’t known for restraining patients, unless it was a psychiatric hospital. That could explain a lot. She wondered if maybe she had imagined the past year and was insane. The lack of clothes didn’t back up that theory though. Grace questioned whether psychiatric patients would be left naked in their room.
‘Maybe I’m being mistreated, that happens doesn’t it?' she asked herself, but didn’t have time to come up with an answer before the door to her room opened.
‘Good, you’re awake,’ a woman’s voice said, as the light came on, flickering at first until it became a glare above her.
Grace squinted and looked up at a tall blonde woman dressed in a white coat and holding a clip board.
‘Where am I?’
‘At North Manchester General Hospital.’
‘And?’
‘And what?’
What am I doing here? And why am I naked?’ Grace snapped, not liking the abruptness of the woman, or the fact that she was on display to this stranger.
‘You tore off your clothes, then you tried to hurt yourself and the doctors, don’t you remember?’
‘What? No!’
‘These episodes of yours are getting more and more out of control, Grace. We may have to section you again.’
Grace shook her head, but couldn’t help wondering if she had been right the first time and she really was mad. ‘Where’s Luke and Mark?’
‘Not this again, we already established that Luke and Mark are just figments of your imagination, along with this zombie invasion you keep talking about.’
‘They are…we were…,’ Grace was flustered, unable to come up with a reasonable argument.
‘Just lie still,’ the woman insisted as she jabbed a needle into Grace’s right arm.
Grace winced. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Just taking a blood sample.'
Grace watched helplessly as the woman took sample after sample, looking to be at least a full pint of blood in total.
‘Why do you need so much?’ Something told Grace that she wasn’t in the position to show her suspicions while tied down to a hospital trolley, but she couldn’t help herself.
‘You wouldn’t understand, just tests that we need to do,’ her answer was patronising. Then she took out a bigger needle and inserted it into Grace’s hip.
Grace tried to suppress a scream as she demanded to know what the woman was doing.
‘Just a simple bone marrow extraction,’ the woman calmly replied, as though it was a normal thing to do. ‘Genetic tests, to see what’s causing these hallucinations.’
‘What? Bone marrow won’t help with that,’ Grace insisted through clenched teeth.
‘I’m the doctor here. Don’t you think I know what I’m doing?’
‘I’m sure you do. I only wish I did,’ Grace said before the needle was inserted further, causing her to cry out again.
‘Aren’t you supposed to give me something to numb the pain before you do that?’ she asked through her tears of pain.
‘I just did, dear. Don’t you remember? Oh, of course you don't. It's part of your psychosis, short-term memory and hallucinations. Don’t worry, the pain is all in your head.’
Grace didn’t respond, but she felt almost sure that the pain was real and not in her head. However, she could feel a small part of herself doubting her own sanity.
‘No,’ she told herself, ‘this is all some kind of trick.’ She tried to make sense of what was happening and why this woman would want to make her think she was crazy, but the pain was too much for her to be able to think straight. She thought if Luke was there, he would know if anything this woman was saying was based on medical fact, but if she had only imagined Luke and everything else that was going on, it was pointless to wish he was there.
Chapter six
‘We’ll just talk to Terry, he’ll tell us where Mark went and then we’ll go after him,’ Luke assured Grace as they walked towards the town hall entrance.
‘I really hope it’s far away from this city, I don’t want to be here, Luke.’ She locked eyes with him, knowing he was only one of two living people who could come close to understanding how she felt.
‘I know,’ he responded, taking her hand in his as the two of them entered the building.
Grace didn’t pull her hand away. It was comforting and didn’t mean anything more than a bond they shared — from surviving two years of horrendous experiences together, experiences they couldn’t share with the rest of the world. She pushed Mark's idea to the back of her mind, about Luke having feelings for her.
‘I can’t tell you anything,’ Terry said after Luke asked him where Mark had gone.
‘You mean you won’t?’ Grace questioned.
‘No, I mean I can’t, because I don’t know.’
‘Are you trying to tell us, Mark left and you guys don’t know where he went?’ Luke was unconvinced.
‘I’m sure someone does, but it’s not me,’ Terry insisted.
‘Then who?’ Grace asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Terry shrugged. 'You know, I only took this job because it pays more than any other council in the UK, but they don't tell me everything.'
‘Then find out,’ Luke suggested.
‘I’ve already done more than I should and you two should just be happy to be alive after…’
'After what?’ Grace demanded, stepping closer to Terry and in spite of been six inches s
horter than him, she managed to come across as intimidating enough to make Terry take a step backwards. ‘Do you mean after the people you work for, or more precisely the people who use you to hide behind, let out a deadly infection and not only left everyone to die, but tried to cover the whole thing up by killing off anyone not infected by the outbreak to cover their own backs?’
‘You know that… it wasn’t me who did those things and…I’m just a…’ Terry started.
‘Do you know the things I had to do in those two years? Do you know what I could do now? To you, if you don’t find out where Mark went? Or at the very least the name of someone who can tell me,’ Grace threatened.
‘I’ll try to find out.'
‘Good, that’s all I ask,’ Grace replied calmly, almost as though her previous outburst hadn't happened.
‘You know that wasn’t completely necessary, don’t you?’ Luke asked as the pair of them left the town hall. ‘You were full on terrifying in there.’
‘I did what I had to. Now he’s motivated.’
‘Yeah, sure, motivated to shit his pants maybe,’ Luke pointed out.
‘Whatever works,’ Grace retorted.
Luke grabbed Grace's arm, forcing her to stop walking. ‘Grace, what we went through and maybe you most of all, it was horrible. That doesn’t even cover it, but it’s over now and even though we did some awful things and had more awful things done to us, we have to go back now.’
‘Go back to what?’ Grace found herself snapping at Luke.
‘To behaving like human beings.’
‘And how’s that working out for you?’
‘Better than the alternative.’
Days 191 and 192 of the outbreak
‘Grace has been bitten,’ Mark’s panicked voice called out to Luke as the horde of infected continued to pursue them.
Blood seeped from Grace’s arm. Gregg, Yasmin and Paula headed towards a cottage. Luke fell back, helping Mark with Grace.
After The Zombies | Prequel | After The Zombies Page 3