Plague War: Outbreak

by Alister Hodge

  Over the coming days, Erin continued to improve. Her limp lessened as the wound began to heal in an absence of infection. Jai provided a brace of rabbits caught in his traps at the back of the property on the second day. After that however, everyone was restricted from leaving the shipping container defences. Greater numbers of the Infected began moving along the highway and, to a lesser extent, the fields to each side in a southerly direction.

  All noise was kept to a minimum, lights left off at night in a concerted effort to avoid drawing the attention of the passing Carriers. A four-hourly shift rotation kept watch from the porch through the nights, the guard listening for any signs of an attack on the wall. The low moaning growl of the passing Infected outside, carried in fluctuating volume on the breeze, was enough to keep each sentry firmly awake during their shifts.

  Each afternoon, the radio was turned on to the emergency broadcast channel to check for any change in announcement. For the past two weeks there had been no alteration, the same speech by General Black repeating every ten minutes. However, today was different.

  Steph flicked on the radio, the volume down low while she sat and listened. She felt a flutter of nerves in her gut as she realised that a different voice was speaking. Steph caught the last sentence, something about the town of Jindabyne. As the voice was replaced by static, Steph gathered the other members of the house to listen. Penny brought a blank piece of paper and pencil to jot down the outline of the speech and any key information.

  Jai helped his sister, supporting her left elbow as she limped in to the living room to sit on the couch, her brother perching on the armrest next to her. The other members quickly took seats or sat on the floor. Everyone was quiet, a palpable sense of anticipation present as each waited for the new information. Steph carefully dialled up the volume so each person would be able to hear, and was rewarded by the sound of a woman clearing her throat.

  ‘Good afternoon and congratulations to you, the survivors of south-east New South Wales. My name is Major Williams, and I bring you news regarding local evacuation and resistance efforts. Since the last national address provided by General Black, the army has been working around the clock to establish retreat points across the nation. Your closest point, is based in the alpine town of Jindabyne. Recent research upon Carriers has demonstrated that they freeze in sub-zero temperatures, becoming completely incapacitated. This makes the snow-line the safest place in the state. If you are able to retreat in safety, you are encouraged to make for Jindabyne with speed to join the national resistance effort. The remnants of this winter must be used in preparation for a summer offensive. We look forward to your arrival. So until next time, stay safe. And if you can’t – fight hard!’

  Static replaced the woman’s voice. Steph leaned forward and turned off the radio again, then rocked back on her heels. ‘Wow. Looks like the country is finally starting to do something,’ she said.

  ‘If that information is right about Carriers freezing solid, then they’re right – we should make for the snow line. Once we get there, we won’t have to worry about an attack until the spring thaw,’ said Harry.

  Mark wasn’t so convinced. ‘Once we get there, Harry – that’s still the problem. We would have to risk a trip of over three hundred kilometres in the open to reach that safety. The numbers of those bastards are only getting thicker out there – what if we run into a swarm on the road. We’d be dead. I’d rather stay and fight from our own small fortress and live.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Penny. ‘The numbers of Infected around us are increasing. But what if we miss a window to escape? If they get any thicker out there, we won’t have any choice but to remain.’ She firmed her voice, ‘I think we should vote on whether to stay or go.’

  Georgie appealed to Mark. ‘This place was only ever meant to be a temporary base until we knew what was happening across the state and country. We have that information now – surely that means we should move on?’

  Mark refused to be swayed. ‘We could hold this place against hundreds of them – what a fucking waste of effort just to leave it behind.’ He stopped, rubbing his eyes in frustration. ‘Can we at least sleep on it before any vote takes place? The logistics of such a journey would have to be considered prior to making a firm decision anyway.’

  ‘So you’d come if you’re out-voted?’ asked Harry.

  Mark glared at him. ‘That’s a fucking stupid question, Harry. Of course I’ll bloody well come. I just think you’re all going to get us killed by leaving,’ he snapped in reply, walking to the front door. ‘I’ll take the first shift of the evening.’ Without waiting for a reply from anyone, he shut the door, bringing the conversation to an end.

  Steph let out a long breath as she watched Mark exit. ‘If we leave, we’d be going against the advice of the only professional soldier amongst us.’

  ‘Yeah, one soldier’s advice that contradicts the instruction of the army’s leadership,’ countered Harry.

  Georgie stuck up for Mark. ‘You’re missing his point, Harry. Mark’s primary concern is our safety during the trip needed to get there. Everything he’s done around this place to date, is to increase our chances of survival. By leaving here, we need to be mindful that we may be jumping, for want of a better description, from the saucepan into the fire. And the burn might be enough to kill us all.’

  ‘If it gives me the chance to get my sister to permanent safety, and then join the main fight against the Infected – then I’m ok with that risk,’ said Jai, entering the debate for the first time.

  Penny nodded, agreeing with the boy. ‘We’d want to make the journey within a single day. I, for one, don’t want to be stuck in the open overnight. Let’s nut this out then, work out what we’d need for the trip if we’re to attempt it,’ suggested Penny, moving some chairs over to the dining table. The others joined her and settled in to mind-map a plan.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  An hour later saw the light begin to fade as the sun dipped below the western ridgeline. Mark pulled his jacket more tightly around him as a light breeze picked up, needling any exposed skin with icy teeth. The sound of Carriers had been increasing through the afternoon. A brief peek over the edge of their defences had shown at least eighty ghouls on the highway within sight. Luckily, the barbed wire fence had been enough so far to dissuade any attempt to breach the immediate grounds about their house.

  The sound of an engine in the distance, rapidly increasing in volume caught his attention. Mark climbed the ladder to the edge of the front wall to see if the vehicle would turn in their direction, or keep going. With the increased numbers of Infected moving through, he’d expected the approach of at least a few of the families that Harry and Penny had met the previous week. A ute was accelerating down the highway from the north, swerving around Carriers on the road, knocking others down or bouncing them to the side off the edge of the fender.

  In the fading light, Mark could just make out damage to the ute. The front right wheel arch was badly crumpled and rubbing on the tyre causing it to smoke heavily. The ute barely slowed as it suddenly made a sharp right into their driveway, gravel spewing out behind spinning tyres as the vehicle hit the new surface. Instead of stopping to open the gate, the ute careered onward, smashing the wide gate off its hinges, rendering their first line of defence useless. Now any of the infected on the highway could enter the paddock surrounding the shipping containers without impediment.

  The collision had been the last straw for the front wheel. The tyre exploded with the noise of a shotgun blast, rubber shredding away in large pieces. The driver lost control, the ute slewing to the right, off the driveway and into the base of the paddock toward the deep pits. Some luck was with the occupants, as the ute dug into the soft earth and ground to a halt next to the second hole. Three people emerged from the cab and started to run towards the battlement of shipping containers. Mark’s gaze flicked back to the highway and broken gate, now lying bent and useless on the ground. Carriers were starting to file
through the space, following in the wake of the family.

  Mark swore violently under his breath. The bastards had brought a true storm onto them. He dropped from the side of the container, running for the house to raise the alarm. Mark yelled as he ran, there was no point maintaining noise precautions now. Climbing the ladder onto the porch by every third rung at speed, the other occupants were spilling out of the front door as he reached the top.

  ‘Some bastard’s broken down the front gate drawing the Carriers from the highway onto us,’ said Mark, pausing to draw in a lung full of air. ‘We could be facing hundreds within minutes.’

  Each person listening was deathly pale, faces drawn as the significance of his words drove home.

  ‘Shit. We need to enact our major defence plan then,’ said Penny, the first to break out of inertia. ‘Mark, will you run the show? You’re going to be the best one to lead us through this.’

  Mark nodded without pause, he would have claimed control within moments if it hadn’t been offered anyway. There was no time available to waste on niceties.

  Now that the attack had finally become reality, he felt himself begin to slow and think more clearly. He’d always found the waiting to be hardest. Once the fight started, he tried to imagine himself as already dead, freeing himself to act rationally and prevent making decisions based on fear. He could then fall back on training and routine. He saw expectant faces before him awaiting instruction, expressions starting to steady and firm in reflection of their leader’s evident resolve.

  ‘I want a ladder over the front to allow the people in, we can’t afford to open any of the container doors at this late stage.’ He pinned Harry with eye contact. ‘Can I leave that to you, Harry?’

  He nodded in assent.

  ‘Make sure none of them are bitten, if they are, cull the infected member once the family is out of sight. I’ll be there to help you in a minute.’

  Harry swallowed gluey spit in a throat suddenly dry. He swiftly descended the porch ladder and was away.

  ‘Georgie and Steph, load hand weapons into each of the front containers ready for use. Penny and Jai, take rifles and ammunition to the top of the wall and complete a weapon check of each rifle – we need them ready for action. We’ll all rendezvous on the top of the front wall on completion to assess our next move. I’ll make a decision once I see how many of the bastards are attacking the walls and where.’ Mark pulled his sword and scabbard from the rack, buckling it about his waist as he talked. ‘Right, get moving!’ he shouted, pushing each into action.

  Mark followed in Harry’s wake. He still held a cold fury at whoever it was that had so effectively damaged their first line of defence without need. There had been a good forty-metre gap around the vehicle clear of Carriers, surely they could have opened and closed the gate in time? He also had a nagging feeling that he recognised the ute from earlier in the week when Erin had been delivered into their care.

  Mark’s fingers gripped onto the top edge of the container wall at the apex of the ladder, a rough sandpaper texture providing purchase thanks to Steph’s idea. Harry was starting to lower a ladder over the front wall, an old timber number that had been left there for such an occasion. Mark joined him, taking a side to lower it downwards.

  ‘Hurry up! They’re coming, you’ve got to let us in!’ screamed a man below.

  Mark could barely make out his face. Night had now fallen, the half-light of dusk already ebbed to nothing. Multiple snarls came from the darkness surrounding. He’d have to wait until they were on the wall to search for bites – there wasn’t going to be time.

  After the ladder hit the ground, he pulled a torch from his jacket pocket, shining it onto the group to help them find footing on the ladder. First pushed onto the rungs was a girl of eight or nine who scaled the ladder like a rat, hiding behind Harry to wait for her parents. Next came a woman, her husband pushing at her from behind to urge her upward, but only making it more difficult for her to climb. Tears ran down the lady’s face in terror, her mouth open and panting. A set of reaching arms and face lunged into the circle of light provided by the torch, latching onto the man’s lower leg as he climbed awkwardly with a rifle gripped in his left hand. He screamed, violently shaking the limb to dislodge his attacker, who ripped free and dropped to the ground, a clump of material in its teeth. The man climbed the remaining rungs and heaved himself over the edge to lie on his back. Without surprise, Mark and Harry identified the man as Rodger, the useless coward that had shot Erin. Harry and Mark quickly pulled up the ladder once more, unwilling to test the abilities of the ghouls below to climb such a structure. The noise of the milling Infected had reached fever pitch, the volume of their animalistic snarling forced Mark to shout above the din to be heard.

  ‘Did that bite reach through to your skin?’ he yelled. Rodger scooted backward away from Mark when he stretched down a hand to examine his leg.

  ‘No, no – nothing. We’re all fine. Those bastards didn’t get a piece of me,’ he said in a tumble of words. Mark didn’t trust him, the man avoided eye contact like a liar.

  ‘Let me see the leg where you got bitten, you might not have felt the teeth break the skin in the fight.’ Rodger refused, shaking his head. Mark was losing patience fast, he placed a hand menacingly on the grip of his sword. ‘No one gets in here that’s infected – it places everyone at risk. Either raise the leg of your pants and let me see, or I’ll throw you straight back over the edge to the mob below. If you’re bitten, we’ll give you a painless death, better than turning into one of them,’ he said, waving at the Carriers on the ground.

  Rodger eyed Mark’s sword, then winced as he slowly raised the left leg of his jeans. A long pair of gumboots was under the denim, covering the bottom two thirds of his calf. They appeared to have protected his skin from the Carrier’s teeth, Mark was unable to see any wound above them.

  ‘Right that wasn’t so hard was it? We haven’t got time for fucking around here. If you’re going to stay, you do as I say, when I say it. Everybody except the kids, fights for their keep. You got it?’ said Mark, his tone brooking no discussion.

  Rodger and his wife nodded, their faces white with fear.

  Steph, Georgie, Penny and Jai had joined them on the container, catching the end of his discussion with the new comers. Mark acknowledged their presence.

  ‘How did everything go? Weapons all ok above and below?’ he asked, mentally ticking off the required tasks for preparation. He received affirmative replies from each of his team.

  ‘Right. They know we’re here, so we might as well know what we’re dealing with. Shall we light up the place and give ourselves something to fight by?’ yelled Mark above the hellish noise.

  Penny jogged over to the far-right corner where the switch for the light system had been housed. The floodlights blinked on, bathing a ring of pasture around the wall in harsh white light, illuminating the front paddock down to the pits in the front corner.

  A bowel-loosening vision greeted their eyes.

  The closest half of the paddock to the container was filled with the Infected, lurching forward to the wall. The walking corpses were in various states of trauma. Clothes stained with dry gore, vomit and filth clung to dead flesh. Some were naked, their injuries in plain sight. Hideous wounds adorned most, brown dry meat hung in tatters at the edges of amputated limbs, torn throats and gnawed torso’s. More than one walked while completely disembowelled, intestines ripped clear, leaving nothing but an empty cavity beneath the rib cage. Open eyes were white against the light, a side effect of lids that no longer closed, leading to countless scratches over the eye surface until the cornea was opaque.

  The Carriers below were focused on the front wall, hammering in rage at the containers, clawing at the steel in vain attempts to reach them above. They only managed to rip off finger nails and spread gruesome brown trails of abraded flesh, like meat crayons on the painted metal.

  Mark forced himself to swallow the bile that had risen to the back of hi
s throat and get back to work. Compartmentalise the fear, keep the rational thought in command – the monsters below are only dangerous if they get inside. This should be a simple enemy for God’s sake. It’s not like they can shoot back. I just have to prevent their numbers accumulating to the point that they climb over each other to the top of the wall.

  ‘For the moment they all seem to be attacking the front, that should hopefully make it easier for us to keep them in check with our small numbers. Therefore, we place most of our resources along the top of the wall and within the base,’ said Mark, justifying his plan out loud to the team. He turned to the newest recruits, the family responsible for the whole bloody mess. Mark didn’t want them anywhere near an area of need, better out of the way where they would less likely cause another episode of ‘friendly fire’.

  ‘Rodger and Jan – you’re taking the top of the back wall. I want you to keep an eye out for any of the Infected that start to converge on either the side or back walls that will require us to change our defence pattern. If you can avoid it, I don’t want you firing a rifle back there as yet – I’d prefer the Infected to stay congregated where they are for the moment for us to kill in one location. If you fire that weapon, you’ll be drawing more of the Carriers towards you ‒ just run and tell us if anything changes.’ Rodger nodded, the clear relief on his features at staying out of the action made Mark feel like punching it off his face. It was the wife that questioned what was to happen with their daughter.

  ‘Steph, can you take her to Erin? Tell her she’s in charge of the girl, and that they are both to remain inside the house no matter what. Then get back here. You and Penny will take the first shift on the wall. Start picking off the bastards with the rifles. Nothing more than twenty metres away. Slow, even headshots. Make each one count.’

  Penny gave a grimace that Mark guessed was supposed to pass as a smile. She grabbed one of the Austeyrs, jogged twenty metres away from the group where she took a kneeling stance, her elbow resting on one knee to steady her aim, and began firing.