I leaned my head out, grabbed my knife and looked around again and jumped as a mass slammed against the ground at my feet. I backed into the doorway. The zombie had fallen from the roof trying to get at me. I looked up and back at the small woman that had broken both of her legs from the fall and was clawing at the cement. Her dirt infested brittle nails broke as they scratched violently trying to get at me. I took one step out of the doorway and plunged my knife into the top of her head and moved back inside. I stepped out again to see if it was safe and looked up just in time to see another one plummet from the roof. I leapt back inside the building and watched the man hit the ground head first, which prevented me from having to take it out. I looked up again before stepping out and two more were falling. I pulled the door closed and stood at it listening to the ‘boom’ on the ground. I took a breath and knew that I would have to go back to the woman and ask to stay here for safety.
I hesitantly and slowly walked back up the stairs planning on what I was going to say.
“Look, I think it is shitty that you are not going to let the world know about your findings and that you won’t help me with my wife. But I can’t leave right now with the mass falling off your roof. I am going to need to stay but will leave as soon as I can to go find another way to save my wife.”
She stared at me for a moment. “You are not going to find another way to save your wife. I am the one that is supposed to be figuring this out and getting it to the CDC in Austin. But it is not ready yet, and before any of that happens, I have to keep myself safe, or it will never get there.”
I shook my head at her. “You have made progress though, don’t you want to take this to them and see if they can help perfect it? I will help you get there.”
The woman shook her head. “No, I want to perfect it and take it to them so that they are able to save people as soon as I get there. I am almost there, look at that man.”
I peered down and looked at the man that had now made it halfway up the stairs and was trying to keep his balance.
“I am almost there, I almost have the cure. I want to wait for a while and see if his motor skills and thoughts improve. If not I will go back to the lab and improve it. If so, then I will do what I can to get it where it needs to go after I am certain that I am safe myself.”
I shook my head in disappointment at the woman’s decision. She had so much going here and was able to bring them back and make them have thoughts; it should be shared.
“Okay, I want to help so we can speed up the process and get it done. I want to be able to save my wife. So once you have it “perfected”, I would like some to take to my wife and then I will help you get to Austin!”
She nodded and stuck out her hand. “By the way, I am Shala.”
I shook her hand. “I am Jason. Good to meet you. Let’s get on it. There were reports this morning that they thought that they had a cure.” I half questioned what she was doing.
“I was able to call this morning to the CDC and I did tell them that I am working on something that I think will work. They asked if I could get there and I let them know I could, but wanted to make sure that it worked. They let me know that they were working on something as well and would contact me back, but then the phones went dead.”
“How do you expect to get there?” I wondered.
“I have a truck in the parking garage, full of gas and ready to go.”
I nodded at her plans and headed to the stairway and started to go down them.
“Where are you going?”
“I am going to see how far this guy has come in coming back to life. Let’s get this started.”
I got two steps above him and stood there waiting for him to try and reach for me as the undead had before, but he only raised his head to look at me. His skin had almost made its way back to its original color, his eyes were a bright green, but his hair was still matted against his head and the hole in his neck was still there and looked as though it was actually bleeding instead of the normal ooze that came out when you bludgeoned them or stabbed them.
“Can you talk?” I asked him as he stared at me.
He moaned, opened his mouth, but all that came out was garbled sounds. I could see his tongue moving back and forth trying to control his sounds, but he got frustrated and just shook his head. I took another step down to him and let him grab onto my arm. I wanted to get him upstairs with us to be able to observe his progress.
He still held onto the rail and took a step up toward me. I saw his knuckles turn white on his hand that was on the railing and felt the pressure of his grasp tighten on my arm. Before I could take another step up, he pulled me hard and threw me behind him. I rolled down the stairs. I felt my back slam against the floor at the bottom and my breath was gone. I opened my eyes and the man was looking at me and staggering step by step back down the stairs. I could see a different look in his eyes; it was evil. Still breathless, I stood, reached in my pocket and my knife was gone. I looked across the floor and saw it a few feet away along with my flask not far from it.
Groans echoed throughout the building and the undead that were bouncing off of the walls were now headed my way. I dove to the floor and army crawled across it, snatched my knife up and grabbed my flask and turned over just in time for one of them to drop to his knees and try to take a bite. I stabbed him in the head and realized that I had dropped my back pack at the top of the stairs before coming to help the man. All I had was my knife. Shala was gone from the balcony when I looked up for her; I was on my own.
The man from the stairs was moving down them faster than he moved up and fell from the third step down on top of me. I dislodged my knife from the first one and thrust my knife into his head in midair. I jumped to my hands and knees and crawled to the stairs, I took the first two with ease and then fell on my stomach, again the air knocked out of me. I gasped for a breath and was able to turn my head. A Samoan looking zombie had a hold of my ankle. I kicked the ginormous man in the head with my free foot and tried to pull myself further up the stairs but could still feel the hold on my ankle when a shot rang out and I ducked for cover. I felt the hold on my ankle release and pulled harder than I had before and made it another two stairs. I grabbed the railing and was able to stand. I scurried up the steps when another shot rang and I dropped to the floor. I slowly removed my arms from over my head and could see Shala with a gun taking aim at another of the undead down below. Her dart gun strapped to her side and a revolver gripped in both of her hands.
“Shala! Stop!”
I jumped up, ran at her and grabbed the gun from her most recent aim. “We can’t shoot them all, we won’t have any of them to test.”
She backed up against the wall while she tried to catch her breath, and she nodded slightly in agreement. “Let’s go add some more to what I already have and try again. Are you okay?”
I followed her into a lab at the end of a hallway. Everything was stainless steel and clean as a whistle. All kinds of different ingredients sat on one of the tables and a large poster board on another with writings that I did not understand. Shala walked over to the liquids in different containers, she picked one up of clear liquid and poured the whole thing into another pitcher of a dark brown liquid. She pulled a tray over of twelve tubes and put a small funnel into one of them and poured the brown liquid into it doing the same with the others. She screwed a cap on each of them with a sharp point on the end and loaded them in a small bag and pushed it to the side of the table, keeping one out and put it in her dart gun.
“This is the end of it, it is the last of what I can do or how strong I can make it. If this doesn’t work, it isn’t going to.” Shala started to explain on our way down the hall. I followed her, anxious to get to the rail and see what happened with the enhanced ingredients of the cure.
Shala had her head turned as she was walking and explaining to me what she was expecting to happen when one of the office doors swung open and hit Shala in the face, she flew backwards and landed on the floor, t
he dart gun slid across the floor. A zombie stumbled out and shouldered the opposite wall and caught his balance and started heading straight for us both.
I looked at Shala and she was out cold. I grabbed her arm and the dart gun that had ended up behind me and walked backwards when three more shuffled out of the same room. Another door opened and two more came out. I tried to run faster when I reached the end of the hall thinking that I wasn’t as far as I was. The zombies were now passing the lab door that I should have turned into. I pulled my knife and aimed the dart gun. I took one out with the loaded dart and readied my knife to do my best with the rest. Shala was still unconscious and I stood in front of her waving my knife and steadying my balance to do what I could and hopefully save us both. She was my savior and I could not let her get killed. I stabbed for one’s head and made contact and held my knife steady as he dropped to the floor. It slid out easily and I took my knife to the side of the next one’s head. More were coming down the hall when I stepped on Shala’s foot and fell to the ground. Two of them were coming fast and I tried to get up on my feet but was knocked down by the two of them before I could catch my balance. One fell on top of me, pushing me down onto Shala, I was able to free my hand and stabbed him.
I rolled the man off of me and removed myself from lying on top of Shala. I was able to get up on my feet and caught sight of the other one feasting on Shala’s leg, I kicked it off and jumped on top of it stabbing it as landed.
I turned back to Shala with her gazing stare. “Get the cure of these bloodlands to Austin. Let them have it, take the poster board, save your wife.”
I turned when I felt the pain go through my body, a man was attached to my leg, he was shaking his head like a dog with its toy but in slow motion, I heard myself holler and it echoed through the hallway, but didn’t remember opening my mouth to do so. Another one joined his partner in tearing the skin from my calf when suddenly I heard a sound I had not heard before.
‘THUD, WHACK, THUD’!
Then the two that were using me for their snack were pulled from me. A man that looked like he had rolled in a mud puddle appeared and threw the two behind him and hit them with a chair and then stabbed both of them in the head with the legs of it. He offered his hand out to me to help me up. My hesitance was evident and I flinched when he took a step closer.
He shook his hand out to me. “It’s okay. I am not one of them anymore.”
He held up the dart I had shot him with. “Oh shit! Do you remember being one of them?”
He shook his head and looked down at himself. “No, but apparently I was, I look like shit!”
I gave him my hand and he pulled me up, I stood for half a second and crumbled back to the ground. “I’m not going to make it, I was bit. I need your help. In the lab there are more of these darts, they hold the cure that the CDC is waiting for. I came here looking for a cure for my wife to bring her back and I found Shala, who is working with the CDC. They need this. Take the darts and the poster board with all of the writing to them.”
The man acted like he understood and looked normal enough and spoke clearly, so I was hoping that he was comprehending. I was hoping the cure was not just temporary and he was going to turn back, unfortunately I didn’t have the time to find out.
The man reached down and shook my hand. “I will do what I can, I’m sorry I did not get to you sooner and I’m sorry about your wife.”
He turned away, I watched him go into the door marked with the lab sign and walk out with what I had told him to get.
I was starting to feel nauseous and could feel sweat dripping down my face. I winced at the pain that my body was putting out as I reached behind me and pulled out my flask. I worked my trembling fingers to unscrew the top and smelled the contents. I closed my eyes at the thought of the times my wife and I shared drinking a glass of wine together. I put the flask to my dry lips and tipped it up, I had to force it down, but I did it.
“I love you, I’m sorry I could not get back to you.”
I dropped the flask to my lap and stared at it until I was unable to hold my eyes open anymore.
Author’s note: the discovery of a cure for the zombie virus was an essential victory in winning the Zombie War. It should be well noted that the cure only cures the zombie virus itself; it does not cure any injuries the infected individual may have. In other words, if a person is not long dead and has what would normally be survivable injuries then the cure is likely to be beneficial to them. It is of no use to a zombie who is long dead or who has injuries incompatible with life.
THE RE-MERCS
Bangkok, Thailand
Interviewer: Mick Franklin
INTERVIEW 26:
I sit opposite my host Christopher Lawless on top of the Bunyan Tree hotel. The roof of the hotel functions as an open-air bar affording a delightful view over the city. Although my host is American he has chosen to schedule our interview here, in one of his favourite locations in the world. Indeed, my host has done so well during the War that he can literally afford to live anywhere he chooses.
The entrepreneur spirit of American was always there right from its founding. You know, I read an article once that said when America was first starting off European people were offered the chance to start a new life in this strange land, but only the most adventurous and bravest people took that opportunity. That’s why when you think of Americans you probably imagine someone with that “the sky is the limit” personality, or I certainly do.
Before the War the American economy had long been suffering from a number of policies which sought to shake down the rich and distribute it to the poor. [Exhales cigar smoke.] Ridiculous. I have never felt entitled to the money someone else has earned. Therefore no one else should ever feel entitled to the money that I earned. Did they do the hard work for it? No. That was my money. No one else should have been allowed to touch it.
So, you saw a rich opportunity for an entrepreneur during the War?
[Grins.] I sure did. I saw so many news reports, I watched a number of those disastrous full scale conflicts where modern militaries clashed with huge swarms of zombies and didn’t know what the hell hit them. A friend of mine had a drone camera he used to scan battlefields. Some of it is very interesting stuff, you can actually see the soldiers start to break ranks and retreat as the ghouls get within a hundred metres or so of them. And hey, I ain’t knocking them. If an army a million strong of zombies was bearing down on me I’d be shitting myself. I’m certainly not sitting here telling you that I’m some kind of hero. I’m not. I’m just an ordinary guy who saw a different way of doing things.
Could you elaborate on that?
Certainly. The zombies don’t have any major weakness. I watched in the early days when nations tried everything they could think of to try and stop the zombie armies that were roving through the wastelands of our once great countries. Everyone wanted to find that silver bullet, that one thing that would make killing the zombies an easy task, or even better wipe them out completely. I’m sure you’re familiar with the viral studies that went on. For a while scientists were trying to find some sort of virus or bacteria that would infect zombies and shut them down, and that they could easily pass on to each other.
Nothing worked.
There were various death ray type guns that could fry the brain, and while there was some success there these machines usually turned out to be too costly and too damned slow at killing zombies to be of any practical benefit.
The military explored different types of ammunition, bullets that would explode inside the body, guns with tiny computers that helped correct the user’s aim and go specifically for the zombie’s brain, their only real weakness. Again, there was success with this research but the results were too expensive to create a product that could be manufactured on a large scale.
The lab boys were slicing up specimens left and right. Opening up zombies, stripping away their internal organs, and studying them while they roamed around without stomachs and hearts a
nd whatever else. They tried introducing chemicals sprayed over cities by jets that would supposedly accelerate decomposition in the zombies. I don’t know if that worked on ordinary dead matter, and by that I mean a corpse that wasn’t a zombie, but it had little if any effect on the armies of zombies that were prowling around the countryside and cities almost unchecked.
Those were certainly some dark days. Most people were hiding or only just beginning to learn to fight back. Me, I was in my basement coming up with something different. I decided to create my own zombie army.
You were able to control your own zombie soldiers?
Yes! I originally got the idea from the news story about that cop in Copenhagen, the one who was feeding his friends to his zombie girlfriend in order to make her not want to eat him. There were brain surgeons desperately researching aggression reduction surgery in zombies and some other research going on, but bottom line I created my own zombie army!
Were they as effective as ordinary human troops?
Yes and no. As you well know a zombie is nowhere near as well co-ordinated as a normal human. A zombie is likely to trip over easily, like a profoundly drunk man trying to find his way up the stairs. They are painfully slow to process even simple information. I can’t even begin to tell you how long it took to get them to use firearms, even when the zombies themselves were known to have been experienced with firearms when they had been human.
Sure, you can make a zombie fire a gun, if you can work with it and if you can somehow find a way to stop the zombie from wanting to bite your face off every time you are near it. But it is an entirely different matter to get a zombie to be able to actually hit anything. I tried using guns with a high rate of fire, but it worked out that my zombies fired something like fifty thousand rounds for one confirmed kill. That’s not good maths.
Zombie War: Interviews From The Frontline Page 21