Zed Days (Book 3): Zed Days III

by Harland, Nick

  Everyone nodded and the meeting came to a natural conclusion. We stuck around on the chairs as we usually did in case anyone wanted to talk. It was one of the hockey guys that approached us, the one called Track. He sat down on a camp chair, smiled, and said, ‘What Donald said...I know I’m a meat head but I’m glad we can be useful. I’ve heard the stories about some of your troubles, but I wanted to ask if me and the guys could have a couple of beers each.’ Before I could answer he added hurriedly, ‘None of us are drunks, you can ask Donald, we look after ourselves. We’ll only have a couple, but it would be nice.’

  Esme spoke before I could and even smiled despite her experience, ‘It’s fine, and from now on you don’t need to ask permission, as long as you’re sensible. Everyone is having the odd drink and we all deserve it. You have no idea how nice it is to have another group of fighters other than us, really.’

  Track smiled, ‘Thanks, it’s kinda nice to be needed.’

  Gary and the medical student from the new group sauntered over next and sat down. Gary introduced her, knowing I would have forgotten her name. Gary looked pale and uncomfortable, ‘This is Mandy and it won’t be long before she’ll be all you have medical wise. I’m sorry I don’t have more time to help her out with some of the most common things she might end up having to deal with, and it’s a shame she’s hasn’t done any surgery yet. Going it alone on your first occasion isn’t ideal.’

  Mandy smiled but played with her fingers and shuffled in her chair. Gary went on, ‘I’m not going to be ashamed, it’s far too late for regrets now. I have a pretty extensive library at home and because I’m old fashioned, I have a load of Video’s and some DVD’s of procedures, some of my own.’

  I was glad Mandy took some initiative and finally spoke, timid and shy wasn’t inspiring confidence. She look at us and said, ‘I’m not going to lie, I’m happy to be alive, but being the only medical person moving forwards when I’m only a third year and have barely had any practical experience, is a nightmare scenario. I’m going to need support and someone to try and teach alongside me. I can’t operate alone. I’m also…’

  I couldn’t stop myself anymore and interrupted, ‘What do you mean operate, who needs and operation?’

  Gary put his hand on Mandy’s leg, looked at me, and smiled a knowing smile, one I imagine he had used a lot with freaked out relatives. He said, ‘No one yet, and there will be very little she can do, but things like appendicitis are pretty common and without simple surgery they are also life threatening. As most people would die of appendicitis, it would be best to try at least. She’ll need a very clean space of some sort and we’ll need to find some equipment from a hospital. We’re going to have to act quickly if I’m going to help her get used to some of it.’

  I was speechless so Esme helped out, ‘Give Brad a minute, he’s brilliant in his own way, and he’ll catch up soon. There may be some spontaneous and inappropriate swearing when he does. You’re right, and I think it’s urgent. Can you prioritise some obstetrics please, maybe cover caesarean section before you go, you’ve heard our good news?’

  Gary nodded, ‘Of course. We might even be able to find an ultrasound machine and do the first scan. It’s been a long time, but I think I could find it in there and show Mandy the landscape.’

  Esme was looking down at her hand over her belly, which still looked flat. She mumbled, ‘It should be me. I should be the assistant. I’ll keep my hand in of course, fighting, and carry on the lessons, but it should be me. I’m smart, and I know cells and microbiology and lots of diseases at least, probably more than anyone else apart from Eve.’

  We were all looking at her and she looked at Mandy and said more confidently, ‘It should be me. I should be you’re assistant and the one you train up. I’m going to have a child to stay around for and I’m smart and young.’

  Then Esme looked between Eve and I and Eve beat me to it, ‘That’s a great idea, you can’t be risking you’re life everyday now and soon you’ll be in no state to fight anyway. Andrea told me once that she thought you were at least as smart as any of the PhD’s that came through the lab, and I’m sure she’s right.’

  Mandy looked confused and said, ‘Can someone catch me up please. I think I’ve missed something, there has been so much to take in and it’s all so….so freaky. I heard about some kind of vaccine to the bites and about a microbiologist, and aliens and a microscope, but I’m really not sure the person who told me about it understood themselves.’

  I smiled and said, ‘Dr Mandy, meet Dr Eve, microbiologist. She did her PhD in a lab years ago with Andrea who I’m sure you’ve heard go bitten and is outside and waiting to come back to us. Eve and I found Esme and Andrea in the lab a few weeks ago. They survived because they were in a clean room with ventilators at the time. Esme was training to take over from Andrea as the lead lab technician when Andrea retired. Eve knew Andrea when she studied and they had kept in touch on face book. They came up with the vaccine using my blood. Because of my natural immunity to the initial alien attack, I’m still full of the suckers.’

  Mandy coped well considering, but it can’t have been easy. She forced a smile and said, ‘Ok, it’s gonna take a while, but ok.’

  Looking at Esme she said, ‘I’d be happy for you to learn with me but I don’t think we should be re-starting the old medical hierarchy straight away, so let’s stay away from the word assistant shall we. You must have steady hands from you’re lab work and you might be better at surgery than me. Let’s just decide to learn together.’

  Esme smiled, ‘Ok, I’d like that.’

  Gary ushered the still slightly stunned looking Mandy away and we were left by ourselves. Eve broke the ruminations, ‘Well that went about as well as could be expected. Going to Gary’s house and hitting a hospital can’t wait, but I think going into a hospital sounds like a nightmare of a death-trap of a disaster waiting to happen.’

  I imagined scenes from Walking Dead and recalled my few visits to the local big hospital. I knew Eve was right, ‘Well we can’t wait and we can’t get what we need anywhere else. We’re going to need some serious back up including Mutt and the hockey guys. Gary’s going to have to come as we won’t have a clue what we’re looking for. We’ll have to keep Gary safe, as he can’t defend himself. Like you said, fucking nightmare, though an Ambulance wouldn’t be the worst find.’

  Eve butted in, ‘I can’t believe I’m laid up for this and that it can’t wait. You need to speak to Ben. There’s no way you’re going without Chris as well. The factory should be clear and they’ll just have to manage by themselves. From what I remember, one of the bed shops is on the outskirts of the shopping estate with a tile shop, a carpet shop, and a couple of others. The carpark is huge. These aren’t the kind of places that are really busy at lunchtime and they’ll just have use vehicles to clear the Zeds out if they can. They can take Lulu as you guys are going to have clear corridor by corridor when you get in. A hospital is basically lost and lots of smaller rooms with fire doors that should have all shut when the power went out, so you might be lucky. You might be able to sneak in and out without facing any hordes.’

  I thought about it and said, ‘You could be right. There aren’t any huge open spaces in a hospital like there are in a shop. Although there will be thousands of people in the hospital, and some of the waiting areas will be hectic, all the doors will be shut. With the Zed’s doing the whole lie in wait thing even if they hear noise, we should only have to deal with any directly on our route.’

  Then I thought about it again and added, ‘Fuck!’

  Esme asked, ‘What?’

  I said, ‘Talkers. With loads of doctors and surgeons where we’re headed, the likelihood of Talkers is huge, and their call to arms thing seems to ignore walls and I assume fire doors.’

  Eve had started to sweat and I wasn’t sure if she’d been up too long and was hurting, or if it was the situation. She looked at us and said, ‘I don’t like this, it’s fucking dangerous, potentially worse
than a shopping centre if there are lots of Talkers. Is there any other way?’

  Esme put her hand on Eve’s thigh, ‘You know there isn’t and you know we have to go. I don’t like it either, but people could die pointlessly if we don’t and having the baby will be safer with some equipment.’

  Smiling she added, ‘You should have seen the hockey guys at the petrol station, they were wrecking balls. I know all my training is to re-direct force and everything, but when you have that much force and you know how to use it, you don’t need to. I watched them work. They have their own pretty advanced techniques actually. You wouldn’t know unless you were looked for them, but they don’t just bash head, they always direct their force slightly upwards and it’s always slightly at an angle. They’re like the plough. A flat plough would do the job but takes a lot of impact, but a bit of an angle upwards and to the side and the Zeds fly out of the way. They’re also used to working as a team and they do it well. In the confines of a hospital corridor or even a waiting area, I’d bet on just the four of them against twenty Zeds any day. With us and Chris, and plenty of ammo, we can do this.’

  Before Eve could speak I backed Esme up, ‘She’s right, they were a four man wrecking crew, better than us. If anyone can get us in and out safely it’s them, and their gear makes them virtually bite proof, though they should all get the shot before we go.’

  Eve smiled but it was a thin smile, ‘Ok, it’s not like I can stop you anyway and it’s the right thing to do. If you don’t come back tomorrow I’m going to get better, find you both, and kill you again myself. Now take me to bed and let’s see how slow and gentle can work. I want to remind you both of what you’re coming back to.’

  Chapter Four – Accident and Emergency

  We spoke to the others that evening and we were, as always, ready to leave at sunrise. The content of some of our more pragmatic conversations still amazed me. We opted to go to Gary’s house first and get the books, video’s, and DVD’s. The reason was that if it all turned into shit in the hospital, if anyone was left alive, they would at least be able to take the books and stuff back to base. Gary said he had a few presents for us at his house, but refused to say more.

  The convoy was ready to go to the factory and left when we did. We all said our goodbye’s and hoped they wouldn’t be our last. I thought they’d be fine. It was us I was worried about, but I tried to stay positive for Eve who, of course, saw straight through it. She said, ‘I know you’re trying to be nice but don’t, just come back alive and bring Esme with you.’

  Smiling at Gary she added, ‘The others are pretty much expendable but try your best anyway.’ Then she kissed us and hugged Gary before we left, whispering something in his ear I knew never to ask about.

  Gary came with us in Mary and Mutt joined him in the back. Chris and the hockey guys went in the Q5 which now had a plough of its own and some extra plating. Gary lived on a very expensive housing estate of new builds; strictly five bedrooms or more, detached, big gardens I’m sure the owners never touched, and garages you could actually fit a decent sized car in. We got there ok and as we pulled up Esme said, ‘Is this OK Gary, could this be hard for you. Sorry, we forgot to ask.’

  Gary sighed and said, ‘It’s ok. I lost my wife a year ago and the rest of my family live abroad, so I don’t want to think about that. I did quite well for myself and the life insurance on my wife was ridiculous, she was a highflying chief exec. Since the diagnosis, I’ve been having an end of life crisis. Just as well I kept some keys on me and left the car at home. I didn’t want it languishing in airport parking.’

  Gary scrabbled in his pocket and withdrew some keys, ‘I suppose the electric garage door won’t work which is a shame, but you can’t have everything. Let’s go inside shall we.’

  We hadn’t attracted any attentions and we shut the big wrought iron gates behind us. There was a perimeter wall and it would have made a half-decent base. Gary sidled up to the door and unlocked it, then sighed and walked in. Mutt quickly overtook him to scout around, but found us a couple of minutes later, wagging his tail. The house was decorated with traditional dark wood panelling and old looking paintings, but the kitchen was new and the marble topped island was enormous and had a chandelier over it. Gary saw our wide eye’s and said, ‘Well, if you’ve got it flaunt it, and my wife liked sparkly things. It would be nice to sit down, have a drink, and pretend none of this was happening, but we have a day ahead of us and I’m tired already. Let’s get to the study.’

  Gary led us down a wide hall to what he called the study, but could also get away with being called a library; it was huge. Gary sat down heavily in an obviously well used leather chair and opened the slightly tacky but I’m sure very expensive globe style drinks cabinet beside him. Brandishing a bottle of whisky I didn’t recognise the label of he said, ‘This is my first gift. I have three more bottles of this in a cupboard over there and its over two hundred a bottle. I’ll be keeping this one for myself if you don’t mind. Would someone pour us all a small one, we can’t have you guys drunk on the job.’

  Chris nodded and walked over. The hockey guys’ eyes were still wide from it all and they stood around awkwardly not knowing what to do with themselves. Chris poured us all a drink and Gary downed his in one then jiggled his glass for Chris to pour another saying, ‘Very bad habit, but I think under the circumstances my wife would excuse me. It’s better when it’s had a chance to warm in your hands, but we don’t have time, so get them down you.’

  We all drank our shots, Esme choked a little, and it was a revelation. I liked whisky. I liked it with ice the American way, and because I didn’t use mixers it ended up cheaper than vodka which I liked with coke that ended up as expensive as the vodka. This stuff tasted like some part of me always knew whisky should, and my throat and stomach were instantly warm. It was bloody lovely. While I was still contemplating the new sensation Gary interrupted, ‘I know, I know, It’s wonderful, but you have work to do so stop dreaming and start loading up.’

  Gary told us which books to take and we took all the Videos and DVD’s, and the Video player because we didn’t have one. When we were done, Gary took a few clothes and we emptied the kitchen. The he said, ‘And now time for the second gift. I only regret I’m not quite with it enough to drive it with the pain killers, and I’m probably over the limit, but it will be nice to be in her again anyway.’

  He led us down a hall to a door that led to the garage. He opened the door, walked in, and said grandly, moving his arm floridly like a salesman, ‘Behold, the Bentley Continental GT W12. Over 600 horse power and 3.4 seconds to 60, or at least it was before the royal modifications. I freely admit the mods were entirely unnecessary, weigh a ton, and essentially consist of softer suspension, hand stitched leather from something I’m sure must be extinct, and full bullet and bomb proofing.’

  ‘Like I said, my wife liked shiny things and I used to call her princess. She read about the Bentley our dear princess had and used to joke that if she was a princess, she should have a princess’s car. I regret I waited to buy it until after she died, but it made me think of her, or at least that was my excuse.’

  The car looked amazing and was wrapped in a matte grey. It had huge low profile tyres and not much ground clearance, which was very far from ideal in an apocalypse, but there was no doubt it was a showstopper. Mutt walked around the garage and I prayed he wouldn’t cock his leg on the car. Dangling the keys Gary said, ‘You can argue about it when I’m gone but for now I think Chris should drive it. The back seats are for shit but if anyone wants to squeeze in one feel free.’

  Chris looked a little bewildered and I was very jealous, but I’d had my fair share of automotive post-apocalyptic fun, and he deserved it. The guys busied themselves with a knock out game of Rock Paper Scissors for the back seats, while I opened the garage doors manually. I nodded at Gary who nodded back and grinned before getting into the passenger seat. The other two guys went back to the Q5 which left Esme, Mutt and I back in Ma
ry.

  We led the way to the hospital with the GT behind us and the Q5 taking up the rear. We had to stop a few times to clear the road and we had a few encounters on the way, but the guys dealt with them easily. I watched as they did their thing and noted the techniques Esme said they used. Although their hockey sticks looked thin, they were obviously some kind of very strong alloy and with single Zeds they tended to use a simple but brutal two handed over the head strike that more or less went through any blocking arms. When there were more Zeds, their body blows never failed to knock over at least one or two and Esme was right, there was a definite technique in it.

  We had one Sprinter incident that my Zed senses barely gave us any warning about, and watching Track deal with it was inspiring. He stood and waited for it to launch itself at him and rather than dodge like Esme would have done, he let it hit him, but grabbed it and span himself around as they fell to the floor. He landed more or less on top of it and it was so dazed from the impact Track just grabbed its head and bashed it against the concrete. I must have heard hundreds of skulls crush up to that point, but somehow that one still sticks in my mind. I have to fight the urge to rub the back of my head when I think about it.

  When we reached the hospital we left the GT outside on the road with the doors open and the keys in the ignition. I smiled as I saw Gary’s hesitation in doing so and remembered my hesitation the first time I did the same. We took the ambulance only slip road off the main road that led directly to Accident and Emergency. We parked just outside the doors and waited for a few minutes to see what would happen. I was half expecting to be swarmed straight away, but it never happened. There were two ambulances parked up but there was still plenty of space. I was a little surprised there weren’t any Zeds outside, but there were two mostly eaten corpses.