by Stevens, GJ
“Like in the movies?”
“Like in the movies, yes.”
“So…” she said, stalling for a moment. “They’re zombies, right?”
I didn’t reply, but my shoulders gave an involuntary shrug. The name had been on the tip of my tongue since I’d first seen them, but to use the word to describe the creatures seemed both perfect but too cartoonish; too trivial at the same time.
“They’re the dead come back to life?” Alex said, with an eyebrow raised.
“Apart from those who escaped the facility, yes.”
“They’ve got an insatiable thirst for flesh?” she said.
I chewed my bottom lip and gave the slightest tip of my head.
“What happens if you get bitten?”
“Okay,” I said. “I get it.” The world obsessed with zombie culture on the TV, in books and in film. Now they’d need to obsess in real life, too. “Call them Zombies if it makes you happy,” I replied.
The silence hung for a few hundred metres.
“Is this legit?”
“In what way? Do you mean am I telling the truth? Let’s not start that again.”
“No, no, no. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve smelt it. I’ve felt their cold skin. I get it,” she said, holding up her palms. “I mean the work they were doing, was it legit? Is it the government doing this to us, or is it some rogue outfit?”
I thought about her words. Another sensible question.
“Like a super villain?”
She laughed. I wasn’t smiling.
“I guess, but less like a comic. If they sanctioned this work, then surely they would be better prepared. They’d have protocols for protecting against a release. A back-up plan. Enough protection, enough troops to contain any situation.”
“You don’t know the government like I do,” I said. “But still you could be on to something.”
I looked up, realising the light was rising quickly and we were heading downhill, the sun blueing the sky enough for us to see the buildings looming large. My gaze drew to the dark smoke-columns rising on the horizon.
With each step I could make out more detail. Houses. A tall metal fence wrapping around the village, only breaking where the original wooden fences took up.
It hadn’t been there when I’d escaped, nor had the olive drab trucks I could only see the tops of over the other side.
I saw the wooden fence over which I’d jumped and where I’d run along. The house I’d run from.
Its sight sent a shiver down my spine.
I slowed, gripping the gun tight. Alex kept at my side, staring at the tops of the heads just visible over the fence as they moved in the streets, our brains trying to find any other explanation; looking for any other reason than a sea of zombies looking nothing like they did in the cartoons.
66
“What now?” Alex said, but I hardly heard the words, my concentration fixed on scouring everywhere but the house where I’d been held. The house where I’d shot the gun. The house where I’d done what I couldn’t bring myself to think about.
Glad of her interruption, she spoke again.
“I have a cousin in the next village over. We could hold out with him?”
I sped my pace, twisting back to see her face in the burgeoning light and her soft complexion for the first time without the shadows. Still I had to remind myself Alex wasn’t a man without facial hair and a protruding Adam’s apple.
For a moment my mind drifted, mood lightening as I stared, until something reminded me of Toni. Reminded me of the look she would shoot in my direction if she could see me holding my gaze on someone other than her.
“Nothing’s changed,” I said.
“You’re looking at the same place?”
I nodded and she stared back.
“They’re packed in like kippers.”
“Sardines,” I corrected.
“Yeah, whatever. Fish in a tin. They’ve shut them in there for a reason,” she said, looking to the sky which had more than a hint of blue.
“I get it,” I said, and sped my descent towards the village.
“And you’re still going in?” she said, hurrying at my side.
“I have no choice.”
“We can get another camera,” Alex said, but by now I was jogging. The distance between us grew as I closed in on the village.
“I need the van. I have to send it via the equipment in the van,” I said, shaking my head.
With each breath of wind I caught the concentrated foul odour and I could hear the low grumbling moan. The ground itself seemed to rumble as if to complain at the weight of the creatures.
As I drew closer, I could see the metal fence panels swaying in and out, the creak of the metal clamps scratching to keep hold.
Through the gaps between the metal sheets clamped together to the vertical poles, constant movement passed back and forth.
Somehow I knew Alex was about to talk and I turned to see daylight full on her face. Her mouth stood wide, words ready to spring out, but she paid attention to my request; to my index finger held to my lips.
I pointed to the slow sway of the fence and she changed course as I did, heading to the right and the tall wooden panels marking the start of the village’s gardens.
Not slowing from the jog, I followed its path. I still couldn’t see over, but I could feel the house. Cold sweat ran down my spine and I picked up the pace, slowing only when the fence turned a corner. Around the turn, the fences were lower and made from chain-link. The house’s deserted gardens were easy to see the other side.
I kept my gaze flitting to the windows, watching for movement and any signs of life.
There’d been many people. Tens of villagers caught up in the fright the last time I’d been here. Was it only a few hours ago?
I wanted to see movement at the windows. Wanted to see hands waving, people trying to get our attention. I didn’t want to see open-mouthed stares of the people I’d helped survive their fate once already. I needed to see reason for the Army not to forsake this place, to lock it up, light the blue touch paper and stand well back.
If we found people still inside, they’d evacuate first, right? Then again, if that woman was in charge, maybe my hopes would be unfounded.
We ran on with neither of us speaking, not even when I saw the familiar row of houses. The row Toni and I had first come across. Where we’d stood and seen the two runners chased and dropped to the floor. Where we’d watched at least one of their lives end. My thoughts turned to hope for the woman who remained.
I saw the back of the house where we’d escaped over the roof. I saw movement, the memories of that time clear. The house a bust. We’d run because I’d let them in to save the boy.
For a moment I wondered if he was safe and if the woman was alive. Guilt welled when I couldn’t remember her name.
“Jess.”
Alex’s sharp but quiet call pulled me back from my memories. About to admonish her for breaking the silence, I saw her reason. My gaze ran along her outstretched arm to her finger, pointed at another metal fence cutting across the gravel road where we’d first walked into the village.
A woman stood with her back to us. I could see her spine pronounced through the thin bright running top. Two great rends of flesh ran across her back to expose skin and what it was meant to protect underneath. The second jogger.
I let my eyes close, but just for a second and took a deep breath. I had time, I told myself. She hadn’t seen us.
I imagined her turning. I imagined her drawn features, her mouth hanging slack as her attention focused on the metal fence which hadn’t been there last night.
She was different to the others we’d seen. She wasn’t trying to escape. Instead, trying to get in.
I stopped. Alex halted. I pulled myself away from the danger, turning to watch Alex’s wide eyes lurching across the view and searching out the overgrown grass for anything she could use as a weapon.
I pulled the gun from
my waistband, but knew I couldn’t fire. Knew it was a last resort. We had to get inside without making a sound or risk calling the dead towards us like a dinner bell.
I took a step and the snap of a twig rang out from under my foot. I stopped, cursing myself for not taking more care.
Holding my breath, I flashed a look to Alex.
Twisting back, the dead woman still hadn’t turned. Movement pulled my gaze to where the fence disappeared around a corner and I saw another creature staring in our direction as she walked towards us.
Her hands rose in the air as my gun fell from my grip. My stomach stabbed as if hit with a bolt of lightning.
Her face was red with blood, shredded with deep scratches. Patches of hair were missing. Great welts of her scalp were gone and I could see the white of her skull on show. Her stomach an open cavity, her intestines uncoiled like a rope dragging behind.
Still I knew it was Toni.
67
“No,” I shouted, as Alex reached for the gun on the ground.
With no pause in her reaction, her hand froze, hovering just above the black of the pistol. Our gazes caught, breaking off as the sound of movement came from in front. The sound too loud, too busy for what we’d seen.
Alarm lit our faces at the crowd of bodies ambling around the corner in her wake, none of which had been there only a moment before. With my breath already caught, it felt as if a vacuum pulled my lungs from my chest as I saw Toni again, this time following behind the first woman, her chest rendered wide, ribs pulled clean of flesh with a blanket of thick, clotted blood covering her face.
I looked to the first Toni, pulling her intestines behind her; snatched a look straight back to her double with the white of her ribs bared.
I knew only one could be Toni, despite what my eyes were screaming at me. I knew even when I saw her for the third time, her clothes a perfect match. At least what remained. At least what I thought the colours would be underneath the blood and dirt.
I saw her head on every other body. Saw her smile on mouths hanging slack.
Looking between each, I stared at the face of a soldier. The face of a man dressed in military fatigues, a rifle hanging loose around his front. He wasn’t her.
I would have calmed. Should have calmed. Should have taken a deep breath and centred myself, but Alex had taken my pause to reach for the gun and she’d raised up and pointed it out to the crowd.
Blinking, her motion slow, all I could do was observe. All I could do was seek her line of sight and follow where she pointed.
With alarm, I saw she pointed her aim straight at Toni.
“No,” I screamed, regretting the volume as the world came back in focus. I grabbed both hands around her upper arm and yanked. The gun went off and I screamed again. “No.”
I moved but didn’t grab the gun. With a twitch to the crowd I saw the shot must have missed. Each of the creatures still moved forward as I pulled Alex’s arm hard. Letting go with one hand fixed tight, Alex followed as I dragged her along.
A few paces from the low fence I took faith that she’d follow and let go, jumping as high as I could and pulling my legs around the side, barely stumbling as I landed. I kept running, racing through the garden, chasing down the house; eyes fixed on the bright green back door, only looking back as I pushed the handle down and it held under my weight.
Alex had followed. Relief raised the corners of my mouth until my focus fell at her back to the creature stumbling forwards over the short fence.
The resemblance still held as they floundered to their feet the other side, our side, already making their slow but dogged journey in our direction.
Alex’s hand grabbed at mine, pushing the gun into my grip, her other at my back, drawing me away from their route, pushing me in front and down the side of the house and the second short fence.
Numb to the climb, numb to the cautious raise of my leg, I stepped over the chain-link while Alex held it low.
I didn’t look on to where I’d landed. Didn’t pay attention to the other side while Alex climbed. My gaze fixed on my thigh, exposed by the long rip up the side of my skirt, rising to the waistband. I tried to think back to when it happened, knowing Toni would be cross. If she had lived long enough.
“Jess,” Alex said, grabbing me by the shoulders, shaking.
I looked up and saw her concern. She shook my shoulder for a second time. I watched her face, but didn’t realise I’d been anything but wide awake.
I turned, grabbing her wrist despite her running parallel to my side and not needing my encouragement. My gaze ran across the view, jumping every few steps to launch over the bloodied mess of bodies littering the once sleepy village street.
I’d seen the tee junction. I’d seen the steeple of the church, but couldn’t quite see the white of the van. I’d seen the street thick with the creatures, but hadn’t connected that they’d give us no safe route.
The pull of Alex’s wrist guided me away from the junction as I stared out to the road littered with the smoking remains of Land Rovers and trucks and black sticky piles of charred remains with steam rising.
She’d turned us around. She’d had no choice, could find no alternative. All but one house on each side of the once quiet street had their doors open and I could see movement inside. We had nowhere to go but back the way we’d come.
We ran, repeating the journey in reverse. We slowed when we saw the creatures which had followed from outside of the village climbing up from the grass as they pulled from their fall on our side of the second, short chain-link fence.
I looked to the sky for a miracle. I looked down to the blood-soaked ground at my feet as we slowed to a stop. I looked to Alex and her eyes twitching to every point in view, then peered to the gun.
I didn't know how many bullets remained. I hoped we had enough to make sure we could choose our own ending.
68
I’d let go of Alex’s wrist but still felt her body twisting as she searched for a way out. While I tried to slow my breath, I felt her warm grip tight in my hand. My hand followed her pull, my body too and feet soon after, if only to stop me falling face first to the tarmac.
She’d taken control. She had me completely. I gave no resistance as she dragged me toward the row of houses. My feet barely kept up as we headed to the opposite side of the street to where we’d arrived, heading to the false hope of the closed doors, behind which we didn’t know what survived.
To our right, the metal fence rang with the scratch of fingers, hands slapping, shoulders barging as teeth snapped open and closed. Metal pulled its grip against the wooden posts, sending them rocking, swaying with each wave of effort.
Arriving at another house, Alex’s hand released and I slowed. A weight pulled at my chest as if I’d lost my gravity. She didn’t slow and continued to race past the garden gate, shoulder first, not stopping to test the front door handle.
I could hardly believe it when the door gave with a dull thud. As her shoulder connected, the wood sprung wide, the frame splitting at her side as she took the barrage in her stride. Not stumbling. Not faltering. Her only pause was to make sure I’d followed.
Alex ignored me as I stepped over the threshold while she pushed what remained of someone else’s front door back into its hole, then rushing back past me to the living room to grab at the straight-back chair and heft it in front of the door. She barely took note as I climbed the stairs.
With sweat beading at my forehead, I toured each of the rooms, making sure they were clear, the view from the front bedroom doing nothing to calm the heat building as I slowly recovered my breath.
Pulling off my jacket, I turned away from the view to let the cooling relief take effect.
Alex joined me after a moment to the sound of the furniture she’d pushed at the front door slowly scraping along the wooden floor. In her hand she held a packet of digestive biscuits.
“I found these,” she said, but the rest of the words didn’t come. “Your arm,” she added, an
d I tensed at the sound of concern in her voice, following her gaze down to my right arm and the pink new skin of the bite mark. “When were you bitten?”
“I’m not going to die,” I said, after waiting for a moment to let my adrenaline relax after hearing her voice, then watched as her brow furrowed and her head moved to the side.
Now was not a time to be coy. She deserved to know the truth for staying at my side; still, panic flushed through my chest, spiking my heart rate and sending the hairs on my body to stand tall as I thought of the words I would use.
“The tests?” she finally said as her hand went out to touch the pink scar from the wound that started this all off.
I nodded, raising my eyebrows.
“What did they do to you?”
I paused, speaking to stop the words rolling around in my head.
“They gave me medicine.”
Her eyes went wide.
“So it works?” Her voice came out high, words coming quick; her face alive, animated and lit bright, but shrank away at my reluctance to reply with anything but a shake of my head.
“No. It’s a vaccine,” I said, looking away despite the stiffness in my neck. I didn’t want to see the thoughts running through her brain, the twitch of her brow as she tried to figure out my words.
“You were bitten after they gave you the medicine?”
I turned back to see her eyes widening and I nodded.
“They were testing the vaccine,” I said.
“That’s horrible, but,” she said, pausing, “good at the same time, right?”
“It wasn’t ready.”
She shook her head, her features bunching.
“We need to move,” I said on hearing the furniture scrape again.
“It’ll hold for a little while longer,” she replied.
We both paused our words and listened to the thud of bodies slapping against the front door.
“Eat,” she said, holding out the open packet in her hand.
“No,” I said. “We need to get to the van. I need the cameras.”