by Jessica Ward
“Well Professor, if I had to describe a zombie. I would say traditionally; they are dead people, brought back to life, with an appetite for people.” I probably wasn’t explaining it very well, but he seemed to catch my drift.
I carried on regardless. “They don’t have any feelings or thoughts, just the primal instinct to find food.”
The Professor listened to everything I had to say, he nodded his head showing his understanding.
“I’m with you now. Well in a sense, yes I suppose they are zombies. But, as you say not the most conventional of sorts. Observing the behaviour of those infected has certainly brought up a lot of concerning aspects. Ones I have to admit are harder to work out than others.” He paused, deep in thought.
“Or are they?” He finished; he was now talking to himself. He hurried back to his notes scribbling down his thoughts and scrambling through the pages he had already written.
“My dear, why don’t you check on the others? I will finish up here, and we can all have a spot of tea. These cakes are defrosting nicely” The Professor suggested. He seemed keen to get me out the way.
I left even more confused than I went in. That was often how conversations with the Professor ended. He was a clever man; there was no doubt about that. He had a kind and gentle manner, yet I could tell his intelligence ruled his life.
Most of the time, his explanations went way over my head. It wasn’t through lack of trying. I always gave him my full attention and listened as hard as I could to what he had to say. He seemed to struggle to get what was in his head, out in words. I’m sure the people who worked in the same field would understand completely. But to all us normal folk it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
I left the Professor to carry on with his work and went to find the others. With my head still trying to figure out what was going on in the Professor's mind, I needed a normal conversation.
I still couldn’t get over the fact he named one of them, Undead Peter. I hoped to God I wouldn’t ever turn out like that. I’d rather die than turn into one of those things.
Chapter 10 – Afternoon Tea
I made my way back to the observatory. My stomach was already starting to grumble again. It wasn’t going to give up on the idea of cake. Even the repulsiveness of Undead Pete wouldn’t curb my appetite.
The rest of the group were still fast asleep when I made my way back inside. I was in two minds whether to let them rest or wake them. After all, we hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in such a long time. We were constantly flitting from place to place. I suppose that was our life now. We needed to keep moving, I hoped things would settle down once we got to the marina and secured the boat. That was the plan after all.
As nice as it was in Jodrell Bank, we all knew that sooner or later we would attract some unwanted attention, and our lives would be put in danger yet again.
I decided to wake the rest of the group. I came to the conclusion that, since we made a rule never to travel at night, we probably wouldn’t be leaving until the morning.
I walked over to the light switches and flicked them on one by one. Leon and Ryan were the first ones to stir. Rubbing their eyes and looking around, they looked slightly disorientated.
“What time is it?” Leon asked stretching.
“Dunno mate, my watch stopped days ago” Ryan replied groggily.
Lacey, Paul and Nick were the next to wake up.
“What’s going on?” Nick asked yawning. “I was enjoying that nap” he complained.
Even George had started to stir now.
“What wants cake?” I asked the group, I already knew the answer.
“Yep!” The group answered back, pretty much in unison. We seemed to be making up for the lack of food we previously faced.
“I’ll get the kettle on” Nick suggested.
I rolled my eyes and laughed. We were all so typically English. All the world’s problems, fixed with a good brew and a slice of cake.
“Hang on, there’s something I need to mention before we go back in there.” I told the rest of the group stopping them in their tracks.
“Where’s the Professor?” George asked whilst looking around the room.
“Well, that’s what I want to talk to you about. I don’t know how to put it. But I’m slightly concerned about the Professor…”
I carried on telling them all about the Professor's findings and all about Undead Pete.
“Really? Are you serious, Undead Peter?” Paul asked.
“Or Undead Pete for short” I shrugged.
“That’s hilarious, certainly makes them a little less scary wouldn’t you say?” Leon chuckled.
George and I looked at one another. I could tell we were thinking the same thing.
“Well, that’s precisely the problem. They are frightening, and they are dangerous. We shouldn’t be talking about them like their nothing more than a pet dog.” I replied, trying to focus on the bigger issues at hand.
“Yes, I agree. I will have words with the Professor, and I’ll get to the bottom of this.” George answered taking on the leader role yet again.
“Oh, come on guys, it’s not that serious. It’s a cool name leave him alone.” Paul interrupted.
“I’m not having a go or ganging up on him Paul; he is trying his best to help, I know that this is just his way of doing it. I’m just worried he will take it too far.” I replied.
Paul shrugged. Lacey seemed to agree with me, and so we went off in search of the Professor.
As we entered the café, cakes lined the counter. The Professor had obviously finished for the day and was busy setting the table.
I started to feel bad about my earlier outburst. It felt like I was going behind the Professor's back. I cared for him a great deal; I was just worried his efforts may put us all in grave danger.
We all filed in and headed straight up to the cake selection. A huge black forest gateau stood in the centre on a clear glass cake stand. On either side stood a lemon cake and carrot cake. The Professor was already slicing into the final cake. I could tell instantly, just from the smell, what type of cake it was, Coffee and Walnut. I felt like I had died and gone to cake heaven.
“These cakes look amazing” Lacey gasped, her eyes darting from one cake to another. “I don’t know which one to choose.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m having one of each.” Nick pushed past, grabbing the cake knife.
“Not a bad shout.” Paul agreed.
We had more than enough to go around. The Professor stepped back and let the wolves descend.
“Help yourselves, we have plenty more in the freezer, I thought we could take some with us to the boats?” The Professor suggested.
We all agreed. It would be a waste, just leaving it all here to decompose. I doubted Undead Pete had a use for them. He only seemed interested in fresh meat.
That gave me an idea. I hadn’t seen any of the infected interact with any other animals. I wondered whether their diet was limited to humans, or if it branched out even further.
The disturbing image of a child that I had seen from the apartment window all those weeks ago, suddenly popped into my head. She had been holding onto what I had originally thought, a toy rabbit. On closer inspection, I realised; it was, in fact, a family pet. In her infected state, she had picked clean the flesh and tissue. Only fur and bone had remained.
It wasn’t the nicest of thoughts, but it did make me realise that their diet wasn’t limited to humans. I was kicking myself, how could I not have realised this sooner?
I made my way into the kitchen. I froze as I reached the other side of the door. It was just me and Undead Pete. Alerted to my presence he started to stir. Faint bangs could be heard, as he launched himself at the door. Although I had seen him do this many times before, I still hadn’t got used to his behaviour. The infected scared the shit out of me; I’m not going to lie.
Their appearance was something straight out of a horror film, plus I knew how dangerous they we
re. As I edged closer to the door, my mind was telling me to stay away, but as always, the curiosity was getting the better of me.
I was now closer to the door than I ever had been. I had always made sure to keep a safe distance; I avoided the whole area wherever possible. I was now a foot away from the chairs stacked up against the door. Undead Pete was going mental. He seemed frustrated. I understood why. He was so close to his next meal, yet I was completely out of arms reach.
We were now looking at each other dead in the eye. He stopped for a few moments. I froze on the spot. My whole body seemed to have shut down. We spent the next few minutes locked in a staring contest.
He worried me. It was like looking into the eyes of an animal; he tilted his head to the side, the same way a dog would when discovering something new.
Undead Pete broke his gaze first. Why? I have no idea. The fear still had me paralysed. I took a step back, as he startled me. He was violently shaking his head. He pulled his hands to his head as he let out a muffled screech.
As I watched him through the window, as he took one last look at me, then surprisingly, he pushed himself away from the door.
I had no idea what he was doing. He was now out of sight. I knew what I had to do. What I had originally come in for. I wanted to check out his living conditions.
It occurred to me as I thought about the girl that Undead Pete must have been trapped in there with some sort of food source. After all, he was in an industrial sized fridge.
The question I wanted answering was, did he manage to find any? If so, had he eaten?
I had heard the Professor talk about the infected as if they were animals. In fact, we all had. I had come up with some theories of my own. I was starting to see the infected the same as I would view a man-eating lion or a great white shark. No matter how you put it; they were top of the food chain.
With this is mind I carefully tiptoed my way up to the window. There is no other way to describe it, I was shocked by what I saw.
Food containers littered the floor. Decomposing fruits and other food sources spewed out all over the place. I looked over to Undead Pete. It was his acts that surprised me the most.
He was curled up in a corner in the foetal position. It was as if he was going through some sort of inner turmoil; the expression on his face was one I had never seen before now. He snarled and growled as he saw my face appear in the small window. But it didn’t seem to be the behaviour of a hungry animal. He didn’t seem to be looking at me as if I was food.
No, this was the look an animal would give when telling you to back off. When you accidently intruded onto their territory. He seemed to want to be as far away from me as possible as he pushed himself further back against the wall.
My eyes shifted as I found the answer I was looking for. There, on the floor, a couple of feet away from where Undead Pete sat; was a leg of lamb. The meat had clearly been picked and bitten off; there were lacerations and bite marks in the leftover meat and the bone itself.
I moved away from the window, trying to process this new information. I was still struggling to understand what was going on around us. Nothing was as it seemed. Again, my discovery prompted more questions than it did answers.
Why was Undead Pete behaving this way? Did he see us as a threat? What was going through his mind?
It wasn’t as if we could just ask him. It was starting to become apparent. I was wrong to be worried about the Professor; I should have been encouraging his research, not running away from it.
I knew I needed to speak to him. He needed to see what was going on. He knew better than any of us what these things were capable of. He was the only one of all of us, who had taken the time to observe them.
I hurried off to find the Professor. My appetite had now completely vanished. I was no longer interested in the cake or tea; to me this was much more important. My stomach was in knots.
“Professor, you need to see this.” I told him as soon as I had located him.
“What is it my dear?” He asked sipping on his tea.
I briefly explained what had happened in hushed tones. I didn’t want to disturb the others. We hadn’t had this much normality in a long time. I certainly didn’t want to ruin it for the rest.
George overheard and got up as the Professor did. As we headed back into the kitchen, Nick looked up; he was well into his third slice of cake.
“Is everything ok babe?” He asked his mouth still half full.
“Yeah fine, just needed a hand with something in the kitchen that’s all.” I replied I kept my cool not wanting to alert the others.
As George, The Professor and I entered the kitchen, they both noticed Undead Pete wasn’t at the window to greet them.
After The Professor had leaned up to take a look through the window, he turned back to face us.
“This is most peculiar.” he said, intrigued by Undead Pete’s new found behaviour.
I pointed out the half eaten lamb bone to The Professor, as he took in the new surroundings.
George was the last to peer in. His appearance seemed to stir Undead Pete and prompted him to change his behaviour yet again. Upon seeing George, he leapt up and threw himself at the door. He was back to his old self again.
“Very interesting” The Professor stated.
“He doesn’t seem to be too fond of me” George observed.
“Don’t take it personally, it took him a while to warm up to me” I replied. “He reacted the same way when he first saw me.” I told George.
George nodded, trying to take in this new, rather unusual information.
“It would seem our friend here is showing further signs of intelligence. He had developed a lot faster than I had originally anticipated” The Professor said.
“So you knew this would happen?” I asked.
The Professor continued. “As I mentioned earlier dear, all I have right now are theories. It seems what we are looking at is a simple case of evolution. The infected persons or zombies as you so aptly mentioned previously have found a way to utilise the brain, opening up a range of skills, and in this case possible emotions. If we turn our thoughts to the animal kingdom, we see this sort of behaviour all the time.”
George interrupted. “Can we please take a step back, for a minute. Whilst I appreciate your time and expertise and all the hard work, you have put in. I think we are straying away from the main point. As good as it is that we are learning from them, I think the main focus has shifted slightly. We should be focusing on how to avoid conflict and stay away from these things. Not studying them in detail, to find out why they act the way they do.”
George seemed firm. I understood where he was coming from; his main concern was staying alive. I agreed with him to an extent, but I couldn’t help but agree with the Professor. After all, if we could figure out why they were acting as they were, we could find a way to outsmart them, find their weakness.
The Professor was quick to respond. “George I understand your concerns; however, I do think we should take a moment to..”
“No, I’ve heard enough. I suggest we all finish off our supper and find somewhere to retire for the night. I recommend the observatory.” George cut the Professor off as he spoke firmly.
George led the way out the kitchen as he stood behind the counter. He addressed the rest of the group.
“We will spend the remainder of the night here. We leave first thing in the morning” He announced.
It was clear. With the Sergeant gone, and with no willing leader to replace him, George had assumed the role. None of us fought or argued we just went along with it. After all, none of us wanted the job. We needed someone to look towards to guide us in the right direction. Since George knew the area so well, it seemed fitting that he would be the rightful leader.
But that was then. Now, we were outside the area of George’s expertise. There was no doubt about it; he had lead us down the right path so far. But I was starting to doubt his leadership skills. He seemed quick to brush of
f the Professor's findings, and mine for that matter. I couldn’t help but think he was wrong about this.
Chapter 11 – To the Boats
We finished off our tea and cakes and made our way back into the observatory. The day’s events still played on my mind.
I noticed the Professor and George kept their distance from each other. They clearly both had very different opinions to how we all should proceed.
The more I thought about it, the more I sided with the Professor, maybe not for the same reasons. The Professor seemed genuinely intrigued with the infected and the behavioural traits they showed. I was intrigued as I figured it would help us to understand and avoid the threat they seemed to possess.
We hadn’t revealed our findings to the rest of the group. George had decided it wasn’t worth mentioning. He didn’t want anyone to panic. He was thinking purely of the present. To him all we should be focusing on his how to get from here to the marina. He wanted to spend as little time as possible at Jodrell Bank.
I have to say I did agree with him on that one. I felt like we were being led into a false sense of security. It was easy to get comfortable where we were. We had a huge supply of food, and our eating habits were as normal as they had been in a long time.
In times such as these, you don’t realise how grateful you can be of something as simple as a cooked meal. When you go without certain comforts for a large amount of time, you learn to appreciate them a lot more when you do have them. It makes it even harder to give those things up.
The good thing was; we weren’t thinking like that. The next morning, we stocked the cars full of food. The area around us stayed as quiet as ever so we were able to take our time, rather than rush. We took all the drinks out of the fridge in the café and piled into the cars.