by Woods, Mark
“Over and out,” Connor said, and clicked the walkie off in a bid to try and conserve what little was left of the battery.
With one last look behind him, Connor headed for the stairs, and started descending down into the depths of the facility and the vast military tunnels that lay underneath.
Kev, where the fuck are you? He thought. You better not have wandered too far down those freaking tunnels of yours and if you have, you better start getting your arse moving back in this general direction right now.
Otherwise, Connor thought, friendship be damned. He and Simon would be locking themselves inside the bunker and wouldn’t be opening that door again any time soon for anybody…not even Kev.
Kevin, where the hell are you? Connor thought again, even as behind him, outside, the dead continued to moan as they carried on in their new found efforts to try and force their way inside…
***
At the same time, several hundred feet below, Kev was still wandering the vast underground tunnels that ran underneath the facility - blissfully unaware that somewhere up above the dead were even now quite literally at their door.
He had been wandering these tunnels for several hours now, but still the end to them was nowhere in sight and Kev had no idea how much longer they might run. But he thought it important that at least somebody explore them, because if Simon failed to get them into the military bunker they had found – just as Simon had predicted would be here – then they would need a get-out clause, another means of escape, and these tunnels, they’d all agreed, might just be it.
Of the three of them, only Kev had been willing to explore the darkened corridors, but if he were being honest, Kev quite liked it down here in the tunnels, as poorly lit as they were, because exploring them gave him the perfect excuse to grab a little bit of time to himself.
As much as he liked Connor and Simon, three days fishing with them once a year, every year, as part of a tradition carried over from back when they were kids, was more than enough time spent in their company.
He’d been looking forward to getting back to their small town, a couple of hundred miles out from Anchorage that they all called home, so that Connor could go back to his wife and family, and Simon could fuck off back to the big city, but then everything had all gone to Hell and now here they were, stuck in each other’s company for what looked like the foreseeable future.
Kevin, who had always been a bit of a loner and had always fancied himself as the token outsider of the group, had no family of his own. His wife, of several years, had divorced him and moved back to Anchorage to be with her parents because ‘he didn’t pay enough attention to her’ a good few years ago now, and Kevin had been looking forward to spending the rest of the holiday season on his own with no-one else for company to tell him what to do.
But then the dead had woken to feast upon the living and now, it looked like he was just going to have suck it up and endure the company of his friends for a little bit longer – maybe even indefinitely.
It was peaceful down here in the tunnels.
The thick walls, cut out of the snow and ice, made radio contact with the others sporadic at best, and though Simon had expressed his reservations about Kevin coming down here on his own and being out of contact for so long at a time, in the end Kevin had just done what he always did when people ever tried to tell him what to do. He had ignored what Simon thought and then just gone ahead and done what he wanted anyway.
Simon had always been the exact same, even back when they had been kids. Always thinking he was some kind of big-shot, just because he was cleverer than Connor and Kevin and even as an adult, he was no different.
Ever since first arriving here at this facility, Simon had as good as decided he was the self-appointed leader of their little group and though it remained unspoken, there was no mistaking that he obviously thought he was the one in charge.
But Kevin, who had never been very good at being told what to do, even when they’d been back at school, was not about to be dictated to now – and especially not by someone he considered an equal.
Simon might think he was in charge, but as far as Kevin was concerned, no-one was the boss of him and that was just how he liked it.
Just as when they had first arrived back in town - what felt like days ago now, but that in reality had been no more than a few hours ago,- the smell hit him before he saw them.
It was the smell of death.
Like something that had died and long been left to fester and rot.
The smell of decay.
At first, Kevin thought something must have died down here, alone in the dark, like some kind of rat or something – some kind of animal or rodent that must have found its way into these tunnels somehow and then become trapped, unable to find its way out.
But then he turned the corner of one of the tunnels, the last one he intended to explore before heading back to see how the others were getting on, and that’s when he saw them.
The dead.
The Walking Dead.
Somehow, wherever these tunnels eventually led, the dead had somehow managed to find their way in and were now using them to infiltrate the facility.
There were only about a dozen of them right now, but that was a dozen more than he was prepared to try and deal with on his own without any kind of back-up and where a few had found their way in, Kevin was pretty sure others would fairly quickly follow.
At first, they moved slowly – stumbling along at their own steady pace, not making any sound – but then, as soon as they saw him, an almighty moan began to spread amongst their ranks, building to a crescendo and as one, the horde suddenly began speeding up; eagerly rushing towards him as they became aware of his presence and realised a fresh source of food was once more within their grasp.
Kevin didn’t wait to see what happened.
As soon as he saw The Walking Dead there in front of him, he promptly turned around and ran.
He had no idea whether or not he could outrun the Dead, no idea how quick they could move, but just knew he had to get out of there and back to the others, if only so that he could warn them it was already too late.
That despite their best efforts to find somewhere safe and secure, they were already overrun and that if Simon didn’t pull his finger out soon and get that bunker door open, then it would all be over for all three of them.
As he ran, Kevin unclipped his walkie-talkie and despite knowing it was probably futile, tried to get through to either of the others.
“Connor, Simon…” he shouted into the radio, “can you hear me? Can either of you hear me? The dead have infiltrated the facility – over. I repeat, the dead have infiltrated the facility. They’re already here, goddammit, down in the tunnels. Simon, if you’re listening, if you can hear this, you NEED to get that bunker door open now! The dead are here…I repeat, the. Dead. Are. Here.
It’s too late. Unless you can get that bunker door open, and like now, we’re all fucking fucked!”
Kevin stumbled, tripping on nothing, but somehow managed to stay on his feet.
He refused to look back, partly because in truth he didn’t want to see just how close the dead were behind him, didn’t want to see them closing in upon him, but also because he feared it might slow him down. He imagined he could almost smell their fetid, rotting breath upon his neck and knew they couldn’t be that far behind.
He just had to keep running, he thought. If he could just keep running, everything would be fine.
Unfortunately the dead, unlike the living, didn’t get tired.
They just kept going…constantly getting closer, and closer, and closer.
The next time Kevin stumbled, this time he went over.
And before he could get back up and on his feet again, the dead were upon him, ripping him apart and tearing at his flesh before he even had a chance to scream…
***
Back up in the Computer room, Simon was busy watching what was going on outside. After speaking to Connor
and sending him down into the tunnels to try and track down Kevin, he had finally managed to patch himself into the compound’s C.C.T.V and been able to access the cameras outside that covered the main entrance in and out of the facility.
He could see the dead out there, what looked like almost a hundred of them at the very least, attacking and assaulting the door and though it was made of thick, heavy metal, it was only a matter of time, he thought, before the combined pressure of all those bodies pushing against it meant something had to give. Already he could see dents starting to form where the horde relentlessly and tirelessly continued to beat on the door with their makeshift weapons and though he still thought they had plenty of time before the dead eventually gained access, he was under no illusions that the door would hold them out forever.
You had to hand it to the dead, he thought. They were certainly persistent and whilst any living still remained inside, Simon knew in his heart the horde trying to get in from outside would never, ever give up.
And if it came down to a waiting game, there was only one of them who was going to lose.
Us, he thought. The last of the living…
Suddenly, like a last minute reprieve, Simon heard a noise coming from the computer programme he was running over at the far end of the room. The one designed to tackle the security system currently keeping them out of the underground bunker that ran beneath the facility – and presumably even below the secret tunnels Kevin had discovered and was still currently exploring. Simon had studied the blueprints he had found for the facility on the computer, and even he wasn’t sure just how much farther below ground the research facility stretched. All he knew for certain was that the compound was much bigger than anyone back in town had ever realised, and that there had obviously been a whole of a hell lot more going on out here than anyone could possibly have ever known.
The heavy, electronic steel door behind him that guarded the entrance to the bunker slowly started to open and as the dead scientists that had been trapped inside all this time slowly began to spill out, too late Simon finally realised the truth.The sanctuary he and the others had been resting all their hopes on all this time, in actual fact was no refuge at all.
Instead it was a prison. And one behind whose doors the poor, dumb scientists who had somehow allowed themselves to become infected had trapped themselves, in a bid to prevent the virus they had created from escaping.
As the undead horde rushed towards him, Simon fled for the nearest exit – screaming out a warning to his two friends into the walkie-talkie he carried as he did so.
He almost made it to the door before the horde fell upon him.
Almost…but not quite.
***
Back down below, Connor was still searching the tunnels for Kevin.
He had tried repeatedly to try and reach his friend on the radio while he was down here, figuring that now they were both down here on the same level, there was more chance of them being able to communicate, but all to no avail.
So far, silence had been the only reply.
He had even tried calling out down the tunnel, hoping the sound of his echo might eventually reach their friend and alert him that Connor was down here as well, searching for him, but that didn’t appear to have worked either.
But then, neither he nor Simon had any idea just how far these tunnels stretched, or how far down them Kevin might have gone.
At one point, Connor had thought he’d heard a moan in reply, but it had only sounded once and then there had been nothing, so Connor just figured it probably must have just been the wind.
He hoped to God Kevin hadn’t gone and gotten himself injured down here, because Kevin was hardly a small lad – not fat, just well-built and stocky – and Connor didn’t fancy trying to drag his arse back upstairs, especially not if he was hurt to boot, so he tried not to think too much about that.
And when the moan did not come again, Connor had put it down to just a combination of his nerves and an over-active imagination.
Turning a corner, Connor came to a sudden stop.
Suddenly, in front of him, her back turned towards him, was a tall, blonde figure that Connor was sure that he recognised – even from behind.
Back when this facility had still been operational and the scientists had occasionally popped into town, there had been one scientist in particular that Connor had always been friendly with.
Her name had been Faye Le Bon, and not only had he bought her a drink on the odd occasion when he had caught up with her in town, propping up the local bar, but the two of them had also become a little more than friendly with each other to the point where Conor had been fairly certain, nay convinced, that on a couple of instances, she might even have been flirting with him.
Of course, nothing had gone any further – and then had come the news that the facility was being closed down and all the scientists were being pulled out, and that had been the last he’d seen anything of her.
Until now…
“Faye…?” He asked hesitantly, not sure just yet if it truly might be her or whether his mind was just playing tricks on him. “Faye…is that you?”
Faye, if that’s who it was, didn’t answer.
She just stood there, silently, her back still pointed towards him with no indication she might even have heard.
“Faye…Faye, is that you? If it is, what are you doing down here? I thought you and all the other scientists out here got called back and sent back home? Faye…Faye, is that really you? It’s me, Connor, from town…”
He reached out with one hand and made to spin her around to face him.
Faye span around and at the same time, and quickly before he could react, grabbed a hold of his head with both her hands.
Holding him tight, she opened up her mouth impossibly wide as though going to kiss him, and then instead breathed on him full in the face. White, cold vapour emerged from her mouth - a bit like the kind of breath you might expect to see on a cold, winter’s morning – but this breath was impossibly cold, like pure liquid nitrogen. Connor thought he felt his eyelids freezing from the sudden assault, and the whole of his face felt like it had suddenly, inexplicably been submerged into ice.
It was a kind of cold like he had never experienced before in his whole, entire life – at once, both bitterly freezing and yet also somehow hot to the point of burning - and Connor at once screamed out in agony as much in pain as at the contradiction on his senses as feebly, he attempted to pull himself away.
Faye let him go then and as he staggered back, his hands flew to his face and then stuck there as they connected with his freezing cold skin.
He was blind, he suddenly realised, and could see nothing in front of him, and that was when Faye proceeded to attack.
Leaping upon him, the former scientist forced him to the floor then promptly bit into his face. The warm heat from the blood pouring over what remained of his face was almost a relief from the intense cold he was experiencing – or at least, would have been if he hadn’t been in more agony than he had ever known in his whole, entire life before now.
Connor screamed, and as he heard his scream echoing down the tunnels all around him, from somewhere, not that far away, he also heard something else.
An answering moan…several hundred moans in fact…
The moans of The Walking Dead of which, it now was rapidly becoming apparent, Faye was also a member of - but of a far different variety than any the three friends had encountered until then.
As Faye continued to feast on him, the rest of the horde proceeded to also fall on him and join her on feeding on Connor – ripping and tearing at his flesh as they pulled it away from his body.
As he blissfully, finally passed out from the pain, one of the last things he heard was the sound of Simon’s voice coming out loud and clear from the walkie-talkie still attached to his belt.
“Connor…Kevin…can you hear me?” Simon was screaming down the radio. “If you can hear me, get the fuck out – use the tunne
ls, whatever, just get the hell away from here. The bunker’s open, it’s finally open, but it’s a bust, you hear me? Over. The bunker’s a no-go. I found out what happened to the scientists – they never left here, over. They’re still here – they locked themselves away in the bunker when they realised they were infected. It’s too late for me, but you can still save yourselves…don’t come back up here. Use the tunnels and get the fuck out. I repeat get the fuck out…over. The bunker is compromised, I repeat, the bunker is compromised…”
The rest of the message descended into screams and cut off, just as Kevin’s voice suddenly also burst out of the radio. “Connor, Simon…” he was screaming. “Can you hear me? Can either of you hear me? The dead have infiltrated the facility – over. I repeat, the dead have infiltrated the facility. They’re already here, goddammit, down in the tunnels. Simon, if you’re listening, if you can hear this, you NEED to get that bunker door open now! The dead are here…I repeat, the. Dead. Are. Here…we’re all fucking fucked!”
Too late, Connor thought. You’re too late, it’s already too late…
The three of them had come here seeking sanctuary, but instead had wandered into a trap.
And as darkness finally descended upon him, that was the last thing Connor ever thought…
***
Faye had still been in town when the message had come through on her phone that she was needed back at the facility urgently.
There had been rumours of their funding being cut and the project being closed down for months, and then last week those rumours had finally been confirmed.
She had been intending to try and track down Connor so she could try and say goodbye to him before she left, and maybe even exchange Email addresses, possibly even Facebook profiles – for she thought they had become quite close over the few drinks they’d shared together - but apparently he was out of town somewhere with some of his buddies.