Useless Bastard

by Hooke, A. J. A.

  Dave placed his shopping bag on a display table and took his shoes off. He noted that his shoes were in bad shape. Although his shoes were constructed like a pair of joggers, they didn't have a jogger's build quality and all the walking that Dave had recently done had worn them really badly. Dave's socks were also unpleasantly stained so Dave removed them as well and dropped them onto his abandoned shoes. He took off his office pants and dropped them onto his old shoes. After taking a quick look around the store, Dave took off his underwear and pulled on a clean set of briefs. Dave would have liked to have had a shower, but just changing to clean clothes made him feel so much more refreshed.

  Dave pulled the work-pants on and was pleased that they were a good fit if a bit long in the leg. Bending over, Dave rolled the pant leg ends inwards until they were a functional length. The new pants fit really well so Dave grabbed another pair that he placed into his shopping bag. Dave pulled out one of the T shirts that were in the bag and left it on top of the bag. Dave removed his button up office shirt, which he dropped onto the floor with his other discards. He picked up the clean T shirt and pulled it on. This was much more comfortable.

  Dave walked to the sock section and grabbed a number of thick looking hiking socks that he put into his shopping bag. These were just the sort of socks that could reduced blister and other foot injuries. The label attached to the socks showed some rugged workman hefting up handfuls of house bricks.

  Next to the sock section, along the back wall of the clothing store were wall racks covered in various shoes. Dave looked over the jogger section until he found a few that he liked. He picked his favourite off the rack and looked around. The display only had the right shoe of its pair, so he'd have to look around for a complete pair. At one side of the show display was a door. On the door was a large sign saying 'staff only'.

  "Hey Eric," called out Dave.

  "Uh, what is it?"

  "I'm going to go into the back storage and look for some new shoes."

  Eric jogged over to where Dave was. "Can I have a look around as well?"

  "That's why I called you over. I would prefer it if we stayed together. It's not night time but there's safety in numbers."

  Eric gulped and nodded.

  Dave pushed open the door that said 'staff only' and walked through. The area was filled with numerous shelves that were crammed with shoeboxes. The shelves seemed to be organised by brand. Dave looked at the label on the shoe that he was holding and read out the brand. After spotting the appropriate shelves he noted that the stack of boxes on the shelves were ordered by shoe model. Through comparing with the label on the shoe that he held he found a good stack of the shoes that he was after. The stack of shoe boxes were further ordered by size with the smallest at the top. Dave knew what his foot size was and slid out the appropriate shoe box. Dave opened the shoe box and compared it to what he was holding. Satisfied, Dave closed the shoe box and nodded to himself.

  "Ok," said Dave. "I think that I got it. Let's get out of here."

  Eric nodded his agreement and they both walked out of the storeroom. Dave found a chair that was probably used for fitting shoes and sat in it. Dave pulled on a pair of his new socks before pulling on the new sneakers. After tying up the laces, Dave stood up and walked over to the rack where he returned the display sneaker that he had carried around.

  "Swish," said Eric.

  "These are much better than the office-wear that I had on before. They absorb impacts much better. I'm never going back to my old shoes."

  Dave looked into his bag. "Looks like I've got all that I wanted. What about yourself?"

  Eric held up a bag. "I got a nice jumper. It's a bit cool sleeping up on the roof."

  "And it's not even winter. Securing this shopping centre is really important."

  "Yeah."

  "And you reminded me. I need a jumper as well. Show me where you got yours."

  Eric led Dave to the display table with the jumpers. Dave wasn't too picky and grabbed a jumper that was notably bigger than he normally would wear.

  "Okay then," said Dave. "I think that this covers this store. Let's quickly go a newsagent."

  "There's one just near here."

  "Then lead the way."

  Eric walked out of the clothing store and walked past a few stores before entering a newsagent. Dave followed Eric and immediately spotted an inclined display rack for batteries. Dave picked out a few that he needed before dropping them into the shopping bag that he had his new spare clothes in.

  Dave spent a moment looking through the aisles of the newsagent. "There's probably more stuff that I need but I just can't think exactly what it is that I want. I had also hoped to find a few more particular items but I guess this store is too small or maybe it's the wrong place altogether for them. Might as well end our shopping trip for today."

  "That's good timing. It's probably still not even dusk yet."

  "Well then," said Dave. "Let's go upstairs and figure out what we can do before night fall."

  Eric grinned his agreement. Together they started walking back to the shopping centre's rooftop.

  * * *

  When they exited the stairwell and came out onto the shopping centre's roof, Dave and Eric met Justin. There was a bit of excitement going on. It wasn't an over the top level of excitement, but compared to how it was before when Dave had first arrived it was still an incredible change.

  "What's the deal?" asked Dave.

  "People just appreciate all the food that you brought up earlier," said Justin.

  "I'll be blunt," said Dave. "When I was up here before the people up here didn't really seem to have much energy. I'm impressed that a full stomach can improve someone's outlook so quickly."

  Justin looked away from Dave and placed one of his hands behind his head. "I get where you're coming from. But you have to understand. We've all gone through some rough times. Most people here have gone through more roughness than others - I think that you can guess what I mean. I'd love it if everyone here was the pinnacle of productivity, but I think people just need some time to heal. I think the main problem is that we don't really know what is going on."

  "I'm totally on board with that," said Dave as he walked over to his backpack that he left near the stairwell exit. Dave opened the backpack and pulled out his notepad and a pen.

  Justin and Eric looked curiously at Dave as he walked back to the pair while holding up his notepad.

  "It's not much," said Dave, "but I've been trying to write down any observations that I can."

  "What sort of observations?" ask Justin.

  Dave opened up the notepad. "Take how this thing spreads. So far I've only seen it spread by being bitten."

  "When you say 'spread' you mean like a disease?"

  "I can't really think what else it could be. Is it bacteria? Is it a virus? Is it a parasite? I don't know. All that I have is that it looks like a strange new disease that seems transmitted by direct contact, but that's the only theory that I've got so far."

  "Why strange?"

  "The way people are killed and then latter stand up is the obvious oddity. Put simply the dead shouldn't walk."

  "I get the feeling that you mean more than that."

  Dave looked serious. "You see it after the red eyed and grey skin dead attack living people. The attacks are really vicious. Flesh ripped open and even limbs torn off. The dead seem way more stronger than their original living counterpart could be. But the key point here is that living people who are attacked are torn to pieces."

  "Weird," said Justin looking thoughtful. "I only remember seeing the dead walking about and looking unharmed. I don't remember seeing any with missing arms or legs, or even patches of skin torn away."

  "Yeah. This is where the strange bit comes in. I'm guessing that the disease takes a bit to settle in, and there's an impossible penultimate step. Before standing up the torn up body reassembles itself."

  "What?" said Justin.

  "I think I've seen that,"
said a really pale Eric.

  Dave nodded at Eric. "It really disturbing to see. Say a person had their arm ripped off. At this stage you'd see the arm sliding back to its owner before reconnecting. It's during this stage that all injuries are repaired."

  "Damn," said Justin. "That makes no sense."

  "Exactly. What's the mechanism going on here? The mechanism is not visible - or at least I've not clearly seen it. The severed limbs slide together and heal up - no sign of a gluey pus or anything. I pondered alternative methods but nothing makes sense. For example, this isn't something that I'd expect a magnetic field to be able to do. I'm not a scientist, so my knowledge is basically what I'd get from the news, and yet I've never heard of anything that did this."

  "It almost sounds like some sort of nanotechnology."

  Dave shook his head. "Movie-based fantasies are one thing, but this is reality that we're talking about. Has someone on this planet really perfected something as difficult as nanotechnology? I'm sure that if there was someone about to have a scientific breakthrough like this then they would have been telling the world about it. This is completely out of the blue. It feels like some random bullshit that evolution would throw our way."

  "Yeah. If something like this was known about it would completely overturn modern medicine."

  "It could easily be the key to immortality."

  Justin looked uneasy. "It's not a form of immortality that I want."

  "Those dead people don't seem too smart. During the day they mostly just stand there. It's their seeming inactivity during the day that gives me the confidence to move during the day."

  "Night is different?" asked Justin.

  "Even you've noticed that. When night comes around you stop going outside for supplies and close off access to this roof."

  "They mostly seem to come out at night, and ...," Justin couldn't finish his sentence.

  Eric looked at Justin and understood Justin's hesitation. "They run."

  Dave nodded. "This agrees with what I've been seeing. Except one extra point. And this one seems so crazy that I don't even want to mention it."

  A look of complete panic came over Eric who spoke softly: "The whispers."

  "What?" asked Dave.

  Eric clammed up and clearly wanted to say nothing more about this topic, so Justin took over. "It's faint, but during the night we hear what sounds like whispers."

  "Do you think that you're hearing some survivors?" asked Dave trying to clarify their observations.

  "No. There's something about the whispers. They are terrifying."

  "Have you listened to what is said?"

  "No. It's too faint. This roof is pretty high up and during the night we stay away from the roof edges to avoid being noticed. And to be honest, when I notice the whispers I cover my head completely."

  "Which implies that you've never seen those that make the noise."

  "And you have?" said Justin with a look of shock on his face.

  "It's dark at night, so I've not seen them clearly. All that I can really say is that I'm sure that they are also dead."

  "How is that possible? The dead shouldn't be able to speak."

  "The dead shouldn't be able to rise from the ground and walk. The ones that make the whispering noises are what I call 'talkers' and they seem rather intelligent."

  "What are you basing this on?"

  "First off. You might be hearing some vague sounds, but I've been close enough to hear them say comprehensible sentences."

  "I don't get that. The brains of dead people shouldn't work."

  "Talking isn't their only talent. The walking types can barely do that. But the talking types seem to have a larger collection of dexterous skills. I haven't watched them enough but I wouldn't be surprised if they could open doors and do things requiring a similar level of ability."

  Justin spun his head to the stairwell leading into the shopping centre. "So that's why you were so insistent on improving the defences around here."

  "Yeah. Closing the door might stop a walker, but a talker might be able to stroll right up here without a problem."

  "Damn it," cursed Justin. "Now that I know that I would like it if we could close off the entrances to the shopping centre right this very moment."

  Dave looked up at the dusky sky. "There's no way we'd be able to secure the shopping centre in the time that we have left before dark. Heck. I don't even know if we can do it in one day."

  "We've been safe so far. So let's just hope that we get through another night."

  "Let's not push whatever luck that we might have. Keep away from the roof edges and try and be as quiet as possible. I know that people are a bit energetic at the moment, but we should pass around the word to remain very quiet tonight."

  "Fuck," said Justin.

  Dave and Eric just looked at Justin in agreement.

  * * *

  After picking a place to stay the night, Dave placed his backpack against the large air duct that wormed in seeming random directions along the roof of the shopping centre. Dave disconnected the sleeping mat from the side of his backpack and unrolled it with the feet end away from the air duct. Dave returned to his backpack to detach his sleeping bag which he unrolled over the sleeping mat.

  "It must be rough sleeping up here?" asked Dave as he prepared for the night.

  "We typically put down a lot of blankets to get over the hardness," responded Eric.

  Justin had his own preparations to do before nightfall and had left them earlier.

  Dave looked up at the sky. "We've not had any rain for the last few days, so it's been possible to survive up here in some level of comfort. However the moment that it rains this will turn to a soggy hell."

  Eric sat down on a random pile of blankets near to where Dave had set up his sleeping bag. Eric had suggested this spot to Dave because this is where Eric slept. It hadn't been much time, but a certain level of friendliness had grown between the two.

  "Maybe we could put up some more tarpaulins?" suggested Eric.

  "Even if you stop the rain with a tarp, this roof looks pretty flat so I'm guessing that the rain will end up just pooling. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole roof flooded."

  Eric looked about the roof uncomfortably.

  "Which," said Dave, "is why it's so important that we lock down the lower parts of this shopping centre."

  "Will that be really safe?"

  "I'm not going to lie to you. I have no idea. I'm hoping that once the doors downstairs are shut that the doors would be strong enough to block anything that tries to get in. That's raises an issue. We'll have to think of some way of getting outside the shopping centre without using the doors."

  "Why can't we use the doors?" asked Eric.

  "If the doors are powered then we'll need power to raise and lower them. I'm hoping that there's a generator and that it will work long enough to seal this place up. But if there is a generator I have no idea how much fuel it has. At any rate the generator won't work forever. Once we close this place up then it stays closed."

  "Maybe we could use a side door?"

  "Good idea," said Dave looking at the sky. "It's still some time before it's dark. Let's go to the roof edge and have a little look around. Maybe we can come up with some ideas."

  Eric grinned as they both stood up and walked towards the nearest roof edge. As they walked Dave noticed small groups of people that he hadn't been introduced to yet. All of them displayed a new lethargy that disturbed Dave - their energy from earlier had vanished. Somewhere in the back of Dave's mind was the irrational notion that somehow mankind could survive this latest crisis, but only if they were more energised than this.

  "Hey Sid," called Eric to a man leaning up against the stomach-high wall that edged the roof.

  Sid turned. "Oh, hi Eric. Dave. What's up?"

  "Dave just wanted to have a recon," answered Eric.

  Eric looked at Dave. "What are you expecting to see?"

  "I don't expect to see anything," said D
ave. "At least that's my hope."

  Sid grunted.

  "It's hard to plan," said Dave, "when you don't have an overview of the landscape."

  "That sounds deep," said Sid.

  "I'm just saying that I don't have a damn idea what to do, so I'm trying to get a better idea of the layout of this place. I've looked from the roadways but not from up here."

  Sid chuckled as all three looked over the slight wall. Below was a scattered collection of roads and parking spots.

  "Damn," said Dave. "They are already out."

  "I've counted about ten so far. They've only just started to turn up here in the last half hour or so."

  Dave looked confused. "How would they know to gather here? I can't see any beyond the outer fence line."

  "Fucked if I know," said Sid without venom.

  "I hope that they don't come into the shopping centre. It will make clearing it out a lot more dangerous."

  Sid turned to Dave. "You're still going with this crazy plan of yours."

  Dave stared at some of the abandoned trucks that were scattered about the parking spots. "We're not safe here."

  "Don't say that too loud," whispered Sid. "Others might hear you."

  "I get it. I've seen the people here. I don't want to add to their concerns."

  "Sorry. They aren't bad people," said Sid looking back across the roof at little groups of people who were starting to gather on dirty piles of blankets. "They are just ... ."

  "Broken," suggested Dave.

  Sid sighed. "That's a shitty way to put it, but I'm not going to disagree. They went through hell. This place was crowded when it happened. There was probably at least a thousand people inside this place when it when to shit. What a fucking mess!"

  "I'm not trying to blame anyone. It just that there's not a lot of people left alive. Everyone needs to work hard."

  "Yeah. It's good to dream. But we have to work with what we got."