Although the zombies moved much slower than a healthy man, and were quite manageable if on their own, as a group or herd it was a different story. The threat they poised when in a group was too much for the majority of the committee to watch, and several turned away, whilst the zombies quickly stripped the lounge of survivors. The last video footage played was a broadcast from Biocorp Pharmaceutical’s. The company’s CEO Jim Douglas appeared before them on the giant screen
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, welcome to the end, you will shortly witness the most devastating pandemic the earth has ever known, the world will be judged by or newly manufactured virus, we like to call “Day Zed”.
Jim Douglas paused to take a sip of water from the grand desk he sat at, before continuing.
“Everyone who has been bitten will die, everyone who dies, will reanimate to bite more, and those they bite will die and resurrect to infect even more” He smiled before concluding his broadcast
“I wish you all luck, in the future, for however long your future has to exist, goodbye Ladies and Gentlemen”. The screen went black as the transmission ended.
The committee now sat in silence waiting for the Prime Minister to readdress them and subdue the fear that now built in each and every one of them. For what seemed like an eternity they waited, until Hadyn had built the confidence to stand before them once again. He nervously cleared his throat and began his speech
“As you have all seen there is no quick fix for the problems that lay before us, there is no band aid to cover it up, and we cannot bury our heads under the carpet hoping that this problem will go away of its own accord. We have to treat today’s attack as a declaration of war”.
“War?” someone questioned from the safety of the crowd.
“Yes a war, we will soon be pitted against an army of undead, an army no one in history has had to face, an army that doesn’t feel pain, an army that doesn’t suffer from remorse, an army that doesn’t need sleep, and will never grow tired. We are at war with an army that does not require to eat, or to drink. Ladies and Gentlemen we are to fight an army with one sole aim, the destruction of mankind”.
The Prime Minister then spent the next twenty minutes highlighting everything that, his advisors and scientist’s had worked out so far about the virus, doctors failed attempts at killing the virus, the amount of reported cases, the number of ill and infected, he even went on to reveal projections of how the virus would spread. The more worrying fact was when he revealed that authorities would not attempt to get involved at a local level, and that all military, and police personnel were being withdrawn to help set up safe zones.
“Why that’s murder” cried one MP
“If we stay back and try to save cities, and towns our resources are thinned out. We are better as a whole to have all our forces in one place, so that we are able to save some of our population” Haydn was defiant with his reply.
Hadyn continued, and informed the group that areas with a high population count were at extreme risk, and therefore a countrywide curfew was in place, and that this would hopefully slow the contagions spread rate down. The last thing that Hadyn informed the room of was the only way to kill someone who had been reanimated was to damage their brain.
Most of the committee members voiced their concerns, some thought that the Prime Minister had conceded defeat to the virus way too early, others were concerned for the millions that would die without help, others just questioned the fact that we were unable to come up with a solution to the virus’s threat. One by one expert after expert was called to discuss matters in more detail, first the doctors, and then the scientists, the final speaker was the highest ranking army official in the country. All of them argued with the pros and cons of the governments plan, but most importantly the doubters had now lost their voice. Once again the Prime Minister took the floor and began to address the MP’s.
“The following action will now be taken with immediate effect to ensure we have a chance to beat this modern plague, please do not interrupt until I have finished, and I warn you now that some will be offended by some of the procedures that need to be put in place”.
Haydn took a pause and a deep breath before beginning recital of the most difficult list of directives he had ever had to authorise.
With all the speeches and specialists information being relayed, not a single person had noticed the education minister suffering from a fever, his son had bitten him just an hour ago. He had pushed his son back, and closed him into the kitchen just before a police car had arrived to summon him to Battersea. He had told no one that his son had returned home feeling ill after completing his shift at Heathrow the night before.
1st July, Chatsworth Plaza, London 7:43am
Nearing their destination, Dave and Penny both looked at the dash board at the same time, the radio which had been dead for several hours now sparked into life.
“This is an emergency broadcast issued by the government. For your own safety the police are to enforce an immediate curfew across the whole of Britain. No one is allowed on the streets or roads for any reason, we have taken this difficult decision in the hope that we can quarantine the infection that at the moment is running out of control. For your own safety please remain in your homes, further announcements will be made at a later time”.
Penny changed to several stations, and all played the same message over, and over again on a loop.
“I think it is safe to say that the only messages we hear now, will be what the government want us to hear” Dave offered.
“Yeah I think you are right Dave, they have no plans to tell the public what is really happening” Penny replied as she stared out of the window.
They pulled to a stop as they reached the nearest point to the site for Chatsworth Plaza, and had to walk just fifty yards to the sites entrance. As they reached the door they could both smell something cooking, the fragrance of what they thought smelt like fried eggs hung in the air. On scouring the line of properties they could see no open windows, and wondered where the smell was coming from. One thing that was out of place was the four blue shopping baskets that hung by a wire just under the roofline, above their heads, as Dave looked at the baskets he saw a hand dart into one, and retrieve a bottle of tomato sauce.
“Hey, you up there” Dave called out.
Jackson peered over the edge wondering who had called out to him, below him stood a couple looking up at him.
“What are you doing up there?” the woman called out to him.
“I’ve set up a camp, somewhere safe for a couple of days” Jackson called back.
“Come down for a second, we might have a better option for you than that” the woman had called back.
Jackson wondered what a better option could be, the couple seemed normal enough, and it would be better to face what was to come in numbers rather than on his own. He decided he would go down, if he didn’t like what they said he could soon climb back up, if they turned out to be lunatics like the man he had come across in the supermarket earlier, he could run. He lowered himself down the pipe, and began to chat to the couple after he had reached the bottom. After introducing themselves, each recanted the tales of what had happened to them over the last few hours. Knowing that others had experienced similar action to what he had seen himself eased Jackson a little, it wasn’t just a one off and he had been right to follow his hunch to do something about it.
“Have you been bitten?” Dave asked Jackson.
“No I have managed to escape without a scratch so far, what about the two of you?” Jackson asked them.
Dave and Penny both shook their heads to answer Jackson’s question.
Penny had then gone on to explain about her father, and who he was. More importantly she told him of the bunker, and that she had a key card her father had given to her, to gain access to the inside of the bunker.
“Do you want to come in with us?” Penny asked Jackson.
He didn’t have to consider the options before him
for long, and quickly replied to Penny
“Yeah, why not, it beats being out here on my own”.
Penny took the card from her back pocket, her hand hovered before the card slot, wondering if first the door would work, and then if they would meet hostile resistance the other side of it. There was only one way to find out those answers, she began to slide the card in the slot. A loud voice came from the main road in front of them, and instantly attracted their attention, before the card clicked into place. The voice, sounded metallic, and tinny, it wasn’t until the transit van passed them that they noticed that the sound came from a giant speaker mounted on the van’s roof.
“Please make your way home, stay inside, stay away from the infected, this is a government message, the UK is now under curfew”.
The metallic voice played the same message over, and over again as it slowly disappeared down the road. It wasn’t until it disappeared around the corner that Penny slid the card the rest of the way, into its slot. A small green light turned on above the card, and after a few seconds there was a click as the door to the side of them unlocked, and began to open on its motorised hinges. The trio withdrew the card, and edged their way into what appeared to be a lobby. The interior of this room was lined with solid steel sheets, and this one material had been used on the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. The only fixture in the barren room was a key card slot similar to the one on the front. The front door clicked closed, and a series of locks could be heard as they were being applied, it wasn’t until the final lock engaged that the fluorescent lighting flickered on, and the key card light switched on, Penny entered her card for a second time.
As the group entered the second room, they were scanned by a security camera mounted on the wall. This room differed from the first room; everything was a brilliant white, apart from the ceiling which was mirrored. A large TV monitor mounted on the wall, above a card slot turned on, and displayed a message that the key card should be inserted into the slot, but once entered this would lockdown the way they had come in, and this would render the card obsolete, they would not be able to turn back. Penny turned to look at both Dave and Jackson who in turn just shrugged their shoulders so she slid the card into the slot. As soon as the card entered the slot a secondary door slid down across the one they had just entered, there were no handles to this solid steel panel, and they didn’t attempt to leave. A door in the far wall appeared, and then automatically began to swing open, and they exited the room and entered a check in lobby. The lobby housed four desks, but only one of these was manned. They approached the desk, and the uniformed woman greeted them
“Good Morning, my name is Kathy, welcome to Chatsworth Plaza” she said with a well rehearsed smile.
“I require you to strip down to your underwear, in order to conduct a search for contamination” the girl behind the desk coldly announced.
The group looked at each other; at first they had been taken aback by the emotionless request to remove their clothing, mainly by the way it had been said. The woman behind the desk looked unfazed, she wasn’t going to let them move forward until she had conducted the examination. The trio reluctantly stripped down as they had been asked, there had been no point in arguing, and each of them understood the necessity of the search.
Both Penny, and Dave wore underwear, they were both in good shape, and seemed to be enjoying the moment as they both stood and grinned at one another. Wishing he wore underwear Jackson stood completely naked, and stood behind the two he had just met, hoping that they would not make too much of a fuss over his nakedness. The woman came from behind the desk and asked them to all stand forward with their hands up in the air, so that she could inspect them. There had been no facial expression as the woman had checked over first Penny, and then Dave, now as she inspected Jackson she smiled; she also seemed to take twice as long at inspecting him as she had done with the other two. Stepping back behind the desk she told them that were permitted to redress, and that they could now enter through the door behind her where they would meet Daryl, and that he would show them to their living quarters, and that he would provide them with clean clothes.
The trio moved forward into the main reception area, they stood upon a plush carpeted area and looked in awe at the size of the room they now stood in. Anyone standing in the room for the first time could be forgiven for thinking that were standing in one of the top London hotels such was the grandeur of the bunkers reception. No expense had been spared creating this area, there were a multitude of benches and seats to sit on, these were accompanied with a variety of coffee tables, and foot rests. The far wall was completely covered with bookshelves, and each case was full to the brim with every book you could possibly imagine. To the left of the expansive lounge lay the reception desk, which ran across the entire width of the room. A man stood behind the desk waiting to greet them, he wore an identical uniform to the woman in the previous room. A name badge confirmed o them that this was Darryl, and when he spoke to them
“Good morning all, welcome to Chatsworth, my name is Daryl. Please follow me and I will show you to your rooms”.
Darryl moved out from behind the desk, and approached each of the trio and shook each of their hands.
“I am one of three caretaking staff, and you are the first arrivals. You’ve already met Kathy, and you will meet Scott in the next few hours” Daryl informed them.
“If you would like to follow me I will take you to your room’s, and you can get cleaned up, before we give you a change of clothes” Daryl added as he started to walk down one of the corridors branching off from the lounge. As they walked, Darryl pointed out the different areas they could go to, the sheer scale of the place was beyond belief. They reached the first dormitory where they would be staying, the dormitory held fifty bunk beds, and each set of beds was screened off by six foot high partition board on each side, and should residents require a bit of privacy that was afforded to them by a curtain that be drawn across the front of the beds, but that was it. Daryl said that there were two other dormitories the same size as this one, which in total provided sleeping space for three hundred. There were twenty private living quarters which would sleep a further forty, but these were for VIP guests only. Providing each of the trio with a change of clothes, and a towel, Daryl pointed the way to the communal shower blocks, and left them to get used to their new surroundings whilst he went off to finish some work that he had been doing earlier.
By the time the trio had showered, and changed Kathy had reappeared.
“If you would accompany me to the command centre, we can explain to you what is happening outside, and the protocols that the government has in place. We can also introduce you to Scott and go into more detail about the facility” Kathy asked the group.
They followed Kathy down a corridor and into the command post, the sheer size of the command centre was overwhelming, the trio stood in amazement taking in all the aspects of the cinema sized room. On the back wall of the room there was over one hundred sixty inch screens mounted on the wall all around a large screen which sat in the middle of the wall. Either side of the TV wall sat row upon row of computer workstations. The TV screens all showed pictures from around the country, and most capitols of the world, The trio were not looking at the live action on the screens, what had their undivided attention was the text displayed on the large screen in the centre. The text displayed on the screen was the government’s directives for dealing with the problem at hand.
*DAY ZED VIRUS PRIMARY DIRECTIVES*
To slowdown the speed that the virus will spread, by convincing the public that it is in their best interests to remain indoors, where they will be safe.
Create time to get professional’s into their designated bunker’s by keeping roads clear.
Withdraw all Police and Army units from the local area. They are to be reassigned to designated protection zones.
Borders to safe zones are to be set up by the end of day, no admittance for the general public.
&nb
sp; Shutdown of all water and energy supplies by 2am 2nd July. All resources redirected to safe zones.
All telecommunications shut down permanently.
Only pass card holders will be permitted into bunkers.
The Army are to remove supplies from supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacies.
All travel networks are to be immediately terminated.
These directives are to be carried out by all designated personnel until otherwise announced.
Still looking at the screens, the trio were lost for words, the list that they now read from made it quite clear that the general public was being deserted, and the government was concentrating on just one or two areas, in order to survive.
“This is mass murder” Dave challenged Kathy.
“They are using the public to slow down the infected, so that they can run?” he asked.
“If they don’t die from the virus, they are going to let them starve” Penny joined in.
Then with a stark realisation Penny re read the directives, the one line that stuck in her mind was the key card one, her father had given them his card, he had sacrificed himself in order to save Penny. He had not told her that he would not be able to gain access himself, knowing that she would have refused the card if she had known that it meant her parents would not be able to enter the bunker. A single tear rolled down Penny’s cheek.
1st July, Chatsworth Plaza, London, 8:54am
Day Zed (Volume 1): The Outbreak Page 6