Day Zed (Volume 1): The Outbreak

by Charles Smith

  “How can you be so cold hearted about it?”

  “It’s not cold hearted, if we let him in we will all die”

  “We can lock him in a room”

  “No we can’t Penny, he can’t come in” Kathy replied.

  Not willing to argue anymore Kathy turned away, and began to check footage from the other nine teams.

  “We are down to just the one team now” she informed the group.

  “Oh shit” muttered Daryl.

  The group returned to the screens displaying action from Morgan’s camera, their focus was even more attuned to the pair.

  The drive so far had been a success, the tracks were empty and none of them were obstructed by trains. They had travelled the majority of the trek, and had just one more junction to go through, and then they would be on top of London Bridge. What they would find once in the station was anyone’s guess, and they would worry about that once they were there. Morgan came to a halt, something in the distance worried him, and Declan looked as hard as he could, but couldn’t see anything, but since his health was deteriorating rapidly, he put that down to the sickness which grew inside him.

  “What’s wrong Jay?” Declan asked his partner

  “The tracks ahead, they are blocked with trains”

  “Drive around them”

  “That’s the problem, there are zombies around them, there must be passengers trapped on a carriage” Morgan calmly stated.

  “How many are there Jay?”

  “There’s got to be a hundred of them”

  Declan smiled, and then broke into a laugh.

  “What is so funny Dec” Morgan enquired.

  “I have a plan Jay, listen up” the Irishman continued to laugh as he told Morgan of his plan.

  Declan went on to insist that Morgan do what he was told, he was struggling to suppress the overwhelming feeling of fatigue that was gripping him, and did not know how much longer he had left. Here before them Declan had his chance to die in his own way, and ensure that he couldn’t return as one of the flesh eaters. The plan was simple Morgan was to drive up just ten feet from the first zombie, then cover himself with his jacket whilst Declan climbed out and attracted their attention, and would then lead them away. Once he had taken them as far as he could he would detonate one of the hand grenades that hung from his belt. Morgan didn’t like the plan, as it meant the death of a friend. It also meant that he would be able to check the carriages out, as there were too many zombies there for him to fight. Reluctantly he agreed to go through with it; Declan had made him promise that no matter what he would get to Chatsworth. Morgan now looked hard into Declan’s face

  “I am so sorry Dec”

  “Don’t be you’re the one who has got to live in this fucked up mess” Declan laughed out.

  Morgan started the car, and as instructed pulled to a halt just ten yards from the nearest of the horde, he quickly got into the back and pulled the jacket over him. As he sat under the jacket a single tear rolled down his cheek has he heard the card door open and close, and Declan began to shout at the horde

  “Hey John Doe’s fresh food” Declan shouted.

  “Its Chow time mother fuckers” he added for good measure.

  Declan began to limp off, and even with a bad ankle, and riddled with the virus he managed to get a good head start on the zombies. Every one of the zombies had stopped what they were doing, and were now moving after the soldier, even the ones that had no legs where they had been chewed off crawled after him. Turning back to make sure he had drawn them all away he smiled, just a bit further he thought and carried on walking, laughing he led the zombies away like a macabre modern day version of the pied piper.

  1st July, Battersea, London, 1:33pm

  The government bunker in Battersea had been a hive of activity ever since the government’s earlier evacuation. Overseeing the outbreak and trying to come to terms with the desolation of England had taken its toll on many of the parliament ministers that had been brought to the bunker just a few hours ago. Haydn Broxby now sat in a select meeting with the chief of police, and the defence secretary in his own private quarters. The Prime Ministers room was one of a few on the second level of the bunker that were reserved for royalty, heads of state, and the highest ranking of military chiefs. All in all there were thirty of these private living quarters, that measured just over twelve hundred square feet, each had a double bed, a desk, carpet and wash facilities. The remainder of the bunkers guests would be given a bunk bed in one of three giant dormitories that measured over four thousand square feet.

  For the last ten minutes the chief inspector had been giving a report to the other two men in the room. Between him and other commanding officers they had managed to pull over eighty percent of the nations police force to areas in the far north of England, where the virus was still yet to escalate. London and the surrounding areas were now considered lost, and were largely over run by the infected. The police had begun to set up border controls on the outskirts of the borders of Berwick, and their aim was to fortify the area before the virus took hold and surged northwards. The government had designated Scotland and Ireland as safe zones, and the forces were to be split between the two zones. The remaining twenty percent of the force had been lost during the initial outbreak.

  “Thank you for that update George, you’ve done remarkably well in such a short space of time” acknowledged Haydn.

  “Thank you sir”

  “Once the borders are in place your men will be backed up by the army George”

  “And what will we do with the survivors that flee to the borders Prime Minister?”

  Haydn paused for a second before answering the chief inspector.

  “Unfortunately George not even one of them can be let through, we can’t take the risk”

  Haydn now turned to Malcolm Drury, his reliable defence secretary who had loyally served the cabinet for the last six years.

  “How have the army fared Malcolm?”

  “Not so well I’m afraid Haydn” Malcolm replied before going on to deliver his own report.

  All designated bunker evacuee rescue attempts had failed, by the time they had moved to secure the evacuees they had found the roads blocked, and even the footpaths as people had tried to escape. Just over sixty percent of the army had been evacuated to Scotland and Ireland immediately, they would soon be joined by a further twelve percent who had been on supply missions of emptying supermarkets, and destroying bridges located near the borders. Malcolm went on to inform them that over ten thousand troops would maintain the borders, and guaranteed that not one survivor would be able to break through the defences set up. All of the RAF’s planes, and the Navy’s fleet had now been moved to the Irish and Scottish coastlines to protect the safe zones from outside sources.

  “Very good Malcolm, well done”

  “Haydn was we ever meant to rescue anyone for those bunkers?” Malcolm asked.

  “No, maybe we were not Malcolm. We have done what we have needed to, in order for us to survive”

  “But why did we go to the expense of building the bunkers?”

  “One day when we take London back we will have a network of readied supplies”

  “But we have lost good men, on missions that were not meant to succeed”

  “Yes we did, but a lot less than we would have trying to defend the city Malcolm” Haydn finished

  “Now if you’ll excuse me gentlemen, I wish to return to the command centre” he added.

  Haydn then stood up and walked out of the room, heading back to the first level. The two men waited for him to enter the corridor before standing themselves and heading after him. They both walked in silence, neither prepared to question any of the Prime Ministers judgements.

  Lower down in the levels of the bunkers, below the dormitories sat the supply and ammunition centres, whilst below these sat the vehicle compound, and an escape tunnel, should the tunnel need to be evacuated. This is now where a couple of hours ago the secr
etary of education had come to hide. As a member of the cabinet he was allowed access to nearly everywhere in the compound. After passing through the various security points, he now lay prone on his back in the back of a covered troop carrier. He knew he was infected, the throbbing septic bite wound on his arm told him as much, shortly after his son had bitten him. He just couldn’t face the thought of being put down like a sick animal. His plan was simple, find somewhere quiet, somewhere away from the bunkers general population. He would then rest for a short while, before collecting some supplies from the food stores; he would then leave the exit using his key card. This would guarantee that when he passed away and turned he would be well away from the general population of the bunker and unable to infect them.

  The problem with the Ministers plan was that his body was already shutting down, and he had done a remarkable job in lasting as long as he had. The virus coursed through his blood system, it was attacking every cell in his body, and had already begun to attack all of the major organs. Very shortly his body was racked by a devastating seizure; he then lost control of his stomach muscles as his body continued to spasm. Blood now ran from his nose and eyes, as one by one his organs began to shut down. The pain that he would have been in would have been intolerable if he was awake, and he was lucky in that sense that he was already in a coma state. The last of the organs to fail was his heart, and after a massive coronary attack it succumbed to the virus, and finally the education minister died. Unfortunately just eleven minutes later he opened his eyes.

  At the same time as the death of the education minister a broadcast from the President of the United States of America had started, this live broadcast was being beamed straight from Air Force One to every country’s leaders. After losing control of New York and Jersey the secret service had decided to evacuate the President, and move him to an undisclosed secure location. The Police force and Army were now throwing everything they had at containing the spread of the virus, and hoped that they could avoid the domino effect that was now happening across Europe, and save the majority of the American public. After consultation with his advisors he had conducted preliminary talks with leaders from Australia, China, Korea, Hong Kong and smaller Asian countries. An agreement had been made that air forces around the world would shoot down any planes, trying to land in the continent, and that this in turn would guarantee the survival of humanity as Australasia would remain virus free.

  Early tests conducted by the CDC had deemed that no living being would carry an immunity to this disease, and that the bigger the population of a country, the greater the speed the virus would be spread. All of their scientists were now working all of the hours possible to engineer an antidote, but stressed not only would this take months, but it would also not remove the virus from those that had already been infected.

  Footage then switched from the President and over to live footage from Times Square in New York. Millions of people gathered there, anyone watching could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching footage from the annual New Year’s scenes, where Time Square would be awash with revellers celebrating the start of another year, the only thing missing was the tickertape and bunting. The electronic billboards still showed their array of digital advertisements, ranging from the newest show to the latest blockbuster movie. The sea of people looked dazed by the screens, and their complete attention was focussed upon the flashing neon lights.

  The drone which relayed the live feed across the world then dropped in altitude, and now the camera zoomed in onto the crowds packed into the streets below. All those who watched now stood with open mouths in shock at what they were watching, this crowd was not of survivors. Instead the crowd was made up of millions of zombies. The realisation and shock of the speed that New York had been lost was short lived, as the first of the napalm bombs were dropped into the square.

  Coverage now switched back to the President, who made a closing statement that he wanted the world to hear.

  “Good people of the world, today we face a plague of horrors, today we must make decisions that will save as much of mankind as possible. Tomorrow we will take control of our borders, and organise our Armies, and in the future we will take back our lost lands and triumph over our adversaries.”

  The broadcast ended and the emblem of the USA was left on the screen for a short while before it was faded out to a blank screen.

  1st July, West Ham, East London, 2:17pm

  Gerard and his ten year old daughter Shanice sat at the table playing a game of snap. Every now and then a noise from outside would disturb them from their game. They had already grown used to the screams and shouts of people as they tried to flee from the horrors before them. The moans of the zombies had grown louder and louder over the last two hours as their numbers had multiplied. The pair had been hidden down in the bunker at the back of their garden, ever since their neighbour had attempted to bite them.

  They had found him lying on the patio earlier, and when trying to help the fallen man, he had sat up and then tried to bite Shanice’s shoulder. Her father had pushed the neighbour away, and told him to stay away, yet he came back to try again, and after being pushed over a second time he had fell backwards and speared himself through the back of the head with the patio umbrella stand.

  Whilst contemplating what to tell the police Gerard had noticed strange things happening in the street. He had seen neighbours wounded, and then to his horror had seen other neighbours chasing them, and trying to bite them. It didn’t take a lot of working out that as prophesised the end of the world would be brought about in a means that God found acceptable, and in this case he had chosen a zombie apocalypse.

  Gerard was what many people would consider a strange man, after inheriting the house he and Shanice now lived in, from his grandmother over fifteen years ago, he had divided the majority of his spare time between his allotment and the garden. The majority of his wages had been spent on constructing a doomsday bunker in the garden. At first the neighbours had thought the excavator in his back garden was being used for a spot of landscaping, and it wasn’t until the two connectible doomsday underground bunkers were delivered and fitted together in the giant hole in his back garden that they realised just how deeply the religious Gerard believed the end of the world was nigh.

  For three years Gerard spent everything he had on fitting out the underground bunkers with the latest top of the range survival equipment, every spare minute of the day he would work on the inside of it or be reading up on the latest paraphernalia. When he had met Shanice’s mother at a church meeting the bunker work stopped, after a two year romance Shanice had been born, the world couldn’t have been a better place. That Utopia was destroyed and came tumbling down when a drunk driver ploughed through that dream when he lost control of his car and in a head on collision with Gerard’s car ended his wife’s life a little after Shanice’s first birthday. Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Gerard had returned to his doomsday way of thinking, and up until the virus broke had devoted his life to creating the best possible chance, both he and Shanice would have living through an apocalypse.

  Now with a well furnished and stocked bunker completely at his disposal, Gerard had not panicked after realising what was happening around them. He and Shanice had calmly walked down the eight concrete steps opened the steel reinforced door with the keypad code, and then once inside manually locked the door with three steel lockable arms. The only sign’s to the outside world that the bunker existed were the two air vents that protruded from the ground, and the entrance itself.

  The pair did not have to worry about the water as Gerard had paid for a well to be dug in the large garden. Power was not a problem either as he had installed sonar panels on the roof of his house which re-directed power straight to the bunker. The bunkers had been split into two areas, the first being the living area, the second bunker held stores, and there was plenty of food and provisions to last them a long time should they need it.

  Gerard had been slightly amused
when one of the neighbours who had sought the council’s help in having the bunkers removed, and campaigned for years for the site to be levelled banged at the bunkers door. She was scared and didn’t know what to do, she wanted to know if he would let her stay with them, and she was sorry for objecting to the bunkers all these years. Of course Gerard done the neighbourly thing and allowed her in, but warned her no more could be allowed in as there wasn’t room, she didn’t object and she was just glad to be out of the madness, away from all those things outside that were biting people.

  All of that changed when she was foolish enough to tell Gerard that she had been bitten, within seconds Gerard had forced her outside and locked the bunker back up. The silly woman had banged and pleaded for a good while, until she had drawn the attention of an infected neighbour, who had caught her by surprise and killed her just half an hour ago. The woman still stood outside in the back garden she just ambled about, her head would turn to the noises around her, but for now she stood waiting for something, of what she wasn’t quite sure.

  As far as Gerard was concerned he and Shanice were now safe, and no matter what he had learnt his lesson from earlier playing the Good Samaritan. His neighbour had brought the infection into the bunker, and if she hadn’t have told him she was bitten she would have later died and probably infected the pair of them. He had kept this in mind when a group of neighbours climbed into the back garden seeking refuse, they had disposed of the two zombies in the garden then proceeded to bang on the door and beg Gerard to let them in. There were five of them all together, they didn’t take kindly to the bible basher refusing them entry and they decided to draw the older man out, they would deal with him quickly, evict his little girl, and then they would take over the bunker for themselves. It had not taken them long to hatch their plan, they stuffed the two air filters protruding from the ground with some of their clothes. They waited for an hour, and like most groups of young men, they easily bored. One of the men then decided to speed things up by lighting the clothes that were stuffed into the filters.