Halfway back - Bruno, Steve and Fiona's adventure against zombies that may not be zombies and the secret behind them

by Marios Amontaristos

  He opened his eyes, he took the blanket away from his face and looked around. He recognized his room. To his surprise, he didn't feel relieved but disappointed that he wasn't somewhere else. He wasn't sure where exactly. Then things started getting clear to his head, along with the headache. “So, this is how drinkers feel in the morning,” he thought, congratulating himself for avoiding heavy drinking.

  Although he had fallen on the floor quite noisily, there was no reaction from anyone and he thought that he was alone at home, only to realize that he was wrong when he saw Steve sleeping with one leg and one arm hugging the back of the couch while his face was buried between the corner that the cushions were forming.

  Bruno noticed a strange pain on his thigh every time he stepped on his right leg and he took his pants down to see what was wrong. Two holes at the external part of the thigh, brought back the voice. “Leave them alone...” Only this time it was clearer. A male voice that he had never heard before. The last thing he heard before passing out. “Fuck, someone tased me!” he realized in terror. “Son of a bitch could have killed me!”

  He looked at the watch. It was 13:20. Something was going wrong there. He went towards the fridge to get some milk, he was starving. As he poured the milk in the bowl with some cereals, another thought came to his head. “How long have I been sleeping? Why are those holes still on my thigh?” He started doubting his sanity when Fiona appeared all sleepy and grumpy and sat at the table.

  “Morning,” she half-sang, half-grunted.

  Bruno remained silent looking at her. His face looked like he wasn't going through the weirdest days of his life and a girl in the house looked like something remarkable.

  “What's wrong? Did you sleep well?” she asked.

  “I... I don't know. A lot of strange things happened.”

  “We need to get used to them. We lose time by being surprised whenever something strange happens,” Fiona said. “What strange things happened to you this time?” She scanned the table, saw what there was for breakfast and then she got up and searched for a bowl.

  “First of all, last night, when the lions came to us, someone tased me. Did you see who was next to me?” Bruno asked.

  “No, we were too busy tasing the lions. Remember? But now that you mention it...” She paused for a bit in order to think. She sat back at the table with a bowl and a spoon and she poured herself some milk.

  “Yes? What?” Bruno was hopeful that Fiona had seen the guy who had forced Bruno to call it a day earlier than the others and caused them to retreat.

  “Well, it makes sense. Someone tased you and that's why you passed out. Someone missed the target maybe?” she said, disappointing Bruno.

  “If they were shooting here,” he said as he pulled down the right part of his pants, “of course he missed the target! But I'm sure that the target was me.”

  Fiona got a bit shocked by how easily Bruno showed her himself, but for him it was only natural to show her his injuries, out of scientific interest. His need to find out what had happened to him was stronger than his shame. Fiona shook it off quickly. “You said 'he'? How do you know it was a man?” she asked.

  “Because he said 'Leave them alone' right before tasing me. I remember it well. I saw it many times in my sleep too.”

  “Hmmm... I would swear that if someone was to do something bad, it would be that bitch. Remember her?”

  “Yes, I remember her. I was there,” Bruno said.

  “So, it wasn't her,” Fiona insisted.

  “No, this voice was clearly a man's voice.”

  “Oh, if it was her, I would kick her face.”

  “So, that's why you didn't kick any face? Because it wasn't her?” Bruno said while rubbing his thigh. “By the way, why 'Leave them alone'? What was his problem?'

  “Maybe he wanted to keep the dinosaurs alive in order to study them. Did you see how all these strange people were looking with the binoculars?” Fiona answered.

  “Yes, but he didn't say anything until then. If he didn't agree, why did he come with us?” Bruno asked.

  “Because he wanted to stop us. In a way that would not be obvious. He wanted to make it look like an accident. And since you were the one giving directions, you were the one who got hit,” Fiona said.

  “But, by throwing me on the ground, he made it more dangerous for everyone. Even for himself. Why would he risk his own life?” Bruno asked, not expecting any satisfying answer this time.

  “Maybe because he is the one who did all this,” a voice coming from the living room said. Steve wasn't that much asleep after all. As he got up and walked towards the kitchen, he went on with his thought, talking in a voice around four tones lower than his normal one. “He is the one who brought everyone back to life and healed those who had problems. He did it because he wanted to reanimate the dinosaurs and everything that happened to the people was a side effect of what he did.”

  “Go back to sleep. You haven't woken up yet,” said Fiona, whose first reaction to Steve's idea, by tradition wasn't positive.

  “Do you want to tell us what you mean?” said Bruno, who didn't quite agree with the idea either, but he wanted to give a second chance to Steve, since he had had some correct theories before.

  “I don't know how he did it, if this is what you're asking. Maybe he's Jesus, maybe he used magic, maybe he has alien powers or something,” Steve said.

  “Now, that's some good scientific talk!” Fiona said.

  Bruno pulled down the right part of his pants once again. “And how about this? Why hasn't it gone away? He has run out of magic?”

  “Oh, I had forgotten about this. The police officer also had a big scratch from the lions and it wasn't showing any signs of healing when he brought us here,” Steve said, starting to waking up completely.

  “And also, the zombies next door? They are very silent. We think that they are dead. For good this time,” Fiona said, kind of worried.

  “But you can still see without glasses, right?” Bruno asked her, hoping for a positive answer.

  “Yes, I can, I can. And you? Hey! Don't grab your balls with your bare hands! We're eating here!”

  “OK, I'm not touching... Yes. It's still here. At least we get to keep the good health we gained,” Bruno said relieved with his findings.

  “Unlike a lot of people out there, whose heads went for a swim. Right?” Steve said laughing. Bruno and Fiona just looked at him without even trying to give a small pity laugh. Steve didn't bother. He finished laughing without forcing himself. “Do you want to see if the TV works?” he asked. They did. Only Bruno stayed and kept eating.

  On the screen, images of disaster. Piles of decapitated bodies all over the place, in the most central areas of Paris. Apparently, people got quickly the “Chop-Head-Throw-In-The-River” plan and with some good teamwork they had eliminated the threat which was not that much of a threat after all for those who didn't panic and followed the instructions. After about ten minutes of quite gruesome footage, there was a breaking story from the museum, where a press conference was set up and about to begin. Mr officer was there too, sitting on the table and apparently he was about to speak as well. “Bruno! Come quick! Mr officer is on TV!” Fiona said in excitement and Bruno limped quickly towards the couch.

  The museum director spoke about the effectiveness and speed of the police and their brilliant ideas to use tasers in order to minimize the casualties among the people and the animals. He praised Mr officer, AKA Antoine Blanchard, for his exceptional leadership abilities and his calm ideas that would contribute enormously to science with the study of the captured animals. That scientist lady also spoke and had some great words to say about Mr officer (at least his name became known after all) and how he took control when everyone else wouldn't dare. After that, what followed was the announcement of the museum director that they were seriously considering to rename the museum in honor of Antoine Blanchard who, of course, got promoted to the rank of Brigadier-major, which is the highest possible ra
nk in police force. Not bad for someone who one day before was a Capitaine, 8 ranks lower.

  Mr Brigadier-major spoke as well and said that he did everything that a good officer, citizen and man would do in order to help his fellow citizens in times of severe crisis. He thanked everyone for the honors he received and he said goodbye. Some extra images of many army and police officers tasing or shooting or containing the big animals, completed the puzzle of the shocking images with all the huge lizards from the past and opening widely the road for many scientific, religious and even philosophical debates. Apparently, Mr Antoine Blanchard took all the glory for himself and there was not even the slightest reference to the three brave Biology students who actually had come up with all the important ideas while there was chaos and mayhem everywhere.

  All three of them sat speechless on the couch. For some minutes, they didn't know what to think of. Bruno was disappointed and felt mistreated. He believed that they deserved at least a few words of recognition for their effort.

  Steve was thinking that he'd like to eat some corn flakes but he sensed that the others weren't happy with what they had seen and he didn't want to provoke their angry reactions. In any case, he didn't care much about it, although he had a few questions that weren't very urgent. For example, why did that scientist lady not like them at all? And why did she look like she was supporting Blanchard so obviously while she already knew that the one who was giving directions at the museum was Bruno.

  And Fiona was boiling. She had turned red in anger. She wanted to cut that woman into pieces and feed her to the dinosaurs. She was breathing heavily. She was very annoyed by Blanchard's betrayal as well and she felt extremely stupid for offering to take care of his injury. But she was determined to not let it end so easily.

  Steve got up and headed to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, he took a carton of milk, he poured some in a glass and he returned and sat in the middle of the couch. “Ummm... I can see that you are pretty upset. Is it OK if I ask why?”

  Bruno turned his head to his left and Fiona turned hers to her right. Their faces frozen, their eyes empty. It was quite creepy. Steve looked at Bruno and then looked at Fiona. All he could say was “Wh... What?”

  “Did you even understand what Mr officer said?” Fiona asked in a very scary way, with her voice changed and threatening.

  “N... not really...” Steve answered.

  One enraged summary later, Steve was even more furious than the other two. He was feeling the veins on his head pumping, he actually had a headache. He started walking around nervously with his hands moving from his waist in front of his mouth, on his forehead and then tightening in fists, as if he was grabbing two invisible ski poles and thrusting forward. He also started cursing in ways that there's no point in quoting here, although it can be said that he shouted many times the f-word. And 'fuck' as well.

  “OK, we must definitely do something about it. They can't get away with it like this. I'm telling you, I will find this stupid cop and kill him! Come on, let's go and take the weapons right now. We will go and blow his head off in the police department.” Steve wasn't joking. At the same time, probably he wasn't thinking clearly.

  “Hey, wait. We can't start moving around with weapons again. We'll have no excuse since there are no more zombies. We need to think of something else,” Bruno, who was calmer, said or at least he looked so compared to Steve.

  “I have his phone number. We can call him and ask him why he did it. Maybe he wanted to protect us from something,” Fiona said. “Let's give him the benefit of the doubt before condemning him to death.” Even though she was also angry, she was finding Steve's rage amusing, but she didn't try to provoke him much.

  “I hope that you're right. For his sake, I hope that you're right,” Steve said. He didn't sound threatening, but they didn't want to tell him so.

  Fiona took her phone and called Blanchard's number. She put it on speakerphone when it started dialing.

  “Allo, Blanchard.”

  “Bonjour Mr Blanchard. C'est moi, Fiona.”

  “Fiona! 'ow are you? Did you sleep well? Is Bruno better?”

  “Yes, just a bit in pain, because someone had tased him while we were fighting the lions. That's why he fainted.”

  “Oh, that's terrible. We must find who did it,” Blanchard responded and Bruno took a cushion and bit it in order to avoid screaming curses.

  “It's OK, don't worry. Umm, listen, we saw you on TV earlier. Congratulations on your promotion, by the way.”

  “Sank you, sank you dear. I wouldn't 'ave done it wizout your 'elp.” Blanchard's words reminded Steve of a rehearsed Oscar acceptance speech.

  “Yes, about this, why didn't you say anything about us? I mean, we did a lot of work, right? And the ideas were ours mostly.” Steve was whispering furiously “MOSTLY?” while jumping on the couch with his knees stuck on his chest.

  “Yes, yes, look ma cherie. Last night I saw that you and that little English boy, I don't remember his name...”

  “Steve. He's from Australia.”

  “Yes, whatever, you were very nervous about somesing. Let's make a deal and stop wasting each other's time, OK? I won't send officers to search why you were nervous and you won't ask me or anybody else anything more about what happened in zis case. D'accord?”

  “...”

  “Fiona?”

  “Yes, Mr officer. I'm here.”

  “It's Mr Brigadier-major now, if you don't mind.”

  “Yes, Mr Brigadier-major.”

  “Excellent. Alors, now I have to close ze phone, but if you want to come see me at ze station, you can come, OK? I think that I owe you some lunch after all. Send my regards to Bruno and the American boy.” And, simply as that, the officer that had helped them enormously and looked like he was their greatest ally, took all the glory for himself in exchange for lunch and he hang up.

  “You will be moved to the headquarters, you fucker. You won't be at the station if we come. AND I HAVE A FUCKING NAME!” Steve screamed, not knowing what to get upset with first.

  “So, what is the word for what he's doing to us?” Bruno asked.

  “Fuck over?” Steve said.

  “I think you're looking for blackmail,” Fiona said without moving her eyes that were stuck on a blank stare, her phone still loosely placed in her hand in front of her mouth.

  “Really, I want to kill him so bad that I will be sorry when he dies, only because he won't be able to suffer. I want to make him eat his own arms, I can't even describe how much pain I want to make him feel.” Steve was on an endless ranting while Bruno and Fiona were thinking what they could do.

  “You know what?” Fiona asked. “We must find who is responsible for this thing that made the zombies and the dinosaurs start moving again. And then we will be able to take our revenge.”

  “How are we gonna find him or her or it? And what are we going to do if we find out that it was not a person?” Steve asked.

  “We can begin by looking for a person and if this doesn't work out, we'll see then,” Fiona said. “So, if you had reanimated all these people and the dinosaurs, what would you do?”

  Bruno and Steve started thinking. Steve said “I would love to see my work in action.”

  “This means that you would be near the catacombs?” Fiona asked.

  “Maybe, since this is where the big outbreak took place. But this way I could be lost in the crowd and the panic and nobody would recognize me,” Steve said while rubbing his forehead. His headache was still there.

  “How about the dinosaurs?” Bruno asked while touching his hurt thigh.

  “Of course! After enjoying the humans coming back to life from, let's say, the top of a tall building, it's time to admire the dinosaurs, who took much more time to form, due to their size and that's why they bothered us last,” Fiona said, happy to be approaching a conclusion.

  “And since I would be too afraid to go near them by myself, I would prefer to do so with a team of taser-holding Biology stude
nts and their team,” Steve said. His hands were still shaking, but he this new brainstorming session had calmed him a bit.

  “And I would prefer to get rid of those annoying kids who are trying to ruin my plan, by tasing one of them after telling him to leave the dinosaurs alone!” Bruno said in a triumphant manner, as if he had given the final blow to the monster they were after. “Here's our suspect! A scientist man from the eight who came with us!”

  “Or a woman with a male voice.” Fiona said. “Are you absolutely sure that it was a man's voice?”

  “Yes, I am. I heard it many times in my sleep too. 'Leave me alone... Leave me alone...' How can I forget?” Bruno answered, annoyed by Fiona's persistence.

  “Well, you forget that you had said 'Leave them alone' earlier. So, maybe you have forgotten the voice as well,” said Fiona, who had found her chance to include that less-than-likeable lady in the list of the suspects.

  “So, where do we start?” Steve asked.

  “We start by calling an ambulance to take the bodies from Mr Simonnot's place before they stink, we prepare lunch and then we'll start looking for our suspects,” Bruno said calmly. “By the way, while the dinosaurs were forming, nobody noticed anything? It was a whole museum full of animals. It's not something you can see and say 'Oh, that's normal! I can keep walking! Nothing to see here!'”

  “Yeah, who knows? Maybe they had closed it for the public and only scientists were allowed in there,” said Steve.

  “But they hadn't said anything on the news, had they? If so, we would have heard it,” Fiona said.

  “I guess that they wanted to keep people from worrying. They did a great job. Especially those who had their heads kicked in the river, they won't worry about anything ever again,” Steve said in a cynic way, still affected by the betrayal of Antoine Blanchard, who thanks to three university students and their fast thinking, he reached the highest rank in the police forces in a matter of a few hours.