The Good, The Bad & The Dead | Book 1 | Once Upon A Time In An Undead World

by Grimes, A. L.

  ‘You have secured the place well,’ said Frank. ‘What’s beyond these walls and the barricades?’

  ‘Just more houses and a road that snakes back to the motorway,’ replied Mickey.

  ‘How long is it?’ Mickey shrugged his shoulders. ‘Should we go and find out?’ he asked.

  Frank, Miles and Mickey boarded the Land Rover. Frank had told Amy and Jack to stay with the group until he got back. She protested but he said he would be a few minutes. They set off and Mickey motioned for the barriers to be opened, they eased through.

  Adam stood in the garden looking at his father’s memorial. Juanita watched him through the window. ‘I’m sorry that you died dad,’ he said to the mound of freshly dug earth. ‘I will do everything I can to keep mum safe.’ He didn’t really know what to say, he just felt he had to say something respectful.

  ‘I know you only ever wanted the best for me and that’s why you pushed me hard, I’m grateful for that. Mum always said you’d be found dead in the cricket club.’ He gave a sad smile. ‘We had some good times in there, and I was proud when we played alongside each other.’ He was starting to struggle with his words. He stood silent for a moment, it was beginning to rain again – and then the screaming began.

  *

  Frank had travelled less than half a mile through the barricade when they had to stop. They had come to another intersection further along. To the left ran a road back up to the motorway junction. Frank could see a group of dead about one hundred strong heading towards them, that worried him but not as much as the horde that was straight on. He didn’t fancy staying to get a head count, but the bigger group looked four times bigger than the other one and in a few minutes they would merge together.

  ‘Fuck,’ said Mickey. It was really all that needed to be said.

  ‘We need to evacuate the people, we won’t be able to handle this lot,’ said Frank.

  ‘I could encircle all the vehicles to form a ring and then pick them off,’ said Mickey.

  ‘You’ll get tired, they won’t,’ said Frank. Besides all the noise will just attract more of them. You need to get out.’

  ‘Aye, you’re right,’ he conceded.

  Frank turned the Rover around and headed back.

  *

  As the army of dead had been advancing from the bottom of the estate, a small group of about thirty dead were testing the defences at the top. Later, Frank couldn’t rule out a coordinated attack, ‘Clever bastards,’ were his exact words.

  The guy manning the top defences decided to play the hero when the first few dead had rounded the corner. Instead of calling for back up, he opened the defences and ventured out. When he was taken down his friend raced out to the rescue and was also eaten. The barricade was open and the dead marched through. The scream that Adam heard was from Jack. His scream set off a series of screams and in all the confusion the dead advanced. Amy reacted first.

  By the time she had killed the first three dead people to cross her path, Juanita and Adam had arrived. Others joined in the fight and they pushed the dead back. Frank had been right; the noise of battle had attracted more. Slowly, the estate was becoming surrounded by the dead.

  *

  Monroe had been roaming freely when the dead attacked. Her nose had taken her through the bushes and into the next encampment. As she forced her way through, she startled a black cat that looked like a miniature panther, it sprang in the air and hissed. Monroe continued to plod on while the cat stalked about. The only time she ever showed any real urgency in her life was when she was chasing a ball. She stopped and sniffed the air; her low growl was enough to send the cat skittering away. She could smell the dead. Her senses told her that danger was close by, she headed back through the bushes.

  The dead hand brushed her fur as she wandered through. She was usually slow but not this time, she darted to the side and avoided the grasp. Several of the dead followed her. She trotted into the road away from the dead. Frank was coming up the road at speed, he saw Monroe first, then the dead.

  ‘Hold on,’ he said to the passengers. The Rover smashed into the dead and pulverised them. He slammed the pedals and skidded to a halt. He jumped out of the vehicle; Monroe plodded over to him like it was just another day. He picked her up and checked her for any bites or other injuries, she thought it was play time and licked his face, then gave him the look. Thirty seconds later they were heading into the fight, Monroe was sitting on Miles’ knee.

  Frank swerved the Rover into the path of the oncoming dead. It was only a small group and he was able to decimate them with a few turns of the steering wheel. Frank stepped from the truck just as Amy smashed in the head of the last corpse.

  ‘We need to get out of here quick, no fucking around,’ he said.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Amy and Juanita simultaneously.

  ‘The dead, fucking hundreds of them,’ said Mickey.

  ‘We don’t have time to debate this,’ said Frank. ‘We need to get in the vehicles and get out of here now.’

  ‘We could stay and fight, defend our homes,’ replied Juanita.

  ‘Not this time’, said Frank. ‘There are too many, whoever stays, and fights will become part of the horde. This place will resemble a graveyard very soon, the only difference will be every dead thing will be above ground eating your neighbours.’

  ‘OK’, said Juanita. ‘Sound the retreat Mickey.’

  Mickey didn’t have a bell or a klaxon to sound off, but he had a mouth that could burst ear drums.

  The Rover was getting packed, Miles sat in the front riding shotgun, Amy, Adam and Jack squeezed themselves into the back and Monroe was perched on Amy’s knee, primed and protective.

  Frank clasped hands with Mickey. ‘Stay right behind us, I’ll lead us out onto the motorway, when we clear the dead and the road is safe, we’ll stop and regroup, okay.’

  ‘Right you are.’ replied Mickey.

  ‘And no heroics.’ said Juanita.

  ‘What me.’ he said with a wink.

  Juanita could tell the excitement for a fight was rising in him, his words were fast, and he barely paused for breath. ‘I mean it, I expect to see you when we stop. No bite marks and just the way I left you.’

  ‘Ok, ok you’re starting to sound like me ma.’

  ‘What’s a me ma?’ Asked Adam.

  ‘I think he means his mother,’ said Amy.

  ‘It looks like you could have yourself a new dad,’ said Jack with a snigger that quickly turned into a grimace as Amy’s elbow jabbed his ribs.

  ‘Now, now kids,’ said Juanita as she responded to light-hearted humour.

  ‘Kids, we’re twenty fucking five,’ shouted Adam.

  ‘Adam,’ shouted Juanita. ‘Mind your language.’

  It was Frank that interrupted before another exchange could be initiated. ‘We need to move now, good luck Mickey - see you on the other side.’ Juanita shot him a look of alarm. ‘On the other side of the motorway I mean.’

  Frank jumped into the driver’s seat and started the motor, Juanita squeezed herself into the back with the kids. Mickey got behind the wheel of his transit van as several other motors behind started their engines, they were heading the opposite way. Some of the people on both sides had decided to stay and fight. Mickey, Juanita and Frank had tried to talk sense into them without success. They believed they could hold onto what they had; it would be less than an hour before they realised they were wrong.

  Mickey didn’t have any family in this group, he had moved out of his own settlement at the age of eighteen to make his own way in the world. He didn’t agree with some of the customs, he felt he could make some adjustments if he moved away from the persuasion of parents and older brothers. Flynn was the closest thing to family, and he was sitting next to him. In the back of the van sat seven people, five adults and two kids both under the age of ten, a brother and sister. They were terrified, their parents held them while the four of them trembled together. The others, a couple of young lads who
looked up to Mickey and a red-haired woman who had taken a shine to Flynn, her husband had wanted to stay and fight, she let him.

  ‘I see Mona is in the back, does Aiden know she has gone,’ he asked.

  ‘Aye, he said if he ever claps eyes on you again, he’ll do you,’ said Flynn.

  ‘Me, what have I done to the silly prick,’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ he replied bursting into laughter.

  ‘You’re a fecking eejit, does he think I’m screwing his wife.’

  The bang on the wooden panel scared the shite out of them both. ‘I can hear you both, we can all hear you. For your information I told Aiden I felt much safer running than fighting but you both know how much of a stubborn bastard he is.’ There was a pause. ‘And I’ll have words with you later Flynn, soft shite.’

  Mona sat back down. The two younger lads looked at each other and snorted. ‘I don’t know what you two dicks are laughing at, if it wasn’t for these two kiddies, I’d break both your noses,’ she smiled at the terrified children while the adolescents cowered.

  ‘Jesus Christ Flynn,’ Mickey said in hushed tones. ‘You’ve got a right one there, she certainly lives up to her name.’

  ‘You should here her in bed.’

  Both men burst into thunderous laughter. ‘Pricks, both of them,’ said Mona.

  Epilogue

  PATIENT ZERO

  The tall serious looking scientist, the man in charge looked out from his lofty nest, protected by height and a six-inch reinforced window that didn’t ease his concerns. The impurity had been released into society days ago. He liked to think he was doing mankind a favour but in truth he liked the idea of playing God. He felt he was superior to the human race, that he had a purpose to right the wrongs that society had brought upon itself. He was egotistical, bad mannered and generally disliked by his peers and most others. His mother had liked him but she had left him six years ago. She had suffered a stroke and when her dementia had taken hold fully she couldn’t remember him.

  When Dr Leonard Coping was approached months earlier he listened with interest, he paid particular attention to the compliments. He also paid attention to the attractive blonde who did most of the talking. She uncrossed her legs at regular intervals, allowing Dr Coping to explore with his eyes and mind. Dr Coping was interested in creation and he recognised the fine specimen sitting opposite.

  ‘Where are you from my dear?’ he asked. ‘Your English is excellent but I detect a subtle accent.’

  ‘You have a fine ear, Dr,’ she replied. ‘I am what you English might call a mongrel; I have a bit of this and a bit of that in me.’

  I wouldn’t mind a bit of me inside you he thought. A sly smile crept across his lips. The woman was no mind reader but she was an accomplished reader of body language, she uncrossed her legs again. Dr Coping felt a swell in his groin.

  ‘French?’ he asked or more hoping.

  ‘Part Italian, part Swiss,’ she replied.

  The man sitting beside her grew tired at the Dr’s attempts at flirtation. ‘We both are. My partner and me were born in Naples and grew up in Geneva. We have known each other a long time’ He smiled politely but his face was telling the Dr to get back on point. The Dr wondered what he meant by partner.

  So they did and the Dr sat and listened as they told him how the people they worked for had made a huge discovery in the Arctic Circle.

  ‘Are you aware of the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station that conducts research in the Arctic?’

  ‘Of course I am.’

  ‘You are also aware of a piece of literature dating back to 1818 and relating to the creation of life from death.’

  ‘Is this some sort of joke, have the others put you up to this because if you are going to sit here and make fun of me then I can assure you I have better things to do with my valuable time.’

  Henry Fehr leaned in close to the Dr, ‘I can assure you what I am saying is no joke. I must also insist that my words do not go any further than the three of us. Am I understood?’

  ‘Are you threatening me,’ he asked.

  ‘My patients grow thin with you Dr but I am not threatening you, not yet anyway.’ There was no humour just business in his voice. ‘We are aware of your research that is disclosed publicly. We are also aware of your work that is hidden from public domain.’

  ‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ he was unsettled in his seat.

  Elizabeth Neri tossed a folder into the lap of Dr Coping. He opened it. Inside were copies of his private notes. Notes that were always locked away in a wall safe well hidden in his home. They contained pictures of dead people and some not so dead. His notes spoke about reanimation and corpses coming back to life. They didn’t speak of infection but the ones he would write in the future would.

  ‘These are just all theory and how the fuck did you get them.’

  ‘Don’t be ashamed Dr, we would like you to continue your work. In fact we are going to fund you and give you a discovery that will cause you to piss yourself with excitement.’

  ‘What…what are you saying?’

  ‘That we are going to help you create life from death.’

  ‘Who is…WE?’

  ‘I’m not sure you’d believe me even if I could tell you,’ said Henry Fehr.

  ‘What can you tell me?’ he asked.

  ‘The literature I spoke of, it wasn’t a piece of fiction. It was an extract of an instruction manual. We have the whole text intact.’

  ‘You’re telling me that Fr……’

  ‘We don’t use that name, we refer to it as Patient Zero,’ said Fehr.

  ‘You refer to a piece of text as Patient Zero?’

  Henry Fehr and Elizabeth Neri both laughed together. ‘No Dr not the text. We have the body and as soon as you are on board with our project we will transport it here from the Arctic Circle.’

  Dr Coping felt his bladder swell.

  *

  That meeting was six months ago, now he stood in his laboratory deep in the Welsh hills wondering what he had done. He thought he was going to make a discovery so huge that he would win a noble prize. Maybe a cure for dementia, slow down the aging process – not a cure but a prevention. Now he was more likely to get a hangman’s noose, he was pretty sure they would bring it back just for him.

  He didn’t know his discovery would be weaponised by his benefactors. He had allowed his ego to blind him, Elizabeth Neri hadn’t helped and she had seduced him without actually giving anything. He had been such a fool. Lust and his narcissistic nature had brought the downfall of mankind.

  Beside him stood a smaller man, bald and with a hooked nose. He looked like an evil scientist, sounded like one too. Dr Coping looked at his assistant with contempt.

  ‘Igor,’ said Dr Coping.

  ‘What?’ said Dr Brown.

  ‘That’s what you remind me of. A pathetic little follower.’

  ‘There is no need to be so insulting,’ he responded. ‘Besides that must make you the mad scientist.’

  Dr Coping scowled at him, mainly because he was right. They hadn’t seen Fehr or Neri once they had handed over their samples. Once Patient Zero had begun thawing he was able to take dead cells from the host and experiment. They explicitly warned him not to thaw the body fully. He tried electricity as a matter of interest, he decided burning flesh wasn’t one of his favourite aromas.

  He analysed the body for any dormant disease. He was shocked to find traces of the bubonic plague. The body was 200 years dead, the plague had been almost 700 years earlier. He had sat down with the realisation that maybe 200 years ago someone had attempted to recreate a walking plague. So he tested the plague. The Black Death had only recently been introduced to the body. Surely they knew he would ask why.

  When he did ask and was told nothing, he resigned. He had never had a gun pointed in his face before. His resignation was not accepted. He thought about it long and hard. The introduction of Dr Brown who spoke with a German accent raised his
suspicions as well as his eyebrows.

  Then he got it, eugenics. The world had grown, people fornicating without consequence. The human race had become a swarm of locust, consuming everything in its path and populating in great numbers. Control had been lost. What his benefactors had been looking for was a new breed of locust, one that would consume itself. If they had simply released a pandemic disease the governments would have repelled the infection quickly. They may have been a bit slow with an Ebola outbreak but after a few deaths worldwide it was contained and swiftly out of the news. People would have died but they would have repopulated. What better way to end mankind and start again. Let the people die but come back and eat their relatives and friends.

  The body hid the secrets to reanimation, the disease contained the art of death and nobody would suspect a 700-year-old disease of resurfacing. But what turns people into cannibals, that he didn’t know but somebody somewhere did. What he knew for definite was that he had helped create a new breed of creature. He didn’t think he had the authority to call it human and he didn’t really like the alternatives.

  Even though he despised Dr Brown if that was his real name he was aware that it was just the two of them now. He didn’t really know how the infection had escaped the lab but it had. He had had a team of twenty-six at the start of the project and while the numbers were still the same, twenty-four of them had died and reanimated. He hadn’t been successful in bringing back to life a 200-year-old monster but his success rate at killing his colleagues was impressive.

  He heard screams and was just quick enough to close the door to his room when the first attack happened. It didn’t take long after that. Unfortunately for him, when he slammed the door shut and locked it electronically Dr Brown had been standing in the office also. That was four days ago.

  The odour in the room was getting unbearable. The bucket in the corner was overflowing with urine and faeces, they had to piss and shit somewhere. Their clothes were stained and the body odour was almost as bad as the bucket. They were down to their final two emergency chocolate bars. Water was a premium. The room was reinforced Perspex and airtight. They could feel a slight vibration each time a dead colleague slapped their hand against the glass divide that separated them. Dr Brown had long since closed the blinds. Dr Coping had insisted he left them open so he could watch his morbid creations.