Day Zed: The Outbreak

by Smith, Charles

  After a few minutes the young police officer returned to the desk, accompanied by two colleagues, the young officer introduced Penny to his colleagues, and then one of them asked

  “How many people were trying to attack you Penny?

  “Just my boyfriend”

  “When we arrived there was six of them, and it definitely wasn’t rabies, they looked more like zombies, some of them looked like they were dead” stated the policeman.

  Dave stood there with his mouth unable to form words, Penny had been telling the truth.

  “So what are you doing about it?” Dave challenged the officer.

  “There are multiple reports coming in across the country sir, we have been told to close the station and form a task force for a quarantine zone.”

  “What about helping the people out there now, and dealing with the problem?”

  “Sorry sir, we have our orders, and they state that we cannot help locally” the officer stated.

  Dave looked at Penny, it was obvious that the police would not intervene, and if that was the case whatever virus they were fighting against, it was going to spread very quickly if it was left unchecked.

  “Dave, will you take me to my parent’s house in Hackney?” Penny asked him then added

  “My father is in the cabinet, he will know what is happening”

  Without thinking Dave headed out the door with his keys in hand, before looking over his shoulder to say to Penny.

  “Come on then, let’s get going” he called back to Penny.

  The pair climbed into the car, and this time Penny climbed into the passenger seat rather than the back. Dave Potts had been a taxi driver for the last year, and after trying both the night and day shifts over that period, he had decided to stick with the night shifts. Being a single man, and aged thirty three years old, he had no family of his own to support, and he had lived on his own for some time. It was not an inconvenience for him to be working the night shift, as he preferred it; he had found that the nights were more interesting than the daytime shifts. Now as he drove to Hackney, conversing with Penny, he wondered if he would have time to regret this choice, and if he should have worked a normal day job like his friends, settled down with someone, and raised a family.

  As they drove Penny had began to open up, and she sobbed at the loss of her boyfriend, she sobbed at the terrible demise of their cat, she then realised that she didn’t even know if “Tiddles” had survived. Throughout all of the tears Dave listened, letting her grieve in her own way, all he could do was be there, as a shoulder to cry on. When she seemed to have got what she needed to out of her system she began to ask about his life, seemingly generally interested to hear his life story. Penny had been surprised that Dave was not already married, he was a good looking man, with a physique to match, he certainly didn’t have the physique of a taxi driver, and when Penny had told him this he laughed, before telling her that his previous job had been that of a personal trainer. After he has told his life story the talk became more sombre and they discussed zombie films, how they had really come to life, and how the world would deal with them. Of every zombie film they had watched there was never a happy ending, the world was always cursed, and day to day living was always just about survival.

  Penny truly believed that the authorities would get it right and prevail, whilst Dave was more cynical, after what had happened at the police station that had only made his belief stronger. Penny argued that the police were probably following terrorist chemical weapon attack protocols, and that they had been trained on how to deal with outbreak diseases.

  Dave had decided to make most of the journey down the long the arterial road that would take them all the way through to Ilford, before having to turn off. He surmised that soon, when the news broke out of areas suffering from zombie attacks, that the roads would all be bottle necked, with congestion as people tried to flee. So far the area that they had travelled through had been relatively quiet. Dave pulled into a service station in order to fill the petrol tank to the top; he climbed out and began to fill the car. Penny had suggested that she cross the road and visit the twenty four hour fast food chain, so that she could use their toilet, and get them both a coffee, Dave needed caffeine, and had no qualms with Penny’s decision.

  After filling the tank and paying Dave sat with the engine idling, and waited for Penny to return. To kill a bit of time he switched on the radio, and after clicking every preset button found that they were not working. He then spent some time manually scanning for a frequency, and this too proved fruitless. Pulling out his smart phone he saw that he had no signal, he thought to himself that maybe the government had ordered everything shut down to prevent a panic. Penny would just accuse him of conspiracy theorising again and laugh when she returned, and he thought better of mentioning his thought. He would keep it simple and get her to scan for a station as they drove.

  Dave watched as Penny exited the fast food chain and was careful as she crossed the road, she carried two cups of coffee in a cardboard carrier and a small brown paper bag with food in it. To look at her now, he wouldn’t have believed what she had been through tonight. She had purchased a brush from the service station, and then had taken the time, to brush her long dark hair back, and plait it. She had obviously freshened herself up, with a face rinse, and even though she had no makeup on she looked absolutely beautiful, it was this moment that made Dave’s mind up that wherever Penny went from now he would follow, until she did not want him to any more, he would do whatever he could to protect the woman. After Penny had got back into the car she had handed Dave a burger and a coffee, Penny sat quietly whilst that ate, she was worried that although she had just lost her boyfriend, she was starting to get feelings about the man who sat with her in the car, she could not decide if it was the security of having Dave with her or just the fact that she was grieving for Simon and looking for Dave to console her. Either way she knew deep down she had been lucky to have met him this crazy night, and secretly hoped that he would stick around once they reached her parents house.

  1st July, Hackney, London, 3:37am

  The drive had not taken Dave and Penny too long from the service station, Dave’s plan of sticking to the arterial roads and dual carriages, for most of the journey had been the right one. Whilst they drove Penny had not managed to find one radio frequency that worked, and Dave still had no signal on his phone. If the government had gone to the extreme of taking control of the radio stations so early, and blocking mobile networks, they must have also blocked the television channels, and disabled internet connections. Whoever had made this decision had to be brave, it could back fire if the contagion was dealt with, and the people thought they had the right to know. For now Dave was thankful, as he knew the roads would have already been congested if the news had leaked.

  It would take some time to set up an effective quarantine zone, and that task would have been impossible if panic spread, would they have time to conduct the required research and testing to formulate an antidote? Dave did not think so, all of the films he had watched involving contagions always resulted in the doctors telling people they would need months to perfect one. When the bird flu and swine flu made headlines not so long ago, one thing was for sure, there was no cure as such. The big question was once quarantine zones were implemented, how many people would already be infected? How many would die? Dave knew that some of these questions could be answered by Penny’s father and he was looking forward to meeting him, and hearing the governments view on the virus.

  They were just nearing Homerton high street, when they heard sirens filling the air around them, seconds later the flashing lights appeared behind them, and Dave instinctively pulled to the side to allow them to pass. Two police cars sped past, they were swiftly followed by a police dog unit, and an ambulance.

  “Looks like some of the police stayed behind to help out, at least” commented Dave.

  Penny nodded at the comment, as she watched further up the road, where the eme
rgency services had stopped. It looked like there was a body lying in the road ahead of them, and to the right of the body two figures stumbled along towards the flashing lights. The two figures appeared to be severely intoxicated, as they half walked, and half stumbled towards the police cordon, Penny felt dread building up in her stomach, she knew that she wasn’t watching drunks coming home from a club. They wound down the windows of the taxi, and could hear the police officer directing warnings at the two figures that stumbled towards them

  “Stay where you are, if you come any closer we will use the dogs, and any force that is necessary”.

  The officer continued

  “Stop, Stop now, and lie down with your hands behind your head”

  The two figures continued to approach, and they were now just thirty meters from the police. Not quite sure what was happening, Dave and Penny had felt compelled to exit the taxi, and move a bit closer to see what was to unfold before them. Dave gave Penny a nudge, and pointed at the previously prone body, it had started to sit up, all be it very slowly, as if it was being controlled by invisible wires held from above by a giant puppeteer.

  “Dave we have got to go” Penny pleaded.

  Her suspicions had been correct, this was no ordinary accident.

  “What wrong Penny” Dave asked.

  “Just get in the car please, it’s happening again” Penny retorted back as she grabbed for the door handle.

  Dave looked back as the police officer let the dog free from its leash. The Alsatian charged forward, aiming directly at its target, it locked its teeth on the nearest of the approaching figures leg, and began to shake at it violently, whilst it was trapped in the vice like grip of its jaw. This procedure would guarantee through both pain, and shock to disable any normal human assailant, they would crumple to the ground within seconds, screaming in pain, and pleading for the dog to be retrieved. Whatever the Alsatian now wrestled with clearly wasn’t human, immediately it was apparent that the figure was not suffering from pain, and it didn’t fear the dog, the figure was actually trying to attack the dog back. The dog was so busy attempting to subdue the first zombie, that it had not noticed that the other was now upon it, and had dropped to its knee’s at the back of the dog, and it bent down, and then sunk its teeth into the Alsatians back.

  “What the fuck? Get away from my dog, you sick bastard” screamed the handler.

  The handler now rushed at the two zombies to help his partner, who he had personally reared from a pup. The dog was now being bitten by both of the zombies, and the third previously prone one had now reached the group and was bending down upon the stricken dog, to start feeding itself. Dave stood routed to the spot by total shock, and his brain struggling to comprehend what he was now watching unfold before him. The handler had now reached his dog; he had extended his steel baton ready, instantly he began to set about dispersing the zombies exactly as he had been trained. Two blows to the legs had no effect on the first, a further strike to the chest, and then to the zombies back gained its attention, but it didn’t go down, it wasn’t in pain. The handler was now in trouble, all three zombies turned their full attention to him, and began to claw, and grasp at his legs. The Alsatian sensed its chance to escape and began to crawl in the opposite direction, it had been badly injured, and the virus already flowed through its veins.

  Four other policemen now rushed in to try and help the handler, blows now rained down from five batons, and this time not the way they were trained, strikes to the shoulder blades, and neck pushed the zombies back, yet still they would not go down. Screams from the officers could be heard, as they battled the infected, and every now and then one of them got bit. The handler made one devastating strike across one of the zombie’s heads; it was like smashing an over ripe pumpkin, with a sledgehammer. Immediately the cadaver collapsed, and after seeing a way of stopping these creatures, the police quickly put them down for good.

  Now the area was safe the paramedics attending the scene quickly set about dressing wounds. Of the five officers involved in the struggle, four had sustained bite wounds in just a ten minute period. One of those was the handler who had retrieved his dying dog from the bushes, he cried as he placed the dog in its pen in the rear of the van. Dave looked at the commotion in front of him, he noted the dog was near to death after being bitten, and then he looked back at the four bitten officers, all four of them were starting to look ill, and it wasn’t just shock. The officers that had been bitten more than once seemed to be sicker than the others. Dave climbed back into the car looked into Penny’s face and said

  “We better get to your folks as quick as we can, the way that virus is spreading we are in big trouble”.

  They drove off glancing at the injured men as they went past wondering how long they had left to live

  , and how long it would be, before they themselves would be spreading the virus and attacking people.

  1st July, Queens Hospital, Romford, Essex, 4:00am

  Over the last two hours the accident and emergency ward had seen a high level of patient’s nursing infected bite wounds, many of those attending the ward were then admitted due to the high level of infection that they were suffering from. Those that had been admitted earlier were now in a critical condition, Doctors on duty were now trying to ascertain exactly what sort of infection they were dealing with, as it was so deadly, that it would soon be claiming lives.

  So far the hospital had taken in forty one cases of people wounded by bite marks, a further twenty three had been severe infection cases that had been brought in by ambulance, earlier in the morning. After checking patient’s details, hospital staff discovered a link between the admission’s that had been brought in by ambulance, worryingly all twenty three patients worked at Stansted airport, although for all different companies, and they lived in different regions of Essex. With evidence that they were dealing with a highly contagious virus, that would appear to originate from the Airport these findings had been immediately forwarded to the required authorities, who were now in the process of conducting an immediate investigation.

  Over the next quarter of an hour doctors fought bravely to save the twenty three Stansted passengers, they were fighting a losing battle, everything they tried in terms of medication had no effect against the virus, they had administered morphine to each of the infected just to try and subdue the pain they suffered from. The first of these poor souls was pronounced dead at quarter past four, and within the next ten minutes they lost six more, one by one the patient’s were dying, as if the virus inside of them had been running by timetable. Within twenty minutes all twenty three had passed away. Each body was, rushed down to the morgue, and sealed in an area so that the virus could not spread. With no time to mourn for the lost patients the medical staff now set about helping the bitten patients.

  One Doctor on duty that evening Atwal Rakman was a specialist in disease control, and tropical diseases, since the first admission that night he had been very busy. A colleague had asked him to take a look at the first of the Stansted passengers, a diagnosis by the Doctor had confirmed that the patient was suffering from a super virus, and until he could narrow it down to which one he would not know how to properly treat it. Instructing his colleague to administer Morphine and to keep the patient on a Saline solution until he could come back with the correct treatment was the only advice he could give him. Testing on blood began straightaway, and Atwal couldn’t believe what microscope slides revealed, the virus was literally infecting and killing every cell. Looking through reference books to find a similar disease proved fruitless, and Atwal had to concede that whatever this virus was, or where it had originated from, it was new, no one had ever come across a disease this devastating. Atwal bombarded all the test slides with every known medicine to man, nothing affected the virus, not even slowing it down. Further blood tests taken from other Stansted patient’s showed they were all suffering from exactly the same virus.

  On a hunch Atwal had taken blood from some of the bitten p
atients, although the virus appeared to be the same it travelled through the blood system much quicker than the virus in the patients that didn’t have bite wounds. The one thing that intrigued Atwal at what time did the infected bite, as everyone of the twenty three had been bed ridden ever since their admittance. Medical staff where now trying to care for the bitten patients, such was the hospitals concern of the virus they had emptied two wards on the same floor and this is where they were now interned. One particular patient had been bitten several times, and his decline had been the most rapid, for some time his body had been racked by several seizures, and to protect him staff had secured him to the bed with bindings. Still bound the unnamed man passed away after a heart attack, and despite medical staff doing their best to resuscitate him, it was all in vain. The time of death was recorded at four thirty seven

  A porter then wheeled the body to the lift, entering the lift the porter pressed the button for basement two, where the morgue was situated, the doors slid closed. The lift began its short journey to the bottom of the shaft, and the morgue. Once the lift reached its destination the porter wheeled the gurney down the short corridor, with his hand hovering above the electronic keypad he was about to type in the pin code to release the security bars locking the double doors sealed shut, when there was a large bang, he moved to look through the reinforced glass window, and took a second for the sight in front of him to register with his mind. Instead of twenty three dead patients on gurneys, there were twenty three zombies clambering over each other to get to the front of the room, and more importantly to get out. The porter backed away bumping into the gurney he had brought down in the elevator, turning he rested his hands on the bars to the bed, he screamed as the deceased patients eyelids opened, it tried to sit up, but could not move past the restraints, as it struggled with the straps, it moaned, and hissed, whilst it teeth snapped together.