by David Whaley
Just then, there was a clink of metal coming from within, the other side of the door, and Leon turned off his torch moving back along with the others. It was unknown to them exactly what would be on the other side. The fact that zombies had mutated to learn how to open thick doors had been one consideration, though a suggestion from Devlin.
The doors opened slowly and a figure appeared in the crack between them. A faint glow emitted from his aura that soon became evident that it was the oil lamp in his possession causing it.
“Who the hell are you,” said Leon discovering a fellow human was amongst them. “Nobody should be down here.”
“Indeed, that’s correct,” said the man. “This begs for the question to be asked as to why you are here?”
The man was in his late thirties, scruffy uneven beard, sweaty and dirty whilst speaking with caution in his voice but also demanding attention. His hair was like his beard and the entire ensemble resembled someone caveman-like. He wore a vest and suit trousers as dusty as his face was and torn at one knee. Once smartly shined shoes had become scuffed and worn down.
“Never mind about us, we are the police. Who are you?” asserted Natalie.
“I, my dear, am the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”
Chapter 33
“My god, I thought you were dead… or turned,” said Leon, stunned by the prime ministers appearance. He was barely recognisable.
“Yeah, me too,” added Devlin.
“Well I’m not.” The prime minister had a look of weariness about him, looking past his guests from time to time to see if a zombie had followed them in. Eventually, he satisfied himself that the stone door was closed enough to prevent a compromising position. “I assume that you want information?”
“That’s right, Mr Stevens, sir,” said Natalie correctly addressing the leader.
“Please, call me Jack.” Jack Stevens waved his hand indicating that the land he once led was no longer his. “It seems that hierarchy is a pointless exercise given the current climate. Follow me.”
Jack led the group along a narrow corridor that forked at times. He seemed to know exactly where he was going and felt it necessary to give them a history lesson.
“This building was built in 1603 by, believe it or not, British builders. It’s original purpose was to house prisoners involved in many criminal activities that tended to be the more serious of crimes.”
As they ventured deeper, torches lined the walls in forms of artificial light where once hung their flaming alternatives. Rooms were blocked by iron grills that acted as doors being the real definition of being behind bars.
“What about the tower of London?” asked Leon. “Wasn’t that the sole purpose for it being founded in 1078 or something near that?”
“My boy, you know your history. This structure was merely a stepping stone before they entered the tower. This would have been the prisoners’ first placement. However, the towers sole purpose was not as a prison, but a royal residence. Not many people know that. In 1952 this structure was to be used no more, along with the tower, and in 1969 this place became the archives storage house.”
They took a left fork where, at the end of an even narrower corridor was a large room with canned foods stored in one corner and bottles of water in another. The room stank and Natalie found herself wondering where exactly the toilet was. She quickly ignored this thought.
“So, what information do you seek?” said the prime minister.
“Anything you can tell us. We were hoping that there would be some documents detailing how soon the government knew about it, what was done to try and prevent it and any information that can help us stop it.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no documents on such things. There is only me. We knew about it the moment a DVD arrived at number ten-”
“That’s the DVD created by The British Equivalent isn’t it?” interrupted Natalie.
“Why, yes it is. You have been doing your homework. In truth, we knew about it a few days before but didn’t realise it was linked. People were falling ill and we genuinely thought it was a new strain of the flu that initially seemed harmless. Then the DVD arrived and we knew we were dealing with something more dire. Though, the guy in the DVD said that what they had introduced was non lethal. Apparently, he lied.”
“He didn’t,” said Leon. “The British Equivalent was used as bait to introduce the virus for another reason. Somebody hired them on the guise that they too had an interest in getting the army out of Iraq. They lied, not Derek.”
“Derek? You have been busy. He has a name now? My security team knew and thought it best to tell me little whilst I dealt with more pressing matters.”
“With respect, Mr Prime Minister, can you stop pointing out what we have done and give us the information.” Natalie surprised herself that she had the gumf to say something so bluntly to a leader.
“My apologies, dear. Well, the British government had a contingency plan in place, just in case anything like this happened. I drew it up myself and people thought I was crazy. They didn’t call me that to my face but I could see it in the way they were looking at me.”
“So, what happened with the plan?” Natalie said whilst the others wondered.
“The plan was to contain the initial outbreak, screen everyone for signs of infection and dispose of those that were infected with the zombie virus. That was the plan, but by the time we realised exactly what was happening, it was too late. Nobody could predict how fast the virus spread.” The Prime Minister ran a hand over his face, truly sorry for not being able to protect the British public.
“We understand, sir,” reassured Leon. “Is there anything you can tell us about what we should do next?”
“The DVD was postmarked to a post office in Cheshunt. We pulled the CCTV and identified a man with a criminal history as long as your arm, all low level offences, and he was brought in for questioning. He coughed like a trooper in the interview room and coughed to sending the DVD. He said that he was paid to post it, handsomely aswell. Some guy in a silvery suit apparently paid him. There was an address he was told to collect it from”
Jack Stevens wrote the address on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to Natalie. It was an address also in Cheshunt.
“The investigation ended before that address could be visited.”
“Why did the investigation end,” asked Natalie.
“This happened. The streets were teeming with the evil undead. It was too late and I fled to this place ordering the guards outside to protect me. I heard their screams whilst I hid in here.” There was a look of sincere regret in his eyes, another hand wiping his face.
“What was the chap’s name you picked up and interviewed?” said Leon.
“It doesn’t matter. He hung himself with his shirt in his cell. He is dead. The investigating officers were satisfied that he had told them everything, especially when they threatened a terrorism charge against him.”
“Is there anything else, sir?” asked Natalie.
“No, that’s all I know. The only document around here is my contingency plan for a zombie attack. It seems pointless taking it now but it’s in the room down the other fork in the path if you want it. Feel free to have a look around and then leave. I deserve to be alone.”
The group decided to argue with him to come with them after they had searched the archive rooms and set off in search.
They retraced their previous steps back to the last fork in the tunnel and took the opposite path as directed by the Prime Minister. The corridor widened, unlike the others, and was far longer with many rooms leading off with glass cabinets, an effort to preserve the older documents, and metal filing cabinets.
They searched for the obvious as to which room they would be better off searching and settled on the oak wooden door labelled: classified.
Leon pushed the door open, not raising his firearm, a mistake in its own right. Breathing out towards them was a horrible grotesque figure. Maggots in it
s mouth, a decomposed arm clawing the air and it let out a deafening sound, not a moan but a scream.
Chapter 34
The zombie lunged forward, Leon’s Glock rattling along the floor behind them as it fell to the ground. Only Leon’s forearm prevented him being bitten in the neck.
Leon punched it several times to the torso and tried once for the head but found he couldn’t get the angle to hit it hard enough.
The zombie pushed and Leon’s forearm came closer to him as the zombie started to overpower.
“Take this fuckbag,” said Devlin crouching and aiming his gun at the zombies head, just so, that the bullet would travel the length of its body. His intention was to avoid injuring Leon.
Devlin fired a single shot but the zombie jumped behind all of them avoiding the fatality and instantly ran at him.
Devlin and Natalie fired and it jumped again crawling across the walls. They followed the zombie and its new found abilities with a trail of bullets as it moved. Every one missed.
“Fuck! There’s only one and we can’t kill it,” said Devlin.
“Keep trying,” said Natalie.
The zombie jumped from wall to wall along the corridor turning as it got too far away as not to lose sight of its targets. Then it crawled across the stone ceiling.
Leon had returned to his feet and tried to find his gun to assist but it was nowhere to be found. He kept his eyes glued to the ground relying on his peripherals to tell him the position of the cat-like zombie.
The click of the chamber in Devlin’s Glock indicated that he was out of ammunition followed two shots later by Natalie’s. They didn’t have time to reload.
The zombie seemed to realise what had happened and jumped back to Earth before them both, Leon still searching the floor behind it and Heather not far off but armed with a plan. Her plan came just in time as the zombie let out another high pitched scream causing its two targets eyes to crinkle in displeasure.
Heather raised her arm with the zombies back to her and pointed Leon’s gun, just as he gave up the search for it, and she fired repeatedly four rounds.
One bullet hit it in he shoulder that ricocheted back towards her narrowly missing. She didn’t flinch at the projectile rebounding off the clavicle. Another hit it in the backside and another missed. It was the final shot that was fatal blasting through the skull embedding the bullet layered with white and grey matter, otherwise known collectively as brain matter, into the stone wall at a shallow depth.
Leon admired her overall shooting method. Heather had chosen a position to stand that was out of its view but angled enough to prevent accidentally shooting either Devlin or Natalie. Her stance was evenly balanced and her accuracy left a lot to be desired but she did the job nonetheless.
Heather handed Leon back his firearm, slightly shaken but coping with her first kill. It was made easier that the man had no longer been human.
“You alright, Hev?” asked Leon.
Heather nodded that she was okay but didn’t speak. This was not caused by choosing not to but through not being able to.
“They are getting fucking quicker and since when did they start imitating Spiderman?” said Devlin.
“They are also more vocal. Not able to make out words but I had only ever heard them moan or groan before,” said Natalie.
“They are still mutating. I would say this one was driven by hunger,” said Heather finding her voice. “Look at his clothes. He’s in uniform, perhaps one of the security guards that had been guarding outside. Maybe he got bitten and knew his fate. Say he came in here and locked himself away to prevent himself from killing, or turning anyone, his last act of public service.”
“They are also getting stronger,” added Leon. “My arm was about ready to give up when Devlin shot at it. If he hadn’t… well you would all be fighting me right about now.”
The four thought for a moment, reflecting on the event that had momentarily occurred. They assessed their chances of survival, something they hadn’t fully completed on previous moments of cogitation, and deemed it to be slim considering the levels of mutation working against them that only increased the enemies’ advantage.
“We need to continue,” Natalie said bringing everyone back to thinking about what laid immediately before them.
The group entered the classified documents room with reloaded Glocks and scanned the room.
The room was open plan with few hiding places for any remaining zombies. Although they checked these potential areas, they knew they wouldn’t find anything as Heather’s theory made sense. There were more glass cabinets preserving old documents and box files on shelves housing ones similarly as old, the files also preserving these.
With all the Glocks replaced in their holsters, they set about searching. Leon searched the glass cabinets, Natalie the box files, whilst Devlin and Heather searched through dockets of files in yet more filing cabinets.
Scattered around the room in what seemed like no particular order were various interesting documents that, if they weren’t in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, they would consider as being an interesting read. In any normal circumstance they wouldn’t have been allowed in to get this far.
Scanning the titles, there were papers on shared information with the United States of America regarding area 51 with mention of aliens including alleged crash landing investigations within the United Kingdom. There was also information on believed alien technology having been discovered. On the other side of the room they found the contingency plan for a zombie attack as detailed by the Prime Minister which Leon flicked through to ensure that he had told them everything about it which he had.
Natalie paused on a box file with a brief descriptive label on the front and immediately opened it to scan the contents. Although she had said to examine the documents away from the site, she knew all too well that plans could change and the Prime Minister may need questioning further.
Inside, there was information of a new organisation founded only a year ago called: Preternatural Investigative Unit. Their duties were to investigate all sorts of abnormal allegations or reports listed as zombie encounters/sightings, alien encounters/sightings, living AI attacks and miscellaneous. Miscellaneous was defined within the first page as being threats to the UK from previously undiscovered materials and/or life forms.
The document went on to say that the identity of all agents known to them will be classified and therefore not included within the transcript. Only one person knows the identity of the small quantity of agents working for them being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Natalie worked out the date of Jack Stevens’ tenure so far in power and realised that the organisation had been formed prior to him taking control but the document had that covered stating that there would be a full and unrecorded handover between the outgoing and incoming leader who will be unaccompanied during the meeting.
There was nothing else of interest to them and they headed back out to the Prime Minister, Natalie with the box file tucked under her arm. They found him eating a tin of canned peaches.
“Sir, were you ever going to tell us about the Preternatural Investigative Unit?” asked Natalie. She couldn’t bring herself to call him Jack.
“I didn’t see the point. They were largely unsuccessful without a single proved case,” he said with a mouthful of peaches, syrup dripping from his mouth similarly to blood from a zombies. “What is it you want to know?”
“Were there ever any zombie reports?”
“There was only a few, but it was found to be a simpler case, that of a cannibal. A live person eating other live people who are not exactly what I would call a zombie.”
“Where are the agents now?”
“Dead.”
“All of them?”
“All but one. Yet, I still assume she is dead. One of the agents just dropped off the grid. They were all sent in as soon as I heard about the first few attacks and thought that it was more than just some angry people having a fight. T
he victims had bite marks and then they too became aggressive. Anyway, they were sent to investigate and during that investigation their bodies were discovered either dead or undead, but not living. Sarah Dunton just vanished. I assumed she had turned into one of them and ventured off somewhere. Shame though because she had a good heart.”
Natalie got excited by the introduction of Sarah but the others couldn’t figure out why. It caused her to ask a question the others thought was unusual, unlikely they had come into contact with this agent judging by the amount of zombies that roamed the streets of London.
“Describe her.”
“About average height for a woman I suppose and a darker shade of blonde hair that I’ve seen for a while cut just above her chin. Blue eyes from memory and I think she was in her late twenties. That’s about all I can recall.”
“You’ve done well, sir. That’s unmistakeably Bravo Two!”
Chapter 35
Devlin, Heather and Leon agreed that the description fitted Bravo Two brilliantly confirming Natalie’s suspicions that she was helping them and her silent presumption that she was working for some sort of security company.
“She’s not dead, sir. She’s working undercover,” said Natalie.
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve met her. She is working for the enemy but has helped us out a few times and wants to do more but can’t. She is constantly being watched.”
“Who does she work for?”
“A cell that apparently call themselves The Takeover. She has been infected but in a way that doesn’t transform her to a zombie-“
“Animation,” corrected Heather.
“Sorry, animation. But she has got speed and strength as her increased abilities. We’ve seen it.”
“Well I’ll be damned.”
“We’ll meet her again soon enough, I’m sure. Hopefully in a situation where she can tell us more.”
“I’m sure you will. You guys seem determined enough.”