Something told me that he knew a lot about the situation that I found myself in. It was in his eyes. He knew what it was like to lose almost everyone and be forced to just march on, that the more that fact was questioned by everyone else the harder it got.
I think what got me the most was the fact that it had been so sudden, finding Gabriel, getting these people, and then they were all gone.
Unknown to me then though was that me and my group were the lucky ones. Sure, they had community and stability, but they’d also just taken on someone that they had no idea would be a problem for a while yet.
Poor guys.
Public Transport Blues
“What do you mean it’s dead?” I was trying to stay calm but the situation wasn’t helping. The barely rolling hunk of junk had managed to get us just far enough away from the others that they could no longer help but then decided to conk out. Australian public transport hadn’t gotten any better during the apocalypse, which was a shock to everyone.
“It’s dead. Deceased. Gestorben.” Wolf desperately tried to get it to start again from his blocked in seat, but he wasn’t even getting the tick-tick-tick when he turned the key. He was just as frustrated as me and the others who sat in the front two rows of the bus, I knew that, but in these situations it’s normal to blame the driver, right?
Especially when you’re in a street full of zeds on the outskirts of a suburb of a city that you barely spent more than an average work-night in before z-day.
“Well get to fixing it then! At least shut the bloody door!” I shouted as I kicked another suburban teenager off the bus. I was starting to feel a lot like a real bus driver.
“That’s Marcus’ field, my job is to shoot things! And if I knew how to shut the door don’t you think I would’ve by now!?”
“Did someone say my name?” A groggy voice got out from the back of the bus.
“Marcus!” Wolf and I shouted with the elated giddiness of a pre-teen girl seeing their favourite boy-band member.
Favourite boy-band member, not favourite boy-band’s member. Perv.
He got to his feet with little difficulty and shook off and stretched away his wounds before coming to the front of the bus with the rest of us. “What’s the problem?”
“The battery’s dead.” Wolf groaned.
Mark cracked his fingers, “Ok, let’s get to work, I need two people to cover John and Kate and one of those emergency hammers.”
“Do they have an electric current or something?” I asked excitedly.
I got the look that someone gets when they ask if it’s a trick potato or a trick clock, “Um… No John. No they don’t. I just…” He gave me another look that said ‘really’ but didn’t actually say it, which I was grateful for, “We’re going to smash the rear-windscreen and you two are going to push us to the edge of the street, there’s a brief downward incline and we should be able to get a decent distance from here, at least far enough to get us away from the corpses.”
“Oh…” Everyone was giving me the stupid look now. I wanted to say ‘Sure, like you guys knew’ but decided that I’d said enough.
“Why’s the door open?” Mark asked Wolf, “Trying to make a firing line or something?”
Wolf just shook his head, clearly not wanting to say anything as to prevent the embarrassment that had been gifted to me.
Mark waited a little while for a verbal explanation, but gave up, leant on the driver’s blue barrier/gate and pushed a button clearly labelled ‘door’, resulting in, you guessed it, the doors closing.
He looked between us a few time judgementally, “Do you guys even think when I’m not here?”
“Hey! English is my second language! What’s John’s excuse?”
“How could I have seen that? Besides, English has been your second language for over eighty years! That’s not an excuse anymore!” It felt stupid bickering while zeds banged on the bus, desperate to eat our waiting flesh, but I had my pride to protect and if that meant dying then so be it.
That’s when I felt something grab my collar and start dragging me toward the back of the bus. At first I resisted, simply out of habit, then I accepted there was probably a reason whoever was dragging me was doing it.
There was.
I should’ve resisted more.
Suddenly I was being tossed out the back of the bus by Kate, let me tell you, that glass is strong, but so is she. I rolled across the road like a ragdoll and moaned. I didn’t see her jump down, I just heard the recognisable thump followed by an annoyingly cute goading.
“Oh get up. Remember our first date? Didn’t complain this much and now your ‘Mr Healing Factor’.”
I smiled into the gravel before popping up to my feet, “You say that like there’s going to be a second?” Yes, even surrounded by the undead I can be arrogantly charming.
She shrugged and rolled her eyes with a smile, “Did kind of sound like that, didn’t it?” That’s when I started to remember why I’d liked her so much.
We skipped the rest of the conversation for the time being and planted our hands on the back of the bus and started pushing. It was really quite difficult, like something was jammed up in it and it kept making the teeth-grittingly annoying sound.
“What’s caught up in the wheels!?” I groaned out as I started pushing with my back against the bus, the zeds were closing in.
Wolf called back to me, “Nothi- Oh! Sorry!”
I fell flat on my arse as the bus got away from me, Kate quickly helping me to my feet so I could help again, “What was it?” She shouted as we started pushing it along like a trolley.
“Handbrake…” Was the mumbled response.
Words cannot describe how much I wanted to have a lecture about my superiority over that. A good long one, but my arse was still hurting and we weren’t out of the woods yet.
Bitey bitey death woods that is. Didn’t look like we were far from being out though, we’d really started to pick up speed and Harry had started offering me his hand.
I shook my head and gestured over to Kate, “Her first, I’ve got this.”
He waited a few seconds and then shifted over on the back seat, reaching out for Kate who looked at me with an ‘are you sure?’ face. With a poorly coordinated nod that somehow threw my feet out of whack for a few seconds, she jumped up and Harry pulled her in before immediately returning to me.
“Hurry up! We’re almost at the drop!”
I grabbed for Harry’s hand but it was pulled from reach. Turns out I was pushing it a little bit too hard and they’d been going faster than they’d expected. Also turns out that what Mark calls a ‘brief downward incline’ is a kilometre stretch of road at a forty five degree angle.
You guys know me though, waiting isn’t really my style. I shot after that hammering wagon like it was school and hospital funding and I was a Liberal politician. It took me a few seconds but I managed to catch up with the back of the bus where Harry was waiting, his arm stretched out as far as he could.
I jumped. I caught the waiting hand.
There was a screech. I got pulled into the drifting bus.
We started rolling.
It was loud.
We stopped.
I couldn’t see.
Great With Child
The two large aliens stepped into the dark hospital. Neysor was wearing Lai’s several sizes too small lab coat while she continued on with her black under-suit.
Something about being in a place of healing turned flickering nightmare made even Neysor squirm.
But it was not the time for fear, no, it was the time to find Shenim and set about destroying that disgusting waste of life-force John Prince. ‘What did that fool ever conquer other than a bottle in order to win that title?’ Neysor pondered genuinely.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Neysor asked as he ducked through a doorway labelled ‘Oncology’.
“I’m sure, sir. Once we had made sure this place was cleansed of the infection I had Shenim
placed under guard in one of these rooms.”
The way Lai had said ‘one of these rooms’ rang alarm bells in Neysor’s mind. Did she know where she was going, or was he going to become lost in the archaic symbol of medicine? He was just about to address these concerns when they finally reached a door that had the numbers smeared out by blood, a less than promising sign to the increasingly superstitious Neysor.
“This is it.” Lai said, stating the obvious, “The beast wakes at the dawn of the red sun.” She whispered to the door.
Neysor, moments from questioning his scientist’s sanity, practically leapt from his skin when he saw the unharmed Shenim lying on a hospital bed that she barely fit upon, “Shenim!” The last syllable came out as more of a high-pitched squeal than word when he saw just how far she’d come along.
She looked about ready to birth a new star.
“You came looking for me while she was like this?” Neysor snapped as he turned to face an equally confused Lai.
“No Commander. When I left she was still in her first trimester, accelerated by maybe a month or two, this?” She said as she approached the terrified looking and still silent Shenim’s exposed bump, “It’s as if she’s six months along.”
“What does that mean Lai?” Shenim asked fearfully.
“Nothing to worry about!.. Probably. I’m sure this just means you’ll give birth sooner rather than later.”
The four helmet-less soldiers who’d been somewhat stoic since Neysor’s return had started to shift on their feet, the only thing that made them even remotely noticeable in the room of hormones and heresy, “You four,” Neysor ordered firmly, “stand guard at the door and make sure no one comes in.” and just like that they were comfortable again.
It was interesting to Neysor how well they reacted to being ordered around by someone who had all but officially lost their rank.
But Neysor had reasoning for sending them away, a reason that Shenim demanded to know before the door had even been closed, “How soon is soon.” She growled, back to her abrasive self. Neysor hoped that eventually Shenim and Lai would learn to cohabitate, well, just Shenim, but clearly today was not that day.
“Two, maybe three days.” She said without compassion as she looked over the large bump. Not a single member of the Gralari species had seen a pregnant woman in centuries and Lai felt somewhat cheated out of the experience. It was one of the few good things to come out of the gassing and she was missing the opportunity of analysing the miracle just by leaving the room.
Neysor’s mind had gone elsewhere though, “Will she be able to move?”
“Neysor!” Lai snapped, “She’s pregnant, she must be given time to-”
“It’s fine Lai, Neysor’s right, we need to find that creature, Prince. That blubbering human giant of his offered nothing of his primitive tribe before he managed to escape from me. Besides… Tell him what you told me.”
Her fluctuating attitude toward Lai was starting to show Neysor just how much the rapid pregnancy was affecting her. Mood swings were a natural part of the process, he was well aware of that fact, but going from hating Lai to being her friend in seconds was more than he’d expected.
Lai looked over Shenim’s belly one final time before sighing and turning her attention to Neysor, “I figured out how to fix the side-effects of the gas.” She paused for what would come next, “We need John’s body though.” She let out clearly upset.
Neysor knew that she wanted to stay with Shenim and make sure the birth of his child went off without any problems, but he needed to know that the child would be born into safety, something that could not happen while John Prince was still alive, especially since he’d gotten an ego the size of Titan.
“Why his body?”
Lai hesitated again, “His DNA holds the key. I do need him alive when he arrives, but after that I will have to dissect him.”
Neysor liked the sound of that, his greatest foe on the planet being slowly dismembered by his scientist, and he got to have that rematch that he wanted, “That settles it then. My child will grow on his planet without enemies or plague. Let us hunt.” He said confidently with a smile.
The Commander stood to give his final few troops their orders but was stopped as Shenim grabbed his arm and gave him an embarrassed look, a look that he could not recall her making once in all his years. Had he done something? “Yes?”
Now both her and Lai were giving him the look and Neysor was starting to feel self-conscious in the silence, “It’s just… Perhaps it would be wise to find some more fitting clothes first, my love.”
Pinned
“Guys?” I got past a pained groan, but I didn’t get a reply, “Sound off!” My inner-drill sergeant bellowed out.
Good thing too, seeing as it was the last thing I could say for the time-being.
More silence echoed back to me, my lungs were heavy and my head felt like it was a short walk from exploding, not with pain, literally.
In fact most feeling refused to return to me, as did my sense of location. I couldn’t open my eyes, I wasn’t sure why, and I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time mapping the bus out before it decided to be an asshole and try to kill me.
All I knew was that I was bent over something with something inside me, and not in the fun way.
“These things need seat belts…”
“Harry?” I choked out.
“Yeah… Yeah. It’s me… Shit! Where’s my sword!?”
At first it was comical to think of Harry looking around frantically for his prized possession after being in a bus crash, but then I realised how dangerous a sword flying around could be, “Is everyone else ok!?”
“They’re stirring, except for Wolf, I think he’s out. Where’s my Goddamn sw-! Oh… I’m sorry mate…” His voice got softer as he approached me.
“What is it? Did someone get hurt?” Panic started to swarm over me as I looked around blindly, I don’t think I could’ve handled losing someone else.
“One…” My head shifted a little as Harry started counting.
“Wha-”
“Three!” Pain flooded my head, I’m pretty sure I actually proper growled.
After a few seconds it flowed away and suddenly I could see again.
Harry was standing on the roof of the overturned bus while I looked up at him from where I was, the roof railing with my head in the aisle area. He stood there in disgust, holding his blood and flesh covered sword.
There was something else as well, it looked like an “Is that an eye-ball?”
Harry snapped his attention to the blade and, with the finesse and technique of a pre-teen girl, flicked away the hanging chunk, and nodded.
That’s when it hit me, “Is that my eye-ball!?”
It took him a few painfully long seconds to respond, “Yeaaah… It was kind of… fused?”
“That, that right there? That’s not right. That’s fifty shades of not ok.” I tried to get up, but something was holding me down, “What the- What!? Oh come on!” I said as I saw the source of my problem.
At some point I must’ve lost consciousness and my chest had become one with the metal bar, “Get someone with… actually, see if Clara’s got a crowbar.”
Harry, clearly uncomfortable with what he knew was to come, nodded and started moving through the piles of broken glass and metal toward the others who were rising shakily to their feet. They all seemed more or less ok so I returned to my attempts at freeing myself to no avail.
I tore off as much of my shirt as I could to try and get a proper look at the wound. No blood, no bruising, I was simply one with the bus.
Not as cool or fun as it sounds.
“Here you go.” Harry said, trying to hand me the short black crowbar.
“Sure, let me just Houdini my way out of this. Help me you nonce, it’s gonna be easy.”
Harry curled his lip at the thought, “No. Nope. Not doing it.”
I shrugged as best as I could, “Looks like we’re staying here then.”
>
Clara pushed past Harry and grabbed the crowbar before putting it closest to where the pole sat as she could, clearly hoping to avoid tearing as much of my rib-cage out as she could, “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” I’d barely got the last word out before she went to work. That time I knew I screamed, more squealed really.
No, I am not going to go into the grotesque detail of what turned into a five minute growling blood session. I will say Clara was pretty damn good at it. She worked it so I had time to heal before going again so I didn’t bleed out or go into shock.
Something was lingering in me as she did it though, something innate got the intense feeling that she’d had patients before, but that seemed like a question for another day.
The sensation of rapid healing was still pretty weird, but it felt good to be back on my feet again. While Clara had been helping to detach me from my position of pain the others had got Wolf out of the seat that he was strapped in to and we were all standing around in the wrong-way-up bus.
The metal was creaking and crunching, the answer was obvious, get out.
What complicated that process though was the unknown number of murderous flesh-eaters sitting just outside.
“Right. So, what’s the decision?”
“For you to put a shirt on. Is toplessness honestly a thing now?” Harry joked, getting scattered short laughs from the other guys.
“I don’t mind, you Clara?” Kate asked the still staring woman.
“Um… what? No… No, of course not… Do you control that or does it just sort of happen?”
I followed her gaze to my stiff nipples and shrugged, “I don’t know. I mean, when it’s cold it just sort of happens, isn’t that normal?”
We both looked confusedly at each other for a moment before she realised we were talking about two separate things, “Not your nipples! The healing you moron!”
The Mulligan Planet 2 (The Mulligan Planet Trilogy) Page 14