by Aline Riva
“Wait a minute!” he called out, then moments later, he opened the door in a dressing gown, as over his shoulder, Tina caught sight of Marie in his bed, turning her back as she pulled the covers up.
“Yes, Tina, what can I do for you?” David asked, his face flushing slightly.
“I'm sorry to interrupt,”she said to him, “But I've just been given the go ahead by HQ – I need you to call your people for a meeting one hour from now.”
He ran his fingers though his messed up hair.
“Why?” he asked her.
“Because HQ have requested that I gather all available personnel to assist in the final clean up of the local sector,” she replied, “This is a country wide effort and the rest of the world is doing the same – the mass distribution of the gas has taken out the majority of the hordes, but some still lurk where they may not have had adequate gas exposure from the air raids and the ground raids first time around. We need to be sure there are none left that need eradicating. We have to weed them out and we need help, if you're willing. No one has to do this. After serving in the Arctic and the contribution you all made to the use of the gas worldwide, no one would demand that you fight. But we need experienced people out there, just one more time, just to clean up the last of the corpses. What do you say, David? Do you think you and your people can help out?”
He replied instantly without hesitation:
“My answer is yes, absolutely. I can't wait to get back out there. I'm sure the others will agree too. I'll call that meeting. I don't think you'll be disappointed, Captain. We all want to get back out there, we're more than ready to do that.”
Chapter 2: The Last Mission
“After the war,” said Jason as he stood above ground looking up at winter skies and not caring about the sharpness of the air because he had missed it, “I've got it all planned out... I'm going to devote my life to assisting lovely half turned people...virus affected ladies...”
David looked at him doubtfully as he stood there waiting for the group dressed in a warm padded jacket and woollen hat. They were the first up on the surface, waiting early by the truck that would join the others containing a military unit, the plan was to leave in forty minutes, and to spend the next two days sweeping a vast area of country side, moving from the woods beyond the fields to a nearby village, then the unit would move on to the next and transport would return for them at the second village fifteen miles away, and drive them back to the base.
The meeting the day before had been brief – not one of his group had hesitated to volunteer for this, the final sweep to clean up their designated zone. This was happening all over the country and all over the world too, the final phase to wipe out the last of the undead...
David leaned against the truck, looked across a field where early morning skies were streaked with grey as sharp frost settled on the land around them, casting the sight in a silver sheen. It was now December, he had missed the Autumn and the coming of the first chills of the season being stuck underground for so long, but even though the snap in the air and the way his breath made icy clouds reminded him of the Arctic where Tara and so many others had perished, looking beyond the chill he remembered this was Britain in winter and spring would come around again... to a world that, by then, would have beaten the undead, if all went to plan...then he looked at Jason, thinking on what he had just said.
“You want to help virus victims? I can't imagine why you would want to cover the cost of putting those women into a nursing home...Or have I got it wrong? What else could you possibly do with mindless nymphomaniacs, Jason?”
On hearing those words, Jason smirked. His burns had healed well, the scarring to his face had left half of it etched with silvery lines, but his skin looked even. It was strange to see him without the mask, but the lecherous look in his eyes was nothing new...
“Exactly, David...mindless nymphos. Perfect for what I have in mind. I'm opening a strip club.”
David rolled his eyes and looked away.
“I don't want to know!”
“But women like that will be perfect for business! Stripping, lap dancing, extras for customers, they never say no. I'll be raking in the cash!”
David tore his gaze from the treeline beyond the fields and glared at him.
“Fucking pervert, you make me sick!”
“But I was just saying -”
“Yeah, just say it to Rick, please do. I'd love to see him deck you with a metal fist again!”
Jason fell silent, stepping awkwardly away to set a distance between them as David looked back to the trees hoping the others would hurry up, because he was here to fight against the undead, not to waste his energy punching Jason just to shut him up...
Far below ground, Marie was waiting by the lift that would take her to the surface. Captain Swan soon joined her, dressed in combat clothing and a thick jacket. She smiled warmly at Marie and then as Vince crossed the corridor to join them, Marie could not fail to see the way her eyes lit up and his did the same as they greeted each other.
“All set to go?” Tina Swan asked.
Vince smiled, pausing to adjust a black leather glove that covered the hand attached to his artificial arm.
“After you taking me to the shooting range for practise I'm certainly ready,” he replied, “This arm works almost as good as my real one used to!”
“Just keep your undamaged trigger hand ready at all times,” Tina reminded him.
“Already locked and loaded, Captain,” he replied, and as their eyes met, Marie looked away, smiling as she knew for certain even if they didn't yet realise it - the older Captain and the younger man were definitely falling in love. Then she looked to the clock on the corridor wall and frowned, wondering why Rick was taking so long...
“He said he'd meet us here at half past!” Marie exclaimed.
“Who did?”Vince asked.
“Rick.”
“I'm sure he won't keep us waiting too long,” the Captain replied, “He knows what time we depart.”
Marie thought of Lois and glanced at her doubtfully.
“He's probably going to spend half an hour saying goodbye to his family – Lois wouldn't have it any other way!”
The Captain checked her watch.
“He'd better not take that long, or he's left behind!” she said.
Behind the door of the best living quarters on the base, Rick was ready to leave – and would have left, if not for Lois holding him up.
“...And keep your gloves on,” she reminded him as she stood there by the door looking anxiously into his eyes, “It's freezing out there – and keep your hat on, you still get pain from that scar when you get very cold, it's December and -”
“Lois, this is not the Arctic!” he said, “I'm fine now, Please don't worry! This will be a laugh!”
She blinked.
“A laugh? This is dangerous!”
“The majority of the hordes are wiped out. This is part of the worldwide effort to take out the last of the corpses. No more hordes, Lois. Just the last few that didn't catch the direct gas exposure. This is the end of the war, what could possibly go wrong?”
She looked worried, her eyes wide as many possibilities ran through her mind.
“Lurking corpses. All it takes is one bite, Rick! You know that, you know how dangerous this is!”
As fear reflected in her eyes he placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.
“Don't worry about me, I know you can't help it after the state of me when I took Mortiz out - but that's in the past. It's me, the rest of the gang and the gas guns. It will be fine. I'll see you in two days time.”
Lois smiled.
“I have something for you...”
He quickly glanced in the direction of the other bedroom, where the curtain was closed, then looked back to Lois in alarm.
“Not now, you can't do that to me – Flossie might wake up soon!”
“No, silly – I meant, since they got the first first ph
one networks back up and running, the Captain thought we should both have one – to stay in touch with each other while you're out there and I'm here with Flossie.”
She handed him the mobile phone, he looked at it reluctantly, guessing it wouldn't be half as much fun as he had hoped on this last mission, with Lois calling and texting every five minutes...
“Thanks,” he said, putting it into the inside the pocket of his long, dark winter coat.
“And remember to check it!” she added, “When we were at the ice station, I remember when Lauren took over the radio, you had fifteen messages between the UK and Arctic HQ left pending You just forgot them!”
“I was worried about Flossie.”
“She'd already made it back by then, Lauren spent the last ninety minutes before we left catching up with everything you forgot to do!”
“I'll check the phone,” he promised, then he kissed her goodbye.
“Don't worry about me,” he reminded her, then he went over to the place where a small room was sectioned off, shifted the curtain aside and smiled down at Flossie, curled up fast asleep wrapped in the freshly washed blanket, icky stick in her hand.
“See you soon, sweetheart,” he said quietly, then he blew her a silent kiss, closed the curtain and flashed a smile to Lois.
“I'll be back soon,” he promised.
“Take care out there!” he heard Lois call, but he was already out the door and heading up the corridor to join the others, feeling fired up for one last mission to take out the remaining undead.
As the others reached the surface, David smiled to see Marie striding towards him, their gaze met and as she joined him beside the waiting truck, for a brief moment the chill of the cold snap in the air vanished. Since their last encounter she had seemed keen to repeat all that had happened between them, but as his hopes rose, they swiftly fell as again he recalled the bitter quarrels and the reason they broke up in the first place. It was strange how having everything back he had ever dreamed of, suddenly felt so unsteady as fears of a repeat of past mistakes echoed about his thoughts.
“Maybe when this is over, we can get together, take some time out with our son and try and spend family time together,” she suggested, keeping her voice down as other trucks began to fill up with soldiers and the Captain prepared to address the group.
“Maybe,” David replied.
Her smile faded as she shot him a look that was a too painful reminder of past memories.
“Maybe? There's no maybe about it, David - I thought we -”
“You thought wrong,” he told her firmly, “What happens, just...happens. I'm not making plans. Yes., we need family time for sure. But I'm not making long term plans with you, not yet. Let's remember why it went wrong before we think about making a life where we pretend we never fucked up, yeah? Because I don't know how much you suffered, but know what I went through. I have no plans on repeating mistakes of the past.”
“Me neither,” she replied, uncertainty flickering in her eyes as she wondered when David had become so protective of his own heart. Perhaps since the day she broke it, that conclusion came swiftly, but then the Captain addressed the gathered group and there was no more time for discussion.
“We have a simple route,” the Captain reminded them all, “Through the forest, the land beyond it, into the village, through there and out the other side of the forest area, then to the village beyond, we return in forty eight hours. You have enough weaponry to take out a horde, but it's unlikely that would be the case – although forest areas must be thoroughly searched. If help is needed, radio in immediately – extra troops will be sent in if available. I emphasis on the if factor. Rescue can't be provided until the forty eight hour period is up due to transport needed in other zones. Take care and be thorough, leave no dark corner uninvestigated and be watchful at all times. This is the last part of the clean up procedure. Good luck to all of us.”
Then she got into the truck parked at the back of the convoy, the same truck the civilian fighters were using, as she sat beside Vince and the others climbed in the back. Up ahead the rest of the unit were preparing to leave, each with their own officer in command as the soldiers filled the trucks. Then engines started up and the convoy pulled away towards the wire fencing as in the distance, armed guards opened up the gates. As they sped away from the underground base, the civilian fighters said nothing, each wrapped up in thoughts of how this was the last mission, and how far they had come.
As David sat beside Marie she turned her head, looking to the fields as they drove out of the gates, into the open countryside that very soon, would be safe once more. Her gaze shifted to the morning skies and the fields and rolling hillsides in the distance – at least the landscape had not been changed by the rise of the undead. This world would soon be claimed back, and some kind of normality could once again return...
David's thoughts still rested on Marie and her high hopes for their future together. As much as he was keen to strengthen ties with his son, being back where he once started with Marie was a thought that filled him a definite urge for caution. She was too keen to jump straight in and pick up where they left off – maybe she was fireproof, but he had certainly been burned from bitter experience and was loathe to endure it a second time around no matter how keen she was to rekindle the flame...
Jason's sights were set on the horizon and the goal they were headed towards. Then his thoughts shifted to after the war and money making plans and schemes.
And while the others were thinking of the task at hand, Rick looked back towards the base that was now a dark speck in the distance as he thought of Lois, then of Flossie, recalling that very soon, the antidote would be perfected and they had agreed together that Flossie should have it first, being keen to enhance her quality of life after much reassurance, they had come to that conclusion – but now the base was growing steadily further away, Rick felt a flicker of worry as he thought about Flossie and what could happen if the scientists had got it wrong. The fear was so great, all of a sudden that he wanted to jump out of the back of the truck and race back to the base... If anything happened to that little girl, he would never forgive himself... Maybe it was the distance between them, perhaps it was the thought that she might have the antidote before he returned that had done it, but as he broke out into a sweat, Rick was certain of just one thing:
He had changed his mind, he didn't want Flossie to have that antidote at all...
When the convoy reached the drop off zone at the edge of the forest, the troops disembarked along with the civilian fighters. Then each unit divided up to begin the search of the heavily shaded land where trees grew tall, their branches thick and heavy. Despite the chill of winter, although most trees stood stark and had at a distance looked like charcoal sketches closely and darkly woven together, here and there evergreen trees had long ago been planted, adding depth and shade where they towered high and wide, adding shadow and shade as the weak sunlight was swallowed by grey winter cloud. The ground was a thick bed of dead, damp leaves, some still frozen up by a scattered frost that made them brittle underfoot in the places where the damp had not turned them to sludge to join with the mud as the temperature rose a fraction, allowing the ground to thaw.
“This way,” said the Captain, and she and Vince took the lead, making their way along a path, deeper into the forest as they began the search of their designated zone.
Now they were in the woods, the lack of leaves on most of the trees made the search easier – it was clear to see nothing lurked nearby, but all the same, every member of the group kept their fingers close to the trigger of their gas guns as they ventured deeper.
As the phone vibrated in his pocket, Rick hung back away from the others, swore under his breath as he made a mental note not to grip it with his metal hand as it almost slipped from his grasp, then he saw he had a message from Lois.
“Not now...” he muttered, then he quickly hit a button and accessed it, reading the words Take care out there. He consid
ered taking the time to explain why he didn't want Flossie to have the antidote, but that would have taken way too long because Lois would have demanded he explain his reasons in detail, then she would have added her own opinion that she was certain the antidote was safe. It would have become a debate and he didn't have time for that, not now. He decided to message her later on, when they had made it to the stop off point at the chosen secured area, when he would have time to fully explain, when he could call her and speak to her instead of bothering with messages. He quickly read her message again, knowing Take Care covered so much more than that – after what had happened following the fight with Mortiz, she would never stop fearing for his safety. Bearing that in mind, he quickly gave a reply: OK will do, see you soon xxx.
Then Rick put the phone back in his pocket, in time to see the back of Jason's jacket as he disappeared into a darkened spot of the forest following the others. As they headed off, he guessed he had better catch up before he got left behind – and these woods all looked the same to him and he didn't fancy being the one who got lost on the final mission...
Rick was looking ahead as he stood there, but not above, as a shadow loomed and then the face of a decayed corpse appeared as its dead hands wrapped about the heavy branches, as the undead creature watched its prey below, preparing to strike...
A branch creaked and old wood cracked. Rick slowly looked up, straight into the snarling face of the undead corpse. It was female, wearing filthy rags and its face was twisted into a mask of starving insanity as it leapt down, slamming him to the ground as he hit mud and dry leaves with a thud and the gas gun was knocked from his reach. It gave a dry, cracked screech, its face splitting as blackened, stinking blood oozed down its dead face, the corpse's eyes blazing with hunger as he was pinned down.