by RR Haywood
‘Keep hold of that bloody dog,’ someone shouts. Dave’s hand drops down to grip the makeshift collar on her neck. Just a leather trouser belt cut to size.
I take a deep breath, lower my eyes and get control of myself. They have a right to know.
With a stilting voice I start to explain…
Two
‘Is she okay?’
‘She seems fine,’ Lani calls back.
‘Is the blood coming through her bandages?’ Clarence asks, twisting round in his seat to look down the dark interior of the Saxon.
‘No,’ Dave answers simply.
‘See if she wants some more water,’ Blowers urges.
‘She’s got water,’ Dave replies.
‘Maybe she’s hungry,’ Cookey cuts in as he rustles in his bag, ‘here try this.’
‘You can’t give chocolate to a dog, it’s bad for them,’ Blowers says.
‘Is it?’ Cookey answers.
‘Have you got chocolate?’ Nick asks quickly, ‘I’m fucking starving and you’ve got chocolate in your bag.’
‘You’re always starving Nick,’ Cookey replies, passing the bar to Nick.
‘Ha! Cheers mate,’ Nick says gleefully ripping the wrapper off and taking a big bite.
‘Yeah share it round then Nick,’ Lani adds in a sarcastic tone.
‘Sorry, you want some?’ Nick says with a mouthful.
‘Yeah all of it,’ Lani lunges for the bar quickly pulled back with a yelp by Nick.
‘Piss off,’ Nick laughs.
‘Almost had it,’ Lani laughs.
‘So are all Alsatians immune then or just this one?’ Cookey asks.
‘German Shepherd,’ Dave says.
‘Don’t know mate,’ I call back, ‘I haven’t seen any others.’
‘So what happens now?’ Cookey continues, ‘do they like take her blood and put it in us or something?’
‘You fucking twat,’ Blowers laughs.
‘What?’ Cookey replies innocently.
‘Yeah they just inject her blood into your arm and it makes you immune,’ Blowers keeps on.
‘That’s what they do in the movies,’ Cookey huffs.
‘Unbelievable,’ Blowers chuckles.
‘Yeah so what do they do then?’ Cookey asks in a challenging tone.
‘Well, they got to…you know…do tests and stuff,’ Blowers answers with a faltering tone.
‘Yeah…you know…tests and stuff,’ Cookey says, imitating Blowers voice and getting laughs from everyone else, ‘what tests then Einstein?’
‘Well I don’t fucking know, but I know they don’t just inject her blood in you, fuck you might as well just bite her leg if that was the case.’
‘I’d like to see that,’ Tom says.
‘Piss off, the size of her! I’m not biting her leg,’ Cookey replies, ‘Mr Howie….’ He yells.
‘I don’t know either before you ask,’ I reply.
‘But you know everything.’
‘Probably something to do with anti-bodies, the dog must have anti-bodies that kill the virus, so they’ll need to work out how she does it and then create a safe vaccine using a dose of the virus already made inert by her defences,’ I reply, thinking out loud.
‘So you did know,’ Clarence mutters.
‘Just guessing, isn’t that what they do with the flu vaccine?’
‘Something like that I think,’ he replies.
‘So…they take a sample from her cells, or her body or whatever and they make a vaccine from it….then that vaccine gets given to everyone else…is that right?’ Cookey asks slowly in a loud voice.
‘Probably something like that, I don’t know…’
‘Ha in your fucking face Blowers, so they do give the dog’s blood to everyone.’
‘Oh my god,’ Blowers sighs as Lani, Tom and Nick start cracking up.
‘If all Alsatians are immune does that mean we’ve got to go and find more of them?’ Nick asks.
‘German Shepherds,’ Dave adds.
‘I don’t know,’ I reply again.
‘What happens to the dog now?’ Cookey persists.
‘I don’t bloody know mate,’ I reply with a groan.
‘No I mean where does she live? Like with us or somewhere else?’
‘I don’t….actually that’s a good question.’
‘She should stay with us,’ Lani calls out, ‘she’ll be safer.’
‘Why us?’ Tom asks.
‘We’ve got Dave and Clarence,’ she replies matter of fact.
‘Oh…fair one,’ Tom replies.
‘That’s a good point,’ I say to Clarence.
‘But the medics will want her for tests and stuff,’ Clarence replies.
‘Only to take samples, other than that she should stay with us.’
‘That would mean we stay in the fort then, we can’t afford to take her outside with us.’
‘Then we’ll have to stay in the fort, someone else can go out for supplies,’ I reply.
‘Not in our Saxon though,’ Blowers cuts in quickly.
‘This is our vehicle,’ Nick adds forcefully.
‘Er…who is on the GPMG?’ I call back.
‘I said to stay inside the vehicle for the trip back Mr Howie,’ Dave replies.
‘I think the Saxon should stay with the dog with someone on the GPMG all the time, we take turns and keep a guard on her,’ I say.
‘They’ve got another heavy machine gun now, they could use that,’ Clarence says.
‘What for protecting the dog or going out for supplies?’
‘Either,’ he shrugs, ‘the engineers should be able to rig a frame for it on something, a pick up maybe.’
‘I think we should stay with the dog, we’ve got this far together.’
‘It should go on the wall facing out to the estate,’ Dave says.
‘Eh? What should?’ I ask him, confused.
‘The other GPMG, it should be set on the wall in case they come again...when they come again.’
‘You think they’ll come again Dave?’ Blowers asks.
‘What was the population of this country?’ Dave asks.
‘About fifty million…something like that,’ Clarence replies.
‘Fifty million people, where are they all? We saw how many were in that town. We might have killed a lot but compared to the population…’
‘They’re not all zombies though,’ Nick cuts in, ‘plenty of survivors and loads must have been killed too.’
‘True, but that still leaves many,’ Dave replies.
‘And if they continue to mutate, what’s to stop them all becoming like Smithy or that Marcy woman,’ Blowers says quietly.
‘We’d be fucked,’ Nick sighs deeply.
‘Fuck ‘em, we’ll win…we’ve got Missy Elliot on loudspeaker…no one can defeat us now,’ Cookey says happily, adding an evil laugh at the end.
‘We still going for a swim when we get back?’ Lani asks.
‘Oh yes,’ I call out, ‘once we’ve got the dog sorted…’
‘Weapons and kit first,’ Dave intones to a few jokey groans.
‘This heat has wiped me out,’ Blowers moans quietly, ‘I feel fucked.’
‘Can we get those girls if we go for a swim?’ Cookey asks.
‘Yeah right,’ Nick laughs, ‘we’ll go tent to tent until we find them…nothing odd with asking two strange girls to come for a swim in the middle of the night.’
‘I bet that Julie would look fit in a bikini,’ Cookey says.
‘Hey she might go topless,’ Lani joins in goading Cookey.
‘Really? Wow…yeah they might not have packed their bikini’s and will be like “oh Cookey but we don’t have our swimsuits” and I’ll be like “hey just go topless” and they’ll be like “oh great idea Cookey but only if you promise to keep that pervert Blowers away from us” and I’ll be like “hey ladies don’t worry Blowers doesn't like girls…he’ll be looking at my arse not yours”
‘Fucking hell
,’ Blowers groans. Tears of laughter spill from my eyes as Cookey keeps on with the self-narration, talking himself into believing all the girls of the fort will be running out to jump around topless in the sea with him.
‘Blowers, you okay?’ Nick asks with a concerned tone.
‘Fine mate, just fucked from all this running about in this heat, has anyone got an energy drink?’
‘Here,’ Lani passes one from her bag.
‘I feel ropey too,’ Tom says with a groan.
‘What like shaky and a bit weak?’ Blowers asks, ‘me too,’ he adds at Tom nodding.
‘Heat exhaustion,’ Clarence says, ‘get some fluids down, you need glucose…how do you put the air con on in these things?’ He examines the switches and finds the right one, turning it on high.
‘Oh that’s nice,’ Lani calls out at the cool air filling the vehicle.
‘Alex how do you feel?’ Dave asks.
‘Fine Dave, I feel fine…tired but okay other than that,’ Cookey answers in a serious tone, not daring to be flippant.
‘Nick?’ Dave asks.
‘Fine Dave, hungry and tired but okay.’
‘Lani?’
‘I’m okay Dave, same as the others, just hot and tired.’
‘Mr Howie?’ He calls out.
‘Fine mate,’ I reply.
‘Me too,’ Clarence adds.
‘Just you two losers then,’ Cookey jokes and gets promptly told to piss off by both Tom and Blowers.
‘Almost there,’ I call out as we pass through the estate. We enter the flatlands with Cookey giving us another running commentary on how he’s going to woo the two pretty girls he saw at the cash and carry.
‘Chris to the fort,’ the radio crackles to life.
‘Fort to Chris, go ahead, is that you coming down the road?’
‘Chris to fort, yes two vehicles coming in, we’ve got the dog…inform Doc Roberts, we’ve had heavy contact so we’ll need the examination tents up and running, get some cold water at the gates for us too.’
‘Fort to Chris, roger that…’
‘He thinks of everything,’ I admire to Clarence. We pull up a few metres back from the gates and ease ourselves out of the vehicle into the stifling heat of the night air. The contrast from the air-conditioned vehicle hits all of us with audible groans.
The dog bounds out from the back, running about to sniff the ground before she drops her back end down and takes a long piss.
‘At least she didn’t go in the vehicle,’ I remark watching the puddle pooling out from under her back feet. She finishes and twists round to sniff at her urine for a few seconds, then seemingly satisfied she continues her general sniff about as the outer gate opens.
‘Is that her?’ Doctor Roberts’ voice booms out as he strides towards us with Sergeant Hopewell and a few others. Sarah runs past him, heading towards us and coming to a sudden stop as the dog spins round to fix them with a hard stare.
‘Is she okay?’ Sarah asks in a concerned voice.
‘Get her on a lead, she could run off,’ Doctor Roberts walks straight past Sarah towards the dog. She stands her ground watching him intently as he walks close, stops and stares down at her.
‘Why does she have bandages on her stomach?’ He asks accusingly.
‘She got bit a few times, we cleaned the wounds and put the dressings on,’ Chris replies walking over from his vehicle.
‘Bit?’ The Doctor enquires.
‘Yeah bit…with teeth…’ Chris replies too quickly, getting a fierce glare from the doctor in response.
‘How long ago?’
‘Maybe just over an hour or so,’ I reply with a shrug.
‘And she hasn’t turned,’ he nods, crouching down and letting the dog come to him. He stays still as the dog sniffs his legs and hands, all the time staring at her eyes. Eventually he slides a small torch from the top pocket of his white lab coat and shines it on the dog’s face, in her eyes, ears and down her sides.
‘Right, we need to check her over, where’s the vet?’ He stands up quickly.
‘Here, and I’m not a vet…I wasn’t qualified,’ a young woman with pulled back blonde hair steps forward.
‘You are now,’ the Doctor answers curtly, ‘you…give me your belt,’ he turns on one of his medical staff stood nearby.
‘Eh? What?’ The poor man stammers.
‘Your belt, give me your belt,’ the Doctor shouts. The man fumbles his fingers, undoing the clasp before sliding it out of his belt loops. The Doctor snatches the item away and fashions it into a collar for the dog.
‘Knife,’ he barks holding a hand out. Dave steps forward at hearing his favourite word and cuts the belt in the place indicated by the Doctor.
‘Good, now you give me your belt,’ he turns on another member of his staff.
‘I’m not wearing one,’ the man replies quietly.
‘Then go and bloody get one,’ he shouts, tutting as the man runs off towards the gate.
‘You had contact then?’ Sergeant Hopewell asks.
‘Yeah, heavy too, they were charged up like crazy,’ I reply.
‘Everyone okay?’ Sarah asks.
‘I’m sure we can hold this mothers meeting later, it’s the middle of the night and some of us like to sleep during the hours of darkness,’ Doctor Roberts cuts in, ‘if no one has been hurt then we’ll get the examinations done.’ He takes the belt offered to him by the flustered looking medic and fastens it to the make-shift collar. The dog pants away while he does it until he steps back holding the lead and clicking his tongue, leading the dog towards the fort.
‘I thought the dog was staying with us all the time,’ Clarence says quietly.
‘Do you want to tell him that?’ I reply.
‘No thanks.’
‘Do you want me to get her?’ Dave offers to quick glances from Clarence and I.
‘No mate, she’ll be okay for a minute,’ I say as an image of Dave and Doctor Roberts facing up to each other fills my mind.
‘Come through to the middle, we’ll get you checked over,’ Sergeant Hopewell calls out as she heads back through the gate.
We traipse through with heavy legs, the tiredness really plucking at us now. I go first, entering a tent with two medics ready to check me over. We go through the procedure quite quickly, stripping off while they shine torches onto my skin, into my ears, up my nose and backside. On leaving I see Lani has already gone into another examination tent. Dave goes after me as someone comes out to say they’ve got another one rigged up.
We stand about drinking water and chatting quietly, Nick hands smokes around. Blowers and Tom both sit down on the floor, clearly struggling after the hectic day we’ve had.
‘Who’s left to go?’ Clarence asks as he comes out.
‘Blowers and Tom,’ I reply.
‘I’m going back to the vehicle, it’s cooler in there,’ he mutters. The rest follow him out, leaving the three of us.
‘Tom you go next mate,’ Blowers says.
‘Do you want me to stay?’ Dave asks.
‘No you carry on Dave, start getting the kit done so they can chill out quicker.’
‘Okay Mr Howie,’ he strolls out after the others.
‘You alright mate,’ I ask as Tom gets unsteadily to his feet, swaying a little.
‘Whoa,’ he grins sheepishly, ‘sorry…I felt a bit dizzy.’
‘Is he okay?’ One of the medics rushes over to support Tom.
‘Heat exhaustion, they both said they felt rough on the way back, weak and shaking a bit.’
‘You should have said something, we would have got them in first,’ the medic chastises me. He leads Tom away and calls out to his mate inside to assist Blowers into the next tent.
‘I’m fine,’ Blowers says indignantly, getting to his feet and marching towards the other tent, leaving me smiling at his stubbornness.
I stand alone for the first time in ages, enjoying the peace and quiet, the low murmur of voices in the background, the st
ars in the sky, smoking a cigarette and feeling pleasantly tired at getting the dog safely back to the fort. Something decent and promising now awaits us. We just need fuel for the generators and then wait while they do tests, and it gives us a reason to stay in the fort for a day or so. The lads need to relax and unwind a bit. I smile to myself at the thought of the lads hanging round whatever tent those two girls are in.
A strangled yell comes from one of the examination tents at the same time as I hear Meredith starting to bark. I ditch the smoke and move towards it just as two figures fall out of the entrance flap. They roll across the ground fighting as I realise one of the medics is attacking Tom. I rush in and drag the man off, beating him with my fists as Tom squirms and breaks free. I catch a quick glance through the tent flap at the other medic lying on the floor clutching a large bite wound to his neck.
‘Not me…’ the medic I’m holding gasps. I spin round to see Tom turning to run towards the inner gate, a quick flash of his face illuminated by the generator lights, blood round his mouth, dripping down his chest.
‘TOM,’ I bellow with as the sudden realisation hits me, he doesn't flinch but keeps running, slamming into the unlocked gate. I run after him, drawing my pistol and firing two quick shots. The rounds strike the wooden frame as he disappears into the fort.
‘DAVE,’ screaming at the top of my voice, I reach the gate and plough through to see people running towards the gates and Tom sprinting towards the tent. Within a split second the knowledge of what he could do if he reaches the masses hits me, with no other choice I raise my pistol and fire at his back while running after him. The rounds miss Tom, whizzing into the densely packed living area of the tents.
He powers into the tents, lunging at a man stood there watching with a look of horror. He takes the man down quickly as my pistol clicks empty. Cursing I eject the magazine and slam a new one home, Tom is up, running off. The man he bit lies squirming on the ground. I pause long enough to shoot the man through the skull before taking off after Tom. More bodies lie bleeding from being hit by my missed shots. Tom turns quickly into a lane running between the tents. I’m screaming for everyone to run while trying to get a shot at him. He roars and lunges into a large open ended tent. His movements are quick and deadly, taking bites out of necks, faces, shoulders…anything he can get his mouth onto. Several have been bitten by him. His actions driving him on to get as many bites as he can. I keep after him, pausing to fire into the heads of the victims with bite wounds. Men, woman and children are bitten and then shot by me, screaming as loud as I can for someone to stop him.