by Glen Johnson
“Baker,” the General said, while quickly scanning the wall of screens.
A man in military uniform stepped forward, saluting. “Sir, yes sir!” the man barked.
“Forget the rotations; I want every available soldier holding a weapon within the next five minutes!” He was still looking at the creatures feasting next to the soaring walls. “Get them up on the towers, targeting those groups of eaters.”
“Sir, yes sir!” The soldier strode off to carry out his orders.
The General turned to stare at Doctor Hall.
“I see you’ve made a friend?” he stated with a smirk. “Wife number two maybe?”
There seems to be history between them. The General doesn’t like him much, Melanie thought.
“Doctor Lazaro, if you would be so kind as to follow me.” He turned and headed back towards the sliding door and the office beyond. His group of supporting staff parted to allow him passage.
“Oh,” he said over his shoulder. “You might as well join us Doctor Hall, seems you have nothing better to do.”
7
Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad
Dartmoor National Park
Princetown
Dartmoor Prison Museum
3:09 PM GMT
The road snaked out past the prisons towering walls. To the right across the road was a large warehouse complex, where the food supplies were located. A forklift truck was on its side, with a pallet full of baked bean tins spilt across the concrete.
The large warehouse doors were wide open. No one was around; as if there had been a warning of the approaching horde and everyone had run for cover.
There was a big white house on the left with the front door and windows sealed with planks of wood nailed to the frames. There was even a car on the drive with a protective covering over it, as if it would protect it from the end of the world, and after someone would simply throw back the cover and use it as if nothing had happened.
“There it is,” the Captain said.
On the left was a blue sign attached to an old stonewall, stating the museum was in the next group of buildings.
A row of imposing structures ran along the left-hand side of the road. It looked like a converted barn, very old and solidly built.
Red was awake, and sat up. She no longer leaned against Noah. Her head was pounding like a kettledrum, but apart from the headache, she felt a lot better. She watched out the front windscreen as the truck pulled into the car park. Gravel crunched beneath the wheels.
In her deluded, comatosed state, she thought of nothing else apart from her sister, Jasmine. How she let her down. How she had spent almost every waking hour working to support them, when it should have been her stepfather’s responsibility. She felt no remorse for what she did to Colin. She would do it again in a second, if given the chance. Red wondered if her sister’s body was still in her bed. Or did the police arrive to sort it out before the world turned to shit?
Noah did not know what Red was thinking. For the last half an hour, she was snuggled up against him. Now she sat staring through the front windscreen. He wanted to reach for her hand, but decided against it. After all, he had not even known her for a whole day yet.
Red did not talk about her family. He decided she would when she was ready. She had dodged the questions he asked in the mortgage company’s breakroom.
We all have history; he reasoned. Some sadder than others. He watched her face as she studied the museum out of the window.
There were a handful of creatures flinging themselves against the museum’s front door. The infected ignored the truck as it pulled up outside.
I will never hurt you, Noah thought looking at Red. But would you hurt me?
Betty made a whimpering sound.
“Are you okay Betty?” Noah asked, leaning across Red to touch Betty’s arm.
Betty recoiled away from his touch.
Gunshots resounded across the car park as Coco and Echo killed the ten creatures near the museum. None of them turned to defend themselves.
“This is getting creepy,” Echo said into her microphone.
“Their whole body language and aggression levels have completely changed within the last hour or so, as if something has clicked, and taken over,” the Captain stated.
Lennie noticed they had stopped, and pulled the tarp off his head.
The small dog wiggled out of Lennie’s grasp and jumped to the ground. He peed up against a tyre. Charlie then shook his coat, as if shaking off water, and stood wagging his tail, waiting for someone to do something.
Echo walked over to one side, so she could cover everyone while Coco dragged the bodies away from the doorway.
“The entrance to the hidden tunnel is in the ‘Black Museum’ section,” the Captain stated. He stood stretching the kinks out of his back.
Bull slammed his door shut. He did not feel like crawling down a hidden tunnel. In the distance, he could see the prison. Safety was just on the other side of those towering walls.
But for how long? He reasoned. At least when I get down inside The Ark, and it is sealed, all this would be just a bad memory.
Noah helped Red out of the truck.
Red seemed fragile, as if her swagger had faded. Her smile and happy countenance was replaced with a scowl and squinting eyes.
Lennie slowly climbed out of the back of the truck. He stretched, making him look impossibly tall. He dragged his backpack across the bed of the truck and shrugged it on. He stood motionless, waiting for instructions. He wiped a large hand across his nose, smearing snot up his sleeve.
“Nana,” he muttered softly, looking through the thick window where his grandmother sat hunched under the blanket.
Noah noticed Betty had not attempted to move out of the truck. He opened her door.
“Are you okay Betty,” he asked.
Betty groaned.
“Betty?” Noah said, as he raised the edge of the blanket.
8
Doctor Lazaro, Doctor Hall, and General Philips
Dartmoor National Park
Princetown
Dartmoor Prison in the Hub’s Boardroom
3:12 PM GMT
Melanie followed the General into the large, what looked like a boardroom. There was an oval mahogany table in the center of the room, with more monitors all around the walls.
The accompaniment of assistants all filed in behind Doctor Hall.
Melanie noticed that at the far end of the room was the podium used for the government recording, which was televised, on a loop, every thirty minutes.
“Coffee!” The General barked. “Would you like a drink?” he asked, looking at Melanie, while ignoring Doctor Hall.
“Please.” Melanie was so thirsty her throat felt raw. She had swallowed what seemed like gallons of rain and pond water over the last few hours, but she still felt parched.
“Milk, two sugars, please,” she simply said.
“So you have found a blocker capable of stopping the infection from spreading?” the General asked.
“Yes,” she simply said. The seat was so comfortable; she felt like leaning back and closing her eyes.
“You know; we tried to make an antidote from the pod the Americans have. However, once the chemical makeup of the pod was checked against the pod buried under the Great Pyramid in Egypt, we found they were different. We realized, after checking them all that they all held a different strain of the same virus.” He leaned back, sipping from a cup that was placed in front of him.
“So we decided a blocker was a no go.” He shrugged his shoulders. “If all six pods had different chemical variants, it would mean the seventh would be distinctive also. And because we do not know its location, we could not collect a sample.” He lowered the cup.
“Of course, now we have a blocker; the transportation network needed to distribute it is non existent. Most roads are blocked with wreckage. I’m afraid we are at a point beyond repair.”
His assistant stood near the
edge of the room, pent up, as if ready to move at a moment’s notice. Some were tapping away on tablets or scribbling on clipboards.
Doctor Hall listened as he sat with his elbows on the table, with his face in his hands. He looked exhausted. He was also dying for a cigarette.
“Our only hope is to crawl into our bunkers and wait underground while the world is cleansed by the spores.” He motioned to the monitors. “The infection has progressed too far for your blocker to have any use. But it will be studied over the years to come.”
Melanie had not said a word since the General started his speech. She could not understand why she was here in the office with him, and why he had taken the time to talk to her. Besides, she was only going through the motions now. She was weary and hungry, and she listened with a heavy heart. Her parents were out in the chaos. She was not naïve; she knew they had no more of a chance than anyone else did out there.
The General changed direction.
“That is why I had you brought here; I want you as part of the scientific team who will study the information gathered about the pods. You will have complete clearance, and use of all the equipment in the extensive laboratories. And of course, a free ticket to sit out the end of the world.”
Melanie did not say a word. She was sick of the mention of the pods and their infection. The world as she knew it was gone, in the process of being wiped away by the black spores. The human race will never be the same again. Her head twisted sharply, looking over at the General.
“On one condition,” she stated.
“I think getting a free pass and food and lodgings for the next twenty years is payment enough.”
“I want my parents with me. Bring them to The Ark.” She stared the General down.
The General turned to nod at an assistant. The woman pressed a button on her tablet. The screen on the wall in front of Melanie switched from a view from the prison walls; to an image of the street her parent’s house was situated.
“This was taken by the same helicopter that was sent to rescue you mere hours ago.”
The image was a still shot, all blurry. It showed the row of houses where she grew up. Where she played as a child, and where she moved back, to be with the ones she cared for most.
“The reconnaissance camera was recording continually; it gives us a better understanding of what is happening out there.” He pointed at the screen. “This is a still shot of when the helicopter flew over your home.”
The whole row of houses was burnt to the ground. It was hard to pick out which house used to be her parents. The towering column of smoke rose high into the air.
9
Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad
Dartmoor National Park
Princetown
Dartmoor Prison Museum’s Car Park
3:14 PM GMT
Noah jumped back. “What the fuck!” He grabbed Red and pulled her away from the truck.
Coco and Echo swung around, expecting a creature to be running from their blind spot. Both weapons honed in on the problem – Betty.
“Step back everyone!” the Captain shouted. “Don’t fire!” He waved a hand at Coco and Echo.
The blanket lay on Betty’s lap, uncovering her head and shoulders. Her head lulled back, showing her blistered eyes and swollen cheeks, with veins mapping over her face. She blinked repeatedly. A groan emanated from her raw lips.
The only sound was the gravel under their feet. Then the small dog started barking and backing away.
“She must have been bitten while they were attacked on the roof!” Echo said.
“Surely she knew she would change? Why endanger us all?” Coco stated.
The reason had just noticed his grandmother.
“Nana?” Lennie’s voice had a pleading quality to it. His simple mind could not comprehend what was happening.
“Keep him back!” the Captain shouted.
Lennie was fixed to the spot; he could see his grandmother, but could not understand what was happening to her.
“I can feel it...” Betty muttered. Her bleeding tongue smeared blood over her lips. A bubble of blood popped in the corner of her mouth. Her face was a mask of pain.
“What did she say?” Echo asked.
“I can feel it in my head...” Her hand tried to wipe the blood away, but it fell limply back onto her lap.
The Captain stepped closer. “What did you say, Betty?”
“It is buzzing around... I can feel its hunger, its wants... its plan for mankind...”
“What did she say?” Noah asked, also stepping closer.
Red was crying softly, with her arms hugging herself.
“You can feel what, Betty?” the Captain asked, taking another step closer.
“Nana?” Lennie muttered again. His large eyebrows were creased together. He was slowly working the situation out.
“There is a force behind everything... I can feel it entering my mind... I can feel it pushing, taking my memories...” A bloodstained tear rolled down Betty’s wrinkled face.
“A force?” the Captain asked.
Everyone was listening intently.
“It knows everything... All the accumulated knowledge of those infected...” She coughed; blood sprayed onto the truck’s ceiling. “It knows where we are trying to hide... It will not allow any to live!”
10
Doctor Lazaro, Doctor Hall, and General Philips
Dartmoor National Park
Princetown
Dartmoor Prison in the Hub Control Room
3:17 PM GMT
Melanie was dumfounded. The image on the screen was like a kick in the chest.
Dead! They are both dead!
The General seemed to switch back to the problem at hand. He had passed along the bad news, and as far as he was concerned, that was the end of the situation. He moved the topic along.
“We have been in constant communication with our American allies.” He waved a hand in the air. “You obviously saw the vast mast as you landed?” He was referring to the telecommunication pole, with which the base could send and receive signals worldwide.
“Our friends in Groom Lake, America have said their pod has changed.”
This had Doctor Hall lower his hands away from his face.
“Changed, how so?” Melanie asked. She was struggling with grief, but a small part of her mind had recovered from the shock, and she knew her parents would not sit around while their house burned down. Deep down she knew they were still alive.
“The pod started emitting a high frequency wavelength, the kind never before registered.” He took another sip from his coffee. “We have just received confirmation from Egypt, Mexico, Cambodia, Canada, and Tibet, that the other five pods are also sending out a previously unknown radio frequency.” The General looked up at a monitor showing a view across a deserted city center.
“Of course, we don’t know if the seventh pod, the one that started all this mess, is doing the same, because as of yet the location of the pod has not been verified.” He slowly shook his head. “Apparently, when the loggers were airlifted out, they were in no fit state to tell anyone where they had found the damn thing.” He drained his cup.
“If these pods are sending out frequencies, this could be the reason the creatures behaviour has changed, and why they are attacking strategic locations,” Melanie said.
“We need to destroy the pods,” Doctor Hall stated.
“Thank you Doctor Hall, that much we have worked out for ourselves. Please give us some credit.” The General pushed the chair back with his legs as he stood. It was almost as if he was only talking to them both while he took a few minutes to drink his coffee.
“As we speak B2 stealth bombers are already in the air. The six pods we know the locations of will be destroyed within the hour. The seventh is being hunted down using satellite-inferred topography and teams in a search grid on the ground.”
“But you said the pods are buried under thousands of tonnes of rock, insi
de pyramids and temples,” Melanie said. “Why can’t the people in the locations destroy the pods themselves?”
“Anything could go wrong. Some small part may survive and release another strain. That is why the American president has sanctioned the use of tactical nuclear warhead strikes!”
11
Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad
Dartmoor National Park
Princetown
Dartmoor Prison Museum’s Car Park
3:19 PM GMT
“You can hear it in your head, can’t you?” the Captain asked.
“Hear what?” Noah questioned. He was ignored.
“It knows everything... Every human changed has contributed to its knowledge... It knows every secret, every hiding place...” Betty muttered. Blood dribbled out of the corner of her eyes.
“That’s why all the creatures are here; it sent them!” the Captain stated. He swung around, as if a thought had just accrued to him.
“Bull, get that door open. Now!”
“A hive mind is at work,” Echo muttered.
Bull used the butt of his rifle to smash away the lock.
“Nana?” Lennie muttered softly. He took a large step forward.
“Take him. Save my grandson.” Betty grimaced as pain filled her body.
“Nana?” Lennie’s voice raised a few octaves.
“Everyone into the museum. We haven’t much time!” the Captain shouted, while searching around.
“We can’t just leave her,” Red stated.
“It’s too late for her now,” the Captain said softly. He placed a hand on Betty’s arm.
“If you want, I can end the pain?” the Captain whispered.
Noah started pulling Red towards the museum’s entrance.
“It’s not fair,” Red screamed.
This effected Lennie, who started shouting Nana repeatedly.