Holiday of the Dead

by David Dunwoody; Wayne Simmons; Remy Porter; Thomas Emson; Rod Glenn; Shaun Jeffrey; John Russo; Tony Burgess; A P Fuchs; Bowie V Ibarra

  Hundreds of zombies were strolling along the paths that snaked around the resort. They moved in groups or individually. There didn’t seem to be much interaction between them. Some leaned over to look down at the humans in the enclosures. The undead snarled and growled at the terrified people.

  Mya’s chest flared with rage.

  She wanted to kill every zombie here. If she had a gun, she might just have leapt out of the cab and started firing, blowing the heads off those monsters.

  But she wouldn’t last long. She was one against many. Zombies cared little about their kind. So what if some died? As long as they got to you, that was all that mattered.

  During the war, waves of zombies charged the army. The undead were mown down in their hundreds. But behind the first wave more came. More and more and more. The dead sea was unstoppable. Military action failed. Humanity was defeated.

  “Here we are,” said Zimmer.

  He stopped the truck in front of some single-storey buildings. There was a swimming pool to the right. It contained no water, just bones and litter. Next to the pool a female zombie lounged on a sun-bed. She wore bikini bottoms. She had no need of the top because her breasts were gone. The whole front of her body was gone, and Mya could see into the cavity. The woman sat up and brushed her long, grey hair out of her face, and then curled back her lips and dribbled.

  Mya followed Zimmer out of the cab. The heat was stifling. The smell of decay hung in the air. A rich, ripe odour that made Mya retch.

  “Your companion feeling somewhat under the weather, Zimmer?” said a voice.

  Mya turned towards it. Approaching them was a figure wearing a black fedora on his head, long black coat, black trousers, and black shoes. He wore sunglasses. His face was chalk-white. The skin on his hands was peeled to show bones and ligaments.

  “I am Geller, I run this facility,” said the black-clad. “Who are you?”

  “Her name’s Asher, Mr Geller,” said Zimmer.

  “Mya Asher,” said Mya.

  “Asher, I see. New to duties, are you? What skill keeps you from being food at my table?”

  “I’m a mechanic,” she said.

  “Plenty of those around,” said the zombie. “Well, you are late, Zimmer.”

  Zimmer rubbed his hands together. “We … we had some trouble with the truck, Mr Geller.”

  “That’s why you have a mechanic.”

  “Yes,” said Zimmer, “and she … she sorted things out.”

  Geller grunted. He was dribbling a little. Mya knew that was probably because he was near humans.

  We’re his food, thought Mya. His instinct is to eat us, and he wants to eat us right now – but he’s evolved the ability to control his nature.

  She trembled with nerves, and looked around.

  The woman by the pool had lain down again.

  “How many zombies here this summer?” said Mya.

  “This summer?” said Geller. “We have three-hundred and twenty guests, seventy-eight residents. Why do you ask?”

  “Interested. I’ve never been to a Z-World before.”

  “No? How did you not end up as food, Asher?” asked the zombie.

  She looked him straight in the face. “I worked on the docks up in Leith. I was on a ground team, repairing trucks that ferried cargo to Scottish Z-Worlds.”

  “And you came south?”

  “My family was from this area. Before the …”

  “I see,” said Geller. He looked her up and down. “You could have been on the breeding programme. You appear fit, healthy – genetically-blessed.”

  “She’s barren,” said Zimmer.

  Mya quaked but held Geller’s stare. Her mouth was dry and she was terrified that she’d be found out.

  The zombie said, “Take the truck into the vehicle bay, leave it there till tonight. Your quarters have been prepared.”

  Zimmer and Mya turned to go back to the HGV but Geller called after them, “Wait a minute.”

  Mya turned, dread chewing at her belly.

  Geller said, “You didn’t come across a crew of Human First scum on your journey did you?”

  Mya could feel the blood leaching out of her brain, and it made her giddy.

  “We didn’t see anyone,” said Zimmer and then turned to Mya. “You see anyone when I had a nap?”

  Eyes on Geller she said, “There was no one.”

  He said, “Found them on the road, coming from your direction. They had stolen cargo them.”

  “Stolen?” said Zimmer. “Who from?”

  “We don’t know. You’ve not let the consignment out of your sight the whole journey, have you, Zimmer?”

  “Absolutely not, Mr Geller.”

  “I would have the trailer opened to check –”

  Mya stiffened.

  Zimmer said, “But that would –”

  “I know, I know,” said Geller. “It would damage the stock, let some fresh air in.” He licked his lips. Spit oozed from his mouth. “Humans are better when they’re ripe. A nice odour of decay on the meat. And it makes it softer. Too much exposure to fresh air spoils that a little. Always best to keep them in that humid condition provided so well by your trucks, eh? What do you say, Asher?”

  “I say …” Mya’s mouth was dry. “I say, of course.”

  “Of course,” said Geller. “Follow me. I’ll show you.”

  Geller led them behind the buildings and towards an enclosure. Zombies were leaning over the wall, snarling at something down below. Mya’s skin goose fleshed. Her fear mounted.

  “Here we are,” said Geller as they reached the wall.

  Mya had to use all the military training she’d received at the Human First camps in the north of Scotland to stop herself from screaming.

  Down in the enclosure, three men had been tied to trees. The men were naked and they were screaming. Their bodies were covered in wounds. Blood soaked the ground. Chunks of meat torn out of their bodies were strewn around.

  Mya wanted to leap over the wall and go to the men, to one in particular – the one who had kissed her and laid a hand on her belly.

  But she controlled her emotions. It was difficult. Inside she was wailing.

  Geller lifted his hand. A door opened at the back of the enclosure.

  A huge zombie burst out of the entrance. The giant was naked and had enormous muscles. Its flesh was grey and parts of its scalp were missing, showing the skull underneath.

  It was a ’roid zombie. One of the monsters this new, evolved zombie society had pumped full of growth hormone for their own entertainment.

  The ’roid zombies were used in gladiatorial-style games, where they were pitted against the best of humanity – former professional fighters, soldiers, hard men.

  There was only ever one winner in those contests.

  Humans were no longer the alpha species.

  The monster charged at the men tied to the trees. They shrieked. The zombie tore a chunk from one man’s thigh. The victim howled in pain.

  Mya stared in horror as the zombie grabbed the man in the centre – her man. The creature sank its teeth into her lover’s arm. He cried out and caught Mya’s eye. Seeing her intensified his terror, and she saw this. She wheeled away just as the zombie bit through her lover’s arm, and all she heard as she staggered away was his squeals of anguish.

  An hour later in their quarters, Zimmer said, “Why d’you run off like that?”

  “We didn’t need to see that.”

  “You know what they’re like.”

  “I do know what they’re like.”

  “They’re just scaring us, that’s all.”

  “They do that anyway. There’s no need for …”

  “What?” said Zimmer.

  She was shaking, tears in her eyes.

  “You knew those men,” said Zimmer.

  Mya rubbed her eyes with a towel. “Of course not.”

  “You did, Mya. You knew them. You’re Human First.”

  She looked at him. He was sit
ting on his bunk. The cabin was bare apart from the two beds. A door on the back wall led to a toilet and washbasin. They would stay here till after the feeding, then, in the early hours of the morning, drive back to Dover.

  Zimmer shook his head. “Don’t believe it.”

  “What don’t you believe?”

  “You’re arrogant, you lot.”

  “Arrogant?” she said.

  “We’re trying to get along, trying to stay alive, and you … you lot just spoil everything – you put the rest of us in danger. You’re not Human First, you’re Me First, Us First. Sod the rest of humanity.”

  “How old are you, Zimmer?”

  “Fifty.”

  “Getting on, now.”

  “I’m all right.”

  “There’ll be younger drivers wanting your job, soon. Younger, fitter.”

  “So?”

  “What do you think happens to you when you’re surplus to requirements?”

  He said nothing.

  Mya said, “You’ll end up as food, that’s what. And being you’re overweight, older, bad skin, you’ll be shipped to the inner cities. Tossed out in the streets with a bunch of other oldies where you’ll be hunted down by first-born zombies. The originals. The ones you can’t talk to, Zimmer. You can’t beg and reason with them, you know that. They’ll rip you apart. You’re food. That’s what we all are. Is that what you think you deserve?”

  “I … I just want to live.”

  “You won’t. You’ll die in agony like those men out there today. You’ll be eaten alive. No questions. You know that. It’s how we all go. It’s human destiny – to be devoured.”

  “Christ,” he said, putting his head in his hands.

  “We’re at least trying to do something, trying to maintain human dignity,” said Mya.

  He looked at her. “Tell me what you’re doing here?”

  She told him.

  “Christ,” he said. “You failed, then?”

  “Failed?”

  “The cargo we were carrying, the cargo your friends stole, it’s ended up here anyway. Those people are going to get eaten. You failed.”

  “No … no, we didn’t.” And she told them why.

  After they talked, Zimmer agreed to go with her to where the truck had been parked.

  It was night. Howls and screams filled the air. Torches burned, lighting the resort. Humans cried and begged.

  At midnight, the great feeding would begin. The human cargo would be released into the grounds of Z-World. Two hundred men, women, and children. Add to that the hundreds already caged at the old zoo, it would mean that nearly a thousand humans would be stampeding through the resort.

  And then the zombies would hunt them. Nearly four hundred monsters unleashed.

  The zombies would savage the humans. They would eat them. Kill them all. The screams of the dying would echo across London. Z-World would be swimming in blood and gore. Death would be everywhere. There would be no human survivors.

  “Are you wearing your badge?” said Zimmer.

  “Yes,” Mya said, indicating the red, cotton square pinned to her jacket. It marked a human worker out from food. The identification was vital if you were delivering to a Z-World. Any human wandering around without the marker would either be killed on the spot or thrown into an enclosure or cage for eating later.

  Zimmer and Mya stayed in the shadows and made their way to the vehicle bays.

  “I can’t believe you drugged me and swapped this trailer,” said Zimmer, standing near the container that stored his original cargo.

  Mya could hear the humans whimper inside.

  “You put me in danger,” he said. “I’m still waiting for an apology.”

  “I’ll not say sorry for trying to save the human race.”

  “At the cost of human lives?”

  “People die in wars. It’s sad, but it happens. How many will die and suffer if we don’t do anything?”

  “Maybe I won’t. That’s all that matters to me.”

  She said nothing.

  “You’re not infertile are you,” said Zimmer.

  She looked him in the eye.

  “In fact,” he said, “you’re pregnant.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Just guessed. The way you were rubbing your belly when we were watching those poor buggers, the way –”

  “One of them is the father – was the father.”

  “And you’re going to sacrifice your baby for a victory you may never achieve? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “It’s … it’s for the future. I have a younger sister. She was born soon after the plague. She’s six years younger than me. She’s pregnant, too, and I want her children to have a world worth living in.”

  “What about your child?”

  “It’s … it’s the price we pay for freedom.”

  “What did the dad think?”

  “He understood.”

  “Now he’s dead, and you’ll be dead too.”

  Mya went over to Zimmer’s truck and squatted next to the trailer her lover and his two companions had attached to it hours earlier.

  She was reaching under the trailer, feeling for something. Something that had been taped there so she could use in an emergency.

  “What are you looking for?” said Zimmer.

  “For a –” She found it, and froze.

  Two figures came from the shadows, one of them a giant.

  “Busy are we?” said Geller, still wearing his hat and sunglasses. Behind him the ’roid zombie snarled. Its teeth had been filed into points. Mya imagined them ripping through her lover’s flesh.

  “Just … just checking the cargo,” said Zimmer.

  “You should’ve done that at 5pm,” said Geller.

  “Thought we’d check to see where this came from,” said Zimmer, banging on the side of the trailer they’d originally towed from Dover.

  “Can you tell?” said Geller.

  “Might be able to,” said Zimmer.

  Then Geller looked at Mya. “What are you doing there, Asher?”

  Mya jerked at the gun and the tape tore away. She leapt to her feet and trained the weapon on Geller.

  He said, “Oh, I see what you’re doing.”

  The ’roid zombie growled and moved forward.

  Mya shuffled nervously.

  “You’re Human First scum, aren’t you,” said Geller. “Both of you.”

  “Not me,” said Zimmer. “I know nothing about –”

  “Shut up,” said Geller. “Asher, put down the gun. There’s no escape.”

  “Then you’re dead, too,” she said.

  “I’m already dead,” said Geller.

  “Well I’ll kill you again,” said Mya. “You know I can.”

  Geller smiled. “There’s nothing you can do, Asher. Why do you fight? Your world is gone. It’s our world now.”

  “We’re taking it back.”

  “No you’re not,” said Geller. “Do you know why? You are too weak. You value things too much. You kept gold and money and antiques and art and cars, you stored these things. And did they save you? Jesus warned you, didn’t he?”

  “I don’t believe in Jesus.”

  “You wouldn’t,” said the black-clad zombie. “That’s why you ignored his warning: ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.’ But you did. And what for? Your money and cars are meaningless. Put the gun away, Asher. Give it up. Accept your fate.”

  “You’re dying, Geller,” said Mya. “All of you. Tonight. Z-Worlds across the country are being hit.”

  “Hit?” he said.

  “We’re blowing you away.”

  Geller snarled. “I am going to eat you, legs first. Make my way up your body, slowly. I’ll make it hurt so–”

  She shot him in the face. His sunglasses shattered. The hat flew off his head. His skull erupted in brain and blood and he hit the ground.

  The ’roid zombie charged. Zimmer legged it. Mya,
panicking, started firing. Bullets pummelled the monster’s face, turning it into a bloody maw.

  Mya kept firing but she’d emptied the clip.

  The ’roid zombie stumbled towards her.

  She backed away.

  The monster was on her.

  She cowered, screaming.

  A gunshot made her ears ring.

  She smelled cordite.

  The ground shook when the ’roid zombie fell, smoke rising from where his head had been.

  Mya looked up.

  Zimmer was leaning out of his cab with a shotgun jammed into his shoulder. Smoke plumed from the double-barrel.

  They looked at each other for a second and Zimmer must have read Mya’s thoughts.

  “I keep it for insurance,” he said.

  Mya nodded.

  Zimmer said, “You get going, they’ll be here any second.”

  “You what?” she said.

  “Get in your’ boyfriend’s truck and take those people out of here, take them anywhere.”

  “Zimmer, you can’t–”

  “Just do it. You’re right. This is my last drive, they’ve told me. I tried not to think about it, but it’s over. I’m food. You’ve got your baby, now. Go, Mya, get out of here.”

  “No,” she said, “I’ve got to set off the explosives.”

  In the distance, a siren blared. Shouts and screams filled the air.

  Zimmer asked, “Where’s the detonator?”

  Mya gawped.

  Zimmer said, “Where is it?”

  “Under the trailer’s rear wheels.”

  “How … how do you … you know …”

  “You … you just open the cover and press the red button. You’ve got sixty seconds.”

  “Jesus, plenty of time for them to rip me to pieces.”

  “Zimmer, you don’t have to do this, you –”

  “Go, Mya. Just go. Time I did something for the human race. I did nothing before all this happened. Nothing when I thought I was good, when I went to church. Go. Get in that other truck, now. I’ll give you a minute, then I’m detonating. How much explosives in that trailer?”

  “Enough to make a crater out of Regent’s Park.”

  He nodded. “Go, now.”

  As she drove along the roads of Z-World, running over zombies as she went, tears streamed down her face.