Undead at Heart

by Calum Kerr

  The zombie launched itself, and even as it did, the floor bucked, sending it off course. James stumbled back as, with a roar of protesting earth, the Hut shifted beneath him. He collided with Alyssa and the two of them fell to the floor. He rolled off her, trying to make sure she was okay, and watched as the zombie turned from where it landed at his side and aimed its drooling jaws at him.

  Despite his promise to himself, he closed his eyes as he waited to die.

  Forty-eight

  The zombies ignored Dan and Daz, who even as they fell were still swinging with their weapons in an attempt to impede their sudden progress. But with them down on their knees, it was much easier for the zombies to move in from the sides. Sam’s flailing form disappeared under the mass of attacking undead.

  Tony felt like a mime walking against the wind. Even as he pushed his legs forward, he didn’t seem to be getting any closer. He saw Sam’s hand appear above mass of bodies, and then disappear, sucked down and out of sight.

  Another step finally made, Tony felt the world tilt around him and the floor shift under his feet. The roar of an explosion filled his one still-working ear, and light – so very bright after the gloom – lit the landscape in a sudden burst. He staggered to one knee, but the momentum of his run still brought his other leg through, dragging over the grass. He thrust his weight through that leg and came back to his feet, still moving, but only slowly realising that he could now see clearly.

  He glanced upwards, not breaking stride and saw the clouds which had closed over their heads, breaking, wisping, disappearing into mist, and then gone. He looked back down and watched as, with time-lapse speed, the pile of zombies covering Sam melted away into so much red jelly, leaving her covered in their glistening scarlet.

  As though a spell was broken, he felt speed return to his world and he was, in moments, at her side. He threw himself down next to her, his knees soaking in the mess which had been the attacking creatures, and started to wipe their residue from her face, praying for her eyes to open and for her lips to part in a relieved smile. Surely there hadn’t been time, surely she would be okay.

  Even through his closed lids, James could see the sudden light which poured through the hole in the roof. He felt warm wetness splash over his face, and then, nothing.

  He squinted his eyes open into the sudden brightness and saw the thick beam of sunlight - made tangible by the candle-smoke – which shone down into the centre of the room. The light which lit the Hut was tinged scarlet by the pool of red which the sunlight hit, the pool which had been the creature that had melted even as it leapt at him.

  He looked across the pillar of sunshine and saw Alan push another of the attackers into the light where it joined its companion in its puddle.

  The third had made for the door, but the loud rifle shot which now sounded across the room as it met the returning soldiers ended its life too.

  James waited, but nothing happened.

  Everything was still, everyone was silent.

  Nicola was just behind Tony, but when the earth shook and the light hit, she stopped. She watched as the attack literally melted away, and as Tony slid to the ground next to Sam. The girl was still, even as Tony wiped the remains of the zombies from her face, giving no reaction, making no protest.

  She walked slowly up behind him, and the others, still shocked at the suddenness of their reprieve, nevertheless also gathered around.

  They watched as Tony placed his hands on Sam’s shoulders and shook her gently. “Come on, Sam, Come on. It’s over.” He glanced around as if to confirm for her that what he said was the truth. “They’ve gone. The sun’s out. We’re okay. Come on. Wake up. It’s okay now, they’ve gone.”

  He let go of her shoulders and patted her face, but she didn’t wake, even though he continued his entreaties. His patting caused her head to move to the side, and Nicola saw the gaping space where the side of her neck had been. She stepped up and placed her hand on Tony’s shoulder, wanting to stop him, wanting to tell him that the girl was gone, but unable to make herself speak the words.

  He carried on trying to rouse her, a combination of pleading words – slowly becoming more incoherent as sobs overtook him – shakes and pats. Sam didn’t respond. She couldn’t.

  Words finally failing him, Tony carried on trying to wake her, but as he moved from her face to her shoulders once more, his fingers sank into her shoulders as whatever it was that turned a dead human into a zombie took hold of her. He expected her eyes to snap open showing whites stained with blood, and her lips to part in a snarling scream, but nothing like that happened. She simply melted away in his hands.

  Tony shrieked, his head back, tendons standing out on his neck, as she melted down into the mire of her attackers. His cry became a wail, and Nicola dropped down next to him, ignoring the way her knees tried to recoil from the wetness that immediately soaked her jeans. She pulled him against her and held him while he screamed out his terror and loss.

  Forty-nine

  Scott insisted that he and his colleagues be the first to leave the Hut. They emerged, rifles at the ready, but there was nothing to shoot other than the red pool which glistened in the revealed midday sun. As they stepped out, a noise made them turn in alarm, but they managed to stop themselves before they shot Buster, who was wandering round the side of the Hut looking for clean grass to crop.

  They shouted the all clear, and the refugees emerged. Alan and Andy assisted Bert, who kept mumbling that if only Doreen could have held on for a little longer it would all have been over.

  James, leading Alyssa, was one of the last to leave the building, so was able to witness the moment the power came b

  ack on. The lights in the vestibule of the Hut flashed once, making him cry out and Alyssa clutch him, and then they came to life again and this time stayed lit. They seemed dim in comparison to the sunlight both outside and pouring through the hole in the main hall’s roof, but their shining couldn’t have felt sweeter to James.

  They also lifted Alyssa’s spirits, and she pulled away from James, singing, “The lights are on, the lights are on,” and tugged people to come and see.

  Despite the obvious signs of carnage, destruction and loss, there was a feeling of happiness and celebration in the group, and many of them acquiesced to Alyssa, following her to peer in at the simple strip lights which lit the entrance to the Hut.

  No-one seemed in a hurry to get home. James watched them and wondered about that. He guessed it was the same thing he was feeling. Going home would remind them of what they had lost and what had happened. Staying here, in the sunshine outside the Hut, they could pretend that it was some other kind of gathering, a fete, a jumble sale, something. And maybe, now that the power was working again, someone would come and put everything else right. Maybe, if they waited, everything would just go back to normal.

  James wandered a little way down the road, trying to imagine the darkness and the mad race through ranks of zombies. It all seemed like a dream now. But, in the distance, he could see a sign of reality. A thick column of dark smoke rose on the horizon, spreading out into a plateau of darkness. He turned on the spot, noticing a few others from the group had joined him and were likewise staring into the distance. He counted three more smoke columns and in his mind’s eye saw many, many more of them sprouting all over the country; all over the world, maybe.

  He was still standing, lost in thought, when he heard a shout from down the lane. He refocused on the immediate and saw a small band approaching. It only took a moment to recognise Nicola, Tony, Dave, Dan and Daz. He looked past them but couldn’t see Sam.

  As they reached him, he opened his mouth to ask, but Nicola shook her head and he closed it again. He looked around at their faces, at Tony’s face, and saw his answer written there. Another one had fallen. Another lost, another gone. James felt, for perhaps the first time, the weight of his own losses. They threatened to overcome him, but then Nicola had let out a cry and run past him towards the Hut. Startled, Jame
s turned to watch her. As she ran towards the group still gathered at the Hut, he saw the small figure of Alyssa run towards her in turn.

  As James watched, mother and daughter met in the middle of the street, and suddenly nothing else mattered. Nicola swept her daughter up into a hug and turned around and around with her in his arms. They were both talking and crying, their two voices mixed together in incomprehensible sobs and protestations of love and prayers of thanks. James knew that his sadness and loss would probably never leave him, and would revisit him in a thousand different ways to come, but in this one moment of reconnection he knew that despite the columns of rising smoke, life would go on.

  Tearing his gaze away from Nicola, James glanced back at Tony, and saw tears running from his eyes unchecked. He could see hurt and loss in the man’s eyes, but also a reflection of his own feelings. In amongst the pain he could see possibilities. Tony’s eyes met James’s, and the two shared a fractured smile. James realised that he too was crying.

  The moment was broken by the sound of engines. Two army trucks came slowly into the village, and stopped by the Hut. Scott and his colleagues walked up and started talking with the important looking passenger in the front seat of the lead truck. With the return of power, however that had happened, Scott must have been able to radio in for reinforcements, and here they were. The hope of the villagers had been realised.

  Maybe, he thought, just maybe it would all be all right.

  Ignoring the arrival of the army, Nicola came back towards James and Tony, with Alyssa holding tight to her hand. Tony stepped forward and hugged Nicola, and then bent down to hug Alyssa too.

  As he straightened up again, James heard a familiar electronic chirping sound which seemed strange and alien after just twenty four hours silence. Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out a mobile phone. He glanced at the screen, pressed a button with his thumb. He moved to take the phone in both hands in the familiar ‘text-typing’ grip, then stopped. He looked up at Nicola, around at the others, then back down at the phone. He shrugged and a small smile crossed his lips. He turned and threw the phone over the hedge and into the field. Then, taking Nicola’s hand, and with James and the others following, he headed towards the trucks and whatever was going to happen next.

  Epilogue

  The alien invasion lasted a bare twenty-four hours in the end. If anyone ever actually knew where they came from, it was never made public. What was revealed was that it started with the unannounced arrival of a base-ship in orbit on the late morning of the first day. It quickly deployed smaller ships which travelled round the globe and attacked every military base on the planet simultaneously. This was just a way for them to land their ships in strategic locations and link them with a standing wave of some kind which acted to disable any electrical or electronic devices except those in their shielded ships and walkers.

  It would seem, mused many commentators, that their goal was to wipe out the human race, but to leave as much of the infrastructure intact and operational as possible, by temporarily disabling it rather than destroying it. At the same time, they used the walkers to spread their virus, the ‘zombie plague’ as it became known. No-one who was scooped into the walkers was able to tell what had happened there. But the presumption was that the aliens passed on the plague through their bite, the action which the zombies used to propagate it further.

  Experts calculated that, unchecked, the exponential spread of the virus would have consumed the whole human race in less than three days. Then, all the aliens would have had to do would have been take down their blanket of cloud and wait for the sun to wipe the earth clean.

  With all electronics and electrics disabled, no realistic defence against the invasion could be mounted, nor co-ordinated. But words had already been sent to the right places.

  At the moment of the arrival of the base-ship, instructions had been passed to the crew on the International Space-Station. Unaffected by the standing wave which blanketed the surface, they were able, after the twenty-four hours which they had been told to wait, to activate the space-borne defences which, even when everyone was talking about them, were still officially denied.

  According to the most believable of rumours, it was a combination of nuclear warheads fired from Chinese and Russian satellites, plus lasers and more warheads from those of the USA which brought down the base-ship. The resultant feedback from the explosion was enough to cause all of the landed ships and all of the walkers to explode.

  No-one could adequately explain just how such comparatively primitive weapons had been able to defeat the invaders, but some of the wilder rumours mentioned technology harvested from previous alien encounters. Nearly everyone mentioned Roswell. The governments of the world refused to either confirm or deny anything.

  With the restoration of power and communications, civilization reasserted itself relatively quickly. The official death-toll was calculated at nearly 1 billion in the end. It would have been more, said the experts, but with so many military bases being located away from population centres, the plague did not have much chance to move out of rural areas and into the more densely-populated cities.

  The world licked its wounds and considered itself lucky.

  James returned to live on his parents’ farm, and Bert sold his house and moved in with him. He was too old to find a new wife, he would say, but not too old to show a young man a thing or two.

  Alan and Charlotte could not return to their pub, but with Andy and Sandra they bought out and renovated the derelict Outdoor Pursuits Centre, Dave, Dan and Daz did the refit.

  Debbie, Ryan and Heidi were all just happy to get home

  Nicola returned to her life and her job with a new lightness and optimism. She allowed Alyssa to play whatever she wanted in the car, especially as the girl seemed to have gone off Bohemian Rhapsody.

  Tony did not return to his job, nor to any of the red-headed women from his past. Three weeks after the invasion, he and Nicola went out for dinner. Later they decided to mark the day of the invasion as their first date.

  Acknowledgements

  This book was originally written during NaNoWriMo 2010, something which I would never have undertaken – nor completed – without the encouragement and fellow-suffering of my wife, Kath, so immense thanks to her for that and so much more.

  Thanks also to Elaine Borthwick who joined us on that month of intensive writing. It wouldn’t have happened without you too.

  Thanks also need to go to those who have read and commented on this book, and its cover. That means you, Daniel Carpenter, Jackie Summers, Cat Randle, Sarah Hilary, Simon Crump, Samuel Newcombe, Micheál Ó Coinn, Rachel Kendell, Cathy Bryant, Lorraine Harvey, Nettie Thomson, Susan Howe, Amanda Huggins, Sarah Logan, Sue Hornby, and Mike Harris.

  Huge thanks should also go to all the various people who have helped and encouraged me in my writing over the years. You are far too numerous to mention, but you know who you are.

  Finally, huge thanks to Mum and Dad, without whom none of this would ever have happened, and keep happening.

  About the Author

  Calum Kerr is a writer, editor and lecturer living in the South of England with his wife, Kath (also a writer), his stepson, Milo, and a menagerie of animals.

  He is the Director of National Flash-Fiction Day and his flash-fictions have been published in a wide variety of journals, magazines, e-zines and blogs. He has published two collections, 31 and Braking Distance, and has 4 new pamphlets of flash-fictions coming out in early 2013.

  More information about him, his writing, and everything else he gets up to can be found at www.calumkerr.co.uk.

  Bonus Extra

  Judith

  For Mum, Duncan, Lorraine and the twins.

  She filled in the last answer on the crossword with a small noise of satisfaction, rose from her chair, and took her mug through the kitchen to wash it. She glanced at the clock – two-forty – time to think about getting ready to pick the twins up from school.

  B
ut just as she finished drying her hands the back door flew open and the twins rushed in.

  “Grandma, Grandma. We’ve come to get you! You have to get out. Daddy says... We have to...” Both twins were shouting all kinds of things, their voices overlapping and hurting her ears.

  She stepped back and tried to understand what was going on, “What? Slow down. You’ve come to get me? Why? What’s going on? Slow down and tell me what’s going on. Why aren’t you in school? Where’s Mummy and Daddy?”

  “Here, Mum,” Her eldest son, Duncan, was standing in the doorway. He was out of breath, but that didn’t bother her. The fact that his suit was ripped and blood was running from a cut in his forehead were much more important. She grabbed the wet cloth from the sink and passed it to him.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “What’s happened?”

  “I don’t know, Mum. I was just driving along, I was just about to ring and tell you not to pick the kids up as I was back early, and then I saw this crowd blocking the road. I slowed down to see what was going on, and they turned on me. They surrounded the car and smashed the window then grabbed and scratched me.”