by Aline Riva
“You can't see me,” he whispered.
The zombies stumbled on, then sniffed the air and turned back as up ahead those closest to the discarded food saw others grab at the carcass yet again and they lumbered forward, shrieking as they reclaimed their meal.
“I'm invisible to them!” he exclaimed, “I'm safe!”
Then he looked up and saw a small ledge where the wall met the ceiling. Right above it was a window. Zodiac backed up and prepared to jump.
“This is so much fun!” he said, laughing as he ran, then he leapt for the high up ledge, landing on it like a cat as he looked down in amusement at the clueless zombies who were below him, looking around and failing to spot him. He reached for the window, opened it and then paused to take in a breath of clean air that carried only the scent of the sea and no hint of the death stink that cloyed about this place.
“One more jump,” he said, looking out of the window, “Then back to the medical centre... Daddy will never know I was gone...”
Greg had lost count of the times he had shouted his son's name as he headed back towards the fairground. He was guessing this would be the place he would go to because it was becoming familiar, the hotel was just across the street and he felt it, his instinct was telling him Zodiac would be here somewhere... that same paternal instinct was also nagging horribly at him that Zodiac needed him urgently and that scared the hell out him, it made his heart pound and his shirt was drenched with sweat as he stopped, pausing breathless outside the gates to the fairground.
He looked about the place feeling sure that a white eyed, white haired kid would be easy to spot, but as he searched the busy area he saw no one who looked remotely like his son.
“Where are you?” he said anxiously, looking left and right.
Greg went into the fair, he stopped random people, then asked security. They all shook their heads or looked at him in confusion - they had seen no virus kid around here, not today...
He ignored the Closed sign and went up to the circus tent. The entrance was down, but he saw a gap and pulled at the brightly coloured fabric and peered inside to see two men dragging chained zombies across the ring. The creatures snapped and snarled and struggled against the chains and twice one of the guys had to pull back, as an agitated zombie lunged in for a bite. But Zodiac was nowhere to be seen, so he left them to it, turning to the path that led to the caravans. As he passed Cleo's caravan he heard the sound of children's laughter and looked through the gap between the farthest caravans to see a group of children playing in the field. For a moment his hopes rose, but one look told him Zodiac was not among them.
It was then he looked up at the roof of the large building at the back of the field. A small window was opening... and someone was climbing out, someone small, with white hair that shone silver as it caught the light of the sinking sun...
“Zodiac!” he yelled as he broke into a run, “NO!”
On hearing his father's voice, Zodiac leapt from the roof. As he fell, Greg could only watch in horror, it was as heart stoppingly horrible as the moment he had realised he was missing. Then the boy landed like a cat, got up and laughed. Greg stared at him in disbelief.
“Did you see that?” Zodiac said as he ran up to him, “Daddy, I can jump so high! I can jump down too and I don't hurt myself! That building is full of zombies... I fell in with all of them. They couldn't see me. Zombies can't see me, Daddy!”
Greg had heard him say something about a horde being kept in the building, but all that registered was the fact that his son was okay. He had found him and he was unharmed. He had seen him make an impossible jump and he had not realised until now that zombies couldn't see him, but none of it mattered, or the fact that his son stunk strongly of the undead. He hugged him tightly, blinking away tears of relief as he held on, feeling thankful he was safe and well. Then he let go and grabbed him by the shoulders as his face flushed with anger.
“You little sod!” he snapped, “What the hell were you thinking, to go up there?”
“I wanted to explore!” Zodiac's eyes filled with tears. He was in trouble and he knew it.
“You could have been killed!”
“But they can't see me!”
“Why, has Flint cut their eyes out? Maybe there's a new side show involving zombie eyes -”
“No, Daddy! They just couldn't see me! I think it's because I'm special.”
Relief at finding him had turned to anger but now it drained away as his words registered. Zodiac certainly had some special skills that set him apart from all adults as well as other children... He knew at once Flint could not learn any of this.
“Listen to me,”he said carefully, “You mustn't let anyone know about your gifts. If other people find out it will get back to Flint and then he will come after you and then I will have to kill him. He can't find out you have special abilities, he will try and use you for it, make you work for him...I won't allow that, I'm keeping you safe. So you keep this secret, okay? Just between us, son?”
Zodiac nodded, feeling relieved his father was no longer angry.
“Good boy,” he said, pausing to ruffle his hair, “Now, lets go back to the hotel – I'm going to leave you with Uncle Marc, then I'm taking a car and fetching Cleo – that's another secret, no one must know she's at the hotel because she's staying with me.”
“What about me?” Zodiac asked as they headed for the hotel.
“You can stay with Uncle Marc and Vicki.”
“But I want to stay with you!” he whined, then he snapped his teeth together as the urge to bite began to get stronger.
“You will do as I say!” Greg said firmly, “I told you to wait in the office. You know not to run off!”
“I was bored!”
“That's no excuse!” Greg yelled.
Zodiac lunged, grabbing his hand and biting sharply.
“GET OFF ME!” Greg shouted, then as Zodiac loosened his grip as he prepared to bite again, he pulled his hand back covered in teeth marks, grabbed his son and slung him over his shoulder and walked towards the fairground exit. Zodiac fought him all the way. He was sure other parents felt embarrassed when their kid had a tantrum in public, but with Zodiac, it was so much more than that. He was snarling and snapping his teeth together, if not for the fact that he was a living shade, people would have mistaken him for a real undead kid.
“You're a horrible Daddy, you told me off!” he yelled.
Every person in the vicinity turned their head. Greg carried on walking quickly towards the gates, his sights fixed now on the hotel across the street.
“Yes, that's right, I'm a very nasty Daddy for telling you to keep out of danger. What ever, Zodiac...” he said wearily, carrying the crying, struggling child across the street and towards the hotel.
As he headed for the entrance, he put his son down and spoke to him quietly but sternly as the boy began to calm once more.
“And don't you EVER run off again,” he added, “I asked you to stay close to me for your own safety, I know you get bored at the medical centre, but I have to keep you safe!”
“I'm sorry,” Zodiac said quietly.
Greg held out his hand, turning it over to show him the bite mark.
“And what else are you sorry for, Zodiac Fitzroy?”
“I'm sorry for biting you, Daddy.”
Marc came out of the hotel and joined them.
“I heard him yelling across the street. Was it a tantrum?”
“A very bad one,” he replied, “And you don't want to know why... he broke into the horde storage building. No one caught him, he jumped from the roof -”
“The roof?”
Greg shook his head.
“Not now,” he said, “There's more, but not now, please. Just take him upstairs and keep an eye on him. I promised Cleo I'd sneak her back to the hotel, she needs to be some place Flint can't find her. I need a car.”
“No worries,” Marc replied, then gave a shrill whistle and a guard parked across the street looked
over. He beckoned to him and the car drove over and parked outside the hotel.
“The doctor needs to borrow your car,” Marc said, “He won't be long. By the way, I heard someone was pick pocketing in the fair – over by the rides just past the big top. You'd better go and check it out, Flint will go nuts if he thinks you guys missed it.”
The guard thanked him for the information and hurried off. The engine was still running as the car sat outside the hotel.
“Hurry up,” Marc reminded Greg, “He won't be gone for long – I don't want anyone catching sight of Cleo in that car. Be careful – Flint has so many spies.”
“I can handle this, just look after Zodiac,” he replied, then he got in the car and drove off.
“Have you been naughty today?” Marc asked.
Zodiac looked up at him, his translucent eyes were full of regret.
“I bit my Daddy.”
“Don't bite me,” Marc reminded him, “Because I'm not cross with you – yet. Are you going to be good for me and Vicki?”
Zodiac nodded.
“Okay,” Marc told him, “Let's go back to the suite, if you behave I'll call room service to fetch some ice cream.”
“Yay!” said Zodiac, all his upset forgotten as thoughts of ice cream filled his head, and then Marc led him back inside.
It had been harder to slip away from Christian than it had been to distract the guard and get Cleo in the car at last. Christian had demanded Greg help out with the heavily crowded reception area, but Greg had glanced at his watch and said he would sort the urgent from the non urgent cases when they reopened in the morning.
“So I have to go and tell forty plus people they have to wait another day to be seen?” he had demanded.
“I'm sorry, I need to get Cleo out. Just tell them to come back in the morning – it's a miracle this place has opened up again, they have to expect long waits!” Then Greg had hurried off down the corridor as Cleo limped beside him still aching from the fall, the pain now lingered mainly in her arm but her hip and leg still ached.
As they drove away, curiosity got the better of him as he looked to the main road and wondered where the other direction led.
“Don't bother going up there,” Cleo told him, “It's just an old closed off bridge. There was a huge pile up when people tried to get out during the apocalypse. It leads to nowhere now, just a steep drop – Flint had it destroyed so the dead couldn't cross.”
“I would have done the same,” he agreed, “But I still want to see it, this won't take long.”
“I'd rather we didn't,” she said nervously, but it was too late, the car was turning left and heading up the tree lined road towards a place where the road grew wider and went steadily uphill.
“No, please.. it's really high! I hate heights, don't do this to me!”
He glanced at her as they drove along and amusement danced in his gaze as he looked back to the road, watching his speed and for signs of the bridge that led nowhere.
“Why have you got your hands over your eyes, Cleo?”
“Because I'm scared! You saw what I was like with the rope stunt! I'm almost as scared of the bridge!”
“I don't see why, it's not like I'm going to speed up and drive over the edge...” He accelerated, her hands flew from her eyes as she looked at him in alarm.
“Oh shit, slow down!”
Greg laughed, killing the speed as he shook his head.
“Cleo, I value my own life very much and I also have my son to look after, do you really think I'd be that stupid?”
“I hope not!”
Her face was still pale. He laughed again, then took the car up the hill, now driving slowly and carefully as they reached the top and the broken bridge was in sight, up ahead there was a tangle of burned out cars. He shut off the engine and got out of the car.
“Come on,” he said.
“What? I'm not getting out. I don't like it up here!”
Greg strolled over and stood by the bridge, then stepped up on to the ledge. There was another ledge above him that led to the steep downward drop. From where he stood he could look over and see the drop below and a motorway full of ghostly wrecks, long since crashed or abandoned. The wind blew his long coat, making it flap back as he stood there with his back to the edge.
“Come over here, Cleo.”
She was out of the car now, but looking in terror to the place where he stood.
“No!”
He held his arms out to her.
“There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm not going to pretend I know as much as Christian does about these things, but I can help you fight your fear.”
As the wind blew again she tried not to think about the drop below. He was standing there with such fearless confidence that she was able to scrape up what little courage she had when faced with her fear -, now she just wanted to walk into his arms, this was a mix of wanting to meet a challenge and putting her faith in Greg. She needed to do both, but her legs shook as she walked towards him slowly, she kept her eyes on the ground, her boots were painfully high and she had left them behind, but she still wore the black sequinned outfit from the night she had fallen from the rope and it caught and sparkled in the fading light as she took a final step and reached him.
He put his arms around her and held her tightly.
“Well done,” he said, then he took her hand.
“What now?” she asked nervously.
“If you stand with your back to the bridge and don't look down, you have two steps back and another to get on to the ledge. I'm going to do that with you next time, just to show you there's nothing to be afraid of. That ledge is very big, even if you fell over when you stepped up, you wouldn't be close to the edge. I estimate you'd have to take another nine steps back, maybe more. Want to try it?”
She stepped out of his embrace, hurrying back to the roadside, then she breathed a relieved sigh.
“Are you sure you don't want to try it?” Greg was still standing on the bridge.
She shook her head.
“I'm very sure I never want to get that close to the edge again!”
He laughed and stepped down from the ledge, then he joined her and got back in the car. She was already inside, door closed and window rolled up, face turned away from the sheer drop.
“That was scary,” she said.
Greg started the engine, reversed and then turned back for the road.
“I was just trying to help you,” he replied, “And that bridge is not scary. Swimming from an oil rig to a boat in a sea full of zombies is scary, so is getting bitten! I'm full of scars, I'll show you later... if you want to see my scars?”
He gave a her a playful glance and she couldn't resist smiling back at him.
“I'd love to see them!”
He chuckled as he drove towards the road that led to the hotel.
“You'd love to see them? Why are you so keen, Cleo?”
“Stop it.”
“No, I want to know why?”
He glanced at her. She was blushing.
“I can't wait to see your body!” she confessed.
He laughed.
“And then I can show you my battle scars,” he said as he gave her a wink and humour crept into his voice.
“Oh my god, Greg!” she giggled, “Stop talking like that, you're turning me on more than you know!!”
“I haven't even started yet!” he teased, casting her another glance as passion smouldered in his gaze and that look told her he knew exactly what he was doing, “Wait until later, once we get settled for the night!”
Then he glanced towards the fairground, saw no guards about, and swung the car in the parking area at the back of the hotel and switched off the engine.
“We need to hurry,” he told her, and got out of the car. Just as she followed and then slipped in through the hotel fire exit, she turned back to him.
“I need a change of clothes from my caravan... I don't have anything with me!”
He kissed he
r briefly.
“I'll go and get it. You go upstairs now. I'm in the second suite on the right. Here, take the key.” He handed her the key and she went inside, then he crossed the parking area, waited for armoured cars to pass, and crossed the road and headed back into the fairground.
Flint had spent the day with Parsons, showing him around the fair, then behind the scenes in closed off areas where zombie dismemberment took place when body parts were needed, as he put it, for decoration or entertainment. He had offered to show him the nearby zombie brothel, but as Parsons had declined, he had then instructed him to spend the evening with the circus workers. He wanted him to know every aspect of how the heart of this place was run.
Now Parsons had headed off towards the circus tent, the sun was setting and soon Flint knew he would be out in the ring welcoming the crowds who had come to see the show. He thought about going back into his office and taking some time out to have a drink or two before he left, but then as he stood in the doorway, he looked over at Cleo's caravan in time to see Greg leave with a bag stuffed with her clothing.
His eyes reflected pure ice as he watched him cut through the gap between caravans and then get lost in the crowd, moments later he was out the other side and through the gates, he crossed the street and hurried into the hotel, taking a glance over his shoulder as he headed inside.
Flint's fist screwed into a ball as cold rage took over his thoughts:
So Cleo was over at the hotel with Greg Fitzroy? And Greg, little more than a stranger in this town, believed he could steal his woman?
His jaw went tight as he turned over his choices, then a smile spread across his face as he decided on the best course of action:
It would happen late at night, a rare, unexplained murder, brutal and bloody. He would chain a zombie and lead it in the back way after midnight... If they wanted each other, they could have this evening. Then they would die the way he saw fit: Death by zombie seemed an appropriate way for the traitors to go...