Zombie Slaver (Zombie Botnet Book 4)

by Al K. Line

  "Afraid so Al, you will have to sooner or later. But look, you have to be prepared for it to be bad news. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but, well..."

  "I am having the autism and I am not being normal," Al sulked. All his life he had tried to cope with his autism, and he was sick and tired of always being different. He wanted to be like other people and have a girlfriend, that's all.

  "Al, we are all different is all. You think people ever thought me or Ven were normal people? Everyone has their quirks and weird shit, yours is just a little bigger than most. Don't let it affect how you are with Mandy. Take it slow and see if she begins to show an interest."

  "Thank you Kyle, you have been most helpful. You are my friend."

  Al and Kyle walked back to the bus and embarked. He went up to Mandy and said "Mandy, you are being my girlfriend?"

  "Yes Al, I would like that a lot."

  So much for taking advice, thought Kyle, staring wide-eyed as Mandy got up and, standing on tip-toes, gave Al a big wet kiss on the lips.

  Al stood there, stunned. A grin only just contained by his face spread like wildfire until he couldn't hold it in any longer. He picked Mandy up as delicately as he could and whirled her around in the confined space while whooping for joy.

  "Al, put me down, put me down," laughed Mandy, trying not to wince at the pain she still felt with every movement. "I will be your very special girlfriend Al, but you need to be careful, I am still hurting you know?"

  Al put her down as gently as a newborn, shame burning his face. "I am sorry Mandy, I am just being the very happy man. Did I hurt you? I will be careful. Kyle said I should not be asking you but I knew I would be afraid if I waited, and I think you are so very special, to be my girlfriend is—"

  "Al, calm down, it's okay. I'm not going to break. You just need to be careful until I am properly healed. But I think you are great and I will be your special girl, for sure."

  Bos Bos was jumping up and down excitedly, wanting to be picked up and twirled about too. It looked like fun. He was barking and wagging, pleased to see some action of a happy kind on the bus.

  Kyle and Ven exchanged a few surreptitious surprised looks. Both rather amazed at Mandy's reaction to Al's request.

  But hey, love has no boundaries.

  ###

  "Surprised, right?" said Mandy that evening, as she was sat next to Ven on one side of the campfire, the men on the other, talking about the various ways they were going to cook all the food. It mostly involved barbecue. Well, it exclusively involved barbecue. They just argued over the best ways to cook that involved... you get the picture. They liked barbecue.

  "Well, okay, I admit it, I am a little surprised. Both that Al asked you, and if I am honest that you said yes. Don't get me wrong, Al is a great guy, but he's not the usual type for hot young blonds. Especially ones that have been almost sold into slavery. You are doing this for the right reason? Not, well, just 'cause he is big and sure to try to protect you? Sorry, that sounds cold, but it would be more than understandable."

  "I know, I thought about that too. I knew he liked me, that was pretty obvious. I bet he doesn't even know what color my eyes are yet, he spends so much time talking to these." Mandy patted her chest, noticing with a wry smile that Al was instantly aware of just where her hands were. He had a sixth sense about these things.

  "Ha, yeah, he's not exactly subtle is he?" chortled Ven. "Look, I didn't mean to be rude, I just don't want to see him get hurt, and I want you to be sure you are making the right decision, and for the right reason."

  "No problem, I understand I really do. A big guy like that? Someone that can protect you from the madness? It would be easy to say yes even if you didn't mean it, but I do, I think he's great. The first time I saw him I kind of had a feeling in my stomach about him, I don't think it's ever happened before."

  "And, you know, um... down there. Is everything okay?" whispered Ven, not wanting to intrude but wanting to be a friend and a confidant if needed.

  "I think so. But we won't be getting up to anything like that for some time. It's not something you get over quickly, what those horrible men did. But I do want to be with Al, I won't let the past dictate my future, I'm stronger than that. And they never actually got to... you know, I wouldn't... I'm a fighter."

  "I bet you are Mandy, you're one seriously tough woman you know?" said Ven admiringly.

  "Thanks Ven, you're not so bad yourself," said Mandy, hugging her new friend and soaking up the warmth from the close embrace.

  What, Live With Other People?

  "Listen, I don't know about you but I think we should go to Camberwick and see if they will take us in. Me and Al have been discussing it and I think it will do him good. Plus I think it will be good for you guys too. Other people, really good defenses, well, sort of, and it's all a bit more... um, organized. What do you think? We've been here for weeks now and I think it's time to go, we both do."

  "Not bloody likely," said Kyle.

  "That's a big fat no from me too, sorry," said Ven.

  "You are not wanting to come and live with us in a nice house where we could all be a family together?" asked an insanely verbose Al.

  Ven and Kyle both looked at each other and there was an obvious mutual agreement, they didn't need to discuss it any more than that.

  "Look guys, you know I love you to bits and all, but it's just not our thing really. Neither of us are good in big groups of people, we kind of like to keep ourselves to ourselves, and there are a few other overriding reasons why we would be better off not staying put in one place where there are large groups of people. Who I assume are well armed and slightly pissed off about the whole zombie apocalypse thing, am I right?" said Ven.

  "About the well armed bit?" asked Mandy.

  "Yes."

  "Well, yeah, not loads of guns or anything, but there are plenty of defenses and people have makeshift weapons and all manner of other stuff. What's going on here? There's something you aren't telling me, right? Is it what happened with Tomas, the weird stuff the man in the skirt said?" Mandy looked at Al, who squirmed uncomfortably under the gaze of his beloved.

  His autism meant it was very hard for him to tell a lie, even by omission. His mother had taken years to slowly get him to understand that sometimes people do not want to hear the truth about how fat they are and that they need to go on a diet, or that they looked stupid in their new dress, and a million other things people in polite society simply didn't do. Al never quite got to grips with the whole concept, seeing things from other people's point of view was nigh on impossible for him, and Ven could see him about ready to pop with the truth about what Ven had done, aided in no small measure by Kyle.

  "Okay, look, this is the reason why we can't come with you. Al is going to tell you anyway, he can't lie, and he will put himself and all of us in danger if we stay somewhere where there are lots of people. No offense," said Kyle, nodding at Al as he spoke.

  "None is being taken Kyle, you are telling the truth, as I am best doing. My Mandy does not know yet, but I would be telling her soon, she is my girlfriend after all." Al never got tired of saying that.

  Mandy squeezed his giant hand, her slender fingers looking like a child's wrapped through his thick ones. Al squeezed back gently, looking at her adoringly, trying to keep his eyes on her face. She had warned him repeatedly about how rude it was to address a woman's chest when talking to her, even if she did kind of like it when he did it. But not all the time. It was hard to explain to Al that it made her feel like a sex object. Al simply thought it the highest complement for someone to desire you so much, not realizing that maybe it was distracting to have somebody talk to your cleavage all the time.

  The problem for Al was that the massive height difference gave him such a great view downward it was hard not to take a peek.

  Realizing he was doing it again Al looked up to a disapproving stare from Mandy, who said, "Okay, what's going on then? If my big man is going to tell me anyway
, why don't you just get it over with now?"

  So Ven told of what she had done.

  She told of her life as a hacker, of her grand finale that had such dire consequences for the whole planet. She told of her and Kyle going to find her sister. Of the glimpse of the botnet that Tomas had. The death of Mike, her sister, the first encounter with the alpha zombie — everything. It took a long time, so much had happened. Kyle interjected now and then to fill in gaps Ven missed, or to talk about when he began to notice Tomas acting differently when the infected were close and more agitated than normal.

  Ven explained what Alpha had said about Tomas to her in private, and why the zombies had reacted the way that they did. Then she went into depth about her recent two week hiatus from the real world to try to get a better understanding of what had really happened to turn the world upside down.

  Mandy merely sat there, too stunned to say anything until it was all over. She began to cry, gentle tears running down her still bruised cheeks, her hair falling forward over her face as she bowed her head. Al brushed away the tears as gently as a mother brushing away the tears of a child, delicately moving her hair away from her face.

  Everyone waited with baited breath for her to speak. "That poor little child," she murmured. "How awful that such a thing could have happened. Is he going to be alright? What will happen to him as he gets older? Oh, poor little baby." She began to cry again. Bos Bos sidled up and nudged her hand, thinking she would probably cheer up if he allowed her to give his itchy ear a bit of a rub. It always made him feel better when someone did it so he assumed it must be the same for them too.

  "You are now being okay my Mandy? You are not doing hating of us all, especially of Ven," said Al, giving Ven a look like she had been very naughty for upsetting his special lady.

  "I'm okay," said Mandy, "it's just so sad is all. What's going to happen to poor little Tomas?" She scratched Bos Bos' left ear absentmindedly, Bos Bos pushed his head further to one side, better to help Mandy with what was obviously something she really wanted to do. He could but try to help!

  "You don't blame me? For everything?" asked Ven cautiously. "But you understand why we can't come with you don't you? At some point people will find out, and to be honest even Al left us when he first found out. We thought we would never see him again."

  "I have been saying the sorry for this many times now Ven, you are knowing this. I may, just may, have not been doing the exact right thing then, but we are the very best of good friends now." Al was feeling jittery, he didn't like this situation at all. He grabbed a piece of Mandy's long blond hair, then began counting single hairs as he threaded them through his fingers.

  "Al baby, it's okay, you can stop that now. I'm here." Mandy reached out for his hand, stroking the back of it, and Al slowly began to relax and released himself from his obsessive behavior. "No, I don't blame you Ven. Although it's a pretty strange thing to do, or try to do. All that computer stuff," she waved it away dismissively. "I don't really understand it. I don't know how you could be hacking people's accounts at all, but if you say that's what you did then I believe you. But you didn't cause the infection actually yourself, did you? Someone else hacked you, so they are to blame, not you. Um, wow, shit, look. Oops, sorry Al," said Mandy, interrupting herself as she looked out the window simultaneously realizing she had said a swear word, which Al absolutely did not approve of — from ladies or from men. Certainly not from 'his' lady.

  Everyone followed her gaze, only to see a mob of emus running past the bus, intent on some important emu mission or other. Everyone smiled, the dark atmosphere broken. They spent some time discussing the other animals they had all seen.

  Returning to the subject some time later Mandy confirmed that she absolutely didn't blame Ven and began to well up again at the thought of poor Tomas and what the future may hold for him.

  "So, you both understand why we can't come and stay with you at Camberwick? It just simply wouldn't be safe. Not for any of us, you two included. If people find out that Tomas is maybe infected somehow, that he seems to have some kind of control, or at least connection with the infected, and that I started it all. Well, I didn't, but lots of people will say I did, then all of our lives are in danger. They might even blame Bos Bos too."

  Bos Bos lifted his head from the ear attention he was receiving at the mention of his name, saw a lone emu stroll past the window, and ran out barking, sure that he had been missing out. A little annoyed that nobody had told him there were intruders on the premises that needed sorting out asap.

  "We are doing the understanding Ven, and I am being truly sorry if I am losing my bestest of friends. You will be doing the neighbor thing and coming visiting for a cup of tea and a sandwich though, yes?"

  "Um, yeah, sure Al. Maybe we can come back regular and we can all catch up on the news. Or maybe someday we will come and join you? But yeah, we will have to stay in touch. Shame there isn't a network for the phones anymore."

  "What about CB radios?" ventured Kyle. "Maybe we could stay in touch that way? Anyone know anything about them?"

  "I do," said Al brightly. "That is a most excellent idea Kyle. Did you know that you only need 4 watts for some models. And that it is only the FM frequencies that are legal in the UK, AM is illegal, but there are 40 allocated frequencies for the FM frequency." Al paused, thinking. "But I am not knowing what that means now, as is there still anything that is being illegal? And I am not knowing how it works with the antennas and if things like this work now without the radios being working and there not being any power."

  "Well, let's find out shall we? If we can dig up some while we are on our travels then we will come back and drop off a set for you guys," said Kyle. "How does that sound? Or we can always write to each other," said Kyle, trying to lighten the mood.

  "Kyle, there is not the Royal Mail any more, you are knowing this? Yes?" Al looked at Kyle like he was an idiot.

  "Um, yes, I am knowing this Al," said Kyle with a sigh.

  The conversation continued for a while. For the next few days the newly extended family stayed close to each other, looking out for lions, but otherwise enjoying the many strange animals they encountered as they drove the bus every day around the safari park, seeing who could spot the first animal they hadn't seen before.

  But before long it was obvious that it was time to drive to the sanctuary Mandy had been taken from, and for Al and Mandy to go their way, the rest to go theirs. Even with wild animals there were infected always close by, the constant stress of seeing heads bashed, gore flying, and the fear of capture by the slavers was obviously too much for Mandy. It was not going to be long before she insisted on them leaving. So it was agreed that it was best to go soon, to ensure that Mandy never had to face again what had happened to her. So that hopefully her and Al could gradually get to know each other better, which Al was very much looking forward to — once Mandy had recovered properly and their relationship went beyond Al exploring her voluptuous upper body with his very large hands. He was just happy that he had something nice and squishy that he could finally put his large hands to use holding.

  They drove off early in the morning, anticipation tinged with much sadness, and they all waved goodbye to the giraffe, which would hopefully still be there when Kyle and Ven returned very soon. They had both grown to enjoy the place and Ven had finally come around to the idea of staying there for a while.

  Bit 'Mad Max-like' Innit

  "Whoa," said Kyle, hunching forward in the driver's seat of Basil bus and squinting at the towering block of industrial bits and pieces that seemed to stretch off in all directions, cutting across the road and bisecting the bridge. "Bit like something out of Mad Max innit? What's with all the crazy stuff? Couldn't they have just built a fence or something?"

  "Well, the leader said that a fence is a really stupid idea. Anyone with a brain would know that if enough zombies pushed against it it would easily fall over. Plus a big van could just drive right through. Anyone that thinks a fence i
s a good idea is kind of asking for drama and for zombies and people to attack them. But this? Well, you can't exactly just go fast and hope to knock it down, can you?" Mandy was right, it was like, and was, an impenetrable wall of machinery, industrial equipment, scrap, old cars, even bits of planes, and anything else that could be piled up, crunched into shape by a bailing press taken from a junkyard, and stacked so high that it seemed in danger of all toppling over.

  "Yeah, I guess," said Kyle, wondering at the amount of work that must have gone into such an endeavor.

  "It looks more impressive than it actually is," said Mandy. "The river goes almost all the way around the village, so a lot of it doesn't have such high walls, the river is used like a moat for a castle, and this bridge?" she said, pointing ahead. "Well, it's kind of like an old drawbridge I guess. This is the only real way in or out. If they don't want to let you in then it would be next to impossible to enter."

  Kyle pulled to a stop in the middle of the narrow bridge that led to the only access point. Mandy had said that the whole place was very small, it was just a village that had been taken over by a group of people, residents and those looking for sanctuary, and kind of grown from that. It was only word of mouth that had allowed people to find it. With the few outsiders that had arrived mostly staying put numbers inside stayed low, less than a few hundred by Mandy's reckoning.

  Gradually it got better and better equipped, and fortified, as they all took turns to go out on raiding parties. Some of the men experienced in working at scrapyards had slowly but surely turned the whole place into a safe haven for anyone that found it, as well as the existing residents.

  Ven came up from the back to get a better look out the front window, whistling at the towering walls that confronted them. "So, what's the guy like that runs the place then? He all military and barking orders and rationing food, that kind of thing?" she said dubiously.

  "No, it's not like that at all. Mostly people just get about their own business. It's not like a hardcore operation or anything like that. You do what you want. Have a house, just like normal... well, sort of." Mandy thought for a minute about how best to explain it. "There are some idiots there, for sure. Some of the men are a little over the top survivalist types, a bit rough around the edges. Some of the women too. But mostly it's just regular people, families, lone survivors, lots of people kind of still in shock by the whole thing. The leader? Well, Charlie is just a bit of a middle-management type. He runs the place with a small team. To be honest it seems to mostly consist of crunching numbers and doing rotas."