Death Plague [Four Zombie Novels]

by Ian Woodhead

  “Pass me those pieces of stone next to your feet, Daniel.” He held out his hand and watched his brother carefully pick up every one, including the stones too small for the purpose intended. Mortimer dropped the smallest ones down first, followed by the large pieces. He heard them clatter across the hard floor and waited, keeping his ears open for any sound indicating that they might have company down there. Mortimer notched a bolt into the weapon and pointed it into the hole.

  “Why does this place look so familiar?”

  Mortimer tuned his brother’s voice out, then leaned into the hole. He put the crossbow down and grabbed the edges while lowering his head further down. The skylight led into a large storage room. He smiled at the sight of over a dozen tins stacked on a metal shelf located at the far side of the room. He saw no movement; there wasn’t anywhere for anyone or anything to hide either. “Brilliant,” he said. “It’s safe.” Mortimer picked up the crossbow, slung it onto his back, and started to climb down the rope ladder. “Daniel, wait until I’m on the floor before following me. Don’t forget your gun.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “Totally safe. It looks as though we might get a meal out of it as well.” Mortimer reached the bottom and released the rope. It took a great deal of resistance not to run over to that shelf to see what the goodies were. He dared not leave Daniel though. If the ladder did break, at least the big lunk would have a soft landing.

  He took one step back and gave Daniel some room.

  “It smells musty in here,” said his brother as he placed both feet on the floor.

  “It’s better than it stinking of bad meat,” Mortimer replied, walking over to the shelf. “It means that we’re safe, at least in here.” He picked up the first tin, sighing when he saw the label had long since worn away. It could be anything from dog food to rice pudding. He gave the contents a shake. It didn’t sound too liquidy. Even so, he was still none the wiser. “Here you go, Daniel, catch,” he said, throwing the tin at him. “What do you think is inside it?”

  Daniel caught the tin and shook it as well. “I’ve no idea. Why don’t we just open it and find out?” He dropped to the floor, placed the tin in front of him, and pulled out a large knife.

  Mortimer quickly checked out the other tins before joining him. “Go on then, get it open, let’s see if the gods are shining down on us today.” His stomach growled and his mouth began to water as soon as the sweet scent of fruit reached his nostrils when Daniel punched a hole in the top of the tin.

  “Oh Jesus,” gasped Daniel. “It’s full of strawberries!” He looked across at his brother. “Do you mind if I taste first?”

  Mortimer squeezed his stomach muscles together. “You can have the tin, Daniel, I’ll grab another one.” He frowned. “It might be best if you take your time eating them, though. It’s been a while since you’ve had anything so rich.” Judging by his actions, his brother hadn’t heard a word that he’d just said. Daniel was too busy using his knife to rip off the top. Mortimer hurried back over to the shelf and picked up anther tin and shook it. If this one was full of dog food, he fully intended to throw it at his brother.

  He pulled out his own knife and pushed the tip into the top. Mortimer chuckled. There was meat inside but it wasn’t for a dog or a cat. He’d just found a tin of steak. He looked over at his brother, currently holding his tin up and greedily gulping down the contents. It was such a bizarre sight, considering that back before The Change, Daniel hated fruit, especially strawberries. He carefully pushed the blade into the metal at the edge, sawed off the top and peeled the metal back.

  Mortimer dug his fingers into the brown mush and scooped out a generous portion, then pushed it into his warm mouth, groaning in ecstasy. If it wasn’t for the hundreds of dead things around this building, Mortimer could quite easily name this the happiest day of the past four years. He scooped out another fingerful of food and opened his mouth to receive the joyous bounty while counting the rest of the tins. The twelve remaining tins should keep them happy for at least a week, if they could find some water. He shook his flask and sighed when he worked out that it was already half empty.

  He looked back at his brother and saw that he was already eying the other tins. “Shall we see what else is in here?”

  Daniel grinned. “Hell yeah.” He hurried over to the door. “It’ll be ironic if it’s locked.”

  Mortimer passed his brother his tin. “Here, finish it off.” He un-slung the crossbow and crept over to the door while keeping his finger on the trigger “Get ready,” he whispered, reaching for the door handle. He counted to three and turned the handle then pulled. A gust of more stale air hit him in the face when he pulled the door open. He coughed when the disturbed dust particles went down his throat. He saw no movement out here and there was no evidence that any dead thing had been down here either.

  Could they have actually found a decent place to rest up? Something like this, a safe hideout, would mean he’d be able to stay longer in the city to look for resources. Until the discovery of this place and those tins, he’d been close to giving up on the city, believing it to have been cleared out by other groups years before. Obviously, the city had seen its fair share of plunderers, but now at least he knew that some places had been left untouched. “All ready for me to plunder,” he whispered, grinning to himself.

  He followed the dust-covered corridor, glancing at the framed prints of images of an old city from last century screwed to the wall. It took him a few moments to realize that this place must have been an old mill that had been converted into industrial units some time in its past. Judging from the prints on the other wall, this was a printing works.

  “Hey Daniel, didn’t you used to work in a printing place?” He glanced behind him and saw his brother was once again not taking any notice of what he was saying. Daniel was too busy staring at a picture of three dogs playing pool. “Hello, Earth to Daniel, is there anybody inside?”

  His brother slowly turned and looked at Daniel. “Yeah, I heard you. I heard every syllable. I now know why I knew there was a toyshop in the next street.” He hurried forward and pushed past Mortimer.

  “Wait up, what are you doing?”

  Daniel didn’t slow down.

  “For fuck’s sake, you idiot, wait for me. We don’t know how safe it is.” He sighed and ran after his brother, watching him disappear around the corner. He skidded to a halt, almost colliding with Daniel who was gazing at the floor. There was evidence that this building had been occupied sometime after The Change. He looked at the burnt patch of green carpet that showed a blackened area of floorboard.

  His brother kicked over a tin. “Now we know who put the tins on that shelf.”

  “Why did you run off?”

  Daniel pointed to a black panelled door on the other side of the corridor. “Go through there, Mortimer, and look at the wall behind the large antique desk that’s going to be in there, next to the window.”

  Mortimer gave his brother a long hard stare, trying to work out what his game was. He then saw tears in Daniel’s eyes. He turned and grabbed the door handle and pushed. The door swung open and the first thing that hit him was the faint smell of pine.

  “It’s air freshener,” whispered his brother over his shoulder. “Mr. Warner’s office always stunk of it. The fat old bastard loved the smell. It used to make me sick. Who’d have thought that the smell would still be here?”

  Mortimer saw the large desk by the window, just like his brother had said. He looked back at him. This time, Mortimer saw nothing that he recognized. “Do I want to know how you knew?”

  His brother pointed to the wall. “I’ve already told you. Go have a look at the pictures. This is seriously going to freak you out.”

  With his heart thudding, Mortimer did as Daniel asked and walked over to the wall. There were over a dozen pictures hanging on the dark, wood-panelled wall, but Mortimer knew exactly which picture he was supposed to be looking at. Directly in front of him, he saw one gold-framed pic
ture that showed three lines of people. Mortimer guessed, looking at the uniforms, that this was an employee shot. On the back row, standing on the far left, was his brother, Daniel. He looked back. “This is impossible!”

  Daniel shrugged. “Tell me about it.” He walked over to the window. “Impossible or not, there I am, in that picture. Now I know you, Mortimer. You’re already pushing this weird turn of events to the back of your mind, no doubt thinking of a way out of here.” Daniel nodded to himself. “That’s good, no, it really is, ‘cause right now, I think my mind is on the verge of detonating. I haven’t finished either. There’s one more thing that I need to show you.” He looked out of the window one more time. “Believe it or not. I know how to get past all those dead things.”

  Mortimer swallowed down the cold meat that had just decided to come back up in his throat, and followed his brother out of the room. Daniel had gotten his assessment wrong this time. Sure, normally, he would have tried to put all of this behind him. He had been getting very good at casting aside all the spooky and weird shit that had landed on his head recently, but not now, not this time. He needed to get to the bottom of this enigma. Mortimer looked back at the picture one more time before closing the door. If he didn’t work this out pretty soon, his mind would detonate as well.

  The corridor opened out into a reception area. He saw Daniel staring at a large pot standing in the corner of the room. Mortimer saw a few brown leaves rotting into the moldy carpet, and walked over to his brother.

  “It’s hard to believe that it managed to survive for so long,” said Daniel. He pointed to the broken window beside the plant. “I guess the rain must have kept the plant from completely giving up the ghost.” Daniel turned and walked over to a metal desk behind Mortimer. “Do you want to hear something that’s really going to blow your mind, Mortimer?”

  He shook his head. “No, not really.” He stared at Daniel. “Believe it or not, my head is fairly close to breaking already.”

  Daniel grinned. “I think I went past that stage a bit back. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “Wait, what about the mind blowing thing?”

  Daniel ignored him and hurried out of the reception area. Mortimer rushed after him. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”

  “You see that door on the balcony above us?”

  Mortimer nodded.

  “Back when I first got the job here, I knew this guy who lived on Pulse Street, the one a few roads from where we used to live. Well, he was always on time, despite me knowing that he set off to work after me.” Daniel ran up the stairs and walked over to the door. “Come on,” he said, looking down at Mortimer. “You’re going to love this.”

  Mortimer followed him up and watched his brother push open the door. A blast of cool air rushed into the building. Mortimer reached the open doorway and looked out. It was another fire exit that led down to an alleyway. He grinned. The place was closed off from the other streets. There were no walking dead anywhere to be seen. “Oh, this is brilliant! Yep, you have certainly blown my mind, Daniel.”

  His brother grabbed him. “No, this isn’t it, Mortimer. I wanted to make sure that at least this bit hadn’t changed before I told you.” He sighed heavily. “The reception area is at the back of the building. The reception area that we just went into is where the toilets should be.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I can’t explain better than that. It’s like the same place, only it isn’t. Like some weird fucked up dream where you know where you are but it doesn’t exist in reality.” Daniel shook his head. “Now that I’ve voiced my concern, I think my head’s going to cave in.” He stepped out into the fresh air. “Come on, Mortimer, let’s finish this.”

  “Finish what?”

  Daniel pointed beyond the closed alleyway. “Let’s go see if our house is still there.”

  Mortimer watched his brother run down the stairs and jump onto the cobbled area. It took a few moments for him to work up the courage to follow his brother out of the building. Mortimer liked things to stay simple. Right now, all he wanted to do was to find somewhere safe, so he could close his eyes and wait for all the weird nonsense to leave him. Mortimer’s mind really was on the verge of folding in half.

  “Are you coming or what?”

  Even his brother now seemed like a completely different person to the one he’d set out with. He slowly made his way down the stairs, and decided that it would probably be best to go with the flow. That sentence his brother had uttered, about feeling like he was in a dream, struck a chord. Maybe he was stuck in a stupid dream. Something like that would explain away everything.

  He caught up with his brother and took a deep ragged breath, trying to remember the last time a dream of his had felt so real, so detailed. He felt a stitch in his guts, not to mention so fucking painful.

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “I’m fine,” he panted. “Go on, you’re the one who knows where you’re going. Don’t stop, I’ll try to keep up with you.” That was another thing. Since when did the Lego playing slob suddenly become super fit? More to the point, how come he was feeling so worn out? He did this sort of running about every day.

  He did his best to keep up with his brother, keeping his eyes open and his ears tuned, ensuring that there were no nasty surprises ready to jump out at them on their way through the alleyway. That was one job that he did know how to perform well. It also helped him to focus, to stop his mind wandering into the other zone.

  “No way can this be a fucking dream,” he muttered to himself. His brother had slowed down and stopped next to a huge set of metal gates. He watched Daniel gently pull back the bolt and swing one gate inwards. Mortimer raised the crossbow and got ready to fire, just in case there were any of the dead things close by. As the gate opened fully, he saw that there were a few zombies in the distance. By the looks of it they were making their way to the front of the building. Mortimer guessed that they must be a few late stragglers that had only just worked out where the gunshot had originated from.

  Maybe he ought to be thankful for his not-so-dumb move. Thanks to him firing the weapon, Mortimer had inadvertently cleared the nearby streets. His brother tapped Mortimer on the shoulder and pointed to a row of houses on the opposite side of the street.

  His mind did flip then. Right in front of him, as plain as anything, was their old house. He shook his head from side to side, refusing to believe that any of this was real. Daniel grabbed his arm and pulled him across the road towards the house.

  Mortimer couldn’t stop shivering. He managed to throw the crossbow over his shoulder without dropping it and followed his brother through the open door and into the dark house. Just by looking at the state of it, he knew that nobody had lived here for years. The shakes worsened when Daniel led him towards the cellar door. No matter how much his terrified mind protested, Mortimer’s numb body continued to walk forward, drawn towards that open door. It took him a few moments to realize that the initial attraction had originated from here.

  “No, please don’t,” he said, watching his brother walk through the door. Mortimer had no choice but to follow him. He reached the top of the stone stairs and gazed down, seeing the mummified bodies sprawled on the dusty cellar floor. His eyes caught the sight of one body, leaning against the wall. The flesh had long since shrivelled and the skin had tightened over the bones. But none of that stopped him from recognizing the body. Mortimer was looking at his brother’s remains.

  Chapter Eight

  The dazzling white light coming from the afternoon sun seared all the way through his eyelids, but he felt no heat at all. Kenny shivered and watched two seagulls fight over a rotting fish that one of them had just pulled out from a pile of brown seaweed. The birds were his only company on this beach. His sister was somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where. For all he knew, she might not have even come with him; yet, for the past few minutes, he’d convinced himself that she’d just gone to buy ice creams.


  Kenny pulled the grey overcoat tighter around his body. An ice cream was the last thing he needed right now. Lord, what he’d do for a steaming cup of hot chocolate, or a big pot of black coffee. Why couldn’t he warm up?

  “Come back to me!”

  He twisted his head and gazed at the two birds, convinced that one of those gulls had just spoken. As soon as he looked at them, they both took off, dropping what was left of the fish. He hatched them fly up towards the sun. Kenny blinked and found he could not move his head.

  “Come on, you need to snap out of it!”

  Kenny’s eyes snapped open, and the bare light bulb directly above his head burned into his brain. He tried to groan and started to panic when he found he couldn’t move his head. He jerked his eyes away from the light and saw a blurred pink round shape next to him.

  “Calm down,” hissed a familiar female voice. “They’ll hear you. Look, I’m going to take my hand off your mouth but you have to promise me not to make a single sound. Nod once, if you understand.”

  It took him a few more moments for his confused mind to put all the pieces of his situation into their correct places. He heard his sister’s voice and he’d finally worked out that he wasn’t on a beach after all. Apart from those facts, coupled with the anxiety in her voice, Kenny decided that he could at least comply with her simple request. He nodded and took in a huge breath of stale and musty air when she removed her hand.

  He turned his head to the side and looked around his new surroundings. Kenny had no idea where he was but he knew that this certainly wasn’t the center. He frowned when his roving eyes caught sight of his clothing. He sat up and stared at Diane. “What the hell has happened?” he whispered. Why was he dressed in this gear? Kenny looked down the front of his body, staring in confusion at his new dark green one-piece suit. The new threads weren’t the only change; someone had cleaned him up. For the first time in years, Kenny actually had clean hair and trimmed fingernails.