Containment_A Zombie Novel

by B. A. Hippsley

Eastman rose silently from his seat and left the room. It wasn’t that he felt subdued, he just felt enormous disappointment. His hero the great Judge Carmille had lost all sense of the true meaning of the law. The law was to be upheld at all costs, with no favouritism or discrimination. He walked out from the court house and stepped into the cool night air. It seemed to him it wasn’t just the creatures in Armstrong that were rotten. He was going home to take a long hot shower.

  ****

  The rain poured down onto Parish Road, adding further gloom to the murky night. The windshield wipers chased across the glass, back and forth like the hands of a demented clock. The headlights barely pierced the black void of the night as the blue Dodge four-by-four charged on. A constant stream of Freddy Mercury hits belted out from the CD as Luke Clayton drove the truck at break-neck speed. At last Zach could take it no longer.

  “Luke. Turn that freaking thing down!”

  “Huh?”

  “I said turn it down!”

  Luke turned his head to look at his brother. “Say what? I can’t hear you.”

  “Watch the damn road!” Zach angrily jabbed his finger at the windshield.

  “Yeah, yeah. No need to shout.”

  His thumb eased down the volume button on the steering wheel.

  “If this arrives with so much as a scratch on it, then... just take it easy will you?”

  “Sure, I know that. We use this road all the time. What do you take me for?”

  Zach rolled his eyes skywards and shook his head. Luke was right, the road was well known to them and that was the reason he’d allowed his brother to drive. The road was hardly used by anyone now, since they’d built the new one. Why mess with something that already works? They were nearing the intersection where they needed to turn off and just a few miles further, they could hand the vehicle over.

  “Zach, am I gonna meet this guy, am I?”

  “Yeah and you’ll never guess who he is.”

  “Aw, come on tell me who?”

  Luke had never met the guy who they sold the cars to. Zach had always carried out this part of the operation himself. Luke’s imagination had run wild over the years, with everyone from the Mafia to Brad Eastman. But it was probably just dumb old Peter Firth.

  “Nope. You just gonna have to see.”

  “Reckon he gonna have the money for this baby?”

  “Well duh. Why else you think we’re meeting with him?”

  Luke flicked up the volume on the radio in excitement and the sound boomed out. He started flinging his head wildly to the music. His brother’s hand flew at the radio and hit the eject button, throwing the disk into Luke’s lap.

  “You gonna scratch the CD, man!”

  Luke fumbled with the disk as he rounded the bend.

  “Sorry, I... Hey, watch the road!”

  The cab of the four-by-four was flooded by a blinding light. Zach threw his hands in front of himself and Luke screeched to a halt. Just a few yards ahead, Zach could make out a line of vehicles. Men with torches were running towards them, shouting and yelling. “What in hell’s going on Zach?”

  “Get us outta here; it’s a God damn road-block. Move!”

  Luke reversed a short distance then spun the Dodge around facing the other direction, showering the pursuers in clouds of loose rocks. Then all hell was let loose. The distinctive chatter of M16’s on three-round bursts, shattered the night air.

  “Crazy son of a... they’re shooting at us! Drive, brother. Drive!”

  Luke put his foot down as bullets ripped into the rear of the vehicle. Suddenly, the rear window disintegrated; jagged fragments of glass peppered the interior.

  “Jeez, Eastman’s got no cause to do this.”

  “It ain’t him, they’re soldiers!”

  Receding into the distance, Zach could see soldiers with respirators and weapons chasing after them, stopping to shoot at them intermittently. Worse still, now he could see several sets of high-energy headlights joining the hunt; explosions erupted around the speeding car.

  “What the hell’s up with these people? They’re shooting freaking bombs at us!”

  “I don’t rightly know! But whatever it is, they’re sure mad as hell!”

  Zach could see the lead vehicle had a roof-mounted grenade launcher – it would only be a matter of time before it hit them. If they could just out run them, then Luke could lose them in the woods. Dozens of tracks ran through there. These army guys wouldn’t have a clue. They just needed a bit of luck. Then one of the 40mm grenades hit its mark, tearing the left rear wheel off and flipping the four-by-four. The vehicle rolled over and over in a grinding, sparking lightshow before coming to a rest on its side in a gully. With the rain and wind now abated, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the approaching military vehicles, speeding towards the smouldering wreck.

  ****

  Eastman watched as the rain ran down his office window. It was just after eight in the morning and it had rained all night. Downhearted, he knew there was no chance of finding any tracks.

  “I guess we’re screwed now eh, Boss? Even without all this rain that wind last night just about blown any tracks half way to Canada.”

  “Gerard, I felt sure we were onto something with these tracks. I could always search Firth’s place and...”

  “That is a joke right? The Judge would have your hide. You know that yeah?”

  Benteen was right of course, after last night’s ‘friendly’ advice, any idea of a house search was out of the question. From now on they had to play at happy families.

  “We can’t do much today out of town with this rain, but I reckon we’d best up the man-power on Al’s search.”

  “Sure, I’ll get some more guys on it. Brad, if he’s changed and all that, some of the boys are getting edgy. I got to thinking, well...what do we do?”

  “We’ve known Al for a long time, but I’m not taking chances. If you’ve cause to, then take him down.”

  Benteen nodded silently then got up to leave as they heard a loud tapping on the door. Benteen opened the door; it was Anne Lenski.

  “A bit early for a social call Doc?”

  Benteen smiled at her, ushering her in before leaving the room. She looked drained, as if she hadn’t slept all night. Eastman offered her a chair and poured two coffees.

  “You all right Anne?”

  She sat down and sighed deeply. “I don’t know. I’ve lost more people here in two days than I lost in the war. I spent half the night trying to figure this damn bug out.”

  Eastman scratched the back of his head, slowly bringing his hand to rest on his jaw. “I’m sorry about your girls. I got people out looking for Al. You gonna find a way to treat this thing. Don’t get down.”

  “Brad I’m sick of telling people the same thing, ‘I’ll do the best I can’ then moving the infected into isolation. Infected! What do you call them – ‘dead ‘eds?”

  He knew just how she felt. They were stumbling about in the dark looking for answers and all the time people were dying. There had to be some way forward. Eastman stood up.

  “Come on. Let’s go see a man about a bug.”

  ****

  “Look, if you want my help and I guess you do, then you got to work with me on this.”

  Eastman viewed the man through the cell bars with deep mistrust and yet...

  “Okay, what do you need from me?”

  “Well, apart from the evil dead chomping through half your town and the comms black out, notice anything else that’s out of the ordinary?”

  “Explain.”

  If this guy wanted information, Eastman would make him work for it.

  “Any strangers, any building works. Anything just... out of the ordinary.”

  “Anne and me caught two of those things a day or so back. We locked them in a barn. When we went back for them, someone had let them out from the outside. There were military tracks all about.”

  “Military? Anything else?”

  Anne lo
oked at Eastman. “Brad, tell him about the chopper and the four-by-four.”

  Eastman began slowly, carefully observing the other man for any reaction.

  “While we were up at Ben’s barn we saw a blacked out helicopter. This thing had more cameras than a Japanese tourist. As soon as we eyeballed him, he just took off.”

  “And...”

  “Some folk seen that and a black four-by-four with no plates buzzing about town. The car just about mowed some kids down. And there’ve been sightings of small drones thereabouts. We also found a whole bunch of spent cases at various sites, M16 and 9mil.”

  Taylor sat bolt upright on his bed. Eastman had struck a nerve; he could almost see the cogs turning in Taylor’s head. But it was Anne who spoke out.

  “Looks like you’ve seen a ghost Mr Taylor. Anything wrong?”

  “That’s quite a grocery list. If you two are right, then you got more trouble than some homicidal bone bags.”

  “You ain’t going nowhere until I hear something I can act on.”

  “You’re not going to believe a word.”

  “Maybe, but you’re staying right there until I do.”

  *

  Taylor had breached the ZerTon perimeter with experienced ease, dodging the K9 teams and foot patrols. Now he was in the main building, he needed to find Aaron Lenox fast. Looking about the plain hallway he couldn’t detect any security systems. According to the info, Lenox’s office was around the next corner. Taylor rounded the corner and found himself outside Dr Lenox’s office.

  Taylor cautiously tapped the door. Seconds later a desperate looking man ushered him into the room. Taylor looked at the man in front of him. The guy was a mess. It wasn’t his appearance or dress; he was smartly turned out in a suit and tie: it was his eyes. Taylor knew this look all too well from people who’d suffered trauma. This man had been through the mill.

  “You Lenox?”

  “Are you Taylor?” The man countered nervously.

  “Yeah, I’m Taylor. I need you to show me where the info’s kept.”

  “Ah, the wonder cure you mean. NB33. You know, I’ve had days to think about what I should do about this. And…”

  “I don’t have time for a speech. Just show me what I need.”

  Taylor had come across informants like him on operations. They were prepared to sell their own out, but they often had the need for some kinda self-vindication. He hadn’t time for long speeches.

  Lenox continued. “No. Do you know why? Because it doesn’t work. It’s totally useless. There, what you make of that?” The man gave a look of satisfaction.

  “Oh, I get it. You want more money. You can sort the price tag out later.”

  “It’s not about the money. NB33 is not just a failure, it’s dangerous.”

  “I don’t think that’s up to you. Now if…”

  Lenox pulled up a chair and sat down heavily in a state of exhaustion. He buried his face in his hands massaging his temples with his fingertips. Against his better judgement, Taylor decided to let the man continue.

  “Do you know what we were working on here? The cure for diabetes. Imagine how many diabetics out there don’t want to be diabetic? When we used NB33 for the first time it worked. The diabetes had been destroyed and then something went wrong. Somehow the medication attacked the infected cells and altered them. Then we noticed that some of the test subjects started to fall ill. Within days, they died. Well, perhaps not exactly died. The first one got up and attacked some of the medical people. Within days the same happened to the victims.”

  “Why not help them? They should have gone to hospital.”

  “Hospital? Have you seen them? Would you like to see them Mr Taylor?”

  Lenox’s voice began to take on a strange edge that unsettled Taylor. But he thought if people needed help then he needed to get them out of this madhouse.

  “I want you to take me to these people right now.”

  ****

  Standing before a locked door in a dimly lit basement, Lenox slowly pulled down the metal bolt. Both Taylor and Lenox stepped into the darkened room. The stench of decay caused him to put his hand to his face. It was the smell of death. Then he heard the groans and moans of people.

  “Turn the God-damned light on!” Taylor ordered.

  Strip lights erupted into life across a large hall. At the far side of the hall were animal cages. Rows of deathly grey faces stared into space with colourless eyes. Dried blood and other stains covered their clothes. Most of them seemed to be wearing hospital gowns but a few were dressed in ordinary clothing. The only people he’d ever seen in this state were dead ones. What had happed to these people? Taylor spun around and grabbed Lenox by his lapels.

  “What the hell have you done to these people?”

  “You still want to take these creatures to hospital? What do you think would happen if I let them out?”

  “They need help! Why are they in this state?”

  “The government partly funded this establishment, what do you think would happen if they could see this?”

  As Lenox walked closer to the caged creatures, the moans and groans started to turn into wails like the screeching of demented souls. Taylor could see the creatures were becoming aggressive as they beat themselves against the bars. But Lenox went even closer.

  “Lenox, you’re freaking them out. Come away you fool!”

  Taylor had the feeling that this was not going down well and he caught the other man’s arm. But Lenox pulled free and went ever closer to the cage, producing a small key card from his pocket.

  “You wanted to let them out. I should have months ago but it’s not too late!”

  There was a certain tone in his voice that went beyond hysteria. Lenox unlocked the padlock on the cage. With inhuman howls the creatures tore into him. Biting and tearing, gauging handfuls of flesh until he hit the concrete floor with a lifeless soggy thud, like a wet bath sponge thrown at a wall. The creatures continued their fearful attack and more of them began to leave the holding pen. In front of Taylor’s horrified eyes, dozens of them ripped and pulled at the lifeless body, until all that remained was a bloodied mess.

  He’d seen many things during his military service, some which he still had to come to terms with, but he’d never seen someone eaten alive. Whatever the hell was wrong with these ‘people’ he wanted out. For the moment they seemed almost oblivious to Taylor. Taking advantage, he started to back away moving to the door. Then he noted the door could only be opened from the outside. He was trapped. Suddenly one of the creatures looked up at Taylor and let out a piercing shriek. This attracted the attention of several others and they started to lumber forwards with outstretched decaying hands and snapping jaws.

  Then with a sudden force the door hit him across the back; there were voices and a flurry of activity. Security guards burst into the hall. Taylor took full advantage of the timely distraction and brushed past the guards and ran into the corridor. As he escaped he heard a short burst of sporadic gunfire followed by screams of fear and pain.

  ****

  “That’s one hell of a yarn Taylor.”

  Eastman paused briefly.

  “You mentioned there were things worse than those creatures. What exactly?”

  “At the height of the Ebola outbreak, the British devised a tactic to cut the spread. They got such a small island; you only gotta sneeze to land in the next county. It was brutal but effective and it worked like a kinda ‘scorched earth’ policy. They got it under control a damn sight sooner than anybody else.”

  “Yeah, we know all that, but this isn’t England...”

  “Don’t tell me you think the good old US of A hasn’t got something similar. Especially you Doc.”

  “What’s he talking about, Anne?”

  “Come on now, as an army medic you of all people should be aware of Bushfire.”

  “What makes you think I’ve anything to do with the Army Mr Taylor?”

  “I saw your key ring. 477. The 477 was
a MASH unit in Syria. Why don’t you tell him about Bushfire? He likes good stories.”

  “Anne if you know something about...”

  “I don’t know anything about this. I’m in the dark just like you.”

  “What the hell is Bushfire?”

  “It’s nothing it’s... its just theoretical.”

  “Anne?”

  “It was just some crazy plan to burn out any type of contagion. Thank God they saw sense and shelved it as being too extreme.”

  “When you say ‘burn’ you mean...?”

  “She means fuel air bombs. It’s a thermobaric weapon.”

  “A what?”

  “It uses the very oxygen to burn you to a crisp. The most powerful non-nuke we got. Reassuring isn’t it?”

  “Oh bull! Goddamn rubbish.”

  “You both forgotten about Mercy Creek? Plane crash, high winds. Heat so bad they had to send in special fire units. The whole town burned down. Now whatever they were pumping on that town, sure as hell was not CO2.”

  “Taylor, you got rocks in your head.”

  Taylor landed a savage kick at his bed. “What is the damn point of me telling all this, if all you do is stick your fingers in your ears and shout I’m not listening?”

  “Because all you do is give me conspiracies and fantastic tales. You’re like Emmett on a bad day. You give me nothing concrete.”

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “No. Not everything. How can I?”

  “Blood test.”

  Eastman and Anne exchanged confused glances.

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “I’m not saying one more damn word until she does a blood test.”

  Taylor sat down and folded his arms like a petulant child.

  “And what will that prove Mr Taylor?”

  “For God’s sake don’t humour the guy.”

  “It’ll prove that I’m telling the truth. Then you Clint – freaking – Eastwood can let me the hell out this madhouse!”

  “Brad, maybe we should...”

  Eastman looked at her in disbelief. “You gotta be kidding me, right?”

  “I know it sounds crazy but what have we to lose?”

  “Crazy’ about sums it up. You think I’m letting you in there with that butt head? He’s a killer. It’s not worth the risk.”