The Z Infection

by Russell Burgess

  ‘That’s the secret,’ said Shaky. ‘You hit them in the head.’

  We carried on up the river for a few miles, until we had lost sight of the horde. Once it was safe, Taff drew us into the bank and tethered the boat to the side.

  ‘Time for a break,’ he said. ‘Get some sleep. I’ll take first watch. Si, you keep an eye on your friend.’

  Tony had found some duct tape below decks and he and Si had taped up the woman’s mouth. She was still making noises, but it wasn’t as loud as before and it was safer for us too.

  I managed to get some fitful sleep, before I woke just after seven o’ clock. All four of my companions were already awake. I don’t know if any of them had slept. They were busy untying the ropes and preparing us to leave.

  Taff was at the door of the wheelhouse, giving orders while the others worked.

  ‘We need to get that information, about how to kill them, to the government as soon as possible,’ I said.

  He was nodding his head in agreement but there was a look of concern etched into his features at the same time and he was busy looking beyond me.

  ‘I agree with you completely,’ he said. ‘The problem is them.’

  He pointed to the bank. The infected had found us again. I don’t know if it was the same group as we had encountered earlier, but they were following us with a dogged determination as we headed upstream.

  Clive Westlake

  08:30 hours, Saturday 16th May, Central London

  The feeling of freedom I had, as I fell from the window of the third floor of New Scotland Yard, was one I will never forget. It was like I was falling in slow motion and that all my troubles had left me as I was finally released from the horrors I had witnessed. I was moments from death and I didn’t care.

  Of course I still had three of the infected falling with me and even then, as I hurtled to what I was sure would be my end, they tried to bite and scratch me.

  As I passed the windows of the second floor I could see that the battle was still raging there. Several people were barricaded in an office, holding off the attackers with whatever came to hand. Tables and chairs were stacked against the door and men and women were wielding broken furniture, a pole and even a pair of scissors as they fought for their lives.

  On the first floor it was different story. Here, the infected had all but won the battle. Blood was spattered on the insides of the windows and it was obvious that most of the people in there were dead. The one exception was a woman of about fifty, who just watched me in astonishment as I fell past her. The look on her face haunts me. It wasn’t terror any longer. She was obviously past that stage. It was resignation. She knew there was no way out and she was just standing there, waiting for the end.

  I expected my own end at any moment, but suddenly hit something solid much quicker than I had expected. It was an overhang, which protected cars in the parking bays. I had the wind knocked out of me but stayed conscious, which surprised me, and I managed to grab onto a metal strut as I slid towards the edge. It was enough to stop me falling further.

  My ‘companions’ in the fall didn’t fare as well. The first one hit the edge of the overhang and spun off at an angle, landing in the compound below. The second must have hit a weaker part of the structure and went straight through it, crashing onto a car below and setting off the alarm.

  The third one somehow managed to get some purchase and prevented himself from going over the edge. He crawled towards me, snarling and salivating as he came. I tried to back away from him, but the angle of the overhang made it difficult for me and I slipped, almost losing my grip and sliding into his waiting mouth.

  He was inching towards me, slowly gaining ground, as he hauled himself up and I was trapped. Below me, in the compound, I could hear the sounds of the infected. They had found a way through and were congregating in large numbers now. I couldn’t go back inside the building. It was a scene from hell in there. And now I had this crazy, sharing my refuge and trying to make a meal of me.

  I kicked out at him as he reached for me, knocking his hand away. I prayed I wouldn’t get a scratch. It was clear now, that the infected would seal your fate with the slightest cut or graze. But I knew I couldn’t let him get too close. The mouth was the most dangerous. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what pain some had gone through and there was no way I wanted to experience that.

  He pulled himself another few inches closer. I could see that his right leg was dragging behind him at an awkward angle. It was broken, perhaps in the fall from the window, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. He was completely single-minded in his task, which was to kill me.

  I kicked out again, catching him on the lower jaw this time. Again it had no effect, other than to delay him for a moment or two. He crawled closer. I could hear the mob below, baying for my blood. I imagined them ripping me apart, eating me even as I still breathed. That was enough.

  I steadied myself and allowed the freak a little closer. He was almost at me. I could smell his putrid breath. At the last moment I lashed out with all my strength, kicking him full in the face. The nose broke with a sickening crack and a thick black fluid poured from it as he tried to keep his balance. I kicked again, harder this time and caught him on the side of the head. This time he gave a slight groan as he slipped.

  He grabbed for my leg and caught me by my shoe. It was the only thing preventing him from falling. He had no other grip on the structure. Using my other foot, I prised off the shoe he was holding onto. As it slipped from my foot so did he. He reached for me, but it was already too late. He tried to grab onto the overhang as he went over the side, but there was nothing that would stop his fall. The momentum was too great.

  He toppled over the edge and a second later I heard a thump as he landed on the ground in the compound. I lay back, gazing up at the night sky and gasping for breath. I could feel myself slipping away and the thought terrified me. I frantically wrapped an arm around the strut and held in place there. Then, as my breathing quickened and sweat began to gather on my brow, I passed out.

  Callum MacPherson

  08:30 hours, Saturday 16th May, Buckingham Palace, London

  The first helicopter arrived first thing in the morning. I hadn’t had a wink of sleep, but I didn’t care. It was just comforting to know that there were others out there who were on our side and that General Breck had been as good as his word. Not that I had doubted him for a second. Everything I had heard about the man told me that he was one who kept his promises, no matter what.

  What I hadn’t expected, was that the General himself was on board that first chopper. He stepped off and onto the palace lawns, his tall frame ducking as he cleared the spinning blades of the aircraft. He walked with enormous purpose, I remember, away from the area where the civilians had pitched their tents, stopping for a brief moment to survey the scene with his intelligent blue eyes.

  Thankfully I had been awake. When I had been informed that the first helicopter would be arriving within the hour I had decided, as the de facto leader of the garrison, to wait up and greet it. I could grab some sleep later.

  I saluted the General as he approached me. He had another two senior officers with him and a small contingent of heavily armed Royal Marines.

  ‘Sergeant MacPherson,’ he greeted me, returning my salute. ‘I’m here to have a look at the situation from the ground.’

  We walked across the lawns and past the guard post. The infected had gathered in even greater numbers there by now and he calmly surveyed them as we passed by.

  At the main gates it was an even greater spectacle. There were tens of thousands of them and when they saw us they screamed and wailed like all the demons of hell had been let loose. Perhaps they had.

  I noticed the slightest look on the General’s face when he saw the assemblage before the gates. It wasn’t fear. That would be too strong a word to use. It was more like an uneasiness. None of us had faced a foe like this before.

  ‘Are these the first ones you’
ve seen?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, not elaborating.

  ‘They are very difficult to stop,’ I said. ‘Head shots seem to work. They don’t tend to get back up after them.’

  ‘How many civilians did you save?’ he asked.

  ‘One hundred and four,’ I said. I had counted them the night before, when I had selected those who might be able to assist with the defence. ‘Of those I can use sixty one of them, the others are either too old, too young or are too traumatised by what’s happening.’

  ‘Are they capable of fighting?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t honestly know, sir, but they’re going to have to at some point.’

  He looked at me with a questioning expression.

  ‘This war, if that’s what it is, isn’t going to be fought on a front line with conventional forces,’ I said. ‘This is going to be fought in cities and towns, in streets, buildings and homes. We are fighting against our own people. Our own families in some cases. How do we fight a war like that? Every single person will have to become a soldier, or die.’

  He looked back at the throng at the gates.

  ‘Let me see what defence measures you have instigated.’

  We walked around the building and he inspected every man and every weapon. He was thorough and inspiring in equal measure. He had a word for every soldier he met and at the end, as we walked back to the guard post, he congratulated me on what I had done, with the limited resources available.

  ‘You will get more,’ he promised. ‘I have personally supervised the ordering of weapons, equipment and supplies. Having seen what you have, I will make further recommendations when I return. In the meantime I will leave the Marines here with you.’

  ‘Thank you sir,’ I said.

  ‘What about your commanding officer?’ he asked.

  I didn’t quite know how to put it.

  ‘He didn’t seem to be able to handle the situation,’ I said. ‘I decided it would be best if he took some time away from his duties in his room.’

  The General looked at me again, with those searching eyes of his.

  ‘You took command over an officer?’

  ‘I had to,’ I replied. ‘I couldn’t risk the men becoming discouraged.’

  He nodded.

  ‘That was quick thinking on your part.’

  We walked back to the helicopter and stopped before we reached it.

  ‘You’ve been given a field commission,’ he said. ‘High Command have been impressed by your actions in the face of incredible odds. And so have I.’

  I was astounded, to say the least. I was to take command of the garrison until a more senior officer could be found to take my place. I was assured that it wouldn’t take long. The counter attack was scheduled for later in the morning. We would be relieved as soon as possible. What none of us could have predicted, was the tenacity that this new enemy would fight with. They simply refused to give in.

  Mike Bradbury

  09:40 hours, Saturday 16th May, Flight to Edinburgh, Scotland

  The flight to Edinburgh should have taken an hour and fifteen minutes. In the end it took almost double that, because we were diverted by the RAF twice. They didn’t want us flying over sensitive areas, as they called it. Most of those were areas where the army was massing or where there were RAF bases. Their logic was simple. They didn’t want an airliner coming down on top of them if there was the slightest chance there might be anyone infected on board.

  It didn’t bother me. I enjoyed flying, mostly. I spent most of the flight watching Anna. She had turned into a consummate professional almost as soon as we began to taxi along the runway, checking passengers and making sure that all those with seats had their belts fastened. I was given one of the crew’s seats and settled in to try to get some sleep.

  It felt good to be airborne, away from the danger on the ground, and I suddenly felt very calm.

  We climbed to our cruising height and Anna came back to check on me. She had a miniature bottle of whisky, which she held out to me and I gladly accepted the offer. I needed something strong after what I had seen in the terminal building.

  We chatted for a few minutes, relieved that we had managed to escape from the carnage. It was the first time we had talked in a relaxed way, everything up until then had been solely for the purpose of survival.

  She wasn’t just a looker, with huge brown eyes and her long blonde hair hanging around her shoulders in waves, she was clever too. I could tell instantly that there was much more to her than you were given by a first, cursory glance.

  ‘There’s some hot food,’ she said. ‘We’ll serve it in a few minutes or so.’

  I suddenly realised that I hadn’t eaten anything for some time and I was hungry. Despite what I had seen, I was sure I should be able to keep something down.

  ‘What happens when we get to Edinburgh?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘This has taken us all by complete surprise. Apparently there are outbreaks in every large population centre in the country. Edinburgh is the same, although it seems to be more localised there. From what we can gather the airport is still functioning. The pilots have been in contact with air traffic control there and we are cleared to land at the moment.’

  ‘Have you heard any more news from London?’ I asked.

  She shook her head.

  ‘Things were pretty desperate in the city centre and you saw what happened at Heathrow, but we’ve not heard anything else since we took off.’

  ‘Do you have family?’ I asked.

  ‘My mum lives in Dorset. My dad’s in the United States,’ she said. ‘He married an American a few years ago. I have a sister who lives in Brighton and my boyfriend was going to Amsterdam for the weekend, but I don’t know where he is. I’ve not heard from him since this morning. What about you?’

  ‘I live on my own. My parents are away on holiday in the Caribbean,’ I said. ‘I have no way of reaching them.’

  ‘What about brothers and sisters?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘It was just me.’

  We sat in silence for a time, before she snapped back into her professional role once more. There were a lot of scared people on that flight and she had her work cut out trying to make sure they were all looked after.

  I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. Something told me I was going to need some sleep, even just an hour or two. And I was right.

  Anthony Ballanger

  09:45 hours, Saturday 16th May, Windsor Castle HQ, Windsor

  I managed a whole hour of sleep, before I was awake again. During that time there had been reports of several new outbreaks. The south coast towns of Portsmouth and Southampton were experiencing problems and the Midlands seemed to be particularly badly affected. Many smaller communities had simply stopped communicating with the outside world. We had a report from a small village near Oxford, where a woman was hiding in an attic. She told us, using the last precious battery life on her mobile phone, that she was the sole survivor out of a community of around a thousand people. Everyone else was dead or infected. How many more places were like that? We had no idea.

  The Prime Minister held a briefing first thing, with what remained of the Cabinet and some military advisors. The Prince of Wales was also present, on behalf of the Queen, as well as some influential civilian figures.

  It was a bleak meeting. On the plus side, the mobilisation of the Royal Navy meant that it had been, more or less, saved. The exceptions were one frigate which somehow became infected and was promptly sunk off the south coast and several vessels which were unable to put to sea quickly enough. Contact with one nuclear submarine was lost, shortly after it had sailed from its base in Scotland. The theory was that it had been infected, but we never found out the truth of the matter.

  As far as the Royal Air Force was concerned, they were still on standby, ready to engage the enemy or to lend air support to the army. For their part we had five thousand troops at Kingston-on-Thames, w
aiting for the order to advance.

  The PM gave that order at the conclusion of the morning meeting. Our intelligence suggested that a large swarm of infected had wandered into the bend of the river Thames, near Hampton Court Palace. The army was to advance in two columns. The first would cross Horse Fair Bridge at Kingston and advance towards the rear of the swarm, while the second column would cross Hampton Court Bridge and tackle it head on, hopefully before it reached the palace. The PM gave the army the authority to destroy the bridges if their position became untenable and it was necessary, but only as a last resort. The whole thing was to be beamed directly to us at Windsor, by several media helicopters which were given special permission to film the event.

  We gathered in a room with a large television screen and banks of computers and communication operators. It was tense. The air hung heavily in there and it was charged with apprehension. Nobody knew what to expect. The PM and the Prince of Wales took the centre seats, flanked by the top military advisors, including General Breck who had just returned from his visit to Buckingham Palace, while the rest of us filled the seats around them.

  The first thing we saw was from a BBC helicopter, which made a low pass over the swarm. There were gasps from some in the room as it swooped just a few metres above the heads of the infected. The swarm was enormous. More than double the size we had been expecting. It stretched from the north of Bushy Park, right to the Hampton Court Road which connected the two bridges where our forces were deployed. It was impossible to count them, but several estimates were bandied around the room. Anything from a hundred thousand to about half a million. It didn’t seem possible.

  I saw that the PM was involved in a hushed discussion with General Breck. I still don’t know, to this day, what was said between them, but I think both of them might have been having second thoughts. Whatever it was, was too late.

  The first wave of troops crossed the Hampton Court Bridge, backed up by tanks and other armoured vehicles. They advanced to the road, just beyond the palace and spread out in several lines. The positioning reminded me of a Napoleonic set-piece battle, both side facing each other. The infected on one side, fearless and blood hungry, our troops lined up on the other.