Viro [Book 1]

by Barnaby Taylor

  VIRO

  BOOK ONE

  VIRO

  BOOK ONE

  Barnaby Taylor

  For Iris, as per usual and always …

  Copyright © Barnaby Taylor 2018

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN 978-1-9996332-1-9 (EBook)

  First Edition

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Barnaby Taylor

  www.falconboy.ie

  Virus

  I am hiding on the roof of a shop. There is a strange girl with me. Everything was good yesterday. Presidents were saying mad things on television. That was like always.

  But today is different.

  The radio said about a virus. People are being zombies. A scientist said it was a disaster all over the world. No one is safe. The radio said apocalypse.

  Mum works at the hospital. She’s always gone when I get up. She feels bad about this. It isn’t her fault. She has to do these things. I don’t mind. I am independent. I like looking after myself.

  I always hear Mum go out. I always go back to sleep.

  Mum always says don’t worry if she is late. She will be back. It was different today. She did not come back.

  I was really worried. What if the zombies are chasing her?

  The hospital is quite near to home. I thought I would look for her. That was my idea. I did not think anything else.

  We live in a row of houses. The shop is at the other end. Mr. Bishop owns it. I like to go in before school. He lets me read the newspaper headlines.

  Mr. Bishop is very friendly. I like him. Mum says his wife was dead. He really misses her. It makes him feel really sad. He still smiles at me.

  ‘Hi Jake,’ he always says. ‘Come to read my newspapers again?’

  ‘Yes, Mr. Bishop. I like to know what’s going on.’

  ‘Be careful, I might have to start charging you.’

  Mr. Bishop likes to play this game with me.

  ‘How much?’ I have to ask.

  ‘It’s only doom and darkness, you can have that for nothing.’

  He always makes me laugh. Mr. Bishop is a joker.

  This morning I was thinking about Mum. I didn’t look where I was going. I bumped into someone.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said.

  It was Mr. Bishop. He wasn’t friendly. He growled at me. He caught my hood. I couldn’t get away. He wanted to bite me. I had to fight. I hooked his leg with my leg. I pushed really hard. Mr. Bishop fell over. He let go.

  ‘Quick! Up here!’

  Someone was shouting. It was a girl. I looked around. I couldn’t see her. She wasn’t near me. I was confused.

  Mr. Bishop was getting up. He was angry. He didn’t like falling over. He wasn’t joking now.

  ‘Up here,’ said the girl. ‘Look up here.’

  Ellis

  I looked up. There was a smiling girl on the roof of the shop. She had curly hair. The girl pointed.

  ‘Climb on top of that van and jump across.’

  I got on the van. Mr. Bishop was behind me. I started to climb. He caught me.

  ‘Help,’ I shouted. ‘He’s grabbed my ankle.’

  ‘Don’t panic. I’ll knock him down.’

  I didn’t know what she meant. Something rushed past my head. Mr. Bishop roared. He let go of my ankle. The girl had a catapult.

  ‘Good shot!’ I shouted.

  ‘I know.’

  I scrambled on the top of the van. I stopped. I looked over. There was a gap.

  ‘Jump,’ the girl said. ‘You can do it.’

  I didn’t know if I could. But I didn’t want to say. I didn’t know this girl. She might laugh. I didn’t want that to happen.

  I had to do something. I looked at Mr. Bishop. I looked at the girl. I jumped.

  I grabbed the wall. I didn’t fall.

  ‘Hi!’ said the girl. ‘I’m Ellis. Welcome to my roof.’

  ‘Jake,’ I said.

  I sat down. My head felt funny. I was winded.

  ‘My name is Jake.’

  ***

  ‘That’s when I knew that I had to get away,’ Ellis said.

  She looked over the wall. Mr. Bishop wasn’t on the van.

  ‘It all happened so quickly,’ she continued. ‘One minute they were Mum and Dad, the next they were something else.’

  Ellis was very sad. She tried to smile. It didn’t work. Her lips were broken. Her story was too horrible.

  I couldn’t speak. I had no words for her. I didn’t understand. This was so weird. I looked down at my trainers. They were brand new. The laces were very dirty. I needed new laces.

  Ellis cried. All was bad for her.

  ‘Viro,' she said. 'My mum and dad are Viros.’

  Ellis’s voice was choky. She sniffed as well. I didn’t know what to do. I had no words for her story. But I wanted to speak. I said about anything.

  ‘Viro is a funny word,’ I said. ‘What does it mean? Is it like zombie?’

  Ellis shrugged.

  ‘Virus. Viro,’ she said. ‘I made it up while I was sitting here.’

  The word sounded clever. I didn’t really know.

  ‘Is it a joke?’

  Ellis looked away. My words didn’t help.

  ‘They’re not coming back,’ she said. ‘They’re gone forever.’

  She cried again.

  I spoke quickly.

  ‘My mum is at work,’ I said. ‘She cleans in a hospital. I get myself up in the mornings.’

  My voice stopped working. Everything felt massive on my head. My face felt red and hot. I felt panic inside. Don’t cry. Don’t be a baby boy.

  ‘What if my mum’s a viro?’

  Ellis didn’t say. She didn’t know. She opened her rucksack. It was a ham sandwich. She gave me some.

  ‘We should eat,’ she said. ‘It might make us feel better.’

  Vinnie

  I looked around as I chewed. The morning was getting brighter. It was quiet. We were safe. No one could get us. But there was no roof. I saw black clouds. They looked angry. I didn’t want it to rain. We would get really wet. That would be bad. I didn’t feel better. My head felt fast. My brain was full. I wanted to know things.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ I said. ‘How am I going to find my mum?’

  ‘We need to find my brother Vinnie first,’ Ellis said. ‘He’ll be able to help us find your mum.’

  I liked this idea. It was good. We needed help. I asked another question.

  ‘Where is Vinnie?’

  ‘Vinnie didn’t come home last night. He had a big archery tournament coming up and his team was called in for extra training. He said he would see me when he got back.’

  Ellis smiled. It was better than tears.

  ‘He never came home but I know he’s still alive. He’s very good at looking after himself.’

  This was good. Vinnie sounded older. He was in a team. He could do things. I wanted him to help us. I felt better. We had a plan.

  ‘What school does he go to?’

  ‘St. Dunstan’s.’

  I didn’t know that school. I didn’t care. I only wanted to find Vinnie.

  ‘Let’s go there now.’

  Ellis shook her head.

  ‘We won’t get far during the day. We’d better wait until tonight. It’ll be much safer to travel then.’

  Ellis was sensible. I knew she was right. But I was disappointed.

  We waited for night to come. We spoke to each other. I said about my life. Ellis talked about hers. Nothing was normal now. We cried a real lot.

  ‘Mum and Dad have been married for ages,’ El
lis said. ‘They were childhood sweethearts. Now, they are just two of those things.’

  She sniffed.

  ‘We were at home. I was tired and went to bed early. Someone screaming woke me up. I looked out my window. Mum and Dad were fighting with our next-door neighbours in the street. They both got bitten. There was blood everywhere.’

  Ellis shivered. She was crying loud again.

  ‘More neighbours came out of their houses and Mum and Dad went off with them. I waited until they had gone and then ran away. I thought I would get to the school but I only got as far as this roof. I was waiting to leave when I saw you fighting with that viro.’

  She meant Mr. Bishop.

  ‘He was my friend,’ I said. ‘He isn’t now.’

  It felt funny to say that.

  Later on Ellis stopped crying. I did too. I said my story. I liked talking to her.

  I said about my dad going away when I was born. He knew I was different to other babies. He wasn’t happy. It was a genetical thing.

  ‘That must have been awful,’ Ellis said.

  ‘I was too young. Mum was too strong.’

  I shrugged. I was happy to say about me.

  ‘I’m different to other people. It’s okay. They’re different to me.’

  I smiled.

  ‘I know who I am. I am me.’

  Ellis nodded. I think she understood me. I liked that.

  ‘Have you always lived here?’ asked Ellis.

  ‘Two months and three days,’ I said. ‘Mum got a new job. She’s going to college. She wants to be a teacher.’

  ‘Your mum sounds amazing,’ said Ellis. ‘I’d really love to meet her.’

  ‘She is,’ I said. ‘You will.’

  Catapult

  We watched Mr. Bishop trying to climb the van. He couldn't do it. He was nothing like the old Mr. Bishop.

  ‘He looks so angry,’ I said.

  ‘Wouldn’t you be?’ Ellis replied. 'Once he was a normal old man, now he's a bloodthirsty zombie.'

  ‘I suppose,’ I said.

  I didn’t really get it.

  ‘How come we’re not?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Ellis. ‘We still might. Perhaps it is something to do with our DNA.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I said.

  DNA sounded funny. I knew what it meant. Mum said it before. So did the doctors.

  Ellis looked at me. She could see my geneticals. I didn’t mind. They were hard to hide.

  ‘Sorry, Jake, I wasn’t thinking.’

  I thought she felt bad. She fiddled with her catapult. It had a thing for your wrist. It looked really dangerous.

  I didn’t mind her words. She wasn’t teasing. I asked her about the catapult.

  ‘Where did you learn to shoot that?’

  ‘My uncle David has a farm in the country and every summer we’d stay with him. Vinnie and me would spend the days just exploring. Uncle David said he’d let me earn some pocket money by hunting rats and collecting a bounty for each one I killed.’

  Ellis patted the catapult.

  ‘This beauty has killed over two hundred rats,’ she said as we watched Mr. Bishop wander off, ‘but seeing as we’re not on the farm any more I now have new prey to hunt.’

  When it was dark we got off the roof. It was easy to do. I followed Ellis. I scraped my knee. It hurt a lot. I couldn’t stop. We had to keep going. We needed to find Vinnie.

  It was new being out like this. I didn’t like it much. I wanted someone with us. It was better to be with an adult. They could help me choose.

  The streetlights made everything orange. It looked dangerous. I didn’t say anything. I thought someone would hear my voice. I didn’t want them to chase me. It was too hard. I felt really lost.

  Ellis was much better. She was confident. She stepped well on the pavement. She looked around. Everything was planned in her head. Ellis was ready for anything. I was glad I met her.

  Suddenly Ellis stopped. She said, ‘Don’t speak’ with her eyes. I nodded. She pointed.

  A big gang of viros was in front of us.

  They looked like they were going to a football match. Or waiting for the cinema. They were all standing still. Their backs were facing us. I wondered what they were waiting for. The viros mumbled. It was a funny sound. I thought I could hear some words. What were they saying? I didn’t know.

  I looked at Ellis. I pointed back the way we came. She nodded. We went to leave. It was too late. There was another gang behind us.

  We were trapped.

  Doomed

  I froze. This was terrible. I wanted to shout for help. Ellis shook her head. Her eyes were wide. She was scared like me.

  The viros were all around us.

  I looked around. The houses were thin ones. They stood side by side. The gardens were small. I could see trees and bushes. All the houses were closed. No doors or windows were open. There was no one to ask for help.

  I remembered a picture of Hell in an old school book. All the dead men and women and children were twisted and unhappy. The book said they were tormented. I looked at the viros.

  They looked just the same.

  Twisted.

  Unhappy.

  Tormented.

  We had to do something.

  I pointed at the nearest garden. Ellis agreed. We climbed over the wall. We hid behind a hedge. I shut my eyes. I knew we would be eaten.

  I grabbed Ellis’s hand. She gripped mine hard. There was nothing else to do. I waited to die.

  It was really loud now. The viros wailed. They sounded angry and upset. They smelled like rusty apples. It was too strong. I was sick in my mouth.

  I felt useless. We were doomed. I knew Ellis felt the same. She squeezed my hand really hard.

  This is it! I thought. We’re dead.

  Then I heard gunfire and engines. The noise was louder than the viros. I opened my eyes. White flashes made it easier to see. Crazy shadows danced in the night.

  The angry viros were being killed.

  A long line of trucks drove through the crowds. I saw big soldiers with gas masks. They were shooting guns. It was really noisy. Viros were falling down everywhere. Some were ripped apart by the bullets. Others fell under the trucks. They screamed as they were run over. I heard bones breaking and bodies crunching.

  I wanted to run to the trucks. The soldiers had to rescue us. I needed them to help us stay alive. They were better than us. They had guns. They were experts. It was dangerous outside now. We would be safe with them.

  I tried to stand up. Ellis pulled me back. She held me tight. She wouldn’t let go.

  ‘They’ll shoot you,’ she whispered. ‘It’s too dark for them to know the difference between them and us. We’re all viros right now.’

  She wrapped her arms around me. I stopped struggling. She was speaking sensible. Ellis looked at me.

  ‘We need to stay here.’

  Shipwrecked

  Then the night was quiet again. We waited. Nothing happened. We waited some more. Still nothing. I stood up slowly. My legs ached. I had pins and needles. My ears were singing. A big viro lay next to the wall. Its clothes were ripped. One arm was missing. I saw a body hole full of blood. There were more bodies all around. Great big piles of human bits and pieces. It looked like a horrible cartoon.

  Ellis said to me.

  ‘Did you see those soldiers and their guns? Where did they come?'

  I shrugged. I couldn't answer properly.

  ‘I don’t know. I want to go where they are. I don’t want to be here.’

  I didn’t like this. It was awful. I tried to look nowhere. Everywhere was terrible. I wanted to be safe with the soldiers. I wanted them to take me to Mum.

  Ellis picked up her backpack.

  ‘We'd better get moving while we have the chance.’

  I was very sad. I felt shipwrecked. It was like being lost. I turned away. I didn’t want Ellis to see me like this. I didn’t feel strong. Everything was horrible.

  Ellis said
we should head to the railway line near the ring road. We had to stay out of the town. It would be too busy. All the viros would be there she said. Ellis was very sure. I thought I believed her. She might know more than me.

  I didn’t care too much. I was glad to get going.

  I didn’t want to see the dead viros anymore.

  Battle

  A bunch of tall trees stood next to the railway line. They had bushes around them. It was the perfect hiding hole. Anything could be waiting. I waited. Nothing came out.

  We sneaked through them. The ground was muddy. I was careful. I didn’t want to slip. Ellis walked next to me. Her feet were steadier. She was looking where she was going.

  I saw orange flashes far away. The sound of guns was soft.

  ‘That must be a big battle,’ I whispered. ‘I’m glad we’re over here.’

  ‘At least it means that someone is fighting back,’ said Ellis. ‘I'd hate to think we were the only people left alive.’

  ‘What about those soldiers we saw?’

  ‘But what if they were all that’s left,’ said Ellis. ‘A handful of trucks against a world full of zombies?’

  She stopped speaking. I think she was thinking about Vinnie. What if he wasn’t there? Then what?

  I wanted to say something good but couldn’t. I didn't like her upset. It wasn’t fair. Anyway, she might know the truth. The soldiers might be the last ones left. No Vinnie. No Mum.

  I felt upset.

  Nothing was good.

  I didn’t know what to think.

  Mouth

  The railway tracks went into a dark tunnel. It looked like the dirty mouth of danger. Ellis was in front of me. She was aiming for the tunnel. I pulled her arm. She turned around.

  ‘We can’t go in there,’ I said.

  My voice wasn’t big. My tummy ached. I was frightened. The tunnel looked evil. No way did I like it. I had to say. I didn’t care if Ellis laughed.

  ‘But we must,’ she said. ‘It’s the quickest way.’

  I shook my head.

  ‘That is a death sandwich. It will be full of viros!’