by Nick Harland
Eve smiled but then her face dropped, ‘But I wasn’t living the life I wanted was I. I was lying to myself every day and it was killing me. I…’
I interrupted, ‘You’re awesome and I love you. The fact that you went through what you did and didn’t lose yourself entirely shows just how resilient and self-aware you are. Sure you hibernated for a while but now you’re awake and loving it, and making everyone around you love it too. Without you the apocalypse wouldn’t be worth living through.’
Although she smiled again it was hesitant, so I changed the subject, ‘So let’s get into bed and you can tell me all about the warehouse.’
We went to bed but Eve’s rendition of her exploits in the warehouse didn’t go anywhere sexy, and we were both tired and drunk. Eve’s normally enthusiastic tone waned towards the end of her description and I guessed she was a little disappointed she hadn’t managed to seduce Esme. We both ended up giving in to the tiredness and wine and going to sleep.
Chapter Twenty Five – Present
Everyone woke up a little the worse for wear but Andrea was probably the worst off. Esme seemed to be the least affected despite letting herself go a little. Eve was ok but not quite herself after failing to seduce Esme. There was still plenty of organising to do and Andrea wanted the electron microscope set up. She said, ‘I don’t know if it will tell us anything different but I’d like to take a specimen from our guest outside and have a look.’
As Bill had been doing most of the work in the back lot where the second hand caravans were displayed it had been a few days since I’d seen the Zed we’d captured. After Bill and I got the microscope onto a desk and hooked up an extension to a van with a leisure battery we went outside to get a sample. Bill had shot the Zed in the knee over a week ago and since then it had stayed where Bill had left it, on its stomach facing the wall of the cage it was in. I think we all tried to forget it was there as it forced us to think about any humanity it might have left and what we were doing to it. They weren’t thoughts any of us wanted to explore.
What greeted us when we went outside made me wish I hadn’t. The Zed was sat in the middle of the cage with its bad leg stuck out in front of it and its other bent as if crossed. It was slumped over like a sulking child with its head almost resting on its chest. When we walked over to the cage it lifted its head, looked both of us in the eye, turning its head slightly to look at us individually, before letting its head drop to sag against its chest again. The humanity of it was scary. I consoled myself with thoughts that even mass murdering psychopaths had some version of humanity.
To be frank it freaked me out completely and Bill fidgeted uncomfortably next to me. Not in the mood to try and restrain my language in front of Bill, who never swore, I said, ‘What the fuck?’
Bill nodded and replied, ‘I know. What do we do now?’
I didn’t want to think about the things I was starting to think about. I said, ‘We do what we came to do, we get a sample and give it to Andrea. If there is any chance she can help explain what’s happening we need to help her. We need some blood and from what I understand even a drop will do.’
I had brought a large kitchen knife with us and pointed it towards the lock on the cage, ‘You open it and stay ready in case I need you, you know these things are starting to get smart.’
Bill opened the door and the Zed looked up again but this time it kept its head up as I cautiously edged inside the cage. As I came a little closer it opened its mouth wide and poked its chin in my direction before closing it again in a slow biting motion. It was creepy as hell and although I had killed loads of them, and facing one that couldn’t stand was easy, I was as scared as I had been since it all began. I edged a step closer holding the knife out in front of me and the Zed cocked its head to look at the knife rather than me, occasionally glancing back up at me before looking at the knife again.
I took one more step forwards so I was within range of stabbing its shoulder and it still just stared between me and the knife without making any attempt to move. Just as I was about to stab it in the shoulder it opened its mouth in a biting motion again and I hesitated. Then it slowly reached its right hand out towards me and I could hear Bill shuffling his feet nervously behind me. Taking my chance I stabbed the Zeds outstretched arm then recoiled quickly. Nothing happened. The Zed looked inquisitively at its arm then slowly dropped it to its side again. As I retreated out of the cage it dropped its head back down to its chest and was still.
Bill locked the cage and I ran back into the main showroom to give the knife to Andrea, closely followed by Bill. Andrea took the knife but looked up at Bill and I and said, ‘What the hell happened out there, you two look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
Andrea’s words stopped Esme and Eve in mid conversation and they came over. Eve looked at me and I must have looked worse than I thought as she came over, hugged me and said, ‘Its ok, just tell us what happened, whatever it is?’
Bill and I described the encounter and Eve’s lips drew closed into a line while Esme crossed her arms over her chest as if she were hugging a doll. Andrea brought us all back from our ruminations, ‘I know it’s enough to make us think, but right now we don’t know anything other than if it were on its feet and free, and if it saw us out in the open, it would try and eat us. Let’s see what we can see and just go from there shall we. Esme, hand me a slide, the sample won’t last forever.’
Esme snapped out of her thoughts and handed Andrea a thin glass slide. Andrea carefully dragged the edge of the knife that had the greyish green blood on it over the edge of the slide then lifted the slide into the air to examine it. Then she placed another slide over the top of the sample, squashing and spreading it out before opening the microscope and placing it inside.
As Andrea shuffled to sit up in her chair, while keeping her injured leg up on another chair, we all gathered around. The image appeared on the computer screen a second later and to me it looked like various images of cells and bacteria I’d seen in magazines or during school. It was a sausage shape with tiny spikes one end and four long tails that came out of the other end. Andrea said, ‘Well it certainly looks different to before, but it still looks like a bacteria. Just wait a minute and we’ll have the spectral analysis.’
We all waited with baited breath until a graph appeared on the screen and Andrea said, ‘Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, with a little phosphorus and Sulphur. It’s got a protein based shell. There’s no doubt it’s changed. It must have merged with and hidden inside human bacterial cells, and it must have done so quickly. My guess is that it was vulnerable to human white cells and that it quickly found host bacteria to merge with. We still have no idea what’s inside or merged with the cells it’s joined with, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’s impossible to say how it’s keeping the hosts alive and apparently accessing more and more of their brain function, but its rate of development is impressive.’
‘We should take and analyse daily samples and take samples of saliva and hair and as well. We should keep an eye on its behaviour under different situations. Esme and I can come up with a stimulation and observation regime. If we can observe and learn about them as they develop we can stay ahead of the curve. I have to say though, it would be better to have one that’s not crippled and has apparently given up. If we want to protect ourselves we need to know how aggressive it is and if it can’t walk or run we can’t observe that.’
Eve and I rolled our eye’s at each other but we knew she was right. With them getting more and more dangerous the sooner we caught one the better, so we got on with it. We got our stuff ready, grabbed some rope, and went to the front gate. There were none in sight and I was just about to unlock the gate when we both heard a distant rumbling sound. The sound got louder and louder and then Eve pointed to a black spot in the sky and said, ‘That fucking bastard!’
It took a few minutes but we soon saw that the outline of the approaching spot was definitely a helicopter. It was traveling much more slowly th
an I thought helicopters could and Eve beat me to the logical conclusion, ‘He’s bringing us some guests. A helicopter flown that low could attract every Zed for a mile in any direction and who knows how long he’s been out there collecting them. I know they tend to stay inside now, but there are still plenty wandering the streets. I can imagine there might be places we haven’t visited, maybe even places other survivors have caused a horde to gather from a week or two ago. With binoculars and a height advantage he could spot hordes from miles away. It must be costing him some fuel but he’s always had the potential to be a vindictive bastard and this must be a punishment.’
We both remembered the night at the old base but now they were smarter and more mobile. I said, ‘With how they are now, if they do pile up against the fence I can imagine they might eventually work out that that’s the way to get over it, by climbing up on each other. If it’s a big horde and they work it out quickly, this could get interesting.’
Eve held my hand and hers was clammy. The others had come out and were walking towards us. Even Andrea had come out using a makeshift crutch Bill had made. When they were beside us Eve asked, ‘What do we do?’
It was one of those leadership moments and I was glad I had an answer. I squeezed her hand back and said, ‘Iv’e got just one word for you, just one word… plastics. No sorry, couldn’t resist the games quote. The word is actually… fire. We have a decent supply of fuel and various ways of transporting it, spreading it, throwing it, and lighting it, and they really don’t seem to like it. Even if they pile up by the fence high enough so they could consider climbing over it, I don’t think they will if the pile is on fire. Even if there are a thousand of them, they’re not getting in today.’
‘The gate is an issue though, it’s the weak point so let’s kill two birds with one stone. Let’s park the dump truck right up against the gate and we can climb on top of it and throw stuff off it if we need to. We should try and keep the piles of corpses as far from the gate as possible if we can. I don’t fancy scrapping a hundred dead corpses off our door step next time I want to go out.’
I squeezed Eve’s hand again and added, ‘You can say it now if you like.’
Eve let go of my hand, stood in front of me, kissed me and said, ‘That’s fucking brilliant.’
Just as everyone was dashing, or hobbling off to get ready I remembered all the pictures on Zombie games and movie covers of people with guns on roofs surround by hordes. I shouted, ‘Bill, we need a ladder against the wall somewhere close by that leads to the flat roof… just in case.’
I kept watch as the helicopter got slowly closer and closer, it looked like it was having to guide the horde around obstacles. Bill came out a few minutes later with a fuel can and an arm full of wood, ‘Before we park the dumper why don’t we light a fire outside the gates so they don’t gather by them, like you said, we could do with them being clear.’
I nodded, ‘Awesome idea.’
Bill hesitated for a moment then added, ‘And Esme’s asked permission to try and shoot the bastard out of the sky. Eve said it was your call, she didn’t care, but that if we tried and failed the gloves would come off.’
I thought about what it would mean to have an obsessive, motivated, survival enthusiast out there gunning for us and replied, ‘I can’t tell you how tempting that is but no. It’s getting harder to survive out there and we have the numbers, the science team, the engineer, and the supplies. We’re the ‘A’ team at this shit storm and he’s late to the party and several drinks behind, let’s let nature take its course.’
I helped Bill pile up the wood and we set it alight. Eve edged the dump truck against the gates and we shared out the various shapes and sizes of petrol bombs we could make in the time. The horde was visible now and he had done a good job, there must have been a couple of hundred at least. Eve stood by me with a walkie-talkie in her hand and said, ‘They’ll be watching us with binoculars in case we did want to try and shoot them. Wave the walkie-talkie around if you want to talk to him and he’ll probably find the frequency. I have nothing to say to him.’
I did as she said and sure enough there was static and then a voice, ‘Present for you. Simply repaying the favour of fuck all fuel and a dangerously lose control arm. What did you think, we run around with fire extinguishers when a rigs on fire, didn’t you think we’d notice? We’re fucking engineers shit head.’
I replied, ‘Woops. Thanks for the present, we could do with some light exercise after the party last night. Oh sorry, my bad, weren’t you invited? I’ll say this only once. I’ve had to stop our sniper from shooting you out of the sky because I would rather have sweet dreams about the Zed that will eventually eat your face, but if you’re still in range in ten seconds time I’m going to change my mind. You know the drill from the last time you had to run away, one…two…three…’
Then I silenced the walkie-talkie and said, ‘Esme, I don’t care how far away they are when I reach ten, take a shot or two so they know it. They need to know we’re serious. If it starts a war rather than just pranking, so be it.’
‘Eight…Nine…Ten.’
The helicopter had accelerated over us and gained height but Esme took a couple of shots, there wasn’t any smoke or explosion which was a shame. Eve said, ‘Well played. It’s actually pretty hard to bring a helicopter down, not like in the movies. Hitting one at speed is difficult so it’s probably good we didn’t try. Banter wise I think you avoided a war while holding your own. But now we have to open our present, or at least their skulls, so let’s get to it.’
Chapter Twenty Six – Defence of the Realm
The horde was only a hundred feet away and heading straight for the fire we’d lit. Four Sprinters and two Beefcakes charged from the pack and the Sprinters jumped headlong at the fence. It was momentarily scary but the fence was too high and they hit it hard then fell dazed to the ground. The Beefcakes both hit the fence at full speed, one trampling a fallen Sprinter in its path. The fence barely even wobbled and goo exploded from the Beefcakes faces as they hit the steel uprights. One’s eyeball popped out with the force before it fell backwards and I wish I had better words to describe it other than it was truly horrific to watch, even in the context of everything I’d seen so far. Bill was ready with a petrol bomb and carefully lobbed it over the fence to land close to the fallen sprinters the other side. Esme took the top off a glass jar full of petrol and threw the contents over the area as the bomb landed and an instant later they were engulfed in flame.
One Beefcake and one Sprinter made it to their feet and tried to run, but by then the horde had surged around them. The horde parted to avoid the fire as they ran towards them, but not quickly enough. The burning Zeds hit the horde and there was disarray, with the rear of the pack forcing those at the front further forwards. Bill grabbed a plastic container that had had some bombs in and emptied a petrol can into it. Then he said, ‘Stand back.’
Bill ran at the fence with the container and threw it up and against the fence so the fuel sprayed on the pack that still had the burning Zeds in it. We all stood back and covered our faces as the spray ignited in a big whoomph. Bill staggered backwards and fell over with his t-shirt on fire and Andrea was quick to squirt him with some water she’d brought out. He sat up smiling, rubbing his face, and feeling for his mostly missing eyebrows. Esme said, ‘Damn it Bill that was crazy, that could have been so much worse.’
Standing up he said, ‘Calculated risk.’ Then pointing at the horde he added, ‘But worth it.’
The horde was in full panic now, lots of Zeds were fully engulfed in flame but couldn’t run because they were surrounded. There were still enough far enough away from the fire that they were still surging towards us and they kept the burning ones from escaping. We threw several more bombs behind the horde to try and fence it in, but with only partial success. I wasn’t sure using more bombs would achieve a great deal so I shouted, ‘Cease fire.’
We watched the chaos for several minutes while the burning
zeds fell and the rest parted around them and found a fire free zone to gather at the fence. We had made a good dent in the numbers but there were still plenty.
I looked at everyone, ‘We can use more fuel but eventually we’re going to have to go hand to hand through the fence.’
Andrea said, ‘We have the fuel and we aren’t planning any big trips so let’s use what we’ve brought out at least. Petrol bombs is the wrong way to go because they scatter and it only lights their legs. Let’s douse as many of them as we can with what we have, trying to get a bit on lots rather than soak a few, and then set them all alight when we’re done. If we’re quick it should work well.’
I said it before Eve could but because it was Andrea I curtailed the swearing, ‘That’s brilliant.’
We did as Andrea said and tried to spread the remaining fuel as far across the horde as we could. Then we each took one bomb and threw it high in the air so at least one or two would make it through the pack to explode on the ground, or if we were lucky smash on a Zed’s head. The effect was exactly what we had hoped for, lots and lots of burning Zeds, not all engulfed by any means, but having thrown it mainly over their heads the panic was widespread. During the chaos quite a few Zeds either fell over or where pushed over, tripping up others or dragging them down as they did, and there was some trampling. It was gruesome but effective.
We sat back and watched until the effect of the last assault had run its course. The very real threat to our lives made watching the burning crowd easier, but as I glanced around there were no smiles and Esme’s eyes were turned away. By the time the flames died down there were lots of fallen Zeds, some still squirming, some not. What surprised us was that the thirty or so that had escaped the flames had backed away, and even when the flames had fully died down they stayed where they were and didn’t approach the fence. I suppose this shouldn’t have been surprising, but a week ago they would have mindlessly run to the fence to be slaughtered.