by Aline Riva
“At a safe house, far from here. He wants to come back but I said no, it's too dangerous. There used to be five of us, living down the cellar at the Millpond Inn. Then we had to go and get supplies and we lost some of the group. Another got infected... I had to shoot her. Remember Amanda, used to own the stables on Willow Lane? It took its time with her, the virus... We kept hoping that it wouldn't happen, on the day we got attacked she fell badly over a fence, couldn't be sure if the injury was from that or the undead. But then she did change, and she killed the rest of the group. I shot her. Blew her head off. Now there's just me and this village isn't worth protecting because I don't think anyone will be coming back, I don't think the world as it used to be will ever come back.”
As she related her tale she was looking at her former husband, thinking how much he had changed. He used to look so groomed and well dressed, now his clothing was faded and dark stubble darkened his face and there was a look in his eyes that said he had lived through too much, far too much since the undead had arisen.
“What about you?” she asked.
“I was with a group of students on a field trip to Antarctica when it happened, when it started,” he said, then he paused, cleared his throat and pulled back the surge of emotion that was still heavy in his heart, “Most of the students died, few of us got out but we found a boat, got back here to the UK and then we travelled...formed a group, stuck together, now we're down in a military base, the military are still active. So is research into the virus. There's still hope, Marie.”
Her eyes widened on hearing the word hope.
“What do you mean?” she asked, and she sat on the arm of the dusty sofa, casting the weapon aside as she looked intently at him. David continued to stand there, in the living room of his wrecked former home, as he told her everything...
At the base, Lois had been tearful when Rick had returned with Flossie, and after sending Flossie, who was now well fed, into the back room where she would curl up and sleep on a small camp bed in the corner on a blanket she refused to allow to be parted from, he closed the curtain that divided the rooms and went back to join Lois, who was on the sofa, anger burning in her eyes.
“Has Jason upset you?” he said darkly as he sat down, “If that pricks tried it on with you -”
“No, it wasn't Jason!” she exclaimed in despair, “You were paranoid enough before the head injury, now it's even worse! No, I haven't even seen Jason, okay?”
He looked at her with a hint of mistrust in his eyes.
“I haven't!” she exclaimed, “Okay, do you get that now? Not Jason! It was Tara. She came here because she wanted to persuade me to let Flossie go to the Arctic. It's all about her and David, she's fallen out with him so she wanted to get one up on him by being the one to get us to say yes. Of course I told her there was no way...no matter what compromise she was offering.”
His eyes clouded with confusion that made her heart ache, it was a sharp reminder of the damage he had suffered in the fight with Mortiz.
“Why would Tara do that? I'm confused.”
“I know you are....Tara fell out with David before he left the base.”
Rick's hazel eyes widened.
“He's left? He couldn't have done, no one's leaving until the mission date.”
“David left to find his ex wife. Tara was upset and she wanted him to come back and find out she'd succeeded where he failed – she wanted to be the one to get us to agree to let Flossie go to the Arctic.”
He thought for a moment, his mind slowly processing all she had said as he fought against the urge to start ranting in frustration because understanding simple facts, remembering simple things, had never been difficult before his injury.
“I told him there's no way she's going,” he said, “You told her the same? It's sorted, then.”
“But they won't give up!” Lois reminded him, “Tara came up with a compromise. She'll put that to the others and I'm really scared they'll take Flossie no matter what we say!”
Rick ran his hand over his cropped hair, brushing the visible scar that was a painful reminder every day of the injury that had almost killed him.
“So what is this compromise?” he asked.
Lois felt her heart grow heavy as she saw the look in his eyes – he was as determined to protect the mutant child as she was, but he also wanted to go with the others to the Arctic...
“It doesn't matter -”
“It bloody does!”
Lois gasped as his metallic hand gripped her wrist, clumsily and a little harder than intended, as he glared at her demanding the truth.
“Let go!” she said sharply, “That hurts, Rick!”
He looked down at his prosthetic hand, felt a surge of regret at how impulsive he had been since the surgery, and how damned clumsy, too...
“Sorry,” he said sincerely, letting go of her at once as regret filled his gaze, “But I have to know what she said!”
Lois gave a sigh as she sank back wearily against the sofa, wishing she could pull Rick into her arms, hold him there as she stroked his hair and soothe him off to sleep as she had in the weeks after the operation, at least then he used to wake up with hazy recollection of conversations – but not now, he was recovering and he wouldn't forget this one...
“Please tell me,”Rick said as he leant back against the sofa too, getting comfortable as he rested his head against the padded leather, feeling thankful for it as recently healed bone ached, sending a vague pain around his skull.
Lois hesitated. Rick reached out with his human hand, feeling mistrustful of the pressure he exerted these days with his prosthetic, and took hold of her hand.
“If you don't tell me the others will. What's this compromise about?”
“Tara said there's a station, an Arctic station that needs to be manned, to send back information between here and what's going on out there, on the ice. She said we could deal with the communications, that the place would be guarded, it would be safe, warm, you wouldn't be at risk – and we would know where Flossie is at all times. But I said no because its dangerous for her and even more dangerous for you – the low temperatures, the fact that it's not been long since the surgery -”
“I can do that.”
She shot him a look of alarm.
“No... No you can't!”
“Yes, I can,” he replied, “All we have to do is keep in touch with the mission and then we'll know where Flossie is at all times. Just think, we'll be the ones who tell the UK base we can win the war if their experimental gas takes out the stinkers.”
She shook her head, her face pale as anxiety filled her mind at the thought of Flossie out there on the front line and Rick, still recovering, out in the freezing Arctic...
“This can't happen!” she said in horror.
“Yes it can,” Rick replied, “I'll be okay at the base, so will you. It will be warm in there, my hand will function okay – and I wont get pain from this,” he indicated to the scar on his head, “And you can help me if I need it - so it makes sense that we both go.”
“And if the mission fails?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“We'll be guarded. We'll get out, get a plane and come back.”
“But what if everyone dies?” Lois asked as her voice trembled “Including Flossie?”
Rick paused, thinking on that question, then he answered calmly, making the most of a moment when his damaged, still healing mind was sharp once more.
“As much as I love the guy, as a good a friend that he is,” he told her, “If David breaks his promise and Flossie dies, I'll fucking kill him myself. I'm pretty sure he knows that, we love that kid like our own, he knows he'd have to deal with me if something happened to her. I might not be one hundred percent yet – maybe I never will be – but I killed Mortiz, I'll kill anyone who lets harm come to those I love... including David, if something happened to Flossie, I wouldn't hesitate...”
Lois felt fear cold as the Arctic run through her as she looked back at Rick, kn
owing at a glance he meant every word he had just said – the loss he had suffered when Mortiz killed his people had changed him, perhaps as profoundly than the head injury had – he wasn't prepared to put up with any more loss in his life, he had drawn a line in the sand on the day his people died at the plaza...
“We're going to the Arctic,” Rick stated, “You, me and Flossie. And David will keep her safe – I'll be waiting for him with a fucking bullet if he lets me down!”
As the rain poured down outside and thunder rumbled and lightning flickered across the skies lighting up the overgrown garden like a camera flash, as David finished relating all that had happened in the passing months, he looked to the briefly lit, rain soaked garden and memories came back to him, as he guessed if the world had not gone to hell this would have been a spectacular summer storm, one that long ago would have seen him kissing Marie as the warm rain fell...
But he had told her everything now – almost everything, he had not mentioned Tara, because right now, all that mattered was letting her know just how bad it was out there, and that he knew people who planned to do something about it.
“...And so, we could see an end to this war,” he concluded, looking from the summer storm and back to his former wife, “I'm not going to pretend this will be easy – many of us won't be coming back – but I had to find you before I left, I needed to know you and Jack were okay. I just had to have that answer before I went back to Antarctica.”
She got up from the edge of the faded sofa and stood before him, looking into the eyes of the man she had once vowed to spend the rest of her days with as regret bit deeply at her heart and she wondered why she had ever allowed what they had, such a once solid marriage, to fall apart.
“You really think finding this Justin guy could help?”
“I don't know for sure,” he replied, “But I do know what Lauren saw matches the theory that he can command them. If we can use him, persuade him to come over to our side, he could be a valuable ally. If not, we will still have the neutralising gas to try out - it's harmless to mutants and humans, but in tests run in the lab has proven effective against the active part of the virus that brings back the dead. It should destroy them.”
“And if it fails?” she asked.
“Then we're all dead,” David replied, “Those of us left in the Arctic won't make it back, and what's left of humanity will get picked off one by one. This gas is our last chance – so is Justin Frazer.”
She fell silent, thinking on all he had told her.
The rain had stopped and the storm had blown over now. The skies were breaking up as cloud dispersed and the fragments were shifted far off on a warm summer breeze as the sun returned and out in the garden, raindrops glistened like jewels on the over grown plants and bushes.
“I'm glad Jack is safe,” he told her, “You take care, Marie. I have to leave now.”
She stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a hug that felt like home, that familiar place in her arms that he had missed and tried to forget for so very long, and then she let go again as he stepped back, looking away for a moment, not wanting his real feelings to show through as he rapidly pulled himself together, pushing away thoughts of the past, so many thoughts of her...
“I meant what I said, stay safe,” he added.
“You too,” she replied, and then she paused to pick up her gun and they both headed for the open doorway.
And then it happened.
As the creatures piled in through the open front door, the stench of rotted flesh reached them before David and Marie even caught sight of the invaders, David reached for his gun as Marie raised her shotgun, she had time to cast him a glance, enough to say she was ready for this, and then the door was burst back on its hinges as they gave dry, hollow screeches, eyes blazing, decaying faces as twisted masks of fury as they hungered for the living.
David shot first, taking out the first intruder, the second was knocked back by a blast from the shotgun, but more ran through, darting in from outside, crazed with hunger and the scent of the humans as they sought out their warm blooded meal. David backed off as the undead crashed into the room, stepping on the bodies of their own fallen as their sights fixed on him and Marie.
“Shit...” she whispered, seeing two snarling corpses in rags standing before them, and another three behind. Then as a cracked window was shattered, a glance back at the shadowy, overgrown garden revealed the terrible truth: There were more of them, several of them heading in from the back of the house, all closing in...
“We have to get out the front door!”
“It's the only way,” David agreed, firing again as another corpse made a lunge, the creature lashed out and he fired again as the boom of Marie's weapon rang in his ears and two more fell. The remaining undead scrambled over the corpses, hands reaching out, clawing at thin air perilously close to their faces as they moved at speed, closing in as behind, the first got through the window. They fired off shots again and brains exploded up the once light and floral walls, blood ran down in darkened streaks and skull and brain matter spattered the curtains as another head shot felled the last of those who had got in through the front door. As he was jerked back by a bruising cold grip of a zombie, the world turned upside down as David was slammed on his back. The snarling corpse made a move to leap on top of him, just as Marie fired off another round, and the corpses' head exploded like a dropped watermelon.
David rolled clear of the debris and scrambled to his feet.
“Thanks,” he said breathlessly.
“No time to thank me!” Marie gasped, as another of the undead attacking from the garden struggled to get through the window, this time impaled by a long shard of glass that ran through its body, hampering its progress.
David and Marie ran for the door, clearing the hallway and making a dash for the truck parked on the driveway. As another corpse lunged from around the side of the vehicle, David raised the butt of his weapon, smashing it aside as he wrenched open the door, then he leapt in and so did Marie.
As he started up the engine, the creature rose up in front of the truck snarling, its mouth rotted exposing teeth and blackened gums, a shrivelled eye hanging out on its cheek. David slammed on the accelerator, mowing down the creature and passing over its body with a crack and a thump and then they were free, heading for the open road.
As the truck swallowed up the miles and left their former home far behind, neither David nor Marie spoke a word. There was something about the aftermath of a battle, it was an effect that often hit those who were forced to fight, to blow apart the former living who had become the enemy, as if the act of destruction had caused an aftershock and much like an earthquake, those involved had to wait for calm to settle, for the last tremors to fade out, before humans could feel human once more.
Finally as they reached the edge of the village, where beyond countryside sprawled for miles and in the distance the Millpond Inn could be seen near an ancient oak tree, David slowed the vehicle to a halt and looked to his former wife, feeling surprised at the level of regret that ran through him as he wondered if he would ever see her again. That thought had also hit him unexpectedly – the fear had been real, the cold dread that had struck him when he had wondered if he would die in the Arctic, that has sent a flurry of thoughts through his mind that left him feeling bewildered:
Would he die out on the ice?
If he did, what would his last thought be?
Who would his last thoughts be for, whose face would he picture before he took his last breath?
“David?” said Marie as she looked at him curiously.
He was still staring at her, his dark eyes wide as he blinked and then shook his head.
“What?” he asked vaguely, still feeling struck by the unexpected thoughts that had just run through head – as he had wondered who he would think of in his last moments, a name had come to mind, and it had not been Tara....
Marie snapped her fingers in front of his face.
“David!”
That sharp tone brought back memories of her demanding nature and with it a flicker of annoyance that was almost sweetly nostalgic.
“I was just thinking, this is where we say goodbye,” he replied.
“Take care of yourself,” she told him, “Try not to make that trip to the pole one way, some of us would like to see you again, okay?”
Then she briefly lent closer and her lips brushed his cheek. That kiss was still making its impression as she opened up the door and got out of the truck, hauling her shotgun with her.
David looked down from the open window.
“You're alone now?”
“Not for long - I plan to get back to Jack pretty soon – I'll be okay. You need to get back to the base, get out of here and save the world, David.”
“And who gets to save you?” he asked.
“I do,” she replied.
For a moment he held her gaze, no words passed between them, then she gave him a flicker of a smile and he turned from her, set his sights on the road ahead and then drove away.
Then as she stood there alone on the side of the road, Marie watched as the truck pulled away. Then she looked left and right, seeing no other human in sight. It was then she yelled his name. The truck slowed, then backed up, the passenger door opened and Marie climbed inside and shut the door firmly, as if to confirm her decision was final. Then they drove off together, heading back to the underground base.
Chapter 4: Below Zero
As the lift descended, Marie glanced at David, her usually confident manner shifted aside by the strange sensation of being many miles below ground, a new experience and one she was not comfortable with, thinking the sunlight was so far up above and they were descending down to the bowels of the earth...
“What if the lift goes wrong?” she asked.
He caught a flash of panic in her eyes – it was most unlike her, yet so refreshing to see. David casually glanced to the buttons that were lighting up as they headed for level three.