Still, she hung on to that tiny ray of hope. She had to.
“Shit,” Chad hissed under his breath, drawing her attention to the front. “Smoke. From the city centre I’d say.” He pointed at the thick black smoke curling towards the heavens.
“Looters?” she asked.
“Probably. Disaster strikes and people go crazy. Out to get whatever they can.”
Tammy huffed. “Watching a big screen TV is the last thing on my mind right now. What the hell is wrong with people?”
Chad reached for her hand without taking his eyes away from the road. This was the first time she had expressed anything other than sadness at their situation. It was hardening her. “There are still some good people out there.” He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles, before drawing her hand to his mouth, his lips gently brushing the back of her hand.
She sighed, letting go of the tension that had been building. She didn’t know how he did it. Something about him was so calming to her. “How do you stay so positive?” she asked, watching him place her hand on his lap.
“It’s what I need to do. It would be easy to give in to the pain and wallow in self-pity, but I have to believe that we can fix this.” He glanced at her. “What’s the point in living otherwise?”
ZEKE
“It should be right around this corner,” Zuckerman said, his finger following along the map.
They had skirted around the outer edges of the city, avoiding the main streets for fear of running into another herd, or worse. Panic can do strange things to people’s minds. The smoke billowing behind them was proof of that.
“It’s not as big as I expected,” Harper said, as the building came into sight.
“Maybe not, but it looks pretty secure.” The fences surrounding the place stood at least seven feet high with barbed wire twisted around the top. There was a large set of heavy steel gates on rollers, and an intercom box with a camera attached, out in front.
“Look,” Harper pointed to a car in the driveway. It was parked at an angle, the doors wide open. “Someone must’ve been in a hurry.” She craned her neck, trying to get a look around the grounds. “There, by the door.” Three flesh-eaters were gathered outside, trying to pry it open.
“D’you think anyone’s in there?” Zuckerman asked, staring up at the three-storey building in front of them.
“I hope so,” Zeke said, looking around for any hidden flesh-eaters before winding his window down to speak into the intercom. “Hello?” He hung his arm over the window of the car door, leaning closer to the speaker. “Anybody there?”
The intercom crackled with static, but no reply. Zeke tried again. “Hello? Can we come in please? We really need to talk to you.”
“Zeke? Wind your window up,” Harper warned, her attention fixed to the right where a few flesh-eaters had broken through the treeline. “We’ve got company.”
“Please! We need your help!” Zeke shouted into the speaker before closing his window. The dead were hurtling towards them, that awful sound between a growl and a hiss, so loud they could hear it over the Land Cruiser’s idling engine.
“Chad, no!” Zuckerman cried out, watching his friend jump out of the car behind them. He was running towards the intercom, clutching the jar containing the mouse.
“It might be the only way for us to get in!” Harper said, her hand already reaching for the gun. “I’ll take care of them.” She grabbed a handful of ammo, loading it as she leapt from the car. She was on her knees, aiming the gun at the first of the dead. Pulling the trigger, she dropped him to the ground.
“Open the gates!” Chad screamed at the intercom.
“Why? How do we know you aren’t some deranged psychopaths?” came the response.
A shot rang out, as Harper fired at the second flesh-eater, hitting his shoulder. The next shot didn’t miss. The gunfire was drawing more of them out of the trees.
“In case you can’t hear what’s going on out here, we’re being attacked! You need to let us in!” He was answered by another lot of static. “Is this reason enough?” Chad yelled, holding up the enraged mouse and the tag with Farrelly Pharmaceuticals inscribed on it.
“There’s too many!” Harper cried. “I can’t keep them away!”
“On it!” Chad wrenched open the back door of the Land Cruiser, throwing the jar at Zuckerman. “Look after this. Get it inside.” He grabbed the spear lying at his feet and slammed the door closed, running around to join Harper.
With a loud war cry, he ran at the pack, swinging his spear around his head.
A metallic clang signalled the gates opening.
“Go!” He waved them on. “We’ll follow!” He swung his spear down on another dead, bringing them to their knees. “I…will…not…die…now!” he screamed.
Harper fired off more shots at the ones in the distance, while he concentrated on the closer ones, making a safe passage for their friends. The gate was almost fully open now, and they would be able to go through.
“We need to draw them away!” he yelled across to Harper. She nodded her agreement, running towards the back of Tammy’s car. She fired another shot into the air, drawing them towards her.
“This way arseholes!” she screamed, firing again.
“Chad!” Tammy called out, tears flowing down her face.
He slapped his hand on the bonnet of her car, “Go!” he shouted, following Harper. Zeke and Zuckerman had already gone through the gates and were fighting off the three who had been inside. The ruckus had lured them away from the door.
“Are you okay here? I’ll go help the others!” Zeke said, not waiting for an answer, as he ran out the gates, his gun locked and loaded. “Tammy! Drive!” he screamed, running towards her. “You have to go now!” He pulled his gun up, firing a shot at the one closest to her door, sending a spray of blood over the window. Caitlyn screamed, and that kicked Tammy into gear. She planted her foot on the accelerator and hurtled through the gates, ploughing down one of the three that had gotten away from Zuckerman. She kept driving until she was almost at the doors, before slamming her foot on the brake and skidding to a stop, adrenaline pulsing through her veins. She turned to Caitlyn, “Are you okay?” She whimpered, but nodded her head. “I have to go and help, okay? You lock the doors and stay in the car. I’ll be right back.”
“No! Don’t leave!” Caitlyn cried out, reaching her hands towards Tammy.
“I promise you, I will come back for you. I need to help our friends.” She planted a kiss on her forehead. “Lock the doors behind me.”
Spear in hand, she ran towards the other car where Zuckerman was fending off a few who had slipped through the gates.
“Where are they all coming from?” she fumed, allowing the anger to flow through her as she plunged her spear through the side of someone’s head.
“I dunno! They just keep coming!” Zuckerman had a spear in each hand, swinging them at anything that moved.
“The gate! Z, it’s closing!” she cried out.
“Shit! Guys you need to move! Now!” he shouted. Zeke spun around, seeing that they were going to be shut out if they didn’t make a run for it.
“Fall back!” he yelled. “We have to get inside!” He started backing up, firing shots as he went, Chad and Harper following suit. “Go! I’ve got this,” he said, pushing them behind him.
“We need you, Zeke!” Chad said, “You need to get through those gates!”
“I will! Just get Harper through first.”
“You seem to be forgetting, I can take care of myself,” she said, gripping his arm and yanking him backwards through the gap.
The gate clanged shut, sealing them in. The pack crashed into the fence, some managing to reach their arms through the gaps, their skin pulled back by the bars as they clawed at the air. Others pushed their faces against it, hissing that unnatural sound.
Zeke and Harper were in a heap on the ground, trying to catch their breath. Zuckerman was doubled over, his hands braced on his knees, while Chad sto
od holding Tammy in his arms.
“Tammy?” Caitlyn’s worried voice called out. She was between the two cars, making her way over to them when a flesh-eater jumped out from inside the abandoned vehicle.
“Caitlyn!” Tammy screamed, but it was too late. The flesh-eater sunk its teeth into the soft skin of her neck; blood trickling down onto her clothes. Her big hazel eyes, wide with fright.
Chad ran to her, but Zeke was faster. He aimed the gun at the spot between the flesh-eater’s eyes, and pulled the trigger.
“Caitlyn!”
CALEB
Holding his ID card up to the scanner, Caleb stepped out into the sunlight, just as the little girl was attacked. His instant reaction was to run towards her. He had no idea what he would do once he got to her, he had no weapon on him, but he had to do something.
He watched in horror as the flesh-eater’s head exploded before his eyes, making him pause in his step. The girl dropped to the ground, clutching her hand to her neck. Someone was screaming, he could just hear it through the ringing in his ears from the gunshot.
One of the men, the one who had been yelling at the monitor, had picked the little girl up. He was cradling her in his arms, and walking towards him. He looked like he was speaking, but he couldn’t understand what he was saying.
The girl with the long auburn hair gripped his shirt sleeves, bringing his face down to her level. “Are you a doctor? Can you help her?” she asked desperately.
He took a moment to process what she had said. “N-no,” he stammered, his brain clicking into gear. “I mean, I’m not a doctor, but bring her inside, I’ll see what I can do.” He led them inside and directed them down the corridor to the elevator while he secured the doors behind them. “Third floor,” he said, hurrying to join them.
“There’s so much blood,” the other girl whispered, her voice catching in her throat.
“Put pressure on it,” Caleb said. “Like this.” He showed her where to place her hands. “What’s her name?” he asked.
“Caitlyn,” she replied, and he remembered hearing someone yell that out when she was attacked.
“Hi, Caitlyn, I’m Caleb,” he said, smiling down at her. “We’re going to get you all fixed up.” Her breathing was laboured, but even so, she managed to lift the corners of her mouth into a small smile.
“Hi,” she uttered under her breath.
The elevator doors opened to a wide corridor lined with windows and doors. “This way,” he said, walking out in front. He opened the door to his lab. “Colton, I need you to get the first aid kit from under my desk,” he instructed. “Lay her on the table.” He took off his coat, rolling up his sleeves to wash his hands. “Caitlyn? I’m just going to clean your cut, okay?”
She nodded, her eyelids drooping closed.
“I need you to stay with us now, Caitlyn. Can you do that?” he asked, as he looked down at her frightened face. She moved her head gingerly, letting him know she understood. “This might hurt a little, okay? I need you to be strong for me.” He grabbed the first aid kit from Colton’s hands, pulling out the saline solution and a gauze swab. He poured some over her wound, and more on the swab, gently dabbing at it. Caitlyn sucked in a sharp breath. “I know, I’m sorry sweetie, just a little more,” he said, trying to be even more gentle.
He sprayed some antiseptic over the gash, then secured another swab over it with some tape.
“She needs to rest. There’s a couch through there,” he pointed out the door, across the hall. “Someone should stay with her. She’s lost a lot of blood…”
“I’ll go,” one of the girls said.
He watched them leave, waiting to speak until Caitlyn couldn’t hear him. “I don’t know if I can help her. I don’t have a cure…”
“That’s why we’re here,” the guy with the gun said. “We think we can help.”
ZEKE
“We found one of your experiments torn to shreds in my shed,” Zeke continued, placing the container with the mama mouse on the table. “This is all that was left of her.”
“We caught one of her babies too.” Zuckerman shoved the jar onto the table alongside it, a scowl on his face. “You plan this?” he demanded.
“What? No! We’d never!” Caleb said incredulously. “Look around you. Does it look like I’m breeding flesh-eating mice? What would be the point of that?” He took a breath, blowing it out slowly. “We develop supplements to aide people, not to destroy them.” He looked at the psychotic mouse racing around the jar, clawing at the glass and baring its tiny teeth. “They’re a mix of amino acids, minerals and metabolites. My supplements are completely harmless. There’s no way they caused this. None of the other test subjects have…” he trailed off, unable to take his eyes away from the tiny hairless terror.
“Can you run tests? Find out what happened to make it that way?” Zeke asked.
“I can try,” Caleb answered, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He picked up the tag, seeing the letter L engraved on the back. “She escaped just over a week ago. This helps, I know which supplement trial she was on.”
“There’s more,” Zeke said, pulling the collar of his tee down, exposing the tiny puncture wounds.
“You were bitten?” Caleb asked.
“You were bitten?!” Harper demanded. “When? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Calm down, Harper. I made Chad and Z promise not to say anything. I didn’t want to worry you.”
“You knew about this?” Harper spat, glaring at the boys with her hands on her hips.
“I kept an eye on him, Harper. You were never in any danger,” Chad said.
“Wait, I don’t understand,” Colton interrupted. “You were bitten, but you didn’t turn into one of them? How is that even possible?”
“I… I don’t know. I thought maybe you could tell me,” Zeke said, perching on the table. “Everyone we know who was either bitten or exposed to their blood, has become sick, died and then come back as one of them.” He motioned to the group surrounding him. “Except for us. We’ve all been exposed to it, and not one of us has turned.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I’m the only one who’s been bitten, and I did get sick, but I never died.”
“What about Caitlyn?” Caleb asked. “Has she been exposed too?”
They looked at each other. “No,” Chad said, swallowing the lump in his throat. “We don’t know if she’s like us.”
“Like us?” Harper asked.
“Immune. We have to be, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Is that even possible?” she asked Caleb. “Can we be immune to something we haven’t previously been exposed to?”
“Well, it depends on what it is we’re dealing with. I guess it’s a possibility.” He turned to Zeke. “The only real way I’ll be able to know for sure, is if I do some tests.”
Zeke nodded, “I figured you’d say that. I made them promise to bring me to you, even if I turned, so that you could use me to find a cure.”
“That’s very noble of you.”
“Not really, I’m just doing what anyone in my position would do,” Zeke said, pulling his sleeve up to expose his arm. “Take as much blood as you need. Caitlyn doesn’t have much time.”
CALEB
“I need to apologise for earlier. I should’ve let you in straight away. I’m sorry,” he said, busying himself with collecting his equipment.
“Don’t worry about it. You were just trying to protect yourself. We get it.”
“It doesn’t excuse what I did. Caitlyn wouldn’t have been attacked if I’d opened the gates sooner.”
“It’s no-one’s fault. What’s done is done. We can’t change it now. Let’s just focus on finding a way to make her better,” Zeke said, taking a seat at the table.
Caleb nodded. “Okay. I need you to tell me everything you know,” he said, inserting the needle into Zeke’s arm.
“Of course. We think my father was the first to turn. He was bitten by one of those babies before
coming down with a fever. He passed out and was taken to hospital. They ran all sorts of tests but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He died,” Zeke stopped, taking a moment. “They tried to revive him but it didn’t work. Ma and me, we were saying our goodbyes, when he sat up and bit her arm. He just clamped down, like she was a piece of steak. I didn’t even think, I just picked up the first thing I could, and I swung it at him. I crushed his skull,” his voice faltered as tears began to trickle down his face at the memories.
“Oh, Zeke,” Harper murmured, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“I, ah, I drove us back home, and that was when I saw Millie running away from another one. I shot him. She was too close and got covered in his blood. Then Ma turned and I had to shoot her too.” His shoulders slumped and he dropped his head into his hand, rubbing at his eyes.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Caleb said, pressing a bandage to his arm.
“We live on the neighbouring farm,” Harper began. “I was outside with the dogs when there was a sound coming from the fields. The dogs ran out to investigate and… they never made it back out alive. There was a pack of them… my parents and our farmhands had all been out in the field. They were all…” she couldn’t finish.
“That’s when we found her,” Zeke added. “Then Millie turned too.”
“Who was Millie?” Colton asked.
“My sister,” Harper whispered, a pained expression on her face.
“Oh. I’m sorry,” he said, wishing he hadn’t opened his mouth.
“We were on the bus heading out of town for an away game,” Chad took over, making his way to the table for his turn. “One of our team mates had the fever when he got on the bus. He turned on us. We got away but went back to help. We found two people still alive. Our coach had been bitten on the leg, and we amputated, but it was too late. He turned too. Our friend had the fever even though he hadn’t been bitten. We left him to get help. We never made it back in time,” Chad said. “When we got back to town, the whole place had shut down. The hospital couldn’t help so we set out to find some answers of our own. That’s when we met Tammy and she told us about Zeke’s father.”
Flesh-Eater (Book 1): Fear the Fever Page 15