As miraculous and unexpected as these traits in the exposed specimens were, they also came with the unfortunate detrimental effect that the brain cells of the host also developed an amoeba-like predisposition towards autonomy, and therefore, found it difficult to communicate with each other. This was still the case even in the specimens that had more recently been exposed to the latest version of the amoeboid cells, which were capable of withholding their programming from some areas of brain tissue. Cognitive communication was thereby greatly reduced and limited to the rudimentary necessities for the animals’ immediate survival. Higher cognitive functions in the rats, such as social awareness, were lost. This, coupled with the hosts’ insatiable need for proteins in an effort to rebuild rapidly necrotising tissue, led them to cannibalise each other.
As Raj continued to watch the frenzied activity of the rats in their cages, one shuddered and fell suddenly limp. As was the certain fate of all her sisters, the rat had died of multiple organ failure. Raj rapped on the glass, alerting the attention of the vet within the room.
“Can you freeze Lucy?” he shouted, pointing at the dead animal. “And have her prepped for dissection first thing tomorrow.”
The vet gave a thumbs-up and said something in response that Raj couldn’t make out through the glass and the facemask the woman was wearing.
Leaving the building, Raj climbed into his eight-year-old Skoda and drove from the car park at the rear of the premises to the front entrance. Unlike most men, he cared little for cars. As long as whatever he was driving got him reliably from A to B, it was good enough. Kate however, was a different story. She loved the flash motors and often berated him for not upgrading to ‘something more befitting his status.’
“Good night, Doctor,” said the security guard, as he pressed the button that opened the squealing gates.
Raj didn’t respond. His mind was still racing with so many problems that he was barely even aware of the man’s presence, just as he was completely oblivious to the foreign altered cells coursing through his blood stream, rapidly passing on their specialist programming to any of his own cells that they came into contact with. Even his white blood cells, the body’s defence against infection, which initially gathered in smothering force upon them, were able to put up little fight, as they too were readily assimilated.
The drive home to his three-bedroom new-build in Mill Hill was short, barely three miles. The rush hour traffic had already thinned out and he was home in a little over ten minutes. Yet, even as he was driving through the automatic gates of the private community, he was already beginning to experience the initial symptoms of the spread of cellular chaos through his body.
Having pulled up onto his driveway, he hunched over and grimaced against a building ache in his stomach. Mistakenly, he rued having eaten that chicken teriyaki wrap for lunch.
“Hey, Chickpea,” he called out, as he entered the house.
The integrated speaker system in the walls was blaring out Kate’s favourite Shania Twain track. He found her in the living room, singing along to the music, as she straightened her hair in the mirror. She was a slender, beautiful woman, but looked particularly glamorous right now, dressed in a figure-hugging, low-cut black dress and heels.
“Wow,” Raj said. “You’re going all out tonight, aren’t you?”
“Hi, Baby,” she said with a smile, as she caught his reflection in the mirror. “You’re home earlier than usual.”
“I remembered you had that Uni’ thing tonight and wanted to make sure I got a hug and a kiss before you left,” Raj told her.
Kate smiled at this, but the expression seemed a little forced and fell quickly from her face.
“So how’s thing’s in the lab?” she asked but carried on before he had a chance to respond. “Don’t tell me, you can’t tell me.”
Raj smiled now and nodded at her.
“We’re getting close,” was as much as he dared divulge. “Do you mind if I turn this down a bit?” he asked, walking over to Kate’s phone where it was sat in the docking station that linked it to the house’s speaker system.
Without waiting for an answer, he lowered the volume of the music until it was barely a whisper. He felt more than a little hot and nauseous and the music immediately had gotten on his nerves.
Kate stopped singing and shot him a scowl.
“So, how was your day?” he asked, as he stood behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist.
“It’s nice you came home early,” she said, applying her makeup, “but you’ve only just caught me. I’m going in a minute.”
Overcome by a sudden spell of dizzying weakness, Raj leant forward on her for support.
“Careful, baby,” she complained. “Are you sweating?” she added, pulling away in disgust.
Raj brushed the back of his hand against his brow. Kate was right, there were beads of sweat forming there and the armpits of his shirt were damp.
“Sorry,” he said and made his way into the kitchen, filling a glass with water and guzzling the fluid greedily.
Frowning, Kate stopped her preening and walked over to the doorway of the kitchen.
“Are you feeling okay?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I feel a bit weird. I had a teriyaki wrap for lunch,” Raj moaned.
Kate sighed and shook her head. “You know spicy food doesn’t agree with you. Why do you insist on eating it?”
“Cultural heritage,” Raj said, his humour still winning through.
“A pre-packaged wrap from a petrol station hardly counts as cultural heritage. You regret it every time you try anything stronger than a korma,” she said admonishingly and went back to applying her lipstick.
Raj gagged into the sink but nothing came up.
“Listen, honey, I’ve got to go,” Kate said, grabbing her handbag and a shawl from the coffee table. Giving him a quick peck on the lips, she made her way to the front door.
“Say hello to Samantha and Janet for me,” Raj called after her.
“What?” she said, turning with a look of confusion on her face.
“Samantha and Janet?”
“Oh yeah. Will do. Love you.”
The front door closed behind her and Raj stared at it for a while. Only when he heard the engine of her Audi start up did he return to the living room. He sat in front of the blank screen of the TV for a moment, but soon got to his feet again, went to the kitchen, and downed another full glass of water. Filling a jug, he took it and the glass and placed them on the table by the sofa.
His pores were really opening up now and the sweat flowing freely. He supposed that he really should have a shower, but feeling weak, couldn’t find the energy. He just needed to rest for a minute, he thought, and then he would sort himself out. Cushioning his head on the back of the sofa, he stared up at the ceiling. He was really starting to burn up now, and unbuttoning his shirt did little to help. His mouth felt dry and sticky. This wasn’t right, he thought. He’d never had such an extreme reaction to hot food before.
Placing two fingers against the inside of his wrist, he checked his pulse. About one hundred and twenty beats per minute, but the pounding in his chest could have told him that. This was definitely not right. It may just be food poisoning, but he decided he needed help getting up to Barnet General and getting checked out.
Struggling to find the energy to pull himself forward on the sofa and stand, he shakily made his way over to the house phone. There was no way he could drive himself to the hospital in this condition. Why had Kate left so quickly? Should he phone her and get her to come back or just call for an ambulance, he deliberated.
Having picked up the receiver of the phone, he stood, staring at it blankly in his hand. What had he stood up for? Why was he holding the phone? Though he struggled to control his thoughts, his short-term memory completely failed him. His clarity of thought was rapidly clouding over and the room around him took on a surreal nature, as though everything was swimming around him, and yet, stationary at th
e same time. He wasn’t even sure whether he was awake or dreaming now.
Nausea spread through him once more and he staggered into the kitchen, lunging for the sink. Clenching the sides of the basin, he dry heaved repeatedly. His body was visibly shaking.
“Kate,” he gasped. “Kate!”
Where was she? Why wasn’t she answering him?
“Kate, please. I need you to take...” He forgot what he was saying mid-sentence and frowned in lost confusion.
He was hungry. Very hungry. This was the sole thought that now took control of him. Wrenching open the fridge door, he scanned the contents within. There were several slices of cooked beef on a plate, left over from Sunday dinner. He pawed one into his mouth but immediately spat it out. The meat tasted disgusting. It wasn’t that it had gone off; it just didn’t taste right.
Next, seeing a twelve pack of defrosted fat sausages, he snatched them up and ripped open the plastic wrapping. Masticating and swallowing with a rapidity that almost choked him, he finished the whole string in no time at all. He had barely breathed during the short feeding frenzy and now stood, with bits of raw meat in his teeth, gasping for air.
Feeling a little better for having had the snack, as his body rapidly set about digesting the raw proteins with which to replace his own necrotising cells, he returned to the living room and collapsed on the sofa. He didn’t feel so hot now, he thought, as control of his mind came back to him for a moment. He had got up to phone for an ambulance, he remembered. Had he actually made the call? He struggled to recollect.
Checking his pulse again, he was relieved to find that it had returned to a much more sedate seventy-five beats per minute. He was feeling a lot better. All he had needed, it seemed, was some food to settle his stomach. He would have to apologise when the ambulance got here.
For a while, he stared at the TV again, his face as empty as the screen. Was there a window open, he found himself wondering. It was definitely growing cold, he thought. Normally, Kate was the cold one, and he the one complaining of it being too hot, while sitting in nothing but his boxers and a t-shirt. She definitely wouldn’t mind turning the heat up for him. He tried to call out her name, but all that came from his mouth was a garbled moan.
Annoyed at himself, he once again tried to get up from the sofa. Nothing happened. There was a numbness spreading from the tips of his fingers and toes up his limbs. The cold he felt now seemed to be emanating from within him. As impossible as it seemed, he was already feeling hungry again. The lust he felt for meat was overwhelming, but still, he was unable to move. His breathing slowed, as did his ever more erratic heartbeat, until they both eventually stopped.
The hours passed. The natural light filtering in through the blinds dimmed until there was none left, and the room was lit solely by the freestanding lamp by the mirror, which Kate had neglected to switch off. Raj remained as motionless as any other inanimate object in the room. The only sound was that of the gentle tick of the clock on the wall.
It was well into the dark hours when at last, the stillness and quiet was broken. A key turned in the lock of the front door. It opened and in stepped Kate. Thinking that Raj must surely be in bed by now, she tried to be as quiet as possible when she closed the door. She didn’t want him waking and realising what time she was getting in. Her lipstick was smudged slightly and her eyes were red from crying.
Kicking off her shoes, she walked into the living room and saw Raj sat in front of the TV.
“Oh, er... hi, baby” she said. “You didn’t have to wait up for me.”
Hurrying past, she made a beeline for the ground floor bathroom, not wanting Raj to see she had been crying.
Wiping off her makeup, she gave herself a long hard look in the mirror. Raj was a good man and she genuinely did love him. Despite things having become a little stale between the two of them, she still wanted to marry him. Didn’t she?
“How are you feeling now?” she asked, crossing the hall into the kitchen. “I got you some Settlers for your stomach from the petrol station on my way back, in case you were still feeling rough.”
There was no response from the living room. Kate craned her neck to look through the doorway to where she could still see Raj sat on the sofa. Was he mad at her, or had he just fallen asleep?
He was such a good man and always made every effort to make their relationship work, despite what little time they had together. She knew now that she had to stop questioning what they had and start making the same effort. She had grown complacent and needed to remind herself that men like Raj were a rarity. She had every confidence that he would always be there for her and that he would never do anything to hurt her - but where was the fun in that? Where was the danger?
She filled a glass with water and took it and the box of tablets through to him.
“Are you feeling alright?” she asked, standing over him now.
His eyes were open, staring at the TV, ignoring her presence. So he was angry then.
“I’m sorry I was out so late, baby. Here, take these,” she said, holding out the water and tablets to him.
Raj still didn’t respond, so she placed them on the coffee table in front of him.
“Can I get you anything else?” Kate asked, still trying to get the man to respond to her.
Ever so slowly, Raj’s mouth peeled open and his eyes rolled upwards to regard her.
“Meat,” he mumbled.
Kate laughed a little, partly in relief that he was at least acknowledging her and partly at his comical demand for man food.
“How about I make you a roast beef sandwich? I’ll hold the horseradish sauce though, I think.”
Raj was again unresponsive, his eyes staring unblinking at her. Kate hadn’t noticed until now in the low light of the corner lamp, but his complexion was far from the ruddy tan that had first attracted her to him. Right now, he could almost pass for a white man.
“You look like death warmed up,” she said with concern, bending down to place her hand against his forehead. “Oh my God, you’re freezing.”
With cat-like speed, Raj snatched his fiancé’s arm by the wrist, pulled her down toward him with a strength she could not fight, and bit a large chunk of flesh out of her cheek.
Kate screamed with the full force of her lungs, the terrible cry emerging from both her mouth and the hole in the side of her face. In sudden fear for her life, she now developed an animalistic strength of her own, and wrenched herself free of Raj’s grip. With an uncomprehending and terrified expression, she made a run for the front door, blood coursing down her neck and chest.
With the sight of fleeing prey stimulating what remained of Raj’s fractured mind, he leapt to his feet after her. With the taste of the woman in his mouth, his desperate lust for meat welled within him.
As poor Kate reached the door and yanked it open, he was on her, dragging her down in the hallway and pinning her with his bodyweight. His cold eyes showed no pity for her desperate pleas, as he sunk his teeth repeatedly into the fleshiest parts of her body, her breasts. So mad with starvation was he that he didn’t even chew, swallowing each huge chunk he tore from her whole.
In the house next door, Mike woke with a start.
“What the hell was that?” he mumbled, trying to make sense of the sudden sound that had woken him.
Looking across the bed in the gloom of the night, he tried to make out the form of his sleeping wife, before waking enough to remember that she was still staying with her sister.
Then he heard it again; a scream filled with terror and pain. Its shrill pitch left no room for ambiguity. Someone was being brutally attacked.
“Jesus,” he said, almost falling out of bed and grasping for his phone on the bedside table. Even now, as disturbed as he was by the sounds from next door, he instinctively glanced at the screen, checking for any text messages. There weren’t any, he realised despondently.
The horrific cry did not stop, save for the person being attacked to draw breath. The sound sent a shu
dder down Mike’s spine and caused the hair on his back to stand erect.
“Hello? Police?” he said into the phone he held in one hand, as he tried to pull on his jeans with the other.
“Which service do you require?” said the voice over the phone.
“Police. Police.”
“Please hold the line while I transfer you.”
Unable to fasten his belt with one hand, Mike clutched at his jeans to hold them around his waist, while stumbling down the stairs.
“Police operator...” said a new voice on the phone.
“Yeah, get someone here now,” Mike yelled back. “It sounds like someone next door is being bloody murdered.”
The agonised cries were growing fainter, becoming more of a gasping moan of despair. Where were his house keys? He franticly searched the pockets of his jackets hanging on the wall hooks by the door. Still groggy-minded from being woken this way, he couldn’t remember which one he’d worn last.
“What is your location, Sir?”
“I’m at number seven, Shirwell Close, but I think the screams are coming from number nine.”
“Is that Mill Hill?”
“Yes, it’s bloody Mill Hill,” Mike barked back, becoming annoyed, and hung up.
He at last found his keys in a ceramic bowl on the windowsill. Snatching them up, he wrenched open his front door and leapt over the low hedge between the two properties.
The door to number nine was ajar and there was no noise coming from within now. Surely, that horrible screaming couldn’t have been the result of a domestic fight. He had never known the couple here to argue loudly, let alone become violent towards each other.
“Hello?” he called out, standing uncertainly by the door.
Tentatively, he pushed it completely open.
“Oh fu...” was all he managed to say in response to what he now saw, before vomit replaced the end of the second word.
His neighbour, Kate, was lying on her back in a spreading pool of treacle-thick blood. The dress she was wearing had been ripped from her chest, exposing a mess of torn flesh and visible ribs where her breasts should have been. The shredded meat quivered slightly, as she still struggled to breathe.
Sudden Death: A Zombie Novel Page 2