by Cross, Amy
“Human civilization is barely still going,” Charles adds, “and already we've got a class system back in place. Isn't life wonderful?”
“I don't need special treatment,” I reply. “Just put me -”
“Orders from the top,” Charles continues. “Don't worry about it, Lizzie. “It's all cool.”
“This is your room,” Alison says, stopping and opening a door. “I know it doesn't seem like much, but honestly, it's the best we can manage at the moment. We have more rooms than people, but filling them with useful things is a little more difficult.”
“I really don't want to be treated differently,” I tell them as I'm wheeled inside. The room is small but clean, and when I see the double-bed by the far wall I realize that I might actually get a decent night's sleep.
“You're the daughter of one of the council members,” Charles says, parking me by the desk before hurrying over to pull the drapes closed. “Doctor Marter insisted that we get a room ready for you on this floor. Well, he insisted on two rooms, just in case your...” He pauses for a moment, clearly thinking better of whatever he was going to say, which was probably about my brother. “I bet the food here's an improvement too,” he continues. “I don't know what you ate out there in the forest, but here we've actually got proper stuff in, like cans and packets.”
“The food was okay before,” I reply, thinking back to all the rabbits and squirrels I had to skin and cook when I was with Toad. Feeling more tears in my eyes, I reach up and try to wipe them away, only for Alison to suddenly pass me some tissues.
“Here,” she says. “It's cool.”
Taking the tissues, I start drying my eyes.
“We all lost someone,” she continues, kneeling next to my wheelchair. “Everyone here has at least some idea of what you're going through.”
“I lost my parents and both my brothers,” Charles says, stopping by the bed. “They turned into those creatures and I had to fight them off.”
“I guess what we're saying,” Alison continues, “is that life goes on. This city is a perfect example of that. Despite everything that has happened, we're already rebuilding. Wait until morning, and when you look out that window you'll see that people are hard at work getting Boston back to normal.”
I start wheeling myself over to the window, but she nudges my hands away and pushes me instead.
“You don't need to do that by yourself,” she explains. “I'm here to help with anything you need.”
When I reach the window, I pull the drapes aside and look out at the dark city. With the moon high and bright in the night sky, I can see the tops of buildings picked out in blue shades, but none of them are lit up in any way. After a moment, however, I realize that I can see a few flickering lights in the distance, seemingly beyond the city.
“What are those?” I ask.
“Those are dark buildings,” Charles says, trying to close the drapes again.
“But further off,” I continue, “outside the city -”
“I'm sure it's nothing,” he continues, pulling my chair back from the window and turning me to face the bed. “Aren't you tired? You spent the past four hours in a helicopter. Come on, Lizzie, how long has it been since you slept in a proper bed?”
“A while,” I reply, even though I'm starting to dislike the way they're constantly wheeling me around and telling me what I should and shouldn't worry about.
“There's going to be so much to take in when you wake up,” Alison says, pulling the bedsheets aside. “With your injured leg, you can't just shower whenever you like, but I'll help you and Doctor Sukan will supervise. I'm a trained nurse, so I have an idea what to do. You really should sleep first, though. In fact, your Dad told us that no matter what you say, we should insist.”
“He did, huh?”
“Come on,” she continues, suddenly reaching under my arms and lifting me out of the chair, before setting me gently down onto the bed. “We'll worry about your clothes tomorrow. I'm sure we can find some new ones for you, but I don't want to start taking these ones off yet, in case we hurt your foot.”
“I'm not an invalid,” I reply, trying to sit up.
“Of course you're not,” she says, pulling the bedsheets over me. “You are hurt, though, and there's no shame in accepting a little help. I'm sure you'll be up and about pretty soon, though, just as soon as Doctor Sukan has made sure your foot's not going to cause any more trouble.”
“And we'll be right here to help you,” Charles adds, as they head to the door. “If you need anything, just grab the phone on the table by your bed and someone will pick up downstairs. We've got the phone system working in the building during nighttime hours, especially for people up here on the higher floors.”
“And welcome home,” Alison says. “I know it might be difficult to accept, but honestly... The nightmare is finally over.”
Thomas
“Hey,” I whisper, crawling into Melissa's tent and nudging her shoulder. “Wake up!”
Stirring, Melissa turns and looks at me with sleepy, blinking eyes.
“Thomas?” she replies, starting to sit up. “What -”
“Keep quiet!” I hiss. “It's early, there are still a few hours 'til sunrise. I just need you to get ready to leave.”
“Leave? What do you mean?”
“Get Katie ready and meet me on the ridge just beyond the camp in about an hour's time, okay? I'll take you to my truck and we're all gonna get the hell out of here.”
“Why?” she asks. “Is something wrong?”
“I'll explain later, but... Yeah, something's wrong. It's this place, and Mark... We can't save everyone, but you and Katie can come in the truck, okay? Please, don't keep asking questions, just promise me you'll be ready.” I wait for her to reply, but she still seems to be only half awake. “Melissa, please, it's life or death. I've seen what's beyond the eastern point, and no-one here is safe! We're going to do something about it, but then we'll have to run. There won't be much time and we can't fight, we're outnumbered.”
“I don't know if Katie and I are ready,” she replies. “Maybe another day or two...”
“And then another day, and another? This isn't the time to be scared. Wherever we end up, wherever we go, it'll be better than here. I've got enough gas for us to get a fair way from this place, and maybe we can find some other people living next to a different part of the lake. Whatever, we have to get out of here, do you understand?”
She stares at me for a moment. “Okay,” she says finally. “The ridge beyond camp in an hour, we'll be there. Just...” She pauses. “I have to think of Katie. Do you really think -”
“You'll die if you stay,” I tell her. “We'll all die.”
“Yeah, but -”
“Katie will die,” I continue. “Do you understand? Your daughter will die unless you both come away with me.”
She stares at me for a moment, and I can tell that I've shocked her.
“Then we'll meet you,” she says finally, looking over at Katie, who's still sleeping soundly. “Okay, Thomas, we'll come with you. Shouldn't we just go right away, though?”
“Not quite,” I continue. “There's something I have to do first.”
***
“It's over here,” I explain a short while later, as I lead Quinn and Leonard through the moonlit forest. “I swear, I'm not making any of this up.”
“No-one's accusing you of making anything up,” Quinn replies, staying a few paces behind me. “Thomas, I have no doubt that you saw what you said you saw.”
“So I'm supposed to believe that there's been a zombie outbreak, am I?” Leonard asks, sounding distinctly unimpressed. “I mean, guys, seriously? What, are we living in a comic book now?”
“You didn't have to come with us,” Quinn points out.
“The project's ruined,” he continues wearily. “The moment you two started covering my air-vent to make me come outside, it was all over. You're lucky the institute doesn't send you a bill, since you're the ones who
ruined everything.”
Stopping for a moment, I try to work out which way to go next. In the daylight I'd have no trouble finding the pit, but in the early hours before dawn everything seems different, plus we're having to take a different route since there's no way we can risk going too close to the camp-site. I turn and look the other way, before spotting a set of tree-stumps and realizing that we're near the area that we cleared a couple of days ago.
“This way,” I say, hurrying off in the direction that I think is right.
“You two are crazy,” Leonard says, sounding somewhat out of breath as he tries to keep up with us.
“Says the man who was living in a tin can buried underground,” Quinn mutters.
“That's a state-of-the-art tin can,” he replies. “You obviously have no idea how modern technology works.”
“Oh, I don't? I'll have you know that I have a doctorate from -”
“Stop!” I say suddenly, freezing for a moment as I realize I can hear something up ahead. There's a kind of rustling, creaking sound drifting between the trees, as if it's hitching a ride on the mist that's swirling all around us. A moment later, I spot a thin, twisted line glistening in the moonlight, and I realize that we've found the fence. “We're here,” I say, turning to the others.
“Well go on then,” Quinn whispers. “You're sure there are no guards, aren't you?”
“Mark told me there's no need,” I continue, taking a few steps forward despite my reluctance to ever set eyes on the creatures again. “They're trapped down there, and there's no way for them to get out.”
“Let me tell you something about people who deal in absolutes,” Leonard says. “They're always wrong.”
Reaching the edge of the fence, I climb over and then take a few more steps forward until finally I look down into the pit and see that the creatures are still shuffling about in the moonlight. I guess they don't need to sleep, but there's still something creepy about the way they're making their way around the pit. The creaking sound, meanwhile, is coming from their damaged bones, and some of them even seem to be letting out faint gasps. One of them, having reached the far end of the pit, bumps against the wall and then pauses, as if it doesn't know what to do next, before it manages to shuffle off in a different direction. For a moment – just a moment – I actually find myself feeling sorry for these things, but I quickly remind myself how much horror they've caused.
“This is disgusting,” Quinn says after a moment. “What kind of -”
Hearing someone running across the leaves, we both turn just in time to see that Leonard has bolted. We watch as he races away, darting between the trees until he's disappeared into the darkness.
“Poor sheltered man,” Quinn continues, turning to me. “I was talking to him earlier, while I was waiting for you to show up again, and he is quite the strange cookie, I'll tell you that.”
“If he runs close to the camp -” I start to say.
“He won't do that,” she replies, “he's terrified of human contact. He'll just run back to the bunker, slam the door shut, and we'll have to block his vent to make him talk to us again. I'm sure that's a metaphor for something, but...” She looks back down at the creatures. “They've noticed us.”
Looking down, I see that she's right: of the twelve creatures in the pit, six are now directly below us, staring up with blank, moonlit faces. I guess they just see us as food, and they're waiting for us to get tossed down so they can tear us apart. Looking over at one of the corners, I can see a few bones glistening in the mud, and I realize that the creatures have already stripped all the meat and fat from Jacqueline's corpse. I guess one dead human doesn't last long when it has to be shared among twelve of these things.
“Let's get this done,” Quinn mutters. “When the flames really get going, people from the campsite are going to notice.”
Setting down the can of gasoline I brought from the truck, I start to unscrew the lid.
“These were all people once,” Quinn continues. “Don't forget that, Thomas. Wives, husbands, fathers, mothers... Each and every one of these things was just like you and me. They'd be horrified if they knew what they'd become.”
“You don't think they're still in there, do you?” I ask.
“I hope not.”
“It's just...” I pause for a moment, thinking back to my conversations with Joe. “My brother seemed to be able to fight it sometimes, like he could push it aside every so often and kind of take back control of his own body, just for a minute or two. He was pretty lucid toward the end.”
“I'm sure none of these creatures has a conscious mind left.”
“But what if they do?”
“Then that's all the more reason to get this over with fast,” she replies. “Unless you fancy running some kind of rehabilitation program for flesh-eating monsters?”
Realizing that she's right, I pick the gas can up and hold it out, before tilting it and dribbling some of the contents down into the pit, where it splatters against the faces of the creatures. They barely react at all, apparently preferring to keep staring up at us.
“See?” Quinn says after a moment. “If they still had conscious minds, they'd know what was happening. That gasoline stinks.”
As more of the creatures come over to stare at us, I make my way along the edge of the pit, pouring gasoline down onto them. The sound of the liquid splattering onto their skin is horrific, and all I want to do now is to get the job done and leave. Quinn and I have already decided that we're going to get to the truck and take off, with Melissa and Katie and, if he wants to come, Leonard too. I have no idea where we'll go, and I'm running low on gas, especially after using some on these creatures, but I know that staying at the campsite is a sure way to end up being tossed into the pit.
“Damn it,” Quinn mutters, struggling to get a flame from the lighter.
“Give it here,” I say, taking it from her and trying a couple of times. “It was working fine earlier.”
“Maybe it's the fog,” she replies. “The air's damp.”
“I'll get it working,” I tell her, sitting on a tree stump and focusing on the lighter. “It's just -”
“Here,” a male voices says suddenly, as an arm reaches over my shoulder with a box of matches. “Wanna try these?”
“What -”
Before I can finish, someone reaches around my neck and pulls me back, before slamming me into the ground. Winded for a moment, I try to get up but a foot crunches down against my chest, holding me in position, and I finally see that Luke is grinning down at me.
A few feet away, Quinn cries out in pain.
“Well this is fun,” says a familiar voice from nearby. “Brought some friends to show them around, did you?”
Turning, I see that Mark is standing just a few feet away, with Leonard next to him.
“What are you doing here?” I gasp.
“Protecting my property,” Mark replies firmly, before turning to Leonard. “And Lenny here is just doing his duty. Trust me, he's a very useful guy to have around. One might even say that we're a team.”
“Fuck you,” I hiss, trying to push Luke's foot off my chest.
“Sorry, man,” Leonard says with a shrug. “I guess I forgot to mention a few things, huh?”
“Leonard and I were working together when the catastrophe hit,” Mark continues, making his way toward me. “Didn't you notice that there were two beds in that bunker? The project wasn't designed to test the ability of a solitary man to survive, it was designed to see if two people could cooperate and keep going. And then, when we noticed people coming to the shore of Lake Erie and we realized an actual disaster had struck, we figured all bets were off. Being the more natural talker of the two of us, I went out and began to set up the campsite so I could take charge of the new arrivals, and Leonard stayed behind the scenes as a kind of back-up.”
“And then we started catching these beauties,” Leonard continues, hurrying over to the edge of the pit and kneeling down to look at the c
reatures. “Man, I wish I could get out here to see them more often.” He turns to me and scowls. “They're covered in gasoline, thanks to you. Now we're gonna have to wash them!”
“I'm sure there'll be some rain soon,” Mark says with a smile, staring down at me.
“Can we throw them in now?” Leonard asks eagerly, clearly keen to see some blood.
“Get off!” Quinn gasps, as Bobby grabs her by the throat.
“Don't worry,” Mark says, turning to Leonard, “there'll be a feast soon enough. First, though, I think maybe we can use these idiots for something else.”
“Are you thinking about a little mock trial?” Luke asks, grinning at me.
“Not a mock trial!” Mark replies. “That would be an affront to democracy!” He walks over and stares down at me. “We'll hold a proper trial, in accordance with the ideals of truth and justice. And then, we'll feed you to the creatures as punishment, to show all the people at the campsite that we're fair but tough around here. People who break the rules will be dealt with.”
“What about the coughing bitch?” Bobby asks. “Should we drag her from her tent too?”
“You could try,” Mark continues, “but I think you'll find her and her daughter up past the ridge, waiting for Thomas to meet her and take her to the truck.” He pauses for a moment. “Get her, and her daughter too. The trial begins at dawn, but don't worry. I don't think it'll take too long.”
Elizabeth
“Don't be embarrassed,” Alison says the following morning, as she sponges me down in one of the bathrooms. “There's really no need.”
“It's not that,” I reply, holding myself up on a pair of metal railings and staring at my naked body in the mirror. “It's just...”
She runs the hot sponge over my back, but all I can focus on is the fact that my body looks absolutely ravaged. There are the obvious injuries, such as the bullet wound in my shoulder and the thick bandage around my right foot, but then there are all the other, smaller marks: there must be fifty bruises all over my body, as well as various cuts and grazes. I've lost weight, too, and my ribs are starting to show. I never even took time to notice before, but now I can see that the past couple of months have really ravaged my body. The worst thing, though, is the fact that my eyes look so tired, as if all the sleep in the world will never be enough.