Dead Ahead

by Park, Grant

  “Yeah, well I hope that was the last I see of him, but I doubt it! He still has a pistol and maybe some grenades,” Caleb slowly bent over and lifted Frank’s rifle from the rug and slung it over his shoulder, “Please, everyone, pull up a chair and heat yourselves by the fire; if you can’t get a seat, the rug is plenty comfy, trust me!

  “I’m sure you are all cream crackered, so make yourselves at home. I have had some sleep so I will take watch at the broken window; I don’t think I could sleep any more tonight anyway!” Caleb pulled up one of the last remaining dining chairs to the window and placed his tired bones upon it, “You might want to post a watch at one of the other windows too, just in case he comes back!” there was no need for him to explain who ‘he’ was.

  The small group all busied themselves around the fire; Jim took up position by the other window with his fancy looking rifle on his lap, Caleb couldn’t help but notice that the barrel was pointed more towards him than the window, but he could respect that, he wasn’t sure how much he could trust these people either. It was startlingly refreshing to have new people around who were happy to converse in idle chitchat around the fire while they prepared themselves some food. Brandon pointed them towards a large bathroom on the ground floor where the lady’s could get changed out of their wet clothes, the boy was smart enough to warn them about venturing upstairs and hinted at what they may find if they do, he was very tactful for a young lad; Ethan went with them to guard the door as they did, and Greg took the opportunity to change in front of the fire, at which point Caleb was happy to stare out into the rain drenched night; he would have been happier to see Frank appear out of the darkness than to glimpse the sight of Greg’s full buttocks again!

  The women returned and everyone sat down to their meal, which smelled delicious; even though he had already eaten, Caleb wouldn’t have minded a bowl full of whatever it was they were eating, it wasn’t long before Cassie approached him with two bowls and offered him one of them, Caleb took it gratefully.

  “How long have you been out here?” Cassie asked between mouthfuls of the tomato and bean casserole/soup.

  “Out here on this island, or just out here in all this?” Caleb gestured widely with his hands.

  Cassie let out a small chuckle that lit up her face “Both, I guess!”

  Caleb spread a small smile cross his face too, letting their eyes meet in the dark, “This is our first night on the island, but it seems like a good stronghold, I’m not sure how long it will take for the Infected to reach us though!”

  “The Infected...? Is that what you call the firsts, the running ones?”

  “Yeah, Firsts...? Where does that come from?”

  “First Gen’s, the First Generation of....” she hesitated, “Zombies!”

  “Ha! You still feel daft saying it, don’t you?”

  “Yeah...! It just doesn’t feel right, does it?”

  “None of this feels right, Cassie.” He said solemnly. He left a brief pause before asking, “You haven’t been out in it for long, have you?”

  “No, we haven’t, we were in an underground facility until only a few days ago. How did you know?”

  “You all seem so.... happy! I don’t want to dampen your spirits, but it does take its toll on you being out here. Why did you leave?”

  Cassie regaled her story to him, she told him about Major Michaels and her father, and all the other people that their group had already lost. He told her about everything; Sam, his parents and frank, their wild ride down the Sprint, he even told her about the cow turning into a zombie; she was so candid with him that he felt that he couldn’t hide the truth from her, he told her how he had abandoned Frank to die and for some reason that he couldn’t fathom, she actually sympathised with him about it.

  Then she told him about Michaels’ plan and Sellafield.

  “What?” he burst out of his chair, “He put Sellafield into meltdown? How, what exactly did he do?”

  “I don’t know, but we should have four days to get there!” Cassie said, startled.

  “Four days! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Caleb started pacing, running the parameters in his head.

  “What’s the problem?” Greg asked, “We still have four more days till it goes critical!”

  “Till it goes critical, what do you mean? By now the plant could be so inaccessible that, even with the wind blowing to the west, you couldn’t even approach it without a radiation suit! If we don’t get the fuck out of here the long term effects of the leak will be irreversible! We have to leave, we have to leave now!”

  “Excuse me, mate,” Greg said in an overwhelmingly arrogant manner, “But what makes you think that your calculations are better than mine?”

  “Well.... I have been on the safety inspection team for every nuclear power plant in the UK for five years now; if that doesn’t qualify me then I don’t know what will? But that is beside the point,” Caleb said dismissively, “How was the reactor programmed, what exactly was set into action, and how?”

  Greg was deflated by Caleb’s announcement but he soon puffed back up to his former glory, “The CPU in the DGVMC was linked directly into the Sellafield mainframe: allowing complete remote access to the core directives and most aspects of the plant,” Caleb felt exasperated; he actually sounded proud of what was happening, “I had to hack through some pretty stern firewalls and subroutines, but I eventually managed to shut off the cooling systems!”

  “Wait a minute!” Caleb interrupted, “You actually did this! You hacked into the Sellafield security systems yourself? For Christ’s sake man, why?”

  Greg stammered, “It.... It was Michaels; he said he would shoot me if I didn’t!”

  “It would have been better if he had!” Caleb said, receiving a chuckle from Ethan, “Right, anyway, was it the cooling rods, the pumps or both that you shut down?”

  “Just the pumps....”

  “So the cooling rods are still active?”

  “Yes.” Greg said with a petted lip.

  “Well thank fuck for your incompetence!”

  “So we’re safe?” Sarah said wringing her hands, “We’re not going to start glowing?”

  “Glowing? Melting would be more accurate, but no, we are not going to start glowing You see, all of the Nuclear power stations around the UK were shut down once the government realised that they had lost control of the virus, the.... what did you call it Cassie?

  “M.L.R.V.” she said with a worried look on her face.

  “Yeah, the M.L.R.V; so the reactors had been in constant shutdown for a few weeks, prior to Greg’s interference; which means, that even with the cooling pumps being shut down the cooling rods will still be in effect, giving us more time to get to the plant and sort this problem out!”

  There was a brief pause before Greg piped up again, though not so confidently this time, “Well, uh.... the umm.... the reactor isn’t actually still on such a constant shutdown anymore!”

  Caleb was amazed by the man’s stupidity, “You fired it up again, didn’t you!”

  “Yeah...!” Greg said sheepishly.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake...! What else could go wrong?” Caleb exclaimed rhetorically, throwing up his hands.

  “Well, umm.... seeing as you asked,” Cassie said equally sheepishly, “there is a good chance that Michaels may be following us!”

  “What?” asked Sarah and Greg simultaneously, though Greg sounded more scared than Sarah did.

  “Jim said that he thought he saw an army Land Rover pass us on the first night.” Ethan interjected.

  “And how come we are just learning this now?” Greg asked angrily.

  “Didn’t want to panic you, Greg my boy,” Jim said from the window across the room, “besides, it was dark, it could have been any army Land Rover, there are quite a few in this country you know!

  You might want to keep an eye on that window there, boss!” Ethan nodded to Jim and moved over to the window that Caleb was supposed to be watching; though he had calmed now, in his as
tonishment Caleb had completely forgotten his duties.

  “If it was dark, how do you know it was an army Land Rover?” Greg asked incredulously.

  “Trust me, I know the sound of an army Land Rover, son!” Jim said without turning away from the window.

  “Oh, well this is fucking great!” Greg shouted, “We have a psychotic Major with his own private army chasing us, a half melted schizoid armed to the teeth with grenades out there and only four days to save the country! Fuck this! I mean, fuck this!”

  “Two days!” Caleb said casually, between spoonfuls of his rapidly cooling soup.

  “What?”

  “Two days! We have two days to reach the plant, max! Any more than that and we will probably start.... glowing!”

  “Great!” Greg burst out again, “Well I for one vote that we turn tail and run! Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  “Won’t work...!” Caleb said still chewing.

  “What do you mean it won’t work?”

  Caleb put down the bowl and walked right up to Greg, he stood around a foot away from him and prodded his chest with the spoon, “What you have done, my friend,” he said calmly, “is set a nuclear reactor into meltdown, the effects of which will spread throughout the entire globe unless we do something about it: there is no ‘getting the fuck out of here’! Unless, of course, you mean leaving the planet; which I, for one, am all up for!

  “But unless you have a rocket in your pocket, can we please just stop jumping to delusions and get to the point?”

  “And what point is that exactly?” Greg said aggressively: but sat down shortly afterwards when Caleb put pressure into the spoon, pushing him backwards.

  Caleb followed him down with the spoon and then examined the tip of it that had made contact with Greg’s jumper with mild disgust, “The point of the matter is,” he turned away from Greg to address the rest of the group, “how the fuck did you plan to deal with the power plant? I mean, what were you planning to do about Captain Dunderhied here’s fuck up?” he gestured over his shoulder with the spoon towards Greg.

  The rest of the group just looked at each other clueless, as if they were embarrassed to say anything, apart from the two soldiers of course who seemed to not want to take any part in the conversation; eventually, and wordlessly, the responsibility landed back on Cassie.

  “Well,” she said, “Greg....”

  “Oh no!” Caleb said turning to him and back again.

  “....Greg put together a dongle....”

  Caleb looked at her dumbfounded.

  “....and we just have to put it into a computer and....”

  “A dongle?”

  “Yeah, a dongle. We just have to put it into a computer and hit return!” she looked abashed at what she had had to say.

  Caleb couldn’t contain himself; he just broke down and erupted into tears of laughter, “Hahaha! A fucking dongle...? Oh my fucking God! Hahaaa! What? Just boopitty boop click, click, click, hit return and save the world? Fuck me, that’s gold that is! hehee! Oh I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t help it, oh hoho it hurts, it hurts!” By the time he was done, the rest of the group was either laughing along or at least smiling; apart from Greg that is.

  “I take it that a dongle won’t cut it?” Sarah asked with that beautiful smile that reached all the way up to her eyes.

  “Oh no, no don’t get me started again,” he chuckled, “no, a dongle won’t cut it, not by a long shot! Just starting the cooling pumps up again and shutting down the reactor won’t contain this thing, we got to bury it!”

  “How do you bury a nuclear power station?” Sarah asked.

  “Not the whole station, just the reactor! After what happened to the Fukushima plant in the wake of the tsunami, the NDA have been building pits beneath the reactor and the pools in Thorp which they can be dropped into and capped with cement and reinforcement, should any kind of natural – or unnatural – disaster strike. The NDA were supposed to be the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, but they’re not, they’re the Nuclear Defence Agency. Sellafield was never going to be decommissioned, it’s just another of the governments dirty little secrets. But anyway, the pits can be activated through the control centre in Thorp”

  “What’s Thorp?” Sarah asked.

  “That’s where they keep all the plutonium!” Greg answered for Caleb.

  “That’s right,” Caleb said, slightly more condescendingly than he intended, “It doesn’t look like the plutonium will be any trouble to us, but it would probably be for the best if we dropped it anyway; better safe than sorry!”

  “And you know how to activate the pits?” Ethan asked keenly.

  “That I do! Though Greg’s dongle may come in handy too, again, better safe than sorry!”

  “Well then, I guess that makes you our priority number one. Sorry Greg but you are back of the line,” Ethan said with a smile.

  “No offense mate, but that boy right there is my priority number one,” Caleb said pointing to Brandon, “the rest of the world can fucking burn for all I care!”

  “I can take care of myself, Dad!” Brandon said as if he had insulted him.

  “All I’m saying is: yes, we will help you, but I want him well out of the way when the shit goes down!”

  “I couldn’t agree more! We will draw up a plan when we get a proper view of what we are up against, but for now, I think it would be best if those that can sleep should sleep: we have another early start in the morning!”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” Caleb said in a slight mocking tone as he walked over to Ethan, “and I think that you need sleep more than you realise,” Ethan looked hesitantly over to Jim at the comment, “It’s ok, Jim can keep an eye on me while you sleep, trust me, I know how hard it is to trust new people!” he laughed.

  The rain didn’t stop all night, it poured down in a way that Caleb had only seen when he was growing up in Scotland, it didn’t comfort him in the way it should have though. Despite all of his jokes and laughter, he was still hurting badly from the loss of his parents, it had been such a pathetic hope that they had survived this horror, but it had kept him going for a while, he still had to fight the urge to go back and look at his dad’s corpse in the other room, in the vain hope that he wouldn’t be the hideous mess that he had become.

  At around three on the morning, Ethan appeared by his side with a cup of coffee: Caleb had smelled the bitter scent as it was brewing and was overjoyed when it was presented to him; it had been too long since he had even tasted a cup of coffee, he truly was forgetting some of the basic pleasures of life before the outbreak, spending time with some people who hadn’t yet been crushed by it was refreshing.

  “I would offer to take your watch, but I have a feeling that you wouldn’t accept anyway,” Ethan whispered in the darkness, “So I’m just going to swap with Jim. There’s more coffee by the fire if you want some more.” Caleb nodded his thanks and Ethan disappeared into the dark of the other corner of the room to trade places with Jim. Caleb couldn’t be sure, but he felt like the soldiers were people that he could trust; the same for everyone else in the group, even Greg. He just hoped that they could learn to trust him too.

  The rain eased off as the sun was only just showing signs of its self over the horizon, and to Caleb’s surprise, Cassie appeared with another cup of coffee for him.

  “I’d forgotten how good this stuff tastes,” he said while warming his hands and blowing across the top of his cup.

  “You forgot about coffee? My god, you really have been out here too long!”

  “Ha! Tell me about it!”

  Cassie joined him in watching the sun rise through the broken window; a soft breeze joined the warm rays as they crept over the horizon, bathing the land in light.

  “What are your plans, Caleb?” she asked tenderly.

  “Well, I know I just kind’a invited us along, but I was planning on joining you’s, stopping the reactor, saving the world, that sort of thing!” he said with a smile.

  “No,
” she laughed, “I mean after. Where were you heading before we came along?”

  “I have no idea, we’ve just been surviving, Cassie. We did try to head north, into Scotland, we tried to make it to the coast, but we got chewed up and spat out and ended up here. I guess we are headed back towards the coast now though.”

  “That was where my father wanted me to go, Scotland. He said there were some pretty remote islands up there where we could be safe. Maybe we could go together?”

  “I would like that. But first things first, let’s go save the world.

  Chapter

  20

  Fresh Meat

  His words nearly caught in his throat as he spoke to her, and he prayed that his voice wouldn’t break when he did. He had seen her in the dim light of the fire the night before, but only now could he see her true beauty; her black hair flowed over her shoulder in waves and her dark skin made her remarkable green eyes even more beautiful. Brandon built up enough courage to finally talk to her.

  “Hi, Zoe, I’m Brandon!”

  “Hey, Brandon,” She said with a smile, “Would you like some coffee?”

  “Yes please, two sugars, thanks.”

  “It’s only UHT I’m afraid” She said in her sweet Irish accent.

  “That’s fine; it’s the steak that I’m more pissed off about!”

  “Steak...?”

  “Yeah, the zombies are eating all the cows; no more steak!”

  “Aww, what...? I love steak!” she said as she handed him the cup.

  “Umm.... How many shells do you have for that shotgun? If you don’t mind me asking”

  “No, it’s fine; I have loads, like three boxes in my bag. Why?”

  “Well, umm.... there was a guy here when we got here, he was up in the attic, but he kind’a shot himself, he had a shotgun but it was his last shot.”

  “Oh god...!”

  “Yeah, but we left the shotgun with him.”

  “Oh, right. Are you going to go back up and get it? I don’t mind giving you some rounds if you are.”