by Tony Thomas
Lara butted in. ‘Jesus Lincoln, not you too? Stop and think for a second will you?’
Lincoln turned to Lara, ‘You need to stop and think as well Lara. Anyone that goes into that hall could get turned. Even if someone comes to rescue us, it will make it much easier for them to get to us if there are less people in the hall.’
Lara clearly didn’t want to back down, but realised she was outvoted. ‘As long as you all agree not to go out in the hall again, I don’t care if you spend the next week calling all the rooms.’ She stood, ‘I’m going back to sleep’, and walked back to the bedroom and closed the door.
‘You can hardly blame her for being stroppy,’ Lincoln said, after Lara had shut the door. ‘That was one rude awakening you gave us.’
‘Sorry about that, Linc,’ Mick said. ‘We sure as hell didn’t expect that to happen.’
‘Yeah, I know. Don’t sweat it.’ Lincoln sighed. ‘Alright, I’m gonna get started on calling the other rooms.’
08:30 AEST: Sydney
As Dan walked down the hall to the lounge, he heard Gen say, ‘I’m sorry Joanne, but I can’t take any more of your preaching. Can we talk about something else?’
Dan walked into the lounge room to see Joanne stand, shaking in anger, inches from Gen. ‘The Lord will punish you for your lack of faith!’ she screamed into Gen’s face.
Gen took a step back and saw Dan standing, shocked, in the doorway. Gen turned to him and said, ‘She’s done nothing but preach fire and brimstone since I came back in here. I’ve been trying to tell her what happened outside but she’s just gone off the rails.’ Gen turned back to look at Joanne. ‘If she doesn’t calm down and stop preaching, I say we send her home.’
Dan looked from Gen to Joanne and back again before he found his voice and said, ‘Right, that can’t happen, but I get your point.’ He walked to Joanne and said, as calmly as he could, ‘Joanne, I think you should go downstairs for a little while. It’s safe down there and we all need to have a little time out I think.’
Joanne shifted her glare from Gen to Dan. She walked up to him and screamed into his face, ‘Don’t patronise me you heathen! Satan will take you as one of his own. You will burn. . .’
Dan almost lost it. He grabbed Joanne by both upper arms, gave her a light shake, and yelled, ‘Shut the fuck up! Stop saying those awful things!’
Joanne began to shake her head and scream. Dan let go of her left arm and began dragging her to the front door. ‘If you don’t settle down, I am putting you outside with the other crazies.’
Joanne dropped to the floor, sobbing. Dan let go of her and looked at Gen.
‘Wow, that went well,’ Gen said.
‘Sorry’, Dan said to Gen, ‘I’m not at my best.’ He took a couple of deep breaths then turned to Joanne, ‘Jo, if you want to stay safe in this house, you cannot keep insulting us. I don’t think it is safe for you to go home, but I will not stand by while you hurl abuse at either Gen or me.’
Jo stayed on the floor, sobbing. Dan couldn’t tell if he had been heard or not. ‘Did you hear me Jo?’
Jo, still spreadeagled on the floor, raised her head and nodded.
Gen said, ‘I think Dan’s idea of a time out is a good one. Why don’t you go downstairs for a little while? You can use the bathroom down there to wash your face and we can all calm down a little.’
Jo nodded again. She climbed slowly to her feet. She looked at Dan and Gen through stringy hair and said, ‘I’ll go downstairs now. As soon as my house is clear I’ll leave you and go home.’
‘Let’s talk about that later,’ Dan said. ‘First off we just need a break to work out what’s happening and what we do next. I’ll see if I can find out what’s happened with them clearing your house.’
Gen started to protest but caught a sharp look from Dan. Joanne held her head high and walked to the stairs. ‘Thank you for taking care of me,’ she said. ‘That was a Christian act.’ She quickly turned and walked down the stairs.
‘Fucking smartarse,’ Dan muttered and half smiled as he watched her go.
‘I guess you don’t really know someone until you see them under pressure,’ Gen said.
‘Maybe, but I don’t think that’s what she’s normally like. You’ve been in their house, they didn’t have religious stuff up all over the place. I think she’s still reacting to the shock of what happened to Mark. Once she fell into the doomsday talk, she couldn’t get herself out of it.’
‘She didn’t seem to be trying real hard either, Dan. By the way, thanks for coming to the rescue.’
‘Yeah, no worries, sorry it got to that.’ Dan gave Gen a tentative smile.
‘So did you report what happened?’
‘Yeah, I reported it. They said that since we weren’t in any immediate danger that we should lock up and stay inside.’
‘What do you mean not in immediate danger—they just took down an army unit right in front of us!’
‘Yep, I told them that. They said they would notify the “Operations Group” and told me to get off the line.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘I know—it makes me wonder what’s happening. I talked to Ian and he said nothing was happening there.’ Dan paused for a moment and then exclaimed, ‘Bugger!’
‘What?’
‘Piotr left me a message, I haven’t called him back yet.’
‘Why don’t you go do that now? I’ll try to get some update from the news.’
‘Okay, will do. Let me know if Jo comes back upstairs?’
‘Don’t worry—I’m not talking to her by myself until she calms down,’ Gen gave Dan a quick kiss before picking up the remote, flopping onto the lounge, and turning on the TV.
08:35 AEST: Sydney Airport
‘Attention Passengers. You will be pleased to hear that we are ready to start moving people out of the terminal.’
The speaker paused long enough for a weak cheer to come from the tired and disoriented passengers.
‘Despite the emergency, we will still be following standard customs and quarantine procedures, so please pass through the appropriate Green or Red channels. You will need to hand the officer your completed arrivals card.
‘When you exit the customs area, you will pass into the unsecured area of the terminal. Federal Police officers will be directing you towards the bus pickup areas, and will direct you to board the buses.
‘You will then be taken to the quarantine area. Transport to final destinations will be arranged once you reach the quarantine area.’
‘Amazing how easily they can make something simple sound complicated, isn’t it?’ Pete said.
Jeff smiled nervously, ‘I suppose so. I wonder where the “quarantine area” is?’
‘No idea, mate. It’s not as though we get much of a choice about it either way.’
‘Yeah, I suppose so,’ Jeff replied. He looked around for a moment before saying in surprise, ‘Hey, this queue has started to move!’
Jeff and Pete were standing in the express queue and it had finally started to move forward. The queue was pretty much out of control with people merging into it from all sides before it entered the part of the channel that had barriers that would stop people from cutting in. Jeff figured it wasn’t worth worrying about line-cutting, everyone was in the same boat.
The line started to move fairly quickly and they soon reached a customs officer who was directing people through different tracks. Jeff passed his arrival card to the officer, the officer scanned his card and said, ‘Are you carrying any food?’
‘N-no, nothing,’ Jeff stammered.
‘Door 6,’ the officer said, reaching for Pete’s card. Jeff walked across the short hall through the doorway labelled ‘6’ and entered a channel with low rails on either side. He was relieved to see Pete follow him through the same door.
‘Is that it?’ he asked as Pete caught up.
‘Yep, I think so. Nothing to declare, they just want us out of here.’
Jeff and Pete
continued through the channel, following it around a corner and through doors that led down a ramp into the terminal. As they reached the bottom of the ramp, they were again confronted by the alien presence of a Federal policeman dressed in full riot kit. They walked past him into the public area of the terminal, feeling a sense of relief.
From the foot of the ramp, it was only about 20 metres to the terminal exit doors. They followed the stream of people through the exit. They were then directed by yet another policeman in riot kit along a path to the bus ranks.
A uniformed policeman, this time not in riot gear, was waiting by the bus. ‘Put your luggage in the racks and take a seat—this one’s almost ready to roll,’ he said amicably.
The bus was one of the shuttles for the long-term car park. It had luggage space towards the front and seats at the back. It was being driven by a soldier. As they stepped on to the bus, Pete nodded to the driver and asked, ‘Where are we headed?’
The driver smiled and said, ‘The Hordern Pavilion. Believe it or not, you’re the first person to actually ask me that.’
‘Go figure, I thought everyone would have asked you, thanks,’ Pete said. He swung his bag into the upper baggage rack and moved down the bus looking for a seat. Jeff placed his bag into the lower rack and followed him down the aisle.
Pete found an empty seat and slid across to the window. Jeff walked up the aisle and asked, ‘Do you mind if I join you?’
‘No worries,’ Pete said.
As Jeff sat down he asked, ‘So what is the Hordern Pavilion?’
‘It’s a big hall not far from here. They use it for concerts and shows and stuff. Probably only about fifteen minutes away.’ Pete leaned back and scratched his head. ‘You know, it makes a lot of sense to go there. It’s pretty central and it’s easy to run a lot of transport to and from it.’
‘Okay,’ Jeff said. He leaned back in his seat. ‘I wonder how long they’ll keep us there? I booked my hotel so that I could check in early.’
‘Who knows? I guess it depends on whether there are any outbreaks. It seems pretty safe here.’
The bus filled quickly as people continued to stream on. After only two or three minutes, the doors closed and the driver spoke over the intercom as he started to pull out, ‘Welcome aboard people. We are now going to the Hordern Pavilion. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the Hordern is a historic exhibition hall in the southern part of Sydney.’
The driver stopped speaking for a couple of moments as he negotiated the speed bumps on the way out of the terminal area. ‘It will take us around fifteen to twenty minutes to get there, this is my second run today and I haven’t seen any traffic yet, so just relax and enjoy the drive.’
As Jeff looked out of the window, he was astounded by how empty the airport looked. There were no cars or taxis or people. Since it was his first time here, he wasn’t sure how normal it was, but he had never seen an airport so devoid of people and traffic.
‘Fucking hell,’ Pete muttered.
‘What’s that?’ Jeff asked, a little surprised by the sudden profanity.
‘It just struck me how empty this is. There’s no one around and it’s rush hour. This is pretty damn scary.’
‘I was just thinking the same thing. This isn’t normal for Sydney, is it?’
‘No, mate, normally it’s bedlam. This road is always chokka with traffic as well.’ Pete paused for a moment, ‘I have to admit that I’m beginning to feel seriously uncomfortable with what’s going on.’
‘I guess I do too. At least we haven’t seen any of the riots. Maybe it hasn’t spread here or it’s under control.’
‘Yeah, I guess,’ Pete replied. He turned and again looked dyspeptically out of the window.
The bus had turned into the M5 tunnel. There was no traffic at all, other than another bus a little ahead of them. It was completely silent on the bus. People were staring out the windows, with looks of concern on their faces. ‘The curfew seems to be working at least,’ Jeff said, trying to fill the void.
Pete looked to him and said, ‘Mate, this road has never been so empty. I don’t know what’s going on but just seeing this tunnel empty is almost making me shit myself. All that crap about curfew really didn’t hit home until I saw this, I think we’re in really deep trouble.’ With that, he turned back to the window. Jeff sat, numbly looking around and wondered what he had gotten into.
08:45 AEST: Sydney
Dan slid his mouse to wake up his screen. He went to Skype and clicked on his connection to Piotr. It rang for a little while and then cut out. Piotr’s status said he was online, so he still had Internet and power, he must have just been away from his computer.
Dan left a message, ‘Hi Piotr. Sorry I missed your call. A lot of stuff happening here. I will try again later.’
Since he was already at the computer, Dan checked his email. There was nothing from any of the people he had tried to contact earlier. The only communication from any of his friends overseas was with Piotr and Ian. Normally, the emails would have come thick and fast. He thought for a couple of minutes and then sent a test email. It sat in his Outbox. After trying a few more things, including trying to log into the mail server via the web portal, Dan worked out that the company exchange server must be down. It seemed a little pointless lodging a support call under the circumstances.
Dan could see that his personal mail was working judging from the flow of junk email he was still receiving. He had a quick look at Twitter, but he still couldn’t see anything coherent, although it seemed that #apocalypse was trending pretty high internationally.
He was just about to check some news web sites when the call popped up from Piotr. The video image came up quickly—at least the Internet was still working well. Piotr looked fairly tired and stressed, Dan could only see a blank wall behind him.
‘Hi, Piotr’, Dan said, ‘are you still okay?’
Piotr gave a half smile. ‘We are still safe here, or at least it seems safe for the moment. The group that were on the street have moved on. Have you heard that the Indian government is fleeing? Our news programmes tell us that Delhi has fallen to riots.’
‘India? Wow—I guess they were pretty vulnerable to a plague but that was really quick.’
‘Our news reports this disease has been in India for some time, just not reported. It says that the collapse of governments through all of the Middle East will happen within the next few hours.’
‘I haven’t seen any news for a while. Things got pretty exciting here unfortunately.’
‘What has happened my friend?’
Dan recounted the events of the night and morning, a little more smoothly now that he had already done it once with Ian.
‘Is the group of attackers still on the street?’ Piotr asked.
‘I haven’t looked since I came back in. We can barely see the street with the door monitor, so it’s pretty hard to tell.’
‘Have you thought about getting the guns of the soldiers?’
‘Shit, that never crossed my mind. They didn’t do the soldiers a lot of good though.’
‘Having a weapon to defend yourself must be better than no weapon at all, unless you have a weapon already?’
‘No Piotr, remember we talked about this? Our gun control laws are like yours, most people do not have any weapons at all. I have never owned one and only ever fired one once when I went to a shooting range.’
‘I think it is worth the risk to try to get a weapon. At least it will give you a chance.’
‘I’ll give it some thought,’ Dan paused. ‘What worries me most is how many people there were that attacked those soldiers. There must have been almost a hundred of them. How did so many people not only get infected, but get together that quickly?’
‘I think they are hunting for people to infect,’ Piotr said. ‘Andrzej was not the only one attacked in his house.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When the group left, it was no longer just a dozen or so people, al
most all my neighbours were among them. They seem to attack, and once the victim falls, they leave him to attack someone else. Then he recovers and joins the attackers.’
‘I saw something like that on YouTube during the night.’
‘You said the people in front of your house were shot.’
‘I think so, at least I saw some of them fall while there were guns firing.’
‘You must check to see if they still lie there.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if they turn into zombie they will have moved,’ Piotr replied.
Dan looked at Piotr to see if he was joking. He looked completely serious. ‘There is no such thing as zombies, Piotr.’
Piotr shifted uncomfortably. ‘I too thought this. I am hearing from other people that the ones that are shot get back up and walk again.’
‘Who told you that? Was it just something you saw on the Internet?’
‘No, it was Aaron from Technical Services in Atlanta. We spoke a little time ago. He said he saw it happen on the street outside his home. His neighbour had come home and three people attacked him on the street. He drew a pistol and shot all three. His neighbour was walking back towards his house when one of the people he shot grabbed his ankle as he walked past. Aaron said his neighbour kept shooting at them until he ran out of bullets.’
‘Did he get away?’
Piotr sighed. ‘This is the part I cannot believe. Aaron said that the three attackers dragged his neighbour to the ground and started to tear him apart.’
‘You can’t possibly believe that. Surely he was making that last part up.’
‘The way he told it, I believe he thinks it is true. He said he would send an email to everyone he knows since there has been nothing of this in the news.’
‘Dead people don’t walk again, Piotr. Zombies are not real either. I can’t believe this story. My neighbour that was infected was not dead, he just went crazy.’
‘That is why I have asked you to check outside your house. I am not sure if Aaron was being truthful, or just imagining things. You seem calm and rational. I don’t think you would invent something. If someone has been shot by soldiers they should still be where they fell.’