A World Reborn: The First Outbreak

by Chris Thompson

  “Then her brother came. She hadn’t seen him in years, and he... I couldn’t say he forced himself back into her life but he made it difficult for her, mainly because she wasn’t sure how to interact with him anymore because she’d believed he was dead. The night of the attack, I saw him arguing violently with her. When I went over to intervene, he ran off. She told me he’d been trying to get her to leave the town with him, and when I asked why she said she didn’t know. Less than half an hour later, we all learned why. I found out later that he was the leader of one of the groups of insurgents backing the President’s brother, who was trying to instigate a coup after he’d been defeated by him in the election. I suspect Sanaa’s brother used visiting his sister as an excuse to discover the strengths and weaknesses of the garrison. Anyway, we came under heavy attack. Fortunately, by that time, some solid building work had been done, which had made it seem like a real town. If it hadn’t, if all we’d had for cover had been tents, we’d all have been dead.” Melissa paused before continuing.

  “There was a community hall that doubled as a place where people ate together, and a hospital where anyone injured could be treated before being air-lifted out if they needed it. Conrad, his men and the ones they’d trained fought hard to protect us. They got as many people from the town to hide inside the community centre. I have to tell you Roy, there was no battle that night; it was just a massacre. A lot of my friends died without even knowing what was happening. Gunfire was coming at us from all sides. It was only thanks to Conrad that my camera operator, Sanaa and I were able to get to cover in the community hall too.”

  Melissa fought back tears, looking back in the direction of Donna’s body and remembering the exact same expression on Conrad’s face the last time she’d seen him that she could see on Donna’s now.

  “Conrad took a bullet for me. He used himself as a shield. It went below his armour and clipped his femoral artery. I dragged him inside with us, but he died in my arms after giving me a letter to take to his wife if I made it home. Tony, my camera operator was hit in the shoulder, and Sanaa, although she wasn’t wounded, was so terrified she couldn’t move. I took Conrad’s gun and we went and hid in the rear of the centre, near the kitchen door. I had to drag Sanaa. Conrad’s men were truly incredible. They kept the enemy at bay for what seemed like hours. Eventually though, some of the insurgents tried a new approach. Without any warning they managed to sneak around the back of the building and burst in through the kitchen. One of them shot Tony in the head. His blood and God knows what else sprayed over my face. Sanaa was next. She was shot in the gut. I reacted just fast enough to save myself; using Conrad’s gun to blow the asshole that killed my friends away. Then I killed more of them as they came in through the door; squeezing the trigger, not pulling, just like Conrad had taught me. I managed to shut the door and used their bodies to block it. I went to Sanaa. I could see the fear in her eyes, Roy. I saw it, and I felt it as she held onto me. She died, and the last thing she saw were the tears rolling down my gore stained face.” Melissa revealed, scrubbing away the tears in her eyes now before looking back at Roy.

  “The battle that followed did last for hours. I fought on the line beside the Contractors. They were low on manpower and on ammunition, and they needed everyone who could shoot straight to stand with them. Truthfully, we only survived because some of the military loyal to the government arrived... because Conrad had managed to get a message out. They relieved us and killed some of the rebels but a lot more of them escaped. One of them was Sanaa’s brother. And then, after I left, civil war tore Galgambwe apart.”

  “God.” Roy said under his breath. “But that wasn’t your fault, Melissa.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t, Roy. Maybe I can’t be blamed. But it’s kind of like the position you’re in now. You did what you could, but it wasn’t enough. That doesn’t make it your fault. I did what I could to protect Sanaa, but it wasn’t enough. Plus, I never told a soul that I saw her arguing with her brother that night. Not even Conrad. Maybe if I had, something would’ve changed, maybe someone, just one person, would’ve made it that didn’t. And after the battle, after she died, I tried to protect her one last time. I never told anyone I saw her brother arguing with her and then running away before the attack, or that I believed he’d been spying on the Contractors and the recruits. And when I was shown his photograph later, I didn’t identify him, because I thought they’d think she was part of it, that somehow she’d become tarnished with the blood of the innocent rather than be regarded as a victim herself. I don’t know what happened to her brother, whether he got what he had coming to him during the civil war or not.” Melissa swallowed again. “Trying to protect the people we care about and not being able to doesn’t make it our fault, Roy. I don’t hate myself because of that. I protected Sanaa as best I could, just as you did Donna.” Melissa concluded. She felt a slight lift of the weight pressing down on her soul in confessing the full truth of what happened that night.

  Roy stood in silent contemplation. He understood what she was trying to say, but he had a question, a question he didn’t know if he had the right to ask.

  “Melissa.” He started, pausing a moment and then asked quickly before he changed his mind. “Is that why you’re so motivated to save people?”

  “It’s part of it.” Melissa answered, lowering her gaze before speaking again. “Another part of it is that when I picked up that gun and killed my first person, when I killed more than a dozen other people that night, it came so easily. I told myself it was the grief, the stress of the situation, that my desire to protect myself and those around me enabled me to do it with an almost emotionless detachment. Maybe some part of it was Conrad’s training too, I don’t know. But when I think back to it, and when I think about the people I’ve killed today, I don’t feel in the slightest bit bad about it. And that scares the shit out of me. What does it make me, Roy?” Melissa asked, not able to look him in the eye. Roy shook his head and then answered.

  “A survivor.”

  “Maybe. Whatever it makes me I know I can do what needs to be done to save those people in the theatre. I’m going to save the hostages, Roy, and you’re going to help me. We’re going to get them down here; we’ll do it in memory of those we’ve lost and we’ll do it in the knowledge that we can.”

  Roy nodded. He looked a little shocked by what he’d been told, but for the first time since they’d gone back to the security room, he looked towards Donna.

  “I’ll be slow on this leg but I’ll be right at your side, Melissa.” He said firmly.

  “No, you’re staying here. I need you to keep this door open and to work that elevator to get them down here to the security room. You keep that gun close and if somehow one of those Reborn soldiers makes it past me, you kill him without a moment’s hesitation.”

  “I don’t have any more bullets.” Roy replied, a little meekly.

  “Why were you lugging the gun around then?” Melissa asked, bemused.

  “I figured I could intimidate one of them into giving me a gun if I got the drop on him.” Roy explained. They stared at each other silently for a few moments. Melissa looked at the badly wounded man in front of her; the man who could only move with the aid of an unplugged office lamp, holding a gun with no bullets who had hoped to intimidate one of the soldiers into giving up his weapon. Roy read the expression on her face, and simultaneously, they burst into much needed laughter. It lasted only a few seconds, but it broke the awful melancholy that hung over them.

  “I really admire your spirit, Roy.” She said as her smile faded. Roy took on a more serious expression.

  “Melissa, you can’t do this alone.” He pressed.

  “You can’t run, and with that much blood you’re going to attract every infected in the casino. I’ve got a plan, Roy, and while I would’ve loved to have had you at my side, I’ve got to do this part alone. We’ll both do what we have to do, Roy.” She looked him straight in the face and then down to his hand, noticing his weddi
ng ring. “And then you can go home to your wife.”

  Roy looked down and then back up, nodding reluctantly at Melissa. “Alright.”

  Melissa didn’t move, but instead took a deep breath. “But now, let’s take care of Donna and put her somewhere safe.” Melissa suggested.

  Chapter Nine

  Melissa rode the elevator back up in silence. She considered picking up the radio and talking to Roy, but she sensed he needed to be alone right now. And if she was completely honest, she didn’t really have time to spend with him. They’d put Donna in the paper money counting room. It wasn’t the best place for her, but it was one of the few spaces available. Melissa wasn’t sure if she’d reached Roy with her story, but hoped it had helped alleviate some of the weight of the guilt he felt over Donna’s death. He had desperately wanted to come with her, repeating his offer to accompany her as he looked down at Donna’s body after they had moved her, but she had convinced him he could still play his part. He’d be able to protect the hostages - with a newly reloaded gun after Melissa gave him a spare clip - if Melissa was able to free them from the theatre. And that was the only thing that truly mattered to both of them right now; although Roy would dearly have loved to come face to face with Jim. Melissa was aware that rescuing the hostages was a much more difficult task now that she was doing it alone, but she tried to remain confident. Doubts, however, were eating away at the back of her mind. She’d learned how to shoot a gun. She’d watched the contractors train other people how to fight, how to move and how to breach rooms, but she’d never been fully trained to be a soldier. She was a journalist, a Witness if you believed the Reborn doctrine, and she felt decidedly out of her depth. But if she didn’t try, then who would? Who else even could? She asked these questions of herself over and over, part of her brain asking them simply for reassurance that she was doing the right thing, and another hoping that someone else would appear so she could siphon the responsibility onto them. But there wasn’t anyone else. She was alone.

  The elevator stopped, dinged and the doors opened, leading Melissa back into the corridor. She followed it around, going past the staff room where she’d learnt a lot about the Reborn, past the doorway to the private rooms on the casino floor which had been barricaded since she used it, presumably to stop infected from getting through. Vaguely, she continued in the direction of the next section of the main utility corridor. She came to a stop with a kitchen on her left and a double hinged door on her right, which she slowly approached. She pushed it open and discovered it led to the service side of the buffet bar she’d seen earlier in the casino. Large, clear window panels had prevented the infected climbing over the self-service counter and getting into the utility corridor behind it, and the only door that led into the casino floor had been barricaded, preventing the infected from getting it open. She looked back towards the kitchen and then at the buffet area, at the slats that were used to deliver ready cooked, hot food or specialities cooked to order, depending what the guest wanted. None of the infected had gone for the food and it was still arranged in a relatively undisturbed manner. Melissa considered her options. She knew she’d need to have use of these infected later on, to apply more pressure on the Reborn while she stole the hostages out from under them, and so she began carefully and quietly dismantling the barricade inside the buffet bar. The noise attracted a few of the infected, who grunted and growled at the noise, but Melissa was able get enough of the tangle of stacked furniture down so that she could open the door, enter and then quickly shut it behind her. A few banged up against the door as she slipped away from it, but it didn’t budge, and more importantly to Melissa, they completely ignored her. The collar she was wearing seemed to be working a lot better than the previous one, so she began to cross the casino floor towards the closest blockade erected by the Reborn. It took a while because, as before, the infected were at their densest near the obstruction, and once Melissa started getting close, she had to hunker down as she knew the barricade was visible from the theatre and she didn’t want any of the Reborn to see her, and give away what she was doing. Nudging and budging them as necessary, Melissa moved around the legs of the gathered infected. A few of them looked down at her, others simply appeared to be confused, not understanding how they could be pushed by something they apparently couldn’t see.

  Melissa reached the barricade and looked it over. She needed to weaken it enough so that when sufficiently agitated, the infected would be able to break through. Her concern was that she could over-weaken the structure so they broke through too quickly, and if that happened she could find herself in an unpredictable situation. She pulled at a chair, gently sliding it away from the base of the assembled barricade of furniture. It didn’t seem to have weakened it much, so Melissa selected and slid out a metal post. Gaining confidence when the whole mass didn’t cascade to the floor with a resounding crash, she carefully picked away at the stacked objects until she saw a very definite wobble from the obstruction, leading her to nod her head in silent approval.

  The sounds she had inevitably made had caused some of the infected to push up closer to the barricade and from her vantage point, she judged it would definitely give way with sufficient pressure. However, she was feeling a little cramped now and was concerned about being crushed under the weight of their bodies, so she began to pick her way to the edge of the barricade, where she peeked out into the main avenue. She could see the Money Pit, and when she looked out further, she could see the passageway between the theatre and the sports bar. The Reborn, about twelve of them, were taking up defensive positions there, in alcoves and behind the overturned tables and other furniture she’d seen them manipulating earlier. Melissa realized the Ancillary had predicted she would be coming for the hostages and had ordered her men to stop her. Melissa felt her confidence in her plan faltering, but managed to push past it. As she did so, something unexpected distracted her from her fear leaden thoughts; she saw a figure half-sitting against the acrylic wall of the Money Pit, his hands behind his back. She hadn’t noticed him at first as he was sprawled low, his face bloodied and legs distended at unnatural angles. He was obviously unconscious as anyone in his condition would have been moaning in pain. Melissa looked him over and then began to withdraw in the direction of the buffet bar, pushing the infected out of the way until she got to the door. She managed to get it open and then slipped quickly through, shutting it behind her to prevent any infected following her. She took only a few moments to rebuild the barricade but because of her haste, she knew it wasn’t really good enough. She only hoped it would last as long as was necessary for her plan to reach completion. Returning to the corridor, Melissa brought the double-hinged door to a closed position, and then grabbed the radio on her waist.

  “Roy? Roy, are you there?” She summoned him urgently.

  “Still here.” Roy responded immediately, though his voice sounded even weaker than when she’d last heard it.

  “What does Jim look like?”

  “Why?”

  “Someone’s been left at the Money Pit and he’s dressed like an employee of the hotel. His legs have been broken and I think they left him out there for a reason.”

  Roy didn’t reply straight away, so Melissa waited quietly for him to speak.

  “Bald, a little older than me. He’s kind of gruff looking.” Roy described, and Melissa silently nodded.

  “Yeah, sounds like him.”

  “What are you going to do?” He questioned.

  “He’s right between the Reborn and the infected, but I’ve got to go past him to get to the fire alarm. I can try to drag him away, but it’ll be difficult.”

  “Leave him, Melissa. He’s not worth saving.”

  “Maybe, but I can’t just leave him to the infected. If the plan works, he’s right in their path.”

  “And so were all the other people who were in the casino tonight. He knew what was going to happen and he let them die. There’s as much blood on his hands as there is on those damned Reborn.”r />
  Melissa ground her teeth. She understood his position, but leaving someone to that particular fate... that was something she couldn’t do. If he wasn’t turned straight away, then he’d be eaten alive, and the thought of letting someone die like that made her feel sick.

  “I’ll get back to you when I’m on my way to the theatre.” Melissa said.

  “Be careful.” Roy ordered.

  Melissa clipped the radio back onto her belt and advanced up the corridor until she reached a door on her right. It was secured by a key card lock which caused her a moment of unease, until she remembered the one she had found in the pocket of the armoured vest she was wearing. Hoping that it would unlock the door, she extracted it from the pocket and swiped it through the lock. It beeped and the light on it turned green, so Melissa quickly put the card away then gently opened the door a crack. The door opened inwards onto the main avenue of the ground floor, and was the ‘Staff’ door she’d seen beyond the theatre earlier. Melissa knew she was in the right place, so she held the door open and mentally prepared herself for what she needed to do. The fire alarm closest to her was the one on the wall of the sports bar, and that was a good twenty or more feet from where she was now. The Money Pit, where Jim was, was straight ahead, with the infected in the casino on her right and the sports bar and theatre, with a corridor in-between, on her left. As soon as she stepped out, she’d be right in the line of fire from the Reborn waiting for her. Melissa cracked the door open a little further and saw she had a clear line of sight to the sports bar windows, and it was then she knew exactly what to do. She held the door open for a few seconds, took several deep breaths while she mentally prepared herself for imminent combat, then, after one, final, deep breath in, she pushed the door open. In one smooth motion, she moved into a crouch and passed through the doorframe, her weapon at the ready. Melissa fired off three quick bursts of gunfire at the sports bar window.