Necrovoid

by Ian Woodhead

  “What I mean is that most people were immune to the effects of the first wave.” She paused to lick her lips. “The plant-pod things must have known this would happen. No two people are the same, you know? The second wave changed even more people, people who thought they were immune to these spores. Don't you get it? That's how it works. With each wave, the stuff adapts and improves.”

  Jordan looked back at the shopping centre. “Oh, so when that thing bursts, it's likely that you might change, or me. Fuck, or both of us?”

  “Yeah.”

  He started to hobbled back to the fire exit. “Then why are we still outside? Come on, Jenny, we have to stop it!”

  She ran after him and pulled Jordan back over to the wall. “What is wrong with you? Do you think that'll be the only one? It's the start of the next wave, Jordan. There's going to be thousands of the things spread across the planet, all getting ready to release their deadly contents into the atmosphere.”

  “Great, just fucking brilliant. So, how long do you think we have?”

  She shrugged. “A couple of days at the most, I think. Probably less. I'm not sure.”

  “Oh, that's okay then. Not only do we have to cope with all these shambling dead monsters all out to eat us, we now have to look forward to us changing into a monster in the morning?” He took the backpack off, placed it on his knees and undid the straps.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I'm having my last meal. What does it look like?” He pulled out one of the burgers and carefully unwrapped it. Jenny snatched the burger out of his hands, then pulled the backpack away as well.

  “Stop acting like a brat,” she shouted. Jenny dropped the food back inside, strapped it back up and threw the pack at him. “Get that back on, right now. We have places to go, or have you forgotten that already?”

  “What's the fucking point? We're both going to be dead in the morning. Why not just face the inevitable and enjoy the brief time that we have left? Makes sense to me.”

  Jenny spun around and walked away. “Fine, you do that, you selfish bastard.”

  He ran after her, wincing every time he put his weight on his bad leg. “Wait, Jenny. For crying out loud. Will you slow down?” Jordan managed to grab her shoulder. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Are you that nihilistic? Great. Fine. Let's go with your idea then, shall we? Let's forget everything, we go back to the safe house and get drunk, have lots of sex and try to forget about the horror of what will happen to us in the morning. Then when morning does arrive, you find yourself alone, or I find myself alone, in the midst of monsters.”

  “So what do you suggest?”Jordan laughed. “No, don't tell me. Let's spend what little time we have left, trying to find the evil bastards who did this, deal with them. Once that's done, we then try to find some way to change all these people back. Oh, and if we have any time left, we could always make ourselves a cocktail. You know, to celebrate. Have I missed anything out?”

  “Yeah, how about the bit where I smack you in the face?”

  “Come on, Jenny. Face the facts here. Even the chances of us even finding who were responsible are like a million to one. As for a cure, come on. How are we supposed to do that? We're not even scientists. What you are asking is impossible, it's beyond hopeless”

  She nodded. “So what? Maybe it is. Does that mean we should just give up? What are the chances of us still being alive when most of the human population have turned into those monsters? I bet it'll be far more than a million to one.”

  “That's not the point.”

  Jenny shrugged off his arm, ran back to the wall, picked up his backpack and strode back over to Jordan. “Would you do it for Gail? She went in the last wave, Jordan. If you knew that you were going to lose her the next day, would you not do everything you could to find a way to stop it from happening?” She threw the backpack at him. “Or would you have a little party? While you were at, maybe you'd slit your daughter's throat while she slept?”

  “You bitch,” he growled. “That is so not fair.”

  “Not quite so retired to your fate now are you?” Jenny pointed to the fire door. “This is your town, you I guess you know the way back to your home. If you do make it back there without getting eaten, have a beer for me.” She turned around and started to walk away. “I'll be seeing you. Or not, as the case may be”

  He waited for her to vanish around the corner before he sat down next to the backpack. Jordan was right about this. What hope was there for any of them? He toyed with the idea of stuffing his face with the rest of the burger meat while thinking about what sex with Jenny might have been like. “She is right about you,” he murmured to himself. “You are a selfish bastard.”

  Jordan leaned over to unstrap the bag when he felt something fall out of his pocket. He turned around and saw a folded up sheet of white paper lying on the floor. He knew for a fact that he did not put that in his pocket.

  He unfolded the paper on the floor. It was a crude hand-drawn street map of what looked like a portion of some town. Jordan guessed the two square black outlines in the middle of the sheet were houses, the fact that somebody had written 'my house' on the left one, kinda gave that away. He wondered who Mrs Spicer could be. The road leading from the outlines continued past a dozen more buildings. Only two more were named. A chip shop and a fast-food take-away joint on the other side. The road carried on all the way up to a larger square outline on the edge of the paper. Jordan had no idea what that could be, judging from the size, if the scale was right, which he doubted. Whoever made this map obviously didn't include drawing as one of their talents. If it was correct, though, the large square could be anything from some kind of government building like a school or library, to an office block. Jordan had no idea where this place could be, and yet, it looked so familiar.

  What did make his heart beat a little faster came from the red icon right in the middle of building. It looked a bit like an apple tree. He had seen this before! Jordan folded the paper and stuffed it back into his pocket. Jenny needed to see this!

  “Good job, you dipshit, you have ruined your chances with that one,” he said. Jordan shook his head. No, no he hadn't. Just a little falling out, that's all. She'd soon understand once she saw the map. Jordan threw the backpack over his shoulder and set off, convinced that he'd find her within a few minutes. Hell, she'd hadn't been gone all that long!

  He took off, jogging and limping, down the street, stopping every few seconds to listen for any sound of her footsteps. It wasn't until he reached the end of the road and was confronted with an option of three different roads, when it hit him that his task was far more difficult than he first believed. “Where could she go? Come on, man think!” As far as he knew, Jenny could have only gone in one direction, and that was back to the safe house, meaning taking a left. He crossed over the road and went straight ahead instead. Deciding not to trust his own judgement at all. He hadn't exactly done a great job of guessing anything right since this whole nightmare began.

  Jordan carried on a few more paces, passing a bookkeepers and a sewing shop until he stopped dead outside a grocery store. He knew this place! Well, of course he did, after all, this was his home town. He must have passed this shop hundreds of times. Thing is, Jordan knew for a fact that he had been inside recently, even though he also knew for a fact that he hadn't.

  The door was already open. He pushed his head inside and looked around. He saw no sign of life. An unpleasant odour drifting from the interior reached his nose. Somebody had died in here, quite recently too. This was the damn shop that he’d been banging on about ever since he left his house. Thing is, Jordan had no idea as to why this place should be so important. There was no doubting that.

  Jordan had to go inside. The urge to do that was almost as strong as showing Jenny the map he had found.

  “Nothing is making sense any more,” he muttered. Jordan closed the door behind him and walked over to the counter. It did look like he had the place to himself but ju
dging from the empty shelves, somebody else had been here and taken everything of value. All he saw was a single tin of pineapples stood all by its lonesome on a middle shelf and and a tin of hotdogs on the shelf above. To their left were a couple of chest freezers. The foul stench appeared to be coming from them. Perhaps he had been wrong about someone dying in the shop? With the power out, whatever was left in there was bound to smell pretty ripe after a few days.

  Jordan walked over to the counter and leaned over the glass top to check the hidden space behind the till. “I don't believe it!” A grin spread across his face when he discovered the one object that he never actually thought he'd get to hold. He reached down and nervously wrapped his fingers around the shotgun barrel and carefully lifted it up. The damn thing was a lot heavier than it looked, that's for sure! Now all he needed was the shells to go with it. They were bound to be around here somewhere.

  He placed the weapon on the counter, walked around to the other side and went through all the cupboards. All he found was a box of chewing gum and a can of fly spray. Jordan stood up and gazed at the empty shelves for a moment. Something here just didn't add up. If looters had removed all the stock, why the hell had they left this behind? He placed his hand protectively over the stock, just in case anybody else suddenly decided to come back for it, right at that moment.

  The looters had been thorough, so they would have found the gun, that much was obvious. Did somebody bring it after the looters had left, perhaps someone like him, looking for food, supplies, or other survivors? If that was the case then the owner might still be in here with him? “Shit,” he whispered.

  The deja-vu feeling had returned and for no reason he could think of, Jordan grabbed the shotgun and strode over to the back of the shop, his heart hammered and his mouth had gone dry. He knew exactly what would be there, and it didn't shock him to find a pair of boots, attached to an older man who appeared to be dead.

  “You're not really dead, are you. You wasn't before and you sure as fuck are not dead this time.” The words made no sense to him, but it still felt like the right thing to say. Sure enough, the dead man's head shifted to face him. His eyelids flickered open and his fingers started to twitch. Jordan spun the gun around and slammed the stock into the dead man's face. His movements abruptly stopped.

  He dropped the gun and stumbled back against a shelf. Jordan turned, fell onto his knees and threw up. Jordan stayed in that position for a couple more minutes, waiting for his guts to stop swirling and for that inner voice to shut up about him being a brutal murderer. He only moved away when another part of his mind convinced him that the man wasn't yet dead and right now, was crawling towards his feet.

  How was he going to be able to use the shotgun now? It lay on the dusty floor, a few inches from his head with its stock coated in a thick layer of grey and red slime. Even if he washed all that off, it would still be there in his mind. A passing testament to his previous crime. Jordan plucked up enough courage to look at what he had done and forced himself not to look away.

  It all came down to the simple fact that he really didn't know if the guy really had joined the horde of the shambling dead. For all he knew, he might have only been sleeping. It's not like Jordan gave the poor bastard time to actually say something. Oh no, in he went with the shotgun, turning the man's face into mush, like the coward that he was.

  “I think I'm going to be sick again.”

  Jordan got up and dragged his feet over to the window. He'd give his right arm for his Jenny to be here with him. Why the hell did he let the only person he had left in the world to bugger off like that? He opened the window a crack to allow some air inside, with the hope that it might calm his stomach.

  The scene outside had not changed. He saw no Jenny, or any more dead things. He turned around. Jordan would feel so much better if he was sure that the corpse really had been dead and reanimated before he got here. Was there any possible way for him to find out if this guy was dead before the shotgun made sure that he was really dead? It's not like there were any teeth to examine for traces of human flesh. Most of his teeth were probably embedded in the back of the poor bastard's throat right now. How about his fingernails? The undersides might contain torn off pieces from his last victim? Or how about his general appearance? Or is there a bad smell coming off him?

  He moved away from the window and approached the body. Jordan gently moved the man's arm closer to the side with his foot. The truth of it was that he really had no way of knowing. Aside from some vague recollection of being in this situation before, that is.

  Did he have second sight? Was that the reason? That would explain for so much! Jordan tried to laugh off the ridiculous idea and almost burst into tears. “Fuck off, Jordan, you idiot. Stuff like that doesn't exist.”

  Three fingers belonging to the hand that he moved with his foot twitched. He only saw them in his peripheral vision but it was enough of a warning for him to jump back. Both of the dead man's arms snaked out, the left one almost making contact with Jordan. He ran back and snatched up the shotgun. “Why are you not dead?” he said. “I thought you were dead, but I didn't know. I didn't know.” He found himself wiping off the jam-like mess off the gun's butt and stopped, when it stuck him that it really wasn't going to matter in a second.

  The dead thing had successfully sat up. Several shotgun shells fell out of his pockets. Two rolled across the floor and stopped by Jordan's feet. “You have got to be shitting me.” He scooped them up and, without taking his eyes of the corpse, figured out how to open the barrel and insert the shells. He closed it with a satisfying click, pushed the butt hard into his shoulder, took aim and gently squeezed the trigger.

  A nuclear explosion went off inside his head at the same time as the dead thing's mutilated head vaporised. The headless corpse lay back down. Jordan gathered up the remaining shells, then searched its pockets, finding another five. He had in total twelve shells. Jordan couldn't exactly take on the town's entire population of dead things but at least he now had the means to protect himself.

  He ran over to the door, picking up that single tin of pineapples. He couldn't stand pineapple but maybe Jenny did? It wasn't quite as good as flowers and chocolates in the way of an apology but it was better than nothing. The hotdogs could stay where where they were.

  What had just happened to him in that shop? Jordan decided that perhaps following that train of thought would not be in his best interests. He had the shotgun and a few shells, there was some kind of map in his back pocket and Jordan had found a tin of pineapples. What more could he want?

  That answer came in the way of his beautiful Jenny running towards him with two dead things close behind. Jordan cracked open the barrel took out the spent shell and replaced it with a fresh one. It was time for him to rescue his girl, and to finally play the hero.

  Chapter Eleven

  The fact that he still lived came as a bit of a shock to Jordan when he opened his eyes. Susan had made a right mess of the room. Upturning the bookcase, shredding his clothes, not to mention turning the bedroom door into splinters. His bed remained untouched, as were the covers. Jordan unrolled the sensenet , dropped that on the carpet and quickly checked himself for bite marks.

  His dead sister wasn't in the room, he also saw the cupboard which previously held the sword thief was wide open and empty of both Matt and his sword. Just great, Jordan was once again, totally alone and without any means to defend himself.

  He felt like he'd accomplished nothing. “Wait, stop it with the pity-party. You wasted enough time feeling sorry for yourself in Necrovoid.” That was true. He couldn't believe that the damn game made him expend so much or his time and emotions on thinking that he might have killed that guy! Still, at least his other self now had the shotgun as well as the girl.

  Jordan's eyes bulged in excitement when he suddenly remembered that sheet of paper. Christ on a bike, that damn thing was showing him where to go right here. His house, the old bat's place, even the takeaways. That meant h
e now knew his destination.

  He excitedly pulled the map out of his pocket and stared at it in confusion. Jordan wanted to smack himself around the back of the head, like it was possible to physically bring something out of a game. Hell, if it were, He'd have brought out the shotgun, even the fucking super-zombies wouldn't stand a chance with that baby in his hands. Wait, did that mean the next time he entered Necrovoid he'd have a proper chance to show off his shooting skills on a moving target? That would be something to look forward to.

  The map now showed the town from the other game, he recognised it now. Why it didn't click when he first pulled it out of the glove-box was beyond him. Probably that had something to do with his traitorous mind constantly telling him things that just weren't true, like a super-zombie hiding under the car. Still, Jordan felt pretty sanguine right now. He put that down to finding the shotgun in the game as well as coming out of Necrovoid and finding himself still breathing. It did annoy him a little that Matt had fucked off and taken his sword. Still, that wasn't a major hurdle. The freakazoid couldn't have gotten that far.

  The map marked out the route in red pen which he and Jenny had taken, from his house, through the shopping arcade and to the last shop. There were two green 'x's. One inside the arcade and another further out, beside a long line which stretched from one edge of the map to the other. Could that be a river?. The mark inside the arcade either meant where the plant-thing almost killed him or, it pointed to the game shop. Even now, Jordan thought there was something weird about that place. The other 'x' was a bit of a mystery. He had no idea where that could be.

  Perhaps, it would become clearer when he put the sensenet back on his head. Jordan picked up the map, started to fold it then stopped.

  “Wait on. This makes no sense. How the fuck could this map possibly show the route that he and Jenny took?”

  “It could be because there is only one route through the game?” replied a voice coming from outside his bedroom.