Lockdown

by Stephen Lewis

  ‘Man, I can’t believe this virus created zombies.’ He ran his hand through his unruly hair.

  ‘You believe in zombies?’ I asked, a bit surprised.

  ‘Sure, I knew this day was coming. I just knew it!’ He pumped a clenched fist in the air like he was vindicated somehow.

  ‘It’s just everyone who we’ve told so far...’ Stephanie started.

  ‘She means my mom.’ Nkata interjected.

  ‘... I think there must be another explanation.’

  ‘Nope, that was definitely a zombie.’ Freddy walked over to a low bookcase below his massive TV and picked up a couple of books.

  ‘World War Z, The South African Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide.’ He held them up proudly. ‘I’ve been preparing for this.’

  ‘Like when you fainted in your car, brah?’ Nkata quipped, and we all snickered.

  ‘It caught me by surprise. My survival instinct kicked in.’ Freddy retorted, returning the books to their original place. He was so meticulous, I bet the books were even in alphabetical order.

  ‘Have you called the police?’ Freddy asked.

  ‘We tried,’ I replied. ‘But they hung up.’

  ‘Then let’s go get help.’

  We recapped our experience so far. The locked gate, Walter, the building site, and the quest to get video proof so my dad could send help. Freddy ran his hand through his hair again.

  ‘You said you knew this would happen.’ Stephanie said.

  ‘For sure!’ he replied, taking the red glowing keyboard off the work desk and dropping his weight into a black leather recliner located in the centre of the room, facing the TV.

  Next to the recliner stood several empty energy drink cans in a neat row. His fingers danced across the keyboard, and the TV came to life with a gaming desktop full of icons.

  ‘Sweet setup,’ Nkata commented, mesmerised by the size of the TV screen.

  ‘I’m in IT, bro.’ Freddy’s key stokes opened folders and web pages. ‘I work for one of the big cell phone operators so I often have to work remotely. Plus I game. A lot. I was on my way to the office to help with a setup I couldn’t do from home.’ He typed furiously. ‘Here we go.’

  A close up image of the virus was on the screen.

  ‘GEOIT-20, otherwise known as the Falcevisrus,’ he started, almost like he was conducting a lecture. ‘It was discovered by Italian scientists last year - falce means sickle in Italian. They called it that because the virus has a dark edge that looks like the shape of a sickle, so you can see this thing had death written all over it from day one!’

  ‘So why are you giving us a science lesson on this virus?’ I asked.

  ‘Because, Mr. Smart Guy, I’m trying to get to a point. I was building drama.’ He shook his head and sighed.

  Stephanie rolled her eyes and I tried not to laugh.

  ‘According to reports,’ Freddy continued, opening another webpage with the heading New Virus Unstable. ‘This virus is volatile and prone to mutation. That’s why they have such a difficult time finding a cure. So if there are zombies, it means someone messed with something.’

  We all looked at each other.

  ‘What?’ Freddy asked, sensing the tension.

  We told him about Walter and the vials from his room. Freddy jumped up and paced the room.

  ‘It’s in the glove compartment in the car,’ I told him.

  ‘Oh man. This is ground zero! This is where it starts.’

  He swore some more, went to the kitchen and poured more rum into the glass. He was about to drink it, then looked at the glass before throwing the liquid down the sink.

  ‘I don’t even like rum,’ he said to himself. He opened the fridge and took out a large energy drink, cracked the can and drank it all at once. ‘Don’t drink this stuff,’ he said, stifling a burp. ‘It’s poison.’

  He crumpled the empty can and threw it into a dustbin.

  ‘Okay, we need to keep this thing contained. If it spreads, we’re all...’ he trailed off and I could see he was imagining worst-case scenarios.

  ‘What are you suggesting?’ I asked.

  ‘You’re right when you said people are not going to believe this. With all the fake news it’ll be hard to convince people that actual zombies are real. Get the proof - and we don’t cause panic. People are idiots. If they start piling out of their houses and try to get out of the estate, we will lose control and people will get hurt. Let’s keep this quiet and wait for reinforcements.’ He scratched his head, thinking about more scenarios.

  ‘I’ll go to the gate and make sure no one leaves or comes in until you can send the video.’

  ‘How are you going to do that?’ asked Stephanie.

  ‘I’ll tell them there’s a power outage or a sewerage leak or something. I’m in IT, I’m good at telling elaborate stories about why things don’t work.’ He suddenly changed tack. ‘I’m going to need a weapon.’ He hurried out the room and down a passage, returning moments later with a dark, slender object.

  ‘I knew I would need this one day!’ He pulled on the object and it separated, revealing itself to be a sword.

  ‘Whoa, brah!’ Nkata took a step back.

  ‘It’s a samurai sword I got in Japan when my company sent us to a conference there a few years ago. It’s been hanging above my bed.’

  He looked at it lovingly.

  ‘Is it sharp?’ asked Stephanie.

  ‘Hell yes. I didn’t get the tourist crap. This is authentic samurai steel. Cost me a fortune. It’s so sharp, it will split paper.’ He almost puffed his chest with pride.

  ‘So, you sleep with a sharp sword hanging above your head at night?’ I asked, thinking back to how easily that blade lodged into the zombie’s forehead. Freddy was about to answer, but hesitated as the thought struck him.

  ‘Point taken,’ he finally said and placed it back in its sheath. ‘I’ll find a new place for it later. How many zombies are we dealing with? Just the one?’

  Nkata held up three fingers.

  ‘Three?’ Freddy spluttered.

  ‘Well, there were four, but Lucas killed one in the field, so it’s just the three left... we hope,’ Stephanie corrected.

  ‘You killed one?’ Freddy looked at me. I nodded.

  ‘Destroyed the brain?’

  I nodded again. ‘Axe in the head.’

  ‘Nice!’ He leaned in and gave me an awkward high five.

  He seemed impressed, but it still bothered me that I killed someone... or something, even if it was a zombie. The thought of something that could infect the entire estate was frightening. To prevent it from spreading or to protect my friends, I was afraid I might find myself in the same position again – and the thought of it made my stomach lurch.

  We walked with Freddy out to the garage and he pushed the button to open the door. He shared his phone number with us as he got into his car.

  ‘Let me know when you get the video,’ he said, starting the car and switching on his wipers, trying to remove the bloody hand prints and zombie gunk left behind.

  It didn’t work and just smudged his windshield further. Freddy swore and pulled out of the garage with us walking in tow. The door closed behind us as he drove off in the direction of the gate. We stood looking at each other. There were three zombies somewhere in this 250 hectare estate.

  ‘Where do we start?’ asked Stephanie.

  ‘Well, after the zombie made Freddy faint it could have either have gone left or right.’ I pointed up and down the road with my axe. ‘We just need to pick a direction and start there.’ Nkata rubbed his chin and walked to the end of the driveway. He looked down and walked a few steps to the left before crouching down.

  ‘It went this way,’ he said, looking up the road like some sort of tracker on National Geographic.

  We joined him and he crouched and pointed down to the tarmac. There were a few drops of dark blood, which you wouldn’t see if you weren’t looking for it. He stood and walked a few more steps before stopping an
d pointing to another few drops.

  ‘So we go this way,’ I said, putting my hand on Nkata’s shoulder.

  ‘Good work, tracker.’

  ‘That’s Mr. Tracker to you,’ he joked.

  Stephanie rolled her eyes again and we headed back to the car.

  ENTRY 10

  We parked the car in Freddy’s driveway and followed Mr. Tracker to look for the security guard zombie on foot.

  We spotted intermittent drops of blood, which reassured us we were on the right track. We concealed our weapons and walked casually, in case someone happened to look out a window. A woman inside a house with a mailbox shaped like a golf ball glared at us out of a bedroom window and wagged her finger from within a faded pink dressing gown. She motioned towards her phone that she was going to report us. I gestured an apology, but she continued to give us a dirty look. Eventually, the blood drops stopped.

  ‘Do we keep going?’ I asked Nkata. ‘Perhaps it went down one of the side roads we passed.’ ‘I think we keep going...’

  ‘Pssst!’ Stephanie was trying to get our attention.

  She was two houses back pointing at the driveway. We joined her and looked down at the spot of blood she was pointing to. Down the side of the driveway was an open gate leading into the back garden.

  ‘Think it went in there? ’I asked. Neither of them answered, but we all knew we had to go in and check. There were no screams, so that was either a good thing... or a very bad sign.

  We crept down the side of the house and entered the gate. It was a large back yard with well-kept grass and a sparkling pool next to a lapa kitted out to entertain. There was a bar, braai area, as well as a Jacuzzi in the corner. A lawnmower stood out on the lawn unattended. As we scanned the garden for movement, there was a click behind us.

  ‘Turn around. Slowly,’ a male voice commanded.

  We turned and stared down the barrel of a gun. At the other end, standing in the doorway to the lounge, was a man. He was older, with neat, grey hair and a moustache to match. He was dressed in faded navy rugby shorts and a golf shirt that had some sort of fishing crest embroidered on the chest. A lit cigarette dangled from his lips.

  ‘Now put the weapons down.’ He motioned the gun barrel towards the ground and we complied, placing our arms down on the damp lawn.

  ‘Sir...’ I started.

  ‘Hands up!’ he cut me off. We raised our hands into the air.

  ‘The audacity! Taking advantage of this lockdown to try and rob people.’ He shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘I saw you guys coming in the back gate. In broad daylight no less.’

  ‘We’re not robbing you,’ Nkata tried to explain, but the man wasn’t interested in listening to us.

  ‘Susan! Call the police,’ he called out. He then stood staring, the gun trained on us and his cigarette smoke trailing upwards. ‘Susan!’

  There was silence from the house. The man called again and took a step backwards into the lounge. From behind him, in the shadow of the room there came a gurgling sound and a figure staggered out from the passage.

  It was a woman – no doubt the man’s wife, Susan. She was in a grey tracksuit stained with fresh blood, clutching at her throat as blood flowed from between her fingers. She fell forward, knocking over the coffee table, sending a large marble ashtray, its powdery contents and several beauty magazines skidding across the tile floor.

  ‘Susan!’ the man cried, dropping the gun and rushing towards where she fell. He called her name several times and turned her over, cradling her blonde hair.

  She had stopped making a sound and I could see that she had stopped breathing, her eyes staring lifelessly upwards. The man began sobbing and looked up at us with hatred in his eyes. He was about to say something when the security guard zombie we were tracking emerged from the passage, fresh blood glistening from its mouth.

  The man flinched at its presence.

  ‘Bastard!’ he screamed and lunged at the zombie, tackling it to the ground. There was a struggle and some moaning, their bodies wrestling on the tiles.

  The man cursed and crimson blood splattered up onto the beige leather couch. We stood frozen and saw his bloodied hand reach out and grasp the marble ashtray which lay nearby on the tiles. He brought it down repeatedly, each blow delivering a sickening sounding crunch. His arm stopped in mid-air and the heavy ashtray fell, cracking the tile.

  We rushed forward as the man fell back against the couch, covered in blood. His neck had also been torn open and he lay staring at us, gasping for air.

  Stephanie whimpered as he gagged a few more times, finally falling silent.

  ‘Don’t look.’ I turned her and Nkata and pushed them outside.

  The air suddenly felt thin. Nkata took a few steps onto the grass and threw up in a nearby flowerbed. Stephanie sat down on the grass, her breathing shallow.

  ‘You didn’t get any video?’ Nkata asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  ‘No,’ I replied, feeling the phone still in my pocket. ‘It all happened... so fast.’ It still felt like it was difficult to breathe.

  ‘What now?’ Stephanie asked, still looking down.

  ‘I don’t know.’ I was reeling from what we had just seen, trying to process the violence.

  ‘Those people are going to turn,’ Nakata said, looking back towards the open sliding door.

  ‘Into zombies?’ Stephanie looked up and could see her eyes were moist.

  ‘Nkata’s right. That zombie bit them, like Walter bit the security guard back at the construction site. We don’t know how long it takes, but it’s safe to say it’s less than twelve hours. We need to lock them in and secure this house so they don’t get out.’

  Nkata nodded, but I could see he wasn’t keen to go back into the house. I told Stephanie to stay seated, but she didn’t listen.

  ‘Cover your mouth,’ I said as we entered.

  I felt in my hoodie pocket and found the surgical mask from last night. I handed it to Stephanie, while Nkata and I cupped our sleeves over our mouths. We stepped over the bodies towards all the doors leading into the lounge.

  ‘Lock them from the inside and we’ll take the keys. Stephanie locked the passage door where the zombie came from while Nkata locked and bolted the front door. I went through the kitchen and closed the connecting garage door, locking it and removing the key. As I walked back, I saw a bowl of fruit on the table. My stomach growled, reminding me I had not eaten since lunch yesterday. I grabbed the bunch of bananas and some apples before heading out to the grass where the other two were standing.

  ‘We need to keep our strength up,’ I said, sharing out the fruit. As they ate, I walked back and closed the sliding door, letting it lock from the inside.

  ‘We need to barricade it in case.’ I pointed to the wrought iron table by the lapa. Nkata helped me turn it on its side and lean it against the sliding door, forming a barricade. I collected the keys from them and put it on the bar under the lapa. After we finished eating our fruit we picked up our weapons and exited the gate, closing it behind us.

  We walked back to Freddy’s house and got in the car. Stephanie was in the back seat and I could see she was still quite shaken.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said, smiling weakly.

  ‘If you want to...’

  ‘I’m not going home!’ she interrupted. ‘Don’t ask me that again.’

  ‘Okay,’ I replied. ‘Let’s call Freddy.’

  We hooked my phone up to Bluetooth and made the call. It rang twice before Freddy picked up. He didn’t even say hello.

  ‘Did you get the video?’ he said.

  ‘Hello to you too,’ Nkata replied sarcastically. Freddy didn’t respond.

  ‘No we didn’t,’ I said. ‘It’s Lucas by the way.’

  Freddy swore. I told him what happened at the house and he swore some more.

  ‘What’s happening over there?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s getting tense. A coupl
e of people tried to leave and I turned them away with a bulldust story, but one guy got pretty upset and said he’s calling the homeowners association. Then a plumbing van arrived from the outside saying they were attending to an emergency call to replace a geyser somewhere. I told them nonsense as well. We need to get this under control soon.’ He sounded agitated.

  ‘We’ll have to find Walter or the vagrant,’ I said, looking at Nkata.

  ‘You better do it quick,’ replied Freddy.

  We could hear someone hooting in the background.

  ‘I saw some notes here in the office about a complaint last night. Some people were seen having some drinks at the clubhouse. Perhaps go check there.’

  We heard some more hooting.

  ‘I have to go, there’s someone at the gate,’ He said in an annoyed fashion and hung up.

  ‘So I guess we go down to the clubhouse.’ I said as Nkata started the car and reversed out the driveway.

  ENTRY 11

  There had definitely been some activity at the clubhouse. There was a Range Rover and a BMW parked in the parking lot, and we could see some beer bottles standing on the pavement and cigarette butts stomped into the tarmac. The lockdown must have been too much for some people and they came down here to have some drinks. Stephanie groaned.

  ‘You know them?’ I asked.

  ‘Not really, but I’ve seen them around. Varsity students riding around in their parents’ fancy cars.’

  ‘Kind of like us,’ Nkata joked, tapping the steering wheel of the Mercedes.

  ‘Whatever,’ Stephanie shot back, turning up her face.

  The estate clubhouse was a communal facility that anyone could hire for parties or celebrations. It was a white building with a bar inside, patio at the back with another bar, a long stretch of lawn and two tennis courts.

  The Mothership and Dad were once invited to a fiftieth birthday party here and I was dragged along. It was boring, mostly because I was the oldest kid there and was nominated to watch the younger children as they played on the large area of lawn. By the end of the party my arms were lame from pushing them on the swings and being a human merry-go-round.