After The Zombies | Prequel | After The Zombies

by Steel, Amanda

Grace, Mark and Luke exchanged glances, daring to hope that their hell might finally be over.

  Chapter nine

  ‘What do we do now?’ Grace questioned, her eyes staring at Luke as she waited for him to provide a solution.

  The two of them hadn’t slept much. When Grace had come downstairs to make a coffee just before 6am, Luke was already there slumped at the dining table with his head in his hands. Or maybe he had been all night, Grace thought.

  ‘Get a good lawyer,’ Luke suggested.

  ‘What with? They can take away your job and our money. Not like we had enough for a decent lawyer anyway.’

  'Mark said to leave him, maybe…,’ Luke began.

  ‘No, we’re not leaving him. We don’t do that. The three of us stick together, remember?’

  'That was when people were trying to either eat us or shoot us. We could still…’

  ‘No, we couldn’t still anything. We both know that letting Mark rot in prison won’t solve anything. They’ll come after us next. The press aren’t paying much attention to us anymore. We’re old news. Nobody cares and that means we can just disappear inexplicably.'

  ‘No, it wouldn’t be inexplicably.' Luke shook his head. 'They would most likely dirty my name, saying I did something negligent to get me struck off, then you would lose your home for whatever reason and end up back on the streets. After that, it would all be set up to make it look like I’ve killed myself and that you’ve accidentally overdosed on illegal drugs.’

  ‘That’s not really helpful right now,’ Grace snapped.

  ‘I wasn’t trying to be helpful. I just think maybe we should let this happen,’ Luke suggested.

  ‘No, not after everything that we did to survive, this can’t be how it all ends. It won’t be how it all ends,’ Grace announced before standing up and heading towards the door.

  ‘Grace, where are you going?’ Luke asked.

  Grace ignored his question and flung open the front door, standing face to face with Yasmin and Gregg.

  ‘What the hell? I thought you were dead,’ Grace said and took a few steps back — almost falling into Luke, because he had gone after her. Yasmin and Gregg looked like themselves, but much paler, almost like the infected — but not quite and somehow human at the same time.

  ‘We…’ Yasmin began in a raspy voice and her face showed pain, as though it was a big effort to try to speak. ‘We heard you were here.’

  ‘And about Mark,’ Gregg stated, also sounding like he was struggling with his speech.

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Luke asked, holding onto Grace's arm and pulling her away from them.

  ‘We were captured,’ Yasmin said.

  ‘But we escaped,' Gregg informed them.

  ‘And what exactly did they do to you?’ Luke accused.

  ‘They gave us the cure,’ Yasmin and Gregg said in unison.

  ‘No offence, but you don’t look very cured to me,’ Luke stated. ‘Let me take a look at you.’

  ‘We’re fine,’ they both spoke in unison again as they took a step forward.

  ‘I’m a doctor, remember?’

  ‘We’re fine, ‘they repeated. ‘We took the cure.'

  ‘Luke, what’s wrong with them?’ Grace asked as she stepped back, pulling at Luke’s arm to draw him away from Gregg and Yasmin.

  ‘I think the government have taken the definition of brainwashed mindless zombies to a whole new level,’ Luke replied as he ran towards telephone table in the hallway and pulled out a gun from the drawer, then aimed it at Gregg and Yasmin. ‘Leave now, or I will shoot you in the head.'

  Gregg and Yasmin stayed where they were. Luke prepared himself to pull the trigger, but the door opened, then five soldiers rushed into the room. Luke misfired and hit the wall. Before he or Grace had time to react, they were taken away by the soldiers.

  Day 195

  ‘Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?’ Paula asked.

  ‘They killed Lucy,’ Yasmin reminded her.

  Paula wasn't convinced. ‘But did they really? Grace said she was one of those things.’

  ‘Grace could have turned her back. She's immune, she probably knew that all along. Luke’s a doctor; between them, they could have figured out a way to cure Lucy.’

  ‘Yasmin's right,’ Gregg agreed. ‘At least this way, there will be a cure. We all know Mark would never agree to this and neither would Luke. They’d risk us all to save their precious Grace, but getting a cure is more important than any one person. We have to look out for ourselves now, before we die too.’

  ‘Who’s there?’ a female voice demanded from behind the hospital door before the three of them reached it.

  ‘Survivors, and friends of someone who might be immune. We heard there were army doctors in here, so we figured you might be able to do something with her to make a cure,' Gregg explained.

  ‘How do I know you’re telling the truth?’ the woman questioned.

  ‘She was bitten, but didn’t turn. We have her blood on this rag. Maybe you can test it, to see how it’s different and immune to whatever this outbreak is, then we can tell you where to find her to get more,’ Gregg offered.

  ‘And what do you want in return?’ she questioned.

  ‘We want to live and we want the cure, so that we won’t turn into those things, then we want to leave Manchester.'

  ‘You would sell your friend out?’ a soldier questioned, startling Gregg, Yasmin and Paula. They hadn't seen him approaching.

  ‘It’s every man or woman for themselves now, right?’ Gregg questioned nervously.

  ‘Right, wait there, we’ll see what we can do,' the soldier ordered, then went inside with the woman.

  Ten minutes later, the woman returned alone and stepped outside. Gregg, Yasmin and Paula could see that she was wearing a long white coat and looked like a doctor.

  ‘Okay, you can come in; I'll take you to the lab. If this blood sample checks out, someone will be sent to fetch this immune woman. I’ll also need one of you to volunteer to be a test subject, once I've made a potential cure.'

  ‘We never said anything about being test subjects,' Gregg objected.

  ‘It’s okay, I'll do it,’ Paula volunteered herself.

  Day 381 of the outbreak

  ‘If only we could get hold of one of those soldiers to tell us where Grace is,’ Luke suggested.

  ‘You think they did something to her?’ Mark questioned as he used his knife to sharpen some wooden chair legs, so that he could use them as weapons against the infected. He figured anything that could pierce their skulls would do.

  ‘Either that, or she got bit again, but we know she’s immune to becoming one of those things,' Luke pointed out.

  ‘Doesn’t mean they can’t tear her to pieces. She's not immune to dying.’

  ‘That’s not helpful,’ Luke mumbled.

  ‘It’s not meant to be helpful, I’m only saying what we’re both thinking, it’s just that you don’t want to admit it.’

  ‘Whatever happened, we need to know. We're running short on people here in case you haven’t noticed,' Luke stated.

  ‘I noticed and I don’t think Paula, Yasmin and Gregg disappearing before we started getting hunted by soldiers, even when we weren't near the borders and then Grace disappearing and suddenly we're not being hunted as much, is a coincidence.’

  ‘I agree with you there. I think they did something.’

  ‘They blamed me and Grace for what happened to Lucy, but she was infected. We did what we had to.'

  ‘Too bad they don’t see it that way,’ Luke reasoned.

  Paula lay on the hospital trolley as the doctor prepared the first batch of what could be a cure for the outbreak.

  ‘You don’t have to do this,’ Yasmin told her for what felt like the hundredth time.

  ‘Someone has to. Why not me?’ she questioned as she forced herself to smile for Yasmin’s benefit.

  The doctor injected Paula, then ordered Gregg and Yasmin to stand back.

&
nbsp; ‘Why? What’s going to happen?’ Gregg questioned.

  ‘We don’t know; it's the first test. That's why you should stand back, just in case…of anything unexpected,’ the doctor replied.

  Nothing happened for a few minutes, then Paula began to convulse in a similar way to how Grace had after she was bitten.

  ‘This is it. That's how Grace reacted, afterwards she was fine,’ Yasmin announced as she stepped forward.

  Paula’s eyes opened and before anyone could react, she pulled Yasmin towards her, sinking her teeth into her sister’s arm. Yasmin yelped in pain and surprise. Gregg stepped forward and tried to push Paula away, but Paula withdrew her teeth from Yasmin and bore them into his arm, as Yasmin fell to the floor. A shot was fired, from a soldier who was standing in the doorway. It hit Paula in the forehead, causing her to slump back onto the trolley, with a piece of Gregg’s flesh still hanging from her mouth.

  Chapter ten

  ‘I bet you wish we’d never come back now,’ Grace couldn’t resist saying, as she and Luke sat together in a cell.

  ‘They would have come for us anyway. I think this was always going to happen.’

  ‘What did they do to Yasmin and Gregg?’

  ‘I think it’s what they were originally trying to do, when the outbreak first started,’ Luke replied.

  ‘I don’t understand. Are you saying the government made the zombies on purpose?’

  ‘I don’t think they intended for Manchester to become an all you can eat buffet for the infected, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Gregg and Yasmin showing up and being the way they are. It makes some kind of sense.’

  ‘I’m glad you think so,’ Grace said. ‘Do you think they’re going to do the same thing to us?’

  ‘No, they’re probably going to kill us,’ Luke said dejectedly.

  ‘Oh, well I suppose that’s better in some ways, I don’t want to become one of those things, but I don’t want to die either, so we need to do something,’ Grace insisted.

  ‘Gracie, I’ve always loved this optimistic side of you, but you need to know when to give up.’

  ‘Snap out of it,’ Grace ordered, catching Luke off-guard, who was not used to seeing her get so mad — even when they had been fighting off the infected and the soldiers together. ‘I get that you’ve been through a lot of shit, I have too and I won’t remind you of everything we’ve had to do to survive, because neither of us need a recap. But we did survive and it wasn’t so that we could just die to cover up the governments mess, or for us to become mindless brainwashed zombies. So for fuck sake, snap the hell out of it, because I’m not ready to give up yet and I won’t let you give up either.’

  Luke could only stare, open mouthed, at Grace.

  ‘What?’ she questioned.

  'That was a pretty amazing outburst. I hope you can back it up with actions.’

  Grace didn’t have time to respond, before two soldiers and a middle-aged man dressed in an expensive looking suit, approached them. Grace vaguely recognised him and wondered if he might be one of the politicians she had seen on television.

  ‘You might have noticed; this isn’t like your normal prison or police station holding cell,’ the suited man informed them. ‘This city has many forgotten underground places; this is just one of them.’

  ‘Thanks for the history lesson, but that was never my favourite subject at school,’ Grace retorted.

  ‘My point is, nobody will ever find you down here, friends, family, journalists, NOBODY,’ he emphasised.

  ‘That could be a problem,’ Grace said.

  ‘You finally understand.’

  ‘Oh yes, but I think you misunderstand me. What I meant is, that could be a problem for you.’

  ‘How did you arrive at that conclusion?’

  ‘You may have noticed how we kept your secrets so well and told our fake stories to the world's media. I mean, they were really keen to find out what happened here.’

  ‘Yes and now your job is done. Thanks for all your help, but we don’t need you anymore,' he answered abruptly.

  ‘I’m afraid that's not entirely true. Those fake stories, they were everywhere in pretty much every newspaper, on all the radio stations and television news channels. The only problem is, they all had the same stories.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So, some of them would love an exclusive, something different from what everyone else has. I promised them that. I told some of them the truth and if anything happens to us, that just backs up my story. You’re going to have a lot to explain, when they start believing and printing it, aren’t you? I'm just saying.’ Grace walked back to Luke and sat down beside him on the metal bench.

  ‘Who did you tell?’ the suited man demanded, as his face turned red with anger and his features twisted — making him look like he had just eaten a whole lemon in one go.

  ‘We could just shoot them, right here and now, Sir’ one of the soldiers offered.

  ‘Are you insane?’ the man bellowed at him, then strode away, leaving the soldiers to look at each other before following him.

  ‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Luke whispered to her.

  Grace nodded, but didn’t reply, knowing that they were most likely been watched and listened to in their captivity. She hoped Luke knew her well enough to know she was bluffing, without her having to say it out loud. She also hoped he knew she would have told him if she leaked the truth to a few journalists. She wasn’t sure why it seemed so important for Luke to realise she hadn’t lied or kept the truth from him. Grace found herself resting her head on Luke’s shoulder for comfort. He wrapped his arm around her, then kissed her softly on the forehead. As she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine things were okay and they weren’t facing a possible mysterious accident or disappearance.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Luke broke the silence.

  ‘What for?’ Grace questioned.

  ‘Giving up.’

  'That’s okay,’ Grace pulled away, so that she could look him in the eye. ‘After everything that’s happened, it’s understandable, but promise me…’ she began, interrupted by the suited man returning with five soldiers in tow. They unlocked the cell door and two of them grabbed hold of Grace, while another two tackled Luke to the ground. The fifth soldier kicked Luke in the stomach, as Grace struggled to get free from the hands forcing her down and twisting both her arms behind her back.

  ‘Stop it, please,’ she pleaded for Luke's benefit more than her own even though she felt like her shoulders might pop out of their sockets if they twist any harder.

  ‘Not so tough now. Are you, sweetheart?’ the suited man asked in a patronising tone. ‘You can make them stop anytime.’

  Luke received a solid punch in the jaw, but his eyes remained fixed on Grace.

  ‘Just tell us the truth, did you tell any journalists, or anyone else the truth about what happened?' suit man demanded.

  ‘Tell them the truth,’ Luke spluttered.

  Grace opened her mouth to respond, but Luke was kicked in the stomach again. Grace caught the look in his eyes, which everyone else in the cell seemed to be oblivious to. Maybe it was because of how close they had become while sharing an ordeal that most people wouldn’t understand, but Grace sensed he didn’t mean the real truth. He meant for her to lie and elaborate on what she had already said.

  ‘I told four people, but I’ll never tell you who. You can kill Luke and me and even Mark if you want to, if that’s what it takes to get you hard. Just know this, if any one of us dies or vanishes, then those four people will release the full story. I wouldn’t want to be you when that happens.’

  The suited man nodded to the soldiers who released their grip on Luke and Grace, then left the cell, locking it behind them.

  ‘Luke,’ Grace scrambled to his side, fighting back tears. ‘I am so sorry.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ he said lifting his hand to her face. ‘You did the right thing. You told the truth.’

  Grace nodded to show her und
erstanding. She understood that Luke had taken a beating in order to make their captors believe Grace really was telling them the truth.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered before kissing him on the lips.

  He looked at her in surprise, but didn’t have chance to respond before they were interrupted again.

  ‘You’re free to go, for now’ a different suited man announced. 'There will be a court case though and in the interest of fairness, it will be covered in great detail by the media, who you seem to love so much. I wouldn't want to be either of you when they see you as the leeches you really are.'

  ‘What about Mark?’ Grace asked.

  ‘He’s outside waiting for you, see you in court,' he added in a tone which made shivers run down Grace's spine.

  Luke and Grace were led through a series of dirty looking tunnels and corridors then up a flight of stairs — which led into a shut-down shop. Mark was waiting there for them. Grace ran towards him, throwing her arms around him.

  Mark returned the embrace as he said, ‘Gracie, sweetheart, I'm really sorry, I was a jerk and I never should have left you, or acted like a moron when you came to see me at the prison.’

  ‘Good to have you back. Shall we get out of here?’ Luke tried to hide his disappointment at seeing Grace and Mark together again, as though nothing had ever happened between himself and Grace.

  ‘Yes, let's enjoy our freedom while it lasts,’ Grace agreed. ‘I don’t think this court case is going to go in our favour.’

  It felt unreal, as the three of them walked down Market Street amidst the crowds of shoppers, who were either visiting or had moved to Manchester after the outbreak — when houses were offered to rent or buy cheaply and wages were increased to entice people to the city, to get things back to normal.

  'It's hard to believe that this place was overrun with zombies once,' Grace pointed out.

  'I don't know,' Mark looked around as a couple of men walked past, obviously high on some kind of illegal substance, 'some of them still look like zombies to me.'

  'I can't believe you're making jokes about this,' Luke spoke up.