She frowned. “Was he bitten, though? I can’t see a wound on him.”
She was right about that. Most of the zombies had very obvious wounds where they had been bitten when they were alive. Blood-stains on their clothing told the story of how they had ended up as part of the undead horde. But the soldier seemed to be bite-free. So how had he contracted the virus?
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Without taking a closer look, we probably won’t ever know. And I’m not volunteering to go out there and inspect him for wounds.”
She nodded and left the kitchen to see what she could find in other parts of the house. I heard her open the door beneath the stairs and start a search in the storage area there.
Twenty minutes later, the food was ready. I found plates and put them on the counter before filling them with rice, beans and burgers. Jax appeared at the doorway. “Smells good.”
“Yeah. We can’t eat it at the table since the table is blocking the back door so I suggest the coffee table in the living room.”
“Sounds good.”
We took our food into the living room and sat on the floor at opposite ends of the low table while we ate. The food brought my taste buds alive and I savoured every fork full.
“You find anything?” I asked Jax between mouthfuls.
“Not much. A pair of old binoculars, a hockey stick, tennis rackets, and some fishing equipment under the stairs. Some kid’s toys. Nothing else that could even be remotely useful.”
The mention of fishing equipment reminded me of the days on The Big Easy fishing with Lucy. Those days seemed so long ago now and I was almost sure I would never see Lucy or The Big Easy again. Getting a message to her on Survivor Radio seemed like an impossible task. We couldn’t even get out of this house, never mind travel to the radio station and take control of the airwaves.
“The fishing stuff will be useful,” I said. “We should take that with us.”
She nodded. I knew what she was thinking: Take it with us how exactly? You’re too unfit to leave the house.
We ate the rest of the meal in silence. I wondered how Jax had been affected by the apocalypse, how many loved ones she was missing. It seemed to me that Jax, Tanya, and Sam might have given themselves this mission to take over Survivor Radio to distract them from the reality of the situation. They must have family unaccounted for, people they loved who could be alive, dead, or somewhere in between. Yet all three of them seemed to be full of bravado and a tough inner strength.
Maybe they were just tougher than me. They were the type of people who were into extreme sports and martial arts. Competitors. Survivors. These were mentally and physically equipped to survive a zombie apocalypse.
A sudden idea hit me.
“You ever play tennis?” I asked Jax.
She nodded. “I used to when I was younger.”
“Were you any good?”
“Yeah, not bad. Why?”
I ran the plan through my mind again. It could work.
I said, “I think I know how we can get out of here.”
Chapter 21
I stood in the double bedroom with the binoculars pressed against my face. I wanted to get a better look at the hybrid soldier. He had stopped prowling around and now he stood as still as a statue in the middle of the street. When he came into focus, I saw the bite on his neck. He had been bitten by a zombie after all but the wound was slight. Most people were almost torn apart by the zombies that killed them and the resulting wounds were deep and bloody.
The soldier had a simple set of bloody marks on his neck shaped like a set of teeth. I wondered how he had been turned. According to the notebook, Corporal Francis had been bitten already but Wilder’s note said Francis did not turn. He just wanted to be left alone and tried to wander off. Maybe Wilder and Jones were taking Francis back to base and Francis did finally turn and attacked them. The truck went off the road and Francis bit the other members of the team. But if that was the case, where were they? Why hadn’t all three members of Alpha 3 Victor been in the field near the truck?
I lowered the binoculars and went to find Jax. She was in the little girl’s pink bedroom, sitting on the bed and staring out of the window at the gathering gloom of the approaching evening. She had a faraway look in her eyes and again I wondered who she had lost in this apocalypse, who she was missing.
“Hey,” she said when she saw me.
I told her about the bite on the soldier’s neck then added, “So he was bitten but the vaccine kept him alive, turning him into a hybrid. He’s infected with the virus but it hasn’t killed and reanimated him. Also, I think it takes them longer to turn when they’ve been vaccinated. It sounds like it took Corporal Francis four days. I think he bit Wilder and Jones, causing the crash.”
She caught on to what I was thinking. “The last note in the book was written two days ago. So you think that’s Francis out there on the street and Wilder and Jones are still turning somewhere?”
I nodded. “Probably somewhere in that field. Or in those trees where Francis was standing.”
She thought for a moment then said, “This is bad, Alex.”
“Yeah, all the soldiers are being vaccinated. How many of those soldiers will get bitten by zombies? How many have already been bitten since they were injected with the vaccine?”
“There’s going to be thousands of zombie hybrids just like Francis,” she said. “The shambling dead ones are bad enough but now we’re going to have to deal with runners as well.”
“The virus will spread, a lot faster,” I said.
She nodded then said, “Let’s get out of here.”
We went downstairs to the kitchen. On the table we had placed the tennis racket from under the stairs and four tennis balls. I had no idea if this was going to work but it was our best chance to get back to the Zodiac. Evening was already falling. Tanya and Sam probably thought we were dead. I just hoped they hadn’t sailed away and left us in this godforsaken village.
I helped Jax put on her backpack and she helped me do the same. We would have to carry the second backpacks we each had and we were prepared to dump those if we had to. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to.
Carefully, we lifted the dining table and moved it away from the back door. Jax took the tennis racket and balls out into the back yard while I went into the living room and parted the curtains just enough to see the soldier.
He stood watching the street. Did he even remember what he was looking for anymore or was he waiting for any stimulus to spark him into action?
I turned to see Jax in the back yard holding a tennis ball in one hand, the racket in the other. She tossed the ball up with a graceful movement then brought the racket up swiftly. The ball went sailing over the roof of the house.
I turned back to the hybrid soldier. He was as still as he had been a few seconds ago. Then I saw the vibrant green tennis ball land in the yard of a house across the road and bounce against the living room window with a bang.
The soldier turned to where the sound had come from. He moved a step forwards, then another and another until he was walking to the yard across the street.
A second ball sailed into the street and landed on the roof of a Volvo before bouncing away down the road.
Walking quickly, the soldier reached the Volvo and looked into the windows of the car.
Jax sent the third and fourth balls in rapid succession down the street, trying to lure the soldier farther away. With no other sound or movement to stimulate his senses, he followed the balls although he didn’t seem as interested now, as if he might have realised they were not worth pursuing.
I went through the house and out into the yard. “Let’s go,” I whispered to Jax.
We went to the first fence and placed the backpacks we were holding over into the next yard. We had packed towels between the cans so they wouldn’t make much noise but the sound of everything settling in the packs as we put them on the ground sounded too loud. I was sure the soldier would hear us. If h
e heard us now, we were dead.
Carefully, we straddled the waist-high fence and climbed over. It was difficult with the weighty pack on my back shifting every time I moved but I got over into the next yard and picked up my second pack. Jax was already waiting at the next fence. I looked at the row of yards ahead of us. There were at least a dozen fences between us and the last yard in the row. I groaned inwardly.
It took us nearly an hour to move along the yards. It was slow and strenuous work, lifting the packs over each fence and listening for the approach of the hybrid soldier. I had no reason to believe the soldier had some sort of super-hearing but even so, every little noise we made sent my heart hammering. I was bathed in sweat by the time we climbed out of the final yard. The sky was darkening into twilight with a few stars already visible.
We stood a hundred feet from the parking area where the white Nova and the red Toyota Camry sat. The Nova was as quiet as it had been when we first arrived, the zombies inside hiding and waiting for unsuspecting prey.
We pressed ourselves against the side of the house. We had no idea where the soldier was. He could be at the far end of the street or he could be standing just around the corner. Our ruse with the tennis balls had gotten us this far but now we had to run for the Zodiac. As soon as we stepped away from the side of the house, we would be visible and vulnerable.
I slowly leaned out and peeked around the corner of the house, half expecting to see the soldier standing right in front of me, yellow eyes glaring. But he was still at the other end of the village, standing still in the road. And he was facing in the opposite direction, toward the field and the crashed truck, his back to us.
I whispered to Jax, “He’s looking the other way. If we’re quiet, we can get to the boat.”
She nodded and we broke cover, walking toward the beach and carrying our heavy packs as quietly and as quickly as possible. I kept looking over my shoulder, afraid that the soldier would turn and see us, but he remained still as a statue staring the other way.
The tide had gone out and the Zodiac, which we had left in knee-deep water, now rested on the damp beach. The mooring rope lay twisted on the wet sand like a dead snake.
“Shit,” Jax whispered.
“We can drag it to the water without making too much noise,” I whispered back. “If we…”
A sudden noise to my right startled me. The zombies in the Nova had erupted into action and were banging and clawing at the car’s windows,
The soldier standing on the street turned slowly, saw us, and started running towards the beach.
We fled to the Zodiac, dropping our second packs and weighed down by the ones on our backs.
I grabbed the wet coil of rope and yanked it with all the strength I could muster. The rock anchor came out of the wet sand with a sucking sound. I threw it into the boat. It clattered on the aluminium floor.
We picked up the boat and side-stepped to the water as fast as we could. I glanced along the street. The soldier was less than a hundred feet away.
Splashing into the sea, we pushed the boat into deeper water and climbed on board. Jax fumbled with the engine, pulling at the starting cord with trembling hands.
The hybrid zombie soldier had reached the cars. The zombies in the Nova detected movement and went crazy but he ran past them, his deadly focus on us.
Jax pulled the starter cord again.
The engine burst into life, coughing out clouds of oily smoke.
The smell of gasoline had never been so sweet.
The soldier splashed into the sea, still running at us.
Jax grabbed the tiller and the engine roared. The Zodiac leapt forward so quickly, I almost went overboard, saving myself from such a fate by gripping the seat until my hands hurt.
We sped out into deeper water.
The hybrid soldier stopped when he was up to his waist in the sea. He stared at us with a malevolence that made me shudder.
Jax slowed our speed and steered us for the Lucky Escape.
I breathed deep breaths of salty air tinged with the smell of gasoline. We were safe.
I watched the soldier as he turned and strode back up the beach. He reached the white Nova and banged on the rear side window with his fists. The zombies inside were going crazy, clawing at the window.
The soldier smashed his fists through the glass and grabbed the closest zombie. He tried to drag it out through the small opening but the arm and head ripped away. He tossed them onto the ground and reached in for the second zombie, pulling it out viciously.
The rotting zombie tore apart as it was forced through the small window opening.
The soldier crouched down over the zombie parts on the ground, selected an arm, raised it to his mouth, and ate.
I leaned over the side of the Zodiac and puked into the sea.
Chapter 22
The four of us sat in the living area of the Lucky Escape around the small table. The radio was on and Survivor Radio was playing a selection of rock hits. Beyond the windows, darkness had fallen and the lights inside the boat cast a pale light over the room.
We had eaten a dinner of pasta and tomato sauce and Jax and I had told Tanya and Sam about our experience in the village. They had listened intently, asking questions now and then and getting us to clarify parts of the story so they knew every detail. The appearance of the running zombie hybrid was big news. This changed things. If we were going to have to deal with hordes of runners as well as shamblers, the danger factor in our mission went up several thousand notches.
When we finished telling our story, Sam shook his head as if in disbelief. “That’s some fucked up shit, man.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
A sudden noise on the windows startled us but it was only rain hitting the glass.
“That’s another thing,” I said, “the hybrids won’t take shelter from the rain like the other zombies have to. The hybrids are alive. They aren’t rotting away so the virus doesn’t need to protect them in the same way. That soldier chased us into the sea without a second thought.”
Tanya sighed. “So they’re some sort of super zombie and the rain won’t protect us anymore.”
I nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”
“Any idea how many of them there could be?”
“It’s impossible to know for sure. But if everyone in the military is being vaccinated, that’s a lot of people walking around with the potential to become a hybrid. Since they work dangerous jobs and come into contact with zombies all the time, a lot of soldiers must get bitten or scratched every day.”
“So we’re screwed,” Sam said. “There’s going to be an army of undead hybrids.”
“Except the hybrids aren’t undead,” I said, “They’re alive.”
“Does it make a difference, man? Either way, if they catch you, you’re fucked.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, feeling a wave of despair flood over me. There was no way we would survive on land once the number of hybrid runners increased. What was going to happen to the people in the Survivors Camps? I thought about Joe and my parents. How could they possibly survive a hybrid attack on their camp? And where was Lucy? For all I knew, she had been captured by the soldiers and was also in a camp somewhere.
I needed to get that message to her on Survivor Radio but it seemed an impossible distance away now that there were nasties, soldiers and hybrids between us and the radio station.
“How does this affect our mission?” Jax asked nobody in particular.
“It doesn’t,” Tanya replied immediately. “We need to get the message out to the survivors even more urgently now. They’re in even more danger than they were before.” She looked at me and asked, “Based on what you know of this vaccine, do you think we should we inject ourselves with it?”
The three of them looked at me expectantly and I realized that I did have a role in this group after all. They were strong and fit and intelligent but they saw me as be
ing smarter than them. While they had spent time in exotic places filming adventurers like Vigo Johnson, my life had consisted of playing video games and reading books, many of which pertained to exactly the situation we now found ourselves in.
Games and books were one thing and real life was another but my knowledge of a zombie apocalypse…even based on fictional works…was better than nothing. It allowed me to make guesses about our situation that were informed opinions…even though the information came from the thoughts and ideas of writers and game designers. I wondered how many of those writers and game designers were now dead and how many had lasted long enough to see their nightmares come to life.
I thought a moment about Tanya’s question. “There might be an advantage in vaccinating ourselves,” I said. “If we get bitten without the vaccine in our blood, we’ll die quite quickly and the virus will reanimate us as zombies. If we get bitten after we’ve been vaccinated, it takes around four days to turn. If nothing else, that will give the rest of us time to decide what to do with the infected person.”
“That’s easy,” Tanya said. “We kill them.”
“It might not be that easy. When vaccinated people get bitten, they try to isolate themselves. Wilder’s notes said Corporal Francis kept trying to wander away, saying he wanted to be left alone. The virus probably makes the host do that so the host isn’t vulnerable during the incubation period. So it isn’t easy to kill them. They might just disappear, go into hiding somewhere, then reappear four days later as a hybrid.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, trying to reconstruct Corporal Francis’s transformation into a hybrid in my mind’s eye.
“I think that when a nasty bites a vaccinated person,” I said, “it stops after the initial bite. It doesn’t tear them apart like it would normally. The soldier we saw had a single bite on his neck. Maybe the nasty gets a taste of the vaccinated blood and stops. That means the host has a good chance of surviving. He goes somewhere remote and becomes a hybrid, infected with a mutated form of the virus. Either the original virus reacts with the vaccine or it mutates itself to turn the victim into a zombie despite the vaccine, the same way certain strains of bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.”
Undead Rain Trilogy Box Set Page 25
