Zed Days (Book 3): Zed Days III

by Harland, Nick

  Esme piped up, ‘Bill’s right, we’ve got all worried about how we can survive this, but she’s spread pretty thin herself. I imagine she’s as worried as we are about how she’s going to survive, and it looks like it’s taken them longer to develop than they planned. Also, since our conversation, now she has to worry about her Talkers being taken back by their hosts as well. They’ve invaded, but I don’t think it’s quite gone to plan has it?’

  I could see a few others had stopped to listen to the conversation and the vibe in the room had become more positive. I needed to consolidate that vibe, ‘Right, that’s some pretty awesome insights. We still need to work on the plan for more safely dealing with hordes with chemicals and bows and stuff, but Bill’s point that if they’re all in hordes and guarding shops that they can’t be in houses is useful. The night time stealth missions, perhaps on bikes, still sound good, but we should be concentrating on residential areas not too far from bigger shops. Staying hidden is still the most important thing though, so the plan to totally clear this area first still stands. Let’s get on with it and let’s stay positive shall we.’

  ‘I think what everyone’s said is true, she powerful, but she’s got just as many problems as us right now, and she’s probably just as pressed for time. She doesn’t know how many of us there are, and although she’s definitely keen on killing us, if she is the only Hybrid in this area, she has to choose between killing a few stay humans and managing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of her minions before they eat the arse out of every live animal they come across.’

  I wasn’t sure if it was a bit much, for some of those gathered at least, but I couldn’t help myself when I thought about it. I added, ‘Also, look on the bright side; if all the animals are dying she might want to capture not kill us. Then she could farm us. If we got captured it would be nothing but shagging until we were too old to do so, then of course we’d end up as supper.’

  The crowd dispersed silently and on our way back to the van I said, ‘Too much?’

  Esme answered, ‘I mostly love the way your brain works but yes, that was fucked up and yes, that was too much.’ Then she smiled and added, ‘But I’m one of the youngest females and I’m already pregnant, so if we do get captured I‘ll be prize property. I’d get my pick of the studs and because there aren’t many left of us, I’ll probably mother more children than anyone else. Farmed humans would grow in number and eventually, generations from now, because the vast majority will have my fucking awesome gene’s, they’ll overthrow their masters and reclaim the earth. The new world will be populated almost entirely by my progeny. So it looks like I’ll be the one saving mankind, not you after all, and I’ll do it as a sex goddess and not as a superhero fighter.’

  Eve replied before I could, ‘Now that’s fucked up, but if they all have your bum, then there are worse futures.’

  Chapter Thirteen – Leaving

  Over the next week we successfully cleared a Zed free area around the base, but lost one person doing so. A group came across a Talker and their escape wasn’t easy, one person fell before they could get away. We sent out a large group immediately to deal with the situation and it was our first real test of the chemical weapons.

  We managed to get two large barrels of Chlorine back to the base from the factory, and all the safety gear we could find. As we planned to avoid confronting large hordes for the time being, Bill temporarily shelved the car based chemical cannon idea for a smaller hand held version using small air compressors for pumping up car tyres. They were still cumbersome as the compressors needed a car battery in a rucksack to power them, but the end product was workable if you adjusted and padded the rucksack just right.

  We had two of the mini chemical cannons and Track was the first to use one when we confronted a horde a Talker had drawn together. We found the horde inside a large warehouse building about a mile from the base and we took twelve of us and a few cars. We’d found the horde without them knowing it so we had time to prepare. We knew the area by now and managed to surround the building before the Talker knew what was happening. We were all well beyond feeling sorry about the slaughter that followed.

  We rushed the building and blocked the exits. Although there was a Beefcake who blasted his way through one of the doors, he was taken care of quickly and there were enough people at the door to deal with the flow that followed. We were at one of the other doors to witness Track using the mini chlorine cannon. He smashed a window close to the door and the Zeds rushed to it to try and get out. Track turned the cannon on and we’d all seen that it worked well with water. It worked just as well with the Chlorine and as the Zeds flooded towards us Track sprayed them while we all stood back; only Track and one other had goggles and a face mask on.

  The Zeds reaction to the Chlorine was similar to their reaction to fire. They stopped a wailed and tore at their faces. My Zed sense went wild as the Talker worked out he was cornered and pumped out some kind of message. The Zeds hit with the chemicals went into a frenzy as the Talker reacted, but they obviously couldn’t see and started hitting and even biting each other. In the frenzy, both affected and unaffected Zeds fell.

  The Talkers call did summon some Zeds from close by, but as we’d already cleared the area up to the building and there weren’t many other buildings in the immediate vicinity, there weren’t too many. They also came in small groups and they were out in the open, so the getaway drivers took care of some of them.

  Within about ten minutes most of the Zeds were dead or wandering around blind. This left us with a decision, as the Talker was still alive. For the first time we saw fear in a Zed. The Talker had retreated into a dark corner and flattened itself against the wall, looking desperately at us as we approached it, killing the blinded or wounded Zeds as we went.

  Before anyone could speak or decide what to do, Esme stepped forwards and said, ‘Leave this to me.’

  I think everyone assumed she would kill it, but Eve and I knew better. We were still amazed by what happened though. She approached the Talker who was a middle aged man of small frame wearing what must once have been a smart suit. His shirt still had one shiny cufflink attached. Esme dropped Seven and approached him slowly. She held her hands out in front of her reassuringly and said in a soft voice, ‘It’s ok, we’re not going to hurt you. I can see you struggling. I can see the Zombie part of you just wants to bite me, but I can see the human part of you is terrified and the strength of that terror is keeping the Zombie at bay. We have someone like you back where we live, a friend who got bitten and turned, but is trying to overcome the Zed controlling her. She’s just started to make some progress and you can do the same. We’re going to take you back with us and we’re going to help you.’

  Then Esme held out her hand and for a moment the Talker reached for it, the fear leaving its face, before a much more familiar anger returned and it went to grab an bite her. People lunged forwards to help her but Esme was ready. With as much brutality as she’d had compassion a second earlier, she brought an elbow up under the Talkers chin knocking it back against the wall. It thrashed and spewed the usual, ‘You will die, we will kill you’, as we tied it up and loaded it into Lulu’s boot.

  As we drove back Esme was excited and couldn’t stop talking, ‘Did you see that, he was terrified. It was the man inside that was terrified because they never are, they’re just angry. He maintained control over the Zed for ages before it got the better of him. Perhaps it was the strength of the human emotion, and there’s nothing stronger than blind terror, that allowed him to take control for so long. That means Andrea can do the same. I need to be more emotive when I talk to her I think; did you see that?’

  I answered, ‘Now you say it I did, but I didn’t at the time. Your compassion gives you insight we don’t have. You have a hope and positivity in the face of even terrible situations that affects everyone around you and it was that as much as anything that helped the man inside the Zombie stay in control for so long. Where do we put him? Should he be
able to talk to Andrea or not?’

  Now Esme paused, ‘No, we need to keep them separate. We can’t stop the chemical communication, so they’ll both know we have more than one of them, but I think we can work that in our favour. A caravan isn’t strong enough, we’ll have to use that tiny out building on the other side of the lot.’

  We got back and couldn’t avoid dragging the Talker past Andrea on the way to his accommodation. There was a chemical exchange and Esme sat with Andrea and explained what was happening. I didn’t hear the conversation but I’m sure she used evidence of another person fighting their captor to her advantage.

  Chris and Bob came back later that day and they looked exhausted. The Hybrid had locked down the shopping estate and they couldn’t pick off any Zeds safely. Despite hiding out for a week, they couldn’t find any evidence of her. They had a long and well deserved sleep.

  Over the next week we directed our scavenging efforts towards a housing estate about three miles away from the base and practiced our night time missions. Eve was at full strength again and we made a good team. A quick escape was still a priority with every mission so we still took a car, but we left it on the edge of the estate, doors open. Although other teams also took bikes in their car and used them, Eve was clear on the matter, ‘I fucking hate bikes. I used an exercise bike but that’s an entirely different matter. I never went mountain biking and I’m not about to start now. It would only slow me down with the whole getting on, and the gears, and…fuck no, never. I’d rather just run. As long as you two can keep up, we’ll be fine if we need to escape.’

  She wasn’t wrong and I wasn’t a natural cyclist either. It suited some of the others, but we stuck to our feet. With Eve’s gun skills we were safer than most of the rest if we came across a Beefcake or Sprinter. Even the natural cyclists would struggle to outrun a Sprinter unless they had a decent start, which was unlikely. Freaks were still one of the most likely threats and the hockey guys added elements to Esme’s martial arts classes so everyone could deal with them better. With house to house scavenging we didn’t think groups would come across more than one freak at a time.

  There was no dealing with Beefcakes apart from getting out of the way of their charge then beating the shit out of their fat heads when they slowed down or hit something. We all practiced dealing with charges and eventually found some exercise matting in the warehouse opposite that made classes easier. We also trained to take the hit and wait for teammates to do the killing. The hockey guys were brutally efficient in pretending to be Beefcakes and there were some headaches and mild whiplashes, but everyone knew it had to be done. Without news or evidence of her in two weeks, it was easy to forget the Hybrid existed, but I still remembered.

  Our arsenal of weapons developed and we found a bunch of sports bottles in the warehouse the chlorine didn’t melt. They squirted well and everyone carried one for emergencies and some other water to wash faces and eye’s with if they had to use it. There were a few incidents, one that took several days to recover from and left someone with permanently blurred vision, but they survived the Zeds that might otherwise have killed them, so it was still a good outcome.

  We methodically cleared the section of the housing estate closest to us and even set up a couple of safe houses with food and water supplies. We scavenged fences and pushed some cars around to form a decent perimeter around the safe houses. We made front and rear exits and made sure the lofts were easily accessible in case anyone got stuck. We put some paper, wood, and a lighter in the lofts so as a last resort anyone stuck up there could light a distress beacon.

  Work on the gardens, base security, solar power, and animals, all kept going and for a time we got into a routine and became a community. We started to have goats milk and lamb, and although it wasn’t much between us all, it was lovely. We talked about splitting up to occupy the factory again, but by that stage no one wanted to leave. After the Hybrid, there was a sense that if a large horde led by a Hybrid found us, we’d probably all die, and if we had any chance at all it would only be with all of us. If we were all going to die, the unspoken feeling was that we’d die as we lived, as a group.

  Esme spent time with Andrea and the new Talker who had ID on him and was called Michael. She changed her direction to try and instil emotional responses from Andrea and made some progress. Although she was excited when Andrea responded, Michael made more rapid progress and we assumed he’d been a Talker for longer, so the man inside had had a few more weeks to fight against his oppressor.

  One day Esme ran to find us, out of breath and bursting with excitement. She told us that Michael had spoken to her, and that it was definitely Michael and not the Zed. She’d been shouting at him to try harder and fight the Zombie and he’d shouted back, ‘I’m trying’, before the Zombie took over again. After that, she spent even more time with them both.

  It didn’t take long for Eve to get bored with the routine and I admit I was close behind her. Inevitably, one night she started a conversation about finding other survivors again. She said, ‘I know we had a good start, but even logic and chance would say that there must be other groups out there that survived, and that some of them might still be surviving. I keep thinking about what we discussed about high tech electronics factories with big clean rooms with maybe thirty or more people who wouldn’t have been affected. That would be a good start. There must also be military personnel somewhere who were in a bunker or flying, and they would know where there might be military supplies, tanks, and who knows what. A tank would be untouchable and could blow the shit out of any Hybrid, Talker, or horde. Imagine what we could do with a few heavy duty machine guns and a decent supply of ammo.’

  Esme knew where the conversation was headed and got straight to the point, ‘You want to leave don’t you, and you’d need Brad and his Zombie sense with you. I love you guys, but I’m not coming. I’m making real progress with Andrea and Michael and they could be the ones to save us later, as much as any tank could. I also have a baby to think about.’ She was surprisingly matter of fact about it, ‘Where would you go?’

  Eve looked at me then back at Esme and answered without hesitation, ‘RAF Leeming to begin with, as it’s so close. It probably won’t have many guns and almost certainly no tanks, but some of the planes might have been in the sky at the time. Although there might not be survivors, there might be military supplies and information about other bases further south. It’s just off the A1 and not close to any major housing or shops, so the immediate area shouldn’t be swarming with Zeds. I don’t know if bases keep a disaster supply of water and stuff, but I imagine so. It would be a good start and it’s only a day away. I don’t know why we haven’t gone sooner. The only other one I know about is the US base at Lakenheath just north of Cambridge. It’s the largest US base in the UK, but again it will be full of planes not tanks.’

  Both Eve and Esme turned to me and I was torn. I was getting stir crazy like Eve, but I didn’t want to leave Esme and our unborn baby. I also thought that finding more survivors and checking out military bases could be really useful, but I knew there was still plenty of work to do around our own base, and that my Zombie senses were useful to everyone. Don had the sense too, but seemed a little behind in developing it. Eventually I said, ‘This is all a bit big and I see both sides. More ammo and machine guns would be awesome, and not unrealistic to find, but I don’t want to abandon the mother of my child and everyone else here for what’s definitely a risky mission it’s possible we won’t come back from.’

  I was going to say more but Esme spoke again, ‘It’s ok, you can go if you want to. I know it’s not just Eve that’s going crazy here. I’m not even two months pregnant so who knows what will happen. People often don’t tell anyone until three months for a reason. I don’t want to lose you guys, of course I don’t, but we’re one big family here so it’s not like you’re leaving me alone. I also think it’s possible you might find some really useful stuff that could help us if the Hybrid does ever find us.
I just can’t come with you.’

  We discussed the plan until bed time and told everyone else the next morning. There were mixed feelings about it but everyone knew they couldn’t stop us. I could see Bill was upset, but he directed his emotions towards making sure we were properly provisioned. We planned to take Lulu, of course, and with some of the Zeds carrying weapons now, Bill had put another layer of offset mesh over the windows of several of the vehicles so that the holes between the mesh were half the size. It made visibility less, but was much safer. He’d also put the same double reinforced mesh over the top half of the wheel arches in case Zed’s tried to puncture the wheels. It wouldn’t stop them, but it would make it a little more difficult.

  The main discussion was around whether we should take one or two vehicles. Two would obviously be a really useful failsafe, and give us more storage space if we found a stockpile, but it split us up. We also had hopes of finding another vehicle on our travels. We figured even an air force base might have the odd light armoured vehicle like a Land Rover with a mounted machine gun for local defence. If we found one we would obviously want to bring it back. We hoped to find one if we got onto the base, it was finding keys that was less certain. Bill gave us both a crash course on how to hot wire a vehicle, but with every vehicle being different and the unknown quantity of army vehicles having extra protection, we tried to stay realistic about our chances.

  We spent the day organising our fuel, food, and ammunition so we could leave early the next morning. When we went to bed Esme said, ‘I just want to snuggle and be close to you guys’, but Eve kissed her the way only Eve could while we were settling down and from my place tucked in behind her I felt her shudder for just a moment when she did.

  Eve kissed her again and I pulled her closer towards me so she could feel I was ready. She arched her back to press against me as I did and the fate of the night was decided. There was no talking or laughing like there usually was, and we all knew the night was about Esme. We all knew Eve and I would probably be rampant while we were away; being alone and closer to death than usual would do that, and we’d had a lot of practice. No part of Esme remained untouched by fingers or lips and she accepted her fate, feeling and reacting to every touch as if it were her last. We had never been closer or more passionate and despite everything we’d been through, done, and said, it changed us.