by Stevens, GJ
“Go,” she said, her voice frantic.
I had no choice, the door opening wide, pushing the desk to the side.
“Go,” she said, and I saw her rucksack being pushed along the floor with the desk.
“Go,” she shouted. As she ran behind me, the first of the creatures came through on the top of the desk, limbs at its back already following.
“Go,” she screamed and I took the step, my weight holding as I gripped the thin of the brick below. With my arms almost at their full extent to reach, my fingers scraped for a grip at the edge of the flat roof.
With her following at my side, my foot slipped, scraping toes, but my grip felt strong, fingernails digging into the soft bitumen skin of the roof. I held on, waiting for my breath to recover.
“Shit. The bag,” I heard her say.
“Leave it,” I shouted, but as I turned I saw her disappear back through the window, a deafening scream howling from inside.
19
With my concentration on where she’d stood, I felt my feet slipping. My fingers ached as they pinched into the roof, my once-long nails already sheared flat. I turned, lunging for the drainpipe, giving my trust it wouldn’t fall away; hoping it wouldn’t release from the wall as I gripped around its surface and dug my toes hard as they came to rest on each side of the metal bracket.
The round metal pipe moved, but didn’t give out all the way. At least not by the time my weight settled. The wind had picked up and with every movement as I clung on, the metal rubbed against itself. Creaking, Shifting. Complaining as if it could go at any moment.
My hands numb with effort, I knew I couldn’t last long like this, but I wouldn’t look down; couldn’t let myself head that way.
I refused to acknowledge what had made the soldier give up and take the easy way out, despite the constant pull of my thoughts in that direction.
I turned back to the space where Toni had been not so long before, but she hadn’t returned. I had to help, but I knew I couldn’t cling on for much longer to the metal rattling with the slightest of movements. I’d be no help if I fell to the ground.
Somehow I climbed, letting the stack take my weight as I gripped around its girth with each hand, pushing my feet flat against the brick. I could see no other way and somehow I rose, at least at first, getting three paces up the wall before I was high enough for my hands to scrabble at the roof and find the ledge on the other side, just as the stack collapsed. My feet fell from under me as they fought for traction in the air and my grip tested to the limit on the coarse brick roofline.
It held. I heaved myself up by my arms, scraping my front over the edge before I finally had my feet on the solid ground.
My last effort sent the downpipe ringing as it released the last of its grip, clattering against the brickwork as it fell to the ground.
I lay face down against the rough surface, drained, empty and savouring the solid roof beneath me.
My breath calmed with each intake until I thought of Toni left behind, guilt pounding in my chest that I didn’t go back for her.
Scrabbling to the edge, not taking in my surroundings, I stayed low. Leaning over, my breath caught as I reared back at the distance to the ground below. It was only three storeys, but enough to send my head into a spin even before I’d processed the movement between the buildings.
Soon the bodies gained definition and I realised it wasn’t the ground in motion. Still wandering aimless as before, they’d grown in number with a low hum radiating with the same stench we’d left behind in the corridor.
I pulled my head up, my vision extending across the distance, past the trucks and the Land Rovers and the scattered weapons. Nausea rose up through my body with a great sense of dread when all I could see were the infected. What hope could there be if the lorry loads of soldiers had been overcome so easily?
The horizon ran out before I could see what I wanted, but relief came in the form of gunfire, distant at first; the best sign there was still resistance out there.
Close gunfire replied. So close. I shook with its force, until hope rose again in my chest as I realised it came from below, the sound bursting from the window.
Then came Toni, her body rearing back as she fired again from the pistol in her hand. With her precious pack slung on one shoulder, she swung it under her arm as she climbed out of the window backwards into the nothingness.
I pushed myself out into the air as far as I dared, just below my ribs and reached down, letting my arms drop.
“Grab on,” I said and she gave a start, sending her balance off, but I took her hand as it flailed, the other pushing the gun into her waistband before reaching up to take my other hand. A great smile sparkled on my face as we touched, my grip encircling her wrist. Together we scraped and shuffled sideways.
Clear of the window, I felt strong again. I felt ready to help drag her up, confident as she gripped me tight, shuffling her feet along the wall as I scooted back, anchoring my torso to grip the shallow ledge. With her feet flat as mine had been, she climbed higher and I knew soon we would be safe and together. I could hold her in my arms and we could take our time to think. We would have all the time in the world to wait and contemplate the right moment to make the next move to escape the chaos.
Toni climbed higher, my gaze locked to hers, her speed increasing as a scream seared through the air from below.
I peered down as a dark flash burst from the window.
I expected to see the shape fall to the ground. I didn’t expect Toni’s body to go tight, to pull against me so hard as I took her full weight, dragging me down.
It all made sense when my gaze fell on the snarling beast lined with dark veins, its claw-like grip around Toni’s ankle as it swayed, its mouth snapping wide and its other hand clawing at the air.
20
With no time to think, no energy left to slow their weight from dragging me from the roof, I felt no movie-like surge of inhuman strength rising within me to pull them both up.
My options were clear. Save myself, sending Toni to her death, or be dragged down so all three of us could be dead together.
“Let the bag go,” I shouted, as it swung at her shoulder. It would make no difference, neither did reaching for the gun. She’d have to let go of one of my hands to do so.
Her eyes just stared deep into mine in reply.
I lingered longer than I should.
I knew there would be no miracle.
I knew the creature’s grip would hold longer than I could keep mine whilst staying anchored to the roof. Only as a shot rang out somewhere in the far distance, did I snap out of my hopeless stare.
My joy seemed greater than it should; the creature’s weight felt no more. I looked down, watching as it fell, my stare catching on a cloud of blood drifting in the air.
Toni scrabbled over the edge of the roof before the slap of the creature's body hit against the concrete.
Dragging her the last few paces from the edge, I gripped her tight around the waist as I collapsed, exhausted, to the flat of my back.
Our breath heaved as she buried her head in the crook of my neck with her body coming to rest on my side, much like she had as I’d woken on the couch beneath us.
With breath slowing, a low background hum took over and it felt as if the building beneath us shook. When I couldn’t stand the noise anymore, I spoke, my words sharper than I’d intended.
“Tell me everything,” I said. “Full disclosure.” My hands dropped from around her back and I tried to sit, but she gripped around my shoulder, holding me tight.
“Stay down. That sniper might change his mind. If he figures out who we are, we might be his next target.”
I hadn’t connected the distant shot and the puff of blood which saved us, not having considered the cause before now. Another shot echoed through the air.
“He saved us,” I replied, pausing when I didn’t hear the shot land close by.
“He might have missed,” Toni said with a voice devo
id of emotion.
I let the words sink in and repeated my question.
“What the hell is going on? I need details.”
She didn’t reply straight away and my hearing settled back to the hundreds of low calls writhing below us.
“It’s bad,” she said, looking up.
“No shit,” I said, shaking my head. “Tell me everything, unless you have other things to attend to?” I added, raising my brow.
Toni moved her head to the side and spoke.
“Twelve months ago, a group of American researchers found a new fungus in the Amazon. A member of the Ophiocordyceps family,” she said, before pausing for a breath. “When initial research hailed it as a possible cure for influenza, a universal vaccine, work began across the world, fast tracking the R&D to confirm the breakthrough. Within two months, our government received reports that independent labs in the global research network were being taken over by their country’s governments.
“They switched to sharing findings only on official channels. There was a big delay before the news broke. A H1N1 influenza strain infected the fungus in the American lab where the initial analysis took place. After some poor containment practices, the first known case of human infection was a research fellow who died of a heart attack. Natural causes as far as we can tell. He died at his desk while carrying out tests. The fungus must have fruited whilst being worked on, transmitting the mutated virus.”
She paused, tilted her head up, locking eyes with mine.
“He rose from the dead and attacked his colleagues.”
Realising my body shook, her grip tightened around me.
“But,” I said, my throat drying as I tried to get my head around it, “how does it bring someone back from the dead? How could that be possible?”
“We still don’t know. No one does. There’s still so much work to do.”
I paused, swallowing back the questions piling up in my head, but when a gust of air brought the stench from below, I spoke again.
“When was the first death?”
“Six months ago.”
“Six months?” I replied, raising my voice.
Toni nodded. “Since then we’ve been racing to find a cure. The virus is such an effective delivery system.”
“Six months?” I repeated.
“Aside from a few outbreaks which were all controlled, in the UK anyway, there’s been very few problems.”
“Problems?” I said, and she buried her head back in the crook of my neck. She nodded, keeping quiet before I spoke again. “So this fungus…”
“Virus,” she interrupted, pushing herself closer.
“This virus,” I said. “It turns people into zombies with inhuman strength, giving the ability to leap into the air and chase down an Olympic sprinter?”
She didn’t reply.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Those abilities are not from the mutated virus,” Toni replied, and I tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let go. “They’re a side effect.”
“A side effect?”
“Of the work we’ve been doing.” She looked up. “The work I refused to administer to human test subjects.”
It was my turn to hold back my reply, but I couldn’t for long.
“But someone did. So they’re different?”
“These creatures you see down there, well most, they’re infected with the virus. It doesn’t kill unless you’re infirm or otherwise compromised through a large wound. After death the virus takes over and drives the host to kill. They need the flesh, the protein, to sustain the raging virus.”
“So they’re just out to feed?”
“Yes. For some reason they’re not concerned with spreading the infection as such, although it’s a by-product if the newly infected survives the initial bite. The creatures go into a frenzy, biting anything, even if it’s too much to eat. They’ll do nothing else if faced with a source of protein and if they can’t find it, they’ll search it out. We’ve never seen a subject where this is not the case. The original virus doesn’t affect the living,” Toni said, then added, “in its unadulterated form. It only takes over when the host dies. It takes control. We don’t know how, but it does. You have to admire the mechanism though.”
“And the other…” I paused as I took in her final words. “Things?”
I shuffled out from under her when she didn’t reply.
“They’re still alive.”
I could feel my heart beating hard. “But you said…” I blurted out as I raised myself to my feet. “I’ve seen them with terrible wounds no one could survive?”
“Get down,” she whispered, her hands reaching up.
When I backed away, she sat up and let her arms drop.
“Unless the central nervous system is damaged, they can’t be stopped.
“The people with you down there each had different versions of the trial vaccination. It had different effects, some of which you mentioned. The result is an amalgam of the original mutation and human physiology. Each a different engineered strain.”
“But they’re super humans with an insatiable thirst for death,” I said, staring at her stony-faced.
“If you will.” She fixed her view to the roof.
“And you made them,” I said. “Like me.”
Toni shook her head. “That wasn’t our intention,” she replied, not looking up.
“But it was the doctor I met that used your drugs on living people and caused all of this?” I said and could feel my eyes squinting more with each word.
Turning away, she nodded and I spoke again.
“I’ll say it again. Have I woken up in Nazi Germany?”
She didn’t reply. Instead I thought of Iraq and Syria, Darfur and the Congo, and those were just in recent history. But this was Britain. Had we lost our principles so easily?
“And what do you mean about admiring the virus?” I said, her words coming back to jar my mind for a second time. There was no pause before her reply.
“From a biological perspective, our virus is awesome. The way it infects whilst keeping the host alive and in the process imparting so much, like the strength and enhanced senses. All we have to do…” she stopped speaking as my interruption burst out.
“I’m not a fucking host,” I said, pulling back.
“I’m sorry. It’s just the way I talk. The people. They’re people. I know.”
“And they’re all gone now?” I said when she didn’t reply.
Toni turned back, biting her bottom lip as she shook her head and stared down to the bitumen pitch of the roof.
“But everyone I’ve seen had their brains blown out or smashed against the concrete.”
“You saw one corridor,” she said, standing, pointing to the long, low building which housed my cell. Still holding her finger out, she turned me around and I took in the building shaped like a child would draw the sun.
Where we stood side by side was the ball in the middle; the cell blocks were the lines out from the central circle.
With the ground writhing between the buildings, I stopped turning as I completed the circle and finished counting the twelve cell blocks.
21
“Each one?” I said, pulling my mouth closed.
Toni nodded with her eyes almost shut.
“Full?” I added, and she continued the nod. “And human testing started when? Where did all these people come from? It's been two days since you called me.”
Toni snapped her head to the side at the echo of a distant shot.
“Not here, not now. Please.”
I barely noticed the call of the weapon; it was the sight of the birds startled into flight which caught my eye.
“All in the last forty-eight hours?” I said, my voice lowering as I fought to hold back a volley of questions.
“Not here. Please,” she insisted again, grabbing my arm.
I let her draw me to a crouch.
“You said you wouldn’t let them do it,” I said
in a soft, almost childlike voice.
Toni slowly shook her head as she scoured the skyline. Another shot rang off as a blast of wind rattled through my clothes, sending a chill through my body. A memory of hunger pulled my lips tight.
She was right; there had to be better places to have this conversation. I did my best to push the thought away, joining in the search across the roof.
After twisting around, still bent at my knees, I wasn’t sure what we were looking for, but I was certain we hadn’t found it. There was no shelter on top of the roof. No stairwell rising out with a door we could open or break through.
The tallest feature was a metal tower twice higher than the building. On the top sat satellite dishes and mobile phone masts. Halfway up were thick cables running tight to a smaller version of the mast on each of the twelve outer buildings.
Across the roof were small upturned plastic boxes no larger than my head, each face slatted with a ventilation grill. None of these were our way back into the building and, anyway, the infested corridors were not where we should return to.
Toni seemed to agree, ignoring the square hatch we found at the edge of the building. Instead, I followed her on hands and knees as she crawled the perimeter.
Copying her motion as she peered over the edge, I watched as Toni flicked her head away every few moments to take a deep breath and clear away the foul sewerage stench I could taste on my tongue after only a moment staring at the writhing mass of bodies over the side.
Every area of ground swam with creatures squirming against one another. I stared at their unrelenting hunt for human protein. I watched as they walked into walls, turning without stumbling, heading in a new direction before hitting the next object in their way.
In amongst the slow tide it was easy to see those who were different, those I’d shared a cell block with such a short time ago. Their hands swung out, clearing a path wherever they headed. I could see the hunger in their eyes, the hunger I wanted only to be a memory.
