Day Zed (Volume 1): The Outbreak

by Charles Smith

  “So you have something to stay for?”

  “Live for the moment Kathy, stop living for the orders”.

  She looked at Morgan, what had she missed before she wondered.

  “So what do we do when you leave tomorrow?” she asked him.

  “Well personally I’d prefer it if you came with us tomorrow” Morgan sincerely answered her.

  “I’ll have to speak to Daryl, and Scott, I won’t leave them on their own”.

  “Go and chat with them now Kathy you have less than a day to decide”.

  Morgan calmly stood and told her that they could chat for longer later, and that he had no intention of leaving tomorrow without getting to know her a bit better. He could see the good points that she had, and he also knew the group that was leaving would have far much more chance of surviving if they had Kathy come with them.

  2nd July, Sarigerme, Turkey, 8:30am

  Every June Peter Jones and his family took their vacation, it was always the same two weeks of the year, and for the past five years it had been at the same resort. Two large purpose built all inclusive hotels had been built on the coastline, the hotels were guarded from the wind by mountains either side of them. What made the resort so nice to stay in was there was only one road from the small town of Sarigerme that led in and out of the hotels.

  The small tourist driven town was situated three miles up the road away from the hotels, giving the holiday makers staying in the resort that feel of isolation and tranquillity that gave them escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Each year the secluded location gave Peter exactly what was advertised in the glossy brochures, the perfect family holiday.

  The Jones family had enjoyed the first two days of their two week stay, and yesterday the weather had been amazing, they had spent the majority of the day down by the pool. After dinner they had ventured into the small town up the road, perusing and bartering with the local traders who specialised in selling counterfeit goods ranging from the latest designer handbag to the must have branded polo shirt of the summer.

  Peter had smiled as the four of them walked along the tourist strip and headed towards the taxi rank armed with carrier bags filled with the latest designer brand names. Peter had been married to Sarah for eleven very happy years, and during that time they had two loving children, Danny who was eight and Poppy who had just last week turned seven. The couple had stopped at two children for economic reasons, and would have loved to have had a third if their combined income had allowed it.

  The family had taken in the beautiful mountainous views as they headed back to the hotel, and as they arrived in the taxi bay outside of the reception that is when their holiday had started to go wrong. The Jones family walked into the lounge just as the last airport transfer from England had arrived. Peter had not been able to take his eyes away from the new arrivals, usually a new group would be excited, and would be struggling with their patience waiting for the lengthy booking in process to be completed; however every one of them had exited the coach slowly, and some had struggled to make it into the lobby.

  All of the new group had seemed to be suffering from the heat, and had been sweating profusely. Peter could remember watching as each begun to check in, and the more he had watched, the more he had become worried about the overall health of the group. Everyone one of them had been ill, and even the waiting holiday reps had showed looks of concern as they tried to organise them.

  He could remember ushering his family out of the lobby and out to their second floor room, and explaining to the two children that they would have to keep away from the new guests whilst they were ill. Peter had thought at the time whatever the group had been suffering from had to be contagious as the whole group were suffering the same symptoms. After locking the door Peter ordered that no one was allowed out of the room until he checked in the morning that there wasn’t a virus in the hotel.

  Peter had awoken shortly after three in the morning, by first shouting, and then screaming. The noise had seemed to emanate from the gardens to the rear of the apartments. He had slid the patio doors open and stepped out onto the balcony, and then looked down into the garden area below. It had taken some time for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and gloom of the dimly lit room, once they had; he had just been able to make out a pair of legs protruding from the underneath of a large fig tree in the corner of the gardens. Peter had instinctively called out, asking if the prone figure was in need of help, with no reply Peter had decided that he needed to go and check the person to see if they needed help. He had strode through the apartment, grabbed the nearest gathering of clothes and hastily put them on, as he had been about to leave the room Sarah had risen from her slumber and had stood in the doorway rubbing at her eyes. The children had also awoken and had stood behind Sarah clutching at their mothers night clothes. It took just minutes for Peter to explain to Sarah that someone was laying down in the garden, and that after screaming they had gone quiet, Sarah had asked her husband to phone reception instead, Peter had refused saying he would be careful and not to worry about him, but they were to stay in the apartment.

  Once he had convinced Sarah that he was doing the right thing, Peter had crept down the stairs, cautious that whoever had attacked the prone girl could still be out there. He had edged over to the area where he had seen the legs protruding from under the bush. The body had still lain in the same position, on checking for a pulse he had found nothing, feeling around in the dark he had felt that her eyes were closed, he had then found the open wound in her neck, and the stickiness on his fingers had to have been blood.

  Whatever had happened to the woman was some form of an attack, and Peter had backed away from the scene, looking in every direction, as if expecting the woman’s attacker to jump out on him too. Whilst he had backed away, Peter had glanced up at the balcony belonging to his apartment. From the balcony Sarah had watched her husband first reach the prone body, and then after checking it backing away as if in fear. Something had scared her husband, and that had scared her, why he had to go down there in the first place and get involved she hadn’t been able to understand. She looked down at him as he moved into the light, his hands had been covered in blood, and for that amount of blood loss the injuries the person had to have sustained must have been fatal. Peter had called up to her calling out that it was a woman, and that she was hurt badly, her husband had then pleaded with her to go back in to the children, and that he would got to reception, inform them what he had found and then return to their room.

  The reception was only a couple of minutes walk away from the apartment, and in no time Peter had reached the lobby area, and had then stopped. The noises that had come from the lobby, has sent shivers up his spine and caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. The mixture of noises where hard to decipher there had been so many, some had been slurping, others sounded like chewing. The noises that scared him the most were the ones that sounded like a feral animal growling, and hissing mixed in with what had sounded like someone whimpering.

  As Peter’s family had been waiting for him to return, the longer he had been away, the more concerned they would have been and if he hadn’t have ventured into the lounge there and then he never would have. What he had seen had shocked him to his core, immediately the acid and bile held in his stomach had rushed up and made him vomit across the floor in front of him.

  Several bodies in various stages of mutilation had been sprawled across the floor, and amongst these, others fed upon the remains. One of the reps, recognisable only by his uniform lay slumped across the reception desk, one eye had been gauged out, and his nose was missing, there were also tell tale signs of bite marks all over his body. The rep had put up a fight and must have used his hands to fend off the zombies, all of his fingers on his right hand were missing and Peter presumed they had been bitten off. Judging by the discolouration of the reps skin he must have been dead for some time, but then why had he suddenly woken and turned towards Peter? Peter had seen eno
ugh and run back to his family.

  Peter had made it to the base of the stairs leading up to their first floor apartment, the one problem had been was the girl who had been laying under the tree now stood facing him, deep down Peter knew it was her by the wound in her neck, he had placed his hands into the gaping cavity when he had earlier rummaged around in the dark. More of Peter’s stomach contents automatically came up at the thought of where his hands had been, he stood back up straight as the girl had begun to lurch after him, defending himself he brought his hand up in front of the woman and she bit down severing his thumb. Peter had screamed in pain, and then anger had overtaken his body and he lashed out with his fists, all the strikes achieved, was for him to push the woman back. He had pushed past her and bounded up the stairs, striking hard on the door and calling his wife’s name. Welcoming the apartment as the door opened, he quickly closed and locked it, only for the zombie the other side to start banging upon the outside with its fists.

  The Children stood crying, wondering what the noise from outside was, and why their father was covered in blood. When they looked down at his hands they could see that Peter was missing a thumb. They hung on to their mother as she cried, and as she led her husband out onto the balcony. The husband and wife had seen enough of the movies, they knew what would become of Peter, they shared one last tender kiss and then Sarah walked back into the room, closed and bolted the security shutters to their frame and then closed and locked the sliding doors. The last action Sarah carried out was to remove the key from the sliding doors so that the children couldn’t let their father back in and promptly hid it from them.

  That had been yesterday, and it seemed like an eternity ago. Sarah and the children sat huddled on the couch. They had not slept all night as Peter Jones still stood on the balcony, banging at the shutters with his hands, snarling as he tried to bite through the thick metal bars, he could see the family inside the room, and he wanted to feed.

  2nd July, Berwick upon Tweed, England, 9:45am

  Over the last few hours the Northern safety zone had begun accepting survivors through its gates. After a lengthy screening process the people who had been gathering at the border for the last ten hours, were slowly getting through. The whole process was very slow, and it had not been helped by the sheer number of people who had arrived at the borders trying to escape from the mayhem behind them.

  The government advisors were at first sceptical of anyone trying to flee through the border controls, but now there were hundreds of thousands waiting to be screened. With all media controlled there had been no way that these people could have been alerted to the fact that there was indeed a safe zone to flee to, out of pure instinct that had tried to flee into Scotland to escape the horde of the dead that consumed everything in its path.

  Scouts from way up ahead were making alarming noises that slowly but surely the horde was making its way towards the first border, and eventually they would arrive over the next six hours or so. Once that happened anyone who was caught behind this first border would succumb to the army of dead, and many would turn themselves. The army medics who had been conducting the screening were now told to speed up their tests in order to try and save as many people as possible. Once the borders were closed the reserves that now controlled it were to fall back behind the mortars, the mortars would begin firing into the area as soon as the line of defence was breeched.

  The Army knew that the mortars and lines of land mines wouldn’t stop the zombies. These two defensive lines were purely to slow the zombies down long enough for some of the soldiers to escape back behind the safety of the rock wall. Once the zombies breached all lines of defence the gate was to be closed and remain closed no matter what happened, no matter how many soldiers got left behind. The thousands of men now stationed up on top of the walls had been ordered that there were not to fire their weapons unless ordered to do so.

  The problem at the borders was one of congestion, people had spent hours travelling by foot, many of these were tired, and scared. To many once they were through the gates they assumed they would be safe. As the numbers of these poor trapped souls swelled so did their anger. To most of them they felt that the government had let them down, and that should be able to go anywhere they wanted to without seeking the governments permission. A few at the front now pushed at the barrier, and started to shout, they wanted in, and they were coming in now.

  The reserves all had their assault rifles ready, and at the sign of trouble they switched them to fully automatic, they had been told no matter what they had to do, they had to maintain the integrity of the border control. The young sergeant stepped forward and looked for the main ringleader of the group, he wasn’t hard to find the man bayed for blood and was trying his hardest to incite the crowd into attacking the border checkpoint. The sergeant gave a signal to one of his men, and instantly the two water cannons were turned on, and began to beat back the trouble makers.

  Meanwhile Harrington surveyed the latest reports, whilst he was surrounded by his trusted advisors. The advisors wanted to close the border now, and withdraw all of the troops back to the town. Their argument was that it was foolish to sacrifice the troops that had been posted there, they were already struggling to hold the crowd back, and soon the border would collapse and the mortars would begin to fire. Harrington was dismayed that his predecessor had been right to assume that no one could be saved and that to attempt to would cost even more lives. He now as Prime Minister had to make the call and pull the troops back, saving as many as he could.

  “Close the border, pull the troops back” Harrington informed the group

  The water cannon had gone some way in suppressing the crowd who had bayed for the blood of the front line defence, the sergeant was happy enough to now turn the hoses back off, and ascertain if the mob had given up. The sergeant was approached by one of the corporal’s who issued him with orders that had just come from the Prime Minister. He took the envelope from the corporal and read the orders over and over in his mind before instructing his men that they would be closing the gates with immediate effect. The water cannons were turned back on, and his men began to close the gates, despite the onslaught of the cannons the crowd surged forward, the main ringleader rallied them forward.

  “Open the gates let us through” the ringleader screamed.

  “You have no right let us through now” he roared.

  The sergeant pulled his pistol as he stood at the gate.

  “Step back now” the sergeant hollered as he fired one bullet into the air.

  The crowd paused for one split second then rushed at the fences, the barriers rocked they would come crashing down at any second. The sergeant looked into the face of the ringleader he was still inciting the hate that drove the crowd, knowing that he had to act fast the sergeant levelled the pistol at the ringleader’s face and fired. At such a short range the bullet tore through the ringleaders head and exited through the back taking some of the brain with it, the crowd directly behind where showered with the spray from the wound, and most importantly of all the barrier stopped rocking. The sergeant now stared at the crowd and at the top of his voice issued a chilling warning to the desperate throng of people before him

  “If you attempt to charge the barrier again we will open fire!”

  For minutes that seemed liked hours each side stared at one another, the soldiers watched for the slightest movement, whilst the crowd waited for something to spur them forward. A child who was pressed up against the gate of the border spoke to the sergeant

  “Do you have enough bullets to shoot us all?”

  A babble of conversation rippled through the waves of people, the child was right, there were simply not enough of the soldiers to take everyone down. The atmosphere from the crowd grew darker, the crowds faces screwed up, their face filled with one expression, one of pure rage. When they began to chant, the sergeant knew he had seconds to spare, if that and he picked up the radio to contact the sergeant in charge of the mortars.r />
  “We need suppressing fire laid down to give my men time to retreat” he ordered.

  He must have been asked to confirm the order as he had to repeat the same line again. The sergeant stepped back and the crowd began to surge forward. The tell tale noise of ordinance dropping split the air, the noise growing as the explosive shell neared the ground. The crowd has stopped, and then tried to move back, but there was nowhere for them to go as the first mortar hit the ground one hundred yards from the gates. Screams erupted as a shower of limbs, and blood cascaded over nearby survivors, the screams were then drowned out by further mortars dropping, each one dropping into the ground, and then ripping swathes of the crowd apart as they detonated. The soldiers behind the gate retreated whilst the bombs prevented the crowd from surging towards the barrier and attacking them, they each had maps showing them the course they would need to take to avoid the mines that had been planted, they had to move fast as slowly the mortars arc would decrease and start targeting areas within the border. With a slight head start they moved out, and attempted to get to the next defensive line before the crowd in front of them broke through.

  Left with no choice of escape the crowd could not run, they couldn’t break to the side as they were penned in by walls. The throng of people still joining the exodus from England behind them stopped them from retreating. The first eight mortars had fell to the ground and killed and maimed hundreds they rushed the barrier. The barrier put up little resistance, and with such a large crowd they turned the fences over in mere seconds, and they ran forward to catch the fleeing soldiers. The soldier’s movements were impaired with the heavy weapons and ammunition they tried to run with and the crowd were soon upon them. As soldiers fell the crowd stopped and pummelled the fallen men with their fists, some had knifes that they used to stab at the men.

  As the thousands moved forward the mortars continued to drop until the crowd reached them, the men who had been firing at them were quickly taken care of and the crowd moved on surging forward to seek out both refuge and retribution from the men who had sanctioned firing upon them. These men had sworn to protect them, yet to save themselves had betrayed their fellow man, they would now pay for their betrayal with their own blood.