Day Zed: The Outbreak

by Smith, Charles

  The porter ran, straight to the lift, punched the button to the second floor, and waited for the doors to close, waiting for the lift to climb back up to the quarantined floor seemed to take an eternity, it was as if time had been slowed down. As soon as he reached the second floor he would run to the ward, and warn the doctors, that these infected would rise after death, and just hoped he was in time to warn them.

  As soon as the lift reached its required floor the porter ran the length of the corridor to the ward, finding the lead doctor he relayed the information to him, and he in turn consulted with Atwal. Not wanting to believe what he had been told Atwal took the lift down to the basement, as he approached the gurney he was dismayed at the level of hatred that the reanimated man now levelled at him. Although securely bound to the bed, it did not stop the zombie thrashing about trying to break loose, as if in tandem the zombies now trapped in the quarantined morgue banged against the doors. Reaching the second floor Atwal picked up the staff phone and summoned the lead security officer down to the floor, then heading back into the ward he ordered all staff to tie every bitten patient as tightly as possible to the bed that now lay in. Just as the last bindings were tied the first patient died, they were then followed by several others, until two wards were full of the dead, but for how long, that was all that was on Atwal’s mind.

  Within an hour the entire two wards of patient’s had reanimated, staff kept a distance, and just kept an eye on the bindings to make sure they were not coming loose. More, and more patients were coming into accident and emergency all the time, but were now being turned away, security had been posted on the main entrance to make sure no more patient’s were admitted to the hospital. Two doctors now had to deal with irate families who had brought their loved ones in for help, only for the doctors to tell them there was nothing that could be done for them, and that the best thing they could do, was take them back home, lock them in a room, and no matter what, not attend to them when they began to bang on the door.

  Hospital staff had telephoned the police asking for assistance, they were told there were not any available units, and there would not be in the foreseeable future. All the operator could suggest was that the hospital should use their own security company to maintain order. Atwal could not believe what was happening around him, the source of the outbreak baffled him, it seemed like the virus had began as an air born threat, how then when the original infected resurrected were they capable of spreading the virus through bodily fluids mixing. Atwal came to the conclusion that this virus had to be manmade, and that someone had infected people on purpose, but who?

  At first the bindings held and the hospital staff were confident that they could keep the zombies quarantined, they could not concern themselves with what was happening outside, they had to concentrate on protecting the hospital and the people within it. What they were not prepared for was the power cut, neither did anyone realise that the power cut would render all the electronic lockable doors useless. As soon as the power went out the security locks disengaged.

  The door down in basement two gradually opened, the zombies staggered around for an age, constricted by the small room they now stood in. When the power came back on five minutes later, the lift doors automatically opened, and attracted by the noise of the doors sliding open, several zombies walked into the lift. Once the lift was full of zombies, they inadvertently pressed against the floor buttons. The lift doors tried to close, but kept getting caught with all the bodies in the way, it was not until the fourth attempt that the doors closed and the lift reached its first selected destination, the third floor. The doors slid open and the zombies spilled out, they followed the sounds that came from the nearest ward, and attacked as a herd

  Within minutes everyone in the ward was infected, zombies fed, until their victims died, they then moved on to their next victim, they preferred to attack moving prey, and clearing them out, before settling down to feed. There were three other wards on that floor, and the patient’s and staff on those wards were scared, so scared that those that were able got up out of their beds and attempted to escape. When they reached the main corridor they stopped, before them was a herd of zombies, their arms outstretched, their jaws clicking together, and covered in blood. As the zombies shuffled forwards, the escapees turned and went to wherever they thought they were safe, some ran to the stairwell and others the lift, a few retreated back to the wards, three stayed ready to fight. The zombies didn’t care how long it took to attack the split group, that’s all they now survived for, the chase and the blood.

  Atwal could hear through the ceiling that people were dying on the floor above, he had only one option and that was to evacuate the hospital, he could no longer research the virus, and look for a cure as the hospital had fallen. He ordered all the staff to leave, he himself being the last on the floor. He waited for the lift, as its doors opened two zombies fell on top of him, they had chased someone into the lift, and got trapped whilst they fed, now thanks to Atwal they were free, and they fed upon him whilst he screamed.

  1st July, Hackney, London, 4:15am

  Dave and Penny had arrived at Penny’s parent’s house just as her mother and father were being ushered into a police car. Penny frantically wound down the window, and called out

  “Dad, wait”.

  The sound of his daughter’s voice had stopped Leonard Thomas and Gwen Thomas in their tracks. Penny ran forward to greet them, floods of tears now spilled down her cheeks, as she hugged both parents at the same time. This was the much needed emotional release that Penny had needed since the death of her partner earlier on in the morning.

  “What’s wrong Petal?” Leonard enquired.

  “It’s Simon, he must have been infected by something, Simon’s dead”

  Leonard hung his head in his chest, secretly aware of what had happened to Simon. After a few seconds he regained his composure and told Penny

  “It is happening all over the country Penny It is bad no one has ever seen anything like this before”.

  “What are the authorities doing about it Dad?”

  “You best come inside for ten minutes” was Leonard’s reply.

  “But sir, we have to leave now” one of the policeman protested.

  Turning to the constable, Leonard looked him in the eye, raised his eyebrow, and with s tern voice informed the officer

  “I will take me ten minutes to talk to my daughter, if you can’t wait then go, but be prepared to tell your superiors that you abandoned me, and that you failed to carry out the orders that were given to you”.

  The tone of his voice, and the look on his face were enough to send the policeman back to car with his tail between his legs, he did not look back as he climbed into the car.

  Penny introduced Dave to her parent’s as they sat down at the coffee table, Leonard took hold of Penny’s hand and began to relay what he knew to his daughter

  “We are still waiting on reports to come in, but what we know so far is not good, scientists are sure this will be the worst epidemic that mankind has ever witnessed. The government are so worried that they have reconvened parliament in a secret location, all ministers are being picked up now along with their spouses. The government has secret bunkers all throughout London, and over the next few hours they will start to collect those they have chosen to evacuate.”

  “Hang on Dad, those they have chosen? You can’t be serious?” Penny challenged.

  “I am afraid so, professionals of every walk of life will be invited to these bunkers, we have no choice, and we cannot contain the virus, for us to stay and try and save everyone would be suicide”. Leonard added.

  Dave now felt he had to ask something, so far he had remained quiet, but Leonard’s revelation that the government was going to go in hiding annoyed him

  “You cannot seriously be saying that the people, outside of those selected few will be left to fend for themselves?”

  Leonard thought for a second then replied

  “The virus sp
reads too fast, every scratch or bite, will infect, infected will die, and then come back and infect more. Experts predict London will be over run in just forty eight hours, how can we even attempt an evacuation in that time? Even then where would you evacuate these people to? There are cases everywhere”.

  “But these are people’s lives you are playing with”

  “No Dave, these people will have to be sacrificed, for any of humanity to survive at all” Leonard stated.

  Dave sat back beaten mentally by the thoughts of the millions that would soon die. Silence now hung over the group. No one was quite sure what to say, it was not until Leonard took an electronic pass card from his inside jacket pocket, and handed it to Penny that the conversation resumed.

  “Go to the address on the back, it will allow you entry to one of the bunkers, go straight there before it becomes impossible to reach it” he told Penny as she took the card.

  “But Dad, how will we know where it is? How many will be there?”

  “Go to London Bridge, there is an empty bank, next to that is a new building under construction, you will find the key card slot to the side of the door, as for how many I am sorry I just don’t know”.

  Leonard stood, along with his wife Gwen, and they both hugged Penny, and shook Dave by the hand. The couple then left the four bed detached house and climbed into the waiting police car, they waved out of the rear window as the car took off.

  Dave closed the front door as he followed Penny back into the house, they were both in need of sleep, and they did not know what waited in front of them over the next few hours. They sat down on the expensive sofa in the lounge, Dave noticed that Penny had cast off her shoes, and she now pulled her feet up behind her on the couch.

  “I need some rest before I can go to London Bridge. I’m just going to grab two hours if that’s okay?” Penny asked, she closed her eyes, and within seconds was in a deep sleep.

  Dave decided to have a look around the house; he wanted to check the television to see if any of the country had been made aware of the danger that lay ahead of them. He finally found a television in the expansive kitchen. Dave made a cup of coffee, and then sat down at the breakfast bar, before pressing the standby button on the remote. Several of the channels featured the same emergency broadcast being read by one of the country’s most popular news reader’s

  “There has been an outbreak of a virus across the United Kingdom this morning, whilst emergency services deal with this highly contagious outbreak the government are advising that the public should stay indoors today, and not leave their homes for any reason”. The reader announced, and then paused for a sip of water.

  “All public transport services will be cancelled over the next hour, all airports and ports are closed with immediate effect. We will be making further announcements during the day” the reader finished.

  The broadcast was on a loop and it played over and over again, and would continue to do so until, the next broadcast was added. Flicking through the rest of the channels all Dave got was a blank screen, with no sound. He finished his coffee, and then headed back to the lounge where he lay down upon the second sofa, closed his eyes and took a much needed nap.

  He hadn’t slept for too long when Penny woke him with a gentle stir, If felt good to have someone of Penny’s beauty waking him in the morning, it was something he felt that he could get used to. She had taken a shower whilst he had slept, and made use of the makeup she kept here for when staying with her parents, she also wore fresh clothes. Her overall appearance captivated Dave, and he must have been staring, as Penny asked him

  “Something wrong Dave?”

  “Me? No, sorry you look amazing” he replied with a wave of embarrassment colouring his cheeks. Penny just smiled and brought him over a plate of Bacon sandwiches, told him to eat up, then headed out to towards the kitchen where he could hear her begin to make tea. She returned after a short time with two cups of hot steaming drinks on a drinks tray, along with a bowl of sugar, and a plate of biscuits.

  “So do you fancy a trip to London Bridge Dave?” she asked as he sipped at his tea.

  “Why not, as soon as we have finished this we will leave” he replied with a wink.

  “Thank you it will be good to have some company” Penny told him, and then totally surprised him by reaching over, and gently kissing him on the cheek.

  Once again Dave felt the burning of embarrassment filling his cheeks, all he now hoped was that when they got there the card worked. What they did not know was how selective Leonard had been with his information. Reports had been coming in for the last three hours of cases suspected to be the virus, in the first hour alone there had been two hundred and fifty seven cases reported, they had in turn infected over a thousand more. The statistics by the end of the second hour changed drastically, of the poor victims that had been bitten, hospitals had reported that everyone now showed symptoms of the virus, it was too early to estimate how long it would be before they succumbed to the illness they now suffered from. The truth was that people had already begun to die, and in some cases the hospitals were already lost to the infection. The government had learnt that most European holiday destinations were now experiencing the same strain of virus, and there were even reports of long haul flights to the states carrying full loads of infected passengers across the sea. After seeing that most of the western population of the world was now experiencing the same virus, they had come to the conclusion that they were dealing with a bio engineered virus strain that had been constructed by terrorists. Behind locked doors Britain was getting ready to go to war.

  1st July, Norwood Junction, London, 6:21am

  The Gatwick to Brighton train had been relatively quiet so far, Jackson Crane had only seen five people get on or off during the majority of the journey. The carriage he was sitting in now only had him, and one other as passengers. The other passenger was either severely hung over or ill, as she was slumped against the window in an uncomfortable looking position. Jackson laughed to himself, his guess was a sever hangover, he thought back to the many weekends when he himself had suffered from those sort of hangovers. Jackson had completely turned around his life over the last couple of years, he had done as much as most adolescents do, he had found a group to hang around with, from Friday through to Sunday they would drink copious amounts of alcohol, then get in trouble, and usually get chased by police. One weekend had given Jackson no choice but to change, when his group had been responsible for a burglary one evening, an evening when Jackson had not been anywhere near the house, his so called friends had found it easy to finger him for the crime after they were tracked down by the local constabulary. A guilty verdict had been returned and after completing seventy hours of community service, he chose to join the reserves of a weekend and set about changing his life for the better. This was his first weekend off in five months, and he had decided to visit London for the day, as the following week he was set to join the army on a permanent basis.

  The next station would be the train’s final leg of its journey, and they would shortly arrive at London Bridge. During the week this was one of the city’s busiest train stations with all of the rush hour commuting. Of a weekend, although busy it was a lot quieter to travel and most of the travellers were tourists. With it being one of the busier stations there were always scores of people waiting to get on the train when it arrived at the platform, there was always a large crowd at the front of the station who would congregate under the departure boards waiting for information regarding the arrival of their train, and what platform it would arrive at. Jackson glanced back down the carriage at the girl who still remained slumped against the window she hadn’t seemed to move at all over the last few minutes. Glancing back out of the window the surrounding landscape began to change from residential, to office buildings which meant that in the next couple of minutes they would be pulling into the station.

  Picking up his rucksack, Jackson looked back down the carriage, the girl who had been asleep, was
now awake. She looked back at Jackson vacantly, Jackson couldn’t help noticing the drool which clearly ran from her mouth, and hung from under her chin. Her mouth opened more as she appeared to hiss at Jackson, what scared him the most was her teeth, although she only appeared to be in her early twenties they looked yellow, but her gums were jet black. As the girl began to stand up, she moaned, held out her outstretched hands and bared her teeth. She was slowly making her way towards Jackson and the uncomfortable feeling he had felt was now replaced by fear. Something was seriously wrong with the girl that walked towards him, Jackson thought the girl looked dead, but she couldn’t be she was walking towards him. There was something wrong about the way she moved it was as if every step she took was over deliberate and that she was acting out a comedy sketch. Jackson stepped back slowly, the girl was now just twelve feet from him, and he didn’t want to be caught unaware by her.

  Without looking back he felt for the handle to the adjoining carriage and turned it, as it opened he pulled the door open behind him and when he felt the door was open enough he made a quick side step and stepped backwards into the void between the two carriages. He pulled the door back closed just as the girl reached it. She snapped, with her rotten jaws at the glass, and banged upon the doors, Jackson held onto the door knob just in case she did have the wits to turn it. Being up this close to the girl, he looked into her dark black eyes, her skin was very pale looking like it had been bleached, and every vein under her skin stood out as it was now black. All he had to do was keep the door closed for a few seconds more, he could then run into the next carriage and away from this monster. Jackson could now see that the girl wore a uniform, it was for an airline company that ran flights out of Gatwick, more disturbingly she had answered to the name of Chelsea not so long ago, according to her name badge. That is before she had died, and then reanimated. Now the girl would never answer to her name again, all she was capable of was trying to fulfil her need to feed upon living flesh, and at that precise moment all she longed for was to feed upon Jackson.