Containment: A Zombie Novel

by Hippsley, B. A.

  There was some old sacking in the trunk, if they could get that over the girl, stop her biting and clawing, then they could tie her up. That way they need not worry about getting the boy out. Al went to the rear and fished out a large grubby hessian sack and rope then walked up to Jill.

  “What you got that for?”

  “I’m gonna put this over her and then we gonna tie her up. It ain’t right, cause she’s hurt and all but there ain’t any other way for it.”

  Jill eased herself out of the door and lent up against the truck. She knew she’d got whiplash and it hurt like hell. Looking at the thin bedraggled Britney and Al’s arm, she’d just have to get on with it. Al squeezed her hand firmly, gave her that special smile and they both walked up to Britney.

  Britney looked at the sack and rope in Al’s hand.

  “You gonna put her in a sack?”

  “We gotta restrain her. I’m gonna put it over her head then we gotta tie her arms. It’s the safest thing for us all.”

  “Why is she like this? I mean, she should be dead or something! I don’t know…”

  “Easy now. She could’ve gone into some sort of shock. The body’s got some strange ways to deal with stuff.”

  Jill patted her arm.

  “Let’s get this done.”

  “I don’t think its shock. She’s got some kinda disease.”

  “Okay, I’m gonna put the sack over her head and Britney, you slip this noose around her arms. All you gotta do is pull it tight – I’ll do the rest. Jill, you bang the hell out of the window. Everybody set?”

  They all moved to their positions. Jill started to bang the glass on the side of the truck, drawing Jenha’s attention away from the door. The girl’s efforts were feeble compared to earlier as she half-heartedly swiped at the window. Seeing his chance, Al quickly opened the door and slid across the seat towards the girl. He could clearly see that the fence post had skewered her to the rear seat. He dashed over and pulled the sack over her, securing it tightly over her head and shoulders. Jenha reacted violently but couldn’t get free.

  “Kid, get her arms,” yelled Al, as Britney brushed past him and slid the rope over Jenha’s wrists.

  Jenha moved her head from side to side but as Al adjusted the sack and rope, she struggled less and less. Al was able to reach the door handle near Tony and open the door. Then both he and Britney got out of the truck. Jill fully opened the door and caught Tony by his arms. He was completely still and his eyes shut. He looked awful. Jill gently shook him and called his name. Slowly Tony opened his eyelids and looked at her through bloodshot eyes.

  “I don’t feel too good.” His voice was rough and laboured. The boy was in a hell of a state though she couldn’t see any obvious injury to him. She sat him up in the car and took his pulse. It was racing.

  “Al, she all secured up?”

  “Yep, we best get ourselves going. Sorry kids you gonna have to sit in the rear, but we’ll be back in town real soon. Best if you don’t make any noise though.”

  Reluctantly, Jill buckled Tony into his seat and closed the door. She looked over as Britney closed the door and fastened her seat belt. Jill walked to the front passenger seat and motioned Al to the driver’s side.

  “You gonna have to drive, I can’t move my head.”

  Both Al and Jill climbed into the truck, shut the doors and drove off. Al looked up. In the distance, a military helicopter buzzed over the treetops.

  ****

  “I can’t believe you sent Erin home before I could run tests!”

  Anne Lenski was furious. Of all the stupid things her senior nurse could have done, this took the can. What if the person who’d bitten Erin had the same infection as those at Hinckle Point? What if Erin was now infected? What if...? There were far too many ‘what ifs.’ Only Brad, Conrad Brown, and she knew anything about the so-called ‘contamination’ and of course the guy in the cells.

  None of her medical team had any real idea of the potential danger. So was it fair to unload on Elle-May in this way? Anne was aware of her face being flushed and the fact that she’d been on at Elle-May for some time. Her anger quickly subsided and was replaced by embarrassment as she calmed down.

  Elle-May found it difficult to look at Anne pacing around the office. Boy was she mad. Generally pretty much all of them had a good working relationship and everyone got on. So after she’d told Anne about Erin Burke and how’d she’d sent her home, she was surprised when Anne had bustled her into the office. She’d been standing there for the last few minutes but even after explaining what had happened, Anne had still gone on and on. It felt kinda like High School when you’d done something wrong. Why the commotion? Sure, she’d sent Erin home without Anne looking her over, but since when did the doctor need to check on a few old stitches? At least now it seemed as though Anne had settled down a bit.

  “Elle-May, I owe you an apology. I had no right to go on so.”

  Anne reached forward and placed her hand on Elle-May’s arm.

  She recalled the long, lonely winter nights when she’d first moved to Armstrong. She hadn’t known anyone; she’d just filled her weeks with toil. Then, one night after work, Elle-May had brought in homemade blueberry pie and some wine. The pie was to die for and though the wine had tasted like vinegar, Anne appreciated the sentiment. With Elle-May what you saw was what you got. She was loud and vivacious but one of the best nurses Anne had ever worked with, and she deserved to know what was happening… but not just yet.

  “From now on, every bite, every scratch, in fact all injuries need to be fully tested.”

  “Tested for what? What we looking for Anne?”

  “Any kind of abnormalities, anything that looks wrong, that shouldn’t be there.”

  “Anne I know you can’t tell us what’s up here, but how serious is all this?”

  “I just don’t know Elle-May. I just don’t know. But we’re on our own until we get outside help.”

  It angered Anne to be so much in the dark. All she had to work on was the crazy test results that made no logical sense and the ravings of a killer. If this was some sort of contagious disease then she was obligated to warn her staff and the town. However, without firm medical evidence, in the current situation that would lead to panic. Brad would not thank her for that. Still, there needed to be some sort of official statement.

  “Look Anne, it was just a small bite. I would never have let Ben take Erin home if I thought something was wrong. I’m real sorry. I reckoned after all they’d been through that was the best way.”

  “And you were right. Let’s forget it. Wait a second; I thought Ben was in the station house?”

  “Yeah well, it was the darndest thing. Tony Firth posted his bail and they let him go.”

  “Tony Firth?”

  “Cross my heart.”

  “I’ll call up at the farm and bring Erin back for some tests. I’ve got to know if she’s clear or not.”

  With that, Anne left the office, leaving Elle-May to ponder on the morning’s events.

  ****

  Ben Burke looked across the fancy white linen table top at Erin Burke. She looked so fragile sitting there with sunken eyes and a bandaged hand. They were waiting for Bill Gardener to collect them and take them home. Ben cast his eyes around the small room. Neither of them had ever been in Aunty Betty’s before. Ben had always regarded the cafe as being ‘too grand’ for him. But here they were amongst all the fine china and Sunday best stuff. The tea-room was full of folks sitting at little round tables. He knew every one of them and he and Erin were as good as any of them.

  “What you thinking old man?”

  “The first time I clapped eyes on you was just across the sidewalk there.”

  He pointed out of the window to the now vacant dressmaker’s shop.

  “Cept then it was the blacksmiths. You recall my Pa was fixing your Ma’s old Ford? I just couldn’t keep my eyes off you.”

  “Oh, hush up, you old fool – that was near fifty years
or more.”

  “You hush, I’m a thinking here, woman. Always with the last word. Tarnation! I done forgot what I was about.”

  “That don’t matter none, how’d you get out of jail so darn fast? You broke out or something?”

  “Nope. The Judge set my bail and told me I had to stay in town.”

  “Well that ain’t no difficulty. Nobody’s leaving anytime soon. Who posted your bail? How’d you get out?”

  “Tony Firth,” said Ben, peering into his teacup.

  “Looks like he done paid his Pa’s dues then.”

  “That was a long time back.”

  Erin reached across the table and held Ben’s hand.

  “Pay no mind to it. What’s done is done, that’s the way things are.”

  Ben looked up at his wife; she was the wisest woman he ever did come across. It was high time he got her home and safe.

  “Erin, I been thinking about that man I killed.”

  “He done give you no choice. You had to do what you did...”

  “No, no! When I saw him on our land and you hurt, I just wanted to kill him.”

  “Now looky here, Ben, you did what you had to do, what any man would have done. Otherwise I reckon we’d both be dead right now.”

  She was right and he knew it. After he’d gotten back with Hound Dog, the dog had started snarling at the back door. When he opened the door, the first thing he’d seen was Erin with her hand all bloodied and that man grabbing at her. He felt a powerful rage well up in him; he had to protect Erin. As he pumped the shell into the breach, he wanted to kill the guy but as he eased off the safety catch and started to squeeze the trigger, he just couldn’t do it. Not in cold blood.

  He called for the man to back away and when the guy turned to look at Ben, it was like looking at some sort of a ‘thing.’ It wasn’t just the rotting face or even the eyes. He could tell the thing was evil; the face was full of hate. It was like it had no soul. That was when he knew he had to kill it.

  “Ben, I...I...”

  Erin reached out to him before slumping onto the table, sending the cup and cake crashing to the floor. As her head rested on the tablecloth, he noticed blood trickling from the corner of her left eye.

  Chapter -Ten

  Eastman slowly sipped at his coffee, looking around the people gathered in his office. Clara sat opposite him taking notes with her pad. Vince Langley sat next to her with a nervous look on his face. Pat O’Brian was still standing in the centre of the office. It was clear O’Brian knew his stuff on radio communication, but he’d lost Eastman on this theory of his. He was just going to have to run through it again.

  “Okay, Pat you kinda lost me there a while back. Now in plain language, that even I can understand, why do you think this is all manmade?”

  “Right, let’s just forget frequency modulation and wave lengths. I been around radios longer than I care to mention. I spent twenty years in the Navy in the wireless room. I know radios. This is all to do with the god damn weather. Any kind of weather anomalies, sunspots or whatever is damn well gonna affect everything. No cell phones, no landlines, no TV, no radio, not even emergency bands. Nothing!”

  Eastman reached across his desk and turned up the volume on the police radio.

  “Yeah, but the police radios do work.”

  O’Brian moved to the radio and turned the volume to zero.

  “That’s my point. They shouldn’t do.”

  Clara had sat through the meeting listening to Pat’s argument for the last ten minutes. So what if she didn’t get all that techno mumbling, his other stuff made sense. Only last week, she’d had the feeling there’d been somebody on the line. True, nobody had spoken but every time she’d picked up the office phone there’d been that strange echo. Not for long, maybe a second or so but long enough.

  She’d told Brad but he’d been busy with that bank heist in Burnsville. When she’d told Vince Langley, he’d agreed with her. Then before they got around to telling Brad, all this other stuff had started.

  “Brad, that kinda fits in with what I told you about the phones last week, just before the blackout. Maybe they are connected.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake Clara, not you as well! What’s it with you two? Are you gonna join Jimmy Emmett? Because you’re sure not on this planet.”

  “Sheriff, on a good day with my old CB I can hear people from Burnsville atop of Bilton’s Peak and my home base can reach Europe. Why now are we down to less than ten miles and why only short range sets?”

  Eastman wasn’t buying this ‘manmade’ crap. Why would anybody want to cut off a town and who’d have the ability to do so? It just didn’t add up. There just wasn’t enough to go on; he needed more facts.

  “Vince, you got anything sensible to add here?”

  Langley was a man of few words. He did his work and that was that. The only reason he’d turned up was because Eastman had asked.

  “All kinda folks rang the depot last week complaining about interference on the line. Almost all thought that someone was listening in. I think it’s deliberate.”

  “If you’re looking at some kinda conspiracy theory here people, then you forgot one thing. Not only can we not get out, but the outside world can’t get in. Now somebody’s going to work that out soon. You can’t just isolate a whole town.”

  O’Brian leaned forward and gently tapped his chin.

  “Maybe a big town or city, but not way out here. How many damn people you suppose gonna want to contact Armstrong at the same time? We’re on our own.”

  “All right, so just suppose this is deliberate. How’d they manage to blank a whole town?”

  “That’s the easy part. All they gotta do is broadcast a blanket frequency that covers all other damn frequencies in the target area. That’ll block the signals. When I was on the Barack Obama we used radio jammers to block the Syrian gunboats. We just shut their whole comms systems down, left them dead in the water. If you got the savvy you can even isolate different bands and control the range, that kinda thing.”

  “Yeah sure, but you’re talking the US Navy there and...”

  Max Koneg knocked on the door and thrust his head around. His face was both agitated and excited at the same time.

  “Sorry to bother you Brad but it’s important.”

  Eastman gestured him into the room and waited for the news. It was obvious that something big had happened; Max wasn’t given to this type of behaviour.

  “Jill and Al Paxmore just brought some of them kids back. But they’re all in a hell of a mess.”

  “Sorry guys but we gonna have to leave things for now.”

  Eastman got up and left the office with the others following behind.

  ****

  Tony Firth dabbed at his bald head with the already sodden handkerchief. He’d forgotten just how hot it could get in the hills and even in the trees this was hot. He just didn’t have the frame to trek about up here anymore. Boy, was that brat gonna get it when he showed up. He’d gone too far this time, hauling half the town out on a day like this. It was bad enough with all this other crap going down but hell, this was prime election week. That damn boy was gonna get grounded till he was fifty. Conrad had it far too easy and Bridget darn near ruined the boy. She just didn’t know when or even how to say no. Firth’s father had never been one to spare a whopping, in fact he’d handed them out like cotton candy at the county fair.

  He looked around at the tired and hot faces of his motley crew and shrugged. Glyn McDowall, Miguel Bonzzoni, Billy Boy, Ross Murphy and Danny Hardman. They all owed him some form of assured loyalty and that was the only reason they had come along. Still, he needed them.

  “Hey Tony, where we at now?” Danny Hardman called out.

  He was tired and more than a little mad at Firth. They wasted a whole lot of time on the meadow because Firth had assured them the kids would be there. That had been a bunch of crap; now he was convinced they were lost. Firth had given Ross Murphy the task of scout because of his s
o-called tracking abilities. The fact was that Murphy couldn’t find his butt with both hands. Hardman was fast losing patience with the whole thing. There had to be an easier way to pay all that money off than this. He kicked his expensive hiking boot at the loose earth.

  “Look, I’m sure that Dobson’s Barn is just over that ridge and past those trees.”

  “Ain’t that what you said last time Tony?” Glyn McDowall said. He was a powerful man used to hard work but this was crazy. The heat was just too much for a trail like this. He stopped and adjusted the straps of his day pack then took a long swig from his canteen. The small frame of Miguel Bonzzoni caught his eye.

  “Hey Miguel, you run up there and tell us where we all at, boy.”

  Miguel Bonzzoni looked at McDowall standing there, giving orders. He was the kind of man you kept away from especially if you weren’t white. Miguel knew he’d have to be careful how he responded, but he didn’t want to lose face in front of the others.

  “If I run up there you had better be ready to carry me home. Too hot, I think.”

  McDowall shot him a long stare and let out a humourless laugh.

  “I sure never realised that you people felt the heat. Well, I’ll be.”

  Billy Boy sniggered quietly at the exchange; his weaselly face formed an uneasy smile. It wasn’t that he liked McDowall or even that he disliked the Mexican, he was simply relieved that he wasn’t in the firing line. He moved his weedy frame forward.

  “Hey, guys what’s that up ahead?” said Hardman, pointing to a large white metal object partly obscured by large trees.

  Firth led the others toward the object and as they drew closer they discovered that it was a camper van. If the owners were about then maybe they’d seen the kids. Approaching from the rear the thought briefly crossed his mind that it was possible Zack and Luke Clayton had dumped it. Then he saw the guide ropes were attached so unless they’d taken up camping it was unlikely to have been them.

  “Hello there, anybody about? We’re looking...”