Zed Days [Book 2]

by Nick Harland

  I turned to a woman I vaguely recognised carrying a spade loosely in her hand and asked, ‘What about Mark the others?’

  The woman replied, ‘They killed them all and someone helped with some petrol but there is a nasty burn, one bite, and someone didn’t make it. I’m not sure who. The doctor guy is over there helping them and so is Jim.’

  I started to go over and see but Eve held my hand, ‘It’s ok, they don’t need you, there are plenty of others who can help.’ Pointing at the horde she added, ‘This is what you’re good at, we need you for this.’

  Bill climbed off the roof and stood by us, Ben and Izzy were to our right. I said, ‘Anyone got any ideas?’

  Bill said, ‘I’m afraid not, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry to swarm the place and they seem to have lost cohesion or we’d all be dead by now.’

  Ben added, ‘You’ve probably killed a hundred times as many as the rest of us, you’re on your own.’ Izzy giggled and against the stinking, fucked up beyond all recognition vista of dead and burning bodies, and a hungry horde of alien Zombies whose only wish was to eat us, the sound brought me hope, it gave me something to protect.

  I remembered something and said, ‘It’s been a long day and I’m bored, Eve, go find the grenades.’

  Eve scampered off, ‘Cool.’

  Ben said, ‘Seriously, you have grenades, why didn’t you mention this sooner?’

  I replied, ‘To be frank I’d almost forgotten about them. Eve’s ex was a loaded fucked up survivalist nut job and without his gear I’m not sure we’d be here. It’s not like we’ve got an arsenal but we have three grenades and a couple of mines I think. My guess is that grenades are really dangerous and in a panic situation I figure they are as likely to kill us as anyone else. Right now though, I think they can make all of our lives easier. Amongst that lot I don’t think there is much chance of any shrapnel injuries. There will still be plenty to finish off but it should make a serious dent.’

  From the corner of my eye I saw Mark approaching. His studded pickaxe handle was still dribbling with grey blood and there were bits of flesh hanging off it. I turned to him and he looked down and began to speak, ‘I’m s...’

  I stopped him, ‘None of this is on you and in all likelihood if I’d taken that side there would have been be more causalities. I have no doubt there are people who owe you their life today. You have nothing to be sorry about.’ He nodded but didn’t lift his head.

  I saw a woman running from the direction of the outside storage area with Eve close behind her. She stopped in front of us and said, ‘I think you better come.’

  I said, ‘What’s happened?’

  The woman answered, ‘I was hiding with the kids in one of the vans outside during the attack and we could see, is it Andrea? She got all agitated when it started, thrashing around in the cage, and she’s…..talking.’

  Esme was running off before I could even process the information and Eve was close behind her, clutching what I assumed was a bag with the grenades in. I followed them and found Esme frozen in place just before the gate to the outdoor display area.

  I asked, ‘What is it?’

  She replied, ‘We need a plan, we need to be consistent, but I don’t know what to do.’

  Eve said, ‘What do you mean?’

  Esme looked at us and explained, ‘We want to see if there is any chance that Andrea is in there. We know she is, because she’s not dead, but how do we reach her? Do we speak to the alien and try and find out stuff or do we completely ignore the alien even exists and just carry on speaking to Andrea like we have been doing. I don’t know which way is more likely to get us to Andrea?’

  I replied, ‘I don’t know, but I think both. The aliens are using our language but something else seems to be happening too. The one out there wasn’t exactly talking much but the Zeds seemed to be co-ordinated. We must assume they can’t access the brain without accessing all of it, like memories and emotions and stuff. I know it’s a crap thing to make a comparison with but think of all the movies about people who have been possessed. Usually the people trying to save the person talk to both the person and the thing possessing them. I say we tell the alien how smart and strong Andrea is and how it’s only a matter of time before she beats it and takes back control. That might make the alien uncertain and at the same time, if Andrea can hear us, it tells her we’re here for her.’

  Esme smiled, ‘I guess that makes sense. I wish we weren’t following what they do in the movies but I suppose following what happens in the games hasn’t hurt us so far.’

  Esme opened the gate to the outdoor display area and walked through. Andrea was at the gate to her cage clutching the mesh and looking at us as we approached. Eve stood next to Esme and they held each other’s hands.

  Esme said, ‘Hello Andrea, it’s nice to see you awake, we missed you.’

  The Zed replied, ‘We will kill you, you will die.’

  Eve replied, ‘Yea, yea, we’ve heard it all before, but right now there is a pile of burning Zed’s on our porch and about two hundred of your friends hanging around that are about to join them.’

  Esme joined in, ‘You got all excited didn’t you, you must have felt there was another Talker like you close by but what do you feel now, do you feel him? You don’t, do you. That’s because I blew his head off. But, as you Talkers plainly don’t have the intelligence to say anything other than the usual dull and entirely unfounded threats, I’d like to talk to Andrea now. She’s far smarted than you and whether you like it or not she’ll be taking back control of her body soon she can tell us everything she’s learnt from you.’

  The Zed replied, ‘You are wrong, you will all die. I feel them, there are plenty and I know this place. I have her and you will never have her back.’

  I felt the hairs on by neck and arms stand up, it was the strongest Zed sense I’d ever felt and it scared me. I tried not to panic and whispered in Eve’s ear, ‘Go and use the grenades, right now, don’t run until you are out of sight but then run like hell and don’t hesitate….now.’

  Eve looked at me, a question on her face, and I mothed the word, ‘now’. She turned and walked away and I knew I had to buy us some time. I turned back to Andrea and threw myself at the cage until I was almost nose to nose with her. I held my hand out behind me to tell Esme not to interfere. I shouted at the Zed, ‘You don’t know shit. I’ve killed fucking hundreds of you and I’ll kill fucking hundreds more, probably thousands. Tell me one thing you know that I don’t?’

  I didn’t wait for a reply and carried on, ‘Nothing, you don’t know fucking anything I don’t and so there is nothing you can do to hurt me. I know you can feel them, I know you can control them and that you don’t need to talk to them to do so. There is so much you haven’t got a fucking clue about. I can feel them too, I can feel you and I know what you’re going to do. You came and took over our world but I’m immune to you. I breathed you in and killed you, even then I killed you and I’m……’

  There was a series of three loud bangs and Andrea screamed. Then she stood back, closed her eyes, stood up tall, and opened her arms out. I’d completely made up everything I’d said to her, just saying what came to my head, but what I felt next made me realise that some of it was true. My Zed sense made me tingle all over and my heart started to race in my chest. I looked back at the Zed and said, ‘Andrea will come back soon, but right now it’s killing time. I hope you feel each and every one of them.’

  Then I ran for the gate pulling a confused looking Esme and an enthusiastic looking Mutt behind me.

  Chapter Seventeen – Killing Time

  Even as we ran towards the front gates we could hear the groaning and screaming of the horde. They were at the gates and more groups had split off to the sides again. It was hard to gauge, but there were definitely less of them. I ran past the line of ready vehicles and looked at the swarm of Zeds. We had barely survived fighting them on three fronts last time and we’d lost people and used the petrol we had. I
didn’t want to risk it again. I yelled, ‘Everyone into the vehicles, we need to fight them outside.’

  Everyone reacted quickly as the Zeds started to breach the side fences, already having a pile of bodies to climb over. I looked at everyone trying to get into their assigned spaces and knew not everyone would make it before the Zeds were on us. Esme, Eve, Bill and Mark had worked it out too. It was only the ones from the open side of the compound that would make it in time and Mark reacted first. He screamed and raced towards the fence, waving a hand behind him to tell us to stay where we were.

  Esme went to follow him but Eve grabbed her, ‘You can’t help him, you’d only die too. Get into the car and get your rifle ready, it’s too far for me to be accurate.’

  Esme started struggling and crying and I grabbed her and pushed her towards the car, ‘You dying too would only lessen his sacrifice, you’re the only one who can make it easier for him, now get into the car.’

  We all got into the car and watched as Mark hit the first few Zeds, crashing against them with all his strength and anger, knocking them flying. His aim wasn’t to kill, he knew dealing with one at a time wouldn’t help us, he wanted to reach the centre of them and draw them to him. Esme started taking careful shots and Eve joined her, downing the ones that got behind him. Ben’s Semi was full and I hear him rev the engine and accelerate towards the gates, a great gout of black and grey smoke coming from the two exhaust pipes that snaked up the back of the cab and reached for the sky.

  The convoy followed Ben who hit the gates hard, sending a wave of Zeds flying either side of him. I looked back to see the Zeds swarm around Mark, too many for Esme and Eve to keep off him. Even in the noise I heard Eve’s whisper, ‘Now Esme, he’s relying on you.’

  The shot rang out and Esme dropped the rifle and started sobbing. Eve leaned across her, shut the window and said, ‘Drive.’

  We were the last of the convoy and the Zeds from the other side reached us as we started to move, jumping for the car. We didn’t have mesh over the windows and we were still in danger. I floored it, shaking off the Zed’s who had jumped on us and only narrowly missing the SUV in front of us as we swerved left through the open gates, hitting one on the way out. The convoy had split up and seeing the massacre outside the gates up close made me feel sick. I met the dead eyes of one of the half burned Zeds lying onto top of two others, she was probably only Esme’s age and must have been pretty when she was alive. I felt Eve’s hand on my shoulder from the back seat, ‘Don’t, just drive.’

  Within a minute the convoy was spread out on the wide road in front of the base. With the addition of the plane and piles of dead Zed’s that might even bog down a four by four, there was barely enough space for all of us to manoeuvre. The Zeds that had made it inside the compound had followed us out which was useful, and there was a strange stand-off.

  There weren’t many Zeds left, perhaps sixty at most, and after seeing us drive over the ones who didn’t get out of the way they were cautious of the cars. They stood around in groups of five or ten, some only a few feet from us. Esme put her window down a crack and rested the barrel of the rifle on it. She didn’t look at us or ask, and took a shot. The Zed she hit dropped and the group it was in immediately reacted by running at the nearest vehicle. All the other groups followed suit and for another few minutes it was chaos again.

  Being the only vehicle without mesh I tried to keep us moving and had to rumble on and off the curb and the verge at the side of the road. Eventually we got a flat tyre. I kept going but Esme said, ‘Stop, it’s enough, I’m getting out.’ Her tone was determined and she reached for the door handle so I stopped the car. I looked around at the twenty or so Zeds that were left. They were spread out along the road with no more than two of three in a group. Eve got out after Esme, leaving the doors open, and I joined them. The nearest two Zeds charged towards us and Esme met them head on. Eve and I ran after her but Eve grabbed my arm to slow me down.

  Esme ducked under the reaching arms of one of the Zeds and squeezed through the gap between them stabbing an elbow out as the she did. It wasn’t a powerful contact but doubled over the Zed she hit. She came up spinning with Seven arcing around as she did. The power of the swing at full stretch went through the blocking arms of the Zed and Seven embedded in its face. The other Zed had stood up and was turning and reaching for Esme as she freed Seven from the falling Zed. She threw a side kick at its chest as it reached for her and as her legs were longer than its arms she made contact and it staggered backwards. She was merciless in her follow up.

  The last Zed had barely slumped to into stillness before Esme had located the next closest group and was running towards them. We followed her and this time Eve didn’t hold me or herself back. Mutt had chosen a different group to harry and although everyone followed our example and got out of the cars, they didn’t have much fighting experience and Mutt was an excellent distraction.

  We tapped into Esme’s anger and I only remember moments of the next five minutes. I remember seeing the woman who’d been bitten fly into a frenzy and charge ahead of the group she was with into three Zed’s. She killed two before falling under the last one. As it opened its mouth and reached down towards her she dropped her arms and turned her head to expose the fair skin on the side of her neck. It was over quickly and one of her group hit the Zed from behind, killing it before it could get up. It fell on top of her, its face next to hers as if they had been embracing; yet another image burned permanently into my mind, vying for my attention when I close my eyes.

  Soon all the Zeds were gone and there were no more casualties. Esme had flowed like a spectre of death across the battlefield, killing more than her, and Marks share. After finishing the last one that was mine I found her and Eve leant against a car, Esme’s head buried in Eve’s neck as she held her, the sound of her tears slowly fading. I didn’t know what to do when I approached them but Eve reached a hand out and I joined the hug. There were similar scenes as others embraced, some just glad to be alive, some shuddering from the shock as their adrenalin waned and they took in the scene around them. A couple were bent double, vomiting bile onto the bloody ground, friends stroking their backs as they did.

  Eventually Esme squirmed and we let her go. I was expecting her face to have softened but it hadn’t. She said, ‘We have space and people to remember, we need to bury our dead.’ Looking at the horror and gore around us she added, ‘This lot can burn, petrol is easy to find and we can’t look at this every day or have the smell the heat will bring. There is a lot to do and we need to get on with it.’

  Ben and a few others had wandered over and when I looked at them they nodded. The clean-up took the rest of the day and although it was truly gruesome work, it brought us together and was strangely satisfying. We were cleaning up our environment and making it better for everyone. Jim was the first to point out that it hadn’t taken the Talker long to gather the horde and he must have cleared out every building in the immediate area to do so. Bill confirmed he didn’t think there were any large employers on the estate the Talker could have found that many Zeds in. Ben, Izzy and Chris took Mary to find petrol. We piled up the bodies while those who couldn’t tolerate the task dug the graves. Bill got to work fixing the gates.

  By the time the sun was dropping below the horizon a wide pillar of black smoke was rising from the pile of bodies. I wondered who else might see the smoke and I was glad when it got dark. Everyone gathered to bury the three bodies and a couple of people who knew the other two spoke a few words.

  When it came to Marks’ turn I took a deep breath and was about to step forwards when Esme stepped in front of me. She said, ‘Mark was barely with us for more than a week but everyone knew him. He was an angry man who spent his life struggling to control himself. He was a good fighter and he didn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. I was with him at the end and he didn’t suffer. I think today might have been the first time he hadn’t suffered in a long time. I can only hope that when
it’s my turn I can go in peace like he did, and that my death will have as much meaning as his. He is an example to us all and he’ll be remembered.’

  People wandered slowly from the graves and congregated in the communal area. Eve, Esme and I stopped at the cage before going inside. Esme approached the cage and the Zed hissed at her. She said, ‘Don’t worry Andrea, we know you’re in there and we’ll have you back soon. We know it wasn’t you that made the Zombies attack and that you’ll be angry that this….infestation is using you to try and hurt us. You made a brave decision and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Use your anger to fight this thing and come back to us.’

  The Zed replied, ‘She is gone, there is only me now.’ Then the Zed moved across the cage and looked at me, spitting the words, ‘You are few and we are many, you will die. You think you know us but you do not.’

  I interrupted it, ‘I know enough and now I know more. I learn more every day and tomorrow I’ll kill more of you, and the next day, and the next. Soon Andrea will be back and then we’ll know even more. You’re doomed, you’re just not smart enough to know it yet.’

  We left Andrea and went to the communal area to join the others. I didn’t know what they were expecting, or even what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting what happened. Jim stepped forwards into the middle of area and slowly and deliberately looked around the room. Then he said, ‘Today was a lesson, a hard one, but a lesson none the less. We’re weak and ill prepared. We’ve been trying to rebuild fragments of the lives we knew, comforts and conveniences, but the lives we knew are gone. There may be other survivors, I’m sure there are, but right now we’re alone. As of today there are three less of us, three less people to fight, three less people to dig, or guard, or fix. Three less people to help us survive.’

  ‘As of tomorrow we need to do more with less, we need to work harder, ration harder and fight harder. Bill is probably right about the immediate area being relatively clear now, but we need to assume we’ll face another horde soon, and we need to work as if the very whips of our masters were tearing at our backs.’