Zed Days [Book 2]

by Nick Harland

  I couldn’t believe they were talking about it so calmly and Esme also seemed shocked. Gary replied, ‘We don’t have time for partial experiments. I don’t look forwards to the experience I assure you, but it can only be a full bite if we’re to be sure. It’s not like I’ve not been bitten a few times before, the odd patient wakes up from an anaesthetic almost as blood thirsty as our alien friends are.’

  Chris returned with four people in tow, one of them didn’t look more than twelve. I raised my eyebrows but Chris said, ‘This is Sam, he’s eleven, and he wants to help. He’s presented a very reasoned argument that gardening will be one of the most useful skills to have in the future and he wants to start learning now. His….the person looking after him said it was ok with her if it was ok with you. The other adult gardener is busy with the garden here.’

  Esme walked up to Sam and took his only slightly unwilling hand. Pulling him behind her towards the car she said, ‘Stay where I can see you no matter what and do exactly what I tell you if any Zed’s show up and you can come, got it?’

  Eve looked at Chris, ‘I guess that’s a yes.’ Then she looked at his waist and said, ‘I see you have a new gun?’

  Chris blushed and said, ‘Yes, I hope you don’t mind. The M9 is a great gun but this CZ 75 is the one they all talk about winning the big marksman competitions in America. I’ve used one before and it was great.’

  Eve replied, ‘Chris, we all worked to find the guns and they are as much yours as anyone’s. I still like the M9, after all, thousands of cops and soldiers can’t be wrong.’

  Angela, Sheila and Terry were the others joining us and they looked nervous, Angela’s grip on the trowel she was carrying was white knuckle.

  We took the two cars and Esme went with Chris again, even though I offered. The trip was uneventful and I looked at the village shop again as we passed by and thought we should really look at it on the way back. The village seemed to be empty, which was worrying, but didn’t set off my Zed sense. The gardeners were thrilled to see the garden so well planted and organised and didn’t hesitate in getting to work. Time was moving on but we had a few hours of light left and Esme insisted on moving some hay into the field the horses were still roaming around in.

  The gardeners picked everything that could be picked and it was quite a haul, though between all of us it wouldn’t go far. They could have carried on for hours but with the shop in mind I brought proceedings to a halt. There was still plenty of room in the vehicles for what would be in the shop.

  We stopped the vehicles outside the shop and we’d got a couple of the others to drive so we could nip in and out quickly if necessary. The curb was clear outside the shop so we pulled Mary onto it just outside the shop’s open door and Eve undid her window with a gun at the ready. She couldn’t see any movement in the shop. She turned back to me and said, ‘Any tingles?’ and I had none. We opened the doors and Esme and Chris got out of the SUV and Eve and I got out of Mary. Everything was still quiet. It was a bit eerie but my tingles had always been reliable in the past so we went ahead with the plan.

  We grabbed some bags and went into the gloomy shop. It was one of those narrow shops that seemed to go much further back than you would think it should. It had touristy items for sale at the front and an ice cream counter. The smell of rotting food and the buzz of delighted flies that greeted us almost everywhere we went was unpleasant, but we were used to it. Looking down the shop into the deepening gloom I wish we’d brought Mutt but with all the people to bring and no trouble expected we’d left him back at base.

  I looked at Eve who nodded down the shop. There were still no tingles but we needed to be sure it was empty before we turned our attention to scavenging. I walked into the gloom with the pry bar at the ready. There was a back door and some stairs going steeply up to the left. The quiet made me nervous but there were still no tingles so I started up the stairs. The stairs turned around a corner and there was what looked like a bathroom door to the right and a door into the upstairs room to the left. I opened the door, the suspense making my heart rate rapid; it wasn’t good news.

  There was a figure standing by the slightly open window and an older looking man in the middle of the floor whose head had been bashed in by a nearby brass candlestick. The man’s head had been opened wide and it had been what I can only describe as, licked clean. As I took in the scene the hairs all over by body stood on end and the Zed at the window screamed. Eve shouted behind me ‘Run’, and I could hear her footsteps going down the wooden stairs. Although every muscle in my legs urged me to follow her I looked at the Talker as it turned me, an old woman, and thought of everything the garden had to offer.

  While the Talker was alive clearing the village of Zeds would be much harder so I forced my legs into action and ran at her. Her old joints didn’t move quickly. As I saw her raise her arms to block my attack I launched a front kick at her. My kick hit her right in the centre of the chest and she flew backwards against the window and then onto the floor. I had finished her and was careering down the stairs within seconds, but as I turned to run after killing her I had time to see Zeds streaming out of every house in the village.

  Eve was at the doorway as I bounced off the wall opposite the stairs and twisted to run to the car. She screamed at me, panic contorting her face, ‘Run!’

  She disappeared and I could hear the revving of engines and the rapidly approaching groans of the villagers. Mary’s back door was open and Eve was waiting in the far rear seat her face flushed with fear. She yelled, ‘Jump.’

  As I emerged from the door to the shop I could hear Zeds hit the other side of the car and I jumped headlong towards Eve who grabbed my shirt, her nails digging into my shoulder as she shouted, ‘Drive, drive, drive.’

  Mary roared and I could hear Zeds growling and Mary’s tyres spinning before she got traction and lurched forwards. Eve’s grip tore at me as the acceleration threatened to drag me from the car, my legs still dangling out of the open door. I grabbed back at her and holding her arms managed to pull myself in as the door slammed brutally shut behind me, Mary hitting a lamp post with the open door as she accelerated away. I still don’t want to imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t got my legs in in time.

  I was just getting myself into a sitting position when Mary juddered to a sudden halt. I was thrown forwards between the seats and in the process of stopping myself with my arms on the back of either seat something went pop in my left shoulder and I screamed in pain. With my unwanted view between the seats I could see two Zeds fall from the roof over the bonnet and felt the bump as the driver accelerated again, running over at least one of them and throwing me yelling back against the seat.

  Eve held my shoulder and helped me get strapped in before I could be thrown around anymore. I could see the other SUV ahead of us and we were losing the chasing horde. I was sweating and my shoulder burned like it had never done before, even after the entire night killing Zeds through the fence at the original base. I looked at Eve and after about a minute I said, through gritted teeth, ‘Stop the cars.’

  Eve still looked concerned and hadn’t spoken to me but she lifted the radio without question and told the other SUV to stop. Mary stopped behind the SUV. Eve held down the radio talk button and said, ‘What, what’s the matter, how’s your shoulder?’

  I tried to smile but knew it probably came out as a grimace as I groaned with the pain. I said, ‘I killed the Talker so we could clear the village more easily and continue to use the garden. The fresh food is worth it and there will be plenty of other food and stuff in the village. If we speed off who knows what the Zeds will do but they won’t be all gathered up like they are now. They might even go back and hide and it would be a house to house clearance job and hoping they didn’t charge again. We need to turn around and plough them down. It’s a small village and there aren’t actually that many of them. They took us by surprise but…’

  Eve put her hand up and said, ‘It’s ok, I get the message and you’
re right.’

  Eve let the radio button go and it crackled into life, Esme said, ‘Agreed.’

  I must have looked confused because Eve said, ‘What’s the problem?’

  I replied, ‘What, no “you bloody Idiot”, or “It’s too risky to go back”, or something?’

  Eve unbuckled herself and moved across the seat to straddle me for moment. Shoving her boobs in my face in well-practiced fashion she kissed my sweaty forehead and whispered softly in my ear, ‘Such a shame you can’t grab my ass with both hands. I hope that shoulder doesn’t slow you down for too long, although I can work with helpless for a while. What you did was risky as hell but you did it for good reason and you’re right, it would be a waste of the effort if we didn’t finish the job. So no discussion or lecture and they’re probably catching up by now so hang on tight cos I’m driving.’

  Eve swapped seats with Angela who had been driving and both vehicles barely had time to turn around before the Zeds were almost on us. Eve revved the engine, lowered the knee capping bars and was ready. She said, ‘Perfect, the fuckers are bottlenecked in the lane. Let’s see just how much power this baby has and how good the plough and accessories are.’

  Eve dropped the clutch and accelerated as fast as she could towards the horde of Zeds. As she had said, they were gathered into a close packed unit having been channelled into the narrow lane by the stone walls on either side. I snapped the seatbelt tight and hung on with my right hand. We had never hit so many Zeds going so fast before but the plough had worked better when we were going faster in previous encounters. Eve hit third as we hit the pack and we were all thrown forwards by the sudden deceleration, but Eve was hard on the gas and we kept going.

  It was a blur and I had no idea how Eve could see as the occasional Zed hit the mesh covering the windscreen and we snaked on the road as the knee-cappers hit different concentrations of Zeds. It was a miracle we didn’t hit a wall but I guess Eve had had training and the road was pretty straight. Amazingly we came out of the other side of the pack and although Eve had to change to first to stop us stalling we kept going.

  I strained my neck to look behind us and the SUV had left a good gap between us and managed to hit most of the remaining few Zombies with their front quarter to stop them going under the wheels. Eve came to a stop, looked around at me and said sternly, ‘Stay here, no arguments’, before opening the door and getting out. I looked behind us again and Esme and Chris got out of the SUV when they saw Eve. There were only a few Zeds left standing but there were a lot dragging themselves along or trying to stand, with various measures of success.

  I undid my seatbelt and when Angela tried to stop me I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m just going to watch. You should go and help. There will only be crawlers left by the time you get there and it’s good experience.’

  Angela looked middle aged but dressed like she was ten years older than she was. Had I seen her pre-apocalypse I think the words, “prim and proper”, might have come to mind. She got out none the less and went to help. Eve and Esme finished off any threats with Chris taking a couple staggering around as target practice before they all finished off the rest. Watching Eve and Esme move without being with them was a strange experience and even though I didn’t usually have that perspective, I could tell they were angry. I wondered if I needed to apologise to them both for my stunt at the shop.

  When they were done everyone came back to Mary and Esme and Eve’s faces still gathered stern lines across their foreheads. I said, ‘You look angry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have...’

  Esme stepped forwards and hugged me, kissing me on the cheek as she let go, ‘For someone who’s so often brilliant you’re a total dumb ass at times. We’re not angry at you, we’re angry at them. How dare they injure you. You did what you needed to with the Talker and Angela did what she had to do in the car. It’s their fault you’re hurt not anyone else’s.’

  Eve nodded, ‘No one hurts one of us and gets away with it.’ Looking past me at Mary she said, ‘I wonder how pissed off Bill’s going to be with me, that was a pretty hard hit.’

  We backed up and examined the front of Mary. There was goo everywhere and there was still most of a Zed stuck between the plough and one of the knee-capper bars which Eve shoved off with her foot. For just a moment I took in the gore and was horrified at what we had become, at what had become normal, but this was an apocalypse so I shoved the feeling back down and moved on. It didn’t look like anything was broken. The bonnet was even more dented than before, the new wing mirrors Bill had put on after last time were missing in action, and the wings were bent in from taking the strain of the knee-cappers, but all in all it could have been a lot worse. I said, ‘It’s ugly but I think we got off lightly, Bill does good work.’

  It was dusk but as you can’t predict anything in an apocalypse we went back into the village and cleared the shop. It was tempting to hit a few houses but everyone was tired and my shoulder was hurting more rather than calming down. I tried not to think of what had happened in there, if it would heal, and how long I’d be out of commission. Eve sat with me on the way back. She had her hand on my thigh the whole time but didn’t say a thing, her eye’s occasionally flicking to my shoulder. Having had time to look at it myself I knew there something properly not right with it and I wondered if I’d broken it; it looked funny, but not in a ha ha kind of way.

  Chapter Twenty – Pretty Little Pill

  When we got back, Esme and Eve marched me to Gary and left the others to sort out everything else and tell the story of the day. We knocked on Gary’s van door and he opened it. He looked pale and sweaty. He took one look at me and I could see him gather his energy, ‘We need more light, let’s go to the communal area.’

  When we got to the couches Esme grabbed a torch and Eve took my t-shirt off, carefully easing it over my shoulder. Gary put his fingers over various parts of my shoulder and then, smiling, into the dip just below the top of my shoulder, gently rubbing up and down the hollow that definitely shouldn’t have been there. He said, ‘I don’t know what happened and it doesn’t matter, but you’re lucky, not to be injured, but because despite not having done orthopaedics for decades I know what’s happened and, miraculously, how to fix it. You’ve dislocated your shoulder and although it’s going to hurt like hell, I can put it back in for you.’

  ‘It’s one of those fun procedures every medical student wants to do and never forgets when they’ve done it. We’ll find you a top notch pain killer but I’ afraid we need to get on with it so it will only help you afterwards when you’re cursing my name. It’s not common, but sometimes these things can cause some nerve damage and although I remember how to put it in, I’m certainly no expert. We shouldn’t wait, just in case.’

  I was relieved and full of dread at the same time. I’d seen various films with macho guys putting their shoulders back in and I always winced when they did. Eve said, ‘I’ll go find a nice big MST, you’ll sleep soundly tonight.’

  Gary and Esme found a table to lie me on and they put some sheets on it. Disturbingly, Gary insisted I was tied tightly to the table around my upper chest and that a couple of people hold onto my right side. Then he made a loop with a thin sheet and placed it around his body and in the crook of my arm with my forearm pointing up. He looked at me and said, ‘This isn’t like the movies I’m afraid and the first time is always the worst, it gets easier after that.’

  Without warning he leant back sharply and yanked on my arm with all his strength, he even grunted at the effort, but it paled into insignificance compared to my unbridled shout of, ‘FUCK!’ This was closely followed by only slightly less noisy shouts of, ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.’ Only then was I ready to groan in pain. A crowd gathered and Eve marched up, ‘What the hell, you didn’t wait for me?’

  Gary said, ‘These things are best done unexpectedly, not only because expecting it just increases anxiety and makes it hurt more, but because the patient sometimes tenses up and stops the manoeuvre happen
ing properly.’

  Eve bent over and kissed me lightly on the lips, then held a very pretty looking half yellow, half clear capsule above me with tiny grey balls in it and said, ‘Open wide for the nice steamroller, street value at least ten quid.’

  I opened my mouth and she dropped the pill in. I swallowed it without the offer of water and with Esme’s help I sat up over the edge of the table, groaning again as I did so. I looked over at my shoulder and the disconcerting dip had gone. It felt awful, but a different awful. Eve hugged Gary for a moment and said, ‘Thanks doc.’

  Gary smiled and replied, ‘It’s honestly my pleasure to be useful. He’ll need to take it easy for a few days then build up his activity slowly. When it’s gone once the tendency for it happen again is much bigger. Lucky it’s his left arm. Now, if you don’t mind, if we’re going out and about tomorrow I’ll need to get some rest.’

  Esme and Eve looked at me and I groaned, ‘How long until the pill kicks in and how come they’re so pretty looking?’

  Eve smiled, ‘Enough time for us to find you a quick snack and get you comfy in the van before you pass out. We’ll need a bowl in case you puke, not everyone takes to them so well. No idea why they’re so pretty looking, though I’d use the work cute myself, but they are aren’t they.’

  We walked back to the Van and Esme said, ‘So are we still going to the medical clinic tomorrow? Are we leaving Brad here?’

  I feigned offense and said, ‘I’m right here you know!’

  Eve took me gently by my good shoulder as If I were old and said, ‘Yes dear of course you are dear, but junkie cripples don’t get to make important decisions during an apocalypse.’